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.

November 11, 1977

The Hockey News November 11, 1977

<div class="byline">BY RUSS WHITE</div>WASHINGTON&mdash;Tough Tom McVie has given up trying to &ldquo;break&rdquo; goaltender Gary Smith.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been told that Gary Smith wouldn&rsquo;t work for anyone, that he hated practice, that he wouldn&rsquo;t get in shape,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;He certainly didn&rsquo;t sound like the kind of player we wanted for the&rsquo; Capitals. But we knew he could play goal and there was a day when we said we&rsquo;d take a chance on Smith<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01716/4091587-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="572" height="787"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY SMITH&hellip;Shaping Up</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I was determined to break the guy, to find out if he could take it. and if he couldn&rsquo;t, we&rsquo;d say, goodbye.&rdquo;If you check the NHL rosters, Gary Smith is alive and well in Washington. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t break the big galoot,&rdquo; McVie admitted last week, &ldquo;and believe me. I tried.&ldquo;I purposely made him do things that I didn&rsquo;t think he could do but the did them. He did absolutely everything from losing weight (228 to 206), shaving his beard, to playing sensational goal for us once he got his act in gear.&rdquo;McVie began grooming Gary Smith for Ron Low&rsquo;s vacated goalie&rsquo;s job this past July. McVie flew to Incline Village, Nev., to give Smith a pep talk and get the big goalie&rsquo;s training program underway.&ldquo;We ran every day I was there,&rdquo; McVie said &ldquo;We ran up a mountain well, I ran up the mountain and Gary chugged along behind me. We even ran and timed ourselves at a school track.&ldquo;At night I&rsquo;d tell Gary what we were trying to do in Washington and at first I wasn&rsquo;t sure he was taking it all in. All he said to me was, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll try my best.&rdquo;A week before the Capitals opened their training camp at Hershey, Pa., Smith came to Washington to participate in a special goalies&rsquo; clinic instructed by Roger Crozier. The Caps have Crozier under contract as a man for all reasons. He coaches, he practices and in emergency he might even play.&ldquo;They (the Caps) are allowing me to explore everything there is to know about goaltending,&rdquo; Crozier said. &ldquo;I really believe this will pay off handsomely. Washington&rsquo;s goaltending will be better than it ever was.&ldquo;Gary Smith.&rdquo; Crozier said, &ldquo;is a solid pro. He was down at Minnesota but he&rsquo;ll be his old self with the Caps. Everyone&mdash;Gary Smith included&mdash;is revived when they come to the Caps.&rdquo;Crozier&rsquo;s prophecy started coming true as the Caps broke camp and headed into the regular season Smith was brilliant in a pre-season game at Quebec against the WHA Nordiques. Quebec had a 10-minute power play in the second period but could not get the puck past Smith.&ldquo;Max McNab (Washington GM) was raving about that performance for two weeks.&rdquo; Tom McVie said. &ldquo;Neither Max or I had any doubts that Smith could do it and now we saw he would do it.&rdquo;Smith was an instant hero at Capital Centre when he relieved Bernie Wolfe in a game against the Montreal Canadiens and almost pulled off a big upset. The Caps were 3-3 with Montreal until Rejean Houle scored with less than four minutes to play.&ldquo;That guy should have been the most valuable player in hockey a few years ago when he put the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs, said Montreal coach Scotty Bowman. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a Gary Smith admirer.&rdquo; Bowman added.Ken Dryden agreed. &ldquo;Gary has always had fine games against Montreal,&rdquo; Dryden said. &ldquo;He is capable of making saves that very few goalies could make. He made one in Washington against Guy Lafleur that I&rsquo;ll not forget. Lafleur was skating in fast and whipped a 30 foot shot, low and right at the corner. Gary stuck out his pad and made an impossible save look easy. &ldquo;A few days after the game in Washington, Smith started but lost 5-1 at Montreal, making 41 saves. &ldquo;This game is in double figures for the Canadiens without Gary in goal,&rdquo; Tom McVie said.Naturally the test for Smith is to be able to come back again after losing a 5-1 game to Montreal. This is what made Ron Low (now at Detroit) a big man in Washington. Low had the courage to come back again and again, not to be discouraged and try harder next time.The Caps feel that they have solid goaltending with Smith and Wolfe available and with veteran Crozier always in the wings.NOTES: First draft choice Robert Picard, who missed the first three league games with a back injury, made his debut in the 5-1 loss at Montreal. He was extremely nervous about playing at &ldquo;home&rdquo;, and didn&rsquo;t sleep at all the night before. Picard was on for three of the goals and was in the penalty box for another. &ldquo;Robert was bad at times but he was good at times, too,&rdquo; said McVie. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll learn quickly because he&rsquo;s a talented kid, who is going to help the Capitals.&rdquo;<h2>Looking At NHL Goalers</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02582/4091580-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="579" height="1761"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

‘Unbreakable’ Smith Sensational For Caps

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02875/4091001-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>No one has ever accused Harold Phillipoff of being a shrinking violet. On the contrary, the rugged left winger of the Atlanta Flames, who was the team&rsquo;s No. 1 draft choice in 1976, has brought needed muscle to the NHL club. The Flames allowed Phillipoff to develop in the AHL last season with Nova Scotia Voyageurs. He wasn&rsquo;t a great scorer but he was a hard checker and liked to throw his weight around. His 155 penalty minutes was the fourth highest in the league. Now he is attempting to fit his combativeness into the Flames&rsquo; front attack. He loves a fight but he wants to make it as a player and coach Fred Creighton has thrust him into a regular left wing spot. Not too many players are going to take liberties with the 220-pound rookie. &#9632;

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Phillipoff Brings Muscle To Flames

<div class="byline">BY RICH PASSAN</div>CLEVELAND&mdash;Meet Jim Neilson. Occupation: Defenseman for the Cleveland Barons of the National Hockey League. Rating: Better than average. Age: 35 going on 25.A year ago at this time, Jim Neilson was on the sidelines with a knee injury that took time healing. Some believed the veteran&rsquo;s NHL career was nearing an end.Everybody knew Neilson had been one of the steadiest&mdash;if not spectacular&mdash;rearguards over the last 15 years in the NHL, 12 of which were spent with the New York Rangers.Some believed the only reason Neilson was hanging on with the Barons was because Harry Howell, an old teammate, was the Cleveland GM. No way.Howell&rsquo;s confidence in Neilson&rsquo;s ability has been rewarded mightily in the early going of the 1977-78 campaign. The backliner has been bouncing around like a rookie.&ldquo;My legs feel good.&rdquo; said Neilson, who credited a pre-training camp session with teammates as the major reason. &ldquo;I never skated before in my life before coming to camp.&ldquo;There is no ice for me back in Canada. I came down early to put the kids back in school, too. When I reported to camp (after a 10-day pre-camp workout), I could not believe it,&rdquo; Neilson went on.&ldquo;I was moving around and keeping up with the other guys. I was never able to dothat before.&rdquo;Neilson labelled himself a &ldquo;slow starter. As the season goes on, I get stronger. That&rsquo;s the way I operate in a game too.&rdquo;That has not, however, been the way he has operated this season. At least not so far.Being 35&mdash;he&rsquo;ll be 36 later this month&mdash;and having 15 seasons behind him. Neilson is in a position of haying to rely on experience to keep him sharp. Guile can add many years to a hockey career when other things begin to fail.&ldquo;I anticipate a lot,&rdquo; explained Neilson, whose steady play helped the Barons to four straight victories after an openinggame loss in Los Angeles to the Kings. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say I know I&rsquo;m going to do something.&ldquo;Quite a few times, I read plays. I&rsquo;m right on the guy who&rsquo;s going to get the puck. I&rsquo;ve been doing that for some time. I try to break up the plays before they get organized. I hurry them up even if I don&rsquo;t break them up.&rdquo;Working hard, Neilson said, is the only way he can stay in the league. &ldquo;This is a very young club and the only way I can keep myself sharp is With an honest effort,&rdquo; he said.The Neilson style, however, has not changed. He appears lackadaisical on the ice and knows it. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s my style and I changed it some time ago,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I played with Rod Seiling on the Rangers, we weren&rsquo;t geared for offensive Play.&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t the swiftest afoot. We decided together to play basic positional hockey in our end and get the pass out to the forwards to get everything going.&rdquo;While not a physical fitness freak, Neilson is still the same six-foot-two, 205-pounder who broke into the NHL. The injuries are more frequent, though.Last year, it was a knee and broken bone in his heel. He played in only 25 games. This year, it&rsquo;s a muscle pull in his lower back. But it&rsquo;s not debilitating enough to put him on the sidelines.How much longer can he go? &ldquo;If I continue to feel like this, 20 (years) would not be way out of whack,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My wheels feel good. But I have to prove I can stay here and not be here on a free ride. I know I can still do some work around here.&rdquo;BARONS&rsquo; BITS: Goaltender Gilles Meloche has been the early-season sensation for the Barons. The compact net-minder hung up four straight victories after losing in Los Angeles in the opening game. &#9632;

Barons’ Early Camp Lifted Vet Neilson Into 16th Campaign

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011034/4091346-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="351" height="767"></div><h2>ATLANTA FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02857/4091339-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="221" height="193"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03636/4091332-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="709" height="542"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04444/4091325-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="205" height="203"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-05311/4091318-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg" title="f0014-05" width="715" height="540"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-06258/4091311-1-eng-US/f0014-062.jpg" title="f0014-06" width="220" height="221"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-07210/4091304-1-eng-US/f0014-072.jpg" title="f0014-07" width="710" height="588"></div><h2>CHICAGO HAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-08180/4091297-1-eng-US/f0014-082.jpg" title="f0014-08" width="260" height="227"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-09164/4091290-1-eng-US/f0014-092.jpg" title="f0014-09" width="714" height="589"></div><h2>CLEVELAND BARONS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-10148/4091283-1-eng-US/f0014-102.jpg" title="f0014-10" width="217" height="206"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-11132/4091276-1-eng-US/f0014-112.jpg" title="f0014-11" width="705" height="533"></div><h2>COLORADO ROCKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-12121/4091269-1-eng-US/f0014-122.jpg" title="f0014-12" width="197" height="176"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-13103/4091262-1-eng-US/f0014-132.jpg" title="f0014-13" width="707" height="485"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-1484/4091255-1-eng-US/f0014-142.jpg" title="f0014-14" width="249" height="131"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-1575/4091248-1-eng-US/f0014-152.jpg" title="f0014-15" width="712" height="621"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-1663/4091241-1-eng-US/f0014-162.jpg" title="f0014-16" width="167" height="170"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-1761/4091234-1-eng-US/f0014-172.jpg" title="f0014-17" width="717" height="616"></div><h2>MINNESOTA STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-1842/4091227-1-eng-US/f0014-182.jpg" title="f0014-18" width="243" height="216"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-1939/4091220-1-eng-US/f0014-192.jpg" title="f0014-19" width="711" height="592"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2037/4091213-1-eng-US/f0014-202.jpg" title="f0014-20" width="229" height="182"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2133/4091206-1-eng-US/f0014-212.jpg" title="f0014-21" width="708" height="616"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2230/4091199-1-eng-US/f0014-222.jpg" title="f0014-22" width="224" height="200"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2324/4091192-1-eng-US/f0014-232.jpg" title="f0014-23" width="712" height="511"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2422/4091185-1-eng-US/f0014-242.jpg" title="f0014-24" width="181" height="184"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2518/4091178-1-eng-US/f0014-252.jpg" title="f0014-25" width="708" height="537"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2618/4091171-1-eng-US/f0014-262.jpg" title="f0014-26" width="246" height="170"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2717/4091164-1-eng-US/f0014-272.jpg" title="f0014-27" width="712" height="564"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2817/4091157-1-eng-US/f0014-282.jpg" title="f0014-28" width="240" height="214"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-2916/4091150-1-eng-US/f0014-292.jpg" title="f0014-29" width="709" height="595"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-3014/4091143-1-eng-US/f0014-302.jpg" title="f0014-30" width="155" height="145"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-3112/4091136-1-eng-US/f0014-312.jpg" title="f0014-31" width="709" height="588"></div><h2>TORONTO LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-3211/4091129-1-eng-US/f0014-322.jpg" title="f0014-32" width="207" height="205"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-3310/4091122-1-eng-US/f0014-332.jpg" title="f0014-33" width="707" height="534"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-349/4091115-1-eng-US/f0014-342.jpg" title="f0014-34" width="179" height="125"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-355/4091108-1-eng-US/f0014-352.jpg" title="f0014-35" width="717" height="596"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-365/4091101-1-eng-US/f0014-362.jpg" title="f0014-36" width="173" height="102"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-374/4091094-1-eng-US/f0014-372.jpg" title="f0014-37" width="710" height="541"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011012/4090432-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="567" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON SALESKI The Bird Flies High</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02917/4090425-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="569" height="463"></div><h2>THE NHL&hellip;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03689/4090418-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="593" height="714"></div><h2>THE WHA&hellip;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04476/4090411-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="594" height="324"></div><h2>OTHER LEAGUES&hellip;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05346/4090404-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="591" height="241"></div><h2>COLUMNISTS&hellip;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06249/4090397-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="592" height="164"></div><h2>OTHER FEATURES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07158/4090390-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="592" height="124"></div> &#9632;

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WHERE YOU’LL FIND IT ALL INSIDE

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;Phil Esposito, the captain of the New York Rangers walked into the showers in the Rangers&rsquo; Madison Square Garden locker room. The Broadway Blueshirts had just beaten the supposedly superior New York Islanders 4-2 in the first confrontation between the arch rivals this season.As Espo stepped under the tap he spied this intrepid reporter and immediately left the shower.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re the guy who picked us for fourth in the Patrick Division, right?&rdquo; questioned Phil.We agreed that we did. but with the provision the Rangers would make the playoffs because of the new NHL wild card playoff qualifying system.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll bet you a dinner we finish second or third at the worst,&rdquo; challenged Phil.The deal was made and sealed with a hand shake. We hope we lose and if we do two of the more salient reasons will be Esposito and new goalie Wayne Thomas.Esposito has seven points in the Rangers first three games and is playing with elan and confidence.&ldquo;There is a different feeling here this year,&rdquo; said the former Boston Bruin. &ldquo;When we lost 5-0 (Saturday night Oct. 15 to Montreal) we didn&rsquo;t get down. We came back and beat the Islanders, a good win over a team from our division. They have been laughing at us for three years, but now when they play the Rangers they&rsquo;ll know they have to work.&rdquo;Chico Resch, the Islanders goalie summed up Esposito&rsquo;s improved play with, &ldquo;That old bugger was really flying.&rdquo;Esposito, as team captain, has changed the Rangers routine on game days. In the past, since the team practices at Long Beach, L.I., all but three players live on the Island. That meant on game days, the players would report in the morning, skate if ice was available, and then spend the afternoon at a hotel across from the Garden.&ldquo;We might as well be on the road doing that,&rdquo; pointed out Esposito. &ldquo;Now we stay home on game days instead of coming into the hotel. And they&rsquo;ve made a lounge for our wives so they don&rsquo;t have to stand out in the hall like cattle while they wait for us. It may sound like small potatoes to some people but it&rsquo;s important to us.&rdquo;When the Rangers play road games on Saturday nights and home games on Sunday&rsquo;s this year, they will go directly home from the airport on Saturday night. In the past they were bussed into New York and stayed at a hotel on 32nd street directly across from the Garden. Now they&rsquo;ll go to Long Beach where almost everyone lives, and won&rsquo;t be expected back until the afternoon of Sunday&rsquo;s game.With Esposito on target so far, it is also obvious that coach Jean Guy Talbot hopes that his new goalie, Wayne Thomas, becomes his number one-puck blocker. This observation is made despite John Davidson&rsquo;s two super efforts in wins over Vancouver and the Islanders. Thomas, a former Canadien, played against Montreal.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re darn glad to have Wayne on our side,&rdquo; said Talbot. &ldquo;He might still be with Montreal except for the Ken Dryden situation the year Ken sat out and didn&rsquo;t play. Thomas was the better goalie that season (42 games, 2.76 GA) but Bunny Larocque got the call in the playoffs.&rdquo;Some of the reason might have been French ethnic pride which tipped the scales in Larocque&rsquo;s favor. Larocque defeated Thomas in the Rangers first Forum visit, but the New Yorkers were outplayed and Thomas couldn&rsquo;t be faulted.The six-foot-one, 205-pound goalie is 30&mdash;and must establish himself now or perhaps never make it.&ldquo;The Rangers are a lot better than most people think,&rdquo; said Wayne. &ldquo;I think I have proved I can play in the NHL and this chance with New York should give me the opportunity to play regularly.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-0885/4090470-1-eng-US/f0002-082.jpg" title="f0002-08" width="572" height="843"><figcaption class="caption-body">PHIL ESPOSITO</figcaption></div><h2>NHL Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-0955/4090463-1-eng-US/f0002-092.jpg" title="f0002-09" width="586" height="666"></div> &#9632;

f0002-08

Rangers Won’t End Last In Patrick Division Race

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-10" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-1032/4090501-1-eng-US/f0002-102.jpg"></div><h2>Soviets Cancel Out Of NHL Series</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;The Soviet Union will not engage NHL teams this season after all. NHL president John Ziegler announced that the Soviets will not be coming as part of a mid-season visit by Soviet and Czechoslovakian teams that was to cover ail 18 league cities.Ziegler said that NHL member clubs had tried unsuccessfully to accomodate the Soviets&rsquo; tight scheduling requirements. The NHL will proceed with its exhibition series against two club teams from Czechoslovakia with games scheduled between Dec. 26 and Jan. 12. The NHL has not decided how many games will actually be played but the number will be either 10 or 11.<h2>Linseman Decision May Affect Pro Draft</h2>HARTFORD&mdash;The landmark decision of U.S. District Court judge T. Emmett Clarke could spell the end of professional hockey&rsquo;s amateur draft. NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill doesn&rsquo;t agree but Clarke&rsquo;s ruling forcing the WHA to honor the contract of underaged junior Ken Linseman, could be the beginning of the end of drafting 20-year-old juniors.Linseman, under contract to the Birmingham Bulls in defiance of a league ruling that the WHA would not touch underage juniors (19-year-olds), remained out of league action pending clarification of his court case. Once the ruling came down, Linseman suited up with the Bulls and scored two goals in his first few games. But the ruling is precedent setting. The court declared the WHA rule prohibiting the signing of underage players is in violation of U.S. anti-trust laws. The NHL insists the decision in no way affects their operation.<h2>Neeld Wins First Court Battle</h2>BUFFALO&mdash;Greg Neeld, waging a relentless battle to play professional hockey despite his limited eyesight, won his first courtroom victory when a federal judge temporarily forbade American Hockey League clubs based in New York state from enforcing the league&rsquo;s disability bylaw.U.S. District Court judge John T. Elfvin invoked the state&rsquo;s human rights law when he declared, &ldquo;blindness is a disability against which an employer may not discriminate unless sight in one or both eyes is shown to be an occupational qualification.&rdquo; The judge stated the AHL did not demonstrate that &ldquo;sight in both eyes is a bona fide occupational qualification.&rdquo; Neeld lost his eye during a junior hockey game some years back and has been barred from both the NHL and AHL because of his impaired sight.<h2>Habs&rsquo; Lost Weekend First Since 1975</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;The bubble has burst for the Montreal Canadiens and as far as the defending Stanley Cup champions are concerned, it will go down as a lost weekend.The Canadiens, who began the season with an auspicious eight-game unbeaten streak, suddenly came up empty handed in a pair of weekend games at home, the last place anyone expected the powerful Canadiens to be beaten. But the Habs ran into a pair of sizzling goaltenders&mdash;Gary Simmons of Los Angeles and young Don Edwards of Buffalo&mdash;and came away on the short end of 5-3 and 4-0 games. The double loss represented the first time Montreal had dropped back-to-back home games since January 1975 and the first time the Canadiens had lost two games in succession since March 1976. And if that wasn&rsquo;t enough, the feat of Edwards blanking the Habs marked the first time any goaler had turned the trick on Forum ice since November, 1976&mdash;a matter of close to 50 games.<h2>Woman Charged In Knifing Of NHL Player</h2>VANCOUVER&mdash;Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; defenseman Dave Hutchison isn&rsquo;t exactly the kind of guy you go around knifing. But it happened to the rough, tough Kings&rsquo; blueliner on a downtown Vancouver street and to compound the trouble&mdash;the knife wielder was a woman.Police said Hutchison and a teammate were returning to their hotel when he was slapped on the side of his head by a woman. She reached into her purse and produced a knife, swinging at Hutchison, cutting three of his fingers on his left hand. The Kings&rsquo; player needed six stitches to close the wound. A 32-year-old Vancouver woman has been charged. &#9632;

f0002-10

DEADLINE STOPPERS

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011019/4090546-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN DRYDEN&hellip;His Defense Is Super</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Rogatien Rosaire Vachon probably is the best goaltender in hockey today.The writers voted Ken Dryden ahead of him for first All Star laurels last season, but the players picked Rogie as number one in another poll.Presumably, players know more than writers. Doubtless they do not pay as much attention to statistics. Numbers are no way to measure a goaler.Dryden&rsquo;s numbers were a bit better than Vachon&rsquo;s last season, but Dryden had much more help from Montreal than Vachon had from Los Angeles.There simply is no comparison between the two teams. Canadiens control the puck 40 out or 60 minutes and have almost all All Stars on defense. The Kings are on the defense half of every game and have an ordinary defense.Dryden is one of the best, but Vachon may well be better. Consider Dryden with L.A. and Vachon with Montreal. You get the picture. Vachon might not give up much more than a goal a game with Montreal. Dryden, who has said he is bored playing with the Canadiens, would not be bored with the Kings.Of course, Vachon was with the Canadiens in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He helped them to two Stanley Cup conquests in three years. When Canadiens slumped, Dryden was brought in. He was bigger and younger. He was a sensation. But he did not perform better than Vachon had.Canadiens may not make many mistakes, but they made one when Rogie was traded to the Kings in 1971. Since then, Ken and Rogie have both been outstanding, but Rogie has been neglected. Two seasons back, he was sensational but the writers voted Bernie Parent the first All Star.The top team at the time, Philadelphia supported Parent better than L.A. did Vachon by far, but it is time hockey observers took a long, hard look at Vachon for first All Star and most valuable player laurels, the numbers be hanged, though they aren&rsquo;t bad.With Montreal, he shared a Vezina Trophy.Montreal&rsquo;s general manager Sam Pollock and coach Scotty Bowman showed what they thought of Vachon when they played him every minute of the Canada Cup classic prior to last season. Dryden wasn&rsquo;t available but other goalers were.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02876/4090539-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1160" height="1242"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROGIE VACHON&hellip;His Defense Is Ordinary (Photos by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>Vachon gave up only 10 goals in six games against strong international opponents. He was voted player of the game the only game he lost&mdash;1-0 to Czechoslovakia&mdash;and most valuable player of Team Canada when it won the series.He gave one of the great exhibitions of goaltending ever seen. Bowman said, &ldquo;He was unbelievable.&rdquo;At his best, he is almost unbeatable. He is not fancy, but fiercely competitive and uniquely quick. Like lightning. At times, he carries the Kings. One stretch last season he had five shutouts in 11 games, three in four games, and 115 consecutive scoreless minutes. Said his former coach Bob Pulford, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anyone better.&rdquo;He had the lowest goals-against of any active goaler going into the playoffs, but after brilliantly beating back Atlanta, his defense broke down in front of him and he gave up a lot of goals in the second-round defeat by Boston. However, he was so good at the end, Boston coach Don Cherry admitted, &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s a better goaltender in hockey, I haven&rsquo;t seen him.&rdquo;Starting this season, he scored two shutouts in his first three games. After stopping 41 shots on Long Island, new King coach Ron Stewart said, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s as good as any goaltending I&rsquo;ve seen in all my years in the game.&rdquo; Philadelphia scout Marcel Pelletier, a former goaler, who has Bernie Parent in goal for his own team, said, &ldquo;He has to be the best in the business.&rdquo;After Rogie stood off four straight minutes of power plays, the enemy fans gave the visitor a rare standing ovation, a true tribute. At home, the chant, &ldquo;Rogie, Rogie, Rogie,&rdquo; cheers him often.At 32, after 12 seasons in the big leagues, he says, &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m at my peak as a player.&rdquo; Short, but stocky, he says, &ldquo;Size doesn&rsquo;t help a goaler. I am quick and agile and that&rsquo;s what counts. It&rsquo;s not Dryden&rsquo;s size that makes him good, but his ability and intelligence. I&rsquo;m getting better with experience, I play smarter, and I feel young yet. Only Tony Esposito played more minutes than me last season. I believe I&rsquo;m the best, but I suppose Dryden and Esposito think they are.&rdquo;He is special, willing to talk openly about bad games as well as good ones. His wife says she worries because he doesn&rsquo;t worry the way goalkeepers usually do. He shrugs, &ldquo;I eat good, I sleep good, I play the game. I still love playing. The game has been good tome.&rdquo;On the final year of a five-year, $150,000-a-year contract, he lives in a fancy suburb near the ocean in a handsome house with his beautiful wife, Nicole, a former model; a son, Nicholas, five, and daughter Jade, three, an adopted orphan from Vietnam. They are awaiting the arrival of a child adopted from Korea. &ldquo;Life has been so good to us, we want to give something back,&rdquo; this real gentleman says.The Kings&rsquo; unbeaten string stretched through five wins and three ties in the pre-season and two wins and a tie this season before it was broken in a 3-1 loss in Cleveland. In this one, a shot hit his mask so hard he was stunned and had to be removed. The Kings held their breath until he rapidly recovered. He is the one player they could least afford to lose.<h2>How The Top NHL Goalers Compare</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03589/4090532-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1686" height="333"></div>Won Vezina in 1973,1976 & 1977. Won Smythe in 1971. Won Calder in 1972. &#9632;

f0003-01

CONTROVERSY RAGES WHO’S BETTER VACHON OR DRYDEN?

