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.

January 30, 1976

The Hockey News January 30, 1976

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01881/3554458-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran center Ralph Backstrom was one of the 20 or more WHA players caught up in the disbandment of the Denver-Ottawa franchise this past week. Backstrom went to the New England Whalers in a pre-arranged deal.</figcaption></div><h2>CIVICS FOLD UP</h2>OTTAWA&mdash;The Ottawa Civics have gone out of business leaving the WHA with 13 remaining survivors after owner Ivan Mullenix decided he had enough and failed to meet back payroll and travelling expenses forcing the league to cancel his franchise.Mullenix declared all his players free agents after he sold Ralph Backstrom to New England, Gary MacGregor and Barry Legge to Cleveland, Darryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Bryon Baltimore and Fran&ccedil;ois Rochon to Indianapolis in pre-arranged deals. Left without a job after the Civics quit following a two-week stay in Ottawa were such available as goalers Lynn Zimmerman, Bob Johnson and Cam Newton, Jim Sherrit, John Arbour, Rick Morris, Bob Liddington, Pete Mara. Larry Bignell, Brian Lavender and Ron Delorme. Mullenix said he lost a personal $2.5 million operating the Denver Spurs then the Civics in their first WHA season and supporting the Central League Spurs for the two previous years. Mullenix had hoped to sell the Civics to the Founders Club of Ottawa but they were unable to raise a large enough down payment to swing the $1 million sale. They had accumulated $110,000 in pledges and donations.<h2>PARENT OUT FOR YEAR</h2>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Philadelphia netminder Bernie Parent has resigned himself to sitting out the rest of the 1975-76 NHL season. Parent&rsquo;s recurring neck injury has kept the Vezina Trophy holder out of action all year and he has told the Flyers that it would be better for himself and the club to remain away from the hockey scene until next season.The 30-year-old goaler, voted the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs the last two years, has been recuperating from an October operation on damaged neck muscles. Parent said doctors have assured him he&rsquo;ll be able to play regularly next year but they couldn&rsquo;t give him that guarantee this season. Parent has been successfully replaced by Wayne Stephenson, who spent the 1974-75 season watching Parent from the bench perform goaling feats that made him the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 netminder.<h2>BLUES MAY MOVE</h2>ST. LOUIS&mdash;It seems incredible that a team with the highest NHL attendance average should have to think about moving its franchise. That&rsquo;s the plight facing the St. Louis Blues and the NHL as the league took time off for the All Star game break.There was speculation that the Blues could ultimately end up in Miami for the 1976-77 season if the City of St. Louis doesn&rsquo;t come around and soften the tax bite it puts on the Blues game in and game out. Sidney Salomon III, president of the Blues, said he would ask the NHL to vote on the possible move. Salomon says the NHL team is treated unfairly tax wise by the city despite the fact the Blues have poured a reported $12 million into the Arena in renovations and maintenance. The Blues average 18,000 fans a game, one of the best in the NHL.<h2>THE CAT PRESIDENT?</h2>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Emile &lsquo;The Cat&rsquo; Francis, the deposed general manager-coach of the New York Rangers, was at the NHL&rsquo;s 29th annual All Star game and he let everyone within earshot know that he would sure as heck not close the door on the possibility of him becoming the next president of the league.Francis was one of many names tossed about as a possible ultimate successor to Clarence Campbell, who will be stepping down this year after heading the NHL for the past 29 years. But Francis is only one of many top hockey men jnder consideration for the post. Jim Cullen of St. Louis, the general counsel of the Blues, is believed to the one of the leading names to replace Campbell. Another is Robert Sedgewick, Governor for the Toronto Leafs. Others are Brian O&rsquo;Neill, executive director of the NHL, and Rangers&rsquo; president Williams Jennings. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Deadline Stoppers

<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01186/3556225-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="652" height="292"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02151/3556218-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="647" height="364"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Jan. 9)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03104/3556211-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="644" height="505"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0477/3556204-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="639" height="199"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Dartmouth 6, Western Michigan 0Dartmouth 7, Western Michigan 6Brown 6, RPI 4Boston College 9, Boston State 8Notre Dame 9, Harvard 7Brown 7, Vermont 2Notre Dame 6, Boston College 5Ottawa Univ. 8, Vermont 8Yale 5, Minnesota-Duluth 4Yale 6, Augsburg 2Minnesota-Duluth 10, Yale 1Harvard 8, Michigan State 6Harvard 4, Michigan State 3Brown 5, St. Louis 3Brown 5, St. Louis 4North eastern 6, Providence 5Boston University 4, Princeton 2Boston University 4, North eastern 3Clarkson 11, Yale 5New Hampshire 7, Pennsylvania 4Boston College 6, Harvard 6Providence 9, Brown 6Cornell 7, Colgate 6Dartmouth 3, St. Lawrence 1Pennsylvania 4, Merrimack 2&bull;St. Lawrence 8, North eastern 3TOURNAMENTS Blue-GrassNew Hampshire 9, RPI 4Dartmouth 4, Boston College 2ConsolationBoston College 8, RPI 3Championship FinalNew Hampshire 6, Dartmouth 3ECAC FestivalVermo 5, Pennsylvania 5Clarkson 4, Cornell 2ConsolationCorneil 8, Pennsylvania 2Championship FinalClarkson 10, Vermont 5Syracuse TourneyBrown 9, Cornell 6Clarkson 5, Colgate 1ConsolationCornell 6, Colgate 1Championship FinalClarkson 4, Brown 3Great LakesMichigan Tech 6, Boston University 2Michigan 7, Pennsylvania 6ConsolationBoston University 4, Pennsylvania 2Championship FinalMichigan 6, Michigan Tech 5RPI TournamentProvidence 4, North eastern 0RPI 6, Princeton 3Providence 9, Princeton 2RPI 5, North eastern 2ConsolationNorth eastern 6, Princeton 6Championship FinalProvidence 3, RPI 3(Providence wins tournament on basis of goals scored) &#9632;

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College Races

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01709/3555168-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

<h2>WESTERN INTERNATIONAL</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 9)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01156/3557074-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="640" height="171"></div><h2>SOUTHWEST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02112/3557067-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="646" height="171"></div><h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0385/3557060-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="640" height="584"></div><h2>MIDWEST JUNIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0469/3557053-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="643" height="145"></div><h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0553/3557046-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="638" height="180"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0643/3557039-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="634" height="534"></div><h2>CONTINENTAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sat. Jan. 17)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0927/3557032-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="588" height="159"></div><h2>NEW YORK METRO JUNIOR</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 13)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1023/3557025-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="604" height="235"></div><h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1121/3557018-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="586" height="395"></div> &#9632;

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Amateur Races

PITTSBURGH&mdash;Coaching a National Hockey League team provides about as much security for a man as a high wire walker over Niagara Falls.At least that&rsquo;s the impression the men behind the benches leave you with when the subject of coaching stability is put to them. &ldquo;You take the job knowing full well you&rsquo;ll get fired one day,&rdquo; said a former NHL coach who has since departed the league scene and who will remain nameless.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02811/3554489-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="242" height="386"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Schinkel</figcaption></div>But it gives you a pretty good idea how secure the NHL coaching fraternity feels about their jobs and little-wonder. Five of them have already walked the plank this season, maybe not an unhighly large number but when you consider the league began the season with four new coaches, it represents nine new faces in the NHL coaching ranks. It represents almost a 50 percent turn-over with some clubs making two changes, like Rangers and Detroit.The latest coaching &lsquo;casualty&rsquo; is Marc Boileau of Pittsburgh, who was fired by president Wren Blair when the Penguins went into a prolonged seven-game slump. Blair promptly named former coach Ken Schinkel as interim lot in an effort to get the Penguins back into playoff contention.But Boileau&rsquo;s dismissal is another example of the high risks of becoming an NHL coach. In recent weeks the Rangers have replaced Ron Stewart with John Ferguson, the Red Wings removed Doug Barkley and reinstalled Alex Delvecchio as coach, the St. Louis Blues dumped Garry Young and gave the job to former NHLer Leo Boivin after Lynn Patrick reluctantly accepted on an interim basis, and more recently, the Washington Caps found the best way to forget their apathetic ways on the ice was to fire the man who helped mould their expansion club, Milt Schmidt, in favor of NHL coaching unknown Tommy McVie.When the current season began, Stewart and Young were among the four new coaches. The others, Ted Harris at Minnesota, and Jack Evans at California, are still around on long-term contracts.The firing of Boileau may have been the culmination of a strategy feud between Boileau and Blair, who insisted the Penguins should abandon their reckless offensive play that made them one of the highest scoring teams in the league last year and concentrate more on defense. The Pens&rsquo; skidded to a 1523-5 record under Boileau despite the fact their offense still ranked 4th highest in the NHL. Boileau took the surprising Pittsburghers to the Stanley Cup quarter-finals last year and appeared to be set for another full year at the helm of the club. He was quoted as saying that he was encountering more problems off the ice than on since the team changed ownership this season. &#9632;

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Coaching Turnover Continues In NHL With Pens’ Boileau 5th To Get Axe

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01886/3554527-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;Chances of the Black Hawks obtaining Bobby Orr have increased significantly in recent days&mdash;so significantly that associates of the Boston Bruins super star no longer laugh when you broach the subject. They wink.&ldquo;Two weeks ago, I would have said that the likelihood of Bobby Orr being in Chicago next year was remote,&rdquo; was the revelation from Alan Eagleson, Orr&rsquo;s Toronto barrister, at exactly 6:36 p.m. Jan. 10. &ldquo;Now, I would say that the chances are at least fair. Who knows what they&rsquo;ll be like two weeks from now?&rdquo;There are two basic reasons why the possiblility of Orr&rsquo;s departure to Chicago has graduated from a longshot to not-so-long (A) a loophole in his contract which might allow another team to sign him without sending any players to Boston as compensation and (B) his apparent disenchantment with the new Bruins&rsquo; owners.The first area is a gray one, clouded lately by the erosion of The Rozelle Rule. The National Hockey League has with its Players Association a five-year contract which includes a compensation protection clause (i.e. if Team A loses a player to Team B, then Team B must return to Team A a body of equal warmth).Should the entire concept of compensation be declared illegal then the NHL pact could perish, too, even though it was born through collective bargaining.But even if it is upheld, Orr could be a free man unencumbered by the spectre of compensation come June 1. He signed his last Bruin contract in 1970 and technically is not bound by the new NHLPA agreement, though he may choose to abide by it in spirit.&ldquo;What that means,&rdquo; said one NHL general manager, &ldquo;is that if Orr wants to be a hard-nose, he could conceivable pack his bags and say goodbye in June just like players on the 1970 contracts did when they jumped to the WHA.&ldquo;Bobby Hull won in court on the same basis. Orr could be just as free, even if he wasn&rsquo;t jumping.&rdquo;Enter Bill Wirtz, president of the Black Hawks, perhaps the NHL&rsquo;s richest club. He could offer Orr a healthy contract while not worrying about costly compensation, or any compensation at all.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02755/3554520-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="559" height="1438"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Bobby Orr has always maintained he wanted to remain playing in Boston but there are rumblings that his disenchantement with the new Bruin owners could lead him to another NHL club&mdash;like Chicago. Orr, like Bobby Hull, right, could become a free agent if his case went to court. Hull jumped the Hawks for the WHA under similar conditions four years ago.</figcaption></div>Wirtz, being a honorable man interested in league welfare and being a prime mover of the NHLPA peace pact, probably would not select that route. It would create bad vibes and a bad precedent. But if Wirtz really wants Orr&mdash;and who wouldn&rsquo;t&mdash;such a lever certtainly would not hurt his negotiations in a trade for the 27-year-old prodigy.It would allow Wirtz the enviable bargaining position of telling the Bruins to take Joe Doaks in exchange for Orr, because if you don&rsquo;t, we&rsquo;ll sign Orr anyway and you&rsquo;ll get nothing.All of this is so much speculation, of course, because Orr wants dearly to remain in Boston. But apparently he is not enamoured with the Jacobs Brothers, who recently purchased the Bruins.They seemed vigorously interested in signing the super star when he was healthy. But since Orr&rsquo;s last knee surgery in November, suddenly the desire waned. The Jacobs, who are friendly with the Wirtz family, recently welcomed Bill&rsquo;s advice on a possible Orr contract, but still he remains unsigned.Perhaps they would like to watch him resume skating before they re-kindle negotiations. But what if Orr balks at returning until he gets his contract? Certainly a man of his eminence might be hurt by such cavalier treatment.Anyway, should such a stalemate develop, Wirtz could join the picture full tilt. He and Orr have traded so many bouquets lately that we can assume one of two things: either they play to begin a florist shop, or they play to begin an era.&ldquo;Bobby said that if he couldn&rsquo;t get together with the Boston Bruins, he&rsquo;d love to be with us,&rdquo; said Wirtz. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s quite a compliment coming from the world&rsquo;s greatest hockey player. He&rsquo;s a fantastic person and a fantastic competitor.&ldquo;Why, did you see him the other night in Boston when the Bruins were playing the Russians? A fan started booing Ken Hodge a few rows behind where Bobby was sitting, and he wanted to fight him.&ldquo;But as for our chances of getting him&hellip;well, he&rsquo;s still in Boston and that&rsquo;s probably where he&rsquo;ll be for the rest of his life. I can&rsquo;t talk about another player when he&rsquo;s under contract to another club. I know that even on one leg, he&rsquo;d still be the best. I know another thing. If he&rsquo;s available, there&rsquo;ll be a long line of people wanting him.Yes, but the Black Hawks probably will be first.PARTING SHOTS: Dick Red mond underwent surgery Jan. 13 for torn cartilage in his left knee and will be lost to the Black Hawks for at least a month&hellip;With Bill White struggling against back problems, coach Billy Reay said that All Star left wing John Marks might be dropped back to defense&hellip;The Hawks have changed the starting time of the Feb. 8 home game against Washington from 7:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.&bull; The Black Hawks&rsquo; Bill Wirtz is keenly interested in landing Orr.&bull; The Chicago president is in a position to offer the Boston super star a rich contract. &#9632;

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BOBBY ORR

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-01938/3554579-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="445" height="445"></div>&bull; FIVE BEST coaches in hockey right now are Philadelphia&rsquo;s Fred Shero, Montreal&rsquo;s Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour of the N.Y. Islanders, Fred Creighton of Atlanta and Boston&rsquo;s Don Cherry. Not only are these men outstanding coaches but they possess the hockey savvy to be equally successful as general managers&hellip;Allan Waller, one of the most knowledegable hockey people in Atlanta, credits Creighton and general manager Cliff Fletcher with the improved play of the Flames this season&hellip;Wouldn&rsquo;t it be nice to see Gordie Howe retire as a player as soon as possible? He looked weary in the World Hockey Association annual All Star Game as players half his age or younger were wheeling the puck around him on the ice. The 48-year-old hockey veteran is tarnishing his once great image and like so many outstanding athletes is hanging around too long&hellip;Cincinnati Stingers, with one of the best front offices in hockey, are one of the most solid franchises in the WHA. The Stingers won 13 of their first 18 games on home ice. Broken down, they won 12 and lost two with the playing of &ldquo;America the Beautiful&rdquo; (amid much controversy) at the start of the game and they have a 1-3 record with the playing of &ldquo;The Star Spangled Banner&rdquo;&hellip;Lloyd Gilmour, probably the best referee in the National Hockey League, plans to retire at the end of the season. He wants to open a bar-restaurant in British Columbia and barring objections from the league he&rsquo;ll call it The NHL&hellip;University of Alberta is the number one ranked college team in Canada. Concordia of Montreal is ranked second, St. Mary&rsquo;s of Halifax third and the University of Toronto fourth&hellip;In his first Ranger practice as coach, John Ferguson curtly refused several requests for drinks of water by New York players. Ironically, the Rangers owners told Emile Francis he couldn&rsquo;t continue as general managercoach, as the double job was too much for one man. Then they fired Francis and brought in Ferguson to do both jobs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02894/3554572-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="263" height="404"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fred Creighton</figcaption></div>&bull; PLAYER REP Norm Kaplan of Toronto says the market place in professional hockey is collapsing and may result in some of his clients playing for half of their present salaries next season. Kaplan, who represents about 100 players in the NHL and WHA said: &ldquo;There is a moment of desparation. It will be a sudden shock for players to be bumped to a lower standard of living. Kaplan said he knows one player who was making $40,000 in one of the major leagues. When his contract ran out his team offered him $20,000 to continue&hellip;They say Walt Tkaczuk was traded to Toronto by the Rangers but nixed the deal. He has one of those contracts that says he must approve any trade during the season&hellip;Don&rsquo;t laugh, but Flyers Dave Schultz is doing television appeals against child abuse&hellip;and he does a convincing, sensitive job, too&hellip;Dave Price, Florida chairman of the Charlie Conacher Throat Cancer Research Fund and founder of the popular &ldquo;Canada Calling&rdquo; radio show in that state, informs us that he&rsquo;s been trying to convince Ed Fitkin, the transplanted Torontonian and former editor of HOCKEY PICTORIAL, to act as California chairman of the same fund in memory of the former National Hockey League scoring great. Genial Dave is busy these days with Canada Golf Day on Jan. 30 and the upcoming Canadian Turf Handicap, which is the only horse race named for Canada and which was started back in 1967. Price has done an outstanding job for Canadians in the State of Florida&hellip;Although he suffered a very badly broken jaw NHL referee Bruce Hood is still not missing any assignments&hellip;Sammy Pollock would do an outstanding job in running Team Canada in next September&rsquo;s World Cup of Hockey. Pollock is the first choice of everyone associated with Team Canada&hellip;One of the reasons the New York Rangers are in such a mess today is that they had a fellow by the name of Fred Shero in their organization for 15years, building championship clubs in every minor league in which he coached, but not once was Shero given the opportunity to coach the Rangers. It was Keith Allen, astute general manager of the Philly Flyers, who offered Shero his first NHL coaching opportunity back in 1971.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03789/3554565-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="264" height="404"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Price</figcaption></div>&bull; NEW ENGLAND WHALERS and the entire World Hockey Association will miss Jack Kelley, who resigned as GM-coach of the Whalers to return to his first love, coaching Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where he pioneered a hockey program 20 years ago. Kelley did a tremendous job with the Whalers leading the team to the Avco World Trophy during the first WHA season of 1972-73. Kelley, who tried his best to ice as many U.S. born and developed players as possible on the Whalers, led his club to three division titles&hellip;Colorful Ed Snider, chairman of the board of the Philadelphia Flyers, was so excited and thrilled after his team defeated the Russians, that he burst into the press room where Fred Shero was being interviwed by the media to shout: &ldquo;Freddie, that was the greatest coaching job ever in the history of hockey. I love you, Freddie, you&rsquo;re fabulous.&rdquo; Snider then marched out leaving Shero with his mouth open and unsettled for the only time during that historic day&hellip;Al Smith, original goalie of the Whalers who won more games than any goaltender in the WHA in its first three seasons, is anxious to return to the game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04687/3554558-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="267" height="402"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Snider</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PASSING THE PUCK

Vol. 29No. 16JANUARY 30, 1976OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded October 1st, 1947Published 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. McKenziePresident, Publisher and Advertising DirectorDon WallAssociate PublisherCharlie HalpinEditorial DirectorKeith Lawton Administration ManagerPat BealeAdvertising Co-OrdinatorRalph BridglandAsst. To EditorUnited States Advertising RepresentativesNEW YORK: Bill Hitzig, National Sports Publishing Corp., 150 East 58th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022. Telephone (212) 593-2100.CHICAGO: Hooper Jones & Associates, 3322 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, III 60659. Telephone (312) 478-5544.ATLANTIC STATES (Including New York, Boxton, Buffalo & Philadelphia: Bob Bassinette, Basslnette/White, 50 East 42nd St, New York, N.Y. 10017. Telephone (212) 986-6210.YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $9.50 in Canada $10.50 in the U.5.A. and $14.00 in Foreign Countries. Sec and class postage paid at New York, N.Y., 10001 and at additional mailing offices SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO 1434 ST. CATHERINE STREET WEST, SUITE 217, MONTREAL, 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

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05557/3554634-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg"></div><h2>Russians Showed More Class Than NHL</h2>Watching the Russian-NHL series was certainly educational to me. It proved beyond a doubt that not only are the Russians better hockey players, they show much more class.Apparently embarrassed by being outplayed by the Russians, the NHL teams resorted to ignorant violence to retaliate. Time after time the NHL punched, charged and crosschecked the Russians unnecessarily, obviously trying to prove their manhood. The coupe-de-grace was Wayne Cashman&rsquo;s slash. He could have killed or maimed the Russian he hit very easily. Then, Phil Esposito showed his intelligence in an interview several minutes later by saying he was glad Cashman did it. Then the announcer insinuated the Russian was faking being injured. All these intelligent comments add up to ignorance.Finally, the Russian team had to leave the ice in Philadelphia to demonstrate the unnecessary violence to which they were subjected. I don&rsquo;t blame them.I am not a Russian or a Communist. I am a Vietnam veteran and proud to be an American. But I am giving up being a hockey fan and going back to baseball. I just can&rsquo;t imagine if ten years from now the Yankees are playing the Russian baseball team and a Yankee batter strikes out, that he would turn around and club the Russian catcher in retaliation.JIM O&rsquo;BRIEN, Freehold, N.J.<h2>Did Emile Dig His Own Grave?</h2>Four years ago when the NHL decided to expand from 14 to 16 teams, Long Island was selected as a possible site for a NHL franchise. But because of the Island&rsquo;s proximity to New York City, the approval of the New York Rangers hockey club was needed before the New York Islanders could become a reality. Backed by Emile Francis, the Rangers wholeheartedly approved and boasted of the strong rivalry that would someday exist.Little did the Cat foresee that in just three short years, the expansionist New York Islanders would defeat his New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And also, as a result of further playoff successes, that their upset of the Rangers was no fluke. The Islanders were now number one in the Big Apple.As the new year approached, so did a new look for the Rangers. Finally in early January, the Emile Francis regime ended on a sour note. John Ferguson was called in and replaced Francis as general manager. The Francis firing was the last of a series of startling moves made by the Rangers this season. One wonders if the Rangers would have broken up their team and in particular, given the Cat a pink slip had the Islander franchise not been in New York. For it is clear that the Broadway Blueshirts never suffered a worse embarrassment than last year&rsquo;s loss to the Islanders. And something had to be done about that. Did Emile Francis dig his own grave?RICH SCHIEBEL, West New York, N.J.<h2>Understanding Russians To Our Advantage</h2>How much wood can a woodchuck chuck? We&rsquo;re good wood choppers but when the crunch comes we sometimes can&rsquo;t control our tempers and emotions and we end up taking senseless penalties. (Thank God we have emotions, though.)I must say the Soviet style of hockey is a joy to watch: excellent skating and play development, precision passing, poised, persistent, and disciplined. But they have no class! The Soviets can be outplayed, but let them get near the goal and they become deadly. They do riot need many shots on goal to win. There are lessons to be learned by our exposure to their system and vice versa for them as well. But how do I find out more about the Soviet hockey system? Do they have drafts and trade players?I think the more we can understand them, the better we can use their good points to our advantage and make ourselves well aware of their disruptive cheap little tactics like uniform number changing, late for practices, etc. Come on Fred write us another book and do this one on the Soviet system and compare it to ours. Viva the NHL!EDWARD MAUK, Maumee, Ohio<h2>Flyers Proved They&rsquo;re No. 1</h2>Admittedly one game does not make a season but the only conclusion that one could make after viewing the total domination of the Flyers over the Soviet Army team is that the NHL&rsquo;s best team completely outclasses the Russians.While the Canadiens, Sabres and Islanders could certainly hold their own with the Soviets and the Bruins and Black Hawks might on ocassion surprise them, I really can&rsquo;t see the Russians topping the Philadelphia club. The way the Flyers manhandled them stopped them so completely that the Soviets could barely get across their own blueline let alone get in the Flyers end. Goalie Wayne Stephenson&rsquo;s toughest task was trying to stay awake as his mates peppered the Russian goaler or simply swiped the puck from their wingers. It is hard to imagine, the way Philly toyed with Army team, that future contests would have any different outcome. They truly are the best hockey team on the face of the earth and like the sign in the Spectrum said &ldquo;Bring on the Martians, no one on Earth can beat them.&rdquo;By the way Flyer chairman Ed Snider posed an interesting question. Since the Russian teams were augmented with three other players for their North American trip, what if the Flyers were allowed the same privilege. Assuming Bernie Parent was healthy who would be picked to augment the champions? My selection would be Guy Lafleur, Bobby Orr and Dennis Potvin with Phil Esposito the first reserve.CLIFF KOBLAND, N. Syracuse, N.Y.<h2>Lafleur Exception To Expansion Stars</h2>Could you please tell me why Johnny Bucyk is so over rated? Prior to expansion he scored (from 1956-57 to 1966-67) 226 goals in 717 games and after expansion 268 goals in 606 games. He isn&rsquo;t the only one. After expansion such super stars as Vic Hadfield, Rick Macleish, Ken Hodge, Danny Grant and Mickey Redmond scored 50 goals in one season. Even Phil Esposito scored more and more goals every time the league expanded. If one watches Bucyk now you will see that he can barely skate and scores by standing at the crease after everyone else has done all the work.The only exception to the &ldquo;goals with expansion&rdquo; players would have to be Guy Lafleur. He forechecks, back-checks and is constantly working and unlike Hadfield, Hodge. Bucyk etc. he never receives full credit for his efforts. He seems to be lost on a team of super stars.MARCBALZAMO,&nbsp; Montreal, Que. &#9632;

f0004-05

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-01969/3554689-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL BARBER&hellip;More Than Just A Scorer</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Bill Barber was the Flyers&rsquo; No. 1 choice in the lucrative 1972 amateur draft that also brought Tom Bladon and Jimmy Watson to Philadelphia.Since the Flyers don&rsquo;t make many mistakes with their amateur draft picks, you knew Barber had to be a good hockey player. Barber didn&rsquo;t disappoint anyone. He set a Flyers&rsquo; rookie record with 30 goals, then hit the estimable 34-goal level in the following Stanley Cup championship seasons.While scoring at a more-than-respectable pace, Barber was also checking stubbornly and killing penalties. When needed, he would switch from Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s line to, say, the Flyers&rsquo; so-called third line to make Orest Kindrachuk and Don Saleski bigger scoring threats.Like nearly all of Fred Shero&rsquo;s lads, Barber places individual honors second to team success. However, Barber was beginning to wonder. For instance, last season he finished a distant fourth in the left wing All Star voting. No one disputed Rick Martin&rsquo;s runaway first-team selection. But when Steve Vickers polled 85 votes, Danny Grant 81 and Barber a mere 36, the Flyers felt the Professional Hockey Writers were paying too much attention to goal totals and not enough to complete talent.When the top 12 Campbell Conference players were announced for the All Star game in Philadelphia, a relieved sigh finally swept through the Flyers&rsquo; offices. This time Barber was a runaway choice, collecting 101 votes to 63 for the Rangers&rsquo; Vickers. If you looked closely, Barber was tied with Montreal&rsquo;s Guy Lapointe and Pete Mahovlich as the highest overall vote-getters after Bobby Clarke and Denis Potvin (both unanimous), Ken Dryden and Jimmy Watson.Evening Bulletin writer Jay Greenberg suggested perhaps it was time for Barber &ldquo;to walk boldly to center ice, call for the spotlight and proclaim himself&rdquo; the best left wing in hockey. Alexander Yakushev and Valeri Kharlamov weren&rsquo;t available to comment on the challenge to their Sports Illustrated-promoted title.Anyway, Barber didn&rsquo;t call for a spotlight, microphone and symphony orchestra. Such Jerry Lewis showmanship isn&rsquo;t his nature. Barber did admit he was flattered.&ldquo;For people to talk about me as the best, well, it gives you that funny feeling that goes right through you.&rdquo;Shero, never one to shadow box around a subject he feels strongly about, reacted more boldly.&ldquo;Finally people are finding out he does more things than the other guy (Vickers). He&rsquo;s better than Vickers. You play in New York, you always get a little more consideration.&rdquo;While the Kitchener (OHA) product devotes himself to two-way hockey, his scoring has been stepped up as the Flyers fill the opposition&rsquo;s net more often. Barber reached the 20-goal mark in game No. 38 this season. Last season he didn&rsquo;t hit 20 until the 50th game. The season before it was game No. 54 and as a rookie it was game No. 47.&ldquo;The whole team is scoring more, it&rsquo;s true,&rdquo; Barber said. &ldquo;But remember: Clarkie, Reggie Leach, and I have been together awhile now. We know what each other is doing.&rdquo;The line is doing something right: all three were first-team Campbell Conference All Star choices.Barber isn&rsquo;t outspoken, like his friend Bobby Clarke, but as he matures he is more willing to comment on timely topics. Nothing was more timely than the Flyers - Soviet Central Army showdown. Unlike some teams&mdash;Chicago and Pittsburgh come to mind, all the Flyers were committed toward beating the Soviets.&ldquo;We feel we&rsquo;re the NHL&rsquo;s best so people are looking to us to beat the Russians,&rdquo; said Barber. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather play them in a best-of-seven series. That would really prove something. But if we only have one shot, we want it to be our best.&rdquo;Best. Funny how the word keeps coming up around Barber.FLYERS FACTS: Orest Kindrachuk returned from a three-game absence (aching back) and promptly set a career high for goals with 13 (previous high was 11)&hellip;Jimmy Watson suffered severe cuts behind the right ear and on the neck when teammates Bob Kelly and Mel Bridgman crashed into Watson and Toronto&rsquo;s Borje Salming along the boards&hellip;Gary Dornhoefer was growing a beard, but awaited approval from wife, Cheryl, who was visiting relatives in Ontario. &#9632;

