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.

March 7, 1980

The Hockey News March 7, 1980

<div class="byline">BY DANNY YOUNG</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSCORNWALL&mdash;Good timing is something the Cornwall Royals know a lot about.Last season, the Royals played their best hockey by far during their playoff series with Verdun. And now, as the teams approach the final lap of the QMJHL race, the Royals are hot. Boiling hot!The Royals have put together a 10-game unbeaten streak (nine wins and a tie), and as a just reward, they find themselves one point out of first place. That ranking has to be a pleasant surprise for even the most devoted Cornwall supporter.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing together as a unit,&rdquo; says coach Doug Carpenter. &ldquo;We have no standouts, but no bad ones either.&ldquo;Success comes with consistency,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;If you put back-to-back wins together, you build momentum.&rdquo;When Carpenter talks of no standouts, he&rsquo;s referring to the team&rsquo;s lack of super scorers. But, although Gilles Crepeau is the only 40-plus goal scorer on the roster, there are eight others with at least 20 goals. The Royals may not have the Carbonneaus, Sauves, or Aubins, but they do have balance and depth&mdash;and according to Carpen. ter, a very healthy attitude.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a different attitude since just before Christmas,&rdquo; explained the Cornwall coach. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re enjoying our games and having fun practicing and working.&rdquo; Of course, when you&rsquo;ve only lost once in 15 games, it&rsquo;s bound to be fun. When you&rsquo;re as hot as the Royals are, everything seems to go right. Take two of Cornwall&rsquo;s recent games against weaker competition, for example.Trailing 2-0 against Laval, the Royals went on to win 4-2. Then after a 4-1 win over Trois-Rivieres, the Royals came back from a 4-0 deficit to edge Sorel 6-5.Those come-from-behind wins set the stage for a battle for second place with Chicoutimi. The Royals won it, 5-4, on three power play goals. That clutch victory gives Cornwall as good a chance as anyone to win the regular season title.&ldquo;To be truthful,&rdquo; admits Carpenter, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think we were a first place team.&rdquo;Neither did anyone else, but that just makes that much more fun for the clutch Royals.SOREL: Ron Lapointe, who started the season with Montreal, has replaced Bobby Rousseau as coach of the Hawks. Team management claimed that Rousseau was not tough enough with his players. Lapointe has coached many of the Hawk players when they were with the Lac St. Louis midget team, and therefore was a logical replacement.The Hawks were winless in three starts. They dropped a 5-3 final to Sherbrooke. Then against I Chicoutimi they gave up five consecutive goals and lost 8-3. Finally, Chris Valentine scored twice in a 6-5 setback against Cornwall.MONTREAL: The Juniors are winning consistently, but they&rsquo;re having trouble gaining ground on Cornwall who are just as hot. Gaetano Orlando scored a hat trick for the Juniors as they edged Sherbrooke 4-3. Montreal captain Jean-Pierre Dubois scored three goals to support an 8-6 win over Quebec.CHICOUTIMI: Th&egrave; Sagueneens, the leading team at the box office, broke the 100,000 mark in attendance and awarded their fans with two victories. After an 8-2 loss to Trois-Rivieres, the Sags won two games decisively, which had moved them a point ahead of Sherbrooke. Alain Lemieux and Normand Leveille each scored twice in an 8-3 defeat of Sorel. Then Gilles Hamel and Guy Carbonneau each had a hat trick to lead the Sags over Laval 12-3.HULL: The Olympics now have a great shot at seventh place overall, trailing Shawinigan by just two points. They closed the gap by winning two and tying one. After topping Quebec 3-1, Ben Laporte and Mario Chartrand picked up two apiece in a 7-7 deadlock. Then Jean Poulin and Dan Sanscartier led the Olympics to a 6-2 upset win over Trois-Rivieres. Poulin scored twice and goalie Sanscartier stopped 37 of 39 shots on goal.TROIS-RIVIERES: A big 8 2 win over Chicoutimi should have lifted the Draveurs, but they ended up losing their next two games. They fell to Cornwall 4-1 and Hull 6-2. The losses pushed them eight points out of the league lead and tour points out of third place.SHAWINIGAN: In a game against Hull, it looked as though the Cataractes were about to end their seven-game winless streak. The Cats took a 4-0 lead, and then after a Hull comeback they went ahead 7-3. But Hull came back once more and the game ended in a 7-7 stalemate. Guy Fournier and Marcel Giguere led the Shawinigan attack with two goals each.LAVAL: The Voisins lost to Cornwall 4-2, but did defeat Shawinigan 4-3. Louis Haman scored twice, including the game winner. The win was only Laval&rsquo;s twelfth of the season against 43 losses and six ties. The Voisins also lost to Chicoutimi, 12-3.QUEBEC: The Remparts continue to have their problems, particularly in the injury department, and appeared to be locked into fourth place in the Dilio division and sixth overall. They lost to Hull 3-1 and Montreal 8-6. In the latter contest Pierre Girard and Gaston Therrien each scored twice. That gave defenseman Therrien 36 goals, one away from the record set by Pierre Lacroix a year ago.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01467/5052405-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="550" height="754"><figcaption class="caption-body">Normand Leveille was one of two Sagueneens with two goals against Sorel.</figcaption></div>SHERBROOKE: By splitting two games the Beavers fell one point behind Chicoutimi, though they do have a game in hand.&rsquo; The Beavers defeated Sorel 5-3, but lost in Montreal, 4-3. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Royals Save Best For Homestretch

SPRINGFIELD&mdash;A little more than halfway through the current season, Maine Mariners were leading the box office derby. The transplanted Syracuse Firebirds were struggling, but the newcomers to the AHL in Adirondack were having a banner year in attracting fans to the Glens Falls Civic Center. Average attendances in the. league per city through January 31, 1980, were as follows:MAINE 5,275ADIRONDACK 4,737NEW HAVEN 4,029ROCHESTER 3,861NEW BRUNSWICK 3,689BINGHAMTON 3,399NOVA SCOTIA 2,877SPRINGFIELD 2,716HERSHEY 2,687SYRACUSE 2,559 &#9632;

Mariners Tops At Gate Averaging 5,000-Plus

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011069/5051417-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS<h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01940/5051410-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="596" height="845"></div><h2>GOALING STATS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02761/5051403-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="581" height="3010"></div> &#9632;

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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY MICKEY SLOWIK</div>Mickey Slowik is a New York City hockey product who starred for years with the Manhattan Arrows of the Metropolitan Hockey League. He later became one of the foremost referees in the Eastern Hockey League. Now a successful businessman on Long Island, Slowik is an office official at all NHL games played at Nassau Coliseum, and he has some unique views on the subject of overtime, which he recently revealed to freelance writer Mike Barnes.I am tickled that the National Hockey League general managers are considering the resumption of overtime play starting next season. However, I do hope they will consider some innovative changes rather than the traditional 10-minute sudden death format. My plan would combine the thrill of sudden death with the single most exciting confrontation in hockey&mdash;the penalty shot.When the fans go to a game, they want to see a winner, even if it is the visiting team. They don&rsquo;t want to sit through 60 minutes of hockey and not see a clear victor. The overtime session is a great idea, but what happens if that, too, remains tied? The game needs more.So, at the conclusion of a five-minute overtime, the public address announcer would call out the names of two players who would be allowed to take one penalty shot each. Just think of it: One shot each to decide the game. Of course, the home team would get the option of whether or not they wanted to fire first. And actually selecting who would shoot would create interest and be good for the game.We&rsquo;ve got to start doing this for the fans&rsquo; sake. They are paying as much as 12 or 14 dollars a seat to watch a game. As seat prices go up, attendance will go down. But this would keep the fans nailed to their seats until the very end. There would be no more early exits, no more disappointed fans leaving arenas pouting, &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s just another tie&hellip;.&rdquo;The penalty shot is the most exciting play in hockey. We don&rsquo;t see enough of them. With this system, we&rsquo;d surely see more. Hockey is a game of beautiful stickhandling and skating; it is poetry in motion. And what better time to see a player whisk down the ice than on a life-or-death penalty shot that could decide the outcome of a contest?I&rsquo;ve spoke to about 20 fans about the idea. They&rsquo;re all for it; every one. Hockey players and officials may be skeptical about it. But the game isn&rsquo;t for them&mdash;it&rsquo;s for the fans. The players are just actors on a stage. The hockey fan is our first and primary concern.The team that would lose in the penalty-shot format would only lose a point in the standings. The thrill of it all is worth the point. Something out of the norm would definitely be appealing and bring new fans to the game.&ldquo;Shootout&rdquo; segments are wonderfully exciting, the classic confrontation between shooter and goaltender. With this format you might go to a hockey game and see just that. This twin overtime idea would give the fans something of everything. It&rsquo;s likely you won&rsquo;t hear them say: &ldquo;Oh, it was just another tie&hellip;&rdquo; &#9632;

Overtime With New Twist

Danny Gare went into the 1979-80 NHL season a little wary of what was ahead for him. He had one of those years last season that he would sooner forget. But now he hopes it&rsquo;s all behind him as he leads the Sabres in their quest for the NHL&rsquo;s regular season title. The Sabres claim he&rsquo;s the Danny Gare of old this year under new coach Scotty Bowman and next week in THE HOCKEY NEWS correspondent Dick Johnston will outline, in a special page 3 feature, how the Buffalo captain has managed to turn it around.It&rsquo;s make-or-break time in college hockey as the regular season schedules wind towards a close. We&rsquo;ll have reports from the ECAC, WCHA and CCHA on who&rsquo;s getting home ice and who&rsquo;s not going to be around for the playoffs, as well as the initial results from Canadian college post-season action. &#9632;

What’s Coming…

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011229/5050500-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="287" height="372"></div><h2>The Fans Always Write</h2>LETTERS, LETTERS, we get stacks and stacks of letters. Many of them are cold enough to make snow. Others are hot enough to melt it.&hellip;Dear Mr. Verdi,Why do you continue your tiresome tirades against fighting in hockey? There are plenty of more amusing, interesting topics you could write about. Why tamper with the time-tested tradition of fighting that is harmless and adds color to the game? The main problem seems to be certain areas of the United States where violence on ice equals busy turnstiles. Hockey can be sold in Canada with or without fighting. The United States? No way.Danny Broza Nakina, Ont.When you say that the sport can be sold in Canada without fighting, you merely echo the exact point we have been making in our &ldquo;tiresome tirades.&rdquo; As for violence being marketable in the United States, when you say that, you are wrong. Check National Hockey League attendance figures the last few years. If you have time, also check the number of youngsters who aren&rsquo;t playing hockey anymore.What is your opinion of the recent trial of former NHL president Clarence Campbell? Is he a criminal?Ron Dutton New York, N.Y.The story on Mr. Campbell is indeed regrettable. For decades, he has stood for integrity. For him to represent anything but, for him to get within miles of a prison for anything but a visit, is unthinkable. The NHL, its image tarnished time and again, has had a few bigwigs in jail. But Mr. Campbell? Let&rsquo;s change the subject.&hellip;If you would, forget all the &ldquo;fans&rdquo; who insist on putting down your column. I don&rsquo;t see eye-to-eye with you on every matter, but the fact that you don&rsquo;t take the company line is much appreciated.Vince Hoyt Ft.&nbsp; Bragg, N.C.I knew I had a fan someplace. Please write often.<h2>Fights Are Exciting</h2>IF FIGHTING WERE eliminated from hockey, as you suggest, the games would be almost boring. The goals by Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne are exciting to watch, but a good fight between Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and Tiger Williams is a lot more exciting than that.I think the slashing and the violent work with the stick should have severe penalties. But to take out fighting would mean loss of fans and loss of publicity.Guy Thompson Miami, Fla.Do you really think that the publicity hockey gets, little though it is, is enhanced by fighting? If you do, I say you&rsquo;re getting too much sun down there.How about leaving your picture off your column. While reading your stupid remarks about fighting, I keep looking up at your picture and making excuses for you.Laurence Lees Gunton, Man.What is Bobby Orr doing for the NHL? Is he moving back to Boston?Jim Lampley Andover, Mass.That&rsquo;s a good question. Orr, who is moving back to Boston shortly, is labeled as an assistant to president John Ziegler. Presumably that would mean the retired defenseman would be digging into some substantive issues. But whenever I see Orr, he&rsquo;s dropping ceremonial pucks at some ceremonial game. Maybe the NHL, in its infinite wisdom, is wasting him. Then again, maybe they&rsquo;re training him to be a linesman. Whatever, Orr says he is perfectly content with his new job, and that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s most important. He wouldn&rsquo;t shake hands with me when he said it, though. He had a puck stuck to his right palm.<h2>Players Chasing Refs</h2>I WAS RAISED with a rich hockey heritage and it breaks my heart to see television highlights which consist almost entirely of brawls. I believe the start of the NHL&rsquo;s problem is the relationship of players and officials. In what other sport can the players chase referees all over the arena, even to the sacred officials&rsquo; crease, to complain? You cannot officiate and you cannot administer discipline unless the players know their limits.Ian Lifchus Matawan, N.J.Sorry, you&rsquo;re idea makes too much sense. The NHL wants no part of it. &#9632;

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HOCKEY TALK

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011257/5050545-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">It was Mike Eruzione, left, who scored the winning goal in that upset victory over the Soviet Lake Placid. After the final buzzer, he was mobbed by goaltender Jimmy Craig, defenseman. O&rsquo;Callahan, and Mark Johnson. (AP Laser)</figcaption></div>LAKE PLACID&mdash;At 1:29 in the afternoon of Sunday, February 24, less than 48 hours after they had pulled off one of the most stunning upsets in sports history, the incredible, never-say-die United States Olympic hockey team clinched the gold medal by beating a tough, scrappy Finnish team, 42.That victory, and the gold medal that came with it, was the culmination of a fantasy weekend that started on the preceding Friday evening when, by a 4-3 margin, the U.S. team defeated the same Soviet team that had rolled over them, 10-3, just two weeks earlier and had picked apart all but two National Hockey League teams in January.While words can&rsquo;t really do justice to what this U.S. team, with an average age of 22, accomplished during that unforgettable weekend, here&rsquo;s a capsule report on &ldquo;Fantasy Weekend, 1980&rdquo;, from about 5 p.m. on Friday evening, February 22, to about the same time on Sunday, February 24: USA vs. Soviets: The game was supposed to be a mere formality, another pushover for the Soviet professionals to step all over as they moved up the ladder toward their fifth gold medal in six Olympic appearances.The U.S. team, although still undefeated (4-0-1) after playing five preliminary round games, was not even supposed to make it to the medal round. Their coach, Herb Brooks, had been saying for months that &ldquo;winning a bronze medal in 1980 would be like winning a gold medal in 1960.&rdquo;But from the very opening faceoff of the game, the young U.S. players kept up a ferocious pace, bodychecking their bigger and more experienced opponents into the boards or onto the ice.As the seconds ticked away on the clock, the pace of the game increased as both teams exchanged breathtaking rushes, crunching bodychecks and alert saves by goalies Jim Craig and Vladislav Tretiak.The Soviets finally drew first blood, at the 9:12 mark of the first period, when defenseman Aleksei Kasatonov took a slapshot from the blueline which was tipped past Craig&mdash;moving in the opposite direction&mdash;by pesky little Vladimir Krutov, who had singlehandedly decimated the U.S. in that 10-3 fiasco at Madison Square Garden only two weeks earlier.While Krutov&rsquo;s goal took a lot of the wind out of the lungs of the wildly partisan, flag-waving crowd, the U.S. team wasn&rsquo;t fazed in the least. They kept working, patiently digging away in the corners, moving the puck up-ice and religiously adhering to Brooks&rsquo; system, which emphasizes puck control and coolheadedness. Their discipline finally paid off at the 14:03 mark Of the period when Buzzy Schneider, at 25 the told man&rdquo; of the team and the only member of the squad to play on the 1976 Olympic Team, blasted a 55-foot slapshot over Tretiak&rsquo;s left shoulder and into the net.But before the ecstatic cries of joy from the crowd had abated, the Soviets had stormed right back, taking a 2-1 lead at 17:34, when Sergei Makarov shoveled a shot behind Craig.But the U.S. was relentless, incessantly pounding away at the Soviets. With just seven seconds showing on the clock, David Christian, whose father Billy scored the medal-winning goal for the U.S. team against the Russians in 1960, blasted a desperation 80-foot slapshot toward Tretiak. The Russian goalie, normally perfect in handling his rebounds, let the shot bounce off his leg pads and out into center ice where Mark Johnson, the MVP of the team, picked up the puck, split the dumbfounded Soviet defense and slid the puck by a startled Tretiak with one second remaining in the period.Chinks began to show in the supposedly impregnable Soviet armour at the beginning of the second period, when Tretiak was replaced by diminutive Vladimir Myshkin, the hero of last year&rsquo;s third Challenge Cup game with the NHL. &ldquo;Tretiak was nervous,&rdquo; a Soviet coach would say later. &ldquo;He played those two goals poorly and we felt it would be best to replace him.&rdquo;For the first time ever, as far as this North American audience was concerned, the Soviets looked confused and disoriented, seemingly ready to be taken.Then John Harrington received a penalty for holding Valeri Kharlamov and the Soviets jumped at the opportunity and broke the tie when Alexandra Maltsev scored on a breakaway.But the U.S. team, never losing its poise, playing within the paramaters of Brooks&rsquo; system, kept chipping away at the Russians, forcing them into making little, subtle errors which opened up the ice for the U.S. And while the period ended with the Russians outshooting the U.S., 30-10 and leading, 3-2, the U.S. had many opportunities&mdash;especially a breakaway by Harrington (he missed the net), a two-on-one by Johnson and Schneider (Schneider took Johnson&rsquo;s pass and missed the net and a missed stuff stuff by captain Mike Eruzione.As the third period got underway, the U.S. kept the pressure on, skating stride for stride with the Soviets until Mr. Pressure, Johnson, took a feed from linemate Dave Silk, skirted around defenseman Sergei Starikov and beat Myshkin between the legs to tie the score. Less than a minute and a half later, at exactly the 10:00 mark, Mark Pavelich, a gutsy, vastly underrated scrapper, found Harrington, who immediately fed Eruzione near the blueline. The 25-year-old captain took a few strides and blasted a wrist shot by Myshkin&rsquo;s right side. USA 4, USSR 3.The arena erupted into sheer bedlam as Eruzione was mobbed behind the Soviet net by his teammates. People in the crowd waved flags, embraced each other and screamed, &ldquo;USA! USA! USA! &ldquo;For the remaining very harrowing 10 minutes, the Russians came close several times. But everytime the U.S. team seemed ready to retreat and fall into a defensive shell, the implacable Brooks pulled those players off the ice, reminded them to maintain their poise and then put them right back out.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t clinched it yet,&rdquo; he said, reminding everyone that the U.S. would still have to beat the Finns on Sunday to assure themselves of it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve thought about the gold medal a lot, sure,&rdquo; Brooks said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m very pessimistic. The Finns are a very sound hockey team technically. And we have not won any medal right now. That&rsquo;s a rather sobering thing. I&rsquo;m still in a state of euphoria, but they scare the hell out of me.&ldquo;Besides that,&rdquo; Brooks added, grinning, &ldquo;why shouldn&rsquo;t I be scared? How would you like to put your future in the hands of a bunch of 20-year-old kids?&rdquo;USA vs. Finland: As it turned out, Brooks needn&rsquo;t have worried about how his &ldquo;bunch of 20-year-old kids&rdquo; handled themselves in that vital game against the Finns. Knowing that they had to win or at least tie the game to guarantee gold, and not wanting to back into a medal via goal differential or anything like it, the U.S. squad seemed a mite tentative in the early going.By the 16-minute mark of the first period, Craig had already been called upon to make several good saves, and that seemed to wake the Americans up, for they had their chances in the early going, only to be continually foiled ay the acrobatics of Jorma Valtonen, the bearded, 33-year-old Finnish goaltender.Just as the Russians and so many of the U.S. team&rsquo;s opponents had done, Finland scored the first goal of the game when defensive stalwart Mike Ramsey lost the puck at his blueline to Mikko Leinonen and could only watch helplessly as Leinonen passed to Jukka Porvari, a brilliant skater with a wicked shot, who nailed one past Craig&rsquo; glove hand before Jimmy could blink.While everyone in the stands may have been worried about a letdown against the Finns, Mike Eruzione was not concerned.&ldquo;I knew from the first shift of the game,&rdquo; he said later,&rdquo; that they couldn&rsquo;t skate with us, that they couldn&rsquo;t generate anywhere near the kind of offense we could.&rdquo;Maybe so, but it took the U.S. team the rest of that first period and 4:39 of the second before Steve Christoff, benefiting from some spectacular forechecking by fellow penalty killer Neal Broten, took a bass from Broten and beat Valtonen along the ice and between his legs for a shorthanded goal.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t anything great,&rdquo; a shrugging Christoff would say later. &ldquo;Neal did all the work and I think the goalie was sorta out to unch on the play, anyway.&rdquo;Less than two minutes later the Finns were back on the board again, when Leinonen took a pass from Haapalainen and beat Craig rom close in. In the ensuing 14 minutes Broten, Schneider, Silk, Johnson and Christoff all missed great chances, either because of nopportune bounces or terrific saves by Valtonen. The period ended with the Finns up, 2-1 and he Americans outshooting their opponents, 22-13.Both the Finns and the U.S. had been in this position before. The J.S. had gone into the third period of their game with the Russians down by the score of 3-2 and had allied for two goals in the third period&mdash;always their strongest in ill their games&mdash;to win. The Finns, on the other hand, had gone into the third period in their game with the Russians up by one goal, unwisely tried to protect that skimpy lead, and watched it fizzle into a 5-2 deficit in less than two minutes.With the odds very definitely in their favor, it took the U.S. only 2:25 of the third period to even things up. Phil Verchota, taking a pass from Dave Christian, who had lugged the puck upice and through most of the Finnish team, glided in from the left side and slid the puck by Valtonen.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011340/5050538-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="594" height="1752"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02969/5050531-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="1931" height="1863"><figcaption class="caption-body">The 4-2 victory over the Finns assured the United States of a gold medal, but goaltender Jimmy Craig had something else to hang onto (left) long before he received his medal. Moments before they were visited by Vice President Walter Mondale, the group that coach Herb Brooks (right) had affectionately called, &ldquo;a bunch of 20-year-old kids&rdquo; posed for a team picture.(Photo of Herb Brooks courtesy of LPOOC Others: AP Laserbeam)</figcaption></div>Less than four minutes later, with the next goal possibly deciding who would win the game, Mark Johnson performed his inimitable magic once again. Battling along with Eric Strobel for the puck behind the net, Johnson got his stick on the disc, saw an undefended Robbie McClanahan in front and hit him with a pass, which McClanahan instantly coverted into what proved to be the game winner.Bedlam once again broke loose in the arena as the fans, sensing that the impossible was near, showered the players with wave after wave of &ldquo;USA! USA! USA!&rdquo; and &ldquo;We Want Gold! We Want Gold!&rdquo;They got closer to it with less than four minutes remaining in the game when the seemingly tireless Johnson, fittingly, picked up a stray puck at the Finnish blueline, deked once (&ldquo;The puck was still bouncing.&rdquo; he said later. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t really have control of it&rdquo;), moved in, shot and banged his own rebound home. The United States Olympic hockey team, ahead 4-2, was exactly 3:35 away from a gold medal.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re Number One! We&rsquo;re Number One! We&rsquo;re Number One! &ldquo;The chant started with about 30 seconds left in the game and the players on the U.S. bench joined in, raising their arms, waving to the crowd, embracing each other and jumping up and down uncontrollably. Then, when the final buzzer sounded, up again went everything from sticks to helmets and gloves.Jimmy Craig, squirming free from yet another massive pileup, skated over to the boards to look for his father, the man he had called &ldquo;the most important person in my life&rdquo;. Kids holding huge American flags raced helter-skelter all over the ice. Vice-President Walter Mondale, beaming as he left the arena under a heavy secret service escort, paused to shake hands and clench his fist toward anyone that looked his way.It was only after the players from both teams had shaken hands and headed for their respective dressing rooms that people finally began to leave, filtering out slowly, looking over their shoulders toward the bare rink behind them for one last look that would stay with them for a lifetime. As they filed out, some smiling, some laughing hystericaaly, many with tears of joy streaming down their faces, an entire section in a corner of the arena lingered behind, rising in unison to sing God Bless America. When they finished, they too walked out slowly, toward the exists and outside, where a light snow was just beginning to fall. &#9632;

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USA Cashes In On A Golden Opportunity

<h2>MEDAL STANDING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021028/5050639-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="572" height="288"></div><h2>PRELIMINARY ROUND</h2>(FINAL STANDINGS)<h3>Red Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03676/5050632-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="551" height="185"></div><h3>Blue Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04389/5050625-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="540" height="160"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Czechoslovakia 11, Norway 0Canada 10, Holland 1Romania 6, Germany 4U.S.A. 2, Sweden 2Poland 5, Finland 4Soviet Union 14, Japan 0Thu. Feb. 14Sweden 8, Romania 0Germany 10, Norway 4Soviet Union 17, Holland 4Canada 5, Poland 1Finland 6, Japan 3U.S.A. 7, Czechoslovakia 3Sat. Feb. 16U.S.A. 5, Norway 1Czechoslovakia 7, Romania 2Holland 3, Japan 3Soviet Union 8, Poland 1Sweden S, Germany 2Finland S, Canada 4Mon. Feb. 18Canada 6, Japan 0Sweden 7, Norway 1Netherlands 5, Poland 3Soviet Union 4, Finland 2Czechoslovakia 11, W. Germany 3United States 7, Romania 2Wed. Feb. 20Romania 3, Norway 3Czechoslovakia 2, Sweden 4Poland 5, Japan 1Soviet Union 6, Canada 4Finland 10, Netherlands 3United States 4, W. Germany 2<h3>CONSOLATION ROUND</h3>(tor fifth and sixth place)Fri. Feb. 22Canada 1, Czechoslovakia 6<h3>MEDAL ROUND</h3>Fri. Feb. 22United States 4, Soviet Union 3Finland 3, Sweden 3Sun. Feb. 24United States 4, Finland 2Soviet Union 9, Sweden 2<h2>Mon. Feb. 18 CANADA 6, JAPAN 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-05221/5050618-1-eng-US/f0003-052.jpg" title="f0003-05" width="558" height="558"></div><h2>Wed. Feb. 20 SOVIET UNION 6, CANADA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-06144/5050611-1-eng-US/f0003-062.jpg" title="f0003-06" width="576" height="661"></div><h2>WEST GERMANY 2, U.S.A. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-0793/5050604-1-eng-US/f0003-072.jpg" title="f0003-07" width="614" height="578"></div><h2>Fri. Feb. 22 SOVIET UNION 3, U.S.A. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-0863/5050597-1-eng-US/f0003-082.jpg" title="f0003-08" width="638" height="334"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04189/5050590-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="572" height="255"></div><h2>SUN. FEB. 24 U.S. 4, FINLAND 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01417/5050583-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="583" height="571"></div><h2>SOVIET UNION 9, SWEDEN 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02299/5050576-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="587" height="653"></div> &#9632;

f0003-02

Olympic Scoreboard

<div class="byline">KEN McKENZIE&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011288/5050698-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="244" height="376"></div>&bull;THE NHL has a rule that states two teams must not travel on the same aircraft together. Reasons for the rule are obvious. However, this rule is not being followed and it is reliably reported that on at least two occasions this season the rule has been violated. One occasion involved the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets&hellip;Punch Imlach, general manager of the troubled Toronto Maple Leafs, says he won&rsquo;t quit. &ldquo;To get me out now, they&rsquo;ll have to carry me out dead or carry me out screaming, but I won&rsquo;t quit,&rdquo; he told Joan Sutton of the Toronto Star. Imlach believes the players today are better and faster skaters with improved equipment and facilities, but he doesn&rsquo;t think they respect the game&rsquo;s past or recognize how much harder it was to win a job in the old six-team league&hellip;Phil Esposito was a hit at the recent New York Downtown Athletic Club&rsquo;s Sports Night, where he was honored for outstanding and significant contribution to sports by the President&rsquo;s Council on Physical Fitness. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t understand how they ever presented me with this award,&rdquo; he cracked. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t even button my jacket.&rdquo;&hellip;An average of close to 15,000 fans watched the Philadelphia Flyers in 17 road games played during their 35-game unbeaten streak&hellip;Dwight Foster, playing his third year with the Boston Bruins, is pleased to be playing on a forward line with two other centers, Bobby Lalonde and Bob Miller. &ldquo;It enables all three of us to skate more, cut across more and it makes us faster and more aggressive,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Ron Wicks, veteran NHL referee, is not expected to be active for awhile. He&rsquo;s been slow in recovering from back problems&hellip;The Montreal Canadiens want to end up with at least 60 points for the second half of the schedule.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021202/5050691-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="278" height="413"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dwight Foster</figcaption></div>&bull;REVENUE CANADA, writes Donald Ramsay in the Toronto Globe & Mail, will begin auditing professional athletes this year, particularly National Hockey League players earning their living in Canada who have incorporated themselves as a means of sheltering income from taxation. At least 10 members of the Montreal Canadiens have incorporated themselves and may be among those who come under the scrutiny of Revenue Canada&rsquo;s special investigations branch as it increases its surveillance. In Ramsay&rsquo;s story a Revenue Canada source said problems occur when a player &ldquo;is doing no more than incorporating his pocket book, illegally gaining tax breaks from his sports income. It&rsquo;s our belief that a lot of these incorporations exist without conducting a bonafide business within its framework&rdquo;.The Winnipeg Jets are hoping to add Thomas Steen to their roster as soon as the Olympics are finished. Playing for Sweden, the 19-year-old Steen was the Jets&rsquo; fifth-round draft choice in last summer&rsquo;s draft. If he serves three months in the Swedish Army he will be unable to join the Jets until next season&hellip;The Grand Rapids Owls are starting to move in the International Hockey League. You can rest assured that Moe Bartoli will get the most out of his club as they make an all-out drive for the top spot in the South Division of the IHL. Ken Ullyot&rsquo;s Fort Wayne Komets are atop this division with a commanding lead at the present time&hellip;Dr. Jack Ewing, the sports physician of Omaha, died the other day at 59. Dr. Ewing was team physician for the Omaha Knights from 1960 through 1975 and during those years he made many long lasting friendships with hockey players and the management which came through Omaha. A Ewing Memorial Fund has been established and friends and associates may make contributions by sending a check to the Ewing Memorial Fund, Box 3665, Omaha, Nebraska 68103.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031027/5050684-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="279" height="413"><figcaption class="caption-body">Moe Bartoli</figcaption></div>&bull;ALTHOUGH HE died in December, several hockey fans have contacted us regarding Johnny McCreedy. His passing failed to get the attention it deserved, for John McCreedy established a record that no player can match and which may never be duplicated. The fleet winger starred for the Winnipeg Monarchs when they won the Memorial CUP. symbolic of Canada&rsquo;s junior championship, in 1937. The following two years, 1938 and 1939, McCreedy played for the Trail Smokeaters. In 1938 the Smokies won the Allan Cup, emblematic of Canada&rsquo;s senior championship and in 1939 Trail won the World Cup, which was played in Europe. In 1940 McCreedy was a member of the Sydney Millionaires, which were defeated in the Allan Cup finals, but in 1941 he was back as a member of an Allan Cup winner again&mdash;this time with the power-packed Kirkland Lake Blue Devils. He turned professional with the Toronto Maple Leafs the following season and helped the Leafs win the Stanley Cup in 1942. Dick Kowcinak, another Winnipeg native, played with McCreedy on all of those teams except the Toronto Maple Leafs. After returning from World War If, McCreedy completed his university education and became engaged in business, and at the time of his death was one of the very top executives in a major international company. A proud record, indeed&hellip;Don Murdoch of the New York Rangers is on the block. The Rangers have been trying for months to unload him and have come close to completing a deal on several occasions, but something always comes up to kill it. The Rangers have made no bones about their keen interest in acquiring Butch Goring from Los Angeles. Several teams would like to grab Goring in a trade but they say he&rsquo;s making $260,000 a season and there are few teams (maybe only the Rangers) who could afford that salary&hellip;The reason Goring is making such a big salary is that he had the good fortune to play out his option the same year Rogie Vachon left Los Angeles as a free agent and Goring picked up the leftover loot.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04904/5050677-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="282" height="412"><figcaption class="caption-body">Butch Goring</figcaption></div>&bull;BILLY HARRIS of the New York Islanders has been switched from right wing to center by coach Al Arbour and he says he is starting to feel at home in his new position. He&rsquo;s been playing middleman for wingers Bob Bourne and Anders Kallur&hellip;Francis Rosa, ace hockey writer of the Boston Globe, had this interesting story in his Sunday column recently: &ldquo;Bill Stewart of Rochester in the American Hockey League (it&rsquo;s a Buffalo farm team) recently found out there&rsquo;s always a new way to lose a goal. He was awarded a penalty shot in the third period of a game against Adirondack. He made it, but the opposing captain challenged the curve on his stick. It was illegal and the referee took away the goal, and Stewart was hit with an automatic $100 fine. &lsquo;That can&rsquo;t be right&rsquo;, said Bruin general manager Harry Sinden. &lsquo;There&rsquo;s no way they should be able to take a goal away after you&rsquo;ve scored it. They should have challenged his stick before he took the penalty shot.&rsquo; Scotty Morrison, the NHL&rsquo;s referee in chief, said, &lsquo;The rule is there so teams won&rsquo;t use the measurement as a war of nerves before he takes the shot. If they measure the stick before the shot, and it&rsquo;s legal, then the challenging team is in sort of a double jeopardy. It gets a two-minute penalty against it as well as a penalty shot&rsquo;.&rdquo;&hellip;St. Louis Blues made one of the best deals of the season when they grabbed Blair Chapman from Pittsburgh for defenseman Bob Stewart. The 23-year-old Chapman patrols right wing and has been on a scoring spree ever since he joined the Blues. He fits into the Blues&rsquo; swing to youth, along with Bernie Federko, Wayne Babych and Brian Sutter among others.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05757/5050670-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="279" height="411"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Stewart</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

