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February 8, 1974

The Hockey News February 8, 1974

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0281/3326814-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="245" height="379"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0360/3326807-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="586" height="735"></div><h2>Don&rsquo;t Charge</h2>The illustration shows a defenceman skating backward to guard the net and at the same time trying to steer the puck carrier toward the boards so his shot angle will be poor.The defenceman isn&rsquo;t making the mistake of charging the puck carrier. He wants the carrier to commit himself, make a mistake so he can be checked.If an attacker coming in swerves suddenly, the checker should never try to follow by crossing one leg over the other, trying to move quickly. He could easily get one foot tangled with the other and never recover in time.If you&rsquo;re on defence don&rsquo;t make your move unless you&rsquo;re sure you can either hook the puck away or get to the man and knock him off balance. Your job is to guard the net. not chase fast forwards all over the ice. &#9632;

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HOCKEY … For Minors

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada &#9632;

NATIONAL LEAGUE

OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded October 1st, 1947Published weekly except monthly June through September by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 1434 St. Catherine Street West, Montreal 107, Canada. IJ.S. Zlo W.C.C. Publishing Corporation, 150 E. 58th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022.Kenneth William McKenziePresident. Publisher and Advertising DirectorCharlie HalpinEditorial DirectorChris ZelkovichAsst. To EditorUnited States Advertising Representatives: Boston: Steve Ganak, Ad. Reps. 479 Statler Office Bldg. Boston, Mass. 02116, telephone (617) 542-6913: Chicago: Hooper Janes 4 Associates, 3322 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago. Ill 60645, telephone (321) 478-5544. New York: Daniel B. Turner, National Sports Publishing Corp., 150 East 58th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022, Telephone (212) 593-2100.Yearly SUBSCRIPTION Rates: $8.00 in Canada $9.00 in the U.S.A, and $12.00 in Foreign Countries. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y., 10001 and at additional mailing offices. SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO 1434 St. CATHERINE STREET WEST, SUITE 217, MONTREAL 107, P.O. Second Class mail - Registration No. 1327.All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to: Subscription Dept., The Hockey News, 1434 St. Catherine St. W. Montreal 107, Canada.Printed In Canada &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0001-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-01200/3326897-1-eng-US/f0001-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0001-02173/3326890-1-eng-US/f0001-022.jpg" title="f0001-02" width="614" height="2101"></div>ROGATIEN VACHON HOT GOALING SAVES KINGS&mdash; Page 15WHA REPORT: DANNY LAWSON KNOWS WHERE THE NET IS!&mdash; Page 24HEXTALL PUTS RAP ONGOALERS&mdash; Page 2BOSTON HERALDS VADNAIS CAROL VADNAIS&mdash; Page 6 &#9632;

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BALANCE KEY TO FLYERS’ SUCCESS

<div class="byline">BY DWAYNE NETLAND</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01823/3324709-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DENNIS HEXTALL&hellip; Criticizes Teammates (Hockey News Photo by Peter Woolley)</figcaption></div>TWIN CITIES&mdash;As if the Minnesota North Stars didn&rsquo;t have enough problems, they came up recently with a new dilemma, the first of its type in the club&rsquo;s history.Center Dennis Hextall put his dart gun in focus and drilled a couple pot shots at the Minnesota goaltending.It happened in the aftermath of a game at Montreal, in which the North Stars played well, outshot the Canadiens 37-24 and got licked 6-1. Fern Rivard, tending the nets for Minnesota. called it &ldquo;the worst game I can ever remember playing&rdquo;He didn&rsquo;t get much argument from his teammates. Hextall was outspoken in his indictment. not only of Rivard, but also of Gump Worsley, who has been slowed by a series of various injuries. Cesare Maniago, the No. 1 North Star goaler. was out for several weeks with a broken hand.&ldquo;Right now 90 percent of our problems are between the pipes,&rdquo; Hextall said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of always hearing how the forwards didn&rsquo;t do this or the defensemen didn&rsquo;t do that. It was quite obvious who didn&rsquo;t do what tonight.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve only goLone goaltender who wants to play, and he&rsquo;s back in Minnesota with a broken hand.&rdquo;While none of the other Stars would come right out and agree verbally w&rsquo;ith Hextall. there was no question about their feelings.Instead of coming out onto the ice for the traditional rap on the pads of their goalie, the North Stars cleared oft the bench and emptied directly into the dressing room following the loss at Montreal. Nobody had ever seen them do that before.Rivard&rsquo;s weight is one source of discord. He is listed at 5&rsquo;9&rdquo; and 185. but weighs closer to 200. &ldquo;it would help him and the club if he lost some weight.&rdquo; Hextall added. &ldquo;If a skating player was I5 pounds overweight, you know he&rsquo;d be told to skate it off.&rdquo;Called up from New Haven originally as a backup for Maniago when Worsley incurred stomach trouble, Rivard found himself thrust into the No. I role after Maniago&rsquo;s injury. Rivard opened with a shutout, but at this writing his goals against has inflated to 4.23.He was puzzled by Hextall&rsquo;s criti cism, and hurt.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why anyone would talk like that about a teammate.&rdquo; Rivard said. &ldquo;I would never have done it, no matter how badly anyone played. Nobody bothers to make favorable comments when you play well, either.&rdquo;The next day was Rivard&rsquo;s 29th birthday. He has spent most of his career in the minors and now when the big chance came, it seemed to go up in smoke.Neither general manager Wren Blair nor coach Parker MacDonald were particularly happy about Hextall airing his gripe in public. They both realized that Rivard did have a bad night, and that his teammates were frustrated, but they prefer to keep that type of thing within the family.These incidents, however, generally blow over quickly and are forgotten. The problem will be solved by Maniago&rsquo;s imminent return. Indications are that MacDonald will go with Cesare right on down the line in a desperate bid for a playoff berth.NORTH STAR NOTES: It was not known whether Hextall received any disciplinary action for his statements, other than a few pointed words from Blair and MacDonald, it did take some fortitude for the redhead to say what he said, right in the middle of the dressing room, and perhaps it may clear the air for the North Stars&hellip; North Stars had a brutal return home from Montreal. Booked on a morning flight, they sat around Dorval Airport for 13 hours waiting for either Chicago or Detroit to be cleared for landings. Finally the club chartered a plane in Montreal for $5,700 and landed in the Twin Cities at 2 AM. the following day&hellip; Tjiat night the weary Stars went out and beat Toronto 5-3 at home&hellip; Left winger Jerry Byers and goaler Lyle Carter were racalled from New Haven as backups. Byers has three hat tricks for New Haven this season&hellip; North Stars came back from a 3-0 deficit to score five goals in the second period in a 5-3 win at St. Louis.<h2>WHERE YOU&rsquo;LL FIND IT ALL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02758/3324702-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="536" height="2006"></div> &#9632;

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Hextall Levels Blast At Own Netminders Saying Most of Stars’ Problems In Goal

OSHAWA&mdash;While most midget hockey teams are counting the days left until the playoffs, the Verdun Maple Leafs (Montreal) have something extra to look forward to.Thanks to standout performances by goaltender Rejean Therrien and forward Kevin Reeves, the Maple Leafs won the Wrigley&rsquo;s Canadian Midget Hockey Tournament Jan. 27 in Oshawa. Ont. and as a result earned themselves a trip to the Soviet Union this March.The Leafs defeated Kingston. Ont. 5-3 in the tournament final with Therrien kicking out 41 shots and Reeves scoring two thirdperiod goals. Verdun was undefeated throughout the tournament.Verdun led 3-1 in the third period before Kingston rallied to tie the game before 4.500 fans at the Oshawa Civic Center. Reeves then scored two unassisted goals to send the Leafs on their way to the USSR.Reeves was the offensive star throughout the tournament. counting four goals in an 8-1 victoryover consolation winner Hull Kiwanis.Hull won the consolation championship by dumping the Saskatoon Blazers 7-3. Hull&rsquo;s only loss came against Verdun. &#9632;

Montreal Midgets To Russia

<div class="byline">by NORM MacLEAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01828/3324771-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="824" height="637"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;There have been charges in Gotham that the New York Rangers were overpaid and under motivated. One of those at whom this cannot even be hinted is Edward Amos Irvine, better known as Ted.&ldquo;Irvine is an honest hockey player.&rdquo; says Ranger general manager-coach Emile Francis. &ldquo;He gives 110 percent every minute he is out there and he always does what you want him to.&rdquo;Irvine had trouble getting ice early in the season as then coach Larry Popein tried Gene Carr. Tommy Williams and Mike Murphy as the New York third line. Ultimately Murphy and Carr were hurt in a Boston car accident on Nov. 16 and the line broken up. When Williams and Murphy were traded to Los Angeles in late November as part of the Gilles Marotte transaction, Irvine heaved a sigh of relief. Once more he had survived the trade rumors.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to be traded,&rdquo; said Irvine. &ldquo;I like it here in New York. The Rangers are the best team I have (ever) played for. We have a chance to win the Cup, no matter what the doubters think.&rdquo;When Irvine, 6-2 and 195 pounds was re-united with his checking linemates Pete Stemkowski and Bruce MacGregor, the trio went on a scoring spree which left Irvine with 16 goals, far in excess of his complete season total for 1972-73. Irvine totaled 8-12-20 in 53 games last year.&ldquo;I had two different injury sieges and only got in some ofthose games 1 played for a few seconds,&rdquo; recalls Ted. &ldquo;This season we are thinking attack more than in the past. We are penetrating and not peeling back, always checking. Maybe that&rsquo;s why the goals against aren&rsquo;t as good. but we are doing a job getting on the board.&rdquo;Irvine is the digger and corner man on the line, with MacGregor the skater and hustler and Stemkowski both a playmakerandbigaid to Ted in the corners.&ldquo;Stemmer is underrated as a center. You notice he is up there with Jean Ratelle this season in points. He lays down some neat passes. We have been playing together since 1970-71 and are starting to know where each other is automatically.&rdquo; notes Irvine.Ted is 29 and was freed from the minor leagues and the Boston organization when the first expansion hit the NHL in I967-68. He went to the Los Angeles Kings and played with the Kings until traded to the Rangers February 28, I970 for Real Lemieux and Juha Widing. Lemieux is now back with New York, with Widing having gone on to stardom with the Kings.&ldquo;With the Kings I was expected to be a top goal scorer,&rdquo; recalls Ted. &ldquo;With New York my job is that of policeman and digger. I like my goals, too.&rdquo;When Irvine scores he does a little war dance, something now called the Teddy Shuffle. He almost never fails to celebrate in this manner and shows his exhiliration and excitement.In the low point of the New York season, the 7-2 loss to Buffalo on Jan. 10. which resulted in the dismissal of coach Popein, Irvine did score in the last minute of play &mdash; sans shuffle.&ldquo;There was nothing to celebrate. The team comes first,&rdquo; said Irvine. &ldquo;That referee gave us the business earlier. I drew a misconduct when I called him gutless.&rdquo;Irvine loses hard, something most of the modern players don&rsquo;t always agree with. He doesn&rsquo;t skate that well, but works at it and he can fight with the best in the NHL.&ldquo;With Los Angeles I had to concentrate on goals, not fighting. Here we needed a policeman and I did quite a bit offighting when I first joined the team. I still fight if it&rsquo;s called for,&rdquo; grins Ted.&ldquo;The third man in penalty makes everyone more careful about getting thrown out of games,&rdquo; admits Ted.His record with the Kings was not a sensation, listing 40, 39 and 24 points in two and three-quarter seasons. With New York he finally reached the 20 goal plateau in 1970-71 with an even 20 and 18 assists. He bids fair toexceed this by quite a margin this year. With the Rangers his point totals have been 38, 36 and 20.&ldquo;The toughest part was when I first joined the club. I went 17 games in the regular season without a goal and finally got an empty net clincher in the playoffs against Boston,&rdquo; grins the usually cheerful Mr. IrvineIrvine was a boyhood admirer of Ted Kennedy of &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon Teeder&rdquo; fame with the Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;Kennedy was an example of a player with only average natural ability getting the most out of his physical attributes by extra try and desire.&rdquo; said Irvine. &ldquo;I always admired him.&rdquo;Irvine is cool. He reminds some of a younger Vic Hadfield, with his willingness to mix it in the corners, fight when needed and scrap his way onto the roster every season.It would be unfair to call Irvine a Ranger leader, but he did have a good playoff two season back when New York went to the finals, scoring his almost annual playoff empty net goal. He hit another empty net against the Bruins last season.Irvine will never be a super star, his life being a roller coaster of ups and downs trying to stick as a regular. But he gives his all. is counted upon by Francis in clutch situations and is an honest hockey player. Many other NHL teams covet him &mdash; and with every Increasing expansion should the Rangers ever trade Teddy, he will have employment for many seasons to come.&ldquo;I want to stay with the Rangers and finish the job here. It&rsquo;s tough with a team just starting out, like Los Angeles was&rdquo;.Irvine does have trouble with Yvan &ldquo;Roadrunner&rdquo; Cournoyer. of Montreal, who has scored two goals in each of the games the teams have met this season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s fast and hard to check because he is also quick at handling the puck., says Ted. &ldquo;But if we play Montreal in the playoffs we&rsquo;ll do alright.&rdquo; Irvine usually manages to do more than alright.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02700/3324764-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1200" height="1484"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey News Photo by Robert ShaverGILBERT PERREAULT, left, is part of the game with Rangers&rsquo; TED IRVINE, who does an outstanding job on defense for the New Yorkers</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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TED IRVINE UNSUNG RANGER

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01881/3324823-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="462" height="457"></div>THE PHILADELPHIA FLYERS&rsquo; annual clinic held at the Spectrum on the morning of the team&rsquo;s 2-0 win over Los Angeles attracted an all time high of 12.000 hockey fans. The clinic featured a Flyers&rsquo; workout, midget and junior league games plus a women&rsquo;s hockey game&hellip; Kerry Fraser, a 2l-year-old Sarnia, Ont. boy, is making good as a referee in the American Hockey League. Second youngest official to ever referee professionally. Fraser attended a referees&rsquo; school a couple of summers back and was so impressive that he was tabbed as a sure-fire NHL official at that time. He worked a few games as a linesman in minor pro games last season but this year he&rsquo;s refereeing all the time. Hans Tanner has an excellent in depth article on Kerry in the February issue of HOCKEY PICTORIAL. This same edition of PICTORIAL has a fine story on &ldquo;The Making of the Philadelphia &lsquo;Mad Squad&rsquo;&ldquo;&hellip; It doesn&rsquo;t sound like there&rsquo;s an over abundance of harmony within the Minnesota North Stars. First Dean Prentice quit, amid sharp words from Wren Blair, and then Dennis Hextall blasts his own goaltending. Earlier, Buster Harvey was fined and suspended by management. It&rsquo;s been a rugged season for the North Stars and their loyal fans&hellip; Ray Miron, hardworking general manager-coach of Tulsa in the Central League, highly elated over drawing 6,552 fans to a recent home game that saw his club down arch-rival Oklahoma City, 4-3. &ldquo;It was one of the greatest games I ever saw,&rdquo; said a jubilant Miron&hellip; General manager-coach Ron Ingram has done a superb job in rebuilding the Syracuse Blazers of the North American League. Only two players are back from last year&rsquo;s champions. This season the Blazers are undefeated at home which gives them an unbeaten home streak of 82 home games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02837/3324816-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="369" height="515"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kerry Fraser</figcaption></div>FRANK UDVARl, NHL supervisor of officials who is constantly scouting up-and-coming young officials, had this to say to HOCKEY PICTORIAL: &ldquo;I feel you&rsquo;ll see more Americans coming into officiating just as you are seeing more players. If only the U.S. colleges would switch to the one referee and two linesmen system instead of the two referees setup, it would be much easier for some of those officials to move into pro. And it would make it a lot easier for us to spot good officials&rdquo;&hellip; Followers of the Vancouver Canucks are hopeful that the nasty front office mess will soon be solved. The constant squabbling has done nothing for the players&rsquo; morale and the sooner it is rectified the better it will be for everyone&hellip; Buffalo Sabres will be a lot tougher during the last half of the schedule now that Roger Crozier has returned to play goal. Coach Joe Crozier is very disappointed that Gil Perreault is still having troubles with the leg he broke earlier this season&hellip; When Danny Gallivan first began broadcasting Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; games, Dick Irvin was the coach and Frank Seike was the general manager. When he finally missed a broadcast, Dick Irvin Jr. and Frank Seike Jr. replaced him in the broadcasting booth&hellip; Toronto Maple Leaf fans highly critical of Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s selection of Buffalo&rsquo;s Gil Perreault to the NHL East All Star squad ahead of the Leafs&rsquo; Darryl Sittier. Perreault was out for 24 games with his broken leg while Sittier had 24 goals for the first half of the schedule&hellip; Fans in Salt Lake City are incensed that the NBC affiliate, KUTV, in that city, is not showing the NHL Games of the Week. Gabriel S. Ablonczy is spearheading a drive of thousands of Salt Lake fans to force KUTV to carry the games&hellip; The Bruce Norris-sponsored London Lions are presently on an extended tour of Europe. The Lions will play 30 games in eight countries before returning to their Wembley Empire Pool home&hellip; Nice to see the entire Richard family on hand for the Henri Richard Night. No player was ever more deserving of a special Night than the durable captain of the Canadiens.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03732/3324809-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="321" height="469"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Ingram</figcaption></div>MIKE KENTISH, recreation director of the City of Noranda, Que. sends us a possible lineup of Noranda All Stars. Every player mentioned was either born in that city (population 11,100) or played part of their minor hockey in the Noranda Kiwanis Husky Hockey Leagues. Goalies: Jacques Caron (Vancouver Canucks), Gord McRae (Oklahoma City Blazers) Glen Seperich (Tulsa Oilers) and Ted Ouimet (Syracuse): &lsquo;Defen semen: Kent Douglas (Baltimore Clippers), Jean Le-mieux (Halifax Voyageurs), Gary Connelly (Chicago Cougars), Harry I Shaw (Phoenix Roadrun 1 ners), Robert Pate (Muskegon); Centers: Dave Keon (Toronto Maple Leafs). Pit Martin (Chicago 1 Black Hawks), Chris Bordeleau (Winnipeg Jets): &lsquo;Wingmen: J.P. Bordeleau (Chicago Black Hawks), Dale Tallon (Chicago Black Hawks), 1 Paulin Bordeleau (Vancouver Canucks), Rejean &lsquo;Houle (Quebec Nordiques), Steve Sutherland (Los Angeles Sharks), Allie Sutherland (Omaha 1 Knights), Wayne Connelly (Minnesota Fighting &lsquo;Saints), Borden Smith (Saginaw Gears), Paul Larose (Maine Nordiques) &hellip; We would like to hear from other cities with an All Star aggregation that might oppose the Noranda group&hellip; Doug Mohns of Atlanta Flames has become very religious of late and was instrumental in having a 1 &ldquo;Swear Pot&rdquo; placed in the Flames&rsquo; dressing room. A player puts a dollar into the pot every time he&rsquo;s caught swearing. At the end of the? season the majority of the money in the pot will go to charity&hellip; Jiggs McDonald, Atlanta Flames announcer, celebrated his 500th regular season? broadcast the other night. He&rsquo;s in his seventh season in the league.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04630/3324802-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="272" height="463"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Mohns</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05505/3324854-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg"></div><h2>U.S. Fans Miss Out On Hockey Telecasts</h2>This is probably just one of many letters you receive complaining about the injustice hockey receives from the television networks.Hockey is the fastest growing sport in the United States today and yet we are lucky to see one game a week which starts almost at the halfway point in the season and one game a week in the playoffs. Why can&rsquo;t hockey be like baseball and get all the games covered?This year, hockey fans in San Diego won&rsquo;t get to see Bobby Orr rushing up the ice as KGTV Channel 10 has decided not to put on the nationally televised games although they have been advertising it for weeks. How can they do it?Come on fellow hockey fans. Put on some pressure and demand more hockey coverage on televisionGRAHAM MILLER,San Diego, Cal.<h2>WHA Can&rsquo;t Survive Without Merger</h2>The WHA will never survive if they do not merge with the NHL.Right now the WHA is averaging about 4,000 people a game. This number of people is barely enough to play the right rents the WHA has for arenas. In its second year of operation, it has already had many city changes and owners are suffering heavy losses and are slowly withdrawing their money.These reasons and others will topple the WHA in a matter of three years or so.ANDREW PORTER, St.Andrews P.O.<h2>Smith Warrants Hart Trophy</h2>In my opinion, Gary Smith should be a strong candidate for the Hart Trophy which is given to the most valuable player.Sure, there is Orr, Esposito, Clarke, Mikita etc. but even if you take them away, their teams still have very good chances of making it into the playoffs.Smith is why Vancouver fans&rsquo; playoff hopes haven&rsquo;t ended. Smith is who they pay to watch. Surely, with talent like that, Gary Smith should not be overlooked as a top candidate for the Hart Trophy.PAUL SAVAGE,Hope, B.C.<h2>O&rsquo;Brien Could Help Stars</h2>I have been a season ticket holder for the North Stars for four years now. Right now they are in a bad slump. The way the defense is playing it&rsquo;s funny they aren&rsquo;t at the bottom of the league. The only thing I can&rsquo;t understand is why Dennis O&rsquo;Brien is sitting on the bench most of the time.I noticed everytime he stepson the ice he sparks up the whole team. I heard on TV the other night he is the only plus defenseman they have. I know once in a while he makes a bad pass but he uses his body to make up for it. Whenever anybody is ready to fight, O&rsquo;Brien is the first one to drop his glees.H. THURMESHampton, Minn<h2>Habs Resort To Bush Tactics</h2>I would like to comment on the Canadiens&rsquo; organization and their coach in particular. With such a so-called great organization why did they let Ken Dryden get away but offer Guy Lafleur a million dollars to keep him from jumping?But to top it off was the game of Jan. 7 against the Flyers First, they had their assitant GM in the press box trying to drum up some cheering by the fans. Second, Scotty Bowman walked over near the penalty box and tormented Bobby Clarke. Why does he resort to such unprofessional tactics? Why doesn&rsquo;t the Canadian management separate the walkway between the Canadien bench and the penalty box? Could it be the Canadiens are seeing new powers spring up in the NHL?DOMINIC LA ROSE,Philadelphia, Pa.<h2>NHL Expansion Should End</h2>How long shall the NHL go on with all the expansions? Now it is 16 teams after last year&rsquo;s expansion to Atlanta and NY Islanders. And next season two more teams, Washington and Kansas City, will move in to the league. In 1976 it will be 20 teams in the NHL after another expansion.Of course it&rsquo;s a great business but is it good for the league to expand so much? And now the WHA takes players from the NHL.Is the quality as good as it was in 1969-70 when it still was 12 teams, or before 1967-68 when It was only six teams in one division? Since 1970, four new teams came in and have padded the league with at least 80 more players, and to the WHA, the NHL has lost over 90 players. Amongst them are many great stars like Hull, Tremblay, Cheevers, Stapleton and others. The gap. must be hard to fill.I must say that many of the rookies who have come to the league in the last years havebeen great players. I think about Perreault, Dionne, Vickers, Barber and other guys. They all had great rookie years and the answer for that is, of course, that they all are very good players, but maybe another answer is that the league isn&rsquo;t as good as it was about five or six years ago.But I will say that still believe that the NHL has the best teams and players in the whole world.ROLF OLOVOSSON &#9632;

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FAN FORUM

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BUFFALO: Paul Curtis, defenseman. traded to New York Rangers in exchange for Real Lemieux, forward. Curtis assigned to Providence of AHL by Rangers. Joe Noris, defenseman. and Pete McNab, forward, assigned to Cincinnati of AHL.VANCOUVER: Bruce Bullock, goalkeeper, recalled from Seattle of WHL. Defenseman Barry Wilcox returned to Seattle. N.Y.RANGERS: Gerry Butler, forward, recalled from Providence of AHL and later returned. Larry Scharukdefenseman. returned to Providence.PITTSUBRGH: Ron Jones, defenseman. assigned to Hershey of AHL for 14-day conditioning periodMINNESOTA: Lyle Carter, goalkeeper, returned to New Haven of AHL.DETROIT: Doug Grant, goalkeeper. returned to Virginia of AHL. Dan Makey, forward. recalled from Tulsa of CHL and reassigned to Virginia.ATLANTA: Dwight Bialowas, defenseman. recalled from Omaha of CHL.MONTREAL: Recalled defenseman Rick Wilsonand forward Glenn Goldup from Nova Scotia of AHL.<h2>WORLD HOCKEY ASSN</h2>MINNESOTA: Bobby Walton, forward, traded to Vancouver of WHA in exchange for Jean Tetreault, forward.VANCOUVER: George Gardner, goalkeeper. Denis Meloche and Michel Plante, forwards, assigned to Roanoke Valley of SHL. Yves Archambault, goalkeeper, recalled from Roanoke as standby replacement for Gardner.CLEVELAND. Larry Hillman, defenseman. placed on disabled list for rest of season after undergoing knee surgery. Ted Hodgson, forward. recalled from Jacksonville of AHL.WINNIPEG: Garth Rizzuto, forward. waived through WHA and released.EDMONTON: Bob Fitchner, defenseman. assigned to Winston Salem of SHL. jim Schraefel, forward. recalled from San Diego of WHL.CHICAGO: Lorne Rombough, forward, recalled from Long Island of NAHL. Jim Benzelock, forward, sent to Long Island.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>HERSHEY: Larry Bignell, defenseman. sent to Richmond of AHL on loan.<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>SEATTLE: Larry Bolonchuk, defenseman. returned to Des Moines of 1HL.SALT LAKE: Tom Cassidy, forward. dropped from roster.PORTLAND: Pokey Trachsel, forward, sent to Saginaw of 1HL. &#9632;

Movements of Players

<div class="byline">BY JACK McCARTHY</div>BOSTON&mdash;It has happened before in sports, perhaps, but this happening is particularly pleasing to a great many people. That would be the &ldquo;arrival&rdquo; of Carol Vadnais in Boston.Strictly speaking, he arrived in February of 1972, in a trade to Boston from the California Seals with Don O&rsquo;Donoghue, for three young Boston favorites. Ricky Smith. Bob Stewart and Reggie Leach.It should be also noted that he went right into the Boston lineup, while Ted Green, another Boston favorite, was not getting that much ice time.Vadnais, a rushing defenseman for the Seals, got into I6 games for Boston that year and had four goals and six assists. He also had his ears blistered by Boston fans, who jumped on his every mistake. It was making no mistake, however, to say that Vadnais, although a young veteran, was tight as a drum.Last season it was a little better, but he was still getting the old bazoo at the beginning of the year. But he had adjusted to the Boston style by now. and slowly but surely, he was accepted. And. now. by gar the man is popular in Beantown.His stock zoomed when he scored two goals and assisted on another in the Bruins&rsquo; 8-0 romp Over Canadiens in the Forum, and he followed that with a two-goal game the next night in Boston Garden against the Kings. These were his eighth and ninth goals.Says Carol. &ldquo;Perhaps the game in Montreal was the best I&rsquo;ve played, (coach Bep Guidolin says it was his best ever). It is a matterofconfidence. I feel more at home now. I feel part of the team. I think that may be a difference. The players were always great to me. but the booing at the first bothered me.&ldquo;It has got to bother an athlete when he gets that in his home town. You expect it on the road and you don&rsquo;t pay any attention.&ldquo;But, I don&rsquo;t believe anyone who says that they don&rsquo;t hear the booing. And I don&rsquo;t believe them when they say they hear it. but it doesn&rsquo;t bother them.&ldquo;You hear it. and you say to yourself. What am I doing that&rsquo;s so wrong?&rsquo; When I first got here, with all these great players, 1 think I was trying to hit Phil Esposito with every pass I made. 1 was trying to give the puck away all the time, afraid I would make a mistake.&ldquo;Now, I give the puck away only when I think I should: when I think the pass is right.&rdquo;Carol began with the Bruins as Don Awrey&rsquo;s partner on defense, and then, in the middle of last season, shifted over to pair with Dallas Smith, and they have been together ever since. Awrey. of course, was traded to the St. Louis Blues, and the other Boston pair, usually, is Bobby Orr and young Al Sims.Orr. of course, is the premier rushing defenseman in hockey, and his example set off a whole string of rushes by defensemen throughout the league. Vadnais rushed quite a bit with the Seals, but he and Smith basically concentrate on defense. &ldquo;Weare trying to stay back more now where Bep wants us,&rdquo; says Carol.It should be noted that Carol, in the game in Montreal, added a new wrinkle to his repertoire, killing penalties as well as playing the left point with Orron the power play. He has, in truth, become a valuable Bruin.Says Guidolin, &ldquo;He is very much improved from last year to this year. He worked hard in training camp.&ldquo;I have never seen Vad play better than in the 8-0 game Montreal, and I&rsquo;ve seen him play in junior, in California, and here in Boston. He played defensively, and when he gets defensive minded. then he is at his best. That was a super game for him.&ldquo;He has been overshadowed somewhat here, and when he first got here, they expected a lot of him. But this year, I have never seen a guy work so hard. He has thrived on work.&ldquo;Vad has confidence with this team now. He is good for the hockey club, too. All the players like him &mdash; he has a great sense of humor.&rdquo;So Vadnais has really &ldquo;arrived&rdquo; as a Bruin.BAKED BEANS: Captain Johnny Bucyk has reached yet another plateau in the NHL&hellip; He was already one of seven players to have scored so goals in a season&hellip; And. against the Hawks in Chicago. Thursday, Jan. 17. &ldquo;The Chief&rsquo; became the eighth man in NHL history to score 450 goals&hellip; Number 450 was an unnassisted job after he had intercepted a pass, and he beat Tony Esposito&hellip; John said that after he found out he was only one goal away from 450. he had been fighting the puck and missing good chances&hellip; He still is a demon in the comers, and especially so in the left corner on the Boston power play, making the diagonal pass out to Bobby Orr at the right point. &#9632;

