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

March 1, 1974

The Hockey News March 1, 1974

<div class="byline">BY GEOFFREY FISHER</div>OAKLAND &mdash;The California Seals have had a common interest this season. It had to do with the coming of the Messiah to deliver them from their miseries.Well, it finally happened and the National Hockey League, which has taken over the troubled Californians. is hoping that while all that glitters is not gold, there is a good deal of gold among the young Seals that will start glittering under new management.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01306/3622625-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="300" height="486"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marshall Johnston</figcaption></div>The NHL stepped in to completely change the face of the last-place Seals with a major facelift at the management level.The Seals have a new president, coach and director of player personnel.Munson Campbell, a one-time friend of former owner Charles O. Finley, and now a New York marketing consultant, is the new president of the Seals. Veteran defenseman Marshall Johnston has quit playing to become coach replacing Fred Glover, who has resigned both as vice-president and coach of the Californians.Former Seals&rsquo; GM Garry Young was installed as director of player personnel. Both Young and Campbell were ousted by Finley during his 3 &frac12; years as owner of the club.The most surprising news was Glover&rsquo;s reluctance to accept another position with the Seals. He said he preferred to take the contract settlement, which was to his satisfaction.The major task facing Campbell. Young and Johnston, is the rebuilding of the club. It will become top priority. The Seals were hardest hit by WHA raiding but there still remains some very attractive nuggets available for trade should trading be the direction the new regime elects to go.Among the most visible are Joey Johnston, the club scoring leader who had 22 goals and 27 assists as of mid-February: Walt McKechnie with 18 goals and 25 assists: Ivan Boldirev, whose development in recent weeks has been little short of spectacular: Reggie Leach, whom hockey experts agree has the potential for massive goal production: Hilliard Graves, who in his freshman year last season was top candidate for rookie of the year. On the defense there is Bob Stewart, sidelined much of this campaign because of an injury, who has the credentials for stardom on anyone&rsquo;s blueline.Then there are some Seals who have given plenty of evidence of their ability to sparkle in action. They include Ted McAneeley, a solid, quick-reacting defenseman: Barry Cummins, a hard rock on the blueline who logged 190 minutes in penalty time with the Seals&rsquo; Salt Lake City affiliate a year ago.And there is Ron Huston, the 29-year-old rookie who was summoned from Salt Lake in early February when a series of injuries devastated the Seals&rsquo; ranks. Huston, who scored 42 goals and won the Western Hockey League rookie of the year award last season, made a spectacular NHL debut by notching two goals and three assists in his first four games.Did he find the transition to the major leagues about the way he expected it to be?&ldquo;Not so.&rdquo; said Huston, a solidly built 190-pound center. &ldquo;I always had the idea the NHL would be a lot tougher to play in than I found it to be.&rdquo;There is no question that the Seals they want to do so only if strong ownership. acts to strengthen the club and have the nucleus of a playoff-contender that needs only to be braced with the addition of a capable veteran or two and some more muscle.Presumably every player on the club is negotiable in order to strengthen the weaknesses, but goalie Gilles Meloche. generally considered to be the &ldquo;key&rdquo; to the Seals franchise, would be an untouchable.Morale has been very low among the players for several months as word was anxiously awaited that owner Charles O. Finley would bail out. The absence of leadership from the very top has had a disastrous effect on the club. Many of the players are anxious to remain in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area. But promote the game of ice hockey in the Bay Area.Among the most outspoken are Walt McKechnie and Reggie Leach.&ldquo;If this club is to get out of the mess it in. there will have to be some changes. If was to be traded I wouldn&rsquo;t complain. That&rsquo;s part of the business we are in and there is no other way to remedy what&rsquo;s wrong with this club than to make changes.&rdquo; says McKechnie.&ldquo;I know I can score goals and play a lot better than I have been playing,&rdquo; says Leach. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just too tough to be mentally prepared for the game when you don&rsquo;t even know who you are working for.&rdquo;Last season he scored 23. As of mid-February this campaign he had 13.&ldquo;I have not had the motivation need to be at my best.&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If we had an owner who cared and some help at a few positions. I&rsquo;m sure we would be a good hockey club. There are a lot of good hockey players with the Seal who have not played up to their ability.&rdquo;McKechnie and Leach reflect the attitude of most of the players in the Seals&rsquo; igloo. They want the chance to show their loyal fans and the rest of the NHL what they can do. But they await the help they need to do it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02240/3622618-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="556" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">WALT McKECHNIE &hellip; Would Welcome Trade</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Glover Out As NHL Takes Over

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;For the second time this season, an ECAC Division One head has received his Walking papers and been replaced by a young Boston University graduate moving up from the position of assistant.In December it was Leon Abbott, booted out of BU and succeeded by Jack Parker. Now it&rsquo;s Brown&rsquo;s Allan Soares, fired in favor of interim coach Dick Toomey, who would also remain as frosh coach.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0476/3623538-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="281" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body">Allan Soares</figcaption></div>The statement released by Andy Geiger, Brown&rsquo;s athletic director, explains that Soares was dismissed for his failure to control his players aggressive tendencies. The culmination was Brown&rsquo;s 6-1 loss at Harvard wherein two Harvard players required stitches and a third was knocked out by a high stick.Bruin Dick Gamble conked Kevin Burke in the last minute and recieved a game misconduct. Soares suspended him indefinitely, but was bounced himself the next day by Geiger, who attended the game.Geiger stated that he didn&rsquo;t base his decision on the team&rsquo;s won-lost record, a 5-10 overall and 3&rsquo;8 ECAC Division One mark. Rather, it was the &ldquo;degeneration of conduct of our players and the atmosphere surrounding our hockey program. The program is not meeting the criterion that intercollegiate athletics should be a positive part of the educational experience at Brown.&rdquo;Soares wasn&rsquo;t available for comment, but it was hinted by a source close to him that he would make public statement later after ironing out some contractual matters.This has been a disappointing year for Brown, whose three wins have been difficult ones &mdash; a 3-0 shutout at Boston College, 6-3 over top ranked New Hampshire and 6-4 over Cornell at home. Undoubtedly, the record should be better, and this is probably why Soares got the axe.Similar criticism was leveled at a Soares team once before. In a playoff game at Harvard, which the Crimson won 4-3, Harvard&rsquo;s Joe Cavanagh accused Brown&rsquo;s John Bennett of deliberately cutting him with a stick. Feelings ran high, but nothing more was said after a day or two.That was Soares&rsquo; first year at the helm when Brown, depleted by graduation, was the surprise of the East with fifth place play off seed. This year is the third straight losing campaign since, which puts the coach in a somewhat different position regarding his overall team direction.In short. Soares wasn&rsquo;t doing well enough to suit the school, which probably views thuggery by some players as an excuse to release the coach. Brown has always been a physical crew, but then again the emphasis has never been on a non-contact, skate and score game at the Providence school.Granted, there&rsquo;s no excuse for butchery on the ice. which sometimes happens with mediocre teams when games become too one-sided. In this 6-1 game, in which Brown only managed 10 shots on goal, the meat cleavers were out and swinging. Soares should be held responsible for it, and he acknowledged his failure to control the players in that one game when he said afterwards. &ldquo;I was disgusted; there was no way I wanted our guys to use their sticks like that.&rdquo;Elsewhere in the ECAC Division One race. New Hampshire lengthened its lead on the pack with three wins that upped the Wildcats&rsquo; record to 13-2 and an almost certain Number One seed in the playoffs. UNH nipped Clarkson 3-2 and. Penn 3-1 on the road, sandwiching a 7-2 romp over Providence at home which featured a hat trick by Cliff Cox.Boston University kept pace with a 6-1 openign round win in the Beanpot Tournement. In the other round one game, returned from exams and blasted Boston College with a 54 shot assault on Ned Yetten that wound up 11-6. Harvard followed up with the 6-1 Brown win and a 5-4 squeaker at Princeton to vault to third place with a 9-5 slate.Providence and Dartmouth displayed some reluctance to wander the airy heights of the division&rsquo;s top echelons, as both lost a pair of contests. PC lost at UNH, then fell the next night to North eastern 7-4 at home as Jim Martel pumped in three goals for the Huskies. Dartmouth inched out to a 3-0 lead at Boston College, and saw BC&rsquo;s top goalie Yetten leave the game with knee miseries. But Bill Wilkens blanked the Green in the third frame and the Eagles eked out a 4-3 decision with Mark Albrecht potting the winner past Chuck Walker. At Hanover the following Saturday, Cornell followed defenseman George Kuzmicz&rsquo; hat trick out to 5-2 lead, but had to get a rebound goal by Gord McCormick to win in overtime.Colgate virtually ended Penn&rsquo;s hopes for the playoffs with a 5-3 win in Hamilton sparked by Joe Cyr&rsquo;s hat trick. RPI slid a few notches with twin losses in the North Country, bowing 5-1 at Clarkson and 6-3 at St. Lawrence. Syl Larose held the Engineers at bay with 19 stops in the first period at Potsdam. Larose ended up with 33 saves to Don Cutts&rsquo; 34 as the Knights got cracking in the second period despite having to kill three penalties.<h2>COLLEGE HOCKEY SCENE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01159/3623531-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="607" height="606"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><h4>DIVISION</h4>Boston Univ 6. Northeastern 1Harvard 11, Boston College 6New Hampshire 3. Clarkson 2Harvard 6. Brown 1Colgate 5, Penn 3Boston College 4. Dartmouth 8New Hampshire 7, Providence 2Clarkson 5, RPI 1Northeastern 7, Providence 4Harvard 5. Princeton 4Cornell 6. Dartmouth 5New Hampshire 3. Penn 1St. Lawrence 6, RPI 3<h4>DIVISION II</h4>Bowdom 4, Middlebury 2Framingham State 7, Nichols 6Trinity 9. MIT 1Hamilton 8. Wesleyan 3Colby 5. Lowell Tech 5Suffolk 9. Grahm 0Buffalo 9. AIC 8Vermont 6, Connecticut 2Lowell Tech 8. Salem State 6Nichols 3. North Adams 3Babson 6. New Haven 2Boston State 5. Norwich 4Merrimack 5. Bowdoin 4AIC 6. New England 2Framingham 6. Nasson 5Vermont 4. Massachusetts 2Portland-Gorham 7, Plymouth 6Tufts 4. MIT 3Connecticut 4. Wesleyan 3Salem State 6. New Haven 4Merrimack A, Colby 1Plymouth 7, MIT 1<h4>NON-DIVISIONAL GAMES</h4>Yale 6, Massachusetts 1Colgate 9. Oswego 4Queen 7, St. Lawrence 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02123/3623524-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="596" height="392"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Michigan 5. Michigan Tech 4Michigan 4. Michigan Tech 3Denver 4, North Dakota 1Denver 8. North Dakota 2Wisconsin 3. Minnesota 3Wisconsin 4. Minnesota 4Notre Dame 8. Michigan State 3Michigan State 4, Notre Dame 2Colorado College 8, Minn-Duluth 5Minn-Duluth 8, Colorado College 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0392/3623517-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="595" height="574"></div> &#9632;

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Brown Drops Soares For ‘Failing To Control Players’

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05571/3621743-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg"></div><h2>Young Ice Fan Says Fighting For Birds</h2>I read a letter in your Jan. 11 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS. It was in response to a letter in the Dec. 7 issue that read, fighting in professional hockey should have a two game suspension. It also read, that fighting was a bad influence on children. I&rsquo;m 11 and go to school where the only thing they know about hockey is the fights.The letter in the Jan. 11 issue said that fighting is part of the excitement of pro hockey.I&rsquo;d just like to say that fighting has nothing to do with hockey and anyone who thinks fighting is part of the excitement of pro hockey is pretty darn crazy!CHARLIE KOVACH,Chula Vista, Calif.<h2>Hawks Now No. 2 To Philly&rsquo;s Flyers</h2>I&rsquo;m just plain tired of Billy Reay. He criticizes Schultz and Saleski. He&rsquo;s envious of Bernie Parent, because Parent shows that Tony Esposito is really not the best thing ever to happen to goaltending. By the way, that&rsquo;s Bernie-0, not Tony-0. &ldquo;Stan the Swan&rdquo; is giving way to &ldquo;Bobby the Brilliant&rdquo; (Clarke) for the position of best center in the west division.Could it be fear, one asks? For so many years Chicago has had no contender for first place in the west. Now, the first time a serious challenger presents itself, the Hawks become terrific at playing second fiddle. Considering them in relation to the rest of the NHL (divisions aside) Chicago has been a second, even third place team all along. Look at all the times this season that Chicago has had a chance to tie or go ahead of the Flyers. In games between the Flyers and Chicago, the Flyers have 5 out of 6 possible points. When the Flyers have had to win, they have; when Chicago has had to win, they couldn&rsquo;t. That&rsquo;s been the big difference. Reay can say whatever he wants &mdash; but its all there in black and white (and orange).Young Ice Fan Says Fighting For BirdsCHERYL ADAMS,Glenolden, Pa.<h2>Merger Would Hurt WHA Fans More</h2>Being a season ticket holder of the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA, I&rsquo;m against a merger with the NHL.The reason for this is that it will deprive our teams of a chance of getting the top stars of hockey, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, J.C. Tremblay, Pat Stapleton, Gerry Cheevers and many more. The teams in our league will only be able to draft untried and often highly overrated juniors.We don&rsquo;t have to suffer through continuous losing seasons such as the fans of the Vancouver Canucks and New York Islanders have been and will keep doing for years to come.KEITH FOX,Winnipeg, Man.<h2>NHL Never Was Balanced League</h2>I&rsquo;m tired of letters being the lack of parity between the teams in the NHL.It sounds like some people think that the expansion teams ought to be dominating the post-season playoffs. They ought to take a look at the NHL in the 25 years prior to the 1967-68 seasons. Chicago Black Hawks won just one Stanley Cup. Boston Bruins and New York Rangers didn&rsquo;t win it once.The NHL wasn&rsquo;t a balanced league before expansion, why should it suddenly be one now?STAN BYRD,Mississipi State Univ.<h2>Seals&rsquo; McKay Finally Gets Chance</h2>I have been a fan of Ray McKay&rsquo;s since the days he was with Chicago. He&rsquo;s got to be the nicest, most courteous guy in the NHL &mdash; also the most overlooked.He works so hard and sure has helped the Seals&rsquo; defense. He&rsquo;s the most reliable and steadiest defenseman they have.Until this year, he never was given a fair chance to play in the NHL. He&rsquo;s proving himself now. Ray sure deserved the Eddie Shore award that he won last year in the AHL.Although he&rsquo;s overlooked by the press, he&rsquo;s my favorite player and I wish him all the best.GREG PERNELL,Chicago, III.<h2>Rebuttal To Fans&rsquo; Anti-WHA Blast</h2>Week after week, I read Fan Forum letters on how the WHA has ripped into the NHL and their fans. Bob Showger&rsquo;s letter put the icing on the cake. He says the players care only about money, ticket prices are too high, players jump leagues when angered, and the WHA has illegally raided the junior ranks. I have no opinion either way on the junior raidings, but the WHA has done two positive things: one, it has exposed fans to major league hockey in minor league areas, and two, given a new life to players who were bogged down in the minors of the NHL.Living in Cleveland, I never had the chance to see major league hockey because we supported the Barons of the AHL (North Star minors), but now we have the Crusaders. Next season Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati enter the picture, all present minor league cities with the exception of Indianapolis.As for the players, many will say Gerry Cheevers is the Crusaders. Farfrom true. Bob Whidden was stuck in the AHL until rescued. Gary Jarrett, Paul Shmyr, and Gerry Pinder were unfortunately associated with Charley Finley. Who can leave out Norm Beaudin, Jim Harrison, Terry Ball, Mike Curran, Tim Sheehy, and Mr. Hockey, Bobby Hull. The Golden Jet may be old, but couldn&rsquo;t the Hawks use him? Do you, Mr. Showger, think the NHL would do less if they were in the WHA&rsquo;s position? Who is kidding who?DAVE COVERT,Mape Heights, O. &#9632;

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WHERE YOUR OPINION COUNTS FAN FORUM

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04388/3622202-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01726/3622195-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="632" height="4283"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02624/3622188-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="634" height="4064"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03499/3622181-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="633" height="2743"></div> &#9632;

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National Hockey League Scoring By Teams

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01618/3623824-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey News Photo by Robert Shaver</figcaption></div>NHL COACHING TURNOVER RUNS HIGH &mdash; PAGE 14GILLES VILLEMURE His Return To Net Lifts Rangers&rsquo; Hopes &mdash; Page 2CHICAGO&rsquo;S PHIL RUSSELL HEADED FOR NHL STARDOM &hellip; BUT HE&rsquo;S STILL LEARNING &mdash; Page 3NHL TRADERS STAGGERING, REACH 16 FOR SEASON &mdash; Page 15WHA CHIEF DENNIS | MURPHY SEES DREAM CULMINATING IN SUCCESS &mdash; Page 24NEW KINGS PUT L.A. BACK IN PLAYOFF STRUGGLE &mdash; Page 22 &#9632;

Cover-01

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01898/3621574-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="583" height="1330"><figcaption class="caption-body">GILLES VILLEMURE &hellip;Back On Beam</figcaption></div>NEW YORK &mdash;Two opposition coaches summed up the Rangers Feb. 9-10 weekend. Scotty Bowman of Montreal said, &ldquo;New York was full value for a two goal lead in the first period, but we got a blue line goal from Jim Roberts and they stopped skating in the second period. We can&rsquo;t play much better than we did. It was our best game in the last 15.&rdquo;Bowman was talking of the Rangers 7-2 loss to Les Canadiens Feb. 9. Emile Francis, the Rangers&rsquo; coach agreed. saying, &ldquo;It was our worst game in the 12 since 1 returned as coach. We gave them three of their first four goals with mistakes and you can&rsquo;t do that with Montreal. But I&rsquo;ll take one bad one in 12, although it was a big game for both teams. They have a couple of games in hand on us and it will make it very difficult for us to catch them in the battle for second place.&rdquo;Jean-Guy Talbot, referring to New York&rsquo;s 4-2 win over St. Louis the next night, commented, &ldquo;Gilles Villemure was there whenever we got a close in chance. He beat John Wright in the first period and Lou Angotti on a breakaway. He was the difference.&rdquo;Villemure&rsquo;s performance was amazing under the circumstances that this Dec. 16 for the stocky, puck blocker was his first game sime. He had suffered a bad case of flu and bronchitis at Atlanta Nov. 9 and then was put out of action on Dec. 16 in a collision with Dennis Hull. That one damaged a knee ligament. All told, he has appeared in 11 games.&ldquo;It was good to be back and to win.&rdquo; said Gilles. &ldquo;My reflexes are still off. but I played stand up goal and I was able to kick pretty well.&rdquo;Ted Irvine circled the net and beat John Davidson to the post with his 21st goal of the season, a new high for Teddy. And Jerry Butler, ever hustling, continues to win friends and fan approval for his job on the Pete Stemkowski line during Bruce MacGregor&rsquo;s injury.The Rangers loss in Montreal hurt, especially the mistakes. Jim Neilson, who has played very steadily this season, got trapped on one goal and Yvan Cournoyer stole the puck from Gilles Marotte on another. New York has not beaten Montreal since the playoffs of 1971-72, but as Francis reminds, &ldquo;we took them three in a row in the Forum then and knocked them out.&rdquo;With the Rangers now on their last road trip of the season (four games at Philadelphia, Vancouver, Los Angeles and California) Villemure hopes to &ldquo;get back in the goalie rotation and get sharp.&rdquo;Francis agrees and hopes to have Gilles really ready for the stretch drive after March 1. Speaking of Neilson. Villemure noted. &ldquo;He stops shots, clears the puck and takes his man out. I like having him back there. When he stopped Slats Sather&rsquo;s shot with his face (in the St. Louis game) notice how the fans got upset. We all thought it was worse than it was. He is very underrated.&rdquo;Neilson did indeed stop a Sather shot and went down like he had been shot. But The Chief recovered quickly and returned to action.Francis noted. &ldquo;Jimmy has been playing well in the last 13 games (since the Cat returned). He&rsquo;s moving the puck better than he had been doing. You notice he got our insurance goal. Right now he is playing just about as good as a blue liner can.&rdquo;The Chiefs main comment over all the fuss directed his way was a needle at Sather, his former teammate. &ldquo;I was lucky it was Sather who hit me. As it was I couldn&rsquo;t open my jaw for 10 minutes.Rod Gilbert was honored with the key to New York City in ceremonies at City Hall on Feb. 11, at which time he revealed his engagement to Judy Preston, a native of Talahassee, Florida. She is an airline stewardess and is 26.Gilbert romantically said, &ldquo;I will use they key to open my fiancee&rsquo;s heart, although it is already open.&rdquo;BLUE CHIPS: Ted Irvine now has five game winning goals, tops on the Rangers&hellip; Jean Ratelie notched his 400th NHL assist with a beautiful pass to Vic Hadfield on Feb. 10&hellip; Eddie Giacomin played 13 straight games, the longest for a Ranger goaler since 1969-70. He played the Montreal game with a badly strained neck&hellip; Ron Harris is still out with a knee injury&hellip; With a five game layover between the Vancouver and Los Angeles games Emile Francis stashed the Blue shirts away in Colorado Springs, Colorado&hellip; Hadfield&rsquo;s goal versus the Blues was his 256th, tying him for fourth place on the Rangers all time list with Camille Henry&hellip; Bill Fairbairn ended an 11 game scoring slump against the Blues, but tough Billy had 12 assists in the previous 12 games. &#9632;

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Villemure’s Return To Rangers Boosts Hopes For Stretch Drive

<h2>NHL Teams</h2>Atlanta &hellip; 40Boston &hellip; 9Buffalo &hellip; 6California &hellip; 23Chicago &hellip; 3Detroit &hellip; 21Los Angeles &hellip; 22Minnesota &hellip; 8Montreal &hellip; 17N.Y. Islanders &hellip; 12N.Y. Rangers &hellip; 2Philadelphia &hellip; 10Pittsburgh &hellip; 10St. Louis &hellip; 13Toronto &hellip; 11Vancouver &hellip; 18<h2>Other Leagues</h2>World Hockey &hellip; 24American &hellip; 27Western &hellip; 30Central &hellip; 32International &hellip; 34Southern &hellip; 35North American &hellip; 36Colleges &hellip; 37OHA &hellip; 38Western Canada &hellip; 39<h2>Columnists</h2>Ken McKenzie &hellip; 4Bill Libby &hellip; 8<h2>Other Features</h2>Fan Forum &hellip; 4Player Moves &hellip; 6Cartoon Corner &hellip; 9Crossword &hellip; 29Hockey Tips &hellip; 39Jr. Jottings &hellip; 39 &#9632;

WHERE YOU’LL FIND IT ALL

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01902/3621636-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="571" height="1510"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Peter WoolleyPHIL RUSSELL&hellip;A Good One</figcaption></div>CHICAGO&mdash;It&rsquo;s been a good year for Phil Russell although, with this stem competitor good is seldom good enough.Rare is the day when Phil Russell is entirely satisfied with Phil Russell. And Year Two on the Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; blueline provided numerous awakenings, the rudest being the inalienable fact that he is no longer a kid.&ldquo;The mistakes you make as a rookie aren&rsquo;t overlooked when you&rsquo;re a year older,&rdquo; he noticed. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re just mistakes, period. You hear that a lot. but it really is true. I found out this year that I&rsquo;ve got a lot to learn. Like that game in November against Montreal when I kept giving them the puck. It&rsquo;s the worst I&rsquo;ve ever played.&ldquo;And I think I may be a little better player because I&rsquo;m a little smarter. I know I can&rsquo;t always carry the puck out myself like in junior hockey. 1 have to pick my spots. If the wing men are being checked, and the defense is up on the center, then you go. There&rsquo;s a system here, and you have to follow it.&rdquo;With the National Hockey League season moving into mid-February, there was one habit the Hawks were not following. Finishing first. That, more than any personal inconsistencies, rankled Russell, who has winning corpuscles in his bloodstream.&ldquo;I am really disappointed at that,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I know when we were on top of the division last year. I was a helluva lot happier. I still think we&rsquo;ll do it this season, and maybe it will be even sweeter if we make it just at the end.&rdquo;Statistically, Russell is enjoying a good winter. The goals and assists are up. and his plus-27 for the first half of the year was second only to Bill White&rsquo;s plus-29 on the Chicagoans. The figure indicates how many of his team&rsquo;s goals a player is on the ice for compared with opponents&rsquo; goals.All of Russell&rsquo;s numbers, however, don&rsquo;t necessarily add up to a banner year in coach Billy Reay&rsquo;s mind. As most Hawk observers, he expects the young rearguard to be nothing short of a star.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Like Most Hawk Observes Bill Reay Expects Phil Russell To Be Nothing Short Of A Star</blockquote>&ldquo;Lately he has been playing better,&rdquo; said the bossman. &ldquo;But he had been making a lot of mistakes before, and circling around with the puck. I don&rsquo;t mind him carrying it &mdash; he&rsquo;s good at that &mdash; as long as he goes straight through with it.&ldquo;His plus-minus figure is good; but don&rsquo;t forget that we haven&rsquo;t used him much in penalty situations. Even though powerplay and shorthanded that twinge of insecurity.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d hate to be traded,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 think I&rsquo;d rather go back home to Edmonton than some place like Pittsburgh. I really like Chicago. It&rsquo;s a big city, and last year at the start maybe 1 was a little bit awed by everything.&ldquo;But the people are terrific and I can&rsquo;t remember ever being on a team where I liked everyone like I do here. It&rsquo;s different as a junior. There you&rsquo;re always out trying to win. but you&rsquo;re also competing against one another because you want to be drafted ahead of the next guy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02770/3621629-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="585" height="1463"></div>&ldquo;Here, you still have individual goals, but still the main thing is to all go out every night and get a victory. There&rsquo;s competition to a point, but not like it is when you&rsquo;re a junior.&rdquo;PARTING SHOTS: Stan Mikita collected his sixteenth career hat trick Feb. 10 when the Hawks downed the Pittsburgh Penguins in Chicago 5-3&hellip; It marked the resurgence of Mikita&rsquo;s line, which features Cliff Koroll at right wing and John Marks on the left side. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t scoring much for a while there,&rdquo; said Mikita. &ldquo;and maybe we all started feeling sorry for ourselves. In the All Star game with Bob Berry and Garry Unger on my wings, they did a lot of forechecking and working for the puck in the comers. It worked pretty well. I was left freer in the middle and had better shots. So John. Cliff and I had a little talk and made it a point to have two guys going in and one lay back a little. As a result, we&rsquo;re all getting better scoring chances.&rdquo;&hellip; Goalie Tony Esposito&rsquo;s forty-third career shutout against Atlanta Feb. 8,3-0, tied him with Minnesota&rsquo;s Gump Worsley for second place among active goals. Ranger Ed Giacomin leads with 46 blanks. &#9632;

