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.

April 18, 1975

The Hockey News April 18, 1975

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04104/3664517-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="608" height="356"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

WHA Leaders

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>KANSAS CITY&mdash;The points never came in any great flood, and never promised to lift the Scouts even close to a playoff spot. Still, they came for a while, an upset here and there and an occassional tie, until, at one point in February the Scouts were actually expected to win home games against selected opponents.From the period between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15, they rose up and smote six of them, tied three others and were being looked at with a sort or paternalistic approval by the National Hockey League. But this, the Golden Age of Scouts&rsquo; hockey, was not to last long. As the season headed into its final two weeks, the Scouts weren&rsquo;t surprising anyone anymore.In the period between Feb. 13 and April 6. they won two games and tied two, and there was a fair chance that their 15-victory total was just how they would finish the season.So the time has come for another milestone in Scouts&rsquo; history, the first ever &ldquo;What&rsquo;s wrong with the Scouts?&rdquo; story. Such an effort could provoke chuckles in some quarters, where the problem was perceived as making chicken salad out of chicken feathers anyway. But the Scouts, even on their own level, were clearly not the same team they were two months ago. There were some very good reasons why.The most tangible problem has been the injury losses of defenseman JeanGuy Lagace (ankle fracture for the season) and Simon Nolet (calf bruise-eight games). Lagace&rsquo;s departure turned out to be more critical than feared and only points out just how important he is to the club&rsquo;s future.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type who motivates.&rdquo; says winger Gary Croteau. &ldquo;Not only verbally but by the way he plays, too. He&rsquo;s experienced, too he helps the younger guys. He starts things. It&rsquo;s contagious.&rdquo;From his very first appearance in a Scouts&rsquo; uniform. Lagace became a traffic cop, giving the power play a point man who could both shoot and pass the puck. The power play has been abysmal since he was lost.Though Nolet missed only eight games, it took him another eight to become the same player he had been before the injury. The Scouts weren&rsquo;t just missing Nolet&rsquo;s scoring while he struggled to get his conditioning back, they were without an entire first line.With Nolet gone, Guy Charron was ineffectual. And without one scoring line, the Scouts didn&rsquo;t have another to pick up the slack.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we really let up.&rdquo; says Bep Guidolin. the Scouts&rsquo; coach. &ldquo;The leadership we had in January and February just wasn&rsquo;t there. We&rsquo;re looking for it now and it&rsquo;s still not there.&rdquo;No one will admit the season expired the weekend Nolet and Lagace went out, nor that the club lost any of its motivation at the same time. But the Scouts had set very modest goals for the first season and most of them were accomplished by that time.They had (I) wanted to be better than Washington and (2) just be respectable, and by February they were both. Besides just keeping their own jobs for next year and the outside shot at catching Minnesota, there was no immediate goal to keep the players pushing themselves.The schedule didn&rsquo;t help much, either. By February, the Scouts had run out of almost all their games with Minnesota, California and Washington, clubs with which they could almost match up in personnel. In years past March was a good time of the year for tail-enders to scavenge points, but the new NHL playoff system reduced those possibilities this year.&ldquo;Every club we played needed the points,&rdquo; said Baz Bastien, the assistant general manager. &ldquo;Like the other night against the Islanders I thought we played a good game. But they&rsquo;re a contender. They needed the points.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not so much that we flattened out. It&rsquo;s just that all we played were contenders.&rdquo;So though the points have stopped coming, Baz says it&rsquo;s not for a lack of effort. &ldquo;Letting up?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think so. We had a couple of meetings with them and that&rsquo;s not what 1 get. I think they still want to make a good showing.&rdquo;And, according to Croteau, the Scouts still are. &ldquo;I still think we re playing respectable, good hockey.&rdquo; he said.As the season fades, however, it just wasn&rsquo;t taking the Scouts as far.LOOSE PUCKS: A crowd of 13.567. largest since opening night, showed up for the final Saturday night date of the year and was stunned to see the Scouts jump off to a 2-0 first period lead over Buffalo. The Sabres finally wore the Scouts down with their forechecking and won, 4-2.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01918/3663455-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="565" height="942"><figcaption class="caption-body">SIMON NOLET&hellip;Loss Hurts Big Line</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Golden Age Of Scouts’ Hockey Shortlived

<div class="byline">BY BOB STRUMM</div>SASKATOON&mdash;It&rsquo;s getting so you can&rsquo;t tell a winner from a loser in the Western Canada Hockey League&hellip;which is great for excitement, but hard on the hearts of coaches and fans.For the first time in league history. Calgary, Edmonton and Flin Flon failed to qualify for the post-season playoffs, and each club did its nosedive in the same season. The odds against that happening have been astronomical prior to this season. It wasn&rsquo;t so long ago that Edmonton and Flin Flon met head-to-head in the WCHL final three years in a row, from 1968 through 1971. Flin Flon and Edmonton have each been in four league finals while Calgary has been in one since the WCHL was formed nine seasons ago.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01138/3665429-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="283" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mel Bridgman</figcaption></div>Instead, Victoria and Kamloops qualified for the post-season showdown for the first time in franchise history with Victoria&rsquo;s Cougars winning their first Western Division championship. In the Eastern Division, Brandon returned to the playoff picture after a year&rsquo;s absence and Lethbridge finished second in its first season of WCHL play, after assuming the Swift Current franchise.Fortunately, there were also some old reliables around. Medicine Hat and New Westminster each made the Western Division playoffs for the fourth consecutive season while Saskatoon won its second eastern pennant in three years and Regina qualified for playoffs for the fifth straight year, earning the right to defend its league championship.However, the general unpredictability of it all was epitomized by the Winnipeg-Brandon race for fourth spot in the Eastern Division. In the end. it was a goal by Brandon&rsquo;s Dan Bonar with 17 seconds remaining in a classic struggle between the two teams which decided the the final playoff spot.Bonar&rsquo;s goal gave Brandon a 4-4 tie with the Clubs, and as it turned out, one point made the difference. Brandon finished just one point ahead of Winnipeg in the final standing.No sooner had the regular-season smoke cleared than the fuss started up all over again in the playoffs. Once a season of uncertainty, always a season of uncertainty.In the Western Division, fourth-place Kamloops skated into Victoria and knocked off the champion Cougars 6-4 on two third-period goals by Brad Gas-soff. The next evening, Kamloops took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven quarterfinal by dumping the Cougars 4-3 in overtime, thanks to Gassoff&rsquo;s second goal of this game and fourth of the series.Third-place New Westminster Bruins earned a split in the first two games of their quarter-final with Medicine Hat Tigers right in Medicine Hat. After losing 6-5 in the series opener on Barry Dean&rsquo;s game-winner for the Tigers, New West came back with a 6-3 win behind Barry Smith&rsquo;s goal and two assists.In the Eastern Division, pennantwinning Saskatoon Blades ran into a fired-up fourth-place Brandon club and were beaten 4-1 in the series opener in Brandon. Regina and Lethbridge split the opening two games of that quarterfinal in Lethbridge, with the Broncos winning 5-4 on an overtime goal by Greg Woods and Regina winning 5-3 on an outstanding goaltending performance by Ed Staniowski along with two goals from Jim Minor.Blades and Cougars did bounce back in their respective series however. Blades thumped Brandon 13-3 in game two back in Saskatoon, setting two playoff, records and tying a third in the process.Blades scored eight times in the third period, one more than the previous record held by Edmonton Oil Kings. The 13 goals in one playoff game also tied a record set previously by the Kings. And Saskatoon captain Ralph Klassen earned five assists in the win, establishing a new WCHL playoff record for a single game.Victoria, meanwhile, whipped Kamloops 7-2 in game three of their series behind two goals each by Mel Bridgman and Rick Martin. Bridgman is the early playoff leader in goals with five while Klassen of Saskatoon holds the lead in assists, thanks to his one-game performance.The countdown to the Memorial Cup has started once again in the West.Bridgman is the Western Canada Hockey League&rsquo;s new individual scoring champion. Appropriately enough, he ended the month of March like a lion.Bridgman earned 25 points in his final six games to finish with 157 points, well ahead of runner-up Bryan Trottier of Lethbridge Broncos but 11 points short of Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s single-season record of 168 points set back in 1967-68 with Flin Flon Bombers. Trottier wound up the season with 144 points.Bridgman&rsquo;s totals included 66 goals and 91 assists. Trottier led the league in assists with 98 and added 46 goals.The WCHL&rsquo;s top goal-scorer, however, was rookie Don Murdoch of Medicine Hat Tigers, who fired 82 goals and finished third in the point race with 141. Dave Faulkner of Regina Pats with 122 points, Don Ashby of Calgary Centennials with 120 points and Rich Gosselin of Flin Flon with 116 points rounded out the top six.Goaltending champion for the 197475 schedule was Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; Bill Oleschuk, who registered a 3.09 goals-against average and four shutouts in 43 games. Oleschuk came to Saskatoon early in the season in a deal with Lethbridge.Gord Laxton of New Westminster Bruins set a new WCHL record for minutes played by a goaltender by participating in all 70 Bruin games and logging. 3,980 minutes in duty. The old record was held by former Bruin Terry Richardson, who played 68 games and 3,800 minutes during the 1972-73 season. Richardson is now with Virginia Wings of the American Hockey League.Laxton was second in shutouts to Oleschuk with three and third in goals-against average with a 3.58 performance. Victoria&rsquo;s Bob Leskie was second in goals-against average with 3.48.Larry Hendrick of Calgary Centennials led the WCHL in saves with 2,056, the only netminder to surpass the 2,000 mark in stops.Three other WCHL individual records for a single season fell by the wayside. Jerry Rollins of Winnipeg Clubs ran up 473 minutes in penalties, breaking the previous record of 435 minutes set by Ted Olson of Edmonton Oil Kings last season. Rollins actually earned 72 of his minutes with Flin Flon before being traded early in the yearMurdoch&rsquo;s 82 goals and 141 points both established records for rookie The old standards were 57 goals set by Ron Fairbrother of Saskatoon in 1967-68 and 123 points by Dennis Sobchuk of Regina in 1971-72.Two single-game records were tied during the season. Gord Blumenschein of Winnipeg scored six goals March 15 in Flin Flon. equalling previous performances of co-holders Gerry Pinder, Reg Leach, Dan Spring and Sobchuk.Tom Bast and Murdoch, both of Medicine Hat. earned six assists Dec. 21 against Calgary. and then Barry Dean of the Hat duplicated the feat in a game Jan. 1 against Lethbridge. The six assists equalled the single game record shared among 13 former WCHL performers.Two WCHL career records were also set during the course of the season. Ed Staniowski of Regina became the first goal tender in the history of the league to play 200 games, and finished with 206 regular-season appearances in his four-year junior career.Rollins became the first WCHL player ever to surpass the 900-minute mark in penalties in a career. He set a team record in Flin Flon with 509 minutes during two seasons and a month, before he was traded to Winnipeg this season and added 401 minutes with the Clubs.WESTERN CANADA HOCKEY LEAGUE &#9632;

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Cents, Kings, Bombers Miss Playoffs; Cougars’ Bridgman WCHL Scoring Champ

<div class="byline">BY BILL BRILL</div>THE HOCKEY NEWS EVERY WEEK for the price of a ticket to a SINGLE GAME!Superb Hockey Reading Each World HOCKEY WORLD & HOCKEY PICTORIALHAMPTON&mdash;The Southern League&rsquo;s championship series will feature the top regular season teams, but they got to the finals by different means.While No. 1 Charlotte was polishing off defending champion Roanoke Valley in four games, Hampton was carried to the full seven games by shorthanded, gallant Winston-Salem. The Gulls had to win the last two games of the rugged series to gain the finals. It was a unique series, in that tour of the seven wins came on the road. Winston-Salem won twice in Hampton, while the Gulls took one game in Winston-Salem and the sixth game in Greensboro. The Twins, forced out of their home rink by a rodeo, took the sixth game to nearby Greensboro&rsquo;s small Piedmont Sports Arena.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01120/3665467-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="273" height="424"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Manch</figcaption></div>Ironically, the game in Greensboro proved to be the biggest &ldquo;home&rsquo;&rsquo; crowd for Winston-Salem, as over 2,800 fans saw the worn-out Twins fall 5-2. Hampton wrapped up the series the next night by beating Winston-Salem, 4-0, behind Andre Gill&rsquo;s fine goaltending as 5,183 watched.The difference in the series was manpower. The Twins played with only 12 skaters and one goalie as four regulars and No. 2 goalie Kevin Nevill were sidelined with injuries.Even Hampton coach John Brophy admitted that the difference in the series was the Gulls&rsquo; extra players. &ldquo;We were skating with three lines and they just had to go with two,&rdquo; said Brophy.&ldquo;It was a great series,&rdquo; said Winston-Salem goalie Bob Champoux, who played every minute in the nets for the Twins.&ldquo;Our guys made me very proud,&rdquo; said Winston-Salem coach Forbes Kennedy, who constantly yelled at his players during the series. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t mad at them, I just had to keep them going. They were a tired team, but they never gave up.&rdquo;Ironically, the SHL&rsquo;s decision to speed up the playoffs might well have cost Winston-Salem a shot at the crown and also put Hampton down 1-0 in the title playoff with Charlotte.Obviously concerned with expenses, the Hampton-Winston-Salem series was concluded with three games in as many nights. Then Hampton was forced to go to Charlotte the day after clinching the series to open with the Checkers. Charlotte won that game, 3-1.The series then took three days off. and then started a string of successive games that could reach six if the series happened to go seven games. There was not a single off day scheduled for the second through seventh games.Hampton&rsquo;s fans proved they loved their Gulls, who have been the success story of the Southern&rsquo;s second campaign. A total of 18,713 fans poured into the Hampton Roads Coliseum for the four home games in the first round, an average of better than 4,600. None of the other playoff teams did nearly as well.The first game between Charlotte and Hampton attracted only 3,177, and afterwards the Checkers players were visibly disappointed. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what we have to do to get a big crowd,&rdquo; said veteran center Frank Golembrosky. &ldquo;I thought we&rsquo;d have at least 5.000 for this game. The fans that came were great. They really helped. But we&rsquo;d sure like to see some larger crowds.&rdquo;That is the complaint that Checkers&rsquo; president Al Manch has been making all year. Manch says that Charlotte, despite its first place club, will lose around $50,000 on the year. Attendance has beeen off all season.Not so in Hampton, where the Gulls actually arrived after the start of the season. Plans were made to have closed-circuit TV of all road games for the remainder of the Charlotte series piped into the Hampton coliseum. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to make it as much like home games as possible,&rdquo; said Gulls&rsquo; vice-president Charlie Newsome.As for the opening game. Hampton failed to score while holding a two-man edge in the second period and the score 1-0, Charlotte. After that, the Checkers had no trouble although Bob Gerrard did spoil Gaye Cooley&rsquo;s shutout bid with a goal less than two minutes from the end.It was the ninth goal in eight playoff games for Gerrard, who has not been a high scorer this year. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t explain it,&rdquo; said Gerrard.The top goal scorer for Charlotte also has been a surprise. Neil Korzack had five goals in the short Roanoke Valley series and followed that up with a tally in the opener against Hampton. &ldquo;I owe it all to Golembrosky,&rdquo; said Korzack. Since Golembrosky was shoved to center by coach Pat Kelly, Korzack responded with 11 goals in the final 18 regular season games and then had the hat trick in the second playoff game with Roanoke.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0274/3665460-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="534" height="596"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRANK GOLEMBROSKY&hellip;Helps Linemate</figcaption></div>Referee Pierre Balanger, who is calling the championship series along with Ron Asselstine. says that the SHL is playing a much better brand of hockey this season. &#9632;

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Checkers, Gulls Square Off In Showdown Series

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01623/3665602-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>HOCKEY NEWS AWARDS BOBBY HULL NAMED WHA PLAYER OF YEAR HUCUL, HUNTER TOP FIGURES&mdash;Page 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-02474/3665595-1-eng-US/cover-022.jpg" title="Cover-02" width="591" height="1295"></div>PARENT WINS SECOND VEZINA IN SUCCESSION ORR ENDS ESPO&rsquo;S FOUR-YEAR HOLD ON SCORING TITLE&mdash;Page 2<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-03211/3665588-1-eng-US/cover-032.jpg" title="Cover-03" width="1573" height="1460"></div>NATIONAL HOCKEY EXPO TRADE SHOW AT MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;Pages 14-15-16-17STANLEY CUP, AVCO TROPHY DATES ON THE INSIDE &#9632;

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FLYERS START AS PLAYOFF FAVORITES—Page 2

MONTREAL&mdash;The Philadelphia Flyers peaked at the right time as the National Hockey League race crossed the finish line for the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs and who else but the Flyers are the odds-on-favorites to take it all.The defending cup champions closed the 1974-75 campaign with a tremendous rush winning 12 and tieing two of their last 14 games to finish on top of the NHL point race ahead of both Buffalo and Montreal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02831/3662893-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="249" height="427"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Parent</figcaption></div>All three teams finished with indentical records of 113 points but the Flyers got the overall first position on the strength of having the most victories, 51. Buffalo ended second having won 49 and the Canadiens were relegated to third place with 47 victories. Consequently the Flyers are assured of home ice advantage in the event they return to the 1975 Stanley Cup finals.The Flyers, playing stronger as the schedule waned and behind the brilliant netminding of Bernie Parent, who won the Vezina Trophy for the second straight year, will draw a bye into the second round of the playoffs along with Montreal, Buffalo and Vancouver, all of whom finished first in their respective divisions.Each member of the first-place teams pocketed $2,000 bonus money with Philadelphia and Buffalo players enriched by $2,500 each for winning their conference titles as well. Philadelphia took the Campbell Conference title and Buffalo won the Prince of Wales Conference.Each second-place team receives 21 units of $1,000 each and the four third-place teams are provided 21 units of $500 each from the NHL.While the position in the standings determined which teams would qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs&mdash;the first three teams of each division&mdash;from here on, the determining factor for home-ice advantage is points gained in the regular-season. Each of the division winners receives a bye into the quarter-final round. The other eight teams are ranked by points with Los Angeles (105) meeting the team with the fewest points. Toronto (78) in one of the best-of-three preliminary rounds. Boston (94) opposes Chicago (82); Pittsburgh (89) plays St. Louis (84); and New York Rangers (88 with 37 wins) meet New York Islanders (88 with 33 wins) in the other preliminary rounds.The four winners of these series are then ranked with the first-place teams for the best-of-seven quarter-finals. Numbering the teams from 1 to 8 in order of points, the quarter-final opponents will be 1 and 8; 2 and 7; 3 and 6; and 4 and 5. The quarter-finals are scheduled to begin Sunday, April 13. in the cities of the four teams with the most points.In team statistics, Flyers had the most wins, 51, Montreal lost the least number of games, 14, Islanders tied the most games 22 and most significantly, Montreal led in goals scored, 374. Philadelphia of course allowed the fewest goals-against 181. Which accounted for Parent&rsquo;s Vezina win.Individually. Bobby Orr of Boston won his second NHL scoring title of his career with 135 points breaking teammate Phil Esposito&rsquo;s four-year hold on the Ross Trophy. Espo led in goals with 61. Orr was tied with Philadelphia&rsquo;s Bobby Clarke in assists with 89. Pierre Larouche of Pittsburgh was the highest scoring rookie with 68 points while Dave Schultz was again the NHL bad man with 478 penalty minutes. &#9632;

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Flyers Loom As Playoff Favorites After Strong Finish To Top NHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01908/3662924-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston defenseman Bobby Orr is the NHL scoring champion for the second time in his brilliant career. Orr finished with 135 points to beat out teammate Phil Esposito.</figcaption></div><h2>HULL SETS RECORD</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;Records were set to be broken and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Bobby Hull appeared to be bent on rewriting the book in the final rundown of the 1974-75 campaign. Hull produced his 77th goal of the year to erase Phil Esposito&rsquo;s pro mark of 76 set in 1970-71.One record eluded Hull, however. His bid for 78 goals in 78 games missed by only one goal in a magnificient display of scoring that has made him the most talked about player in pro hockey circles. Hull now has a career total of 785 goals in 1,252 games. Since jumping to the WHA three years ago, the Jets&rsquo; ace has scored 181 times in 216 games. Hull gave full credit to his European linemates. Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg. &ldquo;What happened this year was just because of those guys,&rdquo; he said.<h2>PUCK KILLS REFEREE</h2>MINDEN&mdash;Minden is mourning the death of a I5-year-old boy whose ambition was to become a professionnal referee. Timothy Harrison, a goaltender for the Minden, Ont, midgets and an excellent minor hockey league referee, was hit in the temple by a deflected shot while officiating in an exhibition contest.Struck by the puck midway through the middle period, Harrison finished the period but went home before the final stanza complaining of pains and was taken to a nearby hospital where he lapsed into unconsciousness. He was then transfered to Toronto General Hospital where he died from a ruptured vein or artery in the temple.<h2>NEW PRO LEAGUE?</h2>OSHAWA&mdash;An Oshawa, Ontario, businessman wants to start a professional development hockey league in Southern Ontario, one that would resemble the now existing Central Hockey League.Tom Beale, who is part owner of a Senior A hockey franchise, said he would like to see a league with Oshawa, Peterborough, Hamilton, North Bay, London, Thornhill and Markham as centers. Beale sees each team being affiliated with one or two WHA or NHL clubs with an age limit of 18-25. The major league team would pay most of the salaries but the cost to the parent clubs would be decreased by less travelling expenses. He views this new league as an answer to falling attendance for Major Junior A hockey in some Southern Ontario localities.<h2>WHA HONORS HOWE</h2>HOUSTON&mdash;Gordie Howe is nearing the end of his 27-year pro hockey career but it seems he won&rsquo;t be forgotten, at least not by the WHA. The league has named a trophy after him.The WHA has announced that the Gordie Howe Award will presented to the most valuable player in the league playoffs starting this season. It is equivalent to the Smythe Trophy award in the NHL and will undoubtedly carry a cash renumeration for the winning player. It isn&rsquo;t beyond the realm of possibility that Howe himself could win the award. The Aeros are the playoff favorites and the 47-year-old winger will be front and center when Houston starts defense of its Avco World Trophy. &#9632;

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Deadline Stoppers

MONTREAL&mdash;Youthful Pierre Larouche of the Pittsburgh Penguins maintained his NHL rookie goal scoring lead right up to the end and walked off with freshman scoring honors.The 19-year-old Pittsburgh whiz kid collected 68 points to beat out Buffalo&rsquo;s Danny Gare, who finished with 62 and Atlanta&rsquo;s Eric Vail, who ended with 60.Here are the final top 15 rookie scorers:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03633/3662955-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="608" height="476"></div> &#9632;

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Pens’ Larouche Leading Rookie Points’ Scorer

