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.

May 3, 1969

The Hockey News May 3, 1969

<h2>ALLAN CUP</h2><h3>Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0238/2486912-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="581" height="108"></div>(Galt leads best-of seven finals 1-0)<h3>Eastern Canada</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0328/2486905-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="581" height="99"></div>(Galt leads best-of-seven final series 3-1)<h3>Western Canada</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0419/2486898-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="572" height="101"></div>(Calgary wins best-of-five final series 3-1)<h2>MEMORIAL CUP</h2><h3>Eastern Canada</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0511/2486891-1-eng-US/f0022-052.jpg" title="f0022-05" width="580" height="100"></div>(Montreal wins best-of-five finals 3-1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-069/2486884-1-eng-US/f0022-062.jpg" title="f0022-06" width="575" height="110"></div>(Sorel wins best-of-seven semi-finals 4-1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-079/2486877-1-eng-US/f0022-072.jpg" title="f0022-07" width="576" height="102"></div>(Montreal wins best-of-seven semi-finals 4-0, one tied)<h3>Western Canada</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-089/2486870-1-eng-US/f0022-082.jpg" title="f0022-08" width="578" height="108"></div>(Regina wins best-of-seven finals 4-3)<h2>NEW YORK METRO</h2><h3>Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-097/2486863-1-eng-US/f0022-092.jpg" title="f0022-09" width="586" height="97"></div>(New York GreenLeafs win best-of-seven finals 4-3)<h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>New York 3, Essex 1New York 10, Essex 2New York 3, Essex 0New York 5, Essex 1<h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-107/2486856-1-eng-US/f0022-102.jpg" title="f0022-10" width="583" height="106"></div>(New York wins best-of-five semi-finals 3-1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-116/2486849-1-eng-US/f0022-112.jpg" title="f0022-11" width="585" height="101"></div>(Essex wins best-of-five semi-finals 3-1) &#9632;

f0022-02

IN THIS ISSUE

Playoff Races

<h2>TUESDAY APRIL. 22</h2>BOSTON 2 at MONTREAL 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04384/2485728-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="593" height="598"></div><h2>THURS APR. 24</h2>MONTREAL 2 at BOSTON 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-05288/2485721-1-eng-US/f0010-052.jpg" title="f0010-05" width="589" height="585"></div> &#9632;

f0010-04

SERIES “E”

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECLIFF</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0174/2486995-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="552" height="540"><figcaption class="caption-body">REJEAN HOULE &hellip; Fantastic Season</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0241/2486988-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="544" height="560"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROGER BEDARD. &hellip; Masterminded Champs</figcaption></div>MONTREAL, Que.For the first time in the history a team based in the province of Quebec has won the Ontario Hockey Association junior A championship.Montreal Canadiens, after placing first during the regular schedule, breezed through three playoff rounds without a defeat to win the title which had eluded them since they were granted entry into the Ontario junior A league in the 1961-62 season.It was only the fourth time in the past 11 years that the pennant-winners have also won the playoff championship.During the 54 game schedule the Canadiens won 37, lost 11 and tied six, finishing six points ahead of second place St. Catharines Black Hawks.They won three and tied two games with Hamilton Red Wings in the quarter-finals, swept four straight over Peterborough in the semi-finals then won four games in succession over St. Catharines after playing to a 6-6 tie in the opener in the Forum.No team in recent history has won the Ontario championship without at least one loss during the playoffs but the Canadiens, under coach Roger Bedard, are not an ordinary club.Many hockey observers believe that they are the best junior team since the Marlboros dropped only one game on their way to the Memorial Cup in the 1963-64 season.An indication of their strength was the all-star team selected at the close of the regular schedule.The entire first team forward line was made up of Montreal players-centre Gil Perreault, wingers Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif.Houle also won the points scoring championship with 108 points on 53 goals, 55 assists, eight more than runner-up Marcel Dionne of St. Catharines.The 1968-69 playoffs were remarkable for two reasons.First of all the crowds at all games were simply astounding.With the exception of games played in Maple Leaf Gardens, virtually ever playoff was a sellout with the Canadiens often drawing more than 17,000 at the recently refurbished Forum.The second place St. Catharines Black Hawks played before a record 122,006 home fans, an increase of 16,715 over their previous high of 105,291 set during their Memorial Cup season of 1953-54 when they had players such as Brian and Barry Cullen, Elmer Vasko, Maro Edwards and Hank Ciesla.Secondly the lack of upsets during the playoffs was unusual.As a rule two or three of the lower place teams knock off those which finish higher in junior A hockey.However this year everything went according to form.In the first round first place Montreal eliminated fifth place Hamilton; second place St. Catharines beat out sixth place Toronto Marlboros; third place Peterborough KO&rsquo;d seventh place London; fouth place Niagara Falls eliminated seventh place Ottawa 67s.The semi-finals also went according to the book with St. Catharines eliminating Niagara Falls and Montreal defeating Peterborough.The Canadiens easily defeated the Sorel Black Hawks and were headed for the Memorial Cup finals against the Regina Pats.Despite the lowering of the age limit the crop of players which will likely be drafted by National Hockey League teams during the June meetings in Montreal is the best in several seasons.Perreault still has a year of junior eligibility remaining but the NHL Canadiens are almost Certain to select Houle and Tardif as their French-Canadian draft choices.The Canadiens are permitted to choose the first two junior players of French-Canadian origin.Other top candidates for the draft are defenceman Dick Redmond and centre Bob Sheehan of St. Catharines, defencemen Serge Lajeunesse and Andre Dupont and forward Guy Charron of Montreal; forward Cam MacLeish of Peterborough; defenceman Yvon Labre and forward Doug Acomb of Toronto; forward Darryl Sittier of London; forward Pierre Jarry of Ottawa; defenceman Randy Manery of Hamilton; forwards Don Tanna-hill and Doug Brindley of Niagara Falls. &#9632;

f0023-01

Powerful Junior Habs Eye Memorial Cup

<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02287/2486579-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="577" height="96"></div>(Dallas wins best-of-seven finals 4-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. Apr. 13Dallas 2 at Oklahoma City 5Tues. Apr. 15Dallas 6 at Oklahoma City 4Wed. Apr. 16Oklahoma City 2 at Dallas 6Fri. Apr. 18Oklahoma Citv 2 at Dallas 3Sat. Apr. 19Dallas 5 at Oklahoma City<h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03233/2486572-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="577" height="98"></div>(Oklahoma City wins best-of-seven series 4-3)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Mar.28Tulsa 3 at Oklahoma City 2Wad. Apr. 2Tulsa 1 at Oklahoma City 6Fri. Apr. 4Oklahoma City 3 at Tulsa 2Sat. Apr. 5Tulsa 5 at Oklahoma City 3Sun. Apr. 6Tulsa 4 at Oklahoma City 3Wed. Apr. 9Oklahoma City 4 at Tulsa 3Fri. Apr. 11Tulsa 3 at Oklahoma City 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04202/2486565-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="588" height="105"></div>(Dallas wins best-of-five semi-finals 3-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Apr. 4Dallas 4 at Omaha 3Sat. Apr. SDallas 4 at Omaha 3Sun. Apr. 6Omaha 1 ot Dallas 4<h3>Quarter-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-05168/2486558-1-eng-US/f0019-052.jpg" title="f0019-05" width="575" height="94"></div>(Dallas wins best-of-five series 3-0)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-06137/2486551-1-eng-US/f0019-062.jpg" title="f0019-06" width="579" height="96"></div>(Omaha wins best-of-five series 3-1) &#9632;

f0019-02

CHL PLAYOFFS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0001-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-02106/2487119-1-eng-US/f0001-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-01133/2487126-1-eng-US/f0001-012.jpg" title="f0001-01" width="218" height="272"></div> &#9632;

f0001-02

ESPOSITO WINS HART AS MVP, GRANT GRABS ROOKIE AWARD — ON THE INSIDE

<div class="byline">BY GEOFFREY FISHER</div>ST. LOUIS, Mo. &mdash;If anyone has the notion that the St. Louis Blues will be a softer touch in the National Hockey League next season than they have been in their first two trips through the ice wars, forget it. There are at least three reasons and they are all named Plager.Brothers Bob and Barclay left their brands on the bodies of numerous NHL players in the season which saw the Blues rip through to the championship of the Western Division.Now the word is out that Billy The Kid, the youngest Plager, will throw in with his quick draw brothers to give the Blues the toughest family act since the Dalton boys ruled the Wild West.Hard-fisted William Ronald (Billy) Plager, youngest of the clan, got a preview shot with the Blues as they knocked out the Los Angeles Kings at the L.A. Forum in the fourth game, Sunday, April 20. Brother Bob was nursing an injured shoulder sustained when he tried to eliminate half of the Los Angeles squad. Billy was summoned from the wings to patrol a defense post. Prior to that the youngest Plager had been serving a hitch with the Blues&rsquo; Kansas City farm club where they were taking the rough edges off the rookie. One thing they were careful not to chip off was Billy&rsquo;s eternal desire to destroy the enemy. In adding Billy to the St. Louis club it was like adding another battle cruiser to the U.S. Fifth Fleet.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02560/2485190-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="354" height="735"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Plager</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03479/2485183-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="362" height="725"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Plager</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04353/2485176-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="360" height="722"><figcaption class="caption-body">Barclay Plager</figcaption></div>The doubtful future of veteran Doug Harvey leaves an opening on the St. Louis blueline. At 45, the all-time NHL great is likely to confine his ice time to coaching. A minor automobile accident which resulted in Harvey sustaining a head injury kept him out of Stanley Cup play.That the Plager boys would eventually be united on the Blues roster has been the hope of the Sidney Salomons, owners of the club. Both Salomons are strongly promotional minded and they early recognized the attraction of a three-brother act on ice. But it remained for the coaching staff to determine when and if the, time was ripe for the act to be put together.One fact is certain in advance. This act will follow no script. The Plagers work spontaneously. They are of one mind with a single purpose &mdash; hit. Their idea of an introduction is to slam an opposing player into the fourth row of seats, that is unless the victim would rather try for five. Their notion of playing on the defense is to blast a puck carrier against the boards hard enough so that he leaves a body imprint. Their way of reacting to an opponent who becomes irritable is a hard right cross to the snoot.There were few who dared intimidate the Blues during their first two seasons in the NHL because of fear of stirring up the two Plagers and hulking muscleman Noel Picard. With three Plagers and Picard the opposition can forget it for good. They&rsquo;ll have to settle for playing hockey, and with their heads up, so they&rsquo;ll know where the Plagers are lurking at all times.For example, it didn&rsquo;t take Bob long to join his brother Bare in the all-time Stanley Cup records for most penalty minutes. Last year Bare hung up a new record of 73 minutes as he lay siege to Philadelphia, Minnesota and Montreal as the Blues fought to the finals. This year it took Bob just one night to get his name into the record book by being hit with 25 minutes in penalties in one period of Stanley Cup play. It tied an eight-year mark held by Montreal&rsquo;s Marcel Bonin. Bob missed the all-time record of 30 minutes in penalties for one game by the narrow margin of one minute. Bob sat out 29 minutes in the opening tussle with Los Angeles.Recently Billy talked about his two brothers. &ldquo;I think I would rate it a toss-up as to which is the better fighter,&rdquo; said Billy.&ldquo;Bare is hotter tempered and when he gets mad I wouldn&rsquo;t want to say anybody could whip him. But Bob is more calculating and I think maybe a harder puncher.&rdquo;Where do you fit into the picture with your brothers? Billy was asked.&ldquo;I guess I would rather just referee,&rdquo; said Billy.Says Bob, who is 26, &ldquo;When we were young Bare used to beat me up, so I&rsquo;d beat up Billy, who would go across the street and beat up our little cousin.&rdquo;There was that time in junior hockey at Peterborough, Ont. when Bob and Bare met head on in a wild battle. They fought on the ice and carried the battle into the penalty box and again going to the dressing room after they had been banished from the game.Bob was sidelined for nearly two months this season following knee surgery. At the same time Billy was out of action at Kansas City, recovering from a similar operation.Bob&rsquo;s return to top form was painfully slow and frustrating to a fellow who can hardly wait to start cracking heads again.The opening game against the L.A. Kings in the playoffs was only three minutes old when he and Cowboy Bill Flett began swapping punches. Early in the third period his elbow found Lowell MacDonald&rsquo;s chin and the L.A. player hit the ice with his helmeted head. That was all for MacDonald. With only two seconds remaining in the game, it was Bob Plager again who was in the center of a brawl, this time with Skip Krake of L.A.Asked later by this writer to comment on his violent night against the Kings, he replied:&ldquo;Not much to it, just part of the game. I figure the first round against Philadelphia just helped me get into shape.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0002-02

Blues’ Bushin’ Plagers To Get Third Brother Into Act Next Year

<div class="byline">BY PAT CURRAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01585/2485145-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROGATIEN VACHON &hellip; At His Best Under Pressure</figcaption></div>MONTREAL, Que. &mdash;Steaks were late in the Union House up the street from Boston Garden while a group of Montrealers talked about Canadiens&rsquo; candidates for the Conn Smythe Trophy.Serge Savard, the scoring defenceman, Jacques Laperriere and Ted Harris were top nominees while Ralph Backstrom rated as one of the most consistent forwards. Gump Worsley got a nod for his great work against New York but was being ruled out since a hand injury sent him to the sidelines after three games with Boston.The steak talk came before the classic sixth game of the semi-final which the Canadiens won on Jean Beliveau&rsquo;s dramatic overtime goal to take the series four games to two.Afterwards Laperriere, Harris and Savard were still high in unofficial consideration but a brand new candidate had emerged in the person of goalie Rogatien Vachon.The 23-year-old netminder had already worked two fine games, a 3-2 loss at Boston and a brilliant effort in the Habs&rsquo; 4-2 fifth-game victory at Montreal. But his unbelievable play in stopping 50 shots Thursday had to be the highlight of the 1969 playoffs.&ldquo;Roggie was fantastic,&rdquo; said Gump Worsley. &ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t come up with two big games, maybe we&rsquo;re out of it by now.&rdquo;&ldquo;He was more than fantastic,&rdquo; offered Boston&rsquo;s Eddie Johnston, another member of the goalies&rsquo; union. &ldquo;He was unbelievable. Who could play better than he has for the last two games?&rdquo;Vachon&rsquo;s great performance was another chapter in the NHL career story of a goalie who has come up big under pressure.Few Montreal fans can forget his first night in Canadiens&rsquo; net at the Forum three years ago after he had been called up from Houston Apollos because of injuries to Worsley and Charlie Hodge. The Habs had been in a slump before meeting Detroit Red Wings and the kid&rsquo;s first NHL shot came off Gordie Howe.The big Detroit winger swept in on him alone but Vachon stood his ground to make the save.&ldquo;Somehow I stopped Howe&rsquo;s shot and that gave me more confidence than anything else,&rdquo; recalled Roggie.It&rsquo;s been that way with the little netminder in each of his three NHL seasons. He has had a habit of going hot and cold in 19 games of the 1966-67 campaign, 37 last season and 36 scheduled outings this season.Still whenever the chips were down, he came through with fine efforts. His overall record for 1968-69 was 36 games of which the Habs won 22, lost nine and tied three. However his real pressure work came on the road where he won 14 and tied two of his 21 starts.Due to a few bad games earlier in the season, the Forum crowd started giving Vachon a rough time and Coach Claude Ruel tried to spare him from the catcalls. Nevertheless Vachon refused to complain and wound up with their cheers in his ears during the fifth playoff game against Boston.He stopped 24 of 26 shots during the second period.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t let the crowd bother you &mdash; not if you&rsquo;re going to play 15 years in this league,&rdquo; says Roggie with 12 seasons to go.Vachon, a cool kid off the ice with a somewhat mod dress and long sideburns, is considering wearing a mask full-time next season. So far he has used the face-guard only in practice.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll start with one in training camp next season and see how it goes.&rdquo;HAB-NOTES: &mdash; Jean Beliveau&rsquo;s overtime goal was the first of his brilliant 16-year NHL career and his 73rd of the Stanley Cup playoffs &hellip; The Habs have now won nine straight overtime games from the Bruins &hellip; The series ended on a sporting note when those great Boston fans gave both teams an ovation while they shook hands at the finish. Young Coach Claude Ruel, a little bitter about the Bruins, wound up being congratuled by many of the losers &hellip; Henri Richard failed to get a scoring point in the Boston series but was skating as one of the standout forwards in the deciding game. &#9632;

