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.

April 25, 1980

The Hockey News April 25, 1980

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSTORONTO&mdash;This was expected to be the year of the &lsquo;kid&rsquo; in the National Hockey League but you couldn&rsquo;t convince readers of THE HOCKEY NEWS to think that way.Selecting the NHL All Star teams in the 33rd annual HOCKEY NEWS poll, the reading public seemed to favor the old faces rather than the new ones in naming their favorites for the 1979-80 season.Such established hockey names as Tony Esposito, Larry Robinson, Marcel Dionne, Borje Salming, Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt were still fresh in the minds of the selectors, who still weren&rsquo;t convinced the new breed&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Don Edwards, Raymond Bourque and Barry Beck&mdash;were ready to take over yet.As a result, five of the six first-team selections were all seasoned performers. Esposito was chosen as the goaltender with Robinson and Salming on defense, Dionne at center, Lafleur on right wing and the only newcomer to crack the starting six&mdash;Charlie Simmer of The Los Angeles Kings&mdash;at left wing.For Robinson and Lafleur it was the second straight year on THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; first All Star team while Dionne, Salming, and Shutt were all second team picks last season.However, there is evidence the new hockey generation is about to make the breakthrough and while it didn&rsquo;t come this season, it just might next year. Edwards, the phenomenal goalie of the Buffalo Sabres, was picked on the second team by the fans. Bourque, who stands an excellent chance of being named the NHL&rsquo;s Calder Trophy winner this season, was chosen on defense along with Beck, the giant Ranger backliner. Gretzky, the kid wonder of the Edmonton Oilers, was named second team center with the Islanders&rsquo; Bossy on the right side and Montreal&rsquo;s Shutt on the left.The selectors again had their eye on the future when they chose Gretzky as the Most Valuable Player of the NHL season and named young Bourque, the pillar of strength on the Boston Bruins&rsquo; blueline this season, as the Rookie of the Year.In one other category, the fans were most impressed with the coaching job of Pat Quinn in steering the Philadelphia Flyers to the top of the NHL race, and voted him as their Coach of the Year.The individual voting was heavily slanted towards the first team nominees with the possible exception of the goaltender balloting, where Esposito received two-thirds of the votes over Edwards. Gretzky was a close second to Dionne and barely lost out to the diminutive Los Angeles&rsquo; center in the fans&rsquo; selections.Salming and Robinson were easily the choice of the selectors for the first-team defense while Lafleur and Simmer had little or no opposition in the voting for the wing berths.On the second team, Edwards had the field to himself in the voting. Bourque was an easy pick but Beck was hard pressed to beat out veteran Jim Schoenfeld of Buffalo and Mark Howe of Hartford for second-team defense.Gretzky, like Edwards, was alone in the voting for center but Bossy received considerable opposition from Blaine Stoughton of Hartford and Buffalo&rsquo;s Danny Gare for the right wing spot. Shutt was unchallenged as the second team left winger.In the MVP voting, balloting was confined to Gretzky and Dionne, with the Edmonton whiz kid winning by a small margin. Bourque was also a decisive winner of the rookie selection with Mike Foligno of Detroit and Brian Propp of Philadelphia his closest pursuers.There was little doubt in the minds of the fans that Quinn did the best coaching this year as they chose him over Chicago&rsquo;s Eddie Johnston and Gary Green of Washington. To show how fickle hockey fans can be, one reader even went so far as to cast his ballot for U.S. Olympic coach Herb Brooks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01996/4722809-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="414" height="899"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Esposito</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02808/4722802-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="419" height="899"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Robinson</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03642/4722795-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="416" height="884"><figcaption class="caption-body">Borje Salming</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04503/4722788-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="418" height="893"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marcel Dionne</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05394/4722781-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="414" height="893"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guy Lafleur</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-06330/4722774-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="419" height="901"><figcaption class="caption-body">Charlie Simmer</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Old Faces Still Captivate Fans In All Star Picks

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02355/4723707-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg"></div><h2>Top WHL Drafts</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03245/4723700-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="994" height="746"></div> &#9632;

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Top OMJHL Drafts

<div class="byline">KEN McKENZIE&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02801/4722055-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="321" height="361"></div>&bull; THE BUFFALO SABRES and Montreal Canadiens are getting the nod as this year&rsquo;s Stanley Cup finalists by many astute puck followers&hellip;The NHL clubs with the best records since the All Star break were Montreal with 45 points, Buffalo with 38, Boston, 36; Islanders, 36; Washington, 33; and Philadelphia, 33&hellip;Washington fans were saddened at their team&rsquo;s failure to make the playoffs. It appeared that this would be the year the Caps finally made it. Too bad the Caps didn&rsquo;t qualify. If they had, U.S. President Jimmy Carter was invited to their first game. Hartford suffered a tough break when Blaine Stoughton fractured his ankle in the Whalers&rsquo; first playoff game against the Canadiens. Stoughton, who tied with Buffalo&rsquo;s Danny Gare and Los Angeles&rsquo; Charlie Simmer as the league&rsquo;s leading goal scorer (56), is the first player on a first-year expansion team to score 50 or more goals. He was me leading player on me whalers along with Rick Ley and Mark Howe. With Stoughton and Ley both out of the lineup through injuries, the Whalers didn&rsquo;t supply much opposition to the power-packed Canadiens. Coach Don Blackburn called Ley the &ldquo;heart and soul&rdquo; of his club&hellip;This was a record season in the NHL for players scoring 50 or more goals. No less than nine performed the feat. The previous high was six, set in 1975-76, and four of the six repeated again in 1979-80. They were Guy Lafleur, Reg Leach, Pierre Larouche and Danny Gare&hellip;The St. Louis Blues boasted the NHL&rsquo;s best penalty killing record, with an 84.8 percentage mark in keeping the opposition off the scoreboard while playing shorthanded&hellip;The Minnesota North Stars placed two players in the 40 goals or more category which was a first for them. They were Steve Payne and Al MacAdam&hellip;The NHL owners will have a meeting in Los Angeles following the traditional Montreal June meetings&hellip;For the last seven years the team that won the Vezina Trophy went on to win the Stanley Cup, and Scotty Bowman coached five of those last seven Vezina Trophy winners&hellip;The Winnipeg Jets are pleased at signing Tom Steen, from Sweden. The classy forward is expected to help the Jets greatly in their effort to make the playoffs next year&hellip;The New York Islanders will sorely miss Anders Kallur during the playoffs. The brilliant forward could be sidelined a minimum of four weeks with a shoulder fracture.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03552/4722048-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="287" height="374"><figcaption class="caption-body">Danny Gare</figcaption></div>&bull; JAKE MILFORD, likeable general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, will be back again next season&mdash;despite rumors to the contrary. There&rsquo;s no one around right now who could do a better job at Vancouver. Jake just needed a little coaxing&hellip;Bill Watters is reported to have turned down the general manager&rsquo;s job at Detroit replacing Ted Lindsay. Watters, formerly vice-president of Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s Sports Management, will devote himself full time to developing his own player agent business. Eagleson may have something to say about this, however&hellip;Due to the transit strike in New York, the Atlanta Flames were unable to get hotel rooms in Manhattan for their series against the Rangers. They had to stop at a motel in New Jersey, almost as far away as Philadelphia&hellip;Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky, who finished the season with the same number of points as L.A.&rsquo;s Marcel Dionne but lost the scoring crown because Dionne had more goals, is the youngest player ever to achieve such a distinction. Bobby Orr, at 22, was the youngest player to win the NHL scoring title, which he did in 1970&hellip;Jim Bannatyne, captain and ace defenseman of the Port Huron Flags, played his 900th International Hockey League game recently. It was against the Dayton Gems, the team for whom he&rsquo;d played six seasons. Bannatyne became the sixth player in the 35-year history of the IHL to play 900 or more games. He was awarded a four-day trip to Las Vegas in a pre-game ceremony&hellip;The Montreal Canadiens lost only four games during the second half of the season under coach Claude Ruel. The Canadiens ended the year with the loop&rsquo;s best home record. They had 30 wins, 7 losses and 3 ties. They acquired 63 points, one better than Buffalo and Philadelphia who each ended the year with 62 points&hellip;Charlie Simmer has to be some kind of a goal scorer. He scored his 56 goals this season in only 64 games. Since Simmer moved from Springfield to Los Angeles in January, 1979, and was placed on a line with Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor he&rsquo;s gone crazy as a goal scorer. He tallied 21 goals in the Kings&rsquo; final 37 games last year, giving him a two-year total of 77 goals in 102 games&hellip;Philadelphia entered the playoffs playing mediocre hockey. In their last 29 games of the season they had 13 wins, 9 losses and 7 ties, but seemed to get untracked after being forced into overtime in the playoff opener against Edmonton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04370/4722041-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="295" height="393"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Bannatyne</figcaption></div>&bull; FOR YEARS they&rsquo;ve been known as the NHL June Meetings. Starting this year they&rsquo;ll be called the NHL Congress, and they&rsquo;ll be staged in Montreal on June 8, 9, 10 and 11&hellip;Tony Esposito, Chicago&rsquo;s veteran goalkeeper, finished his best season in years. He took part in more games (69) than any other NHL goalie and had the most shutouts (6). He also had 31 wins, second only to the sensational Mike Liut of St. Louis. The husky Liut, a Bowling Green College graduate, had 32 wins, 23 losses and nine ties in 64 games with the Blues. The other St. Louis netmlnder, Ed Staniowski, had but two wins and three ties in 16 games&hellip;The Blues finished the regular schedule with 32 points more than a year ago to qualify as the most improved club in the NHL&hellip;The Toronto Maple Leafs allowed a total of 327 goals-against this past season. This is the most goals ever allowed by a Maple Leaf team&hellip;The Edmonton Oilers, with 322 goals-against, had the second poorest record&hellip;Last season, when 12 out of 17 teams made the Stanley Cup playoffs, the lowest qualifying team had a total of 63 points during the regular schedule. This year, with 16 out of 21 teams qualifying, Edmonton needed 69 points to sneak in&hellip;Don Edwards, one-half of Buffalo&rsquo;s Vezina Trophy winning duo, says Detroit&rsquo;s Reed Larson of Detroit has by far the fastest shot in the league with Atlanta&rsquo;s Eric Vail and Los Angeles&rsquo; Jerry Korab not too far back of Larson. Edwards said that Buffalo&rsquo;s Gil Perreault, the Islanders&rsquo; Mike Bossy and Montreal&rsquo;s Guy Lafleur weren&rsquo;t too far behind. He says Lanny McDonald of the Colorado Rockies has the best wrist shot and labels Peter McNab of Boston as the most accurate shooter. Edwards selects Jean Ratelle of Boston as the best backhand shot in the circuit&hellip;Minnesota&rsquo;s phenomenal Bobby Smith ended the 80-game schedule with a total of 83 points after missing 19 goals. Undoubtedly he would have amassed 100 or more points had he not been sidelined for so long&hellip;Gordon Anziano, vice-president and secretary of the American Hockey League, tells us that the current season has been his busiest ever. Gordon and Jack Butterfield, president, do a fine job administrating the thriving American League. All of the favorites have been winning their games in the American League playoffs to date.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-05247/4722034-1-eng-US/f0005-052.jpg" title="f0005-05" width="293" height="377"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Liut</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PASSING THE PUCK

BURLINGTON&mdash;Unlike the University of North Dakota, neither Vermont nor Wisconsin qualified for the NCAA hockey championships in Providence, R.I. spoils this year. But that didn&rsquo;t keep the Catamounts and Badgers from rubbing shoulders with the Sioux when the 1980 All-America team was picked.All three teams shared equal honors as the selectors named two Vermont players&mdash;defenseman Lou Cote and center Craig Homola&mdash;to the Eastern squad while Wisconsin and North Dakota put two each on the Western team.Chosen from the Sioux were defenseman Howard Walker and center Mark Taylor. Wisconsin contributed goaltender Roy Schultz, who signed a pro contract with the Boston Bruins last week, and rearguard Theran Welsh.Selected by the American College Coaches Association for Titan hockey sticks and THE HOCKEY NEWS, the Eastern panel of coaches had little trouble naming the best six players but their Western counterparts were not quite as unanimous. They named eight players for six positions, because of two tie situations.Here&rsquo;s how the Eastern team looked. Brown goalie Mark Holden, who labored with a third-place Ivy Division team that failed to make the playoffs, was picked as the best in the East. He played in all 22 Brown games and posted a 3.27 goals-against average in his workhorse role. On defense, Cote, the solid backliner from Vermont who is the only All America repeater from both of the 1979 teams was selected along with Andre Aubut of Maine, a sophomore who turned in a big year with a third-place club.The Eastern forwards Included Craig Homola of Vermont, Boston College&rsquo;s Bill Army and Ross Brownridge of Dartmouth. Homola was the ECAC scoring champion and the conference&rsquo;s Player of the Year. He finished with 67 scoring points and scored 28 times for Vermont. Homola will be back next year but neither Army nor Brownridge are returning.The six-man Western All-America team was turned into eight when defensemen Dave Feamster of Colorado College and Wisconsin&rsquo;s Theran Welsh tied. A second tie occurred for the third forward position between Murray Eaves of Michigan and Notre Dame&rsquo;s Greg Meredith.The other Western All-American was Tim Harrer, the WCHA scoring champion from the Minnesota Gophers. Harrer finished with 69 points and was the best scorer in U.S. college hockey circles with a 45-goal season.Taylor, who suffered the misfortune of breaking his collarbone in the NCAA championship game against Northern Michigan, waged an exciting battle all season long with Harrer for the scoring cham &#9632;

The Hockey News AH-America Picks

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01769/4725056-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>COMPLETE ROUNDUPS OF NHL PRELIMINARY SERIES Page 6PIERRE LAROUCHE: BACK ON TRACK WITH CANADIENSTED LINDSAY TO COACH RED WINGS IN 1980-81OLD FACES PREVAIL IN FANS&rsquo; 33rd ALL STAR POLL &#9632;

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GRAPES GETS THE SQUEEZE

The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; return to prominence in the NHL this past season is due in large part to the team&rsquo;s improved offense. The Flyers scored like the Broad Street Bullies of old this year and one player who contributed heavily to their scoring surge was veteran Reg Leach. The hard-shooting right winger, who astonished the NHL by triggering 61 goals in 1975-76 and added another 19 in the playoffs for a sensational 80-goal year, showed some of his old form this season with a 50-goal performance. Next week in THE HOCKEY NEWS, correspondent Bill Fleischman will profile the high-powered Flyer ace in a special page 3 feature and discuss his comeback as an NHL scorer and what it&rsquo;s meant to the Flyers.With the hockey season winding down, TOE HOCKEY NEWS will have the fourth and final report on NHL attendance over the regular schedule. With four new teams in the fold this season, and an exciting playoff stretch race on its hand the NHL was moving towards its highest ever turnstile figure&mdash;11,000,000 fans. &#9632;

