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 22, 1978

The Hockey News December 22, 1978

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03210/4325676-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="517" height="1035"></div> &#9632;

f0035-03

IN THIS ISSUE

Who They’re Affiliated With…

<div class="byline">BY BRUCE PENTON</div>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 CanadaSEATTLE&mdash;If it&rsquo;s true that Seattle Breakers are considering a change of cities, owner Ephraim Steinke and coach Les Calder may look for a locale east of the Rockies.By the bad luck of geography; the Breakers once again have a more-t hanrespectable hockey club but face the possibility of missing the playoffs because of the tough opposition in the Western Division.Last year, the Breakers&rsquo; 76-point total, gained from a 32-28-12 record in Calder&rsquo;s first year, would have put them in second place in either of the Central or Eastern Divisions.But in the West, it wasn&rsquo;t enough to even qualify for the playoffs; Breakers finished fourth, one point behind third-place New Westminster Bruins, who went on to win the Memorial Cup.In other words, the Breakers were one point worse than the Memorial Cup champs last year, but weren&rsquo;t afforded the opportunity to enter post-season activity.That occurrence renewed some talk of scrapping the divisional alignments when it came to qualifying for playoffs. The thinking was simple: Why should one team with 53 points qualify out of the Central Division while another (the Breakers) with 76 be ineligible.And so it is again this year. The Breakers, with their major eastern swing already completed, sit last in the west with 23 points. That total, though, would be good for solid third-place standings in either the Central or East Division.To date, it has been a frustrating season for Calder and the Breakers. One night, they&rsquo;ll look great, as evidenced by a recent one-goal victory over New Westminster Bruins, in the Bruins&rsquo; home den, of all places. Then, they&rsquo;ll look atrocious, like in a recent home game when they dropped a 4-3 decision to Regina Pats, who have the worst record of the Western Hockey League&rsquo;s 12 teams.The Breakers are led by Errol Rausse, a 19-year-old left winger who blossomed into superstardom last year with a 154-point season, fourth best in the league. To date, in 26 games, Rausse has 23 goals and 19 assists for 42 points, paces that would leave him about 30 points short of his last year&rsquo;s totals.Rausse got off to a rather slow start this year, but Calder is confident the Quesnel, B.C. native will pick up the pace.Veterans Lenny Dies and Anthony Thomas follow Rausse in the team scoring race, while rookie Joe Ward is fourth, with 11 goals in 26starts.Another first-year man, Ken Hodge, has taken over as the Breakers&rsquo; No. 1 goalie after a brief fling earlier this season with Portland Winter Hawks.One major plus for Calder has been the return of forward George Wright to the lineup. Wright missed all of last season after a serious motorcycle accident in the off-season following a 16-goal rookie season. The Whitehorse, Yukon player, now 19, was unconscious for about four months after the mishap and doctors at first thought he would never play hockey again. Wright has missed 10 games, but still has picked up 10 points in his 16 games, as well as 60 penalty minutes, the third-highest Breakers&rsquo; total behind defensemen Bob Kerr and Tim Hunter.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01341/4325824-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="555" height="755"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERROLRAUSSE&hellip;Amazing Comeback</figcaption></div>The Breakers appear capable of finishing around, or above, the .500 mark again this season. But unless the divisions are shuffled between now and the end of March&mdash;or a new playoff format is designed&mdash;they may have an early summer once again.PORTLAND: The Winter Hawks were the hottest team in the league, winning four consecutive road games with the Perry Turnbull-Mike Toal-Al Szott line leading the way. The trio combined for six goals and 11 points in a 9-3 whipping of Seattle and Szott&rsquo;s goal at 17:25 of the third period enabled the Hawks to edge New Westminster 65. Florent Robidoux got the winner in a 3-2 victory over Seattle and rookie defenseman David Babych equalled Turnbull&rsquo;s three-point performance in a 5-3 win at Victoria. The unbeaten week increased Portland&rsquo;s first-place lead to six points over the Cougars. Hawks have lost just four of 23 games this year.NEW WESTMINSTER: Uncharacteristically, the Bruins lost three straight games before getting back in the win column with a 7-1 triumph in Edmonton, their third-game of an eastern swing. Earlier, they had lost 6-5 at home to Portland and 4-2 and 5-1 in Calgary and Lethbridge respectively to open their road trip. John Ogrodnick, who scored nearly 20 goals in the exhibition season, needed 24 games to hit That mark in the regular season, notching No. 20 in the win over Edmonton. Rookie Pat McGill paced the triumph with a pair. Before the losing streak began, the Bruins bounced visiting Regina 8-2 as Bruce Howes scored twice and rookie defenseman Rick. Slawson scored his first of the season.VICTORIA: At home against Portland, the Cougars could have used some of the firepower usually associated with third-year man Geordie Robertson. the Cougars&rsquo; center, coming off a 136-point season, has missed 12 games to date due to injuries. Cougars dropped a 5-3 decision, which dropped their record to 13-13-3, good for a precarious hold on second place. Victoria is three points up on New West, but the Bruins have five games in hand.MEDICINE HAT: The up-and-down Tigers were a mystery to coach Vic Stasiuk. First, they lose a pair&mdash;one of them a 6-4 defeat at home to Calgary&mdash;and then go and dump first-place Billings 4-2 in the Bighorns&rsquo; home rink. Rod Van Slyke&rsquo;s 20th goal of the year started the victory, and Brian Keates later scored one and set one up. Rookie Mike Winther assisted on all four goals in a game at Lethbridge, but the Tigers lost 8-4. The loss to Calgary was an embarrassment: Tigers trailed 6-1 after two periods before getting three late goals in the third to make the final score respectable.CALGARY: The Wranglers put together two straight wins to overhaul Medicine Hat and gain possession of&rsquo; third place in the Central Division, making coach Doug Sauter look good. Sauter earlier predicted his team would have no trouble beating out the Tigers for the final playoff position. Gary Slezak&rsquo;s two goals led Calgary past New Westminster 4-2 and Slezak, Blake Sullivan and Kelly Kisio figured in three goals each in Wranglers&rsquo; 6-4 victory in Medicine Hat. Veteran Bill McLean scored twice in the Hat.BILLINGS: The Bighorns, with a comfortable lead atop the Central Division, suddenly started playing like bantams&mdash;at home, yet. They blew a 4-1 first-period lead to Saskatoon and lost,, incredibly, 7-5 and then were beaten 4-2 by lowly Medicine Hat in front of 4,868 stunned spectators. Some good news for coach Dave King was the return to the lineup of rookie Blake Stephen, touted in pre-season reviews as a potential star.LETHBRIDGE: While the Bighorns stumbled, the Broncos won three games in impressive fashion, all at home, to move to within Five points of first place. First was an 8-4 win over Medicine Hat as Earl Ingarfield and Bob Black scored twice each. Next was an 11-2 thrashing of Saskatoon, behind the five-point performance of Doug Morrison and the four-point efforts of the Ruff boys&mdash;Lindy and Randy. The great week was capped with a solid 5-1 win over New Westminster as the Broncos held the Bruins to a mere 16 shots on goalie Gregg Dumba.BRANDON: The unbeaten Wheat Kings extended their streak to 25 straight games with two wins and a tie against Edmonton. At home, rookie Dave McDonald and sophomore Laurie Boschman tallied twice each in a 7-2 victory. In Edmonton, three third-period goals earned Brandon a 3-3 tie before the Wheaties beat the Oil Kings 3-1 the next night behind scoring leader Brian Propp&rsquo;s goal and assist. Propp and linemate Ray Allison recently moved into fifth and sixth place respectively on the all-time WHL points&rsquo;.&rsquo;list&mdash;Propp with 404 points and Allison with 403. Both appear certain to overhaul all-time leader Ron Chipperfield, a former Wheat King, whose four-year career netted him 470 points.EDMONTON: Owner Bill Hunter&rsquo;s hopes for the &ldquo;largest crowd in WHL history&rsquo;&rdquo; fell quite a bit short when only 3,558 people showed up on Fan Appreciation Night. The fans weren&rsquo;t too appreciative of the Oil Kings performance&mdash;a 7-1 loss at the hands of New Westminster. Earlier, the Kings had gained but one point in three games with division-leading Brandon, earning a 3-3 tie at home behind Larry McCargar&rsquo;s goal and two assists. McCarger, recently returned from the injury shelf, scored the only goal in the 3-1 home-ice loss to Brandon.SASKATOON: Center Ken Federko powered the Blades to a comeback 7-5 win over the Bighorns in Billings, scoring three goals and setting up two others. Blades trailed 4-1 after 20 minutes before starting their comeback. They should have stayed in Montana, though. Two nights later, back on Canadian soil, the Blades were blasted 11-2 in Lethbridge. A scoring change not reported the night of the game took away an assist from Federko in a game reported last week, meaning that his record seven-assist performance against Regina was, in fact, only a record-tying six assist game.REGINA: After losing their first three starts of a four-game swing to the west coast, the-hapless Pats surprised many people with a 4-3 win over the Breakers in Seattle. Dirk Graham&rsquo;s goal was the winner and rookie Brian Inkster&rsquo;s first WHL&mdash;in his first league game&mdash;also helped immensely. Earlier in the week, the Pats scored the first and last goals of the game but lost 8-2 to New Westminster. Last week, they were beaten in Portland and Victoria to start the journey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02269/4325817-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="559" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body">PERRYTURNBULL&hellip;Hot For Hawks</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

Seattle Victimized By WHL’s ‘Tough’Division

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-06157/4324673-1-eng-US/f0022-062.jpg" title="f0022-06" width="638" height="1652"></div> &#9632;

f0022-06

The NHL Scoreboard

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01432/4324939-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="601" height="1846"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02336/4324932-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="1201" height="663"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03288/4324925-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="606" height="2411"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04225/4324918-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="603" height="531"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05186/4324911-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="1154" height="1068"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE ROGERS&hellip;Boosts Whalers&rsquo; Offense</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01413/4324904-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="618" height="935"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02306/4324897-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="602" height="1073"></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

WORLD HOCKEY ASST. SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01706/4325941-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

Cover-01

The Hockey News

TORONTO&mdash;The NHL is sending a team to the 1978 Izvestia hockey tournament in Moscow Dec. 16-22 and while the players chosen are not the league&rsquo;s first line stars, there is speculation the team has the potential to make a commendable showing.No one expects the NHL selects to bring back the title-but team manager Bill Watters feels they can become competitive against the top European teams in the week-long Moscow tournament.Watters, who will manage the team while Marshall Johnston of Denver University, a former NHL player, will be the coach, announced his 19-man team and said he would probably add one or two more players before the tournament actually begins.The New York Islanders contributed three of the 19 players on the team, which is made up of fringe performers with NHL teams or players owned by NHL clubs who are now playing in the high minor leagues.Heading the Islander entourage were goalie Goran Hogosta, defenseman Bob Lorimer and center Rich Hansen. Only Lorimer is presently up with the Islanders in the NHL.The complete squad includes goalers Hogosta and Doug Soetaert of the Rangers; defensemen Tom Price of Pittsburgh, Toronto&rsquo;s Bob Neely, Terry Murray of Philadelphia, Jean Hamel of Detroit and Lorimer. Soetaert and Lorimer are the only ones in the NHL at the moment.On the forward lines, Watters will have at center Hansen, Ron Andruff of Colorado, Jean Savard of Chicago and Kris Manery of Minnesota. All four are in the minors. On right wing, it will be Dwight Foster of Boston. Tom Gorence of Philadelphia, Eddie Johnstone of the Rangers and Tony Currie of St. Louis. Johnstone is presently with the Rangers. The rest are playing on farm, clubs. At left wing. Gene Carr and Bob Simpson of Atlanta, Lome Stamler of Toronto and Normand Dupont of Montreal have been named. Stamler is the only one of the four in the NHL at the present time.The NHL team will play its first tournament game in Moscow Dec. 16 against Finland. Games with the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Sweden will follow in the round-robin event.<h2>Soviets Capture First Tour Game</h2>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;The touring Soviet All Stars provided the first victory on their North American tour of WHA cities when they slopped the New England Whalers 7-4. The Soviets led 2-0 in the first period and were never headed. It was the first of seven games for the Russians, who will also play in Quebec City Dec. 12, Winnipeg Dec. 14, Edmonton Dec. 15, Indianapolis Dec. 16, Birmingham Dec. 19 and Cincinnati Dec. 20.The Moscow Dynamos will follow with a seven-game schedule which will be highlighted by a three-game series against the WHA All Stars Jan. 2, 3 and 5 in Edmonton&rsquo;s Coliseum. The Dynamos are also booked into Springfield against New England Dec. 26, Quebec City Dec. 27, Dec. 29 in Edmonton and Dec. 30 in Winnipeg before taking on the WHA selects.Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Finland will send All Star teams into WHA cities as well. &#9632;

Islanders Place Three On Izvestia 19-ManTeam

Following is a specially prepared statement issued by Vincent J. Bartino, chairman of the board and president of the Pittsburgh Penguins to THE HOCKEY NEWS in response to Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s recent comments that the Pittsburgh Penguins are a franchise in trouble:PITTSBURGH&mdash;If Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s prognosis of the Pittsburgh Penguins, in which he alludes to the imminent demise of the team, is any indication of his judgment and evaluation on behalf of the NHL Player&rsquo;s Association then a lot of those hockey players should worry about the kind of representation they are getting from him.As the man next to Mr. Edward J. DeBartolo, majority owner of the Penguins, I can tell you that Eagleson is talking through his hat.Mr. Eagleson&rsquo;s statement is not worthy of a denial. One must wonder, however, what motivates such an unwarranted and &ldquo;shoot from the hip&rdquo; headline-seeking comment.All I can say is that we do not need nor will we seek Mr. Eagleson&rsquo;s evaluation or judgments in operating the Penguins.We are capable of handling our own decisions in these areas.As the single biggest investor in professional sports in this country, which includes the San Francisco 49&rsquo;ers Professional Football Team, three major racetracks, and a hockey team, the DeBartolo family&rsquo;s outstanding performance speaks for itself.The DeBartolo organization has never been associated with a loser. That not rhetoric&hellip;that&rsquo;s factPITTSBURGH PENGUINS, INC. &#9632;

Eagleson Rapped By Penguin Boss

<h2>THE NHL&hellip;</h2>Atlanta&hellip;&hellip;11Boston&hellip;&hellip;9Buffalo&hellip;&hellip;2Chicago&hellip;&hellip;12Colorado&hellip;&hellip;19Detroit&hellip;&hellip;19Los Angeles&hellip;&hellip;7Minnesota&hellip;&hellip;8Montreal&hellip;&hellip;3N.Y. Islanders&hellip;&hellip;13N.Y. Rangers&hellip;&hellip;8Philadelphia&hellip;&hellip;15Pittsburgh&hellip;&hellip;17St. Louis&hellip;&hellip;18Toronto&hellip;&hellip;5Vancouver&hellip;&hellip;4Washington&hellip;&hellip;20<h2>THE WHA&hellip;</h2>Birmingham&hellip;&hellip;24Cincinnati&hellip;&hellip;28Edmonton&hellip;&hellip;27Indianapolis&hellip;&hellip;28New England&hellip;&hellip;25Quebec&hellip;&hellip;25Winnipeg&hellip;&hellip;24<h2>OTHER LEAGUES&hellip;</h2>Colleges&hellip;&hellip;29American&hellip;&hellip;32Central&hellip;&hellip;33International&hellip;&hellip;34North Eastern&hellip;&hellip;35Ontario Major&hellip;&hellip;36Pacific&hellip;&hellip;37WHL&hellip;&hellip;38Quebec Major&hellip;&hellip;39<h2>COLUMNISTS&hellip;</h2>Ken McKenzie&hellip;&hellip;4Bob Verdi&hellip;&hellip;2Bill Libby&hellip;&hellip;8Bill Fleischman&hellip;&hellip;12<h2>FEATURES&hellip;</h2>Player Movements&hellip;&hellip;5Fan Forum&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 DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011073/4323301-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Danny Gare responded to changes with three-goal week.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;There&rsquo;s nothing like a change to spur a slumping hockey club. Coaches shake up lines, teams recall players from the minors and in the case of the Buffalo Sabres, they dumped the general manager and coach.The players reacted quickly to the major shuffling job the club did last weekend when they fired GM Punch Imlach and coach Marcel Proitovost. The Sabres played three times this past week and didn&rsquo;t lose a game. Two ended in lies and the third was a convincing 5-3 decision over Toronto.Two of the reportedly more disgruntled members of the Sabres, Gilbert Perreault and Danny Gare responded by scoring a total of four goals between them. Not bad for two guys who had only six apiece in the Sabres&rsquo; first 24 games.The Sabres brought in a recently retired former Buffalo player, Billy Inglis, as interim coach and elevated John Andersen to the new role of director of player personnel.Between them they did a pretty fair job of turning the Sabres part way around with tour out of a possible six points.Still, there were many problems to be cleared up with the departure of Imlach and Pronovost and much of it was confined to the ice.One problem was pointed up when the Boston Bruins came to town and scored two third-period goals to win, 4-3. The Sabres did not get a shot on goal in the third period of that game until the Bruins had 17 and two goals. That was at the 12:45 mark, when Craig Ramsay put a shot from beyond the blueline on the Boston net.The Sabres&rsquo; poor performance in the third period of that game pointed up the fact that the club has not done very well in the final 20 minutes of most games this season.The games are just too long for the Sabres. Knock off the third period and they would be doing right well. If NHL games lasted only 40 minutes, the Sabres would be leading the Adams Division. You could look at it that way, at least.In 15 of the Sabres&rsquo; first 22 games, the Buffalo club was outshot in the final period. Once they got only two shots and once they got three. In that Boston game mentioned above, they were outshot by 20-4 in the final 20 minutes.They were outscored seven times in the final period ol the first 22 games and they outscored the opposition in seven, with eight even.But when the Sabres outscored their foes, they did not change the outcome of the game except in one instance? In Philadelphia, Nov. 2, they scored two goals to one for the Flyers and gained a 3-3 tie.Not once had they turned defeat into victory with last-period scores. In fact for more than 100 games reaching back into the 1976-77 serason, the Sabres had not come from behind to win in the final period.Twice this season the Sabres have taken a lead into the third period and lost the game. Three times they were ahead going into the final period and finished with only a tie.Once, in that game against the Bruins, they were tied going into the Imai period and lost the game.Since Boston was involved in two of the games in which the Sabres faltered in the final period, had the Sabres won all of those games, they would be ahead of the Bruins, leaders of the Adams Division and nine points ahead of the third-place Sabres after 22 games.If the Sabres had won those three ties and three defeats, they would have had nine more points. Boston, which would have lost instead of tying and tied instead of winning in two of the games, would have two points less.Ah, well, it isn&rsquo;t likely the NHL will change the length of its games, so it was back to the drawing board for the Sabres.ICE CHIPS: Jerry Korab, a defenseman, was the Sabres&rsquo; leading scorer after 22 games. It was the first time a defenseman ever had led the Sabres in scoring. Korab had picked up at least one point in 10 of his last 11 games. Ramsay, known best as a checking forward and penalty killer, was coleader of the club in goals, with eight. Rick Martin, who also had eight, was bothered by bruised ribs and was not playing much.Don Edwards, the league&rsquo;s leading goaltender when he suffered a sprained left ankle against the Bruins in Boston Nov. 23, missed several games but Bob Sauve, called up from Hershey of the American League, filled in capably. &#9632;

f0002-01

Sabres React Fast To Changes At Top With 3-Game Streak

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>MONTREAL&mdash;A series of tests on the back of Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; captain Yvan Cournoyer revealed what those close to the team suspected&mdash;that a second disc operation was necessary and the speedy right winger would be finished for the season&mdash;and undoubtedly at the end of the road in his starry career.And it came at the worst possible time for coach Scotty Bowman and the Canadiens, during a month-long siege which has knocked as many as seven players out of the lineup for varying lengths of time.Cournoyer, who could not be reached for comment, had stated previously that he would retire from the game if a second back operation were necessary. The first occurred in the spring of 1977 and he missed the latter portion of the regular season and the playoffs. He played all of last season without complaint, although he recently indicated that he had had some problems toward the end of the year.After returning from a western trip with the club, Cournoyer visited his doctor and after being ordered to a week of complete rest, underwent a myelogram test in which a fluid was injected into his spinal column to better illuminate x-rays. The tests revealed that another operation was necessary, either just after Christmas or early in the new year.When Cournoyer first came out of the lineup, following the Canadiens&rsquo; 19th game Of the year, in Vancouver, he joined Doug Rosebrough (separated shoulder), Pierre Larouche (bruised knee), and Gilles Lupien (pulled leg muscle) on the sidelines.Eight games later only Lupien had returned although the others were skating in practices and in the meantime winger Pat Hughes missed a few games with a slight shoulder separation, Guy Lapointe separated his shoulder in a home-ice 3-0 win against Philadelphia and Jacques Lemaire dislocated, you guessed it, a shoulder in his first shift Dec. 6 in a 2-2 tie with Detroit. Lapointe was expected to be ready for Canadiens&rsquo;second long road trip of the year, beginning in St. Louis Dec. 12, but Lemaire was pronounced hors de combat for a six-week period.Gradually Canadiens&rsquo; customary five-man contingent which watched each game in civvies had been reduced to zero. Every available body was in uniform. Rick Chartraw became a full-time defenseman once again and Bowman juggled his forwards to produce four lines, double-shifting either guy Lafleur or Mark Napier. Cam Connor, who was nagged in training camp by a pulled groin and played in just one of the team&rsquo;s first 23 games, found himself with a spot in the lineup.Last year, the Canadiens were similarly striken with a series of injuries in December, the most serious of which was Lapointe&rsquo;s eye injury which caused him to miss more than 30 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03626/4323442-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="548" height="897"><figcaption class="caption-body">YVAN COURNOYER&hellip;More Surgery Needed (Photo by Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0003-03

