The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

December 23, 1967

The Hockey News December 23, 1967

<div class="byline">BY LOU PRATO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-01877/3245879-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="279" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body">Art Stratton</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH, Pa.-Art Stratton always was a slow starter and perhaps that, more than anything else, kept him out of the National Hockey League for so long.Even in the early part of this season he was finding it difficult to impress his bosses on the Pittsburgh Penguins.But within the last month, the 32-year-old Stratton has blossomed into one of the team&rsquo;s scoring leaders. It couldn&rsquo;t have happened at a better time, either, as Stratton has been one of the few Penguins not detered by an otherwise team slump.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why I&rsquo;ve always been a slow starter,&rdquo; Stratton says. &ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m in the best physical shape I could be in. I always keep myself in top condition even during the off season and I don&rsquo;t drink or smoke. Still, it seems I always start out slow.&ldquo;This year I was quite worried about it. I knew this was my first big chance and I didn&rsquo;t want to blow it. I finally started playing better and I&rsquo;m sure everyone on the team was glad, too.&rsquo;Stratton was playing so well that by mid December he had surpassed Andy Bathgate as the team&rsquo;s leading scorer, knocking in 10 goals and 15 assists for 25 points.Yet, the prolific scoringi by Stratton shouldn&rsquo;t surprise anyone who has been following his career in the last five seasons. For during that time, he has scored more points than any other player in pro hockey, first with Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the AHL and then St. Louis in the CPHL.As the AHL&rsquo;s leading scorer with Buffalo in 1964-65 he slammed in 25 goals and had a fantastic 84 assists. The next two seasons he led the CPHL in scoring and both years was the league&rsquo;s most valuable player.Still the most he could show for his 10 years of pro hockey until this season was 25 NHL games&mdash;18 of them in what now seems like the centuries-ago 1959-60 season with New York.&ldquo;You know, the biggest thing when you get a chance to play in the NHL, they want you to start out with a bang,&rdquo; Stratton says, reflecting on his past. &ldquo;They figure you&rsquo;ve got to score now not after a while. If you can&rsquo;t do it right off the bat then you&rsquo;re in trouble. Well, I couldn&rsquo;t do it right away and I didn&rsquo;t get too many chances. But I knew I&rsquo;d be able to do it if given a chance in the first 25 games.&rdquo;However, it wasn&rsquo;t just his ineffective starts which sidetracked his career. There was also the charge that he was a slow skater and a weak back checker.&ldquo;I just can&rsquo;t see it,&rdquo; he says in his usual easy-going manner when the subject is brought up. &ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m not the fastest skater but I&rsquo;ve always kept up. You know, when I was in junior hockey I was a terrible, terrible skater. But I worked hard hours and hours to get better and now I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m that bad.&ldquo;The funny part about this is I still can&rsquo;t figure out what they say about me. My record for the past few years would match with any center in the league. But now that I have the chance I&rsquo;m quite happy about it.Stratton&rsquo;s coach Red Sullivan is happy too. In fact, it&rsquo;s one of the few things he has had to be happy about in recent weeks. At one point this month the Penguins lost four out of five games with all four defeats being by lopsided margins.In that stretch, Stratton was playing well a helfty pace. For example, in a 7-4 loss to Minnesota, Stratton was voted the Penguins star of the game, although he had just one assist.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing well and not because he has scored goals,&rdquo; Coach Sullivan says. &ldquo;He just seems to be strong in his skating, his checking and carrying the puck.&ldquo;Some people say he&rsquo;s not a good skater but I think he&rsquo;s a deceptive skater, like Gordie Howe and Gordie&rsquo;s been around a long time.&rdquo;There are people in Pittsburgh who figure Art Stratton will be around a long time too&mdash;including a guy named Art Stratton. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Stratton Hottest Point Man For Expansion Club

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04404/3246148-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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LOOKING AT NHL RACE

<div class="byline">BY GEOFFREY FISHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-01853/3245931-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="273" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don McKenney</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS, Mo.-It was only a very few hours after he had pulled off a sweaty uniform following the St. Louis Blues surprising triumph over the powerful Toronto Maple Leafs that rookie Gary Sabourin was back pounding on the dressing room door.It was too early in the fog-shrouded, drizzly Monday morning for even the Blues trainer, Tommy Woodcock, to be on the job, but it wasn&rsquo;t too early for the rookie.Was he there for treatment of an Injury sustained in the Blues 2-1 win over defending Stanley Cup champs?He was not. He was there to get his skates and uniform on so he could work out.Work out after two hard games in 24 hours &mdash; one in Oakland, Calif. and the other in St. Louis?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; said Sabourin, a strapping24-year-old who stands just under six feet and weighs 180. &ldquo;A fellow has really got to keep in shape in this league or they&rsquo;ll leave you behind.&rdquo;But suddenly that was just what the Blues playmates were not doing. They were not leaving Sabourin and his rookies colleagues behind and they were not leaving senior citizens like Dickie Moore wiping ice shavings off his gnarled chin either.Bolstered by the return of the veteran Don McKenney and the signing of ex-Montreal Canadien ace Moore, the Blues were out to prove that they were not about to have taps blown over them just yet.The team that had floundered to the Western Division basement with a record of only five wins in its first 23 skirmishes had proven there&rsquo;s more than one way to win a hockey game. They did it with one goal at Oakland, Saturday night, December 9 while the great Glenn Hall just shut and bolted the door to gain his 69th NHL career shutout. Then the Blues flew back home where they took on the Maple Leafs the following night in their only Sunday engagement of the season in St. Louis.No one would blame Maple Leaf braintruster George (Punch) Imlach for feeling he could rest the Intrepid Toronto goalie, John (China Wall) Bower for this one since the Blues attack had achieved the humiliating distinction of being of the marshmallow variety. Bruce Gamble, spelling off Bower in the Toronto cage, played well but only a shutout would have saved the night for the Leafs as they managed to get only one shot (by Jim Pappin) past Hall who was given a sturdy cover of backchecking by his blue-shirted mates.After a frenzied flurry of lineup shuffling, freshman NHL coach Scotty Bowman apparently had found a spark in the fuse of the Blues.The spark was generated by what Bowman might have classified as a chemical reaction resulting from combining a dash of youth, seasoning with some age, mixing well and serving. Bowman sent the 20-year-old Tim Ecclestone (fresh from the amateur ranks at Kitchener) into a forward unit with old-timer Moore at left wing and veteran McKenney at center, And it was Moore, showing all the craftiness of a safe cracker, who took a pass from Ecclestone to score the winning goal against the Leafs.It was Bowman&rsquo;s all-rookie crew of Sabourin, Frank St. Marseille and Terry Crisp that pulled off the only goal of the game as the Blues shut out Oakland, 1-0, with Crisp firing into the Seals&rsquo; net. And what could be one of the finest checking units in the league has Red Berenson (obtained from the Rangers) at center between Ron Schock and Jim Roberts.After 25 games the Blues, even while they were being shuffled like a deck of cards in the hands of a Las Vegas dealer, had proven that they were among the best defensive clubs in the league. They were second only to Philadelphia in the goals against department in the Western Division and their defensive record of less than 2.7 goals per game was better than New York, Chicago and Detroit in the East.Bowman had settled on five stalwarts back on the blueline with Noel Picard, Barclay Plager, Capt. Al Arbour, Fred Hucul and Bob Plager, the latter recovering from badly bruised ribs. Bowman was cheered by the play of Barclay Plager, obtained along with Berenson from the Rangers in the deal that sent Stewart and Ron Atwell to New York.&ldquo;Barclay can carry that puck out of his own end real good,&rdquo; declared Bowman. &ldquo;He gives the kind of offensive lift we need from a defenseman.&rdquo;But it was 36-year-old Dickie Moore who was giving Bowman and the Blues the kind of special lift they had been searching for.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a winner,&rdquo; said Bowman simply. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s great for the team on the ice and he&rsquo;s great for us in the dressing room.&rdquo;Moore, sho joined the Blues in Los Angeles Dec. 6 after having been resurrected from his second retirement (1963 and 1965), hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal since the semifinal series he played in a Toronto uniform against Montreal in 1965. But midway of the third period against the Leafs here, Sunday, Dec. 10, Moore picked up a loose puck in front of the Leafs cage, faked Larry Hillman to the right and Bruce Gamble nearly out of his pads, to plant his 257th regular season NHL goal in the twine. Moore retrieved the puck for his collection as did St. Marseille who had scored his first NHL goal earlier. Moore&rsquo;s goal put him one away from Bill Mosienko&rsquo;s all-time record for 18th place in NHL standings.&ldquo;I wanted that puck, said Dickie later, &ldquo;I might never get another one.&rdquo;Bowman and the Blues are prepared to argue that last remark.He gives the Blues the kind of firecracker they have needed around enemy nets.&ldquo;And when the kids see an old veteran like Dickie hustle out there they just sort of catch the fire,&rdquo; said Bowman.<h2>LIFTING BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02762/3245924-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="597" height="994"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY SABOURIN</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03607/3245917-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="604" height="997"><figcaption class="caption-body">TIM ECCLESTONE</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-04498/3245910-1-eng-US/f0009-042.jpg" title="f0009-04" width="596" height="990"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRANK ST. MARSEILLE</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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New Faces Transforming Blues Into Hot Big League Contenders

<div class="byline">By Ken McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05485/3245686-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="504" height="488"></div>THE ONCE TRANQUIL hockey scene in Montreal is being shaken to its foundation these days both at the player and coaching level. The Canadiens, off to one of their poorest starts is more than a decade, are finding that losing often brings on frayed tempers. Coach Toe Blake blew his top at Referee Bill Friday in a recent Boston game and was ejected. Blake is also wrangling with the Montreal press, who have been questioning his player moves. Even veteran Goalie Lorne Worsley got in on the act this past week when he fumed over being lifted from the Montreal net. Gump promptly threw his stick and gloves as he approached the bench. There are recurring rumors that the Habs will unload some of their aging stars. Defenseman J.C. Tremblay is apparently the center of trade talks although club officials deny the reports. In the Habs&rsquo; heydays, trade talk was something that rarely eminated from the club&rsquo;s inner sanctum &hellip; Bobby Orr&rsquo;s value to the Boston Bruins is becoming increasingly important. The B&rsquo;s have lost some of their steam since Orr went out with a cracked collarbone. NHL scribes are touting Orr for two awards at the halfway mark &mdash; best defenseman and most valuable player &hellip; Vancouver Canucks appear to be getting their house in shape for any expansion relocating. The Canucks have taken in top Canadian sportsmen Frank McMahon and John Davidson as shareholders. Recently Eddie Shore bought into the club. No doubt Vancouver wants to be ready if the NHL decides to allow the Oakland club to move there next season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01859/3245679-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="319" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Orr</figcaption></div>ONE OF the men responsible for bringing Hockey expansion to the city of Pittsburgh, has resigned from the club executive. Pete Block has quit as vice-president. The reason is a mystery. The 34-year-old lawyer said he has accomplished his primary objective in getting Pittsburgh into the NHL. Now he wants to step aside and concentrate on new business opportunities that have come his way recently. He remains the biggest single shareholder on the Penguins &hellip; Red Wings manager-coach Sid Abel has moved into a new home in the Detroit suburb of Farmington and while he&rsquo;s not exactly living on Easy Street, it&rsquo;s the next best thing. Abel resides on Leisure Lane &hellip; The Current issue of Sport Magazine features an article called &lsquo;Hockey&rsquo;s Biggest Brawls&rsquo;, covering the classic fights between Ace Bailey and Eddie Shore, Ken Reardon and Cal Gardner, Maurice Richard and Hal Laycoe, Gordie Howe and Lou Fontinato, and a host of others. It&rsquo;s a great review of mayhem on skates. Watch for it on your newstands &hellip; Ranger manager-coach Emile Francis was a recent guest of New York Mayor Lindsay for a luncheon at the mayor&rsquo;s official residence, Gracie Mansion. Guests included different top men from the world of industry and various walks of life &hellip; Ranger Rod Gilbert is fuming over recent article that stated he was more a playboy than a playmaker. Gilbert said it&rsquo;s not true. He is one of hockey&rsquo;s most eligible bachelors.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02813/3245672-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="260" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pete Block</figcaption></div>ONE OF THE oddest hockey moves employed by a coach to get his team rolling was seen in the International League where manager-coach Terry Slater of Toledo went for a walk in the second period or a game and told one of his veteran players to take over the club. Slater didn&rsquo;t return and the sight of their coach exiting from the bench was the tonic the Blades needed. They went right out and stopped Columbus 3-1 &hellip; IHL commissioner Andy Mulligan is a tough customer when it comes to meting out penalties. Mulligan didn&rsquo;t think twice about tossing belligerent Bob Bailey of Dayton out of action for the rest of the season when he hit one of the IHL&rsquo;s referees. Bailey is a big man in the league. He led the circuit in scoring when he was bounced &hellip; Manager coach Punch Imlach of the Leafs was quick to deny he is suffering from ulcers. Imlach said he was merely ill last week and went to hospital for a check-up. Doctors could find nothing wrong with Imlach. Punch figures a few more victories from his Leafs will straighten him out &hellip; Hockey men are starting to pay a little more attention to the players on the ice with the NHL halfway voting due after the first of the year. The thinking is that in the old section, Bower and Worsley will vie for goal, Pilote, Orr, Laperriere and Horton on, defense, Mikita and Beliveau, centre, Hull and Bucyk left wing and Wharram and Howe on right wing. Where does that leave the expansion teams? Certainly, the voters will have to consider goalers like Doug Favell, Cesare Maniago and Wayne Rutledge.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03709/3245665-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="279" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Terry Slater</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-01186/3246891-1-eng-US/f0001-012.jpg" title="f0001-01" width="263" height="486"><figcaption class="caption-body">Johnny Bower</figcaption></div>MONTREAL, Que.-The longest consecutive streak in 12 years was the individual highlight of last week&rsquo;s National Hockey league action.Cesare Maniago of the Minnesota North Stars, who had recorded only two shutouts in 511/3 NHL games prior to this season chalked up three last week and carried a string of 183 minutes, 32 seconds of shutout hockey into North Stars&rsquo; next game.The last goaltender to get three straight shutouts was Glenn Hall when he was with Detroit in 1955-56. His shutout time in that streak was 198 minutes, 10 secondes from Dec. 10 to Dec. 22, 1955.Maniago took over the lead in shutouts as he blanked Los Angeles Kings twice and Oakland Seals for his first shutouts of the season. The last player to beat the 28-year-old native of Trail, B.C. was Ab McDonald of Pittsburgh when he scored at 16:28 of the third period, Dec. 10, in Minnesota&rsquo;s 7-4 win at Pittsburgh.Maniago&rsquo;s performance enabled the Minnesota goaltenders &mdash; Gary Bauman is the other one &mdash; to move from seventh to fourth place in the list of goaltending averages. Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; combination of Doug Favell and Bernie Parent took over the lead as Parent allowed only three goals in as many games. The Philadelphia goals-against average of 2.11 is slightly better than Toronto 2.14 but Johnny Bower of the Leafs has the best Individual average with a 1.99 mark.In the scoring parade, it was again Stan Mikita of the Hawks providing the outstanding effort as he extended his current point-scoring streak to 12 straight games in which he has picked up 25 points, including 10 goals. He moved from fifth to a tie with Johnny Bucyk of Boston for second place, each with 36 points, two fewer than leader Bobby Hull of Chicago who was held to one goal and one assist in four games. Hull still has a comfortable lead in goals, however, with 25.Fourth is Boston&rsquo;s Fred Stanfield with 35 points, including a league leading 24 assists. Teammate John McKenzie is fifth with 33 points, three more than Alex Delvecchio of Detroit. Gordie Howe of the Wings is seventh with 29, followed by Mike Walton of Toronto and Phil Goyette of New York with 28 points each.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-02157/3246884-1-eng-US/f0001-022.jpg" title="f0001-02" width="1850" height="2175"><figcaption class="caption-body">Minnesota goaler CESARE MANIAGO stood the NHL&rsquo;S expansion teams on their heads last week with three successive shutouts. Maniago blanked the opposition for a total of 183 minutes, 32 seconds.</figcaption></div>Boston defenseman Don Awrey continues to lead the penalty parade with 89 minutes, while the Bruins are the most penalized team with 428 minutes. &#9632;

