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.

December 8, 1978

The Hockey News December 8, 1978

The Winnipeg Jets have treated the amateur hockey draft somewhat coolly in recent years. They preferred to go with the experienced players but things appear to have changed with the WHA team.This season they picked off several promising youngsters in a bidding war with the NHL and one of these acquisitions in whom they have a lot of hope for the future is defenseman Paul MacKinnon.The 20-year-old Brantford, Ont., native was believed headed for the Washington Caps in the NHL after they drafted him. But MacKinnon opted for the WHA Jets instead after a brilliant final junior year with Peterborough Petes and now the Winnipeg team feels it has uncovered a future star in the six-foot, 190-pound defenseman.In becoming the first junior the Jets have signed since 1973, MacKinnon appears to have made the transition from junior hockey to the pros with relative ease. Jets&rsquo; coach Larry Hillman says MacKinnon plays with his head and admits he&rsquo;s one of the team&rsquo;s best rearguards at the moment.Aggressive in his own end, MacKinnon is more of a defensive defenseman. He is still looking for his first pro goal and says he&rsquo;s slightly worried about the offensive end of his game.The Jets think he&rsquo;ll do just fine playing defense the way he does now.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-07114/4040817-1-eng-US/f0026-072.jpg" title="f0026-07" width="449" height="348"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL MacKINNON&hellip; Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; Rookie</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

MacKinnon Jets’ Star Of Future

<div class="byline">BY DANNY YOUNG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01254/4041630-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="555" height="736"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN JOHNSON&hellip;Helped Hawks</figcaption></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The best thing going for the Quebec Remparts is their defense, and the best thing going for their defense is captain Kevin Lowe.Lowe, now in his third and final season with &ldquo;Les Remparts,&rdquo; has matured into a solid two-way defenseman. And that &lsquo;solid&rsquo; certainly does not refer exclusively to his six-foot-two, 195-pound frame.Lowe has all the natural tools which, combined with the rigt on-ice attitude, have made him one of the Quebec Major Junior League&rsquo;s top pro prospects. In fact, Kevin turned down an offer to sign with the WHA&rsquo;s Birmingham Bulls as an underage player. Many NHL scouts feel Lowe will go in either the first or second round of the 1979 draft.&ldquo;I discussed it with my family,&rdquo; Lowe explains. &ldquo;We figured that I needed one more year of junior. It was also possible that I would play badly at Birmingham and that would hurt me in the NHL draft. In junior, I knew I&rsquo;d have a good year.&rdquo;That conclusion was not hard to reach after his spectacular 1977-78 campaign. Without the guidance of star blueliners Mario Marois (N.Y. Rangers) and Francois Vachon, Lowe emerged as a defensive leader, and displayed remarkable offensive skills as well, scoring 65 points in 64 games.&ldquo;My first year, I watched the older guys do it, and I learned a lot,&rdquo; Kevin says. &ldquo;Then I took over last year.&rdquo;Lowe&rsquo;s superb skating and incomparable stick handling ability make him an exceptional offensive defenseman. Dazzling end-to-end rushes are not uncommon for the Lachute, Que. native who already has 37 points.&ldquo;A lot of guys say I live dangerously,&rdquo; he says &ldquo;but it doesn&rsquo;t bother me. I&rsquo;m pretty confident because I know I can recover.&rdquo;His defensive performance does not really suffer from his occasional desire to move the puck up ice. In one recent five game stretch, Lowe was not on the ice for a single goal against the Remparts.&ldquo;Last year, guys with good wheels like Geoffrion (Danny) and Savard (Denis) were tough to stop,&rdquo; he notes. &ldquo;This year, I feel that I don&rsquo;t have any trouble with the league.&rdquo;If you&rsquo;re thinking that this is because the Quebec league is inferior this season, you&rsquo;re on the wrong track. His ease in the defensive zone has come with his development over the last two years.As new Rempart coach Rene Drolet says, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s smart and he&rsquo;ll learn what you teach him. Everybody has respect for Kevin. He&rsquo;s a complete player.&rdquo;TROIS-RIVIERES: The Draveurs 17-game unbeaten streak came to an end with a 4-2 loss to Montreal despite a 5224 shooting advantage, and a home town crowd in excess of 3,500. The Draveurs did trounce Quebec 7-1. Michel Normand had a hat trick and Jean Francois Sauve added four points. They also downed Cornwall 6-3 with Pierre Aubry exploding for four goals. Trois-Rivieres is number one in goals for, goals against, and total points.SHERBROOKE: The Beavers continued to be the league&rsquo;s hottest team by taking two decisive victories. Alan Haworth scored three to lead a 6-3 win over Montreal. Against Hull, Haworth bagged three again and Jimmy Mann picked up three goals and three assists as Sherbrooke crushed their foes, 11-3. The wins kept the Beavers in second place, ahead of Quebec in the Dilio Division.CHICOUTIMI: Three points in two games is pretty good for the Sags. In Verdun, Marc Roy scored two goals and two assists in a 7-4 win. At home, though outshooting Laval by a 40-21 count, the Sags needed Michel Campigny&rsquo;s goal at 14:49 of the third period to tie 4-4.QUEBEC: The Remparts can thank goalie Vincent Tramblay for their two wins and a tie. After losing to Trois-Rivieres 7-1, Tremblay held off 52 or 56 Montreal shots so Quebec could record the 4-4 tie. Rene Labbe notched two goals in that match. In Laval, Tremblay lost a shutout in the last two minutes of the game as Quebec dumped Laval 6-1. Claude Lafontaine and Yvon Beauchamp scored a pair each. Finally, Tremblay held off Shawinigan, and the Remparts won, 6-3.MONTREAL: Though it appeared that they were slumping, the Juniors came up with a big 4-2 win over Trois-Rivieres in Trois-Rivieres. Goaltender Marco Baron stopped the Draveurs while the Juniors scored two third period goals within 35 seconds to take the win. In Montreal Mark Hardy had a goal and an assist to tie Quebec 4-4. With Denis Caron in the nets, Montreal lost to Sherbrooke6-3.VERDUN: Referee Francois Larochelle had a busy night in Verdun as he handed out 12 minor penalties, seven majors, and three misconducts in a game between the Hawks and Chicoutimi which the Hawks lost 7-4. Against Shawinigan, Normand Aubin, Steve Kasper, and Brian Johnson had two goals each in a 9-6 victory. The Hawks solidified their defensive corps by signing Mario Simard, a defector from Laval.SHAWINIGAN: Marc Genest scored twice to give the Cats a 3-3 tie with Hull. In Verdun. Alain Labelle and Michel Audet scored two each, but the Cats lost 6-4. Genest scored two once again against Quebec but in a 6-3 losing cause.HULL: The Olympics traded their captain and policeman, Yves Dandurand, to Quebec for 17-year-old defenseman Bobby Wall. After tying Shawinigan 3-3 and losing to Sherbrooke 11-3, the Olympics edged Cornwall 11-10. Claude Lafontaine and Michel Galarneau provided two goals each.LAVAL: Rookie Alain Grenier and Gilles Hamel, two of Laval&rsquo;s top guns, fired two goals apiece in a 4-4 tie with Chicoutimi. In a home match against Quebec, the Nationals were humiliated 6-1.CORNWALL: The Royals dropped a 6-3 match to Trois-Rivieres and an 11-10 marathon to Hull. In the latter contest, Bob Crawford had a hat trick, and Rod Willard and Brian Fontaine added two goals each. Their goals against average is now a miserable 6.42. &#9632;

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Lowe QMJHL’S Top Defenseman; Juniors Interrupt Draveurs’ Skein

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01325/4041134-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02257/4041127-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="594" height="2556"></div> &#9632;

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Looking At College Scoreboard

DENVER&mdash;The NHL underwent its third coaching change of the 1978-79 season when the Colorado Rockies dismissed Pat Kelly and brought Aldo Guidolin&mdash;not Bep Guidolin as some news services reported&mdash;onto the coaching scene as his replacement.Guidolin, who is 46, accepted the role as Rockies&rsquo; coach for the rest of the season. He steps up from his post as chief scout to assume the head coaching job. GM Ray Miron said Guidolin was the logical choice because no one else knew the players as well as he does.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s coaching because we asked him to,&rdquo; said Miron. &ldquo;He knows the team is in trouble. If he wants to go back to scouting at the end of the year, he can have his job back,&rdquo; added Miron.The Rockies&rsquo; GM says it has been a frustrating year for the team and for Kelly, who did his best under trying circumstances. The Rockies were subjected to a horrendous road schedule and injuries were so dominant that (he team was having a hard time putting 19 healthy bodies on the ice with 26 players under contract.<h2>Torrey Named &lsquo;Stars&rsquo; Manager</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;Bill Torrey of the Islanders has been chosen as the general manager of the NHL&rsquo;s All Star team that will oppose the Soviet Union in the Challenge Cup series Feb. 8-11 at Madison Square Garden.Cliff Fletcher of Atlanta and Boston&rsquo;s Harry Sinden will assist Torrey. NHL president John Ziegler commenting on the appointment of the three NHL team GMs to this special task, said &ldquo;this shows the esteem in which these men are held.&rdquo;The All Stars will oppose the best of the Soviets Feb. 8, 10 and 11 in MSG. The starting six will be voted by the fans through Wilkinson Sword ballots that have been distributed in the NHL rinks and retail outlet stores that deal with Wilkinson.NHL publicist Bob Casey said that CBS&rsquo; Sports Sectacular show will televise highlights of the Feb. 8 game and probably do the windup game live on Sun. Feb. 11.<h2>Baldwin Claims Series Still On</h2>HARTFORD&mdash;Howard Baldwin, the commissioner of the WHA, said Canadian major junior hockey officials are using &lsquo;blackmail&rsquo; tactics to prevent a European series the league has set for January against the Moscow Dynamo team.Baldwin was optimistic the series would go on despite threats by the CAHA, acting on a petition from the Canadian Major Hockey League, to have the IIHF block sanction of the series.The juniors and the WHA reached a tentative agreement on the issue of compensating CMJHL teams for underage players the league signed this year. But the WHA demanded the CAHA drop its claim to a $150,000 bond the WHA signed last year when it promised to keep hands off underage players. &#9632;

Guidolin Rockies’ Coaching Choice

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01665/4041685-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg" title="Cover-01" width="513" height="515"></div> &#9632;

Cover-01

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011000/4039145-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="388" height="377"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce BennettOutspoken Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders feels his club can go a long way towards proving itself as the NHL&rsquo;s top team during its next stretch of road games.</figcaption></div>Denis Potvin leaned back in one of the chaise lounges provided for New York Islander players at the Nassau Coliseum. The Isles had just destroyed the Philadelphia Flyers 8-2, giving them 15 straight at home unbeaten&mdash;and a record of 25-1-6 in their last 32 regular season games at home.&ldquo;We have a chance to prove we are the best team in the National Hockey League on our upcoming road trip,&rdquo; said Potvin. &ldquo;This is the perfect time to go on the road. We&rsquo;re playing well, we&rsquo;re playing together. I expect to go out there and get a lot of points.&rdquo;As you read this New York will have visited Colorado, Minnesota, and Vancouver with contests set in Los Angeles and Colorado before returning to the Nassau Coliseum for games with Pittsburgh and St. Louis. Then it&rsquo;s back on the road for a weekend series with Toronto and Montreal.&ldquo;That weekend in Toronto and Montreal could decide a lot of things about this season,&rdquo; said captain Clark Gillies.Gillies scored twice against Philadelphia to go along with two goals by linemate Mike Bossy. They were playing on a line with Richie Hansen, subbing for Bryan Trottier (bruised shoulder).&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad I got a couple and Mike did also,&rdquo; said Gillies. &ldquo;We needed it to happen.&rdquo;Bossy, happy with his pair of goals and an important goal against Washington in a 4-2 win the night before, noted, &ldquo;If (coach Al) Arbour puts Trots back with us, I think things will go well now.&rdquo;Despite 11 goals in the first 17 games, Bossy had considered himself and his line to be in a slump.Arbour had to be happy with the work of Hansen, and wingman Bob Bourne, who subbed between Gillies and Bossy on power plays.Hansen turned the Washington game around when he took a Lorne Henning clearance at center ice and walked in alone on Bernie Wolfe, putting the puck through the Cap goalie&rsquo;s legs. Washington was leading 2-0 at the time, but Bossy worked with Gillies and Bourne 15 seconds later for the tying tally&mdash;and New York took it from there.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel out of place,&rdquo; said Hansen, who learned to skate in the Bronx&rsquo; Riverdale Ice Skating center. &ldquo;If I get ice time I can contribute.&rdquo;Hansen, 23 had a goal and five assists in his first five games&mdash;and with Henning picked up the slack when Trottier and Eddie Westfall went out with injuries.Henning, the unsung half of the Isles penalty killing team with Westfall, got the game-winner against Washington, an assist on Hansen&rsquo;s goal, plus two assists against the Flyers.&ldquo;Doug Henning has done a great job for us,&rdquo; said Potvin, needling Lorne about the mistaken identification made by the Caps&rsquo; public address announcer when Henning was named number one star in that contest.Potvin, who believes he is the best defenseman in the NHL, gives rookie left winger John Tonelli a major portion of the credit for the Islanders rebound up front.&ldquo;Tonelli is so strong in the corners that he gets the puck 90 percent of the time,&rdquo; said Potvin. &ldquo;We have to keep alert for this sudden passes from the corners. He was the real reason for three of our goals against the Flyers, one of them mine. He&rsquo;s almost 200 pounds, and handling him in the corners is something most defensemen don&rsquo;t do that well.&rdquo;Potvin&rsquo;s belief that the Islanders can lay claim to numero uno status this season stems from the team&rsquo;s recent shoring up of the little things in their game that had been making them inconsistent&mdash;and the feeling that the Canadiens, without general manager San Pollock, were less than they had been.New York left for its road hiatus as the only undefeated team on home ice this year.&ldquo;A road trip can bring the guys closer together,&rdquo; said Steffan Persson, the big defenseman. &ldquo;Sometimes winning at home is taken for granted, but to win on the road you have to be sharp.&rdquo;&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t play undisciplined hockey,&rdquo; said blueliner Gerry Hart, whose return coincided with the Islanders turn around. &ldquo;Usually, you play a lot of weaker teams, so you have to be careful and not take anything for granted. We&rsquo;ve eliminated a lot of fancy, pretty plays with hard checking and mucking along the boards. We have to keep playing this way. If we do, we can get all 10 points in the five game trip.&rdquo;ISLAND SOUNDS: Potvin went the length of the rink in Washington, then combined with Bossy to score within seven seconds of the opening of the third period against the Flyers&mdash;a club record. Hansen also assisted on Bossy&rsquo;s record setter&hellip;Islander Fan Club making trip to Montreal December 10 for key battle with Habs&hellip;GM Bill Torrey, happy with the play of Hansen, wants to know if N.Y. Metropolitan Junior Hockey Association has any more players of his caliber. &#9632;

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Isles Primed For Chance To Rate As National Hockey League’s Best

<h2>THE NHL&hellip;</h2>Atlanta&hellip;&hellip;15Boston&hellip;&hellip;9Buffalo&hellip;&hellip;8Chicago&hellip;&hellip;15Colorado&hellip;&hellip;18Detroit&hellip;&hellip;9Los Angeles&hellip;&hellip;11Minnesota&hellip;&hellip;17Montreal&hellip;&hellip;3N.Y. Islanders&hellip;&hellip;2N.Y. Rangers&hellip;&hellip;5Philadelphia&hellip;&hellip;7Pittsburgh&hellip;&hellip;19St. Louis&hellip;&hellip;4Toronto&hellip;&hellip;6Vancouver&hellip;&hellip;12Washington&hellip;&hellip;24<h2>THE WHA&hellip;</h2>Birmingham&hellip;&hellip;28Cincinnati&hellip;&hellip;27Edmonton&hellip;&hellip;25Indianapolis&hellip;&hellip;27New England&hellip;&hellip;28Quebec&hellip;&hellip;28Winnipeg&hellip;&hellip;25<h2>OTHER LEAGUES&hellip;</h2>Colleges&hellip;&hellip;29American&hellip;&hellip;32Central&hellip;&hellip;33International&hellip;&hellip;34Northeastern&hellip;&hellip;35Pacific&hellip;&hellip;37Ontario Major&hellip;&hellip;36WHL&hellip;&hellip;38Quebec Major&hellip;&hellip;39<h2>COLUMNISTS&hellip;</h2>Ken McKenzie&hellip;&hellip;4Bob Verdi&hellip;&hellip;6Bill Libby&hellip;&hellip;8Bill Fleischman&hellip;&hellip;12<h2>FEATURES&hellip;</h2>Player Movements &hellip;5Fan Forum&hellip;&hellip;10Quick Hockey Quiz&hellip;&hellip;10Hockey People&hellip;&hellip;14NHL Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip;22WHA Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip;26Minor Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip;35Amateur Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip;39 &#9632;

Where To Find It…

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04349/4039245-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="276" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body">YVAN COURNOYER&hellip;Complete Rest</figcaption></div>The word CAPTAIN is defined in the dictionary as the leader of a team or side; a dominant figure.MONTREAL&mdash;Yvan Cournoyer has been a leader, a truly dominant figure during more than 14 full seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, but right now no one&rsquo;s saying whether Cournoyer has played his last game in the National Hockey League.After 968 regular season games in the NHL and 428 goals, Cournoyer has been sidelined with what looks like a recurrence of the disc problem which forced him to undergo back surgery two years ago.Named as captain of the Canadiens after Henri Richard retired at the conclusion of the 1974-75 season, Cournoyer has twice enjoyed the ceremonial circuit around the ice with the Stanley Cup as the Canadiens have won the championship the last three seasons.At the 1977 finals, Serge Savard was Montreal&rsquo;s acting captain as Cournoyer missed the latter portion of the regular season and all of the playoffs before successful spinal surgery.Last year, appearing in 68 regular season games and all 15 playoff tilts, Cournoyer, who turned 35 on Nov. 22, showed no ill effects and seemed to be skating with the familiar explosive bursts which earned him the nickname &ldquo;Roadrunner&rdquo; as perhaps the NHL&rsquo;s fastest skater.This year began pretty much the same as the previous year. Yvan scored in the season opener in Montreal and again two games later in a triumph over the Flyers. He then hit a dry spell, and with the surplus of forwards with the club, was not dressed for three games in the early going and remained with two goals.When the Canadiens headed for their first extended road trip of the season, Cournoyer did not play at the first stop in Colorado where he told the media that his leg and hip were bothering him. However he played and skated very well in succeeding stops on the tour in Los Angeles and Vancouver and looked ready to possibly go on the kind of streak he had enjoyed last year.After notching two goals in his first two games a year ago, the Roadrunner went a dozen games before breaking loose for six goals in the next eight contests. For the year he finished with 24 goals, not a bad output when you consider his ice time and his absence from 12 regular season games.When the Canadiens arrived home from the trip, though, the first thing Cournoyer did was to check in with his doctor. His back was giving him problems.&ldquo;He needs complete rest for a week,&rdquo; coach Scotty Bowman said of Cournoyer&rsquo;s consultation with his physician. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll take treatments and we&rsquo;ll see after that.&rdquo;The loss of Cournoyer was the crowning touch to a sudden siege of injuries which reduced the Canadiens&rsquo; extra live players to one. First Doug Risebrough and Pierre Larouche damaged a shoulder and a knee, prior to the road trip and Gilles Lupien pulled a leg muscle.&ldquo;Gilles will be back first,&rdquo; Bowman reported. &ldquo;Pierre is still taking treatment, but won&rsquo;t have to have an operation while it will be two more weeks&mdash;at least&mdash;before Dougie gets back. He has a very sore shoulder.&rdquo;With the injured players out of the lineup, Mark Napier and Pat Hughes started getting regular duty for the first time, although winger Cam Connor remained on the sidelines, having played in just one of the club&rsquo;s first 22 games.Normally, the possibility that even such a venerable player as Cournoyer may have come to the end of his career, would have been accepted as a fact of life in the world of sports, but things have been far from normal in Montreal this year.As Cournoyer was visiting the doctor, a story appeared in local papers indicating that the Canadiens, through vice president Jean Beliveau, had tried to push Cournoyer into retirement during training camp.Beliveau offered to pay Cournoyer in full for the remaining year on his contract, plus compensation which would amount to another full year if he would retire.Said Cournoyer, &ldquo;I felt that I was still capable of helping this team and was really disappointed that they asked me to do such a thing&hellip;I still think I can help the Canadiens.&rdquo;Beliveau said that the offer wasn&rsquo;t meant as an insult and that he wouldn&rsquo;t have made it if he thought Cournoyer was going to take it that way. &#9632;

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Retirement Threatening Canadiens’ Cournoyer

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div>AtlantaTOM LYSIAKBostonWAYNE CASHMANBuffaloDANNY GAREChicagoKEITH MAGNUSONColoradoJOE WATSONDetroitDENNIS HEXTALLLos AngelesMIKE MURPHYMinnesotaJEAN-PAUL PARISEMontrealYVAN COURNOYERIslandersCLARK GILLIESRangersDAVE MALONEYPhiladelphiaBOBBY CLARKEPittsburghOREST KINDRACHUKSt. LouisGARRY UNGERTorontoDARRYL SITTLERVancouverDON LEVERWashingtonYVON LABRE<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011007/4039214-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="320" height="431"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Steve Babineau</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02864/4039207-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="319" height="428"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Robert Shaver</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03580/4039200-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="228" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce BennettWhile the flood of new captains rushes in around him, Orest Kindrachuk, top left, with Pittsburgh, for one and Dave Maloney, above of the Rangers, for another, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Bobby Clarke keeps leading the Flyers on the ice. He now is in his sixth season as leader of the NHL team.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Some years ago when Bobby Clarke was asked what was involved in being captain of the Philadelphia Flyers, he replied: &ldquo;Well, it means you get to carry the Stanley Cup around the rink.&rdquo;Clarke&rsquo;s comment was in jest, of course. The veteran Flyer center admits that there is much more to being the ice leader of a National Hockey League team than just being a carrier for the Stanley Cup.In fact, the job of an NHL captain today is probably more demanding than it ever was, which probably accounts for the high turnover rate among league teams.A few NHL teams seem to have fallen into the absurd practice of naming a new captain to coincide with the new season.For acclaimed ice leaders like Clarke, Montreal&rsquo;s Yran Cornoyer, Tom Lysiak of Atlanta and Toronto&rsquo;s Darryl Sittler, the job of being captain of the team seems to wear well on all of these established hockey stars. They continually go about leading by example both on and off the ice. Other NHL teams don&rsquo;t appear to be that fortunate with their appointed team captains.Basically, the NHL has seven players wearing the captaincy &lsquo;C on their jerseys who didn&rsquo;t have the honor last season although three of them&mdash;Don Lever of Vancouver, Yvon Labre of Washington and Garry Linger of St. Louis&mdash;are resuming responsibility they once had and either gave up or had revoked by the club.The &lsquo;new captains&rsquo; this year include Orest Kindrachuk at Pittsburgh, Dave Maloney with the Rangers, Jean-Paul Parise with Minnesota and Joe Watson with the Colorado Rockies. The misfortune that has dogged the Rockies this season also took its toll on the team&rsquo; captain. Watson suffered a broken leg and it is feared he will never play again. The Rockies haven&rsquo;t as yet appointed a successor.Others who are entrenched in the job of captain include Wayne Cashman of Boston, Danny Gare at Buffalo, Keith Magnuson at Chicago, Dennis Hextall at Detroit, Mike Murphy at Los Angeles and Clark Gillies with the Islanders.Vancouver Canucks, who underwent a vast new look this season, decided to wait and elect a captain. New coach Harry Neale wanted time to assess his players. When time passed, Neale handed the &lsquo;C&rsquo; back to Lever. The St. Louis Blues did likewise with Linger. When Red Berenson retired this year and left the team without a captain, the Blues merely went back to Unger, who served briefly as captain between present team coach Barclay Plager and Berenson.The role of an NHL captain in the past was often determined by the number of years a player accumulated with a team. Youth was rarely considered in selecting the right man. Today that seems to have gone by the boards. Maloney was surprisingly picked by new Ranger coach I red Shero as captain at age 22, making him the youngest in the NHL. Wilf Paiement was 22 when he was the Rockies&rsquo; captain last season but pressure and an unproductive season forced him to give up the team leader role.Clarke was only 23 when he got the nod front Shero midway in the 1972-73 season. The then Flyers&rsquo; coach became disenchanted with Ed Van lmpe and decided to give the team a lift by installing Clarke as captain. It paid off as the Flyers went on to win the Stanley Cup the next two years under Clarke&rsquo;s inspiring leadership.Clarke is probably the most outspoken of the NHL team captains. He has done it all as a player&mdash;having won the Stanley Cup, Hart Trophy,, been an NHL All Star, played on Team Canada and much more. He is a highly durable performer who has missed only 27 games in the last nine years meaning he has dressed for 693 of Philadelphia&rsquo;s 720 league games.Clarke has always had a voice in what&rsquo;s good or bad for NHL players. He has been a former vice-president of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and a leant rep for years. Few NHL teams stumble onto a player with Clarke&rsquo;s leadership qualities.If they did, he surely would be named team captain. &#9632;

