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

April 16, 1976

The Hockey News April 16, 1976

<div class="byline">BY DOUG McCONNELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01278/3837192-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="561" height="660"><figcaption class="caption-body">NORM FERGUSON&hellip;Given Assurances</figcaption></div>SAN DIEGO&mdash;Millionaire Peter Graham said a tentative agreement has been reached for the purchase of the San Diego Mariners who had their World Hockey Association franchise pulled from Baltimore businessman Joseph Schwartz.Graham, who operates the San Diego International Sports Arena, said finalization of the deal would take a week, including the approval by three-fourths of the WHA&rsquo;s board of governors, and that a condition of purchase included payment of all salary obligations that were defaulted by Schwartz.&ldquo;We have an agreement to purchase the franchise, but it hasn&rsquo;t been signed.&rdquo; said Graham. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t guarantee that the sale will go through but we&rsquo;re reasonably sure it will. The league wants to keep a team in Sar Diego and we want to keep one here.&rdquo;Schwartz, who brought the franchise to San Diego two years ago, lost the franchise after he missed the team&rsquo;s payroll on March 15.Word of the possible purchase agreement and assurances on the salary pay ments prompted the club&rsquo;s players to vote to finish the season with the faltering WHA team.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been given reasonable assurances that new owners will be found.&rdquo; said team captain Norm Ferguson. &ldquo;Apparently the financing will remain open but we will be finishing the season, so I assume somebody&rsquo;s paying the bills.&rdquo;The Mariners, however, have been flaying as if they&rsquo;re not sure and are not mounting any semblance of last season&rsquo;s 9-1-1 finish which gave them second inthe WHA West.They blew a 6-3 lead over Indianapolis and escaped with an 8-8 tie at home. They did climb all over the Cincinnati Stingers 9-1, with Ferguson counting his 34th and 35th, but followed with a 3-1 loss at Phoenix, a 5-2 loss at San Diego to Phoenix and a 6-1 whipping at Winnipeg where they had to be ultra-weary.The Winnipeg game was their fourth in four nights and fifth in six nights. &#9632;

f0030-01

IN THIS ISSUE

Graham Set To Purchase Mariners

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1945/3836402-1-eng-US/f0018-192.jpg" title="f0018-19" width="336" height="640"></div><h2>ATLANTA FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01688/3836395-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="220" height="199"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02550/3836388-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="703" height="551"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03414/3836381-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="214" height="204"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04303/3836374-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="712" height="636"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05229/3836367-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="222" height="228"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-06188/3836360-1-eng-US/f0018-062.jpg" title="f0018-06" width="707" height="513"></div><h2>CALIFORNIA SEALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-07163/3836353-1-eng-US/f0018-072.jpg" title="f0018-07" width="228" height="99"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-08138/3836346-1-eng-US/f0018-082.jpg" title="f0018-08" width="702" height="537"></div><h2>CHICAGO HAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-09119/3836339-1-eng-US/f0018-092.jpg" title="f0018-09" width="250" height="233"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-10106/3836332-1-eng-US/f0018-102.jpg" title="f0018-10" width="710" height="505"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-11102/3836325-1-eng-US/f0018-112.jpg" title="f0018-11" width="258" height="138"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1293/3836318-1-eng-US/f0018-122.jpg" title="f0018-12" width="708" height="624"></div><h2>KANSAS CITY SCOUTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1380/3836311-1-eng-US/f0018-132.jpg" title="f0018-13" width="201" height="202"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1474/3836304-1-eng-US/f0018-142.jpg" title="f0018-14" width="706" height="504"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1569/3836297-1-eng-US/f0018-152.jpg" title="f0018-15" width="152" height="184"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1665/3836290-1-eng-US/f0018-162.jpg" title="f0018-16" width="710" height="576"></div><h2>MINNESOTA STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1753/3836283-1-eng-US/f0018-172.jpg" title="f0018-17" width="241" height="211"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-1849/3836276-1-eng-US/f0018-182.jpg" title="f0018-18" width="712" height="579"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2046/3836269-1-eng-US/f0018-202.jpg" title="f0018-20" width="220" height="178"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2144/3836262-1-eng-US/f0018-212.jpg" title="f0018-21" width="718" height="649"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2241/3836255-1-eng-US/f0018-222.jpg" title="f0018-22" width="213" height="205"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2339/3836248-1-eng-US/f0018-232.jpg" title="f0018-23" width="717" height="511"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2438/3836241-1-eng-US/f0018-242.jpg" title="f0018-24" width="204" height="200"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2538/3836234-1-eng-US/f0018-252.jpg" title="f0018-25" width="714" height="589"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2637/3836227-1-eng-US/f0018-262.jpg" title="f0018-26" width="249" height="167"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2736/3836220-1-eng-US/f0018-272.jpg" title="f0018-27" width="709" height="558"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2832/3836213-1-eng-US/f0018-282.jpg" title="f0018-28" width="232" height="221"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-2927/3836206-1-eng-US/f0018-292.jpg" title="f0018-29" width="701" height="576"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3027/3836199-1-eng-US/f0018-302.jpg" title="f0018-30" width="156" height="139"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3126/3836192-1-eng-US/f0018-312.jpg" title="f0018-31" width="701" height="581"></div><h2>TORONTO LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3225/3836185-1-eng-US/f0018-322.jpg" title="f0018-32" width="204" height="205"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3325/3836178-1-eng-US/f0018-332.jpg" title="f0018-33" width="704" height="554"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3422/3836171-1-eng-US/f0018-342.jpg" title="f0018-34" width="180" height="123"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3521/3836164-1-eng-US/f0018-352.jpg" title="f0018-35" width="708" height="636"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3619/3836157-1-eng-US/f0018-362.jpg" title="f0018-36" width="173" height="102"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-3717/3836150-1-eng-US/f0018-372.jpg" title="f0018-37" width="698" height="558"></div> &#9632;

f0018-19

SCORING and PENALTY STATISTICS

<h2>NHL TEAMS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03644/3835319-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="493" height="784"></div><h2>WHA TEAMS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04440/3835312-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="501" height="504"></div><h2>OTHER LEAGUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05315/3835305-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="493" height="368"></div><h2>COLUMNISTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06219/3835298-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="473" height="220"></div><h2>OTHER FEATURES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07133/3835291-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="489" height="132"></div> &#9632;

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WHERE YOU’LL FIND IT ALL

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01506/3836581-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="568" height="2128"><figcaption class="caption-body">BUTCH GORING &hellip;Consistent Player</figcaption></div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRAOSBY LTD Arnold Street WaHaceburg Ontario Sold in U. S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH& BRADSBY LTD Arnold Street Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U. S. and CanadaLOSANGELES&mdash;Robert &ldquo;Butch&rdquo; Goring, the bouncy little center who missed 13 games three seasons back with a shoulder injury. 10 games two sesasons back with another shoulder injury, and 20 games last season with shoulder and eye injuries, often has said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to see what I could do playing a full season.&rdquo;He appears on the verge of finding out. He had played every game this season with six left and he has compiled superior totals to any previous season, though not by as much as might have been expected.The 26-year-old seventh-season major leaguer, who tallied 28, 28 and 27 goals the last three seasons, has hit 30 for the first time in his career. After seasons of 31,33 and 33 assists, he has 32 at this point. After seasons of 59, 61 and 60 points, he has 62.Clearly, he is a consistent sort who gets his share of goals and assists no matterhow many games he misses.He has taken over the all-time team leadership from Juha Widing with 149 goals and 335 points and while he never has been voted team MVP and has been overshadowed by Marcel Dionne in that and other considerations this season, he probably ranks as the top player this team has had over a long term.Aside from his scoring, Butchie excels defensively in general and killing penalties in particular. He has set a team record with five shorthanded goals this seasonThe Kings played one of their best games of the season in building a 4-1 lead and holding on to beat Montreal by 4-3, their second straight triumph over the leagueleaders. This, however, was only their third win as against four losses as they concluded a home stand in which they had expected to gain ground.It seems as if they always expect a lot from late-season home stands, but rarely get much from them. This one cost them second place, many have cost them the home-ice advantage in the short, opening series, and may have brought them their toughest possible opponent in that series, Buffalo.They went to Minnesota and, despite two goals by Goring, settled for a 4-4 tie with the lowly North Stars, tied by a deflection with 1:26 remaining off the stick of Tim Young, the rookie they gave away, who is playing in a way to make them regret it.Returning home, this up and down club was up for Buffalo, but needed a goal by Marcel Dionne with 51 seconds left to tie the tough Sabres at 1-1. At that, the goal may have been kicked in while Marcel was standing in the crease.but TV reruns did not clear up the issue and the referee allowed the score.This was one of the few times pulling a goaler for a sixth attacker paid off, instead of leading to an empty-net goal that finishes the trailing team off. Goring was that extra attacker and he got the assist that gave him a career high in points. But Dionne&rsquo;s 36th goal and 84th point left him the team leader this season by a lot.Vic Venasky and Donnie Kozak, both 24-year-old fourth-year pros, have set personal highs this season. Venasky has 16 goals, 23 assists and 39 points. Kozak has 17 goals, 23 assists and 40 points. Kozak, who works as hard as Goring, which means he works as hard as anyone, probably handled the puck better in the Islander game than in any prior game in his career. Another erratic player, Dave Hutchison, played one of his best games, too.Kathy Edwards presented goaltender Gary with their first child, Bryant William, Mar. 19&hellip;A little more than a month after his Feb. 24 surgery to repair a ruptured disc in his spine and remove fluid which had formed a knot on the nerve leading to his left leg, Gene Carr looks and says he feels fine&hellip;Long after he was ready to return, recovered from a sore back, top prospect Gary Sargent finally returned to the King defense in Minnesota. &#9632;

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Goring Attains Scoring Peak

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01951/3835260-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Reg Leach of the Flyers led the NHL in goals this season with 61 ending the six-year reign of Phil Esposito who managed only 35 with two teams. For details see page 19.</figcaption></div><h2>NHL PLAYOFFS SET</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;The Stanley Cup playoffs began for 1976 with the four division champions sitting on the sideline watching and waiting for the four survivors of the best-of-three preliminary series before starting round two &mdash; all of which will be best-of-seven playdowns.The NHL playoffs are determined by points, the team with the most points meeting the team with the least in each series. Here&rsquo;s how the teams finished by points: Montreal, 127, Philadelphia 118, Boston 113, Buffalo 105, Islanders 101, Los Angeles 85, Toronto 83, Pittsburgh 82, Atlanta 82, Chicago 82, Vancouver 79 and St.Louis 72. Montreal, Philly, Boston and Chicago drew first-round byes. The prelimary round matched Buffalo and St. Louis, Islanders and Vancouver, L.A. and Atlanta and Toronto with Pittsburgh. If you&rsquo;re trying to predict the matchups for the second and third rounds, forget it. On the closing weekend of the NHL schedule there were approximately 81 possible playoff variations because of the point system.<h2>WOMEN TAKE TO HOCKEY</h2>TARZANA&mdash;Nothing is sacred anymore men! Now the ladies are invading the field of ice hockey with a Women&rsquo;s Professional Hockey Association recently formed in Tarzana, Calif., to group all professional and amateur women&rsquo;s hockey clubs in North America.Charles Lewis, a former bullfighter and rodeo performer, is the prime organizer of the ladies&rsquo; hockey program. &ldquo;Hockey is good, clean competitive team sport,&rdquo; said Lewis. He didn&rsquo;t say if one day he hoped tochallenge for the Stanley Cup.<h2>PRODUCER NOMINATED</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;A rarity in television sports circles&mdash;the nomination of a Canadian producer for an Emmy Award&mdash;has been announced by ABC. The sports network revealed it has nominated Ralph Mellanby of Toronto, executive producer of Hockey Night In Canada, for a sports directoral award for his coverage of ABC&rsquo;s Olympic hockey program at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.Mellanby is the first Canadian producer-director to be singled out for an American TV sports award while working with a major U.S. network. Mellanby&rsquo;s picture selection and production of the Innsbruck hockey games were one of the highlights of the Winter classic.<h2>SCOUTS BETTER (?) CAPS</h2>KANSAS CITY&mdash;The Kansas City Scouts struck a new blow for futility in the NHL on the closing weekend of the 1975-76 season. They became the losing-est team in league history as they dropped their 26th and 27th games in a row without a win to break the old mark set by Washington Caps earlier this season at 25 games.The Scouts were also working on a winless road record when the season came to its disastrous end for them. They had gone 20 games without winning but their dubious mark left them well short of the existing NHL road record&mdash;37 games in a row without a win set by Washington last year. &#9632;

f0002-01

Deadline Stoppers

<div class="byline">BY RALPH BRIDGLAND</div>MONTREAL&mdash;For the Montreal Canadiens this has been a satisfying and record-breaking regular season.As the Habs looked ahead to the final weekend of the 1975-76 regular season they had wrapped up the overall points title in the National Hockey League, all but assured themselves of the Vezina Trophy, appeared to have the league&rsquo;s top scorer in their midst in Guy Lafleur, had broken the NHL record for most points in a season, and needed victories in their last two outings to break the mark for most wins in a single season.The Canadiens assured themselves of the home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs by tying the Bruins 2-2 in Boston while Philadelphia was dropped by the New York Islanders the next evening.Lafleur counted his 50th and 51st goals in 8-2 romp over Kansas City to become the first player in Canadien history to score 50 goals on two occasions, let alone in consecutive seasons.However, Lafleur led Philadelphia&rsquo;s Bobby Clarke by only two points in the race for the Art Ross Trophy for the league&rsquo;s top scorer. Lafleur appeared to wrap up the title with a five-point night, including his 53rd and 54th goals of the season, in 7-3 drubbing of Pittsburgh. That outburst left Lafleur seven points in front of Clarke with the Philadelphia captain having three games remaining compared with Lafleur&rsquo;s two. Clarke then recorded his own five-point burst against Washington but when the regular campaign came to a close Lafleur held a six-point margin on his closest pursuer.With his point total at 125, Lafleur broke his own record set last season of 117, the most ever by a member of the Canadiens and the lop mark by a NHL right winger. He became the first Canadien to capture the Art Ross Trophy since Bernie Geoffrion in 1960-61.While Lafleur was cruising along on offense, Ken Dryden and Michel Larocque were strengthening their hold on the Vezina Trophy. By avoiding a major defensive collapse the Habs&rsquo;goaling duo picked up the coveted award in a walk. The Canadiens topped the runnerup Islanders by 16 goals in the goals-against category.In 80 games the Canadiens alloowed 174 goals for an average of 2.15.The 7-3 home ice victory over the Penguins established a new NHL record for the most points in one season. The two points earned against Pittsburgh lifted the Habs&rsquo; 1975-76 total to 123 eclipsing the old mark of 121 set by the Boston Bruins in a 78-game season in 1970-71.When the Canadiens won their final two games of the regular season (against Detroit 6-3 and Washington 4-3) they also erased the record for the most wins in a single season, 77. The previous mark was set by the Bruins in the same season the previous points record was established.While players such as Lafleur, Dryden and Pete Mahvolich, who exceeded the 100-point mark in the final week, have received much of the credit for the Habs&rsquo; showing this season, several other performers have shown a marked improvement over last season season&rsquo;s performance.The defensemen have played an important role as they gave up their impressive offensive statistics of 1974-75 in order to improve the defensive record in 1975-76. Their play this season has shown that Montreal owns the best twoway defense in hockey.When looking at the forward lines, the most improved performer has to be left winger Steve Shutt who has become a steady all-round player for the Habs. He went over the 40-goal plateau for the first time in his pro career (45) and set a new record for Hab left wingers breaking the old mark established by Frank Mahovlich. He has also proven to be an effective fore-checker and backchecker.The only newcomer to the lineup who has seen regular duty throughout the season is young center Doug Jarvis. Not very big he makes up for his size disadvantage with sheer hustle and desire. While his offensive statistics don&rsquo;t rank him anywhere near the NHL&rsquo;s rookie leaders, his defensive abilities put him head and shoulders above the freshman crop. And in his first pro season he has established himself as one of the most effective players on the club, if not in the entire league, in the faceoff circle.Others such as Bob Gainey. YvanCoumoyer, Jacques Lemaire and Doug Risebrough can also be singled out for their contributions.But what it really boils down to is that the Canadiens put it together as a team this season and that factor alone has made the Habs the favorites as the post-season action gets underway.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02866/3835229-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="561" height="1156"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE SHUTT&hellip;Cracks Big M Mark</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0002-02

Canadiens Enter Playoffs As Favorites After Record-Breaking Regular Season

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01957/3835385-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="505" height="565"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN DRYDEN &hellip; Goaler</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02822/3835378-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="511" height="364"><figcaption class="caption-body">GUY LAPOINTE &hellip; Defense</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03549/3835371-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="502" height="451"><figcaption class="caption-body">DENIS POTVIN &hellip; Defense</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04326/3835364-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="502" height="553"><figcaption class="caption-body">GUYLAFLEUR &hellip; Right Wing</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-05186/3835357-1-eng-US/f0003-052.jpg" title="f0003-05" width="1120" height="1162"><figcaption class="caption-body">Young Bryan Trottier of the Islanders had the rookie of the year race almost to himself as the fans selected him the outstanding first year player in their annual poll. Trottier was an easy winner over Fivers&rsquo; Mel Bridgman and California&rsquo;s Dennis Maruk.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Everybody loves a winner no matter what the sport.Hockey fans everywhere had the powerful Montreal Canadiens and equally dominant Philadelphia Flyers on their minds when they cast their collective ballots in the annual National Hockey League All Star team selections.It came as no surprise then that the Habs and Flyers were the people&rsquo;s choice when the final tabulations were in for the annual 29th poll conducted by THE HOCKEY NEWS among its readers.The Canadiens&rsquo; tremendous impact on the 1975-76 NHL race was easily reflected in the All Star balloting as the Habs placed three players on the first team and one on the second. The two-time Stanley Cup champion Flyers were almost as much in demand as they put two players on the first team, one on the second and walked away with the most valuable player award leaving very little for the rest of the NHL teams.Goaler Ken Dryden, who won his second Vezina Trophy this season, was the No. 1 pick for the first team and Flyers&rsquo; captain and inspirational ice. leader, Bobby Clarke, picked off the first team center spot and was the winner of the MVP award as well. Both players were among the highest vote getters in the poll as the Canadiens and Flyers won eight of the 12 All Star positions.Others on the first team were Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders and Canadiens&rsquo; Guy Lapointe, who made up the defense tandem. Besides Clarke at center, NAL scoring champion Guy Lafleur came up as the right wing pick and Clarke&rsquo;s Philly linemate, Bill Barber, was chosen as the No. 1 left winger.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-06125/3835350-1-eng-US/f0003-062.jpg" title="f0003-06" width="1732" height="1177"><figcaption class="caption-body">Two of the big vote-getters in THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; 29th annual Fans&rsquo; All Star selections were Bobby Clarke, left, and Bill Barber of the Philadelphia Flyers. Clarke had the distinction of being named the most valuable player by the fans and the All Star center. Barber, who is Clarke&rsquo;s linemate with Philly, was easily the choice for left wing.</figcaption></div>On the second team. Glenn Resch of the Islanders, was the choice of the fans after Dryden for goal. On defense. Borje Salming of the Toronto Leafs and Boston&rsquo;s Brad Park acquired the most votes. Offensively, Pete Mahovlich of Canadiens was the pick for center flanked by Reg Leach of Philadelphia on the right and Buffalo&rsquo;s Richard Martin on the left side.In the voting for the rookie of the year, Islanders&rsquo; sensational scoring Bryan Trottier was far and away the winner of the freshman race with Philadelphia&rsquo;s Mel Bridgman and California&rsquo;s Dennis Maruk second and third respectively in the fans&rsquo; voting.Clarke&rsquo;s choice as MVP in the close voting over Lafleur and Denis Potvin, came only two weeks after he had been selected as the Player of the Year by THE HOCKEY NEWS in its annual NHL awards. The hard-working little center, who has been overshadowed in the All Star voting the last two years by Phil Esposito, was clearly the pick of the fans this time around. He was on the second team last year.Potvin and Lafleur were the only repeaters on the fans&rsquo; first team with Dryden, Lapointe, Clarke and Barber comprising the new faces on the first team over last season. Missing from this year&rsquo;s voting were the likes of goaler Rogie Vachon, defenseman Bobby Orr and Esposito, none of whom received much attention from the hockey-reading public in this year&rsquo;s voting.Several players figured in the close voting for both the defense and forward positions. Jim Watson of the Flyers and Serge Savard of the Canadiens were well up in the balloting for the blueline berths and Gilbert Perreault of Buffalo came in third behind Clarke and Mahovlich. Jean Pronovost, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s 50-plus sniper, ranked third behind Lafleur and Leach while John Bucyk of Boston was a distant third in back of Barber and Martin.It&rsquo;s conceivable Montreal and Philadelphia will encounter one another in the Stanley Cup showdown in mid May and hockey fans may have had this in the backs of their minds when they weighed their votes so, heavily in favor of the Canadiens and Flyers. &#9632;

f0003-01

CANADIENS, FLYERS GET FANS’ VOTES; CLARKE MVP, TROTTIER TOP ROOKIE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-07" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-0782/3835416-1-eng-US/f0003-072.jpg"></div>Most Valuable Player &mdash; BOBBY CLARKE, Philadelphia.Rookie Of The Year &mdash; BRYAN TROTTIER, N.Y. Islanders. &#9632;

f0003-07

How Fans Picked Them

MARC TARDIF AND BOBBY HULL RANK AS ALL STAR PERFORMERS OFF THEIR SENSATIONAL SCORING EXPLOITS ALONE THIS SEASON. BUT WHO ELSE BELONGS AMONG THE WHA&rsquo;S TOP 12? AND WHO IS THE WHA&rsquo;S MVP AND BEST ROOKIE? The fourth annual HOCKEY NEWS WHA All Star teams and individual awards will be announced in the April 23 issue and will help provide some of the answers for our readers. Watch for them next week. &#9632;

COMING NEXT WEEK!

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011009/3835492-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="460" height="454"></div>&bull; BOBBY ORR has played his last game for the Boston Bruins. That appears to be the feeling among the insiders in the Boston area. Orr is expected to be traded to Chicago Black Hawks between now and the summer&hellip;The hapless Hawks have to undergo a thorough house-cleaning before next season starts. It&rsquo;s pitiful the way the team has fallen apart these last couple of years. Attendance has declined so much at the venerable old Chicago Stadium that the Hawk owners realize they must make some drastic moves to hypo interest in the club and bring back the SRO crowds that were a regular feature of every game the team played&hellip;Emile Francis, still on the payroll of the New York Rangers, is scouting the junior playoffs&hellip; Francis is almost certain not to be back with the Rangers next season. He will be either with St. Louis or Chicago&hellip;There are several other NHL clubs that would be more than anxious to have Francis as a part of their organization&hellip;John Ferguson, the new Rangers&rsquo; general manager-coach, is far from pleased with the players he inherited from Francis and makes no bones about saying so. In fact there is no love lost between Francis and Ferguson&hellip;Walt Tkaczuk is said to be almost certain to leave New York. Bill Fairbairn and Gilles Marotte are other members of the Rangers who might move before next season rolls around&hellip;Ferguson is determined to build a team of his own choosing and one that will be a threat to all the other National League teams in the years to come&hellip;Incidentally, this marks the 36th year since the Rangers last won the Stanley Cup and the 34th since they finished first&hellip; Doug Halward, youthful defenseman the Boston Bruins brought up from Rochester Americans of the American League, has impressed everyone with his cool determined play. He&rsquo;s touted as a All Star of the future.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02965/3835485-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="274" height="391"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Halward</figcaption></div>&bull; TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS are one of the most improved teams in the NHL right now. The youngsters have started to pay off for the Leafs and Red Kelly is getting the maximum effort from some of the players who looked so inept earlier this season &hellip; Errol Thompson is only the second man in the history of the Maple Leafs to score more than 40 goals in a season. Thompson credits Marcel Pronovost for much of his development. It was Pronovost who converted him into a forward at Tulsa &hellip; Pierre Mondou, star forward with Nova Scotia Voyageurs, is expected to eventually become a star with Canadiens. The Montreal brass predicts a bright future for him &hellip; Marcoileau. fired as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this season, hopes to land a coaching job in the World Hockey Association next season &hellip; Tommy Ivan, senior general manager in the NHL, has bought a home in Florida and is expected to retire as GM of Chicago at the end of the season &hellip; Rock Ringler of Houston points out that Gordie Howe had 40 points in his last 21 games. After a slow start, Howe had picked up over 90 scoring points by the end of March. Not bad for a 48-year-old youngster&hellip; Bobby Clarke, the most valuable player in the NHL, has no agent. Unlike most players, he conducts all his own business. He has a virtual lifetime contract with the Flyers and is rumored to make around $150,000 a year&hellip; Most hockey experts predict Montreal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup this year&hellip; Cesare Maniago, 37-year-old goalie with Minnesota North Stars, may hang up the pads and turn to the construction business in British Columbia. Maniago, along with Bill Goldsworthy, is the last of the original expansion Stars&hellip; The North Stars are optimistic about next season with such brilliant young players as Steve Jensen, Tim Young, Pete LoPresti, Mike Antonovich, Bill Hogaboam and Pierre Jarry on their roster. Jensen, leading scorer with the U.S. Olympic team at Innsbruck, and Antonovich, both played their high school hockey in Minnesota&hellip; Kurt Walker is the seventh United States born player to perform for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The others were Alex Levinsky, Doc Romnes, Carl Voss, Roger Jenkins, Gerry O&rsquo;Flaherty and Dale Smedsmo&hellip; Toronto fans have taken to booing Gil Perreault of Buffalo&hellip; It looks like recurring knee ailments have ended the puck career of Rangers&rsquo; Ron Harris. Tough luck for a very game guy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03860/3835478-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="274" height="436"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Jensen</figcaption></div>&bull; HOW&rsquo;S THIS for an NHL All-Small All Star team: Goal, Rogie Vachon, Los Angeles; Defense, Gerry Hart, Islanders; Dennis Kearns, Vancouver; Center, Dennis Maruk, California; and Bobby Sheehan, Chicago; Right wing, Yvan Cournoyer, Montreal; Left wing, Bobby Lalonde, Vancouver and Randy Rota, Kansas City. Hart is the tallest at 5&rsquo;9&rdquo;&hellip; And now the All-Tall team: Goal, Ken Dryden, Montreal and Gary Smith, Vancouver (both 6-4); Defense, Bob Dailey, Vancouver (6-5) and Bill Hajt, Buffalo (6-3); Center. Pete Mahovlich, Montreal (6-5); Right wing, Dean Talafous, Minnesota (6-4); Grant Mulvey, Chicago (6-3); Left wing, Clark Gillies, Islanders (6-3); Rookie Mel Bridgman of the Flyers is one of the best fighters in the league.. Referee Lloyd Gilmour will retire at the end of this year&rsquo;s cup playoffs&hellip; Jean Potvin of the Islanders credits transcendental meditation for his improved play this year&hellip; Fred Shero was once the Canadian middleweight boxing champ and also had aspirations of becoming a pro&hellip; Eddie Bush isn&rsquo;t likely to be back as coach of K.C. next season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04758/3835471-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="271" height="361"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Lalonde</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05620/3835547-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg"></div><h2>Don&rsquo;t Belittle Sittier&rsquo;s Performance</h2>I would like to express my reaction to the recent letter from Mr. John Tavares concerning the recent recordbreaking performance by Darryl Sittler.Obviously this man is blind to the facts if he can attempt to belittle this performance. First of all, he did it against a team with the third best record in the NHL who were enjoying a strine of victories.Remember, Mr. Tavares, we are dealing with the Boston Bruins (Brad Park, Gary Doak, Dallas Smith and company not to mention some of the best checking forwards in the league) and not the Washington Capitals. We are dealing with a &lsquo;rookie&rsquo; goalie who recorded two shutouts in his brief stint this season who had a goals against average of less than 3.5.Also keep in mind that Messrs. Richard, Hull, Howe, Esposito and Orr have played against their share of poor teams and never accomplished what Mr. Sittier did against a good, if not great team.In addition to this, Darryl Sittier has been the perfect example of how a hockey player should conduct himself. He is the captain of a young, aggressive team that can only improve with-time. He doesn&rsquo;t take foolish penalties and all in all, must be one of the three best centers in the league, at the very least.In short, if the Rocket&rsquo;s record had to be broken, Darryl Sittier was the right man to do it. I am sure that any knowledgeable hockey fan will be able to see this performance in its proper perspective, i.e., a new record.It is a shame that some of us are too blinded by personal likes and dislikes to be fair in our judgement. I only hope that this record will not go the way of Roger Maris&rsquo; home run record. Darryl Sittier is too good a hockey player for a fate like that.GEORGE CRIM ARCO, Glen Rock, N.J.<h2>Wants NCAA To Open College Playoffs</h2>Thanks for your college hockey coverage. College hockey needs a better playoff system. The current system stifles the sport because it denies growth.Under coach Selman, St. Louis U. Bills have a first class operation and again won CCHA laurels. Still they are once again denied an opportunity to be part of NCAA playoffs. NCAA does not select playoff teams in hockey nor can you earn a place. A board of coaches from WCHA and ECAC are the powers behind selection. They have frozen out everyone else for 30 years by selecting only teams from their closed playoffs.NCAA must act to open hockey playoffs on a regional basis, as in basketball. College hockey is ready to boom as numerous colleges have club or minor teams that can go variety if there is opportunity.A case in point occurred when the St. Louis Blues got with the NHL playoffs. Even though they could not match the powerful Canadiens and Bruins teams, those series established hockey solidly because there was opportunity for advancement.In addition, pro hockey must let players complete their education once they begin. It is fair to players and is necessary to build fan interest.GORDON ARNOTT St. Louis, Mo.<h2>Magnuson Goalie&rsquo;s Best Friend</h2>As of February the 3rd, the Chicago Black Hawks were third in the league in the running for the Vezina Trophy and picking up steam. Tony Esposito&rsquo;s goals-against average was falling toward 2.50 and Gilles Villemure&rsquo;s was an even 3.00.On Wednesday, February the 4th, the Black Hawks invaded the Forum with hope of defeating the &ldquo;Flying Frenchmen&rdquo;. Early in the first period, the Black Hawks were behind 2-1 but threatening. Then Montreal&rsquo;s Doug Jarvis and Chicago&rsquo;s Keith Magnuson crushed into the boards and Magnuson came away on a stretcher. The Black Hawks wound up losing 8-3.In the following nights Chicago&rsquo;s goalies started to get pummeled with shots. Tony Esposito&rsquo;s goals-against average ballooned to over 2.80 and Gilles Villemure&rsquo;s to over 4.00.Before all the attacks on Chicago&rsquo;s netminders. Keith Magnuson had been considered an over-rated defenseman by many so-called hockey authorities. Now without Keith disposing of opposing players out in front of the Chicago net, these sceptics may have second thoughts.Keith Magnuson rightfully deserves credit as the goalie&rsquo;s best friend.MICHAEL VLAHANDREAS Chicago, Ill<h2>Shows No Pity For Russians</h2>I am writing in regard to all those people who are crying about the NHL-Russian series. The big beef seems to be about the &ldquo;roughhouse tactics&rdquo; used by the Bruins and Flyers on the poor little Russians.I agree that some overabuse was paid to the visitors but it was often in response to a kick or spear.I saw all the Red Army games and was witness to these supposedly dirty Canadian olavers.I viewed the replays of the Cashman incident when he swung his stick hitting Boris Mikhailov. At first I though that it was a real dirty hack.But the replay proved me wrong. It shows Mikhailov knocking Boston goalie Gilles Gilbert down from behind just before the Russians scored.Cashman was obviously teed off so he hit Boris. The play clearly shows Mikhailov look over at the referee then jump into the air and land on the ice. He was helped off by the entire team it seemed. But the next shift he had recovered and was back on.If fans would remember it was Mikbailov who was the player who kicked Gary Bergman in 1972.My point is that the next time you watch what happens after they are bodychecked and the play turns to go back up the ice you will see many interesting things.KELLY SAUNDERS Calgary, Alta. &#9632;