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01912/3663000-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY HULL Set New Scoring Standards</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;If and when they name the man of the year in pro hockey this season you can expect to see the irrepressible Bobby Hull there to accept the accolade. The amazing Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; star has done it all on and off the ice this season in an unprecedented display of scoring heroics.Sadly, for Hull and the Jets, it wasn&rsquo;t quite enough to put Winnipeg in the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s postseason Avco Trophy round because of the questionable &lsquo;wild card&rsquo; playoff format employed by the WHA, but it wasn&rsquo;t for lack of trying on Hull&rsquo;s part.Combining with his two exciting Swedish linemates, Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg, Hull set out on an incredible course to rewrite pro hockey&rsquo;s record books this season scoring 50 times in 50 games to tie the retired Rocket Richard&rsquo;s mark; becoming the first pro shooter of the year to score 50, 60 and then 70 goals; and ultimately registering his 77th goal to erase Phil Esposito&rsquo;s mark.<h2>Player Of Year&hellip;</h2>That&rsquo;s the way it went for Hull this season. One record after another and it certainly wasn&rsquo;t too difficult a task on the part of the editors of THE HOCKEY NEWS to select the wonderous 36-year-old Hull as the outstanding performer in the WHA for the 1974-75 season.While Hull became recipient of the Player of the Year award Sandy Hucul of the Phoenix Roadrunners was chosen the Coach of the Year and Edmonton&rsquo;s tireless Bill Hunter was selected for the Executive of the Year award in the second annual poll conducted by THE HOCKEY NEWS.The elimination of Winnipeg from the WHA playoff picture undoubtedly will be a blow to the WHA with its No. 1 box office attraction, Hull, relegated to the sidelines. Hull&rsquo;s presence in all 78 of the Jets&rsquo; games this season has been instrumental in the substantial attendance rise of the WHA. The Jets usually sold out wherever they played and Hull was the primary reason.Fans came to see Hull score goals and he seldom disappointed them this season. He&rsquo;ll be sadly missed around the WHA playoffs.Hull reached new scoring heights for the regular season but even his prowess wasn&rsquo;t enough to bridge the defensive gap caused by the fact the Jets relied too much on one line and didn&rsquo;t have the depth or defensive strength to support the club&rsquo;s powerful offense.Individually Hull can look back on the &lsquo;74-&rsquo;75 campaign with personal satisfaction. He attained scoring milestones that most believed would never have been accomplished. Richard&rsquo;s mark of 50 goals in 50 games stood for 30 years before Hull duplicated it. Even Esposito&rsquo;s feat of scoring 76 times in one season seemed safe until Hull put his name in the record book on the final weekend.Unfortunately for Hull, the Jets didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs, a disappointment he will personally take to heart He didn&rsquo;t win the scoring championship either, losing out to a pretty productive performer in Andre Lacroix of San Diego Mariners, who could easily have been the choice for Player of the Year if Hull hadn&rsquo;t been around.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02778/3662993-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="554" height="615"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coach of Year&hellip;SANDY HUCUL</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03521/3662986-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="553" height="1073"><figcaption class="caption-body">Executive of Year&hellip;BILL HUNTER</figcaption></div>Hull follows Gordie Howe of Houston as Player of the Year in THE HOCKEY NEWS voting. Howe was: hosen last season for the award while Houston GM Jim Smith was named outstanding executive and Toronto&rsquo;s Billy Harris was picked as the best coach.While Hull was number one on the ice. Phoenix coach Sandy Hucul had to be top man behind the bench in the WHA this season. Moving into his first ever major league coaching job, Hucul brought an expansion team heavily weighted with 15 rookies and guided the Roadrunners to the brink of first place, challenging the powerful Houston Aeros until the final six weeks of the schedule.A deeply religious man, Hucul brought one of minor hockey&rsquo;s greatest coaching records into the WHA with the first year Runners and proceeded to make Phoenix a power right from the start. The Roadrunners were an exciting, high scoring team that drew large crowds wherever they performed and Hucul was the man who shaped their destiny with the help of club president Bill MacFarland. Between them they made Phoenix a first-class addition to the WHA.Hucul&rsquo;s coaching feat this season ranked alongside those turned in by Houston&rsquo;s Bill Dineen. New England&rsquo;s Ron Ryan and Jean-Guy Gendron in bringing Quebec Nordiques the Canadian Division title in his first year as a professional hockey coach. But Hucul didn&rsquo;t have the proven player depth the Nordiques&rsquo; Aeros and Whalers had. which made his job all the more difficult and deserving of the Coach of the Year award.Not enough can be said of the tremendous all round efforts performed this year by Bill Hunter, who earned the distinction of being the top Executive of the Year in the eyes of the editors of THE HOCKEY NEWS. One of the pioneers of the WHA, Hunter serves as vice-president, general manager and now coach of the Oilers. When the Ed-monton club appeared in danger of not catching a playoff berth. Hunter med the coaching reins of the Oilers in the final two months of the season and nearly succeeded in pulling out a playoff berth until injuries struck hard at the Edmonton lineup.Hunter this season realized a lifetime ambition when the new Edmonton Coliseum opened for hockey. He had been a part of it from the very start and when a sellout 15,000 fans turned up for opening night, he smiled with a personal amount of satisfaction. The building is the finest hockey structure in all of Canada and has been sold out seven times this year in spite of the Oilers&rsquo; setbacks on the ice.People laughed when Hunter set out in 1972 to help establish the WHA as a rival to the NHL with people like Ben Hatskin and Gary Davidson. He was determined pro hockey could make it in the Canadian West and didn&rsquo;t hesitate to include Edmonton in the new league&rsquo;s first expansion plans. Now after year three the enterprising Hunter can look back on a job well done. His Oilers have risen to average 11,000 fans per game, the best in the WHA, to remain one of the league&rsquo;s best hockey attractions.<h2>Coming Next Week!</h2>BOBBY HULL CERTAINLY RANKS AS AN ALL STAR THIS SEASON OFF HIS SENSATIONAL SCORING EXPLOITS ALONE. BUT WHO ELSE BELONGS AMONG THE WHA&rsquo;S BEST? The third annual HOCKEY NEWS WHA All Star teams will be announced in the April 25 issue and will answer the question for our readers. Watch for them next week. &#9632;

f0003-01

BOBBY HULL TOP WHA PERFORMER AFTER FANTASTIC SCORING YEAR

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01964/3663052-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="439" height="439"></div>&bull; PHILADELPHIA FLYERS are upset by remarks made by Billy Reay, Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; coach. Reay suggested that Bernie Parent was the only reason for the Flyers&rsquo; success. &ldquo;He (Reay) said all we have is a goaltender.&rdquo; said Fred Shero. &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s true we&rsquo;re paving a lot of guys for nothing.&rdquo; added the Flyers&rsquo; coach&hellip;Said Bobby Clarke: &ldquo;When he says Bernie is the difference in our teams he&rsquo;s sort of knocking his own goalie (Tony Esposito). We blew his team out twice in two nights, and it wasn&rsquo;t just Bernie&rdquo;&hellip;Two Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; rookies have their own fan clubs, Gare&rsquo;s Gang for Danny Gare and Bromley&rsquo;s Bunch for Gary Bromley. The Sabres feel these two plus defenseman Bill Hajt are all major contenders for the NHL&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year award&hellip;Another strong candidate for this award is Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Pierre Larouche, the baby-faced center who has been a big point-getter for the Penguins all season and who has made a host of friends off the ice with his genial personality&hellip;The mothers of some junior hockey players in St. Louis put on skates, pads and jerseys for a recent game to raise money for their sons&rsquo; amateur program. Four members of the St. Louis Blues, Garry Unger, Floyd Thomson, Barclay Plager and Bill Collins served as referees. Unger joked: &ldquo;I hate referees. All afternoon I&rsquo;ve been hating myself&rsquo;&hellip;Largest crowd to see a World Hockey Association game was disappointed when the Phoenix Roadrunners downed the home town Minnesota Fighting Saints, 2-1. 17,312 fans were on hand in St. Paul to see the contest&hellip;16,316 fans watched the Toronto Toros blast the Winnipeg Jets. 7-1, on the same evening.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02920/3663045-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="249" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Crozier</figcaption></div>&bull; RALPH MELLANBY, executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada-for the last seven years, will be loaned to ABC to direct the hockey events at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. Austria. Roone Arledge, president of ABC Sports and Chuck Howard, executive producer of the Winter Olympics, are both fairly new to hockey and wanted to present the games properly. Therefore they went after the best in the business and that&rsquo;s Mellanby. He will be allowed to take two Canadian cameramen with him. Ralph is also directing basketball for ORTA at the Summer Olympics in Montreal which makes the versatile Canadian the only producer doing major sporting events at both the summer and winter Olympics. Mellanby is gaining recognition as one of the top international sports producers on the scene today&hellip;Ron Ingram. San Diego director of personnel, can&rsquo;t figure out why Winnipeg Jets let Ernie Wakely go and not Curt Larsson. Since joining his club. Wakely has helped them considerably in their drive for the WHA playoffs&hellip;Joe Crozier, general manager of the Vancouver Blazers, figures his team has travelled 83.000 miles this season compared to 40,000 miles travelled by the Toronto Toros. He feels something should be done with the scheduling to help the West Coast teams&hellip;Oklahoma City established a new record for most penalty minutes by a professional club when they passed the 2.000 minute mark. Ray Miron advises that the 8.664 fans who attended the recent Tulsa game was the fourth largest crowd to see a hockey game in Oke City history. The Central Hockey League won&rsquo;t know their full complement of teams until May 26. That&rsquo;s the deadline set down when they&rsquo;ll know for sure who will be operating during the 1975-76 season&hellip;Andy O&rsquo;Brien, longtime sports editor of Weekend Magazine. retired last month after 42 years as a newspaperman. Andy was a pro in every way and will be missed along the sports beat. Let&rsquo;s hope he turns out some more good hockey books during his retirement years&hellip;John Ziegler, vicepresident of the Detroit Red Wings, received an elaborate schedule and division realigment scheme from a fan in Minnesota who read Jack Berry&rsquo;s HOCKEY NEWS story in which Ziegler suggested more inter-divisional games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03815/3663038-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="279" height="499"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ralph Mellanby</figcaption></div>&bull; PITTSBURGH PENGUINS, long a club with severe offensive shortcomings, finished the season with a four-goal average and their nine 20-goal scorers have helped make them the 10th highest scoring club in National Hockey League history&hellip;Most of the younger NHL owners are campaigning to have the players names on the backs of the jerseys of all the clubs both home and away. It&rsquo;s done in every other major professional sport&hellip;Ed Fitkin, first editor of HOCKEY PICTORIAL, longtime publicist of the Toronto Maple Leafs and currently assistant to the president of the World Hockey Association. is recovering from a severe stroke he suffered in November. 1973. Ed looked great the day we saw him in California and he is back working half days. Let&rsquo;s hope he continues his remarkable recovery and is back working full time soon. Hockey needs men of Ed&rsquo;s calibre&hellip;George Yan-cheson, Olympia pressbox attendant in Detroit, retired after 20 years and was presented with a cake and present by the pressbox crew the other night.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04713/3663031-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="282" height="481"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Fitkin</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

Founded October 1st, 1947Vol. 28No. 28APRIL 18, 1975Published weekly except monthly June through September by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 1434 St. Catherine Street West, Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7. U.S. c/o W.C.C. Publishing, 150 E. 58th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022.Kenneth W. McKenzie President, Publisher and Advertising DirectorCharlie Halpin Editorial DirectorHans Hoenig Administration ManagerRalph Bridgland Asst. To EditorUnited Stated Advertising Representatives: Boston Steve Ganak. Ad. Reps. 479 Statler Office Bldg. Boston, Mass 02116, telephone (617) 524-6913. Chicago: Hooper Jones & Associates. 3322 W. Peterson Ave. Chicago, III 60659 telephone (312) 476-5544. New York: Bill Hitzig.National Sports Publishing Corp. 150 East 58th Street. New York. 10022. Telephone (212) 593-2100.Southern States: Edward F. Mullen & Associates. 810 Ponce DeLeon Blvd. Belleaire. Fla. 33516 telephone (813) 585-1763.YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $9.50 In Canada $10.50 in the U.S.A, and $14.00 In Foreign Countries. Second class postage paid at New York, NY, 10001 and at additional mailing offices SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO 1434 ST. CATHARINE STREET WEST, SUITE 217, MONTREAL, CANADA, H3G 1R7, Second Class mail Registration No 1327 All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News. 1434 St. Catherine St. W. Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7. Printed In Canada. &#9632;

The Hockey News OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05581/3663107-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg"></div><h2>Esposito, McLeod Also Over-Rated</h2>I would like to comment on the feature concerning &ldquo;Hockey&rsquo;s Overrated Players&rdquo; which appeared in the HOCKEY NEWS March 14th issue.I think that you touched on most of the well-known hockey players who are over-rated, but I feel that one or two names could be added to the list.Surely Phil Esposito must be considered an over-rated player. Granted he leads the NHL in goals and points, as usual, but that alone does not make him an automatic super star. Esposito is one of the league&rsquo;s laziest backcheckers and he seldom performs with consistency when it comes to the defensive aspect of his game. Defense is just as important as offense when rating super stars, and I think that this has been misinterpreted in the case of Esposito. Just because he scores so many goals Esposito continually receives great praise, but I think that when you consider his all-round effectiveness, Esposito is certainly over-rated.In the WHA I think you missed goaltender Don McLeod of Vancouver. After the Houston Aeros won everything in the WHA last season, McLeod was hailed as a super goalie and won a unanimous spot on Team Canada 74. However he never lived up to his billing in the Canada-Russia series, and he appeared very inconsistent. With the fine defense he had in front of him in Houston, no wonder everyone thought McLeod was so great&mdash;his tight checking teammates helped quite a bit.PAUL SVOBODA Belleville, Ont.<h2>Dionne Top Candidate For Hart Trophy</h2>The Hart Memorial Trophy is presented each year to the player &ldquo;adjudged to be most valuable to his team&rdquo;. This year, Marcel Dionne deserves this trophy. Practically every other team has either a balanced attack or two or three big stars to go with. Only the Red Wings have only one really valuable player. True, they have Danny Grant, but he would not have had such a good year had he not been on a line with Dionne.Dionne has done everything this year&mdash;played a regular shift, the power play and killed penalties. He has scored nine shorthanded goals. He has broken two of Gordie Howe&rsquo;s team scoring records. And with only 14 penalty minutes, he should win the Lady Byng Trophy as well.DEAN PHILO Detroit, Mich.<h2>Overwhelmed By Islanders&rsquo; Success</h2>Many people have written about the two surprise teams of the year, the Los Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks. I am writing to express my overwhelming joy over the success of the New York Islanders. As a season-ticket holder, I suffered with many others their first season. However, you could notice the improvement last year when they cut 100 goals off their goals-against. This year has been phenomenal. Bill Torrey deserves a lot of credit for his excellent trades (the aquiring of J.P. Parise, and Jude Drouin) and his wise draft choices. Denis Potvin and Billy Harris are future super stars and tough little Gary Howatt has almost tripled his entire goal production of last year. The Isles have one of the best home records in hockey and their goals-against ranks third in the league, trailing only L.A. and the Flyers. Many frustrated Ranger fans have tuned in to the scrappy young Isles.Stanley Cup? It is a very interesting possibility! Move over Flyers, here come the Isles!CASEY VERBERT Roslyn Harbor, Long Island<h2>Gilbert Harrassed By Bruins&rsquo; Fans</h2>I&rsquo;m a Bruins fan and I&rsquo;ve been quite upset lately about how Boston fans have been treating Gil Gilbert. I admit that he&rsquo;s not having a great year, but who would with the injuries he&rsquo;s suffered. A groin pull, a bad back, a sore glove hand, it goes on and on. Yet, just when Gil is coming back, the fans harrass him for giving up a rebound type goal. I think the fans are just frustrated because of the Bruins&rsquo; record this year but it&rsquo;s not Gilbert&rsquo;s fault if the defense gets caught up ice and fails to get back. We all know that if the Bruins are to win the Stanley Cup, it will take some super goaltending by Gil Gilbert. That was proved last year by a fellow named Bernie Parent.BILL HEFFERN Franklin, Pa.<h2>WHA Franchises On Solid Ground</h2>After reading recent articles in THE HOCKEY NEWS one might conclude that the entire WHA is in chaos and that all the players are trying to return to the NHL.This is not so. With the exception of Baltimore, all WHA teams seem to be on solid financial ground. Success appears certain in every city. Even the last-place Indianapolis Racers have drawn excellent crowds.The statistics show that very few WHA players have jumped back to the NHL. Yet in the last three years, over 250 players have gone from the NHL to the WHA, including stars such as Hull, Cheevers and Tremblay. The only player of star stature to return to the NHL was Bernie Parent. I&rsquo;m sure that other NHL players will jump to WHA teams before next season. The WHA isn&rsquo;t in as much trouble as some seem to think.DAVID MURPHY Halifax. N.S.<h2>Red Wings Stole Grant From Stars</h2>Hockey fans throughout the province of New Brunswick are very happy to see Danny Grant, a native of Fredericton, scoring goals for the Detroit Red Wings at a pace that made this iron man left winger a 50-goal scorer.The deal that sent Grant from the Minnesota North Stars to the Red Wings was a real steal for the Detroit organization. The records prove this. The only disappointment was that Danny was not selected to play for this year&rsquo;s All Star team.DAVID RING Saint John, N.B. &#9632;

f0004-05

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY JACK MCCARTHY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-01996/3663138-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="532" height="587"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREGG SHEPPARD&hellip;Hit 30-Goal Mark</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;While Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito are the men who are being watched closely during the Stanley Cup playoffs, with, of course, the Boston goalkeeper. Gilles Gilbert, one shouldn&rsquo;t forget a young man who made such a vital contribution to the Boston cause last season in the cup run-down.Gregg Sheppard, the little center out of North Battleford. Sask., had one of the most amazing turnabouts seen in many a cup competition.During the regular season, Sheppard could not buy a goal until well into the second half of play and wound up with a grand total of 16 for the season. But once he got into the scoring groove, he kept it up right through the playoffs. How many goals did he score in the 16 games the Bruins lasted? Only 11&mdash;with eight assists for 19 points.The Bruins did not quite make it past the Flyers, but it was not for lack of punch from the little man.This season past was something else again for him. The opportunist, who has scored a flock of goals while killing penalties, Sheppard hit the 30-goal mark for his highest total since he ran in 41 for Oke City in 1971-72.If, as is likely, teams assign men to harrass Orr and Esposito, it could be a player like Sheppard who could do the damage for the Bruins. A 30-goal season is just what a player needs to get the confidence to let go when the opening is there.Another Bruin who is coming into cup play off a good season is the man they once loved to hate in Boston Garden&mdash;Carol Vadnais. The reason for the dislike was the simple fact that he had come over from the Seals in a trade that had sent away popular young players like Reg Leach. Rick Smith and Bob Stewart. And. to compound that shock. Vadnais was playing and Ted Green was sitting down.Vadnais couldn&rsquo;t win for losing. He was tight. He gave the puck away, and got his ears blistered by Garden habitues. but good. But, with the help of his defensive mate, Don Awrey, and his coach. Tom Johnson. Vadnais licked it. and became the defenseman the Bruins had traded for.Johnson, now assistant to GM Harry Sinden, recalled the other day. &ldquo;He was pressing too hard, trying to do too many things. But the only thing to do was keep him out there. His confidence had been weakened, but if we sat him down, it would have been shattered. It was rough but he had to stay out there&hellip;&rdquo;So now. Vadnais is coming off a fine season, which he has been one of the stars of the Boston club. He was up with the top group in the scoring totals, having 18 goals at this writing over the regular season and at least 55 assists.Vadnais is now one of the key operatives of the Boston team, and a couple of years ago. he was being booed something fierce. That&rsquo;s what is called hanging in there. He even won a fans&rsquo; award.This may not be the greatest group of Bruins&rsquo; All Stars who ever hit the ice. but there are those who love them. Notably Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, who was recently announced as the winner of the &ldquo;Seventh Player Award&rdquo;, which is voted each season by the fans in balloting conducted by Channel 38. the TV station that carries the Bruins&rsquo; games.Outsdide of the fact that a new car goes with the trophy, it is a honor for the recipient and some of Terry&rsquo;s predecessors were Fred Stanfield, Derek Sanderson, and last season, who else but two Bruins&mdash;Don Marcotte, and. you guessed it&mdash;Vadnais.O&rsquo;Reilly accepted his award in street clothes, as he was recovering from a nagging ankle injury. But Bruins&rsquo; people were hopeful that Terry, with the rack&rsquo; em style of play, would be back in time to be a signicant factor in this year&rsquo;s cup action. &#9632;

f0006-01

Forgotten Man In Bruins’ Cup Drive Sheppard Could Be Playoff Sparkplug

NEW YORK&mdash;While it may not be the sturdiest position. it is second place.That may be one of few consolations New York Rangers&rsquo; general managercoach Emile Francis can reflect on as his club enters into the Stanley Cup playoffs.Going into the final week of regular season action the Rangers weren&rsquo;t assured of a playoff spot let alone second spot in the Patrick Division.The Broadway Blueshirts were being challenged by the rival Islanders for the runnerup position and the Atlanta Flames were hot in their bid to make the post-season playdowns for the second consecutive season.First the Rangers moved into Philadelphia and came away with a 1-1 tie to at least keep pace with the Islanders and Flames who were in the process of drawing 2-2.Jean Ratelie&rsquo;s 35th marker of the season 15 seconds into the contest was the lone New York tally.Next it was on to Atlanta where the Rangers cut the number of teams in the race for second down to two, themselves and the Islanders, by downing the Flames 3-2 thus putting the Southerners out of the running.Trailing 2-0 at the conclusion of 40 minutes, Ratelle and rookie Rick Middleton scored early in the final frame within two minutes of each other to knot the count. Derek Sanderson then potted the winner with less than five minutes showing on the clock.One team down and one to go.The Islanders trailed the Rangers by a mere two points heading into the final weekend and had two games remaning compared to the Rangers&rsquo; one.The Long Island crew was to face Philadelphia at home on Saturday and then move on to Madison Square Garden, for what loomed as the most important game of the season for both clubs, on the following day.But the Flyers did the Rangers a favor by knocking off the Islanders 4-1 and eliminating the Isles from the race for second spot.Thus the final encounter of the season didn&rsquo;t mean anything in the standings. but it certainly may have developed momentum for the playoffs, although the Rangers hope not.The Rangers will face their Long Island rivals in the opening best two-of-three playoff round and if the regular season&rsquo;s finale has any mental effect, the Isles could come out the victors.Posting a 6-4 victory, the Islanders pulled into a tie with the Rangers at 88 points, but lose the home-ice advantage by virtue of the Rangers&rsquo; higher wins total.Thus it&rsquo;s old versus the new in the first round of the playoffs and no doubt the rivalry surrounding this all-New York series will create hard feelings as would a Giants-Jets Super Bowl or Mets-Yankees World Series. &#9632;

Rangers Nudge Isles For Home Advantage

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Odd what a winning streak can do, isn&rsquo;t it?When the Philadelphia Flyers tiptoed into March like lambs their chances of repeating as Stanley Cup kings looked as bright as Dave Schultz winning the Lady Byng Trophy.As the Flyers thundered into the final week of the NHL&rsquo;s regular season, they were leading in the point race for the advantageous home-ice edge in the Stanley Cup playoffs. As we said, there&rsquo;s nothing like a winning streak&hellip;Prior to their final-week meeting against the New York Rangers on &ldquo;Barry Ashbee Night&rdquo; at the Spectrum, the Flyers had tied the club record with eight consecutive victories. Coach Fred Shero&rsquo;s club was 14-1-1 in its last 16 and Bobby Clarke was on a club-record 17-game scoring streak. Clarke&rsquo;s 7-33-40 spree was the NHL&rsquo;s best since Bobby Hull&rsquo;s 21-game streak (35 points) of 1971-72. Montreal&rsquo;s Jacques Lemaire scored in 17 straight last season.Entering the final week Clarke had also displaced Bobby Orr as the league&rsquo;s assist leader. 88 to 87. Researchers discovered it was the first time in eight years either Bobby Orr or Phil Esposito weren&rsquo;t leading in assists with one week to play.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re playing as well as we ever have,&rdquo; said Ross Lonsberry. &ldquo;When we held Minnesota to 10 shots, well, maybe the opposition wasn&rsquo;t the strongest, but when you hold a team to 10 shots you&rsquo;re doing something right.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got two lines scoring and the others are getting their chances. When they start going in they&rsquo;ll go in buckets.&rdquo;As the latest beneficiary of the &ldquo;Clarke Cure &ldquo;, Lonsberry was scoring in buckets. After netting only I5 goals in his first 69 games, Lonsberry collected eight in six games following a shift to Clarke&rsquo;s line.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01901/3663193-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="546" height="1376"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROSS LONSBERRY&hellip;Scoring In Buckets</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anybody is as unselfish as Clarkie,&rdquo; said Lonsberry. &ldquo;He gives you the confidence&mdash;and the puck.&rdquo;With the club duplicating its 15-2-3 stretch drive of a year ago, Shero listed his top playoff priority as &ldquo;using our bench more. We use our bench more than any team in hockey, but I&rsquo;d like to get Schultz, Saleski and Kelly more ice time. If they can get a couple goals they&rsquo;ll be in a better frame of mind.&rdquo;The Flyers weren&rsquo;t completely healthy, but the week&rsquo;s rest they receive for their Patrick Division title was expected to soothe the aches and pains. Andre (Moose) Dupont was playing with a broken thumb and Ed Van Impe was thought to have a cracked heel. Van Impe did miss the Flyers&rsquo; weekend sweep of Chicago, but the injury was diagnosed as a bruise.The club&rsquo;s biggest worries were the back ailments of Orest Kindrachuk and Jimmy Watson. Kindrachuk missed 10 straight games, but Watson returned for the Chicago series after skipping eight games and looked sharp.&ldquo;The back feels pretty good,&rdquo; Watson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just out of shape.FLYERS FACTS: Joe Watson&rsquo;s best season in eight with the Flyers resulted in his winning the inaugural &ldquo;Barry Ashbee Award&rdquo; as the team&rsquo;s outstanding defenseman&hellip;The Philadelphia chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association chose Watson. Reg Leach&rsquo;s 44th goal broke Bill Flett&rsquo;s record of 43 for Flyers&rsquo; right wingers. Leach received a stirring standing ovation from the Spectrum crowd. &ldquo;It felt good, but I didn&rsquo;t know what to do.&rdquo; Leach said&hellip;Bernie Parent&rsquo;s average during the Flyers&rsquo; eight-game winning streak was 1.37. Parent faced an average of just 22 shots in that span. &#9632;