Cournovyer Out For Rest Of Season

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011080/4323411-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="525" height="1997"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN DRYDEN&hellip;Reflective Mood</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Competition.That&rsquo;s what professional sports are all about and it&rsquo;s the reason why a player like Ken Dryden, who has been on four Stanley Cup winners in his eight seasons with the Montreal Canadiens is just as enthusiastic about stopping pucks as he was when he first broke into the National Hockey League.Dryden, 31, who ranks fourth among active goaltenders in shutouts with 43 and number one in playoff shutouts with 10, is a man with a number of options at his disposal as far as his immediate future is concerned. He has a law degree, and has already served his apprenticeship, during the one-year sabbatical he took from pro hockey during the 1973-74 season. He has written plays and served on consumer orientated advisory committees. Obviously he is a man with many talents. Yet he chooses to remain a professional athlete and he enjoys it.&ldquo;The biggest excitement comes, from games against your major competitors and from the playoffs,&rdquo; says Dryden. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re pushed to respond, that&rsquo;s when you get your greatest satisfaction. Highlights come from something that is difficult that you are able to handle.&ldquo;There are signs of more competition in the league,&rdquo; continued Dryden. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been the trend for the last couple of years. There are more good teams and less bad ones. Before there were six top teams and now that number has grown to eight or nine. And the number of teams at the bottom has become smaller, which means that we have big games more often, which is good for the players, the fans, everyone.&rdquo;Dryden was reaching for a coke in the Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room following a noon-hour practice the day after a night game on the road and a 1:45 a.m. arrival in Montreal, when he was asked about all of the traveling the players have to do and the fact that with eight days taken out of the schedule for the All Star break, that the players were playing more games closer together.&ldquo;The new schedule has meant an adjustment,&rdquo; Dryden began, &ldquo;I think it took about a month or so until we could get accustomed to the pace. It seems you were always getting ready to do, playing a game or getting ready to fly back, but I really think that I&rsquo;m going to like the schedule because we seem to have longer stretches at home, where we have five or six days in town and only a couple of games to play. I know other teams have worse schedules than ours, but I guess everyone gets used to traveling quickly. It depends on your background. I played college hockey, only about 25 games a season and we didn&rsquo;t travel too far, so playing pro hockey was a new experience for me, but something that you get used to, and doesn&rsquo;t bother you after awhile.&rdquo;Like most goalies Dryden would prefer to play almost every game but realizes that not only is it impossible physically, but that the team&rsquo;s other goalie, Michel (Bunny) Larocque, also needs to play.For the past two seasons Dryden and Larocque have shared the Vezina Trophy for the goaltenders allowing the least goals in the league. Three years ago, Dryden alone qualified for the award because Larocque did not play a sufficient number of games. Gradually, though, Larocque has played in an increasingly larger number of games each year, appearing in 22, 26 and 30 the past three seasons as compared to 62, 56, 52 for Dryden.As Dryden explains; &ldquo;Scotty (Bowman) still tells us before each game who is going to play. He doesn&rsquo;t want to be restricted to using the goalies on an alternate basis and doesn&rsquo;t want to be committed to any one system. He wants to be able to change his mind according to the circumstances involved and the goaltenders just have to be ready to play.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02923/4323404-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1651" height="1404"></div>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect any significant change in the amount of games I play: I&rsquo;ve averaged somewhere around 54 or 56 games a season. I suppose that I could play 60 games, I think 63 was the most I played in one season (actually 64), but Bunny is a very good goalie and he certainly deserves a chance to play.&rdquo;Dryden&rsquo;s &ldquo;theory,&rdquo; if you will, about goaltending is that it is a matter of translating what you have learned over a number of years, the basic fundamentals and reacting to changes as they occur, which are largely due to personnel changes.&ldquo;You look for certain things from players and you try to remember what you did or didn&rsquo;t do the last time; there are a number of ways to improve, but I think you&rsquo;ll find that they are very small things, nothing major,&rdquo; Dryden said. &ldquo;You get yourself into the most trouble by attempting to be extremely clever, by outsmarting your opponent.&ldquo;The difference between the better and the lesser player is the ability to have shorter slumps. Everyone has slumps, goaltenders as well as for wards. Sometimes no matter what you do, you just can&rsquo;t figure out why it&rsquo;s happening, but usually it&rsquo;s just something you have overlooked,&rdquo; Dryden explained. &ldquo;Slumps can be brought on by fatigue or often goals just tend to breed goals.&rdquo;And so Ken Dryden, have you made any timetable for the length of your career as a professional athlete?&ldquo;My wife (Linda) and I have discussed it a great deal, especially in the last year or so, but it&rsquo;s a year to year proposition. I don&rsquo;t think you can pinpoint a certain age three or four years in the future at which time you&rsquo;ll retire. You might not think you&rsquo;ll want to play in a number of years, but when the time comes, maybe you&rsquo;ll really want to.&rdquo;How about Ken Dryden, famous clubhouse lawyer, restructuring the future of hockey? &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think so.&rdquo; Dryden laughed. &ldquo;I might like to get involved on a part-time basis, in something like Hockey Canada, but only on a hobby type basis.&rdquo;Seeing how Dryden has prepared himself for whatever endeavor he has undertaken, you can bet that his &ldquo;part-time&rdquo; efforts will be a benefit to all of those involved. &#9632;

f0003-01

Competition Greatest Challenge For Dryden

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011131/4323501-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="472" height="465"></div>&bull; HOCKEY CIRCLES still in shock over the rapid firing of Punch Imlach as general manager and Marcel Pronovost as coach by the Buffalo Sabres. There are two schools of thought on these dismissals, most hockey observers feel it was a bold move by owner Seymour Knox III and showed plenty of courage on his part. It was a move that had to be made for the betterment of the team and for the loyal hockey fans of Buffalo. The pro-Imlach faction believes that the Sabres and the NHL will miss the canny and colorful Punch. However, it was obvious something had to be done to turn the club around. The Sabres, once one of the strongest of the expansion clubs and Stanley Cup finalists a few years back, were going from bad to worse this year. Plenty of first-rate talent studded the Sabres&rsquo; lineup but the players weren&rsquo;t giving out the way they were capable and there was a heavy current of unrest&hellip;Don Cherry, on the last year of his contract with Boston Bruins, would be an ideal choice as general manager-coach of the Sabres. Cherry is one of the few hockey men around who could handle both jobs. There are few, if any,, better coaches on the scene than Cherry and the report is that his salary is well below several other NHL coaches who have failed to do the job he&rsquo;s done in recent years&hellip;Denis DeJordy, former NHL goalie who has been coaching junior teams in the Montreal area of late, is now a scout with the New York Rangers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021085/4323494-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="291" height="428"><figcaption class="caption-body">Seymour Knox III</figcaption></div>&bull; YVAN COURNOYER has probably played his last game for the Montreal Canadiens. The 35-year-old Montreal captain is through for this season as he has to go to the hospital for another major back operation. It&rsquo;s a tough blow for the fleet forward as he so wanted to continue his NHL career&hellip;Hotel Toronto is sports headquarters in Toronto. All but four of the NHL teams stop there when visiting the land of the Maple Leafs. All the major league baseball clubs stay at the Hotel Toronto as do all the Canadian Football League Clubs. Bob McCauley genial general manager of the Hotel Toronto and a native Montrealer, has done a superb job in making his hostelry the place to stay for visiting sports teams and sports fans&hellip;Wayne Hunter, a Canadian hockey coach, is working in Communist China&hellip;Several NHL teams had their western scouts in Ontario recently to evaluate their juniors. Included were George Wood, Vancouver; Gerry Melnyk, Philadelphia; Gerry Ehman, N.Y. Islanders; Rudy Filion, Vancouver; and Ian McKenzie, Atlanta&hellip;A book on Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s career titled: Hockey&rsquo;s No. One, was launched at a press party in Montreal the other day. The book was written by Claude Larochelle, one of the finest hockey writers around. The book will appear in both English and French&hellip;Washington Caps&rsquo; defenseman Rick Green will miss a few games as a result of an eye injury. He was struck in the eye by the stick of teammate Gordie Lane. The Caps can&rsquo;t seem to shy away from tough luck. Robert Picard, another ace defenseman, suffered a shoulder separation.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03979/4323487-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="298" height="426"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Green</figcaption></div>&bull; REAL CLOUTIER, prolific scoring right winger of the Quebec Nordiques, has been accumulating hat tricks at a bewildering tempo. He has already scored 18 hat tricks in the WHA, one less than the record 19 held by the recently retired Bobby Hull of Winnipeg&hellip;Danny Geoffrion, Boom Boom&rsquo;s son, is starting to show a lot of class lately with the Nordiques. He is getting more ice time and garnering more goals and assists&hellip; New York Islanders, the National League&rsquo;s hottest club of late, were unbeaten for 15 straight games and their last 12 at home&hellip;Montreal Canadiens had but 16 shots on goal in their recent game against Detroit Red Wings. This ties a Canadiens&rsquo; record for fewest shots on goal in a game. On two other occasions since these records were kept the Habs had but 16 shots. They were against Detroit on December 2, 1956 with Glenn Hall in the Red Wing nets and again on January 26, 1964. Glenn Hall was in goal for Chicago this time. Rogie Vachon was in goal for Detroit on December 6&hellip;John Timmins, 26-year-old son of Jack Timmins, present commissioner of the North Eastern Hockey League, is attending the Los Angeles Chiropractic School of Medicine. He was formerly employed as a trainer by the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; and St. Louis Blues&rsquo; organizations&hellip;Brad Park, star defenseman of the Boston Bruins, complains that the knee on which he had surgery earlier this season, is still very sore.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04877/4323480-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="296" height="432"><figcaption class="caption-body">Real Cloutier</figcaption></div>&bull; THE OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL Hockey Tournament, Dec. 27-30, will enter its fifth year with 72 teams and 1,400 players from Canada and the United States taking part&hellip;Claude Ruel, assistant Canadiens&rsquo; coach and director of player development, has told friends he might accept an NHL coaching position if the right job was offered. He previously coached Canadiens to the I Stanley Cup in 1969&hellip;Chicago I Black Hawks have added a bright young fellow to their publicity department in the person of Jim Sullivan Jim could go far to the public relations end of the business&hellip;Bill Adler and Matt Dennis, publicity directors of the Central and International Hockey Leagues respectively, have both done outstanding jobs with their league&rsquo;s 1978-79 yearbooks&hellip; Pittsburgh Penguins have gone seven straight games without a defeat, which is a fine performance by this team&hellip;Marc Tardif, the WHA&rsquo;s scoring whiz with Quebec Nordiques, has accepted to be honorary president of the fifth International Midget Hockey Tournament of Drummondville, Que. He will participate in the official opening on January 29, 1979&hellip;Larry Hillman, coach of the Winnipeg Jets, will coach the WHA All Stars in their three-game series against Dynamos of Moscow in Edmonton on January 2, 4 and 5. This series will replace the annual WHA All Star game. The WHA All Stars will be announced shortly&hellip;Of the 19 players on the Washington Caps, no less than 10 have yet to play a full season with the Capitals&hellip;We would like to wish hockey fans everywhere a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a healthy, happy and prosperous NEW YEAR.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05738/4323473-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="285" height="430"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Park</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY FOUNDED 1947VOLUME 32, NUMBER 12, DECEMBER 22, 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 TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-06435/4323532-1-eng-US/f0004-062.jpg" title="f0004-06" width="559" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL DERLAGO&hellip;Severed Ligaments</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Most hockey players complain about having to play around Christmas, feeling the festive season should be reserved for time with the family.Bill Derlago of the Canucks is wondering what it&rsquo;s like to be playing hockey in December.In his last year of junior hockey, he stretched the ligaments in his knee and sat out three months of the season. Still he scored 89 goals and was the fourth player selected in the June amateur draft, taken by the Canucks who badly needed someone to put the puck in the net for them at center.Most everyone expected the 20-year-old native of Beulah, Man. to be off to a fine start in the NHL, his old knee problems behind him. But as any pro I athlete is beginning to discover, knee problems never go away. It is only a I matter of time until you hurt it again. Then it happens and happens until finally you end up like Bobby Orr, your career shortened because of one too many operations, one too many blows.Whether the bad knee had anything to do with Derlago&rsquo;s performance at the Canucks&rsquo; training camp or not is anybody&rsquo;s guess. But he came in 10 pounds overweight and didn&rsquo;t make the team. He was sent to Dallas of the Central League for some seasoning, and some scouts in the Vancouver organization were beginning to do some private sweating over their choice of the high scoring center front the Brandon Wheat Kings.In Dallas, coach John Muckler worked him hard and restored his confidence. He came back to the Canucks a new man and on Nov. 22 played his first game since returning front the farm and scored a goal and set up &rsquo;two others. He was a smashing success with the fans.His next game was in Colorado. He had two goals and again was all over the ice, and named the first star by the Colorado media. His third game, disaster struck, and the likeable center was knocked flat on his back and probably out for the season.He was on a two-on-two break against the New York Islanders with right winger Dennis Ververgaert making a rush. He passed off the puck and just as he crossed the blueline he was nailed in the left knee with a check from Denis Potvin.The damage to that same knee he hurt in junior was extensive. He suffered severed knee ligaments, which is apparently worse than torn ligaments, and the doctors estimated he would be out from six to 16 weeks, emphasis on the latter figure.Derlago&rsquo;s problems, when you think that Colorado lost Mike Gillis and Washington lost Ryan Walter, are enough to give the have-nots in the league more than just a persecution complex.Combined with the hand injury suffered by Swedish star center Thomas Gradin, Canucks were beginning to wonder whether the order of teams in the league will ever change.Two days after Derlago&rsquo;s hurt. Gradin was hit by Dennis Kearns in practice and suffered a broken bone in his hand. He was outfitted with a special cast and missed only two games, but his movement and ability to shoot the puck will be hampered for over a month.&ldquo;This will give center Pit Martin and Roland Eriksson the ice lime that maybe they&rsquo;ve been wanting,&rdquo; said Canock&rsquo;s coach Harry Neale. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really a shame about Derlago. He was just getting to the point where he was figuring &lsquo;maybe I can play this game&rsquo; when he gets hurl.&rdquo;Martin and Eriksson did in fact respond with fine performances in their first games back with regular shifts, Eriksson scoring his first goal since the opening night of the season.Whether there is something about Swedes hands or not is another question that must be bothering Neale because Eriksson has also been bothered for a month with a broken little finger which-has hindered his grip on his stick.The injuries meant that Canucks had to recall Rick Blight and Rob Tudor for a while, though Blight&rsquo;s stay might be more permanent. Tudor played in his first NHL game in a 6-3 win over St. Louis. Blues and had several chances to score. The victory for Vancouver was their fifth in their last six games on the road, though they have been woeful at home during that streak losing seven of eight at the Pacific Coliseum. The victory over the Blues was highlighted by Ron Sedlbauer&rsquo;s second career hat trick, the three goals bringing his season total to 15. The big left winger, who has always been one of the top plus-minus players on the team, has never had a 20-goal season. &#9632;

f0004-06

Canucks Plagued By Injury Siege On Star Rookies

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>ATLANTA&mdash;Don Laurence, C, recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL.BOSTON&mdash;Mike Walton, C, claimed from St. Louis on waivers and assigned to Rochester of AHL. Later recalled by the Bruins. Jim Pettie, G, returned to Rochester. Gary Doak, D, placed on disabled list with elbow injury. Rick Smith, D, placed on disabled list with hand injury.BUFFALO&mdash;Jim Schoenfeld, D, returned to lineup from injury list.CHICAGO&mdash;Doug Wilson, D, returned to lineup from injury list. Alain Daigle, C, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Jim Harrison, C, assigned to New Brunswick of AHL but refused to report and was placed on suspended list. Mike O&rsquo;Connell, D, returned to New Brunswick.COLORADO &mdash; Merlin Malinowski, C, recalled from Philadelphia of AHL. Mike Kitchen, D, returned to lineup from injury list. Nelson Pyatt, C, and Paul Messier, RW, assigned to Philadelphia.DETROIT&mdash;Willie Huber, D, Mal Davis, LW, and Dan Bolduc, LW, all recalled from Kansas City of CHL. Real Cloutier, C, and Fern LeBlanc, RW, assigned to Kansas City as replacements.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Dave Gardner, C, recalled from Springfield of AHL and reassigned to Tulsa of CHL. Steve Short, D, sent to Kansas City of CHL.MONTREAL&mdash;Yvan Cournoyer, RW, placed on disabled list for rest of season to undergo back surgery. Jacques Lemaire, C, placed on disabled list for six weeks with shoulder separation.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Drew Callander, RW, assigned to Maine of AHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Randy Carlyle, D, placed on disabled list with broken ankle. Gregg Sheppard, C, placed on disabled list with broken finger.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Mike Walton, C, placed on waivers and claimed by Boston. Larry Huras, D, assigned to Salt Lake of CHL.VANCOUVER&mdash;Dune Wilson, G, Stan Smyl, RW, and Rob Tudor, C, assigned to Dallas of CHL. Norm Lapointe, G, recalled from Dallas of CHL and reassigned to Fort Wayne of IHL.WASHINGTON&mdash; Gerry Meehan, C, waived through league and later joined Cincinnati of WHA. Robert Picard, D, placed on disabled list with shoulder separation. Rick Green, D, placed on disabled list with eye injury.<h2>WORLD HOCKEY ASSN.</h2>BIRMINGHAM&mdash;Greg Tebbutt, D, assigned to Binghamton of AHL.CINCINNATI&mdash;Bryon Baltimore, D, traded to Indianapolis for future considerations. Gerry Meehan, C, signed as free agent. Kelly Davis, D, recalled from Springfield of AHL.QUEBEC&mdash;Jim Dorey, D, recalled from Philadelphia of AHL. &#9632;

Hockey Players On The Move

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div>TORONTO&mdash;When goalie Paul Harrison returned to the Met Center to face his former National Hockey League team, Minnesota North Stars, for the first time as a Toronto Maple Leaf, there were a few seconds early in the game when he figured he&rsquo;s never switched clubs.&ldquo;A fan hollered at me &lsquo;Harrison, you sieve, you bum&rsquo; just like he did when I was a North Star,&rdquo; Harrison said. &ldquo;In a funny way, it made me feel right at home, even though I was in a new sweater.&rdquo;Harrison had a few jitters early in that match when the Stars took a 3-1 lead but settled down to back a 5-3 victory by the Leafs. It was the sixth consecutive match without a loss (five wins, one tie) for Harrison, one of the steals of the year on the NHL trading market.In his first 10 matches as a Leaf, Harrison built a highly respectable 2.68 goals against average. Mike Palmateer, who still holds the Leafs&rsquo; No. 1 goaltending job, had a 2.94 average in his first 14 games, although that &ldquo;first string&rdquo; title slowly was being eroded by Harrison&rsquo;s strong play.Harrison, 23, played junior hockey with Oshawa Generals, then was drafted by the North Stars in 1975. He spent two seasons in the minor leagues before sharing the Minnesota net with Peter LoPresti. Harrison had a 3.82 goals against average in 27 games in &lsquo;77-78, a decent figure with the worst team in the league.But when the North Stars merged with Cleveland Barons last summer, the team suddenly had a crease-full of goalies&mdash;Gilles Meloche and Gary Edwards from the Barons, LoPresti and Harrison from the Stars.&ldquo;When I heard that the merger of the clubs had happened, I figured I&rsquo;d be odd-man out for the goaltending job,&rdquo; Harrison said.That&rsquo;s where the Leafs entered the picture. Last season&rsquo;s back-up goalie Gord McRae turned down a Leaf contract offer, retired from hockey and continued his education at Michigan Tech. The Leafs did have Pierre Hamel as a top candidate for the back-up role behind Palmateer, who played in 63 games last season.During last June&rsquo;s NHL meetings in Montreal, the Leafs secured Harrison&rsquo;s services in exchange for a fourth-round draft selection.&ldquo;Technically, I was a free agent because I hadn&rsquo;t signed a new contract,&rdquo; Harrison said. &ldquo;But that doesn&rsquo;t matter, the way things worked out When I heard the Leafs had picked up, it was great news. I figured I had a good chance for the back-up job.&rdquo;Harrison had an excellent training camp with the Leafs while Hamel, who has played well for the Leafs&rsquo; farm team in the American League, New Brunswick Hawks, had a bad camp.&ldquo;The best part of the training camp for me was the large amount of work I received,&rdquo; Harrison said.Although Harrison was the losing goalie in his first four starts for the Leafs, he played well in all games, holding the Leafs close in three of them when they really deserved to be blown out.Harrison quickly became very popular with his teammates because of his hard-working approach. When he did win his first game&mdash;against the Canucks in Vancouver, the Leafs mobbed him at the game&rsquo;s finish.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a treat playing for this team, especially with a great defense in front of me,&rdquo; Harrison said. &ldquo;Last season in Minnesota, 40 shots was an easy night&rsquo;s work. With the Leafs, I seldom have more than 25 shots to handle.&ldquo;When you work behind defensemen like Borje Salming, Dave Burrows and Ian Turnbull, rebounds are cleared away very quickly and, some nights, Salming blocks as many shots as I do.&rdquo;Harrison and Palmateer can&rsquo;t be called rivals for the job. They&rsquo;re close friends and roommates on the road. Leaf coach Roger Neilson supplies his goalies with a two-week schedule of their starting assignments.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great arrangement because you always know when you&rsquo;ll be playing and can be ready,&rdquo; Harrison said.LEAF NOTES: Right winger Ron Ellis scored the winning goal against the North Stars, his first match after a six-week, 17-game absence because of a knee injury&hellip;When Ellis returned, the Leafs sent utility man Ron Wilson to New Brunswick. Wilson had been employed almost exclusively as pointman on the power-play, a job he did well&hellip;&rdquo;Wilson simply wasn&rsquo;t getting enough ice time with us,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a splendid prospect and he&rsquo;ll work at center in the American League. We told him that he&rsquo;d be there for at least a month to get plenty of work.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Dan Maloney missed four games because of a broken cheekbone and will wear a protective mast for several weeks. During Maloney&rsquo;s absence, defenseman Turnbull saw much action as a left winger.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01982/4323611-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="549" height="937"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL HARRISON&hellip;Praises Defense</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

Harrison Making Inroads On Leaf Goaltending Job

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02758/4323642-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="592" height="629"></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

Team Penalties

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011162/4323673-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="319" height="461"></div><h2>Sleeping Giant Awakens</h2>LAST PLACE.That&rsquo;s the place, of all places, that we picked the Atlanta Flames to finish. With advice like that, who needs bad advice?The theory was that the Flames, albeit talented and maturing, were a team without a killer instinct in a tough neighborhood&mdash;the Patrick Division, where the solid New York Islanders, revived New York Rangers and proud Philadelphia Flyers play.But the sleeping giant, and the Atlanta Flames are giant, has awoken. Not overnight, but over a long haul.&ldquo;People forget,&rdquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher was saying, &ldquo;that we had a good streak at the end of the regular season last year. We had an unfortunate playoff&mdash;two straight losses in the first round to Detroit. That had happened before and there might have been the temptation to panic.&rdquo;But Fletcher, a 43-year-old disciple of former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; father of future considerations Sam Pollock, does not panic. Even when the Flames&rsquo; bank account was getting so low that the thought of blowing a wad on a certain player for a certain occasion was unthinkable.&ldquo;There was a time,&rdquo; remembered Fletcher, &ldquo;when we had to shave our nickels.&rdquo;There were other hurdles. Whereas their expansion partners, the New York Islanders, were moving into a hockey area, the Flames were born into a region indigenous to football, more football, and mint julips in between halves.<h2>Points For Icing?</h2>ONE CANNOT FORGET the first Flames home game in 1972 when an Atlanta player iced the puck and the crowd roared, thinking that perchance points were awarded for such a feat.Naturally, the Deep South posed another deep issue. If the Islanders could afford to grab a kid who might play in two years but not now, the Flames had to think about grabbing a veteran who could play now but not maybe in two years.&ldquo;We had to sell not only our team down here, but hockey,&rdquo; said Fletcher. He has succeeded on both counts while certain Illinois teams have been around 50 years and continued to do neither.Meanwhile, Fletcher drafted two solid goalies&mdash;Dan Bouchard and Phil Myre&mdash;to insure instant respectability and Boom Boom Geoffrion as coach to insure instant recognition. It worked. The Flames, who made the playoffs in their second season, were a hit.&ldquo;But then the novelty wore off down here,&rdquo; Fletcher rued. &ldquo;And just about that time, the recession was setting in. At first it was the thing to do to be at a hockey game. But the sport in Atlanta was still football.&rdquo;By way of emulating the Flyers&mdash;or maybe it was the Falcons&mdash;Fletcher went looking for size and since then, the Flames have become a team of sequoia trees who move the puck with remarkable elan. Guys like Harold Phillipoff not only skate and stickhandle, they scare. Tough combination to beat.<h2>December Deal Did It</h2>IF THERE WAS A CATALYST to the current loftiness, it was a deal consummated last December with the St. Louis Blues. The Flames finally parted with one of their, ace goalies, Myre, plus Curt Bennett and Barry Gibbs for Dick Redmond, Bob MacMillan and Yves Belanger.Belanger has become backup to iron man goalie Bouchard, MacMillan has become a star and Redmond was used in a three-way deal to obtain Jean Pronovost, a super sniper from Pittsburgh.Then the draft choices that had to be tucked away for incubation have graduated and produced: Guy Chouinard, Willi Plett, Phillipoff, Ken Houston.&ldquo;The only one we picked who really fit in right away was Tom Lysiak,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s gone from a very good player to an even more mature one.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t believe all that talk about how we intimidate teams. We do have size, but it&rsquo;s not because we go into games with fighting on our minds. So we can play it any way the other team wants to.&rdquo;And the coach of quiet demeanor, Fred Creighton, nurses the Flames&mdash;not by screaming, ranting, raving or otherwise pulling gimmicks out of his hat. He doesn&rsquo;t wear a hat.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good coach,&rdquo; said Bennett, now thinking it out with the Blues. &ldquo;And they&rsquo;re a good team. You could see they had the makings there. It&rsquo;s just a matter of them growing up. They have.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-01