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Best Goaling Display In 12 Years

CHICAGO. III.-Which team is the hottest in the current National Hockey League race? If you said the Minnesota North Stars, you would be half right.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-0376/3246922-1-eng-US/f0001-032.jpg" title="f0001-03" width="262" height="420"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Mikita</figcaption></div>But the rampaging Chicago Black Hawks are the NHL&rsquo;s most sizzling skaters with a tremendous record of only one defeat in their last 10 games, a pace that has helped propel them from last place to first in a few short weeks.The Hawks have posted a 6-1-3 record in their last 10 starts and are locked with Detroit in first place. While the Hawks have been rumbling along in the NHL&rsquo;s Eastern division race the North Stars from Minnesota have been barreling along in the Western section with an almost equally 6-2-2 mark in their last 10 games.The Hawks culminated a big two weeks as their great one-two punch of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita continued to riddle NHL netminders. Chicago won over Detroit, New York and Toronto this week and tied Pittsburgh. Mikita, despite a severe 17-stitch cut on the temple, still managed to jump into the top three in the scoring race with 36 points, two less than Hull and the same number as Boston&rsquo;s John Bucyk.Mikita collected seven points in the Hawks&rsquo; four undefeated games while Hull cooled out slightly. &#9632;

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Hawks Climb To Top Spot From Cellar

<div class="byline">BY TOM MONAHAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01798/3245496-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="269" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ted Green</figcaption></div>BOSTON, Mass.&mdash;General Manager Milt Schmidt already has expressed the opinion that the Bruins are for real this season. Now Schmidt and every other Bruin fan in Beantown is about to find out just how real the Bruins are this season.The bruins lost right defensive veteran Teddy Green last week when he stopped a Frank Mahovlich shot with his knee in the Dec. 3 3-3 tie at Toronto.In the same game they also lost their other right defensive sensation, Bobby Orr, for at least three weeks with a cracked collarbone in a collision with the same Mahovlich.Following this game the Bruins played Los Angeles at Boston the next night without Green and Orr and lost a 3-1 decision in a lack-luster-from a Boston standpoint-performance.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re number four without Bobby Orr,&rdquo; became the chant from the gallery, although the Bruins still maintained their standing as top team in the NHL.Schmidt figures the galleryites are wrong in their estimation but he does admit the Bruins are now due for their first real test of the season.Starting the week-end, the Bruins opened the toughest stretch of the year as far as the schedule is concerned.They are due to play 10 of their next 12 games on the road.Now with Green below par and Orr definitely out of the line-up they are physically below par for the first time this season.They did lose Ron Murphy in the first game of the season with a torn bicep tendeon and Murphy now is at Oklahoma City playing himself into condition to be ready for the Christmas night engagement with Oakland at the Garden.Losing the veteran left wing so early in the season was a blow but fortunately the Bruins had enough forward depth to compensate to his injury.Meanwhile every other team in the league went through its physical misfortunes. The cynics like to point this out as a reason the B&rsquo;s have moved into an unusually lofty position in the Eastern Division.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s true,&rdquo; admits Schmidt. &ldquo;Not many teams have the depth to lose more than one man at any position. And there is no doubt that taking Green and Orr out of the same defensive position at the same time is not pleasant to contemplate.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like Montreal losing Jean Beliveau and Henri Richard at the same time.&ldquo;But there is no use crying about things like this. We have to take the bumps as they come and survive them.&rdquo;In other words, Schmidt is saying this is the time the Bruins will prove their mettle as a NHL power.He has full agreement in this from Coach Harry Sinden.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to prove now that we are a good sound team&rdquo; said Sinden.&ldquo;We got up where we are by playing as a good sound team We can stay where we are only by playing harder as a team,&ldquo;We will be thin on defense until we get both Teddy and Bobby back,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;But we have other guys who can do a job. Gary Doak can step in and play right defense and we have Eddie Westfall prepared to play the position as well.&ldquo;The forwards will just have to Work a little harder and 11 everyone does his job we can survive this bump.&rdquo;Sinden has said more than once since the season started that the primary goal of the Bruins is to make fourth place.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll take all we can get,&rdquo; he reiterates. &ldquo;But the big thing is to make the playoffs first.&rdquo;Now what the situation boils down to is this if the Bruins can hold their own over the next three weeks, there will be little doubt in anyone&rsquo;s mind about the chances of the B&rsquo;s making the playoffs for the first time since 1959.It then will be just a matter of how high they will finish.<h2>WHERE THE NHL TEAMS ARE!</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02740/3245489-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="1304" height="810"></div> &#9632;

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Heavy Road Log Big Test Says GM Schmidt

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:NATIONAL LEAGUEBOSTON-Barry Gibbs, defenseman, recalled from Oklahoma City of CPHL.MINNESOTA-Bob Charlebois, forward, recalled from Memphis of CPHL. Andr&eacute; Pronovost, forward, returned to Memphis.ST. LOUIS &mdash; Wayne Rivers, forward, sent to Kansas City of CPHL. Gary Sabourin, forward, recalled from Kansas City.OAKLAND &mdash; Larry Popein, forward, purchased from Vancouver of WHL. Joe Szura, forward, assigned to Buffalo of AHL.PHILADELPHIA &mdash; Brit Selby, forward, recalled from Quebec of AHL.PITTSBURGH &mdash; George Konik, defenseman, sent to Baltimore of AHL.AMERICAN LEAGUEBALTIMORE-Ian Anderson, defenseman, recalled and returned to Clinton of EHL.SPRINGFIELD-Bob Perani, goalkeeper, recalled from Muskegon of IHL as standby.CENTRAL LEAGUEHOUSTON &mdash; Bob Jamieson, defenseman, secured from Memphis of CPHL on loan. TULSA &mdash; Jim Dorey, defenseman, secured from Rochester of AHL.KANSAS CITY &mdash; Max Mestinsek, forward, added to roster.WESTERN LEAGUEPHOENIX &mdash; Ron Racette, and Brian Smith, forwards, dropped from roster. Gordon Redahl, forward, added to lineup.INTERNATIONAL LEAGUECOLUMBUS &mdash; Al Melanson, goalkeeper, obtained from Providence of AHL. Ken Saunders, forward, secured from Port Huron of IHL.DES MOINES &mdash; Larry Young, defenseman, Wayne Green and Gary Gresdal, forwards, dropped from team. Trevor Fahey, forward, added from Fort Wayne of IHL. Don McLeod, forward, picked up on waivers from Toledo of IHL.PORT-HURON &mdash; Ron Vermette, forward, loaned to Barrie of Ontario Senior League.FORT WAYNE &mdash; Tom Mikkola, forward, signed from Michigan State.EASTERN LEAGUENEW JERSEY &ndash; Clobie Collins, defenseman, signed as free agent. Ray Crew, defenseman, signed off retired list. Bill Christodal, forward, picked up from Salem of. EHL on waivers. Al Sarault, forward, secured from Knoxville of EHL. Pete Sternig, goalkeeper, dropped. Andre Daoust, goalkeeper, secured from Columbus of IHL.KNOXVILLE-Wayne Doll, goalkeeper, sent to Long Island of EHL for player to be named later.SALEM &mdash; Bobby Taylor, defenseman, returned by Quebec of AHL. Eric Pass, forward, added to roster. Benny LeBlanc, forward, picked up on waivers from New Haven of EHL.JOHNSTOWN-Meehan Bonnar, forward, secured on waivers from Dayton of IHL. &#9632;

Movements of Players

BOSTON, Mass.&mdash;After playing 12 2/3 games during which the Bruins ran off a string of eight games without a loss, veteran goalie Eddie Johnston was replaced by Gerry Cheevers for the Dec. 13th game with Montreal at the Garden &hellip; Montreal won it 6-2 &ldquo;This is no reflection on Eddie&rsquo;s play, &rsquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;He has done a great job. I just felt it was time to give Eddie a breather and to give Cheevers some work.&rdquo; &hellip; The Bruins called up 19-year-old first year professional Barry Gibbs from Oklahoma City as reserve defenseman for Green and Orr &hellip; The six-Foot, 180 pound youngster is one of the most promising prospects in the organization &hellip; &#9632;

Bruins Pull Goaling Switch

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03457/3245603-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="351" height="449"></div>LOS ANGELES, Calif.&mdash;There is more to hockey than scoring goals. There is having goals scored on you. Or not having goals scored on you. In the first one-third of the current campaign L. A. Kings were dueling Philadelphia for the lead in the expansion division. They were scoring a lot of goals. But they also were giving up a lot of goals. More than they were scoring, in fact. However, there were some hands turning to and heaving out opposition attacks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01804/3245596-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="602" height="925"><figcaption class="caption-body">GORD LABOSSIERE &hellip; Nine Games Without Goal</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02678/3245589-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="614" height="937"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN SMITH &hellip; One Goal in 16 Games</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04267/3245582-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="588" height="949"><figcaption class="caption-body">TERRY GRAY &hellip; Nothing In First 12</figcaption></div>Particularly praiseworthy was the line of center Gordon Labossiere, left wing Brian Smith and right wing Terry Gray.On the face of it, this should be an attacking trio. The members are all veteran minor-leaguers with a history of scoring success. Last season Labossiere scored 40 goals, Smith 30 and Gray 25 in the American League.However, all three have had trouble getting the puck in the net this season. At the one-third point, Labossiere had seven goals, Smith six and Gray five in the National League, where the competition is sterner.Labossiere started out all right, but went nine straight games without a goal at one stretch recently. Smith went seven straight in one stretch, and scored in only one game of nine straight another stretch. Gray started slowly and did not get a goal in the first 12 games, though he&rsquo;s been popping them in lately.But the three have been making up for it with determined defense. In one string no goal was scored while their line was on the ice through eight straight games. It didn&rsquo;t bring them a lot of publicity. It was something a lot of people, especially newcomers to hockey, don&rsquo;t notice. But it was noteworthy. And, suddenly, coach Red Kelly had a checking line if he wanted to use it.Smith, whose father, Des, was an NHL player, and whose brother, Gary is the Seals&rsquo; second goaltender, is one of those players who was burled by Eddie Shore in Springfield. Rescued by Jack Kent Cooke&rsquo;s purchase of the club, Brian, who is 27, stands six-feet tall and weighs 180 pounds, is working hard to make the grade in the big time.&ldquo;I figure if you&rsquo;re not scoring., at least you can try to keep the other guys from scoring,&rdquo; he says.Gray says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always scored. I figured the only thing I could do while I wasn&rsquo;t scoring was to bear down defensively.&rdquo;Labossiere says, &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t feel right out there right now. I do figure it&rsquo;ll come back. The goals will come. In the meantime, I&rsquo;m happy we&rsquo;re stopping the other guys, most of the time at least.&rdquo;The three did not stop Philly, which scored on them twice enroute to a 3-0 win, but they have been stopping most of the opposition. They&rsquo;re not doing it with rough play. Labossiere and Gray played rough at first, but not lately. Labossiere has only five minor penalties, and only one in the last nine games. Gray has eight minors, but only one in the last 15 games. Smith has only three minors, only one in 20 games, none in the last 15.They&rsquo;re doing it with steady performances.Normally L. A. wins when it gets penalties. It sounds whacky, but this is strictly a skating club. When the Kings are skating, they&rsquo;re checking and hitting and drawing penalties &hellip; and winning, when they&rsquo;re not skating, they&rsquo;re not doing much &hellip; except losing. They have a 9-5-3 record in games in which they had more penalties than the opposition, only 4-5-0 in games in which the opposition had as many or more.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-05154/3245575-1-eng-US/f0003-052.jpg" title="f0003-05" width="1977" height="1637"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalie WAYNE RUTLEDGE of the Kings has been big factor in holding the L.A. club up defensively. He has won No. 1 net job from veteran Terry Sawchuk and is finding that playing regularly can be tough task. He was twice cut by pucks and high sticked once.</figcaption></div>For the first time this season, the Kings did not draw a single penalty in a game. That was against Philly. Philly had only one penalty, but they hit the Kings, checked them closely and shoved them around. Once Philly found out early the Kings would not punish them or fight back, the Flyers lowered their heads skated freely, stopped the Kings in their tracks and looked like much the better team, and the likely Western Division pennant-winner.The Kings took to the road to bounce back in Boston, skating, checking, fighting back, drawing penalties &hellip; and winning, 3-1. It was a big win for the Kings, who are not a rough team, who could use a tough defenseman and a tough forward, but who have a lot of guts and can do quite a job when they bear down. Whenever things look bad, they bounce back. One big problem: They don&rsquo;t get &ldquo;up&rdquo; for expansion foes as they do for &ldquo;name&rdquo; established foes.The Kings can kill penalties. Another praiseworthy part of their defense has been the penalty-killing of Real Lemieux, Howie Hughes, Bill Flett and Brian Kilrea, primarily. In the first third of the season, they permitted their foes only 16 power-play goals in 100 chances. They had surrendered only two goals in 12 straight games and none in four games until Boston scored while the Kings were two men down.Especially noteworthy has been the work of Hughes, who seldom plays, so usually goes out cold. The little left-winger is 28, has been a pro eight seasons, but never got a game in the big-time until this year. He&rsquo;s an honest hockey player who feels bad that he has not gotten more opportunity. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather by playing regularly, but I&rsquo;ll do what I get to do as best I can,&rdquo; he shrugs. Like Labossiere, Smith and Gray, if he can&rsquo;t score, he can at least stop the other guys from scoring.The King&rsquo;s key defender goalie Wayne Rutledge was cut twice by pucks and once by a stick in the last two games. He was slashed savagely under the eye late in the Boston game, but recovered to finish the contest. Veteran Terry Sawchuk was idled by a pulled hamstring muscle, but Jacques Caron had been called up from Springfield and was available. However, the Kings hope to continue with Rutledge in any event. He prefers not wearing a mask, but is thinking about it a lot lately. &#9632;

