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.

January 4, 1980

The Hockey News January 4, 1980

MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;No less than 12 WCHA players are on the roster of the 20-man team selected by the U.S. Nationals to compete in the International Ice Hockey Federa-tion world junior championships in Helsinki, Finland.Coached by Lou Vairo, the U.S. team is comprised of American born players under the age of 20 and will compete against the Soviet Union, West Germany, Finland, Canada, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Sweden. The U.S. team will oppose the Czechs and Swedes in their first two games in Helsinki.WCHA players on the team include goaler Paul Butters of Minnesota, defensemen Pat Ethier of Wisconsin, Dave Jensen of Minnesota, Ken Leiter of Michigan State and Dan Vlaisavljevich of Denver; forwards Scott Carlston and Gary DeGrio, both from Minn-Duluth, Lexi Doner and Todd Lecy of Wisconsin, Bryan Erickson of Minnesota, Mike Lauen of Michigan Tech and Julian VanBiesbruck of Michigan. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

WCHA Puts 12 Players On U.S. Junior Nationals

As they say in baseball, &ldquo;one, two, three strikes, you&rsquo;re out! &ldquo;, and the NHL is down to its last strike. The second was taken flagrantly when the bullish Flyers foolishly set upon the Kings.It was a repeat of last year&rsquo;s dismal display, in which records were set for&mdash;not scoring&mdash;penalty minutes.The scene was set when the Flyers harassed the Kings as the latter were skating off the ice for a between periods rest. From then on it was all downhill.Randy Holt (Kings) certainly doesn&rsquo;t deserve a pat on the back for his behavior which set off the near riot; nor do the Flyer fans who stood; and cheered their brawling club urging them on to bloodier brutality.We&rsquo;ve lost the concept of hockey. It seems to me that the basic idea of the game is to outskate and outscore the opponent, not outfight him. If it&rsquo;s fighting the fans want, let&rsquo;s strap 8-ounce boxing gloves on the players, take away the sticks, and let them go to it for 10 rounds.It&rsquo;s certainly time the NHL front office does more than &ldquo;rue&rdquo; the incident of violence. It&rsquo;s time to hand out some unusual and cruel punishment to those who take part in those extracurricular activities: small fines and one game suspensions aren&rsquo;t the answer! Maybe a month in mufti would teach violators a lesson.Something had better be done before real hockey buffs stay away from NHL games in bigger droves than they already are!MAXWELL STERN, Van Nuys, CA. &#9632;

NHL Must Get Tough With Violence

One of the more reliable performers in the changing NHL these days is Jean Ratelie, the amazing center of the Boston Bruins who is like a good wine&mdash;he keeps getting better with time. Next week in THE HOCKEY NEWS contributing editor Frank Orr will focus on the 39-year-old Ratelle in a special page 3 feature as he discusses Ratelle&rsquo;s smooth and easy approach to hockey and how he has lasted so long in the big time.We will also feature a look at the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; new electronic coaching format as staff writer Mike Dennis outlines the big changeover in the handling of the Sabres under coach Scotty Bowman and his two aides, Jim Roberts and Roger Neilson. &#9632;

What’s Coming…

DETROIT&mdash;The four starting teams from the WCHA have been named for the 15th Great Lakes Invitational hockey tournament to be held Dec. 28-29 at the new Joe Louis Sports Arena.Competing in the Detroit event will be Michigan State, Michigan, Michigan Tech and Wisconsin. Michigan and State will square off Dec. 28 in the first ever college hockey game in the new arena while Tech opposes Wisconsin in the nightcap. Finals and consolation will be held the next night.The tournament games do not count in the regular WCHA standings. &#9632;

Great Lakes Teams Set

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01697/4276749-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Ian MacAlpine)</figcaption></div>Page 16BRIAN PROPP: FITTING FLYERS NEW ICE IMAGEIRON MAN UNGER ENDS RUNS AT 914KINGS&rsquo; SCORING REALLY SIMMERS &#9632;

Cover-01

FLYERS ROMP TO RECORD

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011061/4273719-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="437" height="337"></div><h2>Memories of the comrades</h2>THE NATIONAL HOCKEY League must be the only outfit in captivity that invites in a batch of grinches to spoil Christmas for it. At least, the NHL waited until after the holiday to play two teams from the Soviet Union, Central Red Army and Dynamo, in a nine-game series.Anyway, the Soviets are back and any hockey addict worth his borscht is happy that they&rsquo;re here. In games against NHL clubs, the Soviets will supply superior hockey entertainment and a few defeats for the NHL clubs.Of course, the comrades are stacking their clubs a little. Central Red Army, a team that has a dozen or so members of the Soviet national team, is bringing along the splendid forward line of Vladimir Kovin, Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Varnakov from Wings of the Soviet.After more than two decades of covering Soviet teams on North American tours, one builds up a file of memories on the good old comrades. Here are a few of mine.First tour: The first tour by the Soviet nationals was in 1958. Most North American hockey people regarded the Soviets as some sort of freaks in their outdated uniforms and patched-up equipment.They played a game against the All Stars from the old Eastern Ontario senior league at Kingston and, on the morning of the game, the general manager of an NHL team was seated in the hotel lobby when the Soviet players, wearing those ever-present blue sweat suits, headed to a nearby park to play soccer.The NHL man figured it was the funniest thing he&rsquo;d ever seen&mdash;a team of hockey players playing soccer on the morning of game-day.That night, the same chap sat in the press box and marvelled at the Soviet players&rsquo; ability to handle the puck with their skates.&ldquo;I wonder how they teach &lsquo;em to do that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They handle the puck with their skates better than most NHL players do with their sticks.&rdquo;When it was pointed out to him that perhaps their soccer training had something to do with it, the GM said: &ldquo;Geez, I never thought of that.&rdquo;Diversions and delights: On that tour, Veniamin Sologu-bov, a huge bear of a man who was the Soviets&rsquo; star defenseman, disappeared in Quebec City one evening. To the Soviets, &ldquo;disappearing&rdquo; means that the officials don&rsquo;t know exactly where a player is located for ten minutes.Anyway, the team officials found old Solly in a room in the hotel other than his own with a hooker and a five-pound box of chocolates. That&rsquo;s probably more western decadence than any socialist can stand.<h2>Ladies&rsquo; Room Chat</h2>Unusual interview: Before the &lsquo;76 Canada Cup tournament, I made an excursion to Sweden and Czechoslovakia to see the four European teams. The Soviets were in Sweden for two exhibition games against the Swedish national team.I was walking down a corridor in the Scandinavian Arena in Goteborg when I heard &ldquo;psst, Canada!&rdquo; behind me and turned to see Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak peeking out the door of a ladies&rsquo; rest room.Tretiak waved me into the washroom, out of sight of the team watchdogs. I spoke no Russian, he spoke little English but he had a few questions.&ldquo;Bobby Orr play Canada Coop,&rdquo; Tretiak said. I nodded.&ldquo;Who goal?&rdquo; Tretiak asked. I said that Gerry Cheevers, Chico Resch and Rogie Vachon were the Team Canada goalies.Tretiak made a motion as if he were smoking a cigar. He knew who Cheevers was, obviously,Great steak debate: Before the Soviets departed for home after the Canada Cup, Albert Pormortsov, then the head of the USSR delegation, called a press conference to comment on a comment by Alan Eagleson that the Soviet party had demolished expensive steaks like potato chips.Pormortsov didn&rsquo;t deny that the Soviets had eaten large numbers of steaks, just that it wasn&rsquo;t very nice for Eagleson to mention it. He added that when the Eagle was in the USSR, they didn&rsquo;t follow him around, counting the number of steaks he ate. Eagleson replied that he always took his own steaks with him to the USSR.<h2>Likes Bobby Clarke</h2>Vlad and Bobby: Bobby Clarke is not a name held in high esteem in the Soviet Union. After all, Clarke&rsquo;s two-hander to the ankle of Valeri Kharlamov hobbled the Soviet star for much of the 1972 Summit Series between Team Canada and the USSR nats.However, Tretiak is a big admirer of Clarke&rsquo;s and they exchange gifts on every Soviet tour.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s my friend because every time we meet, he always asks about my wife and children,&rdquo; Tretiak said. Or at least, that&rsquo;s what the interpreter said Tretiak said.Clarke invited Tretiak, his wife and children to spend a summer vacation at his home in Philadelphia. Needless to say, the Soviets wouldn&rsquo;t allow that.But when the Soviets were in Philadelphia, the team bus made an excursion past Clarke&rsquo;s luxurious home so Vladislav could see where his friend lived.Golf club exchange: A Soviet team on a Canadian tour in the mid-70s played a game at London, Ont., and, at a postgame reception for the Soviet team at a country club, a well-meaning fan gave each Soviet player a set of golf clubs. That was fine&mdash;except there are no golf courses in the USSR.The Soviet team was staying at a Toronto hotel across the street from a large department store. At 9.30 a.m. the following morning, motorists driving to work in a blinding snowstorm figured they&rsquo;d encountered the strangest possible vision&mdash;a dozen or so figures in sweat suits crossing the street in a snowstorm with golf clubs on their backs.The Soviets were heading for the department store to try to exchange the golf clubs for merchandise they could use. &#9632;

f0002-01

HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011068/4273774-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Flyers were so high on Brian Propp because he was a high-scoring left winger who played a physical game. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>He scored the game-winning goal in the season opener, a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders. After three weeks, he was leading the Philadelphia Flyers in scoring and ranked seventh in the league.Bobby Clarke? Reggie Leach? No, no. Those two Philadelphia veterans are having excellent seasons. But the young man in the spotlight is Brian Propp and, if he isn&rsquo;t a leading Calder Trophy candidate, then the wind don&rsquo;t whip across the Manitoba plains in the wintertime.All Propp has done since arriving in Philadelphia is impress observers with his complete hockey skills. Rarely does an NHL rookie display such ability and natural instinct. Whether it&rsquo;s scoring goals, passing, working the comers or checking, Propp can do it. And, on most nights, he looks as if he&rsquo;s been doing it in the NHL as long as linemates Clarke and Leach. A few samples:&bull; During a 6-6 tie with Montreal, Propp accepts a pass from Ken Linseman, streaks into the Canadiens&rsquo; zone and wrists a shot past Michel Larocque.&bull; Against Hartford, with the venerable Gordie Howe checking him, Propp converts a face-off feed from Clarke into a goal before Howe can move. Later, Howe, who has seen &lsquo;em all, says he was impressed by the rookie&rsquo;s quick shot.&bull; Against the Rangers, Leach hits Propp with a clearing pass at center ice. Before defenseman Carol Vadnais can yelp &ldquo;Freddie, what the hell is happening?&rdquo; Propp bursts past him and scores against John Davidson.Then there are Propperly executed plays that don&rsquo;t result in goals, but leave people like Pat Quinn and Keith Allen shaking their heads in admiration. With the Flyers and Buffalo locked in a 1-1 tie, Leach starts cutting into the Sabres&rsquo; zone and Propp drops a short curl pass to him. It was just a small thing, a blink in the game&rsquo;s whole pattern, but hockey purists loved it.<blockquote class="pullQuote">His first few months, he developed a reputation as the toughest interview since Duane Thomas.</blockquote>&ldquo;You know, everybody notices his offense,&rdquo; said Pat Quinn, the Flyers&rsquo; coach, in a reflective moment. &ldquo;But it was probably his defense that got him here. At rookie camp I wasn&rsquo;t that impressed with him. When I was kind of penciling in our lineup up in Maine, he wasn&rsquo;t on it. But when he came to camp in Philly, I put him with Kenny (Linseman) and they clicked. Then I put him with Clarkie and they clicked. And defenseively had was so strong I just couldn&rsquo;t leave him off the team.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care who I&rsquo;m matched against,&rdquo; said Propp, a five-foot-nine, 185-pounder who led the Western Canada League in scoring last season with knocks-your-socks-off 94-100-194 figures in 71 games. &ldquo;I just go out there and do my job. I don&rsquo;t care who&rsquo;s out there.&rdquo;If Propp&rsquo;s comment sounds like boasting, it&rsquo;s a misleading impression. Through his first few months in Philadelphia, Propp developed a reputation as the toughest interview since Duane Thomas. Some people were convinced that Propp forgot to pack his voice when he eft Brandon for the big city.&ldquo;He makes Al Hill sound like a loud mouth,&rdquo; cracked Bobby Clarke.Eric Coville, the Flyers&rsquo; reliable scout, liked what he saw of Propp playing for Brandon. &ldquo;But I remember sitting with Brian and (Brandon linemates) Ray Allison and Laurie Boschman at the Memorial Cup. The other two talked, but I couldn&rsquo;t get anything out of Brian.&rdquo;Propp clearly isn&rsquo;t the Derek Sanderson of the Eighties. But, sit and talk with him when he isn&rsquo;t confronted with 15 hockey writers and five radio interviewers after a game and he&rsquo;s a normal 20-year-old. How confident was he about making the Flyers this season?&ldquo;I just tried to work hard,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;If I had been sent to Maine, I could have accepted that.&rdquo;Is he finding the checking closer as the season progresses?&ldquo;A little, but every team gets better as the season goes on. It&rsquo;s always harder then to get points. Maybe other teams are playing different lines against us, but I haven&rsquo;t noticed it that much.&rdquo;As a newcomer to Philadelphia and the NHL, Propp understandly is more comfortable talking about junior hockey and his family. Propp&rsquo;s father is a Lutheran minister in Regina, Sask.&ldquo;For 11 years we lived in Neudorf, which is about 180 miles from Brandon,&rdquo; Brian said. &ldquo;I have two brothers and two sisters. My older brother and his wife just had a baby, so I&rsquo;m an uncle. My younger brother is 17 and plays for a Regina Pats&rsquo; farm team.&rdquo;Propp&rsquo;s younger brother is a right winger, which occasionally sends dreams of playing on the same line with him through Brian&rsquo;s mind. Before being introduced to Reggie Leach, Propp had played on a line with another good right winger, Ray Allison.&ldquo;He (Allison) should be a good player in the NHL,&rdquo; said Propp. &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t had that much chance to play because Gordie Howe is still there (in Hartford).&rdquo;Propp also comes from a long line of quality centers. Clarke, one of the NHL&rsquo;s greatest centers ever, is making plays for him now. Last season, Boschman, now a Toronto rookie, was his man in the middle. And prior to Boschman, Vancouver&rsquo;s Bill Derlago was his center in Brandon.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been with good players and good teams,&rdquo; said Propp. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had good coaching. I&rsquo;ve never been with a loser.&rdquo;Propp&rsquo;s ability has largely been responsible for his teams, including the Flyers, being winners. But it&rsquo;s apparent to anyone who watches Propp play that he&rsquo;s had good coaching. That&rsquo;s Quinn and Keith Allen and Ed Snider saying &ldquo;Thank you, Dunc McCallum.&rdquo;McCallum is the former New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins forward who coaches the Brandon Wheat kings.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good coach with a good system,&rdquo; said Propp. &ldquo;He treats his players like men, not like little kids. We had good leaders on the team so he could do that. We all went places together. I think we were more mature than most (junior) teams.&rdquo;&ldquo;He (McCallum) always has his teams ready to. play,&rdquo; said Eric Coville. &ldquo;They play a pro-style game. They don&rsquo;t mind bodychecking.&rdquo;Although Coville recommended Propp as a first-round draft choice to the Flyers, he joined Pat Quinn on the skeptical list at rookie camp.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t get off to that great a start,&rdquo; said Coville. &ldquo;But, he knew what he could do. While people talked about some others in camp, he knew what he could do. He knew he was the best. That took a bit of maturity.&rdquo;Sensational junior scorers report to NHL camps every season. Some make it, some don&rsquo;t. The Flyers&rsquo; attitude with Propp was: Don&rsquo;t hassle him.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want to put any pressure on him like we did Kenny,&rdquo; said Coville, referring to the &ldquo;next Bobby Clarke&rdquo; billboard that greeted Linseman. &ldquo;I think everyone felt he (Propp) could play. We felt &lsquo;If he can&rsquo;t play, who can?&rsquo; We knew he played like a pro.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been with good players and good teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been with a loser.&rdquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s exactly what we needed,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a high-scoring left winger. But he does a lot more things that just score well. He can check as well.&rdquo;After compiling 12-15-27 scoring figures in his first 20 games, Propp slipped to 2-3-5 in the next 10 games. Obviously, opponents are paying closer attention to Phi-ladelphia&rsquo;s No. 26. However, Propp has still earned the respect of his teammates for his steadiness.Referring to a game-winning goal Propp scored against Toronto, Linseman said, &ldquo;How many guys on our team can score one like that? Reggie, Billy Barber, Ricky (MacLeish) and that&rsquo;s probably it. It&rsquo;s like he&rsquo;s pulling it back to stickhandle, then he snaps it and it&rsquo;s away.&rdquo;There are several outstanding rookies in the NHL&mdash;Boston&rsquo;s Ray Bourque. Atlanta&rsquo;s Paul Reinhart, Detroit&rsquo;s Mike Foligno, Chicago&rsquo;s Keith Brown, Minnesota&rsquo;s Craig Hartsburg, and Propp&rsquo;s teammate, goaltender Pete Peeters. But the Flyers don&rsquo;t think any are more valuable than Propp and Peeters. Why is Keith Allen standing there smiling?<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;We felt &lsquo;If he can&rsquo;t play, who can?&rsquo; We knew he played like a pro.&rdquo;&mdash;Eric Coville</blockquote> &#9632;

f0003-01

Flyers’ Propp Proving All-Around Delight

<div class="byline">KEN McKENZIE&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011119/4273833-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="504" height="324"></div>&bull; WINNIPEG JETS did a super promotion on Dec. 15 when they drew close to 16,000 fans (many of them attired in tuxedos) for Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; first visit to the gateway to the golden west. The Jets played brilliantly in trouncing the Stanley Cup champions, 6-2. The game was televised nationally on Hockey Night in Canada and Don Wittman, Winnipeg&rsquo;s premier play-by-play announcer, aired the game (resplendent in a tuxedo as was coach Tom McVie and trainer Bill Bozak of the Jets) and it was a first-class promotion from start to finish. Marc Cloutier, executive director of business operations for the Jets, was the man responsible for this successful affair&hellip;Butch Goring of the Los Angeles Kings purchased a yearling for $5,000 at the Hollywood Park sale which he named Pully after his former coach Bob Pulford, now general manager of the Chicago Black Hawks&hellip;Mike Palmateer will be gone from the Toronto Maple Leafs as soon as they can make a deal for him. One report had him going to Montreal in exchange for Marc Napier and Bunny Larocque&hellip;Sorry to see Cincinnati drop out of the Central League. The Stingers played in one of hockey&rsquo;s finest arenas and when they joined the WHA a few years back everything looked so rosy. It appears that Cincinnati is just not a hockey city as the professional variety has been tried there many times over the years&hellip;Don Blackburn is coming in for his share of credit for the fine showing of the Hartford Whalers. The Whaler coach is not as well known as some of his peers but he has a fresh approach to the coaching dodge and is getting the maximum effort from his charges&hellip;Quebec Nordiques have yet to lose a game at home on Sunday&hellip;Assistant coach Tim Ecclestone made his first appearance on the Atlanta bench with Al MacNeil the other night against Buffalo Sabres.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021074/4273826-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="274" height="397"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Blackbum</figcaption></div>&bull; A COUPLE of good stories out of the Washington Capitals&rsquo; camp, courtesy of Jim Proudfoot of the Toronto Star. Apparently, the Caps sent their season ticket subscribers Christmas cards, but they failed to use the correct postage and each subscriber had to spend seven cents to receive the club&rsquo;s greetings. When they discovered their error the club sent out letters apologizing for the mistake. They were then bombarded with telephone calls, saying that was nice but what about the money?&hellip;Then there was the hilarious escapade of captain Yvon Labre. He was booked into a Washington hospital which was unfamiliar with French names and made an incorrect assumption. So he was sent to a room occupied by three elderly ladies. Not wanting to cause a commotion he put on his pyjamas and got into bed. A passing nurse happened to notice his mustache, looked a little closer and had him immediately moved&hellip;Carl Brewer, who is attempting a comeback with the Toronto Maple Leafs, is completely bald now. He&rsquo;s been out of action for a number of years as a player and if he makes it back it doesn&rsquo;t say much for the calibre of player currently being dished up to hockey fans by the National Hockey League&hellip;Larry Rauch, one of hockey&rsquo;s top agents and a New York lawyer who has Brad Park and Rogie Vachon among his clients, has had players he handled have it written into their contracts that they cannot be traded to Pittsburgh. He&rsquo;s also had players who insist on the death clause. This means that in the event of death the player&rsquo;s family receives the payment of his contract in full for its duration&hellip;Carole Robertson is doing an outstanding job as &ldquo;Gal Friday&rdquo; for Mike Griffin, the personable assistant public relations director of the National Hockey League&hellip;Bobby Brooke, Yale freshman from Acton, Mass. is the sole New Englander on the United States junior team competing in the World Championships in Finland over the holidays&hellip;Bobby Orr has been involved in a few Oldtimers&rsquo; games since his retirement.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-03969/4273819-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="265" height="400"><figcaption class="caption-body">Yvon Labre</figcaption></div>&bull; STEVE BAKER, who has been playing such standout goal for the New York Rangers, is a John Ferguson discovery. Baker dropped out of Union College to play pro hockey, and is now studying for his economics degree at Yale at the Rangers&rsquo; expense&hellip;On a recent visit to New Haven we saw the Nighthawks defeat Nova Scotia, 5-2, and appeared as a between periods guest with two of the finest play-by-play announcers around today. That&rsquo;s Kevin Reid of CFDR who does all the away games for the Voyageurs and Nick Nickson who broadcasts all 80 league games for the Nighthawks plus playoffs. Reid and Nickson are a pair of pros who should go far in the broadcasting end of the sport&hellip;Jerry Buss, flamboyant owner of the Los Angeles Kings, may put his own team in Phoenix next season. The wealthy Los Angeles sportsman is not happy sharing Binghampton of the American League with Boston&hellip;Ron Ingram, former coach with San Diego of the WHA, is looking for a National League coaching job. He says: &ldquo;My record is as good as anyone&rsquo;s.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s right. It&rsquo;s a lot better than many coaching today. At the present time Ingram is doing some scouting&hellip;Did you hear about the WHA team that used to pay a player $100 every time he received a penalty for fighting? He was the most aggressive player on the ice&hellip;Craig Hartsburg, promising young defenseman with the Minnesota North Stars, was married recently in the Twin Cities&hellip;The North Stars&rsquo; average home attendance is more than 3,400 per game ahead of last season&hellip;Minnesota has 11 more points than it did a year ago after 35 games&hellip;Hockey fans wonder what&rsquo;s happened to Serge Savard this season. The Montreal captain has gone back so much that he&rsquo;s lucky to have a place on the club. He&rsquo;s slow and clumsy looking and has failed to give the team the leadership it so badly needs&hellip;After Canadiens and Hartford played recently, someone asked Savard what he&rsquo;d thought of Gordie Howe. &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t show me anything new&rdquo;, replied Savard. &ldquo;All the guys on our club have been playing like 51-year-old grandfathers.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04867/4273812-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="255" height="366"><figcaption class="caption-body">Charlie Simmer</figcaption></div>&bull; TWO MEMBERS of the New Haven Nighthawks, goalie Doug Soetart and defenseman Jocelyn Guevremont, were demoted by the parent New York Rangers, and are hoping their stay in the American League will be short and the Rangers will be recalling them early in 1980&hellip;Greg McCoy, Jack McColl and MacGregor Kilpatrick, three of the original owners of the Nighthawks, still follow the team closely. Kilpatrick is the AHL governor and McColl is a director of the club&hellip;Joe DeLeone, who is friendly with almost every hockey player who has ever played in New Haven over the last 42 years, is the merchandising director of the club and the top &ldquo;Hawker&rdquo; in the business&hellip;Minnesota expects to have center Bobby Smith, last year&rsquo;s top NHL rookie, back in action soon. He&rsquo;s had the hard cast removed from his broken ankle&hellip;Toronto&rsquo;s Tiger Williams claims Minnesota&rsquo;s Brad Maxwell is the first NHL player to cut him in a fight&hellip;Montreal Canadiens have lost six games in a row. The last time Canadiens lost that many in a row was 1939-40 when they finished last in a seven-team league. Canadiens went 15 games in a row on home ice without a win that season. 12 losses and three ties&hellip;Lou Nanne has done a marvellous job since taking over as general manager of the Minnesota North Stars. The Stars have had a great home record to date. In 13 games they&rsquo;ve won 11, tied one and lost one, boasting the second best home record in the league. Minnesota is now one of the quality teams in hockey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05728/4273805-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="325" height="399"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lou Nanne</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY FOUNDED 1947VOLUME 33, NUMBER 14 JANUARY 4, 1980Editorial and Advertising Offices: 214 King Street West Suite 314Toronto, Ontario. M5H 1K4Charlie Halpin Editorial DirectorTom Murray Assistant PublisherMike Dennis Assistant EditorCathy Munro Copy EditorBob Hanley Editorial ConsultantStan Fischler, Frank Orr Bob Verdi Contributing EditorsBusiness StaffPeter Emerson Executive Vice President and General ManagerJoanne Hatch Sales Service ManagerKenneth W. McKenzie President and PublisherW. C. C. Publishing Ltd.,Suite 217,1434 St Catherine StMontreal, Canada. H3G 1R7Donald R. Wall ChairmanTom Murray Assistant Publisher850 Third Avenue,New York, N.Y. 10022Advertising Representatives:New York:Tom Murray 850 Third Ave.,New York, N.Y. 10022 &middot; (212) 593-2100Chicago:Hooper, Jones & Associates 3322 W. Peterson Avenue Chicago, III. 60659 &middot; (312) 478-5544Boston:Steve GanakSteve Ganak Ad Reps Statler Office Bulding Boston, Mass. 02116 &middot; (617) 542-6913THE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 00183016), Is published weekly except monthly June through September by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 214 King St. W., Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4. Phone: (416) 598-1753. In U.S. C/O W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022. Phone (212) 593-2100.YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES: S14.95 in the U.S.A., 13.95 in Canada, S19.25 In Foreign Countries. Send all subscription requests to The Hockey news, 850 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing. SEND ADDRESS CHANGES (AND 3579 FORMS) to: The Hockey News, Martinsville Center, Martinsville, New Jersey 08836. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y. 10001 and additional mailing offices. Second Class ZMail (Registration No. 1327). &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;There was no smirk on Pat Quinn&rsquo;s face or send-up in his voice when he said that Philadelphia Flyers will improve considerably over the 1979-80 National Hockey League season.The Flyers have just set a new NHL record going 29 straight games without a loss.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way we could anticipate a start like this,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;We mapped out a plan for the entire season on the change-over we wanted to make in the team and its approach. We don&rsquo;t have all the wrinkles ironed out of it yet.&ldquo;We should progressively become a more solid team that executes the new style of hockey we&rsquo;re playing better as the season goes along.&rdquo;Flyers often opened a season with a bang&mdash;right on some shivering opponent&rsquo;s head. The Broad Street Bullies bulldozed their way to Stanley Cup victories in &lsquo;74 and &lsquo;75, establishing penalty records and engaging in assorted gang wars that inspired strong legislation against such nonsense.The Philly club was shoved off the throne by Montreal Canadiens, who continued to stress skating and pure skill instead of trying to round up a pack of goons the way several other clubs did.The game of hockey has changed rather rapidly in the past two or three years from muscle and grinders to speed and skill. When the NHL all-stars had their doors blown off by. the Soviet nationals, the latest evolution in the game was complete.No club has changed its style as quickly as Flyers.From the plodding, stop-and-start, knock &lsquo;em on their pants approach of Fred Shero&rsquo;s teams in the mid-&rsquo;70s, Flyers under Quinn have switched to a free-flowing, always-on-the-move game that emphasizes skating, passing and puck control.&ldquo;Three happenings really drilled it home to us that we had to make a big change in the way we played,&rdquo; said Flyer defenceman Jimmy Watson, a key worker in both &ldquo;eras&rdquo;.&ldquo;First, of course, is the fact that the Canadiens have won the Cup four times in a row with a free-wheeling game. Then came the Russians with that beautiful game of theirs that shows so much ability in hockey skills.&ldquo;Then in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs, New York Rangers, a finesse team, blew us out in five games. We tried to rough them up a little, took a batch of dumb penalties and placed ourselves in a hole.&rdquo;After serving one term as a Shero assistant, Quinn opened the &rsquo;78-&rsquo;79 season as coach of the Maine Mariners, Flyers&rsquo; American League farm team. When Bob McCammon failed to get Flyers rolling last season, he and Quinn changed jobs midway through the schedule.Although he was a tough, grinding defenceman in his nine seasons as a player, Quinn realized that the old bully Flyers were a dinosaur.&ldquo;The static, stop-and-start style with much use of muscle and brawling was fine for this team&mdash;in its time,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s different now and that style just doesn&rsquo;t work any longer.&rdquo;&ldquo;Of course, picking fights isn&rsquo;t tthe only reason why the Bullies won. Those were well disciplined hockey clubs that worked extremely hard and had no players who wouldn&rsquo;t take a hit to make a play. We&rsquo;ve retained those two qualities on this team.&rdquo;&ldquo;The Canadiens and the Soviets have exerted a large influence on the style of hockey in the NHL how. Their players are in motion at all times, they pass the puck well and give their opponents no time to relax.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the style we&rsquo;re playing and it&rsquo;s going to take time for our players to adjust to it completely. That&rsquo;s why the great start is a bit of a surprise. We still aren&rsquo;t executing as well as we will when we&rsquo;ve had more time playing this way.&rdquo;Quinn&rsquo;s laid-back coaching approach has created an ideal atmosphere in which a team can function efficiently. He promoted team captain, sparkplug and spiritual leader Bobby Clarke to assistant coach. Joe Watson, a former Flyer defenceman, was added to the staff as an assistant coach and advance scout of upcoming Flyer opponents.The Quinn-Clarke coaching tandem is the ideal combo. Quinn supervises the overall show and takes a low-key approach with the players. Clarke keeps the fires lit on the ice and in the dressing room while participating in the coaching decisions.Quinn has initiated some new wrinkles to keep the scene lively. Monday, a lost day for most teams on the practice rink, now is &ldquo;fun-day&rdquo; for the Flyers.Most Mondays, Flyers engage in a non-hockey activity&mdash;soccer, touch football, softball or skating races plus a weight-training program. Mel Bridgman, who replaced Clarke as team captain, and the three assistant coaches, Jimmy Watson, Bill Barber and Paul Holmgren, each drafted a five-man team of players to compete in the various activities.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a believer that a total conditioning program which players work at in the off-season, too, is important,&rdquo; Quinn said.&ldquo;But practising every day can be monotonous. I&rsquo;ve always found that Mondays were mostly a waste of time on the ice, especially if you&rsquo;ve played the night before. I wanted something to keep the guys involved but not anything that placed a load on them.&ldquo;They have fun playing soccer or football and often work harder than they would on the ice. Then we all go out for lunch and a pint or two. There&rsquo;s a great deal of needling among the teams over the events and it helps to keep things loose.&rdquo;Of course, new wrinkles are fine but if a team doesn&rsquo;t have hockey talent, it might be strong at soccer and miss the NHL playoffs.However, Flyers very likely are the NHL&rsquo;s premier organization now and many other teams should study their thorough, professional operation.Flyers generate revenue with shrewd marketing, then spend that loot on talent development. While many NHL teams are involved in share sponsorship of their farm team with another NHL club, Flyers own a major league operation in the majors, Maine Mariners in the American League.&ldquo;We were in a shared arrangement and it didn&rsquo;t work,&rdquo; said Flyer general manager Keith Allen. &ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t have enough players in our farm system. In the &rsquo;77-&rsquo;78 season, we established the Maine club and it won the AHL title in its only two years of existence.&ldquo;We wanted the team as a development ground for our young players, of course, but we also wanted the Mariners to be competitive and entertaining. We found several experienced pro players, gutsy with a positive attitude, who could be the backbone of the team and help young players to develop.&rdquo;In those two seasons, Manners have sent eight graduates to Flyers. This season when three Flyer defencemen&mdash;Behn Wilson, Moose Dupont and Bob Dailey&mdash;were sidelined by injuries, their replacements from the farm, Frank Bathe, Norm Barnes and Mike Busniuk, filled in admirably.This fall, Flyers signed as free agents six juniors who were bypassed in the entry draft of 19-year-olds. They also claimed three underage selections who were returned to junior hockey. Add their selections from last year&rsquo;s drafts and Flyers will have a splendid backlog of young talent.When Flyers started the restyling of their team after the defeat by Canadiens in the &lsquo;76 final, they gradually moved out older, slower, brawl-oriented workers.Clarke, Rick MacLeish, Reggie Leach, Barber, Bridgman and Paul Holmgren are still around.Leach and MacLeish are two superb skaters but the old system kept them somewhat haltered. They&rsquo;ve flourished under Quinn&rsquo;s free-flow approach. Barber is one of the NHL&rsquo;s finest all-round players who excels in any system.But the big Flyer change is in their approach. They&rsquo;ve averaged 17 penalty minutes per game this season. In the Bully days, they often earned that many during intermissions.Ontario attorney-general Roy McMurtry, who once hauled Flyers into court, can relax now. &#9632;