PASSING THE PUCK

VOLUME 33, NUMBER 23 MARCH 7, 1980Editorial and Advertising Offices:214 King Street WestSuite 314Toronto, Ontario. M5H 1K4Charlie HalpinEditorial DirectorTom MurrayAssistant PublisherMike DennisAssistant EditorCathy MunroCopy EditorBob HanleyEditorial ConsultantStan Fischler, Frank Orr Bob VerdiContributing EditorsBusiness StaffPeter EmersonExecutive Vice President and General ManagerJoanne HatchSales Service ManagerKenneth W. McKenziePresident and PublisherW. C. C. Publishing Ltd.,Suite 217, 1434 St. Catherine StMontreal, Canada. H3G 1R7Donald R. WallChairmanTom MurrayAssistant Publisher850 Third Avenue,New York, N.Y. 10022Advertising Representatives:New York:Tom Murray850 Third Ave,New York, N.Y. 10022 &bull; (212) 593-2100Chicago:Hooper, Jones & Associates3322 W. Peterson AvenueChicago, III. 60659 &bull; (312) 478-5544Boston:Steve GanakSteve Ganak Ad RepsStatler Office BuildingBoston, Mass. 02116 (617) 542-6913THE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 0018-3016), 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: $15.95 in Canada, $15.95 in the U.S.A, and $19.95 in Foreign Countries. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y., 10001 and at additional mailing Offices. SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO 1434 ST. CATHERINE STREET WEST, SUITE 217, MONTREAL, CANADA H3G 1R7. Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News, 214 King St. W., Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M4H 1K4, Canada. &#9632;

The Hockey News OFFICIAL NATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY FOUNDED 1947

<div class="byline">BY AL SMITH</div>On Lever walked out into the degree temperature after a tice session at Ice Land and id it hard to believe such ther existed in February in a national Hockey League city.This is beautiful,&rdquo; he said, it must be very distracting to and play hockey when the there is like this.&rdquo;Distracting, yes. But nothing like the distractions Lever faced in Vancouver, where he spent seven plus seasons before being traded to the Atlanta Flames along with minor league winger Brad Smith for Ivan Boldirev and Darcy Rota.&ldquo;Maybe the trade will be good,&rdquo; Lever said. &ldquo;I think I was getting stale in Vancouver and I think I put undo pressure on myself.&ldquo;Being there so long and knowing how much the fans wanted a winner, and being captain, I think I put a lot of the pressure on myself.&ldquo;I just hope the trade works out for everyone involved. I sincerely hope Darcy and Ivan-work out in Vancouver and like it there, and I hope I can help here.&rdquo;Although Lever felt he was going to be traded, he still had that empty feeling when it happened and of course he asked himself why.&ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; the South Procupine, Ont. native said, &ldquo;but being traded here has given me a new lease on life. Here there&rsquo;s talk of finishing fourth or fifth in the league; in Vancouver, it was talk of finishing tenth. And the way things were going up there lately, it was a chore just getting into the playoffs.&rdquo;Many felt when the trade was first announced that the Flames gave up too much in the deal. But after watching Lever in an Atlanta uniform for awhile, their thoughts changed.The 27-year-old left winger is a tenacious checker and in his first eight games with the Flames scored four goals and assisted on four others. He quickly fit in with his teammates due to the fact he and Eric Vail were boyhood friends and he played in the World Cup last year with Garry Unger, David Shand, Dan Bouchard and Bob MacMillan.&ldquo;I feel right at home already,&rdquo; Lever said. &ldquo;The guys made me feel comfortable right away and that helps.&rdquo;And it may have helped that Lever found himself on left wing with the Flames&rsquo; talented Swede, Kent Nilsson, as his centerman, and tough Ken Houston on the right side.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t get the opportunity of playing with a centerman like Nilsson very often,&rdquo; Lever said.Lever says he blames much of Vancouver&rsquo;s problems on the horrendous travel schedule they have each season. Many years the team starts well, only to stumble in January. He was in his option year when the season started, and thought of playing it out and becoming a free agent. But the Canuckss got off to a fast start and he got caught up in the excitement and signed a contract in November.&ldquo;The young guys had so much enthusiasm,&rdquo; Lever said &ldquo;And the team got off to a great start, but then in January everything went to shambles.&ldquo;I truly believe 40 percent of the losses can be blamed on the travel schedule. There are a number of injuries and some of them are due to the fact the guys don&rsquo;t get enough fresh air and exercise. We&rsquo;re either in a hotel room or on a plane going to our next game.&rsquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never played outside Canadian city,&rdquo; Lever said. Cit where hockey is No. 1. It must tough playing in front of 6,000 fan all the time,&rdquo; he said referring some of the Flames&rsquo; small crow:But winning can put fans ban in The Omni seats, and Lever help. In his first eight games with the Flames, their record was 4&mdash;not too distracting &#9632;

Atlanta’s Distractions Nice Change For Lever

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Jack Davison has a wife and kids in Toronto, an office in Chicago, and a suitcase he lives out of for almost nine months every year.In addition to the suitcase, he carries the title of assistant general manager and director of player personnel for the Black Hawks.He sees five or six hockey games a week and he has the ear of General Manager Bob Pulford. What Davison tells Pulford can make or break a trade, turn a promising junior player into Black Hawk property, or get a farmhand promoted from New Brunswick.&ldquo;In the fall I try to see ever club in the NHL and the American League, including the Black Hawks,&rdquo; said Davison during a Chicago Stadium stop-off. &ldquo;Then, I go back and scout the juniors.&ldquo;I criss-cross with our scouts&mdash;Don Smith, Jim Walker, Mike Dumas, Jan Spieczny, and Dave Lucas&mdash;so we can compare notes on prospects.&ldquo;Pully and I believe my being based in Toronto is ideal. I catch the NHL teams coming in there or into Buffalo. I&rsquo;m also right across from Rochester so it&rsquo;s easy to keep tabs on players in the American League and the Ontario junior league is in my backyard.&rdquo;It also would not be unusual to find Davison in Moncton. Or, for that matter, he might be visiting Flint, Seattle, Regina, Sherbrooke, Medicine Hat, Atlanta, Los Angeles, or Saskatoon.If it&rsquo;s on the hockey map, undoubtedly he has been there during the 21 years he has worked for the Black Hawks. The job has been a passport to some gourmet restaurants but it also has taken him to greasy spoons.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m one of these fortunate people making his living doing what he likes best,&rdquo; said Davison. &ldquo;If I ever lose my enthusiasm it will be time to get out.&ldquo;My objective is to get the big picture first and then key on certain players I feel will be an asset to the Black Hawks.&rdquo;&ldquo;At this time of the year 90 percent of Jack&rsquo;s time will be spent on the draft,&rdquo; said Pulford. &ldquo;But I still consult him on all the other aspects of player movement. This is a very important draft for us. We have two first-round choices, three second-rounds, two thirds, and two fourths.&rdquo;Often there are future NHL players whose potential goes undetected and who are passed over in the opening two rounds. Several of the above were bird-dogged by Davison and eventually surfaced in Chicago Stadium. Among them: Terry Ruskowski, 70th overall in 1974 draft; Bob Murray, 52nd player chosen in 1974; Mike Veisor, 45th in 1972; and Ted Bulley, 115th in 1975.Pulford&rsquo;s frequent trades for draft choices have partly been predicated on his respect for Davison&rsquo;s expertise as an evaluator of amateur talent.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s much doubt that David Babych (Portland defenseman) will be the first player chosen this year and I believe he will turn out to be a great player. Another future star is Doug Wickenheiser (Regina forward).&ldquo;Those two won&rsquo;t be available when our turn comes to draft. After that there are a lot of good ones. It&rsquo;s up to us to find the best of the rest.&rdquo;Davison believes that several of the draftees whom the Hawks brought to training camp last fall, then sent back to their junior teams are excellent NHL prospects. Among those he cited were Louis Begin (Sherbrooke), Doug Crossman (Ottawa), and Bill Gardner (Peterborough).HAWK TALK: The Washington Capitals severed the Hawks&rsquo; winning streak at four games by upsetting them 6-2 in Landover, Md. on Feb. 23. Over a four-week span, the Hawks compiled an 8-2-2 record&hellip;Three-quarters of the way through the season, Chicago had a 26-20-14 record and 66 points. At this juncture last season the Hawks had a 23-26-11 record for 57 points&hellip;Defenseman Doug Wilson has been playing outstanding hockey. For a 16-game span he scored 1 goal and assisted on 18. His slap shots from the backline have led to many deflections&hellip;With Reg Kerr, who centers the third line, out indefinitely with a back ailment the Hawks are searching for a middleman. Pulford covets Ron Duguay of the New York Rangers but is unwilling to pay the price in players that his New York counterpart, Fred Shero, is demanding.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011158/5050777-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="600" height="604"><figcaption class="caption-body">Regina&rsquo;s Doug Wickenheiser is the big scoring throb of the WHL.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

Davison Gets ‘Big Picture’ For Black Hawks

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02854/5050808-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="450" height="352"></div><h2>Season In The Stretch</h2>A FEW NOTES, QUOTES and observations on that section of the National Hockey League season known as the &ldquo;homestretch&rdquo;. That&rsquo;s the concluding 25 games of an 80-game schedule when hopes are splattered and dreams are shattered because all those teams who said &ldquo;we&rsquo;ll get &rsquo;er turned around after New Year&rsquo;s&rdquo; are still heading in the same direction.&bull; Want a toughie? Pick the winner of the Calder Trophy and give that award to the NHL&rsquo;s best rookie! Pete Peeters, Mike Foligno, Brian Propp and Raymond Bourque plus some others all rate heavy consideration as the best of a really fine crop of freshmen.&bull; Isn&rsquo;t the biggest challenge facing the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors the question of realignment and an unbalanced schedule? Of course, the league&rsquo;s head office will issue some pat statements about what an exciting season this has been with a balanced schedule but if the owners don&rsquo;t go into a room and stay there until a new arrangement is worked out, then they&rsquo;re more suicidal that even the cynics suspect.&bull; Has the NHL ever produced a bigger farce than the Toronto Maple Leafs have been this season?&bull; Why are so many people taking pot-shots at NHL president John Ziegler because he happens to be short? Some writers have gone so far as to claim he has a &ldquo;Napoleon&rdquo; complex. Now, John, don&rsquo;t allow it to cause you concern! You just stand up straight, take your hand out of the front of your coat and look your detractors right in the navel!&bull; Injuries have taken a large toll on top NHL stars this season. Two important absentees with wounds have been top referees Ron Wicks and John MacCauley. The NHL has a good officiating staff but their absence has hurt the overall calibre.&bull; Why is it that when the men who operate NHL clubs that are losing large gobs of money claim that they can see a light at the end of the tunnel, you&rsquo;re tempted to ask them if they&rsquo;re certain it&rsquo;s not an express train?<h2>Juniors Need Changes</h2>&bull; THE NHL MUST take a close look at the Canadian junior hockey system, the main source of playing talent and consider pumping increased amounts of money into it. The reason? The 70-game schedule played by the juniors, who need the gates to pay the bills, leaves far too little time for practice and teaching sessions. The U.S. colleges, with a short schedule and heavy load of workouts, are doing a better job of upgrading players&rsquo; skills.&bull; Will the success of the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; experiment of making Bobby Clarke a playing-assistant coach lead to more players moving into that role in the NHL? Of course, there aren&rsquo;t many Clarkes around but because there&rsquo;s such a shortage of good coaches in the game, perhaps more teams will follow the Flyers&rsquo; example and promote players into coaching spots.&bull; Look for increased numbers of European players in the NHL. Many teams are now scouting closely the available talent in countries such as Sweden and Finland plus the lesser hockey nations. The swing in the NHL style to more emphasis on skating and skill than muscle makes the Europeans even more desirable than ever before.&bull; Clash of philosophies exemplified! Boris Maiorov, head of the Soviet Union&rsquo;s hockey program to NHL man: &ldquo;Why doesn&rsquo;t the NHL make its ice surfaces larger to give the players more room to play the game?&rdquo; NHL man to Maiorov: &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t the Europeans make their ice surfaces smaller and install more seats to sell in their rinks?&rdquo;<h2>Free Agency Fight</h2>&bull; LOOK FOR A long, hard battle between the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and the board of governors over the equalization&mdash;compensation of free agent players who change teams&mdash;question. Some players feel that the matter of binding arbitration to settle equalization disputes has made the &ldquo;free&rdquo; part of free agent a joke.&bull; Although there&rsquo;s little love lost for the New York Rangers around the NHL because of the free-spending approach of their head honcho Sonny Werblin, there will be few tears shed by the league&rsquo;s serious thinkers if the Rangers make another strong showing in the playoffs. The reason? The NHL desperately needs a huge shot in the publicity arm of the calibre the Rangers created last spring when they advanced to the Stanley Cup final.&bull; Don&rsquo;t expect a big flurry of trades close to the Mar. 15 deadline for deals. Many of the players available on the trade market are carrying contracts of a size that most teams don&rsquo;t want to add to their payrolls. &#9632;

f0005-02

HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY TOM MURRAY</div>If you thought the Olympic hockey team was entertaining on the ice during the Games, you should have seen them off it&mdash;especially at the press conference the entire team held after that 4-2 gold medal-clinching win over the Finns. Here are the highlights:&bull; Jackie O&rsquo;Callahan, the defenseman from Charlestown, Mass., who came charging into the press conference 15 minutes late, screaming, &ldquo;Hiya, guys, how ya all doin&rsquo;?&rdquo; and clutching a near empty bottle of champagne in his hand. O&rsquo;Callahan then jumped up on the table which held microphones for the players, danced around for a minute or two, then slumped to the floor at the feet of his teammates.When a reporter asked a particularly dopey question moments later and got only embarrassed silence from the team, Jackie broke up the tension by blurting out, &ldquo;Gong that question!&rdquo; And when someone asked him how it felt to be the first kid from Charlestown to win a gold medal, Jackie responded, to a great round of applause, &ldquo;I live in the shadow of Bunker Hill; the Americans won at Bunker Hill and they won at Lake Placid.&rdquo;&ldquo;No they didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said a reporter in the front row of the auditorium. &ldquo;I think you got your history wrong, Jackie. The Americans lost that battle.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Callahan, not missing a beat, glared balefully at the person who dared question his knowledge of American history. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to hear that,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Callahan hissed. And then he added, &ldquo;Why do you think there&rsquo;s a monument right there outside my front door? They won. I know they won.&rdquo; End of discussion.&bull; When somebody asked Herb Brooks what Vice President Mondale had said to the team in the lockerroom after winning the gold medal, Brooks replied, &ldquo;He wants them all to register for the draft on Monday morning.&rdquo;&bull; Someone asked captain Mike Eruzione if he felt that having some kids from Boston and others from Minnesota helped bring the team together even more because everyone had a diversified background. &ldquo;Nah,&rdquo; Eruzione replied &ldquo;I think the exact opposite.&rdquo; But before Eurzione had a chance to explain, Dave Silk, a Scituate, Mass, native who was sitting next to Eruzione, grabbed the microphone from the captain and, glancing around at some of his teammates from Minnesota, said &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell ya one thing: A lotta guys wish they were from Boston.&rdquo;&bull; Eurzione again, explaining that all the guys on the team were just &ldquo;a bunch of big doolies.&rdquo;&ldquo;What,&rdquo; asked a lady in the audience, &ldquo;is a doolie?&rdquo;&ldquo;I think,&rdquo; Eruzione said, smiling sheepishly, &ldquo;that Phil Verchota can answer that question better than anyone of us. Phil?&rdquo;Verchota reluctantly stood and as his teammates chortled and smirked at how uncomfortable he looked, Phil mumbled something about a doolie being, &ldquo;a big wheel, a big gun&hellip;that&rsquo;s about it.&rdquo; Yeah, sure Phil.&bull; Johnny Harrington, who literally kept a book on all of Herb Brooks&rsquo; aphorisms and titled it &ldquo;Brooksisms,&rdquo; was called upon to tell the press what Brooks had said to the team when they were down to the Finns at the end of the second period. Harrington promptly bounced up from his seat in the back row, bounded to the front table, sat down, grabbed a microphone and said, &ldquo;Well, we were damned if we did and damned if we didn&rsquo;t. We looked like a bunch of monkeys screwing a football out there for awhile but we rebounded, used our youth, took our hard hats and lunch pails to work, went right up to the tiger, spat in his eye and punched him in the face. It was a pretty good example of why we won the game and, in a nutshell, for lack of a better phrase, that about wraps it up.&rdquo;It sure does. &#9632;

Press Conference An Off-Ice Highlight

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02850/5050870-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Linseman may never become the Flyers&rsquo; leading scorer but he&rsquo;s a constant threat who&rsquo;s learning all the time.</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The reasons for the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; remarkable season are many. Let us count the ways&hellip;The goaltending by Pete Peeters and Phil Myre, the comebacks of Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish, the leadership of Bobby Clarke and Mel Bridgman, the consistency of rookie defensemen Norm Barnes and Mike Busniuk&hellip;They have all played a major part in the Flyers&rsquo; comeback from last spring&rsquo;s playoff wipeout by the New York Rangers. However, as this season sprints into its homestretch, don&rsquo;t overlook the contribution of Ken Linseman.Linseman&rsquo;s blinking-quick speed has given the Flyers&rsquo; attack a new dimension. He has the acceleration of a Ferrari, the instincts of a Trottier, the team orientation of a Clarke.On the ice, he can also have the mouth of a Don Rickles. People like Vancouver coach Harry Neale hate to see Linseman, but ask Neale if he&rsquo;d like to see the Flyers&rsquo; center wearing a gaudy Vancouver uniform and surely the reply would be &ldquo;How fast can he get here?&rdquo;In short, Linseman has been exactly what Keith Allen expected after he was given approval to spend a half-million or so of Ed Snider&rsquo;s fortune to pry Linesman loose from the WHA Birmingham Bulls.Linseman will never be a super scorer like a Marcel Dionne or Gil Perreault, but his quickness and playmaking touch should place him among the Flyers&rsquo; leading scorers for many years. One guy in Linseman&rsquo;s corner is Clarke.&ldquo;He (Linseman) sure looks like he wants to learn and be a great player,&rdquo; Clarke told the Daily News&rsquo; Jay Greenberg. &ldquo;A guy like Perreault became a great one because he learned how to dish off the puck and move to a hole. He hasn&rsquo;t done it just because he can skate and deke like almost nobody else.&ldquo;Kenny has that gift, the ability to skate. When he first came here he had poor concentration&hellip;he had never had to play defense, he had never really been forced to use the other players on the ice the way he can.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it was so much that he thought it would be easy. He had that bad ankle and when he got off to that bad start, I think he was scared of being judged a failure for the first time in his life.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned a lot this year,&rdquo; said Linseman, one of six 50-point scorers already for the Flyers. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident that I&rsquo;m improving (but) I know I have to do better.&ldquo;I expect a lot myself. I can&rsquo;t blame anybody else for expecting it, too. I&rsquo;m just going along learning, instead of breaking in with a great scoring year.&rdquo;Linseman agrees with Clarke&rsquo;s point about learning to use other players on the ice.&ldquo;I never played on a dominant team like we have this year,&rdquo; said the 21-year-old Kingston, Ont., native. &ldquo;Nobody ever asked me to play a certain style. I just pretty well played. Now, I just have to do a job, like everybody else on this team. And, it feels good.&rdquo;The latest examples of what Linseman contributes to the Flyers occurred in Los Angeles during a convincing 5-1 victory. Linseman shook off a check by Steve Jensen to slip the puck under Mario Lessard&rsquo;s legs for the game&rsquo;s first goal. A few minutes later, Linseman sped around a frantic defenseman to set up another goal.Like many young hockey players, Linseman&rsquo;s interests aren&rsquo;t confined to the hockey arena. He is interested in reading and painting (the canvas kind, not houses).Flyers&rsquo; Coach Pat Quinn likes what he sees in Linseman.&ldquo;How good he can be is still a question mark, but he has speed like nobody else,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;s just average in ever other department, he can be a helluva pro for a long time.&rdquo;FLYERS FACTS: The weird 8-6 loss in Denver (Rockies scored six power-play goals) ended Pete Peeters&rsquo; unbeaten streak at 27 (220-5). In the next game, mild-mannered Phil Myre wound up fighting Vancouver&rsquo;s Glen Hanlon during the bench-clearing brawl. Check for a full moon!&hellip;Jay Greenberg was handing out expensive cigars in celebration of wife Mona giving birth to their first child, Elizabeth Alyn.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011193/5050863-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="1238" height="1036"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Wall, right, takes over as Publisher and Chairman of THE HOCKEY NEWS, while Tom Murray will be the paper&rsquo;s Editor in-Chief and Associate Publisher.</figcaption></div><div class="sidebar">&ldquo;Now I just have to do a job, like everybody else on this team. And it feels good.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

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Flyers Get Money’s Worth From Speedster Linseman

In the latest of a series of moves which have been implemented in the last year by THE HOCKEY NEWS, we take this opportunity to announce the biggest news so far: Donald R. Wall is the new Chairman and Publisher of the publication, and Tom Murray has been named to the new post of Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher.Mr. Wall, 53 years old and a native of New Bedford, Mass., has for the last nine years been the President of the Magazine Division of Whitney Communications Corporation, the majority owners of THE HOCKEY NEWS, and was instrumental in the acquisition of THE HOCKEY NEWS in 1973 by the Whitneys from Ken McKenzie, the paper&rsquo;s founder. Don&rsquo;s involvement in hockey is varied and wide ranging, going back to his college days at Boston University and encompassing all levels of the game&mdash;including playing, coaching and managing in the U.S. amateur ranks.As soon as a replacement has been found for him at Whitney Communications, Mr. Wall, who already has purchased a minority interest in THE HOCKEY NEWS, will assume his new post. Ken McKenzie, currently the Publisher and President of the paper, will stay on with us as President and senior advisor, with responsibilities for public relations and special events.Tom Murray, a 27-year-old native of New York City, had been the Assistant Publisher of THE HOCKEY NEWS since joining the paper three years ago. Prior to that he had worked for three years at Sport Magazine as a Senior Editor. A 1974 graduate of Boston College, where he played on both the varsity hockey and lacrosse teams, Murray assumes his new role immediately. &#9632;

Wall, Murray To Head THE HOCKEY NEWS

<div class="byline">Don Wall Publisher</div>The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.214 King St. West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>Learn From The Olympics</h2>On Friday night, February 22, 1980, just a few hours after the brilliant, inspirational victory of the United States Olympic Team over the Soviet Union, another kind of a hockey game was taking place in Vancouver, B.C., between the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Vancouver Canucks and Philadelphia Flyers.In a newspaper which printed a summary of that &ldquo;game&rdquo; the next day, it took four and a half inches of miniscule agate type to list the penalties that were assessed as a result of a brawl: Sixteen game misconducts and 18 major penalties were doled out for a total of well over 300 minutes in penalties.The contrast between those two games, occurring as they did on the same night at opposite ends of North America, is too significant to ignore.In beating the Soviets and then going on to capture the gold medal, the Olympic Team&mdash;comprised totally of young Americans who learned their skills on rinks from Massachusetts to Wisconsin&mdash;gave the game of hockey a tremendous and much needed shot in the arm. For those 20 young men and their coach, Herb Brooks, overwhelmingly proved that our system works, that at the grass roots level, anyway, all is well with our game in North America.Who knows how many millions of youngsters watched that game and now have an entirely different outlook on hockey and the role they might be able to play in its future&mdash;possibly as a member of an Olympic team? Who knows how many coaches, excited by the European style endorsed and perfected by Brooks, will incorporate more and more of his tactics and strategies into their own philosophies and into the hearts and minds of their players?While it would be preposterous to suggest that the NHL must immediately enlarge all of its rinks, eliminate the red line and adapt the European style in order to survive, it is certainly not outlandish to suggest that some steps be taken&mdash;immediately!&mdash;to eliminate unfortunate incidents like the one that occurred in Vancouver the other night.The games that were played in Lake Placid proved conclusively to millions of people that the NHL is no longer the only kid on the block, that beautiful, exciting, fan-pleasing hockey can be enjoyed and appreciated without the kinds of statistics that take up four and a half inches of space in your morning paper.<h2>A Letter From The Publisher</h2>&ldquo;GO FOR IT!&rdquo;&hellip;As they say in colloquial 1980&mdash;with your help we will do just that as THE HOCKEY NEWS receives a new management team to start into a decade which promises to be an exciting one for this great game.Over the last year you&rsquo;ve seen a number of important changes in these pages; a new format and new type, new writers, the addition of several top columnists, more interpretation, analysis and controversy as well as broader coverage of all aspects of hockey. Currently we&rsquo;re making some moves to improve the physical distribution of the paper to get it to you even more quickly. The best testimony to how this is all working is the encouraging news that circulation is up substantially over a year ago.Tom Murray and I, and the staff, will do everything possible to bring you a paper that will broaden your hockey knowledge, add to your perspective, and keep you up to date with all of the important news and statistics. But we need your help. Write to us with your questions, your suggestions&mdash;and your complaints, when you have them.THE HOCKEY NEWS has been &ldquo;the bible of hockey&rdquo; for more than 30 years. We intend to build on the past, to serve you with our best efforts for the present, and to strive for improvement with every step into the future. &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY JOHN ZIEGLER</div>THE HOCKEY NEWS recently asked NHL president John Ziegler if he was at all concerned that the &ldquo;dump and chase&rdquo; style, utilized by all NHL teams, was in danger of becoming extinct, a victim of the European style which prevailed at Lake Placid and which many people feel is much more exciting.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011278/5050949-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="277" height="401"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Ziegler</figcaption></div>I&rsquo;m not at all concerned with the style that teams in our league use, mainly because I don&rsquo;t think the European style of hockey can sell and be good entertainment for 1,000 games a year, which is what we are faced with in the NHL.I don&rsquo;t want to take anything away from any of those players on that team. We became quite involved with them from the beginning, doing everything from contributing money and arranging games to passing legislation which enabled some of those players to remain on the Olympic roster.But I think that the event&mdash;the USA versus Russia&mdash;was much greater than the contest itself. If you removed the quest for the gold medal and the emotion and everything else that goes with it and treated it as a contest rather than an event&hellip;I wonder what it would be like to watch that style game in and game out over a whole season.A perfect example of what I mean was that second place game, for the silver medal, between Sweden and Russia, two of the world&rsquo;s greatest passing and skating teams. It was a totally dull game.The skills that we saw out there in Lake Placid last Sunday are demonstrated every night of the week in the NHL by players like Guy Lafleur, Wayne Gretzky and Bryan Trottier.Every four years the Olympics has something like 37 games, and if your country is involved in any of them, that game takes on a special dimension. Every play that a player makes is more special than the ones we make, which is why I think it&rsquo;s unfair to compare a schedule of just a few games to the 1,000 we put on each year for over 10 million people who pay a lot of money to watch the competition.By a special play, I mean the one that Mark Johnson made against Finland, digging the puck out and setting up the winning goal. I&rsquo;ll remember that play for as long as I live, and I had tears in my eyes just like everyone else&hellip;but it was a routine play. Think of all the goals the U.S. scored in all those games&mdash;you can see them scored in the NHL on any given night. But when they are scored, you don&rsquo;t have the feelings and emotions that you got with every goal at Lake Placid. That&rsquo;s why we could put on the Stanley Cup playoffs tomorrow and they&rsquo;d be a letdown because the same elements of feelings, emotions and intensity wouldn&rsquo;t be involved. &#9632;

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European Style Won’t Sell

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011257/5051004-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Bruins expect Al Secord to be aggressive, but not to take foolish penalties.</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;Al Secord has been in and won more fights this season than most hockey players have in a whole career. But his biggest fight never shows up in the summary. And if he loses it, his whole NHL future could be in jeopardy.The young Bruins&rsquo; left winger is struggling to control his temper and at times it&rsquo;s touch and go, particularly since opponents have discovered the nature of his problem.Recently in Buffalo, Secord elbowed Ric Seiling, then roughed him up for a double minor. While Secord was off, John Van Boxmeer scored the go-ahead goal for the Sabres and the Bruins had to battle back for a 3-3 tie.&ldquo;I know Seiling very well,&rdquo; said Secord after the game. &ldquo;We played on the same junior team (the Fincups of Hamilton and St. Catharines) for three years. During the whole game he was egging me on. Then when he took a low run at my knee I. lost control of myself and went after him.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;ve got to learn to control my temper. I have to discipline myself.&rdquo;It was a costly penalty for the Bruins and an expensive one for Secord, too, since it cost him playing time.&ldquo;You saw that he didn&rsquo;t get out for another shift until late in the game,&rdquo; said Coach Fred Creighton. &ldquo;I told him I&rsquo;d give him one more chance and if he did it again he&rsquo;d sit on the bench until cobwebs were hanging off of him.&ldquo;It was a horse&mdash;move on his part and I told him so. It showed no thought at all. There are better ways to get revenge. The way I used to do it was to wait until the next period and get the guy when he wasn&rsquo;t looking and I didn&rsquo;t get called for a penalty.&ldquo;They might say at the time, &lsquo;Hey Creighton&rsquo;s easy,&rsquo; but I&rsquo;d get my satisfaction.&rdquo;The struggle to control Secord&rsquo;s temper has been going on since training camp, with occasional flashes of success. Early in February, Secord showed remarkable restraint in resisting the temptation to go after Mike O&rsquo;Connell of the Chicago Black Hawks.&ldquo;Have you been speaking to Secord about cooling it?&rdquo; Creighton was asked.&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; said the coach, &ldquo;but I had a couple of those talks earlier in the year and it didn&rsquo;t do much good.&rdquo;&ldquo;Have you spoken to him recently?&rdquo;&ldquo;Do you mean what time was the last one?&rdquo; said Creighton wryly. &ldquo;Probably about 11 o&rsquo;clock this morning.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big strong kid and he should thrive in the corners,&rdquo; the coach went&rsquo; on. &ldquo;But to thrive in the corners you&rsquo;ve got to be able to stand the pressure and keep your head. You&rsquo;ve got to make good plays out of the corner and to do that you&rsquo;ve got to keep your head.&ldquo;Al has the capabilities to be a hell of a cornerman. It&rsquo;s a matter of getting himself under control.&rdquo;Even unprovoked, Secord has the bad habit of riding into the corner with his elbows high.&ldquo;I have to really concentrate when I take my man out to keep my elbows down,&rdquo; said Secord, &ldquo;because at the beginning of a game the referee is apt to be looking for that kind of stuff.&ldquo;When it comes down to the final couple of minutes you have to be smart and watch your elbows and keep a cool head&mdash;unless it&rsquo;s absolutely necessary.&rdquo;Secord had back-to-back victories over his temper when, the day after the Chicago game, he passed up a couple of glorious opportunities to go with Mario Tremblay of the Montreal Canadiens. Then came old pal Ric Seiling and it was back to square one.WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN: Capt. Wayne Cashman is the latest knee casualty on the Bruins.An arthroscopic examination at Mass General Hospital Feb. 23 showed damage to the ligaments in his left knee. His leg was put in a cast and the prognosis is that he will be off the ice for four weeks.Cashman first injured the knee Dec. 2 in a game against Colorado. It was diagnosed as a strained ligament and he was out for nine games. He hurt it again in Winnipeg Jan. 4 and missed the next eight games. It started bothering him again just as the Bruins left for their February road trip west.The captaincy of the Bruins has been handed around like a hot potato this season.Cashman handed the &ldquo;C&rdquo; to Don Marcotte when he went on the shelf. Marcotte passed it on to Terry O&rsquo;Reilly when he underwent knee surgery. O&rsquo;Reilly gave it back to Cashman when he was suspended. Now O&rsquo;Reilly is wearing the &ldquo;C&rdquo; again.Jean Ratelle moved up to No. 7 on the NHL&rsquo;s all time scoring list with an assist against Colorado giving him 1,220 points, one more than Jean Beliveau. &#9632;

f0009-01

Controlling Temper Secord’s Biggest Battle

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>And Williams, who was probbably not the least bit shocked that Punch Imlach finally began moving people out of Toronto, continued not to mean-mouth the Maple Leaf situation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just here to help the Vancouver Canucks any way I can,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to leave Toronto because I was having the spirit knocked out of me there. I&rsquo;m not proud of what happened to me there because I didn&rsquo;t feel I played with the intensity I should have been even though I was getting points. Scoring goals is only one part of the game and I don&rsquo;t think I was making the contribution I could have been. All I know is that Darryl Sittler is the best hockey player I ever played with and they&rsquo;d better hang on to him as long as they can because if they don&rsquo;t they&rsquo;re going to be in trouble.&rdquo;Canucks coach Neale indicated he would use Williams on the left side with Ivan Boldirev who was recently acquired from the Atlanta Flames and right winger Kris Manery, picked up in early January from the Minnesota North Stars.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have any forwards who were hitting anybody except Stan Smyl,&rdquo; said Canucks coach Neale, who has had his eyes, on Williams for a couple of months.He&rsquo;s the kind of guy who will do anything he can to win and you need guys like that, especially on nights when everybody isn&rsquo;t going as well as they should. He gets involved and gets people mad at him, and we always seem to play our best when somebody is upset with us and we&rsquo;re mad at someone else.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is about this team, but unless we&rsquo;re mad at somebody, we let a period and sometimes two slide by without doing anything. I think Williams will help us that way. Butler has always been a guy willing to hit people and whenever he&rsquo;s been around on a regular shift he&rsquo;s come up with between 15 and 18 goals and he&rsquo;s a good penalty killer.&rdquo;Butler was much happier about the deal, not seeming to have the ambivalence of Williams, though that probably stemmed from his lack of ice time in Toronto.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m delighted with the trade,&rdquo; he said. I&rsquo;ve been playing two or maybe three shifts a game and it&rsquo;s pretty tough to stay up for that kind of play. Jake Milford was my first general manager and Larry Popein was my first coach so it&rsquo;s like coming home in a sense.&rdquo;Canucks meanwhile have continued their screwball act, world beaters one night and cement heads the next.Upon returning from their successful road trip which saw victories over Philadelphia, Minnesota and Montreal, they proceeded to watch the Washington Capitals cruise in and beat them 5-3. The next night they played well gain, downing the New York Islanders 42, with Thomas Gradin and Stan Smyl having good nights, Smyl having the second four-point evening of his career. &#9632;