Coming Next Week

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011161/4721831-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="340" height="363"></div><h2>Playoffs: A Special Time</h2>IT WAS THE morning of the first game of the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs and Floyd Smith stood by the boards at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minn., where the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team Smith coached for seven-eighths of the season, would open a series against the Minnesota North Stars that night.Injuries he suffered in an early March auto accident forced Smith out of the job for the duration of the season. Joe Crozier was summoned from the Leafs&rsquo; farm team, the New Brunswick Hawks of the American League, to handle the club.Smith&rsquo;s injuries had healed but a busted kneecap required a removable cast and forced Smith to walk stiff-legged. But, at least, he was back on the scene and on a snowy April morning, he reflected on just what the Stanley Cup playoffs mean to hockey people.&ldquo;Every year at this time, I really wish I was a player again,&rdquo; Smith mused.&ldquo;Geez! Did I love those playoffs! I loved the season, too, and even the exhibition games but there was something really special about the playoffs. Every play, every game, just about everything that happened counted for something.&ldquo;There might be nights during the season when you had a little trouble getting up for a game but in the playoffs, you were always ready, always cranked up and eager to get at it.&rdquo;Smith spent the large portion of his career with the Detroit Red Wings in the 1960s, when the team was a perennial playoff finisher.&ldquo;In the playoffs, the guys on the team were together almost constantly,&rdquo; Smith added. &ldquo;On the road, we&rsquo;d hang out together and when we were at home, the Red Wings used to go to Toledo to a really great little hotel there, away from all the distractions.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d go to the races in a group on the off-day afternoons, have dinner and a few laughs. It was great!&rdquo;Smith claims that he didn&rsquo;t really appreciate what the playoffs meant until he wasn&rsquo;t in them. That happened when he was with the Buffalo Sabres in their first season as an expansion team.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t expect to make it on our first try,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;But just the same, when that schedule ended and you knew that was it for you, it was a very flat feeling. The season seemed very incomplete because the big part of it was missing.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been very lucky in my hockey career to have been associated with teams that made the playoffs. There were some teams that missed the playoffs five or six years in a row. I know a few players from those clubs and it seems that there was a large hole in their careers.&rdquo;<h2>Postponed His Retirement</h2>THE 1980 PLAYOFFS are important to Al MacAdam, the excellent North Stars&rsquo; winger whose overtime goal eliminated the Maple Leafs from this year&rsquo;s playoffs and propelled his team into the quarterfinals. In fact, if the Stars had failed to qualify for the playoffs this season, MacAdam says he would have considered seriously a retirement from hockey, even though he&rsquo;s only 28 and in the prime years of his career.MacAdam was in the playoffs before&mdash;back in 1974 with the Philadelphia Flyers, when he played one game, enough to get his name on the Stanley Cup.For the next five seasons, MacAdam was exiled to the California Seals, who became the Cleveland Barons, who, in turn, were involved in the 1978 shotgun wedding with the North Stars.&ldquo;At first, it was good for me to be with the Seals because I was young and I got a chance to play a great deal,&rdquo; MacAdam said. &ldquo;But it became increasingly difficult to accept losing and not being on a playoff team.&ldquo;It was a downer to know that every year when the schedule ended, that was it for you, and every year it got a little worse. It seemed that I never played in anything big, games that really counted for something. That&rsquo;s why Team Canada was very important to me.&rdquo;MacAdam was a member of Team Canada, comprising players from non-playoff teams in the NHL, in the 1978 world championships in Prague and the 1979 global event in Moscow.&ldquo;I really went to Europe to see if I could play under pressure,&rdquo; MacAdam explained. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d never done it before, at least, not really big pressure, so I wanted to find out how I&rsquo;d react to it. I was pleased with the way I played.&rdquo;The North Stars missed the playoffs in 1978-79 but, this time around they were sixth overall.&ldquo;If the team had missed the playoffs, I probably would have got out of hockey,&rdquo; MacAdam said. &ldquo;Six years out of the playoffs would have been too much.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m much easier to live with now that we&rsquo;ve made it.&rdquo;<h2>Neilson&rsquo;s Spring Bloomers</h2>ROGER NEILSON, associate coach of Buffalo Sabres, loves the playoffs, too. In junior hockey with the Peterborough Petes, Neilson was noted for producing teams that bloomed in the spring. And in his two seasons as the Maple Leafs&rsquo; coach, his teams raised a little playoff hell.In fact, it sometimes appears that Neilson views the 80-game schedule as merely a tune-up for the playoffs.&ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it what you do in the playoffs that decides what sort of season you&rsquo;ve had?&rdquo; Neilson said.&ldquo;Of course, the season is important because you want to finish as high as possible to get the good match-ups and the extra home games.&ldquo;But if you have had a great season, then bomb out in the playoffs, you know what it is people remember.&rdquo;Scotty Bowman, the Sabres&rsquo; head coach and general manager, found the Neilson approach to be a change. Bowman is intense all the time; Neilson is a trifle laid-back until the playoffs approach.&ldquo;Roger wants to win every game, of course, but I was a little surprised when I found out he gears everything to the playoffs,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what he considers really important.&rdquo; &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011178/4721886-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Larouche was well-prepared for this season and determined that he wouldn&rsquo;t let anything stop him from contributing his best for the Canadiens. (Photo by Ian MacAlpine)</figcaption></div>Pierre Larouche sat in the back of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room, with a huge grin on his face and a throng of radio, TV and print reporters crowding around him, recording every one of the 25-year-old center&rsquo;s words for posterity.It was a night in late March, just moments after Larouche and his Montreal teammates had finished playing against the Chicago Black Hawks in a game in which Larouche scored his 50th goal of the 1979-80 season and became the first player in National Hockey League history to score at least 50 goals in two different seasons with two different teams. (He had 53 with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1975-76). Larouche was happy, relieved and exhausted all at the same time on that particular evening, but the one word that best described his emotions was&hellip;satisfied.Several weeks have gone by since that memorable evening and Larouche and his mates are now heavily involved in their quest for a fifth consecutive Stanley Cup championship&mdash;a quest that excites Larouche immensely but does not detract from the satisfaction he still experiences from scoring that 50th goal.&ldquo;I think a lot of people felt that I was finished when I came here,&rdquo; said Larouche, referring to the Dec. 15, 1977 trade which brought him to Montreal from Pittsburgh in exchange for Peter Mahovlich and Peter Lee. &ldquo;I had trouble with the management in Pittsburgh, but I don&rsquo;t think I was as bad as they made me out to be. There were others around there who were doing worse things than I was accused of doing.&rdquo;Aside from the &ldquo;worse things,&rdquo; the big rap against Larouche was that he was a lazy hockey player who preferred to hang around opposing team&rsquo;s goalies, waiting for passes or errant pucks to come his way rather than doing things like backchecking and forechecking. Whether that was a fair assessment of Larouche&rsquo;s abilities really wasn&rsquo;t important. What was significant was that Scotty Bowman, then the iron-willed, square-jawed coach of the Canadiens, did not care for Pierre&rsquo;s defensive abilities&mdash;or lack of same.As a result, Larouche spent more time showing off his fancy duds in the Montreal Forum press box than he did exhibiting his fancy moves on the ice: In 44 games after being traded to Les Canadiens, Larouche scored a respectable 17 goals and 32 assists for 49 points. Not bad. But in 197879, his first full season with the Habs, Pierre appeared in only 36 games and scored a measly nine goals and 13 assists.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t play certain aspects of the defensive game well,&rdquo; Larouche says now, recalling last season, &ldquo;you won&rsquo;t get much ice time with the Canadiens&mdash;even if you are a good forward.&ldquo;I always believed,&rdquo; Larouche went on, &ldquo;that while I was not the best defensive player. I certainly was not the worst.&rdquo; The only problem was, Pierre wasn&rsquo;t getting enough opportunities to prove himself to Bowman.That situation persisted throughout last year&rsquo;s playoffs: As the Canadiens marched towards their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup, Larouche played in only six of the Canadiens&rsquo; 16 playoff games, scoring one goal, three assists and feeling very much out of it when champagne time rolled around last May.Things took a positive turn for Larouche last summer, when Bowman left the Canadiens to join the Buffalo Sabres and center Jacques Lemaire, who had played on a line with Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt, announced that he would be leaving the Canadiens to play in Switzerland. By the time the start of the regular season rolled around, Larouche was ready to jump right into the spot vacated by Lemaire, but new coach Bernie Geoffrion had other ideas&mdash;namely, to start Pierre Mondou in that spot.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t surprised that Mondou started the season there,&rdquo; Larouche says. &ldquo;Anyone could have started there and I would not have been surprised. I wasn&rsquo;t disappointed because I was mentally prepared for it. When Jacques Lemaire left, I knew I had to play well. There were many people who didn&rsquo;t think I could play with Lafleur and Shutt. But I knew I could play with them. I wanted to.&rdquo;He soon got his chance. Geoffrion, who would soon step down as coach and be replaced by Claude Ruel, wasn&rsquo;t pleased with the way Mondou worked with Shutt and Lafleur. Larouche was promptly inserted as the center on that line and the rest is, well, history. Playing in 73 games this past season, Larouche was the Canadiens&rsquo; second-leading scorer, with 50 goals and 41 assists. Many of those assists went to linemates Lafleur&mdash;who was the team&rsquo;s leading scorer with 50-75-125&mdash;and Shutt, who finished third in team scoring, with 47-42-89.The abrupt turnaround for Larouche is undoubtedly the main reason for why the 1979-80 season was so satisfying for him.&ldquo;Ever since I came to Montreal,&rdquo; Larouche says, &ldquo;this was the season I was most ready for. When Jacques and Scotty left, there was no way I was going to let anything get me down. I didn&rsquo;t want to disappoint myself or my teammates.&rdquo;Teammates like Lafleur, Shutt, Larry Robinson and Bob Gainey all talked to Larouche at one time or another, informing him of how important his role in the club could and should be.&ldquo;Bobby, Larry and Guy are the untouchables,&rdquo; Larouche says. &ldquo;They are our best players and they really made me feel like I was important, that I had something to do on this team.&rdquo;Unlike last season, Larouche has been able to have the odd day off when the team holds its optional workouts.&ldquo;It was hard last year coming back from a long trip and getting in late in the afternoon and finding out you had to go to practice with three or four other guys. You feel awful.&ldquo;When you aren&rsquo;t playing, you still collect the pay check but it doesn&rsquo;t make you feel any happier.&rdquo;An especially low moment for Larouche was that night last May when the Canadiens clinched their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup. On that night, as his teammates celebrated by dumping beer and champagne all over each other, Pierre sat down and shook his head, wondering if he would have to undergo the same kind of mental anguish he had just suffered under Bowman. His confidence was so low that he didn&rsquo;t even know if he&rsquo;d be back with the team&mdash;and at that point he began to think that staying in Montreal might not be such a great idea, anyway.&ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t really blame me,&rdquo; Larouche explained. &ldquo;I felt disappointed because I don&rsquo;t think up until then that I had really had a chance. I was here for two years and I didn&rsquo;t have a chance to play. I want to play here. I want to stay here.&ldquo;I was happy that we had won the Cup. The guys had worked hard for it and I saw that. I was happy for them but I felt that I had almost nothing to do with it.&ldquo;I felt I was cheated or something.&rdquo;There is no doubt that this season, Larouche has proved to many that maybe he could have been used a little bit more last season, instead of getting the odd shift here and there.&ldquo;But that&rsquo;s past and it&rsquo;s all part of the game,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The fans were behind me here and that helped keep me going. But every time I would pick up a paper, they would say that the former 53-goal scorer with Pittsburgh was not playing in Montreal or Scotty was saying I couldn&rsquo;t fit into the system.&ldquo;But when you win,&rdquo; Larouche says now, smiling, &ldquo;you can do whatever you want to do.&rdquo;While this has been Larouche&rsquo;s best season since his second year with the Penguins, it is unlikely that he will make either the first or second NHL All Star teams.&ldquo;I just did what I was supposed to do for this team. I&rsquo;m a goal scorer and I scored goals. It&rsquo;s like Bob Gainey and Dougie Jarvis. They will get goals, but their job is to stop the other team&rsquo;s big line. We expect that from them and we expect goals from our line and on the power play.&ldquo;Everybody did what they had to do in the second half,&rdquo; Larouche went on. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we put that 21-game unbeaten streak together before we started the playoffs.&ldquo;I am proud to have scored 50 goals with the Montreal Canadiens. It&rsquo;s something special. It&rsquo;s something to be proud of.&ldquo;I let the other guys take the individual honors and I&rsquo;ll take the Cup. They can live on those individual honors.&ldquo;Sure, I would like to win an individual award or be picked to an All Star team one of these years because I have a lot of years left,&rdquo; Larouche said. &ldquo;I have lived through other bigger disappointments before, so if I don&rsquo;t get chosen this year, it won&rsquo;t upset me. I didn&rsquo;t get chosen Rookie of the Year (Atlanta&rsquo;s Eric Vail won for the 1974-75 season). I didn&rsquo;t get picked for Team Canada (1976).&ldquo;I am sure whoever is going to be selected to be the All Star centers this year is going to deserve it. I think you have a lot of great potential at that position.&ldquo;Being on an All Star team wasn&rsquo;t really what I had in mind at the start of the season. Everybody should have one thing in mind and that&rsquo;s to finish the last game of the season as a winner. That&rsquo;s the one where you get the Cup.&ldquo;But I think it is better in hockey to have a good team attitude. Something like that can carry over after you&rsquo;re finished playing. You can carry on selfishly, but when you finish, you will never know what it means to appreciate other people or to be appreciated by them.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s a feeling Pierre Larouche may not have had in Pittsburgh. But he sure has it now in Montreal.<div class="sidebar">Scotty Bowman did not care for Larouche&rsquo;s lack of defensive abilities.</div><div class="sidebar">&ldquo;The only thing on my mind now,&rdquo; Larouche says, &ldquo;is to finish the last game of the season as a winner of the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;</div><div class="sidebar">&ldquo;I was happy that we won the Cup last year,&rdquo; Larouche says, &ldquo;but I felt that I had nothing to do with it&mdash;that 1 was cheated.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

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Larouche’s Super Season Satisfies Doubters

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011222/4721917-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="295" height="347"></div><h2>Early Playoff Thoughts</h2>SOME IDLE THOUGHTS while waiting for Series A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L in the Stanley Cup playoffs to end&hellip;We criticize it, but the National Hockey League&rsquo;s system of allowing 16 teams into the post-season playoffs has created interest. Why, in Washington, the fans were giving the Capitals a standing ovation for failing to qualify for the last playoff spot.Why did it take the Atlanta Flames so long to realize that Jim Craig needed a rest? They should have realized that the day after he left Lake Placid.People who were waiting for the four merger teams from the World Hockey Association to embarrass themselves in Year One of the NHL were disappointed. Even the lowly Winnipeg Jets were competitive; almost half their losses were by one goal.Speaking of the Winnipeg Jets, they have a good one in Dave Christian.This summer will be a buyer&rsquo;s market for NHL coaches. A half dozen or more jobs could be open.Judging by NHL president John Ziegler&rsquo;s unfortunate remark about the hockey at the Winter Olympics, and judging by United States coach Herb Brooks&rsquo; curt rebuttal, I would say keep these men at arm&rsquo;s length.The first thing I read in THE HOCKEY NEWS every week is Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column.It&rsquo;s a good thing the Montreal Canadiens had such a terrible season. They&rsquo;ll enjoy that champagne in May even more now.If a guy with 93 points in mid-March isn&rsquo;t good enough to coach the Boston Bruins, who would dare take that job next?<h2>Liut Merits Consideration</h2>THE NHL LOOKED for seven months to appoint a public relations director, then discovered it had one on its payroll. Rodger Gottlieb, new NHL public relations director. Strange.When Black Hawks&rsquo; president Bill Wirtz says he would like to rehire his entire front office team for life&mdash;from general manager Bob Pulford on down&mdash;he must think he&rsquo;s got a pretty good thing going.Somehow, those black and gold uniforms on the Pittsburgh Penguins didn&rsquo;t do what they did for the Pirates or Steelers, did they? Who says clothes make the man?If you examine the true meaning of a most valuable player, then certainly St. Louis goalie Mike Liut merits consideration for the Hart Trophy.The second thing I read in THE HOCKEY NEWS every week is Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column, just to make sure my name isn&rsquo;t in it.I can&rsquo;t wait for the 1984 Winter Olympics, when the NHL tries for two gold medals in a row.Can Don Cherry find happiness in Colorado? I&rsquo;m beginning to wonder. If only he and Harry Sinden could kiss and make up, Harry Sinden would have the ideal man to replace him as coach of the Boston Bruins.Bobby Hull, who has had a year to forget on and off the ice, deserves better.If the NHL is anxious to expand or relocate a franchise, what&rsquo;s wrong with Miami? It&rsquo;s full of people from the north with money to spend and time to spend it.Whatever happened to Rick Foley?The NHL keeps boasting that its attendance is up. Let&rsquo;s put it this way: If the league added four teams and attendance wasn&rsquo;t up, there would be big trouble.<h2>Snider Brightest Owner</h2>WHEN ED SNIDER TOOK time to make constructive criticism of the NHL at the Lester Patrick Dinner&mdash;rather than blabber on about why he won the award&mdash;he proved what we all know: The boss of the Philadelphia Flyers is the sport&rsquo;s brightest owner.If Fran Huck had been from Finland, would he have been called Finn Huck? Didn&rsquo;t think so.The Vancouver Canucks always complain about what a difficult travel schedule they have, but will somebody explain why they are so terrible at home, too?Now that Bill Watters has left Alan Eagleson, it might be wise for an NHL team to consider Watters as a general manager. Too many front office types and coaches in the NHL just change jacket crests when they&rsquo;re fired. Time for some new blood.Their trading away of Butch Goring makes me wonder about the Los Angeles Kings.The Colorado Rockies finally published their 1979-80 yearbook a couple of weeks ago. Why didn&rsquo;t they wait a couple of weeks and publish their 1980 81 yearbook?If Lou Nanne, the NHL&rsquo;s hardest-working general manager, got paid by the mile, he&rsquo;d be a millionaire.Rich Preston of the Chicago Black Hawks is everything that a Selke Trophy winner should be. He&rsquo;s the Bob Gainey of the Western World.That&rsquo;s all for now. Time to read Stan Fischler and await Stanley Cup series M, N, and O. &#9632;

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HOCKEY TALK

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY &bull; FOUNDED 1947DONALD R. WALL&nbsp;Chairman and PublisherTOM MURRAY&nbsp;Editor In ChiefAdvertising and Editorial Offices 214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 1K4 (416) 598-1753Executive Office 850 Third Ave.New York. New York, 10022 (212) 593-2100KENNETH W. McKENZIE President and Founder1434 St Catherine Street West Montreal. Canada H3G 1R7EDITORIAL STAFFCharlie Halpin Editorial DirectorMike Dennis, Assistant EditorCathy Munro, Copy EditorBob Hanley. Editorial Consultant Contributing Editors:Stan Fischler, Frank Orr, Bob VerdiADVERTISING SALES OFFICESToronto:Donald R. Wall214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 1K4 (416) 598-1753New York:Donald R. Wall 850 Third Ave. New York, New York 10022 (212) 593-2100Chicago:Hooper, Jones & Associates 3322 W. Peterson AvenueChicago, Illinois 60659(312) 478-5544Boston:Steve Ganak&mdash;Steve Ganak Ad RepsStatler Office BuildingBoston, Mass. 02116 (617)542-6913Joanne Hatch Advertising Service Manager (416)598-1753THE HOCKEY News, (ISSN 00143016), Is published weekly except monthly June throught September by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 214 King Street West-Suite 314, Toronto, Ontario M5H IK4. (416) 598 1753. In U.S, c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.YEARLY SUBSCRPTION RATES $15.95 In the U.SA, $15.95 In Canada, $19.95 In Foreign Countries. Send all subscription requests to THE HOCKEY NEWS, 214 King St. W Suite 314, Toronto, 0nt&bdquo; MSH 1K4 Please allow 4-6weeks for processing. &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Although Kings&rsquo; coach Bob Berry and general manager George Maguire were relieved that owner Jerry Buss had extended their contracts for another season, both men realize that if the Kings slip next year like they did this season&hellip;they probably won&rsquo;t be rewarded with another extension on their pacts.Buss wants a strong organization top to bottom with both the Kings and Lakers at his Forum. He has played an active role with the Lakers and plans a more active role with the Kings as he learns hockey, but he has created a more relaxed atmosphere around his clubs than existed when Jack Kent Cooke was in command, looking over everyone&rsquo;s shoulder every minute. Cooke knew what he wanted and went after it. But Buss does things differently and his managers and coaches do feel more at ease in their jobs, and they like the feeling.Buss does not take over dressing rooms, but he does visit the players after games, win or lose. Cooke only went when his teams won, feeling they didn&rsquo;t want to see him after losses. Buss wants his players to feel like they are family&mdash;during good and bad times. That doesn&rsquo;t mean, however, that they don&rsquo;t have to worry about being demoted if they don&rsquo;t produce. Buss, Maguire, and Berry want players with whom they can win.Defenseman Randy Manery and goaltender Ron Grahame are two players who were worried about their futures as the regular season ended. Manery was out at the start of the season with a bone marrow deficiency and out at the end with a cut in the corner of his left eyeball. In between, he did not have a good season. The Kings added veterans Jerry Korab and Dave Lewis to bring their roster of defensemen to 11, including promising rookies Jay Wells and Mark Hardy. And with two first-round picks in the June draft, they may add another.&ldquo;Some of us have got to go,&rdquo; Manery says wistfully, &ldquo;I never got going this season and because of that I may be out. I want to stay here, but if I can&rsquo;t I hope someone wants me somewhere. Berry hasn&rsquo;t said anything to me, but what can he say? He&rsquo;s been under pressure himself.&rdquo;With youngsters Mario Lessard and Doug Keans guarding the goal, Grahame did not dress during the last seven weeks of the season. He was a star in the World Hockey Association and he had one big year with the Boston Bruins, but he has struggled here the last two seasons.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have a bad game and, boom, I&rsquo;d be on the bench&rdquo;, Grahame says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never really had a good chance here. Lately I had no chance at all. And no one has said anything to me&mdash;nothing, not even that I&rsquo;m no good. You&rsquo;d think they would.&ldquo;My spirits are very low,&rdquo; he goes on. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where I stand. I hurt my knee and didn&rsquo;t complain. Now I may need surgery. But I can still play and I can only hope someone wants me. I hope the club doesn&rsquo;t demand a number one draft pick or something like that for me. I haven&rsquo;t had the chance to prove I&rsquo;m worth that. The last part of the season was very hard on me while I watched my career wasting away.&rdquo;For more details on the Kings&rsquo; preliminary round series against the Islanders, see page 6.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021157/4721972-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="547" height="826"><figcaption class="caption-body">Injuries and inactivity have made Randy Manery&rsquo;s season with the Kings miserable.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Manery, Grahame Uncertain About Future With Kings

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011080/4722003-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Yvon Lambert has been breaking for the net during the playoffs, and led all first-round scorers.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;It took Yvon Lambert 36 games to score six goals during the regular season.It took him exactly three games to get the same number during the annual Canadiens&rsquo; rite of spring&mdash;the Stanley Cup playoffs.And, fittingly, it was Lambert who put the capper on the Canadiens&rsquo; three-game preliminary round sweep of the Hartford Whalers with a time-honored play.With the score tied 3-3 in overtime, Lambert was cutting in from the left wing and was in perfect position to take a pass from teammate Mario Tremblay.And 29 seconds after the extra session had begun, it was over, and the Canadiens moved on to the quarterfinal round in search of their fifth consecutive Stanley Cup.&ldquo;I love the playoff pressure,&rsquo; said Lambert, who had two-goal efforts in Montreal&rsquo;s 6-1 and 8-4 triumphs in the opening two games.&ldquo;But I have to give credit to Mario and Rejean (Houle). We know each other very well and that makes it easier. Every time Mario is going on the wing on a two-on-one or a three-on-two, I&rsquo;m just going for the net. Most of the time I am going to have the puck right on my blade.&rdquo;That was precisely what happened on the series-winning goal in Hartford, Houle did some digging in the corner and fed the puck to Tremblay.&ldquo;And Mario gave it to me right away. It was a heads up play all the way,&rdquo; Lambert said.The Canadiens handled the Whalers with great facility during the first two games in Montreal.They held the lead for over 94 percent of the playing time and never trailed.But some sloppiness crept into the second game after Montreal built up an 8-2 bulge after 40 minutes, something which had the players concerned.&ldquo;The concentration is not there,&rdquo; explained Lambert. &ldquo;You stop hitting and you stop working. We gave up a couple of bad goals (in the third period).&ldquo;You can develop some bad habits from that, but we have to try to forget it.&rdquo;Doug Jarvis, who was outstanding throughout the Hartford series, echoed Lambert&rsquo;s sentiments.&ldquo;I think we played pretty well, other than being sloppy in places on Wednesday. We are working hard.&ldquo;You try to keep your consistency throughout the game. It can be hard at times. You don&rsquo;t like to get sloppy and four goals is a lot to give up in a playoff game.&ldquo;You think a lot and you make plays that you would not normally make in a tight game. I think you can create some bad habits.&rdquo;These bad habits were not evident in Game Three. It&rsquo;s a good thing too, because the Whalers, missing three of their top players, came up with their best two-way effort against the Canadiens all season.And like the Whalers, who played without Rick Ley, Jordy Douglas and Blaine Stoughton, the Canadiens continue to run into a string of injuries.Pierre Mondou, who missed the last four games of the regular season, reinjured a pulled groin in the third period of the first game and that kept him out for the remainder of the series and he was not expected to see much duty in the quarterfinal round.Guy Lapointe, dogged by assorted injuries all season, left after the second period of the first game and showed up the next day with a cast on his left ankle, originally injured when he blocked a shot in New York on March 23.Rod Langway suffered a bruised knee in the second period of Game 2 and did not return for the third period. He played Game 3 after taking a treatment from team therapist Yvon Belanger, who might deserve the most valuable team man award for his effort to keep a few of the players going in the season and playoffs.Guy Lafleur, who missed six games with a stretched knee ligament, an injury which started with Montreal&rsquo;s 21-game regular season unbeaten streak, suffered a bruised left knee when kneed by Hartford&rsquo;s Pat Boutette in the second period of the deciding game. Lafleur&rsquo;s status was described as &ldquo;game to game,&rdquo; as this story was filed.<div class="sidebar">&ldquo;You stop hitting and you stop working&rdquo; Lambert said. &ldquo;You can develop some bad habits. &#9632;</div>