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Captains’ Turnover Big But Clarke Rolls Along

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011058/4039304-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="447" height="459"></div>&bull; A ONE-GAME suspension has halted Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; captain J.P. Parise after 512 consecutive games. Parise is number two in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s iron-man lineup trailing Garry Unger (826 and I counting). New York Islanders&rsquo; Billy Harris, who has yet I to miss a game in his six-plus I seasons in the NHL is approaching the 500 mark as well I and now ranks second among I active players&hellip; Another Minnesota player, Al MacAdam, also had a long string of consecutive games played come to an end earlier this year when he was sidelined by injury after 323 games, in a row&hellip;Prompted by a spectrum scoreboard message that Bobby Orr was in the press box, Philadelphia fans gave Orr a standing ovation during a recent Chicago visit&hellip;Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; winger Jere Gillis wants to learn skydiving, but says he&rsquo;ll wait until his hockey career is over. An excellent skier, Gillis has also curbed his appetite for the sport in view of his profession&hellip;They&rsquo;re talking about young Doug Wilson in Chicago these days as a player showing a great deal of maturity for a 21-year-old thrust into a starting position on the team&rsquo;s defense corps&hellip;Left winger Larry Hopkins who played for the University of Toronto last year has been very impressive with Saginaw of the International League. He had 17 points, including nine goals in his first 15 IHL games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021013/4039297-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="288" height="490"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jere Gillis</figcaption></div>&bull; MANY PEOPLE still aren&rsquo;t convinced that Sam Pollock isn&rsquo;t running the Montreal Canadiens. When the team found itself in a tight bargaining position over the renegotiation of Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s contract early this season, guess who sat in the board room and &ldquo;ran the show&rdquo; during talks with Lafleur&rsquo;s agent &mdash; Sam Pollock&hellip;Sam&rsquo;s also thought to be the man behind the Canadiens acquiring a pair of first-round draft choices in 1981 in exchange for Murray Wilson and Rod Schutt&hellip;It took Gary Sargent 64 games last year to score four goals but he reached that figure in only a dozen games for the Minnesota North Stars this year. According to North Stars&rsquo; new coach Glen Sonmor, Sargent is &ldquo;a genuine talent,&rdquo; one of the best half dozen defensemen in the National Hockey League&hellip;RP1, whose 5,013 seat arena is the largest college-owned rink in the East, has sold nearly 3,000 season tickets, an increase of more than 1,000 over last year. In 1977-78, RP1 had its best season ever with a 19-9-1 mark&hellip;Philadelphia owner Ed Snider showed his class once again by offering Joe Watson use of his plane to bring him back to his home in Philadelphia, once he is able to travel. Flyers also are sending Watson all four Philly newspapers while he recuperates in St. Louis&rsquo; Jewish Hospital&hellip;John Davidson has been a pleasant surprise for the Rangers who were worried about their goaltending at the beginning of the season. In his first 10 starts, only once did Davidson allow more than three goals and the six-foot-three netminder had one of the best goals against records in the league.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05667/4039290-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="282" height="477"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Sargent</figcaption></div>&bull; AVERAGE ATTENDANCE for the first quarter of a season in the National Hockey League is 12,646, up nearly 1,000 as compared to last year, although Cleveland brought down last year&rsquo;s figures&hellip;rive NHL teams have played to 100 percent capacity thus far (sale of standing room seats has raised the percentage to over 100 percent in Montreal and Detroit), while five teams are averaging less than 10,000 fans per game&hellip;Nearly 13 percent of the current NHL players were born outside of Canada, with the Minnesota North Stars having the most non-Canadians on their roster, seven, followed by the Van couver Canucks with six&hellip;Ontario&rsquo;s Continental League, for hockey seniors, has a strange rule which forces the puck carrier on a 3-on-1 break to take a slap shot from the blueline. Several old-timers in the league are trying to get that rule rescinded&hellip;During a recent visit to Madison Square Garden, Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager Jim Gregory and player Tiger Williams had their bags stolen off the team bus. Williams lost his wallet which contained $600&hellip;To make matters worse, when the bus headed for the airport, the driver turned in the wrong direction and a 20-minute ride turned into an hour.. According to Al Arbour, a return to the basics is the reason for the recent surge by his New York Islanders. &ldquo;We finally found a good balance on offense and on defense,&rdquo; said Arbour.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04806/4039283-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="293" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tiger Williams</figcaption></div>&bull; AFTER SCORING two goals in his first game back from his 15-game suspension for hitting Dennis Polonich over the head with his stick, Colorado Rockies&rsquo; forward Wilf Paiement said his time on was tne worst period ever in his life. &ldquo;I think I got the worst deal in the National Hockey League,&rdquo; Paiement suggested&hellip;Peterborough Petes, Ontario representative in the Memorial Cup last year have equalled a team record by going unbeaten for 15 consecutive games for the second season in a row&hellip;The efforts of Atlanta Flames&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher are reaching fruition with the exciting start by the team this year. Not only has Fletcher assembled the biggest team in the NHL, and one of the youngest, but more than half of the starting roster is straight out of the Flames&rsquo; farm system&hellip;The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation has announced plans to cut off an exchange program with North American pros because the New York Islanders are behind in their payments for signing Swedish goalie Goran Hogosta&hellip;NHL president John Ziegler has denied the charge stating that the agreement calls for final payment only after Hogosta has played 40 NHL games&hellip;Thus far, he hasn&rsquo;t played in any games this year and last year played only nine minutes of NHL action&hellip;Mike Marson, who became only the second black player in the NHL when he joined the Washington Capitals at the age of 19, has quit hockey at the young age of 23. Marson was sent to the Caps&rsquo; American League farm club earlier in the season and hadn&rsquo;t heard from the Caps since&hellip;Canadiens&rsquo; vice president Jean Beliveau is in Las Vegas filming a television show with Cincinnati Reds&rsquo; pitcher Tom Seaver.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-06397/4039276-1-eng-US/f0004-062.jpg" title="f0004-06" width="288" height="499"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Marson</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PASSING THE PUCK

OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY FOUNDED 1947VOLUME 32, NUMBER 10, DECEMBER 8,1978Kenneth W. McKenziePresident and Publisher.Charlie HalpinEditorial DirectorTom MurrayAssistant PublisherPeter EmersonVice-President SalesSuite 600, 55 University Ave., Toronto, Ont M5J 2H7, Telephone: (416) 361-0116Advertising Representatives:MontrealMary McCutcheon1434 St. Catherine Street West, Suite 217Montreal, Can. &bull;H3G 1R7 (514) 866-4841New York:Tom Murray850 Third Ave.New York, N.Y. 10022 &bull; (212)593-2100Chicago:Hooper, Jones & Associates3322 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) 866-4841 U.S. C/O W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave. New-York, N.Y. 10022, (212) 593-2100.YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $11.95 in Canada, $12.95 in the 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 be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News, 1434 St. Catherine St. W., Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7, Printed In Canada. &#9632;

MAST HEAD

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03908/4039335-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DURBANO&hellip;Clean Slate With Blues</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The St. Louis fans who implored coach Barclay Plager to send Steve Durbano over the boards will have to wait until after Christmas.Durbano is trying a comeback with the Blues, his original National Hockey League team. But bothersome physical problems keep getting in the way.Durbano has been wandering through NHL and WHA cities since he left the Blues in January 1974. Starting anew with the Blues is like starting his major-league career with a clean slate. And Durbano is the first to admit his slate has not always been clean.The Blues signed a contract with Durbano as a free agent in August, and he was in good shape in training camp. But he came down with hepatitis and was in the hospital at the beginning of the season.&ldquo;It wears you down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe how weak I felt. It was a bad break.&rdquo;But Durbano recovered and had been skating for about two weeks when Plager told him to dress for a game with the Colorado Rockies.Durbano&rsquo;s legion of followers was delighted to see Steve back in a St. Louis uniform. Frequently during the game gans chanted Durbano&rsquo;s name to spur Plager into putting the defenseman on the ice. But Durbano warmed the bench for 60 minutes.&ldquo;The whole rink can yell,&rdquo; Plager said, &ldquo;but I have to do what&rsquo;s best. The game was too tight. Durbano will get his ice time.&rdquo;The Blues took a 2-0 lead, but the Rockies tied the score at 2-2, and it was 3-3 midway through the final period until Brian Sutter and Curt Bennett scored for a 5-3 St. Louis win.&ldquo;It was just too tight,&rdquo; Durbano said. &ldquo;I think he came close to putting me out there. Maybe I&rsquo;ll play next game.&rdquo;By the next game Durbano was back in sick bay. The day after the Colorado game he was walking through the Blues&rsquo; dressing room and slammed his fist into a heavy punching bag. The result was a broken hand and six more weeks on the sidelines.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to fall too far behind,&rdquo; Durbano said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing for years, and you can&rsquo;t beat experience.&rdquo;Durbano started gaining his NHL experience when he reported to the Blues for his second pro season in 1972.For one and one-half seasons his tame was part of most hockey conversations in St. Louis. He was in one fracas after another and set a team record with 231 penalty minutes, including 10 misconducts, in 49 games his first season. He was suspended from the club for leaving the ice during a game the following season, and as one uproar followed another he eventually was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins Jan. 17, 1974.&ldquo;Ever since I left St. Louis four years ago things have been sort of disorganized for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I look upon my returning to the Blues as my big chance to get things back on a steady level and really make something of my career. I&rsquo;m not 21 anymore.&rdquo;Durbano, who celebrated his 21st birthday shortly before he was traded away front the Blues, will be 27 in a couple of weeks.When asked whether he has changed during the years, Durbano said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;11 always play hockey the same way I have since I was a kid. Some of the other stuff that&rsquo;s gotten me in trouble in the past has taught me a lesson.&rdquo;Plager said: &ldquo;His attitude has been super. If he wouldn&rsquo;t get into trouble on the ice once in a while, what good can he do for us?&rdquo;Between his two times with the Blues Durbano was with Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Rhode Island, Colorado, Detroit and Birmingham of the WHA.The Wings arranged to have Durbano play for the Birmingham Bulls in the WHA, but Durbano was not happy there. He was happy to sign this summer with the Blues. If he can avoid further illness or injury, he can help the team in the second half of the season. &#9632;

f0004-03

St. Louis Crowds Call For Durbano

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:NATIONAL LEAGUEBOSTON&mdash; Brad Park, D, returned to lineup from injury list. Dwight Foster C, assigned to Rochester of AHL. Tom Songin, RW, recalled from Rochester as replacement.BUFFALO&mdash; Don Edwards, G, placed on disabled list with ankle injury. Bob Sauve, G, recalled front Hershey of AHL as replacement. Larry Playfair,. D, recalled from Hershey and later placed on disabled list with head injury. Wayne Ramsey, D, and Joe Kowal, LW, returned by Hershey for reassignment.CHICAGO&mdash; Alain Daigle, C, assigned to New Brunswick of AHL.COLORADO &mdash; Merlin Malinowski, C, returned to Philadelphia of AHL. Paul Messier, C, placed on disabled list with shoulder separation.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Kurt Walker, RW, recalled from Springfield of AHL and reassigned to Tulsa of CHL.MINNESOTA&mdash;Bill Butters, D, and Bill Hogaboam, C, recalled from Oklahoma City of CHL. Chuck Arnason, RW, and Jim Roberts, LW, returned to Oklahoma City. Jack Shaw, G, recalled from Oklahoma City for reassignment.MONTREAL&mdash; Yvan Cournoyer, RW, placed on disabled list indefinitely with back injury.RANGERS&mdash; Don Maloney, LW, assigned to New Haven of AHL.PHILADELPHIA&mdash; Terry Murray, D, assigned to Maine of AHL. Dave Leonardo, LW, recalled from Jersey of NEHL and reassigned to Maine of AHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash; Mike Meeker, RW, recalled from Binghamton of AHL.ST. LOUIS&mdash; Mike Crombeen, RW, recalled from Salt Lake of CHL. Ken Richardson, LW, and Tony Currie, RW, assigned to Salt Lake.TORONTO&mdash; Jimmy Jones, C, and Dave Burrows, D, returned to lineup from injury list. Joel Quenneville, D, returned to New Brunswick of AHL.VANCOUVER&mdash; Lars Zelterstrom, D, and Rick Blight, RW, assigned to Dallas of CHL. Bill Derlago, C, recalled from Dallas.Brad Smith, RW, returned to Dallas. Stu Ostlund, C, recalled from Dallas and reassigned to Fort Wayne of 1HL.WASHINGTON&mdash; Mike Marson, LW, returned from Philadelphia of AHL and placed on voluntary retired list.<h2>WORLD HOCKEY ASSN.</h2>BIRMINGHAM&mdash; Greg Tebbutl, D, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Serge Beaudoin, D, assigned to Binghamton as replacement.CINCINNATI&mdash; Kelly Davis, D, assigned to Philadelphia of AHL.INDIANAPOLIS&mdash; Gerry Leroux, RW, released after 10-gante pro trial and joined Muskegon of IHL as free agent.EDMONTON&mdash; Eddie Mio, G, placed on disabled list.QUEBEC&mdash; Jim Dorey, D, assigned to Philadelphia of AHL.WINNIPEG&mdash; Harvey Stewart, G. recalled from Manitoba Senior League as backup goaler when Joe Dales, G, placed on disabled list. &#9632;

Hockey Players On The Move

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div>Twenty down and 60 to go.The Rangers have played one quarter of their 1978-79 schedule, and their record is as follows:&bull; Twelve wins, four losses and four ties, for 28 points and a slippery grip on third place in the NHL&rsquo;s toughest division&mdash;The Patrick: Only six points separate first-place Atlanta from last-place Philadelphia.&bull; Fifty goals-against, for the best defensive record (still) in the NHL &mdash; 2.50. The Rangers have maintained that No. 1 status throughout the first 20 games. At the same point last season, the team had given up 72 goals (3.60 average) while compiling an 8-10-2 record.And just how does coach Fred Shero feel about his team&rsquo;s progress to date?&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing hard,&rdquo; he said, after the Rangers had demolished the Washington Capitals, 9-4, for their 12th win of the season, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;re not playing smartly. We&rsquo;re still making too many blind passes, we&rsquo;re playing way too loose in our defensive zone, and our forwards aren&rsquo;t covering up enough for each other on defense.&ldquo;This is an extremely hard team to figure out,&rdquo; Shero said wistfully, shaking his head as he gazed at the cluster of reporters surrounding him. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not too sure who I should be clamping down on more, and who should be given free reign. Take Ron Greschner, for instance. He&rsquo;s got good ability, but he stickhandles way too much and holds the puck way too long for a defenseman. I don&rsquo;t like to see a guy rush in from the blueline like he does all the time, but then he goes in and scores a goal where a lot of defensemen wouldn&rsquo;t even get a shot oil. How can I argue with success? It&rsquo;s working, but I don&rsquo;t like it.&ldquo;What I&rsquo;d like to do,&rdquo; Shero continued, &ldquo;is use my bench an awful lot more than I am. I generally use it a lot more freely than I have so far this season, and I think the reason for it is that I don&rsquo;t yet have enough confidence in it. But that will come with time, just like everything else.&rdquo;While Shero seemed a mite disappointed in his inability to more quickly convey his hockey knowledge to his players, he tempered his frustration with this statement: &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t teach anything too fast,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t give a third-grader eighth grade work. I don&rsquo;t know why these guys are winning the way they are. Maybe they realize that they&rsquo;re in a tough division and they have to work harder. Maybe it&rsquo;s because our goaltending has been better than average. I dunno. All I do know is that they&rsquo;re learning, they&rsquo;re working hard, and they&rsquo;re happy. And that is very important at this stage of the season.&rdquo;Indeed, And that happiness and peace-of-mind&mdash;conspicuously absent in years past&mdash;is palpable in the locker room this year. And while Shero refuses to take credit for the change in attitude and environment, his players know that he is responsible for it,&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a privilege to be playing for the man,&rdquo; said Phil Esposito. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done more to turn this team around than anyone else.&rdquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s just his style,&rdquo; said Dave Maloney, referring to Shero&rsquo;s low-key, self-effacing attitude. &ldquo;We got off to a great start, and he was a very big part of it. But. like all good coaches, he wants to give credit to his players, instead of taking it for himself. He knows we have a long way to go. December is an incredibly tough month for us. We&rsquo;ll see what we&rsquo;re made of by the first of the year.&rdquo;A quick glance at the upcoming schedule bears out Maloney&rsquo;s words: During the month of December alone, the Rangers play Boston and Philadelphia three times, Atlanta twice, Detroit twice and Toronto, Los Angeles, Buffalo, and the Islanders one game each. The only &ldquo;easy&rdquo; contests arc against those Smythe Division powerhouses&mdash;St. Louis and Chicago.That&rsquo;s some schedule, but right now, the Rangers are displaying the confidence and togetherness that is going to be vital if they are to survive a month like the one they have lacing them.&ldquo;I feel,&rdquo; said Esposito, &ldquo;that this team has more talent than the Stanley-Cup winning Bruin teams I played for. But we still have to put it together. The last time we put it together was 1940. Even I was still a gleam in my old man&rsquo;s eye back then!BLUE CHIPS: Walter Tkaczuk missed his first game since March 13, 1976. A sore right shoulder caused him to snap his consecutive game streak at 190. Pat Hickey has played in 208 straight Ranger games&hellip;Rick Fotiu finally got his first point of the season in Rangers&rsquo; 20th game of the year, against the Washington Capitals. His nifty feed set up a goal by Eddie Johnstone&hellip;If NHL officials are contemplating appointing Fred Shero to the job as coach of the NHL All Star team which will face the Soviets in February, they better forget about it. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d decline,&rdquo; said Shero recently, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got no time. They should pick someone who is out of a job and who has some experience in coaching international hockey.&rdquo;&hellip;Shero also has no use for plus-minus figures, which so many hockey coaches and GMs value. &ldquo;Those are the kind of figures,&rdquo; Shero said, &ldquo;that the owner&rsquo;s sons ought to keep track of. They don&rsquo;t mean anything.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01917/4039414-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="572" height="469"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce BonnettPAT HICKEY&hellip; More Than 208 Consecutive Games</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Rangers A First Quarter Success, But Shero Eyes Ways To Be Better

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02730/4039445-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="412" height="218"></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

NHL Leading Scorers

<div class="byline">&#x2014; BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011089/4039476-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="316" height="462"></div><h2>Black Hawks Real Pros</h2>IT IS HOLIDAY TIME, Thanksgiving just over in the States, Christmas coming up everywhere, a time when it really doesn&rsquo;t matter whether you win or lose but how you play the game.The Black Hawks have proven that oh, so often. They aren&rsquo;t always a good hockey team, but they are always good people.At this time, a time to remember, they&rsquo;re being remembered fondly at Maryville Academy, a suburban Chicago home for 250 or so children ages 10 to 18 whose real homes have come apart at the emotional seams.At this time, a time to count one&rsquo;s blessings, Maryville superintendent Father John Smyth counts his. Among them are the Black Hawks.&ldquo;We have a turkey on our table, and I guess you could say it&rsquo;s because of the Black Hawks,&rdquo; Father Smyth said. &ldquo;You meet a lot of people doing this, a lot of celebrities, and a lot of people who might have their noses up in the air.&ldquo;But not the Black Hawks. I&rsquo;ve never seen a group of professional athletes as unselfish. They have contributed more to our cause than we have a right to expect. You hope that you can enlist a few players from the local teams to help, because it means so much.&ldquo;But with the Black Hawks, it hasn&rsquo;t been one or two. As a group, they are great men. They have sort of adopted us as one of their charities, and I can&rsquo;t tell you what it has meant to us.&rdquo;<h2>Players Gave Their Time</h2>IN COLD FIGURES, it has meant money, big money. For Maryvilles&rsquo;annual Chuck Wagon fund raising day last June, the Black Hawks came en masse. You&rsquo;d have thought it was a team meeting.&ldquo;We raised $330,000 for Maryville&mdash;the biggest day of that kind ever in Chicago,&rdquo; said Father Smyth. &ldquo;A lot of people came out because they knew the Black Hawks would be there.&ldquo;They played a volleyball game, they signed autographs, they held an auction. Stan Mikita&rsquo;s helmet, Keith Magnuson&rsquo;s crutches, Cliff Koroll&rsquo;s jersey, Tony Esposito&rsquo;s mask. And Phil Russell ran the auction. Great examples.&ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t just come and make an appearance, either. They really took part. And don&rsquo;t you think it means something to a 10-year-old youngster whose structure at home has broken down to see these athletes here caring about them? It&rsquo;s winter now, and the kids are still talking about last June.&rdquo;And that wasn&rsquo;t all. The first-ever Black Hawks softball team got together one day last August to run the bases for Maryville. They lost the game, but they wrote a check from the proceeds for $750.&ldquo;I know they are busy all winter and that the summer is a time when they can relax,&rdquo; said Father Smyth. &ldquo;So for them all to take a Sunday off from their families and play softball is a big sacrifice.<h2>Feelings For People</h2>&ldquo;A LOT OF OTHER PROFESSIONAL athletes from other professional teams might play a softball game for you or make an appearance. But they&rsquo;ll want to be paid for it. Not the Black Hawks. Keith Magnuson got the team together, they played the game, and they turned over every cent.&rdquo;Magnuson, who gives until it hurts, then gives again, makes light of the Black Hawks&rsquo; off-ice victories.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nothing we don&rsquo;t want to do,&rdquo; said the captain, &ldquo;or shouldn&rsquo;t do.&rdquo;But why the Black Hawks?&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Father Smyth, &ldquo;without criticizing anybody else, maybe it&rsquo;s just that the Black Hawks are a different breed. Maybe because they&rsquo;re from Canada and didn&rsquo;t grow up with the silver spoon.&ldquo;You know in America we tend to glorify athletes. When they go to college to play sports, they get this and that and before you know it they might be up in the clouds a bit. But not the Black Hawks. And it&rsquo;s not because they&rsquo;re not highly paid.&ldquo;They just seem to have a feeling for people. Maybe, too, because in Chicago, they have a more limited audience than baseball or football or basketball. Whatever it is, it is sincere and refreshing to see. Yes, they&rsquo;ve put a turkey on our table this holiday season.&rdquo;Good team, sometimes. Good people, always. &#9632;