Brain Not Brawn For Record Setting Flyers

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02754/4273943-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="510" height="351"></div><h2>New Year&rsquo;s Resolutions</h2>THIS SPACE ONCE upon a time spent the holiday season offering Christmas gifts, free of charge. That practice eased because too many parcels, obviously unappreciated, were rejected and returned to sender. Thus, we have moved to the practice of surmising what the great people in the great world of hockey might be doing by way of New Year&rsquo;s resolutions. The remarks you are about to read are C.O.D. (choke on delivery) and must be kept at least until this time next winter.Therefore, in 1980&hellip;Guy Lafleur&mdash;I will take Claude Ruel to dinner.Claude Ruel&mdash;I will accept the invitation.Guy Lafleur&mdash;I will bring money, lots of it.Punch Imlach&mdash;I will not attempt to upstage Hockey Night in Canada&rsquo;s &lsquo;Showdown&rsquo; series by holding a &lsquo;Showdown&rsquo; series of my own.Harold Ballard&mdash;I will take the three of us to dinner&mdash;Punch, Darryl Sittler and myself.Darryl Sittler&mdash;I can&rsquo;t go. I have a dentist appointment.Floyd Smith&mdash;I will quit coaching in the National Hockey League and enter a more peaceful profession. I will run a complaint department.Bobby Schmautz&mdash;I will try to control my notoriously high and wild shot from flying head-high over the Bruins&rsquo; bench when I next return to Boston Garden.Fred Creighton&mdash;I will duck when the Edmonton Oilers next play in Boston, and hope that Bobby Schmautz&rsquo; line comes on the ice only once or twice a period, which is the way it should be.<h2>Last Minute Timeouts</h2>Don Cherry&mdash;I will not call any times-out in the last minute, I will not wave to the crowds, I will not sign autographs, I will not put on a virtuoso performance in Boston Garden the next time my Colorado Rockies visit. At least until the game starts.Jim Gregory&mdash;I will refrain from guffawing when I read what is happening to the Toronto Maple Leafs since I left them.Clarence Campbell&mdash;I will not criticize what is happening to the National Hockey League anymore, because I don&rsquo;t want to ruffle any of those stuffed shirts in Montreal and New York.Gary Davidson&mdash;I will look at how good those World Hockey Association teams are and I will laugh, just like they all said I would on the way to the bank.Alan Eagleson&mdash;I will ask all the players who want me out as the head of their association to kindly mail me some of the money that I have put in their pockets.Bobby Clarke&mdash;I will not change one iota, because somebody in this sport has to stand for something right.Boom Boom Geoffrion&mdash;I will realize that any team, even a team that I was coaching, could not be the same with the loss of Jacques Lemaire and Ken Dryden.Stan Fischler&mdash;I will not fight with any other columnists in The Hockey News, because, as we all know, fighting has absolutely no place in hockey.Harry Neale&mdash;I will continue to treat each game as just that, a game, and have a little fun in a sport which has become too serious. Did you hear the joke about&hellip;Gordie Howe&mdash;I will demand that they name me rookie of the year in the National Hockey League for 1979-80, or at least name my son.Colleen Howe&mdash;I will demand that Gordie and Mark both get the award.<h2>Sit Back And Wonder</h2>Bobby Hull&mdash;I will continue to play until at least April 2, when the Winnipeg Jets return to Chicago.John Ziegler&mdash;I will continue to believe that expansion to 24 teams is very possible within the next few years.Fans Everywhere&mdash;What did you say, John? Please, no.Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer and Dave Taylor&mdash;We will continue to shoot from the hip, because the best defense is a good offense.Keith Allen&mdash;I won&rsquo;t say much, but I&rsquo;ll sit back and enjoy how I took a team with 95 points last year and rebuilt it.Bill Torrey&mdash;I&rsquo;ll just sit back and wonder.Fred Shero&mdash;I&rsquo;ll just sit back, too. Waiter&hellip;Phil Esposito&mdash;I will retire after this season because I don&rsquo;t need the aggravation, and I will go into television and radio.Cliff Fletcher&mdash;I will follow the rule about wearing helmets during games, too, because I don&rsquo;t have much hair left to pull out.Gerry Cheevers&mdash;I will retire when I damn well feel like it.Dave Logan&mdash;I will ask for a trip to Florida the next time I defy Eddie Johnston. Russia was nice, but a little cold.Bob Verdi&mdash;I will write nice things only about the NHL, because the NHL likes to hear and read only nice things. &#9632;

f0005-02

HOCKEY TALK

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;John Marks believes he has played almost all of his 500-plus National Hockey League games at the wrong position.For the past six years, Marks has been a left wing for the Black Hawks. If he had his drothers, he&rsquo;d have been a defenseman.&ldquo;I honestly feel I&rsquo;d have had a better career in the NHL as a defenseman,&rdquo; said the big guy who broke Glenn Hall&rsquo;s team record for consecutive games when he skated in his 503rd straight contest against Detroit on Dec. 16.&ldquo;As a kid, I was a defenseman and that&rsquo;s the position I played at the University of North Dakota and in my two years in the minors at Dallas. When I came up to the Hawks in 1972-73, I was a defenseman until the semi-finals of the playoffs.&ldquo;We beat St. Louis in the first round and played the New York Rangers in the semis. The Rangers won the first game. At practice the next day (former Coach) Billy Reay said to me: &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m going to put you on left wing on the line with Stan (Mikita) and Cliff (Koroll).&ldquo;We did well and so did the team. We won our next four games and wound up going to the Stanley Cup finals against Montreal.&rdquo;The Hawks lost to Montreal, four games to one and haven&rsquo;t made it to the finals since. And henceforth Marks was gainfully employed at left wing instead of on the back line.Only when Hawk coaches have been in a bind because of injuries has the 6-2, 200-pounder gone back to his pet position.&ldquo;I played about 15 games with Bob Murray as my partner during the 1976-77 season,&rdquo; recalled Marks. &ldquo;That was in the latter part of the season after Mr. Reay had been dismissed and Bill White was our interim coach.&ldquo;The next fall, Bob Pulford came in as coach and general manager. At training camp I looked at the roster and there I was back on left wing.&ldquo;I consider myself a strong skater but I&rsquo;m not a sprinter. That&rsquo;s one of the reasons I feel more comfortable on defense.&ldquo;To be a really good defenseman you don&rsquo;t have to possess the speed that the top forwards like Marcel Dionne and Guy Lafleur have. And I have a hard shot from the point which comes in handy for a defenseman. I also think a defenseman lasts longer than a forward.&rdquo;Still Marks&rsquo; eight-year career is a remarkable study in durability and endurance. The only active players with more games (as of Dec. 15) are Garry Unger (912 for Detroit, St. Louis, and Atlanta) and Craig Ramsay (511 with Buffalo).&ldquo;I really enjoy playing the game and I&rsquo;ve been fortunate that I haven&rsquo;t been hurt to the point where I couldn&rsquo;t play. There hasn&rsquo;t been much to overcome.&ldquo;A couple of times I had pulled groin muscles&mdash;nothing severe. For a while, I had to use a sponge in my glove for a bad hand, but that&rsquo;s about all.&rdquo;Marks admitted he had some trepidation the day be broke the team record. &ldquo;I was worried going to the car at home,&rdquo; he chuckled. &ldquo;I thought to myself: &ldquo;If I slip in the driveway and get hurt and can&rsquo;t play I&rsquo;m going to look like a real crud.&rdquo;HAWK TALK: The night that Marks set the Black Hawk record for consecutive games also was the 50th anniversary of Chicago Stadium. The Black Hawks commemorated the occasion with their wildest bash of the season, lambasting the Detroit Red Wings 7-3. Grant Mulvey and Koroll each scored two goals and Darryl Sutter, (promoted from New Brunswick because of injuries), Terry Ruskowski, and Reg Kerr had one apiece&hellip;In their next game, the Hawks skated to a scoreless tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was Tony Esposito&rsquo;s fourth shutout of the season and the 71st of his NHL career that began in Montreal 11 winters ago. Greg Millen, a second-year pro, was in the nets for Pittsburgh. It was his first shutout this season. As a rookie he had two&hellip;General Manager Bob Pulford made his first trade of the season on Dec. 21, acquiring 25-year-old left wing Ron Sedlbauer from Vancouver for left wing Harold Phillipoff and defenseman Dave Logan. Phillipoff had been out for much of the year with tendinitis of the ankle and Logan was in coach Eddie Johnston&rsquo;s doghouse for complaining about his lack of playing time in the dressing room after the Nov. 28 loss to Edmonton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-01970/4273912-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="574" height="862"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Marks broke Glenn Hall&rsquo;s Black Hawk record by playing in his 503rd consecutive game recently.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

Marks Reliable In Wrong Position

<div class="byline">BY PAT CALABRIA</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;General manager Bill Torrey calls them the &ldquo;foot soldiers&rdquo;. Defenseman Dave Lewis prefers the description &ldquo;pawns&rdquo;. Whatever the term, it is now apparent that the Islanders can not turn their season around without the determined efforts of their unheralded players.The team still has its dazzling array of stars, but the galaxy has been split by injuries and sub-par performances. Only recently, have Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies begun to approach the magnificent level expected of them. Only recently have Bill Smith and Glenn Resch begun to assemble their skills again.And with Mike Bossy injured and Denis Potvin sidelined until February, the Islanders will need help from those who ave always tried to give it&mdash;and largely gone unnoticed. &ldquo;The pawns,&rdquo; Lewis said.Like Lewis. Like Bob Lorimer. Like John Tonelli. Like Garry Howatt and Lome Henning. Little by little, the Islanders seem to be getting support from that core of anonymous players. &ldquo;And we need that,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said.There is, for example, the effort of Tonelli, the bulldozing forward who skates in sloppy strides and chops at the puck in sledgehammer strokes. Tonelli does not skate along the ice&mdash;he thrashes over it. He doesn&rsquo;t throw neat, tidy checks&mdash;he heaps himself against his opponents.Not surprisingly, it was Tonelli who earned the Islanders a 3-3 tie in Pittsburgh after the Penguins had bolted to a 2-0 lead. Not surprisingly, it was a typical Tonelli goal, formed by the clever play of his linemates and finished off by Tonelli in a characteristic display of grunts and shoves.Bryan Trottier and Anders Kallur both had made pinpoint passes to start the play in the third period. Trottier&rsquo;s drop pass set up Tonelli, who then twirled sloppily as he got the puck to his backhand. He slid the puck softly through a tangle of players that screened goalie Bob Holland.&ldquo;Everyone has to give their best effort now&mdash;me included,&rdquo; Tonelli said. &ldquo;The guys who haven&rsquo;t been doing the job have to start doing it&hellip;. It&rsquo;s up to us. With the injuries and everything, it&rsquo;s our turn to help pull the team together.&rdquo;So it was Tonelli, one of the pawns, who forced a stalemate. When the teams met again several days later at Nassau Coliseum, there was an identical 3-3 tie, but at least the pawns played gingerly in stretches.Again it was one of Torrey&rsquo;s foot soldiers who figured in the tie&mdash;although reluctantly. This time it was the Islanders who were clinging to the lead. When Pit-tsburgh won a faceoff in the Islanders end in the last 10 seconds, it led to Greg Malone&rsquo;s tying goal with just 0:05 displayed on the scoreboard.And the puck had glanced off the back of Lorimer, the foot solider who felt like kicking himself.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t get out of the way of the shot.&rdquo; he said.At least, the players reasoned, they are making progress, even if it is slow progress. Lome Henning, benched for five straight games, had a heart-to-heart talk with Arbour that seems to have soothed the center&rsquo;s bruised feelings, at least temporarily.Lewis has begun to round into the form that once made him a respected defenseman. His checks have been hard and his positional play has been much improved. &ldquo;When he wants to be, he can be a very intimidating player,&rdquo; Torrey said.And although Howatt has been removed from the penalty killing unit, he said: &ldquo;As long as I get a chance to play, I&rsquo;ll be happy. It&rsquo;s no fun when you&rsquo;re not out there. You want to feel like you&rsquo;ve contributed something.&rdquo;There have been big contributions from rookie Duane Sutter, who was called up on a 10-day tryout from the Lethbridge Broncos junior team. The No. 1 draft choice was so impressive, scoring five goals in seven games, that Torrey and Arbour have decided to keep him and use him regularly.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011150/4273974-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="578" height="942"><figcaption class="caption-body">DUANE SUTTER</figcaption></div>It was the pawns such as Lewis and Lorimer who helped the Islanders to a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies, but some of the more noted names had a hand in the win, too. Two of the goals were scored by Bob Bourne. The othr was scored by Bossy, who returned to the lineup from a groin injury and flicked a neat wristshot past goalie Hardy Astrom. &#9632;

f0006-01

Islanders’ Pawns Ready To Advance

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02883/4274005-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="570" height="1084"><figcaption class="caption-body">Red Berenson has the Blues believing in themselves since he took over. The club knocked off Montreal and Atlanta last week.</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;A coaching change oftens works wonders for a hockey club.The St. Louis Blues could find themselves in this position after putting Red Berenson in charge. Berenson last week succeeded Barclay Plager as coach of the Blues and St. Louis has risen to post a 3-2-1 record under their former team captain and assistant coach.Berenson&rsquo;s cool approach to the coaching problem has helped the Blues to get their job done with more confidence and success it seems. After a 1-1-1 start the first week, the Blues reached their peak when they overpowered the Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens 5-3 in the Checkerdome and followed up by beating Atlanta 5-1 in the Flames&rsquo; own backyard. A weekend 7-3 defeat at the hands of the Flames in St. Louis spoiled the week somewhat for Berenson and the Blues but at least the outlook was becoming more encouraging for St. Louis fans.As they battle Colorado and Edmonton to stay in the Smythe Division race, the Blues are getting maximum production from all their lines.Mike Zuke took the initiative under Berenson to produce a three-goal week as he pumped in his sixth, seventh and eighth goals. Meanwhile, the Blues were rolling with their Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter and Blair Chapman line intact. The trio clicked for four more goals as Chapman shot three&mdash;his eighth, ninth and 10th of the year. Sutter also got his 10th. Other snipers in the three-game run for the Blues were Jim Patey with two and defenseman Jack Brownschidle, who also had a pair.Meanwhile, the Blues announced that deposed coach Barclay Plager will remain with the team in a scouting position and will concentrate on players in the minor leagues and help develop future Blues for the NHL.Plager quit the Blues&rsquo; coaching job when he said he could not motivate the players any longer on the ice. &#9632;

f0006-02

Blues Show Life Under New Coach

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;It&rsquo;s a little short of amazing that the Buffalo Sabres should be doing so well with such a powerless powerplay.The Sabres, going into last weekend&rsquo;s games, had scored only three goals in their last 41 powerplay opportunities. Through their first 33 games, they scored only 19 times in 107 chances with a manpower advantage. They were 16th in the National Hockey League in powerplay percentage.And yet, there they were, threatening the amazing Philadelphia Flyers for the NHL lead and with an edge in the Adams Division over Boston winner the last four years.Usually when a hockey team is a big winner, it takes advantage of opposing penalties to score goals. Not the Sabres, though. When the opposition has a man sent to the penalty box, the home fans sigh, figuring &ldquo;here&rsquo;s two minutes when we don&rsquo;t score.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s hard to understand why the Sabres won&rsquo;t do well when the opposition is shorthanded. They have three defensemen with good shots from the point&mdash;Jerry Korab, John Van Boxmeer and Lindy Ruff, plus center Derek Smith, who plays the point well.And certainly there are plenty of marksmen up front&mdash;Gil Perreault, Rick Martin, Danny Gare, Ric Seilling, Craig Ramsay, Rick Dudley, Don Luce, Tony McKegney, John Gould.In the first six games of the NHL season, the Sabres scored only four powerplay goals in 21 chances. Then they broke out in a game against Pittsburgh&mdash;three powerplay goals in one period and four in a row.But after that, the powerplay showed little power again. The Sabres were one for 23 on the powerplay during a nine-game winning streak which tied a club record.<blockquote class="pullQuote">The Sabres were one for-23 on the powerplay during a nine-game winning streak</blockquote>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not moving the puck quickly enough in the opposition&rsquo;s end,&rdquo; explained associate coach Roger Neilson, the hockey theoritician. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;re not getting players in front for rebounds. We&rsquo;re not getting good scoring chances and because of that we are taking poor shots, shots that are blocked or go off the net.&ldquo;This makes the guys press and they shoot from bad angles. You have to have picks and blocks, and one guy who could disrupt the other team&rsquo;s box. You can compare it to a zone defense in basketball. You have a pattern to break through and we haven&rsquo;t been doing it.&rdquo;Coach Scotty Bowman and Neilson have tried various combinations and they certainly have worked on the powerplay in practice.For a while they had Jim Schoenfeld, the big, strong defenseman on the forward line with Perreault and Martin, to get in front of the net and stand his ground.That worked in the one game against Pittsburgh.Lately it&rsquo;s been Dudley, a goodsized forward, in front. Perreault, Martin and Gare have worked on the wings and Perreault also has worked at the point.There has been some talk that the Sabres miss Rene Robert on the powerplay. But Van Boxmeer, acquired from Colorado for the high-scoring right winger, has taken over Robert&rsquo;s spot on the right point and already has 21 assists, plus three goals.He was one of the club&rsquo;s top scorers during the early going. Besides, as Bowman is quick to point out, the Sabres&rsquo; powerplay with Robert on it last season, didn&rsquo;t post an outstanding record&ldquo;You have to work,&rdquo; said Bowman, &ldquo;until you get into the proper habits, score a few goals and gain confidence.&rdquo;ICE CHIPS: The Sabres&rsquo; record-tying winning streak came to an end when they lost to Philadelphia and Boston on successive nights. The loss to the Bruins, 5-1 ended goaltender Bob Sauve&rsquo;s winning streak at eight games. His last loss had been on the Sabres&rsquo; previous visit to Philadelphia.Even after the two weekend defeats, Sauve and Don Edwards retained the lead in the Vezine Trophy race with a combined goafs-against average of 2.52.After going scoreless for three straight games&mdash;he didn&rsquo;t get a point&mdash;Perreault, the Sabres&rsquo; leading scorer, netted two goals in a 3-2 win over Winnipeg that ended Buffalo&rsquo;s losing streak at two. &#9632;

Sabres’ Power Flows Despite Short Circuit

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.214 King St. West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>The New Peter Puck</h2>THERE&rsquo;S A GREAT fallacy abroad that successful men of private enterprise have thrown a single hand of dice at Las Vegas, thereby earning all of their properties, successes, legends.The essence of the fallacy neglects appreciation of a single fact&mdash;that there&rsquo;s a difference between sheer gambling and the combination of daring and knowledge by which great ones succeed.Conn Smythe knew precisely what he was doing when he raised Maple Leaf Gardens in the first full Depression year of 1930. He wasn&rsquo;t guessing, he wasn&rsquo;t taking a chance. He was building a product which he knew the public would buy.It was much the same with Peter Pocklington, of Edmonton Oilers, sometimes known around his hockey community as Peter Puck.Peter was earning more than his high school teachers in London, Ont., at the age of 17, with a part-time business of importing and restoring classic cars from Western Canada. Six years later he owned his own Ford agency.Since then, in addition to his sports empire in hockey and soccer, Peter has expanded business interests to include Westown Ford in Edmonton (largest Ford dealership in Canada), Elgin Motors in Toronto, Patrican Lands Corp. Ltd., Gainers Ltd., and most recently Fidelity Trust.As his profile rose on the business scene, Peter came to be regarded as different&mdash;flamboyant, flippant, and yet propelled by his own keen knowledge in all commercial ventures including those of sport.He is No. 1 in one of the best sports cities on the continent (Grey Cup, Commonwealth Games, NHL, NSL) and as he says of his commercial empire building&mdash;&ldquo;When I rise to the top of one mountain, I see another.&rdquo;As for Edmonton Oilers, who were less of a factor in this year&rsquo;s NHL competition than most railbirds had projected, the Peter Pocklington purpose is to move them up in the next two years and with some significant acquisitions, to contend for the Stanley Cup in 1985.For a guy like Peter Pocklington, that&rsquo;s a modest projection. But then, again, he&rsquo;s not a gambler. He simply projects what his business mind conceives as happening.<h2>Who&rsquo;s Running Leafs?</h2>PERHAPS THE SECOND editorial of the weekly HOCKEY NEWS should be reserved regularly for the newest in the soap opera happenings of the Toronto Maple Leaf franchise.Who&rsquo;s running Maple Leafs as of this date&mdash;the players, Harold Ballard, Darryl Sittler, Alan Eagleson, Punch Imlach, the IHF, Hockey Canada, Tiger Williams or your Aunt. Emma?Before Leafs mused into Boston with conflicting purposes, and mused out with a 10-0 hammering, recently, fans had been entertained by the newest Eagleson schemes to get a Soviet team into Maple Leaf Gardens&mdash;for the ultimate avail of the players&rsquo; pension fund.So we all know why Eagleson wanted the Soviets in, but why did Ballard want the Soviets out?It&rsquo;s a simple answer&mdash;Ballard doesn&rsquo;t want the public to know what a deplorable team his Leafs are (even if some of them are making twice as much money as the Prime Minister of Canada).Tiger Williams, who is cited among Leafs who&rsquo;d like to play the Russians, couldn&rsquo;t skate with the modern Muscovites even if they oiled his double runners.So there you have it&mdash;Eagleson would sacrifice the dignity of Leafs for a few dollars into the pension fund, and Ballard would keep them out because he doesn&rsquo;t need the embarrassment. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY PAT HICKEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011141/4274084-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="270" height="464"></div>Pat Hickey was one of five players that New York Rangers traded to Colorado Rockies for defenceman Barry Beck in the NHL&rsquo;s biggest deal in recent years. Trades are a fact of life for a pro athlete but coping with the sudden change that a trade inflicts on a player&rsquo;s life isn&rsquo;t easy.Here, Hickey discusses the trade and how he handled the upheaval with HOCKEY NEWS contributing editor Frank Orr.I&rsquo;d spent four years in New York and set up my home there. It took a little bit of time but I&rsquo;d found all the things that make life pleasant for anyone, the small things that you take for granted&mdash;a good delicatessen, a laundry that did my shirts the way I like them, a safe place to park my car, some good friends in the neighborhood and, especially, one young lady.In four years, I&rsquo;d put down some roots. It was the same with the Rangers. I never saw myself as any hot-shot hockey player but I felt that I&rsquo;d become part of the Rangers and the success the club had.Every hockey player thinks about trades and how you would react if you were one of the guys on the move. But you never really know how you&rsquo;d handle a situation until you&rsquo;re in it. There had been trade rumors around the Rangers all fall but most rumbles were about the team&rsquo;s efforts to move out one of the goalies.I think the way we were informed about the deal could have been handled much better. Rangers were on a trip, playing in Los Angeles on a Thursday and Colorado on a Saturday. In L.A., Mike Nykoluk (Rangers&rsquo; assistant coach) told Mike McEwen and me that we were being pulled out of the lineup for that game. But he wouldn&rsquo;t tell us why, saying that we&rsquo;d find out in good time. Right away, we figured that a trade was the only reason.The next day, no one would tell us what was happening and it wasn&rsquo;t until we reached Denver and were waiting for our bags by the luggage carousel that we found out we were going to the Rockies.When I heard it, I decided I was going to be cool about it and not say very much. I&rsquo;d just make the change and carry on.When some players in this league have been traded, they&rsquo;ve exploded. They&rsquo;ve broken up a little furniture, punched a few walls and sounded off out of frustration. Maybe that&rsquo;s the way to do it but I didn&rsquo;t.The first thing you have to cope with when you&rsquo;re traded is the disorganization in your life. That&rsquo;s something I didn&rsquo;t realize when I was thinking about what my reaction to a trade might be. I&rsquo;d been four years in one place with some roots and all of a sudden, I was with a new team in a town.It would be great if they could say: &ldquo;Take a week to get yourself together.&rdquo; But it doesn&rsquo;t work that way. One day I was a Ranger, the next day I was a Rockie, playing against the Rangers.Then on the first free day, I went back to New York, gathered up my clothes and tried to make a large number of arrangements to break up my life there, then returned to Denver&mdash;to a hotel room. I had to find a new place to live, a new deli, all those things.I stayed cool and quiet about it all when there were things to be done and heavy feelings to feel. I just got deeper and deeper into it until I finally punched a few walls and kicked a few chairs. Now that&rsquo;s behind me and all I think about now is the job of helping the Rockies to do a few good things.I&rsquo;m single and I know how it&rsquo;s been for me. Being traded must be sheer hell for a married guy with kids, all that upheaval in his life and theirs.Now I have a new place to live in Denver and can get out of that damned hotel. My furniture is being moved to Colorado and I hope to have my new home set up for Christmas.Life goes on, doesn&rsquo;t it? &#9632;

f0008-01

Rangers Bungled Trade Handling

I have been a fanatic hockey fan for approximately 10 years now, and my number &ldquo;1&rdquo; team has always been the Boston Bruins. Because I live in the New York area, and also own cable TV, I am able to view almost every New York Rannger game. Though I neither like nor dislike the Rangers, I, like many other people I know, think the Rangers have received an unfair shake from the referees. Players such as Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg are constantly high sticked and slashed by opponents, with no penalties being called against the attacker.I think the abuse they take is a high price to pay, just because their playing skills happen to be superior to the majority of the players in the league. The referees would never let any other players in the NHL bear the punishment that the two Swedes do. The NHL should be proud to have these two players play in their league. I just hope that the referees and the NHL react to this grave situation before one of the players is injured seriously.Richard Bartholomew, Nutley, N.J. &#9632;

Let’s Dispense With Cut Throat Tactics

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011100/4274163-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOE MICHELETTI&hellip;St. Louis Blues (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>St. Louis Blues have had success with a young collegian defenseman in the person of Jack Brownschidle, so it should come as no surprise that the Blues were glad to obtain Joe Micheletti, the former University of Minnesota product, in exchange for Finnish player Risto Siltanen. Originally drafted by Montreal, Micheletti, a six-foot, 185-pounder who hails from Hibbing, Minn., played very well indeed in parts of three seasons in the World Hockey Association. During the last two years with Edmonton he collected 28 goals and 67 assists, the kind of production the Blues are looking for in the future from this fine rearguard. &#9632;

f0009-01

Meet The Rookies

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02909/4274194-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Davidson accepts the catcalls as stoically as the cheers, but admits he hears the boos. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;&ldquo;Some nights,&rdquo; Ranger goalie John Davidson once said, &ldquo;the puck looks as big as a basketball. Other nights it looks as small as a pea.&rdquo;Last spring, when the Rangers were blowing past the Kings, Flyers and Islanders on their way to a Stanley Cup final matchup against the Canadiens, the puck looked as big as a basketball to John Davidson, a guy who could do no wrong as he made save after spectacular save, averaged 2.28 goals against per game and drew cheers of &ldquo;JD! JD! JD!&rdquo; everytime the puck came near him.This year the puck more closely resembles a pea as Davidson, hampered by a late start because of surgery to his knee just before the start of the season, struggles to regain the form of last spring. So far this season, JD has played in 10 of his team&rsquo;s 35 games and allowed 39 goals, for a 3.9 average and a 4-5-1 record. No longer No. 1, he is currently alternating with Steve Baker, whose sub-2.50 average and winning record in nine games have made him the darling of those fickle fellas in the green and blue seats at Madison Square Garden.That&rsquo;s easy enough to understand, and no one understands it better than Davidson.&ldquo;Steve Baker,&rdquo; says Davidson, &ldquo;has played well enough to at least be alternating with me.&rdquo;What&rsquo;s very difficult to understand is the way those guys in the blues and greens&mdash;the same guys who last spring were ecstatically writhing in their seats as they lovingly screamed, &ldquo;JD! JD! JD!&rdquo;&mdash;are treating Davidson this year.They boo him.Not just on those occasions when JD perhaps deserves to be booed, and everyone does at one time or another, but whenever they get the chance&mdash;after a soft save, during a pause in play, whenever.The fact that Davidson is off to such a slow start this year because he injured his knee in the playoffs last year and undoubtedly did more damage to it by playing on it seems to elude these guys. That was yesterday, they seem to be saying. We deal only in the present. And for that reason, John Davidson is booed.&ldquo;Sure,&rdquo; JD said recently, &ldquo;it bothers me, but I&rsquo;d rather not show my emotions. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d gain anything by it. It&rsquo;s just some peoples&rsquo; way of doing things in New York.&rdquo;He was slumped in his stall after a game against the Vancouver Canucks, a game which saw the Rangers take a 2-0 lead, then give up three goals in less than seven minutes before finally rallying to win, 5-3. The boos started after Davidson gave up the first goal, a rebound of a shot he never saw. They increased after he was beaten for the second goal by a well-placed shot to the short side. And they became deafening after he misplayed his angle and allowed a slapshot to zip by him.Someone not possessing John Davidson&rsquo;s character and competitive spirit might have quit right then. But JD didn&rsquo;t. He hung in, made some tough saves and backboned his team to the win. But in the lockerroom afterwards, while his teammates joked and laughed, JD sat quietly and articulated his thoughts to a few reporters.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through it before,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the booing, the catcalls, everything. I&rsquo;m just trying to do my job but I still hear them, sure. I&rsquo;ve been here long enough to know what the routine is, and when it&rsquo;s time for them to jump on the bandwagon&hellip;they&rsquo;ll all jump on.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get me wrong,&rdquo; JD went on. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m all for the fans in this town. They pay their money and they can say and do pretty much whatever they want once they get in here. What I object to is the swearing and all of the rest of the stuff.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;ll tell you&hellip;I&rsquo;d rather play here and get booed once in a while than someplace where there&rsquo;s 8,000 empty seats and you can hear a guy cough on the bench.&rdquo;So, someone asked Davidson, the booing and everything else are all part of being a professional athlete and goaltender, right?&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; JD replied, smiling wryly, &ldquo;in New York City.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-02

Fickle Ranger Audiences Turn Venom Against J.D.

