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.

February 23, 1979

The Hockey News February 23, 1979

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>PRINCETON&mdash;Someone suggested that the Princeton University Tigers hire a seamstress last week after the team, still winless in 13 ECAC Division One games, tied Harvard 7-7 in overtime for their fourth deadlock of the long rebuilding season. The seamstress could remove the &ldquo;G&rdquo; from each Princetonian&rsquo;s sweater, then reattach the remaining letters to spell &ldquo;Tiers&rdquo; to give fans a better picture of the way Princeton&rsquo;s second season under well-regarded coach Jimmy Higgins has progressed.Higgins actually managed a chuckle at the seamstress stratagem a few days later as his team finally broke the drought with a 3-2 victory over playoff-bound Yale at Baker Rink. Then they came from behind to dump Brown, another strong playoff contender, 6-4, to vault out of the league cellar for the first time in 1978-79.Against the Elis, a score by Craig Tresham with 3:23 to play proved to be the winner in a seesaw battle. The other markers were by Ken Koenig and Dave Tweedy as the Tigers threw 36 shots at Mark Rodrigues.The Brown game was even better, as Princeton, a defensive-minded team that doesn&rsquo;t usually score in bunches, twice overcame two goal deficits against Brown, a hard-hitting defensive-minded club themselves.After Brown had gone up 2-0 in a 2:50 span early in the game, Dave Clark and Drew Forbes, two freshman members of Higgins&rsquo; first recruited class at Princeton, tied the score. Then came a scoreless second frame, followed by another two goal burst, this time in 39 seconds of the third period, to put the Bruins up 4-2.Nearly 10 minutes passed, and the Bruins were counting their chips. But Grant Hansen and Trevor Kilburn tallied at 12:43 and 13:55. Overtime loomed until Ray Casey, another freshman, scored the winner at 18:07 and Kilburn added the insurance tally with eight seconds remaining.The wins lifted Princeton over Harvard and St. Lawrence into 14th place, out of the playoff running but loaded with optimism for the future. Realistically, it will take another solid recruiting year plus a seasoning campaign to put Princeton into steady contention.&ldquo;We should have won a lot of the games we lost, because we outshot a lot of teams,&rdquo; said Higgins in retrospect.&ldquo;Of our top eight or nine scorers, six are freshmen. And since we only have three juniors playing right now, we&rsquo;re definitely going to have to get another solid class in this spring. But the spirit on the team has been great.&rdquo;Up front, Princeton&rsquo;s best line currently has freshman Casey centering Tweedy, a sophomore, and Hansen, another rookie. Tresham, Kilburn, and Dave Kelley will be the only graduates lost this season, so the accent will be on youth for the next term.Princeton is one of the best academic institutions in all of college hockey, and Higgins is a native of Boston where he played at BU. But the Tigers have had trouble attracting the good Boston area high schoolers to matriculate at Nassau; instead, they&rsquo;ve had to concentrate on Minnesotans and Canadians. If just a couple of quality Bostonians would come aboard each season, it could mean a world of difference for Higgins program plans. As of the moment, Princeton comes to Boston two or three times a year, to play Harvard and BU, BC, or Northeastern. How well they do against these teams in the Boston area incubator affects recruiting posture; meanwhile, Princeton is scheduling visits to other prime recruiting grounds. They went to Minnesota for two games this year and will play a couple of Michigan State next season.In other games last week, the Beanpot Tournament first round drew a record opening crowd of 14,697 who expected to watch BU roll over Harvard, and Northeastern, favored for the first time in eons, to beat Boston College. What they got was a tight 4-2 Terrier triumph and a lopsided 7-2 Boston College vanquishing of the Huntington Hounds.Harvard goalie John Hynes, who has played most of the year behind Wade Lau, was sensational against BU with 26 saves in the first two periods. The Johns held a 2-1 lead over that span on goals by freshman Dave Burke and Mike Watson, and the crowd was thinking upset as the Terriers missed chance after chance. Finally, with 12:35 to go, freshman defenseman Bill Whelton tied the score with a drive from the point, and Dave Silk potted the winner off a scramble in front 1:30 later.With the excellent season enjoyed by Northeastern to date, nobody gave Boston College much of a shot against the Hounds this time around. But BC has played some of its best hockey of the season lately, and they quickly disposed of the uptight Huskies with a four-goal barrage in the first period. Joe Mullen and Bob Hebir each had two scores for the Eagles, who were up 6-0 at one point.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01337/4372589-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="573" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE TWEEDY&hellip;Promising Tiger</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Tigers Claw Path From Basement: BC Springs Early Beanpot Upset

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The 10-day vacation should have been universally acclaimed by all players not involved in the All Star series against the Soviets. And probably was.Except for Fred Barrett, the defenseman of the Minnesota North Stars who just returned from a twomonth layoff with a thigh injury. In that respect, the time off might be good for the leg, but not necessarily the desire.Barrett knows what it means to &ldquo;play with pain.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s timeworn description relating to most athletes but for Barrett, it might be better put: &ldquo;He pains to play.&rdquo;Barrett is making, his umpteenth come back from injury during this second half of the schedule. &ldquo;I realize it will take awhile to get to the point I was at before the injury,&rdquo; said the crispchecking defenseman. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not in peak shape and I will stay within my limits, but I have to start somewhere. My main concern is that I play well enough that I won&rsquo;t hurt the team. That&rsquo;s my goal now.&rdquo;This is a familiar refrain.The 28-year-old Barrett has been suffering disabling injuries since two tiny pins were inserted into his ankle to tie down a loose ligament his first year of junior hockey in Ottawa, Ont.His left leg is a bit crooked from a broken femur (lower thighbone) he suffered slamming into a post early in his North Star career. &ldquo;My leg was in a body cast for two months and I could put iny fist around the femur when they took the cast off,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The alternative was surgery and that would not have been good for my knee. I would have had a straight leg but a weak knee.&rdquo;Barrett&rsquo;s history of injuries could rival baseball&rsquo;s Mickey Mantle by the time he hangs up his skates. He&rsquo;s suffered fractured ankles, sprains, separated shoulders, severe bruises, black eyes, stitches without medication so he could return to play, and many other torments.Fred Barrett has agonized with pain.&ldquo;Once you get heated up in a game,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing how much pain you can withstand. When you&rsquo;re so involved in trying to do your job, you really don&rsquo;t think about it. With a cracked toe, you can strap you skates on tight enough to support it and there&rsquo;s not much feeling. But when you&rsquo;re peeling off your equipment and the doctor comes in to check you over, all your thoughts are concentrated on that. It hurts.&ldquo;One of the most excruciating things&rsquo; I&rsquo;ve gone through is surgery on an ingrown toenail. Sure, it hurts when you get hit by a shot&mdash;you can hardly walk for awhile&hellip;but you can skate. Now playing with pain is playing with a partially separated shoulder. You can&rsquo;t play hockey and not move your shoulder.&rdquo;There is almost as much pain sitting up in the press box game after game while an injury heals. Barrett was first injured Nov. 1 against St. Louis. He came back too soon, and a check which pinched his thigh pads deep into his muscle put him on the disabled list for more than 30 games.What was first thought to be a severe Charley horse turned into a lump of calcium deposits. Time was the best medication to allow the calcium to shrink.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re glad to have him back,&rdquo; said coach Glen Sonmor.&ldquo;Freddie has long been a maligned member of the North Stars&rsquo; defense. That hasn&rsquo;t been fair&mdash;he is one of the most underrated players on the team, a player who goes all out every shift. It was no coincidence that we went into an eight-game losing streak without him.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-06444/4371167-1-eng-US/f0004-062.jpg" title="f0004-06" width="472" height="656"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRED BARRETT&hellip;Another Comeback</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THE NHL

Barrett’s Return Postponed Again By All Star Week

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01494/4372112-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02390/4372105-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="1468" height="1268"><figcaption class="caption-body">Some hockey school directors prefer not to invite NHL or WHA stars to their camps as guest instructors for reasons of their own. But at National Hockey School near Montreal, the school&rsquo;s executive director Steve Stotland believes it is essential to have &lsquo;name&rsquo; players on the instructional coaching staff. Stotland says the kids love to see the pros and he believes they add something to a boy&rsquo;s visit to a hockey school. Here&rsquo;s Canadiens&rsquo; Steve Shutt at left enjoying a light moment with a few hockey schoolers. At right, Yvan Cournoyer, who is owner and chief instructor at National, holds a rap session with eager young players.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL Stars Are Still Great A ttraction To Kids

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01506/4372074-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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1979 SUMMER HOCKEY SCHOOLS DIRECTORY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01716/4373201-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

Cover-01

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;The National Hockey League is faced with a new dilemma after their crushing defeat at the hands of the Soviet Union&mdash;where do they go from here?It would seem the NHL had all the &lsquo;big stars&rsquo;, hockey&rsquo;s top bananas as far as player wealth was concerned, but it all boiled down to one thing&mdash;they didn&rsquo;t have a system. The Soviets did.There will be post mortems into the long hours and nights ahead to determine first, should the NHL continue to risk pride and prestige trying to break down a hockey machine that won&rsquo;t bend, or, second if their peers insist on playing the USSR again, then the NHL had better get off their collective butts and start shaping a program that will allow them to compete with the supermen of the Soviet without having to sustain the embarrassment and disappointment that Team NHL had to endure when they skated off the Madison Square Garden ice the night of Feb. 11.It really isn&rsquo;t fair to the NHL performers themselves. They gave it all they had in the three-game Challenge Cup series and came away dejected, whipped and red-faced for another year after losing two of three games. They were outscored, outshot, outplayed, outskated and outmuscled and now must wonder what they were doing in the so-called series of the century in the first place. They were obviously not prepared. Today, they will be asking themselves; &ldquo;will we ever be ready?&rdquo;Bill Torrey, the Team NHL general manager, said he couldn&rsquo;t fault the players because they had just come off a tough first half of the schedule with little or no rest. Physically, they were not prepared. This was obvious after their pathetic performance in the third period of game two and the entire third game when they were out of it from the start. Still, Torrey and the NHL must accept some of the blame. They were instrumental in picking the team and they had a say in arranging the series. They knew what they were getting themselves into and they were playing a tough foe at the time when the NHL was supposedly at its peak. Like the man said before it all began&mdash;we should have no excuses.Serge Savard, the Canadiens&rsquo; defense great who did his utmost to make it look respectable throughout the series, may have said it all when he declared, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ve been developing goons in the last 10 years instead of hockey players.&rdquo; It certainly showed in the Challenge Cup series.Most hockey people were emphatic that the NHL begin to take an entirely new approach to international hockey. It is now apparent that a North American team&mdash;whether it be an All Star aggregiation or the Stanley Cup champion Canadiens&mdash;isn&rsquo;t going to succeed against the Soviet system until we start employing some of their tactics. Conditioning became the prime decider in the series. The superb Soviets were skating as strong at the finish as they were at the start. On the other hand, the NHL looked listless, tired and physically beaten into the ice.Where does the NHL go from here? That&rsquo;s a good question and something the hockey barons of the league will have to answer. Certainly, they had to be pleased with the monetary return and the world exposure the series brought, but they can&rsquo;t reconcile themselves after what happened on the ice. &#9632;

HOCKEY OPINION

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-07" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07161/4370959-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former NHL president Clarence Campbell is shown the night before the start of the Challenge Cup series as he attended a Hockey News celebration in New York. (Photo by Ken Howard)</figcaption></div>Special To The Hockey NewsNEW YORK&mdash;Former National Hockey League president Clarence Campbell completed a trying week during the Challenge Cup series.He heard himself extolled by world and sportsfigures after giving the NHL 31 years of his life as president and then had to submit to corrective internal surgery to relieve an intestinal obstruction and all within a span of 48 hours.The 73-year-old retired chief executive was honored by the NHL as its guest of honor at the first Challenge Cup All Star game dinner at New York&rsquo;s Waldorf Astoria hotel.Campbell was eulogized by hockey broadcasters Dan Kelly and Dick Irvin, and NHL president John Ziegler as a man who made a tremendous impact on league matters since he first took office in September of 1946. He received tributes from international hockey people, U.S. and Canadian Government officials and received numerous presentations including a Soviet samovar from Valentin Sytck, deputy chairman of the USSR sports committee and a rare engraved plaque from the International Ice Hockey Federation&rsquo;s president, Dr. Gunther Sabetzki.There were tributes and presentations from within with club owners William Wirtz, Bruce Norris and Bill Jennings honoring Campbell with a cheque for his favorite charity. Canada&rsquo;s sports minister, Iona Campagnolo, and External Affairs minister Don Jamieson also were in attendance.Campbell&rsquo;s appearance at the Friday night AH Star dinner was apparently against the advice of his doctors. He had come to New York after being discharged from a Montreal hospital suffering from an asthma attack. He appeared unwell at the All Star dinner, which was held Friday evening, and was admitted to a New York hospital Saturday evening after cancelling plans to attend a Broadway play. Doctors decided to operate Sunday night and he was reported resting comfortably on Monday morning.There was no report how long Campbell would be detained in hospital. &#9632;

f0002-07

Internal Surgery Stops Campbell But Tributes Flow

<h2>Game One</h2><h2>Thu. Feb. 8 SOVIETS 2, NHL 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>Team NHL, 1&mdash;Lafleur (Clarke, Shutt) 0:16, 2&mdash;Bossy (Perreault, Lafleur); 6:42, Soviet Union, 3&mdash;Mikhailov (Vasilyev, Kharlamov) 11:25; Team NHL, 4&mdash;Gainey (Barber, Beck) 15:48.Penalties: Zhluktov 0:59, Petrov 5:13, McDonald 8:31, Gillies 10:59, Zhluktov 12:21.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>Team NHL, 5&mdash;Gillies (Bossy) 8:14.Penalty: Tsygankov 10:58.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>Soviet Union, 6&mdash;V. Golikov (A. Golikov, Makarov) 3:02.Penalties: None<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011084/4371025-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="587" height="116"></div>Attendance: 17,438.<h2>Game Two</h2><h2>Sat. Feb. 10 SOVIETS 5, NHL 4</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>Soviet Union, 1&mdash;Kapustin (Starikov) 8:10, Team NHL. 2&mdash;Bossy (Trottier, Gillies) 13:35, 3&mdash;Trottier (Bossy, Gillies) 18:21.Penalties: Kovin 12:32, Perreault 15:13.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>Team NHL, 4&mdash;Perreault (Sittler) 0:27; Soviet Union. 5&mdash;Varnakov (Skvortsov) 2:05; Team NHL, 6&mdash;Robinson (Lafleur, Dionne) 5:06; Soviet Union. 7&mdash;Mikhailov (Petrov, Vasilyev) 17:02. 8&mdash;Kapustin (Zhluktov) 17:47Penalties: Salming 8:04, Beck 15:07.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>Soviet Union. 9&mdash;V. Golikov (Makarov) 1:31.Penalties: None.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02966/4371018-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="591" height="112"></div>Attendance: 17,438<h2>Game Three</h2><h2>Sun. Feb. 11 SOVIETS 6, NHL 0</h2><h3>FIRST PERIOD</h3>No scoring.Penalties: None.<h3>SECOND PERIOD</h3>Soviet Union, 1&mdash;Mikhailov (A. Golikov) 5:47, 2&mdash;Zhluktov (Balderis, Vasilyev) 7:44.Penalties: Marcotte 6:27, Vasilyev 10:48, Myshkin (served by Gimayev), Trottier 12:27.<h3>THIRD PERIOD</h3>Soviet Union, 3&mdash;Balderis (Gamayev) 8:44, 4&mdash;Kovin (Skvortsov, Varnakov) 10:21, 5&mdash;Makarov (Kapustin) 12:44, 6&mdash;A. Golikov 14:46.Penalty: Mikhailov 14:22.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03712/4371011-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="596" height="113"></div>Attendance: 17,500.<h2>SERIES SCOREBOARD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04486/4371004-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="593" height="117"></div><h2>SCORING BY TEAMS SOVIET UNION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05355/4370997-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="601" height="520"></div><h2>TEAM NHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06253/4370990-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="603" height="573"></div> &#9632;

f0002-01

How The Soviets Won The Series

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011092/4371077-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Helmut Balderis of the Soviet Union battles the NHL&rsquo;s Serge Savard (18) for the puck in opening game of Challenge Cup series.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02933/4371070-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1484" height="1174"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vladimir Golikov, a newcomer, who scored twice for the Soviets in the series, mixes it up with Clark Gillies of the NHL. (Photos by Bruce Bonnett)</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Up until 8:23 p.m. on the evening of Feb. 8, 1979, the date of the first of three games between the All Stars of the National Hockey League and the All Stars of the Soviet Union, everything went according to plan: First, the anthems of the three countries involved in the battle for the Challenge Cup&mdash;the United States, Canada, and the USSR&mdash;were belted out enthusiastically by three different opera singers, each representing his/her country. Then, before any of the 17,438 fans on hand had a chance to recover from Roger Doucet&rsquo;s rendition of &ldquo;O Canada,&rdquo; or Robert Merrill&rsquo;s version of &ldquo;The Star Spangled Banner,&rdquo; Bobby Orr, the greatest defenseman in the history of the game, ambled out to center ice, where he dropped the ceremonial &ldquo;first puck&rdquo; between NHL team captain Bobby Clarke and Soviets&rsquo; captain Boris Mikhailov. After Orr departed from the ice to a thundering standing ovation, the two teams exchanged gifts, the referee Skated to center ice and blew his whistle, the public address announcer proclaimed, &ldquo;OK, fans, it&rsquo;s time to play hockey,&rdquo; and everyone settled back into seats which had cost a minimum of $20 for each game.It was 8:23, and the battle for the bragging rights as world champions of hockey was about to begin.For just about one year, officials from both the NHL and the USSR had worked tirelessly to arrange this series between the two countries. After hours of meetings, transcontinental flights, and endless negotiations, all of their plans were about to become a reality as Clarke and Mikhailov faced each other at center ice for the faceoff to start the game.The puck was dropped; the two centers battled for it, and the disc squirted over to the left side, where winger Steve Shutt picked it up and skated over the blueline. Inexplicably, two Soviet defenders moved toward Shutt, who bumped it ahead for Clarke. Guy Lafleur, only the best hockey player in the world, cruised alone down the right side. Clarke quickly sent a pass skittering over to Lafleur, who streaked in on Soviet goaltender Vladislev Tretiak. Only 16 seconds into the game, and the deadliest shooter in hockey was breaking in alone on a man whom many consider to be the game&rsquo;s best goaltender. Who could have dreamed of a better start in this series?Tretiak moved out of his net toward Lafleur, cutting down his shooting angle. But Lafleur faked left, waited until Tretiak had committed himself by flapping his body on the ice, and banked the puck into the net off the near goal post. A goal for the NHL at the 16-second mark!It was the first play of the game, the first shot of the game, the fastest first goal scored in an exhibition game involving NHL and Soviet players. And it proved to be a devastating blow to the Soviets, who were never really in it from that point on.They seemed totally disoriented and confused, choosing to attempt to make perfect passing plays at center ice, rather than dumping the puck into the zone and skating after it. The overall play of the team was sloppy and extremely puzzling to observers who were familiar with the Soviets&rsquo; normally inpeccable skating and passing game. When Gilbert Perreault streaked down center ice, split the defense, and sent a behind-the-back pass to right wing Mike Bossy, who tipped the puck into the net for the NHL&rsquo;s second goal at the 6:22 mark, it looked like a rout was one.But visions of a rout were tempered by the realization that almost exactly the same situation had existed in the first game these teams played in their initial meetings, the unforgettable series in 1972. In that contest, the NHL scored a goal on Tretiak only 30 seconds after the opening faceoff, and six minutes later scored yet again. At that point in the game, the NHL became complacent, the players languishing as visions of eight straight danced through their heads&mdash;and the Soviets won the game, 7-3.On this night, however, six and a half years later, the NHL did not make the same mistake. Rather than fall prey to complacency, the spirit and emotional intensity of the NHL&rsquo;ers seemed to increase as the game progressed; so much so, in fact, that NHL goalie Ken Dryden didn&rsquo;t have to contend with a single shot on goal until almost 10 minutes had elasped in the game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03634/4371063-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="555" height="909"><figcaption class="caption-body">VLADIMIR MYSHKIN&hellip;Blanked NHL</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04376/4371056-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="554" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">Soviet goaler Vladislav Tretiak faced NHL in first two games of series.</figcaption></div>When Mikhailov finally put the Soviets on the scoreboard, banging in a rebound at the 11:25 mark of the first period and closing the USSR&rsquo;s deficit to 2-1, the NHL team was not fazed in the least. And Bob Gainey exemplified the sentiments of his teammates beautifully only minutes later, when he broke down the right side and cut in on Tretiak, with two Soviet defenders draped over him and doing everything but mugging him. Somehow, Gainey muscled his way toward the goal, and he launched a beautiful shot over the onrushing Tretiak&rsquo;s left shoulder and into the net. 3-1, NHL, at the end of the first period.With just nine minutes gone by in the second period, Bossy, proving to everyone that he is capable of doing far more than just score goals, fought off two Soviet defenders and passed the puck out in front to Clark Gillies&mdash;Bossy&rsquo;s linemate on the New York Islanders during the regular season. Gillies promptly backhanded the puck into the net for a 4-1 NHL lead and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over. So overpowering and effective was the NHL&rsquo;s domination of the Soviets that the action-starved fans started to yell things like, &ldquo;Boring!&rdquo; and &ldquo;I want my money back!&rdquo; A Soviet goal late in the second period narrowed the score to 4-2, but the magnificent play of the NHL&mdash;especially by the only four defensemen who dressed for the game: Larry Robinson, Borje Salming, Barry Beck and Serge Savard&mdash;stifled any potential Soviet opportunities, and the final score was 4-2 for the NHL.In their locker room after the game, the ecstatic NHL players seemed surprised at the ease with which they had been able to beat the Soviets.As dozens of media people moved about in the crowded; sweltering room, interviewing the happy and confident NHL players, the team&rsquo;s general manager, Bill Torrey, stood in a corner talking with a small group of reporters. &ldquo;You wait and see,&rdquo; he said warily. &ldquo;The Russians can adjust. They&rsquo;re in this to be the best&hellip;and they can adjust. You&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;Saturday Afternoon, February 10: A win today for the NHL means that they are the hockey champions of the world. But from the outset it was apparent that, as the perceptive Torrey had predicted, the Soviets had indeed changed their style. For one thing, they were more physical, not crunching the NHL&rsquo;ers with jarring body checks all over the ice, but simply playing more aggressively than they had on Thursday night. As a result, for the early part of the first period the puck was in the NHL zone quite a bit, and Dryden, again in goal, had to make several tough saves. At the 8:10 mark of the period, however, defenseman Sergei Starikov blasted a shot at Dryden which the goaltender kicked out&mdash;right onto the stick of Sergei Kapustin, who put the puck into the net off the sprawling goaltender&rsquo;s pads. 1-0 Soviets.After scoring their goal, the Soviets&rsquo; play became even more physical and spirited, and their forechecking was so relentless and effective that NHL defenseman Denis Potvin&mdash;looking rusty in his first full game in three weeks after being sidelined with a separated shoulder&mdash;coughed up the puck several times near his own net. The Soviets&rsquo; aggressiveness got the best of them, however, when forward Vladimir Kovin was whistled off for crosschecking at the 12:32 mark of the period. On the ensuing NHL power play, the &ldquo;Trio Grande&rdquo; line of Bryan Trottier, Gillies, and Bossy collaborated beautifully to set-up Bossy&rsquo;s second goal of the series and even the score at 1-1.Five minutes later it was the &ldquo;Trio Grande&rdquo; which struck again. This time, Bossy intercepted a Soviet clearing pass and hit Gillies with a pass on the boards to Tretiak&rsquo;s left. Gillies immediately sent a pass to Trottier, who was parked on the edge of the crease to the goalie&rsquo;s right. Trottier converted the perfect pass into the NHL&rsquo;s second goal of the game. 2-1 at the end of the period.The NHL widened its lead at the 27-second mark of the middle stanza, when Gilbert Perreault bolted down alongside the left boards, stopped, and&mdash;using Darryl Sittler as a screen&mdash;blasted a shot over Tretiak&rsquo;s outstretched left pad. 3-1, NHL.At this point in the contest, for one reason or another, the NHL&rsquo;ers suddenly abandoned their very effective shortpassing game and commenced trying to hit either Guy Lafleur or Bob Gainey at the Soviet&rsquo;s blueline with long passes which would send them in on a breakaway. If this play connects, it&rsquo;s terrific&mdash;especially if the recipient of the pass is someone like a Gainey or a Lafleur. But if it fails, the result is an icing call and a faceoff in your defensive zone. Three straight times the NHL attempted this strategy, and three straight times they were foiled and called for icing. After the third faceoff the NHL finally got burned, when Mikhail Varmakov intercepted an errant pass, skated in on Dryden, and popped a backhander into the upper corner of the short side of the net. A beautiful goal which made the score 3-2.The NHL fought right back, however, increasing its lead several moments later, at the 5:06 mark, when defenseman Larry Robinson broke down the middle, took a pass from Guy Lafleur, deked Tretiak down and out of position, and lifted the puck over the goalie for a 4-2 NHL lead. Only a little over half the game to play, and the NHL, if it could preserve its lead, would be winners of the series.But then, with just under five minutes remaining in the period, Barry Beck bodychecked Alexander Skvortsov so hard into the boards behind the NHL net that the Soviet&rsquo;s helmet popped off and he slumped to the ice, clutching his head. Victor Dombrovsky, the Soviet who was refereeing the game, penalized Beck for boarding as Skvortsov was helped by his teammates to the bench.The Soviet power play which followed was a dazzling display of pinpoint passing and intricate weaving by the Soviets&mdash;the culmination of which was a goal by the 34-year-old Mikhailov, who converted a feed from right in front of Dryden and made the score, 4-3.Only 35 seconds later, on a faceoff to Dryden&rsquo;s left after yet another icing call, Victor Zhluktov beat Bobby Clarke on the draw, and shoveled the puck to his left, where Sergei Kapustin was in perfect position to slither a shot along the ice, past Dryden&rsquo;s right skate, and into the net for his second goal of the game. 4-4.By the end of the second period, it was the NHL who look flustered and totally disorganized as the Soviets swarmed all around Dryden&rsquo;s net beating the NHL&rsquo;ers to the puck and creating several chances&mdash;but no goals. The NHL was lucky to escape from the period with a 4-4 tie.The 15-minute break between periods did nothing to diminish the Soviets&rsquo; momentum, and with just over a minute and a half gone in the period, Sergei Makarov, carrying the puck, and Vladimir Golikov broke in towards Dryden, with Denis Potvin as the lone defenseman. Makarov faked a shot, and Potvin, dropping to his knees to block it, slid out of the play. Makarov then shot the puck, which was stopped spectacularly by Dryden. But the rebound bounced right to Golikov, who popped it into the net to give the Soviets a 5-4 lead.The NHL had several chances to tie up the score after that goal, but Tretiak was immense, especially in the dwindling minutes of the game, when he stopped Trottier and Lafleur with amazing saves, and when Dryden was pulled for an extra skater at the end. When the final buzzer sounded, the series was tied at 1-1, setting the stage for Sunday night&rsquo;s deciding game&mdash;which could not end in a tie. If necessary, sudden death overtime would be played to decide the winner.&ldquo;They were masters of the game today,&rdquo; said NHL coach Scotty Bowman in an interview session afterwards. &ldquo;They played about as perfect as they could, and they made us look very, very bad.&rdquo;The two best hockey teams in the world had played each other to a standstill after two games. By sometime late on Sunday night, there would be only one survivor.<h2>Sunday, February 11:</h2>It should have been one helluva game, but it really wasn&rsquo;t. Instead, the 6-0 win (or should we say slaughter) of the Soviets over the NHL was more like a clinic at a hockey school&mdash;one in which the Soviets gave the NHL players a lesson in puck control, skating, shooting and perhaps most important of all, mind control. More on that particular point later. First, here&rsquo;s what happened in the game&rsquo;s early stages.Before the puck was even dropped for the opening faceoff, the Soviets pulled their biggest surprise in a game full of surprises when they announced that their starting goalie would not be Vladislav Tretiak&mdash;who had performed so well for them in their 5-4 victory on Saturday afternoon&mdash;but a virtual unknown named Vladimir Myshkin, a diminutive (five-foot-seven, 157-pounds), 23-year-old whom the NHL players had never even heard of, let alone played against.In the nets for the NHL, on the other hand, was 38-year-old Gerry Cheevers, the seasoned veteran of the Boston Bruins with impeccable credentials and an affinity for high-pressure, &ldquo;money&rdquo; games. It seemed like a mismatch. A veteran against a rookie in the most significant international game of the decade? Were the Soviets crazy?As it turned out, it took a while for everyone to find out just how good Mr. Myshkin was, since the NHL couldn&rsquo;t manage a shot on him until almost eight minutes had elapsed. Cheevers, however, had already been tested twice by difficult shots&mdash;one by dangerous speedster Helmut Balderis, who unloaded on Cheevers from the slot and forced the goalie to make a tremendous pad save. Minutes later, Boris Mikhailov sent a pass from the corner out in front to Vladmir Petrov, who, is one sweeping motion with his stick, sent the puck darting towards Cheevers. Somehow, the goalie got his right pad out to smother the puck.Only seconds after the second period started, the NHL again put some pressure on the young Soviet goalie. Larry Robinson blasted a drive from the point which seemed headed right into the lower right corner, but at the last second, Myshkin&rsquo;s pad flashed out and kicked the puck aside. Moments later Bobby Clarke broke down the left side and rifled one to the short side of the net, but Myshkin&rsquo;s blocking pad deftly knocked the puck into the crowd.Then, at the 5:37 mark of the period, the table suddenly turned on the NHL when Alexander Golikov intercepted a Bob Gainey pass at center ice and immediately fed Mikhailov, who broke down the right side, angled in towards Cheevers, and shot the puck through the goalie&rsquo;s legs. That beautiful sole effort, the beginning of the end for the NHL, gave the Soviets a 1-0 lead.After the Soviets scored their second goal, the NHL seemed in danger of folding completely. The defensemen were backing up into their own net; the forwards were extremely tentative in the way that they handled the puck, and the Soviets just missed scoring again off a flurry in front of the net.It was at this point in the game that the Soviets&rsquo; mind control&mdash;mentioned earlier&mdash;played a prominent role, and it was one of the main reasons why they were able to win the game. Rather than retaliate, they either ignored the attempts of the NHL&rsquo;ers to entice them into a fight, or they laughed in their faces. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all Mikhailov kept doing,&rdquo; Bobby Clarke would say when it was all over, &ldquo;laughing. He just kept laughing all the time, right in our faces.&rdquo;This attitude frustrated the NHL even more, and although the second period ended without further incident, it was apparent that it was going to take a minor miracle for the NHL&rsquo;ers to pull themselves together and get some goals.But it never happened. The last gasp came in the first few minutes of the third period, when Nilsson (twice), Clarke (twice) and Lafleur all had tremendous chances to score. Each time they were spectacularly stifled by Myshkin, whose incredible reflexes and last-second moves drew ooo&rsquo;s, ahahah&rsquo;s, and, eventually, loud applause from the capacity crowd of 17,500.The beginning of the end for the NHL came at 8:44, when Balderis and defenseman Irek Gimayev skated in two-on-one on Larry Robinson. Gimayev waited for Robinson to commit himself, then whisked the puck over to Balderis, who popped it past Cheevers.The game became a fait accompli moments later, when Sergei Makarov split the defense and backhanded a soft shot over an immobile Cheever&rsquo;s right shoulder.Later, Cheevers was to explain: &ldquo;Those late goals were the result of me not challenging the shooter. I didn&rsquo;t play my game. I was terrible, horrible.&rdquo;&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t his fault at all,&rdquo; Bobby Clarke said when Cheever&rsquo;s words were related to him. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t score any goals for him, did we? And if you can&rsquo;t score goals, you can&rsquo;t win games. We did the best we could.&rdquo;Unfortunately for the NHL, their best just wasn&rsquo;t good enough. &#9632;