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Playoff Pressure Lights Up Lambert

<h2>SERIES &lsquo;A&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1320/4722278-1-eng-US/f0006-132.jpg" title="f0006-13" width="563" height="246"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;B&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1416/4722271-1-eng-US/f0006-142.jpg" title="f0006-14" width="560" height="220"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;C&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1515/4722264-1-eng-US/f0006-152.jpg" title="f0006-15" width="555" height="221"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;D&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1612/4722257-1-eng-US/f0006-162.jpg" title="f0006-16" width="560" height="247"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-179/4722250-1-eng-US/f0006-172.jpg" title="f0006-17" width="556" height="81"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;E&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-189/4722243-1-eng-US/f0006-182.jpg" title="f0006-18" width="553" height="177"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;F&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-199/4722236-1-eng-US/f0006-192.jpg" title="f0006-19" width="556" height="247"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;G&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-208/4722229-1-eng-US/f0006-202.jpg" title="f0006-20" width="552" height="220"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;H&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-218/4722222-1-eng-US/f0006-212.jpg" title="f0006-21" width="563" height="422"></div> &#9632;

f0006-13

NHL Playoff Picture

f0006-01

Seven Preliminary Series End As Expected

<div class="byline">BY BILL FLEISCHMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011126/4722309-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Myre made his first playoff appearance in four years a successful one, holding Edmonton scoreless for the final 66 minutes and 20 seconds. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;A tense, grinding opening-round playoff series with the Edmonton Oilers&mdash;of all teams&mdash;was good for whatever ailed the Philadelphia Flyers.At least that was the team consensus following the Flyers&rsquo; three-game sweep of the Oilers. Ordinarily, a sweep suggests an easy series, but anyone who saw the three games&mdash;and especially those who played&mdash;know the Flyers were severely tested.When you note that it took a goal by Ken Linseman 23 minutes into overtime to finally whip the pesky Oilers, who were the last playoff qualifiers, a contrary opinion was offered: Why was the NHL&rsquo;s best team over 80 games struggling to avoid an acute case of embarrassment? If the Flyers couldn&rsquo;t breeze past the Oilers, how can they expect to even survive the quarterfinals?Don&rsquo;t try that opinion on Pat Quinn, who wore out his Tank McNamara-sized jaws nervously chewing gum during the Oilers&rsquo; ordeal.&ldquo;It could have been a cakewalk, but I don&rsquo;t know how much good that would have done us,&rdquo; Quinn told reporters. &ldquo;We got just what we needed. We needed to be kicked in the pants just because of our (regular-season) finish. It should prepare us to do the things we&rsquo;re going to have to do.&rdquo;Confronted with the career-peak goaltending of Ron Low, the time-bomb scoring threat of Wayne Gretzky, and Edmonton&rsquo;s disciplined style, the Flyers maintained their poise. As the third and final game stretched into overtime, one crack in the Philadelphia defense could have resulted in the decisive goal for the we&rsquo;ve-got-nothing-to-lose Oilers.However, the Flyers&rsquo; defense&mdash;especially Phil Myre, held up, and then Linseman, who more than any Flyer was skating on empty, scored the game-winner at 3:56 of the second overtime with a lastgasp effort.Linseman, the Flyers&rsquo; regular-season scoring leader who missed Game 2 with a virus, had vomited twice in the overtime.&ldquo;I had lost eight pounds,&rdquo; Linseman said. &ldquo;By the second overtime, I had thrown up twice on the bench. I feel awful, but I&rsquo;d feel worse if we lost.&rdquo;Racing into the Edmonton zone, Linseman deked defenseman Pat Price, swerved outside, shot the puck past Low and then crashed into the boards.As teammates swarmed around Linseman, who somehow found the strength to express sheer exhilaration, there was another dramatic scene not far away. Pete Peeters, the Flyers&rsquo; rookie goaltender, was embracing his partner Myre.After years of playoff exile in Atlanta, where the Flames relied on Daniel Bouchard, Myre had won an important playoff game. Linseman, for one, was delighted.&ldquo;He wanted this a lot,&rdquo; Linseman said. &ldquo;He deserves this more than anybody on this team. He&rsquo;s been working his butt off, and the way we&rsquo;ve played in front of him the last two months, he was getting shell-shocked. Finally, he has this.&rdquo;Although Myre isn&rsquo;t a vindictive man, he must have felt some satisfaction one night later when the Flames&mdash;and Bouchard&mdash;continued their tradition of failing to advance past the opening playoff round.Seeing Quinn start Myre against Edmonton in Game 3 surprised some observers because Peeters had won the first two games in Philadelphia. Later, Quinn explained that Myre&rsquo;s regular-season finale at the Spectrum (allowing five first-period goals against the Rangers) had convinced him to wait until the Flyers went on the road before using his former-Atlanta teammate.&ldquo;I thought they (Flyers&rsquo; fans) were unfair,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s the way fans are. If they (Oilers) had scored on him early, they might have started on him again.&rdquo;Quinn left the impression that Myre and Peeters would share the goaltending assignments when the quarterfinals start. After shutting out Edmonton for the last 65 minutes in the series finale, it&rsquo;s likely Myre&rsquo;s next Spectrum appearance will draw a deserved enthusiastic ovation.<div class="sidebar">&ldquo;We got just what we needed,&rdquo; said coach Pat Quinn, &ldquo;a kick in the pants.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

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Tough Fight From Oilers Just What Flyers Wanted

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.214 King St. West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>The coaching changes</h2>WHEN TEAMS DO less well than owners expect, temptations increase for player trading or coaching changes.Sometimes teams trade to improve talent, sometimes they trade for acceptable temperament and attitude, and sometimes they trade to achieve better meshing of player combinations.There are some heavy trading prospects for the season ahead, with the Toronto Maple Leafs among the busiest bargainers, but coaching changes, at least in sheer numbers, could make the biggest story.At Montreal, Claude Ruel has already indicated he would like to be relieved as head coach of the Canadiens next year. In the recent reshuffle at Detroit, Ted Lindsay became coach for next season. And something will happen in Toronto, where Joe Crozier could become head coach or No. 1 assistant to Punch Imlach.Boston will have a new coach and among those rumored for the job are, believe it or not, Don Cherry from Colorado and Eddie Johnston, the old Bruin goalie now coaching in Chicago. That would mean a further change in either Colorado or Chicago.Jacques Demers could leave the Quebec Nordiques over unhappiness with the club&rsquo;s player selection system. The Winnipeg Jets need player help but it&rsquo;s often the case that a coach is fall guy for a bad season.Will the New York Islanders have a change if the team fails to make it past the next round of playoffs? Will the New York Rangers or Los Angeles Kings make Olympian Herb Brooks an offer he can&rsquo;t refuse?And finally, couldn&rsquo;t there be shakeups in Atlanta, Vancouver and Los Angeles, where the teams are never very good nor very bad, and seem to survive in a gray and dreary mist of mediocrity?It&rsquo;s possible, if not probable, that there could be a record-high 12 coaching changes for next season.In some cases it could be a game of musical chairs, but it&rsquo;s also possible that the National Hockey League will open its coaching fraternity to several brand new people.<h2>Not a bad show</h2>THE PRELIMINARY ROUNDS of the NHL playoffs were not the washouts that many expected. In fact, there is much to be said for some of the teams which were vanquished early.The Vancouver Canucks were a surprise in their final two games at home against the Buffalo Sabres. The Edmonton Oilers were not disgraced in their top-and-bottom confrontation against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Toronto Maple Leafs were less than their fans expected, but then again the Minnesota North Stars were considerably stronger with some of their injured returning to action.The Montreal Canadiens, slight favorites to take it all, dominated Hartford, but Altanta had a win over the New York Rangers before going out and so did the Los Angeles Kings over the New York Islanders.The biggest surprise was the play of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were 2-1 leaders after three games but were vanquished 8-3 by the Bruins in Game 4. The outcome of that series was decided after we went to press.All in all, the preliminary round, which many think is unnecessary, may have involved too many teams but it concluded with more agreeable surprises than disagreeable ones. &#9632;

<div class="byline">By ARMAND POHAN</div>The &ldquo;He&rdquo; in the title above is Don &ldquo;Grapes&rdquo; Cherry, the coach of the Colorado Rockies. As we went to press with this issue, Pohan, the team president, had not yet decided whether he wanted Cherry back as his coach next year. He explains why below, and Cherry gives his side of the story in the bottom article.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011221/4722364-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="254" height="385"></div>We hired Don Cherry for two reasons: One is that he is a great promoter of hockey and a great self-promoter. Two is that we thought we&rsquo;d have a marked improvement in the team, having acquired somebody to motivate the players that we had. Now, everybody tells me that the talent we had this year is much better than what we had last season&mdash;and we still finished dead last. I&rsquo;m just trying to figure out why.I certainly didn&rsquo;t expect him to win the Stanley Cup this year. But he was quite confident at the beginning of the season that he could make the playoffs. We didn&rsquo;t, of course, and what&rsquo;s giving me cause to ponder is that we made a lot of changes this year&mdash;most of them before the first of January. If five of our 19 wins had come in the first half of the season and 14 in the second&hellip;I&rsquo;d say that we were really going somewhere. But when you win 12 in the first half and seven in the second half, and when you score fewer goals than you did in the first half&mdash;and we didn&rsquo;t score that many in the first half&mdash;I get very nervous as to whether or not time is going to work for us or against us.Sure I worry about the reaction in Denver right now. And some consideration has to be given to what the fans want. I think that if you asked them what they wanted right now, they&rsquo;d all want Cherry back. And certainly that weighs on my mind because that&rsquo;s why we got him. We know he&rsquo;s colorful and we know he&rsquo;s popular. But in the long run I think the fans would rather see the team improve, make the playoffs and become winners. I think that&rsquo;s what the sports business is all about, and I&rsquo;m worried about whether or not we&rsquo;re headed in that direction. You just can&rsquo;t live from gimmick to gimmick; eventually it&rsquo;ll catch up with you.Maybe Don&rsquo;s ideas work, but they run contrary to the way most of the winning teams are going. He&rsquo;s from the Old School. And whether or not the Old School is still viable is another question. There&rsquo;s no doubt in my mind that he did a good job coaching the Boston Bruins. I&rsquo;d be nuts to say otherwise. But he inherited a team that was in the Stanley Cup finals the year before and that had experienced, talented hockey players on it. When he came to Colorado, he inherited a team where a lot of the guys were either experienced and untalented or inexperienced and talented. And he had certain difficulties working under those circumstances. Maybe you can only motivate certain types of players; maybe we&rsquo;ve got the wrong cast of characters for him. He&rsquo;s a very impatient guy, but I think you have to be a little patient&mdash;particularly with the younger players. Don wants to win so bad and he&rsquo;s so used to winning that his short fuse went off more than it ever had to with Boston.I think Don Cherry is a coach of ability&mdash;but whether or not he&rsquo;s the coach for the Rockies has to be re-evaluated at this point. No matter what I decide, there&rsquo;s not enough evidence to make a decision either way. But I&rsquo;m not running a court of law; I&rsquo;m running a business. If I make a decision one way and let Cherry go, I know that it&rsquo;ll hurt me in the short run. If I make it the other way and give him more time, and I&rsquo;m wrong, it&rsquo;ll hurt me in the long run. That&rsquo;s the problem.I don&rsquo;t want to belittle what he did for us in any way. It&rsquo;s nice to be dead last in the league and still be in the news, and obviously that has a lot to do with Cherry. If you&rsquo;re going to have the worst record in the league&hellip;you better damn well have Don Cherry as your coach.But I&rsquo;m in limbo right now. I&rsquo;m still deliberating on what I&rsquo;m going to do&hellip;and I haven&rsquo;t decided whether he deserves another shot. &#9632;

f0008-01

“I Haven’t Decided If He Deserves Another Shot”

<div class="byline">By DON CHERRY</div>I don&rsquo;t know how you guys would write THE HOCKEY NEWS without me.I think the whole thing started with the incident when I grabbed Mike McEwen on the bench. They weren&rsquo;t used to anyone as strong as me being here before and they couldn&rsquo;t understand it. But for the last two or three years the players on this team have been getting away with whatever they want and they didn&rsquo;t understand that things were going to be different when a strong hand came into town.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021064/4722395-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="296" height="454"></div>Naturally, I know that they&rsquo;re disappointed that we didn&rsquo;t do better in the standings. But I know I&rsquo;m a pretty good coach. A lot of people call me a genius. But when I first got here, they were talking about finishing in first or second place this season with exactly the same team that got 15 wins a year before. Now there&rsquo;s nobody that&rsquo;s going to take a last-place club with 15 wins and turn them into a dynamo. What we did was build and try and do the best we could with what we had and get the people interested in us. I think we did that, too. We attracted 120,000 more people this year than last year, I made an extra million bucks for the team, and we&rsquo;ve been on the front pages of the papers for three days in a row. What more do they want? I was listening to a radio show the other day and the guy said that he normally doesn&rsquo;t get three calls about the Rockies in six weeks. For the last three days, it&rsquo;s been nothing but the Rockies.I think they must have thought I was Moses or something. Cripes, it&rsquo;s going to take me a little longer than six months to turn a last-place club around. This franchise has been wallowing in last place for five years and all of a sudden I&rsquo;m supposed to turn it around in six months? Well, at least give me another year and I&rsquo;ll show what I can do. I gave them a million dollars more. Isn&rsquo;t that enough?All of this came to me as a total shock. I hadn&rsquo;t heard from anybody in the front office for over a month. But I want to stay here because there are players that came here because of me. The easy thing for me to do would be to wait and go to another club. But I&rsquo;m not going to. I&rsquo;m going to see this thing through. This team is ready to go; we&rsquo;re the talk of the town right now.I have a lot of faults, no doubt about that. I come on a little strong and I guess that&rsquo;s one of my weaknesses. But it&rsquo;s one of my strengths, too. People respond to this. I mean, we were a last-place club and people were giving me standing ovations and screaming for curtain calls.I always thought that there were three key things you had to do as a coach: First of all, you have to get the people into the stands. Look at Atlanta: They may have won 35 games this year, but all they got was 7,500 people at their games. If we had a team like that, you&rsquo;d never get a ticket!The second thing you have to do is start building with the players who are going to do something for you. Third, you have to win. I want to win so bad that I step on a few toes. But I thought that the whole idea was to win and eventually put people in the stands. Well, we already have people in the stands. Maybe some people resented the way I did it, but I know one thing: If you don&rsquo;t put people in the stands&hellip;you can win 100 games and you&rsquo;re going to fold.Don&rsquo;t worry about me, though. I&rsquo;ve got a year on my contract plus the option year. I don&rsquo;t think anything will happen. If it does, Colorado&rsquo;s loss will be somebody else&rsquo;s gain. I could get another job in about 10 minutes, and it&rsquo;ll be, &ldquo;Toodaloo, Colorado,&rdquo; and c&rsquo;est la vie. That&rsquo;s French, you know. &#9632;

f0008-02

“I Could Get Another Job In About 10 Minutes”

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011198/4722426-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Vickers made sure the Rangers got off to a fast start in the playoffs by scoring both goals in the first game&mdash;including the winner in overtime.</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;What a difference 60 minutes of forechecking can make!By beating the Atlanta Flames, three games to one, in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the New York Rangers showed just how meaningless&rsquo; an 80-game season can be, and how a late-season slump is of little consequence once a team catches fire.They were hungry, they were angry, they shunned the underdog role their dismal record against Atlanta had thrust upon them. And when it was over, the Flames were out of the playoffs&mdash;perhaps out of Atlanta forever&mdash;while the Rangers rested and awaited their quarterfinal opponent.Victory did not come without a scare and they paid a high price physically, but the listlessness that had dragged them down in the homestretch was finally gone.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re tired of hearing that we haven&rsquo;t beaten this team and that we can&rsquo;t beat this team,&rdquo; said captain Dave Maloney after the Rangers beat the Flames, 2-1, in overtime in Game One. &ldquo;We proved tonight by playing a dynamite game and scoring when we had to that we can beat this team. And we&rsquo;re going to beat them.&rdquo;They beat Dan Bouchard, a goalie who entered the series with a 13-6-4 record against them&mdash;but with a 0-8 playoff record. The Flames were 1-12 overall in playoff games and had never won a playoff series; the Rangers were winless in four regular season games against them.&ldquo;The crowd was crazy right through the national anthem,&rdquo; said goalie John Davidson on Tuesday night, April 8. &ldquo;That really helps to pick up a team. We were ready for tonight, because we&rsquo;ve had a feeling for the last few weeks that we&rsquo;d see Atlanta in the playoffs.&rdquo;They were ready, but it took an overtime goal by Steve Vickers&mdash;his second of the game&mdash;to give them a 2-1 victory. It came at 33 seconds, from Bouchard&rsquo;s doorstep off a pass from Ron Greschner. As Mario Marois later kidded his teammate from across the dressing room, chanting &ldquo;The Re-Birth of Steve Vickers&rdquo;, the Rangers veteran basked in the glow of his best season in years&mdash;and the end of a collective slump for him and linemates Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always nice to score goals and it&rsquo;s nice to get the attention even though I&rsquo;m not used to it,&rdquo; said Vickers. &ldquo;But the key was Gresch; it was his play and his alertness that set up the big goal.&rdquo;It was the Rangers&rsquo; first home-ice victory over the Flames since March 30, 1977, but it was Bouchard who kept Atlanta in the game, stopping Phil Esposito at point-blank range with only 19 seconds left.&ldquo;We did it the hard way tonight,&rdquo; said Ron Duguay. &ldquo;Anytime you have to win it in overtime, you didn&rsquo;t dominate the other team.&rdquo;The next night was another story; the Rangers scored four times in the first period and finished on top, 5-1, and Rod Gilbert, the Rangers&rsquo; assistant to the president, explained the Rangers dominance:&ldquo;The key to the Rangers&rsquo; being able to beat this team now is spotting their weakneses. Atlanta has problems organizing in their own end and setting up their plays. By clamping down, we&rsquo;ve come away with two victories.&ldquo;The other key to our game is spirit. It&rsquo;s there now&mdash;and it hadn&rsquo;t been.&rdquo;Esposito got the Rangers off to a quick start with the first of his two goals at 3:02, and then Ulf Nilsson stole the puck from Phil Russell after linesman Bob Luther waved off an icing call, and put it past Bouchard. The goal infuriated Bouchard&mdash;he struck Luther in the leg with his stick&mdash;and demoralized the Flames.&ldquo;When you see he&rsquo;s getting frustrated,&rdquo; said Duguay of Bouchard, &ldquo;just shoot on him and the goals start to come.&rdquo;But it was a costly victory for the Rangers. Walter Tkaczuk was hit on the ankle by Marois&rsquo; slapshot, and Cam Connor broke his hand on Bob Murdoch&rsquo;s face after Murdoch elbowed him.The Flames returned to Atlanta bearing a heavier burden. Between the first and second periods in New York on Wednesday, general manager Cliff Fletcher told them in no uncertain terms that they would never play in Atlanta again if they lost the series. The team is shaky financially, and has been rumored to be moving to several different cities.&ldquo;You guys are five periods from Calgary,&rdquo; Fletcher told his men.The threat worked, at least for one game. The Flames outplayed and outhacked the Rangers in a 4-2 victory on Friday night, April 11 as referee Gregg Madill allowed all manner of hooking, jabbing, and clutching. The Flames worked hard, the Rangers were furious over the officiating, but by 6:43 of the first period the next night New York had a 3-0 lead and the Flames never recovered, losing the fourth and last game by a 5-2 score.&ldquo;We forechecked a lot better than we did last night,&rdquo; said assistant coach Mike Nykoluk. &ldquo;We kept the pressure on and we forced them to make mistakes.&rdquo;BLUE CHIPS: Esposito and Bouchard were involved in one of several skirmishes in the second period of game four. Esposito jabbed the goalie in the mask, and Bouchard slashed him. At game&rsquo;s end, when the teams exchanged handshakes, Esposito had an extra pat on the arm for Bouchard&hellip;Rangers welcomed the break. Among the walking wounded were Warren Miller, who sat out the fourth game after he aggravated a pulled groin muscle; Nilsson (bruised right knee); Barry Beck (sore elbow); Carol Vadnais (sore back&mdash;he was sidelined for several games late in the season), and Esposito (sore elbow)&hellip;Rookie center Pat Conacher, brought up from New Haven to replace Miller, arrived at the Omni three hours before game time and played on a line with Duguay and Ed Hospodar, who scored his first NHL goal&hellip;Among the by-products of New York&rsquo;s Transit strike: Tickets available hours before game one&mdash;and the Flames had to stay in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia, because of the shortage of hotel rooms here. &ldquo;It took us an hour to get into town,&rdquo; said Fletcher, &ldquo;and a half-hour to go around the block.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar">&ldquo;A key to our game is spirit,&rdquo; said Rod Gilbert. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s there now&mdash;and it hadn&rsquo;t been before.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0009-01