HOCKEY TALK

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div>NEW YORK&mdash;Several weeks ago, Ranger coach Fred Shero stood in front of a throng of reporters after a Ranger victory and said. &ldquo;This is a very hard team for me to figure out. They keep surprising me all of the time.&rdquo;Shero&rsquo;s words, uttered in the midst of the Rangers&rsquo; winning streak, were inspired by the fact that he felt his team was winning in spite of themselves, and that they were getting away with a lot of mistakes that normally would hurt a team. But because the team was winning, Shero tempered his concern with this statement: &ldquo;How can I argue with success? I don&rsquo;t like the way we&rsquo;re winning, but we are winning&hellip; so who&rsquo;s to complain?&rdquo;Suddenly, the &ldquo;little, insignificant&rdquo; mistakes that meant so little several weeks ago are beginning to look very big, in view of the Rangers&rsquo; recent back-to-back losses to Detroit 5-4 and Philadelphia 4-0. In the game against the Flyers, the Rangers were totally disorganized, looking very tentative on offense, and very confused on defense. The 4-0 score perfectly justifies the &#373;ay they played the game. But the contest against Detroit was different. In the first period, the Rangers almost blew the Red Wings out of their own building, and they never stopped skating, forechecking, and backchecking in accumulating a 3-0 lead. But then they went to sleep for the next two periods, and stayed asleep through all three periods on the next night against the Flyers. What&rsquo;smost frustrating about this slump is that it came only several days after one of the Rangers&rsquo; most impressive outings of the season, a 5-2 victory over the Flyers in Philadelphia. In that game, the Rangers fell behind, 2-0, and then roared back with five straight goals.What&rsquo;s going on here, Mr. Shero?&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been playing very loose for the last month or so,&rdquo; said Shero after the loss to the Flyers at Madison Square Garden, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m afraid I&rsquo;m going to have to do something.&rdquo;And what would that be?&ldquo;If we want to get back to winning hockey games,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re going to have to tighten up and be more cautious when we throw the puck into the zone. We have to be more defensive on offense. That means not sending five guys chasing after the puck, like we&rsquo;ve been doing lately, but sending only one man into the zone and using the others to guard the boards.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really want to do this,&rdquo; Shero went on, &ldquo;because I know we&rsquo;re supposed to be putting on a show for the fans. We have a lot of fast skaters, and it&rsquo;s more fun for the fans to watch them gamble with the puck than dump it in the zone, but we&rsquo;re going to have to do that so the guys will regain their confidence and get back on the right track.&rdquo;While Shero felt that everyone on the team was working just as hard as they were before, captain Dave Maloney felt that there had been a slight decline in the spirit of the team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not gonna name names,&rdquo; Maloney said, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t see or hear the same enthusiasm from the same guys now that I did before. I dunno, maybe we have the pre-Christmas blues or something. Whatever it is, we gotta break out of it right now. We can&rsquo;t succeed with just five or six guys playing like they were before. We need all 17 to stay on top. That&rsquo;s what got Us here, and that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s gonna keep us here. We&rsquo;re playing the cream of the crop in the next two weeks, and these games are gonna make us or break us.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re all playing as hard as we were before,&rdquo; said Pierre Plante, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t think our forechecking has been as effective as it should be. We seem to be one step behind, and that gives them time to set up and come out of the zone. Before, we were right on top of them.&rdquo;&ldquo;No one&rsquo;s easing up,&rdquo; Ron Duguay concurred, &ldquo;but I think we&rsquo;re a little too anxious to score goals, and we&rsquo;re getting caught as a result. We have to concentrate more on defense.&ldquo;I think,&rdquo; Duguay said, &ldquo;that we have a few things to work on in practice this week.&rdquo;BLUE CHIPS: For the first time all season long, Rangers are no longer the league-leader in defense. That honor goes to&mdash;who else? &mdash; the Montreal Canadiens&hellip; Walter Tkaczuk&rsquo;s next goal will be the 200th of his career&hellip;Hottest scorers for the Rangers: Ron Greschner, 25 points in his last 19 games: Phil Esposito, 20 in his last 16 games&hellip;Doug Soetaert and Eddie Johnstone will represent Rangers on the &ldquo;Future Stars of the NHL&rdquo; team that plays in Izvestia Tournament in Moscow later this month. They&rsquo;ll return on December 22&hellip;Don Murdoch in attendance at game against Flyers. He&rsquo;s optimistic about playing for Rangers, but says negotiations are now in the hands of his agent, Frank Milne&hellip;Carol Vadnais is the latest convert to a helmet. After taking a two-hander over the head from the Flyers&rsquo; Paul Holmgren, Vadnais said that he would continue to wear it. &ldquo;It saved my life,&rdquo; he said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02890/4323704-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="798" height="771"><figcaption class="caption-body">PIERRE PLANTE&hellip;One Step Behind (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0006-02

Little Mistakes Adding Up To Plague Loose Rangers

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011034/4323735-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARCEL DIONNE&hellip; At 27 Nearing His Peak</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;I have said it before and I say it again, Marcel Dionne may be the best in the business.Most regard Guy Lafleur as the best and he well may be.But I wonder what Dionne would score on Montreal&rsquo;s number one line?Dionne can skate, take a check, and shoot with anyone in the game. And no one makes the playes he does.Two seasons back, the burly little forward scored 53 goals, assisted on 69, and totalled 122 points.It was his fourth 40-goal season in six as a pro.Slowed by a shoulder injury last season, he slipped to 36 goals, 43 assists, and 79 points.This season, at his present pace, he will score 68 goals, 72 assists, and 140 points.He had 17 goals, 18 assists, and 35 points in the first 20 games and was the league&rsquo;s leader at the quarter pole.And Dionne is capable of maintaining that pace if he can keep up his spirits.Marcel is a moody young man who wants desperately to play with a winner. He is outspoken and some of his complaints created controversy before he played out his contract with Detroit and signed with the Kings.During last year&rsquo;s disappointing season, no one seemed more disappointed than Dionne. During another slow start this season, he hinted he might play out his contract with L.A. and look elsewhere.&ldquo;I opened my mouth in Detroit and I got in a lot of trouble because of it. I don&rsquo;t want to shoot off my mouth here. But I believe you build a contender with top draft choices and this club always had traded draft choices away,&rdquo; he observed.&ldquo;All I know is that I have two years remaining on my contract, so come back in two years and ask me the same question.&rdquo; he told me, pointedly.When the team won four games in succession, Marcel said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun when we win, but I don&rsquo;t want to get carried away with this sort of streak. We have to put together 10 games or so that will build our confidence and carry us into contention.&ldquo;The Kings cannot contend with the Canadiens for first place in their division, but they did go through the last 10 games of November with only two defeats to conclude the first quarter with a 10-9-2 record.This compares with the 9-6-5 mark compiled by the club under Ron Stewart to start last season, but the Kings fell apart in the second half and it does seem that new coach Bob Berry has installed a sound system of play which could improve this team as it becomes comfortable with it.Defense will determine the fate of this team, which scored 77 goals and surrendered 66 in the first 20 games. The goalkeeping by Ron Grahame and Mario Lessard has been adequate, but the defense has been erratic.Recently, the Kings blew two-goal leads in big games as they were defeated in Detroit, 4-2, and tied by the Islanders, 5-5. Despite the defeat in Detroit, the Kings have won four out of six on the road, which is promising.They have only broken even at home, but have played some exciting hockey, highlighted by a 6-3 upset of Montreal, their only victory over a quality opponent.I predicted early they would set a new team scoring record and at their present pace will not only go past the 269 of the 1975 team, but surpass 300 goals.At 27, Dionne is at his peak and he is getting a lot of help from 23-year-old right-winger Dave Taylor, who is soon going to be recognized as a developing great. The imaginative, tough Taylor had 10 goals, 16 assists, and 26 points in the first quarter.Now an accepted super star, Butch Goring had 13 goals, 10 assists, and 23 points. Danny Grant had seven goals and Mike Murphy and Glenn Goldup five each, but it would help if one or two others got going.Second-season pro defenseman Rob Palmer continues to surprise with his improvement and had three goals and eight assists.KINGS THINGS: Rookie Lessard earned and signed a new contract for two years and an option year&hellip;The club has offered to buy up the last year on spare Gary Simmons&rsquo; $90,000 contract at more than half price&hellip;Rookie pro goaler Lorne Molleken was signed to a contract at Springfield of the AHL while Kurt Walker and Dave Gardner were reassigned from there to Tulsa of the CHL. Ex-King Gene Carr recently went toTulsa, too. &#9632;

f0007-01

Dionne Desperately Wants To Play On Winner

<div class="byline">-BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011153/4323773-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="402" height="449"></div><h2>A Lonely Christmas&hellip;</h2>HE GOES HOME to Sweden every summer so he does not miss it as much as might one who has settled in North America, but the Scandanavian Inge Hammarstrom admits he misses his homeland at Christmas time. &ldquo;Christmas is a family holiday and I would like to be with my family at this time,&rdquo; he sighs.&ldquo;It is not that it is not celebrated here, of course, but it is celebrated differently there and that is what I am used to. There they do not just open presents under a tree on Christmas eve or Christmas morning, but one every day for a week.&ldquo;We celebrate Christmas there from Christmas eve to New Year&rsquo;s eve. Large families usually get together, not only for the day, but often for the week. I come from a large family&mdash;three brothers and two sisters. I miss them at this time.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021038/4323766-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="767" height="1226"><figcaption class="caption-body">St. Louis winger Inge Hammarstrom is happy to be playing hockey in North America, but always feels a little sad around Christmas time when he misses his family in Sweden, and their week of festivites.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;On Christmas eve, Santa Claus comes to us, too. One member of the family usually is Santa Claus. I used to be Santa Claus at my friend Borje Salming&rsquo;s house,&rdquo; Inge says, smiling.&ldquo;Like you, we have a big feast on Christmas day. But not the same food. Not turkey, anyway. I We usually have a big ham in the oven. We have a I lot of cold meats and salads, a lot of fish.&rdquo;I asked him his favorite food. He said, &ldquo;Lutfisa.&rdquo; At least that&rsquo;s what I think he said. When I I asked him what that was, he said, &ldquo;rotten herring.&rdquo; At least that&rsquo;s what I think he said.HE WAS BORN in Sundsva, the son of an engineer, in January of 1948, and was reared in the I paper mill town of Timre. He now lives in Gavle, a I scenic City of 60,000 situated on the Baltic Sea about 150 miles north of Stockholm.He passes leisurely summers on his boat, sailing the Gulf of Bothnia. He also plays tennis, but prefers badminton. &ldquo;It takes more skill than most people realize and it&rsquo;s a shame it isn&rsquo;t played by more people,&rdquo; he says.St. Louis is only 20 miles from Belleville, Illinois, the home town of Jimmy Connors. Jimmy goes to many Blues&rsquo; games and his brother John is a teaching pro in St. Louis and teaches some of the Blues and their wives. The other Blues and Inge argue as to who is the best tennis player, Connors or Bjorn Borg.&ldquo;Borg is the best, of course,&rdquo; Hammarstrom smiles.Inge played many sports as a boy in Sweden, but he excelled at hockey, playing on frozen ponds in the bitter cold and long nights of his homeland. He says he grew up with it and so was not bothered by it.He does regret neglecting his education and would like to go to the university when, eventually, he returns to Sweden to live the rest of his life.At 15 he was named to the Swedish National Junior Team and competed throughout Europe. At 19 he became a regular with the senior team and played for Team Sweden in international tournaments.SOME THOUGHT HE MEANT he was giving up this part of the world last season when he said he was returning to Team Sweden, but he says he merely meant he wanted to represent his country in international competition again.Hammarstrom played with Salming on the national champion Brynas team in Sweden&rsquo;s major league before both were lured to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1973. He says, &ldquo;The money was attractive, but we both also were attracted by the chance to play with the best.&rdquo;He averaged above 20 goals a game for four seasons with the Leafs, but he did not fit in with the hard-hitting style of hockey they have adopted, and early last season was traded to St. Louis, where he wound up with 19 goals.Like most of the many Swedes who have come into hockey here, he is a superb skater and stickhandler, but not a strong checker or fighter. He says, &ldquo;My game is the one of skills we were taught in Sweden.&ldquo;We also were taught self-discipline. I hate to be roughed up and am tempted to drop my gloves and fight at times, but I do not believe that is the way the game should be played.&rdquo;If he is not a fighter, he is a lover. The tall, handsome blonde bachelor was a favorite of female fans in Toronto and one sent him a rose before every home game. In St. Louis, he sends the roses&mdash;to one Ann Sophis, to whom he now is engaged.&ldquo;I am a friendly fellow,&rdquo; he grins. &ldquo;I make friends easy. I am never lonely, not in Toronto and not in St. Louis. I like it here and with the hockey I&rsquo;m too busy to miss it there. We exchange letters and call back and forth, so I keep in touch with the family.He will be in St. Louis and will have to play the next night, but not on Christmas eve or Christmas night. He says, &ldquo;I will miss Christmas in Sweden, but my mom passed on the year I turned pro so it would not be the same as it once was.&ldquo;You grow up, and go on, you live life as you can,&rdquo; he says. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03874/4323804-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">RON ZANUSSI&hellip; Always Employs Physical Approach</figcaption></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Some would have said it was defense. But the lack of goals hurt the Minnesota North Stars much more than their defensive play during a seven-game November losing streak.&ldquo;Our inability to score has reached epidemic proportions,&rdquo; declared coach Glen Sonmor. &ldquo;We had a 30-minute scrimmage the other day and we had to go into sudden death before anyone scored.&rdquo;In losing those seven straight, the North Stars were outscored 39-11. Sonmor was not blaming his goalkeepers either.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got guys who can score&mdash;there are guys who have scored between 20 and 30 goals before,&rdquo; said the coach. &ldquo;But if they play the rest of the season the way they are now, they&rsquo;re going to wind up with 10 or 15 goals.&rdquo;In the effort to get the offensive going, the Stars called up center Bill Hogaboam from Oklahoma City and moved Glen Sharpley to right wing. There was considerable juggling of lines as Sonmor sought the right combinations.&ldquo;If we can play more physically and quit letting teams push us around, we are going to start winning more games,&rdquo; said Sonmor, who took over behind the bench when Harry Howell asked for reassignment in the organization and became the team&rsquo;s chief scout. &ldquo;If we continue to allow teams to take us physically, they&rsquo;re going to beat us. Somewhere along the line people have given me the reputation that I just want a bunch of goons on my team.&ldquo;I feel that is unjust. I&rsquo;ve never told a player to go over the boards and fight. But I do insist that my players not wave at opponents as they fly by. I do not like my players to be the inside men on checks most of the time.&rdquo;Take the body is the way hockey people phrase it.Ron Zanussi is one North Star who understands the message.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all right with me,&rdquo; said Zanussi. &ldquo;I feel that&rsquo;s part of my game anyway, I&rsquo;ve always played that way. You don&rsquo;t have to kill a guy, attempt to injure him. We just have to show tha we&rsquo;re not going to be pushed around No one likes to be taken out&hellip; but it&rsquo;s the way the game should be played.&rdquo;Zanussi, 22, is far from the biggest man on the team (that&rsquo;s Bobby Smith at six-foot-four, 210). His 180 pound; are packed into a five-foot-11 frame but more than one opposing player ha; hobbled off the ice this season after Zanussi made a check, clean ones at that.Zanussi&rsquo;s name first started making the rounds at Met Sports Center two years ago when he scored 53 goals in 77 games and spent 138 minutes in the penalty box with Fort Wayne in the International League. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m no goon but I&rsquo;m not going to turn my back,&rdquo; he said.The Toronto native, a third round draft choice in 1976, played in 68 games as a North Star rookie last season with 15 goals and 17 assists and 89 penalty minutes.Playing physically can take its toll. Before suffering the wrist injury while delivering a check, Zanussi missed three games earlier this season with a charley horse. A sore wrist has also hamperec Zanussi, who scored seven goals his first 17 games. &#9632;

f0008-03

‘Take The Body’ Sonmor’s Order To North Stars

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;&ldquo;What&rsquo;s new with the Bruins?&rdquo;&ldquo;Oh, the coach and the goalie are feuding again.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yeah, what&rsquo;s new with the Bruins?&rdquo;It was a strange week, an unsettling one for a team that has been rollicking along in first place since the season began, a train of events that might have upset any team but the Broston Bruins.It began in Washington on Nov. 25 when two of the Caps&rsquo; first four shots went by goalie Gilles Gilbert. Coach Don Cherry didn&rsquo;t think they should have. Out came Gilbert. In went Gerry Cheevers.Three nights later, Cherry was still fuming.He compared his lot to that of Don Zimmer, the bedeviled manager of the Boston Red Sox, and the cross he bears in Bill Lee, a left handed pitcher who marches to a different drummer.Last summer, in a fit of pique, Lee denounced Zimmer as a &ldquo;gerbil,&rdquo; and, it is said, burned a candle on the manager&rsquo;s desk to demonstrate his displeasure.&ldquo;The name of the game in baseball,&rdquo; said Cherry, glaring into the camera on the 11 p.m. TV news, &ldquo;is to win games. If you&rsquo;re a pitcher and you don&rsquo;t win games, you&rsquo;re no good.&ldquo;And the name of the game in hockey, if you&rsquo;re a goalie, is to stop pucks. If you don&rsquo;t stop pucks, you&rsquo;re no good. It&rsquo;s that simple.&ldquo;I saw poor Don Zimmer taking the heat all summer for Bill Lee when he lost seven in a row. He wouldn&rsquo;t come I out and say what he thought of Bill Lee.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you one thing: If Bill Lee had burned a candle on my desk or he had called me a &lsquo;gerbil&rsquo; because I have chubby little cheeks. Bill Lee would have ate (sic) the candle.&rdquo;Gilbert, who confines his candle-burning to church, accepted Cherry&rsquo;s criticism as he always does, with a shrug of his shoulders and a look of anguish clouding his large Gallic eyes.He even stood up under the supreme insult, the recalling of Jim Pettie from Rochester, where he was 0-and-6, to fill in for the healthy Gilbert in a key game against Adams Division rival Buffalo.Pettie, a young Lochinvar come out of the East, flew in from Nova Scotia, turned back the Sabres, 4-3, hitched a ride to Toronto with referee John McCauley, grabbed a sandwich at his mother&rsquo;s house, and caught the next plane back to Novy.By this time Cherty had mellowed&mdash;or what passes for mellowing in Cherry.&ldquo;Gillie is fighting the puck,&rdquo; he said, explaining the benching. &ldquo;Gillie will tell you that. He&rsquo;s going to play in Toronto (Dec. 5).&ldquo;I told him, Gillie, you&rsquo;re having a tough time now. You&rsquo;re fighting the puck. There&rsquo;s a lot of things in the paper and on TV that I&rsquo;ve been down on you. Let&rsquo;s get ready for the game in Toronto.&rdquo;Then Cherry came as close to apologizing as he ever has.&ldquo;I think I went off a little half-cocked,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not, infallible. Ever since that Toronto game (a 6-4 loss), I&rsquo;ve picked on McNab and Miller and I really give (sic) it to Gilbert.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like me to do that sort of thing. It doesn&rsquo;t make me feel good after I do it but I&rsquo;ve got a temper and I say what I think and sometimes I&rsquo;m sorry.&rdquo;He caught himself quickly.&ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m not sorry,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They were wrong. But I see no percentage in giving it to them in the paper like that.&rdquo;Peter McNab and Bob Miller, who Cherry referred to as &ldquo;a prima donna,&rdquo; were in the coach&rsquo;s doghouse only briefly and, in a way, it helped to break whatever tension existed on the club.The day after the Toronto loss, the Bruins boarded a charter flight for Washington. Two unauthorized passengers also wandered onto the plane.&ldquo;There are two people aboard this plane who do not belong here,&rdquo; said the pilot over the intercom. &ldquo;There will be a brief delay while they debark.&rdquo;&ldquo;I knew Grapes was made at us,&rdquo; said Miller, turning to McNab, &ldquo;but I never thought he&rsquo;d go this far.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN: Boston&rsquo;s 4-2 victory over Atlanta on Nov. 26 was Cherry&rsquo;s 200th as an NHL coach. In consecutive years since the 1974-75 season his teams have won 40, 48, 49 and 51 games.Dick Redmond&rsquo;s goal in a 5-3 win over Philadelphia Dec. 2 was his first as a member of the Bruins. It was also Boston&rsquo;s first power play goal in 31 tries since Nov. 9.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011110/4323842-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="573" height="1137"><figcaption class="caption-body">GILLES GILBERT&hellip;Shrugged It Off</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02913/4323835-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="552" height="1107"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON CHERRY&hellip;He&rsquo;s Not Sorry</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-01

Cherry’s ‘Doghouse’ Gets Plenty Of Visitors

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011140/4323873-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></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>Meeting Orr Unexpected Pleasure</h2>Recently at the Eastern States Coliseum during a game between the Springfield Indians and New Brunswick Hawks, we had the pleasure of meeting one of the greatest hockey players ever, Bobby Orr. Bobby Orr isn&rsquo;t only a great hockey player, but he is also one of the finest men in the game of hockey.With hundreds of hockey fans, young and old, seeking his autograph, Orr didn&rsquo;t shy away, but rather went out of his way to please his loyal fans. A lot of hockey players would run and hide from autograph seekers. Not Bobby Orr. He signed hundreds before finally leaving the Coliseum./.Orr is a credit to the game of hockey and a fine gentleman.DEAN RANKIN, ANGIEALESSANDRINI,BOB and BETTY BUTLER,Southwick, Mass.<h2>NHL Diehard Impressed by WHA</h2>I&rsquo;m a diehard NHL fan and feel I owe the league and fans of the WHA an apology. I&rsquo;ve been one of those NHL fans calling the WHA an inferior league and nothing but a place for NHL castoffs.After seeing my first WHA game ever, between the Cincinnati Stingers and Indianapolis Racers I was very much impressed. The WHA is not a fluke and the players on both teams played with a lot more pride than those on NHL teams. Just sitting in a WHA arena, you can sense the enthusiasm from the players and fans alike.I think in the next couple of years the WHA will be able to skate with any team in the NHL. I am hoping the Racers do well because I&rsquo;m already planning my next trip back to Indianapolis for more WHA hockey.JEFF SULLIVAN,St. Louis, Mo.<h2>Didn&rsquo;t Like Lafleur&rsquo;s Actions</h2>I am writing because of the recent contract dispute between Guy Lafleur and the Montreal management. I am a Montreal fan but I didn&rsquo;t like the way Lafleur acted to get his contract renewed.I think Lafleur should be the highest paid player in the NHL and the world for that matter. But when he refused to play in a game against Toronto, that really bugged me, because it destroys team morale. That day they tied Toronto and the next day they lost to Chicago 4-1. And pretty soon you will have all the super stars sitting out games because they aren&rsquo;t getting as much money as the next man.EDWARD GUNTHER,Abbotsford, B.C.Editor&rsquo;s note: Lafleur considered sitting out the Toronto game but eventually did suit up and play.<h2>Fan&rsquo;s Letter To NHL President</h2>I have been a ranger season ticket holder for seven years.I have often wondered why the NHL is the only major sport without a national television contract and also why attendance at many arenas has diminished. Hockey is an exciting sport which should generate a great deal of fan enthusiasm.The reason is now clear. In their zeal to make money the league has forgotten that its backbone is the average middle class fan. The fan who supports the local teams by purchasing many tickets throughout a season. The fan who supports a team by purchasing the products of its advertisers.Recently, I was given the opportunity to purchase tickets for the NHL&mdash;Russian series. To say that I was appalled would be an understatement. Normally, my seats are $7.00 per game. Stanley Cup tickets were raised by $1.00 per game. These prices are high but not that unreasonable. However, $15 a ticket is intolerable.I have heard all the excuses. I know this series is a one shot deal, the league&rsquo;s expenses are high etc. etc. I cannot comprehend your thinking. You have denied the fan an opportunity to witness an historical event.I&rsquo;m almost hoping that this series is a failure. Perhaps that will be the only way that the league governors will wake up. Greed is not the answer.STEVEN BERMAN,Rego Park, N.Y.<h2>Toronto Rooter Praises Bruins&rsquo; Cherry</h2>Although I am an ardent Toronto fan, and have a great dislike for Boston, I can&rsquo;t say enough about coach Don Cherry. After watching an interview of hint, I realized that he has an honest dedication to his players and to the game of hockey, and his flamboyant style has added spice to the league.It there were 17 other Don Dherrys coaching in the NHL the league wouldn&rsquo;t have to worry about attendance as every arena would, be full. Hats off to Don and I hope he has continued success in the league, except against the Leafs.TOM McNIECE,Waterloo, Ont.<h2>Tired Of Attacks On Exciting Penguins</h2>I&rsquo;m tired of fans and writers treating the Pittsburgh Penguins as a &ldquo;done and out&rdquo; team. Too often II read articles saying the Penguins are of lesser quality. Absolutely false. The Pens have had financial trouble in the past and it certainly isn&rsquo;t over. However, the owners give a damn about the fans and the hockey in the Steel City. The talent is there and the Pens will be there come playoff time.I enjoy Bob Verdi&rsquo;s wit and candor but his comments about the Pens are prejudiced. The Pens are more exciting than &ldquo;his&rdquo; Black Hawks. The Pens are even more exciting than the Bruins. Look at the boxscores. Shots on goal&mdash;Boston 19 opponent 16&mdash;Boring Shots on goal Pitt&mdash;34 opponent 32.Hockey is the world&rsquo;s fastest sport and the Pens are the team that I like to watch. The Pens are worlds better than most people want to realize.BURT BLOOM,Brooklyn, N.Y.<h2>Buffalo should Trade Perreault To Montreal</h2>I am by no means a Buffalo fan or a Montreal fan but as a hockey fan I think Buffalo should trade Gil. Perreault to Montreal. I am sure Montreal would part with players such as Doug Risebrough, Pierre Larouche, Yvon Lambert, Rick Chartraw and Brian Engblom. Those five-Players certainly will improve Buffalo and the trade will enable Perreault to play for the team he has wanted to for a long time.Perreault has lost his desire in Buffalo no matter how much they pay him. Therefore a move to Montreal will be a shot in the aim for him and everybody will profit from it, most of all the fan.With a trade such as this Buffalo can give players like J. Guevremont and R. Robert a one way ticket out of Buffalo and again it will improve itself.PETER STOY,Toronto, Ont.<h2>Oilers&rsquo; Tactics Unnecessary, Distasteful</h2>I am a Canadian youth from Toronto on a student exchange staying in Jonkoping, Sweden, and I had the opportunity to see the Edmonton Oilers when they played here. I&rsquo;m writing in response to the article in your Oct. 6 issue stating that the triumphant Oilers showed class on Europeon tourThey showed anything but class! From the opening faceoff the Oilers played dirty malicious and scattered hockey. They made numerous dirty checks and instigated brawls. Sitting in tbe stands with my Canadian flag, I lowered it in shame and utter disgust at the play of these Canadians.There were no excuses for the defeat on the Oilers as the article implied. The Oilers were outplayed and outclassed.A proud amba-sador of my country, claiming to have the best hockey players in the world, I was truly ashamed at the conduct of my fellow countrymen.TIM BOULTON,Jonkoping, Sweden<h2>Fine Precent For Avid Reader</h2>I know you must get many many letters complimenting your fine magazine, but I just wanted to add mine and let you know how much my grandson enjoys it. He reads every word and his copies are kepi immaculate.I subscribed for him last year and he says it was the very best Christmas gift he received so I am enclosing a cheque for another year.GLADYS LANSWELL,Richmond, B.C. &#9632;