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011128/4274225-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="558" height="996"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Ashton couldn&rsquo;t celebrate his two-goal game when he stretched knee ligaments.</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The bell tolls for the Vancouver Canucks for the same reason this time every year. It is the one that sounds loudly and sympathetically with the town crier snouting at the top of his lungs &lsquo;Bring out your lame.&rsquo;Indeed it is time for Canucks to swing into their ludicrous road trip schedule, the part where they play 16 out of 20 games on the road.Not that they are complaining this year. The schedule is the best it has ever been, so they can hardly complain that they are being put upon any more than usual. But the way their travel route is set out, it is not surprising that injuries crop up.To lose three starters on one trip is a little tough to take, even for the storm troopers in Vancouver who are used to such decimation.The fateful night in Pittsburgh was probably the worst, for on that night, the club&rsquo;s first and second round draft choices both fell. Nothing unusual mind you.First and most seriously hurt was Brent Ashton, the superb young underage winger the team nabbed in the second round, a man who has played himself onto the team at an unfamiliar position.Coach Harry Neale had put him on left wing for a whole game for a change, and he responded with two goals as Canucks gained a 3-3 tie in Pittsburgh.But the 19-year-old native of Saskatoon didn&rsquo;t get the chance to celebrate his good fortune. For on the last shift of the evening he tried to throw a check at Ron Stackhouse in the offensive corner and slipped on a rut in the ice. He fell awkwardly into the boards and the result was stretched knee ligaments and he will be in a cast six weeks. That means at least two months out of the lineup.Then there was the case of first round draft choice Rick Vaive, who has knee problems of his own.He went into the game with a sore right knee, and he scored the other goal in the same 3-3 tie. But before he left, he had given himself a hyperextension of the knee and he will be lost to the club at least two weeks.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t push off the knee all night and I knew something wasn&rsquo;t quite right,&rdquo; said Vaive, who had 10 goals when he took his leave.Then on to Detroit, where it was to happen to the Canucks&rsquo; best skater so far this season, Lars Lindgren. He jammed his shoulder against the Wings and it was tender all the next day, where he had to go into the Boston Garden to face the Bruins, a team that hadn&rsquo;t won a game in five starts.Naturally he got nailed along the end boards by Stan Jonathan and he suffered a jammed shoulder for which he had to remain out for two weeks,When this is all combined with the fact that the club had already been missing regular defenseman John Hughes with a ligament tear in his ankle, it put rather a lot of strain on the remainder of the club. Drew Callander, the right winger who had the team made in training camp, has been out since the beginning of the season with a separated shoulder, so whatever the team is doing, they are doing it with mirrors.And indeed they figure to have some problems win-loss wise until about the middle of January, when their schedule becomes a little more liveable. After the one trip they make after New Year&rsquo;s, seven games in 10 days, there is only one more long trip, that being one which includes the All Star break. &#9632;

f0010-01

Injuries Crunch Canucks On Road

<div class="byline">Fan Forum Compiled By CATHY MUNRO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02904/4274256-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="564" height="340"></div><h2>No Room For Child&rsquo;s Play</h2>After watching a game between the L.A. Kings and the Philadelphia Flyers, I&rsquo;m completely disgusted with the childish display put on by both teams, especially the Flyers. When the Kings jumped out to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period and Flyers&rsquo; saw that they couldn&rsquo;t skate with the Kings, they started the second period with the old &lsquo;Broad Street Bully&rsquo; image. The Flyers started hitting after the whistle, giving unnecessary cheap shots, and that&rsquo;s when the problems began.Behn Wilson tried to take Andre St. Laurent&rsquo;s head off with his stick; Paul Holmgren, outplayed by Dave Taylor, had to drop his gloves and start swinging, somehow thinking fighting proves hockey superiority. A dozen different examples could be cited. The sad part was that the Kings followed the Flyers&rsquo; lead and started to dish out what they were taking, ending in a bench clearing brawl and 147 minutes in penalties!The Philadelphia Flyers, with the best record in the NHL, are a sad reflection of a great game declining to disgusting, unsportsmanlike, childish brawling.Carl Bradshaw Lancaster, CA<h2>Bully On Birmingham</h2>After being bored by the Atlanta Flames last season, I decided to travel to Birming-ham to see the Bulls of the WHA. As soon as I walked into the Birmingham Coliseum I knew I was in for a good game. I had always thought Atlanta had enthusiastic crowds. Was I ever wrong!With the Birmingham crowd, one would have thought it was the seventh game of the world series. A crowd of only 9,000 was screaming at the top of their lungs.No, the Bulls were not the defending Avco Trophy champions. But the fans in Birmingham cheered for the Bulls. Since the NHL rejected them in the merger, the Bulls joined the Central Hockey League. But if Birmingham had an NHL team the fans would really have something to come out for. Besides, wouldn&rsquo;t Birmingham vs. Atlanta be a great rivalry, like Montreal and Toronto or the Rangers and Islanders?Maybe people across America don&rsquo;t understand how big hockey is in Birmingham. But I&rsquo;m sure the people of Birmingham know that we could support an NHL team as well as any other city!Chip Nelson Lithia Springs, GA<h2>Bye-Bye To Those Balancing Blues</h2>I&rsquo;d like to put forth a proposal regarding the balanced schedule that lends itself to better competition. The format is John Viges&rsquo;, a sportswriter for the Ann Arbor News. I must admit it&rsquo;s the best solution yet.Play this season out in a balanced manner, with the final point tally being used to set the stage for three separate divisions of seven teams each for the future. The divisions would not be locked in; instead, it would be like British football where teams go up and drop from division to division.Since we have 76 teams, the scheduling would be as such: eight games (four home and four away) against each team in your own division. Play two games against the teams in the other divisions (one home and one away) and you have a total of 76 games. Each season, the top two teams from division two and division three jump up one division while the bottom two teams from division 1 and two. drop one notch.Bring back the sensible 12 of 21 teams advancing to the playoffs. Award the better teams, allowing six of the top seven teams into the playoffs with the top two teams in Division 1 getting a bye. The top four teams in the second division also get into the playoffs with the top two teams in division three making the field. Also give byes to the champions of divisions two and three.Bruce Madej Ann Arbor, MI<h2>Junior &lsquo;A&rsquo; Is Alive and Well</h2>I agree in principle to Mike Canzi&rsquo;s letter in the Dec. 21 Hockey News.I do, however, disagree with his attendance figures for Junior &lsquo;A&rsquo; hockey in Windsor. When the Windsor Arena&rsquo;s ice surface was expanded a few years ago, it knocked out about 400 seats, reducing the building&rsquo;s capacity to 4,800. Furthermore, arena officials tell me that the average attendance for home games is about 3,500, not 5,200, as we are led to believe.Furthermore, the situation in Windsor is unique, thanks to the excellent support the Spitfires receive. In London a slightly larger city, the 2nd place Knights are fortunate to draw over 2,000 a game at the 4,800-seat London Gardens&hellip;and that&rsquo;s something like 4th best in the league.Windsor&rsquo;s attendance figures are the envy of every Major Junior &lsquo;A&rsquo; hockey operator in Ontario.Chris Mayberry London, Ont.<h2>Remedy Needed For Rangers</h2>Being a Ranger fan since 1938, I have enjoyed the fruits of victory. However, the past 39 years, the Stanley Cup has evaded this fair city. There have been some great hockey players in our town, but the Stanley Cup still didn&rsquo;t arrive. Last year by some miracle we got to the finals, and Montreal once again took the Cup.This year the team is floundering. Then, the tumultuous trade five for one took place, and the Rangers have gone from fair to lousy. I took in a Rockies-Islanders&rsquo; game on TV recently, and was tremendously enthused by the play of Lucien DeBlois, Mike McEwen, Pat Hickey, and especially of young Dean Turner. Did the Ranger brass truly evaluate this young man before they traded him away? I know you can&rsquo;t judge a player by one game, but this kid did everything right. He rushed like Brad Park, hit like Lou Fontinato, fought like Muzz Patrick, and he was cheering his team on like an old vet. In other words, he showed me more in this one game than Barry Beck has shown me in all the games he has played since joining the Rangers. By the way, the Rockies beat the Islanders 7-4.Are there solutions to the Rangers&rsquo; problems? Sure there are. How many of the New York forwards body check an opposing players besides Eddie Johnstone, game in and game out? Some do, but not as consistently as they should. Another thing&mdash;too many passes and not enough shots on net. Also, I&rsquo;d make every player practice every day on shooting at the net. Why, 90 per cent of the shots by the defense are not even close to the net. At least McEwen was great in that department.If the Rangers don&rsquo;t make it this year, they never will. As for the Colorado Rockies, I am anxiously awaiting the day they will become the NJ Meadowlands Rockies.Steve G. Basic Oradell, N.J.<h2>Tough Act To Follow</h2>It seems that every year someone in a hockey publication writes off the Montreal Canadiens as &lsquo;has beens&rsquo;, and this year is no exception. Many fans and hockey writers just don&rsquo;t appreciate what the Canadiens&rsquo; have done and meant to hockey in general, and the NHL in particular. With very few exceptions, the bleu, blanc, et rouge have played perhaps the classiest hockey the league has to offer. Can the Flyers say that?Perhaps statistics will tell the story that fans of other teams find hard to believe. Since 1943-44, Montreal has won 18 Stanley Cups, and has been in the playoffs all but two of those years. The longest time between cups was six years (1946 to 1952) but Montreal was in the finals during three of those years. Can any team in hockey claim anything close to those records?Other teams may challenge for the cup during a few seasons, but the Canadiens are &lsquo;there&rsquo; almost every time. They are truly the greatest hockey franchise and possibly the greatest in all sports. Watch for them in May&mdash;they&rsquo;ll probably be there again.Tim Austin Roanoke, VA<h2>Helmet Wearers Weave Design</h2>Stan Fischler spoke out recently against players being forced to wear helmets. He claimed it detracted from the aesthetic qualities of the game.I have a simple solution. Allow skaters to decorate their helmets, much like goaltenders paint their masks. Individuality and easier recognition of men by the fans would enhance the game and make it more attractive.Only problem is it&rsquo;s so simple the league won&rsquo;t consider the idea.Ken Murrell Brooklyn, NY<h2>Turned Off And Tuned Out</h2>The new schedule calls for two away (and home) games for every team. Looking through the schedule I see the right choice of CBC TV for the Dec. 29 and Jan. 26 games.Of course, I&rsquo;m talking about Buffalo at Montreal (probably the two finalists playing for the Stanley Cup). Yet, what do we Canadians get to experience&mdash;Winnipeg and Edmonton.Boring us, for the sake of nationalism, the fans will turn channels and watch &lsquo;Three&rsquo;s Company&rsquo;.Jeff Emack Thunder Bay, Ont. &#9632;

f0010-02

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>TORONTO&mdash;Who said that Toronto wasn&rsquo;t a lively town? Why just the other day the Maple Leafs popped a 41-year-old defenseman out of retirement and signed him to a tryout in Moncton, New Brunswick. General manager Punch Imlach disclosed that if it went as expected former Leaf great Carl Brewer, out of pro hockey since 1974, will be in Maple Leafs&rsquo; lineup the night after Christmas against the Washington Capitals.Then there was this pre-Christmas press conference. It began as sundry others do with a round of refreshments and an introduction by Leafs&rsquo; p.r. head Stan Obodiac promising the flowers of the Toronto media &ldquo;a memorable press conference.&rdquo; Before you could say Harold Ballard, Players Association president Alan Eagleson and Leafs&rsquo; captain Darryl Sittler, led the team&rsquo;s president and owner off to a little corner for a brief chat. When Ballard opened the conference he was visibly shaken.His intention was to announce a Feb. 6 exhibition game between the Leafs and the Canadian Olympic team at Maple Leaf Gardens with all proceeds for Ronald McDonald House, a temporary home for parents and their children who are undergoing treatment for cancer and other related illnesses, located a short distance from Toronto&rsquo;s Hospital for Sick Children.Sittler, the honorary chairman of Ronald McDonald House, was placed in the difficult position of informing Ballard that the consensus of the players was not to play the game unless certain provisions were met.Eagleson then read a statement signed by all of the Leafs which indicated their support for Ronald McDonald House and for the Canadian National team but that they were not enthusiastic about the idea. With NHL games Feb. 2, 3, 7, 9 and 10, and the All Star game for some, Feb. 5 in Detroit, the Feb. 6 date for the exhibition game and the manner in which the club had been informed of the game, were not acceptable.For the players to agree to the exhibition game, Eagleson said, the team would have to exchange goaltenders and possibly defense pairs and the Leafs (read Harold Ballard) would have to allow the team to play against the Soviets in the 1980-81 season if a date could be arranged.Said Ballard, &ldquo;If this is the situation, I&rsquo;ll have to accept it. I&rsquo;m too committed to the fight against the Big C (cancer). When the McDonald&rsquo;s people talked to me about this, I thought it was all cleared.&ldquo;If this is the hatchet they&rsquo;re using on us, I&rsquo;ll have to go along with them. I&rsquo;ve always been opposed to playing the Russians. It&rsquo;s a waste of money and time.&rdquo;Sittler explained the players&rsquo; feeling: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really hard for us to get up emotionally for a game like that. The Olympic team is very strong and just before the Olympics, they&rsquo;re going to be sky-high for the game. Since management has always said that NHL games are most important, we thought we&rsquo;d take a little emphasis off winning by trading goaltenders. We want the game to be an exhibition to help Ronald McDonald house.&ldquo;The last time we played the Olympic team in Calgary, we had amateur officials and their players were taking runs at us. Trying to prove that they&rsquo;re as tough as Tiger Williams or that they can handle the puck like Darryl Sittler. We just wanted to take some of the emphasis off winning.&rdquo;Following the Leafs&rsquo; game that night, Sittler told HOCKEY NEWS about the sequence of events leading up to the press conference:&ldquo;Mr. Ballard mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago, sort of offhandedly, that there was interest in an exhibition game between us and the Olympic team for the Ronald McDonald House. He didn&rsquo;t come out and say that I should inform the players and we decided to call a team meeting which we did a week ago and at that time there was a lot of opposition to the idea. We had already played one extra exhibition game during the pre-season for the Olympic team and a lot of guys didn&rsquo;t think with our schedule that it would be a good time to play.&ldquo;Then we had a road game (in Minnesota) and I was sitting at home the next night when they announced on television that a press conference would be held the next day to publicize a game between us and the Olympic team,&rdquo; Sittler said.&ldquo;We had already talked to Al (Eagleson) about our rights, etc. and he came to our meeting this morning (before the press conference).&rdquo;&ldquo;At 11.30 this morning,&rdquo; Eagleson said, &ldquo;the team voted not to play the game; by 12.30 the game was on but only under certain conditions.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unfortunate that there was a breakdown in communications on this thing,&rdquo; explained Sittler. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all in favor of helping out and the main thing now is that the game is going to be played.&rdquo;Or is it?While the Leafs were in Boston, getting their ears pinned back in a 10-0 embarrassment, Ballard called his players &ldquo;ingrates&rdquo; and announced that there would be no game against the Soviets. At the same time, Olympic team officials rejected the Leafs&rsquo; players proposal on the exchange of goaltenders and other players for the contest.What had been intended as a humanitarian gesture by all concerned, now seemed on the verge of collapse and for all the wrong reasons.It&rsquo;s no secret about the animosity which has developed between the players and the Leafs&rsquo; management, especially general manager Punch Imlach, who took away some of the players&rsquo; niceties&mdash;various things like beer on postgame flights, phone calls from the dressing room, some game tables from the dressing room, etc.&mdash;and also placed nearly the entire team on waivers.The Leafs have goaler Mike Palmateer playing out his option, an unenviable relationship with management and a penchant for inconsistency at all the wrong times.Something is bound to snap soon. &#9632;

Leafs’ Players, Management Rift Grows

<div class="byline">BY PAT DOYLE</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Not surprisingly, Bobby Guindon used to dream of the day he would wear the bleu, blanc et rouge pullover of the Montreal Canadiens.&ldquo;It was always my dream as a kid,&rdquo; admits Guindon, a native of Labelle, Que. &ldquo;Especially after I&rsquo;d been in their organization two years. But, now that there are 21 teams, it doesn&rsquo;t matter anymore&hellip;just as long as you make it.&rdquo;Guindon finally made it to the National Hockey League on Dec. 15 when the Winnipeg Jets hosted Montreal, and it&rsquo;s a game Guindon isn&rsquo;t likely to forget in a hurry. If he forgets it at all.No, Guindon didn&rsquo;t fill his hat with goals in Winnipeg&rsquo;s 6-2 victory over Montreal, but just the fact Jets won made his NHL debut something special.Guindon had been recalled by Jets from their Tulsa farm in the Central League, where he had been serving as assistant coachplayer. Mike Smith is the head coach with Oilers.&ldquo;Before practice I&rsquo;d warm up the guys,&rdquo; he says of his role in Tulsa. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d stick around with some of the younger players after, as well. It&rsquo;s hard for one coach to work with 20 guys. Watching the others make mistakes has made me a better player. I&rsquo;m concentrating more.&rdquo;Ross Cory is another Tulsa player who had been called up by Jets before Christmas, and he had nothing but positive things to say about Guindon.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been great going one-on-one with the guys,&rdquo; says Cory, a strapping defenseman. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll take you aside after a practice and go over things with you. He&rsquo;s helped a lot of guys down there, and they all think he&rsquo;s just a great person.&rdquo;All of this kind talk doesn&rsquo;t come as a scoop to people in Winnipeg, because they knew all about Bobby Guindon before his recall to the big club. The 29-year-old veteran of nine pro seasons spent four seasons as a Jet in the World Hockey Association.&ldquo;He adds something to our team,&rdquo; veteran Peter Sullivan said of Guindon immediately following the Montreal win.&ldquo;Bobby can say things to you and get away with It,&rdquo; Sullivan added, &ldquo;but if somebody else tried saying the same thing you&rsquo;d have a problem on your hands. We need guys like him in our room.&rdquo;Guindon is a proven winner, and if you don&rsquo;t believe it check the book. He was a member of two Memorial Cup winning Junior Canadiens clubs, and as a pro he won a trio of World Hockey Association titles in Winnipeg. Furthermore, he was in five WHA finals, four with the Jets and another with Quebec Nordiques, and there isn&rsquo;t another player on the globe who can claim that.It figures that Guindon will be staying on with Jets for a bit, perhaps not through to the end of the season, but after the Montreal game general manager John Ferguson emphasized that he had plans for Guindon.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011101/4274311-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="586" height="874"><figcaption class="caption-body">The 29-year-old Bobby Guindon realized a long-time dream with a victory over Montreal in his NHL debut.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Bobby isn&rsquo;t going anywhere for a while,&rdquo; claimed Ferguson. &ldquo;He can help us.&rdquo;That having been said, Guindon went out and helped the Jets beat Edmonton Oilers. &#9632;

f0012-01

Jets Looking To Guindon As Proven Winner

<div class="byline">BILL LIBBY&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02936/4274342-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="340" height="367"></div><h2>The Unsung Hawk</h2>JOHN MARKS DOES NOT attract a lot of attention. He is a big winger, but not a scorer. His team, Chicago, has not been a big winner lately. But he recently ran his streak of consecutive games played past 500 to set a team record, so the Black Hawks must feel he does some things right.Marks does. He plays defense at both ends of the ice. In fact, he has been playing defense as well as left wing lately. In fact, he was a defenseman until the playoffs of his rookie year when he was moved up to check some high-scoring right-wingers.That was seven seasons back. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like going home,&rdquo; laughs Marks. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little tough adjusting to moving back and forth, to skating forward, then Backward, to following the flow of play up ice, then not getting caught out of position out of our end.&ldquo;The team felt I was effective at forward and I&rsquo;ve liked it well enough, but within me I think I might have been better at defense and might be a pretty good defenseman by now if I&rsquo;d stayed mere.&rdquo;No doubt he would be. The slender veteran is a smart player who makes the right moves. He skates pretty well and handles the puck pretty well and can clear it pretty well. He&rsquo;s not a big hitter and seldom gets more than 20 or sq minor penalties a season, but he&rsquo;s strong and takes his man out of the play consistently.His scoring would be good for a defenseman, if it is not for a forward. He averages about 15 goals a season and had 21 last season, despite a stretch of 23 games without a goal. He&rsquo;s grateful to Bob Pulford, then the coach, for staying with him, but he&rsquo;s not out there to score a lot.<h2>Selke Award Contender</h2>MARKS IS A DEFENSIVE forward and he deserves consideration for the new Frank Selke Trophy, which is voted to the best defensive forward these seasons. Don Marcotte of Boston is one of several others who deserves consideration, but it has been given to Bob Gainey of Montreal the first two seasons.No one notices defensive forwards much. When one gets a reputation for being good, voters tend to remember him. When he plays for a glamour team and has a big playoff, as Gainey did last season, he is going to be the first one anyone thinks of when they&rsquo;re thinking of defensive forwards.The same is true oi offensive centers in football, for example. One gets a reputation for being good and he&rsquo;s voted to the All Star team every year for quite a few years, whether or not he&rsquo;s been the best in a given year. When it becomes clear he&rsquo;s fading, voters latch on to someone else.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying Gainey isn&rsquo;t good, he may be the best, admits Marks. &ldquo;But there are other good ones. I like to think I&rsquo;m one. So is my teammate, Cliff Koroll. I just hope the voters will consider us when they vote and not just go to Gainey automatically. It&rsquo;s the only honor I&rsquo;m in contention for,&rdquo; he laughs.Except for being an iron man. His is the third longest streak in the NHL behind Garry Unger of Atlanta who has passed 1,000, and Craig Ramsey of Buffalo, who has passed 500 by a few more than Marks. Ramsey is a checking forward, too. Those guys do a good job and get steady work, if not a lot of glory.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind. I really don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; says Marks. &ldquo;Fans like the guys who hit home runs or throw the long bombs and no matter my job I&rsquo;m not the spectacular type. I have average ability and try to make the most of it. I really like the game and I&rsquo;m happy to have had a good career so far.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been fortunate not to have suffered serious injuries. A lot of guys would play every game if they didn&rsquo;t get hurt, I&rsquo;ve played hurt, but so have a lot of guys.&rdquo;<h2>Ten-Year Pro</h2>THE SIX-FOOT-TWO, 200-pounder is 31 years old and is in his 10th season as a pro and, after two years at Dallas in the Central League, his eighth with Chicago in the National League. He was bom in the small town of Hamiota in Manitoba and was moved to Winnipeg when he was 12. His father had a restaurant and general store, and opened a grocery store in Winnipeg after John&rsquo;s mom died. John has a brother, Brian, who is teaching in Winnipeg and a step-brother, Wayne, who is a butcher there. John attended the University of North Dakota before he turned pro.A thoughtful fellow, he has been working at the York State Bank and Trust Company on the side. He is listed as in public relations, but says he has worked as a teller and bookkeeper and helped out in the loan and credit departments. He says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to learn about money and banking because I feel it will be something for my future.&rdquo;For now the future is the next game. He and his wife. Cathy, have a daughter. Tricia, and a home in the suburbs of Chicago. He has a job to do most nights on the likes of Wilf Paiement. whom he considers even tougher to check than Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Dave Taylor, Lanny McDonald and the other right wings who try to take the bread off his table.&ldquo;When I hold one of them without a goal it&rsquo;s as good as getting a goal, myself,&rdquo; says The Iron Man of The Windy City. &#9632;

f0012-02

HOCKEY AD LIB

<div class="byline">BY JIM MATHESON</div>EDMONTON&mdash;There have been precious few moments of high drama for Ron Chipperfield this season. Only one, really.On Oct. 9, on a Northwest Orient aircraft flying 20,000 feet above the Minnesota farmland, the 25-year-old center was officially named captain of Edmonton Oilers.&ldquo;Ron Chipperfield is the captain&hellip;with Lee Fogolin and Blair MacDonald as alternates,&rdquo; said coach Glen Sather, who walked down the aisle of flight 456 to give the center the good news.&ldquo;This is a players&rsquo; vote and I wouldn&rsquo;t have picked it any other way. His selection bridges the gap between the really young guys and the older fellas.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s mature and sensible&hellip;and he&rsquo;ll lead by example.&rdquo;The last statement has proved only partially true. Chipperfield is definitely mature and sensible. But he hasn&rsquo;t led by example.After 24 games, the shifty pivot had scored only six goals. His point total was a meagre 11, one less than a defenseman Risto Siltanen and checking winger Dave Hunter. And the same as blueliner Pat Price.Clearly, Chipperfield has struggled in his first National Hockey League campaign. In 17 of the games, he failed to get a single point. In many of the games, he&rsquo;s even been held without a shot on goal&mdash;a strange turn of events for a guy who once scored 90 goals in junior hockey in Brandon and entered the NHL with 330 points in 369 WHA games.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t played well, I don&rsquo;t mind admitting it,&rdquo; said Chipperfield, who popped 32 goals in only 55 injury-plagued games last season.&ldquo;I know the other two centermen (Gretzky, 37 points and Stan Weir, 22) have been going so well that I haven&rsquo;t been playing in crucial situations. But that&rsquo;s no excuse. I also don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s that much difference in leagues.&rdquo;There really isn&rsquo;t a whole lot of difference between the WHA and the NHL. While the WHA was often called the Won&rsquo;t Hit Association, there aren&rsquo;t too many tong wars in the NHL these nights either. In many games, bodychecking is a dirty word. So, Chipperfield&rsquo;s problems have nothing to do with a more robust style of play in the NHL.But, the defensemen tend to play differently. On top of the fact they&rsquo;re generally much better than their WHA counterparts. They stand up at the blueline&hellip;and this is where the smooth center has been getting into trouble. He hasn&rsquo;t been able to dipsy-doodle into the other team&rsquo;s zone like he used to do in the WHA.&ldquo;I try to get too fancy sometimes. I get in too close and don&rsquo;t shoot. I&rsquo;ve heard the criticisms and they&rsquo;re valid.&rdquo;Still, he has the ability to get the job done. He racked up 470 points in only 252 games with the Wheat Kings, which earned him a first-round draft pick in 1974. He opted to sign with the WHA Vancouver Blazers for a bundle of Jim Pattison&rsquo;s money, instead of taking Charlie Finley&rsquo;s offer in Oakland. And he flourished in the WHA, three times hitting for more than 30 goals. Twice scoring more than 85 points.And he overcame a serious knee injury to keep his career going. In the summer of &lsquo;78, he came down with a mysterious inflammation of the joints of his knee&mdash;reiters syndrome the doctors called it. He was in hospital in Brandon, then Winnipeg for six weeks. &ldquo;They told me that if the condition returned in a few months&hellip;then I&rsquo;d probably have to quit hockey,&rdquo; said Chipperfield at the time. &ldquo;Luckily, it never came back after working out on the Nautilus machines.&rdquo;Last year, he was hampered by a ruptured muscle in his groin and sundry other hurts which KO&rsquo;d him for 25 games. Yet, he racked up 69 points. &#9632;

Center’s Doldrums Concern Of Oilers

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011056/4274397-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="451" height="355"></div><h2>Don&rsquo;t Blame Boomer</h2>FOR THE PAST three weeks everybody but Santa Claus has been dumping on Bernie Geoffrion. Rapping The Boomer has become as easy as kicking a soda can down the street.As for me, I&rsquo;ll pass on putting the boot to Boom Boom.The predators of the press tell us that Geoffrion never should have taken the Canadiens&rsquo; job in the first place. (That&rsquo;s like telling Lee Majors he shouldn&rsquo;t have married Farrah Fawcett. Who could resist?)Geoffrion-watchers argue that, despite his experience in Atlanta and New York, he never had enough bench smarts to be a winner. And, finally, they insisted that there was a matter of respect which Bernie seemed not to obtain in large doses.The critics concluded that Geoffrion should have stayed in Georgia.Forget it. Geoffrion had to coach the Canadiens just like you and I have to breathe. It was an offer he could not refuse and I, for one, commend him for taking a crack at the job.I&rsquo;m sorry he quit so soon.Considering the circumstances he endured, The Boomer did not do all that badly. Remember, he had been away from the bench for four-and-a-half years. On the day that he bid &ldquo;adieu la glace&rdquo; to The Forum, his Canadiens were sitting comfortably atop the Norris Division with a record of 15 wins, nine losses and six ties. (By contrast the other 1979 Stanley Cup finalist, New York Rangers, had put together a quasi-putrid 13-13-4 record at the same time.) Only three clubs had better marks than Montreal and in any betting on the next Stanley Cup-winner, the odds had to be with the Habs.When you think about it, there was no way&mdash;unless Charles De Gaulle or Scotty Bowman was coaching Montreal&mdash;for the Canadiens&rsquo; record to be much better than it was when Geoffrion busted himself from the Habs&rsquo; corps de ballet.Without Ken Dryden, the goaltending ranged from modest to mediocre. Without Jacques Lemaire, the offense was curtailed. And when solid foot soldiers such as Bob Gainey, Brian Engblom and Doug Risebrough were wounded the Canadiens went from bad to verse.But don&rsquo;t blame Boomer. After all nobody ever said Geoffrion was a genius in the Bowman mold.Losing Bowman meant the Habs automatically dropped 20 points in the standing whether Jean Beliveau, Mischa Auer or Major Hoople was behind the bench.So why all the head-bashing over Geoffrion&rsquo;s 159-6 record? It was to be expected, n&rsquo;est-ce-pas?&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t motivate them anymore,&rdquo; says The Boomer.Perhaps. But, think about it; who in the NHL besides Bowman and Philadelphia&rsquo;s Pat Quinn can be accused of hyper-motivation these days? No one.Ideally, the well-paid, attache case-carrying businessmen, posing as hockey players on the Canadiens, should have motivated themselves. They all could have rallied behind Geoffrion and played as hard as Bob Gainey and Guy Lafleur did.Reality was something else. So, Boomer, don&rsquo;t feel badly&mdash;although I know you do. Ignore those who would dump on you and, for gosh sakes, don&rsquo;t dump on yourself.The bottom line, Boom Boom, was that only two guys on your club, Lafleur and Gainey, had the kind of heart that belongs to Bernie Geoffrion.Which leaves us with the next question. After Claude Ruel, who?<h2>His Least Worry</h2>P.S. ON GEOFFRION: Ironically, Geoffrion&rsquo;s gravest fear about coaching Canadiens was that there would be a French-English problem on the club&hellip;He phoned Scotty Bowman about it after taking the job and Bowman assured him that that would be his least worry&hellip;The most telling blast delivered by Boomer was levelled against Habs&rsquo; captain Serge Savard, who owns a stable of horses and runs a weekly newspaper in his spare time&hellip;&ldquo;I thought Savard would have helped me,&rdquo; stung Geoffrion, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s more interested in his horses!&rdquo;&hellip;When I told Bowman about that last crack, he was surprised. &ldquo;Serge always has been a busy guy,&rdquo; says Scotty, &ldquo;but he always was pretty good in a crunch for me. And he never tried to skip a workout.&rdquo;&hellip;Geoffrion&rsquo;s last game as coach was at Nassau Coliseum where Islanders defeated Montreal, 4-1. &ldquo;After the game,&rdquo; reports free-lancer Richard Einhorn, &ldquo;Geoffrion looked so absolutely sick and distressed it seemed an affront even to talk to him.&rdquo;&hellip;With Boomer gone, the onus now is on managing director Irv Grundman, the man responsible for Bowman&rsquo;s exit and Boomer&rsquo;s entrance&hellip;&ldquo;They (the Canadiens) will probably play for Claude Ruel,&rdquo; says Bowman. However, that is a mighty big &ldquo;probably.&rdquo;. As for the legendary Canadiens&rsquo; pride: it has been replaced by agents&rsquo; endorsements and attache cases.SOARING SCOTTY: The sky-high Flyers and the crash-diving Canadiens have served to deflect attention away from Buffalo&rsquo;s solidifying Sabres.There was some question whether Scotty Bowman could translate his successful theories from The Forum to The Aud but the results, so far, have been more than a Buffalo fan could expect under the circumstances. What has been the secret?&ldquo;Our goaltending (Don Edwards, Bob Sauve) has been capable and steady,&rdquo; Bowman tells me, &ldquo;and the defense has played well. Jim Schoenfeld, Jerry Korab and Bill Hajt had a good first-half. Then there is Richie Dunn, Larry Playfair, John Van Boxmeer and Lindsay Ruff, all of whom have helped.&rdquo;Bowman has employed Roger Nielson as a fulltime assistant along with Jimmy Roberts. &ldquo;Roger has been unbelievable in terms of what he&rsquo;s taken on,&rdquo; adds Bowman. &ldquo;He scouts games in advance, edits film clips and works the game with me with our two-way radio system. I talk to him upstairs and he tells me whether to change lines and players. Jimmy is a very positive guy, a catalyst. He is our contact between the players and management.&rdquo;Is Bowman happy that he exiled himself from Montreal?&ldquo;I like it in Buffalo,&rdquo; he concludes. &ldquo;The fans seem vibrant about the team which is how I feel. Of course, it&rsquo;s always nice when you have a winner!&rdquo;<h2>Clarke&rsquo;s Faceoff Advice</h2>NOTES: Nordiques&rsquo; goalie Michel Dion could have made it as a baseball pro. He caught in the Expos&rsquo; organization&hellip;&ldquo;I would have stayed with the Expos,&rdquo; says Dion, &ldquo;but when they drafted Gary Carter in 1971 I decided I&rsquo;d be better off in hockey.&rdquo;&hellip;Rockies&rsquo; GM Ray Miron, defending his five-for-one deal with the Rangers, now says Barry Beck is not a superstar. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just a very good defenseman,&rdquo; Miron argues&hellip;Sorry, Ray hasn&rsquo;t seen Beck enough since he came to Broadway. Barry is awesome in every way. In fact Beck&rsquo;s only problem will be mishandling by GM-coach Fibber McShero who doesn&rsquo;t realize that while all hockey players are equal, some are more equal than others&hellip;Beck is the strongest player I&rsquo;ve seen since Bingo Kampman (Toronto Maple Leafs, 1937-42). For exercise, Kampman used to pick up oak tables&mdash;by his teeth!&hellip;Is it wise for Bobby Clarke to advise youngsters to gyp on winning the draw? That would seem to be his thinking when Clarke writes a Philly Journal column on &ldquo;Faceoff Tips&rdquo;. Under one heading, Clarke lists &ldquo;How To Cheat&rdquo;. He then explains: &ldquo;Although your stick is supposed to be on the ice before the official drops the puck, sometimes you can cheat.&rdquo; He then elaborates. Who needs it?MUZZLING MIKE: Early signs are that NHL Players&rsquo; Union Czar Al Eagleson will attempt to muzzle Mike Milbury&rsquo;s attempt to oust him at the mid-season union meeting in late January.As for those writers&mdash;Bob Verdi among them&mdash;who insist that the Players&rsquo; union couldn&rsquo;t find a suitable replacement for The Eagle, Milbury derisively laughs.&ldquo;Granted,&rdquo; Milbury retorts, &ldquo;Eagleson may have been effective. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean he was 100 per cent effective, and he certainly isn&rsquo;t irreplaceable. There are plenty of smart men in the sports labor relations field with brains and strong personalities. I&rsquo;m sure we can find someone in the office of the baseball or football players&rsquo; association who has had experience in the sports labor-management field. Nobody is irreplaceable.&rdquo;Especially Alan Eagleson.MEDIA NOTES: Tom Ratschunas, the crack Finnish hockey journalist from Helsinki, has published (in English) the most complete international hockey guide ever. It includes a who&rsquo;s who section that&rsquo;s a must for followers of European hockey&hellip;John McKenzie, bright son of HOCKEY NEWS president and publisher Ken McKenzie, just completed a month-long stint in Tehran for CTC, he privately-owned Canadian network&hellip;N. Y. Daily News and Times hockey writers shouldn&rsquo;t beef about hockey violence. Their papers continually feature photos of fights instead of classy play&hellip;Philly Flyers have won their way on to the pages oi Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and you-name-it&hellip;Which league but the NHL would go more than a month without carrying a director of public relations in mid-season? Bob Casey&rsquo;s seat remains unfilled and word has it that prexy John Ziegler (foolishly if he does it) will opt for a Madison Avenuetype instead of a hockey man&hellip;The scribe with the best clue on Boomer Geoffrion&rsquo;s exit was the Vancouver Sun&rsquo;s Archie McDonald back on Nov. 19. One of McDonald&rsquo;s most telling questions was put to Serge Savard&mdash;are the Habs serving two masters, Geoffrion and Claude Ruel? &ldquo;More masters than that&rdquo; snapped Savard. No doubt he meant Toe Blake, Irv Grundman and Jean Beliveau, for starters! &#9632;