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HOCKEY TALK

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div>TORONTO&mdash;Boston Bruins have been the albatross for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the past few National Hockey League seasons, the monkey on the Leafs&rsquo; back.The Bruins are the club which the Leafs must catch in the Adams Division but their inability to defeat the Bean-towners was the big roadblock to that ambition. The Leafs hadn&rsquo;t defeated the Bruins anywhere since the 1975-76 season; in 32 meetings spread over 11 seasons at Boston Garden, the Leafs had won only one game&mdash;on April 7, 1974.But on their second trip to Boston this season, the Leafs snapped the Bruin domination and gave coach Roger Neilson his first victory over the Boston club. The Leafs took a 6-4 decision the hard way, falling behind, 4-2, in the third period, then battling back to claim the decision.Of course, one game doesn&rsquo;t make an 80-match season but the Leafs saw the win&mdash;and the way it was accomplished &mdash; as important in their scheme of things this season.&ldquo;We went for several seasons, losing every game to the Philadelphia Flyers,&rdquo; said Leaf captain Darryl Sittler. &ldquo;Then late in the &lsquo;76-77 season, we went into the Spectrum, out-bumped them finally and beat them. We almost beat them in the playoffs that year and since then, we&rsquo;ve had the edge on them.&ldquo;We just haven&rsquo;t been able to handle the Bruins and that was only the second game the Leafs have won in the Boston Garden in the nine seasons I&rsquo;ve been with the team. I think we&rsquo;re going to have a battle right to the wire with the Bruins for first place in our division and the record in the eight games between the two clubs will have a big influence on the outcome.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we had to end their streak against us. We have to win the majority of games from them for the remainder of the season if we hope to finish first.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02835/4039507-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="476" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Steve BabineauDARRYL SUTLER&hellip;Winnipeg Goal Broke Personal Slump</figcaption></div>Sittler scored the winning goal on a typical piece of determination in the win over the Bruins, his first score since early in the season. Sittler started the season strongly, then failed to play up to his high standards.Sittler is a player who refuses to use any alibis. For instance, he&rsquo;s never discussed a knee injury which hampered him in the &lsquo;78 playoffs. But this season he&rsquo;s been plagued by a sinus infection and, on top of that, he&rsquo;s been having some root canal work done in his mouth, one of life&rsquo;s great barrels of laughs.&ldquo;Maybe those things did slow me a little and take a bit of strength but they&rsquo;re no excuse,&rdquo; Sittler said. "I just haven&rsquo;t been playing well, not taking advantage of my scoring chances. That&rsquo;s why it was good to get the goal against the Bruins.Sittler and his regular right winger over the past few seasons, hard shooter Lanny McDonald, have been separated in many games this season. The knee injury which has kept winger Ron Ellis on the sidelines since the sixth game of the season (he&rsquo;ll return in early December) caused Neilson to do some juggling of his forwards.Neilson&rsquo;s plan was to play Sittler, McDonald and Tiger Williams on one line, Ellis, Dan Maloney and Walt McKechnie on another.Ellis&rsquo; absence gave young John Anderson, their first-round draft pick in &lsquo;77, the chance to work more-or-less regularly and he&rsquo;s improved steadily. In several games, Neilson moved McDonald alongside Maloney and McKechnie on an effective line and played Anderson with Sittler and Williams.&ldquo;We want to have flexibility among our forwards so that if, say, a team is concentrating its defensive efforts on Sittler and McDonald, we&rsquo;ll just switch things around,&rdquo; Neilson said.LEAF NOTES: Defenseman Dave Burrows, who injured his knee in the same game as Ellis, Oct. 21 against Philadelphia Flyers, rejoined the Leafs Nov. 21. Burrows had stretched ligaments-but was able to work on strengthening exercises during his time in a cast&hellip; &ldquo;The cast was one with a hinge in it so I could keep some strength in the knee,&rdquo; Burrows said. &ldquo;It was a great advantage because if a knee is stiff in a cast, you lose the strength.&rdquo;&hellip;In the win over Boston, an unlikely forward line combination of Bruce Boudreau at center, Pat Boutette on right wing and defenseman lan Turnbull on left wing scored two goals in 14 seconds in the third period to overhaul the Bruins&rsquo; two goal lead. &#9632;

f0006-02

Leafs Break Bruins’ Jinx, Claim Series Key To Title

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;One of the nicer stories in the National Hockey League this season is happening in Philadelphia.It involves a high draft choice of a few years ago who is finally proving he belongs in the major leagues. That&rsquo;s him over there, on left wing&mdash;Barry Dean.At last look Dean was already close to his 1977-78 total of seven goals. More importantly, he was the Flyers&rsquo; No. 4 scorer, with a 3-10-13 reading.Dean&rsquo;s assist total is the accurate read-out on the player who was the second chosen in the 1975 NHL amateur draft. Coaches and general managers who expect Barry Dean to score goals have been as disappointed as fans who insist that Farrah Fawcett-Majors can act.&ldquo;I can pick up points, but more with assists than goals,&rdquo; said the player teammates call &ldquo;Dino.&rdquo; &ldquo;Working the corners and coming up with the puck has always been my game. In junior the most goals I ever scored was 40.&rdquo;In that final season with Medicine Hat, Dean added 75 assists to his 40-goal output and wound up as Kansas City&rsquo;s first pick. Only Mel Bridgman, who is now one of Philadelphia&rsquo;s most valuable players, was selected ahead of Dean.Dean then became one of the many blunders of the Kansas City franchise as he signed with the WHA&rsquo;s Phoenix entry. The Arizona sun was nice, but a near-tragic accident wasn&rsquo;t. During a game against Cleveland, Dean suffered a terrifying skate cut on his right forearm. A radial artery was severed and a tendon was sliced 80 percent through.&ldquo;If Maxie (Bryan Maxwell, now with Minnesota) hadn&rsquo;t been near me on the ice and put pressure on the arm, and if I didn&rsquo;t get good care right away, I might not be here,&rdquo; Dean said. &ldquo;It was really scary.&rdquo;In a comparatively minor way. Dean&rsquo;s first season with the Flyers was scary. He was acquired from Colorado prior to last season in exchange for Mark Suzor. &rsquo;Flyers&rsquo; GM Keith Allen knew he wasn&rsquo;t getting another Bobby Hull, but Allen was at least expecting a reasonable imitation of, say, Bobby Nystrom&mdash;a rugged, persistent winger who might contribute 20 goals.Instead, Dean began with a stamina problem that required medical attention and ended up hearing this recorded message at Fred Shero&rsquo;s answering service: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t call me, I&rsquo;ll call you (but don&rsquo;t count on it).&rdquo; Dean played in only 56 regular-season games, then was &ldquo;O-for-the-playoffs.&rdquo;According to Dean&mdash;and a few other Flyers&mdash;Shero&rsquo;s departure for Broadway was the best thing that happened to him.&ldquo;I think Freddie was my main stumbling block,&rdquo; said the Flyers&rsquo; resident western-attire fashion model. &ldquo;He had some guys who had played for him for four or five years and he felt comfortable with them. I thought I played well enough to earn a spot, but Freddie decided not to play me.&rdquo;Bob McCammon, Shero&rsquo;s successor, did not make &ldquo;play Barry Dean&rdquo; his top priority, but at least McCammon talked with the winger who was smart enough to realize this season might be his last chance in Philadelphia, or anywhere in the NHL.&ldquo;Barry got across the idea in our talk that maybe this year was it for him,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;He hadn&rsquo;t established himself as a major leaguer and you only get so many years to do that.&rdquo;Admitting that he has curtailed his night life, Dean says his stamina is better than ever. He also likes the idea of having Bridgman and either Paul Holmgren or Don Saleski as linemates.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good playmaker,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;His shot is pretty good, too, and I really think the goals are going to come. He&rsquo;s a good guy, and I&rsquo;m impressed with what he&rsquo;s done with himself. I&rsquo;m really starting to look at him as a key player for us. I think he&rsquo;s going to make Keith look good again.&rdquo;FLYERS FACTS: Rick MacLeish returned to the lineup after missing six games with an eye injury. MacLeish was cut near the right eye by Mike Milbury&rsquo;s stick. MacLeish isn&rsquo;t planning a vendetta, but he is disturbed that the Bruins&rsquo; defenseman would wave his stick so close to an eye<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01972/4039538-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="238" height="248"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Brace BennettBARRY DEAN&hellip;Realized Now Is The Time</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0007-01

Dean Making Most Of Chance With Flyers

<div class="byline">&#x2019; BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011080/4039576-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="399" height="452"></div>FEW DOUBTED BRAD MAXWELL&rsquo;S ability when he led New Westminster to the junior championship of Canada, scoring the winning goal in the Memorial Cup playoff finals. His end to end rushes tore up amateur ranks. Nor were they surprised when Minnesota made him a first round choice, the seventh player picked, in the summer of 1977 draft.He was praised throughout his professional rookie season last season when he scored 18 goals and assisted on 29 to total 47 points. That was more goals than and as many points as any defensemen ever scored for the North Stars. Jack Gordon said, &ldquo;He has the best shot of any defenseman we&rsquo;ve ever had.&rdquo;Minnesota manager Gordon added, &ldquo;He is everything we thought he&rsquo;d be on offense and has shown steady development on defense.&rdquo; Coach Ted Harris said, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an outstanding rookie and he&rsquo;s going to be an outstanding defenseman.&rdquo; Brad, himself, said, &ldquo;The season has been more than I could have hoped for.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02971/4039569-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="524" height="616"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Maxwell is a confused young defenseman for the Minnesota North Stars. In his rookie season everything went his way and he set a club goal-scoring mark, but in his second season, things have been different, and he&rsquo;s had to make a number of adjustments.</figcaption></div>That was that season. This is another season. Gordon is no longer the Minnesota manager, Harris no longer the coach. Lou Nanne now manages the team, Glen Sonmor coaches it succeeding Harry Howell who quit in mid-November. When Howell became coach prior to this season Maxwell said, &ldquo;I look forward to playing under him because he was an outstanding defenseman and I need help on defense.&rdquo;When Nanne and Howell sent Maxwell to the minors recently, they said he had to improve. Howell says, &ldquo;He just wasn&rsquo;t playing well.&rdquo; Presumably, when Maxwell was brought back from Oklahoma City in about a week, they had decided he was ready to play better.In his first game back, in Los Angeles, Maxwell stood back on defense. He didn&rsquo;t make one rush. In his desire to do a job defensively, he wrestled attackers and hit them whenever they looked like they might get away from him. There was something desperate about his play. Minnesota played poorly as a team, routed 8-1.AFTERWARDS, THE 21-YEAR-OLD youngster seemed somewhat forlorn. He said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what they expect of me. I&rsquo;m an offensive defenseman. I&rsquo;ve always been an offensive defenseman. They knew I was an offensive defenseman when they drafted me. They knew I needed work on my defense. I was working on it.&ldquo;When they changed managers and changed coaches I got caught in the middle. They said they were changing their style. They said they had plenty of forwards who could play offense and they wanted their defensemen to play defense. I went along with them. I&rsquo;ve been playing defense.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll play any way they want me to. I really will. I&rsquo;ll play defensive defense happily. If I can. It&rsquo;s not my style. It&rsquo;s not the way I&rsquo;ve played all my life. It&rsquo;ll take time to learn to play differently. They have to give me time. Right now, I&rsquo;m confused out there. I&rsquo;m not playing offense. I&rsquo;m trying to play defense. A lot of the time I feel like I&rsquo;m not doing anything.&rdquo;He is only 21 and a confused young man and his world has turned upside down on him within a few months. He is a victim of the Bobby Orr syndrome. Orr changed the way defensemen played. Soon, a lot of good skaters, stickhandlers, and shooters were developing on defense. A lot of slow, strong, determined defenders were losing out. But, Orr was Orr. Only a few can play the way he played. It is hard for a Brad Maxwell to play offense and defense at the same time equally well. He is being blamed for having been brought up to do something he can&rsquo;t do.BRAD WAS BORN IN BRANDON, Manitoba, and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, when he was 13, when his dad, Ron, changed junior teams he was coaching. Brad never played for his father, but his father was a sort of second coach to him. Brad started playing at five or six and advanced smoothly through junior ranks.At New Westminster, he captained the cup kings. He played alongside big Barry Beck, who stayed back to rough up foes, while Brad rushed up ice. Beck was the first defenseman chosen, Robert Picard the second, Brad the third in the pro draft, and he was chosen because he had a rare ability to skate, carry a puck, and shoot a puck.He had 100 minutes in penalties last season. He is tough. He is not afraid. He can play defense. But he can play offense better. As a point man, he drove in a dozen goals last season. Guy Lafleur scored only three more on power plays. It would be a waste to limit Brad&rsquo;s offense.It is just a question of what kind of defenseman Minnesota wants. Brad Maxwell isn&rsquo;t complaining, he&rsquo;d just like to know the answer.He is hockey, through and through. His father coached. His mother drove him to practices. His sister, Rhonda, married Rick LaPointe, the defenseman who was a number one choice, too, in 1975. The six-foot-two, 180-pound Maxwell married the former Cathy Culmback this summer, a lady he met while playing junior in Bellingham, Washington.Celebrating his spectacular rookie season and their marriage, they bought a house in Eden Prairie this summer and settled down. This season started with high hopes. Next thing he knew he was in Oklahoma City. &ldquo;It was a shock to her,&rdquo; he sighs. &ldquo;It was a shock to me.&rdquo; Now he is back, but better than ever? Maybe he should defend, defend, defend. But more than one machine has been hurt by tinkering. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Punch Imlach, who had his rows with the press when he was coach and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs some years back, hit international wire services with his latest media conflict.The GM of the Buffalo Sabres barred the hockey writer from one of the two Buffalo newspapers covering his club from:1&mdash;Traveling on team charter planes.2&mdash;Traveling on team busses to and from the arena in out-of-town cities, from airport to hotel and from arena or hotel to airport.Two days later the club came out with an announcement that it was all a mistake. Front office personnel had misunderstood Imlach&rsquo;s remarks after a phone call to the writer and had misinformed the writer&rsquo;s newspaper.All that Imlach intended, according to a release from the club, was that the writer&rsquo;s newspaper pay for his travel expenses. The club had been taking care of plane fare for that newspaper&rsquo;s representatives.The reason for the big outburst apparently was a story the writer, Warner Hessler, had published putting the blame mostly on Imlach for the Sabres&rsquo; early-season troubles.Representatives of press, radio and television immediately jumped on Imlach, causing some veteran hands to wonder; Is this a diversionary tactic to take the heat off the team for a while?The 60-year-old GM has been around long enough to know what would happen if he pulled something like this. And, besides, the story was just one in a long series of articles in that newspaper attacking Imlach, from the time the Sabres failed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1973-74 after they made them for the first time in 1972-73.Was El Puncho setting himself up to take a rap so that the media would lessen the heat on his club? If the press and air pundits were busy verbally punching Punch, they wouldn&rsquo;t have space or time to go into, again, the inadequacies of Imlach&rsquo;s team.That&rsquo;s what happened. Whether it had anything to do with it or not, in their next game the Sabres went into Maple Leaf Gardens and tied the Leafs, 2-2.Whatever it did to his team. Punch&rsquo;s action made Hessler an international celebrity, of sorts. He was interviewed and photoed by the Canadian media throughout his visit to Canada.The Sabres, while they followed their regular format in that game&mdash;take the lead, then have the opposition tie-did play better hockey. And, as captain Danny Gare noted, &ldquo;When you get a tie in this building, you aren&rsquo;t doing bad.&rdquo;The tie extended a Buffalo unbeaten streak to five games, three of them ties.In all three of the ties, the Sabres gained an early lead. Two of them were against teams in their own Adams Division, the Boston Bruins, besides the Maple Leafs. The Sabres didn&rsquo;t gain on those two teams that are ahead of them but they didn&rsquo;t lose ground. And after the disappointing start they made this year, that wasn&rsquo;t bad.Jerry Korab, the big defenseman who has been the target of boos in Buffalo&rsquo;s Memorial Auditorium, was a big factor in four of the five games in the unbeaten streak.King Kong, as he is known, had two assists in the 4-4 tie with Pittsburgh; he had one in the 2-0 victory over Washington; he had a goal and an assist in the 4-4 tie with Boston, and he had an assist in the 2-2 deadlock with Toronto. Most of the assists came on shots that were deflected into the goal or on which forwards put in the rebound.Rene Robert, erstwhile occupant of coach Marcel Pronovost&rsquo;s doghouse, continued his good work since returning to a regular line. Robert had seven points in the five-game streak. He set up three goals in the tie with Boston, making the last pass before the shot in each case.Andre Savard, who also had been left behind when the Sabres made some early-season road trips, came through with the first goal, his first of the year, in the Toronto game. He got his chance for a regular job when Derek Smith suffered a pulled groin muscle and it looked as though Savard might be difficult to move out of a regular job, especially when he and Kirab contributed hat tricks in a 9-2 Sabres&rsquo; blitz of Minnesota.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03821/4039607-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="183" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">PUNCH IMLACH&hellip;Diversionary Tactics?</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0008-03

Was Imlach’s Ploy Attempt To Lessen Sabres’ Pressure?

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;What&rsquo;s wrong with Rogie Vachon? That&rsquo;s the question Detroit&rsquo;s hockey fans arc asking.Vachon, the free agent goalie signed during the summer to a million dollar contract by the Red Wings, saw his goals-against mark balloon above 4.88 (4.14 in 13 games) with a series of bad performances. He was letting in bad goals&mdash;costly goals&mdash;as the Wings hit the skids.Despite the personal slump, Vachon was getting most of the action in goal for the Red Wings. Jimmy Rutherford, who had an outstanding training camp, continued to play well into the regular season.Rutherford had a goals-against mark of 2.65, but subtract one period (when the Wings fell apart completely and yielded six goals to Pittsburgh) and Rutherford had a 1.69 goals against figure for five and one-third games. But Kromm stuck with Vachon.&ldquo;I have to find out if he can play,&rdquo; Kromm said, &ldquo;I have to find out about Rogie. If he can&rsquo;t do it, it&rsquo;s better to find it out now, isn&rsquo;t it? Sure he&rsquo;s been disappointing. I haven&rsquo;t been satisfied and I&rsquo;m sure he isn&rsquo;t satisfied. He&rsquo;s been struggling.&ldquo;We have to find out now if he can do it for us.&rdquo;Rutherford averaged one game a week through the first six weeks. He was to get back-to-back starts after a strong performance against Buffalo but Kromm switched to Vachon at the last moment.&ldquo;I said Jimmy would start and that&rsquo;s the way I felt. But we got out late. Sunday I asked Rogie how he felt and he said fine, he wanted to play. And I wanted him to play, to see if he could handle it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02891/4039669-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="529" height="566"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM RUTHERFORD&hellip;Better Average</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy with my goaltenders. We&rsquo;re going to be strong there. And Jimmy, he&rsquo;s a heckuva guy. He&rsquo;s going to play for us.&rdquo;The Wings lost that start by Vachon, 4-3, in Philadelphia. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t blame Rogie tonight,&rdquo; said Kromm, putting the responsibility for the loss on some shoddy defensive play.Vachon is quick to admit that he&rsquo;s not playing up to par. He adds he doesn&rsquo;t know why.&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;m trying too hard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m giving up too many easy goals. I&rsquo;m not concentrating the way I should be.&rdquo;MOTOR CITY SHORTS: Nick Libett played in his 349th consecutive game in Los Angeles on Nov. 22&hellip;defensemen Al Cameron and Willie Huber were assigned to Kansas City of the CHL and Detroit&rsquo;s top farm club promptly swept a weekend doubleheader on the road&hellip;despite the cuts, the Wings still had 21 players on the roster&hellip;Bjorn Skaare, a 4th round draft pick, returned from Norway and scored three goals and an assist for Kansas City&hellip;Danny Bolduc was voted CHL player of the week for notching five goals on three assists. &#9632;

f0009-02

Red Wings Ask What’s Wrong With Vachon?

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011043/4039638-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="346" height="648"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Stovo BabineauAL SECORD&hellip;Work His Talent</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;It is no secret that the Boston Bruins are much more formidable on the ice than they are at the drafting table.Out of 14 players selected in the first round between 1969 and 1976, players who by now should form the backbone of the club, only one (Terry O&rsquo;Reilly) even remains in the Bruins&rsquo; system.The choices, some memorable, most not, include:Clayton Pachal, Doug Halward, Don Larway, Andre Savard, Mike Bloom, Ron Jones, O&rsquo;Reilly, Reg Leach, Rick MacLeish, Ron Plumb, Bob Stewart, Dan Tannahill, Frank Spring and Ivan Boldirev.Now, in his own quiet and confident way, Al Secord, the 1978 top pick from the Hamilton Fincups, is becoming a good bet to turn the draft record around.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been much of a scorer or a fancy hockey player, said Secord the other day after he scored a pair of goals, his third and fourth, in a losing effort against Toronto Maple Leafs.It was a statement reminiscent of Terry O&rsquo;Reilly (circa 1971) and, as a matter of fact, there are a number of things about Secord that remind people of a young Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, including Bruins&rsquo; coach Don Cherry.&ldquo;I just try to go up and down my wing and work the corners as hard as I can,&rdquo; said Second. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s quite a few guys on this team that are good cornermen like O&rsquo;Reilly and Donnie Marcotte and Wayne Cashman. They&rsquo;re all hard workers. If I can be a combination of those three guys, things will be okay.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a little more ice time now mainly because Stanley Johathan is out with a bad wrist. The more ice time the more experience I&rsquo;m getting and the easier I&rsquo;m finding it out there.&rdquo;The ability to work hard toward a sometimes distant goal has been the hallmark of Al Secord ever since he was a boy growing up in Espanola, Ont., a town of 6,000 people and one paper mill &ldquo;at the top of the Great Lakes.For Secord, it was a matter of playing hockey or working in &rsquo;the mill, not a difficult choice.&ldquo;You could make good money in the paper mill,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They pay well, but it was never for me. It&rsquo;s too drab a life. The kids in town all grow up and go to school with big plans and then they land in the mill.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s work five days for most people and then off to the hotel on Saturday night. That&rsquo;s where the popular bar is. Everyone goes there. Between racing your car around town and the hotel, well, that&rsquo;s about it if you don&rsquo;t play hockey.&ldquo;I wanted to do something with my life. People used to bug me the way I played hockey all the time, but whenever they got on me I just thought about that mill.&rdquo;Fortunately, his parents were supportive of his ambition. Who else would drive a daily 100-mile round trip from Espanola to Sudbury just so he could play competitive bantam hockey?&ldquo;I&rsquo;d go with my parents every day before school,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d leave at four in the morning and I&rsquo;d be back in time to go to school. I did this seven days a week and people really thought I was crazy. But I knew someday it would be worth it.&rdquo;Indeed it was. He was playing Junior A for Wexford at the age of 16 and then for the Hamilton Fincups, where he became a resident thumper at left wing. His scoring figures weren&rsquo;t that impressive, nine goals in 1975-76, 32 in 1976-77 and 28 in 1977-78.&ldquo;I never dreamed the Bruins would draft me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My agent had talked with Detroit and Buffalo, but not Boston. I think what made the difference was the playoffs.&ldquo;Harry Sinden came to see me in the playoffs and the word spread all over the building. I knew he was there in the stands because I could see him. I scored a couple of goals and got into a couple of fights. He must have liked what he saw.&rdquo;Sinden did, enough to use the Bruins&rsquo; first round draft choice, 16th overall, to snap him up in the 1978 amateur lottery. And, if the people back in Espanola bug him anymore, it&rsquo;s for tickets when the Bruins play in Toronto or Montreal.&ldquo;The whole town is behind me,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;About 30 people came down to Toronto to see me play when we were there last. That&rsquo;s all that could get in. There will be about 60 people in Montreal next time. They are trying to get tickets now. People have really taken to the Bruins.&rdquo;Right now, at current writing, Secord is trying to break a minor jinx. Seems like every time he scores a goal, the Bruins lose. He got his first against Philadelphia in a 7-3 loss. He got his third and fourth against Toronto in a 6-4 defeat. &#9632;