f0003-03

Labossiere, Smith, Gray Combine To ‘Check’ Opposition For Kings

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-06" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-06367/3245634-1-eng-US/f0004-062.jpg"></div>Ted Harris &lsquo;Unsung&rsquo; Big League PerformerHockey News Editor:I would like to express an opinion on Ted Harris, defenseman with the Montreal Canadiens. He is definitely one of hockey&rsquo;s unsung heroes and among the list of underrated players.Ted, who has always relished the heavy going and rugged style of hockey has been a tower of strength or the Hab blueline ever since his entry into the NHL four years ago.He has been a tremendous benefit, plus making the Canadiens defence as strong as it is. He has added muscle to the defenders. The burly pro, who is a native of Winnipeg came to Montreal from the Cleveland Barons of the AHL where he was awarded the Eddie Shore Trophy as the league&rsquo;s outstanding defenceman in the 1963-64 campaign.As well as being steady defensively, he is a fine puck carrier. His booming slapshots from the left point resulted in many scoring points for the club. He has reached star status as a polished big leaguer so let&rsquo;s all give credit which is due him.SHERWIN VICKER,Tisdale, Sask.Hawks&rsquo; Standby Club Seeking New MembersHockey News Editor:The Black Hawk Stand by Juniors are accepting applications for membership.The Stanby Juniors are a group of hockey fans between the ages of 15 and 21. Unlike most fan clubs, the Juniors are a social club. They have meetings and activities such as out-of-town game trips. This year the club will travel to see the Hawks play in both Detroit and St-Louis.Other activities include ice skating and roller skating parties, television hockey game parties, picnics, barbecues, horseback riding outings, and others. Occasionnally there are opportunities to meet Black Hawk stars. All activities are chaperoned.Members receive membership cards, club buttons, and membership lists. Many of the members have club jackets, and there is also a club newspaper called the STANDBY TEEPEE.For further information, write to the Black Hawk Standby Juniors, c/o Judi Stevens, 2315 South 59th Court, Cicero, Illinois, 60650.JUDI STEVENSChicago Ill.Bobby Hull Fan Club Seeking New MembersHockey News Editor:I am president of the Bobby Hull Fan Club. Any of his fans who wish to join our club are welcome to do so.During the hockey season each member receives a picture of Bobby Hull, newsletters and a membership card. For more information contact:THOMAS LUCA938 Branch Ave.Providence R.I. 02908 &#9632;

f0004-06

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY GIL SMITH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01795/3245717-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">LORNE WORSLEY&hellip; Standout in Defeat</figcaption></div>MONTREAL Que. &mdash;It&rsquo;s customary, when a team falls on hard times, to accentuate the negative and to play up things that are being done wrong by various individuals on a club.Such criticism, if it&rsquo;s at all constructive, has its place in the scheme of things and always will have.But, there&rsquo;s always a positive side to a situation, too; always a few bright spots to offset the gloom, and, all too often, such things are overlooked in the negative atmosphere that accompanies difficult times.For instance, the Montreal Canadiens recently ended an eight-game winless streak, which tumbled them into the basement of the Eastern Division. During the drought, which began last Nov. 25th against Boston and ended Dec. 13th against the same team, a few players gave consistently outstanding performances and deserve full marks for their efforts. The troubles of the team, as such, shouldn&rsquo;t be allowed to completely obscure the fine work of those who played so well under pressure. Men like Jacques Laperriere and Gump Worsley, for example.It&rsquo;s not too much to say that Laperriere has been playing some of the finest hockey he&rsquo;s shown since coming into the league. He&rsquo;s been a powerhouse for Canadiens in their own end, and his hitting, blocking and puck-clearing have been of topnotch calibre. Game in and game out, as Canadiens milled around in their slump, the tall defenceman moved with crispness and precision. Against Chicago, his shattering bodychecks on Mohns and Wharram prevented that pair from racing freely around the Montreal zone. Against Detroit, his screaming shot from the point was thwarted only by a miraculous toe save by goalie Roy Edwards. Against Minnesota, he came out of nowhere to block a driving shot by Wayne Connelly.Canadiens have been looking for a defensive leader for a long time. If Laperriere keeps it up, they can stop looking.Worsley, too, has done remarkably well under the pressure of the present season. There&rsquo;s grim Irony in the fact that Worsley is once again goaling for a lastplace club, after years of it in New York, but he&rsquo;s done a fine job, nonetheless. In five of the eight games that Habs failed to win, Gump was a standout figure. He didn&rsquo;t play at all in one of the contests, being replaced by Rogatien Vachon in Boston when Canadiens lost 5-3. At no time, during the slump, did he allow more than three goals a game, Three times he held the opposition to two goals and once he allowed but a single goal against Minnesota, yet Habs still couldn&rsquo;t win.There were times during the winless streak when Worsley was the difference between a narrow loss, or tie, and a much more embarrassing out. In a 2-2 tie against Detroit, early this month, he twice robbed Alex Delvecchio and took a sure goal away from Gordie Howe while Habs were shorthanded in the second period. He was brilliant against Los Angeles, stopping Terry Gray and Gord Labossiere from in close and then getting in front of a 25-foot blast by Brian Smith. He was very big in a 3-1 loss to Boston, which would&rsquo;ve been 6-1 at least, had it not been for his great efforts.Others deserve a few nods, too. Ralph Backstrom never stopped trying. Rookie Jacques Lemaire was brilliant at times. Terry Harper and Serge Savard were steady, hardworking performers. &#9632;

f0005-01

Worsley, Laperriere Prove Bright Spots

<div class="byline">-Smith</div>MONTREAL, Que.-Rookies Danny Grant and Carol Vadnais now know what it&rsquo;s like to be listed among the official NHL goal-scorers.Both connected for the first goals of their National League careers in the same game at Boston Dec. 13th.Grant, a 21-year-old forward from Fredericton, N.B., was the first to do it, beating Gerry Cheevers at the three minute mark of the third period in a game that Habs won 6-2. It was the sixth game that Grant has played for Montreal, and his fifth this season. He had a one-game trial last year.Vadnais, a converted defenceman who plays the wing, netted his first score with just over two minutes remaining in the Dec. 13th game.The goal was a longtime coming for Vadnais, who was playing in his 32nd game for Canadiens, not including playoffs. He appeared in 11 regular season contests last year.Vadnais, 22, is a former star with the Junior Canadiens who spent most of last season playing for Houston of the Central Pro League. &#9632;

Hab Rookies Score First NHL Goals

<div class="byline">BY BOB HARRIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-01889/3245772-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">L.A. Kings are winningest road team against the established NHL clubs. The expansion team has been getting big defensive effort from likes of BILL WHITE (21), Goalie WAYNE RUTLEDGE and JACQUES LEMIEUX (4) behind net.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL, Que.-There is still no place like home in the National Hockey League.For the past two years the home team could count on winning or tying 68 per cent of Its games.It was expected that with expansion these figures would change, especially when the established teams travelled to one of the new teams&rsquo; rink.Well, you can forget those thoughts.The percentage of the home team winning or tying has jumped to more than 70 per cent for games through Dec. 6. The record now stands 75 victories, 25 ties and only 42 losses for the home teams.For the past two years the figures were nearly the same. In 196566 the totals were 112 wins, 30 ties and 68 losses. The following year it was 113 wins, 30 ties and 67 losses. This averages out to just more than 68 per cent.The six new teams are playing close to even at home. The six established clubs have won 12 games, lost 10 and tied four so far on expansion Ice. However, the new teams have managed only six triumphs and a tie in 29 games on the ice of the established teams.Los Angeles has had the most success winning on the road against the East Division. Coach Red Kelly&rsquo;s Kings have won at Chicago, Detroit and Montreal. Philadelphia has won at Montreal and Boston with Minnesota accounting for the other victory at Chicago.Last year Chicago had the best home ice percentage, posting a 25-5-6 record on its way to the regular season championship.This year the Black Hawks are only one of two teams below .500 at home. The other Is St. Louis, last in the West Division with a 3-7-2 home mark. Chicago already has lost six games at home, one more than all of last year.&ldquo;We play a road game on Saturday and then return home Sunday nearly every week in the season,&rdquo; commented Chicago Coach Billy Reay. &ldquo;Hits year we just don&rsquo;t have the depth to play back-to-back games on the road and then at home.&rdquo;Another oddity this year involves the Black Hawks. Chicago hasn&rsquo;t lost on the road In its last nine games and is 5-3-5 for the season. Only Boston, New York and Philadelphia are playing even on the road.Oakland has the poorest showing on the road, 1-11-1. But at home the Seals are 5-3-4.Pittsburgh and St. Louis are breaking all the percentages in their series. First Pittsburgh beat St. Louis on the Blues&rsquo; home Ice. Then St. Louis won the next two games, both at Pittsburgh, before the Penguins won the most recent encounter back In St. Louis.Boston and Toronto, the top two teams in the East Division, are practically unbeatable at home. The Bruins are 10-1-3 at the Garden and the Maple Leafs 10-2-1 at home. In the West, Philadelphia (7-3) and Los Angeles (8-3-2) are the best and also 1-2 in the standings.These odds are just as one-sided in the minor leagues, if not more so.Last year in the American League the home-ice record was 18294-42 or more than 70 per cent. Seven of the nine teams were more than .500 at home but not one was more than .500 on the road. In fact, Providence lost 31 games on the road without a victory and Buffalo won only one.In the Western League, home teams compiled a 146-90-21 record or 65 per cent chance of winning or tying. Only one of the seven WHL teams was below .500 at home yet only one was more than .500 on the road.Thus the secret of success would seem to be win while you can at home and hope for the best on the road. &#9632;

f0006-01

NHL Teams Winning More In Own Rinks

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01832/3245810-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="571" height="749"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROD GILBERT &hellip; Can&rsquo;t Find Range</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02718/3245803-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="263" height="469"><figcaption class="caption-body">Emile Francis</figcaption></div>NEW YORK, N.Y.-It was almost as if the Rangers had just won the Stanley Cup. When the final buzzer sounded on Sunday December 10, signaling the end of the game between New York and Montreal and certifying the Blueshirts 3-2 win, the reaction of the Standing Room Only crowd of 15,925, of the Ranger players and management was as one man.&ldquo;Well, the monkey is off their back, now. They know that they can still win against the old N.H.L., not just the new clubs,&rdquo; was a typical fan reaction.Emile Francis, last season&rsquo;s Coach of the Year, who had remained ever smiling during the ordeal by fire which lasted from October 29 (N.Y.-3, Toronto-2) echoed this with a smiling, &ldquo;The Boys picked up the tempo in this game. They were starting to come against Detroit last night (December 9) but this will really help now. You know in spite of our troubles we are still in pretty good shape in the race. If we can put together a few wins we can move right up there.&rdquo;They key player, as he has been so far this season, was Phil Goyette, the crafty center who was returning to action after missing two games with a banged up thigh. Goyette, who is the only Ranger G man having a better season than a year ago, scored his eleventh goal of the campaign at the 9:10 mark of the first period. When Bob Nevin got his 9th goal at 14:42 and Vic Hadfield his 10th early in the second stanza, the Blues appeared to be home free.However, Montreal&rsquo;s Jacques Lemaire narrowed the margin at 15:17 of the third period and the count down began. The final seconds were hectic but Eddie Giacomin in the New York goal withstood every test.Goyette was mobbed in the dressing room and just appeared to be happy that the club had finally won.He said, &ldquo;I think this should do it. We were due to win one. Now, maybe we&rsquo;ll loosen up and it will all come back.&rdquo;If New York can start to play against the East as they have done against the West (8-1-0), Ranger fans will have no worries over a playoff spot and maybe more. &#9632;