f0013-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY STEVE WINTER</div>LANDOVER&mdash;The Washington Capitals are talking like real optimists these days.Despite the worst record in the National Hockey League, and a current streak in which the club has won only twice in 15 games, coach Gary Green and many of the players are talking about the light at the end of the tunnel.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s definite improvement out there,&rdquo; says Green, whose team, under his tutelage, has lost seven games since November 15 by either one or two goals.One factor, of course, has been the injury situation: but with some of the troops gradually filtering back in pairs, Green maintains that results, in the form of wins, are only a matter of the successful application of his much-publicized system.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing our style of hockey out there now,&rdquo; Green said: &ldquo;but we have to play it consistently for 60 minutes. Things are starting to turn for us, though.&rdquo;One reason for Green&rsquo;s undying optimism is the steady play of the club&rsquo;s number one 1979 draft choice, 20-year-old wing, Mike Gartner.In a recent seven-game span, Gartner produced five goals and six assists, accumulating a plus nine rating, while playing instrumental roles in the team&rsquo;s two victories during the streak.The first game was a 7-2 plastering of the Quebec Nordiques, which gave Gary Green his first NHL win and snapped a 10-game winless skein. In that game, Gartner pumped home three goals, all in the final period, for his first NHL hattrick.Two weeks later, Gartner came alive again, scoring a goal and assisting on two others, again in the final period, as the club broke a five-game winless streak over-coming a 4-0 deficit, to down the New York Rangers, 5-4.&ldquo;Mike&rsquo;s gaining a lot of confidence and creating a lot of scoring chances for himself and his linemates lately,&rdquo; said Green, after Gartner set up two late Washington goals to pull the Capitals close during a 5-4 loss to Minnesota.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02843/4274428-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="567" height="572"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Gartner&rsquo;s hard work is translating into points for his club.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been trying hard lately&mdash;giving it 100 per cent,&rdquo; Gartner said. &ldquo;Hopefully, it&rsquo;s going to pay off. Actually, it&rsquo;s starting to pay off right now. I&rsquo;ll just have to keep working on it.&rdquo;A strong fundamental player, whom GM Max McNab values for his speed, size, playmaking and scoring ability; Gartner first broke into pro hockey with the Cincinnati Stingers, of the WHA, who drafted him as an underage junior in 1978. The six-foot, 180-pound forward scored 74 goals and 91 assists in two seasons with Niagara Falls of the OMJHA, before hitting the net 27 times in 78 games for the Stingers. He finished second in the WHA balloting behind Wayne Gretzky for rookie-of-the-year honors.&ldquo;Playing one year in the WHA helped me make the jump to the NHL,&rdquo; Gartner said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m used to the travelling now, so it wasn&rsquo;t such a big adjustment as it would have been had I played junior hockey last year.&rdquo;Gartner became a Capital when McNab chose him as the club&rsquo;s number one selection&mdash;the fourth choice overall&mdash;in the 1979 entry draft.&ldquo;I had an inkling I would go high,&rdquo; Gartner said, &ldquo;and I was really happy to be drafted by Washington. I felt it was the perfect opportunity for me to move up and build with a young team.&rdquo;Gartner credits much of his success&mdash;and the team&rsquo;s eventual improvement&mdash;to his coach, Green.&ldquo;Gary&rsquo;s system and Gary as a person has helped the club tremendously lately,&rdquo; Gartner said. &ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s hard to say that when we have such a bad record; but we&rsquo;ve been losing quite a few games by only one or two goals. Once we start playing together as a team for 60 minutes, and we get some more of our players back (from injuries), I think things will start falling in place for us.&rdquo;They&rsquo;ve already started falling in place for Gartner, whose 21 points after 30 games finds him leading the club in scoring.Now, let&rsquo;s see if his success rubs off on his teammates.CAPSHOTS: The Capitals called up 22-year-old goaltender Rollie Boutin from Hershey, who responded with his first NHL win, during the &ldquo;miracle&rdquo; 5-4 comeback against the Rangers. Boutin played an integral part in the win, when he foiled Ranger forward Ed Johnstone on a clean breakaway in the second period while the Rangers still enjoyed a 4-0 lead. A goal by Johnstone at that point surely would have cast a heavy shadow over the Capitals&rsquo; comeback possibilities.Recently acquired centre Mike Kaszycki continues to impress, scoring two goals and three assists in four games, after joining the Capitals on December 7. Kaszycki picked up two assists in the Ranger game, including one on Paul Mulvey&rsquo;s game-winning-goal, with 5:14 to play. &#9632;

f0013-02

Gartner Boosting Caps’ Optimism

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011082/4274459-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="564" height="914"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Secord fits the Bruin image of a big forward who patrols the comers and works hard.</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s simple,&rdquo; said Al Secord.&ldquo;We try to get the puck across the red line and deep in their corner. The first man in there takes the body, the second guy takes the puck and the third guy comes down the slot.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of doing it, that&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;Secord, who prefers to play hockey the simple way, was explaining the manner in which he and his linemates, Peter McNab and Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, had pulled the Boston Bruins out of an early season slump.The trio, fitted together this year for the first time by Coach Fred Creighton, scored 16 of 30 Boston goals over a six game stretch in which the faltering Bruins turned themselves around.McNab scored most of the goals, including his fourth career hat trick during a 5-3 victory over Vancouver, and O&rsquo;Reilly attracted the most attention with his headlong dashes into the corners.But the Bruins&rsquo; brass was most pleased by the work of Secord, the big (six-foot-one, 205 pounds) tough, second year left winger who never really had a chance to show what he could do in his rookie year in the NHL.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s come along very well,&rdquo; said Creighton. &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t reached his potential yet. But he&rsquo;s getting there and when he arrives he&rsquo;s going to be quite a hockey player.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a better than average skater. He uses his big body well. His defensive game is improving and he&rsquo;s learning to play without the puck.&ldquo;He fits in perfectly with McNab and O&rsquo;Reilly.&rdquo;&ldquo;I used to listen to people talk about lines that played together for a long time and got to know each other&rsquo;s style real well,&rdquo; said McNab.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played with Taz (O&rsquo;Reilly) now for four years and sometimes I shake my head because I just know exactly what he&rsquo;s going to do with the puck before it happens.&ldquo;Now the more we play with Seek (McNabese for Secord) the more we&rsquo;ll get to know him and I think we&rsquo;ll blend into a pretty good line because the three of us basically just work very hard.&rdquo;Secord makes it plain that O&rsquo;Reilly, who has been wearing the &ldquo;C&rdquo; for captain of the Bruins in the absence of Wayne Cashman and Don Marcotte, is the boss on their line, too. Many of his phrases begin with &ldquo;Taz says&hellip;&rdquo;&ldquo;Taz says if I&rsquo;m the first one in the comer and the defenseman comes in to tie me up for me to flip the puck back and we&rsquo;ll try to work on a 2-on-1 on the defenseman, then bring the puck out and hit the guy in the slot,&rdquo; said Secord.And it must have worked because Secord had just scored two goals (his sixth and seventh of the season) and O&rsquo;Reilly and McNab one apiece in a wide-open 6-6 tie with the Detroit Red Wings.Secord was the Bruins&rsquo; first round draft pick (16th overall) in the 1978 amateur draft. He scored 16 goals in his rookie season while taking the odd shift on left wing.&ldquo;Last year I had limited ice time but I expected that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Grapes (Don Cherry) would send me out maybe two or three shifts a game and sometimes not at all. This year I&rsquo;m getting every third or fourth shift.&ldquo;The more you play the more comfortable you get out there, the more you learn about your linemates and the better things go.&ldquo;I think Grapes gave me quite a bit of ice time for a rookie. I heard that rookies coming to Boston sat the first year and maybe got a couple of shifts a game the. second year. So I guess I&rsquo;ve been fortunate.&rdquo;&ldquo;Are you really getting enough ice time?&rdquo; asked an agitator hopefully.A look of caution spread across Secord&rsquo;s face. He threw his hands in the air.&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Yes. Plenty. I&rsquo;m happy. He wasn&rsquo;t about to be drawn into the continuing debate over coach Fred Creighton&rsquo;s use of four lines.WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN: Goalie Gilles Gilbert used the cage-type mask for the first time in a game against Detroit and the Wings barraged him with six goals. &ldquo;I like the new mask a lot,&rdquo; said Gilbert &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t think I will use it the next time.&rdquo; He didn&rsquo;t and stiffed Buffalo 5-1. &#9632;

f0014-01

Secord Arriving As Typical Bruin

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02893/4274490-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="329" height="352"></div><h2>Canadiens&rsquo; Nightmare</h2>TELL ME THIS is all a bad dream, the result of gulping too many Christmas cookics.Surely these can&rsquo;t be the Montreal Canadiens tumbling down the chute faster than you can say whatever happened to Germain Gagnon? Are these really the four-time Stanley Cup champions, playing like a rookie Hollywood stunt man falling off a roof? Losing to the Colorado Rockies at the Forum, then reeling onto the road to lose in Edmonton, Winnipeg, St. Louis and Minnesota? Waiter: Another brandy, please.Most of us would have bet the family jewels that the Canadiens wouldn&rsquo;t be strug-gling to stay above. 500 at Christmas (same bet with the Islanders, but that&rsquo;s another incredible story). Most of us think the Canadiens could play. 500 hockey skating backwards. Oh, you say they have been skating backwards a lot, but it&rsquo;s when they should have been skating forwards?What&rsquo;s happening to Montreal is not a pretty sight. It&rsquo;s like tripping over Cary Grant, lying drunk and disheveled in the gutter. Rarely in professional sports has there been a respected winner. When Montreal wins the Stanley Cup, few people grumble and mutter &ldquo;Da bums were lucky.&rdquo; Usually the reaction has been &ldquo;The best team won&mdash;again.&rdquo; The Canadiens are class. They don&rsquo;t lose in Winnipeg or Edmonton or St. Louis. They don&rsquo;t give up five third-period goals to the Rockies at the Forum.Please, Guy, Serge, Pierre? What&rsquo;s going on? To begin with, losing Ken Dryden and Jacques Lemaire has hurt as much as everyone thought it would. Only Dennis Harron has provided quality goaltending. When injuries sidelined Bob Gainey, one of the game&rsquo;s great players, and Doug Risebrough, one of its fiercest competitors, the Canadiens were exposed even more. For the last few years, one opinion among hockey observers has been that after Lafleur, Shutt, Lemaire and Gainey, the Canadiens&rsquo; forwards are just average talents.<h2>Blaming The Defense</h2>MUCH OF THE BLAME for Montreal&rsquo;s shocking slump falls on its defense. Now hold on: before Ed Van (Impe) or Pat Quinn try laying the number on me (&ldquo;you guys in the press always think it&rsquo;s the defense&rsquo;s fault&rdquo;), hear me out. Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe have set such a high standard that anything less than perfection causes grumbling. The cracks began to show last season when Montreal had trouble replacing Bill Nyrop and Pierre Bouchard. This season, Robinson has been injured. Lapointe was afflicted with NHL rash, and Savard&hellip;Well, listen to Scotty Bowman.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard their defense hasn&rsquo;t been playing that well,&rdquo; said Bowman, who coached the Canadiens to five cups in seven seasons before leaving for Buffalo. &ldquo;Serge has played a lot of hockey for them over the years. Maybe it&rsquo;s starting to show.&rdquo;Savard has also been criticized for not providing more leadership as team captain. Bernard Geoffrion, who resigned as coach after just 30 games, said Savard never attended an optional practice. That Savard should be accused of lacking dedication is distressing news, especially to the Professional Hockey Writers Association which voted Savard the Masterton Trophy season.Which brings us to the coaching. Geoffrion is one of my favorite hockey people, but at the beginning of this season I wrote in this space that I didn&rsquo;t think he would last as Canadiens&rsquo; coach. I thought he&rsquo;d last at least through Christmas, however.<h2>Like Succeeding Shero</h2>COACHING THE CANADIENS is such a demanding iob that only a few strong-willed people can handle it. Bowman was one who could do it, Geoffrion wasn&rsquo;t. Claude Ruel? He&rsquo;s tough enough and knowledgeable enough, but after a long period as Bowman&rsquo;s assistant, he may find, as the early results indicate, that switching to the boss&rsquo; role is an impossible task.Geoffrion&rsquo;s timing was similar to that of Bob McCammon&rsquo;s in Philadelphia. Succeeding Bowman was comparable to McCammon taking over for Fred Shero. After strict command for years, I&rsquo;m convinced the Canadiens, like the Flyers, relaxed too much. Players on both teams were accustomed to the aloofness of Bowman and Shero. Under new coaches the players eased off the accelerator a bit. Combine such an attitude with losing a Dryden and Lemaire, and injuries, and you have the 1980 Montreal Canadiens, who are no longer favored to win a fifth consecutive Stanley Cup.&ldquo;Those guys were probably being treated like dirt by Scotty,&rdquo; Geoffrion told the Montreal Gazette&rsquo;s Red Fisher. &ldquo;Please understand, Scotty is a friend of mine. Maybe they loved being treated like dirt, but I couldn&rsquo;t do it. I can&rsquo;t because they&rsquo;re professionals.&rdquo;But, sadly, not as professional as we thought, Boomer. &#9632;

f0014-02

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011036/4274521-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">It&rsquo;s been a long time since the Olympia was the home of the NHL champions as indicated in the Marquee above and while future champions will be housed at the Joe Louis Arena, many fond memories will go along with the venerable hockey site.</figcaption></div>DETROIT&mdash;Ah, the memories of Olympia&hellip;Tony Leswick came over the boards for his first overtime shift and seconds later, at 4:29, scored the winning goal in Detroit&rsquo;s 2-1 Stanley Cup-clinching victory over Montreal.&ldquo;I just came on the ice,&rdquo; said Tough Tony, reliving the moment. &ldquo;The puck rebounded off the boards behind the goal&mdash;the boards at Olympia, they were always so lively&mdash;and out to the blueline. I just moved in and let it go from about 30 feet That was it.&ldquo;The next thing you know, I&rsquo;m mauled by the players.&rdquo;The date was April 16, 1954.There were so many memories of Olympia, now the &ldquo;former&rdquo; home of the Red Wings. The Wings will debut in their new home, the 19,500-seat Joe Louis, on Dec. 27 against the St. Louis Blues.&ldquo;It was a thrill the first time I ever saw the building, even to see the marquis, when I first came in for training camp in 1937,&rdquo; said Black Jack Stewart, the Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman who played for the Red Wings in the 1930&rsquo;s and 1940&rsquo;s.&ldquo;Just to see the building&hellip;the Red Wings had just won two Stanley Cups. I was 19 and was trying out. Marty Barry, Aurie, Lewis, Ebbie Goodfellow. Normie Smith was the goalie. I&rsquo;ll be sorry to see it go. It was a landmark. It will be missed.&rdquo;Lincoln Cavalieri, general manager of Olympia, said &ldquo;nothing&rsquo;s definite&rdquo; concerning Olympia&rsquo;s future, if indeed, it does have a future.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been so busy with other things that we haven&rsquo;t done anything yet,&rdquo; Cavalieri said. &ldquo;We have the responsibility, not the city, of disposing of this building.&rdquo;Cavalieri said he is continuing discussions with people interested in buying the building.&ldquo;It was always nice to go in there (Olympia) when they put up the pictures of the players in the corridors,&rdquo; said Leswick, who lives in New Westminster, British Columbia. &ldquo;I just enjoyed going into the building. There were an awful lot of things about it&hellip;I lived right across the street there. I loved Detroit. The people were always so nice. It&rsquo;s the best place you can play.&rdquo;Metro Prystai, who scored the winning goal in the 1952 Stanley Cup finals, shared the sentiments. Prystai had the game&rsquo;s first and third scores in a 3-0 victory, again over Montreal.&ldquo;What I really remember was the third goal,&rdquo; said Prystai, who is an insurance agent in Wynyard, Saskatchewan. &ldquo;It was 2-0 in the third period and the Canadiens were really pressing. Doug Harvey took a shot. I blocked it and went after it like a rabbit.&rdquo;Prystai caught up with the puck and scored.&ldquo;The other thing I remember is LeSwick&rsquo;s goal, because we weren&rsquo;t supposed to win the Cup that year,&rdquo; Prystai said. &ldquo;Montreal had a real power. It was the year the Canadiens wouldn&rsquo;t shake hands with us afterward and there was a hullaballoo.&ldquo;The thing I&rsquo;ll always remember&mdash;even when I played against the wings&mdash;was the ice at Olympia. It was the best ice in the league and the boards were very lively.&rdquo;John Ziegler, president of the National Hockey League, is a native Detroiter. He grew up like a lot of other young boys in the city&mdash;as a hockey fan.&ldquo;The first game I ever attended, I just was in awe to come in and see the ice,&rdquo; Ziegler said. &ldquo;First time I was ever in an indoor arena. I was about 12, 13 years old, very impressionable. Those were the days of Abel, Lindsay and Howe.&ldquo;I think the various milestone goals of Gordie&rsquo;s (Howe) were highlights. I always remember those ovations. I go back to his 300th, 400th and 500th, those kinds of things.&ldquo;The night he beat Rocket Richard with his 545th&hellip;it was like you scored with him.&rdquo;Cavalieri said there was some uneasiness on the eve of the last game at the Olympia.&ldquo;Everybody really feels a little nostalgia right now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to be a very happy day for me. This is a helluva building that we&rsquo;ve been in for a long time and many exciting things have happened here.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-01

Olympia Provided Untold Thrills, Memories

MONTREAL&mdash;It was some week the National Hockey League.Monday&mdash;Minnesota started the 32-game week with a 5-1 victory over Toronto Maple Leafs.Tuesday&mdash;St. Louis Blues handed Montreal Canadiens their fifth straight loss.Wednesday&mdash;Minnesota handed Canadiens their sixth straight loss, the longest losing streak for Montreal since 1939-40; in a 4-4 tie at Toronto, Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Charlie Simmer became only the fourth player in 58 years to score at least one goal in 10 consecutive games; a 0-0 tie between Pittsburgh and Hawks at Chicago.Thursday&mdash;Philadelphia Flyers tied Pittsburgh Penguins 1-1, tying the record for longest undefeated streak in NHL history; Simmer became the first player in 58 years to score at least one goal in 11 straight games during Kings&rsquo; 5-3 loss at Buffalo.Friday&mdash;St. Louis Blues defeated the Flames 5-1 at Atlanta, Blues&rsquo; first win there in four seasons.Saturday&mdash;Philadelphia defeated Bruins 5-2 at Boston to break the record for longest undefeated streak; Simmer becaue only the fifth player in NHL history to score at least one goal in 12 straight games as he had two in Kings&rsquo; 9-3 win against Edmonton; the Quebec-at-Minnesota game was postponed because of fog in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area; Canadiens ended their losing streak with a 4-2 win against Vancouver; the iron-man record for the League ended when Garry Unger did not set on the ice during Atlanta&rsquo;s 7-3 win at St. Louis, the first time he did not play in 915 games.Sunday&mdash;Philadelphia extended its record to 30 games without a loss with a 4-2 win against Hartford Whalers at Philadelphia; Quebec Nordiques continued their undefeated Sunday record&mdash;nine wins, no losses, one tie&mdash;with a 31 victory at Buffalo; New York Islanders were blanked 8-0 by Chicago, the first time they had been shut out in 187 games, the longest current such streak in the League.When the week was over, Philadelphia, with only one loss so far this season had a 16-point lead over New York Rangers in the Patrick Division and a four-point lead&mdash;with three games in hand&mdash;over Buffalo in the over-all standings. Flyers have 53 points. During their 30-game undefeated streak, which broke the record of 28 set by Canadiens in 1977-78, Flyers have had 21 wins and nine ties.Minnesota is third in the Adams Division with 39 points, 10 fewer than Buffalo, but the North Stars have played five games fewer than Buffalo and three fewer than second-place Boston, which has 43 points.The North Stars have equalled their best start ever. In 1971-72 they also had 30 points after 30 games but lost their 31st game that season.One of the reasons behind the Stars&rsquo; showing is the play of sophomore Steve Payne, who leads the club with 38 points, including 21 goals. He didn&rsquo;t get his first goal last season until his 17th game and had only five goals and 12 points after he played 30 games.The North Stars have the second-best home record in the NHL with 11 wins, one loss and two ties. Only Philadelphia&rsquo;s mark of 15-0-5 is better but Flyers have played six more games at the Spectrum than the Stars have at the Met Center.Individually, Simmer&rsquo;s consecutive 12-game goal-scoring streak is the longest since Harry Broadbent of Ottawa set the mark of 16 games in 1921-22. The others to score at least one goal in 12 or more straight games were Joe Malone with Canadiens in 1917-18, 14 games; Newsy Lalonde with Canadiens in 1920-21, 13 games; and Cy Denney, Ottawa, 1917-18, 12 games.Simmer leads the League in goals with 32 and his 61 points places him third in the points race. Linemate Marcel Dionne leads with 69 points, includig a leagueleading 42 assists. Guy Lafleur of Montreal is second with 63 points, 27 of which are goals.Goaltender Tony Esposito of Chicago leads the League in shutouts with five&mdash;three of which he won since two were 0-0 ties, including Wednesday&rsquo;s against Pittsburgh. In the goaltending race, Buffalo continues to lead with a goals-against average of 2.51.Unger&rsquo;s iron-man streak began Feb. 24, 1968, while he was with Toronto and continued with Detroit, St. Louis and Atlanta until last Saturday. The former mark was 630 by Andy Hebenton with Rangers and Boston in nine 70-game seasons from 1955-56 through 1963-64. &#9632;

Flyers, Simmer Lead Record Busting Week

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01887/4274604-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS<h2>GOALING STATS</h2><h2>NHL Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02742/4274597-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="586" height="1982"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03593/4274590-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="584" height="548"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04464/4274583-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="1154" height="1250"><figcaption class="caption-body">Charlie Simmer of the L.A. Kings has that magic scoring touch this season. The brilliant winger currently leads the NHL in goals (Photo by Ian MacAlpine)</figcaption></div><h2>All Time Scorers</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05357/4274576-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="1188" height="1024"></div> &#9632;

f0016-01

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01779/4274635-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Flyers&rsquo; Al Hill is finding his way in the NHL after several years in the minors.</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;While many fans drool over the prospect of assembling a team of Lafleurs, Dionnes, Perreaults and Bossys, every team needs workers. These are the unsung-hero types who spend half their time in the corners, absorbing punishing checks from 200-pound defensemen, in order to set up higher scoring linemates.The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Stanley Cup champions of &lsquo;74 and &lsquo;75 had more than the normal allotment of these &ldquo;grinders&rdquo; with forwards such as Gary Dornhoefer, Ross Lonsberry, Bobby Clarke, Don Saleski, Orest Kindrachuk, Bob Kelly, Bill Barber, and, yes, even Dave Schultz.Perhaps the best example of the self-sacrifice of those Flyers was the clinching goal in the &lsquo;75 Stanley Cup finals. With Philadelphia leading 1-0, in Buffalo, Kindrachuk asked annihilation from Jerry Korab to set up Bill Clement for the final goal. Korab did crunch Kindrachuk into the boards but later, &lsquo;O&rsquo; smiled and said, &ldquo;I watched Billy score from the fourth row of seats.&rdquo;The new Flyers are loaded with scorers and speedsters, but they wouldn&rsquo;t be leading the league without workers like Al Hill. Go ahead, say it&mdash;Al who?Trivia fans may remember Hill as the guy who made the spectacular NHL debut, scoring a goal 36 seconds into a nationally televised game and finishing the night with a record two goals, three assists. Yves Belanger, the starting St. Louis goaltender that night, has never been the same.For awhile, people thought Hill wouldn&rsquo;t be the same either. No one expects him to continue scoring five points a game. But it was thought anyone who could jump off to such an impressive start eventually would be playing regularly in the big time.The six-foot-one 175-pound, left winger returned to Springfield a few games later, finished the 197677 season with the Flyers, and was counted on to be in Philadelphia the next season. Instead, Hill reported to camp out of shape and was farmed out to the new Marine Mariners.&ldquo;I came to camp in the wrong frame of mind,&rdquo; Hill recalls. &ldquo;When I went back to Maine, though, I still thought if I did well there I&rsquo;d still get a shot.&rdquo;Hill did very well in Maine, leading the Calder Cup-champion Mariners in scoring (32-59-91) and making the AHL All-Star team. During a trading spree Keith Allen dangled Hill&rsquo;s name in front of other general managers, but no one was interested.Last season, Hill divided his time between Maine and the Flyers, which turned out to be a break for him because Pat Quinn saw him regularly when he coached Mariners. &#9632;

f0017-01

Worker Hill Finds His Niche With Flyers

Following are the latest player movements in hockey:<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>ATLANTA&mdash;Rick Adduono, C, returned to Birmingham of CHL.BOSTON&mdash;Craig McTavish, C, returned to Binghamton of AHL. Gary Doak, D, returned to lineup from injury list.BUFFALO&mdash;Morris Titanic, LW, recalled from Rochester of AHL.CHICAGO&mdash;Dave Logan, D, and Harold Phillipoff, LW, traded to Vancouver for Ron Sedibauer, LW. Darryl Sittler, LW, recalled from New Brunswick of AHL. Stan Mikita, C, and Bob Murray, D, placed on injury list.EDMONTON&mdash;Dave Drydon, G, announced retirement from hockey to become asst. coach with Oilers. Jim Corsi, G, recalled from Houston of CHL as replacement. Alex Tidey, RW, returned to Houston of CHLHARTFORD&mdash;Dave DeBol, C, Bob Stephenson, RW, and Jeff Brubaker, LW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. An-drew Lacroix, C, announced retirement from hockey to take front office job with Whalers. Chuck Luksa, D, and Mark Renaud, D, returned to Springfield.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Rick Hampton, D, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Dave Gardner, C, recalled from Binhamton and released as free gent after Kings bought out his contract.MONTREAL&mdash;Doug Risebrough, C, returned to lineup from injury list.ISLANDERS&mdash;Duane Sutter, RW, placed on disabled list indefinitely with eye injury. Bryan Trottier, C, placed on injury list.RANGERS&mdash;Wayne Thomas, G, and Tim Bothwell, D, assigned to New Haven of AHL.QUEBEC&mdash;Richard David, LW, assigned to Syracuse of AHL. Serge Bernier, C, placed on injury list. Bob Fitchner, C, and Curt Brackenbury, RW, returned to lineup fron injury list.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Bryan Maxwell, D, recalled from Salt Lake of CHL.TORONTO&mdash;Darryl Maggs, signed as free agent.VANCOUVER&mdash;Brent Ashton, LW, placed on injury list for two months after suffering stretched knee ligaments. Rick Vaive, RW, placed on disabled list for two weeks with knee injury. John Hughes, D, out indefinitely with ligament tear in his ankle. Jack Mcllhargey, D, returned to lineup from injury list.WASHINGTON&mdash;Paul MacKinnon, D, returned to lineup from injury list. Greg Theberge, D, Errol Rausse, LW, and Tony Cassolato, RW, returned to Hershey of AHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;Barry Melrose, D, out indefinitely with broken jaw.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>BINGHAMTON&mdash;Ken Hodge, RW, secured from Rangers.HERSHEY&mdash;Les Auge, D, signed pro tryout contract after leaving U.S. Olympic team. Rick Keller, RW, signed to pro tryout. Bob Bilodeau, D, off injury list.NEW BRUNSWICK&mdash;Jim Jones, C, off injury list. Ron Leblanc, C, released outright.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Joe Augustine, D, recalled from Richmond of EHL. Bob Grant, D, reassigned to Baltimore. Kent Reardon, LW, signed to pro tryout after recall from Richmond.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Peter Luksa, D, returned to Saginaw of IHL. Brian Spencer, LW, signed as free agent.SYRACUSE&mdash;Kurt Walker, RW, signed as free agent. Greg Tebbutt, D, assigned to Erie of EHL. Brad Rhiness, C, recalled from Erie. Louis Sleigher, RW, placed on injury list.MAINE&mdash;Sam St. Laurent, G, recalled from Toledo of IHL.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>CINCINNATI&mdash;Jamie Masters, D, Rob Gamer, and Bernie Saunders, forwards, reassigned to Syracuse of AHL in breakup of Stingers. Dale Yakiwchuk, RW, reassigned to Tulsa of CHL. Lars Zetterstrom, D, Ken Kuyzk, D, and Jim Bedard, G. declared free agents after club bought out their contracts. Byron Shutt, RW, reassigned to Springfield of AHL.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>DAYTON&mdash;Mike Keating, F, traded to Toledo.KALAMAZOO&mdash;Jody Gage, F, recalled by Detroit. Grant Morin, F, returned by Detroit.MILWAUKEE&mdash;Ian Perrin, F, returned to Dayton. &#9632;

Player Movements

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Glen Sharpley never thought much about astrology. The only Stars he paid much attention to wore the same hockey sweaters he did.The Minnesota North Star star might take a second look at the pseudo science affecting his galaxy after a Friday in December.One horoscope predicted for him that day said he would feel &ldquo;the last bit of pressure this year, as mattters connected with personal life, outlook go through major revamping. You&rsquo;ve been through a growing, building time.&rdquo;Unaware of such a forecast, Sharpley went to the rink that morning, went through an hour&rsquo;s practice and then signed a new contract with the North Stars for three years, with an option.In the 24 games this season before he signed a contract renewal, Sharpley has scored 25 points on 14 goals and 11 assists for the best start of his career. The first 24 games last season, the fourth-year center had 14 points.&ldquo;I might have felt a little pressure about the contract,&rdquo; said Sharpley, who was in the option year of the old contract, &ldquo;but probably because the media kept asking me about it. I&rsquo;m relieved to get it out of the way. It gives me some security.&ldquo;Now that I&rsquo;ve signed, I can relax and not worry if the puck doesn&rsquo;t go in the net. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean complacency is going to get in. We&rsquo;re going to have a very successful season and I feel I can be even more productive than I have been.&rdquo;General manager Lou Nanne agreed.&ldquo;Sharps has been our most consistent player this season,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s emerging as a leader on this club. He likes the notoriety he&rsquo;s received and he wants to keep it. He&rsquo;s achieved the maturity that other members of the team look for him to play well.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;Sharps has been our most consistent player,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s emerging as a leader&hellip;&rdquo;</blockquote>Sharpley, 23, scored 57, 55 and 53 points his first three NHL seasons after the Stars drafted him off the Hull, Quebec junior team in 1976. He should surpass those figures easily if he does continue at his current pace.Sharpley&rsquo;s greatest talent is his speed. &ldquo;He can get from one point to another on the ice faster than anyone else on this team,&rdquo; coach Glen Sonmor said. Another asset is Sharpley&rsquo; ability to win faceoffs.Those connected with the Stars feel Sharpley&rsquo;s greatest improvement has been in his attitude and moodiness.&ldquo;No one has worked any harder,&rdquo; Sonmor has said frequently this season. &ldquo;Game in and game out, since the start of training camp, he has been our best player.&rdquo;So, as the horoscope pointed out, Sharpley has experienced &ldquo;a growing, building time&rdquo;.&ldquo;I look at the scopes occasionally,&rdquo; Sharpley said. &ldquo;We spend a lot of time in airports and we have some fun checking the biorhythms, mostly to look back to compare games&mdash;&ldquo;Did I have a good game on a certain day that day, or &lsquo;Yeah, I felt brutal that day&rsquo;.&rdquo;The six-foot, 187-pound native of Toronto had not many bad nights this season.STAR DUST: Sharpley&rsquo;s signing, along with that of Mike Fidler 10 days before, left Nanne with only one player in his option year, right winger Ron Zanussi, who later inked a three-year pact&hellip;Tim Young has blended in with Steve Payne and Al MacAdam in the absence of Bobby Smith, who has a broken ankle. Young and Payne each had two goals and seven points as the Stars broke a five-game winless streak over Edmonton in early December&hellip;Payne, who has 20 goals, said the biggest thrill of his young career is playing against his boyhood idol, Bobby Hull of the Winnipeg Jets, and then receiving an autographed stick from Hull after the game. &#9632;