f0007-01

Winning Skein Sends Flyers Thundering Into Playoffs

<div class="byline">&#x2014;By Bill Libby</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-01985/3663231-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="289" height="342"></div><h2>Home Is Where The Heart Is&hellip;</h2>THIS WAS LATE in the regular season. The San Diego Mariners were driving desperately for a playoff position in the World Hockey Association. They walloped the Whalers in New England, in that handsome new house in Hartford, and they flew out after midnight. Their plane knifed through the night cross-country, setting them down in darkness back home again in southern California, long before daybreak. The Mariners hurried home and to bed. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t sleep for a long time,&rdquo; Andre Lacroix admitted. &ldquo;I never can. 1 got a few hours sleep. I don&rsquo;t think any of us got much more. Before I knew it, it was time to go to the arena for another game that night. I felt tired, all used up. but I talked to myself all the way to the arena because we needed the win.&rdquo; They didn&rsquo;t get it. The Chicago Cougars had loafed all day at the Le Baron Hotel. They were rested. And hungry, too. In New England, Lacroix had stretched to 32 consecutive games his streak of having scored at least one point a game. This was double the prior record in the league. There is no such record listed for the other league, so maybe it was a major league mark. In San Diego, you could see how he had been doing it, though he didn&rsquo;t do it this night. They call him &ldquo;The Magician&rdquo;. He is a marvel. He skates swiftly and fluidly, shifting speeds deceptively, making the puck do tricks on the end of his stick. He hustles, he is always on the puck, he makes magic with it, skating with it, shooting it, or passing it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02885/3663224-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="303" height="656"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andre Lacroix</figcaption></div>The Manners moved out to a 2-0 lead early, but the big, bruising Cougars kept coming at them, wearing their weary foes down. Roughing them up, the Cougars caught the Mariners and passed them. In the last part of the game, the Mariners had little left, but they gave what they had. Lacroix gave everything he had. He played almost 15 minutes of the final 20, but what he did, did not work. The Cougars kept clobbering him. He slashed at them with his stick. He played to a point of exhaustion.The Mariners lost, 3-2, and afterwards Lacroix sat in one comer of his team&rsquo;s dressing room in the belly of the building, leaning back, eyes closed, arms folded across his chest. I wanted to talk to him, but I hesitated awhile. He was worn out. And deeply disappointed. After awhile he leaned forward, head hung, staring sadly at the floor. It was a long while before he gathered the engery and enthusiasm to stand up and start to strip off his gaudy, sweaty uniform.I TOLD HIM I was sorry his streak had ended. A faint smile creased his worn, handsome face. &ldquo;Yes. me, too,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I feel worse about not winning. We need the wins. If we don&rsquo;t win, the season will be over for us soon. &ldquo;I pointed out the team was tired. &ldquo;Too tired,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We had them and lost them. We couldn&rsquo;t keep up.&rdquo;I spoke of the streak. It had been an astonishing streak. The important thing a streak like this shows is that you are contributing consistently to your team. He liked that. His face took on aglow. &ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s it, that&rsquo;s what I feel. I did not always play regularly on other teams, other places. I could not be consistent. Here I have become consistent and I think consistency is the most important thing in a player.&rdquo;Was he playing better now than ever before? &ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old veteran, who is the all-time leader in scoring points in the three-year history of the WHA. &ldquo;I led this league in scoring in its first season, but I am more consistent, more confident, more mature both physically and mentally now.&rdquo;Was he happy here, in San Diego? &ldquo;Oh. yes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My wife and I love it here. It is good for the kids. too. The weather is wonderful. The area is beautiful. We have bounced around too much. We would like to stay here, now. At first the attendance was not so good. Now, the attendance is beginning to be better. Now, the town is behind us. It is a good hockey town, too, I think.&rdquo;OUTSIDE OF the major media centers, in New York City and Los Angeles for example, since the WHA teams left town, you would not know the WHA existed. But the league lives. Attendance is rising rapidly. Chicago and Baltimore are about to be buried, but the living live on, growing bigger and stronger.The WHA is not yet to the level of the NHL, but the WHA is three times better than it was three years ago and it has teams which would beat the bad teams in the NHL. Here, in a WHA city such as San Diego, you would not know the NHL existed. San Diego was promised the NHL. It resented being handed the WHA. Now it is accepting the WHA. And Andre Lacroix has rekindled interest in this city, which was a hockey hotbed of the minors.There are a lot of NHL players in the WHA. There remains no player in the NHL more exciting than Bobby Hull, now of the WHA. This season he matched Maurice &ldquo;The Rocket&rdquo; Richard&rsquo;s mark of scoring 50 goals in 50 games and he has passed Phil Esposito&rsquo;s single-season standard of 76 goals. And it is the last place you can see the great Gordie Howe. Howe has had it. Again. He&rsquo;s been amazing. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll believe he&rsquo;s really retired when I see it,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;When he dies he&rsquo;ll miss maybe three games.&rdquo;IF HULL ISN&rsquo;T the most valuable player and outstanding performer in the WHA this season, Lacroix will be. Lacroix is typical of the talent that slipped through NHL hands. He was not a big star in the NHL. He is a big star in the WHA. So, some say, that shows the difference between the NHL and WHA. Maybe. But the NHL makes mistakes on players, as all leagues do. Lacroix is small at 5&rsquo;8&rdquo; and 170 pounds. You watch him and you remember he was pushed around in the NHL and you realize he might still be beaten up and held down in the NHL. But you see him stab and slash with his stick and shake off checks to pursue the puck aggressively and you wonder if he has not learned how to handle tough tactics.He says, &ldquo;1 have had to get tough. I had to learn to use my stick so the defenders would think twice before picking on me more than once. I learned to defend myself. It has freed me to play as I can play. I was not playing much at a time when I was beginning to develop in the other league. I am playing now and I am playing as I can play. I am an offensive player, but I play defense, too. I am a plus player. I am proud of that.&rdquo;He scored almost a goal a game and was twice most valuable player his last two seasons in the Ontario Hockey Association&rsquo;s Junior A circuit. He arrived out of amateur ranks to lead Philadelphia&rsquo;s Flyers in scoring the first two seasons of that expansion team&rsquo;s NHL life. As he points out, that often is forgotten now. He averaged 22 goals and 30 assists three seasons there, then was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks. He played part-time for 51 games there, scored only four goals, and was forgotten.DEJECTED, HE DEPARTED when the World Hockey Association was formed and offered him a fat contract. After extensive negotiations among attorneys, he signed a five-year pact calling for $312,000 and a bundle of bonuses. After he fired in 50goals and assisted on 74 more to lead the league in scoring points with 124 points, his seasonal salary was swollen by about $40,000 to more than $100,000. A clause in his contract enabled him to stay in the east when the team went west, so when Philadelphia&rsquo;s Blazers went to Vancouver, he went to the New York team which shifted to New Jersey. He led the league with 80 assists and totalled 111 points. This season the franchise made another move and Lacroix agreed, at a renegotiated rate of $ 150,000 a season for five more years, to go with it to San Diego. Here he has surpassed his assists standard, surpassed 100 points a third straight season, and set his teeth into another scoring crown. The fans here holler every time their hero touches the puck. He is a simply splendid player, wonderful to watch, And he is a marvellous man. The French Canadian has learned to speak English perfectly and he has done an unselfish job around town representing the team as its good-will ambassador, although he returns summers to his home, skating rink and hockey school in Philadelphia.He and his wife, Suzanne, a beauty, have two children, Andre, Jr., 4, and Chantal, 2. He says, &ldquo;I am happy I made this move. I am a family man and this is a fine place for a family. My hockey life has been hard on my family, but my wife has been wonderful. Her father, Al Postus, played pro football in Pittsburgh and she understands an athlete&rsquo;s life. When I got down, she built me up. She never added to my worries. She was always there when I needed her. So I survived.&rdquo;Two nights later, rested, Lacroix and his mates mauled Indianapolis. Andre got a goal. He set up his right wing, Wayne Rivers, for his 50th goal of the season. And he set up his left wing, Rick Sentes, for three goals. The crowd roared its approval and headed home happily. A relaxed Lacroix said as he dressed, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even think of the other league now.&rdquo; And headed home, too. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY HAL SIGURDSON</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;When he played for the Vancouver Canucks, Bobby Schmautz had two outstanding talents.One was scoring goals, the other breaking up a practice with his zany antics, The 1972-73 season was a vintage year in both categories. On the one hand he scored 38 goals, which at this writing still stood as the Canucks&rsquo; club record. On the other he had a sure-fire source of laughs. His impersonation of rookie Don Lever&rsquo;s skating style was certain to bring down the house.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03741/3663262-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="264" height="440"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Lever</figcaption></div>Understand, of course, there was nothing malicious about it. In the rough, raw humor of the dressing room, a rookie who isn&rsquo;t getting flak from the veterans hasn&rsquo;t been accepted.Lever was quickly accepted. The veterans may have called him &ldquo;Crazy Legs&rdquo;, kidded him about the amount of time he spent on his knees and his helter-skelter style, but even then they knew they had acquired a teammate who one day would help put money in the form of playoff bonuses in their pockets.That day has arrived. The boy from South Porcupine, Ont., who fit every cliche ever applied to a rookie, has become a man-sized hockey player and one of the Canucks&rsquo; leaders.With a strong finish in the closing games of the current National Hockey League season he could replace Schmautz. now a member of the Boston Bruins, as the Canucks&rsquo; top goal scorer. With three games left to play Lever had scored 36 times.Lever has been a valuable member of the Canucks right from opening day. For most of the season he has been their leading goal scorer and second only to Andre Boudrias in total points.But you could practically put a date on the day he became a bonafide team leader. The date would be March 14.&ldquo;I took him off a scoring line and put him on a checking line,&rdquo; says general manager-coach Phil Maloney. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t complain. Instead he accepted it and kept right on scoring.&rdquo;The reason for the change was the Canucks were playing the Buffalo Sabres and Maloney felt he needed a checking line to hobble the French Connection. He moved Lever from left wing on a line with Boudrias and Dennis Ververgaert and put him at center between Garry Monahan and Gregg Boddy, a pair of tough defensive wingers not noted for their scoring.The new line not only prevented Rick Martin, Gilbert Perreault and Fred Stanfield (replacing the injured Rene Robert) from scoring, but Lever found time to score his 32nd goal of the season in a 5-1 Vancouver victory.Maloney liked the look of his new line so much he has left it intact, with the exception of Leon Rochefort taking over at right wing after a Charley horse knocked Boddy out of action. Despite invariably checking the opposition&rsquo;s most dangerous attacking unit, the line found time to score nine goals in nine games with Lever contributing five goals and three assists.But Lever hasn&rsquo;t just continued scoring. In many games he has set the pace for the entire team with his aggressive forechecking and hustle.Lever&rsquo;s move from left wing to center&mdash;the position he played when Vancouver drafted him from the Niagara Falls juniors&mdash;has had an additional benefit, too.Gerry O&rsquo;Flaherty, his replacement with Boudrias and Ververgaert, has scored seven goals in the nine games since the switch. &#9632;

f0008-03

“Crazy Legs” Lever Puts Playoff Money In Canucks’ Pockets

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY BILL MAKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-01953/3663324-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&ldquo;&hellip;I Strongly Suspect Some Writer Is Out To Get You&hellip;&rdquo;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-01

CARTOON CORNER

<div class="byline">BY JACK BERRY</div>DETROIT&mdash;It&rsquo;s almost de rigeur in these times of astronomically-salaried athletes that if a man has a good season, he demands bigger bucks and if he has an excellent season, he demands to renegotiate his contract.Danny Grant had had more than an excellent season&mdash;he had a super season, the 12th player in National Hockey League history to score 50 goals, only the second Detroit Red Wing to reach that figure.But Grant is locked in on a six-year contract he signed while he was with the Minnesota North Stars and it has two seasons to run.Is Grant screaming to renegotiate? Nope.The Red Wing candidate for the Masterton Trophy (&ldquo;the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey&rdquo;), flushed with the euphoric feeling of just having scored his 49th and 50th goals and receiving standing ovations for each, said he wasn&rsquo;t even thinking of asking the club to renegotiate his contract.&ldquo;I was perfectly happy when I signed it and I have no regrets whatsoever.&rdquo; Grant said. &ldquo;I wanted security and I got it.&rdquo;But why sign such a long contract, why not two or three years at most?&ldquo;I never thought I&rsquo;d get 50 goals,&rdquo; Grant answered, then laughed.&ldquo;But what if I only scored 15 or 20 goals? No. I wouldn&rsquo;t ask to renegotiate. The Red Wings have treated me well&hellip;and besides,&rdquo; Grant added, breaking into another smile, &ldquo;there won&rsquo;t be any money left after Marcel gets finished.&rdquo;&ldquo;Marcel&rdquo; is Marcel Dionne, of course. Grant&rsquo;s center, a leading candidate for the Lady Byng Trophy and the league&rsquo;s third top scorer.Dionne assisted on both of Grant&rsquo;s goals, giving him a pretty drop pass for the 49th and starting the play for No. 50 which linemate Phil Roberto fed to Dionne.&ldquo;Phil told me he&rsquo;d assisted on Jean Beliveau&rsquo;s 500th career goal and that he was going to assist on my 50th,&rdquo; Grant said.Grant really didn&rsquo;t see his 49th&mdash;he bore in on the net, took the drop from Dionne, shot it and then went crashing into the corner. But No. 50 was easier&mdash;he came around the comer of the net from Washington Capitals goalie John Adams&rsquo; right (&ldquo;I was looking for Beaver but he wasn&rsquo;t there&rdquo;) and backhanded it into the far corner.The crowd of 11,239, on a miserable night of snow and sleet, jumped to its feet to give Grant his second standing ovation of the night and the organist played &ldquo;Danny Boy&rdquo; repeatedly as Grant&rsquo;s teammates streamed from the bench to congratulate him.Grant, whose best previous goal output was a pair of 34 goal years in Minnesota, credited &ldquo;Beaver&rdquo;&mdash;Dionne&mdash;for his 50-goals plus playing on the power play and killing penalties.&ldquo;I never killed a penalty, not even in junior, until this season when I started killing them with Marcel,&rdquo; Grant said.Grant scored only one shorthanded goal but he said he liked the extra ice time.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02840/3663293-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="556" height="1336"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARCEL DIONNE&hellip;Coming Naturally</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It kept me in the game more.&rdquo;And he was dynamite on the power play with 19 goals.Grant and Dionne played Alfonse and Gaston during a first period 5-3 skating advantage over the Caps, neither one wanting to take the shot&mdash;Dionne had 46 goals at that point and later bumped it to 47 in the 8-3 rout of Washington.&ldquo;That was our problem&mdash;looking for each other and neither one wanting to shoot,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;So we said we&rsquo;ve got to do it the way we have all season, just let it come naturally.&rdquo;And it did.Dionne had six of the Wings&rsquo; 40 shots and Grant had five and each easily could have scored three goals. As it was, Dionne and Grant feasted on the Caps in their six-game set. Dionne scored six goals and assisted on 11 for 17 points and Grant scored five and assisted on seven for 12 points.There was one other standing ovation on Grant&rsquo;s big night&mdash;defenseman Bryan Watson, the people&rsquo;s choice, scored his first goal of the season when his slapshot from the right point, off his own wide-of-the-net rebound, went in off Adams&rsquo; skate. &#9632;

f0009-02

Wings’ Grant Happy With Present Contract

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div>TORONTO&mdash;The management of the Toronto Maple Leafs won&rsquo;t jump right out and say it but it&rsquo;s quite likely the team will reduce its average age during the off-season. This places the blue-and-white futures of several post-30s players in some doubt.Coach Red Kelly claims there&rsquo;s no definite plan in the fact that he&rsquo;s used the youngest possible roster much of the time during the last half of the season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just happened that way.&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;We shifted players around until we found a winning lineup, not deliberately a young one.&rdquo;However, it seems more than mere coincidence that the Leafs&rsquo; older players had little regular employment in the past two months. Eddie Shack (38). Norm Ullman (39). Gary Sabourin (31) and Bill Flett (31) have played only in spots. Defenseman Brian Glennie, who&rsquo;s only 28. has seen little action.Flett admits that his lawyer has had discussions with the World Hockey Association. notably the San Diego Mariners.Flett was a regular with the Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers last season, then was traded to the Leafs last spring.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a bit discouraging to be out of the regular rotation here.&rsquo;&rsquo; he said. &ldquo;I played regularly for the first half of the season and was the team&rsquo;s second leading scorer. Then I just was dropped from the regulars. 1 need to play a great deal to play effectively.&ldquo;My contract runs out this season. I talked to the Leafs earlier about a new deal and made no headway. I have no deal with a WHA team but my lawyer is exploring that market. I have to think of the best possible deal for me and my family.&rdquo;Shack undoubtedly has played out his NHL string with the Leafs. His business interests and age will keep him in Toronto, which means if he plays hockey next season, it likely will be with the WHA Toros.The Leafs big change next season would be at center. This season, they&rsquo;ve used Darryl Sittler. George Ferguson and Dave Keon with Ullman as the back-up. Now it appears that Keon, 35. and Ullman, two of the NHL&rsquo;s most distinguished players in the past two decades, could be expendable.Keon. the Leaf captain, must negotiate a new contract this spring. His salary is in the $135,000 range and while the Leaf brass won&rsquo;t confirm it. there are suspicions that the team will attempt to trade him.Earlier this season. Leaf owner Harold Ballard singled out Keon in a very critical assessment of the team. He bluntly knocked Keon&rsquo;s leadership qualities, a move many saw as the first indicator of a try to deal the excellent little center.Ullman, too. must make a new deal with the Leafs. At 39, he&rsquo;s been reduced to spot duty at both center and left wing. Ullman would like to reach the 500-goal plateau before he retires and with four games remaining in the &lsquo;74-75 season, he had 489 scores.Pivotal in the Leaf plans for the two veteran centers will be the assessment of two young pivots on Leafs&rsquo; farm team in the Central League, the Oklahoma City Blazers&mdash;Jack Valiquette and Pat Boutette.Valiquette, who had his 19th birthday recently, was the Leafs&rsquo; first pick in last year&rsquo;s amateur draft. He&rsquo;s had a good rookie pro season at Oke City with a 21-49-70 point total in 72 games.Valiquette has size (6&rsquo;2&rdquo;. 195 pounds), abundant playmaking skill and sufficient abrasiveness. Boutette. 23. is chuncky (5&rsquo;8&rdquo;. 175) but chippy. In 73 CHL games, he had 26 goals and 41 assists.If the Leafs feel Valiquette and Boutette are ready to move to the NHL. then they&rsquo;ll try to trade Keon and Ullman.NOTES: Gold McRae will carry the Leaf goaltending load in the playoffs. He&rsquo;s played most of the games down the stretch, which has given veteran Doug Favell little chance to be ready for the playoffs&hellip;Leafs likely will recall defenseman Ian Turnbull from Oke City in time for the playoffs. Turnbull was dispatched to the CHL to play himself back into condition following recovery from knee surgery.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-01974/3663362-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="565" height="507"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL FLETT&hellip;Discouraging Season</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02804/3663355-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="542" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE KEON&hellip;Could Be Expendable</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0010-01

Leafs Likely To Reduce Age In Off-Season

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01941/3663393-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="555" height="1726"><figcaption class="caption-body">RENE ROBERT&hellip;Top Point-Getter</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Winning their first division championship ever didn&rsquo;t set off any celebration in the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; dressing room. They seemed to take a blase approach after clinching the Adams title with a 8-4 home victory over the California Golden Seals with two weeks remaining on the schedule.Coach Floyd Smith explained why.&ldquo;Now. these kids did a hell of a thing.&rsquo;&rsquo; he told reporters after the clinching victory. &ldquo;We were picked to finish third or in a fight for second with Toronto in polls before the season.&ldquo;So. I feel very good about this. So do the players. But this is no time to celebrate. We have something else to accomplish. The big one is beating Montreal for first place in the entire league. We tried to get ahead of Boston in the first game of the season and let the Bruins try to catch us.&ldquo;&lsquo;The real pressure from the Bruins left us when we beat them in Buffalo 3-1 on Feb. 13.&rdquo;Jim Schoenfeld, the 22-year-old captain of the Sabres, added. &ldquo;This is just a stepping stone to other goals. We can&rsquo;t stop new to celebrate.&rdquo;Even the enthusasistic Buffalo fans didn&rsquo;t give any prolonged standing ovation when the clinching game was over.They had. after all. expected it. The win kept the Sabre 14 points ahead of runner-up Boston with six games remaining for each.Gil Perreault, who consistently has been skating at his very best down the stretch, scored two goals and assisted on two in the win over California. His line, with Fred Stanfield substituting at left wing for hospitalized Rick Martin, picked up five goals and a total of nine points in the game.Rene Robert, the right winger, got two goals and this made him mighty happy. He hadn&rsquo;t scored since March 1. before he was sidelined by a bruised left heel.&ldquo;That got me back on the track.&rdquo; said Rene. &ldquo;1 was making stupid mistakes since I came back: uptight. 1 guess. I think Im doing OK again now.&rdquo;Martin, who reinjured the thumb on his right hand a week before in a fight against Toronto&rsquo;s Lanny McDonald, had a plastic cast put on it and expected to continue playing but came down with tonsilitis two days later and missed three straight games.Stanfield, who had been filling in for Robert, moved over to the left side and continued to do an outstanding job-The Peter McNab&mdash;Jim Lorentz&mdash;Rick Dudley line had quite a weekend. The night before the California game, that line scored three of the Buffalo goals in a 4-2 win over the Scouts in Kansas City.Lorentz got two of them and Dudley one. Against California. Dudley got two and McNab one. In the two games, the line accumulated 15 points.Dudley&rsquo;s two goals gave him a total of 30 for the season and gave the Sabres five players with 30 goals or more, equalling a league record.The 30 made Dudley a very happy man. He reported to the Sabres&rsquo; training camp as a free agent in 1971&mdash;a lacrosse star who also played hockey and was recommended to Punch Imlach by his lacrosse coach.Dudley got six goals in the American League, for Cincinnati, his first season in the Buffalo organization. Last season. with the Sabres, he had 17.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. when the 30th went in.&rdquo; said Dudley, after the California game. &ldquo;At the beginning of the season 1 was just trying to earn a regular job. 1 hoped I&rsquo;d get lucky and score 20 goals.&rdquo;ICE CHIPS: Gerry Desjardins, the goaltender who joined the Sabres from the Baltimore Blades of the World Hockey Association, worked four of the first seven games after his NHL contract was approved by league headquarters. winning three and tying one.Roger Crozier tended goal against Kansas City, then went to the hospital the next day, complaining of abdominal pains. Doctors said it was not the pancreatitis that has hospitalized Roger several times the last two years. &#9632;

f0011-01

Clinching Division Title Only Sabres’ First Step

<div class="byline">BY ALAN TRUEX</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01946/3663424-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERIC VAIL&hellip;Fine Puck-Handler</figcaption></div>ATLANTA&mdash;As the Atlanta Flames made a futile final week rush for a playoff spot, the major spark was being provided by rookie left winger Eric Vail and sophomore center Tom Lysiak.Working for the past month with Lysiak, Vail raised his season&rsquo;s goal total to 38 to take a wide lead over the rest of the NHL&rsquo;s rookies in that department. Meanwhile. Lysiak was setting up most of his goals and also scoring some himself.Vail meanwhile was establishing himself as perhaps the man to beat in the rookie-of-the-year stakes.After watching Vail&rsquo;s heavy shooting and pushy work in the corners, Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; coach Charlie Burns said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to take Vail&rdquo; as the league&rsquo;s top rookie. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so big and strong.&rdquo;Vail is 6&rsquo;1&rdquo; and 210 pounds, but he didn&rsquo;t use his tremendous strength to full advantage until the second half of the season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing a very good job for us,&rdquo; Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher said. &ldquo;I think his most important asset, besides his great shot, is that Eric is a fine puckhandler for such a big man. He can really handle the stick.&rsquo;&rsquo;Adds Pittsburgh Penguins rookie star Pierre Larouche, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not that bad a skater for such a big guy.&rdquo;Vail and Larouche both assessed the Calder Trophy race as coming down to three choices: either one of them or Danny Gare. the fast-skating right winger of the Buffalo Sabres.Making a pitch for his man, Fletcher said, &ldquo;One thing you have to consider is the supporting cast each player has. The rookies in Buffalo and Pittsburg have some pretty outstanding players around them. They don&rsquo;t have to carry that big a load.&ldquo;But we rely offensively on two players, Eric and Tommy. If Eric and Tommy aren&rsquo;t going, nobody&rsquo;s going.&rdquo;Fortunately, at that point Vail and Lysiak were going better than they had all season, and so were most of the other Flames&rsquo; forwards. The Flames put together an eightgame streak in which they scored 44 goals, while winning seven of the games.While improvement was coming from Lysiak and Vail, it was also there in abundance on the right side, which has been a disaster area for most of the season.Suddenly, right wingers Hilliard Graves, Keith McCreary, Buster Harvey and Tim Ecclestone were providing the consistent scoring and checking that had been missing for most of the season.During that eight-game period. 15 of the goals were scored by Flames&rsquo; right wingers. For the other 68 games of the year, Flames&rsquo; right wingers had produced only 36 goals.The center play, particularly by Lysiak and newcomer Gerry Meehan, was also a factor in the offensive surge.Meehan was working very smoothly with McCreary and the determined Curt Bennett, who went over the 30-goal mark.Lysiak was setting up Vail, and the Flames&rsquo; center claimed that wasn&rsquo;t too difficult an assignment. &ldquo;When 1 don&rsquo;t feel like doing anything,&rdquo; he smiled, &ldquo;I just give it to Eric and let him put the puck in the net.&rdquo;Vail played one of his best games in a crucial confrontation with the Buffalo Sabres. The Flames had to win that game&mdash;as well as just about all their others&mdash;to remain in playoff contention. Atlanta won it 3-2 for a five-game victory streak.When Buffalo&rsquo;s rookie star Gare opened up with a goal and an assist in the first period. Vail said, &ldquo;That made me work a little extra.&rdquo;Vail responded with a 35-foot slapshot by goalie Gerry Desjardins and then a game-tying goal from close in following a fine breakaway skating play. That was his 36th goal of the season.FLAME FLICKERS: Center Bob Leiter recovered from his broken ankle with two weeks left in the season. However, coach Fred Creighton rarely played Leiter, since the team was fighting for a playoff position and could not afford to give Leiter time to work himself back into shape.Goalie Phil Myre turned in two shutouts in three starts, and he had four straight victories, with wins over the Rangers, Maple Leafs. Capitals and Sabres&hellip;Flames attendance has been down 500 per game from last year and was sagging even more recently, as playoff hopes got dimmer.John Wilcox, president of the Flames, started a controversy by ordering the Omni message board operator to &ldquo;add more shots&rdquo; to the Flames&rsquo; shots on goal total in a 7-4 victory over Philadelphia. The board showed 10 more shots than the Flames officially had. Wilcox said. &ldquo;I did it because I run this place, that&rsquo;s why. 1 thought there should be more shots.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

Vail, Lysiak Supply Spark In Flames’ Windup Rush

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01929/3663510-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="575" height="5934"></div> &#9632;

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Hockey Show Exhibitors

MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;A major hockey trade show, to serve every aspect of the sport and business of hockey, will be held April 24-25-26, in Minneapolis. Known as &ldquo;National Hockey Expo&rdquo;, the annual event will feature exhibits as well as seminars and hockey programs and has been in the planning stage for several months.Products to be displayed will include hockey equipment and supplies, arena equipment and services, ice surface products, and management services.The seminar sessions will deal with a variety of hockey related subjects, such as arena construction and maintenance; public relations and promotion; concessions, tickets and printing; player immigration regulations; and hockey associations. In addition, there will be a program of special interest to youth hockey groups and those considering youth hockey. Qualified guest speakers will conduct the seminar programs.The show is being produced by United Expos, Inc. of Green Bay, Wisconsin, a trade show organization with several years experience in winter sports expositions, as well as other trade shows. The firm also is actively involved in hockey in the midwest, through a management service agreement with the Green Bay Bobcats of the United States Hockey League.United Expos President, John Ireland, said the concept of a major national hockey trade show in Minneapolis has been under study by his firm for nearly a year. He noted the rapid growth of the sport throughout the midwest has created a need for such an event, and he added that advance reaction to the show has been excellent.Ireland said, &ldquo;This trade show will be aimed at the entire hockey market; the hockey equipment buyers such as teams and sporting goods stores, hockey management, players and coaches, and hockey arena management. Each will find products and services of his sport and business represented at the National Hockey Expo.&rdquo;The show will be staged in the spacious Minneapolis auditorium exhibit hall. Over 190 exhibit spaces have been reserved for the show, with expansion potential into additional facilities. The show complex offers complete meeting room facilities, and is conveniently located near major hotels interstate highways.The event was announced well in advance to allow hockey groups and associations sufficient time to plan meetings or other events in Minneapolis in conjunction with the show.Additional information about the annual &ldquo;National Hockey Expo&rdquo; may be obtained from United Expos, Inc., P.O. Box 13, Green Bay. Wisconsin 54305. Phone (414) 432-4471. &#9632;

