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.

May 4, 1979

The Hockey News May 4, 1979

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IN THIS ISSUE

Final NHL Leaders

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada</p><p>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;</p><p>After two years in the American Hockey League, the Philadelphia Firebirds are pulling up stakes and moving the franchise to Syracuse, N.Y. GM-coach Bep Guidolin revealed that the club would move, however, he is not sure if he will be with them next season. For Syracuse, it will mean a return of AHL action to that city after a four-year absence. During the 1974-75 campaign, the Syracuse Eagles posted a 2143-11 record and were led by Dick Sarrazin who scored 33 goals.</p><p>Syracuse will become a natural rival for the Adirondack Red Wings and the Binghamton Dusters to give the AHL three teams in New York next year. It would have been four except that the Boston Bruins have announced that they&rsquo;ll be moving their AHL franchise out of Rochester. No site has yet been determined, although Providence, R.l. is the most likely.</p><p>According to league president Jack Butterfield, the Adirondack franchise has already sold 3,500 season tickets for the upcoming season.</p><p>As the 1978-79 regular season ended, and brought down the curtain on AHL hockey in Philadelphia, the Firebirds passed into oblivion after a season fraught with disappointment, injuries, recalls and front office changes. The team faced an uphill struggle ever since training camp when popular coach Dan Belisle left to join the NHL Washington Capitals. Injuries to key defensemen Barry Wilkins and Mike Haworth caused the Firebirds to use a young defense which had to learn while making mistakes. Guidolin began an unending search for a winning combination which didn&rsquo;t meet with any measure of success until the last few weeks of the season.</p><p>Little was at stake during the last few games, but the Firebirds never gave up. Goaltender Rick St. Croix battled to maintain his fine GAA mark and finished the season with an excellent 2.84 average. Even though the club did lose 4-1 to Hershey, 8-2 to Maine and 8-5 in the season finale to New Brunswick, Guidolin did the best possible job anyone could do considering the fact that he had an inexperienced team that often took the ice a few players under the roster limit. The parent organization gave him little or no support, which might be understandable since they had the worst record in the NHL. It seemed as if the Firebirds were doomed from the start of the season.</p><p><b>HERSHEY:</b> When the New Haven Nighthawks pulled their goaltender during sudden death overtime, Rick Dunn fired home the game winner with 1:08 left in the extra session to give Hershey a 2-1 victory in the club&rsquo;s last regular season appearance at the Sports Arena. New Haven&rsquo;s strange move was necessary because the Southern Division champions had to win in order to edge out Maine for the best record in the AHL&mdash;and home ice advantage in the Calder Cup finals. Unfortunately, the strategy backfired and gave Hershey an unexpected present.</p><p>Center Claude Noel won the coveted Bruce Draper Memorial Trophy, presented by the players to the Bear who won the team scoring championship. Noel scored 80 points on 30 goals and 50 assists. The award is named in honor of former Hershey Bear center Bruce Draper, who died in 1968.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01285/3866806-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="578" height="780"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>CLAUDE NOEL&hellip;Took Bear Trophy</b></figcaption></div><p>Hershey met the Binghamton Dusters in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs. During the regular season, the Bears had a hex on the Dusters, losing only one of 11 contests to their AHL rivals. The series began in Hershey where the Bears skated to a 4-3 win. The next night up in Binghamton, Duster fans whooped it up as their club hung a 3-0 defeat on the Bears. Game three was played at the Hersheypark Sports Arena, and Binghamton skated to a 6-2 win. Three nights later, the Bears ended their season, losing 5-2 in Binghamton.</p><p><b>BINGHAMTON:</b> Despite losing 25-goal scorer Jim Hamilton, who was called up by the parent Penguins for the playoffs, the Dusters came up with a 6-2 victory at Hershey to gain a 2-1 advantage in their series. The Dusters then advanced to the division finals by downing Hershey 5-2 before the usual excited crowd at the Broome County Arena. For their work, the Dusters earned a shot at New Haven but came out on the short end of a 4-2 score in their opener.</p><p><b>NOVA SCOTIA:</b> Even though the Voyageurs posted a narrow edge (8-7-1) against arch-rival New Brunswick during the regular season, the Vees found themselves facing elimination after falling behind two games to one. A sevengoal outburst in Game Four propelled the Vees to a 7-1 triumph and a tie in the series and three second-period goals by Norm Dupont, Dave Lumley and Jean Lemieux catapulted the Vees from a 1-0 deficit en route to a 4-2 win in the deciding game in Moncton.</p><p>The Voyageurs were the hottest AHL club down the stretch, closing the regular schedule with five straight victories and now advance to meet Maine for the northern Division title.</p><p><b>NEW BRUNSWICK:</b> The first-year Hawks were doing fine in their series with Nova Scotia as long as the games remained one-goal affairs. The Hawks took 5-4 and 4-3 victories at home in the first and third games, while dropping a 5-4 outing in the Halifax Metro Center.</p><p>That 7-1 landslide loss in Game Four, though, seemed to take the starch out of the Hawks and in the fifth match, New Brunswick was held to a pair of goals by Jean Savard. In fact, the Hawks had just two shots in the second period when the Vees took control of the game.</p><p><b>MAINE:</b> After winning their second straight Northern Division title, the Mariners had some time off before they entered the Calder Cup series. Their regular season ended in Portland where the Mariners skated to an easy 8-2 win over the Firebirds.</p><p>Maine finished the regular AHL season leading the league in most points, goals scored, fewest goals allowed and penalty minutes assessed. In addition, Bernie Johnston led the AHL in scoring and Wayne Schaab was a close second. Schaab tied Rocky Saganiuk of New Brunswick for the league lead in game-winning goals scored, seven.</p><p><b>NEW HAVEN:</b> The Nighthawks ended the season by losing 2-1 in Hershey and coming back to beat the same Bears 5-1 in New Haven. After GM-coach Parker MacDonald was suspended for his part in an altercation with an official in Hershey, veteran defenseman Ray Clearwater was behind the bench in the win over the Bears. New Haven got solo tallies from Ray Markham, Greg Hickey, Dan Clark, Mike McDougal and Claude Larose to sink the visitors. Goaltender Steve Baker, who has emerged as a real surprise this season, got the win to run his season&rsquo;s record to 14-5-4, one of the best marks in the AHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02225/3866799-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="582" height="786"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JEAN LEMIEUX&hellip;Scored Game-Winner</b></figcaption></div><p><b>SPRINGFIELD:</b> The hockey season may have ended for the Springfield Indians. However, a few of their players went on to post-season play. Defenseman Pierre Roy went to the New England Whalers as a free agent. Goalie Lome Molleken, winger Hartland Monahan and center Dan Bonar were added to the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; roster, although the Kings were eliminated in two games by the New York Rangers.</p><p>Even though the Indians failed to make the AHL playoffs, coach Pete Stemkowski turned in a decent performance. Under Stemmer, the Indians finished with a winning record and may have edged out Nova Scotia if he was with the team when the season started. Unfortunately, the Tribe went into a tailspin late in the season, winning only two of their last seven and blowing a chance to make the playoffs.</p><p>Awards given out at the last home game went to Andre Peloffy for being the Most Popular Player; Lome Molleken, the Unsung Hero; Ray McKay for his sportsmanship and Dan Bonar for the Most Valuable Player.</p><p><b>ROCHESTER:</b> The Amerks failed to make the playoffs, finishing some five points in back of the third place Dusters. The club was winless in their last six contests, posting a 0-4-2 record to close out the season. Bill Bennett, with 71 points and Barry Smith with 66 were the Amerk scoring leaders, but the lack of defense or goaltending sunk Rochester.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Syracuse Rejoins AHL With Firebird Franchise

<h2>NHL TEAMS</h2><p><b>1&mdash;Montreal</b></p><p><b>2&mdash;Chicago</b></p><p><b>3&mdash;Boston</b></p><p><b>4&mdash;Rangers</b></p><p><b>5&mdash;Detroit</b></p><p><b>6&mdash;Toronto</b></p><p><b>7&mdash;Philadelphia</b></p><p><b>8&mdash;Los Angeles</b></p><p><b>9&mdash;St. Louis</b></p><p><b>10&mdash;Minnesota</b></p><p><b>11&mdash;Pittsburgh</b></p><p><b>12&mdash;Islanders</b></p><p><b>13&mdash;Vancouver</b></p><p><b>14&mdash;Buffalo</b></p><p><b>15&mdash;Atlanta</b></p><p><b>16&mdash;Washingtor</b></p><p><b>17&mdash;Colorado</b></p><h2>WHA TEAMS</h2><p><b>18&mdash;New England</b></p><p><b>19&mdash;Quebec</b></p><p><b>20&mdash;Winnipeg</b></p><p><b>22&mdash;Edmonton</b></p><p><b>23&mdash;Cincinnati</b></p><p><b>24&mdash;Birmingham</b></p><h2>OTHER AFFILIATIONS</h2><p><b>25&mdash;Quebec (WHA), Cincinnati (WHA, Birmingham (WHA) & Pittsburgh (NHL)</b></p><p><b>26&mdash;Buffalo (NHL) & Washington(NHL)</b></p><p><b>27&mdash;Toronto (NHL) & Chicago (NHL)</b></p><p><b>28&mdash;Montreal (NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)</b></p><p><b>29&mdash;New England (WHA), Edmonton (WHA), Winnipeg (WHA) & Los Angeles (NHL)</b></p><p><b>31&mdash;Atlanta (NHL), Rangers (NHL) & Minnesota (NHL)</b></p><p><b>32&mdash;Vancouver(NHL), Los Angeles (NHL) & Edmonton (WHA).</b></p><p><b>34&mdash;St. Louis (NHL) & Washington (NHL)</b></p><p><b>35&mdash;Los Angeles (NHL) & Toronto (NHL)</b></p><p><b>36&mdash;Minnesota (NHL) & Chicago(NHL)</b></p><p><b>37&mdash;Colorad.o(NHL) & Atlanta (NHL)</b></p><p><b>38&mdash;Vancouver (NHL) & Islanders (NHL)</b></p><p><b>39&mdash;Pittsburgh (NHL) & Boston (NHL)</b></p><p><b>40&mdash;Philadelphia (NHL) & Buffalo(NHL)</b></p><p><b>41&mdash;Minnesota (NHL) & St. Louis (NHL)</b></p><p><b>42&mdash;Independent operation</b></p><p><b>43&mdash;Philadelphia (NHL) & St. Louis (NHL)</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Who They’re Affiliated With…

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-01945/3865535-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THOMAS GRADIN&hellip;Notched Four Playoff Goals</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Robert Shaver)</span></figcaption></div><p>VANCOUVER&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he miracle in Philadelphia only created more difficulties for a humble squad like the Vancouver Canucks. Then they had to do it again in their home rink, and that proved more demanding. They didn&rsquo;t have the surprise factor going for them.</p><p>Surprise is what they did to the Philadelphia Flyers in the opening game of the preliminary round of the NHL playoffs and they did it with the only way they know how to win. With hard work, great goaltending and a close checking style, they have success. When they don&rsquo;t take anybody out&mdash;they are made to look like they belong in another league.</p><p>What coach Harry Neale&rsquo;s problem has been all year is to communicate to his players that they have to work that hard every night before they&rsquo;re going to get anywhere.</p><p>&ldquo;We proved we could come in here and play well and play the type of game we wanted,&rdquo; said Neale. We wanted to win in here to see if they could beat us when they had to in our rink. We still obviously have a long way to go. Each year something screwy happens in these preliminary series and we just hoped it would be us. We did a few things a little differently out there that they might not have been expecting but nothing major.&rdquo;</p><p>What the Canucks did do differently in the first half of the first game was bring the puck out of their own zone successfully up the middle when all season they have been taking it out up the boards. It seemed to catch the Flyers a little off guard, though later in the game Philly was able to exert tremendous pressure by bottling Canucks up in their own zone.</p><p>The goaltending was taken care of magnificently by Gary Bromley, who like Neale, has a World Hockey Association record of doing something positive in the playoffs. Last season Bromley was outstanding in leading the Winnipeg Jets to the Avco Cup championships, sharing the goaltending. This year he had to bear the burden himself, but began the ordeal in the best possible fashion. He stopped 28 of 30 shots in the 3-2 win, despite being shaken up many times during the third period, a 20-minute session which seemed to be played in his crease.</p><p>&ldquo;I guess our chances were about one in 10, but we wanted to come in and just give it our best shot and see what happens,&rdquo; said Bromley. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all you can do really when you&rsquo;re the underdog like we were. We were ready for the game, and that helped.&rdquo;</p><p>Canucks got most of their offense from the line that has been their best all year, the rookie line of Thomas Gradin, Stan Smyl and Curt Fraser.</p><p>Gradin scored the first goal after a great pass from Smyl on a two-on-one break and Smyl then tied an NHL record for quickest goal at the start of a period when he sifted one by Wayne Stephenson from fairly long range, nine seconds into period three.</p><p>Don Lever got what proved to be the winning goal midway through the final period when he scored on a Dennis Kearns rebound.</p><p>Then it was all up to Bromley, who had been hot the last 10 games of the year. He actually had his goals against average hovering around the 2.00 mark over that span with the close checking style of the club over that period contributing heavily to his success.</p><p>Canucks played the game without forward Jere Gillis, the man who helped Don Lever and Chris Oddleifson to the third best penalty killing percentage in the league this season. Gillis had a bad hip and was unable to play in Philadelphia, his spot taken by the often abrasive Brad Gassoff, who filled in very well.</p><p>The victory was only the third in nine years scored by Vancouver in the Spectrum and it was only their second ever playoff victory.</p><p>But alas, the miracle proved to be only a fleeting moment of success for the Canucks. The Flyers rebounded and swept the final two games of the series, though the Canucks came within one goal and one minute of sending the Flyers to their earliest vacation since 1971-72 when they missed the playoffs.</p><p>In Game Two the Canucks entered the 60th minute of play tied 4-4 on the strength of a pair of goals by Gradin and singles by Lever and Dennis Kearns. That&rsquo;s when Reg Leach beat Bromley through a screen after a faceoff in the Vancouver zone at 19:06 and 51 seconds later, Bill Barber made it 6-4 for the Flyers.</p><p>The Canucks had shot their bolt. Game Three found them back in the Spectrum with nothing left to give and the Flyers steamrolled to a 7-2 decision, the only ray of light being Gradin&rsquo;s fourth playoff goal which reduced the deficit to 2-1 late in the first period. Don Kozak closed out the scoring at 15:11 of the final period.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Canuck Miracle In Philly Resulted From Hard Work

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01652/3867714-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy aren&rsquo;t called the &ldquo;Grande Trio&rdquo; for nothing. They&rsquo;re dynamite as a line</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</span></figcaption></div><p><b><u>WORLD CUP</u>&nbsp;<i>SOVIETS ROLLING TO GOLD IN SHOW OF POWER</i>&mdash;Page 2</b></p><p><b>ROCKIES&rsquo; ADS TELL FANS: WE&rsquo;RE SORRY&mdash;Page 4</b></p><p><b>LEACH PAYS OFF FLYER PATIENCE&mdash;Page 5</b></p><p><b>CLOUTIER GRABS LAST WHA TITLE&mdash;Page 25</b></p><p><b>OILERS&rsquo; GRETZKY DOUBLE WINNER&mdash;Page 27</b></p><p><b>NORTH STARS EXPECT TO REMAIN INTACT&mdash;Page 20</b></p><p><b><u>HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; NHL AWARDS</u>&nbsp;<i>TROTTIER, ARBOUR TOP PICKS Of &lsquo;79</i>&mdash;Page 3</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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RANGERS SURPRISE OF PLAYOFFS—Page 16

<h2><b>Tue. Apr. 17 CANADA 5, FINLAND 4</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-02872/3864710-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="610" height="517"></div><h2><b>Wed. Apr. 18 POLAND 5, U.S.A. 5</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03650/3864703-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="628" height="543"></div><h2><b>FINLAND 5, W. GERMANY 2</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04445/3864696-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="607" height="482"></div><h2><b>Thu. Apr. 19 SOVIETS 5. CANADA 2</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05318/3864689-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="623" height="504"></div><h2><b>Sat. Apr. 21 SWEDEN 5, CANADA 2</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06222/3864682-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="623" height="542"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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World Cup Hockey Summaries

<p><b>Playoff Round</b></p><h2>Group A</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07135/3864748-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="549" height="142"></div><h2>Group B</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-0869/3864741-1-eng-US/f0002-082.jpg" title="f0002-08" width="548" height="148"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Sat. April 14</b></p><p>Czechoslovakia 5, Finland 0</p><p>Canada 6, United States 3</p><p>Sweden 7, West Germany 3</p><p>Soviets 7, Poland 0</p><p><b>Sun. April 15</b></p><p>United States 1, Finland 1</p><p>Soviets 3, West Germany 2</p><p>Sweden 6, Poland 5</p><p>Czechoslovakia 4, Canada 1</p><p><b>Tue. April 17</b></p><p>Canada 5, Finland 4</p><p>West Germany 3, Poland 3</p><p>Czechoslovakia 2, United States 2</p><p>Soviets 9, Sweden 3</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 17</b></p><p>Canada 5, Finland 4</p><p>Czechoslovakia 2, United States 2</p><p>Soviet Union 9, Sweden 3</p><p>West Germany 3, Poland 2</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>United States 5, Poland 5</p><p>Finland 5, West Germany 2</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 19</b></p><p>Soviet Union 5, Canada 2</p><p>Sweden 3, Czechoslovakia 3</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>West Germany 6, United States 3</p><p>Finland 4, Poland 3</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 21</b></p><p>Sweden 5, Canada 2</p><p>Soviet Union 11, Czechoslovakia 1</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>United States 6, Finland 2</p><p>West Germany 8, Poland 1</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 23</b></p><p>Czechoslovakia vs Canada</p><p>Soviet Union vs Sweden</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Poland vs United States</p><p>West Germany vs Finland</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 25</b></p><p>Sweden vs Czechoslovakia</p><p>Soviet Union vs Canada</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 26</b></p><p>Poland vs Finland</p><p>West Germany vs United States</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 27</b></p><p>Sweden vs Canada</p><p>Soviet Union vs Czechoslovakia<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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World Hockey Picture

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-01959/3864651-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>The Soviet Union has dominated the 1979 World Cup tournament and they are doing once more with youth. Here the young Soviet players, led by Sergei Makarov, extreme left, who scored three times against the Czechs, whoop it up after another ice conquest.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Steve Babineau)</span></figcaption></div><p>MOSCOW&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>N</span>orth America&rsquo;s world hockey image, which was badly shaken by the Soviet Union&rsquo;s three-game series victory over Team NHL last February in the Challenge Cup series, appeared to be wallowing on the rocks once more as the 1979 World Cup championships were reaching its conclusion.</p><p>Both Canada and the United States were being badly outclassed after nearly two weeks of competition among the eight hockey power nations of the world here in Moscow and it puzzled hockey observers.</p><p>Canada was being touted as a possible medal winner behind the Soviet Union before the tournament began but with only a few games remaining, the NHL-stocked Canadians were without a victory in the Group A upper class and were holding down last place. The U.S.A, team faired no better and was not leading the Group B division despite a surprise 6-2 win over Finland, a team that had also lost to Canada 5-4.</p><p>The race for the tourney gold was conceded to the powerful Soviets at the outset and it appeared nothing was going to change it as the games were nearing their end. The 1979 Challenge Cup winners had an imposing 3-0 record in the championship round but even more impressive was their 25-6 for-and-against record. They shattered the Czechoslovakians 11-1 and were apparently in no danger of being upset in the final three games before claiming the World Cup championship again.</p><p>Team Canada was having trouble keeping up with the three top powers. They were soundly beaten by the Soviets and Swedes and lost handily to the Czechs. In six starts, Canada was 2-4 and both their victories came in the opening preliminary round against the U.S. and Finland.</p><p>With the gold pretty well gone to the Soviets, it remained for Sweden and Czechoslovakia to battle for the silver and bronze. With only six goals in three games, Canada seemed certain of going home empty handed.</p><p>The Soviet Union&rsquo;s convincing victory, led by Sergie Makarov&rsquo;s three goals, confirmed its position as the likely gold medalist while Sweden was in a good position to battle Czechoslovakia for the silver medal.</p><p>Sweden brought out the worst in Team Canada.</p><p>It was Canada&rsquo;s third loss against championship division opponents and left the club in poor position for a medal with three games remaining&mdash;against Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and Sweden in their closing game.</p><p>&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a well thought-out game and I take full responsibility for that,&rdquo; Canadian coach Marshall Johnston admitted after the loss to Sweden.</p><p>Mats Naslund, a 19-year-old whirlwind who is one of several young Swedes being sought by North American pro teams, scored twice and was a threat whenever he had control inside the Canadian blueline.</p><p>Bengt Lundholm and defensemen Sture Andersson and Ulf Weinstock scored the other Swedish goals.</p><p>The Minnesota line of Bobby Smith, Al MacAdam and Steve Payne accounted for all the Canadian goals. Smith scored twice, MacAdam had one and Payne was a dominant factor along the boards and in the corners.</p><p>&ldquo;I thought we slipped back a little bit from our performances in earlier games,&rdquo; said Johnston. &ldquo;We started all right, although we missed some excellent chances in the first period.</p><p>&ldquo;We took some unnecessary chances on defense when we were a goal down in the second period. But this is not the end of the tournament for us. We have to work hard to avoid last place,&rdquo; the way the Canadians have been playing lately, it won&rsquo;t be easy.</p><p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t take anything away from them,&rdquo; said Smith, the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 draft choice in 1978-79 and a good bet to win the Calder Trophy rookie award. &ldquo;After those two goals in the second period it was uphill all the way for us.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been that way for us this whole tournament. We just can&rsquo;t seem to get our scoring untracked. It&rsquo;s a tough game to play when you&rsquo;re always behind.&rdquo;</p><p>Czechoslovakia faced the same situation against the Soviet Union which had a 6-0 lead before the Czechoslovaks got their only goal against goalie Vladislav Tretiak on a shot by Milan Chalupa early in the second period.</p><p>Alexander Golikov, Helmut Balderis, Zinatula Bilyaletdinov, Victor Zhluktov, Sergie Babinov, Sergie Kapustin, Yuri Lebedev and Vladimir Petrov had a goal each for the Soviet Union which has not been beaten or tied throughout the tournament.</p><p>The failure of the Czechs to keep pace with the Soviets ranks second only to Canada&rsquo;s lacklustre showing in these 1979 World Cup championships.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Soviets On Way To World Cup Gold As Canada, U.S. Teams Outclassed

<p>PITTSBURGH&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Pittsburgh Penguins became a force in the National Hockey League this season and the upturn in the team&rsquo;s fortunes was attributed to some brilliant player manipulating by club general manager Baz Bastien during the off season.</p><p>Bastien, who was chosen by THE HOCKEY NEWS this week as the NHL&rsquo;s outstanding executive of 1978-79, was the man responsible for bringing to the Penguins such credible performers as Peter Lee, Pete Mahovlich, Randy Carlyle, Ross Lonsberry, George Ferguson, Orest Kindrachuk, Gregg Sheppard, Rod Schutt, Dale Tallon and Dave Schultz.</p><p>Most of Bastien&rsquo;s manoeuvering has been done through the trade market and the Pittsburgh GM came out smelling roses on most of his deals. The trade that apparently changed the Penguins from mediocrity to a top playoff contender was his player swap with the Philadelphia Flyers just after the close of last season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04332/3864831-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="484" height="666"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BAZ BASTIEN&hellip;Big Turnabout</b></figcaption></div><p>Bastien went searching for players who could get the job done now and ended up prying away from the Flyers such experienced hockey hands as Kindrachuk, Bladon and Lonsberry and later got Carlyle and Ferguson from Toronto for Dave Burrows, a deal Pittsburgh fans have branded the &lsquo;big steal&rsquo; the way both Penguin players finished the season.</p><p>The turnabout by the Penguins has brought the fans back in Pittsburgh. The team reportedly drew 460,254 fans this season, an increase of 36,330 at the box office. The Penguins were a hit in their own town again and much of the credit belongs to the wheeling and dealing by Bastien.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0003-04

Bastien’s Key Trading Made PenguinsThreat

<div class="byline">BY NORM MacLEAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-01965/3864800-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRYAN TROTTIER&hellip;Enjoyed Superb Season</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Robert Shaver)</span></figcaption></div><p>NEW YORK&mdash;</p><p>Bryan Trottier was first described by New York Times columnist Dave Anderson as &ldquo;the boy king of the Islanders.&rdquo;</p><p>In reality, as Anderson&rsquo;s column so graphically pointed out, he is the reigning center in the NHL&mdash;and there is no doubt Bryan is king in the NHL right now.</p><p>Official recognition, as such, came with Trottier&rsquo;s coronation as THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; player of the year in their 31st annual National Hockey League awards as selected by the publication&rsquo;s editors.</p><p>Trottier will share the NHL awards&rsquo; spotlight with the man responsible for shaping him into the super player he is today, Al Arbour, who was chosen coach of the year.</p><p>Third individual award announced was the selection of Pittsburgh general manager Baz Bastien, by THE HOCKEY NEWS, as the executive of the year.</p><p>Trottier ended a two-year monopoly on THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; player award by Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens. It was a first time selection for all three 1979 awards&rsquo; winners, who were truly the outstanding figures throughout the past NHL season.</p><p>The boyish looking Trottier, a smooth faced 22, even with his neat mustachio, scored 134 points to win the scoring title this season. More important, he proved he could work with anyone when Arbour inserted John Tonelli on the left side instead of Clark Gillies in March.</p><p>&ldquo;If you keep doing the same thing, the opposition learns how to control you,&rdquo; says Trottier. &ldquo;But, when Al switches us to different guys, you try different things and then when you go back to your regular line, darn if they don&rsquo;t work. A little change now and then gets rid of the moss.&rdquo;</p><p>In game two of the Stanley cup quarter finals Arbour double shifted Trottier, playing him with Tonelli and Mike Bossy and also with Gillies and Billy Harris. Even though it was Bossy, working with Gillies and Trottier who got the sudden death winner in a tight 1-0 game, Chicago goalie Tony Esposito credited the score to Bryan.</p><p>&ldquo;Trottier faked me out when he got the puck behind the net from Gillies, I thought he was going to come around and try to jam it in on the short side. 1 went the wrong way, and then he shoved it in front to Bossy. I threw a leg out, but it was too late. Trottier was the reason they scored,&rdquo; said Tony O.</p><p>The five-foot-10, 200-pound Trottier, isn&rsquo;t as smooth as Lafleur, but he seems to lead as an irresisible force.</p><p>&ldquo;He overwhelms people,&rsquo;&rsquo; marvelled Stan Mikita, the Black Hawk center. &ldquo;He is awesome, when you play against the Islanders and Trottier, with Denis Potvin on the point, you pray a lot.&rdquo;</p><p>General manager Bill Torrey thinks that &ldquo;little Bryan Trottier, isn&rsquo;t little at all. He is over 200 pounds under that sweater and is a mini-bull on the ice.&rdquo;</p><p>Goaltender Chico Resch, happy that Trottier is on his side, observes, &ldquo;Like Earl Campbell of the Houston Oilers, Bryan always seems to slip through.&rdquo;</p><p>Trottier is happy over his scoring championship, the culmination of a childhood dream&mdash;and he is anticipating being on the Stanley Cup winner this year, his fourth in the NHL.</p><p>&ldquo;The week&rsquo;s rest has left us fresh,&rdquo; said Trottier, referring to the week long hiatus, given to the Division winners while the other teams played in preliminary series. &ldquo;1 feel 200 percent stronger than 1 did going into last year&rsquo;s playoffs. Then I broke a jaw in a collision with Billy (Harris), and everything got away from us.&rdquo;</p><p>Bryan is the key player on the explosive Islander front line, the one who, along with Potvin, makes the power play click. If the Isles flop again, he will get some of the glame, if they win. much of the credit.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02830/3864793-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1112" height="1437"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>AL ARBOUR&hellip;Moulded Pennant Winner</b></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;We finished the season really well and we have 20 guys going this year,&rdquo; said Trottier. &ldquo;When Toronto negated our line, it was lack of production from the others that really killed us. I don&rsquo;t think that will happen this year.&rdquo;</p><p>Nonetheless, if the Islanders prevail, it will be because of the guile and resourcefulness of Trottier, the strength of Gillies, and the scoring magic of Bossy. Add the game control exercised by Potvin and back it with skilled goaltending from Resch and Billy Smith and it should add up to the Stanley Cup.</p><p>&ldquo;Without Trottier,&rdquo; emphasized Torrey, the architect of the Islanders impossible dream, &ldquo;we would be like a symphony orchestra without a conductor.&rdquo;</p><p>Meanwhile, the selection of Arbour as NHL coach of the year, is a tribute to the man&rsquo;s astuteness behind the bench and is richly deserved. He is the master manipulator of the talent that has made the Islanders the No. 1 team in the league this season.</p><p>An example of the expertise with which Arbour has handled his duties was the second game of the Stanley Cup quarter finals between the Islanders and the Chicago Black Hawks. The Isles won, 1-0, in overtime, to take a commanding two game lead in the series&mdash;because of a decision made by Arbour.</p><p>Reversing his own judgment which had seen Gillies moved off the &lsquo;Trio Grande&rsquo; line, Arbour reunited Trottier, with Gillies and super scorer Bossy as the game went into overtime after three scoreless regulation periods.</p><p>&ldquo;Nothing is irrevocable or forever,&rdquo; laughed Al, later. &ldquo;I threw Gillies out there with Bryan and Mike in the third period trying to get something started. It didn&rsquo;t work then, but it did in overtime.&rdquo;</p><p>Gillies barrelled down the right side of the rink, almost lost the puck to Chicago&rsquo;s Reg Kerr near the goal line&mdash;and after regaining it from Kerr, shoveled it to Trottier behind the net. Trots passed front to the waiting Bossy, whose 73rd goal of the season (69 in regulation play and four in the first two Cup games) was a close in poke from three feet out.</p><p>&ldquo;Gillies is so strong,&rdquo; said Kerr. &ldquo;He used every ounce of his height (six-foot-three) and 220 pounds, what a guy. 1 thought 1 had the puck, but he got in behind me and took it back. We lost on one big play&mdash;one big mistake.&rdquo;</p><p>Arbour has made few mistakes since he took over the role as coach of the Islanders in 1973-74, their second year. He cut the goals against an exact 100 that first season, installed a team esprit de corps and discipline which still carries over now.</p><p>He wants balance on attack&mdash;which was the main catalyst behind his decision to play Tonelli on the left side with Trottier and Bossy&mdash;and play Gillies elsewhere, usually on a line with Billy Harris.</p><p>&ldquo;If just one line does all the scoring, the opposition can put its best checkers on them and shut you down,&rdquo; reasons Al. &ldquo;1 like balance in our goalkeeping. We have two number one goalies, Chico Resch and Billy Smith. When Smitty had a couple of tough games late in March, I continued the rotating system and he worked it out. I believe in the goalie rotation, not just going with the hot man. If you do that, you run the danger of the other goalie getting rusty from inactivity and then not being ready when you need him.&rdquo;</p><p>Resch agrees with Arbour.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to win a championship,&rdquo; said Chico. &ldquo;But unless you&rsquo;ve actually played you don&rsquo;t feel you have contributed. Me and Billy both have the chance to play. Neither of us will get stale.&rdquo;</p><p>The 46-year-old Alger (no one calls him that), has a wife, four kids, a 21 foot boat and a home in the Long Island suburbs. But his real home is a rink, any rink, anywhere. He played 12 years in the NHL as a shot blocking, defensive defenseman with Chicago, Detroit, Toronto and St. Louis, playing on Cup winners in the first three. In 19 seasons as a player he never missed the playoffs&mdash;and only in his first year with the Islanders did they fail to qualify.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02806/3864786-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="1141" height="1178"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRYAN TROTTIER&hellip;He&rsquo;s The Leader</b></figcaption></div><p>Arbour isn&rsquo;t afraid of doing things differently. He wore glasses in his playing days, at a time when he was the only NHL player to do so. In those days, anyone wearing a helmet was considered cowardly&mdash;and glasses were for accountants, not hockey players.</p><p>The coach is under pressure to win the Stanley Cup. Some of the pressure is self inflicted, but some legitimate from management and the fans.</p><p>The Isles stunning quarter final upset in seven games with Toronto last spring left Arbour with more than a little to prove.</p><p>&ldquo;The loss to Toronto stuck in our throads, the same way as when we best the Rangers (in a best of three preliminary series, on J.P. Parise&rsquo;s OT goal in the third game) in 1975. You don&rsquo;t believe jt when it happens, but you think about it all summer. We know we have to get to the finals and we have to win the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; observed Smith.</p><p>That means Arbour must keep his men intense, something they weren&rsquo;t in the Toronto debacle, at least part of the time, after winning the first two games.</p><p>&ldquo;We proved we are the best in the regular season,&rdquo; says Al. &ldquo;By finishing with the most points. Now we have to do it again, by working hard, taking the body and keeping our mistakes to a minimum.&rdquo;</p><p>If the Islander players work as hard as Arbour, and make as few mistakes as he does, the Cup will move from Montreal to Nassau County in May.</p><h2>NEWS&rsquo; AWARDS WINNERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03556/3864779-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1128" height="1315"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0003-01

