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.

February 3, 1968

The Hockey News February 3, 1968

<div class="byline">BY BRITT JESSUP</div>NORTH BAY, Ont. -Maybe it&rsquo;s because he&rsquo;s playing steadily as a forward, instead of taking a turn on defense.Maybe it&rsquo;s because he&rsquo;s captain of the team this season.Maybe it&rsquo;s because he&rsquo;s married now.But there&rsquo;s no maybe about the way 20-year-old Don Grierson of the North Bay Trappers is popping goals into opposition nets.Don played 40 games for the Trappers last season and scored 13 goals.This year, he got that number in just seven games, and as this was written, he had counted 31 - the most in the Junior NOHA &mdash; and added 14 assists, a tremendous pace that has carried Grierson all the way to second place in the individual point pace.&ldquo;The puck is treating me right,&rdquo; he says modestly.It&rsquo;s apparent, however, that Grierson is shooting more from his right wing position, and he has a powerful shot.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01237/3311987-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="621" height="998"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON GRIERSON &hellip; Hot Junior Sniper</figcaption></div>This becomes all the more astounding when it is realized that Don is missing the index finger on his right hand, the result of a hunting mishap when he was a boy.It doesn&rsquo;t interfere with his grip on a hockey stick, however, nor does it hinder his shooting. He can also stickhandle well, so he is regarded as the top pro prospect on the Trapper roster right now.Grierson is showing fine leadership qualities as captain, too. His only fault, perhaps, is that he wants to do all the fighting for his mates. He won&rsquo;t let them be pushed around and they appreciate his loyalty.Grierson came to North Bay from around Bracebridge and had played junior &ldquo;B&rdquo; hockey for Huntsville. He was brought in by former Trapper owner Pete Palangio, who thinks highly of the lad.It&rsquo;s likely Don will head for one of the New York Ranger tryout camps when he completes his final season of junior hockey, and right now, he&rsquo;s given a fine chance of making pro ranks. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

North Bay’s Don Grierson Headed For Pro Ranks

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03450/3311356-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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American Hockey League Summaries

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>MONTREAL - Ernie Wakely, goalkeeper, returned to Houston of CPHL.NEW YORK - Walt Tkac-zuk, forward, called up from Kitchener of Junior OHA on five-game pro trial. Allan Hamilton, defenseman, and Bob Jones, forward, recalled from Buffalo of AHL.LOS ANGELES - Poul Popiel, defenseman, recalled from Springfield of AHL.DETROIT &mdash; George Gardner, goalkeeper and Warren Godfrey, defenseman, assigned to Fort Worth of CPHL.MINNESOTA &mdash; Barrie Meissner, forward, returned to Memphis of CPHL.ST. LOUIS &mdash; Darryl Edestrand, defenseman, recalled from Kansas City of CPHL.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>OKLAHOMA CITY &ndash; Bob Heaney, defenseman, assigned from Hershey&rsquo; of AHL by Boston.OMAHA &mdash; Ken Gustafson, forward, secured from San Diego of WHL on loan. Greg Pilling, forward, returned to Buffalo of AHL.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>DES MOINES &mdash; Joe Kiss, defenseman, Yves Caouette and Terry Kerr, forwards, traded to Toledo of IHL in ex-change for Pat Donnelly, forward, Al Willis and Terry Sexsmith, defensemen.<h2>EASTERN LEAGUE</h2>KNOXVILLE - Gaye Cooley, goalkeeper, returned to Port Huron of IHL. Don Labelle, defenseman, named managercoach of team succeeding Pat Egan.SYRACUSE - Rod Hibbert and Dick Cusson, forwards, dropped. George Mohr, goalkeeper, rejoined team. Meehan Bonnar, forward, secured from Johnstown of EHL on waivers.FLORIDA - Bob Mullins, forward, secured from Johnstown of EHL.GREENSBORO - Billy Armour, forward, sent to Johnstown of EHL. Jim Randle, forward, quit team. &#9632;

Movements of Players

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01847/3310859-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROGER CROZIER &hellip; Wing Goalie Chipper Again</figcaption></div>DETROIT, Mich. -Roger Crozier was chipper. The Red Wings had just lost, 2-0 to Toronto in Crozier&rsquo;s first game back in the National Hockey League since the 25-year-old former All-Star decided to quit on Nov. 6.The fact that Crozier was chipper after a defeat was encouraging. There wasn&rsquo;t any moodiness as he hurried to dress, pack and get back to the airport for the trip back to the minors.Crozier had been called up on an emergency basis-general manager Sid Abel said No. 2 goalie George Gardner had the flu-and had to return to the minors to fulfill his 14-day sentence there before the Wings could recall him permanently.His performance against Toronto earned that permanent recall, Abel said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not in condition yet,&rdquo; Crozier said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sharp.&rdquo;But he looked plenty sharp against the Leafs, especially against Ron Ellis, Frank Mahovlich, George Armstrong and Mike Walton. Only a screened shot and a deflection eluded him.Was this chipperness part of the &ldquo;new attitude&rdquo; Crozier went to Fort Worth to find?&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t tell yet,&rdquo; Crozier said. &ldquo;Wait until I get beat bad some night. Down there (in Fort Worth), no one bothers you. Up here it&rsquo;s different&mdash;there&rsquo;s more attention.&rdquo;Crozier came back bare-faced after going to the minors almost determined to wear a mask.&ldquo;But when I got down there I looked in my equipment for the mask and it wans&rsquo;t there&mdash;they forgot to pack it,&rdquo; Crozier said.&ldquo;After he&rsquo;d gone,&rdquo; said Wing trainer Lefty Wilson, &ldquo;I looked I up on the shelf above his dressing spot and there was the mask.&rdquo;Wilson made a pained, wry face.&ldquo;And here we&rsquo;d been trying to get him to wear It for a couple years.&rdquo;So Lefty air specialed the mask to Fort Worth but Crozier didn&rsquo;t bother with It when he returned to Detroit.Crozier played three games for the Texas Wings prior to his start against Toronto, losing the first two, 4-3 and 4-2 and then winning 5-2. But the word was that he played well in all of them, expecially considering his two month layoff during which he didn&rsquo;t touch a skate.He&rsquo;ll need every bit of that old brilliance to plug up the leaky Detroit defense that is the worst in the NHL. &#9632;

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Crozier Back As No.1 Man With Brand New Attitude

<div class="byline">BY ED CONRAD</div>PHILADELPHIA, Pa"-Lou Angotti doesn&rsquo;t believe in counting his chickens before they are hatched but he can&rsquo;t help feeling pretty good about the future.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-01198/3312025-1-eng-US/f0001-012.jpg" title="f0001-01" width="282" height="474"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lou Angotti</figcaption></div>That&rsquo;s because Angotti, the Flyers&rsquo; captain and high-scoring center, feels confident that his club has the stuff to finish in first place in the Western Division of the National Hockey League this season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to sound overconfident,&rdquo; said Angotti. &ldquo;But right now I feel the same as I did when I was with the Chicago Black Hawks last season and we were close to clinching first place.&rdquo;Angotti&rsquo;s optimism is buoyed by the way the Flyers have been perched comfortably atop their division as the second half of the campaign continues hot and heavy.&ldquo;Seriously, if there is any overconfidence among members of our club, I don&rsquo;t see it,&rdquo; continued Lou. &ldquo;If anything, the guys are feeling the pressure because they realize a first-place finish is certainly within our grasp.&rdquo;Angotti, who has been waging a torrid duel with Andy Bathgate of Pittsburgh for the individual scoring lead in the Western Division, is pleased that his line (including wingers Gary Dornhoefer and Brit Selby) are making a contribution to the Flyers&rsquo; title run.The Angotti-Dornhoefer-Selby line was peppering the opposition&rsquo;s net with reckless abandon (23 goals in 17 games) ever since Selby returned to the lineup following a lengthy layoff due to a shoulder separation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be honest about it,&rdquo; said Lou. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t sure of Selby&rsquo;s ability when we were in training camp. He sure proved himself to me.&ldquo;Brit has come along so well he has exceeded my own expectations. Now I feel about him the way I felt about Dornie (Domhoefer). Both are damn good hockey players.&rdquo;In fact, Angotti is willing to go out on the limb and say this is the top line he has ever played with.Angotti, personally, is having a whale of a year for the Flyers, He had 39 points (10 goals and 29 assists) in the club&rsquo;s first 43 games.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-02171/3312018-1-eng-US/f0001-022.jpg" title="f0001-02" width="1295" height="1685"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal has been getting big game from team&rsquo;s defensive stars like rugged Terry Harper, shown here controlling puck.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Angotti Sees Philly In Lead All The Way

<h2>Hobs Hottest NHL Ice Crew In 13 Years</h2>MONTREAL, Qe. -The Montreal Canadiens are not only the most scintillating hockey club in the National Hockey League at the moment, but they are also the hottest team to hit the NHL ice lanes, in the past 13 years.According to NHL statistics, the Habs have extended their current unbeaten streak to 13 games and have won nine straight. It has been 13 years since a league team was that hot.The Detroit Red Wings of 1954-55 won nine straight games. It has been at least 22 seasons since an NHL team took 10 straight games. The record for most consecutive wins is 14, set by the old Boston Bruins in 1929-30.Canadiens have completed a &lsquo;cinderella&rsquo; march that saw them vault from last place on Jan. 7 to first place last week, a truly remarkable feat by the Montrealers. It marked the second time an Eastern NHL team has managed to venture from last to first place in a short period of time. The Chicago Black Hawks, who started the 1967-68 season by losing their first seven games, came on to eventually land first place. &#9632;

CANADIENS COMPLETE ‘CINDERELLA’ CLIMB

<div class="byline">By NORMAN MacLEAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01818/3310559-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="279" height="495"><figcaption class="caption-body">Camille Henry</figcaption></div>NEW YORK, N.Y. &mdash;The road weary Rangers returned to Gotham on January 21 after an extended and basically successful (3-l-l)road trip, faced with the hard fact that to make the playoffs in this tightest of all NHL scrambles would require a supreme effort from everyone on the squad.Helping to make this more palatable was the news that the long a waited opening of the new Madison Square Garden was in the offing, at last. The new MSG will open on February 11 with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby in a special USO show. That afternoon, the Blues will play their last ever game in the old Garden &mdash; and nostalgia will be the order of the day.The Garden management is staging a gala old timers night for the original Rangers and as many of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s all time all-stars as can make it. The old ice shed on 8th Avenue will once more ring with names like Ching Johnson, Frank Boucher, Bill and Bun Cook, Murray Murdock, Lynn Patrick, Rocket Richard, Ted Lindsay, Butch Bouchard, Marty Barry, Eddie Shore, Aurel Joliat, Baldy Northcott, Frank Brimsek, Sweeney Schriner, Jack Adams, Earl Siebert, Tiny Thompson, Syl Apps, Cooney Weiland, Bill Quackenbush, Babe Pratt, and Ott Heller.Although the new Garden will be opened by special show &mdash; and the Rangers will be upstaged by an earlier new Garden appearance of the Knickerbockers NBA basketball team, the old Garden was opened by hockey (New York Americans vs Montreal Maroons on Dec 15, 1925, Montreal 3, N.Y. 1) and will be closed by the Rangers and Detroit on February 11th.The present Rangers tied Chicago 3-3, defeated St. Louis 3-1, upset Chicago 4-2, lost to Los Angeles 5-2 and whipped Oakland 3-0 on their annual January hiatus while the Ice Follies occupied the old Garden.Camille Henry came in for special praise after he iced the Chicago win with his third goal against the Hawks since his December return to the Rangers. Also showing to advantage was the Blues &ldquo;Chicago specialist&rdquo; Don Simmons who now has a win, a tie and a loss against the Hawks. These are the only three games that General Manager &mdash; Coach Emile Francis has tapped Simmons for since his recall from Buffalo in late December.One of the reasons that Ed Giacomin, the No. 1 netminder is benched against the Hawks is Bobby Hull and his booming slap shot. Hull, three times scored against Giacomin from center ice in early season games and incurred Francis&rsquo; displeasure because of this. Simmons&rsquo; success may be traced to the splendid shadowing job that Ron Stewart has done on Hull since coming to New York in the late November trade for Red Berenson.&ldquo;Hull got two shots in each of two games that I have had Stew on him,&rdquo; revealed Francis. When Hull tried to wind up, Stew was right there bodying him and when he tried to change speeds, Stewart skated right with him, just like his shadow.&rdquo;While the 4-2 win in Chicago on January 17 was exhilirating and put the Blues within six points of first, their next outing in the new Forum in Inglewood, California against the Kings was disappointing. Going into the game with an 11-1-1 record against the Expansionist pretenders, New York got clobbered on January 19 by the Springfield Kings 5-2. We say, Springfield, because Howie Menard got two LA goals and Doug Robinson one, after just being recalled from the Eastern AHL version of Jack Kent Cooke&rsquo;s empire.Another recent Springfield expatriate Jimmy Anderson got a key assist and played like a rookie, not a 37 year old minor league vet.Why New York with a golden opportunity to move into a solid playoff position and perhaps contention for first place blew to the Kings via second period letdown in which LA notched three quick goals is a mystery. The result probably helped hockey in California, as the game drew 11,740. The Kings are working on the principle of shake well, and rotating their vet minor leaguers from Springfield with the varsity on the theory that these long time pros will go like the dickens for a couple of weeks and keep the entire team hustling.<h2>WHERE THE HHL TEAMS ARE!</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02754/3310552-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="1255" height="559"></div> &#9632;

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Gala Oldtimers Day Planned For Historic Event

NEW YORK, N7. &ndash;Despite flashy performances at different times by the individual members of the Jean Ratelle, Vic Hadfield, Rod Gilbert line, the no. 1 trio of the New York Rangers still is Phil Goyette, Bob Nevin and Donnie Marshall.Halfway statistics disclose that the &ldquo;Old Smoothies,&rdquo; as Rangerville has dubbed the Goyette line is still there on the day in and day out basis. As a line, they notched at least one point in 28 of the first 37 games. Goyette was on the scoreboard in 24 games, Newy in 20 Donnie in 17. They also notched a grand total of 23 power play points on 8 goals and 15 assists.The Ratelle, Hadfield, Gilbert trio racked up scoring points in 23 games, with Rod in 19, Jean in 18 and Vic in 16. They lead the team in power play points with 13 goals and 15 assists.If you combine all the rest of the forwards and count this as the third line since they are usually centered by Orland Kurtenbach, you must include Reg Fleming, Larry Jeffrey, Ron Stewart and Boomer Geoffrion. This rather large group also has points in 24 games, with Kurt being on the board in 15 encounters. In tallying up power play production they have only 13 points, with point man Geoffrion being involved in 8 of them via a 3-5-8 log.Looking at the Rangers offensively from the various positions shows that the centers (Goyette, Ratelle, Kurtenbach) have scored in 34 out of 37 games. The right wingers (Nevin, Stewart, Geoffrion, Gilbert) also hit the board in 34 out of 37 games, while the left siders (Marshall, Fleming, Jeffrey, Hadfield) are listed in 29 out of 37.The weak point in the Blues armor all season has been scoring. Our breakdown shows that New York has been shutout once, has scored one goal on six occasions, two goals on twelve occasions, three goals on different times, four goals three times, five goals five times and six goals three times.Ed Giacomin has held the enemy to three shutouts, four one goal games, six two goal games, eleven three goal games, four four goal efforts, three five goal games and two six goal games. This accounts for the 34 games Giacomin played but does not Include Gilles Villemure&rsquo;s work (including one shutout) or Don Simmons one game. &#9632;