Canucks Trade Potential For Sock

All of us at THE HOCKEY NEWS, who work each week to bring you your copy of the paper, would like to take this opportunity to apologize to you for any delays you might he experiencing in receiving it.Quite frankly, your response to the &ldquo;new look&rdquo; of THE HOCKEY NEWS has been so overwhelming that our computer simply hasn&rsquo;t been able to keep up with the demand. For that reason, we haven&rsquo;t been able to process your requests for both new subscriptions and renewals as quickly as we&rsquo;d like to.We&rsquo;ve made the necessary adjustments, however, and expect this problem to be cleared up shortly. In the meantime, thank you very much for your patience with us, your loyalty to us and&mdash;most of all&mdash;your eagerness to become a subscriber to THE HOCKEY NEWS! &#9632;

A Message To Canadian Subscribers

<div class="byline">Compiled By CATHY MUNRO</div>Do you have an opinion on hockey? Here&rsquo;s your chance to get it off your chest. Write the Fan Forum, The Hockey News, 214 King St., West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4. To facilitate processing, type written letters are given preference.Fan Forum<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011316/5051083-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="588" height="338"></div><h2>lore On The ruin Brawl</h2>But no matter how contemptuous and detestible the actions of these self-proclaimed taskmasters may be, the Bruins were not justified in their pursuing of the fans into the stands. Players must not descend to the quasi-human level of these perhaps aberrational spectators, and become enforcers of the unwritten rules of player-fan comity. The athletes must allow the appropriate public and private law enforcement officials to handle the problems arising out of such incidents. For that reason, the suspensions and fines meted out by president Ziegler, after careful and difficult deliberation, were justified.Unprovoked attacks by spectators on players cannot be tolerated, yet retaliation by those players against the despicable fans runs contrary to the reputation and societal obligation of a professional athlete.J. Crane Stevens New York, NY<h2>Best Young Men In Goal</h2>In your Feb. 8 issue, Mr. Stan Fischler stated that, &ldquo;Unquestionably, the best young goalies in the NHL are, in this order, (1) Michel Dion of Quebec, (2) Glen Hanlon of Vancouver, (3) Mike Liut of St. Louis and (4) Greg Millen of Pittsburgh.&rdquo;Granted, all have performed admirably, although Millen&rsquo;s play of late has reflected the slumping Penguin fortunes. It is noteworthy that this season&rsquo;s Vezina leaders, Don Edwards and Bob Sauve, both in their early twenties, have been omitted. Edwards, the Prince of Wales Conference All-Star, deserves a better fate.If memory serves me right, another young All Star performer, Pete Peeters of Philadelphia, a rookie, has contributed to the Flyers&rsquo; record-shattering streak this year. In addition, although injured, the Leafs&rsquo; Mike Palmateer must be considered near the best and his absence from the Toronto lineup is clearly evident.It would appear that Mr. Fischler&rsquo;s evaluation of young goalies is, to say the least, definitely questionable.Shane Belford Ridgeway, Ont.<h2>And Again&hellip;</h2>Stan Fischler should have found a spot for Mike Veisor of the Chicago Black Hawks on his &lsquo;Best Young Goalies&rsquo; list. Veisor has only played in about eight games this year (all on the road) but he has received rave reviews from opposing players and coaches.He has also been named one of the game&rsquo;s three stars in more than half of these games.Tom Matula Chicago, IL<h2>Words, Not Punches, Killing Hockey</h2>Every week we read about how violence in hurting hockey. In my opinion, the press&mdash;and not violence&mdash;is killing the game. This is made obvious by the fact that we read more about the Bruin incident at Madison Square Garden than we did of the Flyers&rsquo; unbeaten streak, one of the greatest achievements in hockey. The newspapers, especially in New York, have found hockey violence to be a hot news item, so they&rsquo;re playing up on it, ruining the reputation of the game in the process.Over the years, the quality of play has increased and the violence has decreased. This is obvious by the fact that I was able to see Dave Schultz playing a game here in Syracuse, instead of in the NHL. As far as the Russians go, if our best players were to play together for an extended period of time, then play them, there is no doubt in my mind that we would convincingly beat them. A lack of team unity, not quality of play was the problem.I consider myself a true fan of the sport and feel that I speak for many others when I say that I like the game the way it is played now, with fighting a part of the game. Granted, an incident like the recent slashing involving the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Randy Holt is sick and should have been punished even more severely, but I feel that having fighting as a part of the game creates a sense of toughness not found in any other sport. A fight is exciting and if I&rsquo;m alone in this opinon, why then&mdash;in every arena that I&rsquo;ve attended&mdash;do all the fans excitedly jump to their feet when a fight breaks out?I feel that a player like Terry O&rsquo;Reilly is exciting to watch, and that most fans would like to have him playing on their team. His fighting isn&rsquo;t what is hurting hockey, it&rsquo;s helping it. The game is improving, and I would like to see it left played as it is, with no further rule changes Just sell the good points of the game instead of publicizing the bad one and the NHL will be on the rise.Mike Starinsky Syracuse, NY<h2>Foster Hewitt Canadian Asset</h2>As a radio broadcasting student at Loyalist College in Belleville, I, along with fellow student Frank Meloche, interviewed a living legend in hockey broadcasting, Foster Hewitt.To say Mr. Hewitt is a nice man is an understatement. He gave us first class treatment before, during and after our interview. Mr. Hewitt was more than willing to give us any information we needed.After the interview, both Frank and I came to the conclusion that Foster Hewitt not only is a credit to hockey, but a credit to Canada.Peter Campbell, Frank Meloche Belleville, Ont.<h2>Time To Leash The New Yorkers</h2>I am a little tired of reading letters from hockey fans in New York City. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, I have nothing against the city itself, but, the fans there seem to think that the Ranges are God&rsquo;s gift to the sports world.If the Ranger fans would exhibit a little bit more self-control and a little bit more respect for visiting teams, there would be a lot less player-fan incidents&mdash;of which there seem to be an abundance at Madison Square Garden.Ray Gravelle Hamilton, Ont<h2>A Questionable Defensive Maneuver</h2>I watch quite a lot of hockey games and time and time again I see the defensemen deliberately covering up the puck along the boards. My point is this: why did the NHL make it illegal to do this if the referees don&rsquo;t want to call it?Buffalo is one team that is most guilty of doing this and their defensemen continually fall and smother the puck with their gloves, which is another offense.Maybe Mr. Scotty Morrison could come up with some answers.Zena Harrison Beamsville, Ont. &#9632;

f0010-01

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;There are signs that David (Sonny) Werblin, once the master wheeler-dealer of football, is now becoming the David Harum of hockey.The Madison Square Garden impresario, who master-minded the Barry Beck-for-five deal with the Colorado Rockies, more recently has been on the prowl for no less a prize than Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; center ice gem Darryl Sittler.The Rangers&rsquo; deportment during the weekend of Feb. 23-24 shouldn&rsquo;t have delayed the pursuit of Sittler. On Saturday night (Feb. 23) Don Maloney opened the scoring at Met Center in Bloomington, whereupon the North Stars proceeded to demolish the Blueshirts, 6-3.Upon returning to the Garden, the Rangers obtained some solace with an 8-2 win over the Islanders. That victory; however, was tempered by the dismal performance of the Isles in recent weeks.The Sittler-to-New York possibility moved a few steps closer to reality following a visit by Toronto Maple Leaf major domo Harold Ballard to New York recently.Although Ballard and Werblin have not been like Damon and Pythias in the past year, the Leaf boss apparently was willing to talk turkey with Sonny and thereby try to hatch a blockbuster deal.By February 22, the possibility of Sittier in the Broadway red, white and blue was splashed in the newspapers and Werblin wasn&rsquo;t issuing any denials. Said Sonny:&ldquo;About two weeks ago, our hockey people (Fred Shero and Mickey Keating) brought Sittier&rsquo;s availability to my attention and we discussed the financial aspects of pursuing him. I said yes, if we could get him, we should.&rdquo;Several possible trade combinations were mentioned, the most prominent being defenseman Ron Greschner, forward Don Murdoch and goalie John Davidson heading to Toronto in exchange for goalie Mike Palmateer, center Darryl Sittler and forward Rocky Saganiuk.Another possibility had defenseman Dave Burrows being tossed into the deal on the Toronto side, and forward Ron Duguay of the Rangers being Toronto-bound.The hitch in the deal from Sittier&rsquo;s viewpoint is the alleged $500,000 no-trade release fee to be paid the center before he will grant himself emigration papers. But to the Rangers, owned by Gulf and Western Industries, such a fee is nothing more than a drop in the oil well.The pivotal factor, of course, is whether both teams would be prepared to gamble on such a large scale.With his penchant for big-name talent, Werblin would be delighted to have a player of Sittler&rsquo;s stature. More important, Sittler would fill a vital gap if gifted center Ulf Nilsson fails to completely recover from his mystery ailment.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to come back and play until all the symptoms are gone,&rdquo; Nilsson said after being out since January 2nd with a nerve disorder yet to be diagnosed by an assortment of baffled doctors.&ldquo;The last three weeks I played (back in January) I was bloody brutal: I couldn&rsquo;t play my game. If it&rsquo;s that way again, I&rsquo;ll call it quits.&rdquo;NOTES: Davidson and Duguay were positively glittering in the Rangers 4-1 victory over Edmonton at Madison Square Garden last Wednesday&hellip;Big John was ticked the star of the game by the hockey Night in Canada crew any looked like the Davidson of April 1979. Defenseman Barry Beck re turned to the lineup for the rout the Islanders&hellip;True to the riva ry, the match was brawl-filled. I one episode, Islanders defenseman Gord Lane, who was on the began fighting with Ranger Ro Duguay, who was on the bench&hellip;If the clubs ever meet in th playoffs half the New York police may be needed to keep order.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011203/5051114-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="572" height="904"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Greschner&rsquo;s name ha. come up in trade talks between the Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

Rangers Ponder Trade For Sittler

<div class="byline">BY PAT DOYLE</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Ross Cory sat in Terminal One of Toronto&rsquo;s International Airport and asked about the Canadian Olympic hockey team.&ldquo;When do they play the Russians?&rdquo; Cory wondered. &ldquo;Today or tomorrow? Tomorrow, eh&hellip;maybe we&rsquo;ll get to see some of it.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s understandable that Cory would take more than a passing interest in the young Olympians, because he almost became one last summer. The strapping 23-year-old defenseman, you see, had been a late cut at the team&rsquo;s training camp.While agreeing it would have been nice to play in the Olympics at Lake Placid, Cory provided a one-word answer when somebody asked him where he&rsquo;d rather be at the precise moment.&ldquo;Here,&rdquo; he said.By &ldquo;here&rdquo; Cory didn&rsquo;t exactly mean Terminal One. He was talking about the Winnipeg Jets and the National Hockey League. Cory would be playing his 27th NHL game in another 24 hours, or so, and it didn&rsquo;t figure to work out this way back in the summer.After failing to make the grade with the Olympic team, Cory was invited to attend Winnipeg&rsquo;s rookie camp in St. Agathe, Que., on a tryout basis. He was the most pleasant surprise among the freshmen there, and Jets&rsquo; management had him in tow when they headed back to Winnipeg for the club&rsquo;s main camp.Once he was in with the big boys, it became apparent to general manager John Ferguson that he had a hockey player on his hands, but a small bit of seasoning was in order before Cory could be a permanent fixture in the NHL.So, it was off to Tulsa after signing a pro contract on Oct. 3. Cory spent the first two and a half months of the season with the Central League Oilers, but the SOS went out in December and Cory has been with the Jets ever since.A graduate of the University of British Columbia, Cory has steadily improved since his promotion to the NHL. He&rsquo;s sound defensively and has a nose for the net when he&rsquo;s in the offensive zone.Cory is part of a youth movement undertaken by the Jets in the second half of the season, and he and right winger John Markell are the two players who have come across as bonafide National Leaguers.Like Cory, Markell is a university grad. He got his schooling at Bowling Green, where he was the school&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer with 102 goals and 134 assists. He signed as a free agent with Jets near the end of the 1978-79 World Hockey Association, and Ferguson could hardly believe his good fortune.&ldquo;We were really shocked when we discovered he wasn&rsquo;t already claimed by another team,&rdquo; says Ferguson, who also latched onto Cory as a free agent.Markell joined Jets on Jan. 11 after serving time on the farm in Tulsa, and he scored seven goals in his first 20 NHL games, which isn&rsquo;t a bad clip at all. Averaged out over an 80-games, schedule, he would be looking at a 28-goal season.Another member of the youthful Jets who got the call past the midway point in the season is Finnish goaltender Markus Mattsson. He, too, came up in January and all he did with the big team was record the first shutout by a Jets&rsquo; goaler since 1978. He got the zero in a scoreless tie against the New York Islanders.It has not been an easy season to take for Ferguson or coach Tom McVie, but at least they can look down the road with optimism knowing they&rsquo;ve got these three people in the stable. &#9632;

Young Jets Show Promise

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div>HARTFORD&mdash;One of the toughest interviews in the dressing room of the Hartford Whalers is right wings Blaine Stoughton. It&rsquo;s not that e&rsquo;s unwilling to talk. He answers any question asked of him&mdash;but with little or no embellishment.The guys with the microphones shy away because they&rsquo;re looking for long-winded answers. The print media, looking for a story-line, seldom head in Blaine&rsquo;s direction. Instead they move to the stall of a more loquacious member of the team.But you don&rsquo;t need a lot of quotes in order to write a piece about Blaine &ldquo;Stash&rdquo; Stoughton&rsquo;s accomplishments this year. The sharp-shooting right winger leads linemate Mike Rogers in the Whalers&rsquo; scoring race as both players were among the top 20 in the National Hockey League.Stoughton had been picked up by the Whalers in an unheralded deal after the WHA&rsquo;s Indianapolis Racers had folded last spring. Blaine hadn&rsquo;t done very much for Indy and Whaler management didn&rsquo;t expect much of a contribution from him&mdash;although they seemed to recognize his potential.In 25 games for the Whalers at the tail end of the 1978-79 campaign, Stoughton scored nine goals and added as many assists. So when training camp opened this year coach Don Blackburn just hoped that &lsquo;Stash&rsquo; would perhaps realize half the potential that he had showed a few years back with Cincinnati (WHA) when he banged in 52 goals. That was the only time in his professional career that he had displayed the kind of scoring ability that surfaced while playing junior hockey with the Flin Flon Bombers back in 1971-73. Stoughton had led the WCHL in goal scoring as a 19-year-old.After his successful year in Cincy, however, the team made a coaching change and Jacques Demers (now coach of Quebec Nordiques) changed the team&rsquo;s style around to the defensive side. Stoughton didn&rsquo;t really fit so it wasn&rsquo;t long before he moved on to Indianapolis and finally, with the Racers demise, to New England.At the beginning of the current campaign, coach Don Blackburn seemed confident that Stoughton could put the puck in the net for his team, but he was concerned about Blaine&rsquo;s defensive ability. &lsquo;Play your game, but you&rsquo;ve got a job to do coming back,&rsquo; he told Stoughton. He suggested that Blaine &lsquo;just concentrate on it and see what happens.&rsquo;From the outset, Stoughton began filling the net as he played the right side for center Dave Keon. Keon&rsquo;s skill set up his winger on many occasions, and Davey&rsquo;s defensive skills helped out at the other end too. But, as it turned out, Blaine held his own in the opposition end.When Blackburn moved him onto a line with speedy center Mike Rogers, Stoughton&rsquo;s offensive pace quickened even more. After 53 games his goal scoring, stats had him ranking sixth in the league in that department with 35. And what&rsquo;s more, he wasn&rsquo;t sacrificing his defensive role one bit. Blackburn&rsquo;s confidence in him had grown to the point where he was using him to kill penalties as well. Two of his goals, as a matter of fact, came in that capacity.When asked if he were concentrating more on a two-way game this year, Stoughton said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to. You&rsquo;ve got to in this league because every night you&rsquo;re playing against somebody that, if you let him go, is going to burn you.&rdquo;Whaler fans were disappointed that the 26-year-old right winger was not chosen to participate in the annual NHL All Star game this year. Scotty Bowman, coach of the Prince of Wales team, elected Gordie Howe to represent the Whalers instead. With the game being played in Detroit the choice seemed legitimate, but Stoughton certainly was deserving.It was nice to be back home in Hartford, and in their spanking new building, but the Hartford Whalers were having difficulty adjusting to their new surroundings. After five games in the building most people were disappointed that the Whalers had racked up only 2-1-2 record against the likes of Los Angeles, Colorado, Minnesota, Vancouver and Winnipeg. But the team was operating at somewhat of a disadvantage&mdash;as far as home-ice is concerned.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011290/5051169-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="608" height="1038"><figcaption class="caption-body">Blaine Stoughton has fulfilled the Whalers&rsquo; confidence in him with an outstanding year.</figcaption></div>The only time the Whalers had been able to skate on the Civic Center ice was during those five games. Since work was still being done, or other events were being held, the team had to practice elsewhere. That meant there wasn&rsquo;t any time to experiment with the bigger ice surface, the new boards, deeper corners, etc. It&rsquo;d be a while before the players would feel comfortable on the new surface.It seemed to be partly a matter of confidence. Said coach Blackburn: &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ll start playing better as we go along. There&rsquo;s a lot of uncertainty&hellip;We&rsquo;re in sort of a feeling-out period right now. When we were playing in Springfield we were going very well there. We knew when we came out and did certain things in that rink they&rsquo;d be successful for us. We haven&rsquo;t seen it happen in this building. We&rsquo;ve got to get a few solid games under our belt in order to have confidence, as a team, playing in this building.&rdquo;The Whalers&rsquo; power play improved immensely after Blackie made a few adjustments. Over the first half of the season Hartford had suffered with the poorest percentage of power play conversions in the League. But in 12 games since the change the Whalers racked up 15 goals in just 32 chances to move up to 14th spot.Newcomer Tom Rowe suffered a severe ankle sprain and missed several games because of it. The injury came at a time when he was beginning to blend well with center Dave Keon and left wing Jordy Douglas&hellip;Tim Sheehy was brought up from the Springfield farm club to fill in for Rowe.<div class="sidebar">Moved onto a line with Mike Rogers, Stoughton&rsquo;s offensive pace quickened even more. &#9632;</div>

f0012-01

Whalers Reap Dividends from ‘Stash’

<div class="byline">BILL LIBBY&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021081/5051207-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="283" height="374"></div><h2>Big Little Man</h2>ROBBIE FTOREK IS SMALL, which is what they usually say about him, but tough, which his opponents will tell you. The five-foot-eight, 160-pound forward for the Quebec Nordiques is intense and dynamic and doesn&rsquo;t give a damn about his size.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03727/5051200-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="283" height="407"><figcaption class="caption-body">Robbie Ftorek</figcaption></div>He plays with passion. He is a pest who is always pursuing the puck or the player with the puck, determinedly forechecking and backchecking every second he is on the ice. He has excellent speed, handles the puck well, and has a fast, accurate shot.He is probably the best American ever to play this sport and he is the first to be named Most Valuable Player of a major hockey league&mdash;the World Hockey Association in 1976.He is one of the few players ever to exceed the 100-mark in both points and penalty minutes, as he did in the WHA that year, with 113 points and 109 penalty minutes. He&rsquo;s pointedly proud of this performance. He does not back down from anyone.He has taken shots of cortisone to play with injuries, has played with bad knees and a bum shoulder, and once played with 68 stitches in his face after being struck with a puck and undergoing plastic surgery. He missed the last month of one WHA season with a broken leg, but played his last four seasons in that league without missing a game. And he practices as hard as he plays&mdash;harder than some players play games. Now that he&rsquo;s in the National Hockey League he doesn&rsquo;t see any difference from the WHA.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hockey,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The NHL may have some better teams than we had, but we could have played with them. I play hard because that&rsquo;s the only way to play. I&rsquo;ve learned how to get out of the way of a lot of hits, but I can take it if I&rsquo;m hit and I can hit back. I&rsquo;m not playing any harder here than I was there. Anyone who is was cheating himself, his team and the fans if he wasn&rsquo;t giving all he had before. I&rsquo;m not thrilled to be in this league or anything like that. I&rsquo;m happy to be in hockey, period.&rdquo;He is a feisty fellow who leads his team and has conducted mock kangaroo courts for his mates, fining them for being late for meetings, practices, trips and so forth. He is a holler-guy, who always is snapping at his teammates or encouraging them, and if they think he&rsquo;s too tiny to take charge, they can take him on.&ldquo;I ask a lot of myself so I think I have a right to ask a lot of my teammates,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had to fight for everything I&rsquo;ve gotten and I&rsquo;m not going to give up anything without a fight.&rdquo;<h2>Always Asked Questions</h2>ROBERT BRIAN FTOREK, whose name is Czechoslovakian and pronounced &ldquo;Fatorek,&rdquo; was born in January, 1952 in the Boston suburb of Needham. His father was a carpenter who had a season ticket to the Boston Bruins&rsquo; games and used to sneak Robbie in and hold him on his lap. They sat behind Bill and Bob Cleary, members of the gold-medal U.S. team at the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley, Ca. The brothers answered Robbie&rsquo;s questions about the fine points of the sport. Robbie&rsquo;s favorite players were hustling little guys like Fleming Mackell and Stan Mikita.In Needham, Robbie attended school with the sons of Bruin immortals Milt Schmidt and Woodie Dumart. In Junior high, Ftorek couldn&rsquo;t play football because he didn&rsquo;t weigh at least 115 pounds, so he played soccer and led his school to the state championship. In high school, playing with his brother Steve, now a carpenter, Robbie led his school to two straight state championships in hockey.Originally he took figure-skating lessons from Olympic coach Maribelle Vincent Owens at a rink his dad built, but when she died in a tragic plane crash that claimed the lives of the U.S. women&rsquo;s team, he switched to hockey and became the biggest schoolboy star in the history of the state, playing for a high school team that frequently filled the Boston Garden.After high school, Robbie went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to play junior hockey and starred for the U.S. Olympic team that tied the Czechs and took the silver medal at Sapporo, Japan, in 1972. Later he was MVP of Team USA in the Canada Cup Tourney in 1976.<h2>Made His Own Way</h2>DRAFTED BY THE DETROIT Red Wings, he played most of two seasons with Virginia in the American League and only 15 games with the Red Wings. They thought he was too small. So he jumped to the WHA and played three seasons for Phoenix, where he still makes his off-season home, and two with Cincinnati. Al Rollins, a WHA teammate, said, &ldquo;Robbie is the most intensely dedicated player I&rsquo;ve known in the sport.&rdquo; Frank Hughes, another WHAer, said, &ldquo;He does more for a team than any player I&rsquo;ve ever seen.&rdquo; Ftorek said, &ldquo;All I needed was a chance to do what I can do.&rdquo;He scored 40 or more goals in each of his last four seasons in the WHA, 59 goals in one season, at least 70 assists in three seasons out of four, and more than 100 points every season. He was on a pace that will produce close to 30 goals, 70 assists, and 100 points this season in the NHL, so the dropoff is not drastic. At 28 and in his eighth professional season he appears to be at his peak. He is underrated in this league and enormously exciting.He and his high school sweetheart, Wendy, have been married eight years and have a son, Sam, five, and daughter, Lucie-Lee, two. Robbie and Wendy are active in charitable work and generous with time, energy and money. He is the sort of fellow who will sign autographs for as long as fans ask and he is the rare sort who sends flowers to fans&rsquo; weddings and funerals. He says he lives like he plays&mdash;and that means doing the very best he can.As we go to press with this issue, Ftorek is out of the Nordiques&rsquo; lineup with a knee injury which will keep him sidelined until at least the playoffs. &#9632;

f0012-02

HOCKEY AD LIB

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011216/5051238-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="470" height="372"></div><h2>New Award Proposed</h2>ONCE UPON A TIME, when Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States and Louis St. Laurent was Canada&rsquo;s Prime Minister, the NHL had a bright idea. It decided to strike an award for the league&rsquo;s best defenseman.The key word was DEFENSE (not to be confused with offense or goal-scoring). The prize was called the James Norris Trophy and, lo and behold, genuine DEFENSEmen&mdash; Red Kelly, Doug Harvey, Tom Johnson, Pierre Pilote&mdash;won the mug.Then, along came Bobby Orr and the 60-year-old concept of defenseman was turned upside-down. The defenseman, as orchestrated by Orr, became an OFFENSEman, or to put it more accurately, a rover. He was up the ice as much as he was down. And because of Orr, the best AT THE TIME, (but never better in his best years than Doug Harvey) everyone and his Uncle Dudley who was supposed to be a defenseman became a rover.From that point on the Norris Trophy became an award NOT for the best defenseman but for the NHL&rsquo;s finest rover.Now the time has come for the NHL to right its wrong and once again give due credit to defensive defenseman. This is only fair since the league only two years ago fashioned the Frank J. Selke Trophy for the best defensive forward.Rather than wait for the NHL silversmiths to get around to honoring the best defensive defenseman, I am putting forth the Jim Thomson Trophy as the newest prize.In case you weren&rsquo;t around at the end of the World War II, you should know that Jimmy Thomson (first with the Maple Leafs and then with the Black Hawks) was as good a defensive defenseman as any who ever came down the pike. (Ask Conn Smythe or Punch Imlach if you don&rsquo;t believe me.) That settled, let us pick a winner.Selecting the best defensive defenseman will be tough since we don&rsquo;t have the luxury&mdash;as writers do when they pick the Norris-winner&mdash;of using goals, assists and total points as a guide. What to do?For starters, I asked the publicity men of each team to pick their two best defensive defensemen. Here are their choices:CHICAGO. Doug Wilson, Keith Brown; BUFFALO: Bill Hajt, Richie Dunn; BOSTON; Brad Park, Ray Bourque; COLORADO: Nick Beverley, Trevor Johansen; DETROIT: Barry Long, Thommie Bergman; EDMONTON: Colin Campbell, Doug Hicks; HARTFORD: Rick Ley, Mark Howe; LOS ANGELES: Brad Selwood, Randy Manery; MINNESOTA: Paul Shmyr, Fred Barrett; ISLANDERS: Dave Lewis, Bob Lorimer; RANGERS: Dave Maloney, Barry Beck; PHILADELPHIA: Norm Barnes, Jimmy Watson; PITTSBURGH: Ron Stackhouse, Russ Anderson; QUEBEC: Gerry Hart, Dale Hoganson; ST. LOUIS: Ed Kea, Bryan Maxwell; TORONTO: Borje Salming, Dave Burrows; WASHINGTON: Rick Green, Paul Mackinnon; WINNIPEG: Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Barry Melrose; VANCOUVER: Lars Lindgren, Harold Snepsts; MONTREAL: Serge Savard, Larry Robinson; ATLANTA: Phil Russell, Paul Reinhart.Do you agree? Should there be a separate award for the blueliner who minds his blueline? And if so, who is your candidate for the Jimmy Thomson Trophy?(Here, next week, some of the NHL&rsquo;s top minds respond to the Fischler Foolproof Poll.)<h2>His Only Luck Bad</h2>NOTES: I asked Tom McVie, whose Winnipeg Jets have been holding up the NHL, how things are. &ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t have bad luck,&rdquo; McVie shot back, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d have no luck at all!&rdquo;&hellip;What ever happened to Bobby Hull?&hellip;Several fans have wondered about Derek Sanderson&rsquo;s whereabouts. I phoned the office of his attorney, Bob Woolf, and was told that Derek is living in Fort Erie, Ontario (near Buffalo) and &ldquo;is feeling better.&rdquo; At the moment, Sanderson has no hockey connections&hellip;Bobby Orr, now on the NHL payroll, says the league &ldquo;is getting back to a finesse game.&rdquo; What I&rsquo;d like to know is the roots of this propaganda. If Orr believes that applesauce he is dreaming. Lighthorse teams such as Quebec, Minnesota and Los Angeles (ask Marcel Dionne) are looking for bruisers because finesse still doesn&rsquo;t work&hellip;&ldquo;The NHL,&rdquo; says Orr, &ldquo;will continue to change rules to make it a better game.&rdquo;&hellip;The sooner, Bobby, the better&hellip;Phil Esposito is president of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association by default. (When Bobby Clarke quit, v.p. Espo got the nod.) But look for the union to get a replacement rather than keeping Espo, who is nothing but a stooge for the NHLPA&rsquo;s outgoing director, Al Eagleson&hellip;Madison Square Garden erected ten-foot glass around the perimeter of its rink. Now it needs an air purifier for the various brands of smoke and language which befoul the joint&hellip;Quebec Nordiques make all public address announcements in French at Le Colisee but coach Jacques Demers addresses his players in English. &ldquo;The reason,&rdquo; Demers tells me, &ldquo;is that a majority of our players are English!&rdquo;&hellip;The 18,000-seat Dallas (Texas) arena will open in April.GRAPES SCREEN TEST: Don (Grapes) Cherry, the Mickey Rooney of hockey, has passed his first screen test. The Rockies&rsquo; coach auditioned for a Lite beer commercial recently and now the results are in. &ldquo;Don was terrific,&rdquo; said one of the Madison Avenue ad men who worked with Cherry. &ldquo;Now we have to find a script to fit his talents.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s the good news. The bad news is that the New York ad folks had originally written in a part for Grape&rsquo;s beloved dog, Blue, who gets more ink than the entire Rockies roster put together.&ldquo;We threw Blue out of the script,&rdquo; the ad man explained, &ldquo;because we were afraid Blue might upstage his master.&rsquo;&rsquo;(It&rsquo;s a good thing Blue can&rsquo;t coach.)NEXT WEEK: I will explain how Eddie Giacomin embarrassed me before millions of Canadian television viewers. And, of course, I will deliver the Fischler riposte.LETTERS: I owe an apology to the many readers (both critical and complimentary) who have written since the inception of this column. The backlog of letters became too steep to handle by return mail. Instead, each month, starting now, I&rsquo;ll do my best to answer each letter here:Margaret Borg, W. Lafayette, In.&mdash;You&rsquo;ve convinced me that Fort Wayne fans are not Neanderthals. Now, convince Ira Lacher.Francis Diorio, Lowell, Mass.&mdash;Yes, the Soviets spend 11 months practicing but let&rsquo;s not condemn them for that. They emphasize what the NHL should and doesn&rsquo;t&mdash;passing, puck control, finesse. We need more of that in our game.N. F. Craig, Wilmington, Del.&mdash;More and more fans, writers, and players are convinced that the NHL could do without fighting. I wonder when the owners will respond to public opinion.<h2>Small Unmarked Bills</h2>MEDIA NOTES: Boston Globe&rsquo;s Ray Fitzgerald had a delicious quote for those characters suing the Bruins, et. al. over the Madison Square Garden brawl&hellip;wrote Fitz: &ldquo;Sure we&rsquo;re suing for $7 million, but we&rsquo;re not interested in the money. Tell the Jacobs brothers (owners of the Bruins) small unmarked bills please, and not in consecutive series.&rdquo;&hellip;Philly Journal&rsquo;s Bob Ibach says Atlanta&rsquo;s Dan Bouchard belongs on the All-Star COMPLAINING Team&hellip;Bob Black of the Pittsburgh Press wonders, in print, how long Johnny Wilson can keep the Penguins&rsquo; coaching job&hellip;I hope for a long time&hellip;Vancouver Sun&rsquo;s Archie McDonald gets results. After writing that Canucks&rsquo; GM Jake Milford &ldquo;tends to move as cautiously as porcupines making love,&rdquo; old Jake pulled off two blockbuster deals that could put his club back on the track&hellip;Thank Heaven for Fran Rosa. At first I thought I saw the only one who figured Mike Milbry did well in his battle with Al Eagleson but Rosa and I agree. &ldquo;The bigger victory,&rdquo; wrote Fran in the Boston Globe, &ldquo;belonged to Milbury. The reasons: The NHLPA formed a screening committee to seek a fulltime assistant for Eaglesons by June&mdash;which is what Milbury sought.&rdquo;&hellip;Toronto Star&rsquo;s Joan Sutton did a beaut of a profile on Punch Imlach with this Imach line on newsmen: &ldquo;I tell writers if you have to criticize me, do it, and if I want to answer back, I will. If a friendship can&rsquo;t take that, it&rsquo;s not worth a dime.&rdquo;BOB OR BOBBY. Hereafter I will no longer commit the indiscretion of calling Robert Earle Clarke &ldquo;Bobby&rdquo; anymore. As you Know I recently beefed about the Flyers&rsquo; yearbook calling Clarke Bob rather than Bobby. Bob seemed too pretentious. But Bruce Cooper, author of the Flyers&rsquo; yearbook set me straight: &ldquo;For all the years I have known Clarkie,&rdquo; writes Cooper, &ldquo;I have never heard him refer to himself as anything other than &lsquo;Bob&rsquo; and that is how he prefers to be addressed&hellip;While Clarkie does not ask you not to call him &lsquo;Bobby&rsquo;, that is not what he prefers and so that is not what I call him. It may be a small point, but I feel it is an important one. That is the reason I always refer to him as &lsquo;Bob&rsquo; in writing and in person.&rdquo;Alright already, I agree. Next case! Bob Orr! &#9632;