MINNEAPOLIS STAGES HOCKEY EXPO

MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;A wide array of hockey and ice arena products will be on display when the first National Hockey Expo is held April 2425-26 in Minneapolis. The unique trade show is designed to serve both the &ldquo;sport and business&rdquo; of hockey, which means that much more than just hockey equipment will be seen. Displays will represent the total hockey picture, from ice maintenance and &ldquo;front office&rdquo; products or services, to concessions and locker room supplies.Several dozen prominent, hockey industry firms have confirmed their plans to parti-cipate, and many more are expected to join the show before the event opens. Among those companies are well known leaders in hockey skates and equipment, sportswear, arena construction and products, and other related firms. (They include companies such as Champion Products, Koho Sporting Goods, Riedell Shoes, Holmsten Ice Rinks, Hanson Mills, Christian Brothers, Holloway Sportswear, Safway Steel Products, Hyde Spot-Bilt, Nestor Johnson, Irvin Industries, Canadian Hockey Industries, and many others).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01898/3663541-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="555" height="894"></div>The three day trade show, to be held in the Minneapolis Auditorium Exhibit Hall, will have attendance by registration only; and advance inquires indicate the show is being well received, with registration requests from throughout the United States and Canada. The registration will include attendance at the show, as well as several seminars and programs relating to hockey and ice arena operations. Advance registration is free of charge.The Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS) will be represented at the show, and the Association&rsquo;s Safety and Protective Equipment Committee will offer a special presentation on hockey safety and protective equipment. The National Hockey Hall of Fame also will be represented, and several hockey organizations have indicated plans to hold meetings in conjunction with the show.See us at NATIONAL HOCKEY EXPOHOCKEY STICKS MADE BY HOCKEY PLAYERS &#9632;

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Hockey, Arena Products To Occupy Prominent Part Of Big Trade Show

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01736/3663572-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div>MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;Hockey people who visit the city of Minneapolis may be amazed to know that it is geographically located in the very heart of North America&rsquo;s fast growing hockey market. It is easily accessible for air. rail, bus and truck services and has a growing system of highways to serve those travelling to this bustling city by automobile.The new $16 million dollar Auditorium and Convention Hall is the ideal place to stage the first annual National Hockey Expo trade show, It is within walking distance of downtown hotels and motels with more than 5.000 accomodations for show visitors. There is no shortage of fine shops and department stores, a choice of superb restaurants and good entertainment.Minneapolis is a city rich in professional sport with three pro clubs&mdash;the Minnesota football Vikings, the baseball Twins and the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL and the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA operating in the four seasons. The city also has a tremendous minor sports program in hockey, football and baseball and is part of the largest state high school hockey program in the U.S.Hockey products of all kinds are sold each year in great abundance both on the pro and minor levels and it is only fitting that Minneapolis should be chosen as the site for the first Hockey Expo trade show ever.Minneapolis is also a cultured city highly attractive to tourists. With a minimum five-day visitation to the city for the show here are some of the major points of interests downtown for people coming to the city:1. Hennepin Avenue The entertainment &ldquo;strip&rdquo; of Downtown with theaters, bars, entertainment, restaurants and plenty of action.2. Minneapolis Public Library Includes Planetarium and Time and Space Gallery, the Athenaeum of historical books, science museum, art department, music department and special book loans for visitors.3. Minneapolis Convention & Tourism Commission Complete information on &lsquo;&lsquo;where to go and what to see&rsquo;&rsquo; in the City of Lakes. Open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday. 15 So. 5th Street. Minneapolis.4. Nicollet Mall Nation&rsquo;s longest downtown pedestrian stroll-way flanked by trees, flowers, benches and fountains&mdash;the heart of the shopping district. Perfect for a leisure walk in summer and a holiday spectacle of lights during winter months.5. Upper St. Anthony Lock & Dam See historic St. Anthony Falls, where Minneapolis was founded and which supplied power for early lumber and flour mills. Tour the Federal Lock & Dam, start of navigation of Mississippi River.6. Minneapolis City Hall/Hennepin County Government Center A dramatic architectural contrast between stately City Hall with a clock larger than &ldquo;Big Ben&rdquo; in London and the new, modernistic home of County Government.7. Foshay Tower A Minneapolis landmark designed after the Washington Monument.8. I.D.S. Center Fifty-seven story home of Investors Diversified Services with observation deck open seven days a week on 51st floor. Star attraction is the Crystal Court with 120-foot ceiling topped by seethru pyramids and overhanging restaurants.9. Orchestra Hall Exciting new downtown Minneapolis home of the world-famous Minnesota Orchestra. ranked among the finest concert orchestras in the nation.10. Walker Art Center One of the finest art galleries offering an, extensive collection of contemporary art.11. Guthrie Theater World famous repertory theater built by Sir Tyrone Guthrie.12. Loring Park The lake and park in Downtown Minneapolis ideal for strolling and relaxing amid greenery, water and a host of swans and ducks.13. Minneapolis Institute of Arts A newly expanded museum with paintings and sculptures considered among the finest in the world.14. Hennepin County Historical Society Elegant mansion displaying items from the early settlers of Hennepin County (Minneapolis).<h2>Facts about Minneapolis &#9632;</h2>

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Minneapolis In Heart Of Hockey Market

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01644/3663603-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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Final 1974-75 Statistics

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01616/3663648-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"></div><h2>Looking At NHL Goalers</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02508/3663641-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="1160" height="392"></div><h3>COMPLETE GOALKEEPING RECORDS FOR ALL NHL TEAMS</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03396/3663634-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="1165" height="2569"></div> &#9632;

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TOP NHL SCORERS

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS ZELKOVICH</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Parts One and Two of the Guy Lafleur dream have been realized. But as the 1974-75 National Hockey League season draws to a conclusion it appears that the third and final part of the dream will not be attained as easily as the first two.When the current season started back in October, Lafleur gave himself three goals to aim for. The first was to make the All Star team and he realized that goal Jan. 21 when he played in the All Star game. His second dream was to score 50 goals and he did that Mar. 29 when he scored his 50th against the Kansas City Scouts. He topped that dream the next night with a goal in Boston, thus becoming the first player in the 58-year history of the Montreal Canadiens to score more than 50 goals. Maurice Richard and Bernie Geoffrion had held the club record of 50.As usual, Lafleur had little to say after both of his milestone goals. He praised his linemates, said what a thrill it was to score 50 goals and thanked Rocket Richard for calling him on the phone after his 50th goal. Had reporters pursued the point further Lafleur would have no doubt thanked his parents for making the whole thing possible.But Lafleur&rsquo;s moment of glory was slightly subdued by the fact that the third part of his dream looks a little more elusive than it did a month ago. Part Three of the Lafleur dream is the Stanley Cup and the Canadiens&rsquo; performance through the past few weeks has done little to make that part look easy.The most serious part of the Canadiens&rsquo; problems is their power play, the same power play that set a league record for most goals in one season. The Canadiens have been increasingly unimpressive with a man advantage in recent weeks, scoring but two powerplay goals during their last six games. Their record for those six games, incidentally, was 1-3-2 and that&rsquo;s certainly not the type of performance a team wants heading into the playoffs.With the Canadiens in a three-way fight with Buffalo and Philadelphia for the best record in the NHL every point is important and should the Canadiens lost out they&rsquo;ll be able to look back at that late-season stretch of six games.That sextet of games also produced the first story of dissension on the team since early in the season. The dissenter in this case was back-up goaltender Bunny Larocque, who dissented because he didn&rsquo; like being a back-up goaltender. Larocque has been playing poorly in recent weeks and with Ken Dryden getting stronger with each game Larocque was seeing little action. Larocque isn&rsquo;t the type to sit quietly on the bench so he pestered coach Scotty Bowman until Bowman gave him the starting assignment against Toronto Mar. 22. Larocque responded with a terrible performance, pulling himself after the second period of a 6-4 loss.Naturally, Bowman wasn&rsquo;t too happy with Larocque and banished him to the press box for the next two games. That meant Wayne Thomas, who hasn&rsquo;t played a game this season, was in Bowman&rsquo;s opinion more prepared to play than Larocque.The Larocque situation will not change this season. Dryden is hot and will probably play every game from now to the end of the playoffs. Larocque has suddenly become a prime candidate for trade during the summer and Thomas, who was so certain he would not be back next year that he didn&rsquo;t renew the lease on his apartment, just might be back.The Canadiens&rsquo; problems were compounded in their 2-2 tie with Boston Mar. 30 when Yvan Coumoyer pulled a groin muscle and will be out of the lineup until the end of the regular season. Coumoyer has been playing as if he&rsquo;s had an injury all year and just how much this will set him back remains to be seen. Although this has been Cournoyer&rsquo;s most frustrating and least productive season, his playoff experience is needed. The Canadiens could be hurting should he be even less effective during the playoffs than he was during the season.The Canadiens&rsquo; current state of disarry is nothing more than most teams experience. It&rsquo;s just that it&rsquo;s happened at one of the worst possible times.HAB-BITS: Doug Risebrough broke John Ferguson&rsquo;s team penalty record of 185 minutes despite missing 16 games this year&hellip;Good news came when Henri Richard worked out with the team Apr. 2 for the first time since he broke his ankle Nov. 13. Richard will be back for the playoffs&hellip;Lafleur&rsquo;s 50th goal came against Denis Herron while his 51st came against Gilles Gilbert. Neither was tainted&hellip;The Canadiens have five 30-goal scorers with Yvon Lambert and Steve Shutt joining Lafleur, Pete Mahovlich and Jacques Lemaire. Coumoyer missed the 30 mark by one. &#9632;

Lafleur Realizes Two Parts Of Three-Pronged Dream

<h2>Final Statistics</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04337/3663703-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="607" height="612"></div> &#9632;

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Team Penalties

Series &lsquo;A&rsquo;TORONTO vs LOS ANGELESTue. April 8 at Los Angeles Thu. April 10 at Toronto Fri. April 11 at Los AngelesSeries &lsquo;B&rsquo;CHICAGO vs BOSTONTue. April 8 at Boston Thu. April 10 at Chicago Fri. April 11 at BostonSeries &lsquo;C&rsquo;ST. LOUIS vs PITTSBURGHTue. April 8 at Pittsburgh Thu. April 10 at St. LouisFri. April 11 at PittsburghSeries &lsquo;D&rsquo;ISLANDERS vs RANGERSTue. April 8 at N.Y. Rangers Thu. April 10 at N.Y. Islanders Fri. April 11 at N.Y. Rangers(All preliminary series will be best-of-three. Four winners advance into quarterfinals against four first-place teams&mdash;Philadelphia, Buffalo, Montreal and Vancouver. All series will be best-of-seven affairs.) &#9632;

Stanley Cup Dates

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOS ANGELES&mdash;Gene Carr was the fourth player selected in the 1971 professional draft of graduating amateurs&mdash;chosen after Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne and Joce-Ivn Guevremont and ahead of Rick Martin and Steve Vickers. Four years later, Carr has not played to his potential and now one wonders if he will.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01464/3663758-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="266" height="400"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gene Carr</figcaption></div>He was not picked by his present team, the Kings. The Kings haven&rsquo;t kept first-round draft choices. The Blues selected him. They traded him to the Rangers early in his first season. The Rangers, after demoting him to the minors for awhile, dealt him to the Kings late in his third season. A free spirit, he loves to live in southern California and the Kings would like to keep him, but he poses a puzzle. Carr can skate, but he can&rsquo;t score. He hustles, he&rsquo;s aggressive and he sets up his linemates for scores. Coach Bob Pulford says he&rsquo;s satisfied Geno is doing a job for the team.However, how long can a player play regularly in the majors when he&rsquo;s primarily an offensive player and doesn&rsquo;t score 10 goals a season? A player and poet. Gene Carr is an enigma.Carr scored 11 goals in 74 games his first season in the majors, nine goals in 50 games his second, seven goals in 50 games his third and at this writing has six goals in 76 games this season. He has two goals in his last 38 games, one in his last 27 and none in his last 17.Carr is an explosive skater, one of the fastest on the tour. When the 5&rsquo;11&rdquo;. 185-pounder lets fly on the fly from far out, he has a hard, accurate shot. He fired three home from 50 feet in one game last season. But his long blasts have not been getting by the goalers this season.Most of this season he has centered &ldquo;The Off Broadway Line&rdquo; of former Ranger teammates Mike Murphy and Tommy Williams. When Carr explodes up the middle, defenders are drawn to him, freeing his wingers. Murphy has 29 goals. Williams 23.But as foes have come to see, Geno has no finesse and lacks a scoring touch around the net, they are staying with his wingers and letting him go inside. Pulford has tried him at left wing a lot in late season, but the results have remained disappointing.Clearly, he has come to a crossroads of his career though the Kings certainly have not given up on the 23-year-old youngster who has given them everything he has. They hope to give him one more season. Carr is an intriguing individual. His dad. Red Carr, was a major leaguer in Toronto; a minor leaguer who played against Kings&rsquo; manager Jake Milford. As a boy, Geno caddied for current teammate Terry Harper. Although originally out of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Carr has found contentment in sunny southern California.Given to long blonde curls, an on-and-off Buffalo Bill mustache and fancy suits. Geno was regarded by the Rangers as an oddball and found Little Old New York less than progressive.&ldquo;I was out of place and uncomfortable there,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m at home here.I love the lifestyle. My wife. Kathy, and I, have a condominium by the beach in Santa Monica and hope to buy a house soon. I can do my funky things here&mdash;dress the way I want, go to all the rock concerts I want, write peotry all I want&mdash;and nobody makes fun of me here.&rdquo;He has been writing poetry since he was 15 and like most things he does, he does it simply because he likes to do it. Recently, he passed on a poem to Herald-Examiner sports editor Allan Malamud:&ldquo;Alone&rdquo;&ldquo;Here I sit, almost alone&hellip;nothing to keep me company but my inner thoughts.&ldquo;It keeps running through my mind, never letting me rest.&ldquo;Yeah, it&rsquo;s a hard struggle this life. Tensions, pressures, happy and sad times, but never always good.&ldquo;But. how would it seem if it were always good?&ldquo;Nowhere, my friend.&ldquo;You could never really appreciate the real beauty of living if there was no bad.&ldquo;When good things come along, then, wow, I can dig that&hellip;&ldquo;Although it seems sad times are alone times&hellip;Keep going&hellip;keep going!&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the answer. Don&rsquo;t let down, don&rsquo;t feel sorry for yourself, but most important, don&rsquo;t give in.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t!&rdquo;Within those lines lie a sense of the struggle he has had to succeed in his sport so he can be free to enjoy the life he wishes to lead. &#9632;

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Kings’ Carr Free Spirited Player, Poet And Enigma

GARRY UNGER St. Louis BluesEntering the final weekend of play, the Blues needed to defeat Chicago and Kansas City to clinch second spot in the Smythe Division.So Garry Unger proceeded to score twice and set up the winner in the Blues&rsquo; 4-3 edging of the Hawks and then scored the game-winner and assisted on another marker in 3-2 win over the Scouts to assure the runnerup position.The three goals lilted his season total to 36.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02342/3663796-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="510" height="639"></div>SERGE SAVARD Montreal CanadiensThe Canadiens entered the final weekend of regular season play with nine 20-or-more goal scorers.Thanks to a four-goal outburst from defenseman Serge Savard, the Habs tied a National Hockey League record for most 20-or-more goal scorers on one team, 10.Savard scored twice in 10-2 drubbing of Washington, had two goals and a pair of assists in 4-2 doubling of Detroit and contributed a pair of assists in 6-0 shutting out of Pittsburgh, to bring his regular season total to an even 20.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03282/3663789-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="503" height="622"></div> &#9632;

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NHL’s Stars of the week

<div class="byline">BY HARRY KLAFF</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01334/3663827-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="541" height="1079"><figcaption class="caption-body">JUDE DROUIN. Quiet, Competent Player</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;It was in early January that the Islanders&rsquo; beer sponsor decided to begin its &ldquo;There Star&rdquo; contest, which would run through the remainder of the season. The player who received the most points in the nightly &ldquo;Star of the Game&rdquo; ballotting would have his portrait painted by a renowned sports artist.Somewhat surprisingly, the leader with a week to go in the campaign wasn&rsquo;t Denis Potvin, who was recently voted to the HOCKEY NEWS first All Star team. Nor was it Billy Harris, the club&rsquo;s top goal scorer. Nor Bob Nystrom or Eddie Westfall.Tied with goaltender Bill Smith at this writing was newly acquired center Jude Drouin, a quiet, competent performer who has played a key role in the Islanders&rsquo; run at the playoffs this year.It seemed questionable by the first of the new year if the Islanders&rsquo; strong start was enough to carry them through the rest of the season. But on January 5th. the Isles took advantage of the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; general housecleaning by first obtaining veteran left winger J.P. Parise for Ernie Hicke and Doug Rombough. The consensus around the league was virtually unanimous: Bill Torrey had pulled off grand larceny.Parise notched two assists in his first game in the orange-and-blue. a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. When the writers were advised to stick around for an important announcement. it was clear that Torrey&rsquo;s wheeling and dealing wasn&rsquo;t over yet.&ldquo;Gentlemen, we&rsquo;ve made another deal,&rdquo; reported Torrey. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve sent Craig Cameron to Minnesota for Jude Drouin.&rdquo;Like the Parise deal, this one also appeared to be a steal. Cameron had managed only one goal after missing the early part of the season with pneumonia. and Drouin was considered a capable center, despite the fact that he had managed only four goals for the North Stars in the first half of the schedule.&ldquo;I guess I was sort of expecting something.&rdquo; said the 26-year-old Quebec native. &ldquo;The team was in trouble and they had to start making some changes.&rdquo;Jude was reluctant to leave the North Stars in other ways. Burnsville. Minn., was now home to him. and he and his family had become firmly implanted in the Minneapolis&mdash;St. Paul surburban scene. But it took only a short car ride with his old linemate Parise to convince Drouin that Long Island had something to offer, too.Drouin was first placed on a line with rookie Clark Gillies on the left and Billy Harris on the right flank. And it wasn&rsquo;t long before he picked up his first points in the star parade.Jude&rsquo;s first game as an Islander was on January 9th as the New Yorkers won their first game ever at the Spectrum in Philly by topping the Flyers. 3-1. It was a tight 2-1 contest late in the third period when Drouin picked up a pass from Gillies and fired an insurance goal past Bernie Parent.The 5&rsquo;9&rdquo;. 165-pounder has since added 12 more to bring his season&rsquo;s total to 17. Considering he had but four at New Year&rsquo;s, his totals are highly commendable.The Islanders got Drouin to put the puck in the net. but he has proven more valuable in another crucial element of the game.It took only a few games before coach Al Arbour&mdash;and thousands of Islanders fans for that matter&mdash;realized that Drouin was the club&rsquo;s top faceoff man. In one game, in fact&mdash;against Minnesota on January 28th. he won a total of 22 of 23 draws against his old mates. The only one he &ldquo;lost&rdquo; was his last effort of the game. And in that one he cleanly drew the puck behind him although it was picked up by the Stars.&ldquo;I like it when my linemates remind how important each faceoff is,&rdquo; reported Drouin after that game. &ldquo;It makes me bear down and concentrate more.&rdquo;Perhaps Jude&rsquo;s most important faceoff came with a little more than a minute left against Montreal on March 25th. The Canadiens were leading 3-2, and the Islanders had pulled goaltender Smith with the faceoff deep in the Montreal zone.Drouin won the draw, as Harris picked up the losse puck and fed Denis Potvin at the right point. Covered, Denis spotted fellow blueliner Dave Fortier on the opposite side. Fortier had a little trouble controlling Potvin&rsquo;s feed, but managed to slap the bouncing disc past Ken Dryden to tie the game.&ldquo;I was trying to get it back to Denis, but the best I could do was move it a little behind me.&rdquo; said Drouin. &ldquo;Fortunately Billy was able to start the play and we wound up scoring.&rdquo;Jude is not out to win a scoring championship (he didn&rsquo;t even get an assist on that scoring play), nor is he after the three-star award. He just wants to help the Islanders excel in the playoffs for now. and work with the team from the start next season.ISLAND SOUNDS: The Isles finally broke their long-existing slump against the Rangers when they beat them. 6-4 at the Coliseum on March 29th in a &ldquo;must&rdquo; game&hellip;Clark Gillies registered two goals to bring his total to 23. Clark has been one of the league&rsquo;s top rookies over the second half of the season&hellip;The victory put the Islanders into second place ahead of the Rangers&hellip;Billy Harris broke out of his prolonged slump and has topped the 25-goal mark for the second time in three years. &#9632;

f0022-01

“Hey, Jude” Tops On Islander Hit Parade

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div>TWIN CITIES&mdash;Painful, almost to the bitter end. Pete LoPresti, Fem Rivard and Cesare Maniago have no reason whatsoever to look back on their recently concluded 1974-75 season with the Minnesota North Stars with any fond memories. Time may mellow that.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01314/3663865-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="270" height="462"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fern Rivard</figcaption></div>But the memory is too fresh of what these three men suffered. They happened to share goaltending duties in a season in which the North Stars collapsed in front of them.Cesare will look back at 1974-75 as probably his last active season, the year he became so fed up that at one point he skated off in the middle of a game and refused to return to the ice. Then late in the year, he rarely played at all on his own request and the club&rsquo;s desire to take a close look at Rivard and LoPresti.LoPresti will always remember his rookie year, called up unexpectedly in November to get the taste of his first NHL action after playing college hockey at Denver University the year before.And Rivard, who has spent several seasons in the minors or as a caddy for Maniago and Gump Worsley, who retired after last season. It was the year for his big chance, a year he suffered a severe back injury and broken finger before he really won an opportunity the last two months.Together, the three allowed more goals than anybody in the NHL. except for the Washington Caps&rsquo; goaltenders. The blame, certainly, is not all theirs, to say the least.Yet, there were some encouraging signs.Rivard played brilliantly in upsetting the New York Rangers 4-2 March 26, and was having a good game when a twisted knee forced him to retire from his next start two games later in a 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh.LoPresti was named the team&rsquo;s rookie-of-the-year and voted by fans as the most popular North Star. His top accomplishment has to be a 5-0 whitewashing of the defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers.LoPresti&rsquo;s most disappointing setback was a 2-1 loss in St. Louis March 28 on a disputed third goal that prompted the North Stars to file an official protest. Video tape replays showed the shot by Pierre Plante struck the crossbar and bounced out.The goal light, however, came on, went off. Fifty-five seconds of play passed before referee Dave Shewchyk allowed the goal.&ldquo;It seems strange that it would take so much time to make a decision,&rdquo; said North Star GM Jack Gordon. &ldquo;And to stop play to have a conference was unusual.&rdquo;It was not known in Minnesota circles what was being said in Chicago about the goal, since it gave the Blues a share of second with the Black Hawks with a week to go in the regular season.But this is the type of bounce the puck has taken most of the season for the North Stars and their troubled trio of goaltenders.NORTH STAR NOTES: The North Stars lifted the indefinite suspension of Henry Boucha, but said it was unlikely he would play the final week of the season. Boucha was suspended for disciplinary reasons, reportedly for violation of training rules&hellip;Lou Nanne, who had an assortment of injuries this season, spent the night after the Pittsburgh game in a hospital for observation after his head struck the ice, and he was carried off the ice bleeding from the back of his skull and his nose&hellip;Bill Goldsworthy reached 36 goals for the year against St. Louis, a team high, despite missing 12 games with a severed tendon in his right index finger.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02247/3663858-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="527" height="537"><figcaption class="caption-body">CESARE MANIAGO&hellip;His Last Year?</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