f0003-01

Stirling Soviets Leave NHL Stars Red-Faced

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011143/4371136-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="481" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken McKenzie&rsquo;s</figcaption></div>&#9679; NEW YORK&mdash;THE best players in the National Hockey League were humiliated by the Soviet Nationals in the first Challenge Cup series. After losing the opening game of the series to the NHL&rsquo;ers, 4-2, the Soviets came back to play perfect hockey in edging Team NHL, 5-4, in the second contest and then thoroughly trouncing the best All Star team ever assembled by the NHL, 6-0. It was an embarrassment that will have long range developments and no longer can the NHL proudly claim to be No. one in hockey. Right now they&rsquo;re not. The Soviet Union is the hockey leader. They proved it conclusively in this series. After what has happened here, the NHL owners will have to sit down and make up their minds once and for all that they have to start developing star quality players and forget about developing the goons they&rsquo;ve been graduating from junior hockey these last 12 years or so&hellip;Scotty Bowman, coach of the NHL All Stars and a man dedicated to the sport, stood up to be counted when he stated at the end of the series: &ldquo;We have no excuses. Not one. We prepared this team to the best of our ability and for the most part they played very well. It was just that the other team was simply too good.&rdquo;&hellip;Bowman will be second-guessed by many for starting Gerry Cheevers instead of Ken Dryden in the third game and for benching Steve Shutt, Marcel Dionne and Guy Lapointe and playing Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg and Don Marcotte. Many thought he shouldn&rsquo;t have played Denis Potvin, either, as he wasn&rsquo;t right physically and contributed little&hellip;Bob Gainey and Clark Gillies were as good as anybody on Team NHL. It was too bad we didn&rsquo;t have a few more giving out the way these two did.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021096/4371129-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="290" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clark Gillies</figcaption></div>&#9679; BILL TORREY, general manager of the All Stars summed up the entire Challenge Cup series when he said: &ldquo;We had a chance to wrap it up when it was 4-2 for us in the second game. That was the turning point. The Soviets have always learned something from us and it&rsquo;s obvious they&rsquo;ve learned very, very well.&ldquo;&hellip;There are still those who believe that under the right circumstances that the NHL can still beat the Soviets and that the NHL has the &ldquo;better hockey players &ldquo;while the Soviets simply have better athletes who managed to just put it all together in a short series. It&rsquo;s this kind of thinking, however, which has held North Americans back from improving in hockey. Perhaps, finally, people will realize that by being ranked number two instead of number one in all of North America&rsquo;s eyes, that the NHL will have to make some serious attempts at modifying their game to make use of many of the facets ofplay that the Soviets displayed in the Challenge Cup series&hellip;Two of the better ideas employed by the NHL for The Challenge Cup Series were the use of three singers for the Soviet, Canadian and American national anthems and having three former stars, Bobby Orr, Rod Gilbert and Jean Beliveau drop the puck for the ceremonial faceoffs prior the the start of each game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03990/4371122-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="279" height="441"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Gilbert</figcaption></div>&#9679; BOB GAINEY didn&rsquo;t look out of place in the games he played on defense for the Canadiens prior to the Challenge Cup series. He rates with Bobby Clarke among players with a huge heart. Robbie Ftorek of the Cincinnati Stingers is also in the same class as Gainey and Clarke. These fellows come to play. They don&rsquo;t know what it&rsquo;s like not to give it everything they have in every game&hellip;Long-time Western Hockey&rsquo; League stars Al Nicholson and Eddie Panagabko, both only in their 40s, died recently of cancer and liver disease, respectively&hellip;Darryl Einarson, a 21-year-old defenseman with the University of Manitoba Bisons was the recipient of the 1978 Bobby Hull 700th Goal Scholarship. The scholarship, which is presented annually to an aspiring athlete deemed to be the most deserving by the trustees of the fund (one of whom is Hull), was presented to Einarson at a Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; game&hellip;Gordie Howe keeps coming up with the answers to the oft-asked question of how long he&rsquo;ll continue to play. Said Howe, who&rsquo;ll be 51 the end of March, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think in terms of years. I think in days. I&rsquo;m a portrait in slow motion.&ldquo;&hellip;Bobby Orr will arrear at the March 30th Rochester Americans&rsquo; game to help promote a fund-raising drive for the Special Olympics to be held this summer at the State University College at Brockport. Donations at the game will be set aside for the Aug. 8-13 Special Olympics, while spectators will receive a color, autographed photo of Orr.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04888/4371115-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="282" height="397"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Gainey</figcaption></div>&#9679; NHL SKATERS are on a record-setting pace as far as accuracy in their shooting is concerned. At the mid-way point in the season, statistics revealed that there were 30 players&mdash;among those with 10 goals or more&mdash;with better than 20 percent accuracy in shooting. This compares with the highest previous number of players with percentages better than 20 at midseason, a total of 21 players&hellip;The 5th Annual National Oldtimers Tournament in Ottawa, Ont. Feb. 15-18 has attracted 116 teams of players age 35 and over. This makes it one of the largest tournaments ever staged and certainly the largest for an Oldtimers&rsquo; event. Many former professionals took part in the tournament&hellip;Among some of the items auctioned off by the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Wives for the benefit of the Barry Ashbee Leukemia Research Laboratories of the Orlowitz Cancer Institute were Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s Team Canada jacket, Bob Kelly&rsquo;s magic skates and a signed color canvas of Bernie Parent. The auction was held at Philadelphia&rsquo;s Spectrum on Feb. 12&hellip;The Minnesota North Stars have been quietly creeping up on Buffalo and Toronto in the Adams Division as well as on the final wild-card playoff berth. At the All Star break, the North Stars had 20 more points than they had the year before and were working on an eight-game stretch where their record was five wins, one loss and two ties&hellip;Instrumental in the team&rsquo;s success, besides the emergence of No. 1 draft choice Bobby Smith as a Calder Trophy contender, has been the North Stars&rsquo; penalty-killing, led by Mike Polich, Tom Younghans and Bill Butters.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05749/4371108-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="266" height="380"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Parent</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

COLUMNISTS

PASSING THE PUCK

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Tom Songin, RW, returned to Rochester of AHL.BUFFALO&mdash;Rick Dudley, LW, secured from Cincinnati of WHA in trade. Gary McAdam, RW, traded to Pittsburgh in exchange for Dave Shultz, LW. Larry Playfair, D, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Dave Dunn, D, sent to Hershey as replacement.DETROIT&mdash;Dennis Hextall, C, given release as free agent after contract settlement with Red Wings. Bill Hogaboam, C, signed as free agent after settling contract and securing release from Minnesota.MONTREAL&mdash;Dave Lumley, LW, returned to Nova Scotia of AHL.N.Y. RANGERS&mdash;Jim Korney, D, recalled from New Haven of AHL and reassigned to Toledo of IHL.N.Y. ISLANDERS&mdash;Paul Joswiak, G, assigned to Erie of NEHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Jim Hamilton, LW, recalled from Binghamton of AHL.WASHINGTON&mdash;Rollie Boutin, G, recalled from Hershey of AHL and reassigned to Port Huron of IHL on loan.<h2>WORLD HOCKEY ASSN.</h2>NEW ENGLAND&mdash;Dave Inkpen, D, recalled from Springfield of AHL.QUEBEC&mdash;Kevin Morrison, RW, released outright. Gilles Bilodeau, LW, recalled from Binghamton of AHL.CINCINNATI&mdash;Dave Dornseif, D, returned to Erie of NEHL.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>NEW BRUNSWICK&mdash;Pierre Giroux, LW returned to Flint of IHL.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Dave Hrechkosy, LW, sent to Saginaw of IHL on loan.ROCHESTER&mdash;Keith Johnson, D, sent to Grand Rapids of IHL on loan.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Hank Nowak, LW, and Terry West, C, added to active roster. &#9632;

FEATURES

Hockey Players On The Move

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s going to be terrific,&rdquo; said Gary Doak, his enthusiasm showing. &ldquo;I think we should have had this a long time ago.&rdquo;Doak was peeling off his Boston Bruins uniform&lsquo;at the time. He wasn&rsquo;t going to put it back on for 10 days. He wasn&rsquo;t even going to put on a pair of skates for five days.It was All Star time, new style, possibly the first time that most NHL players had had a long, voluntary vacation in midwinter since they were pee wees. And the Bruins, for one team, loved it.&ldquo;About this time every year,&rdquo; said Doak, &ldquo;the traveling, the playing of games, it gets you real tired mentally more than physically. We ought to be real hungry when we come back.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got five days off. Then we&rsquo;ve got five days of practice. Then we&rsquo;ve got that road trip. When we come back here we should be all right for the rest of the year.&ldquo;When we come back, we&rsquo;ve got only 26 games to go and after the road trip we&rsquo;ve only got 20 and then we&rsquo;re down to the nitty gritty and the season will be over before you know it.&rdquo;All the Bruins, except Gerry Cheevers and Don Marcotte, who made the NHL All Star squad, said they planned to simply relax during the mid-season break, although Peter McNab allowed that he might do a few calesthenics.The Bruins closed out the first part of the schedule with a 6-1 victory over Vancouver. They toasted Cheevers and Marcotte with champagne. And, when they found a little left in the bottom of the bottle, they toasted Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and Rick Middleton, who almost made the squad. Then they fanned out for home.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we have to worry about anybody getting out of shape,&rdquo; said coach Don Cherry. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re pretty smart. Maybe I&rsquo;ll have some of the younger kids for a talk. They might get carried away with five whole days off.&ldquo;Those five days, the coach shouldn&rsquo;t be around them or anything like that. I won&rsquo;t be. I&rsquo;ll definitely keep away from them and let them enjoy themselves.&ldquo;The only thing is I don&rsquo;t want them traveling to the ends of the earth. If they&rsquo;re going to go somewhere, let&rsquo;s not be tired when they get back, that&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;Cherry said he didn&rsquo;t like the idea of the 10-day All Star break at first.&ldquo;But after all the injuries hit us,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll probably help us more than any other team in the National Hockey League.&rdquo;At the time, Brad Park was out with complications following surgery on his right knee; Stan Jonathan was out with a broken bone in his right wrist; Dick Redmond had a sprained right wrist; and Middleton has a sprained neck.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to help us,&rdquo; said McNab, &ldquo;because we&rsquo;ve got so many guys who are injured. I don&rsquo;t know how the other teams feel. Some might feel that they&rsquo;re just starting to hit their peaks now.&rdquo;Jean Ratelle was doubtful about the midseason break at first but he talked himself into it.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t really like the idea last year when we were off for a week between the two playoff series,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You practice; you work hard; but still you&rsquo;re losing some kind of an edge because you&rsquo;re not playing games.&ldquo;But this time, I don&rsquo;t know. If you&rsquo;ve got some teams playing and you&rsquo;re not then they&rsquo;ve got an edge on you. But this is just like the beginning of the season. Everybody&rsquo;s in the same boat.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I like the idea of quite so long a break,&rdquo; said Mike Milbury. &ldquo;I think it will help everybody but particularly the teams that are struggling. Everybody needs a break at this time. You get tired of hockey.WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN: Cherry was watching from behind the Bruins&rsquo; bench when No. 1 goalie Cheevers was felled by a blast from the stick of Chicago&rsquo;s Phil Russell. He went down like he was shot.&ldquo;What went through your mind?&rdquo; the coach was asked.&ldquo;I told Jim Pettie to get up and start skating,&rdquo; said Cherry. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re in a war you don&rsquo;t think about the soldier next to you who gets shot.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01993/4371246-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="573" height="730"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY DOAK&hellip;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

Rest Should Do Wonders For Bruins Who Didn’t Like Idea In Beginning

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011174/4371284-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="339" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body">After a week of watching the Challenge Cup series end in disaster in New York, columnist Bob Verdi has some random thoughts of what it was like in the Big Apple. Here&rsquo;s how he saw it:</figcaption></div><h2>Color The Cup Red</h2>YOU CAN COLOR the Challenge Cup red, and memories of a week that was in New York are made of this:Serge Savard&rsquo;s poignant remark after the Soviet Union had dismantled the National Hockey League All Stars 6-0 for the championship: &ldquo;We can no longer call this game of hockey ours. For the last five or six years, we have been developing goons while they have been developing good players.&rdquo;Clarence Campbell, for 31 years a presidential institution, receives a belated but fitting salute, then thanks everybody, especially the only two secretaries he ever had&mdash;his wife, and Hilda.Boris Mikhailov, honored captain of the Big Red Machine, stands at the bench exhorting his comrades to do better when they are not doing well and to do better when they are doing well, then leads his great team on its gallant comeback.Bobby Orr, booed for many years by Madison Square Garden customers because he had beaten their Rangers so many times, gets a Big Apple salute when he drops the first puck for game one.And Guy Lafleur, after the second faceoff, scores at 16 seconds against Vladislav Tretiak, who went through the Challenge Cup without challenging shooters.The NHL, which couldn&rsquo;t sell the Second Coming, has its usual public relations problems. First, CBS television, which is why the series is staged in New York in the first place, threaten to drop its planned Sports Spectacular coverage.A solution of sorts is reached, but then Sports Illustrated pulls out because it doesn&rsquo;t have the proper lights to shoot color. &ldquo;Typical of this league,&rdquo; says Mark Mulvoy, senior editor and former hockey writer. &ldquo;But they might be doing us a favor. We had three hockey covers last year, and they were our three worst selling issues.&rdquo;<h2>Something Was Up</h2>LED BY A BRILLIANT, mobile defensive foursome including poised Barry Beck, aged 21, the NHL smartly whips the USSR 4-2 in Game One. Scotty Bowman, clearly North America&rsquo;s sharpest hockey coach, warms against overconfidence. He must know something.The Soviets, looking perplexed, resort to the blackboard., &ldquo;We will be better next game,&rdquo; their minister of winter sports tells us. He, too, must know something.A mild-mannered columnist for THE HOCKEY NEWS finds himself on the same hotel floor as the Soviets and marvels at the constant purr of room service carts being wheeled through the halls. &ldquo;Never seen anything like them,&rdquo; giggles Toronto owner Harold Ballard. &ldquo;Of course, if you ever ate in Moscow you can understand. Their idea of a feast is a slab of baloney and an axe.&rdquo;Larry Robinson scores on a bullish backhand 5:06 into the second period Game Two to make it 42. If you&rsquo;d have said that was to be the last NHL goal of the series, and that the best players in Canada and Sweden and the United States, would manage only 31 shots the rest of the series, you&rsquo;d have been sent to Siberia.But it was. And the Soviets, wearing a new set of wheels, win 5-4. The referee everybody feared, Victor Dombrovsky, whistles better than the NHL works.Why? One reason is that the NHL thinks that the. shortest distance to the Challenge cup is to knock the Soviets&rsquo; heads off. Not so. The word flinch isn&rsquo;t in their vocabulary.<h2>The Turning Point</h2>SUNDAY, GERRY CHEEVERS is picked to replace Ken Dryden. &ldquo;And that was the turning point,&rdquo; said Cheevers after The Embarassment. &ldquo;When they named the goalie. I was just terrible. We didn&rsquo;t score so we couldn&rsquo;t have won. But I didn&rsquo;t make any big saves to keep us in the game. I should go back to Russia with them&hellip;except they wouldn&rsquo;t want me for anything but target practice.&rdquo;Scotty Bowman has no excuses, but opines that maybe the Soviets have learned more from the NHL than the NHL has learned from the Soviets.Cliff Fletcher worries that maybe we are more concerned about showbusiness than about hockey, but he seems outnumbered by people who want to talk about more international tournaments and more teams and more meetings with the WHA. Too bad, because the NHL&rsquo;s real problems are right in the NHL&rsquo;s backyard.NHL bigwigs, holding their martinis high, congratulate each other after The Embarassment about how well everything went and how we&rsquo;ll get them the next time. But Bobby Clarke, staring into the carpet, knows differently: &ldquo;They are getting better and we are getting worse. It&rsquo;s got to stop.&rdquo;Is anybody out there listening?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02900/4371277-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="809" height="1029"><figcaption class="caption-body">GERRY CHEEVERS&hellip;Didn&rsquo;t Make Big Saves</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0006-01

HOCKEY TALK

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>MONTREAL&mdash;In. North America there&rsquo;s an annual spring-time phenomenon where thousands of college kids get away from &ldquo;the grind&rdquo; of studying and exams and head to Florida for several days in the fun and sun. In the National Hockey League this year they held the Challenge Cup Series which necessitated a lengthy break in the schedule, giving close to 300 players who weren&rsquo;t chosen for Team NHL a chance to join Team Florida in the south.The Montreal Canadiens sent seven players to New York to help represent the NHL in their battle against the Soviets, as Guy Lapointe made a belated appearance after finally shaking his flu virus, joining Ken Dryden, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt and Bob Gainey. Suffice to say the majority of the remaining Canadiens made a choice between somewhere in the warmth or Balcony Heights (home sweet home) before reporting back to practice after a four-day hiatus.What better time, then, to check up on our heroes and see what kind of &ldquo;marks&rdquo; they&rsquo;ve been earning in the NHL classroom:The A Students&mdash;Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden. These guys are at the top of the class because they&rsquo;re playing just about the best hockey of their lives. Lafleur had 40 goals after 53 games, a pace better than last year when he tied the team record of 60 goals in a season. He also enjoys a six-point lead in pursuit of his fourth consecutive scoring crown. Dryden has the best goals against average by nearly a half a goal a game over his nearest competitor and has been immense in the &ldquo;big&rdquo; games all year. He also shares the league lead in shutouts.The A-minus players&mdash;Yvon Lambert, Mario Tremblay. These two deserve special rating, just a shade below the straight A level. After being shunted out of the limelight for most of last season, Lambert and Tremblay, with 17 and 19 goals, respectively, are enjoying their best seasons in terms of effectiveness and playing time. Both have good shots at 30-goal seasons and their work defensively has been first class.The B-plus players&mdash;What&rsquo;s the difference between A-minus and B-plus? Well, not very much because members of the latter ranking, Guy Lapointe Serge Savard, Larry Robinson, Pierre Mondou, Bob Gainey and Rejean Houle have been enjoying excellent campaigns. Add in Doug Risebrough and Jacques Lemaire who are expected to be back in be lineup as the regular schedule resumes.Starting with the defensemen, Savard, as usual, has been the steadiest. In fact, he may be the steadiest player in the league, game in and game out. Lapointe has had an outstanding year interrupted by illness while Robinson has been brilliantly dominant at times and unusually careless at others. The infrequent latter occasions have kept him from earning &ldquo;A&rdquo; status.Among the forwards, Mondou and Houle have performed admirably in a variety of roles with a variety of lines, Houle earning high marks especially for his versatility. Gainey remains as the king of the clean hitters and serves as an inspiration for motivating other teammates.The B players&mdash;Steve Shutt, Michel Larocque, Gifles Lupien. Shutt was as hot as they come just before All Star break but he had a poor first-half (for him) scoringwise and is expected to play more along the form that he has shown of late. Larocque, for the most part has been good, but he&rsquo;s had a couple of really bad outings. Lupien has been a pleasant surprise with his improvement directly attributable to increased confidence. Pat Hughes also belongs in this group but is now sidelined with a shoulder separation.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03589/4371315-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="581" height="1215"><figcaption class="caption-body">YVON LAMBERT&hellip;Having Super Year</figcaption></div>The C-plus players&mdash;Mark Napier, Rod Langway, Pierre Larouche, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis. These are the players who either show promise to play at an improved rate or have been a wee bit disappointing at this stage of the season. Napier, who suffered a broken nose in the last game prior to the gap in the schedule, has played his best hockey, since becoming a Canadien, in the last three weeks. He&rsquo;s coming on. Langway has been sent to Nova Scotia to rack up some playing time. Don&rsquo;t forget, he&rsquo;s only JI years of age. Engblom is not yet back in stride (to last year&rsquo;s playoff form) after his pre-season broken cheekbone. Jarvis has gotten back to his defensive game of late (as have all the Canadiens) while Chartraw and Larouche have been helpful when called upon, but not called upon as often as they would no doubt like.The C players&mdash;Cam Connor and Dan Newman. Connor has been the least used of any player with the club since the season began. He&rsquo;s only been in 16 of 53 games and hasn&rsquo;t scored a point, so it&rsquo;s tough to get a reading on him. Newman has played in a dozen games since being called up from Halifax. He can skate, he hustles, but it&rsquo;s too soon to tell if he&rsquo;ll make a significant contribution to the Habs at this time.There&rsquo;s the marks, guys. Now it&rsquo;s time to go back to work. &#9632;