Trottier Top Player, Arbour Coach Of Year

<div class="byline">Ken McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011016/3864890-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="508" height="492"></div><p>&bull; <b>MONTREAL,</b> New York Islanders and Boston won their playoff series as expected, with all clubs sweeping their respective series in four straight&hellip;It still looks a Montreal-Islander final at this stage although there may be some keen surprises in store. New York Rangers could be the darkhorse entry in the Stanley Cup playoffs&hellip;Team Canada&rsquo;s efforts in the World Championships played in Moscow were a big disappointment. Their 5-3 loss to Sweden was unforgiveable. The best attacking unit for Canada in this series has been the Minnesota North Stars trio of rookie Bobby Smith at center flanked by Steve Payne and Al MacAdam on the wings&hellip;Mats Naslund, 19-year-old junior sensation, has been one of the key members of the Swedish team&hellip;Another youthful performer in the World Championships who has been a star in every game is 20-year-old Sergei Makarov. He scored three goals and assisted on one other as the Soviets humiliated the Czechoslovakian national club, 11-1&hellip;Hockey fans will be sorry to hear that Ron Ingram is in the cardiac ward of the Mission Bay Memorial Hospital of San Diego after developing complications from a leg operation. Ingram has been a very popular man in the San Diego area for several years and played a major role in furthering hockey interest in that area&hellip;Chicago Black Hawks established a new NHL record in this year&rsquo;s playoffs that they would like to forget. When they dropped four straight to the Islanders it extended their loss record to 16 consecutive games in playoff competition.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-02972/3864883-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="302" height="444"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Ron Ingram</b></figcaption></div><p>&bull; <b>LOOK FOR</b> several coaching changes in the National Hockey League before the start of next season. Some of these changes may be announced before the June meetings&hellip;Phil Esposito, who is enjoying one of his finest seasons this year with the New York Rangers, says he would like to be a coach when his playing days are over. His brother, Tony, who played so spectacularly for the Black Hawks in their series against the Islanders, becomes a free agent on June 1 and insiders believe he will sign with the New York Rangers&hellip;Another strong rumor has Garry Unger playing for Detroit Red Wings next season&hellip;Ed Van Impe, former Philadelphia Flyer defenseman, is doing some work as a TV commentator at Flyer games. He just completed an insurance training program and is working for a Philadelphia-area broker&hellip;The Eddie Shore Trophy presented by the Boston Bruins&rsquo; Gallery Gods was shared this season between Rick Middleton and Al Sims. Making the presentations before the Bruins&rsquo; final home game of the regular season were Roger Naples, John Healy and Peter Ruger&hellip;Outspoken Don Cherry of the Bruins is reported to have said the following about Eddie Westfall, the veteran New York Islander player and former Boston star: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s over the hill and wants my job so much he can taste it.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Westfall denied that he was after the Boston coaching job and will work in the Islanders&rsquo; PR department when he retires at the end of this season&hellip;Rochester Americans will be the No. 1 farm team of the Buffalo Sabres next season.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03868/3864876-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="304" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Phil Esposito</b></figcaption></div><p>&bull; <b>COACH BOB McCAMMON&rsquo;S</b> Maine Mariners are the favorites to win the American Hockey League playoffs and the coveted Calder Cup for the second straight year. The Mariners authored a better regular season record this year than they did a year ago when they won everying in sight&hellip;Jacques Lemaire of the Canadiens is playing outstanding hockey right now. Many hockey followers feel he is greatly underrated. His all-around talents make him the complete player and the Montreal management are fully aware of his contribution to the Habs&hellip;Jim Proudfoot of the Toronto Star who covered the World Championships in Moscow, says that Leonid Brehznev likes hockey so much he even attends unimportant games. Not only did he attend many of the World Championship games but he goes very frequently during the regular season&hellip;Canadiens&rsquo; Ken Dryden claims his club had more trouble with the strong skating teams this season than they did with the teams that tried the physical approach. &ldquo;Of course, we had problems with New York Islanders, because they do everything well, especially score goals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But New York Rangers, Los Angelas Kings all have good speed and they use it against us, as did the Washington Capitals in a couple of games. These teams all skate well&rdquo;&hellip;Harry Neale of Vancouver Canucks refused to have his players introduced before the Flyers in the opening game of their series in Philadelphia. &ldquo;They wanted us to stand out there and wait while they went through all that rigamarole,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; Jake Milford. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the ploys they&rsquo;ve used over the years and Harry wouldn&rsquo;t go for it.&rdquo; Since the Canucks are the NHL&rsquo;s youngest team, Neale felt they would be nervous wrecks if they had to wait on the ice while the Flyers were introduced to thunderous ovations.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04766/3864869-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="287" height="439"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Eddie Westfall</b></figcaption></div><p>&bull; <b>ROGER NEILSON,</b> Toronto&rsquo;s coach, is a close friend of Canadiens&rsquo; Bob Gainey. He coached him in junior and taught him much of what he knows today. They also work together at Trinity Hockey School during the summer. Neilson cringes when he watched the stellar Montreal forward play so brilliantly in sidelining the Leafs in four straight&hellip;Congrats to the Quebec entry, the Ste. Foy Couillard in winning the Canadian national midget championship with a 9-7 win over St. Michael&rsquo;s College Buzzers of Ontario&hellip;Third place went to Saskatchewan&rsquo;s entry, the Notre Dame College Hounds of Wilcox&hellip;Wayne Gretzky, WHA&rsquo;s rookie of the year, scored 46 goals in his first season. Edmonton Oilers look forward to many successful seasons from the 18-year-old whiz kid&hellip;Bobby Hull feels that younger players today need better coaching. He also would like to see professional teams return to sponsoring junior clubs&hellip;Television executives in the United States feel that the hockey season is too long. All three major U.S. networks say it will be a long time before the NHL is carried regularly. Special attractions like this year&rsquo;s Challenge Cup series between Canada and the Soviet Union stand a better chance at gaining the United States television exposure it so badly needs.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05628/3864862-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="297" height="452"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Jacques Lemaire</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div><p>DENVER&mdash;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-06382/3864921-1-eng-US/f0004-062.jpg" title="f0004-06" width="566" height="738"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>KEVIN O&rsquo;BRIEN&hellip;Rockies&rsquo; PR Man</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Colorado Rockies, who recorded the worst record in the National Hockey League this season to secure the top selection in the summer amateur draft, issued a public apology, through two large newspaper ads, for the team&rsquo;s disappointing performance.</p><p>The ads appeared in the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post April 13 or Good Friday, as you would have it. But the move showed a lot of class from a team which had been criticized severely the past couple of months.</p><p>The advertisement, which featured pictures of all 23 Rockies and a four-paragraph apology for the poor season, began with the eye-catching large block sentence which read: &ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to forget this season, too.&rdquo;</p><p>The four-paragraph apology followed and head shots of each player, accompanied by autographs completed the ad. It was unique to say the least.</p><p>&ldquo;It was just an eat-crow type of ad. We&rsquo;re the first ones to admit it was a lousy season and we wanted the fans to know we are sorry for it,&rdquo; Rockies&rsquo; public relations director Kevin O&rsquo;Brien explained.</p><p>Originally, team president Armand Pohan had planned to take out a full-page ad at season&rsquo;s end announcing that the team would definitely return to Denver next season.</p><p>&ldquo;But people are sick of hearing that kind of stuff,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Brien said, referring to Denver&rsquo;s troubled hockey past and present.</p><p>So, an alternate plan with pictures of the players and a public apology was conceived as a joint effort by Pohan, general manager Ray Miron, marketing director Ed Kuusinen, O&rsquo;Brien and the team&rsquo;s ad agency.</p><p>&ldquo;We just wanted to use some sort of a PR gimmick. We thought the idea would really have impact,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Brien said. &ldquo;We wanted to use it as kind of a primer for our season ticket drive, which we&rsquo;ll start with ads in Sunday&rsquo;s papers.&rdquo;</p><p>After the blockbusting &ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to forget this season, too,&rdquo; the advertisement ran as follows:</p><p>&ldquo;You can take it from us, finishing last is no fun for anybody. Management, players and especially you fans.</p><p>&ldquo;We started out last fall thinking we were going to give the Chicago Black Hawks a real run for first place in the Smythe Division. But we could never seem to get ourselves untracked. All through the season, we had team meetings to try to figure out what was going wrong. We got a new coach and some of us are new to the team. But it just didn&rsquo;t go. It was total frustration for all of us.</p><p>&ldquo;But there was probably nobody more frustrated than you fans. You came out to see a winner and we didn&rsquo;t give it to you. But you came out anyway, and you don&rsquo;t know how much we appreciate it. You&rsquo;re the best fans in the league. You yell louder, cheer more for a goal and get more involved in the game than any fans in any city. And we see them all.</p><p>&ldquo;Next fall, we&rsquo;ll be starting fresh. We know we&rsquo;re a better team than we showed this past season. And we know we&rsquo;re going to give you better hockey next season. You deserve it.&rdquo; The ad was concluded by a big &ldquo;Thanks, the Colorado Rockies in the middle of the players&rsquo; pictures.</p><p>Two days before the advertisement appeared, the Rockies held a news conference in which Pohan reiterated strongly his intentions of operating the club again in Denver next season despite a loss of about $2 million during the team&rsquo;s 15-53-12 campaign.</p><p>The season ticket sale drive, which the Rockies have never been able to operate because of the uncertainty of the franchise, was to get under way immediately with reduced prices for season tickets.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0004-06

Public Apology Made By Rockies For Poor Season

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01885/3864976-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>REG LEACH&hellip;Changed Attitude In Camp</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Steve Babineau)</span></figcaption></div><p>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;</p><p>The biggest hockey save in Philadelphia&mdash;after the Flyers&rsquo; season&mdash;was Reggie Leach.</p><p>The Conn Smythe Trophy winner of that remarkable 80-goal 1975-76 season had slipped to such depths last fall that his file was almost stamped &ldquo;Gone.&rdquo; Seasons of 32 and 24 goals had followed Leach&rsquo;s 80-goal output (61 plus a record 19 in the playoffs).</p><p>The we&rsquo;ll-accept-anybody Colorado Rockies were penciled in as Leach&rsquo;s next destination. To further illustrate how dreary his future with the Flyers&rsquo; was, some observers even suspected that if no NHL clubs wanted Leach, the Flyers would assign him to the AHL Philadelphia Firebirds, which in their last season served more as a rehabilitation center than farm club for the Rockies.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Reggie cared,&rdquo; Flyers&rsquo; GM Keith Allen said recently. &ldquo;He was so fed up&mdash;at least he gave that impression&mdash;and he played like it.&rdquo;</p><p>In the glow of Leach&rsquo;s miracle comeback, we&rsquo;ve learned that he did care, that he didn&rsquo;t want to leave the Flyers. This desire to stay, combined with the departure of Fred Shero for Broadway, is primarily responsible for his revival which led to a respectable 34-goal season and a prominent role in the Flyers&rsquo; preliminary-round victory over Vancouver.</p><p>&ldquo;I knew I had to produce or else I was gone,&rdquo; Leach said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to leave here so it was just a matter of me putting my mind to it.&rdquo;</p><p>Pat Quinn says he noticed Leach putting his mind to it as far back as training camp.</p><p>&ldquo;At training camp I thought I saw a mental change in Reggie Leach,&rdquo; said Quinn, who was then preparing to coach the Flyers&rsquo; Maine Mariners farm club and seafood-supply house. &ldquo;1 thought 1 saw a determination, a desire to prove that he was a good hockey player because we went through so much crap here in the last year.&rdquo;</p><p>Leach&rsquo;s troubles focused on one man, Shero, who stopped playing the onetime goaltender-terror in key situations and even benched him occasionally. In fairness, Shero appeared justified because opponents had neutralized Leach as a scoring threat, and he had never been compared to Bob Gainey or Craig Ramsay as a checker. Through his second consecutive sub-par season, Leach reacted like a man incapable of finding new ways to be a valuable player. A career was slipping overboard and there were no life preservers in sight.</p><p>Now, Leach denies a revenge motive, in facing Shero&rsquo;s club in the made-on-Madison Ave. Flyers-Rangers Stanley Cup quarter-final series. But if interrogators persist and, for instance, they mention Quinn using Leach in the last minutes of important games, Leach sneers and says, &ldquo;Bleeping&rsquo; Freddie wouldn&rsquo;t even use me in the last seven minutes of games.&rdquo;</p><p>Quinn doesn&rsquo;t hesitate to keep Leach on the ice in close games because, as former linemate Bill Barber says, &ldquo;Reggie is playing better now than he did when he scored the 61 goals. He&rsquo;s out there in crucial situations because he takes the man and he backchecks.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Pat gets some credit,&rdquo; said Keith Allen. &ldquo;I think Bob (McCammon) does, too. The players came to him and told him they just had to let Reggie play and leave him alone, and he did that.&rdquo;</p><p>By leaving Leach alone he responded with the 34 goals that tied him with Barber for the club lead. He also produced goals like the game-winner in Vancouver with 54 seconds remaining. With the score 4-4 and the stubborn Canucks one goal from a stunning preliminary round upset, Bobby Clarke won a draw, slid the puck back to Leach and&mdash;how many times have you read this?&mdash;Leach drilled the puck past Gary Bromley.</p><p>In the series finale, the Canucks had trimmed the Philadelphia lead to 2-1 when Leach, positioned to Bromley&rsquo;s right, stopped a Clarke power-play shot with his stomach and swept the puck into the net just 34 seconds into the second period.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s having fun again,&rdquo; said Allen. &ldquo;He has that look in his eye now. Remember that look he had during his big year? Every time he got the puck, you could just see it.&rdquo;</p><p>NHL goalies remember the look. Some still have nightmares over it.</p><p><b>FLYERS FACTS:</b> Rick MacLeish missed the regular season finale and first playoff game with a skin infection&hellip;Rookie Behn Wilson suffered a bruised knee in the playoff opener, missed the second game, but was ready to face the Rangers.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0005-01

Quinn’s, Flyers’ Patience Worked Wonders For Leach

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011048/3865007-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="348" height="469"></div><h2>Derek&rsquo;s Biggest Game</h2><p class="dropcap"><b><span>H</span>E IS JOGGING</b> these days, he has not taken a drink in weeks, and he sleeps without the aid of sleeping pills. Derek Sanderson says he is prepared to win this, the most important game of his life.</p><p>Sleep, of course, was never a necessity of his. During the early 1970s, he was the Joe Namath of hockey, a neon freak who interrupted his parties just long enough to play for the Boston Bruins. He spent money like it was going out of style&mdash;which was fun except that Derek Sanderson went out of style first.</p><p>Now he is 32, out of work, out of the mainstream and just recently out of the hospital. He spent nine days there while doctors checked all his systems, which weren&rsquo;t go and haven&rsquo;t been since he came to Chicago a couple months ago to live with a girl friend (they were married in mid-April) at her Near North side apartment.</p><p>Sanderson suffers from colitis, an inflammation of the colon. By way of killing the pain, and killing time, Sanderson has been &ldquo;drinking like a fish&rdquo; and compounding the problem by taking prescription medication such as Demoral to complete the knockout.</p><p>On a recent visit, one blanched at how The Turk had become bloated from what one physician described as a &ldquo;drug hangover;&rdquo; his equilibrium faltered; his speech became slurred; his skin broke out in ugly red blotches of psoriasis. Derek Sanderson, who at 26 had been the highest paid professional athlete in the world, looked like a graduate from skid row.</p><p>&ldquo;Bored, that&rsquo;s what I am is bored,&rdquo; said Sanderson, looking infinitely better on a second visit as he puffed on yet another cigarette (&ldquo;1 can&rsquo;t give up everything at once&rdquo;), one of several he inhales per hour. &ldquo;I need a job, something to keep me occupied.</p><p>&ldquo;I could still be playing hockey, but I guess I&rsquo;m paying for the 10 or 12 years of having a good time. I didn&rsquo;t miss much when it came to parties, and maybe I&rsquo;ve squandered away what could have been a great career. I don&rsquo;t know.</p><h2>Filled Time Drinking</h2><p><b>&ldquo;I WAS TOO SINGLE,</b> for one thing. A professional athlete only has to work one and a half hours a day, and if you don&rsquo;t have a family, what do you do with the other time? How do you fill it? I filled my time by going to the bars and drinking, even though I don&rsquo;t like the taste of the stuff and never have.</p><p>&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t. The stories about me being an alcoholic and a drug addict, they were all part of the monster I created that I didn&rsquo;t want in the first place. It was an image that I had to live up to, you know?</p><p>&ldquo;In Boston, the reporters would come up to Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr after and ask them about the game. Me? They&rsquo;d come in and ask me about the broads in the town we were in. I&rsquo;d say something cute like &lsquo;Well, the broads here in Pittsburgh are the worst in the league.&rsquo; And then the next time I&rsquo;d go there, they&rsquo;d be throwing things at me and yelling at me.</p><p>&ldquo;Always I was a character&rsquo; because I had to be. But the money was the big thing. I couldn&rsquo;t handle it. 1 became a fat cat, lazy. I didn&rsquo;t know what to do with the money. I always said that if I became a millionaire I&rsquo;d have a party. Well, I had a party, all right. I don&rsquo;t where it all went.&rdquo;</p><p>Now, Sanderson owns a home in Ontario worth about $200,000 and that silver Rolls Royce that was vintage Turk. Otherwise, there&rsquo;s not much cash on hand. His imperial life style is gone. And so is his sense of purpose.</p><h2>He Wasn&rsquo;t All Alone</h2><p><b>&ldquo;I TALKED WITH BOBBY</b> (Orr, Black Hawks&rsquo; assistant general manager) the other day,&rdquo; said Sanderson, &ldquo;and he told me if I ever hope to play again, I need to work hard for eight months until training camp in September.</p><p>&ldquo;Am I up for it? I don&rsquo;t know. Right now, I have a lot of indecision. Tried it last year after being with a chick in New York for five months. Drank all the time I was there. I was so drunk that I didn&rsquo;t realize one day that she had packed up and left. That hurt.</p><p>&ldquo;I think I can help. I know the sport and I studied it. You know, out of all these tough times, I got religion. Last December back home, I got burned in a grease fire in my kitchen. Hand and foot, real bad. The phone is out of order, and I&rsquo;m all alone for one and one-half days.</p><p>&ldquo;I thought I was alone, that is, except I find I wasn&rsquo;t. Imagine me, discovering God after all these years. But that&rsquo;s the last thing anyone would believe about me. They would only believe the crazy things about me. You know what I mean, guy?&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0006-01

HOCKEY TALK

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><p>PITTSBURGH&mdash;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-01935/3865038-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="572" height="674"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JIM HAMILTON&hellip;Rookie Came Through</b></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he injury-riddled Pittsburgh Penguins, despite failing to score on any of 13 power play advantages, still managed to defeat the Buffalo Sabres in their preliminary round series of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Stanley Cup playoffs two-games-to-one.</p><p>The Penguins, who won both of the games on the Sabres&rsquo; ice, played the series with four regulars out of the lineup. Center and leading scorer Pete Mahovlich, left wing Wayne Bianchin and defensemen Dale Tallon and Russ Anderson missed the series with assorted injuries. Mahovlich and Anderson were expected to return to some action as the Panguins advanced to the quarter-finals against the Boston Bruins.</p><p>George Ferguson&rsquo;s second goal of the game only 47 seconds into overtime lifted Pittsburgh into the Boston series.</p><p>&ldquo;On the winning goal, I noticed the left side of the rink was open,&rdquo; said Ferguson, &ldquo;so I just took off and when I thought I could score I just let it fly. I don&rsquo;t think it was anything different than I&rsquo;ve been doing all season.&rdquo;</p><p>Ferguson&rsquo;s series&rsquo; winning goal started on a zone-clearing pass by Gregg Sheppard. Ferguson first a 15-foot wrist shot between Buffalo rookie goaltender Bob Sauve&rsquo;s pads.</p><p>&ldquo;They say when you look back on your career, there&rsquo;s always one or two things you remember about it more than anything else,&rdquo; said Ferguson, who was obtained by the Penguins last off-season in a trade with Toronto. &ldquo;This will be one of those times.&rdquo;</p><p>Ferguson&rsquo;s first goal of the game had sent the contest into overtime. The goals came after he had been beaten cleanly on a faceoff by Rick Dudley that resulted in the Sabres&rsquo; third goal by Jerry Korab.</p><p>With all of their injuries, the Penguins were forced to recall rookie left wing Jim Hamilton from Binghamton of the American Hockey League. Hamilton paid immediate dividends by scoring the first two goals in the series clinching 4-3 victory over the Sabres.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s been a strong point in this organization all year,&rdquo; said Penguin coach Johnny Wilson. &ldquo;Sure we&rsquo;ve had some strong verterans. But when we&rsquo;ve called on the kids like Hamilton, they&rsquo;ve come up and come through for us.</p><p>Hamilton&rsquo;s first goal came only five seconds after Gilbert Perreault had given Buffalo a 1-0 lead. The two goals set an NHL playoff record for the fastest two goals by both teams.</p><p>&ldquo;I figured when we forced them into overtime after the kind of period they had just had, we had a good shot at it,&rdquo; said Wilson. &ldquo;It has to be a little demoralizing to have that many shots and still not score.&rdquo;</p><p>The Sabres outshot Pittsburgh in the third period of the final game 18-3, and 41-24 for the entire contest.</p><p>Buffalo&rsquo;s penalty killing duo of Don Luce and Craig Ramsay, along with the goaltending of Sauve, were the key factors in the second game of the series, won by the Sabres 3-1 in Pittsburgh. The Penguins had six power play chances in that game, but failed to put the puck past Sauve on any of them.</p><p>&ldquo;I think the key to the second game was the Sabres&rsquo; penalty killers,&rdquo; said Penguin defenseman Colin Campbell, who scored the only Penguin goal of the game. &ldquo;The way Ramsay and Luce positioned themselves was the reason we fired as many shots wide as we put on the net. They are one of the best penalty killing units in the NHL.&rdquo;</p><p>In the first game of the series, goaltender Denis Herron stopped all but one of the 12 first period Buffalo shots, while the Penguins managed to put only three shots on the Sabres&rsquo; net.</p><p>Former Sabre Gary McAdam and Orest Kindrachuk scored goals less than two minutes apart late in the third period, and the Penguins hung on for a 4-3 first game victory.</p><p>The key to the entire series, however, may have been the play of Herron. He turned aside 93 of the 102 shots the Sabres fired at him in the series.</p><p>&ldquo;They say the playoffs are a goaltender&rsquo;s series,&rdquo; said Herron after the second game. &ldquo;Sauve played a good game tonight just like I had a good game the first one. Now it&rsquo;s my turn again.&rdquo;</p><p>It turned out Denny was a prophet.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0007-01