f0002-01

Vachon Habs’ New Hope For Smythe Playoff Award

<div class="byline">BY BOB HARRIS</div>MONTREAL, Que. &mdash;It has been only two years since expansion came to the National Hockey League but already the new division is making its presence felt in the annual awards voting.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01585/2485228-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="267" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alex Delvecchio</figcaption></div>Danny Grant, the prolific scoring left winger who went from Montreal Canadiens to the Minnesota North Stars, cracked the Eastern Division monopoly wide open by being named the winner of this year&rsquo;s Calder Trophy as the rookie-of-the-year in the NHL.Grant was one of four players to receive awards for individual achievements this season but the only one from the Western division. The other three winners were from Eastern clubs.Phil Esposito of the Boston Bruins, who set a record of 126 points and won the Art Ross Trophy as league scoring champion, hauled away the Hart Troply as the most valuable player.Esposito&rsquo;s Boston teammate, defenseman Bobby Orr, captured the James Norris Trophy for the second straight season as the best rearguard in all of the NHL. Alex Delvecchio, the captain and 18 year veteran of the Detroit Red Wings, was named the recipient of the Lady Byng Trophy as the performer who best combined clean play and value to his team. It was the third time around for Delvecchio and the Byng.For the first time since 1952-53 the winners were selected in only one poll at the end of the regular schedule. In the previous 15 years, the selections were made in two polls-one at mid-seasori and the other at the end of the regular season. Three members of the National Hockey League Writers Association in each of the 12 League cities were the voters this season.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02473/2485221-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="2406" height="1268"><figcaption class="caption-body">NHl President CLARENCE CAMPBELL presents Calder Trophy to Minnesota&rsquo;s DANNY GRANT as rookie-of-the-year while Grant&rsquo;s managercoach WREN BLAIR, left, and club owner WALTER BUSH, right, look on approvingly.</figcaption></div>Each of the winners receives $1,500 from the NHL and the runners-up in the four awards receive $750 each.Grant was given the stiffest opposition of any of the winners. He polled 119 of a possible 180 points, only seven more than Norm Ferguson of the Oakland Seals. Defenseman Brad Park of New York Rangers was the East Division&rsquo;s leader and finished third with 30 points.Although none of the four winners was selected unanimously, Orr missed by only four points in the voting which was based on the system of five points in the voting which was based on the system of five points for a first-place choice, three for a second and one for a third. Orr&rsquo;s 176 points were 128 more than Tim Horton of Toronto Maple Leafs. Ted Green of Boston was third with 27 points.Orr, although only 21 years of age has already been tabbed as a super-star by many hockey experts and this season scored 21 goals and 64 points, both all-time records among defensemen.Esposito, who was selected by THE HOCKEY NEWS as player-of-the-year, won the Hart Trophy with 133 points, It was a close race for second position with Jean Beliveau, Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; captain, finishing with 47 points, three more than Orr.Delvecchio, who just completed his 18th season with the Red Wings, won the Byng Trophy with 117 points, 39 more than Ted Hampson of Oakland Seals. Third was former winner Bobby Hull of Chicago Black Hawks with 25 points.Grant is actually the second West Division player to win a trophy this season, Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante of the divisional Champion St. Louis Blues won the Vezina Trophy as the leading goaltenders.Of the $14,750 award money accompanying the six regularseason trophies, the East Division collected $9,750 and the West $5,000.Esposito reaped the biggest cash total, $8,250, with the AllStar selections still to be announced. Besides the $1,750 he received as scoring champion and the $1,500 as Hart Trophy winner, Esposito collected $1,250 as his share for Bruins&rsquo; second-place finish plus a $2,250-share when Boston eliminated Toronto in the Stanley Cup quarter-finals and $1,500 when the Bruins lost to Canadiens in the semi-finals. &#9632;

f0003-01

Grant Wins Calder To Crack East Monopoly; Bruins’ Esposito Captures Hart MVP Award

Following are the complete voting results for each of the four trophies:<h2>HART TROPHY</h2>Phil Esposito, Boston, 133; Jean Beliveau, Montreal, 47; Bobby Orr, Boston, 44; Red Berenson, St. Louis, 38; Bobby Hull, Chicago, 12; Gordie Howe, Detroit, 12; Ed Giacomin, New York, 9; Glenn Hall, St. Louis, 7; Norm Ullman. Toronto, 5; Yvan Cournoyer, Montreal, 5; Ted Hampson, Oakland, 4; Tim Horton, Toronto, 3; Jacques Plante, St. Louis, 3; John Ferguson, Montreal, 1; and Bernie Parent, Philadelphia, 1.<h2>BYNG TROPHY</h2>Alex Delvecchio, Detroit, 117; Ted Hampson, Oakland, 78; Bobby Hull, Chicago, 25; Dave Keon. Toronto, 17; Red Berenson, St. Louis, 15; Jean Ratelle, New York, 15; John Bucyk, Boston, 11; Yvan Cournoyer, Montreal, 9; Rod Gilbert, New York, 7; Stan Mikita, Chicago, 5; Ken Wharram, Chicago, 4; Norm Ullman, Toronto, 4; Jean Beliveau, Montreal, 3; Jacques Plante, St. Louis, 3; Elob Nevin, New York, 2; Vai Fonteyne, Pittsburgh, 2; Norm Ferguson, Oakland, 1; Fred Stanfield, Boston, 1; Ray Cullen, Minnesota, 1; Al Arbour, St. Louis, 1; Frank Mahovlich, Detroit, 1; Ed Joyal, Los Angeles, 1; Andre Lacroix, Philadelphia, 1.<h2>NORRIS TROPHY</h2>Bobbv Orr. Boston. 176; Tim Horton, Toronto 48; Ted Green. Boston, 27; Ted Harris. Montreal, 22; Al Arbour, St. Louis. 17; Jacques Laperriere, Montreal, 9; Jim Nielson, New York, 7; Jean-Claude Tremblay, Montreal. 5; Bill White, Los Angeles, 4; Pat Stapleton. Chicago, S; Bob Baun, Detroit, 3; Carol Vadnais, Oakland. 2 and Doug Harvey. St. Louis. 1.<h2>CALDER TROPHY</h2>Danny Grant, Minnesota, 119; Norm Ferguson, Oakland, 112; Brad Park, New York, 30; Gerrv Desjardins, Los Angeles, 20; Andre Lacroix, Philadelphia, 5; Walt Tkaczuk. New York, 13; Jim Dorey, Toronto, 5; Dick Sarrazin, Philadelphia, 3; Jean Pronovost, Pittsburgh, 3; Ricky Ley, Toronto, 1; and Danny O&rsquo;Shea, Minnesota, 1. &#9632;

Trophy Voting

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01647/2485304-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="363" height="426"></div>&bull; MONTREAL CANADIENS are 5-1 favorites to win the Stanley Cup again &hellip; The St. Louis Blues haven&rsquo;t beaten Canadiens in 15 consecutive games, including last year&rsquo;s Cup finals. They&rsquo;re tied twice and lost 13 times &hellip; But scotty Bowman and his St. Louis players feel confident. They think they have a team capable of dowing the Stanley Cup champions of 1968 &hellip; A win in the finals for St. Louis would be worth $9,750 to each of the Blues, based on 21 shares. Even if they lose to Montreal each St. Louis player is assured of $8,250 in bonus money &hellip; Bowman blamed the Blues, poor third period in the opening game of the finals to the fact it was only his club&rsquo;s fifth game in three weeks. &ldquo;That had to have something to do with it. We&rsquo;ve been practicing well but you never know how they&rsquo;re going to come out of a layoff,&rdquo; he added &hellip; Jean Beliveau has had many thrills during his lengthy NHL career but nothing to match scoring the winning goal in overtime against Boston. &ldquo;After my first overtime goal in the National League, what can match it?&rdquo; asked the big captain &hellip; Boston was downhearted after playing so well in the semi-finals and losing but Ted Green, a standout defenseman throughout the playoffs, was optimistic about the future. &ldquo;Montreal is a great club and it&rsquo;s always nice to beat them. But there hasn&rsquo;t been a better club in the NHL than this Bruins team. When it gets a little more experience it will be up there for a long time&rdquo; &hellip; NHL referees working the playoffs confess they get just as nervous as the players before a big game. &ldquo;You get all tensed up the day of a game. You walk around feeling edgy until you&rsquo;re on the ice and drop the first puck,&rdquo; reported one veteran official &hellip; Minnesota North Stars plan to switch their Central League franchise from Memphis to another city for next season. Duluth, Minn., close to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, has been mentioned as a possible site.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02599/2485297-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="256" height="437"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scotty Bowman</figcaption></div>&bull; IN AN effort to bring professional hockey and basketball to Washington, a $20 million ultra-modern sports arena and convention center complex is scheduled to be built on the Capital Betway at Oxon Hill &hellip; Construction is slated to begin within a year with the opening to take place prior to the 1971 basketball and hockey seasons &hellip; The arena will be built by the Lerner Co., one of the area&rsquo;s bestknown and successful real estate developers &hellip; Frank Carlin, the well-liked Canadian representative of the Philadelphia Flyers, was attacked on one of the main streets in Cleveland while walking back to his hotel following a recent playoff game between the Quebec Aces and Cleveland Barons. Frank has reported his assailant to the proper authorities and may pursue the matter further &hellip; Harry Watson, former NHL star and now public relations director of the Tam O&rsquo;Shanter Summer Hockey School, was host at the first two Stanley Cup finals in Montreal to Barry Jones, 15, and his uncle, Ivor Jones, of Fort Qu&rsquo;Appelle, Sask, who were recent winners of a trip for two to the Stanley Cup playoffs &hellip; Derek Sanderson, Boston&rsquo;s mod center, will miss his pal, Ken Harrelson, now that the Boston Red Sox star has been traded to Cleveland. The Turk and The Hawk had plans to open a mod-mod clothing store in Boston &hellip; Rumors persist that the Houston Sports Association is about ready to drop its interest in the Houston Apollos of the Central League &hellip; Myrna Snider, wife of Ed Snider, chairman of the Philadelphia Flyers, this season organized a group of 26 usherettes known as the &ldquo;Flyerettes&rdquo;. They have seven different outfits, which is five more than the hockey players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03507/2485290-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="270" height="417"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ted Green</figcaption></div>&bull; APPEARING in his 16th Stanley Cup playoffs, Jean Beliveau says the Canadiens are just as hungry as they have ever been. &ldquo;The playoffs work both ways. The older players figure the season is near the end and put out with a little extra effort. The younger fellows consider it a challenge and work harder, too&rdquo; &hellip; Montreal Canadiens are reported ready to give up Ottawa territorial rights so that Detroit Red Wings may sponsor a team in the American Hockey League next season. However, Baz Bastien, Detroit&rsquo;s scouting director, says Ottawa is only one of five sites being considered &hellip; Rudy Migay, a long-time friend and associate of Jack Riley&rsquo;s, will no doubt get the coaching job at Pittsburgh. Riley, the Penguins&rsquo; GM, said: &ldquo;What we need most are players,&rdquo; moaning his club&rsquo;s out-of-the playoffs finish for two straight years &hellip; Pittsburgh may pick up Forbes Kennedy from the Maple Leafs. In fact Toronto is anxious to unload Kennedy &hellip; Hockey Night in Canada now has a Baseball Day in Canada as well. Video Tape Productions, which is owned by McLaren Advertising Limited (holder of the hockey broadcast rights in Montreal and Toronto) has announced an agreement with Hughes Sports Network of the United States to produce many of the games back to the States of the Montreal Expos&rsquo; opposition &hellip; Ralph Mellanby and Jacques Berube are acting as supervisory producers on this series &hellip; Toronto&rsquo;s Jim Dorey underwent a successful eye operation last week. The 21-year-old Leaf defenseman had suffered blurred vision since being hit by Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Lou Angotti last November &hellip; NHL Referee Vern Buffey has talked retirement for years but expects to make it official at the finish of the Stanley Cup playoffs &hellip; Phil Esposito, Gerry Cheevers and a few other members of the Boston Bruins are going to console themselves at Las Vegas &hellip; The Memorial Cup finals go West this Spring but junior hockey is so big in Montreal right now that the first two games of the Regina-Montreal series have been scheduled in the East with the Montreal Forum the site of games one and two. Projected attendance for the two games is as high as 36,000.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04439/2485283-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="269" height="413"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Dorey</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY Founded October 1st, 1947Published weekly except monthly June through September by Ken-Will Publishing Co. Ltd. 1434 St. Catherine Street West Montreal 107, Canada.Kenneth William McKenzie President and PublisherWilliam Z. Stevenson Managing DirectorYearly Subscription Rates: $5.00 in Canada $6.00 in the U.S.A, and $8.00 in Foreign Countries.Postage paid at Rouses Point. N.Y.Authorized as second Class mail, Past Office Department, Ottawa Second class mail registration number 1327Printed in CanadaVol. 22 MONTREAL, MAY 3,1969 No. 30<h2>Chance To Name Your Favorite Players</h2>I am running a poll to find out which NHL players are the favorites among the fans. Here&rsquo;s your chance to name the big league stars you like the best. Just drop me a letter with your favorite lineup included. Name a goaler, tow defenseman and three forwards. This poll is open to all hockey fans.Please keep in mind that this is not an all-star poll.Write me as soon as possible and I will send the results of the poll to THE HOCKEY NEWS.KEVIN FAVELL, 438 Bunting Rd., St. Catharines, Ont.<h2>McCreary Fan Club Wants New Members</h2>Do you want to get in on the Keith McCreary Fan Club and have a chance to join with others who idolize this star member of the Pittsburgh Penguins?All you have to do is write me if you would like to join our fan club. We plan to correspond with anyone who takes the trouble to write. Keith is a fine player and deserves the recognition for his all-round solid effort on the ice with the Penguins. So write now and join us. You&rsquo;re all welcome.ANTHONY CHARETTE, President,Keith McCreary Fan Club, 6 Hotel de Ville St., Deschenes, Que.<h2>Dallas Hawks Rate As True All-Stars</h2>Here&rsquo;s my vote for the true AllStars of the Central Hockey League. Coach Bobby Kromm and the incomparable Dallas Black Hawks, who were completely ignored in the CHL AllStar teams selections.L&rsquo;esprit d&rsquo;equipe enabled the record-setting Black Hawks to sweep the Central Hockey League playoffs with 10 wins and one loss to capture the championship.Hat&rsquo;s off to the Dallas Black Hawks and Bobby Kromm for a job well done.GRAHAM BOLTON, Dallas, Tex.<h2>Name Sully Coach Of Canada Nationals</h2>In reference to Mr. Felix Lambertus&rsquo; April 19 article, I don&rsquo;t think Red Sullivan is a losing coach. In New York and Pittsburgh, he had a losing atmosphere&mdash;both players and management were accustomed to losing and used him as a scapegoat.It is a fact that the Canadian National hockey team would be wise to sign such a knowledgeable hockey coach as Sullivan. Many coaches have lauded Sullivan&rsquo;s sense in hockey fundamentals, his determination and patience, which he exercised as a star player. He is popular among both players and management and above all he has a burning desire to succeed.Red Sullivan would definitely bring Canada to its feet and supplant Russia and the Czechs as the major world hockey power.ROBERTA ZIMMERMAN, Vanier, Ont.<h2>A Hockey Public Well Served By Hockey News</h2>After having followed hockey fortunes for almost three-quarters of a century and receiving your HOCKEY NEWS for 22 seasons, I would like to compliment your earnest diligence and endless perseverance in finding interesting and fascinating hockey material.Having been a former coach to the Italian National Team (10 seasons) and the editor-in-chief of the Patrician newspaper last year, I realize the amount of work necessary and the time needed to meet requirement dates. You have continued more than any other hockey publication to keep the hockey public well informed.I am a Pittsburgh fan and appreciate more features on the Penguins.REV. ARLO HARLAND PAVIA, Camp Anile College, Ottawa, Ont. &#9632;

Fan Forum

Who is the greatest player you ever saw?<h2>SEYMOUR ADELSON, clothing executive, Forest Hills, Long Island:</h2>&ldquo;All around, Gordie Howe. Also the most rugged, possibly even dirtiest. Milt Schmidt also rugged and great all-around. Terry Sawchuk was the best goalie, Doug Harvey the best defenseman, Edgar Laprade the finest stick-handler. Bobby Hull the most devastating offensive player, Maurice Richard the most colorful and dynamic player. The player with the greatest natural instinct and ability will prove to be Bobby Orr, I think.&rdquo;<h2>SERGE LANGEVIN, waiter, Montreal, P.Q.:</h2>&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m being a homer when I say Maurice Richard, but I don&rsquo;t think you will find a player who was more exciting on the ice to watch than the great Rocket. Boy, from that blueline to the net, you couldn&rsquo;t find a better player for my money.<h2>MARVIN RESNICK, school teacher, Brooklyn, N.Y.:</h2>&ldquo;Gordie Howe. He is the king without a doubt. Maurice Richard was better from the blue line in but Howe gives 100% all over the ice. He is still great at forty, which in itself is fantastic. How would Detroit survive without Gordie?&rdquo;<h2>STEVE FOSS, real estate New York:</h2>&ldquo;Jean Beliveau. He is the best with the money on the line, in the playoffs. Howe does not have a good playoff record and Richard only wanted to score goals, but Beliveau does it all. He is the non pared of playoff players.&rdquo; &#9632;

THE FANS’ CORNER

Here is the Royal York pee wee team of the Toronto Hockey League which travelled to California and proved a hit in Los Angeles. The youngsters played and won several games and were guests at the L.A. Kings&rsquo; game. They also paid a visit to the NHL club&rsquo;s dressing room. Front row, left to right, RAY TESKEY, PETER GORDON, KEITH EVANS, DAVID WALTON, K. BATENCHUK, PETER WOODS, GLENN FODEN, DANN McKERAGHAN. Back row, GORD LORIMER, JIM ROBERTS, RUSS EVANS, (manager), MITCH EDWARDS, ROBERT NEWTON, GREG REDQUEST, KEN LORIMER, DON WILSON, REID BAILEY, WES MURRAY, COLIN LORIMER, league president, and DENIS MASTERS, trainer. &#9632;

Toronto Kids Hit In L.A.