f0007-01

Blues End Win Famine With East

<div class="byline">BY NORMAN MacLEAN</div>NEW YORK, N.Y.-What a difference a year makes. This time a season ago, the goal hungry representatives of Gotham had the hockey world going gaga. And they were led by the four G Men, Bernie &ldquo;Boom&rdquo; Geoffrion, Eddie &ldquo;GoGo&rdquo; Giacomin, Hot Rod Gilbert and Phil Goyette.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03529/3245848-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="258" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernard Geoffrion</figcaption></div>Geoffrion was in the process of making a fantastic comeback after a two year layoff. He led the Blues both on the ice and in the dressing room and in mid December already had almost half of the total of 17 goals and 25 assists that he finished with.Gilbert was a ring tailed wow as he made his second comeback from spinal fusion surgery. He was ahead of Bobby Hull in goals at this point a year ago and was the National League&rsquo;s All-Star right wing for the first half of the season. This season Rod has served chiefly as an assist man for Vic Hadfield. His goal production was away down, showing only 5 after 26 contests.Giacomin was in the process of chalking up 9 shutouts and establishing himself as the loop&rsquo;s All-Star netminder. This season he has played brilliantly in spurts but was even benched for a three game period when Gilles Villemure relieved him.Nobody could complain about Goyette&rsquo;s play as the crafty center ice man was off to the best start of his career with 11 goals and 13 assists in 24 games. However, the evil omen under which the G Men seem to be skating struck on December 6 in the New York &mdash; Detroit game. Goyette was checked heavily by the Red Wing&rsquo;s Gary Bergman and then rammed into the boards second later by Bergman. X-Rays did not show any break but when Phil tried to play against Boston in Beantown on December 7 his leg stiffened up and he had to return to New York. Phil&rsquo;s thigh was also bothering him.The proud Geoffrion has suffered intensely as he feels that he should lead and his many injuries have enabled him to participate in only 13 games of the 26 that New York has played.&ldquo;So far,&rdquo; grumbles Boomer, &ldquo;I have had a stomach problem, a pulled tendon and a bad elbow. It has to get better. It did not matter when the team was playing well and they did not need me, but now I feel that I must help more. Perhaps, now that I feel better I can get going.&rdquo;Geoffrion, 36, has the usual aches and pains of an athlete his age. However, he is suffering from stomach ulcers and seems to get hurt rather easily now. He still has the shot from the point and perhaps will get a lift from his third goal of the season which came in the last five seconds of the 3-2 loss to Detroit in Olympia on December 9.Emile Francis, the Rangers General Manager-Coach has noted, &ldquo;I wish we had Boomer in the lineup a little more often. He really pushes himself when he is able to suit up and he does make a difference.&rdquo;Something has been making the difference in the almost anemic Ranger attack. They had scored 75 goals after 26 games which comes to just under three tallies per contest. At this time last season, the Blues were averaging 3.5 tallies. Also it must be pointed out that they ran up some fairly hefty scores in games against the Expansion Division.Scoring wise, the biggest enigma has to be Gilbert who had potted only 5 goals as we went to press. Rod is not playing badly at all &mdash; and is digging as hard as ever if not harder. Also, he is still getting his chances, but the puck just doesn&rsquo;t seem to want to go in for him.Francis points out, &ldquo;Gilbert took, nine shots in one recent game before he finally scored &mdash; and he was getting so hungry for a goal, he could taste it. He is getting his shots on net, so I have to feel that he will start to score soon. We need goals from Rod and from Donnie Marshall in order to win.&rdquo;Marshall score a beautiful unassisted goal against Detroit on December 6. It came one second after the end of a Ranger penalty and seemed to spark the New Yorkers for awhile. However, a late goal by Norman Ullman tied the count and left the Rangers without a win over an Eastern Division team since October 29. They continued this streak with losses to Boston 3-1 on December 7 and to Detroit as mentioned on December 9. On December 10, after 9 games without a win over the old NHL, New York finally upended Montreal 3-2.Giacomin, who returned against the Expansion clubs in the double win over the December 1-2 weekend (Pittsburgh and Los Angeles), was named the Number one star of the tie with the Wings, after stopping a fantastic 18 shots in the first period alone. Gogo stopped a total of 37 for the game, 28 against Boston and 41 in the return Detroit encounter. Except for a brief span of two minutes and twenty two seconds at the end of the second stanza in the second Wing game, Go Go would have shutout the Motor City boys. Garry Jarret scored at 17:13, Gordie Howe at 19:37 and Bergman at 19:59.Unfortunately, this was the ball game and negated all of the fine work done the rest of the evening. In fairness, it must be mentionned; that in the end of the period letdown Giacomin&rsquo;s defense did not exactly distinguish themselves as the Wings nearly blew them out of the building.Giacomin works just as hard now as he did last season &mdash; and there is reason to believe from this quarter that despite the record he is even better now. He had the benefit of a much stronger attack during the first half of last season &mdash; and carried New York through most of the second half when Gilbert&rsquo;s scoring fell off. Now, with Rod still not hitting the net, Eddie is still bulwarking the team. All he really needs is some goals to work on &mdash; particularly against the old teams.In analyzing the possibilities for improvement one comes back to Gilbert. Rod is the New York equivalent of a super star. He can and should get thirty goals a season. His back is fine now and he is in shape.Gilbert himself does not understand why he is not scoring more. &ldquo;I am getting my shots but no matter, the puck will not bounce right. I am only happy that Ratty (Jean Ratelle) and Hadfield have picked up the slack for me,&rdquo; complains Rod.This matter of the tremondous Improvement of Hadfield and the comeback of Ratelle makes it apparent that the Rangers could rise immediately if Hot Rod returned to his form of last season. He is the key as the Goyette, Nevin, Marshall line is steady and can be counted upon for its points. The third line centered by Orland Kurtenbach and interchanging Ron Stewart, Reg Fleming and Geoffrion is an excellent third trio. Gilbert can give the Blues the little extra needed to turn the close 3-2 defeats into ties and the 3-3 ties into wins if he starts hitting the net with regularity soon. All Rangerville is rooting for Rod &mdash; and knowing the competitor that he is, we think that he will break out sooner or later. The hoping is that it is sooner.If it is sooner, Francis can get the boys straightened out and driving again towards the upper echelon of the NHL standings. The Blues are over .500, because of a superb 8-1 log against the West, and in spite of 4-9-4 score against the East. The playoff race is very tight and it would behoove the Blues to make a December move if they are to pull ahead of Montreal and Chicago.<h2>How NHL Goalers Rate</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-04378/3245841-1-eng-US/f0007-042.jpg" title="f0007-04" width="1342" height="1340"></div> &#9632;

f0007-03

Blues’ G-Men Fall On Evil Times As Gilbert Loses Scoring Touch

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-01866/3245962-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY HULL &hellip; Closing Fast On Habs&rsquo; Star</figcaption></div>MONTREAL, Que.-It took Jean Beliveau just two weeks of hockey to regain his scoring eye, after missing over a month of action.The Hab captain, injured Nov. 4th against Philadelphia, returned Dec. 7th versus Detroit and banged in a goal at 5:13 of the second period. Then came the weekend of dec. 16th as he scored a hat trick, again with Detroit the opposition. It gave Beliveau 410 for his career.Beliveau currently ranks third on the list of all-time scorers, behind Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard, but Chicago&rsquo;s Bobby Hull is the latest threat to his position.Hull, with 25 goals in 31 games to Dec. 18th inclusive, had moved into the fourth spot on the all-time list. He had a total of 395 career goals in regular play, 15 less than Beliveau but five more than Bernard Geoffrion, whom he dislodged from the No 4 spot.In ten completed seasons with Chicago, Hull has averaged a straight 37 goals per season. Beliveau, in fourteen and a fraction years with Canadiens, has averaged 28.5 goals per year. Gordie Howe has averaged 30.9 goals a season in 21 completed years with Detroit. Richard&rsquo;s average was 31.4 in just over 17 seasons. &#9632;

f0010-01

Beliveau Returns To Score But Eyes Onrushing Hull

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02777/3245993-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0011-02

NHL SCORING RACE

<div class="byline">BY JACK BERRY</div>DETROIT, Mich.-Ah, these have been strange, enjoyable nights for the Red Wings.They pick up points on the road, Alex Delvecchio is cheered at home and Gordie Howe affirms his followers&rsquo; belief that he is a deity and practically resurrects to spark a victory.The Wings are in the thick of the NHL&rsquo;s Eastern Division race with one-third of the season elapsed and they&rsquo;re there because they&rsquo;ve been picking up points on the road.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01856/3246024-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="274" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean-Guy Talbot</figcaption></div>A recent two game swing to New York and Montreal produced two more ties, the fourth and fifth of the season on the road in 14 starts, and gave the Wings 13 points so far this season in rival rinks.That matches their entire road output last season. At that, the Wings didn&rsquo;t pick up a single point until Dec. 27.The reasons for the reversal are varied. First, the Wings picked up a point in their opening road game this season at Boston. Second, they&rsquo;ve been getting solid efforts from their big men, Howe, Delvecchio, defenseman Gary Bergman and now rookie goalie Roy Edwards and defenseman Jean-Guy Talbot.Edwards has stepped right to the top in the rookie of the year race while replacing retired Roger Crozier.Edwards was funning second only to Montreal&rsquo;s Gump Worsley in the goals against averages through his first 16 games with a brilliant 1. 94 mark.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not flashy but you&rsquo;ve got to beat him honest,&rdquo; said Baz Bastien, Wings&rsquo; assistant general manager and bench boss.Talbot hasn&rsquo;t been flashy either but, since getting more ice time, he&rsquo;s been turning consistent performances for the Wings.Detroit is carrying six defensemen&mdash;Bergman, Talbot, Bert Marshall, Bart Crashley, Howie Young and Jim Watson.With that many, some were bound to get little duty and Talbot was being spotted. Now he&rsquo;s starting, with Bergman, and the 35-year-old former All-Star (1961-62) is playing sound hockey.Talbot may just be the experienced man the Wings have been looking for. They acquired him from Minnesota, which took him from Montreal in the expansion draft, the second week of the season for Bob McCord.And, speaking of experience, who can beat Howe who proved again in a victory over the Rangers that half a Howe is better than most anyone.Howe was rushed to Detroit Osteopathic Hospital the night prior to the game, doubled over with pain.&ldquo;It hurt so bad I was crying,&rdquo; said Howe, a man who has suffered hundreds of hurts in 22 NHL seasons.It was a kidney stone and, with medication, Howe passed it.Although weak and sore, he was released from the hospital at noon, rested at home and was at Olympia for the game, shocking the 13,803 fans who&rsquo;d heard news reports of the fast hospital trip, words of stomach and back pains.Of course, Howe wasn&rsquo;t Howe at top form&mdash;he was only awarded the game&rsquo;s No. 2 star. No. 1 went to Delvecchio who has won the fans over with his play this season after a dip last year.While Howe didn&rsquo;t pile into the corners, he played his usual&rsquo; smooth game, took Delvecchio&rsquo;s face off draw and laced a low bullet into the Ranger net for this 14th goal and then, with another face off to the left of Ed Giacomin, skated over to Bergman at the left point and told him where he wanted him.Delvecchio again won the draw and Howe buzzed it over to Bergman who slapped it into the net, one second before the period ended and just 22 seconds after Howe&rsquo;s goal.The victory was Detroit&rsquo;s sixth game without defeat, it&rsquo;s best streak of the season. &#9632;

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Ability To Win Road Games Put Wings In Thick Of Race

The Red Wings rise and fall on the performance of the club&rsquo;s &lsquo;Big Three&rsquo;, Norm Ullman, Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio. When the Detroit veterans are on, there&rsquo;s no team in hockey that can touch them.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02725/3246086-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="271" height="412"><figcaption class="caption-body">Norm Ullman</figcaption></div>Ullman turned it on this past week for the Detroiters by scoring four times and adding an assist to raise his season total to 25 points &mdash; 14th highest in the NHL individual race.The smooth-skating Red Wing center scored a hat trick on the weekend to help sink Montreal 8-6 and the three goals raised his season count to 13. Only Howe has scored more goals on the Detroit club than Ullman.The four-goal week raised Ullman&rsquo;s career total to 307 and allowing him to retain his place as hockey&rsquo;s 10th all-time highest scorer.THE HOCKEY NEWS is pleased to salute the NHL&rsquo;s player-of-the-week in the East:Norm Ullman&hellip; Detroit &#9632;

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NHL Player Of The Week — IN THE EAST

Cesare Maniago, the string bean netminder of the Minnesota North Stars, made modern big league hockey history this past week by racking up three successive shutouts.Maniago&rsquo;s feat of blanking Los Angeles Kings twice and Oakland Seals for a total of 183 minutes, 3b seconds, was the nest individual performance by an NHL net-minder since 1955-56 when Glenn Hall, then with Detroit Red Wings, recorded three shutouts in succession for a total of 198.10 seconds.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03571/3246117-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="274" height="408"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cesare Maniago</figcaption></div>Maniago&rsquo;s efforts this past week were all the more remarkable when you consider the 6&rsquo;1&rdquo; lanky Trail, B.C., native had only recorded two previous whitewash jobs in 511/3 games prior to this season.Drafted by the North Stars from the Rangers, Maniago has become the hit of the expansion division with his puck-stopping.THE HOCKEY NEWS is pleased to salute the NHL&rsquo;s player-of-the-week in the West:Cesare Maniago&hellip; Minnesota &#9632;