f0006-03

‘Semester Break’ Yields Report On Hab Achievements

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011165/4371353-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="410" height="462"></div><h2>Youth Is Served&hellip;</h2>DAVE MALONEY IS AHEAD of his time. At 17 he was an underage selection of the Rangers&mdash;the 14th player picked on the first round of the summer draft of graduating amateurs in 1974. At 18 he became the youngest player ever to play for the Rangers in their 52 years, though he played only a few games.At 20 and only in his first full season with the team he became the youngest and least experienced player ever voted Most Valuable Player of the team. At 22 he becaue the youngest captain the Rangers have had and the youngest in the league. Now 23, he looks like he could become their youngest All Star ever.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021049/4371346-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="813" height="1319"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Maloney lives by the motto that he&rsquo;d rather be a leader than a follower and has taken upon himself the responsibility of speaking up for his mates on the exciting new Rangers&rsquo; squad. At 23, he&rsquo;s already earned the respect of his peers.</figcaption></div>After Brad Park was traded for Phil Esposito in 1975, Cat Francis surprised the players by passing over Rod Gilbert to name Esposito the new captain. Esposito didn&rsquo;t like the job, and when he resigned early this season, Fred Shero named Maloney. This wasn&rsquo;t as surprising as it might have been because almost all the Rangers, past and present, respect the youngster almost beyond reason.Shero says, &ldquo;Age doesn&rsquo;t matter. It&rsquo;s what you are that matters. And he is a leader.&rdquo; Esposito, who recommended Dave, says, &ldquo;He is something special. He has an enthusiasm for the game you don&rsquo;t see often. He gets everyone up for a game.&rdquo;Gilbert, now retired, says, &ldquo;His desire rubs off on the veterans.&rdquo; John Ferguson, the former manager and Coach, says, &ldquo;He lifts himself to the occasion. He has confidence he can handle himself in any situation and he is not afraid to tell off fellow players. Even veterans don&rsquo;t resent it from him because he is a natural leader.&rdquo;Dave, himself, says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m honored, but I think I got it because I talk the most. I&rsquo;ve got a lot to learn, but I&rsquo;ll listen to the players and serve as their spokesman. I have thought of myself as a leader since I was a kid. I&rsquo;d rather be a leader than a follower. If we had to go over a cliff, I&rsquo;d want to be the first to go.&rdquo;AND HE SMILES broadly. He is a handsome young man who smiles a lot. He talks a lot and laughs a lot. He is a good-natured young guy who charms people and wins them over. He doesn&rsquo;t take himself as seriously as others do. He smiles and says, &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m still a bachelor because I believe in leading and I don&rsquo;t want to take orders from a wife.&rdquo;But he does play hard and well. A defenseman, the six-foot-one, 195-pound left-hander has survived dreadful injuries in his brief career. Early on, he suffered two fractured ankles and a broken shoulder. After splitting his first two professional seasons with the Rangers and Providence of the American League, his play in the National League the last two seasons was slowed by sprained knee ligaments and a skate cut to the bone that severed a tendon and damaged nerves in his left wrist. This season, he seems recovered.Big, strong, and aggressive, he tried to become the cop on the club when he broke m. Although he has not had more than 100 minutes in penalties in any single season, he did tie the team record with 33 in one game. However, he learned his lesson when he cross checked Curt Bennett and was struck with a gloved blow that dropped him bleeding onto the ice and left him with a skull concussion.&ldquo;I have learned a lot,&rdquo; he laughs. &ldquo;I can skate and carry the puck and I guess I looked like I was ready when I came up, but the first season or so I didn&rsquo;t know where to go or what to do. Every year I feel more comfortable out there now. I&rsquo;m beginning to use my ability better. I&rsquo;m not an offensive defenseman, but I can use my ability to move the puck to clear it out of our defensive zone and feed it to our offensive players.&ldquo;People say I&rsquo;m ahead of my time, but I haven&rsquo;t set any time-table for my development. People say I can be an All Star, but I&rsquo;m taking it a game at a time and trying to do better all the time. I want to be consistent every game. I think that&rsquo;s what counts.&rdquo;DAVE WAS BORN in July of 1956 in Kitchener, Ontario, and still lives in that area. His father works for a construction company that builds bridges, among other things. Dave and his brothers have done this sort of hard work. Younger brother Don now is with the Rangers organization.Summers, Dave plays tennis and golf, softball and soccer. Winters, he plays hockey, but finds time to take in Broadway musicals like &ldquo;Beatlemania&rdquo; and &ldquo;Grease.&rdquo; He dates a lot and enjoys life. When he bought a house for himself in Atlantic Beach last year, he smiled and said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have ladies in to wash floors.&rdquo;He played with Team Canada in the World championships in Austria and last summer, served as a guest instructor at a training session for teams in Romania and holidayed on the Black Seas.&ldquo;For a young guy, I&rsquo;m sure getting around,&rdquo; he grins. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a great experience, but I have had a bit of culture shock. Do you know they don&rsquo;t have pizza in Prague?&rdquo; he asks. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03883/4371384-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN ANDERSON&hellip;Has Abundant Offensive Skills</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;In the past few National Hockey League seasons, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had the same luck with several high draft choices as Eddie Fisher had with Elizabeth Taylor. Some excellent prospects have failed to make it in blue-and-white&mdash;and that&rsquo;s been a serious setback in the Leafs&rsquo; attempt to move closer to the front of the NHL.Defenseman Bob Neely now toils in the minors. Center Don Ashby retired from hockey at 22. Center Jack Valiquette was dispatched to Colorado Rockies, where he&rsquo;s blossomed as the team&rsquo;s leading scorer. Even defenseman Trevor Johansen, a first-stringer last season as a rookie, ended up on the bench and, eventually, the minors this season.&ldquo;The Leafs just have no patience with their young players,&rdquo; said an NHL general manager. &ldquo;Instead of giving them a job and making them play their way off the team, the Leafs force kids to try to play their way on to it. They waste a great deal of talent that way.&rdquo;However, the Toronto club is showing patience with one bright young prospect this season and it&rsquo;s paying off. Winger John Anderson, a first-round selection in the 1977 amateur draft from Toronto Marlboro juniors, slowly has worked his way into a first-string spot with the Leafs and is showing signs of becoming a top-flight player.He certainly has the physical equipment&mdash;far-above-average speed, strength and good scoring ability. With the Leafs under coach Roger Neilson, those qualities aren&rsquo;t always enough. Anderson&rsquo;s heavier workload has hinged on an improvement in his defensive Play.Although Anderson scored 58 goals for the Marlies and set a Central League playoff scoring record last spring with 11 goals, the role-model Neilson has established for him isn&rsquo;t a big gunner. The Leaf coach figures Anderson could become the Leafs&rsquo; version of Rejean Houle, the good two-way forward of Montreal Canadiens.&ldquo;Houle is one of the best all-around players in the league, a solid scorer and a superior defensive player,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;Anderson could become the same calibre of player, who can do everything well.&rdquo;But on a club which has problems scoring goals, it appears that Anderson&rsquo;s offensive talents could be a Leaf asset. Not that he&rsquo;s set the league on fire offensively (nine goals in 44 games) but he&rsquo;s learning to use his abundant skill to good advantage in the NHL.Strangely, Anderson scored his first seven goals on the road and didn&rsquo;t count at Maple Leaf Gardens until his 44th game of the season, scoring twice as the Leafs returned home after a two-week six-game road trip to beat St. Louis Blues, 5-1.&ldquo;I figure I hit about 14 goal posts at the Gardens this season so it wasn&rsquo;t a matter of not getting chances to score,&rdquo; Anderson said. &ldquo;I love to play in this rink because I scored many goals here as a junior.&ldquo;Maybe now that I&rsquo;ve scored a couple at home I can get a few more and have a good finish to the season.&rdquo;One Leaf who sees Anderson as a large asset to the team down the stretch is winger Dan Maloney.&ldquo;The big thing for a young player is gaining his confidence in his ability to play in this league and Anderson is getting that&mdash;and he really has that ability,&rdquo; Maloney said.&ldquo;He can become a big man for this team by giving us another scoring threat.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-03

Winger Anderson Primed As Leafs’ Two-Way Forward

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011122/4371415-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">OREST KINDRACHUK&hellip;Learned Role From Clarke</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;When Fred Shero was the coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, Bobby Clarke was his team&rsquo;s captain. Shero once said, &ldquo;If for some reason Bobby Clarke wasn&rsquo;t my captain of the Flyers, Orest Kindrachuk would be.&rdquo;Shero is now the coach and general manager of the New York Rangers, and Clarke is still the Philadelphia captain.Orest Kindrachuk, however, is no longer with the Flyers. Fred Shero&rsquo; isn&rsquo;t his coach anymore, either. But Kindrachuk is captain of a National Hockey League team&hellip;the Pittsburgh Penguins.Shero&rsquo;s respect and admiration for Kindrachuk, obviously was shared earlier this season by Orest&rsquo;s new Pittsburgh teammates. The Penguin players elected Kindrachuk team captain during training camp. This was an unusual tribute to a man who had never before played a single regular season game in a Pittsburgh uniform.&ldquo;Being elected captain by your teammates is quite an honor,&rdquo; Kindrachuk said. &ldquo;I was a little surprised to be elected. Maybe because I came from Philadelphia, and we won two Stanley Cups there helped me win.&rdquo;Kindrachuk, 28, was traded to the Penguins during the off-season from the Flyers along with defenseman Tom Bladon and left wing Ross Lonsberry. In exchange Pittsburgh surrendered their number one draft choice in last June&rsquo;s amateur draft.&lsquo;Orest said when he played for the Flyers, as captain, Clarke set an excellent example for him to follow.&ldquo;When you see a guy like Clarkie working hard all the time, it has to encourage you to work that much harder yourself,&rdquo; Kindrachuk said. &ldquo;Bobby always told us to come to see him if we ever had any problems. He was a good team leader.&rdquo;Pittsburgh general manager Baz Bastien, who engineered the trade for Kindrachuk, considered him the pivotal player in the deal.&ldquo;We were looking at center,&rdquo; Bastien said. &ldquo;We wanted Kindrachuk. There wouldn&rsquo;t have been a trade with Philadelphia without him.&rdquo;Bastien, Penguin coach Johnny Wilson, and director of player personnel, Ken Schinkel all saw the Flyers at one time or another during last season&rsquo;s Stanley Cup playoffs. Kindrachuk&rsquo;s forechecking ability and skill as a penalty-killer caught their attention.&ldquo;We felt that in Kindrachuk we would be getting the kind of solid, all-around hockey player that we needed,&rdquo; said Bastien. &ldquo;He may not be flashy, but he has better than average talent and he&rsquo;s steady.&rdquo;Kindrachuk centered the third line in Philadelphia, playing behind two of hockey&rsquo;s better centermen in Clarke and Rick MacLeish. Orest worked hard as a penalty-killer, and built a solid reputation around persistent forechecking.His finest season, scoring-wise, came in 1975-76. Kindrachuk scored 26 goals and added 49 assists for 75 points. He also showed he wasn&rsquo;t afraid to mix it up, as he picked up 101 penalty minutes.In Pittsburgh Kindrachuk has been centering a line with Lonsberry at left wing, and Rick Kehoe at right wing. Through his first 50 games in a Penguin uniform, Kindrachuk tallied 13 goals and picked up 24 assists.While Kindrachuk&rsquo;s old coach, Shero, was impressed with him, Orest&rsquo;s present coach, Wilson, gladly sings his praise, also.&ldquo;Kindrachuk has been exceptional for us,&rdquo; said Wilson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the one individual who has turned this team around. That&rsquo;s not taking anything away from anyone else on the team. But, through his guidance and leadership, Orest has this club going in the right direction.&ldquo;He could have come in here, and because of the team he came from, a winning team, he could have just gone about his own business. But, he wanted to do a job because that&rsquo;s the type of individual Kindy is. His leadership has been outstanding.&rdquo;The five-foot-10, 175-pound Kindrachuk has gotten over the &ldquo;tremendous shock&rdquo; of being traded by Philadelphia.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d spent my entire professional career in the Flyer organization,&rdquo; Kindrachuk said. &ldquo;They were seven good years of my life. It was a. tremendous shock, although I can&rsquo;t say I was really surprised when I was traded. The way things had gone the last couple of years, the players knew changes were going to be made.&rdquo;Kindrachuk says he feels the same closeness among his Penguin teammates that he felt in Philadelphia.&ldquo;This is a close team, and loose too,&rdquo; Kindrachuk said. &ldquo;We all have a good time together.&ldquo;A successful hockey team has to be close. You can&rsquo;t be individualistic. You have to mold together if you want to get anywhere,&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Kindrachuk Handling Pens’ Captain’s Job Well

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011152/4371446-1-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>Don&rsquo;t Ignore Blues&rsquo; Hero Federko</h2>I would like to know why Bernie Federko isn&rsquo;t getting much attention for his play. He has been in the Top 10 of the scoring statistics all season.He ranks not quite as high as Trottier and Lafleur, but he&rsquo;s surely up the with Nilsson, Clarke and Dionne. Even though the Blues are lousy, it shouldn&rsquo;t mean that Federko is ignored.TROY TREASURE, Osage Beach, Mo.Editor&rsquo;s Note: Please check Bines&rsquo; story, page 13.<h2>Make Way For The Aussies</h2>I live in Sydney, Australia and have been following the hockey played here as long as I can remember. It is the world&rsquo;s premiere sport as it is fast and exciting. Recently I read some issues of THE HOCKEY NEWS and was disappointed to find that the Australian leagues had not received any mention.Although the quality of the play down-under cannot match its North American counterpart&mdash;there are an abundance of promising young stars. As a big fan I would hate to see Australian hockey suffer as it lacks the proper facilities to make it recognized as a spectator sport. But I wanted to let people know that Australia is alive and well on the hockey scene.ANNETTE THOMSON, Sydney, Australia<h2>Selections For All Rookie Team</h2>Here are my selections for the 1978-79 NHL All Rookie team: Goal&mdash;Glen Hanlon (Canucks); Defense&mdash;Behn Wilson (Flyers); Lars Lindgren (Canucks); Center&mdash;Ryan Walter (Caps); Left Wing&mdash;Rod Schutt (Penguins); Right Wing&mdash;Wayne Babych (Blues).If the Rookie of the Year voting goes the way it always does, Behn Wilson will be a shoo-in because he is big, strong, and good offensively and defensively, but most important he plays in a division dominated by the media center of North America and will get the publicity that goes with it. The only problem is that he is the second best rookie.The best rookie will only get a few paragraphs of ink and little or no TV and radio coverage because Glen Hanlon plays for an obscure team somewhere in Western Canada to which few media types ever travel or cover when Vancouver comes to their city.Hanlon has been spectacular in the Vancouver nets, posting three shutouts and allowing only three goals per game against, 1.5 goals lower than other Canuck goalers. I wonder if the voters are capable of opening their eyes.SVEIN LARSSON, Irricana, Alta.<h2>Ranger Fan Defends Local Players</h2>As a New York Ranger fan I am tired of hearing that we &ldquo;stuffed the ballot boxes&rdquo;, and that none of the four Rangers who were the leading vote getter? at one time are qualified All Stars. In case you haven&rsquo;t noticed no Rangers are starters, but three Montreal players were picked to start, and no one accused Montreal of stuffing the boxes.I must admit that Guy Lafleur is by far the best right wing and deserves to start, but Steve Shutt and Larry Robinson should never have been chosen. To say that Shutt, who isn&rsquo;t even in the top forty scorers, should start over Clark Gillies, Bill Barber, or Pat Hickey, who are all having outstanding seasons compared to Shutt&rsquo;s mediocre one is ridiculous. Larry Robinson is a great defenseman, but he didn&rsquo;t deserve more votes that Dennis Potvin, Stefan Persson, Ron Greschner, Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull, or even his own teammate, Guy Lapointe.As far as the Rangers All Star qualifications Ron Greschner is the second leading scoring defenseman. Pat Hickey is one of the fastest skaters in the league, and one of the most dangerous scorers. Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg are establishing themselves as NHL stars after only half a season, and Nilsson is one of the best skaters and puck-handlers around.SCOTT VAIL, Chatham, N.J.<h2>Can&rsquo;t Understand Knock Against Swedes</h2>I am an avid New York Rangers&rsquo; fan and I&rsquo;m writing in response to Mr. Johnson&rsquo;s claims in your Jan. 26 issue.I feel what he writes is totally wrong. The Swedes, Nilsson and Hedberg, are playing well after their slow start in the NHL. It is a difficult transition coming from the WHA, but they have adjusted quite well.I fail to understand how he can say that they are poor checkers. Anyone who plays for Fred Shero must do an adequate job of checking or he doesn&rsquo;t play.He also says that they skate around like zombies. How ridiculous. Nilsson and Hedberg are exceptionally quick, handle the puck smartly, and have great moves. Mr. Johnson must be mesmerized at watching the slow, plodding Atlanta Flames.The Swedes are largely responsible for the Rangers&rsquo; renewed success. They are exciting and very talented players. Mr. Johnson, I wonder what you will say when the Rangers are in the thick of a playoff series and the Flames are, once again, watching them on television.SCOTT COOPER, Port Jervis, N.Y.<h2>Fans Seek Overtime In NHL</h2>It is appalling that the NHL refuses to allow overtime for its regular season games; the NHL is the only major team sport which doesn&rsquo;t have overtime for its fans.During the 1977-78 season, 132 games ended in ties (18.3 percent of the total games). This is outrageously high. Certainly fans don&rsquo;t buy tickets to see games end in ties.The NHL should take a lesson from the WHA, which plays 10-minute overtimes in the event of a tie, and score the game as a tie if the overtime remains scoreless. Overtime would drastically reduce the number of ties and add another dimension of excitement to the NHL and leave the fans satisfied&mdash;thus increasing attendance.Hopefully the NHL will give the fans what they want&mdash;overtime!BENJAMIN DUBOIS, Randolph, Vt.<h2>LETTER OF THE WEEK</h2><h2>Don&rsquo;t Misjudge Talents Of Swedes</h2>This is in response to Mr. Joe Johnson&rsquo;s letter from Atlanta, Ga. in the Jan. 26 edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS. I have had the opportunity to watch Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg many times in Winnipeg Jet uniforms and anyone who would discredit these hockey playing athletes doesn&rsquo;t know what he is talking about.Their skating, stick handling and determination are second to none. Not only are they two outstanding hockey players but two very fine gentlemen.As far as their offensive production this year, no one expected them to jump right in and take over where they left off with the WHA. There is an adjustment to the tighter checking, new teammates, coach and opposing teams.The question is not whether they are great hockey players&mdash;they are. But whether any hockey player is worth $600,000.ROD OLINYK, Winnipeg, Man. &#9632;

f0010-01

FAN FORUM

Special To The Hockey NewsDETROIT&mdash;Detroit Red Wings have changed their tactics a little bit in an attempt to get out of the cellar of the Norris Division of the National Hockey League. The Wings have employed a policy sticking by their younger players this season, but now they&rsquo;re turning to a former Red Wing player, Bill Hogaboam, to try and lift the club.Hogaboam, 29, was obtained as a free agent after being released by the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; organization, where he played most of this year for their Oklahome City farm team in the Central League.After playing in two NHL games with the Atlanta Flames in the 1972-73 season, Hogaboam was obtained by the Wings for Leon Rochefort in a deal late in 1972. His first three seasons with Detroit, Hogaboam chalked up 18, 14 and 14 goal campaign in only part-time duty and was having his best year in 1975-76 with 21 goals and 16 assists in 50 games when he and a draft choice (Jimmy Roberts) were dispatched to Minnesota for Dennis Hextall.Ironically, Hextall, who opened the season as the Red Wings&rsquo; captain, was one of the players cast adrift by the Wings this year in their movement towards youth in their lineup. In fact, the Wings had settled Hextall&rsquo;s contract, allowing him to become available for free agent status just prior to signing Hogaboam who had arranged to receive the same status from Minnesota.Known for his great speed, Hogaboam, a five-foot-11, 170-pound native of Swift Current, Sask, had 22 goals for Forth Worth in the Central League last season, and ranked third in the league with 50 points, including 21 goals for Oklahoma City.He should add some life to the Red Wings&rsquo; offense which had only three players (Vaclav Nedomansky, Dale McCourt and Errol Thompson) with more than a dozen goals at the All Star break.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02921/4371477-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="569" height="686"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL HOGABOAM&hellip;Rejoins Wings</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0010-02

Red wings’ Brass Switches Tactics, Signs Hogaboam

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;After last season, the Kings lost Rogie Vachon, Gary Sargent, and Dave Hutchison, who had become free agents and decided to sign with other teams. After this season, the Kings could lose Mike Murphy, who will be a free agent and will attract other offers.Murphy is in his ninth season as a professional, eighth in the NHL, and sixth with the Kings. Early in his career he was traded twice by the Rangers and once by the Blues, but he established himself here and is in his fourth season as captain of the Kings.Mike does not have great talent, but takes the game seriously, works hard, and provides leadership. He scored 30 goals one season and 20 or more six of the last seven seasons, but may not reach that figure this year as he has missed 16 of the first 52 games with a nagging groin injury.Playing out the option year of a three-year contract calling for a little more than $100,000 a season, he is the only top player on the team eligible for free agency after this season.Early this season, he admitted mixed emotions. The Kings gave him his chance. His wife, Yvonne, is from this area, and their first child, Sean, was born here this summer.&ldquo;I feel a lot of loyalty to the Kings. They have treated me well and done a lot for me. I like living here. But I&rsquo;m 28 now and may have only one big contract left.&ldquo;I have to weigh my next move carefully,&rdquo; he concluded.He weighed it so carefully he rejected what he admitted was a good, long-term offer by the Kings last summer. He admitted, &ldquo;I risked something by refusing.&rdquo;However, he is the sort of solid all-around performer who will get good, if not great offers from others. If Bob Pulford survives in Chicago, he&rsquo;d want Mike with him.Right now, Mike doesn&rsquo;t want to discuss it. He feels the three free agents and the team were hurt by continued talk of future possibilities last season, and he&rsquo;s right.&ldquo;I was satisfied with my contract when I signed it and never asked to renegotiate it. I don&rsquo;t want to negotiate now until the season is over, and don&rsquo;t want to talk about it until then,&rdquo; he says.He seems to be taking his injury in stride. Shrugging, he says, &ldquo;Lots of guys miss games. The big games are ahead of us yet. I hope I can contribute to a successful finish.&rdquo;The last two seasons have been disappointing to him. He hated to see old friends depart, but that could make it easier for him to leave.He was close to Pulford, but is close to the current coach, Bob Berry, too. Bob and the manager, George Maguire, want Murphy back.However, Mike&rsquo;s agent, Alan Eagleson, is not easily satisfied and the current attitude around the league is that you can sign free agents without losing much.Pending a decision in the court case over compensation for Vachon, the Kings were not compensated with anywhere near the value of the three they lost.KINGS THINGS: Although he now may be back on the beam, Butch Goring&rsquo;s 13 games without a goal might partly be traced to the frequent absence of his long-time right-winger, Murphy&hellip;Defenseman Rob Palmer had 14 assists in 14 games.Since being recalled from Springfield, Charlie Simmer has added a lot to the Marcel Dionne-Dave Taylor line. Installed on the left wing, the big veteran scored at least a point in each of his first nine games before being blanked.Simmer had three goals and seven assists, Taylor seven goals and four assists, and Dionne nine goals and eight assists in these nine games. Taylor scored goals in six straight games before being stopped, second only to Dionne&rsquo;s seven straight this season in team history.Although they won in Boston, the four-game trip the team took the end of January wound up poorly with losses in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Washington. This was the first time the Kings have won two games in one season in Boston, but it was their third loss to Washington and the 7-1 loss in St. Louis was as bad as any suffered this season.Recently, I wrote a column on Guy Charron, referring to his Washington team as the worst in the league. It takes awhile for these to reach print and by the time this one did the Caps had become one of the winningest teams and were closing in on the Kings. They made me look bad, too.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011098/4371508-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="558" height="1187"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE MURPHY&hellip;Mixed Emotions (Photo by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

Free Agent Status Tempts Murphy As Kings’ Captain Ponders Future

<h2>Unwilling Film Critic</h2>PAULINE KAEL AND Clyde Gilmour really have nothing to worry about. Scotty Morrison has no plans to invade their territory. Kael and Gilmour are two top movie critics and although Morrison has been studying some films lately and making critical assessments of the actors&rsquo; work, he doesn&rsquo;t see it as a permanent job. In fact, Scotty would prefer not to do the job at all.Morrison is referee-in-chief of the National Hockey League and although he&rsquo;s somewhere in the neighbourhood of two-foot-seven tall, he&rsquo;s one of the biggest assets the league has. He&rsquo;s also built a splendid crew of officials who might just form the best team in the league.Lately, though, Morrison has been taking a close look at their work through the use of films and videotape and, in a couple of instances, making alterations in their decisions. However, Morrison insists that it&rsquo;s something which is going to be the exception, not the rule in the future.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011124/4371539-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="466" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scotty Morrison</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I must state very strongly that we&rsquo;re not going to stage an investigation using the films every time a team complains,&rdquo; Morrison said.&ldquo;But if a team makes a legitimate complaint about something serious, we&rsquo;ll certainly examine it closely.&rdquo;<h2>Suspension In Picture</h2>MORRISON&rsquo;S LATEST look at a game-film resulted in the squelching of a game misconduct to the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; Dave Hutchison for being the third man into an altercation. That penalty would have earned Hutchison a two-game suspension because it was his fourth game sentence of the season.&ldquo;Because it was a serious matter due to the suspension, we looked into it,&rdquo; Morrison explained. &ldquo;Roger Neilson (Leaf coach) had called Jim Gregory (Leaf general manager) and told him he felt that Hutchison didn&rsquo;t deserve the game misconduct.&ldquo;When Gregory called me, he was careful to explain that it wasn&rsquo;t a case of sour grapes. He felt that Neilson, who had studied his own videotapes of the incident had a legitimate beef.&ldquo;Dutch Van Deelen, one of our officials&rsquo; supervisors, was at the game and he conducted a lengthy review of the films. He agreed that Hutchison had jumped into a multi-player melee but wasn&rsquo;t involved in the original altercation (between Leafs&rsquo; Tiger Williams, Canucks&rsquo; Glen Hanlon). Hutchison ended up in a tussle with Jere Gillis of Vancouver.&rdquo;<h2>No Volume Business</h2>MORRISON MADE it clear that he&rsquo;s not about to second-guess his officials through the use of films.&ldquo;The referee in this case, Bob Myers, made the call he figured was the right one,&rdquo; Morrison said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t have the benefit of a videotape to study before he made his decision.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s the second time this season the films have been studied and a penalty changed. Earlier in the schedule, the Leafs&rsquo; Dave Williams and Pittsburgh Penguin goalie Denis Herron were involved in an altercation and Williams was awarded a high-sticking major penalty.At the request of the Penguins, the NHL examined films of the incident and handed Williams a three-game suspension for the offense.Of course, it would be unfortunate if there&rsquo;s an outbreak of decision changing through the studies of films. A good thing is that the films show how often the referees are right when everyone in the building thinks they&rsquo;re wrong.Perhaps it would be only fair to give the refs the same privilege. A coach can complain about a decision and ask for an investigation. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be fair that the officials be allowed the same privilege; when the coach makes a mistake? &#9632;

f0012-01

HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02957/4371570-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL BARBER&hellip;Looks To Quinn For Firmness</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Remember the book &ldquo;I Was an Undercover Agent for the FBI&rdquo;?Bob McCammon could write a book called &ldquo;I Was a Scapegoat for the Philadelphia Flyers.&rdquo;In the coaches&rsquo; section of the Flyers&rsquo; press guide, McCammon&rsquo;s name will forever appear with a 22-17-11 record. &ldquo;Gee, the guy only coached 50 games and had a winning record,&rdquo; future hockey historians will say. &ldquo;What did he do to get fired&mdash;run naked down Broad Street at high noon?&rdquo;The Flyers&rsquo; record under McCammon was good enough for first place in the mighty Smythe Division and second place in the NHL&rsquo;s other two sections. However, the Flyers were last in the superbly competitive Patrick Division.When GM Keith Allen made his somber announcement that McCammon and his assistant, Terry Crisp, had been dismissed and replaced by Pat Quinn, the Flyers were winless (0-3-5) in their last eight outings. The night before the McCammon &ldquo;era&rdquo; ended, the Flyers had been embarrassed by Montreal, 7-3, in a Monday night massacre. That loss was the straw that broke the back of McCammon and Crisp, but, according to Allen, the two coaches had been tugged inexorably toward an exit by the club&rsquo;s recent uninspired performances.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think the team was playing with any degree of organization on the ice,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;At times, it looks like they don&rsquo;t know what each other are going to do. I&rsquo;m not saying the players are blameless. A lot of them should be looking in the mirror&mdash;they didn&rsquo;t give Bob and Terry 100 percent.&rdquo;In an odd twist, following the loss to Montreal, an exasperated McCammon had stopped camouflaging Flyers who weren&rsquo;t producing. Among the culprits were:&ldquo;Rick MacLeish hasn&rsquo;t been playing well,&rdquo; the likeable coach said. &ldquo;(Bill) Barber is struggling: (Andre) Dupont&rsquo;s not playing his game: and ever since he got injured in Detroit, (Bob) Dailey hasn&rsquo;t played to his potential.&rdquo;After his firing McCammon, a 37-year-old man who had spent a career in the minor leagues preparing for an NHL chance, reflected further on what he had learned about the players who had let him down.&ldquo;Players can be self-destructive,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;You give them what they think they&rsquo;re worth, and they&rsquo;re not worth much anymore. Maybe the best way to put it is that some of them have the talent, but they don&rsquo;t have their priorities straight. My health is first, my family second, and my money&rsquo;s third and some of them have things mixed up.&rdquo;The accusation that the Flyers, who only a few years ago were the NHL&rsquo;s most tactically efficient team, frequently acted like complete strangers on the ice was fair. Ask the players about the distressing situation and they&rsquo;d reply, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t forget, we have a lot of new players here.&rdquo; The Flyers do have several new cast members&mdash;none incidentally, except erratic rookie Behn Wilson, who look like potential All Stars&mdash;but 50 games is more than enough time to learn each other&rsquo;s moves.McCammon and Crisp must accept some blame for the Flyers&rsquo; aimless play. But it&rsquo;s the players who should be carrying enough guilt to last a season.&ldquo;I think everyone on the team realizes we&rsquo;re mostly responsible for Crisp and McCammon losing their jobs,&rdquo; said captain Bobby Clarke, one of the few Flyers who has maintained at least a resemblance to a Stanley Cup-quality player. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a nice situation to be a part of, when you&rsquo;ve cost two people their jobs.&rdquo;McCammon, who decided to return (o the Flyers&rsquo; Maine Mariners farm club which he led to the Calder Cup last year, also knows some blame rests on his sturdy shoulders.&ldquo;I guess I tried to make some changes in the system, but maybe we didn&rsquo;t practice them enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I took some things for granted&mdash;maybe I was foolish. I was too easy.&rdquo;Keith Allen promoted Pat Quinn, who finished a close runnerup to McCammon for the Flyers&rsquo; job last summer, because the suddenly worried GM is convinced Quinn won&rsquo;t be easy on the Flyers. Allen said someone more &ldquo;forceful&rdquo; is needed to herd the Flyers together at this critical stage of their rebuilding. Maybe Bill Barber best summed up the Flyers&rsquo; attitude toward Quinn:&ldquo;Pat stands strong,&rdquo; Barber said. &ldquo;I hope he&rsquo;ll instill the firmness and discipline that we&rsquo;re lacking right now. Bob and Crispie worked on it, but the guys didn&rsquo;t listen.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-02