Bruins Herald Vadnais’ Arrival In Boston

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;FRED SHERO isn&rsquo;t complaining, not with his Flyers leading the NHL West Division, but he&rsquo;s having trouble figuring what they&rsquo;ll do next.Take a six-game stretch as the Flyers swung into Part Two of Countdown to the Playoffs.The Flyers scored seven goals in three of four victories. In between was a 1-0 triumph over Atlanta. Next time out, Los Angeles was a 2-0 victim as Bernie Parent posted his ninth shutout to break the expansion team record held by Glenn Hall with St. Louis. The victory was also the Flyers&rsquo; eighth straight at home, a club record, and fifth straight overall &mdash; another club record.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01850/3324964-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="279" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fred Shero</figcaption></div>With the revitalized Pittsburgh Penguins due in. you&rsquo;d expect another Philadelphia victory knowing Pittsburgh had been outscored 13-0 in two previous meetings and hadn&rsquo;t won at the Spectrum since March of 1970.So what happens? The Penguins score four straight goals and eventually win. 5-3. behind the 38 saves of goaltender Andy Brown. If the six-game span suggests inconsistency, Shero doesn&rsquo;t seem worried.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;s get three lines scoring in one game unless you&rsquo;re, a big scoring team.&rdquo; said the thinking man&rsquo;s coach. &ldquo;What you try to do is get one line scoring by matching one line against one you think yours can handle&rdquo;Unlike last season, when the Flyers counted on the Bobby Clarke &mdash; Rick MacLeish lines for scoring and the Dave Schultz &mdash; Don Saleski gang for flooring. Shero can look to a third and even fourth line for goals. At midseason. Clarke&rsquo;s line had 33 goals and 86 points, MacLeish and company had 34 goals and 82 points while the Schultz Saleski - Orest Kindrachuk line had 29 goals and 65 points. Part-timers Simon Nolet (nine goals) and Bill Clement five were helping, too.&ldquo;If you want to win as a team,&rdquo; Shero said, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to have three scoring lines. Last year we overworked two lines. Maybe having three scoring lines is why we&rsquo;re in first place instead of a poor second. 1 can try different combinations and still be confident. Like, we can go into the last couple minutes of a period or game and put Kindrachuk &mdash; he&rsquo;s pretty smart &mdash; out there with Saleski and (Terry) Crispand know they won&rsquo;t throw the puck away&rdquo;.All season the Flyers&rsquo; timing has been perfect in not throwing away their division lead. Whenever Chicago climbs within one or two points, the Flyers win and the Black Hawks tie. In their confrontations, the Flyers are 2-0-1.Shero has no conclusions on Chicago&rsquo;s stall, but he has a few heories.&ldquo;Unless you&rsquo;ve seen them at home it&rsquo;s hard to say why they aren&rsquo;t winning more. It could be he (coach Billy Reay) is overplaying two lines and they&rsquo;re tired. He was playing four lines for awhile and winning.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a veteran team &mdash; maybe they&rsquo;re hard to push in practice. Yet when I saw them on TV against the Rangers I watched when they pulled (Tony) Esposito. I just watched their faces on the bench. I could see they were concerned and really wanted to win.&rdquo;The Black Hawks lost that one, 3-2, to fall seven points behind the Flyers. The next night, however, they were back within five. And Shero knows they&rsquo;ll be within catching distance until April.FLYER FILLERS:Shero is puzzled by the strategy employed by Atlanta and Los Angeles at the Spectrum. For instance, the Kings managed just three final-period shots in their 2-0 loss. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re only trailing by one goal with 10 minutes to go, you&rsquo;ve got to challenge,&rdquo; Shero said&hellip; Over 12-games Dave Schultz, the NHL&rsquo;s penalty leader, had a mild-mannered 20 minutes (two majors, one misconduct) &hellip; Gary Dornhoefer is the Flyers&rsquo; newest businessman: he and two others have leased a new 6.700-yard golf course near Marlton, N.J. Dornhoefer has been an assistant golf pro in Canada.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02732/3324957-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="576" height="733"><figcaption class="caption-body">OREST KINDRACHUK&hellip; Smart Center</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0007-01

Balance Key To Flyers’ New Success

<div class="byline">&#x2014;By Bill Libby</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-01901/3325002-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="282" height="370"></div><h2>Sylvanus The Successor&hellip;</h2>SYLVANUS APPS was a spectacular allaround athlete. He was the Canadian and British Empire pole-vaulting champion and sixth best in the world in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He was a fine football player, a superior running back. In fact, the first time Conn Smythe saw him, Syl had a big game on the gridiron for McMaster University. Smythe had said no man with a name such as Sylvanus could be a star, but he changed his mind and signed him for Toronto&rsquo;s Maple Leafs, though he tried to talk him into taking on the nickname &ldquo;Tarzan&rdquo; Apps as a play on the famous &ldquo;Tarzan of the Apes&rdquo; character. Politely, Apps declined.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02802/3324995-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="327" height="491"><figcaption class="caption-body">SYL APPS</figcaption></div>Apps was polite. He was polished. He was peerless. For purists he remains the model for an ice center, though there may have been better ones. He remains the model for a hockey captain and there have not been better ones. He was skilled, dignified and inspirational. He was big and strong at six feet in height and 180 pounds in weight and while he seldom fought, he was tough enough. He was a swift, agile skater, a clever stickhandler, playmaker and sharpshooter.He was the National Hockey League&rsquo;s first Rookie of the Year, accepting the first Calder Trophy from Frank Calder, who was then president of the league, in 1937. He won the Lady Byng Trophy for his combination of clean and effective play in 1942. He never won the Hart Trophy as most valuable player, but should have won it two or three times. He averaged six minutes in penalties and 20 goals and 40 assists a year in an era when games were slower, seasons shorter and goals half as frequent before he retired in 1948, having led the Leafs to their second straight Stanley Cup playoff triumph and fourth in his career.He has been Ontario&rsquo;s Minister of Correctional services and a member of the Canadian parliament. Just turned 59, he remains a respected and revered figure in his country. And today he has a son who is an NHL star for the Pittsburgh Penguins, constantly being compared to his incomparable pop. He is proud of pop. Syl says, so he doesn&rsquo;t mind much, though he admits than in his fifth season in the majors he feels it is time he is judged on his own showings. He merits this, having set a team record for his expansion club by scoring 85 points on 29 goals and 56 assists last season.The club recognized his value by awarding him a five-season. $750,000 contract. He had been tempted by the Toronto Toros&rsquo; offer of a five season, $1,000,000 pact to jump to the World Hockey Association and return to his &ldquo;home town,&rdquo; but preferred to keep the family name in the circuit that made his father famous. &ldquo;It cost me a little money, but the people in Pittsburgh have been so good to me I felt I owed them loyalty,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Anyway, the money was more than I deserve.&rdquo;Like his father, he is a clean-living, modest sort, not cut out for cutting up. A handsome lad, he recently was married to the former Anne Cameron of Hudson Heights, whom he met while in summer school in Quebec.Why did he wait so long? Why did he wait until after the season started? &ldquo;1 guess we just couldn&rsquo;t wait any longer,&rdquo; he laughed. &ldquo;Actually, we waited until the team was playing in Toronto. Mother wanted a lot of hoop-de-la, like most others.&rdquo; The key question remaining is whether he holds it against his father for sticking him with the name &ldquo;Sylvanus&rdquo; and whether if he has a son he will pass it on to his son. Syl laughed again and said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll admit it&rsquo;s quite a handle, but it goes back to my great grand father and has a lot of tradition tied up in it, I don&rsquo;t mind it and may make my son suffer like my dad made me suffer. Actually, I&rsquo;ve been listed in the books as Sylvanus Apps, Jr., but I&rsquo;m not a junior, My dad was Charles Joseph Sylvanus Apps and I am Sylvanus Marshall Apps.&rdquo;Well, it&rsquo;s no worse than being Sheldon Bruce Kannegiesser, a former teammate, whom Sylvanus Marshall Apps No Junior had shifted past for a score that evening in Los Angeles. And there are no Kannegiessers in the Hockey Hall of Fame.&ldquo;Dad used to come to the rink when I was a kid. but he was so famous that the other kids would crowd around him and ask for autographs and after awhile he&rsquo;d just leave so I could do my job in peace,&rdquo; Syl says. &ldquo;He taught me some things over the years, but there wasn&rsquo;t time for him to work with me a lot. And he doesn&rsquo;t try to make, me over into a copy of himself now. He&rsquo;s not a dominating father and he feels it is best I make my own way and my own name. If I&rsquo;m a lot like him, on and off the ice, it&rsquo;s because he was my father, I admired him and a lot of him may have rubbed off on me. But if I tried to compare myself to him I&rsquo;d go crazy. Actually, the coach who taught me the most was Brad Park&rsquo;s father, Bob, who coached me in juniors. He taught me positional play and he stressed the complete team player who was balanced between offense and defense.&rdquo;After a year on scholarship playing hockey at Princeton University, this bright youngster turned professional in the Ranger organization and was assigned to Omaha of the Central League, where he scored 16 goals in the 1969-70 season. He spent part of the season the following season at Omaha, part in New York and part in Pittsburgh. The Rangers were strong at center, wanted a more agressive forward and did not give him to develop before trading him to Pittsburgh for Glenn Sather in January of 1961. It was a bad deal for Rangers. Syl scored nine goals in Pittsburgh the last part of that season. 15 the following season and 29 last season. Maybe more important, his passes set up linemates Lowell MacDonald for 34 goals and Al McDonough for 35, making their one of the top trios in the sport.Both MacDonald and McDonough are ex-Kings. So was coach Red Kelly, who put them together with Apps in Pittsburgh. Kelly coached the Kings two years and they made the playoffs both years. Then he was fired. They fell apart after that and have not made the playoffs since. He put Pittsburgh in the playoffs, too, the only time the Penguins have been there. Then last year he was fired there, too. Now they, too, are falling apart. Jack Riley, who swapped the general manager&rsquo;s role with Red a couple of times, has resigned and a series of trades in January has suddenly reshaped the Penguins.McDonough, among others, has been swapped away. But Apps remains, at this writing, the key man on the club.More aggressive and more penalized than his old man, Syl is exceptionally strong, checks foes carefully, has exceptional control of the puck when skating with it and is accurate with pass and shot. He is having a good season even if his team is not and is regarded as one of the great all around players in his sport today. &ldquo;I always wanted to be a complete player,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I always worked hard to gain the respect of other players and 1 know the most respected players are those who play at both ends of the ice. I know it&rsquo;s as important to stop the other team from scoring as it is to score. Actually, shooting has~ been my weakness. Most kids shoot all the time, but I grew up not shooting enough. It&rsquo;s what the team does that matters, not what you do. I figure if my wingers get the goals that&rsquo;s fine. My wingers have made me look good. Breaking up my line will make it harder for me. I&rsquo;ll have to work harder,&rdquo; he concluded. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY JACK BERRY</div>DETROIT&mdash;It was four days after the trade had been made and Jimmy Rutherford had just finished stripping off his sweat soaked gear after playing his first game for the Detroit Red Wings the second around.&ldquo;I still find it hard to believe,&rdquo; said the curly haired, baby-faced, 25-year-old goalkeeper who started out in the Detroit system with the Hamilton Junior Red Wings and then became the Wings&rsquo; first draft choice in 1969. &ldquo;I heard a few rumors that Detroit was looking for a goalie but I didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d get traded. I liked it in Pittsburgh. They treated me well and the fans treated me well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03666/3325033-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="259" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Rutherford</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have no regrets if I was traded back there right now,&rdquo; Rutherford said. There isn&rsquo;t much chance of that, though. Once rejected by general manager Ned Harkness because he was small and inexperienced, Rutherford was hailed upon his return as the experienced goalkeeper the Red Wings have been looking for since Roy Edwards decided to retire.And his size? No handicap at all, now.&ldquo;It seems,&rdquo; said Red Wing coach Alex Delvecchio, &ldquo;that when (Ken) Dryden came along, you had to be 6&rsquo;3&rdquo;, to be a good goaltender. As long as you get the job done, size doesn&rsquo;t make any difference.&ldquo;Jimmy handles the rebounds real well, deflecting them into the corners, and he just handles the puck well,&rdquo; Delvecchio said Rutherford&rsquo;s debut in his second time around wasn&rsquo;t what he or the Wings hoped it would be &mdash; Detroit lost, 3-2, to Montreal before a crowd of 15,514, second largest of the season.Old smoothie Henri Richard set up Murray Wilson for the winning goal midway in the first period. Rutherford got a piece of the puck but not all of it.The Canadiens, despite playing without top scorers Yvan Cournoyer and Jacques Lemaire and losing Jacques Laperriere and Chuck Lefley during the game, played with considerable alacrity, occasioned by the absorption of an 8-0 walloping the previous night at the Forum administered by Boston.&ldquo;You knew that after that, they&rsquo;d be skating.&rdquo; Rutherford said. And they were and while the Canadiens didn&rsquo;t resemble the great Montreal teams of the past, neither do the Red Wings resemble the great old Red Wing teams and Montreal had enough to win, especially with the seemingly ageless Richard setting up two goals.Rutherford couldn&rsquo;t be faulted for the defeat. It almost seems that if the Berlin Wall was constructed in front of the Detroit net, rival shooters would score without a check being laid on them.The Wings no longer are the most scored-upon team in the NHL &mdash; California just wrested that &ldquo;honor&rdquo; from Detroit &mdash; but the Wings still are running No. 2.Because of that, Harkness kept shopping for a goaltender and finally regained Rutherford, who was cast off in the 1971 June draft, and big defenseman Jack Lynch for Ron Stackhouse.Stackhouse originally came to Detroit in 1971 in one of the well over two dozen trades Harkness has since becoming GM. Tom Webster was sent to California for Stackhouse.Lynch, like Stackhouse, is big &mdash; 6&rsquo;3&rdquo;, and, like Rutherford, he was a first round draft choice. The Penguins took him in the opening round of the 1972 draft. &#9632;

f0008-03

Rejected For Lack Of Size, Experience Rutherford Returns

<div class="byline">BY HAL SIGURDSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-01875/3325071-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The Alice in Wonderland atmosphere surrounding the Vancouver Canucks National League operation continues to become curiouser and curiouser.Consider the state of affairs as they stood at this writing. Interim president Coley Hall, who spends most of the hockey season at his winter vaction home in Hawaii, had announced he was going to fire assistant general manager Bud Poile and remove general manager Hal Laycoe from that office and hand him a lesser role in the organization.Poile resigned early in the week, claiming he could no longer work with Laycoe.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02782/3325064-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="264" height="445"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bud Poile</figcaption></div>Hall also said he is considering making special scout Larry Regan interim general manager, but added that he has someone else entirely in mind for the 1974-75 season.Mind you, outside of Poile&rsquo;s resignation, none of these things have&rsquo; acutally happened and can&rsquo;t happen until the club holds a directors meeting to ratify them. Until then Laycoe is still general manager and Regan a special scout. The directors meeting is still 10 days away.On the other hanti. Hall says that in the meantime new coach Phil Maloney is in complete charge of the hockey club and that he &ldquo;won&rsquo;t stand for anyone interfering with him.&rdquo;That brings up old coach Bill McCreary, who was fired Jan. 14. Or was he?Team governor Tom Scallen, who through his Minneapolis-based conglomerate Medicor remains the hockey club&rsquo;s majority shareholder, has now entered the picture.Through the club he issued a written statement that included this concluding paragraph:&ldquo;Mr. Scallen also said he has invited Bill McCreary to the All Star game in Chicago. &ldquo;Before any decision is made concerning McCreary,&rsquo; Scallen said, &lsquo;I plan to hear his side of the story.&rdquo;Interesting. Does that mean McCreary is about to be reinstated as coach? Does it mean he is going to accept the director of scouting job he has been offered? Could it be he will wind up as the general manager? Does it mean anything at all?Stay tuned. In this operation anything is possible. That brings us to the Gary Smith situation. The first game with Maloney as coach saw the big goaltender outstanding as the Canucks upset the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2. In the second game he got rocked with five goals before Maloney placed him with Jacques Caron after the second period in what became a 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.Game three was to be a road game in Chicago, but Smith didn&rsquo;t go. He called Maloney, said it was nothing personal, but stated he had a contract problem and wouldn&rsquo;t be accompanying the team. (The Canucks were shelled 7-2 by the Black Hawks).Smith then brought in lawyer Alan Eagleson, executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, to handle the matter for him.After meeting with Smith, Eagleson announced the problem involves! more than money and that Gary was in a depressed state, blaming himself for the team&rsquo;s misfortunes and McCreary&rsquo;s demise.He said Smith was also concerned about his young son who has been extremely ill and was concerned Vancouver&rsquo;s difficult travel schedule might cause him to be away from home when he was needed.&ldquo;But he also thinks he should be paid more money,&rdquo; Eagleson concluded. Smith is on the first year of a three-year contract renegotiated after he joined Vancouver from Chicago.Eagleson, Laycoe and Smith then sat down to discuss the problems and when their talk concluded, Laycoe announced the club is sending Smith, his wife and child on an all expense paid trip to Phoenix for 10 days.&ldquo;It was agreed by all parties that he (Smith) needs a rest and upon his return I&rsquo;m confident the problem will be resolved,&rdquo; Laycoe said. &ldquo;He has been under a tremendous amount of pressure.&rdquo;CANUCK CAPERS:In more mundane matters, forward Don Tannahill has returnedlo action after a back operation that kept him out of the team&rsquo;s first 43 games. Left winger Barry Wilcox, who has missed all games to date with a broken arm, has also been sent to Seattle to get himself into playing condition. &#9632;

f0009-01

Turmoil Continues To Plague Canucks’ Operation

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS ZELKOVICH</div>MONTREAL&mdash;It&rsquo;s hardly fair to compare the Montreal Canadiens of last season to the Montreal Canadiens of 1973-74. After all, the 1972-73 version set a record for least losses in a season and no one. but no one. expected the Habs to repeat.But then no one, but no one, expected them to play as inconsistently as they have this season.The past week in the life of the Canadiens was a prime example of their mercurial performance thus far.Following a superb 7-3 victory over the first-place Bruins, the Canadiens return home and drop a 2-1 decision to the Los Angeles Kings, a team which hasn&rsquo;t caused anyone, outside of its own coach, to lose any sleep this year.Two nights later the Habs thump the Minnesota North Stars, one of the NHL&rsquo;s most disappointing teams, 6-1 thanks to a standout performance by Montreal goaltender Michel Larocque and an horrendous one by Minnesota goaltender Fern Rivard.Two nights later, the game of the year. The rematch between the Habs and Bruins.The Bruins win 8-0.It&rsquo;s enough to make a guy rend his garments.&ldquo;How can you figure this game out?,&rdquo; asked Frank Mahovlich. who was booed heavily by the Montreal fans during the Boston debacle. &ldquo;We beat them (Boston) 7-3 then lose to Los Angeles and then this..&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t rationalize in this game. You&rsquo;d go crazy. I&rsquo;ve got no time to worry about how things happen. We&rsquo;ve got a game tomorrow. 1 can&rsquo;t think about these things. I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;m going to score three goals tomorrow (he didn&rsquo;t) or not score any for the next 20 games.&ldquo;Nobody knows what&rsquo;s going to happen in this game.&rdquo;Whether Frank would have made those statements last season, when the Habs had a better idea of what was going to happen, is debatable. But as far as this season goes, Frank speaks the truth.A week prior to the&rdquo; 8-0 fiasco Montreal coach Scotty Bowman was basking in the glory of his team&rsquo;s first victory over the Bruins this season. He talked of how the strategy of nullifying Phil Esposito on the face offs had been the main cog in the victory.So the Canadiens received their instructions for the rematch straight from the horse&rsquo;s mouth. But instead they looked more like the other end of the horse.The Bruins built up a 4-0 first period lead and coasted from then on. They were at their best and would have beaten the Canadiens on any given night.But on most nights the Habs would not have been as humiliated as they were that game.The Montreal performance was. at the very least, embarrassing. For instance. Murray Wilson, who should know better (a peewee hockey player should know better) gets called for playing with a broken stick.While he&rsquo;s sitting in the penalty box trying to figure out just why he got the penalty. Boston scores goal number six.And then there&rsquo;s much-maligned Michel Plasse. Michel had beaten the Bruins the Fast time out and the goaltending rotation came up with his name for this contest.While the Habs would have lost even if Georges Vezina had been in net. Plasse was guilty of failing to keep the score to a respectable level.The worst of his sins takes place in the second period with the score 5-0. Terry O&rsquo;Reilly lifts the puck into the Montreal zone and Plasse meets it behind his net.He sees Don Marcotte breaking in on him and. instead of clearing the puck, which is what 99.99 percent of the goaltenders would have done. Michel decides to play tackle with Marcotte.A crack of thunder, Michel is flat on his hip pads and Marcotte&rsquo;s putting the puck in the net.&ldquo;I thought it was icing.&rdquo; Plasse explained feebly. Would you believe 1 thought it was offside? How about too many men on the ice?After the smoke had cleared Bowman. understandably, was in no mood to speak of strategies and theories.&ldquo;We were totally outplayed from start to finish.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We played a bad game and they played a great one. We did the same thing to them a week ago, so you draw your own conclusions.&rdquo;Bowman was asked if he had any theories regarding the inconsistency of his team.&ldquo;Yes. I have theories on why things are going the way they are,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not going to give them to the public. I do and then when they don&rsquo;t work we get lambasted for it. We played badly and they played well. I have nothing more to say.&rdquo;Over in the other dressing room. Boston coach Bep Guidolin laughed at theory and strategy. &ldquo;The only strategy in hockey is in the legs,&rdquo; he said.When things happen the way they do, it makes all the theories and strategies look very insignificant.HAB-BITS: Yvan Cournoyer suffered a pulled hamstring when upended by Boston&rsquo;s Al Sims in the first period. He did not return and missed the next game against Detroit&hellip; Plasse made some great stops against the Bruins, but has a bad habit of folding when things get tough. He was in goal in the 9-2 loss to Toronto&hellip; Jacques Lemaire. Chuck Lefley and Jacques Laperriere all came up with injuries over the weekend. Lemaire suffered a bruised knee. Laperriere a twisted knee and Lefley a bruised hip. Laperriere, hurt the most seriously, will be out two to three weeks&hellip; Bob Gainey finally broke out with two goals against the North Stars. It raised his season total to three&hellip; Wayne Thomas has allowed just five goals in his last three outings&hellip; The Montreal fans let the Habs know exactly how they felt last week. They were booed loudly against the Kings and Bruins&hellip; Bowman caught LA goalie Rogie Vachon with an over-sized stick in the third period giving the Habs a two-man advantage. They were unable to come up with a goal, though.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-01891/3325102-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="567" height="643"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRANK MAHOVLICH&hellip;Can&rsquo;t Rationalize</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Habs Stumped By Inconsistent Play

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Dennis Hull, the study in sinew who patrols left wing for the Black Hawks, rarely suffers an injury. Make that, he gets injured about as often as this planet at large sees an eclipse. That is, not often. But darned if the sturdy fellow didn&rsquo;t get hurt in mid-January when he suffered a I pulled groin on his left side in a game at Boston.&ldquo;Until then,&rdquo; remarked one Hawks, &ldquo;I thought Dennis was made of rock.&rdquo; At least Hull went out in style. He bumped into Superman (Bobby Orr) near mid-ice. &ldquo;I kind of caught my skate in the ice and my foot dragged,&rdquo; said Dennis. &ldquo;1 hurt my knee about four years ago, but 1 don&rsquo;t remember ever having anything serious, and I don&rsquo;t like it, either.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01862/3325133-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="289" height="451"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darcy Rota</figcaption></div>Neither did the Hawks. The last thing they needed, in their pursuit of the Philadelphia Flyers, was a mishap to a reliable gunner such as Hull.There were, however, two consolations: Hull healed quickly and returned, and his replacement, Darcy Rota, appeared to be maturing quickly.The rookie left winger was inserted in Hull&rsquo;s customary spot beside center Pit Martin and right wing Jim Pappin and commenced to click: two goals in a 5-5 tie with the Bruins at Chicago Jan. 16, two goals in a 7-2 destruction of the Vancouver Canucks four nights later.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to get a chance to play with a center like Pit,&rdquo; said the wideeyed Rota. &ldquo;He just lays the puck on your stick&hellip; you don&rsquo;t have to worry about it being there. I&rsquo;m starting to get some confidence and its nice to be scoring some goals for the terrific fans in Chicago. My first seven were on the road, and I was starting to wonder if I&rsquo;d be able to get one in the Stadium.&rsquo;If there was a problem with Rota, it was his tendency to meander defensively.&ldquo;it&rsquo;s a natural thing for a youngster just out of junior hockey to do that,&rdquo; said coach Billy Reay, who preaches tidiness. &ldquo;He just has to discipline himself to the fact that if he skates his wing, he&rsquo;ll get the scoring chances anyway.&rdquo;Rota, whose cannon of a shot produced 73 goals for the Edmonton Oil Kings last winter, opened his National Hockey League career beside Stan Mikita and right wing Cliff Koroll. Earlier in the winter, he was bumped by John Marks, and Rota traveled from line to line with intermittent stops on the bench.PARTING SHOTS: Center Dale Tallon returned to the Chicago lineup Jan. 20 wearing a playing cast. It was just about a month after he incurred a broken bone in his left wrist, the result of a thunderous check by Philadelphia defenseman Ed Van Impe&hellip; In his absence, Chico Maki took over at center and did his usual industrious job&hellip; Hawks lost their third home game of the season Jan. 19, an internationally televised 3-2 decision to the New York Rangers&hellip; A couple nights before, they blew yet another third period lead and settled for yet another tie at home &mdash; their ninth &mdash; a 5-5 scoreathon with Boston. &#9632;

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Rota’s Scoring Pace Made Hull’s Injury Easier To Weather