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AFTER TWO YEARS IN THE NHL…PHIL RUSSELL FIGURES HE’S STILL LEARNING

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01954/3621688-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="458" height="463"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02910/3621681-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="325" height="477"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Orr</figcaption></div>&bull; CHINESE AUTHORITIES have rejected a proposal that Bobby Orr and six other NHL players visit Peking this summer to run a hockey clinic. No specific reason was given for the rejection&hellip; If you&rsquo;ve looked at the WHA scoring lists, you&rsquo;ll notice Gordie Howe is closing in on scoring leader Wayne Carleton and was within five points of the lead at last look&hellip; Robert Dextraze, executive director of the North American Hockey League, says the new league is hoping to expand into Canada. Montreal and Trois-Rivieres. Quebec were two cities mentioned&hellip; Jack Gordon. who resigned as Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; coach in November, has been a busy man ever since. In addition to helping oversee the minor league operation at New Haven. Gordon has done a lot of scouting. In one week he saw in Oakland, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Vancouver&hellip; &ldquo;The Derek Sanderson Nobody Knows.&rdquo; a book by Gerald Eskenazi. recently hit the book stands. Sanderson reveals the true story of his brief, but profitable, affair with the WHA&hellip; Michel Plasse of the Montreal Canadiens says he doesn&rsquo;t want to be traded, despite his lack of playing time. &ldquo;My friends and family are here. I&rsquo;m happy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But you never know. The Canadians&rsquo; goaltenders don&rsquo;t stay around long. Vachon, Myre. Dryden. They weren&rsquo;t here too long.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03805/3621674-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="286" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Borje Salming</figcaption></div>&bull; PLAYERS IN THE WHA are upset over playing conditions at the Cherry Hill Arena in New Jersey. Besides performing for crowds of less than 1,000. players must put up with poor ice. Gilles Gratton of the Toronto Toros had his skates ruined by the poor ice recently&hellip; Concern over a bruised tendon on Bernie Parent&rsquo;s catching hand had alarmed the Philadelphia Flyers for a while, but now it appears no surgery will be needed until after the season. The Flyers tape Parent&rsquo;s gloveshut in practice to cut down on the chance of aggravating the injury&hellip; Emile Fran cis, coach and general manager of the New York Rangers, says Gump Worsley is a great authority on goaltending. &ldquo;If a young goaltender wanted to be pointed in the right direction. he could do himself a lot of good by spending some time with Gump and find out what goaltending is all about,&rdquo; Francis said&hellip; Ivan Mullenix, owner of the Denver Spurs, says Franhes confident the Western Hockey League club will be in the NHL within three years. Mullenix says he expects an announcement from NHL headquarters within 60 days&hellip; Borje Salming, the Leafs&rdquo; highly rated rookie from Sweden, says his decision to come to the NHL was based on economics. &ldquo;I played for the Brynas team in the top league and was on the national team, but I had to have a job as a machinist to make a living, he recalled. &ldquo;Coming to the Maple Leafs gave me a chance to do what I like best and earn good money.&rsquo;&hellip; Vancouver Canucks, in an attempt to convince Fred O&rsquo;Donnell to join the team, placed an ad in a Boston paper. The ad read. &ldquo;Fred O&rsquo;Donnell: Try us&hellip; you might like us.&rdquo; The ad was signed by Vancouver general manager Phil Maloney. O&rsquo;Donnell was traded to the Canucks last week by Boston, but has yet to report&hellip; The trade of Gene Can&rsquo; from the New York Rangers to Los Angeles made the young center very happy. He had spent a frustrating season on the bench with the Rangers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04703/3621667-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="275" height="451"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Schultz</figcaption></div>&bull; LOOK FOR the Minnesota North Stars to leave some of their veteran players unprotected in the June expansion draft. General manager Wren Blair has indicated he will protect several of his younger players at New Haven. Those expected to be protected instead include Steve West. Terry Holbrook. Chris Ahrens. Rod Norrish and Jerry Byers. First year pros are not subject to the draft&hellip; Dave Schultz of the Philadelphia Flyers is proving that his talents go beyond fighting. Schultz scored 13 goals in a 19-game stretch and went 28 games without a goal being scored against the Flyers while he was on the ice&hellip; The Quebec City Pee Wee Hockey Tournament is drawing its usual large crowds. One game saw Brantford. Ont. pummel Dallas, Texas 25-0 with the Dallas goalie quitting half way through the game &ldquo;He has never seen a puck come that fast,&rdquo; his coach said. &ldquo;He was terrified&rdquo;&hellip; Amongst all the talk of Calder Trophy candidates, the Boston Bruins have come up with a surprise candidate &mdash; he&rsquo;s 36-year-old Ross Brooks. The Bruin netminder played only 16 NHL games prior to this season&hellip; The youngest hockey columnist in the world is 15-year-old Barry Blitt of Montreal. Barry publishes his own newspaper, which he sells for five cents, writes a column on hockey for a Canadian bank newsletter, sells his own advertising, takes pictures and draws caricatures&hellip; Fred Shero, coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, says that the New York Rangers are the best team in the NHL East. Shero says that the team lacks motivation because few of the players live in New York&hellip;. Eddie Shack, the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; entertaining forward, is starting to earn a lot of money in endorsements. One company will start production of &ldquo;Clear the track, here comes Shack&rdquo; lunch pails. Eddie is also speaking at - trust companies in Ontario, giving tips on inspiration&hellip; The Leafs are interested in regaining the services of center Jim Harrison, now with the WHA Edmonton Oilers. Harrison claims he won&rsquo;t play any more for the Oilers and Leafs&rsquo; president Harold Ballard says he&rsquo;s interested in getting &ldquo;a forward who isn&rsquo;t afraid to hit.&rdquo; Harrison&rsquo;s NHL rights still belong to the Leafs. &#9632;

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PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Upon returning from their final three-game road trip to the West Coast &mdash; another disaster &mdash; nine points out of fourth place in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s East Division, the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; chances of repeating as a playoff team looked slim, indeed.The Toronto Maple Leafs, with a game in hand, were nine points ahead of Buffalo and had a more favorable schedule.Not only did the Sabres lose two of their three games on the western trip, and by one-sided scores, they incurred yet another injury. Don Luce, probably the best all around two-way player on the club and a regular penalty-killer, was sent back to Buffalo before the end of the trip for treatment of a knee injury.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-01986/3621805-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="285" height="443"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Martin</figcaption></div>Luce was hurt in the 5-1 loss to Los Angeles that opened the three-game journey. When he sat out the 7-2 victory over the California Golden Seals two nights later, it marked the first time the lanky center missed a game since joining the Sabres before the 1971-72 season. Luce played 209 consecutive games.The Sabres concluded their trip with a 5-2 loss to the Canucks in their straight winless visit to Vancouver.Injuries and illness certainly kept the Sabres from playing the hockey their followers expected this season. Gil Perreault, their superstar, missed 22 games because of a broken leg and after he came back he wasn&rsquo;t moving with his usual facility.Defenseman Jim Schoenfeld and right winger Larry Mickey, who supplied most of the muscle the Sabres showed in 1972-73, were sidelined most of the season.And Roger Crozier, the acrobatic little goaltender who did such outstanding work the Sabres&rsquo; first three years, played hardly at all, hospitalized for the third time since training camp when the club headed west, he had played only 615 minutes in 12 games.Dave Dryden did a great job of holding the Sabres in contention for a while, but playing nearly every game he apparently tired. At any rate, Dave lost some of his sharpness and the goaltending was less than topflight as the Sabres went through a period where they won only two of 11 games.Rocky Farr, called up from Cincinnati when Crozier was given a four-week leave of absence before his third trip to the hospital, was the goaltender in one of those two victories, the 7-2 win over California. It was Rocky&rsquo;s third start of the season for the Sabres.He was the loser next time out, however, in Vancouver.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02766/3621798-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="559" height="967"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON LUCE &hellip;Streak Snapped</figcaption></div>ICE CHIPS: Although the Sabres weren&rsquo;t doing much winning, Rick Martin kept on scoring. He registered his 38th goal against Vancouver&hellip; The French Connection, which wasn&rsquo;t producing in its usual style, was broken up briefly at the start of the western trip but was reunited in time to come through with four goals and eight points in Oakland. Perreault had two goals and two assists for his first four-point game of the season&hellip; That victory was Buffalo&rsquo;s first after eight straight winless visits to the home of the Golden Seals. It was only Buffalo&rsquo;s second victory ever in Oakland. &#9632;

f0006-01

Sabres Losing Playoff Fight To Leafs

Following are the latest player movements in Hockey:<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>ST. LOUIS &mdash; Bryan Watson, and Jean Hamel, defensemen, and Chris Evans, forward, traded to Detroit in exchange for Ted Harris, defenseman. Bill Collins and Ace Bailey, forwards. Glen Patrick, defensemen, recalled from Denver of WHL. Lou Angotti, forward, placed on voluntary retired list to become coach of NHL Blues.DETROIT&mdash;Mike Korney, defenseman, assigned to Virginia of AHL. Tim McQuiston, goalkeeper, recalled from London Lions and assigned to Flint of IHL on loan.CALIFORNIA&mdash;Marshall Johnston, defenseman, placed on voluntary retired list to become coach of NHL Seals. Brent Meeke, defenseman, and Lyle Bradley forward, recalled from Salt Lake of WHL. Steve Hull, forward, recalled from Charlotte of SHL. Paul Tantardini defenseman, returned to Charlotte.BOSTON &mdash; Ken Broderick, goalkeeper, assigned to San Diego of WHL. for two-week conditioning period. Dave Hynes, forward, returned to Boston Braves of AHL.ATLANTA &mdash; Don Martineau, forward, returned to Omaha of CHL.N.Y. ISLANDERS &mdash; Tom Miller, forward, assigned to Fort Worth of CHL. Derek Kuntz, forward, recalled from Macon of SHL and reassigned to Cape Cod of NAHL.LOS ANGELES &mdash; John Van Horlick, defenseman, recalled from, Springfield of AHL and reassigned, to Portland of WHL.Jim Atamanenko, defenseman, recalled from Portland and assigned to Springfield as replacement.N.Y. RANGERS &mdash; Gene Carr, forward, traded to Los Angeles in exchange for future considerations.MONTREAL &mdash; Bob Gainey, forward, assigned to Nova Scotia of, AHL for two-week conditioning, period.<h2>WORLD HOCKEY ASSN.</h2>CLEVELAND &mdash; Bill Young and Ted Hodgson, forwards, traded to Los Angeles in return for Ron Ward, forward, and other considerations.CHICAGO &mdash; Curt Brackenbury, forward, recalled from Long Island of NAHL.QUEBEC &mdash; Dave Balon, forward, assigned to Broome of NAHL.JERSEY &mdash; Bob Winograd, defenseman, assigned to Greensboro of SHL.VANCOUVER &mdash; Les Jackson, forward, assigned to Roanoke Valley of SHL.NEW ENGLAND &mdash; Guy Smith, defenseman, placed on voluntary retired list to return in college.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON &mdash; Don Craig, defenseman, completed 5-game pro trial and was returned to Cape Cod of NAHL. Pat Flaherty, goalkeeper, recalled from Dayton of IHL.SPRINGFIELD &mdash; Doug Volmar, forward, traded to Richmond of AHL in exchange for Roger Pelletier, defenseman, and undisclosed amount of cash.BALTIMORE &mdash; Bob McMahon, defenseman, recalled from Muskegon of IHL.PROVIDENCE &mdash; Wayne Wood, goalkeeper, returned to Albuquerque of CHL. Ron Fogal, defenseman, assigned to Cape Cod of NAHL on loan.ROCHESTER &mdash; Francis Ouimet, defenseman, sent to Denver of WHL.<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>PHOENIX &mdash; Dave Hainsworth, goalkeeper, assigned to Albuquerque of CHL on loan.DENVER &mdash; Gary Gresdal, defenseman, sent to Columbus of IHL on loan.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>TULSA &mdash; Phil Branston, defenseman, and Cam Fryer, forward, recalled from Johnstown of NAHL. Fryer is replacement for Lyle Moffat, forward, who is out for season with injury.FORT WORTH &mdash; Steve Miskiewicz, goalkeeper, returned to Muskegon of IHL. Bob Fowler, forward, recalled from Muskegon.DALLAS &mdash; Lowell Jackie, goalkeeper, returned to Green Bay of USHL. Rob Palmer, forward, out of action indefinitely with severe eye injury.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>DAYTON &mdash; Michel Latreille, defenseman, assigned to Johnstown of NAHL on loan. Ken Tarnow, forward, traded to Fort Wayne of IHL for Fred Comrie, forward. Gary Davidson, defenseman, placed on waivers.COLUMBUS &mdash; Neil Higgins, goalkeeper, released.<h2>SOUTHERN LEAGUE</h2>GREENSBORO &mdash; Brian Cadle, forward, signed as free agent. Nick Haramis and Guy Hildebrand, forwards, both suspended by club.<h2>NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>JOHNSTOWN &mdash; Don Wallis, goalkeeper, sent to Cape Cod of NAHL on loan.CAPE COD &mdash; George Ripley, forward, added to roster as replacement for Paul Perras, forward, who is out for season with knee injury.SYRACUSE &mdash; Bobby Thompson, forward, sent to Johnstown of NAHL on loan. Bart Buetow, forward, signed as free agent. Lee Inglis, forward, out for season with hepatitis.BROOME &mdash; Don Craig, defenseman, secured from Cape Cod of NAHL on loan. Jim Ivison, defenseman, and Bill Gratton, forward, secured from N.Y. Rangers on loan. &#9632;

Movements of Players

<div class="byline">&#x2014; By Bill Libby</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-01975/3621843-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="289" height="368"></div><h2>The Rough Road To Recovery&hellip;</h2>&bull; GIL PERREAULT was tired and disappointed. He sat in the dressing room after a defeat and tasted the sweat which ran down from his dark, curly, mussed hair and he said. &ldquo;We are not going well. We will have to work harder. I cannot make the miracle.&rdquo; They expect miracles from him because he has a miraculous talent but he is just bouncing back from a broken bone in his left leg and he cannot carry the club on his back. His Buffalo Sabres will go better as he gets better. At his best, he is one of the best.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02875/3621836-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="280" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body">GIL PERREAULT</figcaption></div>Last season &ldquo;The French Connection&rdquo; line with Perreault pivoting Richard Martin and Rene Robert scored more than 100 goals. Perreault scored 28 and set up 60. Martin scored 37 goals and Robert 40. Perreault&rsquo;s goals came on only234 shots. By contrast. Phil Esposito led the league with 55 goals and 411 shots. Coach Joe Crozier said. &ldquo;If anything. Gil is too unselfish. He passes up shots to give his teammates shots. He should shoot more.&rdquo; Gil shrugged and said, &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter who shoots as longas the team scores.&rdquo;He is a sensational skater, stick-handler and playmaker. He is rugged, but not rough. He will fight when forced and once broke the nose of the best fighter in the league, Dan Maloney, in a tight. But, Gil five penalties for just 10 minutes last season and was voted the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly excellence at the end of the regular season. In the post-season playoffs, he inspired his Sabres to two upset triumphs over the mighty Montreal Canadiens before they were eliminated.General manager Punch Imlach has swiftly constructed an outstanding expansion team around the talents of Perreault and it crippled the club&rsquo;s campaign when Gil was injured on Oct. 28. He missed 23 games over eight weeks. As soon as the cast came off the leg, he started skating. Before the year was over he rapidly had rushed back into action.Richard Martin has long since proven he is a super-player in his own right and he carried the club awhile, but he is better when he has the help of a playmaker like Perreault, of course. Robert was struggling without his center. Crozier sometimes breaks up the trio in an effort to balance scoring on his offense, but when they are together they are tremendous.Martin, Robert and the entire club got a lift when Perreault returned. The Buffalo fans were down on the team. Someone sent a bouquet of roses to the dressing room before a Ranger game with a note that said, &ldquo;Body checks are legal.&rdquo; Angered, the Sabres checked hard. Robert and Martin scored goals only 10 seconds apart, and the Rangers were routed. 7-2. which was the last straw that broke the back of poor Larry Popein as Ranger coach.Perreault scored the 100th goal of his four season professional career to produce, a 1-0 triumph over St. Louis. But there have been a lot of losses since he came back. too. He has been playing in pain. Asked about it, he admitted, &ldquo;It hurt a lot when I first came back. Not so bad now, but it still hurts.&rdquo; The doctor who put him back together again, Richard Weiss, devised a pad to be taped to the area just above the ankle where he suffered the break and where his skate boots were rubbing him sore.Perreault said he was not worried about his future when he broke his leg because it was just a broken bone, which is not like a torn-up knee. He said. &ldquo;It will be good, but it takes time to be as it was. He has to be asked questions, he does not volunteer answers. He speaks in a thick French-Canadian accent which is difficult to understand for one who speaks only English.When Perreault first turned pro he did not speak any English at all. which set him apart from many others and added to his natural shyness. He was lonely and homesick. He has learned to speak some English, but he is still shy. He says he is used to it now and does not mind, but he probably never will accustom himself to the pressures of the press produced by his prominence. He prefers shadows to spotlights.He was born in Victoriaville. Quebec, a French town in the St. Lawrence Valley area in November of 1950. His father was a warehouseman for the Canadian National Railroad. Gil has three brothers. One became a policeman, another a truck salesman, a third a grocer. Gil seemed bound to be a hockey player. He recalled. &ldquo;I was a rink rat. 1 hungaround rinksall the time, helped scraped the ice. played when there was a chance. Jean Beliveau was my ideal. His Montreal Canadiens were my team.&rdquo;At 6-1 and 180 pounds he is smaller than Beliveau. but he is much like him in his skills &mdash; smooth and unselfish &mdash; and in another era would have succeeded him as star center of the colorful Canadiens. He starred for the Montreal Junior Canadiens. and was drafted by Buffalo. He was bitterly disappointed at first, though he had the grace to say later that it was good in so far as it gave him his chance sooner than he might have had with an established team.He was an NHL star from the first. He set records for rookies with 38 goals and 72 points, though both records have since been surpassed. Martin broke his record for goals the following season. Perreault lived with Martin&rsquo;s family when he played in Montreal as a junior and he shared an apartment with him in Buffalo when they were reunited as pros. Perreault now has a new roommate, the beautiful Carmen Caron, his home town girlfriend, whom he married last year.Unlike most athletes who have lawyers, managers or agents negotiating their contracts these days. Perreault had a brother-in-law do his business for him and settled fora mere $25. (MX) bonus and $25,000 salary for two seasons. He shrugged and said. &ldquo;I have a lot to learn.&rdquo; Since then, sought by the World Hockey Association. Perreault has been boosted by the Sabres into the $100,000 class. He shrugs and says, &ldquo;I still have a lot to learn. 1 have a long way to go.&rdquo; Most observers feel he is there already.His teammates call him &ldquo;Tom&rdquo; because he dotes on Tom Jones and when only teammates are around has been known to burst out in imitation of the Welshman&rsquo;s boisterous singing. However, Martin says, &ldquo;He is no swinger. He is serious about his hockey. He is serious about everything in his life. He is very private about his life.&rdquo;Robert adds, &ldquo;He hesitates to talk to outsiders, but he talks to his teammates. He is a team man. I was not going good so he talked to me a long time to get confidence back in me. He is inspirational to us. He is just not a showboat who likes the spotlight.&rdquo;Perreault is a private person in a public profession who slips through shadows. Once, he confessed, &ldquo;Sometimes you would like not to be known. People all the time talking about hockey, you get tired of it. Autographs? Not too bad. Sign a few after a game and go on the way. You got to get away. You got to talk to the press, but you don&rsquo;t have to read about yourself. I don&rsquo;t think of myself as a hero. I love to play, but I&rsquo;m just a player.&rdquo;He is much more, which he must known even if he will not admit it to an outsider. Playing in pain, his return restores hope for this season to the Sabres. Soon he will be slashing away again. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY DWAYNE NETLAND</div>TWIN CITIES&mdash;The situation is clear enough now to permit an open discussion of it around the headquarters of the Minnesota North Stars. If the North Stars are going to reach the Stanley Cup play-offs, then the team they must beat out for a berth is Atlanta.Chicago and Philadelphia are cinches in the West Division, which leaves Minnesota. Atlanta. I St. Louis and Los I Angeles struggling I for the two remaining spots. The general consensus in Minnesota is that either St. Louis or Los Angeles will make it. and the other will miss. There is really no logical explanation for this theory, but that is the way they are feeling in Minnesota.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03734/3621874-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="280" height="446"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gump Worsley</figcaption></div>That, of course, puts it up to Minnesota or Atlanta for the fourth spot. Fortunately, they&rsquo;ll be pretty much able to settle that in head-to-head confrontations during March, when the two teams meet three times.&ldquo;The North Stars and Flames will likely be able to settle their own destinies in those three games.&rdquo; observed Wren Blair, the astute general manager of the Stars &ldquo;It&rsquo;s ironical that the schedule was set up that way. but it&rsquo;s good for the players and good for the fans.&rdquo;Minnesota makes its first visit of the season to Atlanta on March 8. plays the flames in Bloomington on March 1 3 and then returns to Atlanta fora March 30 contest which could be extremely important.Blair offered a candid appraisal of the three teams which could keep the North Stars in the second division.&ldquo;St. Louis has Garry Unger, a great hockey player,&rdquo; Blair began. &ldquo;I like Greg Polis very much, but in order to get Polis and Bryan Watson from Pittsburgh, the Blues gave up a lot of muscle. Steve Durbano, Battleship Kelly and Ab DeMarco provided a lot of toughness for St. Louis, and I feel the Blues will miss them down the stretch.&ldquo;Atlanta had a very fine first season in 1972-73, but it has never really been in a playoff battle until this season. One reason I am optimistic over our chances of making it is that the pressures of being in a close playoff race are tough on a young team. Atlanta, however, has tremendous goaltending and this cannot be dismissed lightly. The Flames will be tough, you can be sure of that.&ldquo;Personally. I like Los Angeles. The Kings have a lot of things going for them. They are playing well, they have an excellent schedule and they have the motivation of going for something they narrowly missed last season.&ldquo;They used to be our favorite opponent. but they&rsquo;ve beaten us the last two times out and those four points may loom large for that club in early April. Rogie Vachon is a strong goaltender. Frank St. Marseille and Mike Murphy have helped the attack and Terry Harper has steadied the defense. I believe. at this stage, that you&rsquo;ve got to figure Los Angeles will make a very strong run for it.&rdquo;No sooner had Blair made his analysis than the Kings won an important 2-I victory in St. Louis and the next afternoon, they clobbered the Flames 6-3 in Atlanta.The North Stars, meanwhile, continue their puzzling season of erratic play. They are up and down, like a yoyo. They score five goals in Madison Square Garden to tie the Rangers, then play horribly in a 6-2 loss to the Islanders. Next they play superbly, beating Montreal 4-3 with a three-goal comeback late in the game, and then meekly fall 4-1 at Toronto.Through it all a bastion of strength has been Gump Worsley. The old goaler, in his farewell season at the age of 44. played six straight games and eight of 10. In each, he performed at a high level.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where we&rsquo;d be without Gump.&rdquo; Blairsaid. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done a beautiful job for us.&rdquo;NORTH STAR NOTES: The reason for Worsley&rsquo;s iron-man duty was the broken hand suffered by Cesare Maniago. which kept him out five weeks. Maniago is back now. fresh and ready. Worsley will get some rest down the stretch, but coach Parker MacDonald indicated he will use the gritty veteran several times&hellip; The North Stars have beaten Montreal at least once in each of their seven seasons in the NHL&hellip; Jude Drouin, returned to center after a brief trial at right wing, responded with live goals in four games. Drouin was sensational against the Canadiens&hellip; Blair talked trade with five NHL teams in the last It) days and will undoubtedly make a deal or two to reduce his list of protected players. Wren was eyeing Bobby Schmautz. but then Vancouver sent him to Boston&hellip; North Stars have a good home schedule coming up&hellip; knocked out of the lineup.O&rsquo;Donnell still hasn&rsquo;t reported. His wife is expecting the couple&rsquo;s first child momentarily and until that big day arrives, the aggressive 24-year-old right winger is reluctant to leave their Boston home.He also expects to be compensated for leaving a first place team certain to harvest a substantial bundle of playoff bonus money and coming to a last place team whose playoff chances are already extinct.&ldquo;But at this point in time that&rsquo;s a secondary consideration,&rdquo; insists Mike Carroll, his Boston-based business agent.&ldquo;Even if we agreed on money I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d report until after the baby is born,&rdquo; Carroll added. &ldquo;The timing of the trade was poor. It&rsquo;s no one&rsquo;s fault, but it&rsquo;s unfortunate it happened when it did.&rdquo;Oddleifson, also 24, undoubtedly wanted some financial compensation, too. but apparently he and Maloney had no trouble coming to a mutually agreeable arrangement.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to build my kind of team here.&rdquo; says Maloney, who has held the Canucks&rsquo; general manager-coach portfolio for less than a month.&ldquo;I want team players.&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;tenacious guys who will check and stand in front of the net because they want to score goals. I think Oddleifson and O&rsquo;Donnell both fit into that category.&rdquo;Understandably he&rsquo;s anxious to be able to put them both on display. Schmautz was popular with the Vancouver fans and even though the Canucks scored weekend victories over Detroit and Buffalo immediately after his departure there were a few cries of &ldquo;we want Schmautz&rdquo; from the Pacific Coliseum galleries.Schmautz&rsquo;s popularity with Vancouver&rsquo;s fans is easily understood. He scored 38 goals last season and had fashioned 26 more this season before the trade.The fact he Was traded to Boston, however, was no accident Maloney revealed.&ldquo;A lot of teams wanted Schmautz,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but 1 felt we owed it to Bobby to send him to a team like Boston. He&rsquo;s a natural for the Bruins, he&rsquo;ll fit right into their style. I didn&rsquo;t trade him because 1 was mad at him&hellip; I wasn&rsquo;t dissatisfied with his play in any way. I made the trade solely because 1 thought it would help our hockey team, but at the same time 1 wanted to do what was best for Bobby. He&rsquo;s given the Vancouver Canucks nothing but good service.&rdquo;Meanwhile. Maloney appears to be succeeding in his attempts to mold his kind of team. Since he took over as coach the Canucks&rsquo; record is 5-5-1. When he took over from Bill McCreary their record was 9-25-7.While he&rsquo;s gratified by the progress. Maloney is making no secret of the fact he&rsquo;s prepared to make more trades before the March-7 deadline. &#9632;