Determined Rangers Snuff Out Flames

<div class="byline">Fan Forum Compiled By CATHY MUNRO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-05366/4722457-1-eng-US/f0010-052.jpg" title="f0010-05" width="584" height="334"></div><h2>Giacomin Not Fired By Rangers</h2>Your recent article stating that I was fired by the New York Rangers (Slapshots, March 4, 1980) is inaccurate.I was never even hired by the Rangers as their goaltending coach and was only working for the team on an interim basis to see how I could help out their goalies. The team and I agreed that I would work under these conditions until around the All Star break. At that time, a decision would be made about whether to hire me on a fulltime basis.As it turned out, the team and I simply weren&rsquo;t able to come to terms on a contract&mdash;and that is the true reason that I am no longer working for that organization.Eddie Giacomin&nbsp; Bloomfield Hills, Ml<h2>Kudos For Well Run Hockey Tournament</h2>Our group from Leamington, Ont. recently attended the Can/Am-Hockey News tournament at Lake Placid, N.Y. We would like to pass on our many thanks and appreciation for helping to make this event possible in staging one of the best organized hockey events attended by our group. Accommodations and food at the tourney were excellent, as well as the hospitality shown us by all people involved.Everyone in the organization and operation of the tournament should be commended as all games were started on schedule; some even ran ahead of time. Our special thanks to Mike Kelly and his wife for the time they spent during the weekend helping to maintain the successful operation of the tournament.Again, many thanks, and we look forward to attending next year&rsquo;s tournament.Leamington Laker Hockey Club,&nbsp; Leamington, Ont.<h2>Feels Creighton&rsquo;s Firing Justified</h2>Obviously Stan Fischler hasn&rsquo;t seen the Boston Bruins in their last 15 games. If he had, he would have understood the firing of the coach.As an avid Bruins&rsquo; fan, I closely follow every Bruin game, and I began to notice the lack of enthusiasm in their play. They were standing around, not playing the body and there was very little forechecking, if any. They had become complacent. This lack of aggressiveness is not the Bruins&rsquo; style. Players who are known for their aggressive style of play were not playing up to par. The club lost to teams that they should have beaten. They had to pull their goalie with a minute or so left in some games just to tie an inferior team.Although we are the fourth-best team in the National Hockey League, something had to be done. The future (Stanley Cup Playoffs) didn&rsquo;t look too bright. Like Harry Sinden said, you can&rsquo;t fire 20 players. The only thing left was to let Creighton go.The Bruins need an emotional coach who will get on them when they are not producing, and I think Harry Sinden is that man. I for one think the firing of Freddie Creighton was justified.Trish Gregory&nbsp; Chicopee, MA<h2>Ballard&rsquo;s Ineptness Destroys Leaf Dynasty</h2>With the NHL entering the 1980&rsquo;s with a more progressive outlook and with more intense competition for a limited player supply, it is indeed unfortunate that the Toronto Maple Leafs still have what they had a decade earlier: An owner named Harold Ballard. Having transformed the Leafs from a proud dynasty to the hockey version of your average banana republic, Ballard has now concentrated on foolish feuding with fellow owners Sonny Werblin (Rangers) and Ed Snider (Flyers) plus attempting to undermine the authority of NHL president John Ziegler by disputing and ridiculing every move the beleaguered president rules on.All of this, of course, is a smokescreen designed to obscure Ballard&rsquo;s basic ineptness as an owner and lack of hockey foresight, which was clearly demonstrated when he sold Rick Ley, Jordy Douglas, and Blaine Stoughton to Hartford and Stan Weir to Edmonton.In financial terms, Harold Ballard is a definite winner but in NHL terms, he is a colossal flop.J. Danny Broza&nbsp; Nakina, Ont.<h2>L.A. Kings Are Colorless And Boring</h2>Los Angeles is a nice place to live. Sure, there are some negatives to living in L.A.&mdash;the smog, the traffic jams, and the Los Angeles Kings.The Kings are a colorless and boring hockey team to watch, led by a prolific goalscorer, Marcel Dionne, who is seeking a contract in excess of $600,000 a year. In my opinion, this is an awful lot of money for a one-way hockey player. Sure, you look in the box scores and you see Dionne among the top scorers in the National Hockey League. What you don&rsquo;t see in box scores is a man who is very poor at winning face-offs, never kills penalties, and the only checks he knows are the kind you cash in a bank. But Dionne is only a portion of a franchise that is going absolutely nowhere.Of course, local media has not helped the situation. The limited coverage, both newspaper and television, hasn&rsquo;t helped promote hockey in this area. And other than Bill Libby, there aren&rsquo;t any knowledgeable hockey writers in the Los Angeles area; if there are, they certainly don&rsquo;t show it by what they write.But the big payoff to this whole thing is the fact that Dr. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Kings, is planning to raise ticket prices next year, with the top ticket at the Los Angeles Forum being $14.00. He says he wants to be competitive price-wise with other teams in the NHL. As a fan, I think he should be competitive on the ice first.Rick Lacovara&nbsp; Los Angeles, CA<h2>Shabby Show In Hockey&rsquo;s &ldquo;Citadel&rdquo;</h2>For many years I have been reading about the &lsquo;sophisticated&rsquo; and &lsquo;elite&rsquo; hockey followers in Montreal. I recently watched a game on TV between the Islanders and Montreal. The camera coverage was good and I enjoyed their efforts.The game was very close, but when the Islanders scored, the crowd booed at great length, and when a Montreal player was penalized, the crowd booed at an even greater length.In the second period, the referee was struck in the face and was bleeding copiously&mdash;he was cheered by 17,000 Montreal fans.The game, a real good contest, ended in a tie.I think that the highlight of the evening&rsquo;s entertainment was the &lsquo;backwoods Bach&rsquo; at the organ, who drowned out the guest commentators and the local announcers with his nursery rhymes, horn pipes and bird calls.So this is the great citadel of shinny&mdash;oh my!John F. Smith&nbsp; Hopkinton, MA<h2>Future Bright For Black Hawks</h2>It is the end of another season for Chicago Black Hawk fans and for the first time in a long time the &lsquo;new&rsquo; Hawks are playing with spirit, enthusiasm and a great attitude. There are many reasons why Chicago has jumped from a laughing stock to a tough and upcoming club. The main reason has to start from behind the bench&mdash;Eddie Johnston. At first I thought Johnston was just another one of those former players stepping into the coaching ranks. He proved me wrong and should be behind the bench for years to come.Management has played a key role in forming the Hawk squad. Bob Pulford and his crew brought in Richie Preston and Terry Ruskowski this year, and they produced over 100 points and also provided leadership and a desire to win. The future does indeed look bright for the Hawks.Mitchell Neuberger&nbsp; Hawthorne, NY<h2>Unbalanced Schedule NHL&rsquo;s Rx For Survival</h2>Now that the NHL has a balanced schedule, the rivalries that the league once had have diminished.Last year, when there was an unbalanced schedule, the Islanders and Flyers played the greatest hockey I&rsquo;ve ever seen. They were in a battle for first place. There was tension in the air. Every minute of the game was crucial.This year, after viewing a hockey game between these two teams, there was nothing like that.I believe the NHL must have an unbalanced schedule to survive. New rivalries must be created, and old ones must be enhanced. If the NHL is to continue to be a major sport, it must schedule more games such as Islanders-Flyers, Islanders-Rangers, and Rangers-Bruins.Without these types of schedule changes, the NHL will become nothing more than a second class league.Harry Kapralos&nbsp; Sands Point, NY &#9632;

f0010-05

FAN FORUM

THE HOCKEY NEWS, in conjunction with the CAN/AM Hockey Group of Guelph, Ont., is sponsoring six advanced level coaches clinics, which will be conducted during the month of June on three separate weekends. This is the second year that CAN/AM and THE HOCKEY NEWS have sponsored the clinics; last year there were only three and the response to them was so overwhelming that the format has been doubled for 1980.The dates and locations of the clinics, especially tailored for coaches of college, junior college, high school, advanced amateur and 14-16-year-old travel teams, are as follows:&bull; June 6-8: Buffalo, N.Y.: The clinic will be conducted at the Holiday Twin Rinks and will feature Washington Capitals&rsquo; coach Gary Green, at 26 the youngest coach in National Hockey League history and the man whom many credit with completely turning around the fortunes of the Caps. Green is a master at instilling the power of positive thinking in his players and a good deal of his contributions to this clinic will involve motivation&mdash;one of the most important aspects of any winning hockey team.Joining Gary in Buffalo will be Alex Andjelic, Mike Kelly and Dan Farrell. Andjelic, the coach of a pro team in Nijmegen, Holland, is very well versed in the European training and skating techniques which were most recently put on display at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Kelly is the head coach at Canisius College and is the Assistant Director of Operations for CAN/AM. Farrell is the former coach of the University of Michigan, one of college hockey&rsquo;s stronger teams in the past 10 years.&bull; June 6-8: Edmonton, Alberta: This clinic will take place at the Glen Allan Rec Centre, Sherwood Park, and will feature instruction by Ron Ivany, a pro coach in Europe and Dave Dryden, a former NHL goaltender who is now an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers. Joining these two will be Peter Esdale, co-coach at the University of Alberta; John Fischer, a junior coach at Sherwood Park and a former pro player, and Doug Hearns, a former college and pro player who is now CAN/AM&rsquo;s Director of Operations.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011161/4722495-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="600" height="716"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02904/4722488-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="580" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body">U.S. Olympic team coach Herb Brooks, left, and the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Pat Quinn will be among the guest coaches at the CAN/AM HOCKEY NEWS sponsored summer clinics.</figcaption></div>&bull; June 13-15: Winnipeg, Manitoba: The on-ice workshops for this clinic will be held at the Century Arena, while the lectures will take place at the Montcalm Gordon Motor Hotel. The highlight of this clinic has to be the participation of Herb Brooks, the coach of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team at Lake Placid and a man who will undoubtedly be behind some NHL bench for the 1980-81 season. Brooks&rsquo; tactics and hockey philosophy are well known and respected and the whole world saw how successful they were in those memorable Olympic hockey games&mdash;particularly against the Soviets and the Finns. Brooks will devote most of his time to demonstrating and discussing the importance of the possession of the puck, which Brooks views as the &ldquo;positive&rdquo; way to play hockey.Also on hand with Herb will be Alex Andjelic, Ron Ivany, Gord Tumulson, a former pro goaltender who is currently the Program Supervisor for the city of Winnipeg, and Leon Abbott, formerly the head coach at Boston University and St. Lawrence.&bull; June 13-15: Boston, Mass.: Actually, this clinic will be held in Danvers, a suburb of Boston, at the Danvers Twin Rink and the Inn On The Pike. Making their second appearances will be Gary Green, Mike Kelly and Doug Hearns. Joining them will be Jack Parker, coach of the Boston University Terriers, 1978 NCAA champions, and one of the top college teams in the U.S. in the last decade.&bull; June 20-22: Detroit, Mich.: All the action at this clinic will take place at the Beech-Wood Arena in Southfield and, again, the main act will be that of Gary Green. He&rsquo;ll be given a lot of support by Alex Andjelic, Ron Ivany and Dan Farrell.&bull; June 20-22: Katonah, N.Y.: The last of the clinics will be held at The Harvey School and the center of attraction this particular weekend is none other than Pat Quinn, the coach of the Philadelphia Flyers and the man behind the Flyers&rsquo; incredible, unprecedented 35-game unbeaten streak earlier this season. After being eliminated in the early rounds of the playoffs last spring, the Flyers were practically write-offs for this season. But Quinn turned the team completely around, changing its style and surprising not only the NHL&mdash;but the entire sports world. The tactics and strategies that Quinn employed to accomplish that feat will be revealed in on-ice sessions and lectures at this clinic.On hand to help Quinn out at this clinic will be Jack Parker, Mike Kelly, and Leon Abbott.No matter which one of the clinics you decide to attend, the emphasis and schedule for each one will be essentially the same. They will run from Friday at 7 p.m. to Sunday at 4 p.m. and will include 10&frac12; hours of lectures and chalk talks as well as four hours of on-ice workshops. The topics which will be covered include the following:&bull; The Possession Game: As Herb Brooks said a million times during the Olympics, possession of the puck is the key to winning hockey games, the positive way to play hockey. Brooks and others will demonstrate how this can be accomplished by you and your team.&bull; Problem Solving: The psychology of hockey, how to handle your players, communicate with them and, most important of all, motivate them.&bull; Systems: How to alternate and best implement various techniques which will take advantage of your team&rsquo;s strengths and expose the weaknesses of your opponent.&bull; Goaltending: Innovative drills, training methods and development techniques which will make the most effective use of your key players. &#9632;

f0011-01

Top NHL, Amateur Coaches To Conduct Clinics

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;The Black Hawks terminated the longest losing streak in National Hockey League playoff history and Coach Eddie Johnston turned out to be a prophet.Before the opening round series with the St. Louis Blues began, Johnston predicted that it would be decided by the play of Chicago&rsquo;s unsung No. 3 line, a troika consisting of rookie Doug Lecuyer at center, Ted Bulley on left wing, and Tim Higgins on right wing.Sure enough, Lecuyer, Bulley, and Higgins were in the limelight as the Hawks swept the best-of-five series in three games.They went into Game 1 with a 16-game playoff losing streak, stretching back to 1975 in Buffalo. And to get this giant ape off their backs they had to knock St. Louis goalie Mike Liut flat on his back.Lecuyer scored the winning goal in the 3-2 game at 12:34 of sudden death overtime, rebounding a shot by Bulley that had crashed into Liut&rsquo;s mask and rendered him momentarily helpless.The Blues mobbed the officials in vehement protest. Their pleas availed them not and subsequent replays exonerated referee Andy van Hellemond. It all happened in a span of a few seconds and van Hellemond didn&rsquo;t have time to deduce that Liut was injured.Here is Lecuyer&rsquo;s version:&ldquo;Both teams were really tired. Our fresh line got on before their tired line could get off. At the blue line I picked up the puck and skated in, then got it over to Teddy on my left.&ldquo;Teddy ripped a shot that hit the goalie in the nose and he went down like a shot. The puck dropped at the side and was rolling behind the cage.&ldquo;I picked it up while it was still rolling and put it in on my backhand. From the time Ted shot to the time I scored was maybe two seconds.&rdquo;&ldquo;That first game was the key to the series,&rdquo; said coach Red Berenson of the Blues. &ldquo;If we had won it would have been our third victory over them in eight days (counting two regular season games) and we&rsquo;d not only have had the momentum we&rsquo;d have been certain of playing two games at home.&rdquo;Liut was back in goal for Game 2 in Chicago Stadium but both eyes were black and a few stitches embroidered the area underneath.The Hawks came out shooting and seized the lead on Doug Wilson&rsquo;s slap shot from the point 23 seconds after the opening faceoff. That provided the impetus and Chicago went on to win 5-1.Wilson scored again in the third period and assisted on powerplay goals by Ron Sedlbauer and Tom Lysiak. Bulley, who scored a goal in the first game in addition to lowering the boom on Liut, put the finishing touches on the triumph by getting his second goal of the series with 56 seconds to play.This contest was closer than the score suggested. The Hawks were outplayed in the middle period and went into the final 20 minutes grateful for their 2-1 lead.Johnston called Game 3 &ldquo;probably the solidest all-around game we&rsquo;ve played this season&rdquo; and General Manager Bob Pulford described Lecuyer as &ldquo;probably the best player on the ice&rdquo;. Forechecking with ferocity and playing defense with a passion, the Hawks came away 4-1 winners before an unruly crowd of 15,179 in the Checkerdome.Lecuyer scored the first goal with 3:46 elapsed and the last with 3:25 to go in the game. Both times Bulley and Higgins assisted.Not only did Chicago&rsquo;s No. 3 line produce five goals during the series, the Lecuyer-Bulley-Higgins alliance was able to dominate the Blues&rsquo; No. 1 line consisting of Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, and Blair Chapman. Federko&rsquo;s line was on the ice for four of those full strength goals.All that was offered in the way of retaliation was Federko&rsquo;s power play goal with 4:23 to play in Game 3, thwarting Tony Esposito&rsquo;s bid for his sixth shutout in 81 playoff appearances.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011211/4722526-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="613" height="991"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Higgins has done a great job for Chicago defensively and in setting up his linemates.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;All through the series whenever we needed the big save, Tony came through in the clutch,&rdquo; said Johnston. (Esposito was chosen the No. 1 star in the first game and the No. 2 star in the second and third contests.)HAWK TALK&mdash;Lysiak (three goals and three assists) was hurting throughout the series. His left foot was badly bruised when struck by a slap shot in the season final&hellip;The Hawks were without their captain and top regular-season point-producer, center Terry Ruskowski, for most of Game 3. He strained his right knee in a skirmish with Bryan Maxwell at 4:36. &#9632;