<div class="byline">By DONALD BERNS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01844/3325164-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREG POLIS&hellip; Considered Potential Super Star (Hockey News Photo by Peter Woolley)</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;In the big trade between the St. Louis Blues and the Pittsburgh Penguins the Blues gave up three players about whom they were uncertain to get two players about whom everyone is certain.The Blues got Greg Polis, a classy, 23-year-old left wing who has established himself over four National Hockey League seasons as a capable scorer.Sid Salomon HL president of the Blues, said. &ldquo;Polis was the key to the deal. We consider him a potential super star.&rdquo;The Blues also got Bryan &ldquo;Bugsy&rdquo; Watson, whose abilities as a satisfactory defenseman have become known over 10 years in pro hockey. Watson, 31. broke into the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens and also played with Detroit and Oakland before Pittsburgh.The Blues gave up three young players on whom accurate NHL verdicts have not yet been made.Battleship Bob Kelly, an extremely effective fighter, spent five seasons in the minor leagues before blossoming as a goal-scorer with Rochester Americans. His 27 goals last year with the Amerks led to his NHL chance with the Blues, and in the early part of this season he led the Blues in goals with nine in the first six weeks of play. But the scoring stopped for a few games, and Kelly was quickly benched. Whether he can become a consistent scorer in the NHL is not yet known.Ab DeMarco had been trying to crack the New York Rangers&rsquo; lineup and was making some progress at that endeavor when the Blues gave up Mike Murphy to get him about a year ago. DeMarco was becoming accustomed to the Blues style of play when he suffered a shoulder injury in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs. He was still hampered by that injury this season, and the rapid development of Larry Giroux pushed DeMarco to the sidelines.Salomon said that giving up DeMarco was &ldquo;the toughest part of this deal.&rdquo; DeMarco has talent and he will surely recover from the shoulder injury. Whether he will then be able to stand up under regular rugged play in the NHL is not yet known.And, then, of course, there is Steve Durbano. After a season and a half with Demolition Durbie the Blues decided to ship his talents and his bedevilment to another team.The Blues came close to trading Durbano in December when he skated off the Blues&rsquo; bench duringa game with the Rangers, showered, dressed and left the St. Louis Arena. Salomon suspended him from the team for that escapade. Durbano was reinstated three games later after coach Jean Guy Talbot and the St. Louts players agreed in a closed-door meeting to let the impetuous young defenseman return to the team.Perhaps Durbano&rsquo;s market value was low at the time of that crisis. The team&rsquo;s management considered trading him but appeared to be happy that the situation could be resolved without a trade.The Penguins can make good use of Durbano. He is steadily improving as a defenseman and as a point man on the power play. His slap shot is devastating and his desire to play the game is genuine. He likes fights and he wins most of them.Durbano needs to improve his judgment. He takes some foolish penalties and he sometimes fights unnecessarily. There probably will be a division of opinion in Pittsburgh, as there was in St. Louis, on the usefulness of Durbano.He may even jump the team in frustration, as he did last month in St. Louis. But he&rsquo;ll play exciting hockey, and, if the Penguins are patient with him, he could serve them for a long time.Polis swung right into action with the Blues figuring in two goals in his first two St. Louis games but the club had to wait for Watson, who was still cooling his heels after a three-game suspension and a $500 fine for man handling an NHL linesman during a Jan. 16 game while a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. &#9632;

f0013-01

Blues Happy To Sacrifice Future For Experience

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;Brad Park shot from the blueline and Steve Vickers cut diagonally towards the Chicago net. Puck and Steve arrived at about the same time. Vickers stuck out his stick and a second later the red light was on.&ldquo;New York goal, Vickers, assist Park,&rdquo; came the public address announcement.Later, between periods, it was changed and Park received credit for the goal. Honest Steve had not touched the puck, even though his presence had bothered Tony Esposito. In a sense it was a shame because if Vickers had been credited, it would have been five straight games with a goal. As it was, Steve got five in four and upped his goal scoring total to 15&hellip;&ldquo;The one I really wanted got away,&rdquo; said Vickers. &ldquo;I had the puck right on John Davidson&rsquo;s doorstep against St. Louis in the last few seconds and just couldn&rsquo;t get it high enough.&rdquo;This came in the Rangers&rsquo; only losing effort since Emile Percy Francis took over for Larry Popein. The week&rsquo;s scorecard showed a 4-4 tie in Detroit Jan. 16. a 3-2 loss in St. Louis Jan. 17 and the big win over Chicago 3-2 Jan. 19.Vickers got two in the St. Louis loss, when the Rangers just missed tying the score for the second night in a row with the goaler out. They fell behind 4-0 in Detroit and pecked away until Bruce MacGregor got the equalizer with Eddie Giacomin on the bench.Overall. Francis is 3-l-l with the team completing its six-game road trip with a 3-2-1 record. The first game was the 7-2 loss in Buffalo which sealed Popein&rsquo;s doom.&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t that we didn&rsquo;t like Popein, but we are the Cat&rsquo;s people,&rdquo; said Jim Neilson, the defenseman.The high point of the Rangers&rsquo; season came in the Chicago game. The secret was hitting. Except for a pair of Chico Maki goals. New York bodied the Black Hawks and upset their patterns. Some of this might have reversed the Stanley Cup semi-finals last sedkon. Park was victimized by Maki for one goal and was trapped for one of the opening Detroit tallies, but overall played very aggressive hockey, scored twice in Detroit and now has 13 goals.&ldquo;He looks more and more like Doug Harvey, with his deliberate but effective style of play,&rdquo; said Tim Ryan; the NBC play-by-play bradcaster before the Chicago game.The game proved Ryan&rsquo;s point as Brad picked his way up ice with a puck control that isn&rsquo;t seen too often in today&rsquo;s helter skelter head-manning.There has been a saying that as Park goes, so goes the Rangers. Brad is playing well, partnering with Gilles Marotte, who got in a couple of whacks in the Hawk contest and is looking forward to the stretch drive.&ldquo;We are not too far back.&rdquo; says Brad. &ldquo;First we must nail down a playoff berth, but if we can put a few wins together we could still move up on Boston or Montreal. And we have a nice home stand coming up.&rdquo;Park made the All Star team as Bobby Orr&rsquo;s partner, reversing the end of the year decision last year with Guy Lapointe.Vickers was upset over one thing, noting, &ldquo;I sure hope I&rsquo;m not playing better because Emile Francis returned as coach. That wouldn&rsquo;t be saying much for me as a hockey player.&rdquo;Steve, the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year in 1972-73, had gone I7games without a goal. Vickers has a less than frantic skating style and isn&rsquo;t the world&rsquo;s best back checker, but when he is going to the net, he gets results.Linemate Billy Fairbairn suffered a badly bruised knee in a collision with Barclay Plager in St. Louis and it is hoped the injury doesn&rsquo;t prove serious.The Rangers need Fairbairn&rsquo;s hard work and digging, and with Vickers starting to score it could be hoped that the right side of the Bulldog line would also break out. It was Bulldog center Walter Tkaczuk who did much of the work on Park&rsquo;s opening goal in Chicago.Bobby Rousseau has a new nickname these days. The popular little power play specialist drew assists on the two tying goals in Detroit and was in on the near miss effort in St. Louis.&ldquo;Bobby is our Dusty Rhodes,&rdquo; quipped Pete Stemkowski. &ldquo;Best pinch hitter in the league.&rdquo;Emile Francis picked it up and used it a media luncheon in St. Louis. It is an apt description of the job done by Rousseau. Perhaps the modern American League rule encompassing the designated hitter would serve even better.While not coining phrases, the Slemmer picked up the game winner in Chicago, after linemate Ted Irvine had tied it. Overall, things are looking up for New York, based on the Chicago win over a big opponent and Francis properly proclaimed. &ldquo;best comeback of the year in Detroit.&rdquo;BLUE CHIPS: The last time the Blues beat New York was via a Jack Egers hat trick two years ago in St. Louis. 6-5. Last season, the Rangers scored after pulling the goalie four times in 2I4 attempts for an average of 1 in 53. This season the strategey has worked three times in 110 chances for an average of in 37 Jean Ratelle missed two games, dressed but didn&rsquo;t play in a third. Sat out again and finally got on only for the power play in Chicago. He had a bad case of the flu and was wan and drawn.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01847/3325195-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="570" height="1180"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE VICKERS&hellip;Streak Snapped</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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‘Cat’ Gets Quick Response From Rangers

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Bad goaltending can make a good team look bad. Good goaltending can make a bad team look good. The same game will look entirely different with different goaltending.The Los Angeles Kings began to look like a good team on their January road trip but when their offense went bad goaltender Rogatien Vachon rescued them and saved the swing. He got a lot of help, but he did a lot on his own. And the critical seven-game tour which figured to finish them off for the season instead inflated their hopes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01824/3325226-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="297" height="460"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rogatien Vachon</figcaption></div>The Kings broke even on the tour, winning three, losing three and tying one which is the best they ever have done on such an extended trip in their seven seasons. They won in Long Island, 3-1: tied in Chicago, 4-4; lost in Detroit, 6-0, won in Montreal, 2-1; won in Pittsburgh, 2-0; lost in Philadelphia, 2-0. and lost in Boston, 5-2.The tie was their second straight in Chicago. The win in Montreal was their second ever in the fabled Forum and was only their twelfth in 119 games in their history at the home of one of the original six established teams. It snapped a string of 15 straight games, home and away, without a victory over Montreal since Feb. 6, 1971. It is the last of several such winless strings they have snapped against certain teams this season.The Kings probably played as well in that game as they have in their history. The key to the contest came when led by Butch Goring, they killed off a two-man disadvantage in the third period to protect their one-goal edge. Vachon was well protected in this span, but at other times when the fleet hosts penetrated the defense, Rogie was super against his ex-teammates, beaten only once.The weary Kings then sagged, but Vachon carried them. They managed only 19 shots on Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Andy Brown, but got two by him to win as Vachon blocked 34 for his third shutout of the season. They managed only 14 on Philadelphia&rsquo;s Bernie Parent and were beaten when the Flyers got an early one by Vachon. The other came into an open net at the end.The Boston game was Vachon&rsquo;s 15th straight start since backup goaler Gary Edwards fractured a finger. As in Detroit. Rogier was beaten badly, but by bombers who can frustrate any foe. Vachon says, &ldquo;I like to play every game. It makes me sharper. I don&rsquo;t get tired.&rdquo; He is a rarity among goaltenders. He does not get nervous and never seems shell-shocked. If he gets beat, he gets beat. If he makes a bad play or plays a bad game, he admits it.He has his hot and cold streaks. Early this season, he went cold for a while. But he has been hot most of his time with this team and during the last road trip Terry Harper, who was his teammate at Montreal, too, said. &ldquo;1 have never seen him play better.&rdquo;Playing with an erratic team, it may not show in the stats, but Rogie is playing as well as any goaltender in the game except Parent. If Rogie was with Philadelphia, he might be doing as well as Bernie is doing.Montreal made a mistake letting him go. Vachon had almost as good regular-season statistics and superior playoff statistics to Ken Dryden&rsquo;s. Dryden now is gone and the Canadiens are strugging without a goaltender as good as Vachon.The mustachioed French-Canadian seems content in southern California. He has signed a three-year contract with the Kings for around $125,000 a season and a shot at performance bonuses. He is married to a beautiful former model. Nicole Blanchard, they have a one-year-old son and reside in season in Santa Monica, near the ocean. He says he does not miss the snow, prefers sunshine and is not psyched out by warm-weather hockey.At 28. Vachon is in his ninth season as a pro. eighth in the majors and third in L.A. He was traded here in November of 1971 for four players who are long since gone from the Canadiens &mdash; Denis Dejordy. Dale Hoganson. Noel Price and Doug Robinson &mdash; plus considerable cash. At 5-7 and 165 pounds. Vachon is small, but sturdy and skilled, and unshaken by the ups and downs in L.A.In Montreal, Canadiens&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman challenged Vachon is small, but sturdy and skilled, and unshaken by the ups and downs in L.A. In Montreal. Canadiens&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman challenged Vachon&rsquo;s stick and measurement betrayed the blade as being a fraction of an inch too large. This brought the Kings a penalty and Vachon a $200 fine. The stick company promised to pay the fine and ship a new supply of strictly legal sticks after Nicole Vachon telephoned them longdistance and berated them.Pulled from the net to provide an extra attacker in the last minute at Philadelphia. Vachon simply left his stick sideways at the front of the net. figuring it would block any sliding shot. Roz Pulford had asked hubby Bob what would happen if a goaler did this and the coach suggested Vachon find out. Referee Ron Wicks did not penalize the player, but removed the stick, after which the Flyers slid an insurance score into the empty net.Well it was worth a try. but with a player like this one it&rsquo;d be better to keep the player in goal, not just his stick. &#9632;

f0015-01

Vachon ‘Saves’ Kings On Successful Road Trip

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01652/3325278-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02566/3325271-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="637" height="8322"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03454/3325264-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="612" height="2824"></div><h2>TOP NHL SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04349/3325257-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="1235" height="1060"></div> &#9632;

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National Hockey League Scoring By Teams

<div class="byline">BY HARRY KLAFF</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Some hockey insiders agree that there is a correlation between the number of penalties a team is assessed, and its relative standing in the league. Very often it seems that the higher the punitive rate, the higher the standing.Last year the N.Y. Islanders were down near the bottom of the list &mdash; in everything. You name it: points, goals, wins: the works. The only place where they were mediocre was penalty minutes.But this is deceiving. Large penalty totals are usually amassed by the brawlers. This means clubs like the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins. They get penalties for fighting, roughing, charging, and boarding.The Islanders got their share of penalty minutes in their maiden seasoq. The only difference was they were mostly penalties for errors&mdash;tripping, holding, hooking, and the like.This year it&rsquo;s different. The Isles rank right up there with the Flyers, and it&rsquo;s not because they&rsquo;ve been constantly caught with too many men on the ice. The Islanders&rsquo; penalties this term are the real McCoy.In simplest terms, the Islanders have added some sock for the &lsquo;73-74 season. They may not be ready to challenge for the Stanley Cup, but no one is going to push them out of the rink. This year they are not only hitting back, they&rsquo;re hitting first.The new tough kids on the block are Gary Howatt, Bob Nystrom and Dave Lewis. Howatt and Nystrom were called up at the end of last season from New Haven, and have played the left and right wings on a line with either rookie Andre St. Laurent or veteran Eddie Westfall. Lewis is an excellent freshman rearguard who has an outside shot at the Calder trophy.All three can hit, but the young man who has established himself as the Island favorite is the 2l-year-old Howatt, who was nicknamed the Toy Tiger at New Haven. At one point this season, Howatt collected at least one major penalty in five successive games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t go looking for fights, but they seem to find me,&rdquo; smiles the 5-9, 175-pounder, who at first glance seems too small for the strenuous hockey wars. &ldquo;I just lose my temper a bit too much. I really get into the game and sometimes I over-react.&rdquo;Gary first attracted attention on the final weekend of the &lsquo;72-73 season when the Islanders journeyed to Philadelphia to meet the Flyers. During the second period, he encountered Bad Bob Kelly, who has been known to engage in some fisticuffs himself.Kelly got the early advantage, but Howatt kept coming, and coming, and coming. The Spectrum fell quiet, knowing their guy got licked.Recently it was revealed that Howatt is an epileptic, and must take daily medication to thwart the disease. He&rsquo;s had it since he was 14, but hasn&rsquo;t let it slow him in the least.&ldquo;I just take my medication when I&rsquo;m supposed to, and then forget about it. As far as affecting my play is concerned. I don&rsquo;t even think about it at all he says.Tall, bond and powerful. Bob Nystrom became a Coliseum hit on Oct. 27 when he socked it to Vic Hadfield as the Isles defeated the Rangers for the first time ever. After he dueled with Atlanta&rsquo;s Pat Quinn on Jan. 15th. the latter asked the penalty timekeeper. &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s that number 23? He hits a ton.&rdquo;Dave Lewis hasn&rsquo;t fought that often, but his few bouts have been classics. Like the night against Vancouver a few weeks ago where he decked Orland Kurtenbach.It seems that Lewie&rsquo;s defensive partner, Bert Marshall, didn&rsquo;t tell him about Kurtenbach. Some years before, Kurtenbach flattened Marshall with one punch when Bert played with Detroit.&ldquo;Yeah, he hit me up here,&rdquo; said Orland pointing to a bruise above his eye. &ldquo;Who is he? You can&rsquo;t keep track of all the players any more.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s Dave Lewis. Orland. And the other two are Garry Howatt and Bob Nystrom. By next year, no one will have to ask.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03407/3325323-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="579" height="1003"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY HOWATT&hellip;Fan Favorite</figcaption></div>ISLAND SOUNDS: The Islanders received a jolt when center Ralph Stewart went out with a collarbone injury. Ralph was the club&rsquo;s top goal sniper at the time &hellip; Coach Al Arbour lifted starting goaltender Billy Smith in the second period with the Islanders leading Atlanta 4-3. Billy had given up a couple of questionable goals, and was replaced by Gerry Desjardins, who preserved the victory&hellip; The Islanders have solved the Atlanta riddle after gaining only one point against the Flames last year. The Isles are 2-0-1 with their expansion sisters&hellip; Defenseman Jean Potvin scored two goals in the 4-3 win over Atlanta on Jan. 22nd.<h2>Looking At NHL Goalers</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01555/3325316-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="613" height="2337"></div><h2>Team Penalities</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02492/3325309-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="591" height="640"></div> &#9632;

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Rugged Play Of Howatt, Nystrom, Lewis Has Islanders On Rise In NHL Race

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Anybody chosen for the teams in the annual National Hockey League All Star games is going to feel good about it, no matter how blase he might be.No one picked for this year&rsquo;s classic, however, could have appreciated the honor more than Dave Dryden, the goaltender for the Buffalo Sabres.Dave has been classified as the backup goaltender practically all the time since he entered the NHL with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1965. His younger brother Ken was an All Star netminder for the Montreal Canadiens the last two years.When the East Division team was chosen by a ballot of newspapermen for this year&rsquo;s All Star game in Chicago, however. Dave was the Dryden who was picked as one of the two goaltenders.Ken of course, retired from pro hockey this season after a contract dispute with the Canadiens and is working for a law firm in Toronto.&ldquo;I really appreciate this.&rdquo; Dave said, when he learned he had been picked as the second goaltender for the East. &lsquo;Tve had a series of ups and downs in my pro career and I&rsquo;ve had some really dull times.&ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t think I was envious of Ken when he was an All Star. That doesn&rsquo;t enter into it at all. I&rsquo;m just proud that both of us could have the same honor.&rdquo;This season didn&rsquo;t begin very happily for Dryden. He knew the Sabres had put him on the trading block last season and when training camp began he felt, he said, &ldquo;like a third wheel on a two wheel bike.&rdquo;Roger Crozier, who had been the Sabres&rsquo; top-ranking goalie through their first three NHL years, was back and Gary Bromley, a promising youngster upfrom the Cincinnati Swords, was getting a lot of attention.I didn&rsquo;t go to training camp feeling negative,&rdquo; Dryden related, &ldquo;but after a week I couldn&rsquo;t help feeling that way. I thought I would be traded.&rdquo;Dave didn&rsquo;t dress-for the opener against the Maple Leafs in Toronto. Bromley started the game and Crozier, who reported overweight and still was not in shape, was the backup.It turned out that Bromley wasn&rsquo;t ready for the nhl. after a couple of weeks. Crozier was hospitalized for pancreatitis, the ailment that has bothered him foreight years. Roger was in and out of the hospital, when was given a four-week leave of absence by General Manager Punch Imlach.Dryden handled the Sabres goal tending chores in 33 of the club&rsquo;sfirst44 games. For the first time he was going to the rink on the night of a game knowing he would be playing. When it came time to vote for the All Star team, he had the best goals-against average for any netminder who had played 20 games or more.I didn&rsquo;t expect this,&rdquo; said Dave. &ldquo;I just didn&rsquo;t think it would happen.&rdquo;ICE CHIPS: Things weren&rsquo;t so good for Dryden the game after he learned he made the All Star team. The same day as the announcement the Philadelphia Flyers bombed the Sabres, 7-2. Dave, who was getting little help from his teammates, was withdrawn midway through! the second period with the score 6-1&hellip; Crozier rejoined the club two games later, after the Sabres tied the New York Islanders. 2-2, and beat the California Golden Seals, 6-4&hellip; Rocky Farr, who started the season in the American League with Cincinnati, was to stay with the Sabres until Crozier proved he was ready to play again&hellip; The Sabres acquired Real Lemieux, a hard-nosed left winger man New York Rangers in exchange for Paul Curtis, a travelling defenseman who has been toiling with Cincinnati most of the year. It was a straight player swap.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01562/3325378-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="552" height="1030"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE DRYDEN&hellip; Backup No More (Photo by Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Third Wheel Dryden Now An All Star

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National Hockey League SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">BY DAN PROUDFOOT</div>TORONTO&mdash;The Maple Leafs first got the message they were in danger of becoming a fifth-place instead of a fourth or third or second-place team when they went three games without a win, in Vancouver, Oakland and Bloomington, Minn., in a single dismal week of January.A team meeting was called immediately upon arrival at Montreal, and coach Red Kelly and general manager Jim Gregory spoke of there being no panic, just a need for every one to do his job and pull together.The next night Leafs blew a 2-0 lead and lost 4-3 to Canadiens. In the western games Kelly had been critical of Leaf wingers leaving the scoring efforts 4o the centers. In Montreal, centers lost faceoffs to lead directly to three of the four Canadien goals.Now Leafs were winless in four games. Buffalo Sabres were a single point behind (and a win over the Canadiens in Buffalo the next night moved them ahead, dropping Leafs out of a playoff position for the first time).Leafs could complain they were in the depths of their longest stretch, 19 days, without a game at the Gardens. Or, they could complain they ran into remarkable situations everywhere they played. Fine. Consider them.At Vancouver, Phil Maloney was coaching his first game for the Canucks. The Vancouver players disagreed with the necessity of firing Bill McCreary, of course, but still they responded to Maloney&rsquo;s arrival. Gary Smith played a strong game in the Canuck goal. Leafs had a 43-27 shooting margin, but lost 4-2.Kelly made no statements, however, to the effect &ldquo;we was robbed.&rdquo; He said lack of checking in the Leaf zone had hurt.At Oakland, Leafs led 3-2 after one period, but eventually had to struggle from behind for a tie. Seals were lifted by the news Charlie 0. Finley was selling the team, and the return of goalie Gilles Meloche, but Leafs had a 43-26 advantage in shots. Because the game was the night after the one in Vancouver, Leafs were fatigued by the long flight between the two cities.But again Kelly was unhappy.The team had plenty of time to rest in Minnesota, and played possibly their worst game of the three in losing 5-3 to the North Stars. It&rsquo;s not worth mentioning the Stars may have been fired up by Dennis Hextall&rsquo;s widely-circulated blast that goalie Fern Rivard was overweight. A team of weightwatchers may have defeated Leafs.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been getting exactly strong goaltending,&rdquo; Kelly said of Dune Wilson at Vancouver, Doug Favell at Oakland and Ed Johnston at Bloomington.Kelly went on to talk about wings not putting in enough effort, pulling up when an extra stride would have saved a goal. Clearly the fault was not all with the goalies.Thus came the important meeting at Montreal. It was the first of its kind, really, since training camp. Think of it more as a session designed to reestablish direction than a simple rah-rah thing.However, Canadien coach Scotty Bowman was similarly upset over his team&rsquo;s recent performances.An8-0loss to Boston Bruins at the Forum the previous Saturday was still bothering Bowman, and he conducted two practises the day before the Leaf game, saying he was worried about conditioning. The day of the game, he held a meeting almost an hour long with the Canadiens.Then came the night, Canadiens without the injured Jacques Laperriere, Yvan Cournoyer, Chuck Lefley and Jacques Lemaire. A battle of the meetings, if you will, a battle of slumping teams.Canadiens Won. Purely on the faceoffs. Leafs showed renewed signs of effort, Wilson was strong in goal, but the result meant the team had only one of a possible eight points in its road trip to date. Not enough, for a playoff contender.&ldquo;You may never win a game in your own end,&rdquo; concluded Kelly, &ldquo;but you never want to lose one because of your play there &mdash; three faceoffs, that&rsquo;s the story in a nutshell.&rdquo;LEAF NOTES: Rookie defenseman Bob Neely missed seven games with an intestinal infection, dropping more than 15 pounds&hellip; Loss of Rick Kehoe with a bruised heel for the Canadien game was costly, because Kehoe, David Keon and Tim Ecclestone play well together&hellip; Willie Brossart has been left out of uniform despite Neely&rsquo;s injury, indicating the defenseman shouldn&rsquo;t plan for a long stay in Toronto.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01388/3325629-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="578" height="629"><figcaption class="caption-body">RED KELLY&hellip; Coach Upset</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02294/3325622-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="6181" height="833"><figcaption class="caption-body">IS YOUR SMILING FACE IN THIS PICTURE? IT CAN BE IN &lsquo;74</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Kelly Tells Leafs To Pull Together

<div class="byline">BY TONY PETRELLA</div>ATLANTA&mdash;Injuries are a way of life in professional hockey, something to be endured if not forgotten. Nobody knows that better than Doug Mohns.During his 21 years in the National Hockey League, he&rsquo;s been afflicted with everything from a broken toe to a broken nose. And various parts of his anatomy between those points have taken their share of abuse, too.Right now, Mohns is waiting for his nose to heal. He can&rsquo;t really remember how many times it&rsquo;s been cracked fractured or broken, and it&rsquo;s probably just as well.&ldquo;It sounds silly to say this, but despite never having been through a season without being hurt. I&rsquo;ve never had anything serious happen.&ldquo;With me. it&rsquo;s always the usual stuff. Toes, ankles, knees, things like that. I hurt my back once, and tore some cartilage in my ribs, but nothing I would call a major injury.&ldquo;Something like this broken nose is really irritating. I can skate. I can shoot and I can block shots. The only problem is. I can&rsquo;t breathe.&rdquo;Since breathing is essential to the proper execution of his duties, Mohns has been relegated to a seat in the stands until his nasal passages are cleared.&ldquo;Actually, I should feel lucky.&rdquo; Mohns said. &ldquo;I had a couple black eyes along with this broken nose, but it wasn&rsquo;t as bad as Sugar Jim Henry.&ldquo;He was our goalkeeper when I was with Boston back in 1954. and one night he took one of Bernie Geoffrion&rsquo;s shots right square in the face.&ldquo;You talk about wrecked. Two days after it happened you couldn&rsquo;t recognize Sugar Jim because his face was so swollen and discolored. I mean it, you couldn&rsquo;t tell he was the same person.&ldquo;That&rsquo;sone reason I think the league should make some mandatory ruling on protective equipment. For instance. I think players should be forced to weara helmet.&ldquo;I started wearing mine in 1967. right after Bill Masterton fell on the ice and got killed. I was in Chicago on the Scooter Line with Stan Mikita and Ken Wharram at the time, and we decided it would be a good thing.&ldquo;Some of the guys around the league gave us a ribbing, but they couldn&rsquo;t say too much because we were the most productive line in hockey at the time.&ldquo;We were the first line to all wear helmets, at least I think we were, and Stan and, I still wear ours. Kenny quit wearing his after a while, but I&rsquo;m not sure why.&ldquo;I just feel that keeping up the &lsquo;manly&rsquo; image by not wearing a helmet is senseless,&rdquo; Mohns said. &ldquo;After all, we wear protective equipment every place else on our body, so why be reluctant to wear a helmet?It&rsquo;s no fun losing your teeth, and I had my jaw fractured twice in the space of 12 months. Believe me. I&rsquo;m all in favor of protective gear.&rdquo; &#9632;

Mohns Ran Gamut Of Injuries In 21-Year Career

<div class="byline">BY GEOFFREY FISHER</div>OAKLAND&mdash;Back in 1959 a nine-year-old boy, who was a forward on a hockey team in the Montreal Pee Wee League, showed up for a game to discover that his team had no goaltender.&ldquo;I volunteered to play goal,&rdquo; said Gilles Meloche. &ldquo;and that&rsquo;s where 1 have played ever since.&rdquo;Today, at the age of 24. Meloche is generally rated as one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League. As he graduated through the various stages of bantam and junior hockey Meloche was attracting the attention of major league scouts whose intelligence reports told of the remarkable talents of this youngster in fighting off the frozen chunks of rubber poured on him in game after game.He was twice selected to the first All Star team during three seasons with the Verdun Juniors, the second time with a club that finished last in the league.In 1970 the Chicago Black Hawks signed Meloche to a professional contract and assisted him to the Flint Generals of the International Hockey League. He played only four games for Flint and was told to report to the Black Hawks.&ldquo;The Black Hawks had Tony Esposito and Gary Smith handling the goaltending and I figured there was no chance for a rookie like me in that picture,&rdquo; says Meloche.But in a game at Vancouver, Black Hawk coach Billy Reay, with no warning at all, told Meloche he was going into the nets.&ldquo;As I think back on it now,&rdquo; says Meloche. &ldquo;I realize that Billy Reay did it that way so that I wouldn&rsquo;t have time to get nervous.&rdquo;The Hawks won it 6-4 and Meloche had his very first victory in his first NHL game. The Hawks travelled to Oakland and Meloche was again in the nets as the Hawks won, 5-2, and the rookie goalie had his second win in first two NHL tests.The Seals got Meloche in October. 1971. along with Paul Shmyr. from the Black Hawks in exchange for goalie Gerry Desjardins. Shmyr, a defenseman, jumped to the WHA Cleveland Crusaders and Desjardins was drafted by the New York Islanders. But Meloche became the cornerstone of the Seals&rsquo; efforts to rebuild the team.In his first game for the Seals, played in the extremely inhospitable confines of the Boston Gardens, Meloche shut out the mighty Bruins, 2-0, making 34 saves, most of them spectacular.&ldquo;That was my biggest thrill to date,&rdquo; says the 5-10, 175-pound native of Montreal.But playing goal for the Seals in recent seasons has been comparable to being a target in one of those Coney Island shooting galleries. In his first tour with the Seals in 1971-72 Meloche had to perform sheer magic to compile a 3.32 goals against average with a team that finished sixth. Last year the Seals finished eighth and Meloche&rsquo;s average climbed to 4.06. Despite his monumental handicaps of playing with a woefully weak club. Meloche was named Western Division Rookie-of-the-Year in &lsquo;70-71 and topped all NHL goalies in minutes played last season.Meloche was forced out of the lineup Nov. 28 when a teammate&rsquo;s skate cut through tendons on his stick hand during a routine practice session. He didn&rsquo;t get back into action until Jan. 16 when he was in the nets for a 5-5 tie against the Toronto Maple Leafs.Meloche frankly admits that he signed his current three-year contract with the Seals last summer on the supposition that new ownership of the club was imminent and that the Seals would soon get the help they needed to become a strong factor in the NHL.&ldquo;I had offers from Edmonton, Chicago and Minnesota of the WHA,&rdquo; he confides, &ldquo;but 1 wanted to stick in the NHL and I really like living in the Oakland Bay Area.&rdquo;Meloche is a stand-up goaltender who admits that his all-time favorites among the goalies were Glenn Hall and Roger Crozier, both of whom were acrobatic performers who played a far different style.&ldquo;I think the most important factor for a goal tender is the ability to concentrate on the job at hand,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I start getting mentally ready for a game as soon as I awake that morning. I like to get to the rink several hours before game time. By the time I&rsquo;m ready to go on the ice I&rsquo;m covered with sweat but I relax during the pre-game warn up and after I stop the first shot I&rsquo;m really ready for whatever comes.Meloche and wife Nicole were wed in Montreal two years ago: He has four brothers and one sister. All but the sister play hockey.If she did. the Meloche&rsquo;s could start their own hockey franchise. &#9632;