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01605/2485383-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>LOS ANGELES, Calif. &mdash;Clarence Campbell, president of the National Hockey League,&rsquo; has indicated that the circuit will be expanded by two new franchises and the Eastern and Western divisions realigned to include established and expansion franchises at that time, with Toronto moving over to join Vancouver in the Western loop, for the 1970-71 season.In an interview in Los Angeles, Campbell said, &ldquo;It is pretty well set now that expansion and realignment will come the season after next with Vancouver coming in as one of the new franchises and one of the two existing Canadian teams shifting into the West to join them and make it an especially promising situation for success for the new team.&rdquo;Campbell added that the other newcomer has not yet been set, although he did say San Diego was not interested and Buffalo presumably was, and that realignment would follow primarily geographical lines. When asked if this meant Toronto, not Montreal, would join Vancouver in the West then, the president said, &ldquo;That is a safe assumption.&rdquo;Based on Campbell&rsquo;s comments, then, the 1970-71 makeup of the NHL might look like this:EASTERN DIVISION &mdash; Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.WESTERN DIVISION &mdash; Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles and Oakland.There are other factors to consider, of course.Each club will battle to get into what it considers the most attractive division for its purposes.If strict geographical guidelines are followed, St. Louis might go into the East, Minnesota into the West.And Buffalo, of course, may not be the second addition. Toronto forces have some reservations about encouraging the admission of this close geographical rival. Baltimore, Houston and Seattle may also lodge strong bids. Chances are it will be an Eastern addition, however.Also, neither Pittsburgh, nor Oakland has drawn satisfactory attendance in two seasons of expansion so far. At present, Campbell declines to admit dis-couragment in these areas and the current owners of these clubs say they will stay pat for the time being. However, future transfers of both remain strong possibilities, though Oakland may go no further than across the bay into San Francisco.It is almost certain three of the NHL&rsquo;s old clubs will go into each division in the new setup. Campbell indicated he felt this would be wise to assure balanced competition in the near future. While he felt the &ldquo;new&rdquo; teams did better against the &ldquo;old&rdquo; teams in this second season of expansion &mdash; statistics to the contrary, because they played tougher schedules &mdash; he still does not foresee &ldquo;parity&rdquo; for six or seven seasons, until the new &ldquo;universal draft&rdquo; of amateur prospects will have taken full &ldquo;equalizing effect,&rdquo; with the prime prospects having had time to mature.There has been some added sentiment for realignment since &ldquo;old&rdquo; clubs with better records than &ldquo;new&rdquo; clubs have been deprived playoff positions and consequent bonus money under the present setup. This season, Detroit and Chicago both missed the playoffs in the East, although they had better records than every team in the West except pennant-winning St. Louis.Although there is some sentiment for preserving the &ldquo;integrity&rdquo; of the divisions by having teams play most of their games in their own division, Campbell added that the &ldquo;only logical approach to the new setup would be to have balanced schedules,&rdquo; with each team playing each of the other 11 teams in the league three games at home and three away for a 78-game regularseason schedule, longest yet. The fact is that any other setup would be to reduce the number of games between old, established clubs further yet, and Montreal and Toronto, for example, would like four games with each other a lot less than they will like six.Presumably, four teams will make the playoffs in each division as is done currently, and then three in each will miss. It might be noted that further expansion with two more newcomers might set up four divisions of four teams each, such as the new National Football League setup, with a new playoff program.The strong drawback to realignment, of course, is that while the new teams have been involved in pennant races and playoffs in the setup of the early years of expansion, they would mostly figure to become also-rans in the early stages of realignment, a la baseball&rsquo;s New York Mets or Houston Astros, with only one playoff berth within their reach. This could hurt their attendance in the critical years of growth.Campbell added that while the NHL normally tries to avoid conflict with the World Series, next season, which is expected to be conducted much as this past season has been conducted, will open during the World Series, and that the NHL generally was not concerned by conflict with baseball or any other sport. &ldquo;We have faith in the popularity of our sport and tend to worry only about our problems, not the problems others have in their games,&rdquo; he concluded. &#9632;

f0005-01

Three ‘Old’ Clubs Likely To Join Western Division For NHL Parity

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES, Calif. &mdash;Unfortunately, the National Hockey League playoff program provides some favors for lower finishes. As the Los Angeles Kings entered the home stretch of this past regular season, there was suspicion that they might prefer to finish fourth and get to face Oakland in the opening round of post-season play instead of finishing third and having to tackle the superior pennant-winner, St. Louis.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-01675/2485445-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="260" height="430"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jack Cooke</figcaption></div>The Kings&rsquo; brass emphatically denied this, pointing out that the higher finish was worth $500 more per man and they felt they could do just as well with St. Louis as they could with Oakland. No one really believed them, however, nor were surprised when the Kings failed to win in their last six games, thus securing fourth position.And it worked to their advantage. They were able to eliminate Oakland in a full-route seven-game opening series whiiv St. Louis was wiping out Philadelphia four straight before St. Louis in turn eliminated L.A. in four straight. By finishing fourth and gaining the final round, the Kings earned $4,000 each, or $1,750 more than they would have made by finishing third and losing the first round.Also they gained their greatest glory in their brief history in the Oakland series. Fighting from behind from game to game and finally from a three-game-to-two deficit, the sixth and seventh games of that round were the first clutch triumphs they have scored in their two seasons.Sadly, they surrendered some of their newly-won pride and prestige in the St. Louis series by the manner in which they went down to defeat &mdash; 4-0, 3-2, 5-2 and 4-1 &mdash; all depressingly decisive. Especially disappointing was the fact that they failed to win even one game and were beaten badly in the third game before 12,523 eager fans, their best playoff draw yet. Some victories here might have had hockey catch fire with Southern California fans, as it did in St. Louis last spring, but that now remains yet only a hope for some time in the future. Then, in the final, they were disturbingly listless.It is a fact that no reasonable person expected them to beat St. Louis, which is superior to L.A. in every possible phase of the game at this point. The feeling is that the Kings played to the limit of their ability against Oakland, if not beyond their ability, and simply had nothing left for the sterner test. They outplayed the Blues at St. Louis in the second game, a notable achievement. There were a few times in the playoffs when they looked like the team owner Jack Kent Cooke and manager Larry Regan thought them to be since they were put together.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02543/2485438-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="1164" height="1344"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kings&rsquo; goaler GERRY DESJARDINS accepts Los Angeles Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association award as most valuable player on the club from CHUCK GARRITY of the Los Angeles Times.</figcaption></div>At the conclusion, owner Cooke said, &ldquo;I am disappointed in this season, as you know I have to be. We finished only fourth and that by only a few points during the regular season. There was cause for rejoicing in the Oakland playoff series, but not in the St. Louis series. There will have to be changes because I am determined to have a stronger team and before too long a champion in Los Angeles.&rdquo; However, the determined and dynamic owner indicated any changes would have to wait until after his Los Angeles Lakers concluded their pro basketball title series, understandably his prime concern at the time.The chances are these changes may affect Red Kelly, whose coaching contract runs out July 15. Not that Kelly has not done a fine job with the material at his command, but the team has disappointed and he is discontented here. A division now exists between coach Kelly and manager Regan which unfortunately seems irreparable. Trades are likely also and a few of the team&rsquo;s more prominent players who are unhappy may ask to go, providing good bartering, material. Bill White and Bill Flett are two possibilities. &#9632;

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Disappointed Cooke Plans Changes In Kings

LOS ANGELES, Calif.&mdash;KINGS THINGS &mdash; The Kings drew 43,007 to five home playoff games, an average of 8,600 per game&hellip; Their series with Oakland produced 48 goals, an NHL record for one playoff series&hellip; In 11 playoff games, the Kings were led in scoring by Ted Irvine with five goals and Bill Flett, Eddie Joyal, Howie Menard and Gary Croteau with three each. However, Joyal failed to score in the nine games between the opener and the finale. The Kings were hurt by injuries to Lowell MacDonald in the first game and Dale Rolfe in the third game of the St. Louis series. Rolfe, Larry Cahan and Brent Hughes, King defensemen, were outstanding against Oakland, but not against St. Louis. Cahan, 35, is the only King talking retirement. &#9632;

Injuries Hurt Kings’ Chances

<div class="byline">BY NORMAN MacLEAN</div>NEW YORK, N.Y. &mdash;The busiest time of the year for a National Hockey League general manager is now, even if your team is no longer alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01627/2485514-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="259" height="424"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jack Egers</figcaption></div>There is scouting to be done, both on the NHL level, the minor pro level and particularly the Junior A level. Decisions must be made as to whom to protect in the upcoming June draft sessions and groundwork is made for trades before, during and after the June meetings in Montreal.Emile Francis, the economy sized package of dynamite who wears the mantle of major domo in Gotham, is perhaps more on the move than most. A recent travelogue by Francis included Stanley Cup games in Montreal between Boston and the Canadiens, Junior A contests between St. Catharines and the Junior Canadiens, Memorial Cup Junior A games between Hull and Sorel followed by a portion of the St. Louis-Los Angeles series and the Buffalo-Hershey American Hockey League playoffs.&ldquo;It is most important that we analyze the players in Junior A competition now. Remember the new Junior draft will allow all NHL clubs to draft in the reverse.order of finish from the junior teams. There is no longer any farm teams as such in junior hockey,&rdquo; noted Francis.On the professional level, Emile and his scouts, Steve Brklacich, Lou Passador, Yvan Prud&rsquo;Homme, Dennis Ball and even Bernie Geoffrion have been looking over a plethora of talent, both Ranger owned and others.&ldquo;If we trade, it will be from a position of strength,&rdquo; says Francis. &ldquo;We have an oversupply of talent at center and defense. Perhaps we will go after a left wing. In Gilles Villemure, we have the best goalkeeper outside of the NHL and he is better than quite a few in it.&rdquo;On defense, New York has Jim Neilson, Brad Park, Arnie Brown, Rod Seiling, Allan Hamilton and Harry Howell. Howell must be considered a question mark because he has just undergone spinal fusion surgery and will not play until next January. Also Harry is 36 years of age. Farm defensemen include Buffalo&rsquo;s Rande Legge and Omaha&rsquo;s Mike Robitaille and Sheldon Kannegiesser.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02573/2485507-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="553" height="554"><figcaption class="caption-body">JUHA WIDING &hellip; CHL Hotshot Coming Up</figcaption></div>At center, New York is set with Jean Ratelie, the young veteran and rookie star Walter Tkaczuk. The third man, Phil Goyette, was hampered in the second half of the season by a knee injury, but Phil can still stickhandle with the best. At Omaha, Juha Widing, the heralded young center is coming off a season wherein he tallied 41 goals and 39 assists for 80 points. Another Omaha center Don Luce, impressed with 22 goals and 34 assists for 56 points. Buffalo&rsquo;s Dennis Hextail, who helped out with New York, for a short time last season is also highly regarded.On the right side of the forward lines, New York has Rod Gilbert, Bob Nevin and such as Ron Stewart, Jack Egers, Bill Fairbairn and Guy Trottier. Egers, with Omaha got 27 goals and 30 assists. Fairbairn may have a real shot at a New York job based on his 27-46-73 log at Omaha. Trottier is the red light kid of the AHL and did pinch hit with New York in 1968-69.It is on the left side that New York is weakest. They have Vic Hadfield, the star of the curved stick and Donnie Marshall. Marsh is 37 and behind him is Larry Jeffrey, who got only one goal and Reg Fleming. Fleming, at times was in Francis&rsquo; dog house because of stupid, unnecessary penalties. Reggie would really make a terrific gate attraction in an expansion division town. And if he ever got to Los Angeles, look out, he would probably wind up in the movies and make a lot of money.This agent looks for a New York deal for a left wing. Maybe Dennis Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks could be had, although a recent rumor had Philadelphia trying hard for little Hull and offering goaltender Doug Favell as bait.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03458/2485500-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="1188" height="1073"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE DAY, the Captain of the New York GreenLeafs, receives the Art Keegan Cup from NORMAN MACLEAN, the president of the Metropolitan Junior Hockey Association and New York correspondent of HOCKEY NEWS. The. GreenLeafs captured their third straight metro playoff title this Season. (New Photo Sy Hatty Klaff)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0007-01

Oversupply In Two Positions May Start Rangers Trading To Land Needed Left Winger

NEW YORK, N.Y. &mdash;BLUE CHIPS &mdash; Brad Park and Walter Tkaczuk do not have to be protected in the June draft &hellip; The New York GreenLeafs of the NY Metro Loop journeyed to Acton, Mass, to play the Acton Flyers in the first game of a best-of-three series for the Bill Chadwick Cup between the winners of the two junior circuits. The New York squad, despite an impressive season and playoff sweep in New York was the decided underdogs, but they brought home a 7-4 win with Julio Acosta getting five goals &hellip; Bernie Geoffrion has been offered a position with the Eastern Hockey League by Al Baron, the owner of the Long Island Ducks. It is doubtful Geoffrion will accept it&hellip; &#9632;