f0009-01

Secord Could Change Unenviable Draft Record

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011067/4039700-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="782" height="333"></div>DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION ON HOCKEY?Write to:FAN FORUM,The Hockey News,1434 St. Catherine St., W., Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7<h2>Hockey Returns To Oklahoma City</h2>I hope when it is time for THE HOCKEY NEWS to pass out the 12th Annual Awards for the minor leagues, you will take a hard look down south at the Oklahoma City Stars.After an absence of 21 months, hockey officialy returned to Oklahoma City on May 14, 1978. It returned through the efforts of Mr. Ron Norick, the current Stars&rsquo; general manager. He spear-headed an effort that led to Oklahoma City becoming the farm club of the Minnesota North Stars.It is fantastic to have hockey back in Oklahoma City, and we have a winner, too. Hopefull, the people of Oklahoma City will come out and see the Stars.MARK HEDRICK,Oklahoma City, Ok.<h2>NHL Presidency Too Much For Ziegler?</h2>The suspension of Colorado&rsquo;s Wilf Paiement for a total of 15 games lends further proof to the notion that John Ziegler is out of his element as National Hockey League president.Paiement committed an act of violence when he took a two handed swing at Detroit&rsquo;s Dennis Polonich, shattering Polonich&rsquo;s hose with his stick. The pain and discomford suffered by Polonich will not end when Paiement&rsquo;s slap on the hand suspension does.The light suspension of Paiement will do nothing to discourage other players from committing like acts of wanton violence.I find it difficult to believe that under Ziegler&rsquo;s presidency, Don Murdoch can be suspended for forty games for a drug violation totally unrelated to hockey; yet when such an unprecedented act of violence is committed in an NHL game, Ziegler and his right hand man O&rsquo;Neill seem to look the other way.One wonders what Paiement&rsquo;s sentence would have been if his victim had been a name player or a goal scorer, rather than the chippy Polonich? Or if the incident had taken place in Toronto and criminal prosecution had resulted, a la Dan Maloney?John Ziegler had better start making some just and courageous decisions as NHL president or watch the league remain in low esteem in comparison with other major North American sports leagues.PEGGY O&rsquo;CONNOR,Grosse Pointe Woods, MI.<h2>Leafs&rsquo; New Style Not Very Impressive</h2>I have been a Toronto fan for as long as I can remember and I always enjoyed watching them play, but things have changed under coach Roger Neilson.The team has gone from exciting and enjoyable to methodical and very boring. Watching the Leafs now is about as exciting as watching them fall off tried in the autumn. Neilson&rsquo;s defensive style is becoming a cramp in the retina.I see Atlanta and New York Rangers are doing well. I am not the only Toronto fan from this area to be disenchanted with the Leafs under Roger Neilson. Bring back (Red) Kelly, bring back Brian Glennie and recover the loss of Toronto fans. Toronto&rsquo;s record has been less than impressive so far, so go Flames go.BRIAN WILE,Falmouth, N.S.<h2>Weaker Teams Discriminated Against</h2>Tony Specian made a valid point in his Nov. 3 letter about the NHL schedule. I wholeheartedly agree that the league has come up with a horrendous schedule, but not for the reasons Mr. Specian mentions.For instance, Colorado does not have the seventh easiest schedule in the league. Seventeenth might be closer. The Rockies play on two consecutive nights, with travel in between, 18 times. That seems like an awful lot to me. No team could be expected to play with a killer schedule like that.And there&rsquo;s more. Colorado started the season with four straight road games. They played one at home, went on the road again, one at. home, then on the road&hellip;This happens throughout the season.If I remember correctly, Montreal postponed a game against Detroit so they wouldn&rsquo;t have to play right after facing the Czech. Now could the league allow this?These are just a few examples of how the NHL&rsquo;s weaker teams are given unfair treatment in terms of scheduling.STEVE WINGATE,Colorado Springs, Colo.<h2>No Winners In Bouchard&rsquo;s Retirement</h2>The retirement of Pierre Bouchard is a loss to hockey everywhere not just to Montreal or Washington. Bouchard may feel indignant at leaving the &ldquo;great Canadien dynasty&rdquo;, but in professional sports trading is part of the game.It is upsetting that the Canadiens did want Bouchard and the Capitals at first did not either, although the trade nullification and defensive injuries have changed Washington&rsquo;s outlook and he would be welcomed. Perhaps Bouchard is afraid of being called a loser as a Capital, but is he a winner now?LISA JEAN DURBIN, College Park, Md.<h2>Yanking Goalies No! Overtime Solution</h2>In response to the letter that appeared in the Nov. 17 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS. I am in disagreement with Frank Kemp.How can playing overtime with no goalies help. In sudden death the first goal wins. This means that the overtime period would last about a minute. A 180-foot clearing shot could easily win the game. I don&rsquo;t thing that this kind of goal would be too satisfying to both the players and fans.JOHN VOLPI,Cape Coral, Fla.<h2>Paiement Suspension Not Good Enough</h2>I am writing to say that the suspension given to Wilf Paiement of the Colorado Rockies is not good enough. He received a I5-game suspension and a fine after be broke Dennis Polonich&rsquo;s nose.Paiement swung his stick with both hands and I think he should have been given a stiffer suspension.GORDON ENRIGHT,Toronto, Ont.<h2>Standing Ovation For Living Legend</h2>Bobby Orr, the supreme player of hockey, has just announced his retirement. After a sixth operation on what remains of his left knee, he realized that things would never be the same.Never again will fans go crazy after a spectacular Bobby Orr goal. He takes with him many records which may never be broken. This man has done more for the sport of hockey than any other person in history.The hockey world now bids adieu to a living legend with a standing ovation.JAMES KOOPMAN,Glendale, Ca.<h2>Maine Also Division I Member</h2>I enjoyed Tom Burke&rsquo;s article on the 1978-79 ECAC hockey race. However, he missed an important point. Beginning this year, Maine-Orono becomes a member of Division 1.Originally, Maine was to have joined this year as a provisional member, not eligible for any playoffs. However, by August, they were able to schedule enough games to qualify for full membership. Maine is therefore now eligible to compete in all ECAC and NCAA playoffs should it do well enough to qualify.I am aware of the situation through my involvement with the ECAC and college hockey as a whole. I am one of the three official scorers-historians for the Division 1, 11 and 111 tournaments. I am also the Secretary of the S.U. Hockey Club and Vice-President of the Finger Lakes League.Thanks for an otherwise excellent article. I&rsquo;m glad to see that THE HOCKEY NEWS is expanding its coverage of eastern college hockey.ANDREW K. FINNIE,Syracuse, N.Y.<h2>One Deal Isn&rsquo;t End Of World</h2>In reference to George Kelly&rsquo;s letter to THE HOCKEY NEWS (Nov. 17), he quickly forgets that it was the same Harry Sinden that acquired Brad Park, perennial All Star, and smooth-skating Jean Ratelle for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais. How about 41 goalscorer Pete McNab in exchange for Andre Savard. Then there is RickMiddleton for Ken Hodge, Gilles Gilbert for Fred Stanfield, etc., etc., etc. One bad trade isn&rsquo;t the end of the world.On the Ron Grahame deal, the Bruins will receive a first round draft pick, a possible Mike Bossy or Barry Beck.GLENN VESTRAT,N.Huntingdon, Pa.<h2>Thinks RPI Rates Among Powers</h2>I enjoyed your preview of the upcoming college hockey season, but was very surprised by Tom Burke&rsquo;s prediction of a seventh place finish for RPI. As one of the Engineers&rsquo; radio broadcasters last season, I saw almost all of their games and after their fourth place finish I certainly considered them to be one of the strongest teams in the nation.Despite the loss of three of their top four scorers, I feel that improvements will be seen in players like Larry Landon and John Emerson to fill that void. They are also fortunate in that all of their defensemen and goalies will be returning and they have not lost any players to academic probation.I think RPI should be classed with the likesof BU and Providence as one of the powerhouses of the ECAC.MARK DONOVAN,Armonk, N.Y. &#9632;

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FAN FORUM

Fans&rsquo; SadnessWill Become PrideI was, as I am sure most hockey fans were, saddened to hear of the retirements of two of the greatest hockey players ever: Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr. However, a feeling of pride shadowed this sadness. These two men are to be admired, not only for their many accomplishments on the ice, but also for their courage and their devotion to the game they love.Hull, who still had a number of good playing years left, felt he was hurting his team because he could not give his game the attention he had always given it. It took much insight and courage for this man, a man who most thought was the ultimate hockey player, to say that he would rather retire than fall below the high standard of performance he had set for himself.And, for Orr, leaving his role as an active player was obviously the hardest thing he ever had to do. Here, again, it took much courage for Orr to admit, not only to others, but to himself, that he could no longer reach the high level of play to which he had always dedicated himself. Hockey fans everywhere were proud of Orr when he came back to give it one more try after six operations on his knee. Now we can again be proud of Orr for his courage.The hockey world lost two of its greatest stars when Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr retired, and, although a feeling of sadness and disappointment prevails at this moment, it will soon turn into pride. The world of hockey and hockey fans everywhere can be proud of these two men for their style and their committment to the game for which they always gave their best, and more.HEIDI DOPPMEIER,Calgary, Alberta. &#9632;

LETTER OF THE WEEK

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Fans’ Quick Hockey Quiz

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Bob Berry&rsquo;s system is starting to stick to his players, or at least so it seemed in mid-November when the Kings spun off four straight victories, including two on the road and one over visiting Montreal.Ragged defensively in the early season, the Kings started to outskate foes so consistently the other side had only fleeting opportunities to apply pressure to the southern Californians&rsquo; vulnerable rear guard.Berry&rsquo;s system is similar to that of Bob Pulford, for whom he played, and is a common enough checking game, but includes a few new wrinkles, which stress puck control on offense as well as defense.Like any sound system, it requires unselfishness on the part of the players to contribute to a team effort. The rookie coach, who communicated well with his players, many of whom are former teammates, seems to be reaching them.Typically, a &ldquo;checking line&rdquo; of Syl Apps, Bert Wilson, and Mark Heaslip, who went into the Montreal game without a goal among them, broke open the 6-3 game with a pair of fast goals.Playing behind superstar centers Marcel Dionne and Butch Goring, the 31-year-old Apps is a good goal-scorer and superior playmaker who has had to adjust to playing between wingers who can&rsquo;t complete plays. His best talents are wasted, but he is contributing other things.Wilson, a 29-year-old left-winger, who has averaged less than five goals in four previous seasons in the majors, is a hard-hitting, hustling fellow who has hung on in the majors and on this team simply because he works harder than players of greater talents.So, too, Heaslip, who is 27 and has averaged three goals in parts of two previous seasons in the majors. Like Wilson, he is a hard-hitting, hustling fellow who spent his early career in the minors and hopes to hang on in the majors and on this team by working harder than the next guy.They are not a line, as such. In any given game they may wind up on other lines or on the bench. Heaslip had not played for four games prior to Montreal. He or the others may be sent down or traded at any time. They live insecure lives from day to day, game to game.But they are typical of the unselfish, sacrificing fellows Berry wants in support of his superstars so his system will work.Heaslip is a fascinating fellow. He is bright and outgoing. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he admits he went to the University of Minnesota at Duluth to play hockey and escape the Vietnamese war more than to study Political Science and figures he&rsquo;ll have to go back to college and apply his credits to another subject if he wants something for his later life.Drafted by the Kings in 1973, he did not play for them before he was traded to the Rangers in May of 1976. When his contract expired, the Rangers turned him loose and the Kings signed him last summer.He has played pro six seasons, mostly at Springfield and New Haven of the American League and Fort Worth and Oklahoma City of the Central League. He played 48 games for Rangers in the National League.He was called up by the Rangers last season on the same day he got a call from his father-in-law telling Mark his house in his home town had burned down.He played for Team USA two years ago in Vienna, but had to pass up play in Prague last summer to supervise the rebuilding of his home.Wife Barbara has served as foreman of the construction gang lately, delaying her reunion with Mark at a home to be found in southern California. &ldquo;Oh, boy, have I been lonely,&rdquo; admits the youngster, who lived in a hotel for two months before moving in with teammates.Normally, his wife prefers standing glass and doing macrame to construction work. Married in April of 1972, she and Mark have no children, but do have an eight-year-old, 45-pound Husky-Wolf and a seven-year-old, 85-pound German Shepard-Wolf.&ldquo;I bought them in moments of weakness and I love them, but they&rsquo;re a bundle to deal with and I doubt I&rsquo;d do it again,&rdquo; he grins. &ldquo;Everyone loves them and they&rsquo;re tame, but they&rsquo;re aloof.&rdquo; Luckily.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011021/4039786-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="551" height="587"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARK HEASLIP&hellip;Insecure Life</figcaption></div>At five-foot-10 and 205-pounds, Heaslip is the heaviest King and has a problem with weight, but sweated off six pounds in the contest with Canadiens.He says, &ldquo;I wish I was a better scorer, but I&rsquo;m satisfied to contribute to a team other ways as long as the team is satisfied with me.&rdquo;The kind of young man he is, he was chosen to captain both the Fort Worth team and Springfield&rsquo;s Calder Cup Kings of 1975.He says, &ldquo;All I care about is winning games. I do what I can do. I thought I did well for Rangers last season. Phil Esposito said I made him a &ldquo;plus&rdquo; player. I guess they thought I didn&rsquo;t do enough.&ldquo;I hope the Kings do. Heck, I root like heck for the team from the bench if that&rsquo;s all I have to do.&rdquo;Berry says, &ldquo;He is the kind of player who can come off the bench and do a defensive job or checking job for you. I&rsquo;d like to keep him if I can.&rdquo;Heaslip says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to stay. We&rsquo;d like to settle down. All we ask is room for our wolves to roam.&rdquo;The Kings beat Bunny Larocque, Montreal goaler, for the first time in 16 lifetime efforts. The crowd of 10,292 though second largest of the season, was the smallest for Canadiens&rsquo; visits in five years&hellip;After 4-1 and 4-2 wins in Chicago and St. Louis, Ron Grahame had given up only four goals in three games&hellip;Tommy Williams was sidelinec with hand burns suffered in a grease fire in his kitchen&hellip;One of the Forum&rsquo; NHL officials, Dennis Roy, quit. &#9632;

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Heaslip A Typical Hustling Player Who Fits Well Into Berry’s System

<div class="byline">Bill Fleischman&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011041/4039817-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="241" height="428"></div><h2>Hockey Greats Retire</h2>THE SEASON IS ONLY one-quarter old, but so much has i happened&hellip; IlLeading the list of developments are the retirements of Bobby Orr and Bobby Hull. The odds on two of hockey&rsquo;s greatest players I retiring with in a week of each other were so remote that even Jimmie the Greek wouldn&rsquo;t place a wager&mdash;even if he knew who Orr and Hull were.The odds on finding players with the talent, charisma and longevity to replace Orr and Hull are also remote. There are still great players (and people) in hockey&mdash;the names Lafleur, Clarke, Trottier, Potvin, Sittier, McDonald, Robinson, Dryden and Dionne come quickly to mind&mdash;but Orr and Hull were magic. People who know nothing about hockey&mdash;a figure that is still too large&mdash;could identify Bobby Orr and Bobby Hull. I&rsquo;m told that the Atlanta Flames have trouble selling tickets for Guy Lafleur and the Montreal Canadiens. But when Orr was coming to town, the Dixiecrats were excited.Personal problems seem to be a primary reason for Hull bowing out as a player. Sadly, the extra time he spent as one of hockey&rsquo;s greatest good-will ambassadors took away valuable time from his family. Hopefully, these problems can be resolved and the man who has been called Chicago&rsquo;s most exciting athlete will continue his important association with hockey. g<h2>Another Class Person</h2>AFTER FINALLY ADMITTING his scarred knees can no longer absorb hockey&rsquo;s grind, Orr ironically remains with Hull&rsquo;s former team. Fortunately, Orr seems content in his new role as assistant coach, scout and public-relations man. That Orr, who as a player was considered shy and a &ldquo;bad talker, is happy and effective&mdash;working in press and public relations is a pleasant surprise. Nearly every one in hockey, except Black Hawks management, a knows this is a club that desperately needs to make friends and attract fans.Another retirement from hockey is Joe Watson&rsquo;s. Watson wasn&rsquo;t in Orr or Hull&rsquo;s class as a player, but he is as a person.The veteran defenseman&rsquo;s career ended in a bizarre way&mdash;an apparently harmless check by super St. Louis rookie Wayne Babych sent an off-balance Watson tumbling into the boards. Watson, whose skate caught in the St. Louis ice as he was turning, suffered a bone-shattering compound fracture above his right knee which will leave him in traction for at least two months.Watson and his Colorado teammates partially blame the Rockies&rsquo; gruelling schedule for the injury.&ldquo;The guys are all tired,&rdquo; Watson said. &ldquo;This was the sorst schedule I&rsquo;ve ever seen&mdash;I think all but five of our first 25 games were on the road.&rdquo;<h2>Unforgettable Moment</h2>ONE OF COLORADO&rsquo;S road games was in Philadelphia a week before Watson&rsquo;s career-ending injury. Midway in the first period, one of the most touching scenes I&rsquo;ve ever witnessed in sports occurred. With Watson on the ice prior to a face-off, the Spectrum fans glanced up to see this message on the scoreboard: &ldquo;Joe Watson, No. 2, captain of the Colorado Rockies.&rdquo; Remembering his 11 seasons with the Flyers, the fans&rsquo; reaction grew from applause to a sincere, lengthy standing ovation. Down on the ice, the sentimental Watson wiped away tears with his gloves.At least Joe Watson had that one deserved unforgettable moment before his career ended.Ted Lindsay&rsquo;s demand for a lifetime suspension following Wilf Paiement&rsquo;s high-sticking Dennis Polonich in the face caused some knowing frowns around the league. No one likes to see a player as badly injured as Polonich was, and a suspension was certainly in order. But Polonich hasn&rsquo;t exactly been a Lady Byng candidate. One of hockey&rsquo;s axioms is he who lives by the stick eventually gets whacked in return, or something like that.One of the warmest stories of this or any season was Cindy Cherry, the 21-year-old daughter of Rose and Don Cherry, donating her kidney to her brother. Tim, 15, and Cindy are doing fine. It is stories like this that make games seem unimportant. &#9632;

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HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02880/4039848-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="287" height="343"><figcaption class="caption-body">THOMAS GRADIN&hellip;Combines Skill With Hard Work</figcaption></div>The most pleasant surprise for the Vancouver Canucks this season has been Thomas Gradin, the Swedish center it appears they have stolen from the Chicago Black Hawks.The 23-year-old blond has been the man between Curt Fraser and Stan Smyl on Vancouver&rsquo;s rookie line, the most productive on the team. He&rsquo;s so classy, he seems to transend the North American image of a hockey player. Mild-mannered on and off the ice, he gets by with skill and hard work rather than muscle. He is a graduate of a Swedish University, and when he speaks, it&rsquo;s obvious that the qualifications for a physical education degree over in Europe must be radically different from those in North America, where a university degree might mean only that the 1.Q. has risen above 50.Many observers, including Hawks&rsquo; scout Bobby Orr, felt he might be a little small for the NHL. He&rsquo;s five-foot-10, 175-pounds, but that frame is in tremendous condition. He has already taken some stiff jolts in the league and has stood up to them all. And a recent brawl in Minnesota showed that the Canucks would prefer other teams in the league refrain from taking cheap shots at the man.Along with Fraser, Gradin is the leading plus-minus player on the squad over the first 17 games, his tremendous ability to forecheck turning up many more scoring chances for both himself and his 20-year-old linemates.But the young phys ed instructor in the off-season knows he still has a lot to learn, and. he knows he has a lot to contribute here for quite a number of years.&ldquo;What I have noticed in North America is that the game is more direct,&rdquo; says Gradin. &ldquo;The rinks are so small, everyone is shooting every time they get a chance. Also, the game is more intense. You have to work hard every shift or else there is a goal against. In Europe, you can take it easy for a shift or two, and maybe nothing happens.&rdquo;He expresses himself in very polite terms, and his grasp of English often leads to some perceptive remarks. When asked about his adjustment to the league, he came back with &lsquo;just what is adjustment.&rsquo; He had hit the nail directly on the head. The man Canucks acquired for a second round draft choice appears to have made the adjustment from the Swedish National team to the NHL without the slightest difficulty. When the word was later explained, he talked a little about the physical aspects.&ldquo;I can take a bodycheck, but I must learn how to give them a little better,&rdquo; he explained, after the team had just beaten the Philadelphia Flyers. The night before Gradin had seemingly had something going with Islanders&rsquo; Bryan Trottier.The biggest difference he has noticed in the players here is that they tend to put work before thought.&ldquo;Here, often you see players working, working all the time but without thinking about what they are doing first. In Europe, maybe it is a bit the other way. Players are trying to make too many passes where here they just shoot. The best is to have balance between work and thought.&rdquo; Gradin has been a lifesaver particularly in light of the fact that the team&rsquo;s No. one draft choice Bill Derlago from the Brandon Wheat Kings has been such a disappointment at center. He came to camp over 200 pounds or about 12 pounds overweight, and never really got into form. Coach Harry Neale, with Pit Martin, Chris Oddleifson and Roland Eriksson playing along with Gradin, found Derlago expendable temporarily, and sent the rookie for some seasoning in Dallas.Gradin has eight goals in his first 16 games, a pace which may slacken with his regular right winger Stan Smyl being out of the lineup for a month with a badly bruised collar bone.But Smyl isn&rsquo;t the only hurt, as Randy Holt has missed much of&rsquo; the season to date with a series of injuries, the latest of which has been a bruised shoulder.But Neale is not blaming injuries on the team&rsquo;s spotty start, particularly the string of six straight losses at home.&ldquo;Sure we&rsquo;ve had injuries, but so have all the other teams so you can&rsquo;t use that as an excuse,&rdquo; said Neale. &ldquo;I think we haven&rsquo;t let the people who pay to see us play know it yet. Of the three best games we&rsquo;ve played, I suppose they have come on the road. I don&rsquo;t know whether it&rsquo;s the pressure of playing at home or what, but it&rsquo;s something that has got to change..&rdquo; &#9632;

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Classy Gradin Centering Canucks’ Productive Line

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011000/4039879-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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WE HAVE ALL KINDS OF GREAT BOOKS ON HAND FOR GIFT GIVING. SELECT YOUR BOOKS NOW WHILE THEY LAST

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011022/4039931-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02846/4039924-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="439" height="356"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photos by Bemie Moser</figcaption></div><h2>Flyers Unveil New Mascot</h2>The Philadelphia Flyers, taking a cue from their crosstown allies, the baseball Phillies, introduced a new mascot they&rsquo;ve nicknamed &lsquo;Slap-Shot&rsquo;, who will be seen at all NHL games in the Spectrum. To give the launching ceremony a proper start, lovely members of the team&rsquo;s Flyerettes were on hand to pose with the furry character as he was introduced to the media.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03631/4039917-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="437" height="373"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photos by Bruce Bennett</figcaption></div><h2>New Faces On The Hockey Front</h2>The coaching turmoil that has beset the NHL in recent years has continued this season. Already three new faces have surfaced behind league benches. Here are two of the recent change overs. In top photo, Glen Sonmor has replaced Harry Howell with Minnesota North Stars. Below is Danny Belisle, who succeeded Tommy McVie with Washington. It was first NHL coaching role for both men.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04440/4039910-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="287" height="366"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce Bennett</figcaption></div><h2>Interested Fan</h2>Pro tennis star Vitas Geruliatis likes to get away from the court grind and finds attending Ranger hockey games at Madison Square Garden a source of relaxation for him between world tennis tournaments. Here&rsquo;s the American-born Geruliatis, in center, watching the Rangers and North Stars with some friends. &#9632;