Heroes Aplenty Save Undermanned Penguins

<div class="byline">&#x2014;BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011038/3865076-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="422" height="470"></div><h2><i>The Perfect Player&hellip;</i></h2><p class="dropcap"><b><span>D</span>ON CHERRY CALLS</b> Don Marcotte the perfect hockey player. The Boston coach is prejudiced, but the Boston forward is a coach&rsquo;s kind of player. He forechecks and backchecks, skates his wing, defenses his foes, and bags a big goal here and there. He is steady and durable and seldom misses a game. And he is ideal for close-played playoffs.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m no Guy Lafleur or Bobby Orr,&rdquo; Marcotte smiles.</p><p>&ldquo;Maybe not,&rdquo; admits Cherry, &ldquo;but he may be as valuable to us as any player is to any team. He plays the game the way it should be played. He makes the most of his ability. I point him out to my young players as an example of how to play. When something goes wrong with one of my lines, I put him on it and he straightens it out.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-02933/3865069-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="816" height="1214"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Don Marcotte is recognized by players and coaches as one of the best two-way forwards in hockey, able to check the opposition&rsquo;s top scorers as well as contribute to the Bruins&rsquo; attack. Marcotte, though, says defense is the name of his game.</b></figcaption></div><p>Rick Middleton, who is one of the most improved players in the league, agrees with Cherry. &ldquo;Marcotte is a perfect player. He is perfectly balanced between offense and defense. He plays as well at one end of the ice as he does at the other. I&rsquo;ve studied him and copied him and while I&rsquo;m not him it&rsquo;s helped me a lot.&rdquo;</p><p>Marcotte sayd, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to hear nice things said about you, but I&rsquo;ve had to work hard all my career to be an effective player and I know if I stop working I won&rsquo;t be effective. I learned early in my career that 1 didn&rsquo;t have a lot of natural ability and had to work at the game to do well. I found out a long time ago that it was no harder to come back up the ice than it was to go down.&rdquo;</p><p>Although the five-foot-ten, 185-pound leftwinger finished third in the voting for the first Frank Selke Award as the best defensive forward in the league after last season, there were those who thought he was better than the winner, Bob Gainey of Montreal, or anyone else on the tour, and he could win the honor this summer.</p><p><b>&ldquo;THAT WOULD BE</b> very nice, but you don&rsquo;t do these things for the honors,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s nice that some think I&rsquo;m the best, but I don&rsquo;t know if I am or if Bob is or someone else is. There are a lot of good defensive forwards in the league. Well, not a lot,&rdquo; he laughs, &ldquo;but some who are very good.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t get open a lot and I don&rsquo;t have a great shot, so I&rsquo;m not going to get a lot of goals. I figure every goal I take away from a player on the other team is as good as one I might have scored myself. Maybe it doesn&rsquo;t show in the box score, but I know my coach and my teammates appreciate my efforts.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, he scores 20 goals or close to 20 every season. &ldquo;Hey, 1 enjoy my goals as much as anyone,&rdquo; he laughs. &ldquo;Maybe more than most players because I don&rsquo;t get as many as most players. I figure I have to take advantage of my opportunities because I don&rsquo;t get too many. But 1 don&rsquo;t want to sacrifice defense for offense. Defense is my game. If I go looking for goals, I go looking for another job.&rdquo;</p><p>Don is 32 now and the way he plays it has to take a lot out of him. He&rsquo;s been playing professionally 12 years, all in the Boston organization and the last 10 in the majors with the Bruins. &ldquo;I take care of myself,&rdquo; he says I eat good and sleep good. I watch my weight and nap in the afternoon before games. I&rsquo;m a family man and don&rsquo;t go out much at night. Since I had a knee injury a few years ago I haven&rsquo;t had any serious injuries and I feel like I have quite a few years left in me.</p><p><b>&ldquo;I WORK HARD</b> during games and I get tired, but I bounce back fast. I play a minute and-a-half, a two-minute shift and 15 seconds after I&rsquo;m back on the bench I&rsquo;m ready to go back on the ice. Sometimes it only seems to take two good breaths before I feel refreshed and ready to go again.</p><p>&ldquo;The long season doesn&rsquo;t bother me. The travel doesn&rsquo;t bother me. I like to travel. I don&rsquo;t see any difference between home and road games. It&rsquo;s all the same out on the ice. It&rsquo;s the same game. I love the game, I always have. As long as I can remember, I wanted to play hockey for a living.&rdquo;</p><p>Don was born in April of 1947 in Asbestos, Quebec. The town got its name from asbestos mines located there. A lot of men have made a hard living out of the mines, but Don never went down in the pits. His father, Lucien, did. Don preferred the fresh air and open spaces and worked summers at an uncle&rsquo;s farm.</p><p>At 15, he went away to start his hockey career. He wound up on one of the great amateur teams of all time, the 1964-65 Memorial Cup champion Niagara Falls Flyers, whose ranks also included Doug Favell, Derek Sanderson, Gilles Marotte, Andre Pronovost, Rosaire Paiement, and Bill Goldsworthy.</p><p>Don and his wife, the former Helen Dudley, and their daughters Jodi and Nicole and son Danny still have a home in Niagara Falls, though they now have a house in suburban Boston. After two seasons at Hershey, Don joined Boston in 1968 and he has been a Bruin ever since. A lot of players have come and gone, better known, more spectacular players, but he has stayed. He is always asked for in trades, but he has stayed.</p><p>Well, after all, he is perfect.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-01

Hockey Ad Lib

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03786/3865107-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>STAN MIKITA&hellip;Decision Coming This Summer</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Robert Shaver)</span></figcaption></div><p>CHICAGO&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>hese are the dog days for Stan Mikita. By day, he sits in the locker room doing crossword puzzles. By night, he sits in the press box to witness another game of another kind. It&rsquo;s enough to make a man scream, and he&rsquo;s doing a little of that, too.</p><p>&ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t sleep two hours last night,&rdquo; said the veteran Black Hawks&rsquo; center, who has missed every regular season and playoff game since March 24, when he incurred torn rib cartilage. &ldquo;Woke up in unbelievable pain. My wife says I&rsquo;ve been yelling in my sleep.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been yelling a little bit when I&rsquo;m awake, too. I&rsquo;ve really been snappy with the kids around the house, and they don&rsquo;t deserve that. It&rsquo;s just so frustrating. You want to help but you can&rsquo;t. Aggravating.&rdquo;</p><p>The possibility is not lost on Mikita that he may be completing his brilliant career without really completing it. He may not play any more this season, but neither might he play next season. That&rsquo;s a subject to be decided later.</p><p>&ldquo;It would kind of leave a bad taste in my mouth if I went out this way,&rdquo; said the Uncheckable Czech, who scored 19 times in his 38th year. &ldquo;But you also wonder whether you want to go through another season like we&rsquo;ve had. Who needs it? It&rsquo;s not that much fun anymore.</p><p>&ldquo;If I had to make the decision tomorrow, I&rsquo;d probably hang them up. But that&rsquo;s the mood I&rsquo;m in. If I was well and playing, I wouldn&rsquo;t feel that way maybe. Whatever, 1 have the summer to think it all over, and believe me. I&rsquo;ll do a lot of thinking.</p><p>&ldquo;I do have the option of not coming back next year, but they have the option of not having me back, too. I don&rsquo;t think they would tell me that they didn&rsquo;t want me to play anymore, but I don&rsquo;t know.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what direction they&rsquo;re going in. Whether they have a five-year plan for the team, or a two-year plan to rebuild it, or what. 1 haven&rsquo;t consulted on policy for 20 years, and I don&rsquo;t expect they&rsquo;ll contact me now.</p><p>&ldquo;I am worried about the game in Chicago, though, and worried about our team. Once upon a time, we all got old at once on this club. Now, all of a sudden, we all got young at once. Look at the team picture we took earlier this season&mdash;only eight guys are left. Tremendous turnover.</p><p>&ldquo;(Bob) Pulford works and works and works and he just doesn&rsquo;t seem to get results. I feel for the guy, but maybe we have to wonder how many hockey players we really have here. How many guys are really capable of playing?</p><p>&ldquo;The record shows we won 29 games out of 80. That&rsquo;s not very good, and while you may think that&rsquo;s because of lack of effort, it has to have something to do with talent, too. The fans see that, too, and I know I don&rsquo;t want to become one of those people who doesn&rsquo;t want to pay to see a game when I&rsquo;m done.</p><p>&ldquo;A winner will bring them back. Bobby Hull might, too, for a while, but if we didn&rsquo;t win even with him back, then he might not fill the stands for more than half a year or so. They used to pay to watch him, sure, but they also paid to watch the team win.</p><p>&ldquo;Pittsburgh doesn&rsquo;t have that much better a club than us, but they sell out and we have 8,000 empty seats. Maybe it&rsquo;s because they win games 6-3 and we win games 2-1. Fans like to see scoring, but you have to go with what you have. We couldn&rsquo;t play that kind of game.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s wrong with us, but something is missing. We make too many excuses. We&rsquo;re close, the team, but when 20 of us go to lunch, we don&rsquo;t let our hair down about the team because we&rsquo;re afraid to hurt the other guy&rsquo;s feelings.</p><p>&ldquo;Maybe that&rsquo;s because so many of us are new, and maybe a few of us are uptight about all the changeover. You look over your shoulder wondering whether &lsquo;I&rsquo;m next,&rsquo; and whenever you&rsquo;re distracted that way, you can&rsquo;t do your job.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0008-03

Injuries, Future Weighing Heavily On Hawks’ Mikita

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div><p>TORONTO&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>P</span>erhaps the remark of Roger Neilson was facetious&mdash;with the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, it&rsquo;s difficult to tell sometimes&mdash;but he said that the 80 games in the National Hockey League schedule were little more than preparation for the playoffs.</p><p>&ldquo;About the only things the regular season is good for is getting a scouting report on the other teams and finding out what your players can do in various situations,&rdquo; Neilson said.</p><p>&ldquo;The playoffs really are a whole new season and what&rsquo;s happened in the schedule doesn&rsquo;t mean much.&rdquo;</p><p>The Maple Leafs&rsquo; performances in the past two playoffs indicate that 80 games of Stanley Cup preparation is the Neilson approach. In 1977-78, the Leafs&rsquo; started the season strongly, then played. 500 hockey for the concluding 40 games. But in the playoffs, they ousted Los Angeles Kings, then upset New York Islanders to advance to the semifinals for the first time in a decade.</p><p>Now the Leafs are up to their&mdash;and Neilson&rsquo;s&mdash;old tricks. The club played a &lsquo;78-79 season notable only for its ordinariness. They finished one game above the 500 mark.</p><p>But, as the Atlanta Flames discovered in the &lsquo;79 Stanley Cup preliminary round, the Leafs are the &ldquo;boys of spring,&rdquo; a team which seems to need the playoff pressure to deliver its best.</p><p>The Leafs swept the Flames aside in two games, a 2-1 victory in Atlanta in a match which featured a large brawl and a record number of penalties and a 7-4 romp in Game Two at Maple Leaf Gardens, a match that was settled when the Toronto club scored three goals in 23 seconds early in the first period.</p><p>Sometimes during the season, the Leafs had problems scoring three goals in a week, let alone 23 seconds.</p><p>The sweep of the Flames sent the Leafs into the quarter-finals against Montreal Canadiens. Of course, the Canadiens were heavily favored to win that set but even the defending Cup champions didn&rsquo;t anticipate an easy time.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011003/3865145-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="514" height="1347"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DARRYL SITTLER&hellip;Aggressive, Not Goon</b></figcaption></div><p>The Leafs themselves admit that their best style of hockey&mdash;tough, physical, defensively-oriented play delivered at an emotional peak&mdash;is more suited to a short playoff series than an 80-game schedule.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to play that way over a whole season,&rdquo; said Leaf captain Darryl Sittler. &ldquo;But in a short series, we can get on an emotional high and play the hitting game.&rdquo;</p><p>There were even some charges that the Leafs played &ldquo;goon&rdquo; hockey in the playoffs, something Sittler denied strongly.</p><p>&ldquo;Sure, we play tough physical hockey in the playoffs but there&rsquo;s nothing goon about it,&rdquo; Sittler said. &ldquo;To be effective, we have to check strongly and control the corners and the front of the net. That means being aggressive, that&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;</p><p>In the opener against the Flames, the Leafs needed some excellent goaltending from Mike Palmateer, two goals from center Walt McKen-chnie and an exceptional performance by defenseman Borje Salming to earn the win.</p><p>When Ian Turnbull and Dave Hutchison were ejected from the game for their part in the late second period scrap (five Flames, four Leafs were granted early showers), the Leafs were reduced to three defensemen.</p><p>In an incredible display of stamina, Salming played 17 minutes, 34 seconds of the third period.</p><p>In the second game, Sittler scored twice and Ron Ellis once in the 23-second outburst, a playoff record and the Flames were dead. Pat Boutette, one of the Leafs&rsquo; defensive specialists, also scored twice.</p><p>As he has all season after being reclaimed from Minnesota North Stars for a third-round draft choice just before the season opened, McKechnie was a standout for the Leafs.</p><p>He was playing in his first playoff games in 11 years, a time in which he&rsquo;s toiled for six different NHL clubs. As a rookie pro in &lsquo;66-68, McKechnie played for the North Stars in the playoffs.</p><p><b>LEAF NOTES:</b> Neilson admitted to sending Turnbull off the bench to even up the manpower during the brawl in Atlanta. Flames&rsquo; Ken Houston had left the bench to give the Atlanta club an advantage in the long, multi-layered brawl&hellip;The Boutette-Jimmy Jones-Jerry Butler line did a strong defensive job against the Flames&rsquo; potent trio of Guy Chouinard, Eric Vail and Bob MacMillan&hellip;If the Leafs had been eliminated in two games in the preliminary round, Salming would have made a quick trip to Moscow to join the Swedish national team in the world tournament&hellip;For the first time in three years, the Leafs entered the playoffs with all hands healthy.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02876/3865138-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="1106" height="1379"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>WALT MCKECHNIE&hellip;In Playoffs After 11 Years</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photos by Robert Shaver)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0009-01

Leafs’ Style Best Suited For Playoff Time

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011025/3865176-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div><p><b>Write to:</b></p><p><b>FAN FORUM,</b></p><p><b>The Hockey News,</b></p><p><b>1434 St. Catherine St., W., Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7</b></p><h2>Flyers&rsquo; Moore Slated For Stardom</h2><p>There is a player not too many people have heard of, who I think will be one of the top rookies in the NHL next season. He&rsquo;s goalie Robbie Moore of the Philadelphia Flyers. He played just four regular season games, but with a goals against average well under 2.00 and he had two shutouts.</p><p>He is a perfect example of the old adage, &ldquo;Good things come in small packages.&rdquo; (He&rsquo;s five-foot-five). Just watch, in two years &ldquo;Mighty Mite&rdquo; Moore will be one of the two or three best goalies in the league.</p><p><b>STEVE AURAND,</b><br><b>Flushing, MI.</b></p><h2>Different Rules For Montreal Canadiens</h2><p>An article published in the Troy Times Record, with an Associated Press byline, regarding the April 4 game between Montreal and Detroit reads in part: &ldquo;(Guy) Lafleur chased (referee Greg) Madill to complain about the call and bumped him&hellip;Madill let Lafleur off with a warning&hellip;&rsquo;I could give you 10 (a misconduct) for that.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>What is going on here? Hitting, or even bumping an official has always been regarded as a serious offense. Everyone remembers the celebrated suspension of Maurice &ldquo;Rocket&rdquo; Richard in 1954-55 for hitting a linesman. Phil Esposito was suspended for two games in 1968-69 for hitting a referee. There are other instances, too numerous to mention.</p><p>The referees complain about loss of respect. Is this sort of thing supposed to foster respect from the players? Shouldn&rsquo;t Lafleur have received at least a 10 minute misconduct?</p><p>There has been talk, for a couple seasons now, that the players who wear the &ldquo;bleu, blanc et rouge&rdquo; get the breaks from the referees. Is this just &ldquo;sour grapes&rdquo; talk, or is there really one set of rules for the top team and another for the rest of the league? It might give one cause to wonder.</p><p><b>MICHAELA CHARRON,</b><br><b>Hoosick Falls, N.Y.</b></p><h2>Why Not Use Soetaert?</h2><p>I wish I could find out why the Rangers don&rsquo;t play Doug Soetaert more. He has proven himself against Montreal, Islanders and the Penguins and many other teams. If he was played on a regular basis he could be one of the best goalies in the league.</p><p><b>JOHN RUSSO,</b><br><b>Hawthore, N.J.</b></p><h2>&lsquo;Oldtimers&rsquo; Deserve NHL Trophy Recognition</h2><p>I would like to see a trophy awarded to the most valuable player in the NHL &ldquo;who is 35 years of age or over.&rdquo; This year, players like Vaclav Nedomansky, Jean Ratelle, Gerry Cheevers, Stan Mikita and Phil Esposito would have a good chance to win it.</p><p>I would vote for Esposito for this trophy because he is the only 40-goal scorer who is over 35, and also the only player over 35 who averaged a point a</p><p><b>CAMERON RENAUD,</b><br><b>Smith&rsquo;s Falls, Ont.</b></p><h2>Penguins&rsquo; Kehoe Nearly Penalty-Free</h2><p>I was looking at the statistics section of a recent edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS and I noticed there was a player with no penalty minutes, Rick Kehoe of the Penguins.</p><p>He&rsquo;d played 52 games and not once had he visited the sin bin. He is not one to just to through the motions either. He contributed 40 points in those 52 games, including 24 goals. He is a silent player who does what he&rsquo;s asked and lets his performance do the talking.</p><p><b>JOHN O&rsquo;LEARY,</b><br><b>Hoffman Estates, IL.</b></p><p><b>Editor&rsquo;s note: Kehoe finished the regular season with only two penalty minutes in 57 games.</b></p><h2>Another Side To Expansion</h2><p>As an avid Cincinnati Stinger fan I would like to say that although much hoopla has been made concerning the NHL expansion to include four WHA teams, myself and many other devoted Stinger followers certainly do not treasure the thought of losing the team that has provided us with so much excitement over the past four years. An average of 7,200 fans have frequented beautiful Riverfront Coliseum during this WHA season although the team is in fifth place and has been counted out for next year for over half the season. I&rsquo;m sure however, that if Cincinnati were to receive a National Hockey League franchise that 10,000 fans per game would be the rule much more than the exception.</p><p>As the situation stands now though, each day brings Major League Hockey in the Queen City closer to extinction and although that adversity has hung heavy on the minds of many of the young Stingers, they have battled vigorously for the final playoff spot and a chance to become Avco World Trophy Champions which would be a true indication of the pride and determination that exists among the Cincinnati Stingers.</p><p><b>Ray Brink,</b><br><b>Rudolph, OH.</b></p><h2>Stingers&rsquo; Fun Wasn&rsquo;t Long Enough</h2><p>While everybody is raising a mug and toasting the merger, there is a sizeable number of us left with a big feeling of emptiness and nothing to look forward to, as far as watching hockey is concerned. We have tried, but it has been difficult to sustain interest in fans and players, as the owners of the NHL decided whether to be good enough to take all of the money and most of the decent players from whichever teams they deigned should play.</p><p>The management of the Cincinnati Stingers, wisely, I think, decided the price of admission was too steep. The four teams who did participate may soon find that&rsquo;s true.</p><p>We have a beautiful arena, one of the finest hockey facilities in North America. We had a supportive management group, and strong nucleus of loyal fans. I would hope that sometime in the future, perhaps through exhibition games, the NHL might realize that Cincinnati would be a better city, all around, than some of the weaker members that now make up part of the league.</p><p>In the meantime, while you all sit and watch hockey and can find nothing more serious to debate than whether the divisions ought to be restructured, you might remember that there are many of us in the midwest left with nothing but memories, and winter nights with nothing to do but sit and watch it snow.</p><p>It was fun while it lasted. It just didn&rsquo;t last long enough. To our players: &ldquo;Au revoir&hellip;Bonne chance.&rdquo; We&rsquo;ll miss you.</p><p><b>BILL CRAFTON,</b><br><b>Cincinnati, Oh</b></p><h2>Disagrees With Ratings of Swedes</h2><p>I am replying to a letter written by Rick Booth and his statement that the only &ldquo;Super Swede&rdquo; in N.Y. is Stefan Persson.</p><p>In my opinion, he ought to watch more Ranger games. Nilsson and Hedberg are two great hockey players who are very talented and smart.</p><p>I am a Ranger fan and I&rsquo;ll admit that Persson is a great defenseman, but Nilsson and Hedberg are just as good or better. They have to be good to have been selected by Scotty Bowman for Team Canada.</p><p><b>CRAIG RICE,</b><br><b>Lancaster, PA.</b></p><h2>Question About Players Of Week</h2><p>What&rsquo;s up? Is the news media here in Pittsburgh telling us the truth, or is it just giving us some trumped up hype?</p><p>They were telling us that for the week ending March 31, that the Penguin&rsquo;s Denis Herron was the NHL Player of the Week.</p><p>According to THE HOCKEY NEWS it was Trottier for 3/30, Chouinard for 4/6, & McDonald for 4/13.</p><p>Who&rsquo;s right? Who picks the player of the week? Is the player of the week in THE HOCKEY NEWS the player of the week in the NHL, or just THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; player selection.</p><p>I just think that a team that&rsquo;s come a long way this year through sheer hard work and hustle should get a little recognition when it&rsquo;s due.</p><p>I enjoy your paper very much and look forward to it every week.</p><p><b>MIKE SMALLEY,</b><br><b>W. Mifflin, PA.</b></p><p><b>Editor&rsquo;s Note: THE HOCKEY NEWS and the NHL each pick their own Player of the Week.</b></p><h2>Kings&rsquo; Lessard Earned Rookie Honors</h2><p>Here are some statistics in the NHL this regular season: no NHL rookie is in the top five of an all-NHL category, with the exception of Mario Lessard of the Los Angeles Kings, who tied for second in shutouts with four. Also, Lessard is in the top 10-12 in terms of goals against average (3.10), while no other rookie is in the top 10-12 of a category.</p><p>For these reasons, I feel that Mario Lessard is the most deserving choice for the Calder Memorial Trophy, for the NHL&rsquo;s best rookie of 1978-79.</p><p>Bobby Smith, of Minnesota, and Wayne Babych, of St. Louis, are both excellent players who averaged close to one point-per-game. But none truly backboned a team as Lessard did.</p><p>Also, no rookie was placed in the position of replacing a superstar. Rogie Vachon may have been (or may still be) the greatest goalie in the NHL, perhaps ever. Lessard, under much pressure, compounded by the fact that the Kings received no compensation for Vachon performed admirably, even becoming only the fourth goalie in NHL history to record a shutout in his first NHL start (a feat later duplicated by Flyer Robbie Moore). Not even Vachon did this.</p><p>In the fans&rsquo; poll, Smith was named rookie-of-the-year, I feel, however, that Lessard was given no chance in this poll.</p><p>Only the top five rookie scorers were listed, not the top five roolie goaltenders. Most fans probably chose their All Star teams by looking only at the lists of scorers.</p><p><b>MEL POWELL,</b><br><b>Los Angeles, CA.</b></p><h2>Flyers&rsquo; Stephenson Overlooked By Everyone</h2><p>The shabby treatment of certain NHL players by both management and the media has, at times, aggravated me to the point of distraction. Case in point: Wayne Stephenson, of the Philadelphia Flyers.</p><p>Since moving to Philadelphia in 1974, he has consistently demonstrated his reliability, and competence while acting as back-up to Bernie Parent. In his years with the Flyers he has registered highly respectable goals against averages of 2.72,2.58. 2.31 and 2.75, while working on an irregular basis. When Parent has faltered, or been injured, Stephenson has been called to the rescue. He has proven himself ever-ready, and able.</p><p>It is a tribute to the man&rsquo;s professionalism that, despite neglect, and mistreatment, he has avoided tempermental outbursts, and maintained his steady, team-oriented attitude.</p><p>His efforts have earned him several return engagements in the press-box; watching, while a younger goalie was given a trial as his possible replacement.</p><p>As far as media coverage, their lack of recognition borders on the phenomenal. The oft used tag of &ldquo;Forgotten Man&rdquo; is particularly appropriate in his case.</p><p>Now Mr. Parent has suffered a tragic eye injury that has jeopardized the remainder of his career. Once again, Stephenson has been asked to bail the Flyers out. Once again, he has shown himself equal to the challenge.</p><p>From February 18, to March 18, the Flyers were 8-2-2 with Stephenson in goal. Naively, I had expected to be able, at last, to see some glowing reviews of Mr. Stephenson&rsquo;s performance. Instead, I read of what a dilemma Keith Allen is in trying to find a goaltender because Stephenson can&rsquo;t be counted on come Stanley Cup time.</p><p>What does the man have to do to prove himself?</p><p>At the beginning of this season, Stephenson requested that a trade be made so that he might go to a team where he would see more playing time. If the Flyers intend to continue to treat Stephenson like a second class citizen, then I wish they would, indeed, engineer such a trade. As a hockey fan, I feel cheated when personal grudges interfere with professional objectivity, and talent is allowed to go to waste. Let him go to a team where his considerable abilities can be recognized, and appreciated. Let him find a home where he can finally fulfill his potential, and desire to serve his team with characteristic excellentce, and devotion.</p><p><b>MELODEE KING,</b><br><b>San Pedro, Cal.</b></p><h2><b>LETTER OF THE WEEK</b></h2><h3>Fans Losers In NHL Expansion</h3><p>I would first like to say that I am one-hundred percent for the NHL-WHA merger (expansion). However, I&rsquo;m tired of Learing from players, coaches, owners and especially league executives that this was the best thing for hockey. I&rsquo;m sure that it was, from a biddingwars and salary standpoint.</p><p>But what about us fans? Sure, we&rsquo;re also glad the two leagues have come together. And, as those higher echelon league executives say, it will create greater fan interest in both Canada and the United States.</p><p>Well, if this was their big concern&mdash;fan interest&mdash;how could they totally avoid creating natural rivalries such as New England-Boston and Montreal-Quebec. These cities are close enough for fans to attend both ends of a home and home series.</p><p>After countless hours of negotiations. for the past two or three years, these so called &ldquo;executives&rdquo; who have the fan close to their heart, finally reached an agreement for the two leagues to merge and then pick names out of a hat to create divisional alignment. And, as usual, the fan loses again.</p><p><b>BILL ROWE,</b><br><b>Windsor, Ont.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0010-01

FAN FORUM

f0010-02

Stanley Cup Picture

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><p>BOSTON&mdash;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-01982/3865238-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="570" height="1086"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RICK MIDDLETON&hellip;Lady Byng Candidate</b></figcaption></div><p>He came to Boston three years ago as sort of a footnote to one of the biggest trades in hockey history.</p><p>His first two years in a Bruins uniform were sheet torture as an unsympathetic coach twisted and hammered him into the kind of player he wanted him to be.</p><p>But, in the last week of the 1978-79 National Hockey League season, suddenly it was all worthwhile for Rick Middleton.</p><p>For one thing, he collected just about every piece of silverware that is passed out annually to the best and most pupular members of the Bruins.</p><p>He won the Elizabeth C. Dufresne Trophy, voted by the Boston hockey writers to the outstanding player in home games. Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito used to take turns winning it.</p><p>He took the Seventh Player Award, given by WSBK, Channel 38, which televises the Bruins&rsquo; games, to the Bruin who played the most beyond expectations.</p><p>He captured the Three Star Award, presented by WITS Radio, which broadcasts Bruins&rsquo; games, to the player who won first star in the most games during the season.</p><p>And he shared with Al Sims the Eddie Shore Trophy, given by the Gallery Gods, an organization of fans from the most remote balcony in Boston Garden, to their MVP in home games.</p><p>No Bruin had ever before swept all four awards.</p><p>&ldquo;Frankly, it was a little embarrassing,&rdquo; said Middleton after he had stepped out on the ice in street clothes for the fourth time to pick up a trophy just before the final game of the season.</p><p>He watched the last six games in civvies nursing a groin pull that had halted his goal production at 38, the best of his five years NHL career.</p><p>&ldquo;I would have liked to have gotten 40 goals,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but 1 couldn&rsquo;t have played until tonight and Don (Cherry) decided to hold me out so I&rsquo;d be ready for the playoffs.</p><p>&ldquo;This has been the longest lingering minor injury that I&rsquo;ve ever had. It wasn&rsquo;t until the last couple of days of the season that I even felt like skating.&rdquo;</p><p>Middleton came to the Bruins in the summer of 1976 in exchange for Ken Hodge when the New York Rangers felt that Hodge was needed to restore his old linemate, Phil Esposito, to top scoring form.</p><p>He always could score but he didn&rsquo;t have much chance to because his defense was so bad that the coach hated to put him out on the ice regularly.</p><p>This year, however, he led the Bruins in goals (38), points (86) and power play goals (12) while taking a turn killing penalties. Coach trusted him enough to have him out with his ace defenders in the last minute of a close game.</p><p>Middleton wound up the season a serious candidate for the Lady Byng Trophy with only seven minutes in penalties, most of them accumulated during an unexpected fisticuff session with Toronto&rsquo;s Darryl Sittler during the second game-of the season.</p><p>Middleton failed to reach the 40-goal plateau but two Bruins achieved the 20-goal mark in the last games of the season. Don Marcotte got his 20th in the first period but Bobby Schmautz didn&rsquo;t get his until there were only six seconds left in the whole season.</p><p><b>WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN</b> Rookie Dwight Foster, who never really had a chance to play for the Bruins in two years with the club, had eight goals and eight assists in the last 11 games&hellip;O&rsquo;Reilly led the team in assists (51) and penalties (205 minutes)&hellip;Bruins finished with 100 points, their ninth 100-points or better season, tying them with Montreal Canadiens&hellip;John Wensink, who had 24 goals in the first half of the season, would up with 28.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0011-01

Fans, Media Honor Star Middleton Who Became Bruins’ Top Performer

<div class="byline">HENSHAW</div><p>BOSTON&mdash;</p><p>Most NHL players have 20-goal bonuses written into their contracts.</p><p>One who left Boston Garden disappointed was Tiger Williams of Toronto, who had to settle for 19 after four shots on net and one goal post in the season&rsquo;s finale.</p><p>Leafs&rsquo; coach Roger Neilson blamed Don Cherry for putting a shadow on Williams when he saw that the Leafs were trying to set him up. Actually Terry O&rsquo;Reilly was the culprit.</p><p>&ldquo;Last year,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly, &ldquo;I had 19 and we went into Toronto and he said to me on a faceoff, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not going to get your 20th out here.&rsquo; It was kind of fun covering him tonight.&rdquo;</p><p>Reportedly, Williams had a $5,000 bonus riding on 20 goals.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Terry Tames Tiger