f0013-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Rumor has it that Marcel Dionne will accept an offer to join Jacques Lemaire, Bill Nyrop and others in the Swiss Major League or play out his contract next year with the Kings and seek to sign with a winner.Dionne says neither is true. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not thinking seriously about Switzerland. I do want to play with a winner, but I don&rsquo;t want to leave southern California. I plan to live here after I stop playing hockey.&ldquo;I may stop all of a sudden,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I may just quit. I&rsquo;ve gotten some business going here now. I don&rsquo;t need the money. I don&rsquo;t care that much about money. I care more about being happy. I&rsquo;m very unhappy right now.&rdquo;Dionne is 28 and is a fine family man. He and Carol have a daugh ter, another child on the way, and a handsome home near the ocean. Kings&rsquo; owner Jerry Buss says he&rsquo;ll pay Dionne more than anyone else would, but money is not the key to getting a new contract and longterm commitment to the team from Marcel.He played four seasons with Detroit before jumping to L.A. and is in his fifth season here. The Red Wings were disorganized and Dionne created controversy there with his criticism of his teammates and management. He was young. Now he is older but still creating controversy here with his criticism of his teammates and of management, although he believes Buss will do what he can.The Kings got off to a good start and were seven games over .500 shortly after mid-season, when the loss of key men Charlie Simmer and Dave Taylor put on pressure the rest couldn&rsquo;t take and sent the Kings plummeting to their current place in the standings&mdash;three games under .500.During a stretch of seven straight defeats&mdash;within one of the team record until it was snapped with a win over woeful Toronto&mdash;and only two victories in 16 games, Dionne had these things to say:&ldquo;We knew we needed help, but we&rsquo;ve done nothing to toughen the team the last few seasons. I saw weaknesses going into this season, but that was not the time to speak up. Management should have seen it, too. They shouldn&rsquo;t be surprised we&rsquo;ve broken down. I&rsquo;m not.&ldquo;The talent isn&rsquo;t there. You can&rsquo;t win games without talent and I&rsquo;m one of the few guys who has it. A lot of things aren&rsquo;t there. It&rsquo;s up to the general manager. If he can&rsquo;t judge talent, I hope he can judge character, because that&rsquo;s something else we haven&rsquo;t got.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve tried to talk to these guys, but I don&rsquo;t think you can get through to the guys on this team. A few have talent and a few are trying, but a lot don&rsquo;t have much and aren&rsquo;t giving much.&ldquo;A lot of teams are making fun of us. I love this organization, but I feel embarrassed for it.&rdquo;Back in L.A. after a loss to lowly Washington, Marcel had a long, lumpy, blood-crusted 14-stitch scab between his eyes. &ldquo;I like to play hockey,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it isn&rsquo;t hockey they play today. I get beat black and blue. Right now I&rsquo;m having headaches and double vision. I don&rsquo;t want to give up my salary, but I also don&rsquo;t want to lose an eye.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing well, but I can&rsquo;t carry a club by myself. Four or five top players can&rsquo;t carry a club. I&rsquo;m tired of busting my butt and having the fat cats live off me. After losses, they&rsquo;re not blamed, I&rsquo;m blamed, as if I could do more than I do. I pop off, but it doesn&rsquo;t pay off. Nothing changes. We lose and I&rsquo;m tired of losing. I&rsquo;m tired and disgusted.&rdquo;Dionne is a moody man, but he is entitled to speak his piece. Some don&rsquo;t think so. Nearby, captain Mike Murphy was saying, &ldquo;Some people hurt the team by popping off about others on it.&rdquo;But, Dionne isn&rsquo;t the only one sounding off. General manager George Maguire said, &ldquo;They tell me to keep the family together, but the family isn&rsquo;t pulling together, so maybe I should get a new family.&rdquo;Coach Bob Berry said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had it with a few of these guys. They just aren&rsquo;t giving the effort and for all I care they can go on waivers.&rdquo;Owner Buss said, &ldquo;We need to replace some of our players with bigger, stronger players who play more aggressively. If we can&rsquo;t get them in trade, we may have to be patient because I think you build a winner with draft choices,&rdquo;The Kings have half a conter er, but there is a big dropoff quality from top to bottom and the vulnerable defense cracked what the first line no longer could key pressure on the opposition. Two three solid players would make big difference. One solid defenseman who could run the show tight spots would make a big deference. But top players are in easy to get.KINGS THINGS: The Kings Syl Apps and Rich Mulhern waivers. Apps wasn&rsquo;t taken, all continued with the team. Mulher was taken by Toronto. But what the Kings claimed Jerry But from Toronto, a lower club block the claim.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04445/5051269-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="494" height="1050"></div><div class="sidebar">&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t win games without talent,&rdquo; Dionne says, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m one of the few guys that has it.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0017-04

Disconsolate Dionne Blasts King ‘Fat Cats’

<div class="byline">BY ARNOLD IRISH</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Second most improved team in the National Hockey League: That&rsquo;s the St. Louis Blues, who despite their middle echelon status, have executed a smarter about-face than any club except the sensational Philadelphia Flyers.After 58 games, the Blues (2523-10) were 10th in percentage with .517 and eighth in points with 60. It&rsquo;s in eighth place that St. Louis must finish if it is to realize the home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The first 16 clubs qualify for post-season play.Of the Blues&rsquo; final 22 games, 10 were against teams with better percentages and 12 against teams with worse percentages.At the same time last season, the Blues had scored only 34 points, so they were plus-26 after 58 games. Philly, with an amazing 39-4-13 record, had jumped from 62 points to 91 for a plus-29. Buffalo (80-61) was third with plus-19 and Minnesota (61-51) fourth with plus-10.Who&rsquo;s slipped most? Surprisingly, the New York Islanders, off from 84 points to 62 for minus-22, and the once-invincible Montreal Canadiens, down to 71 points from 88 for minus-17.Not only are the Blues one of the youngest teams in the league, with many of their key performers in their early to middle twenties, but they are ready to reap a rich harvest from their farm system.St. Louis&rsquo; top feeder, the Salt Lake City Eagles, is well ahead in he Central League race, and some of the Blues&rsquo; chattels at Port Hu-on (International League) are dearly ready to move up to Salt Lake at the very least.It&rsquo;s no problem for the Blues at he moment, because (barring injuries to top performers), they&rsquo;ll &lsquo;dance with who brung &rsquo;em&rdquo; the rest of this season, although the armhands&rsquo; improvement will provide coach Red Berenson and president-general manager Emile Francis with a pleasant dilemma it training camp next summer.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s going to be some movement next year,&rdquo; Francis predicted. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got fine support or the parent club in our farm system, and some of those youngters are going to play in the NHL text season.&rdquo;Little Doug Palazzari, a runaway leader in the Central League with 83 points in 51 games for Salt Lake, may bet another chance with the Blues&mdash;he&rsquo;s always been a favorite of St. Louis fans&mdash;as may converted defenseman Bobby Hess, who as a winger on Palazzari&rsquo;s line had 55 points in Salt Lake&rsquo;s first 52 games.If those players are passed over, it likely will be in favor of winger Joe Mullen, who has flashed moments of brilliance for Salt Lake, and any or all members of the Red Laurence line. The former Atlanta Flame playmaker has been centering a line for Robby Simpson and Bobby Crawford.Francis, more than a casual observer of hockey competition at the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, N.Y. (two Blues proteges on the Canadian National team are Paul MacLean and Jim Nill) makes no bones about the fact that he&rsquo;d like to land Blues winger Wayne Babych&rsquo;s younger brother Dave, a big defenseman who could be the draft&rsquo;s No. 1 choice.&ldquo;The Cat&rdquo; would have to swing a deal to get Babych from one of the weaker clubs, ostensibly one that needs a goalie. Goaltenders are a commodity that, since Mike Liut has come on to set a club record for victories in a season, the Blues have in long supply.Eddie Staniowski, Liut&rsquo;s backup and still a promising youngster, is expendable. And down on the farm are the likes of Rick Heinz, who has posted a 2.68 goals-against average at Salt Lake, Paul Skidmore at Port Huron and Jim Bales at Hampton, Va.Some of the Blues&rsquo; other top minor-league prospects include such Port Huron stars as Ken Federko (younger brother of St. Louis&rsquo; scoring leader, Bernie Federko), Denis Houle, Gary Murphy, Serge Menard, Bruce McKay and Dan Fergus, and a flashy Peterborough right winger named Mark Reeds.Francis is closely scrutinizing his organization&rsquo;s goalies because, due to the numbers game, they seem certain to be his best trade bait for young Babych. &ldquo;The Cat&rdquo; thinks five goalies in St. Louis&rsquo; organization are of NHL caliber. &ldquo;This year they&rsquo;re not subject to the draft, but next year we&rsquo;ll be in danger of losing some of them because we won&rsquo;t be able to protect everybody.&rdquo; &#9632;

St. Louis Synopsis: Large Improvement

<div class="byline">BY STEVE WINTER</div>LANDOVER&mdash;Mike Gartner and Ryan Walter sat side-by-side in the Capitals&rsquo; locker room, wearing wide, toothy ear-to-ear grins. The rest of the club milled around the spacious dressing area amidst the sounds of slapping backs and joyous celebration.The Capitals had just engraved their own little piece of personal history with their first win ever over the Montreal Canadiens; and at long last, that road to the NHL playoffs seemed to grow shorter and shorter with each new day.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve really been playing consistently the last couple weeks, and at this point, we&rsquo;ve just got an optimistic outlook on getting into the playoffs,&rdquo; said Gartner, the Capitals&rsquo; leading goal scorer after 57 games. Gartner drilled a 90-foot wrist shot into an empty Montreal net to seal Washington&rsquo;s first victory over the defending Stanley Cup Champs in 35 frustrating tries (31 losses, three ties).But that long-awaited cherished moment was really more a matter of design, than chance. The Capitals are currently playing the best hockey in their six-year history, as evidenced by their recent seven-point performance during a crucial five-game road trip.&ldquo;We treated every game on that trip like a playoff game,&rdquo; said Walter, the team captain, who leads the club in points to 47, after 57 games. &ldquo;In fact, every game from here on out is a playoff game to us.&rdquo;Walter should know. He produced two-goal efforts in wins over Winnipeg and Los Angeles and recorded a goal and an assist in Vancouver, while earning the number one star in each of those three games.&ldquo;From here on out, whatever it takes to win&hellip;we do it,&rdquo; he said.The Capitals displayed that determination as they skated stride-for-stride with Les Canadiens, and never let up. Despite being outshot 32-16, they produced one of the most memorable nights in Capital Centre history. With the score tied at 1-1, Montreal reeled off 10 unanswered third period shots at Caps&rsquo; goalie Wayne Stephenson, but it was the 11th shot of the period, on a dazzling effort by Swedish forward Bengt Gustafsson, that brought the house down.The play started innocently in the Washington zone, where Stephenson cleared the puck to winger Bob Sirois. Sirois fed Gustafsson at center ice, and the 21-year-old from Karlskoga, Sweden turned Montreal defenseman Gaston Gingras into a pretzel. As Gingras tried to hook Gussie&rsquo;s stick off the ice, the speedy forward fought off the check, and drilled a 15-footer past Dennis Herron, on the short side.Was it the biggest goal Gustafsson ever scored? &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s say it was the biggest in the National League,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;Now we know we can beat every team,&rdquo; said Rolf Edberg, Gustafsson&rsquo;s part-time centerman and fellow Swede who scored four goals and five assists in one six-game stretch. &ldquo;It was really nice to beat Montreal for the very first time. We&rsquo;re now six or seven points up from the next team (in the playoff race), but if we keep playing like we are now, we&rsquo;ll be there.&rdquo;The victory was a very special one for the Capitals and their fans, as the management billed the game &ldquo;Guaranteed Win Night,&rdquo; which meant that the fans go home happy either way. Under the terms of the promotion, the fans either got to see the Capitals beat Montreal, or they received free tickets to a future home game.As it turned out, no one was disappointed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011268/5051300-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="602" height="992"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Capitals&rsquo; leading goalscorer, Mike Gartner, iced the historic victory with an open-net goal.</figcaption></div>The Capitals began making inroads on their current quest of a playoff berth with that &ldquo;legendary&rdquo; come-from-behind, 5-4 win over the Rangers, on December 15. In the 27 games which followed, they registered a 12-11-4 record, and slowly began the climb toward those last remaining playoff spots.They embarked on the first leg of an eight-game stretch with losses to Chicago, Atlanta and the Rangers, and once again it appeared that history would repeat itself. However a 2-2 tie with Detroit and impressive wins over Los Angeles and Atlanta turned the outlook the other way. Then came an embarrassing 8-2 loss to fast-improving Edmonton, before the Capitals turned in back-to-back wins over Vancouver and Montreal.&ldquo;We felt a successful road trip was absolutely necessary if we are to reach the playoffs,&rdquo; said goalie Wayne Stephenson, once again the Capitals&rsquo; starting goaltender. &ldquo;We feel we need 70 points to reach the playoffs, so we&rsquo;ve got to win every game from here on out.&rdquo;If that&rsquo;s the case, then the Capitals have everything going their way. They play 10 of their 15 March games, and 12 of their last 17 overall, in the friendly confines of the Capital Centre, where their record from December 15 through* mid-February stood at 7-2-2.CAPSHOTS: Stephenson, with his win over the Canadiens, earned his fourth victory in a five-game stretch, and his eighth on the year, overall. It took the 35-year-old veteran 29 games to record his first four wins.Gustafsson, prior to his game-winner vs Montreal, hit a streak of bad luck which included two missed breakaways and a missed penalty shot, but Bengt wasn&rsquo;t overly concerned. &ldquo;When you have a lot of chances and you don&rsquo;t score, you don&rsquo;t worry, because at least you&rsquo;ve got the chances. Soon, they will go in.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Capitals&rsquo; fans enjoyed their first look-see at recently acquired defenseman. Pat Ribble, who split time with Pierre Bouchard and Paul MacKinnon while rushing the puck well and throwing some heavy body-checks against the Canadiens. The largest ovation came after a crunching check which left Doug Jarvis sprawled behind the Washington net.The Caps obtained the three-year veteran from Toronto in exchange for forward Mike Kaszycki, whom they had acquired earlier in the year, from the Islanders.&ldquo;We were looking for another defenseman to help out with our other regulars,&rdquo; said GM Max McNab. &ldquo;Behind Rick Green, Robert Picard, Pierre Bouchard and Paul MacKinnon, all our other defensemen are out injued.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Capitals Finally Conquer Canadiens

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;John Ogrodnick was a disappointed young man last summer at the conclusion of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s entry draft. His stock had fallen. From a &ldquo;possible&rdquo; first rounder, he slipped to &ldquo;likely second round pick&rdquo; status&mdash;and then became a fourth round choice.That&rsquo;s when the Detroit Red Wings grabbed him, and it&rsquo;s proving to be an exceptional choice.In another dismal season, Ogrodnick&rsquo;s performance and progress has been a shining light. Playing on a line alongside fellow rookie pro Mike Foligno and center Dale McCourt, Ogrodnick has played a steady brand of hockey. Not bad for the 56th pick overall.&ldquo;As things turned out, it was all for the best,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said. &ldquo;It made me work harder in training camp. But I was very disappointed that I wasn&rsquo;t picked higher. I was supposed to be.&rdquo;Ogrodnick, a six-foot, 190-pound left winger, caught everybody&rsquo;s eye in camp, but was farmed out to the American Hockey League club in Glens Falls, N.Y. for seasoning. He made his NHL debut in January as an injury replacement.In his first 18 games with the Red Wings, Ogrodnick, 21, performed with poise and confidence, like a young man determined to stay in the NHL. He&rsquo;s up-and-down his wing, in the corners, bumping and taking his man on every shift. And, he&rsquo;s had his share of scoring chances, even though he hasn&rsquo;t cashed them in.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that I&rsquo;m doing something wrong or anything like that. Sometimes they don&rsquo;t go in,&rdquo; said Ogrodnick.&ldquo;I feel great. I&rsquo;ve got lots of confidence,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting lots of ice time. The first few games I didn&rsquo;t play that well but management stuck with me, they gave me a chance to prove myself. It&rsquo;s easy to play with Michael and Dale. Two of us are right out of junior, we have that drive. All three of us are hyped up for every game, ready to go and work hard all the time.&ldquo;Michael is strong in his corner, he fights for the puck. There&rsquo;s always two guys working for it.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m surprised (by the success). When you have the confidence, you&rsquo;re not surprised by anything. At the beginning of the year, I didn&rsquo;t have the confidence. The pace was faster, I was too jumpy. In training camp, I was geting a lot of chances but not even hitting the net.&ldquo;I was fortunate down in Glens Falls. I got a fair amount of ice time, worked on the power play. It helped me develop.&rdquo;&ldquo;John should have been a first-round pick but people shied away from him,&rdquo; said Ernie &ldquo;Punch&rdquo; McLean, Ogrodnick&rsquo;s junior coach with the New Westminster Bruins of the Western Hockey League.&ldquo;What happened in the draft is that everybody in the NHL grabbed the 18-year-olds that looked like potential superstars, the Ray Bourques, Keith Browns, Don McCarthys. (The Wings drafted three under-age players.)&ldquo;I knew the type of player he was. Once you&rsquo;re a goal score you can&rsquo;t take it away. When came to use four years ago, was a goal scorer and worked other stuff in.&ldquo;The easiest way to explain is, any kid who comes out of I West, if they last to be a just there, 90 percent of them are Ncalibre. It&rsquo;s just a case of how 1 it takes some to get there. Score develop quicker because of the mental attitude. John Ogrodnick has the great attitude.&rdquo; &#9632;

Disappointed Ogrodnick Now Shines With Wing

DETROIT&mdash;On a cold night in February with the snow falling gently&mdash;as it did so often during those 53 winters that the Red Wings played there&mdash;the city of Detroit, its hockey fans and the players themselves bid a final farewell to Olympia.The date was Feb. 21. The occasion: A nostalgic hockey game between the Red Wing oldtimers and the current club.A group of 21 players were selected as the &ldquo;greatest&rdquo; in the club&rsquo;s history and all but five returned to salute Olympia with one last hockey game at the old red barn.The Production Line was there&mdash;Gordie, Ted and Sid&mdash;and Norm Ullman, Alex Delvecchio, Black Jack Stewart, Bob Goldham, Red Kelly, Eddie Goodfellow, Bill Gadsby, Marcel Pronovost, Johnny Wilson, Coach Tommy Ivan and all the others.It was nostalgic, sure: It was fun, too, and even a little sad. And guess who scored the last goal ever at Olympia? Gordie Howe.Howe and Delvecchio had the goals for the &ldquo;greats&rdquo; but the final score (6-2 for the current guys who found themselves cast as villains in this one) didn&rsquo;t really matter. It only mattered that they were all back for one last hurrah and that Alex and Gordie scored.&ldquo;It was a fitting way to see the old barn close,&rdquo; said Howe, who arrived just before game-time.&ldquo;It was as much fun as I thought it would be. The fans were great as always.&ldquo;You should have seen Tommy Ivan behind the bench. He was really excited. I saw him three weeks ago, and he was excited way back then.&rdquo; Everybody agreed the affair was fun.&ldquo;I think the crowd (of 14,354) enjoyed it, and they (the present Wings) did, too. it helped them relax a bit, have some fun, and that&rsquo;s what they need right about now,&rdquo; said Delvecchio, a former player, coach and GM for the Wings.&ldquo;Our line (with Frank Mahovlich and Mickey Redmond) had a lot of chances. I threaded mine,&rdquo; said Delvecchio, chuckling. In reality, it was a bouncer.Not all the greats could be there.&ldquo;When I heard about the occasion and the game, the first thing I thought about is the guy who should be there but won&rsquo;t&mdash;that&rsquo;s (Terry) Sawchuk, eh,&rdquo; Goldham said.&ldquo;I really have a big feeling for Terry, for all the guys but more so for Terry.&rdquo;Sawchuk, the peerless goaltender who backstopped the Wings during their glory years, died in 1970.&ldquo;The guy was so great,&rdquo; Goldham said. &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t a goalie as good before he arrived and there hasn&rsquo;t been one as good since, and I don&rsquo;t think there ever will be. We used to say, &lsquo;Give Ukie one goal to work with and he&rsquo;ll win the game.&rdquo;&ldquo;I guess the thing I re member best about Ukie is the year (1952) we won the Stanley Cup in eight straight games. I was looking it up the other day&hellip;he had four shutouts and a goals-against average of .625 (five goals in eight games) That&rsquo;s fantastic. Hey, when you start talking about this great goaltender and that great goal tender, there was only one great goaltender. Everybody else has to be compared to him.&rdquo;As for Olympia, the banner unfurled from the balcony in the final minutes said it all. It read:&ldquo;Recall Joe Louis Arena&mdash;Olympia Forever.&rdquo; &#9632;

Final Farewells Paid to Olympia

<div class="byline">BY PAT CALABRIA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03587/5051448-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">In an up-and-down season for the club, the Islanders have usualy been on the bottom. Here, Chico Resch, despite a loosend mask, nets the better of a collision with Boston&rsquo;s John Wensink. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;The up-again, down-again Islanders are down once more. And this time the players are wondering if they are down for good. The team seems to have lost its grip on the season&mdash;and on itself, as well.The Islanders have always been one of the NHL&rsquo;s most lively teams. Cream pies in the face. Underwear in the dressing room freezer. Body powder dumped into pants pockets. Those shenanigans have all but disappeared. A smile is as animated as the players get. And there aren&rsquo;t many smiles.It does not take much for some teams to misplace their confidence. The Islanders have lost theirs. Four straight losses can do that to a team. An erratic offense can do that to a team. So can erratic defense and erratic goaltending.&ldquo;There are times,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said, &ldquo;when nothing goes right. It looks like we&rsquo;re trying, but nothing happens.&rdquo;Whatever does happen usually is bad. All season long the team has pointed to the return of Denis Potvin to the lineup. Now it appears that even Potvin&rsquo;s return, two weeks away, won&rsquo;t help.A major trade seems unlikely, so the Islanders may well go into the playoffs with the team that finished with 116 points last season to lead the NHL before being eliminated by the Rangers in the semi-finals. The Islanders may have the same players, but they are not the same team.The Islanders lost, in succession, at Los Angeles, at Vancouver, to Toronto and to Minnesota. It was the team&rsquo;s worst stretch in four years and it was marked by several notable failures.The power play: It continues to struggle. In a 6-4 loss to the Maple Leafs at Nassau Coliseau, the Islanders succeeded on just one of six power plays.The penalty killing: It continues to struggle. In a 5-2 loss to the North Stars at Nassau Coliseum, the Islanders killed only one of three power plays.Those two defeats were especially galling. The Islanders have had problems winning on the road this season. Now they can&rsquo;t be counted on to win at home&mdash;where they lost only three times all last season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re at a dangerous point where we don&rsquo;t know how bad this slump might get,&rdquo; Bob Bourne said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re past that point yet. Definitely not. But if we don&rsquo;t get some excitement back in our game, we might reach that point.&rdquo;The team&rsquo;s entire effort seems to revolve around the goaltenders. Last season, the Islanders would pick up the goalies when they were having an off night. The defensemen would have a great game. Or the forwards would.And when the defense or the offense&mdash;or both&mdash;suffered, Glenn Resch and Bill Smith would turn in sparkling performances. It does not work that way anymore. &#9632;

f0017-03

Islanders Ripe For Quick Knockout

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>The game before, however, Martin scored two goals, the margin of victory, as the Sabres won in Quebec, 3-1.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he went on, &ldquo;I was scoring at home pretty well for a while there but lately&hellip;&rdquo;Twenty of Rico&rsquo;s goals were scored in Memorial Auditorium, 15 on the road.Martin is back playing left wing with Gil Perreault as his center, as he did shortly after he joined the Sabres in their second year of existence. In Coach Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s system of mix up the forwards, however, he often is on another line.Rico is back on the power play, though, most of the time and that helps his scoring. The latest first-unit power play has Martin and Danny Gare at the wings with Derek Smith at center and Perreault at one of the points, across from defenseman John Van Boxmeer.After having a good deal of trouble scoring when the opposition was shorthanded, the Sabres scored two power play goals in Quebec and two more at home the next night in the win over Winnipeg.Martin scored 44 goals his rookie season, breaking the first year record of 38 that his teammate, Perreault, set the year before.Rico dropped to 37 his sophomore season but then came two 52-goal years and one of 49. He was hurt the next season and played only 66 games, dropping to 36 goals.The following season, bothered by injuries again, he had his low mark, 28 in 65 games. Last season he scored 32. He missed seven games early with a rib injury.Partway through that season, Martin said, &ldquo;This is the hardest time I ever had in all my years of hockey. The puck just doesn&rsquo;t seem to go into the net for me. It&rsquo;s frustrating, believe me.&rdquo;He didn&rsquo;t start off very well this season, either, and for the first time since he entered the National Hockey League he didn&rsquo;t play in the NHL All-Star Game. In the last previous one under the usual format, played in Buffalo two years ago, Martin scored the winning goal in overtime. He was MVP in the All Star game the year before.He finally found a stick he fancies, after the season started, and he seems to be shooting with his old confidence and power. And when Rick Martin is on the net with one of his slap shots, goalie look out. His shot is as powerful as any in the league.ICE CHIPS: The Sabre goaltenders continue to lead the Vezina Trophy race. Last week Bob Sauve was first in the league in goals-against average of 2.37. He had won 14 of his last 17 starts, through last week, including his last five straight.Don Edwards, who played 19 of the Sabres&rsquo; last 24 games, had a GA average of 2.69.Perreault hadn&rsquo;t been scoring many goals but he had 18 assists in his last 21 games, plus eight goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01970/5051479-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="604" height="798"><figcaption class="caption-body">Being a regular on the power play has helped Rick Martin&rsquo;s increased point production this year.</figcaption></div>Craig Ramsay, the Sabres&rsquo; ironman played his 542nd consecutive regular-season game, against Winnipeg, despite a groin injury that bothered him since a game in Boston Jan. 24. He then jammed his left thumb in the game against the Jets.With 20 games remaining in the season, the Sabres had surpassed their victory total of 1978-79, when they had 36. The win over Quebec gave them 37. &#9632;

f0018-01

Sabres’ Martin Not Quite At Home In Scoring

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s needless,&rdquo; said Ruel. &ldquo;There is no reason for this. &ldquo;Why does a story like this come up? The club is going well. There are no problems between Guy and me. Maybe there are some people upset with the fact the team is going well and are looking for trouble.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not the first time this season that Lafleur has been at the center of controversy although it is getting rather tiresome.More important is the fact that he missed his first game in two years with the injury which was diagnosed as a bruised left knee although the ligaments were partially stretched.His most serious injury prior to this one was during the 1974-75 season when Toronto&rsquo;s Darryl Sittler slashed him and set him. down for 10 games with a broken index finger.But Lafleur was not the only injury which Ruel had to worry about with Rejean Houle still out with a fractured jaw, Guy Lapointe sidelined with a separated shoulder and Serge Savard gone with the jammed left ankle.Savard, who was out from Jan. 2 to Feb. 7 with a broken bone in his right foot, hurt the ankle in the second period of the Canadiens 3-0 victory over Winnipeg two days after Lafleur&rsquo;s injury.The veteran team captain had to chase a puck to the left side of the net after goaltender Michel Larocque cleared it there. Savard, who was just getting back into playing shape, was hit from behind and fell feet first into the boards.He came back for a shift after that, but then was ordered off his feet for the rest of the game and had a good deal of discomfort with it that night at home.While x-rays proved negative, it was expected Savard was going to miss at least one week, maybe two. of activity.Second-year defenseman Rod Langway, who has been the defense&rsquo;s plus-minus leader during the second half, was still bothered by a sore right ankle which he twisted Feb. 14 against the Quebec Mordiques.There were a few other bumps and bruises, but durable Doug Jarvis continued his iron-man streak, breaking a club record by participating in his 380th consecutive NHL game against the Jets.Jarvis, who was forced to the sidelines with a bruised knee in the playoffs against Toronto last season, has not missed a regularseason game in a 4 3-4 seasons with Montreal.IN PASSING&mdash; Yvon Lambert scored the 150th goal of his career against Winnipeg&hellip;Larry Robinson was shifted up to right wing against the Jets with Lafleur out, but after Savard got hurt was back with partner Langway on defense. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind going up front once in a while,&rdquo; said Robinson. &ldquo;But I would rather play just one or the other, not both in the same game.&rdquo; Robinson played close to 40 minutes&hellip;Canadiens will have three members of the U.S. Olympic squad report to the Voyageurs on March 1, including defenseman Bill Baker, a draft pick in 1976. The others are Mark Wells and Mark Pavelich&hellip;The Canadiens were 18-11-1 in 30 games under Ruel and 15-4-1 during the third quarter of their schedule&hellip;Longtime Forum goal judge Frank Daigneault died recently in hospital after a lengthy illness&hellip; &#9632;

Lafleur Injury Brews New Tempest

<h2>AL MACADAM&hellip;Minnesota North Stars</h2>When you think about scoring leaders with the Minnesota North Stars, you&rsquo;re apt to have names come to your mind like Bobby Smith, or perhaps Steve Payne, the left winger who&rsquo;s had such a super year.But there&rsquo;s a not-so-old veteran who&rsquo;s outstripping even the talented youngsters and it&rsquo;s none other than Al MacAdam, the 27-year-old Charlottetown, P.E.I. native, who has come into his own.MacAdam, who once scored 32 goals for the California Seals a few seasons ago, has surpassed that mark with a brilliant six-goal week to run his total to 36. He&rsquo;s also added 39 assists and leads the North Stars in points with 75.The North Stars won three and tied one of their five games during the week and MacAdam had a goal in each contest, including two goals against the Washington Capitals. &#9632;