Park, Tkaczuk Not Draftable

<div class="byline">By Bill Libby</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-01660/2485576-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="294" height="386"></div><h2>Playoff Windup Bitter Pill</h2>IT WAS PLAYED like just another game, the final game of the Western Division championship playoff series, although it had deep meaning to both teams. St. Louis and Los Angeles spent the early afternoon watching Montreal and Boston battle bitterly in a brilliant Eastern title telecast, then went out and waltzed through their contest in a listless encounter before a small crowd in Jack Kent Cooke&rsquo;s fabulous forum. It was the circumstances: St. Louis had won the first three games of the round and was calm and confident, while L.A. was dejected and defeated.The Blues had won the pennant by 19 points, breezing &mdash; it fact they had won it by Christmas &mdash; and they had won the first round of the playoffs from Philadelphia in four straight, and now after they finished polising off L.A. in the second round in four more, they trooped into their dressing room and began to sing a French song of jubilation introduced to them by defenseman Noel Picard. There were shouts of joy and defiance and threats of throwing this person or that in the shower, but there was no such ecstasy as might have greeted tougher triumphs without a sterner test lying just ahead.The generous Salomons, the owners, father and son, were in and out to congratulate their men. They were resplendent in their riches. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great thrill,&rdquo; the father said. &ldquo;It certainly is,&rdquo; the son added. He had on a sport-coat that was so yellow it would terrify a peacock. More conservatively attired, and understandably less thrilled, Jack Kent Cooke moved in with his manager Larry Regan to congratulate their conquerors. Depressed, Cooke moved in and out quickly, but Regan lingered to walk along the rows of benches, shaking hands and congratulating each of the victors individually. It was a thoughtful gesture by a fiery and frustrated person.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02578/2485569-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="492" height="809"><figcaption class="caption-body">AL ARBOUR &hellip;Gets Job Done</figcaption></div>Glenn Hall, the great veteran goalie, who was the hero of last year&rsquo;s playoffs, was injured in the first game of this year&rsquo;s post-season play and now he dressed quietly while Jacques Plante, who played each of the first eight games, received the reporters cordially. Plante is 40 and looked it now, thin and sweaty and tired as he stripped. After three years in retirement, the success of his comeback this season is one of the marvels of sports history. &ldquo;What has he given up, eight goals in eight games?&rdquo; Manager and coach Scotty Bowman said as he stood nearby, admiring his star. &ldquo;You can score on those two guys, but you have to earn every goal &mdash; do you know what that means to a team?&rdquo;None of the reporters bothered with bespectacled Al Arbour, the thirtv-six-vear-old veteran, who is probably the Western Division&rsquo;s best player, but who does his defensemen&rsquo;s job so smoothly, so consistently, so perfectly, so unspectacularly play after play,&rsquo; game after game, that no one ever notices him and he was even buried in the minors for years before being reclaimed in expansion. A few spoke to Red Berenson, who is the division&rsquo;s best if Arbour is not. and he answered them with quiet restraint. He and his wife lost a newborn infant early in the playoffs, their fourth child. Sometimes for some, the bright music sounds harsh and it is agony to do what one must do just to go on.This is a team and this was a team triumph, accomplished without Doug Harvey, who was off somewhere nursing a regrettable head injury, and completed on the road, without the help of the fanatical loyalists who have made St. Louis much the hottest of the new big-time hockey towns and who drive opposing broadcasters to muttering outrage and opposing teams to helpless fury. Now, Lynn Patrick, who built this club, stood quietly in a comer of the dressing room, as though it would be wrong for him to intrude on the celebration.<h2>Bowman Not Conceding Defeat</h2>SCOTTY BOWMAN, the brilliant and intense young coach, who took the team to the top, was not pretending he felt his aged two-year-olds could upset the Eastern champion, but he was not conceding defeat either. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be rested, while they&rsquo;ll be tired,&rdquo; he pointed out. &ldquo;If we can just win one or two &hellip; well &hellip; who knows? We&rsquo;ll take them as they come, one at a time, and do the best we can. We have a lot of pride in ourselves now.&rdquo; He was asked if he&rsquo;d found anything to worry about in his team&rsquo;s easy run of victories thus far. &ldquo;You always worry,&rdquo; he smiled. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re ahead 3-0 you worry what&rsquo;ll happen to your team if the other team catches you.&rdquo;The other team, $4,000 richer per man compared to at least $8,000 more for each Blue player, dressed quietly and prepared to go home. The long season, which began eight months and 97 games back, now had ended. Cooke and Regan had come in and out quickly to thank the players for their efforts, and now coach Kelly stood off to a side as reporters moved among the Kings, shaking hands, wishing them good summers and bidding them farewell until the fall. There were some wistful smiles from those who did not expect to be back, not here anyway. Some had good seasons, some did not. Losers know changes must be made. Not all want to return. Every season on every team, some grow unhappy.No one will say so now, but it seems unlikely Kelly will return. There has been unhappiness growing around him. Even if he had not done a fine job, a deep division had developed between the coach and manager which seems unfortunately irreparable. Kelly walked upstairs to the press lounge and sat down, all the while talking about what might have been if he&rsquo;d had an experienced team leader, more checkers, a little more of this or that. His lovely wife Andra bid farewell to old friends, then drove home. It was after midnight before Red left to rejoin her. A quiet man, who nurses his own problems, he smiled sadly and waved and drove off into the darkness.Bill Libby&rsquo;s first book, &ldquo;Parnelli,&rdquo; an adult study of auto-rating and rate-driver Parnelli Jones was published on April 28 by E.P. Dutton & Co. in the U.S. and Clarke, Irwin and Co. in Canada. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY JACK BERRY</div>DETROIT, Mich. &mdash;The laws of physics tell us that for every action there&rsquo;s a reaction. The laws of sport tell us that for inaction &mdash; like when a team doesn&rsquo;t make the playoffs &mdash; there&rsquo;s a reaction, too, somewhere along the line.At Detroit the line extended down to Fort Worth, the Wings&rsquo; top farm team, which missed the Central League playoffs after tying for fifth place.Coach Fern Flaman was fired and it seems logical to assume the Wings will name Doug Barklev to succeed him.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03480/2485607-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="250" height="422"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fern Flaman</figcaption></div>Barkley has worked in the Red Wing front office the past three seasons since his career was tragically ended by an eye injury just as he was reaching his peak and becoming one of the game&rsquo;s top defensemen.Barkley has traveled thousands of miles each winter, checking on Detroit-owned players and on possible trade or draft material.Flaman spent two years in the Detroit organization. He led Fort Worth into second place in the Southern Division in 1967-68 and the Texas Wings went all the way to the Central League playoff finals before losing.It was understood that Flaman wasn&rsquo;t playing some players the top brass wanted to see get a lot of ice time.So, when the season ended, dismally again for the Red Wings and also for Fort Worth, Detroit general manager Sid Abel huddled in Florida with club owner Bruce Norris and Abel said they were &ldquo;going to reorganize a few things&rdquo; in an effort to get both teams back in the playoffs.Following his session with Norris, Abel broke the news to Flaman and began engaging in daily conferences with chief scout Jim Skinner who concentrates on the juniors, with pro scouting director Baz Bastien and with Barkley.All fanned out to watch playoff action in all leagues, hopeful of lining up trade or draft material. They especially liked the looks of some of Boston&rsquo;s farmhands and the Bruins, heavily stocked with youngsters, figure to be a prime target of the weaker clubs like Detroit.The Wings&rsquo; prime need, figuring that Carl Brewer will come through on defense, is left wing help. It&rsquo;s been a problem position for some years now.Frank Mahovlich is no problem, of course, but after the Big M, management was disappointed &mdash; and said so &mdash; over the production of Dean Prentice and Nick Libett. &#9632;

f0008-03

Wings Start Clean Up By Firing Fern Flaman; Barkley May Get Post

<div class="byline">BY JIM PROUDFOOT</div>TORONTO, Ont.&mdash;Tim Horton was weary and discouraged that unhappy night in early April when he announced his retirement from hockey. Because the ci rcumstances were so unusual, nobody should be surprised if, in September, Horton turns up at the Maple Leaf training camp after all.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-01643/2485645-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="272" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">John McLellan</figcaption></div>Leafs had been knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the minimum four matches and Horton had played four of the worst games of his career against Boston, just when Leafs were counting on him to provide the defensive leadership they had to have. And then, just as soon as that final game ended, club president Staff Smythe walked into the dressing room and fired Punch Imlach, the coach and general manager. Just like that.Horton, who was upset anyway, was shocked by this turn of events and the first thing he could think of saying was that he&rsquo;d had enough, too.It is likely, though, that Horton will return to help the incoming coach, Johnny McLellan, for at least one year. Both came up through the Leaf system via St. Michael&rsquo;s college juniors and Leafs&rsquo; American League farm club at Pittsburghg. Some time soon, McLellan and general manager Jim Gregory will be approaching Horton and telling him how desperately he is needed for the season or two it will take Toronto&rsquo;s rookie defensemen to mature. They&rsquo;ll be willing to pay for this assistance, too.Horton wound up the term working with three freshmen &mdash; Jim Dorey, Ricky Ley and Part Quinn &mdash; with a fourth, Mike Pelyk, in reserve. The other veterans, Pierre Pilote and Marcel Pronovost, really weren&rsquo;t much help.It was such an arduous task, really, that Horton went into that horrible playoff series 20 pounds below his normal playing weight. That might have been the explanation for his incredibly bad play against the Bruins. Horton, after all, will be an allstar again for 1968-69, along with Boston&rsquo;s Bobby Orr but it is extremely fortunate those ballots are sent in before Stanley Cup warfare begins. Horton was no all-star in that series.Chances are, however, that Leafs wouldn&rsquo;t even have qualified for the playoffs if it hadn&rsquo;t been for Horton anchoring their defence and organizing their attack. He kept it up right through until the end of the 76-game calendar but it just seemed he had nothing left for the playdowns.Horton was 39 on Jan. 12 and, by current hockey standards, that is not overage for a defenceman. Mind you, Horton does more rushing that most which would drain his energy, but either of the youthful partners he had this past winter, Ley or Dorey, would be capable of relieving him of that burden.This was Horton&rsquo;s 20th season as a hockey professional. He had put in three campaigns with Pittsburgh Hornets before making it as a Toronto regular in 1952. In his second National League season, he was a second-string all-star behind only Red Kelly, Doug Harvey and Bill Gadsby.Late in 1955, however, Horton was caught a thunderous body check by Gadsby, then with New York Rangers, and fractured a leg and his jaw. That was a huge setback in the development of his career. Moreover, Leafs were very weak during this period and Horton frequently was moved up to right wing to take advantage of his puck-carrying ability. So it wasn&rsquo;t until 1963, almost a decade later, that he was again recognized as one of the top defencemen in the game. He was on the second team that year, the first team in 1964, the second team in 1967 and the first team again in 1968. It seems altogether likely he&rsquo;ll be a first-string selection once more this season.Add all the factors up and there seem compelling reasons for Horton to remain in hockey for another couple of years. He is at his absolute peak now and knows enough about the sport to overcome any loss of speed. He has a growing business in the manufacture and sale of doughnuts but it can operate without his full-time attention. And he can make a large dollar in hockey &mdash; perhaps in the $30,000 yearly category. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, Leafs need him very badly.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02607/2485638-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="569" height="556"><figcaption class="caption-body">TIM HORTON &hellip; Could Help Kids</figcaption></div>McLellan will have Ley, Dorey, Quinn and Pelyk on his rearguard next year along with, perhaps, Brian Glennie or Chris Evans from Tulsa&rsquo;s Central League team. Unless the new coach can use Horton to balance all those greenhorns, he&rsquo;ll be forced to deal for an experienced rearguard somewhere. And he really can&rsquo;t afford to make a trade. &#9632;

f0009-01

Leafs Expect Horton To Reconsider And Report

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-01660/2485690-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02580/2485683-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="1196" height="830"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scoring stars JEAN BELIVEAU, left, and CLAUDE PROVOST, combined to shatter Bruins&rsquo; playoff hopes</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03494/2485676-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="2422" height="1166"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruin goaler GERRY CHEEVERS sprawls on ice to make save against Montreal in Eastern playoff final</figcaption></div>BOSTON, Mass. &mdash;The Montreal Canadiens skated into the Stanley Cup finals for the 20th time in history last week as they ousted the Boston Bruins 4-2 in a hard-fought Eastern final series that ranked as one of the best contested playoff series in many years.The Canadiens put the best-of-seven series on ice when big Jean Beliveau tallied the deciding goal in the sudden-death second overtime period in the sixth game of the series after the Bruins had come back from a two-game deficit to pull even in the series by winning twice here in Boston.The Canadiens went home to grab the fifth game of the series 4-2 before returning here to wrap up the series and move into the cup finals against the St. Louis Blues.Beliveau&rsquo;s electrifying overtime goal came at the 11.28 mark of the second extra sudden-death period and stunned a capacity Boston audience of 14,659 that had come hoping the Bruins could force the series to the limit by winning here in the sixth game. The loss also shattered a 22-game undefeated streak for the Bruins on home ice.It was the first time Beliveau had ever scored a gamewinning goal in overtime during his 15-year NHL career.The Habs won the fifth game on the strength of a pair of goals by veteran right winger Claude Provost as they stopped the Bruins 4-2.Outstanding figure in the Montreal series victory had to be goalkeeper Rogatien Vachon, the young standby netminder who had to take over when veteran Lome Worsley suffered an injured finger that was thought to have been broken but later was diagnosed as dislocated.Vachon came up with sparkling performances in both games five and six to frustrate the pesky Bruins. In the meantime, the Hub squad received some solid goalkeeping of their own from Gerry Cheevers, who stood out as one of the top performers in the series.Boston coach Harry Sinden gave the Canadiens full marks for their victory, singling out the club&rsquo;s solid defense and the netminding of Vachon, whom Sinden said &ldquo;proved he&rsquo;s a real pro after taking over for Worsley.&rdquo;Sinden said his only regret was the club couldn&rsquo;t have won the series because he said he was sure they were good enough to go all the way.&ldquo;We had our chances and didn&rsquo;t capitalize on them. The players gave everything they had and we did have a good season in spite of our playoff loss to Montreal,&rdquo; he concluded. &#9632;

f0010-01

Canadiens Enter 20th Cup Final By Ousting Pesky Boston Bruins

<div class="byline">BY ED CONRAD</div>&ldquo;you like 7up 7up likes you&rdquo;&ldquo;you like 7up 7up likes you&rdquo;PHILADELPHIA, Pa. &mdash;If you&rsquo;re wondering who the untouchables are on the Flyers&rsquo; hockey team, you probably can count them cn one hand and have a few fingers remaining.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01657/2485759-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="270" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Van Impe</figcaption></div>Only Bernie Parent and Andre Lacroix appear to be the players the Flyers would refuse to let go in a trade, no matter how attractive an offer is made for them.Parent, 24, is their fine young goalie who just recently was named the second best goaltender in the game today (by NHL coaches who placed Jacques Plante first). Lacroix, who&rsquo;ll turn 24 in June, was the club&rsquo;s top scorer in both goals (24) and points (56) this past season.After Parent and Lacroix, though, it appears that everyone else could be had if the price was right. That would go for individuals such as veteran defenseman and team captain Ed Van Impe, who has played very well in his two seasons with the Flyers.Van Impe would go, of course, only if the price was right. This would mean that the Flyers would have to get someone who could shore up their weaknesses, particularly on offense.True, at times this past season it appeared the third place Flyers had sufficient offensive punch. However, those occasions were few and far between. More often than not, the club was struggling.Parent&rsquo;s goaltending was the one thing that kept the Flyers in a majority of games. The opposition wasn&rsquo;t peppering the net, thanks to a respectable defense. So even the Flyers&rsquo; popgun offense carried a little authority.Parent finished the season with an impressive 2.69 goals-against, average in 58 games. He allowed 151 goals in 3,365 minutes and wound up with a 17-23-16 record, most wins in the NHL by Bernie.Lacroix, who beat out linemate Jean-Guy Gendron by one point for the team scoring leadership, was very impressive the second half of the season. Then he &mdash; and the &ldquo;French Line&rdquo; he centers &mdash; fell flat on their collective faces in the four-game sweep by the St. Louis Blues in the opening-round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.Nevertheless, Andre&rsquo;s line, which has Gendron on left wing and Dick Sarrazin on right wing, did account for a total of 60 goals. Gendron had 20 and Sarrazin finished with 16. The trio finished 1-2-3 in team scoring with Sarrazin&rsquo;s 46 just off the pace of the others.Except for the &ldquo;French Line&rdquo;, however, the Flyers had their headaches putting the puck in the net. Only two other players finished with more than 25 points (Jim Johnson with 44 and Leon Rochefort with 35).This means that the Flyers will be anxious to work a deal out with another club to acquire an offensive-minded forward, particularly a center. General manger Bud Poile and coach Keith Allen realize such a player could be just what the doctor ordered.One player the Flyers would love to land is Dennis Hull.Dennis, 24, plays left wing and scored 30 goals for the Black Hawks this past season. However, the club seems destined for a complete housecleaning after finishing in the cellar in the Eastern Division, despite all of its scoring muscle.It has been rumored that the Hawks may part with Dennis for a goalie and a defenseman. The best bet would find Doug Favell and Van Impe heading to the Windy City. Ed had belonged to the Hawks before the Flyers landed him as their first selection in the expansion draft. He had a pretty good rookie year in Chicago &mdash; finishing behind Bobby Orr in the rookie of the year balloting.Favell is coming off a terrible year particularly because he was one of the best in the league as a rookie the year before. He had a 2.27 goals-against average in 37 games, including four shutouts, before plummeting to a 3.56 average in 21 games this season. He won only three of 20 games (3-12-5) after being a key factor in the Flyers&rsquo; Western Division championship in their maiden season. &#9632;