f0004-05

Fan Forum

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Michel Bergeron went on a blistering scoring streak before suffering an eye injury. Bryan Watson became the National Hockey League&rsquo;s all-time leader in penalty minutes and the Red Wings strung together their longest winning streak in several seasons as the season neared its end.Bergeron, the 21-year-old rookie right winger, began his spree with a four-goal game against St. Louis, got another against Philadelphia then had back-to-back two-goal games against Chicago and Washington for nine goals in four games over a seven-day stretch.However, his rampage came to a frightening end against Washington when he was clipped in the right eye by an errant high stick. He suffered a four-stitch cut on the eyelid over the eye and doctors could not determine the extent of the injury for several days until the inflammation cleared. Everybody was hopeful, however, that the injury was not serious.Watson broke Ted Lindsay&rsquo;s record for most penalty minutes. Bugsy moved past Lindsay&rsquo;s mark of 1,808 and still has a way to go before he hangs &lsquo;em up.&ldquo;The guy whose record I broke was a tremendous player,&rdquo; Watson said of Lindsay. &ldquo;I wish I could have played with him.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01881/3835585-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="541" height="696"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRYAN WATSON</figcaption></div>Watson&rsquo;s record came at the front end of Detroit&rsquo;s five-game winning streak as the Wings at long last found their scoring touch. Detroit scored 31 goals in five games, including an 8-0 trouncing of Atlanta, a 7-3 victory over Washington and a 6-0 decision over the Black Hawks in Chicago. In that span, the club gave up only eight goals.Veteran Eddie Giacomin posted back-to-back shutouts in the victories over Chicago and Atlanta, his first two of the season, to run his career total to 51. Eddie has been outstanding since returning to the lineup following a broken right hand.He had a 6-2-2 record since his return.Dennis Polonich, the dimunitive rookie forward, continued to pick up penalty minutes at a rapid pace. With four games remaining in the season. Polo needed just 10 minutes to tie Howie Young&rsquo;s club record of 273 minutes in penalties set back in the 1962-63 season.He picked up seven minors and a misconduct for 24 of Detroit&rsquo;s 28 penalty minutes against Washington then went two games without a penalty.&ldquo;A couple of those penalties he took, late in the game against Washington. I wasn&rsquo;t happy about those at all,&rdquo; said assistant coach Billy Dea who runs the team from the bench.&ldquo;The earlier ones didn&rsquo;t bother me. But I really think the circumstances led to those late penalties. The game was over (Detroit had a 7-3 lead) and it didn&rsquo;t matter. Polo has enough sense to know better than to take bad penalties when it means something. He wouldn&rsquo;t dothat.&rdquo;At the same time, Polonich gave those people who cared to notice a glimpse of his hockey ability and the guy can play when he sets his mind to it. He scored a pair of goals in the victory over Atlanta and was doing a fine job on right wing on the Dan Maloney-Walt McKechnie line. Normally a center, Polonich was shifted to right wing.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02718/3835578-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="1177" height="1808"><figcaption class="caption-body">MICHEL BERGERON&hellip;Felled By Stick In Eye</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

Hot Scoring Red Wing Rookie Has Year Ended By Eye Injury

<div class="byline">&#x2014;By Bill Libby</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011040/3835623-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="301" height="360"></div>IF I HAD TO NAME the single most underrated performer in hockey the last several seasons my choice would have been Jean Pronovost, the powerful right-winger for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who goes up and down his lane determinedly, defenses foes, digs in the corners, makes smart passes and gets big goals.During his sixth straight 20-goal season and second straight 40-goal season he finally was selected to play in the mid-season All Star game last season, buthe never has been named a first or second All Star at season&rsquo;s end. Maybe he will be this season now thathe has joined the exclusive corps of 50 goal scorers.He has received recognition in Pittsburgh where he has been named the team&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player three times and the Player&rsquo;s Player four times, buthe has been buried in that town as far as the major media centers of this international sport are concerned.As far as that goes, he has been overshadowed in Pittsburgh this season by the flashier and immensely gifted young Pierre Larouche. Everything Larouche does on and off the ice is colorful and draws a spotlight. Meanwhile, Pronovost slips through shadows, speaking only when spoJean Pronovost is known as an honest hockey player, ken to, doing his job beautifully, but in black and white, not gaudy colors.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02800/3835616-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="809" height="724"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean Pronovost is known as an honest hockey player,</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I guess we all would like recognition and praise,&rdquo; Pronovost says,&rdquo; but I don&rsquo;t need it that much. I&rsquo;m just not built that way. As long as my manager, my coach and my teammates know I&rsquo;m doing the job, I&rsquo;m satisfied. I know my opponents respect me, and that means a lot to me. I&rsquo;d like to make the All Star teams, but 1 don&rsquo;t expect it. Maybe because I&rsquo;ve never gotten much notice I don&rsquo;t miss it much..&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what a 50-goal season would mean to me. Maybe more money, which would be nice. Although management makes a lot about the value of honest players, they tend not to pay them as much as they do the bigger scorers, though I can&rsquo;t complain that I&rsquo;ve been treated badly. I&rsquo;m really not a big scorer. I don&rsquo;t know why I&rsquo;m scoring more than I used to. I know I&rsquo;m gettinga lot of help.&rdquo;Pronovost and Lowell McDonald have been flanking Syl Apps on the highest-scoring line on this high-scoring team. Apps disagrees that Pronovost is not a scorer. Syl says, &ldquo;He deserves 50 or more. Everyone says our percentages are better when you can shoot high from close range. He&rsquo;s great at getting good position in close and shooting high and hard. He can also shoot from outside. He&rsquo;s got a hard, accurate shot and he gets it off quickly.&ldquo;WE HAVE A GOOD line because we&rsquo;ve been together awhile and we know where the others will be and what they&rsquo;ll do. It is true we&rsquo;ve helped one another, but that is not to take anything away from Jean. He helps himself. Prony&rsquo;s dedicated. If he&rsquo;s having trouble with something he&rsquo;ll stay out after practice and work on it. He&rsquo;s a complete player If his scoring has been overlooked it&rsquo;s because the other parts of his game are so good.&lsquo;It&rsquo;s a cliche, but the term &ldquo;honest hockey player,&rdquo; really fits Pronovost. He says, &ldquo;I grew up learning to play the whole game, believing defense as important as offense. After all, my older brother Marcel was a defenseman, and he was a hero to me. But I&rsquo;ve looked at my goal totals the last few years and I&rsquo;ve said to myself. &lsquo;Hey, I&rsquo;m not that bad a scorer.&rsquo; So I&rsquo;m more confident that I can get away with a gamble here and there. I maybe go in that extra step before peeling off to go back on defense. It&rsquo;s paid off and I haven&rsquo;t been burned much. But I wouldn&rsquo;t want to become a one wav player.&rdquo;&ldquo;One thing that&rsquo;s helped is I&rsquo;ve been healthy this season for the most part. Last season I hurt my hand. I got into a fight like a fool. Got cut, and the cut got infected. Got a tie out of the fight, but I&rsquo;m not a fighter. Then at the end I had a sore throat. This season. I&rsquo;ve been OK. &ldquo;Oh, I have a bit of a bad back, butheck, I&rsquo;m an old man. I turned 30 at year&rsquo;s end. I think I&rsquo;m at my peak. The next five years should be my best. That&rsquo;s why I want to play like a Bob Nevin. How old is he, 35, 40? The way he plays, up and flown, no waste motion, he&rsquo;ll last forever. That&rsquo;s what I want. The fancy stuff is for someone else who wants it all right now.&rdquo;Nevin is 38 and he has been good, but never as good as Pronovost, who has bounced back from a back injury, broken ankle and broken nose during his career Jean was born in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, in December of 1945, and came out of Niagara Falls in the amateur ranks and Oklahoma City in the minors before Boston sold him out of their system without having given him as much as a game. That was an inexcusable a mistake as the Bruins have made. He has been a player who could play regularly for anyone. Now thathe is a scorer has advanced from star status to that of a super star. It has not changed him much per sonally. He is still a gentleman, soft spoken and polite.RUGGEDLY HANDSOME with a lot of dark, curly hair, Joseph John Denis Pronovost has been a married man for eight years, and he and the former Diane Dufour have two sons Eric, six, and Martin, four. Like almost all hockey players, he has a summer home in the mountains near a lake, but he has settled in Pittsburgh. &ldquo;Our cottage is in the Laurentian Mountains, north of Montreal, but we bought a house in Pittsburgh nine months ago and consider that our home now,&rdquo; he says.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m away so much of the winter I feel I owe my family the summer. A lot of players feel that way, but I think I&rsquo;m one of the few that won&rsquo;t even go for a bit of money by working at hockey schools during the summer. Hockey life is not the best family life, but I chose it and I like it. As long as I give the wife and kids the summers, I don&rsquo;t feel guilty. I spend what time I can with them winters. I don&rsquo;t take the game home. I&rsquo;m just a husband and a father at home. I don&rsquo;t go for this star stuff.&rdquo;The 6&rsquo; 185-pound Pronovost skates strongly and hits hard. Maybe he doesn&rsquo;t think of himself as a star, buthe is an explosive player who twice has score goals in seven straight game and twice has scored 11 goals in a single months. At this point, he is only the sixth player in NHL history to score 40 or more goals three straight seasons.They have not all been good seasons, because all eight of his major league seasons have been spent in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins have been losers, on and off the ice, many of those years. He, personally, has been a winner. The senior citizen in service on this team, joining it in its second season, he holds its records with more than 240 goals and 440 points.A clutch player who has led his side in winning goals two straight seasons, Pronovost has been largely responsible for the team&rsquo;s surge to respectability. He says, &ldquo;Losing spoils everything. Winning makes everything better. My only goal is to help in a Stanley Cup. I&rsquo;d trade all my records in forthat.&rdquo;His brother, Marcel, 20 years a big leaguer, is back in Hockey as a junior coach. &ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t happy out of hockey,&rdquo; Jean says. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be either. I&rsquo;m a lot like him, in love with the game. This star stuff is just fancy trim Just playing is enough.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY JACK McCARTHY</div>BOSTON&mdash;Knees are always a good topic of conversation, especially if they are of the female variety, but most of the talk in Boston in hockey circles as the Stanley Cup playoffs approach is of male knees - all be-longing to Boston Bruins.Bobby Orr, who had his fifth knee operation and two in a 10-week period on Nov. 29, has been skating, but any probability of him playing any of the last games of the regular-season schedule was slim. All that could be said of his chances of playing after the Bruins sit out the first round of the playoffs is that there is a possibility that he could play for the Cup.Brad Park, meanwhile, who underwent surgery on Mar. 5 for removal of a torn lateral meniscus in the left knee is more of a hope for the playoffs. He has been doing exercises to tone the muscles in his left leg, and will soon begin skating.The official Bruins line is that Orr is &ldquo;possible&rdquo;, and that Park may play &ldquo;To some extent&rdquo; in the playoffs. These two casualties should foul up the early line something fierce.In the meantime, Park was sitting in the radio booth with Boston&rsquo;s notch hockey announcer, Bob Wilson of WBZ, with Brad doing the color commentary, and quite well, too.There is a third knee involved here, and it belongs to Doug Gibson, the slick Peterborough center, who had been playing so well. He underwent surgery on his left knee, also, on Mar. 21 to repair torn ligaments suffered in a pre-game warm-up the night before.This accident was a beaut. Gibson was skating into the final seconds of a warmup, along with Hank Nowak. As they swung past the Boston net, their skates locked and both piled into the net and into goaler Gilles Gilbert. Gibson&rsquo;s knee hit the post, and he went down in a heap, with the ligament torn. How&rsquo;s that for bad luck?Gibson is thus out for the rest the season, and, of course, the playoffs. The Bruins brought up Gordie Clark, former University of New Hampshire player, from Rochester.Gibson had played in 50 games and had seven goals and 18 assists for the Boston club.Back to defense. Gary Doak, may who may turn out to be Boston&rsquo;s unsung hero of the season, ran Bob Kelly in a game in Pittsburgh, and bruised his ribs. Most painful. This led HOCKEY NEWS Coach of the Year Don Cherry to note, sadly,&ldquo;I&rsquo;m down to five defensemen. I once had eight.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to rest some guys, but I can&rsquo;t&hellip;&rdquo;Otherwise, the Bruins keep going on and on, and winning. One of the key factors in their steady gait has been Jean Ratelie, the nifty center who came over from the Rangers, who are, incidentally, now out of the playoffs.Ratelle had, at this writing, 33 goals after a move of seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in eight games. He had really performed just exactly perhaps even more so than the Bruins had expected when the Bruins had expected when they traded Espo and Vad nais for Jean and Park.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03559/3835654-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="557" height="1204"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREGG SHEPPARD&hellip;Keeps Coming Back</figcaption></div>One guy who keeps getting banged up and banged up and keep keeps coming back for more is litte Gregg Sheppard, who suffered a bad bruise on his left foot, which was first feared to be fractured, then came back a few nights later, and took a shot on the right leg.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re after me,&rdquo; he grinned in the locker room. &#9632;

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Gimpy Knees Could Be Playoff Factor In Bruins’ Cup Bid

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01930/3835685-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROSS LONSBERRY&hellip; Keeps His Check From Scoring</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Flyers were setting so many records in their pre-play-off surge that a man (sorry gals), a person could get dizzy trying to keep up.There was the Bobby ClarkeBill Barber-Reg Leach line pursuing the NHL record for most goals in one seasons, 140, held by Phil Esposito and his Boston pals. The Flyers&rsquo; 34th Spectrum victory was a league mark. Several club marks were also leaning, including most points and wins.On the surface Ross Lonsherry had little to do with these statistical marvels. After scoring his 19th goal on Feb. 20 in Oakland, Lonsberry&rsquo;s needle was stuck. Through a 21-game span, the valuable veteran left winger had scoring figures of 13-4. Not exactly in the ClarkeBarber-Leach class, eh?That Lonsberry continued as a regular during his scoring famine is a tribute to his other skills. And to the Flyers&rsquo; faith in him.&ldquo;Everybody thinks Ross and some of our other guys have to score goals,&rdquo; said Mike Nykoluk, the senior assistant coach in charge of offense, expensive cigars and racing stables. &ldquo;Ross contributes in so many other ways. I&rsquo;m sure he blocks more shots than anybody on our team.&ldquo;Ross is a solid 25-goal scorer. Even when he isn&rsquo;t scoring. his check doesn&rsquo;t score many goals.&rdquo;Lonsberry&rsquo;s meager late-season offensive donations would not have been forecast by even the most confident seer. On the night his regular centerman. Rick MacLeish, was sidelined with a serious knee injury, Lonsberry scored two goals. In the next two games, with rookie Mel Bridgman replacing MacLeish, Lonsberry added two more double dips. However, after two assists in the next game, Lonsberry bid farewell to the scoring sheets.Naturally, an inquisitive type wondered if Bridgman&rsquo;s style had been affecting the 29-year-old winger with the Hollywood name.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Mel has anything to do with the way I&rsquo;ve been going,&rdquo; said Lonsberry. &ldquo;You try the same no matter who&rsquo;s on your line.&rdquo;It was thought Lonsberry, an unspectacular type whose disciplined style fits in smoothly with the Fred Shero System, would benefit from Bridgman&rsquo;s playmaking. As Nykoluk said:&ldquo;With Ricky, Ross and Dorny (Gary Dornhoefer) aren&rsquo;t as in involved as much as they like. Ricky is such a tremendous skater that they can&rsquo;t always keep up. But remember: Ross and Dorny have been key factors for those good years Ricky has had. They&rsquo;re always back, and very few goals are scored against them.&rdquo;Lonsberry, one of the most reliable Flyers for providing candid, perceptive insights into the club&rsquo;s successes and failures, admits such a long time between goals is annoying.I am frustrated. it gets to a point where you&rsquo;re afraid to make changes. Instead of trying anything new you just unload on the net. You try not to stay back, but I guess it&rsquo;s natural when you don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;re helping the club offensively.&rdquo;Lonsberry need not worry about not helping the Flyers. Even if he fails to reach his 32 and 24-goal levels of the past two seasons, he can accept his paycheck with pride.FLYERS FACTS: Lon sherry had several good chances against Toronto, Minnesota and the Rangers, but Wayne Thomas, Cesare Maniago, and John Davidson played the villain&rsquo;s role&hellip; Flyers switched Lonsberry to the Orest Kindrachuk - Don Saleski line for awhile, buthe still couldn&rsquo;t shake his slump&hellip;Paul Holmgren, the deluxesized winger signed by the Flyers after the WHA Fighting Saints folded, had an impressive debut against the Rangers. Holmgren (6&rsquo;3&rdquo;. 215) was filling in for pneumonia-afflicted Garry Dornhoefer, who missed his first game of the season&hellip;Tom Bladon&rsquo;s 12th goal tied his club record for defensemen&hellip;Don Saleski&rsquo;s goal against the Rangers was his 20th. Saleski: &ldquo;Sure it means a lot to me. I&rsquo;ve never done it before. But there a lot of things I&rsquo;d put ahead of this.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Lonsberry Picks Up Team Though Mired In Slump

<div class="byline">BY HOWIE MEEKER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011030/3835716-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="436" height="568"></div><h2>Habs, Flyers &lsquo;A&rsquo; Plus&hellip;</h2>IF YOU RATE our NHL teams on an A, B, C scale, the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens would be an A plus &mdash; Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders and Boston Bruins with Bobby Orr and Brad Park &mdash; all a good sound A. The New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Black Hawks each would get a B.The Russians won the series five games to two with one tie. Yet I am sure they went home with serious misgivings about their system of play The Rangers, Penguins and Hawks fell easy prey to the offensive tide of the Soviets, yet none of them play 500 hockey (ave-age a point a game) in the NHL.The Bruins dominated the Soviets until two foolish penalties opened the flood gates late in second period. The Islander-Wings&rsquo; game was a toss up. Could have gone either way but against the Canadiens, Sabres and Flyers, the Soviets were never in the game. The time difference in possession of the puck (puck control), the difference in legitimate scoring chances (forcing the goal tender to make a good mental decision and physical move to save a goal) and the difference in winning faceoffs was heavily in favor of the three NHL teams.Like in a race around the world, our top teams were from Vancouver to Moscow ahead of the Soviets, a shocking discovery to most Canadians. Most thought we were miles behind.The most important things in winning hockey are what you do when you haven&rsquo;t got the puck and how you check. These two factors beat offense every time. For the first time North American teams admitted the Russians had great offense and in order to challenge them we had to adjust our defensive system - a real blow to our pride. We couldn&rsquo;t play our normal free wheeling, wide open, penalty filled non-checking game and expect to win.<h2>Soviets Equal In Skills&hellip;</h2>IT WAS VERY HARD for most Canadian players to admit that the Russians were equal to us in individual skills. Hockey fans across the country knew this was so. The players, owners and professional team managements were the last to admit it. That being so, well how do we beat them? Attack their weaknesses and force them to change their game plan. After all, NHL teams prior to 1942-43 played exactly the same style of hockey as European teams play today. Then Jack Adams and his Detroit Red Wings came along with a system that forced hockey into a new era.The Montreal Canadiens showed the way - dominating the Russians in every department except the score (3-3) by a wide margin. The Habs got sub-par performances from their two super stars, Ken Dryden, who let in three of only four scoring chances the visitors had and Guy Lafleur who just had a bad night.Exceptfor VladislavTretiak, who was sensational as he was inevery one of the Army&rsquo;s four games, the score could easily have been 10-3. For the first time serious flaws in the Soviet system became apparent. Honest, against Montreal they didn&rsquo;t touch the puck in he first period. Canadiens had 85 percent of the play and it was evident to everyone in the building that unless the Russian Army Team made adjustments in their playing system, they were going to get beat. To make a long story short, they not only played the next period in the same manner as they did the first, but continued the same system in their remaining two games.Even against good goaltending Boston would have been up four goals to one after 20 minutes of play in the Army&rsquo;s next game. The visitors won thanks to Tretiak and stupid Bruin penalties. However, until the Army team went ahead by three goals, Boston had more good scoring chances than the winners.<h2>Philly Outclassed Them&hellip;</h2>AGAINST PHILADELPHIA, it was no contest. The Stanley Cup champions took away the long pass, the quick break and when the Russians gave the Flyers the four corners, it was game over. There was absolutely no way the Army Team won any single facet of the wonderful and grand game of hockey. Their system of defense behind their blueline was terrible. Their team and individual checking hopeless and their forechecking was non existant. On team offense at full strength, they mustered just one good scoring chance.Hey the Russians aren&rsquo;t that bad and the Canadiens, Sabres and Flyers that good, so what went wrong? I don&rsquo;t know. I gave up trying to figure out the Soviet thinking years ago. However, ever since the 1972 Team Canada-Russia Series, I&rsquo;ve been saying that if the USSR Teams ever learn to play hockey we are in trouble, and people look at me like I&rsquo;ve got two heads; really don&rsquo;t blame them either.So they perform all the individual skills as good as or better than Canadians. Certainly they are much more disciplined. However, when you&rsquo;ve seen them once, you&rsquo;ve seen them 100 times. Same offensive and defensive style. Their successes in &lsquo;72 and &lsquo;74 have led them to believe that attack is the key to victory. Not so! When the Russians learn how to play the different offensive systems the three different ways; to come out of their own end and when to use them, how to control the corners and most important that the stick was made to manipulate the puck, the body for checking; they will have closed the gap between our top teams and their single best considerably.Honest, against our better teams, who exercise discipline and made defensive adjustments, they were a second class hockey nation and will never again be competitive unless they go home and make startling changes in system and philosophy.We all hope they accept the challenge and do just that because win or lose, the Russians force us to play the best hockey that we are capable of and it has to be the best sports entertainment of the year. Canadians love it and are eagerly looking forward to this September&rsquo;s World Cup tournament to be played in Canada.Howie Meeker is a TV analyst on Hockey Night In Canada, teaches young hockey players the finer points of the game through his CBC Howie Meeker Hockey School, television show and operates two summer hockey schools located at Trinity College School and Stanstead College. He is a former NHL rookie of the year winner and played on four Stanley Cup winners with Toronto Maple Loafs before retiring. &#9632;

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HOW IT IS

<div class="byline">BY STEVE MARANTZ</div>KANSAS CITY&mdash;What the Scouts lack in ability, they have learned to compensate for in honesty and candor.For instance, after their 20th straight winless game recently, a 5-5 tie in Washington, Steve Durbano, the NHLs new penalty leader, said the Scouts were the worst team he had ever played with and they had the record to back him up.Back home, Ed Thompson, Scouts&rsquo; president, was considering the progress of the season-ticket drive that was supposed to save his franchise and job. Only there wasn&rsquo;t much progress to consider, other than the city&rsquo;s complaint that it couldn&rsquo;t sell tickets as long as the Scouts threatened to leave town.Thompson&rsquo;s tirade;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just one excuse after another not to sell tickets for the Scouts. First it was the Kings&rsquo; offer (to buy the franchise) now it&rsquo;s something else. All I&rsquo;ve heard are excuses from the mayor and most of the businessmen. Most of them are saying it&rsquo;s impossible to sell 8,000 season tickets, but I don&rsquo;t know of any effort by the mayor or these men to sell tickets.&ldquo;From what I gather of the mayor&rsquo;s press conference, he seems to be saying that they need an ownership with more stability than us. I guess that means one with more money. There are a lot of people who have more money, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean they are willing to commit more cash than we have. We don&rsquo;t need to apologize for anything.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve kind of turned my cheek for the last time. As long as we can tell the truth, we don&rsquo;t have to think twice. I&rsquo;m not going to be a political football over this deal. I&rsquo;ve been asking for help since January 1 and all I get is one excuse after another. It would have been interesting to see how many season tickets we could have sold with a legitimate effort, but since we haven&rsquo;t had a legitimate effort, we&rsquo;ll never know. I think we&rsquo;re entitled to an all-out effort and we&rsquo;re not getting it.&rdquo;The withering wind from the front office did not stop 16,219 fans from turning out March 20 for a game at Kemper Arena with the California Seals. It was $2 ticket night, with all seats going for the bargain, in a sense, and the crowd was the largest ever for hockey.So encouraged with the turnout were several of the present owners that a few days later it was revealed that further investment in the Scouts might come from the current group. One was Sandy Drug, a Johnson County businessman.&ldquo;I think if the season-ticket situation turns itself around. I would be interested in increasing my equity,&rdquo; said Krug. &ldquo;I know several of the partners would feel the same way.&ldquo;The main thing I&rsquo;m interested in at this point is exactly how the ticket drive is doing. I don&rsquo;t know if 8,000 season tickets is realistic to expect. Maybe it&rsquo;s not.Meanwhile, the Scouts returned home and lost No. 21 to the North Stars. There were six games left and all appeared to be invitable losses. Thus the Scouts were heading for hockey&rsquo;s most undistinguished record. 25 consecutive winless games set earlier this season by the Caps. The experience was demoralizing.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anybody this low,&rdquo; said Randy Rota after one game. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been through anything like it. You wake up in the morning and think this is the day it breaks. Only it never does. Pretty soon you stop thinking that. Pretty soon you start losing your personal pride.&rdquo;Center Dave Hudson was weary after playing a double shift for most of a loss.&ldquo;Look around this room,&rdquo; said Hudson. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not a guy that&rsquo;s not hurt. We&rsquo;re playing teams lighting for points and the playoffs and we&rsquo;re fighting to stay in the league. You think if you keep after it, it&rsquo;s gotta break. Only there&rsquo;s not much time left now. &ldquo;And like sand through an hourglass, time seemed to running out on coach Eddie Bush.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to be up for &lsquo;em all,&rsquo; said Eddie. &#9632;