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011070/4090605-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="482" height="487"></div>&bull; HAROLD BALLARD, bombastic owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is making waves these days. The colorful and controversial Ballard says he&rsquo;s not going to have any Soviet or Czech teams playing in Maple Leaf Gardens this season. He also wants to know who authorized John Ziegler, NHL president, and Al Eagleson of the NHL Players Association to travel to Moscow and Prague to set up the upcoming series between the 18 NHL teams and two clubs each from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia&hellip; Milt Dunnell the crack columnist of the Toronto Star, wrote a whole column in which he points out where Ziegler&rsquo;s authority is being challenged&hellip; &ldquo;He met with the Russians and Czechs last February and agreed to work on something for this season, &ldquo;Ballard told Dunnell&rdquo;. &ldquo;But now I&rsquo;m told the Czechs and Russians are going to play one game each against the Leafs. They&rsquo;re not. For one thing we don&rsquo;t have dates for them. Also, I&rsquo;d like to be consulted before somebody else makes up my mind for me. I never authorized Ziegler to schedule these teams into my building,&rdquo; Ballard pointed out&hellip; Minnesota North Stars won their first game of the new season in major league fashion When they shut out the Boston Buins, 3-0&hellip; The Bruins claim they were given too many unnecessary penalties for their loss&hellip; Bobby Orr dropped the puck to start the new CHL season in Dallas. The Blackhawks of Dallas had one of their biggest opening night crowds in history on hand&hellip; Orr, incidentally, will appear as a commentator for some Hockey Night in Canada telecasts this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021025/4090598-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="298" height="473"><figcaption class="caption-body">Harold Ballard</figcaption></div>&bull; PITTSBURGH PENGUINS are hoping the team gets hot in order to end the annual &ldquo;football season&rdquo; attendance troubles. The Pens are disappointed in the crowds thus far this season&hellip; Jack Timmins, former commissioner of the North American Hockey League, is now working in the front office of the Philadelphia Firebirds. Timmins believes the North American League will be back in business next season. He says plans are being formulated along those lines right now&hellip; Fred Shero handed out a &ldquo;forever young food&rdquo; recipe to the Philadelphia Flyers and their wives. The idea is to blend such health foods as raw honey, wheat germ oil, sunflower seeds and crushed almonds. Where did Shero find the recipe? &ldquo;It was given by the Source,&rdquo; was all Freddie would say&hellip; Dennis Hull, recently retired as a member of the Chicago Black Hawks, plans to pursue a career in broadcasting. Hull, who scored 298 goals during his 13 years with the Black Hawks, will also be available for special assignments from the Chicago management. Dennis was known for his tremendous shot during his NHL career, maintained by many as the hardest in the league. He was also rated one of the best after-dinner speakers among the hockey fraternity&hellip; Top goal scorers in the WHA this season have been Richie Leduc of the Cincinnati Stingers and Bobby Hull of the Winnipeg Jets. Each scored six goals after only the first few games of the new season&hellip; Dave (Tiger) Williams of the Toronto Maple Leafs is doing his best to shed his goon image. He&rsquo;s tired of everyone thinking he&rsquo;s nothing but a brawler. He wants to be recognized as a hockey player with some skills.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03920/4090591-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="281" height="446"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tiger Williams</figcaption></div>&bull; RON GRESCHNER played his finest game as a pro against the Cleveland Barons in New York Rangers&rsquo; 5-0 shutout of the Ohio team. The promising young defenseman played a strong defensive game as well as making accurate passes to his forwards and being an overall takecharguy guy&hellip; New York Islanders are disappointed in their power play thus far this season. It&rsquo;s failed to be productive for a team that has had a strong power play in past years. Al Arbour, coach of the Islanders is not concerned, however. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure it will work itself out. And once we get going on that, watch out,&rdquo; Arbour warned&hellip; The NHL spokesmen are trying to convince the Soviets that they should exchange players for a season. Maybe Alexander Yakushev will play for New York or Philadelphia and Bobby Clarke or Rod Gilbert will play for the Moscow Dynamos. It will probably never happen but it makes interesting conversation and certainly would give hockey a needed shot in the arm if it could be worked out&hellip; Gary Smith, Washington Caps veteran goalie, lost 30 pounds since last summer and is playing excellent goal for the Capitals right now. The much travelled Smith knew it was the end of the line if he didn&rsquo;t make it with Washington and he seems to have made the effort under the close scrutiny of Tommy McVie, the no nonsense Washington coach, and we might add the McVie is fast becoming one of the most respected coaches in all of hockey&hellip; In the last 11 years, eight different coaches have won the Stanley Cup and four of the eight never played a game in the National Hockey League. The quartet is composed of Punch Imlach, Claude Ruel, Harry Sinden and Scotty Bowman.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04818/4090584-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="295" height="439"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Greschner</figcaption></div>&bull; WHEN WASHINGTON CAPS lost their first road game to Cleveland this season it marked their 100th road loss in history. The first year Caps were 139 on road. They won 5 the second year and 7 last year. Tom McVie says they&rsquo;ll have to get least 14 wins this year or forget their playoff dreams&hellip; Orest Kindrachuk has nine assists during the Flyers&rsquo; four-game unbeaten streak to open the season. Last season he didn&rsquo;t collect his ninth assist until his 28th game&hellip; When Ross Lonsberry scored after only nine seconds of the Flyers&rsquo; 11-0 rout of Pittsburgh, it was Philadelphia&rsquo;s fastest opening goal. Previous record was 12 seconds, by Reggie Leach, against Washington in 1974&hellip; University of Wisconsin, 1977 NCAA champions and WCHA title holders, are favorites again this season. The Badgers opening game against St. Louis University established a new attendance record of 8,632. It was the first time an opener was sold out&hellip; Harold Ballard told Milt Dunnell he&rsquo;s weary of the awe in which the NHL holds Montreal Canadians. &ldquo;Take the draft we held a few days ago. I gave up Wayne Thomas for $12,500 to Rangers but Detroit gives Sammy Pollock $50,000 for Paul Woods&rdquo;. Now warmed up Ballard continued: &ldquo;Who the hell ever heard of Paul Woods? There&rsquo;s a sample of what happens. Pollock grabs all the guys he can draft, sends them to Nova Scotia and sticks a Canadiens&rsquo; label on them. The rest of the league seems to think they&rsquo;re all Lafleurs. I&rsquo;m gonna tell Bruce Norris (Detroit owner) he must be off his rocker. They (Red Wings) signed Steve Durbano for $90,000; everybody had passed on Durbano&rdquo;.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05679/4090577-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="271" height="463"><figcaption class="caption-body">Orest Kindrachuk</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div>TORONTO&mdash;In the &ldquo;year of the defenseman&rdquo; in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s amateur draft, Trevor Johansen didn&rsquo;t rate all that highly on the books of some scouts.The crop of backliners was mighty impressive&mdash;Barry Beck, Robert Picard, Brad Maxwell, Doug Wilson and Scott Campbell. Some listings had Johansen, who was a solid if not spectacular defenseman during his three seasons with the Toronto Marlboros, at best, high in the second round.Toronto Maple Leafs had two first-round picks and they went on a small Marlie binge, using those selections to choose players from the junior team owned by Leaf boss Harold Ballard.Leafs used their own pick, No. 11, to choose right winger John Anderson, who&rsquo;s now mastering the trade at Dallas in the Central League. From a trade three years ago which saw winger Rick Kehoe go from Leafs to Pittsburgh Penguins, the Toronto team had the Pens&rsquo; pick and used it to claim Johansen as No. 12.While the more highly touted rookie rearguards have earned the attention during the pre-season games and the early segment of the season, Johansen has been a regular on the Leaf defense. His steady, consistent play has earned raves from the Leaf front office, perhaps the most important notices a youngster can receive.Johansen is a defensive defenseman. a young man who&rsquo;s content to stay on home turf and mind the store while his venturesome partner Ian Turnbull departs on the attack.To date, the rookie&rsquo;s play has been crisp and authoritative. He slowly raised his level of play to a good height in the early pre-season games and has maintained it there.&ldquo;The most impressive feature about Johansen is his consistency, his ability to play at a steady level in most games,&rdquo; said Leaf coach Roger Neilson.&ldquo;Many rookies are up and down but Trevor, so far, has been consistently strong.&rdquo;Johansen is a Thunder Bay native. His father, Red, was a fine senior and minor pro player but his name was shortened from Johansen to Johnson.&ldquo;Somehow, my dad&rsquo;s name was cut to Johnson and he thought it would be easier just to leave it like that,&rdquo; Trevor said.Johansen, at five-foot-nine, appears small on the ice but he weighs 200 pounds. He&rsquo;s extremely strong in the upper body and arms, as many opponents have discovered when they engage him in contests of strength.His style of play is reminiscent of the late Tim Horton, although he lacks the sheer power which Horton possessed. He stands his ground in the corners and in front of the net.NOTES: Leafs scored their first big win of the season in their fourth game, ending Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; romp out of the gate with a convincing 6-1 win at Maple Leaf Gardens&hellip;Leaf captain Darryl Sittier, whose play this fall had lacked some of its usual authority, scored three goals in that win and led the Leaf hitting&hellip;The split-up of Leafs&rsquo; top defense pair for the past three seasons, Borje Salming and Ian Turnbull, is permanent. Salming will work with Randy Carlyle while Turnbull and Johansen are the other pair.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-06404/4090636-1-eng-US/f0004-062.jpg" title="f0004-06" width="574" height="697"><figcaption class="caption-body">TREVOR JOHANSEN &hellip; Defensive-Minded</figcaption></div>The Hockey NewsOFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY FOUNDED 1947VOLUME 31 NUMBERS NOVEMBER 11,1977Kenneth W. McKenzie&nbsp;President and PublisherTom Murray&nbsp;Assistant PublisherCharlie Halpin&nbsp;Editorial DirectorPat Beale&nbsp;Advertising CoordinatorAdvertising Representatives:Toronto:Graham Campbell 11 Lotus Court Toronto. Ont M2H 1J6 (416) 492-9191MontrealPat Beale 1434 St. Catherine Street West. Suite 217 Montreal, Can. &bull; H3G 1R7 (514) 866-4841New York:Tom Murray 150 East 58th StreetNew York. N.Y. 10022 &bull; (212) 593-2100Chicago:Hooper & Jones Associates 3322 W. Peterson AvenueChicago. III. 60659 &bull; (312) 478-5544Published weekly except monthly June through September by W. C. C. Publishing Ltd., 1434 St. Catherine Street West Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7 &bull; (514) 8664841. U.S: c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp. 150 E. 58th Street. New York, N.Y. 10022 (212) 593-2100.YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES $11.95 In Canada, $12.95 In ths U.S.A, and $17.25 In Foreign Countries. Second class postage paid at New York N.Y. 10001 and at additional mailing Offices SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO 1434 ST. CATHERINE STREET WEST, SUITE 217, MONTREAL, CANADA H3G 1R7. Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All Inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should bo addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News, 1434 St. Catherine St. W., Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7. Printed 1n Canada. &#9632;

f0004-06

Rookie Johansen Taking Full Shift As Leafs’ Regular

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>ATLANTA&mdash;Michel Belhumeur, G, recalled from Tulsa of CHL as backup replacement for Dan Bouchard, who is on disabled list with eye injury. Ed Kea, D, placed on injury list.BUFFALO&mdash;Bill Stewart, D, and Derek Smith, C, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Alex Tidey, RW, and Jacques Richard, RW, assigned to Hershey. Robert Sauve, G, sent to Hershey.CLEVELAND&mdash;Darcy Regier, D, recalled from Phoenix of CHL. Bjorn Johansson, D, returned to active roster as replacement for Mike Christie, D, who is on disabled list for three weeks with cracked bone in his foot. Reg Kerr, LW, assigned to Phoenix of CHL.COLORADO&mdash;Joe Contini, C, recalled from Phoenix and reassigned to Flint of IHL.DETROIT&mdash;J.P. Leblanc, C, and John Hilworth, RW, assigned to Kansas City of CHL. Bob Krieger, C, recalled from Kansas City. Jerry Rollins, D, and Mike Wong, C, recalled from Kansas City of CHL and reassigned to Kalamazoo of IHL.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Mario Lessard, G, recalled from Springfield of AHL to replace Rogie Vachon, who is on disabled list for two weeks with head injury. Russ Walker, LW, and Lorne Stamler, LW, both assigned to Springfield. Dave Hutchison, D, and Dave Taylor, RW, on disabled list.MINNESOTA&mdash;Ron Zanussi, RW, and Tom Younghans, RW, recalled from Fort Worth of CHL. Bill Fairbairn, RW, placed on waivers and claimed by St. Louis. Bill Hogaboam, C, assigned to Fort Worth.N.Y. ISLANDERS&mdash;Pat Price, D, and Mike Kaszycki, C, assigned to Rochester of AHL.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Harvey Bennett, C, traded to Minnesota in exchange for Blake Dunlop, and North Stars&rsquo; third round draft choice in 1978. Rick St. Croix, G, recalled from Maine of AHL as backup replacement for Wayne Stephenson, who is on disabled list.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Gordon Laxton, G, assigned to Dayton of IHL. Jim Hamilton, LW, assigned to Binghamton of AHL. Mario Faubert, D, and Wayne Bianchin, RW, on disabled list.WASHINGTON&mdash;Dale Rideout, G, assigned to Port Huron of IHL. Alex Forsyth, LW, sent to Tulsa of CHL. Tony White, LW, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Garnet Bailey, RW, on disabled list.VANCOUVER&mdash;Derek Sanderson, C, released as free agent after recall from Tulsa of CHL. Syd Veysey, C, sent to Tulsa. Murray Bannerman, G, Ray Creasey, C, and Brian Drumm, LW, recalled from Tulsa and reassigned to Fort Wayne of IHL.<h2>WORLD HOCKEY ASSN.</h2>CINCINNATI&mdash;Michel Dion, G, signed as free agent after release by Indianapolis.BIRMINGHAM&mdash;Steve Alley, LW, recalled from Hampton of AHL.EDMONTON&mdash;Dave Semenko, LW, signed as free agent.HOUSTON&mdash;Andre Hinse, RW, released outright. &#9632;

Hockey Players On The Move

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01928/4090691-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">YVON LAMBERT&hellip; Paying Attention To His Checking</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;For everything there is a season, and for every line in the National Hockey League there is a reason&mdash;to badly paraphrase a biblical saying.In Montreal with the Canadiens there are usually four forward lines and one of them&mdash;the Yvon Lambert, Doug Risebrough, Mario Tremblay ensemble&mdash;might well be called a musical line, that is, their purpose is to change the tempo of the game.Center Doug Risebrough has been carrying the scoring load for the trio with three markers in the first four games and it wasn&rsquo;t until the seventh game of the season that left winger Yvon Lambert notched his first goal of the season, but the worth of this rambunctious threesome to the Habs goes far beyond the points they put up on the scoreboard.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a hard working line,&rdquo; says Lambert, &ldquo;you might compare us to (Stan) Jonathan and (Terry) O&rsquo;Reilly with Boston. Our job is to go out there and stir things up. We&rsquo;ve got to go into the comers and forecheck, that&rsquo;s how we play our game.&ldquo;Although it&rsquo;s always a relief to score your first goal of the season, because after that you feel that they&rsquo;ll start to come easier, I wasn&rsquo;t worried about scoring,&rdquo; said Lambert. &ldquo;Our line has played really well the last four, five, six games and the chances have been coming. We&rsquo;ve just been missing them by a bit.&rdquo;The chances for the opposition against the line, however, have been few and far between. In fact, the line has been on for just one goal by the opposition through the first eight games of the season, that coming in the first game of the season against Minnesota.&ldquo;And that goal was the result of a bad line change,&rdquo; Lambert was to mention, &ldquo;one line got caught up ice and came to the boards for a change. Our line went on but we were out of the play. Minnesota had a three-on-two and (Pierre Jarry) scored.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the pesty Canadiens&rsquo; &ldquo;change of pace&rdquo; line has been carrying the play into the offensive zone, keeping the puck away from their opponents and getting good chances to score.&ldquo;We have to be in top shape for our line to be effective,&rdquo; said Lambert, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ve got to skate every day even if it&rsquo;s only for a half an hour or so, just to break a sweat. That&rsquo;s how we can stay on top of our game.&ldquo;You know there&rsquo;s always 19 players ready to go with this Montreal team,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;so if you&rsquo;re not ready to play there&rsquo;s always someone there ready to take your place. That&rsquo;s how you keep a championship team. Personally, I would like to play all 80 games?&rdquo;After a pair of 32-goal seasons in 197475 and 1975-76, Lambert &ldquo;slipped&rdquo; last year to 24 goals and 15 points less overall, something which he attributes to not being on the power play.&ldquo;Last season I only had one power play goal, while the years I scored over 30 goals, I always had nine or 10 from the power play.&rdquo;What Lambert did do last year, and it obvious he has continued to perfect this year, is to pay strict attention to his defensive play.&ldquo;Scotty (coach Bowman) has said that I&rsquo;m getting better defensively,&rdquo; said Lambert. I&rsquo;m thinking about it more on the ice. Say in the last five minutes of a game, I&rsquo;ll really make sure that I pick up my check. We work on that in practice.&rdquo;Lambert also says he and his linemates are happy with the ice time they are receiving. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not as much as the (Jacques) Lemaire and the (Doug) Jarvis line, but it&rsquo;s pretty close and we&rsquo;re glad of that.&ldquo;You know the other teams are ready for us. Teams like Washington and Detroit who gave us a tough time on the road. But we have to ready because we&rsquo;re the champs. It&rsquo;s nice to be on top. Losing might create more pressure and we can do without that.&ldquo;Our line has to keep moving, keep working and we&rsquo;ll get the breaks,&rdquo; Lambert comcluded, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ve been getting a lot of two-on-ones and the more shots you get the more chances the puck has of going in.&rdquo;And the more chances this line has of changing the tempo of the game.FORUM REBOUNDS: Goaltenders Ken Dryden and Michel Larocque have both been experimenting with the Vladimir Tretiak-type bird-cage goalie&rsquo;s mask in practice, while Michel wore the mask for the first time in a regular season game against Washington&hellip;Rearguards Bill Nyrop and Guy Lapointe each missed a couple of games due to pulled groin muscles&hellip; Murray Wilson and Tremblay are the only Canadiens&rsquo; forwards without a goal. &#9632;

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Canadiens’ Change-of-Pace Trio Keeps Opposition From Scoring

<div class="byline">&#x2014; BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011101/4090722-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="347" height="474"></div><h2>Hockey No Longer Fun</h2>WHY WOULD A 32-YEAR-OLD man who has scored 298 goals for the same team retire from hockey?Perhaps because he feels unready, unwilling and unable to score his 299th even if he played with the same team&mdash;or any other team&mdash;if he skated until he was 62.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why I&rsquo;ve lost it, but I have,&rdquo; said Dennis Hull upon hanging up his Chicago Black Hawk skates the other day. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to play hockey any more. I don&rsquo;t think I can, the way I feel now.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been thinking about it for some time. Last year I found myself not getting up for games like I should, not being involved in them as much as I should have when they were going on. not feeling much emotion after they were over. It was not fun anymore, to use the old cliche. I wasn&rsquo;t involved.&rdquo;In other words, Hull felt he should give the Black Hawks their money back&mdash;which, in effect, he did by accepting a modest settlement on the remaining portion of a multi-year contract which was paying the veteran left wing six hefty figures.Of course, in doing so, Hull averted the implicit if not explicit threat that he was to become excess baggage under the new regime of general manager-coach Bob Pulford, who speaks softly but carries a big stick.Hull was not used very much during the exhibition schedule, when it became evident that there might be as many as four left wings ahead of him in camp. He was not taken to the opening game in Philadelphia, at which point Pulford mentioned that Hull was taking a brief sabbatical &ldquo;to ponder his future.&rdquo; And he was not included on the Hawks&rsquo; protected list in mid-October, a maneuver which Hull realistically deemed &ldquo;predictable&rdquo; because of his age, salary, and recent past.<h2>Others Not Interested</h2>OTHER TEAMS&rsquo; DISINTEREST in Hull gave license for the Hawks to banish him in mothballs someplace, which would have been demeaning to a 13-year NHL veteran who just a few years ago combined with Pit Martin and Jim Pappin to form the fearsome MPH line, one of the league&rsquo;s finest.Once upon a time he scored 40 goals, and another time 39, and twice he bagged 30. But last season, the beginning of the end, he managed 16, the team endured its worst season in two decades, and the only coach Dennis Hull ever knew&mdash;Billy Reay&mdash;was fired 72 hours before Christmas.&ldquo;Dennis never forget that,&rdquo; confided a teammate. &ldquo;He felt that somebody got Billy Reay, somebody too close for comfort.&rdquo;Hull publicly throws no darts, but he confides that Reay&rsquo;s sacking provided the final impetus for his January request to be traded. He wasn&rsquo;t helping the Black Hawks at that point, he admitted, and the only answer was a succinct end to the relationship.&ldquo;I felt bad for Billy&hellip;I like him a lot, I like Billy Wirtz a lot&mdash;he&rsquo;s done more for his players than people know,&rdquo; said Hull. &ldquo;I just wish I could have played better for them, but I wouldn&rsquo;t. I changed my mind a little bit about leaving this year. I came to camp all charged up and had a good first week, but after that it was all downhill again.<h2>At 32, He Wants Out</h2>&ldquo;WHAT CAN I SAY? Gordie Howe is 50 and he still enjoys every second of it. I&rsquo;m 32 and I want out. I guess a small part of the reason is that the fans in Chicago never liked me. When my brother left for Winnipeg in 1972, they figured the wrong Hull left, ho, ho. The other night I&rsquo;m sitting in the press box during an exhibition game, and they&rsquo;re yelling at me there. I&rsquo;m not even on the ice.&ldquo;What hurts more than that, though, is what happened to our team the last few years. When the Black Hawks used to walk into a hotel or airport, there was an aura about us. We lost some of that, and we lost some of our fans, too. It&rsquo;s too bad, but hopefully, they&rsquo;ll come back.&rdquo;But don&rsquo;t expect Hull to come back. Because reasons had to be given to satisfy the hungry, the Black Hawks announced that Hull might scout for them here and there when he isn&rsquo;t &ldquo;pursuing a career in broadcasting&rdquo;&mdash;a venue which certainly seems more fitting for the quick-witted Hull.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still on Chicago&rsquo;s list, and I&rsquo;ve had a few calls already from teams in the NHL and WHA,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;But I tell them all that it&rsquo;s a waste of time. I&rsquo;m leaving Chicago and leaving hockey. Just hope they don&rsquo;t give anybody the number 10 jersey for a while. I wouldn&rsquo;t wish that on anybody. Always did like road games better than home games. Who will they boo now?&rdquo; &#9632;

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HOCKEY TALK

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02847/4090753-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">HOT BIRD: Don Saleski soared to unaccustomed heights at the top of the NHL&rsquo;s points and goal-scoring list after the first two weeks of play. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;When you&rsquo;re leading the National Hockey League in goals scored and you&rsquo;re name isn&rsquo;t Lafleur, you must brace for the envitable needling. Examples:&ldquo;Hey, Saleski, you ought to get the league&rsquo;s scoring stats bronzed.&rdquo;Picking up a stick bearing Saleski&rsquo;s name, a visitor to practice asks, &ldquo;Are they sending one of these sticks directly to the Hall of Fame?&rdquo;It&rsquo;s all good-natured joking, of course, with the Flyers&rsquo; veteran right winger joining in. Informed that if he continued his amazing early-season scoring pace, he would finish the season with a worldrecord 130 goals, Saleski smiled and said, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t count on it.&rdquo;From nearby, captain Bobby Clarke chimed in with, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s okay, Bird, 120 would be all right.&rdquo;No one expects the 28-year-old Moose Jaw, Sask., native to challenge Guy Lafleur or Marcel Dionne for the Art Ross Trophy. Saleski&rsquo;s primary contributions to the Flyers are checking and scuffling in the comers. If he matches his 21 and 22-goal totals of the last two seasons and continues his other functions the Flyers will be satisfied.However, Saleski knows he can&rsquo;t be satisfied and expect to remain with the Flyers. Reggie Leach and Gary Dornhoefer are also on the right side, along with 21-year-old Paul Holmgren,&rsquo; the club&rsquo;s leading exhibition goal scorer. On stand-by with the AHL Maine Mariners are Al Hill, Tom Gorence and veteran Larry Romanchych.No one, not even Saleski, was prepared for his explosive start that had him scoring eight goals in Philadelphia&rsquo;s first six games to lead the NHL. Saleski had failed to score a point in 10 playoff games last spring. He was also pointless during the exhibition grind.&ldquo;Training camp isn&rsquo;t my favorite time of year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When things aren&rsquo;t going right, you can get down so easy, which I have a tendency to do.&rdquo;Saleski was down so far he needed a ladder to see the ice surface. Just when people were wondering where&mdash;or if&mdash;Saleski would play. Holmgren was suspended for the season&rsquo;s first three games for his part in the Flyers-Boston exhibition brawl.All &ldquo;Big Bird&rdquo; did was score two goals in the opening-night victory over Chicago. Two assists in an 8-2 rout of Pittsburgh followed, then he scored his second NHL hat trick against St. Louis and added his sixth goal in the 11-0 mauling of Pittsburgh.Saleski had no exotic explanation for his form reversal. One day in the outhouse, the next day the penthouse.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just been feeling good. Isn&rsquo;t it about time&mdash;after a month and a half of feeling horsefeathers?&rdquo;Like other Flyers, Saleski admits feeling chills over job security.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be crazy if I tried to tell you I thought I wasn&rsquo;t vulnerable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Most players will tell you they feel vulnerable, but that&rsquo;s usually the proper thing to say. I hadn&rsquo;t had a good training camp, I was fighting myself and nothing seemed to go right.&rdquo;&ldquo;I know the Bird was down on himself,&rdquo; said Dornhoefer. &ldquo;As a teammate you try to encourage him, but it&rsquo;s something the guy has to work out for himself.&rdquo;Although Saleski hasn&rsquo;t always pumped in goals or crunched bodies the way the Spectrum crowd thinks someone his size should, Fred Shero keeps the six-foot-two, 205-pounder in the lineup. As the Flyers&rsquo; coach has wearily explained over the years, Saleski is one of Philadelphia&rsquo;s most reliable defensive players.Saleski was also a reliable shoulder to lean on for Barry Ashbee&rsquo;s children. Saleski and his wife, Mary Ann, live near the Ashbee family and when the Flyers&rsquo; revered assistant coach died last May, Saleski was one of the first non-relatives to visit the Ashbee children.Saleski tried to fill the surrogate father&rsquo;s role for Ashbee&rsquo;s 13-year-old son Danny. In fulfilling his sad task quietly, the Flyers&rsquo; &ldquo;Big Bird&rdquo; gained wide respect.As it must, the gloom caused by Ashbee&rsquo;s death is lifting. With everyone connected with the family and Flyers needing some joy in their lives, people were especially pleased to see Saleski&rsquo;s fast start. He deserved it as much as anyone. &#9632;

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Flyers’ Tight Job Scene Gets Big Bird Saleski Up

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The closest thing to the chef&rsquo;s surprise this season for the Vancouver Canucks has been a fellow named John Grisdale.No laughs please. Some might argue that Grisdale isn&rsquo;t even a household name in his own household, but he has been one of the most pleasant aspects of the Canucks firm start this NHL season.Grisdale, the 29-year-old Toronto born defenseman formerly with the Toronto Maple Leafs, did not even figure to play in Vancouver this year. In fact, most observers of the team felt that if he made the club, they were in trouble.But Grisdale, whom by his own admission is no threat to win the Norris trophy, has been steady. In the team&rsquo;s first four games, in which they have won two and gained a tie, Grisdale has been the second best plus-minus defenseman on the team, save Harold Snepsts.Arnie Brown, the man the Canucks hired in an attempt to bring their goals-against down to respectability, says Grisdale has really made a contribution to the cohesion of the defense.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it, one of the reasons John is so important to us is that he shoots the puck righthanded and those people are few and far between in the league,&rdquo; said Brown. &ldquo;He was told that he had the chance to make the club at the beginning of the year, and he came to camp with a great attitude. He&rsquo;s been that way all the way through and I&rsquo;m sure if he keeps playing the way he has been, he&rsquo;ll be here for the duration.&rdquo;Grisdale is in the final year of a four-year contract he signed when he first came to the Canucks with Phil Maloney as the general manager. Naturally, with the big money days long gone in hockey, he hasn&rsquo;t yet been offered another contract.&ldquo;I can say that I&rsquo;ve played through the golden years of hockey for the player and I&rsquo;m in my last year. At the end of the season maybe we&rsquo;ll sit down and I&rsquo;ll get another contract, but we&rsquo;ll just have to wait until that time comes.&rdquo;Grisdale says that the change in management over the summer was what really changed his attitude about this hockey season.&ldquo;With the change and the new attitude, I was told that I should think about playing in Vancouver and not in Tulsa and that it was going to be an open training camp. I&rsquo;m sure they said that at first just to generate competition, which is part of their job. But they cared about me, and they&rsquo;re showing that they care about everyone on the team. It&rsquo;s creating a winning attitude so that it&rsquo;s fun to come to the rink.&ldquo;Last year, right from the start there was a negative attitude. I don&rsquo;t know what started it and I&rsquo;m sure you couldn&rsquo;t blame it on any one person, but once that sort of thing starts, it&rsquo;s hard to stop. This year it&rsquo;s different. Take for instance, that night in Denver just after we had blown our opening game. They (management) took us out for a fabulous meal in Denver. They didn&rsquo;t have to do that, but they wanted to show us they cared about what happens to us and that they want to build a winning attitude.&rdquo;Grisdale has been paired with Larry Carriere for the most part this year, and they have been two of the six defensemen coach Orland Kurtenbach has been using.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been very lucky so far in that I haven&rsquo;t been on for too many goals-against,&rdquo; said Grisdale. &ldquo;Things have been going really well, but I think that is because of the attitude on the club.&rdquo;What Grisdale speaks of is the fact that the Canucks were able to bring home three out of a possible six points from their first road trip and then win the opening game of a seven-game homestand against Detroit.In spite of the fact that the season opener looked like a replay of the Alamo, they somehow regained their composure.The man leading the Canucks offensively so far is Mike Walton, who has had points in every game and has been centering an effective line between Rick Blight and rookie Jere Gillis.Meanwhile, the Canucks bought up the contract of controversial center Derek Sanderson for around $80,000 of the $120,000 he had coming from the Canucks this year and have given him his release. He will undoubtedly. be signing with another team soon, the parting of the ways being most costly to the Canucks as they don&rsquo;t really have a center to replace him. Sanderson&rsquo;s agent Bob Woolf, the man who negotiated the $1 million settlement with the Philadelphia Blazers several years ago, says he has talked with several teams interested in gaining Sanderson&rsquo;s services.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01983/4090784-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="564" height="655"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN GRISDALE &hellip; Changed Attitude</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Grisdale Glue For Defense Unit