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NHL Player Of The Week — IN THE WEST

<div class="byline">BY DAN MOULTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01838/3246055-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div>CHICAGO, m. &ndash;Stan Mikita has been a scorer almost from the time he joined the Black Hawks from the St. Catharines Juniors for the 195960 season.In fact, the 27-year-old wonder man has been such a great scorer that he&rsquo;s led the National Hockey league three times, shares the league record for total points at 97 with teammate Bobby Hull, and last year became the first player In history to win the Ross, Hart, and Lady Byng trophies in one season.Nor is Stan at all unaware of his abilities.But there are times, he admits, when a few seeds of doubt find their way Into his normally positive thought patterns. Take the start of this season for instance.Stan was injured, his Scooter Line right wing Ken Wharram was attempting to get into condition after a lengthy holdout, and left wing Doug Mohns was in the hospital nursing an injury which effected his sciatic nerve.Little wonder then, that nothing Mikita attempted to do while working with a different set of wings in each game, turned out.&ldquo;Deep down, I knew that I&rsquo;d probably start to get points if I kept working", said Stan after a recent game against Pittsburgh in which he ran his season&rsquo;s goal count to 14 by turning in the first four-goal of his career.&ldquo;But I have to admit I got discouraged. I did keep working, though, so the fact that I have started to get goals and assists proves that work will do it.&rdquo;Stan probably realized the value of work after his first season in the league, during which he scored only 8 goals while working on a line used mainly to check the opposition&rsquo;s most dangerous crew.Stan had worked extremely hard during that season but didn&rsquo;t realize how much he&rsquo;d impressed his bosses, Manager Tommy Ivan and Coach Rudy Pilous.He actually doubted that the team would have him back the next season.&ldquo;I was so dumb &mdash; and young-that I figured scoring was all there was to the game.&rdquo; said Stan. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t realize that if you worked on defense you were considered particularly valuable.&rdquo;Fortunately, the Hawks&rsquo; brass didn&rsquo;t share Stan&rsquo;s attitute and he began the next season as one of the most highly-regarded centers the Hawks have owned since Max Bentley.He responded by coming up with 18 goals and hasn&rsquo;t been under 20 since.While Mikita has been coming on with a rush, Bobby Hull, the other half of the Hawks&rsquo; twin terror, has been bouncing along, just a bit off a goal-a-game pace.As might be expected, most of Bobby&rsquo;s goals have come on his cannon-like slap-shot but recently, he put on a demonstration of the Hull &ldquo;soft touch&rdquo; before the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game in Philadelphia.More than 14,000 had paid their way into the new Spectrum, many of them lured by the prospect of seeing Bobby Hull fire a puck at more than 100 miles an hour.What they saw were two Hull goals but chances are any one of them in the stands could have shot the puck as hard as Bobby had to.His first tally came on a rebound of a shot by Mikita and he had the whole Flyer net at his mercy after Doug Favell had been pulled out of position to make the original stop.Then, in the final period, Pat Stapleton worked the puck to Center Pit&rsquo;s Martin just to Favell&rsquo;s left. The Flyer netminder moved well to block Pit&rsquo;s shot, but once again the puck rolled free hi front of an unprotected net.Bobby was there to nudge it into the huge expanse and he had goal No. 24 of the season in game No. 27.The Philadelphia fans saw Bobby launch several of his rockets, too but those which didn&rsquo;t sail considerably wide of their target were handled very neatly by Favell.The Hawks won the game, 3-0, to provide netminder Denis De Jordy with his first shutout of the year. The triumph also boosted the Hawks&rsquo; record against expansion teams to 9 victories, 3 losses, and a tie, which means that of their first 11 triumphs, only 2 were at the expense of Eastern division opposition. &#9632;

f0012-01

Four-Goal Blast Against Penguins Put Hawks’ Center In High Gear

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01822/3246179-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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National Hockey League Summaries

<div class="byline">&#x2014; By Bill Libby</div><h2>Kings&rsquo; Star Worrier</h2>THE THING that brothers Lowell MacDonald the most is that he may go down In a plane in flames before he&rsquo;s cured of all his physical ailments. He worries about this almost as much as he worries about his own play. In five previous seasons as a professional, the 26-year-old forward has demonstrated considerable all-around ability, but has yet to complete a full campaign as he has kicked around the National, American and Central Leagues. If he moves too quick, his bones break. If he goes out into the world, he caches disease. Last year, he was in and out of the hospital with mysterious stomach pains, which medical science could not diagnose, but which Lowell suspected was cancer. Toronto and Detroit gave up on him and the L.A. Kings picked him up in the expansion draft. They&rsquo;ve been putting ice-packs on his stomach. He&rsquo;s been limping onto the ice, playing well, then limping off. But he practically has to be dragged onto planes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01823/3246224-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="256" height="375"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lowell MacDonald</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the worst worrier I have,&rdquo; says King coach Red Kelly. Mac admits, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a worrier. I can&rsquo;t help it. I worry about getting hurt or being sick because I&rsquo;ve been one or the other as long as I can remember. My ambition is to play a full season. I worry about making it in the majors. One game in Detroit I played on a line with Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay and we got two goals and won the game and I was sent back down the next day. So why shouldn&rsquo;t I worry? And I can&rsquo;t help worrying about flying. I dread every flight. I can&rsquo;t sleep on flights. I can hardly breathe. AU I can do is sweat. I don&rsquo;t drink, so I can&rsquo;t even get drunk. I&rsquo;m aware of everything that happens in the air. If the pilot adjusts his fuel misture, I feel it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been suggested I see a psychiatrist. But I&rsquo;m not crazy. Just frightened. My wife isn&rsquo;t afraid of these things. She doesn&rsquo;t worry. She tries to help me, but she can&rsquo;t. She&rsquo;s a nurse which is what I need, I guess. Guys who can take flying in stride don&rsquo;t know how lucky they are. Except for hockey, there&rsquo;s no way I&rsquo;d fly. I have to do it now, but if anything drives me out of the game, flying will.&rdquo;It takes great courage for a grown man to admit he&rsquo;s afraid. Lowell has courage and a sense of humor. Fortunately. On one recent flight, the other players talked a stewardess into presenting Mac with toy wings, such as often are given kids who fly. The other players also have put Mac&rsquo;s name on first-aid kits and hot-water bags. Mac grins and bears it. He has company in his misery. Like outstanding players, frightened fliers seek out one another to compare notes. After Montreal had ridden a rough flight into L.A. recently, Mac sought out Gump Worsley, another who hates to fly. Later, Lowell shuddered, &ldquo;Gump told me they ran into a storm and the lightning actually shook the plane.&rdquo;<h2>Gump Detests Flying</h2>THAT NIGHT, Montreal coach Toe Blake let Gump recuperate on the bench and played Rog Vachon in goal. MacDonald pumped three goals past Vachon as L.A. upset the Canadiens. All week. Mac had promised his son, Lowell Jr., he could see the game and the kid I could think or talk of nothing s else. That night, Mom brought the excited lad to see his first game and his dad in action for the first time. They found pop&rsquo;s picture on the game program. Then they heard pop&rsquo;s name on the P.A. all night as he completed his hat trick. What a thrill Later, Pop shrugged and said, &ldquo;Even after a game like this I won T be able to sleep. Unless I take sleeping pills, I&rsquo;ll toss and turn until five or six in the morning. I&rsquo;ll just be drifting off when the kids come into wake us up for breakfast. And if we&rsquo;ve got a flight to take, forget it, there&rsquo;s no chance I&rsquo;ll sleep. I just get too wound, up.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02710/3246217-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="280" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lorne Worsley</figcaption></div>Why does he do it? His dad, a Nova Scotia poliman, drummed love of the game into the boy. He also pressured him to produce. As Lowell tells it, he once scored nine goals and assisted on the other five in a 14-2 win for his high school team, then was refused supper by his father because he felt the lad hadn&rsquo;t played hard enough. Lowell has been playing hard ever since. A sensitive, intelligent, thoughtful person, he has been attending college whenever possible for eight, years and expects to be very happy whenever he, has had it in hockey. In the meantime, he&rsquo;ll handle hockey as best he can in hopes of making the sort of money and the sort of name for himself that will help him and his family later on.That is if he is not stepped on by an elephant or his plane is not attacked by giant eagles along the way. In the air and in hospitals, he&rsquo;s a superstar. On the ice, he&rsquo;s very good. As a worrier, he&rsquo;s the best. If L.A. coach Kelly had 17 more like him, he could open up his own sanitarium. And put together a hockey team that would walk to games and skate the pants off other sanitarium teams.<h2>Will Oakland Shift?</h2>EARLY ONE morning the Philadelphia Flyers left Chicago by jet plane for a game with Oakland of the spectrum in Philly that night. shortly after noon it ran into a snowstorm. The plane could not land at Philly. but set down in New York instead. Bernie Parent, the Philly goalkeeper, was so happy to reach the ground he went around congratulating his teammates on their good fortune. Flyer officials arranged for a bus and called ahead to book motel accomodations near Philly so the players could eat and grab a nap before going on to the game. The bus left late, then ran into a snowstorm and a traffic jam. Along the way, the windshield wipers stopped and the brakes gave out. The bus did not crawl into the Spectrum parking lot until 90 minutes before game time, any thoughts of a motel rest long since abandoned. Oakland, which had arrived and rested since the day before, won its first road game of the season that night, a big upset. But the weary Flyers weren&rsquo;t surprised. Sometimes games are decided off the ice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03557/3246210-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="279" height="474"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Rutledge</figcaption></div>SCOOP, MAYBE-The Oakland franchise may be transferred to Vancouver, possibly at mid-season. Personally, we feel Oakland might make it if given time, but an emergency meeting of the NHL owners was called in New York recently and the bigwigs discussed the situation in secrecy.Philadelphia, which drew 14,646 for a Sunday-night visit by Chicago, is now second only to Minnesota in home attendance among expansion teams. Minnesota, which drew 15,128 for a visit by Toronto earlier, is pulling around 10,000 even for visits by expansion foes&hellip; It was middecember a Sergio Mendes music show, before Minnesota&rsquo;s Met, which was built basically for hockey, hosted a non-ice event&hellip; No sooner do the L.A. Kings check in at their new Forum Dec. 30 then they&rsquo;ll be chased away for 10 days by an ice show&hellip;. How can you top Howe? Hospitalized on a Friday with severe stomach pains, Gordie passed a kidney stone, got his release the following afternoon, played that night and scored one goal and assisted on another as Detroit beat New York&hellip; L.A.&rsquo;s Brian Kilrea accidentally kicked in a goal against his net-minder Wayne Ruthledge. Later, on the plane, Brian said to Wayne: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not so tough. Even I got one past you"&hellip; Wayne wears a mask in practice, not in games. Lately, he&rsquo;s been getting cut up badly on the face. Soon, he should don the mask for games. He&rsquo;s a good-looking guy, but not for long the way things are going. He&rsquo;s also a good-looking rookie, maybe the best in the NHL this year. Doug Favell of Philly is another standout, but doesn&rsquo;t play as much as Rutledge: &#9632;

f0014-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY GLENN REDMANN</div>TWIN CITIES. Minn.-The 1967-68 NHL season had barely gotten under way when North Stars&rsquo; manager-coach Wren Blair swung a trade with Detroit that sent Jean Guy Talbot to the Red Wings in exchange for Bob McCord and Duke Harris.At the time of the deal, Blair felt that the key man as far as he was concerned was McCord, a 13-year pro whom the Red Wings thought enough of to protect in the expansion draft.But because Talbot, the Stars&rsquo; No. 4 draft choice and 12-year member of the Montreal Canadiens had been touted so higly in training camp, fans hereabouts were bewildered and took a &ldquo;who&rsquo;s he&rdquo; attitude toward McCord.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04407/3246255-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="244" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McCord</figcaption></div>&ldquo;If this guy plays the type of right defense he&rsquo;s capable of playing,&rdquo; said Blair, &ldquo;it won&rsquo;t take the press or the fans very long to find out who he is and what he can do. &ldquo;Blair went on to point out that the rugged native of Timmins, Ont. had been voted the American League&rsquo;s outstanding defenseman last season at Pittsburgh where the Hornets breezed to the championship with an outstanding won-lost record.&ldquo;I believe he was third in the Most Valuable Player balloting, too,&rdquo; added Wren, &ldquo;and that&rsquo;s quite an accomplishment because there were a lot of fine players in the American League last season.&rdquo;By now, you might&rsquo;ve guessed that the 33-year-old McCord has made his new boss something of a prophet.It has been more than two months since the deal (which also sent minor leaguer Dave Richardson to the Wings) was consumated and McCord, a seemingly tireless worker, has been a far-above-average performer for the surging Minnesotans.&ldquo;In a way, I hated to part with a man of Talbot&rsquo;s experience,&rdquo; said Blair, recalling recently the mid-October trade. &ldquo;But with Bob Woytowich as our only right-handed shooting defenseman, I felt it was a must that we have more balance back there. McCord gives us that balance.&rdquo;At this writing, the North Stars had won three, tied two and lost only one in their last six starts to pull within a single point of Pittsburgh in the fight for third place in the West Division.Blair had settled on pairing McCord with offense-minded Mike McMahon. Capt. Woytowich, who often skates with the speed and finesse of a forward, was put with veteran Moose Vasko. Pete Goegan is the swing man.Perhaps another reason why Blair dealt for McCord is the fact that Goegan reported late due to a salary hassle and Wren might&rsquo;ve felt the need for more muscle on the blue line.McCord fills the bill in that category since he hits with authority in addition to being able to skate the puck out of his own zone and also slap hard with accuracy from the point when the club is on attack.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s helped us in so many ways, it&rsquo;s hard to single one out,&rdquo; continued Blair, who believes that McCord is capable of making a lot of money before his NHL playing days are over.&ldquo;For awhile, we found a lot of opposing forwards piling up in front of our net. But McCord and Vasko (who veteran observers claim is rounding into old form) have pretty well put a stop to that.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-04