Goyette-Nevin-Marshall Still Blues’ No.1 Line

<div class="byline">By BOB HARRIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01823/3310628-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="291" height="496"><figcaption class="caption-body">Derek Sanderson</figcaption></div>MONTREAL, Que. -It provoked little surprise in National League circles when it was announced that Stan Mikita o the B1 a c I. Hawks was again selected as the league&rsquo;s all-star center for the first half of the 1967-68 season.Just as it will raise few eyebrows when the NHL announces its halfway individual trophy winners. The name Mikita should be closely associated with two of them &mdash; the Hart and Byng trophies.The brilliant Chicago center appears to be an easy selection as the best performer and most valuable player to his team as well as the NHL skater who best combined sportsmanship play and value to his team during the first 37 games of the schedule.While Mikita should carry off the Hart and Byng for the second straight year, young Derek Sanderson of the Boston Bruins is seen as the most likely winner of the Calder Trophy as the outstanding rookie of the first half. Sanderson has been a going concern for the Bruins in his freshman year both offensively and defensively. In 37 games, Sanderson counted 16 goals and 20 assists for 36 points to lead all first-year players.The other NHL individual award is the Norris Trophy, which is given to the best defense man and if you said Bobby Orr you probably hit the nail on the head. Orr led all league rearguards in the all-star voting with 60 votes, twenty more than Tim Horton of the Leafs.Four teams, all from the East Division, placed players on the first All-Star team for the first half of the season.The mid-season All-Star selections were made by the 12 coaches of the expanded NHL for the first time. Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks each placed two players on the first team while Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings each had one player named.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02696/3310621-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1923" height="1250"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN MIKITA &hellip; Shooting for two NHL trophies</figcaption></div>The Bruins also had a pair of players named to the second team with Chicago, Montreal Canadiens, Detroit and Toronto each having one man named.A unanimous selection in the poll, based on the system of five points for a first-place choice, three for a second and one for a third, is 60 points.Named to the first-hald first All-Star team were John Bower in goal, Orr and Horton on defense, Mikita at center, Bobby Hull, left wing, and Gordie Howe, right wing, on the second team were Lorne Worsley in goal, Pierre Pilote and Gary Bergman, defense, Mike Walton, center; John McKenzie, right wing, John Bucyk, left wing.The points accumulated in each half-season poll will be added together to produce the official first and second all-star teams for the 1967-68 NHL season. Overall first team members will receive $1,000 and second team players $500 each.While there were three unanimous selections and a near-unanimous choice in Howe for right wing, voting was extremely close in runner-up choices in all but the left wing and goaltending positions.The closest race, next to the one between Bower and Worsley for first team honors, was at center where Walton edged Boston&rsquo;s Phil Esposito for the Second team by one point. On defense, J.C. Tremblay of Canadiens gained 14 points, three fewer than Bergman while Pat Stapleton of Chicago was sixth among defensemen with eight points.McKenzie had a three-point lead over Chicago&rsquo;s Ken Wharram for the second team right wing berth. Doug Mohns of Chicago, who plays on the same line as Wharram and Mikita, was third at left wing with nine points, 25 fewer than Bucyk.In the goaltending position, Bernie Parent of Philadelphia Flyers made the best showing of any player from the new West Division polling 15 points to place third, nine behind Worsley and two ahead of Denis DeJordy of Chicago. Parent and teammate Doug Favell were leaders in the Vezina Trophy race at mid-season.Only Mikita and Hull are holdovers from the first team of 196667. The other members of last season&rsquo;s official first team were goaltender Ed Giacomin of New York, defensemen Harry Howell of New York and Pilote and right winger Wharram.Horton, Orr and Howe were second team All-Stars last season along with goaltender Glenn Hall, then with Chicago and now with St. Louis Blues, center Norm Ullman of Detroit and left winger Don Marshall of New York.Bower&rsquo;s previous All-Star selection was to the first team in 1960-61 while Horton was named to the first team in 1963-64 and to the second team in 1953-54, 1962-63 and last season. Orr, who at 19 years of age is already tagged as a superstar by many, is in his second season with the Bruins.Mikita has been the first team center for five of the last six seasons and was on the second team in 1964-65.Should Howe finish on the first team at the end of the season, it will mark his 10th appearance as number one right winger and tie him with former Montreal and New York defenseman Doug Harvey for the record of most first team selections.<h2>How Coaches Cast Ballots</h2>Following is a list of all players who received a vote in the mid-season All-Star poll among the 12 NHL coaches:<h3>GOAL</h3>Johnny Bower, Toronto, 26; Lorne Worsley, Montreal, 24; Bernie Parent, Philadelphia, 15; Denis DeJordy, Chicago, 13; Glenn Hall, St. Louis, 11; Doug Favell, Philadelphia, 8; Ed Giacomin, New York, 5; Charlie Hodge, Oakland, 3; Cesare Maniago, Minnesota, 1; Les Binkley, Pittsburgh, 1; Wayne Rutledge, Los Angeles, 1.<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Bobby Orr, Boston, 60; Tim Horton, Toronto, 40; Pierre Pilote, Chicago, 31; Gary Bergman, Detroit, 17; J.C. Tremblay, Montreal, 14; Pat Stapleton, Chicago, 8; Jacques Laperriere, Montreal, 7; EdVan Impe, Philadelphia, 7; Harry Howell, New York, 6; Doug Jarrett, Chicago, 5; Kent Douglas, Oakland-Detroit, 3; Dallas Smith, Boston, 3; Jim Neilson, New York, 3; Dale Rolfe, Los Angeles, 3; Bill White, Los Angeles, 3; Ted Green, Boston, 3; Joe Watson, Philadelphia, 1; Bob Woytowich, Minnesota, 1; Bob Wall, Los Angeles, 1.<h3>CENTER</h3>Stan Mikita, Chicago, 60; Mike Walton, Toronto, 15; Phil Esposito, 14; Fred Stanfield, Boston, 5; Norm Ullman, Detroit, 4; Phil Goyette, New York, 4; Alex Delvecchio, Detroit, 3; Jean Beliveau, Montreal, 3.<h3>RIGHT WING</h3>Gordie Howe, Detroit, 58; John McKenzie, Boston, 23; Ken Wharram, Chicago, 20; Rod Gilbert, New York, 4; Ron Ellis, Toronto 1; Bob Nevin, New York, 1;Leon Rochefort, Philadelphia, 1.<h3>LEFT WING</h3>Bobby Hull, Chicago, 60; John Bucyk, Boston, 34; Doug Mohns, Chicago, 9; Vic Hadfield, New York, 4 Alex Delvecchio, Detroit, 1.<h2>THE NHL ALL-STAR TEAMS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03472/3310614-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1616" height="478"></div> &#9632;

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Mikita Likely Double Trophy Winner After Selection As ‘Dream Team’ Center

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01876/3310659-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"></div><h2>NHL Must Take Lead To Introduce Helmets</h2>Hockey News Editor:Now that Bill Masterton has died, isn&rsquo;t it about time helmets were made manditory in the NHL? This tragedy should make Mr. Campbell aware of the great dangers this game holds. At speeds of 25 and 30 m.p.h. it doesn&rsquo;t take much to knock a man off his feet. It is more than likely he will fall in a peculiar manner. In fact in a recent Ranger-Black Hawk game, Vic Hadfield was lucky to avert serious injury when he slipped on a rut in the ice and crashed headlong into the boards.There is no reason why players should not wear helmets. Players claim, &ldquo;They would be a distraction to my playing.&rdquo;However, in baseball, after a similar incident, the players were forced to wear helmets while batting with no decline in hitting. In any case, it would be only a matter of a few games before they would get used to the &ldquo;hard hats.&rdquo;Players have also contended they will be called &ldquo;chicken&rdquo; and slurred by both coach and fellow player if they wear helmets. But if we look back to football&rsquo;s early days when Jim Thorpe was the only player to wear a helmet, we will not find too many people laughing at him.But the action must come from the top. It is up to Mr. Campbell if we are to have this needed legislation passed.DOUGLAS SCHOEN, New York, N.Y.<h2>Ice Tumble By Hadfield Could Have Been Tragic</h2>Hockey News Editor:After watching Vic Hadfield slam head first into the boards on a televised game on January 10th against the Black Hawks, I started to think seriously about the value of helmets.As it turned out, Vic was lucky. He only suffered a dislocated shoulder. It looked as if it could have been much worse than that.And then, a week later comes the tragic death of Bill Masterton which resulted from a fall to the ice. Perhaps a helmet could have prevented this routine tumble to the ice from becoming the tragedy it did.In the past I never really felt one way or the other in regard to helmets, but these two related incidents have caused me to come out in favor of them. I felt that the NHL should pass a rule making helmets mandatory as the major leagues of baseball did with the plastic helmet while batting.PAT SLEGESKYNewark, N.J.<h2>Snubbing Philly Goalers For All-Stars Injustice</h2>Hockey News Editor:I was shocked when I heard the news that neither Doug Favell nor Bernie Parent of the NHL&rsquo;s western division Philadelphia Flyers was selected for the All-Star team.The argument was that expansion goalers had an easier time, because the forwards they faced were of an Inferior brand when compared to the players who face, say Johnny Bower of Toronto.But what no one has mentioned or even stopped to consider, is that guys like Favell and Parent also have weaker defenses in front of them. All things even out in the end. There are many more opportunities to score in the expanded loop, sometimes due to mistakes or inexperience on the parts of the players.Then, Toe Blake and his cohorts really committed an error. They selected Terry Sawchuck of the Kings to the squad, leaving out the duo from Philly and the Kings fine Wayne Rutledge.Sawchuk&rsquo;s average for 16 games was 3.89, while Favell was at 2.00 and Parent at 2.05. The Kings goals allowed average was the highest in the league. Enough said.BILL KELLYCollingdale, Penn. &#9632;

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FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">By Ken McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02832/3310711-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="467" height="504"></div>&bull;TOE BLAKE was wild because his ace defenseman Jacques Laperriere polled seven points out of a possible 60 in All-Star balloting at the mid-season mark. It means Laperriere&rsquo;s chances of making the first team this season are pretty well shot. Boston&rsquo;s Bobby Orr was a unanimous pick with 60 points and Toronto&rsquo;s Tim Horton was next with 40. Pierre Pilote of Chicago had 31 and Gary Bergman of Detroit polled 17. The tall Montreal rearguard can still gain a place on the second All-Star squad at the end of the season but he&rsquo;s too far off the pace to garner a berth on the Big Team&hellip; It&rsquo;s been years and years since a member of the Boston Bruins was a unanimous choice on any All-Star team &hellip; Interesting to note that Boston placed three men on the All-Stars, Orr on the first team and the right and left wingers on the second aggregation in the persons of Johnny McKenzie and John Bucyk respectively &hellip; Red Berenson is pacing the St. Louis Blues with 11 goals since being traded to the team from New York &hellip; and surprisingly St. Louis has been the hottest team in the Western Division since Scotty Bowman took over as coach from Lynn Patrick &hellip; Los Angeles Kings, early season sensations of the Western Division, have only had two wins and a tie in their last 13 games, 12 of them against teams in their own Western Division. The Kings have slumped very badly of late &hellip; Emile Francis, GM-Coach of the Rangers, is getting tired of being asked which clubs his Rangers have to beat to make the playoffs. &ldquo;The race is so close, you can ask any other team the same thing,&rsquo;&rsquo; he says. &ldquo;And if you think it&rsquo;s a tough race now, it&rsquo;s going to get a lot tougher.&rdquo; Watch for more and more professional players to start wearing helmets. The drive for helmets is gathering momentum.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03727/3310704-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="273" height="462"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Laperriere</figcaption></div>&bull;HERE&rsquo;S THE kind of a fellow Bobby Orr, Boston&rsquo;s All-Star defenseman, happens to be and this is told by Tom Capucci, a substitute school teacher from Waltham, Mass &hellip; As Tom began to pull away from the Boston Garden following a Bruins&rsquo; game his car became stuck in the rain-drenched snow.&ldquo;This fellow came over to give me a hand and he spent about 20 minutes helping,&rdquo; Capucci said. &ldquo;He really got soaked. At first I didn&rsquo;t recognize him, even offering him something for his&rsquo; trouble. Finally, I realized it was Bobby Orr of the Bruins.&rdquo; &hellip; Wren Blair, colorful mgnager-coach of the Minnesota North Stars, suffered his most embarrassing moment recently. Furious because a member of his team had given the puck away before the end of the period enabling the opposition to score, Blair barged into his club&rsquo;s dressing room.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04625/3310697-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="277" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lefty McFadden</figcaption></div>He removed his coat and began chewing out the player who had made the miscue. Walking and talking at the same time, he stepped on an orange peel and fell flat on his back. When he got up he kicked the garbage container as hard as he could. Not one of the North Stars thought it was funny. At least none laughed &hellip; &ldquo;Frock&rdquo; Lowrey, former player with the old Montreal Maroons of the 1920&rsquo;s died in Ottawa last week &hellip; Another player of recent time passed away in Ottawa during the same week. That was Bruce Draper, member of Toronto St. Mike&rsquo;s 1961 Memorial Cup champions and AHL star with Rochester, Hershey and Baltimore. Bruce was just 27. He died of leukemia. His twin brother Dave coaches hockey at Loyola College in Montreal &hellip; Lefty McFadden&rsquo;s Dayton Gems and Jerry DeLise&rsquo;s Muskegon Mohawks battling it out for top honors in the highly-competitive International Hockey League.&bull;HERE&rsquo;S an interesting item for you: Eight years ago Portland had the biggest and newest arena in the Western Hockey League. It also attracted the biggest crowds &hellip; Today it has the oldest and smallest arena in the Western Hockey League. It&rsquo;s crowds are not the biggest in the league anymore, either, but they are still better than some of the member clubs. But Portland is the smallest city in the WHL&hellip; Floyd Curry, of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; organization, says he wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if the slumping Chicago Black Hawks miss the playoffs. When asked to explain this wild-sounding statement, he replied: &ldquo;Everybody now has got wise to the fact that Hawks are a two-man team, Mikita and Hull. When you check these two, break up Mikita&rsquo;s passing, put a check on Hull&rsquo;s shooting, the rest of the club isn&rsquo;t good enough to pick up the slack that remains&rdquo; &hellip; Maybe, so, but we&rsquo;d hate to bet the Hawks would fail to make the playoffs &hellip; We still pick&rsquo;em to finish first &hellip; Ken Reardon, who retired as vice-president of the Montreal Canadiens back in the Spring of 1964, hasn&rsquo;t worked a day since &hellip; He recently admitted he had two expansion offers. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like one offer and the other didn&rsquo;t like me,&rdquo; he reported&hellip; Camil DesRoches, long-time publicity director of the Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Forum, recuperating from his second heart attack in recent months&hellip; Dom Di Berardino is determined to garner over 100 scoring points for Greensboro Generals of the Eastern Hockey League this season. He had 73 in the games played this season &hellip; Bill Putnam, Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; president, says the biggest thrill he&rsquo;s received this year was when the Flyers defeated Montreal Canadiens, 4-1, at the Montreal Forum before a Saturday night crowd in their first appearance in that city as a National Hockey League member &hellip; &ldquo;Only thrill that&rsquo;s going to top that is winning the Stanley Cup", Putnam added.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05500/3310690-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="306" height="487"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Putnam</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-02

PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="byline">By BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01808/3310742-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="246" height="474"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gord Labossiere</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES, Calif. -One of the benefits expected from NHL expansion was supposed to be that veteran minor league stars would demonstrate how shamefully their major league owners had neglected them. The brass of the new teams and their new players insisted they would prove their prowess now that they had the chance. The brass of the old clubs smiled, shrugged, and said results would prove they had given up no one of quality.For the most part, the old clubs have proven their point. The new clubs have done better than expected against the old clubs, but few veteran minor league stars have established themselves as top-level major leaguers. The Los Angeles Kings, whose 7-7 record is the best for an expansion team against established teams, have been carried by kids. Not a one of their veteran minor leaguers has done what he hoped to do.A case in point is Gordon Labossiere, a 28-year-old, 6-foot, 185-pound center who was the Kings&rsquo; third selection in the expansion draft. Certainly, Labossiere had mighty minor league credentials. In nine seasons as a pro he scored 20 or more goals seven times. In 1963 he scored 34 goals, set up 67 others and totalled 101 points to win the scoring title in the Eastern League. Last season, he scored 40 goals, set up 52 others and totalled 95 points to capture scoring laurels in the American League.In all this time, Labossiere got into only 16 games in the majors, with New York failing to score a goal. However, he said, &ldquo;I never had a real chance. I was in and out. I know I can play in the NHL. I&rsquo;ll prove it this year with L.A. Knowing you&rsquo;re wanted makes all the difference.&rdquo;Manager Larry Regan and coach Red Kelly both were extremely high on the slender pivot. &lsquo;&rsquo;He can do it all,&rdquo; Regan said. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;ll be a star in the NHL.&rdquo;So far, Labossiere has been something less than that. He has had streaks of nine and 12 games without a goal, eight without an asist and six without a single point. After 44 games, he has only 10 goals and 15 assists.Normally an aggressive performer who has had as many as 137 minutes in penalties in a single season, Labossiere has only 27 minutes so far this season and has gone 16 consecutive games without a penalty at this writing. In fairness to him, however, he has been one of the few forwards on the team playing effective defense.One of Labossiere&rsquo;s few good games of the season came recently. The Kings had lost eight straight, then tied a game, when they hosted Pittsburgh. Labossiere ripped home a rebound to give the Kings a 2-1 lead, but Pitt came back to tie 2-2.Late in the game, the Rangers&rsquo; Bernie Geoffrion, who used to coach Labossiere at Quebec City and who was a press-box visitor, predicted &ldquo;Labossiere will bust down ice and get a goal any minute, you watch.&rdquo; With less than two minutes to play, Gordie busted down the right side and slapped a 45-footer into the goal to give the Kings a 3-2 win their first in 10 games.Geoffrion remembers Labossiere from better times. Labossiere remembers better times, too. &ldquo;I think maybe the play in the NHL is a little tougher than I expected it to be. The checking is a little closer and harder,&rdquo; Gordie admits. &ldquo;But I still feel I can play well up here.KINGS THINGS &mdash; The Kings followed their conquest of Pitt with a 5-2 upset of New York before a big crowd of 11,740 at the Forum. Ripping the Rangers in a rugged game, the Kings looked like the sensations of the early season. Their stars were their two littlest players, 5-6 Howie Menard, who scored twice and set up two other goals, and 5-9 Howie Hughes, two veteran minor-leaguers who are making the most of their late opportunity. The Kings calculated the hard days were done at last. Sadly, they then went into Oakland where Charley Hodge frustrated their fierce attack and they were stopped by the lowly Seals, 3-0, their eighth blanking and second straight by Hodge.Most curiously, Coach Red Kelly now has used goalie Terry Sawchuk for seven straight games, including the last three of the eight-game losing streak. Wayne Rutledge, who won the regular job by being the Kings&rsquo; best player during the first half while Sawchuk was either injured or ineffective, is growing rusty. Overall Rutledge, who played nine straight at one point, has a 14-10-2 record, while Sawchuk. who finally is beginning to look better, is 4-11-2&hellip; The Kings&rsquo; road record against expansion teams is now a dreadful 5-15-3. They play much better against better, established teams. &#9632;

f0005-01

Labossiere Seen Typical Of Expansion Players Who Flopped As Scorer

<div class="byline">By GLENN REDMANN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-01908/3310780-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="277" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andre Boudrias</figcaption></div>TWIN CITIES, Minn. -Almost as tragic as the death of Bin Masterton itself was the emphasis placed on the Minnesota North Star center-man&rsquo;s popularity during the four or five days before his burial in Winnipeg Jan. 20.This is not to infer that Bill wasn&rsquo;t well-liked by his team mates, because he was. Matter of fact, they thought the world of him.But in the opinion of this writer, too many news agencies who eulogized the ill-fated 29-year-old former U.S. Nationals star failed to point out how much Bill&rsquo;s skills meant to the first-half success of North Stars.In his 37 and a fraction games in a North Star sweater, Masterton scored only four goals and assisted on eight others.But this didn&rsquo;t give a clear picture of Bill&rsquo;s value as manager-coach Wren Blair was to point out later.&ldquo;We were within one victory of playing .500 hockey in the first half (14-15-8),&rdquo; said Blair, &ldquo;and Bill Masterton was one of the big reasons for us doing that well.&ldquo;I think a lot of people are overlooking the fact that Bill played between Ted Taylor and Bill Goldsworthy in most of his games, and neither of them were able to capitalize very often on his set-ups.&ldquo;Masterton wasn&rsquo;t as fast as most of the forwards he skated against and he didn&rsquo;t have as hard a shot, either.&ldquo;But because he had the habit of giving it everything he had for every second he was on the ice, Bill was the type of hockey player who didn&rsquo;t have to score a lot of goals to help a club.&rdquo;Blair&rsquo;s confidence in Masterton was best exemplified in a shuffling of lines that coincided with three shutout defeats and the Dec. 26 trade which brought centerman Milan Marcetta and winger J.P. Parise from Rochester in exchange for Taylor and four other players.With Taylor gone, Wren decided to put Marcetta and Parise together on a line with Goldsworthy, who at one time had a goal famine of five weeks.At the same time, Blair felt that little Andre Boudrias, his leading scorer for most of the first half, might possibly have become weary from too much penalty-killing besides taking his regular shifts between high draft choice wingers Dave Balon and Wayne Connelly.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02731/3310773-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="612" height="650"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRONCO HORVATH&hellip; Acquired By Stars</figcaption></div>So Wren put Masterton in Boudrias&rsquo; spot and the move was almost an immediate success as Bill and Connelly contributed goals in a 5-4 win over Boston Dec. 30 and Balon snapped out of a 10-game slump one game later in a 6-0 victory over Los Angeles.Just before Master ton&rsquo;s last full game on Jan. 10 against West Division leader Philadelphia, Blair happily told reporters that &ldquo;it looks as if Billy Masterton was just what the doctor ordered between Balon and Connelly.&rdquo;The peppery GM-pilot had reason to be even happier after the Stars&rsquo; 6-4 triumph that night not only kept the Minnesotans in second place, but cut the Flyers&rsquo; lead to five points.Why? Because Connelly scored the hat trick-Minnesota&rsquo;s first of the season-and Masterton had a hand in all three of them while Balon assisted on two.Meanwhile, the rested Boudrias-now working between prolific Parker MacDonald and center turned right winger Ray Cullen-also tallied as did Cullen, who went on to a streak of 11 straight games before he failed to get either a goal or assist in a contest which wasn&rsquo;t a shutout loss.Minnesota&rsquo;s four straight losses following Masterton&rsquo;s death were attributed in many quarters to the North Stars still being in a state of shock over the passing of their former teammate.But Blair made it as plain as he could that not having the playmaking capabilities of Masterton hurt his club&rsquo;s effectiveness, too.Wren refused to move Cullen into Masterton&rsquo;s spot, because that would&rsquo;ve meant the shuffling of two lines.&ldquo;It boils down to this,&rdquo; Blair finally said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t win in this league without three good lines. We might&rsquo;ve been thinner than some when Bill was alive, but with him we could put three good lines on the ice. Now, we just can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Buoyed by victory and the arrival of Bronco Horvath, the North Stars plunged into the hectic race for second place in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s West Division.&ldquo;You can go from second to fifth so fast it would make your head swin,&rdquo; said Blair. &ldquo;But I have confidence that we have shaken off our slump and are right back in the thick of it.&rdquo;Blair&rsquo;s premise was based on the North Stars&rsquo; 4-3 victory over Pittsburgh last Sunday night, a triumph that ended a succession of four defeats.A large role in that victory was played by Horvath, the veteran center the game was his419th in the NHL&mdash;purchased by Minnesota from the Toronto organization. Bronco, NHL goal scoring champion in 1959-60 at Boston, contributed a vital assist on the first North Star goal. &#9632;

f0006-01

Blair Pays Special Tribute To Masterton’s Ice Ability; Leaves Void In North Stars

MONTREAL, Que. -The National Hockey League Oldtimers can still be as entertaining, and in more ways than one, as they were when they played as the scourge of the NHL 10 and 20 years ago.It&rsquo;s hard to imagine that men in their late 40s and, in some cases even their 50s, could play as well today as they did in years gone by but the Montreal and Boston old-timers certainly put on a fine showing as they battled to a 3-3 deadlock at the Forum Jan. 28.The two teams played an outstanding game and threw in a little slapstick comedy on the side for the more than 13,000 spectators who turned out to see the greats of yesteryear &mdash; names like the immortal Maurice (Rocket) Richard, Elmer Lach, Toe Blake, MiltSchmidt, Woody Dumart, Floyd Curry, Jacques Plante, Tom Johnson and many, many more.Richard was still the big favorite of the crowd, as he was during his 18-year career with the Canadiens, and he received several ovations, particularly when he was introduced at the start of the game and then when he scored early in the first period to give Montreal a 1-0 lead.However, the Montrealers had to put on a strong rally in the third period to earn the deadlock after Boston had built up a 3-1 lead on goals by Paul Ronty, Bep Guidolin and Dumart. Reg Grigg and Buddy O&rsquo;Connor scored for the Montrealers in the third period for the tie.Dumart scored the prettiest goal of the afternoon when he stole the puck at the Montreal blue line and went around three defenders before lifting the puck into the top left corner behind Montreal goalie Denis Brodeur.In between the scoring, the players and ever-colorful Red Storey, who handled the referee&rsquo;s job, added a little humor to the proceedings.Storey handed out such penalties as a one-minute sentence to Montreal coach Butch Bouchard for holding &ldquo;a lovin-in&rdquo; when he held Bill Quackenbush in the penalty box after the latter&rsquo;s time had expired.Guidolin was given a penalty when he upended Richard and his sentence was because he had &ldquo;no respect for age.&rdquo;The fun was all in aid of charity as the Oldtimers managed to raise $40,000 for the expansion of the St. John Ambulance first aid work and also for the B&rsquo;nai B&rsquo;rith agencies. &#9632;

Boston, Montreal Oldtimers Combine Play With Frolics

<div class="byline">BY JACK BERRY</div>DETROIT, Mich. -A new sign with an old message hangs above the door in the Red Wing dressing room that leads to the ice.In bold red lettering it says:&ldquo;We Supply Everything But Guts".Club owner Bruce Norris ordered the sign up after the Wings absorbed a 55-shot, 6-1 pasting in Montreal during which the Canadiens coasted over the Detroit blue line at will and used goalie Roy Edwards for a shooting gallery duck.That same message hung in the Wing dressing room for years, back in the glory years, back when Irascible Jack Adams was general manager and Bruce&rsquo;s father, the late James Norris Sr. owned the Wings.The sign went down when the dressing room was remodeled, some three years or more ago, when the ceiling was lowered, the sauna installed and scarlet carpeting was laid wall to wall.While the rise in accomodations can&rsquo;t be blamed for the Red Wings&rsquo; current plight, it is ironic that on-ice efficiency seemed to decline when the off - ice accouterments grew plushier.And, Norris&rsquo; un-veiled get-tough order just might be too late to get the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.While the Wings responded with an energetic, hitting effort against Toronto after their first look at the sign, they still lost the game, 2-0, to Bruce Gamble&rsquo;s spectacular netminding.Gamble Is their jinx goalie this season. After good success against the sideburned goalkeeper last season &mdash; a 3-1-1 won &mdash; lost tied record &mdash; Gamble has stoned the Wings this season with a6-0-1 mark.Consequently his latest bit of mastery left the Wings 10 points out of the last playoff spot with 30 games to go a number that will have shrunk further by the time you read this.That&rsquo;s a sizeable deficit with relatively few games remaining and, the clubs above the Wings have been playing pretty solid hockey so the outlook is bleak.Which brings us around to the subject of what is wrong with the Wings, a team that ranks No. 2 in the 12-team league in scoring but is No. 12 of defense.Obviously it&rsquo;s a widespread problem.The constant juggling of lines and shuffling of personnel between Detroit and Fort Worth was bound to have a de trimental effect. Here it is, well past the mid-point of the season and the Wings still haven&rsquo;t settled on their lines.A rookie is elevated from Fort Worth for five games and no matter how well he plays, he&rsquo;s sent back and another is brought up. Position play is a sometimes thing throughout the club.Norm Ullman, despite his 20-plus goals, has been a major disappointment.Ullman&rsquo;s game is forechecking forcing the opposition to make a mistake in its own zone, capitalizing on the mistake for a goal. Instead, Ullman is losing the puck in his territory.He&rsquo;s reverted to an old pattern of carrying the puck over the rival blue line, then pulling to a dead stop and looking around to making a play.The goalkeepers have been subjected to an inordinate amount of pressure because of the shoddy defense and relief doesn&rsquo;t come until the man&rsquo;s confidence is shattered.First Roger Crozier cracked and then Roy Edwards, who lifted the club when he took over for Crozier, sagged under the burden.George Gardner turned in several fine relief efforts which appeared to win him starts which would give him some work and give the No. 1 man a needed breather.But it didn&rsquo;t happen.Gardner played an excellent two periods against Chicago, going in with the score 3-1 against Detroit and the Wings took out a 4-4 tie and should have won.Abel intimated Gardner would get the next start, in his hometown of Montreal, but Edwards went instead and the Canadiens buried him with the 55-shot assault.Edwards didn&rsquo;t get a chance to redeem himself the next night against Toronto. Instead it was announced that Gardner had the flu and Crozier was flown in by chartered plane from Omaha. &#9632;