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011092/4090822-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="420" height="449"></div><h2>A Man On The Move&hellip;</h2>FREDERICK NELSON PYATT, known as Nelson or Nels or &ldquo;Nelly,&rdquo; has had a hard time establishing his name on National Hockey League rosters. He has played for three teams in the major leagues and one in the minors over the past four years and at one time they even let him leave the country for a season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure they even wanted me to come back,&rdquo; this agreeable, good-natured guy says with a laugh. A boyish-looking lad with a lot of brownish-blonde hair and a jaw that doesn&rsquo;t stop, he is the kind of character who doesn&rsquo;t take life too seriously and doesn&rsquo;t take himself too seriously.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02983/4090815-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="828" height="1269"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nelson Pyatt has played for three NHL clubs, plus a Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; farm club In Europe within the past four years. He&rsquo;s likes the Denver area, though, and would like to settle down there and help the Rockies become a good team. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>He only totalled 30 goals his last two seasons as a junior with the Oshawa Generals, but the slender left-handed center was a superior skater so the Detroit team took a chance on him in the third round of the summer, 1973 draft of graduating amateurs.After training camp that fall, the Red Wings offered him the choice of going to their American League farm club in Virginia, or a European affiliate in England. &ldquo;It was an easy choice. How many players get paid to see England?&rdquo; he points out. So Nels left to join the London Lions.&ldquo;DETROIT STOCKED THE TEAM and we played the best teams in Europe&mdash;Russia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and so forth. We didn&rsquo;t play in Russia, but we played in a lot of other countries and we got to see a lot of the world. We didn&rsquo;t play top teams all the time and I can&rsquo;t say the level of play was always high or I improved a lot, but it was enjoyable. Crowds were fair.&ldquo;We played our home games at Wembley Stadium, on ice laid over an old swimming pool. It wasn&rsquo;t too good, but some groupies lived in trailers behind the rink and that was great. The players lived in a hotel and accomodations were all right. The English aren&rsquo;t famous for their food, but it was all right.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t complain about the experience because it was a wonderful opportunity to do something different, but I can&rsquo;t say it helped my hockey career,&rdquo; he concludes.Returning to North American after scoring 35 goals in 61 games in Europe, Pyatt picked up three goals in 14 games in Virginia the following season. He also was blanked in nine games with Detroit. Having been blanked in five games with Detroit the previous season, the Wings sent him packing.&ldquo;By then, I was always packed and ready to move on,&rdquo; he says.That was the 1974-75 seasons, his second as a pro and first in this part of the world, and he wound up with a third team that season. Washington, in exchange for a third-round draft pick the following summer. He got six goals in 16 games with the Caps.The following season, the six-foot, 175-pound flyer ripped in 26 goals, which should have established him. However, he didn&rsquo;t come to terms with the team and declared himself a free agent. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t want to stay in one place too long,&rdquo; he laughs.HE SIGNED WITH COLORADO, Why? &ldquo;They were the only team that asked me,&rdquo; he says, still laughing. Of course, he was kidding, wasn&rsquo;t he? &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m not,&rdquo; he confesses. After a 26-goal season? &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why no one else wanted me.&rdquo;With the Rockies, he ripped in 23 goals. &ldquo;I can get goals,&rdquo; Pyatt points out. &ldquo;My problem is stopping the other guys from getting goals.&rdquo; There it was, then, defensive shortcomings have hurt his image. &ldquo;I guess so,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m working on it.&rdquo;Clearly he would like to last in the mountain country. A bachelor, he dropped in on Denver, found a nice girl named Kathy, and took her on a camper tour of Mexico this past summer. In the new way, they now are living together and loving life around Denver.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s spectacular country and we enjoy it a lot,&rdquo; Nels says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not tired of travelling, but I am tired of moving and would like to stay with one team. We&rsquo;re not the best team in the world, but we are building up and I&rsquo;d like to still be here when we get to be good.&rdquo;I hope I haven&rsquo;t made you think of him as a clown. He&rsquo;s just willing to laugh at himself.His face looked like he&rsquo;d been in a fight. &ldquo;I was, with big Dennis Ververgaert of Vancouver a couple of nights ago,&rdquo; Nels said. It looked like he&rsquo;d lost. &ldquo;Definitely,&rdquo; he laughed.Well, there are worse ways of making a living. Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in September of 1953, he used to work every summer on the grain elevators. &ldquo;Very hard work,&rdquo; he remembers. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m working hard here, but hockey is nothing like that. No matter how much I&rsquo;ve been moved around, this is a better life by a long shot. I really like life at the top and sure would like to earn myself a place to stay,&rdquo; the 24-year-old vagabond admits. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY DAN DONOVAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03833/4090853-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DENNIS HERRON&hellip;Has Learned The Angles (Photo By Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The Penguins would be off to a good start&mdash;if it weren&rsquo;t for Philadelphia. The Flyers inflicted heavy 8-2 and 11-0 losses to the Penguins that turned away many potential ticket customers.But if coach Johnny Wilson could blot those two games out of his mind, he would see many positive things. For instance, the Penguins are in much better shape physically this season, and they have a good, hard-work attitude.Goaltender Denis Herron started exceptionally strong, and earned the Penguins a 3-3 tie with the New York Rangers when he stopped 18 first period shots.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s surprising because I didn&rsquo;t have a good training camp,&rdquo; Herron said. &ldquo;Prony (Jean Pronovost) kept telling me &lsquo;stand up, stand up,&rsquo; but that is easier to say than do. When the season starts, you are a little more careful.&rdquo;With the start of the season, Herron was suddenly standing up all the time and thwarting his foes.&ldquo;When Denis and I were both with the Penguins, you could see he was going to be a good goaltender,&rdquo; said the Rangers&rsquo; Greg Polis, who tipped one of the New York goals past Herron. &ldquo;He had the reflexes and the ability, all he had to do was learn the angles. Now he has learned the angles and he&rsquo;s a pretty good goaltender.&rdquo;In his maturation as a goaltender, Herron is also attempting to handle the puck more.&ldquo;I did work on that at training camp.&rdquo; Herron said. That&rsquo;s about the only thing I did right. The guys aren&rsquo;t used to me handling the puck yet, but when they are, it could help a lot.&rdquo;A younger Herron used to freeze the puck every time it approached his crease, so the Penguins constantly had faceoffs in their end of the ice. Herron decided if he was going to progress as a goaltender, he had better learn how to move the puck out of danger.He had a good example to follow, too, as the other Penguin goaltender, Dunc Wilson, handles loose pucks as well as any goaltender in the league. Wilson passes well and is a master of flicking shots that just clear the glass and go into the crowd.They are close enough to the glass that the referee can&rsquo;t call a penalty, yet they take the Penguins momentarily out of trouble.As the Penguins got into the season, coach Wilson&rsquo;s tendencies began to show. He did a bit of line-juggling, since the Penguins&rsquo; lineup included five right wings and, for the most part, two left wings.In general, he kept Jean Pronovost with Syl Apps, with Lowell MacDonald stepping in at left wing until a back injury compounded his knee trouble.Wilson then moved Pronovost to left wing, with Jacques Cossette and Lew Morrison sharing the right side.The Penguins&rsquo; best line in the early going featured center Greg Malone with right wing Blair Chapman and left wing Mike Corrigan.Pierre Larouche, a little off-stride because of pre-season surgery, was slow in coming around. But teamed with Spinner Spencer and Hartland Monahan, the Penguins have high hopes for that line.Coach Wilson used mostly four defensemen, inserting Bob Paradise and Russ Anderson only in tough games or ones that were bunched together. Ron Stackhouse, off to a good scoring start, was paired with Colin Campbell while Dennis Owchar played with Dave Burrows.Wilson alternated his goaltenders, even though Dune Wilson didn&rsquo;t have nearly as good a start as Herron. Wilson missed most of training camp with a groin problem and the coach felt he needed to play to get into shape.PENGUIN NOTES: The Penguins were pleased with the talents of their top draft choice, left wing Jim Hamilton, but figured he needed some playing time so they sent him to Binghamton&hellip;The Penguins have only three &ldquo;pro&rdquo; farm teamers. Hamilton, defenseman Tom Price and goaltender Gordon Laxton. Laxton is playing in Dayton of the International League. &#9632;

f0008-03

Herron’s Maturation, Club’s New A ttitude Positive Pens’ Signs

<div class="byline">BY HARRY KLAFF</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;It was only a few short weeks ago that THE HOCKEY NEWS published its annual writers&rsquo; poll to see who would loom as the favorites and dark horses in the four divisional races this year.In the Patrick Division, 15 cf the &ldquo;experts&rdquo;&mdash;this &ldquo;expert&rdquo; included, picked the Islanders to unseat the Philadelphia Flyers as king of the hill. No one knows what went on in the minds of the crystal ball prognosticators, but certainly standing high among the reasons were that a) the Flyers were on the way downb) the Islanders were on the way up andc) picking the Islanders was the &ldquo;in&rdquo; thing to do.It didn&rsquo;t take the casual observer very long&mdash;less than a week, in fact&mdash;to realize that if the Islander team that opened the season were a first place team, then the Flyers must be the Kindergarten Killers.After four games, the Isles log stood at 1-2-1, hardly a record-breaking pace. All the games were close, and the Islanders certainly had their share of &ldquo;couid&rsquo;ves&rdquo;and &ldquo;should&rsquo;ves&rdquo;. But the distressing point is that a true first place team would have won all four.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised by our general lack of aggressiveness,&rdquo; said a perplexed Al Arbour after the Islanders had dropped a 42 decision at Madison Square Garden in the third game of the season. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re grown men now; not children What do I need to drive a point home?&rdquo;Actually, Arbour shouldn&rsquo;t have been so surprised. Although the pre-season slate counts for naught, it was apparent since the end of September that the Islanders were just going through the motions. They didn&rsquo;t have the usual zip that has become the Islander trade mark. The Isles that Arbour knew would hit anything that moved. Now they looked to get out of the way.Arbour&rsquo;s charges opened the season in Buffalo, prepared for what would probably be a tough contest. But unlike difficult confrontations in the past, the Isles came out on the short end of a 3-2 count. Excuses could have been made: Buffalo is a strong team, it was their home opener, etc.The Isles took their next game, a 3-1 decision over the listless Bruins at the Coliseum. Only a goal in the last minute ruined Bill Smith&rsquo;s shutout bid, but still, things did not look right. The New Yorkers were sloppy in their own end again, and the only check the coach saw was one signed by his employer.Still, a win is a win is a win, and the Islanders went to Manhattan lor a meeting with the vastly improved Rangers with their spirits up. Glenn Resch played his first game of the season and was razor sharp, but glaring errors by his teammates did him in. Resch surrendered three goals, the last two from about six inches out, with the final tally landing in the empty net in the closing seconds.By the time the Isles took to the ice against the L.A. Kings on October 18, frustration began to appear on everyone&rsquo;s face. And then they had to face Rogatien Vachon.The Isles threw everything at the Kings&rsquo; netminder&mdash;41 shots in all but nothing went in. Resch, meanwhile, was throwing a whitewash of his own, although he had considerably less to do.The 0-0 stalemate left the Isles in a tie with the Atlanta Flames for third place in the Patrick Division, as Philadelphia quickly appeared to be light years away at 4-0-0.There have been a number of problems plaguing the Islanders, some new, and some not so new.Offense has always been a comparatively weak spot, but things were supposed to be significantly better this time. The addition of top draft pick, Mike Bossy, alone was expected to propel the team upward. Bossy did deliver at the start, and was the club&rsquo;s scoring leader after the first week at 2-2-4, but no one else did. Neither Bill Harris nor Bob Nystrom&mdash;both of whom must have excellent years if the Islanders are to have a true crack at the Cup&mdash;managed a single point.As the Islanders improved their fortunes oven the past couple of seasons, they especially prided themselves on superb penalty killing and consistent scoring on the power play.Yet this year, both have been sore spots. Big ones. The penalty killing unit surrendered two power play goals to the Sabres, and two more to the Rangers. Needless to say, in both games such goals proved decisive.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011054/4090884-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="558" height="895"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE BOSSY&hellip;Rookie Showing Way</figcaption></div>And the power play&mdash;which only two years ago tied a NHL record&mdash;was literally non-existent. After 13 tries, the Islanders were still looking for their first goal while a man to the good.Arbour hopes that his team is adult enough to realize that the only reason they had done as well as they have in the past was pure, simple hard work. If they don&rsquo;t, it could be a longer season than anyone could have imagined.ISLAND SOUNDS: Bill Harris played in his 400th consecutive NHL game against the Kings&hellip;Bill Smith signed a new, multi-year contract with the Isles, the terms of which were not disclosed&hellip;Bert Marshall missed the first two games of the season with a sore back&hellip; Bryan Trottier rocketed to a fast start with four points in the first three games. Last year he missed the first four with a knee injury&hellip;Jean Potvin and Pat Price have generally been the odd-men to sit out, with Arbour dressing Gerry Hart, Denis Potvin, Dave Lewis, Marshall, and Stefan Persson for his blueline core. &#9632;

f0009-01

Isles Not Playing With Accustomed Vigor

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div>CHICAGO&mdash;He is so smooth, so smart, so quietly confident, that you look for a trace of a gray hair.But, no, Doug Wilson is only 20-years-old. despite the way in which he traverses the ice for Chicago&rsquo;s Black Hawks this rookie season.Bob Pulford, the team&rsquo;s general manager-coach, is ver-r-ry careful about what he says.Bobby Orr, who was so smooth, so smart, so quietly confident when he played this game better than anybody else, observes with a twinkle in his eye.And the players who play with him give out with those approving nods, as though to say that this kid has it, has everything, has more than one would expect at so ripe an age. By the time he&rsquo;s eligible to drink legally, in Illinois, who knows how good Doug Wilson will be?The Black Hawks can&rsquo;t wait. Their No. 1 draft choice, a defenseman whose actions definitely speak louder than his words because he says almost nothing, has made it so big. So far.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02895/4090915-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="573" height="783"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG WILSON&hellip;More Than Expected</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I was prepared for what happened either way,&rdquo; said Wilson. &ldquo;If they had sent me down to Dallas, I wouldn&rsquo;t have been surprised. And now that they&rsquo;ve kept me, I&rsquo;m happy. I thought I would have a chance to stick with a new coach coming in and making changes.&rdquo;Wilson, brother of Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; forward Murray, came to the Hawks with the reputation as a player who attacked better than he defended. There was even talk of making him a left wing.But, while exhibiting a fine shot as triggerman on the powerplay, plus exceptional offensive instincts elsewhere, Wilson has fit Pulford&rsquo;s disciplined style like a glove.It is a style that is defensively inclined, but not to the point of tedium, not to the point where playmaking is gone, creativity crushed, or agression discouraged. On the contrary, it is people like Wilson who could help the Black Hawks take the game to opponents rather than give it away as has happened so often in recent winters.&ldquo;My first three years as a junior, I was mostly a rushing defenseman, said Wilson. &ldquo;Then, in my last season, the coaches wanted to prepare me for the NHL more, and I didn&rsquo;t rush as much. I concentrated on not getting caught up ice.&ldquo;Up here, the speed of the game is greater. Nobody hesitates. Everybody knows what to do the moment he gets the puck. Moves are more instinctive.&rdquo;Wilson scored 25 goals and added 54 assists last season for Ottawa before the Hawks drafted him from their sixth spot in the order. Already, perhaps unfairly, he is being touted as the best looking freshman in the league.But pressure is not likely to ruffle Wilson, who can give thanks that Murray provided the odd tip of advice.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s six years older but he still helped,&rdquo; said Doug, a wide six-foot-one, 185-pounder. &ldquo;We made a bet last season on who would play longer. I had to go to the Memorial Cup finals and the Canadiens had to win the Stanley Cup finals in four straight for me to win the bet. I won the bet and Murray took the family out for a night on the town to celebrate.&rdquo;Now, it is the Black Hawks who are celebrating. They haven&rsquo;t drafted well every year. In 1977, they drafted well.HAWK TALK: Dennis Hull&rsquo;s departure from the Black Hawks means that for the first time since 1957, there won&rsquo;t be one of the Hull brothers playing in Chicago&hellip;Don&rsquo;t look for Dennis to change his mind about retiring to join brother Bobby in Winnipeg&hellip;Hull&rsquo;s immediate plans were to leave his home in Chicago around December 1, and head for upstate New York, where he could pursue another favorite vacation&mdash;skiing&hellip;As for Hull&rsquo;s plans to enter broadcasting, they don&rsquo;t include any immediate involvement with the Hawks. Hull, however, has been tapped as an after-dinner speaker from time to time and left &lsquo;em rolling in the aisles. &#9632;

f0009-02

Defensemen Wilson Dazzles Chi-Hawks With Confidence

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011079/4090946-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div>Write to: FAN FORUM, The Hockey News, 1434 St. Catherine St, W., Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7<h2>Agrees With Earlier Fan Letter</h2>I would also concur with one of the Fan Forum letters in October issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS.I am referring to the Hockey Ad-Lib article on Gilles Gratton which was amusing and informative. I would also enjoy reading more articles like that one and look forward to more of the same by Bill Libby.And speaking of the comical side of hockey, I also enjoyed the hockey cartoons in past issues. THE HOCKEY NEWS is still the best all round publication for any hockey fan.GERRI FRASER, Nipigon, Ont.<h2>Rockies Last? Wait And See</h2>I couldn&rsquo;t believe when just about all of THE HOCKEY NEWS writers picked the Colorado Rockies to finish last in the Smythe Division&mdash;including the scribe from Denver! The Rockies are even stronger this year and should seriously be considered a playoff candidate for the coming 77-78 season.Following the Rockies from Kansas City, I found it incredible that they opened their exhibition season so early in &lsquo;76&mdash;just a few short weeks before the season began! And they put a contender on the ice from the beginning&mdash;busting from the gate and holding either third or fourth place much of the year and even creeping as close as five points to the second place Blues at one time.I never heard so much as a whisper from the papers about that. They just wrote the Rockies off from the beginning and ignored them the rest of the campaign. I heard enough about the attendance alright. But what team would have had the courage to even attempt what the Rockies accomplished.Did you know that they swept the not always lowly Red Wings four of four? That they tied the invincible Canadiens&hellip;at the Forum? That their attendance steadily rose from beginning to end gaining four stiaight 10,000 plus dates at McNichols?Did you know that of the 42 losses 11 were by one goal? And 15 others by two? They boasted what should have been the Rookie of the Year in the person of Paul Gardner. They placed 15th in scoring in the NHL by sensation Wilf Paiement, who just happened to quietly score sixth highest mark for goals with 41. They knocked off the Bruins at the Boston Garden and, when a final season drought stretched to a painful winless 18 games, they played an April Fool&rsquo;s joke on the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks, you&rsquo;ll remember, tried to sneak up the standings with the shaken North Stars at season&rsquo;s end. In front of the usual fullhouse at the Pacific Coliseum, the Rockies tallied four times in the third period&mdash;ended the 18-game skein and knocked Vancouver out of playoff contention. How sweet it was!Colorado is a class franchise all the way. I&rsquo;ve written the team several times since its beginning, and I&rsquo;ve always received cheerful, helpful and fast responses to my questions and requests for souvenirs. They deserve better luck this year, and I&rsquo;m modestly predicting a third place finish if not higher.BILL FLYNN, Rochester, N.Y.<h2>Thomas&rsquo; Release Disappoints Leaf Fan</h2>Being an avid Maple Leaf fan I would like to express my disappointment on the recent release of Wayne Thomas.Thomas led the Maple Leafs to one of their most productive seasons in recent years back in 1975-76. Although he did have his difficulties last season he proved himself against the Pittsburgh Penguins when he defeated the Penguins in Pittsburgh on opening night of the playoffs. I feel the New York Rangers made a wise move when they obtained Wayne Thomas.I am sure Maple Leaf fans all over Canada and the United States feel the same way I do and wish Wayne Thomas all the best in New York.PAUL SMITH, Burlington, Ont.<h2>Talent Is There For Colorado Rockies</h2>Someone had better take another look at the Colorado Rockies. Last place, hell! Last year the Rockies tied the Canadiens in the Forum 3-3 and beat Boston in Beantown 6-4. Right, two games do not make a season. My point is that the talent is there. All that is lacking is consistency. Without the late season losing streak (18 games), the Rockies would have made last year&rsquo;s playoffs.Colorado&rsquo;s players never give up; they play every game to the final buzzer. With an improved defense and good team play the Rockies will win 30 to 35 games and finish second in the Smythe Division (behind St. Louis, not Chicago).One might think I am a dreamer, but I have been around hockey all my life and know when a team has guts and the will to win. Colorado&rsquo;s got it.BILL BAYNE, Tucson, Ariz.<h2>Predictions Risky, Should Be Objective</h2>I&rsquo;ve been an avid reader of THE HOCKEY NEWS for 15 years, and felt this might be of interest to you. Predictions are always risky, but should be objective.In your latest NHL selections for the 1977-78 season, no less than nine writers picked their home team to win their division. Four picked their teams to finish second and two picked their teams to finish third and fourth.Only one (Larry Bortstein) picked his team, Colorado, to finish last. Congratulations to Larry on his objectivity.It&rsquo;s all academic&mdash;Montreal will win it all.DON CHANTEMERLE, Phoenix, Ariz.<h2>Reader Delighted By Collegiate Hockey Coverage</h2>As a long time subscriber to your paper, I was delighted over your coverage of Metropolitian Collegiate Hockey Conference last season. It was a shot in the arm for local hockey and a boost to the teams.I hope you continue this coverage of the M.C.H.C. this season, not only for the good of this area, but personal reasons as my 17-year-old starts to play in the conference this season.FRANK NASTASI, Wayne, N.J.<h2>LETTER OF THE WEEK</h2><h3>Retiring Sweaters Doesn&rsquo;t Promote Tradition</h3>One of several definitions of tradition is &ldquo;cultural continuity in social attitudes and institutions.&rdquo;According to Brad Park, the New York Rangers are tearing down tradition by not retiring sweaters. This also makes New York a &ldquo;hellish place to play.&rdquo; The logic of these remarks, coming from a professional hockey player, escapes me. Just what sort of relationship exists between tradition and retired sweaters (jersey numbers)? Does a hard-working, loyal garbage truck drive have his registration plate number retired because he has an accident-free career? Does a jail retire the serial number of a longterm model prisoner?If tradition is a continuity then all teams who have retired sweaters should cease the practice immediately and restore their numbers for the purpose numbering was intended. That is as an identifying symbol for the spectator who takes the trouble to purchase a program. In these days of almost constant grumbling and threats by players against management, why should a numeral be retired if the player might jump to another league?The Rangers have had a long tradition of great players. Had the club adopted the ludicrous practice of retiring sweaters the lowest available number, by the 1970&rsquo;s would have been 13. Mr. Park would never have had a crack at &ldquo;2&rdquo; because either Earl Seibert or Art Coulter, members of the Hockey Hall of Fame, made it famous well ahead of him in an era mercifully innocent of slap shots, tip-ins, and less skillful scoring methods.Let&rsquo;s review the next 10 numbers worn by famed Rangers. 3&mdash;Ching Johnson and Harry Howell, 4&mdash;Bill Gadsby, 5&mdash;Bill Cook, 6&mdash;Neil Colville, 7&mdash;Frank Boucher, 8&mdash;Lou Fontinato, 9&mdash;Andy Bathgate, 10&mdash;Edgar Laprade, 11&mdash;Babe Pratt, and 12&mdash;Bryan Hextali. Seven of these 11 men are enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Fontinato and Bathgate were tremendous crowd favorites and Edgar Laprade was one of the finest stickhandlers and penalty killers of all time.Certainly the most deserving of number retirement during the first decade of the Rangers was Frank Boucher but the club management showed greater wisdom in reserving the number for a deserving player. The talented Phil Watson wore it for almost 10 years and then it was passed on to captains Don Raleigh, Red Sullivan and then Rod Gilbert. This is truly &ldquo;tradition&rdquo; at its finest. Long term, intelligent fans appreciate the current wearer of a special number and recall with pleasure its previous owners.It would be great to see Yvan Cournoyer wearing number seven or nine on the Canadiens or even Brad Park sporting Eddie Shore&rsquo;s old number two on the Bruins. I think Mr. Shore might agree.DONALD O&rsquo;HANLEY, Middletown, R.I. &#9632;

f0010-01

FAN FORUM

1. Who was the first player to score a hat trick In the NHL this season?Guy Lafleur &#8411; Craig Ramsey &#8411; Don Saleski &#8411;2. Who was the first goaltender to earn a shutout this year?Ken Dryden &#8411; Mike Veisor &#8411; Rogie Vachon &#8411;3. When Toronto defeated Philadelphia in consecutive regular season games recently, it was the first time it happened since:1973 &#8411; 1969 &#8411; The Flyers entered the NHL &#8411;4. Though he hadn&rsquo;t earned a point in his team&rsquo;s first six games, this man was the NHL penalty minute leader?Andre Dupont &#8411; Bryan Watson &#8411; Jack Mcllhargey &#8411;5. Which team had the first pair of three-goal scorers in the same game?Montreal &#8411; Buffalo &#8411; Philadelphia &#8411;6. Who was the first four-goal scorer In the WHA this year?Bobby Hull &#8411; Real Cloutier &#8411; Rich Leduc &#8411;7. Match these players with their WHA teams:Joe Noris IndianapolisAndre Lacroix BirminghamBobby Sheehan Houston8. Which of these WHA goaltenders has never played in the NHL?John Garrett &#8411; Al Smith &#8411; Ken Broderick &#8411;9. Which of these players was acquired in the 1977 Intra-league draft?Walt McKechnle &#8411; Dave Elenbaas &#8411; Dave Forbes &#8411;10. Which player has the lowest jersey number in the NHL?Ed Staniowski &#8411; John Davidson &#8411; Dune Wilson &#8411;<h2>Quick Quiz Answers</h2>1. Don Saleski 2. Rogie Vachon 3. Since 1967-68 when the Flyers came into the league 4. Andre Dupont 5. Buffalo 6. Rich Leduc 7. Noris-Birmingham, Lacroix-Houston, Sheehan-Indianapolis 8. John Garrett 9. Dave Forbes 10. John Davidson (00). &#9632;