Sharpley Saw Future With Stars

<h2>CHARLIE SIMMER&hellip;Los Angeles Kings</h2>There is no doubt about who is the hottest piece of scoring property in the NHL this season. He&rsquo;s Charlie Simmer of the Los Angeles Kings.Simmer, who struggled in the minor leagues for the better part of the past three years, has suddenly blossomed into the most prolific goal scorer in the NHL and he&rsquo;s not doing it with mirrors.Teamed with Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor to form the No. 1 production line in the league this season, Simmer has become the trigger man and this past week he scored five times to raise his season total to 32. He also contributed six assists for an 11-point week.Simmer&rsquo;s 32 goals are tops in the league. Simmer, Dionne and Taylor combined for 24 scoring points between them as a line this week for the Kings. &#9632;

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01797/4274690-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="569" height="706"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guy Lafleur continues to proview the point production the Canadiens need but too many others are not pulling their weight on the cup champs.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Through the strife and turmoil which hit the Canadiens&rsquo; camp in the first part of the year, there was one consistently good thing&mdash;Guy Lafleur.Guy Lafleur, the darling of Montreal fans from Halifax to Vancouver, from Kitimat, B.C., to St. Georges de Veavee.But, as was the case with several of his teamates, Lafleur was feeling the uneasiness of going through a lengthy losing streak in December.&ldquo;I wish things were going better,&rdquo; Lafleur sighed as he relaxed for a few moments during a disastrous five-game road swing during which the Canadiens extended a winless streak to six games.&ldquo;There are a few guys who are not in shape. They wanted to try to work hard, they wanted to do their best but they couldn&rsquo;t because they weren&rsquo;t in good shape.&ldquo;The Black Aces, as we used to call them, they used to skate a half an hour after the practice.This year, I don&rsquo;t think anybody really worked hard after practice.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of discipline. It&rsquo;s not as tough as it used to be.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s up to individual player. If you are not going to work hard in practice and give your best there, then it is going to catch up to you.&rdquo;Lafleur, who was chasing Marcel Dionne for the scoring leadership during most of the first half of the season, was surprised that Bernard Geoffrion stepped down as Montreal coach.&ldquo;I thought he would stay with us all year, even if it was tough. I don&rsquo;t blame the guy. You put him there. He has a lot of pressure.&rdquo;Lafleur said he had not noticed any of the inconsistencies others had perceived under the Geoffrion regime.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a funny year. A lot of guys are behind their production of last year. It&rsquo;s like a few guys don&rsquo;t have the desire to win. The guys have to go out there and do the job. If they are paid to go out and play defensive, then that&rsquo;s what they must go out and do.&ldquo;We had some guys who were trying to do too much. They are trying to compensate.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a situation where we have a few guys rushing to get to the same level of production that they were at last year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not totally the player&rsquo;s fault here. Somebody should be telling them that the big thing is for them to do their job and work hard. The goals will come after.&rdquo;Lafleur, who is always the center of attention no matter what city he is in, has naturally been bombarded with the all-too-familiar question of late: What&rsquo;s wrong with the Canadiens? It does get rather tiresome repeating over and over again the same old reply.&ldquo;I think the talent is there. You look at the guys that we have on our team. Many of them have played on Stanley Cup winners is there. Maybe the desire is not.&ldquo;There are a lot of guys who are still proud, but it is tough to carry 25 or 26 players when only 19 are playing. I don&rsquo;t blame the team for doing that, but it is tough on the guys who are playing and the guys who are sitting there.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy for the guys who are not playing to get down, some guys who aren&rsquo;t playing on a regular line or who get changed to another line figure the team thinks they are not doing their job.&ldquo;They put themselves down. They might put a couple of other guys in the same position. It influences the other guys on the team.&ldquo;Everybody has to be happy. We&rsquo;ve had situations where a guy misses a shift and gets upset. I don&rsquo;t remember having this happen in the past.&rdquo;There were accustions on the part of Geoffrion that only one or two players had played for him after a particular game on Long Island. Interim coach Claude Ruel increased that number to eight or nine after he took over, which is a little more accurate.&ldquo;But we have to have everybody going,&rdquo; said Lafleur. &ldquo;Especially when we have been struggling like we have.&rdquo;Mark Napier, Yvon Lambert and Mario Tremblay have been in season-long scoring slumps and that has hurt the Canadiens&rsquo; overall effort.It has also put pressure on the big line of Lafleur, Steve Shutt and Pierre Larouche, who accounted for 56 of the Canadiens&rsquo; first 100 goals this season and after the swing to the mid-west, the trio has 67 of the 121 goals scored by the defending Stanley Cup champions.&ldquo;When we go out there, we try to get a goal to give us the lead and establish the momentum. But it&rsquo;s tough because the other teams check us closely.&ldquo;It puts pressure on us, but we have to get used to it. As the games go on, the teams are going to check us closer.&ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t score, then we are either going to be tied or behind. That makes it easier for the other team to check us.&rdquo;Lafleur feels that maybe some of his teammates do not totally realize how much they can contribute to a winning effort and how much pressure is on them.&ldquo;In the past, we had (Jacques) Lemaire and guys like that. Now, a lot of guys who were not playing regularly are being asked to do so. They should be conscious about the way they have been playing and what the coach wants them to do.&ldquo;They have to realize the thing is to win the games. They have to know what their job is all about. Right now we have too many guys who have the same idea. We aren&rsquo;t thinking about playing defensively. Everybody wants to open up and score goals because we have been losing.&ldquo;Being in a slump does not help you think about defense because all you want to do is go out and get goals, goals, goals.&ldquo;It started last year. We had the same type of problem. It started to get better at the end of the season and during the playoffs.&rdquo;Now that he is playing for Ruel, Lafleur does not feel any uneasiness despite the fact the two were at loggerheads earlier this season when Lafleur basically felt Ruel was hampering Geoffrion&rsquo;s coaching.&ldquo;The problems between us have been all settled,&rdquo; Lafleur said. &ldquo;I did what I thought was the best for the team. A few of us had been talking about it.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t say what I did to give Claude hell. I thought I was right. A few of the other guys had given me their thoughts and said that we should do something.&ldquo;I feel sorry for him because we lost the first few games that he was behind the bench. I thought he did a good job. When things are going bad, there isn&rsquo;t much you can do.&ldquo;But he tried to get us back on the right track. He has been helping everybody.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there is animosity between Claude and myself.&rdquo;Which is good for the Canadiens because they need Lafleur going at full flight all the time if they are going to accomplish anything.Certainly he was Montreal&rsquo;s best player in the first half of the season, but that shouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise to anybody, should it?<h2>Hartford Opener Set</h2>HARTFORD&mdash;The date has been set for the Whalers&rsquo; return to the Hartford Civic Center. When Pittsburgh Penguins fly to Bradley International on Jan. 17, they will turn south and head for Hartford instead of heading north to Springfield. The two cites are equidistant, so travel time won&rsquo;t be a factor.For a majority of Whaler fans, however, it will be a day of rejoicing. It has been almost exactly two full seasons since the loyal Hartford folks began making the trip north for each &lsquo;home&rsquo; game. As a matter of fact, the doors of the rebuilt Civic Center will open on the very eve of the second anniversary of the roof collapse.The only unfortunate part of the opening is that full capacity will not be available. Only 8,000 seats are scheduled to be used for the Pittsburgh game, with 1,000 seats added each week until the 14,500 seat arena is completed.<h2>Bowman Hits Milestone</h2>BUFFALO&mdash;Sabres made Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s milestone 900th game as a National Hockey League coach a memorable one by shutting out Detroit, 4-0, on Dec. 11.Bowman became only the sixth NHL coach to have appeared in as many as 900 games and will soon pass Toe Blake, who stands fifth on the list with 914. If Bowman decides to coach another year, he can catch Sid Abel at 963 and Jack Adams at 964, but all-time leader Dick Irvin is a long way ahead at 1.437.Bowman ranks second, however, in victories with 547 through 900 games having passed Billy Reay of Chicago, who stood second in both games and victories, earlier this year. Irvin leads in wins, too, with 690. &#9632;

f0018-01

Lafleur Bright Spot In Gloomy Habs’ Picture

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01760/4274776-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Bryan Trottier of the Islanders has been knocked out of the lineup to contribute to the sorry season the New Yorkers are experiencing. Trottier is the team&rsquo;s leading point-getter. The Islanders also lost underage star Duane Sutter indefinitely with an eye injury. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div><h2>Fans Attack Bruins</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;The old player-fan outburst that was so much a part of the NHL scene in past years, erupted on a major scale for the first time this season at Madison Square Garden. The brawl broke out between Boston players and Ranger Garden fans. Four fans were arrested.At game&rsquo;s end, hard feelings which had been developing got the better of New York goalie John Davidson. The netminder skated to the Bruins&rsquo; end of the rink instead of going directly to the dressing room and confronted Boston&rsquo;s Al Secord and John Wensink.Both Boston players had been involved in some rough play with Davidson and New York&rsquo;s Swedish forwards, Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg.&ldquo;Secord suckered Nilsson and the referee (Greg Madill) did nothing about it,&rdquo; said Davidson, who surrendered three goals in the final period to further augment his discontent.&ldquo;Everybody in the league thinks the Swedes take dives and are not tough but it&rsquo;s not so. They&rsquo;re not that type of players to take dives.&rdquo;His team-mates, seeing Davidson jawing with Secord and Wensink, also skated to the Boston end of the rink.Boston coach Fred Creighton came onto the ice and ordered his players off through a makeshift tunnel at the end of the rink.Before all Boston players could get off, New York&rsquo;s Frank Beaton and Secord began a fight in the comer. Boston&rsquo;s Stan Jonathan joined in and a fan reached across the glass and punched Jonathan in the face.Jonathan raised his stick to swing it at the fan and the heckler grabbed the stick, then turned it on Jonathan. Boston&rsquo;s Terry O&rsquo;Reilly jumped over boards and wrestled the fan as the Bruins poured over boards.&ldquo;I went in the stands because somebody who had no right to do it punched Stanley,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Reilly said. &ldquo;When Stanley put his stick up, he (the fan) took it away and hit Stanley with it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s none of the fans&rsquo; business. We don&rsquo;t interfere with them if they leave us alone. When I got in there it was pretty bad.&ldquo;I regret it, but I don&rsquo;t think I had a choice.&rdquo;Bruins chased the offending fan and got eight rows deep into the stands, where they were met by a surge of fans. Secord was seen using a shoe to beat the heckler who hit Jonathan.Garden security personnel and New York City police then intervened, with NHL head of security Frank Torpey looking on.The Garden pressed charges against four people, but their names were unavailable.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02609/4274769-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="1792" height="1294"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; players are at loggerheads with team owner Harold Ballard again. Here&rsquo;s team captain Darryl Sittler, right, with NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson, and Leafs&rsquo; publicist Stan Oboaiac, in rear at press conference during which Leafs told Ballard they would not agree to play the Canadian Olympic team Feb. 6 for charity unless Ballard arranged for a game with the touring Soviet team. Ballard has turned down the players&rsquo; bid for a Soviet game and now the players are against meeting the Olympians. (Photo by Jerry Hobbs)</figcaption></div><h2>Unger Streak Ended</h2>ST, LOUIS&mdash;Garry Unger&rsquo;s iron man streak in the NHL has ended at 914 games, leaving the Atlanta Flames player more relieved than upset.&ldquo;If it&rsquo;s going to cause any aggravation on this club, I&rsquo;m glad its over,&rdquo; the 32-year-old centre said Saturday night after sitting out an entire game for the first time since 1968.&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s ironic that it ended in St. Louis,&rdquo; said Unger, who spent 8&frac12; years of the period in a Blues uniform. &ldquo;This was a crucial game, and we won. That&rsquo;s all that&rsquo;s important.&rdquo;Unger, who joined Atlanta in October, suffered a shoulder injury on Dec. 9 during a game in Winnipeg.But he continued to play sparingly, even while Flames were slipping to a 13-14-4 record.<h2>Old Pros Retire</h2>EDMONTON&mdash;Retirements in the NHL have become common place this season because of the presence of so many players.This past week goaler Dave Dryden of Edmonton followed his illustrious brother, Ken, into retirement. He quit the Oilers telling coach Glen Sather he didn&rsquo;t find it fun to play any longer. He was the second Oiler to retire In 10 days. Wild Bill Flett left the Oilers to take a scouting job.Andre Lacroix, a long-time veteran, retired from pro hockey this past week as well to take a front office job with the Hartford Whalers. He had been a standout over the years in the WHA with Houston, New England and this season played only sparingly with Hartford when they joined the NHL.<h2>Hull Suspended</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;Jets&rsquo; general manager John Ferguson has suspended Bobby Hull and the Golden Jet, making a belated comeback effort, will not rejoin Winnipeg for games or practices until his injured shoulder is 100 per cent.Hull injured his shoulder in October while attempting to get in shape to play for the Jets without benefit of training camp after being out of hockey for more than a year.&ldquo;Hull does not fit the Jets&rsquo; style and hasn&rsquo;t been producing,&rdquo; Ferguson said. &ldquo;He has to play more to get into the kind of condition he needs to be productive.&rdquo;The 40-year-old Hull has asked the Jets to trade him to another team, but the Jets have been unable to accommodate him thus far.<h2>Robitaille Collects</h2>VANCOUVER&mdash;Former Canuck defenseman Mike Robitaille has been awarded $347,840 in damages against the Vancouver hockey club after a B.C. judge ruled that his career was ended in circumstances of humiliation and dishonor.Robitaille, 31, suffered a back injury in a game in Vancouver in 1977 and has not played since. He claimed that the Canucks&rsquo; management pressured him back into the lineup, ignoring his complaints of a spinal injury.According to the judge, Robitaille&rsquo;s mishap had aggravated an earlier injury and caused permanent spina) cord damage, and that the Canucks were guilty of stigmatizing him as &ldquo;a misfit and a quitter.&rdquo;Robitaille was originally awarded $435,000, but the judge ruled that he was responsible for 20 per cent of his misfortune and lessened his damage suit by that percentage.<h2>Hall To Charge</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Hockey&rsquo;s Hall of Fame, located at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto, may be charging admission by the spring of 1980.A recent Board of Governors meeting outlined a plan for a fee similar to that charged at other professional sports Halls of Fame, to begin in March.An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 people visit the Hall of Fame throughout the year, with another 1.5 million viewing the displays during the two and a half week CNE. It is expected that the Hall will continue not to charge during the National Exhibition schedule.<h2>Soviet Officials Added</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;A pair of Soviet officials, Andrei Zakharov and Yuri Karandin, have been added to the team of officials who will work exhibition contests in late December and early January between Moscow Red Army and Dynamo and several National Hockey League teams.NHL officials appointed for the series include: Bruce Hood, Bryan Lewis, Bob Meyers, Ron Wicks. and Wally Harris. &#9632;

f0019-01

SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01596/4274807-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="580" height="870"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Cherry has convinced Wilf Paiement that there&rsquo;s more to hockey than scoring.</figcaption></div>DENVER&mdash;Wilf Paiement has been through scoring slumps many times in his six year National Hockey League career. And most often, he has become thoroughly peeved and looked elsewhere for the reason or blame for the drought.But this year as the 24-year-old right winger struggled through the first 25 games of the season, a slightly different Paiement emerged. More mature. In better control of himself. And not as frustrated as he has been the past four years under similar circumstances.Maybe it&rsquo;s the Don Cherry influence. After all, the man the players call &ldquo;Grapes&rdquo; does have a way with people, motivating them and keeping their spirits up.This year&rsquo;s early-season setting was ideal for a sulking binge by Paiement, if he had chosen. He didn&rsquo;t, but merely kept working hard and eventually broke out with two two-goal games within four games in early December.&ldquo;They tell me,&rdquo; Cherry said, &ldquo;that if Wilf had been in this type of a situation in the past, you wouldn&rsquo;t be able to get near him. I&rsquo;ve just got to try to keep his spirits up until he gets out of it.&rdquo;Cherry, who in the off-season was hoping that Paiement would develop into a Terry O&rsquo;Reilly type of player, cited his early-season goal-scoring problems to a similar situation in Boston with Rick Middleton.&ldquo;When Middleton came to Boston (from New York), he thought the most important thing in the world was scoring goals,&rdquo; Cherry recalled. &ldquo;They (Rangers) gave him away. And then he went through a goal-scoring slump. But he worked on his back-checking and worked on being a complete hockey player and right now, you couldn&rsquo;t get Middleton away from the Bruins.&rdquo;He sees somewhat the same thing in Paiement. &ldquo;Now Wilf I have to say I know is a better all-around player than he was before. It shows you what kind of character he has. He works hard in practice,&rdquo; Cherry explained.No one argued that point. Paiement was working hard all the way and just needed a break or two to snap out of it.One break came when he banked a 115-footer off the boards near center ice into an open net to snap out of a seven-game slump (earlier he had a nine-game drought). And Paiement had to laugh about it later.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t going for the goal. I saw Jack Valiquette breaking down the middle and just tried to get it to him. I didn&rsquo;t think I shot it hard enough to reach the net. I must be strong,&rdquo; Paiement said. But he was laughing, something he wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to do in years past.Sure he wants to score more. But it doesn&rsquo;t seem as important to him as it&rsquo;s been. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m playing decent hockey, at least I get some satisfaction. As long as the team is going good, who cares how many goals I score?&rdquo; Paiement said.It didn&rsquo;t take Paiement long to realize that Cherry&rsquo;s coaching and instruction would sink in with the Rockies, who enjoyed their most productive stretch in late November and early December in their four-year existence.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not gonna happen in one day and maybe not until late in the season, but we&rsquo;re gonna be a pretty good hockey team as soon as we learn Cherry&rsquo;s system,&rdquo; Paiement said in a training camp practice in September.Paiement was right. It didn&rsquo;t happen in one day. Or even two months for that matter. But the Rockies headed into the New Year with confidence, unity and the knowledge that they can beat any other team on a given night.And Paiement was contributing in ways other than scoring. Like playing defense and back-checking, two areas in which he hasn&rsquo;t excelled the past three seasons. &#9632;

f0020-01

Paiement Used Maturity To Help End Slump

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;In the 11 universal National Hockey League amateur drafts (now called the entry draft) the Pittsburgh Penguins have taken part in since they joined the league, they have enjoyed much better success in their second round selections than they have in their No. 1 picks.Five times the Penguins have traded away their No. 1 selection for a various collection of players. In the six years the club retained their first choice, they selected such players as: Rick Kessell, Greg Polis, Blaine Stoughton, Pierre Larouche, Gordon Laxton and Blair Chapman.The only one among that group still in the organization is goaltender Laxton, and after being selected in the 1975 draft as the 13th player chosen overall, he has yet to make the Penguins on a permanent basis.Kessell has retired from professional hockey, while the rest of the Penguins&rsquo; No. 1 draft choices are playing for other NHL teams after being traded away by Pittsburgh. The latest to go was Chapman, the No. 2 player selected overall in the 1976 amateur draft, who was traded to St. Louis earlier this season for defenseman Bob Stewart.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Pens should forget about future No. 1 selections and go straight to the second round</blockquote>The best of the Penguins&rsquo; second round draft picks have been Greg Malone. Russ Anderson, Paul Marshall, Jim Hamilton, Mike Meeker, Wayne Bianchin and the late Michel Briere. All but Briere and Bianchin are still in the organization, with Bianchin having been lost to Edmonton in this year&rsquo;s expansion draft.Malone has turned into the Penguins&rsquo; best player. Drafted as the 19th player overall in the 1976 draft on a choice obtained through a trade with Washington, Malone led the club in scoring last season with 35 goals and was the leader again this year through the first third of the season.Overshadowed in junior hockey by his high-scoring Oshawa teammate Paul Gardner, Malone jumped straight to the NHL mostly on his defensive and checking ability. But in the last two seasons, the 23-year-old Malone has blossomed into Pittsburgh&rsquo;s most consistent two-way player.Anderson, 24, was chosen in the second round of the 1975 draft from the University of Minnesota. He has been the Penguins&rsquo; enforcer on defense and led the club in the plus-minus category through the first third of this season.Marshall, only 19, was Pittsburgh&rsquo;s top choice in this season&rsquo;s entry draft from Brantford after the Penguins traded their No. 1 selection to Washington for Hartland Monahan. Monahan played seven games for Pittsburgh before he was traded again to Los Angeles.After sitting out most of training camp deciding whether to turn pro, Marshall reported and immediately impressed Penguin management and fans with his ability and coolness despite his age. A separated shoulder has sidelined Marshall until at least sometime in February.Hamilton and Meeker have yet to crack the Penguin lineup. Hamilton, 22, is playing in the American Hockey League with Syracuse after scoring three goals in four playoff games for Pittsburgh last season after being called up from the minors. He scored 25 goals in the AHL last season and the 1977 second round draft choice&rsquo;s future looks bright.Meeker may have seen his NHL career end virtually before it has even begun. The co-winner of the AHL&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year award last season with 30 goals and 35 assists, the 21-year-old right wing is currently sitting out this season in hopes a chronic back injury will be cured with rest.Based on their success with their second round draft choices and their lack of it with first round selections, perhaps Penguin general manager and last season&rsquo;s HOCKEY NEWS Executive of the Year Baz Bastien would do well to forget about future No. 1 selections and go straight to the second round of the entry draft.Among the players the Penguins have obtained by trading away their No. 1 draft choices through the years are Rick Kehoe, Orest Kindrachuk, Tom Biadon and Ross Lonsberry. &#9632;

Skipping Round Would Work For Penguins

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01444/4274862-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rookie Dean Hopkins is making his presence felt with the Kings and the team is looking for big things from him in the future. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;The Kings haven&rsquo;t figured out how to use Steve Jensen. The six-foot-two, 190-pound left-hander has exceptional size and speed. In fact, he melts the ice with his speed. And he has a hard, sure shot. He gets a lot of breakaways and sometimes lets loose suddenly from afar or goes in close before lettng loose. He never gets a garbage goal. Every goal he gets seems to be spectacular.On offense, Jensen always is ahead of the play. So he seldom passes. He&rsquo;s kidded a lot about his lack of assists. Usually, he gets a few more than he gets goals. In three seasons with Minnesota he scored 42 goals and had 46 assists. Last season with LA he scored 23 goals and had only eight assists. In the first third of this season he scored 11 goals and had eight assists.Jensen can score under pressure. He had the highest percentage of road goals on the Kings last season, 16. He had four gamewinning goals, including one with a minute to play to beat Montreal in Montreal, 5-4.A Hollywood-handsome blonde from Minneapolis, he looks like a typical southern California surfer. Because of his spectacular play and good looks, he is a favorite of the fans.However, although he sometimes skates aggressively on defense, Jensen often is out of the play on defense. Instead of checking his man consistently, he often is hanging around mid-ice, looking for a break. He admits this: &ldquo;My speed is my main asset. My game is to break into the holes, to look for an opening, get a jujp when we get the puck, get the puck and go with it. Do I get caught out of position? Yeh, I get trapped a lot,&rdquo; he says with a sheepish grin.Jensen was a part-time player last season, yet was fourth highest goal-scorer on the club. He became a regular this season, replacing Glenn Goldup as left wing on the second line with right winger Mike Murphy and center Butch Goring. &ldquo;It could be a good line,&rdquo; Jensen says.&ldquo;I like to let my center do a lot of the work for me and Butch likes to carry the puck. He&rsquo;s been spotting me when I get a step on the opposition and hitting me. But, Mike and I have to get im the puck.We&rsquo;ll have two or three good games, then two or three bad games. We&rsquo;ve been hot and cold. And while we&rsquo;ve been trying to get some consistency on offense, we&rsquo;ve been giving up goals on defense.&rdquo;The explosive line was slumping so badly on defense, in fact, that in mid-December Jensen was benched, at least temporarily, in hopes that rookie Dean Hopkins, a good checker, would give the unit better balance.Jensen, who played on an NCAA championship team at Michigan Tech and played for the U.S. National team in the 1976 Olympics, is only 24 amd does not have the good junior background. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still learning,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I played less than 20 games in my first season in the NHL. 1 have only three full seasons behind me.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve proven the talent is there. I&rsquo;m working on my offense now. I&rsquo;ll work on my defense later. I want to prove I&rsquo;m a good goal scorer, then go on from there. I want to develop a good all-around game, but you can&rsquo;t do it all at once.&rdquo;If he wants to play regularly, however, he may have to rearrange his priorities.KINGS THINGS: At the 30-game mark, Goring had eight games without a goal and had goals in only one game of the last 13&hellip;After scoring in only one game out of 15, Murphy was getting goals here and there&hellip;The fourth line surprised Hartford with three goals, including the second and third of the season by Steve Carlson and three assists by Syl Apps.&rdquo; Minor official Ron Van Gompel married the former Lorraine Diana Dec. 7. &ldquo;I had to make the date good for something,&rdquo; He said. &#9632;

f0021-01

Finding Spot For Jensen Problem For Powerful Kings

MONTREAL&mdash;The final composition of the two Soviet Union teams scheduled to play against nine National Hockey League clubs has been completed, with the exception of one player deletion from the Moscow Dynamo squad.The series, which begins Dec. 26, features the top two teams in the Soviet Union. Central Red Army, the top club in the Soviet Major Hockey League, will oppose five NHL teams while Moscow Dynamo will play four contests.The Central Red Army teams lists two goaltenders, seven defensemen and 15 forwards. The Soviets announced that an original roster sent to the NHL had included defenseman Gennadi Tsygankov and forward Vladimir Krutov. Both players have been deleted, with 19-year-old Krutov slated to play in the World Junior Championships later this month.The Red Army has bolstered its lineup with a forward line from the Soviet Wings&rsquo; team. The three players&mdash;center Vladimir Kovin, right wing Alexander Skvortsov and left wing Mikhail Varnakov&mdash;all participated in the 1979 Challenge Cup Series between the Soviets and the NHL. The addition of the three players brings the number of Challenge Cup Soviets on the Red Army team to 14.The Moscow Dynamo squad added three forwards&mdash;Yuri Lebedev, Vladimir Golubovitch and Vladimir Lavrentive&mdash;and diminutive goaltender Vladimir Myshkin. They dropped two forwards, Pavil Yezovskich and Sergei Tukmachev. There will be one other player dropped from the team at a later date.Myshkin, the 24-year-old net-minder, starred in the third and deciding game of the Chicago Cup Series, as he stopped all 24 shots the NHL team directed his way. The Soviets won the contest, 6-0 and the series 2-1 in games.Meanwhile, the top two teams in the Soviet Union will begin the nine-game series on Dec. 26.Central Red Army, which leads the Soviet League with a total of 40 points, will play five games while Moscow Dynamo, which holds down second place, will play four games. The series opens Dec. 26 when Dynamo travels to Vancouver to play the Smythe Division leading Canucks. Red Army will play its first game the following night against New York Rangers.Central Red Army has a record of 19 wins, two ties and one loss after games of November 27. Their only loss came Nov. 10, when Dynamo skated to a 6-3 victory. Dynamo has a record of 18 wins and four losses.The top two point-getters in the Soviet League are from the Red Army squad with 21-year-old Sergei Makarov leading with 35 points, including 18 goals. Speedy right winger Helmut Baldens is next with 13 goals and 20 assists for 33 points while Mikhail Anfyorov of Soviet Wings is third with 29 points, including a League-leading 19 goals. Alexander Golikov of Dynamo is fourth with 27 points and Nikolai Drozdetski of Red Army is fifth with 16 goals and 26 points.The Soviet Major League is comprised of 12 teams while the first division has 16 clubs. It is generally understood that the four lowest teams in the major league are comparable to the top six teams in the first division. At the end of each season, the last place team in the major league is relegated to play in the first division the following season while the top team In the first division is promoted to the major League. The 10th and 11th place teams in the major league then meet the second and third place teams from the first division in a playdown. The top two teams from the playdown then compete in the major league the following season while the other two teams play in the first division.Each major league team will play 44 games during the schedule while players selected to the National Team will play approximately 90 games during the hockey season.Central Red Army has won the national championship a record 22 times, including the past four seasons. Moscow Dynamo has won the title on two occasions&mdash;1947 and 1954&mdash;and have finished as runners-up 12 times and third place a total of 14 times. Organized hockey in the Soviet Union began in 1946 which means Dynamo has finished in the top three positions 28 times in the past 34 years.One interesting aspect of the Soviet scoring system is that only one assist can be credited on each goal. To get that assist, a player has to make a clear pass that directly results in the goal being scored. Assists are not given to the initial shooter when a goal is scored on a rebound. &#9632;

Soviets Complete Rosters For NHL

MOSCOW&mdash;The 1979 Izvestia Hockey Tournament has ended and with the predicted outcome. The Soviets were the class of the five-country event and Canada fell flat.The Soviets rolled to a perfect 4-0 record to win their own hockey classic defeating Czechoslovakia 32 on the final day to capture the championship. The Czechs were also unbeaten 2-0-1 but second to the host Soviets with a 2-1-1 mark, followed by Finland 1-1-2, Sweden 1-3 and Canada 0-3-1.The Canadian team, a combination of nine members of the Canadian Olympic team and a dozen NHL owned players, gained only one point in the week-long event, a 0-0 tie with Finland.They were badly outclassed 10-1 by Czechoslovakia, lost 7-2 to Sweden and were defeated by the Soviets 5-2.Selects&rsquo; coach Tom Watt wasn&rsquo;t too discouraged after the tourney.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very proud of the way we came back,&rdquo; Watt said of the Canadian squad&rsquo;s improvement after adjusting to his system. Watt is one of three Canadian Olympic team coaches working under the managerial eye of Father David Bauer. &ldquo;We held the Soviets to 5-2 and the scoreless tie today really forced Finland out of a silver medal,&rdquo; Watt said, adding: &ldquo;I think the Finns are quite disappointed. They thought they were going to beat us.&rdquo;Richard St. Croix of Philadelphia Flyers played a strong game in the Selects net for his share of the double shutout. &ldquo;You have to come out and challenge the shooters,&rdquo; said the native of Kenora, Ont. &ldquo;But here they pass so much you really have to be sure they are going to shoot before you move out.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic team came through to win the preOlympic tournament at Lake Placid, N.Y., a preview of what will come when the teams go at it real in February.The Americans closed with a perfect 4-0 record defeating the Soviet Union 5-3 on the final day to end up in first place.Sweden and Czechoslovakia finished tied behind the U.S. team with identical 2-1-1 records. The Soviets were hardly any better than the Canadian team as they closed with a 1-3 record. Canada was last without a win in four starts. &#9632;

Canadians Joke Of Izvestia As Soviets Win

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01484/4274948-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div><h2>CENTRAL RED ARMY</h2><h2>MOSCOW DYNAMO</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02379/4274941-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1140" height="844"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