NHL Player Of The Week

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02676/5051565-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toronto&rsquo;s sensational defenseman Borje Salming may become just another Maple Leaf memory if the club doesn&rsquo;t satisfy his wishes in upcoming contract negotiations. Salming won&rsquo;t be traded away like some of the other Leafs&rsquo; favorites but his agent contends that he&rsquo;ll try the free agent market if the Leafs don&rsquo;t come up with the necessary loot.</figcaption></div><h2>Sittier Hits 750</h2>UNIONDALE&mdash;Toronto Maple Leaf center Darryl Sittier became the 30th player in National Hockey League history to record 750 points, when he scored two goals against the New York Islanders on Tuesday, Feb. 19.The Leafs&rsquo; leading scorer picked 10 points over a three-game stretch, all Toronto wins, to reach the milestone. Sittler trails only Dave Keon, now with Hartford, as the all-time leading Leafs&rsquo; scorer. Keon had 858 points with Toronto. EDMONTON&mdash;Oiler center Wayne Gretzky had a couple of National Hockey League records denied him recently because of the fact that he played in the World Hockey Association a year ago, but when the 19-year-old pivot reached the 100-point mark on Sunday, Feb. 24, he etched his name into the record book.<h2>Gretzky Sets Record</h2>Gretzky, at 19 years and one month, became the youngest NHL player to score 100 points when he earned an assist against Boston. The previous record-holder was Montreal&rsquo;s Pierre Larouche, who scored his 100th point in the 1975-76 season as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins when he was 20 years and four months.Gretzky also tied a 33-year-old NHL record by scoring seven assists in an 8-2 Oilers&rsquo; victory over Washington. The record was held by Billy Taylor, but Gretzky recoreds of most assists and most points in one game by a first-year NHL player will not count because of NHL rules.According to NHL statistician Ron Andrews, because of his WHA experience, is not eligible for the latter two marks or for the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.<h2>Peeters Streak Ends</h2>DENVER&mdash;Six powerplay goals by th Colorado Rockies brought the Philadelphia Flyers to their knees and ended the unbeaten streak of Flyers&rsquo; rookie goaltender Pete Peeters.Peeters, 22, the 135th player taken in the 1977 amateur draft, entered with contest with a record of 22 wins and five ties in 27 previous decisions. His only setback in an NHL uniform had occurred in the Al Star game in Detroit when he relieved Tony Esposito mid-way through the first period and hi Campbell Division mates went on to lose to the Prince of Wales Division.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01904/5051558-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="1816" height="1482"><figcaption class="caption-body">&ldquo;Take that you guys,&rdquo; Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; coach Claude Ruel seems to be saying as he crosses the rink after another victory. Despite the Canadiens&rsquo; turnaround under Ruel, the coach who took over from Bernie Geoffrion 30 games into the season has been having trouble with the press in Montreal, (see story age 18), although he doesn&rsquo;t know why.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I knew it had to end,&rsquo;&rsquo;Peeters said, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ve been dreading the day it would happen because I knew the reporters would be all over me. I had to be realistic, though. Maybe now the pressure will be off.&rdquo;PEeters has been threatening the NHL mark of unbeatten games of 32, sheet by Boston&rsquo;s Gerry Cheevers, in the 1971-72 season. Cheevers had 24 wins and eight ties.<h2>Salming Wants $</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Maple Leafs&rsquo; Borje Salming is seeking a five-year pact which will make him the highest-paid player at his position and is threatening to play out his option and test the free agent market iff the Leafs will not meet his price.Player agent Bjorn Wagnsson, who represents Salming, claims the Swedish All Star player, is seeking a $2 million deal with the Leafs and is confident the club will meet his terms.In the event they do not, however, Wagnsson says that Salming is willing to become a free agent and sell his services to the highest bidding team.A five-time All Star and certain bet to make it six selections in this his seventh NHL season, Salming has just this year and next year, his option year, remaining on a contract which pays him approximately $165,000 per season.New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Denis Potvin is said to earn the most money for that position, around $270,000 per year, while Boston&rsquo;s Brad Park is close behind at $265,000 per season.<h2>Ballard Hurls Insults</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;You have to hand it to Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; owner and president Harold Ballard for one thing&mdash;originality. How many, other people can you think of who are trying to do bsiness with another club and open negotiations by insulting the other party?Everyone knows that the Leafs are trying to peddle ex-captain Darry. Sittler, but of course, they are holding out until they get what general manager Punch Imlach and owner Ballard consider an equitable offer.Discussions have been held recently with the New York Rangers with names such as Ron Greschner, Ron Duguary, Don Murdoch and John davidson being bandied about on the Rangers&rsquo; side and Sittler, Mike Palmateer and Ian Turnbull mentioned as possible Leafs, but all along Ballard has wondered aloud why Madison Square Garden president Sonny Werblin has been calling the Rangers&rsquo; shots.&ldquo;Werblin doesn&rsquo;t know anything about hockey, to begin with,&rdquo; Ballard told Jim Kernaghan of the Toronto Star. &ldquo;All he does is reach in and grab a handful of Gulf and Western&rsquo;s money and throw it around. He&rsquo;s one of those instant experts who thinks you can still buy champions.&rdquo;<h2>Permanent Team</h2>LAKE PLACID&mdash;The 1980 Olympics were a success for the Canadian hockey team, despite the squad&rsquo;s sixth place finish in the tournament for it was announced that the national team created for the tournament will become a permanent part of the country&rsquo;s sports setup.Canada lost a chance to advance to the medal round when they surrendered a 3-1 advantage to the Soviets in their fifth game of the round-robin and fell 6-4. The setback allowed Findland, which finished the round-robin portion of the tourney with the same 3-2 record as Canada, to advance to the medal round on the strength of a 43 decision against the Canadians.However, the fact that the Canadians skated with an outplayed the silver-medallist Soviets, was the most heartening factor in keeping the team together. Team Canada will compete in the World Championships next spring in Gothenburg, Sweden, with basically the same roster as they had for the Olympics and will be able to call the team together for practice sessions just prior to large vents such as the World Championships and the Izvestia Tournament in Moscow.<h2>Olympians To NHL?</h2>LAKE PLACID&mdash;Several members of the Olympic champion United States hockey team will have little time to celebrate because the NHL is beckoning.Star goaltender Jim Craig is expected to report to the Atlanta Flames, while defenseman Mike Ramsey is contemplating joining the Buffalo Sabres, who made hi the first U.S. college player ever to be picked in the first round of the NHL draft.Bill Baker, a dentistry student, is deciding whether or not to join the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; organization, while the Minnesota Nort Stars have several colleagians on their roster, including Steve Christoff and Neal Broten.<h2>Swedes Coming Later</h2>LAKE PLACID&mdash;Two of the most impressive perrformers for Sweden in the Olympic hockey competition have been drafted by National Hockey League clubs, but probably won&rsquo;t report until late next season.Goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, considered by many to be the best netminder in the Olympics, was chosen by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of the 1979 entry draft and was outstanding during the Lake Placid competition, while teammate Nats Naslund, a right winger, was tabbed by the Montreal Canadiens just two players latter in the same draft.It is likely, however, that both players will remain with the Swedish nationals through next spring when their country hosts the world championships. &#9632;

f0019-02

SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Dale Tallon has returned from Siberia, but he isn&rsquo;t quite sure whether he is all the way back.The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; 29-year-old defenseman recently played for Team Canada in the Izvestia Tournament in Moscow as part of a program to get back into shape after being sidelined since last March with a broken right leg.&ldquo;I was skating for about a month here,&rdquo; Tallon recalled. &ldquo;Just light skating, and I wasn&rsquo;t in any contact or any scrimmages or anything like that. They (Penguin management) asked me if I wanted to go to our farm club at Syracuse for a couple of weeks to get into shape. I said sure and I went down there to play.&ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t play that much. I played center and all over the place except defense, which is where I wanted to play.&ldquo;I got a call from my agent and he asked me if I would be interested in going to Russia to play over there in the Izvestia Tournament,&rdquo; Tallon said. &ldquo;I said it all depends on whether the Penguins want me to go or not. They agreed and I figured it would be a good chance for me to get in a lot of skating, give my leg a true test and see if it was ready.&rdquo;Tallon, who broke the leg when he crashed into a goal post in Vancouver, played in two exhibition games and five tournament games before returning to the Penguins.&ldquo;My leg felt stronger every game and it got better,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I came back and played five or six games, got a few points, and felt pretty good playing spot duty.&ldquo;Lately I haven&rsquo;t been playing as much as I would like to,&rdquo; Tallon continued. &ldquo;I feel really good. It&rsquo;s just a matter of getting into shape, but I&rsquo;ve had a few whacks on it. I think it&rsquo;s getting stronger every day. I&rsquo;m hoping it will stand up, but it was a pretty serious injury. I&rsquo;m fortunate just to be skating.&rdquo;Tallon was the second player overall taken in the 1970-71 amateur draft and the first player ever selected by the Vancouver franchise. He was traded to Chicago in 1973, and the Penguins obtained him in October, 1978 for a second round choice in this summer&rsquo;s entry draft.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty frustrated because I want to play and I want to help,&rdquo; Tallon said. &ldquo;I feel that I&rsquo;m not the kind of guy who can sit and play just spot duty. I have to be used. I feel that I have to play regularly to help the club. I don&rsquo;t like sitting.&ldquo;Human nature is that you always sort of think that you&rsquo;re in better shape than you actually are.&rdquo; Tallon said. &ldquo;I feel that my leg is better than it actually is. Which is why it&rsquo;s good to get the opinions of other people with a better vantage point.&rdquo;Tallon has been encouraged by recent medical reports on the condition of his leg.&ldquo;I had a couple of complications when I first had it set in Vancouver,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t exactly up to standards as far as the Pittsburgh doctor was concerned. They reset it here and he&rsquo;s pretty happy with it as of now. The last X-rays were very positive.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been having a little problem with my ankle and Achilles tendon because they&rsquo;re just not on line as they were at birth. I just have a little trouble with my foot, that&rsquo;s about all.&rdquo;The Noranda, Quebec, native has played both defense and center in his National Hockey League career.&ldquo;When I went to Syracuse, they were told to play me everywhere, which was fine,&rdquo; Tallon said. &ldquo;But I wanted to start playing defense so that I could practice the work on turning, stopping, moving the puck and doing things like that. I enjoy playing defense, but I&rsquo;ll play anywhere if I can help the club.&rdquo;Since his return, the Penguins have been carrying eight defensemen on their roster, meaning that at least two must sit out every game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough, Tallon said. &ldquo;Personally, I&rsquo;d rather be playing more. I don&rsquo;t like this sitting. Right now I feel I&rsquo;m ready. I want to play and help the club. It&rsquo;s just a matter of getting out there and proving it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01763/5051596-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="604" height="1206"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Tallon, hampered by a serious leg injury, has been encouraged by recent medical reports.</figcaption></div>PENGUIN TRACKS: Tallon, Tom Biadon, Kim Clackson and Mario Faubert played musical chairs in coach Johnny Wilson&rsquo;s plans for dressing or sitting out defensemen. Russ Anderson, Randy Carlyle, Ron Stackhouse and Bob Stewart dress and play every game, barring injuries. &#9632;

f0020-01

Tallon Continues Comeback Progress

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Curt Giles is the type of hockey player who sometimes makes fans squint.At times, you have to look hard to see him. In a sport gearing itself to six-foot-plus forwards, it&rsquo;s not that easy to spot a five-eight defenseman.But the job this smallish defenseman has been doing for the revitalized Stars has him standing tall in the opinion of his coach.&ldquo;A heart &lsquo;n soul kid,&rdquo; Glen Sonmor said. &ldquo;A lot of people might have written him off because of his size, but he&rsquo;s shown why he has always been considered one of the best players at every level he&rsquo;s played. Regardless of size, you can&rsquo;t be outstanding without applying diligence and ability.&rdquo;Giles rejoined the Stars in midseason on emergency recall from Oklahoma City because of injuries and illness to Minnesota&rsquo;s regular blueliners, uncertain how long he would remain with the team. He&rsquo;s still unsure, but he&rsquo;s been taking a regular turn on defense.&ldquo;Curt has acquitted himself very well,&rdquo; Sonmor said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s shown remarkable poise. He is quick, alert and intelligent. He&rsquo;s very good on his feet, moves the puck well. And, he can thump people.&rdquo;Giles, who played college hockey at Minnesota-Duluth, was one of the standouts of training camp last September and earned a spot with the Stars for the first two weeks of the regular season before being sent down to Oklahoma City to get more playing time.&ldquo;The reports we received indicated that Giles was the best defenseman in the Central League,&rdquo; Sonmor said.So Giles, 22, was the man Sonmor asked for when All Star defenseman Gary Sargent went out with a back injury during a road trip.Giles, a native of The Pas, Manitoba, became a member of the North Stars via the 1978 draft which produced Bobby Smith, Steve Payne and U.S. Olympian Steve Christoff, who will probably join the team after the Winter Games. Rather than turning pro that season, Giles played another season at Minnesota-Duluth.The 180-pound defenseman, signed with the Stars last summer, not sure if he would be with the team this season. &ldquo;I set my goal to make the NHL,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I was prepared to go to the minors to get the experience. I went to training camp with the objective of showing I could play hockey. I figured I had to work my tail off to make an impression.&rdquo;He did, and he made an inpression, too.STAR DUST: GM Lou Nanne clarified the team&rsquo;s use of an analyst. The Stars players are not being interviewed by a psychologist, but the staff is using one to help them with interviews of potential draftees&hellip;Goalie Gilles Meloche has stopped two penalty shots in three chances this season, Gary Edwards has stopped his only chance&hellip;Milestone: Steve Payne&rsquo;s 100th career point. Birthday: Bobby Smith, 22. Latest flu victims: Glen Sharpley, one game, and Mike Polich, two games. &#9632;

Size No Problem For Stars’ Giles

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div>DENVER&mdash;Don Cherry has come to the realization that it doesn&rsquo;t do any good for him to keep knocking his goalies.So, the Colorado Rockies coach has adopted an &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t say anything nice about them, don&rsquo;t say anything at all&rdquo; type of approach to his beleaguered netminders. And as the National Hockey League season heads down the home stretch, Cherry is saying little.But Rockies&rsquo; General Manager Ray Miron, with whom Cherry has had a difference of opinion about the goalie situation, agrees with the volatile coach that goaltending is the team&rsquo;s main problem.&ldquo;As far as trading for a minor-league goalie,&rdquo; Miron said, &ldquo;most clubs who have a good goaltender in the minor leagues want a lot for him. How do you know the guy is going to be good enough to play in the National Hockey League? A kid might be a good prospect, but how do you know he&rsquo;s going to play in the National Hockey League?&ldquo;You take a big gamble when you trade for a goalie out of the minors,&rdquo; Miron continued. &ldquo;Two years ago, (Hardy) Astrom was the best goalie in the American Hockey League. We didn&rsquo;t have to give up much, but he hasn&rsquo;t yet proved that he&rsquo;s consistent enough to play in the National Hockey League. He&rsquo;s had some great games and some games where he&rsquo;s let in bad goals.&ldquo;We feel Astrom is a better goaltender than he&rsquo;s shown,&rdquo; Miron said, &ldquo;and we realize that our goaltending is not the greatest, but where in the hell do you find a good goalie?&rdquo;Miron feels Astrom is the one goalie the Rockies have on their roster who has the potential to be a solid NHL goalie. Cherry disagrees and would prefer to have either Michel Plasse or retired Doug Favell, who lives in nearby Evergreen, Colo., in goal. Bill McKenzie, who has spent the majority of his pro career in the minors, had been the most consistent goalie for the Rockies, recording a 7-5-1 record before a knee injury forced him to the sidelines for just over a month.Bill Oleschuk, the other goalie available, faced the utmost humiliation when he was pulled early in the first period in two successive starts. He allowed a long shot by St. Louis&rsquo; Bryan Maxwell to get past him on the first shot of the game at 4:19 of the first period and was yanked by Cherry in a later game in St. Louis. After Oleschuk was sent down to Fort Worth, an injury to Plasse necessitated his recall. And in his first start after the recall, he again let in a long goal (by Boston&rsquo;s Bobby Miller) on the first Bruin shot of the game and was yanked after yielding another Boston goal and stopping two shots in between.&ldquo;I think maybe it&rsquo;s a case of not playing in as many games in Sweden as we do here,&rdquo; Miron said of Astrom, who played four games with the Rangers two years ago before returning to his native Sweden last season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been the No. 1 star of the game a couple of times. You&rsquo;d think if he can put good games together and overcome the bad games, he might be a helluva goaltender. He shows flashes of brilliance.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s too early to pass judgment on whether Astrom can play or not. Last year he didn&rsquo;t play in the NHL and the year before he played only four games, so actually he&rsquo;s just a rookie this season. You can write guys off who have been around for a number of years,&rdquo; Miron said. &ldquo;Plasse,&rdquo; for instance, &ldquo;is not the goaltender he was three years ago.&ldquo;McKenzie, surprisingly, has played well. Last year he played in Tulsa and was a backup with a 5.00 goals-against average. Then this year he has a good training camp, goes down to Fort Worth and plays well and comes up here and plays well. A lot of it is mental. There&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on goaltenders.&rdquo;In the Rockies&rsquo; case, there is more pressure than normal since the team went through a string of 21 games in which they were 2-13-6 and scored only 56 goals (2.67 a game).&ldquo;Right now, it&rsquo;s a combination of not scoring goals and letting in easy ones,&rdquo; Miron said. &ldquo;Basically when you give up a soft goal, it compounds the matter. If you&rsquo;re not scoring, it puts pressure on the goaltender. Other teams can let in bad goals, but they can get them back.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01562/5051651-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="580" height="720"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goaltending had not been a Rockie bright spot, but the club is sure of Hardy Astrom&rsquo;s potential.</figcaption></div>That hasn&rsquo;t been the case with the Rockies and they are suffering because of it.<div class="sidebar">Cherry&rsquo;s attitude is: &lsquo;If you can&rsquo;t say anything nice about the goalies, don&rsquo;t say anything at all.&rsquo; &#9632;</div>

f0021-01

Rockies Tread Lightly On Goalie Situation

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>TORONTO&mdash;We begin this week&rsquo;s leading of the gospel, according to punch, with a paraphrase intended bring us up to date. It reads:&hellip;for I have many promises to and trades to make before I sleep. &lsquo;With apologies to Robert Frost And newly re-elected prime minister Pierre Trudeau, that&rsquo;s the way is, or was, at the mid-point of lie Leafs&rsquo; latest road jaunt. The hameleon Leafs, able to change bodies, if not colors, at the click of receiver, have opened up enough of a gap over some of the National Hockey League stragglers, to feel little more secure about qualifying for the playoffs.But winning alone, may not be enough to stop the trading ground in Toronto. Imlach, who is supplying his detractors with mounds of ammunition in case his revision of the Leafs falls flat, didn&rsquo;t even let a two-game winning streak cool his trading ardor as he dealt Dave Williams and Jerry Butler to Vancouver for Bill Derla-go and Ricky Vaive. The latter made the Leafs&rsquo; GM look great when he notched two goals in the Leafs&rsquo; surprising 6-4 triumph over the Islanders in their next outing.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve traded for the potential of two first round draft choices,&rdquo; Imlach said about Derlago, the Brandon scoring whiz who was taken fourth overall in the 1978 amateur draft and Vaive, the sophomore pro who seasoned a year with the Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association and then was selected fifth overall by the Canucks last summer.Imlach indicated that he might just sit back now and watcn how the team was going to jell, but he had hardly uttered those words when fresh rumors concerning the departure of ex-captain Darryl Sittier sprang up.Minnesota North Stars expressed strong interest in the Leafs&rsquo; pivot, supposedly offering defenseman Brad Maxwell and Kevin Maxwell, a speedy forward from the Canadian Olympic team whose rights they owned. New York Rangers were also said to be willing to take care of Sittier&rsquo;s notrade contract and the reported $500,000 waiver figure he is seeking to release his services.Among the newest of the Leafs is a player who was recently released from the drudgery of holding down a spot in the team&rsquo;s press box, defenseman Richard Mulhern.Mulhern, who turns 25 March 1, indicated that if you had to sit around Los Angeles was the place, but that not playing for about a month didn&rsquo;t help his hockey career a great deal.A former first-round choice of the Atlanta Flames, the six-foot-one, 190-pounder had his best season in 1976-77, when as a sophomore he scored 12 goals and added 32 assists. He was traded to Los Angeles a little more than a year ago, played regularly last year but didn&rsquo;t seem to fit into their plans this year. The Leafs purchased him after the Kings put him on waivers.&ldquo;I missed about 10 days of training camp,&rdquo; recalled Mulhern, &ldquo;and the team kind of decided to go with veterans like Brad Seiwood and Barry Gibbs. Not that these guys played badly, but I think I should have had a better crack.&ldquo;We had a big roster and no one was too sure of their job,&rdquo; said Mulhern. &ldquo;The club didn&rsquo;t seem to want to make any decisions one way or the other.&ldquo;I thought they were kind of playing with my future,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m glad to be here. It&rsquo;s also nice when you get a chance to play with a guy like (Borje) Salming&mdash;really nice,&rdquo; Mulhern laughed.Mulhern was drawing regular duty on the Leafs&rsquo; blueline, killing penalties and occasionally working-the point on the power play as the Leafs made sure that he and Dave Farrish, who bruised his knee in his first start and then returned a couple of games later, received plenty of ice time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to do my best,&rdquo; Mulhern commented, &ldquo;and help get things turned around here.&rdquo;Meanwhile, general manager Punch Imlach can survey the play of his remodelled team and then see about keeping his promises to owner Harold Ballard.LOOSE LEAFS&mdash;Rocky Saganiuk had the first three-goal game of his NHL career in the Leafs&rsquo; 9-3 victory over Winnipeg, giving the speedy little right winger 17 on the season. He also hit a goal post&hellip;Bill Derlago pitched in with his first two goals as a Torontonian in that game with a pair coming from Wilf Paiement as well&hellip;Jiri Crha has been solid with his unorthodox style for the Leafs in nets. His play persuaded the club to leave Mike Palmateer home for the tail end of the road trip.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01648/5051689-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="608" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body">In his first game as a Maple Leaf, winger Rick Vaive scored two Toronto goals.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02461/5051682-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="600" height="756"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richard Mulhern is seeing regular duty on the Leaf defense after sitting in Los Angeles.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Trading Spirit Surrounding Leafs, But Imlach May Ease Up For Awhile

<div class="byline">BY JIM MATHESON</div>EDMONTON&mdash;The problem is an age-old one.The numbers game!With National Hockey League rosters frozen at 19 for games, somebody is going to be watching the games from the press box. That somebody here is 33-year-old Al Hamilton, the only surviving member of the first World Hockey Association entry in 1972.Hamilton, who was once talked of in the same breath as Bobby Orr in junior&mdash;Hamilton with the Edmonton Oil Kings, Orr with the Oshawa Generals&mdash;is the seventh defenseman on a six-man rotation.Oiler coach Glen Sather, a long-time friend of Hamilton&rsquo;s refuses to break up his pairings&mdash;veterans Lee Fogolin and Colin Campbell; rookie Kevin Lowe and Pat Price; and Finn Risto Siltanen and Doug Hicks. So Hamilton, who has played 470 Oiler games as of the end of February, sits out.He doesn&rsquo;t gripe. Or snarl. Or blast the coach. He just sits quietly wondering whether time is running out on his 11-year major-league career. When you&rsquo;re 33 and have had two broken kneecaps, a damaged left eye and a recent shoulder separation, you start to get a little antsy.&ldquo;I guess at my age, you don&rsquo;t have too much time left,&rdquo; said Hamilton, who was chosen the WHA&rsquo;s best defenseman in &rsquo;77-78. &ldquo;I want to play, but&hellip;.&rdquo;But, it hasn&rsquo;t been easy.First, he had a slow training camp. He wasn&rsquo;t included in the first Oiler NHL game in Chicago. He stayed at home, disappointed and watched Oilers lose 4-2 to the Hawks on local TV. He regained his spot a week later, but suffered a shoulder separation Nov. 2 in a home game against New York Islanders. Racing for a puck in Islanders&rsquo; zone, he tripped over Stefan Persson&rsquo;s stick and fell heavily into the boards.After nine games, he had eight points and a plus three rating defensively, but all it got him was nine weeks in sick bay. He was operated on the next morning by team medic Gordon Cameron, a pin placed in his shoulder to tighten it up.By the end of November, he was down at the Coliseum daily hounding the dressing room and Nautilus machines&mdash;trying to speed up the healing process. &ldquo;He was crazy,&rdquo; said athletic therapist Peter Millar. &ldquo;He stepped into the Nautilus room and tried to lift 15 pounds of weights. There was no way.&rdquo;Hamilton could barely handle two pounds, his shoulder had gone downhill so much by lack of use. But he persevered. &ldquo;The best thing for him was swimming,&rdquo; said Millar. &ldquo;Not too many guys on this team have a swimming pool in their house but Al does. So he got a good workout there.&rdquo;By the first of January, he was slowly but surely coming back. He could lift weights and even work out at a leisurely pace with the club. But no heavy stuff. It wasn&rsquo;t until a road trip in mid-January that he finally got the green light to travel, however.&ldquo;I feel like getting my shoes shined it&rsquo;s been so long since I&rsquo;ve been in an airport with the club,&rdquo; chuckled Hamilton, as he waited between planes at Toronto International.He got his first playing action in Buffalo, appropriately, on Jan. 20. Hamilton had played two NHL seasons with Sabres prior to jumping to the WHA. He got a little more work in subsequent games against Pittsburgh, Toronto and Philly&hellip;but he was sent to the press box, then the Oilers farm team after that.For the first time since the late 60s, he spent time in the minor leagues in Houston during the All Star break. He was down for a week or so to get some playing time, then was called up again on Feb. 13. Since then, he&rsquo;s basically been up with the scribes watching the action.His last game was Feb. 19 in Hartford (his 15th of the year). He was on for one goal against (a two-on-one) and sent rookie Mark Messier in on a breakaway. &#9632;

Hamilton Odd Oiler Out

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSMONCTON&mdash;A strike by city workers closed down the Moncton Coliseum, forcing the Hawks to play some games at smaller rinks in the Province. A game against arch-rival Nova Scotia, scheduled for the Coliseum, was postponed when New Brunswick officials were concerned about losing the expected huge gate which this attraction usually gets in Moncton, i The Hawks were in action twice during the week. They tied Rochester, 4-4, at the Louis Levesque Rink in Moncton and then visited Binghamton where they lost, 5-3, to the Dusters.In player transactions, the club lost defenseman Dave Farrish, who was recalled by Toronto. Center Rick Paterson was returned from Chicago.MAINE: By going undefeated during a seven-game period, the Mariners are breathing down the neck of both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. They could move into first place in the Northern Division at any time. In a league where defense is the name of the game, Maine leads the AHL in that department and the often-injured Mariner defense is just starting to get their act together. Without a doubt, the Mariners are now the team to beat in the Northern Division. Of course, this comes as no surprise to the fans in Maine.During the week the Mariners had three games on the schedule.They beat Springfield, 6-2, at home and skated past the Dusters by a 4-1 margin in Binghamton. A visit to Glen Falls, N.Y., resulted in a 22 overtime tie with the Red Wings.The club released defenseman Greg Natale and sent Jim Trainor back to Muskegon of the IHL. Veteran rearguard Terry Murray and center Wayne Schaab both came off the injured list, which has a lot to do with the sudden revival of Mariner fortunes this year.SYRACUSE: Gilles Bilodeau is back with the club after serving a league-imposed ten-game suspension. During that time the Firebirds skated to a big win over New Haven at the War Memorial. In that game, Gordie Brooks scored the game-winner late in the third period to give the Firebirds a 6-4 win over the Southern Division leaders. Tom Price scored into an empty net to cement the victory, seen by only 2,087 fans in Syracuse.The &lsquo;Birds expect to have high-scoring right winger Bernie Saunders back any day now. He was out with a minor knee problem. In Addition, center Kim Davis has been returned by Pittsburgh.John Stewart and Gordie Brooks continue to lead the Syracuse offensive show, with goaltender Goran Hogasta sporting a 4.02 goals against average in 11 appearances as a Firebird. Terry Johnson has the distinction of leading the club in penalty minutes, with 128 during the first 55 games.ADIRONDACK: The crowds continued to pour in for the Red Wings, but the best the club could manage for its new coach, Tom Webster, and his playing assistant, J. P. LeBlanc, was a 2-2 tie with Maine.The Red Wings, with Bill Hogaboam, named as their new captain, also dropped a-6-2 decision to Springfield. Bill Purcell, who was relieved of his coaching duties by the club, remains with the organization as a scout.BINGHAMTON: Five unanswered goals by the Dusters overcame a 20 New Haven lead and gave Binghamton a rare win on the road. Some outstanding goaltending by Jim Stewart, along with Dan Bonar&rsquo;s two goals gave the Dusters a 5-2 victory. It was the second win in a row for Binghamton, the previous night they had edged New Brunswick 5-3 at home. Earlier in the week, Hershey blasted the Dusters, 8-2, in Hershey.Several roster changes were on tap during the week. Boston sent goaltender Yves Belanger, winger Tom Songin and center Craig MacTavish back. In addition, Kevin O&rsquo;Donoghue has been brought up from Utica of the EHL. The Dusters sent defenseman Lance Berault back to Utica and saw goaltender Doug Keans go up to the Los Angeles Kings.The 5-2 win at New Haven broke a 13-game winless streak on the road for Binghamton. Their last win was a 5-4 overtime victory in Rochester back on December 26. With some much-needed player help from the co-parent Boston Bruins, the Dusters are now poised to make a run at Syracuse for the final playoff spot in the Southern Division.NOVA SCOTIA: A 13-1 blasting of Rochester in Halifax sent the Amerks reeling and kept the Voyageurs in first place in the red-hot Northern Division race. The first game of the two contests between Rochester and Nova Scotia was also a route. In that one the Vees skated to an easy 8-4 victory.Two players were injured during the week. Center Rick Meagher and defenseman Bill Root both were sidelined, but the Vees kept on winning. Nova Scotia is getting a fine scoring effort both from Norm Dube and Keith Acton, and the return of goaltender Richard Sevigny has helped to steady the defense. Whether or not they can hold off both New Brunswick and Maine remains to be seen.SPRINGFIELD: A 6-2 loss in Maine and a 6-2 win in Adirondack highlighted the week&rsquo;s activity for the Indians. The club lost winger Mike Antonovich for a week when he suffered a lower back injury and was ordered by team doctors to stay off his skates for a while. Jeff Brubaker was out for two weeks with strained knee ligaments and several members of the team were stricken by the flu bug. None of this helped the Springfield drive to stay ahead of the Adirondack Red Wings in the battle for the last playoff spot in the Northern Division.ROCHESTER: Just before the Amerks left for a trip to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, they drew the largest crowd at home since April 23, 1978. Some 6,453 fans were on hand at the War Memorial to watch their team edge Hershey 2-1 in sudden death overtime. Unfortunately, the trip to the Maritimes wasn&rsquo;t as successful as their performance in Rochester.In a three-game series with the powerful Northern Division leaders, the Amerks were only able to come up with a 4-4 overtime tie in New Brunswick. Nova Scotia just poured the coals to them. In game one, the Vees blasted their guests, 8-4, at the Halifax Metro Center. The finale was an outright massacre as the Voyageurs erupted for a 13-1 win.NEW HAVEN: Ray Clearwater will finish the season as the new coach of the Eastern League Richmond Rifles since Andre Beaulieu has been recently added to the Ranger coaching staff. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy for Ray,&rdquo; said Nighthawk GM/Coach Parker MacDonald. &ldquo;This gives him the opportunity to coach full time, something I know Ray wanted for his career. We&rsquo;ll miss his talents here but he deserves the chance.&rdquo;The injury-riddled Nighthawks were only able to win one game of a recent four-game road trip, losing 6-4 in Syracuse before their return to New Haven where they lost 5-2 to Binghamton before 4,416 at the Coliseum. With Dan Clark, Mike McDougal and Larry Skinner hurt, the Nighthawks were down to only 13 men in the game at Syracuse. The parent NY Rangers are carrying several extra players on their taxi squad, players who could be getting valuable ice time in the AHL while helping the Nighthawks to strive for their first ever Calder Cup.HERSHEY: An 8-2 win over the Binghamton Dusters in Hershey and a 2-1 loss in Syracuse left the Bears still locked in a battle with Rochester for second place in the Southern Division. The Bears also have been racked with injuries and call-ups. Wingers Bob Girard and Claude Noel have been shifted to defense and veteran Brian Spencer has been signed as a free agent to see if he can add some much-needed help to the forward lines. Coach Doug Gibson is still skating a regular shift and the Bears are still staying close to Rochester despite all the problems they are having.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01585/5051744-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="596" height="748"><figcaption class="caption-body">The parent Bruins returned several players to boost Binghamton&rsquo;s attack, including Craig MacTavish.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

Moncton Coliseum Closed By Workers’ Strike

SALT LAKE&mdash;Two victories and a tie on the road stretched the Golden Eagles&rsquo; league lead to 11 points over Birmingham, 12 over Indianapolis. The Birds took a 7-4 verdict in Indianapolis, rallied for a 2-2 tie in Dallas, then won a 5-3 game in Oklahoma City.The five-game unbeaten streak on the road tied a franchise record, set back in 1973. With a 16-9-5 road record, and-1-more to play, the Eagles seemed a sure bet to break the CHL record of 20 road victories, first achieved by the Omaha Knights in 1970-71, and equaled four times, the last time by Salt Lake in 1977-78.Goalie Doug Grant won his fourth game in a row in beating OC, running his Eagle career record to 52 victories, seven shy of Ray Martyniuk&rsquo;s club record.Rick Bowness was supposed to sit out a one-game suspension in Indianapolis, but was given a reprieve when the Eagles lost two forwards to injuries. League-leading scorer Doug Palazari missed that game with a lame shoulder, and Red Laurence had a fractured ankle.Joe Mullen, whose 13-game scoring streak had been halted in Indy Sunday, opened the scoring in the 714 rout in the rematch, which saw five Eagle goals in the middle period, two by Bobby Crawford. Mullen scored shorthanded in OC, and Bobby Simpson tallied twice.INDIANAPOLIS: The Checkers rebounded from a 7-4 home loss to Salt Lake and whipped Birmingham, 712, with both games Market Square Arena. Hector Marini and Kevin Devine each recorded their 20th goal in the victory, as Indianapolis scored four unanswered goals in the middle period, two by Yvon Vautour, and three more in the third before the Bulls counted a late one.That gave the Checkers five 20-goal scorers, as Alex McKendry had 28, Garth MacGuigan 23 and Charlie Skjodt 21. Center Billy Carroll missed three games with a charley horse, but returned for the Saturday victory. Tim Lockridge had surgery to repair a hand tendon.The Checkers, only a point behind Birmingham in the battle for second place, had a seven-point bulge on fourth-place Fort Worth. Left wing Bruce Andres was shipped to Fort Wayne in the International League.FORT WORTH: Texan right wing Archie Henderson broke the league&rsquo;s single-game penalty record when he drew 43 minutes in a 5-4 loss in Dallas. Earlier Merlin Malinowski had scored the first and last Texan goals in a 5-2 triumph in Tulsa.Henderson&rsquo;s penalty collection included four minors, three majors, a game misconduct and a match penalty. The last 29 penalty minutes came with only 29 seconds left in the game, when Archie jumped off the bench to retaliate to the taunting of Brad Gassoff, who had helped set up Dave Ross&rsquo; winning tally. The old CHL penalty record was 40 minutes in one game by Salt Lake&rsquo;s Warren Williams against Fort Worth, Feb. 6, 1976 (five minors, two majors and two game misconducts).The parent Colorado Rockies recalled goalie Bill Oleschuk and center Malinowski. Goalie Tim Thomlisson was brought up from Dayton in the International League to help out Carey Walker, who came up previously from Erie in the Eastern League. Left wing Bob Lekun was sent to Muskegon in the IHL.The loss in Dallas broke a string of six Texan victories, but they still owned eight straight triumphs at their own Will Rogers Coliseum. &#9632;