f0012-01

Third Line Decisive In Hawk Sweep

<div class="byline">BILL LIBBY&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021030/4722564-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="317" height="363"></div><h2>On Hockey&rsquo;s Fringe</h2>WHILE THE LUCKY guys go for glory in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Kevin Morrison is going home&mdash;if he can figure out where that is. The season has ended for the five teams that did not qualify for the National Hockey League&rsquo;s playoffs and the eight teams that were eliminated in the first round. This is a difficult time of year for those fringe players on the league&rsquo;s fringe teams, and Morrison is one of those players.Kevin has been bothered by a bad shoulder for the last couple of years and has played only about half the season for the Colorado Rockies, a team that has had nothing but bad years. In his first season as coach of the Rockies, Don Cherry was unable to get the team into the playoffs and he is determined to make changes. Cherry has told Morrison he&rsquo;d like to have him back, but there is no committment.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03713/4722557-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="264" height="347"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Morrison</figcaption></div>Morrison is not a big star and he does not make big money. At Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; games this year, we have seen Juha Widing, Gene Carr and Shelly Kannegeisser in the press box instead of in the lineup and, at one time in their careers all three looked like they might be stars. Instead they bounced from team to team; now all are in their early 30s and essentially out of the game. Morrison is 30 and he wants to play hockey another few years, but he can&rsquo;t count on it. He plays hard, but has limited talent, which has been hampered even more by injuries. A 200-pounder, he started out as a left winger, but he has played defense for most of his professional career.Morrison was the New York Rangers&rsquo; fourth choice in the 1969 amateur draft, but he never saw action with that team. In the past 11 years, he has played for 11 different clubs: The New Haven Blades in the Eastern League, the New Haven Nighthawks, Tidewater Wings, Rochester Americans and Philadelphia Firebirds, all of the American League; the Fort Worth Wings of the Central League; the New Jersey Knights, San Diego Mariners, Indianapolis Racers and Quebec Nordiques of the defunct World Hockey Association, and this season, the Colorado Rockies, the first NHL team of his career.<h2>Without A Choice</h2>IT&rsquo;S BEEN A TOUGH trip, all right,&rdquo; Morrison grins. &ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t always been fun, but guys like me have no choice. You go where they send you or you get out. And I&rsquo;ve never really wanted to give it up. I&rsquo;m thinking about it now, but not by choice. I feel like I can play up here; I just hope I get the chance to play a few more years. I hate to think of the nine-to-five routine, carrying a lunch pail.&rdquo;Kevin is from Sydney, Nova Scotia. His father Alex, retired now, was a brakeman for the railroad for 33 years. His mother, Mary, brought up six kids. A younger sister, Patricia, and a younger brother, Adrian, are going to college, but brothers Harry and Joewent to work in a steel mill and Donnie in a brewery. Joe died in an accident at the plant last year.&ldquo;We got by, but we never had a lot of frills,&rdquo; Kevin says. &ldquo;I got out of town and got into hockey. Now, I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s going to happen.&rdquo;Kevin met his wife, Stacy, in New Haven and they have two children, Jarod and Jody. &ldquo;Stacy learned fast what hockey life is for some of us, &ldquo;Kevin says, &ldquo;but she&rsquo;s beginning to bitch about it now and I don&rsquo;t blame her. We&rsquo;ve moved so much and lived in so many different places that you reach the point where you want to stop and settle down and live a normal life. We lost most of our furniture when the warehouse in Nova Scotia where we had our stuff stored burned down last year. The little we had left was lost somewhere between Forth Worth and Denver and they still can&rsquo;t find it.<h2>Tough On The Kids</h2>&ldquo;THE KIDS ARE JUST reaching school age, so it hasn&rsquo;t been too tough on them yet,&rdquo; &ldquo;Kevin continues, &ldquo;but they&rsquo;re starting to complain every time we move and every time I have to leave home to go on a road trip. They were looking forward to building snowmen and going sledding in San Diego until they found there wasn&rsquo;t any snow there. It confused the hell out of them. When I reach the end of the road, I think we&rsquo;ll settle in San Diego. We liked that the best of any place I&rsquo;ve played. We like Denver, too, though, and if I can get another year here&hellip;&rdquo;His voice drifts off. We are talking in the Colorado dressing room after a game late in the season. As Kevin applies an ice pack to his banged-up shoulder, his teammates drift over and jokingly ask why in the world I am interviewing &ldquo;The Beast,&rdquo; as Kevin is known. As the locker room empties out, Kevin recalls that when he was in Philadelphia and told people he was a hockey player they assumed he meant the Flyers. When he told them, no, the Firebirds, they&rsquo;d drop him like he was a nobody, a minor leaguer in a big league town.Back in the beginning, in the Eastern League, life was simple, with a lot of what Kevin calls &ldquo;good, clean fun, like eating cocktail glasses and swallowing coins.&ldquo;The glass never bothered me,&rdquo; Kevin smiles, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;d start with the smallest coin and see how big we could go. I could never get a half-dollar down, but some of the guys would do bills, too, starting with the ones and going up to fives, tens&hellip;&rdquo;Kevin laughs and says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve mellowed, matured. I don&rsquo;t do things like that anymore. They let me go in Quebec last year because I wouldn&rsquo;t be an animal for them.&rdquo;A restless sort, Kevin&rsquo;s idea of fun is to load up the family in a van and take to the road for the four free months between the playoffs and training camp. As the playoffs proceed this season, Morrison is again on the road, wondering about next year.Anything he&rsquo;d do differently if he had it to do all over again?&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; says Morrison, smiling widely, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d get more money.&rdquo; &#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/f0013-011153/4722595-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="301" height="361"></div><h2>Biggest Hockey Upset</h2>NOW IT CAN BE told. The biggest ice upset of 1980 was not the United States Olympic hockey triumph at Lake Placid. (Sorry about that, Herb Brooks, Jim Craig and Madison Avenue media manipulators.)Much larger than the accomplishment of Uncle Sam&rsquo;s skaters was the fact that two former World Hockey Association teams&mdash;the Hee-Haws of hockey last September&mdash;actually galloped into the Stanley Cup playoffs the very first time around.And if you don&rsquo;t think that that&rsquo;s more amazing than one solitary win over a lacklustre Soviet team, remember that the Hartford Whalers and Edmonton Oilers established their credentials over an 80-game schedule.If that doesn&rsquo;t convince you that the Whalers and Oilers did better than the American Olympians, just hark back to last summer when the four WHA outcasts were &ldquo;welcomed&rdquo; into the NHL fraternity. The hazing they received was so bad you wouldn&rsquo;t have even wished it upon Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.One by one the WHA entries were stripped of their stars&mdash;not all, mind you, but enough. By season&rsquo;s start it was freely predicted that Hartford, for one, was so dreadful that it would finish somewhere between eighth and ninth in the Saskatchewan Senior B League. Others suggested that the Edmonton Oilers&mdash;skinny Wayne Gretzky notwithstanding&mdash;were so impotent that they&rsquo;d have trouble with Team Tanzania.Alas and alack, Hartford and Edmonton both made the playoffs (the Quebec Nordiques would have, were it not for terrible injuries) and even the impoverished Winnipeg Jets eluded the NHL cellar.&ldquo;We underestimated the WHA clubs,&rdquo; says Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; scout Joe Watson, in a superb example of understatement.The &ldquo;underestimation&rdquo; was perfectly natural, considering the withered state of WHA rosters last October. Take Winnipeg as an example. At the conclusion of the 1978-79 season the Jets had annexed the WHA&rsquo;s Avco World Cup with a phalanx of formidable scorers such as Kent Nilsson, Terry Ruskowski and Rich Preston.A year later Nilsson was the Atlanta Flames&rsquo; best forward while Ruskowski was captain of the Chicago Black Hawks and Preston turned out to be one of Chicago&rsquo;s most useful skaters. Under the circumstances, you could hardly fault Winnipeg for finishing 20th. Yet, somehow, the Whalers and Oilers survived their first NHL test.Of the four WHA alumni, the club which delivered the most arresting feat was the Whalers. Remember how Hartford was ridiculed for bringing Gordie Howe back from the dead and how the Whalers were mocked for expecting to get anywhere with discards such as Blaine Stoughton and unknowns such as Mike Rogers? And who the devil was Don Blackburn to think he could coach an NHL team?&ldquo;Everyone,&rdquo; says Whalers&rsquo; scout Larry Pleau &ldquo;picked us to finish 21st out of 21.&rdquo;But the Whalers didn&rsquo;t finish in the NHL&rsquo;s subterranean depths because (a) they had character, (b) they had Gordie Howe; (c) they obtained 56 goals from Stoughton and 44 goals from Rogers and (d) they had one of the three best coaches this side of Viktor Tikhonov.An ironic factor in favor of the four new clubs was the deliciously deprecating attitude assumed by many NHL analysts toward WHA quality. Wayne Gretzky, living proof that stringbeans can score, was regarded as too fragile; Dave Keon, too old; and Blair MacDonald, too obscure, to compete with the Lafleurs, Dionnes and Robinsons.&ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t think our fellows could skate with the NHL people,&rdquo; says Pleau. &ldquo;Now they know different.&rdquo;And if you don&rsquo;t believe it, just ask the teams who finished behind them&mdash;the Colorado Rockies and Detroit Red Wings!DETROIT DOLDRUMS: It is indeed tragic when a grand hockey city such as Detroit is denied a playoff team, especially since the 19,100-seat Joe Louis Arena would have been filled to capacity throughout the Cup round.In dropping Ted Lindsay as general manager&mdash;and renaming him coach and director of player personnel&mdash;owner Bruce Norris is acknowledging that the Wings&rsquo; demise was the fault of Lindsay, the manager. Ted&rsquo;s player moves, with few exceptions, were negative, starting with the unnecessary and extraordinarily expensive signing of Rogatien Vachon.(&ldquo;When we signed Vachon,&rdquo; said deposed Detroit coach Bobby Kromm, &ldquo;we thought he was capable of picking up eight to ten points himself. Turns out he cost us that many points.&rdquo;)Kromm became Lindsay&rsquo;s scapegoat in the dying days of the 1979-80 season, which was ironic in view of an earlier Lindsay statement. To wit: &ldquo;Bobby Kromm will be here as long as I am.&rdquo;YOUNG QUITS: The abrupt resignation of Scott Young as Toronto Globe and Mail sports columnist is a stunner. Young, a pal of Punch Imlach, was miffed over anonymous anti-Imlach statements attributed to Toronto players which ran in Globe writer Don Ramsay&rsquo;s articles. What matters, really, is the reliability of Ramsay&rsquo;s stories and that must be determined by his editors.The episode is the topper on a season of notso-subtle sniping within the Toronto hockey-writing fraternity. Anti-Imlach types such as Ramsay have been criticial of older pro-Punch scribes such as Young and George Gross, sports editor of the Toronto Sun. The readers, in the end, will pick the winners.The episode is the topper on a season of not-so-subtle sniping within the Toronto hockey-writing fraternity. Anti-Imlach types such as Ramsay have been criticial of older pro-Punch scribes such as Young and George Gross, sports editor of the Toronto Sun. The readers, in the end, will pick the winners.<h2>Flying The Eagle&rsquo;s Coop</h2>NOTES: One chap hardly unhappy about the Wings&rsquo; collapse is St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defenseman Terry Harper, who had been left dangling in the wind by Lindsay last summer when it came time to decide Harper&rsquo;s future. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t tell me anything,&rdquo; says Harper, &ldquo;although I was ready, willing and able to play for him.&rdquo;&hellip;If Lindsay had had Harper on defense all season Detroit would have made the playoffs&hellip;The word I get is that Herb Brooks, the Olympic coaching wiz, will wind up in Europe next fall, rather than the NHL&hellip;Contrary to reports, Bruce Norris is not interested in Brooks, nor is the North Stars&rsquo; high command&hellip;If Mark Howe doesn&rsquo;t win the Norris (best defenseman) Trophy, there&rsquo;s no justice&hellip;&ldquo;Even I&rsquo;d vote for Mark,&rdquo; says his father. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say enough good things about him.&rdquo;&hellip;Were it not for playoff excitement, we could get into the titillating play-by-play of the hockey agents war-game&hellip;Agent Art Kaminsky&rsquo;s &ldquo;coup&rdquo; in landing nearly all the U.S. Olympians, plus coach Herb Brooks and speedskater Eric Heiden, has given him new leverage in his battle for supremacy with Al Eagleson&hellip;The Eagle&rsquo;s empire isn&rsquo;t what it used to be now that he&rsquo;s split with Bobby Orr. More recently, Eagleson&rsquo;s aide, Bill Watters, flew The Eagle&rsquo;s coop&hellip;Researching a piece on Kaminsky for the Toronto Star, I asked Eagleson to give me a short appraisal of Kaminsky, his foe&mdash;good, bad or indifferent. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather not comment about him,&rdquo; Eagleson replied&hellip;Two NHL general managers&mdash;a couple of surprises, by the way&mdash;are said to be willing to fold their tents and move elsewhere. You&rsquo;ll never guess who.MEDIA NOTES: Bob Keisser of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner suggests that if Don (Grapes) Cherry is in need of a job, that the NHL hire him as good-will ambassador and general talker-to-writers. &ldquo;Don would do more to get hockey in the papers than anyone,&rdquo; says Keisser&hellip;True, but Grapes is meant to be a coach&mdash;whether Mike McEwen and Armand Pohan like it or not&hellip;Newsweek&rsquo;s new monthly sport magazine, Inside Sports, premiered with a superb article about the Montreal Canadiens by Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler. It&rsquo;s called &ldquo;The Team That Fell To Earth.&rdquo;&hellip;Next issue will have Joe (Newsday) Gergen writing about &ldquo;Hockey Hustlers&rdquo; (Terry Ruskowski, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, Bobby Clarke, Don Maloney)&hellip;Sport Magazine plans an article by Mike Bossy about cleaning up the game. John Ziegler promises to read it&hellip;Marv Albert of NBC-TV squeezed a strange explanation of the Rangers&rsquo; homestretch (regular season) folderoo from Phil Esposito. &ldquo;We were tired and bored,&rdquo; Espo told Albert. Bored? With home-ice advantage at stake, not to mention fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth place?&hellip;NHL is shopping for a full-time editor of GOAL Magazine to replace Roger Gottleib, who was recently named as the league&rsquo;s director of media relations. &#9632;

f0013-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY JIM MATHESON</div>EDMONTON&mdash;One, two, three, and you&rsquo;re out!Well, that&rsquo;s not exactly the way it was for the Edmonton Oilers. True, they went down like everybody expected them to, without winning a game in their best-of-five playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers. But they went down swinging, with a bang&mdash;not a whimper.Two of the games&mdash;the first and third&mdash;went into overtime. The second was 5-1, but as Flyers&rsquo; player/assistant coach Bobby Clarke said, &ldquo;It certainly wasn&rsquo;t a 5-1 game, it was much closer than that.&rdquo;The Oilers, who made the playoffs on the third to last day of the regular season, gave the Flyers, who were in by Christmas, fits. They should have won Game One before 17,077 fans at the Philadelphia Spectrum. Edmonton was up 3-2 with 79 seconds to play when the Flyers&rsquo; Rick MacLeish scrambled out of a maze of players and lifted a 25-foot shot over the glove of goalie Ron Low to tie it. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think that he would get the shot away that well,&rdquo; said Low, who made 39 saves in the first 60 minutes to just 11 for Flyer goalie Pete Peeters.Eight minutes into overtime, Bobby Clarke won it for the Flyers with a fluke goal. Reggie Leach tried to pass the puck in front of the net and it glanced off the stick of Oiler defenseman Doug Hicks. The puck fluttered over the top of the net to Clarke, who tapped it first off Low&rsquo;s pad, and then the post before it crawled across the goal line.&ldquo;If we had just been able to hold on for another 20 seconds in regulation time they would have had to pull their goalie,&rdquo; said Oiler coach Glen Sather. &ldquo;It would have been 50-50 to see who would have scored then.&rdquo;Game Two was close until midway through the third period. It was 2-1 until Paul Holmgren took MacLeish&rsquo;s pass on a two-on-one break and scored on a 15-foot shot. The play, while pretty, should never have happened, however. Oiler Brett Callighen was hauled down deep in the Flyer end but referee Greg Madill got his whistle stuck in his throat and there was no penalty. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather have had Red Storey refereeing,&rdquo; snarled Sather, who thought Madill was inconsistent in his calls.Game Three in Edmonton was absolute bedlam. The Coliseum was jammed with 15,423 fans but the Oilers could have sold out the 42,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium; the interest was that high.The Oilers responded by jumping to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by their two 19-year-old centers, Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, but they couldn&rsquo;t hold on. &ldquo;A 2-0 lead against the Flyers is still a dangerous lead,&rdquo; said Oiler defenseman Lee Fogolin. &ldquo;The team is so experienced they just keep picking away.&rdquo;Big defenseman Behn Wilson made it 2-1 in the second period and rookie Brian Propp found the mark in the third. Clarke, who only scored 12 goals in 76 regular season games, almost had his third game winner in the first overtime session. His 70-foot shot rang off the goal post behind Low.&ldquo;The poor goalie,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;He must have been shocked. Usually from that far out I don&rsquo;t even reach the net. The only reason I shot was that I was too tired to continue.&rdquo;Maybe so, but the team played on. In the second overtime, the Oilers almost won it when Don Murdoch, who had two goals in the series, was robbed by Flyer goalie Phil Myre. On the next rush, Flyers&rsquo; center Ken Linseman ended the suspense at 3:56. His 20-foot shot glanced in off the goal post behind Low. &ldquo;I just aimed for the comer, but I never saw it go in. I was sliding into the boards,&rdquo; said Linseman, who missed Game Two with an intestinal virus.To a man, the Flyers praised the Oiler effort. &ldquo;We knew they were going to be a handful,&rdquo; said Flyer defenseman Jimmy Watson, &ldquo;but I honestly never figured they would be that tough. For a first year team they have a lot to be proud of. They&rsquo;ve got a hell of a start for next year.&rdquo;With two 19-year-old centers in Gretzky and Messier, inspirational play by Low in net, the addition of Murdoch to complement 46-goal man Blair MacDonald on right wing, and lots of heart on the blue line, the Oilers will be much tougher next year.&ldquo;We made the playoffs and that was our number one goal,&rdquo; said Gretzky, who tied Marcel Dionne for the regular season scoring championship, with 137 points. &ldquo;Next year we&rsquo;ll try for 10th or 11th place in the regular season, then&hellip;who knows?&rdquo; &#9632;