<h2><b>GOALS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02838/3865328-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="542" height="368"></div><h2><b>ASSISTS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03659/3865321-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="544" height="400"></div><h2><b>POWER PLAY GOALS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-04534/3865314-1-eng-US/f0011-042.jpg" title="f0011-04" width="546" height="500"></div><h2><b>SHORTHANDED GOALS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-05435/3865307-1-eng-US/f0011-052.jpg" title="f0011-05" width="548" height="324"></div><h2><b>GAME WINNING GOALS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-06378/3865300-1-eng-US/f0011-062.jpg" title="f0011-06" width="545" height="392"></div><h2><b>GAME TYING GOALS</b></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-07342/3865293-1-eng-US/f0011-072.jpg" title="f0011-07" width="543" height="286"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0011-02

Bossy Top PP Scorer

<h2>It&rsquo;s Been A Long Season</h2><p><b>&mdash;A FEW OBSERVATIONS</b> at the end of a long hockey season which leads to a long playoff.</p><p>&mdash;It will be interesting to see which owner of the 17 established NHL teams complains first about what bad attractions the four &ldquo;expansion teams from the World Hockey Association are next season. By permitting the WHA clubs to protect only two goalers and two skaters from their &lsquo;78-79 rosters, the NHL has guaranteed their mediocrity. Complaints about the caliber of the new clubs will be the same as kid murdering his parents and then hollering about being an orphan.</p><p>&mdash;The NHL&rsquo;s playoff set-up will be even worse next season when 16 teams out of the 21 are included in the post-season tournament. There will be four division winners and 12 wild-card clubs. At least, the best teams over the 80 games will be included. But a potential total of 26 games for the finalists seems a little absurd, doesn&rsquo;t it?</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-01999/3865359-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="560" height="498"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Dave Burrows</b></figcaption></div><p>&mdash;Perhaps the best news of the &lsquo;78-79 NHL season was that the fans in a couple of U.S. cities had booed during fights. The only way the league will outlaw its most ridiculous aspect&mdash;fist fighting With bare knuckles&mdash;is if the paying customers start to react adversely to it in large numbers.</p><h2>Just Getting Started</h2><p><b>&mdash;WHILE PLAYING TALENT</b> is a large lack for major league hockey, a large problem is a lack of good general managers and coaches. Think not? Answer this question, then. You&rsquo;re starting a team and need a good general manager. Who would you hire? The NHL has only itself to blame for the shortage by sticking to the one GM and one coach per team approach for so long. In football and baseball assistant coaches learn their trade at the big league level, then move into head coaching posts. Hockey is just getting started on the multi-coach approach a few decades late.</p><p>&mdash;The fact that Marcel Dionne of Los Angeles Kings and Guy Chouinard and Bob MacMillan played on clubs that don&rsquo;t have good rushing defensemen gives their 100-points-plus seasons even more lustre. The high-scoring backliner is a big part of most teams&rsquo; attacks now.</p><p>&mdash;More goals were scored in the NHL this season than in any recent campaign. In &lsquo;77-78, seven NHL clubs surrendered fewer than three goals per game. This season, only two were in that category&mdash;Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders. Toronto&rsquo;s veteran defenseman Dave Burrows had a good explanation: &ldquo;Most young players who have entered the NHL in the past two or three seasons have good shots, hard and accurate. The kids seem to have abandoned the slap-shot with the big wind-up and are using the snap-shot now.&rdquo;</p><h2>A Tip Of The Hat</h2><p><b>&mdash;A TIP OF THE HAT</b> to Phil Esposito of New York Rangers. More than a few NHL wise-guys had his career near an end but he rebounded with a 42-goal campaign and worked his butt off for the Rangers.</p><p>&mdash;Look for the NHL and its players&rsquo; association to quickly settle on a new agreement despite the claims of NHLPA executive-director Alan Eagleson that the merger of the NHL and WHA would create tough negotiations.</p><p>&mdash;Maybe the WHA isn&rsquo;t the world&rsquo;s best hockey league but the fact that Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Wayne Gretzky, who turned 18 in January, scored more than 100 points is a remarkable feat.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-01

HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02843/3865390-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>EDDIE JOHNSTONE&hellip;Unsung Ranger Important Factor</b></figcaption></div><p>NEW YORK&mdash;</p><p>The ultimate New York hockey fantasy is just one game away from becoming a reality.</p><p>The fantasy is a Stanley Cup semifinal clash between the Rangers and the Islanders, their rivals from the suburbs, and all the Rangers have to do to earn the right to meet what a lot of people think is the best team in hockey is win one more game from the rapidly fading Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers&rsquo; quarter-final opponent.</p><p>Less than one week ago, it was the Rangers who seemed to be fading rapidly as they squandered a 2-0 lead and lost the first game of the series, 3-2, on Ken Linseman&rsquo;s overtime goal for Philly.</p><p>But since that night the Rangers have been absolutely awesome, gaining momentum and confidence with each game as they careen toward what now looks like an inevitable confrontation with the Islanders in the semis. Here&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;ve done so far:</p><p>&bull; They have beaten the Flyers in three straight games since losing that first one in Philly. Actually, &ldquo;beaten&rdquo; is really not a strong enough word to describe what the Rangers have been doing to the Flyers for the last week. &ldquo;Annihilated&rdquo; or &ldquo;destroyed&rdquo; are really more appropriate terms to accurately convey what the Rangers did to the Flyers in those 7-1, 5-1, and 6-0 games.</p><p>&bull; Ranger goalie John Davison has been magnificent, holding the Flyers scoreless since the 1:38 mark of the first period of the third game, when Mel Bridgman beat him for a goal. The Rangers went on to win that game, 5-1, their first victory at home against the Flyers since April 4, 1976&mdash;more than three years ago. Since that game, the Rangers had been 0-2-8 against Philadelphia.</p><p>Two nights later, Davidson stood on his head once again, shutting the Flyers out, 6-0, and stopping 28 shots. The shutout was Davidson&rsquo;s first since December 9, 1977, when he beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-0, and it meant that the Flyers hadn&rsquo;t put a puck past him with the 60 shots they took at him over 118 minutes and 22 seconds&mdash;almost two hours of game time. The Rangers, meanwhile, were scoring 11 unanswered goals during the same span.</p><p>In six playoff games (the L.A. series included) Davidson has given up only six goals&mdash;for a superb 1.17 goals-against average. His reaction to all of this?</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not me,&rdquo; he told a crowd of reporters around his locker after the shutout. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the team. John Davidson isn&rsquo;t winning these games. The New York Rangers are.&rdquo;</p><p>In their three consecutive wins, the Rangers have outscored the Flyers, 182, and have allowed a paltry five goals in the entire series.</p><p>What&rsquo;s the secret?</p><p>&ldquo;Confidence,&rdquo; said a beaming Ron Duguay after the fourth game was all over.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s the secret of all of this. With each game we win, we become that much more confident and we&rsquo;re gonna be that much harder to beat.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;I think J.D.&rsquo;s been the secret to this whole thing,&rdquo; said Pat Hickey. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been the spark for us, making the big saves, doing it all. History has proved that the team with the hot goalie wins games in the playoffs and goes places. That&rsquo;s nothing new.&rdquo;</p><p>Neither is the play the team has been getting out of some of its more unpublicized members, like Pierre Plante, Mario Marois and Eddie Johnstone. All three, Johnstone especially, have been outstanding in the Philly series, unselfishly sacrificing their bodies, diving in front of pucks, skating endlessly and doing anything and everything that is asked of them by coach Fred Shero.</p><p>The same can be said for the Rangers&rsquo; latest acquisition&mdash;a diminutive, fastskating center from the New Haven farm team named Bobby Sheehan, who was initially brought up by Shero for the second game of this series to contain Flyers speedster Ken Linseman. Sheehan is a much travelled player who has been with nine different NHL, WHA and minor league teams since breaking into the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens in 1969. He was the Nighthawks&rsquo; leading scorer (81 points) this past season and was home in bed when the phone rang late on the same night that the Rangers lost that first game of the series to the Flyers.</p><p>&ldquo;My wife throught it was one of my old buddies asking me to come out and party,&rdquo; Sheehan said, &ldquo;but it wasn&rsquo;t. It was New Haven coach Parker MacDonald, and he told me to get to Philly as quickly as I could.&rdquo;</p><p>Getting someplace quickly has never been a problem for Sheehan, a native of Weymouth, Mass.&mdash;especially when he&rsquo;s on the ice. He&rsquo;s always been one of the speediest skaters wherever he&rsquo;s played, and his age (30) hasn&rsquo;t seemed to have slowed him down in the slightest.</p><p>&ldquo;He gives us tremendous speed out there,&rdquo; Sherd says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s quick, smart and he makes things happen out there.&rdquo;</p><p>Right now, the entire Ranger team is Sheehan-has acquired through the years as a hard-drinking, fun-loving free spirit is an undeserved one. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s ridiculous,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;Maybe a couple of years ago he liked to go out and go crazy. But he is married now, with a couple of kids. And he&rsquo;s one of the most dedicated players I&rsquo;ve ever coached. He&rsquo;s running all the time, working on the weight machines&hellip;everything. I couldn&rsquo;t ask him to do anything more.&rdquo;&hellip;Garden fans have a sign for Sheehan hanging in a corner of the arena. It&rsquo;s a left-over from his WHA days with the old New York Raiders&hellip;Don Murdoch took eight shots on goal in the fourth game against the Flyers&mdash;a Ranger playoff record making things happen and if they continue along their present course&mdash;that hockey &ldquo;subway series&rdquo; is right around the corner.</p><p><b>BLUE CHIPS:</b> Ranger captain Dave Maloney left the fourth game in the third period with a severe Charley horse. He spent the night packed in ice in Lenox Hill hospital and was listed as doubtful for the fifth game in Philly&hellip;New Haven coach Parker MacDonald says that the rap Bobby<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0012-02

Subway Series Looms Big As Rangers Smite Flyers

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-01961/3865428-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"></div><p>MONTREAL&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he Montreal Forum reverberated with gales of laughter during&mdash;what had to be&mdash;the Canadiens&rsquo; loosest, liveliest, most fun practice of the year. The Canadiens had just taken a two games to none lead in their Stanley Cup quarter-final series with the Toronto Maple Leafs.</p><p>Laughter, ice and water fights, players doing impressions of teammates&hellip;Goaler Ken Dryden dropkicking a long shot flipped at him from the opposite end of the ice&hellip;Jacques Lemaire telling Dryden to &lsquo;kick that one&rsquo; as a Gilles Lupien shot passed several feet above Dryden&rsquo;s head into the stands&hellip;Assistant coach Claude Ruel joining with Pierre Larouche and Cam Connor for a series of penalty shots against goaler Bunny Larocque.</p><p>It was a brisk, light-hearted 50 minutes of action that was designed to maintain the Canadiens sharp edge.</p><p>From the whirlpool bath, Ruel, the invaluable assistant to coach Scotty Bowman, who is in his element as the right-hand man of the bench boss, rather than behind the helm where he patrolled for two years and two months before returning to scouting, explains the coaching staff&rsquo;s objectives and the attitude of the players.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re happy, and they deserve it,&rdquo; Ruel begins. &ldquo;We were down 2-0 in the first game and came back for a 5-2 win and then we played very well in the second game for our 5-1 victory.</p><p>&ldquo;Now the pressure&rsquo;s on them (Toronto),&rdquo; said Ruel. &ldquo;We just had a little skate and a scrimmage, just to keep their momentum. Plus we play back to back on the weekend, so we don&rsquo;t want to tire our guys out.</p><p>&ldquo;We only went 40-45 minutes, but did you see how many guys were out for some extra skating and shooting? About 15 guys&hellip;and then we had to get them off the ice,&rdquo; Ruel added.</p><p>&ldquo;You keep your momentum with hard work, and winning comes on hard work and desire,&rdquo; said Ruel. &ldquo;Our players are skating free now. They&rsquo;ve come back from their week off and are taking advantage of their breaks.&rdquo;</p><p>Meanwhile Scotty Bowman offered a few observations of what to expect from the Leafs in the Toronto portion of the series, and as it turned out he was quite accurate in his assessment.</p><p>&ldquo;I expect the Leafs to go to the attack more,&rdquo; Bowman said in his office before the series switched to Maple Leaf Gardens, &ldquo;they&rsquo;ve got to get more going on offense and I think they usually do play a more offensive style on their home ice. I don&rsquo;t know if they&rsquo;ll be doing any more hitting.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s (Leaf coach Roger Neilson) trying to remind his team to check us closely; not get penalties, but to get in the way,&rdquo; related Bowman. &ldquo;What we have to do is establish our skating game, that&rsquo;s our strength; we have to use the speed we have to make our plays.&rdquo;</p><p>Bowman&rsquo;s final words were the most prophetic when he said: &ldquo;You can never tell from game to game how a series will go&rdquo;</p><p>As Bowman had indicated the Leafs went to the attack much more in Game Three and overcame an early deficit produced by Mark Napier&rsquo;s goal, to grab a 2-1 first period lead. After Larry Robinson had tied the game in the middle frame and Jacques Lemaire had given the Habs their second lead of the game, Darryl Sittler sent the contest into overtime with a goal with 2:20 remaining in the third period.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02801/3865421-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="1194" height="1471"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Ken Dryden defends, at left, without his mask during quarter-final action against the Toronto Maple Leafs. At right, Dryden readjusts mask which had been knocked into the net by a hard shot.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photos by Ian MacAlpine)</span></figcaption></div><p>Following a scoreless overtime, Cam Connor, who had one goal and three assists in 23 regular season games, scored 5:25 into the second overtime for a 4-3 decision and a 3-0 series lead.</p><p>Game Four also produced overtime as the Canadiens tried to sit on a 4-0 lead and surrendered pairs of Leaf scores in the second and third period which deadlocked the game at 4-4. But Robinson closed out the Leafs when he scored a power play goal at 4:14 with Tiger Williams in the penalty bow for highsticking Robinson.</p><p>Perhaps the most important aspect of the Canadiens winning in four games was that it would give their injury-plagued forward ranks a chance to heal.</p><p>Doug Jarvis was injured during the week of practices before the series began and Mario Tremblay bumped a knee during a first game skirmish with Pat Boutette. Barring further complications, both will be ready for the semi-final against Boston.</p><p>Steve Shutt sustained a charley-horse in Game Three and Mark Napier banged a knee, forcing both to the sidelines for the second game in Toronto, but with at least four days before the start of the semi-finals, both will likely be ready.</p><p>That, once again, leaves Reggie Houle as the only doubtful starter. Houle, who missed 10 games near the end of the schedule with pulled groin and stomach muscles, dressed for one game and was reinjured. His health is uncertain, but it&rsquo;s unlikely he&rsquo;ll play any more this season.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Loose Canadiens Able To Overwhelm Leafs

<p>NEW YORK&mdash;</p><p>Joel P. Nixon, who formerly held executive TV positions with the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, the New York Mets, and Madison Square Garden, has been named director of broadcasting for the National Hockey League. The announcement of Nixon&rsquo;s appointment was made by NHL president John Ziegler.</p><p>Nixon joins the NHL from Madison Square Garden, where as senior vice president, he has been responsible for television development. Ziegler said, &ldquo;Joel Nixon will be called upon to develop national and international television opportunities for the NHL and to help position the League and its members within the emerging technology of cable and subscription television.&rdquo;</p><p>Nixon is a 27 year veteran of the sports broadcasting industry. During the 50&rsquo;s and early 60&rsquo;s, he ran the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports TV series. In the mid-1960&rsquo;s, he reorganized and served as executive producer of the New York Mets radio package.</p><p>In 1967, Nixon became director of sports at Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency, where he developed sports TV programming for major national and local advertisers, working with teams, leagues and promoters throughout the country and with the television networks. In that role, he was instrumental in mobilizing the advertising support that helped launch the NHL&rsquo;s national network series in 1968.</p><p>At Madison Square Garden, Nixon has been responsible for developing local, national and overseas television and-or cable exposure for Garden sports events of all kinds.</p><p>Nixon, who assumed his new position on April 16, will be headquartered at the NHL office at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, in New York city.</p><div class="sidebar"><p><b>Hockey Opportunity Ads can get you fast results. If you want to advertise for a hockey position or want to fill a hockey job, why not call THE HOCKEY NEWS, (514) 866-4841, and ask for the ad taker in our Montreal office or write us for line rates at 1434 St. Catherine St., West, Montreal, Canada, H3G 1R7.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p></div>

Nixon Leaves Garden Post To Head NHL’s TV Program

<h2><i>Ranger Duo Most Popular</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-01981/3865504-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="656" height="1569"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02818/3865497-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="2415" height="1559"></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>V</span>eteran Phil Esposito of the Rangers came in for two awards during recent season-ending presentations to members of the New York club. Here&rsquo;s Espo at extreme left receiving MVP award from the Westside Association. The media votes on the award. At near left, he holds the Frank Boucher award voted on by the Ranger fans. Ulf Nilsson, above left, was voted the &lsquo;Players&rsquo; Player&rsquo; award by the Westside Association. It is voted on by the Ranger players and is a highly prestigious award in the eyes of the team members.</b></p><h2><i>Meeting At The Top</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03618/3865490-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="1204" height="1641"></div><p><b>NHL president John Ziegler, left, and WHA chieftan Howard Baldwin, put their heads together during a recent NHL game at the Montreal Forum. Ziegler&rsquo;s league recently took in four of Baldwin&rsquo;s best franchises in the latest NHL expansion. Baldwin is also a top executive in the operation of the New England Whalers and will be in the NHL next season as well.</b></p><h2><i>Howe&rsquo;s 1,000th Goal Commemorated</i></h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04434/3865483-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="1831" height="1761"></div><p><b>Gordie Howe, who is still going strong at age 51, became the first player in professional hockey to score 1,000 career goals and to celebrate the occasion, he was presented with this plaque by the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Authority in Alabama to record the historical event in pro hockey. Howe&rsquo;s marker will hang at the 19th Street entrance to the Birmingham Coliseum.</b><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02777/3865566-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="444" height="561"></div><h2><i>EUROPEAN CLUBS ARE LOOKING FOR YOU</i></h2><p class="dropcap"><span>M</span>any hockey players would like to play professional hockey in Europe but have difficulty in finding out where positions are open. In addition, European coaches are very reluctant to choose a player, pay his travel expenses and offer him a contract on the basis of a letter from that player without first seeing him play. CAN/AM can save you a lot of time and money by running a European Tryout Camp in Guelph, Ontario in June.</p><h2>CALIBRE OF PLAYER REQUIRED</h2><p>European Coaches and Scouts are looking for all types of players. Because of the many different division levels in Europe, there is a need for College, Senior, Junior A, and even Junior B players as well as the Pros. The scouts and coaches will be at this Tryout Camp looking for players.</p><h2>FACTS ABOUT EUROPEAN HOCKEY</h2><p>1. MOST EUROPEAN TEAMS ARE ALLOWED UP TO TWO IMPORTS;</p><p>2. IF YOU CAN GET DUAL CITIZENSHIP PAPERS OF THE COUNTRY IN QUESTION, THEN YOU ARE NOT CONSIDERED AN IMPORT and the chances of making the club are even better.</p><p>CAN YOU GET CITIZENSHIP?</p><p>Yes, a) If your parents were still citizens of the European country in question at the time of your birth,</p><p>OR b) If you were born in that country but are no longer a citizen of it.</p><p>3. PLAYING PRO HOCKEY IN EUROPE CAN MEAN A VALUABLE EXPERIENCE, HIGH PAY AND A SPRINGBOARD TO NORTH AMERICAN PRO HOCKEY.</p><p>SEND YOUR APPLICATION AND RESUME NOW</p><p><b>LOCATION:</b> Guelph, Ontario, Canada</p><p><b>DATES:</b> June 17-21</p><p><b>MINIMUM AGE:</b> 18 years as of June 1</p><p><b>REGISTRATION FEE:</b> $95.00</p><p><b>RESUME:</b> Required with application fee, to include stats & previous teams.</p><p><b>DEADLINE:</b> Decisions as to acceptance to Try Out Camp will be made May 21.</p><p><b>ACCOMODATION:</b> Available on the University of Guelph campus upon request at a nominal fee.</p><p><b>EQUIPMENT:</b> Must be supplied by the player.</p><p>EUROPEAN CLUBS ARE LOOKING FOR YOU</p><p>CALIBRE OF PLAYER REQUIRED</p><p>Includes 3 one-hour practices and 4 complete (3 period stop time) games with pro officials. The practice time will include team practices and individual fundamental skill testing. Coaches will be assigned to each team for practices and games.</p><p>SEND CHECK AND RESUMETO:</p><p>CAN/AM HOCKEY GROUP</p><p>BOX 634</p><p>GUELPH, ONTARIO, CANADA N1H 6L4</p><p>(519) 824-3515</p><p>Or write or call the above for further information and brochure. All monies will be refunded for those not accepted into the Try Out Camp.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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HOCKEY PLAYERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01786/3865597-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="536" height="774"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>LARRY ROBINSON&hellip;Overtime Decider</b></figcaption></div><p>TORONTO&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>t took three periods of overtime to do it&mdash;with goals from about as divurgent a pair of players that one team could produce&mdash;but the Montreal Canadiens took two hard-fought victories in Toronto to oust the Maple Leafs in four consecutive games for the second year in a row.</p><p>After outplaying the Leafs in five of six periods in Montreal while winning by scores of 5-2 and 5-1, the battered Canadiens&mdash;who entered the Toronto segment of games with three players on the sidelines and left with five regulars out of action&mdash;finally received some competition from the Leafs.</p><p>In Game Three, the Leafs gained their second tie of the night on Darryl Sittler&rsquo;s fourth goal of the playoffs to launch the teams into overtime, knotted at 3-3.</p><p>Twenty-five minutes and 25 seconds later, as the teams were into their second period of overtime, little-used Cam Connor took a pass from Doug Risebrough and dribbled a backhand shot under a sliding Mike Palmateer who came out of the Leaf goal to challenge on the play.</p><p>When the Canadiens assumed a 40 lead by the 10:31 mark of Game Four, overtime was the farthest thing from most people&rsquo;s minds, but the Leafs staged a valliant comeback and with goals by Rocky Saganiuk and Sittler, in the second period and by Walt McKechnie and Dan Maloney, 29 seconds apart with less than seven minutes to play, brought 16,485 fans to their feet and sent the game into overtime for the second night in succession.</p><p>The suspense was much shorter this time around as Larry Robinson&mdash;who captured the Conn Smythe Trophy a year ago as the most valuable player of the playoffs&mdash;scored on a screened shot from the point with Toronto&rsquo;s Dave Williams in the penalty box for high-sticking. It was Robinson&rsquo;s third goal of the playoffs and second of the night as he had given Montreal a 2-0 lead in the first period while both teams were a man short.</p><p>Connor, who appeared in just 23 games for the Canadiens this year, didn&rsquo;t have a shift in the 60 minutes of regulation time, but was pressed into service in the overtime periods when Mark Napier came up lame with a knee injury. He broke in with Risebrough down the right side, and after taking Risebrough&rsquo;s feed attempted to pull the puck to his forehand as Palmateer came out. The puck slipped off the end of his stick and slid along the ice beneath the Leaf goaler for the winning score.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-01

Montreal Takes 2 Overtime Contests

<p>NEW YORK&mdash;</p><p>Were it not for a stretch during the first game of the quarter-final series between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers where the Rangers attempted to &ldquo;sit on&rdquo; a one-goal lead, only to allow the Flyers to tie the game and then win it in overtime, the &ldquo;Cinderella&rdquo; Rangers might already have joined Montreal, the Islanders and Boston as semi-final round contests.</p><p>Still, with a 3-1 series lead, they&rsquo;ll be favored to join them shortly.</p><p>The difference with the Rangers, outside of the fact that they weren&rsquo;t able to advance in four games, as did the other semi-final participants, is that the Rangers were underdogs in their series, after finishing behind the Flyers in the Patrick Division and were forced to relinquish the home-ice advantage for the best-of-seven series to the Flyers.</p><p>But once past the disappointment of losing 3-2 when Ken Linseman scored just 44 seconds into sudden death overtime, the Rangers came on to wrest command of the series with lopsided triumphs, winning by margins of six, four and six goals, and allowing just two goals in three games.,</p><p>The Islanders, who eliminated the Chicago Black Hawks, needed overtime for their second victory in a pair of games decided by one goal against Pittsburgh and the Montreal Canadiens (see box) were twice forced into overtime before ending the season for Toronto.</p><p>Defenseman Ron Greschner was the hero for the Rangers in Game Two in Philadelphia&rsquo;s Spectrum when he broke a 1-1 in the first period and later added another goal to spark a 7-1 romp.</p><p>Little Robbie Moore, the five-foot-five Flyers&rsquo; netminder was tagged with his first loss in National Hockey League play and was replaced by Wayne Stephenson as the Rangers built a 5-1 lead by the end of the second period. Steve Vickers, Don Maloney, Eddie Johnstone, Don Murdoch and Mike McEwen added the other Ranger scores.</p><p>Don Maloney was the Rangers&rsquo; hero in Game Three, rallying the club from a 1-0 deficit with second period goals 26 seconds apart to rouse the Madison Square Garden throng. Anders Hedberg, Ron Duguay and Murdoch finished the Ranger onslaught while Mel Bridgman had the lone Flyers goal in the first period.</p><p>In the second game in New York, it was goaltender John Davidson&rsquo;s turn to shine. Davidson, who&rsquo;s allowed only seven goals in six playoff starts, chalked up his first playoff shutout and received ample support from Don Murdoch and Eddie Johnstone, who each scored goals in both the first and the third periods. Esposito, tied for the playoff points led with teammate Don Maloney at 10, provided a second-period goal, as did Bobby Sheehan, who had just been recalled for the start of the quarter-finals from the Rangers&rsquo; New Haven farm team.</p><p>Mike Bossy kept the lead in the playoff goal-scoring race with two more scores as the Islanders closed out the Black Hawks in four straight games. The first one&mdash;his fourth of the playoffs&mdash;was the only goal allowed by Tony Esposito of the Black Hawks in 62:31 of hockey, while Billy Smith col-lected the shutout. Smith turned aside 22 shots, while Esposito faced 40.</p><p>Billy Harris&rsquo; first period tally was all the Islanders needed in Game Three as Chico Resch took a turn between the pipes for a shutout in a 4-0 Isles&rsquo; victory and Eddie Westfall&rsquo;s tally proved to be the winner in a 3-1 contest in Chicago which closed out the series. Bossy added his fifth playoff goal as the insurance marker in that one.</p><p>Boston Bruins turned to the &ldquo;M Boys&rdquo; to key their four-game sweep of the Penguins. It was Mike Milbury who scored the winner and Don Marcotte with two goals, who paced a 6-2 series opening win in Boston and Bob Miller scored the winner in Game Two by notching the fourth Boston goal before the Penguins brought the score to 4-3 with a goal in the final six seconds by Orest Kindrachuk.</p><p>In an afternoon contest in Pittsburgh, Peter McNab match Gary McAdam&rsquo;s first period score for the Bruins with his third goal of the playoffs and then Rick Middleton scored from a scramble in front after a fine save by Denis Herron at the 5:03 mark of the third period to give the Bruins a commanding series lead.</p><p>The Penguins opened the scoring for the third consecutive game in Game Four as Rod Schutt blasted a 50-foot shot past Bruins&rsquo; netminder Gerry Cheevers who played all four games, before the Bruins assumed the lead on a goal by Bobby Schmautz and the first of two Jean Ratelie scores. Marcotte wrapped things up with the fourth Boston goal, his third of the series, at 19:19 of the final frame.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02674/3865628-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="506" height="670"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>STANLEY CUP 1979</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0016-02