Fans’ Quick Hockey Quiz

<h2>Most Interesting Rookie</h2>THE MOST DISCUSSED rookie in the National Hockey League this season? Is it Dale McCourt, Barry Beck, Jere Gillis, Kevin McCarthy or Robert Picard, some of the fine young players making their big league debuts?No, the freshman who has attracted the most attention is not a player. He&rsquo;s Roger Neilson, the new coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He&rsquo;s the man who&rsquo;s garnered the most ink and interest to date this season among the first-year crop.Neilson is no publicity hound. In fact, he found that his most I difficult adjustment to the NHL is handling the Toronto media, the heavy horde of writers plus the seemingly endless flock of little men with their tape recorders and bland, repetitive questions.For years, Neilson has been viewed as a minor genius, a sort of mad-man, for his work with Peterborough juniors. That view was based on his assorted pranks and ploys through a long career in coaching minor hockey and baseball teams.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011053/4091032-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="536" height="603"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROGER NEILSON</figcaption></div>But those in the game knew that Neilson was an extremely sound coach, an excellent teacher who often transformed collections of very ordinary junior talent into strong teams. When he made his pro debut in &lsquo;76-77 with Dallas Black Hawks of the Central League and took a team of mediocre players to second place despite frequent raids by the parent teams (Leafs, Chicago), it was apparent that Neilson was a young (43) man with major league potential.The Leafs like the work Neilson did with their young players and Dallas and when they decided to tie the can to Red Kelly, Neilson was hired.There&rsquo;s been a tendency to over-rate Leafs during the past few seasons. It happened again during the off-season&mdash;the view that all the Leafs needed to be a winner was a good coach and Neilson seemed to be the man.<h2>No Miracle Worker</h2>THE FIRST THING to be established about Neilson is that he is not a miracle worker who will instantaneously change the Leafs into a Stanley Cup team. Leafs opened the season with a win and a tie in their first three games, surrendering 12 goals. That indicates that Neilson&rsquo;s No. 1 priority for the team&mdash;a reduction in goals-against&mdash;won&rsquo;t be any easy task.When Neilspn took the job, he made no large statements about his plans. His goals were modest ones&mdash;chipping 46 goals-against from the team&rsquo;s 285 of last season. Any bragging about what he&rsquo;d do for Leafs was mouthed by owner Harold Ballard.Instead, Neilson has been what hockey people felt he could be&mdash;a sound coach, a strong teacher, a man who pays enormous attention to detail and, as a bachelor, a chap who&rsquo;s prepared to devote every waking hour to his job.Although he can improve the club, no coach can overcome a team&rsquo;s lacks. In Leafs&rsquo; case, the big shortcoming is physical players, especially wingers who will pay the price in the pits, taking the hit to make the play.<h2>Complete Videotapes</h2>NEILSON WON HIS first point with the Leafs when he wanted his own videotapes of all games. Part of the Leaf equipment on all road trips is the video machinery. Neilson has college kids lined up in each city to run the camera, which covers the entire ice surface.&ldquo;The tapes I had to study of last year&rsquo;s game were from television.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They contained too many close-ups of the action to be really useful. I wanted a full-ice view of the game because the fellow who causes a goal to be scored often is out of the TV picture.&rdquo;Neilson breaks down those tapes into a statistical evaluation of every player&rsquo;s performance.Undoubtedly Neilson eventually will do a big job for the Leafs in the way that the last coach to arrive to some new ideas, Fred Shero, did for Philadelphia Flyers. But it will take him time, just as it did Shero. &#9632;

f0012-01

Neilson Coaching Genius But Success Takes Time

<div class="byline">BY ALAN TRUEX</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011012/4091063-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAN BOUCHARD&hellip;Gets Nod To Start (Photo by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>ATLANTA&mdash;Ever since the Atlanta Flames franchise was formed, the team&rsquo;s goaltending rotation has been Phil Myre, Dan Bouchard, Phil Myre, Dan Bouchard. The two Frenchmen have shared the job virtually 50-50, with neither one spending more than one or two games on the bench before taking his turn again.But this year, coach Fred Creighton has announced that things will be different. &ldquo;I spoke with both goaltenders in training camp,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I said if one of them got hot, I would go with the hot goaltender for awhile.&ldquo;I felt Dan had a bit of an edge in training camp, so I went with him.&rdquo;Bouchard started the season with a sharp 2-2 tie in Boston Garden, where he saved 26 shots. Then Creighton started him the next game, and he beat St. Louis 3-1.So even though Myre normally plays against Minnesota, Creighton decided to go with Bouchard against the Nort Stars in game No. 3. Again, Bouchard was excellent, winning 5-1.By now, the Flames were off to their best start ever, and Creighton did not want to tamper with a good thing. Thus, in game No. 4, a key intradivision contest with the New York Islanders, Bouchard got the call one more time. And again, he responded with a strong game, saving 33 shots in a 3-3 tie to keep the Flames undefeated.&ldquo;I know this is gonna create problems,&rdquo; Creighton allowed. &ldquo;Phil isn&rsquo;t going to like sitting out these games.&rdquo;Right. As Myre put it, in a restrained but blunt manner, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m anxious to get to play. This is October, not January, and I need to get in some games.&rdquo;For Bouchard, the situation was, of course, ideal. He spoke out last year against the equal-time system. He said he needed to play 60 games a year to feel sharp, and if he didn&rsquo;t get to play more, he wanted to be traded. &ldquo;Trade me, or trade Phil,&rdquo; he said.This year Bouchard has been playing more and playing far better than he did last season, when his goals-against average expanded to 3.51&mdash;one goal per game higher than it was in 1975-76.Bouchard&rsquo;s problems last year began when he was cut from Team Canada. &ldquo;That destroyed his confidence,&rdquo; observers claimed.At any rate, it destroyed his offseason training routine. &ldquo;I like to throw balls up against the wall in my basement in the summer,&rdquo; Bouchard said, &ldquo;and I didn&rsquo;t get to do that last year. I went to Team Canada, and that was just too much training camp.&rdquo;Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher felt another factor in Bouchard&rsquo;s disappointing season was a change in his goaltending style. He started flopping, trying to make fancy kick saves.This style works fine for the acrobatic Myre and some other goalies, but it did not work for Bouchard, who is at his best staying on his feet and reaching for shots with his ultra-quick glove hand.Bouchard insists he is not doing anything differently this year than last. But one thing is different. He has been stopping shots. In fact, he saved 92 of the first 99 shots against him this season.FLAME NOTES: Tim Ecclestone stretched ligaments in his right knee in the Islanders game. The Flames&rsquo; penalty killer and defensive specialist was expected to be in a cast for three weeks&hellip;Defenseman Miles Zaharko and left wing Harold Phillipoff have been playing regularly and well as rookies&hellip;Willi Plett, Calder Trophy winner last year, had a scoreless preseason. But before questions of a sophomore jinx could be asked, Plett went on a scoring streak&mdash;four goals and six points in the first four games of the regular season. &#9632;

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Flames To Play Hottest Goaler

MONTREAL&mdash;A couple of National Hockey League veterans used to the pressure of trying to stay atop the individual scoring race are getting a battle from a young sophomore who is leading his team to a surprising start in this young season.Paul Gardner of Colorado Rockies picked up nine points in three games last week to move into a first-place tie with Guy Lafleur of Montreal and Phil Esposito of New York Rangers.While Gardner was pushing his points total to 15, the Rockies were making things uncomfortable for Chicago in the tight race for top spot in the Smythe Division. Colorado picked up five of a possible six points during the week with wins against Washington and Vancouver plus a 4-4 tie with Boston. Those points pushed their total to nine, just two back of Chicago and one ahead of the Canucks.The Rockies outscored their opposition 18-7 and stretched their current undefeated streak to four games, tying a club mark attained three other times since the team&rsquo;s inception as Kansas City Scouts in 197475.Gardner, 21-year-old son of former NHL star Cal and brother of Cleveland&rsquo;s Dave, leads in power-play goals with five and is tied with Don Saleski of Philadelphia for most goals&mdash;nine. Gardner, who now has scored 74 points in 68 regular-season NHL games, didn&rsquo;t score his ninth goal last year until his 16th game while on his way to a season total of 30.Lafleur, the Art Ross winner as leading scorer the past two seasons, scored four times in four games during the week to boost his total to eight. He scored three goals against Los Angeles but it wasn&rsquo;t enough to prevent Montreal from losing their first contest of the season after going eight games without a loss. The defeat was the first home loss for Montreal in 38 games, dating back to Oct. 30, 1976 when Boston won 4-3. Canadiens were then shut out 4-0 by Buffalo Sunday making it the first time since February, 1976, they had lost two straight regular-season games. It was also the first time Canadiens were shut out at home in 120 regular-season games.Esposito, a five-time winner of the scoring title, including four consecutive seasons from 1971 through 1974 while with Boston, picked up five assists to run his league-leading total to 12 as Rangers won two and lost two during the week. His third goal last week was the 599th of his NHL career.Saleski trails the leaders by two points while five players&mdash;Reggie Leach and Bobby Clarke of Philadelphia; Borje Salming, Toronto Jacques Lemaire, Montreal; and Mike Walton, Vancouver&mdash;are tied for fourth place with 12 points each. &#9632;

Rockies, Gardner Surprise Of NHL

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Marcel Pronovost, new coach of the Buffalo Sabres, has reunited two forward lines of past years and they appear to be ready to perform in their old style.The French Connection&mdash;Gil Perreault, Rick Martin and Rene Robert&mdash;did not get off the blazing start they did in some spectacular years but the three scored goals that were factors in the three victories and a tie the Sabres recorded in their first five games.The Don Luce&mdash;Craig Ramsay&mdash;Danny Gare line was the one that provided single-game fireworks. In a 7-5 triumph over the Colorado Rockies, the Luce line scored all seven goals and finished with a 13-point night.Ramsay and Gare each scored three times and Luce, who had three assists, got the other goal. Two of the goals came when the Sabres were shorthanded. Ramsay scored the first goal, then a shorthanded goal and then the winning goal as his parents, on their first trip of the season to Buffalo from their Toronto home, looked on.Gare, happy to have the scoring range after missing 45 games last season because of back trouble, pointed out that his line was just getting used to each other again.&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t together very much last season and when we were, I wasn&rsquo;t right,&rdquo; noted the scrappy right winger. &ldquo;Then in training camp Marcel shifted the forwards all around.&ldquo;Then I was suspended a game, missed most of the next one when I got hurt and the first time we were together for the entire game was the first one against Chicago.&rdquo;Gare, the new captain of the Sabres, was suspended for the opener for leaving the penalty box during a fight in an exhibition game. In the Sabres&rsquo; next start, against Toronto, he suffered an eightstitch cut above the knee from a skate and watched most of the contest from the stands.The Sabres&rsquo; next start was a home game against Chicago and nobody on the club looked good in that one. The Black Hawks, checking close under their new coach, Bob Pulford, blanked the Sabres, 2-0, for backup goaltender Mike Veisor&rsquo;s second National Hockey League shutout.Buffalo&rsquo;s next game was in Chicago and the Sabres almost lost that one, too. After Rick Martin put Buffalo ahead early, Chicago got two goals and frustrated the Sabres with close checking again.Gare got his first goal of the season, however, with 1:25 to go to tie, 2-2.&ldquo;That goal was a long time coming,&rdquo; Danny pointed out. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t get any in the playoffs last year. And even though I didn&rsquo;t take the shot, I&rsquo;m glad to take the goal.&rdquo;Robert took a shot from the point on a power play and the puck hit Gare&rsquo;s skate and changed direction to carom past goalie Tony Esposito.After that game, Luce, Ramsay and Gare held a little meeting among themselves.&ldquo;We decided we hadn&rsquo;t really been getting on top of them (the opposition players) in their end, like we used to,&rdquo; explained Gare.&ldquo;We started charging in right from the first shift of this (Denver) game,&rdquo; Ramsay added. &ldquo;When Danny is healthy we can work both comers. He&rsquo;s great in the comer and he has a great shot. And Donnie is so good in front of the net.&rdquo;&ldquo;Get them in their end and make them give up the puck,&rdquo; Luce mentioned. &ldquo;It has worked well for us.&rdquo;The Luce line always was known as Buffalo&rsquo;s checking line, even when it scored 90 and 93 goals in two successive seasons before Gare was hurt. As long as the line keeps forechecking, it should be a scoring line, too.ICE CHIPS: Young Don Edwards tended goal in four of the Sabres&rsquo; first five games, winning three and tying one&hellip;Veteran Gerry Desjardins, making a comeback after an eye operation in the summer, was in goal in the shutout loss to Chicago. Desi has gone back from the European-type cage mask to the mask he wore before being hit in the eye during a game early last February.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01994/4091401-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="571" height="1090"><figcaption class="caption-body">CRAIG RAMSEY &hellip;Changed In Denver</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Sabres’ Checkers Scoring Again As Ramsey-Luce-Gare Trio United

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaBOSTON&mdash;Coach Don Cherry&rsquo;s great goaltending experiment has been called off, at least temporarily, after four games with scarcely anyone waxing ecstatic over it, not even Cherry himself.If you&rsquo;ll recall, when we last looked in on the three masked musketeers, Gerry Cheevers, Gilles Gilbert and Ron Grahame, they were taking turns in the Boston net, two in each game, ready or not.It couldn&rsquo;t exactly be called a failure, even though the Bruins won one, lost two and tied one while playing Goalie A in the first period and Goalie B in the second and third.The turn-taking trio allowed only 10 goals in four games an average of 2.50 per game.The system, which was instituted by Cherry to keep his three goalies sharp, came to an end when the Bruins were faced with three games in four days in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Denver.&ldquo;I went all the way with Cheevers,&rdquo; said Cherry after the Los Angeles game (a 4-3 victory), &ldquo;because this was the first of the three games and there&rsquo;s no chance of the goalies going stale.&rdquo;Grahame played the full game in Vancouver (a 3-3 tie) and Gilbert was down on the lineup card to go the route against Colorado. Cherry promised a return to the rotation later.Well, how did it go? In the absence of final returns (which may never be in) the success or failure can be measured best in what people say about it.&ldquo;The goalies are not too happy about it,&rdquo; admitted Cherry. &ldquo;But look at it this way. If we didn&rsquo;t do it the third guy would have really been unhappy.&ldquo;They like to play the whole game. It&rsquo;s the same old story. You talk to defensemen, they like to play four defensemen. You talk to forwards, they like to play three lines. It doesn&rsquo;t matter how tired they get.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anything like it before,&rdquo; said Cheevers, who played his first NHL game in 1962. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough on your mind but I can understand why he&rsquo;s doing it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m for anything that will help the club win but I think it&rsquo;s natural for a goaltender not to like it.&rdquo;&ldquo;I let you know a month from now,&rdquo; quipped Gilbert. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s gotta be good because we need some ice time, the three of us. But I dunno&hellip;&rdquo;&ldquo;I really would kind of like to reserve judgement on it,&rdquo; said Grahame cautiously. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have to experience it for a while before we can decide if it is worthwhile.&rdquo;Other goalies around the league were watching the experiment closely, too. And they didn&rsquo;t think much of it either.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t like it at all,&rdquo; shuddered Rogie Vachon of Los Angeles. &ldquo;Think what it could do to a goalie&rsquo;s average. He could give up two or three in a period and the next game he&rsquo;d have to get a couple of shutout periods.&rdquo;&ldquo;It would bother me,&rdquo; said Eddie Johnston, the 41-year-old St. Louis net-minder, and he added brightly, &ldquo;but if it catches on it&rsquo;ll add 10 years to my career.&rdquo;&ldquo;I would prefer not to do it,&rdquo; said Ken Dryde of the Montreal Canadiens. &ldquo;Personally, it would take some getting used to. But if there was no other choice I suppose you could get used to it quite quickly.&rdquo;Dryden&rsquo;s coach, Scotty Bowman, was in a position similar to Cherry a few years ago with three fine goalies, Dryden, Michel Larocque and Wayne Thomas.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so difficult to keep three goalies sharp,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We got criticized but we just decided to go with two Thomas was the third goalie and, rather than have the first two not sharp, we just didn&rsquo;t play him until a trade came along.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the Bruins will want the luxury of three goalies forever. But, so far, it hasn&rsquo;t hurt them.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be a little reluctant to try it.&rdquo; said Atlanta coach Fred Creighton. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure what Don has in mind is trying to keep three of them as sharp as possible. He&rsquo;s got his hands full. I&rsquo;ve got my hands full keeping two happy.&rdquo;Creighton disclosed that during training camp, he discussed with his goalies, Dan Bouchard and Phil Myre, the possibility of going Cherry one better and changing goalies on the fly, every five or 10 minutes.&ldquo;But it kind of slipped my mind and we never did try it,&rdquo; added Creighton.Those sighs of relief in unison came from Messrs. Myre and Bouchard.BRUINS&rsquo; BITS: John Wensink, who is billed as the Bruins&rsquo; staff ruffian, got two goals in a game for the first time in his NHL career in St. Louis, his adopted home town&hellip;His wife, Rhonda, is from St. Louis and the stands were packed with in-laws&hellip;In fact, in three games, Wensink had three goals and three assists.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01840/4091432-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="572" height="783"><figcaption class="caption-body">GERRY CHEEVERS&hellip;Understands Why</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Cherry’s Goaler System Shelved As Heavy Schedule Forces Change

When the voting for last year&rsquo;s rookie of the year was conducted, Colorado Rockies fans thoughts that Paul Gardner had been overlooked. He was scarcely mentioned in the balloting finishing well behind Atlanta&rsquo;s Willi Plett.However, the sophomore Rockie, the younger brother of Cleveland Barons&rsquo; Dave Gardner, turned a few heads last week with a nine-point effort which included four goals.He now has nine goals on the season, tying him with Don Saleski for the league lead and his total of 15 points places him tied with Guy Lafleur and Phil Esposito for best in the NHL.Last year, Gardner collected 30 goals in just 60 games for the Rockies, marking him as a sharpshooter to watch.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02710/4091463-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="532" height="596"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL GARDNER&hellip;Colorado Rockies</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL’S… Player of the Week

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;The Red Wings added three centers in a short span recently&mdash;one from the intraleague draft, Paul Woods, one in a trade, Andre St. Laurent from the New York Islanders for Michel Bergeron, and one a free agent signing Larry Wright.The reason?&ldquo;You can never have too many centers.&rdquo; coach Bobby Kromm said.And, as a result, where the Wings were once desperate for help at center ice, the situation doesn&rsquo;t look quite so bleak any more.First of all, veteran Dennis Hextali and No. 1 draft Dale McCourt, have been standouts. Secondly, rookie Rob Plumb, a 12th round choice, has been a tremendous surprise. Also, the newcomers have played very well.Woods has been used on left wing since joining the club, on a line with McCourt, and they&rsquo;ve worked efficiently together. St. Laurent made a good impression in early games with Detroit. It was too early to tell about Wright but Kromm was hopeful the six-foot-one, 185-pounder would fit in.&ldquo;He was a super player in junior,&rdquo; Kromm said. &ldquo;I think he should be able to help us.&rdquo;Wright was Philadelphia&rsquo;s No. 1 choice in the 1971 draft&mdash;the one that produced stars like Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Rick Martin and Larry Robinson among others. But he&rsquo;s bounced around a lot&mdash;he was involved in the deal that sent Reggie Leach to the Flyers from California and was later reacquired by Philadelphia.The St. Laurent-Bergeron deal was in the works a few weeks, with the Wings waiting to see whether Bergeron, once a bright young light in the organization, would change his ways. It didn&rsquo;t happen. The deal was made when GM Ted Lindsay could no longer tolerate Michel&rsquo;s lackadaisical play. Lindsay vowed to get rid of any player who didn&rsquo;t put out an honest effort and Bergeron was the first to fall into that category.&ldquo;He was hurting us,&rdquo; Lindsay said. &ldquo;When he was on the ice we were playing four-against-five. We promised the fans a hockey team that would work and Michel wouldn&rsquo;t. When he wouldn&rsquo;t work, he was telling me he didn&rsquo;t want to stay here. If he wanted to be traded he got his wish He has all the talent but what could we do? I wish him all the best.&rdquo;Said Kromm: &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t afford any passengers on our club.&rdquo;Bergeron didn&rsquo;t know quite how to react to the deal. &ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s better for me, I don&rsquo;t know. This year, I don&rsquo;t think they gave me a good chance. They didn&rsquo;t give me any confidence. Four, five shifts a game, what is that?&rdquo;But St. Laurent was pleased. He saw considerable action in his first game with Detroit as the Wings played to a hard-fought 2-2 deadlock with the mighty Montreal Canadiens. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen that much ice time since junior,&rdquo; St. Laurent said happily.It was a power play goal by Plumb, his first in the NHL, that gave the Wings a 2-1 lead over the Habs before Larry Robinson tied it with just 16 seconds left. The Wings have been contemplating sending Plumb, 20, down to the minors for more seasoning but he just won&rsquo;t let them.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t send him down the way he&rsquo;s playing.&rdquo; Kromm said. &ldquo;You have to keep him until such time that he forces you to send him down. Rob&rsquo;s a smart kid. He knows what he has to do and he&rsquo;s doing it.&rdquo;On that power play, Kromm had five players age 23 and under on the ice for Detroit and that shows you the kind of confidence this man is instilling in a very young hockey club. About the tie, he said:&ldquo;It was a helluva game. I&rsquo;m disappointed with the tie but not for myself. Nineteen guys gave their all, from their bootstraps to the top of their heads. It was just a tremendous effort and the tie leaves you with an empty feeling.&ldquo;But if we keep working hard, like we have, we ll make our breaks and win our share.&rdquo;Captain Dan Maloney echoed those thoughts. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to see a lot more like this,&rdquo; he promised. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s starting to come. You could tell before the game we were ready to play. There&rsquo;s a good feeling in here. And the crowd. It gets you going. Don&rsquo;t let anybody tell you it doesn&rsquo;t make a difference. It gets the blood boiling and you play better. It&rsquo;s a super feeling to look up and see people in seats and have them shouting for you, encouraging you.&rdquo;MOTOR CITY SHORTS: The Wings continue to go with three goalies&mdash;Eddie Giacomin, Jimmy Rutherford and Ron Low&mdash;without any problems. It is a problem on the coach, however, but Kromm said: &ldquo;Our goalies all are pros, they understand the situation and I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;ll be able to handle it.&rdquo; The most obvious problem is the lack of playing time for any of them.The Wings sent rookie defenseman John Hilworth and veteran center J.P. Leblanc to Kansas City of the CHL and several more cuts were expected any day and a couple of other veterans are vulnerable, what with the way the youngsters are playing.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01731/4091494-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="576" height="695"><figcaption class="caption-body">ANDRE ST. LAURENT&hellip;Likes Ice Time</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Wings Improve Center Ice Picture

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01748/4091525-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">PETER LoPRESTI&hellip;First Shutout of Season</figcaption></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The nightmare which had become the beginning of the 1977-78 season appears to be over for the Minnesota North Stars. Picked as a contender for the Smythe Division crown the North Stars stumbled out of the gate this year, dropping their first six decisions in a row.Suddenly, in a penalty-filled contest against the Boston Bruins at the Met Center, the North Stars came alive and played with some of the promise forecast since last year&rsquo;s playoff appearance.Pete Lopresti stopped the Bruins&rsquo; cold with a 3-0 shutout and the Stars&rsquo; defense and forwards came up with their best game of the season to limit the Bruins to just 16 shots on goal.After the game there were conflicting opinions about the penalties called in the game, two of which resulted in first-period Minnesota power plays by Tim Young and Alex Pirus. Glen Sharpley notched the other North Stars goal with a third-period breakway.Boston coach Don Cherry complained: &ldquo;What were the penalties in the first period&mdash;six for us, one for them. It&rsquo;s hard to get something going when you have somebody in the penalty box half the game.&rdquo;North Stars&rsquo; coach Ted Harris said, &ldquo;No doubt they (the Bruins) tried to play a physical game and apparently it cost them. That&rsquo;s their style and if they can get away with it, fine. But when you get caught you have to pay the penalty.&rdquo;Pirus felt that the Bruins got what they deserved. &ldquo;You can only take so much,&rdquo; said the right winger, &ldquo;they were frustrated and coming down on our heads with their sticks, and we can&rsquo;t put up with that all night.&rdquo;Meanwhile the North Stars were not standing still in the player personnel area, either as they replaced Bill Fairbairn, who was grabbed off for the waiver price by St. Louis Blues, with wingers Ron Zanussi and Tom Younghans.Zanussi paid immediate dividends by scoring in each of his first two games, his first the only tally by Minnesota in a 3-1 loss to Detroit Red Wings, and the second, coming in a 74 triumph against Washington Capitals in Bloomington.Another newcomer, Harvey Bennett, also scored for the North Stars in that one, as did rookies Brad Maxwell, Per-Olav Brasar and Kent Andersson, while Pierre Jarry with his third of the season and Dean Talafous with his second closed out the scoring.Bennett, 26, who had one goal this year before coming to Minnesota was obtained from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Blake Dunlop and a 1978 third-round draft choice. Dunlop had been playing with the North Stars&rsquo; Fort Worth team in the Central Hockey League.Completing the North Stars&rsquo; shuffle was eenterman Bill Hogaboam, who was sent to Fort Worth club.Minnesota plays host to the New York Islanders and the Chicago Black Hawks before departing on a four-game road trip with stops in Montreal, Chicago, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. After four games on the road, the North Stars are without a point, surrendering 19 goals while only scoring six themselves. &#9632;

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North Stars Come Alive After Disastrous Start

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2>Tue. 1 Atlanta at N.Y. IslandersLos Angeles at St. LouisWed. 2 N.Y. Rangers at ColoradoN.Y. Islanders at MinnesotaAtlanta at MontrealChicago at WashingtonPittsburgh at DetroitToronto at VancouverSt. Louis at ClevelandThu. 3 Washington at PhiladelphiaToronto at Los AngelesBuffalo at BostonFri. 4 N.Y. Rangers at VancouverPittsburgh at AtlantaSat. 5 N.Y. Rangers at Los AngelesPittsburgh at N.Y. IslandersPhiladelphia al WashingtonBoston at MontrealCleveland at DetroitChicago at MinnesotaBuffalo at St. LouisToronto at ColoradoSun. 6 N.Y. Islanders at BostonVancouver at PhiladelphiaAtlanta at ChicagoDetroit at ClevelandSt. Louis at BuffaloMon. 7 Minnesota at MontrealTue. 8 Los Angeles at WashingtonVancouver at ColoradoWed. 9 Buffalo at N.Y. RangersToronto at AtlantaWashington at DetroitCleveland at PittsburghVancouver at St. LouisMinnesota at ChicagoThu. 10 Montreal at N.Y. IslandersBuffalo at PhiladelphiaLos Angeles at BostonFri. 11 Toronto at WashingtonMinnesota at VancouverSt. Louis at ColoradoSat. 12 N.Y. Rangers at DetroitPhiladelphia at N.Y. IslandersBoston at AtlantaToronto at MontrealChicago at PittsburghMinnesota at Los AngelesColorado at St. LouisSun. 13 Atlanta at N.Y. RangersN.Y. Islanders at WashingtonDetroit at PhiladelphiaMontreal at ChicagoPittsburgh at BuffaloCleveland at Boston &#9632;