Eagles Eye Road Record

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSOKLAHOMA CITY&mdash;Jean-Louis Levasseur, 30-year-old goalie who was &ldquo;conned&rdquo; out of senior hockey by the lure of the World Hockey Association five years ago, stopped 84 of 86 shots in three starts, posting a 5-0 Sunday shutout in Houston to climax a terrific week. It was the fourth shutout in 10 games for the native of Noranda, Que.On Tuesday Levasseur had beaten Dallas at home, 5-1, and he came back on Friday for a 1-1 home tie with Tulsa in a brilliant duel against the Oilers&rsquo; Gary Smith. The Stars&rsquo; only loss in the busy week was also at home on Saturday, when Salt Lake took a 53 decision in the Myriad, with Jim Warden in the OC nets.Levasseur took the CHL lead in the shutout department, and lowered his goals-against average to 2.79, second only to Salt Lake rookie Rick Heinz (2.64). The seventhplace Stars were only a point behind sixth-place Tulsa, and two back of fifth-place Houston in the jockeying for the last two playoff positions.Along with the club&rsquo;s improved performance on the ice, there was a pleasant upsurge in attendance. President Lefty McFadden, who took charge just before Christmas, pointed to two crowds topping 6,800 recently.Rob Flockhart&rsquo;s hat trick in the first period backed Levasseur&rsquo;s superb work in the nets in the victory over Dallas, which snapped a four-game losing streak. &ldquo;Flocker&rdquo; scored twice before Hawk Ernie ruined Jean-Louis&rsquo; shutout bid at 11:51, then notched his third (31st of the season) at 17:01. Joe Contini and Warren Young completed the OC scoring in the second period.It took Jon Fontas&rsquo; goal at 8:02 of the third to earn the tie against Tulsa, after the Oilers had posted a power play goal by Larry Hopkins at 5:58 of the first.The Stars went ahead of Salt Lake twice, as Contini scored in the first, Tony White and Robbie Laird in the second. But they couldn&rsquo;t answer two goals by Bobby Simpson and a shorthanded tally by Joe Mullen.Rookie Ron Friest scored in the first two periods, and Warren Young in the bombardment in the third. Levasseur turned back 34 shots, after stopping 23 of 24 against Tulsa, and 25 of 26 against Dallas.At the age of 26, Jean-Louis was content to be playing senior hockey in Quebec, although he had played four games in an emergency for Tulsa in the CHL in 1970-71. He was persuaded to turn professional by the WHA Minnesota Fighting Saints, who folded twice while he was there, but not before Levasseur was named Most Valuable Player on the Eastern Division All Star team in 1977.He was dealt to Edmonton after the Saints&rsquo; final collapse that season, traded to New England the following year, and last season was traded to Quebec. He played only three games for the Nordiques, spending most of the season in the American League with Binghamton and Springfield. He was signed as a free agent by the Minnesota North Stars last fall for their Oklahoma City farm club.The commuter flights between the Stars and Baltimore in the Eastern League continued, with the latest callups being left wing Friest, center Young, and right wing Henry Taylor, after OC had lost defenseman Curt Giles and forward Dan Chicoine on recalls by the North Stars. Defenseman Jim Boo was assigned to Baltimore, refused to report, and was suspended.Coach Ted Hampson put himself in the lineup, and had to take a regular role when Flockhart was injured in the Tulsa game. Rushed to a hospital after his first-period collision, Rob was found to have only a severe muscle strain. &ldquo;A charley horse in the arm&rdquo; was the way it was announced to the crowd late in the game.HOUSTON: Dean Magee and Tom Roulston scored seven seconds apart, early in the third period, to rally the Apollos into a 4-4 tie in Tulsa. It was the second straight overtime games for Al Rollins&rsquo; crew. The previous night in Birmingham, the Apollos fought back from a two-goal deficit to take a lead, but needed Roy Sommer&rsquo;s goal after 50 seconds of the extra period to win, 4-3. After that success on the road, however, the Apollos came home to Sam Houston Coliseum to suffer a 5-0 shutout at the hands of Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Levasseur.The Apollos had climbed to fifth place, four points back of fourth-place Fort Worth, but were only a point in front of Tulsa, two ahead of Oklahoma City.Right wing Mark Miller was reassigned to Dayton in the International League, and defenseman Al Hamilton returned to the parent Edmonton Oilers.TULSA: A pair of early leads couldn&rsquo;t stand up, and the Oilers had to settle for overtime ties, 1-1 in Oklahoma City Friday and 4-4 at home Saturday against Houston. That was better than losing, but coach Mike Smith observed, &ldquo;We, played well enough to win both&rsquo; games.&rdquo; Earlier the Oilers had bowed at home to Fort Worth, 5-2.As a result the Oilers were still winless after nine games, and a six-game winless stretch on their own rink had lasted for more than a month. Their two most recent victories had been on the road.Right wing Benoit Gosselin was recalled from Dayton in the International League for the second time, and center Randy Mohns returned to that club. Right wing Gordie McTavish and defenseman Mike Amodeo were recalled by Winnipeg for reassignment. Right wing Ralph Cox, the last cut by the U.S. Olympic team, came to Tulsa for a pro tryout.The Oilers, after being at the top of the pack in October and November, had sunk to sixth place by mid-February, a point behind Houston and only one ahead of Oklahoma City, challenging for the last playoff berth.Larry Hopkins had two power play goals, each the first score of the game, against Fort Worth and OC. Gary Smith was sensational in the nets in the latter game, blanking the Stars for 48 minutes. Second-period goals by Pat Daley and newcomer Cox provided a 4-2 lead over Houston that vanished when the Apollos scored twice in seven seconds in the third.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01627/5051806-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="600" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalie Louis Levasseur seems to have a new lease on life with the Oklahoma City Stars.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02443/5051799-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="602" height="856"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Flockhart&rsquo;s hat trick against Dallas got the Stars rolling to a 5-1 victory.</figcaption></div>BIRMINGHAM: The Bulls had a desperate shortage of left wings, and coach John Brophy was looking everywhere for help, but couldn&rsquo;t find any.The problem began when Dave Hanson was traded to Minnesota, and Paul Henderson recalled by Atlanta. Then Jim MacRae was lost for the season with a broken collarbone. Mike Dwyer bruised a shoulder, and Dale Lewis bruised a leg in a crossbar collision. As a result the Bulls had only 12 healthy skaters when they suffered a 7-2 loss in Indianapolis. Following a 4-3 overtime loss at home to Houston, that made three straight setbacks for Birmingham, dropping the Bulls 11 points behind front-running Salt Lake, and leaving them only one in front of third-place Indianapolis.Defensemen Paul Terbenche and Larry Sacharuk were shifted to left wing, but that hurt the blue line corps. Goalie Reggie Lemelin had to leave after two periods of the Houston game, with Tim Bernhardt coming in. Lemelin complained of dizziness, but there were no lingering effects the next day. The teams were tied 2-2 when Lemelin left, as an early lead provided by Sacharuk and Rick Adduono didn&rsquo;t last. Lewis scored at 14:03 of the third to force the overtime.DALLAS: A break-even week for John Muckler&rsquo;s Black Hawks brought them no closer to escaping the CHL cellar. Ken Ellacott, who had shut out Oklahoma City in Dallas, was stung for two quick goals in a rematch in OC. Ellacott was relieved by rookie Richard Martens (still wearing his Toledo helmet) at 9:53 of the first, after OC&rsquo;s Rob Flockhart had scored two of his three goals en route to a 5-1 victory.Ellacott was back in form three nights later in a 2-2 tie with Salt Lake. The next night Dave Rose scored twice, including the winning goal with 29 seconds left, to beat Fort Worth, 5-4. That gave Dallas a 5-4-2 edge in the 16-game Turnpike Series. The Hawks were five points behind Oklahoma City, but only six behind Tulsa in the fight for sixth place and the last playoff spot.The loss in Oklahoma City was Dallas&rsquo; ninth straight setback on the road. But the victory over arch-rival Fort Worth opened a five-game home stand.The Hawks reported their home attendance was up an average of 490 per game over last year&rsquo;s figures. &#9632;

f0024-01

Vet Levasseur Most Brilliant Star As Oke City Presses For Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>LOUISVILLE, HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE, HOCKEY STICKSKALAMAZOO&mdash;The International Hockey League season is dwindling down to a precious few games, and it appears that the best is yet to come&mdash;from a competitive standpoint, that is.Kalamazoo, the defending Turner Cup champions, and a season-long standard bearer for the north division, has suddenly developed engine trouble. Their once fat 11-point lead has dwindled to a pair over second-place Saginaw and the K-Wings&rsquo; design on the overall championship is also being threatened by south division leader Fort Wayne.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good thing we had a good lead over everybody,&rdquo; reflected Kalamazoo coach Doug McKay following a three-game road swing, which saw the K-Wings add just one point to their season total. That came in a 5-5 tie at Port Huron.&ldquo;Hopefully,&rdquo; McKay continued, &ldquo;the bad stuff is behind us now.&rdquo;McKay looked forward to a weekend bout with challenging Saginaw. The game was to be held at Wings&rsquo; stadium and Tom Ross was expected to be back in the lineup. Ross has been out with a broken jaw for most of the Wings&rsquo; slump.Prior to the tie, the K-Wings were mugged at Saginaw 6-2 and Grand Rapids, 7-2. The Owl victory was the first of the season over the team which beat them in the Turner Cup finals last year in the seventh game.Over the last eight games, Kalamazoo has won but one. They have lost five and tied two.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01548/5051861-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="586" height="744"><figcaption class="caption-body">The return of Tom Ross to the K-Wing lineup should help them down the homestretch.</figcaption></div>While the K-Wings have been trying to fly again, Saginaw has been chopping away at the Kalamazoo lead steadily. The Gears were 3-0 and have now won six straight. They haven&rsquo;t lost in seven consecutive games.The key victory was a 2-1 thriller at Flint, while a 6-2 romp over Kalamazoo and a 4-3 squeaker over Muskegon followed at home.Following a narrow decision over last-place Muskegon, manager-coach Don Perry said, &ldquo;Emotionally, they weren&rsquo;t ready to put out. In the first period we played just terribly. We improved a little after that, but we weren&rsquo;t nearly as sharp as we were in the game against Kalamazoo.&rdquo;Rookie Scott Gruhl scored the winning goal with less than five minutes left in the game. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have, any lift or drive. You could see that in the warm-up,&rdquo; Perry said.Fort Wayne has been skating stride for stride with Saginaw, moving well ahead in the south division and closing in on Kalamazoo in the overall battle.The Komets swept a two game road trip recently, winning a wild scoring affair at Grand Rapids, 75, before turning back Port Huron behind veteran Robbie Irons, 4-1. Captain Al Dumba, the IHL&rsquo;s leading scorer, was injured in the game at Grand Rapids when hit by a flying puck. He suffered a broken nose and now displays two beautiful purple eyes. He missed the Port Huron game, his first of the season. That leaves Barry Scully as the only Komet who has appeared in all 57 games.The two game sweep moved the Komets to within three points of Kalamazoo, with two games in hand.Elsewhere in the IHL:PORT HURON: The Flags&rsquo; recent stretch of games was highlighted by a convincing 7-4 win at Flint, which boosted Port Huron six points up on the Generals in the fight for third place in the north. It was downhill after that. Fort Wayne surprised the Flags, 41, marking the first Saturday night loss at home of the season. The 5-5 tie with Kalamazoo, also at home, completed the Flags&rsquo; run of games.FLINT: Flint fans are chanting, &lsquo;Here we go again!&rsquo; following three straight losses, two of which came at home. Saginaw nipped the Generals 2-1 and Port Huron ripped them apart, 7-4. A 7-2 trimming at Muskegon followed and extended the Generals&rsquo; losing streak to five.The losses to Saginaw and Port Huron were especially damaging. As coach Marc Boileau pointed out, &ldquo;We are battling two teams for position, yet we let both of them come in here and beat us. We&rsquo;re not hungry. I thought it looked like our first game of the season.&rdquo;MUSKEGON: The Mohawks enhanced their playoff chances with a pair of convincing wins at home. The &lsquo;Hawks split Dayton 7-1 and then bombed Flint, 7-2, before losing a one goal battle at Saginaw, 4-3. The Mohawks now have 47 points, more than Dayton or Milwaukee and the same as third place Grand Rapids of the south division.TOLEDO: The Goaldiggers continue to turn things around. Downed 4-0 in Milwaukee, the Diggers rebounded for a 5-5 tie to extend their undefeated string to six games. The streak has put Toledo solidly in the second place in the south, but still light years away from outranking Fort Wayne.Pleased with the Diggers&rsquo; recent play, coach Gregg Pilling pointed out that Toledo has picked up more points in five games in February than the team managed in eight games in January. &ldquo;Maybe we have started to play the way we are capable of playing,&rdquo; Pilling said. &ldquo;We think the trades we have made have helped us and our attitude is good. We have definitely turned things around and we feel we are a team to be reckoned with in the playoffs.&rdquo;GRAND RAPIDS: Kevin McDonald, who has been serving the Owls as acting coach, was named bench coach for the balance of the season. The announcement came following a 7-5 loss at home to Fort Wayne.The next time out with McDonald behind the bench in street clothes, the Owls whipped Kalamazoo 7-2 for the first time this season. The Owls clung to third place by a point over Dayton.DAYTON: The Gems, 0-2 in their most recent play, could decide their playoff future in immediate action ahead. The four-games-in-five-nights challenge is on hand, with three of the games at home. A successful run could move the Gems into a solid playoff position.MILWAUKEE: The Admirals still bring up the rear with a 17-31-8 record and are five points away from the final playoff spot. The Admirals got three points of a possible four in a pair of home games, beating Dayton 5-4 and tying Toledo 5-5. &#9632;

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Tailspin Eroding Sizeable Kalamazoo Lead

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSBALTIMORE&mdash;Coach Gene Ubriaco feels very strongly that his Baltimore Clippers have yet to peak as a team, and that could be very bad news for the rest of the Eastern Hockey League.In third place and behind as many as 15 points just a few weeks ago, Ubriaco&rsquo;s third place Clippers have been the hottest team in the circuit and find themselves only one point in back of second place and the Erie Blades.Baltimore shows a 9-2-1 record in their last 12 games, an 11-3-1 mark in their last 15 contests, and a gaudy 17-1-1 in their last 19 home appearances. In a span of two months, only last-place Hampton has been able to measure the Clippers at the Coliseum in Baltimore.Ubriaco has a simple explanation for his club&rsquo;s success. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting better and winning because we&rsquo;re playing as a team. There are no one or two guys here who carry the club. Everybody contributes and I honestly feel we haven&rsquo;t reached our peak.&rdquo;Another factor that Ubriaco feels has helped his team was the trade of Dave Lundeen and Bruce Lind to the Blades for Pierre LaGace, Paul Devlin and Paul Pacific. Though Erie thought they got the better of the deal, Ubriaco would be quick to differ and points to an 11-2-1 record his team has posted since the trade.&ldquo;The trade kind of helped us in the fact that it shocked the team,&rdquo; revealed coach-general manager Ubriaco. &ldquo;Everybody was maybe getting a little complacent and the trade showed everyone on the club that we (the front office) really mean business.&rdquo;LaGace was a big factor in the swap since the Clippers were looking for a big centerman and the Frenchman fits the bill. In 14 games as a Clipper, LaGace had nine points, while Devlin hit for six points in his first eight games. Ubriaco is very fond of Pacific because of his ability to play any position.Baltimore set an EHL attendance record when they attracted 7,654 fans for a game with Richmond which the Clippers won, 3-0, the fourth shutout by a Baltimore goalie this season. Though they are still nine points from first place Richmond, first place isn&rsquo;t out of the realm of possibility. &ldquo;Getting into first place isn&rsquo;t out of the question,&rdquo; said Ubriaco. &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t get hurt, there&rsquo;s no telling how far we can go.&rdquo;Goalie Jim Weaver has started 15 straight games since the defection of Clay Hebenton, and the blond shot blocker has responded admirably and now is the owner of three shutouts as well as the second best goals-against-average in the league (3.04).Weaver has also logged the most minutes of any EHL goalie and has 21 victories to his credit.Dave Herbst fired home two goals and Scott Lang had a single lamplighter, with Weaver kicking out 24 shots in the blanking of the Rifles, which was Baltimore&rsquo;s tenth straight home win.The Clippers kept their jinx intact by beating Erie for the fifth consecutive time in Baltimore, 4-2, but were then halted by nemesis Hampton, who tied Baltimore 5-5 after Weaver was injured and forced from the game.Baltimore added John Rockwell on a five-game tryout and he was pressed into service in his first game against the Aces.An added feature at Clipper home games has been the appearance of &lsquo;Wild Bill Hagy&rsquo;, who led the Baltimore Oriole fans in their cheers during the past baseball season and especially the World Series. Hagy spells out &lsquo;Clippers&rsquo; and has turned on Baltimore to their newest professional sport.ERIE: The Blades received a hockey lesson from the Russian Olympic team when the USSR blanked the Blades 9-0 in an exhibition game labelled the &lsquo;1980 Hockey Spectacular&rsquo;.A sold out crowd of 4,250 at the Erie County Fieldhouse watched in awe as the Soviets demonstrated why they are by far the finest team in the world. Sergei Markov had a four-goal hat trick for the Soviets and goalie Vladimir Myshkin kept the Blades off the scoreboard in recording the shutout.Erie Blades&rsquo; goalie Norm LaPointe was awarded a most valuable player trophy for his fine play in the nets, while Markov was honored for the Soviets. LaPointe kicked out 33 shots in two periods of action, including 20 of 21 blasted his way during the second period. After the game Erie coach Nick Polano said, &ldquo;We wanted to use this game as a learning experience and I think we learned a lot about passing, skating and shooting, as well as playing our position and conditioning. It was a learning experience for our club. That&rsquo;s the best way I can put it.&rdquo;Erie continued to have problems in EHL action with just one win and a tie in seven games. The Blades broke a four-game losing skein in blasting Hampton 9-1, but lost road contests in Baltimore 4-2, and Richmond 8-4. Poland&rsquo;s charges have visited Baltimore five times and have yet to come up with a win.Jim Cowell continued his outstanding play with a five point game against the Aces and a hat trick vs. Richmond, his second three-goal performance this year. The centerman had two goals and three assists in helping Erie top Hampton, with Daniel Poulin chipping in two goals and two assists.Steve Stockman has also played an instrumental role in the Blades&rsquo; attack since coming to Erie 20 games ago. In the Aces&rsquo; contest, Stockman had a hat trick with his three goals coming in little more than six minutes. He added two more against the Clippers and the fleet-footed center totalled six goals in three games.RICHMOND: The EHL highest scoring outfit suffered their first shut-out of the season in Baltimore, 3-0, but then proceeded to take their frustrations out on the Blades by whipping their second place rival 8-4 in Richmond.The blasting of the Blades improved Richmond&rsquo;s record to 30-115 and kept them eight points ahead of Erie and nine points in front of Baltimore. Mike Clarke had a hat trick and high scoring Lawrie Nisker added two goals to the Erie game.Rookie goalie Tom Semenchuk, just recently returned from New Haven, claimed his 16th win in 20 decisions and lowered his goals against average to 2.54, tops in the league.UTICA: With their fourth place position on the line, the Mohawks topped fifth place Johnstown in both ends of a home-and-home series.Utica held a scant three point advantage over the Red Wings and faced the possibility of being overtaken by Johnstown, but a 6-5 win on the road in a 9-4 home victory gave the Mohawks a much needed lift.For the second time in the season, coach Larry Mickey&rsquo;s squad is riding a four-game unbeaten streak and their extra confidence should come in handy with a long road trip just around the corner.Dana Decker, the newest member of the Mohawks, and Pete Mavrodis each have a pair of goals in their road triumphs, with Mavrodis being credited with the game winner.The largest home crowd of the year (3,156) saw Brian Drumm spearhead the 9-4 Utica decision with a pair of goals as Ed Smith and Tom Jacobs each garnered three assists apiece. Also getting in the playmaking action was Bob Ferguson, with three assists which gave him eight points in two games. Ferguson is now the fourth place scorer in the EHL with 61 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01581/5051892-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="586" height="902"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sharpshooting Pierre Lagace has been a big boost for the Baltimore attack.</figcaption></div>Goalie Tom O&rsquo;Toole played his seventh straight game while Jim Stewart remained in Binghamton for another week.Smith and Joe Fernald had goals with Utica gaining a 2-2 tie with the Finnish National Olympic team in an exhibition game.HAMPTON: The chances of the Aces getting a playoff spot apt beared bleak with the team falling 19 points behind Utica in the final playoff spot. Hampton, winners of only 12 of 46 games, dropped two more contests on the road as they lost in Johnstown, 5-3, and in Erie, 9-1. The Aces show just a 7-15-1 record on home ice, 5-17-1 on the road, and have 128 goals in the 46 games for an average of less than three goals per outing.Many of Hampton&rsquo;s better showings have come against the Clippers, and the Aces halted Baltimore once again by gaining a 5-5 tie with the Maryland crew. Kip Churchill and Jim Misener each had two goals.Steve Salvucci remains Hampton&rsquo;s biggest threat with 45 points and Brian Gustafson is the EHL&rsquo;s penalty man with 266 penalty minutes.JOHNSTOWN: The Red Wings presented new player-coach Jim Cardiff with his first victory, a 5-3 decision over Hampton, but Johnstown lost back-to-back games to Utica by 6-5 and 9-4 counts.Wes George racked up two goals in the 6-5 home setback to Utica and Brian Shmyr posted a four goal hat trick in a losing cause on the road.George had eight points for the week&rsquo;s play with Colin Ahern, Shmyr and Lorry Gloeckner chipping in seven each.With their 19-29 record, the Red Wings remain seven points behind Utica and the battle for the fourth place playoff spot continues.The latest addition to the Red Wings roster for a five-game tryout was Peter Whiting. &#9632;

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Clippers Begin Move Towards Top With Sizzling Home Arena Record

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;With two weeks to go in the Eastern College Hockey season and the playoff wheat rapidly separating from the chaff, it&rsquo;s already safe to say that 1979-80 has indeed been a season of surprises.For the second straight year, the previous campaign&rsquo;s playoff winner has failed to make the top eight. This year, it&rsquo;s New Hampshire out of the running, as the massive graduation losses were too much even for Charlie Holt&rsquo;s coaching wizardry to overcome. Last year, Boston College slid out of contention after winning the playoffs in &rsquo;78.Who would have thought that Boston University and Cornell would be fighting for their playoff lives in the final days? The pennant-winning Terriers from &rsquo;79 obviously miss the three skaters of a year ago&mdash;Jack O&rsquo;Callahan, Jim Craig, and Dave Silk&mdash;who did so much to help the U.S.A, win the Olympic gold medal in Lake Placid.But the Terriers are minus some other pretty good regulars too, and for the first time the strain of not winning at will is evident on Commonwealth Ave. Junior forwards Todd Johnson and Paul Miller were banished from the team by coach Jack Parker, and the team&rsquo;s record stood at 8-10 in the league with four games remaining.Another perennial contender, Cornell, got its act together and looked pretty good at 9-9 with four tilts to go. But many picked the Big Red to win it all in pre-season. With several key players having off years, this has to rank as one of the more disappointing Cornell seasons ever.On the plus side, RPI and Colgate both exceeded expectations in pursuit of the ECAC West&rsquo; season-long leaders, Clarkson and Vermont. A late surge by Colgate (8-8-1 with four games left) could put them into the playoffs for the first time since 1966 and give the ECAC West four representatives in the top eight. Only St Lawrence has no playoff hopes from the Western sector.Providence, with pre-season questions in goal and up front, has been amazingly consistent in dogging the steps of league leader Boston College all year long. Dartmouth&rsquo;s repeat as Ivy champ shouldn&rsquo;t surprise too many folks, as Ross Brownridge has enjoyed a stellar senior campaign for the Greenies. Ross had three goal and two assists in Dartmouth&rsquo;s only victory of the week, a 7-0 whitewash of Brown.Vermont vaulted back into the first spot in the west with wins of 8-2 over New Hampshire and 4-3 over RPI. Against the persistent Engineers, Kirk McCaskill tallied with 9:47 to play in the second period to make the score 4-1. Late goals by seniors with John Emerson and Larry Landon kept the Engineers alive but Sylvain Turcotte denied them the equalizer.Earlier in the week, RPI needed three third period scores to put way stubborn Colgate 3-1 in Troy Jacques de St. Phalli netted the winner at 16:25 and Dino Macaluso added the insurance tally 1:13 later. Goalie Kevin Constantine, one of the reasons for API&rsquo;s resurgence this year, stopped 35 shots to 18 for Guy lemonade.&ldquo;Kevin is getting a chance to show what he can do,&rdquo; said first year coach Mike Add esa. &ldquo;He had only been in about five games last year when he was a sophomore. This year he got hurt in one game, when he took a shot in the throat at Clarkson. But he&rsquo;s been one of the big reasons we&rsquo;re doing as well as we are.&rdquo;RPI is a senior-oriented crew that&rsquo;s had its share of injuries. Landon came back early-from a knee problem and has given them a late lift. Macaluso also suffered some knee woes. But it looks like Mike Beetle, the best of the fresh crop, and senior Steve Stefanovich, the big gun for 3&frac12; years, may not be back at all. Still, RPI hasn&rsquo;t lain down for anyone as they&rsquo;ve employed a disciplined five-man attack in their forechecking. A 7-4 win at Dartmouth back in early January was their turning point: They&rsquo;ve gone 9-5 in league play since.Vermont continues to hang on in the absence of defenseman Lou Cote. Clarkson may actually be the best of all the Western teams in the offense department, but bill O&rsquo;Flaherty still has to find a way to stop the enemy goals from coming too. It didn&rsquo;t help when goalie Ken Moore left school back in November, leaving the netminding to Rick Mills and Pete Kielzynski. Still, the forwards have been too busy scoring to mind the opposition on occasion.&ldquo;I think that if I had to guess our record at this time of the year, I would put us right about where we are,&rdquo; commented O&rsquo;Flaherty, also in his first year as a head coach. &ldquo;But I wouldn&rsquo;t have thought we&rsquo;d be as good a team as we are; we&rsquo;ve got to play better, though, especially on the road.&rdquo;Clarkson is 9-1 in league play at Walker Arena and 2-6 on the road. Their second triumph was a 6-4 win at Princeton, with both Jim Armstrong and Bill Norton each scoring twice.Colgate showed their tenacity by bouncing back to take Boston University, 4-2 at BU after the 3-1 loss at RPI. The Terriers had battled back to tie the game at 2 with a little over five minutes remaining. Then Dennis Lapensee netted a power play goal and shortly added the insurance on a breakaway to bring Terry Slater&rsquo;s charges another win over their favorite opponents. Dan Fridgen had the other two Red Raider goals.As for BU, they&rsquo;d won a rough 6-3 game over Northeastern two nights earlier, throwing 58 shots at goalie George Demetroulakas in the process. But another game in the week showed their other side, as a 6-1 lead evaporated into an 87 loss at Maine. Dwight Montgomery, the brother of Northeastern&rsquo;s John Montgomery, hero of Northeastern&rsquo;s Beanpot opening triumph over BU, had a pair of goals for the Black Bears.Cornell&rsquo;s two wins improved their record to the aforementioned 9-9, as they ripped Harvard 6-1 in Ithaca, then outlasted Northeastern 4-1 in Boston. Brock Redway had. a goal in each game for the Big Red, in what coach Dick Bertrand is calling their &ldquo;secord season.&rdquo;Princeton managed a 6-3 win over St. Lawrence with Ray Casey neeting a pair of goals. Providence had previously outlasted a Tiger rally to win 6-5 in Schneider Arena. Paul Stasiuk scored twice for the Friars in that one. Then Greg Nolin took a turn in the nets in place of Scott Fiske and stopped 22 New Hampshire shots enroute to a 7-4 win. Boston College kept a leg up on the Friars by winning their only division tilt of the week, scoring five third period goals to dump Maine 6-3 in Orono.So here&rsquo;s how they line up for the playoffs with two full weeks remaining: BC and Providence are in from the East; Dartmouth and most likely Cornell will be Ivy representatives, although if Cornell stumbles just a bit they&rsquo;ll slide out. Vermont, Clarkson, and RPI will all be in there somewhere, with one of them taking home ice as the west sector leader.The remaining teams with mathematical chances are: BU, 810, four games left; Harvard, 6-9-2, four left; Colgate, 8-8-1, four to play, and Maine, 8-10-1, three games to go.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01545/5051930-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="572" height="698"><figcaption class="caption-body">Junior forwards Todd Johnson, top and Paul Miller, were bounced from the struggling Boston University squad.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02351/5051923-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="580" height="716"></div> &#9632;

f0027-01

BU, Cornell Struggling To Make ECAC Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>GRAND FORKS&mdash;Nearly 6,000 fans jammed the University of North Dakota Winter Sports Center each night to see the No. 1 (North Dakota) and No. 4 (Michigan) hockey teams in the nation do battle with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association title riding on the line.When it ended, North Dakota had its second straight WCHA title secured by virtue of a 5-2 and 4-3 (overtime) victories over Michigan, which came into the series with an outside shot of still beating the Sioux out of the title.North Dakota&rsquo;s trademark&mdash;defense&mdash;keyed the sweep, as the Sioux ran their home ice winning streak to 14 and their WCHA winning streak to six.North Dakota has given up just 13 goals in its last six games. Michigan, with some of the best scorers in college hockey, found out why.In the opener, unbeaten freshman goalie Darren Jensen, who hasn&rsquo;t lost in nine starts, stopped 20 of 22 Michigan shots as the Sioux rallied with four unanswered third period goals to clinch the outright championship.Two goals by senior wing Rick Myers and one each from Rick Zaparniuk and Sioux captain Mark Taylor highlighted the third period comeback. Phil Sykes had given the Sioux a 1-0 lead after a scoreless first period, only to see Michigan go in front 2-1 on goals by Ted Speers and John Blum.The victory kicked off a wild celebration among Sioux fans, especially when Taylor and alternate captain Mark Chaney unfurled a banner proclaiming the Sioux as 1980 WCHA champions. They circled the rink with it, to a standing ovation.North Dakota fans had little to cheer about the second night until the third period. The Sioux, with the title securely put away, came out flat&mdash;while Michigan was sharp.Michigan zipped to a 3-0 first period lead against freshman goalie Pierre Lamoureux, making his first start of the season for the Sioux.Dan Lerg, Bruno Basseoto and Steve Richmond put Michigan in front quickly with Lerg and Richmond scoring on power plays.Glen White brought the Sioux to within 3-1 after two periods, setting the stage for a dramatic finish.Rich Zaparniuk got the Sioux within a goal with five minutes left, then UND pulled Lamoureux for a sixth attacker with 25 seconds left.Six seconds later, Taylor put a shot over the shoulder of standout Michigan goalie Paul Fricker to knot it at 3-3 and force a 10-minute sudden death overtime session.North Dakota, pumped up by Taylor&rsquo;s goal, wasted little time in overtime. North Dakota&rsquo;s third shot on Fricker got by him 47 seconds into the session as Phil Sykes hammered in a rebound to win it for the Sioux.Fricker finished with 38 saves to just 13 for Lamoureux as the Sioux outshot Michigan 77-41.With the title wrapped up, the Sioux can now breath easier on the road as the WCHA race heads into the final weekend A year ago, North Dakota didn&rsquo;t wrap up the title until beating Minnesota 4-2 in Minneapolis in the final game of the regular season.North Dakota is the only team in the 10-team league guaranteed of home ice in the playoffs heading into the last weekend. The Sioux will face whoever finishes eighth in the first round of the league playoffs, beginning March 7-8.It was Pittsville elsewhere in the WCHA as the highlight was Michigan Tech&rsquo;s 5-1 win over Denver, giving Tech coach John McInnes his 502nd coaching victory.That surpassed the previous alltime best in college ranks, set by former Boston College coach John &ldquo;Snooks&rdquo; Kelly over a 40-year period. McInnes is in his 24th year at Tech.MacInnes has taken teams to the NCAA tournaments nine times, winning national championships in 1962, 1965 and 1975. He&rsquo;s also taken the Huskies to seven WCHA titles.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01552/5051961-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="564" height="706"><figcaption class="caption-body">Senior Rick Myers scored two goals as North Dakota successfully defended its WCHA title.</figcaption></div>Rick Boehm&rsquo;s goal at 13:20 of the first period proved to be the one that put Maclnnes into the record books. Denver had grabbed a 1-0 lead on Bill Stewart&rsquo;s goal before Rodger Moy tied it for Tech.After Boehm shot Tech into the lead, Gord Salt, Steve Murphy and Al Michalich padded the margin.The return of Salt to the Tech lineup is good news for Tech fans. He&rsquo;s been sidelined much of the year with a disc problem in his back. He received treatments on it in Toronto and got permission to rejoin Tech.His return could be the spark Tech needs to make a serious run at a spot in the nationals. Tech has been missing the big scorer. When the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Salt is healthy, he can score with the best of wingers.A little of the lustre of the 502nd victory vanished the second night when Denver kept its slim playoff hopes alive by beating Tech 3-1. Boehm gave Tech a 1-0 lead, but John Liprando, Marty Steinley and Perry Stensland replied for Denver. Scott Robinson finished with 21 saves for Denver to 27 for Frank Krieber in the Tech nets.Minnesota missed a chance to move past Michigan into second place by dropping a 7-4 decision to Minnesota-Duluth after the Gophers had won the opener 7-5.In the opener, third period goals by Steve Ulseth, Butsy Erickson and Peter Hayek connected within 1:19 of each other sparked Minnesota to a comeback victory, Tim Harrer had two goals for the Gophers, giving him 44 for the season, a new school record. The old mark was 42, set by John Mayasich in 1952-53 and tied by Dick Daugherty in 1953-54.But Duluth whittled Minnesota down to size in the second game as Gregg Moore led the way with the hat trick. Dan Lemes put Duluth up 6-3 early in the third period, and the Gophers couldn&rsquo;t come back.Colorado College remained in the running for a first division finish and home ice in the playoffs by salvaging a split with Wisconsin in dramatic fashion.Butch Selman&rsquo;s goal two minutes into overtime gave CC a 7-6 win in the second game after Wisconsin cruised past CC 6-2 in the opener.Ed Lebler had pulled Wisconsin into a 6-6 tie late in the third period, but Selman&rsquo;s third goal in 32 games gave victory to Colorado College.Chuck Durocher and Ron Vincent each scored two goals as Wisconsin won the opener.Notre Dame, another team eyeing a finish as high as second, ran into some rough luck at Michigan State, where the Spartans are fighting just to make the playoffs.Michigan State won the opener 7-6 as Russ Welch had the hot stick with four goals, including three in the third period to kill Notre Dame&rsquo;s comeback hopes. Greg Meredith had two goals for Notre Dame.Notre Dame spotted Michigan State a 4-1 lead in the second game, then came back with five straight goals to win it.Greg Meredith and Kirt Bjork each had two goals for the Irish while Ted Huesing and Mike Stoltzner had two each for Michigan State.WCHA NOTES: The first EastWest College All-Star hockey game will be played April 11 at the St. Paul Civic Center. It will feature top seniors picked by the coaches. Wisconsin&rsquo;s Bob Jonnson win nead the west squad, assisted by CC&rsquo;s Jeff Sauer and Charlie Bosch of St. Cloud State&hellip;Lou Lamerello of Providence will head the East, assisted by Len Ceglarski of Boston College and Sid Watson of Bowdoin. Each team will have 15 skaters and two goalies. &#9632;