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HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="byline">BY AL SMITH</div>ATLANTA&mdash;Dan Bouchard slammed his stick against the goalpost, murmured a few unprintables and then took up his customary position in front of the Atlanta Flames&rsquo;goal.Seconds before, the Vai D&rsquo;Or native had skated far out of the crease, took the puck off the boards, passed in back of his net right on the stick of a New York Ranger forward, scurried to get back in the net, and then watched helplessly as Phil Esposito scored into an almost empty net.&ldquo;The Wanderer&rdquo; had been burned again. It wasn&rsquo;t the last time he wandered, but it was the last time he was burned. Bouchard was brilliant in stopping 18 shots in the first period and 30 in the game as the Flames won an important 3-1 Patrick Division contest.Atlanta fans have become accustomed to Bouchard&rsquo;s wandering ways, in fact they have even accepted it. There was a time they didn&rsquo;t, but the outspoken French-Canadian has won them over. He has proven his point.He has the statistics to back him up. With his wandering style, Bouchard has become one of the premiere goalies in the National Hockey League.In the final 25 games of last season and the first 19 of the 1978-79 season, Bouchard has posted a fantastic 28-610 record. Over that span he has a 2.55 goals against average.&ldquo;Playing with an expansion team made me a better goalie,&rdquo; Bouchard says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve (Flames) all improved together. Slowly, but surely we got better. Now we have confidence in each other and are attracting some attention.&rdquo;A lot of the attention has gone Bouchard&rsquo;s way. And with the added attention, there&rsquo;s added pressure.&ldquo;Sure, there&rsquo;s more pressure,&rdquo; Bouchard said. &ldquo;During our winning streak there was more pressure on everyone and we were all feeling it, but it was fun&mdash;winning is fun.&rdquo;During the Flames&rsquo; 10-game winning streak and 12 without a loss, Bouchard played every game and admits it got to him.&ldquo;A team can&rsquo;t afford to have a goalie that&rsquo;s not ready, physically and mentally,&rdquo; Bouchard said. &ldquo;And you can&rsquo;t be ready all the time. I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a goalie who can play 70 games and stay sharp.&ldquo;I know I can&rsquo;t. During the time I was playing every game, Fred (Flames&rsquo; coach Creighton), gave me a couple of days off. I didn&rsquo;t even go near the rink and it really helped. When I practice, I practice hard and it gets tiring and boring. If you don&rsquo;t practice hard you can pick up bad habits. It helps if you&rsquo;re not cramming your brain with hockey all the time.&rdquo;Bouchard, who will be 28 this month, maintains mat me flames success mis season has come from better communications&mdash;on and off the ice.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking before, after and during games like we never have before,&rdquo; Bouchard said. &ldquo;Before it seemed we were insecure, but now we talk things over even during the game.&rdquo;But, Bouchard says, the biggest reason the Flames have been leading the Patrick Division since the start of the season is togetherness.&ldquo;Everybody is loose and there&rsquo;s no jealously or selfishness,&rdquo; Bouchard said. &ldquo;We have all the ingredients for a good team and we all know it. Jean Pronovost and Rod Seiling have helped a lot. They&rsquo;re veterans and a little older and can be a steadying influence on a young team like ours.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01983/4039962-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="372" height="600"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAN BOUCHARD&hellip;Impressive Statistics</figcaption></div>And speaking of steady, Bouchard has been more than steady through the early stages of &lsquo;78-79. He says he felt no added pressure when the season started even though it was a new experience for him. For the first time since he came to the Flames in the &lsquo;72-73 expansion draft, Bouchard went into the season as the team&rsquo;s No.1 goalie.In past years, he shared the goaltending duties with Phil Myre, who was traded to St. Louis last December.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not good to have guys competing for the goaltending job,&rdquo; Bouchard said. &ldquo;The defense has to learn to adjust to different styles and sometimes this gives them trouble.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m quite happy with the way things have gone, but I know I&rsquo;ll need some rest when we get into the middle of the season. And I know Yves (Belanger) is a good goalie and he&rsquo;ll be there when he&rsquo;s needed.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Wandering Goaler Wins Dixie Fans

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02792/4039993-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="469" height="532"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE LOGAN&hellip;Worried By Hawks</figcaption></div>CHICAGO&mdash;You need more than strong arms and strong legs to play hockey, which is why Dave Logan questions another vital part of the Black Hawks&rsquo; anatomy.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very worried about our team,&rdquo; the defenseman said. &ldquo;It seems that we just don&rsquo;t have much heart sometimes. Not enough desire. It&rsquo;s one thing to lose, and it&rsquo;s another thing to lose without caring and too often we&rsquo;re like that.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been blown out by four teams already and it&rsquo;s not even December. We were terrible in Detroit, in Atlanta, in New York against the Rangers and in Colorado. That shouldn&rsquo;t happen.&ldquo;Then we have our excellent games, which makes it all the more frustrating. If you can be ready some nights, why can&rsquo;t you be ready all nights? Maybe some of us are too secure on this team, too comfortable.&ldquo;The Black Hawks&rsquo; organization hasn&rsquo;t been one to make too many shakeups in the last few years and maybe some of us feel that we have a job no matter what. It can be just like any other part of life. You can do just enough to get by or you can do a little extra and take a little punishment.&ldquo;Maybe what we need is to make a few changes just for the sake of making changes. A couple of new faces might help us. I&rsquo;d like to think the personality of this team will change, but after watching it for the last year or so, maybe it would be best for a few of the personalities to change.&rdquo;Logan, who admittedly has more heart than horsepower, spoke through gritted teeth. He lost one cap and gained several stitches in his upper lid during two fights Nov. 15 at Philadelphia, a game the Black Hawks happened to win. They beat the Flyers 4-3 while Logan was standing up to counted.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s my job, and I know it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect Ivan Boldirev to get into fights. His job is to score goals.But some of our other guys have to be, tough, and aren&rsquo;t always. I don&rsquo;t mean fighting all the time, either. I mean just be tough.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Logan Questions Why Hawks’ Heart Isn’t Consistent

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NHL POINT SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The North Stars kept saying they were going to get belter. General manager Lou Nanne said it. Coach Harry Howell said it and&hellip;so on down the chain of command.It took some time for the North Stars to back up those promises. But they did start getting belter.Goalie Gilles Meloche was one giant reason. In a six-game span, Meloche turned in a brilliant 1.67 average to lower his season mark to 2.65 while the North Stars were winning four of those six contests.The defense was playing extremely well, led by Gary Sargent and Greg Smith.And No. 1 draft choice Bobby Smith exploded out of his slow start with game-winning goals against the New York Rangers and Vancouver in back-to-back games in early November.&ldquo;This team is going to be more of a factor in the Adams Division than some people give it credit for,&rdquo; observed chief scout turned coach Glen Sonmor, who guided the team four games before turning the bench back to Howell on completion of medical tests, and then switched jobs with Howell after a one-sided loss in Buffalo.The North Stars got better in another, very important category than those mentioned above.It seems the Stars rediscovered a missing art (missing in Minnesota anyway). The art of killing time.Murray Oliver, assistant coach of the Stars, should take some of the credit for reducing the number of power plays scored on the team. The Stars, early in November, were ranked No. 2 in the National Hockey League in penalty killing. They had a success ratio of 85 percent, second only to Adams Division foe Buffalo&rsquo;s 89.6.Serving as penalty killing aces have been Tom Younghans, Kent Andersson, Mike Polich, Ron Zanussi and Ole Brasar.&ldquo;Until L.A. scored on the power play against us,&rdquo; Oliver was saying, &ldquo;we had successfully killed off 20 straight penalties over eight games. Not too bad, right? No, we don&rsquo;t practice penalty killing that much on a regular basis. We do discuss a lot of the things you have to do to make is successful.&ldquo;The important thing is to break up the other team&rsquo;s continuity. It&rsquo;s just like kid hockey&mdash;the more you get the other team to pass the puck the more liable they are to make a mistake. You want to foul them up in their own zone before they get started. It&rsquo;s important to have the defense blocking shots, too, but the key is how the forwards play. They&rsquo;re the ones who should disrupt the play.&rdquo;Oliver should know all the subtleties of penalty killing. He was an expert at it during his 16-year NHL career, which concluded after five seasons in Minnesota in 1974-75.Andersson, the second-year winger from Sweden, and Younghans, a third-year man who is playing more now than ever, have been the first players out when a North Star heads to the penalty box with Polich, Zanussi and Brassar switching off in relief.Minnesota&rsquo;s overall goals-against average is the biggest improvement shown in the merger with the Cleveland franchise. The North Stars had a 3.36 goals-against team average their first 14 games. The 1977-78 North Stars were worst in the NHL at 4.06.Part of the reason was lack of consistency in killing penalties. They let in 61 power play goals. Should the North Stars continue to frustrate opposing power plays at the current rate, they would end up with 34 PPGs against.STAR DUST: Meloche was given a week off after suffering a strained tendon during a 3-2 victory in Vancouver&hellip;Minnesota&rsquo;s worst performance of the season came in its sixth game of an eight-day span, an 8-1 shellacking by the Los Angeles Kings. &#9632;

North Stars Gradually Showing Improvement

MONTREAL&mdash;The New York Islanders, with a 10-game undefeated streak and the National Hockey League&rsquo;s best home record, have moved to within one point of Patrick Division-leading Atlanta Flames, who have played three games more.Islanders, the only team not to lose a home game this season, have posted an enviable record at Nassau Coliseum over their last 32 regular-season home dates. During that time, dating back to Jan. 3 of last season, Islanders have suffered only one defeat&mdash;against Atlanta, Mar. 18&mdash;while winning 25 and tying six others. They have outscored their opponents 48-24 at home this season and over the last 32 regular-season games they have outscored their opposition 154-81.The Islanders&rsquo; undefeated streak of 10 games is within one of the club record 11 set during 1975-76 and they are also within one game of the club record six-game winning streak set last season. During the 10-game streak, Islanders have outscored the opposition 48-18 while winning nine games and tying the other.Islanders also lead the NHL in power-play efficiency; fewest losses with three; and have scored an average of 4.65 goals-per-game. Their power-play record of 21 goals during 64 advantages for 32.8 percent is well ahead of second place Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; 27.4 while their 4.65 goals average is slightly better than Atlanta&rsquo;s 4.39. The three losses are one fewer than the four recorded by Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.One individual contributing to Islanders&rsquo; success is Denis Potvin, last year&rsquo;s recipient of the Norris Trophy, voted to the NHL&rsquo;s top defenseman. Potvin, who is sixth in the individual scoring race with 29 points, including 10 goals, has been held pointless in only four of Islanders&rsquo; 20 games this season and has one of the 13 three-goal games scorded this season.Leading the overall individual scoring race are Guy Chouinard and Bob MacMillan of Atlanta Flames, each with 36 points and one ahead of Marcel Dionne of Los Angeles Kings. Dionne, who leads the NHL with 17 goals, is well ahead of the pace he set during 1976-77 when he scored a career-high 53 goals. That season, he didn&rsquo;t score his 17th goal until his 35th game while he has 17 in his first 20 games this season. The two-time Lady Byng Trophy winner has scored at least one goal in eight of his last 10 games and six goals in his last four games, including back-to-back two-goal games over the weekend.Islanders&rsquo; Mike Bossy leads with seven power-play goals and now has 32 such goals of his career 67 goals. &#9632;

NHL WEEK …In Reviews

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01719/4040117-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="406" height="323"></div> &#9632;

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Where NHL Teams Play

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02611/4040148-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="579" height="623"></div> &#9632;

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Team Penalties

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01736/4040179-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="277" height="335"><figcaption class="caption-body">MICHEL PLASSE&hellip;Changed Attitude</figcaption></div>DENVER&mdash;Just when the Colorado Rockies thought they were ready to resume a tough early-season National Hockey League schedule at relatively full strength, strange things continued to belabor the troubled club.Such as:&mdash; Wilf Paiement&rsquo;s indefinite suspension being for 15 games, instead of shorter as both Paiement and the Rockies expected. Paiement quickly blamed the Canadian press for his long suspension after acknowledging that he was wrong in his actions.&mdash;Defenseman and team captain Joe Watson crashing into the boards in St. Louis and breaking his right leg in 13 places, knocking him out of action for the season. General manager Ray Miron quickly acquired veteran defenseman, Don Awrey, from the New York Rangers, and later added Nick Beverley from the Minnesota North Stars.While neither of those two (Paiement&rsquo;s suspension and Watson&rsquo;s injury) in any way helped the team, there were a couple of other signs of encouragement.One was the return of tempermental goalie Michel Plasse to the roster after a stint in Philadelphia of the American Hockey League. And another was the return of first-round draft choice Mike Gillis to the ice to resume skating after being sidelined since the first week of training camp following knee surgery.Paiement&rsquo;s suspension has been the main item of interest around the Mile High City, both with the club and the populace.There isn&rsquo;t one soul who condones Paiement&rsquo;s retaliation in any way, but the point remains that Polonich initiated the action by cross-checking the Rocky right winger in the face after following through with a pass. Polonich claimed he was merely following through on the pass.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re using the Colorado Rockies as a scapegoat and making an example of our hockey club,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;Other people have done worse things in the past and have gotten three or five-game suspensions. When you make a pass there&rsquo;s no way you can follow through that high. If that&rsquo;s the case, there&rsquo;d be a lot of guys injured.&ldquo;Wilf is six-foot-one and probably six-foot-four on skates. Polonich is five-foot-nothing. If he can follow through that high on a pass, the NHL is going to have a lot of problems,&rdquo; Kelly said.&ldquo;I admit it was a bad thing to retaliate with my stick the way I did,&rdquo; the 23-year-old Paiement said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll learn from it. I guarantee you.&ldquo;But either the NHL is mad at me and Team Canada over what happened to me in Vienna two years ago or something. But they should consider Polonich. He&rsquo;s had over 250 minutes of penalties every year he&rsquo;s been in hockey.&ldquo;Maybe they&rsquo;re trying to cut violence completely. I got the blame. He didn&rsquo;t get anything. The league can&rsquo;t be thinking too much of the Colorado Rockies if they suspended me for 15 games which is one of the longest suspensions in history (Dave) Forbes only got 10 games when he amost blinded (Henry) Boucha with his stick and ended his career,&rdquo; Paiement said.&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, the press in Canada called that shot (the suspension). It wasn&rsquo;t Brian O&rsquo;Neill or Mr. (John) Ziegler. That&rsquo;s the way I feel,&rdquo; Paiement concluded.Watson&rsquo;s injury was another crushing blow and the fourth major injury the Rockies have sustained. &ldquo;Sixteen games into the season and we&rsquo;ve got four players out with major injuries,&rdquo; general manager Ray Miron said in disbelief. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s going to happen next?&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to miss him,&rdquo; Miron said of Watson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the greatest competitors I&rsquo;ve ever been around. Joe rubbed a few players the wrong way because he couldn&rsquo;t stand players not putting out all the time they were on the ice.&rdquo;The Rockies quickly purchased Awrey from the Rangers and the traveled veteran played extremely well in his first two games with the club.Plasse, who reported to training camp out of shape and with a bad attitude, was recalled from the Firebirds and his outlook was refreshing for a change. &ldquo;I clean up my act. I change my act. I change my attitude. I&rsquo;m just coming in. here and play my game. They pay me and I&rsquo;m part of the team,&rdquo; Plasse said after a 37-save effort, in a 2-2 tie against Philadelphia.Gillis, the Rockies&rsquo; No. 1 draft choice from Kingston, had his cast removed and began skating again, hopeful of rejoining the team by the first of January. &#9632;

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Signs Of Encouragment Appear In Colorado

LOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S and CanadaLOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03443/4040210-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="256" height="669"></div> &#9632;

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Looking At NHL Goalers

Sometimes when you least expect it, a sudden break helps to get your team turned around. Last week for the Chicago Black Hawks, in the midst of a not-too successful road trip, it was Darcy Rota who unexpectedly became their offensive leader.Rota entered the week with only one goal but scored single markers in a 4-3 loss to Los Angeles and a 5-2 setback in Vancouver before erupting for his third NHL hat trick in a stunning 8-3 upset of the Montreal Canadiens.After falling behind 3-1 in the second period, the Hawks waged a furious comeback keyed by a Rota goal in the middle frame which tied the contest and a pair of goals by Rota in the final, stanza just 40 seconds apart which closed out the scoring.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02590/4040241-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="254" height="355"><figcaption class="caption-body">DARCY ROTA&hellip;Chicago Black Hawks</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL’S… Player of the Week

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Call him the forgotten man.Mike Corrigan was off to one of the best starts of his National Hockey League career last season for the Pittsburgh Penguins when he broke his ankle in Buffalo against the Sabres.&ldquo;It was nothing dirty,&rdquo; Corrigan remembers. &ldquo;I was forechecking Andre Savard around the red line near the right hand boards. There was a scramble for the puck, and I was off balance. Jerry Korab came into the play and checked me. I fell over Savard&rsquo;s knees, and only one of my skates moved. One stayed on the ice. The one that stuck to the ice, that&rsquo;s the ankle that broke. The players on the bench could hear it crack all the way across the ice.&rdquo;Corrigan is the only player in NHL history to score 20 or more goals in a season from all three forward positions. He had tallied eight goals and 12 assists in 25 games last year before the injury which may have ended his playing career.&ldquo;The injury occurred December 23, 1977,&rdquo; Corrigan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost a year and I recently had the fourth cast put on my ankle.&ldquo;The night it happened, they put a cast on it in Buffalo, but they didn&rsquo;t want to set it. They wanted the team doctor in Pittsburgh to look at it first. The Pittsburgh doctors decided to operate on it a few days later, so I could spend Christmas at home with my family.&rdquo;Corrigan was scheduled to have the cast removed in February, and held a slim hope he could rejoin the Penguins before the season ended.&ldquo;When they took the cast off in February,&rdquo; said Corrigan, &ldquo;I had all kinds of trouble with it. I underwent surgery again in mid-March, and this time the doctor put in a plate and five screws. It seems the ligaments outside the anklebone were all stretched and torn. It took 60-70 stitches during surgery to hold the plate and screws in place around the ankle bone. Tendinitis had also developed.&ldquo;When I started to work out on it in June, after the second cast had been removed, I had a lot of fluid built up on the ankle. This went on through July, and by August, I couldn&rsquo;t get a skate over it. The Pittsburgh club doctor told me to lay off the hard workouts.&rdquo;By that time Corrigan was pretty discouraged, and with the start of training camp a month away, he was still without an NHL contract. Mike had been injured during the option year of his contract which he signed with the Los Angeles Kings before being traded to the Penguins.Corrigan was traded to Pittsburgh at the start of the 1976-77 season after a contract dispute with Los Angeles owner Jack Kent Cooke. Mike had won an arbitration settlement over his contract from the Kings, and was punished by being sent to the minors. After only two games at Fort Worth of the Central Hockey League, he was sent to Pittsburgh in exchange for a fifth round draft choice.&ldquo;I had been talking contract with the Penguins,&rdquo; Corrigan recalled. &ldquo;But, when the injury occurred, and with the slow healing process, I became a free agent.&ldquo;When I had a third cast put on the ankle in September, I knew I wouldn&rsquo;t be going to anybody&rsquo;s training camp.It has been rumored Corrigan was negotiating with Chicago Black Hawks general manager and coach Bob Pulford before it was determined Mike wouldn&rsquo;t be able to make it to a training camp. Corrigan scored 37 goals in 1972-73 with Pulford as his coach in L. A.&ldquo;I had the fourth cast put on in early November,&rdquo; Corrigan said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it. No more casts. The doctor has got to make a decision whether he thinks I&rsquo;ll ever play again. The cast is scheduled to come off after five weeks, and that&rsquo;ll be a year since the original break.&ldquo;If my playing career is over, I won&rsquo;t be discouraged. The thing that bothers me now is I have too much time on my hands. I never dreamed when it happened it would be this bad. I said to myself I&rsquo;d be ready to go in September.&ldquo;This has been one of the down times in my life. But, my family has stuck by me, and been great through all of what&rsquo;s happened. I&rsquo;ve adjusted, and there will be better times ahead.&rdquo;If Corrigan, 32, has seen his playing days come to an end, he would like to stay in hockey in some capacity.&ldquo;Hockey is in my blood,&rdquo; said Corrigan. &ldquo;I miss being with the guys. I miss being in the dressing room.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to go into scouting or possibly coaching. I plan to talk to the Penguin management about becoming a scout. I think they could use some help scouting. If I don&rsquo;t go into scouting, I would like to coach junior players before they turn professional.&rdquo;For Corrigan, a nice guy who has had more than his share of bad breaks recently, staying in hockey would be a<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01705/4040272-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="274" height="521"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce BennettMIKE CORRIGAN&hellip;One Year Absence</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Decision On Corrigan’s Future Coming Soon

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01546/4040303-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY PICTORIAL

<div class="byline">BY DICK FLOYD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01389/4040341-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="391" height="529"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY WHITLOCK&hellip;Goal A Game Pace</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02257/4040334-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="364" height="557"><figcaption class="caption-body">BERNIE LUKOWICH&hellip;Cranbrook Veteran</figcaption></div>CRANBROOK&mdash;Right now, the Cranbrook Royals are probably the happiest team playing less than .500 hockey in North America.From a club that gave last year&rsquo;s Allen Cup champion Kimberley Dynamiters their toughest playoff opposition, the Cranbrook squad tumbled to a dismal basement lodging through the first 10 games of their 1978-79 regular schedule. The Royals had managed just three wins in the 10 outings, and compiled the worst offensive record in the Western International Hockey League.However, much to the relief of fans and club officials alike, the Cranbrook team appears to have finally found its footing, winning all three of their contests over the past week.Heading into the Nov. 10th weekend, the Royals were mired in last place tied with the Nelson Maple Leafs, holding a game in hand. With bottom spot as booby prize, the two clubs faced off in a home and home series, and for the first time this season, the Cranbrook squad lived up to potential, downing the Leafs 8-2 in Nelson then returning home to topple the green and white 5-2 the next night.While the pair of wins had to be satisfying for the Cranbrook club, the brightest spot in regular season play to date came when they handed the defending Allen Cup champion Kimberley Dynamiters a 12-5 thrashing before a delighted home crowd. After battling toe to toe for 40 minutes, the Royals broke the game wide open early in the final stanza, firing five unanswered goals past a defenseless Wayne Bell in the Dynamiter net.The contest marked the return of Barry Marcheschuck to Cranbrook&rsquo;s roster for the first time this season. Marcheschuck, the Royals&rsquo; top goal getter in his initial WIHL year, decided to reestablish himself in the senior loop after an extended tryout with the Vancouver Canucks. The flying winger combined with Cranbrook veterans Brian Dickie and Bernie Lukowich for a seven goal evening against the Dynamiters, adding the offensive corner strength lacked by the Cranbrook squad in previous games.The Trail Smoke Eaters continue to surprise everyone with a powerful attack that has them leading the league in goals scored, averaging close to five markers per outing.WIHL statistics show the revitalized West Kootenay club with five players among the league&rsquo;s top six. Led by team captain Bob Whitlock who is setting a goal a game pace (15 goals in 15 games), the Smokies upset Kimberley in the Dynamiters home rink, 7-3 before moving on to Calgary where they split a back to back series with the Stampeders. Right behind Whitlock are teammates Ernie Gare, brother of Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; captain Danny, Del Ian-none, a sophomore Smoke Eater, and Tom Gawyrietz whose tenacious forechecking has netted him 12 goals and nine assists.According to sources in Trail, the dramatic turnabout by the Smokies comes as the direct result of the coaching techniques of rookie leader Harold Jones. Jones has implemented what is being referred to as a Kromm system, in reference to the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; mentor, who Jones played for while on the Smoke Eater roster several seasons ago.In Calgary the Stampeders have managed to hold on to their third place standing by losing just one game during November. The WIHL&rsquo;s newest entry remains tied with the Cranbrook club at 12 points, while holding two games in hand over the Royals. The team&rsquo;s performance is following a pre-season projection by coach Mike Berridge, in which he foresaw a breaking in period for his players, some of whom have been absent from hard hitting hockey for several years.Despite striking new uniforms, the Nelson Maple Leafs continue their tenancy of the league basement, with less than brilliant production. The Leafs have yet to win a game on the road this season, and are on the verge of losing a perrenial home ice invincibility image. Nelson is continuing it&rsquo;s search for scoring talent, and according to team manager Shorty Malako additions to the green and white lineup can be expected at any time.Prior to the start of the regular WIHL schedule Kimberley Dynamiter coach Jim McCrimmon expressed concern over the possibility of his club slumping into an over confident attitude, and with the squad producing just a single win in it&rsquo;s last three outings, coasting may have already become a problem. The acute rivalry that exists between the Kimberley and Cranbrook clubs normally produces some of the best hockey each WIHL season, but with this week&rsquo;s 12-5 trouncing by the Royals, even that incentive appears to have failed to rouse the defending titlists drive. A shuffle could be in the wind to get the league&rsquo;s most powerful team on paper back in the on-ice struggle. &#9632;

f0021-01

Shaky Royals Welcome Sight Of .500 Mark

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04208/4040438-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="259" height="685"></div> &#9632;

f0022-04

The NHL Scoreboard

&hellip;This WeekATLANTA: Lysiak 12, Vail 10,11,12, Chouinard 14,15, Phillipoff 3, MacMillan 14, Lalonde 11.BOSTON: Smith 3,4, Wensink 10, Schmautz 6,7, MMer 0,9, O&rsquo;Reilly 6,7, Marcotte 8, Secord 5, McNab 14, Sims 4, Cashman 4.BUFFALO: Savard 6,7, Robert 4, Perreault 6, Ramsay 6,7, Guevremoni 1, McKegney 3.CHICAGO: Harrison 3, Russell 4, Rota 2,3,4,5,6, Bofatirev 8,9,10, Koroll4, Bulky 5, Marks 9.COLORADO: Contini 5, Owchar 3, Valiquette 6, Beck 3, Pierce 3,4, Paiement 2,3, Klassen 2, Van Boxmeer 2.DETROIT: Leblanc 4,5, Libett 3, McCourt 8, Nedomansky 9, Larson 7, St. Laurent 5.LOS ANGELES: Manery 3, Dionne 12, 13,14,15,16,17, Murdoch 2, Apps 1, Jensen 3, Edestrand 1, Taylor 9.MINNESOTA: B. Smith 4, Sharpley 4, Zanussi 6,7, MacAdam 3.MONTREAL: Lemaire 5,6,7, Robinson 4,5, Lambert 8 Mondou 9, Langway 1, Tremblay 7, Hughes 2, Gainey 3,4, Jarvis3, Lapointe 7.ISLANDERS: Trottier 7,8,9,10, Harris 7, Bossy 12,13,14, Potvin 10, Persson 4, Hart 1, Gillies 7, Henning 4,5, Bourne 9, Merrick 3.RANGERS: Marois 2, Vickers 5,6, Hedberg 6,7,8, Esposito 9, Greschner 6,7, McEwen 6, Johnstone 2, Hickey 9.PHILADELPHIA: Bridgman 5,6, MacLeish 7, Evans 3,4, Dunlop 4, Leach 9,10, Barber 12, Holmgren 5.PITTSBURGH: Lonsberry 5,6,7, Lee 12, Malone 7,8, Sheppard 4, Ferguson 3, Kindrachuk 4.ST. LOUIS: Babych 10, Stewart 1, C. Bennett 6, Smrke 1, Sutter 14,15,16, Federko 9,10, Unger 11,12.TORONTO: Butler 3,4, McKechnie 8, Williams 7,8, Hutchison 2, Boudreau 2,3, Sittier 11,12, Boutette 3,4, Turnbull 2,3, Jones 3, Stamler 1, Salming 2,3.VANCOUVER: Sedlbauer 10,11,12, Fraser 7, Oddleifson 7,8, Derlago 2,3,4, Kearns 3, Ververgaert 5, Gradin 9, Lever 6,7.WASHINGTON: Maruk 3, Rowe 10, Sirois 6,7,8, Bergeron 2,3, Lofthouse 5, Walter 6, Scamurra 2, Girard 8, Edberg 3, Carroil 3,4. &#9632;