Winning Not Sufficient To Hold McCammon’s Job

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011077/4371601-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">BERNIE FEDERKO&hellip;Quietly Becoming Blues&rsquo; Leader</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Bernie Federko, the quick young center of the St. Louis Blues, has shattered an eight-year-old team record held by a man revered for many years in the National Hockey League.Phil Goyette, who also played for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres, was with the Blues for one season, 1969-70, and set a St. Louis record of 49 assists.Goyette was 36 years old during his season with the Blues. He had 29 goals to go with the 49 assists and was the leading scorer in the NHL&rsquo;s Western Division. He added three goals and 11 assists in 16 playoff games as the Blues under coach Scotty Bowman went to the Stanley Cup finals for the third straight time and lost to the Boston Bruins.Goyette was the center on the Blues&rsquo; power play, which that year was the NHL&rsquo;s best with Ab McDonald on the left side, usually Frank St. Marseille on the right side, Red Berenson on one point and frequently Barclay Plager on the other point. The St. Louis power play since that time never has been as good as the Goyette-led group.But Federko smashed Goyette&rsquo;s assist record with his 50th assist in the 52nd game of the season. Goyette scored his 49 assists in 72 games.Federko admitted he does not remember much about Goyette&rsquo;s 15-year NHL career but said, &ldquo;I know he was a good hockey player.&rdquo;Federko, who was 13 years old in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, when Goyette set the record, said, &ldquo;The centers we heard the most about when I was a kid were Jean Beliveau in Montreal and Darryl Sittler in Toronto. I never knew much about Goyette.&rdquo;Federko fed the puck to Bob Murdoch for his 50th assist on the Blues&rsquo; final goal in a 7-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Less than 10 minutes earlier Federko scored his 20th goal of the season on a two-on-one break with Brian Sutter against Los Angeles defenseman Richard Mulhern.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happier about the 20 goals than the 50 assists,&rdquo; Federko said. &ldquo;When you remember a good hockey player, you remember he had so many straight 20-goal seasons, not so many seasons of 50 assists.&rdquo;Federko, who has been among the NHL&rsquo;s top 10 scorers all season, is emerging as the leader of the Blues. Other teams worry more about Federko than any other St. Louis player.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a super player,&rdquo; Plager, the Blues&rsquo; coach, said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s becoming our leader the same as Guy Lafleur for the Canadiens or Bryan Trottier for the Islanders.&rdquo;&ldquo;Bernie is a very intelligent hockey player and the best I&rsquo;ve ever seen for being in the right spot at the right time,&rdquo; Plager said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a deceptive skater; he has his own style.&rdquo;Throughout most of his 150 games in a St. Louis uniform Federko has played on a line with Sutter.&ldquo;They go together,&rdquo; Plager said. &ldquo;Sutter makes the nice playes.&rdquo;In the game of Federko&rsquo;s 50th assist and 20th goal, Sutter also set a record by getting into a fight with Randy Holt. Sutter drew his 17th major penalty of the season to break the team record of the late Bob Gassoff in the 1975-76 season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud of it,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a record I aimed for but I&rsquo;m happy to have it.&rdquo;Federko&rsquo;s 20th goal made him the fourth 20-goal scorer on the Blues this season. Sutter, Garry Unger and Wayne Babych beat Federko to 20.But Federko with all those assists leads the team in scoring by a comfortable margin and could become the first player in Blues&rsquo; history to score 100 points in a season. His scoring pace has been 1.32 points a game, and that pace would put him past 100 by the end of the season.The Blues&rsquo; record for most points in a season is held by Chuck Lefley, who had 85 in the 1975-76 season. During that season Lefley scored his 70th point in the 65th game, but Federko had 70 after 53 games. &#9632;

f0013-01

Federko Rated Blues’ Most Dangerous Scorer

<div class="byline">BY RUSS WHITE</div>WASHINGTON&mdash;It has only been a year and a half since a certain night at the Quebec Colisee in Quebec City that Robert Picard learned the value of his word and of his handshake.Capitals&rsquo; general manager Max McNab had rushed to Quebec for a man-to-man talk with Picard, a 20-year-old who had more-or-less run away.McNab had Picard&rsquo;s word and his handshake that Picard would bring his enormous hockey skills to Washington to play defense for the Capitals. Informed of Picard&rsquo;s new plans with a new team by a new agent, McNab was not pleased. He heard, also that Picard had made a comment that he&rsquo;d &ldquo;rather sell pizzas in Quebec than play hockey in Washington.&rdquo;Hopping a flight to Quebec, McNab was as intent on setting straight Picard&rsquo;s values as he was bringing back alive the Capitals&rsquo; No. 1 draft choice a year ago.&ldquo;The first thing a young man has to learn in life,&rdquo; said McNab &ldquo;is that he is no better than his word or handshake.&rdquo;Picard, in New York to play for the National Hockey League All Stars against the Soviet National team in the Challenge Cup series, remembers well the night in Quebec and has thanked McNab for what he had done for him.&ldquo;I was at the rink for a game that night,&rdquo; Picard recalled. &ldquo;The Quebec Remparts were playing the New York Rangers&rsquo; rookies. The place was filled. I was sitting in the stands when I saw McNab come in. He saw me and came directly to me to talk.&ldquo;Everyone around us was looking and some of them wanted to have Max thrown out of the building,&rdquo; Picard said. &ldquo;A security man asked, &lsquo;Is this man bothering you?&rsquo; I told him, no, that we were talking.&ldquo;Max asked me a lot of questions especially about what he had heard I had said. He wanted to hear what I had on my mind; from me, not from anyone else. We talked for quite awhile.&ldquo;Yes, I learned something that night,&rdquo; Picard said, &ldquo;and I am still learning from Max McNab. You know I am still very young and not away from home for so very long. At home, there was always my father to go to. Now, when I am troubled about my game, about hockey, I know I can go to Max McNab.&rdquo;Picard&rsquo;s fine play in recent weeks won him an assignment with the NHL All Stars and no one seemed to enjoy being with the club more. &ldquo;That kid has been walking on air this week,&rdquo; said Larry Robinson of the Canadiens.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02858/4371632-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="557" height="966"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROBERT PICARD&hellip;Made NHL Stars</figcaption></div>Picard&rsquo;s spot on the roster was also one of the most gratifying rewards to McNab, since he was head man of the Capitals.&ldquo;It is a plus for the whole organization, for all the other players, for our scouts, for everyone,&rdquo; McNab said. &ldquo;I am sure the other players on our team realize that Picard is a player of calibre. They may also feel that they have outplayed him some nights. He is in New York for his reward. They must earn theirs.&rdquo;CAPS&rsquo; NOTES: After finishing 9-5-1 in January, their best month ever, the Caps lost 5-1 to Vancouver and 8-4 to Montreal in their first two games of February and were fortunate that the 10-day All Star break came when it did&hellip;Goalie Gary Inness immediately returned to Indianapolis to bring his family to Washington. Inness had been with the Racers of the WHA until that team folded and he was rescued by the Caps&hellip;Rookie Ryan Walter, a prime candidate for Rookie of the Year honors, vacationed on a fishing trip to the Florida Keys during the break&hellip;Caps came back for four straight road games. &#9632;

f0013-02

Picard Recalls McNab’s Advice In Rookie Year

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011106/4371726-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="774" height="1053"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02911/4371719-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="1387" height="751"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey notables from the NHL rubbed elbows with officials of THE HOCKEY NEWS during Challenge Cup week in New York. The hockey publication hosted the NHL teams and among the dignitaries who attended were Detroit owner Bruce Norris, at left, NHL referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison at right, and NHL president John Ziegler, shown in center above with Buffalo&rsquo;s Robert Swados on the left, Hockey News publisher and president Ken McKenzie, second left, and Harry Dedyo, right, vice-president of the Whitney Communications Co., which publishes the Hockey News.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03673/4371712-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="766" height="1061"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photos by Ken Howard)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04475/4371705-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="1187" height="839"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey News columnist Bill Fleischman, left above, chats with Boston asst. GM Tom Johnson, while at extreme right is Ron Harrison, director of Hockey Night In Canada telecasts. In the center is Rod Gilbert, the ex-Ranger great talking with Don Wall, left, the president of the Whitney Co., and Tom Murray, in center, asst, publisher of The Hockey News.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-05332/4371698-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg" title="f0014-05" width="1191" height="1114"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-06265/4371691-1-eng-US/f0014-062.jpg" title="f0014-06" width="570" height="1102"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-07212/4371684-1-eng-US/f0014-072.jpg" title="f0014-07" width="566" height="1158"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-08182/4371677-1-eng-US/f0014-082.jpg" title="f0014-08" width="1186" height="882"><figcaption class="caption-body">NHL executives, Jack Driscoll, above left, and Gil Stein, center, confer with Don Wallace, HNIC producer. At extreme right, Ralph Mellanby, executive producer of HNIC, NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, second right, and Charlie Halpin, left, editorial director of The Hockey News, were also among the hockey people on hand for the Challenge Cup series festivities.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-09166/4371670-1-eng-US/f0014-092.jpg" title="f0014-09" width="573" height="1155"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-10150/4371663-1-eng-US/f0014-102.jpg" title="f0014-10" width="579" height="1150"></div> &#9632;

f0014-01

The Hockey News Goes To The Challenge Cup

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div>NEW YORK&mdash;It was the All Star break, and while hundreds of league and team officials poured into New York City for the three-game Challenge Cup series between the National Hockey League and the Soviets, members of the New York Rangers were evacuating the city faster than a commuter at rush hour. In fact, with the exception of All Stars Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, every Ranger to a man (except native New Yorker Nick Fotiu) was gone by the time the festivities started on Feb. 6 with the Lester Patrick luncheon honoring Bobby Orr. Even Ron Greschner, a late addition to the All Stars&rsquo; defense corps, had to be recalled from his Goodsoil, Sask, hometown and he didn&rsquo;t arrive in town until the day before the first game.But for the rest of the Rangers, the nine-day break meant at least a week in the sun&mdash;or snow&mdash;for just about everyone on the team. Here, in alphabetical order, is how the guys spent their time. Hang on tight, this is really exciting:John Davidson: The big guy was ticketed for Calgary, where he runs a hockey school during the summer. Chances are excellent that he and his wife opened up their summer cabin a little earlier this year and really got away from it all.Lucien DeBlois: Went home to Sorel, Que., where he played his junior hockey for the Sorel Black Hawks.Ron Duguay: Was ticketed for Sudbury, Ont., where he played junior hockey. But chances are Dougie ended up in his off-season home of Val Caron, Ont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011058/4371764-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="564" height="780"><figcaption class="caption-body">NICK FOTIU&hellip;Made Bossy Comfortable</figcaption></div>Phil Esposito: A long-time participant and an inspiring leader in these international series, Espo, playing perhaps his best hockey in the last four seasons, was passed over by the series. So he passed over the series, too, taking his wife, daughters, dogs and cats to New Hampshire for the week.Dave Farrish: Was going to Florida, but that was scratched out and replaced by &ldquo;NYC&rdquo;. Maybe Dave is just doing some sightseeing for the week.Nick Fotiu: as mentioned, hung around New York for the series. He even went into the Ranger locker room&mdash;which was used by the NHL All Stars during the series&mdash;and made sure that the Islanders&rsquo; Mike Bossy, who was using Nick&rsquo;s stall, was comfortable.Pat Hickey: One of the few Rangers who lives in NYC year-round, Hitch was ticketed for Toronto; his hometown of Brantford, Ont. is nearby, so the Hickey family undoubtedly got a visit from their son during the break.Dave Maloney: Maloney, the team captain, called a meeting several weeks ago of all the member of the Rangers whose last name begins with the letter &ldquo;M&rdquo;. When Don Murdoch, Mario Marois, and Mike McEwen showed up for the meeting, Maloney announced that during the break all of them had to take a vacation together&mdash;the only stipulation being that they had to go someplace that began with &ldquo;M&rdquo;. Marois dropped out of the meeting early because he already had plans to go to Ancienne Lorette. No, that&rsquo;s not his girl friend, it&rsquo;s the name of his hometown in Quebec. After he left. Murdoch, Maloney and McEwen narrowed their choices down to the following places: McKeesport, Montana, Manchuria, Manhattan, Medicine Hat, Middle East, Mesopotamia, Montauk Point, Muskegon and Mozambique. A vote was taken and their choice was unamimous&mdash;Mexico. Oh yeah, one other thing. They left on a Monday.Pierre Plante: Was ticketed for Montreal.Doug Soetaert: Was going home to Edmonton, Alta, for the week, but then decided that he&rsquo;d be better off going to the Ranger&rsquo;s New Haven affiliate and getting some extra work&mdash;just in case J.D. gets hurt during the second half of the season.Dean Talafous: Went home to Minnesota for the week.Wayne Thomas: He and Walter Tkaczuk were both ticketed for Las Vegas, where you can get burned by the sun and the gambling tables on the same day.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02822/4371757-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="1195" height="1174"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE VICKERS&hellip;Left Town, Left Continent</figcaption></div>Carol Vadnais: Went home to New Glasgow, Que. for the week.Steve Vickers: His trip to London, England made him the only Ranger to actually leave the continent. But if you asked some of Vickers&rsquo; buddies in the supper sections of the Garden who spend most of their time during the games booking No. 8&hellip;they&rsquo;d tell you he left the continent a long time ago.That&rsquo;s it. We&rsquo;ve covered everyone. Now wasn&rsquo;t that the most interesting thing you&rsquo;ve read so far this year? &#9632;

f0015-01

Most Rangers Opted ForExodus From City

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01909/4371802-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div><h2>Where NHL Teams Play</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><h2>NHL&rsquo;s &hellip; Player of the Week</h2>Serge Savard is often kidded for his unflappable nature on the ice, never losing his cool, and he showed nearly 300 million people that he can maintain an even keel under the most severe pressure applied by the Soviet National team.Savard was a giant for the National Hockey League All Stars, taking control in Game 1 of the Challenge Cup series, directing young Barry Beck in back of the blueline, and continuously leading the NHL out of danger, even during their two losses.Though Savard didn&rsquo;t score a point in the three-game series, his leadership and ability to rise to the occasion when his services were most needed, proved him to genuinely be a star among the stars.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02754/4371795-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="513" height="708"><figcaption class="caption-body">SERGE SAVARD&hellip;Montreal Canadiens</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03604/4371833-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="559" height="1147"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE LOGAN&hellip;Had To Say It</figcaption></div>CHICAGO&mdash;What he did was painful. After all, it isn&rsquo;t every day that you stand up in front of your teammates and call them gutless.But several days after Dave Logan had called his fellow Black Hawks exactly that, the man they refer to as The Incredible Hulk was asking no refunds on his statement.In fact, Logan was receiving some credit for spurring the somnolent Hawks toward the modest two-game winning streak they owned entering the All Star break.&ldquo;Maybe,&rdquo; said Stan Mikita, &ldquo;he woke a few guys up.&rdquo;Logan&rsquo;s complaint was lodged between the second and third periods of the Hawks&rsquo; 6-1 humiliation in Boston Feb. 1&mdash;a typically timid performance for a club which too often appears to need a heart transplant.Logan said, behind closed doors, that he didn&rsquo;t care whether his teammates liked him or liked what he said, but here it is. You&rsquo;re gutless.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve felt for awhile that this team lacked heart, and that night was just another example of it&mdash;something had to be said,&rdquo; Logan offered. &ldquo;We have to be more aggressive, and by that I don&rsquo;t mean getting into fights all the time.&ldquo;By that I mean just not dying so easily. Look at our record in games when we score the first goal. It&rsquo;s terrific. And look at our record in games when we get scored on first. It&rsquo;s awful. That tells you something, doesn&rsquo;t it?&ldquo;We give up to easily. Sure, Boston is an intimidating team to play in its own rink. But it&rsquo;s about time we started going into these cities and try. That&rsquo;s all. Just try.&ldquo;If we lose, we lose. But at least we try. Go into the corners rather than lay back. Hold onto the puck and take a hit rather than get rid of the puck just to avoid getting hit. It&rsquo;s just basic hockey. And hockey is a contact game.&ldquo;If you wind up in a fight and you don&rsquo;t want to fight, then just hold on. You won&rsquo;t get hurt. If you go into the corners and hit or get hit, you won&rsquo;t get hurt. Look at Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. He plays every game like that and he doesn&rsquo;t get hurt.&rdquo;Then what you&rsquo;re saying, Incredible Hulk, is that the Hawks are, ahem, afraid?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see how we can be,&rdquo; he offered. &ldquo;I mean, there isn&rsquo;t a guy in this room who isn&rsquo;t in good physical shape and hasn&rsquo;t been playing hockey on some level or another for 10 or 15 or 20 years. So how, after all that time, can you be afraid to play the game?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to be our attitude instead, our desire to get involved. I don&rsquo;t respect a person in anything who just picks his spots. Because of my (limited) talent, I&rsquo;ve always felt that you have to give everyting. We have to do that here, all the time.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the coach can do it all. We have to motivate ourselves. It&rsquo;s pride. We just can&rsquo;t go through the motions. No team can do that. We can&rsquo;t just play when we want to play or when things are going well.&ldquo;We fall behind by two goals, we have to just put it out of our minds and bounce back. We can&rsquo;t give up so easily. We can&rsquo;t accept losing so easily. We have to try. It doesn&rsquo;t hurt to try. And if you do get hurt, it only hurts for a little while.&rdquo;HAWK TALK: In the words of Atlanta Flames&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher, goalie Mike Veisor was &ldquo;sensational&rdquo; in the Black Hawks&rsquo; 4-2 win at the Omni Feb. 3. Chicago was outshot 48-22 in the game&hellip;Bud Kelly, a station announcer with considerable sports background, has been filling in for regular Hawk play-by-play man Andy MacWilliams, who has been having voice problems&hellip;The Hawks are interested in Mike Fidler, Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; winger, but general manager Lou Nanne of that club says the Hawks want so much &ldquo;they&rsquo;ll never make a deal with anybody.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-03

THE WHA

Logan States Case In Locker Room Urging Effort From Chicago Mates

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div>DENVER&mdash;It&rsquo;s been suggested, let&rsquo;s say intimated by some, that a lackadaisical attitude prevented second-year forward Randy Pierce from picking up where he left off last season.Pierce was promising as a rookie right winger (a third-round draft choice in 1977) and he performed well for the Rockies despite an injury-troubled season. There were high expectations.But then, as so often happens in pro sports, a person comes back for his second season with a little less hunger, less desire, a self-assurance that he&rsquo;s got it made.Pierce might fall into that category. And although he won&rsquo;t admit it, he hinted that it might be a problem.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re a rookie and you come up and do well and made the playoffs,&rdquo; the 21-year-old from Arnprior, Ont., said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s automatic with anybody, whether it&rsquo;s someone like &ldquo;Bubba&rdquo; (Barry Beck) or Wilf (Paiement) down to the level of me or a Joe Contini, to think they&rsquo;ve got it made.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t play well, you don&rsquo;t play. You&rsquo;ve got to come in with a positive attitude and work hard. You&rsquo;re not going to play super hockey all your life, but whenever you play a game, you&rsquo;ve got to give it your best,&rdquo; Pierce explained.&ldquo;I came into training camp in real good condition. I don&rsquo;t know if it was not playing or what. I was expecting lots this year and was expecting to play with &lsquo;Gards&rsquo; (Paul Gardner). I was expecting to be on a steady line,&rdquo; Pierce said.He was, but only briefly. After a 0-4 start, then coach Pat Kelly began a juggling act with his players.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind changing lines. It&rsquo;s good to get used to all the players,&rdquo; Pierce said. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t pace yourself in that situation. You did after one shift. You try too hard if you&rsquo;re only going out on the odd shift.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t blame anyone for it (line shuffling). We were going bad and had to do something. But right now I&rsquo;m more than satisfied playing with guys like that (Jack Valiquette and Paiement) who can score any chance they get,&rdquo; Pierce said.Since Pierce has been playing on a line with Valiquette and Paiement, all three have played well. Pierce, who scored nine goals in 35 games last season, scored his 10th goal in his 45th game this season.And since joining Valiquette and Paiement, Pierce, has been playing on the off wing&mdash;the left side&mdash;which he finds an easy adjustment. Earlier in theseason, team captain Gary Croteau made the conversion to an off wing and is on the way to his most productive of his 11 NHL seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01801/4371864-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="552" height="1128"><figcaption class="caption-body">RANDY PIERCE&hellip;Free Spirit</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Anybody can play anywhere if they put their minds to it,&rdquo; said Pierce, a free-spirited sort. On his resurgence after a disappointing start, Pierce said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just playing, I think. No, it wasn&rsquo;t my attitude. No, my mind was in it all the time. I just don&rsquo;t think I played that much before.&rdquo;&ldquo;You think it&rsquo;s a carefree attitude, but that&rsquo;s his nature,&rdquo; Rockies&rsquo; coach Aldo Guidolin said of Pierce. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s his personality. It keeps him loose. But he&rsquo;s got to get a little more serious on the ice and more dedicated off the ice. He&rsquo;s working harder on the ice&mdash;practice and everything.&rdquo;Pierce hadn&rsquo;t been playing as physical as Guidolin and the Rockies would have liked, but tangled briefly with Minnesota&rsquo;s Tom Younghans in a come-from-behind 3-3 tie in Bloomington. Guidolin said, &ldquo;It was about time cause he&rsquo;s got natural ability. It&rsquo;s going to take him a little time to put things together. But he&rsquo;s playing well now.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

Tougher Attitude Could Aid Pierce In Rockies’ Role

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;The Buffalo Sabres aren&rsquo;t having much of a year and everyone on the club seems to be subpar. Well, not everyone.Don Luce, for instance, is doing quite well. After 48 games the lanky center was leading the team in goals scored. Which is quite something for Luce. Even when he was one of the top scorers in the Ontario Hockey Association with the Kitchener Rangers he didn&rsquo;t score a lot of goals. He had 24, plus 70 assists his last year of junior hockey.Luce&rsquo;s total of 17 goals after 48 games wasn&rsquo;t among the league leaders, to be sure, but when you figure he was ahead of such sharpshooting teammates as Rick Martin, Danny Gare, Gil Perreault and Rene Robert, old Donnie wasn&rsquo;t doing bad.He and his left winger, Craig Ramsay, still were the key operatives on one of the best penalty-killing units in the league. The two also were the top two regulars among the Sabres in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s plus-minus ratings at midseason.There was a period in January when the Sabres couldn&rsquo;t seem to win at home but did quite well on the road. Luce stood out in that interval, picking up at least one point in five of the seven games.Four losses in a row at home though, set a club record. The last time the Sabres lost three in a row in Buffalo&rsquo;s Memorial Auditorium was in November, 1973.This streak started with a 5-4 loss to Pittsburgh. Luce had an assist that game. Next came a 5-4 loss to the New York Rangers. Luce scored a goal.Then came a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Minnesota. Luce scored the only Buffalo goal. Then a 5-2 loss to Atlanta. Luce set up Ric Seiling for both of the Buffalo goals.On the road, during this interval, the Sabres didn&rsquo;t do badly. They tied Philadelphia, 4-4 (they have only won once in regular-season competition in&rsquo; the Spectrum); beat Boston, 2-1, and beat Detroit, 6-3.In the Detroit game,, the Sabres scored three quick goals but saw the Red Wings come back to tie in the second period. The Red Wings had a good chance to go ahead midway through the third when a Sabre was sent to the penalty box.But Luce turned the game around by scoring a shorthanded goal. He assisted on another by Ramsay and Andre Savard got a third.The Sabres were at a loss to explain why they were doing so poorly at home. In the Atlanta game, they outshot the Flames, 41-24, but trailed from the opening minute.Rick Martin, twice a 52-goal scorer in other years but who had just 12 in the 41 games he had played up to then, said, after the game: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to say any more. I don&rsquo;t like it any more than the fans do and neither do the other guys.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re afraid to make mistakes&hellip;we&rsquo;re just so tight. We can&rsquo;t seem to play in this building; we play OK on the road.&rdquo;Said Jerry Korab, the big defenseman who had become a favorite target of the boo-birds, &ldquo;The harder we work the more mistakes we make. All I know is, the more we lose here, the harder it&rsquo;s going to be to play here.&rdquo;Billy Inglis, the Sabres&rsquo; new coach, blamed lack of consistency. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d take the puck into their zone, take a shot and have nobody there for the rebound. We&rsquo;d lose the puck, then have to take it in again.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just players not doing their jobs; making little mistakes. They don&rsquo;t come back with their wings. They don&rsquo;t forecheck. They&rsquo;re just not willing to work. There&rsquo;s no easy way to play this game.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02674/4371895-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="557" height="760"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON LUCE&hellip;Sabre Exception</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