Where NHL Teams Play

(Standings On Tue. Nov. 1)<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-218/4091911-1-eng-US/f0020-212.jpg" title="f0020-21" width="578" height="164"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-227/4091904-1-eng-US/f0020-222.jpg" title="f0020-22" width="576" height="110"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-235/4091897-1-eng-US/f0020-232.jpg" title="f0020-23" width="579" height="115"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-244/4091890-1-eng-US/f0020-242.jpg" title="f0020-24" width="577" height="138"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Oct. 24Washington 1 at Montreal 5Tue. Oct 25N.Y. Rangers 5 at Cleveland 0Atlanta 2 at St. Louis 2Los Angeles 1 at Vancouver 3Boston 4 at Colorado 4Wed. Oct. 26St Louis 2 at N.Y. Rangers 6N.Y. Islanders 2 at Los Angeles 2Philadelphia 2 at Chicago 2Washington 6 at Atlanta 2Montreal 2 at Toronto 2Detroit 4 at Pittaburgh 3Boston 0 at Minnesota 3Thu. Oct 27N.Y. Islanders 3 at Vancouver 2Minnesota 1 at Detroit 3Fri. Oct. 28Washington 1 at Colorado 8Chicago 4 at Cleveland 2Sat. Oct. 29N.Y. Rangers 3 at Atlanta 4Buffalo 2 at N.Y. Islanders 4Philadelphia 7 at St. Louis 3Los Angeles 5 at Montreal 3Washington 4 at Minnesota 7Boston 5 at Pittaburgh 3Detroit 4 at Toronto 7Colorado 6 at Vancouver 2Sun. Oct. 30Los Angeles 5 at N.Y. Rangers 3Buffalo 4 at Montreal 0Cleveland 1 at Chicago 8 &#9632;

f0020-21

The NHL Scoreboard

ATLANTA &mdash; Lalonde 2, Vail 2, Gould 3, 4, Comeau 1, Mulhern 2, Houston 2, Phillipoff 1.BOSTON &mdash; Marcotte 3, Smith 1, Schmautz 3, 4, Jonathan 2, Milbury 1, Ratelie 1, McNab 4, Cashman 2.BUFFALO &mdash; Luce 5, Gare 6, Robert 3, 4, Seiling 1, McAdam 1.CHICAGO &mdash; Savard 4, Marks 1, Rota 1, 2, 3, Bulley 1, 2, Planted, 4, Boldirev 1, Koroll 1.CLEVELAND &mdash; Fidler 1, Manery 2, Gardner 4.COLORADO &mdash; Edur 4, 5, Andruff 3, 4, Hudson 2, Gardner 6, 7, 8, 9, Croteau 2, 3, 4, Lefley 1, 2, Beek 2, Paiement 4, 5, Delorme 2.DETROIT &mdash; Libett 2, Lochead 3, Grant 2, Larson 1, Cameron 1, 2, St. Laurent 1, Polonich 2, 3, Maloney 2, Ritchie 1.LOS ANGELES &mdash; Dionne 3, 4, Williams 1. Murphy 3, 4, Hicke 3, Goldup 1, Carr 1, 2, Venasky 1, Schultz 1, Stemkowski 1, Wilson 1.MINNESOTA &mdash; Young 2, Pirus 1, Sharpley 2, Zanussi 1, 2, Andersson 1, Taiafous 2, Bennett 2, Brasar 1, Jarry 3, Maxwell 2.MONTREAL &mdash; Shutt 3, 4, Lafleur 5, 6, 7, 8, Lambert 1, Nyrop 1, Savard 1, Robinson 4.N.Y. ISLANDERS &mdash; Persson 1, Parise 3, 4, Bourne 1, Bossy 4, 5, Harris 1, Gillies 2, Trottier 3.N.Y. RANGERS &mdash; Tkaczuk 3, Vickers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Hickey 4, 5, 6, 7, Duguay 1, 2, Hodge 2, Esposito 3, Vadnais 1,2.PHILADELPHIA &mdash; Leach 5, 6, 7, Barber 5, 6, Kelly 5, MacLeish 2, Saleski 9, Dailey 5.PITTSBURGH &mdash; Chapman 1,2, Spencer 3, Monaban 2, Kehoe 1, Pronovost 4.ST. LOUIS &mdash; Federko 1, 2, Patey 1, 2, Fairbairn 1, Unger 2, 3.TORONTO &mdash; Jones 1, Turnbull 4, Salming 2, Valiquette 3, McDonald 2,3,4, Williams 2, Sittier 5.VANCOUVER &mdash; Walton 5, 6, Kearns 1, Graves 3, Ververgaert 2, Sedlbauer 4, Gillis 3.WASHINGTON &mdash; Meehan 1, 2, Sirois 4, 5, 6, McKechnie 2, 3, 4, Collins 1, Riley 1, Charron 2,3. &#9632;

NHL’s Scorers …This Week

<h2>Mon. Oct. 24</h2>WASHINGTON 1, MONTREAL 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01555/4091835-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="586" height="568"></div><h2>Tue. Oct. 25</h2>RANGERS 5, CLEVELAND 0<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02399/4091828-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="590" height="493"></div>ATLANTA 2, ST. LOUIS 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03318/4091821-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="587" height="483"></div>LOS ANGELES 1, VANCOUVER 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04219/4091814-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="591" height="590"></div>BOSTON 4, COLORADO 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-05129/4091807-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="588" height="488"></div><h2>Wed. Oct. 26</h2>ST. LOUIS 2, RANGERS 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-06102/4091800-1-eng-US/f0020-062.jpg" title="f0020-06" width="586" height="606"></div>ISLANDERS 2, LOS ANGELES 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0793/4091793-1-eng-US/f0020-072.jpg" title="f0020-07" width="586" height="549"></div>PHILADELPHIA 2, CHICAGO 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0883/4091786-1-eng-US/f0020-082.jpg" title="f0020-08" width="586" height="517"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-0963/4091779-1-eng-US/f0020-092.jpg" title="f0020-09" width="566" height="1047"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Simmons stopped Habs&rsquo; streak</figcaption></div>WASHINGTON 6, ATLANTA 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1053/4091772-1-eng-US/f0020-102.jpg" title="f0020-10" width="590" height="601"></div>MONTREAL 2, TORONTO 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1141/4091765-1-eng-US/f0020-112.jpg" title="f0020-11" width="584" height="481"></div>DETROIT 4, PITTSBURGH 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1237/4091758-1-eng-US/f0020-122.jpg" title="f0020-12" width="586" height="536"></div>BOSTON 0, MINNESOTA 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1327/4091751-1-eng-US/f0020-132.jpg" title="f0020-13" width="593" height="491"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1426/4091744-1-eng-US/f0020-142.jpg" title="f0020-14" width="588" height="167"></div><h2>Thu. Oct. 27</h2>ISLANDERS 3, VANCOUVER 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1525/4091737-1-eng-US/f0020-152.jpg" title="f0020-15" width="586" height="462"></div>MINNESOTA 1, DETROIT 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1620/4091730-1-eng-US/f0020-162.jpg" title="f0020-16" width="585" height="485"></div><h2>Fri. Oct. 28</h2>WASHINGTON 1, COLORADO 8<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1716/4091723-1-eng-US/f0020-172.jpg" title="f0020-17" width="587" height="605"></div>CHICAGO 4, CLEVELAND 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1814/4091716-1-eng-US/f0020-182.jpg" title="f0020-18" width="583" height="615"></div><h2>Sat. Oct. 29</h2>RANGERS 3, ATLANTA 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-1910/4091709-1-eng-US/f0020-192.jpg" title="f0020-19" width="581" height="524"></div>BUFFALO 2, ISLANDERS 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-2010/4091702-1-eng-US/f0020-202.jpg" title="f0020-20" width="591" height="124"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01399/4091695-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="597" height="415"></div>PHILADELPHIA 7, ST. LOUIS 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02264/4091688-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="593" height="606"></div>LOS ANGELES 5, MONTREAL 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03170/4091681-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="595" height="548"></div>WASHINGTON 4, MINNESOTA 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-04130/4091674-1-eng-US/f0021-042.jpg" title="f0021-04" width="597" height="625"></div>BOSTON 5, PITTSBURGH 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-05111/4091667-1-eng-US/f0021-052.jpg" title="f0021-05" width="598" height="629"></div>DETROIT 4, TORONTO 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0694/4091660-1-eng-US/f0021-062.jpg" title="f0021-06" width="598" height="492"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0780/4091653-1-eng-US/f0021-072.jpg" title="f0021-07" width="597" height="230"></div>COLORADO 6, VANCOUVER 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0874/4091646-1-eng-US/f0021-082.jpg" title="f0021-08" width="601" height="573"></div><h2>Sun. Oct. 30</h2>LOS ANGELES 5, RANGERS 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-0960/4091639-1-eng-US/f0021-092.jpg" title="f0021-09" width="591" height="436"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-1050/4091632-1-eng-US/f0021-102.jpg" title="f0021-10" width="589" height="147"></div>BUFFALO 4, MONTREAL 0<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-1139/4091625-1-eng-US/f0021-112.jpg" title="f0021-11" width="587" height="495"></div>CLEVELAND 1, CHICAGO 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-1228/4091618-1-eng-US/f0021-122.jpg" title="f0021-12" width="592" height="595"></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

C&mdash;Captain*&mdash;Rookie<h2>ATLANTA</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Michel BelhumeurPhil Myre<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Barry GibbsRichard Mulhern* Pat RibbleDave Shand* Miles Zaharko<h3>CENTERS</h3>Guy ChouinardRey ComeauBill ClementBobby LalondeTom Lysiak C<h3>R. WINGS</h3>John GouldKen HoustonWilli Plett<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Curt BennettTim Ecclestone* Harold PhillipoffEric Vail<h3>INJURED</h3>Dan BouchardEd Kea<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Gerry CheeversGilles Gilbert* Ron Grahame<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Gary Doak* Mike ForbesMike MilburyBrad ParkRick Smith<h3>CENTERS</h3>Matti Hagman* Bob MillerPete McNabJean RatelleGregg Sheppard<h3>R. WINGS</h3>* Dwight FosterRick MiddletonTerry O&rsquo;ReillyBobby Schmautz<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Wayne Cashman CJohn BucykStan JonathanDon MarcotteJohn Wensink<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Gerry DesjardinsDon Edwards<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Lee FogolinJ. GuevremontBill HajtJerry KorabJim Schoenfeld* Bill Stewart<h3>CENTERS</h3>Don LuceGilles PerreaultAndre SavardRon Shock* Derek SmithFred Stanfield<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Danny Gare CJim LorentzGary McAdamRene Robert* Ric Seiling<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Richard MartinTorry MartinCraig Ramsay<h3>INJURED</h3>Ken Breitonbach<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Tony EspositoMike Veisor<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Randy HoltDave LoganKeith Magnuson CBob MurrayPhil RussellDale Tallon* Doug Wilson<h3>CENTERS</h3>Ivan BoldirevJim HarrisonPit MartinStan Mikita* Jean Savard<h3>R. WINGS</h3>J.P. BordeleauAlain DaigleCliff KorollGrant MulveyPierre Plante<h3>L. WINGS</h3>* Ted BulleyBob KellyJohn MarksDarcy Rota<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>CLEVELAND</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Gary EdwardsGilles Meloche<h3>DEFENSE</h3>* John BabyRick HamptonJim Neilson* Darcy RegierGreg SmithBob Stewart<h3>CENTERS</h3>Dave Gardner* Kris ManeryDennis MarukWayne Merrick<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Fred Ahern* Mike CrombeenBob Murdoch<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Mike FidlerBob GirardRalph KalssenAl MacAdamc<h3>INJURED</h3>Mike ChristieGary Sabourin<h2>COLORADO</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Doug FavellMichel Plasse<h3>DEFENSE</h3>* Barry BeckTom EdurMike KitchenBryan LefleyJohn Van Boxmeer* Mark Suzor<h3>CENTERS</h3>Chuck ArnasonPaul GardnerDave HudsonNelson Pyatt<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Ron AndruffRon DelormeWilf Paiement C<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Gary CroteauDenis Dupere* Rick JodzioAndy Spruce<h3>INJURED</h3>None.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Ed GiacominRon LowJim Rutherford<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Al CameronSteve DurbanoJean HamelTerry HarperGreg Joly* Reed Larson* Perry Miller<h3>CENTERS</h3>Dennis Hextali* Dale McCourtAndre St. Laurent* Paul Woods<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Rick BownessBill LocheadAl McDonoughDennis Polonich* Rob PlumbLarry Wright<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Danny Grant* Clark HamiltonNick LibettDan Maloney CBob Ritchie<h3>INJURED</h3>None.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Mario LessardGary Simmons<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Larry BrownNeil KomadoskiRandy ManeryBob MurdochGary Sargent<h3>CENTERS</h3>Gene CarrMarcel DionneButch Goring* Rob PalmerPete StemkowskiVic Venasky<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Glen GoldupDon KozakMike Murphy C<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Ernie HickeDave SchultzTom WilliamsBert Wilson<h3>INJURED</h3>* Dave TaylorDave HutchisonRogie Vachon<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>* Paul HarrisonPete LoPresti<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Fred BarrettNick Beverley CJerry EngeleDoug Hicks* Brad MaxwellLou NanneDennis O&rsquo;BrienTom Reid<h3>CENTERS</h3>Harvey BennettGlen SharpleyTim Young<h3>R. WINGS</h3>* Kent-Erik AnderssonAlex PirusDean Talafous* Tom Younghans* Ron Zanussi<h3>L. WINGS</h3>* Per-Olov BrasarPierre JarrySteve JensenJim Roberts<h3>INJURED</h3>None.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Ken DrydenMichel Larocque<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Pierre Bouchard* Brian EngblomGuy LapointeBill NyropLarry RobinsonSerge Savard<h3>CENTERS</h3>Doug JarvisJacques LemairePeter Mahovlich* Pierre MondouDoug Risebrough<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Rick ChartrawYvan Cournoyer CGuy LafleurMario Temblay<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Bob GaineyRejean HouleYvon LambertSteve ShuttMurray Wilson<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>ISLANDERS</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>* Goran HogastaChico ReschBilly Smith<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Garry HartDave LewisBert Marshall* Stefan PerssonDenis PotvinJean Potvin<h3>CENTERS</h3>Bob BourneJude DrouinLorne HenningBryan Trottier<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Michel Bergeron* Mike BossyBilly HarrisBob NystromEd Westfall<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Clark Gillies CGarry HowattJ.P. Parise<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>RANGERS</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>* Hardy AastromJohn DavidsonWayne Thomas<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Don AwreyDave FarrishRon GreschnerDave MaloneyMike McEwenCarol Vadnais<h3>CENTERS</h3>* Ron DuguayPhil Esposito C* Greg HolstWalter Tkaczuk<h3>R. WINGS</h3>* Lucien DeBloisRob GilbertBill GoldsworthyKen HodgeDon Murdoch<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Nick FotiuPat HickeyDan NewmanGreg PolisStove Vickers<h3>INJURED</h3>Wayne Dillon<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Bernie Parent* Rick St Croix<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Tom BladonBob DaileyAndre DupontRick Lapointe* Kevin McCarthyJim WatsonJoe Watson<h3>CENTERS</h3>Mel BridgmanBobby Clarke COrest KindrachukRick MacLeish<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Barry DeanGary DornhoeferPaul HolmgrenReg LeachDon Saleski<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Bill BarberBob KellyRoss Lonsberry<h3>INJURED</h3>Wayne Stephenson<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Dennis HerronDune Wilson<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Russ AndersonDave BurrowsColin CampbellDennis OwcharBob ParadiseRon Stackhouse<h3>CENTERS</h3>Syl Apps* Tom CassidyPierre LaroucheGreg Malone<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Mike Corrigan* Jacques CossetteRick KehoeHartland MonahanLew MorrisonJean Pronovost C<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Blair ChapmanLowell MacDonaldBrian Spencer<h3>INJURED</h3>Wayne BianchinMario Faubert<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Yves BelangerEd JohnstonEd Staniowski<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Bruce Affleck* Jack BrownschildeLen FrigBob HessDick RedmondJim RobertsRod Seiling<h3>CENTERS</h3>Red Berenson CBernie FederkoGarry Unger<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Rick BourbonnaisLarry ButlerBill FairbairnClaude LaroseLarry Patey<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Bob MacMillan* John SmrkeBrian Sutter<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Mike PalmateerGordon McRae<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Randy CarlyleBrian Glennie* Trevor JohansenJim McKennyBorje SalmingIan Turnbull<h3>CENTERS</h3>Don AshbyGeorge FergusonDarryl Sittier CJack Valiquette<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Pat BoutetteRon Ellis* Jimmy JonesLanny McDonaldKurt Walker<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Inge HammarstromBob NeelyErrol ThompsonDave Williams<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Cesare ManiagoCurt Ridley<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Larry CarriereLarry GoodenoughJohn GrisdaleDennis Kearns* Bob MannoJack MclLhargeyHarold Snepsts<h3>CENTERS</h3>Chris OddleifsonMike Walton<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Rick BlightHilliard GravesGerry O&rsquo;FlahertyDennis Ververgaert<h3>L. WINGS</h3>* Rob FlockhartBrad Gassoff* Jere GillisDon Lever CGarry MonahanRon Sedlbauer<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>GOAL</h3>Garry SmithBernie Wolfe<h3>DEFENSE</h3>Rick GreenYvon LabreGordie LaneJack Lynch* Robert PicardGord SmithBryan Watson<h3>CENTERS</h3>Guy CharronWalt McKechnieGerry Meehan C<h3>R. WINGS</h3>Bill CollinsBill Riley* Tom RoweBob Sirois<h3>L. WINGS</h3>Dave ForbesRon LalondeCraig PatrickTony White<h3>INJURED</h3>Garnet BaileyBlair Stewart &#9632;

NHL Team Rosters

<div class="byline">BY GREG NOBLE</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaCINCINNATI&mdash;Coach Jacques Demers had said it would take the Stingers a while to adapt to his style of hockey.And so, he was not alarmed by the team&rsquo;s poor start.&ldquo;There is no reason for anybody to get panicky,&rdquo; Demers said after the Stingers lost four of their first five games. &ldquo;The way we&rsquo;ve played, we should be no worse than 3-2. The guys have been giving me 60 minutes in every game, and I feel with luck we can turn things around right away.&rdquo;However, Demers added, he&rsquo;d make changes if the team didn&rsquo;t correct itself soon.&ldquo;At the start of the season I gave myself 10 games to judge people,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If after 10 games things don&rsquo;t straighten out, then we 11 have to make some changes.&rdquo;One player who was on the spot was goaltender Ernie Wakely. And Demers acknowledged that the team needed another defenseman.Demers seemed to have decided to let Wakely sink or swim on his own. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to go with Ernie and hope he starts getting the hot hand,&rdquo; the coach said. Wakely gave up 16 goals in his first three starts, all defeats.Meanwhile, former Indianapolis goaltender Michel Dion was waiting in the wings in case Wakely faltered. Dion, signed Oct. 18, was not sent to the American League as the club first indicated he would be. Instead, he reported to Cincinnati and practiced with the team, although Demers said Dion would not play in games for the time being.&ldquo;There is a decision to be made,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;Ernie knows the situation and he&rsquo;s working hard.&rdquo;Demers recognized quickly that the team needed help on defense.&ldquo;We will have to go out eventually and get a defenseman,&rdquo; he said. The Stingers were using two rookies, Craig Norwich and Barry Melrose, on the right side and could use a more experienced player there. They also had need for a good skating defenseman on the left side.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m analyzing the whole team,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;After 10 games I&rsquo;m going in to Mr. DeWitt and Jerry Rafter and say, &lsquo;This is what I need to win.&rsquo;&rdquo;Often former coach Terry Slater did not get cooperation from the front office when he asked for a needed player, but Demers believes he wouldn&rsquo;t have that problem. &ldquo;They seem to really want to communicate with me,&rdquo; he said.In the meantime Demers was hoping his team would turn things around.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m encouraged by their hustle and spirit,&rdquo; he said, noting that in their 6-5 loss at Houston the Stingers twice came from two goals down to tie the score.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve worked hard to correct mistakes in our own end,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What we need now is some hot goaltending.&rdquo;INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Claude St. Sauveur got the hat trick and linemate Bobby Sheehan scored two goals to lead the Racers over Winnipeg, 5-3 for their second straight victory.Earlier, Bryon Baltimore scored his first goal in two years in the third period as the Racers edged Birmingham, 5-4. The twin victories boosted coach Ron Ingram&rsquo;s club one game over the .500 mark.The Racers got revenge for an earlier 91 loss at Winnipeg by taking the body against the Jets and never letting them get untracked. Rusty Patenaude stuck like glue to Bobby Hull and held him to just two shots.Tough guy Kim Clackson, in his first game at Market Square Arena against his former teammates, drew a roughing penalty in the third period but didn&rsquo;t throw any punches.BIRMINGHAM&mdash;Despite coach Glen Sonmor&rsquo;s exhortations, the Bulls showed almost no defense in losing four of their first five games. They allowed a league-high 31 goals and looked like the Bulls of last year.Sonmor&rsquo;s saddest moments came after the Bulls, in their own building, blew a 20 lead and lost to Indianapolis, 5-3. The club got clobbered in back-to-back games on the road, losing to Quebec, 8-5, and Winnipeg. 10-3.<h2>WHA Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02340/4091990-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="584" height="497"></div> &#9632;

f0022-02

Stingers, Demers Not Panicking; Racers Come Up With Hot Offense

Indianapolis Racers had a perfect week winning all three games they contested and helping to make things so successful was veteran Bobby Sheehan who collected five goals in the three games, including three in one game. Sheehan was signed by the Racers as a free agent this season after Edmonton turned him loose.Sheehan registered a pair of goals in the Racers&rsquo; 5-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets and also assisted on the winning tally in that game as he helped set up Claude St. Sauveur.Then in the Racers&rsquo; second match of the week against Birmingham, Sheehan scored three times as Indianapolis went on to a 6-2 triumph, boosting the team into third place with 10 points in eight games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01437/4092021-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="515" height="636"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY SHEEHAN&hellip;Indianapolis Racers</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

WHA’s… Player of the Week

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01411/4092052-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE ROGERS&hellip;Off To Outstanding Season</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Heading into the third week of the season the New England Whalers had played only two bad periods of hockey in 14 games (including the exhibition season). One was the first period of the exhibition with Boston, when the Bruins took advantage of some faulty goaltending and loose defensive work to pile up a 5-0 advantage. The other occurred&mdash;again in the first period&mdash;in Cincinnati, when the Stingers took advantage of several defensive lapses to build up a 50 lead after the first 20 minutes.The most important aspect of both of those games was that the Whalers did not quit, coming back in each case to play two solid periods of hockey. This perhaps typifies the new spirit of the 1977-78 edition of the New England Whalers.Everyone concurs that this team has more talent than ever before. There is no doubt that the goaltending has improved immeasurably. But many players cite the overall team attitude and all-around confidence in each other as the key factor in their impressive start.The Cincinnati game, which ended as a 6-2 loss, was the first game of a four-games-in-six-nights road trip. The Whalers went on to tie Indianapolis, and then they impressively dumped Edmonton and Winnipeg.The Tom Webster-Gordie Howe-Mark Howe line provided much of the offensive power as Gordie and Mark fed the red-hot Webbie who connected on seven of his first 19 shots (37 percent). Three of the goals were game winners.Although at first being spotted on various lines, Mike Rogers is off to a great start, perhaps his best ever. When Greg Carroll suffered a back injury in Indianapolis, Mike stepped in to center for Larry Pleau and Jack Carlson and the line continued its effective play. Rogers contributed immediately when he rapped in two goals the following night at Edmonton much to Mike&rsquo;s delight. They were the first he had scored in Edmonton since the Oilers traded him to New England two seasons ago.Carroll&rsquo;s injury, which was to sideline him for approximately two weeks, brought winger Jim Mayer back up from Springfield. Rogers then stepped between Mayer and George Lyle for fourth line duty occasionally too. As coach Neale had promised, &ldquo;Mighty Mike&rdquo; was getting plenty of ice time.The win at Winnipeg (5-2) before a standing room only crowd, was especially pleasing. Neale had said before the contest: &ldquo;We play them 11 times this season, so we&rsquo;d better start now if we re going to finish ahead of them.&rdquo; The coach credited his experience last year with Team U.S.A, in devising his defensive tactics against the primarily European Jets team. To combat the Jets weaving style of offense he instructed his wingers to stay in their lanes and wait for whoever comes along instead of &ldquo;staying with the man&rdquo; wherever he goes&hellip;The Webster-Howe-Howe line gained some defensive prowess by holding Uh Nilsson. Bobby Hull, and Anders Hedbert to a mere five shots (collectively) for the entire three periods&hellip;When coach Neale scheduled an &ldquo;optional&rdquo; practice during a layover in Winnipeg. Gordie Howe was one of the few who showed up for the bus ride to the rink. Neale, noting the fine start No. 9 had had this year, told Gordie there was no way he was going to practice that day, and he directed equipment manager Skip Cunningham to hide Gordie&rsquo;s skates!&hellip;Papa Howe, registering nine points in the Whalers first six games, has eclipsed the 2,400 mark in career assists&hellip;Reyn Davis of the Winnipeg Free Press remarked that the Whalers were &ldquo;the best team the Jets have seen in the last six or seven weeks&rdquo; (including the Jets&rsquo; pre-season European junket)&hellip;Whaler followers are ecstatic that their team is displaying so much offensive strength even though Mark Howe had scored only one goal, and the Dave Keon-John McKenzie-Mike Antonovich line had been relatively dormant for a few games&hellip;The Whalers improved work in power play situations was evident in the early going as they scored on 36 percent of their chances while giving up a goal in only 17 percent of their shorthanded situations&hellip;QUEBEC: The Nordiques are back to their winning ways after a somewhat faltering start. Injury problems, however, have cast a bit of a shadow on the Quebec City club.High scoring Real Cloutier and Marc Tardif are faced with the loss of their centerman, perhaps for a very long time. Christian Bordeleau is still being bothered with a shoulder problem. There was some question whether it would lead to another operation (with a predicted 5050 chance of success). If the high-scoring speedster foregoes the operation he must resign himself to playing in constant pain. Reportedly there was a possibility the problem could result in ending the 30-year-old center&rsquo;s hockey career&hellip;Defenseman Wally Weir underwent surgery on his left elbow and was expected to be idled for at least two weeks. In addition Jim Dorey was undergoing treatment for a recurring back problem and will be out indefinitely&hellip;Although many expect center Andre Boudrias to have some difficulty filling the shoes of Christian Bordeleau, wingers Tardif and Cloutier began to get in stride after a slow start&hellip;Pauhn Bordeleau was the team leader in goals with five after the first six games, while his centerman Serge Bernier was leading the assist parade&hellip;Happy to have two sound goaltenders (&ldquo;the best we&rsquo;ve had in six years&rdquo;) coach Marc Boileau expects to go with whoever is hot this season. Richard Brodeur, recovering from getting hit in the face (mask) with a shot, had seen little action in the early going.The Quebec forwards took some time getting used to the different style employed by goalie Don McLeod. Instead of coming back for breakouts the forwards must get accustomed to staying up and looking for a lead pass from the hook-sticked goaltender. McLeod notched his first two assists of the season in an 8-5 win over Birmingham, contributing to goals by Paulin Bordeleau and Tardif&hellip;Partly due to the injury problems and partly to the lack of a minor league affiliate the Nordiques planned to carry 21 players on their playing roster. With the injuries to Bordeleau, Weir, and Dorey, the Nords were dressing only 18 players for their games&hellip; &#9632;

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Whalers’ Consistency Propels Fast Start