McCord Pleases Blair With Solid Ice Play To Compliment Trade

<div class="byline">&#x2014;REDMANN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01800/3246286-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="604" height="1179"><figcaption class="caption-body">WAYNE HICKS &hellip; Goals Suddenly Elusive</figcaption></div>TWIN CITIES, Minn. &ndash;In the Dec. 9 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, Minnesota North Stars manager-coach Wren Blair chided his club&rsquo;s fans for not giving their favorites more vocal support.Oddly enough, that issue was on sale at Metropolitan Sports Center Dec. 9 when the fans not only booed referee Bill Friday&rsquo;s every decision against Minnesota, but also gave the razzberries to the Stars for sub-par play in their 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh.In their strongest showing of provincialism yet this season, the crowd (10,927) littered the ice with programs, popcorn boxes, newspapers and just about anything else they could get their hands on when Friday levied three quick minor penalties on the Stars after they had trimmed the Penguins&rsquo; lead to 3-2 mid-way in the third period.The following day, Blair said he didn&rsquo;t blame the fans for filling the ice with paper products because, &ldquo;It was the worst officiated game we&rsquo;ve had this season.&rdquo;Blair went on to say that he considers Friday to be one of the top referees in the NHL, &ldquo;But I guess he has bad days, too &mdash; just like the rest of us.&rdquo;ICE CHIPS: The turnstiles continued to click at Metro-politan Sports Center after the Stars returned from a week-long road trip &hellip; After 12 home dates, the gate gait was 138,362 which is an average of 11,530 and 81 per cent of capacity &hellip;Blair and his family were busy moving into a spanking new home in Edina, a suburb which is about a 10-minute drive from the Sports Center &hellip; Blair credits Bill Collins hustle and digging with &ldquo;making&rdquo; the North Stars third line which scored nine goals in a six-game span&hellip; &#9632;

f0015-01

Stars’ Fans Come Alive, Litter Ice

<div class="byline">BY ED CONRAD</div>PHILADELPHIA, Pa-If Wayne Hicks had his way, Christmas would fall a couple weeks before Thanksgiving every year.That&rsquo;s because the Flyers&rsquo; veteran right-wing continues to be plagued by bad luck when it comes to putting the puck in the net in the first third of the hockey season.&ldquo;Dad used to put it best", remembers Wayne. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;Get yourself two or three goals before Christmas and you&rsquo;re gonna have a helluva year".Hicks&rsquo; frustration at scoring his first goal for his new National Hockey League club was never more evident than in the Flyers&rsquo; 3-0 loss to the Chicago Black Hawks In Philadelphia a couple games ago.The Flyers needed a goal desperately midway through the game when Wayne picked up the puck close to the cage and let fly with a shot. The puck bounced, rose and nearly soared over goalie Denis Dejordy&rsquo;s head for a sure goal.However, as Hicks&rsquo; luck would have it, Dejordy reached over his head and made a fine stop. It saved his shutout and, consequently, provided the Impetus for the Black Hawks&rsquo; triumph.&ldquo;Disappointed that it didn&rsquo;t go in?&rdquo; replied Wayne after the game. &ldquo;Sure! But you know me and the luck I&rsquo;ve been having, nothing&rsquo;s been going in for me. I half expected Dejordy to stop It".If it had gone into the net, the blond forward would&rsquo;ve ended a string of 25 Flyer games in which he has failed to score a goal.The amazing part Is that Hicks was the second highest scorer In the American Hockey League last season with 91 points (31 goals and 60 assists) for the Quebec Aces. The three previous years he tallied 78, 88 and 81 points.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s gotten to the point that I&rsquo;ve been pressing too hard trying to get that first one", explained Wayne. &ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t feel it&rsquo;s because this is the National Hockey League because, the truth is, I&rsquo;ve played against most of these guys in the past &hellip; and scored against them.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little hard to explain", he continued. &ldquo;Sometimes when you&rsquo;re pressing too hard, your mind and body don&rsquo;t seem to function together.&ldquo;These things &mdash; mind and body-have got to work automatically. When you&rsquo;re swinging that stick, you&rsquo;ve got to do it and not think about it. When you hesitate, it makes a big difference".Still, Hicks feels that his slow start scoring goals &mdash; he had contributed seven assists in the first 25 games &mdash; could be attribuated to his perennial jinx. He feels that if he can score a couple of goals, the others will follow in bunches.&ldquo;Everybody in hockey &mdash; well, maybe not a guy like Bobby Hull &mdash; is bothered by slumps during the course of the season", volunteered Wayne. &ldquo;With me, I get my slumps at the start of the year while other guys seem to get their&rsquo;s during mid-season.The bad part about having a slump at the start of the year is that the coach has got to go with the guys who are scoring the goals.&ldquo;Therefore I wasn&rsquo;t getting too many chances to play when that slump continued", said Wayne. &ldquo;For awhile, the only action I was seeing was on power-plays,&rdquo;&ldquo;Yet, I can&rsquo;t deny the fact that I had plenty of chances to score in those first seven or eight games when seeing a lot of action. I remember a couple goals I might&rsquo;ve had but they either missed by a little or hit someone&rsquo;s skate.&ldquo;Now that I look back, I can see how important just one little goal would&rsquo;ve been to me now that I don&rsquo;t have any and find myself pressing for that first one". &#9632;

Hicks Scoreless After 25 Games

Montreal, Que. &mdash;Montreal coach Toe Blake is waiting anxiously to see if NHL President Clarence Campbell is going to lighten his Christmas stocking.Blake was ejected from a Dec. 13 game in Boston for hurling abuse at Referee Bill Friday and had to turn the coaching reins over to team captain Jean Beliveau, who wasn&rsquo;t dressed for the night because of an injury.Blake rushed on the ice to blast Friday for failing to notice the Bruins had an extra man on the ice. He was promptly escorted back to the bench by his players. The little ice sortie cost him an automatic $50 fine. Blake hurled several remarks at Friday as he left the ice and was promptly thrown out of the game.It was the first time an NHL coach had been thrown out of a game in some time. NHL president Campbell will likely deal with Blake&rsquo;s case after getting Friday&rsquo;s full report. &#9632;

Blake Ejected, Awaits NHL Action

<div class="byline">BY SHEL FULLERTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01631/3246386-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div>CLEVELAND, Ohio-Consternation shot through the camp of the high-flying Cleveland Barons when defenseman Doug Piper stopped a hard shot by a Buffalo player on the bone juncture on the Inside of his right knee.The painful bruise, which may be just that and which may prove to be something even more serious, was bad enough in its own right. To keep their position atop the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Western Division standings, the Barons cannot stand any serious injuries, especially to a member of their regular blue-line crew.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02548/3246379-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="252" height="468"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Piper</figcaption></div>What made the injury to Piper seem even more ominous was the recent decision of the parent Montreal Canadiens to send &ldquo;Superpest&rdquo; Bryan Watson to Houston of the Central Hockey League. Should Piper be sidelined for any length of time, Watson in a Cleveland uniform would look mighty good.The fiery Watson opened the season with the Barons and &ldquo;sold&rdquo; himself to the Cleveland fan flock in a matter of seconds. He also &ldquo;sold&rdquo; himself to Cleveland Coach Fred Glover and to the other youthful Barons, who found in Watson a spark that set them charging at a pace that seldom has died down.The Barons were dealt a cruel blow when Montreal, crippled by injuries, recalled Watson for protection, but that was understandable. They were dealt an even more cruel blow when the Canadiens, in sending Watson back down, bypassed the Barons and shipped him off to Houston.For years, it seemed that the cream of Montreal&rsquo;s expendable talent went to the Quebec Aces. Now, with Quebec no longer in the picture, the Barons, once again, appear to be getting short-changed.Granted that Houston has been floundering and the Barons winning, it still seems more fair for Montreal to let Watson come back to the team from which he was taken and where he reportedly would like to play. If Watson is not of NHL caliber, as the Canadiens apparently feel he is not, he definitely is of AHL caliber.With Watson apparently gone for good and with Piper a doubtful quantity for a few games, the Barons are left with only three regular defensemen and 20-year-old Steve Hunt.It is no reflection on Hunt that the Barons are worried. It is simply a matter of Hunt being inexperienced. Cleveland can be in real trouble if Piper is sidelined and if, indeed, Superpest is gone for good.<h2>How They Stand</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03440/3246372-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="657" height="1511"></div><h2>American League Summaries</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04338/3246365-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="3494" height="2384"></div> &#9632;

f0016-01

Piper’s Injury Blow To Team’s Defense

<div class="byline">BY VIN CIMINI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01539/3246417-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARCEL PAILLE &hellip; Net Play Sensational</figcaption></div>PROVIDENCE, R.I.-His eyes, like those of the crowd about him, were fixed on the far end of the rink.In anticipation of an enemy rush his mechanic-like stick swept aside the ice scrapping lying beneath him.Suddenly his gaze became seriously fixed and his face reflected that the opposition had gained control of the puck. As he pensively eyed the action advancing towards him, he moved himself accordingly in front of his net, preparing for the Imminent.Then, a shot! The disc caromed off his bulky protection and into the corner. In an almost unceasing manner he blurted Instructions and information to his teammates, sometimes in French, sometimes in English, but most often in a combination of the two.Moments later, an eternity it seemed, the Reds had regained possession and then the final buzzer.The bench, which had filed out onto the ice, and the delighted crowd praised the goaltender, now skating towards the exit, for a job well-done.As he made his way down the corridor to the dressing room he was greeted by the many who had rushed to personally congratulate him. A casual nod, sometimes accompanied by a verbal word of thanks, was his grateful response.Now sitting in the dressing room, beads of perspiration trickled down his head and were being absorbed by a towel about his neck, and the smile which had dominated his face since the final buzzer, was sinking into an orange slice.For Marcel Paille it was the happy result of another game in his long and illustrious professional career. A career which has extended through almost twelve seasons, ten of which were spent in the New York Ranger organization.As Ranger property Marcel had spent parts of seven seasons on Madison Square Garden ice and most of the time in between he spent garnishing honors in the AHL.He had played on four regular season championship teams and three Calder Cup winners, all with Springfield, on three consecutive occasions extending from the 1959-60 season to the 1961-62 campaign.Three times he had been selected to the American League&rsquo;s First All-Star squad and had twice won the Hap Holmes Trophy as the circuit&rsquo;s best netminder.He came to the Reds in the Ed Giacomin deal of 1965. Some eight years earlier he had played part of a season in Providence, then a New York farm team.They say goalies improve with age but in his first two sesaons with the Reds Paille&rsquo;s goals against average had skyrocketed over the four per game mark. A rather unstable team was greatly the reason and it seemed unfair to have to play out the remainder of one&rsquo;s career in such fashion.Nevertheless, some critics were saying that Paille was at the end of the road, but Marcey has since proved otherwise.Disregarding the nonpareil play and inspiration of their player-coach Dave Creighton, no one has been more responsible for any of the Reds&rsquo; success this year than Marcel Paille.&ldquo;Marcel&rsquo;s play has just been sensational", said Reds&rsquo; G.M. Buster Clegg, and Dave Creighton whole-heartedly agrees.&ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t ask for a guy to play better hockey than Marcel is playing right now. He could be playing in the National League. His reflexes are as sharp as ever and his instinct gets better with every game.&rdquo;When asked what he thought of how the season was coming along Paille got right to the point.&ldquo;Last year I didn&rsquo;t play too well, and I guess losing all those games didn&rsquo;t do too much to make me feel like going all out.&ldquo;This year&rsquo;s team plays both ways and it helps to know if you stop the first shot there won&rsquo;t be any rebound to get by you. If I have a good season its because the whole team did their job.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