Surprising Rangers Close To Upset; Islanders, Bruins Advance Quickly

<h2>PRELIMINARY ROUND</h2><h3>SERIES &lsquo;A&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03538/3865722-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="601" height="130"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 10</b></p><p>Vancouver 3 at Philadelphia 2</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 1</b></p><p>Philadelphia 6 at Vancouver 4</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Vancouver 2 at Philadelphia 7</p><h3>SERIES &lsquo;B&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04421/3865715-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="596" height="140"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 10</b></p><p>Los Angeles 1 at Rangers 7</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 12</b></p><p>Rangers 2 at Los Angeles 1</p><h3>SERIES&lsquo;C&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05317/3865708-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="595" height="125"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 10</b></p><p>Toronto 2 at Atlanta 1</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 12</b></p><p>Atlanta 4 at Toronto 7</p><h3>SERIES&lsquo;D&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-06256/3865701-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="626" height="136"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 10</b></p><p>Pittsburgh 4 at Buffalo 3</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 12</b></p><p>Buffalo 3 at Pittsburgh 1</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Pittsburgh 4 at Buffalo 3</p><h2>QUARTER-FINAL ROUND</h2><h3>SERIES &lsquo;E&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-07230/3865694-1-eng-US/f0016-072.jpg" title="f0016-07" width="621" height="103"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 16</b></p><p>Chicago 2 at Islanders 6</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Chicago 0 at Islanders 1</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>Islanders 4 at Chicago 0</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>Islanders 3 at Chicago 1</p><h3>SERIES&lsquo;F&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-08210/3865687-1-eng-US/f0016-082.jpg" title="f0016-08" width="607" height="99"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 16</b></p><p>Toronto 2 at Montreal 5</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Toronto 1 at Montreal 5</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 21</b></p><p>Montreal 4 at Toronto 3</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>Montreal 5 at Toronto 4</p><h3>SERIES&lsquo;G&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-09188/3865680-1-eng-US/f0016-092.jpg" title="f0016-09" width="615" height="129"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 16</b></p><p>Pittsburgh 2 at Boston 6</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Pittsburgh 3 at Boston 4</p><h3>PLAYOFF SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-10166/3865673-1-eng-US/f0016-102.jpg" title="f0016-10" width="602" height="1183"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-12135/3865666-1-eng-US/f0016-122.jpg" title="f0016-12" width="605" height="1218"></div><p><b>Sat. Apr. 21</b></p><p>Boston 2 at Pittsburgh 1</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>Boston 4 at Pittsburgh 1</p><h3>SERIES&lsquo;H&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-11152/3865659-1-eng-US/f0016-112.jpg" title="f0016-11" width="602" height="132"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 16</b></p><p>Rangers 2 at Philadelphia 3</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Rangers 7 at Philadelphia 1</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>Philadelphia 1 at Rangers 5</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>Philadelphia 0 at Rangers 6</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Rangers at Philadelphia</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 26</b></p><p>Philadelphia at Rangers</p><p><b>Sat./Sun. Apr. 28-29</b></p><p>Rangers at Philadelphia<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0016-03

Stanley Cup Scoreboard

<h2>SERIES&lsquo;E&rsquo;</h2><h3>Wed. Apr. 18 CHICAGO 0, ISLANDERS 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01678/3865844-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="634" height="588"></div><h3>Fri. Apr. 20 ISLANDERS 4, CHICAGO 0</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02585/3865837-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="614" height="582"></div><h3>Sun. Apr. 22 ISLANDERS 3, CHICAGO 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03471/3865830-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="604" height="534"></div><h2>SERIES&lsquo;F&rsquo;</h2><h3>Wed. Apr. 18 TORONTO 1, MONTREAL 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04361/3865823-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="608" height="632"></div><h3>Sat. Apr. 21 MONTREAL 4, TORONTO 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-05283/3865816-1-eng-US/f0017-052.jpg" title="f0017-05" width="606" height="874"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-06235/3865809-1-eng-US/f0017-062.jpg" title="f0017-06" width="584" height="790"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN DAVIDSON&hellip;Blanked Flyers</figcaption></div><h3>Sun. Apr. 22 MONTREAL 5, TORONTO 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-07204/3865802-1-eng-US/f0017-072.jpg" title="f0017-07" width="604" height="798"></div><h2>SERIES&lsquo;G&rsquo;</h2><h3>Wed. Apr. 18 PITTSBURGH 3, BOSTON 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-08171/3865795-1-eng-US/f0017-082.jpg" title="f0017-08" width="600" height="690"></div><h3>Sat. Apr. 21 BOSTON 2, PITTSBURGH 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-09153/3865788-1-eng-US/f0017-092.jpg" title="f0017-09" width="622" height="578"></div><h3>Sun. Apr. 22 BOSTON 4, PITTSBURGH 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-10141/3865781-1-eng-US/f0017-102.jpg" title="f0017-10" width="622" height="582"></div><h2>SERIES&lsquo;H&rsquo;</h2><h3>Wed. Apr. 18 RANGERS 7, PHILADELPHIA 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-11123/3865774-1-eng-US/f0017-112.jpg" title="f0017-11" width="622" height="718"></div><h3>Fri. Apr. 20 RANGERS 5, PHILADELPHIA 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-12112/3865767-1-eng-US/f0017-122.jpg" title="f0017-12" width="602" height="774"></div><h3>Sun. Apr. 22 PHILADELPHIA 0, RANGERS 6</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-1393/3865760-1-eng-US/f0017-132.jpg" title="f0017-13" width="622" height="658"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-1481/3865753-1-eng-US/f0017-142.jpg" title="f0017-14" width="1190" height="1615"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE BOSSY&hellip;Five Playoff Goals</figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0017-01

STANLEY CUP SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">BY RUSS WHITE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01695/3865875-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BERNIE WOLFE&hellip;Wants To Continue Career</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</span></figcaption></div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>WASHINGTON&mdash;</p><p>Bernie Wolfe is a goalie interested in a job somewhere next season. Once the darling of Capitals&rsquo; fans, Wolfe has lost out in the goaltending picture in Washington with Jim Bedard and Gary Inness on the scene.</p><p>Wolfe will be available in the expansion draft and would like to stick on with one of the four new National Hockey League teams.</p><p>With a degree from Sir George Williams University in Montreal, Wolfe is now hunting for future employment and has already been extended several job offers in the Washington area, where he wants to make a permanent home.</p><p>I&rsquo;m still capable of helping someone in hockey and would like to play awhile longer,&rdquo; Wolfe said at the close of this season.</p><p>The Caps had Wolfe in goal for one of their most important victories of the season. They had been soundly whipped 10-2 in Los Angeles last December and needed a quick rebound the next night in Denver. Bedard was gone at the time&mdash;shipped to Hershey of the American League&mdash;and Inness had not yet joined the team.</p><p>Wolfe, though suffering from a virus and a 102 temperature, braved it out and presented his team a 4-1 victory. He won again a couple of nights later in Vancouver, a milestone victory for his team, which had not ever won a game in Canada before.</p><p>When Wolfe first played goal in Washington, the Capital Center fans used to chant &ldquo;Bernie, Bernie&rdquo; for each of his saves. His style was exciting and he became one of the most popular players ever to play with the Washington team.</p><p>Wolfe had a most impressive record against the New York Islanders a couple of years ago, allowing only nine goals in four games, three of them ties.</p><p>The Caps will undoubtedly reclaim first year defenseman Paul MacKinnon from the Winnipeg Jets in the expansion business come June. MacKinnon had a strong second half for the Jets and is rated a tough defensive defenseman; he was drafted in the second round of last year&rsquo;s amateur draft by Washington.</p><p>The Caps also have their eye on right wing Rick Vaive, who played for the Birmingham Bulls last year. If he is available when the Caps pick in this year&rsquo;s amateur pool, look for general manager Max McNab to call on Vaive:</p><p>Both McNab and coach Danny Belisle went to Birmingham for the last two home games played by the Bulls, who will supply a half dozen underage players to the NHL this coming year. Defenseman Rob Ramage and Craig Hartsburg are expected to be the first two players chosen.</p><p>There are reports that the Montreal Canadiens want Ramage and will make a sweet offer to the Colorado Rockies, who have the No. 1 draft choise. Pierre Larouche is one of the players Montreal is dangling before Ray Miron and the Rockies.</p><p>The Caps will be delighted to reclain MacKinnon, draft Vaive and bring in Swedish forward Bengt Gustafsson for 1979-80. Gustafsson has signed a contract with Edmonton of the WHA but the Caps say that he&rsquo;ll be their property come summer.</p><p>Many Caps, season ticket holders, who were promised a 20 percent rebate if not satisfied with the team&rsquo;s effort the past year, are asking for a return from owner Abe Pollin.</p><p>Pollin has made no promises for next year but has given coach Belisle a vote of confidence, indicating Belisle will return behind the bench.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0018-01

Popular Wolfe Would Like To Remain In NHL

<p class="dropcap"><b><span>I</span>t&rsquo;s not often that a rookie sees much action in the Stanley Cup playoffs, let alone play regularly and contribute the type of play that 20-year-old Don Maloney has been providing for the New York Rangers.</b></p><p><b>The younger brother of Ranger captain Dave, Don has been a going conern since joining Phil Esposito and Don Murdoch in the latter part of the regular season. He assisted on two Esposito goals in the 2-1 overtime win which put the Rangers in the quarter-finals and kept up his work against Philadelphia.</b></p><p><b>Maloney tallied a goal and an assist in the Rangers&rsquo; 7-1 win which tied the series and then popped in two goals, tying Espo for the playoff scoring lead.</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02556/3865906-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="522" height="834"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DON MALONEY&hellip;New York Rangers</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0018-02

NHL’s…Player of the Week

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01666/3865958-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="534" height="830"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DAVE DELICH&hellip;Led The WCHA</b></figcaption></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02546/3865951-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="552" height="708"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03428/3865944-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="545" height="827"></div><h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04366/3865937-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="549" height="739"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0019-01

Top U.S. College Scorers

<div class="byline">BY DONALD BERNS</div><p>ST. LOUIS&mdash;</p><p>The St. Louis Blues have to hope that the National Hockey League&rsquo;s addition of four expansion teams from the World Hockey Association will help to get the Blues back into the Stanley Cup playoffs.</p><p>In 12 seasons, the Blues have missed the playoffs only three times, but two of those times have been the past two seasons. In 1978 they finished with the third-worst record in the league on 20 wins and 53 points; this past season they finished with the second-worst record on 18 wins and 48 points. Only Colorado was worse.</p><p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t look at 18 wins and be satisfield,&rdquo; coach Barclay Plager said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry about the number of points, but we&rsquo;re going to get better. We&rsquo;re trying to be competitive while we&rsquo;re rebuilding.&rdquo;</p><p>Next season two of the four WHA teams will be with the Blues in the Smythe Division, and four more teams in the leage will make the playoffs. The Stanley Cup will go to a team that finishes first in its division or among the next 12 teams with high point totals. As this year, only five teams will miss the playoffs.</p><p>The Blues fell into the league&rsquo;s bottom five in early November and remained there the remainder of the season. But a few weeks before the season ended they entertained hopes of getting into the playoffs because of a slump by the Vancouver Canucks, second among Smythe teams.</p><p>At the beginning of March the Blues in third place were 11 points behind Vancouver but picked up nine points in six games while Vancouver was losing and trimmed the margin to five points by trouncing Minnesota, 8-2.</p><p>But in the next game the Blues, leading Colorado, 5-2, blew the lead in the third period and settled for a 5-5 tie. That game was the first of an 11-game winless streak, and the Blues&rsquo; slim playoff chance died quickly.</p><p>The Blues lost to Detroit, 3-1, and to Philadelphia, 5-3, in that remarkable game in which the Flyers for the first time in their 12-year history did not draw even one penalty.</p><p>Then the Blues tied Vancouver, 1-1, and Los Angeles, 3-3, with Marcel Dionne setting up all three goals, and were bombed by Atlanta, 8-2, as the Flames, last place in the Patrick Division, clinched a playoff spot. Goalie Phil Myre, normally polite in discussing his defensemen, blamed them for the eight goals.</p><p>The Blues lost to Buffalo, 4-2, to Montreal, 5-2 and to Philadelphia, 4-2. Goalie Terry Richardson, playing his only game of the season in a St. Louis uniform, was blitzed, 9-5, by the Rockies, playing their last home game of the season and trying to avoid tying an NHL record of 15 games at home without a win. The 1928-29 Chicago Black Hawks and 1939-40 Montreal Canadiens went 15 games at home without winning.</p><p>Bernie Federko broke his left wrist in a collision with Barry Beck in the Colorado game and missed the last three games of the season. The Blues lost to Pittsburgh, 3-2, but Larry Giroux, Curt Bennett and Brian Sutter scored goals against Tony Esposito in the third period to break the 11-game winless streak with a 4-1 victory over the Black Hawks in the last home game of the season. The following night in Chicago Ted Bulley scored in the last minute of the game as the Hawks edged the Blues, 3-2.</p><p>The Blues had some spectacular scoring power this season but nevertheless finished 14th in the league in goals. Federko was the leader. He broke Chuck Lefley&rsquo;s team record for points in a season and finished with 95 points, eighth-highest in the league, while missing six games with injuries. He broke Phil Goyette&rsquo;s team record for assists and finished with 64 to go with 31 goals.</p><p>For the first time in their history the Blues had three players with 30 goals or more: Sutter with 41, Federko with 31, and Unger with 30. The only other St. Louis players who ever scored 30 or more were Red Berenson, Pierre Plante and Lefley.</p><p>The Blues had four players with more than 50 points: Federko with 95, Sutter with 80, Wayne Babych with 63 and Unger with 56. In only two previous years have the Blues had such scoring. In their third season Goyette, Berenson, Frank St. Marseille and Ab McDonald had more than 50 each, and in 1975-76 Lefley, Unger, Derek Sanderson and Bob MacMillan each had more than 50.</p><p>But the Blues this past season allowed more goals than any other NHL team. Myre and Ed Staniowski each played in 39 games. Myre finished with a 4.33 goals-against average, and Staniowski was 3.82.</p><p>Unger was the only player to see action in all 80 games and extended his league record to 883 consecutive games. Patey and Bob Stewart played 78 games, Sutter was in 77, and Barry Gibbs 75.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-05302/3865996-1-eng-US/f0019-052.jpg" title="f0019-05" width="578" height="814"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRIAN SUTTER&hellip;Led Blues With 41 Goals</b></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-06233/3865989-1-eng-US/f0019-062.jpg" title="f0019-06" width="1206" height="1253"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BERNIE FEDERKO</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0019-05

Blues ‘Rebuilding Season Painful But Club Unearthed Young Nucleus

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01512/3866027-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>J.P. PARISE. May Take Retirement Route</b></figcaption></div><p>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>ith no playoffs to work up a dither about, the most avid of North Star followers are spending time trying to figure out who will go and who will stay from the current roster.</p><p>There will be a turnover, but it probably will not be as great as it was last season when the team started its rebuilding with the merging of the Minnesota and Cleveland franchises, the draft and the free agent signings of Gary Sargent and Mike Polich.</p><p>General manager Lou Nanne has two first round draft choices and he would like to use them both in making improvements in the club.</p><p>The Stars will draft sixth in the first round with their own choice and 10th with Pittsburgh&rsquo;s selection, which came via Washington in the Dennis Maruk trade.</p><p>If the Stars can gain as much benefit from these choices as they did with their first two picks last summer, Nanne will be delighted.</p><p>Those two fellows were Bobby Smith, THE HOCKEY NEWS rookie of the year with 74 points and linemate Steve Payne whose late season charge saw him finish with 23 goals.</p><p>The Stars also acquired the negotiation rights to Montreal defenseman Bill Nyrop, who took the year off to try the insurance business. What price Montreal would demand to sign him might affect the team&rsquo;s draft structure.</p><p>Minnesota might be unwilling to part with one of their No. 1 picks and probably will negotiate the trade with the attitude that if Nyrop does not play, the Canadiens not only will be without Nyrop but without a player or draft choice as well.</p><p>Nanne outlines his team&rsquo;s needs this way:</p><p>&ldquo;We need one good defenseman to go with Brad Maxwell, Gary Sargent and Greg Smith,&rdquo; said Nanne. &ldquo;Fred Barrett is OK as the No. 5 man. And we need a couple of bigger, stronger wingers. We could use a couple of other new faces, but we need four, maybe five changes, at the most.&rdquo;</p><p>Nanne also said late in the &lsquo;78-79 season that unless a trade would be worked out, it did not appear he could afford to sign Detroit defenseman Reed Larson, a native Minnesotan who would love to play in his homestate. Nanne would change his mind quickly if the courts declare the NHL&rsquo;s compensation rule invalid.</p><p>So who are the expendable players? The four, five or six who will make way for the new faces? Bill Butters, Jean Potvin and Bryan Maxwell, if they stay, will all be battling minor leaguers Don Jackson, John Baby and Jim Boo for the one (or two?) available spots on the blueline.</p><p>On the forward lines, it&rsquo;s anyone&rsquo;s guess. Team captain J.P. Parise, at 36, sat out most of the last month and might take the retirement route unless he&rsquo;s traded. To make room, Nanne could be offering any of the following names in trade talks: Glenn Sharpley, Mike. Fidler, Ron Zanussi, Tim Young, Ole Brasar, Kent Andersson, Kris Manery, Alex Pirus and Jim Roberts.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-01

Small Turnover Expected On North Stars’ Roster

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><p>DETROIT&mdash;</p><p>The Detroit Red Wing players were split almost evenly when it came time to pick the Stanley Cup champion for 1979.</p><p>A fourth straight Cup for the Canadiens? Or will the New York Islanders win it? Maybe a darkhorse?</p><p>The Wings were 0-3-1 against the Islanders this season and 2-4-2 against Montreal. Included in the successes against the Habs was a 1-0 victory at Olympia in the final game of the regular season which enabled the Islanders to move past Montreal in total points and gain the home-ice playoff advantage.</p><p>Here&rsquo;s how the Red Wing players saw the Stanley Cup winner:</p><p>&ldquo;The Islanders.&rdquo; said Thommie Bergman. &ldquo;I think the home-ice is very important. The Islanders are a very solid team.&rdquo;</p><p>Rogie Vachon said: &ldquo;It has to be the year for the Islanders. If they&rsquo;re going to win it, they better do it this year. They&rsquo;re playing very well. If anyone is going to beat the Canadiens, it&rsquo;s the Islanders.&rdquo;</p><p>Vaclav Nedomansky also picked the Islanders.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d prefer a change, somebody else to win it,&rdquo; Bid Ned said. &ldquo;The Islanders. Montreal&rsquo;s not balanced like it used to be.&rdquo;</p><p>Nick Libett had a different view. &ldquo;I said 1 didn&rsquo;t think Montreal would, but you still have to pick them. But 1 give the Islanders a shot at it,&rdquo; the veteran left winger said.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say,&rdquo; Errol Thompson added. &ldquo;Montreal and the Islanders are best. There could be a sleeper team. too. The New York Rangers.&rdquo;</p><p>Paul Woods likes the Canadiens.</p><p>&ldquo;I still have to go with Montreal.&rdquo; said the speedy Woods. &ldquo;When the chips are down, they come to play.</p><p>&ldquo;Guy Lapointe is gening stronger with each game and I think he&rsquo;s going to be the big difference for them.&rdquo;</p><p>Reed Larson gave his reasons, reduced the field to a final four and then predicted: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Montreal.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Montreal. Why change now?&rdquo; asked defenseman Perry Miller. &ldquo;It depends on how hungry the Islanders are. The Canadiens aren&rsquo;t what they used to be. Maybe they&rsquo;re not as good, or maybe we&rsquo;re just used to them now.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02372/3866058-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="438" height="528"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PERRY MILLER&hellip;Sticks With Habs</b></figcaption></div><p>And, finally, Andre St. Laurent, a former Islander, had his say:</p><p>&ldquo;The Islanders have a good chance,&rdquo; Ace said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got the scoring they didn&rsquo;t have in the past. Last year, when they got knocked out early by Toronto, I think that really helped them. They&rsquo;ll be working hard all the time no matter who they come up against. This could be the year.&rdquo;</p><p>Dale McCourt scored the only goal in the 1-0 victory over the Canadiens on April 9 and Jimmy Rutherford was in goal for the shutout. Linemate Danny Labraaten made a rink-long dash, then flipped the puck out from behind the Montreal net. It caromed in off McCourt&rsquo;s shin.</p><p>For a fleeting moment, it was hockey reminiscent of the Wings&rsquo; proud and glorious past. It was the Wings&rsquo; first shutout of the season and the first in exactly one year. The previous one, also by Rutherford, had come in the final regular season game of 1978, a 4-0 victory over the Canadiens on April 3.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice way to end the season,&rdquo; coach Bobby Kromm said. &ldquo;Our guys played a helluva game. We didn&rsquo;t die at the end (of the season) like some teams. I&rsquo;m proud of our team. We sent the fans home with a good taste.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-02

Wings’ Players Evenly Divided On Cup Champ

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><p>BUFFALO&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>R</span>ick Dudley and Dave Schultz, principals in the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; most publicized personnel change in their nine National Hockey League seasons, showed in the first two playoff games why the Sabres wanted them.</p><p>In the second game of the best-of-three preliminary series against Pittsburgh, Dudley and Schultz figured in two of the Sabres&rsquo; three goals in a 3-1 win which kept Buffalo&rsquo;s season alive.</p><p>They did so by performing in the manner for which they were acquired. By stationing themselves around the opposing net and holding their ground.</p><p>Schultz set up one of the Sabres&rsquo; three goals in their 4-3 opening loss to the Penguins. He muscled his way around the back of the net and sent a pass to Don Luce, directly in front.</p><p>Dudley was in front of the net to deflect a shot by Rick Martin past Pittsburgh goalie Denis Herron in the second game and Schultz took a shot from just outside the crease that hit the goalpost, after which Jacques Richard put in the rebound for a 2-0 Buffalo lead.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01353/3866103-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="575" height="1175"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>GIL PERREAULT</b></figcaption></div><p>When the Sabres won that game, it ended a streak in which they failed to beat the Penguins in 16 straight games, stretching back to March 10,1976.</p><p>It also ended the Herron Hex. Denis Herron never had lost to the Sabres while goaltending against them for the Penguins in 11 games.</p><p>The reason the Sabres got so much publicity when they obtained Dudley and Schultz is that Dudley was reacquired from the Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey Association and Schultz was the widely-known leading badman of the NHL.</p><p>On mere statistics, Dudley and Schultz didn&rsquo;t appear to do much for the Sabres during the regular season.</p><p>Schultz scored two goals and assisted on three in 28 games. He did not play on one of the three regular lines. Most of his 86 penalty minutes came in one game, when he became the league&rsquo;s most penalized player of all time, and they were mostly the result of arguments with the referee.</p><p>Dudley, who missed five games because of injury, scored five goals and assisted on six in 24 games. The aggressive battler of the 1974-75 Stanley Cup finalist Sabres spent two minutes in the penalty box since rejoining the club.</p><p>Talk to the Sabres, however, and to their coach, Billy Inglis, and you would be convinced Dudley and Schultz helped the club in the Sabres&rsquo; drive to the playoffs and helped plenty.</p><p>Merely by their presence.</p><p>&ldquo;They both are leaders,&rdquo; said Danny Gare, the team captain. &ldquo;They are respected by the guys on the club. We needed a little boost this year and they brought it along. It was very important to get them at that particular time.&rdquo;</p><p>Craig Ramsay, who is a fine checker and good in the comers, was happy to have more muscle up front.</p><p>&ldquo;They both are strong on the puck, strong in the comers,&rdquo; said Ramsay. &ldquo;They are hard to push around. Just having them helps the rest of us. If a game gets rough and we need bigger guys to help us out, we can count on Duds and Schultzie.</p><p>&ldquo;Teams think about the fact that we have these guys and they play a little differently against us. More important, these guys have the desire to win. They are very competitive. When they go on the ice, they have that determination. You can see it on their faces.&rdquo;</p><p><b>ICE CHIPS:</b> Inglis was criticized for starting Bob Sauve in goal in the first game of the playoffs, when the Sabres lost, 4-3. Don Edwards was scheduled to start the second game but suffered a bruised hand in practice, so Sauve went in and played a spectacular game in a 31 win.</p><p>Gil Perreault led the Sabres in scoring for the sixth time in nine seasons. His 85 points, however, were his lowest total since 1973-74, when he missed much of the season because of a broken leg. After a slow start, Perreault finished strongly.</p><p>Rick Martin led the club in goals with 32, lowest total the leading Sabre ever had. Seven players had 20 goals or more, though.</p><p>The Sabres went into the playoffs with 24 players on the active roster.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02235/3866096-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="867" height="906"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03153/3866089-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="890" height="870"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Rick Dudley, left and Dave Schultz, helped to give the Sabres a new look of aggressive but clean hockey in the second half of the season, and produced a positive change in the team&rsquo;s attitude.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Robert Shaver)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0021-01

Sabres Receive Contributions Beyond Stats

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div><p>LOS ANGELES&mdash;</p><p>All season it was said by some close to the Kings that this was a less talented team than those that immediately preceded it, but one that was better schooled, more harmonious, had a better attitude. The suspicion here all along was this was so much talk. The evidence never supported it. And didn&rsquo;t to the bitter end.</p><p>New coach Bob Berry set a modest goal for the season of. 500 hockey and his side had to win its last game of the season to reach that goal at 34-34-2. When you can&rsquo;t win even one game more than you lose, well it&rsquo;s not been a season to brag about. Throw in the two losses in the post season and the Kings lost two more than they won.</p><p>For the second straight season, the Kings were embarrassed by being blown out in the playoffs in two straight games&mdash;to the Maple Leafs last year, 73 in Toronto and 4-0 in L.A., and to the Rangers this year, 7-1 in New York and 2-1 in L.A. in overtime.</p><p>They said the score was misleading in New York. Maybe, but it&rsquo;s not clear how misleading 7-1 can be. It&rsquo;s clear Mario Lessard did not play goal well in New York, but did play well in L.A. In fact, some feel he was the one who kept them in the game, in fact, in the lead until Phil Esposito evened it early in the third period and won it early in the overtime.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01385/3866141-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="516" height="660"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MARCEL DIONNE</b></figcaption></div><p>Syl Apps put the Kings ahead early and with a little luck they could have gotten the goal that they needed for the win. If it had come in overtime it would have been a thrilling reward for the fans. As it was, the Kings did play hard and well all the way and the fans cheered despite the defeat so if you had to go out it was a nice way to go.</p><p>But the Kings were kidding themselves when they kept saying they could have gone back to New York and won back there. It was the longest of shots.</p><p>They finished 10 points short of the Rangers this season. They finished six goals short of them the last time they met them in New York. They lost five out of six to the Rangers this season. Twice they surrendered seven goals to them, once eight.</p><p>Realism rears its ugly head.</p><p>The Kings didn&rsquo;t have the defense to deal with the Rangers this season. They used nine different defensemen and while a couple show promise, none are all stars. Here, they must beef up if they are going to become contenders.</p><p>The defection of goaler Rogie Vachon and defensemen Gary Sargent and Dave Hutchison after last season seemed to assure them of being a weaker team this season. The compensation wasn&rsquo;t adequate. But the rookie Lessard was a lot better goaler than Vachon this season.</p><p>Offensively, the Kings could skate with any team in hockey. They beat some of the best teams in hockey repeatedly, including Montreal and Boston. No team with Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor, and Butch Goring is a bad team. Called up a mid-season, Charlie Simmer took up a lot of the slack of those who left.</p><p>Dionne set team and personal records with 59 goals, 71 assists, and 130 points. Named MVP on the team by the writers at season&rsquo;s end ceremonies, he called out linemate Taylor to share the honor with him. The splendid sophomore had 43 goals, 48 assists, and 91 points. He was the second King ever over 40 goals and 90 points. Goring had 36 goals, 51 assists, and 87 points. Dionne, who also won all the scoring awards and most first stars awards, also was voted by the fans &ldquo;most popular player.&rdquo;</p><p>Sophomore defenseman Palmer was named &ldquo;unsung hero,&rdquo; but this honor well might have gone to Simmer, who came up and moved onto the Dionne-Taylor line at mid-season and responded with 21 goals, 27 assists, and 48 points in just 38 games. Lessard, who was voted &ldquo;rookie of the year&rdquo; ahead of Simmer rated in the top three in the MVP and unsung hero categories, too.</p><p>These were the standouts and with a few others they are the base on which Bob Berry can build a winner. The club was stricken with a series of injuries more severe this season by far than any past season in the history of the franchise and Bob never got a chance to stabilize his system or build positive momentum. But he avoided serious slumps. Frankly, I feel he did a terrific job. But, he needs help.</p><p>Manager George Maguire had best turn his keen eye for talent toward developing any deal that will bring the Kings one or two solid defensemen. If they can add solid defensemen, not necessarily All Stars, Without subtracting from the record-setting offense, they can contend. A few more players may be available this summer than last.</p><p>Every season the people around the Kings say they&rsquo;ll flourish with the good home schedule late in the season and every season they flop. This year&rsquo;s final quarter, 9-7-4, was by one point their best of the season, but both halves were ironically identical, 17-17-6, nothing to brag about, and the final 34-34-12 only three points better than the ridiculed 3134-15 of last season, Ron Stewart will be happy to hear.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02294/3866134-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1190" height="1206"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MARIO LESSARD&hellip;Valiant in Overtime Loss</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Robert Shaver)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0022-01