f0008-03

North Stars Foresee Playoff Spot Battle Forming With Flames

<div class="byline">BY JACK McCARTHY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-01944/3621912-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"></div>BOSTON&mdash;Milt Schmidt&rsquo;s notorious Chicago Heist of &lsquo;67 (which netted Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield) probably will never be surpassed, but Harry Sinden may have come close to matching it the other day.By cultivating perseverance and patience, Harry pried Bobby Schmautz, the Saskatoon Cannon, from Vancouver for a pittance that should have brought legions of Canuck loyalists pouring down on Pacific Coliseum, and not to buy tickets.Harry&rsquo;s donation, if you will, was a pair of irregular regulars, center Chris Oddleifson and winger Fred O&rsquo;Donnell, with a combined total of 15 goals in limited appearances, plus the NHL playing rights to the WHA&rsquo;s Mike Walton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02835/3621905-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="292" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Schmautz</figcaption></div>The acquisition of Schmautz was no surprise, but the bargain basement price was an eye-opener. If it was potential the Canucks were looking for, they got plenty, but they came away drastically deficient in the proven talent department. The lone NHL achievement of the two belonged to Oddleifson &mdash; a four goal game last month against the Seals. Obviously, Walton&rsquo;s rights are the key part of the agreement for Vancouver.The theft was doubly rewarding to the Bruins, because not only did it supply John Bucyk and Gregg Sheppard with a legitimate, front-line right winger, but it also forced the reunion of Wayne Cashman with Hodge and Esposito.&ldquo;For more than two months, we attempted to get either a right or left winger who would provide us with two balanced lines,&rdquo; revealed Sinden. &ldquo;It was a matter of whether or not we would keep Cashman at right wing on another line, or restore him to his old spot with Espie and Ken. We&rsquo;re sure it will be better this way.&rdquo;Previously, Sinden had conferred with Islanders&rsquo; GM Bill Torrey about the possibility of reacquiring Ed West fall, but continuous snags kept surfacing and eventually doomed that prospect.Harry made a final offer of Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and Richie Leduc, but Torrey held out for Gregg Sheppard and O&rsquo;Donnell, prompting Sinden to seek other avenues, particularly when he learned Schmautz was available.Originally, a Boston package of Oddleifson, Leduc and left winger Dave Forbes had been agreed upon, but the Canucks inexplicably backed out at the last minute after Oddleifson, admittedly disappointed, had already been informed he was traded.&ldquo;Sure it upsets you when you&rsquo;re held out on a string like that,&rdquo; Chris remarked.However, cooler heads finally prevailed, and Sinden had accomplished what was beginning to look like mission impossible.&ldquo;I guess you could say there&rsquo;s a lot of John McKenzie in Schmautz,&rdquo; observed Harry. Except that McKenzie could never shoot like Bobby. Or fight either.Few press box pioneers can forget the beating he handed Don Awrey on Boston Garden ice back in 1969 when Bobby was still with the Chicago Black Hawks.&ldquo;We know Bobby can take can take care of himself,&rdquo; confirmed Sinden, &ldquo;but we didn&rsquo;t bring him here for that purpose. We got him to score goals for us.&rdquo;While parties on both sides expressed satisfaction with the deal, perhaps no one was more pleased than Derek Sanderson. O&rsquo;Donnell&rsquo;s departure vacated Bruins&rsquo; Jersey No. 16, which the Turk had been trying to reclaim since he returned from the WHA.When Schmautz arrived at Logan Airport just an hour before a Bruins-Flyers game, Sanderson was there waiting in his Rolls, and quickly sped Bobby to Boston Garden.Once inside the dressing room, Turk &ldquo;sacrificed&rdquo; No. 17, the jersey he had been wearing this year, to Schmautz, and kept No. 16 for himself. How much the change affects Turk&rsquo;s play won&rsquo;t be known for another couple of weeks when he returns to action.Schmautz, meanwhile, was scoreless in his first two games as a Bruin &mdash; both at home &mdash; but both he and the team expected he&rsquo;d regain the touch on the B&rsquo;s current road trip, which keeps them away from Boston Garden until Feb. 28. &#9632;

f0009-01

Deal For Schmautz Reunites Hodge, Espo, Cashman

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Shortly after Boston rallied in the last two minutes to tie the Flyers. Derek Sanderson interrupted his non-stop post-game analysis to proclaim. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be us and Philly in the finals.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-01965/3621943-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="269" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Barry Ashbee</figcaption></div>If Sanderson&rsquo;s December forecast is accurate, and the Flyers don&rsquo;t alter their winless course against the Bruins, it will be the shortest Stanley Cup finale since Boston and Montreal disposed of St. Louis. Four games and goodbye Flyers.Failure to beat the Bruins is the biggest disappointment in an otherwise spectacular season. Following the latest nosedive, a 5-3 setback in Boston. Philadelphia&rsquo;s winless streak against the Bruins stretched to 0-23-4. March 13. 1969 is becoming one of Philadelphia&rsquo;s most historical dates &mdash; it was the last time the Flyers beat Boston.At least the Flyers don&rsquo;t let the gloom of failing against the Bruins carry over. The night after bowing in beautiful Boston Garden, they threw everything but the Spectrum message board at Montreal goaltender Wayne Thomas in a 45-shot, 3-1 victory over the injury riddled Canadiens.Over the past two seasons, excluding last year&rsquo;s superb semi-final series, the Flyers are 4-4-1 against Montreal. The question is: why are they so successful against the defending Stanley Cup champions and so unfulfilled against Boston?It&rsquo;s important to note that not once in the past two seasons have the Bruns driven the Flyers out of the building. No more than two goals have separated them in any game. In the latest episode. the Flyers rallied to tie on Dave Schultz&rsquo;s second goal (and 18th of the season), but then the Bruins scored twice within one minute to win.The answer to the Flyers&rsquo; dilemma shouldn&rsquo;t surprise anyone. Bobby Orr is the difference. The Flyers just don&rsquo;t have anyone to control the game like Orr &mdash; and neither does anyone else. Returning to the lineup for the first time since he was injured against the Flyers Jan. 27, Orr played at about 80 percent efficiency and still had three assists.&ldquo;That Orr is just so bloody good he&rsquo;s the difference,&rdquo; said Montreal coach Scotty Bowman, who knows as much about other teams as his own. &ldquo;Orr has helped them win or tie five games they should have won or lost, and he&rsquo;s done it from the point.&rdquo;Bowman knows how the Flyers feel.&ldquo;When I was in St. Louis we had a similar situation against Montreal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We must have gone 18 games against then without winning. We&rsquo;d play well, but still lose. It got so bad we didn&rsquo;t even want to talk about it.&rdquo;As depressing as Philadelphia&rsquo;s streak is, coach Fred Shero will still discuss it.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t play with the confidence we should against Boston.&rdquo; Shero said. &ldquo;This last time only a few. like Clarke. Lonsberry. Schultz and Kindrachuk. did. The rest seemed to ease up.One player Shero omitted was defenseman Burry Ashbee. who continued his superb play with another strong game. Ashbee stood out by returning the mauling tactics of Bruins such as Wayne Cashman. It wasn&rsquo;t Cashman.It wasn&rsquo;t Cashman, however, who directed the Flyers defeat.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t seem to fear anyone on Montreal.&rdquo; said Shero, &ldquo;but no one wants to touch Orr. What is it, the players Association says you can&rsquo;t touch Orr? (Andre) Dupont probably helped us get that tie last season by fighting Orr. It got him off the ice for seven minutes.&rdquo;The Flyers won&rsquo;t admit it, but they seem reluctant to body check the great Boston player. Several times they had opportunities to drill him cleanly along the boards but instead simply nudged him.Finding a cure for Orrphobia is Shero&rsquo;s biggest challenge. The Flyers and Bruins play just once more before the playoff.FLYER FACTS: Another challenge is finding a right wing for Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s line while Bill Flett recovers from a broken foot. Shero seemed to prefer Bill Clement after trying Simon Nolet. Terry Crisp and Don Saleski. &#9632;

f0010-01

Flyers’ Bruin Jinx Traced To “Orrphobia”

PITTSBURGH&mdash;Things often work in strange and wonderful ways in the world of hockey.Just over a year ago, Gary Inness was battling for a position as a goaltender with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the Penguins had Jim Rutherford and Denis Herron, so Inness was ticketed for the Penguins&rsquo; Hershey farm club.Inness refused and instead returned to the University of Toronto where he starred all last season with the Varsity Blues.This season Inness again came to training camp and again was sent to Hershey. But this year&rsquo;s story has a better ending for Inness.When the Penguins ran into goaltending problems Inness was recalled and performed so well that general manager Jack Button felt that Rutherford was expendable, and traded him to Detroit.So far no one is sorry about the trade.Inness has been a tower of strength in the Pittsburgh nets and while sharing the duties with veteran Andy Brown has fashioned a commendable 2.73 goals against average.Inness gave a typical performance last week in a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders. The Penguins were outshot 30-21. including a 14-2 difference in the third period. But Inness was unbeatable &mdash; for 58 minutes anyway.The defense crumbled in the third and the Islanders scored twice within 30 seconds. But thanks to Inness. the Penguins left Long Island with two points.The next night he wasn&rsquo;t quite as sharp, allowing five goals in a 5-3 loss to Chicago. The Penguins outshot the Hawks 31-24 in that one. but Inness was at fault on few of the goals. &#9632;

Rookie Inness Making Pens Forget Rutherford Trade

<div class="byline">BY DAN PROUDFOOT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01932/3622012-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="547" height="622"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE PELYK</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02818/3622005-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="561" height="559"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN GLENNIE</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03654/3621998-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="559" height="571"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM McKENNY</figcaption></div>TORONTO &mdash;The Maple Leafs have two kinds of defensemen this season &mdash; rookie and anonymous.The rookies, Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull and Bob Neely, have got all of the attention because of their instant success as National Hockey League regulars.Mike Pelyk, Jim McKenny and Brian Glennie, in the meantime, have operated in the rookies&rsquo; shadows. Perhaps because they labored so long under the label &ldquo;young and promising&rdquo; without ever becoming standouts, they&rsquo;ve almost been forgotten.Pelyk, McKenny and Glennie haven&rsquo;t quite made it to veteran status, yet they average just under 27 years of age and five NHL seasons of experience. They&rsquo;ve all been through Leafs&rsquo; dismal years out of the playoffs, but now that good times and glory are returning to the Gardens they&rsquo;ve seldom been mentioned.All three are enjoying outstanding seasons. Pelyk. in particular, has impressed coach Red Kelly because any gossip he&rsquo;d heard about the strongskating young defensemen was negative. Kelly gave Pelyk a shot on defense after first using him exclusively as a penalty killer, and Pelyk immediately blossomed. It has been his best, most consistent year, both in defensive steadiness and in scoring. By early January Pelyk had 27 points including eight goals. Both totals were more than he had accomplished in any previous season.McKenny, the team&rsquo;s best in 1972-73, quickly approached his best goals total and as this was written he had 10 goals and 21 assists in 52 games. He&rsquo;s one of the league&rsquo;s best rushing defensemen, given any room at all and sometimes when seemingly given none. Scotty Bowman also was thinking of his ability to lay a precise pass when he added him to his East All Star lineup as a fill-in.Glennie and McKenny form the traditional defense pair, one providing the dash and the other the doom. Any right wing will testify that Glennie likes body contact, and he likes it on the road or at the Gardens. In fact, he plays his best games in Boston Garden, where many Leafs developed the habit of hiding in previous years. Glennie enjoys the Garden&rsquo;s smaller ice surface, which helps him make up for the fact that his agility on skates approximates that of a Russian bear. Boston fans give him their ultimate compliment, which is to say heavy booing.Glennie picks up so many injuries his teammates were calling him Evel (after Knievel, the professional daredevil) earlier this season after a series of injuries &mdash; bruised knee, partial rib separation, strained shoulder muscle &mdash; added up to 11 games missed in the first 52.Last year, Glennie earned considerable praise for playing most of the season with a shoulder so sore he couldn&rsquo;t lift his arm. He had to practise falling to one side, and get used to wearing a protective harness to eliminate the possibility of serious injury.This year, Glennie had an acupuncture treatement to remove the pain from the shoulder, but everyone was too busy talking about Salming and Turnbull to make much of it.Salming led the team early this month with a plus 30 rating &mdash; based on number of goals for and against scored while a player is on the ice &mdash; but all three of the holdover defensemen had ratings of plus 15 or better.Improvement in goaltending and offensive power helped take the heat off Pelyk, McKenny and Glennie, of course, compared to last year, but it also gave them the opportunity to show how capably they can perform. Given that, they&rsquo;ve proven they rank as Leaf strengths, and not the jokes they were made out to be as they took a major portion of the blame for the team&rsquo;s dreadful 279 goals against in 1972-73.LEAF NOTES: Garry Monahan, a regular the past three years, sat on the bench except for penalty killing until Kelly reunited him with center David Keon&hellip; Tim Ecclestone, the right wing on the line, finished January the way he started it, with a two-goal game. Trouble was, he didn&rsquo;t score any in between. &#9632;

f0011-01

Leafs’ Vets Still Playing Key Role

<div class="byline">BY HARRY KLAFF</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;As far as local hockey fans were concerned, the N.Y. Islanders of 1972-73 were a charming new toy. It was &ldquo;their team,&rdquo; and the rooters backed them with an increasingly growing passion.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01936/3622043-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="313" height="472"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Westfall</figcaption></div>Over 11,000 of them drifted into the Nassau Coliseum from all parts of the Island, fully realizing that they were not going to see the Stanley Cup champions in action. But it didn&rsquo;t matter. These hockey-starved patrons would have settled for anything that had an NHL aura about it. Consequently; the crowd acted like the drowning man searching for some straw to cling to. They would cheer anything &mdash; a goal, a body check, a save. As the Islanders buried themselves further and further into the basement, the greater the support from the gallery.But things have been different this year, both on the ice and in the stands. The Islanders had already passed their first year&rsquo;s point total by the end of January, and feel that a sixth place finish is not beyond the realm of possibility.The only problem is that the fans may have become a little over-confident as a result of the Isle&rsquo;s recent hot streak. Now when the club plays poorly, the paying customers let them know in no uncertain terms.A key case in point was the club&rsquo;s 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 9. Coming into the game, the Islanders had most recently been thumped by the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, but the last home performance was a resounding 6-2 triumph over the Minnesota North Stars.The Islanders had a couple of early scoring opportunities that had gone astray, as the first period settled into a close-checking duel, with neither team being able to launch much of an attack. Although there was some rhythmic applause throughout the stanza, the club was cascaded by boos as it retreated to the dressing room following the scoreless period.Then things went from bad to worse. A fluke goal by Ron Schock triggered the catcalls once again, and before the second period was more than nine minutes old, the Penguins owned a 3-0 advantage. The only cheer of the session was the announcement of the final minute of play.The third period was no better, until Craig Cameron ended the famine with a minute and a half left. When Germain Gagnon made the score 3-2 30 seconds later, one would never have believed that it was the same people in the seats. But the only fan support of evening didn&rsquo;t help as time ran out.&ldquo;The New York fans are very avid,&rdquo; noted Denis Potvin following the game. &ldquo;The fans turn out and want to see you win. You really can&rsquo;t blame them for getting on you when you&rsquo;re not winning. The fans have seen us get better all season, but we can&rsquo;t be expected to win every game.&rdquo;&ldquo;Booing isn&rsquo;t an element of the game I&rsquo;m concerned with,&rdquo; said Eddie Westfall, who was a prime factor in the club&rsquo;s recent winning steak. &ldquo;The fans expect the team to work hard, but we didn&rsquo;t play the kind of hockey tonight that it takes to win. The team just played very badly.&rdquo;In some respects the first week in February was a case of either feast or famine for the Islanders. First came the Minnesota cake-walk in which the Islanders equalled their highest scoring output for the season.Then it was on the Madison Square Garden where the Isles were shot down by the Rangers 6-0. The string of goose-eggs continued in the Pittsburgh game when the New Yorkers failed to get on the board for the first 58 minutes and 30 seconds. Once the drought ended, the Islanders connected for the two goals in 20 seconds.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult to explain.&rdquo; reported the younger Potvin. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just not consistent, probably because we&rsquo;re a very young club. We don&rsquo;t have the type of line upto score a lot of goals, and frankly, that Minnesota game surprised us too. But the bad thing is that we&rsquo;ve been playing sloppy against some of the teams we should be doing well against.&rdquo;This season will not be the year of the Islanders. But 1975 might, and the fans who were there in the beginning will have something to cheer about, in the same light as the long-suffering Mets fans who suddenly found themselves with a world&rsquo;s championship team after seven years of suffering.It shouldn&rsquo;t take the Islanders nearly that long to develop, but the fans must be patient. The Montreal Canadiens weren&rsquo;t built in a day.ISLAND SOUNDS: Billy Harris has ended his helmet experiment, at least for the time being&hellip; Ralph Stewart is back in action after missing a month with a severely bruised collarbone&hellip; Goalie Glenn Resch was returned to Fort Worth of the CHI. after a two game look-see with the Islanders. &#9632;

f0012-01

Islanders Learn Fans Won’t Support Loser

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The St. Louis Blues, holding on to third place in the Western Division of the National Hockey League, had a terrible week when the schedule sent them up against some of the NHL&rsquo;s top teams.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01909/3622074-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="281" height="449"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Roberto</figcaption></div>The Blues were shut out by Chicago&rsquo;s Tony Esposito, 3-0, and the only saving grace was the outstanding goaltending of St. Louis rookie John Davidson. Black Hawk coach Billy Reay, seeing the youngster in action for the first time, had effusive words of praise for Davidson. Esposito said he was glad he had to stop only 17 shots because the Blues&rsquo; lack of offense gave him the opportunity to watch Davidson.Back home at the St. Louis Arena after the loss to Chicago, the Blues lost 3-2. to the Montreal Canadiens. whom they had beaten in the teams&rsquo; two previous meetings this season. Wayne Thomas, bombed by the Blues in the two earlier games, was solid in goal, whole Wayne Stephenson faced 54 shots in the Blues&rsquo; nets.Then the Blues made it three in a row against top teams when they bowed to the Bruins in Boston. 5-3. Greg Polis scored his first goal in a St. Louis uniform. but the only real victory for the Blues was rookie defenseman Bob Gassoff&rsquo;s double knockout of Ered O&rsquo;Donnell.The Blues compounded their losing problem when they let the Los Angeles Kings escape from the Arena with a 2-1 win. The Blues lost Don Awrey in the first period of that game when he was the third man in a fight by coming to the aid of Pierre Plante, being pounded by Dan Maloney.The Blues encountered the New York Rangers and lost again. 4-2. fora 0-4 record in eight days. The Blues were managing to stay ahead of the fourth-place Atlanta Plames but they certainly weren&rsquo;t gaining any ground on the second-place Black Hawks.Several minor but nagging injuries hit the Blues. Barclay Plager suffered a finger fracture and missed several games while his firmer was in a cast. Gary Sabourin had a recurrence of a knee injury and was benched for several games. Wayne Merrick had the flu.Phil Roberto, who had been trying valiantly to win back a spot in the regular lineup, asked to be sent to the Denver farm team. Roberto suffered a serious injury last summer when his arm was cut by broken glass falling from a storm door that he had slammed at his parents&rsquo; home in Niagara Falls. Ont. Roberto underwent surgery in Toronto, and the arm was in a cast for more than four months.Roberto began practising with the Blues at Christmas and was determined to salvage the remainder of the season. But his legs had been idle for many months, and his shot had deteriorated because of the arm injury. Regular play in Denver will undoubtedly speed his comeback. The Blues could use the 20 goals that Roberto would have been able to add to the team scoring this season.The Blues came close to a disastrous distinction in the game against the Canadiens. The 54 shots by Montreal was the second-highest total in the NHL this season. The only higher figure was the 55 taken just a few days earlier by the Philadelphia Flyers in burying the Detroit Red Wings, 12-2. The Canadiens&rsquo; 25 shots in the second period was the second-highest total ever against the Blues in one period. The Rangers had 27 shots and four goals against the Blues in the second period of a 6-1 win on New Year&rsquo;s Eve of 1972. &#9632;

f0013-01

After Winless Week Blues Place Hopes On Success At Home

ST. LOUIS &ndash;The list of NHL coaching and managerial changes continues to grow.St. Louis Blues&rsquo; coach Jean Guy Talbot and California Golden Seals&rsquo; coach-general manager Fred Glover both resigned during the past week. Replacing Talbot at St. Louis is forward Lou Angotti while defenseman Marshall Johnston took over at California. The pair are the sixth and seventh new coaches this season.Munson Campbell returned after a brief absence to manage the Seals and is the fifth new general manager this year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01919/3622119-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="252" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean-Guy Talbot</figcaption></div>The rate of coaching and managerial changes this season has to be an NHL record.Talbot, who took over as coach of the Blues in November of last season and guided them to the playoffs, cited health problems as his reason for resigning.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t eating, I wasn&rsquo;t sleeping and I would get pains in my chest in the middle of the night,&rdquo; the 41-year-old former defenseman said. &ldquo;The strain was beginning to affect me and my family.&rdquo;The Blues had lost six of their last seven games prior to Talbot&rsquo;s resignation. He will remain in the St. Louis organization.Angotti, 36, says he will use many innovations developed by his former coach at Chicago, Billy Reay.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s having your defense stand up and your wingers come back, he said, &ldquo;and meeting them at the blueline, forcing them to make their play.&rdquo;Angotti debuted with a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota North Stars. Johnston, 32, Campbell and Gary Young, director of the player personnel, all came into the picture when the NHL purchased the California franchise from Charles O. Finley.Campbell and Young are both former Seals&rsquo; front office employees whom Finley had fired during his four seasons as owner.Glover, who prior to the NHL purchase was executive vice-president, general manager and coach, was offered a position in the Seals&rsquo; organization but declined.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03593/3622112-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="562" height="627"><figcaption class="caption-body">LOU ANGOTTI&hellip;Takes Over Blues</figcaption></div><h2>HOW THEY STAND NHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02779/3622105-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="611" height="1004"></div> &#9632;

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NHL Coaching Turnover Continues As Angotti, Johnston Appointed

MONTREAL &mdash;Ted Harris and Bryan Watson have a lot in common.Both are veteran defensemen and both are among the three NHL players who have seen action with three teams this season.Harris and Watson joined Real Lemieux in that exclusive club last week when they were involved in a six-player deal between the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues.Watson, forward Chris Evans and defenseman Jean Hamel went to the Wings in exchange for Harris, Garnet Bailey and Bill Collins.Watson had gone to the Blues less than a month ago from Pittsburgh while Harris joined the Red Wings early in the season in a deal with the Minnesota North Stars. Lemieux has played with Los Angeles, New York Rangers and Buffalo this year.The trade, combined with the deal that sent Gene Carr from the Rangers to Los Angeles for future considerations, was the 16th of the season, making this year one of the most active trading seasons in history. Last year, for example, only six trades had been completed by this point in the season.This year&rsquo;s trades have involved 45 players.Only five NHL teams have not made a trade to date &mdash; Montreal, Philadelphia, Chicago, California and the New York Islanders.The Blues lead this year&rsquo;s trade parade, completing six trades thus far involving 17 players. The struggling Pittsburgh Penguins are close behind with five trades involving 15 players.This season&rsquo;s trading is as follows:1) Boston traded defenseman Don Awrey to St. Louis for forward Jake Rathwell and a second round draft choice.2) St. Louis traded goaltender Bob Johnson to Pittsburgh for forward Nick Harbaruk.3) Pittsburgh traded defenseman Darryl Edestrand to Boston for defenseman Nick Beverley.4) Detroit traded defenseman Gary Bergman to Minnesota for defenseman Ted Harris.5) Toronto traded forward Pierre Jarry to Detroit for forward Tim Ecclestone.6) New York Rangers traded forwards Mike Murphy and Tom Williams and defenseman Sheldon Kannegiesser to Los Angeles for defenseman Gilles Marotte and forward Real Lemieux.7) St. Louis traded forward Jack Egers to New York Rangers for forward Glen Sather and goaltender Rene Villemure.8) Pittsburgh traded forward Al McDonough to Atlanta for forward Chuck Amason and defenseman Bob Paradise.9) St. Louis traded forward Bob Kelly and defensemen Steve Durbano and Ab DeMarco to Pittsburgh for forward Greg Polis, defenseman Bryan Watson and a second round draft choice.10) Pittsburgh traded goaltender Jim Rutherford and defenseman Jack Lynch to Detroit for defenseman Ron Stackhouse.11) Vancouver traded forward John Wright to St. Louis for forward Mike Lampman.12) Buffalo traded defenseman Tracy Pratt and forward John Gould to Vancouver for defenseman Jerry Korab.13) New York Rangers traded forward Real Lemieux to Buffalo for defenseman Paul Curtis.14) Vancouver traded forward Bobby Schmautz to Boston for forwards Chris Oddleifson and Fred O&rsquo;Donnell.15) St. Louis traded defensemen Bryan Watson and Jean Hamel and forward Chris Evans to Detroit for defenseman Ted Harris and forwards Bill Collins and Garnet Bailey.16) New York Rangers traded center Gene Carr to the Los Angeles Kings for future considerations.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01890/3622150-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="571" height="741"><figcaption class="caption-body">TED HARRIS &hellip;With Third Club</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Detroit - St. Louis Swap 16th Of Season

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS ZELKOVICH</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Adversity often produces some unexpected heroes and never were conditions more adverse and heroes more unexpected than during the past month with the Montreal Canadiens.The Habs were faced with the most devastating run of injuries in recent memory. Eight players were knocked out of action for varying periods during the month, leaving the ranks of the defending Stanley Cup champions so thin two players were recalled from the minors and a third recall was-considered.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02539/3622247-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="288" height="449"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Wilson</figcaption></div>The injury list claimed four defensemen &mdash; Jacques Laperriere, Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard and Pierre Bouchard. At one point, the former three were all sidelined together.Missing from the forward lines for varying lengths of time were Jacques Lemaire, who was out of action for an entire month. Yvan Coumoyer, Chuck Lefley and Murray Wilson.During the 22-day period (from Jan. 20 to Feb. 10) the Habs won seven of 10 games, and it became obvious that the Canadiens are as strong on the bench this year as they were last season.But it also became obvious that despite that depth the Habs are going to have to start worrying a little more about holding second place in the NHL, East and forget about finishing first.In that same period, the first-place Boston Bruins won eight of 10 and moved a full 10 points ahead of the Canadiens. Meanwhile the New York Rangers moved to within five points of the Habs.But the Canadiens can rest assured that things could have been worse &mdash; a lot worse. When things were at their worst, it was the part timers and rookies, not the stars, that came through.Surviving the latest onslaught of injuries can be attributed to the performances of hockey&rsquo;s handiest player, Jim Roberts, the surprising play of rookie defenseman Rick Wilson, the emergence of Pierre Bouchard as a solid blueliner, the strong goaltending of Wayne Thomas and Michel Larocque and the all-around play of Pete Mahovlich.The value of a player like Jim Roberts is underlined in times of emergency. A versatile performer and a tireless checker, Roberts anchored the defense during the crisis and when a right winger was needed he filled in there as well.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an important part of this team,&rdquo; says coach Scotty Bowman of Roberts. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s strong on defense and strong on right wing. When he&rsquo;s on the line with Frank (Mahovlich) and Henri (Richard) it&rsquo;s one of our top lines. It was for the last 40 games last season. It&rsquo;s too bad we have to use him (Roberts) on defense.&rdquo;One man who is glad Roberts is on defense is his current partner. Rick Wilson. Recalled from the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American League when Laperriere and Lapointe were hurt, the 23-year-old defenseman performed with amazing skill and poise.&ldquo;Everything out there is a lot faster,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But it helps when you&rsquo;ve got a good partner.&rdquo;The University of North Dakota grad is a starter now, but realizes his chances of staying in the NHL will diminish when the injuries clear up.Bouchard, whose status was unclear a month ago. has firmly entrenched himself as fifth defenseman and with Roberts in the lineup the need for a sixth rearguard is lessened. Bowman, though, says he has no definite plans either way for Wilson.Despite the injuries on defense. Bowman&rsquo;s problems during the injury spell were not on defense. Bouchard. Roberts. Larry Robinson and Wilson performed well and when they erred. Thomas and Larocque were there to man the last line of defense.Both played so well that Michel Plasse has not even dressed since the 8-0 loss to Boston Jan. 19. Bowman claims he would not hesitate to use Plasse should either Thomas or Larocque falter, but at the moment, that appears unlikely.Thomas was outstanding in a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia, stopping 42 shots. Larocque also turned in a standout effort in a 4-3 loss to Minnesota. In the 10 games, the pair allowed only 24 goals.The play of center Pete Mahovlich in past weeks has also been inspiring. The Little M has taken over the number two spot on the team in goals with 24 and has provided the Habs with one of the best penalty-killing units in the league.Lemaire, Bouchard. Wilson, Savard and Lapointe are all expected to return to action before the Feb. 17 game against Philadelphia.With the team once again at its strongest, the Habs should have little trouble holding on to second place.HAB-BITS: Murray Wilson suffered a shoulder injury against the Flyers but was expected to miss only one game. Bouchard sufferedan ankle injury in the same game and he will miss one or two games&hellip; John Van Boxmeersaw alot of action in the Philadelphia game after Bouchard was injured. &ldquo;I played terribly.&rdquo; he said. Laperriere will undergo knee surgery in the off-season&hellip; The Canadiens continued their hex over the Rangers by drubbing the New Yorkers 7-2 Feb. 9&hellip; Guy Lafleuris playing the best hockey of his career, but is still having trouble scoring&hellip; Rookie Bob Gainey is seeing little ice time these days&hellip; Pete Mahovlich is the top sharpshooter in the league accoring to statistics released by Ron Andrews. Pete has scored on 22.5 percent of his shots. That&rsquo;s quite a turnaround from last season when he had an 8.2 shooting percentage.<h2>Looking At NHL Goalers</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01623/3622240-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="608" height="1926"></div><h2>Team Penalties</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03440/3622233-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="608" height="505"></div> &#9632;