f0006-01

NHL ALL Star Voting Confirms Theory, Flyers’ Barber Best Of Left Wingers

<h2>NATIONALLEAGUE</h2>ATLANTA&mdash;Pat Ribble, forward, returned to Tulsa of CHL. Noel Price defenseman, and Ken Houston forward, recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL.DETROIT&mdash;Peter McDuffe, goalkeeper, recalled from New Haven of AHL as emergency replacement for injured Ed Giacomin. Ed Korney, defenseman., returned to New Haven.KANSAS CITY&mdash;Buster Harvey forward, traded to Detroit in exchange for Phil Roberto, forward. Don Cairns, forward, recalled from Springfield of AHL.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Jim Withers-poon, defenseman, returned to Fort Worth of CHL.VANCOUVER&mdash;Ab DeMarco, defenseman, traded to Los Angeles for 1976 amateur draft choice. John Grisdale, defenseman, and Glen Richardson, forward, sent to Tulsa of CHL.MINNESOTA&mdash;Norm Gratton and Richard Nantais, forwards, returned to Haven of AHL.MONTREAL&mdash;Ron Andruff, forward, returned to Nova Scotia of AHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Gord Laxton, goalkeeper, returned to Hershey of AHL. Gary Inness, goalkeeper, recalled from Hershey.WASHINGTON&mdash;Gord Smith, defenseman, recalled from Richmond of AHL. Mike Lampman forward, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Don McLean, defense man, returned to Richmond, Blair Mackasey, defenseman. and Paul Nicholson, forward, recalled from Dayton of IHL and assigned to Richmond of AHL. Ron Anderson forward, sent to Richmond.<h2>WORLD HOCKEY ASSN</h2>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Bryon Baltimore and Darryl Maggs, defensemen, Mark Lomenda and Fran&ccedil;ois Rochon towards, secured from disbanded Ottawa Civics. John Sheridan and Michel Dubois, defensemen. Ted Scharf and Brian Coates, forwards, assigned to Mohawk Valley of NAHL. Bob Woytowich, defenseman, placed on voluntary retired list to become assistant team coach. Hugh Harris, toward, secured from Calgary for future considerations. Bill Prentice, defenseman, sold to Quebec in return for Rene Leclerc, forward. Bob Whitlock, forward, sent to Mohawk Valley.TORONTO&mdash;Dave Syvret, defenseman, and Steve Atkinson, forward, purchased outright from Buffalo of NAHL.CINCINNATI&mdash;Frank Beaton, defenseman, recalled from Hampton of SHL.NEW ENGLAND&mdash;Ralph Backstrom, forward, secured from the disbanded Ottawa Civics. Danny Arndt, forward, recalled from Cape Cod of NAHL.CLEVELAND&mdash;Gary MacGregor, forward and Barry Legge, defenseman, secured from disbanded Ottawa Civics.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>BALTIMORE&mdash;Murray Kuntz, forward, secured from St. Louis on loan. Blues recalled Kuntz from Springfield and reassigned him.ROCHESTER&mdash;Jack Smith, defenseman, signed to 10-game pro trial.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Ed Humphreys, goalkeeper, secured from Calgary on loan. Cowboys recalled Humphreys from Roanoke of SHL. Bill Reed, defenseman, sent by Calgary on loan.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>TULSA&mdash;Gilles Tremblay, goalkeeper, and Gordon Talbot, forward, placed on waivers. Alberto DiFazio, forward, sold to Maine of NAHL.BINGHAMTON&mdash;Rick Lemay, goalkeeper, Mike O&rsquo;Hearn and Rich Hart, defensemen, and Barry Brooks, forward, all placed on waivers. Kelly Secord, forward, sent to San Diego of WHA for pre trial. Paul Stewart, forward, secured from Boston on loan. Stewart recalled by Bruins from Rochester of AHL and reassigned. Cap Raeder, goalkeeper, Marty Gateman, defenseman, and John Danby, forward, sent to Dusters by New England, who pulled three players out of Cape Cod.BUFFALO&mdash;George Kuzmicz, defenseman, placed on waivers. Bill Cheropita, goalkeeper, sent to Springfied of AHL on loan. Jim Roffey, and Bob Barnes, defensemen, signed as free agents.CAPE COD&mdash;Mike Falconieri, goalkeeper, Terry Flaman, defenseman Gordon Talbot, Bob Keiran and Jim Prevett, forwards, signed as free agents. Gerry Methe, defenseman, placed on suspended list for jumping team.ERIE&mdash;Doug Towler, defenseman, sold to Mohawk Valley of NAHL. Keith Kokkola, defenseman, and Billy Goldthorpe, forward assigned by Ottawa Civics of WHA.MAINE&mdash;Roger Kosar, goalkeeper, Bob Murphy and Albert DiFazio, forwards, placed on waivers. Alan Globensky, defenseman, and Jim Benzelock, forward, assigned by Quebec Nordiques Goerges Gendron forward, restored to active roster.MOHAWK VALEY&mdash;Chris Hayes, forward, and Steve Shablak, defenseman, signed as free agents. Jim Park goalkeeper, and Rich Pumple, forward, assigned by Indianapolis Racers.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Ron Marlow, goalkeeper, recalled by New York Islanders. Roger Kosar, goalkeeper, signed as free agent.SYRACUSE&mdash;Jim Bolen, goalkeeper, signed as emergency replacement for injured Jacques Caron.<h2>SOUTHERN LEAGUE</h2>TIDEWATER&mdash;Jean Trottier, forward, signed as free agent. John Tweedle, forward, sold to Hampton of SHL. Ron Anderson, defenseman, traded to Winston-Sa lem of SHL.WINSTON-SALEM Rick Lalonde, forward, traded to Tidewater &#9632;

Movements of Players

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;In more than a few games this year the best St. Louis defenseman on the ice was Bruce Affleck&mdash;the same Bruce Affleck who came to training camp as the team&rsquo;s No. 7 defenseman with no assurance of making the team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01882/3554720-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="294" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce Affleck</figcaption></div>Affleck played just 13 games in a St. Louis uniform last season after being acquired at midseason from the California Selas, who had Affleck tucked away in the minor leagues.So this season was important for the 21-year-old Affleck who signed a professional contract after this sophomore year at Denver University.&ldquo;I had to feel I could make the Blues,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I came to camp with the attitude that I had to make it.&rdquo;Affleck played well in his few chances in the lineup last season but he still was the seventh defenseman. Ahead of him were the Plager brothers, Barclay and Bob, and four young defensemen. Bob Hess, Bob Gassoff, Lawrence Sacharuk and Rick Wilson.The uncertainty turned even gloomier last May when Affleck&rsquo;s right shoulder was broken when his jeep rolled over three times after skidding on some loose dirt near St. Louis. Chuck Lefley and Jim McCrimmon of the Blues were also in the vehicle but were not injured.After the low point of the accident Affleck began having better luck. The following month he married his college sweet heart, the former Cecily Quinn, daughter of William Quinn, former governor of Hawaii.&ldquo;We spent two weeks in Hawaii on our honeymoon and then came to St. Louis so the doctors could take a look at my shoulder,&rdquo; he said.Because of treatment for the shoulder and also because he and Ces canceled summer-school plans at Denver, Affleck began spending more time during the offseason in St. Louis. He worked at a physical-conditioning program devised by Blues&rsquo; trainer Tommy Woodcock and talked many hours with St. Louis captain Barclay Plager about NHL hockey.Affleck was promoted from No 7 defenseman to No. 6 defenseman when Sacharuk was traded back to the New York Rangers in exchange for Bob MacMillan. But Affleck&rsquo;s play this season has been pretty solid evidence that he is rapidly working his way up the ratings.&ldquo;The more I play the easier it gets,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Playing with Bobby Plager is good because with his experience he can cover.&rdquo;&ldquo;I feel comfortable.&rdquo; Affleck added. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been consistent and I have to be that wav to stick with the team. I&rsquo;d like to play my whole career with the Blues.&rdquo;Affleck&rsquo;s consistency is what has made him the best St. Louis defenseman on the ice some nights. In some games the Blues&rsquo; defense had been leaky, and Affleck&rsquo;s aggressive play has shined brightly.When the Seals called Affleck&rsquo;s name in the 1974 amateur draft, he was the 21st player chosen. Hess, the Blues&rsquo; top pick that year, was still available until the Blues took him as the 26th player chosen.&ldquo;I had to make the decision of whether I was going to turn pro or finish my college, Affleck said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t really a tough decision, though. I wanted to turn pro and I thought that I wanted to do it pretty quickly because of the salary situation. Salaries are high now because of the other league, but I didn&rsquo;t know how the other league would be surviving.&rdquo;The Seals were happy to get Affleck&rsquo;s name on a contract but couldn&rsquo;t find room for his name on the roster. He was assigned to the Seals&rsquo; farm club at Salt Lake City and later was sent on loan to Springfield.When Affleck was traded to the Blues and played his first game in the NHL, his name went on another long list&mdash;those players sent to the NHL by Denver&rsquo;s coach, Murray Armstrong.Affleck says of his old coach, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a fantastic man on and off the ice and the builds a lot of character in his players.&rdquo;Character sometimes shows in a man&rsquo;s determination to achieve his goals. Affleck&rsquo;s goal is to establish himself in the NHL and he apparently was a star pupil of Armstrong. &#9632;

f0007-01

Affleck’s Consistency Wins Rookie Regular Job With Blues

<div class="byline">By Bill Libby</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-01958/3554758-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="284" height="359"></div><h2>A Couple Of Canucks</h2>WHEN PHIL MALONEY assumed command of the Vancouver Canucks a couple of seasons back, he pointed out, &ldquo;For the first time the general manager and coach of the Canucks will get along. This is because I am both the general manager and coach.&rdquo; A man of wit, Maloney sought to stabilize the operation of this Club of Conflicts. &ldquo;You have to know how to get where you&rsquo;re going or you&rsquo;re not going to get there,&rdquo; he observed, with a logic that defies contradiction.A marvellous minor league player who made up in intelligence and resourcefulness what he lacked in size and strength, &ldquo;The Grey Fox&rdquo; knew the way to go. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same in the majors as it is in the minors. You have to have good hockey players. You don&rsquo;t need super stars, but you need people who can play with the other people.&rdquo; He felt he had some, but needed others. He sought some deals, but was stymied awhile.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02859/3554751-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="283" height="377"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Gould</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Sometimes it seemed I was getting nowhere. I&rsquo;d arrive in the office at six o&rsquo;clock every morning to phone other general managers around the league, but nothing was happening. Even my wife asked me when I was going to do something. I guess everybody was afraid they would get stiffed. I was wondering If I&rsquo;d ever be accepted into the general manager&rsquo;s club. What did it take? Was it religious rite, like some African tribe?&rdquo; he commented to Tom Watt of the Vancouver Province newspaper.Finally, he broke through. He made a couple of deals which did not appear to be major, but which put the kind of people he wanted on his club. When the club came through as one of the surprises of last season, Maloney laughed, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a blanking genius,&rdquo; as if to say he had nothing to do with it. The fact is he is one of the new breed of coaches who has discovered unselfish team play, all for one and one for all, will make up for a lot, even a lack of super star talent.Pressed, he conceded, &ldquo;I tried to take a personal interest in each player. If I could get each one to make the most of himself and convince him to contribute to a team effort, the team as a whole had to make the most of itself. If you are prepared to play the way you have to play to win, you will win. Preparation is the key,&rdquo; he concluded. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re a garbage collector, then you should prepare by wearing the proper clothes.&rdquo;&ldquo;Well, it was an interesting thought. Presumably, clothes that can stand being stained are tools of the garbage collector&rsquo;s trade, though muscles must make a difference, too. Players who will play unselfishly are the tools of the hockey coach&rsquo;s trade, though a knowledge of how to use them must help. Once Maloney got the kind of players he wanted, he knew how to use them. And while he had to pick up what was laying around, they were not garbage, even in the sports sense of the word.THE LEADING GOAL-SCORERS on last season&rsquo;s team were &ldquo;nameless&rdquo; individuals named Don Lever and John Gould. No one knew much about them before the season began, but they scored 38 goals and 34 goals respectively and no one else on the club came close to 30. Lever tied the team record which had been established by Bobby Schmautz before he was sent to Boston, while Gould gave him a run for the record.Lever, out of South Porcupine, Ontario, scored 61 goals in 63 games with the Niagara Falls Flyers of the Ontario Hockey Association in his last season as an amateur, winning the Most Valuable Player trophy, so he was a prime prospect when drafted by Vancouver in the summer of 1972 and signed by the Canucks against a bid by Ottawa of the WHA.He scored 12 goals his first season in the NHL, 23 his second and 38 his third, so he&rsquo;s been improving. &ldquo;Experience is paying off for me,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting stronger from year to year and trying to become consistent from game to game.&rdquo; At 5&rsquo;11&rdquo; in height and 175 pounds in weight, the 23-year-old left-handed left-winger can&rsquo;t push people around, but has skill in his sport.Gould, out of Port Arthur and Allison, Ontario, has had a harder run to the top. He scored 30 goals in 49 games with the London Knights of the OHA in his last amateur campaign, but spent two seasons with the Charlotte Checkers of the Eastern League and two with the Cincinnati Swords of the American League before he got to the NHL with Buffalo, and did not do well there before he was traded to Vancouver.He did score 48 goals one season with Charlotte and 30 one season with Cincinnati so he had established that he could shoot, but he had only five goals in 40 games with Buffalo and only nine in 45 games with Vancouver before he exploded last season.&ldquo;It took me awhile to settle down,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been erratic. But the fact is I got hurt my first game of my last season with Buffalo and sat on the bench most of the games after that until Christmas time when I was traded. Moving to Vancouver at mid-season was unsettling and I just didn&rsquo;t feel I fit in until I started and went the full season last season.&rdquo;At 5&rsquo;9&rdquo; and 170 pounds, Gould lacks exceptional size, also, but he has skill, too. &ldquo;Bouncing around, I lost a little confidence in myself, but once I got going it began to come back last season,&rdquo; the 23-year-old left-handed right-winger commented. His confidence increased when the Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA sought him during the off-season and even announced he&rsquo;d agreed to go with them, but he says he never agreed, and decided to return to Vancouver this season. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve made me happy here,&rdquo; he says.THIS SEASON HAS BEEN slower than last for the team and these two individuals, but the team remains strongly in the running for a playoff, if not for a second straight divisional pennant, and Lever and Gould remain in the running for 30-goal campaigns for the second straight season. Lever&rsquo;s keeping the pace, Gould is a little off the pace, but his history is he gets goals in bunches, so he could pick up the pace at any time. &ldquo;We surprised some people last season,&rdquo; Gould points out. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re laying for us this season and it&rsquo;s tougher, but we&rsquo;ll get it done.&rdquo;Gould, who wears a Fu Manchu mustache, comes from a family of electricians, but he and his brothers always have had hockey on their minds. One brother, Ted, played Junior &ldquo;B&rdquo; but bowed out to become an electrical engineer, but another brother, Larry, has scored 38 goals the last two seasons with the Seattle Totems of first the Western and then the Central League, and had a couple of games up top with Vancouver last season. He is hoping for another chance after a fine first half with the Buffalo Norsemen of the North American League, with whom he landed after Seattle shut up shop.John Gould remains unmarried, but Don Lever was landed by a lady named Karen about a year ago. &ldquo;No kids yet. Just a dog,&rdquo; grins the goodlooking, long-haired lad. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lonely life for a wife I guess. We&rsquo;re on the road a lot, of course. Maybe it&rsquo;s better for a guy like Gould, who goes out on dates, but the truth is between travel and games there doesn&rsquo;t seem to be much time when we&rsquo;re away from home. And it&rsquo;s nice to have a wife waiting for you when you come home.&rdquo;Part of the problem with the Canucks this season has been in their failures away from home. Another part has been poor performance in the pivot. Only Chris Oddleifson has been setting up goals, and he hasn&rsquo;t been getting many, while veteran Andre Boudrias has been benched at times. Although he is more at home on the wing, and scores better there. Lever has had to be used at center, where Maloney says Don&rsquo;s speed and forechecking satisfy him. Among the wingers Dennis Ververgaert has been the best goalgetter, but Gould has been getting his share.&ldquo;We have some good players even if they&rsquo;re not well known,&rdquo; Maloney observes. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s obvious they&rsquo;ll have to play better or we&rsquo;ll have to get better ones.&rdquo; So the truest test of their ability confronts the key Canucks in the second half of this season. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY ALAN TRUEX</div>ATLANTA&mdash;Most National Hockey League forwards claim they are as concerned about defense as offense. Most of them are lying.But when Dave Kryskow says, &ldquo;My job&rsquo;s not scoring goals, it&rsquo;s preventing them,&rdquo; he really means it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03719/3554789-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="268" height="402"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Kryskow</figcaption></div>He proved this the night he scored three goals in Kansas City and then afterwards insisted on discussing his defensive play.He wasn&rsquo;t happy with it.&ldquo;I was loafing on their fourth goal,&rdquo; he said after the Atlanta Flames had beaten the Scouts 6-4, Jan. 3 &ldquo;That goal was my fault. I didn&rsquo;t stay with my man.&rdquo;If he hadn&rsquo;t brought it up, nobody would have guessed he was loafing. He&rsquo;s the last Flame you would suspect of it. His game is constant hustle.Although only 5&rsquo; 10&rdquo;, 170 pounds, he throws himself into the corners with a passion probably unmatched by anyone else on the team.By spending so much behind the net, Kryskow sacrifices his scoring statistics, but he enabled Cowboy Bill Flett to score 17 goals and Rey Comeau to score 12 in the first half of the season.Kryskow, Comeau and Flett form the Flames&rsquo; checking line. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re out there playing against the other teams&rsquo; best lines,&rdquo; Kryskow points out, &ldquo;and defense is our whole game.&rdquo;Yet the statistics indicate the line does more than play defense. It was averaging almost a goal a game for the first half of the season.Kryskow had 10 goals at that point, and he added 20 assists. Flames coach Fred Creighton, when asked to account for the Flames&rsquo; streak of 14 victories in 20 games (through early January), said the Comeau line was the major factor.Although he has been accused of not having a good shot, Kryskow feels his goal-scoring deficiency earlier in the season was a result of not shooting enough when he had the chances.Anyway, there can be no complaints about his shooting in Kansas City, when he scored his first NHL hat trick.It was not his first in professional hockey. Ed Kea recalls a Central League game when Kryskow scored four times against the Flames&rsquo; farm club in Omaha, coached by Creighton.&ldquo;Johnnie Lemieux and I were on ice for three of&rsquo; em,&rdquo; said Kea, who now plays a strong defensive game for the Flames. &ldquo;After the third one, Fred told us to finish the game in the stands.&rdquo;Kryskow feels he can get his share of goals if he takes the advice of his teammates. &ldquo;They told me, &lsquo;You got a good shot; start using it.&rsquo; We&rsquo;re always getting on each other. Rev, Cowboy and me,&rdquo; Kryskow said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re always getting on each other, we&rsquo;re trying to get each other to shoot more. We&rsquo;re always yelling &lsquo;Shoot, shoot.&rsquo;&rdquo;There is a close camaraderie among the Flames&rsquo; checking trio. They blend well together, with Comeau and Kryskow providing the all-out frantic action and Flett, the strong, smooth veteran, contributing a steadying hand and a quick shot which he unleashes accurately from the forehand or backhand.Flett and Kryskow were off-season acquisitions by Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher. They are the team&rsquo;s most colorful players, Flett with his beard and Western dress and Kryskow with his blunt, outspoken manner.Kryskow frequently reprimands referees, and he&rsquo;s accumulated some fines for it. He also badgers the press for not always noticing the hard work his line puts out, and he criticizes teammates who linger on the ice when their shift should be over.But while the Flames have been emerging as one of the top teams in the NHL, Kryskow&rsquo;s prodding style of play and speech appeared to be the club&rsquo;s main spark.FLAMES NOTES: Some Flames players, most notably Kryskow, were miffed over the All Star voting, which produced no Flames among the conference&rsquo;s 12-man team. Kryskow felt Curt Bennett was slighted, being passed over in favor of Rangers&rsquo; Steve Vickers at left wing.Defenseman Randy Manery, an All Star in the past, is playing well, but he said Ed Kea deserved All Star acclaim this season&hellip;Creighton said, &ldquo;I think Tommy (Lysiak) does more for our team than (Garry) Unger does for St. Louis.&rdquo; But Unger beat Lysiak in the voting at center&hellip;Captain Pat Quinn has been playing the best defense of his career, and Barry Gibbs is moving the puck and shooting very well. These were key factors in the Flames&rsquo; December-January streak. &#9632;

f0008-03

Flames’ Kryskow Says He Prefers Defense, Shrugs Off Hat Trick

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;John Bowie Ferguson rode through the West with his Rangers skating and hitting as if they really liked to play this game of hockey. The &ldquo;new&rdquo; Rangers beat the Kansas City Scouts 8-4 on Jan. 10, and then racked up the Chicago Black Hawks 6-2, ending an eight-game undefeated skein for the Hawks, Jan. 11. Seldom have the Texas Rangers done as well.Why? Is it just the usual new broom sweeping clean, or have the Rangers really pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Most of them were ashamed that their fat cat performances and lack of hitting had cost Emile Francis his job as general manager and Ron Stewart his job as coach.&ldquo;This team needs more checking,&rdquo; said Peter Stemkowski. &ldquo;Only three or four guys really check. The firing of Stewie and the Cat really shook us up. Phil Esposito called me when he heard about Stewart. We&rsquo;re ashamed.&rdquo;At his initial press conference Ferguson used the words, &ldquo;respect and team pride,&rdquo; and then added the crusher, &ldquo;Every team needs them, particularly the Rangers.&rdquo;Ferguson&rsquo;s Raiders swept through their opposition with some revisions in their lineup. Despite going scoreless in 11 games Esposito remained with Steve Vickers and Rod Gilbert. Walter Tkaczuk, once more a center worked with old friends, Billy Fairbairn and Greg Polis. Polis was a revelation, hitting, passing, coming back and scoring a goal in Chicago to end his 14 game schneid. Espo got two goals in Kay Cee to break his personal scoreless string.Doug Soetaert, the rookie goaler called up when John Davidson broke his leg, scored his first NHL win in the Scouts game. Dune Wilson suddenly returned to the lineup in an amazingly fast recovery from his Dec. 4 appendicitis.&ldquo;With Davidson out we have to have Wilson as the big man in goal. He did the job against the Hawks,&rdquo; said Fergy.&ldquo;Wilson revealed, Fergy told me my injury was a long way from the heart.&rdquo;&ldquo;That meant he wanted me to play. I was tired, but I got the job done. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll play 18 holes of golf tomorrow,&rdquo; continued Dune.Wilson hadn&rsquo;t played since Nov. 29 and hadn&rsquo;t won since Nov. 15. He stopped 31 of 33 shots, many of them from close in.At Ferguson&rsquo;s first practice session in New York on Thursday Jan. 8 he had the Rangers&rsquo; tongues hanging out, keeping them for the full hour and a half ice time. There was nothing but pure skating for the first 35 minutes, without a Duck on the ice during that time.A big sign of hope might be the two goals scored by Tkaczuk, once the white hope of the Ranger organization, but a player who had fallen on evil days in the last two and a half years. He scored twice against the Hawks, raising his total to seven for the year. He got the game&rsquo;s first goal and then when the Hawks had come back from 3-0 to 3-2, put the Rangers two up with a shot from the right corner which Tony Esposito misplayed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02822/3554820-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="552" height="624"><figcaption class="caption-body">WALT TKACZUK&hellip;Out Of Slump</figcaption></div>If Tkaczuk can play back to the form of 1969-70 through 1971-72 the Rangers have a chance to turn the season around. He really can&rsquo;t be traded despite the rumors, because both Stemkowski and Esposito are in their early thirties and Wayne Dillon has yet to prove he can do the job checking.Early Ferguson has been almost perfect. He said, after the Chicago game, &ldquo;Another good effort. We played solid on Saturday and solid tonight. They were sharp and really keyed up. They were involved, and that&rsquo;s what you have to be to be a winner.&rdquo;BLUE CHIPS: Ron Stewart will serve as director of the farm system and is accompanying the Rangers on their current West Coast road trip. He is helping John Ferguson in the manner that Larry Popein does with Phil Maloney and the Vancouver Canucks. Stew was happy with his job, but felt that he really didn&rsquo;t have a chance with just 39 games behind the bench and an ever changing roster&hellip;Emile Francis wants a piece of the action in any new situation he may accept. His contract runs throught May of 1978 at about $80,000 per annum. &#9632;

f0009-02

Fergy Makes Sweeping Debut With Revived Rangers

<div class="byline">BY BILL MAKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-01928/3554851-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&ldquo;&hellip;Well Last Night He Popped The Big Question&hellip;Who&rsquo;s Going To Win The Stanley Cup!&rdquo;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-01

CARTOON CORNEIL

<div class="byline">BY BILL HEUFELDER</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;There is nothing between Lowell MacDonald and regular work with the Pittsburgh Penguins except:A left thumb with two pins holding a broken bone together.The other four fingers on the hand which have trouble supporting anything stronger than a feather.The need for a face mask to protect a gash that reached the bone directly above his nose in a freak accident on the ice.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t know whether you could help enough,&rdquo; he said of his predicament. &ldquo;On the other hand, I don&rsquo;t want to sit out. I&rsquo;ve been there before.&rdquo;The 34-year-old left winger got all the rest he&rsquo;ll want until retirement when he endured four knee operations that robbed him of two National Hockey League seasons.In the two seasons that followed, McDonald triggered 77 goals and was named winner of the &lsquo;73 Masterton Trophy in recognition of his determined comeback.A year ago in an unsettling season, he delivered 27 goals, a moderate total for him, but at the outset of the current campaign his stylish game pleasantly came together again.MacDonald led the Penguins with eight goals through their first 12 games and had a total of 16 points. His production continued steadily.But smooth sailing turned to rough waters Dec. 10 in Detroit when he battled ex-Penguin Bryan Watson for a loose puck. MacDonald fell heavily on his left hand, breaking the thumb.Doctors inserted two temporary pins and informed MacDonald that he would be in shape to open Christmas presents. But there have been complications.Tendons which were torn away from the bone in the back of the hand have failed to heal and the thumb remains tender.&ldquo;I could compensate for one or the other problem,&rdquo; MacDonald lamented, &ldquo;but nothing is improving. I&rsquo;m getting very disheartened.&rdquo;In and out of the lineup since, MacDonald played a single shift in an 8-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers earlier this month. It ended miserably when he deflected a shot by Bill Barber, the shooter&rsquo;s stick reaching MacDonald&rsquo;s forehead on the followthrough.&ldquo;It caught me right between the eyes,&rdquo; said MacDonald, who has appeared in four games and managed two assists since running into Watson.Seconds, later, the Flyers turned the attack into a Reggie Leach goal and MacDonald fled to the dressing room. &ldquo;I was bleeding so bad, I knew there wasn&rsquo;t any sense going to the bench,&rdquo; he said.MacDonald spent five days in the hospital where doctors guarded against an infection in the wound which required nine stitches.The force of the blow closed both eyes and cracked the bone just above the nose. &ldquo;A slight skull fracture, &rdquo;doctors reported.In a fractured season, MacDonald, most of the concern centersing on his ailing hand, is unable to predict when he&rsquo;ll be fit again. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a day-to-day thing,&rdquo; he said.For whatever consolation it may be, club president Wren Blair realizes the effect of his absence as the Penguins continue to perform unevenly.&ldquo;The guy we really miss,&rdquo; Blair noted, &ldquo;is MacDonald.&rdquo;PENGUIN NOTES: All things considered, we came out with a pretty good deal,&rdquo; Blair observed after he&rsquo;d sent suspended defenseman Steve Durbano and Chuck Arnason to Kansas City in return for veteran right winger Simon Nolet, the Scouts&rsquo; captain and leading scorer last season, and 23-year-old center Eddie Gilbert.In addition, the clubs agreed to switch positions for the selection of first-round amateur draft choices in the spring.The trade was precipitated when Durbano was suspended for the second time this season and Blair informed him that his career was finished in Pittsburgh.Gary Inness, seldom-used in goal of late, agreed to spend two weeks in Hershey where he&rsquo;ll get steady work&hellip;Blair has promised him that he&rsquo;ll be busier upon his return to the Penguins.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-01948/3554882-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="552" height="778"><figcaption class="caption-body">LOWELL MacDONALD&hellip;Really Missed</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0010-01