f0010-01

FAN FORUM

<h2>NHL Should Follow NBA&rsquo;s Example</h2>It literally kills me to pick up THE HOCKEY NEWS week after week and read about the financial situation of the hockey world. From the Indianapolis Racers of the WHA to the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL, the whole system seems to be in shambles. The whole game is filled with greedy people as Bob Verdi wrote in the Dec. 1 issue. &ldquo;You have four players sitting in the press box for the Canadiens every game who could make any other club in the league.&rdquo; Alan Eagleson, executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association said that and he doesn&rsquo;t sound too confident of the future for the NHL.What can be done about the situation? Your guess is as good as mine but one way to begin is for the owners to stop acting as if it&rsquo;s a dog-eat-dog world. They should pull for each other.Soon, the talks will resume about a merger and until that merger occurs, a stability factor is all but lost. Just look at the National Basketball Association, when they merged, many of the problems disappeared completely. Take a lesson from the NBA gentlemen !TED CHAEL,Kansas City, Mo. &#9632;

LETTER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div>HOMOSASSA SPRINGS&mdash;The World Hockey Association&rsquo;s blockbuster offer of almost $5 million per team for the admission of five of its franchises to the National Hockey League may have finally broken the back of hard line resistance to the WHA.President John Ziegler revealed, &ldquo;I am more optimistic than in the past about the WHA situation. It is being viewed from a business point of view rather than emotionally as if was sometimes considered in the past.&ldquo;In addition, their proposal is on the table much earlier than in 1977-78 when it came up in June, and then created a special meeting in Detroit in July. That was much too late to solve the many problems&mdash;everything was discussed with a tight time deadline hanging over it,&rdquo; continued Ziegler.Ziegler and the NHL Board of Governors received reports from the Expansion and Advisory Committee during the recent meeting of the J3oard of Governors at this Florida resort town.&ldquo;Cincinnati has asked to be included,&rdquo; observed Ziegler. &ldquo;In the past the teams involved were Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec and New England.&rdquo;The Expansion and Advisory Committee is made up of William Wirtz of Chicago, Jacques Courtois of Montreal, Seymour Knox of Buffalo, William M. Jennings of the New York Rangers, Emile Francis of the St. Louis Blues and Ziegler.&ldquo;We also discussed the possibility of an NHL expansion franchise for the new 20,000 seat arena in the New Jersey Meadowlands,&rdquo; revealed the NHL executive. &ldquo;That arena is scheduled for completion in 1980. The closeness (within a 100 mile radius) of a possible four franchises creates problems over territorial rights, TV rights and cable TV rights.&rdquo;A new NHL franchise for the Meadowlands would mean that the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and the new team would scramble for fans in the 100 mile radius from Long Island to Philadelphia.Bill Torrey, the Islanders general manager informed, &ldquo;If there is a new team in the Meadowlands we will ask for indemnification, just as we had to pay the Rangers.&rdquo;Since the Rangers will also ask for indemnification&mdash;and the Flyers are on record as opposing such a team, the Meadowlands question is far from decided.It is known that Arthur Imperatore, the owner of the Colorado Rockies, whose trucking empire is based in New Jersey, would like to own the Meadowlands franchise. At the lime Imperatore purchased the Rockies last summer, it was stipulated he couldn&rsquo;t move them to New Jersey.&ldquo;The New England Whalers application has similar problems,&rdquo; said Ziegler. &ldquo;The Bruins want indemnification and there is the question of TV rights, TV cable rights and territorial rights in New England.&rdquo;Even though more than half the NHL is in the red, Walter Bush of the Minnesota North Stars was cautiously optimistic when he discussed the league&rsquo;s future.&ldquo;No one is looking to sell and I know of no proposed mergers such as the Minnesota-Cleveland marriage of last June,&rdquo; said Bush.&ldquo;There are buyers out there, but no sellers in here,&rdquo;. &ldquo;The teams losing money are losing less money than a year ago.&rdquo;The Governors also heard a report front &rsquo;the International Committee on the upcoming Challenge Cup series with the Soviet Union&mdash;and future international matters.That committee consists of Wirtz,&rsquo; Gordon Guild of Minnesota, Bruce Norris of Detroit, Ed Snider of Philadelphia and Sam Pollock of Montreal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02913/4323928-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="515" height="1058"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL TORREY&hellip;Seeks Indemnification</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0010-02

WHA Tempts NHL With $25 Million Admission Fee

ATLANTA&mdash;The $64 question around the National Hockey League is what has happened to the &lsquo;Cinderella&rsquo; Atlanta Flames?After leaping out of the NHL starting gate with an imposing 14-2-2 record in the first six weeks of the schedule, the Flames have suddenly lost their touch and the fire they displayed in those early games has lost its sparks.In their last nine starts, the Flames have won only twice and have fallen from first place where they now trail the New York Islanders by five points and they&rsquo;ve played more games than the New Yorkers.One reason the Flames are not the overpowering hockey club they were at the beginning of the NHL season is that the team has stopped scoring. Defensively, the Flames haven&rsquo;t been all that bad but they just haven&rsquo;t mounted enough offense to beat anyone.Typical of the Flames&rsquo; plight was this past week when the team scored a total of five goals. In the first few weeks of the season, the Flames were outscoring their opposition by as much as 15-4.Atlanta coach Fred Creighton isn&rsquo;t panicking despite the club&rsquo;s slide from the top spot but he has to be concerned that his team isn&rsquo;t playing as well as it showed through October and November. Three of the club&rsquo;s big scoring guns&mdash;Bob MacMillan, Guy Chouinard and Eric Vail&mdash;were completely harnessed this past week and the Flames also have failed miserably on the road where the club excelled at the start of the campaign. In their last six road games, Atlanta won only in St. Louis and Colorado. The Flames were still reeling from a home-and-home setback at the hands of the Minnesota North Stars two weeks ago. The double killing was something Atlanta fans never dreamed would happen with the Flames battling for the top and Minnesota resting on the bottom of their division.Tom Lysiak and Bobby Lalonde each contributed their 13th goals of the season this week but aside from that the Flames were dead offensively. On a three-game Western swing the Flames produced but five goals in three games while yielding 11 and were shut out by Vancouver&rsquo;s Glen Hanlon in one outing.Flames&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher is hoping the team can turn it around because they showed they could do it in the early going. But Fletcher says the Flames face a tough schedule within their own division. He says the team will have to get up for their division rivals if they want to catch a playoff berth.The Flames play their Patrick Division rivals a total of 24 times and as Fletcher said that&rsquo;s where the club has to win to insure itself of a playoff spot.Fletcher says it won&rsquo;t be easy and judging by the way the Flames are going of late, it could become an impossible task.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011087/4323959-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="535" height="1100"><figcaption class="caption-body">CLIFF FLETCHER&hellip;Tough Times Ahead</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

Atlanta’s Offense Comes Up Flat

<div class="byline">Bill Fleischman&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011113/4323990-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="247" height="440"></div><h2>He&rsquo;ll Always Be No. 1</h2>&ldquo;HE&rsquo;S TOO GOOD to be true.&rdquo;&ldquo;If you had a son, you&rsquo;d want him to be like him.&rdquo;The object of all this affection is Bob Smith, who will forever be known as &ldquo;a No. 1 NHL draft choice.&rdquo; Whether he emerges as a hockey super star or turns toward a medical career or winds up back in Ottawa as a hardware-store clerk, people will point and say, &ldquo;Ya know, he was the first player picked in the 1978 NHL amateur draft, I guess he was pretty good then.&rdquo;Bob Smith is better than pretty good, er, well, although his early NHL scoring figures haven&rsquo;t worried Guy Lafleur. Faster than you can say Bemidji, Minnesota, Smith will admit his point pace is below what he expected.&ldquo;The puck hasn&rsquo;t been going in as readily as I&rsquo;d hoped, but I&rsquo;m confident things are going to start to go well,&rdquo; said the towering (64) center. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve been playing pretty well lately.&rdquo;Talk with Smith awhile and you notice the young man&rsquo;s poise and maturity. Even sophistication comes to mind, which isn&rsquo;t surprising when you learn he has taken chemistry and psychology in college, that a brother is a lawyer, a sister is a nursing professor, and a brother-in-law is a doctor. Smith hasn&rsquo;t spent many nights wasting time at the corner pinball hall.As if Smith doesn&rsquo;t have enough to think about&mdash;like, leading the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; revival&mdash;he told Dan Stoneking, sports editor of the Minneapolis Star, that he&rsquo;d like to take a literature course at the University of Minnesota.<h2>Nanne Isn&rsquo;t Worried</h2>CLEARLY, SMITH IS a special young man. But GM Lou Nanne wouldn&rsquo;t have recommended that the North Stars pay Smith an estimated $800,000 over five years because he could give bright book reviews in the locker room. The bottom hockey line for Bob Smith, just as it will be for recent No. 1 selections such as Dale McCourt, Rick Green, and Mel Bridgman, is: will he be called a super player? Will he help turn his team into a Stanley Cup contender?For the North Stars, thoughts of Stanley Cups soon are as far away now as the Caribbean sun. They&rsquo;ll settle for signs that Smith can be another Bryan Trottier, Darryl Sittier or Bob Clarke. Nanne, for one, isn&rsquo;t worried. The former North Stars&rsquo; handyman, who carried the burden of sorting out the hiring hall that was the Cleveland-Minnesota merger, believes Smith will eventually score like a No. 1 draft choice should. Smith feels the same way.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been overwhelmed by the NHL, he said, &ldquo;But I know I haven&rsquo;t exactly overwhelmed it, either. I felt I might have a few more goals by now. But starting slowly is no crime. They always say when they draft you &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll have patience, don&rsquo;t worry if things don&rsquo;t come.&rsquo; I know I&rsquo;ve been working. It&rsquo;s too early to panic.&rdquo;As Alan MacAdam points out, Smith hasn&rsquo;t had the pleasure of working with regular linemates.<h2>Must Make Adjustments</h2>&ldquo;HE&rsquo;S HAD DIFFERENT lines, we&rsquo;ve had injuries and guys going to Oklahoma City,&rdquo; said MacAdam,, who suffered a broken knuckle that interrupted his more-than 300 consecutive game streak. MacAdam also notes that one of Smith&rsquo;s junior-hockey habits&mdash;failing to give up the puck enough&mdash;has kept the rookie center&rsquo;s assist total down.Referring to his former Cleveland center, Dennis Maruk who&rsquo;s now with Washington, MacAdam said,, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m used to playing with Maruk, who liked to bust out. Bobby likes to hang onto the puck more so sometimes you have to wait. But you can tell he&rsquo;s going to be a helluva hockey player.&rdquo;&ldquo;I got away with it in junior,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m trying to give-and-go a little more. Another thing I&rsquo;m adjusting to is the amazing variety of faceoffs. There&rsquo;s forehand, side and just locking sticks.&rdquo;Although it&rsquo;s still early, Smith has made a few plays that should begin attracting fans back to the Met Center. Against the Islanders for instance, Smith struck a-la Clarke from behind the net, prompting Glenn Resch to say admiringly, &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe he could move that fast.&rdquo;With many office interests-there&rsquo;s a tendency to suspect intelligent players like Smith aren&rsquo;t entirely serious about hockey.&ldquo;Hockey isn&rsquo;t my whole life,&rdquo; Smith admits. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s the thing I do best right now. And I want to do it the best I can.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02947/4324021-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce BennettDARCY ROTA&hellip;Fighting Junior Hockey Label</figcaption></div>CHICAGO&mdash;The trick is not getting hat tricks, but picking up your man while you also pick up points.Darcy Rota knows it, has been told it, feels he&rsquo;s comprehending it. But it&rsquo;s tough crawling out from underneath that label.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had that knock on me for a long time, that I&rsquo;m just an offensive player&rdquo; Rota said. &ldquo;And I wish I didn&rsquo;t. When I was in junior hockey, I was primarily a goal scorer. But since I&rsquo;ve come to the National Hockey League, I&rsquo;ve tried to do both.&rdquo;Trouble is, there have been times when Rota has been disallowed from doing either. He has sat, admittedly frustrated, through many a shift while the Black Hawks continue their quest of an attack without him.On Nov. 25, in an explosion witnessed once every leap year, Chicago got eight goals and he got three at Montreal. That was supposed to be Rota&rsquo;s niche when he joined the Black Hawks in the winter of 1972, one summer after he scored 73 times in his last season of amateur puck.In five full years here, 104 goals. Not bad. But Rota rooters, of which there are many in Chicago, had hoped for more. And so has he.&ldquo;But not until the last week or so on the long road trip have I really been playing a lot,&rdquo; said the bright-eyed left winger. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to get something going when you&rsquo;re not getting a lot of ice, when you&rsquo;re playing in&rsquo; spots. I think about it.&rdquo;Ask general manager-coach Bob Pulford to talk about it, and he talks of principle, not-of Rota, or any other individual. It&rsquo;s not his style.But the question can&rsquo;t just hang there: can Darcy Rota, goal scorer, better help the Black Hawks, who need goal scoring?&ldquo;Let me say this,&rdquo; Pulford said, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m speaking philosophy now, not Darcy. Even if a player scores 50 goals, that doesn&rsquo;t give him license not to back check or play defense or wait at the red line for the other four guys to get him the puck..&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t score without the puck, and to get the puck in a team system, you must play a team game. It has nothing to do with size or age&mdash;look at how Dave Keon played in Toronto, or how Stan Mikita plays here. Strong defensively.&ldquo;I feel Darcy has talent, that he&rsquo;s eager, that he wants to play and wants to learn. But keep in mind what Scotty Bowman as coach of Montreal does with a player like Pierre Larouche, who scored 53 goals one year for Pittsburgh.&rdquo;That is, Larouche doesn&rsquo;t play all that often. He, too, has the label of a one-way skater of a man who would rather play at home than on the road &mdash; an albatross which lots of athletes wear, including Guy Lafleur.What&rsquo; most encouraging about all of this is that Rota, a hot shot junior, is not complaining.&ldquo;Could I be doing better if I were on a different club which didn&rsquo;t think so defensively, which could afford me?&rdquo; he mused. &ldquo;Maybe, but that doesn&rsquo;t bother me. I love Chicago and the team and I want to be with the Black Hawks, even if it is frustrating some times. And the fans here have been great.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a transition for me. It&rsquo;s been that way from the first time I came here. In junior hockey, I&rsquo;d play 40 or 45 minutes a game. All the time. Here, you don&rsquo;t get that many shifts and so you don&rsquo;t get that many opportunities.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really just happy to play here, though, and I don&rsquo;t set goals in my mind of how many goals I should score. We have a good team here, I think, better than a .500 team. It&rsquo;s hard to explain why we have 11 of our 20 points against the top clubs&mdash;Atlanta, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Philadelphia.&ldquo;But we have a lot more confidence after that (8-3) win in Montreal and we&rsquo;re a lot more relaxed. When things were going bad, our captain (Keith Magnuson) did a good job of keeping us together, even if it was all the guys going for a bite to eat after games.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-02

Hawks’ Rota Belies Image As One-Way Hockey Player

DETROIT&mdash;The Red Wings pulled a stunner when they lopped veterans Dennis Hextall, the team captain, and defenseman Terry Harper from the roster on Nov. 29.Harper cleared waivers and was assigned to the Kansas City farm club in the Central Hockey League as an assistant coach and player. Hextall, 35, was put on the trading block.The Wings had won just six of 21 games this season when the action was taken. Coack Bobby Kromm indicated there might be more moves.&ldquo;This might not be the end of it.&rdquo; Kromm said. &ldquo;We have to do something, right? This is no reflection on the way Hextall and Harper have been playing. But if we&rsquo;ve got to lose, we might as well do it with our kids.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been struggling a bit and there comes a time when we have to look to the future. This is a matter of age and timing.&rdquo;The Wings summoned 20-year-old Norwegian center Bjorn Skaare (who was sent back after one game) and defenseman John Taft (who stayed) from Kansas City as a prelude to dropping Hextal and Harper. They later called up two more youngsters, forwards Dan Bolduc and Mai Davis, when Skaare, Roland Cloutier and Fern LeBlanc were sent to KC.&ldquo;Lindsay called me into his office and told me,&rdquo; said Hextal, who had four goals and eight assists in 20 games and remained a versatile and effective performer.&ldquo;Lindsay said he was going with kids and that they were trying to make a deal for me. If I don&rsquo;t fit in with the plans, there&rsquo;s not much I can do about it. It wasn&rsquo;t because of my play that the Red Wings are in trouble.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the only plus forward on the leant. Il&rsquo;s not my fault the others aren&rsquo;t checking.&rdquo;Hextall accepted the move but Harper admitted he was &ldquo;shocked.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the last thing I expected,&rdquo; Harper said. &ldquo;Ted told me not to go to practice Monday and then he told me about it Tuesday.&rdquo;Harper added he could not understand why Hextall also got it.&ldquo;He was our best forward in many respects,&rdquo; Harper said. &ldquo;He could win faceoffs, go in the corner and he&rsquo;d always go to bat for you.&rdquo;Kromm said the Wings needed more muscle in the corners and it was strange that Hextall, their best corner man, would get the axe.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to say this is indicative of a panic,&rdquo; Harper said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going well. The team isn&rsquo;t cocky like last year when we thought we could beat the world.&rdquo;Hextall asked Lindsay to try to deal him to the New York Rangers &ldquo;because of Fred Shero,&rdquo; the veteran center explained, or back to Minnesota. He was still waiting to hear while Lindsay attended the NHL Board of Governors meeting in Florida the first week of December.The Wings got just one point out of a three-game Western swing, but fell they deserved better. In question was a disputed goal in Colorado which gave the Rockies a 2-2 lie late in the game. The Wings claimed it never went in.&ldquo;Of course the ref was right there but I heard it hit the post,&rdquo; said goalie Rogie Vachon, who finally seemed to get himself going in the right direction. &ldquo;And the way it came out. I didn&rsquo;t think it was in. But the ref said it hit under the post. Usually, when it hits under the post, you don&rsquo;t hear it like that.&rdquo;Said Kromm: &ldquo;Il&rsquo;s funny how when an official is out by the blueline, he can say he saw it.&rdquo;The Wings returned to Olympia to gain a 2-2 tie with the Montreal Canadiens, rallying from a two-goal first period deficit to do it.The Wings allowed the fleet Canadiens just 16 shots on goal, a record low for Montreal since the statistic was first kept in 1955. Vachon certainly wasn&rsquo;t overworked but again displayed considerably more confidence and made a big save on Guy Lafleur with 66 seconds left to preserve the tie.&ldquo;It was a well-deserved lie and I thought we should have won after coming back the way we did,&rdquo; Kromm said. &ldquo;Down 2-0 to the Canadiens, I don&rsquo;t give too many teams a chance.&rdquo; &#9632;