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Habs’ Unlikely Heroes Avert Disaster

MONTREAL &mdash;Boston Bruin center Phil Esposito has become the 10th player in National Hockey League history to score 1.000 points and it took him 164 fewer games than any of the previous nine players to reach the exclusive plateau.Esposito, the NHL&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer and point-man this season. picked up his 100th point of the season last week against California during a 9-6 win on the West Coast and then reached the 1,000-point mark of his career at Vancouver in a 4-2 victory. It was an assist on a goal by John Bucyk. another player over the 1,000-point level. The milestone point for Esposito was in his 745th regular-season game.The previous fewest number of games to collect 1.000 points was 909 by Bobby Hull of Chicago Black Hawks. Here are the number of games it took each of the other eight players to record their 1.000th point in regular-season NHL, activity: Jean Beliveau. Montreal Canadiens, 911; Stan Mikita, Chicago, 923; Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings. 938; Frank Mahovlich, Toronto. Detroit. Montreal, 1,090; Norm Ullman, Detroit, Toronto, 1,113; John Bucyk. Detroit. Boston. 1,144; Henri Richard. Montreal, 1,194; and Alex Delvecchio, Detroit. 1,217.Esposito closed the week with an assist at Los Angeles, boosting his point-total for the season to 103 and a 16-point lead over runner-up and teammate, Bobby Orr, in the individual scoring race. It was the fourth straight season Esposito went over the 100-point mark and fifth time in six seasons &mdash; he missed it by one point in 1969-70. With 23 games left to play, Esposito would finish with 146 points at his current pace, which would be six short of his record 152 points in 1970-71. While he has maintained a near-record pace for points in recent weeks, his goal scoring has dropped off. In his first 29 games this season, he scored 35 goals. He has scored 13 in his last 26 games, but still leads the league with 47 and with three more will reach the 50-goal mark for the fourth straight season. He holds the seasonal record of 76 goals, set in 1970-71.Breaking Esposito&rsquo;s career points down further, he has had 827 in 511 games with Boston since being traded from Chicago prior to 1967-68. an average of 1.618 points per game. Among all-time players with 500 or more points. Orr has the best average &mdash; 1.351 on 700 points in 518 games. But Esposito is right behind at 1.324, including his Chicago totals.Another Boston player, Ken Hodge, is third in the scoring race with 76 points, eight more than Richard Martin of Buffalo. &#9632;

NHL WEEK — In Review

<div class="byline">BY HAL SIGURDSON</div>VANCOUVER &mdash;Bobby Schmautz is the best goal-scorer the Vancouver Cannucks have ever owned, but when you are in last place there isn&rsquo;t much point to standing pat.That was the reasoning going through general manager-coach Phil Maloney&rsquo;s mind Feb. 7 when he made the trade that sent Schmautz to the Boston Bruins in exchange for center Chris Oddleifson and right winger Fred O&rsquo;Donnell.&ldquo;We gave up a good player, Maloney conceded, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;re getting two good, young players in exchange&hellip; players we think have outstanding ability.&rdquo;Maloney&rsquo;s trouble is that as yet he hasn&rsquo;t had much opportunity to see his judgement vindicated.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01634/3622302-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="575" height="745"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRED O&rsquo;DONNELL&hellip;Hasn&rsquo;t Reported</figcaption></div>Oddleifson reported immediately after the trade and made an impressive debut as a Canuck. He won 75 percent of his face-offs and and scored a goal as the Canucks defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-4. However, he also bruised his shoulder and was temporarily knocked out of the lineup.O&rsquo;Donnell still hasn&rsquo;t reported. His wife is expecting the couple&rsquo;s first child momentarily and until that big day arrives, the aggressive 24-year-old right winger is reluctant to leave their Boston home.He also expects to be compensated for leaving a first place team certain to harvest a substantial bundle of playoff bonus money and coming to a last place team whose playoff chances are already extinct.&ldquo;But at this point in time that&rsquo;s a secondary consideration,&rdquo; insists Mike Carroll, his Boston-based business agent.&ldquo;Even if we agreed on money I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d report until after the baby is born,&rdquo; Carroll added. &ldquo;The timing of the trade was poor. It&rsquo;s no one&rsquo;s fault, but it&rsquo;s unfortunate it happened when it did.&rdquo;Oddleifson, also 24, undoubtedly wanted some financial compensation, too. but apparently he and Maloney had no trouble coming to a mutually agreeable arrangement.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to build my kind of team here.&rdquo; says Maloney, who has held the Canucks&rsquo; general manager-coach portfolio for less than a month.&ldquo;I want team players.&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;tenacious guys who will check and stand in front of the net because they want to score goals. I think Oddleifson and O&rsquo;Donnell both fit into that category.&rdquo;Understandably he&rsquo;s anxious to be able to put them both on display. Schmautz was popular with the Vancouver fans and even though the Canucks scored weekend victories over Detroit and Buffalo immediately after his departure there were a few cries of &ldquo;we want Schmautz&rdquo; from the Pacific Coliseum galleries.Schmautz&rsquo;s popularity with Vancouver&rsquo;s fans is easily understood. He scored 38 goals last season and had fashioned 26 more this season before the trade.The fact he Was traded to Boston, however, was no accident Maloney revealed.&ldquo;A lot of teams wanted Schmautz,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but 1 felt we owed it to Bobby to send him to a team like Boston. He&rsquo;s a natural for the Bruins, he&rsquo;ll fit right into their style. I didn&rsquo;t trade him because 1 was mad at him&hellip; I wasn&rsquo;t dissatisfied with his play in any way. I made the trade solely because 1 thought it would help our hockey team, but at the same time 1 wanted to do what was best for Bobby. He&rsquo;s given the Vancouver Canucks nothing but good service.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Maloney appears to be succeeding in his attempts to mold his kind of team. Since he took over as coach the Canucks&rsquo; record is 5-5-1. When he took over from Bill McCreary their record was 9-25-7.While he&rsquo;s gratified by the progress. Maloney is making no secret of the fact he&rsquo;s prepared to make more trades before the March-7 deadline. &#9632;

f0018-01

Canucks Not Yet Able To Collect On Schmautz Deal

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-14" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-1478/3622518-1-eng-US/f0019-142.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL Team Rasters

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National Hockey League SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">BY JACK BERRY</div>DETROIT &mdash;Mickey Redmond is ahead of him-self in one department but Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; right wing is behind in another &mdash; the pace that made him the first 50-goal scorer in club history and vaulted him to the All Star team. With 25 games remaining, the 26-year-old Redmond had scored 15 power play goals tops in the league, and just as many as he scored all last season. But Redmond also was six goals behind the pace that saw him score a Red Wing record 52 goals. Actually, Redmond has done quite handsomely &mdash; 30 goals through the first 53 games (and he missed two of those) &mdash; considering the turmoil the team has experienced this season and the variety of linemates he&rsquo;s had.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01299/3622556-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="293" height="434"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mickey Redmond</figcaption></div>He started out with Alex Delvecchio, one of the finest passers in the game&rsquo;s history and the man who fed him most often last season for the 52 goals.When Delvecchio succeeded Ted Garvin as coach, Redmond began a &ldquo;What&rsquo;s My Line?&rdquo; series. Lately he&rsquo;s been centered by Bill Hogaboam, the hair&rsquo;s a&mdash;flying rookie who has been almost the only bright spot all season.Redmond pace may be down some but it still is one most players would be happy to take. He doesn&rsquo;t have the best completion average, though, not even on his own team.Nelson DeBenedet. another rookie and a product of Michigan State University. has been used sparingly but when he&rsquo;s been on the ice. he&rsquo;s known the way to the net. While seeing limited duty in 13 games De Benedet took 10 shots and scored on four of them.And with the Wings&rsquo; fate for the season pretty well settled &mdash; another non-playoff finish Delvecchio is taking look at one more product of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, defenseman Al McLeod who played at Michigan Tech.A third year pro, McLeod was called up when Tom Mellor was returned to the Virginia Wings. With Thommie Bergman nursing knee injury. McLeod was scheduled for considerable ice time.Patching the defense and getting the forwards to help out has been Delvecchio&rsquo;s biggest problem, one that he hasn&rsquo;t been able to overcome.Now Jim Skinner is acting as caretaker general manager while the hunt goes on for a man to succeed Ned Harkness who resigned under heavy heat from the fans and the media.Two season ticket holders were so unhappy that they bought the Los Angeles Sharks of the World Hockey Association the day prior to Harkness&rsquo; resignation. While Charles H. Nolton and Pete Shagena, partners in a chemical supply company, said they were going to keep the Sharks in Los Angeles, those things have a way of changing.The guessing game for a new Red Wing GM continued with Ted Lindsay the popular favorite as an old swash-buckling hero of the days when the Red Wings were one of the best and toughest teams in hockey.Lindsay has said he&rsquo;d like the job, if it was offered, but that he would want complete authority. He also was critical of the Wings&rsquo; scouting which has been under the command of Skinner and Jack Patterson.Right or wrong, it has been felt in town that Jim Bishop was a shadowy eminence in the Red Wing front office and less than a week after Harkness&rsquo; resignation, Norris announced the formation of the National Lacrosse League. Norris said Bishop, who has a strong lacrosse background in Canada, was instrumental in putting the five-city league together.Norris holds the Toronto franchise (the other cities are Montreal. Rochester. Syracuse and Baltimore-Washington) and the speculation was that Bishop would handle the Toronto team and thus be removed from Olympia where he is listed as an executive vice president of the Red Wings.<h2>NHL SCOREBOARD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02211/3622549-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="604" height="626"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Atlanta 4 at N.Y. Islanders 1Vancouver 3 at St. Louis 2Wed. Feb. 13Atlanta 3 at Montreal 2Philadelphia 3 at Toronto 1Boston 9 at California 6Detroit 3 at Pittsburgh 5Vancouver 3 at Minnesota 3Los Angeles 0 at Chicago 4Thu. Feb. 14N.Y. Rangers 4 at Philadelphia 4N.Y. Islanders 2 at St. Louis 2Los Angeles 2 at Buffalo 4Fri. Feb. 15Detroit 4 at Montreal 9Boston 4 at Vancouver 2Sat. Feb. 16Atlanta 2 at Toronto 7N.Y. Rangers 9 at Vancouver 4Chicago 4 at NY Islanders 0Boston 5 at Los Angeles 2California 3 at Pittsburgh 7Minnesota 4 at St Louis 2Sun. Feb. 17Philadelphia 2 at Montreal 2Toronto 1 at Chicago 4Detroit 1 at Buffalo 2California 1 at Minnesota 7<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Feb. 19Montreal at N.Y. IslandersVancouver at Los AngelesAtlanta at St. LouisWed. Feb. 20Buffalo at TorontoBoston at MinnesotaPhiladelphia at DetroitCalifornia at ChicagoSt. Louis at PittsburghThu. Feb. 21Vancouver at MontrealN.Y. Rangers at Los AngelesAtlanta at BuffaloFri. Feb. 22N.Y. Rangers at CaliforniaSat. Feb. 23Los Angeles at MontrealVancouver at TorontoBoston at PittsburghSt. Louis at DetroitPhiladelphia at ChicagoAtlanta at MinnesotaSun. Feb. 24St. Louis at MontrealLos Angeles at TorontoPhiladelphia at N.Y. RangersN.Y. Islanders at DetroitBoston at BuffaloPittsburgh at ChicagoTue. Feb. 26Montreal at AtlantaToronto at DetroitVancouver at N.Y. IslandersWed. Feb. 27Vancouver at N.Y. RangersChicago at MinnesotaLos Angeles at PittsburghSt. Louis at CaliforniaThu. Feb. 28Pittsburgh at MontrealToronto at NY IslandersDetroit at BostonChicago at BuffaloMinnesota at PhiladelphiaLos Angeles at Atlanta &#9632;

f0021-01

Redmond’s Scoring Pace Slower, But Still Steady

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Often it is the little things that do not show up in the statistics or the headlines that win games in any sport. Coach Bob Pulford has the Kings doing the little things and it was paid off with rise from the lower depths to a position of playoff contention in the Western Division.The forewards are forechecking, skating their positions and coming back with their wingers to allow the defensemen to stand up at the blue line to meet the opposition, reducing the difficult shots on the goaltender. Everyone is hustling after the loose puck. Everyone is following shooters in for rebounds.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01325/3622587-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="290" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Butch Goring</figcaption></div>Over the last 10 weeks from the start of the first full week in December through the finish of the first full week in February the Kings had lost only 10 of 30 games, posting 16-10-4 record to raise their record for the season to 21-24-8 moving to within one point of third place.That first full week in February, the Kings opened at home with their widest margin of victory of the season. 5-1 over Buffalo, then took to the road for the finest weekend of their seven-season history, knocking off playoff position rivals with an almost flawless 2-1 triumph in St. Louis and a 6-3 romp in Atlanta in their first national television appearance that tied their high-scoring game of the season.The last two triumphs surpassed last season&rsquo;s IO victories on the road and tied their all-time high off 11 recorded in their first season and they still have nine road games left. With 21 victories on the road in two seasons. Pulford is the club&rsquo;s first coach to convince it that it can win anywhere, noteworthy achievement. The club has confidence now.Rogie Vachon has given up only one goal in each of his last four games. He has been the backbone of this surge, playing almost as good as a goaltender can play. His string of 24 consecutive complete games was interrupted when he lost his shutout in Atlanta and rusty Gary Edwards, healthy again, was brought in during the third period to get some work behind a safe 6-1 lead.The resurgence started when Tom Williams, Mike Murphy and Sheldon Kannegiesser were obtained in trade on the recommendation of new general manager Jake Milford. They have provided offensive balance. Williams has eight goals since arriving. Kannegiesser has surprised with his hardhitting defense.Williams talied twice in the triumph over Buffalo. Maloney tallied once and has four goals in his last seven games. He also had draw with Buffalo&rsquo;s Dave Dryden (how can you hurt a goaltender wearing mask?) and a knockdown triumph over Pierre Plante of St. Louis to run his undefeating fighting record for the season to 11-0-2, but he is becoming more than just a great fighter.Red-hot Juha Widing tallied twice against Atlanta, one on a penalty shot, to give him six goals in eight games. Don Kozak scored once to give him three in four games and the overaggressive cookie of last year has settled down to be a surprisingly smooth sophomore.Bob Nevin took a pass from Butch Goring, spun around and shot in the first goal in St. Louis, it was his first goal in 21 games and this is too long a scoring slump to be dismissed, but the veteran has been doing many of the little things that win games, checking carefully and making good plays.Goring made a super play to get off a good pass with Bob Plager hanging on his back as he skated in. Later, Nevin fed Goring who shot from the slot for the winning goal. Goring scored a goal in all three victories during the week. He stole the puck on a shorthanded situation and scored on a breakway to break up the Atlanta game.He has 14 goals now, which breaks no records. He does not have nearly the number of goals expected of him by now in his fifth season in the NHL. though only the last three have been full seasons. He steals the puck a lot and is one of the best in hockey on breakaways. But if he has flashy dipsy-doodle moves and is a clever, aggressive shooter, he is not powerful shooter.However Goring, as much as anyone, typifies the spirit of the players on this team. He does all the little things. He hustles all the time, bedeviling foes with his forechecking, especially killing penalties. At 5&rsquo;9&rdquo; and 168 pounds, he is small, but he is quick and tireless and gets the puck lot. He now has 12 scoring points in his last 10 games.The long-haired, helmeted youngster was a bit of a flake as a youngster, but at 24 he seems to have settled down. He married the former Cathy Love in June of 1971 and they go home to Winnipeg summers.His father is Kings&rsquo; scout and Butch is a former member of the Canadian National Team. He is just developing. He is center, but not oustanding on face-offs. However he works hard to make the most of himself. &#9632;

f0022-01

New Kings Help Lift Club Into Playoff Contention

<div class="byline">BY ALEX HARDY</div>LOS ANGELES &mdash;Those who know Dennis Murphy Agree it&rsquo;s his stubborn Irish streak that has kept him working 16-hour days to make the WHA a success. Whatever, Murphy has easily been the most important factor in the new league&rsquo;s steady climb. Even though the WHA will again lose several million dollars this season, the future is brighter. The best indicator is attendance, which has risen considerably over last year. Only two years ago the mention of the WHA brought gales of laughter from most hockey men. Throughout it all, Murphy, a chubby little Irish politician from southern California, kept insisting, &ldquo;were gonna make it, we re gonna make it.&rdquo; And he would round up another prospective franchise holder, presumably with more money than common sense. When faint-hearted owners bailed out, Murphy lined up buyers with more money.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01312/3622656-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="263" height="434"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dennis Murphy</figcaption></div>It was Murphy who dreamed up the idea of another major hockey league. It was Murphy who pushed it to reality and it&rsquo;s Murphy who is now guiding it toward profitability as president, having taken over from Gary Davidson recently.Even while Davidson was president he was really only the front man for Murphy. Ben Hatskin, chairman of the WHA board of trustees, admits there would have been no league without Murphy&rsquo;s tireless work. &ldquo;The best thing that happened to us after signing Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe was making Dennis president. He&rsquo;s doing hell of a job for us. You don&rsquo;t know the mess he had to clean up after Davidson. I just hope we can keep Dennis in the job.&rdquo;Although Murphy says he has sold 44 pro sport franchises in basketball, hockey and tennis, he is not wealthy. But he has that ability to ferret out men of wealth and convince them to back his ventures. It is a knack Murphy learned as a political fund raiser for former California governor Pat Brown when he was beating Richard Nixon. If there&rsquo;s a prospect with a loose dollar somewhere, Murphy will find him. His greatest salesmanship has been selling the Los Angeles Sharks three times, the lastest to a Detroit group.MINNESOTA: Fighting Saints were the hottest team in the league, largely through the efforts of the hottest trio in the league &mdash; Mike Antonovich. Steve Cardwell and Murray Heatley. In one recent span the line was averaging three goals a game.In addition, Wayne Connelly and Mike Walton are both among the WHA&rsquo;s Top 10 scorers and George Morrison is right behind. Already this season Saints have set 28 club records and tied 10 more. Walton. Connelly and Morrison are responsible for most. Coach Harry Neale isn&rsquo;t particularly impressed, though &ldquo;When you can make sandwiches out of records, then I&rsquo;ll be happy,&rdquo; he says.WINNIPEG: Jets continue to go after the City of Winnipeg to improve Winnipeg Arena. They want private boxes suspended from girders where fans can watch from above the ice. &ldquo;It would be an attraction for a people who are prepared to spend more for degree of intimacy,&rdquo; says one official. But the likeliest improvement is upholstering the 2,600 most expensive (red) seats. Jets are currently negotiating to lease the Arena another two years, but they&rsquo;re also putting out the suggestion they might buy it if it&rsquo;s for sale. &ldquo;We would make it the showplace for hockey in North America,&rdquo; says Saul Simkin, major owner of Jets. &ldquo;We would raise the roff, install a deck, pad every seat and put in cocktail lounges and restaurants.Meantime, Bobby Hull continues to generate goodwill. His most recent stop was Thompson, Manitoba a mining town near Hudson Bay where he attracted 400 to a banquet and became an honorary citizen along with wife Joanne. Three thousand youngsters turned out for a skate with Hull at the local arena.HOUSTON: Aeros continued to play like Champions. They are the closest team to .500 on the road which &mdash; along with Gordie Howe in the lineup &mdash; has made them the best WHA road attraction. They&rsquo;ve played before seven sellouts, three in Edmonton, two in Quebec, one in Toronto and one in Houston.And goalie Don McLeod continued to be sharp. McLeod has far and away the best won-loss percentage of any WHA netminder.VANCOUVER: Blazers continued to play hot and cold. At times coach Andy Bathgate mutters that &ldquo;there&rsquo;s been no progress with this club&rdquo; since he took over. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like talking to a brick wall sometimes. You get no reaction.&rdquo; His main gripes are that Blazers don&rsquo;t pass nor defend very well. They have allowed almost four goals game.&ldquo;The weakness with our defense is they can&rsquo;t handle the puck. They also don&rsquo;t shoot well enough,&rdquo; says Bathgate. He has spent recent practices teaching the wrist shot.One bright spot is Rob Walton, who has been scoring well since being obtained from Minnesota. Blazers also have been making some use of Camille Lapierre who was leading scorer in the Southern League before being called up. And Ed Hatoum, wh had no contract but was getting $300 a game, was cut for the thrid time.EDMONTON: Oilers have also been inconsistent, beating some top clubs then getting bombed by lowly teams. Two men who are exceptions to the general pattern are Rusty Patenaude and Tom Gilmore. Jim Harrison is great when he wants to be, but some nights hasn&rsquo;t earned half of his $1,000 per game wage. Jim Schraefel and Val Fonteyne continue to be practically unbeatable as a penalty killing unit. &#9632;

f0024-01

Murphy Sees His Dream Heading Towards Success

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div>CHICAGO &mdash;The Chicago Cougars, who have sputtered since the start of the season, finally won three of four and made a serious move to edge back into the hectic WHA East race. They defeated Bobby Hull and the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 on February 5, with two goals in the first period and one in the second. Duke Harris, Dick Proceviat and Bobby Whitlock got the Chicago goals with goalie Rich Coutu making 20 stops.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01259/3622701-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="275" height="446"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Ward</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Beating Bobby Hull here in Chicago has to be a big thing,&rdquo; said Pat Stapleton, the Cougars coach. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ll be alright now.&rdquo;The next night they were far from all right with Minnesota winning 7-2, in St. Paul, and Reggie Fleming winding up in the hospital with a bilateral lower jaw fracture, courtesy of Gordon Gallant of the Fighting Saints.But Chicago bounced back in two clutch encounters over the weekend, winning 5-2 from Jersey and 4-2 from Los Angeles. The Jersey win was exceptionally pleasing as the Knights had been a jinx squad for the Windy City six. Jersey had taken three of four from Chicago. Bob Liddington got two goals, with Rosy Paiement, Duke Harris and Jan Popiel getting the others.&ldquo;If Paiement could get hot we could move right up,&rdquo; notes Stapleton. &ldquo;Rosy can be a thirty goal scorer.&rdquo;In the L.A. game, Cougars got off a plane from Chicago land and bombed the Sharks with three first period goals. They are right behind Cleveland and Toronto with all three teams one game over .500, And, as mentioned before here, the Chicago six has games in hand on both competitors.Stapleton also sent backup goaler Andre Gill to Long Island of the NAHL, preferring to go with Cam Newton and Rich Coutu.CLEVELAND: The Chicago surge spurred action on the part of Jack Vivian. the Crusader GM. He swung a big trade, sending left wing Bill Young and right wing Ted Hodgson to the Los Angeles Sharks for center Ron Ward, who finished second in 1972-73 in the WHA scoring race.&ldquo;We had a desperate need for additional scoring and Ron definitely has the ability to put the puck in the net,&rdquo; said Vivian.Ward played for the New York Raiders last season, was traded to Vancouver in the offseason and later to the Sharks. He tallied 51 goals and 67 assists for 118 points in 77 games last year. So far this year he has 14 goals and 21 asists for 35 points.The trade came after the Crusaders had lost two of three during the week. They opened by losing to Minnesota 4-1 on February 5. Mike Walton demolished the Crusaders with two goals. Doug Brindley scored for Cleveland.Three night later Cleveland lost to last year&rsquo;s arch rival, the New England Whalers, 4-2 at home before 6,174. That had to hurt. With Cleveland leading 1-0 in the first on Grant Erickson&rsquo;s power play goal, Mike Byers bounced a shot off Gerry Cheevers pads and in. Later, Larry Pleau went one on one with Cheevers, faked him to his knees and scored.With the Clevelanders threatening to sink out of the race, they upended Toronto, maintaining the East Divison&rsquo;s unusual parity. Paul Andrea scored his tenth for the game winner in the third period. It was his second goal of the game.NEW ENGLAND: The Whalers went 1-2 for the week, losing a big clutch game to Quebec on Feb. 6 3-0 at the Boston Garden. Coach Ron Ryan felt, &ldquo;We let them off the hook. Quebec has had trouble winning away from home and we disappointed the crowd (7,617).&rdquo;In the topsy turvy world which is the WHA, New England then moved on to Cleveland Feb. 8, and whacked the Crusaders 4-2. Mike Byers, Larry Pleau. Bob Charlebois and Tim Sheehy did the honors with Byers, Pleau and Sheehy all getting their 19th goals.Back at Boston, on Feb. 10, the Whalers blew again before the home folks, making their home record 21-10-1. They lost to Minnesota 5-2 with 8,465 on hand. Pleau got his 20th, but Minnesota was full value.TORONTO: The Toros split 1-1 over the Feb. 9-10 weekend, losing to Cleveland 4-3 and winning from Jersey 5-4. Defenseman Bill Orr, up from Jacksonville got his second WHA goal, in the loss to Cleveland. Toronto had a 2-1 lead at the end of one and was tied 3-3 at the end of two. Orr, a tough hard nosed guy, has done well in injury emergencies on the Toros&rsquo; backline. He was with the champion Syracuse Blazers of the EHL last year.On Feb. 9, goalie Gilles Gratton complained about the ice in the Cherry Hill Arena as Toros whipped Knights 5-4. In the final period referee Ron Ego evened up the matter of ice conditions by using international rules and making the teams switch after 10 minutes. Three minutes after this switch the Toros struck for two quick goals, by Jack Gibson and Guy Trottier.QUEBEC: The Nordiques played three straight on the road and won two of them, 3-0 over the Whalers and 4-3 at Edmonton, while losing to Vancouver 7-3. This had to make Jacques Plante a bit happier. Plante has been appointed a Quebec vice president, replacing Marius Fortier, who resigned. Paul Racine the president of the Nordiques also added John Dacres to the executive board, to assist as trustee in dealings with the WHA.In the New England game, Nordiques goaler Serge Aubry stopped 34 shots. It was his first shutout of the season. Renald Leclerc and Bobby Guindon paced Quebec with goal and two assists each. Andre Gaudette got the insurance goal.JERSEY: Harry Howell&rsquo;s Knights won on the road at Los Angeles with a big 7-4 kayo on Feb. 7. They beat former teammates Ian Wilkie and Jim McLeod, the L.A. goalers. Kevin Morrison scored his 13th goals of the year, quite fat for the unsung rookie blue liner. And Brian Morenz got hat trick, bringing hus total to 13. He also added an assist. Andre Lacroix had five assists. On the way home the Knights stopped in Chicago and lost 5-2 on Feb. 9, and then went down again Feb. 10 to Toronto 5-4.New Jersey outshot the Toros 42-36, but Gary Kurt surrendered two bad third period goals for the loss. Kurt is 5-6 with Joe Junkin being 15-18-2. Lacroix, last year&rsquo;s point champ, is now tied for fifth and is only 9 points from leader Wayne Carleton. Don&rsquo;t count him out.<h2>WHA SCOREBOARD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03127/3622694-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="592" height="497"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 14Houston 3 at Minnesota 1Winnipeg 4 at Los Angeles 2Edmonton 2 at Chicago 3Quebec 4 at Toronto 6Wed. Feb. 13New England 4 at Vancouver 9Edmonton 4 at Minnesota 7Winnipeg 1 at Houstodhi 5Thur. Feb. 14Quebec 5 at Chicago 3Toronto 5 at Jersey 2Fri. Feb. 15New England 7 at Edmonton 3Winnipeg 1 at Minnesota 7Houston 6 at Los Angeles 4Cleveland 2 at Jersey 6Sat. Feb. 16Toronto 5 at Chicago 4Quebec 2 at Cleveland 5Sun. Feb. 17Toronto 2 at Edmonton 3New England 3 at Winnipeg 2Minnesota 6 at Houston 1Vancouver 4 at Los Angeles 0Quebec 3 at Jersey 10Chicago 5 at Cleveland 6<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon. Feb. 18Chicago at JerseyTue. Feb. 19Toronto at VancouverCleveland at QuebecWed. Feb. 20Winnipeg at EdmontonJersey at HoustonNew England at Los AngelesThu. Feb. 21Vancouver at ChicagoFrl. Feb. 22Toronto at WinnipegMinnesota at QuebecSat. Feb. 23Edmonton at HoustonVancouver at ClevelandNew England at ChicagoSun. Feb. 24Chicago at WinnipegVancouver at HoustonEdmonton at Los AngelesNew England at TorontoJersey at QuebecMinnesota at ClevelandTue. Feb. 26Vancouver at HoustonWinnipeg at QuebecLos Angeles at ChicagoWed. Feb. 27Los Angeles at MinnesotaToronto at New EnglandThu. Feb. 28Cleveland at MinnesotaWinipeg at TorontoVancouver at QuebecNew England at JerseyHouston at ChicagoFri. Mar. 1Houston at EdmontonMinnesota at Winnipeg<h2>WHA Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02187/3622687-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="591" height="939"></div> &#9632;