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01425/4092195-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"></div><h2>BIRMINGHAM BULLS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02335/4092188-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="164" height="165"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03239/4092181-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="704" height="592"></div><h2>CINCINNATI STINGERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04170/4092174-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="137" height="153"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05133/4092167-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="704" height="541"></div><h2>INDIANAPOLIS RACERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-06114/4092160-1-eng-US/f0024-062.jpg" title="f0024-06" width="207" height="167"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0797/4092153-1-eng-US/f0024-072.jpg" title="f0024-07" width="707" height="643"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0891/4092146-1-eng-US/f0024-082.jpg" title="f0024-08" width="224" height="227"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-0984/4092139-1-eng-US/f0024-092.jpg" title="f0024-09" width="711" height="567"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1077/4092132-1-eng-US/f0024-102.jpg" title="f0024-10" width="197" height="195"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1175/4092125-1-eng-US/f0024-112.jpg" title="f0024-11" width="703" height="644"></div><h2>HOUSTON AEROS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1267/4092118-1-eng-US/f0024-122.jpg" title="f0024-12" width="272" height="133"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1356/4092111-1-eng-US/f0024-132.jpg" title="f0024-13" width="706" height="579"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1447/4092104-1-eng-US/f0024-142.jpg" title="f0024-14" width="187" height="191"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1542/4092097-1-eng-US/f0024-152.jpg" title="f0024-15" width="700" height="590"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1639/4092090-1-eng-US/f0024-162.jpg" title="f0024-16" width="196" height="210"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-1735/4092083-1-eng-US/f0024-172.jpg" title="f0024-17" width="697" height="651"></div> &#9632;

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WHA SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

*- Rookie<h2>CINCINNATI</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>DION, Michel*LIUT, MikeWAKELY, Ernie<h3>DEFENSE</h3>BEAUDOIN, SergeLEGGE, BarryMAROTTE, GillesMELROSE, Barry*NORWICH, CraigPLUMB, Ron<h3>CENTERS</h3>FTOREK, RobbieLEDUC, RichLOCAS, JacquesSOBCHUK, Dennie<h3>R. WINGS</h3>ABGRALL, DennisHISLOP, JamieMARSH, PeterSTOUGHTON, Blaine<h3>L. WINGS</h3>DUDLEY, RickHALL, DeiLAROSE, Claude<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>HOUSTON</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>RUTLEDGE, WayneZIMMERMAN, Lynn<h3>DEFENSE</h3>*CAMPBELL, ScottHALE, LarryHUGHES, JohnMCLEOD, AlPOPIEL, PaulSCHELLA, John<h3>CENTERS</h3>LACROIX, AndroLUND, LarryRUSKOWSKI, TerryTONELLI, JohnWEST, Steve<h3>R. WINGS</h3>HANSIS, RonHUGHES, FrankLARWAY, DonPRESTON, Rich<h3>L. WINGS</h3>CONNOR, CamLUKOWICH, MorrisLIDDINGTON, BobTAYLOR, Tod<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>NEW ENGLAND</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>LEVASSEUR, LouSMITH, Al<h3>DEFENSE</h3>BUTTERS, BillHANGSLEBEN, AlanHOWE, MartyLEY, RickROBERTS, GordieSELWOOD, Brad<h3>CENTERS</h3>HOWE, GordieKEON, DabePLEAU, LarryROGERS, Mike<h3>R. WINGS</h3>*MAYER, JimMcKENZIE, JohnWEBSTER, Tom<h3>L. WINGS</h3>ANTONOVICH, MikoCARLSON, JackHOWE, MarkLYLE, George<h3>INJURED</h3>CARROLL, Grog<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>BROMLEY, GaryDALEY, Joo*MATTSSON, Markus<h3>DEFENSE</h3>BERGMAN, ThommieCLACKSON, KimDUNN, DaveGREEN, TedHORNUNG, LarryLONG, BarrySJOBERG, Lars-Erik<h3>CENTERS</h3>HUCK, Fran*NILSSON, KentNILSSON, Ulf<h3>R. WINGS</h3>HEDBERG, AndersLABRAATEN, DanLINDSTROM, WillyRUHNKE, Kent<h3>L. WINGS</h3>GUINDON, BobbyHULL, BobbyKRYSKOW, DaveLESUK, BillMOFFAT, LyleSULLIVAN, Peter<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>BIRMINGHAM</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>GARRETT, JohnWOOD, Wayne<h3>DEFENSE</h3>EVANS, ChrisHOGANSON, DaleHUGHES, BrentLAGACE, Jean-GuyLANGWAY, RodTERBENCHE, PaulTURKIEWWICZ, JimWESTRUM, Pat<h3>CENTERS</h3>MARRIN, PeterNEDOMANSKY, VacNORIS, Joe<h3>R. WINGS</h3>*ALLEY, SteveCASSOLATO, Tony*LINSEMAN, KenNAPIER, MarkSHEEHY, Tim<h3>L. WINGS</h3>BILODEAU, GillesGORMAN, DaveHENDERSON, PaulMAHOVLICH, Frank<h3>INJURED</h3>LAGACE, Jean-Guy<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>BRODERICK, KenDRYDEN, Dave*TURNBULL, Frank<h3>DEFENSE</h3>BUSNIUK, RonHAMILTON, AbINKPEN, DaveLANGEVIN, Dave*MICHELETTI, JoeSHMYR, Paul<h3>CENTERS</h3>CALLIGHEN, BrettCAMPBELL, BryanCHIPPERFIED, RonWIDING, Juha*ZUKE, Mike<h3>R. WINGS</h3>FERGUSON, NormFLETT, BillMacDONALD, BlairMILLER, Warron<h3>L. WINGS</h3>BAIRD, KenDEADMARSH, ButchMORRIS, RickSEMENKO, Dave<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>INDIANAPOLIS</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>INNESS, GaryPARK, Jim<h3>DEFENSE</h3>BALTIMORE, BryonBLOCK, KenFORTIER, DaveMAGGS, DarrylMORRISON, KevinWILKINS, Barry<h3>CENTERS</h3>PARIZEAU, MichelPOWIS, LynnST. SAUVEUR, ClaudeSHEEHAN, Bobby<h3>R. WINGS</h3>LECLERC, RenePAIEMENT, RosairePATENAUDE, RustySPRING, FrankTHOMAS, Rog<h3>L. WINGS</h3>BURGESS, DonDEVINE, KevinFRENCH, JohnHARRIS, Hugh<h3>INJURED</h3>None<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>Goalers</h3>BRODEUR, Richard*CORSI, JimMcLEOD, Don<h3>DEFENSE</h3>BAXTER, PaulBERNIER, JoanLACOMBE, FrancoisLARIVIERE, GarryTREMBLAY, J.C.<h3>CENTERS</h3>BERNIER, SergoBOUDRIAS, AndroLARIVIERE, Garry<h3>R. WINGS</h3>BORDELEAU, PaulinBRACKENBURY, CurtCLOUTIER, RealSUTHERLAND, Steve<h3>L. WINGS</h3>CONSTANTIN, CharlesDRISCOLL, PeterDUBE, NormGUITE, PierroFITCHNER, BobTARDIF, Marc<h3>INJURED</h3>BORDELEAU, ChrisDOREY, JimWEIR, Wally &#9632;

WHA Starting Team Rosters

<h2>Tue. Oct. 25</h2>INDIANAPOLIS 5, BIRMINGHAM 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01362/4092341-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="594" height="647"></div><h2>Wed. Oct. 26</h2>WINNIPEG 3, INDIANAPOLIS 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02263/4092334-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="591" height="589"></div>EDMONTON 7, HOUSTON 8<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03183/4092327-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="596" height="821"></div>QUEBEC 1, NEW ENGLAND 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04134/4092320-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="607" height="247"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05114/4092313-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="598" height="337"></div><h2>Fri. Oct. 28</h2>EDMONTON 3, BIRMINGHAM 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0694/4092306-1-eng-US/f0025-062.jpg" title="f0025-06" width="593" height="615"></div>CINCINNATI 2, WINNIPEG 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0787/4092299-1-eng-US/f0025-072.jpg" title="f0025-07" width="598" height="511"></div><h2>Sat. Oct. 29</h2>BIRMINGHAM 2, INDIANAPOLIS 8<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0878/4092292-1-eng-US/f0025-082.jpg" title="f0025-08" width="592" height="90"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0970/4092285-1-eng-US/f0025-092.jpg" title="f0025-09" width="591" height="520"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1053/4092278-1-eng-US/f0025-102.jpg" title="f0025-10" width="592" height="102"></div>HOUSTON 2, NEW ENGLAND 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1145/4092271-1-eng-US/f0025-112.jpg" title="f0025-11" width="596" height="683"></div><h2>Sun. Oct. 30</h2>HOUSTON 4, QUEBEC 5;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1236/4092264-1-eng-US/f0025-122.jpg" title="f0025-12" width="590" height="547"></div>EDMONTON 2, WINNIPEG 5FIRST PERIODEdmonton. 1&mdash;Chipperfield (Hamilton, Flett)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1331/4092257-1-eng-US/f0025-132.jpg" title="f0025-13" width="589" height="546"></div><h2>Looking At WHA Goalers</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1428/4092250-1-eng-US/f0025-142.jpg" title="f0025-14" width="573" height="794"></div> &#9632;

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WORLD HOCKEY ASSH. SUMMARIES

<h2>OCTOBER</h2>Tue 25 Indianapolis, at BirminghamWed 26 Winnipeg at IndianapolisEdmonton at HoustonQuebec at New EnglandFri 28 Edmonton at BirminghamCincinnati at WinnipegSat. 29 Birmingham at IndianapolisHouston at New EnglandSun. 20 Houston at QuebecEdmonton at Winnipeg<h2>NOVEMBER</h2>Tue. 1 Houston at IndianapolisNew England at QuebecWed 2 Winnipeg at EdmontonBirmingham at HoustonFri. 4 Winnipeg at BirminghamQuebec at HoustonCincinnati at New EnglandIndianapolis at EdmontonSat 5 Quebec at BirminghamWinnipeg at CincinnatiSun 6 New England at CincinnatiHouston at EdmontonTue 8 New England at BirminghamEdmonton at QuebecWed 9 Birmingham at CincinnatiHouston at WinnipegThu. 10 Edmonton at New EnglandFri 11 Edmonton at CincinnatiIndianapolis at HoustonQuebec at WinnipegSat 12 Edmonton at BirminghamIndianapolis at New EnglandCincinnati at QuebecSun 13 Cincinnati at WinnipegTue 15 New England at IndianapolisWinnipeg at QuebecWed 16 Cincinnati at EdmontonBirmingham at WinnipegFri. 18 Cincinnati at EdmontonQuebec at HoustonBirmingham at IndianapolisWinnipeg at New EnglandSat 19 Houston at BirminghamWinnipeg at IndianapolisSun 20 New England at EdmontonIndianapolis at QuebecCincinnati at Winnipeg &#9632;

Where WHA Teams Play

(Standings On Tue. Nov. 1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1523/4092396-1-eng-US/f0025-152.jpg" title="f0025-15" width="567" height="226"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Oct. 25Indianapolis 5 at Birmingham 4Wed. Oct 26Winnipeg 3 at Indianapolis 5Edmonton 7 at Houston 8Quebec 1 at Now England 7Fri. Oct. 28Edmonton 3 at Birmingham 2Cincinnati 2 at Winnipeg 3Sat Oct. 29Birmingham 2 at Indianapolis 6Houston 2 at Now England 7Sun. Oct. 30Houston 4 at Quebec 5Edmonton 2 at Winnipeg 5 &#9632;

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The WHA Scoreboard

HOUSTON&mdash;After dropping their world Hockey Association home opener (to New England, 3-0) and their next game (in Bir mingham, 5-3) the Aeros ran off consecutive wins at the Summit &mdash; against Indianapolis. Cincinnati, and Edmonton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01375/4092427-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="567" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body">LYNN ZIMMERMAN&hellip;Bombed by Whalers</figcaption></div>Coach Bill Dineen has stated that he wants his team to be &ldquo;offense-minded&rdquo;, and the team seemed to be responding as they picked up five, six, and eight goals respectively in each of the aforementioned wins. In the meantime the Aeros&rsquo; defense seemed to be suspect &mdash; even though Dineen claimed to have a strong corps of defensemen.A case in point was the sudden collapse against Edmonton when the Aeros blew a 7-2 lead, being forced to get the winner in overtime in order to save face before the home folks at The Summit.The Aeros feel they have strengthened at the blue-line by the addition of 23-year-old John Hughes (acquired in offseason from Cincy). Also 20-year-old Scott Campbell has been impressive in his first few pro games taking the early lead in the plus-minus stats.The goaltending department is being handled by a pair of 35 year old veterans - Wayne Rutledge, an original Aero, and Lynn Zimmerman, who has played in practically every minor league in North America. Zimmerman had played only nine games in the majors (Ottawa/Denver in the 1975-76 WHA season). &ldquo;He&rsquo;s looked good for us,&rdquo; said coach Dineen after the goalie had won his first two starts. But in his next outing he fell victim to the red-hot New England Whalers giving up seven goals, and looking pretty shaky at times. Young Clay Hebenton was earlier sent to Binghamton of the AHL.The addition of Andre Lacroix to the Houston roster is a big plus for the Aeros. Aside from his great ability on the ice. Andre&rsquo;s sincerity in becoming part of the community will help the Houston folks overcome the loss of Gordie Howe and family. Andre has already become involved in charity work. Working actively for the Houston chapter Of the March of Dimes.On the ice. Monsieur Lacroix is finding it difficult playing against his former San Diego mates who are now scattered among three or four teams in the WHA. He found it especially strange playing against his &ldquo;roomie for four years&rdquo;, Kevin Morrison, now with Indianapolis.The durable Lacroix is one of only two players in the WHA who have played in every league game they have been eligible for over the last five seasons. Andre likes Houston even though the traffic and humidity are difficult to get used to after San Diego, at least.&rdquo;Asked why he ended up in Houston, Andre replied that he could&rsquo;ve gone anywhere but he liked Dineen and he thinks hockey has a good future in Houston. Looking ahead a year or two Andre speculated that there would be (or at least should be) a merger of &ldquo;maybe 14-16 teams&rdquo; which would make a strong league and enable the remaining teams to set up a strong minor league feeder system. His idea is to upgrade major league hockey to the point where the fans will come out to see good teams play, not for just a star or two from certain teams. As he views it, Houston&rsquo;s building &mdash; The Summit &mdash; and the growing interest in hockey in the Houston area will be prime considerations when merger time rolls around.WINNIPEG: The high-flying Jets continued to set the pace for the rest of the WHA winning seven of their first nine starts and five of six in their home rink, a factor that kept them ahead of the hard-driving New England Whalers in the race for the top spot.Rookie Kent Nilsson was still the talk of the Jets with his great early season scoring splurge. He had 20 points in nine games to lead the league. In fact he and his fellow Jets were making a mockery of the early WHA scoring race. In all there were six Jets in the first 10 scorers and Winnipeg players were one, two, three in points. Nilsson had 20, Bobby Hull 17 and Anders Hedberf 15 to lead all other WHAers.EDMONTON: The Oilers were still struggling in the lower regions of the league race. They won only one of three starts last week and were barely keeping their heads above the Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls, who were both experiencing problems winning.One bright spot for the Oilers was the improved team scoring. Ron Chipperfield and Bryan Campbell scored three times each with Campbell getting all three of his goals in one game. The Oilers signed underage junior Dave Semenko from the Western Canada League and pressed him into action right away. &#9632;

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Houston Turning It Around After Slow Getaway

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaPHILADELPHIA&mdash;The expansionist Philadelphia Firebirds started off their first season in the American Hockey League by winning both of their games during the opening weekend. Even though the Firebirds beat two other new AHL clubs, it was quite a feat for a team that is made up of relatively unknown players.In the home opener at the Philadelphia Civic Center, the Firebirds blasted the Maine Mariners 5-1. Two days later they returned to the Civic Center and bombed the Binghamton Dusters 7-1. Firebird right winger Gordie Brooks emerged from the action as the AHL&rsquo;s leading scorer with two goals and five assists, for a total of seven points in just two games.The Rochester Americans also had a successful debut. The Amerks edged defending champion Nova Scotia 4-2 at home on Friday, Oct. 14, and beat New Haven 2-1 on the road on Sunday. In between the two wins, the Amerks suffered an 8-6 loss at Springfield.Rochester center Rick Adduono notched three goals and three assists for the Amerks while goaltender Jim Pettie allowed only three goals in his two appearances. Pettie had a sensational game in New Haven on Sunday, continuing his long-standing hex over the Nighthawks.SPRINGFIELD: Left winger Steve Clippingdale scored four goals in the Tribe&rsquo;s big 8-6 win over Rochester on opening night at the Coliseum. An enthusiastic crowd of 3,874 watched Jim Moxey and Derek Haas each score twice to go along with the four goals by Clippingdale. The parent L.A. Kings have assigned former IHL All Star goaltender Mario Lessard to Springfield. On loan from Buffalo is defenseman Paul McIntosh while the Whalers have sent Dan Bolduc and Jim Mayer.HERSHEY: The Bears got off on the right foot with a big 3-2 victory over Nova Scotia at Hershey on opening night. Rookie goaltender Jim Bedard was credited with 34 saves and Doug Gibson had an outstanding game at center ice for the Bears. The Buffalo Sabres recently gave the Bears some added goaltending strength by assigning Bob Sauve to coach Chuck Hamilton&rsquo;s club.NEW HAVEN: The parent N.Y. Rangers have sent goaltender Lindsay Middlebrook, centers Greg Holst and Bud Stefanski along with rookie Benoit Gosselin to the Nighthawks. The Hawks signed rugged Jim Troy and veteran Ray Clearwater as free agents. Troy is expected to be the enforcer this season after picking up 300 penalty minutes in his first season in the NAHL. Coach Parker MacDonald refers to the six-foot, 200 pound Troy as &ldquo;a tiger of a player&rdquo;. Clearwater played for the old EHL New Haven Blades among other teams.NOVA SCOTIA: The Montreal Canadiens recently signed giant defenseman Gilles Lupien to a long term contract. He&rsquo;s been assigned temporarily to the Voyageurs but must return to the Canadiens within two weeks. The Vees dropped their first two games on the road however, they bounced back to edge the Hampton Gulls 6-4 in the Virginia city on Sunday night.ROCHESTER: The parent Boston Bruins have sent defensemen Al Sims and Doug Halward to the Amerks. Coach Duane Rupp will have to release one or more of his defensemen, with the addition of Sims and Halward. Veteran left winger Ron Garwasiuk is back in Rochester, last season he scored 75 points on 32 goals and 42 assists.MAINE: The Mariners opened their first AHL campaign before a SRO crowd of 6,570 at the Civic Center. The home team responded with a big 6-3 win over the Binghamton Dusters. That historic game was televised live in the Portland area by WGAN-TV. The parent Philadelphia Flyers sent a remote TV crew and WGAN used their &ldquo;mini-cam&rdquo; to feature the exciting AHL action. WGAN Radio simulcast the first game and they will broadcast all other Mariner games, home and away.The Mariners reduced their roster by sending Pete Peeters, Yves Guilmette, Danny Nelson, Peter McKenzie. Clint Eccles, Dan Kennedy, Dave Hynek and Rene Hamelin to their Milwaukee Admiral farm club in the IHL.BINGHAMTON: The Dusters roared into the American Hockey League with a 6-3 win over the New Haven Nighthawks on opening night in Binghamton. The usual capacity crowd of 4,855 fans cheered the Dusters to an easy win over the Nighthawks, a club that had demolished them in a pre-season game a week earlier. Coach Larry Kish&rsquo;s team has NAHL scoring champion Rod Bloomfield back this year as well as Dave Staffen and Pierre Laganiere who finished right behind Bloomfield in the scoring race. The Dusters will have a tremendous advantage playing at home this season since just about every game will be sold out and the enthusiastic Duster fans will give their club a big lift when they skate on the ice. After their first win at home, the Dusters hit the road and lost 6-3 in Maine and 7-1 in Philadelphia.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01354/4092458-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="586" height="941"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICK ADDUONO &hellip; Six-Point Week</figcaption></div>HAMPTON: The Gulls had their home opener on Sunday Oct. 16 against the Nova Scotia Voyageurs, After dropping two straight on the road, the Vees spoiled the debut of the Gulls by taking a 6-4 victory in Hampton. Coach John Borphy&rsquo;s team is made up of WHA players and it should be interesting to see if he is able to mold a winning combination. He starts the season with Eddie Mio and Paul Hoganson in the nets and Danny Arndt on left wing along with several players who saw action in the old SHL and the NAHL. &#9632;

f0027-01

Firebirds Very Impressive In Debut; Maine, Binghamton Filling Arenas

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2>Wed. 2 Springfield at BinghamtonHershey at Nova ScotiaThu. 3 Rochester at HamptonFri. 4 Hershey at New HavenBinghamton at RochesterSat. 5 Philadelphia at SpringfieldSun. 6 Hershey at HamptonBinghamton at Nova ScotiaPhiladelphia at RochesterTue. 8 Springfield at HamptonBinghamton at Nova ScotiaWed. 9 Springfield at HersheyNew Haven at MaineThu. 10 Hampton at BinghamtonFri. 11 Springfield at New HavenNova Scotia at PhiladelphiaMaine at RochesterSat. 12 New Haven at HersheyRochester at MaineNova Scotia at PhiladelphiaHampton at SpringfieldSun. 13 Hershey at New HavenPhiladelphia at Nova ScotiaHampton at RochesterWed. 16 Philadelphia at HersheyBinghamton at MaineThu. 17 Maine at HamptonRochester at PhiladelphiaFri. 18 Springtield at New HavenHershey at PhiladelphiaNova Scotia at RochesterSat. 19 Philadelphia at HamptonMaine at HersheyNova Scotia at SpringtieldSun. 20 Hershey at BinghamtonPhiladelphia at New HavenMaine at RochesterTue. 22 Nova Scotia at PhiladelphiaWed 23 New Haven at HersheyNova Scotia at MainePhiladelphia at RochesterBinghamton at SpringfieldThu. 24 Rochester at BinghamtonFri. 25 Binghamton at HamptonMaine at New HavenHershey at PhiladelphiaNova Scotia at RochesterSat. 26 Binghamton at HersheyNew Haven at MaineHampton at PhiladelphiaNova Scotia at Springfield &#9632;

Where AHL Teams Play

<div class="byline">BY DOUG McCONNELL</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaTULSA&mdash;John Choyce was just stating what he believed to be fact.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got the best center ice in the league.&rdquo;He believed it to be even more true when Stan Weir and the rest of the Tulsa Oilers were through with Phoenix.Along the way, they granted Choyce his three wishes. He had wished for more scoring, a faster start and a win for rookie goaltender Glen Hanlon. &ldquo;It would do him a world of good. &ldquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01341/4092513-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="568" height="596"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN WEIR&hellip;Six-Point Game</figcaption></div>The Oilers&rsquo; five goals in the first period surpassed their previous one-game output and they skated to an easy 8-2 win, with Hanlon making 22 saves for his first victory, over the injury-riddled and rookie-laden Roadrunners.Weir scored his &ldquo;first hat trick since junior&rdquo; and added three assists for his biggest point production in pro hockey.&ldquo;I had five points once for California,&rdquo; said the five-year National Hockey League veteran. &ldquo;I got five assists one night against Buffalo.&rdquo;His goal and assist and previous night in a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over Dallas gave him eight points in two games and the CHL scoring leadership.Ralph Stewart, a veteran of NHL and CHL play and the scorer of the go-ahead power play goal against Dallas&rsquo; and Syd Veysey, third in the CHI scoring race last season with 80 points for Tulsa, are the other reasons for Choyce&rsquo;s boasts about his center-ice crew.FORT WORTH: &ldquo;The Bubble&rsquo;s liable to burst any time,&rdquo; said rookie coach Bill MacMillan. &ldquo;It almost burst tonight.&ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t and MacMillan&rsquo;s Fort Worth Texans got third period goals from Blake Dunlop, his second of the night, and Yvon Vautour for a 3-1 victory in a bruising contest with the Phoenix Roadrunners.It almost burst again the following night, but Doug Rombough&rsquo;s second goal of the night, coming midway in the third period on a power play, gave the Texans a 3-2 victory, their sixth in six games this season. Fort Worth leads the CHL race by six points over Tulsa.The game with Phoenix was bruising and the contest with their turnpike rival a brawlng affair.Richard Nantais was ejected with 32 minutes in penalties after two fights, a game misconduct and a two minute roughing penalty. His pugilistic partner, Pierre Belanger, left with 22 minutes, from two major penalties, a game misconduct for refusing to stop fighting with Nantais, and a minor for roughing.Nantais&rsquo; game misconduct was as the third man in an altercation between Tom Younghans and Belanger.DALLAS: Gerry McNamara, the rookie coach of the Dallas Black Hawks, had some unkind remarks about referee Charlie Banfield after the Tulsa Oilers came from a 2-1 deficit to dump the Hawks 4-2 in Tulsa. Stewart scoring the winning goal on a power play.Banfield&rsquo;s popularity didn&rsquo;t go up with McNamara&rsquo;s blood pressure the following night in Fort Worth when each team scored two power play goals, but the Texans&rsquo; included the winner in a 3-2 game.The Black Hawks had just killed off an interference penalty against Blair Mackasey when Kevin Campbell was called for tripping and Stewart scored on the resulting power play in Tulsa.&ldquo;The guy (Banfield) had plenty of opportunities to call penalties all during the game, but he only called one during the entire second period and suddenly he called two in succession.&ldquo;Hamel (goaltender Pierre) had kept us in the game until them, but you can&rsquo;t expect a team to keep killing penalties forever.&rdquo;The Hawks lost left wing Paul Evans in the Tulsa game. He fractured his thumb in a collision on the boards.PHOENIX: &ldquo;I guess we&rsquo;ll just have to do the best we can with what we&rsquo;ve got,&rdquo; said Sandy Hucul, the coach of the very inexperienced and now injury-riddled Phoenix Roadrunners.Hucul learned he would not get veteran defenseman Jim McElmury from the Runners&rsquo; co-parent Colorado Rockies to bolster the league&rsquo;s youngest, by far, defense, just before his club&rsquo;s first two road games.A pair of third period goals cost them a 3-1 loss at Fort Worth and the hardhitting game cost them two players and hampered several more, resulting in a 9-2 whipping the following night by a freeskating Tulsa Oilers&rsquo; squad.Center Larry Skinner, considered one of the veterans although only 21, and 19-year-old right wing Randy Pierce, one of the team&rsquo;s eight rookies, were sent back to Phoenix for treatment of shoulder injuries.McElmury, 27, was sent to the new Binghamton, N.Y., team in the American Hockey League.KANSAS CITY: Mike Frawley earned a 3-3 tie with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles lor the Kansas City Red Wings in his first pro start and came back two nights later to duplicate his 25-save performance and gain a 3-2 victory over the Eagles, both in Kansas City.The three points were the first earned by the Red Wings after dropping their first three games.Kevin Schamehorn had given Kansas City a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals 17 seconds apart in the first period, his first in pro hockey, but Salt Lake came back to earn the tie on Doug Palazzari&rsquo;s goal at 4:59 of the third period.Rick Vasko (nephew of former NHL defenseman Moose Vasko) scored his first pro goal to send the Wings&rsquo; into a 3-1 lead and it was the eventual game winner in the second of the back-to-back contests. &#9632;

f0028-01

Choyce Glowing Over Oiler Mid-Ice Power

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2>Tue. 1 Ft. Worth at Kansas CityThu. 3 Dallas at Kansas CityPhoenix at Salt LakeFri. 4 Kansas City at DallasFt. Worth at TulsaSat. 5 Ft. Worth at DallasPhoenix at Salt LakeKansas City at TulsaWed. 9 Dallas at PhoenixKansas City at Salt LakeThu. 10 Tulsa at Ft. WorthFri. 11 Dallas at PhoenixKansas City at Salt LakeFt. Worth at TulsaSat. 12 Kansas City at Ft. WorthPhoenix at Tulsa &#9632;