Wings’ Shake-Up Shocks Veterans Hextail, Harper

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011068/4324052-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="553" height="1102"><figcaption class="caption-body">CLARK GILLIES&hellip;Gentle Giant</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Clark Gillies answers to the nickname &ldquo;Jethroe&rdquo; because he physically resembles the TV comedy star of that name. But the six-foot-three, 220-pound Islander left wing is no joke to opponents.&ldquo;When he goes into the corner, he&rsquo;s like the 800 pound gorilla&mdash;he goes where he wants to,&rdquo; apprised teammate Denis Potvin. &ldquo;We have two of those kind of corner men, now, Gillies and John Tonelli. We have to stay alert for sudden passes when either of those guys is on the ice. They take the puck away from the opposition&rsquo;s defensemen when you think they have no chance to do so.&rdquo;With the Islanders having recorded a highly successful 6-1-2 recent road record (the only loss coming 4-3 to the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum), the work of Gillies was spotlighted by the fantastic record of his linemates.Bryan Trottier had 15 goals and 21 assists in 26 contests and Gillies eight goals and 23 assists in 26 matches.The Islander captain has hit for 13 points in his last seven games and nine points in his previous five.&ldquo;I took off that darned helmet I wore earlier in the year and feel more comfortable,&rdquo; grinned the likeable Gillies. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t play well early, but we have it together now. I can score, but my main job is to go up and down my wing and get the puck out for Mike (Bossy) or Bryan (Trottier).Gillies sometimes does the same thing for Lome Henning and Eddie Westfall, or Bob Bourne and Bob Nystrom. He is the man most often double shifted by coach Al Arbour, when forming a fourth or fifth line.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take all the work I can get,&rdquo; grins Gillies, who became the Islander captain in mid season two years back. &ldquo;The more ice, the better I play.&rdquo;There are those who say that Gillies is a sleeping giant&mdash;who, if roused, could tear the NHL apart. They remember the job of almost total destruction he did on Dave Schultz in the 1975 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Philadelphia Flyers.&ldquo;Gillies quiets things down just by stepping on the ice,&rdquo; says Arbour. &ldquo;No one looks for trouble with him out there. Both he and Trottier are 200 pounders&mdash;and that helps Bossy.&rdquo;Gillies is a goal scorer in his own right, having scored 127 NHL goals in four seasons. He has consecutive 34, 33 and 35 goal campaigns.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been shooting in poor luck this year,&rdquo; said Gillies. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve missed four or five open nets. But things will pick up. As long as the team and the line are playing well, and I&rsquo;m contributing, I&rsquo;m happy. The goals will come.&rdquo;Gillies is a major reason for the continued success of the Islander power play which was leading the NHL percentagewise at press time. The BTG Line, plus point men Stefan Persson and Potvin make up most power play opportunities for the Isles.A natural athlete, Gillies spent three summers playing with the Covington, West Virginia team in the Houston Aeros farm system, but his top average was 257.&ldquo;It was time to forget it,&rdquo; quips Jethroe. &ldquo;Now I play softball and racquetball on Long Island.&rdquo;Trottier feels that Gillies is a major reason for the success of the Islanders.&ldquo;The other guys look up to him&mdash;because of his quiet confidence,&rdquo; says Bryan.In their recent hot streak the Islanders overcame the Toronto Maple Leaf jinx with a 3-2 win at Maple Leaf Gardens.&ldquo;We won that game with short, crisp passes,&rdquo; said Trots &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it was as close as the score.&rdquo;Bossy also praises Gillies, saying, &ldquo;Gillies was here before Trots or me, and has grown with the team. He is getting better every year. The way he gets the puck out to me in the slot has an awful lot to do with my goal scoring.&rdquo;Gillies, just 24, made the NHL first team All Star team last spring and wants to hold that spot.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just work and we&rsquo;ll see what happens,&rdquo; grins Clark. &ldquo;When I got those four consecutive game winners in the Stanley Cup playoffs two years ago, the puck found little holes. Hockey is a game of inches&mdash;and hard work. The hard work usually makes the bounces go your way.&rdquo;ISLAND SOUNDS: Denis Potvin is just one assist short of 300 in his NHL career&hellip;Over four hundred Islander fans journeyed to Montreal Dec. 10 courtesy of Grandstand Tours, Inc. Ricky Yustman obtained the tickets and ran the show&hellip;Chico Resch needs just one more win to reach 100 as an Islander&hellip;Arbour took a 30 second time out in the Montreal loss&mdash;adjusting to the use of the new rule better than the Rangers&rsquo; Fred Shero, who refuses to use it&hellip;Potvin missed from right in front in the 4-3 loss to Montreal in the final minute and Gillies also had a good chance to tie it. &#9632;

f0013-01

Gillies Digs Points Out Of Corners For Isles

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011094/4324128-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo By Marvin Ickow</figcaption></div><h2>The Stars Of Tomorrow</h2>Three young players who will have a definite say in the future of the Washington Caps, Ryan Walter, left, Paul Mulvey and Tim Coulis, right, take a breather between games. All three are Caps&rsquo; draft choices. Walter and Mulvey, both products of the Western Canada Hockey League, have become Washington regulars, Coulis&rsquo; debut in the NHL has been stalled by a left wrist injury and he has as yet to see action with the Caps.<h2>Pointing The Way</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02900/4324121-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="936" height="1211"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo By Robert Shave</figcaption></div>Darlene White is one of the many pretty hockey usherettes who brighten up the hockey arenas around the NHL circuit. She represents the Buffalo Sabres and is on hand to greet this young fan as he arrives at the Memorial Auditorium for a game looking for the way to his seat.<h2>Hockey Goes To The Dogs</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03663/4324114-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="1155" height="1440"></div>The Phoenix Roadrunners of the Pacific Hockey League were recently honored with a night at the Phoenix Greyhound Park. The track staged a featured race for the entire hockey club, who were guests for the evening. Here&rsquo;s team coach and GM Sandy Hucul, right, admiring winners&rsquo; blanket along with captain Jim Boyd, center, and Ron McGrath, director of public relations for the race circuit. Mascot in front is nine-year-old Duke Darst, who proudly holds on to Gentle Nel, the winning greyhound in the Roadrunner race.<h2>Lending A Helping Hand</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04466/4324107-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="1759" height="1566"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce Bennett</figcaption></div>Members of the New York Islanders and Minnesota North Stars appear to be involved in a high sticking ice duel. But actually the players were helping to put a dislodged plexiglass back into place at the Nassau County Coliseum with the use of their hockey sticks. Getting in on the act are linesman Swede Knox, Greg Smith, Jean Potvin and Per-Olav Brasar of the North Stars and white-shirted Islanders Lorne Henning and Ed Westfall. &#9632;

f0014-01

HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011047/4324173-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="545" height="833"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB McCAMMON&hellip;Had No Room</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;A $1 million mistake?That&rsquo;s what Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; fans, and some people in Flyers&rsquo; management, are wondering if Ken Linseman is.The Flyers didn&rsquo;t spend an estimated $600,000 to pry Linseman away from the Birmingham Bulls, then add another $400,000 in salary for a player who scored just one assist in nine games. In Linseman&rsquo;s defense, he suffered a nagging foot injury in training camp, then broke a bone in his ankle.When he was ready to play again, the Flyers were winning with Bob Clarke, Mel Bridgman, Blake Dunlop and Paul Evans at center. Confronted with the decision of demoting either Dunlop or Evans, GM Keith Allen broke the bad news to Linseman.&ldquo;Who should he play ahead of?&rdquo; Allen asked. &ldquo;How could I justify sending down Dunlop or Evans?&rdquo;Allowing Linseman to work into shape with the AHL Maine Mariners makes sense, but seeing a $1-million player in Maine must have Allen and board chairman Ed Snider squirming. Isn&rsquo;t Linseman the guy who was proclaimed &ldquo;the next Bobby Clarke?&rdquo;Yes, he is the same lad, but since his arrival in Philadelphia Linseman hasn&rsquo;t been the same player who scored 38 goals and 38 assists as a 19-year-old rookie for Birmingham. He hasn&rsquo;t been the player who was described as a Clarke-type winner and agitator.What&rsquo;s wrong? Well, one reason is the NHLs higher caliber.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not much room to freewheel,&rdquo; Linseman said. &ldquo;The defensemen are bigger and stronger and smarter. I guess it (switching leagues) was harder than I thought. But maybe it was just me. Maybe I was too busy trying to get comfortable moving here.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not disappointed with them for sending me down. I&rsquo;m more disappointed in myself. I just know I could have done better.&rdquo;Despite his slow start with the Flyers, Linseman&rsquo;s skills are obvious. He is smart and quick, an asset the generally plodding Flyers desperately need. Perhaps the part of Linseman&rsquo;s game that needs the most polishing is his playmaking.&ldquo;In Birmingham he played with Frank Beaton and Phil Roberto,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; coach Bob McCammon, &ldquo;so the playmaking part of his game didn&rsquo;t get much attention. But before he was injured, he was "starting to make plays for us. He was still trying to make moves he could get away with in junior, but that&rsquo;s something anybody has to go through.&rdquo;Another reason for Linseman&rsquo;s disappointing start is his age. He is only 20. Few players that young make an immediate impact in the NHL.As assistant coach Terry Crisp said, &ldquo;The kid&rsquo;s only 20 years old. Once he gets a goal or two, he&rsquo;s going to be fine.It helps Linseman&rsquo;s confidence to have his coaches&rsquo; support.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a competitive kid,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll learn and he&rsquo;ll be back.&rdquo;The player who&rsquo;s name has confused some Philadelphia TV types (he was once called Kevin Linesman) is a competitor. But he is also human. After Keith Allen broke the news of his demotion, Linseman was in semi-shock. When he met with McCammon and Crisp, he cracked. For the first time in his hockey career, Ken had been told he had failed.If he doesn&rsquo;t surface again quickly with the Flyers, all those who have-admired him as a player through junior and the WHA will be in semi-shock.FLYERS FACTS: With each game Blake Dunlop was justifying his place on the varsity. Dunlop&rsquo;s scoring touch provided his sixth goal in 12 games&hellip;Paul Holmgren missed the 5-3 loss in Boston with a bruised knee, but returned for the surprising 7-2 romp over Toronto at the Spectrum&hellip;Barry Dean had scored nine points (3-6) in 10 games.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02815/4324166-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="1151" height="1424"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN LINSEMAN&hellip; Adjustment Harder Than He Thought</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03631/4324159-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="1153" height="1442"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL EVANS&hellip; Playing Too Well To Be Sent Down</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0015-01

Linseman Found NHL Going Tough; Fivers’ Whiz Kid Dropped To Minors

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01899/4324218-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02745/4324211-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="733" height="3613"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03595/4324204-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="2165" height="3038"></div> &#9632;

f0016-01

NHL POINT SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01791/4324249-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce BennettROSS LONSBERRY&hellip; Rebounded From Worst Start</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Through the first 11 games of the season left wing Ross Lonsberry of the Pittsburgh Penguins failed to score a goal. It was his worst start in his National Hockey League career.In his next 11 games, however, Lonsberry scored eight goals to become the Penguins second leading goal scorer behind Peter Lee.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had slow starts before, but nothing like this,&rdquo; Lonsberry said. &ldquo;I was beginning to wonder about myself. The thing that really gets you is if the team is not going well. I started to think maybe they would be better off to throw somebody else in there. Someone who was going to pop in a goal here and there. I never dreamed things would turn around as quickly or as nice as they have.&rdquo;Lonsberry is in his first season in a Pittsburgh uniform. He was obtained during the off-season from the Philadelphia Flyers along with defenseman Tom Bladon and center and team captain Orest Kindrachuk. In exchange the Flyers received the Penguins&rsquo; first round draft choice in last summer&rsquo;s amateur draft.&ldquo;I really haven&rsquo;t been doing anything different since the goals started tipping in,&rdquo; said Lonsberry. &ldquo;I was getting plenty of opportunities before, but each time I didn&rsquo;t score, you just start pressing a little harder. Pretty soon you don&rsquo;t even try when you get the opportunity. You&rsquo;re looking for someone else to do the scoring for you.&ldquo;I guess basically that&rsquo;s what a slump is. You work like hell, but you don&rsquo;t take advantage of your opportunities. Maybe, then you&rsquo;re looking for somebody to pass off to. You know, I&rsquo;ve been known to be hot and cold. I&rsquo;m sure I&rsquo;ll go through things like that again. Maybe you realize what the answer is, but you don&rsquo;t want to sit out there and loaf and not work. So, what do you do? You just keep working, and hopefully you come out of it.&rdquo;Ross remembers one game as the most frustrating during his goalless streak.&ldquo;I think a game in Washington was my most depressing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was on the ice for something like three or four goals against. It seemed like every time I looked up the Capitals were scoring another goal and I was on the ice. I began to feel I was hurting the team by being out there. I&rsquo;m just glad Johnny (coach Johnny Wilson) stuck with me.&rdquo;Though the Penguins were off to a poor start with a 6-13-3 record through their first 22 games, Lonsberry still believes Pittsburgh will turn into a good hockey team before long.&ldquo;I believe we&rsquo;ll come around,&rdquo; he said.In addition to playing on two Stanley Cup winners in Philadelphia, Lonsberry also spent some early expansion years with the Los Angeles Kings.&ldquo;I know people get tired of hearing how we&rsquo;ll come around and then seeing us continue to lose, but I believe it. We don&rsquo;t have the problems here that I was in other places, either. In Los Angeles, they didn&rsquo;t like the coach and they didn&rsquo;t like the general manager. Then they brought Johnny in to coach and everybody liked the coach, but I think there was a lot of favoritism from the top and there were some better players sitting in the minors not getting a chance to play.&ldquo;When I got to Philly, we used to sit around just like everywhere else and say &lsquo;something is missing.&rsquo; Then one day (Bobby) Clarke started being Clarkie. For a couple of years there he was just another player with great potential. Then he started to get his confidence and play the game the way he can play it and things started to snowball. So much of this game is mental.&rdquo;Lonsberry has broken out of his goal scoring slump, and thinks he knows how the Penguins can better their record.&ldquo;You would be surprised what a few wins in a row would do,&rdquo; Lonsberry said. &ldquo;Breaking out of my slump would be far more enjoyable for me if we were winning more of our games.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS: Right wings Rick Kehoe and Jacques Cossette returned to the Penguin lineup the last game of November against Washington. Both scored goals after being out with leg injuries&hellip;Center Gregg Sheppard broke a finger against the Flyers and missed about two weeks. &#9632;

f0017-01

Lonsberry Snaps Early Slump With Flourish

MONTREAL&mdash;Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers played the role of giant killers in ending two long undefeated streaks against teams which have become traditional rivals.The Canadiens evened their season&rsquo;s series at 1-1 with the New York Islanders, whom they have played in two of the past three playoffs.The Flyers also gained a standoff in their season&rsquo;s series with the Boston Bruins by slamming the Bruins in Philadelphia, thus, tying the series at two victories each. Boston has won two of three meetings with the Flyers in the last three playoff years.Canadiens&rsquo; 4-3 win against Islanders Sunday at Montreal enabled Pittsburgh Penguins to assume the longest current undefeated streak in the National Hockey League.By stopping Islanders&rsquo; 15-game undefeated streak (12 wins and three ties), the longest by any team this season, Montreal extended its own streak to six games, including four wins. But Pittsburgh has gone one game longer than Montreal without a loss and a 3-3 tie at Montreal last Friday helped Penguins maintain their longest undefeated streak since last February when they won three and tied four of seven games.Another long streak was also halted last weekend when Philadelphia Flyers thumped Boston 9-2 at Philadelphia, ending Bruins&rsquo; streak at 10 games, in which they won nine games and tied the other.While lengthy undefeated streaks are not uncommon for teams such as Montreal and Boston, the Islanders streak was the longest in their seven year history. Despite the loss, Islanders still have the best percentage record in the NHL, having won 75.0 percent of their possible points. They lead the Patrick Division with 39 points in 26 games and are five points ahead of New York Rangers, Atlanta and Philadelphia, all tied with 34 points.Minnesota North Stars are on a modest five-game undefeated streak&mdash;four wins and a tie&mdash;but it is the longest by them in four years. They last went five games without a loss in November,-1974, and the last time they had a six-game undefeated streak was in November and December, 1972, when they went seven games without a loss, including six straight wins.A large part of North Stars&rsquo; current success can be attributed to the line of Mike Polich, Tom Younghans and Glen Sharpley. In a back-to-back series against Atlanta at the start of the streak, that line outscored Flames&rsquo; big line of Guy Chouinard, Bob MacMillan and Eric Vail 3-0 with the teams at even strength and then last Wednesday stopped Los Angeles King center Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s seven-game goal streak. &#9632;

Canadiens, Flyers End NHL Streaks

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02664/4324304-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="597" height="851"></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

NHL Leaders

LOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and CanadaLOUISVILLEHOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01808/4324335-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="592" height="1967"></div> &#9632;

f0018-01

Looking At NHL Goalers

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02643/4324366-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="550" height="686"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE WALTON&hellip;Wasn&rsquo;t Solution</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The Mike Walton experiment by the St. Louis Blues has been declared a failure.The Blues obtained Walton from the Vancouver Canucks last summer for a fourth-round draft choice and a future favor. He had been the Canucks&rsquo; leading scorer last season, and the Blues needed more scoring.But now the Blues have released Walton, who will be 34 in a couple of weeks.&ldquo;We figured he would help us more than he did,&rdquo; St. Louis general manager Emile Francis said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t waste lime with people who are 33 unless they contribute and are productive. We don&rsquo;t want a guy 33 taking the place of a guy 21.&rdquo;Francis put Walton on $100 waivers for 72 hours, and no other team in the National Hockey League wanted to pay that minimum waiver price to get Walton&rsquo;s contract. The contract was terminated under the terms of the five-year collective-bargaining agreement with the NHL Players&rsquo; Association.&ldquo;Mike Walton always was an excellent skater, but he wasn&rsquo;t skating the way he did in the past,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;He just hasn&rsquo;t measured up to our expectations.&rdquo;In 22 games with the Blues Walton had seven goals and 11 assists. When he left the leant, he was fifth in scoring behind Garry Unger and the NHL&rsquo;s highest-scoring line of Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter and Wayne Babych.&ldquo;The accumulation of points is not all there is to the game,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;We expect effort on the part of all our players.&rdquo;Walton had been centering a line of Unger on left wing and Curl Bennett on right wing. He also was an excellent point man on power plays, and about half of his points were on power plays.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t afford a team of specialists,&rdquo; coach Barclay Plager said. &ldquo;Walton is a nice guy and he&rsquo;s been a good hockey player, but we are in a growing stage, and the decision is to go with younger guys.&rdquo;Plager this season repeatedly has said he is satisfied with the play of the team&rsquo;s younger players but the older players are not skating as they should. Walton&rsquo;s departure points to him as the chief offender.Walton had been the oldest player on the Blues since defenseman Rod Seiling&rsquo;s contract was sold to the Atlanta Flames. Although the Blues obtained him because the team had a problem in scoring goals, Walton was a small part of the solution.&ldquo;The Blues had some problems last season with their offense, and that&rsquo;s my game,&rdquo; Walton said. &ldquo;But this year the team had the big line, and the problem was defense. I was not in shape the first couple of weeks, and the Blues are fortunate to have the young kids playing well.&rdquo;This season was the 15th in big-league hockey for Walton, who has played on two Stanley Cup teams in Toronto and Boston. He broke into the NHL with the Maple Leaf&rsquo;s in 1965 and played more than 250 games in a Toronto uniform before being involved in a three-team deal that put Bruce Gamble and Rick MacLeish in Philadelphia, Bernie-Parent in Toronto and Walton in Boston.Walton jumped to Minnesota in the World Hockey Association in 1973 and spent three seasons with the Fighting Saints. With the cooperation of Harry Sinden of the Bruins, Walton&rsquo;s NHL rights were traded to Vancouver, and Walton jumped back to the league in which he started.Last season with the Canucks Walton the NHL. In 65 games he had 66 points on 29 goals and 37 assists. He also was the NHL&rsquo;s most accurate shooter with his 29 goals on 115 shots for a scoring percentage of 25.2 percent. He led Vancouver in power play goals with 14, fifth-highest total in the NHL behind Mike Bossy, Phil Esposito, Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur.&ldquo;Hockey is an up-and-down life,&rdquo; Walton said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve had a pretty good, satisfying career.&rdquo;In releasing Walton, Francis was happy the price for the veteran had been a fourth-round draft choice.&ldquo;A fourth-round draft choice was nothing,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;The odds are 99 to one against his ever playing for you.&rdquo;Walton subsequently was signed again by Sinden in Boston and was sent to Rochester with the idea of playing three games in the minors to get himself back into shape before coming up to the Bruins. &#9632;

f0018-02

Walton’s Play Disappoints, Blues Put Faith In Youth

Mike Bossy&rsquo;s second career hat trick highlighted another successful week for the New York Islanders who stretched their undefeated streak to 15 games before losing a 4-3 contest in Montreal.While the Islanders were tying Pittsburgh 3-3, defeating Toronto 3-2 and losing to Montreal, Bossy had a goal in each game and his three-goal performance in the 7-1 victory over St. Louis allowed him to become the second player to reach the 20-goal mark.Following his six-goal performance for the week, Bossy led the NHL in goals with 22. As a rookie last year, Bossy finished second overall to Guy Lafleur in the goalscoring race with 53, becoming the first rookie to even top 50 goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03474/4324397-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="475" height="861"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE BOSSY&hellip;New York Islanders</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0018-03

NHL’S… Player of the Week

DENVER&mdash;The Colorado Rockies, who have been going from bad to worse these days both on and off the ice, hit a new low recently when only 1,925 fans turned up for their Dec. 5 game against the Washington Caps.The sparse house was a two-season low for the Rockies, who ended the first 10 home games with.&rsquo; only 808 more fans at their games than last season. Two contributing factors to the poorly-attended game was the snowy weather which has plagued the city and the fact the Capitals, the NHL&rsquo;s 16th worst team, were their rivals. The Rockies currently rank 17th.The mark was still not an NHL low. Last season only 537 fans turned up at the Chicago Stadium in a raging snowstorm to see the Hawks play Cleveland on Jan. 26. The Hawks won 5-0.Cleveland, which merged with Minnesota this year, had two crowds of 2,074 and 2,110 last season. &#9632;

Rockies Hit Low With 1,925 Crowd

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div>DENVER&mdash;Everyone around the National Hockey League knows about hardworking Gary Croteau, the strong left winger who is now the captain of the struggling Colorado Rockies.You know, Gary Croteau, the guy who goes up and down his wing. The honest hockey player. Never could score much. Good checker. Good defensive forward..Drumroll please. Now meet Gary Croteau, the goal-scorer. A reborn goal-scorer at age 32.One-quarter of the way through his 10th NHL season, Croteau was in a tie for the goal-scoring lead and led the league in power-play goals. Does he now think of himself as Gary Croteau the goal-scorer or high-scoring Gary Croteau?&ldquo;Well, not really,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I still carry those labels (hard-working, up-and-down winger) and I really don&rsquo;t think my game has changed. But it&rsquo;s a combination of power plays and more ice time that&rsquo;s made the difference.&rdquo;Croteau doesn&rsquo;t believe his upsurge in goal-scoring is the result of any one particular factor, but rather a combination of things.&ldquo;I think it (offensive production) started in my last year in Kansas City when I scored 19 goals (at that time his career high). I think the major difference was I was getting more ice time and getting the chance to play.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01772/4324428-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="553" height="604"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY CROTEAU&hellip;Reborn Goal-scorer</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Up until that time I was known as a defensive hockey player and mainly played on a checking line. When you play on a checking line, you&rsquo;re concentrating so much on defense because that&rsquo;s the particular task. I&rsquo;m not quite sure how the transition came about. But if you play on enough power plays, your production is going to increase and it snowballs after that,&rdquo; the articulate Croteau explained.&ldquo;And since I&rsquo;ve been with Colorado, I&rsquo;ve either played with Paul Gardner or Dave Hudson (now retired) and both are excellent playmakers. And it goes hand-in-hand like when Wilh (Paiement), Paul and I were playing together (in his season).&rdquo;Besides playing on a line with the high-scoring Gardner, Croteau is now playing the right side, an off wing. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing the difference in the number of opportunities you get playing the offside. It seems that in the offensive zone, any time you get a pass, you&rsquo;re in good scoring position. Your stick is out in front of the net and you have both sides to shoot at,&rdquo; said Croteau of the change to.right wing which was necessitated by injuries and Paiement&rsquo;s 15-game suspension.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re moving the puck well,&rdquo; Croteau reported about the play of he and linemates Gardner and Joe Contini. &ldquo;Everything is going. We&rsquo;re relaxed out there. Hopefully it (his scoring success) will never end. Not until April anyway.&rdquo;Up until late in the summer, Croteau wasn&rsquo;t sure where he&rsquo;d be playing his hockey or doing his high-scoring. He had played out his option last season and because of the Rockies&rsquo; ownership dilemma, things were in limbo.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d spoken to a couple of clubs,&rdquo; Croteau recalled of another in a series of agonizing summers. Every summer is agonizing for the Rockies and his latest teams had been the Kansas City Scouts and the California Seals, who had their share of problems.&ldquo;But the fact that I was a free agent with compensation (to the Rockies) was the deterring factor. Of course, too, with the change of ownership, the normal business functions were frozen and until things were finalized, they (Rockies) didn&rsquo;t have the opportunity to sign me.&ldquo;I felt that if the Rockies hadn&rsquo;t offered me a contract, I&rsquo;m sure I would have been able to receive a tryout from some club. And if nothing else, I thought I could probably catch on with the Kansas City Red Wings (in the Central League in Croteau&rsquo;s hometown).ROCKY RAMBLINGS: Inconsistency was the Rockies&rsquo; primary nemesis, injuries and scheduling aside, during the first quarter of the season&hellip;The Rockies played like worldbeaters against a disorganized and uninspired Chicago team in an 8-3 win one night and three nights were blown out by the New York Islanders 7-1 after giving up four first-period goals&hellip;In the 7-2 loss to Smythe Division rival Vancouver which marked the end of Pat Kelly&rsquo;s NHL coaching career, the Rockies were bombed for five goals in the final 20 minutes after starting fast and outshooting the Canucks 18-5 in a 1-0 first period&hellip;The Rockies&rsquo; eight goals against Chicago tied a club record and Gardner&rsquo;s four assists in that win was a team mark&hellip;Rookie defenseman Michel Lachance, drafted originally by Montreal, had his best NHL game with three assists and a quick knock down of the Hawks&rsquo; Ted Bulley in a very brief fight. &#9632;