Ex-Ranger Goaler Marcel Paille Playing Big Role In Reds’ Upsurge

<div class="byline">BY JOHN TRAVERS</div>HERSHEY, Pa.&mdash;Lack of a consistant attack has seen the Hershey Bears slip another notch&rsquo; in the Eastern Division standings with coach Frank Mathers&rsquo; skaters occupying third place as the season near the quarter mark of the 72-game schedule.In their first stop at Baltimore on an abbreviated four-game road swing, the Clippers knocked off the Bears 5-3 with Jean Marie Cossette scoring his first &ldquo;Hat Trick&rdquo; in three years.Through a ten-game stretch extending from Nov, 12 to Dec. 8, the Bears showed a losing marl of 4-5-1 despite the fact they out-scored the opposition, 36-28. All five losses came by two goals or less.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02479/3246448-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="258" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Maxner</figcaption></div>Mathers has juggled his forward lines somewhat during the losing span, but as yet hasn&rsquo;t appeared to have hit on winning conbinations.Injuries to forwards Wayne Maxner and Ted Snell put a noticeable crimp in the club&rsquo;s offense as Mathers had to shift personnel around to compensate for the ailing skaters.&ldquo;injuries are part of the game, so it&rsquo;s no excuse for our poor play at times", said Mathers.Rookie Don Marcotte continued, to turn in a solid effort, notching three goals in his first three starts this month, jacking his total to 12, tops for the team.Mathers also has been alternating goalies John Henderson and Andre Gill with Henderson back stopping the team to three wins, while Gill has been in the net for seven victories. He played in 13 games.Whether Mathers continues this format with the cage cops remains to be seen, but it&rsquo;s doubtful he will.As of Dec. 8 the Bears had played the least amount of games among the four-team Eastern Division. &#9632;

f0017-02

In And Out Attack Holds Bears Down

<div class="byline">BY JOHN WHITE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01544/3246514-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02445/3246507-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="266" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Del Topoll</figcaption></div>SEA TTLE. Wash.&mdash;For Western Hockey League fans, there was a bit of bitter Irony to the American Hockey League&rsquo;s 20-12-2 lead over WHL clubs in the first 34 games of this season&rsquo;s inter locking series.And you spell the irony o-v-e-r-t-i-m-e!In the Western League, fans delight in the 10-minute sudden-death session that follows any game deadlocked at the end of regulation play.In the American League, however, overtime games are not played.So when this season&rsquo;s interlocking schedule between the two far-flung circuits was drawn up, it was decided that overtime games would be played in the West but would not be played in the East.This way, no local customs would be violated.So three overtime periods were played in the first 34 games of the interlocking schedule. And you&rsquo;re already reading between the lines. That&rsquo;s right, the American Le ague won all three of them.Cleveland tipped Vancouver 3-2 Springfield nipped Portland 4-3 and the Kings also nudged Phoenix 4-3.Change the results of those overtime games, and the American League&rsquo;s early edge would be a much tighter 17-15-2.Take nothing away, however, v from the American League&rsquo;s early lead in the series.It&rsquo;s one of the oldest stories in sports. Teams that win the close ones are going to contend for championships.Seven of the first 34 games between teams of the two leagues were decided by a single goal. And American Hockey League clubs won six of those seven. Those six clashes alone account for the the difference between winning and losing in the series.American League teams, in battling to the early advantage, certainly were not doing it the easy way.In opening periods, they actually had been outscored by Western League opponents 37-30.But whatever the reason &mdash; desire, conditioning, spirit or you name it &mdash; the American League clubs then went to work.They outscore Western rivals 44-27 in second periods, 49-38 in third periods and 3-0 in those overtimes.The first interlocking series between the Western and American Leagues was played two years ago, and the Easterns finished the campaign with a winning record &mdash; 38 victories, 32 defeats and 2 ties.If there has been a major difference in the second series, now in progress, it would be that American League clubs are starting to win more games on the road.Two years ago, the American League&rsquo;s home-ice record was 28-6-2 in the series, while the Westerners were 26-10-0.Two years ago only one AHL team, Hershey, had a winning (31-0) record on Western League ice.No Western League club was a winner on the road.But this season, Cleveland, first AHL team to swing West, posted a 3-2 record on the Pacific slopes.And the Rochester Americans started their swing with three consecutive victories on the West Coast to insure a winning road mark.(There was considerable irony to Rochester&rsquo;s 3-1-1 early record against the WHL, too. Ten of the American&rsquo; first 14 goals against Western opponents were scored by tour players who played in the WHL last season &mdash; Milan Marcetta Bob Barlow, Ken Block and Bob Cook).The American&rsquo;s League&rsquo;s edge over the West in action through December 11 was a clear-cut one. The AHL teams had played 18 road games &mdash; and had posted a .500 record &mdash; compared with only 16 on home ice were the record was a lopsided 10-3-2.Western League teams, however did have one thing going for them.The two WHL teams which had completed their swings through the East were fourth-place Vancouver and cellar-dwelling Phoenix.The 1-2-3-teams, Seattle, San Diego and Portland, still could pull the Western League into challenging position with strong road trips.Top Individual scorers for the American League against the West In the early going were a trio of Cleveland forwards and Howie Menard of Springfield.In seven games, Norm Ferguson and Jim Paterson of the Barons each had scored 12 points, Howie Menard of Springfield and Bob Ellett of Cleveland each had collected 11.Top Western scorers were Del Topoll of Phoenix with 14 points In 12 games and Tommy McVie of the Roadrunners with 13 &mdash; Including a whopping 10 goals.But the most explosive scorer in the entire series was San Diego&rsquo;s captain, Fred Hilts. In just four games against the American League, Hilts had collected 11 points on 4 goals and 7 assists.Top goalie in the interlocking series was Rochester&rsquo;s veteran Bobby Perreault with a goals-against mark of 1.60 for his first five games.And at this point, you can throw in some more Irony for Western League fans. Perreault played two seasons in San Francisco, posted a combined goals-against mark of 3.80 and never scored a shutout &mdash; not one single shutout.In this first three games on a return visit to the West Coast with Rochester, Perreault whipped Phoenix 4-2, stopped San Diego 4-1 and blanked Seattle 3-0.Combined goals-against mark on the road &mdash; a sizzling 1.00!What have they been feeding you back in snow country, Bobby?<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05197/3246500-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="634" height="1212"></div><h2>Point Race</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-06160/3246493-1-eng-US/f0018-062.jpg" title="f0018-06" width="639" height="781"></div><h2>Interlocking Picture</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03335/3246486-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="658" height="1309"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04256/3246479-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="642" height="335"></div> &#9632;

f0018-01

Overtime Helps AHL Build Edge

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02449/3246566-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM HAY &hellip; Sets Penalty Mark</figcaption></div>SAN DIEGO, Calif.&mdash;The evening of December 6, 1967, was pleasant and warm In San Diego.And with exactly 18 minutes and 47 seconds of the first period played between the visiting Portland Buckaroos and the San Diego Gulls, things got considerably warmer.The holiday season is one for exchanging things, so a couple of gentlemen named James Alexander Hay and Leonard Keith Ronson decided to follow custom, except that they exchanged high sticks and fists.Referee Dave Newell, who frowns on such pleasantries, decided that Mr. Hay of Portland and Mr. Ronson of San Diego should watch the next seven minutes of the game from the penalty box, which is fine because Hay and Ronson are old friends, teammates on the Portland team, vintage of &lsquo;66.And there really isn&rsquo;t much more to the story except at that instant &mdash; 18:47 of the first period between Portland and San Diego on December 6, 1967 &mdash; Mr. Hay became the most-penalized player in the 20-year history of the Western Hockey League.By December 10, Hay had a career total of 1,227 minutes off the ice in regular-season WHL games to break the former mark of 1,218 minutes set by Frank Arnett with Seattle, Winnipeg and Los Angeles.Arnett needed only 529 games to set his record. It took Hay 764 games and he spread his talents around considerably &mdash; with Edmonton, Brandon, Victoria, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and PortlandTo be perfectly fair, Hay, on the evening of December 11th, could look back on 1,623 penalty minutes whistled in 1,063 regular-season games in five different professional hockey leagues.<h2>Hockey Races</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01524/3246559-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="699" height="3203"></div><h2>WHL Summaries</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04305/3246552-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="671" height="1666"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03358/3246545-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="631" height="572"></div> &#9632;

f0019-02

Hay Becomes WHL’s All-Time Bad ‘Man’

<div class="byline">BY MATT DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01369/3246618-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"></div>FORT WORTH, Tex.-The parent Detroit Red Wings were concluding their &ldquo;quick look&rdquo; operation when they recalled Gary Marsh from the Fort Worth Wings and sent back Rick McCann.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02277/3246611-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="264" height="470"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Dorey</figcaption></div>Marsh followed Jimmy Peters, Ron Anderson and Marsh who were given the opportunity to practice and play for the National Hockey League club.Coach Fern Flaman looked upon the loss of Marsh as just a natural turn of events saying, &ldquo;These are all young players with tremendous pro potential and they are sent down here to me for development. When they get a chance with the Wings in Detroit, it works two ways. The major league club sees how they are progressing and the player learns just what is expected of him in the heat of actual major league competition.&rdquo;&ldquo;All four players worked down here and deserved the opportunity and I also had the chance to give extra work to some of the other players. We&rsquo;re still on top of that Northern Division and I&rsquo;m working to put all the talent in the right places,&rdquo; added Flaman.Doug Roberts joined the club when Allan Johnson was sidelined with a knee injury. Roberts, rookie of the year in the CPHL two seasons ago, did not play regularly with Detroit and counted four goals and drew three assists in his first five games with Fort Worth.TULSA: Jim Dorey, who toiled last season for London Nationals, in the Ontario Hockey Association junior ranks, joined the Ollers. He scored eight goals and had 41 assists in 49 games last season. To make room for him on the roster, rearguard Harry Shaw was sent to Phoenix of the Western League.Len Haley, Andre Hinse and Gerry Meehan paced the Oilers&rsquo;, top offensive club in the eight-team circuit, combining for 76 points over 24 games.KANSAS CITY: Although the St; Louis club had taken Frank St. Marseille, Claude Cardin, Tim Ecclestone, Gary Sabourin, Darryl Ecclestone and Ray Fortin up to the NHL Blues, coach Doug Harvey regrouped and with the addition of Norm Beaudin Wayne Rivers and Roger Picard guided the Blues into second place in the Northern Division.OKLAHOMA CITY: The addition of Wayne Cashman lent more power to the Blazers&rsquo; attack notching eight goals and drawing six assists in eight games.Goalie Dennis Gibson registered his first shutout of the season wielding the whitewash brush over Omaha Knights, 2-0. Netminder Russ Gillow win be out of action for three weeks with a finger operation.MEMPHIS: Coach John Muckier sent Bob Jamieson, a defenceman who got little chance for play with the South Stars to Houston. Bob Charlebois found his firing eye and took over as the top sharpshooter in the League with 15 goals in 21 games.Murray Hall provided a boost for the South Stars up front with a goal and three assists in his first three contests after being sent down from Minnesota North Stars.DALLAS: Brian Mc-Donald kept on top of the Black Hawks point-getters with nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points in 23 outings. Oscar Gaudet followed with a 12-11 mark.With a porous defence, the Black Hawks gave up 25 goals in four successive defeats.HOUSTON: When the parent Montreal Canadiens called up Danny Grant, Mickey Redmond and goalie Ernie Wakely, coach Ray Klnasewich sent out his younger forces and was quite pleased with the play of Ernie Hicke, Robin Burns, Chris Bordeleau and Dick Sentes.Kinasewich is credited for the good coaching job he did last season with Carol Vadnais, Jacques Lemaire and Serge Savard who are holding down regular posts in the NHL with Montreal.Ernie Wakely was returned by Canadiens and Bryan Watson joined the team from Montreal to help out.OMAHA: Wayne Hall with nine goals and nine assists and Joe Johnston with nine goals and eight assists were top point-getters for the Knights over their first 20 games. Freshman goalie Gary Kurt stood out backing up Jack McCartan but the Knights felt the loss of veteran rearguard Roger Lafreni&egrave;re who was called to Buffalo.<h2>How They Stand</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04168/3246604-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="682" height="1744"></div><h2>Central Hockey League Game Summaries</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03232/3246597-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="3422" height="1969"></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

Flaman’s Wings On Ton Despite NHL Recalls

<div class="byline">BY HARVEY POLLACK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02161/3246663-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="268" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Doll</figcaption></div>CHERRY HILL, N.J.-The panic button isn&rsquo;t being pushed by the Jersey Devils but the Eastern Hockey League entry had better show improvement quickly for survival in the circuit.The team has been floundering all year both on the Ice and at the gate. Ibis situation is quite in contrast to last year when the club was a pennant contender and also was drawing fans in handsome numbers.Recently the team had won only two games in 15 starts and was languishing in the basement of the Northern Division, even behind the expansion Syracuse team. At the gate, the crowd were no where near the totals of last season and an attendance over 1,500 was a novelty.General manager Eddie Ferenz has been trying feverishly to line up talent to improve the situation. He doesn&rsquo;t believe the lack of attendance is due to the presence nearby of the Philly Flyers. Instead, he realizes his club has to win to draw fans and they haven&rsquo;t been doing that, even on their home ice. Only five wins had been recorded in the team&rsquo;s first 24 starts and its scoring output was less than any team in either division.Ferenz has brought in Cloble Collins, a Negro forward; Induced! Ray Crew to come out of retirement; acquired Bill Christodal from Salem and landed defenseman Al Sarault from Knoxville. All of these changes plus others in the works are designed to lift the Devils Into contention for a playoff berth.It was only a last minute deal that enabled the Devils to operate this season. Harold A ranow headed a group that saved the team. The group was optimistic over the showing of the team last year and the turnout of rooters. They could be wavering now In view of what has transpired this season.Ferenz points out that traditionally hockey attendance rises after the first of the year, and he looks for an upsurge there. But the rise will have to be accompanied by a companion rise in wins. The Flyers have been picking up attendance steadily across the river, and though Ferenz won&rsquo;t admit it, it has to be hurting the losing Devils when compared to the first place Flyers.SYRACUSE Blazers won five straight at home before bowing to Johnstown. Team then dropped 15-0 verdict at Long Island. Benny Greco&rsquo;s hat trick beat Jersey. Attendance still disappointing. Ref Bill Pringle arrived late here and only worked third period of Jersey game. Coach Wayne Caufleld&rsquo;s hat trick nipped Long Island.CHARLOTTE: Jack McCreary&rsquo;s, 2 hat tricks helped crush Salem twice Ron Spratt suffered concussion via a board crash. Goalie Bob Whidden needed two stitches for eye cut from stick. Claude Ouimet having his biggest year and soon win top his scoring output of all last season. Rick Foley best offensive defenseman in league.CLINTON Prexy Tom Lockhart presented Northern Division pennant for 1966-67 laurels to Comets at game here. Comets have won five of them in seven years. Jack Kane&rsquo;s third hat trick helped beat Syracuse.GREENSBORO: Coach Ron Spong doesn&rsquo;t like layoffs unless Injuries have crippled his squad. Gens handed Nashville worst defeat with Bill Young&rsquo;s hat trick the best effort. Ron Muir&rsquo;s goal with 18 seconds left tied Charlotte. Gens 11-game unbeaten streak ended in dispute when ref Jim Maxwell disallowed goal during stretch when goal lights were not in operation.JOHNSTOWN: Jets already have seventies this year, tops in the league. Jim Mair, who earlier in the year had a fight with a Syracuse fan, picked up 38 minutes in penalties in a recent game there. Reg Kent&rsquo;s hat trick topped Blazers.FLORIDA: Ed Pare from Muskegon has helped Rockets considerably. He replaced Les Cooligan. Ron Willy&rsquo;s hat trick and a 49-save performance by Harrison Gray sparked team to win at Greensboro. Rockets claim their line of Jackie LeClair, Willy and Bob Sabourin Is equal of any in league.JERSEY: Bill Christodal is the first American-born player (Providence R.I.) to play with club. Pete Sternig and Jacques Paquin dropped. Some 106 minutes in penalties called In game with Clinton. Andre Daoust, secured from Columbus, has Improved goalie play for Devils.KNOXVILLE: Gaye Cooley had a string of 101 scoreless minutes until Charlotte broke the ice. Larry Mick and Ken Turlik each scored two goals in big 9-1 win over Checkers. Wayne Doll sent to long Island for &ldquo;a player to be named".NASHVILLE: Cliff Pennington is the club&rsquo;s scoring leader and is second in the southern race. Flyers lost 8-2 to Greensboro for worst defeat ever by Gens. It was 5th straight time the Gens have beaten Flyers.SALEM: Coach Dave Lucas may soon put on a uniform If his club doesn&rsquo;t start winning. Club hadn&rsquo;t won In 19 starts, with two ties the only bright spots. The team didn&rsquo;t win for almost a month. Bob Taylor joined team after failing Quebec tryout.LONG ISLAND: Ken Leibel is learning the ropes at defense from vet John Brophy. Ducks say Wayne Doll Is on loan from Knoxville and do not owe them a player as Knights claim. Ducks hit their all time high with 15-goal outburst over Syracuse as Doll posted a shutout. Team had five-game streak without a defeat.NEW HAVEN: Don Perry disturbed over frequent use of ref Bob Anselm at Blades games. Murray Kuntz is involved in 3-way race with Ron Hergott and Bruce Reier for club scoring laurels.<h2>Hockey Races</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01221/3246656-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="649" height="4164"></div><h2>Looking At EHL Race</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03117/3246649-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="1152" height="720"></div> &#9632;