Meloche Became Goaler By Volunteering

<div class="byline">BY TODD HILL</div>PITTSBURGH &mdash;Jan. 14. 1974 is a date to remember in Pittsburgh hockey history.On that particular day. Jack Riley stepped down as general manager of the Penguins and was replaced by Jack Button.Riley had just started in 1966 with the club after serving as president of the American Hockey League. With the exception of about one year when he was elevated to the position of executive director and Red Kelly was GM, Riley was the top man in the organization on the hockey level.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01238/3325715-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="282" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jack Button</figcaption></div>On Jan. 13, 1973, Riley fired Red Kelly. A year and a day later. Riley turned in his resignation to owner Tad Potter. Under fire from the fans who had started appearing in fewer numbers than before, Riley could see the handwriting on the wall that his contract would not be renewed in June.Potter, in making the announcement to the gathered in the Igloo, regretted accepting the resignation and thanked Riley for all of his services to the Penguins.Rumors had been spreading rapidly that when the time came for Riley to step down or be asked to step aside, that Baz Bastien would take over. After all Baz was still in Pittsburgh after his many fine years with the Hornets, but he was under contract to Kansas City as assistant general manager.Button, 34, becomes the youngest general manager in the National hockey League today. He does not have a hockey playing background, but has served as publicity director for the Rochester Americans! AHL) and for the American Hockey League. He has been with the Penguins the past five years serving as assistant GM. and director of player personnel.Button wasted little time in getting the kind of hockey club he wanted, and in a sense the kind the fans in Pittsburgh would support.The first move he made was to send Greg Polis and Bryan Watson to the St. Louis Blues for defensemen Steve Durbano and Ab Demarco and left wing Bob &ldquo;Battleship&rdquo; Kelly.Watson had been with Pittsburgh since 1969 and needless to say was the Penguins&rsquo; all-time penalty leader. In typical Watson fashion, his last appearance in a Penguin jersey saw his tak ingon the Kings&rsquo; Dan Maloney and then throwing a linesmen to the ice to pick up 17 penalty minutes and an early shower. Little did he or the fans know when he walked into the dressing room. Button would be there with his walking papers.Polis had been a first round draft pick in 1970 but never lived up to potential. His best scoring year was 30 goals in 1971-72 and last year he was selected as the west valuable player in the NHL All Star game in New York.Button didn&rsquo;t even give that deal time to make the rounds as he quickly followed up with a two-for-one deal with Detroit that brought Ron Stackhouse to the Pens and sent goalie Jimmy Rutherford and Hershey defenseman Jack Lynch to the Red Wings.Following the second major trade within 24 hours. Button said. &ldquo;Right now we have a defense in our organization that will meet our long range objective in that position. We have several young, proven defensemen that will help make the Penguins an enduring contender&rdquo;.Button plans to shore up the defense paid off right away with a 6-2 win in Vancouver. One goal came at the buzzer at the end of the game and the other was a misplayed change of pace by rookie goalie Gary Inness who now has moved up from Hershey.Another consideration that came in on the dealing was the length of contracts on most of the players involved. DeMarco. Durbano, Kelly and Stackhouse are all on the first year of multiyear contracts, while Watson, Rutherford and Lynch are all up for renewal at the end of the season.IGLOO INK: Pens have picked up six new faces in IO days. Pens have right defensemen on the roster right now even with Ron Jones being sent to Hershey to work himself back into shape following a shoulder seperation Dave Burrows and Lowell MacDonald were both elated in being voted to the All Star team. MacDonald was a late replacement for injured Syl Apps last year, while Burrows finally got the recognition he deserved&hellip; Durbano wasted little time in showing the Pens are not to be intimidated any more as he broke the nose of Vancouver&rsquo;s Dave Dunn in his first performance&hellip; Ab Demarco went to New York after the trade to have his injured shoulder examined by a specialist&hellip; Pens also gave up a second round draft pick this year to the Blues&hellip; Durbano and Stackhouse both scored in their first game, giving the Pens some added offensive punch from the blueline&hellip; Pittsburgh&rsquo;s first invasion into Philadelphia with the &ldquo;New Look&rdquo; resulted in a 5-3 Penguin victory and no fistic action by the Bullies. It marked the first time in 11 games, dating back to March 28, 1970 that the Pens had won in Philly.<h2>NHL SCOREBOARD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02186/3325708-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="593" height="641"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22California 3 at N.Y. Islanders 4Boston 1 at St. Louis 0Philadelphia 3 at Vancouver 2Wed. Jan. 23Toronto 3 at Montreal 4Atlanta 1 at N.Y. Rangers 4California 2 at Detroit 6St. Louis 1 at Pittsburgh 4Minnesota 1 at Los Angeles 3Thu. Jan. 24Montreal 4 at Buffalo 1Chicago 2 at Boston 1Philadelphia 4 at Los Angeles 4Fri. Jan. 25Detroit 2 at Atlanta 2Minnesota 5 at Vancouver 4Philadelphia 5 at California 0Sat. Jan. 26Chicago 1 at Montreal 4Toronto 3 at St. Louis 3Boston 4 at N.Y. Islanders 0Los Angeles 2 at Pittsburgh 0Sun. Jan. 27Toronto 5 at Atlanta 2Los Angeles 3 at N.Y Rangers 5N.Y. Islanders 4 at Chicago 2Philadelphia 3 at Boston 5Pittsburgh 5 at Detroit 6Vancouver 3 at Buffalo 2<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Tue. Jan. 29All Star game at ChicagoWed. Jan. 30N.Y. Rangers at PittsburghVancouver at DetroitCalifornia at St. LouisThu. Jan. 31Minnesota at TorontoN.Y. Islanders at Los AngelesAtlanta at BostonBuffalo at PhiladelphiaCalifornia at ChicagoFri. Feb. 1Montreal at AtlantaSat. Feb. 2Boston at TorontoN.Y. Rangers at MinnesotaN.Y. Islanders at VancouverDetroit at PhiladelphiaBuffalo at St LouisChicago at PittsburghCalifornia at Los AngelesSun. Feb. 3Montreal at DetroitToronto at BuffaloMinnesota at N.Y. RangersN.Y. Islanders at CaliforniaPittsburgh at BostonSt. Louis at ChicagoPhiladelphia at AtlantaTue. Feb.5Montreal at St. LouisMinnesota at N.Y. IslandersWed. Feb. 6Montreal at MinnesotaDetroit at TorontoN.Y Islanders at N.Y. RangersBuffalo at Los AngelesVancouver at CaliforniaAtlanta at ChicagoThu. Feb. 7St. Louis at BostonPittsburgh at PhiladelphiaFri. Feb. 8Buffalo at CaliforniaChicago at Atlanta &#9632;

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Button’s Trades Bring Penguins Instant Results

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD. Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada &#9632;

WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION

<div class="byline">By ALEX HARDY</div>HOUSTON &mdash;Houston Aeros are a special kind of team.On pure talent they don&rsquo;t deserve to be first in the WHA West. Most of their players are either too young or too old by conventional major league standards. They have few pros in their prime.A team like Minnesota Fighting Saints has far more speed compared to most Aeros, who skate like their ankles are on hinges. But Aeros make up for what they lack in speed with smart positional play and passing, a tough style of play (hooking and slashing), the ability to cash in on scoring chances, plus alert goaltending.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01241/3325777-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="279" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body">Danny Lawson</figcaption></div>The prototype of Aeros is Gordie Howe, who recently scored his 800th pro goal and is the club&rsquo;s unquestioned leader. Howe spreads his confidence around the rest of the players.The warm Climate is probably good for Gordie&rsquo;s old bones and there is no doubt his comeback will be longer than the announced one year. As one rival player says: &ldquo;When he quits a lot of guys will be standing in line to take a shot at his kids but the way he&rsquo;s going we might have to wait five years.&rdquo;Howe and the Aeros are one of the WHA&rsquo;s fightingest clubs. Houston fans love it. Mostly new to the ways of hockey, they nearly went crazy with excitement recently when a four-alarm riot broke out between Aeros and Edmonton. The news media also loved it, featuring it on front pages and in lengthy television footage.VANCOUVER: Blazers&rsquo; troubles lately as they try to move into a playoff spot are mainly: (1) they can&rsquo;t get the puck out of their own end: (2) not enough muscle on defense.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been in a fight in weeks,&rdquo; coach Andy Bathgate says wistfully. &ldquo;Maybe that&rsquo;s what we need to shake us up.&rdquo;And Danny Lawson continues to score at the same pace as last year, when he set the WHA single-season scoring record with 61 goals. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not too concerned how many goals I score or how many awards I get,&rdquo; he says modestly. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s it all worth if we don&rsquo;t make the playoffs?&rdquo;LOS ANGELES: Sharks have scored fewer goals than any other West Division club. Their top point-getter. Marc Tardif, is only 21st among WHA scorers. Sharks are also tamer than last season. Their badman, Steve Sutherland, ranks a mere fourth in penalty minutes and they have no one else among the league&rsquo;s eight most penalized players. They also have no one among the top 10 goalies or the top 10 scoring rookies.WINNIPEG: Playing coach Bobby Hull is a subscriber to the theory that WHA teams are so close that the difference is the best goalie on a given night. Jets are winning on the tremendous goaltending of Ernie Wakely and Joe Daley, but the feeling is they&rsquo;re not going to win another division title on finesse. Unfortunately, Jets traded Steve Cuddie, their hardest hitting defenseman, in the off-season and as a result they are meeker than ever. Fans are screaming they are vulnerable because they don&rsquo;t have enough muscle. They may not be able to stand up to a hardhitting team in a best-of-seven playoff.EDMONTON: Jim Harrison is back scoring and proving he&rsquo;s the WHA&rsquo;s best center when he wants to be. Harrison is also an ironman. He was on the ice all of the third period except 10 seconds in a recent game against Winnipeg. First he would play forward, then drop back to defense, a position he is playing better and better.Oilers made some changes and showed improvement. They handed Bob Fitchner a one-way ticket to their Winston-Salem farm club. He had only one goal and two assists in 32 games and won&rsquo;t return this season unless injuries strike. Jim Schraefel, a forward who was cut by San Diego of the WHL, was brought up. Unfortunately he hadn&rsquo;t been on skates for weeks because the energy crisis shut down the rink in San Diego which used $300 worth of electricity per day. He has helped their penalty killing. And Bob McAneeley. who has been playing well since being recalled from Winston Salem at the New Year, got good news. He will be kept until the end of the season. And general manager Bill Hunter admitted working on four trades. &ldquo;We have two or three key positions that need improvement,&rdquo; he said.MINNESOTA: Captain Ted Hampson says he was surprised he was picked WHA&rsquo;s Most Sportsmanlike Player for 1972-73. The announcement was only recently made. Last year Hampson was penalized exactly 20 minutes and scored 62 points. Saints have three players in the top scoring race &mdash; Wayne Connelly. Mike Walton and George Morrison. They also have two of the eight leading badmen &mdash; Gord Gallant and John Arbour. Combined, they have almost a third of Saints&rsquo; total penalty minutes.<h2>WHA SCOREBOARD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02180/3325770-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="596" height="507"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22Jersey 2 at Edmonton 6Los Angeles 1 at Houston 3New England 3 at Chicago 5Wed. Jan. 23Cleveland 3 at Vancouver 6Jersey 4 at Minnesota 1Thur. Jan. 24Quebec 1 at Houston 5Cleveland 5 at Toronto 3Fri. Jan. 25Winnipeg 4 at Edmonton 3Chicago 2 at Minnesota 6Quebec 0 at Los Angeles 2Sat. Jan. 26Houston 4 at Vancouver 2Cleveland 0 at New England 4Sun. Jan. 27Houston 4 at Edmonton 1Winnipeg 2 at Minnesota 12Vancouver 7 at Toronto 9Cleveland 3 at Quebec 4Los Angeles 3 at Jersey<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Mon. Jan. 28Vancouver at New EnglandTue. Jan. 29Los Angeles at QuebecToronto at JerseyWed. Jan. 30Chicago at VancouverHouston at ClevelandThu. Jan. 31Los Angeles at TorontoHouston at QuebecNew England at JerseyFri. Feb. 1Chicago at EdmontonLos Angeles at WinnipegToronto at QuebecSat. Feb. 2Houston at New EnglandMinnesota at ClevelandSun. Feb. 3Los Angeles at EdmontonChicago at WinnipegMinnesota at TorontoJersey at QuebecNew England at ClevelandMon Feb. 4Houston at JerseyTue. Feb. 5Winnipeg at ChicagoJersey at HoustonCleveland at MinnesotaEdmonton at VancouverWed. Feb. 6Chicago at MinnesotaQuebec at New EnglandThu. Feb. 7Jersey at Los AngelesFri. Feb. 8Quebec at VancouverHouston at EdmontonMinnesota at WinnipegNew England at Cleveland &#9632;

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Elder Howe Plays Top Role In Aero’s Success

<div class="byline">By NORM MacLEAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01193/3325815-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">LARRY PLEAU&hellip; Whaler Center One Of The Best (Hockey News Photo by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;It&rsquo;s not known forsure if Indianapolis is going to be in the WHA East next year, but it is sure they didn&rsquo;t hurt themselves any when they signed Johnny Wilson as the general manager-coach.Wilson played for the old AHL Inidanapolis Caps in 1951 before graduating to the NHL Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers in a distinguished career. He coached the Springfield Kings to the AHL Calder Cup playoff title in 1970-71 in a big upset, defeating his brother Larry in the finals when Larry Wilson was the coach of the Providence Reds.John revived the moribund Detroit Red Wings and twice just missed squeezing them into the playoffs before falling out with Ned Harkness and others in the Wings&rsquo; front office setup. He was the assistant general manager and personnel director of the Atlanta Flames of the NHL this season.&ldquo;I will have to spend most of my time scouting the WHA in order to evaluate the league and the players who might become available to us. I know the NHL very well, but feel the WHA has added a new dimension to hockey. Its games are very competitive. I&rsquo;m ready to go.&rdquo; said Wilson.John is from the old school and is the type of hard-nosed executive the WHA needs in order to curb some of the excess flab. Jacques Plante has been trying the same in Quebec when he complained openly about some of his men being out of shape naming names such as J.C. Tremblay and Rejean Houle. Both have started to respond now. but realistically it shouldn&rsquo;t take until midseason to get someone into condition.NEW ENGLAND: If any team on this side of the United States-Canadian border ever hires more Americans than Canadians it most likely will be the native oriented Whalers. Their general manager. Jack Kelly, the man who put together last year&rsquo;s Avco Cup World Champions, is an American and so are four of their players, Larry Pleau, Tommy Williams. Tim Sheehy and Paul Hurley. Pleau is perhaps their best player, certainly one of the best centers in the WHA. He is only about tenth in scoring in the fluctuating race with a point per game average, but he makes the plays for what is usually the Whalers&rsquo; number one trio of Pleau &mdash; Tom Webster and Don Blackburn.But even Kelly isn&rsquo;t sure if this rating is correct.&ldquo;The team is so balanced that I don&rsquo;t know which line is best,&rdquo; says Jack, who turned over the coaching reins to Ron Ryan this year.In a busy week, the Whalers lost to Chicago 5-2, on Jan. 17 at home with Bruce Landon absorbing the loss in goal. Sheehy got his 16th and Webster his 27th goal in the game. The night before, the Whalers had shown their balance with a 4-2 win over Jersey as the Williams, Al Karlander. John French line each got a goal and an assist. On Jan. 19 they thrashed Minnesota 5-2, in their third straight game at home. The next day they journeyed to Toronto to absorb a 8-4 pasting from the Toros. The loss left New England four points ahead of Toronto.QUEBEC:The Nordiques and Los Angeles Sharks got into a big brawl in Los Angeles in a game won 6-4 by the Sharks. The Nordiques led the Jan. 15 contest 4-2 going into the final period and surrendered four straight goals. The game was marred by 23 minor penalties. 10 majors, six conducts and a match penalty to the Sharks Jim Niekamp. Niekamp lashed out with a skate and cut a Quebec player while being held down by an official. Jim was ejected along with Ron Garwasiuk and the Nordiques Pierre Guite.The game was marred by a brawl which might result in up to $3,500 in penalities.WHA president Dennis Murphy said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t condone what went on out there.&rdquo;The Nordiques remained at .500 splitting over the Jan. 19-20 weekend with Chicago trouncing them 5-2 on Saturday and Jacques Plante&rsquo;s men rallying for an overtime win over Minnesota on Sunday. The final count was 5-4 with Serge Bernier popping the sudden death marker.TORONTO: Toronto ran into Marc Tardif on a hot night and lost 4-1. Jan. 18. Tardif hit for two goals, giving him eight in his last four games, ever since Rejean Houle had shown him up in Quebec City. Gavin Kirk got the lone Toronto goal. Two nights later the Toros scored a big win. decisively beating New England, their arch rival for first place by a whopping 8-4 count. Wayne Carleton, who had been in a seven game scoring drought, broke out with a pair as did Tom Martin and Pat Hickey. Hickey, drafted by the NHL New York Rangers, continues his improved play for Billy Harris.CHICAGO: The Cougars exploded for two 5-2 wins during the week, over New England Jan. 17 and Quebec Jan. 19. The win in the Boston Garden was especially pleasing to Pat Stapleton, the player coach of the Cougars, who once was sent to the minors by the Boston Bruins. Ralph Backstrom got two second period goals, after Stapleton and Rick Morris had opened the scoring for Chicago. The win over Nordiques put the Cougars back at the .500 mark with games in hand on their rivals in the scrap for second place.CLEVELAND:The Cleveland Crusaders, the WHA&rsquo;s best home ice sextet, with a 17-4-2 record took the show on the road for six games and started off on the wrong foot, losing to Winnipeg Jan. 18 and Edmonton Jan. 20. When the Jets stopped them they had a five game undefeated streak going. In their year and a half in the WHA, Cleveland has a 43-15-4 mark at home. They play nine of the next 12 in Ohio. Grant Erickson, Skip Krake and Gary Jarrett scored for the Crusaders in the 7-3 loss to Winnipeg. In the Edmonton game Cleveland went down 5-2. Jarrett became the first Crusader to reach the 20-goal plateau. Ron Buchanan has six points in the five games since he returned from his back injury. Gerry Cheevers confines to lead the WHA in shutouts with four and GA with 2.62.JERSEY: The Knights went on the road also, winning one and losing three.They picked on the Vancouver Blazers. a team Jersey has whipped five times this season, winning 5-4 in overtime from Andy Bathgate squad. The losses came to New England, Edmonton and Winnipeg. The Oilers slammed Jersey 7-4 and the Jets won 9-3. Harry Howell parted Gary Kurt against Edmonton and removed him after two periods when he had given up seven goals. Regular netminder Joe Junkin replaced Kurt. New Jersey marksmen were Ken Block, Ted Scharf, Gene Peacosh and Brian Perry. In the Winnipeg game it was the Jets line of Bobby Hull. Fran Huck and Ron Snell which demolished the Knights, who slipped seven points behind the last playoff spot.<h2>WHA Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02134/3325808-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="612" height="808"></div> &#9632;

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Wilson Strong Choice For Indianapolis; Whalers Succeed With American Players

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02148/3325965-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="591" height="119"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01200/3325972-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="183" height="222"></div><h2>Sun. Jan. 20 CLEVELAND 2 at EDMONTON 5</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Cleveland, Wiste (Young, Clearwater) &hellip; 5:49Penalties: Walker 8:49. Barrie 11:38, Harrison 11:38, Harrison 18:30<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Edmonton. Hamilton &hellip; 4:353&mdash;Edmonton, Hamilton (Climie. Harrison) &hellip; 9:524&mdash;Edmonton. Harrison (Climie, McAneeley) &hellip; 16:08Penalties: Walker 2:56, Hamilton 7:39, Wiste, Gilmore 13:40, Pinder 14:58, Cheevers (served by Walker 16:36<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Edmonton, Gilmore (MacDonald. Lunde) &hellip; 5:516&mdash;Cleveland Pinder (Wiste) &hellip; 16:327&mdash;Edmonton. Gilmore (Wall Lunde) &hellip; 19.39Penalties: McKenzie 6:31. Falkenberg. Walker 8:44. Barrie 15:36.<h2>N. ENGLAND 4 at TORONTO 8</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;New England. Sheehy (French, Karlander) &hellip; 11:132&mdash;New England, Ley (Williams, Byers) &hellip; 13:033&mdash;Toronto, Carleton (Sentes, Martin) &hellip; 14:534&mdash;Toronto. Dillon. (Brewer) &hellip; 16:43Penalties: Williams. Cunnigham 10:22, B. Gibbons (minor, misconduct) 13:00, Karlander 16:35, Seiwood 18:15.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Toronto. Leduc &hellip; 3:206&mdash;Toronto, Martin (Carleton) &hellip; 5:10Penalties: Carleton (major) 12:01, Dorey. Cunningham 12:30<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;New England, Karlander (Green, Sheehy) &hellip; 3:068&mdash;Toronto, Hickey (Orr, Amdeo) &hellip; 3:369&mdash;Toronto, Carleton &hellip; 5:2210&mdash;Toronto, Martin (Carleton, Sentes) &hellip; 12:0111&mdash;Toronto. Hickey (Kirk, Simpson) &hellip; 12:2012&mdash;New England, French (Sheehy) &hellip; 13:01Penalties: B. Gibbons 5:53, Seiwood (misconduct) 12:20, Cunningham 17:43.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03117/3325958-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="591" height="114"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 3 at L. ANGELES 0</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Vancouver. St. Sauveur (Meyers. Migneault) &hellip; 11:01Penalties: MacSweyn 1:46, Watson 7:43. Sutherland 11:25, Odrowski 13:06.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Vancouver. Burgess (MacSweyn) &hellip; 12:30Penalty: B. Campbell 6:22<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Vancouver, Chernoff (McKenzie, Adair) &hellip; 11:25Penalties: None.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0488/3325951-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="593" height="112"></div><h2>JERSEY 3 at WINNIPEG 9</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Jersey, Perry (Laughton) &hellip; 0:552&mdash;Jersey. Morenz (Bradley, Block) &hellip; 8:593&mdash;Winnipeg. Bordeleau (Huck, Hull) &hellip; 10:534&mdash;Winnipeg, Rousseau (Ash, Johnson) &hellip; 11:375&mdash;Winnipeg. T. Hargreaves &hellip; 15:346&mdash;Winnipeg. Hull (Huck) &hellip; 19:26Penalties. Pratt. Herriman 0:19. Reichmuth 8:40<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;Winnipeg. Hull (Asmundson, Huck) 8:488&mdash;Winnipeg. Gratton (Ash. Swenson) 14:169&mdash;Winnipeg. Snell (Huck. Hull) 18:48Penalties: T. Hargreaves (major) Scharf (minor major) 11:40<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>10&mdash;Winnipeg. Gratton (Ash, McDonald) &hellip; 7:5311&mdash;Jersey, Laughton (Herriman) &hellip; 14:0412&mdash;Winnipeg, Hull (Snell, Huck) &hellip; 15:37Penalties None.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0570/3325944-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="591" height="109"></div><h2>Tue. Jan. 22 JERSEY 6 at EDMONTON 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Jersey, Herriman (Howell) &hellip; 5:502&mdash;Jersey, Lacroix (Peacosh, Block) &hellip; 16:243&mdash;Jersey, Peacosh (Block, Lacroix) &hellip; 17:32Penalty: McKenzie 15:52<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Jersey, Peacosh (Lacroix. Morenz) &hellip; 5:215&mdash;Edmonton. Baird (Patenaude. PeFkins) &hellip; 14:226&mdash;Jersey. Lacroix (Morenz) &hellip; 14:577&mdash;Edmonton. MacDonald (Wall. Baird) &hellip; 17 45Penalties: Herriman 0:54, Morenz 11:20, Hamilton 19:51.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Jersey, Peacosh (Lacroix. Morenz) &hellip; 15:16Penalties: Brown 14:02.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0653/3325937-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="595" height="117"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 1 at HOUSTON 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Houston. Hughes (Lund. Hinse) &hellip; 5:53Penalties: Taylor 1:32. Horton 15:57.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>No scoringPenalties: Marty Howe 10:17, Hale&rsquo;12:50.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Houston, Lund (Mark. Howe) &hellip; 6:253&mdash;Los Angeles, Veneruzzo (Walters) &hellip; 13:494&mdash;Houston, Mark Howe (Sherrit, G. Howe) &hellip; 17:46Penalties: Marty Howe. Sutherland 13:04, Lund 14:05.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0743/3325930-1-eng-US/f0026-072.jpg" title="f0026-07" width="591" height="117"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND 3 at CHICAGO 5</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Chicago, Hardy (Mavety. Proceviat) &hellip; 10:372&mdash;New England, Green (Pleau. Blackburn) &hellip; 12:453&mdash;New England. Blackburn (Webster) &hellip; 16:31Penalties: Dorey 8:48. Stapleton 11:15, Mavety 17:07<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Chicago, Morris (Stapleton, Popiel) &hellip; 0:505&mdash;New England. Karlander (Green) &hellip; 8:43Penalties: Seiwood 15:10, Morris 19:17.<h2>THIRD PERIOD</h2>6&mdash;Chicago. Backstrom &hellip; 1:157&mdash;Chicago, Mavety (Harris. Whitlock) &hellip; 14:308&mdash;Chicago. Popiel (Sicinski, Morris) &hellip; 18:20Penalties: Sicinski 8:20, Green 8:45<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0835/3325923-1-eng-US/f0026-082.jpg" title="f0026-08" width="591" height="81"></div><h2>Web. Jan.23 JERSEY 4 at MINNESOTA 1</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Jersey. Scharf (Morrison, Howell) &hellip; 6:32Penalties: Jones 10:07. Rydman 13:15<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Jersey, Laughton (Block, Herriman) &hellip; 9:313&mdash;Minnesota, Hampson (Connelly, Christiansen) &hellip; 13:56Penalties: McMahon 6:19. Jones. Garrett 8:49. Speer 12:46. Lacroix 15:01. Jones 17:36, Jersey bench 19:27<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Jersey, Lacroix (K. Morrison, Howell) &hellip; 11:285&mdash;Jersey. K.x Morrison (Jones) &hellip; 14:21Penalties: Smith 14:26. McMahon 15:58.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0930/3325916-1-eng-US/f0026-092.jpg" title="f0026-09" width="595" height="118"></div><h2>CLEVELAND 3 at VANCOUVER 6</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Vancouver, McKenzie (B. Campbell) &hellip; 7:002&mdash;Vancouver, Chernoff (McKenzie. Plumb) &hellip; 9:553&mdash;Cleveland, Young (Pinder. Wiste) &hellip; 10:154&mdash;Vancouver. St. Sauveur (Myers. C. Campbell) &hellip; 12:235&mdash;Vancouver, Burgess (Plumb. Beaudoin) &hellip; 16:36Penalties: W. Hillman-5:44. Burgess 10:32. Young (minor, major) Hutchison (minor, major) 11,11, Shmyr 14:45, St. Sauveur 15:04, Hodgson 17:20<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>No scoringPenalties: C. Campbell. 7:46. Plumb 7:59. Shmyr 10:30. St. Sauveur 12:32.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Vancouver, Lawson (Burgess, Cardiff) &hellip; 9:347&mdash;Cleveland, Young (Erickson) &hellip; 10:058&mdash;Cleveland. Young (Muloin) &hellip; 10:189&mdash;Vancouver, Chernoff (McKenzie, Adair) &hellip; 14:22Penalties: Hutchison 2:42, Hodgson 16:51. St. Sauveur 18:12<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1027/3325909-1-eng-US/f0026-102.jpg" title="f0026-10" width="592" height="118"></div><h2>Thu. Jan. 24 QUEBEC 1 at HOUSTON 5</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Houston. Mark Howe (G. Howe) &hellip; 6:552&mdash;Houston. Hinse (G Howe, Lund) &hellip; 19 36Penalties: Kannegiesser 8:56, Schella 15:22, Roy 18:44.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Houston. Popiel (Lund. Hughes) &hellip; 10:114&mdash;Houston. Mark Howe (Sherritt. G. Howe) &hellip; 11:155&mdash;Quebec. Guindon (Gaudette. Beaule) &hellip; 19:54Penalty: Taylor 12:16.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Houston, G. Howe (Sherritt. Mark Howe) &hellip; 5:53Penalties Schella 3:50, Taylor. 8:09. Payette 11:06, Leclerc. 16:58. Shercit 16:58.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1125/3325902-1-eng-US/f0026-112.jpg" title="f0026-11" width="594" height="112"></div><h2>CLEVELAND 5 at TORONTO 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Cleveland. Erickson (Shmyr, Pinder) &hellip; 10:182&mdash;Cleveland. Pinder (Young. Erickson) &hellip; 10:383&mdash;Cleveland, Shmyr (Andrea. Walker) &hellip; 13:16Penalties: None.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Cleveland. Neale (Walker) &hellip; 7:415&mdash;Toronto. Carleton (Gibbons) &hellip; 10:33Penalties: Shmyr 4 49. Jarrett 9:42<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Toronto. Sentes (Marm. Brewer) &hellip; 5:287&mdash;Toronto. Cunningham (Trottier. Miller) &hellip; 7:128&mdash;Cleveland. Neale (Andrea. Walker) &hellip; 13:22Penalties None<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1220/3325895-1-eng-US/f0026-122.jpg" title="f0026-12" width="592" height="112"></div><h2>Fri. Jan. 25 WINNIPEG 4 at EDMONTON 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Winnipeg. Johnson (Rousseau) &hellip; 2:502&mdash;Edmonton. Gilmore (Lunde. McDonald) &hellip; 14:483&mdash;Winnipeg. Swenson (Gratton, Ash) &hellip; 15:22Penalties: McKenzie 0:34. McAneeley 5:47. Pratt 16:25. Asmundson 19:44<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Edmonton, Patenaude (Barrie McKenzie) &hellip; 3 50Penalties: Hargreaves 5:41.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Edmonton, Patenaude (Baird. Wall) &hellip; 0:316&mdash;Winnipeg. Hull (Bordeleau, Hornung) &hellip; 9:117&mdash;Winnipeg, Johnson (Spring) &hellip; 14:34Penalties: Zanussi 6:36. Baird. Woytowich 7:19. Barrie 10:08<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1320/3325888-1-eng-US/f0026-132.jpg" title="f0026-13" width="594" height="114"></div><h2>CHICAGO 2 at MINNESOTA 6</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Minnesota, McMahon (Christiansen. Connelly) &hellip; 3 252&mdash;Minnesota. McMahon (Morrison. Connelly) &hellip; 4 023&mdash;Chicago. Coates (Zaine) &hellip; 9:154&mdash;Minnesota, Cardwell (Antonovich. Ball) &hellip; 16 01Penalties Walton (minor, major) Popiel (major) 0:49. Mavety 7 55, Popiel 12:23. Cardwell 16:13. Morris. McMahon (minors) 18:15. Popiel 19:07.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Minnesota. Cardwell (Walton) &hellip; 4:456&mdash;Chicago. Hardy (Harris, Whitlock) &hellip; 6:097&mdash;Minnesota, Connelly (Hampson, Walton) &hellip; 7:10Penalties: Mavety 3.06, McMahon 5:51. Gallant 6:28, Morris 7:57. Mavety 15:12<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Minnesota. Cardwell (Heatley. Smith) &hellip; 11:49Penalties. Smith 1.26, McMahon 15:47. McMahon. Maggs 19:41.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1416/3325881-1-eng-US/f0026-142.jpg" title="f0026-14" width="595" height="117"></div><h2>QUEBEC 0 at LOS ANGELES 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: Crashley 10:18. Beaule 18:15<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Los Angeles, Walters (Niekamp, Veneruzzo) &hellip; 17:04Penalty: Beaule 8:16<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Los Angeles. Tardif (White, Leblanc) &hellip; 19:58Penalties: Desjardins, McDonald 9:25<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1514/3325874-1-eng-US/f0026-152.jpg" title="f0026-15" width="592" height="119"></div><h2>Sat. Jan. 26 HOUSTON 4 at VANCOUVER 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Houston. Hughes (Lund, Hinse) &hellip; 2:282&mdash;Houston, Taylor (Hall, Labossiere) &hellip; 11:27Penalties: Hutchison 1:24, Schella 6:21, Burgess. G. Howe 7:46, Cardiff (misconduct) 10:43, Popiel. Myers 19:08, Hutchison. Schella (minors, majors) 19:21<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Vancouver, Migneault (St. Sauveur, Plumb) &hellip; 9:174&mdash;Houston, Mark Howe &hellip; 14 36Penalties: Hutchison (minor, misconduct) 11 44. G. Howe 11:56. Stanfield 18:09.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Vancouver. Walton (Burgess, McKenzie) &hellip; 19:096&mdash;Houston. G. Howe (Mark HoWe, Popiel) &hellip; 19:50Penalty: C. Campbell 16:05.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1610/3325867-1-eng-US/f0026-162.jpg" title="f0026-16" width="591" height="115"></div><h2>CLEVELAND 0 at N. ENGLAND 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;New England. Green (Harris, Blackburn) &hellip; 4:182&mdash;New England. French (Karlander. Webster) &hellip; 7:493&mdash;New England. Webster (Karlander. Dorey) &hellip; 13:22<h2>CLEVELAND 3 at QUEBEC 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Quebec, Dufour (Gilbert) &hellip; 2:262&mdash;Quebec, Gilbert (Bernier, Dufour) &hellip; 17:34Penalties: Roy 4:37, Clearwater 17:22. Penalties. Shmyr, Clearwater, Pleau, Dorey (majors) 0:33, Ley, Wiste 4:40, Shmyr 6:57, Clearwater 19:06.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;New England, Webster (French, Ley) &hellip; 15:23Penalty: Andrea 1:16.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: Shmyr, Sheehy (majors) 10:55, Shmyr (major, game misconduct) Sheehy (major) 16:54<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02113/3325860-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="592" height="119"></div><h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Quebec, Bernier (Beaule) &hellip; 1:384&mdash;Cleveland. Edur (Wiste. Erickson) &hellip; 8:105&mdash;Cleveland. Buchanan. (Jarrett, Clearwater) &hellip; 10:246&mdash;Quebec, Tremblay, (Bernier, Dufour) &hellip; 16:53Penalties: W. Hillman 2:37, Guite 9:10, Neale 10:44, Neale, Roy 14:52. Shmyr 15:33<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;Cleveland, Buchanan (Andrea, Hillman) &hellip; 17:05Penalty: Roy 13:14.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0374/3325853-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="593" height="115"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 6 at JERSEY 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Jersey, Rivers (Brown, Laughton) &hellip; 2:092&mdash;Jersey, Bradley (Jones, LaCroix) &hellip; 3:133&mdash;Los Angeles, Willis (Serviss, Thomas) &hellip; 5:084&mdash;Los Angeles. Tardif (Odrowski, Crashley) &hellip; 14:025&mdash;Los Angeles. McDonald (Tardiff. Crashley) &hellip; 19:45Penalties: LeBlanc 3:04, Serviss (major) Reichmuth (major) 10:34, Brown 13:25, Howell 18:52, LeBlanc. Herriman 19:14, Niekamp (major, misconduct) Morrison (major, misconduct) Reichmuth (misconduct) 20:00.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Los Angeles, Sutherland (Serviss) &hellip; 8:417&mdash;Jersey, Ferguson (Herriman, Laughton) &hellip; 12:45Penalty: Ferguson 10:07.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Los Angeles, White (Willis) &hellip; 9:289&mdash;Los Angeles, Thomas &hellip; 18:03<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0458/3325846-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="592" height="110"></div> &#9632;