f0028-01

Tight Sioux Defense Spells Title

<div class="byline">BY MIKE MURRAY</div>TORONTO&mdash;Last September when coach Tom Watt and five of his University of Toronto stars marched off to toil with the Canadian Olympic team, the rest of Ontario licked their chops. Due to the weakening of the traditionally strong Blues, the other coaches anticipated a chance to revenge a lot of previous losses.But who could ever have imagined that Gord Davies, Watts interm coach, would take a band of 13 rookies to the top of the strong Ontario University Athletic Association conference. Not only did Davies take his Blues to the top but he did it with what started out as a rag tag team.&ldquo;This was the first year since Tom (Watt) has been here that we did not have one Junior &ldquo;A&rdquo; player come to camp as a freshman,&rdquo; explained Davies. When the season opened Toronto had only four players who could be considered as veterans. Davies had to be realistic and he felt the a playoff spot was his first goal.&ldquo;As the early part of the season started, things just seemed to fall in place, then as we were playing better and better, I finally realized that it was all possible,&rdquo; said Davies. Possible it certainly was, but it was not by any means an easy road. Queens and McMaster were always breathing down their necks and each game was a crucial match. &ldquo;We were the best defensive team in the league as indicated by our goals against and I think that was what made the difference in the end,&rdquo; concluded Davies.The Blues clinched first place at they clobbered Windsor 9-1 and then hung on to down Western 4-2. Defenseman Lance Gattoni had a hat trick in the Windsor game and Doug Caines, returning from a three-week layoff, netted a pair of goals. Against Western the Blues were up 3-0 at the end of two periods but the Mustangs came back with a pair of goals. Mike Pelinos&rsquo; empty-net goal ended any hopes for a much-needed tie and point for Western.Queens and McMaster, who had been raging a continuous battle with the Blues, ended one and two points respectively behind Toronto. The final game of the season pitted these two fine clubs against each other. McMaster had to win to avoid the deadly sudden death quarter final round.&ldquo;If the game had been a minute or two longer we could have done it,&rdquo; expressed Marlin coach Bill Mahoney. The host Gaels jumped off to an impressive early 3-0 lead after only eight minutes and Mahoney tried to shake his troops as he replaced his goaltender. The teams traded a pair of goals in the second frame and Queens seemed content on sitting on their lead. The Marlins started to mount a comeback as first Rick Mastroluisi scored on a breakaway and then captain John Holmes netted a powerplay goal. Queens were fading badly as the Marlins applied relentless pressure and finally on a goal mouth scramble Lance Milled notched the equalizer with 2:03 left. However the Gaels were able to hold onto the tie they needed to wrap up second place.&ldquo;We were faltering, no doubt about it, but while we were playing Laurier on Friday night the Marlins were in the crowd resting up,&rdquo; said Queens coach Fred O&rsquo;Donnel of his team&rsquo;s near collapse.This year&rsquo;s one-division set-up has brought about an overwhelming positive response for this type of format. Not only were the playoff races the best in more than a decade but it gave every coach an honest idea where his team stood. There were a couple of outstanding individual performance this season. First, Paul Stothart of Queens broke the old record of 33 goals in a season as he notched his 34th against McMaster. The els record was set by Bill Aube in the 1971-1972 season while he was playing with the Ottawa Gee Gees. Mike McParland of Guelph fell one point short in his quest to tie the OUAA point record. McParland made it two years in a row as Ontario scoring leader as he picked up ten points in his final three games to bring his total to 61.OUAA: The Trois Rivieres Patriots who last year ended out of the playoff picture in Quebec have assured themselves of first place. After faltering a big during the past week, Norm Meunier&rsquo;s club ran their record to 14-3-4 as they trounced McGill 6-1 and Ottawa 72. Serge Messier had a pair of goals in the McGill game while Carlo Command scored late in the third period to ruin Daniel Coutu&rsquo;s shutout attempt. In the Nation&rsquo;s capital it was Denis Francoeur&rsquo;s hat trick that crowned the new league champions. It is the first time that a school other than Concordia has ended in first place. Two years ago Norm Meunier was Canada&rsquo;s coach of the year, so far this year he has accomplished more towards this award than he did two years ago.Concordia won the battle of second place as they revenged their two previous losses to Ottawa by clobbering the Gee Gees 8-1. Gillies Hebert and Mike Piano each netted a pair of goals as the Stingers scored three times in 71 seconds to break the game wide open. The Stingers then fought back three times from one goal deficits to tie Chicoutimi at four. Once again it was little Gilles Hebert who saved the Stingers as he scored the equalizer at 10:08 of the third period. With one week left the playoff picture has been settled but any one of the four teams is capable of earning a trip to Regina in March.CWUAA: The defending national champion Alberta Golden Bears have all but wrapped up first place as they split their weekend series with UBC. The Golden Bears have two games remaining with Calgary, but the Dinosaurs must win both games by more than a total of 18 goals. Friday night All Canadian Ted Poplowski made it nine games in a row without a loss in the Alberta nets as he kicked out 34 shots. Garnet Brimacombe had a pair of goals to pace his team to an impressive 5-1 victory. Chris Helland returned to the Bears&rsquo; lineup after missing five games with an injury, and assisted on two goals. Saturday night UBC scored two empty net goals to salt away their 4-1 victory. Jim McLaughlin upped his league leading point total to 47.Calgary continues to struggle as they split their weekend double header against Saskatchewan. Friday night captain Jerry Bancks had a goal and two helpers in leading his Dinosaurs to a 5-3 win. The Calgary squad was outplayed for most of the night and if it hadn&rsquo;t been for the fine goaltending of Terry Krycka the Dinosaurs would have lost any hope for first place. Saturday the Huskies had little troublein downing a disorganized Calgary club. Rey Hudson, the league&rsquo;s leading goalgetter had a pair of markers to lead Saskatchewan to an easy 6-2 victory. Coach Kingston started Jerry Farwell in goal but after giving up a couple of early easy markers he was replaced by Krycka.If the Dinosaurs hope to dethrone the Golden Bears they will have to get their playoff act together in a hurry. &#9632;

Blues Still Ontario’s Best Despite Rookie-Laden Club

<h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 25)DIVISION I<h3>East Section</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01473/5052156-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="563" height="189"></div><h3>West Section</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02325/5052149-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="566" height="166"></div><h3>Ivy Section</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03208/5052142-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="560" height="186"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tues., Feb. 19Colgate 1 at RPI 3Boston Univ. 7 at Maine 8Princeton 5 at Providence 6New Hampshire 2 at Vermont 8Yale 3 at Northeastern 4Wed., Feb. 20Harvard 1 at Cornell 4Thu., Feb. 21Northeastern 3 at Boston Univ. 4Boston Col. 6 at Maine 3Fri., Feb. 22New Hampshire 4 at Providence 7St. Lawrence 3 at Princeton 4Sat., Feb. 23Colgate 4 at Boston Univ. 2Brown 0 at Dartmouth 7Harvard 4 at Yale 6RPI 3 at Vermont 4Cornell 4 at Northeastern 1Clarkson 6 at Princeton 4Sun., Feb. 24Colgate 3 at Harvard 2<h3>NON CONFERENCE GAMES</h3>Boston College 9, Army 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04143/5052135-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="560" height="511"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>DIVISION II<h3>East Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05125/5052128-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="568" height="428"></div><h3>West Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06103/5052121-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="557" height="438"></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 29)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0786/5052114-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="565" height="294"></div><h3>CONFERENCE GAMES</h3>North Dakota 5, Michigan 2North Dakota 4, Michigan 3 (ot)Wisconsin 6, Colorado College 2Colorado College 7, Wisconsin 6 (ot)Michigan Tech. 5, Denver 1Denver 3, Michigan Tech. 1Michigan State 7, Notre Dame 6Notre Dame 9, Michigan State 5Minnesota 7, Duluth 5Duluth 7, Minnesota 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0876/5052107-1-eng-US/f0029-082.jpg" title="f0029-08" width="562" height="553"></div><h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 29)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0971/5052100-1-eng-US/f0029-092.jpg" title="f0029-09" width="565" height="177"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Feb. 22Ferris State 5 at West. Michigan 4Bowling Green 7 at North. Michigan 5Ohio State 4 at Lake Superior 0Sat. Feb. 23Bowling Green 3 at North. Michigan 7Lake Superior 5 at Ohio State 9West. Mich. 7 at Ferris State 10<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1063/5052093-1-eng-US/f0029-102.jpg" title="f0029-10" width="572" height="377"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1158/5052086-1-eng-US/f0029-112.jpg" title="f0029-11" width="582" height="168"></div><h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE</h2><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1253/5052079-1-eng-US/f0029-122.jpg" title="f0029-12" width="576" height="284"></div><h2>ONTARIO UNIVERSITIES</h2><h3>QUARTER-FINALS</h3>Guelph 8, Laurentian 4McMaster 4, Waterloo 3<h3>SEMI-FINALS</h3>Toronto 4, Guelph 3Guelph 5, Toronto 2McMaster 3, Queen&rsquo;s 2McMaster 8, Queen&rsquo;s 1<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1346/5052072-1-eng-US/f0029-132.jpg" title="f0029-13" width="574" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 12Ottawa 1 at Concordia 8Wed. Feb. 13Ottawa 7 at Larivieres 4 at McGill 1Sat. Feb. 14T-Rivieres 7 at Ottawa 2T-Rivieres 7 at McGill 0Bishop&rsquo;s 2 at Laval 7Sun. Feb. 17Chicoutimi 4 at Concordia 4McGill 3 at Laval 4<h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1442/5052065-1-eng-US/f0029-142.jpg" title="f0029-14" width="571" height="126"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1538/5052058-1-eng-US/f0029-152.jpg" title="f0029-15" width="573" height="182"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Feb. 13St. F. Xavier 3 at Acadia 2Dalhousie 3 at St. Marv&rsquo;s 2Thur. Feb. 14Mt. Allison 4 at Moncton 10Sat. Feb. 14St. Thomas 5 at Mt. Allison 10Acadia 0 at Dalhousie 5UNB 4 at Memorial 4Sun. Feb. 17UNB 9 al Memorial 2UPEI 3 at Moncton 7St. F. Xavier 2 at St. Marv&rsquo;s<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3>East Division<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1636/5052051-1-eng-US/f0029-162.jpg" title="f0029-16" width="572" height="154"></div>West Division<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1734/5052044-1-eng-US/f0029-172.jpg" title="f0029-17" width="572" height="204"></div><h2>CANADA WEST</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1832/5052037-1-eng-US/f0029-182.jpg" title="f0029-18" width="577" height="133"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Feb. 15Calgary 5 at Saskatchewan 3Alberta 5 at UBC 1Sat. Feb. 14Saskatchewan 4 at Calgary 2UBC 4 at Alberta 1<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1927/5052030-1-eng-US/f0029-192.jpg" title="f0029-19" width="593" height="155"></div><h2>GREAT PLAINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2023/5052023-1-eng-US/f0029-202.jpg" title="f0029-20" width="579" height="151"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Feb. 15Lakehead 1 at Winnipeg 9Sat. Feb. 14Brandon 0 at Regina 5Winnipeg 4 at Lakehead 9Sun. Feb. 17Brandon 1 at Regina 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2123/5052016-1-eng-US/f0029-212.jpg" title="f0029-21" width="588" height="202"></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

How They Stand

<h2>ECAC Conference</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2219/5052257-1-eng-US/f0029-222.jpg" title="f0029-22" width="594" height="258"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2318/5052250-1-eng-US/f0029-232.jpg" title="f0029-23" width="590" height="440"></div><h2>ECAC PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2417/5052243-1-eng-US/f0029-242.jpg" title="f0029-24" width="432" height="108"></div><h2>WCHA Conference</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2515/5052236-1-eng-US/f0029-252.jpg" title="f0029-25" width="602" height="70"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2614/5052229-1-eng-US/f0029-262.jpg" title="f0029-26" width="605" height="259"></div><h2>Top Canadian College Teams</h2>1. Alberta Golden Bears2. Moncton Aigles Bleus3. Toronto Blues4. McMaster Marlins5. T-Rivieres Patriots6. Queen&rsquo;s Golden Gaels7. Calgary Dinosaurs8. Dalhousie Tigers9. Concordia Stingers10. Regina Cougars<h2>CIAU Conference</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2714/5052222-1-eng-US/f0029-272.jpg" title="f0029-27" width="589" height="82"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2811/5052215-1-eng-US/f0029-282.jpg" title="f0029-28" width="591" height="1021"></div><h2>CIAU Conference</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-2911/5052208-1-eng-US/f0029-292.jpg" title="f0029-29" width="467" height="80"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-3010/5052201-1-eng-US/f0029-302.jpg" title="f0029-30" width="538" height="157"></div><h2>CIAU PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-318/5052194-1-eng-US/f0029-312.jpg" title="f0029-31" width="436" height="27"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-327/5052187-1-eng-US/f0029-322.jpg" title="f0029-32" width="446" height="449"></div> &#9632;

f0029-22

Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>KALAMAZOO&mdash;Western Michigan kept its Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoff hopes alive by gaining a 6-6 tie and a 7-5 win over second place Ohio State.In other CCHA action Northern Michigan, with its first CCHA title in hand, topped Ferris State 6-5 in overtime and 4-1, while Bowling Green split a series at Lake Superior. LSSC took the opener 5-3 and BG bounced back to win the second game 6-2.Sophomore goalie Jim Doyle earned CCHA player-of-the-week honors as he backstopped Western Michigan back into the race. Doyle made 39 saves in the tie game with eight saves in overtime, before recording 26 saves in the victory.WMU took a 3-0 lead in the opener in a game of streaks as Tom Hilfman, Bob Bailey and Dave Berthelsen scoring the goals. OSU then netted the next five goals of the game with Jim Penningroth getting the Bucks on the scoreboard at the end of the first period.Larry Marson scored twice in the second period and single goals by Tom Scanlon and Jim Mroszak made the score 5-3 for Ohio State.Jim Olson snapped the OSU streak at 19:07 of the second period and Kelly Mitchell tied the game at 6:35 of the third period.OSU&rsquo;s Jamie Crapper put OSU back in front 6-5 at the 7:49 mark, but Ross Fitzpatrick scored the tying goal from Terry Olson and Bob Scurfield at 13:18 of the final period.OSU held an 8-6 shooting edge in the extra session, but Doyle and OSU&rsquo;s Steve Jones kept the game tied.OSU coach Jerry Welsh unveiled Mike Finch in goal for his first CCHA start in the second game as Mike Blake did not make the trip.Terry Olson and Scurfield gave WMU a 2-0 first period lead with Scurfield tying the WMU single season scoring record, held by Rob Hodge and Tim Dunlop, with his 30th goal of the year.Tom Scanlon scored two goals at the start of the second period to tie the game and Brian Jenke put OSU ahead. WMU&rsquo;s Rob Reid and OSU senior Rod McNair exchanged goals for a 4-3 OSU lead after two frames.WMU stormed out in the third period and put the game away with four straight goals with Mitchell tying the game at 4:34 and Reid and Dan Stothers put the pressure on with goals at 9:00 and 10:12.Kevin Scott scored a shorthanded goal at 15:39 of the third period before Crapper ended the scoring with a power play goal at 19:00. Finch made 31 saves in the OSU nets.Al Ferris State, the host Bulldogs fell behind 1-0 to the league champs on a Bill Joyce goal at 4:37, but came roaring back with goals by Randy Strong and Paul Cook to take a 2-1 lead.Steve Bozek tied the game at 11:29, but George Harrison gave FSC a 3-2 lead after one period with his goal at 19:06 of the period.Bozek and Dave Ikkala put the top-ranked Wildcats ahead with goals at 00:55 and 1:31 of the second period, but again the Bulldogs regrouped with Rocky Smith tying the game at 6:37 and Steve Banonis putting them ahead at 12:36.Veteran Joyce tied the game from Bozek and Mike Mielke at 2:08 of the third period and senior Don Waddell, moved to center from his usual defense position, scored the winner assisted by Brian Verigan at 2:32 of the overtime.Steve Weeks had 33 saves in the opener and Doug Nowels had 26 in the loss.Weeks was sharp again in the second game with 39 saves, including 18 in the second period. That second period was a shootout, with NMU holding a 20-18 shooting edge as FSC&rsquo;s Ted Ykema made 18 of his 33 saves in that period.Brian Winter had the lone first period goal to give NMU a 1-0 lead. Walt Kyle scored after 17 seconds of play in the second period and Dave Ikkala made the score 3-0 just 44 seconds later.Banonis broke up the shutout bid by Weeks at 8:41 of the third period and Joyce collected his 99th career goal at 15:11 of the third period to wrap up the scoring for the game.Goaltender Pat Ansell paced the Lake Superior win in the opener of the series with Bowling Green and the offense provided three second period goals for the win.Mike Ryman scored the first two goals for the Lakers with the second goal coming after jus 17 seconds of action in the second frame.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01541/5052288-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="585" height="783"><figcaption class="caption-body">Western Michigan remained in the playoff fight thanks to Jim Doyle&rsquo;s standout netminding.</figcaption></div>Goals by Myles Forget and Jamie Mcdonald pushed LSSC&rsquo;s lead to 4-0.BG rallied for a pair of goals in the last minute of the second period with Andy Crowther scoring at 19:05 and George McPhee scoring at 19:52.Yves Pelland&rsquo;s goal at 3:12 of the third period cut the Laker lead to 4-3, but Forget scored at 10:07 of the third period to end the offense.The Lakers continued to lead the series when Bobby Ciotti put the LSSC squad ahead assisted by Steve Sherman and Steve Mulholland at 16: 53 of the first period.BG exploded for three goals in the second period and three more in the third for the victory.Ron Megan tied the game at 4:28 of the second period assisted by McPhee and Brian Hills and then Crowther (at 14:29) and Pelland (at 17:00) second unassisted shorthanded goals for a 3-1 BG lead.Pelland scored his third goal of the series at 7:06 of the third period and Tom Newton made the score 5-1 just 19 seconds later.Don Delabbio scored for the Lakers at 11:06 with McDonald assisting on the shorthanded goal, but BG&rsquo;s Tim Alexander finished the scoring at 15:12.Michael David had 38 saves in the win with 16 in the second period and Murray Skinner had 29 saves in the loss. &#9632;

f0030-01

Broncos Keep Faint Playoff Hopes Glowing

KITCHENER&mdash;The Ontario Ma jor Junior Hockey league named Oshawa defenseman Steve Konroyd as the first recipient of the Bobby Smith Award at the league All Star contest.The award goes to the player who best combines hockey skills and academic quality in the League. Konroyd has an 80 per cent average in secondary school.Smith, who was voted the National Hockey League Rookie of the Year last year after a standout season with the Minnesota North Stars, has been involved in premed studies and hopes to eventually turn towards that profession.Also at the All Star game, Windsor&rsquo;s Brent Jarrett and Mark Reeds of Peterborough were named top players in the contest for the Emms and Leyden Divisions, respectively. &#9632;

Konroyd Wins New Award

<div class="byline">BY MORRIS DALLA COSTA</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSKITCHENER&mdash;The Rangers are floundering at the bottom of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League standings, well behind everyone in the Emms division. If the divisions were combined Kitchener would be well behind everyone in the Leyden division as well.It&rsquo;s been a long year in Kitchener. Bob Ertel, who started the year as coach is no longer with the team. Former National Hockey Leaguer Rod Seiling is now behind the bench. What will happen at the end of the year remains to be seen.Is the season a complete writeoff? If you look at the standings it may be, but judging by some of the contests Kitchener has played and lost, things may not be as bleak as they appear.Kitchener is a young team. They&rsquo;ve had chances to win games, but they can&rsquo;t seem to put the puck in the net. They lack experience and in many areas talent, but then they will only lose two hockey players to over-age and they&rsquo;ll have the first pick in the midget draft.Case in point: in a recent game against Oshawa Generals, the generals were leading 4-1. Rangers came back to tie it up 4-4 and were pressing Oshawa, hitting two goal posts. However Oshawa went on to score and finally come away with a 6-4 win.It doesn&rsquo;t take long for a young team to lose their cool and inexperience is probably their short suit. What&rsquo;s there to look forward to?Hopefully top notch blueliner aul Coffey, with 23 goals and 54 assists will be back, although as an under-age player he may be prime bait, for the NHL.They also happen to have Grant Martin, their first round pick this season who has all the tools to be a great hockey player. He has 21 goals and 16 assists but he shows the ability for much more and will produce.Jim Pavese, Jeff Larmer and Russ Adam are other players who can help them.An amazing aspect of the Kitchener Ranger story is the fan support they receive. Rangers have won 13 games and yet still draw around 2,500 fans per game. It&rsquo;s a community owned team that&rsquo;s doing something right, even if it isn&rsquo;t on the ice.In Kitchener&rsquo;s other game of the week, they ran into a hot Brantford Alexanders team who blew them away 9-2.Art Rutland and Scott Vanderburgh led Alexanders with a pair of goals each. Greg Terrion, Mark Botell, Mike Bullard and Chris Kurysh, Ron Leef scored the others.Mike Moher and Kevin Casey scored for Rangers, who were outshot 49-33.Against Oshawa, Dave Hirst and Adam had two goals each, but single markers from Barry McQuaid, Dan Revell, Dave Kobryn, Peter Horachek and a pair by Dan Lane turned the trick for Oshawa.Around the league Peterborough has come out&rsquo;of a slight tailspin to win six in a row and open a lead on the other teams in a tight Leyden division.Their toughest contest came in Windsor where the Petes skated on to a 4-2 win.Windsor took an early 1-0 lead but three goals in the second period gave Peterborough the decision.Mark Reeds, Dave Fenyves, Stuart Smith and Tom Ferbus scored for Peterborough with John Odam and Blair Barnes scoring for Windsor.Peterborough had an easy time with Niagara Falls Flyers taking a 7-2 decision. Terry Bovair, Brad Ryder, Mark Reeds, Jim Weimer, Andre Hidi, Larry Murphy and Stuart Smith scored for Peterborough.Steve Ludzik and Mike Braun scored for Niagara.Windsor, the leader in the Emms division, continues to play their best hockey since Christmas as a sudden-death overtime goal by Barnes gave Windsor a 4-3 win over Brantford. It was his second of the game.Brent Jarrett and Gerard McIntyre scored the other goals, while Mark Hunter, Terrion and Kevin LaVallee scored for Brantford.Brantford continued their theory of either winning by scoring plenty of goals or losing by plenty of goals. Alexanders have scored 354 goals but have given up 333.Brantford managed a 9-2 win over Kitchener and then lost to London Knights 9-7.Terrion and Rutland had two goals each for Brantford, but Knight&rsquo;s Tony Mackenzie and Dino Ciccarelli with two goals each and singles by George Burnett, Tony Collard, Dave Simpson, Jim Egerton and Chris McCauley were enough to overcome a big Brantford attack.Knights continue on a frustrating season. When they seem to get something going, they wind up losing their next contest. Knights lost a 7-3 game to Ottawa &rsquo;67s. Wayne Thompson was the Knights only bright spot scoring all three of their goals.Ottawa outshot London 42-21 and got goals from Doug Smith, Kevin Konnigs, Moe Lemay, Randy Cunneyworth, Rory Cava, Yvan Joly and Chris Veno.Niagara Falls, which is trying to stay ahead of London in the Emms division is going through an experimental stage. Coach Fred Stanfield is using all players to prepare for the playoffs. The players who are performing will wind up playing more in the playoffs.As a result, their play is sometimes unpredictable. To go with the loss to Peterborough, Flyers lost to Oshawa 5-3 and then defeated Ottawa in a big game 7-5.In the Oshawa game Brian Carroll, Dean Schulefand and Brian Rorabeck scored for Flyers.Oshawa got goals from John Campbell, Mitch Lamoureux, Greg Gravel, Peter Horachek and Dan Lane.In Ottawa, Niagara Falls scored four goals in the third period for the win. Rorabeck had a pair of goals with Todd Kwiecen, Darryl Evans, Brian Carroll, Ludzik and Mark Osborne with singles.Sean Simpson had two goals for-Ottawa.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01493/5052319-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="586" height="900"><figcaption class="caption-body">First-round midget pick Grant Martin shows great promise for next year&rsquo;s Rangers&rsquo; club.</figcaption></div>Toronto Marlies split a pair of games, winning an exciting 9-8 contest in overtime in Sudbury. Marlies outshot Wolves 51-39. Stewart Gavin&rsquo;s goal in overtime gave Toronto the two points. Scoring two goals each for Marlies were Glen Duncan, Scott McGeown, Jim Malone and Dave Aquin.Mike Hickey scored a pair for the Wolves.It was another northern city though, who stood Marlies on their ear. Netminder Jay O&rsquo;Connor stopped 52 Marlies shots and his Sault Ste. Marie Greyhound teammates scored four shorthanded goals for a 6-4 win.Steve Gatzos had a pair of shorthanded goals, while Bob Hicks and John Goodwin had the other shorthanded efforts. Doug Shedden and Tim Zwijack rounded out the scoring.Sault Ste. Marie came up with another big win as they edged Kingston 5-4. Goodwin had a three-goal performance for the winners, while Ken Knight, Mark Wichrowski, Craig Muni and Perry Anderson scored for Kingston.Kingston did come up with a 4-1 win over Sudbury in Sudbury with Dave Avery, Mike Stothers, Walt Poddubny and Wichrowski notching the goals, while Frank Perkins scored for Sudbury. &#9632;

f0031-01

Rangers Experience Painful Season, But Future Prospects Are Brighter

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSNEW WESTMINSTER&mdash;The 197980 Western Hockey League season has been a dismal one for the once-powerful New Westminster Bruins.&ldquo;But, despite the fact the Bruins have just four wins and a tie from 54 games, there still are some smiles in the New Westminster camp.&ldquo;We are attacking the rest of the season very optimistically,&rdquo; offered Bruins&rsquo; assistant coach Tracy Pratt, a veteran of 18 years in professional hockey who joined the club early in 1980. &ldquo;Management isn&rsquo;t quitting and neither are the kids. We just need a few breaks&hellip;We need to win two or three in a row.&rdquo;The Bruins, who not too long ago appeared in four consecutive Memorial Cup tournaments, won&rsquo;t be making any post-season appearances this time around. All they&rsquo;re playing for now is pride&hellip;and experience.&ldquo;We seem to be in every game for 50 minutes,&rdquo; said Pratt, moments after his Bruins had dropped a 5-2 decision to the Wheat Kings in Brandon to tie the WHL record for longest losing streak. The loss was New Westminster&rsquo;s 16th in succession, equalling the record set by the Calgary Buffaloes, back in 1966-67.&ldquo;But, somewhere along the way,&rdquo; Pratt added, &ldquo;we lose our concentration and give up four or five goals. But, that&rsquo;s what happens when you&rsquo;ve got a young team. And, it&rsquo;s difficult for a young team to win with a negative attitude. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;ve got to put a couple of wins together&mdash;to get rid of that attitude.&rdquo;The Bruins, with five regulars sitting out a court-ordered suspension, got off to a terrible start. And, even after Dec. 1, when the &ldquo;Black Aces&rdquo; returned, the Bruins couldn&rsquo;t get untracked.&ldquo;When we got the five kids back off those suspensions,&rdquo; Pratt says, &ldquo;we still had a chance. But we went out and lost three games in overtime and a couple of others by one goal. It was back then that we had to make our move.&rdquo;The one bright spot for the Bruins has been the play of 18-year-old centre Anthony McMurchy. A February burst has lifted him into the league&rsquo;s top 20 scorers, with 33 goals and 35 assists.With no hope for any glory this season then, the Bruins have turned their thoughts to the 1980-81 campaign. Head coach Ernie McLean has been spending an incredible amount of time travelling through and scouting Western Canada.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re assessing talent for next season,&rdquo; Pratt commented. &ldquo;And when some of our affiliate clubs are finished we&rsquo;ll be bringing kids up to play with us.&rdquo;Despite all the mediocrity, the 37-year-old Pratt is enjoying his return to hockey. He played his junior with the Brandon Wheat Kings and went on to play with six different NHL clubs.&ldquo;I played 18 years at the pro level,&rdquo; Pratt smiled, &ldquo;and I was away from the game for three years,&rdquo; which was ludicrous on my part. I would like to give something back to the game, and maybe I can do that by teaching young kids. I love it.&rdquo;CALGARY: Kelly Kisio and Glenn Merkosky each scored twice to give the Wranglers a home-ice 8-3 win over the Saskatoon Blades. Kisio and Merkosky added two more apiece as the Wranglers whipped the Medicine Hat Tigers 8-3. That gave Kisio 54 goals, while Merkosky, a rookie, upped his total to 31. Sheldon Currie also added a pair, giving him 28. Clint Fehr scored at 4:37 of overtime to give the Wranglers a home-ice 5-4 decision over the Lethbridge Broncos. The Wranglers scored three times in the last six and a half minutes to force the extra session. Calgary added overage forward Greg Stamler to its roster from the University of Calgary Dinosaurs, while third-year man Bill McLean, a 19-year-old who has had an injury-plagued career, decided to quit. He had 10 goals and 20 points in 29 games.REGINA: Captain Doug Wickenheiser established a new Pats&rsquo; goal-scoring record in a 6-4 win over the Broncos in Lethbridge. Wickenheiser scored his 68th and 69th goals of the season to break the team record of 68 set by Dennis Sobchuk in 1973-74. Wickenheiser also added two assists in the win, while Darren Bobyck also scored twice. The Pats then split two games in Billings, losing 9-3 to the Bighorns and then winning 4-3. Wickenheiser picked up his 70th goal in the opener, the only point he got in the series. Mike Blaisdell scored a pair of power-play goals in the Regina win, raising his total to 49. Blaisdell followed that with a four-goal outing as the Pats hammered the New Westminster Bruins, 10-2 to move to within two points of the Eastern Division-leading Wranglers. Center Ron Flockhart, who has signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, had two goals and four assists, while Darren Veitch, the WHL&rsquo;s highest-scoring defenseman, lifted his totals to 21 goals and 68 assists with a goal and four helpers.MEDICINE HAT: Goaltender Kelly Hrudey kicked out 34 shots as the Tigers blanked the Saskatoon Blades 6-0. Brant Kiessig led the way with two goals, his 21st and 22nd. The Tigers then made their first appearance of the season on the West Coast and hammered the Western Division-leading Portland Winter Hawks 11-5. Brad Kempthorne picked up three goals, while Kiessig and Kevin Ginnell added two each.LETHBRIDGE: Kim Bosch banged in a rebound at 18:53 of the third period to give the Broncos a 5-4 win over the visiting Saskatoon Blades. Rookie Mike Moller had tied the game at 4-4 just less than two minutes earlier. Gord Williams had two goals for the Broncos, giving him 49. The Broncos then beat the Wranglers 4-2 in Lethbridge for their first victory over the Wranglers this season. Doug Morrison had two goals, his 46th and 47th, and an assist.BRANDON: Center Dave Chartier had two goals as the Wheat Kings lost, 4-3 to the Cougars in Victoria. Brandon then ended a seven-game road trip with their second win&mdash;8-5 over the Bruins in New Westminster. Center Dave Stewart led the way with a goal and three helpers. But, Brandon coaches Dunc McCallum and Les Jackson suspended former Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Boris Fistric and centers Mike Winther and Brad Owen after they broke curfew following the loss to Victoria. The Bruins then visited Brandon and Chartier picked up his 29th and 30th goals to lead the Wheat Kings to a 5-2 lead and into a tie with Lethbridge for fourth place.BILLINGS: The Bighorns split two games with the Regina Pats, both in Billings. The &lsquo;Horns won the opener, marred by a pre-game brawl, 9-3, and then lost the next one 4-3. Marc LeClair sparkled for Billings with three goals in the opener and two in the second game, upping his total to 24.SASKATOON: The Blades, fighting to get out of the Eastern Division basement, lost 8-3 to the Wranglers in Calgary in a penalty-filled game. The worst news of all, though, came the next day when WHL president Dave Descent suspended forward Blake Stephen for 15 games. Stephen, who had 20 goals and 27 assists, was given a match penalty for swinging his stick during an altercation at the penalty box. &ldquo;Swinging of sticks can not and will not be tolerated,&rdquo; Descent said. &ldquo;This is an inexcusable action and any further incidents of this nature will be dealt with even more seriously.&rdquo;Stephen will be eligible to return to the Blades&rsquo; lineup for their last nine games. The Blades scored six power-play goals to dump the visiting New Westminster Bruins, 10-4. Defenseman Kevin Tendler and rookie Richard Chermonaz had two goals and three assists apiece.PORTLAND: The Winter Hawks whipped the Cougars, 12-5 in Portland and moved five points ahead of Victoria atop the Western Division. That is the biggest lead the Winter Hawks have had, but by week&rsquo;s end it was down to three. Ed Cooper led the Hawks with a goal and five assists and rookie Rob Geale scored three goals. Center Tim Tookey broke out of a bit of a slump with a goal at 4:57 of overtime to give the Winter Hawks a 4-3 win over the visiting Seattle Breakers. Tookey, whose teammates trailed, 3-0 in the second period, had but one goal and three assists in his previous six games. Linemate Jim Dobson hit the 100-point mark with a goal and an assist. Florent Robidoux&rsquo; 33rd goal, with 1:36 left in the third period, gave the visiting Winter Hawks a 3-2 win in Seattle.VICTORIA: Torrie Robertson&rsquo;s 18th goal at 4:01 of the third period gave the hometown Cougars a 4-1 lead and they held on for a 4-3 win over Brandon Wheat Kings. The Cougars got a goal and three assists from defenseman Mark Robinson as they dropped the visiting Seattle Breakers 9-2.SEATTLE: The Breakers&rsquo; losing streak reached 13 games when they dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Winter Hawks in Portland, lost 3-2 to the Winter Hawks in Seattle and were pounded 9-2 by the Cougars in Victoria.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01515/5052374-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="578" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rookie centerman Anthony McMurchy has been one of the few bright spots for the Bruins.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