WINGS’ NORRIS ISSUES GET TOUGH ORDER

<div class="byline">By JIM PROUDFOOT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-01896/3310897-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="275" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Pulford</figcaption></div>TORONTO, Ont.&mdash;It was supposed to be a secret, but everybody close to the Toronto Maple Leafs knew all about It. Punch Imlach, coach and general manager of Toronto&rsquo;s National Hockey League team, had decided to send Bob Pulford to the minors. Nearly 32, and In his 12th NHL season, Pulford was deep In a slump and Imlach thought temporary demotion to Tulsa In the Central League might help him shake it.Then Pulford scored three goals In a big win over Pittsburgh Penguins.Then he worked aggressively and scored once in one of Leafs&rsquo; rare successes away from home, a 4-2 win over Boston.Then he played well for the fourth game in succession, and got his 10th goal of the season, as Leafs downed Minnesota North Stars, 5-1.Imlach forgot about demoting Pulford and, in fact, discussed him as one of the club&rsquo;s key workmen.Pulford was in an even worse slump last year and didn&rsquo;t recover until he was given centre Pete Stemkowski and right-winger Jim Pappin as his linemates. He finished the season with 17 goals, surpassing the 200 plateau, and went on to collect 11 points during the 12 games Leafs needed to win the Stanley Cup.One of Pulford&rsquo;s problems appeared to be abandonment of the belligerent style that used to characterize his play. IQs penalty totals were lowered significantly and so, it seemed, was his effectiveness. But, if Pulford has mellowed with age, he has acquired wide experience and now, by using that, he&rsquo;s as valuable as he ever was. He&rsquo;s working in a new position, though&mdash;left wing, instead of centre, the job Imlach gave him back in 1958.Murray Oliver, becoming a far better forechecker than most observers ever thought he could be, skates in Stemkowski&rsquo;s old spot between Pulford and Pappin.So that, too, is part of the Pulford answer. Tie attacking threesome he&rsquo;s a part of is improving rapidly, too.Pulford always has been one of the Toronto players other clubs mention most prominently when they discuss possible deals with Imlach. As recently as lastwinter, he was almost dealt to Boston Bruins. The transaction fell through at the last minute.Also to be borne in mind are Pulford&rsquo;s frequent quarrels with management over salary and other contractual details. That reached some sort of climax when Pulford became first president of the NHL Players &rsquo; Association. His relations with the front office improved tremendously when he gave up that post.But the best possible sign that Pulford has become an important cog in the Leaf machine again is his reappearance on the penalty killing detail.That means he&rsquo;s again playing the kind of thorough defensive hockey Imlach dotes on. Indeed, his 10th goal was scored while he was supposedly holding off Minnesota&rsquo;s power play.<h2>Bruins, Habs &lsquo;Greats&rsquo; Tie</h2>BOSTON 3 at MONTREAL 3BOSTON &mdash; Goal: Harvey Bennett, Tom Moon, Jack Gelineau; defence: Bob Armstrong, Cliff Thompson, Bill Quackenbush, Tom Johnson, George Owen; forwards: Carl Gardner, Bill Cowley, Woody Dumart, Mitt Schmidt, Kenny Smith, Pat Egan, Ed Sandford, Paul Ronty, Ed Barry, John Peirson, Bep Guidolin, Eddie Wiseman, Stan Baliuk, Leo Labine.MONTREAL &mdash; Goal: Jacques Plante, Denis Brodeur, Gerry McNeill; defence: Jim Galbraith, Jimmy Orlando, Glen Harmon, Ken Reardon, Dollard St. Laurent, Walter Clune; forwards: Floyd Curry, Skip Burchell, Maurice Richard, Buddy O&rsquo;Connor, Dickie Moore, Gerry Heffernan, Pete Morin, Reggie Grigg, Elmer Lach, Ken Mosdell, Dan Porteous, Frank Porteous, Connie Broden.Referee: Red Storey. Linesmen: Ernie Mundey, Sibby Mundey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03661/3310890-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="796" height="830"></div> &#9632;

f0008-01

Pulford Bounces Back As Key Man For Leafs After Demotion Threat

<div class="byline">BY TOM MONAHAN</div>BOSTON, Mass.&mdash;Eddie Johnston struggled to shed his cumbers o m e equipment. His gyrations in the Bruins locker-room were worthy of a go-go joint. He grimaced with every movement and every breath.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02797/3310928-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="319" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Johnston</figcaption></div>&ldquo;This is fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For the first time in my seven years with the Bruins I&rsquo;m having a ball.&rdquo;Having a ball when every movement is like having a knife stabbed into the chest and every breath like inhaling fire?&ldquo;Oh I don&rsquo;t mean his,&rdquo; said the veteran Bruin goalie pointing to his chest that had been taped to hasten the healing of a torn rib cartilage.&ldquo;I mean this,&rdquo; he said pointing to the NHL standings that showed the Bruins in first place with 24 victories and sixties for a total of 54 points.&ldquo;This is the second injury I have had this year,&rdquo; he went on.&ldquo;First there was the broken hand and then I just get back into shape and now I have this rib business. I don&rsquo;t like that. But I certainly can&rsquo;t put the knock on where we are in the standings.&ldquo;It certainly makes a difference. In the last six years we were always about 30 points out of the playoffs at this stage of the season.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t imagine how it is trying to play this game when you have nothing to look forward to. You are fighting all the time trying to get up enough drive to play each game and you can&rsquo;t wait for the season to get over.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not much fun when you are out of everything halfway through the season. But now things are different. My personal reaction is that the game is fun once more.&ldquo;The injury is an aggravation, but I don&rsquo;t have any trouble getting steamed up for a game. I know the other guys feel the same way.&ldquo;Just look at them. Listen to the chatter. Remember last year at this time. Everyone came off the ice and got out of the locker-room as quickly as possible. No one wanted to talk hockey. We all just wanted to get our minds off the game. Now everyone is hanging around. There is no rush.&ldquo;This is a great race this year and we are right there making it a great race. We are part of the league now. We aren&rsquo;t the doormats any longer.&ldquo;We know we still have to keep on winning. We can&rsquo;t relax yet and no one has to tell us we have to get steamed up. We are steamed up naturally". &#9632;

f0008-02

Vet Goalkeeper Standing By Waiting For Chance To Step In

<div class="byline">By GEOFFREY FISHER </div><div class="byline">- FISHER</div>ST. LOUIS, Mo.&mdash;James Wilfred (Jimmy) Roberts, who can do just about anything for a hockey team except pilot the airplane, apparently also has some talent in the mystical business of fortune telling.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-01886/3310973-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="291" height="482"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank St. Marseille</figcaption></div>Back in the first weeks of this inaugural expansion season of the National Hockey League, Roberts told this writer in a HOCKEY NEWS interview that the St. Louis Blues would very likely be a slow starter in the championship race because &ldquo;we have a bunch of veterans who need to get into shape and we are a heavier team than some of the others.&rdquo;It would appear that the Roberts prediction was a sound one. The Blues, after a painfully sluggish break from the starting gate, have hit a pace that has all of the characteristics of a powerful finish as the season grinds down to the battle for Stanley Cup playoff positions.The 27-year-old Roberts himself is a classic example of the development of the club. The No. 1 draft choice of the Blues has already scored nearly as many points in his first season with St. Louis as he did in four campaigns with the Montreal Canadiens. This is not to say that the Port Hope, Ont., bachelor is a threat to Bobby Hull or any of the other NHL net blasters because when Roberts comes up with a 15-goal season the hometown folks at Port Hope will probably run up the Canadian flag on his birthday.Roberts represents the sort of armor-plated defensive alignment that is topped by no other club in the league &mdash; East or West. Roberts, for example, is as effective at defense as he is at a forward post. A supremely qualified penalty killer, he is so sturdily constructed that engaging him in the corners is somewhat like tangling with an anthropoid.Roberts likes the game best when it&rsquo;s rough and this characteristic applies equally to a considerable number of the Blues. Such was the intent of General Manager Lynn Patrick when he was called upon by the Sidney Salomons to forge a hockey club from a rapidly assembled collection of bodies. Patrick thinks muscle first when he thinks hockey. Patrick got the muscle with the Plager brothers, THE Picards, Gary Sabourin and a fellow named Roberts.And as Roberts had early predicted it would take little more time to harness all that muscle. Now, led by the thoughtful, experienced ice leader, Al Arbour, who would make anyone&rsquo;s defense healthier, the Blues have become an extremely difficult team to score against.There has been a heavy concentration on defense up front, too. Not blessed with much scoring prowess, the Blues&rsquo; youthful coach, Scotty Bowman, has done what an astute operator would be expected to do. He has turned what strength he has to the most beneficial use. For the Blues it is defense and there is no club that can turn loose better forechecking and backchecking than can they.Especially strong up front in the checking department have been Gordon (Red) Berenson and Frank St. Marseille whose work in the corners has despaired many opponents.Despite a powder-puff attack, the Blues were climbing slowly but steadily as January was running out. By month&rsquo;s end they had a goals-against record of 2.4, a rating that would keep a hockey club in the thick of the fight in any league including the NHL where defensive play has high priority.Supported by strong checking, the tandem goaltending duet of Glenn Hall and Seth Martin were able to avoid the shell shock that has afflicted some NHL cage cops. Hall had added three shutouts to bring his lifetime NHL total to 72 and Martin, out for a time with a leg ailment, found no need to hurry his recuperation. Both goalies had proven to be steady, effective workmen capable of backstopping the Blues through whatever lies ahead.After 43 games the Blues had hit the net for a meager total of 87 goals and had no player anywhere near the league&rsquo;s leaders. But Gordon (Red) Berenson, obtained in a trade with the New York Rangers after a third of the season had elapsed, was rapidly emerging as the brightest star in the Blues arsenal. The helmetclad ex-All American from University of Michigan put the puck in the net eight times in nine games up to January 24. Second in goals was another helmeted center, Frank St. Marseille, a really happy discovery for the Blues, who came to them from the amateur ranks of the International League&rsquo;s Port Huron Flags. Since the No. 1 and No. 2 goal scorers of the Blues both wore helmets there was reason to wonder why Scotty Bowman didn&rsquo;t compel all of his players to wear the hats.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02752/3310966-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="1277" height="1185"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM ROBERTS &hellip; Winding up for a shot</figcaption></div>There was reason to expect an additional lift in both the mobility and scoring effectiveness of the Blues from the addition of the veteran Jean Guy Talbot through the $30,000 waiver price from the Detroit Red Wings. If, and when, Dickie Moore returned to the lineup the offense would gain still another skillful rifleman.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03602/3310959-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="605" height="938"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM ROBERTS&hellip; Ready for Action</figcaption></div><h2>Blues Moving Under Bowman</h2>ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Lynn Patrick&rsquo;s decision to remove himself from the dual role of general manager and coach back in November and devote his energies and talent to running the front office has proven to be a wise move. The Blues record was four wins, ten losses and two ties when Patrick elevated Scotty Bowman to the head coaching job. Since then the Blues have won 11, lost 11 and tied 5.An even break in games with the Philadelphia Flyers would have had the Blues in or near first place at the end of January. Instead, the Flyers have used the Blues as a stepping stone to the lead, with five wins and two ties against St. Louis in their first seven meetings. Out of a possible 14 points the Blues had taken two and the Flyers 10.The Blues home record through January 22 was 10 wins, nine losses and two ties. On the road the Blues were five &mdash; twelve &mdash; five. &#9632;

f0010-01

Expansion Team Clicks After Slow Start

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01872/3311004-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"></div>INDIVIDUAL SCORING(Including Games of Sun. Jan. 28) &#9632;

f0011-01

NHL SCORING RACE

<div class="byline">BY GIL SMITH</div>MONTREAL, Que.&mdash;Would you believe that Canadiens could have trouble finding room for a Henri Richard?The starry little centre, who appears to have recovered from a knee injury, his fourth of the season, has been sitting it out while Habs continue to win hockey games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02789/3311042-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="304" height="474"><figcaption class="caption-body">Henri Richard</figcaption></div>Though he&rsquo;s been practising with the team, Henri hasn&rsquo;t played in a regular game since January 6th, when he appeared to fall over a broken stick on the ice in a New York at Montreal game. His sole appearance, since then, has been in an exhibition between Canadiens and Junior Ottawa club on January 22nd. He scored a goal, and is reported to have skated well in that outing.Actually, it&rsquo;s been a grim season for the Pocket Rocket, who has missed some 15 games, so far. He started out well enough, centering Claude Provost and Gilles Tremblay, and kept clear of injuries for 18 straight games. However, his production was only two goals and four assists during that time, and then Injuries began to strike him. He missed seven games in November, a couple of more in December and has now sat out most of January. Richard, who&rsquo;ll be 32 on February 29th, has played a full schedule only twice in his 13 years with Canadiens.Henri has been the subject of much speculation, this season, because he hasn&rsquo;t looked sharp in most of the games that he&rsquo;s played. He seemed to be running into opponents instead of going around them, as was his custom for so many years. The thinking was that he&rsquo;d lost some of his speed and manoeuvrability, which, for a player of Richard&rsquo;s style would be a disaster. Toe Blake was talking about it recently, but he didn&rsquo;t agree with the general summation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll admit he hasn&rsquo;t been skating away from the opposition lately, especially defencemen, but it&rsquo;s not because he can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Blake. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s happened is that he seems to want to rough it up with them along the boards.&ldquo;Henri is a very gritty type of player,&rdquo; Blake continues, &ldquo;and, he doesn&rsquo;t like to back off from anybody. Over the years he&rsquo;s tangled with some of the biggest and toughest players in the league. But, when he clashes along the boards with some 200-lb. defenceman, he&rsquo;s playing the defenceman&rsquo;s game instead of having it the other way &lsquo;round. If he were to skate away with the puck and make some of those big, slow defencemen chase him, they&rsquo;d be out of breath in two minutes.&ldquo;On the other hand, when a man weighing as little as Henri does (160-lbs) tries to exchange bodychecks all night with a two-hundred pound opponent, he&rsquo;s going to slow himself down to a walk.&rdquo;At this writing Richard had five goals for the season, which added up to a career total of 269. His next goal will tie him with the famed combination of Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat, who scored 270 apiece to rank high on the list of great Canadiens scorers.When Henri notches his 271st marker, he&rsquo;ll jump into fourth place among all-time Canadiens snipers behind brother Maurice &ldquo;Rocket&rdquo; Richard, Beliveau and Geoffrion.<h2>HOW NHL GOALERS RATE</h2>GOALKEEPERS' RECORDS(Including Games ofSun. Jan. 28)<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03645/3311035-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="1387" height="1724"></div> &#9632;

f0011-02

Canadiens Having Problem Fitting Richard Into Spot

Canadiens are flying in the current National Hockey League and much of the credit for the club&rsquo;s 13-game unbeaten streak that has carried the Habs from last to first place belongs to 21-year-old Rogatien Vachon.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01857/3311104-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="299" height="468"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rogatien Vachon</figcaption></div>Young Vachon, who played last season with Montreal and strangely enough is eligible for the NHL&rsquo;s rookie award this year, has been a tower of strength behind the Canadiens. He played less than the 20-game rule stipulates.This past week he displayed his ice excellence by handling the Boston Bruins in a crucial two-game home-and-home series which Montreal swept. Vachon permitted only two goals in 120 minutes of hockey racking up his first shutout as the Habs won 2-0 on Boston ice.THE HOCKEY NEWS and Simon&rsquo;s Cigarillos are pleased to salute the NHL&rsquo;s player-of-the-week in the East.Rogatien Vachon&hellip;Canadiens &#9632;

f0012-01

NHL Player Of The Week — IN THE EAST

After flunking his NHL test with Montreal Canadiens and later New York Rangers, it would appear that Gordon (Red) Berenson has finally found a place to hang his hat. At the same time he&rsquo;s scoring like no other time in his brief NHL career.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03584/3311135-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="309" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body">Red Berenson</figcaption></div>The red-headed pivot of the St. Louis Blues &mdash; he was recently acquired from New York in exchange for Ron Stewart and Ron Attwell &mdash; has been scoring at a goal-a-game pace. In his last five games, he has tallied five times and two of his goals brought victory to the Blues.St. Louis is on the upswing in the NHL&rsquo;s expansion division race and Berenson has been contributing his share of points to the Blues&rsquo; cause. He has also put new life in the team&rsquo;s offense and it would seem the Blues got the better of the Rangers in the swap that brought Berenson west from New York.The HOCKEY NEWS and Simon&rsquo;s Cigarillos are pleased to salute the NHL&rsquo;s player-of-the-week in the West.Red Berenson&hellip; St. Louis &#9632;