Scouts’ Apathy Reflects At Home

<div class="byline">BY GEOFFREY FISHER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-01995/3835771-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICK HAMPTON&hellip; Set Seals&rsquo; Scoring Marks</figcaption></div>OAKLAND&mdash;When California Golden Seals coach Jack Evans is asked about the club&rsquo;s chances of climbing out of the basement of their NHL division next season, he&rsquo;ll tell you that the answer is with players like Rick Hampton.&ldquo;If some of the rest of our youngsters improve the way Rick has in his second season we&rsquo;ll be in the Stanley Cup race all the way,&rdquo; says Evans.The Seals&rsquo; coach, completing his first tour of duty behind the bench in the NHL, thinks the 19-year-old defenseman who was touted a year ago in his freshman season as the second coming of Bobby Orr is on his way to becoming one of the genuine stars of the game.If Evans needed any evidence to support his prediction it can be found in the official statistics which in late March showed Hampton as the man who had shattered two all-time Seals&rsquo; scoring records for a defenseman. His 14 goals and 33 assists for 47 points as of March 25 were a new high mark and so were his eight power play goals.Hampton, native of Toronto and a first round draft choice in 1974, admits that all the advance hoopla comparing him with Orr created problems for him in his rookie season a year ago.&ldquo;The pressure was heavy and to top it off I had a very poor first game when I broke in and got benched. Then it went from worse to worsen&rdquo;What Hampton considers &ldquo;worse to worser&rdquo; would get some argument from both fans and management. He had eight goals and 17 assists to top Seals&rsquo; defensemen.But Hampton, who won&rsquo;t be 20 until June 14, has wiped out the memory of those pressure days as a raw rookie in the NHL jungle, claiming that he has gained the confidence to assure himself that he can handle the NHL caliber of Play.Always a powerful and swift skater with a strong shot from the blueline, he has become the key point man on the power play.Says Evans: &ldquo;When Rick doesn&rsquo;t go, the power play doesn&rsquo;t go.&rdquo;Hampton&rsquo;s surge to stardom has not been limited to his scoring. He has made fast progress as a defensive defenseman, reflected by the fact thathe has cut his plusminus statistics by 32 goals under a year ago.&ldquo;A year ago,&rdquo; says Evans, &ldquo;Rick was on the ice for 64 goals scored by our club. This season he has been on for 114 goals (as of March 25).A remarkable part of the Hampton story is thathe has made the leap to the big time of ice hockey at such an early age. He was playing in the fast company of Canada&rsquo;s Junior A hockey at the age of 16 and was captain of the St.Catharines Black Hawks of the OHA at the age of 17. At 18 he had joined the Seals.&ldquo;I suppose you might say I was a little ahead of myself all the wav up,&rdquo; he says modestly. &ldquo;I weighed only 165 pounds when I joined the Seals and I put on about 15 pounds this season.&rdquo;The fact is that Hampton is still just a growing boy who will benefit from the additional weight and strength he can be expected to attain in the next year or two.The weight has been a factor in slowing his development as a potent force in handling opponents in the corners of the Seals&rsquo; defensive zone. But Evans is not too concerned about that.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not looking for Hampton to be that kind of defenseman for us. His talents can best be utilized by keeping him loose and maneuverable,&rdquo; explains his coach who had an illustrious career as a defensive defenseman in the NHL.Hampton credits Evans with teaching him many of the defensive tricks that have helped him improve his talents in the defensive zone &ldquo;things like slipping my stick between their legs and someother ways of tying up an opponent.&rdquo;Because he elected to make the leap from the junior ranks to the NHL at age 17, Hampton laugh ngly talks of next season as &ldquo;being my legitimate rookie year. The draft would have gotten me this summer.&rdquo; Against the St. Louis Blues in the Oakland Coliseum, Monday, Mar. 22 he had scored two goals, including the winner, and had set two team records for a Seals defenseman.And the Seals&rsquo; fans and management were convinced they had a star in the making. &#9632;

f0009-01

Evans Predicts Stardom For Seals9 Rick Hampton

MONTREAL&mdash;A more stimulating division rivalry is the goal of several owners of National Hockey Leagueteams.The lobbying club heads are seeking an unbalanced schedule that will promote more rivalry within the four NHL divisions and create new fan interest in many vears and cannot make a change in the present format until the 1977-78 season because of a prior inter club agreement.One advocate of the unbalanced scheduled is Atlanta general manager, Cliff Fletcher, who is also an NHL governor. Fletcher says the league is suffering from a distinct lack of strong rivalry, which he claims can only be brought about by an unbalanced schedule and allow the emphasis to be on divisional play.&ldquo;Most of the governors share my belief,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;I think we must do the best we can to promote and emphasize inner-divisional play.&rdquo;Another supporter of the unbalanced schedule format is Harold Ballard, president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who sees the scheme as a means of doing away with hefty travelling bills. Ballard said there is a genuine concern among NHL owners to enact the unbalanced schedule and he added he would be doing some of the lobbying when the present schedule agreement comes up for renewal next year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s time someone sat down and geographically worked out a solution. It costs an eastern team about $225,000 a year in travel expenses and western clubs roughly $300,000. By doing away with a lot of that unnecessary travel you are not only being logical but saving money.&ldquo;For instance, Toronto could be grouped in a division with Detroit and Buffalo and someone else. Not only could you develop an intense rivalry between the teams by playing within the division more often but you would be saving money. It doesn&rsquo;t make much sense having California in a division with all eastern clubs.Ballard is quick to note that such an arrangement has its negative factors. &ldquo;If I was an operator I would want a situation where I&rsquo;d see the bigger draws like Montreal and Philadelphia, but that could be taken into account when the idea is presented to the board. I would support an unbalanced schedule wholeheartedly.&rdquo;Brian O&rsquo;Neill, the official NHL schedule maker and executive director of the NHL, said the governors would need to think seriously before changing the present format. &ldquo;They must be realistic. Some clubs might be unable to see the bigger draws.&rdquo;He added the NHL was genuinely concerned with soaring travel costs. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a valid point for discussion. I accept the fact the ideal situation would be to geographically define divisions, but that can only be accomplished when divisional rivalries are properly established.&ldquo;It might make an ideal travel situation but we must worry about gate receipts. This is a prime concern of all our clubs.&rdquo;At any rate, many NHL teams are seeking a new look to stimulate club rivalry and you can expect the unbalanced schedule idea to get a strong argument from teams wanting more divisional play. &#9632;

NHL Teams See Format As Rivalry Stimulant

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011017/3835826-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Here is the complete cast for this year&rsquo;s Hockey Night In Canada Showdown Series featuring all the big name players. Front row, from the left, Stan Mikita, Ron Schock, Billy Smith, Dan Bouchard, Rogie Vachon, Tony Esposito, Simon Nolet and Bobby Clarke. Back row, Butch Goring, Tommy Williams, Andre Boudrias, Guy Lafleur, RodGilbert, Denis Potvin, Bill Goldsworthy, Phil Esposito, Garry Unger, Tom Lysiak, Darryl Sittier, Danny Grant, Larry Patey and referee Art Skov, who officiated the entire series.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;There were 17 at first. Now there are eight left as the field narrowed down in the $15,000 &lsquo;Showdown &lsquo;76&rsquo; series being conducted this season by Hockey Night In Canada on its weekly television hockey shows.Some of hockey&rsquo;s biggest shooters&mdash;Guy Lafleur, Garry Unger, Bill Goldsworthy, Darryl Sittier and Danny Grant&mdash;were still in the hunt for the big hockey jackpot that goes to the National Hockey League player who ultimately wins the contest during the Stanley Cup playoffs in late May.Players from 17 of the 18 NHL clubs were represented in &lsquo;Showdown &lsquo;76&rsquo; with 17 forwards and four goalkeepers chosen to participate in this year&rsquo;s new concept of the TV program that this season concentrates more on individual skills than actual shooting.After round one, eight players were still in the running as well as the four goalers. Simon Nolet, Stan Mikita, Goldsworthy, Grant, Sittier, Unger, Lafleur and Tom Lysiak emerged from the opening matchups as winners. Nolet meets Mikita, Goldsworthy and Grant are slated to oppose one another, Sittier goes against Unger and Lysiak will square off against Lafleur, the newly-crowned NHL scoring champion.In the first round, Lafleur beat Denis Potvin of the Islanders, Unger bested Rod Gilbert, Lysiak won over Butch Goring, Phil Esposito defeated Andre Boudrias, Sittier won over Larry Patey, Grant beat Tommy Williams, Nolet defeated Bobby Clarke in probably the biggest upset of the round, Goldsworthy ousted Ron Schock and Mikita won over Esposito, who filled in for the injured Bobby Orr.While the winning shooter gets $15,000, the four goalers are striving to pick up the $10,000 award that goes to the No. 1 goaler. Rogie Vachon led after round one with Billy Smith, Dan Bouchard and Tony Esposito following. &#9632;

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NHL Stars Narrow Field To Eight In $15,000 Shootout

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01977/3835857-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="571" height="2164"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM LORENTZ&hellip;Seeing Regular Duty</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Lorenzo the Handyman is back playing a regular shift for the Buffalo Sabres and the results are gratifying for both the man and the club.Jim Lorentz can&rsquo;t remember all the different forward lines he has played on since he went to the Sabres from the New York Rangers in 1971-72. &ldquo;All I know,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;is I&rsquo;ve played with a lot of different forwards.&ldquo;The first game I played for the Sabres I was a center. Rick Martin and Steve Aktinson were my wingers.&rdquo;Since then the all-purpose forward has played with most of the other forwards on the club, at one time or another, and he has performed at center, left wing and right wing. He also has participated on the power play and killed penalties.This season, for the first time, Lorenzo warmed the bench for an extensive period. He would get in to kill the second half of a penalty, maybe go on the power play once in a while and fill in on a line when someone was hurt or had just come off a penalty-killing job.Lorenzo didn&rsquo;t like it and, although he didn&rsquo;t moan about it, he did answer honestly when asked. &ldquo;I think I should be playing regularly,&rdquo; he said, on one occasion. &ldquo;After all, I&rsquo;ve finished fourth or fifth in the club scoring in each of the last three years.&ldquo;I know I haven&rsquo;t been playing well, but then the whole team has been having trouble.&rdquo;This was early in the second half of the campaign when the Sabres were struggling.It was a far different picture than most Buffalo fans expected &mdash; and probably most of the players, too. The Sabres, Stanley Cup finalists, got off to a fast start, as they had last season.Lorentz, the team&rsquo;s fifth-ranking scorer in 1974-75, was playing regularly bn a line with Pete McNab and Jacques Richard. He was a valued member of the club. Last season, he had filled in for all three members of the high-scoring French Connection &mdash; Gil Perreault, Martin and Rene Robert &mdash; when they were hurt. He had done a good job between Martin and Robert when Perreault was sidelined by a knee injury.He had played most of the year on a line with McNab and Rick Dudley and had moved to right wing from the left side when Dudley was hurt.Lorenzo scored a goal in the opener, when the Sabres defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0. He got another in another game against Detroit a couple of weeks later and two against Pittsburgh Nov. 2 but then he couldn&rsquo;t find the net.The Sabres went into a slump and coach Floyd Smith juggled his forwards around. The French Connection was broken up Dec. 8. Martin shifted to right wing and Lorenzo began a long interval of bench duty.Just before the Connection was reconnected for a game Feb. 26, Lorenzo was returned to regular duty. He played one game at left wing with Perreault and Robert. Then Smitty decided it was time to move Martin back to the left side and put the Connection together for the stretch drive and the playoffs. Lorentz went to right wing, replacing Martin, with McNab and Spencer.That&rsquo;s wnere he has been since. In nine games, starting Feb. 29, he scored nine goals. He got a hat &lsquo;trick against Minnesota. In the ninth game of the streak, Lorenzo had a goal and two assists to help the Sabres defeat his old team, the Rangers, 7-3, and eliminate them from playoff contention.His goal broke a 2-2 tie early in the third period and started a three-goal eruption in two minutes 12 seconds.Lorenzo is happy to be playing regularly again and contributing. He likes playing for the Sabres; his year-around home is in Niagara Falls, Ont, where he played his junior hockey for the Niagara Falls Flyers.He&rsquo;s a digger in the corners and a tough man to move when he stations himself in front of the net. Besides, he can play anywhere coach Smith puts him, except, maybe, in goal.ICE CHIPS: Perreault, having his best year since turning pro in 1970, set club records for points in a season (102) and assists (61) when he got a goal and an assist in the game against the Rangers&hellip;Martin, seeking his third straight 50-goal season, scored No. 44 in that game and so did Danny Gare. &#9632;

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Handyman Lorentz Sharp Sabre

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01991/3835895-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div><h2>The Arbour Approach</h2>A FEW WEEKS AGO, AL ARBOUR decided it would be good idea to know exactly what his players thought of the New York Islanders this season. To find out, he gave them an assignment a short essay on the team, the things the players liked and their dislikes and how the player viewed his role in the Islander scheme.Just another innovation by the man who guided the Islanders from a joke to a spot as a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup. Arbour is a fine coach, a man who combines teaching ability, psychology and tactical smarts to draw the maximum from his players. Granted, the Islanders possess a splendid collection of young players and useful veterans but the key to their success is belief in Arbour.Arbour&rsquo;s peers rate him highly, too. A recent poll of National Hockey League coaches gave the nod to Arbour in the &ldquo;best coach&rdquo; category. His margin wasn&rsquo;t that great over Fred Shero of the Philadelphia Flyers, a man who has earned abundant publicity for his team&rsquo;s two consecutive Stanley Cup victories.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02835/3835888-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="553" height="601"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Arbour</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Shero sometimes makes it sound as if he&rsquo;s the only coach in the world who can motivate players to play tough the way his team does,&rdquo; said one NHL coach. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s browned off a few guys. Arbour just does his job and keeps his mouth shut.&rdquo;Arbour&rsquo;s players use superlatives enthusiastically to describe his work.&ldquo;He has the great ability to make every player feel important to the team,&rdquo; said one Islander. &ldquo;He challenges us mentally all the time. He&rsquo;ll give us some new fangled idea to try, knowing all the time that it&rsquo;s wrong. He wants us to tell him that it won&rsquo;t work.There are two things which make Al really sore. One is when guys repeat mistakes and the other is when we don&rsquo;t speak up about the team. He wants to hear everyone&rsquo;s ideas and he gets angry when the players don&rsquo;t have any. To him that indicates that we&rsquo;re not thinking enough about the team and the game.&rdquo;<h2>A Thinking Player</h2>DURING HIS 12-SEASON CAREER as a player with Detroit, Toronto, Chicago and St. Louis, Arbour wasn&rsquo;t gifted with superb talent. Buthe made himself into an extremely useful defensive defenseman through intelligence and hard work. He had to study the game to play it well and often, players who had to work hard at the game become the best coaches.&ldquo;When Al talks about us having to pay the price to get the job done, we know he knows what he&rsquo;s talking about,&rdquo; said Islander winger Billy Harris.At one stage this season, the Islanders appeared set to make a big run at the Flyers for the Patrick Division pennant. Then a small sag set in, not a major slump but just a stretch in which the team&rsquo;s work was slightly off top form, the Flyers went on their big streak and the Islanders dropped back.&ldquo;We were ready to take over the lead when we went into Philly and lost,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;We hit a flat spot after that, not a big skid or anything, and they pulled away.&ldquo;The stretch run for us has been a matter of playing the type of hockey we&rsquo;ll have to use in the playoffs.&rdquo;<h2>Power Play Power</h2>THE ISLANDERS PLAY superbly disciplined defensive hockey although this season, they&rsquo;ve increased their offensive output, thanks mainly to the NHLs most potent power-play unit.&ldquo;Everything we do springs from the base of strong defensive hockey,&rdquo; Arbour explained. &ldquo;This season, though, we&rsquo;ve increased our forechecking a great deal but we haven&rsquo;t done it at the expense of our defense. We&rsquo;re trying to strike a balance between the two and that demands smart, decisive work from the players.&rdquo;The Islander power-play as the Potvin freres, Denis and Jean, at the points behind the forward line of rookie Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Harris. The ingredients are all there &mdash; the smart puckhandling of Trottier, the size and aggressiveness of Gillies and Harris in the corners and the big shots and stickhandling of the Potvins on the points.&ldquo;The five kids have a great sense of what to do and, especially, they can sense what the other guys are going to do,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;They pick up the options open on the power-play very well and they cover up well for each other. One of the defensemen can go in deep and know that a forward will drop back and cover for him.&rdquo; &#9632;

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FRANK ORR SAYS:

<div class="byline">BY HARRY KLAFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03650/3835926-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GLENN RESCH&hellip; He&rsquo;s Backbone Of The Defense.</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Basically the cast is the same, with rookie sensation Bryan Trottier the only new face to crack the lineup of last season&rsquo;s playoff darling Islanders. Still, there is one important difference between this year&rsquo;s New York squad and last year&rsquo;s the one which surprised the world by nearly advancing to the finals.The difference is that this time, they are expected to do well. And after you&rsquo;ve had a taste of the glory &mdash; if not the bubbly &mdash; nothing else will do.Everyone knows you can&rsquo;t build a team to win the Stanley Cup. The best you can do is develop the strongest squad possible and finish well up in the standings. But once that puck is dropped at the beginningof the Stanley Cup playoffs, well, anything can happen, especially in a best-of-three situation.The Islanders finished a strong second in the Lester Patrick Division by stressing team play and a strong defense. Traditionally these are the qualities which produce success at playoff time. Still, look for coach Al Arbour to play it a drop more conservatively come April.&ldquo;From now on, we&rsquo;re going to play playoff-style hockey,&rdquo; said Arbour in early March. And it would hardly be considered coincidence that the Islanders embarked on an eleven game unbeaten string, breaking the record of ten set earlier in the campaign.&ldquo;But realistically, we don&rsquo;t anticipate making too many changes in our style,&rdquo; Arbour continued. &ldquo;We have to play sixty minutes of hockey, and we can&rsquo;t let up. For a while there we were going into lapses and we&rsquo;d get burned. If you do that sort of thing in the playoffs, you&rsquo;re in trouble.&rdquo;One thing the Islanders must count on in the playoffs is hot goaltending. With both Chico Resch and Bill Smith coming off fine seasons, it&rsquo;s the sort ofthing that&rsquo;s not just hoped for &mdash; it&rsquo;s expected.&ldquo;I learned a lot during last year&rsquo;s playoffs,&rdquo; says Resch. &ldquo;For one thing, I learned how to live with the pressure. There&rsquo;s pressure before every game, sure, but it&rsquo;s nothing like the playoffs. And the further you get, the more the pressure is.&ldquo;Sometimes, you just say to yourself, &lsquo;Who needs this?&rsquo; or &lsquo;Why am I here?&rsquo;, but then you go out on the ice, play the game, and afterwards you realize the tremendous amount of self-satisfaction that&rsquo;s involved.&rdquo;Arbour will probably lean toward Resch &mdash; whose goals-against average hovered around the 2.00 mark all season, but don&rsquo;t be surprised if he goes to Smith if the Islanders have their backs pushed against the wall, as was the case of the third game last year against the Rangers.Resch is clearly the more consistent of the two, and plays his steady game in goal game in and game out. But Smith is more likely to come up with that one great game &mdash; to stand in front of the goal and literally kick out everything thrown at him.Last year, both Ranger and Islander fans alike expected to see Resch start the third and final game of the preliminary round even though Chico had been bombed in game two. But Smitty played, and turned back a dozen shots in the first half of the opening period, many of them spectacular efforts. Then the Isles calmed down, took control, and opened up a three goal lead.They went on to blow the advantage in the third period, of course, setting the stage for J.P.Parise&rsquo;s dramatic goal after eleven seconds of sudden death.Although the Islanders played well throughout the &lsquo;75 playoffs, they did have the advantage of an extra skater in the form of Lady Luck. Everything seemed to fall in to place &mdash; opponent&rsquo;s shots hitting the goal post, enemy defensemen falling down to give the Islanders a breakaway, and so forth.The Islanders have played even better this season, but for the most part, luck has not been on their side. The puck has been taking some strange bounces all year, especially in the closing moments of the game. All told, the Isles have something like six or seven points in the final two minutes, the most recent of which occurred Mar, 24th when L.A.&rsquo;s Marcel Dionne knotted the score at 1-1 with 51 seconds in the game.The Isles protested vehemently to referee Bryan Lewis that the puck was kicked in, but to no avail. Exactly 24 hours earlier, Lewis had disallowed two Islander &ldquo;goals&rdquo; as Vancouver beat the New Yorkers, 5-2.That&rsquo;s the sort of thing that can&rsquo;t happen if a team is going to advance to the championship rounds. Given a choice. Arbour would have preferred to get it out of hissystem.Better in March than in April.ISLAND SOUNDS: When Garry Howatt puts the puck in the net, he does it in spurts. Howatt&rsquo;s second hat trick of the season against Chicago on March 14th gave him 20 for the season&hellip; After scoring consistently in each of his pro seasons, Billy Harris finally cracked the 30-goal plateau. &#9632;

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Islander Playoff Success Rests On Goaling, Defense

<div class="byline">BY RON WEBER</div>WASHINGTON&mdash;The first full week of April has to rank right up there with the busiest in Greg Joly&rsquo;s young life. The Capitals defenseman, who will be 22 in May, had this schedule: finish his second season with the Capitals on Sunday, get married on Tuesday and leave with his new bride for Japan on Saturday. Greg, the rest of the Caps and the Scouts are taking a 10-day hockey tour of two of the Japanese Islands.Greg met Sheila Brewington when he played junior hockey in her hometown, Regina. His three years there for the Pats, then, were doubly rewarding. He liked the town, the coach (Bob Turner), the general manager (Del Wilson) and, of course, Sheila.Joly&rsquo;s last game for the Pats may have been his best. A super effort in the Memorial Cup final win over Quebec ended with him being awarded the MVP trophy. &ldquo;The whole team had a good series,&rdquo; says Greg. That would include Clarke Gillies (now with Islanders), Dennis Sobchuk (WHA Stingers) and goalie Ed Staniowski (Blues). &ldquo;The Memorial Cup&rsquo;s a great thrill. I was lucky to be on the winning team. But I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s the best game I ever played.&rdquo;That performance, in his adopted hometown of Calgary, convinced the Capitals he should be the very first pick in the 1974 amateur draft. Greg was selected by Phoenix of the World League but wanted to play in the NHL. So he cast his lot with the Capitals and the order of things changed as he hit his twentieth birthday.He went from Canada to the U.S. from west to east; from big winner to big loser; and from iron man to injury-prone.Greg had missed only one game in three junior &ldquo;A&rdquo; seasons at Regina, and that was from a suspension. But once he turned pro the &ldquo;iron&rdquo; in his right leg turned to putty. In his first training camp his Achilles tendon got twanged. Recovering in time for the regular season he was just putting it together on Dec. 5 in Buffalo when, in a rare shift at forward, he caught his right skate in a groove on the ice and missed 36 contests with a bad knee.The second time around he stayed healthy in camp and was playing better than ever on January 8 when he went down and into the boards in St. Louis. Resuit: hairline fracture of the right ankle. The Caps played the next 26 games without their young &ldquo;quarterback.&rdquo;Is it any wonder Joly&rsquo;s main goal is to &ldquo;get 80 games in. I&rsquo;ve got things to prove here,&rdquo; he says, and adds, &ldquo;Last year was a bad year for everybody. This year started off good. Before my injury things were cornin&rsquo; easier. But I&rsquo;ve had to start all over. I&rsquo;m not playing as well now. I&rsquo;m probably not in as good a shape as if I could have played straight through.&rdquo;Indeed, coach Tom McVie be gan skipping shifts for Joly and Jean Lemieux, supposedly the stars of the future, especially on Capitals power plays. Joly is a penetrating defenseman. A rushing defenseman, that can take him out of McVie&rsquo;s position &ldquo;system&rdquo;. Somebody has to cover up for Greg, often. That&rsquo;s his style, that&rsquo;s when he&rsquo;s most effective. But the Capitals lack the real good cover man, so are often bitten by his sorties. Buthe can carry and headman the puck like few other young blueliners and this should make amends for occasional departures from his defensive posture, and his lack of hitting in the crease in front of his own goalie.McVie and general manager Max McNab are anxious for Joly to weight-lift this summer to build up strength in his upper body. Greg says &ldquo;I can only try it. Extra strength can help in a lotta ways.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01955/3835957-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="565" height="658"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREG JOLY</figcaption></div>Like maybe carrying bride Sheila over the threshold?Joly bought a house and twenty acres ten miles outside of Calgary. The area is called Bears Paw. That&rsquo;s almost as picturesque a name as graces the small Alberta village he was born in: Rocky Mountain House. His familyheaded to the northern part of the province (his dad was an oil surveyor) and Greg played his minor hockey in St.Paul, Alberta.That&rsquo;s a far piece from Was hington, D.C., but Greg&rsquo;s made the transition with his skates solidly on the ice. If the Capitals have a coming super star in their midst, he&rsquo;s the best bet.ICE CAPS: The Capitals over 10,000 crowd streak hit seven st raight, a club record, contrasting very positively with their K.C. expansion twins. The team is playing better than the Scouts these days, but still couldn&rsquo;t beat &lsquo;em, even at Capital Center. In fact, Washington had to overcome 4-0 and 5-2 deficits to gain a tie&hellip;Bob Sirois went out for a while with a bruised kidney, courtesy Detroit defensei man Jean Hamel. &#9632;

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Japanese Tour Honeymoon For Joly

<div class="byline">Bill Fleischman&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01973/3835995-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="292" height="460"></div>THE RANGERS&rsquo; disastrous season was tottering toward its finish when they stopped by the Spectrum in Philly. The result was predictable: a 4-1 loss to the Flyers.The outcome was predictable tor at least three reasons:&bull; The night before in Buffalo the Rangers had been eliminated from a Stanley Cup playoff berth for the first time since 1966.&bull; The Rangers had lost four previous outings with the Flyers by the cumulative score of 22-8.&bull; Few teams, especially one like the Rangers that appears almost totally devoid of enthusiasm, force the Flyers into a sweat at the Spectrum.Four nights later the Flyers would take a sight-seeing bus trip to Long Island for their final regular-season meeting with the Islanders. The proximity of the two games, and the opposite directions the New-York teams are taking, prompted a man to sit down and conduct a free-of-charge analysis.It isn&rsquo;t fun knocking the Rangers. Here is a team that only-tour years ago was in the Stanley Cup finals. It had super stars such as Brad Park. Jean Ratelle, Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield and workers such as Ed Glacomin, Walt Tkaczuk, Rod Seiling, Jim Neilson and Bill Fairbairn. Surely their skid can be largely attributed to age and management&rsquo;s attempt to &ldquo;buy&rdquo; a Stanley Cup by stuffing the players&rsquo; wallets to prevent their transfer to the WHA.EMILE FRANCIS, the de posed GM-coach who has absorbed too much ridicule for his role in the Rangers&rsquo; rocket-ride to last place, will never admit it publicly, buthe must be terribly disappointed in the players he relied upon to bring the Stanley Cup to Broadway.Memories quickly surface of the Rangers allowing Gary Dornhoefer to harass a courageous Glacomin without retaliation in the bitter 1974 semi-final with Philadelphia. The Rangers also neglected to rescue Dale Rolfe from a bloody pummeling by Dave Schultz.A furious Francis, who is a good bet to be managing another NHL team next season, called the Flyers&rsquo; tactics &ldquo;Eastern League hockey,&rdquo; but if the Rangers had had a few &ldquo;Eastern Leaguers&rdquo; such as Dornhoefer or Bob Kelly they would have been Boston&rsquo;s Stanley Cup final opponent. That the Rangers haven&rsquo;t had the pleasure of a Bobby Clarke - type leader hasn&rsquo;thelped either.Francis&rsquo; most damaging errors were committed this season. First, Wayne Dillon and Pat Hickey, two young players with WHA experience, were lured to Manhattan with hefty contracts. Dillon and Hickey may develop into outstanding forwards, but they didn&rsquo;t produce in line with their paychecks.Phil Esposito didn&rsquo;t produce up to his &ldquo;scoring machine&rdquo; level either. While Park and Ratelle were playing like All Stars for Boston following the stunning Nov. 7 deal engineered by Francis and Harry Sinden, Esposito played like a general who had been deserted by his troops.PERHAPS THE only Rangers who deserve sympathy are Gilbert, Carol Vadnais and John Davidson. Gilbert, one of hockey&rsquo;s classiest people, has attempted to play at his familiar grade A pace. He should be a favorite for the Masterton Trophy. Vadnais, who accompanied Esposito from Boston, has also battled teams like the Flyers. In Davidson&rsquo;s case, one can only hope the battering the 23-year-old goalie took behind the defense-less Rangers doesn&rsquo;t destroy his optimism, or what&rsquo;s left of it.Davidson is already sounding cynical. After Gary Inness made his Flyers&rsquo; debut in the 41 victory over the Rangers, Davidson said, &ldquo;It must be nice tuning up your number three goalie against us.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02811/3835988-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="1171" height="1108"><figcaption class="caption-body">Even Phil Esposito couldn&rsquo;t move the Rangers.</figcaption></div>The Islanders, meanwhile, were tuning up for a serious charge at the Stanley CupGlenn (Chico) Resch admitted prior to this season. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t ready for the Stanley Cup last season.&rdquo; If the Islanders weren&rsquo;t ready, they fooled a lot of people, including the Flyers who were extended to a seventh semi-final test before discouraging Al Arbour&rsquo;s pesky club.One of the smartest things Islanders&rsquo; president Roy Boe and GM Bill Torrey ever did was hire Arbour. That the former NHL defenseman even decided to accept Boe&rsquo;s offer tells you a lot. The Isles were born losers, winning only 12 and tying six of 78 games in their first season&ldquo;There used to be a gag,&rdquo; recalled original Islander Billy Harris, &ldquo;that our longest unbeaten streak was a win, a tie and a close one.&rdquo;ARBOUR&rsquo;S PATIENT guidance and discipline improved the situation by 26 points the next season Then draftees such as Harris, Denis Potvin and Clark Gillies combined with veterans such as Ed Westfall. Bert Marshall, Gerry Hart, J.P.Parise and Jude Drouin and longshots like Resch and Bob Nystrom to lead the Islanders to the semi-finals and in only their fourth season, serious contention for the CupThe Islanders, from the front office to Arbour to super stars like Potvin and grind-it-out workers like Hart, are perfect examples of how to succeed. They followed Philadelphia&rsquo;s pattern of drafting wisely (Bryan Trottier is the latest amateur-product gem) and building pride in the organization.Gone are the early days when the Islanders were jeered as &ldquo;Torrey&rsquo;s Turkeys.&rdquo; They are now New York City&rsquo;s favorites, a fact that irritates the Rangers. Says one insider:&ldquo;The Cat (Francis) and Torrey always got along, but others in the front offices aren&rsquo;t even cordial. And the players (who nearly all live on Long Island) aren&rsquo;t friendly.&rdquo;If the Rangers are envious of their new, affluent neighbors it&rsquo;s understandable. But, in the last few years, both the Islanders and Rangers have gotten what thev deserve. &#9632;