f0019-01

Croteau Discovers Scoring Touch

<div class="byline">BY RUSS WHITE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02427/4324483-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="553" height="1582"><figcaption class="caption-body">BERNIEWOLFE&hellip;Won Admiration</figcaption></div>WASHINGTON&mdash;The Washington Capitals would like to re-write an old hockey adage.A tie may be like kissing your, sister, but a win over your brethern is just fantastic.That was the team&rsquo;s universal mood after downing their expansion twins, the Colorado Rockies, 4-1 and ending a dangerous five game losing streak.The Caps and the Rockies played in the midst of a torrid snowstorm that dumped between five to eight inches of snow on the Denver area, and delayed the Caps entry into the mile high city. The white stuff also cooled the ardor of the Rockies fans, as just 1,952 souls trudged through the drifts to McNichols arena. For their efforts, each fan was issued a certificate of appreciation that reads &ldquo;I braved a blizzard to watch the Capitals play the Rockies.&rdquo;The hero of the game was goalie Bernie Wolfe, who turned back 36 of 37 shots while playing with a 102 degree temperature and severe head cold. &ldquo;I felt like there was a time bomb ticking away inside my head,&rdquo; reported Wolfe after the game.Wolfe&rsquo;s teammates won&rsquo;t easily forget what he did in goal for the Capitals here last night. The little guy, the forgotten guy this year, won their admiration. Wolfe got out of his sickbed and gutted it out, and no one has played better in goal all season for the Capitals.The Rockies had 37 shots on goal, 16 more than the Caps, but Wolfe made 36 saves and came up with a 4-1 victory.&ldquo;Bernie wasn&rsquo;t out of position once,&rdquo; team captain Guy Charron said. &ldquo;Not even once. It was a remarkable night&rsquo;s work for a man who was very sick. We all saw how sick he was at the airport. Goaltenders who are feeling good don&rsquo;t always play that well.&rdquo;Bryan Watson, who did not suit up that night, hurried down from the stands to the clubhouse to congratulate Wolfe. That was how much one veteran thought of what Wolfe had done.Wolfe, drenched in perspiration, looked extemely wan. He said quietly, &ldquo;I have an awful headache&hellip;My head has been congested all night and it really didn&rsquo;t help to have my helmet on. I wish I could have taken it off.&rdquo;While the 27-year-old netminder was were chipping away at the other end of the rink, using goals by Bob Sirois, Rick Green, Guy Charron and Bob Girard to win 4-1.The win sent the Capitals to the airport in a euphoric mood, and did much to quell the unhappiness generated by a five-game losing streak. Four of the five losses had been on the road, and the Capitals had been generous to a fault, allowing 36 goals in those five games.One result of that skid was that goalie Jim Bedard, in his second season with the Capitals, was sent to the Hershey Bears. GM Max McNab explained the move by saying, &ldquo;Jimmy&rsquo;s been off his usual game. He knows and we know it. We mutually agreed that it would be a great deal easier for him to work out the kinks away from the pressure cooker.&ldquo;He has already proven he can win in this league, so it&rsquo;s not a matter of our losing confidence in him. We all know he&rsquo;ll be back,&rdquo; said McNab.Replacing Bedard was 21-year-old Rollie Boutin. In the space of three days, Boutin experienced both the best and worst of the life in the NHL. One December 2, he debuted in St. Louis and allowed no goals in thirty minutes. Then, Dec. 4 in Los Angeles, he was in the nets as the Kings rolled to a 10-2 win.CAP NOTES: Four Caps were hurt in the Rockies win&hellip;Most serious was Rick Green who suffered a cut to his left eyelid and a bruise on the eye&hellip;while no permanent damage was done. Green could be out for a week. &#9632;

f0020-02

Wolfe’s Gutsy Performance Lifts Caps’ Spirit

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01606/4324514-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"></div>Being the first player selected in the amateur draft puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders of a young hockey player, but the Minnesota North Stars were confident that six-foot four, 210-pound Bob Smith of Ottawa would be able to accept the challenge. Smith, who set an Ontario Major Junior record with 192 points, including 69 goals last year, got off to a slow start with the North Stars this year with only 12 points in his first 23 games, but he may have gotten over the hump in his 24th game when he scored two power play goals and added an assist to spark a Minnesota Victory. &#9632;

f0020-01

No. 1 Pick Smith Has Starry Look

PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Philadelphia Flyers will resume their historic series with the Russians when they host the Soviet Wings at The Spectrum on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 8:05 p.m.Philadelphia is one of only five cities the Soviets will visit on their tour which begins Dec. 31 in Minnesota. Following the game with the Flyers, the Wings meet Detroit on Jan. 4: Boston on Jan. 9; and the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American Hockey League on Jan. 10.This will mark the second meeting between the Flyers and a Soviet team. The Flyers stunned the Soviet Army team, 4-1, on Jan. 11, 1976 in a memorable game that was witnessed by a worldwide television audience.The Soviet Wings were runners-up to the Soviet Army club in their national championships and have competed in 28 U.S.S.R. title tournaments.The Soviets have been a dominant force in international hockey since its origin in official competition in 1946-. 47.Since that time the Soviet National teams have won 14 World championships, 17 European championships and four Olympic gold medals.The Soviet Wings have won two U.S.S.R. championships and feature Olympic gold medal-winning goalie Alexander Sidelnikov, the Soviets&rsquo; number two netminder behind the renowned Vladislav Tretiak.The complete Soviet Wings roster that will oppose the Flyers follows:Goalies: Alexander Sidelnikov, Alexander Pashkov.Defensemen: Sergei Glukhov, Yuri Turin, Yuri Tyerhin, Irek Gimaev, Victor Kuznetsov, Valdimir Lokotko, Sergei Korotkov, Vladimir Palilov.Forwards: Yuri Lebedov, Alexander Kabanov, Alexander Budunov, Sergei Kotov, Victor Vakhrushev, Vladimir Basko, Igor Kapustin, Igor Romashin, Victor Tiumenev, Konstantin Klimior, Vladimir Repnex, Alexander Guriev, Vladimir Kovin, Mikhail Varnakov, Alexander Andreev.The delegation leader is Victor Kozhin, while Igor Tuzik is head coach and Valery Kuzmin is an assistant coach. &#9632;

Flyers Among NHL Teams To Oppose Touring Soviet Wings

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01495/4324611-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="606" height="1800"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02387/4324604-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1199" height="2239"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03313/4324597-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="598" height="3340"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04235/4324590-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="599" height="1324"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01466/4324583-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="621" height="3527"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02350/4324576-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="1788" height="1617"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03257/4324569-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="592" height="260"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-05194/4324642-1-eng-US/f0022-052.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0022-05

Where NHL Teams Play

&hellip;This WeekATLANTA: Lalonde 13, Mulhern 3, Pronovost 7, Lysiak 13, Ribble 4.BOSTON: Wensink 13,14, Marcotte 10, Ratelle 6,7,8,9, Songin 1, Middleton 12,13, McNab 15,16, O&rsquo;Reilly 8, Milbury 1, Cashman 7.BUFFALO: Gare 7,8, Robert 5, Stewart 1, Ramsay 9,10, Perreault 7,8, Luce 7,8, McKegney 4, Schoenfeld 1.CHICAGO: Mikita 2, Murray 6, Rota 8, Magnuson 1, Bulley 6, Kerr 5, Boldirev 12, Bordeleau 10.COLORADO: Croteau 15, Beck 4, Valiquette 9, Gardner 11.DETROIT: Thompson 9,10,11, McCourt 10,11, Bergman 4,5, Lochead 3, Bolduc 1,2, Nedomansky 11,12, Woods 4.LOS ANGELES: Goring 16,17,18, Goldup 6,7, Heaslip 2, Dionne 20,21, Apps 2, Manery 4, B. Wilson 3,4, Grant 8,9, Vanasky 1, M. Wilson 3, Taylor 14, Hampton 2.MINNESOTA: Young 5,6, B. Smith 5,6, MacAdam 6, Payne 1, Polich 2, Andersson 5, Brasar 2, Younghans 4, Potvin 3.MONTREAL: Gainey 6, Lafleur 18, Mondou 11,12,13, Robinson 6,7, Houle 8, Lambert 9.ISLANDERS: Potvin 11, Bossy 17,18,19,20,21,22, Bourne 10, Trottier 13,14,15,16, Nystrom 3,4,5, Howatt 6.RANGERS: Esposito 11,12, Vickers 7, Hickey 11,12,13, Hedberg 10, Duguay 7,8, Tkaczuk 3,4,5, Vadnais 5, Greschner8,9, Nilsson 10.PHILADELPHIA: Evans 4, Kelly 2,3, MacLeish 10,11,12, Dailey 5, Clarke 5,6, Barber 13,14,15, Dunlop 7,8,9.PITTSBURGH: Chapman 3, Cossette 4,5, Stackhouse 6, Mahovlich 4,5, Kindrachuk 6,7, Kehoe 3,4,5, Lee 15,16,17, Schutt 8, Schultz 4.ST. LOUIS: Federko 12, Paley 4, Hammarstrom 2, C. Bennett 7, Sutter 17, Babych 14, Smrke 3.TORONTO: sittler 15,16, Ellis 4, McKechnie 9, Burrows 1, Boutette 7, Salming 5, Boudreau 4, Turnbull 5, Anderson 3.VANCOUVER: Graves 6,7,8, Sedlbauer 17,18, Martin 6,7, Fraser 8,9, Ververgaert 7, Blight 3, Lever 8.WASHINGTON: Rilley 1, Lofthouse 6,7,8,9, Green 3, Sirois 11,12, Charron 8,9, Girard 3, Rowe 11, Maruk 5. &#9632;

NHL’s Scorers

<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04198/4324728-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="143" height="146"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>ATLANTA</h2>GOALDan Bouchard*Rejean LemelinDEFENSEGreg Fox*Brad MarshRichard MulhernPat RibbleRod SeilingDave ShandCENTERSGuy Chouinard*Red LaurenceTom Lysiak CR. WINGSJohn GouldKen HoustonBobby LalondeBob MacMillanJean PronovostWilli PlettL. WINGSBill ClementEric Vail<h2>BOSTON</h2>GOALGerry CheeversGilles GilbertDEFENSEMike MilburyDennis O&rsquo;BrienBrad ParkDick RedmondAl SimsCENTERSPeter McNabBob MillerJean RatelleMike WaltonR. WINGSRick MiddletonTerry O&rsquo;ReillyBobby Schmautz*Tom SonginL. WINGSWayne Cashman CDon Marcotte*Al SecordJohn Wensink<h2>BUFFALO</h2>GOAL*Randy Ireland*Bob SauveDEFENSERichard DunnLee FogolinJocelyn GuevremontBill HajtJerry Korab*Larry PlayfairJim Schoenfeld*Bill StewartCENTERSDon LuceGilles PerreaultAndre SavardDerek SmithR. WINGSDanny Gare CJacques RichardRene RobertRic SeilingL. WINGSRichard MartinTerry MartinGary McAdam*Tony McKegneyCraig Ramsay<h2>CHICAGO</h2>GOALTony EspositoMike VeisorDEFENSEDave LoganKeigh Magnuson CBob MurrayPhil RussellDoug WilsonCENTERSIvan BoldirevAlain DaigleJim HarrisonStan MikitaR. WINGSJ.P. BordeleauCliff KorollGrant MulveyL. WINGSTed BulleyBob Kelly*Reg Kerr*Doug LecuyerDarcy Rota<h2>COLORADO</h2>GOALBill OleschukMichel PlasseDEFENSEDon AwreyBarry BeckNick BeverleyMike ChristieMike KitchenDennis OwcharJohn VanBoxmeerCENTERSRey ComeauPaul GardnerDoug Hicks*Merlin MalinowskiClayton PachalJack ValiquetteR. WINGSRon DelormeWilf PaiementRandy PierceL. WINGSJoe ContiniGary CroteauRalph Klassen<h2>DETROIT</h2>GOALJim RutherfordRogie VachonDEFENSEThommie BergmanJean HamelJohn Hilworth*Willie HuberReed LarsonPerry Miller*John TaftCENTERS*Dan BolducDale McCourtAndre St. LaurentR. WINGSDan LabraatenVaclac NedomanskyDennis PolonichL. WINGS*Mal Davis*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 EdwardsGilles MelocheDEFENSEFred Barrett*Bill ButtersBrad MaxwellJim McKennyJean PotvinGary SargentGreg SmithCENTERSBill HogaboamGlen Sharpley*Bob SmithTim YoungR. WINGSKent-Erik AnderssonAl 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 SavardCENTERSRejean HouleDoug JarvisPierre MondouR. WINGS*Pat HughesGuy LafleurMark NapierMario TremblayL. WINGSCam ConnorBob GaineyYvon LambertSteve 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. WINGSPaul HolmgrenReggie LeachDon SaleskiL. WINGSBill BarberBarry Dean*Dave HoydaBob KellyRick MacLeish<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2>GOALDenis Herron*Greg MillenDEFENSERuss AndersonTom BladonColin CampbellBob ParadiseRon StackhouseDale TallonCENTERSPete MahovlichGreg MaloneR. WINGSBlair ChapmanJacques CossetteGeorge FergusonRick KehoePeter LeeL. WINGSWayne BianchinOrest Kindrachuk CRoss LonsberryDave Schultz<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2>GOALPhil MyreEd StaniowskiDEFENSEBruce AffleckJack BrownschidleBarry Gibbs CLarry GirouxBob HessBob StewartCENTERSBernie FederkoDoug PalazzariLarry PateyGarry Unger CR. WINGS*Wayne BabychRick BownessBob MurdochJohnSmrkeL. WINGSCurt BennettHarvey BennettInge HammarstromBrian Suttler<h2>TORONTO</h2>GOALPaul HarrisonMike PalmateerDEFENSEDave BurrowsDave HutchisonTrevor JohansenBorje SalmingIan TurnbullCENTERSBruce BoudreauJimmy JonesGarry MonahanDarryl Sittier CWalt McKechnieR. WINGS*John AndersonJerry ButlerRon EllisLanny McDonaldL. WINGSPat BoutetteDan MaloneyLome StamlerDave Williams<h2>VANCOUVER</h2>GOALGary Bromley*Glen HanlonDEFENSEJohn GrisdaleRandy HoltDennis Kearns*Lars LindgrenJack MclllargeyHarold SnepstsCENTERSRoland Eriksson*Thomas GradinPit MartinChris OddleifsonR. WINGSRick BlightHilliard GravesDennis VervergaertL.WINGS*Curt FraserJere GillisDon Lever CRon Sedibauer<h2>WASHINGTON</h2>GOAL*Rollie BoutinBernie WolfeDEFENSEGord LanePete ScamurraGord Smith*Leif SvenssonBryan WatsonCENTERS*Greg CarrollGuy Charron c*Rolf EdbergDennis Maruk*Ryan WalterR. WINGSMichel Bergeron*Mark LofthouseBill RileyTom RoweBob SiroisL. WINGSBob Girard*Paul Mulvey<h2>INJURED PLAYER</h2>ATLANTAEdKeaHarold PhillipoffBOSTONGary DoakStan JonathanRick SmithBUFFALODon EdwardsCHICAGOJohn MarksCOLORADO*Mike GillisAndy SpruceDETROITGreg Joly*Brent PetersonLOSANGELESBrian GlennieTom WilliamsMONTREALYvan Cournoyer CPierre LaroucheJacques LemaireDoug RisebroughPITTSBURGHRandy CarlyleGregg SheppardST. LOUISSteve DurbanoVANCOUVER*Bill DeriagoWASHINGTON*Tim CoulisRick GreenYvon LabreRobert Picard &#9632;

f0023-04

NHL Team Rosters C - Captain * Rookie

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04173/4324773-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="553" height="653"><figcaption class="caption-body">LARRY HILLMAN&hellip;To Face Soviets</figcaption></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Edmonton Oilers fans and players became familiar with the up-and-down motion of a roller-coaster recently when the World Hockey Association team swung into a six-game winning streak at home that was followed by a quick dip into a three-game losing streak.Throughout the winning streak, in which the Oilers scored an astonishing 36 goals for a rate of six a game, coach Glen Sather refused to single out any individual for praise; similarly, in the losing streak, he refused to blame individuals.&ldquo;We win as a team and we lost as a team,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter who gets the goals if we win and it doesn&rsquo;t matter who is on the ice for the losses.&rdquo;He was referring specifically to the Oilers&rsquo; 6-3 defeat by Quebec Nordiques at Quebec for the team&rsquo;s second loss in a row. Wonderful Wayne Gretzky, the youngest pro hockey player in the world, was on the ice for two late goals after a brilliant effort to score twice early in the game.&ldquo;Gretzky and Cowboy Flett both played well,&rdquo; Sather continued. &ldquo;The goals-against figure is just a statistic and I always figured statistics are for losers.&rdquo;The distressing thing was that the Oilers blew early leads both against Quebec and New England Whalers, who won 5-3 the following night. In the opening game of the losing streak, there was never any doubt of the Whalers superiority in a 7-0 lacing.At the peak of the winning streak, longest in the Oilers&rsquo; history at home, crowds soared past 13,000 for two games in a row and over 14,000 once. The support fully vindicated the gamble of owner Peter Pockington in paying $850,000 for Gretzky, Peter Driscoll and Ed Mio.Even more impressive was the performance of the line of Blair MacDonald, Brett Callighen and Stan Weir. They collaborated for 30 points in four games during the streak as opponents failed to adjust to their helter-skelter I style in which any player is likely to wind up at any position at any time.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun to watch them flying like that,&rdquo; Sather conceded. &ldquo;They all tend to wander just a bit; they can all handle the puck and they&rsquo;re all good skaters and good defensively.&rdquo;They were particularly outstanding in back-to-back 8-2 victories at home over the Indianapolis Racers and New England.After the Oilers&rsquo; two losses in a row on the road, Sather moved quickly to prevent deeper problems. He called for center Ron Chipperfield (out several weeks with a ruptured hip muscle) and defenseman Rudy Tajcnar, a former Czech national star who reported to the Oilers in mid-November on a 10-game trial and went to Spokane of the Pacific Hockey League to play himself into shape.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no cause for worry,&rdquo; Sather cautioned listeners. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a solid hockey club and we&rsquo;ll win a lot more games than we lose the rest of the way, but we need a shot in the arm right now and these guys could give it to us.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Ron Ryan, executive director of the WHA, announced the process of selecting the 20 WHA All Stars that will represent the league during the three game All Star week in Edmonton, Jan. 2-5, 1979.For the first time in the seven-year history of the WHA, coaches and general managers of the member clubs will select all 20 players. There will be 12 forwards, six defensemen, and two goaltenders chosen by the coaches and the GMs. The balloting for the All Star berths will conclude Monday Dec. 18. The only restriction on the balloting will be that no coach or general manager will be permitted to vote for players or his team.&ldquo;I anticipate an excellent series with Moscow Dynamo,&rdquo; commented Ryan upon the announcement, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m confident that our coaches and general managers will select the best possible team for this series.&rdquo;First team WHA All Stars will be announced Dec. 19.Winnipeg coach Larry Hillman, who guided the Jets to the Avco Cup championship as a first-year coach last year, will serve as the head coach for Team WHA. An assistant&rsquo; coach will also aid Hillman during the three-game series, and that position will be filled by the coach whose team is in first place Jan. 1.All Star week festivities will begin on the evening of Jan. I with an informal reception held at the Chateau LaCombe, which will be the All Star headquarters. The annual All Star awards banquet will begin at 6:30 Wednesday, Jan. 3, at the same hotel.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01484/4324766-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="519" height="650"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN WEIR&hellip;Finds Range</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02383/4324759-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="556" height="667"><figcaption class="caption-body">BLAIR MacDONALD&hellip;Hot In Streak</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0024-04

Oilers’ Ice Inconsistency Puzzling; Hillman Named Team WHA Coach

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/f0024-03264/4324804-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="595" height="601"></div> &#9632;

f0024-03

WHA Leaders

Rival coaches in the World Hockey Association may go grey early if they don&rsquo;t discover a formula to stop the firepower of Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; Real Cloutier.Cloutier, who leads the WHA with 29 goals after only 27 games, scored another five markers in three games last week and opened up a lengthy lead in the individual scoring race.Cloutier netted a pair of goals in the Nordiques&rsquo; 6-3 conquest of Edmonton, had a single score in a 4-3 Quebec win over Cincinnati and then another pair of goals as the Nordiques battled to a 4-4 tie with Winnipeg.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05134/4324835-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="222" height="309"><figcaption class="caption-body">REAL CLOUTIER&hellip;Quebec Nordiques</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0024-05