f0026-02

World Hockey Association Summaries

<div class="byline">BY HANS TANNER</div>ROCHESTER&mdash;Thirteen was indeed a lucky number for the Rochester Americans during June&rsquo;s reverse draft.The Amerkshad 13th pick in the draft of National League-owned players by American League and Western League teams, and general manager coach Don Cherry was apprehensive over his chances of his first choice still being available. But Murray Kuntz was still there and Cherry quickly grabbed him.A lot of the clubs that passed over Murray Kuntz have to be sorry today.The 28-year-old left winger has an excellent chance to break not only the Rochester Americans&rsquo; club record, but also the American League mark.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03109/3326041-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="276" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">Murray Kuntz</figcaption></div>Kuntz went on a recent scoring spree in which he scored 12 goals in one eight-game stretch and totalled 17 goals in I4 games while scoring at least once in all but one of them.His surge gave him 33 goals in 44 games. That left him 32 games in which to score 16 goals which would establish a Rochester record. The top previous output in 17 seasons was 48 goals by Dick Gamble in 1964-65.Only four different Amerks have reached the 40-goal mark, which Kuntz should fly past easily, barring injury. Gamble scored 48. 47 and 46 goals for Rochester. Bob Barlow 43, Billy Hicke 41 and Stan Smrke 40.If Kuntz is able to continue the goalscoring rate for the final 32 games that he maintained over the first 44. he&rsquo;d finish with 57 goals.The AHL record is 55. Carl Liscombe of Providence and Sid Smith of Pittsburgh both scored that many in 68 games in I948-49, and Guy Trottier of Buffalo tied it in 71 games in 1969-70. Nine different players have reached the 50-goal figure &mdash; Liscombe doing it twice. Yvon Lambert of Nova Scotia was the most recent with 52 in 75 games last season.JACKSONVILLE: The Barons are in the midst of what may be the longest road trip in league history. They played their last home game Jan. 20 and don&rsquo;t return to the sunny South until Feb. 12.In the interim, Jacksonville plays 11 games in the span of 18 days, with visits to Boston, Nova Scotia. Springfield, Providence, New Haven. Rochester. Hershey, Baltimore, Richmond. Virginia and Baltimore again.If the Barons can still be clinging to fourth place in the Southern Division after that, they&rsquo;ll be in good shape to make the playoffs because they&rsquo;ll have only six road games remaining.After a good crowd of 3,899 paid to see the Barons tie Richmond 2-2 Jan. 18, only 1.804 showed up for a Sunday afternoon 7-3 rout of the Robins Jan. 20. The seven goals matched the high by the Barons this season.Coach John Hanna has been pleased with the play of a rookie line comprised of Lou Nistico at center between Brad Buetow on the leftside and Jeff Jacques on the right. Each member of the line scored, with Nistico getting a pair, in the romp over Richmond.NOVA SCOTIA: Apparently the only way to beat the Voyageurs in Halifax is to prevent them from scoring. The Vees dropped only two of their first 21 home games, and both times they were shut out. Hershey did it 5-0 back on Oct. 22.Then came 13 victories and fourties as Nova Scotia approached the AHL record of 22 set by Boston in 1971-72. But Cincinnati dashed the Vees&rsquo; hopes with a 3-0 blanking Jan. 20.Jim Cahoon, who scored I4 goals in 30 games for North Dakota University last season, seems to becoming used to pro hockey.He scored only four goals before Christmas, but must have found some goals in his Christmas stocking. He scored twice Dec. 27, twice Dec. 30. three times Jan. 6, once Jan. Il, once Jan. 12 and twice Jan. 15.That gave him Al goals in eight games and raised his season total to I5. Coach Al MacNeil feels a bit more at ease every time Ron Andruff scored a goal. Although the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; second-round draft choice isn&rsquo;t scoring like he did a year ago in his final season of junior when he had 43 goals for Flin Flon. his goals have been a good omen for the Vees. They&rsquo;ve won every game in which he has scored.His fifth goal of the season came Jan. I8 in Providence and was the winner in a 2-1 victory.CINCINNATI: Coach Floyd Smith had said if his injured Swords could escape their six-game road trip with as many wins as defeats they&rsquo;d be in the thick of the Southern Division fight.That&rsquo;s exactly what they did &mdash; winning three and losing three and were only four points behind leading Hershey and with three more games to play than the Bears. The games in hand all were home games, too.Defensive hockey did it for the Swords as they mustered only 14 goals in the six games, but allowed the same number. Smith&rsquo;s skaters ended their trip on a high note by shutting out Nova Scotia 3-0 in Halifax as goalie Gary Bromley posted his first shutout of the season.The winning goal in that game was scored by rookie defenseman Jean Landry. It was his first in 34 games since Nov. 9.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01183/3326034-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="606" height="546"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22Jacksonville 2 at Boston 4Springfield 2 at Richmond 6Wed. Jan. 23Baltimore 1 at Cincinnati 5Springfield 3 at Hershey 5Richmond 5 at Virginia 7Thu. Jan. 24Jacksonville 1 at Nova Scotia13 Fri. Jan. 25Hershey 5 at Baltimore 3New Haven 4 at Cincinnati 9Nova Scotia 2 at Providence 5Virginia 3 at Richmond 7Boston 3 at Rochester 4Jacksonville 4 at Springfield 5Sat. Jan. 26Virginia 0 at Baltimore 4Rochester 6 at Boston 5Richmond 2 at Hershey 3Providence 6 at Springfield 5Sun. Jan. 27Hershey 5 at Cincinnati 2Richmond 3 at New Haven 6Boston 0 at Nova Scotia 7Jacksonville 3 at ProvidenceVirginia 0 at Rochester 0<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Tue. Jan. 29Rochester at BaltimoreRichmond at BostonWed. Jan. 30Providence at CincinnatiVirginia at HersheyJacksonville at New HavenThu. Jan. 31Richmond at Nova ScotiaBaltimore at VirginiaFri. Feb. 1Cincinnati at New HavenJacksonville at RochesterNova Scotia at SpringfieldSat. Feb. 2Providence at BaltimoreCincinnati at BostonJacksonville at HersheyVirginia at SpringfieldSun. Feb. 3Jacksonville at BaltimoreVirginia at New HavenCincinnati at Nova ScotiaProvidence at RochesterTue. Feb. 5Virginia at BostonWed. Feb. 6Virginia at Nova ScotiaJacksonville at RichmondHershey at RochesterThu. Feb. 7Jacksonville at VirginiaFri. Feb. 8Jacksonville at BaltimoreNew Haven at RichmondCincinnati at RochesterProvidence at Springfield<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02143/3326027-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="606" height="647"></div> &#9632;

f0027-03

Shunned By 12 Clubs, Kuntz Heads For Goal Record

<div class="byline">BY GREG FARLEY</div>BOSTON&mdash;Matt Ravlich was smoking, and there wasn&rsquo;t a cigarette in sight.The scene was the Braves&rsquo; dressing room following another of their all too frequent losses lately, and Matty Joe was reading the riot act to everyone within earshot.&ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t for (Braves&rsquo; goalie Dave) Reece, who knows what the score might have been,&rdquo; fumed the Tribe&rsquo;s player-coach. &ldquo;They were on top of us all night, outhustling us from the opening faceoff. Thanks to Davey, we were in it all the way, and actually had a chance to period.&rdquo;But the Braves, alas, lost again, and their once-bright playoff prospects are suddenly very bleak. In fact, at last look, the sixth place Springfield Kings had crept to within four points of the Braves, and the Kings had played five fewer games.&ldquo;I know it looks pretty bad for us now, but don&rsquo;t count us out yet.&rdquo; Ravlich cautioned. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to get back into the playoff fight one way or another, and how we do itdoesn&rsquo;t really matter that much to me.&ldquo;If these guys don&rsquo;t do an about face in a hurry, we&rsquo;ll just ship a batch of them out to Dayton and bring up some guys who want to put out.&rdquo;Ravlich was particularly piqued at a number of veteran Braves who he felt should be contributing much more than they have been. No names were mentioned, but the inference was clear.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real shame too, because our rookies are all working their butts off,&rdquo; Matt continued. &ldquo;Doug Gibson, Dave Hynes, Bill Corkery and a handful of others have far exceeded our expectations.&ldquo;And, of course, Reece has been just greatfor us in the nets,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;His statistics may not be all that impressive, but considering all the rubber he&rsquo;s faced. I&rsquo;d have to say he&rsquo;s done an excellent job.&ldquo;Heck, we&rsquo;ve been outshot consistently since we started going sotir in December.&rdquo;Perhaps the most distressing element of the dilemma for Ravlich has been that his troops have staggered through their most recent decline in relatively good health, save for a shoulder injury to rookie blueliner J.P. Burgoyne.&ldquo;If we had a rash of injuries, I could at least use that for a crutch,&rdquo; Matt observed, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ve got no excuses. A year ago, we were hard-pressed to dress I4 players, but we still made it to the playoffs, and survived to the semifinals.&ldquo;And we did it with the same personnel, so how do you figure it?&rdquo;NEW HAVEN: League-leading scorer Steve West became the club&rsquo;s single season goal scoring leader when he produced Nos. 26 and 27 against Nova Scotia&hellip; The Nighthawks are touting center Blake Dunlop for rookie-of-the-year honors, and justifiably so. The crafty pivot recently tallied his 20th goal of the campaign in just his 29th game, stamping himself as a strong candidatePROVIDENCE: Jerry Butler was summoned on emergency recall to replace injured Bill Fairbairn, but his stay with the parent Rangers was expected to be brief&hellip; The way the Amerks and Nighthawks are going, the Reds are going to need a return to early season form in a hurry, or face abandoning their pennant hopes, and be content to fight it out with Nova Scotia for the third and fourth positions.SPRINGFIELD: Their recent 5-2-5 spree moved the Kings into excellent position to vacate the Northern Division cellar for the first time in a long time, and did wonders for Jerry Toppazzini&rsquo;s morale. &ldquo;The team has never given up despite our poor start and numerous serious injuries.&rdquo; he beamed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01173/3326072-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="563" height="605"><figcaption class="caption-body">BLAKE DUNLOP&hellip;Sizzing Scorer</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

Ravlich Reads Riot Act To Fading Braves

<h2>Wed. Jan. 9 PROVIDENCE 2 at NEW HAVEN 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;New Haven, Langlais (Plager. Dunlop) &hellip; 9:042&mdash;Providence. Teeple (Polano) &hellip; 11:463&mdash;New Haven. Dunlop (Patterson. Carter) &hellip; 18:39Penalties: Langlais 0:30. Bednarski 1:57; Langlais 3:21; Wilson 4:16; Polano 7:37; Peloffy 8:38.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Providence, Dennis (Hunt, Legge) &hellip; 7:33Penalties: Patterson 15:14<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>No Scoring.Penalties: Byers 10:55; Horbul 11:34; Craig 16:00.Saves; Carter (New Haven) 34. Ridley (Providence) 22. Attendance: 3,301<h2>VIRGINIA 6 at HERSHEY 6</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Virginia. Gruen (Ftorek, Fotaine) &hellip; 3:322&mdash;Virginia. Newell (Fontaine, Debrody) &hellip; 4:363&mdash;Virginia, Gruen (Ftorek) &hellip; 8:574&mdash;Hershey. Andrascik (Burns, Methe) &hellip; 18:01Penalties: Lavender 0:34; Stoughton 2:03; Burns 3:43; Carpenter 12:18: Methe 13:59.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Hershey. Lynch (Andrascik. Hrycuik) &hellip; 6:446&mdash;Virginia, Fontaine Lavender, McLeod) &hellip; 13:15Penalties: None.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;Hershey, Stoughton (Methe. Ewasiuk) &hellip; 2:488&mdash;Herhsye, Pearson (McManama, Nowak) &hellip; 3:189&mdash;Hershey, Nowak (Lynch, Methe) &hellip; 8:5210&mdash;Virginia, Boxer (Ftorek, Gruen) &hellip; 12:0111&mdash;Virginia, Lavender (Hayes) &hellip; 12:1612&mdash;Hershey. Harvey (Nowak, Keller) &hellip; 19:20Penalties: Stewart 7:27. Saves: Hume (Virginia) 23, Inness (Hershey) 23<h2>BALTIMORE 1 at NOVA SCOTIA 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Nova Scotia, Goldup (Fullan) &hellip; 16:50Penalties: Foley 9:58<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Baltimore. Cook (Houde) &hellip; 4:133&mdash;Nova Scotia. Shanahan (Delparte. Wilson) &hellip; 7:41Penalties: Salovaara 13:41.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Nova Scotia. Van Boxmeer (Shanahan. Cahoon) &hellip; 3:045&mdash;Nova Scotia. Gilbert (Delparte) &hellip; 18:28Penalties: Delparte 11:39; Mikkelson. Goldup 17:06Saves: Delparte (Baltimore) 43, Shaw (Nova Scotia) 27. Attendance: 1,984<h2>RICHMOND 2 at CINCINNATI 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: Mcllhargey 0:56; Myers 3:26: Busniuk, Pelletier 16:42.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Richmond. Cook (MacAdam, Lajeunesse) &hellip; 8:072&mdash;Cincinnati. Wyrozub &hellip; 18:063&mdash;Richmond Lajeunesse (MacAdam, McCulloch) &hellip; 18:53Penalties: Ferguson 8:56; Cowick 14:29; Pesut 17:02; Inglis 17:30<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Cincinnati. Brennan (Myers, Richer) &hellip; 8:235&mdash;Cincinnati, Inglis (Busniuk) &hellip; 3:316&mdash;Cincinnati. Inglis &hellip; 19:53Penalties: Wright. Richardson 2:49; Mcllhargey 5:50; Busniuk, Belhumeur 7:15; Dupuis 12:05.Saves: Belhumeur (Richmond) 38, Bromley (Cincinnati) 14. Attendance: 1,818<h2>Sat. Jan. 12 PROVIDENCE 3 at BOSTON 1</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Boston, Anderson (Sterling. Boehm) &hellip; 3:35Penalties: Legge 0:54. 3:57; Corkery Peloffy 5:22; Craig 15:02.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Boston, Hynes (Corkery, Ravlich) &hellip; 4:35Penalties: Sarner 0:38; Teeple 3:03; Legge 11:07; Bednarski, Leduc 12:46; Sarner 16:18.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Boston, Hynes (Gibson) &hellip; 12:574&mdash;Providence, Teeple (Borgeson. Legge) &hellip; 15:51Penalties: Butler 1:22; Simmons 7:05.Saves: Ridley (Providence) 35. Reece (Boston) 32.Attendance: 2,462<h2>NOVA SCOTIA 3 at SPRINGFIELD 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Springfield. Webley (Smith. Venasky) &hellip; 11:592&mdash;Nova Scotia. Cahoon (Hubick, Van Boxmeer) &hellip; 12:593&mdash;Springfield, Lachance (Chernecki, Healey) &hellip; 17:10 Penalties: Hubick 10:59; Smith 18:01.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: None.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Nova Scotia, Fullan (Wilson, Gilbert) &hellip; 0:125&mdash;Nova Scotia, Fullan (Gilbert. Oja) &hellip; 0:266&mdash;Springfield. Volmar (Chernecki, Venasky) &hellip; 19:55Penalties: None. Saves: Elenbaas (Nova Scotia) 34, Germain (Springfield) 27.Attendance: 37,742<h2>Sun. Jan. 13 VIRGINIA 1 at PROVIDENCE 7</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Providence. Horbul (Teeple, Blanchard) &hellip; 3:572&mdash;Providence. Borgeson (Laganiere. Bednarski) &hellip; 5:573&mdash;Providence. Borgeson (Peloffy) &hellip; 10:51Penalties: Klewchuk 4:51; Bonnar 6:22<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Providence. Butler (Hunt, Polano) &hellip; 16:52Penalties: Stewart (major). Gateman (major) 4:22; Polano 7:32; Legge 18:12.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Providence, Bednarski (Butler. Borgeson) &hellip; 2:396&mdash;Virginia. Boxer (Newell. Ftorek) &hellip; 4:057&mdash;Providence. Laganiere (Butler. Hunt) &hellip; 4:498&mdash;Providence. Peloffy (Wilson, Legge) &hellip; 14:27Penalties: Murray 1:31; Bednarski 3:07; Gruen (major), Legge (major) 6:35; Jakubo, Bednarski 9:29; Murray 11:27: Bednarski 11:42; Craig 13:13; Butler 19:17: Bednarski 19:54.Saves: Hulme (Virginia) 36, Ridley (Providence) 21.Attendance: 3,366 &#9632;

American League Summaries

<div class="byline">BY JOHN TRAVERS</div>HERSHEY&mdash;From the season&rsquo;s outset, coach Chuck Hamilton said he wanted a defense which would stand up at the blueline and make the opposition pay the price for any ground gained in Hershey&rsquo;s defensive zone.As the record clearly shows after 42 games the Bears&rsquo; blueline corps has followed orders and played it tough in aiding the club to a first place showing in the Southern Division race. The opposition broke through for only 126 goals in that long span &mdash; second best defensive mark in the 12-team league. No less than nine different defensemen have skated for the Bears to date as the NHL parent Pittsburgh Penguins shuttled some between the two Pennsylvania towns.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01141/3326127-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="283" height="455"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Bignell</figcaption></div>The backline crew included Yvon Labre. Larry Bignell, Ralph Keller, Gerry Methe, Dennis Owchar, Duane Rupp, Jack Lynch, Ron Jones and Guide Tenisi.Bignell and Labre were recalled to Pittsburgh, then Bignell was sent out on loan to Richmond. Lynch was recently traded to Detroit along with Penguins&rsquo; goalie Jim Rutherford for Ron Stackhouse. Jones, who had been injured, was farmed here to skate himself back in shape.&ldquo;Our defense has played well all season,&rdquo; said Hamilton, &ldquo;and the goaltending of Bob Johnson and Gary Inness has been solid.&rdquo;Inness, who showed a winning 11-4-4 record and a 2.90 average in 20 games, has twice been recalled by the Penguins, while Johnsen, who lost only two 16, has yet to get a shot with the big club.Blaine Stoughton, who has all the earmarks of being a top performer someday in the NHL, was the first Hershey skater to crack the 20-goal level. With the Penguins chances of making the Stanley Cup playoffs growing dimmer each day. odds are several of their Hershey farmhands will get a chance to show what they can do before the Mar. I recall deadline.BALTIMORE: The Clippers, who have come on strong lately, have shown their class against two of the best AHL teams. Hershey and New Haven. Coach Jim Morrison&rsquo;s skaters hold a 3-2 win edge on the Bears and a 2-0 mark against New Haven. Morrison came up with one of the best quotes of the year after the Clips knocked off Boston, 3-1. &ldquo;We stole this one,&rdquo; said Jim. &ldquo;I kept looking for the cops to grab me when it was over. We didn&rsquo;t play well and could easily have lost.&rdquo; Bob Rivard. Howie Menard and Marc Dufour have combined for 57 goalsRICHMOND:With the addition of Bignell to the Robins&rsquo; defense, coach Larry Wilson latched on to a steady performer. Bignell played the season&rsquo;s first 17 games with Hershey before being recalled by Pittsburgh. In two previous seasons with the Bears he gave a solid account of himself, notching 35 points. The Robins&rsquo; road record has been the club&rsquo;s undoing as it has a 1-18-1 standard on foreign ice.VIRGINIA:January wasn&rsquo;t very kind to the Red Wings who went through their first seven games without a win. dropping six and tying one. Though the Wings were 10-9-1 after 20 home games, they had a dismal road mark of 3-14-3. Down the stretch, the Wings will battle Jacksonville for fourth place and the last spot open in the Calder playoffs. In five games against the Barons, Virginia was 2-3. At last look the Wings had three games in hand on the Barons and it could be a helping edge in the long run. &#9632;

f0029-01

Tough Hershey Defense No. 2 As Bears Stay Ahead Of Pack

<div class="byline">BY JOHN ARNOLD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0552/3326158-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="885" height="1171"></div>SOLUTION IN FEB. 15 ISSUE<h2>ACROSS</h2>1&mdash;Pictured player.2&mdash;Verb.8&mdash;Verb.9&mdash;Former Los Angeles General Manager.11&mdash;Ex-Red Wings centre.13&mdash;A. U. S. State, (init)14&mdash;Initials of one of the North Stars15&mdash;A food seasoning.17&mdash;Before19&mdash;1966-67 Stanley Cup Champs.20&mdash;1 down used to play for this team.21&mdash;Former NHL forward Sloan, (init)22&mdash;15th and 2nd letters of the alphabet.23&mdash;Preposition.24&mdash;Nothing.26&mdash;Beverage.27&mdash;One of the L.A. Kings.30&mdash;Native country of Doug Roberts.31&mdash;A former NHL defenseman.34&mdash;Nickname of an NHL centre.36&mdash;Initials of former NHL forward Balfour.37&mdash;Scotty Bowman never pteyed in this league.38&mdash;Initials of ex-defenseman Erickson<h2>DOWN</h2>1&mdash;One of the Toronto Toros.2&mdash;Iron.&mdash;.3&mdash;One of the Penguins.4&mdash;Anger.5&mdash;Former NHL forward Stewart.6&mdash;One of the Seals, (init)7&mdash;A Boston Braves forward.10&mdash;Plays forward for St. Louis.12&mdash;One of the Rangers, (init)16&mdash;Preposition.18&mdash;An NHL defenseman.25&mdash;California forward.28&mdash;Same as 4 down.29&mdash;Goaltenders protect this.30&mdash;Not down.32&mdash;Body of water.33&mdash;Before.35&mdash;11th and 12th letters of the alphabet.<h2>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S ANSWERS</h2>ACROSS1&mdash;BORDELEAU8&mdash;OSHEA9&mdash;ARBOUR12&mdash;BP13&mdash;LA14&mdash;DI16&mdash;AVA17&mdash;ARE19&mdash;AC20&mdash;CAL21&mdash;BRO22&mdash;RI23&mdash;VASKO26&mdash;EP27&mdash;EWES29&mdash;REARDON31&mdash;EN32&mdash;AMDOWN1&mdash;BOB BLACKBURN2&mdash;OS3&mdash;RH4&mdash;DEA5&mdash;EARL6&mdash;EGO7&mdash;UBRIACO10&mdash;BA11&mdash;UDVARI15&mdash;BELIVEAU18&mdash;RA21&mdash;BROWN24&mdash;APR25&mdash;KEON28&mdash;SAM30&mdash;DE &#9632;

f0029-05

HOCKEY CROSSWORD

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STCIKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada &#9632;