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Chicago Cougars Move Up In Race; Crusaders Hoping Ward Adds Punch

A noted publisher in Chicago reports there is simple technique for acquiring a powerful memory which can pay you real dividends in both business and social advancement and works like magic to give you added poise, necessary self-confidence and greater popularity.According to this publisher, many people do not realize how much they could influence others simply by remembering accurately everything they see, hear, or read. Whether in business, at social functions, or even in casual conversations with new acquaint ances, there are ways in which you can dominate each situation by your ability to remember.To acquaint the readers of this publication with the easy-to-follow rules for developing skill in remembering anything you choose to remember, the publishers have printed full details of their self-training method in a new booklet, &ldquo;Adventures in Memory,&rdquo; which will be mailed free to any-one who requests it. No obligation. Send your name, address, and zip code to: Memory Studies, 555 E. Lange St., Dept. 746-44, Mundelein, Ill. 60060. &#9632;

I.Q. Of 145 And Can’t Remember?

f0026-01

World Hockey Association Summaries

<div class="byline">BY HANS TANNER</div>HALIFAX &mdash;&ldquo;If we play up to our potential, well be in there strong.&rdquo;Coach Al MacNeil of the Nova Scotia Voyageurs isn&rsquo;t predicting his team will repeat as divisional champions this season, but neither is he saying they won&rsquo;t.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing on a good level right now,&rdquo; he said early in February. &ldquo;But there is lot more potential there to be realized. It&rsquo;s up to me to get it out of them.&rdquo; The Voyageurs were resting in fourth place in the North Division at the time and were nine points behind leading New Haven, six in back of runnerup Providence and four behind third-place Rochester.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01247/3622962-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="288" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al MacNeil</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It should be an exciting finish,&rdquo; Mac Neil predicted. &ldquo;Second place is more up for grabs that first. New Haven has opened a little daylight and Charley Bums had done a great job with that club. They are a well-disciplined hockey club. They go the whole 60 minutes and are difficult to cope with.&ldquo;Providence has been getting stronger. The Reds got back goaltender Peter McDuffe and defenseman Larry Sacharuk from the Rangers, and getting Paul Curtis on defense will help them a lot. Rochester has line centerman and plenty of experience.&ldquo;Injuries and recalls could have lot to do with the finish. Rochester is the only team that doesn&rsquo;t have to worry about recalls, but injuries could hurt because they might have trouble obtaining players to replace them.MacNeil has a lot of first-hand knowledge about recalls. At one time, early in the month, he found himself without three pretty fair defensemen in Jean Lemieux. Richard Wilson and John Van Boxmeer. Lemieux was recalled by Atlanta and the other two were with the parent Montreal Canadiens because of injuries.Len Cunning, injured in a fight in Rochester back on Nov. 9, finally returned to the lineup.The Vees lost a good chance to close the gap on the leaders when they were surprised 3-1 by Virginia here on Feb. 6. It was only Nova Scotia&rsquo;s third defeat in 26 home games.They poured 56 shots on Virginia goalie George Hulme while Virginia was mustering only 23.But MacNeil said while the quantity was there, the quality was not.&ldquo;We got lot of shots, but they were from well out. They weren&rsquo;t what you&rsquo;d call effective shots. We didn&rsquo;t power them like we should have,&rdquo; he said.JACKSONVILLE: John Hanna the player was apparently what John Hanna the coach needed to keep his Barons afloat in the race for a playoff spot.Until Hanna fully recovered from a broken leg suffered in March while playing for the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association, put himself into the lineup. Jacksonville had won five, lost 20 and tied none on the road this season.But after starting an 11-game road trip, the longest in AHL history, with four straight setbacks and finding himself with four defensemen, Hanna went back to work.His team stunned North Division leader New Haven 3-2 in New Haven, was drubbed 7-2 in Rochester, then shocked South Division leading Hershey 4-3 in Hershey and tied 2-2 in Baltimore and 3-3 in Richmond before falling 5-4 in Virginia.And Hanna scored a pair of goals and assisted on three others in his first six games.Billy Heindl has joined the Barons from Cleveland and should help give Jacksonville more offensive punch.ROCHESTER: Coach Don Cherry always talks about a hockey season being series of peaks and valleys &mdash; peaks when his team is playing well and winning and valleys when things aren&rsquo;t going too well.Things had been peaking pretty much all season after the opening month, but they suddenly plummeted to a valley just when the Arnerks were challenging New Haven for first place in the North.A 6-4 home loss to Providence was followed by a 4-3 defeat at home against Hershey. It was the first time all season Rochester had dropped two straight at home and only the second time the Arnerks had dropped two in a row at all.Failure of the Arnerks&rsquo; power play has been a cause for worry. Through games of Feb. 6, Rochester had gone seven games without a power play goal.Of their last 39 goals at that point, only one came with an enemy player in the penalty box. Rochester&rsquo;s penalty killers, meanwhile, had scored three goals. And the opposition&rsquo;s penalty killers had tallied twice against the Americans&rsquo; power play.Art Stratton hiked his career total of assists to 510 putting him in a tie for the fourth spot on the all-time list. He is tied with former Springfield Indian center Bill Sweeney. The veteran Amerk center surely will break the tie and move into the fourth spot, but will have to go some to reach third place which is held by former Hershey star Mike Nykoluk. Mike retired from active competition with 686 assists to his credit.CINCINNATI: A couple of AHL cities may have the chance to see Jim Schoenfeld. Buffalo&rsquo;s first draft choice in 1972. The big (he&rsquo;s 6&rsquo;3&rdquo;, 195 pounds) and rough (he had 178 penalty minutes as rookie pro with Buffalo last season) defenseman has been with the Swords to regain his conditioning following a back operation early in the season.Coach Floyd Smith doesn&rsquo;t expect Schoenfeld or Larry Mickey, the hustling veteran forward who suffered a broken leg during training camp, to hang around long. The Sabres were away on a West Coast trip and there was no ice in Buffalo, so the pair went to Cincinnati to continue their conditionning program.<h2>AHL Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02196/3622955-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="595" height="956"></div><h2>Looking At AHL Race</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03144/3622948-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="585" height="537"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Virginia 2 at Baltimore 10Boston 5 at Jacksonville 5Wed. Feb. 13Springfeield 1 at Cincinnati 6Hershey 1 at New Haven 7Rochester 4 at Virginia 1Thu. Feb. 14Jacksonville 4 at Nova Scotia 6New Haven 5 at Providence 6Rochester 6 at Richmond 5Fri. Feb. 15Rochester 3 at Baltimore 6Jacksonville 3 at Cincinnati 8Hershey 8 at Springfield 4Boston 1 at Virginia 4Sat. Feb. 16New Haven 1 at Springfield 2Sun. Feb. 17Virginia 1 at Cincinnati 2Rochester 4 at Jacksonville 2Baltimore 5 at New Haven 5Springfeild 6 at Nova Scotia 3Hershey 4 at Providence 5Boston 4 at Richmond 6<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Feb. 19Springfield at BaltimoreRochester at JacksonvilleWed. Feb. 20Rochester at HersheyNova Scotia at New HavenCincinnati at ProvidenceFri. Feb. 22Virginia at BaltimoreCincinnati at New HavenProvidence at RichmondBoston at SpringfieldSat. Feb. 23Providence at BaltimoreRochester at CincinnatiNew Haven at HersheyNova Scotia at SpringfieldSun. Feb. 24New Haven at CincinnatiVirginia at JacksonvilleBoston at Nova ScotiaSpringfield at ProvidenceHershey at RichmondBaltimore at RochesterTue. Feb. 26Baltimore at BostonVirginia at Jacksonville &#9632;

f0027-01

MacNeil Figures Vees Can Make It If They Put Out

<div class="byline">BY JOHN TRAVERS</div>HERSHEY &mdash;For a little guy Don Seiling does a lot of damage. Just ask any of the Hershey Bears&rsquo; American Hockey League opponents.The 5-10, 175-pound mighty mite winger seems to be at his best when the Southern Division leading Bears are shorthanded. Seiling, brother of New York Rangers&rsquo; star Rod Seiling, popped in 20 goals in his first 53 games, but a half-dozen came with his club shorthanded.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01235/3623000-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="286" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Seiling</figcaption></div>What&rsquo;s amazing about the rookie from Elmira. Ont., is that he almost didn&rsquo;t make the Hershey club.When coach Chuck Hamilton and club president-general manager Frank Mathers got their heads together at the season&rsquo;s start on the makeup of the Hershey squad, it was between Seiling and another skater for a forward position. Hamilton decided to take Seiling. It proved a very wise decision.The breakdown on Seiling&rsquo;s goals is quite remarkable. Of his 20 goals, he has four unassisted, three game winners. four tying markers and two power play tallies, along with the six shorthanded goals.Hamtilton tags Seiling as quite a hustler and has used him with different line combinations as well as a penalty killer.Despite his size, opinion is Seiling has the potential to play in the National League because of his elusive skating ability.And as a playmaker, he is right up there among the club&rsquo;s best with I8 assists.BALTIMORE: Howie Menard&rsquo;s goal in the final 56 seconds against Jacksonville gave the Clippers a 2-2 tie and kept them in second place in the Southern Division race which has turned into a three-way battle between Hershey, the leaders, and Cincinnati. Ken Lockett&rsquo;s goaltending remains sharp as he had lowered his average to a nifty 2.76 for 21 starts. He has a pair of shutouts. Dave Gilmour, one of the Clippers hard-working forwards, finally nailed a hat trick against Rochester before the hometown fans. Marc Dufour has started to offer challenge to New Haven&rsquo;s Steve West for the individual scoring litle. Dufour had 62 points after 48 games, while West was at 72 points. At last look the Clippers were 17-5-3 on home ice.VIRGINIA: The Red Wings came up with a 5-3 key win against the Boston Braves. Feb. to stay in the thick of the race for a Calder position. Robbie Ftorek continued to remain among the Wings&rsquo; top scorers with 43 points. The Boston area product had 16 goals and 27 assists after 40 games. Pacing the club in goals in Dan Gruen with 23. With the return of Doug Grant from Detroit, the Wings defensive play should improve. Grant was one of the league&rsquo;s finest goaltenders last season, closing with a 2.54 average to earn first All Star team honors.RICHMOND: The Robins might not be out of the playoff picture just yet. Coach Larry Wilson has the club rolling as the second week of Feb. hove into view. The Robins had not lost at home in their last five games and Rene Drolet&rsquo;s play sparkled as he moved up among the league&rsquo;s top scorers with 49 points after 51 games. He had 20 goals and 29 assists. If the injury plagued club can remain healthy it still has an outside chance of making a last ditch run at a playoff berth.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02166/3622993-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="570" height="1241"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE GILMOUR &hellip; Three-Goal Night</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

Rookie Seiling Best When Bears Short

<h2>Sat. Feb. 2 PROVIDENCE 3 at BALTIMORE 5</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Baltimore. Foley (Rivard) &hellip; 10:142&mdash;Baltimore, Rolando (Granchukoff. Douglas) &hellip; 13:25Penalties: Rivard 2:07: Kemp 18:32.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Baltimore. Murphy (Dufour, Gilmour) &hellip; 16:324&mdash;Providence. Horbul (Middleton. Teeple) &hellip; 17:02Penalties: Wilson 10:42.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Baltimore. Kemp (Granchukoff) &hellip; 0:556&mdash;Providence. Teeple (Middleton. Horbul) &hellip; 5:477&mdash;Baltimore. Dufour &hellip; 7:198&mdash;Providence. Bednarski (Horbul) &hellip; 16:08Penalties: Douglas 5:47: Wilson 11:12: Salovaara 15:23: Foley 18.39.Saves: Ridley (Providence) 29. DeJordy (Baltimore) 31.Attendance: 4,848.<h2>Sun. Feb. 3 PROVIDENCE 6 at ROCHESTER 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Rochester, Graham (Mattiussi. Stratton) &hellip; 8:372&mdash;Providence. Bednarski (Dennis) &hellip; 14:383&mdash;Rochester. McKillop (Eliett) &hellip; 17:204&mdash;Providence, Blanchard (Dennis. Borgeson) &hellip; 18:59Penalties: Wilson (major). Wensink (minor, major) 0:15: Malcolm 4:18.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Rochester. Bredin (McKillop) &hellip; 4:116&mdash;Providence. Sacharuk (Dennis. Bednarski) &hellip; 7:477&mdash;Providence, Horbul (Teeple) &hellip; 8:55Penalties: Mattiussi 6:26. Legge 10:53. McKillop 17:03.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Providence. Wilson (Curtis. Lagamere) &hellip; 6:209&mdash;Rochester. Kuntz (Malcolm) &hellip; 9:0510&mdash;Providence, Dennis (Borgeson. Blanchard) &hellip; 10:22Penalties. Bredin 5:16 McKillop 14:36: Legge 14:36, 17:03.Saves: Ridley (Providence) 30. Zimmerman (Rochester) 30.Attendance: 7,282.<h2>JACKSONVILLE 2 at BALTIMORE 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Baltimore, Gilmour (Houde, Salovaara) &hellip; 6:342&mdash;Jacksonville. Jordan (Buetow. Nistico) &hellip; 15:20Penalties: Jordan 12:25. Douglas 14 33. Gilmour (misconduct). Douglas (misconduct, game is conduct) 15:20.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Jacksonville. Cournoyer &hellip; 8:33Penalties: Nistico 9:49: Jacques 13:40. Cournoyer 19:04<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Baltimore. Menard (Houde. Dufour) &hellip; 19:04Penalties: Nistico 9:49. Jacques 13.40: Cournoyer 19:04.Saves: Gray (Jacksonville) 38. Lockett (Baltimore) 25.Attendance: 3,022.<h2>CINCINNATI 2 at NOVA SCOTIA 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Cincinnati, Nichols (Richer, Robertson) &hellip; 3:002&mdash;Cincinnati. Inglis (Richardson) &hellip; 4:243&mdash;Nova Scotia. Cahoon (Shanahan, Howse) &hellip; 10:25Penalties: Landry 8:23.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: Andruff 1:58: Delparte 6:42 F. Richardson 8:50: S. Richardson 14:57.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Nova Scotia, Sullivan (Fullan. Oja) &hellip; 10:12Penalties: NoneSaves Bromley (Cincinnati) 32. Elenbaas (Nova Scotia) 25<h2>VIRGINIA 1 at NEW HAVEN 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;New Haven. West (Lee Patterson) &hellip; 10:442&mdash;New Haven, Lee (West. Shaw) &hellip; 14:49Penalties: Langlais (major). Bonnar (major) 6:11; Gruen (major), Plager (major) 10:55: Ftorek 18:28.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>No scoringPenalties: Rogers 4:05<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Virginia. Fontaine (Stewart, Newell) &hellip; 4:554&mdash;New Haven. Norrish (Dunlop. McPhail) &hellip; 19:45Penalties Murray 1:45.Saves: Grant (Virginia) 24, Carter (New Haven) 26.Attendance: 3.997<h2>Tue. Feb. 5 VIRGINIA 4 at BOSTON 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Boston, Gibson (Corkery) &hellip; 9:002&mdash;Boston. Boehm (Clairmont, Simmons) &hellip; 16:21Penalties Murray 13 Boxer 17:37.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Virginia, Klewchuk (Murray) &hellip; 3:344&mdash;Virginia. Fontaine (Newell) &hellip; 7:12Penalties. Clairmont 12:25: Ftorek 15:00.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Virginia. Fontaine (Carpenter) &hellip; 4:056&mdash;Virginia. Newell &hellip; 6:49Penalties: Gryp 5:59.Saves. Grant (Virginia) 34. Reece (Boston) 24,Attendance 1,553<h2>Wed. Feb. 6 JACKSONVILLE 3 at RICHMOND 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Richmond. Wright (McCullough. Boland) &hellip; 1:462&mdash;Richmond. Lajeunesse (Drolet. McCullough) &hellip; 14:363&mdash;Jacksonville. Morgan (Hannar. Warr) &hellip; 17:54Penalties: Hopiavouri 6:20 Cowick 10:18: Morgan 13:45.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Jacksonville. Buetow &hellip; 6:06Penalties: None<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Richmond. Schock (Drolet, McCullough) &hellip; 7:456&mdash;Jacksonville. Pumple (Hopiavouri. Rycroft) &hellip; 16:25Penalties McCullough 1:28: Rycroft 5:19.Saves: Gray (Jacksonville) 50. Paille (Richmond) 26.Attendance: 4.085.<h2>HERSHEY 4 at ROCHESTER 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Hershey. Andrascik (Sheremeta. Jones) &hellip; 15:492&mdash;Hershey. Burns (Methe. Seiling) &hellip; 16.05Penalties: Keller 0.21<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Hershey. Wiley (Pearson. Nowak) &hellip; 4.37Penalties Ellett 2:20 Andrascik 3:03. Burns (minor, misconduct, game misconduct) 5:49: Dussiaume 8:21: Mattiussi 15:25 Gauthier 19:09.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Rochester. Merrell (Kuntz. Rathwell) &hellip; 2:155&mdash;Rochester. Mattiussi (Ferguson. Bredm) &hellip; 4:486&mdash;Hershey. Seiling (Hrycuik) &hellip; 5:577&mdash;Rochester, Ferguson (Gauthier) &hellip; 7:48Penalties: Ewasiuk (major). Malcolm (major) 5:22: Owchar 5:35 Labre 12:11: Stratton 15:37.Saves: Herron (Hershey) 32. Sneddon (Rochester) 25.Attendance. 4.787. &#9632;

American Hockey League Summaries

<div class="byline">BY GREG FARLEY</div>SPRINGFIELD &mdash;Come playoff time, the Springfield Kings are going to be on the outside looking in again, but in the meantime, they&rsquo;re going to have a lot of fun making life miserable for the privileged people.&ldquo;My guys haven&rsquo;t quit yet and they&rsquo;re not about to now,&rdquo; insisted coach Jerry Toppazzini. &ldquo;Even if we don&rsquo;t make the playoffs &mdash; and we&rsquo;re not out of it yet we&rsquo;re going to have a lot to say about the final outcome.&rdquo; Topper&rsquo;s colleagues should heed his words, because the Kings, dead last in their division for much of the year, are suddenly very much alive these days.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01200/3623055-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="292" height="375"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve West</figcaption></div>A healthy home record (6-1-6 in 13 games), coupled with improved play on the road, has elevated the Kings back into contention, though a playoff berth appears out of reach for the second consecutive season.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t count us out yet,&rdquo; cautioned Toppazzini. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got five and six games in hand on the teams ahead of us and, if we can capitalize on them, we&rsquo;ll be right in there with the rest of them.&rdquo;Still, the Kings playoff chances would seem remote at best, though stranger things have happened in years past.As it is, Toppazzini has brought the Kings out of obscurity and onto the heels of the Boston Braves, who not so long ago were 15 points shead of their Massachusetts rivals.With Toppazzini cracking the whip, however, the Kings refused to pack it in, despite a rash of serious injuries to key personnel.Norm Dube, the club&rsquo;s leading goal scorer, was lost for two, months with a broken ankle, while various other maladies cost the Kings the services of Scott Seagrist, Ross Webley, John Dobie and Brian Erickson for extended periods.Additionally, the Kings lost goaltending gem Steve Rexe to the LA Kings for three weeks when Gary Edwards was hurt. But, amazingly, the Kings kept coming and now seem assured of making a decent season out of an apparent disaster.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had some tough luck with injuries,&rdquo; conceded Topper, &ldquo;but we don&rsquo;t like to use them as an excuse. These kids really showed me something. The tougher things got. the more they pulled together.&ldquo;Everyone&rsquo;s been chipping in with a key goal or a key play. Believe me. I&rsquo;m really proud of the way we&rsquo;ve held together.&rdquo;Unfortunately, it appears the Kings have come together a little too late.NEW HAVEN: At last look, Lyle Carter (13-6-3 in the Hawks&rsquo; net) owned the league&rsquo;s best goals against average of 2.48&hellip; League leading scorer Steve West put together four goal, six point week to fatten his lead to 10 points over the Clippers&rsquo; Marc Dufour and Rochester&rsquo;s Barry Merrell&hellip; By scoring his 23rd goal (in just 35 games). Hawks&rsquo; rookie sensation Blake Dunlop became the highest goal-scoring freshman in the team&rsquo;s brief history, erasing Gary Howatt&rsquo;s total of 22 set last year&hellip; John Rogers returned from Minnesota where he contributed two goals and four assists in a five week stint.PROVIDENCE: Defenseman John Bednarski, the AHL&rsquo;s &ldquo;bad man&rdquo; with well over 200 penalty minutes, had as many points (4) as he did penalty minutes in a recent week. And three of them were goals&hellip; Pete McDuffe returned to the Reds&rsquo; nets after spelling injured Gilles Villemure on the Rangers&rsquo; roster. During his absence. Curt Ridley handled the bulk of the goal tending chores, with a tip of the hat to Wayne Wood, who has since been returned to Albuquerque&hellip; Reds lead the league in several categories including goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, minors, 10 minute misconducts, majors and goals.BOSTON: Disappointing Braves, showing little desire or cohesion in recent weeks, appear to be just playing out the string. The silence of several of last year&rsquo;s big guns has contributed greatly to the Braves&rsquo; downfall&hellip; Defenseman Don Craig fulfilled his five game amateur tryout and was returned to the Cape Cod Cubs&hellip; Yvon Bouillon will remain with the Cubs indefinitely to work himself back into shape following a knee problem. &#9632;

f0029-01

Playoff Spot Slipping Away But Kings Could Be Spoilers

<div class="byline">BY JOHN ARNOLD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02164/3623086-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="829" height="1099"></div><h2>SOLUTION IN MARCH ISSUE</h2><h3>ACROSS</h3>1. Member of the Rangers.7. One of the Bruins.8. Former Toronto captain.11. Ex-NHL defenseman.12. Affirmative.14. One of the Blues answers to this.16. First name of one of the Sabres.17. Skating requisite.19. Initials of 54-55 Calder trophy winner.20. To make mistakes.21. Number of goals scored by Sather last year.22. One of the Islanders.25. Former NHL forward.27. Goaltenders hate these. (abbr.)29. An Islander left winger.31. Former Detroit and Chicago forward.32. Cougars&rsquo; playing coach answers to this.<h3>DOWN</h3>1. A Vancouver Blazers&rsquo; forward.2. Coaches Mowhawk Valley in the NAHL.3. One of the Leafs answers to this.4. Former Islanders&rsquo; coach.5. 15th and 1st letters of the alphabet.6. One of the Leafs, (init).9. Initials of one of the Rangers.10. Non-negotiable. (abbr.)13. One of the Rangers.15. Initials of one of the Bruins18. Pictured player.22. A broken one will keep a player out of the lineup.23. Fans like close ones.24. Number worn by 9 down.26. Phil Esposito injured one last season.28. First name of an NHL referee.29. Initials of one of the Habs.30. L.A. coach. (init)<h2>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S ANSWERS</h2><h3>Across</h3>1. ANGOTTI.7. NEIL.9. ONCE.11. D.S.12. REGAN.13. R.R.T.14. F.M.15. EEL.17. ROY.19. ART.20. F.L.21. H.22. ONE.24. E.V.25. KEON.27. LES.29. 00.30. ANDRE.32. G.A.34. MACNEIL<h3>Down</h3>1. ANDREA.2. NESTERENKO.3. G.IL.4. O.L.5. TOE.6. INGARFIELD.7. HENRY.10. C.A.12. R.M.16. L.T.18. OLIVER.23. E.E.26. N.A.28. SEAL.29. ORR.31. NON.32. G.M.33. A.A. &#9632;

f0029-02

HOCKEY CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">BY DOUG McCONNELL</div>PHOENIX &mdash;Sandy Hucul put goaltender Don Caley on a crash program and took his team to the movies.As a result, the Phoenix Roadrunners are on a four-game losing streak and playing some of their soundest hockey of the season. although they&rsquo;ve slipped to third place, a point behind the high-scoring Salt Lake Golden Eagles.Caley, a Western Hockey League All Star the past two seasons, came out of a half-season retirement in January and to get him enough work to gain mid-season form. Hucul loaned rookie Dave Hainsworth to Albuquerque then Gary Simmons to Tulsa, both of the Central League, under emergency conditions.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01231/3623124-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="276" height="449"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Caley</figcaption></div>Caley has played six of the last seven games.He was bombed for 17 goals in his first three starts, losing the first two and winning the third 8-7 in overtime.&ldquo;That&rsquo;ll only make Don mad,&rdquo; predicted Hucul. &ldquo;I know him too well.&rdquo;Caley responded by allowing just four goals in his next three starts, winning all three.Of course, he didn&rsquo;t do it alone.Hucul had movies taken of a couple of games and the Roadrunners watched their mistakes. The biggest was they had stopped hitting.They returned to their hitting game and are giving the goaltender more protection.&ldquo;Playing in front of Caley may be giving the guys more confidence.&rdquo; said Hucul, &ldquo;but whatever the reason, they&rsquo;re certainly playing a lot better.&rdquo;Gary Braun, the defenseman who spent the earlier part of the season with Greensboro in the Southern League, has been the most consistent hitter on defense but lately has been getting help from John Barber and captain Adam Keller.Howie Young, besides leading the team in goals with 23. has been the most consistent hitting forward and has been joined by Kevin O&rsquo;Shea.After a recent 5-2 victory over league leading San Diego. Hucul had special praise for right wing O&rsquo;Shea.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t score a goal, just one assist. but I thought it was his best game as a Roadrunner. He did an awful lot of hitting and did he ever deck (Connie) Madigan in front of their goal.&rdquo;Shaking a mild slump. Murray Keogan has scored nine points in the last four games, three on goals, to move up to fourth in the WHL scoring race. He has 19 goals and 36 assists for 55 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04100/3623117-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="567" height="867"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN O&rsquo;SHEA &hellip; Wins Praise</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