MacDonald Dismayed Over Rash Of Injuries

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02790/3554913-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Quick Starts</figcaption></div>To get a quick start, be sure you&rsquo;re standing properly in the first place. First, keep both feet as far apart as the width of your shoulders; don&rsquo;t straddle; you&rsquo;re not going to ride a horse. Flex your knees very slightly, loose and springy. Keep your back straight.When you take off, rock forward on the balls of your feet so the skate tips dig into the ice. Run a few steps, then with your toes pointed outward, start stroking. Push back as hard as you can with each leg as you reach with the other one. You&rsquo;ll sail! &#9632;

f0010-02

MINOR HOCKEY TIPS

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div>TORONTO&mdash;Out among the oil wells of Oklahoma, Doug Favell hopes to pick up the pieces of his major league goaltending career.Favell willingly accepted a demotion from the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League to their Oklahoma City Blazers farm team in the Central League. That makes him the only $150,000 minor leaguer in the business.The reason for Favell&rsquo;s eagerness to go to the minors is a simple one: He wants work, game action to show the hockey world that he&rsquo;s a competent goalie. The first half of the 1975-76 season, afforded little opportunity for that.Favell appeared to have a long-term lock on the Leafs&rsquo; net at the start of the &lsquo;74-75 campaign. But he had a mediocre season and lost the job to Gord McRae for the concluding 25 games of the schedule and the playoffs.Last summer, Leafs secured Wayne Thomas from the Montreal Canadiens and Favell became expendable. The Leafs tried to deal him but found no takers.When Thomas took over the top spot in the Leaf net with McRae as his back-up, Favell was odd-man-out. He played in only two games before undergoing surgery to repair tendon damage in his elbow in late November. Early in January, his elbow healed and with two weeks of workouts behind him, Favell departed for Oke City.&ldquo;I want to play and going to the minors was the only way I could get work,&rdquo; Favell said. &ldquo;The Leafs have three goalies and Thomas is having such a fine year that it&rsquo;s difficult for the third man. me. to get any action at all.&ldquo;Look. I had a so-so year in &lsquo;74-75. I haven&rsquo;t played this season and I&rsquo;ve just had surgery on my elbow. No team is going to be interested in me until I show that I can do the job. I&rsquo;d like to play with the Leafs but that&rsquo;s a very remote chance. So I&rsquo;m willing to go to any team that can use me.&ldquo;I know my contract is killing the Leafs in making a deal for me. I really have to show that I can do a job before any club will be interested.&rdquo;When New York Ranger goalie John Davidson broke his leg, and that team was left with only rookies in the net, Favell appeared to be the answer to their problems. In fact, there were rumors of a deal in the works but before any move could be made, Ranger general manager Emile Francis was sacked.Leaf owner Harold Ballard isn&rsquo;t overjoyed at paying $150,000 to a goalie who doesn&rsquo;t play and is pressuring his people to make a trade involving Favell. Ballard probably would pay a chunk of Favell&rsquo;s salary to any club who would take the goalie off his hands.One knock against Favell in the past has been his rather all-for-fun attitude and his lack of effort in practice sessions. This season with the Leafs, he&rsquo;s worked hard, although he has had a few laughs.&ldquo;His attitude has been good and he did work hard in our camp and practices,&rdquo; said Leaf coach Red Kellv.&rdquo;I know he&rsquo;d help several teams in the NHL.&rdquo;LEAF NOTES: The injury jinx which has dogged Lanny McDonald throughout his three seasons with the Leafs continued when he acquired a badly cut ear and a slight concussion when decked by Clarke Gillies of the New York Islanders&hellip;Leafs still hope to make a deal for a solid right winger&hellip;Goalie Thomas, who played in 35 of Leafs&rsquo; first 40 games, likely will have his work load lightened slightly in the second half of the season. McRae replaced him for a win over the Islanders. &#9632;

Favell Accepts Demotion To Get Back To NHL Play

<div class="byline">BY RON WEBER</div>WASHINGTON&mdash;For the Washington Capitals 250 is a nice even number.In Milt Schmidt&rsquo;s case just make it even.Schmidt&rsquo;s coaching career has stopped, for a while at least, at 250 victories, 10th highest in National Hockey League annals. Only five were attained by his Washington Capitals. Under Milt&rsquo;s general managership Jimmy Anderson coached four wins and Red Sullivan two. In 116 games that wasn&rsquo;t nearly enough.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01917/3554944-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="271" height="395"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Joly</figcaption></div>So on the night of December 29&mdash;10 minutes after a shutout loss to Montreal-Capitals&rsquo; president Peter O&rsquo;Malley announced that Schmidt had &ldquo;elected to resign, and I have accepted his resignation&rdquo;. The move, like all things of this type, had its sudden aspects. Schmidt was coach&mdash;GM one moment, gone the next.But O&rsquo;Malley had been looking around for a replacement for much more than a moment. He volunteered he had &ldquo;felt the waters&rdquo; (to use a political term, O&rsquo;Malley&rsquo;s other arena of interest) for sometime, getting suggestions from around the league on available good men.The best turned out to be Max McNab, president of the Central Hockey League since before the &lsquo;74-75 season. Ten days after first approached, on the afternoon following Milt&rsquo;s departure, McNab was introduced as Schmidt&rsquo;s half replacement, taking over as general manager. The Caps wanted scene three to unveil a new coach but realizing some enterprising reporter might pull the string, confessed it was to be Tommy McVie.With Lefty McFadden moving from assistant-to-O&rsquo;Malley into the marketing and promotions end, the shakeup was consumated&mdash;in the front office. Down on the ice there will be more changes. Many more. With Tommy Williams&rsquo; retirement, the number of Caps left that played the first game (less than 15 months before) is already down to three: Greg Joly, Mike Marson and Ron Low. Yvon Labre was on the team then but injured. Bob Gryp, Tony White and Bernie Wolfe have come up from the farm system, and the others were obtained by Schmidt in trades&mdash;not one of which can be labeled a bad swap.But the team didn&rsquo;t win. Three ties were their best December results. Their expansion twins in Kansas City kept stealing the odd victory while the Caps hurtled ever downward.So they lopped off the most knowledgable man in their organization. Milton Conrad Schmidt, the Hall-of-Famer from Kitchener, stood there four days after Christmas, admitting the words were coming hard. He looked the media men in the eye, disdained excuses and asked they be as patient with his successor as they were with him. After 37 years in Boston his &ldquo;second start&rdquo; in Washington had come to a sad end in 32 months.But the team didn&rsquo;t win, so the coach and GM had to go. Milt knew that&rsquo;s how the game is played.ICE CAPS: McVie is an enthusiastic 40-year-old who jumped several steps up from Dayton of the International League. Tommy also goes from first place to last. Interestingly, McFadden formerly ran things at Dayton and Schmidt mused how he eventually planned to turn the coaching end over to Tommy&hellip;McVie got the club right in the middle of their first real scoring slump of the season. In his first three games they scored five goals, but they were all in the same contest, an 8-5 loss to the Seals&hellip;Joly is playing better and better. The 21-year-old defenseman from Calgary still isn&rsquo;t a big hit man in front of his own goalie&mdash;and probably never will be. But this side of Bobby Orr, he can stickhandle with any blueliner and has become a true quarterback in moving the team down the ice.He loses the puck now and then but only because he has it so often. On Jan 2 he became the first Washington defenseman to score twice in one game&hellip;McVie had early good words for Joly and Ron Lalonde. Center Lalonde was passing and forechecking well, as usual, and was even getting good chances in front of the net&mdash;that he couldn&rsquo;t finish off&hellip;&ldquo;Son of Guaranteed Win Night&rdquo;, the second such of the season, saw the Caps hold the North Stars shotless for a whole period but settle for a 11 tie&hellip;When McVie took over he knew almost all the guys on the team, either from Dayton days or during the two Capitals&rsquo; training camps. By driving the players into condition with calisthenics he earned the sobriquet &ldquo;Simon&rdquo; McVie&hellip;Both he and McNab have three sons (McNab&rsquo;s eldest, Peter, is a center for Buffalo). Both men have genuine respect for Schmidt and had to tell themselves that if they didn&rsquo;t take his place, someone else would. &#9632;

f0011-01

Caps Hoping New Men At Top Will Change Plight

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01919/3555006-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div><h2>Better Goal Scorers</h2>HARRY SINDEN, the general manager of the Boston Bruins said it after his team had lost a 5-2 decision to the Central Red Army and, taken on the surface, the statement sounds a little silly. Examine it more closely and it makes great sense.&ldquo;Many things have been said and written about the things which Soviet hockey players do well,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked about their conditioning, passing and skating but I think we&rsquo;ve overlooked one important edge they have on us: They&rsquo;re better goal scorers than we are.&rdquo;Straight up, a statement by a team official whose club has lost, 5-2, that the other side was better at placing the puck in the net would seem like pointing out the obvious. But there&rsquo;s more to it than that. What Sinden meant was that a much larger percentage of Soviet players on the Army and Wings of the Soviet teams which played eight games against NHL opponents have the gift, the knack, the touch, the ability, whatever you want to call it, for scoring goals than NHL players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02794/3554999-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="567" height="621"><figcaption class="caption-body">Harry Sinden</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We can handle their style of play and our system can nullify theirs,&rdquo; Sinden continued. &ldquo;But they just have more guys who can put the puck in the net than we do. They don&rsquo;t care about shots on goal, they&rsquo;re interested in scoring chances. And if they get very many good chances, they&rsquo;ll produce a high percentage of goals from those chances.&rdquo;Now it would seem that hockey&rsquo;s pivotal act&mdash;scoring goals&mdash;would be the first skill a player would acquire. But it&rsquo;s not. There are natural scorers and there are players without that gift. Many players through history who were mediocre in other segments of the game possessed the talent for scoring. Many who had complete skills in all other areas were dreadful when presented with the opportunity for goals.<h2>They All Can Snipe</h2>ALL THE SOVIET players, even the defensemen, have the touch for scoring goals,&rdquo; Sinden continued. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s something they&rsquo;re doing in their training. I don&rsquo;t know. But I wish we could find out what we&rsquo;re not doing to produce more players who can finish off their scoring chances.&rdquo;The Bruins-Army game supplied strong testimony to Sinden&rsquo;s claim. As in most games of the Super Series, the NHL side had a wide edge in shots on goal. But that can be a meaningless statistic because there&rsquo;s a wide gap between a shot on goal and a scoring chance.But the Bruins, especially in the first period, had a wide margin in scoring chances and didn&rsquo;t produce a goal. Sure, Army goalie Vladislav Tretiak played well. But the Bruins failed to produce goals from glorious chances. When Army had a few chances, they scored. Every one of their five goals was a creative work. NHL people can talk on and on about the Soviets&rsquo; always trying to get the puck to the man in the best position but that approach has paid off for the comrades.<h2>Efficient Marksmanship</h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS played a beautiful game against Red Army on New Year&rsquo;s Eve and had perhaps 20 chances to score. They counted three goals. Army had five or six, at the most, scoring chances and produced three scores.What North American hockey people must face is that the Soviet hockey set-up will make it difficult for NHL teams to beat them in the future. The entire crop of USSR hockey players is funnelled down into four Moscow teams&mdash;Army, Wings, Spartak and Dynamo. That group then is distilled into the National team.Along the way, those without the goal scoring touch, or any other major flaw, fall by the wayside. If the NHL could boil down its talent into four teams, they&rsquo;d be more than competitive. &#9632;

f0012-01

FRANK ORR SAYS:

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Until Marcel Dionne arrived this season, Butch Goring was the flashy fan favorite of the Los Angeles Kings, rapidly approaching super star status. Much of the first half of the current campaign, Dionne seemed to have shoved Goring into the shadows. However, after a slow start, Goring has begun to go. At one point this season he had only four goals in 18 games, but recently he scored nine goals in nine games, setting up six others at the same time. He scored or set up a goal in each of those nine games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03621/3555037-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="255" height="403"><figcaption class="caption-body">Butch Goring</figcaption></div>Butchie denies Dionne inhibited him. &ldquo;I know it may have looked like that&mdash;the same type of player as I am coming in and doing better what I do best&mdash;but I really didn&rsquo;t give that any thought,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It is possible that his coming here has made me want to do so well that I&rsquo;ve tried too hard, been pressing, but I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s really the case, either. The reason I wasn&rsquo;t playing well was physical. Not because of my eye as some say. My eyesight is fine. But because of my shoulder, which is just starting to feel good again.&rdquo;Goring has had each of his six NHL seasons inhibited by one injury or another. He dislocated his left shoulder last season, missed the first 20 games and played with a brace the rest of the way. Then a skate shattered the orbit bone of his left eye, he missed a month and returned at season&rsquo;s end suffering double vision. The bone was repaired and full vision returned over the summer. However, in May he had his third shoulder operation, second on the left shoulder, and that did not return to full Strength until recently.&ldquo;I said it was all right when I went to camp and thought it was, but about the time the season started I realized it wasn&rsquo;t. There was no strength there and I couldn&rsquo;t get any snap into my shots. I was frustrated and I guess it affected my skating. I wasn&rsquo;t playing with any zip. It took about 25 games, but as I began to feel stronger and stronger and began to shoot with more snap I began to skate with more zip and now I feel pretty good again,&rdquo; Butchie explained.A hard-luck guy, Goring gives the game everything he has in his 5&rsquo;9&rdquo;, 170-pound body. A jumping jack on ice, he has scored 21, 28, 28 and 27 goals the past four seasons despite prolonged periods on the sidelines. With his recent spree, he had 17 in his first 42 games this season so could eclipse 30 for the first time. However, Dionne had 26 in the same stretch. Dionne set an NHL record with 10 shorthanded goals last season, but Goring a superb penalty-killer got the Kings&rsquo; first two of this season recently.Dionne even has haunted Goring in the race for trophies. Several seasons Dionne did not get his first penalty of the season until the last game of the season and he has been a contender for the Lady Byng laurel, but he finished third while Dionne won the honor last season. Goring got his first penalty in the 39th game this season, while Dionne had three at that point.Another thing Dionne did to Goring was to deprive him of his linemate and policeman, Dan Maloney, who went in the Dionne deal. &ldquo;Bob Nevin and I played on a line with Danny a long time and we were used to one another. A hard digger like Danny has to help a line and when he was on the ice with me no one dared try to rough me up. Losing him hurt, no doubt of it,&rdquo;Butch admits.&ldquo;However, this game is not being played for my benefit. It&rsquo;s a team game. Getting Dionne has to help a team. He can do things Danny never could do. If I&rsquo;m healthy, there&rsquo;s no reason I can&rsquo;t play well with other linemates. As I get my health back, I think I&rsquo;m proving that now. I&rsquo;m not trying to be better than Dionne. I&rsquo;m trying to be the best Butch Goring can be.&rdquo;Not the flake he was as a kid, Goring has settled down. He and his wife of four years, the former Cathy Love, have a daughter, Shannon, who will be one year old in March. A maturing young man of just 24, just approaching his peak, Butch says, &ldquo;We all heard talk that Dionne was a troublemaker, but Marcel has been no trouble at all. The spotlight finds him, but he doesn&rsquo;t go around looking like it. He&rsquo;s a good guy, good for the guys on his line, and good for the team.&rdquo;Since both are centers, Butch can&rsquo;t benefit from Marcel&rsquo;s playmaking, but the two quick little pivots are beginning to apply to the opposition the pressure expected in their back-to-back shifts.KINGS&rsquo; THINGS&mdash; While another may be named by the coach, Dionne was the only King voted into the mid-season All Star game. He finished second at center to Montreal&rsquo;s Pete Mahovlich and beat out Buffalo&rsquo;s Gil Perreault to make the conference roster. Lash year, defensemen Terry Harper and Bob Murdoch and goaler Rogie Vachon made it. Harper went in the Dionne deal and Murdoch and Vachon got off to slow starts this season. Montreal&rsquo;s Ken Dryden and his former reserve, Toronto&rsquo;s Wayne Thomas, beat out Vachon. &#9632;

f0012-03

Goring Stronger For Kings But Denies Being Inhibited

<div class="byline">BY HARRY KLAFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01894/3555068-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GERRY HART&hellip;Blocking Shots All Part Of The Job</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;From the very beginning, Gerry Hart had his work cut out for him.A bit on the smallish size at 5&rsquo;9&rdquo;, Hart found himself growing up in an age when hockey players were increasingly judged according to size as well as talent. Very often a young prospect would be told by a scout to forget an NHL career simply because he lacked the size.Hart made it to the Detroit Red Wings in 1970-71, but was deemed expendable when it came time for the fledgling Islanders and Atlanta Flames to draw lots in the expansion draft back in 1972. In retrospect, that day turned out to be the turning point of his young career.Now at age 28, Hart is a patriarch of the steady Islander backline. Only Bert Marshall&mdash;who came to Long Island a year later&mdash;has been around longer.As the only Islander defenseman to have substantial NHL experience, Gerry was expected to be the leader back in Year One. But a series of injuries kept him out of action until mid-season. After that, too many bad penalties kept him off the ice as well.Gerry came into his own last year, playing a well-disciplined brand of defense. He doesn&rsquo;t take chances, and by his own admission is hardly a scorer. But when the points come, he&rsquo;s as excited as a twelve year-old scoring his first goal.It appeared that Gerry might be becoming more offensive-minded when he opened the current campaign with a hot hand. He picked up a goal and two assists in the Isles&rsquo; second game of the season, and then a few more points in rapid fire order.On Nov. 13, Gerry picked up an assist at Los Angeles. And that was it. It wouldn&rsquo;t be until January 6th that his name would appear on the scoresheet.&ldquo;My shooting was off,&rdquo; explained the articulate Flin Flon native. &ldquo;I was missing the net, and not moving the puck well at the point. I felt we were missing a number of opportunities because I couldn&rsquo;t get off a good shot.&ldquo;Lewie (Dave Lewis) and I have been taking extra practice shooting. That&rsquo;s the only way you can work something like this out.&rdquo;When Gerry finally broke the ice, he did it with a vengeance. Early in the second period against Kansas City on that January evening Hart dumped the puck into the slot. Billy Harris picked it up and sent a hard shot at goaltender Bill McKenzie. McKenzie made the save, but Bryan Trottier put in the rebound to give Hart his first point in almost two months.Another assist followed less than a minute later, as this time it was Clark Gillies putting on the finishing touches. With the Islanders safely in front after two periods, the stage was set for a wide-open finale.Trottier won a faceoff deep in the K.C. end, and slipped the puck back to Gerry at the right point. His blistering drive sped past the screened McKenzie to give the Islanders a 6-1 lead. With only minutes remaining, Gerry duplicated the feat on a similar play to give the Isles their 8th&mdash;and final&mdash;goal of the night.Net production for the evening: Two goals, two assists.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s always been my goal,&rdquo; said the smiling bachelor after the game. &ldquo;To score more than Al Arbour.&rdquo;&ldquo;Are you kidding? I never got close to scoring two goals,&rdquo; inserted the coach.&ldquo;They seem to come in bunches,&rdquo; Hart continued. &ldquo;First I went almost three months without a goal. Then I get two in a row. I hope it keeps up.&rdquo;Gerry&rsquo;s second goal gave the cheering crowd new life. Jude Drouin had already notched a hat trick in the rout. Now they wanted Hart to do the same.&ldquo;Gerr-ry! Gerr-ry!,&rdquo; came the echoing shouts from the seats.&ldquo;Yeah, I heard it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t keep a straight face. And now everyone was feeding me the puck looking for me to get a hat trick, too. He had one chance, but his hard shot from 25 feet just missed the net.His assault at posterity dissipated, Hart wheeled and returned to do what he does best. Playing defense.ISLAND SOUNDS: Three Islanders&mdash;Denis Potvin, Billy Harris, and Glenn Resch&mdash;were voted to the Campbell Conference All Star team. Harris and Resch are first-timers, while Potvin will be appearing in his third classic&hellip;Arbour was most upset after the Islanders dropped a 5-3 decision to Toronto on Jan. 8. &ldquo;It was by far the worst game we played all year,&rdquo; he said&hellip; &#9632;

f0013-01

Tiny Rearguard All Hart On New York Blueline

<div class="byline">BY JACK MCCARTHY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01902/3555106-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="538" height="976"><figcaption class="caption-body">BORIS MIKHAILOV&hellip;Put On Great Act</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;The Bruins, running out of gas in the third period, were beaten by the Soviet Army Team in Boston Garden, 5-2, and Boston coach Don Cherry had no excuses, and said so, &ldquo;They made me a believer,&rdquo; he said.Cherry, was of course not happy with the Soviet goal that made a 1 - 1 game a 2-1, and swiftly, a 3-1 game. Valeri Kharlamov scored after Boris Mikhailov did a job on Gilles Gilbert in the Boston goal. In the words of one Boston writer, &ldquo;He did everything but undress him&hellip;&rdquo; Shortly afterward, Boston took a penalty and the Soviets scored for 3-1 on a power play. That was the ball game.But everyone who came away from the game was extravagant in their praise of the Russians.Said Cherry, &ldquo;We can learn something from them. That pass up the middle for their second goal was something I&rsquo;ve never seen. The guy turns the net and lets it go through center ice right on the other guy&rsquo;s stick, and he&rsquo;s in alone.&ldquo;We have no excuses. We lost. They have one heck of a hockey team. They are opportunists. When they get that good chance, they put it in&hellip;&rdquo;This was the same reaction as that of Harry Sinden, the Bruins&rsquo; GM. Said Sinden, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve all been talking about their system and passing techniques, but nobody has mentioned their goal-scoring. They are the greatest scorers we have seen, and I think we should try and find out why.&ldquo;They seem to have very strong wrists and arms that allow them to fire wrist shots. They don&rsquo;t take many shots, but when they do, they get good ones. I think if they had the opportunity to shoot 40 times they might score 38 goals.&ldquo;Another thing that seems to be overlooked is their superior individual skills. These guys can play the game, score goals, and do just about everything&hellip;&rdquo;Wayne Cashman, who has had his jousts with the Soviets before, decked Mikhailov after the Russian had done a job on Gilbert, causing a minor uproar among the purists.Cashman cross-checked the Soviet captain, and he went down. Gilbert, describing Mikhailov&rsquo;s cruise through his crease prior to Cashman&rsquo;s check, said, &ldquo;I thought I was hit by the Zamboni. He took me out of the crease. He pushed me; he kicked me, he cross-checked me. He did a little bit of everything. I didn&rsquo;t think you could be that dirty with the goalie in the crease&hellip;Said Cashman, &ldquo;He was sitting on top of my goalie and punching him. If I did that in my league, I&rsquo;d expect to get it. So he put on that great act. And then he goes from the hospital ward back to the ice without missing a shift&hellip;&rdquo;Added Cash, &ldquo;I thought the balcony fell on him the way he went down. We knew him from the Team Canada series. He&rsquo;s an actor. He looked right at the referee to make sure the penalty was called before he pulled that act. He got what he wanted.&ldquo;Gilbert said he punched him, then pushed him out of the cage. The goal shouldn&rsquo;t have counted.&ldquo;But don&rsquo;t take anything away from them; they have a heck of a hockey club.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02767/3555099-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="1155" height="1113"><figcaption class="caption-body">VLADISLAV TRETIAK&hellip;Praised By Boston Shooters</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they were as strong as the 1972 team but its hard to make a judgement on only one game. I think if they played 80 games in our league, many of the clubs would be able to handle them&hellip;&ldquo;I think they&rsquo;ve changed their style since 1972. They are not afraid to take the puck and go if a play breaks down. When we played them before, it was all pattern, and if a set wasn&rsquo;t going to work, they&rsquo;d turn around and start over again. In 1972, they wouldn&rsquo;t go in alone with the puck&hellip;&rdquo;The Soviet coach, Konstantin Loktev, said, &ldquo;We observe how many players are involved in the action, and in the third period, there were only two or three involved forthem&hellip;&rdquo;All of the Bruins had praise for the Soviet goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak, some labeling him &ldquo;sensational&rdquo;. Said Cherry, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s unbelievable. He&rsquo;s great&hellip;&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Russians Make Believer Of Cherry As Bruins Bow To Impressive Guests

<div class="byline">BY ROY CRAIGIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01876/3555137-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">WAYNE MERRICK&hellip;Constant Source Of Pleasure</figcaption></div>OAKLAND&mdash;Some line changes, a revived power play and the record-breaking antics of Wayne Merrick helped the California Seals snap out of a scoring slump and jump back into the Adams Division chase in the NHL as the new year dawned.Merrick, obtained from the St. Louis Blues during the last week of November in exchange for sophomore Larry Patey and a third-round draft choice in 1977, has been a constant source of pleasure for the Seals.It didn&rsquo;t take long for the popular center to earn a place in the Seals&rsquo; record book. In fact, in only his 15th game in a California uniform, the Sarnia flash set an alltime club record of six points in one game. Merrick notched a hat trick and added three assists as the Seals rolled over the Washington Capitals, 8-5.&ldquo;It was a thrill,&rdquo; admitted the fast-skating pivot. &ldquo;I went three seasons in St. Louis and never got a hat trick. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get one.&rdquo;The previous club point-scoring record for one game was held by Gerry Pinder, who had a hat trick and two assists against Detroit on Oct. 24,1971. Twice this season Seals&rsquo; forwards have scored four goals in one game&hellip;Gary Sabourin turning that rare trick against the Rangers and Dennis Maruk clicking for four against Pittsburgh.The Seals&rsquo; management figured that Merrick would boost the firepower of the team, but the former Blues&rsquo; star has added more sunshine to the California attack than some people had foreseen. Since joining the Seals, Merrick has scored six goals and 10 assists in 15 games, just better than a point-a-game. His goal totals in that stretch included two game winners&mdash;against Vancouver (a 2-1 victory) and against St. Louis (a 52 romp).Combined with the seven goals and eight assists he had with the Blues, Merrick now has a total of 31 points in 34 games. The popular center has been credited with a staggering number of shots in recent games (he had 10 in one game against Kansas City), and with a little more luck might have had four or five goals against the Caps in his record spree&hellip;he had that many good chances.The Merrick-led victory over the Caps not only ended the Seals&rsquo; scoring famine but saw the club set other records, too. The 51 shots on goal were the most ever for the Seals in their eight and a half year history, the previous high being the 49 they fired against Toronto on Nov. 21,1970.The eight-goal output was the highest production mark for the Seals this season, the previous being the seven goals against the New York Rangers on Nov. 7. In addition, it marked the sixth road victory of the season, equalling the total number of road wins registered by the Seals in the last two years combined.A revived California power play clicked twice in the win, and just to prove it was no fluke, the Seals used another power play goal in their next game as the winning marker in a 4-1 verdict over Pittsburgh. Merrick and Sabourin notched man-advantage goals against Washington and Al MacAdam did the damage against the Penguins.California&rsquo;s fortunes changed for the better when coach Jack Evans decided it was prudent to shift his forward line combinations. Merrick, who had been playing with Jim Pappin and Dave Hrechkosy, found himself between right winger Sabourin (who had been a teammate at St. Louis) and portsider Bob Girard. It was that unit that harvested six goals and 11 assists in the explosion at Washington.Pappin, meanwhile, was shifted from right wing, where he had played his entire NHL career, to center. &ldquo;Jim hasn&rsquo;t played center since junior,&rdquo; remarked Evans, &lsquo;but I think we&rsquo;ve found a spot for him.&rdquo; Pappin was aligned with Gary Holt on the left side and Wayne King on the right&hellip;The former Chicago Black Hawk ace responded well to his new line and extra work playing the point on the power play, picking up a goal and two assists in his first start ever at center ice.With Hrechkosy shelved with a knee injury and Dave Gardner nursing sore ribs, Evans continued his juggling act with yet another line, employing rookie center Ralph Klassen between right winger Fred Ahern and left winger Jim Moxey, the latter pair having been called up from Salt Lake City of the Central League.Only the 3M-Line remained a constant fixture for the Seals. Anchored by rookie sensation Dennis Maruk, the unit has Bob Murdoch patrolling right wing and Al Mac Adam on the left side. The 3M-Line is the Seals&rsquo; highest-scoring combo, with 37 goals and 75 points in the club&rsquo;s first 40 games.Evans, who might have wondered at one time where his club&rsquo;s scoring punch was going to come from, seems to have solved a big part of the problem.SEALS OF APPROVAL: The Seals&rsquo; defense continues to be hit with injuries&hellip;Bob Stewart, the club&rsquo;s acting captain with Jim Neilson out for the bulk of the season, was shelved for 10 days with a shoulder injury&hellip;California opened an airlift from Salt Lake, bringing in rearguards Tim Jacobs and Brent Meeke for varying lengths of time&hellip;George Pesut is another defenseman with problems, suffering from a back injury&hellip;Gary Simmons finally returned to the Seals&rsquo; goal after Gilles Meloche played in 11 straight games&hellip;Simmons posted back-to-back wins to celebrate his return from the bench&hellip;excellent recent home games against Philadelphia (1-1 tie), Chicago (52 win) and Montreal (2-1 loss) have made believers out of many Bay Area fans. &#9632;

f0015-01

Newcomer Merrick Valuable Addition To Seals

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Just about the time he was being voted the starting left winger on the Prince of Wales Conference team for the National Hockey League All Star game, Rick Martin was playing right wing as though he would stay there the rest of his hockey career.And maybe he will.The hard-shooting Buffalo Sabres forward had played briefly on the right side before and had played adequately. But this time he was sensational.The way Rick was playing right wing with Pete McNab and Brian Spencer, it looked as though the famed French Connection-Gil Perreault, Martin and Rene Robert-might be disconnected for good.In his first nine games after being switched to right wing, Martin scored 14 goals and assisted on nine others. He scored the hat trick in a big game against Montreal the night after he scored two big goals and assisted on three in the Sabres&rsquo; startling 12-6 victory over the Wings of the Soviet.The hat trick in the Forum was Rick&rsquo;s first in that arena since the days when he and his Sabre teammates, Perreault and Jocelyn Guevremont, starred for the Montreal Junior Canadiens.&ldquo;I was aware that this was my first hat trick here as a pro,&rdquo; Martin said, afterward, &ldquo;but the big thing about this game is that we won. It was about time we started to win some big ones like this, especially on the road.&rdquo;The Sabres had been in a deep slump before their big effort against the Soviets. They had been unable to hold onto leads, were seeing teams beat or tie them with late third-period goals.It looked as though the Canadiens might do the same. The Sabres, who built a 2-0 early lead were tied, 2-2, early in the final period on a shorthanded goal by Bob Gainey.The Habs seemed to have taken over the tempo of the game. But then they got a penalty and the Sabres&rsquo; power play, which hadn&rsquo;t been very powerful, of late, came through with Martin scoring his 27th goal of the season.Fred Stanfield carried the puck into the Montreal zone and passed to Craig Ramsay, who relayed to Martin in the slot. In one motion Martin stopped the puck and shot.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01608/3555199-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="552" height="1031"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICK MARTIN&hellip;Hot Sniper</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The goalie (Ken Dryden) was st ill getting set when the puck was past him,&rdquo; noted Ramsay.The Canadiens continued to threaten but Martin then scored No. 28 to ice the game and put himself in the league&rsquo;s goalscoring lead.&ldquo;I like playing the right side,&rdquo; Martin said, after the Montreal game. &ldquo;I can see a lot of the net when I&rsquo;m making a move to my forehand.&ldquo;I have to handle the puck more as a right winger and probably I couldn&rsquo;t have played the right side two years ago. I&rsquo;ve improved my puck handling and I don&rsquo;t panic when things go wrong.&ldquo;The first few games I played right wing I was afraid of making mistakes. Now I&rsquo;m relaxed. Don&rsquo;t forget to give the guys on my line (McNab and Spencer) a lot of credit. They keep looking for me, to set up shots. Sometimes my arms get tired, I get so many shots.&ldquo;It was getting pretty tough on the Connection. All the teams concentrated on stopping us. We weren&rsquo;t getting good shots and the harder we tried, the tougher it got. We were pressing.&ldquo;Now we have big scorers on all three lines and the other teams can&rsquo;t concentrate on any one of them. I think it helps the other two guys (Perreault and Robert).&rdquo;Robert was hurt when Martin moved to the right side. Jacques Richard was filling in at right wing for Robert and Fred Stanfield was Perreault&rsquo;s left wing.Then Robert returned and center Don Luce got hurt. Stanfield took Luce&rsquo;s place with Craig Ramsay and Danny Gare and Richard took over left wing with Perreault and Robert. French Connection II was born.The game after Martin scored his hat trick, Perreault got one as the Sabres defeated the Vancouver Canucks, 8-5. Robert also scored a goal in that game. Richard had scored the one Buffalo goal Martin didn&rsquo;t get in the Montreal contest. On the other line, Gare still was among the league leaders in goals scored. &#9632;

f0017-01

Martin’s Switch To Right Wing Could Be Permanent

MONTREAL&mdash;The California Golden Seals have never won more than 29 games in a season (1968-69); they have never scored more goals than they allowed and have missed the playoffs for the past five seasons. It 1976 is anything to go by, however, coach Jack Evans and his charges could be in for their finest season ever.Since the new year began, Seals have played seven games, winning five, losing one and tying the other while outscoring their opponents 33-14. That brings their season totals to 17 wins, 24 losses and four ties for 38 points in 45 games, and while they are still in fourth place in the Adams Division, Toronto Maple Leafs, with 49 points, must still consider them a threat for the third and final playoff berth. A year ago, California had won only 11 games and had been outscored 177 to 120. This season, though, goaltenders Gary Simmons and Gilles Meloche have pared off 36 goals, the offense has added eight so that now the Seals have only been outscored by 11 goals&mdash;141 to 130. This is a notable feat considering they have no less than seven rookies in their current starting lineup.Their much-bolstered defense has elevated them to eighth position in goaltending with a respectable 3.13 average compared to 15th place (3.93) this time last year. Even in defeat Seals are more respectable having lost six games by one goal and and another seven by two goals. Simmons, with two shutouts and Meloch with one, have already equalled their combined 1974-75 total. Also vastly improved is their penalty-killing which has given up the fourth-lowest number of power-play goals (28) in the league to this point. Seals gave up 40 power-play goals in their first 45 games last season. They have scored seven shorthand goals compared to five all last season.The St. Louis Blues are enjoying similar success in 1976. In eight games since Jan. 1, they have won six and lost two and move to within one point of second-place Vancouver Canucks in the Smythe Division. Canucks have 40 points while Blues have 39. Since Leo Boivin took over as coach, Jan. 6, Blues have won five and lost just once. Durable center Garry Unger is once again spearheading the St. Louis attack with 27 goals and 24 assists for 51 points. Unger has led the Blues in goals and points in each of the last four seasons, and he&rsquo;s the club&rsquo;s alltime scoring leader with 378 points in 385 games. Also, he has played 606 consecutive regularseason games, 25 short of eclipsing from Man Andy Hebenton&rsquo;s 630-game streak between 1955 and 1964. Chuc Lefley is another Blue having a fine year. He has 24 goals&mdash;which matches his career high scored last season&mdash;and 20 assists for 44 points. Lefley has seven shorthand goals and he leads the NHL in that department.Elsewhere, Flyers&rsquo; Bobby Clarke, who last week was officialy declared first half points leader thus collecting $500 from the NHL, remains stop the scoring race with 22 goals, 49 assists and 71 points, five ahead of Montreal&rsquo;s Guy Lafleur who earned $250 as runner-up.Habs&rsquo; Ken Dryden, who won $250 as first-half goaltending leader, still heads the Vezina race with a 1,73 average and seven shutouts. &#9632;