How Soviets Look

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03308/4274979-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="922" height="372"></div> &#9632;

f0022-03

Dates For NHL Series

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>ORONO&mdash;There were already 40,000 believers in the University of Maine&rsquo;s varsity hockey program living in the vicinity of the school tucked into the woods just north of the city of Bangor.Then the Black Bears, this year&rsquo;s new entrant to ECAC division one, proceeded to knock off a fine Boston College team 6-3 on BC&rsquo;s rink and journeyed home to defeat New Hampshire 5-3. The wins, coming in the last full week of play before the Christmas holidays, raised Maine&rsquo;s league record to 5-3. Suddenly the rest of college hockey south of the pine tree state has taken notice that, yes, this is a talented hockey team that could make a run for a playoff spot.There are no seniors on the Maine team, coached by former Princeton mentor Jack Semler. It&rsquo;s only the third year of varsity hockey at Orono, as the Bears prepped for their inaugural campaign by skating in division two during the last couple of seasons.&ldquo;When we brought in the first class of recruits, we knew that division one status was our goal, but we weren&rsquo;t sure when it would happen,&rdquo; comments Semler.&ldquo;Then when division one realigned, the move became official. I must say that when I came here to apply for the job, I was reminded of Vermont. The whole setting, the new arena, it was just very impressive.&rdquo;Jack is a Vermont graduate who played there when the Catamounts were still a division two club. Their entry into the big loop was an auspicious one, back in 1974-75, as they grabbed a home ice playoff slot and made it to the Boston Garden semi-finals before elimination. That kind of a debut is a lot to hope for, but the way Maine has started off, it doesn&rsquo;t seem to be too far fetched.Semler notes that there was doubt in some people&rsquo;s minds as to whether his current junior class, numbering 15 on the roster, would be able to make the adjustment to playing against better competition. So far the leaders like Gary Conn, Bill Demianuk, Joe Crespi, John and Jim Tortorella and Jeff Nord haven&rsquo;t shown signs of being awed by opponents.The win at Boston College, a team previously unbeaten in the league and fresh from a rare North Country sweep over Clarkson and St. Lawrence, was especially impressive. The Eagles took a 3-1 lead midway in the game before Dwight Montgomery, Logan, Conn and Demianuk scored goals. Demianuk, the leading scorer for the past two seasons, had the tying and winning goals.&ldquo;That was an especially important win for us, because we&rsquo;ve got a lot of Boston area players on the team and we&rsquo;d never won a game in Boston,&rdquo; said Semler.&ldquo;We had to win a game against one of the big teams in the east, and we consider BC one of those teams this year.&rdquo;Still, it took an empty-net goal to ice both wins against UNH, highlighting once again the parity among the Eastern teams. Other Maine victims have been Brown (5-3), Northeastern-(6-3) and Princeton (4-2), while the losses have come to Boston University (3-5), Vermont (0-4) and Yale (6-7 in overtime).&ldquo;It&rsquo;s encouraging so far, but we&rsquo;ve got to stay away from injuries,&rdquo; continued Jack. &ldquo;It was important for us to do well before Christmas, because of the 10 games we play, seven are at home.&rdquo;Colgate visited Maine for a WCHA-style two-game set Dec. 21 and 22 to close out the first part of the schedule. They were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd, as usual, in the 4,025 seat Alfond Arena. Anticipating a surge in support, the school added a balcony last year to raise the rink&rsquo;s capacity and they haven&rsquo;t been disappointed. As Bangor is not quite a bustling metropolis, the Black Bears are proving to be the hottest item in town.Semler&rsquo;s former team, Princeton, is another outfit that&rsquo;s playing well enough even though the record isn&rsquo;t quite as impressive as Maine&rsquo;s. The Tigers, now coached by Jimmy Higgins, slipped to 2-4 with a 7-5 loss at Boston College which saw a shoulder injury to soph defenseman Todd Hewitt, who&rsquo;s been a very consistent blueliner for them thus far. If he is out for long, five others are all that&rsquo;s left on the squad and Higgins will have to do some juggling.&ldquo;We need some depth at defense, but our goalie, Ron Dennis, has been playing well and that&rsquo;s helped our offense,&rdquo; assessed Higgins, who moved over from Colgate three seasons ago.&ldquo;Last year, we brought in a good freshman class but not a goalie. When we had trouble in goal it affected our whole offense, but that&rsquo;s not happening this time.&rdquo;Dennis stopped 32 BC shots in the loss while Ray Casey, a sophomore center, scored his fifth and sixth goals. Junior Dave Tweed is another forward who&rsquo;s playing well, tallying two game winning goals thus far in the season.Princeton hasn&rsquo;t made the ECAC playoffs since 1967-68, and given the competitiveness of the league and the need for bodies on defense, they have to be considered a long shot for this season. Even though it&rsquo;s still a bit early to begin counting most people out, and notwithstanding Higgins&rsquo; coaching ability, the Tigers look to be one more recruiting class away.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01473/4275010-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="544" height="866"><figcaption class="caption-body">Captain Bill Demianiuk has continued his scoring exploits for the Black Bears.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to go through a season with eight defensemen on my team like a lot of other coaches,&rdquo; said Jim. &ldquo;But the program here is improving. The school has shown to me that they are willing to do some more of the things necessary to have a winner. Plus, we have pretty good attendance and we&rsquo;re looking into ways to renovate the rink. Overall, I&rsquo;m pleased with the progress we&rsquo;ve made. &#9632;

f0024-01

Maine Making Division Impact After Bears Claw ECAC Foes

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02378/4275048-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="563" height="829"><figcaption class="caption-body">Effective penalty-killing by BG&rsquo;s Steve Dawe handed Lake Superior a double defeat.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03261/4275041-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="559" height="713"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Blake backstopped a Buckeye sweep with some stellar netminding.</figcaption></div>BOWLING GREEN&mdash;Defending Central Collegiate Hockey Association champion Bowling Green opened its title defense with a sweep over Lake Superior 4-3 and 4-1 behind a solid defensive effort and some clutch scoring.In other CCHA action Ohio State hosted Western Michigan in the league openers for both and the Buckeyes took a 4-3, 7-3 sweep. Ferris State defeated Michigan-Dearborn 4-3 and 4-3 in overtime, while Northern Michigan was idle.BG Senior tri-captain Steve Dawe earned CCHA player-of-the-week honors for his solid play from his left wing position. Dawe collected a key goal in the opener and set up the winning goal the next day. However, his biggest contribution came in the role of a penalty killer along with his usual partner Yves Pelland as Lake Superior was held to no power play goals in 13 attempts, with 10 of the chances in the 4-3 game. In fact, when BG was whistled down three times in less than two minutes with a 3-2 lead it was the play of Dawe as the only Falcon forward that sparked the crowd and kept BG ahead.Sophomore George McPhee put BG on top after just 33 seconds of play with a blast from just inside the blueline that deflected into the net off goalie Jerry Delgiudice.Dawe made the score 2-0 at 3:26 and the margin held up throughout the first period.Lake Superior&rsquo;s Jamie McDonald and BG&rsquo;s Andy Crowther exchanged shorthanded goals early in the second period and LSSC&rsquo;s Steve Mulholland finished off a neat passing play with defensemen Andy Clark and John Thomson to cut BG&rsquo;s lead to 3-2.Veteran tri-captain Tom Newton scored the winner with a screen shot at 19:00.Steve Sherman scored the lone third period goal for LSSC, but Wally Charko held on for the win in goal for BG with 27 saves.Laker goalie Pat Ansell was the key player for two periods in the second game as he had 31 saves and a 1-0 lead after the first two frames.However, BG&rsquo;s Brian MacLellan tied the game on a McPhee rebound at 26 seconds of the third period and Pelland scored the winner on a backhander after passes from Dawe and Pete Sikorski set up the play.McPhee iced the game at 17:36 with another blast and MacLellan scored from his knees into an empty net at 19:43.Ansell finished the game with 48 saves, while BG&rsquo;s Michael David had 24 saves. LSSC&rsquo;s lone goal was another shorthanded goal by McDonald.Junior goalie Mike Blake made 34 saves in the opener and 47 saves in the second game to lead Ohio State to its sweep of Western Michigan and a share of first place with Northern Michigan and Bowling Green with 1,000 percentages.The visiting Broncos took a 1-0 lead at 12:17 of the first period as Ralph Murphy collected an unassisted goal, but OSU gained a 1-1 tie with Mike Conrad scoring at 19:52 from Paul Tilley and Brent Morrow.Steve Amoruso put the Bucks ahead and when WMU&rsquo;s Kelly Mitchell received a five-minute major for high sticking things looked bad for Glen Weller&rsquo;s Broncos.However, the lone goal during the five-minute OSU power play was a shorthanded goal by Bob Bailey that tied the score at 2-2.Jamie Crapper put OSU ahead 3-2 four seconds after Mitchell&rsquo;s penalty expired. Conrad pushed the lead to 4-2 in the third period and WMU&rsquo;s Ben Pedersen made the score 4-3 at 4:56, but that&rsquo;s how the game ended.OSU jumped to a 4-1 lead in the second game with goals by Jim Mroszak and Larry Marson and Dan Mandich and Tilley sandwiching a shorthanded marker by WMU&rsquo;s Pete Raps. WMU&rsquo;s Bob Scurfield and OSU&rsquo;s Amoruso scored second period goals for a 52 Buckeye lead and then the hosts outscored WMU 2-1 in the third period with Raps making the score 5-3 before Amoruso and Marson netted their second goals of the game.Steve Abbott had 32 saves in the 4-3 loss and 26 saves in the 7-3 loss. Blake made 21 saves in the third period of the 7-3 win for OSU.Ferris State travelled to Michigan-Dearborn and collected two wins by the same 4-3 margin. Paul Cook and Ed Pelyak scored in the first two periods as the score was tied 2-2 before Keith Zoldak and Cook added third period goals with Cook&rsquo;s shorthanded scored the game winner at 13:18.Doug Nowels had nine saves in each period for 27 in the opener and he had 35 with one in the overtime period in the second game.The second game was 2-2 after two periods also with Dan Pupillo, a St. Louis transfer, scoring his first. Ferris State goal in the opening period and Steve Banonis scoring in the second period.Banonis made the score 3-2 for Ferris in the third period, but it took Bob Bishop to supply the win from Randy Strong at 2:53 of the overtime period. It was Bishop&rsquo;s first goal of the season. &#9632;

f0024-02

Bowling Green Off On Right Foot

<h2>CCHA CONFERENCE (Standings on Tues. Dec. 18)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01409/4275110-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="531" height="177"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02301/4275103-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="548" height="567"></div> &#9632;

f0025-01

How They Stand

<h2>BROWN OLD COLONY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1059/4275232-1-eng-US/f0025-102.jpg" title="f0025-10" width="521" height="155"></div><h2>CODFISH BOWL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1151/4275225-1-eng-US/f0025-112.jpg" title="f0025-11" width="521" height="81"></div><h2>NEW HAMPSHIRE BLUE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1242/4275218-1-eng-US/f0025-122.jpg" title="f0025-12" width="515" height="78"></div><h2>RPI INVITATIONAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1336/4275211-1-eng-US/f0025-132.jpg" title="f0025-13" width="536" height="157"></div><h2>AULD LANG SYNE CLASSIC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1433/4275204-1-eng-US/f0025-142.jpg" title="f0025-14" width="490" height="86"></div><h2>COLONIAL CLASSIC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1528/4275197-1-eng-US/f0025-152.jpg" title="f0025-15" width="513" height="85"></div><h2>MERRIMACK BLUE-GOLD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1623/4275190-1-eng-US/f0025-162.jpg" title="f0025-16" width="466" height="77"></div><h2>SALEM STATE CLASSIC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1718/4275183-1-eng-US/f0025-172.jpg" title="f0025-17" width="524" height="75"></div><h2>HOLYCROSSCLASSIC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-1814/4275176-1-eng-US/f0025-182.jpg" title="f0025-18" width="498" height="77"></div><h2>BOSTON TEAPOT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-199/4275169-1-eng-US/f0025-192.jpg" title="f0025-19" width="506" height="77"></div><h2>DOWN EASTCLASSIC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-207/4275162-1-eng-US/f0025-202.jpg" title="f0025-20" width="521" height="74"></div><h2>WESLEYAN TOURNAMENT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-216/4275155-1-eng-US/f0025-212.jpg" title="f0025-21" width="522" height="78"></div><h2>NAVY CRABPOT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-225/4275148-1-eng-US/f0025-222.jpg" title="f0025-22" width="544" height="85"></div><h2>BOSTON BEANPOT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-235/4275141-1-eng-US/f0025-232.jpg" title="f0025-23" width="545" height="79"></div> &#9632;

f0025-10

College Tournaments

<h2>ECAC Conference</h2><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03207/4275305-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="569" height="846"></div><h2>WCHA Conference</h2><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04147/4275298-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="546" height="212"></div><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05125/4275291-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="593" height="1179"></div><h2>CCHA Conference</h2><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-06102/4275284-1-eng-US/f0025-062.jpg" title="f0025-06" width="552" height="112"></div><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0795/4275277-1-eng-US/f0025-072.jpg" title="f0025-07" width="560" height="590"></div><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0885/4275270-1-eng-US/f0025-082.jpg" title="f0025-08" width="561" height="302"></div><h2>CIAU Conference</h2><h3>JANUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-0976/4275263-1-eng-US/f0025-092.jpg" title="f0025-09" width="577" height="1267"></div> &#9632;

f0025-03

Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01423/4275343-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">One of the most improved teams in the WCHA this season is Michigan and the Wolverines are a definite title threat. The team&rsquo;s leaders are alternate captains Tim Manning, left, and Dan Lerg, right, who flank Wolverine captain Doug Todd.</figcaption></div>SAN DIEGO&mdash;Maynard Howe thinks he&rsquo;s got a team the equal of anyone in college hockey in the United States.And he&rsquo;s hoping that when March comes around, he&rsquo;ll get the opportunity to prove it.The team is U.S. International, a school in San Diego trying to make a name for itself by building a hockey program.U.S. International is playing Division I hockey this season. The problem it has is trying to find suitable opponents. There are few hockey powers on the West Coast.Howe has solved that by playing whoever he can schedule. He has played Colgate and Harvard from the ECAC, Ohio State from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and Denver from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.And from the results, U.S. International could be a power in the future. The school beat Colgate, then swept Harvard 7-3 and 9-3 on Dec. 18-19. &ldquo;Bill Cleary (Harvard coach) told me we&rsquo;re better than anyone his team has played.&rdquo; Howe said.U.S. International has also split four games with Ohio State and shows a 1-2-1 record in four games with Denver. A Dec. 29-30 series with Notre Dame in San Diego should give U.S. International a better judging ground on its progress in building a hockey program.Against Harvard, Steve Slack led the way with three goals and two assists in the 7-3 win, then Darren Lowe had two goals and three assists in the second game.Jim Eckhardt and Andy Edur on defense and Paul Billing and Ken Bails in goal have been strengths, too.U.S. International has a 13-8-2 season record with a 12-6-2 record against fellow Division I opponents.&ldquo;We can play with the best of them. I think we&rsquo;re as good as the top five teams in the country,&rdquo; Howe said.Now he&rsquo;s just looking for a chance to prove it.The problem facing U.S. International is, gaining official membership in the NCAA so that the school would be eligible for the NCAA ice hockey championships in March, should its record qualify.&ldquo;We have applied for membership and we&rsquo;ve been told it will be on the books as of Jan. 1,&rdquo; said a U.S. International spokesman.So the school, with 3,000 students, may soon become another power in the West for the WCHA and the CCHA to deal with come playoff time.The CCHA and WCHA have a playoff format now where the WCHA playoff winner automatically advances to the national tournament. The runnerup from the WCHA playoffs meets the CCHA playoff champion for the second seed from the west to the four-team nationals.There is no provision for U.S. International to join that playoff setup. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been told that if our record is good and our schedule is strong, we can be considered for the nationals as an independent,&rdquo; Howe said.It took the CCHA several years to earn the chance through the playoffs for a trip to the nationals. It may be that long before U.S. International convinces the hockey minds it belongs, too.In the WCHA, Colorado College has suddenly come out of nowhere to put the pressure on front-running North Dakota.Coach Jeff Sauer&rsquo;s Tigers have won four straight league games, all at home, to climb to second in the league.The Tigers gained revenge for two earlier losses to Minnesota by handling the Gophers 6-3 and 6-4, then followed that three days later by sweeping Michigan State 7-6 and 6-1. Those wins, coupled with a 7-4 win over the Air Force Academy Dec. 11 in a non-conference game, gave the Tigers a five-game winning streak.Colorado College was picked to finish last by league coaches in the 10-team league. But a fast finish prior to Christmas break about guaranteed that the Tigers won&rsquo;t be last when the season ends. And the way they&rsquo;re playing now, it&rsquo;s the leaders, not the tailenders, who are looking out for CC.WCHA NOTES: Minnesota-Duluth is preparing for an invasion of Torpedo Gorky of the Soviet Union for a Jan. 4 game in Duluth&hellip;The Russian team, on a 10-day tour of the U.S., also plays Wisconsin and Minnesota of the WCHA&hellip;Minnesota, which lost ace forward Don Micheletti earlier with a knee injury, is now minus forward Steve Ulseth, sidelined with a shoulder problem&hellip;And Dave Gatherman, the only Canadian on Minnesota&rsquo;s roster, has returned home. The goalie from Thunder Bay, Ont., hadn&rsquo;t played a game for the Gophers&hellip;Michigan is celebrating over the news that former WCHA star Gordon (Red) Berenson has been named head coach of the NHL St. Louis Blues&hellip;Michigan Tech&rsquo;s John Maclnnes is five wins away from reaching 500 wins as a college coach&hellip;UND lost senior wing Erwin Martens for at least three weeks with an ankle injury&hellip;UND AllAmerican sophomore goalie Bob Iwabuchi missed the series with Ohio State due to emergency surgery for his father, Bob Iwabuchi, Sr., a leading hockey booster from Edmonton, Alta&hellip;Minnesota coach Brad Buetow is threatening a shakeup of th lineup after his Gophers dropped their 3rd and 4th straight WCHA games to fall to a 7-7 record. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Gophers were in first with a 7-3 record and were ranked first in the national polls.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02332/4275336-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="565" height="626"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michigan Tech coach John MacInness is approaching his 500th coaching victory.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

USIU Hoping To Reach Nationals This Spring

<div class="byline">BY MIKE MURRAY</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Once again the Micron Invitational appears to be the elite of the Canadian college tournaments.The Toronto Varsity Blues, Dalhousie Tigers, Plattsburgh State Cardinals, along with the host, Concordia Stingers, will all be battling for top honours in the Micron event Jan. 11 and 12. What better teams could you have, each is on top or close to the top in their respective conferences. &ldquo;Having a good sponsor like Micron allows us to bring in top teams from other areas,&rdquo; explained host coach Paul Arsenault. &ldquo;What makes this tournament a success is the fact that it allows hockey fans an opportunity to view Canada&rsquo;s best college teams.&rdquo;The original tournament began in 1967 as the Centennial College Tournament. During its six-year history, the Loyola tourney, attracted teams from all over North America, such as Michigan Tech, Boston College, Harvard, Clarkson and Boston University.The Centennial tournament was superceded by &ldquo;The Hockey Canada Tournament&rdquo; which Loyola also hosted for two years. Hockey Canada discontinued its sponsorship and Sir George Williams University picked up the tournament in 1974-75. With the merger of Loyola and Sir George, the tourney again changed its name. The Concordia tournament is now in its fifth year and, along with the backing of Micron, a major skate manufacturer, it will certainly continue as Canada&rsquo;s outstanding college hockey tournament.Robin Burns, a former player with the now defunct Kansas City Scouts of the NHL, is presently vice president of sales and marketing for Micron International. Robin believes too many tend to throw their sponsorship towards junior and pro hockey, leaving college hockey to fight for itself. &ldquo;The main reason Micron is in favour of sponsoring this tournament is because we feel that it illustrates the possibility to combine a high level of hockey performance while pursuing a university education,&rdquo; explains Burns.More and more college players are getting pro tryouts and if scholarships are accepted by the CIAU, the calibre will improve even more. &ldquo;The surge towards education rather than junior hockey makes this investment a viable outlet to promote,&rdquo; added Burns.The Toronto Blues are presently the only undefeated team in the CIAU. Even with the loss of six players to the Olympic program, interum coach Gord Davies has put together a young and hustling club. &ldquo;I believe that everyone is enjoying playing hockey and that they are glad to be here at the University of Toronto,&rdquo; said Davies. Their record is proof of Davies&rsquo; theory as Toronto is 7-0-3 in the Ontario conference. Toronto&rsquo;s big line consists of Geoff Shaw, Tom Callaghan and Jeff Andrews. They carry most of the offensive load and each are deadly shooters in close. The Blues rotate their goaltenders so both Dave Jenner and Dave Jamieson can expect to see action in the tournament.Coach Pierre Page feels that the Dalhousie Tigers have not played up to their potential and that this tournament will be a good challenge to start their second half of the season. &ldquo;Even though we are in first place in our Division, we have showed signs of inconsistency,&rdquo; explained Page. &ldquo;In both losses to St. Mary&rsquo;s, we had mental letdowns.&rdquo;The Tigers have two of the top five scorers in their lineup in Rick McCallum who has eight goals and 14 assists, while Brian Gualazzi is the league&rsquo;s leading goal getter with 14. Louis Lavoie, an All Star in last year&rsquo;s national final tournament, has been the Tigers&rsquo; steadiest defenseman and is headed for all-Canadian honors.In the past two seasons, Plattsburgh State hockey has come of age. Last year&rsquo;s 26-3 record and the number one ranking in the final NCAA Division II hockey poll is living proof of that statement. This season, only nine players returned from last year&rsquo;s defending champions but coach Lou Frigon feels that recent results against Vermont and Clarkson, both Division I teams, has his Cardinals back on the championship trail.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03286/4275398-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="570" height="861"><figcaption class="caption-body">Concordia will depend on the likes of Roy Halpin, last year&rsquo;s tournament MVP, to win the Micron tourney Jan. 11-12.</figcaption></div>Two faces who will catch the fans fancy in Montreal will be Doug Kimura and Rick Goodwin. Kimura was an all-American last year while Goodwin has notched 70 points in his two years at Plattsburgh. The Cardinals are looking forward to playing some of Canada&rsquo;s best college teams.The tournament host, Concordia Stingers, have a young club with 13 freshmen in their lineup. But, to date, they have defeated three teams who are highers top 10 poll. &ldquo;Even though we lost two games in Quebec, our record outside our conference has been very satisfying,&rdquo; stated coach Arsenault. The Stingers won the Toronto Invitation early in the season and then defeated Dalhousie in Halifax the following week.The Stingers are led by their captain and all-Canadian defenseman Michel Blais, while up front Doug Feasby and Roy Halpin have racked up 89 points between them in 15 games.The Stingers have enjoyed good success in this tournament, winning three times in the last four years. &#9632;

f0026-03

Canadian Colleges Gear For Micron Tourney

<div class="byline">BY MORRIS DALLA COSTA</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSTORONTO&mdash;When Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds embarked on an eight game road trip, most observers felt by the time they returned to Sault Ste. Marie, they would already be eliminated from playoff contention.Nothing could be farther from the truth as the Sault has played the best hockey they have all year on the road. They had a three-game winning streak until it was snapped in Oshawa, and coach Terry Crisp has to be happy with their play.The big reason for the change? No big secret. They&rsquo;ve cut their goals against average down by more than half since they&rsquo;ve been on the road. Included in those wins was a 4-0 shutout against London Knights and a 3-2 victory in Toronto.&ldquo;We are getting a full team effort and the kids seem to be coming of age,&rdquo; says Crisp. &ldquo;For once the players are giving it an honest effort. It&rsquo;s too bad we have to be playing on the road. Our fans would just love seeing the way we are playing now.&rdquo;The other story behind the resurgence of Greyhounds is between the pipes with over-age goaltender Jay O&rsquo;Connor. O&rsquo;Connor is going through a hot period in his hot and cold goaltending career and Greyhounds are benefitting. He stopped 35 shots in London for the shutout and 41 in the 4-1 loss to Oshawa halting the three-game streak.&ldquo;Goaltending is the key. Early in the season we lost four overtime games and four games by one goal. That&rsquo;s tough to take. We are now winning some of those games,&rdquo; says Crisp. &ldquo;Our play on the road trip is going to spark some of the guys. It will give them more confidence. The guys aren&rsquo;t quitting now. I&rsquo;m either the biggest fool or the bravest man on earth, but I think we have a good hockey club.&rdquo;Sault Ste. Marie helped themselves considerably when they dealt their top defenseman Paul Coffey away to Kitchener Rangers. In return they got three hockey players who would fill some big gaps in the line-up.Tim Zwijack, Doug Shedden and Kerry Williston have provided some depth with Zwijack and Shedden helping what was once an anemic attack. John Goodwin is also starting to score potting a pair of goals against London.Arthur Rutland has also started playing his best hockey. Like many under-age drafts (Rutland went to Vancouver Canucks), Rutland had trouble coming back to junior hockey but he&rsquo;s beginning to find his stride now. He missed the loss in Oshawa with a hip injury, but it was the only game he was expected to miss.It&rsquo;s fortunate Greyhounds are winning because they are in the tough Leyden division where they have to keep winning in order to have any hope of making a playoff spot.The Leyden division is beginning to look like a four team race with Peterborough leading the pack, Kingston Canadians, Oshawa Generals and Ottawa &lsquo;67s close on their heels.Peterborough continues to play tough defensive and positional hockey. They won three games, giving up only four goals. Rick Laferriere blanked Toronto Marlies 3-0 for his first shutout of the season. Peterborough also won games against Sudbury 3-2 and Kitchener 4-2. In the Sudbury game not one penalty was called with the game ending in two hours.Peterborough is getting scoring from all its players. Of the 10 goals scored Bill Gardner and Jim Weimer had two each but the other goals were distributed among six players.How well is Peterborough playing defensively? In 32 games, Laferriere&rsquo;s average is 2.94. Incredible for junior hockey.Toronto Marlboros, victims of Laferriere&rsquo;s shutout continued their inconsistent play. The Dukes went four games in a row without a loss, including a 9-4 hammering of division leading Windsor Spitfires. Just as they were forcing the issue with London Knights for second place, they lost two in a row.They are getting outstanding play from Dave Aquin and goaltender Bruce Dowie though. Aquin continues to score goals and the 17-year-old Dowie has a flashy 4.19 goals against average. Not bad for a youngster on a team that tends to give up a lot of scoring chances.Windsor finally managed to snap a five game winless streak at home with a 6-5 win over Kingston Canadians.Paul Gagne hit for three goals while linemate Blair Barnes connected for a pair.For Spitfires though, their goals-against average has shot up considerably after they dealt goaltender Roland Melanson to Oshawa.Kingston Canadians got some good news when big winger Mark Wichrowski returned to the line-up following a lengthy absence due to a shoulder injury. He had a goal in a big 4-3 win over Oshawa. Teammate Tim Kerr pumped in another goal as he continues to score.In the Emms division, which to this point has been the surprise and perhaps disappointment of the OMJHL season, Niagara Falls may be starting to wake up. Evidence their improved play at home. Flyers won their eighth game in a row at home when they edged Spitfires 3-2. Steve Ludzik, Mike Braun and Jim Jackson scored for Niagara Falls.Ludzik and his teammate Steve Larmer are seventh and eighth in league scoring so far providing 52 goals offense to the hockey club.Against London, also at home, Flyers scored three unanswered goals in the final period to come away with a 6-2 win.In Ottawa it&rsquo;s the Sean Simpson, Jim Fox, Yvan Joly troika that is causing news. They are one, two, three in the OMJHL scoring race. They&rsquo;ve scored 98 goals between them (Fox 32, Joly and Simpson 33). Doug Crossman is also in the top 20 scorers with nine goals and 48 assists.Ottawa got two goals each from Jay Fraser, Joly, Fox and singles from Doug Smith and Moe Lemay in an 8-7 win over Sudbury Wolves.&rsquo;67s went into London and suffered a letdown which allowed Knights to score two goals in the last six minutes for a 6-5 win.Tony Collard and Wayne Thompson had two goals each for London with Dave Simpson and Glenn Oliver getting one each.Thompson is fourth in the league scoring race with 25 goals and 48 assists.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01401/4275429-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="578" height="864"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Shedden, who joined the Soo from Kitchener, has been a plus for their attack.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0027-01

Greyhounds Surprise On Long Trip; Defense Keys Club’s Rapid Rebirth

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SENICK</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSGREAT FALLS&mdash;Dave Descent, president of the Western Hockey League has announced that the Great Falls Americans have ceased operations.After consulting with the owners and management of the teams and with all 11 partners in the league, it was felt that this was the best move for all concerned at this time.The owners, Bob Cooper and Tom Gauthier, who&rsquo;s also the team general manager, will retain their franchise and have been given permission by the WHL to seek a new location for their operation. Hopefully, they can be operative in time for the start of the 1980-81 season.The players on the active roster of the Americans as of Dec. 17 were dispersed via a draft that was held involving the othr 11 teams.After 26 games, the team had only two wins and a tie. They had scored just 69 goals while allowing 179. The average home attendance was 512, even though hundreds of tickets had been given away in promotions, and rumors were circulating that the franchise may fold. In other words, the atmosphere has been dismal.Americans started the season with the remnants of the former Edmonton Oil Kings&rsquo; franchise which had been transplanted the year before from Flin Flon. General manager and part owner Tom Gauthier, along with partner Bob Cooper, didn&rsquo;t have a great deal to work with.The only returning veterans were Derek Davis, Ryan Switzer, Mike Moskalyk and Ray Karlson. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t inherit that good a list,&rdquo; says Gauthier. &ldquo;But we made a lot of deals and trades, changing 40-45 names. I feel that we strengthened the club 200 percent.&rdquo;But that didn&rsquo;t make coach Les Jackson&rsquo;s job much easier.&ldquo;It has been like starting from Day One,&rdquo; says Jackson. &ldquo;A lot of the players had no idea of what to do in a given situation. It&rsquo;s been repetitious, going over the basics.&ldquo;I knew from the start that there wasn&rsquo;t that much talent. But I took the job because if you can turn around a team in that type of situation, it&rsquo;s usually a feather in your cap.&rdquo;Jackson had spent the past two seasons coaching Revelstoke of the B.C. Junior Hockey League.The Americans had been pumped up to a certain extent and were starting to play a more competitive brand of hockey until rumor of the possible disbanding of the franchise and dispersal draft of the players. They have continued in the rut they have been all season, losing 2-0 to Calgary, 8-5 to Brandon, 7-2 to Saskatoon and 11-3 to Great Falls. A bright point was Moskalyk&rsquo;s three goals in the loss to Brandon.BILLINGS: Bighorns lost all four games of a west-coast road trip to drop into a tie with Saskatoon for third place in the Eastern Division at 33 points. The trip included losses of 7-4 to Victoria, 4-3 to Seattle, 3-1 to Portland and 4-1 to New Westminster. Gord Stafford continued to own second place in the league&rsquo;s scoring derby with 26 goals and 36 assists in 31 games.BRANDON: Wheat Kings bounced back from an 11-2 loss to Regina by beating Great Falls 8-5. Mike Winther and Steve Patrick produced two goals apiece while linemate Dave McDonald added one. As a unit, the three totalled 12 points. Wheat Kings also suffered a 3-2 defeat to Saskatoon in a game that included a brawl at the proceeding&rsquo;s end.CALGARY: Wranglers had their winning streak halted at seven games when they lost 8-2 to Victoria. The team continued to dominate the East with a 22-6 record. Included in the winning streak was a 2-0 victory over Great Falls. Goalie Dennis Mueller recorded his first WHL shutout by blocking 18 shots. In other action, Blair Peebles and Dan Bourbonnais both scored two goals to lead Wranglers to a 9-2 triumph over Medicine Hat.LETHBRIDGE: Broncos went 1-2 which left them in a sixth-place tie with Medicine Hat in the east, at 30 points. Lethbridge defeated Medicine Hat 5-2 but lost 8-3 to Saskatoon and 5-0 to Victoria. Doug Morrison, the club&rsquo;s leading scorer with 28 goals and 27 assists in 29 games, will take part in the Izvestia International tournament as part of the Canadian team.MEDICINE HAT: Tigers ended a six-game winless streak by defeating Victoria 5-1, Brian Ziesler scored two goals for Medicine Hat in that encounter. Prior to the win, Tigers dropped a 5-2 decision to Lethbridge and were defeated 9-2 by Calgary. Curt Broadhead produced both goals in that game.REGINA: Pats extended their winning streak to three games but a streak by Doug Wickerhiser ended at 28 games. Wickenhiser, who leads the league in scoring at 35-34, had scored at least one point in all of Pats&rsquo; first 28 games. He was chasing the record of 37 games set by Bill Derlage in 197778. But Wickenheiser received a major and game misconduct at 5:11 of the first period in a game against Great Falls, before any scoring had transpired. Regina, led by Ron Flockhart&rsquo;s five goal performance, won the game 11-3. Mike Blaisdell tallied three times and Kevin Burns twice to lead Regina to an 11-2 triumph over Brandon. Pats also downed Saskatoon 8-5. In that game, Blaisdell and Flockhart had two goals apiece while Wickenheiser collected five assists.SASKATOON: Blades dropped an 8-5 decision to Regina, which ended a five-game undefeated streak but got back to the winning habit by earning victories in their next two outings. Lorne Bokshowan produced three power-play goals in the first period and Glen Ganchar tallied twice to pace Blades to a 7-2 win over Great Falls. Saskatoon also edged Brandon 3-2, Kevin Tendler had two goals in that game in which Saskatoon trailed 2-0 in the third period. Fights broke out at the end of the proceedings and resulted in 257 penalty minutes being assessed. Prior to the loss to Regina, Saskatoon defeated Lethbridge 8-3. Terry Paskaruk, Ganchar, Kevin MacNaught and Dan Bent had two goals apiece.NEW WESTMINSTER: Bruins defeated Billings 4-1 to record their first home victory of the season. It came after New Westminster had lost a WHL recordtying 13 outings at Queen&rsquo;s Park Arena. It was also the first win in six games since five players returned to the team&rsquo;s lineup after being suspended by the courts because of a brawl last season.&ldquo;It has been a long time coming and&rsquo; it has been a long, tough haul.&rdquo; said Bruins&rsquo; coach Ernie McLean. &ldquo;It feels like a great big weight just fell&hellip;and missed me.&rdquo; Anthony McMurchy had three goals to pace the Bruins. New Westminster also lost 5-4, in overtime to Portland. Rick Amann tallied twice in that encounter.PORTLAND: Winter Hawks increased their winning streak to five games and increased their record to 19-11. Tim Tookey tallied three times and Bart Yachimec produced the winner at 1:08 of overtime to give Portland a 5-4 triumph over New Westminster. Goalie Darrel May stopped 47 shots in a 3-1 win over Billings.In another outing, Tim Tookey and John Multan both had hat tricks while rookie Gary Yaremchuk and Florent Robidoux added two goals apiece to pace Winter Hawks to a 12-3 win over Seattle.SEATTLE: Dan Held scored twice to help Seattle to a 4-3 win over Billings but Breakers lost their next two games. Victoria edged Seattle 3-2 and Portland earned a 12-3 victory. Breakers remained in third place with 31 points, seven behind Portland and 24 ahead of New Westminster.VICTORIA: Cougars compiled a nine-game winning streak before losing 5-1 to Medicine Hat. Cougars edged Seattle 3-2 then embarked on an eastern road trip. They go off on the right foot by beating Calgary 8-2. Greg Adams and Mark Morrison both scored two goals in that game. Rookie goalie Grant Fuhr stopped 38 shots, including 17 in the final period, and Torrie Robertson scored twice to give Cougars a 5-0 win over Lethbridge.The results left Victoria still comfortably in first place in the East with an impressive 23-5 record.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01387/4275467-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="576" height="860"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Flockhart had seven goals, including five in one game for the Pats.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02287/4275460-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="573" height="834"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goaltender Grant Fuhr, a rookie, made 38 saves in getting Victoria flying on an eastern trek.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