WHA’S… Player of the Week

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01420/4324866-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Antonovich of the Whalers came up with a hat trick on team&rsquo;s jaunt west against Edmonton Oilers.</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;The 1978-79 edition of the New England Whalers seems to have the ability to handle any team in the World Hockey Association when they make up their minds to do just that. At the beginning of one of their longest road trips of the year, however, the Whalers headed into Western Canada and ran into top efforts by both the Winnipeg Jets and the Edmonton Oilers.Local observers in each city agreed that their teams performed as well as at any time this season. On the other hand the Whalers played in somewhat less than spectacular fashion.It was &ldquo;John Ferguson night&rdquo; in Winnipeg and the Jets were out to show their newly appointed GM that they could play the type of game Fergie was noted for in his National Hockey League days. After the game Whalers&rsquo; coach Bill Dineen commented, &ldquo;This is definitely the most physical team Winnipeg has ever had&mdash;but we never should have allowed them to handle us the way they did and get away with it.&rdquo;Although only getting 20 shots on net all night the Whalers still managed to make a game of it. An empty net goal in the final minute ensured victory for the Jets, 4-2. Whalers goalie John Garrett earned No. 1 star honors with a sparkling performance to keep the Whalers close.The Whalers came out of the contest with some walking wounded. Gordie Howe needed 10 stitches in his right shin after blocking a shot. Rick Ley and Mike Antonovich each banged up a knee. The elder Howe was the only one forced to sit out the next game, however.Two nights later, 13,399 fans turned out at the Edmonton Coliseum to see their Oilers extend a winning streak to six games by drilling the Whalers, 8-2. Again Dineen was unhappy with his team&rsquo;s performance, and a team meeting was called to &lsquo;talk it out&rsquo;.A couple of nights later, another big crowd (14,036) turned out at the Edmonton Coliseum to see the Oilers do another number on the Whalers. But, alas, the tables were turned. Apparently deciding to show their true colors, the Whalers dominated from beginning to end and whitwashed the Oilers, 7-0. The Dave Keon-Johnny McKenzie-Antonovich line came to life accounting for four goals including a hat trick for Anton. Mark Howe extended his scoring streak to 21 games with two goals and an assist.QUEBEC: The Nordiques forgot their early season jitters at Le Coliseeas they took advantage of a lengthy home stand and moved up to challenge the leaders in the tight WHA race. After a come-from-behind 2-2 tie with Winnipeg (thanks to two power play goals by Paul Baxter), the Nords ran off three straight wins against Birmingham, Cincinnati, and the Jets (in a return engagement).Rookie right winger Danny Geoffrion seemed to be getting in the groove as he skated with Marc Tardif and newly acquired centerman Richie Leduc. Geoffrion opened the scoring in a 7-4 win over Birmingham notching his fourth major league goal. In his next game he assisted on a Leduc goal and then popped in another himself as the Nordiques shut out Cincy, 2-0.Tardif and Real Cloutier were leading the goal parade for the Quebec City entry&mdash;as usual. After a slow start this year, Tardif, last year&rsquo;s MVP was steadily moving up the WHA scoring ladder as he got the winner in a 5-3 victory over Winnipeg. It was his 17th of the season, to go along with an equal number of assists.The World Hockey Association&rsquo;s leading marksman, however, is Real &ldquo;Buddy&rdquo; Cloutier. The young right winger racked up another hat trick (in the 7-4 win over the Bulls), before adding two against the Jets. The goals brought his total to 24 in as many games. Coach Jacques Demers has shuffled his lines considerably in the early going but he&rsquo;s had his high scoring right winger working with centerman Serge Bernier for most of the games lately.After recalling rookie Richard David from Binghamton, Demers experimented with the youngster on the left wing with Bernier and Cloutier. A third trio&mdash;Demers&rsquo; checking line&mdash;is composed of Bob Fitchner centering for Alain Cote and Curt Brackenbury. In the Birmingham win the three combined for a goal by Cote, and then again in the Winnipeg triumph for a couple by Brackenbury&mdash;the seventh and eighth of the season for the hustling winger.Goalie Jim Corsi, who was between the pipes for the shutout against Cincy, had the highest save percentage (.908) among all WHA goaltenders. Teammate Richard Brodeur boasted the best even strength &lsquo;goals against&rsquo; average in the league.BIRMINGHAM: The young Bulls from Birmingham fell upon hard times as they struggled through a string of six consecutive losses before finally overcoming the Indianapolis Racers back in Birmingham, 4-2.Although in the throes of a losing streak there were positive things to be said. The Bulls were never really out of those games. The youngsters showed considerable tenacity in coming back tc at least stay within reach.One couldn&rsquo;t help wondering whether the kids might get discouraged and pack it in, but they kept coming back. With that kind of positive attitude coupled with the experience the talented young crew is gathering, things could easily turn around for the Bulls as the season progresses.In Quebec, the Bulls got an early goal by Gaston Gingras (his ninth) before falling behind by two. During the game Louis Sleigher, Rick Adduono, and Rob Ramage each lit the lamp to bring the Bulls within one goal of a tie. But late goals by Real Cloutier iced the game for the Nordiques&rsquo; 7-4 win.Back-to-back games with the Racers proved interesting. In Indy the Bulls fell behind by three goals before scrambling back to within one, 3-2. After the Racers pulled away again, Steve Alley got his second of the night to make it close again. But again the Bulls came up short.In that game Gaston Gringras was taken from the ice on a stretcher with a neck injury causing quite a scare, but X-rays proved negative. Shortly after the Gingras injury a bench-clearing brawl erupted. When the ice was cleared 134 minutes of penalties were assessed&mdash;71 against the Bulls. Nineteen-year-old Rick Vaive led the charge and thus picked up an automatic double minor and a game misconduct.The next night back in Birmingham things were relatively calm as far as penalties were concerned and the Bulls finally got back into the win column, 42. Bob Stephenson potted two goals, Ramage one, and Dave Gorman picked up his first marker in a while as a reunited GAS line clicked. Although leading goal scorer Louis Sleigher was held scoreless in the two Indy contests, he finished the first quarter of the season leading the WHA in scoring percentage by finding the range on 37 percent of his shots on goal. &#9632;

f0025-01

Whalers’ Western Swing Less Than Spectacular

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06154/4324970-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="596" height="729"></div> &#9632;

f0026-06

The WHA Scoreboard

<div class="byline">&#x2026;This Week</div>BIRMINGHAM: Stephenson 6, Gorman 6,7, Henderson 8,9, Goulet 6, Stewart 2,3,4, Beaudoin 4, Alley 5.CINCINNATI: Debol 7, Norwich 2, Thomas 10, Gartner 12,13, Gilligan 4, Ftorek 13.EDMONTON: Berry 5, Gretzky 10,11,12, Shmyr 3, Micheletti 3, Semenko 2, Sobchuk 9.INDIANAPOLIS: MacGregor 6,7,8, George 4.NEW ENGLAND: Rogers 10,11, Antonovich 10,11,12, Lacroix 12,13,14, G. Howe 10, Selwood 4, Mark Howe 19.QUEBEC: Geoffrion 6, Leduc 8,9,10, Cloutier 25,26,27,28,29, Bordeleau 4, Fitchner 3, Tardif 18,19, Tremblay 2.WINNIPEG: Sullivan 16,17,18, Terbenche 2, Lukowich 17,18,19, Moffat 5,6,7, Nilsson 10, Preston 9, Guindon 6. &#9632;

WHA’s Scorers

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-09" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-09119/4325025-1-eng-US/f0026-092.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0026-09

Where WHA Teams Play

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-08" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-08126/4325056-1-eng-US/f0026-082.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">MICHEL GOULET&hellip;Birmingham Bulls&rsquo; rookie</figcaption></div>When the Birmingham Bull: dug into the Canadian underage junior hockey market they acted with the hope the youngsters would adjust overnight to professional hockey.One of their selections was Michel Goulet, a strapping right winger from the Quebec Nordiques. The Bulls have been more than pleased with Goulet&rsquo;: progress. In fact, he is exactly what the Birmingham club was hoping for when they lured the kids away from the Canadian major teams before their draft year.Goulet has scored only five times in the club&rsquo;s first. 2: games, but he has chipped in with 12 assists making him the fourth highest scorer on the club behind two other underage hopefuls, Louis Sleigher and Gaston Gingras.At 6&rsquo;1&rdquo; and 195 pounds Goulet is a potential future star in pro hockey. He had an auspicious 73 goals and 13&Iacute; points in 72 games last season with Quebec and the Bulls are keeping their fingers crossed that he&rsquo;ll turn some of that production their way this season. They could use it. &#9632;

f0026-08

Goulet Typical Of Young Bulls

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04145/4325087-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;While their rivals in the National Hockey League tend to hide their attendance figures, the World Hockey Association doesn&rsquo;t.It would appear they have more cause than the NHL to be apprehensive about disclosing attendances at games, but the WHA maintains it is always a slow starter and picks up steam midway into the season.At any rate, the WHA according to figures compiled by THE HOCKEY NEWS is showing a minus 70,836 for the first 10 home games of each of the seven league teams and while it is not staggering, it nevertheless indicates the WHA is dragging behind last year&rsquo;s crowds.Only the Edmonton Oilers with their 15,000-seat Coliseum have shown a plus in their first 10 home starts. The Oilers have drawn 97,956 fans as compared to 86,793 in 1977-78.While Edmonton is the WHA&rsquo;s turnstile leader, all six of the other teams in the league are behind last year&rsquo;s crowds. Quebec and Winnipeg are only showing a slight decline but Indianapolis is 16,318 below last year and New England is 28,656 in arrears.The Racers are also languishing in last place but the Whalers are top dog in the team race. However, the team is playing in a smaller temporary rink in Springfield while awaiting completion of the rebuilding of the collapsed roof of the Hartford Civic Center. The Whalers are averaging only 6,907 fans a game at Springfield where they used to draw up to 13,000 for games at Hartford. The team expects to be returning to their home rink in lime for the 1979-80 season.<h2>How WHA Teams Draw &#9632;</h2>

f0027-04

Oilers’ Crowds Up But WHA Dragging In ‘78 Attendance

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03201/4325118-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="600" height="862"></div> &#9632;

f0027-03

Looking At WHA Goalers

FIRST REACTION to the news that Louis Sleigher was one of the young players coming to the Birmingham Bulls this season:&ldquo;Louis who?&rdquo;That&rsquo;s Sleigher, pronounced SLAYGER and they won&rsquo;t be asking Louis Who much longer. The talented youngster, who turned 20 October 23, has arrived on the scene with a flourish. He has played both left wing and right wing and is first on the team in scoring after 23 games.LOUIE WAS NOT one of the underage players rounded up by owner John Bassett and general manager Gilles Leger. The native of Nouvelle, Que., was draft eligible this year for any league because his 20th birthday fell during the current season. However, there was no line forming for his services.The stocky five-foot-11, 195-pound Sleigher wasn&rsquo;t drafted until the 24th round by National Hockey League champion Montreal Canadiens. The World Hockey Association had no draft so Louie was signed as a free agent.His junior hockey credentials were impressive, despite the lack of attention by the NHL. Playing at Chicoutimi in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Louie had 65 goals and 54 assists for 119 points in 71 games his final year. The year before he was 53-48&mdash;101 in 70 games.&ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t understand why he wasn&rsquo;t drafted higher.&rdquo; Bulls&rsquo; GM Leger said. &ldquo;We knew he had potential to be an outstanding hockey player, and he&rsquo;s proved that so far.&rdquo;Coach John Brophy is high on Sleigher, too, so much so that he has double-shifted the youngster recently, which means he plays on two lines. He played left wing on one, right wing on the other,&ldquo;Physically, he reminds me of a young Bobby Hull.&rdquo; Brophy said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s about the same size, and he&rsquo;s so strong it&rsquo;s unbelievable. He&rsquo;s a great skater and handles the puck well. I think he&rsquo;ll have a fine pro career.&rdquo;SLEIGHER SCORED the hat trick in his second regular season game as a pro. He got the three goals Oct. 15 in a 9-3 Birmingham win at Indianapolis. The same night defenseman Gaston Gingras performed the trick.However, one of Louie&rsquo;s most exceptional goals came in a 7-2 loss at Winnipeg Oct. 25. He held defenseman Mike Amodeo oil with one hand, handled the puck with the other, cut in front of the goal and stuffed the puck into the net with one hand. It was an exceptional show of strength.Born and reared in the predominately-French-speaking province of Quebec, Louis is not fluent in English. But like his hockey game, lie&rsquo;s working on that, too. He can communicate.&ldquo;I am pleased with my performance so far,&rdquo; Louis says. &ldquo;I had many hat tricks in Junior, but I didn&rsquo;t expect to get one tilt&rsquo;s quickly in the pros. I just hope I can keep playing well, and the team can be successful.&rdquo; &#9632;

Sleigher Makes Impact With Bulls As Scorer

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01398/4325180-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="721" height="861"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02292/4325173-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="2180" height="1706"></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

WHA’S POINT SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

<div class="byline">BY DICK DENNY</div>CINCINNATI&mdash;After the Stingers had finished a good road trip by beating the Racers in Indianapolis, 4-2, Cincinnati coach Floyd Smith walked up to Michel Dion and tousled the goalie&rsquo;s curly hair.&ldquo;Nice job,&rdquo; said Smith.&ldquo;Thanks, Floyd,&rdquo; replied Dion.The work of Dion in the final two games of Cincinnati&rsquo;s three-game road swing through Winnipeg, Quebec and Indianapolis was especially significant to the Stingers, who won at Winnipeg, 6-5, in a remarkable comeback to capture two of the three and return home in first place.&ldquo;That was a big win for Dion,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;It was encouraging for him.&rdquo;Before Dion won at Indianapolis and played well in a 2-0 loss the night before at Quebec, he had had two rough outings that had shaken his confidence.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting everything back into shape,&rdquo; said Dion, who has been sharing the goaltending duties for Cincinnati with Mike Liut, who was in goal at Winnipeg.&ldquo;This is the first lime in five years I haven&rsquo;t played most of the games and I&rsquo;ve had to make an adjustment.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have that much work and I got progressively more rusty. I wasn&rsquo;t sharp mentally or physically.&ldquo;That 10-6 loss I had at Winnipeg was a bad deal for everybody. It was the most goals I&rsquo;ve ever allowed. And I felt bad against the Racers when we won 85. I felt good at Quebec, however, even though we lost. 2-0.&ldquo;I decided I was going to work harder in practice and try to relax mentally.&rdquo;Rick Dudley, Bill Gilligan, Robbie Ftorek and Reg Thomas scored to give the Stingers a 3-1 edge in their Interstate 74 rivalry with the Racers, who had power play goals by Don Larway and Blaine Stoughton.Ftorek and Gartner were instrumental in both of the road triumphs.Ftorek, who came home with 46 points for 25 games, sparked a rally in the last 14 minutes at Winnipeg that wiped out a 5-3 Jet lead.Robbie scored his 11th goal of the season at 7:31, then assisted on goals by Thomas (at 16:07) and by Gartner (19:35).Ftorek had the winning goal at Indianapolis on a power play and assisted or. Thomas&rsquo; empty net goal that insured Cincinnati&rsquo;s 14th triumph against nine losses and two ties.Gartner set up Dudley&rsquo;s opening goal at Indianapolis on a pretty feed from a two-on-one situation and it was his body check in the corner against Dean Magee that led to Gilligan&rsquo;s goal.Although Gartner wasn&rsquo;t credited with an assist on Gilligan&rsquo;s rebound score, it was his check that enabled the puck to squirt free to Darryl Maggs at the point. Maggs&rsquo; shot popped loose from Racer goalie Gary Inness and Gilligan fired in the rebound.Smith, replying to a query concerning his 19-year-old rookie right wing, Gartner, said: &ldquo;No, he might not be getting as much publicity as some other juniors, but he&rsquo;s getting the attention of the scouts, and those are the guys I pay attention to. He does the little things well, like taking out the man at the right time. He&rsquo;s unselfish, as most good players are."Prior to the game at Indianapolis, it was announced that the contract of Stinger defenseman Bryon Baltimore had been acquired by the Racers, who had traded Baltimore to Cincinnati last season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for a left-handed defenseman,&rdquo; said Smith. "We tried Baltimore there, along with Barry Melrose and Craig Norwich, but none worked out."When the Racers showed interest in Bryon, we wanted to keep him in the league. I know he beels badly, but he&rsquo;s a true professional and will give Indianapolis 100 percent.&rdquo;INDIANAPOLIS: Concerning the addition of Baltimore, Racer coach Pat Stapleton said, &ldquo;When a player of Bryon&rsquo;s caliber becomes available, you have to take a look. We&rsquo;ve worked on this quietly for awhile. It might give us the chance to make a couple more moves.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to put together a competitive hockey team, and I think we&rsquo;re gaining ground.&ldquo;I think there will be major league hockey here next season. I think Indianapolis has as much chance of being included in a merger as any other WHA team.&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s to say the ownership of the clubs supposedly going in are any stronger than the ownership is here&mdash;or will be?&rdquo;Does that mean that Nelson Skalbania, majority owner of the Racers, might be yielding to local ownership&mdash;old or new&mdash;in abid to gain Indianapolis membership in the NHL?&ldquo;I would not like to say anything specific,&rdquo; said Stapleton, "but I see some-positive things happening. I don&rsquo;t think the people of Indianapolis with the wherewithal will let this die on the vine.&rdquo;The Racers played their best hockey in a month over a three-game weekend &rsquo; stretch following an 8-2 loss at Edmonton. Indianapolis beat Birmingham, 6-3, for its second straight triumph in Market Square Arena, then lost consecutive 4-2 decisions to the Bulls (at Birmingham) and Stingers. The Racers pulled their goalie in both the losses, only to see goals into an empty net both nights.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve regrouped and we&rsquo;re putting things together,&rdquo; said Racer center Gary MacGregor. &ldquo;Things have started to settle down and we&rsquo;re playing better, And we can play better.&rdquo;But as the 4-16-2 Racers struggled to lift themselves out of last place, the injury jinx continued to plague them. While Claude Larose was recovering from a slight cartilage tear in the right knee suffered when his skate hit a hole in home ice, on Nov. 23, Claude St. Sauveur suffered a separated left shoulder against the Stingers on Dec. 3. He will miss at least 10 weeks while recovering from surgery.The league handed down fines totalling $4,300 for a fracas in the Racer-Stinger game of Nov. 25. Stapleton was fined $1,400, Smith $900.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03224/4325211-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="556" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body">MICHEL DION&hellip;Confidence Restored</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-03

Stingers’ Dion Regains Star Form

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01350/4325242-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="544" height="595"><figcaption class="caption-body">RALPH COX&hellip;Destroys Cornell</figcaption></div>PROVIDENCE&mdash;The cowl closed over the Providence College first semester last Friday night when the Friars absorbed a hard-hitting 4-2 loss at Boston College. The defeat left PC with a 4-3 mark, worlds better than the 1-6 slate as of the same lime last season.Despite the much better start by last year&rsquo;s ECAC runners-up, some pundits believe that the Friars have yet to play anywhere near their potential. Nearly the whole squad is, back from last season, which saw Providence dump heavily favored Cornell and BLI in the playoffs before losing the final to BC by the same 4-2 score.Friar coach Lou Lamoriello remains poker faced as usual, even though he&rsquo;s of Italian descent. To the expected &ldquo;What&rsquo;s happening&rdquo; type queries, he responds with logic, tempered by the knowledge that it&rsquo;s a long season still ahead.&ldquo;I expect the teams that are up there right now to be still around in March, and that includes us. We would have liked to be at least 5-2 going into exams, and we had our chances tonight but just couldn&rsquo;t score. We&rsquo;ve been playing good periods here and there, and the BU game (a 3-2 loss) was our best complete game.&rdquo;Before the latest defeat. Providence had come from behind to nip RPI 4-3 in overtime at Schneider Arena. They trailed the Engineers 3-1 after two periods but battled back to tie, with Steve O&rsquo;Neill knotting the score with 44 seconds to play. Bruce Garber then scored 18 seconds into the extra period to win it.Il was a costly win, however, because a brawl caused the one-game suspension of defensemen Jim Korn and Scot Kleinendorst and center Steve Evangelista. Another defenseman. Art Johnston, has been lost to the team since he broke his ankle in the second game of the year.Lamoriello cited Kleinendorst and another rookie rearguard, Jon Hogberg, as important factors in PC&rsquo;s early season. They had to step in for graduated Steve Roberts and Dave Dornseif, four year regulars.&ldquo;We had to go to four defensemen tonight, and I decided to skate three lines because of all the men who are missing,&rdquo; said Lamoriello. &ldquo;I expected the game to be low-shooting and low scoring, which it was, because both they (BC) and we aren&rsquo;t playing everybody.&rdquo;Jeff Whisler and Randy Wilson, two of the Friars&rsquo; ten veteran forwards, gave PC a brief 2-1 lead in the first period, but BC&rsquo;c Mike Ewanouski tied it up before the end of the period and added the game winner in the next frame when he surprised PC goalie Bill Milner with a long wrist shot front the right boards. BC is awaiting the return of seniors Joe Mullen, Joe Augustine, and Paul Skidmore, all of whom are making up academic credits. Then they lost junior center Bill Army in the first period against Providence on a game misconduct, so Len Ceglarski inserted freshman Jeff Cowles in his spot between Ewanouski and Paul Hanmer.Boston College edged Northeastern 53 earlier in the week to get into the league win column. Ewanouski also had a pair of goals against the Huskies, who turned around and whipped Princeton 10-4 behind two-goal showings by Rod &rsquo; Yaworski, John Harrison, and Doug Harvey (no relation).A couple of&rsquo; multi-goal performances led to wins by Colgate and New Hampshire. Freshman Denis Lapensee netted the hat trick for the Red Raiders as they dumped favored Clarkson 9-6 in Potsdam. The win boosted Colgate to 3-2 as of exam break, and long-suffering fans in Hamilton are beginning to feel that Terry Slater&rsquo;s second team is for real.Up at Durham, UNH&rsquo;s 6-3 win over Cornell wasn&rsquo;t quite so surprising, but the one-man fusillade put on by Ralph Cox is unlikely to be matched by anyone for quite some time. The senior All American scored five of his team&rsquo;s goals, including a &ldquo;natural&rdquo; hat trick in the third period. The Wildcats threw 24 shots at Brian Hayward while allowing the Big Red 35. However, their defense was obviously much tighter than in their preceding loss, a 12-8 debacle courtesy of RPI.Those Engineers haven&rsquo;t found goals quite so easy to come by since the UNH win, losing the 4-3 overtime decision to Providence on the road and by the same score at home against Clarkson. Sid Tanchak&rsquo;s power play tally for the Knights was the difference, coming with 7:35 to play.Brown won a couple of tight tilts at home to climb to third spot. They edged Yale 4-2, thanks to a three goal second period which saw scores by Rick Scully, Mark Gherity, and Jim Lawson. Then the Bears nipped Harvard 2-1 with Scully and Lawson doing the damage.Princeton has yet to win a game, absorbing a 4-0 loss at BU the night after the 10-4 defeat at Northeastern. The Tigers managed 23 shots on BU goalie Jim Craig, who got the first Terrier shutout in five seasons.St. Lawrence fell further astern via a pair of losses to Ivy League foes. Cornell blasted the Saints, nee Larries, 8-0 in Ithaca as Brock Tredway and Lance Nethery each had a pair of goals. Back in Canton, St. Lawrence was edged by Yale 4-3 as Doug Tingey tallied early in the third period and Keith Allain made it stand up for the win. The Elis thus snapped a three game losing skein heading into exams. Coach Tim Taylor praised his top two lines for their early season efforts but cited the need for more balance if Yale is to be a contender.Yale and several other teams, namely New Hampshire, Dartmouth, and Army, found their holiday ice schedules suddenly truncated when the Djurgarden club team from Sweden cancelled its tour of the U.S. Seems that eleven members of this outfit were selected to play on the Swedish National team that is due to make an exhibition swing against World Hockey Association teams. The unexpected reneging has, needless to say, left a bad taste as well as unfillable holes in the available schedule which means lost revenue. &#9632;

f0029-01

Best Yet To Come For Providence; UNH’s Cox Enjoys Five-Goal Game

<h2>ECAC Conference</h2>Mon Dec. 11RPI at VermontTue. Dec. 12New Hampshire at HarvardWed. Dec. 13Darmouth at RPIThu. Dec. 14Harvard at VermontFri. Dec. 15Princeton at BrownSat. Dec. 16Boston College at New HampshireTue. Jan. 2New Hampshire at Boston CollegeWed. Jan.3Princeton at ColgateThu Jan. 4Harvard at NortheasternSat Jan. 6Brown at HarvardNortheastern at VermontDartmouth at St. LawrenceBoston University at CornellRPI at Princeton<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>Dec. 12Notre Dame at Western MichiganDec. 15-16Minnesota at North DakotaMichigan State at Colorado CollegeDec. 22Notre Dame at Boston CollegeDec. 22-23Princeton at MinnesotaDec. 23Notre Dame at HarvardDec. 27Harvard at MinnesotaDec. 28Yale at MinnesotaHarvard at Minnesota-DuluthDec. 28-29University of Manitoba at North DakotaDec. 29Yale at Minnesota-Duluth<h2>CCHA Conference</h2>Dec. 12Notre Dame at Western MichiganDec. 15-16Bowling Green at Ferris StateLake Superior at Ohio StateWestern Michigan at St. LouisDec. 21-22Ohio State at Western MichiganDec. 22-23Brown at St. LouisDec. 28-29Providence at St. LouisDec. 28-30Bowling Green at Old Colony TourneyDec. 29-30Ohio State at Great Lakes invitationalWestern Michigan at Cornell Tourney &#9632;