WESTERN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY DOUG McCONNELL</div>SAN DIEGO&mdash;You might say it was a very good weekend.The San Diego Gulls defeated the Seattle Totems 7-4 Saturday night before a house of 12.872 and followed with a 4-3 win over the Denver Spurs in front of a Sunday night house of 13.431 to move four points ahead of Phoenix in the Western Hockey League&rsquo;s first place race. That&rsquo;s a total of 26.303 for two games in two nights, boosting the stock of a city attempting to land a National Hockey League franchise.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0385/3326234-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="248" height="449"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Shires</figcaption></div>What other city can boast the attendance figures for minor league hockey the Gulls have since they came into being in 1966?The Gulls were the first to top the 300.000 mark in attendance, making it in their first season with 315.021. They&rsquo;ve topped the mark five times in seven years.Their three-year average, going into this season, is 308.789. Their largest crowd in a 13.600 seat building was 13.752. Feb. 17. 1968 against Portland.The Gulls averaged a shade under 10.000 for their last 10 games and have exceeded 13.000 three times in three weeks.Mike Bloom, the big. rugged center on loan from the Boston Bruins, has surpassed last season&rsquo;s totals and is challenging Gerry Goyer for the team scoring lead.The 6-3.206-pound native of Ottawa, Ont., has 42 points, one less than Goyer. for a tie for seventh among the WHL point getters. He has 14 goalsand 28 assists.Last season. Bloom had a combined total of 18 goals and 20 assists for the Boston Braves in the American League and the Gulls. Fourteen goals and 15 assists were in a San Diego uniform.Bloom&rsquo;s line is currently the club&rsquo;s hottest. His left wing, Jim Shires, has scored a goal in each of the last seven games.The Gulls aren&rsquo;t sitting still, either.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking down the road,&rdquo; said general manager Max McNab, about the trade which sent Jim Stanfield to the Denver Spurs for Bernie MacNeil.McNab reasons that Bloom is Boston-owned and if they have no plans for him in the National League and fail to protect him. he will likely be drafted in June. McNab also notes that Goyer is 37 years old.MacNeil is 23. Stanfield is 27. Both are centers.&ldquo;Tex (coach Jack Evans) likes the way he pjays.&rdquo; says McNab. &ldquo;He takes the man and physically he can go the limit.&rdquo;The Gulls didn&rsquo;t have long to wait to see how MacNeil would adjust to his new surroundings. He scored a point in each of his first three games, including a goal and an assist in a victory over his old teammates.The quick-fisted. 5-11. 180-pound MacNeil picked up 151 penalty minutes in 33 games while scoring eight goals and 14 assists.Stanfield had four goals and 14 assists and four penalty minutes in 32 games with San Diego.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0468/3326227-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="1195" height="1143"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE BLOOM&hellip; Surpasses Previous Mark</figcaption></div><h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01166/3326220-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="587" height="282"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Wed. Jan. 23Seattle 4 at Portland 7Thu. Jan. 24Portland 6 at Phoenix 3Denver 1 at Salt Lake 5Sat. Jan. 26San Diego 5 at Phoenix 4Seattle 3 at Salt Lake 4Portland 1 at Denver 4Sun. Jan. 27Salt Lake 2 at Portland 2Phoenix 3 at San Diego 5Seattle 3 at Denver 5<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Wed. Jan. 30San Diego at PortlandSeattle at PhoenixSalt Lake at DenverFri. Feb. 1Portland at PhoenixSeattle at Salt LakeSan Diego at DenverSat. Feb. 2Portland at San DiegoSalt Lake at DenverSun. Feb. 3Salt Lake at PortlandSan Diego at PhoenixTue. Feb. 5Denver at Phoenix Wed. Feb. 6San Diego at Portland Thu. Feb. 7Portland at Salt Lake Fri. Feb. 8San Diego at SeattlePortland at Denver<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02115/3326213-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="592" height="408"></div> &#9632;

f0030-03

Large Crowds Boost Gull Hopes For NHL Franchise

SALT LAKE CITY&mdash;Ron Huston has been hampered by one injury this season and so far has escaped the one that helped him greatly last season.Huston&rsquo;s booming slap shot was lost for the first part of this season when he cracked three ribs in late November. The ribs are healed now as evidenced by Huston&rsquo;s four goal, two assist performance in a 9-3 victory over the Phoenix Roadrunners to earn Western Hockey player-of-the-week honors. Huston is still skating at some I95 pounds.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0556/3326265-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="253" height="463"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Huston</figcaption></div>Last season, a mid-schedule broken jaw was responsible for his paring off 20 pounds, down to 175, greatly improving his skating.Ironically, Huston was on the bench when a stray shot by Brent Meeke caught him on the side of the jaw. Meeke was wearing a Roadrunner uniform then but is now Huston&rsquo;s teammate with the Eagles.Huston took off in the latter half of last season and wound up with 42 goals to win WHL rookie-of-the-year honors.Before his team record tying four goal, six-point explosion, which projected him into a tie for ninth in the scoring race. Huston had scored just 11 goals and 35 points in 41 games.He&rsquo;s seven goals and seven points behind last season&rsquo;s early pace, which picked up greatly in the last half.Lyle Bradley is still on top of the WHL points race with 60 in 42 games, six more than Portland&rsquo;s Art Jones has 54 for 45 games.Four of the top 10 scorers belong to Salt Lake. Rookie Larry Patey is third with 48, Gary Coalter tied for fourth with 44 and Huston tied for ninth.Coalter&rsquo;s 23 goals are second only to Portland&rsquo;s Dennis Giannini, who has 25.The Eagles are the highest scoring team in the WHL, certainly the all-time highest scoring fourth place club and may be the highest scoring team in WHL history.Eagles&rsquo; public relations director Dave Weiser has projected that at their present pace the Eagles will score 359 goals in the 78-game season. The old record is 334, but in 72 games. &#9632;

f0030-05

Huston Showing Signs Of Regaining Old Form

<div class="byline">BY DOUG McCONNELL</div>PORTLAND&mdash;Karl Haggarty has been dubbed &ldquo;The Pizza King&rdquo; by his teammates and with good reason.A pizza house in Portland rewards the author of the first Buckaroo goal in each game on Portland ice with two giant pizzas.Karl has earned 12 pizzas.Four times the 25-year-old center has scored the game opening goal anywhere and among his 17 goals for the season are four game winners and six power play goals.He has already surpassed his previous best goal total of 15 at Springfield in the American League last season and his next point will break his own previous best mark of 29, also at Springfield last season.After being the busiest club in the Western Hockey League for the fust three months, the Buckaroos found a 10-day layoff in the schedule.It was appreciated by right wing Howie Hughes, who was hampered for three weeks by a pulled leg muscle.Hughes is enjoying his best season in years. He has 17 goals and 21 asists for 38 points in 42 games. He had 48 points, including 23 goals, for San Diego last season.Art Jones, during the layoff, fell six points behind Salt Lake center Lyle Bradley.Bradley has 60 points in 42 games and Jones 54 points in 45 games.The 38-year-old Jones, whose string of scoring titles was severed at five last season by Bob Walton of the Seattle Totems, is only five assists short of 1.000 lifetime in the WHL.Andy Hebenton. the 44-year-old right wing, is only three goals short of fourth place on the all-time WHL goal scoring list and five points short of fourth on the WHL lifetime list.Hebenton has 413 goals and 927 points, both totals second to Jones among active players. The goal scoring leader, active or retired, is Jones, who has 573. Secondwith 485 is Gord Fashoway.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01148/3326296-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="545" height="745"><figcaption class="caption-body">KARL HAGGARTY&hellip; Dozen Openers</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Haggarty Keeps Those Pizzas Coining In

<h2>Wed. Jan. 9 SAN DIEGO 4 at PORTLAND 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;San Diego, Gagnon (Hurlburt, Bond)&hellip; 8:042&mdash;Portland. Hebenton (Campbell)&hellip; 9:22Penalties: O&rsquo;Ree (major), Buhr (major). Bloom (game misconduct) 0:10, Dick 3:25, McNabb 6:40. Lewis 12:11 Rathwell (minor, major, misconduct) 15:46. Kelly 18:22.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;San Diego, Gagnon (Lafreniere. Fortin) &hellip; 0:554&mdash;Portland. Lewis (Haggarty, McNabb) &hellip; 3:255&mdash;San Diego, Lafreniere (Gagnon. Hurlburt) &hellip; 5:446&mdash;Portland, Hughes (Campbell. Hebenton) &hellip; 8:18Penalties: Madigan. Jones 15:44<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;San Diego. Shires (O&rsquo;Ree, Bond) &hellip; 2:508&mdash;Portland. Campbell (Hebenton. Wilson) &hellip; 16:38Penalties: None.<h3>OVERTIME PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: None Saves Mackey (San Diego) 35. Kelly (Portland)26 Attendance: 3,439.<h2>Thu. Jan. 10 SEATTLE 2 at SALT LAKE 8</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Salt Lake, Coalter (Bradley) &hellip; 2:462&mdash;Salt Lake. Bradley (Collins) &hellip; 3:003&mdash;Salt Lake, Bradley (Collins. Coalter) &hellip; 10:23Penalties: McIntyre 3:55, Monahan 7:47 Holt 16:20, Huston 16:52, Seguin 18:10<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Salt Lake. Patey (Jacobs) &hellip; 0:305&mdash;Salt Lake, Bellerive (Holt, Huston) &hellip; 5:066&mdash;Seattle. Amadio (Gloor) &hellip; 12:10Penalties: Holt 11:36. King 17:58.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;Salt Lake, Jacobs (Patey. Hall) &hellip; 7:048&mdash;Salt Lake, Hall (King, Serafini) &hellip; 7:339&mdash;Seattle. Westbrooke (Sheard. Seguin) &hellip; 7:5710&mdash;Salt Lake. Patey (King) &hellip; 13:29Penalties: Monahan 7 44. Serafini (double minor). Bolonchuk 12:46. Amadio (misconduct) 13:29, Bradley (major), McCord (major) 18:10.Saves: Bullock-Brady (Seattle) 34. Herron (Salt Lake) 32.Attendance: 3,196<h2>DENVER 3 at PHOENIX 5</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Phoenix, Cormier &hellip; 8:572&mdash;Denver. Spring (Stumpt) &hellip; 14:143&mdash;Phoenix, Barber (Braun, Keogan) &hellip; 16:254&mdash;Denver. Slater &hellip; 17:17Penalties: Denver bench 1:20, Murray 6:44.Murray. Villeneuve 11:08. MacNeil 14:54. Murray 17:57, Gassoff (minor, misconduct) 19:59.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Denver, MacNeil (Stumpf, CoIlyard) &hellip; 11:18Penalties: O&rsquo;Shea 0:52, MacNeil 7:52. Murray 10:23.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Phoenix, Young (Mowat, Barber) &hellip; 9:597&mdash;Phoenix, Gotten (Cormier) &hellip; 15:198&mdash;Phoenix, Mowat (Liesemer, Bennett) &hellip; 19:10Penalties: Keller 6:56, Forey 8:02, Gassoff 10:50, Barber 13:07.Saves: Yeo (Denver) 27. Simmons (Phoenix) 32. Attendance: 6,877.<h2>Fri. Jan. 11 DENVER 1 at SAN DIEGO 6</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Denver, Collyard (McPherson, Watt) &hellip; 1 442&mdash;San Diego, Goyer (Bond) &hellip; 4:463&mdash;San Diego, Bond (Miszuk, Trevelyan) &hellip; 15:55Penalties: Pozzo (major), Patrick (major) 9:17, Gassoff 12:00,14:25,18:22, Gresdal (misconduct) 18:22, MacNeil (misconduct) 19:40.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;San Diego, Shires (Bloom) &hellip; 2:085&mdash;San Diego, Bond (Goyer, Rathwell) &hellip; 3:026&mdash;San Diego. Bond (Shires) &hellip; 11:20Penalties: Madigan 5:29, Bond 9:07, Bloom (minor, major), Dick, Gassoff (major) 18:36.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;San Diego. Bloom (Bond. Madigan) &hellip; 17:22Penalties: B. Brooks 15:17, McPherson 15:58, Dick 19:22. MacNeil (misconduct) 20:00Saves: Adams (San Diego) 33. Watt (Denver) 36. &#9632;

Western Hockey League Summaries

<h2>Wed., Jan. 16 ALBUQUERQUE 4 at OKE CITY 8</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Oklahoma City. Boyd (Clarke. Fortier)&hellip; 11:00Penalties: Ireland 8:04<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Oklahoma City. Sykes (Fortier. Alexander) &hellip; 1:593&mdash;Oklahoma City. Osburn (Ferguson) &hellip; 3:134&mdash;Albuquerque, LePage (Raymer. Ireland) &hellip; 10:475&mdash;Albuquerque. Davidson (Stefaniw. Homenuke) &hellip; 12:366&mdash;Albuquerque. Homenuke (Hayes. Stefaniw) &hellip; 18:49Penalties: Ferguson 11:59.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>7&mdash;Oklahoma City. Ferguson (Lundrigan. Dolloff) 0:338&mdash;Oklahoma City. Fortier (Boyd. Sikes) &hellip; 2:299&mdash;Oklahoma City, Osburn (Ferguson) &hellip; 7:5310&mdash;Albuquerque. Langdon (Davidson) &hellip; 14:5111&mdash;Oklahoma City. Alexander (Ferguson. Lundrigan) &hellip; 17:3012&mdash;Oklahoma City. Moffat (Boutette) &hellip; 18:51Saves, Reeson (Albuquerque) 26, Cole (Oklahoma City) 23Attendance: 2,156.<h2>TULSA 2 at DALLAS 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Tulsa, Smedsmo (Bechtold. Currier) &hellip; 19:46Penalties: Dumas 5:08, Smedsmo 11:31. Dallas bench (Blais) 14:50.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Dallas, L&rsquo;Abbe (Ness. Ledingham) &hellip; 12:55Penalties: Vipond 2:50,Smedsmo 12:24, Young (major,). Aubry (game misconduct). Blais (major, misconduct) 15:38.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Dallas. Peluso (Smith, Ogilvie) &hellip; 13:564&mdash;Tulsa. Orban (Kea) &hellip; 15:42Penalties: Handrahan 1:45. Smedsmo, Smith 3:57, Kea 5:55, Holt 8:46.Saves: Low (Tulsa) 30, Dumas (Dallas) 16. Attendance. 2,024.<h2>Fri., Jan. 18 FORT WORTH 1 at OMAHA 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Omaha. Swarbrick (Mercredi. Baumgartner) &hellip; 17:49Penalties: Sutherland 1:55. Baumgartner 6:16, Mercredi 11:20. Kuntz 13:41. Andersen 16:35.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Omaha. Conroy (L. Grenier) &hellip; 11:583&mdash;Fort Worth, Fowler (Lefley) &hellip; 15 47Penalties: Flesch 5:09, Martineau 6:34. Smith 6:57. Marchinko, Martineau 10:22, Fowler 13:39.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>No scoringPenalties: Flesch 5:09, Lefley 5:27. Irwin 9:42. Vail 11:34. Smith 14:26, Lefley 18:07Saves. Resch (Fort Worth) 36. Voss (Omaha) 23. Attendance 4,356.<h2>TULSA 4 at OKE CITY 6</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Tulsa. Handrahan (Genovy. Peppier) &hellip; 0 :502&mdash;Tulsa. Daigle (Duncan) &hellip; 13:033&mdash;Tulsa, Smedsmo (Currier, Bechtold) &hellip; 14:164&mdash;Tulsa, Babcock (Hinton. Orban) &hellip; 16:27Penalties: Genovy 1:41, Fortier 4:29, Sauter 7:42.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Oklahoma City. Moffat (Burgess, Lundrigan) &hellip; 3:326&mdash;Oklahoma City. Alexander (Dolloff. Moffat) &hellip; 10:227&mdash;Oklahoma City. Boutette (Lundrigan, Garland) &hellip; 10:52Penalties: Smedsmo 9:52. Smedsmo (minor, misconduct, game misconduct) 11:51.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Oklahoma City, Boyd (Fortier, Clarke) &hellip; 3:009&mdash;Oklahoma City. Alexander (McRae) &hellip; 6:0910&mdash;Oklahoma City. Osburn (Dolloff. Fortier) &hellip; 17:24Penalties: Butters 3:50. Lundrigan 7:19. Marsh. Sauter 11:45, Dolloff 15:14. Marsh (major). Sauter (major) 19:10.Saves: Seperich-Low (Tulsa) 31. McRae (Oklahoma City) 22. Attendance: 4,082<h2>Sat., Jan. 19 OKE CITY 3 at TULSA 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Tulsa, Smedsmo (Currier, Bechtold) &hellip; 7:392&mdash;Tulsa. Young (Vipond, Daigle) &hellip; 12:33Penalties: Butters, Smedsmo (major) 1:12.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Oklahoma City. Burgess (Sauter, Alexander) &hellip; 7:294&mdash;Oklahoma City, Lundrigan (Burgess) &hellip; 10:58Penalties: Boutette 3:38.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Tulsa. Handrahan (Genovy. Peppier) &hellip; 8:016&mdash;Tulsa. Young (Marsh. Bechtold) &hellip; 15:387&mdash;Oklahoma City. Sauter (Motfat. Alexander) &hellip; 17:31Penalties: Dolloff 1:12. Aubry 5:04. Butters 10:39. Daigle 15:58. Smedsmo 18:16.Saves. McRae (Oklahoma City) 25. Low (Tulsa) 34. Attendance: 6.542.<h2>OMAHA 1 at DALLAS 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Omaha. Bialowas (Swarbrick) &hellip; 11:59Penalties: Holt 3:36. Huber 8:39. Wells. Ness 15:22. Houston 18:05.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Dallas. Ness (Gibbons) &hellip; 14:37Penalties: Vail 1:36, Wells (major), Donajdson (major) 7:52. Baumgartner 17:04.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Dallas. Elliott (Donaldson) &hellip; 4:364&mdash;Dallas, L&rsquo;Abbe&hellip; 19:32No penalties Saves. Muio (Omaha) 35, Dumas 22. Attendance 4,033 &#9632;

Central League Summaries

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>OKLAHOMA CITY &mdash;Tight-lipped Blazer mentox Gerry Moore isn&rsquo;t about to reveal what he said to his troops in the locker room at the Myriad. Jan. 18, after they had fallen behind. 4-0. to the Tulsa Oilers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01151/3326365-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="286" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Smedsmo</figcaption></div>There&rsquo;s only speculation as to what dire punishment was threatened if the Blazers didn&rsquo;t give a better account of themselves before a home crowd of 4,082 &mdash; which was starting to boo. A practice session after the game? A 9 p.m. curfew? A weekend in the sand dunes? A mass shipment to the International League?Whatever Gerry told them, it worked. The Blazers outplayed the Oilers by a wide margin for the next two periods, and won it 6-4.Claire Alexander, the Orillia. Ont. milkman, played a key role in the comeback victory, scoring on a pair of 75-foot slapshots. A second period cross-country shot narrowed the Blazer deficit, and another proved the winning goal in the final period.It was a week marked by comebacks, both by the Blazers and their foes. The OC crew blew an early 3-0 lead at home against Albuquerque, Jan. 16, then scored five times in the last period for an 8-4 victory. The Blazers.erased a first-period 2-0 deficit in Tulsa, Jan. 19, in a second period that looked like a repeat of the previous night. Only this time the Oilers came back strong for the last 20 minutes, and handed the Blazers a 4-3 setback.Thus the Mooremen&rsquo;s modest three-game unbeaten streak went down the drain, but they built up a four-point first-place margin over the challenging Fort Worth Wings, who tied and lost in that span. Dallas and Omaha were five points back. But Omaha had four games in hand on the front-runners. Fort Worth two, and Dallas one.Alexander, a defenseman by trade, was playing much of the time at right wing. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s up front so much of the time, anyway, I mightaswell use himat forward,&rdquo; Moore grinned. Claire had three goals and two assists in the highscoring week.Alexander had a five-game CHL tryout with Moore at Tulsa last winter, scoring five goals and an assist. He was offered an Oiler contract, but preferred to go back to his early-morning milk route at Orillia &mdash; and to the senior amateur Terriers, who went on to win the Allan Cup.Lyle Moffat, last year&rsquo;s league scoring leader for Tulsa, had two goals and two assist for the week. But blue-liners Dave Fortier and Joe Lundrigan each picked up a goal and four assists.In the weird Jan. 16 game against the Six-Guns, Blazer Jim Boyd had the only goal of the opening period. Bob Sykes and Randy Osburn made it 3-0 with only 3:13 gone in the second, but the Guns came storming back on goals by Bob LePage, Ken Davidson and Ron Homenuke to tie it with 1:11 left in the period.However, George Ferguson tallied for OC just 33 seconds after the last period started, and the rout was on. Fortier scored, then Osburn again, before Steve Langdon got Albuquerque&rsquo;s final goal. Alexander and Moffat finished the Blazer barrage.Grant Cole was the Blazer goalie for that one, but Gordie McRae was in the nets for the two games with Tulsa. After the Oilers dominated the first period and took a 4-0 lead, Moffat ignited the comeback early in the second. Then Alexander scored by long-distance on a power play, and Pat Boutette narrowed it to, 3-4 only 30 seconds later.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02100/3326358-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="559" height="595"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE FORTIER&hellip; Big Week</figcaption></div>Jim Boyd tied the count three minutes into the third period, Alexander zeroed in again from far out at 6:09, and Osburn added unnecessary insurance at 17:24.FORT WORTH: After closing to within a point of league-leading Oklahoma City, the Wings of coach Ed Chadwick fell four points behind by tying Albuquerque, 5-5, in a wild game at home. Jan. 17, then dropping a 2-1 showdown in Omaha the next night.That was the Wings&rsquo; fourth straight road loss, and left them winless in four games overall. It was a bad start for the month the Fort Worth club will be kept out of its own Will Rogers Coliseum by a rodeo and other events. The Wings haven&rsquo;t been beaten in 10 starts at Will Rogers, since a Dec. 1 loss to Omaha. The month &ldquo;away from home&rdquo; was to include eight road games, and three at the downtown Tarrant County Convention Center, where the Wings have not had an impressive record.DALLAS: Unbeaten in five games, and losing only once in 12, the surging Hawks climbed into a third-place tie with Omaha, and were only a point back of second-place Fort Worth, while pulling five ahead of the fifth-place Tulsa Oilers. The Hawks played a 2-2 home draw with Tulsa, Jan. 16, a4-4 deadlock at Albuquerque, Jan. 18 (their third straight tie), and then came home to whip the Knights, 3-l, the next night.Dave Elliott&rsquo;s 40-foot shot from the right side provided the winner against Omaha, early in the third period, and Moe L&rsquo;Abbe got an insurance goal on a breakaway with 28 seconds left. Chuck Ness had scored late in the second period, matching a first-period tally by Omaha&rsquo;s Dwight Bialowas.The Hawks, who have both scored and yielded some freakish goals this season, gave up another odd one against Tulsa, Jan. 16, and it cost them a victory. Tulsa captain Bill Orban, on the boards almost behind the Dallas net, banked a shot in off the back of goalie Michel Dumas&rsquo; skate with 4:18 left in the game.OMAHA: The Knights ran their home ice record to nine games without a loss by edging the Fort Worth Wings, 2-1, Dec. 18, but lost a golden opportunity to move up in the standings by falling at Dallas the next night. Fort Worth was the last club to beat the Knights in Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum with a 3-2 decision, Dec. 8.Still, coach Fred Creighton&rsquo;s team had an enviable situation. They shared third place with Dallas, but had three games in hand on the Hawks. A point back of second-place Fort Worth, the Knights had a game in hand there, and had four games in hand on leagueleading Oklahoma City, only five points ahead of them.TULSA: The Oilers came back to tie Dallas, 2-2, in the Hawks&rsquo; rink, Jan. 16, and regained the upper hand in the third period to beat Oklahoma City, 4-3, in Tulsa, Jan. 19. But a 4-0 first-period cushion disappeared at Oklahoma City in the face of inept puckhandling and compounded defensive mistakes that helped the Blazers to a 6-4 triumph. A five-game unbeaten string was a casualty at Oklahoma City, but winning the rematch gave the Oilers a home un-beaten string of four games.Left wing Dale Smedsmo had a goal in each of the three games. But he made more news with his outburst and threatened assault on referee Terry Pierce in protest of a minor penalty in the game at OC. The big, blond left wing from Roseau, Minn, wrestled vigorously with linesman Bob Luther, and it finally took several teammates to subdue Smedsmo. He was given a misconduct, a game misconduct and a &ldquo;gross misconduct&rdquo;.The Oilers were without defenseman Mike Ruest, whose ankle stopped a slapshot, Dec. 12, and Bob Duncan, still bothered by a wrist, whose fracture had sidelined him for 22 games in November and December. Center Dan Makey, who had been on loan from the Detroit Red Wings, was reassigned to Virginia in the American League.Bill Orban banked the tying goal in off the skates of goalie Michel Dumas at Dallas, after the Oilers had lost the lead provided by Smedsmo in the first period.The debacle at Oklahoma City started well for the Oilers, as Alf Handrahan, Paul Daigle, Smedsmo and Jay Babcock counted in the first period. But that was the end of Tulsa&rsquo;s scoring, and OC took command.Tulsa had set a league record by playing 10 straight games without yielding a power goal through Jan. 12. But the Oiler penalty-killers gave up one in each of the next three starts.ALBUQUERQUE:Coach. Johnny Choyce couldn&rsquo;t complain that his Six-Guns weren&rsquo;t finally scoring goals. But they gave them up as fast as they made them in an 8-4 licking at Oklahoma City, followed by ties with Fort Worth (5-5) and Dallas (4-4).With 14 draws in 44 games, the Six-Guns were threatening the CHL record of 20 ties, established by St. Louis in 1966-67 and matched by Fort Worth in 1968-69.The Guns had played five straight games without winning since Jan. 2, and had a dismal streak of 20 straight road contests without victory. The league record is 22 road games without winning, set by Tulsa in 1966-67.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01132/3326351-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="651" height="3139"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