f0012-03

NHL Player Of The Week — IN THE WEST

<div class="byline">By DAN MOULTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02743/3311073-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"></div>CHICAGO, DI. -It&rsquo;s becoming pretty evident that the Black Hawks&rsquo; lack of depth is starting to catch up with them again.At the start of the season, while Stan Mikita was battling injuries, Doug Mohns was resting his back in the hospital, and Ken Wharram was trying to get into shape after a holdout, none of the Hawks&rsquo; lesser lights was able to ignite even a dim spark and the team staggered to six losses In a row.However, once Mikita, Mohns and Wharram were able to join Bobby Hull and Pierre Pilote as the team&rsquo;s main producers, Billy Reay&rsquo;s band rocketed thru the pack and took over the lead in the National Hockey league&rsquo;s Eastern division.That push took its toll on the team&rsquo;s super-stars, however, and at this writing, none of the wheels is spinning at full strength. And, as was the case at the start of the season, none of the supporting cast is picking up any slack.&ldquo;We knew we were thin,&rdquo; concedes Hawk Coach Billy Reay. &ldquo;But nobody seemed to want to believe us. We just don&rsquo;t have the guys who can step in and carry on when the big guys are down a bit. We miss the Bill Hays and Lou Angottis we lost In the draft and that&rsquo;s all there is to it.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to complain about guys like Wayne Maki, Paul Ter-benche, and Tom Reid. They&rsquo;ve done pretty well. But we haven&rsquo;t got the offensive punch we need when Hull, Mikita, Wharram, and Mohns aren&rsquo;t putting the puck in the net.&rdquo;Reay made his remarks after the Hawks had gone six games while gaining only three ties and had dropped two points behind the Boston Bruins.During that stretch, Hull managed only one goal and Mikita three, which indicates how dependent the Hawks are on their veteran nucleus of great players.In fact, several Hawks fans noted an alarming similarity in the situation which prevailed with the Hawks in the seven or eight years which preceded last season&rsquo;s first place finish.In those days, if the stars didn&rsquo;t do it, nobody did. And, since the stars obviously couldn&rsquo;t do It consistently through a 70-game season, it didn&rsquo;t get done often enough for the Hawks to finish on top, which was the only thing that really counted then with Chicago fans.Last year, however, Angotti, Eddie Van Impe were on hand to add depth and Denis DeJordy emerged as a major league goalie. As a result, the Hawks breezed through the regular season.LACK OF DEPTH&hellip;Came the expansion draft last summer, however, and the Hawks stripped to the bone again and forced to struggle with a farm system producing only occasionally.There is some hope. Terbenche, shows promise, although he&rsquo;s been struggling lately and spent a bit of time on the bench. And Reid, with a little added skating zip, could become a top rearguard.Young Wayne Maki has shown flashes of aggressiveness. But none of the trio figures to be of too much help the rest of the way.So, it looks as the Hull, Mikita, and Company are going to have to carry the major load again.HAWK TALK&mdash; Reay blames at least part of the Hawks&rsquo; mid-January woes on the mid-season All-star game, which he feels is one of the curses of the world.&ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t like the National Hockey League taking four of my key players away for two days In the middle of the season,&rdquo; said Reay.&ldquo;We sent four all-stars &mdash; Hull, Mikita, Pilote, and Wharram &mdash; to Toronto and when they came back to play for us the next night, they were just four hockey players.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s too much of a strain on a guy in the middle of the year. We&rsquo;d played on Saturday end Sunday, they went to Toronto for a game Tuesday, then rejoined us for a game on Wednesday. We also played on the week-end, which means that those four played six games in eight days. I just don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s right.&ldquo;They are going to have to restore that game to a pre-season affair, or else set the schedule a couple of days off for everybody around it in the middle of the season.&rdquo;If the game is kept at the midseason, Reay is in favor of making the mid-season all-stars the foe of the previous year&rsquo;s Stanley cup winners.&ldquo;It strikes me as kind of silly to have last year&rsquo;s all-stars playing in the middle of the year,&rdquo; said Reay. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m pretty sure it confuses a lot of the fans.<h2>Penalties in minutes by teams &#9632;</h2>

f0012-02

LACK OF DEPTH TELLING ON HAWKS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01841/3311173-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"></div><h2>LOOKING AT NHL RACE</h2>(Standings on Tues. Jan. 30)<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02752/3311166-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="1485" height="2481"></div> &#9632;

f0013-01

National Hockey League Summaries

<div class="byline">BY LOU PRATO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01843/3311204-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="278" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body">Red Sullivan</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH, Pa. -An inability to win on the road for more than a month while playing winning hockey at home has kept the Pittsburgh Penguins from breaking out of the pack in the NHL&rsquo;s Western Division race.From mid December until mid January, the Penguins went eight straight games on foreign ice without a victory, picking up just one point on a 1-1 tie with last place Oakland.During the same period, the Penguins picked up 13 points on the Civic Arena Ice by winning five, tying three and losing just two&mdash;both to established Eastern Division teams. And even one of those defeats would have been a tie but for 50-foot goal with 46 seconds left by J.C. Tremblay that gave Montreal a miracle 4-3 win on Jan. 10.At the end of the home-you-win, away-you-lose stretch the Penguins were battling with Los Angeles, Minnesota and St. Louis for second place Instead of running stick to stick with first place Philadelphia as they could have been.Still, the situation was not really bothering Penguins&rsquo; coach Red Sullivan.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been outplayed that badly on the road,&rdquo; Sullivan says. &ldquo;In fact, you throw out that Toronto game and I&rsquo;d say we&rsquo;ve played rather well. We haven&rsquo;t been shellacked. We&rsquo;ve lost some close games; games we should have won or at least had a tie.&rdquo;The Toronto game Sullivan mentioned was a nationally televised afternoon contest in Toronto which the Maple Leafs won by the astronomical score of 7-0. To the TV viewers, the Penguins appeared to be the most inept hockey team in existence while the Maple Leafs seem to play like they had already won this season&rsquo;s Stanley Cup.But the game came less than 24 hours after the Penguins had defeated the Maple Leafs 4-3 in Pittsburgh the night before that Saturday afternoon debacle one Toronto writer, commenting on the scheduling blunder which had the two teams meeting in different cities in a 15hour period, had predicted a rout for whichever team scored first. Obviously, Toronto scored first and handed the Penguins their worst defeat in their embryonic history.&ldquo;Before Toronto scored that first goal we were every bit as good as they were,&rdquo; Sullivan says recalling the game. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying the game would have gone the other way if we had scored first. But I know that after they scored a goal we couldn&rsquo;t do a bloody thing.&ldquo;But forget the Toronto game since the score was a fluke. We&rsquo;re not getting bombed on the road. We&rsquo;re playing well.&rdquo;The scoring summaries bear Sullivan out. Four of the seven defeats were by one point and another by two points.At least one Penguins star has a reasonable explanation for Pittsburgh&rsquo;s success at home and downfall out of town.&ldquo;I think all teams are getting better at home,&rdquo; says Andy Bathgate, the team&rsquo;s leading scorer. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting better at home, too.&ldquo;The crowds are picking up, at least in our division, and the bigger crowds are helping the home team. A big crowd can help the momentum of a team and that&rsquo;s what is happening in this situation".Although Sullivan agrees, he also sees another ingredient that will keep the Penguins winning at home as well as help them conquer in other cities: harder checking.&ldquo;Yes sir, yes sir, we need harder checking,&rdquo; Sullivan says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about time this team realizes that. When we have a game with good checking we usually come out on top. That&rsquo;s the way this game is played and that&rsquo;s the only way we&rsquo;ll win, home or away.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Failure To Win On Road Holding Penguins Down In Bid To Catch Leaders

<div class="byline">&#x2014; By Bill Libby</div><h2>Orr Flawless Performer</h2>Bobby Orr is the brightest new star to blaze into major league hockey since Bobby Hull blew into the game. No athlete ever entered the big time under harsher handicaps. Off his amateur career, he was built up beyond belief. He was only 18 years of age and breaking in with a last-place team. Yet, except for injuries which have plagued him through his first two seasons, Orr has done a remarkable job of living up to his awesome advance notices. He swiftly has establishedhim-self as an all-star performer - and certainly has played a major role in the Boston Bruins&rsquo; rise to the upper ranks. There is not a player in the game, not even Hull, who draws the sort of awed praise Orr receives from managers, coaches and players on rival teams as well as on his own. One waits for him to be criticized. It hasn&rsquo;t happened yet.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02728/3311249-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="284" height="490"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Orr</figcaption></div>Now, Orr is living through a new ordeal. Although only in his second season, he is appraised as one of the two or three genuine &ldquo;super-stars&rdquo; of the sport, and wherever he goes, especially into the expansion cities, fans and writers single out the wonderkid and wait for him to show them something special. If he has a bad game, or even an ordinary game, he is demeaned as a disappointment. It is a special sort of pressure he must endure, and he does it magnificiently. He remains a boyish modest, well-adjusted person, who still &ldquo;sirs&rdquo; his elders and stifles his awe of his sophisticated surroundings. &ldquo;A lot of people think hockey players and players in all sports are different,&rdquo; he said recently, &ldquo;but just because I play hockey doesn&rsquo;t make me different from a guy who is a lawyer or a student in school. I eat the same food. Do the same things. Yet some people are scared to come and talk to me. I&rsquo;d like to talk to them.&rdquo;So do a boy hero a favor, and go chat with him.Orr is much like Gordie Howe. He wears a mantle of miracles modestly. Since he broke in, his rivals have been testing him. He&rsquo;s had a broken collarbone and three broken noses. He&rsquo;s had a few fights. Anyone who plays for the Bruins these days finds he has to fight anyway. If you enjoyed World War II. you&rsquo;ll love Bruin games. Orr shrugs it off. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the game", he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a rough game. I never run the other way, though there are times I would like to. But if they see you&rsquo;re going to turn and run, they&rsquo;ll take advantage of you. So I stand my ground. And play the best I can. And try to stay in one piece. And I&rsquo;m learning as I go along".A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. If Bobby learns how to play this game any better, they&rsquo;ll have to put him in a league by himself. For the classic comment on Orr, we turn to Philadelphia&rsquo;s Joe Watson, who played with Bobby in Boston last season. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what they&rsquo;re paying him, but whatever it is, he&rsquo;s worth it, &ldquo;Watson said. &ldquo;In fact, he&rsquo;s worth more".<h2>Draft To Aid Kids</h2>Because of revised rules, NHL teams no longer can lock up young amateurs. There will be a round-robin draft of talent when the tots turn 20. Thus, no Bobby Hulls or Bobby Orrs will be able to move up to the majors while still teen-agers. &ldquo;The rule will help more young players than it will hurt,&rdquo; suggests L.A. coach Red Kelly. &ldquo;A few super-stars win have to wait awhile to graduate into the top professional ranks, but the young players will be protected from pressure and injury until they are more mature, both mentally and physically. Very few make it as teen-agers anyway, and those few seem to get hurt a good deal. I think the rule is a good one.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03569/3311242-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="285" height="480"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Watson</figcaption></div>The most significant rule change being discussed these days concerns the possibility of making mandatory the use of helmets. Some go so far as to brand as blood thirsty any who oppose the scheme. Why not, then, go a step further and outfit the players in suits of armor? Really, it is remarkable that there have not been others, but the fact remains that the death of Minnesota&rsquo;s Bill Masterton was the first fatality in 51 years of the NHL. And the use of helmets would make the players less personally attractive to the fans. Thus, we oppose requiring all players to put on headgear.It is surprising how many players now say they think the use of helmets should be made mandatory. However, as Ed Giacomin of the Rangers points out, &ldquo;Everyone is allowed to use them. If they think they should, why don&rsquo;t they?&rdquo; No player conceivably could be called cowardly for donning a helmet. So let&rsquo;s leave it up to the individual. It appears now that a head injury suffered several nights earlier led to Masterton&rsquo;s critical collapse. So perhaps greater precautions should be taken with injured players.But an isolated accident is no reason to abandon reason.<h2>Expanded Schedule May Hurt</h2>The revised schedule adopted for next season, in which teams will play 40 games instead of 50 against teams in their own division and 36 instead of 24 against teams in the other division, will hasten the acceptance of the new teams into the old circuit. It may even be the first step toward shifting some franchises to make the divisions more fully east and west. And it should stimulate attendance in the expansion cities. However, it destroys the value of having divisions in the first place. And it makes the regular-season pennant chases even less meaningful, and the post-season playoffs, already too dominant, even more important. Personally, we&rsquo;re sorry the step was taken.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04413/3311235-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="273" height="501"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kent Douglas</figcaption></div>Attendance has begun to perk up in expansion cities. Minnesota remains excellent. L.A. recently drew 11,740 to a Ranger game In the new Forum. And Pittsburgh drew its best yet, 10,547, for a Detroit visit. But Oakland remains a thorny problem &hellip; We must admit that Oakland&rsquo;s trade with Detroit is shaping up better than we thought it would, however. While Kent Douglas looks good with Sid Abel&rsquo;s Red Wings, Bert Marshall, John Brenneman and Ted Hampson have contributed more than just numbers to Bert Olmstead&rsquo;s Seal side. One story is that Douglas was in Olmstead&rsquo;s doghouse, which does not make him exactly unique. And the shuttle-train Bert has been running between the main store and the minor-league branches seems to have all the Seals shaken. Olmstead faces quite a challenge in striving to salvage something from the last third of the season.Demoted to Buffalo by Oakland, Billy Harris will retire at the end of this season, if not sooner &hellip; The Kings are looking for a clouter. Ranger Reg Fleming ripped &lsquo;em raw the other night. But good triumphed over evil &hellip; If slumping Chicago doesn&rsquo;t right itself and finish fast, Billy Reay&rsquo;s coaching job will be in jeopardy &hellip; General Manager Sid Abel may fire himself as Detroit coach &hellip; If Vancouver gets an NHL franchise, Portland&rsquo;s Hal Laycoe will be sought as coach &hellip; The NHL U.S. national telecasts would have been better off sticking to Saturdays, instead of shifting to Sundays &hellip; In any event, they can stop explaining the rules any time now. Anyone who doesn&rsquo;t know by now, doesn&rsquo;t care to know. It&rsquo;s all so simple. All infractions are when a visitor touches one of the home side. The, home side can do anything short of murder. Murder calls for a five-minute major penalty. If blood is drawn. &#9632;