f0011-01

PARENT, LACROIX ONLY ‘UNTOUCHABLES’ WITH PHILLY

The Montreal Canadiens crashed the Stanley Cup finals for the 20th year last week and the man who put them there was big Jean Beliveau.The six-foot-three captain of the Canadiens broke up the sixth and deciding game of the Eastern finals against the Boston Bruins by scoring in the second overtime period to give Montreal a 2-1 decision and the best-of-seven series 4-2 in games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02608/2485790-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="253" height="427"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean Beliveau</figcaption></div>For Beliveau it was the first overtime goal of his brilliant 16-year NHL career and it couldn&rsquo;t have come at a more appropriate time than in the sixth game at Boston.The Bruins had battled the Canadiens on even terms for four and a half periods of playoff hockey before Beliveau connected with the payoff goal&mdash;his fifth of the 1969 playdowns and the 73rd of his career.Beliveau has become the Canadiens&rsquo; playoff leader again this season. With 11 points to his credit, he is the man the club is counting on to lead the way to Montreal&rsquo;s 14th Stanley Cup conquest.El Producto and THE HOCKEY NEWS are pleased to salute the NHL&rsquo;s player-of-the-week in the East:Jean Beliveau&hellip; Montreal &#9632;

f0011-02

NHL Ployer Of The Week — IN THE EAST

Jacques Plante has been the hottest performer among the &lsquo;big pad&rsquo; set since the 1969 Stanley Cup playoffs began.Fresh from wrapping up the Vezina Trophy with his running mate, Glenn Hall, the 40-year-old &lsquo;Masked Marvel&rsquo; has been an imposing figure since the St. Louis Blues launched their playoff bid back on April 2. Eight games later, the Blues were in the finals against the Montreal Canadiens and they didn&rsquo;t waver once along the way.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03530/2485821-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="279" height="416"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Plante</figcaption></div>Plante stood between the posts for all eight playoff victories registered by St. Louis&mdash;three of which ended in shutouts for the Blues&rsquo; veteran puck-stopper. He played a major role in getting the Blues through their Western Division playoffs and his glittering performance brought raves from all sides as the Blues prepared for the big series with Montreal.The Blues&rsquo; hopes for a win against the Canadiens will depend largely on whether the club continues to get the brilliant goaling it has received from both Plante and Hall this season. Plante could end up being the difference.El Producto and THE HOCKEY NEWS are pleased to salute the NHL&rsquo;s player-of-the-week in the West:Jacques Plante&hellip;St. Louis &#9632;

f0011-03

NHL Player Of The Week — IN THE WEST

MONTREAL, Que.&mdash;Often times a well - rested hockey club, will encounter problems when it runs up against a team with momentum.It happened in the opening game of the 1969 Stanley Cup finals as the Montreal Canadiens toppled the St. Louis Blues 3-1 in the start of their best-of-seven series, which is a rerun of last year&rsquo;s cup final.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01628/2485866-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="256" height="380"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Rousseau</figcaption></div>The Canadiens, who came through a rugged six-game Eastern final against the hard-hitting Boston Bruins, appeared to be a tired hockey club after they eliminated the Bruins. But the Habs were still keyed up for the finals and it showed in their oeverall ice play.The Blues, on the other hand, looked listless after breezing through the Western Division playdowns in eight straight games against Philadelphia and Los Angeles.It was a natural letdown for a club that had played only five times in the past five weeks leading up to the finals.Montreal coach Claude Ruel said the Blues showed the effects of not being under pressure but cautioned his club not to take the St. Louis team lightly in the wake of their easy opening win.&ldquo;They are a good hockey club and will get tougher as the series progresses. They have a fine net minder in Jacques Plante and once they find their skating legs again, they could be hard to handle,&rdquo; said Ruel.Blues&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman lamented his team&rsquo;s recent layoff brought on by sweeping both playoff rounds with the Flyers and Kings. &ldquo;We came out of the first game a little bit flat but that will change. The guys were a little nervous but we&rsquo;ll come along. You never know what a layoff will do to a hockey club until you get into the actual action. It had a lot to do with our performance,&rdquo; he added.The Canadiens got single goals form Bobby Rousseau, Dick Duff and John Ferguson to overpower the Blues. Frank St. Marseille notched the lone goal for the Western champions. Both net-minders Jacques Plante of the Blues and Montreal&rsquo;s Rogatien Vachon played extremely well.Vachon, who scintillated in the Habs&rsquo; series win over the Bruins, played another strong game against the Blues and appeared to be gaining more confidence with each passing game.<h2>SUN APR. 27</h2>ST. LOUIS 1 at MONTREAL 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02538/2485859-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="599" height="627"></div>(Montreal leads best-of-seven firals 1-0)Plante, the man who brought the Blues through the eight-game playoff romp in the West with some of the best goalkeeping seen in many years, was playing only his second game against the Canadiens this season.The goal that unsettled the Blues was Rousseau&rsquo;s first period score which came with Montreal leading 1-0 and the Canadiens&rsquo; Jacques Laperriere serving a penalty. Rousseau streaked in to beat Plante and offset the St. Louis power play.The Blues never quite recovered from the goal and even though St. Marseille came through to narrow the gap, they never did catch up to the Canadiens. Ferguson&rsquo;s shot into the empty St. Louis net with Plante out for a sixth attacker in the final minute was the frosting on the cake for the Canucks.The teams play the second game of the series on Montreal ice before moving down to St. Louis for games three and four. The opening victory marked the 15th straight time the Blues have failed to defeat Montreal since they came into expansion last season, and that includes the Habs&rsquo; four-game sweep in the 1968 cup finals as well.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03419/2485852-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="1807" height="1569"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal&rsquo;s JACQUES LEMAIRE (25) battles with BARCLAY PLAGER of St. Louis for possession of puck in Stanley Cup finals.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-01

Montreal Extends ‘Hex’ Over Blues Winning First Game Of Cup Finals

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02577/2485953-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01621/2485960-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="134" height="318"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>STANLEY CUP FINALS</h2>(Montreal leads best-of-seven finals 1-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. Apr. 27St. Louis 1 at Montreal 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tues. Apr. 29St. Louis ot MontrealThurs. May 1 Montreal at St. LouisSun. May. 4 Montreal at St. LouisTues. May 6St. Louis at Montreal (if necessary)Thurs. May 8Montreal ot St. Louis (if necessary)Sun. May 11St. Louis at Montreal (if necessary)<h2>EASTERN DIVISION SERIES &lsquo;A&rsquo;</h2><h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03535/2485946-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="528" height="103"></div>(Montreal wins best-of-seven series 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Apr. 2New York 1 at Montreal 3Thurs. Apr. 3New York 2 at Montreal 5Sat. Apr. 5Montreal 4 at New York 1Sun. Apr. 6Montreal 4 at New York 3<h3>SERIES &lsquo;B&rsquo;</h3>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04492/2485939-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="522" height="100"></div>(Boston wins best-of-seven series 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Apr. 2Toronto 0 at Boston 10Thurs. Apr. 3Toronto 0 ot Boston 7Sat. Apr. 5Boston 4 at Toronto 3Sun. Apr. 6Boston 3 at Toronto 2<h3>SERIES &lsquo;E&rsquo;</h3>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-05408/2485932-1-eng-US/f0013-052.jpg" title="f0013-05" width="529" height="100"></div>(Montreal wins best-of-seven series 4-2)GAMES COMPLETEDThurs. Apr. 10Boston 2 at Montreal 3Sun. Apr. 13Boston 3 ot Montreal 4Thurs. Apr. 17Montreal 0 ot Boston 5Sun. Apr. 20Montreal 2 at Boston 3Tues. Apr. 22Boston 2 ot Montreal 4Thurs. Apr. 24Montreal 2 ot Boston 1<h3>WESTERN DIVISION SERIES &lsquo;C&rsquo;</h3>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-06346/2485925-1-eng-US/f0013-062.jpg" title="f0013-06" width="547" height="110"></div>(St. Louis wins best-of-seven series 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Apr. 2Philadelphia 2 ot S. Louis 5Thurs. Apr. 3Philadelphia 0 at St. Louis 5Sat. Apr. 5St. Louis 3 ot Philadelphia 0Sun. Apr. 6St. Louis 4 at Philadelphia 1<h3>SERIES &lsquo;D&rsquo;</h3>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-07319/2485918-1-eng-US/f0013-072.jpg" title="f0013-07" width="554" height="100"></div>(Los Angeles wins best-of-seven series 4-3)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Apr. 2Los Angeles 5 at Oakland 4Thurs. Apr. 3Los Angeles 2 at Oakland 4Sat. Apr. 5Oakland 5 ot Los Angeles 2Sun. Apr. 6Oakland 2 at Los Angeles 4Wed Apr. 9Los Angeles 1 at Oakland 4Thurs. Apr. 10Oaklond 3 ot Los Angeles 4Sun. Apr. 13Los Angeles 5 ot Ooklond 3<h3>SERIES &lsquo;F&rsquo;</h3>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-08299/2485911-1-eng-US/f0013-082.jpg" title="f0013-08" width="549" height="97"></div>(St. Louis wins best-of-seven series 4-0).<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thurs. Apr. 15Los Angeles 0 at St. Louis 4Thurs. Apr. 17Los Angeles 2 at St. Louis 3Sat Apr. 19St. Louis 5 at Los Angeles 2Sun. Apr. 20St. Louis 4 at Los Angeles 1<h2>Playoff Scoring</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-09285/2485904-1-eng-US/f0013-092.jpg" title="f0013-09" width="541" height="1448"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-10265/2485897-1-eng-US/f0013-102.jpg" title="f0013-10" width="532" height="1411"></div> &#9632;

f0013-02

Stanley Cup Picture ’69

<div class="byline">BY GLENN REDMANN</div>TWIN CITIES, Minn. &mdash;If the North Stars are to get back among the playoff elite in NHL play next season, there&rsquo;s a pretty good chance that such youngsters as Danny Lawson and Walt McKechnie will have a big part in it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-11241/2485991-1-eng-US/f0013-112.jpg" title="f0013-11" width="249" height="439"><figcaption class="caption-body">Danny Lawson</figcaption></div>Why? Because Wren Blair feels both forwards are tremendous prospects who can reach their potential only be seeing extensive action.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be both surprised and disappointed if Danny and Walt don&rsquo;t show enough in training camp to win regular jobs,&rdquo; said the Minnesota general manager and coach recently.Blair was asked to assess the records of the two 21-year-olds during the disappointing 1968-69 season which found the Minnesotans slipping to a fifth-place tie in the West Division after finishing fourth the year before.Lawson, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound right winger, played in 62 NHL games as a first-year pro and came up with eight goals and 10 assists.McKechnie, who packs 195 pounds on a wiry 6-2 frame, tallied five goals and nine assists over 58 games in his first full NHL campaign after winning Western League rookie-of-the year honors with Phoenix in 1967-68.&ldquo;For the limited amount of ice time I was able to give Danny after we obtained him from Detroit,&rdquo; said Blair, &ldquo;I was most satisfied with his play.&rdquo;As much respect as Blair has for Wayne Connelly, who was dealt to the Red Wings for Lawson and the rights to retired left winger Bryan Conacher, he doesn&rsquo;t regret the trade one bit.&ldquo;Lawson&rsquo;s a future NHLer,&rdquo; said Wren, &ldquo;and Conacher&rsquo;s a proven major leaguer, so I have to believe it was a good deal for us. We&rsquo;re still in the process of building an organization, so we have to look for 2-for-1 trades when we figure they&rsquo;ll help our over-all picture.&ldquo;Danny may have gotten only eight goals in his first big league season, but if you&rsquo;ll check the records, you&rsquo;ll see that Stan Mikita had the same amount in his rookie year and Bobby Hull only five more.&rdquo;McKechnie started last season in Phoenix, but was quickly called up to the parent club when Blair became disenchanted with the play of little Andre Boudrias, who later was traded to Chicago.It took Walt nearly a half season to win a regular job on the Stars&rsquo; No. 3 line, but when he did, he proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he belonged.&ldquo;I liken Walt to Jean Ratelie, the great New York Rangers centerman,&rdquo; said Blair, &ldquo;inasmuch as both of them are tall guys and Walt now seems just as clumsy as Jean did when he was breaking in.&ldquo;It took Ratelle four or five years as a pro to reach his potential, and while I hope Walt won&rsquo;t be quite as long, I&rsquo;m willing to go alone with him.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-11

Lawson, McKechnie To Figure In North Stars’ Rebuilding

TWIN CITIES, Minn.&mdash;STAR-LITES: Wren Blair plans to have a talk with Brian Conacher sometime before the draft meetings, perhaps as soon as the first week in May&hellip; If he&rsquo;s able to talk the big left winger out of retirement, it could mean that the North Stars will use their No. 1 choices in the 20-year-old, interleague and intra-league drafts to pick one or more defensemen&hellip; Former North Star defenseman Mike McMahon, traded during last season to Chicago, will spend the off season here working in a St. Paul restaurant&hellip; More than 300 youngsters have enrolled in the &lsquo;North Stars&rsquo; summer school for boys which lists among its instructors Lou Nanne. Carl Wetzel, J.P. Parise and possibly Waynp Connelly. &#9632;

Blair To Talk With Conacher

<div class="byline">with ED FITKIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01617/2486060-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="322" height="437"></div>THE ST. LOUIS BLUES are in the Stanley Cup finals for the second year in succession, a remarkable accomplishment for a club that was last to be granted an NHL franchise in the memorable expansion of 1966 &hellip; Sid Salomon Jr. and his son, Sid Salomon III, and their enthusiastic partners may not have known too much about hockey at that time but they were no strangers to sports, nor to such invaluable assets as salesmanship, drive and a burning desire to give St. Louis fans a winner &hellip; They aligned themselves with stalwart hockey men like Lynn Patrick, Scotty Bowman and Gus Kyle and rolled up their shirtsleeves and went to work building a team &hellip; Sid Jr. concentrated on refurbishing old and gloomy St. Louis Arena and the transformation he has made in the appearance of the building has been as unbelievable as if he had waved a magic wand, repeated a few mystic phrases and lo and behold, a miracle occurred &hellip; &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; Sid Jr. agreed, &ldquo;I guess you could say the building has been my baby, my special project. I have a decorator friend who is one of the best I know. I told him my ideas and he did the rest. Some of the directors got worried about the money I was spending but, as things have turned out, they didn&rsquo;t have a worry at all. And, you know,&rdquo; he added, almost wistfully, &ldquo;there were a few other things I wanted to do that I wish now that I had &rdquo; &hellip; Sid Jr. and all the St. Louis people should have no regrets about anything. The St. Louis &ldquo;Arena is now an outstanding showplace for hockey, whether it&rsquo;s empty or jam-packed with the most enthusiastic fans you&rsquo;ll find anywhere in sport.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02515/2486053-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="261" height="436"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sid Salomon Jr.</figcaption></div>IT WASN&rsquo;T INSTANT SUCCESS for St. Louis &hellip; There were many moments when they had their qualms about what was going on &hellip; For one thing, the crowds were hovering around the 7,000 mark at the start, and the team was going nowhere &hellip; Then Scotty Bowman took over as coach, began making player changes, worked a deal with New York by which he acquired Red Berenson for Ron Stewart, and the Blues caught fire &hellip; They fought their way into the playoffs, finishing third, then won a gruelling seven-game series with first-place Philadelphia, beating the Flyers on their own ice in the deciding game, went on to win another seven-game set from Minnesota and became the West Division&rsquo;s first representative in the Stanley Cup championship series with Montreal Canadiens &hellip; The Blues didn&rsquo;t win a game against the Habitants in the final but no team could have made a better showing &hellip; Glenn Hall was fantastic in goal and all four games were decided by one-goal margins, and two required sudden-death overtime to produce a winner &hellip; One of the amazing performers for the Blues in the playoffs was 44-year-old Doug Harvey &hellip; The late-season heroics in the bid for the playoffs, the never-say-die attitude of the team throughout the post-season battling, captivated St. Louis fans &hellip; It was sellout after sellout and hockey had taken such a stranglehold as THE winter sport in the Gateway City that the basketball Hawks decided the competition was too stiff and packed their bags and headed for Atlanta.THE CONFIDENCE AND EXPERIENCE the Blues derived from their fine showing in the Stanley Cup finals a year ago was reflected in their buoyant play throughout the 1968-69 season &hellip; They romped through the West Division, finishing a country mile ahead of the pack &hellip; And they demolished both Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings to breeze into the current Stanley Cup final on the wings of eight consecutive playoff victories &hellip; One of Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s master strokes was to sign Jacques Plante, and the 40-year-old ex-great of the Montreal Canadiens, along with equally ancient Glenn Hall, provided such spectacular netminding that they had the Vezina Trophy locked up six weeks ago &hellip; Hall pulled a leg muscle early in the first playoff game with St. Louis and Plante had to hastily don the pads &hellip; He became more of a Mr. Zero than the immortal Frankie Brimsek &hellip; In the eight West Division playoffs, Plante had an average of one goal per game and three shutouts &hellip; Doug Harvey, who surprised even Scotty Bowman by playing regularly all season and aiding the younger members of the defense corps with his tutoring, suffered a fractured skull just before the playoffs started but even without dauntless Doug, the Blues&rsquo; defense was impregnable &hellip; Veteran Al Arbour was superlative, the sock it to &lsquo;em aggressiveness of Bob Plager was a telling factor in both playoff series, Jim Roberts was great both ways, and Red Berenson led a fired-up bunch of opportunists in scoring &hellip; Scotty Bowman, after the final game with the Kings, commented: &ldquo;I certainly didn&rsquo;t expect to win eight straight, but everybody came through<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03394/2486046-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="251" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Harvey</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0014-01