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HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div>TORONTO&mdash;While most of the accolades for the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; strong display during the stretch segment of the 1975-76 National Hockey League season have fallen to the big line of Darryl Sittier, Lanny McDonald and Errol Thompson, another troika has played a key role in the surge.The combination of rookie center Jack Valiquette, 19, flanked by Dave (Tiger) Williams and Pat Boutette has performed strongly during the second half of the schedule to supply the balance demanded when the Leafs grouped all their big scoring eggs in one basket.Although the line is nowhere near the Sittier trio in mathematics, its two-way work has lifted the Leaf hopes for some playoff success. The triumvirate&rsquo;s greatest triumph came in the Leafs&rsquo; 2-1 conquest of the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum, the most uplifting achievement by the young Leafs this season.The Leafs needed some superior goaltending by Wayne Thomas but the &ldquo;Brat Line&rdquo; contributed a goal and did a strong defensive job against Canadiens&rsquo; power line of Pete Mahovlich, Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur.Valiquette&rsquo;s work earned him the game&rsquo;s second star nomination behind Thomas. He forechecked relentlessly and did a masterful job of killing penalties. When the Leafs sent him to their Oklahoma City farm team to open the season, they requested thathe upgrade his defensive capabilities.&ldquo;I was very impressed by that young Valiquette, especially his strength and the way he handled the puck,&rdquo; said Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Ken Dryden. &ldquo;I have an idea that he&rsquo;s going to be a young man who causes trouble for this league.&rdquo;On Valiquette&rsquo;s wings are perched Williams and Boutette, two lads who possess abundant aggressiveness. Neither is very large - Boutette is 5&rsquo;9&rdquo; and 170 pounds, Williams is 5&rsquo;11&rdquo; and 180. During the Leaf training camp, they fought each other five times including one vicious stick-swinging duel.&ldquo;I was just checkin&rsquo; out the kid to see if he had any spunk,&rdquo; Williams laughs now. &ldquo;He did &mdash; plenty of it, too.&rdquo;But neither Williams nor Boutette ever has backed up a step, no matter how large the opponent who wants to challenge their right to a corner or to even a fight happens to be.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03613/3836026-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="568" height="778"><figcaption class="caption-body">JACK VALIQUETTE &hellip; Praised By Dryden</figcaption></div>Boutette&rsquo;s short stature makes him the target for assorted Leaf jokes. They claim he&rsquo;s going to star in a movie called &ldquo;Walking Short,&rdquo; and when he had an abrasion on his shoulder, a mate asked if he&rsquo;d been submarined.Two of Boutette&rsquo;s fistic opponents have been giants &mdash; Clark Gillies of New York Islanders (6&rsquo;3&rdquo;, 220) and Phillv Fivers&rsquo; Don Saleski (6&rsquo;3&rdquo;, 210).&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t allow players to chase you or they&rsquo;ll run you right out of the league, especially when you&rsquo;re my size,&rdquo; Boutette explained. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t go around challenging the big guys to battles but I&rsquo;m not afraid to bump with them in the corners. Sometimes that leads to fights. I don&rsquo;t stand at long range and throw punches with them because that would be suicide for me. I try to get inside against them and nullify their reach advantage.&rdquo;The Brat Line&rsquo;s strong point is forechecking, roaring into the attacking zone and running into opponents.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to do much by trying to be super fancy,&rdquo; said Williams.&rdquo; But if guys know we&rsquo;re coming and that we&rsquo;re not afraid to bump a little, then they might hurry their moves a little.&rdquo;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing fancy about the Tiger and me,&rdquo; Boutette said. &ldquo;We leave the fancy stuff to Valiquette.&rdquo;NOTES: The Leafs feel that winger Errol Thompson will be a top contender for the Lady Byng Trophy. Thompson has produced 42 goals and earned only ten minutes in penalties. The NHL statistics credit him with 12 minutes but he claims that&rsquo;s an error&hellip; Lanny McDonald is the Leaf nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy. &#9632;

f0014-03

Brat Line Put Fight In Leafs

<div class="byline">BY BILL HEUFELDER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01937/3836057-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">JEAN PRONOVOST&hellip; Joins Select Group</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH &mdash;Mark it down. March 24, 1976. A momentous date in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins.At 11:01 of the third period that night in a game against the Boston Bruins, Jean Pronovost delivered his 50th goal, an achievement matched by only 13 other National Hockey League players.&ldquo;It went pretty quick.&rdquo; the 30-year-old right winger said of his milestone, once he came within striking distance of it.Certainly, Pronovost rushed to reach 50 without any gnawing stretches that can leave an entire club on edge. After a three-game scoreless streak earlier in the month, he knocked home five in six games before connecting against Boston and running his consecutive scoring string to six.For Pronovost, the ultimate goal is to be a member of a Stanley Cup team, so thathe is able to handle individual accomplishments with a certain aplomb. He admits to being concerned only during that three-game scoreless streak.&ldquo;I was stuck on 43 and people kept talking about 50 goals, Pronovost said. &ldquo;I kept thinking about last year.&rdquo;Bothered by a thumb injury and a slight slump, Pronovost lost his opportunity to reach No. 50 last season. Having notched his 50th with six games left this year, he felt relief.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad it&rsquo;s all over,&rdquo; he sighed. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got more business to do.&rdquo;That would be playoff business and the Penguins, with their overpowering offense that too often can&rsquo;t overcome the club&rsquo;s defensive lapses, seem to have the personnel to leave their mark this time around.&ldquo;I would rather have 70 or 75 points in a season and go right to the Stanley Cup.&rdquo; Pronovost said earnestly.&ldquo;This is a team game, not an individual sport. You&rsquo;re only as great as the success of the tearn.&ldquo;If the guys want to work together, we can go almost all the way in the playoffs this year.&rdquo;It would take the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup this year to overshadow the game against Boston in which not only Pronovost produced his historic goal, but Pierre La-rouche registered his 100th point. Known as the King, La-rouche, a mere 20 years old, did it with his customary flair, scoring on a breakaway late in the opening period.A franchise beset by ownership blunders and questionable support since its inception, the Penguins were enthusiastically received that night, realizing the drama contained in one game.&ldquo;There are good hockey fans in the city,&rdquo; Pronovost observed. &ldquo;but you don&rsquo;t figure they would be as involved with us as they would with a Lynn Swann and the Super Bowl.&rdquo;So Pronovost was surprised when the near-sellout crowd of 15,966 brought the Civic Arena to life and exploded in appreciation when he and Larouche connected.&ldquo;It was being built up like it was a big deal,&rdquo; Pronovost mentioned, &ldquo;and I guess it was. It sounded like there was no tomorrow.&rdquo;Well, the tomorrow didn&rsquo;t look as attractive because the Penguins were on the road against St. Louis. The hometown crowd wasn&rsquo;t interested in watching Pronovost get his 50th goal on television.&ldquo;I thought maybe 14,000 people would show up for the Boston game.&rdquo; Pronovost said. &ldquo;It makes you feel good that people recognize what you&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo;The anatomy of Pronovost&rsquo;s 50-goal season includes three scoreless stretches of three games, including the first three games of the campaign. In his worst streak, he went without a goal or assist through four games during the Christmas holidays.He compensated for the slack periods by snapping up a pair of hat tricks and five two-goal games. Ironically, goal No. 50 came against the club that dealt him out of its farm system to the Penguins in the spring of 1968.Never known to be complacent, Pronovost quickly jumped off the 50 mark, striking against the Blues six seconds after the opening faceoff to tie the NHL record for quickest goal in a game. &#9632;

f0015-01

Pronovost Says NHL Cup Winner Would Surpass 50-Goal Feat

<div class="byline">BY ALAN TRUEX</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01780/3836088-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL CLEMENT&hellip; One Of The Fastest Skaters</figcaption></div>ATLANTA &mdash;Compared to most hockey players, Bill Clement was an old&mdash;timer when he began living on skates. He didn&rsquo;t tighten on his first pair until he was a doddering eight-year-old. He didn&rsquo;t play organized hockey until he was 12.Clement&rsquo;s development in the sport was delayed, because he could not find a team to play on. He grew up in Thurso, Que. The English kids didn&rsquo;t get much of a chance to play in a town where the population was 99 percent French Canadian.Once young Clement did start playing hockey, it was a goaltender, the position reserved for the slowest skaters.But in spite of these meager origins, Clement is now one of the fastest skaters in the NHL.&ldquo;I could always skate fast,&rdquo; he says, not bothering with any false humility. &ldquo;When I was a goaltender, I could outskate the other kids even with my pads on.&rdquo;It was not long before Clement left the nets for good and assumed his rightful position as center. One of his 12-year-old linemates then is now the finest right winger in hockey, Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens.Clement has played center ever since, although he&rsquo;s had occasional shifts at right wing, and he conceivably could end up playing there next season.The Atlanta Flames rescued Clement from the forlorn Washington Capitals last January in one trade that really did end up &ldquo;helping both teams.&rdquo;The Flames gave up center Gerry Meehan and young defenseman Jean Lemieux, both of whom are scoring regularly with Washington. Atlanta also handed over a first-round draft choice to get Clement, who is only 25 years old.Immediately, Clement began making multiple contributions to the Flames.&ldquo;One of the things Billy Clement is very good at,&rdquo; Flames coach Fred Creighton said, &ldquo;is getting faceoffs.&rdquo; Creighton feels that is the main reason the Flames&rsquo; penalty-killing efficiency has been steadily rising and was ranked fourth, at 84 percent, at press time.Clement and Tim Ecclestone have handled the bulk of Atlanta&rsquo;s shorthanded work. But even though losing many regular shifts to penalty-killing, Clement is the Flames&rsquo; third-leading scorer, with 21 goalsand 49 points in 72 games.Clement is also a fine checker, but the most noteworthy thing he does is skate. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to think I&rsquo;m among the top 25 skaters in the league,&rdquo; he says, adding that he rates Montreal&rsquo;s Murray Wilson the fastest.&ldquo;But skating speed is hard to judge, he says. &ldquo;You skate faster if you have the puck, because the adrenalin is flowing then.&ldquo;You have to learn to avoid doing a lot of extra skating,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I used to buzz around all the time when I really wasn&rsquo;t accomplishing anything except tiring myself out.&rdquo;When he&rsquo;s on the ice now, it&rsquo;s the opposition that is getting tired &mdash; chasing him.FLAMES NOTES: Atlanta clinched a playoff berth in Chicago, with five games remaining. Flames&rsquo; reaction to the occasion was quite subdued. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve known for a long time, probably a month, that we were going to the playoffs,&rdquo; Tom Lysiak said. &ldquo;We knew around Christmas that we were a better team than the Rangers.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Eric Vail has his weight down to 205, a 10-pound loss since January&hellip; Vail has been skating well at the reduced weight. But his shooting and puckhandling remain inconsistent, compared to last year when he won the CalderTrophy&hellip; &#9632;

f0016-01

Atlanta’s Clement Making Up For Lost Time

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02669/3836119-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0016-02

Trottier Top Rookie

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01659/3836433-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

FINAL SCORING LEADERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02543/3836464-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0019-02

How NHL Goalers Finished Season

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03427/3836526-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="592" height="644"></div> &#9632;

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TEAM PENALTIES

Prelimary round of Stanley Cup playoffs. All series best-of-three:<h2>Series &lsquo;A&rsquo;</h2>BUFFALO vs ST. LOUISTue. April 6 at St. LouisThu. April 8 at BuffaloFri. April 9 at Buffalo<h2>Series &lsquo;B&rsquo;</h2>VANCOUVER vs ISLANDERSTue. April 6 at New YorkThu. April 8 at VancouverFri. or Sat.Apr. 9-10 at New York<h2>Series &lsquo;C&rsquo;</h2>ATLANTA vs LOS ANGELESTue. April 6 at Los AngelesThu. April 8 at AtlantaFri. or Sat.Apr. 9-10 at Los Angeles<h2>Series &lsquo;D&rsquo;</h2>PITTSBURGH vs TORONTOTue. April 6 at TorontoThu. April 8 at PittsburghFri. April 9 at Toronto(Montreal, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago received first round byes for finishing first in their respective divisions.) &#9632;

Stanley Cup Dates

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04365/3836495-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN DRYDEN&hellip; Second Gollinq Award</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;For the first time in nine years and second in 17, the same National Hockey League team has won both the Art Ross Trophy and the Vezina Trophy.Right winger Guy Lafleur of Montreal Canadiens ended the 12year monopoly by Boston and Chicago on the scoring championship while teammate Ken Dryden carried on the Montreal tradition of Vezina Trophy winners with that club&rsquo;s 20th in the 50-year history of the goaltenders&rsquo; award.As the NHL completed its 197576 regular schedule, Lafleur pulled away from runner-up Bobby Clarke of Philadelphia to become the first Canadien to lead the scoring parade since Bernie Geoffrion in 1960-61. Lafleur finished the 80-game season with 125 points, including 56 goals, both records for a right winger. Clarke was six points behind Lafleur. His 89 assists tied the record he set last season for most by a forward in a season. Only Boston defenseman Bobby Orr had more&mdash;102 in 1970-71 and 90 in 1973-74.It is only the 10th time since the Vezina Trophy was first presented in 1926 that the same team won it and the scoring title and on six occasions it was the Canadiens. Glenn Hall and Denis Dejordy shared the award in 1966-67, the same year Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; Bobby Hull won the Art Ross Trophy. Canadiens won both awards in 1927-28; 1944-45; 195556; 1957-58; and 1958-59.Dryden who won the Vezina Trophv in 1972-73, led all individual goaltenders with a 2.03 average and eight shutouts. He appeared in 62 games. Bunny Larocque of Canadiens shares in the $1,750 award money &mdash; $1,500 as winner and $250 for leading in the first half&mdash;buthe is not co-winner of the trophy because he did not play in the required 25 games. The Vezina is awarded to the goaltender (s) who play in at least 25 games for the team with the fewest goals against.Ironically, Larocque&rsquo;s name will not appear on the Vezina Trophy alongside Dryden&rsquo;s because he saw action in only 22 games ending up with a 16-1-3 record. Dryden was in 62 games and had a 42-10-8 mark.New York Islanders combination of Glenn Resch and Billy Smith led in the second half with 90 goals against&mdash;Canadiens had 93 against&mdash;and were over all runners-up with a combined goals against total of 190, compared to Canadiens&rsquo; 174. Resch had seven shutouts and Smith three, thereby matching Montreal&rsquo;s total of 10, Larocque getting the other two. Resch was second in individual average with 2.07.Lafleur, who had at least two points against every other team in the league, including 21 against Pittsburgh, also scored at least one goal against all teams except New York Rangers, against whom he had two assists. He had 31 goals, 36 assists and 67 points at home and 25 goals, 33 assists and 58 points on the road.Lafleur receives from the league $1,000 as scoring champion plus $500 as second-half leader (33 goals, 67 points) and $250 as runner-up to Clarke in the first half. Clark gets $500 as first-half leader. Second-half runner-up. with 29 goals and 62 points, was Bill Barber of Philadelphia. He receives $250. Jean Ratelie of Boston tied Barber in points in the second half but the Flyer left winger receives the award because he had more goals. Ratelle had 23 goals.For the 16th time in the 29-year history of the Art Ross Trophy, the winner was not the goal-scoring leader. Reggie Leach of Philadelphia scored 61 goals to end the six-year reign of Phil Esposito of Boston, who this season scored 35 goals, 29 of which were with New York Rangers after being traded by the Bruins last November. Since the founding of the NHL in 1917. it is the 27th time that the goal leader was not the points leader.While goal production in the league was down slightly&mdash;4,913 this season compared to 4,932 in 1974-75&mdash;a record nine players reached the 100-point mark and six scored at least 50 goals. Behind Clarke was Gilbert Perreault of Buffalo with 113 points, followed by Barber, 112; Pierre Larouche of Pittsburgh, 111; Pete Mahovlich of Montreal and Ratelle, 105; Jean Pronovost of Pittsburgh, 104; and Darryl Sittier of Toronto. 100.Besides Leach and Lafleur, the 50-goal scorers were Larouche 53; Pronovost, 52; and Barber and Danny Gare of Buffalo. 50 each.At the start of the season, Canadiens&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman told his players he wanted the Vezina Trophy because he thought defensively his team would have a better chanceat theStanlevCupif it won the award. Although the Vezina Trophv winners in each of the last three seasons won the Stanley Cup. it is a 50-50 chance considering the last 20 seasons when it. happened 10 times. In The 50-year history of the Vezina, the winners won the Stanley Cup 21 times.Canadiens won their 17th Prince of Wales Trophy as champions of that Conference. They finished the season with a record 127 points and 58 wins, the most ever. For a third straight season and fourth time in their nine-year history, Philadelphia Flyers won the Clarence Campbell Bowl as winner of the Campbell Conference. Montreal and Philadelphia, of course, were also Norris and Patrick Division winners, respectively. Boston won the Adams Division title and Chicago, on the final night of the schedule, won the Smythe Division. Each division champion receives $2,000 per man (21 units) and the two conference titlists get an additional $2,500 per man.Second and third-place teams now take part in the best-of-three preliminary playoff round with the Sabres, having the most points among the eight teams, playing St. Louis, which had the fewest points. New York Islanders, with second-highest point total, oppose Vancouver, second-lowest total; Los Angeles Kings, third-highest total, meet Atlanta Flames, third lowest total; and Toronto, with fourth-highest total, plays Pittsburgh, which had the fourth-lowest total. The four winners then advance to the best-of-seven quarter-final round with the division champions, who receive byes into that round. Again, those eight teams are ranked from one to eight in point total with the same pairings as in the preliminary round &mdash; one vs. eight; two vs. seven; etc. &#9632;

f0019-04

Lafleur Scoring Champ As Dryden Captures Vezina

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div>CHICAGO&mdash;It comes as no surprise to this reporter when Keith Magnuson says the Chicago Black Hawks aren&rsquo;t all that bad.It also comes as no surprise when Keith Magnuson says, in fact, that the Chicago Black Hawks will be ready, willing and able for the Stanley Cup playoffs.And it is totally predictable that Keith Magnuson backs up his words with acts of courage. Here&rsquo;s a man whose heart belongs in the Smithsonian Institute.There was no way, you see, that he was going to be able to play hockey anymore this season. Doctors who examined him after he crashed into the boards Feb. 4 at the Montreal Forum said that a broken vertebra was just too broken. They had company.&ldquo;Keith might be back for the playoffs, but that&rsquo;s even doubtful,&rdquo; said coach Willian T. Reay, whose decisions usually are final.This one was not. Les Black Hawks started stumbling around come February, their once juicy first place lead became no lead at all, and the Vancouver Canucks actually took over the top spot for a spell as the rancid Conn Smythe Division sputtered into the homestretch.Then the Black Hawks were visited by a mystery guest on the evening of March 24. There were wild ovations from the crowd, there was a little more noise on the bench, there was even a fight on the man&rsquo;s first shift. Keith Magnuson, the Black Hawks&rsquo; spiritual leader, had returned.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01347/3836612-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="561" height="1188"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEITH MAGNUSON &hellip; Fast Recovery</figcaption></div>They always said this guy would break his back for the Black Hawks, but this was ridiculous.&ldquo;And we&rsquo;re going to be tough in the playoffs,&rdquo; he was saying. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve watched us the last month when we&rsquo;ve been having the tough time, and I thought all we need is to go back to the style we have to play Defensive.&ldquo;We just got away from the game for a while. Sometimes we hear the fans, especially at home, crying for a little more offense. Or we pick up the paper, and the press says that &lsquo;the Black Hawks got outshot again&rsquo; or &lsquo;the Black Hawks are a dull team&rsquo; and we figure that we&rsquo;re going to open up.&ldquo;But we can&rsquo;t do that. We&rsquo;re not the type of goalscoring team that&rsquo;s going to bury anyone. We just have to get back into that old feeling about being very conscious of our goals-against. If we get tight in our own end, then we&rsquo;ll be OK.&rdquo;How Magnuson became so quickly OK is typical, if not a medical marvel.&ldquo;He came into my office about three times a week, asking if he could try playing,&rdquo; said Reay. Finally, Magnuson visited a doctor earlier in the week of the Atlanta game.&ldquo;I got the OK to wear a brace and try playing,&rdquo; said Maggie. &ldquo;So I tried it. It was a little tight &mdash; there were times I had trouble breathing &mdash; but it wasn&rsquo;t that bad.&rdquo;The Hawks, who have been that bad, were trailing the Atlanta Flames 5-1 that night when Magnuson made his comeback. A wild ovation greeting his return hardly subsided before Magnuson took on Eric Vail, the sinewy Flames&rsquo; winger. What a way to return.Magnuson did not play the next night in Boston (a 4-2 Bruins victory) buthe was busy two evenings later in Chicago when the New-York Rangers visited.At the 12-second mark, Magnuson tangled with Pat Hickey. The Hawks did not win the game, and Magnuson doesn&rsquo;t think he won the fight.&ldquo;But I think after what&rsquo;s happened to us the last month, we&rsquo;re getting our spirit up for the playoffs,&rdquo; said Magnuson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be ready.&rdquo;Certainly, after the last two months of the season, the Hawks should have all sorts of energy saved up.PARTING SHORTS: Tony Esposito, who has not been feeling well for a month or so, stayed home when the Hawks went to Boston&hellip;Gilles Villemure played and played well, losing on two unusual goals. His backup was Michel Dumas&hellip;Esposito earned his first assist of the season March 28 against the Minnesota North Stars, who are 0-10-1 in their last 11 games at Chicago. Their last victory here was in 1973&hellip;Bobby Sheehan scored his 10th goal on Dec. 17th&hellip;He waited until March 28th to score his 11th&hellip;That Minnesota salvo ended a five-game Hawk losing streak. &#9632;

f0021-01

Hawks Storing Up Energy For Cup Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01378/3836657-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="493" height="484"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02287/3836650-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="493" height="488"></div>Doug Hicks is closing his second National Hockey League season with the distinction of playing 160 straight straight games without injury or illness.None of his other Minnesota North Star teammates can make this claim and not too shabby of an achievement for a young man who stepped into his skates and became a 19-year-old at the start of this consecutive game streak.Not that the 6-foot, 185-pound native of Cold Lake, Alta, was an instant star after being the No. 1 draft choice of the Stars after completing his junior career with Flin Flon.It has been more a period of logging the experience, and the speedy defenseman is just now beginning to fulfill the promise of a top draftee.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like I was rushing myself too much the last year and a half,&rdquo; said Hicks. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m relaxed and feeling more sure of myself on the ice. Mainly I&rsquo;ve worked on improving my passing and using my skating ability to its full potential &mdash; I don&rsquo;t think I was using it to full advantage.&rdquo;Hicks, who turns 21 in May, had a rookie season of six goals and 12 assists in 1974-75. There will not be much improvement in those figures after this year, but Hicks must be regarded probably as the most improved player on the club.Scoring-wise, Hicks started slowly. With seven games remaining in this his second season, Hicks posted four goals and 12 assists.One of those scores helped the North Stars take a 4-4 tie against the Los Angeles Kings, a somewhat inspired performance for the team that is going to miss the playoffs for the third straight year.Hicks actually started the comeback late in the second period with a big blast from the blueline to cut the LA margin to one. Tim Young, 21-year-old rookie center, planted in the equalizer with only 1:26 remaining in the game.That game and the two before (a victory over the Islanders and a close loss to the Rangers) seemed almost out of character for a fourth-place team. The North Stars suddenly played aggressive hockey, with no reason to get fired up.&ldquo;We have nothing to play for&hellip;except maybe each other,&rdquo; said Hicks. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of young players like myself who are learning from mistakes. There is the feeling that we&rsquo;re going to be a much better team next year.&rdquo;The North Stars show some promise the way youngsters like Hicks, Young, 22-year-old right wing Dean Talafous, 21-year-old goalie Pete LoPresti and 20-year-old Steve Jensen have performed.Jensen jumped straight from this year&rsquo;s Olympic team onto the North Star club as a smash hit with his hometown fans. His first 12 games saw him score five goals and four assists.Talafous is going to double his goal total and Young will wind up with almost 50 points in less than a full season in the NHL.&ldquo;Everyone on the team is pulling hard for next year,&rdquo; said Young. &ldquo;I know if I don&rsquo;t produce it would hurt my future. Guys who don&rsquo;t could find themselves without a job.&rdquo;Young has played some of his better games this year against the Kings who traded him (a No. 1 choice) to the North Stars for a future draft choice before the season.&ldquo;I guess everyone trys a little harder against the team which trades you,&rdquo; he said.STAR DUST: North Star college scout John Mariucci, former Black Hawk defenseman and longtime University of Minnesota coach, has agreed to coach the U.S. team in the Group &ldquo;A&rdquo; World Championships in Poland&hellip;Serving as his assistant will be Andre Beaulieu, assistant to North Star coach Ted Harris&hellip;The North Stars went with four defensemen when Tom Reid and Dwight Bialowas went down with injuries&hellip;Lou Nanne& assist on Young&rsquo;s game-tying goal against LA left him one point shy of 200 for his NHL career. Bryan Hextall needed one goal for 100 in his career &hellip; Defenseman Dennis O&rsquo;Brien, after being whistled for a minor penalty after carrying the puck in his glove, &ldquo;I was going for the first down.&rdquo; &ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; replied Fred Barrett, &ldquo;he was given two minutes fortravelling.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03245/3836643-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="589" height="1148"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG HICKS &hellip; 160 In A Row</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Stars’ Defender Gaining Experience