NHL WEEK—In Review

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02526/3555254-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="645" height="709"></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

Team Penalties

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</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 CanadaTWIN CITIES&mdash;The Minnesota North Stars would like to think the worst of their season is over, that they can concentrate on trying to catch the St. Louis Blues and take the third and final playoff spot in Conn Smythe Division.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03376/3555292-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="264" height="401"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cesare Maniago</figcaption></div>The North Stars recovered from a start of losing 16 of their first 20 games by posting seven victories and two ties for their best December in their nine-year history, only to have a series of injuries cut into the momentum.The biggest loss, of course, was to leading goal scorer Bill Goldsworthy, who missed 12 games with a sprained ankle and knee. Still, the North Stars managed to pull within one point of the Blues heading into the new year.But Pierre Jarry, who has added some spark at left wing, and Blake Dunlop, an improved centerman, also went out with injuries, and the North Stars proceeded to lose four straight games and drop seven points behind the Blues with St. Louis coming into Minnesota for big Saturday night appearance (at least for the North Stars) on Jan. 10.Jarry was the first to return from a back injury the previous Wednesday, and he proceeded to score the only goal in a 2-1 loss to Montreal. It should be noted that Jarry was not due to return for another two games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to keep any player off the ice who wants to play as bad as Pierre does,&rdquo; said coach Ted Harris. &ldquo;Nowadays, you don&rsquo;t see many guys who will go out and play their guts out with an injury. It&rsquo;s nice to see.&rdquo;Jarry remarked, &ldquo;I tried to talk Ted into a letting me play for three days before he finally decided to take the chance.&rdquo;It should be no surprise, then, that Jarry played a big role in keeping Minnesota&rsquo;s playoff hopes alive in that meeting against the Blues.Goalie Cesare Maniago, who turned 37 a few days later, stopped all 30 St. Louis shots for his 28th career shutout and second of the season while the North Stars skated away with a 2-0 victory.Rookie center Tim Young scored the goals in the third period with linemates Jarry and Dean Talafous assisting both times.The same night, Dunlop came back from a knee injury to take a regular shift despite the fact he was not expected to skate at all.That left only Goldsworthy, who had 14 goals and 11 assists before taking a hard fall on the ice in Washington Dec. 14, on the injury list, and the team captain promised to return the next game out.&ldquo;The knee is still a little weak,&rdquo; Goldsworthy said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m ready to get back in there.&rdquo;The shutout against the Blues lowered Maniago&rsquo;s goals-against average to 2.74 in 24 appearances, quite an improvement from a 3.71 mark early in the season. The ranking North Star veteran improved his record to 9-12-1 with eight of those victories coming in his last nine starts at home.Harris gave Maniago a two-game rest because of a slight groin injury, and 21-year-old goalie Pete LoPresti used the opportunity to regain some confidence he might have lost in his last appearance Dec. 18 in Buffalo when he gave three goals on the first three shots.Montreal fired 36 shots on goal and came away with two goals and the victory, but LoPresti could feel better about his ability. &ldquo;I was a bit shaky in the beginning but it didn&rsquo;t take me too long to get back into the swing of things,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;He stuck in there and fought like hell,&rdquo; added Harris.&ldquo;Peter played like he did early in the season.&rdquo;Harris decided to go with LoPresti the very next night in Detroit, but the North Stars did not come up with a strong effort and were beaten soundly, 5-0, to set up the Saturday night appearance against the Blues.A loss would have given the Blues a nine-point cushion and left the North Stars in a last-place tie with Kansas City. Maniago, Jarry, Young, etc. felt otherwise, perhaps that the worst of their season is behind them halfway through their 80 game schedule.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04280/3555285-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="1745" height="2392"></div> &#9632;

f0018-03

North Stars Fight To Keep Playoff Hopes Alive

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01618/3555323-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="662" height="2566"></div> &#9632;

f0018-01

Looking At NHL Goalers

<div class="byline">BY RALPH BRIDGLAND</div>MONTREAL&mdash;When the writers and broadcasters sit down at the end of this season to cast their votes for the National Hockey League&rsquo;s rookie of the year, Doug Jarvis will be lucky to get a single nomination.It&rsquo;s not that the Montreal freshman doesn&rsquo;t reserve the recognition for he has played fine hockey for the Canadiens thus far. It&rsquo;s just that Jarvis doesn&rsquo;t score a lot of goals and isn&rsquo;t one of the flashier young men in the league.The 5&rsquo;9&rdquo; center has excelled in his role with the Habs. The problem is that the part he plays is mainly a defensive one. He kills penalties with aplomb, forechecks and backchecks tenaciously and is already one of the best, if not the top, faceoff man on the club.So the spotlight falls on others while Doug goes about his business effectively and unpublicized which you might think would have Jarvis a little discouraged.&ldquo;Sure, I would like to score goals,&rdquo; says the 20-year-old native of Peterborough, Ontario. &ldquo;But a big part of my job is playing more defensively. Checking and making sure of plays is a big part of my game. I have to think defense.&ldquo;I would like to score but I&rsquo;m just very pleased to be here.&rdquo;Doug was a second round selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs in last summer&rsquo;s amateur draft but came to the Canadiens in an offseason transaction which saw minor league winger Greg Hubick head to Toronto.To this point the trade would have to favor the Habs. While Jarvis has only scored three goals and counted 18 points, his defensive play has been enough to undoubtedly make some NHL veterans envious of his talents and on-ice enthusiasm.Yet scoring is not foreign to Doug as his 45 goals and 133 points with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey Association Major Junior A last season testify.&ldquo;With the Petes I got a lot of points on the power play,&rdquo; he explains.Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Jarvis&rsquo; game is his ability to win faceoffs. Doug has impressed coach Scotty Bowman so much that he is very often used as the pivot man when the Canadiens have a &ldquo;must&rdquo; faceoff confronting them.Jarvis credits Peterborough mentor Roger Neilson, who is considered one of the leading junior coaches in the country, with his efficiency in the faceoff circle.&ldquo;Faceoffs were a big part of Roger&rsquo;s game,&rdquo; Doug states. &ldquo;We practiced strategy and it was a big value to me.&rdquo;Jarvis is an even-headed young man on the ice and off. He is a religious individual and this may aid him with his on-ice temperament.&ldquo;I think it does to a certain extent,&rdquo; he opines. &ldquo;Hopefully I&rsquo;m that way off the ice, too.&rdquo;Every first-year player has a guiding light on the team and in Doug&rsquo;s case it&rsquo;s 12-year veteran Jim Roberts.&ldquo;Jim has helped me a lot. He helps me in a joking manner. He&rsquo;s a real great guy,&rdquo; Doug adds.The adjustment from junior to the professional ranks sometimes poses a problem for certain individuals and Jarvis is no exception.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a gradual process and still is,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;The more games I play the more confidence I have. Travelling is a big part of the adjustment.&ldquo;Living by yourself isn&rsquo;t exactly a benefit, either. I&rsquo;m not exactly starving, but not far off,&rdquo; he jokingly states.While most rookies set marks they would like to reach as far as goals and points are concerned, Jarvis is content to go along on a game-to-game basis.&ldquo;I want to be as much help as I can be and just play the best hockey I can when I&rsquo;m on the ice.&rdquo;HAB-BITS: With an average of only 12.3 penalty minutes per game the Canadiens are in 12th place in the penalty standings&hellip;At the half-way mark the Habs had totalled six points more than last season at the same point. The Montreal offense has been about the same while the defense has improved greatly with 31 less goals against&hellip;With Bob Gainey (eye injury) and Serge Savard (knee ailment) joining Jacques Lemaire on the wounded list the Canadiens called up defenseman Rick Chartraw and forward Ron Andruff from the AHL&rsquo;s Nova Scotia Voyageurs. Chartraw recorded his first NHL goal in 3-2 win in Washington&hellip;Doug Risebrough and Dave &lsquo;Tiger&rsquo; Williams of the Toronto Maple Leafs had two scuffles in Hab&rsquo;s 2-0 win at Forum. The last bout ended with both players in the penalty box with the linesmen finally separating the two. Risebrough, who suffered a gash above his left eye in the flareup, found himself in the aisle behind the penalty bench with linesman Bob Luther trying to restrain him&hellip;Ken Dryden&rsquo;s shutout over the Leafs was his seventh of the current campaign.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01594/3555354-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="567" height="510"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG JARVIS&hellip;He Has The Talent</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

Canadiens’ Jarvis Excels On Defense

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; search for a winning combination is continuing and Alex Delvecchio is willing to try anything he thinks might work.The latest experiment involves using assistant coach Billy Dea behind the bench during games while Delvecchio, the general manager and coach, watches the Detroit games from the press box.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still the coach,&rdquo; Delvecchio said. &ldquo;It definitely has to help a coach to watch a game from up here (the press box). You see so much more of the game and how it&rsquo;s developing.&ldquo;Billy and I will communicate during a game, between the periods, but he&rsquo;ll run the club from the bench.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t tell him what lines to use or what players to send out. I try to spot things that might help us, like which players are going good or the things we&rsquo;re doing wrong so that we can correct them as the game is in progress. &ldquo;Delvecchio said the move was permanent and appeared satisfied with the early returns. The Wings won their first two games with Dea behind the bench, both shutout victories for goalie Jimmy Rutherford, before losing.Until now, it was the responsibility of Dea and Denis DeJordy, the Wings&rsquo; other assistant coach, to watch from the press box and report to Delvecchio. Now the roles have been reversed.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how the other NHL teams handle it, with the assistant watching and then reporting to the coach,&rdquo; Delvecchio said. &ldquo;But we can do it this way because our players have a great deal of respect for Billy and he shouldn&rsquo;t have any trouble.&rdquo;Dea, a former Red Wing player, said he was &ldquo;upset and nervous&rdquo; all day before his debut on Dec. 31.&ldquo;The players made it easy for me,&rdquo; Dea said. &ldquo;They were very cooperative. I was kind of uneasy about making wrong decisions like sending the wrong line out in a certain situation.&ldquo;The way this is set up is that Alex is still very close to the club. This is his team and he wants it to play his way. But we think alike and there won&rsquo;t be any problems.&rdquo;The Wings received a jolt when it was learned that captain Danny Grant would need surgery to repair a partially ruptured anterior thigh muscle and was lost for the season. Grant suffered the injury in Kansas City and when he missed the game the following day in Minnesota, it snapped his consecutive game streak at 556. Ironically, the streak started when Grant played for Minnesota.Grant underwent surgery on Jan. 5.MOTOR CITY SHORTS: Russian stars Vladislav Tretiak the goalie, and Valeri Kharlamov are on the Wings&rsquo; negotiation list&hellip;Club official John Ziegler said that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s possible in four or five years there may be some Russians playing in the NHL&rsquo;&hellip;Carry Podolski, a fresh-man at Lake Superior State College, is the recipient of this year&rsquo;s Gordi Howe Scholarship. Podolski, 19, is the son of former Red Wing Nelson Podolski. He is the third recipent of the award, worth $16,000 and donated by the Wings in honor of Howe.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01440/3555385-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="540" height="589"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILLY DEA&hellip;Fast Start</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

Dea Handling Red Wings From Bench

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02331/3555416-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0020-02

IS YOUR SMILING FACE IN THIS PICTURE? IT SURELY CAN BE IN 1976

<div class="byline">BY HAL SIGURDSON</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Any jubilation Phil Maloney may have felt over watching his Vancouver Canucks win three consecutive road games for the first time this National Hockey League season had to be tempered somewhat by the way his troops went about it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01284/3555447-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="267" height="394"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Maloney</figcaption></div>In two victories in Detroit&mdash;the Canucks ended one trip there, then began their next in the same locale&mdash;and another in Washington the formula was the same.First Maloney would watch his team build up a seemingly comfortable early lead only to wind up scrambling for dear life at the end to preserve it.In fact, as the Canucks reached the halfway point in their schedule, 40 games, their coach and general manager had to go all the way back to game No. 32 to find one where his team had out-scored an opponent in the third period.That was back on Dec. 20 against, of all people, the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens scored early in the third period to open up a 2-0 lead only to see Vancouver bounce back with two quick goals to earn a 2-2 tie.The next time out the Canucks were outscored 2-1 in the third period during the course of a 4-2 loss to the Blues in St. Louis. Then, though they came out of the stretch with three wins and a tie, they went four straight games without scoring a single third period goal.Actually, that figure should read five games. The Canucks did manage a third period goal in Washington, but only after new coach Tommy McVie had lifted goaltender Bernie Wolfe in favor of a sixth attacker.The third period drought finally ended in Buffalo&rsquo;s red light district, where the Canucks scored four times against the Sabres in the closing 20 minutes. The only problem there was the Sabres scored six.Part of the Canucks&rsquo; third period problems may simply be the fact that in many of those games they went into the closing period with leads. Unwisely, but understandably, they were probably concentrating more on protecting what they had instead of trying to add to their total.However, there is another possible answer, too, and Maloney isn&rsquo;t discounting it. Teams which frequently get outscored in the third period often aren&rsquo;t as well conditioned as the teams they&rsquo;re playing.In Vancouver&rsquo;s case, that&rsquo;s a distinct possibility.The Canucks&rsquo; demanding travel schedule&mdash;some 75,000 miles of air travel-tends to leave the players with too much time to sample restaurant food and drink and not enough on practice ice.Los Angeles coach Bobby Pulford once estimated the Kings&rsquo; travel caused his players to spend up to 25 per cent less time practicing than some of his more centrally located rivals.Since they travel marginally farther and have fewer direct flights than the Kings the Canucks&rsquo; loss of practice time figures to be slightly higher.After hitting the halfway point in the schedule on the road, the Canucks began the second half by playing seven of their next eight games at home.Maloney has vowed to take that opportunity to make sure whatever problems his Canucks may have, conditioning won&rsquo;t be one of them.CANUCK CAPERS: Injuries&mdash;and those, too, could be partially the result of lack of conditioning&mdash;continue to complicate life for Maloney. Left winger Ron Sedlbauer missed eight games with a charley horse and rookie right winger Rick Blight was forced to sit out four with a bruised shoulder. With those two missing, Maloney recalled rookie winger Brad Gassoff from Tulsa of the Central league and said he liked what he saw of the muscular first-year pro during a three-game whirl on the road. With Sedlbauer and Blight healthy again, Gassoff has gone back to Tulsa, but Maloney doesn&rsquo;t discount the possibility both Gassoff and fellow rookie Glen Richardson will be back to bolster the Canucks in their stretch drive. &#9632;

f0021-01

Maloney Concerned Over Canucks’ Late-Game Fading

<h2>Tue. Jan. 13 DETROIT 0, ISLANDERS 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01310/3555730-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="634" height="343"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 3, ATLANTA 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02235/3555723-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="646" height="470"></div><h2>MONTREAL 3, WASHINGTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03206/3555716-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="643" height="448"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 2, BOSTON 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04162/3555709-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="636" height="513"></div><h2>BUFFALO 3, ST. LOUIS 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-05137/3555702-1-eng-US/f0022-052.jpg" title="f0022-05" width="636" height="501"></div><h2>Wed. Jan. 14 RANGERS. 1, VANCOUVER 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-06109/3555695-1-eng-US/f0022-062.jpg" title="f0022-06" width="648" height="174"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0796/3555688-1-eng-US/f0022-072.jpg" title="f0022-07" width="639" height="306"></div><h2>KANSAS CITY 3 DETROIT 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0886/3555681-1-eng-US/f0022-082.jpg" title="f0022-08" width="659" height="617"></div><h2>CHICAGO 2, CALIFORNIA 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-0978/3555674-1-eng-US/f0022-092.jpg" title="f0022-09" width="637" height="418"></div><h2>TORONTO 6, MINNESOTA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1068/3555667-1-eng-US/f0022-102.jpg" title="f0022-10" width="638" height="259"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1163/3555660-1-eng-US/f0022-112.jpg" title="f0022-11" width="640" height="282"></div><h2>Thu. Jan. 15 PITTSBURGH 1, PHILADELPHIA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1259/3555653-1-eng-US/f0022-122.jpg" title="f0022-12" width="644" height="387"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 5, ATLANTA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1352/3555646-1-eng-US/f0022-132.jpg" title="f0022-13" width="642" height="471"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 3, BUFFALO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1444/3555639-1-eng-US/f0022-142.jpg" title="f0022-14" width="656" height="470"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 0, BOSTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1542/3555632-1-eng-US/f0022-152.jpg" title="f0022-15" width="638" height="418"></div><h2>TORONTO 6, KANSAS CITY 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1636/3555625-1-eng-US/f0022-162.jpg" title="f0022-16" width="643" height="612"></div><h2>Fri. Jan. 16 RANGERS 0, CALIFORNIA 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1733/3555618-1-eng-US/f0022-172.jpg" title="f0022-17" width="664" height="450"></div><h2>CHICAGO 2, VANCOUVER 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1832/3555611-1-eng-US/f0022-182.jpg" title="f0022-18" width="462" height="66"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-1932/3555604-1-eng-US/f0022-192.jpg" title="f0022-19" width="646" height="338"></div><h2>Sat. Jan. 17 ATLANTA 2, ISLANDERS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-2031/3555597-1-eng-US/f0022-202.jpg" title="f0022-20" width="647" height="446"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 7, KANSAS CITY 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-2131/3555590-1-eng-US/f0022-212.jpg" title="f0022-21" width="648" height="477"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 2, MONTREAL 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-2228/3555583-1-eng-US/f0022-222.jpg" title="f0022-22" width="640" height="415"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 3, MINNESOTA 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-2328/3555576-1-eng-US/f0022-232.jpg" title="f0022-23" width="644" height="529"></div><h2>BUFFALO 2, PITTSBURGH 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-2424/3555569-1-eng-US/f0022-242.jpg" title="f0022-24" width="641" height="375"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01290/3555562-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="608" height="62"></div><h2>TORONTO 4, DETROIT 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02228/3555555-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="645" height="585"></div><h2>CALIFORNIA 5, VANCOUVER 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03177/3555548-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="650" height="516"></div><h2>BOSTON 5, ST. LOUIS 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04143/3555541-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="653" height="559"></div><h2>Sun. Jan. 1 8 RANGERS 3, PITTSBURGH 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-05118/3555534-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="647" height="542"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 0, CHICAGO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-06104/3555527-1-eng-US/f0023-062.jpg" title="f0023-06" width="643" height="460"></div><h2>ATLANTA 2, MONTREAL4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0790/3555520-1-eng-US/f0023-072.jpg" title="f0023-07" width="631" height="114"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0875/3555513-1-eng-US/f0023-082.jpg" title="f0023-08" width="636" height="370"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 8, DETROIT 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-0961/3555506-1-eng-US/f0023-092.jpg" title="f0023-09" width="645" height="650"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 1. BUFFALO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1051/3555499-1-eng-US/f0023-102.jpg" title="f0023-10" width="631" height="206"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1138/3555492-1-eng-US/f0023-112.jpg" title="f0023-11" width="633" height="254"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1327/3555485-1-eng-US/f0023-132.jpg" title="f0023-13" width="556" height="559"><figcaption class="caption-body">TONY ESPOSITO</figcaption></div><h2>NHL Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1232/3555478-1-eng-US/f0023-122.jpg" title="f0023-12" width="637" height="916"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

National Hockey League Summaries

(Standings on Wed. Jan. 21)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-2516/3555761-1-eng-US/f0022-252.jpg" title="f0022-25" width="643" height="753"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 13Detroit 0 at N.Y. Islanders 1; Los Angeles 3 at Atlanta 0; Montreal 3 at Washington 2; Pittsburgh 2 at Boston 6; Buffalo 3 at St. Louis 7.Wed. Jan. 14N.Y, Rangers 1 at Vancouver 5; Kansas City 3 at Detroit 8; Chicago 2 at Californio 2; Toronto 6 at Minnesota 5.Thu. Jan. 1 5Pittsburgh 1 at Philadelphia 4; St. Louis 5 at Atlanta 3, Washington 3 at Buffalo 5; Los Angeles 0 at Boston 4; Toronto 6 at Kansas City 4Fri. Jan. 16N.Y. Rangers 0 at California 7; Chicago 2 at Vancouver 1.Sat. Jan. 1 7Atlanta 2 at N.Y. Islanders 2; Philadelphia 7 at Kansas City 1; Los Angeles 2 at Montreal 4; Washington 3 at Minnesota 7; Buffalo 2 at Pittsburgh 3. Toronto 4 at Detroit 4; California 5 at Vancouver 3; Boston 5 at St. Louis 7.Sun. Jan. 18N.Y. Rangers 3 at Pittsburgh 8; Philadelphia 0 at Chicago 2; Atlanta 2 at Montreal 4; Los Angeles 8 at Detroit 3; Minnesota 1 at Buffalo 4.<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Tue. Jan. 20All Star Game at Philadelphia.Wed. Jan. 21Chicago at N.Y. Rangers; N.Y. Islanders at Washington; Vancouver at Minnesota; St. Louis at Kansas City.Thu. Jan. 22Detroit at N.Y. Islanders; Atlanta at Philadelphia; Montreal at Pittsburgh; Toronto at Los Angeles; Buffalo at Boston.Fri. Jan. 23N.Y. Rangers at Washington, Buffalo at Atlanta; Minnesota at Vancouver; Kansas City at Californio.Sat. Jan. 24Los Angeles at N.Y. Islanders; Philadelphia at Montreal; Washington at Pittsburgh; Boston at Detroit; Toronto at Vancouver; Chicago at St. Louis.Sun. Jan. 25Los Angeles at N.Y. Rangers; Philadelphia at Boston; Montreal at Detroit; Minnesota at Pittsburgh; Kansas City at Chicago; St. Louis at Buffalo; Toronto at California.Tue. Jan. 27Minnesota at N.Y. Islanders, Philadelphia at Atlanta, Montreal at Vancouver; Detroit at St. Louis, Washington at Los Angeles.Wed. Jan. 28Buffalo at N.Y. Rangers, N.Y, Islanders at Toronto; Atlanta at Chicago; Washington at California; Kansas City at Minnesota.Thu. Jan. 29N.Y Rangers at St. Louis; Philadelphia at Buffalo, Kansas City at Pittsburgh; Detroit at Los Angeles; Chicago at Boston.Fri. Jan. 30Boston at Atlanta; Montreal at California; Washington at Vancouver. &#9632;

f0022-25

LOOKING AT THE NHL SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-14" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-1426/3555792-1-eng-US/f0023-142.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL Team Rosters

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD. Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U. S. and Canada<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02229/3555837-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="541" height="590"><figcaption class="caption-body">DANNY LAWSON&hellip;Milestone Goal</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03160/3555830-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="547" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body">WAYNE WOOD&hellip;First WHA Shutout</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;Joe Crozier&rsquo;s Calgary Cowboys, led by the scoring of Danny Lawson, who recently notched the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s 2,000th goal of the 1975-76 season, have used good basic hockey to win seven of their last eight games. They have moved to the third best record in the WHA after the 14th week with 48 points.Six of these seven wins have been against Canadian Division opponents, three of the six wins have been against Winnipeg, including a 5-0 shutout by 24-year-old backup goaltender Wayne Wood&hellip;who is undefeated in 10 decisions thus far this season. It was Wayne&rsquo;s first major league shutout.The Calgary team is four points behind the Nordiques and have three games in hand on the second place club and have played five fewer games than the front running Winnipeg Jets.The Rhoenix Roadrunners, after getting an 11 point week from Robbie Ftorek and a nine-point week from linemate Del Hal are getting ready to make a big push, as they have outscored the opposition on their home ice 25-6 in the last three games. Even though they are currently in fourth place, they are only two points out of second.The Houston Aeros have now built an 11-point bulge over the rest of the West, as the defending two time Avco Champs have won their last five games in a row.The New England Whalers have opened some breathing room with two wins last week and are six points in front of the Cincinnati Stingers. Combining consistent scoring from Tommy Webster, who has points in 18 consecutive games, and Larry Pleau and Rosaire Paiement who both have points in 10 of their last 11 games and equally consistent goaltending from Christer Abrahamsson, the New England squad has won eight of their last nine home games.The scoring parade continues to be lead by the 26-year-old left winger from Quebec, Marc Tardif, who has 74 points after 43 games. If he maintains his present pace, he&rsquo;ll become the first left winger to win the Bill Hunter Trophy; Andre Lacroix, who won in the first and third seasons plays center and Mike Walton, who won the trophy the second year, played most of the season as a right winger.Indianapolis Racer rookie, Kim Clackson, sets three records every time he gets a penalty. Even though the season is hardly half over, this 5&rsquo;11&rdquo; defenseman has set the league mark for most penalty minutes in one season by a defenseman, by a rookie, by any kind of player in the WHA history. He is averaging over six minutes per game and has 252 minutes.The Quebec Nordiques have the most proficient power play thus far, scoring on 36.2 percent of their opportunities and lead the league with 47 power play goals. Surprisingly enough, the club with the best record in the league, the Winnipeg Jets, have the least proficient power play scoring on only 13.4 percent of their opportunities, partially because they have had more opportunities than any other club in the league. After 45 games, the Jets have had 232 chances to exercise their power play unit. The club with the second most chances is Cincinnati and they have had 169.The Jets have not been called for a penalty in 137 minutes and 39 seconds-a league record.<h2>WHA Leaders</h2><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01296/3555823-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="642" height="1172"></div> &#9632;

f0024-02

Amazing Calgary Cowboys Chasing Nordiques, Jets

<div class="byline">BY DOUG MCCONNELL</div>PHOENIX&mdash;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wear a hat and I guess I never will,&rdquo; shrugs Del Hall, the Phoenix Roadrunner winger with the hot stick.Hall has 24 goals this season, 19 goals in his last 18 games, six in his last three outings, and nine times this season he has scored two goals in one game, but he has never had a hat trick in pro hockey.Hall is the left side of the Roadrunners&rsquo; &ldquo;Lightning Line,&rdquo; which has accounted for 37 goals and 52 assists for 89 points in the 18 games since Hall joined Robbie Ftorek and John Gray Dec. 2. If you count the three assists contributed by Lauri Mononen, who filled in for Gray one game, they have 92 points in that span.Ftorek has 10 goals and 28 assists for 38 points in the 18 games, including two hat tricks, and his total of 18 goals and 41 assists for 59 points makes him the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s leading scorer outside the Canadian Division teams which have all played up to five more games than Phoenix.The Roadrunners are guided by a defensive-minded coach, Sandy Hucul, but have scored 21 goals in their last three games.Rookie center Dave Gorman was hospitalized and lost for an estimated 10 days when he caught a stick in the eye.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a precautionary measure,&rdquo; said team doctor Eli Krigsten. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s blood in the eye. It&rsquo;s not serious, but it could become serious. It means he&rsquo;ll probably be out 10 days.Meanwhile, Wayne Belisle, president of the Minnesota Fighting Saints said he&rsquo;d not only meet the mid-January payroll but it would be a double pay day for the Saints.The players voted to continue playing after the Dec. 31 payroll was not met to give Belisle time to raise funds.A Chicago-based co-operative is reportedly ready to buy the club or provide enough funds to allow the operation to continue. Belisle would not identify the group but said he and city officials have had several meetings with it.&ldquo;The big thing is if the purchase goes through, and I&rsquo;m optimisitic at this point, the team would remain in St. Paul,&rdquo; Belisle said.Another group headed by St. Paul businessman Pat O&rsquo;Halloran also is interested in buying the World Hockey Association franchise but hasn&rsquo;t made a solid offer, Belisle said.A St. Paul group called the &ldquo;movers and shakers&rdquo; has raised about $14,000 of a $150,000 goal in an effort to keep the club afloat until a buyer is found.The Saints are averaging well over 9,000 per game but have had a lack of cash flow since backers pulled out last fall and the money from the sale of over 4,000 season tickets had been spent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01245/3555868-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="503" height="553"><figcaption class="caption-body">DEL HALL&hellip;Supplies Lightning</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0025-01