f0014-02

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">By SPENCE CONLEY</div>OAKLAND. Calif. -Just when things started going good for the Oakland Seals, they went bad again &mdash; but this time recovery may be quicker and the future brighter.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01820/3311287-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="304" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">Billy Harris</figcaption></div>Since Jan. 6, when they tied Minnesota 5-5, the Seals have played 500 hockey with a record (through Jan. 21) of two victories,- both shutouts over Los Angeles, four ties, and two losses.Their player roster is stronger and the caliber of play better.But Jan. 21, after they knocked off the Kings, 3-0, for Charlie Hodge&rsquo;s third shutout of the year, things happened which put a dent k in the club&rsquo;s rapidly building optimism.First of all, center Bill Harris was suspended for walking out during the Seals&rsquo; 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers.Then Bill Hicke was sufficiently recovered from his nagging lung infection to return to the lineup.Hicke&rsquo;s return is fine, but his presence pushed the Seal roster above the limit and left wing John Brenneman, a surprise performer with three goals and two assists in five games, had to leave to fill out the 14-day NHL rule governing player sent to the minors.He was sent down by Detroit to Ft. Worth, then transferred to San Diego, and in the meantime, the Red Wings traded him to Oakland. He&rsquo;d only spent five days in the minors so he still owed nine.He was to rejoin the Seals in Philadelphia on Feb. 1 to play against the Flyers. He only misses three games.Billy Harris, the 31-year-old MVP in the American Hockey League last season, was in the midst of a bitterly disappointing season and he was confused and without confidence in his play.&ldquo;If I thought I could help the team, I wouldn&rsquo;t have done it,&rdquo; said Harris.&ldquo;We expected a lot of him,&rdquo; said a team spokesman. &ldquo;He was our fourth draft choice in expansion. We&rsquo;ve tried everything we know to get the play out of him, but he hasn&rsquo;t produced.&ldquo;When he walks out on his own initiative, he &lsquo;ll have to be disciplined accordingly,&rdquo; the spokesman said in announcing the suspension.Harris had scored 6 goals and 10 assists in 40 2/3 games for Oakland, far below what the Seals had expected of him.He had started quickly but fell off suddenly and became the object of repeated benchings and fines for &ldquo;indifferent play.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got pride,&rdquo; said Harris. &ldquo;I could have stayed on and gone through the motions and taken it all &mdash; the abuse and probably more fines, but I just didn&rsquo;t feel like going through the motions.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m dissatisfied with my own play, sure. I&rsquo;d get going and then I started to think that maybe they were right, that I didn&rsquo;t have it.&ldquo;When I got benched in the second period against New York, I knew I had to do something, so I walked out. I&rsquo;ve made no final decision at what my future will be,&rdquo; Harris explained.He said he certainly wasn&rsquo;t surprised at the suspension &ldquo;I made the first move and they had to do something. Now it&rsquo;s my job to come up with the explanation.&rdquo;Harris met with both the Seal coaching staff and team president Frank Selke, Jr. following his walkout and suspension.Seal owner Barry Van Gerbig said Harris was &ldquo;down on himself&rdquo; and &lsquo;needs a little time to think things over.&rdquo; The Seals are confident Harris will be back.&ldquo;We certainly would hate to lose a player of Harris&rsquo; ability. His situation is not unlike that of Roger Crozier and the Detroit-Red wings. But Crozier came back.&rdquo;Harris, who operates a highly successful hockey school in Toronto, reportedly was earning $25,000 per year on a two-year contract.Hicke spent 10 days in Hawaii in an effort to throw off the lung infection which has caused him to miss 17 games for the Seals, but even when he returned he still had a &ldquo;gurgle&rdquo; which concerned team physicians.But he was given the green light to return to action.&ldquo;I feel pretty good,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old winger after his first workout. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s like training camp all over again. The legs are a little weak, but I can breath better than before.&rdquo;Hicke&rsquo;s return forced several changes in the Seal lineup.He went on the Ted Hampson line at right wing with Gerry Ehman filling for Brenneman on the left side.On the Charlie Burns&rsquo; unit, Alain Caron, who has played well in the last few games, going at right wing for Ehman along with Wally Boyer on the left side.The third line had Larry Popein filling for Bill Harris, Ron Harris on right wing and Gerry Odrowski on left wing.Popein had played right wing on Hampson&rsquo;s line until Hicke came back.The Seals were going pretty well until the Hicke-Harris-Brenneman changes, winning two, 6-0 and 3-0 over Los Angeles, four ties, and two losses on eight points in eight games, their best point string of the year.For all of those changes, however, things look good. When Brenneman gets back the Hampson line will be quicker and better. Ehman will go back with Burns and Boyer, and when George Swarbrick broken hand heals in another week or so, he&rsquo;ll give added sting to the third unit.Bert Marshall has played well defensively as have Hodge and Bob Baun. Who knows? The Seals may make those playoffs yet.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02724/3311280-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="1289" height="1012"><figcaption class="caption-body">Among the more productive Seals in recent games has been ALAIN CARON (12), shown here being straddled by Kings&rsquo; DAVE AMADIO. Caron, a prolific minor league scorer in past years, is starting to find the range as a big leaguer.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Seals Snap Losing Ways With Future Brighter

<div class="byline">BY CHARLEY BARTON</div>BUFFALO, N.Y. &mdash;For a guy who had contract problems in training camp and threatened to go home rather than be farmed out, Dennis Kassian appeared headed for a rewarding and successful season with the Buffalo Bisons as the American Hockey League schedule reached the halfway point.As this was written, the slender leftwinger, in his second season with the Herd, was among the club&rsquo;s top scorers with 14 goals, including eight on the road.The Vegreville, Alberta product joined the Bisons in time for the league opener after agreeing to terms at the last minute, and has been a steady performer from the outset.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01648/3311325-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="276" height="482"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dennis Kassian</figcaption></div>Kassian already is assured of his best season in the American League. A year ago, he totaled 12 goals with the Bisons, and in 61 games with Pittsburgh in 1965-66 failed to score at all while playing sparingly.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard Kass described as being a pleasant surprise, but I don&rsquo;t figure it that way at all,&rdquo; says Fred Shero, the Buffalo coach.&ldquo;He did well in the Central League and in the old Eastern Pro League, and I expected him to do a good job for us. In addition to scoring well, he&rsquo;s been strong defensively, and that is mighty Important.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an aggressive hockey player who doesn&rsquo;t stand for any nonsense from anyone. He&rsquo;s been a mighty fine asset to our hockey club, and I&rsquo;m grateful things turned out for him as they did.&rdquo;Kassian is taking his newly found success in stride.&rdquo; I just hope I can have as good a second half, and that things continue to go well for the club,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When our guys get healthy again, we&rsquo;ll take a run at first place. You can be sure of that.&rdquo;ALONG THE BOARDS&mdash; A heavy cold plagued veteran trainer Frank Christie, who refused to take any time off. He will be honored with a &ldquo;night&rdquo; Feb. 9 &hellip; Larry Wilson&rsquo;s back problems flared up again after he missed seven games following a week&rsquo;s hospitalization. His problem has been diagnosed as muscle spasms &hellip; Rookie &rsquo; Guy Trottier&rsquo;s twisted left knee was responding to treatment, and the plucky right-winger was anxious to get back into the lineup.<h2>How They Stand</h2>(Standings on Tues. Jan. 30)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02562/3311318-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="802" height="1260"></div> &#9632;

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Kassian Big Scoring Surprise For Herd

<div class="byline">BY VIN CIMINI</div>PROVIDENCE, R.I. &mdash;Offensively geared by the performances of five former Western Leaguers and defensively backboned by the play of their spirited goaltender, Ross Brooks, the Rhode Island Reds were able to cop three out of five decisions on Pacific Coast soil before nearly 43,000 spectators and remain very much a contender In the Eastern Division race of the American Hockey League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01552/3311387-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="268" height="499"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ross Brooks</figcaption></div>Just a week before the outset of their 8,300mile trek, the Roosters had captured their first decision on enemy Ice In almost two years and hopes were high In anticipation of a successful tour. But then again who could forget what happened to them two years back when they were able to manage only two goals In four games on the West Coast and were shut out twice? Buster Clegg could.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got every confidence that we&rsquo;ll do well on this trip, &ldquo;Clegg said before the journey, &ldquo;the team spirit on this club could crush that of the team two years back. I wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if we do to them what they did to us two years ago.&rdquo;Indeed, they almost did just that.Winning three out of five isn&rsquo;t exactly a reverse of the same shellacking the Reds sustained the last time they viewed Balboa&rsquo;s discovery but maybe the reason this team did so well is that they didn&rsquo;t spend all their time taking in the scenery but rather concentrated on the true purpose of their road trip.Seattle must have cursed the day they loaned Jim Powers to the Reds for it was Powers who, almost single handedly, dealt defeat to his former teammates scoring the winning goal and adding two assists In a 4-2 win.The Reds were to fall before Portland and San Diego before whipping Phoenix and Vancouver much on the strength of the sniping of Eddie Kachur and John Sleaver.Kachur ended the trip with six goals and an assist and Sleaver scored three goals and added 4 assists. Overall, five former Western Leaguers, Kachur Sleaver Powers, Keller and Mantha had accounted for 12 of the Reds&rsquo; 17 goals and complied 17 of their 28 assists.The steady diet of WHL competition continued upon their return and afforded them the opportunity to avenge their losses to Portland and San Diego that week-end.The Reds &rsquo; success continued as they dumped Portland 4-3 In a game which saw Eddie Kachur score his ninth goal of the year against Western League opposition but even more significant was the fact that It was the Reds&rsquo; first goal ever against the Buckaroos.San Diego caught the Reds on a night when nothing seemed to go right for the Reds after they battled back to a tie from a 3-0 deficit. They eventually lost, 8-3. &#9632;

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Reds Clean Up On Western Teams With Help of Ex-WHL Performers

CLEVELAND, Ohio &ndash;Fred Shero, able coach of the Buffalo Bisons and a former star for the Cleveland Barons, in a recent newspaper interview pegged Jerry Desjardins of the Barons as the top goalie in the American Hockey League.&ldquo;Right now, I&rsquo;d have to say he&rsquo;s the best goalie in the league", Shero was quoted as saying. &ldquo;If we were to pick an all-star team, he&rsquo;d be No.1".In evaluating the Barons, Shero added, &ldquo;Your weakest point has to be the defense and that&rsquo;s because you lack experience there. But then Jerry has played extremely well to take some of the heat off team.&rdquo;Despite the relative inexperience of the Cleveland defense, only one other club in the AHL has allowed fewer goals as of this writing. Nor can all the credit go to DesJardins.Accolades have to go to some of the backliners, one of the latest to create a name for himself being youthful Steve Hunt, the 20-year-old redhead from Toronto who prior to this season, never had played a game of professional hockey.The rugged young six-footer, who weighs 190 pounds, was dispatched to the Barons when Bryan Watson was recalled by the Montreal Canadiens. Relegated to a bench position for many games, he eventually got his chance when Doug Piper&rsquo;s play became a little spotty and Coach Fred Glover sought a replacement.Hunt stepped into the breach, along side Captain Bill Needham, and has not missed a turn on the ice since. &#9632;

Shero Rates Desjardins As Top Netminder In AHL

OTTAWA, Ont.&mdash;Bruce Draper, former American Hockey League player with Rochester Americans, Hershey Bears and Baltimore Clippers, died of leukemia here at his home, Jan. 26, at the age of 27.Draper was a onetime &lsquo;hot&rsquo; prospect in the Toronto Maple Leafs chain after helping pace Toronto St. Michael&rsquo;s to the Memorial Cup in 1961.Draper actually played one NHL game with Toronto in 196263, but most of his professional hockey career was spent in the AHL. He also saw some service with Denver &#9632;

Former AHL Star, Bruce Draper Dies of Leukemia At 27

<div class="byline">BY AL FISCHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03404/3311497-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="274" height="480"><figcaption class="caption-body">Aldo Guidolin</figcaption></div>BALTIMORE, Md. &mdash;Would you believe Baltimore is one of the top offensive clubs In the American Hockey League?How about, a Clipper scoring four times in one game.Then again, let&rsquo;s try a defense that has yielded but 19 goals in ten games?It&rsquo;s all true as the Clippers, who at one time were only slightly ahead of Providence in goals scored, are now ahead of such high-powered attacks as Buffalo, Rochester and Cleveland.Jimmy Bartlett, a 30-goal scorer last year, but who had gotten off slow as Reardon juggled the veteran winger into every forward spot, hit the four goal mark against Springfield, equalling Dick Meissner&rsquo;s club record. Ironically, it was Meissner who helped set up all four goals.But it has been the defense that has drawn the lavish praise of Baltimore coach Terry Reardon.&ldquo;Aldo Guidolin is playing like an All-Star,&rsquo;&rsquo; Reardon enthused after a recent game in which Guidolin, the Clipper team captain, was selected as star of the game.&ldquo;And he&rsquo;s playing on his offside too,&rdquo; Reardon quickly reminded. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a right-handed shot, playing the left side. It&rsquo;s not easy, but Aldo has handled the job magnificently".All seven (that&rsquo;s right, seven) Clipper defensemen have contributed to the recent Clipper surge, which encluded a fine 3-1-1 home stand just recently completed.Guidolin has teamed with Dune McCallum, while Wally Chevrier joins forces with Les Hunt. Nick Polano, bothered by a back ailment has been the alternate, while Bob Wilson and Ted Lanyon, both finally recovered from injuries are having trouble getting back into the lineup as the Baltimore rearguard continues to perform in championship fashion.The excellent showing of the defense has enabled goalie Joe Daley to cut his goals allowed average to 3.30, a dip from 3.60. Included in the streak are two shutouts, over Hershey and Portland, normally two high-scoring clubs.Bartlett, like Guidolin, is playing in the wrong position, but don&rsquo;t tell that to Reardon, with Willie Marshall sidelined at least another month, Bartlett seems to be right at home as a center for Dick Meissner and Gene Ubriaco.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a baby with a new toy,&rdquo; Bartlett commented &ldquo;I finally have the chance to do more things with the puck.&rdquo;The Clippers have remained in the Eastern Division chase all season long, with a brilliant 14-2-5 home record the key to their success.With five of their next eight games to be played at home, things are looking up for Baltimore. &#9632;

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Reardon Praises Team Defenders

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK SANTANIELLO</div>SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -Gerry Foley is having a fine season with the Spring field Kings. The scrappy veteran winger always hustles, works hard and goes at top speed on the ice. He is easily spotted on the rink, too, since he wears a white helmet.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04312/3311528-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="275" height="460"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gerry Foley</figcaption></div>He is a great inspiration to the younger players as he digs pucks out of the corners, does more than his share of scoring and is just a busy guy on the ice for the local team. That&rsquo;s the way the old pro always played the game.In 40 games so far, Foley is having a great season in the scoring column. He has potted 12 goals and had 21 assists for 33 points with about half the season to go. He proves his fine play making ability with so many assists.In 66 games last season, Foley potted 26 goals and 35 assists for 61 goals while picking up 31 minutes in penalties. The way he&rsquo;s playing this season, he is sure to go well over his output with the team last season.Officially, Foley is now 35 years old, stands six feet and weighs around 175 pounds. He is a native of Garson, Ontario, the same home town as Springfield player, Roger Cote. Foley, indeed, has been a familiar face locally.The Kings have been experiencing lots of trouble winning. Gone are five, key local players Spring-field cannot do without. They are Jim Anderson, Howie Menard, Brent Hughes, Jim Murray and Doug Robinson. Menard is second in total points in the AHL; Robinson is sixth.Springfield has had little offense lately; no one can put the puck into the nets; they have managed two ties in six games; their big hold on first place is threatened; little help has come from LA to replace these big stars taken from here. &#9632;

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Foley Gives Inspiration To Ice Kings

<div class="byline">BY HANS TANNER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02489/3311418-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="340" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body">Len Lunde</figcaption></div>ROCHESTER, N.Y. -Ask any Rochester Amerk followers to draw a picture of a Wren, the Minnesota Blair variety, and it&rsquo;s likely to resemble a cuckoo.At least that&rsquo;s what many hockey fans here think of the general manager-coach of the National Hockey League expansion team in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.We&rsquo;ll not go into the entire day-after-Christmas trade again-the one that saw the Amerks send talented Milan Marcetta and Jean-Paul Parise to the North Stars for Ted Taylor, Duke Harris, Murray Hall, Don Johns, Len Lunde and the loan of goalie Carl Wetzel for the rest of the season.All have contributed a great deal to the sudden surge of the American in the Western Division of the American Hockey League, but Lunde seems to have made the biggest impression in the shortest time.Len, a lanky forward who can play center or left wing, participated in just seven games for the North Stars after being selected as their eighth draft choice. His scoring record showed exactly one assist.Lunde was ordered to Memphis of the Central Pro League by bossman Blair, but balked, and eventually returned to his Edmonton home prepared to sit out at least the rest of this season under suspension.The trade &ldquo;sprung&rdquo; him, but at first he didn&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d even report to Rochester. Len finally did, meeting the club in Cleveland on Jan. 6 after not wearing full equipment for more than two minutes and having just three quick days of light skating at home under his belt. &#9632;