Lack Of Defense Hurt North Stars Most

(Final standings)<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2318/3664200-1-eng-US/f0024-232.jpg" title="f0024-23" width="550" height="183"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2416/3664193-1-eng-US/f0024-242.jpg" title="f0024-24" width="550" height="171"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2511/3664186-1-eng-US/f0024-252.jpg" title="f0024-25" width="562" height="165"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-267/3664179-1-eng-US/f0024-262.jpg" title="f0024-26" width="535" height="177"></div>Tue. April 1Atlanta 2 at N.Y. Islanders 2; Los Angeles 1 at Kansas City 3; California 0 at Vancouver 7; St. Louis 7 at Minnesota 3; Buffalo 3 at Boston 1.Wed. April 2Atlanta 3 at Toronto 0; Pittsburgh 0 at Montreal 6; Washington 3 at Detroit 8; Los Angeles 5 at St. Louis 2; Vancouver 3 at California 0; Kansas City at Chicago (postponed to April 3).Thu. April 3N.Y. Rangers 1 at Philadelphia 1; Boston 2 at Buffalo 4; Kansas City 4 at Chicago 6.Fri. April 4N.Y. Rangers 3 at Atlanta 2; Minnesota 1 at Vancouver 4.Sat. April 5Philadelphia 4 at N.Y. Islanders 1; Washington 2 at Montreal 10; Detroit 1 at Pittsburgh 7; California 3 at Los Angeles 5; Chicago 3 at St. Louis 4; Buffalo 4 at Toronto 2.Sun. April 6N.Y. Islanders 6 at N.Y. Rangers 4; Atlanta 2 at Philadelphia 6; Montreal 4 at Detroit 2; Pittsburgh 4 at Washington 8; Los Angeles 1 at California 1; Minnesota 0 at Chicago 3; St. Louis 3 at Kansas City 2; Toronto 4 at Boston 4. &#9632;

f0024-23

THE NHL SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-27" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-272/3664148-1-eng-US/f0024-272.jpg"></div><h2>Tue. April 1 ATLANTA 2, ISLANDERS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01322/3664141-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="599" height="440"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 1, KANSAS CITY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02251/3664134-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="593" height="467"></div><h2>CALIFORNIA 0, VANCOUVER 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03174/3664127-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="593" height="524"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 7, MINNESOTA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04129/3664120-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="588" height="491"></div><h2>BUFFALO 3, BOSTON 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0598/3664113-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="584" height="516"></div><h2>Wed. April 2 PITTSBURGH 0, MONTREAL 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0684/3664106-1-eng-US/f0024-062.jpg" title="f0024-06" width="588" height="550"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 5, ST. LOUIS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0770/3664099-1-eng-US/f0024-072.jpg" title="f0024-07" width="593" height="580"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 3, CALIFORNIA 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0865/3664092-1-eng-US/f0024-082.jpg" title="f0024-08" width="584" height="144"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0960/3664085-1-eng-US/f0024-092.jpg" title="f0024-09" width="594" height="443"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 3, DETROIT 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1054/3664078-1-eng-US/f0024-102.jpg" title="f0024-10" width="590" height="722"></div><h2>ATLANTA 3, TORONTO 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1152/3664071-1-eng-US/f0024-112.jpg" title="f0024-11" width="550" height="175"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1246/3664064-1-eng-US/f0024-122.jpg" title="f0024-12" width="586" height="205"></div><h2>Thu. April 3 BOSTON 2, BUFFALO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1336/3664057-1-eng-US/f0024-132.jpg" title="f0024-13" width="590" height="493"></div><h2>RANGERS 1, PHILADELPHIA 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1430/3664050-1-eng-US/f0024-142.jpg" title="f0024-14" width="589" height="575"></div><h2>KANSAS CITY 4, CHICAGO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1526/3664043-1-eng-US/f0024-152.jpg" title="f0024-15" width="587" height="554"></div><h2>Fri. April 4 RANGERS 3, ATLANTA 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1624/3664036-1-eng-US/f0024-162.jpg" title="f0024-16" width="585" height="431"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 4, MINNESOTA 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1722/3664029-1-eng-US/f0024-172.jpg" title="f0024-17" width="588" height="145"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1821/3664022-1-eng-US/f0024-182.jpg" title="f0024-18" width="587" height="379"></div><h2>Sat. April 5 PHILADELPHIA 4, ISLANDERS 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1921/3664015-1-eng-US/f0024-192.jpg" title="f0024-19" width="590" height="495"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 2, MONTREAL 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2020/3664008-1-eng-US/f0024-202.jpg" title="f0024-20" width="590" height="694"></div><h2>DETROIT 1, PITTSBURGH 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2119/3664001-1-eng-US/f0024-212.jpg" title="f0024-21" width="587" height="551"></div><h2>CALIFORNIA 3, LOS ANGELES 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2218/3663994-1-eng-US/f0024-222.jpg" title="f0024-22" width="588" height="323"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01116/3663987-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="596" height="274"></div><h2>CHICAGO 3, ST. LOUIS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0278/3663980-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="594" height="587"></div><h2>BUFFALO 4, TORONTO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0346/3663973-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="590" height="465"></div><h2>Sun. April 6 ISLANDERS 6, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0434/3663966-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="584" height="296"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0525/3663959-1-eng-US/f0044-052.jpg" title="f0044-05" width="593" height="300"></div><h2>ATLANTA 2, PHILADELPHIA 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0620/3663952-1-eng-US/f0044-062.jpg" title="f0044-06" width="590" height="581"></div><h2>MONTREAL 4, DETROIT 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0718/3663945-1-eng-US/f0044-072.jpg" title="f0044-07" width="583" height="119"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 4, WASHINGTON 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0810/3663938-1-eng-US/f0044-082.jpg" title="f0044-08" width="593" height="446"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0910/3663931-1-eng-US/f0044-092.jpg" title="f0044-09" width="591" height="615"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-15/3663924-1-eng-US/f0044-152.jpg" title="f0044-15" width="256" height="56"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 0, CHICAGO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-109/3663917-1-eng-US/f0044-102.jpg" title="f0044-10" width="589" height="509"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 3, KANSAS CITY 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-115/3663910-1-eng-US/f0044-112.jpg" title="f0044-11" width="583" height="295"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-123/3663903-1-eng-US/f0044-122.jpg" title="f0044-12" width="596" height="156"></div><h2>TORONTO 4, BOSTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-13/3663896-1-eng-US/f0044-132.jpg" title="f0044-13" width="592" height="701"></div> &#9632;

f0024-27

Mark Ten That’s taste!

<div class="byline">BY DEREK COOPER</div>OAKLAND&mdash;You would think after 13 years in the NHL. Jim Neilson would be prepared to handle himself in just about any situation. But on this particular evening the Seals&rsquo; veteran blueliner was the first to admit that he was skating on uncharted ice.&ldquo;I certainly didn&rsquo;t come prepared to say anything,&rdquo; said the surprised &lsquo;Chief, as he stood before a packed banquet hall to accept the Seals&rsquo; most valuable player award for the 1974-75 season. &ldquo;In 12 years with the Rangers it was never necessary.&rdquo;It is hard to believe that a player could go unnoticed for 12 years, but such was the case with Neilson. He appeared in 810 games for New York&mdash;at that time only two players had ever seen longer runs on Broadway&mdash;ant yet his steady, unflashy style of play was lost on a spotlight seeking team like the Rangers. In those 12 years it was the Parks. Gilberts. Ratelies and Giacomins who caught the publics&rsquo; eye.And the New York writers, who can build a Paul Bunyonesque image around any athlete, basically ignored the soft-spoken Neilson and tabbed him with a &lsquo;bad press&rsquo; label because he never volunteered information or gave out the inflammatory statements that would sel newspapers.So for a dozen seasons Neilson left the big plays and newsmaking to others. He never won an award. But quietly and quite efficiently he went about his job of playing defense on a team that made the playoffs in eight of those 12 years.The California Golden Seals were not looking for a celebrity or headline maker when they acquired Neilson from the Rangers in last year&rsquo;s intra-league draft. They sought an experienced blueliner to give their rookie-filled team the leadership and poise that it so desperately needed. And that&rsquo;s exactly what they got.Neilson didn&rsquo;t say much, but when he did his teammates listened. And on the ice, when things got hot and heavy and Seals&rsquo; players started scrambling in all directions, it was Neilson who settled then down. Time after time he would stop the break, make the crucial poke check, or clear the puck.&ldquo;He really helped me this year, &lsquo;says defenseman Rick Hampton, the Seals&rsquo; 18-year-old number-one draft pick. &ldquo;Just watching him in different situations was a real education. A lot of times things got a little hairy and I&rsquo;d look for Jim. I think a lot of the players did.&rdquo;But Neilson&rsquo;s worth was recognized by far more than his teammates. The California fans voted him their &lsquo;Most Exciting Player&rsquo;. and the Bay Area chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association nominated him for the Masterton Trophy, given to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.&ldquo;This award means a great deal to me.&rdquo; said Neilson, gazing down at the MVP trophy. &ldquo;But what means even more is that some of the younger players came up to me this season and thanked me for helping them.&rdquo;A few minutes later Neilson was again called up to the dais to accept the most valuable defenseman award. This time he was prepared.&ldquo;If you keep this up,&rdquo; he said with a grin. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to build a trophy room. I never needed one before.&rdquo;California Seals&rsquo;fans would be happy to help him fill it for the next few seasons. &#9632;

Neilson Receives Recognition

<div class="byline">BY BILL HEUFELDER</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;When the playoffs begin, players who often have worked an entire season in obscurity find themselves the center of attention.If such a situation occurs among the Pittsburgh Penguins, they have the candidates who are adding valuable support down the stretch. Two of them. Pete Laframboise and Lew Morrison, were obtained during the season from the Washington Capitals and a third. Bob McManama, spent eight games in limbo during February before regaining a berth on the club.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01269/3664255-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="275" height="421"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pete Laframboise</figcaption></div>There have been occasions when coach Marc Boileau has used the three as a fourth line with McManama at center, although Laframboise also is capable of playing the position. Laframboise has been remarkably effective as a scorer while his versatility up front has strengthened the club.Morrison, who joined the Penguins when they dealt Ron Lalonde to Washington last December, has fulfilled what they expected of him as an efficient penalty killer.Laframboise was acquired in January in exchange for defenseman Ron Jones. Through a stretch of seven games beginning in late February, he collected 10 points. Overall, the strapping forward has accounted for five goals and six assists since that date.It was Laframboise, while subbing for Syl Apps at center, who delivered three key assists that set up Jean Pronovost for his first big-league hat trick.In two successive games following his three-assist performance, Laframboise, California&rsquo;s No. 2 draft choice five years ago, produced power-play goals. His spot duty gives him an opportunity to play left wing with Vic Hadfield moving to the point.When Laframboise joined Morrison and McManama on the fourth line in the next game at Kansas City, he dug the puck out from along the boards to set up a goal on the unit&rsquo;s first shift.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s weird,&rdquo; Laframboise said of his flurry of points. &ldquo;In New York, I just stepped on the ice and bang! I get a goal. I can remember being in Washington and more involved in the game and nothing went right.&rdquo;Looking forward to his first National Hockey League playoff, Laframboise admits his stints with California and Washington were discouraging.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to be with a team and say to yourself. &lsquo;Well, there&rsquo;s hope,&rsquo; like the New York Islanders last season. But at California it seemed pointless. The team was going nowhere.&ldquo;And Washington&hellip;I&rsquo;ll leave you to judge that club for yourself.&rdquo;Laframboise, 6&rsquo;2&rdquo; and 185 points, is not structured to be the effective relief man he is. &ldquo;I do find it tough to get going right away,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;because I&rsquo;ve got long legs.&rdquo;McManama, who spent 47 games with the Penguins last season, was idled, in part, by Laframboise&rsquo;s arrival.When Boileau decided to drop one of his six defensemen, McManama came out of the stands to fill the remaining spot in the lineup.An adept playmaker, McManama stunned Boston with a breakaway goal that sparked the Penguins to a 5-3 win on their home ice after they fell two goals behind. He had replaced Hadfield, who was injured earlier in the game.McManama, since his return to an active role, has been impressive, and learned to play left wing capably in the process. His goal against Montreal inspired the Penguins to a 6-4 victory. In 10 games, he collected seven points, including three goals.Morrison, who has provided Pittsburgh with late-game defensive insurance, as well as his penalty-killing work, seems to have benefited offensively from the use of Laframboise and McManama.He has produced five goals, including what proved to be the winner against the Canadiens. The puck, fired from center ice, skipped over the stick of a surprised Ken Dryden.The only disappointing aspect of the goal was that Morrison didn&rsquo;t see the puck go in the net.PENGUIN NOTES: Lowell MacDonald, bothered by a recurrence of a muscle pull in his back, was sidelined indefinitely&hellip;With the playoffs approaching, the Penguins want him healthy&hellip;goalie Gary Inness has appeared in a club record 55 games.The triumph over Montreal was the first since Christmas Day. 1971&hellip;Since that game, the Penguins had been 0-15-3 in the series&hellip;Michel Plasse sustained an ankle sprain midway through the second period against his former teammates and gave way to Inness. &#9632;

f0025-01

Penguins Ready For Cup Play With Backup Unit

<div class="byline">BY RUSS WHITE</div>WASHINGTON&mdash;The lovable Washington Capitals substituted a wastepaper basket for the Stanley Cup when they captured their first road victory after 37 consecutive failures.Led by the inimitable Nelson Pyatt, the Capitals socked it to the California Golden Seals, 5-3, in what could be hockey&rsquo;s zaniest victory of the season.The Capitals entered the game not only with their 0-37 road record but with an NHL record 17 consecutive losses. General manager-coach Milt Schmidt was embarrassed to even talk about the pitiful streaks.The victory in Oakland was thus fully appreciated by Schmidt and the players. He guzzled a Coors as if it were champagne from the Stanley Cup and the players held their waste-can high amid cheers of &ldquo;Break up the Caps.&rdquo;Pyatt, one of the new additions by Schmidt in a seven-trade spree in recent weeks, scored the winning goal at 6:31 of the third period and added the insurance goal into an empty net with only 16 seconds to play. It was the first empty net goal in the amazing history of the Caps.&ldquo;It may be the end of the year,&rdquo; said Pyatt, &ldquo;but finally it is a start.&rdquo;In a game that was televised back to the Nation&rsquo;s Capital, the Capitals made an unprecedented quick start, scoring twice in the first four minutes and 12 seconds. For those who tuned in late, expecting the Friday night TV chiller.&ldquo;Weird Tales&rdquo;, there was some doubt as to if what was on were a movie or a game.Veteran Doug Mohns scored the first Washington goal, his 249th career goal.Goaltender Ron Low, who was faced with only 20 shots, ripped off his mask and presented a smile that he had hidden for the closing minutes of the sweet Washington win. His teammates skated up to embrace Low and the group went off ice in glorious style.&ldquo;Sweeter than the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; said Schmidt.The Caps returned home to play the Detroit Red Wings two nights after the Oakland victory and jumped to a 5-2 lead in this one with former Pittsburgh Penguin Ron Lalonde getting the team&rsquo;s first hat trick.A flood of hats cluttered the ice at Capital Centre as the Washington fans acknowledged Lalonde&rsquo;s feat.The hats were cleared and the Caps were caught resting on their laurels as Detroit came back with six unanswered goals to win 8-5. The loss cut down Washington&rsquo;s most serious bid for a two-game win streak in their first season.Schmidt was furious at the loose play on defense as Marcel Dionne scored twice in the closing minutes of the second period. &ldquo;By now these guys should know how important it is to play those closing minutes of any period. Our defense wasn&rsquo;t big league.&rdquo;The Caps have yielded 424 goals, 77 over the record, and the count keeps going higher.Washington&rsquo;s amazing fans don&rsquo;t give a hoot, however, as there are few dropouts in season tickets for next year. The Capitals fans have a shindig planned next week and its a sellout.The Caps averaged over 10,000 for the season, more than the average of the Washington Bullets basketball team, which was a first place outfit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01273/3664286-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="558" height="455"><figcaption class="caption-body">NELSON PYATT</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

Caps Substitute Trash Basket For Cup

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The littlest player in the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; training camp last summer has become a big man on the team.Doug Palazzari has fought and won a season-long battle to survive in the National Hockey League. The odds were always against him.First of all. Palazzari is a rookie. Obviously more rookies fall by the wayside than establish themselves in the NHL.Secondly, he is only 5&rsquo;5&rdquo; and in a tie with Vancouver&rsquo;s Bobby Lalonde for the distinction of being the shortest player in the league.Palazzari also falls into some minority groups by being an American and a former college player. He is from Eveleth. Minn., and played for Colorado College.His college career served as a pretty firm basis for his ascendency to the NHL. He twice was an All-American and twice led the nation in scoring with 72 points in 32 games his sophomore season and 78 points in 32 games his senior year. Before this season the only previous time he had been in the St. Louis Arena was for a Christmas hockey tournament two years earlier, and he set a tournament record with eight points in a same.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m fortunate to get my chance in the NHL right after college.&rdquo; Palazzari said. &ldquo;Most players in the league played some time in the minors.&rdquo;But Palazzari has shown he is ready for the major leagues with a solid performance in his rookie season.For about the first half of the season Palazzari played on the Blues&rsquo; regular checking line with Floyd Thomson and Bill Collins. And Palazzari at center performed some masterful jobs on the league&rsquo;s top scoring centers, such as Phil Esposito. Gil Perreault. Stan Mikita and Jean Ratelle.In his first game against the Bruins, Palazzari said. &ldquo;Esposito was so big and strong I couldn&rsquo;t move him out of the slot very easily. About all I could do was put my stick between his skates so he couldn&rsquo;t move.&rdquo; Palazzari said Esposito kept telling him. &ldquo;Watch your stick, little one.&rdquo; But Esposito was shut out in the game, which ended in a 4-4 tie, and Palazzari was on his way to establishing himself in the NHL.He found in at least one game that his height could be an advantage rather than a disadvantage. When 6&rsquo; 4&rdquo; goalie Gary Smith turned around with his stick swinging in the air to clear the crease, Palazzari watched the stick sail harmlessly over his head.Palazzari is a furious skater and frequently stirs the St. Louis fans with his dashing about the ice. When Red Berenson was reacquired by the Blues Christmas week, the team was overloaded with centers again, and Palazzari was put on penalty-killing duty, which he performed tirelessly. By the end of the season coach Garry Young was turning to Palazzari to give the team a lift on the ice. Despite checking and penalty-killing assignments Palazzari had 14 goals.&lsquo;&lsquo;I was to be out on the ice as much as possible,&rdquo; says Palazzari. &ldquo;I know I have to be patient in my first year, but I want to play.&ldquo;I feel more comfortable now than at the beginning of the year.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Considering the way the season went.I guess you could say I&rsquo;m happy, but not satisfied.&rdquo;The young Blues have enough veterans on the roster to help Palazzari and the other young players over the tough spots. When Palazzari would find himself temporarily on the bench, he looked toward his older teammates for a little psychological help.&ldquo;Billy Collins helped me a lot. and he and I roomed together on the road,&rdquo; Palazzari said. &ldquo;Barclay Plager is an excellent captain, and Eddie Johnston has been great to me.&rdquo;Although Palazzari has proven his worth to the Blues, he hasn&rsquo;t taken permanent hold of a regular spot on one of the lines. The three centers ahead of him are Garry Unger. Wayne Merrick and Berenson, and two other St. Louis players. Chuck Lefley and Denis Dupere. have been known to perform well as centermen.&ldquo;The competition is tough,&rdquo; Palazzari said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to have a chance.&rdquo;For Palazzari the competition of ol-. der, taller players is just another challenge.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01257/3664317-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="552" height="1205"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG PALAZZARI&hellip;Right Out Of College</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0027-01

Rookie Palazzari Blues’ Little Big Man

<div class="byline">BY JULES FURTH</div>CHICAGO&mdash;In a surprise move, the Chicago Tribune traded Bob Verdi from the Chicago Black Hawks to the Chicago Cubs. Verdi, who had officially replaced the veteran Ted Damata in 1974, was shipped out to Mesa, Arizona, to join the team in time for spring practice. Rejoining the Black Hawks was Dan Moulton formerly of Chicago Today.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01244/3664355-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="287" height="435"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith Magnuson</figcaption></div>The publisher of THE HOCKEY NEWS, Ken McKenzie regretfully stated, &ldquo;I guess we will have to give him his unconditional release.&rdquo;Verdi was heard to murmer, &ldquo;Those white balls aren&rsquo;t too hard to follow, I can see everything.&rdquo; The only hard rubber Bob will have to deal with now will be under some pitcher&rsquo;s toe.Hockey will miss Bob&rsquo;s clever and nosey talents but Cub managers and others can look for Bob to collar them as they step out of the dugout just the same way he used to grab hockey coaches before they could get into their lockerrooms. Of course THE HOCKEY NEWS will also miss Bob but I promise to bring all the &ldquo;tribal trivia&rdquo; to your attention in the weeks to come.There are many fans here that are saying that the Black Hawks are having a lousy season, some of the older players are slowing down, too many injuries, Chico Maki shouldn&rsquo;t have retired. Tony Esposito is letting in too many bad ones, and finally, they should follow the instructions of the balcony chorus and trade umpteen players along with coach Billy Reay. Every other game you can hear them singing, &ldquo;Good bye Billy&rdquo;. Every other game they are cheering. It&rsquo;s been that kind of a season. No consistency. By either the fans or their team.The record is revealing. It is easy to see where the comparison lies. Not enough ties. Not enough scoring from the left side. (They recently went 15 games without a goal being tallied by a left wing until John Marks hit against the Buffalo Sabres at home.Reay has done everything in the way of trying to set up three consistent forward lines save from drawing names out of his ever present hat. Some say that method was attempted last week behind closed office doors. His latest combination shows center Pit Partin at right wing, defenseman Dale Tallon at center and defenseman John Marks playing left wing. Mikita (a center) is still there with Germain Gagnon and Cliff Koroll while the third line has Ivan Boldirev flanked by Jim Pappin and Darcy Rota. Rota is fast becoming an &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take anyone on&rdquo; type of forechecker. His scoring has suffered possibily because of this.The back lines have suffered some inconsistency because of injuries to Bill White and Keith Magnuson. Both are playing in pain and it particularly shows in the case of White. Bill is one of the headiest defenseman in hockey today and when his body doesn&rsquo;t go where his head tells it to go as fast as he would like it to respond, well, it shows when a guy is playing 80 percent on guts.The last weekend of March just about took everything out of the Hawks. The long anticipated home-and-home series with Philadelphia found Chicago needing two wins to take their division while Philly needed points to overtake Buffalo in the overall standings for home-ice advantage in the playoffs. Well, like the month of March, the Flyers came in like lions and went out like lions while the Hawks were pretty well the lambs that were sacrificed and slaughtered. Freddy Shero who hadn&rsquo;t won but two games in the Stadium in eight years and used to, &ldquo;Come in and pray like heck&rdquo;, caused Billy Reay to remark, &ldquo;We were outskated. outhustled and at this time of year it is nothing short of disgraceful. I can offer noexcuses.&rsquo;&rsquo; Barry Ashbee confided that Shero had his 15 Rules for basic play. Maybe he could share them?Then Reay said, &ldquo;Teams are coming in here now with a lot of confidence. It makes a big difference in the play.&rdquo;The following night in the Spectrum was not too different. The puck took a bad bounce off the backboards and the game turned around. Again it was a rough night for the Hawks and capped the weekend off most dissapointingly. The Hawks could have stuck a few win feathers in their Easter bonnets but found the Flyers very much at home for the holidays.INDIAN HEADINGS: Dick Redmond played despite a heavy case of flu&hellip;Coach Reay will go with &ldquo;his best&rdquo; therefore Dallas will have their roster secure until the end of their season&hellip;Alain Daigle back after a severe knee problem. J. P. Bordeleay showing some very fancy moves although ice time at a minimum&hellip;Pit Martin remarked after playing three different positions. &ldquo;You go where &lsquo;he&rsquo; sends you&hellip;&rdquo; Question to Wally Harris: If Dave Schultz spent all that time on the ice getting two 10minute misconducts on the same play, why didn&rsquo;t he get a bench minor?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02173/3664348-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="552" height="553"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL WHITE&hellip;80 Percent Guts</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Hawks’ Season Plagued With Inconsistency

ANDRE LACROIX San Diego MarinersFor the second time in the three-year history of the WHA Andre Lacroix has won the individual scoring title.What made the accomplishment especially noteworthy was not that he did win the scoring crown, but how he captured it.Trailing Winnipeg&rsquo;s Bobby Hull going into the final week of regular season play, Lacroix racked up an unbelievable 17 points in the Mariners&rsquo; five outings to lift him five points ahead of Hull, 147-142.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01210/3664417-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="504" height="573"></div>FRANK HUGHES Houston AerosOne of the forgotten men in the Houston Aeros&rsquo; power-packed offense is 25-year-old Frank Hughes.By notching seven goals in three encounters during the past week, Hughes upped his total to 48.He had two goals and a single assist in 7-6 edging of Cleveland, a pair of markers and an assist in 5-2 win over Toronto and a hat trick and one assist in 8-2 trouncing of Minnesota.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02173/3664410-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="498" height="532"></div> &#9632;

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WHA’s Stars of the week

<h2>Series &lsquo;A&rsquo;</h2>CLEVELAND vs HOUSTONThu. April 10 at HoustonSat. April 12 at HoustonSun. April 13 at ClevelandTue. April 15 at ClevelandThu. April 17 at HoustonSat. April 19 at ClevelandWed. April 23 at Houston<h2>Series B&rsquo;</h2>PHOENIX vs QUEBECTue. April 8 at QuebecThu. April 10 at QuebecSat. April 12 at PhoenixTue. April 15 at PhoenixThu. April 17 at QuebecSat. April 19 at PhoenixTue. April 22 at Quebec<h2>Series &lsquo;C&rsquo;</h2>MINNESOTA vs N. ENGLANDWed. April 9 at New EnglandFri. April 11 at New EnglandSun. April 13 at MinnesotaTue. April 15 at MinnesotaThu. April 17 at New EnglandSat. April 19 at MinnesotaTue. April 22 at New England<h2>Series &lsquo;D&rsquo;</h2>TORONTO vs SAN DIEGOWed. April 9 at San DiegoSat. April 12 at San DiegoMon. April 14 at TorontoWed. April 16 at TorontoFri. April 18 at San DiegoMon. April 21 at TorontoWed. April 23 at San Diego(All series best-of-seven affairs. Series A&rsquo; winner meets Series D&rsquo; winner while B&rsquo; winner faces Series C winner in semi-finals) &#9632;