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01355/3836688-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE HRECHKOSY&hellip; Acquired For Draft Choices</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Dave &ldquo;The Wrecker&rdquo; Hrechkosy enthusiastically accepted his trade to the St. Louis Blues, who probably never will miss the draft choices given to California.The Blues gave the Seals a fifthround choice in this year&rsquo;s amateur draft and returned California&rsquo;s 1977 third-round choice obtained in November in the Wayne Merrick-Larry Patey trade.Hrechkosy, a hulking left wing, believes the Blues will provide him with the opportunity to stay in the National Hockey League. The Seals had farmed him out to Salt Lake City before trading him, and Hrechkosy was not happy with his status in the California organization.&ldquo;The situation was getting progressively worse,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had heard rumors I was going to be traded to Chicago, so I was surprised I was traded to St. Louis. But I like the trade.&rdquo;Denis Ball, the Blues&rsquo; vice president of hockey operations, learned Hrechkosy was available and thought the husky winger would provide good insurance for the Blues, who were heading toward the playoffs as the playoff team with the worst record. St. Louis coach Leo Boivin agreed that Hrechkosy could help the team, so the deal was made.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to work hard,&rdquo; said Hrechkosy. &ldquo;I hadn&rsquo;t practiced much recently because I sat in Salt Lake City and didn&rsquo;t do anything.&rdquo;In his fourth game with the Blues Hrechkosy scored the goal that gave St. Louis a 3-3 tie with the Boston Bruins.Defenseman Bob Hess fired an accurate shot from the point, and Hrechkosy deflected it past Gerry Cheevers.&ldquo;I just tried to get in front of the net,&rdquo; said Hrechkosy, who has the bulk to plant himself firmly outside the crease and stay there. &ldquo;The puck went off the shaft of my stick into the back of the net. Cheevers was surprised; he couldn&rsquo;t do anything.&rdquo;&ldquo;Hrechkosy played pretty well,&rdquo; said Boivin. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure I&rsquo;ll be able to make use of him in the lineup.&rdquo;To get Hrechkosy into the Boston game Boivin benched right wing Pierre Plante and shifted Bob MacMillan from left wing to right wing.Plante, who was the Blues&rsquo; second-leading goal scorer behind Garry Unger last season with 34, has only 12 goals this season and is one of the biggest disappointments on the Blues. At the beginning of the season the Blues&rsquo; most stable line was Plante on right wing, Wayne Merrick at center and Floyd Thomson on left wing. But the line started the season in a big slump, and the situation went downhill.Merrick was traded in November, and Plante is still trying to regain last year&rsquo;s form. Thomson has seen only spot duty for the past four months and suffered a serious concussion in a game a couple of weeks ago against the New York Islanders.The Blues&rsquo; best line didn&rsquo;t exist at the beginning of the season because Derek Sanderson wasn&rsquo;t yet a member of the team. The line of Sanderson flanked by Chuck Lefley and Claude Larose was assembled by Boivin in his first game as coach. Jan. 6 and has been one of the top lines in the NHL since that time. &#9632;

f0023-01

Hrechkosy Bolsters Blues For NHL Playoffs

(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-283/3837030-1-eng-US/f0024-282.jpg" title="f0024-28" width="565" height="706"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. March 29Philadelphia 1 at N.Y. Islanders 5; Pittsburgh 4 at Toronto 5.Tue. March 30Detroit 3 at Washington 5; Los Angeles 8 at Kansas City 6; California 4 at Vancouver 4. St. Louis 5 at Minnesota 3; Buffalo 4 at Boston 4Wed. March 31N.Y. Islanders 1 at N.Y. Rangers 3; Pittsburgh 3 at Montreal 7; Toronto 4 at Detroit 4; Los Angeles 2 at St. Louis 1; Kansas City 3 at Chicago 6Thu. April 1Atlanta 1 at N.Y. Islonders 1; Washington 2 at Phi ladelphio 11. Boston 2 at Buffalo 7Fri. April 2Minnesota 2 at Atlanta 4. Vancouver 5 at Californio 0Sat. April 3N.Y Rangers 2 at N.Y. Islanders 10; Buffalo 2 at Phi ladelphio 5; Detroit 3 at Montreal 6; Washington 5 at Pittsburgh 4; Kansas City 1 at Los Angeles 5; Chicago 3 at St. Louis 3; Boston 4 ot Toronto 2.Sun. April 4Philadelphia 0 at N.Y. Rangers 2; N.Y. Islanders 2 at Atlanta 5 Montreal 4 ot Washington 3; Pittsburgh 6 at Detroit 5. Los Angeles 2 at California 5; Kansas City 2 ot Vancouver 5. St. Louis 2 at Chicago 7, Minnesota 2 at Boston 2; Toronto 2 at Buffalo 5. &#9632;

f0024-28

THE NHL SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01366/3836999-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="787" height="979"></div>Warning Health and Welfare Canada advises that danger to health increases with amount smoked - avoid inhaling. Av per cigarette Regular 16mg &ldquo;tar 12mg nicotine King 18mg tar&rdquo; 13mg nicotine<h2>Mon. March 29</h2>PHILADELPHIA 1, ISLANDERS 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02288/3836992-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="637" height="400"></div>PITTSBURGH 4, TORONTO 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03203/3836985-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="640" height="451"></div><h2>Tue. March 30</h2>DETROIT 3, WASHINGTON 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04154/3836978-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="577" height="571"></div>LOS ANGELES 8, KANSAS CITY 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05121/3836971-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="622" height="637"></div>CALIFORNIA 4, VANCOUVER 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-06105/3836964-1-eng-US/f0024-062.jpg" title="f0024-06" width="601" height="340"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0790/3836957-1-eng-US/f0024-072.jpg" title="f0024-07" width="616" height="151"></div>ST LOUIS 5, MINNESOTA 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0885/3836950-1-eng-US/f0024-082.jpg" title="f0024-08" width="619" height="475"></div>BUFFALO 4, BOSTON 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0978/3836943-1-eng-US/f0024-092.jpg" title="f0024-09" width="622" height="430"></div><h2>Wed. March 31</h2>ISLANDERS 1, RANGERS 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1071/3836936-1-eng-US/f0024-102.jpg" title="f0024-10" width="604" height="379"></div>PITTSBURGH 3, MONTREAL 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1169/3836929-1-eng-US/f0024-112.jpg" title="f0024-11" width="619" height="103"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1261/3836922-1-eng-US/f0024-122.jpg" title="f0024-12" width="622" height="433"></div>TORONTO 4, DETROIT 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1351/3836915-1-eng-US/f0024-132.jpg" title="f0024-13" width="628" height="631"></div>LOS ANGELES 2, ST. LOUIS 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1441/3836908-1-eng-US/f0024-142.jpg" title="f0024-14" width="625" height="367"></div>KANSAS CITY 3, CHICAGO 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1537/3836901-1-eng-US/f0024-152.jpg" title="f0024-15" width="595" height="148"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1634/3836894-1-eng-US/f0024-162.jpg" title="f0024-16" width="598" height="331"></div><h2>Thu. April 1</h2>ATLANTA 1, ISLANDERS 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1731/3836887-1-eng-US/f0024-172.jpg" title="f0024-17" width="613" height="343"></div>WASHINGTON 2, PHILADELPHIA 11<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1829/3836880-1-eng-US/f0024-182.jpg" title="f0024-18" width="640" height="538"></div>BOSTON 2, BUFFALO 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1929/3836873-1-eng-US/f0024-192.jpg" title="f0024-19" width="616" height="448"></div><h2>Fri. April 2</h2>MINNESOTA2, ATLANTA4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2028/3836866-1-eng-US/f0024-202.jpg" title="f0024-20" width="616" height="436"></div>VANCOUVER 5, CALIFORNIA 0<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2125/3836859-1-eng-US/f0024-212.jpg" title="f0024-21" width="604" height="358"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2223/3836852-1-eng-US/f0024-222.jpg" title="f0024-22" width="637" height="97"></div><h2>Sat. April 3</h2>RANGERS 2, ISLANDERS 10<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2323/3836845-1-eng-US/f0024-232.jpg" title="f0024-23" width="634" height="544"></div>BUFFALO 2, PHILADELPHIA 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2420/3836838-1-eng-US/f0024-242.jpg" title="f0024-24" width="604" height="451"></div>DETROIT 3, MONTREAL 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2515/3836831-1-eng-US/f0024-252.jpg" title="f0024-25" width="625" height="511"></div>WASHINGTON 5, PITTSBURGH 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-2610/3836824-1-eng-US/f0024-262.jpg" title="f0024-26" width="613" height="481"></div>KANSAS CITY 1, LOS ANGELES 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-274/3836817-1-eng-US/f0024-272.jpg" title="f0024-27" width="622" height="367"></div>CHICAGO 3, ST. LOUIS 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01310/3836810-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="613" height="376"></div>BOSTON 4, TORONTO 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02229/3836803-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="622" height="451"></div><h2>Sun. April 4</h2>PHILADELPHIA 0, RANGERS 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03157/3836796-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="625" height="310"></div>ISLANDERS 2, ATLANTA 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04122/3836789-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="628" height="349"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05103/3836782-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="634" height="97"></div>MONTREAL4, WASHINGTON 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0684/3836775-1-eng-US/f0025-062.jpg" title="f0025-06" width="637" height="442"></div>PITTSBURGH 6, DETROIT 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0778/3836768-1-eng-US/f0025-072.jpg" title="f0025-07" width="619" height="577"></div>LOS ANGELES 2, CALIFORNIA 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0870/3836761-1-eng-US/f0025-082.jpg" title="f0025-08" width="613" height="475"></div>KANSAS CITY 2, VANCOUVER 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0962/3836754-1-eng-US/f0025-092.jpg" title="f0025-09" width="604" height="61"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1045/3836747-1-eng-US/f0025-102.jpg" title="f0025-10" width="622" height="391"></div>ST. LOUIS2, CHICAGO 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1137/3836740-1-eng-US/f0025-112.jpg" title="f0025-11" width="604" height="448"></div>MINNESOTA 2, BOSTON 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1228/3836733-1-eng-US/f0025-122.jpg" title="f0025-12" width="601" height="343"></div>TORONTO 2, BUFFALO 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1323/3836726-1-eng-US/f0025-132.jpg" title="f0025-13" width="607" height="445"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1421/3836719-1-eng-US/f0025-142.jpg" title="f0025-14" width="1177" height="1432"><figcaption class="caption-body">DANNY GARE&hellip; 11 th Hour Hat Trick Makes 50</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0024-01

National Hockey League Summaries

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01317/3837061-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="557" height="1780"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN DAVIDSON&hellip;Still No. 1</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Doug Soetaert forced his way into the New York Rangers 1976-77 goalie sweepstakes with a win over the Kansas City Scouts and a key assist in a gutty performance.&ldquo;I want to make this team next year,&rdquo; said the first-year pro. &ldquo;I am going to work my butt off over the summer and come to camp ready to fight for a job.&rdquo;Soetaert, a twenty-year-old who came up from the Providence AHL farm when Dune Wilson hurt his knee, has always been an attack minded goalie.&ldquo;I had seven assists my last year in junior hockey,&rdquo; said Doug. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know I was going to play until John Ferguson gave me the puck just before game time.&rdquo;John Davidson had played 23 straight games prior to Soetaert&rsquo;s start against the Scouts. Ironically, in Ferguson&rsquo;s debut with the Rangers, January 8, Soetaert was the goalie - at the time, the only available netminder. He won that game 8-4 and beat the Scouts 5-2 in his recent effort, March 28. Those are his only NHL wins.&ldquo;Two games against Kansas City doesn&rsquo;t make a career, said Doug. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ll take them. I would like to play against the Islanders or any of the bigger clubs.&rdquo;Ferguson knows what Davidson can do and where Big John has to improve to help lift the Rangers back to the playoff level. He also introduced competition to the situation when New York signed flaky. but talented, Gilles Gratton, 23. to a two-year contract.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t heard anything good about Gratton, except that he can stop the puck,&rdquo; said Fergy. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care if he plays the piano in his front yard as long as he stops the puck.&rdquo;Gratton played briefly early this year with the St. Louis Blues and clashed with Garrv Young, then the Blues coach. He was waived and went home to Montreal. Before that Gilles had been paid as high as $165,000 per annum to stop pucks for the Ottawa Nationals and Toronto Toros of the WHA. He did well enough so that Toronto wasn&rsquo;t that unhappy when they were unable to sign Ren Dryden. Last year he ran into a dispute with Toros owner John Bassett, and eventually left the team.Bernie Parent, of the Philadelphia Flyers, who played against Gratton in the WHA when Parent was with the Philadelphia Blazers said, &ldquo;Gratton is a good goalie. He should help the Rangers. Ferguson made a good move getting him.&rdquo;Gratton, considered to be zanv and often outrageous, once said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worth $165,000, no player is, Maybe I should ask for a cut.&rdquo;It is certain he didn&rsquo;t receive that kind of money. In a sense, this is his last shot.&ldquo;We talked about Gratton for two months,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;I think he is worth the gamble.&rdquo;The signing of Gratton signals the first player movement for 1976-77. made by the Rangers new general manager-coach. Davidson, despite a willing attitude, still has many faults. He gets beat on long shots because of lack of concentration, and seems awkward at times. He is a large economy sized type at, 6-3 and 205. Most NHL teams would welcome him because at 23, he still has his future in front of him.&ldquo;If he can smooth out some of the bumps John will make it big,&rdquo; said Eddie Johnston of the St. Louis Blues, who was Davidson&rsquo;s goaltending partner his first two NHL seasons.A sweepstakes between Davidson, Gratton and Soetaert would make an interesting camp. Dune Wilson appears to be trade bait.Carol Vadnais scored his 20th and 21st goals over the March 27-28 weekend, a rare one for NewYork in that they scored a double win, whipping Chicago 6-5 in the Windy City, before the Kansas City game in New York.Vadnais has played well with the Rangers, but both he and Phil Esposito are minus hockey players with New York. Checking and defense still win hockey games and Ferguson is determined to make the Rangers more conscious of this next year.Singled out for recent praise as the season neared its dreary conclusion was the oft rumored to be traded center, Peter Stemkowski.&ldquo;Stemmer and Walter Tkaczuk are both good hockey players,&rdquo; said John. &ldquo;Pete is still one of the best faceoff men in the NHL.&rdquo;Stemkowski thinks forechecking by the forwards can help bring down the high goals-against total. He hopes to remain a Ranger, saying, &ldquo;Some of the forwards were too offense minded. A couple of them didn&rsquo;t check their hats. I think Fergy can straighten some of this out.&rdquo;The season isn&rsquo;t over, but the Rangers are starting their reshaping program. In many wavs the summer of Seventy Six may be as interesting as the turbulent campaign it followed. And it will be the last hurrah for more than one Ranger.BLUE CHIPS: Walter Tkac zuk is goalless in his last 27 games&hellip;Phil Esposito scored the Rangers third shorthanded goal of the season against Kansas City March 28&hellip; &#9632;

f0026-01

Rangers’ Goaling Picture Growing Crowded

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01297/3837092-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE WALTON&hellip; On Scoring Spree</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;While the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Black Hawks have been doing their best to make the Smythe Division chase look like a sack race, there has been considerable cheer in Vancouver following the arrival of Mike Walton.The veteran center-right winger has been thrown together on a line with right wing Rick Blight and Don Lever, and the trio have instantly become the best offensive combination coach and general manager Phil Maloney has put together all year.Walton scored his sixth goal in the eight games he&rsquo;s played since jumping back from the disbanded Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA in the Canucks third last regular season game against California. and his play has also lit a fire under Lever and Blight.While the line may not rival the big ones of the NHL like Clarke Line in Philadelphia or the Mahovlich Line in Montreal, it&rsquo;s pretty hot stuff in the Sweat hog Division.As Maloney says: &ldquo;When Walton is on the ice. things happen.&rdquo;And that about describes the effect he&rsquo;s had on Lever and Blight, who are now playing extremely well offensively with Walton at center.He moves the puck so well and anticipates so well offensively.&rdquo; said Lever of Walton. &ldquo;I like playing the left side more than center anyway. I see more of the rink that way.&rdquo;Blight is also complimentary of his linemates, saying that the skating of the two other players is of great help.&ldquo;Those guys do my skating for me in a sense.&rdquo; says Blight, whose only possible weakness this season as a top rookie may lie tn his wheels &ldquo;They both move so well. It makes it easier for me. &ldquo;And while that line has been going well for Maloney. so has his new goaltender Curt Ridley, obtained from Atlanta for this year&rsquo;s number one amateur draft pick.The 24-year-old standup goaltender is still undefeated in his six NHL starts, and it would appear that he has slowly nudged Gary Smith and Ken Lockett into the background.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t make that many trades, but when we do they&rsquo;re good ones.&rdquo; said Maloney in Atlanta after Ridley had just turned in a startling performance to help the Canucks to their 2-2 tie. &ldquo;What a great deal it&rsquo;s been for us. &ldquo;Undoubtedly Maloney will now be looking to trade one of his goalies next year, with Ridley having been solidly entrenched as his No.1.But while there have been some bright spots, the general feeling with the Canucks is that they have been skating in sand of late. The club has not been scoring goalsand they have the worst penalty killing record in the league, having killed off just under 75 percent of their penalties.&ldquo;Billy Reay and I must be the only guys in the league who can&rsquo;t figure out what&rsquo;s going on.&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is with our guys. Maybe they don&rsquo;t want to finish first in the division, trying to avoid Montreal. Maybe they&rsquo;ve got it figured another way.&ldquo;It so often seems that when one team is in a slump, the other team can&rsquo;t take advantage of things. We&rsquo;re not going well, but neither are the Black Hawks.&rdquo;One of Maloney&rsquo;s biggest problems going down the stretch has been his defense, of which he has seven men. none of whom are really playing their best hockey of the season.&ldquo;You want to go with your four best at this point in the season, but who are my four best. I&rsquo;m still using six guys to find out who&rsquo;s going to start playing well.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the Canucks only representative at the All Star game, Dennis Ververgaert, managed to find time to edge closer to the club record of 38 goals in a season when he scored his 36th of the season to gain the tie with California. &#9632;

f0027-01

WHA Jumper Walton Puts Fire In Hot Line

<div class="byline">BY DOUG McCONNELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01283/3837130-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">TERRY RUSKOWSKI&hellip; Scores Pair of Goals.</figcaption></div>LIUISVILIE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HHLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario old in U S and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD. Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaHOUSTON&mdash;The Houston Aeros, their third straight World Hockey Association Western Division title safely behind them, are not relaxing.Evidence: Three wins in four games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to have the division title behind us,&rdquo; said coach Bill Dineen, but we&rsquo;re pointing to the playoffs and hoping to come up with the home-ice advantage. Every win means something.&rdquo;The Aeros are assured of the extra game in any series against the U.S. teams but not in the Avco World Trophy finals, should they meet the Winnipeg Jets in that best-of-seven shootout.Houston had 104 points and Winnipeg 108 points on the final weekend.The Aerosgot two third period goals from Terry Ruskowski to wrap up a 7-4 victory over the Phoenix Roadrunners, the second place club in the WHA West, but which is 16 points behind Houston.The Aeros have won seven of eight meetings with the Roadrunners this season. They split last season, 3-3.Houston enjoys a similar domination over the Cleveland Crusaders, Paul Popiel&rsquo;s slap shot from just inside the blueline going off goaltender Bob Johnson&rsquo;s glove to give the Aeros a 3-2 victory and a 5-2 season advantage over Cleveland.Murray Hall scored his first hat trick in four years in the WHA and added a pair of assists in a 5-1 victory over the Cincinnati Stingers. Hall has 20 goals on the season, seven against the Stingers.Renald Leclerc&rsquo;s second breakaway goal of the night spoiled a perfect week for the Aeros, giving the indianapolis Racers a 4-3 overtime victory in Indianapolis.The Phoenix Roadrunners continued their domination of the San Deigo Mariners but cannot escape the big thumb under which the Houston Aeros seem to have them.The Roadrunners, with Mariner castoff (via the expansion draft two years ago) Gary Kurt making 35 saves, defeated the Mariners 3-1 in Phoenix and followed up with a 5-2 victory in San Diego the following night.The Roadrunners lead the season series 9-3 and need to win just one point in their last three games or have the Mariners lose one in their last four to lock up second place in the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Western Division.The Roadrunners and Mariners meet in the best-of-five opening round of the playoffs, the second place winner getting the extra home game against the wild card qualifier.Robbie Ftorek scored twice within 14 seconds in San Diego.John Gray scored his 32nd and 33rd goals and Ftorek his 40th in a 7-4 loss in Houston. The Aeros, 16 points ahead of the second place Roadrunners in dominating the WHA West, have won seven of eight games against Phoenix this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02206/3837123-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="569" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">MURRAY HALL &hellip; First Hat Trick</figcaption></div>Earlier, the Roadrunners had run their home-ice losing streak to four straight, a club record. They went down 5-4 to Cincinnati despite Del Hall&rsquo;s 13th two-goal game of the season.Phoenix mayor Margaret Hance and Senator Barry Goldwater have loaned their support to the Roadrunners&rsquo; Season ticket push with taped messages being played on radio and television stations in the Valley of the Sun.The club owners have declared that a 7,000 season ticket base is necessary to ensure the club&rsquo;s continued operation in Phoenix. They report a loss of over $1 million in each of the last two seasons. &#9632;

f0028-01

Aeros Not Resting On WHA Laurels As They Seek Home-Ice Advantages

<div class="byline">BY RICH PASSAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01243/3837161-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM HARRISON&hellip; Made Timely Return.</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Tight races are nothing new to Harry Neale, who surfaced as the coach of the New England Whalers on Mar. 11, succeeding Don Blackburn.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through it for three years now,&rdquo; said Neale, referring to his old Minnesota Fighting Saints clubs that usually struggled to make the playoffs in the waning weeks of the season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure all the players here have been in a race similar to this in one way or another,&rdquo; continued Neale.That race, becoming more incredible by the game, saw New England on top with Indianapolis a point behind and Cleveland and Cincinnati tied for third place two points in arrears.The pressure to produce the Whalers&rsquo; fourth straight East Division championship is starting to be felt. &ldquo;This is something most of the people in this organization haven&rsquo;t experienced,&rdquo; the new bench boss explained.&ldquo;They are used to winning division championships. Right now, making the playoffs is the most important thing. I&rsquo;d be happy to do that. It would be a bonus to finish first again.&rdquo;Neale, who gives Cleveland the best chance of capturing the flag because of the C&rsquo;s favorable schedule, is definitely on the spot. In succeeding Blackburn, he took the place of a fan favorite.&ldquo;I realize the situation is touchy,&rdquo; said the former Ohio State University hockey coach. &ldquo;It was an unpopular move, not only with the fans but the players. He was their teammate, friend and a guy who tried to do the best job he could.&ldquo;He was faced with a large number of games on the road and an unreason able number of injuries. I was the result of it all, not the cause of it. So far. I haven&rsquo;t been aware of any feelings that have carried over and prevented me from doing my job.&rdquo;How high - or low - the Whalers finish depends strictly on how much they can improve on their record against the Racers, a club that seems to have the Harpoonists&rsquo; number.Three of their last four games are with the Racers, who own a 5-1-2 mark against New England. Two of those games will be at the Hartford Civic Center.In order to beat the Racers, the Whalers will have to avoid heart-breaking games such as the 7-6 loss to the visiting Calgary Cowboys in the last four seconds of the game.&ldquo;We heard Cleveland was losing (to Houston) and we were winning at the time,&rdquo; Neale recalled. &ldquo;We thought a victory would give us a little space. But we fooled around and played a horrible game.&rdquo; Two nights later, the Whalers turned the tables on the Pokes. 4-1.The injury situation has improved somewhat, but Neale is still without the services of his best goaltender (Christer Abrahamsson) and best defenseman (Brad Selwood).&ldquo;There is a possibility Abrahamsson will be back for the playoffs.&rdquo; said Neale of the Swedish netminder, who suffered a severe concussion several weeks ago when he struck his head on the cage accidentally. &ldquo;The same thing can be said for Seiwood.&rdquo;The ace rearguard has been out two months with a broken ankle and the recovery has been exceedingly slow.INDIANAPOLIS: The streaking Racers are playing great hockey for coach Jacques Demers down the stretch and, at this writing, were unbeaten in their last nine games, six of which were victories.They have risen from the depths of the East Division race to within a point of New England. They achieved that lofty standing with a crucial 3-2 victory in Cleveland.For a while, it looked as though the streak would be aborted in San Diego. The Mariners raced to a pair of three-goal leads and even held the Racers without a shot on goal in the second period of a game that wound up in a 8-8 tie.The Racers struck for five goals in the final period to notch the tie, Renald Leclerc scoring the tying goal. Leclerc and linemate Mike Parizeau have been sensational for the Racers, each scoring 10 goals in the streak.Before visiting Cleveland, the Racers disposed of the twotime defending World Trophy champion Houston Aeros with Leclerc again doing the honors, this time in overtime.CINCINNATI: The Stingers returned home from a four-game trip in bad shape, winning only in Phoenix, where they handed the Roadrunners a 5-4 setback In that one. winger Rick Dudley broke the 40-goal barrier with a pair of tallies.That victory followed an openinggame loss in Cleveland and was expected to be a harbinger of things to come. But what followed was more nightmarish than anything else.The San Diego Mariners were waiting for the Stingers and put them away with relative ease. 9-1, exploding for five goals in the third period against goaltender John Kiely. Then came a 51 setback at Houston.The Stingers wind up the season by playing Phoenix and Cleveland at home, then travelling to Cleveland for the finale. And that game could possibly settle who will and won&rsquo;t make the playoffs.CLEVELAND: The Crusaders suffered a double blow to their chances of a playoff spot when first center iceman Jim Harrison was ruled out for the rest of the regular season with a bad knee and then ace defenseman Paul Shmyr sustained a broken foot when he blocked a shot in a loss to Houston. However, Harrison&rsquo;s injury was over estimated and he returned for the final weekend to spark Cleveland to a playoffberth against Cincinnati. &#9632;

f0029-01

Whalers Feeling Pressure But Neale Still Confident

<h2>Tue. March 30</h2>SAN DIEGO 4, HOUSTON3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01255/3837384-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="622" height="454"></div>TORONTO 2, CALGARY6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02204/3837377-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="613" height="436"></div>EDMONTON 3, QUEBEC 8<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03166/3837370-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="610" height="454"></div><h2>Wed. March 31</h2>NEW ENGLAND 1, CLEVELAND 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04129/3837363-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="604" height="355"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05115/3837356-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="607" height="94"></div>PHOENIX 7, CINCINNATI 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0691/3837349-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="610" height="484"></div>TORONTO 3, WINNIPEG 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0778/3837342-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="583" height="445"></div><h2>Thu. April 1</h2>HOUSTON 4, INDIANAPOLIS 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0869/3837335-1-eng-US/f0031-082.jpg" title="f0031-08" width="610" height="445"></div>EDMONTON 2, QUEBEC 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0956/3837328-1-eng-US/f0031-092.jpg" title="f0031-09" width="604" height="199"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1044/3837321-1-eng-US/f0031-102.jpg" title="f0031-10" width="613" height="409"></div><h2>Fri. April 2</h2>INDIANAPOLIS3, TORONTO 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1138/3837314-1-eng-US/f0031-112.jpg" title="f0031-11" width="592" height="355"></div>CLEVELAND 2, CINCINNATI 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1221/3837307-1-eng-US/f0031-122.jpg" title="f0031-12" width="622" height="403"></div>WINNIPEG 1, CALGARY4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1318/3837300-1-eng-US/f0031-132.jpg" title="f0031-13" width="607" height="448"></div><h2>Sat. April 3</h2>HOUSTON 8, PHOENIX 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1416/3837293-1-eng-US/f0031-142.jpg" title="f0031-14" width="607" height="529"></div>NEW ENGLAND 5, INDIANAPOLIS 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1515/3837286-1-eng-US/f0031-152.jpg" title="f0031-15" width="619" height="157"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1613/3837279-1-eng-US/f0031-162.jpg" title="f0031-16" width="601" height="370"></div>TORONTO 1, QUEBEC 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1712/3837272-1-eng-US/f0031-172.jpg" title="f0031-17" width="610" height="400"></div>SAN DIEGO 2, CLEVELAND 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1811/3837265-1-eng-US/f0031-182.jpg" title="f0031-18" width="589" height="364"></div>CINCINNATI 3, CLEVELAND 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1910/3837258-1-eng-US/f0031-192.jpg" title="f0031-19" width="613" height="526"></div>QUEBEC 5, TORONTO 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-2010/3837251-1-eng-US/f0031-202.jpg" title="f0031-20" width="625" height="538"></div><h2>Sun. April 4</h2>SAN DIEGO 2, HOUSTON 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-218/3837244-1-eng-US/f0031-212.jpg" title="f0031-21" width="601" height="142"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-228/3837237-1-eng-US/f0031-222.jpg" title="f0031-22" width="595" height="307"></div>INDIANAPOLIS 4, NEW ENGLAND 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-237/3837230-1-eng-US/f0031-232.jpg" title="f0031-23" width="580" height="430"></div>WINNIPEG 2, EDMONTON 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-246/3837223-1-eng-US/f0031-242.jpg" title="f0031-24" width="607" height="469"></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

This is what every team in the WHA is shooting for.