Oilers Go Out With A Bang Against Flyers

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02963/4722681-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="281" height="360"></div><h2>Gretzky&rsquo;s Bandwagon</h2>IS THERE ROOM for one more on the Great Gretzky bandwagon?The National Hockey League has more than its share of talented young players. But, if you need one young lad to create excitement and attract attention, Wayne Gretzky is hard to displace as No. 1.Skeptics who thought Gretzky might fall flat on his fuzzy teenaged cheeks in his first NHL season are now in hiding. All the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; center did was score 137 points&mdash;that&rsquo;s 1-3-7&mdash;to tie Marcel Dionne for the league&rsquo;s point lead. Dionne won the scoring title with 53 goals to 51 for Gretzky, but let&rsquo;s not quibble over minor matters. Gretzky&rsquo;s inaugural NHL season was sensational.When the Oilers, one of the four World Hockey Association survivors who would presumably be pitied as they were hammered from here to Haliburton, drove down the homestretch seeking a playoff berth, Gretzky was at his best. The slender play-maker with the magical moves led the Oilers&rsquo; drive into the playoffs.After one late-March game where he scored two goals and four assists in an 8-5 victory at Maple Leaf Gardens, Joe Crozier, the Leafs&rsquo; interim coach, said, &ldquo;It was a helluva exhibition, the greatest I&rsquo;ve seen in 22 years of hockey. He controlled the game. He did everything.&rdquo;Edmonton&rsquo;s reward for qualifying as the 16th and final playoff team was a trip to Philadelphia to face the Flyers. Although they didn&rsquo;t play like it in March, the Flyers had the official papers&mdash;direct from the NHL&rsquo;s Montreal office&mdash;to prove that over 80 games, they were the league&rsquo;s best team.<h2>Oilers Scared Flyers</h2>ORDINARILY, AN EDMONTON-Flyers series would excite Philadelphia fans about as much as news that Derek Sanderson had been signed to play for a new team in town. With the 76ers facing Atlanta in an evenly matched NBA series and Phillies about to open another quest for a National League baseball pennant, the interest of devoted Philly fans was spread thin. Many thought the Edmonton Oilers were a soccer team.Then, in the series opener at the Spectrum, the Oilers scared the scrapple out of the Flyers as Gretzky assisted on one goal and scored another. The Flyers were forced into overtime, before another great center, Bobby Clarke, won the game for them. The Flyers pulled away to also win the second game on a night Gretzky was proven to be semi-human.Afterward, Gretzky&rsquo;s coach, Glen Sather, would defend his franchise by expressing dismay at the physical punishment his best player absorbed without a whistle from the referee. Sather&rsquo;s concern was understandable: without Gretzky the Oilers might as well be a soccer team.Like most NHL teams, the Oilers have enough enforcers to make opponents think twice about injuring Gretzky. Legend has it that Lee Fogolin skated over to Detroit&rsquo;s Dennis Polonich prior to a game where the Oilers suspected Polonich might have evil intentions toward Gretzky. Securing Polonich&rsquo;s full attention, Fogolin said menacingly, &ldquo;If you lay a hand on that kid, we&rsquo;ll kill you.&rdquo;The Stanley Cup playoffs, however, are supposed to be relatively free of intent to maim. Playoff time is hockey time where talent supersedes gooning. Anyway, both Gretzky and Sather know the Oilers won&rsquo;t win the Cup this year, or next. &ldquo;This is a young, inexperienced hockey club,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;They have to go through it once&mdash;it&rsquo;s a learning thing.&rdquo;<h2>Nucleus Is There</h2>BUT, WITH GRETZKY, the nucleus is there for a helluva hockey club. Put Gretzky with a Pittsburgh or Los Angeles now and those 500-level teams would immediately move up in class. That&rsquo;s how good No. 99 is.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the premier attraction in the National Hockey League,&rdquo; said Sather, who might be somewhat prejudiced. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the most exciting young player in the league.&rdquo;One of the most exciting older players is Marcel Dionne. Professional Hockey Writers Association voters are considering both in their balloting for the Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the player judged most valuable to his team. With Dionne Los Angeles finished 12th, barely five points ahead of Edmonton. Without Gretzky, Edmonton finishes somewhere south of Miami. Case closed.Welcome to the NHL, Wayne. It will be our pleasure watching you for the next decade. &#9632;

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HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY AL SMITH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011193/4722650-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kent Nilsson and the Atlanta Flames didn&rsquo;t have too many moments to celebrate in the playoffs this year&mdash;just one win in four games with the Rangers.</figcaption></div>ATLANTA&mdash;Sometime before the month of June rolls around, the decision as to whether the Atlanta Flames stay in this city, or are sold by owner Tom Cousins and moved will be made. But before that decision, there will be others forthcoming.For whether they are the Atlanta Flames, the Calgary Cowboys, or the Meadowland Maulers, general manager Cliff Fletcher will be making some personnel changes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to take some time to reflect on what has happened,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;After our loss to the Rangers, things could be out of perspective. Before long we (assistant general manager David Poile, coach Al MacNeil, and assistant coach Tim Ecclestone) will be getting our heads together and deciding what we are going to do.&ldquo;Question is, do we do it conservatively, using the players we now have, or do we start a whole rebuilding program?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the person responsible for our playoff losses, because I&rsquo;m the one who put the team together. The whole thing comes back to rest on my shoulders. And changes definitely have to be made.&rdquo;The Flames&rsquo; most recent playoff flop, three-games-to-one to the New York Rangers, leaves them with a 2-15 playoff record, and they have never made it past the first round of the playoffs in six tries. And it was obvious against the Rangers that the Flames were not ready for the playoffs. As has been the case in the past three years, they lack the intensity of the teams they have played and have lost their composure in tight situations.In six playoffs, the Flames have been beaten 4-0 by the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-0 by the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 by the Kings again, 2-0 by the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0 by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and 3-1 by the Rangers.The Flyers were favored in the first playoffs the Flames were in, and Fletcher feels the Kings were stronger than his team.&ldquo;But quite frankly,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I think we should have beaten Detroit, Toronto and the Rangers. We lost our composure to Detroit and Toronto, and were completely outplayed by the Rangers. And we have not been competitive with the teams above us in the standings. So, something has to be done.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s premature to make any decisions,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;But this team couldn&rsquo;t do anything in the playoffs with Fred Creighton coaching, and have lost again with Al MacNeil, so it&rsquo;s obvious the complement of players we now have are not conducive to playing winning hockey in important situations.&rdquo;Fletcher also maintains he doesn&rsquo;t know what the fate of the franchise is, but said, &ldquo;our losing to the Rangers didn&rsquo;t help matters any.&ldquo;I know Tom Cousins wants to keep the team here, but I don&rsquo;t know if he will be able to find the people to help.&ldquo;And if the franchise does stay here, there will have to be a substantial price increase for tickets and we will need twice as many season ticket holders.&ldquo;Whether or not we can go to the public and get this done, I don&rsquo;t know. But we can&rsquo;t continue to operate under the conditions we have.&ldquo;Our gate receipts are the third lowest in the league and we can&rsquo;t go on like that.&rdquo; &#9632;

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GM Fletcher Accepts Blaine For Flames’ Playoff Failure

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02845/4722743-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg"></div>&ldquo;Where readers get together to do business&rdquo;PLAYER EQUIPMENTRINK EQUIPMENTPERSONALSFAN CLUBSOPPORTUNITIES OFFERED, WANTED<h2>PERSONALS</h2>AVAILABLE: Color 8 &times; 10 photos Det. Red Wings, Past & Present and NHL Stars. Write Jerry Stanley, 9318 Pickwick Circle West, Taylor, Ml 48180.FOR SALE: 30 year collection NHL books, magazines, pictures, Hockey News newspapers. Wish to sell complete. Contact: Alfred Collison, R.R. 5, Leamington, Ontario. N8H 3V8.PHOTOS: Exciting professional action color photos of your favorite hockey players. 8 &times; 10&rsquo;s&mdash;$9.95; 5 &times; 7&rsquo;s&mdash;$6.95. Bulk discounts. Send stamped self-addressed envelope for list to: Bruce L. Schwartzman, 18014 Sherman Way #170, Reseda, CA 91335.AVAILABLE: Hockey player International Hockey League, all around athlete, personable, interested in working established hockey camp in the summer months. Excellent rapport with boys all ages. Please write to: The Hockey News, Dept. HN12, 214 King Street West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ontario M5H 1K4.WANTED: Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Gordie Howe, and Alex Levinsky&hellip;I need old hockey & baseball cards&hellip;Need World Wide Gum, Goudey, Neilsons, Willards, O.P.C., Parkhurst, Ice Kings, Etc. Also want old Bee Hive and Quaker Oats photos. Need early hockey team press guides from the 40s, 50s, 70s, incl.: Hendy Guides, early Boston and New York guides, plus NHL/WHA All Star game programs. Good prices paid&hellip;Write to: Robert Wimmer, 1744 Walnut, Dearborn, Mich. 48124. Phone (313) 336-3577.<h2>OPPORTUNITIES</h2>SENIOR &ldquo;A&rdquo; CALIBER TEAM: Located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is looking for teams to challenge them to a series of games. Glorious opportunity for a fun-filled weekend or week of hockey. Fort Launderdale night-life, sun, and beach. Hotel accommodations can be obtained through the team. Write or call: Rosaire Paiement, Coral Plaza Motel, 2701 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale, Fl. 33306. Tel: (305) 5656658.WANTED: Hockey players to play Prov. &ldquo;A&rdquo; Tier II. Write to: Larry Bone, 345 Millard Avenue, Newmarket, Ontario. L3Y 1Z6.CAMP DIRECTOR, FAMILY CAMP CO-ORDINATOR: Instructors, four week summer hockey camp, 75 miles northwest Toronto. Contact John Thompson, Huronia Hockey Camp, Box #103, Waterloo, Ontario, N2J 3Z6.INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Tourist Resort. Melwel Lodge-Basswood Lake. East of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. Main Lodge-eleven cottages, convention centre, tennis courts, shuffleboard, 3000 feet of shoreline, fly-in fishing, family vacation. 57 acres suitable land for arena hockey school, financial information on request. We have other tourism investment opportunities available-motels, hotels, fly-on outposts, resorts. Phone or write-Peter Croghan, Century 21, Dawson & Keenan Ltd., 121 Brock Street, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.<h2>PLAYER EQUIPMENT</h2>PLAYERS-COACHES: First Aid kits customized for your hockey team or league. Easy to carry kit includes first aid items, tape, whistle, rulebook, pen, rink diagram on pad of paper and lineup cards. For brochure and prices write: Mobile Medical Services, 1200 High Ridge Parkway, Westchester, Illinois, 60153. &#9632;

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The Hockey News CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">BY PAT CALABRIA</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Of the many heroes in the Islanders&rsquo; first-round victory over the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup playoffs, one was a familiar face. And one wasn&rsquo;t.The familiar face&mdash;the one with the dark beard&mdash;belonged to U.S. Olympic defenseman Ken Morrow. He scored at 6:55 of overtime for his first NHL goal, giving the Islanders a 4-3 victory in the pivotal third game of the series.&ldquo;It feels great,&rdquo; is what Morrow said, over and over.The Islanders needed that goal&mdash;they had rallied from a 3-1 deficit, tying the score in the third period&mdash;to avoid facing what could have been a shocking elimination. Morrow&rsquo;s goal lifted the Islanders&rsquo; spirits and they clinched the series with an easy 6-0 win in the fourth game.Which brings us to the unfamiliar face of Alex McKendry.McKendry, a first-round pick in 1976, has labored in the minors for four seasons. Last year he scored 12 goals, but this year more than tripled that to 40. The only reason the Islanders called him up in the playoffs, however, was because of the absence of Mike Bossy, who jammed his right thumb in the second game.So all McKendry did in his second playoff appearance was score two goals&mdash;also his first in the NHL&mdash;both in the third period, assist on another and help the team cap a convincing win over the stubborn Kings.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how long I&rsquo;ll be staying here,&rdquo; McKendry said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s nice.&rdquo;The Kings had tugged themselves back into the series with a shocking 6-3 victory in the second game at Nassau Coliseum. It was shocking because the Islanders had won the opener, 8-1, as Bryan Trottier became the first player in NHL playoff history to score two shorthanded goals in one period. It was just the kind of effort the Islanders expected.What they did not expect was the Kings to become a nuisance. Los Angeles scored four times against Glenn Resch in the first period of the second game, including two shorthanded goals. Clearly, the Islanders had tried to win the game without any enthusiasm.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s human nature, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; Bob Bourne said. &ldquo;We won that first game too easily. I do it, you do it, Joe Blow in his job at the factory does it. Now we know we have to try harder.&rdquo;But so did the Kings. They seemed to have twisted the series to them when they bolted to a 3-1 lead after two periods in the third game at the Forum. The Islanders seemed on the edge of a stunning elimination. &ldquo;It would have been real tough if we had lost that third game,&rdquo; Wayne Merrick said.The Islanders didn&rsquo;t lose it because Butch Goring, the former King, scored one goal and assisted on another by Clark Gillies, keying a third period rally that tied the score and sent the game into overtime.&ldquo;It was scary,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011134/4722712-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="568" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Morrow&rsquo;s drive bounced through a maze of players and into the net, deflating the Kings.</figcaption></div>And it was. The game hadn&rsquo;t started well for the Islanders. Things had gone wrong from the beginning. Just 1:31 into the first period, goalie Bill Smith was beaten on an 85-foot shot that skittered off the ice, allowing Mark Hardy&rsquo;s first NHL goal. Before that Mike Bossy was scratched because of a jammed thumb. And Bossy&rsquo;s replacement, Alex McKendry, missed the team bus.With all that, the overtime did not seem appealing to the Islanders, despite their late-game surge. Even with their 8-3 career record in overtime games. Even with Smith&rsquo;s later assertion that, &ldquo;I knew we would win.&rdquo;But they did win because Ken Morrow, who had never scored a goal before, cracked a 30-foot shot toward the net at 6:55 of overtime. The puck bounced off a cluster of players in front of goalie Mario Lessard, skipped off the blade of Hardy&rsquo;s left skate and landed in the net.The Islanders tumbled off the bench to smother Morrow. They figured that would have to be the goal that finally deflated the Kings. &ldquo;It has to give us a lift,&rdquo; Bob Lorimer said. &ldquo;And it has to make them feel a little bad, to come so close like that and lose.&rdquo;Over and over, the Islanders said that Morrow&rsquo;s goal would prove to be a turning point in the series&mdash;an ironic thought since Morrow&rsquo;s progress allowed the team to land Goring from the Kings for Dave Lewis and Billy Harris.<div class="sidebar">&ldquo;We won that first game too easily,&rdquo; said Bourne. &ldquo;Now we know we have to try harder.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

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Morrow’s Goal Turning Point For Islanders

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-07" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-07304/4722840-1-eng-US/f0016-072.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0016-07

How Fans Picked Them

TORONTO&mdash;The Montreal Canadiens are still the most exciting team to watch, according to readers of THE HOCKEY NEWS.The fans voted the four-time Stanley Cup champs as the most exciting team in the National Hockey League. At the same time, they picked Larry Robinson of Montreal as the best defenseman in the NHL, Marcel Dionne of Los Angeles as the best forward and chose workhorse Tony Esposito of Chicago as the outstanding goaltender of the NHL campaign.Fans were asked to pick these new categories this season for the first time in addition to casting their ballots for THE HOCKEY NEWS All Stars.Robinson beat out Toronto&rsquo;s Borje Salming in the two-man voting for best defenseman, Dionne was challenged by Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton and Guy Lafleur of the Canadiens in voting for the best forward and Esposito had to outdistance Buffalo&rsquo;s Don Edwards as top netminder.There wasn&rsquo;t much doubt in the fans&rsquo; minds that the Canadiens still have that magic touch on the ice. Their votes doubled those given the Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres in the best team voting. &#9632;

Canadiens Most Exciting For Hockey News Readers

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01881/4722895-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Herron led the Pittsburgh Penguins to an upset over the Buffalo Sabres in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. Now he&rsquo;s back with the support of some talented Montreal teammates. (Photo by Ian MacAlpine)</figcaption></div>When you think of playoff time in the National Hockey League what pops into your mind first: a) Everybody makes the playoffs; b) Summer&rsquo;s coming; c) Summer&rsquo;s here!Probably all of the above, but when it comes to determining what&rsquo;s exciting about playoff time in the NHL, two aspects immediately stand out. First, that playoffs mean overtime and second, that upsets are what makes the whole process so interesting.If you consider for a moment that the prospect of overtime is getting strong attention by the general managers of NHL teams and stands a definite possibility of future implementation during the regular season, at least on a 10minute overtime period format, then you&rsquo;d have to conclude that the occurrence of upsets is what captivates the fans&rsquo; interest in the race for the Stanley Cup.The struggle of the underdog&mdash;battling the stronger opponent&rsquo;s vaunted home-ice advantage in a five or seven-game series. The weaker team&mdash;on paper, in the standings, on a player-to-player match-up&mdash;coming up with the heroics to vanquish a superior rival. The little guy, the youthful and inexperienced or perhaps the older and overlooked, overcoming the odds of the experts&mdash;it&rsquo;s a situation which commands recognition.In the 53 years that the NHL has contested the Stanley Cup within its own league (prior to the 1926-27 season, the NHL champ played the winner of the Pacific Coast Hockey League), the team finishing the regular season in first place has not been the Stanley Cup winner no less than on 25 occasions.But upsets in the finals of Stanley Cup play are relatively rare, and became increasingly so in the second half of the &lsquo;60s and throughout the &lsquo;70s. It&rsquo;s in the earlier rounds where many of the major upsets take place.For instance, last year, when the Montreal Canadiens won their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup title, it wasn&rsquo;t a major upset. After all, the Canadiens had narrowly missed out on the overall championship by one point when they were shutout on the last day of the regular season to finish behind the New York Islanders. It was the Islanders&rsquo; semifinal loss to the New York Rangers that was the most startling playoff incident.Remember when the Philadelphia Flyers became Stanley Cup champions for the first time? They defeated the Boston Bruins in six games in the 1973-74 finals and instantly became infamous as the first post-1967 expansion team&mdash;oh how the Flyers hated that description&mdash;to capture the Stanley Cup. But don&rsquo;t forget that the Flyers&rsquo; regular season record was only one point less than that of the Bruins, so was it really that big an upset?You want upsets? Then how about the 1970-71 Canadiens&rsquo; team which finished third, but then edged Boston in the quarterfinals after the Bruins had practically rewritten the record book. The Canadiens went on to win the Stanley Cup that year, too. Or the 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs, who rode the goaltending of Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower from a third place place finish in the regular season to victory over Montreal in the finals.There have been other grand upsets as well among the cup-winners, perhaps none more amazing than the 1948-49 Leafs, who finished fourth that year (the first season of a six-team NHL) and with the guidance of general manager Conn Smythe and coach Hap Day, shocked both second-place Boston and first-place Detroit, to become champions.And there were the 1937-38 Chicago Black Hawks, who managed only 37 points in 48 regular season games for a third-place finish in the American Division of the NHL, but who nevertheless copped the Cup on a winning goal by Carl Voss to defeat Toronto.Based on the incidence of upsets at any stage of the playoffs, THE HOCKEY NEWS asked some of the top hockey people in today&rsquo;s game what they do to prepare for the playoffs and their opinions about the causes of upsets.&ldquo;Momentum is important,&rdquo; said Boston general manager-coach Harry Sinden, who coached the Bruins to the Stanley Cup championship a decade ago and is trying for a repeat performance after taking over behind the bench for Fred Creighton. &ldquo;I think your team has to be rolling pretty well in the last week of the season. You have to go into the playoffs with some kind of momentum&hellip;you just can&rsquo;t expect to turn it on when the playoffs start.&rdquo;Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; general manager Lou Nanne, who played for the club in the early &lsquo;70s when it used to turn in creditable playoff performances and is now hoping to manage his team to the same level of success, takes a different angle. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d say that a healthy hockey team is something that any team who wants to win the Stanley Cup is going to have to have,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got a great amount of games in a short period of time and if you&rsquo;re going to win it, you&rsquo;re going to have to have most of your best players healthy, plus some depth in case you run into any injuries.&rdquo;&ldquo;Confidence is going to be a big factor,&rdquo; said Scotty Bowman, general manager-coach of the Buffalo Sabres. &ldquo;Confidence and over-confidence can often spell the difference for a club.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re entering a different season,&rdquo; continued Bowman, who comes into the playoffs this year in a familiar position with one of the top favorites, but with a different team after leading Montreal to consecutive Stanley Cups in the past four years. &ldquo;The first series is a three-out-of-five but I think a good club that maybe hasn&rsquo;t played too well coming down the stretch will have the confidence that they can win, while a team that has had a good ending may have to watch out for over-confidence. That&rsquo;s something you have to guard against.&ldquo;You also have to look at the fact that some players have been able to turn around a playoff series for themselves and that helps the club,&rdquo; Bowman added. &ldquo;Maybe a player hasn&rsquo;t played as well as he&rsquo;s capable during the season because of injuries or extenuating circumstances, but when he comes into the playoffs he realizes it&rsquo;s the end of the line. The team knows that if they win they keep going, but if they lose, they&rsquo;re eliminated, so it&rsquo;s a chance to make up for a so-so season.&ldquo;But it also puts a lot of pressure on the guys who have produced all year and who might be subjected to a lot closer scrutiny,&rdquo; Bowman said.On the subject of upsets, Sinden and Nanne were in agreement.&ldquo;Goaltending in a short series is the major cause of upsets,&rdquo; Sinden stated. &ldquo;&lsquo;&lsquo;When we had the two-out-of-three preliminary rounds, it became a real threat in every round. Mike Palmateer did it to Atlanta last year; Tony Esposito did it to us one year and Denis Herron with Pittsburgh did it to Buffalo last year. Goaltending creates upsets more than any other thing.&rdquo;&ldquo;Hot goaltending is a main factor in any upset and probably the main factor in any win,&rdquo; said Nanne. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s ironic but you usually have a team you never expect come up with a hot goaltender somewhere along the line. That team can surprise you and along with it is often a player who plays better in the playoffs than he has all year&mdash;one of these guys always seem to emerge to have a great playoff.&ldquo;As far as our goaltenders,&rdquo; Nanne said, &ldquo;when a fellow&rsquo;s got a hot hand we like to stick with him, but we&rsquo;re not afraid to alternate. We think it puts us in a pretty solid spot having two fellows who can play as well as Gary Edwards and Gilles Meloche.&rdquo;In Montreal, Scotty Bowman had the luxury of employing Ken Dryden, who led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup in five of the eight seasons that Bowman coached them. &ldquo;It was tough to take a guy like Dryden out of the lineup,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;He needed a lot of work and his record was so good in the playoffs. That&rsquo;s one factor you always have to consider and also the scheduling of the games. This year, there&rsquo;s four games in five nights in each of the first two series. Because of that, I&rsquo;d probably be more inclined to alternate my goaltenders.&rdquo;Sinden talked about the so-called playoff style of hockey. &ldquo;We try and stick to our own style, but the reason that maybe you get the feeling that there is an overall playoff style is that the clubs concentrate more and they&rsquo;re able to continue doing what they do best. They&rsquo;re more conscious of their own jobs and duties on the ice so you get a closer checking game because everyone executes just a little bit better.&ldquo;Which is probably the way their coaches want them to play during the regular season,&rdquo; Sinden added.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty hard to change your style,&rdquo; Bowman concurred. &ldquo;I think that the things we did right during the regular season are what we have to try and continue in the playoffs.&ldquo;Another thing that&rsquo;s important about the playoffs,&rdquo; Bowman went on, &ldquo;is that when you play a team in a series&mdash;especially now, when you only play each team four times during the year&mdash;it&rsquo;s conceivable that our preparation for a playoff series is going to be different. You see the other team playing game in and game out so when you&rsquo;re into the latter part of the series each team knows each other, and it becomes a matter of one team adjusting better than the other.So, the key components of playoff success&mdash;as well as upsets&mdash;appear to be momentum, injuries, confidence, and of course, hot goaltending.Harry Sinden sums it up this way: &ldquo;The longer the series, the less likelihood of an upset. The longer it goes, the chances are that the better team will end up winning.&rdquo;Barring upsets, Harry, barring upsets.<div class="sidebar">The key components of playoff success&mdash;and upsets&mdash;are momentum, injuries, confidence, and hot goaltending. &#9632;</div>