Hat Tricks Elude Roadrunners’ Hall; Saints Attract Prospective Purchasers

DALLAS&mdash;A four-man committee will carry out the duties of the vacated Central Hockey League presidency, following the resignation of Max McNab to become general manager of the National League&rsquo;s Washington Capitals.After a meeting of the CHL governors in Montreal, Jim Gregory, Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager and chairman of the CHL board, announced the duties will be handled by himself, McNab Tommy Ivan (Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; general manager), and Brian F. O&rsquo;Neill (executive director of the National League).&ldquo;Mr. O&rsquo;Neill will handle all disciplinary matters arising in the CHL,&rdquo; said Gregory. &ldquo;The day-today league business will continue to be handled at the headquarters in Dallas through Bill Adler, who has been Mr. McNab&rsquo;s right hand man since the CHL office was moved to Dallas in August, 1974.&rdquo;&ldquo;Applications are being accepted from candidates for the CHL presidency,&rdquo; Gregory stated.The announcement of the four-man committee seemed to confirm rumors the CHL governors have a man in mind to succeed McNab as league president, but he cannot leave his present duties in hockey until the season ends. &#9632;

Four To Run Central Loop Operations

<h2>ALL STAR GAME</h2><h3>Tue. Jan. 13 CANADA6, U.S.A. 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01248/3556042-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="642" height="443"></div><h3>Wed. Jan. 14 HOUSTON 1, WINNIPEG 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02199/3556035-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="641" height="502"></div><h3>Thu. Jan. 15 CLEVELAND 3, INDIANAPOLIS 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03163/3556028-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="642" height="417"></div><h3>CINCINNATI 2, NEW ENGLAND 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04124/3556021-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="652" height="639"></div><h3>CALGARY 3, QUEBEC 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05100/3556014-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="638" height="504"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0679/3556007-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="608" height="92"></div><h3>MINNESOTA 4, SAN DIEGO 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0768/3556000-1-eng-US/f0026-072.jpg" title="f0026-07" width="645" height="615"></div><h3>Fri. Jan. 16 NEW ENGLAND 3, CLEVELAND 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0859/3555993-1-eng-US/f0026-082.jpg" title="f0026-08" width="643" height="475"></div><h3>EDMONTON 5, WINNIPEG 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0953/3555986-1-eng-US/f0026-092.jpg" title="f0026-09" width="642" height="287"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1050/3555979-1-eng-US/f0026-102.jpg" title="f0026-10" width="639" height="150"></div><h3>MINNESOTA 1, PHOENIX 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1147/3555972-1-eng-US/f0026-112.jpg" title="f0026-11" width="639" height="361"></div><h3>HOUSTON 5 OTTAWA 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1241/3555965-1-eng-US/f0026-122.jpg" title="f0026-12" width="641" height="554"></div><h3>Sat. Jan. 17 HOUSTON 2, CALGARY 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1341/3555958-1-eng-US/f0026-132.jpg" title="f0026-13" width="636" height="401"></div><h3>TORONTO 3, QUEBEC 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1437/3555951-1-eng-US/f0026-142.jpg" title="f0026-14" width="651" height="624"></div><h3>MINNESOTA 4, PHOENIX 2</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1534/3555944-1-eng-US/f0026-152.jpg" title="f0026-15" width="652" height="659"></div><h3>CINCINNATI 4, INDIANAPOLIS 0</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1627/3555937-1-eng-US/f0026-162.jpg" title="f0026-16" width="642" height="422"></div><h3>CLEVELAND 4, SAN DIEGO 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1723/3555930-1-eng-US/f0026-172.jpg" title="f0026-17" width="639" height="455"></div><h3>Sun. Jan. 18 NEW ENGLAND 0. WINNIPEG 8</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1822/3555923-1-eng-US/f0026-182.jpg" title="f0026-18" width="648" height="452"></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

World Hockey Association Summaries

(Standings on Tue. Jan. 20)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1922/3556073-1-eng-US/f0026-192.jpg" title="f0026-19" width="644" height="590"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 13Canadian All Stars 6, USA All Stars 1.Wed. Jan. 14Houston 1 at Winnipeg 4.Thu. Jan. 15Cleveland 3 at Indianapolis 1; Cincinnati 2 at New England 5, Calgary 3 at Quebec 5; Minnesota 4 at Son Diego 5; Houston 5 at Ottawa 4.Fri. Jan. 16New England 3 at Cleveland 4; Edmonton 5 at Winnipeg 1; Minnesota 1 at Phoenix 3.Sat. Jan. 17Cincinnati 4 at Indianapolis 0; Houston 2 at Calgary 4; Toronto 3 at Quebec 4; Minnesota 4 at Phoenix 2; Cleveland 4 at San Dieao 5.Sun. Jan. 1 8New England 0 at Winnipeg 8.<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2>Tue. Jan. 20Indianapolis at Quebec, New England at Phoenix; Toronto at Houston.Wed. Jan. 21Cleveland at Cincinnati; New England at. Houston; Calgary at Winnipeg; San Diego at Minnesota.Thu. Jan. 22Toronto at Phoenix.Fri. Jan. 23Ottawa at Indianapolis; New England at Cleveland; Calgary at Houston; Edmonton at Winnipeg; San Diego at Minnesota.Sat. Jan. 24New England at Cincinnati; Toronto at Son Diego, Phoenix at Ottawa.Sun. Jan. 25Cleveland at Indianapolis, Calgary at Houston; Edmonton at Quebec; Toronto at Minnesota, San Diego at Phoenix.Tue. Jan. 27Cincinnati at Quebec; Edmonton at Toronto; Phoenix at San Diego.Wed. Jan. 28Cleveland at Cincinnati; Calgary at Phoenix, Winnipeg at Minnesota; Houston at Edmonton.Thu. Jan. 29Minnesota at Indianapolis; Calgary at San Diego.Fri. Jan. 30Houston at Indianapolis; Cleveland at Phoenix; Winnipeg at New England. &#9632;

f0026-19

WHA SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">BY RICH PASSAN</div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;To hear Indianapolis Racers&rsquo; general manager Jim Browitt put it, Kim Clackson&rsquo;s 252 penalty minutes in the first 37 games of the season should be blamed on the rest of the World Hockey Association.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01232/3556111-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="266" height="362"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kim Clackson</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s a tough kid and gets blamed for a lot of things that aren&rsquo;t his fault,&rdquo; said Browitt. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a super kid. We like the way he plays hockey.&rdquo;The way the 20-year-old young man from Saskatoon plays it is rough. Browitt can be expected to protect his young defenseman from criticism. But he certainly cannot condone some of Clackson&rsquo;s act ions this season.For instance the night he landed a two-hander (from behind) on top of the head of Cleveland center Jim Harrison. That eventually resulted in one of what is now becoming familiar benchemptying brawls involving the Racers.Clackson, a sturdy 5&rsquo;11&rdquo;, 185-poun-der, has already smashed the WHA record for penalty minutes, set in the league&rsquo;s first year by Houston Aeros&rsquo; defenseman John Schella.At the rate he is going, he is certain to hit around 550 and possibly higher. The only thing that can stop him would be a suspension by the league office, not exactly an impossibility at the rate he&rsquo;s piling up the minutes.Among Clackson&rsquo;s penalties are 26 fighting majors, 30 minors, six misconducts and fines totalling $550. He accumulated 52 minutes in a Dec. 28 game against the Cincinnati Stingers, prompting Cincy coach Terry Slater to say, &ldquo;He needs to be taught a lesson.&rdquo;Two days later, Clarckson set league record with eight penalties in Denver against the now-defunct Spurs&mdash;four minors, three majors and the automatic game misconduct.It&rsquo;s getting to the point where referees are paying special attention to Clackson, who spends almost as much time in the penalty box as he does on the ice. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t go looking for trouble,&rdquo; Clackson said, &ldquo;but I guess I have a reputation now.&ldquo;If someone gives me a cheap shot, I&rsquo;ll pay him back ten-fold. I don&rsquo;t mind admitting I keep grudges,&rdquo; continued the baby-faced rookie. He also knows there are plenty of players around the WHA looking for him. too.It&rsquo;s the general consensus around the league that Clackson is following orders and making like a tough guy.Clackson&rsquo;s fighting acumen has spilled over to coach Jacques Demers, who tangled with New England equipment man Skip Cunningham on Jan. 5 and broke his hand landing a punch.New England&rsquo;s Nick Fotiu and Clackson were the main combatants in this one with Ted Scharf of the Racers soon joining them.Demers was ultimately slapped with a game misconduct at the end of the second-period brawl and Browitt took over the bench guiding the Racers to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Whalers.Several days later, Browitt shipped Bobby Whitlock to Mohawk Valley of the North American Hockey League; traded future considerations to Calgary for left winger Hugh Harris, and sent defenseman Bill Prentice to Quebec for right winger Rene Leclerc who automatically became the Racers&rsquo; top scorer.NEW ENGLAND: The Whalers are 9-3-2 in their last 14 games and now have opened up a little gap over second-place Cincinnati in the WHA East. They are 5-2 under new coach Don Blackburn.The line of Rosie Paiement, Larry Pleau and Tom Webster has carried the club, along with sensational goaltending of Christer Abrahamsson. Webster has set WHA record of scoring in 18 consecutive games, sniping for 17 goals and assisting on 18 others in that span. He has 10 game-winning goals, including six in a row.Pleau, after a poor start, has come on strong with 12 goals and 16 assists in a 17-game stretch, while Paiement is 1017&mdash;27 in a 20-gamespan.During his fight with Clackson, Fotiu had his bare hand skated over and a 75-minute operation was needed to repair severed tendons. He&rsquo;ll be out 6-8 weeks&hellip;Steady defenseman Brad Selwood will be lost until the World Trophy playoffs with torn ankle ligaments suffered in the same game.CINCINNATI: Coach Terry Slater is unhappy the way some of his men are playing on the road. &ldquo;Only half the players are going,&rdquo; he said. The Stingers&rsquo; problem, according to Slater, is not attributable to the defense.The forwards are not coming back to help and the Stingers have been surrendering goals at a rather large clip. Slater cited the two-way play of Rick Dudley, Bryan Campbell, Pierre Guite and Murray Myers.A Star Spangled Banner controversy is growing in the Queen City. The Stingers have a 12-2 record when America the Beautiful is played before the game and just 1-3 with the Star Spangled Banner. The community wants to hear more of the latter.Serge Aubry, the goaltender released a few weeks ago by the Stingers, is appealing to the WHA office in an effort to reach some sort of a contract settlement with the club.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02184/3556104-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="558" height="661"><figcaption class="caption-body">LARRY PLEAU&hellip;Came On Strong</figcaption></div>CLEVELAND: The Crusaders have been playing much better hockey since a pre-Christmas talk by coach John Wilson. For the first time since late November, they put victories back-to-back against Phoenix and San Diego.Then they went to Houston and dropped their ninth game in a row on the road and 10th one-goal game, 6-5, after having fought back to tie on four different occasions.Popular defenseman Wayne Muloin was sent to the Edmonton Oilers for young winger Bill Evo, who played for Wilson last season at Michigan-Baltimore. The swap was not popular with the fans, who liked Muloin&rsquo;s 110 percent effort.Goaltender Gerry Cheevers missed a few games with a slightly separated shoulder and Bob Whidden filled in with some of the best goaling he&rsquo;s displayed since becoming a Crusader. &#9632;

f0027-01

New ‘Bad Man’ Clackson Causing Furor But Racers Claim Rookie ‘Target’ Of Refs

<div class="byline">BY STEVE MARANTZ</div>KANSAS CITY&mdash;Getting beat is one thing but getting beat up is another, and the Scouts have taken the position that in their case the two are not mutually exclusive. Bearing in mind that both are happening to them regularly, the Scouts dealt fora solution.As a result toughie Steve Durbano and Chuck Arnason were obtained from Pittsburgh for Simon Nolet and Ed Gilbert. Nolet, the team&rsquo;s top expansion pick in 1974 and captain, will offer the Penguins a sage two-way performance.What the Scouts want from Durbano is nothing spectacular. A few bodychecks maybe, a broken nose or two. Mainly they want him to keep the area cleared in front of goalie Denis Herron, who has been getting little help from anybody else.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get him as a muscleman,&rdquo; said Bep Guidolin, the Scout coach. &ldquo;He skates well and anticipates well on defense. He&rsquo;ll clear the net, and look at the the rest of our defense. It&rsquo;s not the youngest.&rdquo;Meaning that the 24-year-old Durbano can call Kansas City home for a long time if he can avoid the tempermental outbursts that plagued him in St. Louis and Pittsburgh. He is the hitting defenseman Guidolin has been seeking for the Scouts from the beginning. Durbano&rsquo;s willingness to scrap will contrast strongly against the timid team character of the Scouts. At least Bep hopes so.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go through an 80-game schedule without hitting anybody,&rdquo; says Bep, quite a scrapper in his own playing days. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not laying the onus on Durbano. He can play if he sets his mind to it. He&rsquo;s going to play a lot of hockey. I know he&rsquo;ll get the penalties but there shouldn&rsquo;t be too many. He&rsquo;s got to take a long look at himself.&rdquo;Bep considers Durbano more than a fighting hack. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a goon,&rdquo; says Bep. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good kid, a good hockey player. He gets upset with himself sometimes and that disrupts his playing ability.&rdquo;In Arnason, the Scouts are getting a 26 goal scorer last season who will either step into Nolet&rsquo;s vacated right wing or go down center ice. Arnason hadn&rsquo;t played center since his junior days before he was put there by Guidolin in his first game as a Scout. &ldquo;I like the position,&rdquo; said Arnason after the 8-4 loss to the Rangers. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll skate anywhere as long as I can play.&rdquo;Nolet&rsquo;s departure strips the Scouts of one of their most popular players, not to mention one of the few who could find the net. His offensive output was down this season, partially because he sad slowed a step. &ldquo;Bep told me I was lucky I didn&rsquo;t end up in Washington,&rdquo; said Nolet.LOOSE PUCKS: Claiming complacency had set in during a recent losing streak, GM Sid Abel sent-Claude Houde, Ken Murray and Germain Gagnon down to Springfield and recalled defenseman Jim McElmury. Second-round amateur pick Don Cairns was working out with the team getting in shape from knee surgery. Cairns will stay with the Scouts.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01220/3556142-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="553" height="604"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DURBANO&hellip;Clear Goal Area</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

Scouts Hope To Change Timid Character With Addition Of Tough Defender Durbano

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT HERRON</div>MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;Each week the Western Collegiate Hockey Association race gets harder to determine. Just when you think you have things pegged, somebody grabs hold of the standings and gives them a shaking.Take the first weekend into the New Year for instance: although Minnesota has been getting stronger, it sent shock waves through the WCHA when it opened a series with Michigan Tech by winning 10-5. And it was no less disbelieving when the Huskies came back the next afternoon to win 8-2 with 7,538 cramming Williams Arena.And that&rsquo;s not all: Colorado College, which had lost six games in a row, four to non-league opponents, swept talented Michigan 8-3, 4-1, and Harvard made league leading Michigan State&rsquo;s reprieve from WCHA unpleasant by thumping the Spartans 8-6, 4-3.State couldn&rsquo;t have gained ground by winning, but a couple of victories would have tasted good anyway, considering Tech, CC and Minnesota are all only two points back in the standings, Michigan stands four behind.The Minnesota-Tech series was the highlight of the January 2-3 weekend. Not so much that it exhibited a fine caliber of play, but that it was so extraordinary. The Gophers rank first in the league defensively, and the Huskies third.&ldquo;If anybody would have told me before the series that there would be 25 goals scored I would have dropped dead,&rdquo; said Tech coach John Mac-Innes. &ldquo;It was just one of those things. Minnesota has an excellent defensive team and we&rsquo;re coming on with excellent defense. Then they went wild.&rdquo;Gopher coach Herb Brooks told the Minneapolis Tribune: &ldquo;Try to figure it out. We get dinged 8-2 after coming off a 10-5 win. I can&rsquo;t explain it. I can&rsquo;t fault our team for effort; they worked just as hard today as they did Friday night. But today the last pass, the last shot just wouldn&rsquo;t click for us.&rdquo;Friday night&rsquo;s game was dominated by the Gophers, but not from the start&mdash;Tech scored first with Jim Mayer getting the first of his three hat trick goals. Minnesota broke the game open in the second period by increasing its 32 lead to 7-3. Tom Vannelli made sure of the victory in the third period by scoring twice to finish with a hat trick.There weren&rsquo;t any hats in the rink Saturday afternoon before a record crowd, but Mayer, George Lyle and Warren Young each scored a pair for the Huskies. And just as importantly. Tech goalie Bruce Horsch returned to form, making 40 stops.&ldquo;I knew Bruce would come back to a certain degree,&rdquo; said MacInnes, who had intended to play freshman John Rockwell in the Saturday contest, but after Friday&rsquo;s debacle decided to use Horsch again. &ldquo;I just couldn&rsquo;t give him a pep talk and then sit down. It would have destroyed him.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0570/3556173-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="555" height="578"><figcaption class="caption-body">GEORGE LYLE&hellip;Offensive Star</figcaption></div>Colorado College managed to destroy Michigan in that series by jumping to quick leads in both games. The Tigers led 4-0 after the first period Friday and 3-0 Saturday to continue Michigan&rsquo;s drought at the Broadmoor World Arena which dates back to 1969.Mike Haedrich and freshman Dave Delich each scored twice Friday, and Delich came back with a pair Saturday. He had six points in the series and is tied for ninth in league scoring with 12 goals and 10 assists.Colorado College&rsquo;s sweep was as much of a surprise as the scoring barrage at Minnesota. Not because the Tigers lack talent, but because the Wolverines have possibly the best team in the league and had just come off a 6-5 victory over Tech in the championship game of the Great Lakes Tournament.&ldquo;By far Michigan was the best of any single opponent we have played all year,&rdquo; says MacInnes of the loss to Michigan. &ldquo;They completely dominated the first two periods&hellip;Michigan can score with anybody, skate and hit. I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re getting real good goaltending right now, but they&rsquo;re capable of it. We had four sure goals in the third period of our game with them and Robbie Moore robbed us every time.&rdquo;WCHA NOTES: Wisconsin&rsquo;s 6-3, 75 sweep against Denver was its first of the season. Mike Meeker led Friday&rsquo;s triumph with two goals, and Dave Lundeen had the hat trick Saturday. Denver used Ernie Glanville in goal in place of freshman Jim Bales, who has been declared scholastically ineligible&hellip;Part of the reason for State&rsquo;s pair of losses to Harvard was the absence of Steve Colp, the league&rsquo;s second leading scorer. Colp&rsquo;s academic status was in question, but he is now cleared to play. &ldquo;We thought we were going to lose him (Colp), but he made up the work,&rdquo; said Spartan coach Amo Bessone. &ldquo;The kid did it all on his own and that pleased the heck out of us.&rdquo; Bessone gave Harvard its due. however. &ldquo;Harvard has a good hockey team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And their goalie. (Brian) Petrovek, is the best we&rsquo;ve seen. He&rsquo;s an All-American.&rdquo;&hellip;Minnesota-Duluth saw good goaltending from an unexpected source in its opener against Yale (Dec. 30). Freshman Ira Evans came off the bench early in the first period when Rich Kozlak was injured and withstood most of 52 shots, 23 in the third period, to notch a 5-4 victory. He was beaten in the second game (Jan. 2), however, 11-4. &#9632;

f0029-05

Minnesota, Colorado Pull Off Sweeps To Tighten WCHA Race Behind State

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>Seems like there&rsquo;s one o&rsquo; them parvanoos every year in college hockey. This year it&rsquo;s Clarkson.You&rsquo;d think that the eight seniors who graduated the eighth-place Golden Knights of a year ago had been reincarnated as less-than-errant Knight rookies. The Teachers are off to one of their best starts in several years, with a 9-5 overall mark but more importantly, an 8-2 slate in ECAC Division One.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0653/3556256-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="202" height="353"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Taylor</figcaption></div>Projecting over the rest of the season, it seems that all Jerry York&rsquo;s surprising young skaters need to do is win about eight of their 15 remaining Division One games to assure a home ice berth in the playoffs. While a tailspin certainly isn&rsquo;t out of the question, no one around the East is willing to predict it, either.A pair of tournament victories ushered the Knights into the second week of January. First they grabbed the Syracuse Invitational title by bopping Colgate 5-1 and coming from behind by three goals to edge Brown, 4-3.Then it was on to New York City where the Knights edged Cornell 4-2 in Madison Square Garden, and followed it with a vengeful 10-5 thrashing of Vermont in the final. An 11-5 win at Yale marked the end of a most satisfying road trip and provided four home games on the next part of the schedule, though those tilts could hardly be considered breathers.&ldquo;The play of Dave Taylor has been exceptional,&rdquo; exuded York the day before his charges were to take on powerful Boston University in Potsdam.&ldquo;I consider him the best player in Eastern hockey right now. He just scored his 100th point and he&rsquo;s only a junior. We&rsquo;ve also been getting great goaltending from Brian Shields, and a couple of freshmen, Kevin Zappia and Craig Loupelie, have been excellent.&rdquo;Zappia, from nearby Massena, N. Y., led all scorers with nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points through 14 games. He&rsquo;s the mainstay of the freshman line that includes Sid Tanchak and Kevin Owen. Young forwards like these were the essential ingredient in any predictions of Clarkson success this season, since defense and goal appeared set when practice started. With backup goalie George Galbraith the only senior, the youngsters had to come through in a hurry with leaders like Taylor setting the example.But Taylor, second in scoring with 11-7-18, and four others were suspended by York for three games which included the Syracuse affair, but that didn&rsquo;t bother the team. In the final, high flying Brown took the 3-0 lead in the first period, but Tanchak paced the return volley of four goals with a pair of his own in the second.In the Big, however bruised, Apple, three power play goals and a shorthanded one did the trick against Cornell, with defenseman Bill Blackwood netting a pair. Then eight different skaters scored in the romp over Vermont which saw 44 shots on Catamount goalie Tom McNamara. It atoned for the 10-4 loss at Burlington three weeks earlier which was the first game the Knights were undermanned due to suspensions.One factor helping York is the apparent boost in the quality of play of some half a dozen high schools in the sparsely populated North Country on the Empire State. Six local players on the roster, and especially Zappia, give the fans in the rural section a clutch of hometowners to cheer for when they bellow their lungs out in Walker Arena.&ldquo;Clarkson is doing so well because they&rsquo;re getting super goaltending, period,&rdquo; noted RPI coach Jim Salfi, the only other Division One coach to beat Clarkson this season.Salfi&rsquo;s team is off to an erratic start, slipping to 3-5-1 with losses of 9-4 to New Hampshire and 8-3 to Boston College in the Blue-Green Invitational, hosted this year by Dartmouth. New Hampshire took the title in that one, 63 over a scrappy Dartmouth club that had tipped BC 4-2 in the first round.New Hampshire coach Charlie Holt made some adjustments to his penalty killing formations, and they paid off with the Wildcats foiling Dartmouth on four of five attempts, plus a penalty shot which saw Kevin Johnson actually beat Dan Magnarelli but his shot hit the goal post.BC continues to improve, with Richie Smith scoring his 80th career goal against Dartmouth to become the alltime leading goal getter for the Eagles. He also had two, including the shorthanded tying score, with less than three minutes to go as BC tied Harvard 6-6 a few days later. It was the first tie ever in this series which began back in 1918. Rookie goalie Paul Skidmore has also been immense, winning all-tournament team honors in the BlueGreen.RPI&rsquo;s best effort might have been their 3-3 tie with Providence in the finals of their tournament in Troy when they threw 47 shots at Bill Milner. The Friars won the tourney but then lost an overtime game at North-Eastern, 6-5, as defenseman Mike Holmes tallied the winner for the Huntington Hounds. N.Y. lost 4-0 to the same Friars in RPI Tournament earlier.But Providence then served notice that it was hardly a fluke team by trouncing crosstown buddy Brown 9-6. Sophomore center Randy Wilson scored five goals in that first battle of Rhode Island that lifted PC&rsquo;s slate to 72-1 while it dropped Brown to 7-3 and fifth place.The Bruins, however, had just returned from an intersectional head sweller as they became the first team from the ECAC to beat St. Louis in St. Louis this year, nipping the Billikens 5-3 and 5-4. &#9632;

f0029-06

Clarkson Early Surprise In Eastern Conference Despite Eight Graduations

<div class="byline">BY AL FISCHER</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 CanadaNOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Faced with the possibility of losing their first place status in the Northern Division, the Voyageurs decided to take matters into their own hands.They had closed the year with a 2-2 deadlock and a 4-0 decision over the Rochester Amerks, their closest pursuers and they opened 1976 with a 4-2 decision over the same Amerks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03122/3556294-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="261" height="410"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Elenbass</figcaption></div>The non-losing streak continued in Springfield where the Vees rallied to produce a 5-5 deadlock against the last place Indians. Goaltender Dave Elenbaas recorded his third shutout of the campaign with his whitewash of the Amerks as his goals allowed mark continued to drop well under the 2.70 mark, easily the league&rsquo;s best.His netminding partner Walsh, last season&rsquo;s All Star choice is also getting near the less than the three per game mark as the Voyageurs continued to set the defensive pace in the league, surrendering just 103 goals in the first 36 games as the campaign neared the halfway mark.The offense, although boasting the league&rsquo;s second leading figure in goals scored, the two chief point-producers, Pierre Mondou and Guy Chouinard were held somewhat in check of late. However Rick Chartraw has picked up the slack and is making a determined bid for All-Star selection.Chartraw, along with defensive mate Bill Nyrop have drawn the covetous eyes of many NHL clubs and it would not be surprising to see the parent Montreal club swing a deal for one or both, that is if the Canadiens general manager Sam Pollock gets what he wants.Elenbaas is another who is well regarded, and here again the market is available, maybe perhaps in New York or Washington.Despite recalls, injuries, etc., the Voyageur express keeps moving right along as coach Al MacNeil continues his amazing success of keeping everybody happy.It will be difficult to dislodge the Voyageurs from the lead, especially when they beat their closest rivals in head-to-head battles.ROCHESTER: The Amerks re bounded from their losing three-game series with Nova Scotia and posted high-scoring decisions over Richmond and Springfield to gain some lost ground.An 8-6 verdict in Richmond followed by an 8-1 assault of Springfield in Rochester, served notice that the Amerks were not out of the chase.Held to just four goals in three games against the Voyageurs, the Amerks exploded against Richmond and came right back the next night to duplicate the feat against Springfield.Balanced line scoring in those two games was the key for coach Dick Mattiussi&rsquo;s club, which trailed the Voyageurs by just three points after the first week of the new year.The No. 1 unit of Dave Hynes, Gordie Clark and Rene Drolet remains the most explosive source in the Rochester offensive scheme, but Mattiussi is now receiving productive help from Barry Merrell, Paul O&rsquo;Neil and Steve Langdon, recalled just recently from the NAHL.In addition, the Rochester defense is starting to become offensive-minded in its own right, with Ray Maluta, Rick Pagnutti, Barry Smith, Mike Milbury and Doug Halward responding with several goals and timely assists.It has certainly helped to take the burden off goalies Ken Broderick and Ross Brooks.Injuries have hurt the Amerks, but once Brian Murphy and Harry Shaw return to the lineup, the Amerks may just have enough to overhaul the highflying Voyageurs.O&rsquo;Neil&rsquo;s 23 goals were a league high as the New Year began, with Hynes close behind with 21. Hynes&rsquo; total production of 38 points earned him a fifthplace ranking among the league&rsquo;s top 20 scorers, while Clark ranked ninth with 35.Mattiussi was hopeful that the parent Boston club might return classy center Doug Gibson in time for the second-half season&rsquo;s drive.PROVIDENCE: While Rochester and Nova Scotia were having a go at it, the Reds quietly and efficiently moved into a challenging position with three straight victories in the new year.The string started with a home ice victory against Baltimore, followed by a road triumph against the same Clippers and concluded in a home victory over Hershey&rsquo;s Southern Division leaders.The victory streak was even sweeter, since it was partially established without the services of No. 1 netminder Gary Bromley, who was recalled by Buffalo on emergency conditions. Bromley departed shortly after the opener of the series with Baltimore, picking up a 4-2 decision.Paul Harrison, on loan from Minnesota, performed admirably however and was chiefly responsible for the second victory over Baltimore, a game in which the Reds were outshot by a large margin.By virtue of the victories the Reds moved to within three points of the second place Amerks and just six points in arrears of front-running Nova Scotia.Greg Holst continued his bid for the league record of scoring a point in consecutive games. He registered at least one in all three last week to raise his streak to 19 straight, just five shy of Tommy Burlington&rsquo;s mark, established with Cleveland in 1946.The Reds also remain as the league&rsquo;s top scoring team and in a 6-4 triumph over Hershey evened their log at 167 goals for and the same number against.Lynn Powis has been the scoring ring-leader, not only for the Reds, but for the entire league as well. Apparently the team captaincy he inherited from Joe Zanussi has improved his play and the Reds now look to Powis for the big play in a close game.Eddie Johnstone may be back shortly, or as soon as New York Ranger injuries diminish, as will goalies Doug Soetaert and Ed Staniowski. That will be the time for worry for general manager-coach John Muckier, who must decide just who will handle the goaltending chores.It has been a concentrated team effort that has brought the Reds to within striking distance of the top and Muckier intends to keep it that way, barring injuries, recalls, etc. He has done a remarkable job thus far.SPRINGFIELD: The Indians&rsquo; cellar-dwelling position in the North appears secure. They trail third-place Providence by 18 points and give little indication they can improve their situation.The Indian defense has been the real trouble spot for coach Jimmy Anderson as the Springfield record shows 182 goals allowed, far and away the league&rsquo;s worst record.In two games in the new year, the Indians surrendered 13 goals in gaining a 5-5 deadlock with Nova Scotia and losing an 8-1 decision in Rochester.For goalies Terry Richardson and Rocky Farr, the road has been a tough one and shows no signs of getting better. The return of Bob Taylor from Philadelphia, if and when he does come back, should help give a breather to the hard-working Richardson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0493/3556287-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="568" height="600"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL HARRISON&hellip;Won It In Goal</figcaption></div>Norm Dube lost his league lead in goal scoring to Rochester&rsquo;s Paul O&rsquo;Neil, but the veteran Indian forward still leads the loop in power-play goals with 11, just 10 off the record set by New Haven&rsquo;s Steve West in 1973-74.Billy Inglis is the only other Indian to rank among the league&rsquo;s top 20 scorers, his 31 points earning a five-way share of the 20th spot.The Indians are living up to at least one old adage. The team with the least penalties, usually winds up in last place. They showed only 415 minutes in the penalty box when the week began, 80 less than Baltimore, last place occupant in the South.Wes Wiseman, up for a short time, was sent to Winston-Salem of the Southern League, while defenseman Roger Lemelin got back into action following a short sidelining due to injury. &#9632;

f0030-03

Voyageurs Battle To Hold Northern Lead; Robins, Indians Catch Amerks On Rebound

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01216/3556332-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="637" height="588"></div><h2>GOALING RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02164/3556325-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="630" height="583"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