Luce One Of Few Sabres Having Positive Season

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01819/4371926-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GLEN HANLON&hellip;Not Comfortable As Spectator (Photo by Stove Babineau)</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Vancouver Canucks had, and for that matter still have, desires of catching the Chicago Black Hawks for the Smythe Division flag. Modest goals, but realistic.Those intentions were dealt a savage blow on a snowy Saturday night in Denver when their rookie goaltender and light of their life, Glen Hanlon, stretched his knee ligaments.The play was harmless enough. It always is. And whining about injuries is not the style of either general manager Jake Milford or coach Harry Neale. But when Hanlon was lost for about five weeks on top of the six other regular players who are out of the lineup, Neale must have felt as though his best friend had just stolen his pay check.It was early in the second period when Randy Pierce split the defense of Bob Manno and Lars Lindgren and walked in on Hanlon. The young goalkeeper from the Brandon Wheat Kings who is a strong candidate for rookie of the year, came out to make a sprawling save, and twisted his knee in the process. He had to be helped off the ice by his teammates, and the next day it was known he&rsquo;d have to go into a cast for at least two weeks.The Vancouver medical staff may also need a padded cell for the 21-year-old left-handed catcher of pucks because if there is one thing he hates more than sitting out a hockey game, it has not yet been discovered.&ldquo;This is just terrible sitting up here and watching,&rdquo; said Hanlon from the press box while viewing the New York Rangers knock off the Canucks 5-3 at the Pacific Coliseum. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have an ulcer before this gets any better.&rdquo;Indeed, Hanlon is often hyperactive, a particular characteristic which makes him the nearest man to a natural leader the Canucks have. Rookies can hardly take to the leadership role immediately, but it appears that he had that special ability to turn on the hockey club in front of him by providing that big key save at just the right time.&ldquo;This is the first time I&rsquo;ve ever been hurt playing hockey,&rdquo; said Hanlon. &ldquo;I hurt myself playing racquetball last summer, but hockey has always been a real game for me.&rdquo;When the length of healing time was given from maximum to minimum, everyone immediately took the minimum figure and accepted that. There isn&rsquo;t any person connected with the Vancouver hockey club who doesn&rsquo;t think that Hanlon would play goal in the cast if they would let him.The injury came at the time when the young goaltender was trying to attain a maturity level which would stabilize his performance. He is utterly brilliant most of the time, but still has nights when he admits he&rsquo;s making mistakes, mainly through an over-aggressiveness in attacking the shooters.He had become Neale&rsquo;s regular goalkeeper by quite a margin over Gary Bromley and Dune Wilson, with the load falling on the shoulders of those two now.He had a bad night against Chicago, like he had experienced against the New York Islanders and in Minnesota, but as he has done all year, he bounced back stronger than ever the next night. He has a streak in him that wants so much to succeed, and it affects the way he conducts himself on the ice, in terms of preparation, and how he adjusts to having a goal scored on him.Meanwhile, Canucks have decided to leave all their walking wounded off work until after the All Star break, an attempt to get everyone healthy for a final run at the Hawks, though certainly Hanlon won&rsquo;t be part of that movement until early MarchDon Lever, Pit Martin, Don Kozak, Jack Mcllhargey, Kevin McCarthy and Bill Derlago are the Canucks presently injured, with all but Derlago expected back just after the All Star break.That of course means someone will have to go back to Dallas, where they are extremely shorthanded what with the Canucks calling up so many players.Ron Sedlbauer meanwhile is just beginning to pull out of a sevengame slump in which he was shifted from line to line and actually spent some time at center between several different wingers. With the injuries to Martin and Lever, Neale tried Drew Callander, Jere Gillis and Sedlbauer at center, finally settling on the latter. Meanwhile Chris Oddleifson has been seeing extra duty, and in some games has played as much as 30 minutes. &#9632;

f0018-01

Injury To Goaler Hanlon Curbs Canucks Title Hopes

Special To The Hockey NewsATLANTA&mdash;The Atlanta Flames are a team in search of a performance level.They realized that they were not as good as their 10-0-2 start, but also feel that they can perform better than the 19-22-2 pace they have achieved after their beginning of the season spurt.Overall the Flames rank fifth in the NHL with just 25 games left in the regular season, an improvement over their seventh place standing of a year ago, and division-rival New York Rangers are still within reach, but only if the Flames can tighten up their act again.The key element which led to the team&rsquo;s success in the first dozen games was an awesome attack and a competent and at times, outstanding defense. At the All Star break, the Flames, led by sensational years from Bob MacMillan, the NHL&rsquo;s leading playmaker with 54 assists, and Guy Chouinard, who tops the club with 30 goals, still rank a highly respectable fourth in goals for.But their defense has been a different story. After winning games in the early going by outscoring their opponents, and occasionally relying on goaler Dan Bouchard for a shutout (he produced three in the first half), it was suddenly the Flames turning up on the wrong end of those 6-4 scores. By All Star break, the Flames ranked no better than 11th in goals against average, yielding nearly three and a half per game. Their total of 190 goals against put them in grave danger of surpassing their one-season high of 265, set two years ago. That season the Flames scored one less goal than they allowed and finished with a .500 record.Are the Flames still a .500 hockey club? Their record says probably not.The next 25 games will tell the story. &#9632;

Flames Need To Discover Team’s True Talent Level

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div>LONG1SLAND&mdash;When John O. Pickett, the chairman of the New York Islanders announced the signing of Bill Torrey to a long term contract as the team&rsquo;s president and general manager, it ended rumors that the only GM the Islanders have ever had would move on to another NHL port of call.&ldquo;The Islander people and the partners are special people to me,&rdquo; explained Torrey. &ldquo;Last summer they showed what they were made of when it might have been easier to let the franchise go (because of deep financial troubles). John Pickett and the others told me they wanted me to handle this thing, and to make it work until we could win the Stanley Cup. I intend to do that.&ldquo;In addition, I have been with most of the players for a long time&mdash;and I want to be with them when we win the Cup. It wouldn&rsquo;t have been right to consider such a move,&rdquo; continued the man called Bow-Tie Bill.Since being named GM of the Islanders in J972, in a controversial move by former head man Roy Boe, Torrey has built a team generally rated as amongst the top three in the NHL.Fifteen players selected by Torrey and his scouting staff are currently with the Islanders. Draft picks on the 1978-79 Islanders include Billy Harris, Lorne Henning, Bob Nystrom, and Garry Howatt from 1972; Denis Potvin, Davey Lewis and Bob Lorimer, 1973; Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier, and Stefan Persson, 1974; Pat Price and Richie Hansen, 1975; Mike Kaszycki 1976 and Mike Bossy and John Tonelli, 1977.It was a pair of trades made in January of 1975 which brought J.P. Parise and Jude Drojijn to the Islanders from the Minnesota North Stars and gave the team the initial impetus towards their first playoff berth in 197475.Both players have since moved on in trades, as has Jean Potvin, whom Torrey obtained from the Philadelphia Flyers in 1973 just before he signed his younger brother, Denis.&ldquo;Trading Potsy was the toughest decision I have had to make,&rdquo; said Bill. &ldquo;And telling him was even worse.&rdquo;Torrey&rsquo;s accomplishment in guiding a three-year-old team into the Stanley Cup semi-finals, and his gradual improvement of the Islanders record every season led to his appointment as the GM of the NHL All Stars.&ldquo;We thought that Torrey, with Cliff Fletcher of Atlanda, and Harry Sinden of Boston, helping him would be the right man for the job,&rdquo; said John Ziegler, the president of the NHL. &ldquo;The job he did was super, in naming Scotty Bowman as coach, and in having the final say on the selection of players for the squad.&rdquo;Torrey established a smooth working relationship with Bowman, the Montreal Canadiens coach. The fact that Bowman runs the team which holds the Stanley Cup didn&rsquo;t prevent Torrey from moving rapidly, but with consideration for Bowman&rsquo;s desires as to personnel.&ldquo;Making Claude Ruel the assistant coach enabled Scotty to work with someone he was comfortable with,&rdquo; explained Bill. &ldquo;Certain player decisions were made for similar reasons.&rdquo;In a like manner, Torrey resisted any temptation there might have been to blame coach Al Arbour for the loss to Toronto in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals last spring&mdash;and therefore sack the coach.&ldquo;Al has done an outstanding job,&rdquo; opined Bill. &ldquo;For that reason we signed him to a new deal&mdash;which we are both pleased with.&rdquo;Torrey, born in Montreal not far from the Forum, first worked in the NHL with the California Golden Seals and owner Charles O. Finley.He spent a frustrating period of time with Oakland, finally leaving to open a public relations and promotions business in Pittsburgh. Bill helped promote Jee Capades and other ice shows. For this reason he was, at first, received with skepticism when Boe selected him to run the expansion Islanders in 1972.&ldquo;Bill is able to receive input from his scouts and the people in his organization,&rdquo; says one Islander insider. &ldquo;And, unlike some others, he makes his own decisions and lives with them. Invariably, they come out pretty good.&rdquo;Since Sam Pollock has left the Montreal Canadiens post as general manager, Torrey seems to be just about the best GM in the NHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01783/4371981-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="572" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL TORREY&hellip;Managed All Stars</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

Man Who Molded Islanders’Squad Receiving Recognition As Top GM

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;The Big Red machine had just posted a 9-0 shutout of the National Hockey League All Stars over the final 94 minutes and 54 seconds of play, capturing the NHL Challenge Cup, two games to one.Coach Viktor Tikhonov, the architect of the Soviet renaissance in World play and the man who is gradually changing the concept of Soviet Tournament hockey, noted, &ldquo;This team is good now, but it will be better next year and even better in five years. The testing of (Vladimir) Myshkin in goal at such a high level, is a great step forward. We have been searching for a second goalie behind (Vladislav) Tretiak for a long time.&rdquo;After a first game loss, by a 4-2 count, the Soviet rallied from a 4-2 second period deficit in Game Two to dominate and frustrate any attempts the NHL had at mounting an offense.The key Soviet line might have been the Wings&rsquo; trio of Vladimir Kovin, Mikhail Varnakov and Alexander Skvortsov who were touted here in the Jan. 19 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS as possibles for the Soviet team. Myshkin and defenseman Sergei Starikow also were listed at that time.&ldquo;The Wings line changed the series in the third period of the first game when they demonstrated they could shut us down in our own end. Their defensemen pinched us off by playing up high on the boards. This was the technique they used with so much success in Game Two&mdash;and to a somewhat lesser degree in the final game,&rdquo; said Scotty Bowman, the NHL coach.Myshkin also was moved up from Wings&mdash;as was Starikov, who partnered with the veteran Valeri Vasiliev after another veteran, Gennadi Tsygankov, had given away the NHL&rsquo;s opening goal in the first 16 seconds of the initial game. Starikov dressed for Game Two, tightening the Soviet defense.The Russians number two line of Viktor Zhluktov, Sergei Kapustin and Helmut Balderis showed why they are rated so highly, with Kapustin getting two key goals in the second game.Zhluktov, the center, said, &ldquo;Winning the World Cup is more important than this victory, although this is an important trophy. I think the caliber of play in the World Cup is better than here against the NHL.&rdquo;The Soviets&rsquo; top line of Vladimir Petrov, Boris Mikhailov and Valeri Kharlamov was disrupted after the first game when Kharlamov sat out the rest of the series. But, the canny, 34-year-old, five-foot-nine, 170-pound Mikhailov, scored three goals, including the first goal in the final game, to win the MVP award.Boris switched from his usual left wing to right wing for the final two games, as sub wingers, Victor Tiumenov (Game Two) and Alexandre Golikov (Game Three) filled in.The Soviet captain said, &ldquo;We are proud of the victory, very proud. We have proven our skill.&rdquo;In the first period of Game Three, NHL goalie Gerry Cheevers slashed Mikhailov when he ventured near Cheesy&rsquo;s net. Boris complained, as was his right as captain, loud and long to referee Andy Van Hellemond, but to no avail. He solved the problem with his flip shot from the right face off circle at 5:47 of the second period, giving the Soviets a lead they never relinquished.When it is considered that the Soviets-best offensive defenseman, and the defensive MVP at Prague in the World Championships last spring, Viacheslav Fetisov, was left home nursing a bad back, the Soviets must be regarded as awesome.The development of Myshkin as a challenger for Tretiak is another big plus. Tretiak played the first two games, but Tikhonov had planned to play Myshkin in either game two or three. When the Soviets lost the first game, he stuck with Tretiak, but after the momentum shifted his way, he took the final gamble with the blonde, five-foot-seven, 157-pound, 23-year-old rookie.&ldquo;I was eager to show that I could stop the NHL,&rdquo; said the goalie. &ldquo;When Tikhonov told me I was going to play at morning practice (before the final game) I was very excited. But, I think the NHL didn&rsquo;t shoot as much as I expected and they were not too accurate. I just tried to stop the puck when it came near the goal&mdash;and I didn&rsquo;t realize the crowd was yelling for me.&rdquo;Myshkin twice dumped rebounds in front, where they lay for seemingly endless seconds before being smothered by his defense, but otherwise gave no hint of being unable to withstand heavy pressure, as he had, when the Philadelphia Flyers and Bobby Clarke, got two quick goals in the final two and a half minutes to eke out a 4-4 tie with the Wings in January. The shutout was his first game in international play for the Soviet National team.Viacheslav Koloskov, the director of the Hockey Department of the Soviet Sports Committee, observed, &ldquo;Before this series we said these games were important. They were for the number one championship in the world. We hope everyone keeps this view of the victory. It was a clear idea of the prestige of the Challenge Cup. The best two teams in the world confront each other&mdash;and the confrontation indicates that. But it doesn&rsquo;t indicate hockey in Canada is poorer than in the U.S.S.R.&ldquo;If we were to field three teams from each country the team from the U.S.S.R. could not be the same,&rdquo; continued Kolosov.Koloskov may be wrong&mdash;the feeling here is that the Soviets under Tikhonov are building depth in their system. The Nationals no longer are the complete province of the Central Red Army. Contributions were made by the Soviet Wings line, the Golikov brothers, Alexandre and Vladimir, of Moscow Dynamo, and in the final game by Irek Gimaev who played center on the fourth or makeshift line with Sergei Makarov and Victor Tiumenov.Tikhonov shrewdly told his players before the final game, &ldquo;We have nothing to lose. The World Cup is the real championship. The NHL will be inconfusion if they lose. It is up to you.&rdquo;The Soviet coach was right. The NHL, its prestige and its style of play disgraced, is in total confusion. &#9632;

Soviets Made Changes To End NHL’s Ice Reign

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01460/4372043-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div>For any of you parents out there who are contemplating the idea of sending your youngster to a hockey school or camp this summer, there are obviously a lot of criteria that have to be taken into consideration. For instance, is the personnel at the camp, both professional and amateur, a qualified and enthusiastic group of people? Are the meals and snacks which are served supervised by a certified nutritionist? Are the facilities adequate and functioning properly?If you are a caring and loving parent, these and many more questions have to be answered to your complete satisfaction before you&rsquo;re going to be comfortable about sending your eight-to-16-year-old off for a week or two on what may very well be his first time away from home.But after all of these questions have been answered, and you have assured yourself that the school or camp you have chosen is going to be the best possible for your son&hellip;do yourself and your boy a big favor and ask yourself one more question: Is my son going to have fun at this camp?Believe it or not, an awful lot of parents don&rsquo;t send their kids off to hockey school to have one or two weeks of fun. They send them off because they actually believe that in the spice of one or two weeks, the boy is going to be miraculously transformed into a Guy (as in Lafleur) by the time hg returns home. And they are damned disappointed&mdash;and in some cases downright furious&mdash;if the skills exhibited by their youngster upon his return from camp do not fulfill their expectations.For those of you who do want to be assured that FUN is the goal of the camp/school&mdash;and remember, hockey can and should be fun for kids&mdash;here are some guidelines for you to follow:&#9679; The Interview With The Camp Director: Whether you do this over the phone or in person, it&rsquo;s relatively simple to determine what kind of school the man is conducting by asking him a few simple questions. For instance: Mr. Camp Director, what do you try to accomplish with the boys who attend your school each summer? If he replies that he wants to toughen the kids up and get them mentally and physically fit for a rigorous career as pro hockey players, stop him right there and look around for another school for your boy. It&rsquo;s these kinds of places that turn kids off to the sport at a very early age and discourage them from ever seriously pursuing the game as they get older and more competitive.The kind of response you should be looking for to this question is one where the camp director tells you up front that his goal is not to produce a superstar overnight, but to make damn sure that your son has fun while learning skills and techniques which&rsquo;will make him enthusiastic about the game. It is this enthusiasm which will eventually compel him to want to learn more about the game and become a better player.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not in the business of teaching kids to become NHL players,&rdquo; says a camp director who was interviewed by THE HOCKEY NEWS and who henceforth will be known in this story at Mr. X. &ldquo;We want the kids to have fun. That&rsquo;s the bottom line. We realize that you can&rsquo;t make a kid a great hockey player in one, two, or even eight weeks. Instead, you give him some good, basic training, get him into shape a little bit, and keep him occupied with a lot of activities. But we tell parents: &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t send your child here if you expect him to be 100 percent improved in one or two weeks. It puts too much pressure on us, and way too much pressure on the kid.&rdquo;Now that is the kind of answer you should be looking for&mdash;an up front, honest assessment of the school and its goals. If you feel good about the camp director and his philosophy, chances are excellent that your son will, too.&#9679; The Arrival Of Your Son At The School: Amazingly, a lot of parents don&rsquo;t think about this particular phase of their son&rsquo;s one or two week stay, but it&rsquo;s crucially important&mdash;especially if he is experiencing his first trip away from home.For this reason, it is a very good idea to inquire about the measures taken by the school to insure that when your son steps off the plane (after what may be his first trip ever by air) and enters the terminal, someone will be there to meet him and make him feel at ease right away. It&rsquo;s bad enough for an adult to be stood up at a plane terminal or a train station in a strange town. Imagine what it&rsquo;s like for an eight-year-old on his first trip away from home!<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02290/4372036-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="1332" height="1310"><figcaption class="caption-body">Youngsters going to hockey schools are generally supervised and follow a rigid schedule. But kids like their freedom, too, and manage to generate their own fun at hockey schools and camps. The young hockey schooler above is typical of how boys approach hockey schools. And dressing up for goaling roles at left often provides an added incentive for the kids, no matter which hockey school or camp they elect to attend.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;If a kid&rsquo;s arrival gets screwed up in any way,&rdquo; Mr. X tells us adamantly, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s going to get off on the wrong foot and his whole week is going to be spoiled. It&rsquo;s very important that he feels welcome and wanted as soon as he steps off the plane.&rdquo;Again, ask questions. Does the camp provide transportation from-the airport to the school? Will someone from the camp be at the air-port/bus terminal/train station to meet the kids?Getting the answers to these kinds of questions will prevent occurrences like the one last summer, when a youngster was met at his plane by a camp counselor, ushered into a station wagon, and driven to the camp&mdash;100 miles away. It was only after he arrived that it was discovered that he had been picked up by the wrong counselor and taken to the wrong camp.This kind of an experience may seem insignificant to an adult, but to a child&mdash;especially one who is away from Mom&rsquo;s homecooking for the first time&mdash;it can be devastating.&#9679; Homesickness: Speaking of missing Mom&rsquo;s homecooking, Mr. X tells us that homesickness usually occurs on the first night the child&mdash;usually between seven and 12 years old&mdash;is in camp. &ldquo;Just when it begins to get dark,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;the ear aches, stomach aches, chest pains, and sore feet suddenly emerge and the tears start to flow. The thing to do then is get the kid occupied&mdash;but quick. Get him on the ice, keep him busy, and afterwards give him a nice barbecued chicken dinner. Chances are, by the time dessert rolls around, he&rsquo;ll have forgotten everything and will want a second helping of ice cream.&rdquo;Apropos of this, another important point on which you parents should grill your son&rsquo;s prospective director is how does he handle kids who become very, very homesick? Is there a doctor/nurse on hand if he gets really hysterical? Are there people in the camp who are experienced in dealing with and counseling kids who are homesick?&#9679; Don&rsquo;t Visit Your Son At Camp: Although the temptation is undoubtedly great (pay attention especially, all of you mothers out there) do not visit your son while he is away at the school. Obviously, if he&rsquo;s screaming and yelling for you every waking hour and is absolutely miserable, you&rsquo;re going to have to go up and bring him home. But if you&rsquo;re just a little nervous or just plain miss him&hellip;do yourself and your son a big favor and stay away until you are supposed to show up. Remember, the adjustment your son has to make from his home environment to the camp/school environment is a big one. An appearance by an apprehensive Mum and/or Dad in the middle of the week is only going to confuse the youngster and complicate the situation.&ldquo;Gawd! Do I hate that!&rdquo; Mr. X says. &ldquo;Just when we&rsquo;re about to turn a kid around and make him realize that the camp isn&rsquo;t so bad, after all, the parents show up and spoil everything. One thing you can count on for sure: When a parent arrives in the middle of the week, they&rsquo;re never going to leave without their child.&rdquo;&#9679; Activities: The abundance of activities is perhaps the most important aspect of a successful hockey school. And the really good camp directors realize that there&rsquo;s no way they can force-feed hockey down a youngster&rsquo;s throat 24 hours a day. What they do instead is mix the hockey in with equal parts of such activities as swimming, squash, racquetball, tennis, water polo, sightseeing trips, etc. The main purpose of all of this is not only to assure the youngster that he is not in a high-pressured, hockey-only environment, but to also make sure that he is having a good time.&ldquo;The whole secret to making the school fun for the kids,&rdquo; Mr. X says, &ldquo;is to keep them busy with all sorts of activities. Sure, they have time during the day to lie on their backs and read comics, but we don&rsquo;t want them walking around with nothing to do. We want to keep them busy, so that means we schedule like crazy so that everyone is maximizing his activity output.&ldquo;Kids want to be organized,&rdquo; Mr. X concludes, &ldquo;and they want to know that they&rsquo;re involved with a setup that&rsquo;s being supervised properly and that they&rsquo;re gonna have a blast.&rdquo;Having a blast; having fun. That&rsquo;s really the bottom line of what hockey&rsquo;s all about when you&rsquo;re a kid. So take heed all of you parents, and remember that FUN is where it&rsquo;s at for a kid at a hockey school. Do that, and you can rest assured that the smile your son is wearing when he leaves for hockey school this summer will be even broader and brighter when he returns. &#9632;

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HOCKEY SCHOOL NEWS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03269/4372143-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">More time is being spent in the classroom while training instructors for hockey schools and camps. Here&rsquo;s Toronto Maple Leaf coach Roger Neilson lecturing to candidates at a Can/Am hockey school coaching clinic where they strive to turn out better coaches for hockey schools. Neilson directs the famed Trinity hockey school at Trinity College in Port Hope, Ont.</figcaption></div>A few years ago you tossed a bunch of kids on the ice, handed them a bucket of pucks and made them skate around pilons. To a greater extent it constituted the programs of some hockey schools.Today, youngsters attending hockey schools are becoming more selective and the training methods are also becoming more sophisticated. The modern hockey school stresses more on-ice training hours of instruction, there are in-numberable new teaching aids like videotakes and films, written student reports, extended dryland programs, and so on.Today hockey schools are taking a new approach to teaching kids the finer things about the ice sport while providing them with hours of recreational return and fun.The Can/Am Hockey Group of Guelph, Ont., is probably the leader in the field of instructing boys and coaches alike. They have instituted an advanced-level coaching clinic where they put prospective candidates through ten and one-half hours of lectures, chalk talks, on-ice workshops, audiovisual sessions, and much more.The modern hockey school is using new techniques and the kind of instruction that is relevant to the needs of today&rsquo;s young players. For example, look for these features at your favorite hockey school:&#9679; On-ice instruction with emphasis placed on skating development, fundamental skill development, team play and instructional scrimmages.&#9679; Dryland training which should include some type of fitness testing, a conditioning program and off-ice training circuits.&#9679; Instructional lectures which should include rules sessions, chalk talks, video tape replay instruction and information on nutrition.&#9679; The physical facilities should be of high standards. Most of the better schools are now using college or prep school dormitories and dining rooms thus insuring a reasonably high level of living accommodation. Some schools go as far as providing complete linen (no sleeping bags) and air conditioning. Also check out the arena facility.&#9679; The instructional staff should be a highly qualified dedicated group of teachers.&#9679; The off-ice staff should be as equally qualified as the on-ice staff in their respective fields. Keep in mind that even the most intensive hockey program only lasts for six hours a day. What about the other 18 hours? Who looks after the boys then? Make sure that this group of staff members are professionals in their field also. Certainly you should be concerned about the instructor student ratio of students to off-ice staff also. A rule of thumb states that there should be at least twice as many off-ice staff as on-ice staff.How long a hockey school has been in operation is probably the best barometer for a successful and enjoyable hockey summer.Kids going to hockey school should have their parents investigate all of the possibilities that await their sons before they leave home for a school or a camp.The growing hockey player wants new instructional methods made available to him and it is a pretty good bet he&rsquo;ll go where he&rsquo;ll get them.Today&rsquo;s hockey schools are aware they must keep up with the changing times if they want to survive and they have upgraded their instructional programs to the point, the kids are the big winners. &#9632;

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Hockey Schools Take New Approach To Teaching

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01443/4372174-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Canadiens&rsquo; star Yvan Cournoyer was on hand to personally greet the Italian National junior team when the youngsters flew in to attend his National Hockey School on the outskirts of Montreal.</figcaption></div>There is a definite upswing in the amount of European youngsters coming to North American hockey schools.Many of the top Canadian and American hockey schools report an increase in the interest being shown by both European federations and teams to bring young players to hockey schools over here.One such school is National Hockey School where the National junior team of Italy appeared last summer for a two-week training period. The boys flew from Milan, Italy to National&rsquo;s school at Ste. Anne de Bellevue near Montreal. The primary objectives were to teach them the basics of skating right through to team strategy. The program also included office training clinics combined with video and chalk talk sessions.National expects to have at least 150 European boys at its 1979 summer hockey school sessions. Other Canadian schools are also reporting an increase in boys coming to their schools from outside the country.A group of 15 boys arrived from Antwerp, Belgium last year for a stay at National Hockey School and succeeded in enjoying themselves on their first Canadian visit despite the fact the boys spoke little or no English. A fluently bilingual staff of hockey camp instructors helped ease the boys&rsquo; apprehensions.National school director Steve Stotland said his school has hosted nearly 5,000 boys from outside Canada over the years. &#9632;

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Canadian Hockey Schools Attract European Boys In Increasing Numbers

Leaving home to attend a summer hockey school can become a trying experience for a very young child. For some it is the reality of being away from home, family and pets for the first time in their lines.If a hockey school can offer a complete week of hockey basics, safety, and fun, then it has been a success in creating a good beginning for a youngster&rsquo;s first experience away from home.One very important factor about hockey schools is the learning experience gained from living at the school. For many of the students this is their first time away from home, and the school offers them an excellent opportunity to meet other boys their same age. As well, the boys come from many different backgrounds which results in an amiable atmosphere in which the boys learn to play and live together.School operators find it most rewarding to see young boys from different cultures being thrown together and becoming a team both on and off the ice. &#9632;

Hockey School First Time Away For Some Boys

A good overnight hockey camp intrinsically has much to offer, such as:&bull; The away-at-camp experience.&bull; Intensive and personal hockey instruction.&bull; Opportunity to make new friends.&bull; Exposure to other sports such as water-skiing, sailing, canoeing, swimming, soccer, tennis, golf, archery, riflery, basketball and volleyball.&bull; Learning new hockey skills.&bull; Most importantly the opportunity to become a better hockey player.It is essential for a parent to check carefully into the program that a hockey camp has to offer, so that his child receives all of the above.While daily ice time is pretty much the same among most camps, the ratio of instructors to campers is not. Needless to say a parent should look for the lowest ratio to guarantee greater individual attention for his child. A desirable ratio would be five campers to one instructor. Checking into the qualifications, as well as the hockey teaching abilities, of the chief hockey coach and his staff is a most important consideration in the selection process. There has to be the ability to know hockey and teach it. There has to be the ability to lead, encourage and develop youth. Camps that feature college and high school coaches, who have degrees in education, are certainly recommended over the, &ldquo;star&rdquo; player, who may make a brief appearance and may not have the patience and understanding in dealing with young children.Another factor to consider is what time of day your child will be on the ice. Since a parent will have to pay anywhere from $175 to $250 per week, he should be assured that his child skates at a decent hour, not 6 or 7 a.m. nor after 10 p.m. The desirable hours are between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. when the child is at his peak performance and most receptive to instruction.Once you have satisfied yourself with the quality of the staff and the time your child spends on the ice, an equally important factor to consider is the time spent off the ice. Approximately 10 hours of the camp day are involved here and what is done with off-ice time is absolutely essential to the welfare of the camper. Many schools offer fine hockey programs, but lack trained staff and facilities such as a lake, which is essential since it offers a variety of enjoyable waterfront activities&mdash;waterskiiing, sailing, canoeing and swimming instruction. A hockey camp which can offer this gives the child an additional bonus. Look for a hockey camp which also offers instruction in land sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, archery, golf and riflery. All of these activities should be well planned and supervised by mature and qualified counsellors.The task of choosing one camp over others is not an easy one and parents should know the following about the camp. What is the background of the camp operator? How long has he operated the camp? What is his educational background? Will your child be safe? Is there one person completely responsible for your child&rsquo;s welfare at all times? Will your child have healthful living conditions? Is there a state health inspection of the camp? Is the food prepared and stored under safe conditions? Are sleeping facilities well spaced and comfortable? Is a doctor and/or registered nurse in attendance at all times? Is there a well-equipped infirmary?For parents in the United States a lot of worry can be eliminated by checking to see whether the camp is accredited and approved by the American Camping Association. The American Camping Association actually inspects camp sites and if any of the listed items at the outset are not met, they will not give its seal of approval. To help you select a good hockey camp for your child, write to the American Camping Association at 342 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017 or call (516) 364-8050. &#9632;