Kings’ Season Comes To Frustrating Finish

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01361/3866172-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>GUY CHOUINARD&hellip;Flames&rsquo; First 50-Goal Scorer</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo By Steve Babineau)</span></figcaption></div><p>ATLANTA&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>hough the Atlanta Flames&rsquo; playoff loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was both disappointing and discouraging to the entire organization, it should not in any way detract from an otherwise extremely successful National Hockey League season.</p><p>Team and individual accomplishments were almost too numerous to mention, certainly highlighted by the club record of 90 points and the incredible 50 goals scored by 22-year-old center Guy Chouinard.</p><p>The Flames left the starting gate like Secretariat, tying their first two and then winning 10 straight games which was the third best debut in the history of the league. From there they continued on to establish team marks for victories (41), home victories (25), home winning streak (9), and home unbeaten streak (18) while equalling the club standards for road wins (16) and road winning streak (4).</p><p>Although there were dozens of individual records broken, Chouinard&rsquo;s amazing goal total certainly was the most impressive. He became just the 21st player in league history to reach the 50 mark and the fourth youngest, trailing only Pierre Larouche, Danny Gare and Mike Bossy. Coupled with his 57 assists, he finished sixth on the league scoring parade, one point behind teammate Bob MacMillan.</p><p>MacMillan started the season as quickly as the team did, registering points in each of his first eleven games to set a team record. His final total of 71 assists ranked third behind Bryan Trottier and Guy Lafleur while his 108 points ranked fifth.</p><p>The third member of Atlanta&rsquo;s most devastating line, Eric Vail, also had an exceptional campaign. He reached the 30-goal mark for the third time in his five year career (35) and with 83 points he became the third player on the team to eclipse Tom Lysiak&rsquo;s old season point mark of 82.</p><p>Altogether, the trio of Chouinard, MacMillan and Vail combined for 122 goals, and 176 assists for an astounding total of 298 points which was second only to the Islander combo of Trottier, Bossy and Clark Gillies.</p><p>There was much to be happy about for two reasons among the goaltenders. Dan Bouchard concluded his greatest season ever as he led the league in both games played (64) and victories (32) while compiling a goals against average of 3.33. And rookie Rejean Lemelin stepped to the fore-front as a premier back-up, recording a mark of 8-8-1 and allowing 3 goals or less in 10 of his 15 starts.</p><p>Other rookies to shine were center Red Laurence who ranked 12th among first year scorers with 34 points and defenseman Brad Marsh, Atlanta&rsquo;s top draft pick in 1978 who is already considered one of the finest young blueliners in hockey. March and David Shand joined Team Canada in Moscow where they competed in the World Cup Tournament.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0023-01

Flames Enjoyed Top Year Despite Season’s Ending

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02280/3866210-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="580" height="1491"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RYAN WALTER&hellip;Stamp Of Stardom</b></figcaption></div><p>WASHINGTON&mdash;</p><p>To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, Ryan Walter ended his rookie season &ldquo;not with a bang&hellip;but with an explosion&hellip;&rdquo;</p><p>The Capitals&rsquo; Calder Trophy candidate knocked in two goals in the team&rsquo;s season finale victory over Pittsburgh Penguins, which gave the Capitals the highest point total in their five year history. Walter climaxed his stellar rookie campaign in blue-ribbon fashion.</p><p>The two goals gave him numbers 27 and 28 on the season, breaking the old club rookie record of 26, set by Nelson Pyatt in 1975-76.</p><p>Earlier in the season, Walter had eclipsed Pyatt&rsquo;s point mark of 49, and by finishing with 55 points, owns the club mark for points by a rookie as well.</p><p>Looking back on his first season we find:</p><p>&bull; A new club record for goals by a rookie&mdash;28.</p><p>&bull; A new club record for points by a rookie&mdash;55.</p><p>&bull; A final season plus-minus rating of plus one, on a club that gave up 65 more goals than it scored.</p><p>&bull; The club&rsquo;s &ldquo;Rookie of the Year&rdquo; award, as voted by his teammates.</p><p>&bull; The &ldquo;Rookie of the Year&rdquo; award, as voted by the NHL coaches in a confidential ballot taken by Frank Orr of the Toronto Star.</p><p>&bull; Rated behind only Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier as the &ldquo;Best young player in the NHL under the age of 23&rdquo; by the NHL coaches in that same poll.</p><p>Known as much for his bodychecking abilities and hard-nosed style of play as his scoring, the 20-year-old from Burnaby, B.C. has won the respect of teammates and opponents alike. While he didn&rsquo;t win the rookie scoring race (that went to Minnesota&rsquo;s talented Bobby Smith), he did carve himself a niche as a player to be reckoned with.</p><p>As teammate Gary Inness says, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the stamp of stardom.&rdquo;</p><h2>Penalty Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03212/3866203-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="626" height="402"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0023-02

Walter Set Two Club Scoring Marks

<p class="dropcap"><b><span>A</span>ll season long, the Cincinnati Stingers have battled to reach the World Hockey Association playoffs, and when they finally did it and gained a best-of-three series against New England, they turned to their top player&mdash;Robbie Ftorek&mdash;the player most responsible for the team&rsquo;s success.</b></p><p><b>Facing elimination after losing the first game 5-3, a game in which Ftorek was held to one assist, the Stingers got off to a quick 2-0 start before Ftorek took over, scoring three consecutive goals, including a pair on the second period for a 5-0 lead.</b></p><p><b>Ftorek also assisted on the first Stingers&rsquo; goal, giving him five points in two playoff games to top post-season scorers, after finishing second in the league in scoring during the regular season.</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02293/3866279-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="522" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ROBBIE FTOREK&hellip;Cincinnati Stingers</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0024-02

WHA’S…Player of the Week

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01373/3866248-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MARK HOWE&hellip;Set Whaler Points, Assists Record</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Steve Babineau)</span></figcaption></div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada</p><p>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;</p><p>The New England Whalers lost their final home game of the regular season and at the same time dropped into fourth place in the pre-playoff World Hockey Association standings. For the home fans it was more of the same as the Whalers were losing their 10th home encounter in the last 12 starts.</p><p>The Whalers returned from a good road trip on which they had won a pair and lost a pair. More importantly, all agreed that the team had played just one bad period during the entire jaunt. Spirits were high.</p><p>The test was being back in the home rink, and Cincinnati was the first opposition. The Whalers completely outplayed the Stingers and John Garrett racked up his third shutout of the season as the home team registered a 4-0 victory. Mark Howe assisted on all four tallies and in the process racked up his 500th WHA career point. In addition he broke (1) the Whalers all-time season scoring mark with his 104th point of the campaign, and (2) the team&rsquo;s assist record which his father Gordie had set with 62 assists last year. It was a great night for Whaler fans.</p><p>Forty-eight hours later the Whaler faithful returned for more of the same. The game turned out to be another 4-0 shutout, but it was the Stingers who left the rink with the two points. Once again fans left the Springfield Civic Center scratching their heads, trying to figure out their enigmatic favorites. The team was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde&mdash;one night it was brilliant and the next it &lsquo;stunk out the joint.&rsquo;</p><p>In the Whalers&rsquo; home finale, Wayne Gretzky notched a three goal hat trick and picked up an assist as Edmonton dumped New England, 4-1.</p><p>In pre-game ceremonies Mark Howe and Dave Keon dominated the awards. Mark received MVP awards from the Booster Club and from his teammates. He also won the Three-Stars title and might even have won the award [or best Whaler defenseman if he had played a few more games back at the blueline. Captain Rick Ley copped the defenseman trophy for the second straight year. Keon was voted &lsquo;Favorite Whaler&rsquo; by the fans, and &lsquo;Unsung Hero&rsquo; by the media.</p><p><b>QUEBEC:</b> The Nordiques had lost three of their last four games when New England came in for a visit. The Nords had managed to win only four of the 14 contests between the two clubs and this time they had to face the Whalers without the services of Serge Bernier and J.C. Tremblay. In addition, Real Cloutier was experiencing recurring back problems. Cloutier had scored 75 goals in as many games but was forced to sit out the previous game. Against New England he gave it another try but had to retire after only one shift.</p><p>For most of the fans in Le Colisee the 5-2 loss that New England handed the Nordiques was merely incidental. They had come to see Monsieur Cloutier further his assault on the goal-a-game record he sought. Instead, they left wondering when the young super star would be able to return to the lineup. Hopefully, the Nordiques would get him back for the playoffs.</p><p>Cincinnati followed on the heels of New England and drubbed the Cloutierless Nords, 6-2. The Quebecers had lost five of their last six games but looked forward to a three day break to rest their weary bones and recover from various injuries.</p><p>Cloutier still wasn&rsquo;t ready to go, but Serge Bernier returned from a lengthy absence. He and captain Marc Tardif led the Nordiques to a 4-2 triumph over the Stingers. Bernier scored his 36th of the year while Tardif notched his 41st. Richie Leduc, fourth on the Nordiques scoring list, tallied his 34th of the season.</p><p>The win clinched second place for Quebec and set up a semi-final series in the Avco Cup playoffs with the third-place Winnipeg Jets.</p><p><b>BIRMINGHAM:</b> The Bulls gave it a valiant try but came up just short of qualifying for a berth in the Avco Cup playoffs. Although they lost four of their final five hockey games, the margin of victory was never more than two goals. As a matter of fact, only one game had a two-goal margin. The other four were decided by only one goal.</p><p>One-goal losses at Edmonton and Winnipeg were followed by a 6-4 loss at home to the Edmonton Oilers. Then, in what was to be the final appearance of the Birmingham Bulls in the Jefferson County Civic Center, the young Bulls pulled out a thrilling 7-6 win over the same Oilers to preserve their slim chance to wrest the final playoff spot from Cincinnati.</p><p>It was a see-saw battle all the way. First one team, then the other jumped into the lead. Finally, with only six minutes left in the contest, Steve Alley brought 8,179 fans to their feet with his 17th goal of the season, tying the score at six. Less than a minute later, rookie Louis Sleigher notched his 26th of the campaign for the winner.</p><p>When the Bulls traveled to Winnipeg for the finale they faced a Jet team that had to win in order to finish third and avoid a qualifying playoff. On the other hand, a win by the Bulls would have given them the final spot in the Avco Cup playoffs.</p><p>The game turned out to be another tight one. Bob Stephenson&rsquo;s 23rd goal of the season matched a Ruskowski goal in the first period. After the Jets edged ahead again, Tony Cassolato got the Bulls back in it. Later, Gaston Gingras and Michel Goulet brought Birmingham back to tie the game. Goulet&rsquo;s tally was his 28th of the year giving the 18-year-older the team title in that department.</p><p>The game went into overtime, and with the Bulls pressing for that necessary winning goal, the Jets&rsquo; Peter Sullivan rapped home the winner to send the Bulls back to Birmingham disappointed but with heads held high. Coach John Brophy and his boys had done themselves proud in a very competitive league.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03155/3866241-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="532" height="542"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MICHEL GOULET</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0024-01

Whalers’ Home Ice Slump Costs Third Place

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01316/3866338-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>Oilers&rsquo; Dave Dryden walked off with final WHA goaling honors.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Steve Babineau)</span></figcaption></div><p>HARTFORD&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he final season of the World Hockey Association reached its climax and for posterity, Real Cloutier of the Quebec Nordiques was the league&rsquo;s final scoring champion, an honor he held two years ago before losing it to teammate Marc Tardif last season.</p><p>Cloutier, who missed almost the entire last two weeks of the schedule with a leg injury, finished with 129 points, well below Tardif&rsquo;s 154 in 1977-78, also walked off with league goal-scoring honors. He counted 75 times for the Nordiques while winning the Bill Hunter Trophy.</p><p>While Cloutier won it all in the points and scoring race, Cincinnati&rsquo;s Robbie Ftorek, who could possibly end up on the same line playing with Cloutier on the Nordiques in their first NHL year, closed as the WHA&rsquo;s top playmaker with 77 assists.</p><p>Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton finished third in the individual point race with 110 points, six behind Ftorek, and also won rookie scoring honors.</p><p>The league ended with five 100-point scorers, again well down from last season&rsquo;s mark of eight. Others who surpassed the century point total were Mark Howe of New England and Kent Nilsson of Winnipeg, both of whom finished with 107 points.</p><p>The league had four 50-plus goal scorers last season but this year only two&mdash;Cloutier with his leading 75 and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Morris Lukowich with 65, managed to surpass 50.</p><p>The league&rsquo;s dubious bad man title went to rookie Ricky Vaive of Birmingham Bulls, who clocked 249 penalty minutes, one more than Scott Campbell of Winnipeg Jets. Others who went over the 200-minute mark were Paul Baxter of Quebec, 240, Barry Melrose of Cincinnati, 222 and Dave Hanson of Birmingham, with 212.</p><p>Besides winning the scoring title, Cloutier also laid claim to the busiest puck shooter with a leading 363 shots on goal. Peter Marsh of Cincinnati followed with 325 and Mark Howe ended with 314.</p><p>In team statistics, Edmonton Oilers won the most games, 48, lost the least, 30, and led the team offensive race with 340 goals scored. The Oilers were also the least scored upon with 266 goals-against. The Oilers were the best homeice team with a 29-11-1 mark and were also the most productive road team with a 19-19-1 record.</p><p>Dave Dryden of Edmonton emerged as the leading WHA goaltender with a 2.39 goals-against mark as the Oilers two goalers&mdash;Dryden and Eddie Mio&mdash;combined to win the Ben Hatskin Trophy with a team total of 3.23, just slightly better than Quebec&rsquo;s duo of Jim Corsi and Richard Brodeur. Four goalers were tied in shutouts with three. Dryden, Corsi, Brodeur and Mike Liut of Cincinnati each logged three shutouts this season.</p><p>Dryden, who was chosen All Star net-minder by THE HOCKEY NEWS in their recent fans&rsquo; poll, also led the WHA in victories with 41 and most games played, 63.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04123/3866331-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="572" height="670"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SCOTT CAMPBELL</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02232/3866324-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="573" height="822"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>REAL CLOUTIER&hellip;75-Goal Scorer</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03158/3866317-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="581" height="833"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RICKY VAIVE&hellip;WHA&rsquo;s &lsquo;Bad Man&rsquo;</b></figcaption></div><h2>WHA Leaders</h2><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05104/3866310-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="610" height="1086"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0025-01

Cloutier Wins WHA’s Scoring Title; Ftorek, Gretzky Grab Top Honors

<h2>Avco Trophy Scoreboard</h2><p><b>QUARTER-FINALS</b></p><h3>SERIES &lsquo;A&rsquo;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01324/3866390-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="620" height="134"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Sat. Apr. 21</b></p><p>Cincinnati 3 at New England 5</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>New England 3 at Cincinnati 6</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Cincinnati at New England</p><p><b>SEMI-FINALS</b></p><h3>SERIES &lsquo;B&rsquo;</h3><p><b>(Best-of-seven)</b></p><p><b>Mon. Apr. 23</b></p><p>Winnipeg at Quebec</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Winnipeg at Quebec</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 27</b></p><p>Quebec at Winnipeg</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 29</b></p><p>Quebec at Winnipeg</p><p><b>Tue. May 1</b></p><p>Winnipeg at Quebec</p><p><b>Thu. May 3</b></p><p>Quebec at Winnipeg</p><p><b>Sat. May 5</b></p><p>Winnipeg at Quebec</p><h3>SERIES &lsquo;C&rsquo;</h3><p><b>Edmonton vs New England-Cinnati series winner</b></p><p><b>(Best-of-seven)</b></p><h3>Sat. Apr. 21 CINCINNATI 3, NEW ENGLAND 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02266/3866383-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="634" height="682"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03226/3866376-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="574" height="986"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE ROGERS</figcaption></div><h3>Sun. Apr. 22 NEW ENGLAND 3, CINCINNATI 6</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04173/3866369-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="610" height="736"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0026-01

AVCOTROPHY SUMMARIES

<h2>BINGHAMTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05138/3866484-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="604" height="584"></div><h2>HERSHEY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06108/3866477-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="604" height="554"></div><h2>MAINE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0797/3866470-1-eng-US/f0026-072.jpg" title="f0026-07" width="610" height="554"></div><h2>NEW BRUNSWICK</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0887/3866463-1-eng-US/f0026-082.jpg" title="f0026-08" width="602" height="580"></div><h2>NEW HAVEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-0981/3866456-1-eng-US/f0026-092.jpg" title="f0026-09" width="598" height="590"></div><h2>NOVA SCOTIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1077/3866449-1-eng-US/f0026-102.jpg" title="f0026-10" width="603" height="531"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1173/3866442-1-eng-US/f0026-112.jpg" title="f0026-11" width="614" height="584"></div><h2>ROCHESTER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1266/3866435-1-eng-US/f0026-122.jpg" title="f0026-12" width="603" height="651"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1365/3866428-1-eng-US/f0026-132.jpg" title="f0026-13" width="576" height="500"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BERNIE JOHNSTON</b></figcaption></div><h2>SPRINGFIELD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1459/3866421-1-eng-US/f0026-142.jpg" title="f0026-14" width="594" height="556"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0026-05

Final AHL Scoring

<h2>DALLAS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1553/3866550-1-eng-US/f0026-152.jpg" title="f0026-15" width="602" height="584"></div><h2>KANSAS CITY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1645/3866543-1-eng-US/f0026-162.jpg" title="f0026-16" width="614" height="592"></div><h2>SALT LAKE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1741/3866536-1-eng-US/f0026-172.jpg" title="f0026-17" width="606" height="558"></div><h2>FORT WORTH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1840/3866529-1-eng-US/f0026-182.jpg" title="f0026-18" width="596" height="530"></div><h2>OKLAHOMA CITY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-1937/3866522-1-eng-US/f0026-192.jpg" title="f0026-19" width="592" height="588"></div><h2>TULSA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-2033/3866515-1-eng-US/f0026-202.jpg" title="f0026-20" width="598" height="584"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0026-15

Final CHL Scoring

<p><b>(Final Standings)</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01304/3866595-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="618" height="280"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2><p><b>Tue. Apr. 17</b></p><p>New England 3 at Quebec 2</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 19</b></p><p>Winnipeg 3 at Edmonton 9 (End of schedule)</p><h3>Tue. Apr. 17 NEW ENGLAND 3, QUEBEC 2</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02241/3866588-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="622" height="576"></div><h3>Wed. Apr. 18 WINNIPEG 3, EDMONTON 9</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03174/3866581-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="630" height="914"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0027-01

The WHA Scoreboard

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04134/3866626-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">WAYNE GRETZKY&hellip;Tabbed Most Popular, Best Rookie <span class="photo-credit">(Photo by Steve Babineau)</span></figcaption></div><p>EDMONTON&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>R</span>ookie Wayne Gretzky, the youngster who is one of the top players in the World Hockey Association, was honored as the team&rsquo;s rookie of the year and most popular player as Edmonton Oilers concluded the 1978-79 regular season with a 9-3 victory over Winnipeg Jets.</p><p>Gretzky was the only double winner as persistent Blair MacDonald was named player of the year and Dave Dryden most valuable player. Captain Paul Shmyr was selected outstanding defenseman.</p><p>The season ended in a welter of rough play. Dave Semenko battered hefty Winnipeg rookie John Gibson in a fight and Morris Lukowich pf the Jets and Steve Carlson of the Oilers were banished for a mild stick-swinging incident.</p><p>In the more important areas of the game, scoring goals, three Oilers reached milestones. Brett Callighen and Stan Weir each reached 30 goals in the first period and later added another to end up with 31 for the season while Peter Driscoll rapped home a rebound for his 20th of the season.</p><p>Carlson lost his chance to get the two he needed for 20 when he was sent to the dressing room in the second period and Bill (Cowboy) Flett came close several times in his bid to score the two he needed for 30, but Ron Chipperfield&rsquo;s clever setups either resulted in missed nets or good saves by seldom-used Jets&rsquo; goaltender Joe Daley.</p><p>There was little visible excitement after the final game of the season, which earned the players a vacation trip for two from owner Peter Pocklington. The holiday would have elicited more excitement except that Pocklington had promised it several weeks earlier. The players are guaranteed one-way fares to Europe and Pocklington has promised they will be given round-trip tickets if they win the last Avco Cup.</p><p>Pocklington, coach Glen Sather and general manager Larry Gordon, architects of the Oilers&rsquo; most successful season In the team&rsquo;s seven-year WHA history, promptly started planning for the playoffs. Sather gave the players two full days off&mdash;almost unheard-of during his demanding regime as head coach&mdash;and several responded by taking one day off and reporting for an impromptu scrimmage the following morning.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the kind of spirit we&rsquo;ve had all year,&rdquo; said Sather.</p><p>&ldquo;These guys have been great. It took a while&mdash;a short while&mdash;for everybody to get used to each other and the changes we made. Now they&rsquo;ve got something to remember.</p><p>&ldquo;They won the last WHA championship. Now they want to win the last Avco Cup. It&rsquo;s a way to put themselves down in history and they&rsquo;re going all out for it.&rdquo;</p><p>The Oilers had amazing success in their season-ticket sales for next year, their first in the National Hockey League. Within five days of opening the sale to current ticket holders, who were allowed to double their 1978-79 allotment, virtually every seat in the 15,248-seat Edmonton Coliseum was spoken for.</p><p>On the first day of sales, some fans stood in line for up to six hours. Lineups were shorter in ensuing days but the flow through the Oilers&rsquo; office was consistent. Gordon and Pocklington decreed tickets would go on sale to new season-ticket holders April 26 or 27 and that about 1,200 tickets would be held for general sale on the day of each game.</p><p>&ldquo;We knew the response would be good, but this is astonishing,&rdquo; said Gordon, who spent hours preparing the program in advance. A key reason for his optimism was the fact the Oilers averaged 11,252 fans for their home dates, compared with 10,114 last season. The seasonal rise of 46,679 fans was 11.3 percent higher than last year despite small dips in attendance in the final three games of the season.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0027-04

Gretzky Takes Dual Oiler Honors; Club Primed For Final Title Run

<p>WINNIPEG&mdash;</p><p>Brinkmanship. It&rsquo;s defined as &ldquo;performing an act to the limits of safety before stopping.&rdquo;</p><p>It was an apt description of the Winnipeg Jets as the season drew to a close. The Jets were stumbling and had lost three out of four games; they were on the brink of surrendering third place to the New England Whalers.</p><p>Suddenly, they regrouped and put together a four-game win streak, beginning with a crucial 6-4 win over the Whalers that put the Jets back into the chase. Kent Nilsson snapped the worst slump of his WHA career at four games, and paced the Jets with his 37th and 38th goals of the year. The evening started off in a somber fashion, as before five minutes had elapsed, Winnipeg was facing a 2-0 deficit. However, goals by Morris Lukowich, Nilsson and Terry Ruskowski inside a space of 3:33 gave the Jets a lead they never relinquished. Two nights later in Edmonton the Jets opened up a 5-1 margin and then hung on for a 6-4 win. Their second such victory in the last two meetings with the Oilers.</p><p>Quietly, Peter Sullivan had a three game point streak going and he extended it to four, as he scored the first goal in a 2-1 win over the Bulls back home in Winnipeg. Rich Preston scored what proved to be the winning goal when he stole a Rob Ramage pass and romped in all alone on goaltender Ernie Wakely. &ldquo;I was thinking about trying to deke him but he&rsquo;s got. a good stick&rdquo;, said Preston. &ldquo;So 1 knew my chances were better by shooting.&rdquo; It was a low shot that Preston snapped and it hit the back of the net before Wakely even moved.</p><p>The victory set up one of the most dramatic games ever played at Winnipeg Arena. The Whalers had started a nose dive and the Bulls, entertaining thoughts of nipping the Cincinnati Stingers for the last playoff stop, were back in town for a rematch. Winnipeg opened up leads of 3-1 and 4-2, but by the end of the second period the Bulls had pulled even. When the team stepped on the ice for the third period, the Out-of-town scores were known and the situation was made even more nerve racking. A Birmingham win meant a playoff spot for the Bulls&mdash;a loss or tie and they would have to play Edmonton in the season finale before their fate would be determined.</p><p>A tense capacity crowd watched as Gary Smith and Ernie Wakely stymied numerous scoring threats. As the clock ticked off the last seconds, both teams dashed furiously up and down the length of the ice in an attempt to get the game winner. The last seconds melted away and both teams, completely exhausted, returned to their respective benches to regroup for the overtime period.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02210/3866664-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="578" height="762"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RICH PRESTON</b></figcaption></div><p>In the overtime session Gary Smith loomed even larger than his frame of six-foot-four. Twice he stopped Birmingham players from close in to extend the overtime frame. Finally, with nine minutes gone Peter Sullivan slipped a shot between Wakely&rsquo;s pads and with it the Bulls were made history. For Sullivan it was his second goal of the match and it extended his point streak to five games.</p><p>Sullivan lengthened his streak to six, when in the last ever regular season game in the WHA against Edmonton, he upped his goal total to 46. Sullivan&rsquo;s goal wasn&rsquo;t nearly enough as without most of the Jets regular defensemen in the line-up the Oilers pounded Winnipeg 9-3.</p><p><b>JET STREAMS:</b> John Markell, an All Star right winger from Bowling Green University has agreed to terms of a multi-year professional contract with the Jets&hellip;The Jets are nervously awaiting the outcome of a hearing convened to examine the stick swinging incident with Morris Lukowich and Oiler&rsquo;s Steve Carlson. Depending on the decision coming out of that hearing, Lukowich could be lost to the Jets for their first three playoff games&hellip;Season ticket sales for next years NHL Jets are moving at a brisk pace.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01289/3866657-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="584" height="680"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PETER SULLIVAN&hellip;On Hot Streak</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0028-02

Jets Regroup To Hold Off Whalers

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04124/3866737-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="247" height="239"></div><h2>BIRMINGHAM BULLS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05106/3866730-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="762" height="920"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-0689/3866723-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="788" height="956"></div><h2>CINCINNATI STINGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-0779/3866716-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="754" height="1096"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-0872/3866709-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg" title="f0028-08" width="740" height="960"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-0966/3866702-1-eng-US/f0028-092.jpg" title="f0028-09" width="752" height="1060"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1063/3866695-1-eng-US/f0028-102.jpg" title="f0028-10" width="742" height="976"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0028-04

WHA’S FINAL SCORING AND PENALTY STATISTICS

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div><p>ERIE&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen the Erie Blades and Hampton Aces won their semi-final playoff series in impressive fashion it was predicted that the final best of seven affair between the two clubs would be one of the best in all of minor league hockey.</p><p>Why a statement like that from a league just in the first year of existence? Well, very simply the two teams ended first and second in the final regular season standings and they formed the most prolific rivalry in the North Eastern Hockey League.</p><p>Bad feelings surfaced between the two clubs from day one of the season and ran the entire year until the same teams played, or tried to play, the league&rsquo;s last regular season game. After coach Muzz MacPherson used an ineligible player in the initial game of the season and the Aces coasted to a 10-3 victory, Blade coach Nick Polano protested the use of the extra man and received backing from the commissioner Jack Timmins resulting in a 1-0 Erie forfeit win. On the last day of the season with Hampton starting their semi-final playoff against the Cape Cog Freedoms the next day, MacPherson elected to keep six of his better players home in Hampton instead of sending them for the finale in Erie. Management of the Blades were forced to call the game after one period with Erie leading 8-0 and refunded the money to the Fan Appreciation Night crowd. That incident brought some $14,000 in fines to the Aces.</p><p>Leaving the problems of the season behind, both teams set their sights on the John Mitchell Cup, symbol of NEHL supremecy. The first two games of the series have demonstrated that the prediction might very well be true as the clubs split the opening two games in the Erie County Fieldhouse, the Blades taking the first game, 5-4, while the Aces bounced back for a 6-5 triumph.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01249/3866768-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="579" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DENNIS ABGRALL&hellip;Sharpest Blade</b></figcaption></div><p>In game one, the Aces raced to a 3-1 advantage in the first 7:56 of the game and forced the Blades into a comeback situation. John Sheridan benefitted from an Erie penalty to score the games&rsquo; first goal on a power play at 1:48 and Hampton wasted no time in upping their margin to 2-0 just 22 seconds later when Lome Rombough pushed the puck past surprised Erie goalie Carey Walker.</p><p>Dennis Abgrall, who has been the Blades&rsquo; top offensive threat in the playoffs, cut the gap to 2-1 on a rebound shot before the experienced duo of Brian Coates and Larry Billows worked their magic, Coates feeding Billows in front of the crease when the Blades coughed up the puck deep in their own zone.</p><p>Thanks to an assist by Brad Rhiness, Abgrall again scored early in the second period and Erie gained the momentum they were looking for when Sheridan protested a holding call on teammate Pat Donnelly and was issued a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct setting the Blades up with a five on three power play. It didn&rsquo;t take long for the Blades to tie things up at 3-3 as defenseman Daniel Poulin blasted a slap shot home from the face-off circle just seven seconds into the double minors and Poulin then assisted winger Stan Gulutzan with the second power play goal to put the Blades on top, 4-3.</p><p>It was the Coates-Billows tandem that once again came back to haunt the Blades with Coates assisting Billows on a two on one break enabling the Aces to even things at 4-4 going into the decisive period.</p><p>Poulin set up the game winner for the Blades midway through the third period, the hard charging defenseman doing a full length rush before passing to Paul Mancini in front of the Aces&rsquo; goal. The former number one draft choice of the Los Angeles Kings had no trouble lifting it over the shoulder of goalie Jim Bales.</p><p>Clinging to their narrow 5-4 lead, the Blades&rsquo; Ron Hansis was dealt a tripping penalty late in the game and if that wasn&rsquo;t bad enough for Erie, Paul Sheard was sent to the box just 52 seconds later for slashing. With the Aces five on three power play, the Blades were really put to the test and ironically Hansis and Sheard were the club&rsquo;s top two penalty killers. Polano entrusted the difficult task to center Paul Pacific, Poulin and defenseman Dick Layo and along with Walker the group did an excellent job killing off the threat and preserving Erie&rsquo;s first win.</p><p>Game Two of the series was another that went down to the wire, Abgrall getting the Blades, on top early with a fine display of hustle. Bales blocked Abgrall&rsquo;s first effort from the face-off circle, but the determined winger got his own rebound behind the net, came back out and backhanded it past the Hampton shot stopper at 10:48.</p><p>Hampton shocked the Blades with a pair of goals within 21 seconds, Donnelly taking credit for the first as he got behind the Erie defense coming out of the penalty box, took a perfect pass from Coates and tied the game at 17:49. Sheridan followed at 18:10 with a fancy backhander past Walker.</p><p>The Blades looked sluggish as they continued to fight from behind to tie the Aces. Rhiness evened things at 2-2 in the second period, Dave Hynek responding with a Hampton goal on a rebound for a 3-2 margin. Mancini&rsquo;s hard wrist shot enabled Erie to again tie the score, but Lome Rombough flipped home a rebound giving the Aces a 4-3 lead after two periods.</p><p>Kelly Dean&rsquo;s power play strike early in the third seemed to take the wind out of the Blades&rsquo; sails, but Rhiness, never one to quit, made it a one goal game less than one minute later with his second score. Billows then got what proved to be the game winner right off a face-off in the Erie zone. The unique play pushed Hampton&rsquo;s lead to 6-4, but with the clock winding down, Gulutzan set up the final hectic two minutes with a goal to slice the gap to 6-5. Polano pulled Walker from his goal perch as Erie tried to take advantage of the extra attacker to gain a tie and send the struggle into overtime, but the Aces survived some anxious moments and held on for the win to take away the home ice advantage the Blades possessed.</p><p>&ldquo;These two clubs are very, very close,&rdquo; said a pleased MacPherson after his club tied the series. &ldquo;I said it was going to be a long series, but with this win under our belts, it&rsquo;s even going to be a longer series. The big thing here is that our hockey club came here to try and get a split and we got it. I&rsquo;m very happy we won it, it was a solid team effort and going home things will turn our way. I still think it will be a six or seven game series.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing like a very tired, disorganized hockey club,&rdquo; said a somber Polano. &ldquo;I think the spirit is there, I know they want it, but it just seems like they are just too tired to do anything right.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0029-01