Where CHL Teams Play

LONG BEACH&mdash;The newly-organized Pacific Hockey League, comprised of the San Francisco Shamrocks, Los Angeles Swords, San Diego Mariners and still to-be-named Long Beach, drafted upwards of 180 players Oct. 26 preparatory to opening the season in December.Among them were 40 American college players, who, said league commissioner James Browitt, will be given every opportunity to make one of the four teams.Each team will be required to carry five American-produced players and each club will be limited to eight players who exceed 25 years of age.&ldquo;All four clubs went into the draft with the object of blending youth with experience,&rdquo; said Browitt. &ldquo;And all appeared to accomplish their mission.&rdquo;Each team penciled in a total of 45 names, and will have to trim their lists to 30 by Nov. 5.While San Francisco and Long Beach were still without coaches, Los Angeles named veteran Terry Gray, of Chateauguay, Que., to serve in a dual GM / coach capacity. Outstanding former WHA players selected included the likes of Dick Proceviat (Long Beach), Bob Sicinski (San Diego), and Wayne Rivers and Brian Morenz (San Francisco).Chuck Catto of Montreal, director of player personnel for the league, conducted the draft. Owners in attendance included league president Peter Graham of San Diego, Jerry Sapperstein of San Francisco and Don Deyer of Long Beach.Here&rsquo;s the complete draft:SAN FRANCISCO: Bob Blanchette, Dean Boylan, Don Brennan, Norman Cournoyer, Gary Coalter, Alain Chaput, Ed Dempsey, Ned Dowd, Richard Dalpe, Dwayne Endicott, Dennis Giannini, Bernie Germain, Ric Garcia, Dave Hainsworth, Jerry Kusy, Darryl Knowles, Juri Kudrasovs, Guy Lash, Peter Maki, Brian Morenz, Brian Macklin, Mike McKegney, Adrian Morrison, Peter Mara, Rocky Maze, Kevin Marinos, Matt O&rsquo;Neal, Tim O&rsquo;Connor, Tom O&rsquo;Toole, Greg Post, Gary Potvin, Wayne Rivers, Mike Ruest, Lome Rombough, Bill Spence, Larry Snow, Gordon Sinclair, Mike Smith, Peter Salowaky, Kelly Secord, Brent Tremblay, Gary Walker, Paul Wilkens, Jeff Wilcox, Randy Wyrozub.SAN DIEGO: Yves Archambault, Randy Andreachuk, Claude Bodek, Brian-Bye, John Bellio, Brian Cousineau, Tom Colley, Joe Fiddler, Russ Gillow, Rod Graham, Frank Hamel, Bruce Hatton, Brian Hatton, Peter Jack, Ron. Jones, Gary Jaquith, Scott Jessee, Dan Justin, Hugh Jackson, Dan Kennedy, Mike Keeler, Murray Kenneth, Dave Kryskow, Steve Lewis, Rich Low, Christy Lamby, Alain Langlais, Rick Lalonde, Tom McNamara, Gregg McPhee, Steve MacDonald, Dwayne Pentland, Steve Pankiw, Ed Reardon, John Raynak, Doug Rose, Earl Sargent, Bob Sicinski, Dave Staffen, Bob Sauve, George Swarbrick, Roy Sommer, Tom Trevelyan, Don Wheldon, Jerry Zrymiak.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01298/4092575-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="479" height="670"><figcaption class="caption-body">WAYNE RIVERS&hellip;Picked by Frisco</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES: Michel Archambault, Bruce Bullock, Glen Burden, Jerry Badiuk, Tom Colby, Rick Cabalka. Jeff Carlson, Frank DeMarco, Rick Doyle, Jeff Furney, Mike Greeder, Bob Howard, Archie Henderson, Steve Hunter, Jeff Hymanson, Vince Hope, Bob Hurlburt, Larry Israelson, Rick Kessell, Ed Kenty, Doug Kerslake, Mike Kelly, Ron Kennedy, Pierre Langlais. John Martin, Dan Magnerelli, Brian Marchinko, Tom Mitri, Jim Montgomery, Greg Neeld, Norman Neeld, Bill Orr, Bob O&rsquo;Reilly, Richard Pilewicz, George Pesut, Gary Rissling, Nick Sanza, Roger Swanson, Ron Skiben, Tom Serviss, Robert Sullivan, Robert Street, Henry Taylor, Mike Will, Brian Whitwell.LONG BEACH: Bruce Aberhart, Steve Andrascik, Greg Agar, Willie Brossart, Terry Ballingall, Don Borgeson, Bruce Cowick, Mike Clark, Peter Donnelly, Ron Docken, Blair Davidson, Joe Deiure, Grant Erickson, Tom Earl, Terry Ewasiuk, Fred Fawcett, Tom Guarino, Rick Graham, Don Grierson, Bruce Greig, Guy Hildebrand, Bill Horton, Charley Huck, Howie Heggedal, Ted Hodgson, Gary Kurt, Murray Keogan, Reg Lahey, Bernie Lukowich, Doug McKay, Mike Martin, Brian McSheffrey, Bob McManama, Dick Procevlat, Bill Plager, Joe Pecarie, Buddy Powers, Leo Scarry, John Sheridan, Dick Spannbauer, Kevin Sheehan, Tom Songin, John Traicus, Doug Towler, Greg Wymer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02237/4092568-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="587" height="665"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB SICINSKI&hellip;Drafted by San Diego</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

Coast League Grabs Ex-WHAers

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaFORT WAYNE&mdash;Armed with some new rules aimed at controlling escalating costs, the International Hockey League soon embarks on its 33rd consecutive season confident of competitive league races and warm acceptance at the&rsquo;gate.Still nine teams strong, the IHL will play an 80-game season with the league roster split into North and South divisions again. The league&rsquo;s Michigan population&mdash;Saginaw, Muskegon, Port Huron, Flint and Saginaw will comprise the North segment again. The South will feature the league&rsquo;s senior franchise&mdash;Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Komets&mdash;plus Toledo, Dayton (transferred from Columbus) and the newest member of the family&mdash;Milwaukee. The season will be balanced with each team playing the other 10 times, five at home and five on the road.A number of new faces figure to grace all the older franchises but the difference between winning and losing rests with the veterans.While rosters are pretty well established, they are expected to fluctuate in the early weeks as late cuts from pro camps continue to filter down. Establishing a favorite for division and league titles is a dangerous game at this point in time. But of what has transpired in pre-season competition, Kalamazoo looms as a strong threat to defending champion Saginaw in the North with Port Huron possibly the most improved club in either division.Toledo will have to shoot for another South Division title without the league&rsquo;s leading goal scorer of last season&mdash;Dave Johnson. Johnson, who pumped in 61 goals last year, has announced his retirement from hockey. He was quoted as saying &ldquo;his heart just wasn&rsquo;t in hockey any more.&rdquo; However, there were other rumors that Johnson&rsquo;s asking price was too high for the new economical guidelines of the league. One source said Johnson was asking in the neighborhood of $17,000.Looking at the IHL clubs:SAGINAW: The Gears, who won it all for the first time in their relatively young history last season, have looked much more aggressive than last season&rsquo;s championship unit. Commented coach and general manager Don Perry after a 5-3 exhibition triumph over Flint: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re back to where we were the first year. We had more body checks in the first period (28) than we did in some entire games last season.&rdquo;The aggressiveness can be traced to the recent arrival of veteran defenseman Kevin Kemp. Also welcomed back recently was perennial AU Star defenseman John Gravel, who had hinted retirement after the Gears won the Turner Cup. The 36-year-old Gravel will be playing his 12th season in the IHL and has appeared in more than 800 IHL games so far in his career.KALAMAZOO: The K-Wings, who dropped their first three exhibition games, finished with a rush by taking the final three. The victories included a two-game sweep of Toledo and a 7-1 spanking of Fort Wayne in the Komets&rsquo; rink.General manager Bob Lemieux has some excellent new, young talent which appears to make for a winning blend.He&rsquo;s also featured what he calls his &ldquo;All-American line&rdquo;. The unit is comprised of veteran Mike Wong on right wing. Ray Roy at center and George Klasons at left wing. Wong and Klasons are from Minnesota and Roy from New Hampshire.PORT HURON: Ron Ullyot, who led Columbus to the playoffs in his rookie season last year, apparently has something cooking in Port Huron. The Flags have been most physical in their pre-season competition and apparently it&rsquo;s what Flag fans want. A crowd of 3,500 turned out for an exhibition with the Flint Generals and enjoyed a 6-1 triumph.Ullyot, a strong believer in conditioning, will have the best conditioned club in the league&mdash;if not the best period. The young Flag coach credited his club&rsquo;s better condition for the easy romp over the Generals.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what Flints training schedule was, but they became sluggish as the game went on. Our kids have been working hard and we&rsquo;re having a lot of fun doing all the training.&rdquo;MUSKEGON: Veteran Moose Lallo, who will double as coach and general manager again for the Mohawks, claims to have more rookies on his squad than any team in the league. But the Mohawks haven&rsquo;t looked like rookies.Following an impressive 9-5 romp in Kalamazoo. Lallo said: &ldquo;(Bob) Lemieux (Kalamazoo) has a powerhouse hidden away in a motel room. I&rsquo;ve got nothing to hide. What you see on the ice is what I&rsquo;ve got, except for my goalie, Andre Lepage, who just came in.&rdquo; Lallo has a flock of N.Y. Islander farmhands.FLINT: Limping along 0-3 after three pre-season outings, the Flint Generals are looking for help&mdash;and quick. Coach manager Doug Carpenter has hinted there will be significant changes in the current 25-man roster before the season opens.The Generals are expecting a pro-on-option from the Chicago Black Hawks and director of operations Frank Gallagher announced; &ldquo;We&rsquo;re working on something which will give us a big boost. But we aren&rsquo;t sure it will happen&mdash;so we will have to wait.&rdquo; Several players have signed contracts for the 1977-78 season including veterans Jim Johnston, Tim Williams, and Terry Smith. Newcomers Scott Jessie RW, Rick Cabalka LW, Dennis McLean C, Mike Breen D. Al Sarachman G, and Gary Platt D have also inked pacts.TOLEDO: While no team can afford to lose a 61-goal scorer as was Dave Johnson, the news wasn&rsquo;t all bad in the Digger family. Manager-coach Ted Garvin learned the same day he lost Johnson that rugged, exciting Ian MacPhee would return. MacPhee had announced during the off-season he would not be back. But he has returned to Toledo&mdash;and that brought a smile to Garvin&rsquo;s face.A frown returns when Garvin thinks of his defense. Garvin expected some early mistakes&mdash;because the defense is young. But the mistakes aren&rsquo;t being corrected. The Diggers gave up 10 goals in losing at Kalamazoo. And in a subsequent 5-4 loss to the Wings in Toledo, defensive lapses hurt again. Bad passing by the defense has resulted in a heavy rush at the Digger goalies.But Garvin remains calm. &ldquo;Our defense is no worse than it was at this time last year. We&rsquo;ve just got to have a little help there. That&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;FORT WAYNE: New coach Gregg Pilling will start his first season with a winning record in pre-season play. The Komets won two, tied one-and lost one. The loss may concern him, however.The lone defeat was a 7-1 pasting by Kalamazoo in the final tuneup. &ldquo;I made some decisions as a result. Some guys who hadn&rsquo;t been getting much ice time got more. And some who had been getting a lot, didn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m really not concerned by the score. We haven&rsquo;t put any combinations together yet. We are young. We have some trouble spots but if the help we have been promised (from Vancoucer) arrives, we&rsquo;ll be okay.&rdquo;Among the Vancouver arrivals were goaler Murray Bannerman and forwards Ray Creasey and Brian Drumm. The Minnesota North Stars optioned Kevin McCloskey and Jamie Gallimore.DAYTON: The Owls welcomed goalie Gordon Laxton from the Pittsburgh Penguins. But still among the missing were Steve Lyon and Frank Werner.In a rough and tumble test at Toledo, the Owls came up short on goals, 7-4, but contributed their share to the 134 penalty minutes dished out by the referee.MILWAUKEE: The Admirals are the only IHL club which will launch the season without benefit of pre-season competition. Instead, coach Gene Ubriaco is tuning up his squad with intrasquad competition.Featuring a recent squad battle were Daniel Lecours and Mike Martin, both of whom scored a pair of goals as the Reds won over the Whites, 7-2. &#9632;

Kalamazoo, Saginaw To Contest IHL’S North

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2>Wed. 2 Pt. Huron at Ft. WayneMuskegon at MilwaukeeFri. 4 Pt. Huron at MuskegonDayton at FlintKalamazoo at SaginawFt. Wayne at ToledoSat. 5 Dayton at Ft. WayneKalamazoo at MuskegonFlint at Pt. HuronToledo at MilwaukeeSun. 6 Saginaw at FlintMuskegon at DaytonFt. Wayne at KalamazooToledo at MilwaukeeWed. 9 Pt. Huron at DaytonSaginaw at KalamazooFlint at ToledoFt. Wayne at MilwaukeeFri. 11 Milwaukee at Ft. WayneMuskegon at SaginawPt. Huron at Toledo &#9632;

Where IHL Teams Play

<h2>DAYTON OWLS</h2>Goal: Gordon Laxton.Defense: Gerry Egers, Bob Johnson, Joe Rando, Guido Tenesi.Centers: Kim Davis, Jim Doyle, Al Hillier.Right Wings: Mike Dorman, Archie King, Brian MacGregor, Hank Taylor.Left Wings: John Flesch, Peter Sturgeon, Willie Trognitz.<h2>FLINT GENERALS</h2>Goal: Randy Ireland, Al Sarachman.Defense: Mike Breen, Jeff Gewer, Gary Platt, Dave Robinson, Doug Towler, Tim Williams.Centers: Mike Clarke, Jim Johnston, Dennis McLean, Terry Smith.Right Wings: Scott Jesse, Mike Powers.Left Wings: Rick Cabalka, Dave Hathaway, Tim Sanche.<h2>FORT WAYNE KOMETS</h2>Goal: Murray Bannerman, Robbie Irons, Lome Mollenken.Defense: Terry Ewasluk, Mike Federko, Kevin McCloskey, Terry Pembroke, Mike Penasse, Dwayne Pentland.Centers: Danny Bonar, Ray Creasey, Dave Faulkner, Terry McDougall.Right Wings: Al Dumba, Jamis Gallimore, D&rsquo;Arcy Keating.Left Wings: Brien Drumm, Robbie Laird, Bob McNeice, Dave Norris.<h2>KALAMAZOO WINGS</h2>Goal: Gord Peterson, Richard Sevigny.Defense: Robin Clark, Len Ircandia, Kevin MacDonald, Dan Poulin, Jerry Rollins, Ron Wilson.Centers: Al Genovy, Ray Roy, Terry Ryan.Right Wings: Cam Colborne, Tom Milani, Mike Wanchuk, Mike Wong.Left Wings: Ron Kennedy, George Klasons, Alvin White.<h2>MILWAUKEE ADMIRALS</h2>Goal: Yves Guillemette, Peter Peeters, Richard Sirois.Defense: Pierre Allard, Ray Kurpis, Michel Lachance, Don Lemieux, Peter MacKenzie, Dan Nelson.Centers: Bob Sauve, John Sheridan, Jean Trottier.Right Wings: Clint Eccles, Dan Kennedy, Garry Morrison.Left Wings: Rene Hamelin, Dave Hynek, Daniel Lecours, Yves Preston.<h2>MUSKEGON MOHAWKS</h2>Goal: Andre Lepage, Jean-Pierre Sanvido.Defense: Joey Girardin, Tony Horvath, Steve Letzgus, Dave Miglia.Centers: Bill Hamilton, Bernard Harbec, Charlie SkjodtRight Wings: Bill Buckton, Hector Marini, Ed Pizunski, Bob Sunderland.Left Wings: Bruce Andres, Neil Hawryliw, Jean Tetreault, Bob Tombari, Elmer Ray.<h2>PORT HURON FLAGS</h2>Goal: Rollie Boutin, Dale Rideout.Defense: Les Auge, Reid Bailey, Jim Bannatyne, Mike Boland, Brian Schnitzler, Raynald Tremblay.Centers: Bob Dudley, Jim Gustafson, Brian Kinsella, Michel Plante.Right Wings: Archie Henderson, Mike McDougal, Dan O&rsquo;Driscoll.Left Wings: Larry Gould, Bruce Hamilton, Gary Rissling.<h2>SAGINAW GEARS</h2>Goal: Brian Holderness, Rick Szabo.Defense: Marc Gaudreault, Bob Gladney, John Gravel, Greg Hotham, Tom Jobson, Kevin Kemp, Gary Sittier.Centers: Marcel Comeau, Warren Holmes, Stu Irving, Reg Lahey, Don Moores, Ray Sommer.Right Wings: Rick Chinnick, Denis Desrosiers, Dave Westner.Left Wings: Kevin Howe, Lynn Jorgenson.<h2>TOLEDO GOALDIGGERS</h2>Goal: Tom McNamara, Ted Tucker.Defense: Jerry Badiuk, Terry Ballingall, Michel Laurendeau, Greg McPhee, Mark Toffolo, Gary Soetaert.Centers: Len Fontaine, Jim McCabe, Bob Sullivan.Right Wings: Ian MacPhee, Joe Nathe, Barry Scully.Left Wings: Mike Eruzinoe, Reml Levesque, Claude Periard, Paul Tantardini. &#9632;

IHL Starting Rosters

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Nov. 2)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01309/4092741-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="587" height="368"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Oct. 26Nova Scotia 7 at Binghamton 4Springfield 3 at Hampton 5Now Haven 6 at Philadelphia 4Fri. Oct 28Springfield 2 at Philadelphia 6Nova Scotia 3 at Rochester 5Sat. Oct. 29Now Haven 3 at Hampton 2Maine 4 at Philadelphia 2Nova Scotia 5 at Springfield 8Sun. Oct. 30Maine 2 at Binghamton 2Nova Scotia 2 at Now Haven 3Hershey 2 at Rochester 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02235/4092734-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="584" height="334"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03184/4092727-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="582" height="360"></div><h3>GOALING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04144/4092720-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="575" height="619"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Nov. 1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05127/4092713-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="584" height="189"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Oct. 26Phoenix 4 at Kansas City 6Fri. Oct. 28Phoenix 4 at Kansas City 5Fort Worth 1 at Salt Lake 8Dalias 3 at Tulsa 4Sat. Oct. 29Phoenix 5 at Dallas 5Fort Worth 4 at Salt Lake 2Kansas City 4 at Tulsa 3Sun. Oct. 30Tulsa 5 at Kansas City 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06100/4092706-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="577" height="324"></div><h3>GOALING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0787/4092699-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="575" height="324"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Nov. 2)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0878/4092692-1-eng-US/f0031-082.jpg" title="f0031-08" width="586" height="389"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Oct. 26Muskegon 7 at Fort Wayne 3Flint 2 at Dayton 4Port Huron 3 at Milwaukee 2Fri. Oct. 28Toledo 6 at Muskegon 3Fort Wayne 3 at Flint 5Dayton 2 at Saginaw 5Kalamazoo 4 at Milwaukee 4Sat. Oct. 29Saginaw 4 at Fort Wayne 2Flint 1 at Muskegon 4Dayton 1 at Port Huron 4Kalamazoo 2 at Milwaukee 2Sun. Oct. 30Muskegon 2 at Port Huron 3Fort Wayne 4 at Dayton 4Saginaw 5 at Kalamazoo 4Toledo 5 at Flint 2<h2>CONTINENTAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Oct. 18)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0964/4092685-1-eng-US/f0031-092.jpg" title="f0031-09" width="576" height="136"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1052/4092678-1-eng-US/f0031-102.jpg" title="f0031-10" width="583" height="142"></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Looking At The Minor League Scoreboard

<h2>NHL TEAMS</h2>1&mdash;Montreal2&mdash;Chicago3&mdash;Boston4&mdash;Rangers5&mdash;Detroit6&mdash;Toronto7&mdash;Philadelphia8&mdash;Los Angeles9&mdash;St. Louis10&mdash;Minnesota11&mdash;Pittsburgh12&mdash;Islanders13&mdash;Vancouver14&mdash;Buffalo15&mdash;Atlanta18&mdash;Cleveland17&mdash;Colorado18&mdash;Washington<h2>WHA TEAMS</h2>19&mdash;New England20&mdash;Quebec21&mdash;Winnipeg22&mdash;Houston23&mdash;Indianapolis24&mdash;Edmonton25&mdash;Cincinnati26&mdash;Birmingham<h2>INTER-LEAGUE</h2>27&mdash;Boston (NHL) & St. Louis (NHL)28&mdash;Montreal (NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)29&mdash;Pittsburgh (NHL) & Houston (WHA)30&mdash;Washington (NHL) & Buffalo (NHL)31&mdash;Independent32&mdash;New England. Birmingham. Cincinnati and Quebec (all WHA).33&mdash;Los Angeles (NHL) & New England (WHA)34&mdash;Colorado (NHL) & Cleveland (NHL)35&mdash;Chicago (NHL) & Toronto (NHL)36&mdash;Vancouver (NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)37&mdash;Islanders (NHL) & Minnesota (NHL)40&mdash;Detroit (NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)41&mdash;St Louis (NHL) & Washington (NHL)42&mdash;Chicago (NHL) & Colorado (NHL)43&mdash;Vancouver (NHL) & Minnesota (NHL)44&mdash;Buffalo (NHL) & Philadelphia (NHL)45&mdash;Islanders (NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)46&mdash;Rangers (NHL) & Cleveland (NHL) &#9632;

Who They’re Affiliated With…

<div class="byline">BY MIKE GAMBLE</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaSAULT STE. MARIE&mdash;Minor midget Wayne Gretzky continues to make most of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League news, both on and off the ice.The 16-year-old Sault Ste. Marie Greyhound forward is tied with Ottawa 67&rsquo;s Bob Smith for the scoring lead despite having his card revoked last week by the Ontario Hockey Association.Gretzky did not miss any action because management for Ottawa, Peterborough Petes and Hamilton Fincups said they would not protest their games against the Greyhounds if Gretzky played.The dispute arose because the Seneca Nationals Junior B club, for whom Gretzky played two seasons before being drafted last spring by the Greyhounds, felt they were entitled to more than $1,500 for the talented center.Senecas&rsquo; owner Reg Quinn and general manager Colin MacKenzie based their contention on a ruling handed down by provincial branch registrars when a team loses more than three players in the midget draft. The registrars ruled that, it mattered not the order of players drafted, but once payments were received for any three players, any others became a matter for negotiation.Seneca lost a total of six to major junior A teams including Gretzky. Because of the registrars ruling, Seneca asked Greyhounds for $9,000 for the player&rsquo;s rights. When negotiations broke down, the OHA had no alternative but to revoke his playing card.However, the dispute was resolved after the executive of the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League voted to request the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to recognize the order of players drafted off a single team. Gretzky was the first player selected from Seneca. This is also the Quebec interpretation of the rule.Roland Mercier, vice-president in charge of junior hockey for the CAHA, was in complete agreement with this position and when it was explained to Seneca officials, they relinquished Gretzky&rsquo;s rights to the Soo for $1,500.Senecas&rsquo; MacKenzie said the $9,000 was for legal fees plus room and board that Quinn paid out for Gretzky. When the player joined Seneca from Brantford the Nationals attempted to place him in the Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League but ran into opposition from the OHA.&ldquo;We only had trouble because his name was Wayne Gretzky,&rdquo; MacKenzie recalled. &ldquo;If his name had been John Smith nobody would have mentioned it, but, because he is absolutely the best player in hockey history ever to lace on a pair of skates&mdash;including the Orrs and Howes&mdash;the OHA intervened.&rdquo;Through all the current legal turmoil, Gretzky stuck to what he does best. Despite the cloud of having his card revoked, he scored three goals and added three assists in losses to Petes and 67s.Soo general manager Angelo Bumbacco said the incident appeared to unsettle the team. He stressed that negotiations with Seneca officials after the CMJHL ruling were without acrimony.WINDSOR: A perfect week for Windsor vaulted them into a first place tie with London Knights. Spitfires have two games in hand. Windsor beat London at home and then proceeded to upset Kitchener and Niagara Falls on the road. The margin in all three games was a single goal and Wayne Maxner&rsquo;s crew has won five of seven one-goal decisions in 12 games.The Niagara Falls game was especially satisfying for Maxner as his team roared back from a 6-3 deficit to score four times in the final five minutes.&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t playing well against the Flyers because some of our guys took them too lightly. But they are a better team than their record indicates.&rdquo; Maxner said. In the final eight minutes, he benched several players and went exclusively with the seven or eight players who had been working all night.Although Spitfires don&rsquo;t have any superstars, they seem blessed this season with a Maritime connection. Roland Melonson from Moncton, N.B. has been playing extremely well, sharing the goaltending duties with another steady performer Bob Parent.Two Nova Scotians, Pat Goreham and John Kibyuk have been reliable wingers for Maxner, who was born in Halifax himself. Kibyuk, an over-age junior, played for Toronto Marlboros last season.LONDON: The Knights stumbled, gaining only one point of a possible six on the week&rsquo;s play. After losing to Windsor, they tied the Petes on home ice before losing to Kitchener.Coach Bill Long said the week reflects the balance throughout the league. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve found out that every team is capable of beating every other and we&rsquo;re not going to win every game.&rdquo;Long said Spitfires &ldquo;gang you to death&mdash;especially in their own rink.&rdquo;Knights&rsquo; are hurting a little from three inexperienced defensemen Bob Goodish, Wayne Bishop and Jim Eckhardt. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d have to nail some of our goals-against on our defense. Those three are rookies and they&rsquo;re going to make mistakes.&rdquo; The two who aren&rsquo;t, Brad Marsh and Rob Ramage, are playing well.Another rookie who is in the top 10 in scoring for Knights is first round pick Frank Nigro. With 11 goals in 14 games, Nigro is centering London&rsquo;s top scoring line flanked by Jim MacRae and Dino Ciccarelli. All three are in the league&rsquo;s top 10.HAMILTON: With six of a possible 10 points, Fincups took over third place in the division standings, five points back of the leaders. After picking up only a tie against Greyhounds, Fincups lost to Sudbury and then tied the Wolves at home. Their two victories were 6-3 over Oshawa and 8-1 against Kitchener.Fincups&rsquo; line of Tim Coulis. Scott Vanderburgh and Dennis Houle is doing most of the goal scoring although rookie leftwinger Paul Marshall has seven goals in spite of missing five games. Fincups have 12 last year players.Al Walmsley has a 3.50 goals-against average and was outstanding in the first half of the game against Rangers. Hamilton led 2-0 after one period and Walmsely kicked out 14 shots. But the Fincups, playing aggressive hockey, had the Rangers looking up and backing up midway through the second period and scored four third period markers.Bert Templeton&rsquo;s crew has not played that well at their Mountain Arena home and attendance there is on the downswing. On the road, Hamilton is only one game under .500.Defenseman Jay Johnston has replaced Dale McCourt as Fincups&rsquo; team captain and is playing a strong dedense despite a broken nose which requires him to wear a mask.KITCHENER: Mac MacLean has been getting good goaltending from Mark Fisher and back-up Ray Pilon but is looking for more strength down center.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just not finishing off our plays and storing goals, and I think it&rsquo;s because we don&rsquo;t have any big strong centers that can control and puck in the opposition end.&rdquo;Against Hamilton, MacLean replaced center Richard Duguay with Doug Sulliman for the first two periods then gave up the experiment. Duguay scored Rangers&rsquo; only goal, early in the third period. Kitchener&rsquo;s other centers are Dale Hunter, Brian Schnurr and Jeff Pasher.MacLean is satisfied with his defense of Gaston Gingras and Daryl Holmquist; Paul Reinhart and Kerry Williston; Kevin Reinhart and Joe McDonnell.Up front, the only forward who wasn&rsquo;t backing away from the Fincups by the third period was right-winger Dan Barber, brother of Philadelphia&rsquo;s Bill Barber.Rangers&rsquo; only victory in three games was at home against London. Even then, Knights had a 3-2 lead and controlled play for the first 50 minutes before Rangers caught fire.TORONTO: Marlboros finally opened their home season but were dumped 6-2 by Niagara Falls Flyers. The following afternoon Toronto turned on Kingston 8-4 to even their record at 4-4.In an extremely dull game against Niagara Falls, Toronto led 2-0 and then fell asleep for the last two periods allowing the Flyers to record their second win of the season.Behind goaltender Lloyd Dyson. Marlies avenged a 9-2 loss to Kingston. They jumped into a 4-0 lead and. after Canadians narrowed it to 4-2, Gary Dillon took charge getting the fifth Toronto marker and adding two assists. Rookie Jim Peplinski added two goals for Marlies.A third game at Maple Leaf Gardens against London Knights was postponed and has been rescheduled for Nov. 15.George Armstrong attributed the Flyers&rsquo; loss to tightness by his players. &ldquo;I thought they&rsquo;d be relaxed, finally playing in front of their own fans, but they were tight as a drum.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01314/4092796-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="553" height="877"><figcaption class="caption-body">WAYNE GRETZKY&hellip;OHA Newsmaker</figcaption></div>NIAGARA FALLS: Paul Emms&rsquo; gang managed two of six points, losing in Peterborough and, at home, to Windsor.Emms was pleased with his team&rsquo;s win in Maple Leaf Gardens. &ldquo;That was a big win for us. It was a four-point game and winning on the road is so important in this league.&rdquo;Emms received a good night&rsquo;s work from his line of Stan Adams, Louie Franceschetti and Mike Gartner.Center and captain Steve Peters has come back strongly after a deep cut on the back of his leg kept him out of several games at the beginning of the season The line of Peters. Dave Robson and Greg Foy played a tough forechecking game and left the goal scoring to others against Toronto.OTTAWA: 67s maintained a one-point lead atop the Leyden Division standings, despite getting only three of a possible six points.They doubled Greyhounds 6-3 and tied Kingston 4-4 but dropped a 5-3 game to Oshawa.PETERBOROUGH: Petes took five of a possible six points to close in on Ottawa while opening some breathing room behind them. Petes took home ice victories against Greyhounds and Niagara Falls and tied London on the road.Petes&rsquo; center Keith Acton jumped into third place in the scoring race. Acton, who wasn&rsquo;t in the top 10 of the week previous, now has seven goals and 20 assists. Linemate Tim Trimper is in 10th place with 10 goals and 13 assists.OSHAWA: The Generals moved to within one victory of their entire 1976-77 mark when they stopped Ottawa 5-3 at home. They also tied Kingston 3-3 but lost on the road to Canadians and Hamilton.KINGSTON: Canadians managed four of eight points to move into a third place tie with Oshawa. However. Canadians have three games in hand. Canadians took three of four points from the Generals and tied Ottawa 4-4 as Tony McKegney had a goal and three assists. Their only loss was the 8-4 defeat in Toronto.SUDBURY: The Wolves gained some ground taking three of a possible four points from Hamilton. Wolves edged the Fincups 4-3 in Sudbury and tied them 5-5, two nights later in Hamilton.SAULT STE. MARIE: Greyhounds continued to slide managing just one point in three games. After tying Fincups 3-3 at home, the Soo lost in Ottawa and Peterborough.After the week, Muzz MacPherson put half a dozen players up for trade including left winger Paul Mancini. MacPherson felt Mancini could score 50 goals playing on the wing beside Gretzky and Dan Lucas but wants him to do more backchecking. &#9632;