NHL’s Scorers

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01426/4040407-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="250" height="728"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02330/4040400-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="725" height="1361"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03271/4040393-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="200" height="469"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03226/4040386-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="627" height="2689"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04176/4040379-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="609" height="387"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-05149/4040372-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="492" height="248"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01400/4040493-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="373" height="386"></div><h2>ATLANTA</h2>GOALYves B&eacute;langerDan BouchardDEFENSEGreg Fox*Brad MarshRichard MulhernPat RlbbleRod SeilingDave ShandCENTERSGene CarrGuy ChouinardTom Lysiak CR. WINGSJohn GouldKen HoustonBobby LalondeBob MacMillanJean PronovostWilli PlettL. WINGSBill ClementHarold PhillipoffEric Vail<h2>BOSTON</h2>GOALGerry CheeversGilles GilbertDEFENSEGary DoakMike MilburyDennis O&rsquo;BrienBrad ParkDick RedmondAl SimsRick SmithCENTERSPeter McNabBob MillerJean RatelieR. WINGSRick MiddletonTerry O&rsquo;ReillyBobby Schmautz*Torn SonginL WINGSWayne Cashman CDon Marcotte*Al SecordJohn Wensink<h2>BUFFALO</h2>GOAL*Randy Ireland* Bob SauveDEFENSERichard DunnLee FogolinJocelyn GuevremontBill HajtJerry Korab*Larry Playfair*Bill StewartCENTERSDon LuceGilles PerreaultAndre SavardDerek SmithR. WINGSDanny Gare CJacques RichardRene RobertRic SeilingL. WINGSRichard MartinTerry MartinGary McAdam*Tony McKegneyCraig Ramsay<h2>CHICAGO</h2>GOALTony EspositoMikeVeisorDEFENSEDoug HicksDave LoganKeigh Magnuson CBob MurrayPhil RussellDoug WilsonCENTERSIvan BoldirevJim HarrisonStan MikitaR. WINGSJ.P. BordeleauCliff KorollGrant MulveyL. WINGSTed BulleyBob Kelly*Reg KenJohn MarksDarcy Rota<h2>COLORADO</h2>GOALBill OleschukMichel PlasseDEFENSEDon AwreyBarry BeckNick BeverleyMike Christie*Michel LachanceDennis OwcharJohn VanBoxmeerCENTERSRey ComeauPaul GardnerClayton PachalNelson PyattJack ValiquetteR. WINGSRon DelormeWilf PaiementRandy PierceL. WINGSJoe ContiniGary CroteauRalph Klassen<h2>DETROIT</h2>GOALJim RuthertordRogie VachonDEFENSEThommie BergmanJean HamelTerry HarperJohn HilworthReed LarsonPerry MillerCENTERS*Roland CloutierDennis Hextali CDale McCourtAndre St. LaurentR. WINGSDan Labraaten*Fern LeblancVaclac NedomanskyDennis PolonlchL. WINGS*Dave HansonNick LibettBill LocheadErrol ThompsonPaul Woods<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2>GOALRon Grahame*Mario LessardGary SimmonsDEFENSEDarryl EdestrandRick HamptonRandy ManeryBob MurdochRob PalmerCENTERSSyl AppsMarcel DionneButch GoringVic VenaskyR. WINGSMark HeaslipGlenn GoldupMike Murphy CL. WINGSDanny GrantSteve JensenDave TaylorBert WilsonMurray Wilson<h2>MINNESOTA</h2>GOALGary EdwardsPete LoPrestiGilles MelocheDEFENSEFred Barrett*Bill ButtersBrad MaxwellBryan MaxwellJim McKennyJean PotvinGary SargentGreg SmithCENTERSBill HogaboamGlen Sharpley*Bob SmithTim YoungR. WINGSKent-Erik AnderssoAl MacAdamTom YoughansRon ZanussiL. WINGSPer-Olov BrasarMike FidlerJean-Paul Parise C*Steve Payne*Mike Polich<h2>MONTREAL</h2>GOALKen DrydenMichel LarocqueDEFENSERick ChartrawBrian EngblomGuy LapointeRod LangwayGilles LupienLarry RobinsonSerge SavardCENTERSDoug JarvisJacques LemairePierre MondouR. WINGSCam Connor*Pat HughesGuy LafleurMario TremblayL. WINGSBob GaineyRejean HouleYvon LambertMark NapierSteve Shutt<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>GOALChico ReschBilly SmithDEFENSEGerry HartDave Lewis*Bob LorimerBert MarshallStefan PerssonDenis PotvinPat PriceCENTERSLome HenningMike KaszyckiWayne MerrickBryan TrottierR. WINGSMike BossyBilly HarrisBob NystromEd WestfallL. WINGSBob BourneClarke Gillies CGarry HowattJohn Tonelli<h2>RANGERS</h2>GOALJohn DavidsonDoug SoetaertWayne ThomasDEFENSEDave FarrishRon GreschnerMike KorneyDave Maloney CMario MaroisMike McEwenCarol VadnaisCENTERSRon DuguayPhil EspositoUlf NilssonWalter TkaczukR. WINGSLucien DeBloisAnders HedbergEddie JohnstonePierre PlanteDean TalafousL. WINGSNick FotiuPat HickeySteve Vickers<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2>GOALBernie ParentWayne StephensonDEFENSEBob DaileyAndr6 DupontRick LaPointeKevin McCarthyJim Watson*Behn WilsonCENTERSMel BridgmanBobby Clarke CBlake Dunlop*Paul EvansR. WINGS*Drew CallanderPaul HolmgrenReggie LeachDon SaleskiL. WINGSBill BarberBarry Dean*Dave HoydaBob KellyRick MacLeish<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2>GOALDenis Herron*Greg MillenDEFENSERuss AndersonTom BladonColin CampbellRandy CarlyleBob ParadiseRon StackhouseDale TallonCENTERSPete MahovlichGreg MaloneGregg SheppardR. WINGSBlair ChapmanGeorge FergusonPeter Lee*Mike MeekerL. WINGSWayne BianchinOrest Kindrachuk CRoss LonsberryDave Schultz<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2>GOALPhil MyreEd StaniowskiDEFENSEBruce AffleckJack BrownschidleBarry Gibbs CLarry GirouxBob HessBob StewartCENTERSBernie FederkoDoug PalazzariLarry PateyGarry Unger CMike WaltonR. WINGS*Wayne BabychRick Bowness*Mike CrombeenJohn SmrkeL. WINGSCurt BennettHarvey BennettInge HammarstromBrian Suttler<h2>TORANTO</h2>GOALPaul HarrisonMike PalmateerDEFENSEDave BurrowsDave HutchisonTrevor JohansenBorje SalmingIan TumbullCENTERSBruce BoudreauJimmy JonesGarry MonahanDarryl Sittier CWalt McKechnie*Ron WilsonR. WINGS*John AndersonJerry ButlerLanny McDonaldL. WINGSPat BoutetteDan MaloneyLome StamlerDave Williams<h2>VANCOUVER</h2>GOALGary Bromley*Glen HanlonDune WilsonDEFENSEJohn GrisdaleRandy HoltDennis Keams*Lars LindgrenJack MclllargeyHarold SnepstsCENTERSRoland Eriksson*Thomas GradinPit MartinChris OddleifsonR. WINGS*Bill DerlagoHilliard Graves*StanSmylDennis VervergaertL. WINGS*Curt FraserJere GillisDon Lever CRon Sedlbauer<h2>WASHINGTON</h2>GOALJim BedardBernie WolfeDEFENSERick GreenGord LaneJack LynchRobert PicardPete Scamurra*Leif SvenssonBryan WatsonCENTERS*Greg CarrollGuy Charron C*Rolf EdbergDennis MarukGerry Meehan*Ryan WalterR. WINGSMichel Bergeron*Mark LofthouseBill RileyTom RoweBob SiroisL. WINGSBob Girard*Paul Mulvey<h2>INJURED PLAYERS</h2>ATLANTAEd KeaBOSTONStan JonathanBUFFALODon EdwardsJim SchoenfeldCOLORADO*Mike GillisMike Kitchen*Paul MessierAndy SpruceDETROITGreg Joly*Brent PetersonLOS ANGELESBrian GlennieTom WilliamsMONTREALYvan Coumoyer CPierre LaroucheDoug RisebroughPHILADELPHIAKen LinsemanJacques CossetteRick KehoeST. LOUISSteve DurbanoTORONTORon EllisWASHINGTON*Tim CoulisYvon Labre &#9632;

f0023-01

NHL Team Rosters C - Captain * Rookie

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01414/4040524-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="525" height="380"></div>The biggest shortcoming with the St. Louis Blues Last season was their lack of scoring punch from their wingers, especially their right wingers. Armed with the third pick in the amateur draft the Blues went after Portland Winter Hawk right winger Wayne Babych who had scored 100 goals and 233 assists in his final two years with the Western Hockey League junior team. And to the Blues&rsquo; delight, Babych has been an instant hit in St. Louis, teaming with two relatively light-scoring forwards Bernie Federko and Brian Sutter to produce one of the NHL&rsquo;s top lines in the first quarter of the season. &#9632;

f0024-01

Blues Add Babych To Bolster Attack

<div class="byline">BY RUSS WHITE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02324/4040555-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="363" height="557"><figcaption class="caption-body">MICHEL BERGERON&hellip;Filled In Well</figcaption></div>WASHINGTON&mdash;At long last the owner of the Washington Capitals has fallen in love with his hockey team. Abe Pollin began what is certainly a fine romance when he took all the Caps to dinner recently.The Caps had played 15 games and were 2-10-3.Pollin told the troops to forget those 15 games, to get a hold of themselves and to get going into a &ldquo;second season.&rdquo;In their next game the Caps scored three goals on their first three shots within three minutes to begin an 8-7 triumph over the Atlanta Flames.&ldquo;Good,&rdquo; said Pollin, who told his plavers he was going to be in Minnesota the next night to see them face the North Stars.This was Pollin&rsquo;s first Caps&rsquo; road game in five years and he enjoyed every second of it as the Caps pulled off a 3-2 victory, their first triumph ever at the Metropolitan Sports Center.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re 2-0,&rdquo; Pollin told coach Danny Belisle.Although the Caps led 2-0 when they faced the New York Islanders at home, they were beaten 4-2. Pollin, however, kept the faith.When the team left for St. Louis, he had his bag packed, too. The Caps had never won two straight games on the road but Pollin was certain this was going to change. He was right, too, as the Caps took the Blues, 4-3.The players were relieved to have their boss behind them, rather than threatening to drop them if they kept losing as they had at the start. Many of the Caps, especially those with the club a few years, have felt that Pollin, who also owns the Washington Bullets, has always been closer to his basketball team and that the hockey players were merely step children.Not so, Pollin was telling them.Tommy Rowe led the Caps&rsquo; charge by scoring five goals in four games. Belisle has Rowe on a line with Bob Sirois and Guy Charron and the three are capable to putting plenty of points on the board. Rowe scored only 13 goals last year but had 10 in 19 games this year, finally getting something out of his game. ExCaps&rsquo; coach Tom McVie insisted all last year, Rowe was the club&rsquo;s top player day-after-day in workouts but failed to come through in games.&ldquo;It worried me,&rdquo; Rowe said. &ldquo;I would stay up to two or three in the morning because I just couldn&rsquo;t figure out why I wasn&rsquo;t scoring and playing better in games. I guess I feared that they would send me out. I just didn&rsquo;t have any confidence.&rdquo;Rowe, from Lynn, Mass., can skate and shoot with the best of players in the NHL and the fans at Capital Center have begun to identify with him. His quick getaway has many thinking he can score 40 goals this year.Michel Bergeron, who did score 32 for Detroit three years ago, has come to the club&rsquo;s rescue last week at St. Louis. Bergeron, at his home in Maryland, was told to take the next flight into St. Louis because. Bill Riley couldn&rsquo;t play after injuring his hip.Bergeron didn&rsquo;t get on the ice until only a few minutes remained in the Caps&rsquo; warmup at the Checkerdome. He assisted on the club&rsquo;s first goal and scored the game winner in the 4-3 decision.&ldquo;We needed Bergeron and he came through,&rdquo; Belisle said. &ldquo;He gave good second effort and showed determination.&rdquo;Belisle continued to alternate goaltenders Jim Bedard and Bernie Wolfe as the Caps tried to climb in the Norris Division standings. &#9632;

f0024-02

Capitals Starting Afresh As Pollin Renews Support

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01352/4040617-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="351" height="386"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN FERGUSON&hellip;Given Free Rein</figcaption></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;In what must rank as one of the supreme ironies of sport, John Ferguson, the man responsible for convincing Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson to leave Winnipeg to join the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League, has been appointed vice president and general manager of the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association.Ferguson, who was replaced as general manager of the Rangers last summer by Fred Shero, signed a five-year contract with the Jets and will be given a free reign with the club according to Jets&rsquo; president Michael Gobuty.&ldquo;We are, in effect, handing Ferguson the key to the club,&rdquo; explained Gobuty. &ldquo;We expect him to make all the day-to-day decisions as well as recommend and handle major trades, acquisitions, management changes and media announcements.&ldquo;It goes without saying that the New York team that is winning and creating excitement with the fans is the team that John Ferguson built,&rdquo; offered Gobuty. &ldquo;We are convinced that he will do the same in Winnipeg.&rdquo;In accepting the Jets&rsquo; job, Ferguson resigned as coach of Team Canada&rsquo;s entry in the December Izvestia Tournament in Moscow, and was replaced by Marshall Johnston, coach of Denver University.Ferguson, who indicated his first priority was to screen his club to determine what actions to take, indicated that Rudy Pilous will remain as executive director of hockey operations for the Jets. &#9632;

f0025-01

Ferguson Hired To Rebuild Jets

LOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaThe Cincinnati Stingers dipped into the Canadian underage signing war this year and came up with a bright young hockey player by the name of Mike Gartner. He is still coveted by the NHL as a future draft choice and while he makes his first stab at pro hockey, it&rsquo;s not hard to see why he&rsquo;d be wanted.The young right winger of the Stingers broke out this past week with a six-goal rampage as Cincinnati fought its way back to the top of the WHA race with New England Whalers.Gartner, who had only four goals in his first 17 games, scored in all four of Cincinnati&rsquo;s games to raise his season total to 10. The 19-year-old rookie was with Niagara Falls of the OHA where he scored 41 times in 64 games last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03176/4040648-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="251" height="353"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE GARTNER&hellip;Cincinnati Stinders</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0025-03

WHA’S— Player of the Week

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02255/4040586-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="540" height="532"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE HUNTER&hellip;First WHA Goal</figcaption></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Edmonton Oilers, who have been struggling to pull themselves together since a rash of injuries early in the season, pulled off a string of three victories in a row at the start of a long home stand to move within reach of lop spot in the World Hockey Association.Coach Glen Sather&rsquo;s patience was being praised in the streets of Edmonton by many of those who criticized him only a few weeks earlier for refusing to react in the face of adversity.Edmonton&rsquo;s tans, who have been waiting since the birth of the WHA for a superstar they could call their own, fell in love with hockey&rsquo;s Super-Urchin, Wayne Gretzky. They gave him much of the credit for the Oilers&rsquo; successes, which were highlighted by a 4-1 triumph over the high-flying Quebec Nordiques, but Gretzky and the other Oilers recognized that the improvement was a product of improved balances which led to greater scoring power.In a 6-3 victory over Cincinnati Stingers, for example, Cowboy (Bill) Flett led the way with two goals and two assists, his highest output of the season. Flett, Gretzky and rookie Dave Hunter struck tor three goals and 10 scoring points that night, including Hunter&rsquo;s first goal as a pro.Against Quebec, Gretzky scored a goal but most of the points were provided by the line of Stan Weir, Blair MacDonald and Brett Callighen. Weir scored his first two goals in the WHA to demonstrate his recovery from a severe finger injury was almost complete, while MacDonald tormented Quebec goaltender Jim Corsi almost all night with high shots before confounding him late in the game with a low drive inside the post on the short side.&ldquo;The game sure looks easy when the puck goes in the net,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;The guys knew all through our bad stretch that it was just a slump.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got too much talent to play bad hockey for long, and we&rsquo;re still not back to where we should be. We&rsquo;re stil hurting with injuries.&rdquo;Ron Chipperfield, whom some consider the most dangerous center tithe WHA, was sidelined for an in definite period with a ruptured hip muscle; defenseman Joe Micheletti went out with an undertermined back injury; right winger Bill Goldsworthy was sidelines with a separated shoulder that was expected to keep him out until February; Pierre Guile had a bad back that prevented him being sent to Dalia of the Central Hockey League to play himself into shape.Sather made no secret of his hope that, if Guite finally reported to Dallas he would be touched with the sanu magic that Hunter ran into.The rookie left winger, an accomplished checker despite his inexperience, moved into position beside Gretzky and Flett and made solid contributions on almost every shilt. It was clear that Hunter&rsquo;s-two weeks in Dallas had restored his confidence.In that regard, his first pro goal helped, too.&ldquo;I was beginning to think I&rsquo;d never score,&rdquo; he said after beating Michel Liut with a high shot. &ldquo;The longer you go. the harder it seems to get.&rdquo;Hunter&rsquo;s progress verified the wisdom of Sather, general manager Larry Gordon and owner Peter Pocklington in going after young talent this season. Sather was told that Ron Carter was starting to play well in Dallas and that defenseman Cal Sandbeck was smoothing out rough spots in his play.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been fortunate that we&rsquo;ve had good players available to help carry us over the rough spots,&rdquo; said Sather. He had high praise for Steve Carlson and Jim Neilson, who filled in alter injuries struck. To help fill the gap, the Oilers also signed veteran forward Ace Bailey.&ldquo;Those guys are pros,&rdquo; said the coach. &ldquo;They do the job they&rsquo;re supposed to do. I can&rsquo;t ask more than that.&rdquo;Fans at Edmonton&rsquo;s 6-2 victory over Indianapolis were treated to an unusual sight. Police invaded the Racers bench to arrest winger Bruce Greig after the hard-working forward failed to answer a summons issued against him two years ago following a dispute with a fan at the Coliseum.Some observers were incensed at the fact the police didn&rsquo;t at least wait until after the game, when they could have collared Greig with no trouble. The incident occurred with 2:46 left on the clock in the third period and the police pushed Indy coach Pat Stapleton out of the way to get to Greig.Edmonton general manager Larry Gordon was less distrubed than some others. &ldquo;I guess it proved they&rsquo;ve got rookies on the police force, too,&rdquo; said Gordon.His response struck a chord with police chief Robert Lunney, who called the Oilers office the following day to apologize for the actions of his men and to express gratitude for Gordon&rsquo;s approach. &ldquo;That took a lot of class, calling the way he did,&rdquo; said Gordon.OILER SPILLS: Defenseman Rudy Tajcnar, a former member of the Czechoslovalian national team who played for Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League last season, joined the Oilers on a 10-game trial. He was not in top shape at first, but Sather said he would work with the 30-year-old veteran, whose bulky 230 pounds could help clear the front of the net. Goaltender Ed Mio, obtained with Gretzky and Peter Driscoll from Indianapolis Racers in hockey&rsquo;s biggest transaction this season, was shaken up in a goalmouth collision and veteran Dave Dryden played brilliantly in his absence. Jim Mayer was returned to Dallas after being used sparingly in a stint with the Oilers after Goldsworthy was hurt. Sather was wailing for Dennis Sobchuk to reach the form expected of him. Sobchuk moved from right wing to center when Mayer was shipped out. Quietly, rookie Doug Berry has become a big asset at center&hellip;Ed Walsh, Edmonton&rsquo;s third goaltender, was working hard at practice and waiting for a chance to play. Sather admitted he was pleased with Walsh&rsquo;s attitude, &ldquo;but the other guys (Dryden and Mio) have been super.&rdquo; Defenseman Dave Langevin finally scored against Indianapolis for his first goal of the season. &#9632;

f0025-02

Oilers’ Streak Aided By Balanced Scoring

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01364/4040700-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="639" height="1805"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02290/4040693-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="495" height="382"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03248/4040686-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="389" height="2253"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04193/4040679-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="763" height="326"></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

WORLD HOCKEY ASSN. SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05157/4040731-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="803" height="453"></div> &#9632;

f0026-05

Where WHA Teams Play

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06126/4040762-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="437" height="549"></div> &#9632;

f0026-06

The WHA Scoreboard

&hellip;This WeekBIRMINGHAM: Adduono 6. Dillon 2. 3. 4. Stephenson 3. Sleigher 14. 15. 16. Goulef 5. Gingras 8. Marrin 3. Henderson 7, Beaudoin 3.CINCINNATI: Gartner 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10, Etorek 7. 8. 9. 10. Luksa 4. 5. Marsh 13. 14. 15. Hislop 10. 11. Dudle 9. Legge 2. Gilbert 3. Thomas 7.EDMONTON: Sobchuk 5. Carlson 4. Hunter 2. Callighen 5, Weir 1. 2. Gretzky 9. MacDonald 6.INDIANAPOLIS: George 1.2.3, MacGregor 3. 4. Leclerc 2. 3, Stoughton 7. Hughes I. Morrow 4. St. Sauveur 3.4.NEW ENGLAND: Rogers 8. 9. G. Howe 7. 8,9. Keon 4, 5. Lacroix 8. 9. McKenzie 9. Miller 9. 10. Mark Howe 14. 15. 16. Roberts 4. Lev 2. Hangslehen 2.3.QUEBEC: Tardif 15. Cole 3. Bordeleau 3. Baxter 5. 6. Bernier 14.WINNIPEG: Guindon 3, 4. 5. Gras 6. Preston 6. Nilsson 8, 9. Sullivan 13. Ruskowski 6. &#9632;