Struggling Americans End Season As Franchise Ceases Operations

BILLINGS&mdash;Moscow Spartak has looked awesome during a tour involving Western Hockey League teams.The Soviet club opened their tour with a 14-3 win over Victoria Cougars then dumped a reinforced New Westminster Bruins&rsquo; club 111. Seattle Breakers, also bolstered with players from other clubs, turned in the best showing to date, losing by only a 7-4 count.But Spartak continued to easily handle the opposition by disposing of Billings Bighorns, 7-1. Aleksandr Barinev had two goals against Victoria and three against the Bruins.At Regina, Spartak toyed with the Regina Rats, whipping them 11-2 to give the Soviets a sweep of the eight-game series against WHL opposition. &#9632;

Moscow Spartak Zaps WHL Foes

<div class="byline">BY DANNY YOUNG</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSTROIS-RIVIERES&mdash;There are many things that Trois-Rivieres&rsquo; Pierre Aubry does well. But there is one thing he does exceptionally well. He scores goals.After only 36 games, Aubry had already scored 44 goals. That pace would give him 88 goals in a 72-game season, well above his total of 55 last year. Not that there&rsquo;s anything bad about 55 goals. It&rsquo;s just not much for a guy who has made a habit out of scoring hat tricks.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m always on the ice,&rdquo; says Aubry. &ldquo;The more ice time has helped my goal-scoring and given me more confidence.&rdquo;&ldquo;He really works,&rdquo; says Draveurs&rsquo; coach Michel Bergeron, &ldquo;and that&rsquo;s the reason he&rsquo;s doing so well. He plays on power plays and kills penalties. I use him 35 to 40 minutes a game.&rdquo;There seems to be more to goal scoring, however, than hard work and talent. You need a bit of that infamous intangible called luck.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re a goal scorer,&rdquo; says Bergeron, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re lucky. Yvon Lambert is never lucky. But Guy Lafleur, when he shoots at the net, you have to change the score. It&rsquo;s the same thing with Aubry.&rdquo;Aubry was actually traded away from his home town, Trois-Rivieres, to Quebec two years ago. That trade was no insult to Aubry. The Draveurs had picked up defenseman Pierre Lacroix who led them to two league championships, won the Canadian Major Junior League Player of the Year Award, and now plays with the Quebec Nordiques.And to prove that Bergeron really wanted him, Aubry was reacquired at the beginning of last season. Now, he&rsquo;s the only local player on the squad, and certainly a source of pride for the home town fans.Besides pleasing the fans and helping the team, Aubry&rsquo;s proficient goalscoring is improving his chances of turning pro next season. Though several 50 goal scorers of the Draveurs in the past have not made it to the NHL, center Robert Mongrain has won a spot with the Buffalo Sabres this year and that should help Aubry.Aubry and Mongrain have a lot in common. They are both strong for their size (five-ten, 170); they are both intelligent, and they are both willing to skate and work.&ldquo;I hope for a pro career,&rdquo; says Aubry, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t know what my chances are.&rdquo;&ldquo;Like Mongrain, maybe he&rsquo;ll go in the next draft,&rdquo; says Bergeron. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very nice boy&mdash;a real gentleman. He&rsquo;s strong at school and strong at hockey.&rdquo;And he scores goals&mdash;lots of them!QUEBEC: With the Remparts playing much better hockey, Gaston Drapeau made a promise to the Quebec City press that the Remparts would be in third place in the overall standings by the latter part of January. To do that, the Remparts must gain six points on Cornwall which will be difficult, though they do have a game in hand. The league is now into the Christmas break with play resuming on Jan. 10.The Remparts slipped by Verdun 4-3, and then defeated Chicoutimi 5-3 with defenseman Dave Pichette scoring twice. The Remparts lost their next one to Chicou-timi 6-5, but they&rsquo;re proving they can play with anyone.CORNWALL: It doesn&rsquo;t seem likely that Quebec can catch the Royals in January because the Royals don&rsquo;t seem to know how to lose. They dumped Laval 9-6 with Dan Daoust picking up a hat trick. Then they defeated Shawinigan 6-3, and blasted Montreal 12-5. In that game, Gilles Crepeau scored three goals, while Daoust, Newell Brown, and Rod Willard added doubles. At the midway point in the season, the Royals are 20-16-1.LAVAL: Forget about the Voisins&rsquo; 8-1 loss to Chicoutimi and their 9-6 loss to Cornwall. Their one win of the week deserves all the attention. The Voisins came back from a 6-1 deficit to score eight unanswered goals and defeat Verdun 9-6. Jean Pierre Viens scored a true hat trick in the third period to ice the victory. The win was only their seventh but still something to cheer about.SHERBROOKE: In his best game with Sherbrooke, Norm Aubin scored three goals, but the Beavers lost to Chicoutimi 9-6. That loss came despite a 53-38 shooting advantage. The Beavers did edge Trois-Rivieres 5-4 on two Sean McKenna goals, and then dumped Hull 9-1. Louis Begin and Brian Johnson each scored twice. The Beavers ended the first half of the season with a 24-10-3 first place record.CHICOUTIMI: The Sagueneens could have taken over first place were it not for a 5-3 loss to Quebec. Otherwise, their week was perfect. Robert Millette scored twice and league scoring leader Guy Carbonneau had five points in an 8-1 win over Laval. Then Francois Gravel scored three to upend Sherbrooke 9-6. Finally, the Sags edged Quebec 6-5.TROIS-RIVIERES: It was a tough week for Michel Bergeron and the Draveurs. In three close games, they tied once and lost twice. They were nipped by Sherbrooke 5-4, and then by Montreal 53 despite two Aubry goals. They then tied Shawinigan at six.MONTREAL: Alain Bouchard and Constant Priodolo scored twice as the Juniors defeated Hull 5-3. Then the Juniors won by the same score over Trois-Rivieres with Denis Cyr scoring a pair. The team went into the Christmas break on a sour note by losing to Cornwall 12-5.HULL: The Olympics continued to slump and lost both their games. They lost to Montreal 5-3 and Sherbrooke 9-1. The Hull defense had a good start but have since deteriorated. Marcel Pronovost must revive his forces in the second half if they want to make the playoffs.SHAWINIGAN: The Cataractes lost to Cornwall 6-3 and then tied Trois-Rivieres 6-6. Eric Morin scored twice in the first game. The Cats have the second best defensive record in the league, but are ninth best offensively. Apparently, you can&rsquo;t win on detense alone, in the QMJHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01339/4275522-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="581" height="997"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Aubry logs 35-40 minutes a game of ice time for the Draveurs.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

Aubry Deadly Shot For Draveurs

HALIFAX&mdash;Rookies grabbed the spotlight for the Nova Scotia Voyageurs as the former Calder Cup champs battled to regain the top rung in the AHL&rsquo;s Northern Division race.Chris Nilan and goaler Rich Wamsley combined to give the Vees a pair of big victories.Nilan scored his fifth goal of the year at 3:51 of the third period, lifting the Voyageurs to a 3-2 win over New Haven in Halifax. Rick Meagher had notched his 13th in the first period and Moe Robinson his third in the second stanza. Nilan&rsquo;s goal, which beat Doug Soetaert, broke up a tight 2-2 contest and moved the Vees to within 3 points of idle New Brunswick.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02299/4275584-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="562" height="550"><figcaption class="caption-body">Antero Lehtonen made an auspicious debut with Hershey after being sent down by Washington. The Flying Finn scored two goals, including the game winner.</figcaption></div>Earlier in the week, Nova Scotia had skated to a 3-0 victory over the visiting Adirondack Red Wings behind the shutout goaltending of Wamsley. A few days later, right winger Bill Riley was recalled by Winnipeg.ROCHESTER: The Rochester Americans won two of three, including victories over Syracuse and Maine. The four points enabled the Amerks to stay in third place in the southern division, still behind Hershey.The team did most of their scoring during the third period last week. Three third-period goals were enough to sink the Syracuse Firebirds 6-1 in Syracuse, breaking a five-game road winless streak. In that game, Ed Walsh stopped Gordie Brooks on a penalty shot. Chris Halyk scored in the third period in a 4-1 loss in Hershey. Rookie Bob Mongrain, down from Buffalo, scored a hat trick in a 5-2 win over Maine before 3,395 at the Rochester War Memorial. Again the Amerks were tough in the final period. This time they scored three times in the last 20 minutes to ice the victory. Rochester is now 2-0-1 against Maine this year and 10-7-5 overall against the AHL champions.ADIRONDACK: The Red Wings are in a deep slide that may see the club end up in the northern division cellar. Springfield Indians are hot and trying to overtake Adirondack. The Wings are in the midst of a four-game losing streak and have not won any of their last six. They were soundly blasted in their last three games. New Brunswick hung a 6-1 romp on the visiting Wings in Moncton and Nova Scotia shut them out 3-0 in Halifax. The improving Syracuse Firebirds gave Adirondack their fourth straight loss in the four-game road trip. The Firebirds skated to an easy 7-3 win in Syracuse.HERSHEY: The Calder Cup, champion Maine Mariners came into the Hersheypark Arena for the first time this year and left after being defeated 5-2 by the streaking Hershey Bears. A few days earlier, Hershey skated to a big 4-1 win over Rochester on home ice.Injuries to Claude Noel and Eddy Godin forced coach Doug Gibson to lace up the skates and return to AHL action. He became a full-time center against the Amerks. Center Ron LaLonde, who is on the injured list himself with ligament damage to his right knee, assisted Gibson behind the bench that night. Godin was out of half of the Rochester game after hurting his right elbow during that contest. Noel suffered a fracture of a left finger a few days earlier. Both are now back in uniform.The parent Washington Caps assigned Antero Lehtonen, a 25-year-old native of Tampere, Finland to Hershey. He dazzled the crowd with his nifty stick work in the game against Rochester, scored a pair of goals including the game-winner, and was named the MVP. He was signed by Washington a few months ago after playing on Finland&rsquo;s elite &ldquo;Tappara&rdquo; squad. &#9632;

f0030-02

Rookies Make Voyageurs Tingle

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSMONCTON: Less than a week after the New Haven Nighthawks had blasted New Brunswick down in Connecticut, the return match in Moncton proved to be another rare loss for the Hawks.Mike McDougal was the architect scoring at the 14:47 mark of the third period, giving New Haven a 4-3 win. It was their first victory ever at the Moncton Coliseum. Bruce Boudreau, recently back from his brief stint with Toronto, scored for New Brunswick along with Rick Jodzio and Ron Wilson. Those three goals were not enough for netminder Murray Bannerman, who suffered through the 10-6 loss to New Haven just a few days earlier.New Brunswick was coming off an impressive 6-1 win over the Adirondack Red Wings prior to the 4-3 loss to New Haven. In addition, one roster change was made by New Brunswick. They released right winger Ron LeBlanc.SPRINGFIELD: Following Springfield&rsquo;s 8-4 win over Syracuse at the Big E Coliseum, Whalers&rsquo; director of operations Jack Kelley announced that he had acquired defenseman Larry Giroux and left winger Brian &ldquo;spinner&rdquo; Spencer. Giroux immediately impressed coach Larry Kish with his puck handling and defensive abilities. He played last season with the St. Louis Blues, appearing in 72 games and scoring 27 points. Giroux had 111 penalty minutes. The six-foot 190-pound native of Weyburn, Saskatchewan is expected to give the Indians additional stability at the defensive position, according to Kelley.Spencer has joined the Tribe on a tryout agreement after playing in 553 NHL contests, including four seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. He played part of last season with the AHL Binghamton Dusters where he scored 14 points in 39 games. Spencer returned home during the AHL campaign last year, however. Now he claims that he is ready to play hockey again.The Tribe exploded for five second period goals to bury Syracuse 8-4 before more than 4,000 fans at the Big E. Mike Antonovich got the hat trick and netminder Terry Richardson had another good game for the Indians between the pipes. Defenseman Chuck Luksa had a brief stay with Hartford during the week before being returned by the Whalers. Pete Luksa was then sent to Saginaw of the IHL after Chuck Luksa came back to Springfield. The Indians also saw defenseman Mark Renaud go up to Hartford, but he too was quickly returned by the Whalers.BINGHAMTON: A nine game losing streak by the Dusters made the owners take a desperate gamble. They aquired the services of veteran Ken Hodge from the Rangers. According to published reports, Hodge said: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t pretend to be a Moses or anything. I hope I can help, maybe be a steadying factor.&rdquo;The 35-year-old Hodge played 14 years in the NHL before being sent to the Ranger doghouse. He last appeared in the AHL two years ago with New Haven and then stayed out of action last year after having elbow surgery.Hodge has proved to be a huge embarrassment to the Rangers. With a reported two more years remaining on his Ranger contract, he collects more than $175,000 annually.The NHL club has tried to unload his contract. However, few teams are willing to pick up the burden of a six-figure salary. The Rangers tried to send Hodge to their Richmond farm club in the EHL, but were unable to make the demotion stick when it was reported that his contract forbids him to be sent to any other minor league except the AHL or CHL. The next stop was Birmingham of the CHL. After a short stay, he was sent back to the Rangers. Apparently, the Ranger brass could not find a spot for him on their New Haven roster.MAINE: After being hot for a while, Maine is beginning to cool off. They were winless during the week losing to Rochester and Hershey and skating to a 4-4 tie with New Haven.The first meeting of the year in Maine between last season&rsquo;s Calder Cup finalists turned out to be a terrific game. Some 5,036 fans in Portland saw the Mariners lose a 4-2 lead late in the third period and settle for a 4-4 tie with arch-rival New Haven. The Mariners took a 1-0 first period lead on Gordie Clark&rsquo;s goal, but New Haven scored twice to go on top 2-1 later in the contest. After Paul Evans got two Mariner goals giving them a 3-2 lead, the fans thought that Maine had the game sewed up when Yves Preston gave Maine a 4-2 advantage with only 2:47 left to play. New Haven roared back on Andre Dore&rsquo;s goal and then they pulled netminder Doug Soetaert in favor of an extra attacker. Bill Lochead found the range with 1:07 to play and gave New Haven a 4-4 tie which held up in the overtime period.SYRACUSE: Skating two men short due to injuries and recalls, the Firebirds dropped a 5-4 game in New Haven one night after losing 8-4 in Springfield. The &lsquo;Birds actually had a 2-0 lead over New Haven after one period on goals by Terry Martin and Jim Hamilton. However, four Nighthawk goals in the second stanza gave New Haven a 4-2 lead. After Mike Korney narrowed the gap at 4-3 on a slap shot from the point, New Haven&rsquo;s Bill Lochead got the game winner in the third period. Kim Davis made it close at 5-4, however, the Firebirds were not able to pull goaltender Ron Low early enough to mount an effective last-second attack.Earlier, Syracuse got right winger Kurt Walker from Binghamton and Dale Tallon from Pittsburgh. Tallon was immediately lost to the Firebirds when he left to play in the Izvesta Tournament for two weeks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01381/4275553-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="574" height="978"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian &lsquo;Spinner&rsquo; Spencer has returned to the hockey wars with Springfield Indians.</figcaption></div>The two new additions may help Syracuse to stop the opposition from scoring. The club still is last in the league in defense, allowing 4.92 goals per game.NEW HAVEN: Bill Lochead&rsquo;s goal midway through the third period gave New Haven a 5-4 win over Syracuse at the Coliseum. The Nighthawks got two goals from Jim Mayer and solo tallies from Tom Colley and Dennis Owchar in the win over the Firebirds. The victory was their 13th straight on Coliseum ice, a new club record. New Haven then made a quick two-game trip to the Maritimes and beat New Brunswick while losing to Nova Scotia.A visit to Maine ended up in a 4-4 tie as Lochead again proved to be the hero. His goal with a little over a minute left in regulation play erased a 4-3 Maine lead and gave New Haven a point-earning tie. At 3.57 of the second period, a bench-clearing brawl erupted after New Haven&rsquo;s Ray Markham leveled Mariner rookie defenseman Blake Wesley. Markham was apparently trying to retaliate after Wesley had decked little Mike Backman, sending the little Nighthawk winger to the showers with a broken nose. After Markham delivered a crushing check to Wesley, the Mariner tried to climb over the plexiglass in an attempt to get at Markham who was sitting in the penalty box at the time. This caused both benches to empty. When the smoke cleared, New Haven lost Dan Clark and Ray Markham for the night and the Mariners had to skate without the services of Mike Creeder and Reid Bailey. Each of them were given game misconducts. Wesley, who started the whole thing, was not penalized. &#9632;

f0030-01

New Haven Wins Battle Of Leaders; Desperate Dusters Reach Hodge

LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSCINCINNATI&mdash;The Central Hockey League will return to a one-division format for the balance of the 1979-80 season as the result of the Cincinnati Stingers ceasing operations.The loss of the Stingers will force the CHL to merge its remaining eight franchises into one league since Cincinnati was a part of the four-team Eastern Division. With only three clubs&mdash;Indianapolis, Houston and Birmingham&mdash;remaining in the division, the league opted to return to a one-division operation.With all teams in one division, the CHL also decided the first six finishers will make the Adams Cup playoffs. The team that finished the regular season in first place will be presented with the Emory Jones Trophy and the top player in the playoffs will receive the Max McNab Trophy. Both awards were created this season to honor the top finisher in each of the Eastern and Western division races.Cincinnati officials were non-commital on the dispersal of the Stinger players. Several were transferred to other teams by their NHL affiliates. Rob Gamer, Jamie Masters and Bernie Saunders were all reassigned to Syracuse of the AHL. Byron Shutt went to Springfield, also of the AHL. Dale Yakiw-chuk was moved to Tulsa by Win-nipeg. Coach Al Karlander accepted a scouting job with an NHL team but refused to identify the club at this time. Three other players, Lars Zetterstrom, Ken Kuzyk and goaler Jim Bedard had their contracts bought up by Cincinnati and were released as free agents.Meanwhile, four former World Hockey Association franchises who joined the National Hockey League will have to pay in the vicinity of $1 million for the indemnification of the Stingers.Stocked by players from all four of the new NHL franchises, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers and mainly by the Hartford Whalers, the Stingers had been guaranteed operation as a minor league club for a six-year period. Riverfront Coliseum owners Brian Heekin and Bill DeWitt made tenancy part of the indemni-fication deal.However, projected losses for the four parent clubs were expected to reach $600,000 if the Stingers were allowed to complete their schedule. The Cincinnati club, last in the Eastern Division of the league, but with a points record higher than two of the Western Division squads, had been drawing less than 1,000 fans per game and were drubbed 10-1 by Oklahoma City Stars in their last home game.At the time the folding of the club was imminent, CHL president Bud Poile called their demise &ldquo;a little premature but not much.&rdquo; Poile indicated that the most difficult aspect of folding the franchise, from a league stand-point, was rescheduling the season for the other eight teams.Prior to the news that the team would be forced to cancel its season, the club had been on its hottest stretch of the year. The Stingers went 3-1 against a pair of top contenders when they bested Tulsa, then the Western Division leaders 4-2 and 5-3 at home in River front Coliseum and then went into Birmingham to split with the second-place Bulls, winning 3-2 after dropping an 8-4 verdict.Then came an 8-3 loss at home to Oklahoma City and the 10-1 slaughter and the Stingers, who had just recently appointed Gary. Clark, the former WHA director of administration, as general manaer, were left reeling. &#9632;

CHL One Division Race as Cincinnati Folds

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>BIRMINGHAM&mdash;Being critically shorthanded doesn&rsquo;t always mean disaster if the shorthanded crew has the desire and the guts to give 110 per cent.The Central League saw two such situations in a span of a few days. The Birmingham Bulls were down to 11 skaters and minus a coach, after a brawling start to a home game with Salt Lake. With Paul Henderson subbing for the departed Mike Brophy behind the bench, and with every player working extra shifts, the Bulls clobbered the Eagles, 9-3?Another case in point was the Oklahoma City Stars, who had only 11 skaters&mdash;but because of injuries, not penalties. The Stars went into Cincinnati and came off with an 8-3 verdict!The Bulls lost Dave Hanson, Serge Beaudoin, Earl Ingarfield and Dave Gorman on game misconducts in the brawl after just 3:03 of scoreless play. When the teams started playing again after the long interruption, Jim MacRae, Rick Adduono and Bobby Gould each scored twice in the onslaught.The Bulls added a 5-1 victory the next night to sweep the two-game set, then broke even in two road games at Indianapolis and two home tilts with Cincinnati.The second game of the two with Indianapolis was a defensive gem, as both Pat Riggin of the Bulls and Richard Brodeur of the Checkers had 60-minute shutouts. Riggin preserved his, but Brodeur succumbed after 7:47 of overtime play, when the Bulls&rsquo; Mike Dwyer scored on a long slapshot.The previous night the Bulls rallied from two goals down to tie the Checkers twice, but were beaten 5-4 by Garth MacGuigan&rsquo;s second goal of the game.In the home joust with Cincinnati, the Bulls spotted the visitors an opening goal, but Gorman quickly matched that. Five goals in the middle period put Brophy&rsquo;s men completely in charge. Gorman&rsquo;s second goal and one by Dwyer came only four seconds apart at the start of the period, then Ingarfield, Henderson, and Larry Sacharuk joined in the fun. Gould and Henderson scored in the third to make it 8-4.Riggin was doing all the Birmingham goaltending, with Rejean Lemelin called to Atlanta and Tim Bernhardt joining Team Canada for the Izvestia tournament in Moscow.Atlanta called up defenseman Beaudoin, but returned center Rick Adduono.INDIANAPOLIS: Bert Marshall&rsquo;s Checkers lost two of three starts, dropping a 6-3 game in Salt Lake before coming home to split with Birmingham.After falling behind, 2-0 in Salt Lake, the Checkers got three goals in less than three minutes early in the second period (two by Charlie Skjodt and one by Ed Pizunski). But the Eagles came back with four more, as Bobby Crawford completed a hat trick.Garth MacGuigan had the first and last goals in the victory in Birmingham. Richard Brodeur, who was in goal for all three games, had yielded 10 goals in the first two encounters.Center Billy Carroll tried to come back from a knee injury, but found he wasn&rsquo;t ready yet. Tim Lockridge was nursing a bad ankle, and Alex McKendry was playing in spite of a shoulder problem.The parent New York Islanders returned defenseman Randy Johnston and defenseman Yvon Vautour.HOUSTON: Inability to win on the road was hampering Al Rollins&rsquo; Apollos in their bid to climb in the eastern division race. They were nine points behind Indianapolis and four back of Birmingham, but had three games in hand on the Checkers, four on the Bulls.At home the Apollos ran over Oklahoma City, 4-1, but then they dropped three straight on the road, 8-7 in overtime at Dallas, 9-3 and 5-2 in Salt Lake. That left Rollins&rsquo; men with a 10-3-2 record at home, but a 2-8-2 reading on the road.Houston was behind, 6-1, after one period in Dallas, but went ahead, 7-6, with 8:17 left in regulation time. Charlie Huddy got the go-ahead goal. But the Hawks pulled their goalie, and Dave Ross tied it up with 19 seconds, left, then won the game after 3:14 of overtime.In Salt Lake, the Apollos went ahead twice in the first period before they were buried by the Eagle barrage, which included four goals by Bob Hess. The next night three Eagle goals in the middle frame broke open a 1-1 game.TULSA: Home ice and a few people in the stands proved the tonic that the Oilers needed, but they squandered a three-goal lead before beating Oklahoma City, 43, on Gordie McTavish&rsquo;s goal after just 32 seconds of overtime action. The turnout of 3,204, although one of Tulsa&rsquo;s smaller crowds, was still as many as had witnessed the Oilers&rsquo; three previous games on the road, two in Cincinnati and one in Fort Worth.When the Tulsans fell for the second time in Cincinnati, 5-3, and then blew a three-goal advantage in Fort Worth, as the Texans rallied for a 4-4 tie, it ran the Oilers&rsquo; winless string to four games, their longest of the season.The parent Winnipeg Jets sent down defenseman Mike Amodeo. Earlier in the week they had shipped in veteran goalie Gary Smith after recalling goalie Lindsay Middlebrook and Oiler leading scorer-defenseman Ross Cory. Then they summoned forward Bob Guindon, who had taken over the scoring lead after Cory left.Smith was handled roughly in his first Oiler start since Jan. 10, 1965. The Oilers scored first, but Cincinnati quickly took charge.In Fort Worth, with league-leading goalie Markus Mattsson in the net, the Oilers went ahead, 2-0 and 4-1, before the late Texan rally. Gary Dillon beat Mattsson on a third-period penalty shot, after being hooked from behind on a breakaway.Amodeo, making only his second Oiler start, opened the scoring against Oklahoma City. John Markell and Gerry Rioux made it 3-0, but the rallying Stars tied it on Tony White&rsquo;s long screen shot with 1:59 left in the third.SALT LAKE: Bob Hess, defenseman converted to left wing, became the first CHL player to have a four-goal game this season. He hit four in a 9-3 home romp over Houston.It was the Golden Eagles&rsquo; second hat trick of the week, as rookie right wing Bobby Crawford scored three in a 6-3 earlier victory at home against Indianapolis. It was his second hat trick of the young season.All told, the line of center Doug Palazzari, left wing Hess and right wing Tony Currie accounted for 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in three starts. The Eagles made it two straight over Houston with a 52 decision the next night.Hess&rsquo; three goals in the first period tied a franchise record, as did his four in one game. It was the Eagles&rsquo; first four-goal performance since Brian Ogilvie and Floyd Thomson did it a week apart in Nov. 1978.Currie had two goals to complement Crawford&rsquo;s three in the victory. Palazzari scored two and Currie one while Hess was having his big night. Then Palazzari got another in the rematch with Houston, although Len Frig was the scoring hero that night with a pair.The Birds&rsquo; three straight victories in their Salt Palace brought their home record to 9-3. The fact they were in first place in the CHL West (by two points over Tulsa) could be traced to their 7-6-2 record on the road. Jack Evans&rsquo; club was the only one of five Western Division teams with a road record above. 500.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01349/4275639-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="562" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body">Birmingham&rsquo;s Bobby Gould contributed three goals to a pair of Bulls&rsquo; triumphs.</figcaption></div>OKLAHOMA CITY: Injuries took their toll of Ted Hampson&rsquo;s Stars. At one point they were down to 11 skaters, but they pulled off an 8-3 victory in Cincinnati. Earlier they had fallen in Houston, 4-1, and in overtime in Tulsa, 4-3.Forced out of their Myriad by a rodeo for 27 days, the Stars were playing nine straight games on the road. They were 2-6 for this grind, with one road test remaining before their return to the Myriad. With no ice available in OC, Hampson had to take his men on the road for practices.Center Joe Contini was out with a possible broken arm. Center Jon Fontas missed some games with a pulled stomach muscle, but returned to duty. Defencemen Cal Sandback (ruptured thigh muscle) and Don Jackson (separated shoulder) weren&rsquo;t expected back till January, and right wing Dan Chicoine was in Minnesota for shoulder therapy.Left wing Tony White was the big gun in the barrage at Cincinnati. He scored twice in the first period, then clinched his hat trick with a power play goal only 27 seconds into the second. Fred Ahem had a pair of tallies.DALLAS: John Choyce&rsquo;s Black Hawks found the winning touch at home, although they were still having troubles on the road. They were scoring goals in bunches, but sometimes giving them up in the same way.They blew a five-goal lead at home against Houston, before rookie left wing Dave Ross scored the tying and winning goals for an 8-7 overtime triumph. Ross, who played for Fort Wayne in the International League last winter, tied the game with only 19 seconds on the clock, after Choyca had lifted goalie Ken Ellacott. Then Ross got the winning goal after 3:14 of overtime to complete his hat trick.A 3-3 tie in Fort Worth and a 42 home win over the same archrivals gave the Hawks a 3-1-2 advantage in the 16-game turnpike rivalry.FORT WORTH: The Texans don&rsquo;t believe in 60-minute hockey games. Five out of six went into overtime in 11 days. They had a 54 victory in Indianapolis first: a 65 loss in the same city two days later; a 5-5 tie in Dallas the next day (followed by a 6-2 loss in regulation play in Houston): then came home for rallying ties against Tulsa the next week (4-4) and against Dallas, 3-3. They played a full-length game in Dallas the next night and lost, 4-2.That left the last-place Texans with a string of six games without a victory, four of them on the road.Two down after one period against Tulsa, the Texans started their comeback with John McCa-hill&rsquo;s goal. But Tulsa made it 3-1 before Nelson Pyatt scored for Fort Worth.Gary Dillon&rsquo;s penalty shot at 10:07 of the third period, and Merlin Malinowski&rsquo;s goal 56 seconds later, forced the overtime, during which neither team could score.Against Dallas, the Texans were down 3-1 early in the second stanza, but Archie Henderson, Dillon and Dan Watson all tallied in the period, and the teams fought through the next 30 seconds scoreless. It was Fort Worth&rsquo;s eighth overtime game of the season. &#9632;

f0031-01

Bulls, Stars Prove Tough To Top Even With Understaffed Lineups

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01361/4275677-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="575" height="872"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02279/4275670-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="571" height="867"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richard Jamieson, top, hit a low point in his career when he was fired as Milwaukee coach. Brian Kinsella, below, was riding high as the IHL&rsquo;s top goal-getter after scoring a hat trick for Port Huron.</figcaption></div>MILWAUKEE&mdash;Don Perry turned it around. Richard Jamieson didn&rsquo;t. Perry is still around. Jamieson isn&rsquo;t.The simple comparison is the simple truth about life for coaches in the International Hockey League. Or any league for that matter. When a team doesn&rsquo;t produce, you don&rsquo;t fire the team. You fire the coach.That&rsquo;s what happened to Jamieson in the wake of a prolonged losing sequence for his Milwaukee Admirals. The Admirals won just once over a 14-game span and while Jamieson promised a &ldquo;wholesale shakeup&rdquo;, it&rsquo;s doubtful if he expected to be the first to leave.Meanwhile, Perry regrouped his Saginaw Gears following a dressing down from owner Wren Blair. The Gears responded with a five-game winning streak and a climb from fourth place in the north division to a tie for second. Perry is smiling again.Before getting his notice, Jamieson had taken steps to reverse the Admiral trend. He negotiated a two-for-one trade with the Flint Generals. In exchange for center Bob Sauve, the Admirals got right wing Dan Selissen and center Dan Kreiner.Ironically, Jamieson&rsquo;s last game as coach was against Saginaw. The Gears whipped the Admirals, 5-1, extending the latest Milwaukee losing streak to six. The decision on Jamieson may have been made somewhat earlier, however. Two straight home losses to Kalamazoo (11-5) and north division tailender Muskegon (3-2) preceded road losses at Fort Wayne and Saginaw, both by 5-1 scores.Assistant general manager Phill Wittliff, who played for the Admirals for five seasons, was named to coach Milwaukee for the balance of the season.Saginaw&rsquo;s winning streak is most impressive as it includes two straight on the road&mdash;and by convincing margins. The Gears won at Dayton, 7-2, and at Toledo, 7-3.George Kotsopoulos, Brian Coates and Greg Foy have been the major contributors during the streak. The line has been responsible for 27 points over the five games. Goalie Bob Forese has also been a major factor. He has cut his goals against average to a very respectable 3.48.Elsewhere in the IHL:KALAMAZOO: A recent slump was just that for the defending Turner Cup champions. The K-Wings lost but once while posting a 3-1 record and increasing their lead in the north division to three points over Port Huron and Saginaw.During the run, the K-Wings exploded for 38 goals while holding the opposition to 18. The only loss was a 4-3 thriller on the road at Saginaw.Jody Gage set the pattern with a four-goal effort as the K-Wings won at Milwaukee, 11-5. Other victories were over Dayton, 10-4, and Toledo, 8-2. Jean Chouinard closed out the week with the three-goal hat trick in the win over Toledo.PORT HURON: Coach Doug Hinton is convinced the Flags play better when the games come in bunches. During a rather light three-game stretch the Flags managed just one victory and a tie &lsquo;losing the third. Past performance indicate the Flags are more successful during tour-game weeks and that&rsquo;s next on the agenda.The stretch did have its good signs. The Flags have the ability to bounce back when they fall behind. What Hinton wants to change is the falling behind bit.One player who isn&rsquo;t falling behind is veteran Brian Kinsella. He pumped in three more goals to raise his league-leading total to 24.FLINT: General managercoach Marc Boileau doesn&rsquo;t believe in standing pat. He ended a 2-1-1 game stretch by completing a trade with Milwaukee and more promises in the making as he mapped plans to improve the Generals&rsquo; fourth-place lodge in the north division.Flint isn&rsquo;t that far back, actually. First place is only four points away. Second place is just one point beyond. But Boileau&rsquo;s goal extends beyond his reach.The trade gave Flint center Bob Sauve in exchange for Dan Kriener and Dave Selissen.MUSKEGON: Manager-coach Gerry Moore added some help to the Mohawk roster by luring defenseman Dave Miglia out of retirement. Miglia also played for Saginaw during his IHL career. In two seasons with the Mohawks, the five-foot-nine, 197-pound native of Montreal scored 18 goals and had 51 assists. He also logged 393 minutes in penalties.The Mohawks&rsquo; picked up three points with a 3-2 win at Milwaukee and an 8-8 tie at Port Huron. The lone loss was a 3-1 decision at home against Flint as general goalie Gord Garbutt kicked out 38 shots.FORT WAYNE: The Komets&rsquo; extended their unbeaten string to 10 games with a pair of victories and a 5-5 tie at Grand Rapids. During the streak the Komets nave opened up a comfortable, eightpoint lead over second-place Toledo.Dave Norris has joined the veterans Terry McDougall and Al Dumba to give the Komets one of their most potent lines. Norris has scored seven goals in the 10 games since he returned. McDougall and Dumba have each gone 10 games with at least one point.TOLEDO: Trainer Jon Smith is the busiest man on the Goaldigger roster right now. Injuries have almost overwhelmed Gregg Pilling&rsquo;s forces who were 1-2-1 and still skating behind Fort Wayne in the south division. The Diggers do have a secure hold on the No. 2 spot as third-place Dayton is eight points in arrears.The injury list includes veteran Joe Nathe, knee; Brent Woolsey, shoulder; Tony Horvath, knee.In addition, the Diggers lost goalie Sam St. Laurent with an injury and when he&rsquo;s healthy he&rsquo;ll report to the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League.Scoring leader Fred Berry has a bruised shoulder and rookie defenseman Mike McCann a swollen knee.DAYTON: The Gems ended a three-game road trip by ending a five-game losing streak. The victory came in Flint by a 5-3 score with Butch Eakins breaking a 3-3 tie and Jim Misiner cementing the victory with an open net goal at 19:46.Earlier, general manager Keith Sprunk had a lengthy meeting with coach Bill Selman who, in turn, met with each of the players.GRAND RAPIDS: Injuries have also contributed to the Owls&rsquo; problems as they skated 0-2-1 for the week. But the tie was significant. It came against Fort Wayne in the final minutes as the Owls&rsquo; scored twice to bounce back from a 5-3 deficit. &#9632;