AHL Leaders

HERSHEY&mdash;The Bears dropped three of four as the new year began, but remained as the solid leader in the South when second-place Richmond lost its only two starts, one of them a 3-0 blanking at Chocolate town.It was the season&rsquo;s second shutout for goalie Don Edwards, whose 10-5-1 won-lost-tied record is among the league&rsquo;s best.That triumph over Richmond was the lone good news of the week for the Bears, who proceeded to drop a home-and-home series with the suddenly revitalized New Haven Nighthawks before concluding the first week of the new year with a 6-4 loss in Providence.Derek Smith, Hershey&rsquo;s chief point producer certainly makes his goals count. Of his 15 goals, five have been game winners, giving him a share of the league lead in that category with Eddie Johnstone. of Providence.The Bears welcomed the return of defenseman Mario Faubert from Pittsburgh where he had been recalled on emergency conditions.Hershey held the distinction of being the only Southern Division club to be playing at better than a .500 pace and even the Bears were only three games over at 18-15-4.The Bears also remain the league&rsquo;s leading exponent of time spent in the penalty box, with over 800 minutes thus far, almost 100 more than Providence, the runner-up. The scorekeepers either are missing the play or else the Bears are becoming a team of individuals with their league-leading mark of 17 unassisted goals.Hershey has helped the league coffers to a great extent what with 8 10-minute misconduct violations and the same number of game misconducts.However, coach Chuck Hamilton is not about to deviate from the hard-hitting, tight-checking style of play that has proved successful enough for a first place standing.RICHMOND: The Robins continued their losing skid which had reached five straight, including a tie, as the first week of the new year concluded.In that stretch were back-to-back losses to Baltimore, a tie with Providence and defeats by Hershey and Rochester, the latter an uproarious 8-6 setback at home, in which they blew the lead three times.Notably missed in the Richmond lineup are Bob Sirois and Ron Jones, Sirois was sold by Philadelphia to Washington and is currently taking a regular shift on a Cap forward line.The Robins were seriously affected by injuries to two key performers, Andre Peloffy and Don McLean. Peloffy is sidelined with a shoulder injury, while McLean is out with a back ailment. Peloffy was the club&rsquo;s second leading scorer at the time of his injury, while the loss of McLean, plus the recall, by Philadelphia, of Jack McIlhargey, has put an extreme dent in the Robins&rsquo; defensive alignment.Larry Fullan remains as the team scoring leader. His 43 points, ineluding a league-leading 36 assists, earns him a share of second place in the league scoring race.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0756/3556363-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="477" height="666"><figcaption class="caption-body">DEREK SMITH&hellip;Makes Goals Count</figcaption></div>Steve Short is still the league&rsquo;s bad boy, having amassed 135 minutes in the penalty box. The Robins also are league leaders in major penalties with 35, while the club&rsquo;s 49 power play goals is also a league high.The Robins are currently on a five-game, nine-day road trip that concludes Saturday in Hershey, before the club returns to Richmond the following night for a return match with the Bears.It gives the Robins an excellent opportunity to close the gap with the Bears, as the Richmond road record is an excellent 7-7-2.NEW HAVEN: Perhaps the Nighthawks have finally put it together as they begin the new year.They closed out the old one with three consecutive victories, including a sweep of a home-and-home series with division leading Hershey. The victory in Hershey snapped a 10-game unbeaten streak at home.The Hawks are currently nine points off the lead, but only four points in arrears of second place Richmond.Some excellent defensive play, plus outstanding goaltending, have been the key factors in New Haven&rsquo;s recent surge, plus making the complete adjustment to coach Parker MacDonald&rsquo;s way of doing things.The Hawks did lose a key performer in Norm Gratton, recalled by Minnesota due to emergency conditions.But the play of Tom Colley and Bill Lochead has sparked an explosive offense that now appears ready to challenge for division spoils.The club&rsquo;s seven hat tricks equal Providence&rsquo;s output as a league-leading mark, with Lochead showing the way with a pair, one of only three players to own that distinction this season.BALTIMORE: The miseries continue for the beleagured Clippers and their fans.A three-game losing streak, in conjunction with a like New Haven winning streak, dumped the Clippers into the Southern Division cellar. In addition, the club must play two games on the road this week while the Ice Follies are in town.Of their 20 losses, 13 have come by one goal (including 5 empty net scores). Ironically, in all but four of their first 35 games, the Clippers have outshot the opposition. Unfortunately, they make every rival goalie look like a Vezina Trophy winner.Coach Kent Douglas is at a loss to explain, except to remark, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting the shots, and eventually they&rsquo;re going to start going in for us.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0031-07

Hershey Over .500 Mark Despite Losing Streak

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 30)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01196/3556429-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="647" height="331"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 13Rochester 3 at Baltimore 2Wed. Jan. 14Baltimore 1 at Hershey 8, Springfield 4 at New Haven 3 Richmond 0 at Nova Scotia 4 Providence 2 at Rochester 6.Thu. Jan. 15Richmond 0 at Baltimore 3.Fri. Jan. 16Nona Scotia 7 at New Haven 2; Rochester 1 at Providence 2; Hershey 2 at Springfield 3.Sat. Jan. 17Richmond 2 at Hershey 6; Providence 3 at Rochester 5.Sun. Jon. 18Springfield 1at Providence 5; Hershey 5 at Richmond 3; Baltimore 4 at Rochester 8. New Haven 2 at Nova Scotia 9.<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Jan. 20New Haven at Baltimore.Wad. Jan. 21Rochester at Hershey; Providence at Nova Scotia.Thu. Jan. 22Rochester at Richmond.Fri. Jan. 23Rochester at Baltimore; Hershey at New Haven; Nova Scotia at Providence; Richmond at Springfield.Sat. Jan. 24New Haven at Hershey; Baltimore at Richmond; Nova Scotia at Springfield.Sun. Jan.2SRichmond at New Haven; Baltimore at Novo Scotia, Rochester at Providence.Tue. Jan. 27Richmond at Baltimore.Wed. Jan. 28Providence at Hershey; Rochester at Nova Scotia.Thu. Jan. 29Providence at Richmond.Fri. Jan. 30Providence at Baltimore; Nova Scotia at New Haven; Richmond at Rochester; Hershey at Springfield.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 20)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02155/3556422-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="643" height="197"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan 13Salt Lake 3 at Fort Worth 3Wed. Jan. 14Dallas 4 at Tucson 3; Salt Lake 10 at Tulsa 5.Fri. Jan. 16Tulsa 0 at Dallas 3; Oklahoma City 4 at Fort Worth 2; Tucson 4 at Salt Lake 3.Sat. Jan. 17Dallas 2 at Fort Worth 0; Tulsa 2 at Oklahoma City 2; Tucson 4 at Salt Lake 7.<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Jan. 20Oklahoma City at Tucson.Wed. Jan. 21Dallas at Salt Lake; Oklahoma City at Tucson.Thu. Jan. 22Tulsa at Fort Worth.Fri. Jan. 23Fort Worth at Oklahoma City; Dallas at Soft Lake.Sat. Jan. 24Fort Worth at Dallas; Tulsa at Oklahoma City.Mon. Jan. 26Tulsa at Salt Lake.Wed. Jan. 28Oklahoma City at Dallas; Tulsa at Salt Lake.Thu. Jan. 29Fort Worth at Tucson.Fri. Jan. 30Salt Lake at Oklahoma City, Dallas at Tulsa.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Jan. 21)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03129/3556415-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="644" height="376"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Jan. 14Columbus 4 at Fort Wayne 1; Muskegon 6 at Toledo 4.Fri. Jan. 16Flint 2 at Columbus 6; Dayton 4 at Kalamazoo 3; Saginaw 6 at Toledo 7; Muskegon 2 at Port Huron 6.Sat. Jan. 17Toledo 0 at Fort Wayne 5; Port Huron 2 at Muskegon 4; Saginaw 3 at Dayton 6; Flint 1 at Kalamazoo 4.Sun. Jan. 18Saginaw 4 at Muskegon 2; Fort Wayne 3 at Port Huron 3 Toledo 4 at Fling 5; Dayton 3 at Columbus 0.<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. Jan. 21Muskegon at Dayton.Fri. Jan. 23Columbus at Flint; Port Huron at Saginaw; Toledo at Kalamazoo; Fort Wayne at Muskegon.Sat. Jan. 24Flint at Muskegon, Columbus at Port Huron, Toledo at Dayton, Kalamazoo at Saginaw.Sun. Jan. 25Dayton at Fort Wayne; Toledo at Port Huron; Saginaw at Flint, Muskegon at Kalamazoo.Tue. Jan. 27All Star Gome at Muskegon.Wed. Jan. 28Muskegon at Fort Wayne; Toledo at Columbus; Port Huron at Kalamazoo.Thu. Jan. 29Kalamazoo at Dayton.Fri. Jan. 30Flint at Saginaw; Fort Wayne at Columbus, Dayton at Toledo.<h2>NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 20)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04104/3556408-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="631" height="397"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 13Johnstown 3 at Buffalo 2.Wed. Jan. 14Erie 3 at Cape Codders 4; Maine 4 at Binghamton 1; Mohawk Valley 7 at Philadelphia 6.Thu. Jan. 15Syracuse 4 at Mohawk Valley 3; Erie 5 at Maine 6; Binghamton 3 at Buffalo 7.Fri. Jan. 16Erie 4 at Beauce 7; Binghamton 3 at Johnstown 2; Syracuse 0 at Philadelphia 6.Sat. Jan. 17Mohawk Valley 1 at Johnstown 6; Beauce 5 at Maine 6; Syracuse 4 at Cope Codders 3; Buffalo 3 at Philadelphia 8.Sun. Jan. 18Mohawk Valley 4 at Binghamton 6; Maine 0 at Beauce 16.<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Jan. 20Mohawk Valley at Maine.Wed. Jan. 21Johnstown at Binghamton; Mohawk Valley at Cope Codders, Beauce at Eric.Thu. Jan. 22Beauce at Buffalo.Fri. Jan. 23Mohawk Volley at Syracuse; Beauce at Johnstown; Philadelphia at Cape Codders.Sat. Jan. 24Beauce at Johnstown, Syracuse at Mohawk Valley; Maine at Cape Codders, Philadelphia at Buffalo; Binghamton at Erie.Sun. Jan. 25Cape Codders at Maine, Mohawk Valley at Erie; Binghamton at Syracuse.Tue. Jan. 27Syracuse at Binghamton.Wed. Jan. 28Philadelphia at Cape Codders, Buffalo at Erie; Binghamton at Maine.Thu. Jan. 29Philadelphia at Beauce, Erie at Syracuse.Fri. Jan. 30Cape Codders at Buffalo, Maine at Johnstown; Binghamton at Mohawk Valley.<h2>SOUTHERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 20)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0591/3556401-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="636" height="196"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 13Winston-Salem 1 at Charlotte 5.Wed. Jan. 14Greensboro 2 at Hampton 5.Thu. Jan. 15Roanoke 3 at Tidewater 3.Fri. Jan. 16Winston Salem 5 at Hampton 2; Tidewater 4 at Charlotte 3; Greensboro 4 at Roanoke 6.Sat. Jan. 17Charlotte 2 at Tidewater 3; Hampton 3 at Roanoke 1; Winston-Salem 3 at Greensboro 3.Sun. Jan. 18Charlotte 4 at Hampton 0; Greensboro 3 at Winston-Salem 4.<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. Jan. 20Greensboro at Charlotte; Roanoke at Winston-Salem.Wed. Jan. 21Roanoke at Tidewater; Hampton at Greensboro.Fri. Jan. 23Winston-Salem at Tidewater; Hampton at Charlotte, Roanoke at Greensboro.Sat. Jan. 24Charlotte at Roanoke.Sun. Jan. 25Hampton at Tidewater, Winston-Salem at Roanoke, Charlotte at Greensboro.Tue. Jan. 27Greensboro at Charlotte.Wed. Jan. 28Winston-Salem at Hampton; Roanoke at Tidewater.Thu. Jan. 29Charlotte at Winston-Salem; Hampton at RoanokeFri. Jan. 30Greensboro at Hampton, Roanoke at Charlotte; Tidewater at Winston-Salem.<h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Thu. Jan. 15)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0668/3556394-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="636" height="306"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Dec. 31Waterloo 4 at Green Bay 0; Milwaukee 5 at Central Wisconsin 7; Marquette 5 at Traverse City 10.Fri. Jan. 2Marquette 1 at Central Wisconsin 6; Milwaukee 4 at Waterloo 10.Sat. Jan. 3Traverse City 4 at Central Wisconsin 2; Milwaukee 2 at Sioux City 6; Green Boy 3 at Waterloo 7.Sun. Jan. 4Traverse City 2 at Milwaukee 13; Green Bay 3 at Sioux City 4.Wad. Jan. 7Green Bay 2 at Central Wisconsin 3.Thu. Jan. 8Traverse City 3 at Marquette 1.Fri. Jon.9Green Bay 6 at Traverse City 4; Waterloo 2 at Sioux City 11.Sat. Jan. 10Green Bay 0 at Traverse City 3; Sioux City 10 at Waterloo 9; Central Wisconsin 2 at Milwaukee 10.Sun. Jan. 11North All Stars 12, South All Stars 6. &#9632;

f0031-01

LOOKING AT THE MINOR LEAGUE SCOREBOARD

NHL: 1&mdash;Montreol. 2&mdash;Detroit. 3&mdash;Boston. 4&mdash;N. Y. Rangers. 5-Chicago. 6&mdash;Toronto. 7&mdash;Los Angeles. 8&mdash;Pittsburgh. 9&#8210;California. 10&#8210;philadelphia. 11&#8210;minnesota. 12&#8210;st. Louis. 13&#8210;Vancouver. 14&#8210;buffalo. 15&#8210;N. Y. Islanders. 16&#8210;Atlanta. 17&#8210;Kansas City. 18&#8210;Washington WHA: 19&#8210;calgary. 20&#8210;cincinnati. 21&#8210;cleveland. 22&#8210;Denver. 23&#8210;Edomonton. 24&#8210;Houstan 25&#8210;indanapolis. 26&#8210;Minnesota. 27&#8210;New England. 28&#8210;Phoniex. 29&#8210;Quebec. 30&#8210;San Diego. 31&#8210;Toronto. 32&#8210;winnipeg. Inter&#8210;League: 33&#8210;N. Y. Rangers (NHL)&St. Louis (N.H.L). 34&#8210;Monteral (NHL)&Atlanta(NHL)36&#8210;Pittsuburgh (NHL)&Vancouver (NHL) 37. New England (WHA)&Washington (NHL)&(NHL). 38&#8210;Detroit. (NHL)&Minnesota (NHL) 39&#8210;Atanta(NHL)&Vancouver (NHL) 40&#8210;Phoenix, Houstan&san Diego (WHA). 41&#8210;Los Angles (NHL)&N. Y.Islanders (NHL) 43&#8210;Kanas City (NHL)&N. Y. Rangers (NHL) 44&#8210;Bostan (NHL)&Washington (NHL) 45&#8210;Minnesota (NHL)&Vancouver (NHL) 46&#8210;Calgary (WHA), Kanas City (NHL)&Minnesota (WHA). 47&#8210;Philadelphia (NHL)&Washington (NHL) 50&#8210;Bostan (NHL) San Deigo (WHA). 54&#8210;Buffolo (NHL)&Tronoto (WHA). (NHL)&Atlanta (NHL) 52&mdash;Montreal (NHL)&Toronto (WHA). 55-Buffalo (NHL)&CaIgary (WHA). 56&mdash;Buffalo (NHL).&Cleveland (WHA). 57&mdash;N. Y. Rangers(NHL)&St. Louis (NHL). 58&mdash;Detroit (NHL)&Edmonton (WHA). &#9632;

Minor League Affiliations

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>SALTLAKE&mdash;In spite of being drastically shorthanded, the Golden Eagles climbed into fourth place with a spurt that saw them win seven games in nine starts.They trounced the Tucson Mavericks, 7-1, then lost a New Year&rsquo;s night rematch, 74. In a pair of brawling games they topped the Oklahoma City Blazers, 4-2 and 60, as Ernie Miller recorded his first shutout of the season and only his second in the Central League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02143/3556491-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="291" height="391"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Meeke</figcaption></div>Those four games were at home, but the Eagles were set to launch a five-game road trip, touching down in every CHL city except Tucson, before getting back to the Salt Palace.Coach Marv Edwards and his Eagles were incensed with Oklahoma City manager-coach Ray Miron, charging he had sent his players out &ldquo;to get&rdquo; certain members of the shorthanded Eagles, who finally wound up with only 10 skaters for much of the Jan. 5 shutout victory.After playing but three times in 17 days through Christmas week, the Eagles had to play four games in seven nights to close out the old year and welcome the new.Everything went right in the Tuesday game against Tucson. Butch Williams collected six points, including his second hat trick of the season. He had two of his goals in the first period, around one by Tom Sundberg.But everything went wrong in the Jan. 1 rematch. The Eagles were three goals down after 4:13 of play, and the Mavericks didn&rsquo;t stop there. Salt Lake got goals from John Martin, Ken Desjardine, Frank Spring and Brent Meeke, Jim Weaver started in the nets, but Miller took over for the last two periods.The Saturday game saw 90 penalty minutes handed out by referee Denis Morel, 69 of them in the first period. The game started with Meeke the Eagles&rsquo; only able-bodied defenseman. Paul Shakes was still with the parent California Seals, Glen Patrick was out with a groin pull, Ken Desjardine was playing with a bruised knee, and Tom Price was coming back from a shoulder muscle pull, which had sidelined him since Dec. 17.Meeke and Blazer Alf Handrahan got major penalties for a fight at 2:28 of the first. A minute later Williams was chasing a loose puck, and was jumped from behind by Blazer Bob Warner. Both drew majors, with Warner getting an extra minor. A few seconds later, Eagle Paul Tantardini, skating by the penalty bench, was pulled into the box by Handrahan and worked over. Williams threw his stick at Handrahan from the other penalty box, but succeeded only in hitting the scoreboard operation panel, knocking out the lights briefly.Moral gave Williams a match penalty, Handrahan a major and game misconduct, and Tantardini a major and a misconduct. On receiving the referee&rsquo;s report, National Hockey League executive director Brian O&rsquo;Neill, acting in lieu of the vacated CHL presidency, suspended Williams for the following game.For the Monday rematch the Blazers flew in Kurt Walker, who had been sidelined by tendonitis.The Eagles claimed this was a move to &ldquo;get Tantardini.&rdquo;When Tantardini and Handrahan tangled in a corner, Walker jumped in and drew a game misconduct as the third man in. Still in the first period Tantardini had a fight with Blazer Bob Sykes. After they were separated by linesmen, Denis Meloche tried to restrain his teammate, and was given a game misconduct as a third man in the altercation. Both Tantardini and Sykes were given gross misconducts for hair pulling.Later Handrahan jumped Sundberg from behind, and Blazer Mike Kelly did the same with Bob Geoffrion. Referee Charles Banfield gave both Blazers double minors, with no penalties for the Eagles.In all, the game produced 122 penalty-minutes, 72 against the Blazers. It broke an Eagles&rsquo; franchise record for most penalty-minutes to both teams in one game. (The record had been 116 minutes for the Eagles and Blazers, Oct. 29 at Oklahoma City.)On the ice the action was all in favor of the Eagles. Meeke got a pair of power goals, Spring scored twice, while Charle Simmer and Tom Price also tallied. Miller made 29 saves for the shutout, stopping Don Ashby on a breakaway in the next-to-last minute. Spring ran his goal-scoring streak to four games. Meloche because of his early ejection, had his nine-game point streak halted.Meloche climbed to fourth in the league scoring race on 40 points, and Bradley was 10th with 32. Tantardini becane the league penalty leader with 145 minutes.The injury jinx was even working on players who were thinking about going to Salt Lake. Defenseman Don McLean, with Richmond in the American League, was to be reassigned to the Eagles, but suffered a back injury.DALLAS: Mike Veisor&rsquo;s third shutout of the season, his seventh in the Central League, was a 3-0 triumph in Oklahoma City, Jan. 2. But the Black Hawks found out how they felt when they came home the next night to suffer a 4-0 shutout by the Tucson Mavericks&rsquo; Ray Martynuik.Coach Gordon Fashoway was beginning to get his team back toward full strength. Defenseman Dave Logan returned after missing two games with a groin injury. Also returning was center Jim Koleff, who was sidelined more than a month by a knee injury. Koleff&rsquo;s injury did not require surgery, as was erroneously reported.Center Greg Vaydik, limited to 10 games this season by knee trouble, was working out and almost ready for duty. But center Terry Smith, who suffered a broken foot when he leaped into the path of a teammate&rsquo;s slapshot in midDecember, wasn&rsquo;t expected back until February.Veisor&rsquo;s tremendous performance broke a 14-game unbeaten home streak for the OC Blazers. He made 31 stops, while his mates got a goal in each period, Reggie Giroux in the first, Ian McKegney in the second, Duane Wylie in the third. Earlier shutouts for the 23-year-old goalie from Toronto were also on the road, Nov. 20 at Salt Lake (7-0) and Dec 1.3 in Tulsa (4-0).The next night, after being stung for four goals in two periods (three in the third), Veisor was relieved by understudy Bob Volpe. The second period hex continued to plague Fashoway. His Hawks had a 56-15 scoring bulge over foes in the final period, and a 42-37 advantage in the second, but had been outscored, 51-27, in the middle frame.FORT WORTH: After showing their strength in an 8-3 home victory over Oklahoma City, the Texans of coach Terry Gray dropped two games to the first-place Tulsa Oilers, 5-4 in Tulsa and 5-2 at home. As a result Fort Worth fell to fifth place, nine points behind the Oilers, three back of Dallas, two behind Oklahoma City, and one back of Salt Lake.Dave Salvian collected his 20th goal to remain tied with Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Claire Alexander for the league leadership. Bob Bourne topped the club scoring with 35 points, tied for sixth in the CHL, but his personal point-scoring streak of 17 games was snapped in the home loss, Jan. 3. The old club record was 15 games by Ralph Stewart.Gray was down to three defensemen, and had to convert center Phil Hoene to blueline duty. After Ken McPhail was farmed to Muskegon in the International League, Bart Crashley was sidelined by tendonitis, and Jim Witherspoon was recalled by the Los Angeles Kings. Witherspoon was summoned before the Jan. 2 game, but couldn&rsquo;t find an airplane seat in Tulsa that day or night. He finally left the next morning from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. McPhail was to be recalled the following week.OKLAHOMA CITY: Six straight losses, eight games without a victory, plagued Ray Miron&rsquo;s Blazers. Five of those losses, and seven of the winless games were on the road, but there was little consolation at home.Forced out of their Myriad rink by the American Bowling Congress for January and February, the Blazers played the first of 12 home games scheduled for their former home, the State Fair Arena. But they ran into the red-hot goaltending of Mike Veisor and suffered a 3-0 shutout at the hands of the Dallas Hawks. It was the Blazers&rsquo; first home loss in 15 games since Oct. 11.New Year&rsquo;s night they had fallen, 83, in Fort Worth. They followed the home setback with a two-game invasion of Salt Lake, and suffered 4-2 and 6-0 losses in the Saturday-Monday set. The whitewashing by Miller was the Blazers&rsquo; second in three games, after playing 33 without such a fate.Tom Cassidy, with 46 points, widened his lead over teammate Alexander to three points in the league scoring race. Scott Garland was fifth with 36. Alexander had 20 goals, sharing the CHL lead in that respect with Fort Worth&rsquo;s Dave Salvian.TULSA: The rich got richer. Oiler coach Orland Kurtenbach&rsquo;s squad padded their first-place margin to six points over runnerup Dallas by beating Fort Worth twice, 5-4 at home and 5-2 on the road. Then the Tulsans added two players, defenseman John Gris-dale from the Vancouver Canucks and right wing Rick Bowness from the Atlanta Flames. Grisdale who played two seasons at Tulsa under Toronto sponsorship (1971-72 and 1973-74) was to skate himself into shape after leg and ankle injuries. Bowness came back from a two-week emergency callup.Curt Ridley, the CHL&rsquo;s stingiest goalie with a 2.52 average, made his ninth straight start at home to beat Fort Worth. Dan Brady came off his long bench rest to beat the Texans even more impressively in Fort Worth the next night. The only shots which beat Brady were by Neil Nicholson on second-period power plays, one with the Oilers two men short.Jim Wiley provided the winning goal at home, at 10:33 of the final period, after the Oilers had squandered a three-goal margin.With 30 assists, Wiley held the league lead in that department, one ahead of Salt Lake&rsquo;s Denis Meloche. Jim was third in the CHL scoring on 41 points. Gassoff, on 140 minutes, fell to-second place in penalties.TUCSON: It was four victories in five starts for the Mavericks under new coach Bob Barlow. After winning their first two games for the new mentor, the Mavs fell in Salt Lake, 7-1, but won a 7-4 rematch in the Salt Palace, and then Ray Martynuik won a 4-0 shutout in Dallas.&ldquo;Marty&rdquo; was brilliant, making 40 saves, 15 of them at point-blank range, to post his first shutout for Tucson, his second in the current CHL campaign. Wearing a Salt Lake uniform he blanked Tucson, 6-0, in the season opener.Dan Mandryk got the only goal in the loss at Salt Lake. Roger Swanson started in the nets, but was relieved by Bruce Aberhart for the last period, after yielding five goals. Martynuik started the Thursday game, and was quickly presented with a 3-0 lead by Norm Cournoyer, Neil Lyseng and Rick Newell in the first period.The two road victories broke a string of nine without victory away from home. Hobin shared sixth place in the CHL scoring on 35 points, while West was tied for eighth with 34.<h2>CHL Leaders</h2><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01198/3556484-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="646" height="818"></div> &#9632;