Caley’s Goaling Snaps Runners Back

DENVER &mdash;The Denver Spurs, winning pair of rack-to-back games in overtime from Portland and Seattle, no longer seem altogether out of the playoff race.Sporting a 7-6-0 record since Vic Stasiuk took over as coach, the Spurs are now 10 points behind the filth place Seattle Totems and 12 back of the fourth place Portland Buckaroos.Frank Spring scored with 3:39 gone in overtime to give the Spurs a 4-3 victory in Portland where the Buckaroos had only lost once in their previous 20 home dates.The following night Bob CoIlyard&rsquo;s goal 46 seconds into the extra period gave the Spurs a 4-3 victory over Seattle.The shuttle system continues, however. with Denver fans never knowing from one game to the next who will be in their lineup.Defenseman and team captain Glenn Patrick, son of St. Louis Blues&rsquo; senior vice president Lynn Patrick, was called up to the Blues along with winger Gordie Brooks.Brooks&rsquo; callup was his second and came after he was named WHL player-of-the-week for 10 points, including five goals in three games.Brooks. 23. earlier in the season, played 11 games for the Blues, scoring two goals and totaling two assists.The Blues didn&rsquo;t exactly leave the Spurs destitute. They assigned right wing Phil Roberto, presumably to skate himself into shape, and defenseman Francois Ouimet, who was playing with Rochester in the American League.Roberto, who scored 20 goals for the Blues last season, was injured last summer and had played just seven games this season.Gary Gresdal, a Forward-defenseman. has been assigned to Columbus of the International League.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03131/3623162-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="580" height="276"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Salt Lake 6 at Seattle 0Wed. Feb. 13Portland 3 at Phoenix 7San Diego 5 at Salt Lake 2Seattle 5 at Denver 3Fri. Feb. 15Portland 3 at Seattle 2Denver 3 at Phoenix 4San Diego 4 at Salt Lake 5Sat. Feb. 16San Diego 4 at Denver 5Sun. Feb. 17Seattle 2 at Portland 3Salt Lake 4 at Denver 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Feb. 19Phoenix at San DiegoWed. Feb. 20Denver at SeattleFri. Feb. 22Salt Lake at SeattlePhoenix at DenverSat. Feb. 23Salt Lake at San Diego<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02176/3623155-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="595" height="771"></div> &#9632;

f0030-03

Denver Surge Rekindles Hopes For Playoff Spot

<div class="byline">BY DOUG McCONNELL</div>SALT LAKE CITY &mdash;Lyle Bradley is beginning to make a runaway of the race for the trophy named after the player involved in the trade which brought Bradley to Salt Lake City.The Golden Eagles,&rsquo; little center was named Western Hockey League player-of-the-week for his nine-point performance in three games, including a hat trick in an 11-1 rout of the league leading San Diego Gulls in San Diego.Bradley&rsquo;s big week increased his lead in the points race for the newly named Guyle Fielder award to 14 over Portland&rsquo;s Art Jones.Fielder was traded to Portland by the Eagles for Bradley in midseason in 1971-72. Fielder, who is the WHL&rsquo;s all-time All Star center, retired before the beginning of the current season and WHL directors recently named the scoring award after him.Besides Bradley&rsquo;s perch atop the scoring, the Eagles are moving towards the leadership in the team standings and Bob Champoux has moved into second in the goaltending race.The Eagles, on a four-game winning streak after recently breaking off a six-game losing streak, have won four in row, moved into second place ahead of the Phoenix Road runners and are just two points behind the Gulls with two games in hand.Champoux has 3.11 goals against average, allowing three goals in two games in the past week, to close in on the leader Rick Charron of Portland, who has a 2.92 mark.Champoux has won seven, tied one and lost one since returning from a stint with the parent California Golden Seals.Bradley has 24 goals and 54 for 78 points in just 52 games, closing in on his personal highs. Bradley&rsquo;s best is 29 goals and 58 assists for 87 points, last season.The high-scoring Eagles have four players among the WHL&rsquo;s top 10.Larry Patey, the Eagles&rsquo; sensational rookie center, is third in points with 57 and is tied with teammate Gary Coalter for second among WHL goal scorers with 28. Portland&rsquo;s Dennis Giannini is the leader with 30.Coalter, who had a hat trick in a 4-3 victory over Seattle while Bradley was picking up four points, is seventh in the scoring race with 53 points, two more than teammate Del Hall, tied for eighth.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01211/3623193-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="550" height="645"><figcaption class="caption-body">LYLE BRADLEY &hellip; Commanding Lead</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Eagle Ace Bradley May Lock Up New Fielder Award Early

<h2>Sat. Jan. 26 SAN DIEGO at PHOENIX</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Phoenix, Shea (Liesemer) &hellip; 9:002&mdash;San Diego. Shires (Bloom, Madigan) &hellip; 11:573&mdash;Phoenix, Young (Liesemer, Shea) &hellip; 14:034&mdash;San Diego. Bloom (Miszuk, Shires) &hellip; 16.57Penalties. Bond 13:54.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;San Diego. MacNeil (ORee) &hellip; 1:556&mdash;San Diego. Ree (Bloom) &hellip; 8:057&mdash;San Diego, Shires (Bloom, Ree) &hellip; 10:548&mdash;Phoenix. O&rsquo;Shea (Decloe. Bennett) &hellip; 14:29Penalties: Woodley 9:35.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>9&mdash;Phoenix, Decloe (O&rsquo;Shea. Young) &hellip; 5:17Penalties: Kennett 3:57Saves: Adams (San Diego) 27, Simmons (Phoenix) 19.Attendance: 12,147.<h2>SEATTLE 3 at SALT LAKE 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Salt Lake. Coalter (Bradley, Holt) &hellip; 13:262&mdash;Seattle. Gloor (Stone, Gould) &hellip; 15:53Penalties: Wilcox 5:03.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Seattle. Gloor (Seguin) &hellip; 12:004&mdash;Salt Lake. Huston (Hall. Meeke) &hellip; 15:10Penalties: Polano (minor, major) Patey (major) 2:46: Mair 7:07: Patey 10:34 Seguin 14:07 Mair 15:54; Hrechkosy 16:53.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Seattle, Westner (Wisener, McCord) &hellip; 4:066&mdash;Salt Lake. King (Hall. Shakes) &hellip; 12:227&mdash;Salt Lake. Moxey (Jacobs. Bellerive) &hellip; 13:49Penalties: Champoux (minor, misconduct, game misconduct) 7:46Saves: Brady (Seattle) 37. Champoux Headley (Salt Lake) 27.Attendance 5,659.<h2>Sun. Jan. 27 SALT LAKE 2 at PORTLAND 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Portland, Hebenton (Campbell) &hellip; 1:312&mdash;Salt Lake, Hall (King, Bradley) &hellip; 9:38Penalties: Patey 3:59: Hughes 9:32; Patey 12:31: Campbell 16:43.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Salt Lake. Hall (Huston) &hellip; 10:014&mdash;Portland. Jones (Abgrall, McElmury) &hellip; 11:29Penalties: Holt 2:00: Girard (major), Buhr (major). Moxey (game misconduct) 7.42; Shakes 10:44.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: None.Saves: Champoux (Salt Lake) 29. Kelly (Portland) 30.<h2>PHOENIX 3 at SAN DIEGO 5</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;San Diego. Kennett (Bloom, Miszuk) &hellip; 6:552&mdash;San Diego. Bloom (O&rsquo;Ree, Miszuk) &hellip; 17:263&mdash;Phoenix, Cormier &hellip; 18:28Penalties: Goyer 18:51.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;San Diego. Goyer (Trevelyan. Madigan) &hellip; 1:535&mdash;San Diego. Trevelyan (Bond, Goyer) &hellip; 5:20Penalties: Bennett 4:17; Hicks 14:23: Miszuk 14:39<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Phoenix. Hyndman (Braun) &hellip; 1:347&mdash;Phoenix. Braun (Barber. Keogan) &hellip; 6:338&mdash;San Diego. Trevelyan (Goyer) &hellip; 19:51Penalties: Shires (major). Braun (major) 10:12.Saves: Caley (Phoenix) 23. Adams (San Diego) 34.Attendance: 10,060.<h2>SEATTLE 3 at DENVER 5</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Seattle. Lampman (Gloor, Stone) &hellip; 2:212&mdash;Seattle. Lampman (Gloor. Gould) &hellip; 9:483&mdash;Denver. G. Brooks (CoIlyard) &hellip; 10:074&mdash;Seattle. Stone (Gloor. Gould) &hellip; 14:16Penalties: Stumpf 1:36: McCord 9:07.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Denver, G. Brooks (CoIlyard, Roberts) &hellip; 6:316&mdash;Denver, Borotsik &hellip; 9:457&mdash;Denver. Stumpf (Spring, Borotsik) &hellip; 13:32Penalties: Stumpf 19:08.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Denver. Kelly (B. Brooks. McCord) &hellip; 12:32Penalties: Roberts 5:12: Gresdal 6:01: Gloor 10:29Saves: Brady (Seattle) 35, Watt (Denver) 30.Attendance: 2,569.<h2>Wed. Jan. 30 SAN DIEGO 3 at PORTLAND 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;San Diego. O&rsquo;Ree (Bloom) &hellip; 0:512&mdash;San Diego, MacNeil (Goyer. Kennett) &hellip; 8:413&mdash;Portland. Peters (Lewis. McElmury) &hellip; 18:40Penalties: Fortin 6:11: Madigan (major). McNabb (major) 10:09. Kennett 14:36.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;San Diego. Bond (Bloom. Madigan) &hellip; 8:325&mdash;Portland. Giannini (Abgrall. Jones) &hellip; 16:25Penalties: Wilson 0:56: 7:33: Hebenton 11:57: Bloom 16:12.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Portland. Giannini (Jones. Abgrall) &hellip; 1:42Penalties: Madigan (major), Shires (major). McNabb (major), Buhr (major) 15:15.<h3>OVERTIME PERIOD</h3>No Scoring.Penalties: None.<h2>SEATTLE 7 at PHOENIX 8</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Seattle. Mair (Gould, Lampman) &hellip; 2:472&mdash;Phoenix, Hyndman (Cormier. Young) &hellip; 4:503&mdash;Phoenix. O&rsquo;Neil (Seguin) &hellip; 8:284&mdash;Seattle. O&rsquo;Neil (Seguin) &hellip; 9:27Penalties: Mott 1:59: Woodley 5:10: Keller 5:35: Mair 9:39: Seattle bench 14:02: Young 15:59: Murray 19:59.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Seattle. Mair (O&rsquo;Neil. Lampman) &hellip; 7:206&mdash;Phoenix, Young (Murray, Cormier) &hellip; 7:497&mdash;Seattle, Seguin (Gloor, Mair) &hellip; 13:27Penalties: McCord 4:29: Murray 5:54; McCord 7:40: Braun 11:47; Keller 16:50: Braun (major), Sheard (major) 20:00.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Seattle. Westner (Westbrooke. Wisener) &hellip; 3:279&mdash;Phoenix, Hyndman (Keller. Murray) &hellip; 7:0110&mdash;Seattle. Seguin (O Neil. McCord) &hellip; 7:1111&mdash;Seattle. Wisener (Westbrooke) &hellip; 9:0812&mdash;Phoenix, Hicks (Mott, Keogan) &hellip; 9:3413&mdash;Phoenix, Mott (Hicks. Keogan) &hellip; 13:3014&mdash;Phoenix, Barber (Mott, Keogan) &hellip; 18:22Penalties: Seguin 6:24.<h3>OVERTIME PERIOD</h3>15&mdash;Phoenix, Cormier (Young, Hyndman) &hellip; 4:42Penalties: NoneSaves: Brady (Seattle) 32. Caley (Phoenix) 30.Attandance: 5,546.<h2>SALT LAKE 4 at DENVER 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Salt Lake. Holt (Meeke. Bradley) &hellip; 19:35Penalties: Salt Lake bench 9:33; Hamel. Hrechkosy 10:07; Gresdal 12:36; 18:04.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Salt Lake. Holt (Meeke) &hellip; 6:153&mdash;Salt Lake. Bellerive (Patey. Monahan) &hellip; 7:454&mdash;Salt Lake, Hall (Huston) &hellip; 8:015&mdash;Denver, Collyard (G. Brooks) &hellip; 10:27penalties: Moxey 2:45; Spring 4:25; Holt (major), Spring (major), Champoux, Stumpf 10:07; Hamel 10:30.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Denver, Stumpf (McCord. Spring) &hellip; 17:07Penalties: None. Attendance: 2,798. &#9632;

Western Hockey League Summaries

SAN DIEGO &mdash;The San Diego Gulls found out how the other half lives.The Gulls, the Western Hockey League leaders, losing all three games of a short road trip, returned to San Diego to suffer their worst home-ice defeat in their eight year history. The high scoring Salt Lake Golden Eagles blitzed the Gulls 11-1 with eight goals coming in the third period. It was the most goals ever scored in one period against the Gulls.The worst defeat the Gulls suffered anywhere was a 13-1 loss to the Portland Buckaroos in Portland, Dec. 23, 1967. The Buckaroos scored seven times in the second period.The loss broke a modest home-ice win string of five games and was only the sixth loss in 28 home ice outings.Ray Fortin&rsquo;s steady play on defense was obviously missed by the Gulls. The 5-8, 180-pound veteran who came to the Gulls from the Boston Braves of the American League, has missed five games with a pulled groin.Bob Courcy returned after missing the whole month of January, a total ot 14 games, and in his first game back playing a regular shift he fired his 20th goal of the season.Courcy had minor surgery to have a lump on his ankle drained but infection complicated matters and put him on the sidelines.Kerry Bond remains the Gulls&rsquo; goal scoring leader with 21. Mike Bloom leads in points, his 54 tied for fifth in the WHL race with Portland&rsquo;s Andy Hebenton. Gerry Goyer is second among the Gulls with 51 points.The Gulls attendance figures continue to climb. The average is now at 7,994. &#9632;

Salt Lake Lowers Boom On High-Flying San Diego

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>ALBUQUERQUE&mdash;Morris Stefaniw&rsquo;s shorthanded goal with seven seconds left enabled the Albuquerque Six-Guns to break the longest road winless streak in Central League history, Feb. 9, when they pulled out a 3-2 victory in Dallas&rsquo; State Fair Coliseum.With the Guns&rsquo; Terry Clancy serving a minor penalty for the last 19 seconds, the puck was faced off in the Albuquerque zone. Dallas&rsquo; Brian Ogilvie won the draw, but then quickly lost the puck.As the veteran Stefaniw raced into the Dallas zone, goalie Michel Dumas came far out of his net to help defenseman Mike Christie break up the play. But neither got the puck, and Stefaniw had an inviting, emply net to reward his solo dash.The 26-year-old Stefaniw. now in his seventh pro campaign, has played for seven different clubs in four leagues. He was a 30-goal scorer for the Nova Scotia Voyageurs last winter, and led the American League in assists with 71 for 101 points. The 5-11, 170-pound center from North Battleford, Sask., was loaned to Albuquerque in early December.Coach Johnny Choyce&rsquo;s Six-Guns, with personnel borrowed from a variety of sources (since the parent Kansas City Scouts won&rsquo;t be operating until next fall) had won their first road game of the season, a 3-2 decision in Tulsa, Oct. 26. Since then they had played 23 times on the road without victory (17 losses and ties) before the record streak ended in Dallas.They tied the old mark of 22 without a victory when they were shut out in Omaha, 6-0, Jan. 26. The old record belonged to the 1966-67 Tulsa Oilers, who had skein of 17 losses and five ties on the road, Dec. 28-March 28. Albuquerque claimed the new record, Feb. 8, with a 6-1 loss in Oklahoma City.&ldquo;Our boys just ran out of gas in the third period at Oke City,&rdquo; Choyce commented. &ldquo;We played a good first period, and weren&rsquo;t bad in the second. We were out of shape after a 10-day layoff, couldn&rsquo;t practise in our own rink, just had a tiny place where about all that we could do was skate.&ldquo;But the whole team played very well in Dallas. We only let them have three shots on the net in the first period.&rdquo;TULSA: The Oilers snapped a five-game losing streak with a vengeance, Feb. 9, blitzing the Fort Worth Wings, 8-2, with four goals in each of the first two periods.It was the Oilers&rsquo; second game on home ice after an 18-day absence. They return to familiar surroundings was a disaster, when they were beaten, 5-2, by Dallas Feb. 8, although outshooting the visitors, 44-30.Stung by coach Ray Miron&rsquo;s assertion that &ldquo;our guys couldn&rsquo;t put the puck in the ocean&rdquo;, after they missed so many early scoring chances against Dallas, the Oilers came out shooting in the first period against Fort Worth. They had only a 39-37 shot advantage for the game, but the Wings were never in it.Clyde (Chief) Simon and Reg Bech-told each collected two goals in the rout. Simon ran his total to five goals in five games (his entire season output), but had his three-game consecutive goal streak snapped the previous night against his old Dallas teammates.OMAHA: Making the most of their home schedule break while the other contenders had to travel, the Knights padded their league lead to four points as they finished a string of seven straight games as they Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum with six victories and tie.Fort Worth was a 3-1 victim, Feb. 8, and challenging Oklahoma City fell, 7-3, the next night. That ran the Knights&rsquo; latest win string to four games, and they had played eight without a loss since their Jan. 19 trip to Dallas. At home they also had four straight victories, but owned 18 games without defeat since bowing to Fort Worth, Dec. 8).The line of Vic Mercredi, John Flesch and veteran George Swarbrick continued to be the hottest item in Nebraska. accounting for five goals in the two outings. Swarbrick scored twice and set up three other talies in the rout of Oklahoma City. Mercredi also had two goals in that game. Swarbrick was CHL player of the week the previous week with four goals.OKLAHOMA CITY: The Blazers&rsquo; bid to regain first place was was squelched by two straight losses on Omaha ice. The OC crew was blanked by Muio, 6-0, Feb. 2, then fell victim to a 7-3 onslaught Feb. 9. In between the Blazers managed a 6-1 home rout of Albuquerque.Goalie Gordie McRae had to leave the Feb. Omaha game with a pulled back muscle, but coach Gerry Moore had praise for backup man Grant Cole. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing very well. But the team as a whole didn&rsquo;t play well in Omaha either game. We&rsquo;ll get &lsquo;em at home.&rdquo;DALLAS: The Black Hawks went from Cloud Nine to the depths as they followed a 5-2 victory in Tulsa with a 3-2 loss to Albuquerque at home.Tom Peluso scored twice in Tulsa, along with Terry Smith. Walt ledingham, and Brian Ogilvie. The latter was credited with a shorthanded goal in the third period when Oiler forward Bob Currier tumbled into the net, carrying the puck with him.Legingham and Duane Wylie counted goals in the loss at home. Wylie&rsquo;s extending his league-leading total to 27. It was the Hawks&rsquo; third straight loss at home, although they were unbeaten in nine starts on the road since Dec. 22.FORT WORTH: Reinforcements arrived from the parent New York Islanders, but the struggling Wings still lost a pair of road games, in Omaha (3-1) and in Tulsa (8-2). Ron Marlow was n goal for both games, despite the return of outstanding goalie Glenn Resch from the big club.Also sent down were rookie center Andre St. Laurent, who started the season with Fort Worth, and center Tom Miller, who has been mending from a training camp knee injury. Miller was a rookie at Omaha four years ago, but spent last season at New York.St. Laurent scored a goal in each game.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01210/3623279-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="593" height="281"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Oklahoma City 4 at Albuquerque 6Omaha 3 at Tulsa 3Wed. Feb. 13Fort Worth 4 at Albuquerque 6Fri. Feb. 15Dallas 3 at Omaha 5Albuquerque 1 at Tulsa 6Sat. Feb. 16Fort Worth 1 at Dallas 5Tulsa 1 at Oklahoma City 9Albuquerque 3 at Omaha 3Sun. Feb. 17Albuquerque 2 at Fort Worth 0Omaha 3 at Oklahoma City 3Dallas 5 at Tulsa 1<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Feb. 19Omaha at DallasWed. Feb. 20Tulsa at Fort WorthFri. Feb. 22Albuquerque at DallasFort Worth at OmahaOklahoma City at TulsaSat. Feb. 23Dallas at Fort WorthAlbuquerque at Oklahoma CityOmaha at TulsaSun. Feb. 24Fort Worth at Oklahoma CityTulsa at Omaha<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02155/3623272-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="599" height="332"></div> &#9632;

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Six Guns Put Hole In Road Streak; Knights Pad Lead On Home Cooking

<h2>Fri., Feb. 8 FORT WORTH 1 at OMAHA 3</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Omaha, Mercredi (Flesch) &hellip; 17:56Penalties: Ketter 3:04. 9:09<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Omaha. Losier (Sutherland, Schaab) &hellip; 14:53Penalties: Mercredi 0:22. Smith 13:14, Houston 15:56.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Fort Worth, St. Laurent (Grenier, Marchinko) &hellip; 13:244&mdash;Omaha, Houston (Wells, Huber) &hellip; 16:33Penalties: Nicholson 6:11, Ketter 7:54, Webster 14:47.Saves. Marlow (Fort Worth) 61, Voss (Omana) 26.Attendance: 4.360.<h2>ALBUQUERQUE 1 at OKE CITY 6</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: Fortier 2:27. Ireland 8:15. Raymer 17:31.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Albuquerque, Homenuke (Langdon, Lepage) &hellip; 16:112&mdash;Oklahoma City. Fortier (Burgess. Alexander) &hellip; 19:32Penalties: Butters 6:53, Hayes (misconduct) 7:36. Fortier 8:53, Gray 16:01.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Oklahoma City. Burgess (Boyd, Sauter) &hellip; 4:054&mdash;Oklahoma City. Osburn (Alexander) &hellip; 8:135&mdash;Oklahoma City. Dolloff (Boutette. Shardlow) &hellip; 9:216&mdash;Oklahoma City. Garland (Burgess) &hellip; 15:467&mdash;Oklahoma City. Shardlow (Boutette, Alexander) &hellip; 18:49Penalties: Fortier 6:02, Homenuke 7:28Saves. Reeson (Albuquerque) 23, Cole (Oklahoma City) 31.Attendance: 2,876.<h2>DALLAS 5 at TULSA 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Tulsa, Young (Handrahan, Bechtold) &hellip; 5:44<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>2&mdash;Dallas, Smith (Donaldson. Peluso) &hellip; 0:423&mdash;Dallas. Ledingham (McKegney, Dumas) &hellip; 5:284&mdash;Dallas, Peluso (Elliott) &hellip; 7:145&mdash;Tulsa, Orban (Bechtold. Grisdale) &hellip; 8:32Penalties: Grisdale 4:21.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Dallas. Ogilvie &hellip; 5:267&mdash;Dallas. Peluso (Smith) &hellip; 1:05Penalties: Elliott 4:10, Ledingham 12:50. Smith 14:55. Grisdale 19:38.Saves. Dumas (Dallas) 25. Low (Tulsa) 42.Attendance: 3.308.<h2>Sat, Feb. 9 ALBUQUERQUE 3 at DALLAS 2</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Dallas, Ledingham (Ogilvie. Peluso) &hellip; 10:302&mdash;Albuquerque, Ireland (Lepage. Kogler) &hellip; 11:59Penalties: Clancy 10:19, Ireland 13:14. Ogilvie 13:27.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>3&mdash;Dallas, Wylie (Holt, L&rsquo;Abbe) &hellip; 1:58Penalties: Boughner 3:46. Peluso 6:12, Ireland 9:25, Molvik, Ness 14:00. Homenuke 19:17.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>4&mdash;Albuquerque. Lepage (Boughner. Ireland) &hellip; 10:455&mdash;Albuquerque, Stefaniw (O&rsquo;Connor) &hellip; 19:53Penalties: Ness 13:22. Clancy 19:41.Saves. Wood (Albuquerque) 21, Dumas (Dallas) 13.Attendance: 3,085.<h2>OKE CITY 3 at OMAHA 7</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Omaha, Swarbrick (Flesch. Ketter) &hellip; 2:222&mdash;Omaha, Flesch (Swarbrick, Ketter) &hellip; 8:463&mdash;Omaha, Wells (Flegel. Martineau) &hellip; 11:424&mdash;Omaha. Swarbrick (Houston. Flesch) &hellip; 19:50Penalties: Boutette, Huber 9:42. Martineau 12:10, Boutette 14:44. Clarke 18:08.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>6&mdash;Oklahoma City, Garland (Butters. Fryer) &hellip; 4:597&mdash;Oklahoma City. Butters (Boyd) &hellip; 6:31Penalties: Huber 3:55, Ketter 10:19. Dolloff 10:31, Sauter. Martineau 11:13, Boyd 11:40, Butters 17:52.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>8&mdash;Omaha. Mercredi (Swarbrick. Ketter) &hellip; 8:399&mdash;Oklahoma City. Gray (Clarke, Osburn) &hellip; 15:1410&mdash;Omaha, Mercredi (Swarbrick. Flesch) &hellip; 18:23Penalties: Huber 3:31. Burgess 7:09. Fryer 10:05.Saves. McRae-Cole (Oklahoma City) 25. Muio (Omaha) 37.Attendance: 5,538.<h2>FORT WORTH 2 at TULSA 8</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>1&mdash;Tulsa. Simon (Babcock. Hinton) &hellip; 0:142&mdash;Tulsa, Ruest (Bechtold, Young) &hellip; 5:103&mdash;Tulsa, Grisdale (Handrahan, Genovy) &hellip; 5:354&mdash;Tulsa, Simon (Grisdale, Babcock) &hellip; 13:03Penalties: Genovy 2:13, Dempster (major), Orban (major) 3:26, Smedsmo (minor, misconduct) 6:36. Anderson 11:22, St. Laurent (major), Handrahan (minor, major) 13:36. Andersen 16:05.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>5&mdash;Tulsa, Smedsmo (Young. Bechtold) &hellip; 3:116&mdash;Fort Worth. Webster (Andersen, R. Kennedy) &hellip; 4:417&mdash;Tulsa. Bechtold (Young, Peppier) &hellip; 16:198&mdash;Tulsa, Vipond (Genovy, Handrahan) &hellip; 17:409&mdash;Tulsa. Bechtold (Currier, Hinton) &hellip; 19:11Penalties: Irwin 19:20.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>10&mdash;Fort Worth, St. Laurent &hellip; 13:40Penalties: Grisdale 6:06.Saves, Marlow (Fort Worth) 31, Low (Tulsa) 35.Attendance: 2,645. &#9632;