Avco Trophy Dates

<div class="byline">BY RICH PASSAN</div>Follow All The Action Every Week By Subscribing Today ToSuperb Hockey Reading Each Month HOCKEY WORLD, & HOCKEY PICTORIALCLEVELAND&mdash;The Crusaders are getting the winning habit for the first time in a long time&hellip;and just in time.The C&rsquo;s, mainly through the efforts of the Chicago Cougars to lose the battle for second place, clinched their third straight trip to the World Trophy playoffs March 26.After the game, a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Blazers in Cleveland, coach and general manager Jack Vivian predicted the clinching would loosen up his team.Little did he know how loose they would get.In their next two outings, the low-scoring Clevelanders pounded Indianapolis&rsquo; Andy Brown and Chicago&rsquo;s Dave Dryden with 14 goals, dividing them equally in a 7-5 victory over the Racers and 7-6 triumph over the Cougars.&ldquo;One of our objectives,&rdquo; said Vivian, &ldquo;was to get into the playoffs. We&rsquo;ll still be getting ready, though, and I don&rsquo;t think there will be any letdown.&ldquo;Everything from here on out&mdash;how far we go in the playoffs&mdash;depends on the team now,&rdquo; Vivian added.That 14-goal splurge gave the rampaging Crusaders 31 goals in their last six games. During that span, however, they permitted 23.&ldquo;I think somebody is going to tell us to quit that,&rdquo; said Cleveland center Richie Leduc, who scored eight goals and assisted on five others during that sixgame span.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re going to be going back to our old way. Right now, we&rsquo;re relaxed. We had a month of tension when Chicago began catching up to us. We felt the pressure. Now, we&rsquo;re freewheeling.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s something the Crusaders will not be able to do against the Houston Aeros, their first-round opponents in the playoffs.The Aeros are a superbly disciplined team that takes advantage of mistakes. And most of those mistakes usually wind up in the other team&rsquo;s net.The C&rsquo;s have had moderate success in the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. Idealistically, they look for a split there in the first two games.But the playoffs are a whole different bailgame and the Aeros, defending World Trophy champions, have been through it all and should make it tough for the Crusaders to advance beyond round one.CHICAGO: The Cougars had a monkey on their backs almost from the start of the season and this, according to director of player personnel and bench coach Jacques Demers, led to their downfall this season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to make alibis, but it&rsquo;s difficult for the players to adjust to the kind of problems we had like money and a suitable place to play,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;We have a better team than we have showed.&ldquo;The (shoulder and neck) injury to Pat (player-coach Pat Stapleton) was one of the main reasons we didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs,&rdquo; he went on. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the best defenseman in the league and when he&rsquo;s out there, we&rsquo;re 100 percent different team.&rdquo;NEW ENGLAND: The Whalers won an important game March 30. but lost a coach and two players in doing it.The-Harpoonists beat the Toronto Toros, 4-3, in Maple Leaf Gardens under the guidance of general manager Jack Kelley.Coach Ron Ryan suffered a dizzy spell and fell, striking his head on concrete, the afternoon of the game. He was taken to a Toronto hospital and later was relased, but was unable to coach.New England lost defenseman Ted Green with a groin injury and center Terry Caffery with a shoulder separation. They join teammates Rick Ley and Garry Swain on the sidelines. Caffery could be lost for the remainder of the season.INDIANAPOLIS: The anticipated resumption of hostilities between the Racers and Cleveland Crusaders, stemming from their March 8 bench-clearing brawl in Indianapolis, never came off when the two teams met in Cleveland March 29.In fact, referee Brent Casselman whistled only eight minor penalties in the wide-open contest, which the C&rsquo;s won, 7-5.Racers&rsquo; goaltender Andy Brown was thrown out by Casselman after vehemently protesting Richie Leduc&rsquo;s third-period goal, which turned out to be the game-winner. Brown tried to attack the referee and had to be restrained by a half-dozen teammates. &#9632;

Crusaders Get Winning Habit Just In Time

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>TORONTO&mdash;The Toronto Toros won&rsquo;t win any fans in Winnipeg to say the least and big Frank Mahovlich could be destined to become another player like Jim Pappin&mdash;one who seems to thrive on boos.The Toros unceremoniously knocked the Winnipeg Jets out of the wild-card playoff scramble on the closing weekend of the 1974-75 WHA schedule by defeating them 7-1 as time ran out on Bobby Hull and his club.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01241/3664486-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="272" height="400"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Simpson</figcaption></div>It was a crushing blow for the Jets, who went to the sidelines along with Edmonton and Vancouver in the Canadian Division windup allowing Phoenix Roadrunners and Minnesota Fighting Saints to grab the two final wild card playoff berths.The final point rundown showed Minnesota with 87 points, Phoenix 86, Winnipeg 81 and Vancouver and Edmonton 76.Toros also missed grabbing first place from Quebec in their division as fans turned their attention to the Big M.Toronto fans, who have been increasing in number of late, have taken to letting the big left winger know when they&rsquo;re not pleased with his play.But the Toros are anything but displeased with their big name, off-season catch from the Montreal Canadiens. and they were particularly that way when the big M scored in overtime against the Quebec Nordiques.It was before a sellout crowd at the Colisee. a battle for first place in the Canadian Division, that Mahovlich scored his 36th goal of the year, and it is doubt full whether he&rsquo;ll get a more important one for the Toros this season.The goal, with just over two minutes remaining, gave the Toros a 5-4 victory which vaulted them temporarily into a first place tie with Les Nordiques and it capped an extremely successful week for the Toros, who made a last minute charge at first place more as a move at protecting a playoff spot from hard charging Winnipeg than a motivation for the top position.Tom Simpson started the week off the way he&rsquo;d like to start off every one. with a four-goal game against the Vancouver Blazers, the third time this season that Shotgun has had four in one night.&ldquo;Earlier today I felt like staying at home&rdquo;, said Simpson after the goals that brought his season total to 50. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure glad I didn&rsquo;t. I wanted to get it(his 50th goal) over with. The pressure is off now as far as 50 goals is concerned, but the pressure is still on us all to make the playoffs.&rdquo;Toros&rsquo; president John Bassett gives any player who has a four-goal game a new suit and Simpson said &ldquo;that&rsquo;s three I&rsquo;ve hit him for this year. &lsquo;&lsquo;QUEBEC: Les Nordiques have been on the ropes for the past two weeks as their seven-game losing streak which began on a four-game road trip in Winnipeg was their longest of the year. It could have cost them first place, although they did recover from their home loss to the Toros with a 6-5 overtime win over Phoenix at home, one that gave then the lead over the Toros entering the final week of the year.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02184/3664479-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="1186" height="1125"><figcaption class="caption-body">With the WHA schedule winding, to its finish, the playoff scramble is on again for the glitterring Avco World Trophy, shown here with league president Dennis Murphy, right, and Avco advertising executive Claire Connell. Houston won it last year and New England the previous season. Both teams are back in contention for the third year of its existence.</figcaption></div>Reynald Leclerc scored a disputed goal three minutes into the overtime session to end the club&rsquo;s slide, one which has caused them to blow an eight point lead in the divisional standings.The veteran stars of the club are the only players still scoring goals in quantity as Marc Tardif and Rejean Houle both scored twice against Phoenix to move their season totals to 47 and 37 respectively. Serge Bernier, who is looking behind him at the high scoring Ulf Nilsson of Winnipeg in the scoring race, banged in his 51st goal and his 113 points have him clinging to a three-point advantage in third place of the League race. Andre Lacroix, in second place with 130 points, would appear to be well out of range for Bernier.WINNIPEG: To mention the two words Bobby Hull is automatically redundant. It&rsquo;s all been said before. But it must all be said again as the Golden Jet appeared bent on bending pro hockey&rsquo;s record book.The Jets, pursuing a wild card playoff spot with all their might, walked into Hartford, Conn., and thrashed the Whalers 9-3. the line of Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson gaining 10 points, including three goals by Hull.EDMONTON: The Oilers playoff chances took the gas pipe early in the second last week of the season when they lost 5-4 to the Whalers in Hartford. a game in which Bobby Sheehan. Barry Long and Murray Kennett were all injured.&ldquo;We never should have lost to this club tonight.&rdquo; said Edmonton coach Bill Hunter. We were just starting to put things together when the injuries started happening. It&rsquo;s hearbreaking. just like it has been all season.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03138/3664472-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="554" height="1013"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRANK MAHOVLICH&hellip;Sank Game Winner</figcaption></div>The bright spot for the Oilers was the fine play rookie Mike Rogers, who scored two goals in that game and brought his total to 33 for the year.VANCOUVER: The less said about the Blazers, the better. They stretched their road losing streak to 10 games when they bowed 4-2 to the Cleveland Crusaders and came home to lose their seventh straight game to the San Diego Mariners.They arrested that streak with a 4-3 win over the Baltimore Blades the following day. but the only matter of contention as far as the Blazers were concerned was whether they would get out of the cellar by passing the Oilers. They made it in their final game of the schedule &#9632;

f0030-01

Toros Knock Winnipeg Out Of Playoffs; Phoenix. Minnesota Wild Card Winners

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-27" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-274/3664761-1-eng-US/f0031-272.jpg"></div>(Standings on Mon. April 7)<h2>CANADIAN DIVISION</h2><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. March 31Indianapolis 1 at Winnipeg 4; San Diego 4 at Edmonton 2.Tue. April 1Indianapolis 1 at Toronto 7; Vancouver 2 at Minnesota 5; Cleveland 2 at Chicago 3: Phoenix 3 at New England 5; Baltimore 4 at San Diego 3; Quebec 5 at Edmonton 3.Wed. April 2Quebec 5 at Minnesota 3; Cleveland 6 at Houston 7; Vancouver 6 at Winnipeg 4.Thu. April 3Quebec 1 at New England 4; Baltimore 2 at San Diego 9.Fri. April 4Vancouver 3 at Edmonton 5; Phoenix 2 at Minnesota 1; Winnipeg 1 at Toronto 7; New England 1 at Chicago 3.Sat. April 5Edmonton 2 at Vancouver 3; Winnipeg 5 at Quebec 9; New England 2 at Cleveland 5; Baltimore 7 at Phoenix 6; Indianapolis 3 at San Diego 8; Minnesota 2 at Houston 8.Sun. April 6San Diego 5 at Winnipeg 5; Houston 5 at Toronto 2; Indianapolis 3 at Vancouver 4: Minnesota 6 at Baltimore 5.<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Mon. April 7Houston at Baltimore(End of Schedule) &#9632;

f0031-27

WHA Scoreboard

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01221/3664723-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="590" height="405"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-264/3664730-1-eng-US/f0031-262.jpg" title="f0031-26" width="186" height="222"></div><h2>Mon. March 31 INDIANAPOLIS 1, WINNIPEG 4</h2><h2>SAN DIEGO 5, EDMONTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02177/3664716-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="598" height="528"></div><h2>Tue. April 1 VANCOUVER 2, MINNESOTA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03148/3664709-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="593" height="555"></div><h2>INDIANAPOLIS 1, TORONTO 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04118/3664702-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="594" height="578"></div><h2>CLEVELAND 2, CHICAGO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05104/3664695-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="587" height="558"></div><h2>PHOENIX 3, NEW ENGLAND 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0680/3664688-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="585" height="522"></div><h2>BALTIMORE 4, SAN DIEGO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0768/3664681-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="588" height="493"></div><h2>QUEBEC 5, EDMONTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0861/3664674-1-eng-US/f0031-082.jpg" title="f0031-08" width="583" height="495"></div><h2>Wed. April 2 QUEBEC S, MINNESOTA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0949/3664667-1-eng-US/f0031-092.jpg" title="f0031-09" width="591" height="528"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 6, WINNIPEG 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1040/3664660-1-eng-US/f0031-102.jpg" title="f0031-10" width="585" height="316"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1135/3664653-1-eng-US/f0031-112.jpg" title="f0031-11" width="589" height="328"></div><h2>CLEVELAND 6, HOUSTON 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1218/3664646-1-eng-US/f0031-122.jpg" title="f0031-12" width="591" height="669"></div><h2>Thu. April 3 QUEBEC 1, NEW ENGLAND 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1315/3664639-1-eng-US/f0031-132.jpg" title="f0031-13" width="587" height="466"></div><h2>BALTIMORE 2, SAN DIEGO 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1413/3664632-1-eng-US/f0031-142.jpg" title="f0031-14" width="582" height="407"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1513/3664625-1-eng-US/f0031-152.jpg" title="f0031-15" width="588" height="176"></div><h2>Fri. April 4 PHOENIX 2, MINNESOTA 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1611/3664618-1-eng-US/f0031-162.jpg" title="f0031-16" width="586" height="493"></div><h2>TORONTO 7, WINNIPEG 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1710/3664611-1-eng-US/f0031-172.jpg" title="f0031-17" width="592" height="546"></div><h2>EDMONTON 5, VANCOUVER 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-189/3664604-1-eng-US/f0031-182.jpg" title="f0031-18" width="582" height="523"></div><h2>CHICAGO 3, NEW ENGLAND 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-198/3664597-1-eng-US/f0031-192.jpg" title="f0031-19" width="555" height="62"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-208/3664590-1-eng-US/f0031-202.jpg" title="f0031-20" width="592" height="348"></div><h2>Sat. April 5 EDMONTON 2, VANCOUVER 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-216/3664583-1-eng-US/f0031-212.jpg" title="f0031-21" width="586" height="442"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 5, QUEBEC 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-226/3664576-1-eng-US/f0031-222.jpg" title="f0031-22" width="592" height="659"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND 2, CLEVELAND 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-235/3664569-1-eng-US/f0031-232.jpg" title="f0031-23" width="599" height="554"></div><h2>INDIANAPOLIS 3, SAN DIEGO 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-244/3664562-1-eng-US/f0031-242.jpg" title="f0031-24" width="584" height="610"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 2, HOUSTON 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-254/3664555-1-eng-US/f0031-252.jpg" title="f0031-25" width="588" height="548"></div><h2>BALTIMORE 7, PHOENIX 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01220/3664548-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="604" height="712"></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

World Hockey Association Summaries

<div class="byline">BY DOUG MCCONNELL</div>BALTIMORE&mdash;An official of the Baltimore Blades says the financially troubled franchise may move to yet another city, unless negotiations for local ownership of the team are well under way by mid-April.The World Hockey Association trustees, who have been operating the team as interim owners, have not definitely set April 15 for local ownership to be established, said Blades&rsquo; vice-president Skip Feldman.Feldman added, however, that &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in an area where the league is asking if there are going to be any serious negotiations. And if there is nothing going by mid-April, the league is going to feel there is no financial interest and the team will have to be moved.&rdquo;The Blades&rsquo; franchise operated as the Los Angeles Sharks for the first two years of existence and moved to Detroit as the Michigan Stags to open this season. When the Detroit owners went under early this year, the team was moved to Baltimore under WHA auspices and renamed the Blades.Feldman said there are two Baltimore groups &ldquo;very interested&rdquo; in paying the estimated $1.5 million the WHA is asking for the team, but he declined to identify any of the potential investors, explaining that members of both groups were requesting anonymity.The price tag is less than the reported $2 million paid for expansion franchises by Phoenix and Indianapolis this season.Two possible new homes were reported for the Blades, north to Calgary or south to Miami.Feldman said that the Blades&rsquo; situation in Baltimore had to be resolved quickly because the WHA cannot continue meeting the team&rsquo;s half-pay payroll indefinitely.When the Detroit operation folded, the WHA agreed to make up back pay and continue current salaries for the Blades&rsquo; players, but the league said it could do so only by providing half pay through August rather than regular pay through the end of the season early next month.The Blades have averaged 3,800 fans since moving to Baltimore.Scheduling problems have also handicapped the Blades.They lost 5-4 to the Minnesota Fighting Saints in a game that was their first in 10 days. They fell the following night to a three-goal third period explosion for a 5-2 victory by the San Diego Mariners but one night later got late goals by Gary Veneruzzo, his 29th of the season, and Gary Bredin, to tie the Edmonton Oilers, 2-2.HOUSTON: Gordie Howe&rsquo;s best move of the night came after Jim Sherrit scored his 20th goal of the season.Home retrieved the puck.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen Gordie move so fast,&rdquo; said Sherrit. &ldquo;He was in and out of that net like a shot. It surprised me. But I soon realized what was going on.&rdquo;Howe had assisted on the goal for the 2,000th point in his 27-season major league career.The 47-year-old Howe has announced that except for the opening game in the new Summit next season, this is his last season.Howe had two goals, his 31st and 32rd of the season, and two assists for the night.Howe&rsquo;s Houston Aero teammate Murray Hall played with Gordie in the National Hockey League at Detroit.&ldquo;I was sitting on the bench and I figured it this way.&rdquo; said Hall. &ldquo;A rookie breaking into the league would have to score 100 points for 20 years. Can you imagine that? Twenty years&mdash;to even come close. That just shows you what kind of an athlete Gordie is.&rdquo;It was a multiple treat for Howe.&ldquo;The 2,000th came on a good night,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We clinched the title in our league. I don&rsquo;t think anybody can catch us as far as the overall best record. And Larry Lund gets 100 points&mdash;he scored his 31st goal and an assist&mdash;gets 100 points for the first time in his life and young Sherrit gets 20 goals. You can&rsquo;t ask for more.&rdquo;Sherrit gave the Aeros 11 players with 20 or more goals.The victims of Howe&rsquo;s record making were the Winnipeg Jets and the 8-0 shutout was the fourth of the season for rookie goal tender Ron Grahame and the sixth for the team, a new league record.The loss ended the Jets&rsquo; seven-game victory streak.The Aeros have 50 victories, two more than the league record they set last season and their 100 points is one short of the record of 101 they set last season. They have registered 24 of their victories on the road, another WHA record.As playoff insurance, the Aeros have acquired Dave Kelly as a third goaltender behind Grahame and Wayne Rutledge.Kelly, 31, played 11 seasons in the Western Hockey League, nine with the Portland Buckaroos, and set a WHA record of 235 minutes, 22 seconds of shutout hockey. He had three consecutive shutouts.Kelly was the WHL rookie-of-the-year in 1963-64, two years later shared the league&rsquo;s goaltending award and won it in 1968-69 but his best season was 1967-68 when he recorded a 2.88 goals, against average. &#9632;

Financially Troubled Blades May Be On The Move Again

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01199/3664854-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="479" height="879"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG GIBSON&hellip;Third Highest</figcaption></div>ROCHESTER&mdash;Only two players in the 39-year history of the American Hockey League scored more points than Doug Gibson of the Rochester Americans did this season.The 21-year-old center closed with a rush to finish with 44 goals and 72 assists for 116 points&mdash;12 more than runnerup Peter Sullivan of Nova Scotia&mdash;to capture the AHL scoring title.Only Red Sullivan of Hershey with 119 points on 30 goals and 89 assists in 1953-54 and Carl Liscombe of Providence with 118 points on 50 goals and 68 assists had more points than Gibson.Gibson, who set an Amerk club record for assists as well as points. led the AHL in assists and shared the goal-scoring lead with teammate Barry Merrell. Nova Scotia&rsquo;s Sullivan and Providence rookie Jerry Holland.Gilles Lupien of Nova Scotia and Richmond&rsquo;s Jack Mcllhargey were the penalty leaders this season with 316 minutes apiece.Gibson is the fourth Amerk to win the scoring title in Rochester&rsquo;s 19 seasons in the league. Billy Hicke won in 1958-59, Gerry Ehman in 1963-64 and Dick Gamble in 1965-66.<h2>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03110/3664847-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="500" height="780"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

Amerks’ Ace Wins Scoring By 12 Points

PROVIDENCE&mdash;&ldquo;This is the first championship I&rsquo;ve won in 13 years as a coach and I feel great.&rdquo; coach John Muckler said moments after his Providence Reds had clinched the Northern Division title by beating the Rochester Americans 5-2 here on the final weekend of the season.&ldquo;But.&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll feel better if we win the Calder Cup.&rdquo;Despite an amazing number of injuries, mostly to defensemen. both on the Reds and on the parent New York Rangers, which kept Muckler&rsquo;s skaters playing shorthanded much of the season, they finished with 43 victories, 21 defeats and 12 ties for 98 points in the standings&mdash;an all-time record for Providence, which has been an American Hockey League team since the league&rsquo;s formation for the 1936-37 season.Rookie Jerry Holland, who missed a month of the season with facial fractures, returned the final week of the regular schedule but failed to add to his goal total of 44.Pierre Laganiere led the Reds in points with 86&mdash;fourth highest in the league&mdash;and in assists with 61&mdash;second best. &#9632;

Muckier Elated After Winning First Title With Providence

<div class="byline">BY HANS TANNER</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaROCHESTER&mdash;Goaltenders for American Hockey League teams entering the War Memorial here to face the Rochester Americans this season could have been excused if they expected to see a famous saying tacked above their dressing room door.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02150/3664816-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="260" height="423"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Milbury</figcaption></div>&ldquo;All hope abandon, ye who enter here,&rdquo; it would read.Even some of the Amerks find it hard to believe when they are reminded of some of the potent offenses of past Rochester teams, but this season&rsquo;s club was the highest-scoring Rochester American team ever&mdash;both overall and on home ice.When the AHL&rsquo;s regular schedule ended. the Amerks had scored 317 goals&mdash;surpassing the 310 scored by the 1964-65 club. And at home, the Amerks had 205 goals&mdash;13 more than the old mark of 192, also set in 1964-65.Rochester finished its 19th season in the AHL with only. two defeats in its final 23 games at home&mdash;winning 18 and tying three. The Amerks were 277-4 here for 58 points. The only Rochester team with a better home record was in 1965-66. That club had a 29-4-3 record for 61 points.Coach Dick Mattiussi, like his players, was surprised at the goal production when he recalled teams that had such shooters as Dick Gamble, Gerry Ehman, Bronco Horvath. Jim Pappin. Mike Walton and others.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;ll make everybody realize there&rsquo;s just as much talent on this team as on some of those earlier Rochester powerhouses,&rdquo; he said.Billy Knibbs, a veteran AHL center and the Amerk captain, said, &ldquo;No kidding&hellip;that&rsquo;s unbelievable&rdquo; when told several weeks before the end of the season that his team was about to set a home-ice record.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s kind of unusual to have four guys so high in goals like we do,&rdquo; he said by way of explanation. He was referring to Doug Gibson. Barry Merrell, Dave Hynes and Ron Garwasiuk. Gibson and Merrell finished with 44 apiece. Hynes with 42 and Garwasiuk with 36.The only Amerk quartets that would begin to compare with them would be Gamble (48), Horvath (38), Ehman (38) and Stan Smrke (33) in 1964-65, and Gamble (47), Ehman (39), Pappin (36) and Walton (35) in 1965-66.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the best power play in the league, and that helps you score goals at home,&rdquo; Knibbs added. &ldquo;We were quite intent on offense at home.&rdquo;Gibson agrees the club played wide open hockey here, and has another thought.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve got three pretty well balanced lines, too, despite how our scoring looks. Everybody can score,&rdquo; he said.Merrell credits both a balanced attack and more depth for the high scoring.&ldquo;We had one or two guys sitting out a few games this season who wouldn&rsquo;t have had to sit out or who didn&rsquo;t sit out last year when we finished first.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Because of the depth, the guys &lsquo;who were playing knew that if they had a couple of bad games, they&rsquo;d probably sit out. And when the others got a chance, they tried that much harder to stay in there.&ldquo;I think we hit the net a lot more with our shots this year, too. When you get a lot of shots, you&rsquo;re bound to score a lot of goals over the long haul.&rdquo;The figures back him up. The Amerks had 38 or more shots on goal in 19 of the last 24 home games.Rod Graham, who plays both forward and defense, points to the centers as one key reason for the goal outburst.&ldquo;Doug (Gibson) and Barry (Merrell) are real good playmakers, and Billy (Knibbs) and Steve (Stirling) could have picked up a lot of points, too, if they had shooters like Gibson and Merrell had on their wings.&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;The fans come to see you score goals, and we obliged them by trying to blitz the other teams here. We concentrated on offense, so we got three guys caught now and then, but we scored a lot and our home record speaks for itself.&rdquo;Seemingly out of the race for first place, the Amerks went down to the third last night of the season before bowing out. They won 5-1 in Richmond as both Gibson and defenseman Mike Milbury set Amerk club records, then went into Norfolk and edged Virginia 3-2.That set the stage for the head-to-head battle in Providence. A Rochester victory would have cut the Reds&rsquo; margin to one point with each team having a game toplay. But after taking a 1-0 lead, back-to-back penalties 36 seconds apart left the Amerks two men short late in the first period. Providence scored once with a two-man edge and once before the second one came back and went to a clinching 5-2 victory.Gibson set an Amerk season record for points with two assists in Richmond. They were his 107th and 108th points of the season&mdash;taking Horvath&rsquo;s name out of the record book for his 106 points in 1964-65.Milbury was called for holding at 5:19 of the first period in Richmond, giving him 225 penalty minutes. That passed the team record of 224 set by Roger Cote back in 1960-61.The Amerks ended the season on a sour note, losing 7-2 in Springfield and 9-6 here to New Haven. Gibson did wipe out yet another Rochester record on the final night of the schedule with his 71st and 72nd assists, in addition to two more goals. The assists pushed him past Art Stratton&rsquo;s club record of 71 set last year.NOVA SCOTIA: Peter Sullivan closed the regular season with a goalscoring surge that carried him to a share of league honors at 44. He scored eight goals in the last five games, while all his &lsquo;teammates together mustered only seven over the same stretch.Sullivan did miss Jude Drouin&rsquo;s club record for points, however. Drouin had 106 in 1969-70 and Sullivan finished with 104 on 44 goals and 60 assists.The Voyageurs&rsquo; goaltending duo of rookie Ed Walsh and second-year pro Dave Elenbaas did win the league&rsquo;s Harry (Hap) Holmes Memorial Trophy for having the fewest goals scored against them.It was close going into the final three nights of the season, but Rochester gave up five, seven and nine goals on the final weekend to drop back while Elenbaas allowed two in Richmond and two in Norfolk.It&rsquo;s the third straight year Nova Scotia has won the goaltending award and the second year in a row Elenbaas has had a share of it.Bunny Larocque and Michel Deguise won it in 1972-73 and Elenbaas and Jim Shaw took it last year.SPRINGFIELD: If coach Ron Stewart&rsquo;s Indians continue their late-season play in the playoffs, they could surprise a lot of people.Springfield swept its last five games and was 5-0-1 for its last six to put a clamp on fourth place in the Northern Division.The Indians&rsquo; final week produced a 6-5 victory over Providence, a 7-6 conquest of Syracuse, a 7-2 rout of Rochester and a 6-4 triumph in Providence. The two victories over the Reds were the first of the season for Springfield after 10 games without a win.The big outburst brought the Indians to 299 goals, the most a Springfield team scored since the big 1960-61 squad poured in 344 and the second highest in the history of the franchise.As important as the victories themselves for Stewart was the way his skaters accomplished a couple of them. Against Syracuse, the Indians were down 5-2 with 21:08 to play and trailed 6-4 with 15:19 to go. But Springfield outshot Syracuse 26-6 in the final period and goals by Dale Lewis, Pete Harasym and Lome Stamler brought the victory which clinched fourth place.In the season-closing game, the Indians jumped ahead 2-0 in Providence after only six and a half minutes, but found themselves trailing 4-2 with just 9:01 remaining in the game. Then Tom Cassidy, Stamler, Dennis Abgrall and Cassidy again all scored for the triumph.NEW HAVEN: The Nighthawks saved the best for last this season.They scored nine goals in Rochester on the final night of the regular schedule to surpass their previous highest output by two goals. New Haven had hit seven goals four times this season.Individually, it was Richard Nantais who closed with a real flourish. More correctly, he started and closed the final game with a flourish. He scored after only 23 seconds and again at 1:32 of the first period. And he scored at 15:41. 19:07 and 19:16 of the third period for five goals&mdash;a Nighthawk record.Teammate Bob Cook gave away a bonus when he gave Nantais the puck for the goal at 19:07. The Amerks had pulled goalie Dave Reece and the faceoff was in the New Haven end. Cook intercepted a pass and had an open rink in front of him and two teammates beside him as he started up ice. Instead of taking the puck in and scoring into an empty net for his 20th goal (he had 16 for New Haven and three for Forth Worth) and a bonus, he gave it to Nantais for the rookie&rsquo;s fourth goal of the game and 20th of the season.Dave Cressman may be having second thoughts about his future. In an interview in THE HOCKEY NEWS last week, Cressman said he figured Minnesota had no plans for him and that he&rsquo;d be going back to college in the fall instead of playing pro hockey.Well, the North Stars called him up and on his first shift in the National Hockey League, he scored a goal. In the next game, he scored the gamewinning goal against the New York Rangers. &#9632;