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Lunde Best Of Amerks’ New Stars

DENVER, Colo. -On the ice, Denver won&rsquo;t return to the Western Hockey League until next season.But the Denver entry is getting an early start. Already named coach and general manager is veteran Rudy Pilous, who piloted the Denver Invaders to first place in their only season (1963-64) in the WHL.Pilous also was skipper at Victoria and with the California Seals and, of course, he led the Chicago Black Hawks to their only Stanley Cup back in the spring of 1961.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02455/3311597-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="279" height="487"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rudy Pilous</figcaption></div>The Denver team has opened offices at 1724 Stout Street, Denver, Colorado 80202. &#9632;

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Pilous To Guide Denver Entry

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04262/3311628-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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WHL SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">By JOHN WHITE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01558/3311566-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="271" height="460"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce Carmichael</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER, B.C.&mdash;In a campaign quite a few years back even before Johnny Bower was playing goal, someone wrote that all Gaul was divided into three parts.Well, that was the story too, of the first two-thirds of the current hockey season for the Vancouver Canucks.There were the first 10 games when someone forgot to tell the Canucks that the season was underway. They won once.Then there were the next 25 games. The Canucks didn&rsquo;t set any club records but they were winners &mdash; 13 victories, 10 defeat, 2 ties &mdash; and seemed to be picking up momentum with each clash.And, finally, there were the next eight games. The Canucks failed to win once and skidded into the Western Hockey League cellar.What happened?Maybe figures can lie at times but they seem to tell an honest story of the Vancouver situation.In those first 10 games of the season, Jean-Guy Morissette was in the Vancouver nets and couldn&rsquo;t seem to get untracked. He allowed 52 goals. You can figure the average easily.Then young Tony Esposito from Michigan Tech stepped into the cage. In his first 25 appearances, he was just a shade short of being sensational. He allowed 65 goals and his average was 2.53 close to a Western League record pace.But in those next eight games &mdash; seven defeats and a tie &mdash; Esposito played 465 minutes, was punctured for 39 goals, posted a 5.03 average.It&rsquo;s asking a bit too much for the offense to produce at least six goals a game for victory.Because the Western League&rsquo;s championship race is one of the tightest in history &mdash; 11 points from top to bottom late in January &mdash; the Canucks were not out of contention for third or second or even first place.And do you know what the Canucks had to do to be a contender? They had to start winning on home ice, that&rsquo;s what!Throw out the trip through the American League &mdash; and the Canucks are not alone in wishing they could&mdash;and Vancouver after 44 games this season owned a better road record than a home mark.The Canucks were 8-10-2 at home. They were 7-8-1 on the road in Western League cities.It had been expected that completion of Vancouver&rsquo;s new 15,000&mdash;seat coliseum might in spire the Canucks to dizzy heights in the stretch run.But before a combined turnout of almost 22,000 fans, the Canucks dropped their first two games in the new arena.Vancouver&rsquo;s major problem all season was starting the game on time.Much has been written about the importance of the jump goal in hockey because it can force an opposing team to change its style, to take chances and to make mistakes. And mistakes lose hockey games.In the first two-thirds of the Western League season, the figures were overwhelming.The winning team scored first 88 times &mdash; the losing team just 32 times. Scoring first was proving much more important than home ice.And Vancouver?Vancouver had the worst record in the league, the Canucks scoring the jump goal in only 15 of their first 44 games.What happened when they did score first?The Canucks won 9, lost 4 and tied 2. That&rsquo;s a bit different from an overall record of 15-25-4.Another Vancouver problem, in a sense, was the shuttle service between Oakland and the British Columbia metropolis.Quality wasn&rsquo;t at issue.The replacements often were every bit as good&mdash;or better &mdash; as the departing players.But most defensemen, for example, have a favorite partner. They make a move and know exactly where the other blueliner is going to go.In Vancouver, at times this season, a defenseman would turn with the puck, look across ice and yelp, &ldquo;Hey, Jerry, when did you get back in town?&rdquo;Individually, you really couldn&rsquo;t point to any slumps among forwards who are expected to score.Forty-year-old Phil Maloney acted his age for only the first 11 games of the year, scoring points in just 4 of them. He then collected points in 26 of his next 33 games, was contending strongly for the Western League scoring championship.Veteran Gordon Vejprava got off to a slow start, too, with just one point in his first seven games. But he bounced back with 38 in his next 35.Reliable Bruce Carmichael was sniping along at a 35-to-40 goal pace. You couldn&rsquo;t ask for many more red lights and really expect to get them.Young Stan Gilbertson was having his best season. A year ago he scored 6 goals in 57 games with the California Seals. After just 41 games with Vancouver he had more than doubled his output with 14 goals.Billy McNeill came out of retirement and didn&rsquo;t exactly explode.But you can&rsquo;t knock 11 points in 14 games for the first few weeks back in action.Barry Watson, son of long-time National League star Harry, was almost unbelievable. After 44 games, he had scored an acceptable 27 points.He had scored 23 points in 24 road games&mdash;just 4 points in 20 clashes on home ice.Coaches, however, generally don&rsquo;t complain about strong road performers.The Canucks could use a bit more offensive help in the stretch from Ron Boehm, Mike Corbett, Dave Duke and Terry Clancy.Boehm returned from Oakland with a bang &mdash; six points in four games. It took him 22 games to get six more.Corbett opened the season with tour goals in eight games. It took him 36 games to get four more.Duke had three assists on opening night. It took him 40 games to get four more.And Clancy was having some problems getting untracked with just 3 points In his first 18 games with the Canucks.Vancouver still boasts the all-around potential to win a Lester Patrick Cup.But the club must retain spark despite one player change after another. This can&rsquo;t be helped. Oakland is having a problem or two.And the goaltending obviously must hold up.Esposito &mdash; after the eight-game winless string &mdash; showed that he can be tough In the clutch by shutting out Phoenix, 4-0, before the Roadrunners&rsquo; largest crowd of the season.<h2>How They Stand</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03342/3311559-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="804" height="1986"></div> &#9632;

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Fans Flock To New Vancouver Rink But Canucks Not Responding On Ice

<div class="byline">BY LOU DEMERAIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01539/3311659-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GRANT EVANS &hellip; 3 Goals in 18 Seconds New Record</figcaption></div>KAMLOOPS, B.C.&mdash;For the first time in his young career, center Grant Evans had butterflies in his stomach before starting a hockey game.That was the night of January 13 of this year and little did Evans know, as the butterflies were flitting around in his stomach, it was to become a night he will happily remember for the rest of his life.The diminutive Kamloops native set at least two records and may have tied a third during a regular B.C Junior &ldquo;A&rdquo; Hockey League game in which New Westminster Royals defeated Kamloops Rockets 9-7. Evans scored all seven goals for the Rockets.The 17-year-old pivot stunned a crowd of just under 1,500 as he put together a one-man show which included scoring three goals 18 seconds apart, for a Canadian, and what&rsquo;s more a world junior hockey record.But the ironical aspects of Evans&rsquo; feats were twofold.To begin with, Jim Harrison of Estevan Bruins, but who is a native of Kamloops, had been the holder of the record for the fastest three goals in history.Harrison who began playing for Estevan three seasons ago had scored three goals inside of 23 seconds in the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, during the 1966-67 campaign. That league is now the Western Canada Junior Hockey League.The second part of irony about Evans&rsquo; three fast goals was that Harrison was sitting in the stands watching as his record was being shattered.Harrison, a rugged forward for coach and general-manager Scotty Monro&rsquo;s Estevan Bruins and who appears destined for the National Hockey League, was visiting his hometown while recuperating from a back injury.For Kamloops, home of defenceman Bert Marshall of Oakland Seals, the feat was a tremendous shot in the arm. Marshall is so far the only product of Kamloops minor hockey to make it to the NHL.Evans &rsquo; seven goals also set three BCJHL and as many team records and the club feels he may well have tied a record set by one of the famed Bentley brothers for the most goals scored in a single game by one player.The times on Grant&rsquo;s three fast goals were: 4:19, 4:23 and 4:35. All were scored in the third period and were his third, fourth and fifth of the night.He late went on to pot two more, but in a losing cause.The young Kamloops product who attended Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; pre-season training camp didn&rsquo;t realize he had broken Harrison&rsquo;s record.&ldquo;I just can&rsquo;t believe I broke Jimmy&rsquo;s record,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Evans after the game, &ldquo;And with him (Harrison) in the stands too &hellip;&rdquo;Harrison and Evans have been friends for several years.Evans collected all seven pucks he managed to put behind New Westminster goalie Bruce Dowad.This is the first season the BCJHL has been in operation. It also includes teams from Victoria, Penticton, Kelowna and Vernon.The league, which was simply an expansion of the Okanagan Junior Hockey League was formed by the British Columbia Amateur Hockey Association in an attempt to bring junior &ldquo;A&rdquo; hockey up to par with the rest of Canada.Winner of the B.C. title will compete with the Alberta champions in the western Canada quarter-finals for the Memorial Cup. &#9632;

f0019-01

B.C. Junior Whiz Grant Evans Scores Seven Times In Game

<div class="byline">BY JERRY AHRENS</div>NEW YORK, N.Y.&mdash;What does a 19-year-old junior hockey player think about mostly? Is it girls, his future In the business world or the possibility of moving up in the hockey wars?Walter Scott, Jr., Is such a boy. He has been a goaltender, and a good one, for the Metro Arrows of the Metropolitan Junior Hockey Association for the past two years. On Wednesday December 27th, Ids dreams came true. That day he received a telephone call from Al Baron, the owner of the Eastern Hockey League Long Island Ducks. The Ducks needed a goaltender badly for that night&rsquo;s encounter with the New Haven Blades. Would he be interested? Wayne Doll, the regular goalie for the Long Islanders, had fallen ill and could Scottie fill in for one game?This was the answer to Walter&rsquo;s every dream. That night he skated out on the ice, nervous as any rookie would be, and couragiously turned aside 36 shots though the Blades won the game, 5-4. Two nights later he traveled to Johnstown, Pa., to face the Jets and was beaten 8-4, while turning aside three breakaways by Dick Roberge, the leading goal-getter in EHL history.Then came New Year&rsquo;s eve and the Blades again in New Haven. This time the Ducks were beaten 5-2, though Scott was In there for only four of the tallies. With 6 minutes left to play a New Haven a slap shot deflected by Ducks&rsquo; defenseman Tom Burgess caught the young goalie under the chin. The cut was deep, all the way to the bone, breaking two teeth and requiring ten stitches. Undaunted, Scott wanted desperately to return to action but wiser heads refused to allow him.When not playing hockey, Scottie is a filter strip operator for Pathe Motion Picture Laboratories in New York City. A resident of Bay-side, Queens, Walter is a graduate of the New York Rangers&rsquo; Summer Hockey Clinic. He attended the school for two years and each summer he was voted the most improved junior. He also attended the Eastern Hockey Clinic at Worchester, Mass.The MJHA Is not the only league where young Scott shows his talents. He has been a member of the New York Falcons in the Queens&mdash;Nassay Hockey League for three years. In his spare time he has also worked out on half a dozen occasions with the New York Ranger players recovering from injuries. &#9632;

New Yorker Walt Scott Passes First Net Test

<div class="byline">BY MATT DENNIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01384/3311721-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="276" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Rivers</figcaption></div>KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Although his Blues are finding it a tough chore trying to catch up with the Tulsa Ollers, pace-setters of the Northern Division of the Central Professional Hockey League, coach Doug Harvey is not conceding anything.The Blues were 11 points back of the Oilers and holding a game in hand showing 18 victories and five ties in their first 41 outings.&ldquo;We had a rough stretch where the opposition was scoring too many goals on us. That means we were not playing up to our potential defensively. Hie young players must remember that checking is so important. The defense must give more protection to goalie Don Caley and our forwards must work harder on their backchecking. Our defensemen must give out with more of that body on Incoming forwards,&rdquo; said the veteran coach who had benched himself temporarily to give an injured hand a rest.Wayne Rivers became the second member of the club to notch a &ldquo;hat trick&rdquo; clicking against Tulsa. George Guilbault counted his &ldquo;three in a bunch&rdquo; against Memphis.Rivers joined Gary Veneruzzo and Don Giesebrecht on a unit. Veneruzzo, playing the left side, was the top point-getter for the Blues after 41 games showing 12 goals and 28 assists.In their 18 home appearances, the Blues attracted 82,799 fans.TULSA&mdash; Len Haley was still the top point-getter for the Oilers after their first 42 games and the veteran rightwinger had hit for 18 tallies and picked up 29 assists for 49 points. Linemates Gerry Meehan and Andre Hinse had 42 and 41 points, respectively.Goalie Al Smith joined the parent Toronto Maple Leafs due to Johnny Bower&rsquo;s pulled ligaments in his elbow. Serge Aubry took over the job for the Ollers and in his 18 games had given 64 goals.When the Oilers dropped Houston, 6-3 on Tulsa ice, they set a new club mark with 11 consecutive home victories.Veteran Bronco Horvath, who came to the Ollers with Mike Byers and Jim Dorey in the deal in which Gary Unger reported to Rochester of the American League, was shifted to Minnesota North Stars as a replacement for Bill Masterton, who died following an NHL contest.FORT WORTH-Defenseman Irv Spencer, the top point-getting rearguard of the Central Pro League with 32 points in 39 games, was called to the parent Detroit Red Wings and suffered a knee injury in his first NHL appearance against Pittsburgh. Pete Mahovlich and Gary Marsh were returned to the Fort Worth club by Detroit.Goalie Roger Crozier, coming out of retirement that began in November when he decided to take a rest from NHL play, was in the nets for three games at Fort Worth. Playing in three games, he gave up nine goals.OKLAHOMA CITY-Rookie Jim Lorentz pulled to the top of the CPHL scoring race with 21 goals and 27 assists for 48 points in 41 games. Team mate Ron Buchanan was trailing him with 17 goals and 28 assists for 45 points. Rookie Grant Erickson had 36 points and Wayne Cashman 34.Goalie Russ Gillow returned after suffering a broken finger and in his first eight games gave up only 10 goals.Bob Heaney, a Blazer of last season, joined the team from Hershey of the American League when John Arbour was called up as an injury replacement with the NHL Boston Bruins.MEMPHIS-Bob Charlebois remained the top sniper in the circuit triggering 23 for the South Stars in his first 35 games.Germain Gagnon and Sandy Fitzpatrick are keeping up their pace in the point parade with 33 points apiece.DALLAS&mdash; Brian McDonald kept pacing the Black Hawks offensively with 12 goals and 27 assists for 39 points over his first 38 games.Oscar Gaudet, battling minor Injuries and trying to &ldquo;play over them&rdquo; has scored 15 assists and drawn 17 assists in 40 games.HOUSTON&mdash; The Apollos, staging a late splurge, lost goalie Ernie Wakely was called up to the Montreal who Canadiens to back up Rogatien Vachon with Gump Worsley on the injured list. Rocky Farr took over wearing the big pads. Bryan Watson was the league&rsquo;s top penalty-getter with 168 minutes.Coach Ray Kinasewich likes Watson&rsquo;s spirit as &ldquo;going all out&rdquo; to do his best to help the team but is anxious for Watson to cut down his penalty time and comments, &ldquo;Bryan is too valuable a hockey player to us to be spending so much time in the penalty box. We need him on the ice.&rdquo;Gary Monohan and Dick Sentes were the top goal-getters for the Apollos over the first 42 games with 11 apiece. Chris Bordeleau was next with 10.Jude Drouin and Bordeleau were leading point-getters with 30 each.OMAHA &mdash; central Pro League president Jack Adams was one of the guests of honor along with manager Leo Durocher of the Chicago Clubs, Bob Devaney, University of Nebraska athletic director and football coach, and St Louis Cardinal pitcher Bob Gibson at the annual Mid-Winter Sports Dinner. John Carmichael, sports editor of the Chicago Daily News was toastmaster. Ken Custafson joined the Knights on loan from San Diego of the Western League. Greg Pilling, on loan, was returned to Buffalo of the American League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03245/3311714-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="599" height="644"><figcaption class="caption-body">IM LORENTZ &hellip; Rookie Top Scorer</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