Footloose

<div class="byline">BY LOU PRATO</div>PITTSBURGH. Pa.&mdash;Despite General Manager Jack Riley&rsquo;s announced plans to shake up the team, most of the Pittsburgh Penguins left the city optimistic about next season.Several were wary about their chances to remain in a Pittsburgh uniform. But, for the most part, they were anticipating the start of training camp &mdash; after a restful summer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04305/2486091-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="282" height="445"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith McCreary</figcaption></div>Riley says he plans to strengthen the club one way or another. His course will be guided in part by the coach he chooses to replace Red Sullivan and in part by the results of the summer draft in Montreal.Changes are almost mandatory after the team&rsquo;s sad finish this year. The last place division windup, coming on the heels of a fifth place finish the previous year, didn&rsquo;t win the Penguins many new friends in Pittsburgh.Still, most of the players were optimistic about the 1969-70 campaign.&ldquo;Personally, I&rsquo;m looking forward to next season,&rdquo; said Keith McCreary, who was voted the team&rsquo;s most valuable player. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve proven that I can play in this league. And I know we have a good club that just needs two or three spots filled to be a winner.&rdquo;McCreary will spend most of the summer at Billy Harris&rsquo; Hockey School in Toronto.Harris, meanwhile, plans to take time from the hockey school to pick up another summer course at the University of Toronto towards his Bachelor&rsquo;s degree in economics. He needs just a few more credits to get that BA degree.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a long time coming,&rdquo; Harris says, &ldquo;and it will help when my career is over.&rdquo; This was the third time in my life I&rsquo;ve not been in the playoffs and it was a long, hard season. Who knows, that could have been my last year, I&rsquo;m going to wind up my career in Pittsburgh and if I get traded away that will be it.&rdquo;Another player working on his college degree this summer will be young Gary Swain, brought up from Amarillo late in the season. The Penguins have big plans for him in the future.&ldquo;Im just starting towards my BA in economics at Brock University,&rdquo; Swain said. &ldquo;I want something to fall back on later. But next year I&rsquo;m going to give it all I can to make this club. I feel I&rsquo;ve got the confidence now.&rdquo;Young Doug Barrie, who also was impressive after being called up from Amarillo late in the year, plans to play all of next season in Pittsburgh.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to come to camp and work my head off,&rdquo; said the young defenseman. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll keep my body in shape as a laborer in Alberta and I&rsquo;ll be ready to go next September.&rdquo;Swain and Barrie are just two of several Penguins players who look towards 1969-70 as a year to establish themselves.Jean Pronovost, the team&rsquo;s rookie-of-the-year, says it-took him most of this season to find himself. Now he has confidence he can make it big next year.So do George Swarbrick, Tracy Pratt and Duane Rupp &mdash; all of whom joined the club at mid season following trades.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really looking forward to next year,&rdquo; says Swarbrick who will spend his off season in the lighting business with his brother in Omaha, Nebraska. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t play as much as I wanted to but I&rsquo;m confident about next season.&rdquo;Many of the veteran Penguins also are determined about next season. They&rsquo;ll be spending a good bit of time keeping in shape at hockey schools. This group includes Les Binkley, Lou Angotti, Dune McCallum, Ken Schinkel, Billy Speer and Noel Price.Others will take a breather from hockey, such as Bob Wyotowich in his public relations job with Molson&rsquo;s Brewery in Winnipeg, Wally Boyer in his PR position with Scarboro Steel Co. in Toronto and Charlie Burns as a sales representative of sports equipment in California. &#9632;

f0014-04

Despite Promise Of Shake Up Most Penguins Hope To Return

MONTREAL, Que.&mdash;Among the 165 members in hockey&rsquo;s Hall of Fame, some 19 of them are among the greatest performers to wear the red, white and blue of the Montreal Canadiens.This season in a salute to the former ice greats of the Canadiens, William Neilson Limited, makers of the world famous milk chocolate, erected a Hall of Fame display in the lobby of the Montreal Forum where hockey fans who attend all team games may view and study the ex-Canadiens&rsquo; stars.Neilson&rsquo;s is a proud Canadian company dedicated to leadership through inovation and a firm that has found a new interest in professional hockey by their association with Canadiens.Among those great Canadiens honored by Neilson&rsquo;s are Howie Morenz, Jack Laviolette, Joe Malone, Aurel Joliat, Herb Gardiner, Newsy Lalonde, Babe Siebert, Bill Durnan, Didier Pitre, Georges Vezina, Sprague Cleghorn, George Hainsworth, Ken Reardon, Joe Hall, Sylvio Mantha, Elmer Lach, Maurice Richard, Toe Blake and Butch Bouchard.There are a total of 165 members in the Hall of Fame, located in Toronto. Of the total, 120 are listed as players, 38 as builders and seven as referees. &#9632;

Former Hobs’ Greats Saluted By Neilson’s

<div class="byline">BY JOHN TRAVERS</div>HERSHEY, Pa. &mdash;One of the biggest surprises for the Hershey Bears in their Calder Cup semi-finals victory against the Buffalo Bisons was the spirited play of center Bobby Leiter and his two young wingmen, Ted Snell and Stan Gilbertson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01437/2486153-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="262" height="434"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Leite</figcaption></div>In aiding the Bears to their four wins in the best-of-seven set between the two division champions, Leiter&rsquo;s line delivered 19 points.Gilbertson, a native of Duluth, Minn., and one of the few American skaters in pro ranks, was the club&rsquo;s top pointman, notching six goals. He scored twice in the Bears&rsquo; 6-1 series wrap-up win over Buffalo.&ldquo;Our line really didn&rsquo;t start to get going until about the last nine games of the season,&rdquo; said Gilbertson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just happy everything started going our way and that we&rsquo;re winning.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03288/2486146-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="544" height="878"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN GILBERTSON &hellip; Hot In Playoffs</figcaption></div>Leiter, a quick-witted veteran, said there was no secret behind the line&rsquo;s success.&ldquo;We like money,&rdquo; he laughed, referring to the $2,000 each Hershey skater pockets if the Bears go on to win the Calder Cup title.Snell, who rejoined the Bears in Feb. after opening the season in Phoenix, has surprised coach Frank Mathers with his hustle on right wing.&ldquo;It took him time to get in top shape,&rdquo; said Mathers, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s come on real strong and has done a fine job in the playoffs.&rdquo;In the last nine games of the season, Snell racked up 13 points on four goals and nine assists.A couple of other standouts have been rugged Don Marcotte, a fine two-way 21-year-old winger and the best National League prospect in Hershey club history, and goalie &ldquo;Long&rdquo; John Henderson, a tremendous clutch player.&ldquo;Marcotte is the greatest big time prospect we&rsquo;ve ever had,&rdquo; said Lloyd Blinco, club president, who in 37 years with Hershey estimated he&rsquo;s seen &ldquo;more than a 1,000 players come and go.&rdquo;Mathers said in his near 25-year stand as a player and coach in the AHL, he&rsquo;s never seen a better all-around player than Marcotte.&ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t anything the kid can&rsquo;t do,&rdquo; added Mathers. &ldquo;He scored 66 goals in two years with us. I can&rsquo;t recall any player in his first two AHL seasons topping that effort.&rdquo;The Bears other two forward lines of Mike Nykoluk, Roger DeJordy and Marcotte, and the &ldquo;Bomber&rdquo; trio of Michel Harvey, Gil Gilbert and Chuck Hamilton have done their share in the playoffs.Nykoluk&rsquo;s line has tallied nine points, while Gilbert&rsquo;s shows ten and two game winning goals. Snell got the game deciding goal in the first game against the Bisons. &#9632;

f0016-01

Gilbertson, Leiter, Snell Spark Hershey Into Finals

HERSHEY, Pa.The Hershey Bears have been established as favorites to bring back the Calder Cup and it isn&rsquo;t hard to see why. After eliminating the powerful Buffalo Bisons in five games, the Bears have set out to repel the Quebec Aces in their bid to win the league championship.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02367/2486191-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="244" height="438"><figcaption class="caption-body">Garnet Bailey</figcaption></div>The Bears drew first blood in their best-of-seven cup finals with the Aces winning 4-0 here with goaler John Henderson hanging a shutout on the youthful, fast-skating Aces.Experience, which carried the Bears past the Bisons in a six-game semi-final series, again played a prominent part in the first series win over Quebec. After rookie Garnet Bailey scored the opening goal of the game to send the Bears on their way, it was the old pros who took over. Bob Leiter, Barry Ashbee and Chuck Hamilton scored once each to back up Henderson&rsquo;s flawless netminding performance.<h2>SAT. APR. 26</h2>QUEBEC 0 at HERSHEY 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04238/2486184-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="613" height="456"></div>(Hershey leads best-of-seven finals 1-0) &#9632;

f0016-02

Bears Win Cup Opener From Quebec

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05174/2486250-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="575" height="81"></div>(Hershey leads best-af-seven finals 1-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. Apr. 26Quebec 0 at Hershey 4<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. Apr. 30Quebec at HersheyFri. May 2Hershey at QuebecSun. May. 4Hershey at Quebec<h3>SEMI-FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-06139/2486243-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="573" height="80"></div>(Hershey wins best-of-seven semi-finals 4-2)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Apr. 9Hershey 4 at Buffalo 2Sat. Apr. 12Buffalo 2 at Hershey 4Wed. Apr. 16Buffalo 5 at Hershey 4Fri. Apr. 18Hershey 3 at Buffalo 2Sun. Apr. 20Hershey 0 ot Buffalo 8Wed. Apr. 23Buffalo 1 at Hershey 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-07127/2486236-1-eng-US/f0016-072.jpg" title="f0016-07" width="573" height="79"></div>(Quebec wins best-of-five semi-finals 3-2)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Apr. 18Quebec 4 at Providence 5Sun. Apr. 20Quebec 4 at Providence 3Mon. Apr. 21Providence 3 at Quebec 4Wed. Apr. 23Providence 2 at Quebec 1Fri. Apr. 25Quebec 8 at Providence 1<h3>QUARTER-FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-08115/2486229-1-eng-US/f0016-082.jpg" title="f0016-08" width="588" height="98"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-0999/2486222-1-eng-US/f0016-092.jpg" title="f0016-09" width="571" height="100"></div>(Quebec wins best-of-five series 3-2) &#9632;

f0016-05

Looking At AHL Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY HANS TANNER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01356/2486281-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="571" height="579"><figcaption class="caption-body">RON WARD &hellip; Makes AHL History</figcaption></div>ROCHESTER, N.Y &mdash;Ron Ward, THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; minor league player of the year last season while with Tulsa of the Central League, led the Rochester Americans in goals, assists and points during the 196869 American Hockey League season.Ward added 43 assists to his 35 goals for 78 points and is one of only seven rookies in the history of the AHL to reach the 35-goal figure.Oddly, the Amerks have employed three of the seven. Billy Hicke scored 41 goals in 1958-59 and Mike Walton collected 35 in 1965-66 before Ward made it this season.Others who have tallied that many were Wally Hergesheimer of Cleveland with 42 in 1950-51, Donnie Marshall of Buffalo with 39 in 1953-54, Guy Dufour of Quebec with 36 this season and Fred Glover of Indianapolis with 35 in 1948-49.Red Armstrong with 69 and player-coach Dick Gamble with 67 were second and third on the club in points. Tom McCarthy (31) and Gamble (30) were Nos. 2 and 3 in goals, and Armstrong (40) and Gamble (37) followed Ward in assists.Armstrong and Gamble were the only two &ldquo;iron men&rdquo; who were in uniform for every game. Armstrong led in penalties with 135 minutes.In the overall league picture, Ward tied Baltimore&rsquo;s Willie Marshall for fourth spot, Armstrong was in a four-way tie for 12th and Gamble in a two-way tie for 16th. &#9632;

f0017-01

Rookie Ward 7th To Gain 35-Goal Mark

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK SANTANIELLO</div>SPRINGFIELD, Mass. &mdash;The season is all over for professional hockey here in Springfield, but the memory lingers on. Most of the players have gone back to Canada, but the sports here continues or everyone&rsquo;s mind. Hockey is like that. Interest never wanes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02307/2486312-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="263" height="422"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Wilson</figcaption></div>General-manager coach Johnny Wilson is still staying busy. Right now, he is scouting the National Hockey League Stanley Cup playoffs. Later on, he&rsquo;ll have to prepare lists and such to get ready for two drafts.The Los Angeles Kings have a complex and very important scouting system second to none in big league hockey. They&rsquo;ll be going over both the pro and amateur lists to see where they can get the proper help to put a better club here.The June amateur draft picks are important for Springfield. Last season alone, a quality group of rookies came out of it, including Gary Croteau, Bryan Murphy, Jim Mclnally, Randy Prior and Ken Turlik. They helped the club greatly, even though it did not make the playoffs.Not all the players went home. Jimmy Anderson, the team veteran, lives year round in West Springfield. He works in the offseason in the advertising department of Schaefer Beer. He also plays a lot of golf.He has not packed away his skates either. He&rsquo;s out at least once a week working with three amateur teams at the brand new Blunt Park Arena in Springfield, which will run at least until the end of June.Andy works with two Sacred Heart teams from Feedings Hills and the Little Devils hockey club, this writer coaches. His work with the kids is amazing. He gets them doing it his way, has great patience and is a superb teacher.There is a chance as spring heads into summer Jimmy and Johnny Wilson along with a couple of big name NHL players will operate a one week school at the Blunt Park Arena. We&rsquo;re predicting an overwhelming response from the kids if they do.Rick Pagnutti and Larry Johnston are still in town. Rick was engaged a short time ago to the niece of club physician, Dr. Coons. Johnston may seek employment in this area for the summer.Working with Anderson at his job is Bob McCord, NHL player with the Minnesota North Stars. He also put in time with the Pittsburgh Penguins and is an old Springfield player. He lives here permanently. &#9632;

f0017-02

AHL Kings Hope For Repeat Draft Success

SEATTLE, Wash. &mdash;Defenseman John Hanna of the Seattle Totems became the third blueliner in history to capture the Leader Cup as the most valuable player in the Western Hockey League during the 1968-69 season.Hanna, who already was named as the league&rsquo;s outstanding defenseman and named to the All-Star team, received 142 of a possible 450 points in the balloting by the players of the WHL.Tied for second only five points back were left winger Bill Saunders of Portland and center Guyle Fielder of Seattle. Fielder is a six-time winner of the award that includes a check for $300 and a trophy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03248/2486343-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="258" height="425"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Hanna</figcaption></div>Hanna, who scored 25 goals to tie a record for defensemen in the WHL, is the first defenseman to win the Leader Cup since Roger Leger of Victoria in 1951. Walter &ldquo;Babe&rdquo; Pratt, recipient of the award in 1949 and 1950 while playing for New Westminster, is the only other defenseman ever selected. &#9632;