f0032-02

Streaking Golden Eagles Climb In CHL Race

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECLIFF</div>TORONTO&mdash;According to almost all National Hockey League owners, managers, coaches and scouts there appears to be a pretty bleak immediate future for graduating junior hockey players.In a poll taken just after New Year almost 100 percent of those involved in putting together NHL teams agreed that no more than first round drafts would be signed this year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0482/3556522-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="259" height="383"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Linesman</figcaption></div>Some even indicated that their first round pick wouldn&rsquo;t be put under immediate contract unless they had shown unusual talent.The reason of course is the economics of major league hockey at the moment with many teams in both the NHL and World Hockey Association losing hundreds of thousands&mdash;and in some cases millions&mdash;of dollars annually.It wasn&rsquo;t too long ago, only about three years in fact, that any player drafted out of Canadian junior ranks in the first four or five rounds would be assured of being signed to a pro contract and in a good many instances they could almost name their own figures.Those days have gone.Now it&rsquo;s an owners&rsquo; market and with major league squads full and minor league teams shrinking in numbers, there is no place to go for many established players let alone kids out of of junior ranks.This season is an unusually lean one for top prospects in Canada&mdash;according to most scouts&mdash;and this could be the delayed result of drafting underage juniors two years ago.However, regardless of the reasons, many Canadian youngsters who had their hopes pinned on a pro hockey career will have to look elsewhere.SUDBURY: Something strange happened to Sudbury Wolves in Peterborough&hellip;They lost a hockey game&hellip;That hasn&rsquo;t happened too often to the Wolves this season as they have by far the best record in this department&hellip;However the surprising and still alive last place Petes trounced the Wolves 6-1 which proved, if nothing else, they are not invincible&hellip;Wes Jarvis opened the scoring midway in the third period for a 1-1 tie in Ottawa&hellip;But the Wolves got back on the right track once they returned home swamping Kitchener 7-3, then nudging London 3-2 with Ron Duguay counting the game winner&hellip;The Wolves have all but clinched first place.OSHAWA: Still an extremely tight fit for second, third and fourth positions behind Sudbury&hellip;Oshawa stayed a shade ahead of their two rivals with a win over Windsor and a tie with Kitchener plus a loss to Hamilton in between&hellip;Coach Gus Bodnar has the Gens winning the close matches, for example 6-5 against Windsor on a goal by Brian Drumm with just 14 seconds left&hellip;Greg Malone had two in that game and another in the tie at Kitchener.SAULT STE. MARIE: Greyhounds had an unusual week, and a busy one at that&hellip;They lost by a goal (7-6) to Kingston, won by a goal (4-3) with Kitchener and had two ties, 2-2 in Peterborough and 6-6 in Markham against the Marlboros&hellip;John Tavella had a pair against the improved Marlies and they gave up what appeared to be a good chance for a win in Peterborough when the Petes&rsquo; Mark Kirton scored late in the second period&hellip;&rsquo;Hounds are hustling and will give any team difficulty.KINGSTON: Press and radio blistered the Canadians for inept play and it may have helped&hellip;Next game they came out and destroyed St. Catharines Black Hawks 8-3&hellip;However it was close until the third period when the Canadians scored four times&hellip;Reliable Ken Linesman scored three goals, Mike Crombeen two in the win over the Hawks&hellip;The team had actually shown improvement earlier in the week by nudging the Greyhounds 7-6 with Brad Rhiness emerging as the hero on his game-winner in the third period&hellip;Linesman padded his total with two goals and is approaching the 40 mark&hellip;Canadians have played before more than 75,000 fans and certain to go over 100,000 for third straight year.OTTAWA: Three points in the week all but assured Ottawa the final playoff position in the Leyden Division&hellip;They tied Sudbury 1-1 after leading most of the way on Larry Skinner&rsquo;s goal then came up with their best scoring display in weeks, swamping Windsor 12-2&hellip;Spitfires scored first but were only in contention momentarily&hellip;Bruce Baker and three goals, Peter Lee, Jim Roberts and Tim Higgins one apiece before 2,059 fans&hellip;Executive has some worries over move of WHA Denver Spurs into Civic Auditorium&hellip;Newly-named Civics attracted more than 8,000 first game there, far more than any junior game&hellip;Rumors persist owner Howard Darwin may move junior franchise.HAMILTON: The Fincups are the Sudbury Wolves of the Emms Division&hellip;That is, barring a miracle, they&rsquo;ll win the pennant&hellip;They did nothing to dispell this belief by a resounding 11-5 win over Oshawa as almost everyone got into the scoring act including two goals by Rob Street and singles from nine other players&hellip;Although known for their robust style of hockey, coach Bert Templeton has Fincups playing exceptionally well offensively and they are nip and tuck with the Wolves for the highest-scoring team&hellip;Dale McCourt became the first player in the league to go over the 40 mark in goals.LONDON: As has been the case most of the season the Knights are solid in second with not much prospect of going higher or fear of dropping lower&hellip;They lost twice by a goal, 5-4 in St. Catharines and 3-2 in Sudbury which has been a problem for coach Bill Long&mdash;picking up the close decisions&hellip;In St. Catharines the Knights lost a certain point when Ken Campbell scored the winner five seconds from full time&hellip;Attendance is still up and team is colorful with promise of better things in playoffs if they can find a hot streak.KITCHENER: At one time the Rangers seemed assured of finishing no lower than third place, but they&rsquo;ve been oh the skids lately and both Toronto Marlboros and St. Catharines Black Hawks have closed in&hellip;After losing seven straight&mdash;Their worst string since they ended last in 1974-75&mdash;they managed a 2-2 tie with Oshawa but coach Mac McLean still not satisfied the way the team has been playing&hellip;Before the tie they were thumped 6-2 by Toronto and 4-2 in Sault Ste. Marie&hellip;Red Laurence only consistent scorer recently and at last count had 38 goals&hellip;He was acquired from Peterborough before the season opened.TORONTO: At long last, and none too soon for coach George Armstrong, the Marlboros are starting to play a little more like the club which won the Memorial Cup last season&hellip;They had their best week of the season with wins over Kitchener (6-2), Peterborough (6-2 again) and a 6-6 draw with Sault Ste. Marie&hellip;One reason for their improvement has been the better play of Cary Farelli, a star in Sault Ste. Marie but a disappointment since joining the Marlboros&hellip;When Farelli and John Smrke are right the Marlies look like they could advance through at least a couple of playoff rounds.ST. CATHARINES: Black Hawks and Marlboros have been playing tag for fourth and fifth place most of schedule and seem to match each other&rsquo;s wins, ties and losses&hellip;However Dukes got a jump on Hawks by tying Greyhounds while St. Catharines was losing 8-3 in Kingston&hellip;Greg Craig, not playing up to his standards of last year seems to be returning to form and scored two of three goals in Kingston&hellip;Attendance continued to be problem with average just under 1,000&hellip;However fans went home happy after Ken Campbell scored the winner (5-4) over London. &#9632;

f0033-04

OHA Stars Face Bleak Draft Future As Pros Eye Only First Round Picks

<h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Jan. 8)<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01176/3556567-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="654" height="448"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. Jan. 10Windsor 5 at Peterborough 3.Sun. Jan. 11Ottawa 5 at Sudbury 2; Peterborough 5 at Oshawa 2; Kingston 6 at St. Catharines 5; Sault Ste. Marie 5 at London 3.Tue. Jan. 13Ottawa 6 at Sault Ste. Marie 6; Toronto 4 at Hamilton 3; St. Catharines 5 at Oshawa 5; Kitchener 4 at London 2.Thu. Jan. 15London 0 at Peterborough 2; St. Catharines 8 at Windsor 4; Oshawo 3 at Sault Ste. Marie 8.<h2>WESTERN CANADA LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sat. Jan. 10)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02134/3556560-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="645" height="448"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. Jan. 3Lethbridge 4 at Victoria 11; Edmonton 4 at Flin Flon 6.Sun. Jan. 4Saskatoon 2 at Brandon 4; Lethbridge 4 at New Westminster 8; Victorio 7 at Kamloops 4; Regina 8 at Winnipeg 2; Edmonton 8 at Flin Flon 5.Tue. Jan. 6Lethbridge 2 at Victoria 4; Saskatoon 4 at Winnipeg 7; Flin Flon 1 at Brandon 12.Wed. Jan. 7Regino 6 at Edmonton 8; Lethbridge 6 at New Westminster 14; Flin Flon 2 at Brandon 9.Thu. Jan. 8Regina 3 at Medicine Hat 12; Lethbridge 2 at Kamloops 9.Fri. Jan. 9Regino 3 at Calgary 7. Kamloops 2 at New Westminster 7; Medicine Hat 3 at Saskatoon 6.<h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 19)<h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03100/3556553-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="640" height="397"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. Jan. 11Montreal 1 at Quebec 5; Chicoutimi 1 at Hull 6; Laval 6 at Cornwall 3; Trois-Rivieres 9 at Shawinigan 6; Sherbrooke 5 at Sorel 8.Mon. Jan. 12Sherbrooke 5 at Laval 4.Tue. Jan. 13Montreal 0 at Hull 2; Quebec 8 at Trois-Rivieres 3.Thu. Jan. 15Quebec 5 at Cornwall 4.Fri. Jan. 16Trois-Rivieres 0 at Montreal 7; Sorel 2 at Quebec 7; Cornwall 2 at Chicoutimi 6; Laval 6 at Shawinigan 5; Hull 5 at Sherbrooke 6.Sun. Jan. 18Hull 6 at Cornwall 5; Montreal 2 at Sorel 7; Quebec 4 at Shawinigan 5; Chicoutimi 1 at Sherbrooke 6, Laval 1 at Trois-Rivieres 3. &#9632;

f0033-01

HOW THEY STAND

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH&BRADSBY, LTD. Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U. S. and CanadaKALAMAZOO&mdash;Bob Lemieux, general manager and coach for the second-year Kalamazoo K-Wings, is not one to duck controversy. During his short exposure in the IHL, he has often found himself in the center of controversial matters.Lemieux&rsquo; actions are not without rhyme or reason, however. The K-Wings have seldom been any place but the North Division cellar since they became a member of the ice family and Lemieux will do anything that can change that situation.Lemieux&rsquo; latest move&mdash;which has made him the center of controversy again&mdash;is aimed at improving the K-Wings&rsquo; position in the IHL trophy hunt. Lemieux has changed the Wings&rsquo; playing style He&rsquo;s adopted the European method, best and most successfully exemplified by the Soviet Union. The European style involves more puck control&mdash;less shooting. And the strategy has irated Lemieux&rsquo; con-temporaies in the IHL.Following a recent game in Flint, the Generals&rsquo; general manager Ken Wilson offered these sentiments: &ldquo;It (the Wing style) is a disgrace. He (Lemieux) should be barred from coaching in this league.&rdquo;Flint coach Ken Carpenter hollered, &ldquo;Lemieux is a disgrace to the coaching profession.&rdquo;Wilson and Carpenter expounded following a 9-1 hatchet job on the K-Wings&mdash;hardly an endorsement for the &ldquo;European system.&rdquo; But the next time out, the K-Wings were competitive&mdash;very much so losing a 5-3 battle at Port Huron.And on Lemieux&rsquo; third test of the new system, the K-Wings spanked the Muskegon Mohawks, 3-1. The satisfying triumph prompted Lemieux to remark, &ldquo;We doubled our victory output this month over December.&rdquo; The K-Wings won just one game in December and the victory over Muskegon was the second of the current.Referring to his system, Lemieux said: &ldquo;Our system has been ridiculed by other coaches in the league. Kalamazoo now is called the &lsquo;home of the ridiculous.&rsquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a challenge and it is going to require discipline. We&rsquo;re going to stick with it, win or lose.&rdquo;Emile DeMoissac, who contributed a goal in the 3-1 triumph, said &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time I&rsquo;ve ever played left wing. But with our new system, anybody can play anywhere.&rdquo;SAGINAW: The Gears are still skating ahead of the pack in the South with an even split in a critical two-game series with Port Huron a key factor. The Gears bombed the Flags, 11-3, in Saginaw and got return treatment in Port Huron, 9-2.The Gears also lost at Columbus, 5-4, but rebounded against South Division leader Dayton, 7-3. D&rsquo;Arcy Ryan led the offense in the romp over Port Huron with four goals. Dennis Desrosiers added three and Dave Westner had five assists. Westner had a pair of goals in the win over Dayton. Desrosiers had to sit out a two-game suspension for an incident in the game at Port Huron.PORT HURON: Continued success on home ice kept the Flags right on Saginaw&rsquo;s skates. The 9-2 triumph over Saginaw featured a four-goal explosion by Alex Kogler, two coming in the span of just two seconds for an IHL record. Danny Newman has scored seven goals over the last seven games and vetern Len Fontaine has moved into the No. 2 spot in IHL scoring, replacin Komet rookie Sid Veysey. Fontaine has 55 points on 23 goals and 32 assists.The next challenge for the Flags is a home-and-home series with Muskegon. The weekend could see Fontaine pick up the 2OOth assist of his IHL career.FLINT: The Generals are fit to be tied&mdash;and it&rsquo;s hurting their bid for a higher resting place in the North Division. A 2-2 tie with Port Huron was the sixth of the season for the Generals on home ice and the fifth at home in the last 11 games.In four of the five ties, the opposition has come from behind to &ldquo;steal&rdquo; a point. In the game with Port Huron, the Generals twice had one-goal leads. But Dave Faulkner&rsquo;s third-period goal knotted the count at 2-2, and that&rsquo;s the way the game ended. The Generals are still in fourth place, but just two behind third-place Muskegon. First-place Saginaw is nine points away.MUSKEGON: The Mohawks suffered loss of considerable firepower with the indefinite suspension of high-iscoring Gary Ford. Ford was given the suspension by Commissioner Bill Bea-gan for an incident in a recent 3-2 win over the Dayton Gems. After referee Jim Neagles called a tripping penalty on Mohawk defenseman Murray Flegel, who had been fighting off a Dayton offender, Ford shot the puck and it struck Neagles, who then assessed Ford a 10-minute misconduct penalty. Ford allegedly shoved the referee twice before being restrained by teammates.On the brighter side, the Mohawks picked up six out of a possible eight points with three victories in four starts, capped by an 8-4 romp at Toledo. Also, three injured players have returned to action. They are defensemen Carlo Torresan and Lynn Margarit and center Marcel Labrosse.DAYTON: Goalie Jim Pettie registered his second shutout in three games as the Gems blanked Flint, 2-0, before one of the largest crowds of the season at Hara Arena&mdash;4,539. A 7-3 loss at Saginaw followed but the Gems still maintain a comfortable lead in the South Division race. Dayton has a 10-point cushion on second-place Fort Wayne.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03109/3556598-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="552" height="764"><figcaption class="caption-body">D&rsquo;ARCY RYAN&hellip;Four-Goal Game</figcaption></div>While the injury problem is slowly being solved&mdash;winger Bill Riley played for first time in two weeks at Muskegon, injuries to Richmond of the American Hockey League and NHL Washington Capitals have put a drain on Gem talent. Defenseman Blair Mackasey was reassigned to Richmond&mdash;the second such loss in a week. Earlier, winger Paul Nicholson was called up to Richmond.FORT WAYNE: Despite a disasterous road trip (just one point in five games) and a 4-1 loss to Columbus upon their return to the Memorial Coliseum, the Komets improved their lot. Action by the IHL board of governors which resulted in Toledo forfeiting three victories and a tie for using ineligible players pushed the Komets into second place. The Komets picked up two points as a result of the ruling and Toledo lost seven. The Komets now have 40 points, three more than the Goaldiggers.TOLEDO: The Goaldiggers problems continue to mount. In addition to losing seven points off the ice (action taken by the league because of players declared ineligible), the Diggers also were bombed. 8-4, by Muskegon in the Sports Arena. The &ldquo;legitimate&rdquo; defeats, plus the forfeits, have dropped the Toledo record to 14-19-9 and three points out of last place in the South Division race.The Diggers are still winning at the box office, however. Attendance for the first 22 games has reached 100,245. This is an average of 4.557 per game.The attendance is running about 15,000 ahead of last season&mdash;a banner year for the Diggers also.COLUMBUS: The Owls continue to be the most improved club in the South Division&mdash;if not both. A recent winning surge has put the Owls in a contending position for a playoff berth and a potential title threat.Since defensive mates Mike Thompson and Steve Lyon have been switched to the front line (they skate on the same unit) the Owls have won eight games. Thompson was the main reason the Owls spoiled Fort Wayne&rsquo;s homecoming with a 4-1 triumph. Thompson pumped in the first two goals. He now has a total of seven and the potential appears unlimited. &#9632;

f0034-03

Wings’ System Knocked But Wins Double; Home Success Keeps Flags In Contention

TOLEDO&mdash;Toledo general manager-coach Ted Garvin apparently is ready to carry his fight over the eligibility of three recent additions to his hockey club to the courts.The Goaldiggers, defending Turner Cup champions, were relieved of seven vital points during action by the IHL Board of Governors during the semi-annual meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. The league voted, 8-1, to forfeit three victories and a tie Toledo accumulated while the players in question were in the lineup. The players concerned are Gerry Methe, Rick Fraser and Brian McKenzie.Commissioner Bill Beagan made the announcement and said that any additional games the Diggers might win with any of the three players in the lineup would also be forfeited.The league ruled the players ineligible because they had not been assigned to the team with proper loan agreements from foreign teams.Beagan, asked by the Toledo Blade what &ldquo;foreign teams&rdquo; meant, responded: &ldquo;Not National Hockey League teams.&rdquo; The IHL has an agreement with the NHL but none with the World Hockey Association. Methe, Fraser and McKenzie are owned by WHA teams.Garvin, who played two of the three in a game with Muskegon (which the Blades lost anyway) after the announcement from the league, commented: &ldquo;They&rsquo;re ruling it because they&rsquo;re WHA players. Just like the first notice we got from Beagan on Dec. 31. This doesn&rsquo;t come as a surprise does it? According to our counsel, we can get a court injunction against this.&rdquo;Garvin continued, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll back these players in legal action if it means the end of my hockey career. The IHL is blackballing 21 hockey players and the court will never uphold this action.&rdquo;Garvin also was quoted as saying, &ldquo;I fully intend to keep using the players unless our owners tell me differently. If I were one of the three players I&rsquo;d be heading for my lawyer darn fast.&rdquo; &#9632;

Diggers’ Coach Garvin Continues Eligibility Fight

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01191/3556660-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="635" height="504"></div><h2>GOALING RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02141/3556653-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="642" height="611"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

IHL Leaders

<div class="byline">BY BRUCE PENTON</div>BRANDON&mdash;For at least three players in the Western Canada Hockey League, the 197576 season has been the Winter of Discontent. To wit:Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; over-age leftwinger, Dale McMullin, tired of playing a bridesmaids&rsquo; roll for the WCHL&rsquo;s All Star game for the third straight season, is boycotting the game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01179/3556691-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="275" height="413"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jon Hammond</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I owe nothing to the Western Canada Hockey League,&rdquo; he said, one day after being named to bolster the Eastern Division team for the All Star game Jan. 15 in Lethbridge. &ldquo;I feel I can better prepare for our final 31 games on my own than by playing in the All Star game.&rdquo;That McMullin is a better leftwinger than Lethbridge Broncos&rsquo; Brian Sutter, named as the first-team portsider, is not really worth discussing. Sutter had 52 points in 42 games while McMullin was eighth in the scoring race at a similar point in the season with 70 points.But politics play a big role in determining personnel for the annual All Star clash. Sutter is a draft-age player and exposure in the Jan. 15 game definitely won&rsquo;t hurt his chances of being noticed. Add the fact that the game is played in Sutter&rsquo;s hometown and it&rsquo;s clear why a player of McMullin&rsquo;s calibre was not voted to the squad.&ldquo;Why should I go?&rdquo; said McMullin, drafted last season by both Atlanta (NHL) and Phoenix (WHA). &ldquo;That would only be saying I agree that Sutter and Davidson (second team winger Mark Davidson of Flin Flon) are better players than I am.&ldquo;When I was 18, I was the second highest scoring left-winger in our division, but I wasn&rsquo;t picked. They added me, but I had school work to do, and didn&rsquo;t play. Last year, I was added and I played. This year, I&rsquo;m added again, and I just don&rsquo;t think it would be to my advantage to play.&ldquo;I feel it&rsquo;s a matter of pride&hellip;something I think every player&rsquo;s got to have.&rdquo;McMullin publicly thanked McLeod for picking him, but added, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s a decision (not to play) I made myself and I&rsquo;m sticking to it.&rdquo;Edmonton Oil King veteran Ted Olson quit the team just prior to Christmas, citing university work and poor team attitude as reasons for walking out and demanding a trade.&ldquo;I just couldn&rsquo;t concentrate on my studies anymore,&rdquo; said Olson, a third-year man with the Oil Kings. &ldquo;It just wasn&rsquo;t hockey I had to think of.&rdquo;Olson, said Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal, slowly grew disenchanted with the atmosphere of the Kings this season as they piled up loss after loss in a replay of last year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d criticize some of the players for not working hard enough and it seemed they couldn&rsquo;t take constructive criticism from me,&rdquo; Olson said.&ldquo;I just want to go somewhere where players contribute to a team cause,&rdquo; he said.Wanting to attend Simon Fraser B.C. University, Olson said he would only accept trades to New Westminster Bruins or Victoria Cougars.&ldquo;No player is going to tell me where to trade him,&rdquo; said general manager Brian Shaw.On Jan. 9, Olson was traded to Calgary Centennials for Jeff Bandura and Dallas Ellerby. He reported. And scored two goals in his first game.The brightest young star in the league last year, Victoria Cougars&rsquo; Danny Lucas, is sitting at home in Powell River, B.C. contemplating his future.As a 16-year-old last season, Lucas scored 56 goals and had 57 assists, breaking Ron Chipperfield&rsquo;s goal record for a 16-year-old by an astonishing 16.This year, coach Patty Ginnell switched him to left wing from the right side, and his goal and point production tailed off. When he quit the Cougars after being criticized on a post-game radio show by Ginnell Dec. 20, Lucas had 20 goals and 22 assists.A trade reportedly nearly completed involving Lucas and three Edmonton Oil Kings&mdash;Olson, left-winger Rocky Maze and defenseman John Phillips&mdash;apparently&mdash;evaporated when Ginnell read of deal in a Victoria paper prior to its announcement.Ginnell has publicly stated he will only trade Lucas for Winnipeg&rsquo;s brilliant Kevin McCarthy, New Westminster&rsquo;s Brad Maxwell or Kevin Schamehorn, or to Edmonton, with its vast farm system.Meanwhile, Lucas talks of returning to high school and earning marks high enough to qualify for a scholarship in the United States.VICTORIA: Cougars pulled six games over.500 (20-14) by wining three straight, including a big 7-4 win over the slumping Kamloops Chiefs, in Kamloops. Their other wins were 4-2 and 11-4 over Lethbridge, which suffered its worst week of the year. Center Jim Gustafson had four goals and two assists in the 11-4 win, and added three assists in Kamloops. Gustafson and defenseman Tim Williams cracked the Western Division All Star team.NEW WESTMINSTER: Bruins had five players voted to the All Star team, including the only unanimous choice, defenseman Barry Beck. Others voted were defenseman Brad Maxwell, center Rick Shinske, goalie Carey Walker and winger Mark Lofthouse. Added later were winger Clay Pachal and Steve Clippingdale. Bruins then went out and set a team record for goals, blasting Lethbridge 14-6 as Fred Berry scored three goals. Shinske and Lofthouse each had two goals in a 7-2 showdown-for-first-place win over Kamloops.KAMLOOPS: Chiefs lost two of three games to fall four points behind New West. Their lone win was 9-2 over the hapless Broncos, as Rob Flockhart, Al Young and Don Moores scored two each and Darryl Ferner added five assists. Defenseman Reg Kerr scored four goals and had three assists in the three games. Goalie Mark Earp, Kerr and Flockhart were voted to the All Stars and Barry Melrose, Fener and Moores were named to bolster the team.MEDICINE HAT: An 11-game unbeaten streak was snapped when Tigers lost 6-3 to Saskatoon. Otherwise, Medicine Hat snipers were devastating All Star Don Murdoch had his fifth four goal game of the year in a 12-3 win over Regina. Murdoch now has 46 goals, tied with Blades&rsquo; Bernie Federko in that department. His linemates, Greg Carroll and Morris Lujkowich, both added to the All Star team, are third and sixth respectively, in the scoring race. Murdoch is fourth. Carroll has a 12-game point streak, during which he has picked up 13 goals and 25 assists.CALGARY: Centennials won their only start of the week, 7-3 over visiting Regina, as Clint Eccles got his first hat trick of the year, all on set-ups from line-mate Paul Enquist. Defenseman Rick Hodgson, presently injured, was voted to the All Star team, but Al Glendinning was named to replace him.EDMONTON: Terry McDonald&rsquo;s return from a six-week layoff due to an injury sparked the Oil Kings to an 8-6 win over Regina, one of Edmonton&rsquo;s two wins in three games. McDonald scored a goal and three assists. Kings split in Flin Flon (losing 6-4, winning 85) as Doug Lecuyer, Tony Currie and Wayne Babych got hot. Babych, an addition to the All Star team, led the way with nine points in the three games.LETHBRIDGE: Broncos concluded an 0-6 road trip (21-51 for-and-against) by getting beaten 9-2 in Kamloops, one night after being shellacked 14-6 in New Westminster. Center Steve Tam bellini, added to the Eastern All Stars, led the team point-getters with a goal and six assists to move into the league&rsquo;s top 20 scorers. For goalies Rollie Boutin and Rod Manty, it was a week to forget.SASKATOON: Blades Bernie Federko moved over the 100-point mark with a hat trick as Blades beat Medicine Hat 6-3. Earlier Saskatoon was stung twice in Manitoba, 4-2 to Brandon and 7-4 to Winnipeg. Coach Jackie McLeod, who added forwards BruceHamilton and Fred Williams to the All Star team, isn&rsquo;t worried, though. Blades still lead second-place Brandon by a whopping 14 points.REGINA: Pats put on their best road display of the season in Winnipeg, firing 61 shots to beat Clubs 8-2 as Jon Hammond scored three goals. Otherwise, the Pats on the road resembled the Pats of old, losing 12-3 in Medicine Hat, 7-3 in Calgary and 8-6 in Regina. Al Dumba&rsquo;s four goals in Edmonton were in vain. Drew Callander leads the team in scoring with 62 points after getting 10 in four games last week.WINNIPEG: Clubs&rsquo; president Gerry Brisson scrapped the &ldquo;temporary&rdquo; tag and took over full-time from coach George Dorman, who was demoted to a scouting, and assistant-coach role. In the first game following Brisson&rsquo;s announcement, Clubs shocked division-leading Saskatoon 7-4 as Kevin McCarthy had a goal and four assists and rookies Dave Stekler and Tom Roulston scored twice each. Defenseman Don Hansford and rightwinger Guy Lash were named to bolster the Eastern All Star team.BRANDON: Wheat Kings out-scored Flin Flon 21-3 in two games (12-1, 9-2) to make it three wins in a row. In the 12-1 triumph, Brandon led 11-0 after the second period. Rookie Billy Derlago and veteran Mike Bradbury each hit for the hat trick and Dale McMullin had five assists in that game. In the 9-2 win, McMullin, Gary Kaluzniak and Dick Kerr each scored twice. Ray Allison, up from Tier II, scored his first two goals against Flin Flon, and veteran center Danny Bonar was added, along with McMullin.FLIN FLON: Prior to their two onesided losses in Brandon, Bombers split with Edmonton as Tom Cullen scored three goals to cap a five-goal third-period comeback in a 6-4 Flin Flon win. Next night, Bombers lost 8-5. Rich Gosselin, returning from a three-game suspension, picked up four goals and four assists in Bombers&rsquo; four games. &#9632;

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Brandon Winger Boycotts All Star Game; Victoria Rolls With Gustafson Hot Cougar

LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH&BRADSBY, LTD. Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaBEAUCE&mdash;The Beauce Jaros are riding high in the North American Hockey League and so is their prolific playing-coach, Joe Hardy.The Jaros have won 30 of their 42 starts and are overwhelming the rest of the NAHL with their explosive offense led by Hardy, who is moving swiftly towards a new league point scoring record with the season just past the halfway mark in the schedule.Hardy has already produced 113 scoring points in only 41 games putting him just 11 off the established NAHL mark of 124 set by Luc Simard two years ago with Cape Cod.Hardy, who formerly played in the World Hockey Association with Chicago and Cleveland, has been the driving force behind the first year Jaros as they continue to hold sway atop the Eastern Division standings with a five-point lead over the Syracuse Blazers, who have played five more games than Beauce.A good example of the explosiveness of the Beauce attack came in their Jan. 18 game against the Maine Nordiques. The final outcome was an unbelievable 16-0 with the Jaros skating over, around and on top of the hapless Nords. It was the highest one-team score recorded in league history.The ironic part of Beauce&rsquo;s lop-sided win over Maine was one night earlier the same Nordiques went out and edged the Jaros 6-5 in Lewiston.While Beauce continued to lead the East, the champion Johnstown Jets were still making life miserable for the teams in the West Division. The Jets had opened up a 17-point lead on the Erie Blades as they stretched their record to 31 wins in 46 starts.The onrushing Philadelphia Firebirds were threatening to rest second place away from the Blades as they rolled to a pair of victories last week, one an 8-3 romp over Buffalo and the other a 6-0 blanking of Syracuse, which is something that doesn&rsquo;t happen too often.Off the ice the NAHL was making news as commissioner Jack Timmins announced that the league had voted to adopt the National Hockey League&rsquo;s rule 42 or gag rule for the balance of the 1975-76season at least.The ruling forbids players from disputing referee&rsquo;s decisions and allows the captain of the team only to talk with an official on the ice if he is so invited to do so by the referee. Automatic penalties will accompany any abuse of the rules said Timmins, who is attempting to keep a tighter rein on his players.The league has been meeting in recent weeks to iron out various problems, one of which is finances. Timmins said that a survey of all 10 clubs showed that all NAHL teams are stable enough to get through the current season without assistance from the league. It was recently reported that the Syracuse club required some fresh new financing to meet its weekly payrolls and expenses. Timmins said the Syracuse club presented a financial statement to the league and has satisfied the NAHL governors that the Blazers can and will continue to operate under their own power.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01159/3556722-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="555" height="505"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOE HARDY&hellip;Coming On Strong</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Hardy Closing In On Scoring Record; NAHL Follows NHL Adopting Gag Rules