WHA’s Scorers

<div class="byline">BY DICK DENNY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01345/4040848-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="229" height="427"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICH LEDUC&hellip;Wanted Out</figcaption></div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Less than 24 hours after Nelson Skalbania had come to Indianapolis to tell why he sold Wayne Gretzky, Peter Driscoll and Eddie Mio to Edmonton, two more high-salaried Racers were sent to another World Hockey Association team.While the Racers&rsquo; majority owner, coach Pat Stapleton and assistant general manager Rod Zaine were attending a league trustees meeting in Boston, it was announced in Indianapolis by Bill Neal, Racer director of hockey operations, that Rich Leduc and Kevin Morrison had been traded to the Quebec Nordiques.The deal, in which the Racers are supposed to get the Nordiques&rsquo; second-round draft choices in 1979 and 1980 and Quebec&rsquo;s third-round draft choice in 1981, made fact of a rumor that had been circulating for almost a week that Leduc, Indianapolis&rsquo; leading scorer with 14 points, and Morrison were headed for Quebec.Leduc, a veteran center obtained last season in a trade with Cincinnati, had made it known after the sale of Gretzky, Driscoll and Mio that he would like to get to a contending club.&ldquo;When I came here last season from Cincinnati, I had a no-trade provision in my contract, but I accepted the deal,&rdquo; said Leduc, who bought a home last summer in Montreal and got married.&ldquo;I thought, and hoped, that I could help the club be a winner. And after we beat Winnipeg and tied the Jets on the same weekend for three points, it looked like we were getting things straightened out.&rdquo;Four days later came the Gretzky bombshell and Leduc said &ldquo;the air kind of went out of our balloon. It wasn&rsquo;t fun here anymore and I&rsquo;m going to go to Quebec 100 miles an hour. It&rsquo;s a big break for me and I&rsquo;m lucky to be the one leaving.Stapleton, who went from Boston to Edmonton where the Racers lost, 6-1, as Gretzky scored two goals against his former team, said of the Leduc trade:&ldquo;It&rsquo;s obvious Rich didn&rsquo;t want to play in Indianapolis, so why have somebory on the club who&rsquo;s unhappy.&rdquo;Morrison, a former All Star defenseman, hadn&rsquo;t been playing for about two Weeks. The Racers sought to assign him to the minors, but Morrison refused to go.Skalbania&rsquo;s operating expenses, which he said were &ldquo;bleeding me to death,&rdquo; were cut sharply with the trade of Luduc and Morrison. They reportedly are drawing $100,000 and $80,000 a season, respectively.Before the Racers saw their winless string stretch to six games with their fourth consecutive loss at Edmonton, Stapleton said Skalbania was committed to keeping hockey in Indianapolis.&ldquo;He said, &lsquo;Yes, I&rsquo;m applying for an NHL franchise.&rsquo; He then said, &lsquo;Hell, if I was convinced we couldn&rsquo;t make it, I would have ended everything by now.&rsquo;&ldquo;He also told us to go after whatever talent is moveable from any roster&mdash;WHA, NHL or in Europe. We&rsquo;re also going to try to get the best junior talent available.&ldquo;Actually, it&rsquo;s not Nelson Skalbania&rsquo;s decision whether Indianapolis goes into the NHL. He has to apply to receive indemnification, but if we want into the NHL it&rsquo;s up to us all&mdash;the coaches, the players, the fans, the business community and the media&mdash;to show we&rsquo;re worthy of the move.&ldquo;We still have to put people in the building. The NHL has enough teams with 4,500 and 5,000 attendance. What he was trying to do at his press conference was to ruffle some feathers and make people realize how important the situation is to Indianapolis.&rdquo;Skalbania said he wrote a prepared statement on a plane to Indianapolis to explain why he made the sale to Edmonton.&ldquo;By all the letters and phone calls I&rsquo;ve had, it seems a formal statement is required,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In reality, no explanation is needed if one just visits Market Square Arena for a game. Yot look to the right and you see an empty seat; you look to the left and there&rsquo;s ar empty seat. Only one out of three seats is occupied by a paying customer.&rdquo;Skalbania said the Racers need crowd of 10,500 paying an average price of $6 for the club to break even. He said that on Oct. 28, with New England it MSA, the paid crown was 4,372 (the official scoresheet listed the crowd a 5,029).&ldquo;We took in a little over $29,000 and I added a check for $33,000 to make th $63,000 breakeven figure. There was World Series, no football game, no college or high school basketball that night.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m only one guy, not a company, I&rsquo;m just a little guy who&rsquo;s bleeding to death. i need help. All it takes is money. Not a little, a lot.&rdquo;Then he said he was &ldquo;mad&rdquo; at about every facet of life in Indianapolis:&bull; The fans for poor support &ldquo;I cry a lot more than they do&rdquo;).&bull; The business community support (he rated it &ldquo;zero to poor&rdquo;).&bull; The radio coverage (&ldquo;We get only pennies and they don&rsquo;t cover us;&rdquo; the station that has the contract with the Racers also broadcasts the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and anytime there is a conflict of dates the station does the basketball games).&bull; The newspaper (&ldquo;Although the coverage has improved over last year, it still rates a distant last in the NHL and WHA&rdquo;).&bull; Market Square Arena (&ldquo;thought we had a new deal, but it didn&rsquo;t happen. We drew 11,721 on opening night on a two-for-one deal. The arena got the parking and concessions from the extra people, but we didn&rsquo;t get a thing).Skalbania said he has been scurrying around Canada looking at three juniors he labeled &ldquo;great hockey players.&rdquo;&ldquo;They will go one, two, three in next year&rsquo;s NHL draft,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it would take a quarter of a million dollars to sign each one, and I&rsquo;m not sure that&rsquo;s the answer. You want &lsquo;em? Then just show up in Market Square Arena.&rdquo;Asked if that wasn&rsquo;t putting the cart before the horse, Skalbania replied, &ldquo;You have to get an owner like General Motors or an insurance company or seomebody like Eli Lilly or you can bleed to death while you&rsquo;re building.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m providing hockey to Indianapolis in proportion to the interest the fans have shown. I can&rsquo;t be called a quitter, but unfortunately I&rsquo;m bleeding to death.&rdquo;CINCINNATI: The Stingers continued to play the veteran New England Whalers tough, coming from behind repeatedly to gain a 4-4 tie that kept the season series knotted a 2-2-1.:The Stingers continued to play the veteran New England Whalers tough, coming from behind repeatedly to gain a 4-4 tie that kept the season series knotted at 2-2-1.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a dog-fight all year,&rdquo; said Cincinnati&rsquo;s Robbie Ftorek of the WHA race. Ftorek had two assists to run his league-leading total to 21.&ldquo;We probably won&rsquo;t know where we stand going into the 79th and 80th games,&rdquo; said New England coach Bill Dineen, who praised Cincinnati coach Floyd Smith for pulling goaltender Mike Liut with three seconds to go before the midpoint of the final period.The move gave the Stingers, who were on a power play, a two-man advantage. Ftorek won the faceoff and passed to Dave Debol, who scored for a 3-3 tie. Ron Plumb gave New England a 4-3 lead, but Darryl Maggs&rsquo; fourth goal&mdash;also on a power play&mdash;in four games tied it at 4-4. &#9632;

f0027-01

Leduc Demanded Racers Trade Him; Stinger Coach Praised By Dineen

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02263/4040879-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="249" height="213"></div> &#9632;

f0027-02

WHA Leaders

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03180/4040917-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="745" height="797"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04141/4040910-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="2166" height="1727"></div> &#9632;

f0028-03

WHA’s POINT SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01330/4040955-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="230" height="451"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERNIE WAKELY&hellip; Came Up Hot</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02238/4040948-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="230" height="355"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHRIS BORDELEAU&hellip;Quit Without Reason</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;The New England Whalers were 15 games into the season and they had yet to encounter the Birmingham Bulls, but in a four-games-in-five-nights stint they were to meet the rookie-studded team three times. Coming of consecutive strong defensive performances at home the Whalers, no doubt, went into Birmingham thinking they&rsquo;d show the youngsters a thing or two.That&rsquo;s not quite the way it worked out, however. In a close, see-saw battle the Bulls forced the Whalers to come from behind to salvage a 5-5 tie. Reverting to some of their old habits, the Whalers were often sloppy in their own end and Birmingham&rsquo;s youngsters were quick to capitalize.The next night New England traveled to Cincinnati and played another three-and-a-half periods. For the second night in a row neither team was able to score in overtime and the game ended at 4-4. Il was the fourth time in the young season that the Whalers had ended a road game deadlocked. (The League record is five road ties in a season.)Although happy up pick up a point or the road, once more the Whalers had difficulties in their own end. Outshot 4 to 30 by the Stingers, New England was fortunate as goalie John Garrett made several brilliant saves to keep them ir the contest.Leading scorer Mark Howe extender his scoring streak with the first goal the game in Cincy. It was his 13th goa to complement 1$ assists for 28 points in the 15 game streak. Unfortunately, period later young Mark suffered muscle spasm in his back and was forced to the sidelines. Off to the bes start of his career, the brilliant left winger hoped to miss no more than two or three games.There was no question that the lean missed Mark when they returned to Birmingham, but it was doubtful whether anyone could have helped the Whalers that night. The Whalers player well in the first period and left the ice with a 1-0 lead. But the Bulls, showing a good balance of veterans and rookies, fired in four goals in the second and followed with three more in the third to solidly dump the Whalers, 7-1. &ldquo;We just came apart in the second period-,&rdquo; said coach Bill Dineen of the drubbing his team had taken.It was a tired team that flew back to New England for another contest with those same Bulls the next night. The Whalers, however, didn&rsquo;t show their weariness in a well-played game before a lull house in Springfield. Birmingham scored once in the first and got two in the second before Marty Howe drove home a power play goal to break the Bulls streak of 10 unanswered goals in the two games. The Whalers managed to score another in the final stanza but lost the game, 3-2.BIRMINGHAM: It was &lsquo;New England week&rsquo; for the Birmingham Bulls as their only games during the week were against the Whalers. And it turned out to be a very successful week at that, as the Bulls picked up five of a possible six points in the three games the two teams played.Prior to the three-game set there was speculation that the rookie-studded Bulls might be somewhat in awe of the big names&mdash;the Howes, Keon, McKenzie, Lacroix. Well, if they were, it certainly didn&rsquo;t show. Instead, it may have been the other way around as veteran after veteran complimented the young Birmingham team. Whalers defenseman Brad Seiwood summed it up&mdash;&rdquo;They&rsquo;re a good team. They&rsquo;re well-disciplined and well-coached. I&rsquo;m really impressed!&rdquo;The Bulls strengthened their goaltending situation considerably when they picked up veteran Ernie Wakely from Phoenix of the Pacific Hockey League. Coach John Brophy subscribes to the theory of staying with a goalie until he loses and he got two consecutive line performances from Wakely in the wins over New England.Brophy has also expressed confidence in his other goalie, 19-year-old Pat Riggin. &ldquo;Pat has been playing well and scents to be more confident with each game,&rdquo; said the rookie coach.Perhaps figuring that he may not get as much playing time with Wakely as the other member of the goaltending tandem, Riggin commented, &ldquo;You can learn almost as much by watching as you can by playing. You can learn from the other goaltenders&rsquo; mistakes and study the shooters.&rdquo; With that kind of an attitude to complement the skills he has exhibited so far the youngster looks to be a sure bet to stay around for a long time to come.QUEBEC: After playing so many games in the early weeks of the season the Nordiques found themselves in the middle of a lull in the schedule. Playing only one game during the week was somewhat of a luxury so they took advantage of it and whipped the Jets in Winnipeg, 6-4.Marc Tardif, in the middle of a scoring tear, picked up a goal and three assists while building his plus/minus rating to a phenomenal, plus 22. Serge Bernier netted two goals in the game. The WHA&rsquo;s leading scorer. Real Cloutier, was shutout for the first time in many outings. Oddly enough it was an historic game for Cloutier. He was awarded a penalty shot for the first time In his professional career&mdash;and he missed.But the big news of the week in Quebec City was in the category of personnel changes. Veteran centerman Christian Bordeleau unexpectedly announced his retirement. It was not immediately determined why the 31-year-old Bordeleau was quitting the game. Elder brother of Paulin (of the Nordiques) and J.P. Bordeleau (Chicago Black Hawks), Chris had racked up five goals and 12 assists in the I6games he played this season.Two days later the Nordiques announced that they had acquired centerman Richie Leduc and defenseman Kevin Morrison from the Indianapolis Racers in exchange for second and third round choices in the WHA draft of 1979, 1980 and 1981. &#9632;

f0028-01

Bulls Turn On Haughty Whalers

Here are the top 10 teams this past week in U.S. college hockey:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03149/4041017-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="609" height="432"></div> &#9632;

f0029-03

The Top 10 U.S. Colleges

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02230/4041048-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="272" height="484"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON WADDELL&hellip;Sparked NMU</figcaption></div>BOWLING GREEN&mdash;Seniors John Markell and Mark Wells each scored two goals to power defending Central Collegiate Hockey Association champions Bowling Green to a 6-3 win over Ohio State in the league opener for each team.The mid-week win pushed the Falcoi)s into first place in theCCHA.The win left the fourth-ranked Falcons with an 8-3 record overall with seven wins in eight games after losing two overtime games to Michigan to open the season.Bowling Green coach Ron Mason was pleased with the goaltending of sophomore Wally Charko as he allowed just five goals as the Falcons won three games in five nights. Charko held Clarkson to one goal each night as BG swept the Golden Knights 6-1 and 7-1 to highlight weekend action in theCCHA.Wells scored both of his goals against Ohio State in the first period including an opening shift goal at 1:01. Rod McNair scored for Ohio State at 3:53, but Wells connected at 17:32 assisted by defensemen Mike Cotter and Pete Sikorski.Markell pushed BG&rsquo;s lead to 3-1 early in the second period, before Jerry Welsh&rsquo;s Buckeyes battled back to tie the game on goals by Mark Freeman and Paul Tilley. Freeman finished the game with three points.BG&rsquo;s Ail American defenseman Ken Morrow netted his fourth goal of the season assisted by Yves Pelland at 19:44 of the second period to give the Falcons a 4-3 edge.Markell and George McPhee each scored power play goals in the third period for the final margin. Markell now has 12 goals in 11 games while freshman McPhee has 11 goals in 11 games.In the Clarkson scries, McPhee and Brian MacLellan each scored two goals in the opener and Wells collected the game winner at 9:09 of the first period. In the second game five different Falcons scored and MacLellan netted the decider at 14:44 of the first period. Charko had 64 saves in the series.In other CCHA action. Lake Superior and Northern Michigan played a non-counting series with the host Lakers getting a 4-3 win and a 3-3 tic as both games went into overtime, St. Louis swept Air Force 8-7 in overtime and 11-3 and Western Michigan edged Wilfrid Laurier twice, 4-3 and 3-2. Ferris State swept Michigan-Dearborn 9-5 and 6-2 and Ohio State was idle.CCHA player-ol-the-week Jamie McDonald of Lake Superior scored a pair of clutch goals for the second place Lakers. In the opener McDonald scored a shorthanded goal at 15:26 of the third period to tie the game, and in the 4-3 win he scored the overtime goal at 1:39.Northern Michigan scored all six goals for the weekend in the second period taking a 3-2 lead in each game. Tom Laidlaw sparked the first game offense with a goal and an assist while Don Waddell&rsquo;s two assists in the second game marked the return last season&rsquo;s CCHA co-player-of-theycar.Freshman Mike Krushelnyski scored two goals in each game to pace the St. Louis offense against Air Force. He scored the overtime goal after Dan Pupillo&rsquo;s second goal of the game at 18:01 of the third period sent the game into the extra period. Senior tri-captain Doug Butler was the third BilJiken to net two goals in the opener.In the 11-3 SLU romp Rick Gazzolio and Brian Thorcnsen joined Kruskelnyski on the two-goal list and Thorensen also added three assists.Paul Billing had 34 saves tor St. Louis in the second game after Carl Bloomberg made 39 in the overtime contest.Western Michigan used third period goals to win each contest against Wildrid Laurier.Sophomore Kelly Mitchell snapped a 2-2 tic in the opener with two goals in eight seconds at 12:58 and 13:08 of the third period. Frank Serratore had 36 saves in the opener.In the second game Mitchell scored his third straight goal to give WMU a 10 lead in the first period and Terry Olson made it 2-1 for the Broncos in the second period. Freshman Ross Fitzpatrick scored the winner at 18:49 of the third period assisted by captain Bernie Saunders and Kipp Acton.Joe Pagliacci had 23 saves in the second Western Michigan win.Randy Strong and Jim Baker each scored two goals in the opener of the Ferris State sweep with a four-goal second period capped by Jim Capy&rsquo;s third goal of the season. Goalie Chuck Harrison made 28 saves in his season debut for Ferris.Baker scored a power play goal at 56 seconds of the first period in the second game and added a shorthanded goal at 7:52 and Ferris and UM-Dearborn were tied 2-2 alter one period.Rocki Smith, Strong and Joe Buchly scored second period goals and Ron Shiner added a third period score tor the win as Doug Nowcls made 29 saves. &#9632;

f0029-02

Falcons Down Ohio State In League Opener

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01288/4040986-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="277" height="476"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARK FIDLER&hellip;Helped BU Win</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;The difference, on the scoring summary, was Paul Miller&rsquo;s power play goal at 4:26 of the third period. The sophomore&rsquo;s conversion of a Mark Fidler rebound enabled defending ECAC Division One pennant winner and NCAA champion Boston University to eke out a 3-2 decision over one of BU&rsquo;s principal challengers, Provindence College.But for the 3,010 fans in attendance, the difference in the game was BU&rsquo;s senior goalie Jim Craig. The dark haired backstop foiled PC 39 of 41 times while his counterpart, Bill Milner, faced 23 Terrier shots. Clearly, Providence could have won this game on enemy ice and BU, the hands-down favorite to skate away front the rest of the 16-team East, clearly will have to tighten up if they expect to clinch the pennant by early February once more.Obviously, BU is going to get better. The Terriers were without stalwarts Dave Silk, Bob Boileau, and John Bethel, and Grant Goegan was nursing an injury sustained in the league opener at RPI, also a close win, 3-1 With such experience waiting in the wings, it only seems a matter of time before BU widens its victory margins.The Terriers expect big things from Fidler. The young BU center enjoyed a fantastic freshman year last season. He led the team in scoring with 65 points, had 16 power play goals, led in hat tricks and was tied with teammate Tony Meagher with five game-winning goals.Mark was named to the NCAA alltournament team in 1977-78, was chosen ECAC rookie of the year and was second team All-New England.He also comes by his hockey talents naturally. Mark&rsquo;s brother, Mike, is a right winger with the Minnesota North Stars. Mark has several years left with BU before the NHL scouts can touch him but there&rsquo;s a good chance they&rsquo;ll come calling at his door when he&rsquo;s through with the Terriers somewhere around 1981.Providence, however, had the better of it for two periods. Early on, BU&rsquo;s aggressive forechecking had bottled up some of the young Friar defensemen and had produced one goal by Daryl McLeod at 2:55. McLeod was assisted by freshman Bob Davies, the only first year man to crack BU&rsquo;s top four lines this season. Davies dug the disc out from behind the net and fed McLeod for a point-blank shot. Davies upped margin to 2-0 at 8:28 as he cruised in alone to beat Milner. But after that, the Friars pretty much took over and wound up outshooting BU in all three periods. Steve O&rsquo;Neill tallied on a power play at 10:40 of the first, but that was the last time Providence beat Craig until the final minute of play. Craig then had to repulse a last ditch PC flurry right before the buzzer to preserve the victory.Coach Jack Parker, ever conservative, groused about his team&rsquo;s inability to run away and hide from toes. Reminded that BU won mostly one-goal games early last year, he asserted that BU did have a territorial edge in most of its close ones in 1977-78, but that Craig and no one else has been the dominant factor this time around.Lou Lamoriello was at the same time disappointed and pleased.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we took advantage of all our opportunities,&rdquo; he said afterwards. &ldquo;But we played &lsquo;em hard, we skated with them for 60 minutes, we didn&rsquo;t let down after that third goal. We deserved to win, so how can I be disappointed?&rdquo;Each of the teams skated seven seniors and three juniors. The Friars were thinner on defense, especially with junior Frank Johnson out for six weeks with a broken bone in his foot. Senior Jim Korn logged a lot of ice time, making several end-to-end rushes. He, Bob Bonin, and Dan Haskins will be the pivotal men for PC in the early season while freshmen Scot Kleinendorst, Jon Hogberg, and Jacques Blanchet come along.While BU spread its experienced talent through the four lines. Providence went with an all-senior unit of Colin Ahern, Randy Wilson, and Tom Bauer. The Friars seemed much more offense-minded than during the stretch last season when they were content to set up a tight defense and dare opponents to shoot from anywhere closer than the blue line. The best scoring chances that failed were a shot from the slot area by Bauer and a rush down the left wing by Ahern, each foiled by Craig&rsquo;s glove hand.The Feb. 9 rematch of these clubs at Schneider Arena should prove interesting.Elsewhere in the East&rsquo;s early action, Dartmouth won its first three games to take the league lead. Overlooked in all the pre-season predictions despite the return of 18 lettermen, the Big Green romped over Colgate 11-5 and Harvard 7-2 at home before nipping Princeton 21 on the road.Ross Brownridge had a hat trick for Dartmouth in the win over Colgate, and Rick Wilson tallied twice in the Harvard game.RPI split their first two, losing the first to BU 3-1 despite outshooting the Terriers 39-35. Craig had several good stops for BU in that one and the Miller-Fidler-Tony Meagher line got all three BU goals, one an empty net job. RPI, not to be denied, nailed Harvard 6-5 after the Crimson had rallied from two goals back to send the game into overtime. Steve Stoyanovich provided the winner for RPI, beating freshman goalie Wade Lau with a slap shot.St. Lawrence has turned the corner. The Larries barely lost 6-4 at Providence with the clincher an empty net goal at 19:45 of the third period. But the following evening SLU bumped Brown 6-2 as six different players scored and freshman Gary Laskoski turned aside34 Bruin attempts.Clarkson won its first game in league play by dousing St. Lawrence in the finale of the North Country Thanksgiving Tournament.The rest of the Division&rsquo;s teams were due to swing into action in the last week of November or first week of December. The biggest surprise of nonleague action was Vermont&rsquo;s four losses, two each to Central Collegiate Hockey Association opponents Bowling Green and Ohio State. &#9632;

f0029-01

BU Showing Class In Early Wins; Dartmouth Sprints To Top Of Race

<h2>ECAC Conference</h2>Mon. Nov. 27Boston College at BrownTue. Nov. 28Vermont at St. LawrencePrinceton at YaleWed. Nov. 29Harvard at ProvidenceDartmouth at Boston UniversityFri. DEC. 1Brown at CornellBoston College at VermontYale at ColgateClarkson at DartmouthSat. Dec. 2RPI at New HampshireClarkson at VermontProvidence at NortheasternYale at CornellBrown at ColgateSun. Dec. 3Boston University at HarvardTue. Dec. 5Yale at BrownNortheastern at Boston CollegeColgate at ClarksonRPI at ProvidenceSt. Lawrence at CornellFri. Dec.8Princeton at NortheasternProvidence at Boston CollegeSat Dec. 9Cornell at New HampshireHarvard at BrownPrinceton at Boston UniversityClarkson at RPIYale at St. LawrenceDec. 1-2Notre-Dame at Michigan TechColorado College at Minnesota-DuluthDenver at North DakotaDec. 2-3Michigan at MinnesotaWisconsin at Michigan StateDec. 5Colorado College at Air ForceDec. 8Michigan at Michigan StateDec. 8-9Wisconsin at Notre DameMinnesota-Duluth at Michigan TechNorth Dakota at Northern ArizonaDec. 9Michigan State at MichiganColorado College at Denver<h2>CCHA Conference</h2>Dec. 1-2Lake Superior at Western MichiganNorthern Michigan at St. LouisFerris State at Ohio StateSt. Lawrence at Bowling GreenDec. 5Northern Michigan at Lake SuperiorDec. 8-9St. Louis at Bowling GreenLake Superior at Ferris StateOhio State at Northern Michigan &#9632;