Aces Steal NEHL’s Home-Ice Edge

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01261/3866865-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="581" height="751"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TERRY MURRAY&hellip;Best Defenseman</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02209/3866858-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="566" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MIKE MEEKER&hellip;Shared Rookie Award</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03167/3866851-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="578" height="746"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DAN BONAR&hellip;Hot Indian Rookie</b></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04130/3866844-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="1199" height="1067"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ROCKY SAGANIUK&hellip; Led League With 47 Goals</b></figcaption></div><p>HARRISBURG&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>D</span>efensemen Terry Murray of Maine and John Bednarski of New Haven proved that making All Star Status last year was no accident as they repeated as first-team selections this year on the 27th annual American Hockey League Coaches All Star teams chosen for the Harrisburg Sunday Patriot-News and THE HOCKEY NEWS.</p><p>Murray and Bednarski, the only repeaters on the star-studded lineup from last year, led their respective Divisional champion teams in grabbing the biggest share of attention from the coaches in balloting based on the regular season.</p><p>Joining Murray on the first team from Maine was high-scoring center Bernie Johnston while Bednarski had a New Haven teammate selected in crafty goaltender Lindsay Middlebrook.</p><p>Rounding out the first team were New Brunswick&rsquo;s Rocky Saganiuk at right wing and Rochester&rsquo;s Bill Bennett at left wing.</p><p>Murray was also voted as the best defenseman in the circuit for the second straight year.</p><p>Saganiuk shared most valuable player honors with speedy Randy MacGregor of Binghamton. In another voting tie, Mike Meeker of Binghamton and Dan Bonar of Springfield shared rookie of the year laurels. New Haven&rsquo;s Parker MacDonald was voted coach of the year by his peers.</p><p>Defending Calder Cup champion Maine placed three players on the second team in goalie Pete Peeters, defenseman Dennis Patterson and center Wayne Schaab. New Haven grabbed one second-team spot when Dale Lewis was selected at left wing&mdash;just missing making the first team.</p><p>Also voted to the second team were Binghamton defenseman Mario Faubert and Nova Scotia right wing Dave Lumley.</p><p>For the second straight year, the Hershey bears were blanked from placing a member on either the first or second teams. Defenseman Bob Bilodeau and center Claude Noel both received votes however.</p><p>The teams were selected by the nine AHL coaches. Voting was based on an all-opponent format in which coaches were not permitted to choose members of their own team. They were however, permitted to vote for their own players for the special categories.</p><p>Murray and Saganiuk were the biggest vote-getters as each narrowly missed being chosen by every opposing coach for first-team berths. Middlebrooke and Johnston were also easy winners in the balloting for first team. The tightest race came at left wing where Bennett just nosed out Lewis.</p><p>Three of last year&rsquo;s six first-team selections found spots in the National Hockey League this season. Goalie Mario Lessard made the grade in Los Angeles while forwards Blake Dunlop and Rod Schutt found homes in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh respectively.</p><p>Two of the remaining three from last year are Murray and Bednarski, who repeated, leaving only Philadelphia Firebird right wing Gordie Brooks. Brooks had another good year but couldn&rsquo;t keep up with Saganiuk who blasted in 47 goals for New Brunswick before being called up to Toronto late in the campaign.</p><p>In addition to Hershey, Philadelphia and Springfield were the only teams not to land a player on either of this year&rsquo;s first two teams. Springfield however, had Bonar in the tie with Meeker as top rookie.</p><h2>AHL All Star Teams</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05116/3866837-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="1168" height="770"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0031-01

Maine, New Haven Players Dominate AHL Coaches’ All Stars Teams, Awards

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street, Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>SALT LAKE&mdash;</p><p>Although coach Jack Evans had to juggle his lineup constantly, because of injuries, the Golden Eagles moved into the Adams Cup playoff finals for the second time in their five-year membership in the Central League. And they were preparing to meet the same foes they bested in the 1975 Cup finals&mdash;the Dallas Black Hawks.</p><p>(Only the cities and the uniforms remain the same. In 1975, as Salt Lake completed its first CHL season, the club was backed by the California Golden</p><p>Seals. The Dallas Hawks were backed by the Chicago Black Hawks. The current Eagles are affiliated with the St. Louis Blues, Dallas with the Vancouver Canucks).</p><p>That 1975 final series went seven games, with each club winning its home games. Three of the four Salt Lake home victories were in overtime.</p><p>In the current season, the Eagles and Hawks had broken even, 6-6-2, with Salt Lake holding a 4-3 edge in the Salt Palace, and Dallas a 3-2-2 advantage in Fair Park Coliseum.</p><p>After sweeping a two-game home set in the semi-final series, the Eagles found it wasn&rsquo;t so easy when they switched to Fort Worth&rsquo;s Will Rogers Coliseum. The Texans won the first game 4-2 and the Eagles had to go overtime to win the next one 4-3. The overtime win took the starch out of Fort Worth&rsquo;s defending champions, and Salt Lake prevailed, 52, to wrap up the series. Doug Palazzari, with six assists, paced the Eagles&rsquo; balanced scoring in the five-game semifinals. The line of Rick Shinske, Floyd Thomson and Rick Bowness collected 15 points.</p><p>With Goran Hogosta Worth mounted a 4-0 lead Wednesday before the second period was five minutes old. Richie Hansen scored only 47 seconds into the game, and Yvon Vautour made it 2-0 in the first. Neil Nicholson and Charlie Skjodt tallied barely a minute apart as the middle period began.</p><p>Salt Lake got power play goals from Dick Lamby in the second period and Thomson in the third, but couldn&rsquo;t catch up.</p><p>On Friday, after a scoreless first period, Vautour and Bruce Andres gave the Texans a two-goal lead. Gord Gallant cut that margin in the second period, and goals by Thomson and Lamby, only 39 seconds apart, put the Eagles in front.</p><p>Fort Worth coach Billy MacMillan lifted goalie Hogosta with 55 seconds left, and Skjodt tied the game with 43 seconds to play. But the Eagles wouldn&rsquo;t be denied, and Gary Holt slapped home the winning goal after 6:54 of overtime.</p><p>Neither team showed its previous intensity when they took the ice for the Saturday game. Ken Richardson, in the first period, and Holt at the start of the second, gave Salt Lake a two-goal lead. Garth MacGuigan and Ed Pizunski (a shorthanded goal) tied it up, but Bowness&rsquo; breakaway goal at the end of the second period put the Eagles in front to stay.</p><p>Don Cutts relieved Hogosta for the final period, but Shinske added insurance for the Birds with 5:32 to play. For the second straight night MacMillan pulled his goalie, but this time Bowness found the empty net with 12 seconds left.</p><p>Eagles&rsquo; Rick Bourbonnais and Larry Huras missed the Saturday game, while Palazzari and Bob Hess played only sparingly. Bourbonnais had a sore shoulder, while Huras severed the tip of his little finger when he fell on his own stick in a pileup. Hess had suffered an ankle injury Wednesday. Palazzari needed 11 stitches to close a gash in his left elbow.</p><p>Rookie right wing Gary Murphy, up from Port Huron in the International League, had one game remaining on his 10-game professional trial.</p><p>Terry Richardson was in the Eagle nets for all five games, although Doug Grant was recovered from his hamstring pull and ready for duty. Fort Worth coach MacMillan termed Terry &ldquo;the outstanding player in the series.&rdquo;</p><p><b>DALLAS:</b> The Black Hawks never let up, as they completed a four-game semifinal sweep of the Kansas City Red Wings with 5-4 and 3-1 victories in KC&rsquo;s! Kemper Arena.</p><p>That gave John Muckler&rsquo;s men 26 victories in their last 31 games, and they were anxiously awaiting a crack at Salt Lake in the Adams Cup finals.</p><p>Power plays made the difference in the Thursday victory, although the teams were at even strength when Gerry Minor put in the winning goal on a breakaway with 3:13 left.</p><p>Steve Hazlett&rsquo;s early goal was matched by the Wings&rsquo; Sylvain Locas. Then Locas tripped Hawk goalie Curt Ridley, and a delayed penalty was signalled. When Ridley left his net on the delayed penalty, a lot of people thought the goalie was going after Locas. One of these, apparently, was KC defenseman John Hilworth, who came off the bench to get into the confrontation. For this he drew two minor penalties, a game misconduct, and a suspension for the next game.</p><p>While KC was two men short, Hazlett scored again, and with a one-man advantage Tom Toulston made it 3-1 before the first period ended.</p><p>Ted Nolan and Locas (on a power play) tied it in the second period, but Dave Gardner on another power play regained the Hawks&rsquo; advantage. Mal Davis scored for the Wings at 16:20 of the third, but Minor got his breakaway for the winner just 27 seconds later.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01265/3866903-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="576" height="902"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>DOUG PALAZZARI&hellip;6 Playoff Assists</b></figcaption></div><p>For two periods of the Saturday contest, the only score was Jim Mayer&rsquo;s goal for Dallas late in the first. Roulston added insurance in the third. Davis spoiled Ridley&rsquo;s shutout bid at 10:14 of the last period, but 27 seconds later Hazlett provided the final Dallas goal.</p><p>Dallas&rsquo; Jeff Bandura and Kansas City&rsquo;s Steve Short had two fights in the first period. Short wound up as the penalty leader in the series, with 26 minutes, one more than Minor. Roulston&rsquo;s three goals and three assists made him the series scoring leader.</p><p>Steve Clippingdale was still sidelined by a neck injury, but the Hawks got back defenseman Claire Alexander for the fourth game of the semi-finals. Alex had been called up by the WHA Edmonton Oilers prior to Dallas&rsquo; last regular season game.</p><h2>CHL All Star Teams</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02199/3866896-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="1150" height="760"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0032-01

Eagles, Hawks In ‘75 Cup Replay After Quick Semi-Final Victories

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div><p>DALLAS&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>V</span>eteran Kansas City goaltender Ron Low was voted the Tommy Ivan Award as the Central League&rsquo;s most valuable player for the 1978-79 campaign. The 28-year-old Low did most of the Red Wings&rsquo; netminding, appearing in 63 of their 76 games, with an average yield of 3.86. Earlier he was named to the CHL first All Star team.</p><p>Greg Hubick of the Dallas Black Hawks was voted the league&rsquo;s most valuable defenseman, and Floyd Thomson of the Salt Lake City Golden Eagles received the Iron Man Award. Thomson was one of only seven players in the CHL who played all 76 games in the regular season.</p><p>Mike Eaves, center for the Oklahoma City Stars, earlier was named to receive the Ken McKenzie Trophy as the league&rsquo;s rookie of the year.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03139/3866934-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="524" height="670"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RON LOW&hellip;League&rsquo;s MVP</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0032-03

Wings’ Low MVP; 3 More Honored

<h2>AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2><h3>PLAYOFF GAMES Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01236/3867105-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="603" height="114"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>Nova Scotia 2 at Maine 7</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Nova Scotia at Maine</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 27</b></p><p>Maine at Nova Scotia</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 28</b></p><p>Maine at Nova Scotia</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 29</b></p><p>Nova Scotia at Maine</p><p><b>Wed. May 2</b></p><p>Maine at Nova Scotia</p><p><b>Fri. May 4</b></p><p>Nova Scotia at Maine</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02181/3867098-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="608" height="108"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Thu. Apr. 19</b></p><p>Binghamton 2 at New Haven 4</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>New Haven 2 at Binghamton 3</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 23</b></p><p>Binghamton at New Haven</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 25</b></p><p>New Haven at Binghamton</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 27</b></p><p>Binghamton at New Haven</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 29</b></p><p>New Haven at Binghamton</p><p><b>Tue./Wed. May 1-2</b></p><p>Binghamton at New Haven</p><h2>Quarter-Finals</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03136/3867091-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="613" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Wed. Apr. 11</b></p><p>Nova Scotia 4 at New Brunswick 5</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 12</b></p><p>New Brunswick 4 at Nova Scotia 5</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Nova Scotia 3 at New Brunswick 4</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 17</b></p><p>New Brunswick 1 at Nova Scotia 7</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 19</b></p><p>Nova Scotia 4 at New Brunswick 2</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04109/3867084-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="604" height="113"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Wed. Apr. 11</b></p><p>Binghamton 3 at Hershey 4</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 12</b></p><p>Hershey 0 at Binghamton 3</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Binghamton 6 at Hershey 2</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 17</b></p><p>Hershey 2 at Binghamton 5</p><h2>(Final Standings)</h2><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0585/3867077-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="615" height="140"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0666/3867070-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="599" height="173"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0757/3867063-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="609" height="379"></div><h3>FINAL GOALING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0849/3867056-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="603" height="1042"></div><h2>CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2><p><b>PLAYOFF GAMES</b></p><h3>Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0940/3867049-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="612" height="120"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>Dallas 5 at Salt Lake 2</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 23</b></p><p>Dallas at Salt Lake</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 27</b></p><p>Salt Lake at Dallas</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 28</b></p><p>Salt Lake at Dallas</p><p><b>Tue. May 1</b></p><p>Dallas at Salt Lake</p><p><b>Fri. May 4</b></p><p>Salt Lake at Dallas</p><p><b>Sat. May 5</b></p><p>Dallas at Salt Lake</p><h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1036/3867042-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="623" height="115"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Fri. Apr. 6</b></p><p>Kansas City 1 at Dallas 2</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 7</b></p><p>Kansas City 3 at Dallas 6</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 12</b></p><p>Dallas 5 at Kansas City 4</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Dallas 3 at Kansas City 0</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1135/3867035-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="597" height="109"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Fri. Apr. 6</b></p><p>Fort Worth 1 at Salt Lake 4</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 7</b></p><p>Forth Worth 2 at Salt Lake 3</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 11</b></p><p>Salt Lake 2 at Forth Worth 4</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 13</b></p><p>Salt Lake 4 at Forth Worth 3</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Salt Lake 5 at Forth Worth 2</p><h3>(Final Standings)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1234/3867028-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="610" height="193"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1323/3867021-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="601" height="302"></div><h3>FINAL GOALING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1420/3867014-1-eng-US/f0033-142.jpg" title="f0033-14" width="607" height="351"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2><p><b>PLAYOFF GAMES</b></p><h3>Quarter-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1516/3867007-1-eng-US/f0033-152.jpg" title="f0033-15" width="605" height="113"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Fri. Apr. 13</b></p><p>Flint 3 at Port Huron 5</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Port Huron 3 at Flint 4</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 15</b></p><p>Flint 0 at Port Huron 8</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>Port Huron 4 at Flint 6</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 21</b></p><p>Flint 6 at Port Huron 4</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>Port Huron 5 at Flint 3</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1611/3867000-1-eng-US/f0033-162.jpg" title="f0033-16" width="605" height="115"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Wed. Apr. 11</b></p><p>Milwaukee 4 at Grand Rapids 2</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 12</b></p><p>Grand Rapids 3 at Milwaukee 0</p><p>(Game thrown out on Milwaukee protest)</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Milwaukee 3 at Grand Rapids 6</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Grand Rapids 3 at Milwaukee 2</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>Milwaukee 6 at Grand Rapids 3</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 21</b></p><p>Grand Rapids 4 at Milwaukee 6</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Milwaukee at Grand Rapids</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 25</b></p><p>Milwaukee at Grand Rapids</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1711/3866993-1-eng-US/f0033-172.jpg" title="f0033-17" width="608" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Fri. Apr. 13</b></p><p>Saginaw 2 at Kamalazoo 4</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Kalamazoo 5 at Saginaw 3</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 17</b></p><p>Saginaw 3 at Kalamazoo 7</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Kalamazoo 5 at Saginaw 2</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-189/3866986-1-eng-US/f0033-182.jpg" title="f0033-18" width="608" height="109"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Wed. Apr. 11</b></p><p>Toledo 2 at Fort Wayne 4</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 13</b></p><p>Fort Wayne 3 at Toledo 1</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Toledo 3 at Fort Wayne 4</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 17</b></p><p>Fort Wayne 7 at Toledo 8</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Toledo 5 at Fort Wayne 4</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>Fort Wayne 7 at Toledo 2</p><h2>NORTH EASTERN LEAGUE</h2><p><b>PLAYOFF GAMES</b></p><h3>Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-197/3866979-1-eng-US/f0033-192.jpg" title="f0033-19" width="621" height="126"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Tue. Apr. 10</b></p><p>Hampton 4 at Erie 5</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 11</b></p><p>Hampton 6 at Erie 5</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 13</b></p><p>Erie 3 at Hampton 4</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 14</b></p><p>Erie 0 at Hampton 2</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 18</b></p><p>Hampton 1 at Erie 4</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 19</b></p><p>Erie 5 at Hampton 3</p><h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-207/3866972-1-eng-US/f0033-202.jpg" title="f0033-20" width="612" height="118"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Wed. Mar. 28</b></p><p>Cape Cod 6 at Hampton 1</p><p><b>Thu. Mar. 29</b></p><p>Cape Cod 1 at Hampton 4</p><p><b>Sat. Mar. 31</b></p><p>Hampton 5 at Cape Cod 1</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 1</b></p><p>Hampton 5 at Cape Cod 2</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 3</b></p><p>Hampton 8 at Cape Cod 1</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-216/3866965-1-eng-US/f0033-212.jpg" title="f0033-21" width="623" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Fri. Mar. 30</b></p><p>Utica 2 at Erie 7</p><p><b>Sat. Mar. 31</b></p><p>Utica 4 at Erie 1</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 4</b></p><p>Erie 5 at Utica 2</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 7</b></p><p>Erie 5 at Utica 4</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 8</b></p><p>Utica 1 at Erie 8<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0033-01

Looking At The Minor League Scoreboard

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S. and Canada</p><p>KALAMAZOO&mdash;</p><p>The International Hockey League Turner Cup playoffs got off to an explosive start on and off the ice.</p><p>Hockey-wise, the Kalamazoo K-Wings produced the major explosion. They wiped out Saginaw, the defending North Division Champions in four straight. The K-Wings will now wait in the wings until the Flint-Port Huron series concludes.</p><p>Fort Wayne also got off to a fast start, just like the Komets did during the regular season when they skated to an 80 record. The Komets took a 3-0 jump on arch-rival Toledo, a team which bounced the Komets out of last season&rsquo;s post-season activity in five games. Toledo rallied, however, to extend the series to six games by taking the next two games, both in overtime before the Komets won 7-2 in Toledo to advance.</p><p>Grand Rapids and Port Huron grabbed the lead in the other two series, each holding a 2-1 edge after three games. The Grand Rapids-Milwaukee series provided the first major controversy&mdash;or explosion&mdash;of the playoffs.</p><p>After being upset in the opener at home by the surprising Admirals, 4-2, the Owls bounced back to take the second game in Milwaukee, 3-0, behind the superb goaltending of Gordie Laxton. However, Milwaukee protested the game, citing the use by Grant Rapids of an ineligible player.</p><p>The player in question was defenseman Brad Knelson. Grand Rapids&rsquo; manager-coach Moe Bartoli obtained Knelson&rsquo;s services from Rochester of the American League.</p><p>The need for Knelson came about when Lex Hudson, voted the Owls&rsquo; top defenseman by Grand Rapids fans, was called by the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins. Under IHL rules, a player called up by a parent club can be replaced by a player provided from the parent club.</p><p>As Pittsburgh could not provide a replacement, Bartoli began a search elsewhere. As Grand Rapids has working agreements with Boston as well as Pittsburgh, Bartoli felt Knelson would be available as Rochester is affiliated with Boston.</p><p>Bartoli was given permission by commissioner Frank Gallagher to play Knelson but after Milwaukee protested, the situation was settled at an emergency meeting of the board of governors. The ruling was that Knelson was ineligible and the game in question was not counted with the proviso that if the series reached seven games, (it did), the disputed game will be replayed&mdash;in Grand Rapids. The Owls also won the third game in Grand Rapids, 6-3 and built a 2-1 edge again with a 3-2 squeeker in the fourth&mdash;oops third&mdash;game in Milwaukee.</p><p>There was controversy in Fort Wayne&rsquo;s second-game triumph over Toledo&mdash;played in Toledo. The Komets took a 1-0 lead with a 5-2 triumph in the opener in Fort Wayne and then won the second game in Toledo, 3-1.</p><p>The Komets were leading the tight, defensive struggle by a 2-1 score when Toledo scored what appeared to be the tying goal with less than two minutes to play. However, referee John McCutcheon ruled Toledo&rsquo;s Jim McCabe, credited with the goal, was in the crease before the puck. The Toledo players protested strongly but the decision stood.</p><p>Terry McDougall then put the game away with an empty net goal with four seconds remaining. After McDougall&rsquo;s goal, the fans started to litter the ice with chairs, garbage, cups, beer, etc.</p><p>Garvin refused to put his team back on the ice and McCutcheon called the Komets out for a faceoff, dropped the puck and ordered the clock to run out.</p><p>The Komets took a 3-0 lead with a 4-3 victory in the fourth game in Fort Wayne before Toledo bounced back. The Diggers won the wild-scoring fourth game, 8-7, on McCabe&rsquo;s goal one minute and two seconds before the end of the 10-minute sudden-death overtime. The Komets had tied the score with 1:05 left on a goal by Al Dumba.</p><p>Mike Keating won the fifth game for the Diggers&mdash;played in Fort Wayne&mdash;with a power goal 57 seconds into the first overtime period, setting the stage for the sixth match won by Fort Wayne.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01257/3867160-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="574" height="704"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>AL DUMBA</b></figcaption></div><p>Kalamazoo, which won eight of 10 regular season games from Saginaw, didn&rsquo;t slow down in the playoffs The K-Wings jumped off with a 4-2 triumph in the opening game at home. The K-Wings followed with a 5-3 win in the second game at Saginaw, returned home for a 7-3 decision and closed it out at Saginaw, 5-2.</p><p>The Port Huron-Flint series has been a home-and-home affair in the early going. The Flags took the opener in Port Huron, 5-3, and Flint rebounded in the second game in Flint, 4-3. The Flags made it 2-1 with an 8-0 romp in the third game in Port Huron.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0034-01

Kalamazoo, Fort Wayne Reach Semis As Controversy Rules IHL Playoffs

<h2>FLINT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02202/3867271-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="604" height="468"></div><h2>FORT WAYNE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03154/3867264-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="602" height="494"></div><h2>GRAND RAPIDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04100/3867257-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="600" height="470"></div><h2>KALAMAZOO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0563/3867250-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="608" height="474"></div><h2>MILWAUKEE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0640/3867243-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="614" height="470"></div><h2>MUSKEGON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0734/3867236-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="604" height="472"></div><h2>PORT HURON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0829/3867229-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="602" height="470"></div><h2>SAGINAW</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0919/3867222-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="612" height="472"></div><h2>TOLEDO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1017/3867215-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="612" height="500"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0034-02

IHL’s Final Scoring Records

<p>BOWLING GREEN&mdash;</p><p>Jerry York, who most recently served as head hockey coach at Clarkson College, has been named to a similar position at Bowling Green State University it was announced by Falcon Athletic Director Jim Lessig. York will replace Ron Mason, who resigned recently to accept the head coaching post at Michigan State University.</p><p>A 1967 graduate of Boston College, York has played an instrumental role in helping Clarkson become one of the top collegiate hockey teams in the nation. In his seven years at the helm of the Golden Knights, York led the school to an impressive 125-86-3 record and just one of his clubs failed to make the ECAC playoffs. His 1976-77 squad posted a 26-8 record and earned York the prestigious NCAA Coach-of-the-Year Award.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re fortunate to have attracted someone we feel is one of the finest hockey coaches in the nation,&rdquo; said Lessig. &ldquo;His award in 1977 reflects this and he brings experience to our program from one of the best programs in the country. We feel confident that we will stay near the top of the college hockey scene under Jerry&rsquo;s leadership. I wish to emphasize that he did not apply for the post. Rather, we went for him and his acceptance gives you some idea just where our program stands nationally.&rdquo;</p><p>The Watertown, Mass., native holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Boston College and two advanced degrees an M. Ed. and C.A.E.S. in counseling psychology.</p><p>York was one of the finest players to ever play at the Heights. Playing under the legendary John &ldquo;Snooks&rdquo; Kelley, he earned AllAmerica plaudits in 1967 and captained a team which finished with a 20-8 record. He scored 67 points that season and was the recipient of the Norman F. Daily Award as the team&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player. He currently ranks 10th on the all-time BC scoring list with 134 points.</p><p>During his career at BC (196467), the Eagles won one ECAC title and participated in the 1965 NCAA playoffs, losing to Michigan Tech in the finals, 8-2. In addition, the team won 20 or more games two of the three seasons and captured the prestigious Beanpot Tournament in 1965.</p><p>Following graduation, York served as a graduate assistant under Kelley for two seasons before accepting an assistant coaching position at Clarkson under Len Ceglarski, presently the head coach at BC. He remained in that position for two seasons before assuming the top spot in 1972. He also served as Director of Intramurals for two years while an assistant coach.</p><p>In all, York&rsquo;s clubs have won two North Country Tournaments, one ECAC Holiday Festival and two Syracuse Invitational crowns. This past season his Golden Knights fashioned a 19-11 mark and were fifth in the ECAC, losing a first roung game to Dartmouth in overtime, 2-1.</p><p>A member of the United States Olympic Hockey Committee and the Chairman of the ECAC Division I Coaches, York has produced three All-America skaters at Clarkson.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