f0017-03

Seattle’s Hanna Voted WHL’s Most Valuable Player Award

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS (Formerly Wally) Fillerich & Bradsby Co., limited Wallaceburg, OntarioLOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS (Formerly Wally) Fillerich & Bradsby Co., limited Wallaceburg, Ontario<h2>WHL Playoff Summaries</h2><h3>WED. APR. 16</h3>VANCOUVER 6 at PORTLAND 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05105/2486482-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="580" height="677"></div>(Vancouver leads best-of-seven finals 1-0)<h3>FRI. APR. 18</h3>PORTLAND 2 at VANCOUVER 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-0690/2486475-1-eng-US/f0018-062.jpg" title="f0018-06" width="590" height="523"></div>(Vancouver leads best-of-seven finals 2-0)<h3>SUN. APR. 20</h3>VANCOUVER 3 at PORTLAND 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-0778/2486468-1-eng-US/f0018-072.jpg" title="f0018-07" width="592" height="515"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-0867/2486461-1-eng-US/f0018-082.jpg" title="f0018-08" width="575" height="103"></div>(Vancouver leads best-of-seven finals 3-0).<h3>TUES. APR. 22</h3>PORTLAND 1 at VANCOUVER 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-0958/2486454-1-eng-US/f0018-092.jpg" title="f0018-09" width="575" height="143"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1050/2486447-1-eng-US/f0018-102.jpg" title="f0018-10" width="573" height="327"></div>(Vancouver wins best-of-seven finals 4-0)<h2>WHL Playoffs</h2><h3>WESTERN LEAGUE</h3>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1145/2486440-1-eng-US/f0018-112.jpg" title="f0018-11" width="572" height="101"></div>(Vancouver wins best-of-seven finals 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Apr. 16Vancouver 6 at Portland 3Fri. Apr. 18Portland 2 at Vancouver 5Sun. Apr. 20Vancouver 3 at Portland 2Tues. Apr. 22Portland 1 at Vancouver 2<h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1243/2486433-1-eng-US/f0018-122.jpg" title="f0018-12" width="582" height="98"></div>(Vancouver wins best-of-seven4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tues. Apr. 1Vancouver 7 at Seattle 1Wed. Apr. 2Vancouver 6 at Seattle 0Fri. Apr. 4Seattle 1 at Vancouver 3Sat. Apr. 5Vancouver 3 at Seattle 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1339/2486426-1-eng-US/f0018-132.jpg" title="f0018-13" width="572" height="73"></div>(Portland wins best-of-seven series4-3) &#9632;

f0018-05

WESTERN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY JOHN WHITE</div>VANCOUVER. B.C.&mdash;You never heard of an eight-act play, &lsquo;eh?Well, the Vancouver Canucks of the Western Hockey League wrote one this spring, and it&rsquo;s entitled &ldquo;Hustle and Muscle and Hodge.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01362/2486395-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="268" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Crozier</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s a smash hit, too.After all, the Canucks won the Lester Patrick Cup by wiping out the Seattle Totems in four straight and then the Portland Buckaroos in four straight.And no other team in Western Hockey League history ever took it all in eight straight.Hustle?It was unbelievable. There was no question about the sheer talent of the Canucks, rich in National League experience. But talent alone will not win hockey games. And it&rsquo;s a credit to a coach named Joe Crozier &mdash; who is laughing up his fourth playoff title (three in the American League) in the last five years &mdash; that the Canucks played as hard as rookies in nailing down the Cup.Muscle?Particularly against the Buckaroos, the Western League&rsquo;s regular-season champs for five straight seasons, the Canucks used it. And the effect was devastating.Hodge?You&rsquo;ve heard of Charley boy. There&rsquo;s no point in telling the story of his Stanley Cup background all over again. Let&rsquo;s just concentrate on his Western League story.He played eight playoff games. He allowed 12 goals. Because of three overtimes he accumulated lots of extra minutes. And he finished with a goals-against average of 1.45Hodge missed by a fraction. The all-time WHL low for the playoffs is 1.44 set by Don Head, now with Seattle but then with Portland, in 1965.Vancouver&rsquo;s sweep was such a team effort that you hate to single out individuals. At least two, besides Hodge, must be mentioned.One is defenseman Marc Reaume, once so highly-considered that he was traded one-for-one for Red Kelly.The final two games of the Portland-Vancouver series both went into overtime. The Canucks, obviously, won both. The winning goal in both games was scored by Reaume. Both shots were low screamers from just inside the blue line.Enough? There&rsquo;s more, honey. The score was 3-2 in Vancouver&rsquo;s third game overtime victory in the finals. The score was 2-1 in Vancouver&rsquo;s wrapup triumph.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02276/2486388-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="551" height="557"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHARLIE HODGE &hellip; Too Hot In Goal</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03186/2486381-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="553" height="555"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC REAUME &hellip; Two Winning Goals</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04142/2486374-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="556" height="552"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRYAN HEXTALL &hellip; Sizzles In Playoffs</figcaption></div>Old pro Reaume scored or assisted on all five Vancouver goals in the last two games of the playoff finals.The other player who must be singled out in Bryan Hextall, whose last name is pretty familiar to Pacific Northwest hockey fans of the early &rsquo;30s when his daddy played here.Hextall, in the final four games against Portland, scored two goals and assisted on five others. He also drew five penalties that left bruises and told the story of his all-out hustle that proved one of the big differences in the series.Vancouver&rsquo;s triumph was big league.And so, in the final series, were Vancouver&rsquo;s crowd. Two games were played in the beautifal British Columbia metropolis in the final series. The first drew an alltime Western Hockey League record of 14,470 fans. The second, the wrapup clash, set a new record all over again &mdash; 14,902 fans.That&rsquo;s 29,172 fans for two minor league &mdash; in formal classification only &mdash; hockey games.Meanwhile, what happened to the Buckaroos from Oregon who had held regular-season edge of 7-4-5 over the Canucks going into the plavoffs?It was an old and painful story.The Bucks dropped four straight. Last spring in the finals they were eliminated four games to one in the finals by Seattle. Two years ago they were wiped out in the semi-finals by Vancouver in four straight.For a team with the regularseason title each year, it adds to one victory against 12 defeats in the last playoff series of the three-season stretch.Two games of the final series against Vancouver, as mentioned, went into overtime. The Bucks lost both.It&rsquo;s nothing new.Of the last nine overtime games played in the playoffs by Portland, the Buckaroos have lost eight. This dates back to 1965&hellip;There was considerable irony in Vancouver&rsquo;s final-game triumph. The winning goal in overtime was scored on a powerplay.During the regular-season, the Bucks set an all-time record for professional hockey by scoring 84 power-play goals. But in the playoffs, they scored just 4 and gave up 12 in 11 games.In the end, the power play beat them.The Bucks, in their 11 playoff games against San Diego and Vancouver, were outshot 10 times. They scored first only once.One Portland bright spot was Cliff Schmautz at right wing. He scored 10 goals in 11 playoff games to tie a club record. The rest of the wings on the club couldn&rsquo;t put the puck in the net.One other consolation award. Dave Kelly, a kid with a bad playoff record, was brilliant in the Buck nets in defeat in the final game. Vancouver sports writers voted him top star of the game.But Vancouver owned the playoffs. The Canucks own the Cup. And they deserve it. &#9632;

f0018-01

Hodge, Reaume, Hextall Sparkle As Vancouver Wins WHL Title

New Subscribers To THE HOCKEY NEWS Guaranteed To Get First Issue Within Two WeeksHOCKEY NEWS Makes An Ideal Gift On Any Occasion. Give A Subscription To Dad Or BrotherKANSAS CITY, Mo. &mdash;Steven Atkinson, Oklahoma City right winger-center who scored 40 goals this season, has been named Central Hockey League &ldquo;Rookie of the Year.&rdquo;The 20-year-old native of Barrie, Ontario, recently was named to the C.H.L. All-Star first team along with three of his teammates.Atkinson finished as the league&rsquo;s No. 2 scorer this year with 81 points, while teammate Jim Lorentz led with 101, second highest total in the history of the league.A year ago, Atkinson was the No. 3 scorer in the Ontario Hockey Association Junior &ldquo;A&rdquo; competition. He is 6 feet and weighs 165 pounds.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01339/2486520-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="564" height="518"><figcaption class="caption-body">BARRY GIBBS &hellip; Future Bruin Honored</figcaption></div>Atkinson helped Oklahoma City advance to the finals of the Central League playoffs before losing to Dallas by scoring four goals in the first eight games.Others receiving consideration for rookie honors by the league coaches were forwards Jim Wiste and Cliff Koroll of Dallas and goalie Phil Myre, Houston. Wiste finished fifth in the league scoring with 77 points and Koroll was 16th with 62 points.Wiste and Koroll were teammates last year on the University of Denver team and two years ago led their club to the NCAA Hockey Championship.Myre, also named earlier to the All-Star team, appeared in 53 games for the Apollos, allowing 151 goals for a 2.87 goals-against average.Joe Kane, president of the C.H.L., said: &ldquo;This year&rsquo;s crop of rookies has to be the most outstanding group in the six-year history of our league. We know we have some terrific potential for the National Hockey League.&rdquo;Meanwhile it was announced that Barry Gibbs, second-year professional for the Oklahoma City Blazers has been selected as the top defenseman of the season in the C.H.L.Gibbs, who is 20, was also named to the C.H.L. All-Star team. The 5-11, 185 pounder is a native of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada. He was called up by the Boston Bruins for the final game of this year&rsquo;s Stanley Cup playoffs in which Montreal ousted the Bruins.In leading the Blazer defense this season, Gibbs became the most penalized player in the league with 194 penalty minutes. He also scored three goals and 25 assists for 28 points.A year ago, the young righthanded shooter scored seven goals and sixteen assists for 23 points while serving 154 penalty minutes.Following Gibbs in the balloting for defensive honors were teammate Barry Wilkins, Doug Barrie of Amarillo and Ray Fortin, Kansas City.Leading the goalies who played the required minimum of 2160 minutes or more was Myre, a rookie who appeared in 53 games and compiled a 2.87 goals-against-average.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-07120/2486513-1-eng-US/f0019-072.jpg" title="f0019-07" width="544" height="543"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE ATKINSON &hellip; Top Freshman</figcaption></div>An injury prevented Jack Norris of Dallas from qualifying for league honors with his 2.32 average. Norris fell two games short of the minimum as a result of a late-season injury. &#9632;

f0019-01

Blazers’ Atkinson Wins Rookie Award

<div class="byline">BY HARVEY POLLACK</div>CLINTON, N.Y &mdash;Pat Kelly&rsquo;s most satisfying year as a hockey skipper has ended with the Clinton Comets capturing the Walker Cup for a record fourth time in Eastern Hockey League playoff action.It took the Comets seven tough games before they were able to subdue the ambitious Nashville Dixie Flyers, four games to three. As it turned out the home ice advantage proved the difference in the clutch just as it did in Clinton&rsquo;s seven-game win over New Haven in the Northern finals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01206/2486610-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="256" height="441"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Kelly</figcaption></div>In each case the decisive seventh game was played on Comets ice and in each case Kelly&rsquo;s club capitalized on the advantage, in two of the best final games ever played in the league. The Comets beat New Haven, 3-1, in the Northern clincher and then took Nashville, 3-2, in the championship contest.The reason the season was so delightful to Kelly stemmed from the fact that the team had seven youngsters in its cast this year. All of the Comet fans were certain the team couldn&rsquo;t compare with last year&rsquo;s record breaker.As Kelly said, &ldquo;last year the fans knew we were going to win the championship because of the caliber of the material we had. But this year, the fans didn&rsquo;t know which way the season was going to go, how the team would do, or what the outcome of each game would be. It&rsquo;s simply great to take a bunch of kids and mold them into a winning team.&rdquo;Next year it&rsquo;s likely that another rebuilding job will be in store for the Comets although it&rsquo;s not certain that Kelly will be back to handle the chore. Kelly has led the Comets to two straight Walker Cup titles to add to crowns won in 1959 and 1964. Naturally Wren Blair, who doubles as general manager of the Minnesota Stars and the Comets, is aware of Pat&rsquo;s coaching talents and there is a good chance that Kelly will move up in the organization.Pat&rsquo;s loss would be a blow to the Comets for not only is he a fine leader but he also is a definite asset on the ice at his defensive slot. As for the youngsters on the team, they were eyed by a dozen scouts at the title game and it&rsquo;s certain some of them will be snatched before next season as Kelly predicted bright futures for them.Kelly also paid tribute to the old pro of the squad, veteran defenseman Len Speck. Although he was 20 years older than some of his mates, &ldquo;the Bear&rdquo;, as he is known, was a definite factor all year in the team&rsquo;s success. He added icing to the cake by scoring what proved to be the winning goal in the title clash. There is a chance that he may retire but Speck isn&rsquo;t making any decision until the summer.Actually the Clinton triumph was a real team effort as the scoring was evenly divided among the various linemen, the defensemen all played together and goalie Lyle Carter demonstrated easily why he was the circuit&rsquo;s top netminder all year. Kelly, Ian Anderson, Speck and Bucky Buchanan operated on defense, and the champions had a forward crew that included captain Jack Kane, Dave Armstrong, Borden Smith, Don Herriman, Tom Mitchell, Bill Bannerman, Jake Rathwell, Moe St. Jacques, and Joe Robertson.Nashville had nothing to be ashamed of in its loss. The Flyers whipped Charlotte and Greensboro without defeats and then won their first game with Clinton for eight straight playoff triumphs. Then they dropped four out of their last six games.CLINTON: Business manager Ed Stanley presented the Walker Cup to captain Jack Kane at the end of the title game since prexy Tom Lockhart was not present. The Rooters Club gave the team a championship banquet. Ray Sterling, Comets promotion man, performed a yeoman job all year in boosting attendance both at Utica and here.JACKSONVILLE: Harley Hodgson had surgery on his left shoulder to repair the damage that was felt when he suffered a dislocation during the season. The surgery was performed almost four years to the day when Harley had to undergo an operation to repair damage for a similar injury to his right shoulder. It was a bad year for Harley all around as he also suffered a fractured jaw and a blood clot on his leg.GREENSBORO: Fans here are defending Ron Spong from some of his critics since they point to the fact that the team did finish first in the regular season. Defenseman John Murray also was defended and deemed a consistent though not spectacular rearguard. Others felt that the lack of forechecking caused the quick defeat to Nashville.NASHVILLE: Dixie Flyers were thwarted in last 38 seconds of seventh game with Clinton. They pulled their goalie and still couldn&rsquo;t get off a shot as the Comets won both faceoffs as time ran out. Ron Hindson was a steady scorer throughout series. Parents of Ed Hebert and Wally Sprange watched final game, coming across from Canada. Ability to restrict scoring of Cliff Pennington and Sprange was labeled big reason for Clinton win. &#9632;

f0020-01

Comets Thrived On Young Skaters; Kelly’s Return As Coach In Doubt

<h2>EASTERN LEAGUE</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02138/2486683-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="531" height="101"></div>(Clinton wins best-of-seven finals 4-3)GAMES COMPLETEDWed. Apr. 2Nashville 3 at Clinton 2Sat. Apr. 5Nashville 3 at Clinton 4Thurs. Apr. 10Clinton 2 at Nashville 3Fri. Ap. 11Clinton 3 at Niashville 1Sun. Apr. 13Nashville 2 at Clinton 5Tues. Apr. 15Clinton 2 ot Nashville 9Fri. Apr. 18Nashville 2 at Clinton 3<h2>NORTHERN DIVISION</h2>FINALS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03112/2486676-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="580" height="99"></div>(Clinton wins best-of-seven finals 4-3)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Mar. 19New Haven 2 at Clinton 5Thurs. Mar. 20New Haven 2 at Clinton 3Fri. Mar. 21Clinton 3 at New Haven 6Sun. Mar. 23Clinton 5 at New Haven 6Tues. Mar. 25New Haven 3 at Clinton 7Wed. Mar. 26Clinton 3 at New Haven 5Sat. Mar. 29New Haven 1 at Clinton 3<h3>Semi-finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0486/2486669-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="526" height="110"></div>(Clinton wins best-of-five series 3-0)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0534/2486662-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="523" height="92"></div>(N. Haven wins best-of-five series 3-0)<h2>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0623/2486655-1-eng-US/f0020-062.jpg" title="f0020-06" width="579" height="92"></div>(Nashville wins best-of-seven finals 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Mar. 26Nashville 4 at Greensboro 2Fri. Mar. 28Nashville 5 at Greensboro 2Sat. Mar. 29Greensboro 2 at Nashville 9Sun. Mar. 30Greensboro 3 at Nashville 5<h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0720/2486648-1-eng-US/f0020-072.jpg" title="f0020-07" width="570" height="106"></div>(Greensboro wins best-of-five semi-finals 3-1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0813/2486641-1-eng-US/f0020-082.jpg" title="f0020-08" width="570" height="94"></div>(Nashville wins best-of-five semi-finals 3-0) &#9632;