f0032-01

Soo’s Gretzky Ignores Problems, Still Scoring Despite Card Loss

<div class="byline">BY DANNY YOUNG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01282/4092827-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="559" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body">YVES RICHER &hellip; Hot Verdun Sniper</figcaption></div>VERDUN&mdash;After finishing last season with the league&rsquo;s worst record, the Sorel Black Hawks moved their franchise to Verdun, a suburb of Montreal. This move has set the stage for a new rivalry in the league between the Hawks and the Montreal Juniors.On three dates during the current season, the two clubs will clash at a midway point between their home arenas&mdash;the Montreal Forum.The first of these contests took place last week with Verdun trailing Montreal by only two points in the Lebel division. 4,030 fans came to the game and both teams were equally represented.Verdun quickly opened the scoring at :30 of the first period. Norman Aubin gave a lead pass to Yves Richer who went in all alone and beat goalie Marco Baron.Montreal answered back one minute later on a pretty give-and-go play as Richard Suwek set up Kevin Reeves.Spectators could tell by the players&rsquo; reactions after the goals that it was not just a regular game.Aubin scored to give Verdun a 2-1 edge, but Montreal&rsquo;s John Philips evened things up just 19 seconds later. Richard Larocque quickly answered for Verdun and the Hawks recaptured the lead.Both teams scored one more goal and the period ending with Verdun on top 4-3.Montreal captain Reeves evened the score for the fourth time at 5:07 of the second period. Montreal goalie Marco Baron made two big saves, one on a Gilles Leduc breakaway, to hold off Verdun&rsquo;s attack and Kevin Reeves picked up his second goal of the night to give the Juniors the lead for the first time.But you guessed it. Richer scored again to even things up and close the second period at 5-5.At the opening of the third, Verdun received a high sticking penalty and a tripping infraction on a delayed call, giving Montreal a two-man advantage.Verdun defensemen Denis Leduc and Raymond Bourque were spectacular and managed to kill the penalties with the help of goalie Alain Deragon.Their performance gave the Hawks a big lift and the team started flying. Verdun scored four unanswered goals and ran away with a 9-5 win.Verdun&rsquo;s top line of Aubin, Richer, and Daniel St. Laurent showed why they&rsquo;re one of the league&rsquo;s premiere trios as they scored four goals and eight assists between them. The three Verdun forwards have 108 points between them in 17 games, led by Aubin&rsquo;s 23 goals and 26 assists.For Verdun, coach Yvon Blais, the league&rsquo;s youngest at 20, and their supporters, it was a glorious win. For Montreal followers, a disappointment, but for all in attendance, an appreciation of what this new rivalry has to offer the city of Montreal and the Quebec Major League.CORNWALL: The Royals allowed 73 shots on goal in two games last week. Orval Tessier had his team playing good defense but their performances against Quebec and Chicoutimi are cause for concern. The line of MacGregor, Paterson, and Crawford was held scoreless and the Royals lost to Quebec 5-3.HULL: The Olympics sent Andre Dore and Denis Pomerleau to Trois Rivieres for Normand Lahaie, Yves Dandurand and Patrice Legault. Hull defeated Laval 8-4 led by two goals from the new Olympic, Norman Lahaie. Paul MacLean came through with a hat trick in a 6-4 win over Quebec. Denis Pomereau&rsquo;s three goals were not enough to top Sherbrooke and the Olympics fell 10-6.TROIS RIVIERES: The Draveurs are the team to beat in the league. Coach Michel-Bergeron continues to make many deals to improve his team. He acquired Patrice Legault, Ron Charrette, Andre Dore and Denis Pomerleau this past week. The Draveurs destroyed Sherbrooke, 12-4. Pomerleau, who had a hat trick for Hull earlier in the week, scored three times for his new team. Trois Rivieres also beat ShaWinigan 6-2.MONTREAL: The Juniors traded Robert Paquet and Benoit Desjardins to Shawinigan for center Claude Lepine and goalie Michel Binette. Montreal moved into striking distance of first place by beating Shawinigan 4-3 and Laval 7-2. Richard Suwek had a hat trick in the 7-2 win and Marco Baron was exceptional in the nets. The line of Denis Savard, Denis Tremblay, and Denis Cyr has been very effective going both ways for the Juniors.CHICOUTIMI: The Sagueneens gave up six third-period goals to Verdun and lost 12-4. Louis Sleigher had two goals in the losing cause. Gervais Munger had one goal and three assists in a 5-5 deadlock against Cornwall. Munger has become the new team captain.QUEBEC: The Remparts lost two games under similar circumstances. In a 6-4 loss to Hull and a 7-5 loss to Sherbrooke, the Remparts gave up two late third-period goals. Quebec allowed 69 shots in the two contest while only tallying 57.LAVAL: The slumping Nationals lost important games to Hull 8-4 and Montreal 7-2. Star forward Glen Currie has scored only one goal in five contests. Center Bruce Montgomery will be out for at least a week with a sore tendon.SHERBROOKE: All Star Sylvain Locas came alive for the Beavers with six goals in three games. Ricky Vaive lead the way with four goals in a 10-6 win over Hull. Locas scored three goals in a 7-5 win over Quebec. Sherbrooke had an opportunity to close the gap with Trois Rivieres but were blown out 12-4. The Beavers were outshot by an incredible 5522.SHAWINIGAN: The Dynamos went to the trading blocks once more sending Claude Lepine and Michel Binette to Montreal in exchange for goaltender Robert Paquet and forward Benoit Desjardins. In a game against Montreal, the Dynamos blew a 3-0 lead late in the second period and lost 4-3. &#9632;

f0033-01

Hawks, Juniors Kick Off ‘Rivalry’; Draveurs Keep Ahead With Trades

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2>Tue 1 Sherbrooke at HullCornwall at Trois-Rivi&egrave;resWed. 2 Verdun at LavalThu 3 Verdun at CornwallShawinigan at MontrealFri 4 Laval at ChicoutimiMontreal at QuebecHull at ShawiniganTrois-Rivi&egrave;res at SherbrookeSun 6 Shawinigan at ChicoutimiCornwall at HullSherbrooke at MontrealLaval at Trois-RivieresQuebec at VerdunSun. 2 Montreal at ChicoutimiShawinigan at CornwallHull at LavalQuebec at Trois-RivieresSherbrooke at VerdunMon 3 Cornwall at LavalTue 4 Sherbrooke at HullChicoutimi at Trois-RivieresWed 5 Verdun at QuebecThu 6 Hull at ChicoutimiFrj. 7 Cornwall at MontrealHull at QuebecVerdun at ShawiniganTrois-Rivieres at Sherbrooke &#9632;

Where QML Teams Play

<h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Oct. 31)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02213/4092896-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="586" height="378"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Oct. 24Montreal 7, Laval 2Tue. Oct. 25Quebec 4, Hull 6Sherbrooke 4, Trois Rivieres 12Wed. Oct. 26Shawinigan 2, Verdun 12Thu. Oct 27Chicoutimi 2, Cornwall 4Fri. Oct 28Chicoutimi 4, Montreal 7Laval 4, Quebec 8Trois Rivieres 7, Shawinigan 5Sun. Oct 30Cornwall 7, Hull 3Trois Rivieres 4, Montreal 4Quebec 4. Shawinigan 3Chicoutimi 2, Sherbrooke 7Laval 6, Verdun 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03160/4092889-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="582" height="273"></div><h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Oct. 30)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04127/4092882-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="593" height="441"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Oct. 21Hamilton 3, Sudbury 4Windsor 4, Kitchener 3Sault Ste. Mario 3, Ottawa 6Peterborough 3, London 3Oshawa 5, Kingston 6Niagara Falls 6, Toronto 2Sat. Oct. 22Sault Ste. Mario 4, Peterborough 9Kingston 4, Toronto 8Sun. Oct. 23Ottawa 3, Oshawa 5Windsor 7, Niagara Falls 6London 3, Kitchener 4Sudbury 5, Hamilton 5Tue. Oct. 25Kitchener 1, Hamilton 8Ottawa 4, Kingston 4Thu. Oct. 27Kingston 4, Sault Ste. Mario 5Niagara Falls 5, Windsor 11Oshawa 4, Peterborough 5Fri. Oct 28Kingston 6, Sudbury 5Toronto 7, Ottawa 10Windsor 3, London 4Sault Ste. Mario 4, Niagara Falls 6Sat. Oct. 29Sudbury 1, Peterborough 2 &#9632;

f0033-02

Looking At The Races

<div class="byline">BY BRUCE PENTON</div>LOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLE SLUGGERHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTDArnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaVICTORIA&mdash;Jack Shupe proved the old cliche false: you can go home again.Shupe, for years the guiding light behind the fortunes of Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Canada Hockey League before he was unceremoniously dumped after an ownership change last spring, has bobbed to the surface in Victoria as coach of the Cougars.And early in the 1977-78 season, he took his new team into his old town, and walked away with a warm smile on his face after a decisive 6-2 victory.The people treated me pretty well.&rdquo; said Shupe. &ldquo;There were a couple of hooters, but on the whole, I got a pretty good reception.&rdquo;He was quickly hired by the Cougars once his services became available, because Victoria general-manager Bob Briscoe was well-aware of the man&rsquo;s coaching talents.Shupe, for many years a junior coach in Weyburn, had taken over an expansion WCHL franchise in Medicine Hat and won the league title in his only third year. Starry forwards Lanny McDonald and Tom Lysiak helped the cause, but it was no fluke; Shupe stayed in the first division from that year on.In Victoria, the Cougars are leading the West Division, but their 6-8 record isn&rsquo;t exactly what Shupe has in mind. Still, it was respectable, since his team had played 10 of its 14 games on the road.Geordie Robertson is the kingpin of the Cougars&rsquo; offense, and leads the entire league in scoring after the first month. His 11 goals and 19 assists in 14 games is a pace that would give the sophomore center 154 points at season&rsquo;s end.After a recent 8-7 come-from-behind win over the hometown Brandon Wheat Kings. Robertson said his team is thinking of the Memorial Cup.The Cougars trailed in that game 4-0 near the midway mark of the second period, but mounted a comeback&mdash;spiced by Robertson&rsquo;s three goals and two assists&mdash;which propelled the team to victory.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re always slow starters in games.&rdquo; Robertson said, &ldquo;but we really wanted to beat Brandon. They&rsquo;d been yapping about how they got robbed in the league final last year. Well, we think we can win the final this year.&rdquo;NEW WESTMINSTER: After getting two ties and a loss in three games against arch-rival Portland, the Bruins went home expecting to easily decision touring Billings. But the Bighorns struck for a 3-2 win, leaving the Bruins with a winless week. Good news for Ernie McLean, though, was the return of over-age goalie Carey Walker, who has stablized that position for the Bruins.SEATTLE: The Breakers were beginning to wonder if the schedule-makers forgot about them, playing only once last week for their sixth game of the year. The average of other teams in the WCHL was 11 games played. But that lone game was a success, as Russ Wilderman&rsquo;s first goal of the season was the winner as the Breakers downed Billings 4-1.PORTLAND: Team leader Wayne Babych was the scoring star (two goals and an assist) in the Winter Hawks&rsquo; 5-3 victory over New Westminster. Otherwise, the two teams were fit to be tied&mdash;battling to 5-5 and 4-4 deadlocks. Paul Mulvey scored twice in the 5-5 game while Doug Lecuyer had two in the 4-4 contest. Also, Dale Yakiwchuk and Perry Turnbull had four-point games in the latter tie.CALGARY: Captain Ray Mawhinney tied a WCHL record with six assists in Calgary&rsquo;s 9-5 victory over Saskatoon as four of the Wranglers had especially potent outings. Besides defenseman Mawhinney&rsquo;s performance, rookie Larry Roberts got his second hat trick of the year, rookie Jim Bereza scored his first four goals of the season and team scoring leader Eugene O&rsquo;Sullivan had a goal and five assists, as Calgary scored eight powerplay goals. Elsewhere, Wranglers lost 7-2 to Lethbridge as newly-acquired forward Randy Markewich tallied once and over-age goalie Tim Steele played his first game since returning from pro campMEDICINE HAT: Two wins in three starts gave the Tigers a share of the lead in the Central Division with Lethbridge and Billings. Merlin Malinowski had five points and Jim Nill four in an 8-6 Tiger win over Billings, and Rick Simpson&rsquo;s two goals helped Tigers edge Saskatoon 4-3. Nill&rsquo;s two goals couldn&rsquo;t prevent Medicine Hat&rsquo;s lone loss of the week. 5-4 in Saskatoon.LETHBRIDGE: The Broncos were playing hockey like coach Howie Yanosik had earlier predicted, winning three straight and giving up just five goals in those 180 minutes. Goalie Gord Garbutt recorded his second shutout with a 19-stop effort in a 2-0 win over&rsquo; Billings; rookie Brandon Schultz fired two goals in a 5-3 win over Victoria; and sophomore Doug Morrison and rookie Darryl Sutter had four points each in a 7-2 conquest of Calgary.BILLINGS: The Bighorns lost a couple of divisional games (2-0 to Lethbridge and 8-6 to Medicine Hat) before embarking on their first western swing of the season. Out west, coach Dave King&rsquo;s charges lost to Seattle 4-1 before getting a third-period goal from Doug Robb and edging New Westminster 3-2 in Queen&rsquo;s Park Arena. It was probably regarded as just another close win by Bighorns&rsquo; Montana fans, but they don&rsquo;t realize that visiting teams aren&rsquo;t supposed to win in New West.REGINA: The Pats went through a winless week, scoring just seven goals in three losses&mdash;all against Eastern Division rivals. The latter two defeats&mdash;4-2 and 8-3 in Flin Flon&mdash;enabled the Bombers to overtake the Pats for first place. Coach Lome Davis was hopping mad after a third-period outbreak in a 5-2 loss to Brandon and said he was writing to president Ed Chynoweth in an effort to get Wheat Kings&rsquo; Dave Semenko, involved in the fight, expelled from the league.SASKATOON: It was not a good week for the Blades, who lost two of three to fall further behind in the East. Rookie Rick Merkel had two goals in their only win, 5-4 over Medicine Hat, but the Blades allowed 13 goals in their two losses, 9-5 to Calgary and 4-3 to the Tigers. Merkel was the team&rsquo;s point leader for the week, with six.FLIN FLON: Back home after starting the season with nine road games, the Bombers won three of four to move into first place in the East. Jordy Douglas and Ray Neufeld had two goals each in a 7-4 win over Victoria but Gregg Tebbutt&rsquo;s two assists weren&rsquo;t enough the next night as Cougars won 5-3. Glenn Hicks took over the league&rsquo;s goal-scoring lead with 14 as the Bombers swept a pair from Regina, 4-2 and 8-3. Hicks had three goals in the two games.BRANDON: It was a week of upheaval for the Wheat Kings, who beat Regina 5-2 and then blew a 4-0 lead to lose 8-7 to Victoria. The team lost three players (goalie Brian Henderson left the team and Randy Markewich and Scott McLeod were traded to Calgary) and over-age winger Dave Semenko appeared on the verge of signing a pro contract with either Edmonton (WHA) or Minnesota (NHL). The only new face is goalie Jaye Rodgers, picked up from Calgary to replace Henderson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0580/4092927-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="580" height="777"><figcaption class="caption-body">GEORDIE ROBERSTON&hellip;Leads WCHL Scorers</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0034-05

Shupe Pleased With Homecoming; Hicks Leads Bombers Into First

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2>Tue 1 Billings at CalgaryWed 2 Brandon at PortlandBillings at LethbridgeThu 3 Brandon at SeattleBillings at Med. HatFri, 4 Lethbridge at ReginaBillings at SaskatoonSat 5 Brandon at VictoriaCalgary at Med. HatLethbridge at Flin FlonSun 6 Brandon at N. WestminsterMed. Hat at CalgaryLethbridge at Flin FlonBillings at ReginaTue 8 Brandon at Med HatSeattle at VictoriaBillings at CalgaryFlin Flon at SaskatoonWed 9 Brandon at LethbridgeSeattle at PortlandFlin Flon at ReginaFri 11 Med Hat at BrandonSaskatoon at BillingsN. Westminster at PortlandFlin Flon at Regina &#9632;

Where WCHL Teams Play

<h2>WESTERN CANADA LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Oct. 26)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01309/4093003-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="594" height="486"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Oct. 21Billings 3 at Naw Westminster 2Calgary 2 at Lethbridge 7Medicine Hat 4 at Saskatoon 5Sat. Oct. 22Billings 7 at Victoria 6Regina 6 at Medicine Hat 3Saskatoon 3 at Flin Flon 8Sun. Oct. 23Billings 3 at Portland 9Regina 6 at Lethbridge 9Seattle 5 at New Westmlnater 8Saskatoon 7 at Flin Flon 9Tue. Oct. 25Seattle 3 at Victoria 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02249/4092996-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="584" height="349"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Oct. 30)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03184/4092989-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="580" height="212"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04119/4092982-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="580" height="350"></div> &#9632;

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HOW THEY STAND

<div class="byline">BY LARRY BORTSTEIN</div>DENVER&mdash;George Henderson can barely skate a little, and would have no value to any club in professional hockey as a player.But Henderson can yell. Loudly. And pound a drum. Loudly. And carry on. Wildly. And these qualities have made him a visible member of the sports scene in several cities in both the United States and Canada.Henderson is better known as &ldquo;Krazy George,&rdquo; and is the only fulltime professional cheerleader in the Western Hemisphere. The 33-year-old &ldquo;Krazy&rdquo; was originally hired by the California Golden Seals four years ago. and became such a favorite of Munson Campbell, then the Seals&rsquo; boss, that Campbell brought George with him when he took over the presidency of the first-year Colorado Rockies last season.George is a very busy guy, which explains why his voice always sounds hoarse. Besides working virtually all of the Rockies&rsquo; home schedule since last year, he cheers for the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, the Dallas Tornado and San Jose Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League&mdash;and, for free, at football games of his alma mater, San Jose State in his hometown of San Jose. Cal., 40 miles south of Oakland.He has bought a home in Aurora, a rapidly-growing city of more than 100,000 residents southeast of Denver.&ldquo;Since the hockey schedule is the longest of all the sports I work,&rdquo; he explains, &ldquo;I felt it would make the most sense to live here rather than somewhere else. I ean fly out of here and keep my other commitments, and it all works out very well.&rdquo;George was spending a rare quiet moment at home waiting for the Rockies to return from an early-season road trip, and also awaiting word from the British Columbia Lions on their plans for him to work the CFL post-season playoff schedule.&ldquo;I had heard that football fans in Canada, especially Vancouver, are kind of quiet,&rdquo; George reports. &ldquo;But they really have reacted to me and my carrying on. They&rsquo;re real loud and enthusiastic.&rdquo;George says he used to get a lot of kicks out of cheering for teams he liked, and would have gone on doing so for free if he hadn&rsquo;t ended up making a career out of it. You might think this is why people call him &ldquo;Krazy.&rdquo;But actually, he had the nickname before he got involved in cheerleading.&ldquo;When I started going to Napa Junior College in Napa, Cal., I joined the judo team just to get into a sport, and I was the wildest and most aggressive guy on the team. Judo was the perfect outlet for me, where I could really do my thing. So people started calling me &lsquo;Krazy.&rsquo; Then I went to San Jose State, where the judo team always wins the national championship, and continued with my judo there. I also started cheering at some high school and college games because some of my friends asked me to. I never figured there&rsquo;d be any money in it.&rdquo;George took a degree in industrial arts at San Jose State, and embarked on a high school teaching career, while cultivating an interest in a game which was new to the Bay area at that time, major league hockey.&ldquo;I liked the speed and the action in hockey,&rdquo; he recalls, &ldquo;and I started going to a tot of Seals&rsquo; games. I was never the type to go to a game without cheering, so I started yelling and getting other people to yell with me. Then the club asked me to come to all the games and cheer, and I figured if I was going to do that they should pay me, so I asked for a salary and they said OK. That&rsquo;s how it started.&rdquo;Kids are naturally receptive audience for George. He makes many appearances at schools in the Denver area&mdash;appointments set up by Rockies&rsquo; staffer Patti McCrory&mdash;and last spring was a big hit at the grade school which this correspondent&rsquo;s son attends. George went on stage before an auditorium jammed with youngsters and did his number&mdash;pounding on the snare drum, yelling &ldquo;Go-go-go-go,&rdquo; and creating general mayhem.Not all fans at Rockies&rsquo; games find George&rsquo;s work a pleasure. Some resent his loudness, some think he distracts from their enjoyment of the action on the ice, and not all are captivated by this stocky blond with a bald spot and long nose and, by his own admission, &ldquo;funny looking face.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01295/4093034-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="582" height="721"><figcaption class="caption-body">BARRY BECK&hellip;1st NHL Goal</figcaption></div>But one thing is quite certain wherever George works: no one can ignore him.ICE PEBBLES: Rockies rookie defensemen Barry Beck and Mark Suzor each scored his first NHL goal in Colorado&rsquo;s second game, a 3-3 tie at Chicago. Both youngsters scored against Tony Esposito in the first period. &#9632;

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‘Crazy George’ Leading Cheers For Rockies

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The St. Louis Blues have established a precedent off the ice with the National Hockey League&rsquo;s first woman public relations director.Susie Mathieu has the job. Two years ago she was an assistant in the department and last season an assistant to Dick Dillman, public relations director of the Minnesota North Stars.In those two previous jobs she was Susie Doerr before her marriage last spring to Alan Mathieu, former assistant trainer with the Blues. Last January a few months before the wedding Mathieu was fired from his job in one of the Blues&rsquo; economy moves under the previous ownership of the Salomon family. The team now is owned by Ralston Purina Co.Fortunately for Mrs. Mathieu and the Blues, both the Mathieu family and the St. Louis hockey franchise were reorganizing at the same time.&ldquo;In June, Alan was accepted into a physician assistant program at St. Louis University,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I told Dick Dillman I would be leaving my job with the North Stars and looking for a job in St. Louis. I began sending out resumes.&rdquo;One of the resumes went to Emile Francis, who became general manager of the Blues after Susie left St. Louis for Minnesota.He answered the letter and said he wanted to talk to me in St. Louis,&rdquo; Mrs. Mathieu said. &ldquo;We talked for about two hours in his office, then he said, &lsquo;Put out a news release on yourself. You&rsquo;re the Blues&rsquo; new public relations director.&rdquo;Since that day Mrs. Mathieu has been Francis&rsquo; righthand woman and has matched his long work days starting as early as 7 a m. and going until late at nights, especially on nights of games.&ldquo;I love the job,&rdquo; Mrs. Mathieu says, &ldquo;I came into it with my eyes wide open because I&rsquo;ve been doing this work the last two years. I already knew about long hours and hard work.&rdquo;The fact she is a woman in the traditionally men-only job has disturbed others more than it has ruffled Mrs. Mathieu.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had objections from some sportswriters, particularly members of the Canadian press,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll ask me, &lsquo;Well, how are you going to handle things? Do you know the players?&rdquo;Mrs. Mathieu smiles about those criticisms and she scoffs at the idea she is not able to perform her job because she doesn&rsquo;t go into the players&rsquo; dressing rooms. Some public relations directors are in the dressing rooms after games.&ldquo;The writers in the NHL know the players well enough,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t need me in there to tell them, &lsquo;This is Garry Unger.&rdquo;&rsquo;In addition to criticism, Mrs. Mathieu has received words of cheer from many, especially many women.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve received a lot of nice letters congratulating me,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;And some women who call the office to talk to the public relations director are happy to find I&rsquo;m a woman. They prefer talking to a woman.&rdquo;&ldquo;Of course. I know all the other public relations directors around the league from the last two years,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;And I don&rsquo;t have any problems in dealing with the players. In fact, I may get them to make more public appearances than they normally would. It&rsquo;s hard to say no to a girl.&rdquo;Mrs. Mathieu has hired Debi Law as her assistant, and they joke about &ldquo;our all-women public relations staff&mdash;the two of us.&rdquo;Mrs. Mathieu is happy to be working for Francis.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s super to work with,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;He sets a fast pace, and you can&rsquo;t let down. He&rsquo;s given me free rein as long as he knows what&rsquo;s going on. He backs his staff.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a perfectionist, and I want my work to be perfect,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;Of course, I realize that if I make a big mess of something, somebody probably will say, &lsquo;Naturally, she&rsquo;s a woman&rdquo; &#9632;

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November 11, 1977

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