Kansas City Struggling To Narrow Gap

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02291/3311752-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0020-02

Central Hockey League Summaries

<div class="byline">BY HARVEY POLLACK</div>KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -The angels have come to the rescue of the Knoxville Knights and saved the E astern Hockey League franchise from coming to an abrupt halt in mid-season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0587/3311828-1-eng-US/f0021-052.jpg" title="f0021-05" width="260" height="471"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Labelle</figcaption></div>It appeared that all was lost here when the citizens group which had been operating the Knights turned the club back to its owners. This action took place on a Saturday morning and caused the club to cancel two weekend games at Charlotte and Salem.All looked bleak and It didn&rsquo;t appear as if the Knights would continue since the old owners didn&rsquo;t want to activate the club. But the EHL held an emergency meeting in New York and the league decided to continue the operation for a week to see if something could be done.President Tom Lockhart sent Mark Parrish of Nashville and Ray Miron of Florida here to see what they could do. Meantime the league guaranteed the salaries of the players for one week. Parrish and Miron aided by local sports editor Tom Siler worked feverishly and were able to dig up some local citizens who provided the necessary financial assurance of the completion of the current campaign.Naturally the city didn&rsquo;t want to lose the team, and the fan support in the first two games after the temporary suspension topped any thing that had happened earlier In the year. If this support continues, the necessary financial help will be diminished &hellip;Don Labelle, former coach of the Knights, has succeeded Pat Egan as the coach of the club. All of the players are still here and at one stage they even offered to play at reduced salaries, but the EHL vetoed this. Labelle now has The job of guiding the Knights to a playoff berth, but the task may prove tough to accomplish.For a stretch when the Knights appeared out, it was contemplated that games with northern rivals would have been necessary to fill the gaps in the schedule. This move wasn&rsquo;t pleasant for it involved extra travel, and the northern clubs breathed a sigh of relief when the new backers appeared.Dick Deaderick, one of the former owners of the team, said Egan&rsquo;s departure was due to salary. &ldquo;We have nothing against Egan but we had to cut expenses to a minimum. A playing caoch like Labelle helps cut those expenses.&rdquo; Deaderick&rsquo;s group lost $60,000 two seasons ago.SYRACUSE: Blazers have dropped Rod Hibbert and Dick Cusson. A If Treen, who was here on 24hour loan from Florida, broke his left foot for the second time this season. Two bones were broken this time. He had been coaching Blazers while Wayne Caufield was out with the flu. Roger Wilson Injured his wrist and trainer Porky Palmer was pressed Into action until substitute goalie George Mohr could arrive from Toronto. Caufield had hat trick vs JerseySALEM:Rebels had two games In two nights postponed, one by bad weather at Nashville and the other due to Knoxville&rsquo;s financial, straits. Team Is off on another losing binge following win over Nashville. Team blew first period 3-1 lead at Florida. Attendance here continues to be steady despite lowly state of club. Officials figure a winner would really lift the crowds.LONG ISLAND: Norm Schmitz had to undergo surgery to relieve pressure on his right eye caused by a fractured cheekbone. He was hit by a puck and Is out for the season. League rejected appeal by owner Al Baron to reinstate John Brophy. Ducks failed to beat New Haven in nine games. Duck fans signing petitions to help Brophy get reinstated. Don Newman only healthy defenseman with Tom Burgess bothered by elbow Injury and Ken Liebel by bad back.JERSEY:Rod McPherson has returned from Canada and Is playing again for first time since last season. His summer auto accident had halted his play until now. Gordie Stratton had hat trick In losing effort at Syracuse. Injuries pile up on club with Don Rozich (bad knee), Bob Boucher, (heart murmur), Ted Szydlowski (groin Injury), Wayne Kitchen (hand Injury), and Bill Adair (bad hand) all disabled.Goalie Andre Daoust had 50-saver vs Johnstown and 51 vs Long Island.NASHVILLE: Wayne Clairmont&rsquo;s two. goals helped Flyers win at Knoxville. Wally Sprange, Lloyd Hinchberger, Leo Olivier and Norm Ryder all bothered by the flu. Newcomer Wayne Spooner In the Injured Flo Pilote&rsquo;s defensive spot has shown good puck handling and hitting. Hinchberger says he Is shooting for 40 to 44 wins for the season which will necessitate a strong finish by his club.FLORIDA: Rockets spurted with only three losses In 12 starts. Ron Willy extended his scoring streak to 11 straight games. Rockets secured Bob Mullins from Johnstown. Bob Sabourin broke a 19-game scoring slump. Sabourin says his defense often gives the one goal a game that costs a victory but for a young rear guard he says he can&rsquo;t complain. Cummy Burton sidelined by illness for a few games.NEW HAVEN, Don Perry had a set-to with his off-season business partner, Ray Crew of Jersey. Al Johnstone&rsquo;s shutout, his fifth of year, tied him with Clinton&rsquo;s Ed Babiuk for league lead. Terry Jones had hat trick in win over Long Island. Ron Hergott and Bruce Reier in tight race for club scoring laurels. Syracuse&rsquo;s late arrival here In private autos delayed start of game.GREENSBORO: Don Carter widened southern scoring lead and six Gens are in top 10. Knoxville stopped Gens eight-game unbeaten streak. Gens bothered by lack of practice time In January and February, a similar situation for three years. Dom DiBerardino posted the 250th goal of his EHL career. Ron Muir closing in on 400-goal figure. Ron Spong says last period has been Gens&rsquo; forte all year.JOHNSTOWN: Jim Randle decided to return to teaching at North Bay, Ont. Billy Armour, originally ticketed for Jersey, came to Jets to fill Randle&rsquo;s spot on a loan basis. Dick Roberge hit 1,400 career point mark as Andy Brown blanked Jersey for second time this year. Roberge and Billy Ives had hat tricks and Dan Patrick five assists In win ever New Haven. Bill Reid hurt by a Don Perry elbow. Meehan Bonnar sent to Syracuse.CLINTON: Ed Babiuk&rsquo;s shutout came in handy In tough game with Syracuse. Rod Zaine&rsquo;s hat trick beat Blazers In another fray. Ed Stanley received EHL gift from prexy Tom Lockhart; a brass hockey stick from former Comet Art Scoones, a radio from current captain Jack Kane and a gift from Wayne Caufield for Syracuse prior to game here.CHARLOTTE: Rick Foley got best of Florida&rsquo;s Jack Smith and Jim Lane whipped Ed Pare in a pair of matches. Ernie Dyda celebrated his 28th birthday with a goal against Rockets. Art Hart had 10 teeth pulled, Claude Ouimet had Injured ankle and Foley bothered by flu. Bob Whidden shooting for Charlotte goalie record of 3.19 set last year by Lynn Zimmerman.<h2>How They Stand</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02172/3311821-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="827" height="3033"></div> &#9632;

f0021-05

Knoxville Group Saves Team Franchise; Labelle Replaces Egan As Knights’ Coach

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01233/3311790-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="850" height="5466"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01255/3311783-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="844" height="5614"></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

Hockey Roces

<div class="byline">BY BOB REED</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03161/3311873-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="280" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Gallagher</figcaption></div>TOLEDO, O &ndash;Flint, Mich. has been mentioned as a new entry into the International Hockey League and the man who is most interested in placing a club there is a long time official of the IHL, Frank Gallagher, it has been learned by THE HOCKEY NEWS.Gallagher said he has made three trips to the Michigan city to investigate its possibilities and is highly enthused. He said he has been granted &ldquo;first refusal&rdquo; on the placing of a hockey club there,which would indicate a first option on the lease of a new building being constructed.A new civic arena is being constructed which is scheduled to be ready in October and which will seat in the neighborhood of 4,500.Gallagher was formerly commissioner of the league and in more recent years has held executive positions with Port Huron, Columbus and Muskegon. In refe-Columbus and Muskegon. In referring to the Flint prospects, he said, &ldquo;I have been in hockey, and more especially the International League, for many years and this is finally my opportunity to secure a club of my own. I hope that everything can be worked out so that I will have a club in Flint".MUSKEGON - The Mohawks had an 8-2 record in their first 10 games in the New Year &hellip; They pulled up even in the season&rsquo;s series with rival Dayton,2-2-2 &hellip; When they hit their 56th point in their 42nd game, they had as many as they had in a 72-game schedule last season &hellip; Hie Hawks exploded for three goals in 52 seconds in a 7-2 win over Columbus.DAYTON &mdash; Coach Warren Back was named for the &ldquo;Distinguished Service Award&rdquo; by the Greater Dayton Jaycees &hellip; Don Westbrooke notched his 34th goal to equal his last season&rsquo;s total with Toledo &hellip; Captain Sid Garantsat out three games with an arm injury &hellip; The Gems were certain to go over the 100,000attendance mark for the fourth year.FORT WAYNE - First televised Sunday matinee drew 5,697 fans &hellip; Captain Len Thornson notched his second hat trick of the season &hellip; Bob Baird, Komet candidate for &ldquo;rookie of the year", collected his 23rd goal &hellip; Goalie Robbie Irons had 44 saves in a 6-4 win at Port Huron and Jerry Randall had 40 in a 5-2 loss at Columbus &hellip; Merv Dubchak, out since Dec. 8 with a broken ankle, got onto the ice tor the first time.DES MOINES &mdash; Dave Padzers-ki was named captain, succeeding Joe Kiss, traded to Toledo along with Yves Caouette and Terry Kerr for Pat Donnelly, Al Willis and Terry Sexsmith &hellip; Coaches Howie Milford of the Leafs and Ken Ulliot of the Komets were fined $25 by Commissioner Andy Mulligan for publicly criticizing linesmen after a game here &hellip; Bob Sutcliffe, center from the University of Denver, was getting a tryout.COLUMBUS- A crowd of 4,426 second largest in Checker history, turned out for a game with Fort Wayne &hellip; With goalie Gordon Dibley about ready to return, Gerry Fleury had his third fine performance in the nets &hellip; The Checkers were stopped after their longest winning streak-three.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04127/3311866-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="601" height="661"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON WESTBROOKE &hellip; Notches 34th Goal</figcaption></div>PORT HURON - Goalie Gaye Cooley came back to the Flags, who had loaned him to Knoxville in the Eastern League &hellip; The Flags had lost only three games in 21 starts at home but dropped 17 of 23 on the road.TOLEDO&mdash; Glenn Ramsay, back in goal after a month&rsquo;s absence, was beaten in his return by the Komets, 5-4, then was a winner in two games at Des Moines.<h2>LOOKING AT IHL RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02186/3311859-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1636" height="1054"></div> &#9632;

f0022-03

Gallagher Plans IHL Club In Flint; Dayton Nearing 100,000 Mark

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECUFF</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01234/3311918-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="293" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roger Bedard</figcaption></div>MONTREAL, Que. &mdash;The puck and Niagara Falls Flyers&rsquo; first place margin In the Ontario Hockey Association junior A league vanished simultaneously during a game played In Niagara Falls last week.With only 15 seconds remaining to play and the game between the Flyers and Hamilton Red Wings tied 3-3 Ed Hatoum of Hamilton fired a shot from the blueline.Flyer goaltender Phil Myre missed the shot and the puck disappeared as, if it had plunked Into a magician&rsquo;s top hat.However, the referee found a hole in the netting and another In the screen behind the goal and surmised that the puck had gone through both and Into the stands.The goal was allowed giving Hamilton a 4-3 decision.The loss, coupled with Montreal&rsquo;s decisive 6-1 win over St. Catharines Black Hawks the same night and Hamilton&rsquo;s 3-2 victory over the Flyers the previous evening on home ice moved the red hot Canadiens Into a first place tie with Niagara Falls.It was the first time since the second week of the schedule that the Flyers had company on top of the 10-team circuit.Including their 7-3 win over Oshawa two nights later the sizzling Canadiens picked up 17 of a possible 18 points In their last nine games to rise from fifth place In the standings to first position.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02184/3311911-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="625" height="641"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRUCE MULLETT &hellip; Steadies Canadiens</figcaption></div>The schedule also favors Roger Bedard&rsquo;s junior Habs as they play eight consicutive games on home Ice where they have been beaten only once in 16 starts this season. They were the definite hot team as the OHA clubs headed for the stretch run and the playoffs ahead. Bedard former Peterborough coach, was doing an outstanding job with Montreal.Attendance at the Montreal Forum has kept pace with the Improved play of the Canadiens.In contrast to the past few years when crowds have often dwindled to below 2,000 the Canadiens have attracted more than 10.000 to several of their games this year and should finish with a healthy bank balance for the first time In a decade.The Canadiens&rsquo; red-headed goaltender Bruce Mullett has been one steadying Influence with the Canadiens but they have also had steady defensive work and consistent scoring by forwards such as Andre Gaudette, Paul Lessard and Rejean Houle.Kitchener Rangers, considered by many to have the best balance In the league, continue to pose a threat to the co-leaders.The Rangers scored three consecutive wins during the week (10-8 and 8-1 over London, 5-1 over Toronto) and are close enough to take over first place should the Canadiens or Flyers run Into even a brief slump. &ldquo;The Rangers recently turmed back Ottawa 16-1.Toronto Marlboros and Hamilton Red Wings are also within range, just five points back.St. Catharines Black Hawks are virtually stranded in sixth place, nine points behind Toronto and Hamilton and seven above London while the Nationals seem fairly certain of playing seventh.The big battle In the lower division continues to be between Oshawa and Peterborough for the final playoff position.Although the Niagara Falls club has not maintained Its early season pace collectively, Individually the Flyers still control the race for the points championship.Tom Webster boosted his lead to eight points over teammate. Garry Swain while Richie Bayes of Toronto Marlboros Is another point back.Webster has 29 goals, a league-leading total of 50 assists for 79 points; Swain has 32 and 39, Bayes 31 and 39.The leader in actual goals scored Is Danny Lawson of Hamilton with 34. Lawson played recently with Detroit Redwings but was returned io Hamilton for the Balance of the schedule.<h2>How They Stand</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03141/3311904-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="810" height="2025"></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

Sizzling Canadiens Closing In On Niagara’s Wilting Ice Flyers With 9-Game Unbeaten Streak

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0588/3311956-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg"></div><h2>SOLUTION IN FEBRUARY 10 ISSUE</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04109/3311949-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="1412" height="3163"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

February 3, 1968

North Bay’s Don Grierson Headed For Pro Ranks

American Hockey League Summaries

Movements of Players

Crozier Back As No.1 Man With Brand New Attitude