(Standings as of Tue. Apr. 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-256/3837415-1-eng-US/f0031-252.jpg" title="f0031-25" width="558" height="444"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Mar. 30Son Diego 4 at Houston 3; Toronto 2 at Calgary 6, Edmonton3 at Quebec 8.Wed. Mar 31New England 1 at Cleveland 5; Toronto 3 at Winnipeg 5: Phoenix 7 at Cincinnati 2Thu, Apr. 1Houston 4 at Indianapolis 1; Edmonton 2 at Quebec 7Fri. Apr. 2Indianapolis 3 at Rotonto 1: Cleveland 2 at Cincinnati 5; Winnipeg 1 at Calgary 4Sat. Apr. 3Houston 8 at Phoenix 2; New England 5 at Indianapolis 2; Toronto 1 at Quebec 5, San Diego 2 at Cleveland 4Sun. Apr. 4Son Diego 2 at Houston 5; Indianapolis 4 at New England 2; Cincinnati 3 at Cleveland 6; Winnipeg 2 at Edmonton 5; Quebec 5 at Toronto 4 &#9632;

f0031-25

WHA SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01258/3837453-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="565" height="1640"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC TARDIF &hellip; Hits 70-Goal Mark</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;Marc Tardif put the final nail in the Toronto Toros&rsquo; coffin and in the process became the only player in professional hockey this season to hit the 70-goal plateau.The Toros, who desperately needed the win over the Nordiques to keep their playoff hopes alive in the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Canadian Division, fell 5-4 to the Quebec squad in overtime with Tard if stally being the clincher.The Nordiques&rsquo; win coupled with Winnipeg&rsquo;s loss to Edmonton moved Quebec within two points of the division leading Jets with both teams having one game remaining on their regular season schedule.However, the Jets are assured of top spot on the basis of having recorded more victories than the Nordiques.As the regular campaign came down to the final night, eight of the top ten WHA scorers were from Canadian Division teams with the Nordiques having five players among that group.Tardif was a shoo-in for the points title with 144 while Real Cloutier (109), Chris Bordeleau (105), Rejean Houle (101) and Serge Bernier (99) were in the top ten.Winnipeg Jets filled in the remaining three spots with Bobby Hull in the runnerup position with 120 points, including 50 goals. Ulf Nilsson ranked third with 113 points while Anders Hedberg was in the elite grouping with 104 points.The Toros&rsquo; loss to Quebec was their sixth straight and followed a surge which had seen them close the gap on fourth place Edmonton to four points with Toronto holding four games in hand.Now that their playoff chances have gone out the window rumors have begun to circulate that the Toros will not be returning toToronto next season.There have been reports that the club will lose as much as $2 million this season and that some of the club&rsquo;s current financial supporters have indicated they will not support the team next season.John F. Bassett, Toros&rsquo; owner, said that no decision has been made as to whether or not the team will return to Maple Leaf Gardens in 1976-77 but did state, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if we&rsquo;ll be here next season. We&rsquo;re welcome to play here at the Gardens but we&rsquo;re not bound by a formal contract.&rdquo;Bassett had earlier indicated that the Toros could end up in Hamilton, Ont., Louisville or Hollywood, Fla., next season.Veteran Edmonton pro Norm Ullman recorded two assist in 5-2 win over Jets to tie the single-season club record lor the most points in regular season play. The pair of assists gave Ullman a total of 87 points which tied the mark set two years ago by the nowdeparted Jim Harrison.While Winnipeg had wrapped up the Canadian crown, their hold on overall first place in the WHA had diminished from what was once a 14-point lead, to a dead heat with the Houston Aeros. Both the Jets and Aeros had 104 points with each team having one game remaining.Houston, however, had the inside track as they have recorded more wins than the Jets and need only defeat Phoenix in their final regular season outing towrap up the overall title.Heading into the final week of the regular schedule. the Calgary Cowboys were the only Canadian section club which had no chance of moving up or down in the standings. The Cowboys did however gear up for the playoffs by dumping the Toros 6-2 and Winnipeg 1-1 with both games at the Corral.Danny Lawson has proven to be the Cowboys&rsquo; main offensive threat and his 95 points, 44 goals and 51 assists, are good enough for thirteenth place on the WHA scoring list.The Oilers and Jets will tangle in one Canadian Division semi-final while the Nordiques and Cowboys will do battle in the other best-of-seven series.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03135/3837446-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="1177" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY HULL&hellip; Runner-Up In WHA Point Race</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

Nordiques’ Tardif Reaches Milestone, Brings Toros’ Playoff Hopes To Halt

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02194/3837484-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="585" height="676"></div> &#9632;

f0032-02

WHA Leaders

AMARILLO&mdash;Amarillo Wranglers climbed into a one-point lead in the Southwest Hockey League as they managed three victories on the road against just one setback to improve their record to 72 points in 64 games. Albuquerque is second with 71 points, although they have played two more games.Coach &ldquo;Swede&rdquo; Swenson of the Wranglers is confident that his team can maintain their first-place position for the rest of the season and adds that he feels that the Wranglers will be the team to beat in the upcoming playoffs.Two SWHL players with reason to be happy are Sandy Bain of Billings Blazers and Randy Joevanezzo of Albuquerque, who both passed the 100-point mark in scoring for the season. Bain, the leader with 107 points, is tied for goal scoring honors with Kelly Milford of Butte at 53, while Joevanezzo with 101 points, shares the league lead in assists with 56, the same number as John Mazur of Minot.BILLINGS The Blazers staged a near miraculous comeback against Amarillo only to fall short with 23 seconds remaining in the overtime period. The Blazer were down 4-1 going into (he third period and fought hack to a tie in regulation play forcing the game into overtime. It appeared that the game would end in a deadlock. However with 23 seconds remaining in the overtime period. Glen Mclvor scored the winning goal from a creen shot for the Wranglers. Coach Bing Juckes announced that assistant coach, Vern Quaroni will he coming off the injured list soon. As the Blazers attempt to narrow the gap that exists between themelves and third place Butte.ALBUQUERQUE: The Chapparrals returned to battle Minot in their struggle to regain first place in SWHL standings. The Chaparrals have six games remaining and must win all six while Amarillo must lose at least two of their remaining contests in order for Albuquerque to take over first place.MINOT: After returning from their last road trip the Raiders hosted the Butte Copper Kings and handed the Kings one of their worst defeats of the season by a score of 71. The Raiders departed for a three-game road trip to Albuquerque and Amarillo and hope to have a better showing than on their last road trip in which they lost all their games. The Raiders will be playing without the services of center Mazur who is possibly out for the season with a broken jaw. They have regained the services, at least temporarily of center Davie George, who was leading the scoring in the SWHL standing until his injury a month ago.BUTTE: The Copper Kings dropped their last two contests, one to the Minot Raiders by a score of 71 and their last contest to Amarillo by a score of 3-2. The Copper Kings now proceed to Minot for a two-game series and continue on to Billings for another back-to-back series. Coach Jackson feels confident that all of his team will be healthy soon and will be able to put forth a 100 percent effort for the league playoffs. &#9632;

SOUTHWEST LEAGUE ROUNDUP

(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01230/3837539-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="622" height="424"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY MORLEY HOWE</div>GREEN BAYGreen Bay Bobcats took to the road to host the fifth place Milwaukee Admirals as the best-of-five championship finals of the United States Hockey League not under way. The Bobcats will be doing it from nearby Neenah. Wisconsin, due to previous arena commitments at Green Bay.The Bobcats, coached by Gordy Yeoman, were forced to a fifth game against the pesky Central Wisconsin Flyers, but responded with a 6-3 home ice victory to advance to the final round.Balanced scoring enabled the Bobcats to lead the Flyers 4-3 heading into the final 20 minutes, and then goals by veterans Ed Chestolowski and defense man Eddie Rossi sewed up the triumph.Meanwhile, 3,624 fans saw Milwaukee upset the Traverse Bays 6-5 to win their semi-final series in two consecutive games. Jean Trottier&rsquo;s goal, mid-way through the third period, proved to be the winner while linemate Yves St. Denis paced the attack with three goals and a pair of assists.The duo also were heroes the previous night at Traverse City when St. Denis fired a hat trick as Trottier scored after 32 seconds of overtime to boost the Admirals to a come-from behind 5-4 victory.Thus far, in playoff games, the Admirals have a perfect 4-0 mark, including a pair of first-round victories over South Division champion Sioux City. &#9632;

Green Bay On Road For USHL Final With Milwaukee

<h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02175/3837615-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="598" height="196"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03130/3837608-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="601" height="271"></div><h3>Lending Goolers</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04105/3837601-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="604" height="154"></div><h2>WESTERN INTERNATIONAL</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0582/3837594-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="592" height="160"></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

HOW THEY STAND

<div class="byline">BY AL FISCHER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01250/3837653-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN BRODERICK&hellip;Posted Back-to-Back Shutouts</figcaption></div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY. LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaROCHESTER&mdash;With the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs opening here coach Dick Mattiussi received some welcome news as he prepared the Amerks for battle in a best-of-five series against Providence.The Amerks are almost completely healthy for the postseason activity with defenseman Al Sims, the last of the walking wounded, having returned to the lineup against Baltimore.Sims&rsquo; return and Rick Pagnutti&rsquo;s comeback a week ago is a definite plus for the Amerks, who are seeking their final Calder Cup championship since 1967-68 campaign.The availability of Sims and Pagnutti, plus the continued fine play of Mike Milbury, Ray Maluta and Doug Halward should stand the Amerks in good stead defensively for the matchup with Providence.Goal scoring, a source of immediate concern to Mattiussi, apparently took care of itself thanks to the hapless Baltimore Clippers. The Amerks had scored only four times in four previous games when the Clippers came to town. The Amerks saved all their goals for Baltimore, running away with a 9-0 decision, only the second time the Clippers had been shut out all year, both times ironically, in Rochester. Ross Brooks authored the whitewash, joining teammate Ken Broderick in that exclusive company to have blanked the Clippers. Brooks followed that one right back up with another shutout. this time a 6-0 banking of Springfield.Dave Hynes contributed the hat trick in the victory over Baltimore raising his club-leading goal total to 36, two more than Paul O&rsquo;Neil.Team point-production leader Gordie Clark was recalled by the parent Boston Bruins to replace Doug Gibson, lost for the season with torn knee ligaments. Clark is expected to return in time for playoff duty.It appears that the Amerks also will get a break in the playoff scheduling. Originally the series was set up as a home-and-home series witn the Amerks having the home advantage should the series go five games.However the unavailability of ice in Rhode Island may necessitate playing the first two games in Rochester.The victory over Baltimore ended a four-game winless string for the Amerks, who were blanked twice, in Nova Scotia and Richmond, before exploding for the home folks at Baltimore&rsquo;s expense.The Reds held a slim 6-5-1 series edge over the Amerks. while Rochester won seven often from Richmond, while winning the series from Baltimore, 7-12.As the regular-season campaign wound down, O&rsquo;Neil was looking to break the league record for unassisted goals. He equalled the mark of nine last week.This will be the Amerks&rsquo; third consecutive trip to the playoffs, after missing post-season festivities for three straight seasons.They hope to stay around a little longer this time. They lost to New Haven in the first round in 1973-74 and were eliminated by Springfield&rsquo;s eventual champions in last years&rsquo; semifinals.With the defense apparently fully recovered and the offense back on the beam, the Amerks appear ready. Despite the Reds&rsquo; edge in the season series, the edge in the playoffs goes to Rochester.Providence Reds hope to use the playoffs to gain a measure of revenge against foes who dumped them from a 1974-75 championship rung into third place this season.And they have the horses to do just that, get revenge. However, a suspect defense and a possible question in the goal may prove major deterrents in Providence&rsquo;s path to the Calder Cup. Those factors and a tough Rochester team must be overcome in the first round of post-season activity if the Reds are to stick around a while.Only Springfield and Baltimore, the last place clubs in their respective divisions, allowed more goals than the Reds.Coach John Muckier feels his defense has been much maligned this year but promises things will be different come playoff time.Veteran Al Simmons is the bulwark of the rearguard, with younger backliners like Jamie Masters, Dwayne Pentland, Larry Hurasand Gordie Buynak benefitting from Simmons&rsquo; experience and help.A major problem could be in goal, where currently Yves Belanger holds forth. But he is the only one. Both Doug Soetaert and Ed Staniowski have been recalled by parent NHL clubs and Muckier is not sure when either might return.Belanger, on loan from St. Louis had posted a 3.41 goals allowed average in six games with the Reds and on occasion has been spectacular. Whether he can withstand the rigors of playing every playoff game is another matter.Offensively, Muckier has no problems. Rookie star Greg Holst, and veterans Jerry Byers, Eddie Johnston, Boyd Anderson, Brian Ogilvie and Jerry Holland, give the Reds firepower plus. They rank third in scoring in the league, with Holst making a strong seasonal run at the league scoring crown.One of the chief weapons in the Reds&rsquo; offensive arsenal is their knack of converting on the power play.With Byers the leading exponent of how to score with the extra mart, the Reds were nearing the 90 mark in power-play scores as regular season campaigning came toan end.The chief Providence drawback may be the scheduling that calls for the first two games in Rochester, because the. Reds cannot get the ice in their own arena, where they posted an enviable 24-9-5 record as compared to their 1024-3 mark on alien ice.The Reds have the talent but the forecast is a Rochester triumph, perhaps in four games.While the Reds and Amerks battle it out for the right to play a best-of-seven series against division champion Nova Scotia the Voyageurs are resting as they enjoy the first rewards of a division champion.No less than six members of the talented Voyageur squad were selected to the annual coaches&rsquo; All Star team. Dave Elenbaas, chosen as the most valuable player in the league, was the top vote getter in winning the first team goaltenders&rsquo; berth, while defensemen Bill Nyrop and Rick Chartraw and forwards Pierre Mondou and Ron Andruff also earned first team berths, with Noel Price selected to the second team defense.Mondou was selected as the top rookie, Nyrop as the best defenseman and Al MacNeil as coach of the year.The one goal that eluded the&rsquo;high flying Voyageurs was that of becoming only the second team in history to win 50 games. They had a chance at the mark, but a deadlock in Providence blunted the attempt.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02196/3837646-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="549" height="904"><figcaption class="caption-body">AL SIMS&hellip; Back In Fold</figcaption></div>MacNeil&rsquo;s chief concern was to keep the Voyageurs sharp through the layoff that accompanies their first round playoff bye. &#9632;

f0034-01

Healthy Americans Hoping To End Cup Famine As AHL Playoffs Open

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03150/3837691-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="604" height="295"></div><h2>GOALING RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0498/3837684-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="601" height="457"></div> &#9632;

f0034-03

AHL Leaders

<div class="byline">BY AL FISCHER</div>RICHMOND&mdash;The Richmond Robins did it on their own as they wound up the 1975-76 American Hockey League season by capturing second place and the coveted home ice advantage for the Calder Cup playoffs.The Robins gained the runner-up spot in the final South Division standings by virtue of a season-ending 4-1 decision over Providence while their playoff rivals, the New Haven Nighthawks were losing 4-2 to Rochester. Both clubs ended tied with 66 points but the Robins were awarded second place on the strength of their 64-2 edge over the Hawks in the series between the clubs over the season.As the result, Richmond gets games one, three and five at home if the best-of-five southern semi-final series with New Haven was to go all the way.The Robins produced some late-season momentum that brought them six victories and a tie in their last eight games while the Nighthawks slumped a bit in their final rush to pick off second spot.However, the Robin-Hawk series figures to be one of those knock-down, drag-out affairs. Both clubs are blessed with the tough, hard-nosed players that are necessary in playoff action.Unfortunately, the Robins lost a good one in Paul Holmgren, who underwent eye surgery and is lost for the remainder of the campaign. Holmgren had been summoned by the parent Philadelphia club, which was also obliged to recall Larry Wright to replace Holmgren.Wright had been one of the more prolific goal scorers on the club with a total of 27 and his absence, if it is necessary, will be sorely felt in the post-season activity.The Robin defensive alignment seems pretty well set for the playoffs following the return of Terry Murray and Gordie Smith, both of whom had been recalled to the NHL on emergency conditions.Murray and Smith, along with Steve Short, Norm Bernes, Willie Brossart and Dennis McLean provide a tough rearguard to protect goaltenders Mike Belhumeur and Jerome Mrazek. The loss of Holmgren will hurt as will the limited availability of forward Steve Coates, who broke his right hand in a fight. Coates had scored 25 goals before his mishap.The offense, a season-long problem for coach Larry Wilson had suddenlv come to life and Robin fans are confident of playoff success.The continued fine play of Belhumeur in the goal and the resurgence of goal-getters Wright. wayne Schaab and Andre Peloffy. has the Robins in a good frame of mind for the matchup with the Nighthawks.The choice here is that the Robins will duplicate their regular season jousting with the Hawks, with the series perhaps going the limit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-263/3837722-1-eng-US/f0035-262.jpg" title="f0035-26" width="589" height="595"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL HOLMGREN&hellip;Suffen Eye Injury</figcaption></div>New Haven added Chris Ahrens to the defense after his call up to Minnesota on emergency recall, but lost Brian Watts to Detroit under the same conditions.A 4-1 victory over Baltimore in their next to last game, was a confidence builder for playoff action.The late season additions of Tommy Williams and Germain Gagnon were welcomed by the club. They are well experienced in playoff competition.One interesting aspect of the HawkRobin matchup will be the play of four players against former teammates. Bob Gryp and Ron Anderson well be the targets of their former Richmond mates, while Alain Langlais and Richard Nantais will be well marked by exHawk mates.In Nantais and Short, the Robins have two of the league&rsquo;s toughest men. but the Hawks counter well with Jerry Engele and Bill Plager.The one dilemma, and it&rsquo;s a happy one. for coach Parker MacDonald, will be his selection of a goalie for the opening playoff game. He has three on hand. Brian Holdemess, Pete McDuff and Terry Richardson, and all are extremely capable.The Hawks went all the way to the cup finals last year, despite a last place divisional finish. They ended much higher this season, but the experts do not expect a repeat of last year&rsquo;s playoffsuccess.In Hershey, Jean Gratton, the league&rsquo;s scoring champion, was the only player to break the Nova Scotia monopoly on the coaches All Star team, edging Providence rookie star Greg Holst by three points for the first team center spot.The Bears lost and tied in a home-and-home series against Richmond to finish with a 7-4-1 seasonal advantage over the Robins.Since the Bears were on the short end of a 6-5-1 slate against New Haven, it might be expected that Hershey fans were rooting for a Richmond victory in the first round.The Bears have had a lock on the South Division title for three weeks now and coach Chuck Hamilton must guard against a letdown. Gratton&rsquo;s winning of the scoring title was cheered by Hershey fans, who had not had a league scoring leader since Gil Gilbert in 1968-69.The return of Ron Jones from Washington completes the Bear defensive alignment for the playoffs. Jones joins Mario Faubert, Bob Stumphf, Ken Breitenbach and Larry Bignell on the backline and except for Nova Scotia and Rochester, they have allowed the fewest goals in the league during the regular season.Hamilton will probably use both Don Edwards and Gordon Laxton for goal duty when the Bears turn comes up against either Richmond or New Haven. &#9632;

f0035-26

Robins Get Home Ice Edge For Playoffs

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01242/3837921-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="625" height="370"></div>(* -Awadtd second place for playoffs.)<h3>GAMES COMFLETED</h3>Tue. March 30New Haven 2 at Nova Scotia 2Wed. March 31Springfield 4 at Baltimore 3; Rochester 4 at New Haven 2; Providence 1 at Richmond 4.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02204/3837914-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="619" height="85"></div>(Rochester leads best-of-five series 1-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. April 4Providence 3 at Rochester 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 7Rochester at ProvidenceFri.April 9Providence at RochesterSat. April 10Rochester at ProvidenceSun. April 11Providence at Rochester<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03153/3837907-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="619" height="73"></div>(Richmond leads best-of-five series 2-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. April 3New Haven 1 at Richmond 4Sun. April 4Richmond 2 at New Hoven 1<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 7New Haven at RichmondThu. April 8Richmond at New HavenSat. April 10New Haven at Richmond<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04122/3837900-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="616" height="175"></div>*&mdash;AwartUd fourth ploo for pfayoffo bocouw of mere wins.)<h3>GAMES COMPlETED</h3>Tue. March 30Fort Worth 1 at Salt lake 4.Wed. March 31Dallas 1 at Oklohoma City 3; Fort Worth 6 at Tucson 5.Fri. April 2Fort Worth 4 at Dallas 1; Tucson 3 at Salt lake 5; Oklahoma City 4 at Tulsa 5.Sat. April 3Dallas 2 at Fort Worth 1; Tulsa 5 at Oklahoma City 2; Salt lake 7 at Tucson I.Sun. April 4Oklahoma City 4 at Dallas 2; Tulsa 3 at Fort Worth 1; Salt lake 9 at Tucson 6<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0593/3837893-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="631" height="367"></div>PLAYOFFSQuarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0675/3837886-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="628" height="82"></div>(Saginow leads best-of-seven series 3-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 30Saginaw 3 at Muskegon 4Fri.April 2Muskegon 3 at Saginaw 7Sat. April 3Saginaw 4 at Muskegon 0Sun. April 4Muskegon I at Saginaw 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 7Muskegon at SaginawFri.April 9Saginaw at MuskegonSun. April 11Muskegon at Saginaw<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0766/3837879-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="622" height="82"></div>(Dayton leads best-of-seven series 2-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 30Kalamazoo 2 at Dayton 3Fri.April 2Dayton 4 at Kalamazoo 6Sat. April 3Kalamazoo 0 at Dayton 4<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 6Dayton at KalamazooWed. April 7Kalamazoo at DaytonThu. April 8Dayton at KalamazooSat. April 10Kalamazoo at Dayton<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0848/3837872-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="602" height="82"></div>(Port Huron wins best-of-seven series 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 31Flint 2 ot Port Huron 5Fri. April 2Port Huron 6 ot Flint 3Sat. April 3Hint I at Port Huron 3Sun. April 4Port Huron 6 at Hint 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0945/3837865-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="604" height="78"></div>(Fort Wayne wins best-of-seven series 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue March 30Toledo 5 at Fort Wayne 9Wed. March 31Fort Wayne 4 at Toledo 3Sat. April 3Toledo 3 at Fort Wayne 4Sun. April 4Toledo 4 at Fort Wayne 6<h2>NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1037/3837858-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="614" height="388"></div>(* &mdash;Suspended operations.)PLAYOFFSQuarter-finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1133/3837851-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="614" height="84"></div>(Beauce wins best of-five senes 3-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 19Maine 3 at Beauce 5.Sat. March 20Beauce 6 at Maine 10.Sun. March 21Maine 3 at Beauce 9.Tue March 23Beauce 6 at Maine 3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1226/3837844-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="598" height="86"></div>(Syracuse wins best-of-five. series 3-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 19Mohawk Valley 3 at Syracuse 4.Sat March 20Syracuse 2 at Mohawk Valley 4.Mon. March 22Mohawk Valley 1 at Syracuse 6.Tue. March 23Syracuse 8 at Mohawk Valley 3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1322/3837837-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="608" height="80"></div>(Johnstown wins best-of-five series 3-2)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. March 21Johnstown 1 at Buffalo 5.Mon. March 22Buffalo 4 of Johnstown 6.Wed. March 24Buffalo 2 at Johnstown 8.Thu. March 25Johnstown 2 at Buffalo 3.Sat. March 27Buffalo 0 at Johnstown 1 (forfeit)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1420/3837830-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="608" height="80"></div>(Philadelphia wins best-of-five series 3-2)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 19Erie 5 ot Philadelphia 10Sat. March 20Philadelphia 2 at Erie 3.Sun. March 21Erie 8 at Philadelphia 3.Tue. March 23Philadelphia 7 at Erie 4.Thu. March 25Erie 4 at Philadelphia 6.Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1517/3837823-1-eng-US/f0035-152.jpg" title="f0035-15" width="612" height="84"></div>(Beauce wins best-of-seven series 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Syracuse 4 at Beauce 5.Sun. March 28Syracuse 7 at Beauce 10.Tue. March 30Beauce 6 at Syracuse 4.Thu. April 1Beouce 6 at Syracuse 4.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1616/3837816-1-eng-US/f0035-162.jpg" title="f0035-16" width="626" height="78"></div>(Philadelphia writs best-of-seven senes4-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. March 28Johnstown 4 at PMadelphio 5Mon. March 29Phtkrdelphia 3 at JorinsSown 6Tue March 30Johnstown 5 of PModrilphro 7.Thu AprilPhiladelphia 4 at Johnstown 3.Fri AprilJohnstown 10 at Philadelphia 14FINALS<h2>BEAUCE vs PHILADELPHIA</h2>(Best-Of-seven senes)Tue. April 6Philadelphia at BeauceWed. April 7Philadelphia ot Beouce.Fri.Apr 49Beauce at Philadelphia.Sat. April 10Beauce at Philadelphia.<h2>SOUTHERN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1713/3837809-1-eng-US/f0035-172.jpg" title="f0035-17" width="622" height="176"></div>PLAYOFFSFinals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1812/3837802-1-eng-US/f0035-182.jpg" title="f0035-18" width="608" height="92"></div>(Charlotte wins best-of-seven series 4-1)<h3>GAMES COMPlETED</h3>Sun.March 21Hampton 2 at Chorion. 5Tue.March 23Hompton 2 at Chariane 3Wed. March 24Charlotte 1 at Haaptaa 5Fri. March 24Charlotte 4 at Hampton 1Sat. March 27Hompton 0 at Chariane 8Semi-finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1911/3837795-1-eng-US/f0035-192.jpg" title="f0035-19" width="614" height="84"></div>(Charlotte win best-of-seven series 4-2<h3>GAME COMPLETED</h3>Charlotte 0 at Roonoke 1Tue. March 9Roanoke 2 at Charion. 6Tue March 11Roonoke at Chariane 3Fri. March 12Chorion. 2 at Rmrake 4Tue March 16Roanoke 4 at ChoriaMe 5Wed. March 17Charlotte 1 at Roomoke 0<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-2011/3837788-1-eng-US/f0035-202.jpg" title="f0035-20" width="622" height="86"></div>(Hampton wins best-of-Seven series 4-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Winston. Salem 2 at Hampton 7MON. March 8winston Salem 2 Ot Hampton 3Fri.March l2Hampton 9 at Wiston-salem 6Sun. March 14Hampton 4 at Wiston-salem 3<h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2>(final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-216/3837781-1-eng-US/f0035-212.jpg" title="f0035-21" width="638" height="308"></div>(Green Ray wans best five lana 3-2)Semi-final<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-224/3837774-1-eng-US/f0035-222.jpg" title="f0035-22" width="592" height="84"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Centrtrf Wnrana 4. Green Bay 3GreenBay 5, Centred Wisconsin 3Green Bay 7. Central Wisconsin 1Certfodl Wrsconsm 5, Green Boy 1Green Boy 6. Central Wisconsin 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-234/3837767-1-eng-US/f0035-232.jpg" title="f0035-23" width="618" height="80"></div>(milwaukee wins best-of-three series 2-0)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mriaradkee 5, Traverse City 4Mriaradkee 6. Tirowse Gty 5Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-244/3837760-1-eng-US/f0035-242.jpg" title="f0035-24" width="604" height="90"></div>(Mriaradkee writs best-uf-fisree series 2-0)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-254/3837753-1-eng-US/f0035-252.jpg" title="f0035-25" width="600" height="80"></div>(Trarveree City wins best-of-three series 2-0) &#9632;

f0035-01

LOOKING AT THE MINOR LEAGUE SCOREBOARD

NHL: 1&mdash;Montreal. 2&mdash;Detroit 3&mdash;Boston 4&mdash;N Y. Rangers 5&mdash;Chicago 6&mdash; Toronto 7&mdash;Los Angeles 8&mdash;Pittsburgh 9&mdash;Californio 10&mdash; Philodelpha 11&mdash;Minnesota 12&mdash;St. Louis 13&mdash;Vancouver. 14&mdash;Buffalo 5&mdash;N.Y. Islanders. 16&mdash;Atlanta 17&mdash;Kansos City. 18&mdash;Washington WHA: 19&mdash;Calgary 20&mdash; Cincinnati. 21&mdash;Cleveland 22 Denver 23&mdash;Edmonton 24&mdash;Houston 25&mdash; Ind.onapohs 26&mdash;Minnesota 27&mdash;New England 28&mdash;Phoenix 29&mdash;Quebec 30&mdash;San Diego 31&mdash;Toronto. 32&mdash;Winnipeg Inter-League: 33&mdash;N.Y Rangers (NHL) & St louis (NHL). 34&mdash;Montreal (NHL) 4 AHonta(NHL) 36&mdash; Pttsburgh(NHL) 8 Buffolo (NHL). 37&mdash;New England (WHA) & Wash mg ton (NHL) 38 Derod&rsquo;(NHL) & Minnesota (NHL) 39&mdash;Atlanta (NHL) & Vancouver (NHL) 40&mdash;Phoenix, Houston & San Diego (WHA) 41&mdash; Los Angeles (NHL) & N.Y. Islanders (NHL) 43&mdash;Kansas City (NHL) 4 N.Y. Rangers (NHL). 44&mdash;Boston (NHL) 4 Wash.ngton NHL 45&mdash;Minnesota&rsquo;(NHL) 4 Vancouver (NHL) 46&mdash;Calgary (WHA), Kansos City (NHL) 4 Minnesota (WHA) 47&mdash;Philo deph. (NHL) 4 Washington (NHL) 50-Boston&rsquo;(NHL) San Diego (WHA). 51&mdash;Buffalo (NHL) 4 Toronto 52&mdash;Mortreol (NHL) 4 Toronto (WHA). 55&mdash;Buffalo (NHL) 4 Calgary (WHA) 56&mdash;Buffolo (NHL) 4 Cleveland (WHA) 57&mdash;N.Y. Rangers(NHL) 4 St Louis(NHL) 58&mdash;Detroit (NHL) 4 Edmonton(WHA). &#9632;