f0033-02

Powerful Amerks’ Offense Sets Record; Voyageurs’ Goalers Win Holmes Award

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01215/3665084-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="585" height="174"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02162/3665077-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="584" height="206"></div><h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>Preliminary RoundTue. April 2Syracuse 3 at New Haven 8.(Sudden-death to decide last playoff spot.)<h3>Quarter-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03121/3665070-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="586" height="125"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 2Springfield 4 at Providence 5.Thu. April 3Springfield 5 at Providence 0.Sat. April 5Providence 2 at Springfield 5Sun. April 6Providence 0 at Springfield 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Fri. April 11Springfield at ProvidenceSat. April 12Providence at SprigfieldSun. April 13Springfield at Providence<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0480/3665063-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="586" height="118"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 2Nova Scotia 3 at Rochester 2Frl. April 4Nova Scotia at Rochester (postponed.)Sun. April 6Rochester 5 at Nova Scotia 4<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 9Rochester at Nova ScotiaFri. April 11Nova Scotia at RochesterSun. April 13Rochester at Nova ScotiaWed. April 16Nova Scotia at Rochester<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0555/3665056-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="584" height="122"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 4New Haven 8 at Virginia 4Sun. April 6New Haven 2 at Virginia 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 8Virginia at New HavenThu. April 10Virginia at New HavenSat. April 12New Haven at VirginiaMon. April 14Virginia at New HavenWed. April 16New Haven at Virginia<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0638/3665049-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="587" height="123"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thu. April 3Hershey 3 at Richmond 5Sat. April 5Richmond 3 at Hershey 6Sun. April 6Hershey 5 at Richmond 2<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 9Richmond at HersheyFri. April 11Hershey at RichmondSat. April 12Richmond at HersheyWed. April 12Richmond at HersheyWed. April 16Hershey at Richmond<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0732/3665042-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="613" height="149"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0827/3665035-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="614" height="148"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 1Denver 3 at Fort Worth 4; Omaha 6 at Tulsa 4.Wed. April 2Dallas 1 at Oklahoma City 8; Fort Worth 4 at Denver 7; Seattle 5 at Omaha 5.<h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0917/3665028-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="589" height="127"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 4Omaha 5 at Denver 3Sat. April 5Denver 3 at Omaha 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1016/3665021-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="591" height="126"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Frl. April 4Oklahoma City 3 at Tulsa 1Sat. April 5Tulsa 1 at Oklahoma City 5Semi-FinalsBest-of-seven series<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 9Oklahoma City at DallasThu. April 10Omaha at Salt LakeSat. April 12Omaha at Salt Lake Oklahoma City at Dallas (Only games announced.)<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1117/3665014-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="589" height="210"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1216/3665007-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="587" height="241"></div><h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1311/3665000-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="586" height="122"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 26Port Huron 4 at Muskegon 5Thu. March 27Muskegon 3 at Port Huron 5Sat. March 29Port Huron 5 at Muskegon 7Sun. March 30Muskegon 3 at Port Huron 1Wed. April 2Muskegon 7 at Port Huron 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-148/3664993-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="584" height="122"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 25Des Moines 6 at Dayton 5Wed. March 26Des Moines 1 at Dayton 3Fri. March 28Dayton 4 at Des Moines 2Sat. March 29Dayton 3 at Des Moines 5Tue. April 1Des Moines 2 at Dayton 3Thu. Apris 3Dayton 1 at Des Moines 5Fri. April 4Des Moines 1 at Dayton 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-158/3664986-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="583" height="121"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 26Saginaw 5 at Flint 4Fri. March 28Flint 4 at Saginaw 8Sat. March 29Saginaw 1 at Flint 2Tue. April 1Flint 0 at Saginaw 4Wed. April 2Saginaw 4 at Flint 0<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-168/3664979-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="591" height="127"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 26Toledo 3 at Columbus 1Thu. March 27Columbus 0 at Toledo 7Sat. March 29Toledo 0 at Columbus 7Sun. March 30Columbus 1 at Toledo 4Tue. April 1Toledo 3 at Columbus 2Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-175/3664972-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="587" height="123"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. April 5Saginaw 4 at Muskegon 7Sun. April 6Muskegon 3 at Saginaw 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 8Muskegon at SaginawFri. April 11Saginaw at MuskegonSat. April 12Saginaw at MuskegonTue. April 15Muskegon at SaginawFri. April 18Saginaw at Muskegon<h3>DAYTON vs TOLEDO</h3>(Best-of-seven series)<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 9Toledo at DaytonFri. April 11Toledo at DaytonSat. April 12Dayton at ToledoSun. April 13Dayton at ToledoWed. April 16Toledo vs Dayton (At Troy, O.)Fri. April 18Dayton at ToledoSat. April 19Toledo vs Dayton (At Troy, O.)<h2>NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-184/3664965-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="597" height="262"></div><h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-193/3664958-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="587" height="121"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 25Mphawk Valley 2 at Binghamton 5Thu. March 27Binghamton 3 at Mohawk Valley 5Fri. March 28Mohawk Valley 3 at Binghamton 7Sat. March 29Binghamton 2 at Mohawk Valley 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-204/3664951-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="587" height="124"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 25Long Island 2 at Philadelphia 4Fri. March 28Long Island 3 at Philadelphia 2Wed. April 2Philadelphia 2 at Long Island 5Fri. April 4Philadelphia 4 at Long Island 8<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-213/3664944-1-eng-US/f0034-212.jpg" title="f0034-21" width="587" height="118"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 25Johnstown 3 at Cape Codders 0Thu. March 27Cape Codders 6 at Johnstown 4Sat. March 29Cape Codders 3 at Johnstown 6Mon. March 31Johnstown 4 at Cape Codders 2<h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-223/3664937-1-eng-US/f0034-222.jpg" title="f0034-22" width="583" height="121"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 2Johnstown 3 at Syracuse 4Thu. April 3Syracuse 2 at Johnstown 3Sat. April 5Syracuse 3 at Johnstown 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 9Johnstown at SyracuseFri. April 11Johnstown at SyracuseSat. April 12Syracuse at JohnstownMon. April 14Johnstown at Syracuse<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-232/3664930-1-eng-US/f0034-232.jpg" title="f0034-23" width="582" height="123"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. April 6Binghamton 1 at Long Island 2<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon. April 7Long Island at BinghamtonTue. April 8Long Island at BinghamtonWed. April 9Binghamton at Long IslandFri. April 11Long Island at BinghamtonSat. April 12Binghamton at Long IslandSun. April 13Long Island at Binghamton.<h2>SOUTHERN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-243/3664923-1-eng-US/f0034-242.jpg" title="f0034-24" width="582" height="181"></div><h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-25/3664916-1-eng-US/f0034-252.jpg" title="f0034-25" width="573" height="144"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 18Roanoke 2 at Charlotte 4Wed. March 19Charlotte 5 at Roanoke 3Fri. March 21Roanoke 0 at Charlotte 4Sat. March 22Charlotte 7 at Roanoke 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-262/3664909-1-eng-US/f0034-262.jpg" title="f0034-26" width="580" height="145"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. March 25Winston-Salem 5 at Hampton 4Tue. March 26Hampton 5 at Winston-Salem 2Wed. March 27Winston-Salem 0 at Hampton 4 &#9632;

f0034-01

LOOKING AT THE MINOR LEAGUE SCOREBOARD

NHL: 1&mdash;Montreal. 2&mdash;Detroit. 3&mdash;Boston. 4&mdash;N.Y. Rangers. 5&mdash;Chicago. 6&mdash;Toronto 7&mdash;Los Angeles. 8&mdash;Pittsburgh. 9&mdash;California. 10&mdash;Philadelphia. 11&mdash;Minnesota. 12&mdash;St. Louis. 13&mdash;Vancouver. 14&mdash;Buffalo. 15&mdash;N.Y. Islanders. 16&mdash;Atlanta. 17&mdash;Kansas City 18&mdash;Washington.WHA 19&mdash;Cleveland. 20&mdash;San Diego. 21-Vancouver. 22&mdash;Baltimore. 23&mdash;Toronto. 24&mdash;Quebec. 25&mdash;Edmonton. 26&mdash;Houston. 27&mdash;Chicago. 28&mdash;Winnipeg. 29&mdash;Minnesota. 30&mdash;New England. 31&mdash;Indianapolis. 32&mdash;Phoenix. 33&mdash;Cincinnati.Inter-League: 34&mdash;Phoenix (WHA) & Vancouver (NHL). 37&mdash;Minnesota (NHL) & N.Y. Islanders (NHL). 39&mdash;St. Louis (NHL). Montreal (NHL) & N.Y. Rangers (NHL). 40&mdash;Pittsburgh (NHL) & Buffalo (NHL). 41&mdash;Boston (NHL) & &lsquo;Washington (NHL). 42&mdash;New England (WHA) i Cleveland (WHA). 48&mdash;N.Y. Rangers (NHL)&mdash;Kansas City (NHL). 49&mdash;Chicago (NHL)&mdash;Edmonton (WHA). 50&mdash;Vancouver (NHL). Philadelphia (NHL)&mdash;Atlanta (NHL). 51&mdash;Indianapolis (WHA)&mdash;SC Louis (NHL). 54&mdash;Indianapolis (WHA)&mdash;Toronto (WHA). 55&mdash;Buffalo (NHL). California (NHL)&mdash;Vancouver (WHA). 56&mdash;Winnipeg (WHA), Houston (WHA), Cleveland (WHA), Indianapolis (WHA)&mdash;Phoenix (WHA). 57&mdash;Baltimore (WHA). Quebec (WHA)&mdash;N. Y. Islanders (NHL) 58&mdash;Edmonton (WHA) & N.Y. Rangers (NHL) 59&mdash;Minnesota (WHA) & Pittsburgh (NHL) &#9632;

Minor League Affiliations

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaOMAHA&mdash;John Huber got the hat trick and the thumb, in that order, to lead the Omaha Knights to a 7-2 victory over the Denver Spurs in Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum, Mar. 29. But the scoring rampage came a day too late. Denver had wrapped up second place in the Northern Division by whipping the Knights, 6-2, in the Spurs&rsquo; Coliseum the previous night.Huber, a stocky 175-pound left wing from Calgary in his second year with the Knights, scored late in the first and second periods, then clinched his hat trick at 2:34 of the final period. It was well he got it early, for he didn&rsquo;t stay around much longer. He was given a game misconduct for refusing to break up his fight with Denver&rsquo;s Rene Villemure.The Knights made sure of third place with a 5-2 home triumph over Tulsa, Mar. 27, a long-awaited victory, as it broke a string of six winless appearances in Ak-Sar-Ben since Feb. 26.Huber plays on a line with Mike Conroy at center and Bob Law at right wing. They have been overshadowed all season by the Knights&rsquo; other two lines, both high-scoring combinations. But Huber and his colleagues dominated the Mar. 29 victory, with Law and Conroy both scoring on third-period breakaways. Allie Sutherland scored 22 seconds after Huber in the first period, and Wayne Schaab got his 36th goal in the middle period.Schaab needed only 1:50 to put the Knights in front of Tulsa, and Ken Houston, Law, Pat Ribble and Kerry Ketter turned the game into a rout.Schaab collected six goals and two assists in a productive week, and needed every one of those points to keep a slim advantage in the CHL individual scoring race. He had 83 points to 82 for Seattle&rsquo;s Dan Seguin and 81 for Denver&rsquo;s Howard Heggedal. Sutherland was tied for eighth in the league race with 71 points.The high-scoring two-game set with Denver was a prelude to the quarterfinal playoff series, in which the Knights and Spurs would tangle in a best-of-three set, opening in Denver and closing there if the series went the limit.SEATTLE: Denied a spot in the post-season playoffs. Seattle fans were centering their attention on Danny (Digger) Seguin&rsquo;s bid for the league scoring championship. He had four goals and four assists in a busy week, as the Totems alternately won and lost for a 2-3 record. Danny&rsquo;s 82 points left him one shy of league-leading Wayne Schaab of Omaha, who had two games remaining to Seguin&rsquo;s one.The Totems broke even on a Texas invasion, losing in Dallas and winning in Fort Worth, both by 3-2 scores. But they were blanked for 44 and a half minutes by Ernie Miller in a 2-1 loss at Salt Lake, came home to score a 6-2 win over the same Eagles, then dropped a wild 9-2 decision in a Sunday afternoon tilt at Denver.Seguin and Andy Spruce each scored twice in beating Salt Lake, with Dave Wisener and Bob Hurlburt chipping in singles, as the Totems stung Miller four times in the first period and twice more in the second. Seguin and Wisener gave the Totems a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes at Denver, but the next 50 minutes were pure disaster.SALT LAKE: The Golden Eagles, champions of the Northern Division, ended the regular schedule four days ahead of the rest of the pack, and sat back to see whether Denver or Omaha would emerge as their foe in the semi-finals.Veteran center Lyle Bradley scored his 20th goal in the next-to-last game of the schedule. It proved the winner in a 2-1 home victory over Seattle. The Eagles had lost at home to Omaha, 5-2. and triumphed at home against Dallas. 4-2, earlier in the week. Following the narrow victory over the Totems, they moved to Seattle and dropped a 6-2 game as the curtain fell on the 78-game regular season.Bradley became the Eagles&rsquo; eighth 20-goal scorer. Denis Meloche wound up with 36, Bob Murdoch 33, Bob McAneeley and Del Hall 32, Fred Ahem and Gary Holt 26. and Scott Seagrist 22. With that firepower, it was small wonder the Eagles tied the CHL goal-scoring mark of 317. set by Dallas in 72 games in 1971-72.A crowd of 9.500 for the home finale gave Salt Lake an average of 7,000 for the last half of the season, which included only one Saturday and five Fridays. They averaged over 6,000 for the season.Ray Martyniuk rewrote the Eagles&rsquo; record book for goalies, notching 32 victories for a career average of 3.12. His 2.96 mark led the league this season. All told, the Eagles&rsquo; first CHL entry broke or tied 42 franchise records. The club finished with a creditable 1517-7 road record, which keyed their success. They were 28-7-4 at home. Defenseman Glenn Patrick was called up by the parent California Seals in an emergency, but was expected back for the playoff semis.DENVER: The Spurs&rsquo; guns warmed up for the playoff targets with a rousing 9-2 romp over Seattle Easter Sunday afternoon in Denver Coliseum. They had made sure of second place in the North by whipping Omaha, 6-2, on Good Friday, before trekking to Omaha for a 7-2 licking Saturday night.Down by two goals after 10 minutes, the Spurs tied the Sunday game on tallies by Bob McNab and Wes Wiseman before the period ended. Gary Winchester, Ken Richardson. McCord again, and Howie Heggedal made it 6-2 in the second, and third-period goals by Norm Cournoyer, Dave Johnson, and Heggedal again completed the rout.Heggedal had two goals and four assists for the week, but dropped from a first-place tie to third in the hectic CHL scoring race, with 81 points. Mitch Babin was sixth with 73.The Spurs were faced with the loss of their regular rink for part of the playoffs, opening with a best-of-three series against Omaha. The Friday game would be in Denver Coliseum, but the third game, if necessary, would be played in Denver U.Auditorium.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01204/3665139-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="542" height="537"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN HUBER&hellip;Overshadowed Winger</figcaption></div>DALLAS: Jim Koleff, Black Hawks rookie center from Hamilton, Ont., was the busiest scorer in the CHL for the last week of March, notching five goals and six assists, including the hat trick (his second of the season) in a 8-5 home victory over rival Fort Worth. The Hawks dropped a 5-2 game in Fort Worth the next night, but won the Texas Turnpike series, 7-5-2.Dan Hinton scored twice in the victory over Forth Worth, with Duane Wylie. Bill Orban and Dave Logan also lighting the red lamp. The next night Wylie&rsquo;s shorthanded goal midway of the second period gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead, but it was short-lived. The home victory was the Hawks&rsquo; 28th, breaking a club record.Defenseman Roger Wilson, coming back from a broken foot, was to play in the regular season finale, and center Dave Elliott was expected back for the playoff semifinals. Amateurs Bret Callighen (center-defenseman) and Glen Ing (winger) were brought up for trials after their season ended at Kalamazoo in the International League. Coach Bobby Kromm tried them as a penalty-killing tandem and said, &ldquo;They did a good job.&rdquo;FORT WORTH: On the brink of elimination from the playoff picture, the Texans of coach Ed Chadwick refused to fold, and came up with a pair of big wins, 5-2 at home against Dallas and 5-1 in Oklahoma City. But they still had to sweep their last two games with Denver. and hope for a Tulsa loss, to gain third place in the Southern Division.The Texans had only 12 shots on the net at Oke City, but made the most of them. They had only two shots in the first period, but scored on both, with Neil Nicholson counting a shorthanded goal, and Brad Anderson also tallying. Ron Kennedy added two more, and Brian Marchinko ended the scoring.OKLAHOMA CITY: Blazer manager-coach Ray Miron didn&rsquo;t have much to laugh about as his club suffered three straight losses, two at home, and scored only once in each contest, while the defense resembled a sieve.But Ray had to laugh in Tulsa, Mar. 29. when he took advantage of confused referee Malcolm Ashford by twice putting more men on the ice than the penalty situation permitted. One such trick eventually gave OC a two-man advantage. when they were supposed to be shorthanded! They had an unpredictable one-man advantage late in the second period when Doug Buhr scored the only OC goal in a 6-1 setback.It was also cheering to Miron that the Mar. 28 game at home against the Oilers brought out 8.675 fans&mdash;the largest hockey crowd in the Myriad&rsquo;s two years, and the best turnout in OC in six years. But the Oilers took that game, too. 4-1, with Steve Dolloff scoring the lone Blazer goal on a first-period power Play.There was absolutely nothing pleasant. however, in a 5-1 loss at home to Fort Worth. &ldquo;Our boys played well, better than in either game against Tulsa,&rdquo; Miron pointed out. &ldquo;We outshot Fort Worth, 39-12, but lost the game. Pierre Hamel had only seven stops for the whole game. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve ever seen a game where the goalie had only seven saves.&rdquo; Jack Valiquette spoiled the shutout at 11:23 of the middle period.TULSA: Two decisive shellackings of archrival Oklahoma City came close to putting the Oilers in the playoffs, but they dropped a 5-2 game in Omaha. That left them needing a victory in the season finale, also with Omaha, but at home this time, to wrap up third place.Stung for five goals in 49 minutes at Omaha, goalie Peter Donnelly was brilliant the next two nights, limiting the Blazers to a single goal each night. He was robbed of his shutout in the home victory when the Oilers had to play shorthanded, through the referee&rsquo;s confusion, when they should have been at even strength.Rookie Garry Lariviere collected his 52nd point to break the club scoring record for defensemen. Gordie Nelson had set the old mark of 51 in 1969-70. Lariviere already owned the goalscoring record for Tulsa blueliners. He had 14, breaking the mark of 11 by Brian Bowles (now at Oklahoma City) in 1972-73.Gene Sobchuk scored his 35th goal, Mar. 29. With 63 points, he and Don Liesemer shared the club scoring lead, going into the final game of the schedule. &#9632;

f0035-01

Knights’ Huber Gets Hat Trick. Then Thumb

<div class="byline">BY MORLEY HOWE</div>WATERLOO&mdash;Waterloo Black Hawks of the Southern Division will face Thunder Bay Twins of the Northern Division in the United States Hockey Leauge finals. The best-of-five series opened at Waterloo, Iowa.The five weekend semi-final games produced some of the best hockey seen in years as witnessed by record crowds (16,639&mdash;five games).In the final game to decide the Southern Division championship, a goal by Waterloo forward Joe Nathy at 15:58 of the third period broke a 7-7 tie and gave the Black Hawks the title. The gamely Sioux City club fought back after trailing 7-4 in the second period, with three third period markers.Nathy, veteran Jim Smith and Jim Gospodar fired two goals each for the winners, while Alex Shibicky led the Musketeers with a pair.Black Hawks had fought back to tie the series the previous night as forward John Lesyshen scored twice including the winner late in the third period before 4.394 partisan fans. Just prior to Lesyshen&rsquo;s winning tally, a fracas in the stands had halted the contest for 55 minutes. At Sioux City, the Musketeers had taken the series opener, winning 7-6 with rookie Shibicky firing three goals.In Northern Division playoff action. the Thunder Bay Twins captured their third consecutive title by scoring 6-2 and 6-3 victories over the first place Green Bay Bobcats.Twins won the opener of the best-of-three series at home with winger Russ Elliot scoring twice. The following evening at Green Bay, before 4,251 Bobcat fans, the winners scored their eighth straight playoff victory, aided by two-goal performances from forward Chuck Kelner and defenseman Murray Wing.The USHL final between Waterloo (30-15-3) and Thunder Bay (36-10-2) gives the Black Hawks an opportunity for revenge as they were defeated in the 1973-74 championship by the same Twins. In six league contests between the two clubs this season, both teams were undefeated at home.<h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01182/3665184-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="520" height="123"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Fri. March 28Waterloo 6, Sioux City 7.Sat. March 29Sioux City 4, Waterloo 6Sun. March 30Sioux City 7. Waterloo 8.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02134/3665177-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="520" height="150"></div><h3>FINALS</h3>Thunder Bay vs Waterloo (Best-of-five series)Sat. April 5 at WaterlooSun. April 6 at WaterlooFri. April 11 at Thunder BaySat. April 12 at Thunder BaySun. April 13 at Thunder Bay<h2>PLAYOFF SCORING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0467/3665170-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="544" height="294"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