Alexander Fires Up Blazer Comebacks; Road Reversals Set Wings Back Again

<div class="byline">BY LEN HOYES</div><h2>INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2>PORT HURON &mdash;Ken Mann is happy to be proving himself in the International Hockey League, even if he needed two stops to really get going.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01144/3326427-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="277" height="445"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank DeMarco</figcaption></div>Mann, 20. has taken over goal-scoring leadership of the Port Huron Wings by turning on the red light 14 times in 16 games. That pushed his 36-game total to 21, including seven with the Flint Generals before he was secured on loan by General Manager Morris Snider.Coach Bobby McCammon put Mann at right wing on a line with center Red Malinoski and newly-arrived Pat De-Marchi at left wing and they were an immediate success. In his first start against his ex-mates from Flint, Mann scored two goals, assisted on another and narrowly missed a hat trick.Ironically, Mann played last season at Windsor, Ont., where his coach was Jerry Serviss who brought Mann to Flint. But Serviss let him go and afterwards said, &ldquo;1 made a bad decision about letting Mann get away.&rdquo;But that&rsquo;s water over the dam. Mann said, &ldquo;It turned out better for me. I got a chance to prove myself. The big difference is that Bobby shows confidence in his players.&rdquo;McCammon said, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a lot of potential. He&rsquo;s big and shoots the puck well. His weakness is skating but with two or three years of good competition he should improve his skating.&ldquo;He has the potential to play in the National Hockey League. It depends upon his attitude. The main thing is that he wants to play.&rdquo;Because Mann is on loan, his IHL rights revert to Flint at the end of the season unless the Wings work out a deal with the Generals to keep him.However, he has been placed on the negotiation list of the Detroit Red Wings and may be playing on a higher level next season if he maintains his goal production.In either case, he&rsquo;s shown he be longs.INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUEMUSKEGON: Mohawks held 12-point North Division lead despite 3-7-1 record for first 11 games in January&hellip; Coach-GM Moose Lallo disturbed by lack of scoring punch which produced only 18 goals in 14-game span&hellip; Slump ended briefly with four goals in final seven minutes for 5-4 triumph over Saginaw&hellip; Lou Frigon ended six-game-scoreless string with goal but it wasn&rsquo;t enough to prevent 4-2 setback by Port Huron&hellip; Then Frigon produced seventh game-winning goal against Saginaw&hellip; Lynn Margarit aroused Lallo&rsquo;s ire about cheap penalties while keeping league lead in PIM.TOLEDO: Hornets outshot Des Moines, 58-17, but dropped 2-1 decision&hellip; Onetime NHL penalty-killing specialist Bob Dillabough turning into scoring whiz with eight goals in 17 games&hellip; Bob Thomson, playing in 15th game, suffered broken leg against Fort Wayne&hellip; Jim Paterson, out since mid December with wrist injury, scheduled for February surgery and lost for rest of season&hellip; Surging Hornets beat Muskegon third straight time, 2-1&hellip; Moe Brunel scored hat trick in 4-3 victory over Port Huron.SAGINAW: Top goal-scoring team in league suffered 3-0 blanking by Fort Wayne orrhome ice&hellip; Stu Irving&rsquo;s first goal in month helped 5-3 victory at Columbus&hellip; Doug Marit begged gamewinner in 3-2 victory over Muskegon&hellip; Jim Johnston on scoring binge with eight goals in five games&hellip; Dave Cressman built four-game scoring string&hellip; Mike Hornby&rsquo;s 80-foot scoring shot helped 5-4 victory at Des Moines&hellip; Defenseman Steve Trachsel acquired from Portland of Western League&hellip; Defenseman Gord Malinoski pushed team record penalty minutes to 213.FLINT: Dave Gorman played in 400th IHL game, helped celebrate 6-3 victory at Muskegon to end string of six losses to Mohawks&hellip; Wingers Bill Flynn. Pete Fleming acquired from Dayton but Fleming refused to report&hellip; Jack Kell. Dave Bonter, Wayne Zuk scored in span of 1:12 to beat Muskegon, 3-1, in first home start under new coach Doug Carpenter before 4,353, season&rsquo;s biggest crowd&hellip; Generals still anticipating first hat trick by forward &hellip; Rookie Jim Koleffstarting to impress after leaving injury list.PORT HURON: Biggest crowd of year, 2,512 watched 4-2 victory over Toledo.&rsquo;&hellip; Last-place Wings holding 3-1 edge over first-place Muskegon with only series loss by 1-0 score&hellip; Rookie goalie Brian Cousineau lowered goalsagainst average to 2.98&hellip; Ken Mann continuing goal binge with 14th in 16 games for Wings&hellip; Scoring slump of winger Hal White a puzzler because of only five goals in 42 games.DES MOINES: Frank DeMarco&rsquo;s 29th goal pushed him toward club Rookie record of 42 goals by Danny Gloor last season&hellip; Yvon Bilodeau scored seventh goal, all on power plays&hellip; Dave McLelland made 57 stops in 2-1 victory at Toledo&hellip; Defenseman Larry Bolonchuk, called to Seattle (WHL) for two games in emergency returned to Caps&hellip; Jim Park&rsquo;s first goalie start in eight games helped important 3-2 victory at Dayton.DAYTON: Pete Gaw scored four goals to spur 8-1 victoryover Columbus which returned Gems to first-place tie&hellip; Steve Self notched game winnerin 6-5 decision over Saginaw&hellip; Winger Les Jackson suspended for missing a game, then waived&hellip; John Fraser, playing first game since Dec. 1, and Nels Venerus, back in action after threeweek layoff, combined for two goals, four assists in 7-2 smashing of Flint, including goals 16 seconds apart.FORT WAYNE: Unable to swing trades with Flint and Des Moines, Coach Marc Boileau brought in winger Rick Vernon and defensemen Steve Chalmers and Steve Jackson for stretch run. .. Three goals in 52 seconds spurred 6-3 victory over Toledo, maintaining home-ice mastery over netminder Glenn Ramsay to five-year Span dating to Jan. 15, 1969.COLUMBUS: Owls&rsquo; 3-4 record for important seven-game span prevented escape from South Division cellar&hellip; Ray Martynuik surprise starter in goal after injury siege but scored 7-5 triumph over Dayton before reinjury shelved him another week&hellip; Elgin McCann scored short-handed goal to help 3-2 victory over Dayton.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0296/3326420-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="593" height="455"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22South All Stars 7, North All Stars 3Wed. Jan. 23Dayton 3 at Saginaw 6Fort Wayne 2 at Des Moines 6Muskegon 3 at Columbus 1Fri. Jan. 25Flint 1 at Des Moines 7Dayton 1 at Muskegon 3Fort Wayne 2 at Toledo 5Port Huron 1 at Columbus 4Sat. Jan. 26Flint 1 at Des Moines 9Columbus 2 at Muskegon 7Saginaw 4 at Port Huron 5Dayton 3 at Toledo 7Sun. Jan. 27Muskegon 1 at Fort Wayne 5Des Moines 1 at Columbus 3Toledo 1 at Dayton 4Port Huron 2 at Saginaw 3<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Wed. Jan. 30Flint at ColumbusToledo at SaginawPort Huron at Fort WayneMuskegon at DaytonFri. Feb. 1Port Huron at Des MoinesFort Wayne at MuskegonSaginaw at FlintSat. Feb. 2Toledo at MuskegonPort Huron at Des MoinesDalton at ColumbusFlint at SaginawSun. Feb. 3Fort Wayne at DaytonDes Moines at FlintToledo at ColumbusMuskegon at Saginaw &#9632;

f0034-01

Wings’Mann Clicks Second Time Around

<div class="byline">BY DAVID LAMM</div>CHARLOTTE &mdash;No one paid much attention to it when the Charlotte Checkers signed left winger Dale MacLeish as a free agent in early January.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01132/3326465-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="275" height="443"><figcaption class="caption-body">Garry Swain</figcaption></div>After all. MacLeish had been waived by Roanoke Valley early in the season. He then signed with Suncoast. but when that franchise went under in mid-December, no Southern Hockey League club expressed an interest in the husky veteran.Well, a lot of SHL clubs are paying attention to him now&hellip; and Charlotte&rsquo;s coach Pat Kelly is smiling from ear to ear over his mid-season discovery.In his first seven games with the Checkers, MacLeish scored nine goals&mdash;turning in one four-goal performance &mdash; and assisted on eight others. Meanwhile. Charlotte was winning five straight and moving back into second place in the standings. With MacLeish skating for them, the Checkers&rsquo; inconsistent offense was producing more goals than ever.&ldquo;His scoring ability seems to be just what we needed.&rdquo; admitted Kelly.MacLeish isn&rsquo;t at all suprised by the outburst.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve averaged over a point a game everywhere I&rsquo;ve ever played.&rdquo; he says.Yes. MacLeish is a little bitter over the way he&rsquo;s been treated this season.&ldquo;I was as good as any left winger they had,&rdquo; he says of Roanoke Valley, &ldquo;but the owner (E.A. Hawthorne) wasn&rsquo;t happy about the shape I was in. I had the flu in training camp and I couldn&rsquo;t get in shape.&rdquo;As far as being ignored when Suncoast folded, MacLeish boldly says, &ldquo;I want to prove to a lot of people I can play in this league. Nobody picked me up for a long time after Suncoast folded and now I&rsquo;m going to score goals against them.&rdquo;Actually, no one is surprised at his goal scoring. But his assists total has raised a few eyebrows, including MacLeish&rsquo;s. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised I&rsquo;m getting as many chances as I am,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m playing with two good men, center Garry Swain and right winger Steve Hull. They are good, unselfish players.&rdquo;Garry Swain has taken over the league lead in assists with 44. He also has moved into third place among the scorers with 66 points&hellip; Charlotte is 11-2 against Winston-Salem &mdash; and it lost its first game of the year to the Polar Twins.GREENSBORO: Goalie Bob Smith, forced out of retirement when the Generals came up short of goalies due to Mike Ralph&rsquo;s stomach ailment, says he isn&rsquo;t planning a comeback. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just strick around until Mike gets back in shape.&rdquo; he says&hellip; Ian Wilkie was loaned to the Gens by the Los Angeles Sharks for a few games to help ease the goalie shortage&hellip; In some quarters, they are saying Kirk Bowman is the best center in the league&hellip; The LA Sharks called up defenseman Brian Derksen for a look-see. Derksen is owned by the Generals.MACON: The Whoopees had to forfeit a home game to Charlotte Jan. I7 when they failed to ice a team. Most of the players refused to dress because of money problems with the management. The problems apparently were ironed out because the players were back on the ice Jan. 19 and bombed Winston Salem 7-2&hellip; Center Norm Metcalfe, a 21-year-old center signed as a free agent this year, has been Whoopees&rsquo; captain&hellip; It was announced that oft-injured defenseman Steve Johnson had asked for and received his release. However, the Whoopees now report Johnson stated he wanted to retire and was therefore released. Johnson, though, has since joined Fort Wayne of the International League and the Whoopees aren&rsquo;t happy about the situation&hellip; Player coach-general manager Keke Mortson is among the league&rsquo;s hottest scorers. The 39-year-old center scored his second hat trick of the season Jan. 19 and moved to eighth among the league scorers&hellip; Rookie Brian Tapp suffered a broken ankle Jan. IL In the game in which he suffered the injury he continued to play and didn&rsquo;t discover the break until three days later.ROANOKE: The Rebels trounced Greensboro 14-2 Jan. 17 and then lost to the Gens 4-3 the following night. Both games were played in Salem, Va.,causing defenseman Wayne Mosdell to comment: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not 12 goals better than Greensboro and Greensboro isn&rsquo;t one goal better than us.&rdquo; &hellip; Center Claude Piche, who led the league in scoring much of the season, is healthy again after missing all or part of 11 games, because of a knee injury. Piche says he&rsquo;s determined to regain the scoring led, currently held by teammate Camille LaPierre. (Piche is tied for third, nine points behind LaPierre, who had 75 points.) &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be selfish,&rdquo; says Piche, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m going to do what it takes to get my lead back. I like leading the league.&rdquo; &hellip; The Vancouver Blazers have called up defenseman Serge Beaudoin, who was among the leading contenders for the league&rsquo;s MVP award. When Beaudoin departed, he led the league with 179 penalty minutes. The Rebels are uncertain whether or not he will be returned.WINSTON-SALEM: General manager coach Don Carter says rookie forward Howie Colbome is his most consistent and best two-way performer&hellip; Center Terry Ryan was sidelined with an ankle injury, but he is expected back soon&hellip; With Ryan out, the Polar Twins obtained rugged center Bob Fitchner back from Edmonton&hellip; Although their goals-allowed averages don&rsquo;t show it. Carter says goalie Gary Doyle and Ken Brown have been playing well.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02106/3326458-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="603" height="309"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22Macon 3 at Charlotte 5Roanoke 4 at Greensboro 3Wed. Jan. 23Macon 9 at Winston-Salem 4Thu. Jan. 24Macon 3 at Roanoke 4Greensboro 5 at Winston-Salem 4Fri. Jan. 25Winston-Salem 8 at Greensboro 5Roanoke 7 at Charlotte 2Sat. Jan. 26Macon 7 at Roanoke 8Charlotte 4 at Greensboro 2Sun. Jan. 27Macon 2 at Charlotte 6Roanoke-6 at Greensboro 3<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Tue. Jan. 29Greensboro at Winston-SaleiWed. Jan. 30Roanoke at MaconThu. Jan. 31Winston-Salem at GreensborRoanoke at MaconFri. Feb. 1Macon at GreensboroCharlotte at Winston-SalemSat. Feb. 2Winston-Salem at RonaokeGreensboro at MaconSun. Feb. 3Greensboro at MaconCharlotte at Winston-SalemTue. Feb. 5Greensboro at Charlotte &#9632;

f0035-01

Latecomer MacLeish Lights Fire Under Charlotte Checkers

<div class="byline">BY DEREK KNIGHT</div>SOUTH YARMOUTH&mdash;It&rsquo;s not often that one team has three coaches in one season but that&rsquo;s the story in Cape Cod. The third and latest coach is Nick Polano. succeeding interim player-coach Mike DeMarco. Polano, obtained from the Providence Reds will also serve as player-coach. The move was made as the Cubs were readying for the last portion of the NAHL schedule.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01116/3326517-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="282" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">Claude Chartre</figcaption></div>DeMarco returns to his former role of captain as Nick Polano dons the coaching reins. Polano will also be an active player which has to help the Cubs&rsquo; defense situation. Polano, 32, has played the bulk of his career in the American Hockey League. The Cubs lost a 7-3 decision at Long Island with Steve Eckerson in goal then bounced back the following night posting a 5-4 win over the Cougars, at home, with Eckerson again in goal. The Cubs were 3-8 under DeMarco but that record is certainly no reflection on De-Marco. who had a tough role to fill as &ldquo;interim player-coach.&rdquo;NORTH AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUEThe Cubs lost a 7-3 decision at Long Island with Steve Eckerson in goal then bounced back the following night posting a 5-4 win over the Cougars, at home, with Eckerson again in goal. The Cubs were 3-8 under DeMarco but that record is certainly no reflection on De-Marco. who had a tough role to fill as &ldquo;interim player-coach.&rdquo;BROOME: A 5-1 to Syracuse produced a bench-clearing incident on Jan. 16. Four game misconducts were handed out. two to each team. In all there were 165 penalty minutes dished out. Claude Chartre&rsquo;s hat trick led the way for Syracuse&hellip; Rod Bloomfield tops the Dusters in scoring by a healthy margin over nearest rival Bob Channell. The lead figures to continue as Channell was expected to miss a few games after undergoing surgery for a shattered cheekbone. Channell also suffered laceration on the face.SYRACUSE: Center Terry Moran has already scored more goals this season than he did all of last year with both Jersey and Syracuse. In 61 games he scofed 19 goals. This season Moran tallied his 20th goal in his 44th game&hellip; With Claude Chartre in the lineup. Blazers are 19-1-1. Claude had 18 goals and 19 assists in those 21 games.Despite rumors linking Syracuse with the AHL next season. Blazer president Fran Rivette told of his satisfaction with the NAHL. &ldquo;The North American Hockey League has proved to be one of the soundest, best financed and competitive leagues in hockey during it&rsquo;s first year.&rdquo; Rivette stated. &ldquo;The pros pects are excellent fora 10-team NAHL next year Rivette continued &ldquo;Our primary goal is to provide a brand of hockey that the fans in Syracuse will support. We do not want to bring in a calibre of hockey that would be financially impractical&hellip; with the result of Syracuse having no hockey at all in a year or two.&rdquo; Fans in Syracuse have supported both the Eastern Hockey League Blazers and the NAHL Blazers&hellip; Predictions of a Blazer downfall after the recall of Gary Kurt proved most inaccurate. Blazers won their first 15 games without Kurt.JOHNSTOWN: Jets recently put together a four-games unbeaten streak on home ice. The streak occurred despite the fact that several Jets saw limited action due to injuries. The walking wounded included Vern Campigotto, (broken nose) Brian Coughlin, (fractured jaw) Norm Descoteaux, (fractured finger) Gerry MacDonald, (fractured cheekbone) and Tony McCarthy, (sprained wrist) &hellip; Coughlin was the only one placed on the 14-day list&hellip; Attendance has been increasing steadily in Johnstown&hellip; Ron Docken, Jet goaltender received a game misconduct for being the third man in a fight&hellip; Davy Johnson reached the 30-goal circle with his 29th and 30th goal serving as the tying and the winning goal in a 6-3 win over Broome&hellip; Ned Dowd has scored his 25th goal for the Jets. Both Johnson and Dowd are property of the St. Louis Blues.LONG ISLAND: Cougars&rsquo; leading goal scorer Lorne Rombough was called up to the Chicago Cougars for a look-see. Rombough had 35 goals at the time of the call up. Jim Benzelock was sent down to Long Island. In his third game Benzy scored two goals&hellip; Cougars best weekend was the weekend of Jan. 18. That Friday the Cougars posted a solid 7-3 win over Cape Cod before nearly 3,500 fans. Left winger Larry Billows scored twice for Long Island. Billows, a hot scorer of late, hit for two more goals the following night in a 5-4 loss to Cape Cod. Butch Morris scored the other two Cougar goals. On Sunday the Cougars trailed Maine 4-2 in the third period before a four-goal outburst brought 3.200 fans to their feet. It was a 6-4 Cougar victory in their first Sunday afternoon game. (Puck Day). General manager Gerry Lamoureux was ecstatic with the club&rsquo;s performance on Friday and Sunday. Said the young general manager. &ldquo;All of our wins are big wins but they&rsquo;re much more satisfying when crowds of over 3,000 are there to support you. I know those crowds give our guys a boost.&rdquo;MOHAWK VALLEY: Comets anannounced that on Feb. 8 it&rsquo;s tee-shirt night at the Utica Auditorium. The first 1,000 children (14 and under) accompanied by an adult will receive the Comets shirt&hellip;Comets lost a tough 3-2 decision to Syracuse at Utica. Frank Blum&rsquo;s goaltending had stopped the Blazers cold for two periods as the Comets had led 1-0 going into the third Claude Chartre scored the game winner at 19:09&hellip; Comets waived forward Ron McNeil&hellip; Guy Ross continues to lead the club in penalty minutes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0441/3326510-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="539" height="813"><figcaption class="caption-body">NICK POLANO&hellip;Third Cub Coach</figcaption></div>MAINE: Rejean Giroux, the NAHL&rsquo;s hottest scorer, notched his 50th goal against Long Island. Nordiques lost back to back games to Syracuse and Long Island before coming back two days later to stop the Cougars in Lewiston. Mike Rouleau&rsquo;s two goals and two assists paved the way for the Nordiques&hellip; Michel Harvey still is able to keep up with the play in the NAHL.Harvey&rsquo;s role has been rough, one day a coach, one day a player coach, but he&rsquo;s adjusted. The Nordiques hope they will get Pierre Roy back if Quebec&rsquo;s injury problem straightens out.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0277/3326503-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="590" height="309"></div>Affiliations: 12&mdash;St. Louis. 18&mdash;Jersey (WHA) 20&mdash;Chicago (WHA). 23&mdash;Toronto (WHA). 24&mdash;Quebec (WHA) &mdash; independent. New York & Boston (NHL)<h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22Mohawk Valley 4 at Cape Cod 11Long Island 3 at Maine 7Wed. Jan. 23Mohawk Valley 1 at Broome 9Syracuse 5 at Johnstown 3Thur. Jan. 24Syracuse 5 at Cape Cod 2Fri. Jan. 25Johnstown 0 at Long Island 3Broome 1 at Syracuse 10Cape Cod 5 at Mohawk Valley 3Sat. Jan. 26Maine 5 at Cape Cod 3Long Island 1 at Johnstown 4Broome 5 at Mohawk Valley 3Sun. Jan. 27Mohawk Valley 0 at Long Island 4Cape Cod 5 at Maine7Johnstown 2 at Syracuse 9<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Mon. Jan. 28Syracuse at BroomeTue. Jan. 29Johnstown at Cape CodMohawk Valley at MaineWed. Jan. 30Long Island at BroomeJohnstown at MaineMohawk Valley at SyracuseThu. Jan. 31Broome at MaineFri. Feb. 1Broome at Long IslandCape Cod at SyracuseJohnstown at Mohawk ValleySat. Feb. 2Maine at Cape CodBroome at JohnstownLong Island at Mohawk ValleySun. Feb. 3Mohawk Valley at BroomeCape Cod at MaineLong Island at SyracuseMon. Feb. 4Mohawk Valley at MaineTue. Feb. 5Broome at Cape CodWed. Feb. 6Cape Cod at BroomeMohawk Valley at JohnstownMame at SyracuseThu. Feb. 7Cape Cod at Long Island<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0359/3326496-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="589" height="457"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

Polano Joins Cubs’ Musical Coach Game; Blazers Quell Rumors Of Moving To AHL

<div class="byline">BY STEVE KLEIN</div>SOUTH BEND &mdash;The meek may never inherit the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. but that doesn&rsquo;t mean the mighty can&rsquo;t be humbled once in a while.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0444/3326569-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="293" height="441"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lyman Haakstad</figcaption></div>With the exception of third-place Minnesota, the bottom four teams in the league &mdash; Notre Dame. Michigan, Minnesota&mdash;Duluth and North Dakota &mdash; won six of eight games against No. I Michigan Tech. No. 2 Denver, No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 6 Colorado College to throw the battle for playoff spots and position if not the championship race itself in a state of disarray.Michigan Tech continued to be the only team with any breathing room. The Huskies climbed into a first-place tie with Denver at 24 points on the strength on a split at Notre-Dame and a shocking Minnesota-Duluth sweep at Denver over the Jan. 18-19 weekend. Tech&rsquo;s position of strength is games-in-hand &mdash; the Huskies have played four less games than the Pioneers and host them as well the Jan. 25-26 weekend in Houghton.&ldquo;The whole key to the championship is the series in Houghton,&rdquo; predicted Notre-Dame coach Lefty Smith. &ldquo;If Tech sweeps or splits, they should win the championship. A split might save second place for Denver, but if they lose two, they could join the rest of us.&rdquo;How close is the WCHA race?&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no tenth place team and there&rsquo;s no third place team in this league.&rdquo; Smith insists. &ldquo;Right now each game is extremely vital to the teams trying to make the playoffs or playoff position or even first place.&rdquo;Duluth&rsquo;s 5-3 and 8-5 victories in Denver were probably the biggest upsets of the season in the West. Combined with 7-2 and 6-3 victories over the Pioneers in Duluth in late December, the Bulldogs are the first team to sweep a four-game series from Denver since Michigan Tech&rsquo;s 29-3 national championship team did it during the 1961-62 season, 12 years ago. The losses were alos Denver&rsquo;s first at home after compiling an ll-0-l record in the Denver Arena this season.The Bulldogs, after a 0-7-1 start in the WCHA, are back in the playoff picture now with six victories in their last eight games. Three factors have contributed to the UMD resurgence &mdash; junior goaltender Ken Turko. who is undefeated in four games after replacing Jerome Mrazek: a 10-2 record at home. 4-2 in the league (with four of their final six WCHA series remaining at home); and the play of the Lyman Haakstad-Mike Newton-Merv Kiryluik line, which scored nine of Duluth&rsquo;s 13 goals against the Pioneers, including five by Newton.Duluth stopped Denver by holing the Pioneers scoreless in the third period both games. In the first game, UMD overcame a 2-1 Denver lead to tie the game, 3-3, after two periods on goals by Tom Milani and Ernie Powell. Haakstad scored the game-winner at 1:15 of the third period, and Newton scored his second goal of the game for some breathing room.The second game was tied five times before Newton put the Bulldogs ahead, 6-5, at 15:27 of the second period. Newton completed a hat trick in the third period and Duluth scored three more times for the 8-5 margin.At Notre-Dame, where No. I teams seem to suffer most (the Irish football team defeated No. 1 Alabama, 24-23, in the Sugar Bowl, and the Irish basketball team ended No. UCLA&rsquo;s 88-game winning streak, 71-70) the Irish hockey team got in the spirit of things by humbling the No. 1 Huskies. 7-1. Smith called the game &ldquo;the finest a Notre-Dame team has played in my six years here. It was near-perfect.&rdquo;Tech coach John Maclnnes didn&rsquo;t quite agree with Smith&rsquo;s assemment.&ldquo;We stunk.&rdquo; he said rather frankly. &ldquo;Notre-Dame could have won by almost any score.&rdquo;Michigan State spent a long weekend in Minneapolis, losing 9-4 and 6-3 to the Gophers. The line of brothers John and Rob Harris and John Matschke scored seven of Minnesota&rsquo;s 15 goals as the Gophers took a firm hold on third place and started eyeing the firmaments. Like Michigan Tech, the Gophers have played four less games than Denver.The series was marred by 14 bench penalties, two to Michigan State coaches Amo Bessone and Alex Terpay in the dying seconds of the&rdquo; first game, and three-double minors to each team for a bench-clearing incident late in the second game.Outside the league. Bowling Green edged towards. 500 with a 5-1 victory over Colgate, the last place team in the ECAC, and 15-4 and 6-4 victories over Lake Forest, certainly no Western power.St. Louis continued its slump, losing its fourth straight game and fifth in six games to Cornell, 5-4, in St. Louis, before breaking out with a victory against Colgate. Against Cornell, the Billikens had taken a 2-0 first period lead, outshooting the Big Red, 22-4 in the first period. But Cornell came back to take a 5-2 lead before St. Louis rallied late in the third period for two goals.<h2>College Races</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01107/3326562-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="596" height="607"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Division IBoston Univ. 6. Northeastern 3Clarkson 5. Colgate 2Cornell 5, Harvard 4Dartmouth 5. Northeastern 2Princeton 6, Yale 3Boston Univ. 11, Boston College 2Dartmouth 3. Pennsylvania 0Yale 5, Clarkson 2Division IIBoston State 5, UMass 3Salem State 9. North Adams State 3St. Anselms 5. Connecticut 1Babson 5, Wesleyan 2Norwich 5. Lowell Tech 3Merrimack 9. AIC 2Hamilton 3. Colby 2Oswego 5, New England 1Curry 5. Emerson 1Williams 5. Norwich 2Buffalo 8, New England 3Wesleyan 3, Bridgewater 1AIC 8, New Haven 3Boston State 14, Fitchburgh 2Vermont 4. Middlebury 2AIC 6, Colby 2Salem State 2, Middlebury 1<h2>INTERDIVISIONAL PLAY</h2>Boston College 5. Boston State 3Providence 7, UMass 3Providence 4, Merrimack 3Vermont 7, RPI 2St. Lawrence 9. Oswego 0Bowling Green 5. Colgate 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0280/3326555-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="598" height="399"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Michigan State 5, Wisconsin 4Michigan State 7, Wisconsin 6Minnesota 2, North Dakota 1Denver 4, Michigan 3Denver 6, Michigan 4Notre Dame 5, Minn-Duluth 1Notre Dame 10, Minn-Duluth 2Michigan Tech 10, Colorado College 5Michigan Tech 8, Colorado College 4North Dakota 4, Michigan 2Michigan 6, North Dakota 2Colorado College 5, Michigan State 4Michigan State 6, Colorado College 4Minn-Duluth 4, Minnesota 3Minn-Duluth 5, Minnesota 2Denver 6, Notre Dame 5Denver 4, Notre Dame 2Michigan Tech 4, Wisconsin 1Michigan Tech 6, Wisconsin 4Notre Dame 7, Michigan Tech 1Michigan Tech 7, Notre Dame 5Minn-Duluth 5. Denver 3Minn-Duluth 8, Denver 5Minnesota 9, Michigan State 6Minnesota 6, Michigan State 3North Dakota 4, Colorado College 3North Dakota 2, Colorado College 0Michigan 3, Wisconsin 2Wisconsin 8 Michigan 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0355/3326548-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="588" height="771"></div> &#9632;

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Have Nets Rise Up As WCHA ‘Powers’ Tumble