Minor League Affiliations

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLE RICH & BRADSBY LTD Arnold Street Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLE RICH & BRADSBY LTD Arnold Street Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaSALT LAKE&mdash;The big fellow they call the &ldquo;Gentle Giant&rdquo; notched his 41st goal for the Golden Eagles in a Mar. 17 loss in Dallas, and learned his next would tie the franchise record.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be glad to trade some of those goals for a few more victories.&rdquo; commented Franklin Patrick Spring, the 27-year-old right wing who is running away with goal-scoring honors in the Central League. Losses in Tulsa (0-3), Dallas (2-9) and Fort Worth (3-4) knocked the Eagles out of third place, as they ran their losing streak to six straight, all on the road.However, home ice proved the tonic they needed, as the Big Birds knocked off the Dallas Hawks, 4-1, to open a six-game stand at the Salt Palace before playing their final two on the road.That left the Eagles only a point behind third-place Oklahoma City, and two in front of Fort Worth, in the threeway battle for the CHL&rsquo;s last two playoffberths.Spring, 6-3 by 216, was having by far the best of his seven professional seasons, which have taken him to Boston, St. Louis and California in the National League: Hershey and Richmond in the American League; Denver in the Western League: Oklahoma City, Denver and Salt Lake in the Central League.With an assist in the home victory over Dallas. Frank ran his point total to 70, tied for fourth in the league scoring race. His best previous season totals were 39, as an Oklahoma City rookie in 1969-70, and last season when he had 28 for Denver and 11 with California.Spring had never had a 20-goal season for one club before. He racked up 19 in 31 games for Denver at the start of last season, then was called up by the St. Louis Blues and finally traded to the Seals for Bruce Affleck on-Jan. 9. He didn&rsquo;t score in three games with the Blues, but collected three more goals in 28 starts for California. The Salt Lake club record of 42 was set by Ron Huston in the Western League in 1972-73.Soft-spoken and unassuming, big Frank is determined to earn his way back into the NHL. &ldquo;I have to prove myself all over again,&rdquo; he insists. &ldquo;I know the best part of my game is my shot, and that&rsquo;s why I have to keep working on it. When I get back to the NHL. I won&rsquo;t be as reluctant to shoot as I was before. &ldquo;A native of Cranbrook, B.C., Frank has two hockey-playing brothers. Danny is with Calgary in the WHA. Derek was in the Seals&rsquo; training camp, but chose to continue his education, and is playing senior hockey in Spokane.The Eagles couldn&rsquo;t beat Oiler goalie Bruce Bullock in the closechecking contest at Tulsa, where all the scoring came in a four and a half minute span. In Dallas the next night the Birds were behind. 7-0, before Ken Desjardine and Spring found the net in the final period.At Fort Worth Brent Meeke gave Salt Lake a first period lead, Glen Pat, rick and Butch Williams tied the game later, but the Texans won it on Walt Ledingham&rsquo;s goal with five seconds to play.At home after the wearying trip, I Meeke started the scoring with his 22nd goal, leaving him only three shy of Clair Alexander&rsquo;s CHL record for defensemen, set earlier his season before Alexander was called up from Oklahoma City. Denis Meloche, Rick Kessell and Garx JloU cpptinued the Eagle scoring. Goalie Ernie Miller lost his shutout when lan McKegney scored for Dallas early in the second.Defenseman Tom Price rejoined the Eagles, playing with a mask to protect the jaw he broke while with California.FORT WORTH: Ed Chadwick&rsquo;s Texans were making a strong bid to climb into the CHL&rsquo;s last playoff spot. An 8-1 romp over Tucson and a 4-3 squeaker over Salt Lake ran Fort Worth&rsquo;s home string to four straight victories, 10 games without defeat all in Will Rogers Coliseum since a Jan. 17 loss to Dallas.But it was a different story when Chad took his gang on the road, and a 6-2 loss in Tulsa slowed the surge. It was the Texans&rsquo; third straight loss away from home.Aggressive right wing Alf Handrahan reinjured his lower back in a fall, and was playing sparingly, if at all. That prompted the Tulsa organist to inquire musically, when Handrahan made his one brief appearance in the third period, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s It All About, Alfie?&rdquo;Mike Kennedy was recalled for one game after Handrahan&rsquo;s injury, but returned to finish out the season with Muskegon in the International League.Brad Anderson scored his second hat trick of the season in the rout of Tucson, avenging two losses in the Mavs&rsquo; rink the previous week. Jim Peters added two goals, with others by Dennis Abgrall. Dave Salvian and Walt Ledingham. Mike Sleep scored the only Tucson goal late in the middle period, nixing Bill Hughes&rsquo; bid for a fourth shutout.Ledingham scored from the slot with only five seconds left to provide the victory over Salt Lake, the second time this season the Texans had edged the Eagles in the last five seconds. Peters, Abgrall and Anderson had tallied earlier. Anderson got an early goal in Tulsa. but the Oilers&rsquo; Bruce Bullock yielded only one more tally &mdash; to Salvian, midway of the middle session.OKLAHOMA CITY: Wingers Mike Kelly and Blaine Stoughton were hot as the Blazers won twice and tied one against the lowly Tucson Mavericks. But Ray Miron&rsquo;s crew suffered a disappointing 4-2 home loss to the archrival Tulsa Oilers (although a season record turnout helped ease the pain).&ldquo;Free Beer Night&rdquo; brought 7,460 fans to the Myriad. They were treated to one of the best hockey games in the long turnpike rivalry, but the crowd fell short of club and league records the Blazers were hoping to break. A late Blazer rally also fell short, and an empty-net goal gave Tulsa a 4-2 decision. That clinched at least a tie in the 20-game series (8-5-4) for the Oilers, after the Blazers had won the state rivalry twoyears in a row.it took Mike Korney&rsquo;s goal with 1:41 left to pick up a 6-5 victory at home against Tucson, Mar. 16. Kelly, Stoughton, Don Ashby and Mike Ruest had provided a 4-2 Blazer cushion, but two goals by Maverick Mike Sleep tied it up.Blazer goalie Pierre Hamel was ejected after arguing with referee Greg Madill over the tying goal. Maverick Gordie TitcoiAb scored against reliever Mike Palmateer, but Ken Richardson retied the game before Korney&rsquo;s winninggoal.After falling behind to the Oilers, 30, the Oke Citians got a second-period tally from Les Burgess, and Tom Cassidy scored in the third, but the Blazers couldn&rsquo;t catch up. That broke a string of three straight victories, five games without a loss. It was the Blazers&rsquo; first setback in 19 games at their downtown Myriad. They had played in January and February at the State Fair Arena, but hadn&rsquo;t lost in the Myriad since the Oct. 11 home opener against Dallas.A Saturday-Sunday trip to Tucson produced a 6-2 win and a 5-5 tie. Kelly and Stoughton each scored twice in the runaway victory, with Dave Dunn and Korney also contributing goals. Kelly had to tie the score twice to make it stick the next night, the final tying goal coming with 31 seconds left. Stoughton, Korney and Cassidy also scored. Palmateer, who had worked the previous night, relieved Hamel after 26 minutes, with the Blazers trailing, 3-1.Cassidy&rsquo;s two goals and four assists for the week gave him 82 points, only two off the league-leading pace of Tulsa&rsquo;s Jim Wiley.TUCSON:Although details were still to be worked out, the Mavericks&rsquo; front office was hopeful of providing Tucson fans with &ldquo;another hockey season with the better team they deserve to have.&rdquo; Support has been encouraging despite the Mavs&rsquo; 14-47-9 record.A 5-5 home tie with Oklahoma City broke a string of five straight reverses for Bob Barlow&rsquo;s men. Three road loses (5-6 in Oklahoma City, 1-8 in Fort Worth and 3-6 in Dallas) ran their dismal travelling streak to 11 straight setbacks, and they lost at home to Oke City (6-2) before the tie.Left wing Bob Liddington suffered a knee injury, and was expected to miss the last two weeks of the schedule.Two goals by Mike Sleep, with others by Blair Davidson, Mike Hobin and Gordie Titcomb, gave the Blazers a scare in OC. but, as usual, the Mavs couldn&rsquo;t hold the lead when they had it. Sleep had the only Tucson tally in Fort Worth the next night. Steve West had two goals, one shorthanded, and Titcomb also scored against Dallas. But a Duane Wylie hat trick featured the Hawks&rsquo; victory.West and Norm Cournoyer scored in the home loss against Oklahoma City. Neil Lyseng had two goals in the rematch the next night, including the apparent winner with 46 seconds left, but Mike Kelly earned the Blazers a deadlock. Earlier Maverick goals were by Hobin, Titcomb and West.TULSA: Coach Orland Kurtenbach was pleased with the &ldquo;playoff-type&rdquo; hockey his Oilers were displaying, as they posted three straight victories to hang grimly onto first place. Dallas was four points back, but the Hawks had three games in hand, so there war no breathing space for the Oilers.&ldquo;Our wings are coming back to check, and the defensemen are standing up at the blueline. Everyone is doing his job,&rdquo; Kurtenbach said.Anong those &ldquo;doing his job&rdquo; was the &ldquo;mighty mite&rdquo;, goalkeeper Bruce Bullock. The 5-7, 160 pounder, who rejoined the Oilers in February after being relegated to the North American League (Beauce), ran his record to 9-3 and lowered his goals-against average toa stingy 2.25.Bullock shut out Salt Lake at home, 3-0, won a 4-2 decision in Oklahoma City, then came back home to beat Fort Worth, 6-2. That ran the Oilers&rsquo; victory string to four games, with a home streak of six wins.Barry Wilcox, who hadn&rsquo;t been playing a regular shift, collected two goals in the shutout victory over the Eagles, with defenseman Bob Bilodeau also scoring. Wilcox got regular work when Andy Spruce had to sit out the game with a bruised foot.DALLAS: With three games in hand and a more favourable closing schedule,, coach Gordon Fashoway and his Black Hawks were confident of erasing the four-point margin held by first-place Tulsa. They held ground with a 9-2 rout of Salt Lake and 6-3 breeze past Tucson. But an invasion of Salt Lake produced a 4-1 setback, Mar. 20.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03121/3837976-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="568" height="928"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRANK SPRING&hellip;Has 40 Goals</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We were just flat,&rdquo; said Fashoway, adding with a grin, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not used to having five defensemen.&rdquo; The Hawks had played with but two or three regular blueliners for nearly two months.The sufficiency of defenseman was made possible by the return of Randy Holt from Chicago and Dave Logan from a long groin injury layoff. Logan, although stiil not ready, had played one shift each in the games of Mar. 1213, so he could then sit out his two game suspension for attacking Tulsa Hal O&rsquo;Halloran in the Dallas press box, Feb. 20.Hat tricks by center Duane Wvlie and amateur defenseman Yvon Bilodeau highlighted the week. Bilodeau became the first Dallas defenseman ever to score three times in one game, but still had no assurance he would stay with the Hawks when his 10-game trial was over.Bilodeau got his trio of goals on quick wrist shots in the 9-2 romp over Salt Lake. Gary Donaldson contributed two goals and had a six-point night. Other scores came from Rob Palmer (shorthanded), Moe L&rsquo;Abbe, Jim Koleff and Terry Smith.Wylie scored three against Tucson, with L&rsquo;Abbe, Dan Hinton and Smith also getting into the act. But in the opener of a two-game set at Salt Lake, the only goal Dallas could muster was a second-period power score by captain IanMcKegney.Bill Plett and Danny Gloor scored in &#9632;

f0036-03

“Gentle Giant” Spring Nears Record But Road Tailspin Grounds Eagles

<h2>lEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01219/3838014-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="582" height="278"></div><h2>GOAlING RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02164/3838007-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="579" height="379"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

CHL Leaders

<div class="byline">BY JACK GATECLIFF</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01193/3838052-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="526" height="520"><figcaption class="caption-body">PETER LEE&hellip;Named MVP</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02151/3838045-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="523" height="556"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICK GREEN&hellip;Best Defense man</figcaption></div>OTTAWAPeter Lee has become the 33rd winner of the Albert (Red) Tilson Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the outstanding player in the Ontario Hockey Association Major-Junior A League.The 20-year-old right winger and captain of the Ottawa 67s won by a healthy margin of votes on a ballot taken among the league&rsquo;s newspaper and radio reporters.One other award was announced.London defenseman Rick Green won the Max Kaminsky Memorial Trophy as outstanding defenseman in the 1975-76 season.Until this season the Tilson trophy, which was presented to the league by the Toronto Globe and Mail for the player best combining outstanding play with gentlemanly conduct.However this had created some confusion in the past as the terms of reference indicated it was akin to the Lady Byng Trophy in the National Hockey League while most of those voted did so on the basis of the most valuable player.In 1959 for example Stan Mikita of St. Catharines Teepees was the winner although he had 177 minutes in penalties.The situation has been clarified with the introduction of the Bill Hanley Trophy for gentlemanly conduct.Hanley retired last year after a quarter century as OHA secretary-managerThe Tilson trophy is now for the league&rsquo;s outstanding player and Lee captured it with 103 points (based on five for first, three lor second, one for third) well ahead of second place Hamilton Fincup captain Dale McCourt who had 57 points including five first place votes.Lee. the son of two Ottawa high school teachers, polled 15 firsts.Mike Kaszycki of Sault Ste. Marie, the league scoring champion with a record 170 points on 51 goals and 119 assists, was third in the Tilson voting with 39 voting points.A most dedicated player, Lee works out three times a week on his own in addition to the regular practices.He uses Carleton University for weight-lifting and other exercises and hopes to add five or six pounds to the 179 he weighs now. before he attends his first professional camp next autumn.Although there is some question how high he will go in the National Hockey League or World Hockey Association drafts, almost all scouts agree he&rsquo;ll be among the top 10. possibly the top five.In four years with Ottawa he accumulated 215 goals and 236 assists for 451 points, surpassing the career record in goals established by last year&rsquo;s Tilson winner Dennis Maruk and the points mark of Marcel Dionne who was three seasons with St. Catharines Black Hawks and now plays for the NHL Los Angeles Kings.Ottawa coach Brian Kilrea, an ad mitted Lee fan said bluntly that he had &ldquo;saved the franc hise in Ottawa.&ldquo;With his tremendous Scoring records he has lured fans back to the arena and there is no more doubt about shifting the club,&rdquo; said Kilrea.New York Ranger scout Lou Passador was quoted as saying: &ldquo;You see Lee playing hockey and you know all about him, what he is off the ice, too. The kid just hustles and you know he couldn&rsquo;t be a bad liver. He has the respect of his teammates, too.&rdquo;Other vote-getters included Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; Rod Schutt (17), Kingston Canadians&rsquo; Ken Linseman (15), Sudbury&rsquo;s Ron Duguay (11), Oshawa Generals&rsquo; Paul Gardner (seven), London Knights&rsquo; Rick Green (three) and Peterborough Petes&rsquo; Dave Shand (one).Schutt had one first place vote and Linseman three.Unfortunately Lee came down with the mumps and missed the first game of the best-of-seven series with King st on Canadians.Without him the 67s won the first game, then tied the second 3-3 but Lee was an immediate factor in the draw, scoring two of his team&rsquo;s three goals.The first team to be eliminated in the playoffs was St. Catharines Black Hawks who lost the first two games of the best-of-five 5-3 at home and 6-3 in St. Catharines before being bombed on home ice in the third start by a 7-2 score.However the Rangers spoiled the final game of the season for about 1,500 St. Catharines spectators when they won the fourth start 7-4 at Garden City Arena.The crowd was the second largest of the season in St. Catharines but there has still been no decision as to whether owner Hap Emms will keep the team in its present location or shift it somewhere else.After eliminating the Hawks the Rangers were beaten 12-4 in the first start of the eight-point Emms Division semi-finals by pennant-winning Hamilton Fincups.That match ended one minute and 15 seconds early when referee Jim Lever sent the teams to the dressing room after a brawl in which 44 minutes in penalties were assessed, 25 of them to the Fincups.Kitchener goalie Warren Skinner received a 10-minute match penalty for hitting Hamilton defenseman Ron Roscoe on the head with his stick, Dwight Foster incurred a double minor for leaving the bench, a fighting major and a game misconduct and teammate Red Laurence, Gaston Ginras and Les Campbell of Kitchener also had fighting majors.Fighting majors were assessed Hamilton&rsquo;s Rob Mierkalns, Mike Fedorko and Roscoe who also received a 10-minute match.The penalty total for the game, including four previous fighting majors to each team was 143 minutesAs a result both coaches, Bert Templeton of Hamilton and Mac MacLean of Kitchener were suspended two games each and fined $200.Skinner was suspended the balance of the Hamilton-Kitchener series and Roscoe. because of his previous record has been suspended the rest of the Kitchener playoff round plus the next playoff series if the Fincups advance.Commissioner Tubby Schmalz also announced that Tim Coulis of Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds had been suspended four games tor a butt-ending offense against Bill Leaman of Oshawa during the final playoff game.Leaman lost two teeth and suffered a serious facial cut.Coulis had served suspensions adding up to 17 games earlier in the season.Toronto Marlboros surprised London Knights in the playoff between the second and third place teams in the Emms Division, taking the opener in London and the second in Maple Leaf Gardens.However the Knights bounced back to beat the Marlies 5-2 in the third before a standing room crowd of almost 5,000.In the other playoffs Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury were even at one win each and Kingston Canadians tied their best-of-seven with Ottawa beating the 67s 6-3. &#9632;

f0037-01

Lee, Green Capture Top OHA Awards; Tempers Flare Early In Playoff Action

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03114/3838188-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="596" height="302"></div><h2>LEADING GOALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0492/3838181-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="594" height="154"></div><h2>HAMILTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0574/3838174-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="596" height="514"></div><h2>KINGSTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0656/3838167-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="598" height="454"></div><h2>KITCHENER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0741/3838160-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="602" height="434"></div><h2>LONDON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0836/3838153-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="596" height="108"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0928/3838146-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="600" height="438"></div><h2>OSHAWA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1023/3838139-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="594" height="404"></div><h2>OTTAWA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1116/3838132-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="594" height="436"></div><h2>PETERBOROUGH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1215/3838125-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="591" height="435"></div><h2>SAULT STE. MARIE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1313/3838118-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="593" height="307"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1413/3838111-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="586" height="183"></div><h2>ST. CATHARINES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1512/3838104-1-eng-US/f0037-152.jpg" title="f0037-15" width="587" height="431"></div><h2>SUDBURY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-169/3838097-1-eng-US/f0037-162.jpg" title="f0037-16" width="587" height="511"></div><h2>TORONTO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-176/3838090-1-eng-US/f0037-172.jpg" title="f0037-17" width="589" height="380"></div><h2>WINDSOR</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-186/3838083-1-eng-US/f0037-182.jpg" title="f0037-18" width="586" height="427"></div> &#9632;

f0037-03

Final OHA Statistics

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLE RICH & BRADSBY LTD Arnold Street Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLE RICH & BRADSBY LTD Arnold Street Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaDAYTON&mdash;There was no champagne celebration for the Dayton Gems when they locked up the South Division Championship in the International Hockey League with a 7-1 romp in Columbus. Coach Ivan Prediger has accomplished just half his goal.What Prediger wants most is the Turner Cup. prize piece in the annual IHL playoff competition. &ldquo;No way. I didn&rsquo;t want to spoil the taste of it&rdquo; (champagne) when he did allow a little beer imbiding for his talented club following the divisional title clincher.It would appear Prediger has the odds in his favor for completing his goal. The Gems have been the hottest club in the IHL for the last six weeks of the season and established a new point record by sweeping the final two-game series of the season from Fort Wayne. The sweep boosted the Gems&rsquo; record to 47-21-10 for 104 points. The previous record was 102, held jointly by the 1959-60 Komets and 1960-61 Minneapolis Millers. However, Fort Wayne set its record in just 68 games, posting a fantastic 50-16-2 mark.The Gems will launch their playoff bid against the Kalamazoo Wings, last-place finisher in the North Division. The K-Wings qualified for the playoffs in their second season of competition by finishing ahead of the fourth-place team in the South-Columbus. Dayton has the most momentum going into the championship competition as well. Dayton has gone through 16 games without a defeat &mdash; another league record. The unbeaten string was split evenly between home and away games, eight and eight.Dayton has not won the playoff championship since 1970 despite being the most consistent winner in the South over recent seasons. The Gems won the South Division championship last season but was upset in the first round by eventual winnerToledo.It would appear Dayton has the best insurance against a slump of any consequence which would be fatal in the &ldquo;secondseason&rdquo;. Dayton has oneofthe best balanced offenses in the league and a solid defense. Five Dayton forwards have scored 30 or more goals, led by Brian Kinsella&rsquo;s 43. Others over the 30-goal plateau are Mike Powers (33), Steve Self (36) and Paul Nicholson and Bill Riley (35each).Defensively, the Gems rank second only to Muskegon. The Mohawks have allowed 238 goals during the season and Dayton just 240.While Dayton is opening its playoff hid against Kalamazoo. Fort Wavne and Toledo will be fighting for the right to the Dayton-Kalamazoo winner for the South Division playoff crown and a berth in the finals against the North survivor.The Komets hung onto second place during the final week despite losing its final three games. The Komets finished just two points in front of the defending Turner Cup champions with 70 points. Toledo had 68.Toledo had an edge in the season series but the home ice advantage may be enough to turn things around for the Komets who are competing in the playoffs for the first time since they won it all in 1973.Toledo will have to do it this season without any benchside inspiration from manager-coach Ted Garvin. Garvin was suspended from participating in any bench-side coaching for the balance of the season and playoffs recently by IHL Commissioner Bill Beagan because of an incident Garvin was involved with one of the game officials. Garvin&rsquo;s plea to have the suspension lifted for the playoffs fell on deaf ears. In his absence, Garvin has appointed Juri Kudrasovs to be the bench coach for the duration.In the North Division, Saginaw, which lost out in its bid to catch Dayton for the overall league championship, hopes to make up for that failure by winning its first playoff title. And the Gears are pretty confident as they prepare for the first round against Muskegon.Saginaw just came off a very successful season which featured the setting of a number of clubs records while wrapping up the North Division title with an impressive, 43-26-9 record&mdash;12 points in front of runner-up Port Huron.Included among the club records established were: best record, most goals scored (339). new attendance mark (168,853) longest unbeaten streak at home (17 games). Individual milestones included: Paul Evans most points for a center with 85; Gary Sittier most penalty minutes &mdash; 376: and Mario Lessard, the busiest goalie in Gear history, 57 saves in game against Kalamazoo.The Gears had reason to be optimistic about their opening series with Muskegon also. The Gears won the season series 7-1-4.Muskegon, which has been a playoff bust more often than coach Moose Lallo would like to remember following a high finish in the regular season chase, may have put playoff success at its major goal this season. Muskegon has been playing well of recent weeks and boasts the best defense in the league.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1410/3838219-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="549" height="774"><figcaption class="caption-body">LEN FONTAINE&hellip;IHL Scoring Champ</figcaption></div>Anchoring the Muskegon defense is goalie Don Cutts, who leads the league with a sparkling 2.82 average. He also has had five shutouts Port Huron&rsquo;s offense against Flint&rsquo;s defense figures to be the key of this senes. The Flags, led by IHL scoring champion Len Fontaine, scored 304 goals during the season and managed to nip Flint by a single point in the final week of the season to nail down second place. &#9632;

f0038-14

Prediger Holding Champagne For Cup Win As Dayton Starts As Playoff Favorites

<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01227/3838334-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="596" height="418"></div><h2>COLUMBUS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02176/3838327-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="594" height="432"></div><h2>DAYTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03132/3838320-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="586" height="486"></div><h2>FUNT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0489/3838313-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="584" height="312"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0562/3838306-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="588" height="156"></div><h2>FORT WAYNE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0648/3838299-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="583" height="461"></div><h2>KALAMAZOO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0742/3838292-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="585" height="454"></div><h2>MUSKEGON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0828/3838285-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="582" height="459"></div><h2>PORT HURON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0924/3838278-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="584" height="154"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1021/3838271-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="581" height="309"></div><h2>SAGINAW</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1119/3838264-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="584" height="459"></div><h2>TOLEDO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1217/3838257-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="582" height="452"></div><h2>GOALING RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1312/3838250-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="586" height="481"></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

Final IHL Statistics

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-15" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-158/3838365-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ian MacPhee of Toledo receives most valuable player award from Wendy&rsquo;s representative Jim Teal after he emerged as the winner of a contest sponsored by Wendy&rsquo;s of Toledo. MacPhee, who was the Goaldiggers&rsquo; leading scorer this season, pocketed a $500 check from Wendy&rsquo;s after collecting 16,000 of 55,000 votes cast in the contest.</figcaption></div>TOLEDO&mdash;The Toledo Goaldiggers may not be No. 1 in the standings but they are No. 1 at the box office in the IHL.Attendance for Toledo home games this season was over 170,000 &mdash; an increase over last year&rsquo;s total of 157,674. The 170.000 figure gives Toledo an average of 4,359 for 39 home games.Reflecting on the Toledo attendance in light of Toledo&rsquo;s third-place finish in the South Division race, publicist Harold Shaw said, &ldquo;The No. 1 reason for our attendance is we&rsquo;ve convinced people we&rsquo;re giving them a good product. I think we have to realize we&rsquo;re in the entertainment business. We try to entertain the people.&rdquo;Second toToledo in average attendance for the season just completed was Saginaw with a 4,150 mark. Kalamazoo was third with 3,900; Fort Wayne fourth with 3,820: Dayton fifth with 3,700; Flint sixth, 3,500; Muskegon seventh, 3,000; Columbus eighth, 2,600 and Port Huron ninth &mdash; 1,850. &#9632;