f0020-02

EHL PLAYOFFS

<div class="byline">BY GEORGE DUFFY</div>Save $$$$$$ Subscribe To The HOCKEY NEWS Receive 35 Issues At Home & Save $3.75For The Best In Hockey Reading It&rsquo;s HOCKEY PICTORIAL Hockey&rsquo;s Most Exciting PublicationPROVIDENCE, R.I.&mdash;&lsquo;The Providence Reds were eliminated by the younger Quebec Aces in the semi-finals of the Calder Cup playoffs but not before the Rhode Islanders gave a good account of themselves in the five-game series.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0176/2486721-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="274" height="455"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dick Meissner</figcaption></div>The Reds carried the Aces to the limit in a best-of-five playoff before the Philadelphia farmhands won the deciding game to earn the right to oppose the Hershey Bears in the cup finals.The Baltimore Clippers fell before the Reds in the opening round of the playoffs before the Reds took on the Quebec Aces.Victors over the Clippers, three games to one in a best-of-five series, the Reds stacked up against the Aces in the opening game of the semi-finals at R.I. Auditorium on Friday, April 18. When it was all over, the Reds had a pulse-pounding 5-4 overtime triumph and a 1-0 lead in the series.Dick Meissner, the 200-pound right winger who had only a mediocre year with the Reds, scored the winning goal against the Aces with a 30 foot blast as he came off right wing. Dune Wilson, Quebec&rsquo;s 21 year old goalie, tried to reach it with his boot but never touched the rubber.When the red light flashed on there was a wild celebration as the entire squad poured off the bench to surround Meissner.This was a night when Meissner was the hero in more ways than one. Earlier in the hot action, he was set upon by Rosaire Paiement, a known fighter in the hockey wars. &ldquo;Rosey&rdquo; got in the first couple of punches but then the usually mild mannered Meissner exploded and gave Paiement quite a battering.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0247/2486714-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="2460" height="1020"><figcaption class="caption-body">Here&rsquo;s ADAM KELLER, right, of Reds, moving in to score on Quebec goaler DUNC WILSON in Calder Cup playdowns.</figcaption></div>The opening two periods of the Providence-Quebec game saw the youthful Aces skate the Reds almost into the boards. But the veteran Providence squad came to life in the final period and the goals by Locas and Meissner pulled out the verdict.For Coach Dave Creighton, the triumph over the Aces was another happy moment in a season that has seen the Reds continue to come up with big wins when disaster seemed to be about to strike. In the Quebec game for example, the Reds were down 4-3when veteran Yves Locas fired a shot past Wilson at 16:42 to force things into overtime.The Aces won the third game 43 but the Reds rebounded to take the fourth on Quebec ice to force the fifth and showdown meeting back here the night of April 25.But there was no holding the youthful Aces in the windup game as they skated away from the Reds 8-1 winning on the strength of three goals by Terry Ball. &#9632;

f0021-01

Quebec Knocks Providence From Playoffs

<h2>WED APR. 23</h2>PROVIDENCE 1 AT QUEBEC 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0323/2486787-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="596" height="383"></div>(Best of five semi-finals tied 2-2)BUFFALO 1 AT HERSHEY 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0417/2486780-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="596" height="541"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0515/2486773-1-eng-US/f0021-052.jpg" title="f0021-05" width="587" height="105"></div>(Hershey wins best of seven semi-finales 4-2)FRI. APR. 25QUEBEC 8 at PROVIDENCE 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0612/2486766-1-eng-US/f0021-062.jpg" title="f0021-06" width="598" height="102"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0711/2486759-1-eng-US/f0021-072.jpg" title="f0021-07" width="593" height="338"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-088/2486752-1-eng-US/f0021-082.jpg" title="f0021-08" width="591" height="311"></div>(Quebec wins best-of-five semi-finals 3-2) &#9632;

f0021-03

Calder Cup Playoff Summaries

<div class="byline">BY BOB REED</div>DAYTON, O&mdash;The Dayton Gems and their management had barely finished the celebrations 1 or their triumphal season, which brought them the International League&rsquo;s highest awards, the Huber Trophy for the season championship and the Turner Cup for the playoff title when they began looking forward to next year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0193/2486818-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="272" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cliff Bristow</figcaption></div>Chief concern of General Manager Lefty McFadden and Coach Larry Wilson was the fact that almost all of the squad of 16 players are owned outright or are on the reserve list of National Hockey League clubs. Presumably they will be given a look at the training camps of higher leagues next fall.Dayton has a working agreement with the Boston Bruins but only five of the Gems belong to the Boston club. They are rookie defensemen Gordon Malinoski, goalie John Adams, centers Barry Merrell and Gerry Mazur and defenseman Alain Beaulle.The Los Angeles Kings hold the rights to four Gems &mdash; wingers Don Westbrooke, league scoring champion; Duncan Rousseau, Mike Corbett and Duke Asmundson. Wingers Garry McMillan and Sid Garant are the property of the Pittsburgh Penguins and goalie Pat Rupp belongs to the Philadelphia Flyers.The Gems appeared to have definitely lost one player when it was announced that Cliff Bristow, 30-year-old center, was planning to retire. Bristow, who has five children and a job in Dayton, wanted to quit last year but was talked out of it by McFadden, who was convinced that he would make it stick this time. Bristow was a valuable player in the nine-game playoff sweep by the Gems and in his four seasons here scored 293 points in 307 games, with 133 goals and 160 assists. He was fifth highest in the club&rsquo;s career scoring.Looking forward to next year McFadden, Wilson and Jack Walker, president of the board, started a tour of junior hockey sites in Canada. They were to be joined by Gary Young, chief scout and farm director of the parent Boston Bruins.Of this year&rsquo;s squad only six remained from the team that won the league championship in 1966-67 under Warren Back. They were Beaulle, Garant, Mazur, Bristow, Rupp and Moe Benoit.The IHL playoffs established two new records. Dayton was the first team to go through the entire playoffs without a defeat in the 24-year history of the league. Muskegon&rsquo;s Lynn Margarit established a new playoff record when he was assessed a total of 88 penalty minutes to pass Ivan Prediger&rsquo;s former record of 87.Dayton&rsquo;s Rousseau was top man in the playoffs with 19 points. He led in goals with 10. Gary Ford of Muskegon was runner-up in scoring with 16 points. Dayton goalies were tops in that department, Rupp with a 1.94 average and Adams with 2.46.With a new team, Flint, Mich, coming into the league next season it was expected that the league will hold a draft at its summer meeting in July. &#9632;

f0022-01

NHL Clubs May Drain Champion Dayton Gems

<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE Finals</h2><h3>Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-126/2486957-1-eng-US/f0022-122.jpg" title="f0022-12" width="575" height="102"></div>(Doyton wins best-of-five finals 3-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thun. Apr. 10Muskegon 6 at Dayton 7Sat. Apr. 12Muskegon 1 ot Dayton 4Sun. Apr. 12Dayton 7 at Muskegon 2<h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-135/2486950-1-eng-US/f0022-132.jpg" title="f0022-13" width="578" height="107"></div>(Muskegon wins best-of-five series 3-2)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tues. Apr. 1Muskegon 2 at Toledo 4Thurs. Apr. 3Toledo 4 at Muskegon 6Sat. Apr. 5Muskegon 5 at Toledo 7Sun. Apr. 6Toledo 2 at Muskegon 3Tues. Apr. 8Muskegon 5 at Toledo 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-144/2486943-1-eng-US/f0022-142.jpg" title="f0022-14" width="590" height="123"></div>(Dayton wins best-of-five series 3-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Apr. 2Fort Wayne 0 at Dayton 7Thun. Apr. 4Dayton 2 at Fort Wayne 1Sat. Apr. 5Fort Wayne 3 at Dayton 5 &#9632;

f0022-12

IHL PLAYOFFS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0327/2487026-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="900" height="1186"></div>SOLUTION IN MAY 10 ISSUE<h2>ACROSS</h2>1&mdash;One of the Bruins.2&mdash;One of the Hawks answers to this.8&mdash;A Phoenix defenseman.9&mdash;First name of one of the Seals.12&mdash;Initials of Ehrenverth of San Diego.13&mdash;One of the Rangers answers to this.14&mdash;To make mistakes.16&mdash;Initials of an injured Bruin.17&mdash;Distress signal.18&mdash;Initials of one of the Hawks.19&mdash;20th and 14th letters of the alphabet.20&mdash;Initials of one of the Rangers.21&mdash;First name of ex Ranger Heller.23&mdash;9th and 8th letters of the alphabet.25&mdash;A Hershey forward.28&mdash;Number worn by Glen Hall.29&mdash;Initials of an ex-Red Wing.31&mdash;Beverage.34&mdash;The West divisions top Point getter.<h2>DOWN</h2>1&mdash;Pictured player.2&mdash;One of the L.A. Kings.3&mdash;A San Diego forward.4&mdash;19th and 9th letters of the alphabet.5&mdash;Skating requisite.6&mdash;Wears No. 11 for Oakland.10&mdash;First name of an N.H.L. referee.11&mdash;Initials of Duff of Rochester.15&mdash;A former New York centre.22&mdash;Boxing term.24&mdash;A Philadelphia defenseman.26&mdash;Number of times Beliveau has won the Hart trophy.27&mdash;First name of one of the Flyers.29&mdash;Number worn by Ted Hampson.30&mdash;Initials of one of the Leafs.32&mdash;Initials of one of the Bruins.33&mdash;6th and 16th letters of the alphabet.<h2>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S ANSWERS</h2><h3>ACROSS</h3>1&mdash;BACKSTROM8&mdash;IVAN.9&mdash;R.E.10&mdash;LE.11&mdash;I.A.12&mdash;DEJORDY.14&mdash;LEE.16&mdash;D.I.17&mdash;ERR.18&mdash;ONE.20&mdash;Y.I.21&mdash;NEB.22&mdash;C.L.25&mdash;REDMOND.31&mdash;R.C.33&mdash;REID.34&mdash;RED.36&mdash;A.K.38&mdash;CONNELLY.<h3>DOWN</h3>1&mdash;BINKLEY.2&mdash;A.V.3&mdash;CALDER.4&mdash;KNEE.5&mdash;TRIO.6&mdash;REARDON.7&mdash;MARY.13&mdash;DINEEN.15&mdash;ERIC.19&mdash;E.B.23&mdash;L.R.24&mdash;OREE.26&mdash;E.R.27&mdash;DEAN.28&mdash;MIKE.29&mdash;O.D.30&mdash;D.D.32&mdash;CEC.35&mdash;DO.37&mdash;A.L. &#9632;

f0023-03

Hockey Crossword

<div class="byline">BY TOM MONAHAN</div>BOSTON, Mass. &mdash;Late Sunday afternoon of April 20, Montreal coach Claude Ruel said it. &ldquo;Very good man.&rdquo;This was about the first nice thing Ruel has said about the Bruins during the East Division Stanley Cup final and his remark was a complete understatement.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0189/2487057-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="249" height="393"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Westfall</figcaption></div>Ruel was talking about Eddie Westfall &mdash; the man who had scored a short handed goal and set up the two others to defeat the Canadiens 3-2 almost single handed and give the Bruins a 2-2 tie in the series. The Bruins failed to win the next two games and went out in six &mdash; but it was no fault of Westfall.Another man said it even better. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a helluva hockey player. It&rsquo;s too bad he isn&rsquo;t appreciated more by the fans. He deserves a lot more recognition.&rdquo;That speaker was Bruin coach Harry Sinden.&ldquo;There is just no getting around the fact that Westfall is an important man in our game plan,&rdquo; continued Sinden.&ldquo;He does everything. He plays all three positions, he kills penalties. He can even work on the power play if he is needed.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just a go-go-go guy and because he does it so consistently there is a tendency by too many people to take him for granted.&rdquo;That may be in part the fault of Westfall himself.Eddie is not flamboyant and makes no pretense at being colorful either on or off the ice.On the ice he is wearing skates to do a job. Off the ice he is conservatively well dressed &mdash; the picture of a businessman who is quietly successful.Just how important Westfall was in Bruin game strategy showed in the fifth game back in Montreal&rsquo;s Forum.Derek Sanderson, the regular center, was out of the game with a charley horse.Sinden just handed him the puck and said take over.Westfall took over between Eddie Shack and Glen Sather and now the Bruins had an entirely new third line on the ice since Garnet Bailey had to be returned to Hershev.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s, a sudden transformation for a guy at this stage of the season,&rdquo; said Sinden, &ldquo;you don&rsquo;t know much about hockey.&ldquo;But it wasn&rsquo;t Westfall&rsquo;s fault we lost that game 4-2.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a shame for him as an individual that he wasn&rsquo;t able to play the game he is accustomed to playing.&ldquo;He checked and he skated and he did everything normally but playing a new position with two new wings, certainly didn&rsquo;t give him the opportunity to be at his peak,&rdquo; said Sinden. &#9632;

f0024-01

BRUINS OUT, BUT WESTFALL WINS ICE RAVES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0243/2487088-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Here are the New York GreenLeafs, champions of the New York Metropolitan Junior Hockey Association for the third straight year. Front row, left to right, AMBROSE MICHELINO, BUDDY HEANEY, JOE SIMONE, EDGAR ALEJANDRO, JOHN HARDY, KEN TOY, JOE DUNHAM. Back row, IVAN BLUM, asst, coach, JON LINHART, DANNY CONDON, HENRY AVELIN, ED HILLMAN, BOB SKELLY, BOB WALSH, KEN MULLEN, JULIO ACOSTA, RICHIE WOLFF, coach MIKE ROBBINS, general manager GEORGE GUNN.</figcaption></div>NEW YORK, N.Y. &mdash;The New York GreenLeafs won their third straight Art Keegan Cup when they swept the Essex Comets 4-0 in the finals of the Metropolitan Junior Hockey Association playoffs.New York had finished first in the strong Eastern Division with New Hyde Park the runnerup. Essex, the Western Division champion, had nothing to be ashamed of as this was their first year in the MJHA. Many major league expansion teams would be proud of the record chalked up by the Comets in their first year of existence &mdash; first place in their division and playoff finalists.The GreenLeafs, an awesome squad put together by Coach Mike Robbins and his assistant Ivan Blum, lost only two games all season, both to New Hyde Park. The Long Island team knocked the proud Leafs off once in the regular season and again in the playoffs. The Eastern Division final between New York and New Hyde Park was hotly contested with New York finally winning three games to one. An additional contest was declared null and void and was played over.New York had the first four leading point producers in the league and six of the first nine. The scoring champion was the GreenLeafs Ed Hillman who notched 41 goals and 49 assists for 90 points. Danny Condon of New York led in goals with 46 and Mike Day, also of the GreenLeafs led in assists with 52. Charlie Horvath of the West New York Raiders led in scoring winning goals with seven and also was awarded the first annual MJHA Most Valuable Player award. Horvath did a fantastic job of leading a relatively green Raider squad.The New Hyde Park Arrows&rsquo; Chris Ahrens was elected to the first annual Junior All America team and was honored at the Letter Patrick Awards dinner in February. Ahrens is a defenseman with pro potential. On the goalkeeping level, the GreenLeafs talented tandem of Buddy Heaney and Ken Toy split the job and ran away with the honors. They had almost identical records, each playing in 16 and a fraction games, splitting six shutouts and collectively posting a 1.68 goals against average. Pat Zaiden of Essex led the loop in shutouts with six.The New Hyde Park Arrows under the direction of Coach Red Macklin gave New York its toughest competition. Leading players for the Arrows include the dynamic Steve Shea, who scored 44 goals and Gary Nichols who got 43. Rick Francis, the son of the New York Rangers General Manager, Emile, plays for New Hyde Park. Francis got two goals, including the game winner in the Arrows playoff victory over New York.Nonetheless, the team to which the major share of the laurels must go is the fantastic GreenLeafs. They came up with a lithe Puerto Rican winger named Edgar Alejandro, who would rate highly in a tally for the Rookie of the Year. Julio Acosta, the only Cuban in organized hockey had another good season and Bob Walsh and Ken Mullen were again flashy forwards. &#9632;

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May 3, 1969

Playoff Races

SERIES “E”

Powerful Junior Habs Eye Memorial Cup

CHL PLAYOFFS