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>CAMBRIDGE &mdash;The writing was there on the wall, in Big Red letters, for all the Watson Rink faithful to see. As the third period wore on, its Carnelian leer cauterized the hearts of the Crimson hopefuls who wondered how long Harvard&rsquo;s hockey team could keep up their unrequited onslaught before falling prey to the inevitable.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0534/3326600-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="276" height="438"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Pettit</figcaption></div>The blow came at 3:56 of overtime, on Cornell&rsquo;s only shot on net of the extra period and just the third since the second period. Bob Peace slipped out behind the Harvard defense for a perfect pass from Brian Campbell. The sophomore walked in on goalie Jim Murray for an easy sudden death dealer and a 5-4 Cornell win.Harvard&rsquo;s only sin in the contest was a five minute lapse at the end of the second period that allowed Cornell to rally from a 4-1 deficit to a 4-4 tie. Peace also registered the fourth goal, deflecting a shot along the ice by Bill Murray into the far corner with just two seconds remaining in the frame.Through the scoreless third period, Harvard outshot Cornell 16-2, narrowly missing several great chances, especially a two-on-one break by Leigh Hogan and Jim Thomas with Kevin Carr in the penalty box.The loss sent the Crimson into exams with a 6-5 divisional record and boosted Cornell to a 5-2-1 mark and almost certain home ice for the playoffs. Harvard, 6-7-1 overall, still rates as one of the surprises of the year. Despite the loss of a slew of lettermen, the Crimson are a superb forechecking team and have lost all their ECAC Division One decisions by just one goal.&ldquo;We were lucky, no question about that,&rdquo; summarized Cornell coach Dick Bertrand cryptically as he praised newfound goalie Steve Kelleher&rsquo;s 36 save show.The week&rsquo;s co-feature game turned into a horror movie for Boston College. The Eagles visited BU and took an 11-2 pasting, their worst ever at the hands of the Terriers. Five unanswered goals past BC frosh netminder Bill Wilkens put the game on ice for the Scarlet and White, raising their record to 8-4 in the loop and ensuring a home playoff slot. The Eagles dropped to 4-5 with the outlook getting less promising all the time. In a 5-3 win over Division Two&rsquo;s Boston State a few nights previous, BC lost the services of star goalie Ned Yetten, this time with a shoulder injury.Yetten, recuperating nicely from knee problems, was spilled behind the BC net and fell heavily on his shoulder. Once again, his status became indefinite and the Eagles faced eight of their last 11 divisional games away from home.Dartmouth continued to roll along escorted by 10 sophomores, notching wins of 5-2 over Northeastern and 3-0 at Penn to run their slate to 7-2 and 8-2-1 overall. The Green, in a &ldquo;building&rdquo; year, will make the playoffs for the first time since 1965 and barring a complete flop like last season&rsquo;s, should make home ice.&ldquo;I was optimistic at the beginning of the season with all these good sophomores,&rdquo; related coach Grant Standbrook. &ldquo;But you never can tell just how such a young team is going to react. But we were determined that we weren&rsquo;t going to wait until next year.&ldquo;Take Chuck Walker in the goal, for instance,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;He had played four games in two years, and look at the job he&rsquo;s done. We had an untested sophomore, Dan Ringsred, coming in behind him, so we really didn&rsquo;t know what to expect in goal.&rdquo;Walker made 35 saves at Penn in recording his first shutout ever. Soph Ken Pettit had a pair of goals and Dan Tomlak, another rookie, added the other. Against Northeastern, soph Tom Fleming notched a hat trick, Dartmouth&rsquo;s only triple of the campaign.Yale kept its playoff hopes alive with a split, losing 6-3 to lowly Princeton but bouncing back for a 5-2 win over Clarkson for the first Eli win over the Golden Knights in 20 years. The Techers, who dropped to 3-6-1 in the league, hopped off to a 2-1 lead, but Ron Graber tied it up and Bobby Kane potted the winner for Yale in the second period. Two goals by D&rsquo;Arcy Ryan iced the game in the third stanza. Clarkson had dropped Colgate 5-2 earlier in the week on the strength of two goals by Sandy McAdam. &#9632;

f0037-05

Cornell Win Playoff Boost; BC Terriers Pummel Eagles

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01129/3326652-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="557" height="601"><figcaption class="caption-body">DEREK SMITH&hellip; Leads 67s</figcaption></div><h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0284/3326645-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="599" height="427"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Thue. Jan. 22Ottawa 8 at Kingston 5Kitchener 9 at London 1Sudbury 5 at Sault 3Thu. Jan. 24Oshawa 3 at Peterborough 0Sudbury 4 at St. Catharines 5Fri. Jan. 25Sudbury 2 at Kitchener 8Peterborough 6 at Hamilton 2Toronto 10 at London 3Kingston 2 at Ottawa 7Sat. Jan. 26St. Catharines 3 at Oshawa 7Toronto 7 at Sault 4Sun. Jan. 27Kitchener 7 at Hamilton 2Toronto 3 at Sudbury 5Oshawa 4 at St. Catharines 10Peterborough 4 at Kingston 3Ottawa 5 at London 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0358/3326638-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="598" height="517"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 21Sherbrooke 4 at Laval 3Tue. Jan. 22Drummondville 0 at Hull 12Montreal 5 at Quebec 9Shawinigan 8 at Trois-Rivieres 5Thu. Jan. 24Hull 0 at Cornwall 5Montreal 5 at Drummondville 6Chicoutimi 7 at Laval 5Trois-Rivieres 2 at Sorel 7Fri. Jan. 25Sorel 8 at Montreal 5Chicoutimi 4 at Quebec 9Laval 2 at Sherbrooke 4Trois-Rivieres 6 at Shawinigan 11Sun. Jan. 27Trois-Rivieres 3 at Cornwall 9Quebec 8 at Drummondville 5Hull 1 at Sherbrooke 10Shawinigan 3 at Laval 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0445/3326631-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="590" height="341"></div> &#9632;

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OHA MAJOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECLIFF</div>ST. CATHARINES &mdash;Peterborough Petes, London Knights and St. Catharines Black Hawks continued their scramble for first place in the Ontario Hockey Association Major Junior A League with approximately se ven weeks left in the schedule.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0535/3326690-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="283" height="445"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Jonathan</figcaption></div>And lurking not too far behind were Kitchener Range is, Sudbury Generals and Toronto Marlboros, all within easy Wolves, Oshawa reach of the top three if they put a sizeable winning streak together of the Petes, Knights or Hawks should falter. It&rsquo;s the closest race in at least a decade, and possibly the best-balanced league in the history of Ontario Junior A hockey.With the schedule approaching the three-quarter mark only 1 1 points separate the Petes and Knights who were tied in the top spot when this was written. and Toronto Marlboros who were seventh and still dangerous.However team owners generally are more worried about what will happen to the league next season than the eventual winner this spring.Rumors abounded that the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association were close to an agreement with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association which would permit the pros to take any number of players 17 and 18 years of age as well as those graduating after playing out their final season as 19-year-olds.Last year Toronto Marlboros lost four players to the WHA who were still eligible for Junior A and owners such as Hap Emms of St. Catharines, Angelo Bumbacco of Sault Ste. Marie and Nick Durbano of Hamilton &mdash; as well as virtually all the coaches and managers feel that if the pros are allowed to grab any teenager they want the Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec major junior A leagues will be seriously damaged.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t make sense.&rdquo; said Bumbacco, who is manager and part owner of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. &ldquo;You just get a fairly good team put together and the pros can come in and ruin you. I don&rsquo;t think any club in any of the three major junior leagues can put up with that kind of nonsense.&rdquo;PETERBOROUGH: After winning only two and tying five of their previous II league games, Peterborough Petes regained their top form by crushing St. Catharines Black Hawks 6-2. then nudging Ottawa 67s 1-0 and taking Sault Ste. Marie 6-3&hellip; After leading the league from the first week of the season the Petes dropped briefly out of the top spot but their three straight wins put them back into a tie for the lead with London Knights. They also have games in hand&hellip; Bob Wasson, a consistent performer for the Petes, counted the only goal in Ottawa in the second period although Ottawa outshot the defensive oriented Petes 35-17&hellip; Stan Jonathan scored a hat trick in win over Hawks, counting two late in the second period and one at start of the third.LONDON: The Knights have never been this high in the standings, so late in the season, since they were granted a franchise in the 1965-66 season &mdash; when they finished last&hellip; Coach Bill Long has done an excellent job with team and they are definitely championship contenders&hellip; They won two of three games during the week, suffering a 4-2 upset in Kingston, then Sudbury 5-3 on home ice and Hamilton 6-1 in the Hamilton Forum.ST. CATHARINES: Black Hawks missed chance to take over undisputed possession of first place when they were bombed 6-2 in Peterborough&hellip; Hawks scored first and last goals but were outplayed in between&hellip; Dave Gorman scored three goals in 7-5 win over Sault Ste. Marie while Wilf Paiement counted the game-winner, stealing puck from defenseman Doug McKinnon and beating goaltender Lou Moore on a fine wrist shot&hellip; The GAS Line (Gorman-Rick Adduono-Dave Salvian) one of most productive in league and counted four goals against Greyhounds&hellip; After playing well, goaltender Bill Cheropita is in minor slump and was replaced late in Sault game by Larry McIntyre.KITCHENER: Coach Eddie Bush has Rangers on the move again as they picked up three of a possible four points during week, settling for 6-6 tie with Oshawa at home, then edging Oshawa 5-4, also one home ice&hellip; Paul Evans counted three goals before 4,074 Kitchener fans against Oshawa while Ron Sedlbauer. acquired from Hamilton Red Wings had his first in a Ranger uniform&hellip; Ottawa gave the Rangers a stiff battle as the Kitchener club had to come back from a deficit to win 5-4 on third period goals by Mike McKegney and Doug Riseborough&hellip; Riseborough led the Soutern Ontario Tier Two Junior A League last season while playing with Guelph Biltmores&hellip; Rangers have a strong team and only a lack of consistency has kept them out of first or second place.SUDBURY: After a great spring to first division, coach Mac MacLean&rsquo;s Wolves ran into a slump, losing five and tying one of six games&hellip; Team is big and strong and should shake losing habits well before playoffs. The only point they earned in the half dozen games was a 3-3 tie at home with last place Hamilton&hellip; They dropped two back-to-back games 5-3 in London and 6-4 in Oshawa&hellip; Bob Russell had a pair of goals in the loss to Knights and Jim Maxfield had two in the loss against Generals&hellip; Captain Mike Marson still playing fine hockey despite the lack of victories.OSHAWA: Generals continue playing .500 hockey and should finish no lower than fifth but could have trouble making one of the four top spots which would five them extra home game in first round of the playoffs&hellip; Had fairly successful week with a 6-6 tie in Kitchener and a 6-4 win at home over the Wolves&hellip; Bill Lochead, certain to be one of the top drafts next spring, scored twice in the victory over Sudbury while Pete Vandemark had a pair in Kitchener and Lochead added another single&hellip; Generals have good home record but usually are not too strong on the road which worries the usually unflappable coach Gus Bodnar&hellip; Attendance around the 1,600 mark &mdash; lower than usual.TORONTO: After an outstanding record which brought them from last place early in the season to sixth and within range of the leaders, Marlboros seem to be tape ring off a little and in the past week had a 5-5 tie in Ottawa, dress 2-2 in Hamilton and lost 5-2 to the 10th peace Kingston Canadians&hellip; Ice Follies has locked the Marlboros out or Maple Leaf Gardens and they will probably improve when returning home&hellip; Defenseman Greg Neeld. who lost an eye in accident in Kitchener game last month, has still not been given the got lineup&hellip; Marlies won&rsquo;t let him play until they&rsquo;re certain they have a protective device which will prevent any possible damage to his other eye&hellip; Brad Winton scored a powerplay goal to give the Dukes tie with Wings&hellip; Marlies&rsquo; game in Kingston help up an hour when the team was delayed because of ice conditions on the highway .. However coach George Armstrong was not blaming that for 5-2 loss.OTTAWA: 67s are in the midst of three-way battle for the last playoffposition with Kingston and Sault Ste. Marie&hellip; Defeat 1-0 at home by Peterborough was a heartbreaker after outshooting the first place club 35-17 before almost 4,000 fans&hellip; They then dropped a 5-4 decision in Kitchener and those one-goal defeats have to hurt their chances&hellip; However coach Leo Boivin is doing good job with team composed almost entirely of rookies and they may just squeeze into final playoff spot&hellip; Derek Smith keeping hopes alive with steady play and good scoring.SAULT: Greyhounds lost three games on the road in three nights &mdash; 8-6 in Kingston, 6-3 in Peterborough and 7-5 in St. Catharines&hellip; Their on points came from a narrow 8-7 decision at home against Hamilton, scoring four times in third period after trailing 6-4&hellip; Scott Mabley counted the winner in the last four minutes&hellip; Line of Jack Valiquette (the league&rsquo;s top point scorer), Charlie Simmer and Cary Farelli is carying Greyhounds&rsquo; hopes of qualifying for plavoffs.KINGSTON: Canadians are sticking in there with genuine hope of catching a playoff position in their first season, something rarely accomplished in Major Junior A or any other hockey league&hellip; No players on the squad had previous Junior A experience but coach Jack Bownass has them hustling&hellip; Team had its best week of season with three straight wins &mdash; 4-2 over London, 8-6over Sault Ste. Marie and 6-2 against Marlboros&hellip; All games were at home but Canadians are also tougher now on road&hellip; Greg Holst is back in lineup after an eye injury sidelined him four games. He promptly scored once against London.HAMILTON: Red Wings are last and barring a minor miracle will stay there and miss playoffs for the fourth successive season&hellip; Team just hasn&rsquo;t the depth necessary in top grade Junior A hockey&hellip; They have won only two of the last 27 games but managed a tie (2-2) against Toronto&hellip; Attendance is still low and no games have attracted as many as 1,000 fans.<h2>OHA Scoring</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0630/3326683-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="601" height="656"></div> &#9632;

f0038-05

Seven Teams In Range Of OHA Pennant; Owners Fear Continued Raiding By Pros

<div class="byline">BY RAY PICCO</div>SPOKANE&mdash;The Spokane Jets have won four and tied one of their last five starts, to move back into first place three points ahead of the Cranbrook Royals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01112/3326721-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="277" height="455"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Hutchinson</figcaption></div>Coach Bud Bodman is getting good goaltending from Dave Cox and Ray McLeod, as the duo allowed just 13 goals against them in the five game unbeaten streak. Bob Trembecky has been on a torrid scoring streak and has taken over the league scoring race with 42 points. made up of 16 goals and 26 assists.The Jets battled the Czech Nationals to a 2-2 tie before Christmas in front of 4,000 hometown fans. Newcomer Wayne Dye scored the tying goal midway through the final stanza to salvage the tie for the Jets.Former Jet great Tom Hodges has been picked up by the 1961 World Champion Trail Smoke Eaters for their current reunion series with the 1961 Swedes.NELSON:The Maple Leafs have continued their slump, and are mired deep in the league basement behind the fourth place Dynamiters.General manager Gus Adams, who has filled in as coach after Gary Kilpatrick resigned last month, has appointed nine-year veteran defenseman Hugh Hooker to coach the club for the remainder of the season. But for the Leilfs it wouldn&rsquo;t make any difference if Toe Blake was coaching, as they went out and were thumped 9-3 by the Dynamiters, and then were edged 3-2 by the Jets in Spokane.TRAIL: Wayne Florko leads the third place Smokies in goals with 19. and has been a sparkplug in recent games. Coach Don Walker wasn&rsquo;t too happy in team&rsquo;s recent 9-6 home ice loss to the Royals&hellip;&rdquo;We&rsquo;re in the final third of the season, and every game is a must game to win, commented Walker, and I expect my player to start realizing this.&rdquo;Star defenseman Terry Campeau left the team last month due to business reasons&hellip; Over 3,500 fans watched the old &lsquo;61 Smokies dump their Swedish counterparts 10-1 last week in their first of four game series in Canada. The Smokies also beat the Swedes 7-5 in Spokane, and then settled for a 7-7 tie in a game played in Kimberley. The Smokies return the visit in March when they will play the remaining four games of the 8-game series. The response has been great, and the fans in the WIHL centers have enjoyed seeing these former stars play again.CRANBROOK: Eric Sutcliffe resigned then changed his mind and will stay on as coach of the team. Manager Ron Hutchinson, who would have taken over, has done a fine job. Hutchinson talked Sutcliffe into staying on as player-coach.The Royals battled the Jets to a 3-3 draw, as the two teams continue their battle for first place. Defenseman Bob Mclvor&rsquo;s long shot from outside the blue line late in the third period eluded Jet goalie Dave Cox to give the Royals the tie.KIMBERLEY: The Dynamiters have dropped three out of four games, and remain in fourth place behind Trail.Lon Hicks is a top candidate for rookie of the year honors as he has scored 20 goals and added 20 assists leaving the big centerman in second place in the league scoring race.The Dynamiters have an explosive club, but have not been able to play consistent, or reel of a few wins. &#9632;

f0039-01

Spokane Regains WIHL Lead; Sutcliffe Stays As Royals’ Coach

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY HERB MYERS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0451/3326752-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="311" height="413"></div><h2>Central Ontario League</h2>Doug Barkley&rsquo;s Ottawa Nepean Raiders rode a nine-game winning streak to the league&rsquo;s top spot, but in their last three appearances have dropped games to Smiths Falls, Pembroke and Brockville. Smiths Falls Bears, league leaders for the past two months, picked up only two wins in their last 12 games and share second place with improving Pembroke, now six wins in their last seven outings. The Bears&rsquo; slump coach Frank Hogan his job. being replaced at the helm by GM Jeff McLean. The Brockville Warriors, since obtaining veteran center Rick Bordeleau from Gloucester, won four in a row and Bordeleau is close behind Rockland&rsquo;s Gil Lecavalier in the league scoring race. Five players and coach Brian Murray of the Pembroke Lumber Kings were named to the 20-man All Star squad to meet coach Mac MacLean&rsquo;s OHA Sudbury Wolves at Pembroke. Kings&rsquo; blueliners Dan Culhane and Terry Bozack were chosen along with forwards Steve Croucher, Paul Sawyer and Terry Woermke. Nepean is represented by league-leading goalie Bill Courchaine, Terry Chiasson, Paul Millman and Mike Eaves while the Gloucester players tabbed were goalie Rocky Menard, Marc Aubry, Mike McDuffe and Dave Dixie. Gary Nicholl, John Kennary and Des Allen of Smiths Falls, Brockville forwards Rich Bordeleau and Scott MacLean and Rockland&rsquo;s Lecavalier and Randy Camponi complete the squad.<h2>Saskatchewan League</h2>The Melville Millionaires of coach Ed Famulak, virtually out of North Division playoff contention a month ago. won 10 of 11 games to move within two points of Yorkton Terriers and could cause trouble for Saskatoon and Humboldt Terriers and could cause trouble for Saskatoon and Humboldt three points in front of the Terriers. In South Division, the Estevan Bruins and Regina Pats take turns leading the pack with Weyburn and Moose Jaw in the other playoff spots. Willie Dejardin&rsquo;s three goals led Moose Jaw 8-5 over Battleford Baronsand Humboldt also battered the Barons 10-1 with64 shots was Darrel Hoffman scored three times and Balfour Der and Bruce Buitenhaus each added a pair. Kevin Joli&rsquo;s final period tally enabled Prince Albert to nose out Notre Dame 3-2 while Weyburn Wings dumped Saskatoon 6-2 on Gord McMurchy&rsquo;s two scores.<h2>Ontario Provincial League</h2>The Vaughan Nationals jolted the Wexford Raiders&rsquo; 14-game undefeated string by sweeping a home-and-home series 6-1 and 6-0. with leagueleading goaltender Kevin Walton recording the shutout and 18-year-old Brian Burtch lamming in a pair of goals each night. The back-to-back victories stretched the Nats wins to four as they followed a narrow 7-6 Win over North Bay with 17-year-old Brian Wilton firing his third goal of the night to break the tie. The Nats and Downsview Beavers then played the league&rsquo;s first penalty-free game of the season with Vaughan getting the nod 5-3. Aurora Tigers, sporting just one loss in 22 games, stayed on the Nats&rsquo; heels by blasting Downsview 10-8 and decisioning Seneca 5-2 as three goals by Jim Masin and a pair by George Berger took care of the Tiger scoring. Richmond Hill&rsquo;s Mike Hartman had three goals when the Rams rallied for three, final period scores to tie Downsview 6-6 and Dixie&rsquo;s Mike Kaszychi picked up three against the Rams to give the Bees a 5-2 nod.<h2>United States Leagues</h2>New England Jr League second place Weymouth Conquistadors, trailing 5-1 after the second period, rallied for eight goals in the last period to wipe out league-leading Tyngsboro Huskies 8-7. Joe Lannanscored a final period hat-trick including the winner with 17 seconds remaining. League leading scorer Colin Ahem, who tied the game for Tyngsboro with 40 second left, and Jerry Fimiami each hit three times for the Huskies. The improving Pembroke Chiefs, winless in their first 25 games, won three of four games with defenseman Doug Prescott scoring three in 9-5 victory over Tri-Valley. Pacific Coast International Jr League Gordie Marshall&rsquo;s quick goal in the first eight seconds for the Seattle Jr Totems, sparked the Totes 5-3 win over Portland Jr Bucks while Don Bucher and Larry Waisanengot the goals for the losing Bucks. Goalies Jay Olson of Portland and Ron Patterson of Richmond battled on even terms until Cliff Johnston tallied the game-winner for Richmond Sockeyes late in the second period to give them a 2-1 verdict over Portland. Tom Bay was the lone Buck scorer. New York-Penn Jr League: Steve Eccles continued to pepper the league nets as he picked up three more goals in Syracuse Junior Blazers&rsquo; 8-2 win over Rochester while teammate Dick Croft added a pair. Eccles, who will attend University of Wisconsin next fall, now has a league leading total of 24 goals and 39 points in 13 games. The runnerup Buffalo Blades also dropped Rochester 5-3 as newly-signed Tuffy Gruarin scored three goals, two in the final minute, and Dave Bagley also had three as Mustangs came from behind to tie visiting Syracuse 7-7.SLAPSHOTS: Coach Andre Boivin of West Division leading Longueuil Rebels in Que Jr A. originally suspended for season, had suspension reduced to 10 games by league president Jean Huot&hellip; Sussex Royals, suspended by New Brunswick Jr A league, have entered Jr. B League&hellip; Kirk Johnson and Dennis Coulding each fired three goals as leading Cander Jr Flyers walloped Clarenville Jr Caribous 11-0 in Newfoundland Jr A League. &#9632;

f0039-04

JUNIOR JOTTINGS

WELLAND&mdash;Yes. it really happened and hockey fans are still rubbing their eyes in disbelief around the Southern Ontario Junior Hockey League.The high-powerred. front-running Welland Sabres rewrote the league&rsquo;s record books with a 38-4 bombardment of the Michigan Americans. In addition to smashing practically every club record, many unbelievable individual marks were established.Winger Bob Dickenson scored four goals in the second period and a total of seven for the game. The line centered by Jim McCabe with wingers Ken McKenzie and Robbie Balyk rammed in a total of 16 goals and 28 assists for 44 points with McCabe setting new highs of 13 assists and 18 points.McKenzie added six goals and eight assists. Balyk five goals and seven assists, Jim Tunney blasted five goals and John Harris&rsquo;on added four more as every member of the Sabre squad recorded at least a point with the exception of the goalie. &#9632;

Would You Believe 38-4 Hockey Score?

<div class="byline">BY BOB STRUMM</div>NEW WESTMINSTER &mdash;How does the saying go? Never have so many accomplished so much and received so little recognition&hellip; or something like that.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01110/3326859-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="283" height="430"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Andreachuk</figcaption></div>Playing in the shadows of the much muchheralded Calgary Centennials, the New Westminster Bruins have methodically but effectively steamrolled their opposition for more than two months. Yes, two months.Their rewards have been self-satisfying. if nothing else, because the Bruins&rsquo; sudden charge at the top has gone almost unnoticed outside of their own little domain. The fact is. the Bruins are suddenly challenging for the Western Division lead in the Western Canada Hockey League.The reason is obvious. Punch McLean&rsquo;s Bruins have constructed an 18-game unbeaten streak which includes 14 wins and four ties. At this writing, the New West wonders had not been defeated since Nov. 2. a period of time which encompassed something like 64 days.What&rsquo;s more, they have yet to lose a decision in the cozy Queen&rsquo;s Park Arena. In 21 starts at home, the Bruins have won 16 times and tied the other five.The secret of New Westminster&rsquo;s success is 19-year-old goaltender Doug Allan; a rambunctious defense led by Ron Greschner and Bob Hess; and an assortment of 100 percenters up front who will play the opposition any way they choose.Allan was not with the Bruins at the start of the regular season. He had stroked the West Coast off his list in favor of the University of North Dakota.A change of heart brought Allan back to the West though, and solved a netminding problem which plagued the Bruins through much of the first month. Allan&rsquo;s performance has been so steady he recently assumed the role as the WCHL&rsquo;s leading netminder with an even 3.00 goals-against average.Greschner&rsquo;s play has been outstanding to say the least. The Bruins captain has led his club offensively all season, and is the highest-scoring defenseman in the WCHL with 24 goals and 38 assists. The 19-year-old reaiguard also quarterbacks the power-play, but is still like a reliable watch-dog in front of the New Westminster goal.Hess is a bit of a surprise along the Bruin blueline. He and Greschner have become twin drain plugs for McLean.&ldquo;Ron has constantly worked at his game in his three seasons here, and he has become the best defenseman in the league as far as I&rsquo;m concerned.&rdquo; says McLean of his star performer. &ldquo;As a rookie, he was nothing but a tough kid with a lot of rough edges. Now he&rsquo;s a complete hockey player.&rdquo;There are different versions of the Bruins&rsquo; recent success, depending on which side of the fence proceedings are viewed. There has been a certain amount of criticism labelled at New West&rsquo;s rough-housing tactics in their own building, and McLean has been fined twice by league president Ed Chynoweth as a result. A couple of Bruins have also been forced to sit out suspensions.While McLean does not deny the strategy, he tends to rationalize it just a bit. &ldquo;Our guys like to play it tough. It&rsquo;s always been a Bruin tradition, dating back to Estevan, not to back away from anyone. But we can play the game. too. you know,&rdquo;No matter how the Bruins are categorized though, their world is a successful one. In New Westminster, winning isn&rsquo;t everything&hellip; it&rsquo;s the only thing, at least for the last 64 days.CALGARY: The Cents continued to struggle and their first-place lead over the Bruins dwindled to three points. .. In three straight losses in Brandon. Regina and Saskatoon, Calgary was outscored 21-6&hellip; But general manager-coach Scotty Munro views the temporary slump as a necessity&hellip; Munro believes that before a club can reach its peak, it must first learn to cope wit had versify&hellip; And Munro considers adversity to be one win in his team&rsquo;s last eight games.MEDICINE HAT: The unpredictable Tigers, who put together four straight wins early in the new year, saw their latest winless streak stretch to six games on a lengthy road trip which started in Saskatoon and ended in Kamloops&hellip; Ed Johnstone has been the hottest commodity in a Tiger uniform with six goals in those six games to reach the 30 mark&hellip; Johnstone leads the league in shorthanded goals with four&hellip; Leftwinger Boyd Anderson has finally caught fire with a pair of two-goal games in a row to pass the 20-goal plateau.EDMONTON: In Edmonton, winning remained an elusive achievement&hellip; The Oil Kings&rsquo; winless string stretched to 12 games with a 6-6 tie against the Hat&hellip; The Kings trailed 5-0 after one period until the big boss. Bill &lsquo;Red&rsquo; Hunter delivered one of his fiery oratories which obviously had an effect on the Kings&hellip; Terry Bucykgotthe key goal, the equalizer in the third period.VICTORIA: Goaltender Jim Foubister made history on the island, recording the first shutout in Cougars&rsquo; two and one-half seasons in the league&hellip; Foubister. a mid-season acquisition from Winnipeg, blocked 35 shots in blanking Medicine Hat 9-0&hellip; Nine different players scored in the victory including 16-year-old Danny Lucas with his first WCHL goal&hellip; A three-game undefeated streak brought the Cougars to within three points of the fourthplace Oil Kings.KAMLOOPS: Randy Andreachuk and Gord Stewart have already set team records for the Chiefs and they still have 24 games remaining in the schedule&hellip; Andreachuk&rsquo;s 35 goals, seven of which have come in the last five games, surpass the 31 goals scored by John Senkpiel last season with the Vancouver Nats, the Chiefs&rsquo; former franchise&hellip; Stewart already has 46 assists. eclipsing his last year&rsquo;s total of 44 also earned with the Nats.REGINA: The redhot Pats have not lost since returning from the Ahearne Cup composition in Sewden&hellip; Five wins and two ties have lifted them back on top of the Eastern Division ladder&hellip; Clark Gillies and Greg Joly have suddenly caught fire&hellip; Gillies registered consecutive hat-tricks in 8-3 and 8-2 wins over Calgary and Brandon&hellip; In fact Gillies has earned 15 points during that seven-game stretch&hellip; Joly, the 19-year-old defenseman. has had three straight three-point nights.SWIFT CURRENT: The Broncos proved once again they can win on the road, splitting four games in Manitoba&hellip; Rookie goaltender Ron Burgess was the stopper in a 5-2 victory in Flin Flon&hellip; Defenseman Stu McLellandand rookie Ian McPhee registered two goals and two assists apiece in a 7-6 victory in Brandon, enabling the Broncos to tie the Pats&hellip; McPhee, who also scored the winner in Flin Flon. reached the 30-goal charmed circle.FUN FLON: The Bombers&rsquo; loss at home to the Broncos was their first since Oct. 14&hellip; The Flins had constructed a 19-game undefeated streak in the Flon&hellip; Tough guy Cam Connor isn&rsquo;t playing like a rookie&hellip; Connor&rsquo;s two goals in an 8-3 win over Swift lifted him past the 30-goal mark&hellip; Brian Arnold. a mid-season acqusition from Kamloops, also had two goals.BRANDON: Rumors out of Brandon insist that the job of general managercoach Rudy Pilous is on the line, but hard-core associates of the league insist they&rsquo;re nothing but rumors&hellip; Pilous club lost three more in a row and suddenly their playoff spot was in jeopardy&hellip; The only bright spot was the line of Ron Chipperfield. Rick Blight and Dale McMullin which continued to score in bunches since their reunification.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0347/3326852-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="553" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOYP ANDERSON&hellip; Finally Breaks Out</figcaption></div>SASKATOON: It was an uphill climb but the Blades finally caught Brandon with a 5-4 victory over the Wheat Kings and a 7-2 triumph over Calgary&hellip; The win over Brandon may well turn out to be the key game of the season, and John Mclvor was the hero&hellip; Mclvor&rsquo;s third game-winning goal of the yeai with less than three minutes remaining produced the win&hellip; Bob Bourne broke an eightgame scoring slump against Calgary with two goals, and Danny Arndt reached the 50-point plateau with three assists.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0269/3326845-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="618" height="1474"></div> &#9632;

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February 8, 1974

AMERICAN LEAGUE

HOCKEY … For Minors

NATIONAL LEAGUE

The Hockey News