Where The Colleges Play…

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01392/4325297-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="545" height="657"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB SUTER&hellip;Overtime Winner</figcaption></div>PHOENIX&mdash;It&rsquo;s rare when a college hockey team grooms for a shot at what may be the best team in college hockey by playing two games against one of the worst.But the University of North Dakota, with an important two-game set with Western Collegiate Hockey Association pre-season favorite Minnesota a week away, escaped from the freezing temperatures of North Dakota for two games against Northern Arizona.What is ironic about it all is that Northern Arizona&rsquo;s hockey program enjoys only club status on campus. It isn&rsquo;t regarded as a varsity sport.North Dakota probably kept it on a club basis for a while by thrashing the Axers 10-2 and 12-2 amidst the palm and orange trees in games that were as lopsided as the scores now.Northern Arizona&rsquo;s goalies made 120 saves in the two games while North Dakota netminders had just 38 slops. Dave Christian: a sophomore center being scouted closely by the pros, picked up his first college hat trick in the 10-2 mismatch. Senior center Mike Burggra showed that he&rsquo;s recovered from a lingering wrist injury by scoring three goals, two of them with the Sioux shorthanded, in the 12-2 second game. North Dakota led 12-0 in that one.Yet the results hardly pleased first-year North Dakota coach Gino Gasparini. When asked how he felt his team played, he replied, &ldquo;without intensity.&rdquo;Still, it did give some of the North Dakota players their first look at southern United States. It also gave the players a bundle of points to add to scoring statistics. Christian, with a seven-point weekend, was the biggest beneficiary.Gasparini wasn&rsquo;t fooled by the scoring margins. &ldquo;The caliber of the opposition wasn&rsquo;t what we would have liked,&rdquo; he said.With Minnesota invading Grand Forks the next weekend, the caliber of opposition will change in a hurry. Minnesota was everyone&rsquo;s pick to win the WCHA, including Minnesota coach Herb Brooks.Brooks hasn&rsquo;t changed his tune. The Gophers crept into first place briefly before taking a week off for final exams. During the break for test week, Notre Dame split a weekend series with Wisconsin to edge back into first, one point ahead of Minnesota and three ahead of North Dakota.The two-game set in Grand Forks I could change it all. A sweep by either team would push the winner into the lead over Notre Dame, which is idle.The North Dakota-Minnesota series is always the highlight of hockey in Grand Forks, a hockey-mad community aroused by the success of Gasparini&rsquo;s Sioux, 10-4 going into the Gopher series.Reserved seat tickets for the 5,630 seat Winter Sports Center have long been snapped up. A crowd of nearly 5,800 will jam the arena to overflowing. It is, after all, what college hockey in the United States is all about&mdash;two neighboring states with two solid hockey teams fighting for first place.Around the WCHA:WISCONSIN AT NOTRE DAME: Dave Poulin, one of the bright rookies that have contributed to Notre Dame&rsquo;s early success, showed Wisconsin his heels in an 8-2 Notre Dame win in the first game.Poulin had two goals and two assists as Notre Dame overhauled an early 1-0 Wisconsin lead to win going away.The second night, Bob Suter&rsquo;s overtime goal with 43 seconds gone salvaged a split by Wisconsin. It was the second goal of the game for Suter and offset a two-goal performance by Notre Dame&rsquo;s Dave Logan.DULUTH AT MICHIGAN TECH: Upstart Duluth came to life to take a rare sweep from Michigan Tech on the Huskies&rsquo; home ice. John Harrington&rsquo;s overtime tally gave Duluth a 4-3 win the opener. It was his second goal of the game.The second night, sparkplug Mark Pavelich scored one goal and added three assists as Duluth won 7-6. Dan Lempe, Harrington and Bill Oleksuk each added two goals for Duluth, which ran its winning streak to three.MICHIGAN VS. MICHIGAN STATE: Dennis May&rsquo;s goal snapped a 4-4 lie and lifted Michigan to a 7-4 victory over Michigan State in East Lansing in the home-and-home series. Doug Todd and Tint Manning wrapped it up with goals after May&rsquo;s tie-breaker.The next night, Michigan captain Mark Miller collected two goals and one assist as Michigan rolled to a 5-2 victory in Ann Arbor. Michigan Stale had trouble with Michigan goalie Rudy Vavari, who had 31 stops to just 19 for State&rsquo;s Doug Belland.WCHA NOTES: Wisconsin&rsquo;s Scott Lecy, a sophomore, was named WCHA Player of the Week for games of Dec. 12 after scoring hat tricks in both games as Wisconsinswept Michigan State. He also had three assists in the two games for a nine-point weekend&hellip; North Dakota freshman Bob Iwabuchi leads all goalies with his 1.69 goals-against mark in four starts&hellip; Michigan scoring ace Dan Lerg was all set to return to the lineup after being sidelined since early in the season. But he stepped on a puck in practice and now may be out until January&hellip; Denver&rsquo;s Perry Schnarr: out all season after back surgery, may be sidelined now with academic difficulties, reports Denver coach Marshall Johnston&hellip; Johnston, incidentally: denies published reports he will coach the 1980 Canadian Olympic hockey team. He says he hasn&rsquo;t been contacted about the job. &#9632;

f0030-01

North Dakota Awaiting Minnesota; Notre Dame Climbs Back Into Lead

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03217/4325328-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="582" height="606"></div> &#9632;

f0030-03

LEADING SCORERS

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02305/4325359-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="512" height="713"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL TILLEY&hellip;Player Of Week</figcaption></div>SAULT STE. MARIE, MI &mdash;Junior Don Dclabbio&rsquo;s short handed goal at 11:50 of the third period proved to be the winning goal as Lake Superior State College nipped Northern Michigan 7-6 in a midweek contest.The win pushed the Soo Lakers back into second place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association behind Bowling Green and ahead of Ohio State. The loss kept NMU&rsquo;s Wildcats in last place.The two Upper Peninsula members of the CCHA battled it out in LSSC&rsquo;s Norris Center and the first period was amazing as they exchanged eight goals with the score 4-4 alter one stanza.Jeff Jensen opened the scoring for L.SSC at 1:30 of the first period and the Lakers took 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 leads on goals by Mark Harris, Steve Sherman and captain Jamie McDonald.Rick Comlcy&rsquo;s Wildcats tied the score four times in the first period on goals by Mike Mielke, Steve Cloutier, Greg Tignanclli and Jeff I Pyle.Sherman scored his second goal of the game on the power play assisted by Bobby Ciotti and Kevin MacDonald at 55 seconds of the second period and Pat Wilson made it 7-5 after two periods.Pyle tied the game for NMU with a power play goal 51 seconds into the third and a shorthanded goal at 4:10 to complete his hat trick.Dclabbio&rsquo;s winner was assisted by senior Bill DcMcuIcnaere.Murray Skinner had 30 saves in the win while Barrie Oakes (seven) and Steve Weeks (15) combined for 22 saves in the NMU nets.In CCHA action last weekend Ohio State had the only sweep beating Ferris State 9-6 and 10-3; Northern Michigan split at St. Louis losing 5-4 in overtime and winning 62 while Lake Superior split at Western Michigan winning 3-1 and losing 7-6 in overtime. In non-league action Bowling Green lied St. Lawrence 3-3 and beat the Sainis 72.In the Ohio State sweep the Bucks used three-goal hat tricks by Jim Mroszak in the opener and CCHA player-of-the-weak Paul Tilley in the second game to pace the offense.Tilley gained five points on the weekend and helped himself to the weekly award with his clutch penalty killing as Ferris State could score just once in 12 power play attempts in the series.Ferris gained a 3-2 lead on goals by Ed Pelyak and Jim Baker in the second period, but Larry Marson tied the game with a power play goal and Mroszak scored twice to give OSU a 5-3 lead and enough offense for the win.In the second game Tilley and Mark freeman gave OSU a 2-0 lead by the 8:07 mark of the first period but goals by Rocki Smith, Jeff Toombs and Ed Turner put the Bulldogs on lop 3-2 by 16:39 of the second period. OSU blitzed Ferris goalie Doug Newels as Tilley tied the score at 16:53. Marson put the Bucks ahead at 17:54 and Mike Conrad added another score at 19:39.Jim Penningroth scored twice in the third period as OSU scored five times.Murray Skinner played the big role in goal for Lake Superior at Western Michigan in the opener as lie made 39 saves in front of 3,161 fans in Lawson Arena and. the Lakers won 3-1 on goals by John Wilson, Kevin Kossowski and Steve Sherman. Ralph Murphy had the lone goal for WMU.Murphy was the star in the second game as the WMU freshman rearguard scored the tying goal at 11:56 of the third period and broke the 6-6 tie at 9:59 of the overtime assisted by Dave Berlhelsen and Kelly Mitchell with just one second remaining in the 10-minute extra session.Ron Sandzik and Bobby Ciotti each scored two goals in the Laker loss while Paul Cappuccio and Berthelsen each had three assists for WMU.St. Louis won its 11th straight from Northern Michigan in three seasons with the 5-4 overtime decision in the opener in the Checkerdome before 3,127 fans.Rick Gazzolla&rsquo;s second goal of the game was the game winner at 4:08 of --the overtime period assisted by Chris Valentine and George Krvzer.Bill Joyce had two goals for NMU in the loss while Valentine joined Gazzolla with two goals in the win. NMU led 4-3 after two periods, but Valentine&rsquo;s unassisted goal tied the game at 2:36 of the third period.Freshman Paul Billing had 34 saves in the with while Barrie Oakes came up with 25 slops for Northern Michigan.In the Saturday contest Mike Niclke and Terry Houck gave NMU a 2-0 lead in the first period.Valentine cut the lead to 2-1 from Doug Butler and Bruce Wallace at 49 seconds of the second period, but NMU iced the game on second period goals by Joyce, Steve Bozek, Don Waddell and Mielke.Valentine scored his second goal of the game and fourth of the weekend for the only third period score against Steve Weeks who made 25 saves. Billing had 17 saves before Gerald Burt made his collegiate debut in the third period and slopped all 14 NMU shots he faced.Freshman goalie Gary Lashowski made 61 saves including 24 in the second period to gain the 3-3 tie at Bowling Green in the opener in the BGSU Ice Arena.Mike Lockwood and Ray Robertson put the Saints on top 2-0 after one period, but BG scored on goals by George McPhee, John Markell and Brian MacLelland to&rdquo; lead 3-2 after two.Paul Flanagan tied the game on a power play goal in the third period.McPhee and Bruce Newton gave BG a 2-0 lead in the second game and a second period barrage by All Ameriena candidates John Markell (three goals) and defenseman Ken Morrow (two goals) made the score 7-1. Gerry Thygescn had both St. Lawrence goals.Morrow was second star in the opener and first star in the second game giving him six straight games as one of the three stars of the game. &#9632;

f0030-02

Lakers Claim Second Spot With Mid-Week Win

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD JABLONSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01359/4325390-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="552" height="654"><figcaption class="caption-body">BERT DIFAZIO&hellip;Led Onslaught</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Anyone who follows university hockey in the province of Quebec knows that second place is not the customary hideout of Paul Arsenault&rsquo;s Concordia University Stingers. History shows that the Stingers, who have won every QUAA hockey title since the merger of Loyola and Sir George Williams into Concordia five years ago, are a first place club, the class of the Quebec loop.The first semester of the current season has proven io be no exception to the rule of Stinger supremacy. With a pair of lopsided victories over Herb Madill&rsquo;s injury and suspension decimated McGill Redmen, the Concordia team moved into undisputed possession of first place for the first time this season.The Stingers, 7-0 in league play, made their move on the strength of a pair of virtually identical routs of McGill. The scores of the games, 11-3 and 10-0, speak for themselves. With seven front line players either injured or suspended for disciplinary reasons, the Redmen offered only token resistance to the Stinger attack, which amassed a total of 130 shots on McGill goallenders Sylvain Charbonneau and Mike Farmer in the two games.Concordia was led offensively by the hard hitting line of Wayne Singleton, Mark Fiorentino and Bert Difazio. Difazie was particularly effective, racking up four goals, including a hat trick, and two assists in the two games.While quick to give credit to his linemates after the first game, Difazio also summed up the prevailing opinion of the entire Stinger club with regard io this year&rsquo;s QUAA race.&ldquo;I think we should win it,&rdquo; said Difazio. &ldquo;Sure, they (McGill) were missing a lol of players tonight, but I think we still would have beaten them. Maybe not 11-3, but we still would have won.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s the story of Concordia hockey: a program with a winning iradilion that never seems to come lo an end.Elsewhere in the Quebec Association, things are looking up for Ron Perowne and the Bishop&rsquo;s Gaiters. After five consecutive losses to open up the season, the Gaiters righted themselves this week with a thrilling 5-4 victory over Trois Rivieres on the Patriotes&rsquo; home ice, and a 4-4 tie of Laval in Quebec City.Rookie Mark Asleson continued his fine play of the early going, scoring the winning goal in the 5-4 contest at 18:55 of the third period. Terry Perras added a pair of goals for the Gaiters.The Chicoutimi Inuks kept on rolling as well with a 4-2 win over Laval and a 4-4 tie of Trois Rivieres. In the first game, Yves Tremblay did the damage for Chicoutimi with a pair of goals, while Alain Deschenes and Bernard Chamberland each netted a goal and two assists in the second.MARITIME ASSOCIATION: It was upset week in the Maritimes, where some of the little guys came through with bona fide shockers over the big guns.The trend of upsets was clearly led by the Prince Edward Island Panthers, who are intent upon destroying preseason forecasts that U.P.E.l. would be &ldquo;the disaster area of university hockey.&rdquo;In consecutive days, Jack Ynes&rsquo; Panthers knocked off Saint Francis Xavier 5-3 and Dalhousis 4-3. Prince Edward Island got the job done with a combination of tight defense and timely goalscoring. The Panther defense is anchored by former OMJHL&rsquo;er Brian Ostroski, who came up with two goals and an assist in the victory over Saint EX, while the playmaking and firepower is provided by David Cameron, who racked up two goals and six assists in the two games.This is not the play of a potential last place team.Speaking of last place teams, how about Moncton? The Aigles Bleus may be mired in the basement of the AUAA, but you couldn&rsquo;t convince the Acadia Axemen that Moncton is a last place club.Moncton look the then-undefeated Axemen to the limit, including a ten minute overtime period, before settling for a 6-6 tie. Even at that, it look an Andre Tessier marker at 16:31 of the third period to hoist Acadia into the deadlock. Top scorers for each team were Acadia&rsquo;s John Verran and Moncton defenseman Jean Belliveau, with two goals apiece.Perhaps exhausted by the Moncton contest, the Axemen traveled to New Brunswick for a &ldquo;breather&rdquo; against the lowly Red Bombers, only to drop a 4-3 decision.For the second week in a row, Mount Allison scored a major upset, downing Dalhousie 4-3. It wasn&rsquo;t really what you would call the Tigers&rsquo; week, as Dalhousie lost one goal decision to UPEI and Mount A. To top it all off, the Tigers ran into Saint Mary&rsquo;s in a game rescheduled from te second semester, only to blow a 2-0 lead in a 7-3 rout.S.M.U. also dumped Moncton, 3-1ONTARIO ASSOCIATION: You really have to feel sorry for the Ottawa Gee-Gees. The night before their big encounter with the Toronto Blues, the Gee-Gees not only lost to Ron Smith&rsquo;s York Yeomen 7-2, but also received the nexw that Toronto had been lied 6-6 by Queen&rsquo;s. It was bad enough to be touted by York but to face Tom Walt&rsquo;s powerhouse Blues with the latter coming off an unexpected tie is almost the equivalent of hockey disaster.Needless to say, the Blues came out smoking and never looked back. The final score was 13-4, but even that doesn&rsquo;t tell the whole story. The tale is made complete with word that Cary Farelli had a five point night, including three goals, and that Doug Caines snapped out of his semester long slump with two goals and two assists. Dan D&rsquo;Alvise, Shane Pearsall and Rick Tarasuk added two goals apiece.Western Division leader Guelph continued to play exciting, if somewhat inconsistent, hockey, taking an 8-6 defensive struggle from the winless Brock Badgers before playing to a 3-3 tie with Waterloo.Division scoring leader Hugh Mitchell netted a pair of goals in the victory over Brock, as did his teammates Doug Heslip and Dave Cobban. Ted Lis, Paul Sheehan and Harry Hicks evenly divided Brock&rsquo;s offensive output.GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE: Statistics from individual GPAC games are hard to come by, but scores and standings are available. The big weekend series found the defending champion Regina Cougars in Manitoba to face their top competition, the Manitoba Bisons. The split of the series, 3-0 for Manitoba and 4-3 for Regina, proved inconclusive, although the Cougars did manage to squeeze out a win on the road.The battle for third and fourth place really warmed up, as Lakehead and Brandon split a weekend series in the Bobcats&rsquo; backyard. The Norwesters took the first game 6-5, while Brandon bounced back for a 6-2 decision in the second.CANADA WEST ASSOCIATION: Only one series was played in the Canada West Association this past week, that between the first place Alberta Golden Bears and the last place Saskatchewan Huskies. As might be expected, Clare Drake&rsquo;s Bears had little difficulty in dealing the Huskies a pair of losses, 12-2 and 9-3.In the first game, Mike Broadfoot and Darrell Zaparniuk, with three and two goals respectively, were the big scorers for Alberta. The second game saw Bear forward Chris Helland, the association&rsquo;s leading pointgetter and goalscorer (9-10-19), add to his impressive early season statistics with a pair of goals. Dave Breakwell and Jim Lomas also scored twice for Alberta.The Golden Bears dominate the scoring stats as well, with Dave Hindmarch and John Devaney joining Helland to form the league&rsquo;s top three scorers. Hindmarch has 15 points on eight goals and seven assists, while Devaney has accumulated 13 points on three goals and 10 assists. &#9632;

f0031-01

Stingers Fill Usual Role Setting Pace For Quebec

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02269/4325421-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0031-02

Looking At The College Scoreboard

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01372/4325452-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="554" height="710"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY DARLING&hellip;Takes Over Amerks</figcaption></div>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;The parent Los Angeles Kings have rewarded young Springfield goaltender Larry Molleken with a two year contract following his strong performances in goal for the Tribe. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good standup goalie, who likes to challenge the shooters,&rdquo; said coach Ted Harris. The Kings also signed last year&rsquo;s Tribe netminder, Mario. Lessard, to a longterm NHL contract. Lessard, who was the Second Team AHL All Star goaltender last season, has been doing an excellent job for the Kings and may be their goaltender of the future. Molleken&rsquo;s rise to sudden fame occurred when Rick Sevigny was out of the Springfield lineup for several games with a hand injury.During the week the Indians beat New Brunswick 4-1 but lost 6-5 at Maine and 8-3 at Philadelphia.&ldquo;We put it all together in beating New Brunswick and that should help us get back into the race,&rdquo; said Harris. Andre Peloffy, the club&rsquo;s dashing centerman, and defenseman Tim Jacobs were the scoring leaders in the win over the Hawks. Peloffy scored a hat trick and Jacobs had four assists. Rick Sevigny&rsquo;s almost flawless game in the nets was a possible sign that the Indians were starting to turn things around after so many tough losses, 10 of the 12 defeats by one goal.The Indians acquired veteran defenseman Pierre Roy from the Binghamton Dusters in an attempt to add some experience, aggressiveness and muscle to the team&rsquo;s defense. &ldquo;He could be the missing link to our championship hopes,&rdquo; said managing general partner George Leary.MAINE: The Mariners were 7-3-1 during the last four weeks and are closing in on the division-leading Nova Scotia Voyageurs. The team bombed the Rochester Americans 8-2 at the Civic Center and edged Springfield 6-5, also at Portland.Al Hill recorded the team&rsquo;s third hat trick of the season (Yves Preston and Wayne Schaab have the other two) and the Mariners also set a new team record for the fastest three goals in the win over Rochester. In the second period, Preston scored his 14th of the season and Tom Gorence has ninth of the year 25 seconds later. Hill notched his third goal of the contest 1:27 later. The old record had been held by Hill, Blake Dunlop and Drew Callander who scored three in 3:13 against Hershey last year. Preston, Gorence and Hill scored their trio of goals in 1:52.NEW-HAVEN: A 2-1-1 mark during the week left the Nighthawks all alone on top of the Southern Division, some four points ahead of Hershey. The Nighthawks beat Rochester 6-3 on the road and edged the Firebirds 6-4 in New Haven. An exciting 3-3 overtime tie with New Brunswick was the highlight of the week.The largest crowd of the season in New Haven, 5,003 was treated to the first ever &ldquo;Battle of the Hawks.&rdquo; The Southern Division-leading New Haven Nighthawsk (a.k.a. &ldquo;Hawks&rdquo;) took on the powerful new AHL team the New Brunswick Hawks.Even the huge Coliseum scoreboard was confused. When the words &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s Go Hawks&rdquo; were flashed and the crowd responded, the visiting New Brunswick Hawks must have wondered if they were back in Moncton, New Brunswick. At any rate, despite the confusion, it turned out to be an exciting, well-played contest.The 3-3 contest with New Brunswick was seen by several N.Y. Rangers who made the short trip to New Haven since the parent club had the night off. In addition, one of hockey&rsquo;s all-time greats, Bobby Orr, now scouting for the Chicago Black Hawks, was in attendance. Orr received a tremendous standing ovation when he came out on the ice. He participated in the &ldquo;Shoot the Puck&rdquo; contest and almost made the seemingly impossible shot which only two of nearly 300 fans have made in seven years that the contest has been run.PHILADELPHIA: By winning three of four during the week, the revitalized Firebirds are now only two points away from escaping the Southern Division cellar. Coach Bep Guidolin has transformed the hapless AHL club into an organized hockey team that has suddenly gotten a taste of victory. After the disastrous early season start by the Birds, attendance in Philadelphia has started to increase. Nearly 3,500 saw the Firebirds beat New Haven 4-1.The week started in Hersheysand the Bears fell by a 4-2 count. Two nights later at home in the Civic Center, the Firebirds blasted the Indians 8-3 and goaltender Reggie Lemelin&rsquo; was sensational in the 4-1 win over New Haven. Larry Skinner, Mike Dwyer and two goals by Gordie Brooks gave the improving Firebirds a big win over New Haven. The next night in Connecticut, the Nighthawks got their revenge by posting a 6-4 victory.HERSHEY: Goaltender Bob Sauve has been recalled by the Buffalo Sabres due to the injury to Don Edwards. As a result, the Bears are still thin in the goaltending department. As a replacement for Sauve, Jim Weaver was called up from the 1HL Milwaukee Admirals.During the week Hershey split four games and has a 6-5-1 record over their last 12 contests. The Bears defeated Nova Scotia 6-2 at Hershey and beat the Dusters 7-4 in Binghamton. Philadelphia won 4-2 at the Her-sheypark Arena and Rochester skated to a 5-4 win in overtime in a game played at the Rochester War Memorial.BINGHAMTON: By winning seven of their last eleven the Dusters are one of the hottest teams in the AHL, after a slow start. They beat Nova Scotia 6-1 and lost to the Firebirds during the week but remained in third place in the Southern Division.In a flurry of player moves, the Dusters lost Paul Stewart, Mike Meeker, Paul O&rsquo;Neil and Serge Beaudoin to recalls by the parent clubs. Defenseman Pierre Roy was sold to Springfield and veteran winger Pierre Laganiere retired. Joe Kowal came to the Dusters from Buffalo by way of Springfield. Pittsburgh returned Meeker, Gilles Bilodeau and Norm Dube were sent by Quebec of the WHA and Mike Marson came from Washington by way of the Philadelphia Firebirds.NOVA SCOTIA: It&rsquo;s the same old story&mdash;the Nova Scotia Voyageurs lead the Northern Division and have played more games on the road than any other team in the AHL. At this writing, the Vees had played six more times on foreign ice than at the Metro Center. As a result, the team has a tremendous advantage over their AHL rivals. The high-flying Vees also lead the AHL in goals scored with Norm Dupont and Dave Lumley pacing the individual league goal scoring statistics.Nova Scotia has won 10 of their last 15 in a drive that has propelled them to the top of the tight Northern Division, race. Maine is right on their heels and have three games in hand on the Voyageurs.NEW BRUNSWICK: Doug Lecuyer, who scored 15 points in 19 games with the Hawks and led the team in penalties, has been recalled by the Chicago Black Hawks. The NHL club also took defenseman Mike O&rsquo;Connell. O&rsquo;Connell had 13 points in 19 AHL games. To replace Lecuyer and O&rsquo;Connell, Joes Quenneville and Alain Daigle have been sent to the AHL club.Quenneville, a defenseman, is on loan from Toronto and Daigle is from the Black Hawks.The week ended with New Brunswick being unable to win any of their three games. They lost 2-1 to Nova Scotia and 4-1 to Springfield. A 3-3 overtime tie in New Haven was the only point that the Hawks were able to get on the three game road trip.ROCHESTER: Duane Rupp is out as coach of the Rochester Americans. With the Amerks only able to gain one point in their last eight games (0-7-1) the Rochester front office decided to make a change. Rupp was temporarily replaced with Boston Bruin head scout Gary Darling. A search is now underway to find a permanent replacement for Rupp.It was a dismal week for the Amerks as they lost three of four and almost dropped into the Southern Division cellar. The week started with a 6-3 loss to New Haven before 3,574 at the War Memorial. Two nights later the Nova Scotia Voyageurs and the Amerks went into over time after Brian MacGregor had tied the game for Rochester at 12:07 of the third period. Halfway through the overtime, Don Laurence fired in a 40 foot slapshot past Jim Pettte, for the game winner. Pettie was screened on the play and didn&rsquo;t see the shot until it was too late.Darling got his first win as the coach of the Amerks in a 5-4-win, in overtime, over the Hershey Bears. With the Amerks leading 4-1 after two periods, the Bears scored three times to send the contest into an extra session. With only 59 seconds left to play, Brian MacGregor scored the winning goal. &#9632;

f0032-01

Mariners Set Sights On Division’s Top Spot

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/f0032-02283/4325483-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="629" height="695"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

December 22, 1978

Who They’re Affiliated With…

Seattle Victimized By WHL’s ‘Tough’Division

The NHL Scoreboard

WORLD HOCKEY ASST. SUMMARIES