Where The Colleges Play…

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD JABLONSKI</div>EDMONTON&hellip;The days of two-fisted drinking and barroom brawling may have faded into memory 70 years ago in Western Canada, but they made a brief return this past weekend in Edmonton where the Alberta Golden Bears hosted the Calgary Dinosaurs for a two game set.When the smoke had cleared and the casualties were counted, the two teams had racked up a total of 20 goals, nearly 300 penalty minutes, and a split of the series one game apiece.It all started innocently enough, with the undefeated Golden Bears welcoming the third place Dinosaurs for what many thought would be an easy weekend sweep for Alberta. Had this been the case, perhaps the hysterics of the second game would have been avoided.However, Calgary had other plans. Led by former Alberta Junior League scoring champ Robin Laycock, the Dinosaurs upset Alberta 6-5 in the series opener. Laycock scored two goals, including the game-winner at 18:27 of the third period to back up the 38-save performance of Calgary goaltender Terry Kryezka.The events of the second day speak for themselves. Referee Ron Pamchyshyn was the star of the game, assessing 47 minors, seven majors and 12 game misconducts on the way to a 249 penalty minute performance.By the way, Alberta won the game, which Calgary coach George Kingston described as one of the worst displays he had ever seen, by the score of 8-1.In the other Canada West weekend series, Saskatchewan secured its first win of the young season with a 4-2 victory over British Columbia. The Thunderbirds gained a measure of revenge the next day, taking an 8-6 overtime decision.Early season scoring statistics reveal that three players, Alberta&rsquo;s Chris Helland, U.B.C.&rsquo;s Jim McLaughlin, and Calgary&rsquo;s Robin Laycock are all off to fine starts, with nine points apiece. Helland leads the league&rsquo;s goalscorers with six goals in only four games.ATLANTIC ASSOCIATION: There is a long standing rule in Maritime hockey that when a Nova Scotia school hosts a non-Nova Scotia school for a regular season game, the former invariably cleans up on the latter.Such was the case this past weekend, when seven out of eight games were won by the homestanding Nova Scotia universities, while the out of province teams went home virtually empty-handed.The only exception to the rule was provided by the Prince Edward Island Panthers, who surprised the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 6-5.Brian Ostroski and Mike Selleck led the Panther attack, as each registered a goal and two assists. Dave Cameron, Gary Trainor, Ken Burton and Trevor Crawford also scored for U.P.E.l. .The Panthers returned to reality the following day, dropping a 5-2 decision to Dalhousie. Linus Fraser netted three goals including a penalty shot and Earl Jessiman added a pair to round out the Tiger scoring. Earl Theriault assisted on three of the five Dalhousie goals.It was a pretty good weekend all around for Dalhousie, which had won the previous night 9-0 over Mount Allison. Nova Scotia native Darrell Young picked up the shutout for the Tigers.The Moncton Aigles Bleus and the New Brunswick Red Bombers each lost a pair of games to the same opponents: Acadia and St. Mary&rsquo;s. Moncton managed to stay close for the first two periods of both games, only to drop third period heartbreakers.A Keith Holbrook goal at 10:43 of the third period gave Acadia a 4-3 edge over the visitors.Andre Tessier with two and Dan Doyle with one scored the other goals for Acadia. Gilles Parenteau, Denis Marquis and Kevin Gaudet were the Moncton marksmen.The next day, two Grant Thomson goals, one shorthanded, the other into an empty net, led St. Mary&rsquo;s to a 4-2 decision over Moncton.In the meanwhile, New Brunswick was drilled by Acadia and St. Mary&rsquo;s, 61 and 7-1 respectively.ONTARIO ASSOCIATION: The song remained the same in Ontario Association hockey this past week, as the rich got richer, the poor were as poor as ever, and the Toronto Blues&rsquo; Dave Jenner pitched another shutout.Jenner&rsquo;s victims this week were the York Yeomen, who have yet to win after four regular season games. Ron Smith&rsquo;s Yeomen never really mounted an attack on Jenner, who received goalscoring support from Dan D&rsquo;Alvise, Alex Jeans and Rick Tarasuk.Toronto now has given up only three goals in three games on the way to a 2-0-1 record.The McMaster Marauders have jumped on top of the Central Division with a 3-0 log. The Marauders&rsquo; two latest victims were Ryerson (10-2) and Waterloo (4-1). In the Ryerson game. Central Division scoring champ Tom Jazcenko picked up a hat trick, while teammates Jack McMaster and Gary MacDonald added two goals apiece.The same threesome, along with Norm Cole, did the scoring in their team&rsquo;s 4-1 win over Waterloo.If one were to look for a surprise team in this year&rsquo;s OUAA competition, he would have to go no further than the Laurentian Voyageurs. Coming off last week&rsquo;s 2-2 tie of Toronto, the Voyageurs swept into Ottawa the weekend of Nov. 18-19 and swept out with two wins, 4-3 and 8-4.Rick Comptois, Tim Storcini, Robin Laking and Grant McCaig all notched single goals in the 4-3 victory. The following day, Steve DeMarco and Will Carruthers each contributed two goal performances as the Voyageurs headed back to Sudbury.The prize for this week&rsquo;s silliest performance goes to York and Queen&rsquo;s. After a 4-4 tie at Kingston, the two teams failed to get together on the starting time for the second game of the weekend series, the result being no game at all. The Ontario schools cut back on their schedules this year to ease the expense of travel, but in all probability, York will now make another trip to Kingston for a makeup game.QUEBEC ASSOCIATION: The Chicoutimi Inuks and the Laval Rouge et Or are raining on prognosticators&rsquo; picnics, grabbing points with regularity in the QU AA&rsquo;s early going.Both teams racked up four point weeks, placing Chicoutimi in first place and Laval in fourth as of Nov. 23.Chicoutimi&rsquo;s latest triumphs came at the expense of Ron Perowne&rsquo;s winless Bishop&rsquo;s Gaiters, a team which most figured would be highly respectable this season. In the wake of a combined 16-6 two game drubbing at Chicoutimi, Bishop&rsquo;s is solidly mired in last place in the league.And how about Laval? Alter a couple of lopsided losses in the early going to Concordia and McGill, the Rouge et Or, under Charles Thiffault, turned things around this week with a 9-1 laugher over McGill and a solid 6-3 win over Trois Rivieres.Goaltender Michel Ouellet has done the job defensively for Laval, while forwards Yves Terusse and Normand Benoit arc racking up impressive stats on the other end of the ice.After the 9-1 loss to Laval, McGill bounced back with an 8-5 victory over Bishop&rsquo;s in Lennoxville. After leading 4-0 early in the game, the Redmen allowed the Gaiters to come back to a 55 tic before putting the game away.Steve Augustine and Barry Ross led McGill with two goals apiece, while Al MacNamara, Pat Shannon, Bill Hozack and Mike Nelson all netted single goals.Mark Asleson, Steve Miglia, Ian Pearson, Bob Vigliotti and Paul Milton scored for Bishop&rsquo;s.Throughout all of these strange occurrences, one thing has remained consistent: the performance of the Concordia Stingers. Paul Arsenault&rsquo;s team swept a home and home series from Trois Rivieres, edging the Patriotes 4-2 at the Concordia Ice Palace before routing them 8-2 in Trois Rivieres.The 4-2 game had rout potential as well, if not for the outstanding work of Trois Rivieres goaltender Daniel Coutu. Now in his third year of QUAA hockey, Coutu has matured into the type of performer who could well lead the youthful Trois Rivieres team into the playoffs.All-Star center Kim Elliott played a superb all around game in leading his team past the hot Coutu. In addition to scoring Concordia&rsquo;s first goal, Elliott was a goalscoring threat all night, getting close in shots and making perfect passes.Other Stinger goals were scored by Bill Doherty, Steve Young and Mark Fiorentino. Former Bishop&rsquo;s transfer student Dave Perras was all over the ice, and netted both PatriotesGREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE: The defending champion Regina Cougars made their regular season debut this past weekend, and immediately demonstrated that they are once again the team to beat in GPAC hockey.The Cougars traveled to Brandon for a weekend doubleheader, and headed home with four points after 7-2 and 6-4 victories. Brandon, supposedly a much improved team, provided little competition for Regina.Elsewhere, Lakehead and Winnipeg split a doubleheader in Winnipeg. Lakehead took the first game 6-5 before succumbing to the youthful Wesman 7-4 in the second. &#9632;

Calgary Gives Golden Bears Trouble

LOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02232/4041165-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="557" height="478"></div> &#9632;

f0032-02

Where AHL Teams Play

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01303/4041196-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="552" height="528"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL BENNETT&hellip;Amerk Sharpshooter</figcaption></div>ROCHESTER&hellip;Hobbled by injuries to five key players, the Rochester Americans lost four straight games, including their first two at home this year, to drop their record to 6-6-1 after 13 games. They remain in second place in the Southern Division behind front-running New Haven.A 5-3 loss to the Broome Dusters, the sixth in a row at the Broome County Arena, began the woeful week. The Dusters returned to Rochester and promptly broke a seven-game losing streak of their own at the War Memorial by posting a 5-2 victory over the Amerks.Already without the services of captain Ron Garwasiuk, the team&rsquo; most experienced player, coach Duane Rupp also lost leading scorer Tom Songin with strained left knee ligament; for most of the week. Hard-skating Daryl Drader was also out with bruised hip.The Amerks took a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of the Hershey Bears in Chocolatetown and lost center Gary Burns in the process. Burns suffered slight head injury in a collision and was sidelined for a few games. Right winger Jeff Brubaker tore a tendon in his right hand in a fight but continued to play.The week ended with a game at the War Memorial with the slumping New Brunswick Hawks. Again Rochester took it on the chin, this time by an 8-2 margin.Bill Bennett, the leading goal-scorer on the club, found the range twice and added an assist in the loss to New Brunswick. Despite his injury, Songin was still able to contribute a goal am two assists in the New Brunswick game.Jim &ldquo;Seaweek&rdquo; Pettie was returned to the Amerks by the parent Boston Bruins after he posted a fine 2.56 GAZ in three games with Boston. Pettie was in the nets in the 5-2 loss to the Duster as well as the 7-1 defeat in Hershey Gary Carr suffered the loss in Binghamton, despite making 41 saves He also took the defeat against the Hawks. To make room for the retur of Pettie, goaltender Dave Parro, a 25 game winner last season, was sent to Grand Rapids of the International Hockey League.NEW HAVEN: The Nighthawks lost two key defensemen which is sure to slow down their red-hot play of late. Veteran defenseman Don Awrey was sold by the Rangers to Colorado in a straight cash transaction. In addition, rookie Tim Bothwell underwent surgery for a fractured cheekbone which he suffered after being hit with a punch from Larry Playfair of Hershey. Bothwell will be lost to the team for an indefinite period.In what turned out to be his final game with New Haven, Awrey scored twice to give the Nighthawks a 3-2 win over Springfield. In a well-played AHL contest seen by 3,901 fans in New Haven, the first place Nighthawks held off a furious last-minute attack by the Tribe to win their eighth straight game at the Coliseum.Jeff McDill fired a wrist shot from the blueline past Springfield goaltender Richard Sevigny and Awrey scored on a blast from the point to give New Haven an early 2-0 lead. Center Pete Stemkowski tipped in a shot from his defenseman to make it a 2-1 contest as the veteran Springfield club shook of some hard-hitting by the Nighthawks to make it a tight contest.Awrey&rsquo;s second goal, the eventual game-winner, came at 10:01 of the third period. His shot deflected off Indian defenseman Tim Jacobs right past a startled Sevigny to keep the Nighthawk home streak going.Even though Dave Gardner scored on a power play a few minutes later to make it 3-2, the Nighthawks held off the extra man advantage Springfield had when Sevigny left in favor of the sixth attacker.BINGHAMTON: After winning four of their last five, the Dusters are closing in on second place Rochester. The club ended a sketin of never-having-won-a game-at-Rochester when they posted a 52 win over the Amerks at the War Memorial. Two nights earlier, the improving Dusters beat Rochester by a 5-3 count on home ice. Two goals, eight seconds apart, broke open a 2-2 tie late in the second period in the game at Rochester. Mike Meeker, the team&rsquo;s leading scorer, scored the game winner with his second goal of the game in the third period.Center Paul O&rsquo;Neill has joined the club from the WHA Birmingham Bulls. In 36 games with Hampton last season, he scored 17 goals and had 44 points. The six-foot-one, 185-pound, 25-year-old performer had 20 points for San Diego of the PHL last year also. Right winger Dennis Abgrall has been assigned to Erie of the NEHL to make room on the roster for O&rsquo;Neill.Brian &ldquo;Spinner&rdquo; Spencer is another addition to the club. He has been sent by the Pittsburgh Penguins and is sure to be a big favorite in Binghamton with his hustling style of play. The live-foot-10, 175-pound 29-year-old left winger scored a goal in his first AHL game.HERSHEY: During the last two weeks, the Bears have a 1-2-1 record which has allowed the Broome Dusters to sneak into third place in the Southern Division. With the recent assignment of defenseman Cord Smith to Hershey by the Washington Capitals, the Bears could start to get untracked. Smith is a former AHL All Star performer and is expected to provide some much-needed help to the Hershey defense which has allowed an average of about four goals a game in the early going.The club was in action three times last week and gave up even at 1-1-1. A 2-2 overtime tie in Hershey against New Haven was followed by a 3-2 loss in Philadelphia. Back home at the Hersheypark Arena, the team rebounded to crush Rochester 7-1.NEW BRUNSWICK: The early season leaders in the Northern Division have run into a mild slump of late. However, they are still in the thick of things in the wild Northern Division race. At this writing only two points separated Maine, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.The Hawks were 1-1 during the week. They lost a thrilling 5-4 decision in overtime to the Maine Mariners and then made the long overnight journey to Rochester where they went on to blast the hapless Amerks 8-2.With three games in hand on Maine and Nova Scotia, the red-hot battle for the top spot in the north is still wide open.NOVA SCOTIA: Guess which team is suddenly right among the leaders? After dominating the AHL for eons, the Montreal-backed Nova Scotia Voyageurs were written off this year by some AHL writers. As sure as the sun rises in the East, Nova Scotia will always come up with a competitive hockey club. Despite the fact that the parent Canadiens lost each of their first five draft picks, the shrewd Montreal Nova Scotia front office will give the fans in the Halivax area an exciting and a winning hockey team.The Vees were 3-0 last week and have won five of their last seven. They edged Springfield 5-3 twice and beat Maine 5-4 in overtime in contests at the Metro Center. Rick Meagher scored a hat trick in the game against Springfield and Dave Lumley had taken over the AHL scoring lead before suffering an injury.MAINE: After a mild slump, the Mariners are 4-1-1 in their last six games. They had the rare distinction of being in three overtime games last week, winning two of them.A 4-3 win over Philadelphia on home ice started the week of overtimes. Three nights later, the Mariners entertained the New Brunswick Hawks and they skated to a 5-4 win over the new AHL club. The next night over in Nova Scotia, even a hat trick by Wayne Schaab wasn&rsquo;t enough as the Voyageurs won a 5-4 overtime contest.The Mariners held a &ldquo;Hockey News Night&rdquo; recently. The first 2,500 fans attending the Mariner-Nova Scotia game at the Civic Center received a free copy of THE HOCKEY NEWS.SPRINGFIELD: After losing six of their last seven, coach Ted Harris of the Indians has been working daily with his forward line combinations. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re still looking for scoring punch up front,&rdquo; said Harris, still upset about the fact that every one of the first nine losses, exclusive of open net goals, had been by one goal.The unit of Andre Pelolly, Charlie Simmer and Russ Walker was still intact but Harris was bound to shake up the other lines. Dave Gardner was centering a line with Gordie Clark and Derek Haas, Pete Stemkowski was between Hartland Monahan and Tony White and Dan Bonar centered Jim Warner and Scott Garland.Harris trimmed his roster by returning defenseman Wayne Ramsey and winger Joe Kowal to Buffalo for reassignement.PHILADELPHIA: There is some joy in Mudville&mdash;the Philadelphia Firebirds finally won a game! After a horrendous 0-11-2 start, the long overdue Firebirds beat Hershey 3-2 at the Civic Center for their first win of the season. The suddenly explosive Firebirds followed that up with a 4-2 win over Springfield up at the Big E Coliseum in West Springfield to make coach Bep Guidolin jump for joy.Right winger Gordie Brooks, who tied for the AHL scoring title last year, was the big gun for Philadelphia. He scored three goals and had an assist and left winger Mike Dwyer added two goals and two assists to help lift the &lsquo;Birds out of their long losing streak. &#9632;

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Amerks’ Slump Caused By Injuries; Vees, Mariners Heat Northern Race

LOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKSMade in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02205/4041227-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="513" height="403"></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

Where CHL Teams Play

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01271/4041258-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="276" height="401"><figcaption class="caption-body">RON LOW&hellip;K.C. HERO</figcaption></div>KANSAS CITY&mdash;Three straight victories on the road, where the Red Wings had been unable to win in their first five starts of the season, suddenly had Larry Wilson&rsquo;s Kansas City crew challenging for third place.The Wings came out of Fort Worth with a 5-4 triumph over the Texans. The next night they went into Dallas and polished off the Black Hawks, 7-1. The road streak had begun a week earlier with a 5-3 decision in Salt Lake City.Of the two-game Texas trip, Wilson commented, &ldquo;They were two super games. The addition of Willie Huber and Al Cameron gives the club stability along the blue line.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been telling people all season that this is the fastest club I&rsquo;ve seen, and you can spell that with a capital F. They can really fly!&rdquo;Huber, six-foot-five and one-half, 228-pounds, is the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; No. 1 draft choice from the Hamilton Fincups of the Ontario Major Junior League. He&rsquo;s amazingly quick for a player of that size, and has one of the quickest wrist shots in the business.His CHL debut was delayed by a late arrival, as he and fellow defenseman Al Cameron came down from Detroit to join the Kansas City club in Fort Worth, arriving after the game had started. Huber didn&rsquo;t get on the ice until the second period, but contributed a power play goal.The Wings scored on three of five power play chances, while limiting the Texans to one in four opportunities.Other power goals by Dan Bolduc in the first period and Sylvain Locas in the second put K.C. in front, as did a Jim Maladrewicz tally later in the second, and Huber&rsquo;s in the third. But it took Clark Hamilton&rsquo;s goal at 15:24 to win the game, as he scored only 19 seconds after Texan Yvon Vautour had tied the game.Veteran goaltender Ron Low was the hero of the Dallas game. He gave up only one goal, to Hawk Ron Carter in the first period.&ldquo;Ron was extremely sharp in both games,&rdquo; Wilson observed. &ldquo;He made 40 saves in that Dallas game.&rdquo;With three goals and two assists, Bolduc closed in on CHL scoring leader Mike Eaves of Oklahoma City, with 23 ^ points to Eaves&rsquo; 26.SALT LAKE: Six straight games on the road, starting with two against League leading Oklahoma City, were not calculated to improve the Golden Eagles&rsquo; standing. But the Big Birds came out of the Myriad with a pair of 31 decisions, and sliced the Stars&rsquo; league-leading margin to a bare two points, with Salt Lake owning a game in hand. Third-place Tulsa was seven behind the Engles.In their last home game before the road swing the Eagles suffered a 4-2 loss to the Dallas Hawks. A wild fight between Eagle Gary Holt and Hawk Ernie Hicke highlighted the third period, with Holt eventually drawing a match penalty for throwing his helmet and stick at Hicke in the penalty box.Gord Gallant opened the Salt Lake scoring in both games at Oklahoma City. His first-period Saturday night goal was answered, but Rick Shinske scored twice in the third period, once shorthanded and the second going into an empty net with 28 seconds left.Gallant tied the score halfway through the third period in the Sunday night game, before Floyd Thomson, who scored a pair in the Dallas loss stuffed in the winning goal at 15:32, and Mike Crombeen added an empty-netter six seconds before the final buzzer.FORT WORTH: Coach Billy MacMillan was angry over the way his Texans were intimidated by Kansas City in a 5-4 home loss. He read the riot-act, and the Texans were a vastly different team the next night, as they intimidated Tulsa, 5-3, again in Will Rogers Coliseum. That broke a three-game losing streak.Against Tulsa the Texans again fell behind early. But Hordy gained a 1-1 tie before the first period ended, while Ralph Stewart, Alex McKendry and Dave Salvian put the game away with second-period goals.DALLAS: Overall, it was a good week for goalie Larry Hendrick and the Dallas Black Hawks. They took a 4-2 victory in Salt Lake City, and came home to blast the Tulsa Oilers, 8-2. But a Saturday night joust with Kansas City turned into a 7-1 nightmare, snapping a three-game win string.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t Larry&rsquo;s fault,&rdquo; said Hawk coach John Muckier after the debacle. &ldquo;We had absolutely no checking.&rdquo;Greg Hubick and Bill Derlago had two goals each against Tulsa Friday, with Derlago scoring shorthanded. Brad Gassoff, Larry Goodenough and Rob Tudor counted in the middle frame. Derlago got his two in the third, around one by Rob Tudor. The Hawks scored on their first three power chances, while holding Tulsa to one goal on seven power plays.Tudor&rsquo;s 20 points were good for third place on the CHL scoring chart.OKLAHOMA CITY: They were vastly different games, but the bottom line read the same&mdash;a 3-1 loss for the first-place Oklahoma City Stars against the second-place Golden Eagles. A six-point first-place margin had dwindled to two and the losses broke a six-game home winning streak.Kelly Greenbank managed a 1-1 tie in the second period Saturday, and Don Jackson&rsquo;s second-period power play goal was good for a 1-0 lead after two periods Sunday, but the Eagles took charge in the final period of both contests.Jim Warden worked the Saturday loss, and rookie Mike Dibble was in the nets Sunday, after Jim pulled a hamstring. Warden had the best average among the league&rsquo;s goalies, 2.62.Mike Eaves had scored at least a point in the Stars&rsquo; first 14 games, but he was blanked Saturday. He came back to get an assist Sunday. The former Wisconsin All American still topped the CHL scorers on 26 points, three in front of Kansas City&rsquo;s Dan Bolduc.TULSA: Oiler coach John Choyce was moaning over the absence of hitters on his club, after the Tulsans were decisively outplayed in a pair of road losses, 8-2 in Dallas and 5-3 in Fort Worth. In each game the Oilers scored first.As the new week started, the Oilers did get a hitter, as aggressive right wing Kurt Walker was acquired on loan from the Los Angeles Kings. &#9632;

f0033-01

Road Victories Key To Challenge By Wings

OKLAHOMA CITY&mdash;The Central Hockey League has announced plans for a 12-game schedule again the U.S. Olympic squad during the 1979-80 season, with the games counting in the CHL standings. Each CHL team will play and Olympians once at home and once in Minnesota, probably at the Metroplex in Bloomington.More immediately, each CHL team faced the possible loss of one player for a couple of weeks when a team is picked to represent the NHL in the Izvestia tournament in Moscow, Dec. 11-12. Each NHL team will supply one player.These and other CHL plans for this season and the next were discussed at the league&rsquo;s full meetings in the Skrvin Plaza Hotel, Nov. 20. &#9632;

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December 8, 1978

MacKinnon Jets’ Star Of Future

Lowe QMJHL’S Top Defenseman; Juniors Interrupt Draveurs’ Skein

Looking At College Scoreboard

Guidolin Rockies’ Coaching Choice