f0038-15

Toledo Third In IHL Race But No.l At Box Office

<div class="byline">BY BRUCE PENTON</div>BRANDON&mdash;The general consensus around the Western Canada Hockey League is that the finest two professional prospects are 18-year-old defensemen&mdash;Barry Beck of New Westminster Bruinsand Kevin McCarthy of Winnipeg Clubs.But since there is some doubt as to whether the professionals will be grabbing off the &lsquo;Exciting Eighteens,&rsquo; this predraft preview peers only at the 19-year-olds, or as the scouts say, those born in 1956.In a very informal HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; poll, Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; Blair Chapman, a 71-goal right-winger, got the nod as the WCHL&rsquo;s top draft choice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01210/3838396-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="574" height="643"><figcaption class="caption-body">BLAIR CHAPMAN&hellip; No. 1 Pick</figcaption></div>This was somewhat a surprise, considering his center, Bernie Federko, got 31 more points than did Chapman, plus about 2,000 words more ink in papers across the West.Federko wound up No. 3 in the.poll, behind goal-scoring leader Don Murdoch, who paced league snipers with 88, just two back of the record held by Ron Chipperfield. In his WCHL career, Murdoch scored an unprecedented two-year total of 170 goals.But, down to business: The &lsquo;Terrific Twenty&rsquo;:1) Blair Chapman, right wing, Saskatoon: A proven scorer and point man, Chapman&rsquo;s size (5&rsquo;11&rdquo;, 185) stands well with pro scouts. Great shot.2) Don Murdoch, right wing, Medicine Hat: a carbon copy of Reg Leach, says the Edmonton Journals&rsquo; Jim Matheson. Murdoch&rsquo;s goal-scoring statistics say it all.3) Bernie Federko, center, Saskatoon: Like Murdoch, Federko&rsquo;s stats (record-breaking 188 points this year) tell the story adequately. Great playmaker, smooth skater and durable.4) Greg Carroll, center. Medicine Hat: A tall, rangy player with a good knack around the net (60 goals). Carroll&rsquo;s main forte is his play-making ability, as witness his 109 assists.5) Jeff McDill, left wing, Victoria: Solid, all-around player. Checks and skates well, and can score.6) Harold Phillipoff, left wing, New Westminster: His exceptional size, 6&rsquo;3&rdquo;, 200 makes scouts drool. Phillipoff is extremely agile considering the weight he carries, can score and like all other Ernie McLean proteges, can check and is tough7) Drew Callander, center, Regina: Pats&rsquo; leading scorer (104 points), Callander drew attention to himself with a great performance at the annual All Star game. A hustler.8) Steve Clippingdale, right wing. New Westminster: Another big Bruin with good scoring ability (51-67&mdash;118).9) Barry Melrose, defense, Kamloops: A rarity these days: a defensive defenseman. Melrose is a specialist. Unheralded, but steady.10) Tim Williams, defense, Victoria: Flashier, and higher scoring than Melrose, Williams is a hitter who can rough it with anybody.11) Rob Flockhart, left wing, Kamloops.12) Fred Berry, center, New Westminster.13) Clay Pachal, left wing, New Westminster.14) Brian Sutter, left wing, Lethbridge.15) Fred Williams, center, Saskatoon.16) Morris Lukowich, left wing, Medicine Hat.17) Gord Blumenschein, center, Winnipeg.18) Rick Hodgson, defense, Calgary.19) Kevin Schamehorn, right wing, New Westminster.20) Mark Davidson, left wing. Flin Flon.Honorable mentions: Rich Gosselin, center. Flin Flon; Rob Tudor, left wing, Regina: Al Dumba, right wing. Regina; Elmer Ray, left wing, Calgary; Terry McDonald, center, Edmonton; Danny Bonar, center, Brandon; Al Glendinning, defense, Calgary: Doug Gillespie, defense, Lethbridge; Rocky Maze, left wing, Edmonton; Lorry Gloeckner, defense Victoria; Darcy Regier, defense, Lethbridge; Mark Earp, goal, Kamloops: Blaine Peterson, goal, New Westminster; Lome Molleken, goal, Winnipeg.As for the best of the 18-year-old crop, defenseman Brad Maxwell of New Westminster follows Beck and McCarthy. Mark Lofthouse, a 68-goal man for the Bruins, is another, as is goalie Glen Hanlon of Brandon.VICTORIA: Cougars, playing great hockey on the road in the stretch, grabbed fifth place from Brandon and then opened the playoffs with a 3-1 win over Regina, as Jim Gustafson potted two&rsquo;goals. Patty Ginned returned from self-imposed exile to coach the Cougars in the playoffs.EW WESTMINSTER: The record-breaking Bruins have an easy first-round foe in Brandon after winning first place by a wide margin. Bruins finished with six 100-point men &mdash; Fred Berry, Rick Shinske, Steve Clippingdale, Mark Lofthouse, and defensemen Barry Beck and Brad Maxwell.KAMLOOPS: Chiefs were a surprise third-place team over-all, when Medicine Hat couldn&rsquo;t get a win in its final four games. Harvey Roy&rsquo;s crew were prohibitive favorites against Winnipeg in the first round of playoffs. Roy is depending on leading scorer Darrell Ferner and his left winger, Rob Flockhart. Larry Lestander, who slumped late in the season, is being counted on for a productive playoff.MEDICINE HAT: Tigers had the highest-scoring line in the league with Greg Carroll (169 points), Don Murdoch (165) and Morris Lukowich (140). But all their offense couldn&rsquo;t bring off a win in their final four road games. They finished tied for third overall with Kamloops, but lost out due to less wins (40-38). They open the playoffs against provincial-rival Edmonton. Ken Holland, at the start of the week, recorded his second shutout, 11-0 over Lethbridge.CALGARY: The only Western Divisionteam out of the playoffs, Cents finished the season in fine style, whipping Edmonton 8-4 with a six-goal third-period. Paul Enquist overtook Gary Rissling in the stretch to win the team scoring title. A news service story quoted Calgary coach Bert Olmstead as saying the WCHL&rsquo;s violence &ldquo;sick ened&rdquo; him and charged that Victoria and New Westminster &ldquo;get involved in street-fighting, gang-fighting.&rdquo;EDMONTON: Oil Kings&rsquo; last week of the regular season was not a good one. They suffered four straight losses, including a 16-2 humiliation in New Westminster. Defenseman Jim Cross got his first goal in that game. Tony Currie emerged as the team&rsquo;s top scorer with 81 points, including 40 goals.LETHBRIDGE: Broncos, who meet Saskatoon Blades in the opening playoff round, had a winless (0-3-1) final week and one that hurt most was an 11-0 defeat against arch-rival Medicine Hat. The next night, though, Willie Desjardins scored from behind the net with two seconds left for a 3-3 tie with the Tigers. Brian Sutter got his 35th goal in that game, but rookie Steve Tambellini finished as top scorer with 91 points.BRANDON: Over-age Mike Bradbury tied two league records with six goals in a 11-5 Wheat King road win against Flin Flon. Five of those goals, two short-handed, came in the third period. He also had two assists. In Bradbury&rsquo;s final five games, he picked up a phenomenal 14 goals and seven assists, including back-to-back hat tricks to close out the regular season. But still, he finished 14 points behind the team&rsquo;s leading scorer, Dale McMullin, who had 130. Rookie Bill Derlago, and veteran Danny Bonar made late rushes to go over the 100-point mark.WINNIPEG: Gord Blumenschein broke the Winnipeg career goal-record with the 102nd of his four-year career, breaking Wayne Chernecki&rsquo;s 101 mark. The goal was the winner in Clubs&rsquo; final game, a 5 4 decision over Brandon. Kevin McCarthy was the team&rsquo;s top scorer on the season with 121 points. Coach Gerry Brisson said Lome Molleken would be the man between the pipes, in the first playoff game against Kamloops;FLIN FLON: The only Eastern Division club to miss the playoffs, Bombers ended the season with a 5-5 tie at home against Saskatoon, which followed consecutive losses (11-5, 6-3) against Brandon. Rich Gosselin, diminutive, but flashy, led the team with 67 goals and 64 assists. Mark Davidson was next in points with 117. Coach Mickey Keating promises a rejuvenated team for 1976-77.SASKATOON: Rookie Bill McNaught, up for a late trial, got his first goal in Blades&rsquo; final game, a 5-5 deadlock in Flin Flon. Fittingly, the record-breaking point-getter, Bernie Federko led the Blades in the final four games with 11 points. His 116 assists were one shy of Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s league record.REGINA: Pats were bombed 9-1 in their final league game by Saskatoon, but got things together to open fhe playoffs against Victoria. Drew Callander&rsquo;s second-period short-handed goal tied it at 1-1, but the Cougars scored twice in the third to draw first blood. Callander, Rob Tudor and Al Dumba all finished the regular season with more than 100 points. &#9632;

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Chapman High On Pros’ Draft List But 18-Year-Olds Ultimate Prizes

<h2>WESTERN CANADA LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02157/3838427-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="600" height="408"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Sat. March 20Edmonton 1 at Victorio 11; Lethbridge 0 at Medicine Hat 11.Sun. March 21Saskatoon 3 at Winnipeg 9, Edmonton 2 at New Westminster 16; Brandon 11 ot Flin Flon 5; Medicine Hat 3 at Lethbridge 3.Mon. March 22Victoria 5 at Saskatoon 4; Brandon 6 at Flin Flon 3.Tue. March 23Edmonton 1 ot Kamloops 4; Victorio 2 ot Medicine Hot 6.Wed. March 24Victoria 5 ot Lethbridge 2.Thu. March 25Winnipeg 3 at Brandon 8; Medicine Hat 3 at Calgary 3.Fri. March 26Brandon 4 at Winnipeg 5; Medicine Hot 4 at Kamloops 8; Victorio 7 at Lethbridge 6, Regmo 1 ot Saskatoon 9.Sat. March 27Saskatoon 5 at Flin Flon 5, Medicine Hot 4 at Victorio 8.Sun. March 28Edmonton 4 at Calgary 8 Medicine Hat 4 at New Westminster 5. &#9632;

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<div class="byline">BY GARY CLARK</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLE RICH & BRAOSBY ITO Arnold Streel Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGER HOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRAOSBY ITO Arnold Street Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaBUFFALO&mdash;The quarter-final round of the 1976 Lockhart Cup playoffs was not what you would call uneventful, particularly in light of Buffalo&rsquo;s forfeiture of their deciding game with Johnstown.The semi-finals have provided more of the same. Beauce rolled by Syracuse in predictable fashion setting some offensive records along the way. Nothing unusual there considering Beauce regular season antics. But over in the West Philadelphia upended Johnstown. the defending champions, in wild unpredictable fashion.To say that the Jaros breezed by Syracuse would be unfair to the scrappy Blazer despite the Jaros four-game series sweep. The Blazers were ahead in every game but the last, which was tied three separate times. In the third game the Blazers led 4-3 with 1:31 left to play. Alain Caron&rsquo;s game-exinning goal came al l7:4-of the third period.The come-from-behind script has been well rehearsed by Beauce. In their final thirteen regular season wins they were behind or tied at the start of the third period nine times.Coming from behind is made easier by having a sniper like Alain Caron on your side. In the playoffs he has proved that his 78 regular season goals were no fluke. He scored nine times in the last three games of the Syracuse series, including four in the 6-4 fourth game clincher. At age 37 (38 in two weeks) Caron gives no indications that he has lost even a fraction of speed or accuraey from his devastating shot.Before the 1976 playoffs the most goals that any team had ever scored in a single Lockhart Cup game was eight. The highest two-team total had been twelve. No longer.Beauce&rsquo;s 10-7 second game victory over Syracuse represented the third time in this playoff year that the ten goal mark was reached, and the combined total of seventeen goals also established a new post season record.The playoffs are reflecting the pattern established during the 1975-76 regular season, when scoring zoomed up from a 1974-75 average of 8.08 goals per game (both teams) to 8.92 goals per game.But even so, who could have guessed what would happen in Philadelphia lut six days after the 10-7 Beauce-Syracuse slugfest?On April 2 the Jets and Firebirds met in the fifth game of their semi-finaleries. The Firebird had &ldquo;broken serve&rdquo; just the previous night by winning an overtime thriller in Johnstown take a three gameto one serielead.Drawn by the already completed classic playoff hockey between the best defensive team in the NAHL, the Jets, and the second best offensive team in the league, the Firebirds, and by the awe expressed by the Philly writers who had covered the fourth game in Johnstown (they compared it to a Flyers-Canadiens Stanley Cup game), 7,564 fans, the largest playoff crown in NAHL history poured into the civic center.The turnout was treated to something less than classic playoff hockey, but they loved it anyway. Philadelphia whipped Johnstown 14-10 in a game that more closely resembled box lacrosse than hockey.For the purist it was a nightmare. But the less smug fans loved it. The Birds fell behind 2-0 before they roared back with six unanswered goal. The fans rollicked to the disco music that is placed in the Civic Center to celebrate each Philly goal. At the end of the game they counted down the final seconds and then poured onto the ice as it it was the Flyers eliminating the Canadiens.Lou Levasseur started in goal for Johnstown. After Lou was victimized for six first period goals he was more or less rescued by Ron Docken, who gave up eight more. Gave Coolev, who has replaced the injured Rejean Lemelin on the Firebirds roster, &ldquo;held&rdquo; Johnstown to their ten goals. After the fifth olet goal Cooley removed his mask and left it on top of net for the remainder of the game. He then let in five more.Gregg Pilling&rsquo;s quote was typical of the reaction of both teams to the wild game. Said the Philly GM-goach, &ldquo;Maybe Cooley took his mask off so he could get a good look at the red light. The mask was the only thing that did not so in the net.&rdquo;In fairness none of the goaltender had much help from their teammates, who were usually clustered around the other side&rsquo;s goal.The fifth game was not very representative of the rest of the series between the Western Division Champion and the runnerup. It had been well played and tight. There were two overtime games. Odd happenings are not lhe norm in the NAHL. Sometime it only seems that wax.BINGHAMTON: Larry Kish is reportedly set for his first full year at the helm of the Dusters in 1976-77. The classy coach is generally credited with doing a job for Binghamton, who he joined in mid-season after hopes for a playoff spot were all but gone. If nothing else he should rid himself of his &ldquo;Jonah&rdquo; fixation with the perpetually sold out Dusters. Kish&rsquo;s last three coaching assignments were with the Rhode I-land Eagle (EHL). Suncoast Sun (SHL), and Cape Codders (NAHL).BUFFALO: The Norsemen and their fans are still worked up over the most controversial and unusual playoff happening ever, their forfeit of the fifth and deciding game of their quarter-final series with Johnstown. It occurred when Buffalo management, namely president Dr. Dudley Turecki. GM Willie Marshall, and coach Guy Trottier refused to let their team take the ice after a fight during pre-game warmups. Said Marshall, &ldquo;The commissioner should have penalized the Jets involved in the fight.&rdquo; (Neither the commissioner nor referee Steve Dowling witnessed the incident.) Said Commioner Jack Timmins. &ldquo;This is not the first time that Buffalo has done this. They don&rsquo;t seem to realize that you always play even if you want to protest a ituation. I call this gross mis-managementERIE: The Blades have made big progress already in their season ticket sales for 1976-77. They have sold nearly 300 seats to new subscribers according to director of operations Robbie Roberts. They had roughly 250 season ticket holders in 1975-76. &ldquo;Last vear no one knew who we were or what we were, explains Roberts. &ldquo;They do now. When xve receive our renexvals we should have base of 500 season ticket a great start for our off-season push.&rsquo;JOHNSTOWN: Guido Tenesi&rsquo;s persistent shoulder problem flared up again during the Philadelphia series. The loss of the All Star defenseman for the fourth and fifth games of that series did not help the Jets at all.Jet fans must now divert their attention to the filming being done in Johnstown bv Hollywood&rsquo;s Universal Studios. Universal is in the midst of shooting a George Roy Hill &mdash; Paul Newman feature, the setting of which is the NAHL. The script was written by the sister of former Jet Ned Dowd. Newman. who collaborated with Hill on both &ldquo;Butch Cassidy&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Sting&rdquo;, will portray an aging player who plays for the Jets Mythical Movie counterparts, the Charleston Chiefs. Many NAHL players will be featured in the skating scenes.MOHAWK VALLEY: Frank Hamill and Bobby Jones held true to their regular season form by leading the Comet-in-coring in the learn abbreviated playoff performance. Each had four points. Hamill was held without a goal, though, and Syracuse credits the shadowing job done by Tim Sanche on the dynamic right winger a being oneof the keys to their victory.Jim Park, Bobby Jones, and Bob O&rsquo;Reilly have reported to the Indianapolis Racer for the WHA tretch drive. In his first game after returning to Indy, Park beat the Toros in Toronto 3-1 and earned the game&rsquo;s first star.PHILADELPHIA: Goalie Gaye Cooley is trying to become the first net-minder in recent memory, and perhaps ever, to backstop two pro teams to playoff crowns in the same year. Cooley has already participated in Charlotte Checkers&rsquo; victory over Hampton in the SHL. Cooley is an old hand at playoff championships. He was named MVP in the 1966 NCAA tournament when with the champion Michigan State Spartans.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01153/3838458-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="556" height="602"><figcaption class="caption-body">GAYE COOLEY &hellip; &ldquo;Held&rsquo; Johnstown?</figcaption></div>SYRACUSE: Little Mark Izzard proved a clutch playoff performer. Izzard had nine goals and five assists in eight games to lead all Blazers in goals and points.Captain Doug Brindley had a respectable playoff year with eight assists, but he also extended one of the most unsual records in hockey. Brindley, always a top scorer for his clubs, has&rsquo;never scored a playoff goal during his seven-year pro career. In 31 postseason games with Tulsa (CHL), Buffalo (AHL). Cleveland (WHAl, Mohawk Valley (NAHL), and new Syracuse, Doug has had 16 assists but nary a goal. &#9632;

f0040-01

Firebirds Stun Jets In Box Lacrosse Fashion

<div class="byline">BY RALPH BRIDGLAND</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01127/3838489-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="571" height="589"><figcaption class="caption-body">DANIEL ST. LAURENT&hellip;Suspended For Season</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League quarter-finals are going to take a lot longer to complete than anyone expected. Hopefully they&rsquo;ll be up before someone gets killed.The competition on the scoreboard has been exciting with the pre-playoff underdogs winning five of the dozen completed games thus far. Yet the violence which has accompanied the first playoff set overshadows the excellent play and threatens to turn the postseason action into a bloodbath.First, the good news.Of the four quarter-final series the Montreal-Cornwall matchup has proved to be the most exciting and the cleanest. The Juniors were definite underdogs, having finished third behind Cornwall in the West Division, but upset the Royals on their own ice, 4-2, to take all-important home-ice advantage away from Cornwall.Captain Normand Dupont was the big shooter for the Juniors with a hat trick.Then Montreal continued its upset ways by drubbing the listless Royals 7-1 at the Forum to open up a 2-0. lead in games.Garth MacGuigan and Serge Leduc paced the Montreal attack with a pair of markers each.But, as is the case with an Orval Tessier-coached club, the Royals finally put it together in game three back in Cornwall.Jamie Conroy, Dan Geoffrion, Graeme Nicholson and Mike Gibb provided enough fire power for the Royals to move back into contention with a 4-2 victory.Of all the series in progress this one appears to have the makings of a classic with the Juniors holding the edge as the series heads back to Montreal.The Hull Festivals, who finished fourth in the West Division Division, weren&rsquo;t given much chance of keeping the score close against the league champion Sherbrooke Beavers, let alone keep the series close. Yet, after three games the Festivals trail by only 2-1 and could very well be ahead if not for some questionable refereeing in the first game in Sherbrooke, won 4-3 by the Beavers.Hull never trailed in the game until 14:30 of the final period when Fernand Leblanc tallied what proved to be the game-winner.Back in Hull the Festivals came up with another superb effort and squared the series with a 7-5 verdict before over 5,000 fans.Captain Glen Sharpley led the winners&rsquo; attack with a pair of goals, the last one icing the game away with just 26 seconds left to play.In game three the Festivals almost pulled off another upset as they trailed by only one after two periods, thanks to a pair of goals by Sharpley, but Robert Simpson salted the win away mid-way in the final period and the Beavers triumphed 5-3.Now, the start of the bad news.The third game between the Beavers and Festivals was punctuated with fights but nothing of the serious nature until Hull&rsquo;s Yves Lozeau was slashed in the eye by Sherbrooke defenseman Floyd Lahache, who was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct.Lozeau is still in hospital and will remain there undergoing examinations for the next week or so.Trois-Rivieres took advantage of the home ice edge in the first two games to jump ahead of Chicoutimi 2-0.Richard Dalpe led the way in the victories of 7-2 and 12-2 with six goals, including four in game two.Now, some more bad news.Daniel Horne and Alain Belanger of the Draveurs have been indefinitely suspended. Both players have been accused of molesting a linesman in game two. In addition Trois-Rivieres coach Michel Bergeron has been fined $20 for his actions during the game.The series then switched to Chicoutimi for games three and four with the Sagueneens moving back into contention with an 8-5 win.Alain Cote led the winners with a hat trick while Alain Blouin netted a pair.Now, for the worst news of a tainted nature.After the first three games of the Quebec-Sorel series, it appears their games would be more accurately billed &lsquo;A Night At The Fights&rsquo;.It took 19:12 of the series opener for the two teams to engage in fistic endeavors and when they did it was an no small way.With the score knotted at 1-1 late in the first period a wild donnybrook broke out with both team benches emptying. A total of 263 minutes in penalties were assessed on account of the brawl and 15 players suffered injuries in the melee. The game penalty minute total wound up at 393.Quebec won the opener 6-5 led by Yvan Hamelin who scored twice.Game two was &lsquo;tame&rsquo; with &lsquo;only&rsquo; 92 minutes in penalties being assessed and the Black Hawks knotting the series by virtue of a 6-4 win. Serge Menard&rsquo;s marker mid-way in the middle period proved to be the winner.Game three wasn&rsquo;t as monstrous as the first match but still seemed to indicate that winning the fights was as important to these teams as winning on the scoreboard.The Remparts defeated Sorel 5-2 as referee Jean-Yves Gaudreau handed out 126 minutes in penalties, including 10 majors and two game misconducts.QMJHL president Raymond Lagace handed out stiff suspensions as a result of the brawling in game one.Sorel&rsquo;s Daniel St. Laurent has been suspended for the rest of the season for his role in the flareup. St. Laurent&rsquo;s teammates Benoit Gosselin and Serge Thomas each received two-game suspensions.Mario Bouchard and Nelson Burton of Quebec were dealt two-game suspensions while, the Remparts&rsquo; Pierre Lagace was handled a one-game suspension for being the first player to leave the Diavers&rsquo; bench.So, in three of the four quarter-final series currently in progress, there has been some sort of violence. It seems rather ironic that following the Cornwall loss in Montreal in the second game of their series. Royals&rsquo; bench boss Tessier invited the members of the press to come to Cornwall for game three and see the start of the &ldquo;war&rdquo;. Tessier was sick and tired of seeing his players pushed around and promised that things would be different in game three or his players could pack their bags and go home.Tessier&rsquo;s &ldquo;war&rdquo; consisted of 44 minutes in penalties and two fighting majors.If only the rest of the teams competing in the quarterfinals, especially Rodrigue Lemoyne&rsquo;s Black Hawks and Ron Racette&rsquo;s Remparts, could keep their &lsquo;wars&rsquo; down to minor skirmishes like Tessier&rsquo;s the Quebec League in particular and hockey in general would be a lot better off. &#9632;

f0041-01

Royals, Juniors Series Highlights Quarter-Finals As Violence Threatens To Make Playoffs Bloodbath

<h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0277/3838541-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="543" height="81"></div>(Cornwall wins best-of-seven series 4-2)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thu. March 25Montreal 4 at Cornwall 2Sun. March 28Cornwdl 1 at Montreal 7Tue. March 30Montreal 2 at Cornwall 4Thu. April 1Cornwall 6 at Montreal 4Fri. Apr. 2Montreal 3 at Cornwall 5Sun. April 4Cornwall 5 at Montrel 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0352/3838534-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="545" height="80"></div>(Quebec wins best-of-seven series 4-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Sorel 5 at Quebec 6Sun. March 28Que bee 4 at Sorel 6Mon. March 29Sorel 2 ot Quebec 5Thu.April 1Quebec 4 at Sorel 3Fri. Apr. 2Sorel 3 at Quebec 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0441/3838527-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="542" height="80"></div>(Tran-Rivieres wins best-of-seven series 4-1)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Chicoutimi 2 at Trois-Rivieres 7Sun. March 28Chicoutimi 2 at Trois-Rivieres 12Tue. March 30Trois-Rivifcres 5 at Chicoutimi 8Thu. April 1Trois-Rivi4res 6 at Chicoutimi 4Sat. April 3Chicoutimi 2 ot Trois-Rivieres 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0533/3838520-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="539" height="78"></div>(Sherbrooke leads best-of-seven series 3-2)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Hull 3 at Sherbrooke 4Sun. March 28Sherbrooke 5 at Hull 7Tue. March 30Hull 3 at Sherbrooke 5Fri. Apr. 2Sherbrooke 4 at Hull 6Sun. Apr. 4Hull 2 at Sherbrooke 7 &#9632;

f0041-02

<div class="byline">BY STEVE WAID</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILIERICH & BRADSBY LTD Arnold Street Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY LTD Arnold Street Wallaceburg Ontario Sold in U S and Canada<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01125/3838572-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="556" height="590"><figcaption class="caption-body">NEIL KORZACK&hellip;Hot In Playoffs</figcaption></div>CHARLOTTE&mdash;The Charlotte Checkers have been one of the most powerful teams in the Southern Hockey League, winning the SHL&rsquo;s crown the Jim Crockett Memorial Cup-two out of the three years the league has been in existence.Their second title came Mar. 27 as they swept the Hampton Gulls 8-0 in a surprisingly easy game to win their best-of-seven final series four games to one over the Gulls.But as they were celebrating their triumph, the Checkers knew everything wasn&rsquo;t well. There have been rumblings of the team&rsquo;s demise at the conclusion of the SHL season, due largely to dwindling crowdsand financial resources. In spite of the fact that they were playing for the SHL title, the final game in Charlotte seemed little more than a regular-season game to the Checkers&mdash;for obvious reasons.The crowd just wasn&rsquo;t there. The 7,000-8,000 that used to come out and cheer the Checkers On to their past SHL glory didn&rsquo;t materialize this time. There were just 3,606 fans in attend ance when the Checkers took it all.&ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t seem like a real championship game to me,&rdquo; said veteran Charlotte defenseman Barry Burnett, who has contributed to Charlotte championships both in the SHL and the old EHL. &ldquo;When we won before, we had thousands of people in the stands and they went crazy. I don&rsquo;t know, maybe all the stuff about the team folding had something to do with it. It was sort of like a regular-season crowd watching a runaway.&rdquo;&rdquo;We&rsquo;re blowing the Gulls out of the building in the first period,&rdquo; said CharlottecoachPat Kelly, &ldquo;andthe guys on the bench are saying &lsquo;What&rsquo;s wrong? We&rsquo;re making more noise down here than all the people in the stands.&rdquo;&lsquo;The first hints of a Charlotte demise were given out about six weeks ago when Charlotte presidept Al Manch said bluntly that the team was losing about $1,000 per game and the current stockholders would no longer be able to withstand such a loss. Manch reaffirmed the stockholders&rsquo; position after the final game of the playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s over for us,&rdquo; Manch said. &ldquo;We are going to make sure all of our bills are paid even if we have to go into our own pockets. Then we will call a meeting of the stockholders to announce that the club is officially for sale.&ldquo;I just keep hoping that someone will come up with enough money to take over the team. We will be happy to turn the franchise over to them.&rdquo;Manch said that the Checkers&rsquo; attendance has been dwindling for the past five years. This season, the team averaged 2,800-per home game as opposed to 5,000 per game in 1971.The team has absorbed the $150,000 it had saved from the banner financial years of the late 60&rsquo;s and early 70&rsquo;s.In spite of the seemingly unrelenting doom of the team, few hockey fans in Charlotte believe that the team will die. SHL Commissioner Jack Riley refuses to believe Charlotte will not have hockey, also. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure you fans in Charlotte are going to see hockey here next year. You can&rsquo;t let something like this die,&rdquo; he said.The Charlotte problem is just one of the headaches the league has suffered all season long. Although the Checkers never intended to fold duringtRecourse of the season, the bad publicity surrounding the team&rsquo;s financial woes didn&rsquo;t help anything. The league had to deal with financial problems in Winston-Salem, Tidewater and Roanoke during the course of the year also.Winston-Salem and Tidewater were taken over by new owners, who have committed themselves for next seasftn. Roanoke struggled through the year, but made it, and has planned a public stock sale to insure the team&rsquo;s presence in the league next year. Hampton had no financial problems this year with its healthy attendance figures. So Charlotte now must find its way out of the woods. Team officials certainly haven&rsquo;t given up hope. They intend to be present when the SHL meetings begin April 5 in Roanoke. It&rsquo;s also very possible that Richmond will have representatives at that meeting to determine the possibility of moving the city&rsquo;s franchise from the AHL to SHL.As for the final playoff game, it certainly wasn&rsquo;t what people expected. In fact, the Charlotte dominance in the final series wasn&rsquo;t expected. The Checkers got to the. finals by virtue of a victory in their tough six-game series with inspired Roanoke, and the Gulls made the finals by whitewashing Winston-Salem in four straight games.So the finals figured to be tough and lengthy. Charlotte, however, took two straight wins on home ice before the Gulls could win in Hampton. Game No. 4 played March 26 in Hampton was another Charlotte victory (4-1) and it pretty much sealed Hampton&rsquo;s Late.So the final game, the Checkers opened up a quick 3-0 lead in the first period on goals from Jack Wells and Mike Rouleau (2). Oddly enough, neither had scored a point in the playoffs until that point. But their scores got the Checkers off and running.Wells and defenseman Mike Keeler scored in the second period for Charlotte while Neil Korzack popped in two more in the final period along with one by Jack Surbey.Bob Sauve, the youngster from the Laval Nationals, got the shutout, giving him two for the SHL playoffs and a playoff-leading 1.43 goals-against average. Korzack picked up five goals and eight assists in 11 games to lead playoff scoring while Steve Andrascik of Hampton got six goals and five assists in nine playoff games to finish second.&ldquo;I thought Hampton was going pretty good until we hit them with those three goals in the first period,&rdquo; said Wells of Hampton&rsquo;s defeat. &ldquo;They were pretty down the rest of the way. (Norm) Lapointe was tired. We&rsquo;d been getting 45-50 shots a game on him and we did about the same tonight (54). He had the best goals-against average during the season but he was just worn out. Also they were a hurting team. &ldquo;Gulls were plagued with injuries during the final playoff set, with such notables as Larry Billows, Art Stratton, Wayne Mosdell and Pat Donnelly, among others, having to sit it out or play injured.Now if the Checkers can revitalize financially for the next season, it&rsquo;s a good bet that they&rsquo;ll be the team to beat for the SHL crown again. That&rsquo;s pretty much the way it has been in the SHL, and if Charlotte comes back, there&rsquo;s no reason to see it ot herwise. winning of the scoring title was cheered by Hershey fans, who had not had a league scoring leader since Gil Gilbert in 1968-69.The return of Ron Jones from Washington completes the Bear defensive alignment for the playoffs. Jones joins Mario Faubert, Bob Stumphf, Ken Breitenbach and Larry Bignell on the backline and except for Nova Scotia and Rochester, they have allowed the fewest goals in the league during the regular season.Hamilton will probably use both Don Edwards and Gordon Laxton for goal duty when the Bears turn comes up against either Richmond or New Haven.the first period and Rick Bowness in the second for a 3-0 lead, and captain Dan Seguin intoan empty net with two seconds to go. Coach Kurt labelled it the Oilers&rsquo; &ldquo;best overall performance of the season&rdquo;.Brad Gassoff notched his 30th and 31st goals in beating Fort Worth, with other scores Spruce. Bowness, Leon Rochefort and Jim Wiley. Rochefort had missed the OC game on a one-night callup to the parent Vancouver Canucks. Wiley had a goal and three assists for the week to keep the CHL scoring lead on 84 points, and his 57 assists were also tops for the league. &#9632;

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April 16, 1976

Graham Set To Purchase Mariners

SCORING and PENALTY STATISTICS

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Goring Attains Scoring Peak