f0021-02

Jersey Devils Land New Faces To Lift Team

<div class="byline">BY BOB REED</div>FORT WAYNE, Ind.-Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Komets, who were just beginning to show signs of rising from their unaccustomed low spot In the International Hockey League suffered a severe blow when Merv Dubchak, the league&rsquo;s all-time goal scoring champion, went out with a broken leg.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01242/3246708-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="281" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Perani</figcaption></div>Dubchak had registered 22 goals in the Komets&rsquo; first 23 games, a pace that compared with his record breaking season two years ago, when he pumped In 72 goals in 70 games.The injury to the right winger came when he and Jean-Guy Lagace of Muskegon were racing for a loose puck, both fell and Dubchak slid into the boards. He was unable to rise and after being removed from the ice was taken to a Muskegon hospital where an X-ray revealed a break in his right leg, the same Injury he had received while with Minneapolis earlier in his career.At the time of the injury the Komet bomber had just completed a hat trick, his fourth of the season. He had one four-goal game.Dubchak was expected to be out of the lineup for at least six weeks.In commenting on Dubchak&rsquo;s Injury Coach Ken Ullyot said, &ldquo;This is really a tough break. I felt that the team was really coming along and that we could win it all. But you can&rsquo;t lose your leading goal scorer without suffering. Stubby is the guy you count upon to get almost a goal a game-and a lot of winners. With him out, the other guys will just have to pick up the slack &mdash; and that&rsquo;s a tall order".MUSKEGON: The Mohawks were within one game of tying a league record, which is 14 straight games without a loss, when they were stopped by the Komets &hellip; They had by far the best defensive record in the league, with a 2.7 goals against average. New goalie Bob Perani had only 1.86 against him in 11 games &hellip;COLUMBUS: The Checkers brought their fifth goalie of the season into action when they secured Al Melanson, who had been with Providence of the American League for a week but saw no action. They also used Gerry Fleury, who is the property of the Toledo Blades, when Gordon Dibley was injured &hellip; Ken Saunders, secured in a trade with Port Huron for Gary Mork and Jim Graham last October, finally reported &hellip; The Chex had a game with the U.S. Olympic team on Dec. 22.DAYTON: The Gems were re-arranging their No. 1 line following the year&rsquo;s suspension of center and captain Bob Bailey for attacking Referee Billy Purcell in a game at Fort Wayne &hellip; Coach Warren Back switched to Rick Best in goal after John Adams had been in for eight straight games and Best had a terrific game against the Komets in a 2-1 victory &hellip; Right wing Meehan Bonnar placed on waivers, got a job with Johnstown of the Eastern League.TOLEDO: Coach Terry Slater walked out on the Blades with two minutes left of the second period and a 1-1 tie with Columbus, leaving Chick Chalmers in charge. The Blades came on to win, 3-1, with the winning goal coming from big rookie defenseman Terry Sexsmith on a slap shot from the point &hellip; Toledo attendance was up 4,500 over last season.DES MOINES: Coach Howie Milford dropped defenseman Larry Young, center Wayne Green and winger Gary Gresdal to make room for new arrivals Art Chiupka, Trevor Fahey and Don McLeod &hellip; Center Lyle Bradley hit the net after 12 scoreless games &hellip; Defenseman Joe Kiss bagged his fifth goal of the season.PORT HURON: Coach Jerry Top-pazzini became a player for one game but indicated it might be his last &hellip; Defenseman Jim McCloskey, obtained in a deal for Marcel Goyette, broke into the Flags&rsquo; lineup &hellip; Ron Vermette was loaned to Barrie in the OHA Senior League &hellip; The Flags had Moe Morrissette, Marcel Gou-dreau and Gary Mork out with injuries.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-05101/3246701-1-eng-US/f0022-052.jpg" title="f0022-05" width="607" height="554"><figcaption class="caption-body">MERV DUBCHAK</figcaption></div><h2>How They Stand</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02172/3246694-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="694" height="2455"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Dubchak’s Loss Tough Blow To Komets

DAYTON, O.-Hot tempered Bob Bailey of the Dayton Gems has been given an executive body check that will bar him from further play in the International League this season.Bailey went berserk in a recent game against Fort Wayne and for the second time in his IHL career attempted to beat up an official.Commissioner Andy Mulligan threw the book at Bailey, the IHL&rsquo;s leading point scorer, by banning him for the rest of the year, a move that will likely result in his banishment from hockey for the rest of his life.The 36-year-old Bailey put on a wild demonstration in the Fort Wayne Game, twice hurling his hockey stick before attacking Referee Billy Purcell. Bailey reportedly swore at Purcell for calling an offside against Dayton. Purcell handed him a 10-minute misconduct and later a match misconduct for throwing his stick the length of the ice. The infuriated Bailey then charged Purcell and punched him before being res-trained by the linesmen and his teammates.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04118/3246739-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="548" height="967"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB BAILEY</figcaption></div>It was the third suspension handed Bailey during his IHL career. He was tossed out for the season four years ago for hitting a referee with his hockey stick while a member of Fort Wayne Komets. &#9632;

f0022-04

Bailey Hits Referee, Barred For Season

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECUFF</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01219/3246777-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="283" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Ley</figcaption></div>ST. CATHARINES, Ont.-Injuries and illness plagued many of the teams as the Ontario Hockey Association junior A schedule approached the midway mark.The worst hit were the first place Niagara Falls Flyers and last place Ottawa 67s.The Flyers who went through their first 16 games without a loss, have failed to win in their last six starts and the slump is unquestionably at least partially due to the absence of key men.Five Niagara Falls players were out of the lineup before the end of a game lost 5-2 to Kitchener Rangers.They included Brad Selwood, out with a bruised leg, goaltender Phyl Myre who had a stomach ailment and was replaced in the second period by rookie Dave Tataryn.The Flyers have also been without all-star defenceman Rick Ley for two weeks and their top scorer Steve Atkinson.At the other end of the league Ottawa 67s, who can afford injuries much less than the Flyers, lost Bill Clement, the club&rsquo;s outstanding performer so far, for at least six weeks with a broken wrist.Forward Peter Nevin also was sidelined when struck on the head with a slapshot from Wes Rydall of Oshawa Generals.Peterborough, like Ottawa struggling to qualify for the playoffs, lost three men in one game.The most serious was to goalie Bruce Landen, taken from the ice on a stretcher after being his on the knee while playing against Montreal.Bob Ruthwig was knocked out in the second period when hit in the face with a shot while teammate Craig Ramsay was hurt when body-checked into the boards.St. Catharines Black Hawks also lost a valuable member of their team when right winger Maurice L&rsquo;Abbe, a native of Montreal in his third and final season of junior, came down with pneumonia.L&rsquo;Abbe was second only to center Skeeter Teal among the Hawk marksmen.The Niagara Falls slowdown tightened the standings at the top of the league.Kitchener Rangers and Toronto Marlboros moved to within three points of the top while Hamilton Red Wings remained four off the pace, and Montreal CanadiensThere was a large gap between those five teams and the five in the lower division.While the Flyers only salvaged one point (a 3-3 tie with Peterborough) in three games Kitchener had a perfect record of two victories in as many starts, beating Niagara Falls 5-2 and St. Catharines 5-4 both in the arenas of the opposition.The Marlboros earned five of a possible six points with wins over St. Catharines (7-2) and Ottawa (9-3) and a 2-2 tie in Hamilton.The Red Wings defeated Oshawa 9-2 after tying the Marlboros two nights earlier.Montreal only had one game but made the best of it with a 5-3 decision in the Forum over Peterborough.As well as having their previously safe first position threatened, the Flyers also lost their monopoly on the individual scoring race.Moving up into the lead was Ricky Bayes, who started his junior A hockey with St. Catharines three years ago and has spent the last two seasons with the Marlboros.Bayes, a slim forward who was moved from center to the wing by coach Gas Bodnar, has 44 points on 18 goals and 26 assists, one more than teammate Terry Caffery. Caffery has the same number of goals and one less assist.Tom-Webster of Niagara Falls, the leader a week ago, slipped back to third place with 38 points while Steve Atkinson, who was in first place for six consecutive weeks, is fourth with 36.<h2>How They Stand</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02173/3246770-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="646" height="1631"></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

Injuries Ground Flyers After Whirlwind Start

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04104/3246822-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0584/3246815-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="1118" height="1581"></div><h2>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S ANSWERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0672/3246808-1-eng-US/f0023-062.jpg" title="f0023-06" width="930" height="1085"></div> &#9632;

f0023-04

Hockey Crossword

<div class="byline">BY FRED COLLINS</div>WINNIPEG, Man.&mdash;Professional scouts are giving Bobby Winograd a wolf&rsquo;s whistle.Winograd&rsquo;s shot, which also whistles, is giving Manitoba Junior Hockey League goalies headaches.The freshman&rsquo;s assets, aside from that shot, are his age (17), size (5&rsquo; 11", 204) and enthusiasm. That adds up to potential and the fact he&rsquo;s coachable is another plus. it&rsquo;s human nature that boys a step or two ahead of others &mdash; particularly at the know-it-all 16-18 level-develop a shell and refuse to accept tutoring from a competent coach. Soon, they&rsquo;re a step or two behind others less endowed and wonder why?So, it&rsquo;s assumed, since Winograd is coachable, he&rsquo;ll develop. And, that has the pro scouts drooling.In hockey &hellip; and football.Bobby, the son of former Winnipeg Blue Bomber president Dr. Neville Winograd, is a high school football all-star, with Kelvin. He made the &lsquo;67 Winnipeg League dream theam, as a guard. He would have made it as a linebacker, too, but the league, which underlines its program with mass participation, frowns on two-way all-stars.Mike Kachmar, the football coach at Kelvin, a school which also spawned another Canadian two-sport star, Gerry James, says:&ldquo;Bobby reacts like an athlete &hellip; in all sports. Either you have it, or you don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;He also says Winograd is &ldquo;one of the two or three fastest players&rdquo; on the football team. &ldquo;And, he&rsquo;s a big boy.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03116/3246853-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="553" height="1252"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY WINOGRAD &hellip; Fires Big Shot</figcaption></div>The hockey scouts agree the boy has size but not all of them agree Winograd&rsquo;s mobility, in skates, is an asset. But, they say, without deleting him from their lists, he has improved tremendously that mobillty over the last few years.Bobby also realizes that, the only real minus in his game, is mobility. So, to improve his skating co-ordination, he goes out himself during the winter, on Winnipeg&rsquo;s outdoor rinks, and works on that deficiency. In bantam and lower, he was able to get away with this minus, mostly because of his size.And, if you know Winnipeg winters, that extra work must be considered enthusiasm.It was this enthusiasm that helped River Heights Cardinals win the &lsquo;67 Manitoba Juvenile crown, vs Flin Flon. It also helped Winograd play a big role assisting Winnipeg All-Stars win the Dominion bantam B title a few years ago, in a tournament at Georgetown, Ont.If it ever came to a choice between hockey and football, Winograd would tug on his skates. He likes that Instinct phase of the game as compared to football, which is all diagramed on a blackboard.&ldquo;Hockey has patterns,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but not like football. Hockey, by design, isn&rsquo;t as restrictive. If I move up, a man covers for me. The game flows. In football, a wrong move may mean a broken play.&rdquo;But, like most other young Canadians, Winograd won&rsquo;t lace on the skates or cleats as a professional until he goes as far as he can in school or college. He hopes that he can combine sport with education someday, perhaps on a scholarship.MJHL goalies would like to see him leave now &hellip; for obvious reasons. &#9632;

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December 23, 1967

Stratton Hottest Point Man For Expansion Club

LOOKING AT NHL RACE

New Faces Transforming Blues Into Hot Big League Contenders

PASSING THE PUCK