Lowest Instructor Ratio Assures Kids Attention

Hockey parents may not be totally aware of it, but this summer many of them will be sending their sons off to college&mdash;to learn to play hockey.At least that&rsquo;s the impression you get when you look down the extensive hockey schools&rsquo; directory to discover that 65 percent of all summer schools are being staged in some of the country&rsquo;s most lush in stitutions of learning.College or universities in both Canada and the U.S. are now realizing a summer source of revenue when normally they would bolt their doors for the months of June, July and August because of the lack of activities. Today it is a thing of the past to close shop. Some of hockey&rsquo;s best summer hockey schools are flourishing with the tremendous, natural facilities many of these universities provide.To name a few with elaborate college campus settings with first-rate hockey arena and dormitory facilities are the Can/Am Group. Trinity Hockey College, Ridley Hockey College, National Hockey School, Harris-Keon School, Howie Meeker School and Huron Hockey School in Canada and such United States schools as Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Lake Superior College, SVS School, Bemidji Summer School, Buddy Blom School, Bowdoin College, The Clinic and North Dakota University school.With all outdoor sports facilities available for dryland sport programs that consist of baseball, field events, volleyball and soccer, and the use of swimming pools and gymnasium for physical training programs, hockey schools are flocking to use the deserted colleges in the inactive summer months and as the result young Canadian and American boys have more good hockey schools from which to chose for their summer recreation.The surge in new college rinks has also provided a lure for many of the top hockey schools. Most like the proximity of the college hockey rink to the dormitory and gymnasium and swimming pool facilities to set up extensive off-ice training programs.Despite the intense heat of summer, most hockey school ice surfaces are maintained in excellent condition and help in the intricate power skating and free skating programs which are a part of most hockey schools.Today kids are able to get the feel of life on the college campus early as well as have a fun-filled summer at a top hockey school.It&rsquo;s a good experience for a hockey kid growing up with an ambition of going to college. &#9632;

College Facilities Prove Ideal For Hockey Camps

<h2>WHA&rsquo;S&hellip;Player of the Week</h2>Perhaps taking a cue form New England Whalers&rsquo; teammates Gordie Howe and Johnny McKenzie, Dave Keon showed a few people that he, too, still remembers how to play the game.Keon at 38, a veritable youth compared to the 50-year-old Howe and 41-year-old McKenzie, enjoyed his finest week in a Whalers&rsquo; uniform by scoring five goals as New England won two games out of three.Highlighting the week was a three-goal performance in a 7-2 victory against the Winnipeg Jets. As the Whalers upended Edmonton, 5-3 and were losing 5-2 to Cincinnati, Keon also added two other goals to bring his totals to 15 goals and 32 assists on the season, good enough for 12th in the WHA&rsquo;s scoring race.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02314/4372305-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="521" height="667"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE KEON&hellip;New England Whalers</figcaption></div><h2>WHA Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01369/4372298-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="598" height="961"></div><h2>The WHA Scoreboard</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 13)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-147/4372291-1-eng-US/f0032-142.jpg" title="f0032-14" width="592" height="192"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Feb. 8Birmingham 2 at Edmonton 6New England 5 at Quebec 3Wed. Feb. 7Cincinnati 5 at Edmonton 8Birmingham 2 at Winnipeg 3Fri. Feb. 9Winnipeg 0 at Cincinnati 4Quebec 0 at Edmonton 3Sat. Feb. 10Winnipeg 2 at New England 7Sun. Feb. 11New England 2 at Cincinnati 5Birmingham 3 at Edmonton 4<h2>GAMES TO COME</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-156/4372284-1-eng-US/f0032-152.jpg" title="f0032-15" width="575" height="639"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-166/4372277-1-eng-US/f0032-162.jpg" title="f0032-16" width="616" height="917"></div> &#9632;

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WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;The chips were down and the iron of the league was scheduled to invade the Springfield Civic Center. The Whalers were mired in a losing streak and in danger of falling further down in the standings. New England had lost five of their last six games when Winnipeg came in for a pair of games.Although the Jets had dominated the Whalers over the last season and-a-half, this time the New England team pulled itself up by the bootstraps and whipped the visitors in an 8-6 shootout. With renewed confidence the Whalers dumped the Jets again two nights later. That moved them into second place with the league leading Quebec Nordiques coming to town.Two points separated the teams. It was apparent from the outset that the Whalers were geared up for the first-place battle. But after pelting Quebec goalie, Jim Corsi, with 23 shots in the first stanza, the Whalers had nothing to show for it. When Real Cloutier scored a power play goal early in the second period it looked for awhile like the Nordiques had grabbed the momentum.Mark Howe soon tied it up, however, and in the third period the Whalers rapped it up with two tallied from George Lyle. Then Marit&rsquo;s second of the night, 30th of the season, sealed the Quebeckers doom.Since returning from a shoulder injury Lyle had bagged four goals in as many games. Admittedly not too fond of line changes, coach Bill Dineen had to be pleased with his shift of left wingers. Lyle worked well with Dave Keon and John McKenzie, while Mike Antonovich seemed to click with Mike Rogers and Blaine Stoughton.In a surprise move, defenseman Brad Seiwood announced his &lsquo;retirement&rsquo;. The 30-year old veteran was in the middle of his best season with the Whalers in a number of years. Locker room gossip indicated the &lsquo;retirement&rsquo; was forced and attributed Brad&rsquo;s leaving to a difference of philosophy with coach Bill Dineen. Seiwood is noted for his fun-loving demeanor in the locker room and off the ice, and Dineen prefers a more serious attitude among his players. As Seiwood left, another original Whaler was preparing for a comeback. Larry Pleau had been named assistant coach and radio color man this year when he seemed unable to conquer health problems that had bothered him for years. Claiming he feels better than he has in 10 or 11 years, Pleau worked himself into shape, played a couple of games with the Springfield Indians and then moved in to give it another go with the Whalers. (Jack Carlson was not getting ice time so he asked management to trade him. Logically enough the deal was made with Minnesota North Stars with whom he had already signed for next season. The Whalers were to receive &ldquo;future considerations.&rdquo;QUEBEC: Sitting atop the WHA with a few points to spare, the Nordiques invaded Birmingham for a two-game set. Although they were probably intent upon fattening themselves up on the cellar-dwelling Bulls, it wasn&rsquo;t to be. The Bulls took advantage of some sparkling goaltending by veteran Ernie Wakely to nip the Nords, 2-1. Quebec outshot Birmingham 52 to 24 but only defenseman Dale Hoganson could manage to get one by Wakely. The rematch was quite different, but the result was the same.That game saw Marc Tardif tie Bobby Hull&rsquo;s WHA career record with his 303rd regular season goal. It was one of five goals the Nordiques got by Wakely. In the meantime, however, the Bulls were scoring seven goals of their own to sweep the series.Although he notched an historic goal, the game proved costly for Tardif. Engaged in combat by rookie Greg &ldquo;Truck&rdquo; Tebbutt and later by Rick Vaive, Tardif suffered a slight neck injury. He was forced to return to Quebec City and thereby missed the next contest in New England.Coach Jacques Demers lamented the loss of Tardif but implied that things might have been different if the Nordiques hadn&rsquo;t been without Curt Brackenbury and Wally Weir. Brackenbury was out of the lineup with strained muscles (suffered while doing push-ups) and defenseman Weir had a recurring back injury.Demers said that Brackenbury is the guy the Nords can least afford to lose.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01403/4372336-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="557" height="936"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC TARDIF&hellip;All-Time Leader (Photo by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a valuable man on the ice, and he&rsquo;s the leader in &lsquo;the ropin&rsquo;. Going into New England the Nordiques were trying to break a three-game losing string. Instead they again came out on the short end. Although Jim Corsi was sensational in the nets, the Whalers scored on four of their 52 shots and when the Nordiques headed home to confront Edmonton, they carried a four-game losing streak on their shoulders.Home cooking must have done the trick as the Nords jumped on the Oilers early. Serge Bernier had a fine night, notching the hat trick&mdash;and Tardif returned to action with his 29th of the year, setting a new record for regular season career goals in the WHA&mdash;304. GM Maurice Filion brought up Gilles Bilodeau from Binghamton to take some of the heat off his high-priced gems while Brackenbury and Weir were sidelined.BIRMINGHAM: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gotta do it now&rdquo; was the attitude of the Birmingham Bulls as they looked ahead at their next four games&mdash;all at home. But two were against New England and two versus Quebec. It wouldn&rsquo;t be easy.The rest of the WHA was starting to pull away from the Bulls when they decided, if they wanted to make the playoffs, they&rsquo;d have to make good right away. New England hadn&rsquo;t managed a victory in the Jefferson County Civic Center all year. Perhaps the Bulls had a psychological edge. Whatever the reason, the Bulls did it again. They nipped the Whalers, 5-4, and looked ahead to an invading Quebec team that was riding easy at the top of the WHA.Hard fought back-to-back wins (2-1 and 7-5) moved the Bulls to within points of the league leaders, even though they remained in last place. With games in hand, though, the playoff picture looked much more promising.Ernie Wakely had backboned the Bulls surge as to look over the goaltending chores from 19-year-old rookie Pat Riggin. Two nights later the veteran came up with another stellar performance to help the Bulls tie New England.Paul Henderson picked up his 16th goal of the season against the Whalers&mdash;his fourth marker in four games. Centerman Peter Marrin hopes he&rsquo;ll have an opportunity to contribute when he returns to the lineup at the end of March or early in April. He&rsquo;s presently on the mend from a hernia operation. &#9632;

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Whalers Tough Against WHA ‘Iron’; Nordiques Gored In Bulls’ Pasture

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02275/4372374-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE DRYDEN&hellip;Responded Like True Pro (Photo by Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Veteran Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; goaltender Dave Dryden was supposed to get a night off Feb. 9 when the World&rsquo; Hockey Association team met the offensively-potent Quebec Nordiques at home.Plans were changed, however, when backup netminder Ed Mio was caught in the mask by Garnet (Ace) Bailey&rsquo;s shot during a pre-game morning workout. The mask flipped up and Mio was cut under the eye.It was to have been Dryden&rsquo;s second night off in 13 games&mdash;Mio took the loss in a 4-2 Winnipeg Jets game Jan. 31&mdash;but the totally-professional goaltender took the change in stride.&ldquo;You can play as many games as you have to,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The race is tight so there&rsquo;s no problem in remaining interested.&rdquo;Lack of interest has never been a problem, Dryden admits. In past years, he drew some criticism for occasional failures to overcome the trauma of an early goal against him; this year, he has overcome the problem.&ldquo;I think learning to forget the bad goals is part of experience. I&rsquo;ve also been helped psychologically by the fact I lost a couple of pounds during the offseason.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s something to be said for losing a pound a year from now on,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;Fortunately, I&rsquo;m not a heavy person anyway (six-foot-two and a rawboned 186 pounds, according to the Oilers&rsquo; team guide) so that hasn&rsquo;t been a problem.&rdquo;Dryden was named to the WHA All Star team that played the touring Moscow Dynamo squad here early in January. He injured his knee while playing brilliantly in the opening game of the three-game series and took the next two nights off while Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; star Markus Mattsson took over.That rest, with few exceptions, is virtually all the time off Dryden has had this season. He started the season playing brilliantly during training camp in Europe and continued during regular play. As a result, Ed Walsh was forced to ride the bench and lost the sharpness he had acquired during training camp.Mio joined the team when he was acquired along with Wayne Gretzky and Peter Driscoll after six games of the regular season. He was injured in his second game and lost his quickness then had to go to Dallas of the Central Hockey League to regain it.Now Mio is back and he&rsquo;s injured again, which means Dryden will carry the load single-handed for a while longer.The added pressure has not hurt Dryden, whose goals-against average of 3.00 is best in the league, followed by Quebec&rsquo;s Richard Brodeur and Jim Corsi at 3.08. In addition, Dryden leads the league in wins by a goaltender with 22 and in winning percentage with a .667 mark.So far, he has not lost two games in a row all season. He was solid Feb. 6 in a 6-2 triumph over Birmingham, then gave up a couple of questionable goals the next night as Edmonton outscored Cincinnati Stingers 8-5.Scheduled for a night off two evenings later, Dryden watched as Mio was hit and forced out of the lineup briefly.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way it goes sometimes,&rdquo; said Dryden.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not tired, so there&rsquo;s no excuse if I play badly.&rdquo;The response from the solid old pro was about as expected. He doesn&rsquo;t make excuses. And he doesn&rsquo;t often play badly, either.&rdquo;OIL DROPS: The Oilers got some bad news when they learned injured defenseman John Hughes would be out at least a week longer than expected with his broken jaw. Wires were removed on schedule and a protective mask was devised but the Oilers medical staff warned even a glancing blow would cause major problems and coach Glen Sather decided to keep Hughes away from combat as long as necessary&hellip;Jim Neilson&rsquo;s troublesome back acted up again and he was sent home from Winnipeg, perhaps to sit out the rest of the season. Time was on Bill Goldsworthy&rsquo;s side at last. The former National Hockey League star aggravated an early-season separated shoulder while working out about a month ago and had to lay off for awhile. Now he&rsquo;s back and skating well. He could be in action within a week or 10 days&hellip;Cowboy Flett rammed a knee into the boards in a 6-3 loss at Quebec and was forced out of two games while Dave Semenko, normally a left winger, moved to the right side.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03205/4372367-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="535" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN HUGHES&hellip;Delays Comeback</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-02

Oilers’ Goaler Dryden Seldom Has Night Off

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01381/4372489-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="250" height="252"></div><h2>BIRMINGHAM BULLS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02292/4372482-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="189" height="200"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03193/4372475-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="738" height="570"></div><h2>CINCINNATI STINGERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04110/4372468-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="135" height="143"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0568/4372461-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="731" height="570"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0648/4372454-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="201" height="185"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0737/4372447-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="733" height="574"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0831/4372440-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="188" height="185"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0921/4372433-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="743" height="600"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1017/4372426-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="190" height="187"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1112/4372419-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="732" height="591"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1211/4372412-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="179" height="177"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-139/4372405-1-eng-US/f0032-132.jpg" title="f0032-13" width="737" height="603"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

WHA’S POINT SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

WINNIPEG&mdash;The media men in the press box were shaking their heads. &ldquo;What is it about this team?&rdquo; one of them was overheard asking his colleague. &ldquo;They win five in a row, lose the next four and then win four in a row. They&rsquo;re a team of streaks.&rdquo;The &ldquo;They&rdquo; the gentleman was referring to are the Winnipeg Jets and indeed the Jets have been a team that have posed themselves as a mystery for the most part of the 1978-79 season. Right now, however, nobody really cares to figure it out because the Jets have hit mid-season stride by putting together a four game win streak. The streak has enabled Winnipeg to gain a share of first place and in fact as of this writing, they sit alone on top of the World Hockey Association standings.&ldquo;We needed those four games,&rdquo; coach Larry Hillman was saying after a 3-2 win over Birmingham. &ldquo;We leave on a five-game road trip, our last big one of the year, and we&rsquo;ll be going into it with momentum,&rdquo; he said.After crunching the Oilers by scores of 6-3 and 4-2, Winnipeg played its best game of the year two days later in upending Cincinnati 8-1.Behind the steady goaltending of Joe Daley, the Jets unleashed their big guns as they peppered Stinger goalies Mike Liut and Michel Dione with 37 shots.For one player in particular, Feb. 8 was a night not soon to be forgotten. Kim Clackson, who was to celebrate his 24th birthday on Feb. 13, had his biggest night ever since joining the Jets last year. The native of Saskatoon assisted on three goals and was on the ice for two other Jet goals as he easily got the nod as the game&rsquo;s first star.&ldquo;Clacker&rdquo; has long been a crowd favourite in Winnipeg but up until now he has been more renowned for taking on the league toughies than for his offensive prowess. Nevertheless, Clackson has been working on his offensive game and he credits Jets&rsquo; assistant coach, Bill Sutherland, for the improvement. &ldquo;Billy has spent a lot of time helping me,&rdquo; said Clackson with his boyish grin, &ldquo;especially with my passing. I have a lot more confidence in my game now and that makes a big difference wlyn you jump on the ice.&rdquo;Clackson, who is small by hockey standards, was walking tall and proud after the Stinger game. As he emerged from the Jets&rsquo; dressing room he caught the eye of Jets&rsquo; GM John Ferguson. Smiles appeared on both faces, but not a word was said until Clackson had his hand on the exit door. &ldquo;Good night, Mr. Orr,&rdquo; Ferguson said with a grin.Clackson&rsquo;s performance even overshadowed a three goal game by sophomore Kent Nilsson who continued to lead the Jets in the individual scoring race. For Nilsson it was his third hat trick of his WHA career and the first one collected on home ice.Winnipeg put the finishing touches to a perfect four game home stand two days later by beating Birmingham 3-2. Morris Lukowich scored two goals to up his season total to 41 and Markus Mattsson shut down the potentially dangerous Bull offense.JET STREAMS: Morris Lukowich now has 41 goals which is his career high&hellip;Peter Sullivan&rsquo;s next goal will also break his previous Personal best of 32 goals in a season&hellip;Gary Smith is in the Jets camp on a tryout basis&hellip;Expansion of the Winnipeg Arena is to begin shortly. By mid-October the Jets be playing in a 15,000 seat facility.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01348/4372527-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="567" height="632"><figcaption class="caption-body">KIM CLACKSON&hellip;Early Celebration</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02258/4372520-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="562" height="638"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARKUS MATTSSON&hellip;Shut Down Bulls</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

Clackson Credits Coach’s Effort As Jets’ Tough Guy Refines Game

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MADISON&mdash;As far as rookie hockey coach Gino Gasparini at the University of North Dakota is concerned, Colorado College is the only other team in the league at least for one weekend.North Dakota took a giant step toward winning its first Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship since 1967 by getting a rare sweep over Wisconsin in Madison. The Sioux beat the Badgers 7-3 and 7-4 to retain a one-point edge over pre-season favorite Minnesota with six games to go.Since Minnesota and North Dakota meet the final weekend of the season in Minneapolis, fan speculation has projected that series as the showdown for the title.It well might be. But Gasparini isn&rsquo;t one who has the looking glass strong enough to forecast that far ahead. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not looking past anybody. I could care less what other teams are doing. I&rsquo;ll follow them with interest, but our only concern is how we do,&rdquo; he said.His Sioux have been doing well, thank you. They became the first team to sweep Wisconsin this season by destroying the Badgers in a series marred by 56 penalties.Freshman Kevin Maxwell, perhaps the WCHA&rsquo;s top candidate for Rookie of the Year honors, scored twice in the opener. Another rookie, goalie Bob Iwabuchi, sparkled with 29 stops for the Sioux.The next night, a freshman again paced the Sioux, who have won 17 of their last 21 games. Defenseman Howard Walker scored twice as the Sioux blew the game open with five second period goals. Junior Mel Donnelly was sharp in the nets with 42 saves for North Dakota.Gasparini has put that series behind him. He&rsquo;s looking only at Colorado College, the next opponent. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going from the biggest rink (Wisconsin) to the smallest rink (CC) in the league. Colorado College is improved. And Colorado College is a tough place to play,&rdquo; Gasparini said.Gasparini isn&rsquo;t fooled by the fact that Colorado College is in eighth place in the 10-team league or that the Sioux beat the Tigers 6-1 and 10-0 earlier in the season. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t assume anything at this stage of the season. It could all go down to the final weekend or both Minnesota and us could be out of the race. Who knows what will happen?&rdquo; he said.Minnesota-Duluth learned what can happen the hard way. The nation&rsquo;s hottest college hockey team, ranked No. 1 in the polls, lost twice at home to Notre Dame to temporarily drop out of the race.It was an unexpected result. Duluth had won 14 of its last 15 games and appeared to have a soft schedule left. But Notre Dame was anything but a soft touch. Jeff Brownschidle, Ted Weltzin and Jeff Logan scored third period goals to give Notre Dame a 7-3 win in the opener, then Weltzin scored on the first shot of the overtime session at 1:18, to stun Duluth 7-6 the second night.The sweep vaulted Notre Dame into a tie for third with Duluth in the hectic WCHA scramble. And it gave Notre Dame a chance to move even higher, since the Irish entertain Minnesota next. The two teams split earlier in Minneapolis.Elsewhere in the WCHA:COLORADO COLLEGE AT MINNESOTA: Colorado College saw a 3-0 first period lead disappear in an 8-5 Minnesota win in the opener. Steve Christoff had two goals and two assists to pace Minnesota&rsquo;s 8-5 win. Eric Strobel had four goals and Christoff two as Minnesota blitzed the Tigers 9-2 the next day.MICHIGAN TECH AT MICHIGAN STATE: Lowly Michigan State surprised Michigan Tech twice to move out of the WCHA cellar. Dan Sutton&rsquo;s hat trick, all in the first period, gave Michigan State a 4-3 win in the opener as the Spartans rode the hot goaltending of Mark Mazzoleni (34 saves) to victory. The second night, Paul Gottwald scored twice and sophomore center Leo Lynett got the game-winner in a 5-3 State victory.MICHIGAN AT DENVER: Denver solidified its hopes for a playoff position by sweeping Michigan 7-4 and 8-3 to move into seventh place. Glenn Anderson and Alex Belcourt had two goals a piece in the second game for Denver. Anderson, and defenseman Greg Woods, each had two goals for the Pioneers in the opener.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01357/4372558-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="552" height="755"><figcaption class="caption-body">MEL DONNELLY&hellip;42-Save Effort</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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OTHER LEAGUES

Madison Sweep Keeps Sioux First, But Garparini Not Overconfident

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>BOWLING GREEN&mdash;Freshman winger Brian MacLellan scored six goals on the weekend as the defending Central Collegiate Hockey Association champion Bowling Green State University Falcons bombed Ferris State twice 11-2 and 10-0 to move their &ldquo;magic number&rdquo; to one for their second straight regular season title and third in the past four years.MacLellan shared CCHA player-of-the-week honors with Ohio State junior Paul Tilley as each had seven-point weekends. It was the second award for each player.MacLellan tied a BGSU team record for the fastest goal at the start of the game as he netted his first goal of the weekend after just 13 seconds of play. Captain Paul Titanic and Bill Newton assisted on the goal that matched Pete Badour&rsquo;s quick goal against Clarkson in the 1970-71 season.Jim Baker tied the score for Ferris State at 9:53 of the first period and the score remained tied through the end of the first period in which BG held a 14-4 shooting edge.The tie didn&rsquo;t last long with the Falcons scoring five times in the second period and five more in the third period. Defenseman John Gibb scored at 1:25 of the second period and senior John Markell netted the eventual game winner, his fifth of the season, at 1:51. Chris Guertin, George McPhee and MacLellan, at 19:58, finished off the second period scoring.MacLellan collected his &ldquo;hat&rdquo; at 43 seconds of the third and scored his fourth goal of the game to wind things up at 16:23.In the second game BG led 2-0 after one period on goals by seniors Mark Wells and Ken Morrow and 4-0 after two periods with Markell and Tim Alexander scoring.Freshman Don McLaughlin scored his first collegiate goal to open the third period in which MacLellan scored twice with other goals scored by Wells, Newton and McPhee.McPhee finished the night with a goal, his 30th of the season, and three assists and regained the overall scoring lead in the CCHA with 67 points.Sophomore goalie Wally Charko played both games for the Falcons and ran his season record to 23-3-1 and lowered his goals against average to 2.22.In other CCHA action on the weekend Ohio State split at Lake Superior winning the opener 6-5 and losing to the Lakers 5-3 in the second game, and St. Louis split at Western Michigan winning the second game 7-5 after an 8-2 blowout by the host Broncos in the Friday night opener.Tilley was the star for the OSU squad in the opener as he collected three goals and added three assists to account for six points in the 6-5 win.The split allowed the Buckeyes to leave Sault Ste. Marie, MI, with second place in the battle for the home ice in the first round of the playoffs.The host Lakers jumped to a quick 40 lead in the first period in which OSU netminder Steve Jones made 18 saves before being replaced by Mike Blake at the 18:58 mark.Kevin MacDonald opened the scoring for LSSC at 2:44 with a power play goal and another extra man tally by John Nilson pushed the lead to 2-0.Steve Sherman and Ron Sandzik also added first period goals with Bobby Ciotti collecting three assists.Tilley put the Bucks on the scoreboard with a key goal at 19:51 assisted by Rod McNair and Larry Marson.The Bucks gained momentum in the second period holding a 2-1 scoring edge with Tilley scoring goals at 47 seconds and 14:48 to complete his hat trick while sandwiching the line Laker goal by Francis Veneruz.OSU outshot Lake Superior 17.9 in the third period and scored all three goals with Mark Freeman and Jack Lampron scoring less than a minute apart at 4:20 and 5:10 to tie the score and Freeman scoring the winner at 8:51, Tilley assisted on all three markers.Jones and Blake combined for 48 saves for OSU and Murray Skinner had 33 for LSSC.The first period of the second game was scoreless until Sherman&rsquo;s goal at 13:45, and just over a minute later the Lakers led 2-1 as Bryan Alexander scored for the hosts at 14:34 and Rick Barker scored for OSU at 14:47.Alexander&rsquo;s power play goal at 14 seconds of the second period made it 3-1 and the score was 3-3 after two periods with Ed Lisogar and Tilley, at 19:12, scoring for the Bucks.Jamie McDonald put LSSC ahead 4-3 on the power play at 13:21 of the third period from J. Wilson and Mike Ryman and Alexander completed his hat trick with an empty net goal at 19:04.Blake had 39 saves in the loss with Skinner making 28 in the win.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04114/4372620-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="570" height="603"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN MacLELLAN&hellip;Six-Goal Weekend</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0037-04

Falcons Bomb Ferris St., Lower Magic Number To 1

<h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings On Mon. Feb. 12)<h3>DIVISION I</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01294/4372689-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="601" height="466"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Brown 5, Vermont 4Providence 7, Dartmouth 4Clarkson 8, Colgate 5Princeton 3, Yale 2Cornell 4, Harvard 2New Hampshire 9. Northeastern 3Boston College 6, Army 2Boston Univ. 5. Providence 4St. Lawrence 6, RPI 5Princeton 6, Brown 4Cornell 4, Dartmouth 1Clarkson 10, RPI 4Yale 4, Harvard 1<h2>BEANPOT TOURNAMENT</h2>Round OneBoston College 7, Northeastern 2Boston University 4, Harvard 2<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 16)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02202/4372682-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="597" height="303"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Feb. 9-10Michigan State 4, Michigan Tech 3Michigan State 5, Michigan Tech 3Notre Dame 7, Minn-Duluth 3Notre Dame 7, Minn-Duluth 6North Dakota 7, Wisconsin 3North Dakota 7, Wisconsin 4Denver 7, Michigan 4Denver 8, Michigan 3Feb. 10-11Minnesota 8, Colorado College 5Minnesota 9, Colorado College 2<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03145/4372675-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="599" height="491"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