f0032-01

Slumping Admirals Fire Coach; K-Wings Continue To Fly High

<div class="byline">BY JOHN JAMES</div>JOHNSTOWN&mdash;In many ways, Bill Beagan&rsquo;s first visit to Johnstown last summer resembled a 19th century medicine, man.That grizzled old codger steered his rickety wagon, driven by a pair of half-dead nags into a town, shouting that he had an elixir that would prolong life and cure whatever ills you might have at that moment.The only cure that the vile tasting stuff held was for the old fella&rsquo;s financial plight. A warm bed and a bottle of whiskey to curl up with came pretty cheap in those days.Beagan also stormed into Johnstown, peddling an elixir. His potion wasn&rsquo;t designed to cure the gout or restore hair to a balding head. The 41-year-old Canadian Army veteran, who is the new commissioner of the Eastern Hockey League, felt that he had the cure for ailing hockey franchises.There were no brown bottles and no magic wands. Beagan talked in terms of markets, advertising, community chemistry and media relations. Those were terms that businessmen understood. It was all part of a proven formula. But, it had been relatively new to the world of minor-league sports.For the most part, minor league hockey has been as financially successful as that 19th century panhandler. On good years, a franchise might pull in enough bucks to break even. Businessmen funnelled their money into the club as gestures of community spirit.But, Beagan would have no part of masochistic owners. He preached that money could be made at a minor league level and that he had a plan to raise the young league out of pools of red ink and onto solid financial footing.The then North Eastern Hockey League had been the brainchild of veteran hockey administrtor Johnny Mitchell. Mitchell had the intestinal fortitude to rebuild Johnstown&rsquo;s hockey franchise following the devasting flood of July 20, 1977. A year ago Mitchell, not only put together a hockey team, but gave it a league to play in&mdash;the NEHL.But, last season owners at Erie, Utica, Cape Cod, Hampton and Johnstown lost money hand over foot. After seeking new investors in his hockey club, Mitchell was forced to fold the Johnstown tent.When Beagan arrived in Johnstown last summer, the Friendly City entry in the NEHL, since renamed the Eastern League because Beagan deemed the NEHL as too provincial a moniker, was no longer in existence.Beagan made it clear that he wanted Johnstown to again become a part of the Eastern League.Beagan isn&rsquo;t a fancy-dressed, Madison Avenue styled salesman. He has a solid hock-ey background and a success story that captured nationwide attention.At the age of 31 and on the recommendation of then National Hockey League president Clarence Campbell. Beagan was hired to take over the task of revitalizing the International Hockey League.When Beagan arrived on the scene, the IHL was a weak six-team league that had been operated out of a back room at the Toledo, Ohio Arena by an owner who also served as a part-time commissioner. His first order of business was to move the league files&mdash;all 14 of them&mdash;to Windsor, Ont. The rest is history. The IHL now represents the most successful minor-hockey league operation in North America.The sale of an IHL franchise realized the owners a tidy profit of $593,000.When Beagan took over the helm of the Eastern League last May, he announced a three-phase plan that would eventually find the EHL as a solid 10-team league in 1981-1982.Phase One of his plan was to completely reorganize the EHL for the 1979-80 season. Beagan had franchises in Erie, Utica, Hampton and Richmond Va., the former Cape Cod entry. He wanted to re-establish a team in Johnstown and add a sixth team by fall.Phase Two will see two more teams added by next season. Phase Three will produce Beagan&rsquo;s 10-team league.But, Beagan had immediate plans.&ldquo;I want to be able to maintain six solid franchises,&rdquo; he explained early last summer. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s my first and most important priority. Also, I want the establishment of a league office and support personnel. I want to market the league and have some type of long range planning.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03188/4275708-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="553" height="856"><figcaption class="caption-body">EHL commissioner Bill Beagan said he will feel that his first league season was a success only after the teams post their bonds to return next year.</figcaption></div>Bill felt it imperative that his league obtain strong working ties with the National Hockey League.After a series of hard negotiations, Beagan orchestrated an agreement in Johnstown that found the Detroit Red Wings assuming the majority interest in the club with a local group picking up the minority investment. The package worked out by the Detroit and Johnstown groups also included the Red Wings&rsquo; new interest in the promotional efforts at the Cambria County War Memorial, not only ice hockey but all professional events.Once the respected Red Wings has shown their faith in his efforts and in the new league, other NHL teams began to take an interest in obtaining working agreements with the EHL. The Minnesota North Stars were willing to go into Baltimore with virtually the same setup as Detroit had in Johnstown.Beagan found local ownership in Baltimore and the deal with the North Stars was finalized. The other EHL teams, spurred on by Beagan&rsquo;s airport phone calls, continued to work at their own ends.Defending champion Erie secured working agreements with Quebec, the New York Islanders and Buffalo. Utica signed an agreement with the Hartford Whalers. Hampton renewed a strong tie with the Philadelphia Flyers. Richmond was added as an important farm team for the New York Rangers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ecstatic,&rdquo; and Beagan, following the closing of the Baltimore-North Stars deal. &ldquo;I feel like I just put the flag on top of Mount Everest. This is just the beginning of a great league.&rdquo;Each club has put their efforts into not just survival, but establishing their clubs as money-making ventures. The teams have mounted heavy season-ticket and advertising campaigns. Beagan has admitted that the EHL is way ahead of the IHL success story.Still, while the future of the EHL won&rsquo;t be determined until the turnstiles start clicking, the league has gotten off to a strong start for the 1979-80 season.Beagan will consider it a successful first year when the owners sit down in May and plunk over their entry fees for the 1980-81 campaign.Then Phase Two will have begun. &#9632;

f0032-03

Bill Beagan: EHL’s ‘Miracle Worker’

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSRICHMOND&mdash;No hockey team is unbeatable, but coach Andre Beaulieu&rsquo;s Richmond Rifles could be the closest thing to perfection one could find in the Eastern Hockey League.Hand picked by the New York Rangers as coach of the Rifles, Beaulieu came to training camp with concrete plans on how to make Richmond a winner and with the season almost at its half-way point the mentor has his club solidly in first place. Owners of a slick 17-3-4 record, the Rifles ran their unbeaten streak to 17 games before they were inflicted a 2-1 loss by the Erie Blades.Beaulieu has reaped plenty of success from teaching his players the European style of hockey. There is no room on the Rifles for flashy individuals and anyone who came to Richmond with those thoughts quickly found themselves looking for employment elsewhere. &ldquo;The reason for our team&rsquo;s success is that everybody is working together to achieve one goal,&rdquo; related Rifles&rsquo; general manager Sandy Reiss. &ldquo;Andre&rsquo;s style of team play makes use of all 17 players on the roster and he&rsquo;s gotten 100 per cent from everyone on the club.&rdquo;Also attributed to the club&rsquo;s prosperity is the conditioning program which all of the players follow very closely. Beaulieu is very adamant about his feelings on conditioning and the results can be plainly seen by the fact that many times during their streak, the Rifles rallied in the third period to post come-from-behind wins. &ldquo;The team is constantly working out to improve their upper body strength and we have an excellent office program for the players to follow.&rdquo; said Reiss.Having a good working agreement doesn&rsquo;t hurt the Rifles either and according to Reiss, the Rangers made several promises before the season and they have really come through with fine quality players. &ldquo;We worked with several clubs and the Rangers are by far the best team to work with,&rdquo; noted the Rifle GM. &ldquo;They are really a class organization. They promised they would work closely with us and they have backed that up completely.&rdquo;Beaulieu is extremely happy with the performances of his two goalies and five defensemen who have limited the opposition to under three goals per outing. Defensemen Marion Feter, Rick Slawson, Ron Twiss, Greg Wilkie and Bob Grant anchor the back line, while Tom Semenchuk and Cap Raeder have turned in sparkling showings all year in the nets.Semenchuk, who last year toiled for New Westminster, has won nine straight games since losing his debut. His stats include one shutout and a glossy 2.60 goals against average. Veteran Raeder has responded well to the alternating role in posting a goals against mark of under 3.00 with an 8-2-4 record.The Richmond offense takes a backseat to no one in the league as they produce an average of five goals a game. Lawrie Nisker continues to be the top point man in the EHL as he leads a quartet of Rifles currently occupying the top ten in scoring.Nisker has accumulated 44 points, while Kent Reardon has 41 and Alex Jeans 37. Mike Clarke, a standout with the Flint. Generals, the past four seasons, has been equally impressive with Richmond as he has racked up 24 points in only 14 games. Clarke pumped in two goals in a 7-4 win over Baltimore that featured 188 minutes in, penalties.Mike LaBianca, John Corriveau, Mike Shields, Kevin Street, Mike Brown, Frank Roy and Paul Barrett are other players who have made the Rifles the team to beat in the EHL.Richmond hasn&rsquo;t been exactly hurting at the gate either with an average attendance being 3,419 for the first 12 games. The attendance for the first 12 games this year in Richmond is more than the total attendance for the entire season a year ago in Cape Cod where the Reiss family owned a North Eastern League franchise. Another big drawing card at Rifle home games has been 25 cent beverage night on Wednesday which has hiked the crowd more than 1,000 every Wednesday.HAMPTON: Coach Muzz Macpherson feels fortunate that his club&rsquo;s goals against average has been decreased, but he is still searching for someone who can really put the puck in the net. 3-3-1 in their last seven games, the Aces dropped a pair of 3-2 games to Johnstown and Erie which were the seventh and eighth one-goal losses for MacPherson&rsquo;s crew this year.Hampton&rsquo;s lone victory was a 42 decision of Utica with four different players denting the nets. The Aces lack of offense can be seen in the fact that their only scorer in the top 20 is Richard Duguay with 21 points. Brian Gustafson is the top penalty man in the league with 159 minutes.ERIE: The Blades picked up some important ground on Richmond with a six game unbeaten streak that finally ended with a 6-3 road loss in Baltimore.Coach Nick Polano felt his charges looked the best they have all year in dominating the Red Wings 8-1 at home, Erie continuing their skein with a 5-3 home win over the Mohawks a 3-2 road triumph in Hampton. The Blades bounced back from the Clipper defeat by scoring a 2-1 verdict over the Rifles on the road, the first time Erie has topped Richmond in four tries.Pierre LaGace, off to a slow start, got untracked against the Wings by scoring a hat trick and an assist. Stan Gulutzan continued his fine recent display with his second hat trick in three nights in a fight-marred game with the Mohawks. With 16 points in his last five games, Gulutzan is the hottest player in the division and earned Erie a come-from-behind victory over Hampton with a third period goal. Polano is also pleased with the output of center Ron Hansis., who set up all three goals in the Hampton game.UTICA: Coach Larry Mickey liked what he saw as he watched his Mohawks explode for their biggest offensive production of the season in defeating Johnstown, 106. Ed Smith and C. D. MacGregor turned in hat tricks for the Mohawks, Smith getting his second this year which is tied for league leadership. Three assists by Bob Ferguson and two apiece by Dean Willers and Paul Conway contributed to the win.Newcomer Dave Walters impressed Mickey in his first game in a Utica uniform by picking up a goal and three assists. The defenseman is on a five game tryout.Utica had their problems on the road in coming up on the short end of a 4-2 decision in Hampton and a 5-3 game in Erie. A bench clearing brawl in Erie led to two game suspensions for Ray Kurpis and Tom Jacobs.Mickey is anxiously awaiting the return of Ken Yackel and Bob Beatty from the injury list. Yachel had been slowed by a severe ankle sprain since Nov. 10, while defenseman Beatty has resumed skating, but cannot shoot because of his mending shoulder.JOHNSTOWN: Defensemen are hard to come by for Red Wings coach Marty Read. The backliners are an unlucky breed in the Flood City since it seems as soon as they suit up in a Johnstown uniform they suffer injuries. Al Stoneman, Harry Shaw and Lorry Gloeckner are three of the latest casualties.The Red Wings suffered an embarrassing 10-6 loss in Utica, but Read was hard pressed with only two defensemen available. Other forwards were forced to the back line to play for the first time in their careers and had problems as would be expected. Help should be coming soon for the Johnstown defense.Read&rsquo;s club was pounded by Erie 8-1, but high scoring Dave MacQueen had two goals and Brian Shmyr two assists in a 3-2 nod over Hampton. Pierre Tremblay notched two goals, MacQueen a goal and an assist and Dave Starkey picked up two assists, but Johnstown fell to Baltimore 6-3.MacQueen, now third in the scoring race and gaining fast, chalked up a goal and two more assists in the 10-6 loss in Utica. Randy Betty and Starkey have totalled 23 points each in playing significant offensive roles with the Wings.BALTIMORE: Holding down third place, the Clippers are hoping to make their move with several home games scheduled for January. Forced to play 14 of their first 20 on the highways, Baltimore will enjoy 14 of their next 22 contests on home ice.Henry Taylor has become Baltimore&rsquo;s chief offensive weapon as the lightning quick forward moved into fifth place on the EHL scoring parade. Taylor canned two reg lighters in a 7-4 loss in Richmond and recorded his second shorthanded goal against Erie. Dave Herbst sealed a 6-3 win with a pair of third period goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01327/4275739-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="560" height="712"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richmond coach Andre Beaulieu has assembled a powerful hockey club in the Rifles. They have an imposing 17-3-4 record.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

Hot Shot Rifles Almost Unbeatable In Race

ATLANTA: Rautakallio 3, Boldirev 11, 12,13, Plan 5, 6, Chouinard I, Rota 4.BOSTON: Smith 4, Secord 9, Ratelle 14, 15, Redmond 6, 7, Middleton 13, O&rsquo;Reilly 10, Miller 7, McNab 16, 17, Sonoin 1, Wensink 7, Lalonde 3, Milbury 3, Jonathan 4.BUFFALO: Perreault 18, 19, 20, Seiling 9, 10, McKegney 8, Dudley 3, Gare 10, 19, 20, Smith 13, 14, Schoenfeld 4.CHICAGO: Daigle 3, 4, Mulvey 15, 14, 17, Ruskowski 8, Lysiak 8, Preston 9, Wilson 4.COLORADO: Robert 13, Hickey 8, McEwen 6, 7, 8, Gillis 1, Berry 4, Delorme 10, 11, Kitchen 1.DETROIT: Nedomansky 21, 22, Labraaten 11, Thompson 16, Foligno 9, 10, Sobchuk 3.EDMONTON. Gretzky M, IS, 14, 17, MacDonald 21, Hicks 4, Weir 13, Chipperfield 7, 8, Callighen 10, Messier 4.HARTFORD. Stoughton 19, 20,21, Douglas 10, 11, Sims 5, Debol 1, 2, Alley 1.LOS ANGELES: Taylor 20, 21, 22, Simmer 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, Dionne 24, 27, Manery 1, Apps 2, Jensen 12, Kelly 1, Wilson 1.MINNESOTA: MacAdam 13, 14, 15, 16, Eaves 4, Payne 21, Smith 1, Fidler 3, Sharpley 14, Polich 4.MONTREAL: Larouche 23, 24, 25, 26, Shun 17, 18, Lafleur 25, 26, 27, Savard 4, S, Napier S, 4, Mondou 11, Lambert 5, 4, Risebrough 3.ISLANDERS: Bourne 4, 5, Gillies 8, Bossy 17, Howatt 3.RANGERS: Johnstone 5, Greschner 9, 10, Hedberg 19, Murdoch 14, 15, 14, Marois 4, 5, Vickers 14, 15, Miller 2.PHILADELPHIA: Wilson 2, Linseman 10, Clarke 4, Barber 17, 18, Watson 2, Kelly 5, Propp 15, 14, Gorence 2.PITTSBURGH: Stackhouse 2, Schutt 7, Faubert 1, Anderson 2.QUEBEC: Stewart 5, 6, Leduc 12, Real Cloutier 21, 22, 23, Thomas 3, 4, Hislop 4.ST. LOUIS: Zuke 4, 7, 8, Chapman 8, 9, 10, Sutter 10, Brownschidie 4, 7, Patey 4, S, Lefley 3, Simpson 2.TORONTO: Salming 9, Turnbull 1, 2, 3, McDonald 14, Saganiuk 4, Williams 16, Boschman 7, Anderson 7, Hotham 3, Martin 1.VANCOUVER: Fraser S, Derlago 7, Lever 15, Bliglmal 11, 12, McCarthy 4.WASHINGTON: Picard 2, Svensson 2, Walter 7, 8, Gartner 9, Rowe 10.WINNIPEG Sullivan 17, Lukowich 14, Lindstrom 15, Riley 1, Stamler 7, Marsh 10. &#9632;

NHL’S SCORERS THIS WEEK

<h2>DECEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1814/4276049-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="551" height="724"></div><h2>JANUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1913/4276042-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="546" height="300"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2012/4276035-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="560" height="1110"></div> &#9632;

f0034-18

WHERE NHL TEAMS PLAY

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-258/4276080-1-eng-US/f0034-252.jpg" title="f0034-25" width="542" height="697"></div> &#9632;

f0034-25

The Point Race…

(Standings on Wed. Dec. 24)<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2111/4276132-1-eng-US/f0034-212.jpg" title="f0034-21" width="548" height="145"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2210/4276125-1-eng-US/f0034-222.jpg" title="f0034-22" width="540" height="131"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-239/4276118-1-eng-US/f0034-232.jpg" title="f0034-23" width="542" height="127"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2410/4276111-1-eng-US/f0034-242.jpg" title="f0034-24" width="540" height="148"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon., Dec. 17Toronto 1 at Minnesota 5Tue., Dec. 18Colorado 2 at Islanders 3Montreal 3 at St. Louis 5Wed., Dec. 19Vancouver 3 at Rangers 5Washington 4 at Hartford 5Montreal 2 at Minnesota 5Pittsburgh 0 al Chicago 0Detroit 6 at Edmonton 4Los Angeles 4 at Toronto 4Buffalo 3 at Winnipeg 2Colorado 3 at Quebec 6Thurs., Dec. 20Pittsburgh 1 at Philadelphia 1Los Angeles 3 at Buffalo 5Toronto 0 at Boston 10Fri., Dec. 21SI. Louis 5 at Atlanta 1Vancouver 1 at Washington 2Chicago 1 at Winnipeg 4Edmonton 4 at Colorado 5Sat. Dec. 22Rangers 4 at Pittsburgh 3Washington 1 at Islanders 2Philadelphia 5 at Boston 2Atlanta 7 at St. Louis 3Vancouver 2 at Montreal 4Buffalo 4 at Hartford 2Detroit 1 at Toronto 2Edmonton 3 at Los Angeles 9Quebec at Minnesota (ppd)Sun., Dec. 23Boston 4 at Rangers 3Islanders 0 at Chicago 8Hartford 2 at Philadelphia 4Toronto 4 at Montreal 8Quebec 3 at Buffalo 1 &#9632;

f0034-21

NHL SCOREBOARD

<h2>Mon. Dec. 17 TORONTO 1, MINNESOTA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02289/4275980-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="517" height="816"></div><h2>Tues. Dec. 18 COLORADO 2, ISLANDERS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03208/4275973-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="525" height="535"></div><h2>MONTREAL 3, ST. LOUIS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04129/4275966-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="538" height="630"></div><h2>Wed. Dec. 19 VANCOUVER 3, RANGERS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0589/4275959-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="542" height="629"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 4, HARTFORD 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0664/4275952-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="540" height="675"></div><h2>MONTREAL 2, MINNESOTA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0756/4275945-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="584" height="592"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 0, CHICAGO 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0849/4275938-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="582" height="410"></div><h2>DETROIT 6, EDMONTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0939/4275931-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="570" height="632"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 4, TORONTO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1037/4275924-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="560" height="710"></div><h2>BUFFALO 3, WINNIPEG 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1132/4275917-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="528" height="612"></div><h2>COLORADO 3, QUEBEC 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1230/4275910-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="526" height="702"></div><h2>Thun. Dec. 20 PITTSBURGH 1, PHILADELPHIA 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1324/4275903-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="572" height="504"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 3, BUFFALO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1421/4275896-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="554" height="592"></div><h2>TORONTO 0, BOSTON 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1520/4275889-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="554" height="649"></div><h2>Fri. Dec. 21 ST. LOUIS 5, ATLANTA 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1620/4275882-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="562" height="456"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 1, WASHINGTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1715/4275875-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="581" height="579"></div><h2>CHICAGO 1, WINNIPEG 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02270/4275868-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="556" height="481"></div><h2>EDMONTON 4, COLORADO S</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03200/4275861-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="558" height="604"></div><h2>Sat. Dec. 22 RANGERS 4, PITTSBURGH 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04159/4275854-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="598" height="596"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 1, ISLANDERS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05122/4275847-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="558" height="456"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 5, BOSTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06103/4275840-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="560" height="628"></div><h2>ATLANTA 7, ST. LOUIS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0794/4275833-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="551" height="694"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 2, MONTREAL 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0876/4275826-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="542" height="670"></div><h2>BUFFALO 4, HARTFORD 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-0972/4275819-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="552" height="584"></div><h2>DETROIT 1, TORONTO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1062/4275812-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="544" height="456"></div><h2>EDMONTON 3, LOS ANGELES 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1157/4275805-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="546" height="742"></div><h2>Sun. Dec. 23 BOSTON 4, RANGERS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1248/4275798-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="572" height="608"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 0, CHICAGO 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1342/4275791-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="546" height="733"></div><h2>HARTFORD 2, PHILADELPHIA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1431/4275784-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="547" height="529"></div><h2>TORONTO 4, MONTREAL 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1527/4275777-1-eng-US/f0035-152.jpg" title="f0035-15" width="536" height="694"></div><h2>QUEBEC 3 BUFFALO 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1625/4275770-1-eng-US/f0035-162.jpg" title="f0035-16" width="539" height="460"></div> &#9632;

f0034-02

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01335/4276163-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div>&mdash;C&mdash;Captain &#9632;

f0035-01

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Dec. 26)<h3>Northern Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02237/4276299-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="562" height="145"></div><h3>Southern Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03173/4276292-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="535" height="275"></div>1-Nova Scotia. 4-New Haven. 5-Adlrondack. 7-Malne. 14-Rochester. 16-Hershey. 19-Sprinofleld. 22-New Brunswick. 23-Binghamton. 24-Syra-cuse.<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Dec. 19Nova Scotia 5 at Adirondack 4Fri. Dec. 21Nova Scotia 6 at Binghamton 5Rochester 0 at New Haven 4New Brunswick 1 at Syracuse 4Sat. Dec. 22New Brunswick 3 at Adirondack 4Rochester 3 at Hershey 6Nova Scotia 4 at Maine 3Binghamton 5 at Springfield 4Sun. Dec. 23Springfield 2 at Binghamton 1Syracuse 2 at New Haven 4<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Dec. 26)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04104/4276285-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="544" height="402"></div>9-Salt Lake. 10-Oklahoma City. 12-Indlanapolis. 13-Dallas. 15-Birmlng-ham. 17-Fort Worth. 18-Houston. 19-Cincinnati. 21-Tulsa.<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Dec. 18Oklahoma City 10 at Cincinnati 1Birmingham 3 at Dallas 3Wed. Dec. 19Fort Worth 4 at Houston 5Salt Lake 5 at Oklahoma City 4Birmingham 3 at Tulsa 3Fri. Dec. 21Indianapolis 2 at Birmingham 5Houston 1 at Fort Worth 5Salt Lake 1 at Oklahoma City 2Dallas 5 at Tulsa 4Sat. Dec. 22Indianapolis 1 at Birmingham 2Dallas 4 at Fort Worth 6Salt Lake 4 at Houston 4Tulsa 5 at Oklahoma City 0Sun. Dec. 23Houston 1 at Indianapolis 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0570/4276278-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="540" height="294"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Dec. 24)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0652/4276271-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="551" height="152"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0748/4276264-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="547" height="276"></div>5-Kalamazoo. 7-Toledo. 20-Milwaukee. 25-Davton. 26-Flint. 27-Fort Wayne. 28-Grand Rapids. 29-Muskegon. 30-Port Huron. 31-Saginaw.<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Dec. 19Port Huron 5 at Toledo 2Saginaw 7 at Milwaukee 3Fri. Dec. 21Saginaw 1 at Flint 1Fort Wayne 1 at Kalamazoo 4Dayton 6 at Toledo 2Muskegon 10 at Milwaukee 5Port Huron 3 at Grand Rapids7Sat. Dec. 22Port Huron 3 at Fort Wayne 6Saginaw 5 at Muskegon 5Kalamazoo 4 at Dayton 1Grand Rapids 8 at Toledo 1Flint 5 at Milwaukee 5Sun. Dec. 23Grand Rapids 2 at Dayton 3Milwaukee 6 at Flint 4Muskegon 2 at Saginaw 4Toledo 0 at Kalamazoo 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0843/4276257-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="550" height="394"></div><h2>EASTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Thu. Dec. 27)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0937/4276250-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="533" height="265"></div>4-Richmond. 5-Johnstown. 10-Balti-more. 32-Erie. 33-Hampton. 34-Utica.<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Dec. 19Hampton 2 at Johnstown 5Baltimore 2 at Richmond 3Fri. Dec. 21Johnstown 2 at RichmondUtica 2 at Erie 6Sat. Dec. 22Erie 1 at Johnstown 3Hampton 1 at Baltimore 2Sun. Dec. 23Johnstown 5 at Hampton 4Utica 2 at Baltimore 3Erie 3 at Richmond 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1034/4276243-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="549" height="276"></div><h2>NATIONAL JUNIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Dec. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1131/4276236-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="553" height="148"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1227/4276229-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="545" height="481"></div><h2>IZVESTIA TOURNAMENT</h2>Final Standings<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1324/4276222-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="560" height="146"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Finland 4, Sweden 2Finland 0, Canada 0Soviets 5, Canada 2Soviets 3, Czechoslovakia 2<h2>PRE-OLYMPIC TOURNEY</h2>Final Standings<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1420/4276215-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="546" height="144"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>U.S.A. 3, Canada 1Czechoslovakia 3, Sweden 3U.S.A. 3, Czechoslovakia 0Sweden 4, Soviets 2Sweden 8, Canada 1Czechoslovakia 3, Soviets 1<h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Dec. 12)<h3>NORTHERN CONFERENCE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1520/4276208-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="545" height="122"></div><h3>SOUTHERN CONFERENCE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1618/4276201-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="542" height="97"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1715/4276194-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="551" height="339"></div> &#9632;

f0036-02

MINOR SCOREBOARD

1&mdash;Montreal2&mdash;Chicago3&mdash;Boston4&mdash;Rangers5&mdash;Detroit6&mdash;Toronto7&mdash;Philadelphia8&mdash;Los Angeles9&mdash;St. Louis10&mdash;Minnesota11&mdash;Pittsburgh12&mdash;Islanders13&mdash;Vancouver14&mdash;Buffalo15&mdash;Atlanta16&mdash;Washington17&mdash;Colorado18&mdash;Edmonton19&mdash;Hartford20&mdash;Quebec21&mdash;Winnipeg<h2>OTHER AFFILIATIONS</h2>22&mdash;Chicago&mdash;Toronto23&mdash;Boston&mdash;Los Angeles24&mdash;Quebec&mdash;Pittsburgh25&mdash;Edmonton&mdash;Winni peg26&mdash;Montreal&mdash;Chicago27&mdash;Vancouver&mdash;Islanders28&mdash;Boston&mdash;Pittsburgh29&mdash;Atlanta&mdash;Colorado30&mdash;Washington&mdash;St. Louis31&mdash;Los Angeles&mdash;Hartford32&mdash;Que.&mdash;Islanders&mdash;Buff.33&mdash;St. Louis&mdash;Philadelphia34&mdash;Boston&mdash;Hartford &#9632;

Who They’re Affiliated With…

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1815/4276354-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="564" height="439"></div> &#9632;

f0036-18

Leading U.S. College Teams

<h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Thu. Dec. 27)<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1914/4276469-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="552" height="172"></div><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2013/4276462-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="536" height="160"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Dec 18Sault Ste. Marie 3 at Sudbury 4Niagara Falls 7 at London 6Toronto 5 at Brantford 11Thu. Dec. 20Niagara Falls 3 at Peterborough 4Brantford 11 at Windsor 6Fri. Dec. 21Sault Ste. Marie 8 at Kitchener 3Oshawa 3 at Ottawa 4Windsor 3 at Toronto 7Peterborough 3 at Niagara Falls 5Sudbury 5 at Brantford 3Sun. Dec. 23Sudbury 2 at Toronto 8Kitchener 0 at Windsor 9Sault Ste. Marie 3 at Brantford 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2112/4276455-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="551" height="633"></div><h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Dec. 28)<h3>LeBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2211/4276448-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="552" height="157"></div><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2310/4276441-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="537" height="129"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Dec. 17Shawinigan 4 at Laval 8Tue. Dec. 18Verdun 2 at Trois-Rivieres 9Wed. Dec. 19Quebec 5 at Hull 4Montreal 3 at Laval 5Chicoutimi 4 at Shawinigan 3Cornwall 6 at Sherbrooke 3Thu. Dec. 20Hull 5 at Cornwall 2Trois-Rivieres 4 at Verdun 2Sun. Dec. 23Shawinigan 3 at Chicoutimi 5Sherbrooke 7 at Hull 3Laval 4 at Montreal 8Verdun 3 at Quebec 6Cornwall 3 at Trois-Rivieres 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2410/4276434-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="563" height="271"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Dec. 26)<h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-257/4276427-1-eng-US/f0036-252.jpg" title="f0036-25" width="548" height="123"></div><h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-265/4276420-1-eng-US/f0036-262.jpg" title="f0036-26" width="560" height="242"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Dec. 18Moscow Spartak 15 at Brandon 5Wed. Dec. 19Moscow Spartak 11 at Regina 2Thu. Dec. 20Medicine Hat 5 at Brandon 3Sat. Dec. 22Victoria 3 at Portland 7Medicine Hat 5 at Saskatoon 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-275/4276413-1-eng-US/f0036-272.jpg" title="f0036-27" width="554" height="104"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-285/4276406-1-eng-US/f0036-282.jpg" title="f0036-28" width="539" height="679"></div><h2>GEORGIAN BAY LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Thu. Dec. 20)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-294/4276399-1-eng-US/f0036-292.jpg" title="f0036-29" width="577" height="197"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-303/4276392-1-eng-US/f0036-302.jpg" title="f0036-30" width="556" height="411"></div><h2>ONTARIO JUNIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Dec. 21)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-313/4276385-1-eng-US/f0036-312.jpg" title="f0036-31" width="555" height="314"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

January 4, 1980

WCHA Puts 12 Players On U.S. Junior Nationals

NHL Must Get Tough With Violence

What’s Coming…

Great Lakes Teams Set