f0017-01

Playoff Upset? Look Out For The Hot Goaltender

In a Some Other Views column by Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; associate coach Roger Neilson (April 11, 1980) his formula for determining the importance of goals for and against was misinterpreted.Neilson&rsquo;s second suggestion should have read: Add the goals for and goals against together and divide by the goals for. The average you receive is the fairest way to evaluate the goals for and against a team. &#9632;

Neilson’s Formula

<h2>YVON LAMBERT&hellip;Montreal Canadiens</h2>Yvon Lambert has always been recognized as a pretty good playoff goal scorer over the years but he&rsquo;d never done anything to match his glittering performance in the first round of the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs.The 29-year-old left winger of the Montreal Canadiens stole the playoff spotlight this past week by scoring six times in three games to spark the Habs to a three-game sweep of their best-of-five preliminary round series against the Hartford Whalers.Lambert scored twice in each game and added two assists to take the early playoff scoring lead. He capped his week by scoring the game and series winner in sudden-death overtime of Game 3 to eliminate the Whalers.The veteran winger, who scored five times last year in 16 games, now has a career playoff total of 19 goals in 76 games, which in Stanley Cup action is pretty fair shooting. &#9632;

NHL Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01900/4722926-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="604" height="1196"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Dudley went after the Canucks&rsquo; Tiger Williams and wound up being tossed out of the game.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;The Buffalo Sabres already have advanced further in Stanley Cup play than they did last year. Now they are at the step where they stumbled in 1976, 1977 and 1978 and became known as playoff patsies&mdash;the quarterfinals.The Sabres, who finished second in the National Hockey League standing, eliminated the Vancouver Canucks, who finished 15th, in four games. Buffalo won the first two at home, lost the next on the road, then won a tough one in Vancouver, 3-1, with the last goal going into an empty net in the final minute of play.Rick Martin scored four goals in the four games. Gil Perreault was the leading scorer of the four-game series with five points and scored the goal that clinched the series. Bob Sauve yielded just one goal in the two games he worked as the Buffalo goaltender.The big news of the Buffalo-Vancouver meeting, however, was the felling of Scotty Bowman, the Sabres&rsquo; coach and general manager, by an opposing player&rsquo;s stick and the subsequent one-game suspension of the Canucks&rsquo; Dave (Tiger) Williams.The odd feature of the situation was that no one in authority or observing from the pressbox apparently saw what happened. Bowman was hit. There was no question about that. After it happened, early in the first period of the third game (in Vancouver), Bowman lay stretched out behind the Buffalo bench. He was helped to the dressing room, where he remained until the start of the second period.Associate coach Roger Neilson, who had been on the walkie talkie in the pressbox, rushed down and replaced Bowman for the rest of the first period.After the game, Bowman complained loud and clear to Vancouver officials, to NHL Supervisor of Officials Dutch van Deelan and to the press that he had been hit on the head by Williams&rsquo; stick, &ldquo;a real two-hander.&rdquo;Buffalo players also complained, stating that Williams had hit a Buffalo player, Bobby Mongrain, with his stick during action on the ice and then, when Bowman and the Sabres on the bench yelled at Williams, the Canuck forward hit Bowman on the head with his stick.The reason it went unnoticed by most people present was that Mongrain continued to carry the puck into the Vancouver zone, took a shot and was knocked into the boards by a Vancouver defenseman. The Buffalo center lay on the ice after hitting the boards and most of those in Pacific Coliseum were watching him.There was no penalty on Williams. Referee Bryan Lewis said he didn&rsquo;t see what happened. There were penalties for the ensuing fracas, however. A major and a game misconduct for Buffalo&rsquo;s Rick Dudley, who went after Williams, a minor to Brent Ashton of the Canucks and a bench minor to each side. While the penalties were being served, the Canucks went ahead, 2-0, and they had a 4-1 lead when Bowman returned to the bench at the beginning of the second period. They eventually won, 5-4.Williams, when interviewed by the press after the game, said he couldn&rsquo;t remember what happened.The next day Brian O&rsquo;Neill, executive director of the NHL, announced that Williams was suspended for that night&rsquo;s game.The win ended the series early and gave the Sabres a much needed rest from competition before the start quarterfinals.They had played nine games in 14 days, every one of them under pressure, in the playoffs and before that working to hold second place. They won seven of the nine and tied one. &#9632;

f0018-01

Bowman Bopped As Sabres Advance

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;He stands only 5-9 and he weighs only 160 pounds but he wears No. 29, which is a number that the Boston Bruins have tripped over too many times on their way to the Stanley Cup in recent years.First it was Ken Dryden of the Montreal Canadiens, who wouldn&rsquo;t even be a rookie until the following year, when he stiffed the Bruins in the opening round of the playoffs in 1971, the year the B&rsquo;s were hockey&rsquo;s greatest scoring machine ever.And now it was Greg Millen, the little Pittsburgh Penguin goalie who had never been in an NHL playoff game in his life but who, for a time at least, appeared to be conducting the mesmerized Bruins to the brink of elimination from the 1980 playoffs.As of Sunday night, the favored Bruins and the pesty Penguins were tied at two games apiece in their best of five series due largely to spectacular performances by Millen in the first, second and third games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t ever want to remember Ken Dryden in &lsquo;71,&rdquo; said captain Wayne Cashman, who is one of four Bruins still around who can recall that humiliation first hand.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to say it would be pretty tough for a goaltender to stay as hot and play as well as Dryden did then. You just wonder how long this guy can stay hot. You just wonder.&rdquo;The Bruins, who wound up the season with a flourish of six wins in seven games under new coach Harry Sinden, were expected to handle the Penguins with little trouble. They beat them in four straight games in the 1979 playoffs.&ldquo;We should beat Pittsburgh,&rdquo; said Sinden, who is not one to test his audience&rsquo;s credulity. &ldquo;If we play our best and they play their best, we should win. What we have to worry about is how we play, not how they play.&rdquo;As it turned out, the Bruins had to worry about how one of them played&mdash;Millen, whose 3.64 goals against average during the season was unimpressive and whose victory over Boston Jan. 27 came while the heart of the Bruins were serving suspensions.All Millen did in the series opener was turn back 36 shots as the Penguins built up a 3-0 lead over the first 45 minutes and then hung on for a 4-2 win.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know Millen could play that well,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;I must admit goaltending was the one area where we thought they were deficient. I had my eyes opened.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our reports on him weren&rsquo;t too good,&rdquo; said Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. &ldquo;He was supposed to be terrible.&rdquo;&ldquo;Their plan was exactly as we expected,&rdquo; said Sinden, &ldquo;jam their six guys in their end along with our five. There must have been 11 guys inside their blue line 90 per cent of the night. We just couldn&rsquo;t get the shots through.&ldquo;What you hope to do is keep shooting, get an early goal or two and everything changes because they&rsquo;re forced into a game where they have to score. But Millen wouldn&rsquo;t let us get that goal.&rdquo;Millen faced 42 Boston shots in the second game but it wasn&rsquo;t until 1:42 of the second period before Rick Middleton got that critical first goal in a 4-1 Boston win.&ldquo;The first goal is the key against a team that plays like this,&rdquo; said Gerry Cheevers, the Boston goalie who, at the age of 39, was faced with the prospect of playing three playoff games in three nights as the series went the full live games.&ldquo;The way their goaltender is playing they might be able to win 1-0. That&rsquo;s a little scary to think about.&rdquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the hottest I&rsquo;ve seen a goaltender in a long time,&rdquo; said Brad Park. &ldquo;He was stopping them point blank and they were tremendous scoring opportunities. He could force us to change our game. We can&rsquo;t afford to give them scoring opportunities.&rdquo;The Bruins had only 20 shots on Millen in the third game but it was not until 3:48 of the third period that Middleton got the first Boston goal and then the Penguins were coasting along with a three-goal lead.By this time, Millen appeared to have hypnotized the Bruins, who are not used to starting their summer vacations this early.But, entering the fifth and deciding game, Millen was still very much on their minds.&ldquo;This is what we need,&rdquo; said Johnny Bucyk, the former Bruins&rsquo; star who is now a club executive. &ldquo;Millen looks a little down. He looks tired. Doesn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo; &#9632;

Bruins Forced To Fifth Game By Unlucky 29

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01856/4723036-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ranger assistant coach Mike Nykoluk could be behind the Toronto Maple Leafs &lsquo;bench next season as head coach. Nykoluk said he is very much interested in the Leafs&rsquo; job. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div><h2>Doucet Hospitalized</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;Fans around the National Hockey League who have become enchanted with Roger Doucet&rsquo;s singing of Oh Canada were relieved to learn that the 60-year-old Montrealer was holding his own after he underwent a delicate nine-hour brain operation in a hospital last week.Doucet was reported to be in satisfactory condition by hospital authorities following the surgery but no word was available on his future as hockey&rsquo;s best known and loved anthem singers. He recently joined famed recording star Roger Whittaker in singing the U.S. and Canadian anthems at the NHL All Star game in Detroit.Doucet&rsquo;s wife, Geraldine, who is also a noted female vocalist, filled her husband&rsquo;s singing role before the recent Montreal-Hartford Stanley Cup games at the Montreal Forum.<h2>Trottier Sets Record</h2>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Islanders&rsquo; center Bryan Trottier became the newest entry in the National Hockey League playoff record-book when he became the first player to ever score two short-handed goals in the same period.Trottier&rsquo;s goals came at 4:30 and 19:20 of the second period of the Islanders&rsquo; 8-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at the Nassau County Coliseum with first Duane Sutter and then Stefan Persson of the Islanders in the penalty box.The only other player to score two shorthanded goals in the same game is Hartford&rsquo;s Dave Keon, who scored twice for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 3-1 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings on April 18, 1963.<h2>Howe Played In All 80</h2>HARTFORD&mdash;Overlooked in the final wrapup of the 1979-80 NHL regular-season schedule was the fact Gordie Howe, at age 52, played in all 80 games of the Hartford Whalers.The indefatigable Howe also closed out the season with a goal and an assist in Hartford&rsquo;s final game. That brought his season output to 15 goals, 26 assists and 41 points and brought his brilliant career totals to: 1,767 games, 801 goals, 1,049 assists: 1,850 points.<h2>First Graduate</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Officials of the Scotiabank Hockey College have more than a passing interest in the current Stanley Cup playoffs.The object of their enthuasism is big Steve Payne, the high-scoring left winger of the Minnesota North Stars, who is the first registered Scotiabank College graduate to reach the National Hockey League.Payne played a major role in the resurgence of the North Stars this season and personally contributed a career high of 42 goals and 85 points while playing in all 80 Minnesota games. He is a native of Toronto and will return to this city at the conclusion of the 1980 playdowns to become married to a suburban Scarborough girl.<h2>Big On Overtime</h2>TORONTO&mdash;When Al MacAdam of Minnesota fired the game-winning goal in the first minute of sudden-death overtime to eliminate the Toronto Maple Leafs from the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, he became one of seven to perform the feat so far in the 1980 playoffs.In the first 28 preliminary playoff games this year, there was a total of seven overtime contests decided by overtime. Last season, the NHL had 11 overtime decisions in 45 games for the entire playoffs.Others who scored overtime winners in the first round as well as MacAdam, were Doug Lecuyer of Chicago, Steve Vickers of the Rangers, Bobby Clarke and Ken Linseman, both of Philadelphia, Yvon Lambert of Montreal, and Ken Morrow of the Islanders.<h2>Nykoluk Eyes Leafs</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;Mike Nykoluk is interested in the Maple Leafs&rsquo; coaching job next season if the Toronto team wants him.The assistant coach of the Rangers is a prime candidate for the Leafs&rsquo; position if for no other reason than because he&rsquo;s a personal favorite of owner Harold Ballard. But Nykoluk admits he has an allegiance to Ranger head coach Fred Shero and could stick with the New Yorkers.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what my status is with the Rangers for next season, yet,&rdquo; said Nykoluk. &ldquo;It depends on what Fred (Shero) decides. I could still wind up in Toronto.&rdquo; Nykoluk passed up the Leafs&rsquo; job last season to stay with Shero.The Leafs&rsquo; head coaching job is in a state of flux at the moment. Floyd Smith, the original coach, is still recuperating from his serious car accident. Interim coach Joe Crozier said he was only in Toronto on a temporary basis. GM Punch Imlach appointed himself coach when Smith became indisposed but never coached. He brought in Crozier instead. Assistant Dick Duff appears to be the odd man out.<h2>Williams Banished</h2>VANCOUVER&mdash;Dave (Tiger) Williams was still proclaiming his innocence after receiving a one-game suspension for knocking Buffalo coach Scotty Bowman out cold with an errant swing of his stick in Game 3 of the Canucks&rsquo; series against Buffalo.The rowdy Williams missed the final playoff game, in which Buffalo eliminated Vancouver, courtesy of NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, who informed Williams that he would have to sit out one game because of the first-period incident.O&rsquo;Neill disclosed that a videotape replay of the fracas clearly showed that Williams swung his stick in the direction of the Buffalo bench. When it came in contact with the side of Bowman&rsquo;s head, the Sabres&rsquo; coach went down and his players rushed Williams.Sabre Rick Dudley grabbed Williams near the Vancouver blueline and referee Bryan Lewis tossed Dudley out of the game with a fighting major and a game misconduct. Williams escaped without a penalty. Williams claims he took a Buffalo player into the boards and did not know whether it was his stick that hit Bowman.<h2>Canada Cup Still On</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Don&rsquo;t bury the 1980 Canada Cup series yet. It is apparently still on.Alan Eagleson, director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, has been told by Hockey Canada to proceed with the tournament, which had been planned for September, and was up in the air because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Canadian government&rsquo;s intended boycott of all athletic relations with the Soviet Union.Eagleson said he will meet with members of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Goteborg, Sweden, on April 23 to see if plans can still be completed for the six-country summit confrontation next September in Canada.The tournament, however, could become a victim of time. Eagleson said that there is scarcely enough time left to arrange it at this late date and he added the event must be financially realistic or else it would not be feasible to hold it.Teams involved would include Canada, the U.S., Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Finland and the Soviet Union. Possible sites for the games are Vancouver, Edmonton, Quebec, Montreal and even Toronto&rsquo;s Maple Leaf Gardens.<h2>Finns Rip Canada</h2>KUOPIO&mdash;Canada&rsquo;s national hockey team took it on the chin against Finland in the first game of their pre-tournament tour at Kuopio, Finland.The Finns walloped the Canadians 8-2 in a warmup game for the Swedish Cup tournament April 18-24 at Gothenburg, Sweden, where the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and host Sweden will compete with their national teams along with Canada.The Canadian team coaches, Tom Watt and Lorne Davis, said the inactivity since the Olympic Games at Lake Placid didn&rsquo;t help their team. &ldquo;We have been practising since April 1 but have not played any games since the Olympics, and that showed in the outcome of this game,&rdquo; said Watt.Canada finished a disappointing sixth overall in the recent Olympic Games, losing a consolation round game to the Czechs, 6-1.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02657/4723029-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="1900" height="1370"><figcaption class="caption-body">There is no overtime play during the regular NHL season but once the teams embark on the playoffs, overtime plays an important role. In fact, the first round of the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs produced seven overtime games. Ken Linseman, above, of Philadelphia was one of the seven who scored a game winner in the sudden-death extra period during the Flyers&rsquo; series against Edmonton. Last season the NHL playoffs produced 11 overtime decisions in 45 playoff games. (Photo by Ian MacAlpine)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div>BLOOMINGTON, Minn.&mdash;In Minnesota the North Stars are becoming known as the Minnesota Thunder Co.On the basis of regular season play, the National Hockey League may find that hard to buy.But ask the Toronto Maple Leafs. Minnesota lightning swept the Leafs in three straight games of their opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.The Stars scored 17 goals, the Leafs 8 in the three-game set that required an overtime goal by Al MacAdam to end the series at Maple Leaf Gardens, 4-3, after a gritty Toronto performance.Thunder. That was what Minnesota&rsquo;s offensive prowess was like during a lot of the regular season. The Stars could blitz people&hellip;mostly at home. The Stars were not exactly electrifying in opposing rinks: They had a 25-8-7 record at home and an 11-20-9 log on the road.There were a few dark clouds surrounding the Stars as they entered the playoffs.Until they met the Leafs, that is. Thunder Co. showed the power and talent which set 28 team and individual records during the regular season, including a team record 88 points and a year&rsquo;s high of 311 goals.It really took MacAdam&rsquo;s overtime goal, though, to give the rest of the NHL some storm warnings for the future.&ldquo;Our team is a contender,&rdquo; MacAdam was saying before the clinching game of the first round. &ldquo;This team is one of the elite because of the improvement made from two years ago (last), from last year (12th) to this year (6th).&ldquo;If the successes from the past continue, the team should be getting into position to challenge for the Stanley Cup very soon.MacAdam said the team&rsquo;s No. 1 priority was to improve its play on the road. In Toronto, for example, the Stars had won only three times in 13 years and, until the overtime victory, not since 1977.&ldquo;This team has to play with more diligence on the road,&rdquo; MacAdam said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s improving. On the road you have to sacrifice. To sacrifice means bumps. We&rsquo;ve come around the last 25 games. You know you&rsquo;re going to get hit on the road. You just have to bear down and sacrifice like all the good teams do.&rdquo;And after his thrilling playoff goal for the Thunder Co., MacAdam said: &ldquo;We finally won in there. Maybe all the rinks will be the same for us.&rdquo;It was fitting that MacAdam scored the clinching goal. The quiet, businesslike right winger from Charlottetown, P.E.I. led the North Stars in scoring with 42 goals and 51 assists during the regular season.He played on a line with rising superstar Bobby Smith, who scored 83 points and missed 19 games with a broken ankle, and Steve Payne, who scored 42 goals and 43 assists.That was another record for the Stars&mdash;most goals and points by a line, 111 and 261.But MacAdam and his two young buddies will be the first to tell you that they&rsquo;re not the only ones with thunder on their sticks.The team came up with three consistent lines at the finish. Toronto strategy was to shut off Smith. MacAdam and Co.Well how about the lines centered by Tim Young and Mike Eaves? Young set a team record for goals by a center, 31, Eaves, Olympian Steve Christoff and Ron Zanussi were most productive the last month.Christoff is having a sensational playoff. He rested four days after the stunning upset of the Russians in the Olympics before signing with the Stars and wound up with eight goals in 20 games. In that OT game against Toronto, he carried Minnesota&rsquo;s offensive with two goals and an assist.You don&rsquo;t get much static about the Thunder Co.&rsquo;s defense either. Coach Glen Sonmor is not at all reluctant to work in a diligent group of seven men at the position in front of goalies Gary Edwards and Gilles Meloche.Meloche set a team record with 27 victories during the regular season. When the playoffs swung around, Gary &ldquo;Scoop&rdquo; Edwards played remarkably. And when Edwards was injured in his third straight playoff start against the Leafs, Meloche came in cold to be the winning netminder.The Thunder Co. still has a lot to prove. A lot of folks will say the Leafs did not provide adequate opposition because of internal strife. But Toronto played a very strong third game, at home&hellip;where the Stars seldom won&hellip;and still couldn&rsquo;t prolong the series.STAR DUST: Bobby Smith set a club record with seven assists in his first three playoff games. He was the one who made the key play on MacAdam&rsquo;s overtime goal. Edwards suffered a bruised knee in that third game, but figured a four-day rest would give him plenty of time to get ready for the next round&hellip;The Stars missed defenseman Gary Sargent a lot during the last two months of the regular season with recurring back problems, but he returned against the Leafs and was outstanding despite a hip injury that limited his mobility&hellip;Curt Giles, the 5-8 defenseman, has been another big force in the playoffs with his steady play&mdash;Just ask Ron Ellis of the Leafs about that cartwheel check&hellip;Another rookie, Tom McCarthy of Tim Young&rsquo;s line, also was playing his best hockey of the season&hellip;And there&rsquo;s Ron Zanusi, he buries himself in the corners and gives the Stars another big line with Eaves and Christoff.<div class="sidebar">&ldquo;Our team is a contender,&rdquo; MacAdam said, &ldquo;&hellip;because of the improvement made from two years ago&hellip;&rdquo;</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01694/4723067-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="596" height="1826"><figcaption class="caption-body">The addition of Olympian Steve Christoff has helped balance the North Stars&rsquo; offense.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