HOW THEY STAND

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD JABLONSKI</div>HALIFAX&mdash;Some people call it &ldquo;the crunch.&rdquo; Others dub February as &ldquo;money time.&rdquo; Still others refer to the final month of play as &ldquo;the pressure cooker.&rdquo;Call it what you will, February is the month which inevitably serves to separate the cream of the Canadian university crop from the dregs, the playoff contenders from the regular season pretenders.Nowhere is the pressure to perform any greater than in the Maritimes, where six teams are still solidly in the running for the four Atlantic Association playoff slots. Two of those teams, the Saint Francis Xavier X-Men and the Acadia Axemen, responded to the call of the playoffs with exceptional performances during the first week of February.The upstart Axemen, long occupants of the AUAA&rsquo;s second echelon, pulled one of the season&rsquo;s more crucial upsets in dumping the league-leading Saint Mary&rsquo;s Huskies 4-1. Former Ontario Major Junior League defenseman Dan Doyle led the Acadia onslaught with a pair of goals, while teammates Warren Strickland and Barry Wiesner netted singletons for the Axemen.Goaltender Steve Typhair, himself a former major junior player, held the Huskies to but a single goal, sending the fans in Wolfville, N.S. home happy and looking forward to the playoffs.Meanwhile, in Antigonish, the inconsistent Saint FX squad got its defensive act together in shutting out the Dalhousie Tigers 1-0. It was George Barrett night in the Maritimes, as the little X-Men goaltender recorded his first career AUAA shutout, turning aside 30 Dalhousie drives.The only goal of the game was credited to Jim Young, who banked a pass from behind the net off a Dal defenseman at 1:32 of the final period.Later in the week, the two hot teams got together in the same rink, the result being a solid 6-3 victory for Saint FX. Not surprisingly, the AUAA&rsquo;s leading scorer Tony Cuomo (16-17-33) did the bulk of the scoring for Jim Cahoon&rsquo;s team, popping a trio of goals and adding an assist for good measure. Rick Secco added four assists for Saint FX.The logical conclusion to be drawn from the week&rsquo;s play is that the X-Men, who suffered from a severe rash of defensive inconsistency for the first 14 games of the regular season, have put their blueline act together. With the highscoring Cuomo on their side, the X-Men have the guns to shoot it out with anyone. Defense is the only question mark.Elsewhere in the AUAA, Francois Bessette continued to weave his second half magic, and the Moncton Blue Eagles took one more step toward the playoffs. Bessette fired home three goals, including the game-winner in overtime, to pace a 6-4 victory over Mount Allison.It was not a banner week for the Prince Edward Island Panthers. UPEI split a pair of games with cellar-dweller New Brunswick, dropping a 9-4 decision before rebounding for a 8-5 win. The fifth place Panthers, one point behind Dalhousie and three points ahead of Moncton, could ill afford to drop two points to UNB.ONTARIO ASSOCIATION: The playoff picture is becoming ever clearer as the OUAA season winds to its conclusion. The Guelph Gryphons became the second team in Ontario to clinch a divisional title (McMaster was the first), when they skated away from London with a 4-2 victory over the Western Mustangs.Scott Marquis led the champagne rush with a hat trick in the clincher, capping a six point week for Guelph. Earlier in the week, the Gryphons had edged Waterloo 5-4 and Windsor 4-3, setting the stage for Marquis&rsquo; heroics.With a playoff spot on the line in the Eastern Division, the York Yeomen and the Ottawa Gee-Gees met in the nations&rsquo;s capital. For Ron Smith and his Yeomen, the series proved costly, as Ottawa pulled out a 7-6 decision after a 2-2 tie the night before.The Yeomen coach was furious with the officials following the crucial loss, citing three disallowed goals as the turning point in a close game. York must now hope for Ottawa to lose its two final regular season games. One Ottawa victory would eliminate the Yeomen from the post-season picture.Individual performances provide the remainder of the excitement in OUAA play this week. Tom Jaczenko (13-16-29), the Central Division&rsquo;s leading scorer, racked up three goals and four assists to lead the McMaster Marauders to a 13-5 rout of the Brock Badgers.In Toronto, Varsity Blue forward Cary Farelli snapped a brief slump with a three-goal, three-assist performance, in nailing the lid on York&rsquo;s playoff hopes 10-3.Farelli leads the Eastern Division scoring race with 13 goals and 13 assists, while Guelph&rsquo;s Mike McFarland leads the Western Division and the province with his 10-2030 stats.QUEBEC ASSOCIATION: The four playoff teams in the QUAA have already been determined. The only question now remaining is: will Laval, Chicoutimi or McGill finish fourth and face the frontrunning Concordia Stingers in the first round of the playoffs? The question assumes added importance in view of the fact that two teams from Quebec, Concordia and one other, will represent the league in this year&rsquo;s national championships.All four playoff-bound team&rsquo;s enjoyed winning weeks, with the Trois Rivieres Patriotes and the Bishop&rsquo;s Gaiters paying the price of facing the league&rsquo;s top teams. &#9632;

February Grind Brings Out Best Maritime Hockey

<h2>Where AHL Teams Play</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01351/4372720-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="597" height="712"></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div>NEW HAVEN&mdash;Coach Parker MacDonald&rsquo;s Nighthawks are on fire. They are undefeated in their last 10 games (9-0-1) and have a commanding 15 point lead over second place Binghamton in the Southern Division of the American League. At this writing, New Haven is tied with Maine for the most points in the AHL. During the week, New Haven bombed the opposition, outscoring their rivals 29-9 and winning four straight.The Nighthawks blasted Hershey 7-4 and beat Springfield 6-2 in road contests. Returning to the friendly confines of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, they blitzed Rochester 8-0 and sent the Bears home with a 9-3 pasting. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say enough about the way our team is playing. They are all working hard, taking the body and capitalizing on their chances. Lindsay Middlebrook and Steve Baker both put in good games for us over the weekend and the whole defense also played well.&rdquo; Rookie center Ray Markham&rsquo;s hat trick highlighted the win in Springfield.A crowd of 6,375 in the Coliseum saw the 8-0 whitewash of Rochester. It was one of the most one-sided games ever seen in New Haven. Goaltender Doug Soetaert, who got the shutout, could have fallen asleep for most of the contest. New Haven got two goals from Mike McDougal and solo tallies from Bobby Sheeham, Ron Andruff, Dale Lewis, Don Maloney and Claude Larose.Two nights later Hershey skated onto the Coliseum ice surface only to leave on the short end of an embarrassing 9-3 loss. Tom Colley&rsquo;s hat trick sank the Bears.NEW BRUNSWICK: Rookie Doug Lecuyer is still out of the New Brunswick lineup, and his loss has been &lsquo;a cruel blow to the new AHL club. Lecuyer is progressing well according to his doctors in Chicago and has expressed a desire to return to Moncton to continue his recovery.Binghamton pinned a 7-4 loss on the Hawks in Moncton and the Nova Scotia Voyageurs skated to a 4-2 win over the Hawks in Halifax. During the last two weeks, New Brunswick has only managed to play .500 hockey as the injury to Lecuyer and recalls to Chicago and Toronto hurt the club.HERSHEY: General manager Frank Mathers and coach Chick Hamilton hope that the Bears can improve their home ice record during the second half of the season. The Bears have one of the worst home records in the league at this point.After losing two of three, the club is in third place in the Southern Division and Rochester is breathing down their neck, just one point behind. New Haven came into the Hersheypark Arena and bombed the home club 7-4 before 3,219 fans. Adex Tidey scored twice and Rick Bragnalo along with Claude Noel added solo tallies, but the high-powered Nighthawk offense fired seven goals past netminder Jim Bedard.MAINE: Captain Dennis Patterson served as interim coach of the Mariners replacing Pat Quinn until Bob McCammon, who coached the Mariners to the Calder Cup title last season came back for a second go-round.After being named to the Flyers&rsquo; coaching post, McCammon brought ex-Mariners Blake Dunlop, Paul Evans, Dave Hoyda, Tom Gorence and Al Hill to the Flyers. In addition, Mariner goaltenders Pete Peeters and defenseman Frank Bathe have seen some NHL action.Maine had a 3-1-2 record during the past two weeks and slipped past New Brunswick into the Northern Division lead. They clobbered the hapless Philadelphia Firebirds 12-2 in Portland the night after Quinn left for Philadelphia. Nova Scotia hung a rare home ice loss on the Mariners as they shut out the AHL champions 2-0 at the Civic Center. A Sunday afternoon game with the Firebirds at the Spectrum in Philly ended in a 2-2 overtime tie.BINGHAMTON: Brian Spencer was out of the Duster lineup for a month with a knee injury, came back, and promptly reinjured the knee. Club officials are not sure when the popular winger will return.Binghamton won three in a row during their recent trip to the Maritimes, the first team inthe league to accomplish that feat. During this week, they won two of three to take a solid hold on second place in the Southern Division. The Dusters whipped Nova Scotia 4-3 in Halifax, the Hawks 7-4 in New Brunswick and dropped a 6-2 decision in Hershey.SPRINGFIELD: Larry Pleau, a 10-year-pro who has seen action with Montreal and New England, has been added to the Indians&rsquo; roster after coming out of retirement. The native of Lynn, Mass, can play either center or wing and coach Pete Stemkowski regards him as a welcome addition to the Springfield roster which has been hard hit by injuries and callups.Prior to their weekend series with Nova Scotia and New Haven, Stemkowski called the series &ldquo;the most important weekend of the season.&rdquo; The Tribe responded by defeating the Voyageurs 4-3 but they dropped a 6-2 contest to New Haven. In Rochester the next night, the Tribe upset the Amerks 6-2.A crowd of 3,962 at the Big E Coliseum watched in horror as the Nighthawks pumped five third period goals past netminder Louis Lavasseur.ROCHESTER: The Amerks lost all three games on the schedule and dropped into fourth place in the Sourthern Division. Without sparkplug Ron Garwasiuk, who reinjured his right knee against Nova Scotia on Jan. 20, the Amerks tend to be an average club. Of course, all of the callups by the parent Boston Bruins haven&rsquo;t helped coach Pat Kelly&rsquo;s club.New Haven blitzed the Amerks 8-0 in a game played in the Elm City. Kelly must have had nightmares thinking about the Rochester performance which was the worst seen at the Coliseum this year. Nighthawk players skated through the defenseless Amerks at will.PHILADELPHIA: General manager / coach Bep Guidolin said that &ldquo;We have some players here who can&rsquo;t seem to wait for this season to end. They&rsquo;re not producing at the level which they are capable of producing at. They have to play with some enthusiasm and check with some intensity for us to be respectable within the league. Quite frankly, I&rsquo;m disappointed, the whole club is suffering because five or six guys won&rsquo;t pull their own weight.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02277/4372751-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="565" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body">RAY MARKHAM&hellip;1st Hat Trick</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Red-Hot Nighthawks Extend Streak; Bears Score Rare Maritime Sweep

<h2>Where CHL Teams Play</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01330/4372782-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="557" height="511"></div> &#9632;

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CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>DALLAS&mdash;Major league callups had left the Black Hawks with only three defensemen, but coach John Muckier said they were &ldquo;fabulous.&rdquo;While waiting for the parent clubs to send replacements, the Hawks merely, rolled to five straight victories, four straight on the road. That pulled Dallas into a second-place tie with Kansas City, and the Hawks had three games in hand on the Red Wings, thanks to a rash of weather postponements. The Hawks also had three games in hand on the league-leading Salt Lake Golden Eagles, but they were 15 points in front.For the first full week in February, Muckier&rsquo;s men continued their mastery of the Oklahoma City Stars with a 9-5 home victory (seventh in a row over OC after a pair of early losses). Then they won a home-and-home set with Kansas City, 5-1 in Fair Park Coliseum and 3-1 in Kemper Arena. They capped the week by going into Tulsa and edging the Oilers, 4-3.&ldquo;The three defensemen are just fabulous&mdash;there&rsquo;s no other word for them,&rdquo; said Muckier, &ldquo;Our first two lines are just out of this world. Young Gerry Minor is playing extremely well for a rookie just up from the International League.&rdquo;The three blueliners, forced to play a double shift almost every time they took the ice, were 22-year-oId Jeff Bandura, a second-year pro who broke in as a rookie with Tulsa last season; 25-year-old Lars Zetterstrom from the Swedish National team, and 27-year-old Greg Hubick, a seventh-year pro who spent the last two years in Dallas as a Toronto farmhand. Zetterstrom and Bandura belong to the Vancouver Canucks; Hubick is on loan from the Maple Leafs.Mayer, Minor, Hazlett and Berry chipped in two goals apiece in the big win over Oklahoma City. The parade went Mayer-Minor-Mayer in the first period before the Stars got on the scoreboard. Minor and Hazlett scored in the first minute of the next stanza.Winger Brad Smith returned to the lineup after a slight shoulder separation. But Ernie Hicke underwent surgery for a ruptured disc.Ed Walsh was in the nets for the first two victories. In KC Curt Ridley made his first appearance in a month, coming back from a groin injury.Tudor&rsquo;s six points for the week gave him 55, and he remained the CHL&rsquo;s No. 2 scorer, four points back of leader Mike Eaves of Oklahoma City. Brad Gassoff, although in Vancouver for two weeks, still led the CHL in penalties with 164 minutes.FORT WORTH: Three times the Texans couldn&rsquo;t hold on to a lead. As a result, Billy MacMillan&rsquo;s men suffered three losses on the road and ran their unhappy string to four straight. They were 2-4 on the long road grind while Will Rogers Coliseum was occupied by another attraction, and had one more road test (in Oklahoma City) before getting back home, where they were unbeaten in their last four apppearances.A 4-1 lead in the first 30 minutes at Tulsa looked comfortable enough, but the Texans succumbed, 7-5. Two nights later, they got the first goal in Salt Lake City, but that was all they got, as the Eagles came back for a 7-1 rout. The next night, after falling behind by three goals, the Texans surged into a 5-3 lead, only to fall by another 7-5 margin.SALT LAKE: Jack Evans&rsquo; Golden Eagles ran their latest unbeaten streak to seven (six at home) before suffering a 3-2 afternoon setback in Kansas City. Two wins over Fort Worth in the Salt Palace (6-1 and 7-5) preceded the road loss. The Birds had a 15-point lead over the pack.Floyd Thomson and Rick Shinske led the club scorers, with 49 points each, and were tied for fourth on the CHL chart. Each was on an eight-game point-scoring streak. Doug Grant was still the league&rsquo;s stingiest goalie (a 2.36 average), challenged only by injured teammate Terry Richardson (2.49).KANSAS CITY: Two losses to Dallas (5-1 there, 3-1 in Kemper Arena) cost Larry Wilson&rsquo;s Red Wings some ground in the race, but they came home to stop the high-flying Salt Lake Eagles, 3-2. That meant a second-place tie with Dallas, 15 points out of first, but two ahead of Oklahoma City and three in front of Fort Worth.Left wing J.P. LeBlanc had 48 points to tie for sixth place in the league scoring, but was called up to Detroit, along with defenseman Terry Harper. The parent club sent down defenseman John Hilworth.TULSA: Home advantage in the late schedule was supposed to help Johnny Choyce&rsquo;s floundering Oilers. But they dropped two of three on home ice, plus one on the road, to fall 14 points out of the fourth and final playoff position.Bobby Simpson&rsquo;s hat trick highlighted a rallying 7-5 victory over Fort Worth, as the Tulsans came back from a three-goal deficit. But they fell at home to Oklahome City, 4-2, lost the rematch in OC, 3-2, and finally bowed at home to Dallas 4-3. Those last two narrow losses saw the Oilers score first in each game.OKLAHOMA CITY: Beating Tulsa twice (4-2 and 3-2) brought the Stars back into fourth place, after they had dropped to fifth with a 9-5 setback in Dallas. Coach Ted Hampson moved defenseman Jim McKenny up to left wing, and took himself out of the lineup.Rookie center Mike Eaves had gone 11 games without a goal, but he had two in the 3-2 home victory, one shorthanded. He also notched four assists for the week, for 59 points, to stay four ahead of Dallas&rsquo; Rob Tudor in the league scoring race.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02240/4372813-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="546" height="527"><figcaption class="caption-body">JEFF BANDURA&hellip;Double Shifted</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Defense Trio Buoys Hawks’ Climb

<h2>Where IHL Teams Play</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01172/4372844-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="578" height="818"></div> &#9632;

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INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>TOLEDO&mdash;It could only happen here. Primarily because only in Toledo does controversy surface almost as regularly as the morning sun. The latest happening in Toledo is unique even for Toledo, however.Main characters in the latest Toledo saga are Jeff Allan and Bob Sullivan, a couple of hockey players who started the current season with Ted Garvin&rsquo;s Goaldiggers and after a trip to the Pacific League would like to be Goaldiggers again. Garvin would like them to be also.But Garvin doesn&rsquo;t think he can afford the price, $15,000, a total of $7,500 each. That&rsquo;s the waiver price the IHL fixed for the pair following an emergency meeting called to settle the eligibility of the two.The background: When Allan was traded to Fort Wayne earlier in the season, he refused to report and signed with a PHL team instead. Sullivan did the same after he was directed towards Muskegon.Under an existing IHL rule, no player who leaves the IHL and signs with a team in another league may return to the IHL for the balance of the existing regular season or playoffs. Garvin contends the contracts the two signed were not valid.To avoid a possible law suit from the players involved, the IHL ruled at the emergency meeting that the two players would be eligible and permitted to play with any team which came up with the $7,500 waiver price. Nobody has lined up to sign the pair as yet. Garvin would like to, but says the Diggers aren&rsquo;t enjoying the type of year at the gate which would permit such an expenditure.Allan and Sullivan haven&rsquo;t given up hope yet, however. The two hope to raise the $15,000 to become eligible. They started the fund with $5,000 of their own money. How far the drive will go, time will tell. A sobering thought for the two: What if they are successful financially but then fail to make the team?The Diggers have been somewhat more successful on the ice lately, however. Even Garvin has been happy. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve got a good hockey club now. We&rsquo;ll be ready for the playoffs.&rdquo;The Diggers are solid in third place in the South Division with 47 points&mdash;12 more than fourth-place Milwaukee. For the week, the Diggers were 2-2 with home victories over Kalamazoo (3-2) and Fort Wayne (5-4) featuring the action. The win over Fort Wayne was the Diggers&rsquo; first in six games this season.Port Huron upset Toledo at home, 43, and Grand Rapids was a 6-3 winner in Grand Rapids.GRAND RAPIDS: The Owls have shown no signs of slowing down an almost unbelieveable pace. Four more victories during the week boosted Moe Bartoli&rsquo;s club nine points up on second-place Fort Wayne in the South Division race. The Owls&rsquo; overall record now is 33-9-6. They&rsquo;ve lost but once at home where they now have a 20-game undefeated string.Featuring the 4-0 week was a 5-1 win at Grand Rapids. Home victories were posted over Flint, 7-2; Toledo, 6-3; and Port Huron, 5-2.The Owls could face some difficult times in the future, however, as All Star goalie Gordie Laxton has been called up to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Laxton appeared in 40 Owls&rsquo; games.FORT WAYNE: Dave Ross, the high-scoring rookie who left the Komets the day after Christmas for &ldquo;personal reasons,&rdquo; has returned&mdash;and apparently hasn&rsquo;t lost his scoring touch.Ross, who scored 19 goals in the 31 games he played before defecting, scored a pair of goals in each of his first two games back with the team. His pair averted a shutout in Flint as the Komets lost, 6-2. He added two more as the Komets returned home to whip Milwaukee, 7-4.The Komets also defeated Port Huron at home, 3-1, while losing in Toledo, 5-4.MILWAUKEE: The Admirals had a light week&mdash;skating just once resulting in a 7-4 loss at Fort Wayne. The Admirals missed a great opportunity when they failed to convert during a five-minute penalty while the game was still to be decided.SAGINAW: Injuries have crippled the Gears and are the main reason the defending North Division champions have lost two of their last three starts and lead Port Huron by just five points. Kalamazoo is making a strong run now, also, and is just eight points away.On the 21-game injured list are defenseman Bob Gladney, broken ankle and left winger Stu Irving, with a fractured cheek bone.The Gears&rsquo; lone victory for the week was a 7-4 win at Muskegon. They dropped a pair of home games to Grand Rapids, 5-1, and Kalamazoo, 4-2.PORT HURON: The Flags were 1-2 for the week thanks to Steve Murphy, a pint-sized center who earlier in the season was traded to the Flags by Fort Wayne but decided to give up the game. He had second throughts, however, and called for a tryout. Coach Ron Ullyot obliged. And he got an early dividend.Murphy, who has all the tools except size, got the winning goal in a 4-3 win at Toledo. In the other two starts, the Flags dropped a 3-1 decision at Fort Wayne and a 5-2 verdict at Grand Rapids.KALAMAZOO: The K-Wings continued to close in on Saginaw by posting a key 4-2 victory on the road. The victory gives the K-Wings a 4-2 log against the defending North Division champions.Tom Milani became the first 30-goal scorer of the season for the K-Wings in the victory and Kevin Schamehorn ran his consecutive-game point streak to 16 with an assist. Schamehorn is one game shy of the club record of 17, held by Mike Wanchuk.The K-Wings weren&rsquo;t as successful at Toledo, however. The Diggers squeezed out a 3-2 victory which snapped a four-game unbeaten string for the Wings on the road.FLINT: The Generals snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 6-2 triumph over Fort Wayne in which the Generals skated with an even dozen players.The Generals were short of man power because neither Kevin Krook or Gerry Leroux, expected new arrivals, arrived as expected. Injuries also cut the roster potential. But it didn&rsquo;t show on the ice as Flint limited the Komets to just 19 shots on goal.Following the win over the Komets, the Generals got a 6-6 tie at Muskegon and then blanked the Mohawks at home, 7-0, to build a three-game unbeaten streak.MUSKEGON: Things haven&rsquo;t gotten much better on the ice for the Mohawks&mdash;a tie and two losses during the week, but Gerry Moore says the Mohawks may be down but not out.Upset by rumors the Mohawks may fold, Moore told THE HOCKEY NEWS: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re working hard at this thing. It&rsquo;s not easy. But Muskegon is a solid hockey town. The franchise has been here for 17 years and it&rsquo;s gonna stay here.&rdquo;Moore is trying to beef up his punchless club and recently completed a trade with Flint for high-scoring Jim Johnston. Johnston had his best season last year with the Generals, hitting 41 goals and picking up 77 assists for 118 points. During his five years in the IHL, Johnston has scored 468 points in 435 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02105/4372875-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="554" height="703"><figcaption class="caption-body">JEFF ALLAN&hellip;Raising Funds</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Waiver Price Set At $15,000 For Toledo Pair

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>CAPE COD&mdash;Teams in the North Eastern Hockey League were busy swinging deals as clubs sought to strengthen themselves for the final drive to the playoffs.The biggest deal was announced by owner Sandy Reiss and player-coach-general manager John Cunniff who announced the Freedoms had obtained high scoring Hank Nowak from the Utica Mohawks for three players.With the addition of Nowak to the Freedoms&rsquo; roster, the club now possesses the two most prolific scorers in the NEHL in Cunniff and Nowak. Cunniff has increased his totals to 34 goals and 51 assists for 85 points, while Nowak, who led the league in scoring almost since the beginning of the season, shows 27 goals and 43 assists for 70 points.The Freedoms moved into third place ahead of the Mohawks as they won three of five games played during the week including two of four on a long road trip. Cape Cod split a pair of contests in Johnstown, winning 9-6 and losing 6-3, fell to the Blades in Erie-8-4, topped the Aces in Hampton 4-1 and edged Utica 4-3 on home ice to&rsquo;help them gain third place. Cunniff has been at his best recently, scoring 10 goals and nine assists in seven games, Paul Barrett adding to the offensive explosion with four goals and 10 assists in the Codders recent road trip.Nowak, who received plenty of scoring chances in Utica with playmaker Terry West, is expected to get the same type of play from centerman John Danby, another recent addition to the Freedoms&rsquo; roster. Danby is an excellent passer and penalty killer who played previously for the old Cape Codders and the WHA&rsquo;s New England Whalers for a pair of seasons. The 30-year-old specialist left a coaching job at the University of Massachusetts at Boston to return to hockey after a one year absence.Cunniff will be teamming with Barrett and Chris Lamby, Danby centering Nowak and Kevin Coughlin. With Mark Bousquet helping to solidify the defense and defenseman Alan Globenski due back soon from the injured list, the Freedoms have what they sought for the entire season, good offense, defense and the experience to back it up.In exchange for the 28-year-old Nowak, the Freedoms dealt center-left wing Mike Hartman, center Glen &ldquo;Red&rdquo; Tomalty and defenseman Mike Sandford to the Mohawks. Tomalty and Hartman were the second and third best scorers respectively for the Freedoms, Tomalty netting 22 goals and 21 assists for 43 points, Hartman hitting 24 goals and 18 assists for 42 points.UTICA: Besides picking up three players in the trade, the Mohawks made more news when they sold Michael Belhemeur to the Hampton Aces. Coach Larry Mickey revealed that Belhemeur would not be on skates for two more weeks after sitting out six weeks with an injury. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t take any chances,&rdquo; said Mickey. &ldquo;I needed a back-up for my goaltender Paul Mitchell and wasn&rsquo;t sure if Belhemeur could do the job.&rdquo; Mickey then proceeded to gain the services of goalie Rick Szabo from Flint of the IHL<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01139/4372906-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="565" height="692"><figcaption class="caption-body">HANK NOWAK&hellip;Playoff Insurance</figcaption></div>Concerning the addition of Sandford, Tomalty and Hartman, Mickey said, &ldquo;We needed help on defense and Sandford will help us and Tomalty and Hartman will take up the slack for losing Nowak.&rdquo; Utica has eight more meetings with the Freedoms and Mickey remains hopeful that his Mohawks can still reach second place.The Mohawks had a bad week as they dropped all three games on the road. Losses came in Erie 6-2, Hampton 4-1 and Cape Cod 4-3.HAMPTON: The Aces followed the pattern of the other NEHL teams and strengthened their own with the acquisition of Belhemeur from the Mohawks and center Pat Donnelly.Though Belhemeur&rsquo;s playing ability is uncertain following his injury, the Aces are hoping he can bounce back and regain the form he used to become one of the circuit&rsquo;s top goalies in time for the playoffs.Donnelly will lend his center ice talents to help shore up Muzz McPherson&rsquo;s offense. He played his season with the San Francisco Shamrocks of the PHL before they folded.Hampton finished the week with a 2-1 record, besting the Blades in Erie 7-3 and Utica 4-1 before coming out on the short end of a 4-1 game with the Freedoms. The Aces are averaging 3,817 in their first five home games at the Hampton Coliseum.ERIE: The Blades long 14-game winning streak on home ice finally came to an end as Erie bowed to the Aces 7-3 before 4,356 people, the largest crowd in the history of Erie hockey. The loss was Erie&rsquo;s lone setback of the week as they toppled three other foes on home ground. Utica 6-2 and Cape Cod 8-4 and Johnstown 5-0.Goaltender Carey Walker continues to be the story for the Blades remaining the hottest shot-blocker in the league. Walker recorded the Blades&rsquo; first shutout as he blanked the Wings rejecting 26 shots. In the nine games since he took over the starting job, Walker has an 8-1 record and a superior 2.22 goals against average.Erie kept their 11 point lead over the second place Aces winning eight of their last nine games while recording a 25-8-1 record in their last 34 games, good for 51 of a possible 66 points.After learning that goaltender David Johns would be out three weeks or longer with a broken toe, coach and general manager Nick Polano went to work to find a back-up for Walker. Polano acquired Paul Joswiak, a University of Minnesota product, who was an eighth round draft choice of the New York Islanders this year. Joswiak underwent knee surgery forcing him to miss the Islanders training camp and is anxious to get some ice time. Mike Caron, the Blades trainer, had been the back-up to Walker, but had seen no action.JOHNSTOWN: The Wings split their important weekend series with the Freedoms as they closed the week with a record of 14-31-1. Dick Roberge&rsquo;s squad trimmed the Cape Codders 6-3, before losing 9-6. Another loss was inflicted by Erie, 5-0.With just over 20 games left in the regular season, the Wings are in danger of being counted out of the playoffs. Johnstown&rsquo;s last place standing finds them 11 points behind fourth place Utica, the Wings having played two more games than the Mohawks. &#9632;