New Westminster Playing To Salvage Pride

<h2>FEBRUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1683/5052698-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="586" height="1168"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1776/5052691-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="549" height="165"></div><h2>MARCH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1872/5052684-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="587" height="1015"></div> &#9632;

f0034-16

WHERE NHL TEAMS PLAY

(Standings on Mon. Feb. 25)<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1968/5052757-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="576" height="154"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2059/5052750-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="572" height="151"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2149/5052743-1-eng-US/f0034-212.jpg" title="f0034-21" width="572" height="127"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2244/5052736-1-eng-US/f0034-222.jpg" title="f0034-22" width="576" height="153"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 18Rangers 4 at Hartford 6Los Angeles 4 at Detroit 2Quebec 2 at Minnesota 6Tue. Feb. 19Toronto 6 at Islanders 4Philadelphia 6 at Colorado 8Minnesota 4 at Atlanta 4Montreal 1 at Washington 3Edmonton 2 at Hartford 6St. Louis 3 at Vancouver 1Buffalo 3 at Quebec 1Wed. Feb. 20Edmonton 1 at Rangers 4Detroit 5 at Pittsburgh 7Boston 0 at Los Angeles 3Toronto 2 at Chicago 4Winnipeg 3 at Buffalo 4Thu. Feb. 21Minnesota 5, Islanders 2Washington 0, Atlanta 3Winnipeg 0, Montreal 3Fri. Feb. 22Philadelphia 7 at Vancouver 3Edmonton 1 at Colorado 3Sat. Feb. 23Rangers 3 at Minnesota 6Islanders 3 at St. Louis 2Philadelphia 5 at Los Angeles 1Hartford 6 at Atlanta 5Chicago 2 at Washington 6Detroit 1 at Montreal 5Quebec 1 at Pittsburgh 2Boston 4 at Vancouver 4Toronto 9 at Winnipeg 3Sun. Feb. 24Islanders 2 at Rangers 8Washington 1 at Colorado 1Pittsburgh 0 at Quebec 2Minnesota 5 at Detroit 7Buffalo 1 at Chicago 3Boston 4 at Edmonton 2<h2>The Point Race&hellip;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2436/5052729-1-eng-US/f0034-242.jpg" title="f0034-24" width="579" height="946"></div> &#9632;

f0034-19

NHL SCOREBOARD

ATLANTA: Pronovost 7, MacMillan 11, Nilsson 27, 28, Vail 20, Clement 7, Houston 15, 16, Shand 3, Marsh 2, Reinhart 7, Lever 25.BOSTON: MIDDLETON 26, 27, Milbury 7, 8, McCrimmon 3, Park 4, O&rsquo;Reilly 16, Secord 18.BUFFALO: Martin 34, 35, Gare 39, 40, 41, McKegney 14, 15, Halt 1.CHICAGO: Preston 19, 20, 21, 22, Ruskowski 14, Brown 3, Mulvey 30, Higgins 10, 11.COLORADO: Robert 24, 25, McDonald 29, 30, 31, Morrison 3, Valiquette 19, 20, 21, Ramage 7, Quenneville 5, Johansen 2.DETROIT: Huber 12, 13, Larson 13, 14, 15, Lyle 4, 5, Thompson 24, 25, Foligno 28, Nedomansky 29, Hicks 1, Woods 6, Labraaten 24, 25.EDMONTON: Price 8, Lumley 15, Chipperfield 16, Fogolin 3, Callighen 23, Connor 7.HARTFORD: Sims 9, Allison 10, 11, Keon 7, M. Howe 19, 20, 21, Carroll 9, Douglas 26, Johnston 4, 5, 6, Roberts 7, Stoughton 36, 37, Boutette 5, 6, Rogers 29.LOS ANGELES: Simmer 41, 42, Murphy 22, 23, Jensen 20, Dionne 44, Taylor 32, 33.MINNESOTA: Hartsbury 11, B. Smith 15, 16, 17, 18, Young 21, MacAdam 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, Zanussi 10, 11, Maxwell 5, 6, 7, Payne 31, 32, 33, 34, Andersson 5, 6, Younghans 8, 9, Hanson 1.MONTREAL: Mondou 26, Lupien 1, Lambert 12, Tremblay 9, Robinson 9, Jarvis 8, Larouche 37, 38, Shutt 33.ISLANDERS: Tonelll 11, Bourne 9, Nystrom 14, Person 3, Trottier 31, 32, Lewis 4, 5, Bossy 40, Gillies 17, Kallur 14.RANGERS: Esposito 25, 26, Duguay 17, 18, Larose 4, Vickers 22, Dave Maloney 8, 9, Greschner 16, 17, Bothwell 2, Murdoch 23, Hedberg 29, Guevremont 2, Tkaczuk 9, 10, Don Maloney 13, 14, 15.PHILADELPHIA: Barber 31, Gorence 5, Propp 26, Linseman 13, 14, 15, Leach 38, 39, 40, Kelly 13, Watson 3, 4, Holmgren 19, Hill 13, 14, Clarke 9, Bridgman 11, Dailey 12.PITTSBURGH: Marshall 6, Lonsberrv 13, Schutt 14, Stackhouse 4, 5, Faubert 5, Carlyle 6, Hughes 14, Davis 2.QUEBEC: Richard 1, Goulet 14, Hart 3, Hislop 10, 11, 12.ST. LOUIS: Babych 15, Chapman 22, Sutter 18, Zuke 18, Crombeen 9.TORONTO: Sittier 25, 26, 27, Vaive 14, 15, Hickey 22, Anderson 20, Kaszycki 8, Boschman 14, Saganiuk 15, 16, 17, Derlago 12, 13, Paiement 18, 19, Ellis 12.VANCOUVER: Fraser 13, 14, Manery S, Brasar 7, 8, Boldirev 19, Gradin 22, Butler 8.WASHINGTON: Picard 8, Gustafsson 14, Gartner 19, 20, 21, 22, Lofthouse 11, 12, Green 4, Jarvis 9.WINNIPEG: Wilson 13, 14, Markell 7, Lukowich 28, Moffat 6, Graves 1.<h2>NHL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2341/5052788-1-eng-US/f0034-232.jpg" title="f0034-23" width="563" height="289"></div> &#9632;

f0034-23

NHL’S SCORERS THIS WEEK

<h2>MON. FEB 18 RANGERS 4, HARTFORD 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01531/5052653-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="572" height="774"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 4, DETROIT 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02413/5052646-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="566" height="553"></div><h2>QUEBEC 2, MINNESOTA 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03315/5052639-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="567" height="578"></div><h2>Tues., Feb. 19 TORONTO 6, ISLANDERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04220/5052632-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="613" height="774"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 4, COLORADO 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05172/5052625-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="580" height="915"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 4, ATLANTA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06146/5052618-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="568" height="626"></div><h2>MONTREAL 1, WASHINGTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07135/5052611-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="566" height="528"></div><h2>EDMONTON 2, HARTFORD 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08127/5052604-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="572" height="647"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 3, VANCOUVER 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09115/5052597-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="633" height="593"></div><h2>BUFFALO 3, QUEBEC 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10112/5052590-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="587" height="555"></div><h2>Wed., Feb. 20 EDMONTON 1, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-11105/5052583-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="593" height="608"></div><h2>DETROITS, PITTSBURG 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-12101/5052576-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="587" height="755"></div><h2>BOSTON 0, LOS ANGELES 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1392/5052569-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="596" height="585"></div><h2>TORONTO 2, CHICAGO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1488/5052562-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="578" height="556"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 3, BUFFALO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1584/5052555-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="612" height="552"></div><h2>Thurs. Feb. 21 MINNESOTA 5, ISLANDERS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02399/5052548-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="541" height="604"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 0, ATLANTA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03315/5052541-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="542" height="451"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 0, MONTREAL 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04262/5052534-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="547" height="552"></div><h2>Fri. Feb. 22 PHILADELPHIA 7, VANCOUVER 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05215/5052527-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="581" height="1015"></div><h2>EDMONTON 1, COLORADO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06196/5052520-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="595" height="526"></div><h2>Sat. Feb. 23 RANGERS 3, MINNESOTA 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07184/5052513-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="585" height="690"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 3, ST. LOUIS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08163/5052506-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="584" height="646"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 5, LOS ANGELES 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09155/5052499-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="568" height="560"></div><h2>BOSTON 4, VANCOUVER 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10135/5052492-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="570" height="619"></div><h2>TORONTO 9, WINNIPEG 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11123/5052485-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="588" height="722"></div><h2>SUN. FEB. 24 ISLANDERS 2, RANGERS 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-12107/5052478-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="592" height="882"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 1, COLORADO 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1393/5052471-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="637" height="516"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 0, QUEBEC 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1477/5052464-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="580" height="432"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 5, DETROIT 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1567/5052457-1-eng-US/f0035-152.jpg" title="f0035-15" width="590" height="772"></div><h2>BUFFALO 1, CHICAGO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1661/5052450-1-eng-US/f0035-162.jpg" title="f0035-16" width="583" height="506"></div><h2>BOSTON 4, EDMONTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03227/5052443-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="611" height="594"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02317/5052436-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="554" height="556"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01502/5052819-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 26)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01478/5052920-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="572" height="148"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02362/5052913-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="564" height="240"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 18Springfield 4 at Maine 4Tue. Feb. 19Hershey 1 at Adirondack 3Maine 1 at New Brunswick 8wed. Feb. 20Syracuse 4 at Binghamton 7Rochester 2 at Hershey 3Springfield 0 at New Haven 5Fri. Feb. 22Springfield 2 at Binghamton 3Hershey 5 at New Haven 7Maine 5 at Nova Scotia 4Rochester 5 at Syracuse 8Sat. Feb. 23New Haven 5 at Hershey 4Maine 2 at New Brunswick 8Adirondack 4 at Springfield 4Binghamton 2 at Syracuse 4Sun. Feb. 24Syracuse 4 at New Haven 6Maine 2 at Nova Scotia 3Binghamton 3 at Rochester 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03288/5052906-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="574" height="535"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 25)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04210/5052899-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="577" height="349"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Feb. 20Fort Worth 3 at Houston 3Birmingham 1 at Tulsa 4Thu. Feb. 21Indianapolis 3 at Salt Lake 4Fri. Feb. 22Birmingham 0 at Dallas 3Houston at Fort Worth 4Salt Lake 2 at Indianapolis 4Oklahoma City 3 at Tulsa 3Sat. Feb. 23Birmingham 7 at Dallas 4Indianapolis 3 at Fort Worth 4Oklahoma City 6 at Houston 7Sun. Feb. 24Indianapolis 2 at Tulsa 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05166/5052892-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="568" height="280"></div><h2>GOALING RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06144/5052885-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="562" height="431"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 27)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07136/5052878-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="570" height="153"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08131/5052871-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="577" height="316"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Feb. 20Grand Rapids 4 at Fort Wayne 4Milwaukee 4 at Dayton 8Fri. Feb. 22Port Huron 4 at Muskegon 4Fort Wayne 5 at Dayton 3Saginaw 3 at Kalamazoo 7Milwaukee 2 at Grand Rapids 7Sat. Feb. 23Milwaukee 4 at Fort Wayne 2Grand Rapids 1 at Muskegon 5Dayton 3 at Port Huron 9Toledo5 at Saginaw 3Flint 3 at Kalamazoo 8Sun. Feb. 24Toledo 4 at Fort Wayne 4Milwaukee 2 at Port Huron 5Muskegon 3 at Dayton 2Kalamazoo 5 at Saginaw 6Flint 2 at Grand Rapids 10<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09125/5052864-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="566" height="401"></div><h2>EASTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 26)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10122/5052857-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="563" height="230"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue., Feb. 19Erie 5 at Baltimore 6Wed. Feb. 20Johnstown 5 at Hampton 9Utica 2 at Richmond 4Thu. Feb. 21Utica 5 at Baltimore 4Fri. Feb. 22Johnstown 0 at Utica 4Richmond 2 at HamptonSat. Feb. 23Utica 6 at Johnstown 4Baltimore 3 at Erie 5Hampton 4 at RichmondSun. Feb. 24Utica 2 at Hampton 2Baltimore 2 at RichmondJohnstown 0 at Erie 10<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11118/5052850-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="556" height="237"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

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;Winnipeg26&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…

<h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 26)<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12114/5053087-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="579" height="176"></div><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13111/5053080-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="583" height="153"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 19Kingston 4 at London 4Niagara Falls 2 at Toronto 4Thu. Feb. 21Ottawa 4 at Windsor 2Brantford 5 at Peterborough 4Fri. Feb. 22Brantford 2 at Kitchener 7Ottawa 3 at London 1Sault Ste. Marie 7 at Niagara Falls 9Peterborough 1 at Oshawa 5Windsor 0 at Kingston 7Sat. Feb. 23London 5 at Brantford 5Ottawa 7 at Kitchener 2Windsor 2 at Peterborough 7Sun. Feb. 24Sault Ste. Marie 5 at Oshawa 7Windsor 5 at London 2Sudbury 3 at Niagara Falls 4Kitchener 4 at Kingston 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-14105/5053073-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="581" height="429"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 26)<h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-15104/5053066-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="584" height="127"></div><h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-16101/5053059-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="569" height="177"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 19Portland 5 at Calgary 4Seattle 2 at Victoria 5Brandon 2 at Saskatoon 7Wed. Feb. 20Regina 5 at Seattle 1Portland 4 at Medicine Hat 2Thu. Feb. 21Billings 1 at Brandon 4Victoria 4 at New Westminster 1Fri. Feb. 22Medicine Hal 9 at Lethbridge 4Portland 4 at Saskatoon 7Seattle 4 at New Westminster 7Sat. Feb. 23New Westminster 2 at Seattle 12Regina 1 at Victoria 3Sun. Feb. 24Regina 3 at New Westminster 4Portland 4 at Brandon 5Billings 5 at Lethbridge 2Saskatoon 3 at Calgary 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1795/5053052-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="575" height="525"></div><h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 25)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1890/5053045-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="573" height="152"></div><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1988/5053038-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="571" height="128"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Feb. 20Chicoutimi 4 at Hull 4Montreal 4 at Quebec 7Fri. Feb. 22Trois-Rivieres 4 at Quebec 5Cornwall 2 at Sherbrooke 4Sun. Feb. 24Cornwall 4 at Hull 4Shawinigan 7 at Montreal 4Chicoutimi 2 at Sherbrooke 6Quebec 5 at Trois-Rivieres 3Laval 1 at Sorel 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2084/5053031-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="581" height="279"></div><h2>ONTARIO JUNIOR</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2177/5053024-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="566" height="329"></div><h2>NATIONAL JUNIOR</h2>(Standings on Sat. Feb. 9)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2274/5053017-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="588" height="152"></div><h2>CONTINENTAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 19)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2368/5053010-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="586" height="256"></div><h2>GEORGIAN BAY LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 22)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2461/5053003-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="566" height="201"></div><h2>ATLANTIC-METROPOLITAN JR.</h2>(Standings on Sat. Feb. 9)<h3>ATLANTIC DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2557/5052996-1-eng-US/f0036-252.jpg" title="f0036-25" width="559" height="102"></div><h3>METROPOLITAN DIVISION</h3>New York Conference<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2654/5052989-1-eng-US/f0036-262.jpg" title="f0036-26" width="567" height="105"></div>New Jersey Conference<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2747/5052982-1-eng-US/f0036-272.jpg" title="f0036-27" width="558" height="82"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2842/5052975-1-eng-US/f0036-282.jpg" title="f0036-28" width="571" height="403"></div> &#9632;

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AMATEUR SCOREBOARD

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2939/5053167-1-eng-US/f0036-292.jpg" title="f0036-29" width="570" height="214"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3037/5053160-1-eng-US/f0036-302.jpg" title="f0036-30" width="584" height="920"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3135/5053153-1-eng-US/f0036-312.jpg" title="f0036-31" width="544" height="234"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3231/5053146-1-eng-US/f0036-322.jpg" title="f0036-32" width="564" height="590"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3328/5053139-1-eng-US/f0036-332.jpg" title="f0036-33" width="548" height="162"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3424/5053132-1-eng-US/f0036-342.jpg" title="f0036-34" width="578" height="530"></div><h2>EASTERN LEAGUE</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3518/5053125-1-eng-US/f0036-352.jpg" title="f0036-35" width="550" height="136"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3617/5053118-1-eng-US/f0036-362.jpg" title="f0036-36" width="594" height="378"></div> &#9632;

f0036-29

PRO GAMES TO COME…

MONTREAL&mdash;When the National Hockey League reached the halfway mark this season, it appeared as though Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Marcel Dionne would run away with the League scoring championship.After 40 games this season, Dionne led his closest rival, Guy Lafleur of Montreal Canadiens, by 13 points. However, when Dionne&rsquo;s linemates Charlie Simmer and Dave Taylor were sidelined with injuries, Lafleur reduced Dionne&rsquo;s lead to just three points last week.Now, with Simmer and Taylor back in the Kings&rsquo; lineup and Lafleur out with an injury himself, it appears Dionne is threatening to once again build up a sizeable lead in the scoring race. Dionne, who has played in 62 games this season, has 115 points, nine more than Lafleur, who has missed Montreal&rsquo;s last two games.Simmer, who missed, 16 games for Los Angeles, has served notice he&rsquo;s capable of picking up where he left off before his injury. Simmer scored 36 goals and added 33 assists in 40 games for Kings prior to his injury. Since returning to Los Angeles&rsquo; lineup, Simmer has scored six goals and three assists in six games.Prior to Simmer and Taylor leaving his line, Dionne averaged 2.08 points-per-game through the first half this season. In the 16 games Simmer was out, Dionne averaged 1.31 points-per-game. With Simmer and Taylor back, Dionne&rsquo;s average is back up to 1.83 points-per-game in his last six outings.Los Angeles, which played well over .500 through the first half of this season, won only three games while losing 12 and tying one in the 16 games Simmer was out. Since Simmer returned, Los Angeles&rsquo; record is again back at .500, with three wins and three losses.Meanwhile, the league&rsquo;s youngest player, Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton Oilers, put his name in the record books by becoming the youngest player in history to reach the 100-point plateau.Gretzky, who scored his 99th point a week ago, failed to gain a point in his team&rsquo;s first three games last week but finally reached the 100-point mark Sunday when he was given as assist in Oilers&rsquo; 4-2 loss to Boston Bruins.Pierre Larouche of Montreal Canadiens formerly held that honor when he scored 111 points with Pittsburgh Penguins in 1975-76. Larouche was 20 years, four months old when he scored his 100th point that season. Gretzky is 19.Buffalo Sabres continue to lead the League in goals against. Buffalo&rsquo;s Don Edwards and Bob Sauve have given up 159 goals this season while Chicago&rsquo;s Tony Esposito and Mike Veisor have been scored upon 173 times. Tied for third place is Boston and Philadelphia. Both have given up 175 goals. &#9632;

Return Of Linemates Bolsters Dionne’s Fortunes

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03227/5053222-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg"></div>&ldquo;Where readers get together to do business&rdquo;PLAYER EQUIPMENTRINK EQUIPMENTPERSONALSFAN CLUBSOPPORTUNITIES OFFERED, WANTED<h2>PERSONALS</h2>AVAILABLE: Buttons, bumper stickers, decals, T-shirts, ribbon badges for your team, club or school. Larry Fox, Box M-7, Valley Stream, N.Y., 11582, (516) 791-7929.POWER SKATING INSTRUCTOR: Required for a successful hockey school in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Treat yourself and your family to a dream vacation in Canada&rsquo;s recreational playground. Only experienced instructors need reply. Apply to Dept. 7-H, The Hockey News, 214 King Street West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4GAME-WORN HOCKEY JERSEYS: Buying-Trading-Selling WHA, NHL, IHL, CHL, Hockey Jerseys. Game-worn hockey shirts only. Also interested in used sticks-bags-and-skates of hockey stars. Highest prices paid for WHA, NHL championship rings. All-Star game jerseys needed. Would like to also hear from Pro-Team hockey trainers and players. Write to: Richard Curry, 14 Five Oaks, Saginaw, Mich., U.S.A., 48603.BASEBALL BASICS&mdash;Illustrated team defense, hitting, pitching. Handy Booklet. Send $1.00 to: P.O. Box 6401, Saginaw, Michigan, 48608.SALE: Color 8 &times; 10 photos Det. Red Wings Past-Present and NHL Stars $3.50. Write Gerald Stanley, 9318 Pickwick Cir. W., Taylor, Michigan 48180.ATTENTION HOCKEY FANS: Are you planning a playoff pool in your office for the NHL playoffs? Inquire now about the National Hockey Strategy League. Booklet available to help you set up your group. Send $5.00 cheque or money order to NHSL, Box 9094, Station &ldquo;F&rdquo;, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. T2J 5S7.PLAYER WANTED: German National League goalie. Must have minimum five years professional experience preferably NHL, WHA. Will consider CHL or AHL. Salary tax free, social benefits, car, apartment, etc. Write Herr Franz Wintergerst, 1302 Postfach, 8958 Fussen,. Germany.WANTED: Assistant Manager, 5 thousand seat ice arena, host IHL team, high school hockey and other events. Position available immediately. Resumes accepted immediately. Send to: Mr. Phil Simon, 2500 Turner NW., Grand Rapids, Ml, 49504. Phone: 364-7017.NON-IMPORT PLAYERS FOR EUROPE: For the 1980-81 season. If you were born in Europe or if your father held European citizenship at the time of your birth (even if you were born elsewhere) you may qualify as a non-import player for the country in question. Good salaries and benefits if you have played for equivalent of junior B' or better. An experience of a lifetime. All information will be kept in strictest confidence. Send details of birth records and hockey resume to:European Coordinator CAN AM Hockey Group P.O. Box 634 Guelph, Ontario N1H 6L4 (519) 824-3515 &#9632;

f0037-03

The Hockey News CLASSIFIED

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01489/5053274-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><h2>Executive of the Year</h2>Ken McKenzie, the President of THE HOCKEY NEWS, was on hand in Pittsburgh recently to present Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; general manager Baz Bastien with The Hockey News&rsquo; 1979 Executive of the Year Award. Ken gave the award to Baz (above) at Pittsburgh&rsquo;s 44th annual Dapper Dan dinner, which was attended by over 2,500 people, including master of ceremonies Bob Prince (seated next to the podium) and, seated next to Prince, Pittsburgh Steelers&rsquo; owner Art Rooney. Above, right, Ken chatted with former NHL player Stan Gilbertson, whose career ended tragically several years ago when he lost a leg in a car accident.<h2>Jets&rsquo; president honored</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03309/5053267-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="1262" height="1362"></div>Each year the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportcasters Association holds a banquet for that province&rsquo;s top male and female athletes. Many other awards are also doled out that evening, including one that went this year to Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; president Michael Gobuty, (left), who received this beautiful trophy for &ldquo;having the biggest impact on the Manitoba sports scene during the past year.&rdquo; Presenting Mr. Gobuty with his award was Ed Dearden, who covers the Jets for the Winnipeg Tribune.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02386/5053260-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1134" height="1962"></div><h2>Getting set to swing</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04237/5053253-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="1820" height="1406"></div>The Variety Club of Ontario will be the recipient this year of the proceeds of a golf tournament being put on by American Airlines and the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Players Association. The tournament will be held at the Glen Abbey course from June 12-15, 1980. A press conference was. recently held to officially announce the tournament and among those present were, left to right, Jean Beliveau, vice president of the Montreal Canadiens, Doug Rise-brough of the Canadiens, Alan Eagleson, executive director of the NHLPA, Greg Britz, the Canadian general manager of American Airlines, and Guy Lafleur of the Canadiens. &#9632;

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HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="byline">BY BUDDY O&#x2019;CONNOR</div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Coming into the second half of their first season in the National Hockey League with a strong .500 percentage, the Quebec Nordiques were being heralded as the upstarts of the league, a team that could upset the whole applecart and really give the shiv to the experts who had called them to be out of league playoffs.Then, just as the second half opened, disaster struck, again in the form of injuries to key players. But, this time around, the injuries sent the club reeling, because the seriousness is evident: big, strong centerman Serge Bernier (a top leader) went out for the remainder of the regular season after undergoing knee surgery.A short time later, the fiery Robbie Ftorek, the team captain, and a major driving spirit on the Quebec club, also took the same route out for the balance of the season following knee surgery.In a pair of back to back games against the New York Islanders and the Rangers, both in New York, Nordiques lost five players to injury.In addition to Ftorek, Buddy Cloutier came up with an ankle injury (at least four to six games out of the lineup); Curt Bracken-bury, suddenly again the firewagon type he was in, WHA play, reinjured an arm and most likely, will not see any more action this season; while Richie Leduc, and Reggie Thomas picked up an assortment of injuries which pushed them out of the lineup as well,Bernier, troubled by the knee injury from the very outset of the season, had managed to play in thirty of the 40 half season games, but was somewhat of a disappointment this year, garnering only eight goals and fifteen assists. He played just two tilts into the second half before team doctors finally put a halt to his action. He was told that if he did not go under surgery immediately, his hockey career could be ended forever on any given night.Ftorek, who earlier this season had played hurt with a bad elbow and then a hamstring pull, was finally banged up for the season when he tore cartilage in his knee. Before going out of the lineup, Ftorek was Nordiques&rsquo; second best pointgetter with 18 goals and 33 assists for 51, behind the redoubtable Cloutier who already has 33 goals and 35 assists for 68.To offset these tremendous blows, head coach Jacques Demers brought back Pierre Lapointe, John Smrke, Roland Coutier and Louis Sleigher from Syracuse Firebirds. All played heads up in their first start back but went down 6-2 against Minnesota in another road game loss.But, a real spark of renewed hope came when the Nordiques picked up Jacques Richard, a former star here with the Quebec Junior Remparts, from the Buffalo Sabres in a straight one-man deal.Richard was a high draft choice of the Atlanta Flames when he came out of junior ranks but just never seemed to click there. Traded to Buffalo, Richard just did not get any ice time under Punch Imlach and crew and was wallowing ater Scotty Bowman took over this season.A very talented hockey player, Richard had been groomed as the successor to Guy Lafleur here with the Remparts, who were then under the direction of Nordiques&rsquo; general manager Maurice Filion. He is a very able stickhandler, has a booming shot, and skates with the best. Everything depends upon his attitude. A hometown boy, Richard has been well accepted by Quebec fans, and thus far, has shown that he can be a definite force behind the Nordiques tough battle to get into the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01458/5053305-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="594" height="900"><figcaption class="caption-body">Attitude may be the only problem holding back Jacques Richard as the newest Nordique.</figcaption></div>The dreams of a 10th place overall, which the spectators were hoping for, may be gone, but Nordiques plan was to just get to the playoffs, and could jell if players such as Marc Tardif, Cloutier and the newcomer Richard put it all together for the last 20 games of the season. The Nordiques have been injury-prone all season, and coach Demers told this writer on the eve of the second half of the schedule that &ldquo;we only had our full roster on the 40th game of the season.&rdquo; It did not stay that way too long.SKATE MARKS: It was just like old time hockey here recently as the Buffalo Sabres and the Nordiques played the last eight minutes of their game in semidarkness&hellip;A major power breakdown in the Quebec area had halted the game twice in the first two periods for some 45 minutes&hellip;Finally, when the lights went down for a third time, ref Denis Morel, Buffalo and Quebec officials concurred that the game must go on, despite the murky darkness&hellip;Strange situations continue to hamper operations, and are of longer a novelty in Quebec&rsquo;s old Coliseum. &#9632;

f0039-01

Injuries Hindering Nordique Plans

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01174/5053343-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Esposito has been leading the NHL in shutouts again this season and is rapidly moving up the ladder among all-time shutout leaders. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;There&rsquo;s been a change in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Vezina Trophy race this year in that someone from a team other than Montreal, which has dominated the honor for the past four years, will be winning it during the 1979-80 season, but when you think of goaltending and you think of shutouts, there&rsquo;s one performer who still stands out&mdash;Chicago&rsquo;s Tony Esposito.The durable 35-year-old backstop is still the king of the whitewash among active goaltenders, fashioning six shutouts thus far this season to lead the league. On two other occasions during his career, Esposito has topped the NHL in shutouts, recording a phenomenal 15 during the 1969-70 campaign and nine during the 1971-72 schedule.Esposito is also creeping up on the all-time shutout leaders list with his most recent shutout tying him for seventh on the honor roll with Lorne Chabot who totalled 73 with six NHL clubs in the late &rsquo;20s and &rsquo;30s. And he&rsquo;s also within range in the next couple of seasons of such stellar netminders. as Alex Connell (80 shutouts), Tiny Thompson (81), Jacques Plante (82) and Glenn Hall (84).Gracing the top of the list, of course, is Terry Sawchuk, who recorded 85 zero games for Detroit and 19 other shutouts with Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles and the Rangers, for a total of 103. Sawchuk also holds the record for the most games with 971. Second-place on the all-time shutout list is held by George Hainsworth with 94 for Montreal and Toronto.Among active goaltenders, only Rogie Vachon of Detroit falls within the top 20 shutout leaders Vachon, rebounding from a miserable campaign last year, has notched four shutouts this season and is now just one shy of the 50 plateau.But while Esposito appears to have a lock on the shutouts crown, the Vezina Trophy race has been most interesting this year with a couple of unexpected teams leading the pack.Buffalo, for example, was always known as a highly explosive offensive team and while general manager Scotty Bowman and his coaching crew haven&rsquo;t made many personnel changes, they have switched the team&rsquo;s emphasis to defense much to the delight of goaltenders Don Edwards and Bob Sauve. They&rsquo;ve been at or near the top of the least goals allowed charts all season long, Sauve, in fact, holding down the best individual goals against average&mdash;2.44&mdash;with the schedule at the three-quarter mark. Edwards was close behind at 2.65 with the team mark standing at 2.61 goals against per game.Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston were grouped in the second through fourth spots all with an average a little bit below three goals each game. Chicago and Philadelphia each had 2.95 averages, Boston an average of 2.96.Rookie Pete Peeters of Philadelphia has been one of the most pleasant surprises among the goaltending fraternity with a sparkling 2.46 goals against average and 27 starts before he lost, while veteran Gilles Meloche of Minnesota has finally found what it&rsquo;s like to play with some support behind him and he&rsquo;s turned in his best year ever, with a 2.78 goals against average.<h2>All-Time Shutout Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-02106/5053336-1-eng-US/c0004-022.jpg" title="C0004-02" width="1209" height="850"></div> &#9632;

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March 7, 1980

Royals Save Best For Homestretch

Mariners Tops At Gate Averaging 5,000-Plus

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

Overtime With New Twist