Around The USHL

<h2>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03101/3665215-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="610" height="324"></div> &#9632;

f0036-03

CHL Leaders

<div class="byline">BY LEN HOYES</div>For the finest in Hockey Magazine subscribe today to the Hockey Twins: HOCKEY WORLD & HOCKEY PICTORIALFor the same price as a ticket to ONE GAME you can read over 1600 PAGES of outstanding news about Hockey by subscribing today to THE HOCKEY NEWSMUSKEGON&mdash;Muskegon and Dayton, whose regular-season performances merited the favorites&rsquo; roles to meet in the finals, are behaving according to form in the International Hockey League playoffs.But Flint and figured to reach the division finals, were having problems and were in danger of bowing out in the quarterfinals. Muskegon isn&rsquo;t noted as a successful playoff team. General manager-coach Moose Lallo&rsquo;s club has won the Huber Trophy&mdash;as the over-all point champion&mdash;a record seven times. But it has won the Turner Cup only twice and has been on the outside looking in since 1968.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01168/3665253-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="262" height="443"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Grierson</figcaption></div>However, this time it appears Lallo has the Mohawks honed to a keen edge. They finished the regular season with a 19-4-1 record for the last 24 starts. Including two playoff victories over Port Huron, they had a 17-0-2 record for the last 19 appearances at L.C. Walker Arena.It&rsquo;s significant that the Mohawks played 10 of those games without veteran centerman Gary Ford, who would have walked away with his fourth individual scoring title except for a knee injury. Ford returned for the third game of the playoffs but wasn&rsquo;t the Gary Ford of a month earlier.The Mohawks didn&rsquo;t need him as they built a 3-1 edge over Port Huron. The Flags, a playoff nemesis for Muskegon, were picked by a lot of &ldquo;experts&rdquo; to outmuscle the Mohawks but coach Bobby McCammon lost Gord Redden, captain Larry Klewchuk and Bob Craig with injuries and Tom Peluso via an appendectomy.South Division champion Dayton was limited to a 2-2 tie by Des Moines through their first four quarter-final games but the Gems appeared to be on the right track again after being stunned by 6-5 in the series opener.Coach Tommy McVie&rsquo;s club entered the fifth game with an 11-3 record for the latest 14 games and appeared to be a worthy foe in the finals.But the Mohawks and Gems were certain to encounter problems in the semi-finals, probably from Saginaw and Toledo, respectively.Saginaw was only third in the North Division and Toledo third in the South but the Gears took a 2-1 lead over Flint and the Goaldiggers had a 3-1 edge over Columbus in their best-of-seven quarter-finals.The high-scoring Gears marched into Flint for the series opener and nailed down a 5-4 triumph in overtime. An 8-4 victory followed, then they limited the Generals to a 2-1 triumph in Flint.It appeared that coach Don Perry had too much over-all strength and rated a good chance of reaching the finals for a second straight year.Toledo followed its first victory with a 7-0 shutout, dropped a 3-0 decision in the third game and followed with a 4-1 triumph in Game No. 4. The IHL&rsquo;s &ldquo;wise money&rdquo; suspected that coach Ted Garvin&rsquo;s concern about a late-season slump was a smokescreen to prime his club for the playoffs.Garvin-coached clubs traditionally peak at playoff time and prospects for a berth in the finals&mdash;perhaps even the championship&mdash;appeared fair.If the Goaldiggers&mdash;an expansion club&mdash;could pull off that coup, Garvin might merit a new chance to coach in better competition.Meanwhile. Rick Bragnalo. the first Dayton player to win the individual scoring title since 1970. has been named International Hockey League rookie-of-the-year for 1974-75.The 23-year-old former player from Denver University outpointed Columbus&rsquo; Mike Powers and Flint&rsquo;s Bob Volpe in voting by the media covering the 10 IHL cities. He replaces Frank DeMarco of Des Moines as winner of the Garry F. Longman Memorial Trophy.Bragnalo scored 41 goals and 72 assists for 113 points and set a Dayton record for rookies.The last Dayton player to win&rsquo; the individual scoring crown was Don Westbrooke. 1968-69 and 1969-70. West-brook now plays for Toledo.Bragnalo is the first Dayton player to win the Longman Trophy outright. Herb Howdle, who was traded to Fort Wayne this season, shared the 1970-71 honor with Corky Agar of Flint.It&rsquo;s an axiom among professional golfers that you drive for show and putt for dough. In the International Hockey League you win at home for dough and win on the road for position.Except for the Des Moines Capitols, the 10 teams finished in the over-all standings according to their success on the road.The Muskegon Mohawks, who won the Huber Trophy with 99 points, were the only club to finish with a winning record (20-16-1) on the road South Division champ Dayton had an. 18-18-1 record. Then came Flint 16-18-3. Saginaw 15-20-2. Columbus 15-21-2. Des Moines 13-19-6, Port Huron 15-22-1, Toledo 14-22-2. Fort Wayne 10-26-2 and Kalamazoo 5-30-2.FLINT: Bob Volpe. Merlin Jenner received Norris Trophy as IHL&rsquo;s best goaltending tandem&hellip;Kirk Bowman scored winning goal in 2-1 victory over Saginaw. Generals&rsquo; first success in last five home playoff games&hellip;Crowd of 4,293 for third game broke club&rsquo;s playoff record.COLUMBUS: Mike Powers first player in Columbus history to score 100 points in regular season&hellip;Brian Coughlin set club mark of 297 PIM&hellip;Goalie Bill Yeo&rsquo;s four shutouts equalled club record and Owls&rsquo; 15 road victories also set record.PORT HURON: Brad Winton reactivated when injuries sidelined three regulars, scored goal and assist in 5-3 playoff triumph over Muskegon&hellip;Don Grierson scored two goals against former teammates&hellip;Doug Acomb scored goal and six assists in first three playoff games.DES MOINES: Jim Cowell&rsquo;s goal clinched 6-5 triumph in playoff opener at Dayton, giving him 19 goals since Jan. 24&hellip;Goalie Dave McLelland bagged first shutout of season in 3-0 decision over Columbus in regular-season finale&hellip;Pat Russell voted MVPby fans, Jerome Mrazek by players.KALAMAZOO: Final check showed Wings used 54 men in at least one game during expansion year&hellip;Brett Callighen. Glen Ing called to Dallas (CHL) to finish season&hellip;Coach Bob Lemieux banking on more help from Detroit, return of Terry Ryan from Muskegon to bolster 1975-76 hopes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02129/3665246-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="548" height="596"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL YEO&hellip;Ties Shutout Record</figcaption></div>FORT WAYNE: Bob Rivard being counted on as nucleus of 1975-76 club as coach Ralph Keller began hunt for bigger men&hellip;Injured goalie Robbie Irons coached Komets in two games as Keller sat out suspension&hellip;chib&rsquo;s review of second straight cellar finish promised major overhaul before Oct. 6 start of training camp&hellip;Komets finished with 25-37-4 record under Keller after he succeeded Ted Wright who had 1-7-2 start. &#9632;

f0037-01

Mohawks, Gems Up To Expectations; Road Record Key In Final Standings

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECLIFF</div>HAMILTON&mdash;One thing is certain in the Ontario Hockey Association Major Junior A League.There will be a new champion when the time comes for a representative to go to Kitchener tor the round-robin Memorial Cup playoffs against the winners of the Western Canada and Quebec Leagues. Hamilton Fincups, easily the most improved team in the league this season, made sure there would be a different winner by eliminating the defending champion St. Catharines Black Hawks in four straight games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01196/3665284-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="260" height="384"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale McCourt</figcaption></div>And while the Hawks were not by far the most physical club in the leacups immediately stamped themselves as genuine contenders for the title&mdash;simply because they won with so much ease.The Hamilton team, which had been dead last in 1973-74 with only 37 points, moved up to third with 87 points and are by far the most physical club in the league.They pounded the Hawks 10-1 in the opener, followed up with an 8-2 win right in St. Catharines, took the third by a fairly close 3-1 margin at the Forum, then wrapped it up 7-3 back at Garden City Arena.Captain Dale McCourt and Rick Seiling were the top Hamilton marksmen in the first round with six goals each while Gary McAdam, who had difficulty putting the puck in the net during the regular schedule, accounted for four of the seven Hawk goals.St. Catharines&rsquo; leading points scorer Dave Salvian played in only one game because of a broken collarbone while their No. 2 man Greg Craig was handicapped with a broken nose and failed to earn a point.However the Fincups were definitely the superior club and even fine goaltending by Bill Cheropita failed to stem the tide.The series was rough, as expected, and fighting twice spread into the crowd.In Hamilton a fan attacked Hawk coach Paul Emms while in the next game in St. Catharines Cheropita swung his stick at a Hamilton spectator.The Fincups now meet Peterborough Petes, who finished second and eliminated Oshawa Generals six points to two, winning three games and tying another pair.The key game in the Oshawa-Peterborough series was the first, won 6-4 by the Petes in Oshawa. It was the initial win this season by Peterborough in Oshawa and Stan Jonathan, Doug Jarvis, Paul Evans, Mike Fryia. Red Laurence and Pete Scamurra provided the scoring.Brian Drumm, Pete Vandemark, Greg Malone and Bud Stefanski replied for the Generals.The Petes wrapped it up with a 5-2 victory as Mike Fryia scored three goals, bringing his total to six for the round.Ottawa 67s were beaten the first three straight games by the solid Sudbury Wolves, then staved off elimination by beating the Wolves 6-4, then edging them 5-4 hours later.Rookie Norm Kajola scored the game-winner in the fifth game with less than nine minutes left after Peter Lee had counted a trio for the 67s earlier.Geoff Green had a pair for Sudbury in the 5-4 defeat and Rod Schutt two in the 6-4 setback, in which Warren Holmes scored three for Ottawa.By far the biggest surprise in the playoffs for date has been the ability of the Kingston Canadians to contain the powerful Toronto Marlboros.The Canadians just sneaked into the final eighth playoff position the last day of the schedule thanks to a 7-3 win by Kitchener over London which eliminated the Knights.However under coach Punch Scherer, who added those duties to his role of general manager after firing coach Jack Bownass with only four games left in the schedule, the Canadians have done remarkably well.Undoubtedly they have been helped by the office Toronto problems which include John Tonelli walking out before the first game (won 5-1 by the Marlies) then John Anderson refusing to play in the second.Both claimed they would jeopardize their chances of breaking their junior contracts if they played after their 18th birthday.Tonelli has signed a conditional contract with Toronto Toros and anderson is said to be ready to go to Houston even though both agreed to play out their full junior career (two more seasons) with the Marlboros.Anderson returned after missing one game but Tonelli, when this was written. was still among the absentees and Marlboros&rsquo; manager Frank Bonello claimed he&rsquo;d take th contract to court as a test case.Both Tonelli&rsquo;s and Anderson&rsquo;s contracts were co-signed by their parents because they were under 18 years of age.With all the trouble, the Canadians thrilled 4,072 home fans by bouncing the Marlies 9-4 on home ice. Brad Rhiness scored twice and had three assists.Everything seemed to be back to normal when Toronto trounced Kingston 9-1 in Maple Leaf Gardens, scoring five times in the second period. Craig Crawford scored three goals, Anderson two.Two days later the Canadians were back at their upsetting ways again, holding the marlies to a 6-6 tie right in Brantford, which has been used as parttime home ice by Toronto.This meant that the Canadians could eliminate first, place Toronto by winning only their home games.However with all but Tonelli back, Kingston will still have a difficult chore.Meanwhile back in St. Catharines, owner Hap Emms said he&rsquo;d stay one more season but would either sell the team or move it if attendance didn&rsquo;t improve.The Hawks averaged only about 1.400 a game this season.They have the oldest continuous franchise in St. Catharines, dating back to 1943 when Rudy Pilous and a group of businessmen organized the first team.OHA MAJOR HOCKEY LEAGUE &#9632;

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Fincups Easily Oust Defending Champs; Canadians Biggest Surprise Of Playoffs

<h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>Quarter-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02148/3665336-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="601" height="420"></div><h2>WESTERN CANADA LEAGUE</h2><h3>Quarter-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03109/3665329-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="607" height="135"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0471/3665322-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="607" height="297"></div><h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>Quarter-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0550/3665315-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="616" height="372"></div> &#9632;

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Looking At The Races

<div class="byline">BY DEREK KNIGHT</div>Follow All The Action Every Week By Subscribing Today To THE HOCKEY NEWSSuperb Hockey Reading Each Month HOCKEY WORLD & HOCKEY PICTORIALLONG ISLAND&mdash;The dark horse Long Island Cougars pulled the major upset of the 197475 North American Hockey League playoffs by eliminating the heavily-favored Philadelphia Firebirds in their quarter-final series.The lowly Cougars. who just inched their way into the final playoff spot ahead of the Maine Nordiques. bounced the Firebirds 3-1 in a best-of-five series winning the deciding game with a convincing 8-4 romp over Philadelphia on Long Island ice. The victory sent the Cougars into the semi-finals against the Binghampton Dusters.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01179/3665374-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="259" height="408"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pete Mara</figcaption></div>Most people expected Cape Codders and Mohawk Valley would have lasted longer than they did in the NAHL playoffs. Plenty of veterans were around to insure their playoff continuance. however, such was not the case. Both were eliminated in the first round as they encountered stronger teams, who took full advantage of home ice.The Mohawk Valley Comets bowed to Binghamton 3-1 in their best-of-five quarter-final series while the Codders went down by the same route in their playoff with Johnstown Jets.The Jets drew the champion Syracuse Blazers in the second round and were showing unexpected form winning two of the first three games of the best-of-seven series.MOHAWK VALLEY: The Comets lost out to Binghamton but things might have been different had Jeff Jacques and Lou Nistico not been up with the parent Toronto Toros. Mohawk Valley played a good portion of the year without their services. Although the saying is &lsquo;&lsquo;wait till next year&rdquo;, the Comets and their fans can be proud. On the ice and off this team did quite a turnabout from last year&rsquo;s team that finished last. The future looks brighter now in Mohawk Valley than it has in recent years.CAPE COD: Codders were losers with Johnstown, dropping the opener in Cape Cod but defeated Johnstown in the Jets&rsquo; building for their only win of the series. The league&rsquo;s final official statistics for the regular season were released. showing left winger John Cunniff with 46 goals (14 on the power play and three in shorthanded situations) and 44 assists for 90 points. Bob Charlebois was second in scoring, with 81 points. Mike Penasse went over the 200 minute mark in penalties finishing with 205. Robbie Neale&rsquo;s four hat tricks was a club high while the memory of Denis Lemieux&rsquo;s five-goal game lingers on as one of the Codders&rsquo; highlights of the 1974-75 campaign that ended early.BINGHAMTON: At home, the Dusters can do little wrong if any. Crowds continue to jam the Dusters&rsquo; top notch playing facility. This club saw its first playoff action ever, but the pressure, although there, never did appear to rattle coach Wayne Clairmont and his club. While everyone will have to make their contribution, there are a couple of keys necessary if the Dusters are to reach championship status. Fireplug Rod Bloomfield is a major factor. If he and goaltenders Dick Lemay and Roger Kosar are red hot, this club will be tough. If &lsquo;Hot Rod&rsquo;&rsquo; is cool or cold in a series then the balanced Dusters&rsquo; attack will really have to pick up for him if Binghamton is to win. Dusters have been winners with team effort all year.SYRACUSE: Blazers had the bye in the opening round of the NAHL playoffs as a result of their regular season first place finish. The time off gave players like Darryl Knowles and Brian Bye a bit more time for previous ailments to heal. It also gave some of the veteran skaters a much needed rest. All Stars like Reg Krezanski and Gary Sittler have seen an awful lot of ice time this year. After a week or so layoff the club beat Johnstown 4-3 in game one of their best-of-seven semi-final series. Lee Inglis notched the winner. With the rival AHL Eagles out of the playoffs, the Blazers once again became the only game in town.LONG ISLAND: Goaler Chris Grigg emerged as a playoff hero for the Cougars. After sitting out game one in Philadelphia, Grizz was given the nod by coach Ron Racette to start game two. Not only did he win game two but games three and four as well. The Chicago Cougars sent defenseman Keith Kokkola and centers Brian Coates and Peter Mara to their development club after missing the WHA playoffs. In Mara&rsquo;s first game, he was chosen first star. The play of Cougars&rsquo; forwards Ken Ireland, Howie Colborne. and George Swar-brick have helped to make up for the loss of center Dave Walter. Club has also lost fiery Bob Falconer after he suffered a broken collarbone in Philadelphia. The key to Cougars&rsquo; early playoff success was their fine all-around positional play.PHILADELPHIA: Firebirds for most part leaned on rookie Rejean Lemelin in the playoffs but the team letdown against Long Island and bowed out unexpectedly. Club missed injured Rychard Campeau in their 3-2 home ice loss, a key game in the series. Campeau, a second team All Star is their best defensive puck carrier. A NAHL playoff record crowd of 7,219 attended Firebirds game two in Philadelphia. Rookie Willi Friesen enjoyed a 25-goal season. Despite injuries which limited him to only 54 games, Tom Young still banged home 30 goals. Defenseman, Ray Schultz has not been dressing for the playoff games versus Long Island although he has been on hand.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02131/3665367-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="550" height="571"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN CUNNIFF</figcaption></div>JOHNSTOWN: Another dark horse, Jets passed playoff test with flying colors in series win over Cape Cod. You must have the goaltending and in Ron Docken and Lou Levasseur, the Jets centainly do. One of the best Jet breaks came after their last playoff win versus Cape Cod. Commissioner Bob Dextraze reversed an earlier decision after listening to a Johnstown management appeal, and allowed Jets to reactivate center Steve Carlson. Dextraze ruled that Carlson was not going to play anymore this year for Carlson&rsquo;s abuse of a game official in a recent game. Jet fans were happy to see Steve back in action.MAINE: Statistics prove the kind of season captain Paul Larose had. The quick right winger had 54 goals and 49 assists for 103 points. His 16 powerplay goals ranked second in league to Bloomfield&rsquo;s 18. It&rsquo;s too bad for Nordiques that Tom Pinder wasn&rsquo;t there all season. In 54 games, Pinder came up with 57points on 21 goals and 36 assists. &#9632;

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Dusters, Jets Win NAHL Playoffs; ‘Dark Horse’ Cougars Unset Philly

ALBANY&mdash;The North American Hockey League will have at least one new member for the 1975-76 season, according to league commissioner Bob Dextraze, who announced that the Buffalo area has been granted an expansion franchise for next season. The principals identified were local Buffalo doctors, Dudley Turecki and Syde Taheri, who were referred to by a Buffalo spokesman as &lsquo;&lsquo;the heads of a group of investors.&rdquo;The new team (as yet unnamed) has plans to play in a new Arena presently under construction in North Tonawanda, a suburb of Buffalo. That facility, upon completion, will seat 6,500 spectators for hockey. If the building is not ready in time to open the 1975-76 campaign, then the Buffalo club will play in a 3,200 seat facility located on the same site as the above mentioned new facility. The Tonawanda Sports Center is the name of the complex and when complete, this 20 acre site will include three ice facilities along with the second largest indoor tennis complex in the United Sates.Commissioner Dextraze was glad to welcome the new franchise aboard noting, &lsquo;&lsquo;The league feels it has taken another positive step in its development. Buffalo will be our ninth league member and who knows, we may be adding a tenth in the very near future.Dextraze concluded his announcement on the new franchise by saying that a NAHL press conference will be held in Buffalo in the near future to &ldquo;introduce our league and our newest franchise member to the local news media.&rdquo; &#9632;

Buffalo Area Granted NAHLs 9th Franchise For Next Season

<div class="byline">BY RALPH BRIDGLAND</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Montreal Juniors dominated the final All Star balloting of the Quebec Major Junior League.Center Jean-Luc Phaneuf and left winger Normand Dupont were selected to the first All Star team while defenseman Rober Picard and right winger Pierre Mondou were chosen to the second squad. Dupont and Phaneuf finished one-two in the final point standings and Dupont was also the league&rsquo;s premier goal scorer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01118/3665519-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="269" height="469"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Vien</figcaption></div>Sherbrooke, the club to rack up the most points of any club in the QMJHL, placed four members on the All Star teams.Defenseman Richard Mulhern made the first team while center Syd Veysey, left winger Claude Larose and coach Ghislain Delage were placed on the second squad.Rounding out the first team were goaltender Mario Vien of Cornwall, defenseman Francois Vachon of Trois-Rivieres, Michel Bossy the Laval Nationals&rsquo; star right winger and Cornwall Royals&rsquo; coach and general manager Orval Tessier.Remaining personel on the second team are Trois-Rivieres Draveurs&rsquo; netminder Normand Lapointe and defenseman Donald Lemieux of Quebec.Denis Pomerleau of the Hull Festivals was chosen rookie of the year, Phaneuf of Montreal the most gentlemanly player and Royals&rsquo; puckstopper Vien as the league&rsquo;s most valuable performer.In playoff action, Cornwall bowed out to Montreal in four straight games in their quarter final series.Montreal had edged out the Royals for second spot in the Western Division on the last weekend of the regular schedule to gain the home-ice advantage which was expected to be the determining factor in the series.But the Montreal club racked up wins of 7-5 and 4-3 at the Forum and 3-2 and 4-1 in Cornwall to wrap up the series.Defenseman Blair Mackasey led the winners point-wise with a goal and six assists while Mondou paced the goalgetting with four markers.A total of 331 minutes in penalties were handed out during the four games with Montreal collecting 191.Perhaps the most encouraging sign of the series was not on the ice but in the stands.A total of 15,652 persons passed through the tumstiles to see the two clubs do battle with the Montreal Forum accomodating 11,101 of them.Upsets appear to be in the making in two of the remaining three series.Laval leads Trois-Rivieres three games to two and Chicoutimi leads Quebec by the same count.Laval opened with a 6-4 win in Trois-Rivieres and appeared to be on their way to creating a major upset.The following contest in Laval saw the Nationals continue their surprising play until 19:55 of the final period. Leading 2-1 up until that point, the Nationals appeared set to take a two-game lead. But the Draveurs&rsquo; Dave Miglia tied the score with only five seconds remaining in regulation time and Rick Nelson followed at 1:47 of the first overtime session to give the pre-series favorites a 3-2 win.The disheartening setback seemed to effect the Nationals back in Trois-Rivieres for the third encounter as the Draveurs rolled to an easy 6-0 win, outshooting their opposition 40-22, and taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven set.The Nationals didn&rsquo;t stay disheartened too long though as they came back with consecutive 7-4 victories to take a commanding 3-2 lead in the quarterfinal series and have what could be the sixth and final game at home.Sherbrooke ousted Hull in four straight games to send the Beavers into the next round.The Festivals were obviously outclassed as they were outscored 26-12 and only stayed close in one contest, a 6-5 second game home-ice loss.Other scores were 7-2, 4-1 and 9-4 as Hull coach Lally Lalonde&rsquo;s hopes of an upset never came close to being fulfilled.Sherbrooke will go on to face the winner of the Chicoutimi-Quebec series which is leaning in the favor of the upstart Sagueneens.Chicoutimi holds a three game to two edge, after having dropped two of the first trip of contests, with the sixth and possibly deciding game scheduled for Chicoutimi.Three of the four series were marred by fighting and bench clearing which has resulted in several suspensions and fines being handed down by QMJHL president Raymond Lagace.Serge Cote and Richard Groulx of Chicoutimi were suspended indefinitely for their conduct in the second game of the Sagueneens-Remparts series. Quebec&rsquo;s Florent Fortier was handed a one-game suspension for his behavior in the same contest.Chicoutimi coach Yvan Gingras was fined $500 for failing to comply with a league directive sent out prior to the playoffs regarding fighting and brawling.Trois-Rivieres Draveurs&rsquo; coach Michel Bergeron was fined $500 and an additional $250 for failing to control his players in the second game of the Nationals-Draveurs encounter.Quebec, Laval, 1 rois-Rivieres, Chicoutimi. Montreal and Cornwall were all ordered to post $1,000 good conduct bonds for the remainder of their series.Montreal and Cornwall had become involved in two bench-clearing brawls in the opening game of their series.If the playoff season to this point is any indication of what&rsquo;s to come, there won&rsquo;t be a dull moment on or off the ice in the QMJHL playoffs.Quebec Major Hockey League<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2>WESTERN CANADA LEAGUE(Final Standings)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0281/3665512-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="604" height="210"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0353/3665505-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="589" height="201"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0438/3665498-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="601" height="579"></div> &#9632;

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Montreal Dominates All Star Selections

MONTREAL&mdash;Bernie Parent of Philadelphia Flyers has become the first National Hockey League goaltender in 15 years to win the Vezina Trophy in two straight seasons.The 30-year-old native of Montreal, who shared the award last season with Tony Esposito of Chicago in the first tie of the Vezina Trophy&rsquo;s history, played superbly in the second half of this season to overtake the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; duo of Rogie Vachon and Gary Edwards, the mid-season leaders. Parent. who led the league in shutouts with 12, completed the regular schedule with a fine 2.03 average on 137 goals-against during 4.041 minutes played. The Flyers&rsquo; team total was 181 goals against in 80 games and 13 shutouts&mdash;Wayne Stephenson, who played in 12 games, recorded the other shutout.Jacques Plante of Montreal Canadiens was the last netminder to win the Vezina two straight seasons and actually, from 1955-56 through I959-60. his name went on the trophy, the five straight seasons being a record.Parent, who was instrumental in leading Flyers to the Patrick Division title and the Clarence Campbell Bowl as the team with the most points in that Conference, receives $ 1,500 from the NHL as Vezina Trophy winner plus another $250 as second-half leader. Vachon and Edwards, who combined for a sparkling 2.31 average, receive $750 as over-all runners-up plus $250 as first-half leaders. The Kings were second in shutouts with nine, six by Vachon. They had 185 goals-against, only four more than Philadelphia.Meanwhile, in the Art Ross Trophy competition. Boston Bruin defenseman Bobby Orr spoiled teammate Phil Esposito&rsquo;s bid for a record fifth straight scoring championship by winning his second title. Orr. the only defenseman in NHL history to lead the league in points, completed the 80 games with 46 goals and a league-lending 89 assists for 135 points, his second-highest total. He won the Art Ross Trophy in 1969-70 with 120 points. His goal total was a record for a defenseman. Either Orr or Esposito have won the award for six straight seasons, the first time a team has done that. Gordie Howe, with four straight championships after Ted Lindsay had won in 1949-50. had given Detroit Red Wings the trophy five straight seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01120/3665557-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="C0004-01" width="564" height="1354"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY ORR&hellip;Nudged Espo</figcaption></div>However, this is the first time in six seasons that neither Orr nor Esposito led in at least one-half of a season. The second-half leader in points was Detroit center Marcel Dionne with 66. followed by Pete Mahovlich of Montreal with 63. Orr and Bobby Clarke of Philadelphia each had 60 points. Esposito, who had 127 points over-all&mdash;his lowest total in five seasons&mdash;led the league in goals for a sixth straight season with 61. In the second half. Esposito was far down the list with 46 points, including 20 goals.For the championship, Orr receives $2,000 plus $250 as runner-up to Esposito in the first half. Esposito collects $1,000 as over-all runner-up plus $500 as first-half leader, giving him $12,750 in the last eight seasons in Ross Trophy award money. Dionne receives $500 as second-half leader and Mahovlich $250 as runner-up.Seven players finished the season with at least 100 points, the most to reach that figure in league history. Behind Esposito was Dionne with 121; Guy Lafleur of Montreal with 119. including 53 goals which is a record for a right winger; Mahovlich with 117; Clarke with 116; and Rene Robert of Buffalo Sabres with 100 points.Two other players besides Esposito and Lafleur reached the 50-goal milestone. Rick Martin of Buffalo had 52. matching his total of last season. Danny Grant of Detroit scored 50 times, giving the Red Wings a player at that level for three straight seasons. Mickey Redmond had 52 in 1972-73 and 51 last season. Twelve players in NHL history now have recorded totals of at least 50 goals in a season 22 times. The record is 76 by Esposito in 1970-71.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-0283/3665550-1-eng-US/c0004-022.jpg" title="C0004-02" width="1175" height="1538"><figcaption class="caption-body">BERNIE PARENT&hellip;Fewest Goals, Most Shutouts</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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April 18, 1975

WHA Leaders

Golden Age Of Scouts’ Hockey Shortlived

Cents, Kings, Bombers Miss Playoffs; Cougars’ Bridgman WCHL Scoring Champ

Checkers, Gulls Square Off In Showdown Series