f0041-01

NEHL Teams Jumping Into Trade Market

<div class="byline">BY MARTY KNACK</div>BRANTFORD&mdash;Brantford Alexanders are down, but not out.The Alexanders are in last place in the Emms Division of the Ontario Major Junior League but they&rsquo;re not about to start writing off this season. They&rsquo;re 10 points behind Toronto Marlboros and a playoff spot with 16 games remaining and still thinking positively.&ldquo;We think we have a pretty good shot at them,&rdquo; says Brantford general manager-coach Dave Draper. &ldquo;The kids are really working hard for it.&rdquo;The Alexanders were in Hamilton last season as the Fincups and faced a major rebuilding job with the loss of outstanding players like defenseman Willie Huber and left wingers Tim Coulis and Al Secord, who stepped right into the National Hockey League. The team also lost Steve Hazlett to the Central League and was hit by an unexpected loss where defenseman Gaston Gingras signed as an under-age player with Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association.So, before he even moved his office along with the franchise. Draper was faced with a difficult task.The ever-co-operative Draper has done an excellent job blending a number of good rookies with the top returning players he had and has traded for other players he felt he required. As a result, Brantford has been better than league analysts expected at the beginning of the season, especially in view of the fact veteran goalie Rick Wamsley missed the first two months of the schedule because of an injury.Rookie Mike Bullard, division All Star Paul Marshall, Wamsley rookie goalie Rick Pikul have been the Alexanders&rsquo; key figures. Brantford native Brian Cross has also helped since being acquired in a trade with Sudbury Wolves early in the season, rookie Kevin LaVallee has been another plus and returnee Greg Terrion has come into his own in recent weeks.&ldquo;If there&rsquo;s a better all-around rookie in the league, I haven&rsquo;t seen him,&rdquo; says the always-affable Draper, talking about Bullard, his first choice in the priority selection draft last June.Bullard scored his 27th and 28th goals as the team extended a winning streak to three games with a 6-3 decision over Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, but Brantford then lost a crucial game to the Marlies at Maple Leaf Gardens despite Bullard&rsquo;s 29th and 30th goals.NIAGARA FALLS: The Flyers lost four of five games, including two in a row at home, and their Emms&rsquo; lead over London Knights was down to four points. Center Stan Adams had a goal and two assists in a 4-3 loss to the Marlies, then shot his 31st and 32nd goals in a 6-2 decision over Kingston Canadians, when Greg Foy also scored twice. Niagara then blew a 3-1 lead and lost 5-4 to Ottawa 67s.LONDON: Goalie Barry Heard made 39 stops in a 3-1 win over Peterborough Petes as the Knights completed a sweep of their four-game season series with the Leyden Division leaders. Frank Nigro then had his 24th and 25th goals of the season in a 9-4 decision over the Wolves as London passed Niagara for the best record in the league at home, at 30-5-1. Center Wayne Thompson shot his 29th and 30th goals and added an assist and defensemen Wayne Bishop and Bob Goodish had a goal and two assists each in a 7-6 loss to the Rangers.KITCHENER: Rangers lost to Windsor 6-1 but then rebounded to improve its record in 1979 to 9-3-2 with a 6-5 overtime win over the Greyhounds and the victory over London. Rookie Russ Adam shot the overtime goal as Rangers remained unbeaten in sudden-death at 5-0-3 and Joe Scherer had a goal and three assists to spark the team against the Knights. Jody Gage had his 31st goal and two assists against London and Jim McGeachie chipped in with three assists.WINDSOR: Windsor put together a three-game winning streak and won six of seven to remain in a tie for third with Kitchener in the Emms Division. Brent Jarrett shot two third-period goals and he and linemates Brent Armstrong and Blair Barnes combined for nine points in the win over Kitchener. Armstrong, Jarrett and George Kotsopoulos then struck for goals in a span of one minute and 43 seconds in a 4-2 win over Peterborough as goalie Roland Melanson came through with his second outstanding performance in three nights. Ernie Godden, Jarrett and Kotsopoulos&mdash;the latter in only 22 games&mdash;all hit the 20-goal level in the comeback against the Petes.TORONTO: As the Glen Duncan-Gary Dillon-Brian Paton line goes, so go the Marlies. They combined for nine points in the win over Niagara, with Duncan leading the way with two goals and two assists, then had 10 points in the win over Brantford, with Duncan again the star with his 39th goal and three assists. In between, the productive line failed to score and Toronto lost 7-5 to Sudbury.PETERBOROUGH: After the loss to London, Petes&rsquo; goalie Rick Laferriere started for the 15th time this season and improved his record to 13-2 with an 8-0 shutout over Kingston Canadians. Tim Trimper scored his 47th goal in that game as the Petes ran their league leading road record to 16-8-2.OSHAWA: The Generals celebrated league-leading scorer Tom McCarthy&rsquo;s return from an injury with an 8-4 win over the 67s in Oshawa, then lost 11-3 to the same team the next night in Ottawa. Oshawa then recorded its first shutout of the season, beating the Soo 7-0. McCarthy ran his goal total to 52 with four, plus an assist, in the win against the 67s.SUDBURY: The Wolves started a road trip with the shootout against Brantford, lost in London and beat the Marlies to fall back into a tie for second in the Leyden with Oshawa. Bob Lekun, Mike Allison and Mike Foligno scored two goals each against the Alexanders, Shane Swan had two in the London game and Dave MacQueen had his 44th and 45th of the season, as well as two assists, in the win in Toronto.KINGSTON: In spite of the losses to Peterborough and Niagara, the Canadians held on to the fifth and final Leyden playoff spot by a point. Defenseman Ken Knight, a minor midget draft pick from Detroit, and defenseman Paul Pooley had the goals against the Flyers.SAULT STE. MARIE: The Soo&rsquo;s recent skid has hurt, with five consecutive losses and 12 in 13 games. Rookie John Goodwin scored his 29th and 30th goals of the season in the loss in Kitchener and Brian Gualazzi became the first 60-goal shooter in the league this season with two in the defeat at Brantford, but that was about all the &lsquo;Hounds could boast about.OTTAWA: The 67s remain a solid fourth in the Leyden after rebounding with two wins following their defeat in Oshawa. Sean Simpson scored two goals in Oshawa, then had two more and a pair of assists in the decision over the Generals at home. Defenseman Larry Elson and Mario Cerri also had two goals each in the rout over Oshawa and Jim Fox shot the winning goal with 58 seconds left in the comeback against Niagara.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01137/4372937-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="567" height="626"><figcaption class="caption-body">SEAN SIMPSON&hellip;Red-Hot 67</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

Alexanders Maintain Keen Spirit; Knights Rising In Emms Division

<div class="byline">BY NORM COWLEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;It may start to sound like a broken record&mdash;mainly because many will be.While the rest of the world celebrates the Year of the Child, the Western Hockey League will be commemorating the Year of the Records.With almost two months left to play, several WHL standards are in danger of falling to the wayside. And, leading the assault, is none other than Brian Propp and his Brandon Wheat King teammates.The Wheaties have already accumulated a grand total of 38 wins and need only 17 in their final 26 games to smash the previous mark of 54 set in 1975-76 by New Westminster Bruins and equalled by the Kings two seasons ago when they set the points record of 116.The points total, as well as Brandon&rsquo;s record of 10 losses in one season, are also in danger if the Wheat Kings&mdash;with only two losses&mdash;can maintain their current pace.Brandon, which has already set records for the longest unbeaten streak in one season (29 games) and for overlapping seasons (49) this year, could also possibly score 500 goals which would eclipse New West&rsquo;s record of 463.Other team marks listed as endangered species are most ties, most penalty minutes and most goals against. Saskatoon Blades, with 12 ties, are within three of the league record of 15: Lethbridge Broncos, with 2,134 minutes, are rapidly closing in on Brandon&rsquo;s record total of 3,099 set last year; and Regina Pats are only 122 goals back of their own goal-against record of 464.Individually, 19-year-old Propp&mdash;with 66 goals and 69 assists in 45 games&mdash;could become the first WHL player to ever score 100 goals and 200 points in one season. In doing so, Propp would break former Wheat King Bill Derlago&rsquo;s goal standard of 96 and Bernie Federko&rsquo;s record points total of 187.The assist mark of 117 set by Bobby Clarke in 1967-68 appears to be safe, with Propp&rsquo;s linemate Ray Allison having missed 10 games because of an injury.But the same can&rsquo;t be said about Kevin McCarthy&rsquo;s career assist total of 276. Both Propp (261) and Allison (260) should have surpassed the mark by the time this issue hits the street.Propp may also have eclipsed Ron Chipperfield&rsquo;s career point total of 470 by then, too. The Brandon winger has picked up 452 points in less than three seasons while the Chipper, another former Wheat King, played four full years.With eight hat tricks already, Propp is five short of Derlago&rsquo;s record of 13. He is also two goals away from a record for game-winners (12).Meanwhile, Duane Sutter of Lethbridge has an outside chance to establish a rookie record for assists and points. Sutter&rsquo;s 51 assists are 29 behind Propp&rsquo;s 80, while his 88 points are 53 back of Don Murdoch&rsquo;s 141.Edmonton Oil Kings&rsquo; Derek Davis is also within reach of a record&mdash;for most penalty minutes. Davis leads the league with 318 and needs only 193 more in his last 23 games to better Brent Gogal&rsquo;s season high of 511.CALGARY: The revived Wranglers, who&rsquo;ve won eight of their last 10 games, were one of the hottest clubs in the league last week, winning all three games from Central Division opponents to stretch their undefeated streak at home to six games. Rick Greenwood scored a controversial goal at the end of the second period, then the Wranglers&mdash;led by Sid Giroux&rsquo;s three-goal performance&mdash;rallied for five more in the third for a 7-6 win over Medicine Hat.MEDICINE HAT: Captain Rod Van Slyke scored five goals, including his 30th of the season in a 5-5 tie with Billings, but the Tigers only played .500 hockey. Medicine Hat blew a four-goal lead, and rookie Darren Halasz lost a nine-game point-scoring streak, in the 7.LETHBRIDGE: It was a disappointing week for the Broncos, who lost a pair of games and coach Patty Ginnell for a pair. Duane Sutter scored his 50th assist before the largest home crowd of the season, 3,846, but the Broncos bowed 6-5 to New Westminster. Then, despite Sutter extending his point-scoring streak to 10 games, Randy Ruff scoring his 20th and 21st goals and Gord Williams earning his 40th assist, Lethbridge lost 8-4 at Calgary. Ginnell was given a misconduct in the final period, and later suspended for two games, for throwing his hat on the ice and then charging onto the ice to argue with referee Joe Wensink.BILLINGS: The Bighorns extended their Central Division-lead over Lethbridge to 15 points with a 5-5 tie at Medicine Hat. Mike Kouwenhoven scored two goals and Cal Roadhouse notched his 70th point in the game, which Billings led 4-0 at one time.PORTLAND: Sporting the second-best record in league play, the Winter Hawks rattled off three wins and a tie to extend their unbeaten string to 12 games. Portland, which has lost only twice in its last 27 outings, tied Victoria 4-4 on Tim Tookey&rsquo;s first goal in almost two months, then edged New West 5-4 when Al Szott tallied three times and Perry Turnbull scored with 75 seconds left.NEW WESTMINSTER: The Bruins returned from the road after edging Lethbridge 6-5 on John Ogrodnick&rsquo;s two goals, but promptly lost 5-4 and 6-4 to Portland in a home-and-home series. A total of 9,739 fans gathered at the Pacific Coliseum for the first game and saw the Bruins blow a 3-0 lead.VICTORIA: Riddled with injuries, the Cougars still managed to pick up a couple of points. Mark Robinson scored two goals in a 3-3 tie with Seattle, then both Gary Lupul and Randy Irving scored in the last five minutes for a 4-4 draw versus Portland.SEATTLE: Anthony Thomas and Errol Rausse were the scoring heroes for Seattle. Thomas netted two goals, including one with 43 seconds remaining, for a 3-3 tie with Victoria; and Rausse fired three markers, including his 42nd of the year, in an 8-1 rout of New West.BRANDON: The runaway leader in the Eastern Division, Brandon extended its current unbeaten streak to eight games. Propp scored a goal and four assists while linemates Laurie Boschman and Steve Patrick&mdash;subbing for the injured Ray Allison&mdash;each tallied twice as the Wheat Kings thrashed Edmonton 92.SASKATOON: Jackie McLeod&rsquo;s troops couldn&rsquo;t strengthen their grip on second place, but it didn&rsquo;t matter since third-place Edmonton is also on a losing streak. The Blades, who are winless in seven games, had defensive problems when they lost their 20th game of the season 12-5 at Regina and were dumped 10-5 by Medicine Hat in their own back yard.EDMONTON: The Oil Kings, whose 10-game winless streak is enough bad news for coach Norm Ferguson, received some more when leading scorer Ray Neufeld stretched ligaments in his ankle during practice. Neufeld, who had a nine-game point-scoring streak broken in a 9-2 loss to Brandon, will be lost to the club for three weeks.REGINA: The addition of over-age Dean Solheim and the return to health of George Trainor appear to have turned around the Pats. The Solheim-Trainor-Dirk Graham line accumulated 18 points in a 12-5 win over Saskatoon to end an 11-game Regina winless streak.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01129/4372968-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="561" height="685"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN PROPP&hellip;100 Goal Season?</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0044-01

Brandon’s Propp Leading Assault By Juniors On WHL’s Record Book

<div class="byline">BY DANNY YOUNG</div>QUEBEC&mdash;In the overall standings, the Quebec Remparts are 15 points ahead of sixth place Chicoutimi, but 31 points behind first place Trois-Rivieres. In a year of imbalance in the Quebec Major Junior league, &ldquo;les Remparts&rdquo; find themselves stuck in the middle.The Remparts have been sitting in third place in the Dilio division and fifth place in the overall standings for virtually the entire season. They have a good club that can win on any given day, but the word that best characterizes the Remparts is unpredictable.&ldquo;All year it&rsquo;s been up and down,&rdquo; said rookie coach Rene Drolet. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve only lost to Verdun (first place Lebel division) once, but we&rsquo;ve lost five or six to Cornwall (third place Lebel division).&rdquo;Despite the inconsistency, Quebec&rsquo;s record of 25-20-11 puts them five points behind Montreal. Though overtaking Montreal would certainly seem possible, the Remparts have been unable to bridge the gap all season.&ldquo;If we played better at home, we could catch them,&rdquo; says Drolet. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve won more games on the road than at home.&rdquo;Quebec&rsquo;s defense is led by All Stars Vincent Tremblay in the nets and Kevin Lowe on the blueline. When Lowe takes a rest, 18-year-old Gaston Therrien takes over as defensive leader. Therrien is a tremendously talented blueliner, but he still has a lot to learn.&ldquo;You have to like that guy,&rdquo; says Drolet of Therrien. &ldquo;He makes mistakes, but he works so hard.&rdquo;Up front, the Remparts boast youth and balance. No single forward has emerged as the big scoring leader that Michel Goulet (Birmingham Bulls) was last year, but if you want a name to watch out for, jot down rookie Normand Lefrancois.&ldquo;Normand is the most complete 16-year-old that I have ever seen,&rdquo; touts Drolet. &ldquo;He has the potential to be a star. Not really as a scorer but as a two way player, kind of the Don Marcotte type. Still, I think he&rsquo;ll score 35 or 40 goals next year.&rdquo;Lefrancois did some tenacious penalty killing in Quebec&rsquo;s 5-5 tie with Montreal. The Remparts also topped Verdun 5-4 and Hull 10-7 on three goals by captain Lowe.TROIS-RIVIERES: The powerhouse Draveurs outscored their opponents 348 in three games, boosting their season totals to 411 goals for and 176 goals against. Against Cornwall, Pierre Aubry and Robert Mongrain each tallied twice as the Draveurs and All Star goalie Jacques Cloutier recorded a 7-0 shutout. Hosting Shawinigan, league-leading scorer Jean Francois Sauve (53-87-140) had a hat trick and defenseman Normand Rochefort six points for a 12-4 win. Finally, the Draveurs bombarded Laval with 54 shots to crush them 15-4. Mongrain&rsquo;s four goals in that game gave him 53 on the season. Anbry and Michel Leblanc added two each.SHAWINIGAN: The Cataractes crept up on eighth place Laval in the overall standings by downing the Nationals 8-4. That match was Cote night in Shawinigan as brothers Sylvain and Michel scored two goals each. Though losing to Sherbrooke 6-4 and Trois-Rivieres 12-4, the Cats bounced back to startle Verdun 10-2, Marc Audisio had a hat trick and Mike Kennedy and Alain Labelle supplied doubles.CHICOUTIMI: Captain Guy Carbonneau was selected as the league&rsquo;s offensive player of the month of January. In 14 games, Guy accumulated 37 points. February is not going so badly for the Chicoutimi center either. &ldquo;Carbo&rdquo; scored three times in the Sags&rsquo; 7-5 win over Hull, while rookie sensation Gilbert Delorme added two. The Sags offense then cooled off in a 5-0 loss to Sherbrooke.HULL: A bench-clearing brawl broke out midway through the first period in the Olympic game in Montreal. When it was all over, the penalty count was five minors, 22 majors, and 12 game misconducts. Hull lost the game 10-0. Alain Vigneault scored twice against Chicoutimi, but the Olympics fell 7-5. Hull also dropped a 6-4 decision to Laval and a 10-7 loss to Quebec.SHERBROOKE: With Verdun slumping, the Beavers two wins put them into second place in the overall standings. In action against Chicoutimi, Mario Chartrand picked up three assists and rookie goalie Corrado Micalef blanked the Sage 5-0. In their next encounter with Shawinigan, Serge Boisvert fired three goals and Alan Haworth supplied four points for a 6-4 win. The beavers only setback was to Cornwall 5-1.LAVAL: The Nationals scored 21 goals in four games which isn&rsquo;t that bad. The only problem was that they gave up 37. In Shawinigan, Alain Grenier&rsquo;s two goals was a small consolation in an important 8-4 loss. In Verdun, the Nationals took a 3-0 lead, but lost 10-7. Before losing to Trois-Rivieres 15-4, Laval did defeat Hull 6-4.CORNWALL: The Royals&rsquo; 5-1 upset was one of their most satisfying wins of the season. Brian Fontaine scored twice in this effort which saw Cornwall outshoot the Beavers 32-23. Bob Crawford&rsquo;s goal and two assists gave him a total of 97 points, ninth best in the league. Since this win was preceded by a 7-0 loss to Trois-Rivieres, it was particularly gratifying to coach Doug Carpenter and his forces.MONTREAL: Jean Pierre Dubois scored two third period goals and Denis Cyr put one in at 17:52 as the Juniors came back from a late 5-3 deficit to tie Quebec at five. In a penalty filled affair with Hull, Denis Tremblay scored three, and Dubois and Cyr added two each for a 10-0 win.VERDUN: The Hawks have played without leader Raymond Bourque since Jan. 22, and their 2-5 record during this period demonstrates the result. Bourque should be returning shortly. Verdun lost to Quebec 5-4 and Shawinigan 10-2, but defeated Laval 10-7 on Steve Kasper&rsquo;s three goals and three assists.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01110/4372999-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="561" height="715"><figcaption class="caption-body">GASTON THERRIEN&hellip;Hard Worker</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0046-01

Quebec: Talented Yet Unpredictable

<h2>AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 12)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01122/4373170-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="597" height="135"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0283/4373163-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="593" height="165"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Feb. 6Nova Scotia 3 At New Brunswick 3Wed. Feb. 7Philadelphia at Hershey (ppd. weather)Springfield 3 at Maine 2New Haven 4 at Rochester 2Fri. Feb. 9New Haven 3 at Binghamton 7Nova Scotia 2 at Philadelphia 2Hershey 3 at Rochester 3Sat. Feb. 10New Haven 4 at Hershey 3Binghamton 1 at Maine 6Nova Scotia 4 at Philadelphia 3Rochester 3 at Springfield 3Sun. Feb. 11Maine 2 at New Brunswick 3Nova Scotia 3 at Springfield 2Philadelphia 4 at Hershey 3<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0358/4373156-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="602" height="586"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 14)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0448/4373149-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="592" height="197"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Feb. 6Fort Worth 2 at Okla. City 3Wed. Feb. 7Salt Lake 5 at Dallas 4Fri. Feb. 9Salt Lake 3 at Fort Worth 0Dallas 5 at Kansas City 6Okla. City 4 at Tulsa 3Sat. Feb. 10Dallas 0 at Fort Worth 9Okla. City 4 at Kansas City 9Salt Lake 3 at Tulsa 5Sun. Feb. 11Tulsa 5 at Dallas 10<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0532/4373142-1-eng-US/f0047-052.jpg" title="f0047-05" width="596" height="304"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 12)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0623/4373135-1-eng-US/f0047-062.jpg" title="f0047-06" width="587" height="166"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0719/4373128-1-eng-US/f0047-072.jpg" title="f0047-07" width="588" height="148"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Fri. Feb. 9Saginaw 2 at Port Huron 10Milwaukee 2 at Flint 6Grand Rapids 6 at Kalamazoo 3Sat. Feb. 10Kalamazoo 2 at Port Huron 8Fort Wayne 4 at Saginaw 5Muskegon 2 at Grand Rapids 4Sun. Feb. 11Fort Wayne 3 at Flint 6Port Huron 3 at Kalamazoo 6Milwaukee 0 at Grand Rapids 5Muskegon 6 at Saginaw 3Tue. Feb. 6South All Stars 5, North All Stars 1Thu. Feb. 8Toledo 5 at Milwaukee 5<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0810/4373121-1-eng-US/f0047-082.jpg" title="f0047-08" width="594" height="361"></div><h2>NORTH EASTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 13)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-098/4373114-1-eng-US/f0047-092.jpg" title="f0047-09" width="589" height="165"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Feb. 6Cape Cod 4 at Utica 6Wed. Feb. 7Cape Cod 4 at Hampton 5Erie 2 at Johnstown 2Fri. Feb. 9Erie 5 at Cape Cod 3Johnstown 6 at Utica 3Sat. Feb. 10Hampton 4 at Johnstown 5Erie 6 at Utica 4Sun. Feb. 11Utica 2 at Johnstown 7<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-105/4373107-1-eng-US/f0047-102.jpg" title="f0047-10" width="597" height="221"></div><h2>PACIFIC HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-114/4373100-1-eng-US/f0047-112.jpg" title="f0047-11" width="593" height="140"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 30Spokane 4, Tucson 3Phoenix 5, Cincinnati (WHA) 3Thu. Feb. 1San Diego 7. Spokane 3Tucson 7, Phoenix 5Sat. Feb. 3Spokane 12, Tucson 2Cincinnati (WHA) 4, Phoenix 1San Diego 9, Kimberley (WIHL) 3Sun. Feb. 4San Diego 1, Phoenix 1Spokane 11, Tucson 5<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-124/4373093-1-eng-US/f0047-122.jpg" title="f0047-12" width="594" height="300"></div><h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 13)<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-134/4373086-1-eng-US/f0047-132.jpg" title="f0047-13" width="585" height="190"></div><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-144/4373079-1-eng-US/f0047-142.jpg" title="f0047-14" width="590" height="194"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Feb. 6Ottawa 6 at Kitchener 3London 4 at Brantford 3Oshawa 6 at Kingston 5Sat. Feb. 10Niagara Falls 6 at Kitchener 3Sun. Feb. 11Peterborough 5 at Sudbury 4Kingston 4 at Sault Ste. Marie 6Niagara Falls 2 at Oshawa 7Kitchener 10 at Toronto 0London 5 at Ottawa 4Brantford 2 at Windsor 4<h2>WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 6)<h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-154/4373072-1-eng-US/f0047-152.jpg" title="f0047-15" width="589" height="135"></div><h3>CENTRAL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-164/4373065-1-eng-US/f0047-162.jpg" title="f0047-16" width="588" height="137"></div><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-174/4373058-1-eng-US/f0047-172.jpg" title="f0047-17" width="584" height="142"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 29New Westminster 4 Portland 6Tue. Jan. 30Billings 5 Medicine Hat 5New Westminster 1 Seattle 8Regina 5 Edmonton 5Wed. Jan. 31Saskatoon 1 Brandon 5Seattle 2 Portland 5Victoria 2 New Westminster 3Billings 3 Calgary 11Thu. Feb. 1Saskatoon 3 Medicine Hat 3Fri. Feb. 2Portland 5 Seattle 5Billings 3 New Westminster 4Regina 2 Lethbridge 3Saskatoon 3 Calgary 6Edmonton 2 Brandon 8Sat. Feb. 3Billings 4 Victoria 4Regina 7 Medicine Hat 4Sun. Feb. 4Billings 4 Portland 9Seattle 0 New Westminster 2Saskatoon 7 Lethbridge 6Edmonton 2 Brandon 11Medicine Hat 4 Calgary 13<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-184/4373051-1-eng-US/f0047-182.jpg" title="f0047-18" width="590" height="275"></div><h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 12)<h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-194/4373044-1-eng-US/f0047-192.jpg" title="f0047-19" width="590" height="166"></div><h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-204/4373037-1-eng-US/f0047-202.jpg" title="f0047-20" width="592" height="164"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Fri. Feb. 9Hull 6, Chicoutimi 6Montreal 5, Laval 0Shawinigan 7, Quebec 1Sherbrooke 7, Cornwall 1Trois-Rivieres 12, Verdun 7Sun. Feb. 11Trois-Rivieres 4, Chicoutimi 3Cornwall 5, Laval 2Sherbrooke 10, Hull 1Verdun 6, Quebec 2<h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-214/4373030-1-eng-US/f0047-212.jpg" title="f0047-21" width="602" height="276"></div><h2>Who They&rsquo;re Affiliated With&hellip;</h2><h3>NHL TEAMS</h3>1&mdash;Montreal2&mdash;Chicago3&mdash;Boston4&mdash;Rangers5&mdash;Detroit6&mdash;Toronto7&mdash;Philadelphia8&mdash;Los Angeles9&mdash;St. Louis10&mdash;Minnesota11&mdash;Pittsburgh12&mdash;Islanders13&mdash;Vancouver14&mdash;Buffalo15&mdash;Atlanta16&mdash;Washington17&mdash;Colorado<h3>WHA TEAMS</h3>18&mdash;New England19&mdash;Quebec20&mdash;Winnipeg21&mdash;Indianaoolis22&mdash;Edmonton23&mdash;Cincinnati24&mdash;Birmingham<h3>OTHER AFFILIATIONS</h3>25&mdash;Quebec (WHA), Cincinnati (WHA, Birmingham (WHA) & Pittsburgh (NHL)26&mdash;Buffalo (NHL) & Washington (NHL)27&mdash;Toronto (NHL) & Chicago (NHL)28&mdash;Montreal (NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)29&mdash;New England (WHA), Edmonton (WHA), Winnipeg (WHA) & Los Angeles (NHL)31&mdash;Atlanta (NHL), Rangers (NHL) & Minnesota (NHL)32&mdash;Vancouver(NHL), Los Angeles (NHL) & Edmonton (WHA).34&mdash;St. Louis (NHL) & Washington (NHL)35&mdash;Los Angeles (NHL) & Toronto (NHL)36&mdash;Minnesota (NHL) & Chicago (NHL)37&mdash;Colorado (NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)38&mdash;Vancouver (NHL) & Islanders (NHL)39&mdash;Pittsburgh (NHL) & Boston (NHL)40&mdash;Philadelphia (NHL) & Buffalo (NHL)41&mdash;Minnesota (NHL) & St. Louis (NHL)42&mdash;Independent operation43&mdash;Philadelphia (NHL) & St. Louis (NHL) &#9632;

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February 23, 1979

Tigers Claw Path From Basement: BC Springs Early Beanpot Upset

Barrett’s Return Postponed Again By All Star Week

NHL Stars Are Still Great A ttraction To Kids

1979 SUMMER HOCKEY SCHOOLS DIRECTORY