York Accepts Falcon Posting

<h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2><p><b>PLAYOFF GAMES</b></p><h3>FINALS</h3><p><b>(Best-of-seven)</b></p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Niagara Falls at Peterborough</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 25</b></p><p>Peterborough at Niagara Falls</p><p><b>Thu. Apr. 26</b></p><p>Niagara Falls at Peterborough</p><p><b>Sat. Apr. 28</b></p><p>Peterborough at Niagara Falls</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 29</b></p><p>Niagara Falls at Peterborough</p><p><b>Tue. May 1</b></p><p>Peterborough at Niagara Falls</p><p><b>Wed. May 2</b></p><p>Niagara Falls at Peterborough</p><h3><b>Semi-Finals</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01247/3867435-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="616" height="149"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Peterborough 6, Sudbury 5</p><p>Peterborough 5, Sudbury 3</p><p>Sudbury 5. Peterborough 2</p><p>Peterborough 6, Sudbury 3</p><p>Peterborough 6, Sudbury 2</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02208/3867428-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="620" height="182"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Niagara Falls 9, Windsor 2</p><p>Windsor 6, London 6</p><p>London 6, Windsor 3</p><p>Niagara Falls 3, London 2</p><p>Windsor 4, Niagara Falls 3</p><p>Windsor 5, London 4</p><p>Niagara Falls 4, Windsor 1</p><p>Niagara Falls 7, London 4</p><p>Windsor 5, London 1</p><p>Niagara FaIIs 4, London 1</p><h2>Quarter-Finals</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03155/3867421-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="617" height="551"></div><h2>WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE</h2><p><b>PLAYOFF GAME</b></p><h3>Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04124/3867414-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="610" height="171"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Brandon 6, Lethbridge 1</p><p>Portland 10, Brandon 0</p><p>Portland 7, Lethbridge 3</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Mon. Apr. 23</b></p><p>Portland at Lethbridge</p><p><b>Tue. Apr. 24</b></p><p>Lethbridge at Brandon</p><p><b>Wed. Apr. 25</b></p><p>Portland at Brandon</p><h2>Quarter-Finals</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0594/3867407-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="617" height="119"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Portland 2, Victoria 1</p><p>Portland 6, Victoria 3</p><p>Victoria 4, Portland 2</p><p>Portland 4, Victoria 3</p><p>Victoria 6, Portland 4</p><p>Victoria 7, Portland 2</p><p>Portland 7, Victoria 2</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0676/3867400-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="611" height="128"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Lethbridge 9, Calgary 7</p><p>Lethbridge 7, Calgary 6</p><p>Calgary 6, Lethbridge 2</p><p>Calgary 4, Lethbridge 2</p><p>Lethbridge 8, Calgary 3</p><p>Calgary 7, Lethbridge 3</p><p>Lethbridge 5, Calgary 2</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0767/3867393-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="624" height="122"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Brandon 9, Saskatoon 1</p><p>Brandon 5, Saskatoon 2</p><p>Brandon 7, Saskatoon 5</p><p>Brandon 6, Saskatoon 4</p><h2>Preliminary Round-Robin</h2><h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0849/3867386-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="622" height="194"></div><h3>CENTRAL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0946/3867379-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="604" height="168"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1038/3867372-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="604" height="204"></div><h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>PLAYOFF GAMES Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1134/3867365-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="616" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p><b>Fri. Apr. 20</b></p><p>Sherbrooke 1 at Trois-Rivieres 2</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 22</b></p><p>Trois-Rivieres 7 at Sherbrooke 2</p><h3>GAMES TO COME</h3><p><b>Wed. Apr. 25</b></p><p>Sherbrooke at Trois-Rivieres</p><p><b>Fri. Apr. 27</b></p><p>Trois-Rivieres at Sherbrooke</p><p><b>Sun. Apr. 29</b></p><p>Sherbrooke at Trois-Rivieres</p><p><b>Mon. Apr. 30</b></p><p>Trois-Rivieres at Sherbrooke</p><p><b>Wed. May 2</b></p><p>Sherbrooke at Trois-Rivieres</p><p><b>Fri. May 4</b></p><p>Trois-Rivieres at Sherbrooke</p><h3><b>Semi-Finals</b></h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1227/3867358-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="604" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Sherbrooke 6, Verdun 4</p><p>Sherbrooke 11, Verdun 3</p><p>Sherbrooke 8, Verdun 5</p><p>Sherbrooke 9, Verdun 3</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1323/3867351-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="616" height="128"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Trois-Rivieres 5, Montreal 3</p><p>Montreal 4, Trois-Rivieres 3</p><p>Trois-Rivieres 10, Montreal 5</p><p>Trois-Rivieres 3, Montreal 1</p><p>Trois-Rivieres 7, Montreal 1</p><h2>Quarter-Finals</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1421/3867344-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="618" height="438"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Trois-Rivieres 7, Shawinigan 3</p><p>Trois-Rivieres 4, Shawinigan 2</p><p>Trois-Rivieres 8, Shawinigan 5</p><p>Trois Rivieres 8, Shawinigan 2</p><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><p>Montreal 5, Quebec 3</p><p>Quebec 5, Montreal 3</p><p>Montreal 4, Quebec 3</p><p>Quebec 7, Montreal 6</p><p>Montreal 8, Quebec 3</p><p>Montreal 5, Quebec 3</p><h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2><p><b>(Final Standings)</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1518/3867337-1-eng-US/f0035-152.jpg" title="f0035-15" width="622" height="164"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1617/3867330-1-eng-US/f0035-162.jpg" title="f0035-16" width="600" height="310"></div><h3>N.Y.&mdash;PENN LEAGUE (Final Standings)</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1714/3867323-1-eng-US/f0035-172.jpg" title="f0035-17" width="601" height="228"></div><h3>Final Scoring Leaders</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1813/3867316-1-eng-US/f0035-182.jpg" title="f0035-18" width="602" height="314"></div><h2>GREAT LAKES JUNIOR (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1912/3867309-1-eng-US/f0035-192.jpg" title="f0035-19" width="605" height="196"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-2012/3867302-1-eng-US/f0035-202.jpg" title="f0035-20" width="605" height="332"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0035-01

The Amateur Scoreboard

<div class="byline">BY MARTY KNACK</div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>PETERBOROUGH&mdash;</p><p>Maybe Peterborough Petes can save the Ontario Major Junior League from further embarrassment.</p><p>Petes qualified for the league final for the second consecutive season when they defeated Sudbury Wolves 6-3 in Sudbury and 6-2 in Peterborough to win their eight-point Leyden Division final 8-2.</p><p>But Petes will have to wait almost two weeks to start the league final, because the league created a three-ring circus known as a double round-robin Emms Division final after a week of protesting, appealing and threatened court action following an Emms Division semi-final between London Knights and Windsor Spitfires.</p><p>Spitfires protested the day after tying London 3-3 in the seventh game of their series, which apparently gave Knights the eight-point series 8-6. The Spitfire protest, regarding Knight right winger Dean Hopkins&rsquo; spearing infraction at 16:21 of the second period, was upheld by the Ontario Hockey Association and the game was ordered replayed.</p><p>Hopkins was only assessed a major penalty, instead of the match penalty that the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association rulebook calls for, and rallied London with two third-period assists and the tying goal with eight seconds remaining. Spitfires had led 3-0_ at the time of the infraction but Hopkins&rsquo; performance in the third apparently put London in the division final against Niagara Falls Flyers.</p><p>Spitfires won the replayed seventh game 3-2 in London, then returned home and beat the Knights 3-2 again in front of a capacity crowd. Windsor then opened the division final with a 3-3 tie against the Flyers in Niagara Falls before the league threw out 10 Spitfire games, nine London games and one Niagara Falls game by creating the round-robin.</p><p>Windsor players were ready to throw in the towel after arriving in Niagara Falls for the first game of the 12-day&rsquo; round-robin. They felt they&rsquo;d been shafted two many times, starting with the original protest decision when they lost their 3-0 lead and had to replay the game in its entirety with Hopkins&mdash;who they felt should have been suspended for three games as the league&rsquo;s rule against spearing calls for&mdash;in the lineup.</p><p>Spitfires were also fed up because they lost an advantage in the final, after &lsquo;stealing&rsquo; a point on the road and having momentum on their side with the extra home game swinging in their favor. And they felt betrayed by the round-robin scheduling, which had them playing three nights in succession to start the series and six of the first seven nights, including four games away from home.</p><p>Spitfire general manager-coach Wayne Maxner convinced his players not to boycott the series, but they then lost 9-2 to the Flyers as a result of not being able to concentrate on the job at hand. Spitfires let the office events bother them further when they allowed a 5-2 lead to evaporate in the brawl-filled second game with London, which ended in a 6-6 tie, then they lost 6-3 to the Knights.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01224/3867473-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="572" height="792"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TIM TRIMPER&hellip;Playoff Leader</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02169/3867466-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="578" height="788"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRENT ARMSTRONG&hellip;Led Spitfire Win</b></figcaption></div><p>Niagara Falls won the fourth game of the series, defeating London 4-2 in Niagara Falls and giving Spitfires perhaps the breather they needed, since Windsor came back with back-to-back one-goal decisions over Niagara Falls and London, beating the Flyers 4-3 in Windsor and Knights 5-4 in London. As the series reached its halfway point the Spitfires showed a 2-2-1 record, Niagara was 2-1 and London 1-2-1 and the only loser of a home game.</p><p>Perhaps Hap Emms, the man after whom the division is named, was Spitfires&rsquo; good-luck charm, because he stopped off in Windsor on his way back from a six-week Florida vacation with his wife Mabel and called Maxner, the latter a star player with Flyers in 196263 when Emms owned the franchise. The 74-year-old Emms was appalled by the league happenings during his absence and, being the outspoken individual he is, he offered some of his views of what is wrong with the league today.</p><p>&ldquo;We used to have hockey people like Conn Smythe, Stafford Smythe, Lloyd Pollock, Frank Bonello and Matt Leyden&mdash;and other people like that&mdash;running our franchises,&rdquo; said Hap, appearing healthy and tanned following his holiday. &ldquo;All they&rsquo;ve got now is promoters, and the hockey man, they don&rsquo;t pay any attention to him.</p><p>&ldquo;I was in the league for 35 years and never saw anything like this, because we had those hockey people running the league and not these promoters. All these owners are thinking about is dollars and cents. They&rsquo;re not thinking about the paying public.</p><p>&ldquo;I feel sorry for these people who are paying $4 each. And the players, they&rsquo;re not getting any more out of this.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re cheating the public and the players. The owners are getting a little bit too hungry.&rdquo;</p><p>Hap couldn&rsquo;t believe the round-robin format, either. If Flyers finish first, they win outright, of course, but if they finish second, they will play the first-place finisher in a sudden-death game in Niagara Falls, since they were judged to be &ldquo;innocent bystanders&rdquo; in the battle between London and Windsor. So, after just tying the first game of the aborted final at home and losing the home-ice advantage, they were given an advantage again.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unfair and unjust,&rdquo; said Hap, looking at Spitfires&rsquo; starting schedule. &ldquo;I think Windsor&rsquo;s got kicked around a bit. It&rsquo;s not going to do the league any good.</p><p>&ldquo;If I had the Windsor hockey club, there&rsquo;s no way I would have played again. I wouldn&rsquo;t have stood for it.&rdquo;</p><p>Hap admitted &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still interested in this league&rdquo; and then showed his lighter side when asked if he was completely retired and accepting it well. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just waiting to get a job coaching,&rdquo; he said.</p><p><b>PETERBOROUGH:</b> Keith Crowder continued his prolific playoff scoring with his 10th and 11th goals as Petes wrapped up their series with Sudbury. Linemate Tim Trimper remained the most productive playoff player in the league with two assists, and Bill Gardner, Bob Attwell and Jim Wiemer had a goal and assist each. &lsquo;</p><p><b>SUDBURY:</b> Scott Gruhl had a goal and assist for Wolves in the final game. Bob Lekun was the team&rsquo;s leading playoff scorer with 18 points and Dave MacQueen was second with 16.</p><p><b>NIAGARA FALLS:</b> Steve Ludzik earned assists on four consecutive goals and Dominic Miele and Jim Jackson had two goals and an assist each as the Flyers opened the round-robin with their rout of Windsor. Defenseman Mark Renaud chipped in with a goal and two assists against Spitfires, then had two more assists in the win over London. Steve Larmer led the way against the Knights with a goal and three assists and Brian Carroll had two goals, including one into an empty net with 11 seconds remaining, and one assist.</p><p><b>WINDSOR:</b> Brent Jarrett contributed a goal and two assists and George Kotsopoulos earned three assists for Spitfires in the brawl-filled tie with London. Mark Hamway shot two goals in the game in which 168 penalty minutes were assessed and eight players, including Kotsopoulos and Hamway, were ejected. Brent Armstrong had two goals and Jerrett again had a goal and two assists in the win over Niagara, then Jarrett scored two more goals, including the winner with two minutes and seven seconds left, in the victory in London. J. P. Leroux had a goal and assist and Kotsopoulos, defenseman Jerry Ingram and Dave Hirst were credited with two assists each in the decision against Knights.</p><p><b>LONDON:</b> Wayne Thompson had two goals and two assists and rallied Knights from a 5-2 deficit in the tie in Windsor, with defenseman Brian Crombeen and Thompson&rsquo;s right winger, Dino Ciccarelli, earning three assists each. Big Joe Paterson and defenseman Jim Eckhardt shot two goals each in the win over Windsor and the line of right winger Hopkins, Paterson and center Bill Carroll accounted for nine points in the loss to Spitfires, with Hopkins scoring three times and Paterson credited with a goal and three assists.</p><h2>Memorial Cup Dates</h2><p><b>Sun. May 6</b></p><p>Ontario vs Quebec</p><p><b>Mon. May 7</b></p><p>Quebec vs WHL</p><p><b>(Games to be played on home ice of Quebec winner)</b></p><p><b>Tue. May 8</b></p><p>WHL vs Ontario</p><p><b>Wed. May 9</b></p><p>Quebec vs Ontario</p><p><b>(Games to be played in Sherbrooke)</b></p><p><b>Thu. May 10</b></p><p>WHL vs Quebec</p><p><b>Fri. May 11</b></p><p>Ontario vs WHL</p><p><b>(Games to be played at Verdun Auditorium)</b></p><p><b>Sun. May 13</b></p><p>Final at Montreal Forum<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0036-01

Petes Forced To Await Emms Division Survivor

<div class="byline">BY NORM COWLEY</div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg, Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>EDMONTON&mdash;</p><p>They weren&rsquo;t really given a fair trial, but&mdash;regardless&mdash;Edmonton Oil Kings are once again extinct.</p><p>The shareholders of the Western Hockey League team, which was only revived last August after a two-year absence, decided to call it quits when losses totalled in the neighbourhood of $100,000 this season.</p><p>They sold the Oil Kings to a Portland group which will move the club to Great Falls, Mont., making it the fourth team to head south of the border in the last three years, the initial Edmonton franchise going to Portland, Kamloops to Seattle, and Calgary to Billings being the others.</p><p>Although it has still to be finalized at the summer meetings, chances are the WHL will go to an off-balanced two-division set-up next year&mdash;with Great Falls, Billings, Brandon, Regina, Saskatoon, Lethbridge, Calgary and Medicine Hat in one division and Portland, Seattle, New Westminster and Victoria forming the other.</p><p>&ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t draw at the Gardens,&rdquo; explained OilKing president Bill Hunter of the Edmonton shareholders&rsquo; decision to abandon their sinking ship. &ldquo;When we bought this club, we said we&rsquo;d give it our best for the year. But Edmonton is a major league city today.&rdquo;</p><p>After a decent start, Oil Kings played the last two-thirds of their 72-game schedule before an average crowd of 500, the worst turnout in the league.</p><p>But despite the terrible attendance figures, some people still believe Tier One hockey can survive in Edmonton. Among the optimists is the Oil Kings&rsquo; general manager Don Scott.</p><p>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t really say it was given an honest shot here to see if it would fail,&rdquo; he said of the $250,000-a-year operation which was run on a part-time basis. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t do the things required to make it a success. We had to do more than just open the doors.</p><p>&ldquo;So we&rsquo;re no smarter right now whether Tier One hockey will go in Edmonton than we were in September.&rdquo;</p><p>Meanwhile, New Westminster Bruins were put up for sale for $350,000.</p><p>Coach Ernie McLean and general manager Bill Shinske, co-owners for the last eight years, said they were unhappy with severe criticism which had been levelled at them after a brawl March 22 at Queen&rsquo;s Park Arena.</p><p>McLean was suspended for the balance of the season and eight players were suspended from three to five games after two Portland Winter Hawks players were severely beaten at the end of the game. McLean was also fined $1,000 and the team $500.</p><p>The owners said they considered the $350,000 figure a fair price for the Bruins&mdash;who&rsquo;ve won the Memorial Cup the last two seasons&mdash;because that is what a Portland, Ore., group recently paid in purchasing the Seattle Breakers franchise, which will remain in Seattle.</p><p><b>PORTLAND:</b> The Winter Hawks finished the preliminary three-team double round-robin with a 7-1 record, edging Victoria 5-4 on Perry Turnbull&rsquo;s goal with 17 seconds left to play and then eliminating New Westminster 5-3. Portland also swept the first two games in the best-of-seven Western Division final against Victoria, but needed an unanswered third-period rally both times. Ron Chorney and Max Kostovich scored in the final 20 minutes for the Hawks in the series-opening 2-1 victory. Mike Toal scored two goals and two assists while Florent Robidoux added a pair of markers in the 6-3 triumph.</p><p><b>VICTORIA:</b> Fortunately for the Cougars, they closed out their schedule in the round-robin at home. But Victoria still needed two late goals&mdash;Greg Adams&rsquo; second of the game with 48 seconds remaining and Gary Lupul&rsquo;s winning marker after 27 seconds of overtime&mdash;for their third win and a better record than New West. Mike Shields and Geordie Robertson had each tallied twice in a 5-4 loss earlier at Portland. In the division final, Cougars were outscored by a total of 5-0 in the third period of the first two games and as a result lost 2-1 and 6-3.</p><p><b>NEW WESTMINSTER:</b> The end of a dynasty? Maybe not, but it was the earliest the Bruins have been eliminated since the 1972-73 season. A 4-3 loss at Victoria in their seventh game put New West behind the eight-ball, then Portland finished the Bruins off 5-3 despite a two-goal effort by Kent Reardon.</p><p><b>BILLINGS:</b> Surprisingly, the Bighorns became the odd team out in the Central Division by dropping their last five games after winning their first three. Cal Roadhouse scored two goals 20 seconds apart but it wasn&rsquo;t enough in a 6-3 loss at Lethbridge. He also scored both goals in the season-ending 9-2 defeat at Calgary.</p><p><b>LETHBRIDGE:</b> The Broncos finished on top of the division&rsquo;s round-robin with a 5-3 record, with a timely 4-1 loss in the final game at Calgary eliminating Billings. In an earlier game, Lethbridge doubled Billings 6-3 behind the two-goal effort of Duane Sutter. Once the final began, Broncos relied upon the explosiveness of Gord Williams to outscore Calgary 9-7 and 7-6 (in overtime). Williams scored six goals and added three assists in the two games, to move into second place in the playoff scoring race behind teammate Doug Morrison. Sutter scored the overtime winner after only nine seconds of play.</p><p><b>CALGARY:</b> Sheldon Currie enjoyed back-to-back two-goal games as the Wranglers posted 9-2 and 4-1 decisions over Billings and Lethbridge, respectively, to advance to the division final. But the scoring was spread around in the two high-scoring opening games of the final, Calgary lost 9-7 and 7-6 (in overtime).</p><p><b>BRANDON:</b> The Wheat Kings are probably getting a little bored playing Saskatoon by now. With Edmonton out <i>of</i> contention, the two clubs played three &ldquo;exhibition games&rdquo; against each other to complete the round-robin&mdash;Brandon won all three, 4-3 at Saskatoon, and 8-2 and 13-1 at Brandon (a playoff record, as was Brad Kempthorne&rsquo;s three-goal outburst in the second period)&mdash;then opened the Eastern Division final at the Keystone Center. Kempthorne added another three goals and two assists in the opening-game 9-1 victory. Ray Allison netted two goals in the 5-3 win to give Brandon a 2-0 lead in the series.</p><p><b>SASKATOON:</b> Until the &ldquo;exhibition games&rdquo; started, the Blades boasted a four-game undefeated streak against Brandon. But Saskatoon is now winless in five games with Brandon, and trail in the division final 2-0. Brent Ashton notched four of the Blades&rsquo; 10 goals in the five consecutive outings with Brandon.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01197/3867511-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="584" height="1110"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BRAD KEMPTHORNE&hellip;Two Hat Tricks</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02153/3867504-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="574" height="664"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>GREG ADAMS&hellip;Important Goal</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0037-01

Edmonton Juniors Out Of Business As WHL Continues Shift To U.S.A.

<p>POTSDAM&mdash;</p><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he new head hockey coach at Clarkson College is William O&rsquo;Flaherty, according to an announcement made by F. William Fiesinger, director of athletics.</p><p>O&rsquo;Flaherty, assistant coach since 1972, will replace Jerry York who has accepted the head coach position at Bowling Green State Univertity in Ohio. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m extremely pleased that Billy will be leading our Golden Knights next season, Fiesinger said. &ldquo;The players like and respect him, and I&rsquo;m confident he&rsquo;ll do a great job.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03115/3867542-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="576" height="1066"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BILL O&rsquo;FLAHERTY&hellip;Replaces York</b></figcaption></div><p>During his seven years as assistant coach O&rsquo;Flaherty also served as head coach of the junior varsity team and as a physical education instructor. He has had extensive experience in hockey schools, either directing or working at schools in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.</p><p>A 1971 Clarkson alumnus, O&rsquo;Flaherty played three years with the varsity hockey team. As a senior he played in the NCAA hockey championship in Lake Placid.</p><p>The Toronto, Ont. native is a member of a hockey oriented family. His father John served for many years as chief scout for the Vancouver Canucks; his brother Gerry, after five seasons with the National Hockey League, is now playing for the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American Hockey League; and his borther John is hockey coach at De La Salle High School in Toronto.</p><p>Accepting the position O&rsquo;Flaherty said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud to be chosen to lead the varsity squad at a college with such a rich hockey tradition. I&rsquo;m looking forward to the 79-80 season.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0037-03

O’Flaherty Set To Become Clarkson’s New Hockey Coach

<div class="byline">BY DANNY YOUNG</div><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS Made in Canada by HILLERICH & BRADSBY, LTD Arnold Street. Wallaceburg. Ontario Sold in U.S and Canada</p><p>SHERBROOKE&mdash;</p><p>About a year and a half ago, Jean Chouinard was going to quit hockey. Unable to live up to inflated expectations as Guy Chouinard&rsquo;s younger brother, the Quebec Remparts traded him to Sherbrooke. Understandably discouraged, Jean figured he might as well stay home and terminate his junior hockey career.</p><p>The Sherbrooke Beavers, however, had other things in mind.</p><p>&ldquo;I was looking for left wings,&rdquo; recalls coach Ghislain Delage, &ldquo;and he had size and experience. When he refused to sign a contract, 1 told him he could try it out in Sherbrooke without a contract.&rdquo;</p><p>Accepting Delage&rsquo;s offer, Chouinard gave it a shot in Sherbrooke, and found that a Beavers&rsquo; uniform fit him well.</p><p>&ldquo;With the Beavers, everyone has been good to me,&rdquo; says Chouinard. &ldquo;And Delage played a big part. He helped me to get desire.&rdquo;</p><p>Since that turning point in his career, Chouinard has established himself as a solid two-way left winger. Though his 54 goals this season does not match his brother Guy&rsquo;s total of 75 with the Remparts in 1973-74, it may be a sign that Jean will also step up to the professional ranks.</p><p>According to Jean, he did not give serious consideration to turning pro until midway through the season, and that came with some family encouragement.</p><p>&ldquo;In September, I didn&rsquo;t think about it,&rsquo;&rsquo; says Chouinard. &ldquo;During Christmas, I discussed it with Guy and my father. They said &lsquo;why shouldn&rsquo;t I give it a try,&rsquo; so I did.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;He might not be a high pick in the draft,&rdquo; notes Atlanta Flames&rsquo; 50-goal scorer Guy, &ldquo;but if he works hard, and has the right mental attitude, he can make it.</p><p>&ldquo;He must be prepared for a couple of years in the minors, and just be patient,&rdquo; continues Guy. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see if you&rsquo;re going to get a chance. I learned a lot in my two years in the minors, you can always improve yourself wherever you play.&rdquo;</p><p>Jean has proved this theory in his last season with Sherbrooke. Playing on a defensive line with two rookies, Dennis Martin and Jean Marc Gaulin, he managed to hit the 50-goal plateau while keeping the opposition&rsquo;s toughest line in check. By pressing on defense, they forced errors and created their own opportunities.</p><p>Originally teamed up with forwards Alan Haworth and Andre Cote, coach Delage moved Chouinard with the rookies to give the team more balance. Though initially a bit disappointed with the change, Chouinard will agree that it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re always working for me,&rdquo; notes Chouinard. &ldquo;When Gaulin is 19, I hope somebody will work as hard for him.&rdquo;</p><p>In Sherbrooke&rsquo;s first eight playoff games, Chouinard scored nine goals and seven assists. In the fourth game of the semi-finals against Verdun, he had 10 shots on goal.</p><p>It seems appropriate that he should peak at this time after such a stunning comeback. From what he has shown, Delage expects him to be a top draft candidate. Rather than worrying about what scouts think, Chouinard just sticks to what he does best.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to dream about the pros,&rdquo; sayd Chouinard. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to play my game as best I can.&rdquo;</p><p>Though Jean is graduating this year, the Chouinard name will still be around the Quebec Major Junior League for at least a couple of years. Jacques Chouinard, a young centerman for the Quebec Remparts, is another product from the family&rsquo;s backyard rink. Jacques performed quite well during the second half of the season, and should make a name for himself next year. But he&rsquo;ll have to work just as hard as his brothers if he wants to develop into a complete player.</p><p>&ldquo;Junior hockey is like a school,&rdquo; sayd Guy. &ldquo;You must learn the game and be ready to play both ways. And you always have to be willing to practice your weak points. Hard work pays off!&rdquo;</p><p>It sure has for the Chouinard family.</p><p><b>TROIS-RIVIERES:</b> The defending champion Draveurs advanced to the finals of the QMJHL playoffs by eliminating Montreal four games to one. They clinched the series with a 7-1 home victory, their eighth playoff win in nine starts. Center Jean Francois Sauve leads all playoff scorers with 16 goals and 13 assists.</p><p>Trois-Rivieres defenseman Pierre Lacroix was selected as the league&rsquo;s most valuable player. Lacroix compiled records for most goals, most assists, and most points by a defenseman (37-100137) this past season.</p><p><b>VERDUN:</b> The Hawks fell to Sherbrooke in four straight. It appeared that the team just didn&rsquo;t have enough left after battling Cornwall in a grueling seven game series. Hawk supporters can take consolation in knowing that stars Raymond Bourque, Normand Aubin, and Steve Kasper will be back next year.</p><p><b>MONTREAL:</b> The Juniors never really reached their full potential this season, and in their semi-final series with Trois-Rivieres, they never got the chance. After splitting the first two, the Draveurs took command and ended what was expected to be a very successful season for Montreal. At the beginning of the season, GM Roger Poitras had told this reporter: &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t win it this year, I don&rsquo;t know when we will.&rdquo; The season was a big disappointment for Poitras and the rest of the organization.</p><p><b>SHERBROOKE:</b> The Beavers advanced to the finals against Trois-Rivieres with a four game sweep over Verdun. In the final game of that series, the incredible Jimmy Mann scored yet another hat trick, his fourth in eight games, to lead a 9-3 wipe out. In postseason play, Mann has scored 14 goals and eight assists.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01232/3867580-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="566" height="659"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JEAN CHOUINARD&hellip;Listened To Family</b></figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02181/3867573-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="575" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>JACQUES CHOUINARD&hellip;Follows Brothers</b></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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Chouinard Flourishing As Beaver; Draveurs Attempt To Defend Title

<div class="byline">YOUNG&#x2014;</div><p>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;</p><p>The city which illuminated the talents of Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur and Guy Chouinard before they went on to star in the professional ranks, will not have a major junior A team for the 1979-80 season.</p><p>Unable to compete with professional hockey in the province&rsquo;s capital city, Quebec, the Remparts are moving their franchise to the city of Rimouski for next year.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

Remparts Leaving Quebec

<p>SAN DIEGO&mdash;</p><p>San Diego Hawks owner Elmer Jonnett has been elected president of the Pacific Hockey League, but the Pittsburgh based businessman has temporarily withheld his acceptance of the post.</p><p>&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s wait awhile until we see how the pieces fall into place,&rdquo; Jonnet stated at the conclusion of a PHL owners meeting in San Diego last week. &ldquo;I was very upset when the playoffs were cancelled,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We require a solid operating plan for next season and then stick to it.&rdquo;</p><p>The PHL began its second season as a six team operation, but was forced to shut down Los Angeles and San Francisco in January. It was stated at the time that the league hoped to be back in the bay area in the 1979-80 season and there is a good possibility of it happening.</p><p>Preliminary efforts are continuing to find a Pacific Northwest partner for Spokane, which would bring the circuit more into line with the once highly successful Western Hockey League.</p><p>Once the PHL achieves stability it will actively seek affiliation with the NHL. One result of such an association would be an interlocking schedule with the Central Hockey League.</p><p>For the time being the PHL will function in the San Diego Sports Arena. First year commissioner, Ken Broderick, has been asked to resign.</p><p>A replacement will depend on results of negotiations with the NHL.</p><p>In an expansion of the San Diego front office, announced by Jonnet, popular veteran player Willie O&rsquo;Ree will be in charge of sales. His title is general sales manager and it will be a full time position. O&rsquo;Ree will be joined by players Joe Noris, Mike Bloom and Ray Adduono in the off-season sales efforts.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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May 4, 1979

Final NHL Leaders

Syracuse Rejoins AHL With Firebird Franchise

Who They’re Affiliated With…

Canuck Miracle In Philly Resulted From Hard Work