Central League Summaries

ST. LOUIS &mdash;St. Louis Billikens and Lake Superior State Lakers appear to be headed fora title confrontation in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Conference.A double road loss at St. Louis moved the Bills into a tie with the Lakers for the CCHA Conference lead. each having identical 4-2 league records.The league title will now be determined at Bowling Green State University, the site where both coleaders will climax their league slates. The Lakers end their league season there Feb. 16-17. St. Louis climaxes its conference slate at BG Feb. 22-23.ST. LOUIS: The Billikens reached the 20-win mark for the second season in a row with a sweep of Air Force 9-3 and 11-3&hellip; The big guns of the Billiken scoring race got untracked early and kept firing all weekend&hellip; Coghlan came up with 10 points with five goals&hellip; Kennedy followed with nine and Nestic had seven points&hellip; On Friday. Kennedy and Coghlan each had two goals, with Kennedy second the winner&hellip; Other Bills that scored were Nestic. Kevin Rear, Ballanger, Ormson and Richer&hellip; Kloiber played in goal and stopped 19 Falcon shots&hellip; On Saturday it was Nestic who scored early and often as he hit the five-goal mark for the third time in his career&hellip; Nestic had 15 minutes to get number six. but it wasn&rsquo;t to be&hellip; He now has 129 career goals in 130 games&hellip; Coghlan picked up three more goals&hellip; Carl Sapinsky played goal the second game and had 18 saves&hellip; Chuck Delich had half the Air Force goals.LAKESLTERIOR STATE: The Lakers played a good period each night, but made each third period worth six goals as they swept McMaster 9-5 and 9-4&hellip; Each night the game was tied at 3-3 after two periods&hellip; Davies and Bill Slewidge were the offensive leaders each night&hellip; Davies had five points in the third period of the opener, with two assists with his hat trick&hellip; Slewidge had four goals in the second game, three in the third period&hellip; Davies had five goals for the weekend&hellip; The Lakers outshot the Marlins 60-25 and 79-30&hellip; LSSC will miss Emie Chambers for the first BG game as he sits out fighting suspension&hellip; Gene Motuzas is back in the scoring groove with six more points for the series&hellip; Lakers picked up bench major: in the 9-4 game&hellip; This weekend will find Lake Superior at Bowling Green for a key CCHA series, a tie would eliminate the Falcons&hellip; When the teams met in the Soo, the scores were 5-3 and 7-5 for LSSC.BOWLING GREEN: Bowling Green traveled to Ohio State and came away with a split&hellip; BG won the opener 3-2. but dropped a 4-2 decision&hellip; The Buckeyesled l-O after two periods in the first game&hellip; Bruce Woodhouse tied the game on a breakaway goal set up by Bob Dobek&hellip; Hugh Prentice regained the lead for OSU. but John Stewart tied the game less than two minutes later&hellip; The winner was scored by Dobek as he tipped a drive from the point by Roger Archer&hellip; It was ironic as Archer had served a misconduct for using an illegal stick&hellip; Had Archer been using the &ldquo;bad&rdquo; stick, the winning shot might have hit the clock&hellip; Goalie Don Boyd, making his first start since losing 4-3 at St. Louis in December, played well each night with 51 total saves&hellip; On Saturday Rich Nagai&rsquo;s slapshot tied the score at 1-1 after one period&hellip; The Falcons appeared to be ready for sweep when Dobek&rsquo;s slapshot from the blueline beat Dan Stergiou&hellip; However. Ray Meyers scored twice and Prentice once for a 4-2 lead for OSU after two periods, and that is how the game ended.<h2>College Races</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01190/3623334-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="636" height="3989"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

St. Louis, Lake Superior Headed For Title Showdown

<div class="byline">BY LEN HOYES</div>FORT LAUDERDALE &mdash;Bill Beagan will be guiding the International Hockey League again in the 1974-75 season. He was retained as commissioner by the IHL&rsquo;s Board of Governors for a sixth season.Beagan, who conducts league matters from his office in Windsor, Ont., had announced his resignation last spring and was referred to as a &ldquo;lame duck commissioner&rdquo; in some quarters. At the time of the resignation announcement, it was rumo red that Beagan would be connected with the proposed global hockey league which is a pet project of Bruce Norris, owner of the Detroit Red Wings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01205/3623372-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="281" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Beagan</figcaption></div>Norris this year sponsored the London Lions in England as a preliminary to formation of the league.Beagan is fairly close-to the Detroit organization and a frequent spectator at Red Wing home games.However, there&rsquo;s speculation that the global league isn&rsquo;t as close to fruition as planned and Beagan has opted for the security of his IHL position instead of the speculation of a new league.Beagan frequently has come under fire from various IHL teams and this year was the target of criticism from Columbus, Toledo and Port Huron for a decision which ordered Columbus to forfeit victories over Flint and Saginaw.However, a majority of the Board of Governors apparently felt he was doing a good job and merited another contract as commissioner.A possibility which was expressed in THE HOCKEY NEWS of Nov. 9. 1973, has become reality with the adding of the new Kalamazoo franchise to an all-Michigan North Division of the International Hockey League.The IHL, which will have 10 teams for the first time next season, will have the five Michigan teams in the North Division and five non-Michigan teams in the South Division.The Board of Governors, at their semi-annual meeting, moved the Toledo Hornets to the South where they join two other Ohio teams. Dayton and Columbus, plus Fort Wayne. Ind., and Des Moines, Iowa.In the North Division are Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Port Huron, Saginaw and Flint.Toledo was in the South Division in 1969-70 when the IHL had eight teams. The following year seven teams played in one division and in 1971-72 Tdledo was placed in the North Division in another eight-team setup. The North-South alignment has been unbalanced for two years since Saginaw became the ninth team, the North having five teams and the South four.The Board of Governors retained a 76-game schedule for 1974-75 but shortened the training camp period from 16 days to 10.INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUESAGINAW: An eight-game unbeaten (7-0-1) string put Gears into fifth place in over-all standings, highest position of season&hellip; Five-game winning streak longest of season&hellip; Dennis Desrosiers and Rejean Beaudoin scored 13 seconds apart to help 5-4 victory over Muskegon&hellip; Surgery ruled out for defenseman Gordie Malinoski&hellip; Pierre Leblanc scored goal to aid 7-2 victory over Toledo in return from injury list&hellip; Gears&rsquo; 26-26-2 record marked first time since Nov. 19 club was at .500 level&hellip;TOLEDO: String of 13 victories in 14 home games ended in 8-3 loss to Flint&hellip; Five-game road swing produced no victories. marring 17-6 record for previous 23 games&hellip; Pete Mateja secured as backup goalie when back injury shelved Glenn Ramsay for four games&hellip; John Vanderburg ended 14 goal-less games&hellip; Hornets I-6 record against Saginaw ruined bid to hold second place in North Division&hellip; Club surrendered ninth shorthanded goal to Flint&rsquo;s Dick Mortenson.DAYTON: Steve Self boosted goal production to 15 in 23 games&hellip; Goalie Jim Pettie worked first game in 40 days, earned 3-1 victory over Fort Wayne with only 23 saves&hellip; Defensemen Dave Simpson, Lorne Weighill, Jim Bannatyne iron men with service in all 55 games&hellip; Pete Gaw scored 27th goal to aid 3-1 victory over Fort Wayne, goal coming 23 seconds after tally by teammate Nels Venerus.DES MOINES: Pete Mara, Frank DeMarco. Harvey Bennett, lan MacKinnon and Steve Coates ranking among league&rsquo;s top 12 scorers&hellip; Back-to-back home-ice losses against Muskegon hurt chances for over-all point championship&hellip; Crowd of 3,102 for Feb. 9 game largest in more than two seasons&hellip; Coates scored first goal in four straight games&hellip; Sixteen shorthanded goals believed to be IHL record&hellip; Mara, who tops IHL with 85 points, leads club with eight game-winning goals&hellip; Caps bagged 31st victory in 52nd game surpassing last year&rsquo;s entire total&hellip; Caps&rsquo; four ties all by 2-2 scores.COLUMBUS: Elgin McCann&rsquo;s shorthanded goal was clincher in 3-2 victory over Dayton before record crowd of 5,224&hellip; Owls presented owner Albert Savill with 4-2 birthday victory over Toledo&hellip; Randy Smith hitting anticipated stride with five points in three games&hellip; Defenseman Blake Ball tagged with five-game suspension for stick-swinging duel with Flint goalie Merlin Jenner&hellip; Four-game road swing had I-2 record for first three.MUSKEGON: Alex Dampier pressed into service as defensemen when injuries to Lynn Margarit and Jim Maertz cut blueline corps to three&hellip; Lou Frigon regained scoring touch with seven-point week&hellip; Mohawks lost opener of five-game road swing, responded with two key victories at Des Moines another at Fort Wayne&hellip; Goalie Steve Miskiewicz, called to Fort Worth in emergency, has returned.FORT WAYNE: New coach Ted Wright faced with rugged schedule of eight games in 11 days, including five on the road&hellip; Defenseman Tom Thomson feared lost for rest of season with back injury, joining Terry Pembroke on sidelines&hellip; Brian Walker figured to return by March 1 after leg surgery to correct repairs from mid-summer hit-run accident&hellip; Jeff Ablett moving up in scoring derby with 25th goal&hellip; Wayne Ego continues to pile up assists, ranking No. 2 in league with 49.FLINT: Newly-formered line of Dick Mortenson-Doug Manchak-Emie Moser responded with nine goals, 15 assits in first three games to lead weekend sweep, first of season&hellip; Tim Quiston secured from Port Huron as backup goalie during Merlin Jenner&rsquo;s five-game suspension&hellip; Dan O&rsquo;Donahue scored first goal of season in third game after arrival from Des Moines.PORT HURON: Ken Mann scored two goals, including overtime winner, in victory at Dayton&hellip; Reg Malinoski wasted hat trick in 7-5 loss at Des Moines&hellip; Rugged series of five road games in seven-game span produced 1-3-1 record but two home victories kept Wings&rsquo; hope alive for escape from North Division cellar.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02153/3623365-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="587" height="450"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Fort Wayne 1 at Des Moines 4Wed. Feb. 13Fort Wayne 1 at Des Moines 5Muskegon 1 at Port Huron 4Columbus 5 at Saginaw 2Fri. Feb. 15Fort Wayne 3 at Des Moines 4Saginaw 4 at Flint 3Sat. Feb. 16Fort Wayne 2 at Des Moines 6Dayton 2 at Muskegon 5Toledo 1 at Port Huron 4Sun. Feb. 17Toledo 4 at Muskegon 6Dayton 4 at Port Huron 5Des Moines 3 at Flint 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. Feb. 20Dayton at Des MoinesSaginaw at ColumbusFlint at Fort WayneFri. Feb. 22Des Moines at Port HuronSaginaw at DaytonToledo at FlintColumbus at Fort WayneSat. Feb. 23Des Moines at Fort WayneFlint at MuskegonColumbus at Port HuronSaginaw at ToledoSun. Feb. 24Wayne at ColumbusMuskegon at FlintPort Huron at ToledoDes Moines at Dayton &#9632;

f0034-01

IHL Realigns Teams With All-Michigan Division

<div class="byline">BY DAVID LAMM</div>ROANOKE&mdash;The race that never really was is officially over. The Roanoke Valley Rebels clinched the Southern Hockey League regular season championship Feb. 10.The Rebels, who have led the race since opening day and increased their lead nearly every game, clinched the title in a style which has become typical for coach Gregg Pilling&rsquo;s skaters. They blasted Macon 12-4 the victory marking their 11th straight and improving their super superb record to 48-12 (26-4 at home, 22-8 on the road).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01194/3623424-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="298" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Claude Piche</figcaption></div>Second-place Charlotte also won Feb. 10, routing the twins .8-3 at Winston-Salem. That win left the checkers with a 34-23-1 record and 27 points behind the Rebels&hellip; and the Checkers had just 13 games to play before the playoffs.&ldquo;We wanted that championship.&rdquo; beamed Pilling, &ldquo;but there are several other things we want, too. We want to get at least 105 points for the season. To me. 105 points means you&rsquo;ve played 00 percent at home and 50 percent on the road.&ldquo;And,&rdquo; continued Pilling, &ldquo;we want to tighten up our defense. We want the lowest goals allowed average in the league.&rdquo;Actually, the Rebels have it, 3.18 &mdash; as well as the best team scoring average. 5.33 goals per game. What was bothering Pilling was that the Rebels had yielded 191 goals, compared to 187 by Charlotte. The Checkers, however, had played three fewer games than the Rebels.The Rebel Express has been unstoppable all season. It doesn&rsquo;t seem to matter who Pilling puts on the ice. For example, the Rebels lost the league&rsquo;s top scorer and co-leader in goals when the Vancouver Blazers called up center Camille Lapierre Feb. 4. So all they did was win their first three games without Lapierre, scoring a total of 23 goals.SOUTHERN HOCKEY LEAGUEWithout Lapierre, the Rebels still have the SHL&rsquo;s top scorer in center Claude Piche, who had totaled 84 points, including 38 goals.Piche echoes Pilling&rsquo;s feelings about the team still having regular season goals. &ldquo;It looks good for u&laquo; to look in the newspaper and see that we have the best record in hockey &mdash; the National League included.&rdquo;Goalie George Gardner arrived from Vancouver and he quickly picked up a pair of victories &mdash; one in overtime &mdash; despite being slowed by a pulled groin muscle. Rookie goaltender Ed Humphreys posted his first shutout of the season when he blanked Macon 5-0 Feb. 9. Versatile Mike Keenan has played nearly every position except goalie for the Rebels, but he has done most of his work as forward. Pilling, however, plans to use him on defense as much as possible during the final weeks of the season. &ldquo;We may have to use him back there during the playoffs.&rdquo; explained Pilling, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;d like to let him get in a little on defense.&rdquo;WINSTON-SALEM: The Polar Twins have moved within two points of fourth-place Macon and qualifying for the playoffs. Coach Don Carter is optimistic his club will make the playoffs, especially since it has three home games remaining with Macon&hellip; The Twins bombed Macon 10-4 Feb. 8.CHARLOTTE: Steve Hull, who has been playing superbly for the Checkers&rsquo; since mid-season, scored his first hat trick Feb. when Charlotte captured a 4-0 win over Greensboro. The day after his three-goal performance, Hull was recalled by the California Golden Seals, who returned Paul Tantardini to the Checkers&hellip; Hull&rsquo;s performance over-shadowed the shutout posted by goalie Danny Sullivan. It was Sullivan&rsquo;s first since being traded to the Checkers by Roanoke Valley. In all, Sullivan has four shutouts and the league&rsquo;s lowest goals-allowed average, 2.63.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0496/3623417-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="568" height="754"><figcaption class="caption-body">GEORGE GARDNER &hellip;Triumphant Debut</figcaption></div>GREENSBORO: The Generals acquired two players last week, signing left winger Brian Cadle as free agent and getting defenseman Bob Winograd from the Jersey Knights of the WHA&hellip; They replaced Nick Haramis and Guy Hildebrand, both of whom were suspended. It was reported that Haramis had been reinstated after jumping the club, but he did not report back as he had promosed. Hildebrand left saying he and coach Ted Lanyon &ldquo;couldn&rsquo;t communicate.&rdquo;&hellip; Although veteran center Wally Sprange leads the league with 55 assists, he says the season has been &ldquo;kind of disappointing&rdquo; from both a team and personal standpoint. He only has 14 goals.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02160/3623410-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="599" height="314"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Winston-Salem 5 at Charlotte 3Wed. Feb. 13Charlotte 3 at Greensboro 1Roanoke 6 at Winston-Salem 5Thu. Feb. 14Charlotte 6 at Roanoke 4Fri. Feb. 15Roanoke 2 at Winston-Salem 3Sun. Feb. 17Roanoke 0 at Charlotte 6Greensboro 5 at Winston-Salem 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03119/3623403-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="596" height="620"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

Runaway Rebels Wrap Up Top Spot

MACON&mdash;The Southern Hockey League was reduced to four operating teams when the financially-troubled Macon Whoopees decided to throw in the towel.The Whoopees, who were struggling on the ice and beset by player problems all season, announced the franchise had been dissolved this past. week. The club, a first-year team with Cleland &lsquo;Keke&rdquo; Mortson acting as player-coach and general manager, had encountered lean days at the box office. Attendance was not what was expected and the club had been unable to meet its financial obligations to the players in recent weeks.The Whoopees are the second SHL team to fold this season. The Suncoast Suns called it quits after 31 games in the schedule reducing the league to four teams &mdash; Roanoke Valley. Greensboro. Charlotte and Winston-Salem. &#9632;

Macon Franchise Folds Leaving SHL With 4 Teams

<div class="byline">BY DEREK KNIGHT</div>BINGHAMTON&mdash;Dave Balon. 35, a former star with the New York Rangers, will skate the remainder of the 1973-74 season with the Broome Dusters.The Dusters acquired Balon from Jacques Plante&rsquo;s Quebec Nordiques just minutes before the deadline for submitting playoff rosters. The Maine Nordiques, affiliated with Plante&rsquo;s club, already had the maximum amount of pros on their roster and as a result had no room for Balon.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01173/3623486-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="259" height="499"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Balon</figcaption></div>A top threat in front of the enemy net. Balon should be tremendous addition to the Broome club, providing he&rsquo;s in good playing shape. His years of experience will be of great benefit to his new teammates.Other teams made moves as playoff rosters were frozen as of Monday, Feb. 11, at midnight.The Cape Cod Cubs made some roster changes before the deadline. They added defenseman Ron Fogal, forwards Derek Kuntz and George Ripley and goaltender Don Wallis.NORTH AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUEFor Ripley and Wallis it was a homecoming of sorts as the two had played for the Cubs earlier in the season. Ripley took the place of center Paul Perras, out for the season with knee problems. Wallis was loaned to Johnstown earlier but sustained and injury after playing in only a few games. He returns to Cape Cod with a clean bill of health. Fogal was obtained on loan from Providence (AHL). Kuntz, property of the New York Islanders, had divided his time this year with fort Worth (CHL) and Macon. (SHL). He plays both center and left wing. Steve Eckerson was sent back to Mohawk Valley when Wallis arrived. Eckerson had been loaned to the Cubs by the Comets&rsquo;s while back.Rugged Nick Fotiu of the Cubs has gone over the 300-minute mark in penalties while Mike DeMarco leads Cub defenseman in scoring after 63 games. DeMarco had scored 10 goals and 49 assists for 59 points. Included in Mike&rsquo;s figures are four power play goals and four game winners.JOHNSTOWN: Jets picked up Michel Latrielle on loan from Dayton (IHL) Defenseman Gary Davidson was placed on waivers&hellip; Newcomer Bobby Thompson, on loan-from Syracuse, scored a goal in his first game as a Jet. Thompson has been centering for Norm Descoteaux on left wing and Tom Young on the right aide&hellip; Leading scorer Reg Kent has tallied seven power play goals in 61 games. Dave Johnson is next with six in one less game&hellip; Kent has scored 19 goals and 5t assists for 70 points. Last year ankle problems hampered his activity. Appearing in only 41 games. Reg notched 11 goals&hellip; Player-coach Galen Head leads club in winning goals with four Vem Campigotto leads in penalty minutes with 139 in 59 games&hellip; Jets are 7-1 versus Mohawk Valley with four wins coming on Comet ice. the only road wins Johnstown has registered all-season.MAINE: Nordiques&rsquo; offense continues to roll on with an amazing 342 goals in 63 games, an average of better than five per game. That&rsquo;s good support for netminders Jacques Lemelin and Roch Martin. Lemelin, in 33 games, has posted an 18-12-2 record while Martin, in 16 games, was 14-1-1&hellip; Jacques Blain is the club&rsquo;s highest scoring defenseman with 51 points in 62 games&hellip; Mike Harvey, the clubs coach had to sit himeslf down with Jean Payette&rsquo;s arrival as the Nordiques were faced with the problem of having too many pros on their roster&hellip; Norm Descoteaux, rated by many as Maine&rsquo;s smoothest defenseman. has tallied six goals and 17 assists for 23 points. Three of his goals are on the power play&hellip; Mike Rouleau, on his way to a 50 goal season, is also on his way to 200 penalty minutes. After 63 games the Nordiques veteran and top play-maker had 168 minutes in penalties.MOHAWK VALLEY: Comets reactivated defenseman Chris Meloff who had been out of action with a shoulder injury&hellip; John Hutton received a game misconduct in a 4-3 overtime win over Long Island. Peter Marin&rsquo;s goal was the game winner&hellip; Ray Boutin was in the nets for the overtime win and then Ray followed up with a 4-2 win over Johnstown&hellip; Defenseman Jim Ivison was sold to Binghamton&hellip; Bob Murphy is up to 28 goals after 62 games. Comet newcomers are making themselves known in hurry. Marrin had registered 11 points in his first 13 games, Gordie Titcomb five points in 11 games and Guy Provost had six points in 12 games&hellip; Comets announced plans for Fan Appreciation Day, Feb. 24, in Utica. The game, against Cape Cod, is scheduled for a 2:30 afternoon slot.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0816/3623479-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="595" height="313"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Mohawk Valley 4 at Johnstown 2Long Island 4 at Maine 9Syracuse at Cape Cod (postponed)Wed. Feb. 13Maine 2 at Johnstown 5Broome 7 at Mohawk Valley 1Thu. Feb. 14Syracuse 3 at Broome 4Mohawk Valley 8 at Maine 7Fri. Feb. 15Broome 2 at Syracuse 2Sat. Feb. 16Syracuse 1 at Johnstown 6Cape Cod 9 at Maine 6Long Island 5 at Mohawk Valley 2Sun. Feb. 17Long Island 2 at Broome 4Maine 5 at Cape Cod 6Mohawk Valley 1 at Syracuse 9<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon. Feb. 18Broome at Long IslandTue. Feb. 19Cape Cod at MaineWed. Feb. 20Syracuse at BroomeMohawk Valley at JohnstownFrl. Feb. 22Syracuse at Long IslandJohnstown at Mohawk ValleySat. Feb. 23Long Island at Cape CodeBroome at JohnstownSyracuse at MaineSun. Feb. 24Johnstown at BroomeMaine at Long IslandCape Cod at Mohawk ValleyTue. Feb. 26Johnstown at Cape CodLong Island at Syracuse &#9632;

f0036-01

Broome Lands Vet Balon For Stretch Run

<div class="byline">BY STEVE KLEIN</div>SOUTH BEND &mdash;&ldquo;We would definitely like to reach that fourth spot or better to give us home ice in the playoffs.&rdquo;The author of that statement was Minnesota-Duluth coach Terry Shercliffe, but it could have been made by just about ever other coach in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association with the possible exception of Michigan Tech&rsquo;s John Maclnnes and North Dakota&rsquo;s Rube Bjorkman.Just about all the coaches in the league concede Maclnnes first place and the McNaughton trophy (which has been sitting in Denver for the past two years), although no one is conceding Tech anything on the ice, as Michigan proved over the Feb. 8-9 weekend by becoming the first team to sweep the Huskies this season. North Dakota is just about the only team out of the &ldquo;top four&rdquo; battle. The main concern for the Sioux right now is just to make the playoffs, something a North Dakota team has never failed to do. But with just 14 points, five less than anyone else, and games remaining at Michigan Tech, at home with Wisconsin and at Duluth, this season could be a first for the young Sioux.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0560/3623569-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="279" height="446"><figcaption class="caption-body">Angie Moretto</figcaption></div>Everyone else is in the playoff and home ice battle, however. Of the 10 league teams, two will not qualify for the playoffs, which begin March 5-6, while the first four finishers will earn home ice for the first round. The highest two finishers to emerge from that round of two-game, total goal playoffs will also host the second round, using the same total goal format. March 9-10. Barring a break with precedent, the two playoff winners will represent the West in the NCAA playoffs March 14-16.Michigan had appeared ready to drop out of the race as well after losing two games at Duluth, where almost everybody loses this year. And the situation looked bad with league leading Michigan Tech coming into Ann Arbor with a five-game WCHA winning streak, nine wins in its last 10 games and a fat six-point margin over second place Denver.But if Michigan was supposed to roll over and play dead, first-year coach Dan Farrell, a Tech assistant the previous five years, wasn&rsquo;t about to let it happen.Michigan won the first game. 5-4, as sophomore Don Dufek, the football linebacker, scored at 7:28 of the overtime to win the game. Dufek wasn&rsquo;t the only hero, however. Sophomore Angie Moretto, a 6&rsquo;4&rdquo; center who is having an excellent season, scored the first three Michigan goals as the Wolverines took a 3-1 into the third period. When Mike Usitaloand Bill Steele tied the game for Tech in the third period, Moretto set up Doug Lindskog for a 4-3 lead. And when Bob D&rsquo;Alvise tied the game again, it was Moretto who set up Dufek with the winning goal.The next night, Michigan again led 3-1 after two periods, and Tech again tied the game, this time on goals by D&rsquo;Alvise and Steele. But when Don Fardig scord his second goal of the game on a power play at 13:51, there was no catching Michigan again.Denver solidified its hold on second place and North Dakota&rsquo;s hold on the cellar with 4-1 and 8-2 victories at Denver. Only the week before, Denver had been bombed, 10-2, at Minnesota.Senior Rick Bragnalo led the Pioneers in the first game with two goals, and junior defenseman Bob Young scored a shorthanded goal. Eight different Pioneers scored in the second game as DU had a 4-1 lead after the first period.The two teams with the only chance to catch Denver, Minnesota and Wisconsin met in Madison, and played to complete statemate, 3-3 and 4-4, both in overtime. Denver holds a point advantage with 30 to Minnesota&rsquo;s 26 and Wisconsin&rsquo;s 25, but the Gophers hold a game advantage, having played four less games than Denver and two less than Wisconsin.Wisconsin took early leads in both games, 3-0 and 2-0, but both times, Minnesota came back. Steve Alley, Stan Hinkley and Dean Talafous all scored in the first period of the first game, but the WCHA&rsquo;s leading goaltender. Brad Shelstad, was perfect the rest of the way and Rob Harris, Buzz Schneider and Pat Phippen at scored to tie the game. The next night, the Badgers jumped off to a 2-0 lead, but the Gophers railed to take a 4-3 lead in the second period on a goal by John Matschke. This time Wisconsin had to come back, and it was Olmstead who tied the game just 54 seconds after Matschke&rsquo;s goal.The two teams with the best chance of sneaking into fourth should any of the teams ahead of them falter, Michigan State and Minnesota&rsquo; Duluth, both split on the road. Duluth lost its opener to Colorado College, 8-5, but Came back to win 8-2. Michigan State was bombed as well in its opener at Notre Dame. 8-3, but came back to win 4-3.The Spartans have 23 points and are in fifth place, but have only four games remaining. Duluth, which has won 10 of its last 13 games after an 0-7-1 start, has 21 points but six games remaining.Doug Plaazzari, Pat Lawson and Jim Stebe each scored twice in the Colorado College victory dispite a hat trick by Duluth&rsquo;s Tom Milani. But the next night, the Tigers couldn&rsquo;t stop Duluth&rsquo;s big line of Merv Kiryliuk, Lyman Haak stad and Mike Newton, all of whom scored two goals apiece.Michigan State couldn&rsquo;t handle Notre Dame defenseman Steve Curry in their first game. Curry set a school record with five assists and scored a goal as well. But in the second game, State outshot the Irish, 17-4 and outscored the Irish as well. 3-1. for the decisive margin. Steve Colp scored twice in the period. &#9632;

f0037-05

Sioux Face Playoff Ouster As WCHA Teams Scramble

<div class="byline">BY RICH BERCUSON</div>Canadian collegiate hockey is now moving into the final weeks of the season and. so far, there have been few surprises with respect to the leaders in the individual leagues.In the west, the University of Calgary is riding atop its division which boasts some fine competition in the Alberta Golden Bears and U.B.C., Thunderbirds. Clare Drake&rsquo;s Alberta squad is a perennial threat for league honors only the year, with the loss of few key lettemen. his charges have struggled to little better than a .500 record though they have outscored the rest of the league. And the Thunderbirds, who fared so well during Christmas in an exhibition tour of China, have found the regular schedule tough with a rejuvenated Calgary team playing sound defensive hockey. The Calgarians are currently rated third in the nation.The Ontario schools have maintained the status quo of past weeks with Toronto still holding on to its first place lead over York. By Feb. 11, the Blues were Canada&rsquo;s only undefeated, untied team in regular season play. St. Mary&rsquo;s. Loyola, and Calgary have all defeated them in non-conference contests.In Ontario&rsquo;s west division, Waterloo and Western lead the pack in first and second positions respectively, however, Guelph appears to be making a push towards the top spots especially with its strong offensive game that has produced 97 goals in 15 games.The Quebec conference has mis-leading standings. The QUAA used to be two divisions until all the teams were thrown into one grouping this year with the weaker teams playing each other more often than the powerhouses. So, a team like Loyola would play more games against strong opposition such as Sir George while Three Rivers would tackle MacDonald, both relatively weak. The result shows Loyola, with two consecutive losses to Sir George. 3-0 and 3-2, in first but Three Rivers a close second. However, six teams will be making the league playoffs and it appears right now as though Loyola and Sir George will be battling again for the league championship.The story in the Maritimes remains the power of the St. Mary&rsquo;s Huskies, who are running their division and. in fact, the entire league, ragged. The Huskies are ranked first in Canada and only Moncton appears capable of bringing down the St. Mary&rsquo;s team from its pedestal. &#9632;