WATERLOO&mdash;The Northern Division scored six second period goals to post a 12-6 come-from-behind victory over the best of the Southern Division in the United States Hockey League All Star contest, played at Waterloo, Iowa.Paced by Steve Dagdigian and veteran Ed Chestolowski of Green Bay Bobcats, the North came on strong after trailing 3-1 in the first period to register their fourth consecutive mid-season classic win. Rookie Dagdigian scored three goals, Chestolowski and Clement Carriere of Marquette Iron Rangers taillied two each. Center Daniel Lecours of Milwaukee admirals also registered a hat trick to lead the Southern offense.Following the high-scoring contest, the diminutive Lecours, a 21-year-old Montreal native, was presented with the Bob Kasubeck Award as player of the game.Forward Rick Kramp of Central Wisconsin Flyers, goalie Ron Beck of Green Bay and center Gordy Peters of Traverse City Bays captured awards in the annual All Star shoot-out contest.In regular league play last week, Sioux City Musketeers increased their Southern Division lead to 11 points over Milwaukee by stopping the Waterloo Black Hawks twice.Musketeers established a league comeback recort at Waterloo&rsquo;s McElroy Auditorium before the largest Black Hawk crowd of the season. Traling, 9-3 midway through the third period. John Saville&rsquo;s smooth skating Sioux City machine clicked for seven unanswered goals, turning almost certain defeat into a thrilling 10-9 victory as forward Barry Head&rsquo;s goal in the final minute proved to be the winner.It marked the first time in modem league history that a club trailing by six goals with less than one period of play remaining, came on to register a victory.Looking at the Northern Division race, most observers feel the battle for top spot will continue right to the final week of regular schedule play with the league&rsquo;s newest expansion team, Traverse City Bays and last year&rsquo;s league champion Green Bay Bobcats.Both teams split their head-on two-game series last weekend at Traverse City with the Bays posting a 3-0 victory after dropping the opener 6-4 to Bobcats. Bay&rsquo;s Goalie Paul Ronan registered his first shutout to date.The other Northern club, Marquette Iron Rangers, after a disastrous first half have recruited additional player help and look to turn things around from here on in. Showing vast improvement, they dropped a close 3-1 decision to the powerful Bays in their only encounter last week.During the All Star break, league governors and directors met at Waterloo to finalize playoff dates and other business.<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02115/3556753-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="537" height="270"></div> &#9632;

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The USHL Scene

<div class="byline">BY RALPH BRIDGLAND</div>MONTREALCornwall Royals and Chicoutimi Sagueneens dominated the mid-season All Star teams of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.The Royals placed a total of six players plus coach Orval Tessier on the West Division first and second All Star squads while the Sagueneens also filled a half-dozen places on the East Division teams.Tim Bernhardt (goal), Pierre Brassard (left wing) and Tessier were named to the first team while Gerald Barden and Graeme Nicholson (defense) along with Jamie Conroy (center) and Dan Geoffrion (right wing) were selected to the second club.Others selected to the West&rsquo;s first team were defensemen Robert Picard (Montreal) and Ric Garcia (Hull), center Glen Sharpley (Hull) and right wingers Peter Marsh (Sherbrooke) and Mike Bossy (Laval).Rounding out the second team were goaler Richard Sevigny (Sherbrooke), rearguard Floyd Lahache (Sherbrooke), left winger Normand Dupont (Montreal) and coach Jacques Laperriere (Montreal).Chicoutimi placed Daniel Poulin (defense) and Sylvain Locas (center) on the East Division first All Star team and goaler Jean Belisle, defenseman Serge Dubois, left wing Marc Desforges and right winger Andre Boudreau were named to the second team.Goaltender Maurice Barrette (Quebec), defenseman Jean Gagnon (Quebec), left wing Richard David (Trois-Rivieres) and right winger Lucien Deblois (Sorel) rounded out the top six with Ron Racette of Quebec selected as the first team mentor.The second team was completed with defenseman Gary Platt (Sorel), center Gaetan Boucher (Trois-Rivieres) and Trois-Rivieres bench boss Michel Bergeron.The voting was conducted by the QMJHL coaches.TROIS-RIVIERES: Draveurs won and lost but the importance of the setback greatly outweighed the two points they picked up with a 9-6 win in Shawinigan. The club then returned home to play the second place Remparts and lost 8-3 to move Quebec within two points of the Draveurs and top spot in the East Division. Richard Dalpe had three goals in Shawinigan while Gaetan Boucher had a pair of markers. Dalpe notched another two goals against Remparts but it was far from enough as Quebec outshot the Draveurs 48-30.QUEBEC: Remparts now trail Trois-Rivieres by only two points and hold a game in hand on the leaders. Registered back-to-back victories, 5-1 over Montreal at home and important 8-3 win in Trois-Rivieres. Denis Turcotte scored twice in win over Montreal as goaler Maurice Barrette stopped all but one of the 33 shots sent his way. Yvan Hamelin led way over Draveurs with a pair of markers.SOREL: Moved into sole possession of third place with 8-5 upset of West Division leading Sherbrooke before 2,182 delighted home fans. Lucien Deblois registered the hat trick as the Beavers outshot the Black Hawks 4745. Sorel has important week ahead with four games and two of them coming in a home-and-home series with the red-hot Remparts.CHICOUTIMI: Second highest scoring team in East Division is having trouble getting points in the standings because of mediocre defensive record. Saw Sorel slip by into third spot as Hawks won and Sagueneens dropped 6-1 verdict in Hull. Only Kenneth Scollard was able to tally for the Sags despite the fact Chicoutimi outshot the Festivals 37-27. Next two outings see the Sags confronting top two teams in the West section, Sherbrooke and Cornwall.SHAWINIGAN: The Dynamos are beginning to sound like a broken record which is stuck on the word &ldquo;lose&rdquo;. As they&rsquo;ve done 30 times before this season, the Dynamos lost, this time 9-6 at home to Trois-Rivieres. Robert Constantin scored half of the Shawinigan markers before a crowd of just over 1,400. Things don&rsquo;t appear to be getting any better in Shawinigan despite the work of new coach Marc Picard and it won&rsquo;t be until next season that the true value of his efforts are known.SHERBROOKE: Beavers split two games but still retained solid eight point bulge atop West Division. Dropped surprising 8-5 decision in Sorel despite outshooting Black Hawks 47-45. Jere Gillis counted two goals as the Beavers bounced back the following evening in Laval with a 5-4 victory. Beavers enjoying the best of both worlds with the top offensive record and second best defensive statistic in the entire league.CORNWALL: History appears to be repeating itself in Cornwall. Last season the Royals held second place until the late going and fell to third on a late surge by Montreal. Orval Tessier&rsquo;s crew has won only once in the last four games and are being closely followed by the same Montreal Juniors. Latest loss was 6-3 to Laval at home. After taking 3-0 lead early in the second period on goals by Rick Patterson, Pierre Brassard and Ed Clarey, the Royals sat back and watched the Nationals score six unanswered goals.MONTREAL: Juniors have only given up seven goals in two games which isn&rsquo;t a bad average for junior hockey but have only scored on one occasion during that same period which is unheard of. The results were a 5-1 setback in Quebec and a 2-0 whitewashing in Hull. Robert Picard was the only player to put the Juniors on the scoreboard. The only thing keeping the Juniors out of second place has been their own poor play of late. Runnerup Cornwall hasn&rsquo;t been playing well either and leads Montreal by a slim three-point margin.HULL: Registered back-to-back home ice wins, 6-1 over Chicoutimi and 2-0 over Montreal. Yves Lozeau, Claude Larochelle and Scott Hunter looked after the scoring with two goals apiece against Sagueneens while Denis Pomerleau and Gary McFayden tallied against Montreal. The star of the game with the Juniors however, was recently acquired goaltender Gino Yanire who blocked all 41 shots fired in his direction.LAVAL: Walked into Cornwall and came away with 6-3 victory and then returned home to drop hard fought 5-4 verdict to division leading Sherbrooke. Yvon Vautour counted hat trick in Cornwall while Yves Preston scored twice. At home Beavers built up 5-1 lead but had to hang on to record narrow victory. Bossy scored the 200th goal of his junior career in that one. &#9632;

Royals, Sags Dominate All Stars; East Division Title Race Tightening

<div class="byline">BY MARK KELLY</div>ALBUQUERQUE&mdash;The Albuquerque Chaparrals continue to lead the Southwest Hockey League with 21 wins, 13 losses for 42 points. They were replaced for a very short period by Amarillo, but took the lead back with a win over Billings Blazers.Chaparrals suffered one of the few shutouts of the season to the Butte Copper Kings the following night. However, they did retain first place.League president, Ralph Engles-tad, has been quoted as saying he&rsquo;s &ldquo;concerned with the attendance at the Chaparrals&rsquo; games and the number of home games they have played; and the fact that they have been in first place for almost the entire first half of the season. Albuquerque&rsquo;s attendance has not been what was expected at the outset of the season.&rdquo; he added.AMARILLO: coach Cal Swenson&rsquo;s club put themselves briefly into the lead in the SWHL with a victory over Billings, but were displaced the following night by Albuquerque&rsquo;s victory over Billings. Swede feels that his club has a very good chance of taking first place in the coming week as they are currently two points out and Albuquerque has played six more games than the Wranglers. Swenson has announced that he had negotiated a trade with Billings in which he swapped Vern Quaroni and Brian Livingstone to Billings in a straight exchange for Brent McCracken and Rick Finlyson.BILLINGS: The Blazers continued their losing streak throughout the road trip which began on Jan 3 during which they lost four games. Coach Bing Juckes says that it is very difficult to win on the road due to the home fans and the amount of travel which is necessary to get from city to city. Juckes made a trade with the Butte Copper Kings exchanging Billings&rsquo; Donald Boyce and Bob Vermette.BUTTE: The Copper Kings have been on an extended road trip to the southern portion of the league and broke their five-game losing streak with a victory over Albuquerque. Coach Doug Sauter has been trying to strengthen his club and the victory over the Chaparrals shows that he is being successful in doing it.EL PASO: The Raiders continue on their winning ram page under the direction of interim-coach Cal Land. El Paso currently has a five game winning streak going for them and have come on to tie Butte Copper Kings for third position. Raider manager Ron Lyon, has announced the hiring of Steve Trachsel as coach. Trachsel played his college hockey at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and continued from there to the Portland Bucka-roos of the old Western Hockey League. The following year Trachsel went to the Springfield Kings of the American Hockey League. Lyon is very happy to have acquired Trachsel and looks forward to a winning season in the second half and feels there is no question that the Raiders will be a contender for the playoffs. &#9632;

SOUTHWEST LEAGUE ROUNDUP

<div class="byline">BY DOUG DOUGHTY</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH&BRADSBY, LTD. Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U. S. and Canada<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0393/3556832-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="531" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body">WALLY SPRANGE&hellip;SHL Leader</figcaption></div>NORFOLK&mdash;When this hockey season is over, 20-year-old Denny McLean may well look back on the year with a few regrets. But he can never complain about the move that sent him to the Tidewater Sharks.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t such a bad deal,&rdquo; laughs McLean good-naturedly. &ldquo;Where I&rsquo;m from (in Victoria, B.C.), it was 30 below yesterday. Here it&rsquo;s about 40 degrees. I had no trouble at all adjusting to a situation like that.&rdquo;Not only has McLean become accustomed to the weather, but he&rsquo;s beginning to get his hockey legs as well. After stints in Calgary and Johnstown, he feels it&rsquo;s about time.With the recall of Charlotte Checkers&rsquo; goalie Bob Sauve to Providence, McLean remains the sole No. 1 draft pick from 1975 still playing in the SHL.It isn&rsquo;t exactly what McLean had in mind, but the move to Tidewater may have been just what he needed. And McLean might have been just what the last-place Sharks needed; he scored 10 points in his first 10 games.&ldquo;Calgary was a whole new atmosphere for me,&rdquo; reflects McLean, the No. 7 pick overall in the WHA. &ldquo;I had heard how people treated top draft picks and I must say everybody was good to me in Calgary. Instead, I spent the whole time up there battling myself.&ldquo;I was trying too many things differently. I was handing the puck a lot when I should have been skating. But I was beginning to learn that you can&rsquo;t start doing things you haven&rsquo;t been doing all along.&rdquo;To further his education, the Cowboys sent McLean to Johnstown, but it was apparent he didn&rsquo;t fit into the plans of the North American League&rsquo;s first-place club. He suited up for only four games and did not play in two of them. Why, he does not understand.&ldquo;In my first game, I took 11 shots, which was the most on the team,&rdquo; McLean argues. &ldquo;But they didn&rsquo;t play me after that. I felt I got a raw deal up there. I could understand that they were trying to work me into their system, but how could I do that sitting on the bench?&rdquo;Just in time, he was told he would be going to Tidewater, wherever that was. &ldquo;Sure, I knew where Tidewater was,&rdquo; he insists. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s in Norfolk. As for what league it was in, I didn&rsquo;t know that.&rdquo;McLean soon found out.For one thing, McLean is performing much better in the south. Sharks&rsquo; coach John Hanna immediately placed McLean with Steve Dolloff and Billy Steele and, led by that line, the club went eight games without a loss.McLean hit the post a couple times but failed to score in his first game against Charlotte. Then it was a goal and an assist in a game with Greensboro and the 6-2, 198-pounder hasn&rsquo;t cooled off since.&ldquo;Overall, I can stand a lot of improvement,&rdquo; McLean commented. &ldquo;Ten points in 10 games is not that great. I&rsquo;ve had a lot of bad breaks but, in other cases, I haven&rsquo;t been bearing down enough. I should have 18 points by now.&rdquo;Such a pace would put McLean in line for another shot with the Cowboys and the slightly-cocky winger admits he&rsquo;s given the matter some thought.&ldquo;Calgary&rsquo;s going like gangbusters so it would be foolish for them to make too many moves,&rdquo; admitted McLean. &ldquo;But, at the end of the year when our season is over, I want to rejoin them.&ldquo;I have it on my mind before every game. I can&rsquo;t wait to go in and prove to them that I deserve to go back.&rdquo;CHARLOTTE: Checkers solidified their hold on first place with 2-0 win at home over Roanoke Valley&hellip;Rookie goalie Bob Sauve was recalled and coach Pat Kelly was doubtful of his return. Brian Cousineau was reacquired from Tidewater, joining the club for third time in two years&hellip;Slumping Yvon Dupuis went scoreless for seven games. He had scored 14 goals in the previous nine and has 33 for the year, tops in the SHL. Vets Jack Wells and Barry Burnett helped pick up the slack.HAMPTON: Feisty Frank Beaton was arrested after stick-throwing incident in Roanoke and charged with assault. He was released on $100 bond&hellip;Gulls went on 10-game non-losing streak, prompting coach John Brophy to say, &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t be losing many from now on.&rdquo;&hellip;Knee surgery for Claude Chartre and Mike Saunter&rsquo;s retirement (to go into coaching) hurt club but Brophy picked up John Tweedle from Tidewater and Steve Andrascik.ROANOKE: Rebels lost league leading goalie Eddie Humphreys and later coach Jack Chipchase for two games&hellip;Humphreys went to Springfield while Chipchase was suspended for two games for bumping official Dean Rick in Charlotte&hellip;Rick Lemay came from Binghamton of NAHL as second goaltender&hellip;Chipchase and defenseman John Huber blasted team as lacking aggressiveness after Rebels fell out of second place.GREENSBORO: Three ties gave Generals five-game string without a loss&hellip;According to GM Pat Shetler, club was adjusting to new coach Ron Spong. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s trying to get them accustomed to carrying the puck into the zone rather than throwing it in,&rdquo; said Shetler&hellip;Loss of muscleman Doug Kerslake hurt but Generals expected replacements shortly from Edmonton&hellip;Dennis Johnson returned after brief stay in Kalamazoo&hellip;Wally Sprange continued to lead SHL scoring race with 54 points in 45 games. His 39 assists also topped the league.WINSTON-SALEM: Polar Twins engineered the biggest trade of the season, picking up defenseman Ron Anderson from Tidewater for Rick Lalonde. Anderson was reportedly unhappy in Tidewater, while Lalonde gave the Sharks a first left-handed defenseman&hellip;Gordie Tuttle was officially named general manager&hellip;Despite injuries to Wes Wiseman and Brian Mol-vik, club moved into fifth and had four games in hand over Greensboro. &#9632;

f0038-03

Travelling Rookie McLean Finds Home With Tidewater

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01173/3556870-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="640" height="625"></div><h2>GOALERS&rsquo; RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02127/3556863-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="628" height="350"></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

SHL Leaders

<div class="byline">BY JOHN ARNOLD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0462/3556901-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="929" height="1265"></div><h2>SOLUTION IN FEBRUARY 6 ISSUE</h2><h3>ACROSS</h3>1. One of the Edmonton Oilers.6. One of the Sabres. (init).7. A St. Louis forward.8. Initials of a former Black Hawk.9. Former Leaf right winger. (init).11. Hebenton answers to this.12. Goaltenders must have sharp ones.13. New Testament, (abbr.)14. To employ.15. Former Ranger Buller answers to this.16. Dennis Hull was born in this month, (abbr)17. An NHL coach, (init)18. 14th and 1st letters of the alphabet.19. An NHL goaltender.23. Initials of Stapleton.24. Same as 1 8 across.26. Former NHL forward Henry, (nickname)27. Pictured player.30. City in AHL. (abbr)31. Minor pro league, (init)<h3>DOWN</h3>1. An NHL supervisor of officals.2. Former member of Detroit&rsquo;s famed production line.3. The Rocket&rsquo;s initials.4. Avenue, (abbr.)5. Bucyk wears this number.6. One of the Blues.10. Skip Krake of Edmonton played junior here.14. United Nations, (abbr.)15. Red Wing defenseman.17. Initials of Caron of Beauce.20. City in Norway.21. Part of a foot.22. An injured one is painful.25. Former defenseman.28. 9th and 1st letters of the alphabet.29. One of the Penguins, (init)<h2>LAST WEEK&rsquo;S ANSWERS</h2><h3>ACROSS</h3>1. LAPOINTE.7. VOCAL.8. IVAN.10. TALON.12. ALE.14. ERA.15. RED.16. RED.17. M.S.19. MEL.20. TEN.22. PETERS.24. RAH.25. ROTA.27. IRVIN.29. HEAD.30. C.G.<h3>DOWN</h3>1. LEITER.2. PHILADELPHIA.3. IVAN.4. NON.5. T.C.6. EAGLES.9. V.O.11. ARE.12. ARMSTRONG.13. ED.18. L.N.19. MARSH.21. E.S.T.23. ERIC.26. A.H.L.28. R.D. &#9632;

f0038-04

HOCKEY CROSSWORD

BLOOMINGTON&mdash;With Austin and St. Paul playing well enough to protect their first and second-place rankings, interest now in the Midwest Junior Hockey League centers on Bloomington, coming out of a losing slump, and Hennepin, victor in five of the club&rsquo;s last six outings.BLOOMINGTON: After setting a club record with five straight losses, Bloomington rallied to edge St. Paul 54 Jan. 10 and Kostka 7-5 the next night. Prexy GM Ken Williamson sees the return of defensemen Dan Haskins and Steve Shandley off injuries as a key to the turnaround. Centers Greg Wymer and Rick Bergess both had seven point weeks, while right wing Ed Li-sorgar picked up five points.ST. PAUL: After winning four straight, the Vulcans fell to a hungry Bloomington club to make it a .500 week&hellip;Win was a 4-2 victory over the Weber Seniors&hellip;Jim O&rsquo;Neill and Jim Cunningham tallied six and five points respectively to lead Vulcans&rsquo; scoring last week&hellip;Team maintained best goals-against average in the league.HENNEPIN: The Nordiques&rsquo; fourth straight win was an 8-4 decision over Bloomington Jan. 8, Hennepin&rsquo;s only game last week&hellip;Now trailing Bloomington by just four points, the clubs has an opportunity to even up the race with wins over Austin and Kostka Seniors this week&hellip;Hennepin defense has come on strong of late, with Mike Knoke and Dan Nelson especially effective at the blueline.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0738/3556932-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="542" height="581"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM O&rsquo;NEILL&hellip;Productive Saint</figcaption></div>AUSTIN: Keith Biancalana and Mitch Corbin, with three goals apiece, sparked Austin&rsquo;s offense in a 10-6 win over the Weber club Jan. 11. Goalie Jeff Lemen, who is seeing more work in goal, stopped 43 shots in the encounter&hellip;The Mavericks, with a five-point margin and three games in hand over second place St. Paul, have three contests this week to the Vulcans&rsquo; singleton against Austin. &#9632;

f0039-07

Bloomington, Hennepin Rally To Challenge Teams In MJHL

<div class="byline">BY HOWIE STALWICK</div>CRANBROOK&mdash;Oh, what a difference a year makes. Even if the two are separated by just one day.No sooner did lowly Nelson knock off streaking Spokane 5-4 in overtime on New Year&rsquo;s Day than did league-leading Cranbrook do the same to the longtime loop kings by a 4-2 count the following evening.And later that same night, last place Kimberley snapped a six-game losing skid by blasting high-riding Trail 7-2 to keep Spokane within four points of the losing Smokies, a margin with the Flyers have a chance to make up during an upcoming home-and-home set between the two clubs.CRANBROOK: The Royals&rsquo; triumph came in the squad&rsquo;s only contest over a three-week stretch. Coach Gerry Goyer suited up for that game to replace All Star left winger Jim Miller who was temporarily suspended by the team due to problems caused by last year&rsquo;s leading WIHL goal-getter&rsquo;s proposed move to Spokane because of continued layoffs from his job in Cranbrook.The loss of Miller would undoubtedly hurt the club badly, but that possibility appeared to be halted for the time being at least when the league issued Spokane a warning against possible tampering violations.NELSON: The New Year&rsquo;s win over Spokane was a costly one to several player&rsquo;s wallets, as Nelson&rsquo;s Jim Hargreaves, Grant Casper, Ken Price and Terry Tarnow all earned game misconducts for their roles in a brawl which also caused the Flyers&rsquo; Gail Holden, Murray Kennett, Don Dirk and George Talotti to be ousted.Spokane got some revenge against the Leafs two days later when they defeated Nelson 5-3.SPOKANE: Still hampered by injuries and player call-ups by Edmonton of the World Hockey Association, the team was forced to coax longtime Flyer defense stalwart Vince Collins out of his two-year retirement. Coach Tom Hodges even suited up for the first Nelson game.All Star pivot Jim Stanfield has almost singlehandedly been making up for the missing players by notching nine goals in a five-game stretch to increase his top ranked goals figure to 23.TRAIL: Attendance is still on the rise in Smoke City, as the local hockey following warms up to the hustling young Smoke Eaters. The club continues to win despite the lack of a single scorer anywhere near the league&rsquo;s top 10, with Mitch Bozak and Lyman Haakstead battling for the team points lead with 27 each.KIMBERLEY: The Dynamiters continue pretty much to be a one-line team as Dave Lee, Dennis Schick and Glen Walton keep handling most of the offensive load. Lee (16-29) and Schick (15-30) are now tied for the league scoring lead, and Walton tops the club in goals with 17 despite being 15 points behind his two linemates. &#9632;

The WIHL Scene

<div class="byline">BY BILL HILTS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0833/3556987-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="325" height="409"></div><h2>Mid-Atlantic League</h2>The Roc-Ice Meteors of the Mid-Atlantic Jr. League won two games at home over the past weekend. On Saturday the Red Lion Juniors from Bristol, PA. came to twon and the RocIce sextet posted a handy 10-4 win. The score was tied 3-3 at the end of the first period, but the dam broke in the final two periods. Leading scorer for the winners was Brian Riley with a fantistic production of five goals and three assists. Following close behind was Matt Dyroff with three goals and two assists, Jim Girodonello tallied once and Ivar Leetma contributed five assists. RocIce goaltender Robb Zan Fagna was outstanding in nets.Red Lion goalie Michael Grossman had 35 saves. John Falese netted two goals, Tim Stumpf had one goal and two assists and Greg Cardingly one goal and one assist.The next day the Meteors met the local rival Sport-O-Rama Saints and produced a repeat of Saturday&rsquo;s heavy scoring second and third periods to win 10-5. The opening stanza was tight with each team scoring only once. Top goal scoring honors went to Matt Dyroff with three, along with a pair of assists. Brian Riley had two goals and three assists, while Chris LaPrado. and Ivar Leetma each had single goals with three assists. Mike Stehlik posted a goal and an assist. Doug Palmer and Giordonello each had one goal. Shots one goal were 53 for Roc-Ice, with SOR goalie Anton Matthews turning in a good job in the nets. Roc-Ice goalkeeper Norm Fleischer had to turn aside 40 shots to register the win.<h2>Metropolitan New York League</h2>The individual scoring race is a tight one with three players fighting for top spot&mdash;Bob Mancini of LIAC with 58 points, Dave Drew of Suffolk with 57 points and John Jaskul of New Hyde Park with 55 points.Jerry Satoren of Suffolk has 46 points with three players knotted for the next spot with 40 points&mdash;Ron Knaust of LIAC, Dave Fairweather of B-R and Lee Rudnitsky of Suffolk.Mancini is the top goal getter with 35, while Jaskul leads in assists with 27.Bob Harvey of Suffolk leads the goaltenders with a perfect 9-0-1 record. He also has a fine 3.45 GA average. Rod Annable of B-R also has a clean record with 10-0-2, but his GA average is 4.34<h2>Great Lakes Junior A League</h2>Jim Marshall scored a goal with 5:36 remaining in the game to give the Oakland Chiefs a 4-4 tie with the Paddock Pools Saints. Pat Evo scored twice for the Chiefs, with Marshall Reyes accounting for the other Oakland tally. Paul Gottwalk, Tom Nicholson, Mike Lackie and Joe McClellan each scored for the Pools. Doug Ross was in nets for the Chiefs, stopping 35 of 39 shots while Keith Bullard kicked out 30 shots in the Saints goal.The Chiefs scored three third period goals, two by Reyes, including the game winner with 4:52 remaining in the game, to upend the Detroit Junior Wings 4-3. Ed Turner and Jim Marshall also scored for the Chiefs, who beat the Wings for the first time this season in seven starts. Rudy Varvari was the winning goaltender for the Chiefs. Darryl DiPace, Bob Bishop and Bryan Cammett were the Detroit goal scorers.The Jr. Wings announced that Greg Morrow, over-age forward, was granted a hockey scholarship to Ohio State University. Ed Dobbs, overage captain of the Wings was given a two-game tryout with the Kalamazoo Wings of the International League. Dobbs was among the league&rsquo;s leading scorers with 34 points until his season ended Dec. 20. The Jr. Wings played the Windsor Royals in a benefit hockey game, Dec. 17 at the Forest Glade Arena in Windsor, with all proceeds going to the Windsor Needy Children for Christmas. Detroit edged the Royals 6-4.<h2>New England League</h2>The Springfield Olympics and Fitchburg Wallopers remained deadlocked for the top spot in the New England Jr. League as both clubs skated to impressive one-sided victories this past weekend.Springfield snapped a five-game winless streak (0-3-2) as defenseman Barry Ryan&rsquo;s shorthanded goal triggered a six-goal outburst in the final 23 minutes that broke open a 4-4 game and carried the Olympics to a 10-4 romp over the South Shore Braves. Jeff Christina and Dean Lombardi each scored two goals for Springfield and Bill Derosia the NEJHL&rsquo;s top goaltender turned in 40 minutes of shutout goal tending with 16 saves.Fitchburg pumped in eight unanswered period goals and never looked back as the Wallopers routed the Berwick Vikings 12-2 to run their current unbeaten streak to six games 5-0-1. Kevin Lawler drilled in three goals, while Mickey Rego. Chuck Pappas and defenseman Bob Marquis each scored twice and Don Leger recorded 25 saves. Rego and Lawler have both now scored at least one point in 19 consecutive games, while Pappas attained the 40-oal plateau.<h2>New York-Penn League</h2>The league leading Amherst Knights continue to set a blistering pace in the NY-Penn loop. Their record at mid-season is 16-3-2 for 34 points. Their closest rivals are Rochester Monarchs with 28 points and South town Cougars with 27 points. The fourth place Niagara Falls Mangs Sharks have 19 points.Last month the Sharks humbled the Knights by shutting them out 3-0&mdash;which was their last loss. Friday evening the Amherst icers avenged that loss with a 3-1 win over the Sharks in a fast, hard-hitting, but cleanly played game in the Cataract City. Single Amherst goals came off the sticks of Stewart Campbell, Frank Schlehr and Jeff Brownschidle. Mike Brigante got the lone Shark tally and steady Mike Bagocus was outstanding in the nets for the Mangs team, posting 33 saves.The previous night the Rochester Monarchs took the measure of the Sharks by dropping them 6-3. Jerry Short house was the big gun for the Monarchs notching a hat trick. Single goals were scored by Clint Campbell, Peter Dawes and Wilf David. Shark goals were scored by Jim Rickard, Dave Raham and Bill Hilts. The Amherst Knights got a real scare from the last place Syracuse Stars, needing three third period scores to pull-out a 4-2 win. Dale Guynn netted the initial Knight score, with the final stanza markers being fired by Derek Embody, Leo Lynett and Jeff Brownschidle. &#9632;

f0039-08

JUNIOR JOTTINGS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C4-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c4-01202/3557105-1-eng-US/c4-012.jpg"></div>ATLANTA&mdash;The Atlanta Flames, who opened the season by losing their first four games, have turned things around to the point that they are currently the hottest team in the National Hockey League.They opened a five-game stand here Jan 6 with a 4-3 win over Detroit. It was the Flames&rsquo; 14th victory in their last 20 games and their fourth win in a row. It stretched their unbeaten home record over a period of nine games.The Flames&rsquo; road record this season of 12-9-0 and is second only to Montreal in the NHL.Atlanta captain Pat Quinn explained the dramatic turnaround by saying: &ldquo;We had a lot of new faces to fit into our program at the beginning of the year. It also took a while for all of us to adapt to coach Fred Creighton&rsquo;s style.&rdquo;In several recent games the Flames have overcome two-goal deficits in the third period and skated their way to victory.&ldquo;We have confidence now,&rdquo; Creighton points out. &ldquo;When you begin to believe in yourself, you can make things happen. Early in the season when we got behind, we didn&rsquo;t believe we could catch up. Now we believe.&rdquo;The Flames&rsquo; goal production has been spread out over several players, although Tom Lysiak and Curt Bennett have consistently been the team leaders. &#9632;

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January 30, 1976

Deadline Stoppers

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NHL SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

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