Canadian College Scene…

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECLIFF</div>PETERBOROUGH&mdash;Peterborough Petes don&rsquo;t have a player among the top 20 points-scorers in the Ontario Hockey Association Major Junior A League and when this was written were one of only three teams which hadn&rsquo;t accumulated 200 goals.However they have been in first place almost continuously since the schedule the last week of September and while three other clubs are breathing down their necks the Petes appear to have the inside track on the pennant. What is their formula for success year after year without any genuine superstar juniors? Many give much of the credit to their coach Roger Neilson, a former high school teacher who now devotes his full time to tutoring teenagers in hocke basics.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03102/3623638-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="291" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Kasmetis</figcaption></div>When not involved with the Petes. Neilson can be found at clinics around the province which are sponsored by the Ontario Hockey Association.Some have said that the Petes play dull but winning hockey.This is true in some games but the reason they give the ordinary Ian this impression is that they stick to their wings, the forwards backcheck furiously. the defense is seldom caught out of position and they have excellent goaltending in Frank Salive and Mike Kasmetis.Check the goals against column in the standings and you&rsquo;ll find the Petes are far. far below any other team in this department.The reason, obviously, is that they play their positions, make few errors and score just enough goals to win the majority of their games.The Petes&rsquo; other strong point is home ice.This season they have lost only twice in front of their own fans &mdash; once in December to Sudbury and once in January to Oshawa.Put all the factors together and it&rsquo;s combination difficult to beat.KITCHENER: Easily the hottest team in the league, the Rangers went 14 games without a loss and had a perfect weekend, blanking Kingston Canadians 2-0. then trouncing Ottawa 67s 8-3. Both on home ice&hellip; High-scoring Doug Risebrough will be missed on the forward line due to knee surgery on tom knee ligaments but coach Eddie Bush has extreme depth and Rangers at the moment pose by far the most serious threat to Peterborough&hellip; The shutout by Edwards against Kingston was his third of the season&hellip; Defense is strong, bolstered by Rick Chartraw from Erie. Pa. who is playing the best of his three seasons in Kitchener.LONDON: Bruce Aberhart was brilliant in 2-0 win over Hamilton Red Wings&hellip; Aberhart&rsquo;s shutout was the first by any Knights&rsquo; goaltender since Dan Bouchard, now with Atlanta Flames, blanked Niagara Falls Flyers 11-0 in 1970&hellip; Tom Rowe and Ron Zanussi had the goals which gave Bill Long&rsquo;s club the decision&hellip; Knights then withstood late rally by St. Catharines for 7-4 win and dumped Oshawa 3-1 in Oshawa for a perfect week&hellip; The three victories kept them right on the heels of Peterborough and Kitchener and step ahead of the Black Hawks.ST. CATHARINES: Black Hawks have a home record second only to Peterborough, playing their last 19 games at Garden City Arena without a loss while winning 16 and tying three for a club record&hellip; However, on the road it&rsquo;s something different as they have only one victory to show in 11 starts and this failing has kept them from continuing their challenge for the pennant&hellip; Running true to form the Hawks lost 7-3 in Peterborough, 7-4 in London, then bounced back before their own fans to trim Hamilton Red Wings 7-2&hellip; Centre Rick Adduono. an 18-year-old sophomore centre from Thunder Bay. scored twice against Wings to be the first St. Catharines player this season to go over 100 points&hellip; Right wingers Dave Gorman and Wilf Paiement are on the verge of same plateau and all three are in the running for scoring championship. last won by a St. Catharines player when Marcel Dionne, now with Detroit, took the title in 1969 and 1970.TORONTO: Marlboros and Sudbury Wolves are waging stern battle for fifth position&hellip; In back-to-back home games, coach George Armstrong&rsquo;s defending champions suffered a surprise 6-3 upset toOttawa 67s. then came back the following Sunday afternoon to edge Sault Ste. Marie 4-3&hellip; Greg Neeld. the 18-year-old defenseman who lost an eye following an injury in Kitchener in December. is back on skates and hopes to play with special face guard&hellip; However general manager Frank Bonello won&rsquo;t sanction his return until convinced further injury will not occur&hellip; Neeld says the face mask doesn&rsquo;t bother his vision and has looked good in practice although he is 10 pounds overweight.SUDBURY: Wolves are one of the few teams with any success in Peterborough. They beat the Petes on home ice in December to become the first club to accomplish that feat this season but the next night they were upset 6-4 in Kingston as the Canadians scored five times in third period&hellip; At home they registered their first shutout of their brief two-year career, with Bob Volpe handling 33 shots faultlessly in a 3-0 win over Oshawa Generals.OSHAWA: Generals seem to be pretty well set in seventh position barring a sudden surge&hellip; They failed to earn a point during the week dropping the 3-0 game in Sudbury, then losing 3-1 at home to London&hellip; Bill Lochead is still drawing rave notices from scoutsas one of top picks in Junior A draft&hellip; But apart from Lochead coach Gus Bodnar hasn&rsquo;t a great deal of firepower on the forward lines&hellip; This could hurt in playoffs.OTTAWA: After a poor start 67s under coach Leo Bovin have settled down to play some solid hockey and appear to have all but clinched the final playoff position&hellip; Dave Staffen scored six goals in bizarre 8-8 tie with Kingston&hellip; Staffen has been around the Junior circuit, starting with Hamilton Red Wings, then being traded to Sudbury and finally completing his Junior A career in Ottawa&hellip; 67s earned the draw on Staffen&rsquo;s final goal with 69 seconds left in the game&hellip; They then split weekend games, winning 6-3 in Toronto and losing 8-3 in Kitchener &mdash; where nobody is winning except the Rangers these days.SAULT: Greyhounds aren&rsquo;t completely out of the race for playoff spot but will have to start moving if they hope to catch last position from Ottawa&hellip; Bruce O&rsquo;Grady had two goals in a 4-1 win in Hamilton and Cary Farelli, son of coach Jim Farelli, had a single&hellip; Jack Valiquette reached the 51-goal mark in a 4-3 loss at Maple Leaf Gardens&hellip; The 17-year-old Valiquette has been spectacular since being drafted by the Greyounds from St. Mary&rsquo;s, which has produced many fine players.KINGSTON: Canadians are making honest attempt at playoffs but will probably just fall short despite a fine 6-4 come back win over Sudbury&hellip; With more than 40 points. Canadians have done much better than anyone had predicted and with a fine minor system, including an excellent midget team, their future looks very bright.HAMILTON: Red Wings&rsquo; frustration continued as they went 13 games without a victory and confirmed their position at the bottom of the league. Their latest losses were 7-2 to St. Catharines and 4-1 to Sault Ste. Marie&hellip; Goaltenders Rick Szabo and Greg Redquest are playing well but apart from those two the Wings haven much going for them.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01187/3623631-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="597" height="429"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Kitchener 2 at Toronto 2Kingston 5 at Oshawa 6Ottawa 2 at London 6Thu. Feb. 14Kitchener 7 at Sault 4London 1 at Peterborough 2Fri. Feb. 15London 1 at Ottawa 5Kitchener 8 at Sudbury 1Toronto 6 at Hamilton 3St Catharines 6 at Kingston 2Sat. Feb. 16Peterborough 4 at Sault 7Toronto 5 at Oshawa 10Sun. Feb. 17Kitchener 4 at Ottawa 6Kingston 3 at St. Catharines 11Hamilton 4 at Toronto 2Oshawa 1 at London 6Peterborough 1 at Sudbury 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02139/3623624-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="634" height="2280"></div> &#9632;

f0038-03

Petes Near Bottom Of Offensive Stats But Strong Defense Keeps Them On Top

BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Thunder Bay Hurricanes, winning six of their last seven games, opened up a four-point in the Midwest Junior Hockey League finally overhauling St. Paul Vulcans, who led the MJHL since it began play last October.The Hurricanes, led by 16-year-old Lynn Jorgenson, the league&rsquo;s top scorer with 57 goals, have won 30 of their 41 games and boast the best of fense in the circuit with 287 goals. With a four-point bulge over St. Paul and two games in hand. the Herks were sitting pretty solid in the No. 1 spot.The revived Minnesota Junior Stars appeared to be coming on strong and were posing a threat to St. Paul. The Stars, who won four of five games before running into the Hurricanes in a three-game showdown series, were only nine points behind the Vulcans and closing fast.Thunder Bay took two of three from Minnesota 6-4 and 4-1 before the Stars came back to win 5-3.In other MJHL developments. MJHL directors met at the Metropolitan Center here with expansion a major item on the agenda. The league is studying franchise applications from Winnipeg. Manitoba and two Minnesota iron range cities. Virginia and Hibbing.St. Paul Vulcans added luster to the MJHL&rsquo;s growing reputation by splitting a pair of extra curricular contests with New Westminster, the No. 2 team in the Western Canada Hockey League. The Vulcans won 4-2 after losing 3-1. Thunder Bay had previously beaten St. Catharines Hawks of the Ontario Major Hockey League.<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0466/3623669-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="600" height="1101"></div> &#9632;

f0038-04

Thunder Bay Takes Over No. 1 Spot From St. Paul

<div class="byline">BY BOB STRUMM</div>SASKATOON &mdash;The Captain and his Pack have finally rearranged the puzzle in Bladetown.The Captain is Bob Bourne, a 19-year-old centerman who has survived the frustration of a slow start. The PACK is four youthful performers named Price, Arndt. Chapman and Klassen who have given the Saskatoon Blades enough firepower to return to respectability in the Eastern Division of the Western Canada Hockey League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01170/3623700-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="271" height="463"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Bourne</figcaption></div>Blades have fluctuated above and below the .500 mark most of this season. with more ups and downs than a runaway roller coaster. There was a time when their apparent destiny was fifth place in the eastern race.But with six weeks remaining in the WCHL schedule, the defending division champions had finally pushed past the Brandon Wheat Kings into the fourth and final playoff position. Much of the reason was Bourne and the PACK, and their objective now is undoubtedly to hold that advantage the rest of the way.After scoring 40 goals and 92 points last season. Bourne was considered prime bait for the 1974 pro draft. During the first half of this season though, the Big Bird was the Blades&rsquo; major disappointment. Somehow, the sights on his shooting iron had become crossed.Still the lanky Blade captain, with the speed of a long distance phone call, maintained his composure. And he has recently returned to his brilliant end-to-end rushes which have him averaging a goal-a-game over the past nine contests.&ldquo;There were a lot of things on my mind&hellip; like agents and the negative publicity.&rdquo; agreed Bourne, who suddenly has 22 goals with still 19 games remaining. &ldquo;But the only thing which worried me was not being able to put the puck in the net.&rdquo;The PACK is a different story. Among the four, they have 11 years of WCHL experience&hellip; not bad for three 18-year-olds and a rookie of 17.Defenseman Pat Price is generally considered the finest 18-year-old in the country. In fact, if the underage draft becomes a reality, it is conceded by most of the pro scouts that Price will be the first of his land to go.His style radiates an offensive flair which has produced 21 goals and 72 points so far. Many sideline experts indicate that had Price played his four seasons of Tier One hockey in eastern Canada, he would now be touted as the next Bobby Orr.Blade coach Jack McLeod admits that Price is as good as any player he&rsquo;s ever handled. But McLeod may well have the two best 18-year-olds in the country&hellip; the other is centre Ralph Klassen.Klassen can do it all, from killing penalties to working the point on the powr-play. In a 10-4 triumph over Kamloops, he registered one goal and five assists which included two helpers with the man advantage and one in a shorthanded situation.SWIFT CURRENT: The high-scoring Broncos exploded for an 11-7 win over Kamloops and a 9-3 trouncing of Edmonton&hellip; Four Broncos are now members of the 30-Goal Club&hellip; Don Larway and Ian McPhee have 34, Dave Williams 31 and Terry Ruskowski 30&hellip; At 19, McPhee is one of the leading candidates for the WCHL&rsquo;s rookie-of-the-year honors.REGINA: Pats slipped from first place in the congested Eastern Division and into tie for second spot with two consecutive losses in Flin Flon&hellip; Dennis Sobchuk, fully recovered from a hip pointer which forced him to miss two games, has averaged goal-per-game since his return&hellip; Sobchuk&rsquo;s fourth hat-trick of the year came in a 6-5 triumphover Kamloops&hellip; Sobchuk and Mike Wanchuk are already 40-goal scorers.FLIN FLON: Bombers pulled even qith regina on the strength of 4-2 and 3-2 victories over the Pats&hellip; Superb goaltending by Roger Swanson and Harvey Stewart proved to be the keynote&hellip; Bombers are one of two WCHL clubs with both netminders in the top 10&hellip; Swanson&rsquo;s average, fourth best in the WCHL. is 3.22 while Stewart&rsquo;s is 4.52&hellip; Al Hillier&rsquo;s 81 assists are tops in the league.BRANDON: The slipping Wheat Kings lost three straight on the West Coast and continued to confront injury problems&hellip; The latest casualty was superstar Ron Chipperfield, who sliced his hand in fight in New Westminster&hellip; Chipperfield played the next night in Victoria, encountered another bout of fisticuffs, and reopened the cut&hellip; The captain&rsquo;s status was unknown after the cut became infected but it was expected he&rsquo;d be out one week.WINNIPEG: General manager Gerry Brisson and coach Gord Pennell continued to juggle their lineup considerably employing associated players&hellip; Clubs&rsquo; Don Dziadyk celebrated his return to action with a goal.CALGARY: One week off enabled the Western Division leading Cents to regroup after losing five of their last 10&hellip; Their margin over New Westminster dropped to three points.NEW WESTMINSTER: Punch McLean&rsquo;s Bruins are for real&hellip; After dropping a 5-3 decision in Saskatoon, they registered 8-6 and 7-2 victories over Brandon&hellip; Defenseman Ron Greschner tied a league record by earning six assists in the first game&hellip; The high-scoring defenseman then registered a goal and three assists in the rubber match&hellip; Ken Dodd broke out of a scoring slump with five goals in four games&hellip; McLean was suspended for three games for poor conduct following his club&rsquo;s loss in Saskatoon.MEDICINE HAT: Tigers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-2 tie against Edmonton&hellip; Ken Gassoff was the hero scoring the equalizer with less than one minute remaining&hellip; Ed Johnstone reached the 40-goal niche with the other goal.EDMONTON: A 17-year-old named Ted Olson has become the new penalty leader in the WCHL with a near-unbelievable 112 minutes in his last eight games&hellip; Olson&rsquo;s 293 minutes have already established new Oil King record&hellip; The old record was 236 minutes set in 1971-72 season by John Rogers. now with Minnesota North Stars of the NHL&hellip; Kings won their second straight showdown with Victoria 8-3 to provide some breathing room in fourth spot&hellip; Surging Mike Will scored eight goals in a five-game stretch.VICTORIA: Cougars lost two crucial matches to Edmonton but returned home to defeat Brandon 5-4 before 3,900 fans&hellip; Derek Haas scored the winner with less than five minutes left&hellip; Brad Anderson reached the 30-goal plateau with his second hat-trick of the year&hellip; All three of Anderson&rsquo;s goal came in the first period. &#9632;

f0039-01

Bourne And His Pack Ignite Blades’ Run At Playoff Spot

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0479/3623738-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="244" height="374"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0563/3623731-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="1033" height="896"></div>Here&rsquo;s an excel lent move lor stopping shots from the side when attackers are closing in lor a possible rebound &mdash; that second chance which so often pays off for forwards.Using the half split, the goalie is down where he can grab low shots and smother them as soon as they hit his stick.He&rsquo;d better be sure there&rsquo;s no rebound, especially to his right (see illustration). You can see how open the stick side is to an attacker coming in from the rightAnother advantage of the half split is that a goalie can get to his feet quicker than being right down on the ice. By using all the strength of his left leg and heaving his body to the right at the same time, he can be up in a split second. Practise it: the work will pay off. &#9632;

f0039-04

The Half Split

<div class="byline">BY HERB MYERS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02123/3623769-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="313" height="402"></div><h2>Manitoba League</h2>The Selkirk Steelers started slowly and on Dec. held down third place in league&rsquo;s North Division. Since that time George Dorman&rsquo;s charges have caught fire with only four losses in their last 22 games and now share the lead with Doug Clark&rsquo;s strong Brandon Travellers, 13 points ahead of the defending Centennial Cup champion Portage Terriers. The Steelers, sparked by the brothers Kaluzniak, 16-year-old Gord and 17-year-old Gary, along with youthful veterans Ken Neufield, Martin Vanrobaeys, Murray Thomson, Kelly Kehoe and Erwin Martens, are making a real run for the Division crown. In the South Division Doug Overton&rsquo;s St. Boniface Saints, after dropping behind West Kildonan North Stars during the last month, chalked up six&rsquo; in a row to pull even with Greg Lacomy&rsquo;s Stars. Steady goaltending by Greg Nordman and young Kerry Seman plus the scoring of veteran Johnny Mazur spearheaded the drive. The MJHL is exploring possibilities of post-season play with two first-year U.S. Junior Leagues, the Midwest and New England.<h2>Saskatchewan League</h2>Prince Albert Raiders, four wins in five starts, pulled seven points ahead of Dr. Terry Hennings&rsquo; Humboldt Brones in the North Division. Their only loss was at home 6-3 to Regina Pat Blues, who are in a scrap with Estevan for the South lead. Ross Mahoney&rsquo;s two goals led the Blues&rsquo; attack with singles by Lionel Walters, Bob Heisler, Kevin Nagle and Al Dumba. At Estevan, the Bruins topped Humboldt 7-3 to stay a single point ahead of Regina as Bob Humble slapped in a pair for the Bruins. In other North contests, Kelly Milford and Pete Goertz each had two for fourth place Saskatoon Olympics who blasted Melville 9-3. Third place Yorkton pounded the Battleford Barons 8-6 with 19-year-olds Norm Gorbutt and Ross Mark each counting a hat-trick. Notre Dame Hounds gained two points on fourth place Moose Jaw Canucks in South by tripping the Canucks 6-4, paced by two goals each from Terry Patterson and Bob Stephenson, while Clint Stack hit twice for the Canucks. Former Michigan star Bill Kelly was named to assist GM Jim Chadwick with Moose Jaw coaching duties of departed coach Murray Marcino. League directors handed out 16-game suspensions to five Yorkton players and three game suspensions to three Regina Silver Foxes.<h2>British Columbia League</h2>league Kelowna Buckaroos broke three game losing streak with 8-4 pasting of defending champion Penticton Brones with Archie McKinnon and Dale Turner hitting twice. The night before, the Bucks were humiliated 10-3 by coach Glen Newport&rsquo;s Chilliwack Bruins, who scored seven times in the opening period. Former Buck Ken Weninger got three and Tom O&rsquo;Neill, Ken Widmeyer and Wayne Bernard added two for the Bruins while Bucks&rsquo; Murray Hanson managed a pair. Langley Lords, down 2-0 at Bellingham after two periods, got 3-2 overtime win on Sandy Bain&rsquo;s score. Chilliwack followed win at Kelowna with 7-6 overtime loss at Vernon on Bob Burgoyne&rsquo;s second goal of the night. At Nanaimo, the Clippers eased by Merritt Centennials 5-1 on a pair of goals by Dale Ewasiak and singles by Byran Day, Wade Smith and Dale Drelich. Clipper goalie Dan Rogers picked up his second assist in two games.<h2>Alberta League</h2>The battle for playoff position tightened as fifth place Drumheller nipped league-leading Red Deer 4-3 to move within two points of fourth place Calgary Canucks with Red Simpson&rsquo;s Edmonton Mets only point ahead in third spot. It was the first ever win on Red Deer ice for Falcons in three years as Ron Rose knocked in the winner in the final minute after Grant Pushie, Randy Marshall and Roger Mitchell had earlier scores. Returning home. Drumheller settled fora a 3-3 sawoff with Edmonton as Paul Messier bounced in third period goal for the Mets. Pushie with two and Jim Bechtold handled the Falcon sconng.<h2>Eastern Newfoundland League</h2>Gander Flyers continued their runaway pace, clipping runnerup Clarenville 6-2 to increase league lead to 20 points. Dennis Goulding, Tom Rafuse, Keith Elliott, Reid Sheppard, Andy Gover and Reg Batson all tallied for the Flyers. Third place St. John&rsquo;s Capitals doubled the score on cellar-dwelling Concepcion Bay 8-4 with Glen Critch firing in three and Ron Caddigan and Wally Chaynor notching two each.<h2>Western Newfoundland League</h2>The powerful Bay St. George Huskies outshot Corner Brook 36-7 and led by Lonnie Abbott&rsquo;s three markers blanked the Royals 8-0 to increase their league lead. The Royals rebounded to trip the Port aux Basques Gulls 7-5 as Royals Rod Oxford and Kevin Parsons and Jerry LeRiche of the Gulls all scored twice.<h2>New England League</h2>Fitchburg&rsquo;s 19-year-old Bob Wildes regained the league scoring lead&rsquo; with an 11 point week as the third-place Wallopers crushed Tri-Valley 15-2 and Pembroke 12:4. Wildes, 19-year-old Bruce Saulnier and 17-year-old Ron Haakala each potted four goals against the Squires and Saulnier added four more against Pembroke. The Springfield Olympics moved into fifth place tie with North Smithfield by knocking off coach Gary Arnott&rsquo;s leading Tyngsboro Huskies 7-4 as Mike Caporale scored three of his four goals in final period to break the tie. Tyngsboro&rsquo;s early season lead has now been cut to only one point over the Weymouth Cs with Tom Moon&rsquo;s Fitchburg club only three points down in third place.<h2>New York-Penn League</h2>With league leading scorer Steve Eccles of the Syracuse Blazers sidelined with a shoulder injury, Dan Snell led the Blazers with five goals in two-game, weekend sweep of Erie Lions to increase the Syracuse lead to 14 points over second place Buffalo Blades. Erie&rsquo;s Mike Sandberg scored three times in a slong 5-4 cause in the second game. Rochester Monarchs dropped into fourth place with losses to Erie and Buffalo during the week. Against the Blades, the Monarchs led 4-1 after two periods but Buffalo roared from behind towin 5-4 on three goals by winger Brad Hintenberger and one more by Jeff Lasser. &#9632;

f0039-02

JUNIOR JOTTINGS

<div class="byline">BY TONY PETRELLA</div>ATLANTA &mdash;Finding himself once more at the forefront of activity, Amie Brown paused a few moments to give thanks and speculate on his future in hockey.Twice since coming to the Atlanta Flames midway through last season, fragile knees have been ruptured and needed surgical repair. Brown has spent more time on crutches than skates.After his latest venture into the world medical technology, Brown rejoined the Flames with a good deal of uncertainty. His knee was healed, but his mind was hinting otherwise.&ldquo;I guess everybody who has a knee injury has a hard time jumping right back into the action,&rdquo; Brown said a few days ago. &ldquo;and I was no different.&ldquo;Even though the knee was healed, I kept wondering if it would hold up. If I had to make a hard cut. I worried about it and maybe hesitated a second too long.&ldquo;Certainly, it affected the way I was playing. But. I think all that is behind me now. I&rsquo;ve been playing regularly lately, and Bernie (Flames&rsquo; coach Bernie Geoffrion) has shown confidence in me.&ldquo;That means lot. When I came back after the operation and didn&rsquo;t dress for games, or didn&rsquo;t get much ice time, it was kind of hard to take.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m real happy with the way things are working out. Now that Jean Lemieux was called up from Nova Scotia, the two of us have been taking a regular shift together. I worked with Jean during training camp, so we&rsquo;re pretty comfortable.&rdquo;It is imperative that Brown functions up to expectations. He&rsquo;s one of the few &ldquo;old hands&rdquo; who can lend stability to the Flames&rsquo; defense now that Noel Price has been shelved with torn knee ligaments.&ldquo;I remember how this guy played when he was with New York Rangers,&rdquo; Geoffrion said of Brown. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m glad to get him back in the lineup. I&rsquo;ve got some pretty young guys on defense. Lemieux, Bob Murray, Dwight Bialowas. They need somebody to settle them down.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t worry about guys like Pat Quinn or Randy Manery or Doug Mohns. They know what they have to do. But the young guys need some help.&ldquo;This is what I&rsquo;m worried about now. If my defense can hold up for the rest of the year, then maybe we can make the playoffs,&rdquo; Geoffrion said.&ldquo;Look at some of the teams in this league. Some of them have two, maybe three good lines. Forwards who can really put the puck in the net. But where are they in the standings?&ldquo;Goalkeeping and defense are critical. I think my forwards are good enough. But holding the defense together is gonna be the problem. As for my goalkeepers. Phil Myre and Dan Bouchard are the best. I don&rsquo;t worry about them.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m really glad to get Brownie back. He can be a big help to us. He&rsquo;s been around a long time in the National Hockey League. Tough games are nothing new for him. &#9632;

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March 1, 1974

Glover Out As NHL Takes Over

Brown Drops Soares For ‘Failing To Control Players’

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