Minnesota Lightning Reduces Leafs To Ashes

<div class="byline">BY PAT DOYLE</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;The Winnipeg Jets may be in the market for a new leader.Lars-Erik Sjoberg, the captain of the good ship Winnipeg, is seriously thinking about retirement and he may not be around for another National Hockey League season.The 35-year-old Swedish defenseman confirmed shortly after the Jets had played their final game of the 1979-80 season that he may be finished.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s possible,&rdquo; Sjoberg said of retirement. &ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t been that enjoyable this year. I don&rsquo;t like to lose, I don&rsquo;t know anybody who does. Many guys feel the same as I do about losing, but I&rsquo;m 35 now.Sjoberg, who turns 36 on May 4, conceded he might be suffering from a case of the post-season blahs because the Jets weren&rsquo;t among the 16 teams which qualified for the playoffs.&ldquo;Maybe that&rsquo;s it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;m feeling down just because it&rsquo;s the end of the season.&rdquo;This was Sjoberg&rsquo;s sixth term in a Winnipeg pullover and it marked only the second time in his stay here that the club has missed the playoffs. The Jets were also on the outside looking in after the 1974-75 World Hockey Association season.Sjoberg&rsquo;s contract with the Jets expired at the end of the &lsquo;79-80 season, and he becomes a free agent on June 1. Naturally, people are likely to interpret any mention of retirement as a negotiating ploy to get a better offer from the Winnipeg hockey club.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure some people will think that,&rdquo; says Don Baizley, who serves as Sjoberg&rsquo;s agent. &ldquo;But, they aren&rsquo;t reading Shoe right if they do. He&rsquo;s not the kind of guy who says something like this without giving it a lot of thought first. He&rsquo;s not an irrational person.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very serious when he says he&rsquo;s thinking of not playing next year. I really believe that at this point in time his inclination is to retire. If he had to decide tomorrow, he would retire. But, it&rsquo;s obviously something he&rsquo;s going to mull over for a while.&rdquo;The Jets have offered Sjoberg a contract and Baizley considers it a final offer, although he doesn&rsquo;t use that terminology.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s put it this way,&rdquo; Baizley explained. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t expect another offer from them. Classy management sits down and decides exactly what they feel a player is worth before they make an offer they think is fair. They don&rsquo;t have to say it&rsquo;s a final offer.&ldquo;Whether what they offer is fair or not, the only way for me to know that is to check with other teams to see what they think Shoe is worth.&rdquo;To date, Baizley has not been in contact with any of the other 20 NHL teams.&ldquo;Shoe has instructed me not to go to the other teams,&rdquo; says Baizley. &ldquo;Really, there&rsquo;s not much point in it if he&rsquo;s going to retire.&rdquo;If Sjoberg elects to retire, he says he isn&rsquo;t interested in coaching and would likely locate somewhere in the United States for business reasons. He has a piece of the action in an import-export company called Maan.Sjoberg&rsquo;s retirement would also put Winnipeg general manager John Ferguson in a bit of a bind, because he&rsquo;d have to scurry out and find a defenseman whose forte is moving the puck out of the defensive zone.JETSTREAM: Left winger Morris Lukowich was the winner of the Molson Cup here. He led teammate Peter Sullivan in the year-long three star competition by 10 points.<div class="sidebar">&ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t been that enjoyable this year,&rdquo; Sjoberg said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to lose. I don&rsquo;t know anybody who does.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

Jets’ Sjoberg Pondering Retirement

<div class="byline">BY ARNOLD IRISH</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Their playoff performance notwithstanding, the St. Louis Blues can look back on this season as one that reflected the first tangible signs in several years that the franchise is moving onward and upward.Emile Francis, the Blues&rsquo; president and general manager, has been lauded for assembling the component parts that enabled St. Louis, absent from the playoffs two years running, to rise phoenix-like from its own ashes.Mike Liut, at this moment perhaps the most effective netminder in the National Hockey League (Vezina Trophy statistics to the contrary because the league&rsquo;s goalies enjoy varying degress of on-ice support), has received kudos for his prominent role in shaving St. Louis&rsquo; goals-against to a respectable figure.Brian Sutter, the Blues&rsquo; feisty captain, has been recognized as their sparkplug and Bernie Federko has been hailed as St. Louis&rsquo; once and future offensive king.Numerous hats have been tipped to Barclay Plager, through whose finishing school in the minors so many St. Louis stars passed en route to their current prominence.If anyone has been short-changed on credit for the Blues&rsquo; development this season, that person may be coach Red Berenson.And if Berenson&rsquo;s contribution has been overlooked by Blues&rsquo; fans, it could be in part because they still think of him as the Red Baron&mdash;when his derring-do around the nets (for example, his unforgettable six-pack of goals in a game against Philadelphia when the Blues were in only their second NHL season) made him the team&rsquo;s first bona fide offensive star&mdash;and don&rsquo;t yet sense how comfortably he fits into his role behind the bench.The Blues have had some formidable coaches in their short history&mdash;inexplicably allowing the likes of Scotty Bowman and Al Arbour to slip away&mdash;and in Berenson, who played for Scotty and with Al, they may have another coach in that mold.When illness forced Plager out of the head coaching job last November, the club was floundering with a 7-14-3 record. Since that time, of course, the Blues have improved dramatically.The transition wasn&rsquo;t easy for Berenson. &ldquo;As a player, you can break your neck, but you have something to show for it,&rdquo; said Berenson. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve done your best you can live with a loss. But a coach is just left hanging there after a loss, and for a long time losing just killed me.&rdquo;Berenson&rsquo;s strong suit may be his credibility. As one who reflects self-discipline, he has a built-in entree to imposing discipline on his team. As someone who himself doesn&rsquo;t waffle or flip-flop on is-sues, decisions and value judgments, he comes across as believable when he urges his players to be consistent.The Blues probably are neither as good as they looked at their best nor as shaky as they looked at their worst&mdash;and, because most of their players are young, they tend to get too high on themselves when they&rsquo;re winning and too down on themselves when they&rsquo;re not.But, make no mistake about it, their youth is a strong indicator that the Blues are only going to get better, and in less than a full season behind the bench, Berenson has demonstrated he is a man capable of bringing out the best in them.For details on the Blues&rsquo; preliminary round loss to the Chicago Black Hawks, see page 6.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01518/4723122-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="494" height="1094"><figcaption class="caption-body">Red Berenson made a retransition in becoming a fortable as the Blues&rsquo; coach (Photo by Robert wimmer)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

Credibility Berenson’s Biggest Asset

<div class="byline">BY STUART HACKEL</div>The following is the initial contribution to THE HOCKEY NEWS from Stuart Hackel, a St. Louis, Mo based hockey freak whose reviews on a wide range of hockey-related books, radio and television shows will periodically appear in future issues.MIRACLE ON ICE: By the Staff of The New York Times, Bantam Press, New York 1980, 89 pages plus 64 pages of photographs.Miracle on Ice is the first book published on what promises to be the most written-about chapter in United States hockey history. It is a quick job, released about a week after 20 ecstatic young Americans huddled on the Lake Placid medal platform, gold around their necks, to celebrate their triumph.Actually, this is not the in depth story of the Olympics, but a 21-article collection of New York Times pieces about the U.S. team. The book begins with the Madison Square Garden exhibition game against the Soviets, which occurred a few days prior to the first Olympic contest. Each game is covered from that point on, and some between-game feature stories and post-tournament festivities are thrown in.What emerges is much of the spectacle which was the 1980 Olympics, combined with some fine analysis by the Times&rsquo; Gerry Eskenazi. The author of A Thinking Man&rsquo;s Guide To Pro Hockey, Eskenazi explains how the Swedes confuse opponents, how the Czechs use their off-wing, how the Soviets stress attack and how the U.S. stopped them all. He writes: &ldquo;The key to halting the clever Europeans is pressure; keep them from snaring the puck by checking them, or by keeping it yourself.&rdquo; In the game against the Rumanians he observed, &ldquo;the Americans worked play after play to perfection, taking good, close shots&hellip;Nonstop play (has) become the American team&rsquo;s symbol.&rdquo;Eskenazi also has poetic moments: &ldquo;The tempo and emotion of the game was established early, when longtime Soviet star Valery Kharlamov, wearing the traditional lipstick-red uniform, was sandwiched between two Americans. Suddenly, he was lifted between them and, looking like a squirt of ketchup, sailed into the air and then flopped to the ice.&rdquo;In addition to 10 pieces by Eskenazi, background information is presented by his Times colleagues. There is some insight into the players but not too much because coach Herb Brooks kept them from postgame press conferences until the medal round. There is a fair amount on Brooks, however, the man who, by the conclusion of the Games, anyway, become hockey&rsquo;s most celebrated figure since Bobby Orr.All the Times contributors, of course, mention the impact of the fans. After the upset of the Czechs, Dave Anderson observed, &ldquo;In hockey, miracles usually happen because of two factors&mdash;home ice and work ethic. America&rsquo;s team has both.&rdquo;Another Anderson article, written about the Soviet team before the medal round, perceptively reveals the contrasting and unusual lack of intensity displayed by the Soviets in this tournament. Unfortunately, his discussion of the Soviet hockey program itself is too brief.Game summaries, short biographical sketches of the U.S. side and excellent photography are included with the action photos and individual portraits which are alone worth the price of the book.This is not a great book but it is about a great event. A great book on the Games will have more analysis, anecdotes, and behind-the-scenes information. Miracle On Ice was not meant to do those things, but rather to convey the excitement of the moment as close to the moment as possible. In doing that, it succeeds. In fact it has succeeded well enough to have its television rights purchased by ABC for a dramatic presentation next winter.Miracle On Ice is an immediate result of the event that might be the turning point for hockey in this part of the world. As Eskenazi writes, &ldquo;In an era when North American hockey has been in decline and labelled as animalistic by some Europeans, an American team had suddenly appeared that played non-stop, clean hockey. And it was doing it well.&rdquo; &#9632;

Book Review

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div>There were incentives and a reopener clause after the first year, but an early indication of the Whalers&rsquo; assessment of Rogers&rsquo; chances was clear when Mike found himself listed as third or fourth among centers on the team&rsquo;s depth chart.Mike had a good camp and coach Don Blackburn rewarded him by starting him out between Mark and Gordie Howe. Playing with the same set of wingers for more than a few games was a luxury that Mike had seldom enjoyed. Often, in the past, his assignment was to pick up whatever wingers were left over and work as a third line. But the Rogers-Howe-Howe line worked well.Later, after Mark Howe was shifted back to defense, Mike picked up sharpshooter Blaine Stoughton as a linemate. Then Pat Boutette came over from Toronto and the line that has been affectionately dubbed the Stash, Dash, and Bash line was born. Rogers (Dash) was setting them up for Stash (Stoughton) and (Bash) Boutette dug in the corners or created havoc in front of the net. It was a perfect mix.Rogers eclipsed the 100-point mark for the season&mdash;20 points better than his previous high. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing,&rdquo; says Mike. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just that I&rsquo;m working harder that&rsquo;s all. I guess I&rsquo;ve always been able to do what I&rsquo;ve done, but this is the first year I&rsquo;ve really had the pressure on.&rdquo;This summer it&rsquo;ll be a lot easier for Mike to negotiate. Besides his super season, he was voted the Favorite Whaler by the fans&mdash;and that&rsquo;s something new, although Rogers&rsquo; name was always high on the media list when it came time to vote for the Unsung Hero award.&ldquo;I want to improve next year,&rdquo; says Mike. &ldquo;Now that I know I can do it, I&rsquo;ve just told myself that I&rsquo;m not going to be satisfied with what I&rsquo;ve done.&rdquo;WHALER WAVES: The Whalers are planning on sending six of their youngsters to power skating school over the year&hellip;. The improvement in Jeff Brubaker&rsquo;s skating was so evident this year that Jack Kelley will send him again along with forwards Ray Allison, Bernie Johnston, Don Nachbaur, Dave McDonald and defenseman Stuart Smith. McDonald and Smith, underagers selected in last year&rsquo;s draft, were allowed to return to their respective junior teams (Brandon and Peterborough) after training camp.For details on the Whalers&rsquo; preliminary round against the Montreal Canadiens, see story on page 6.<div class="sidebar">Now that I know I can do it,&rdquo; Rogers said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be satisfied with what I&rsquo;ve done.&rdquo;</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01581/4723177-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="524" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Rogers, had his best season, collecting 105 points and surprising even his own management.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Rogers Sailed Beyond Expectations

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>The announcement came three weeks after Bobby Kromm was fired as coach of the Wings and in the wake of &ldquo;major shakeup&rdquo; rumors circulating around the Wings, who finished 18th out of 21 teams this year in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s overall standings and failed to make the playoffs for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons.Marcel Pronovost, who was hired as an assistant coach in early March and who took over the reins of the Wings after Kromm was fired, will assume that same role next season. Lindsay will also be the Wings&rsquo; director of player personnel and vice president Louis Risi, Jr., who was promoted to executive vice president, will be in charge of the team&rsquo;s business operations.In addition to these changes, owner Bruce Norris announced that Jimmy Skinner, the Wings&rsquo; assistant general manager, will become associate director of player personnel and Al Blade, who served this year as the general manager of the Johnstown Red Wings, will become Detroit&rsquo;s director of marketing and promotions. He also said that the general manager&rsquo;s responsibilities will be divided among Lindsay and three others&mdash;Risi, Skinner and Lincoln Cavalieri, a vice president of the team who will be in charge of negotiating player contracts next season.While the appointment of Lindsay to the head coaching job may be somewhat of a surprise, the fact that so many changes were made in the organization certainly is not. Cavalieri hinted as much in some comments he recently made.&ldquo;This was the most frustrating year ever,&rdquo; Cavalieri said, &ldquo;and I know that Bruce Norris feels the same way. We know we had the talent, but what the hell happened to it?&ldquo;Bruce is quite upset,&rdquo; Cavalieri went on. &ldquo;He feels that when you have the highest payroll for a last-place team&hellip;he&rsquo;s got to be upset and I don&rsquo;t blame him. These guys are all fat cats and they could care less.&rdquo;Lindsay indicated that the &ldquo;fat cat&rdquo; attitude Cavalieri referred to would not be tolerated once he takes over behind the bench next season.&ldquo;I will demand the same style of play and performance that I knew as a player,&rdquo; said Lindsay, who amassed 2,002 penalty minutes in his 17 years in the NHL. &ldquo;I will demand 100 percent from the players and nothing less will be tolerated.&rdquo; &#9632;

Ted Lindsay Will Coach Detroit Next Season

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01534/4723232-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Laurie Boschman made it through an eventful rookie seas with the Leafs with his attitude intact and his future bright. (Photo by Robert Sha)</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;&ldquo;The biggest thing is to learn from this past year,&rdquo; said Toronto Maple Leaf left winger Pat Hickey after the Leafs were eliminated from the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs.The Leafs&rsquo; hopes of forcing a fourth game in their opening round series with the Minnesota North Stars had ended when Al MacAdam slid in a rebound of a Curt Giles shot just 32 seconds into overtime for a 4-3 win.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to make sure that we don&rsquo;t repeat the same mistakes again,&rdquo; Hickey said. &ldquo;Right now, we&rsquo;re tied for first place for next year.&rdquo;And probably relieved as can be that this tumultuous season is over for the Leafs, at least from the standpoint of having to play the game on the ice. Now, with the entry draft approaching in June and with goalie Mike Palmateer about to become a free agent, general manager-head coach Punch Imlach may really get busy restructuring the type of club that he wants in time for next September&rsquo;s training camp.Based on the first two games of the series with the North Stars, there were few good signs that Imlach was going to have much of a nucleus to build a club around&mdash;outside of the stellar goaltending of Jiri Crha, who faced 61 shots in the Leafs&rsquo; 6-3 loss in the opener, and Palmateer who turned aside 37 shots in the 7-3 setback in the second game. Palmateer, though, is not likely to be back next season, which makes Crha No. 1 with Curt Ridley next in line.With several other veterans including Darryl Sittler, Ian Turnbull, Dan Maloney and perhaps Dave Burrows likely to be used to bring further changes, the Leafs&rsquo; brightest prospects are their youthful forwards.Throughout much of the campaign the Kid Line of Rocky Saganiuk, Laurie Boschman and John Anderson formed the club&rsquo;s most consistent line and also caused the North Stars problems in the playoffs.Boschman, the 19-year-old center who was playing in the Memorial Cup championship a year ago, scored the Leafs&rsquo; first playoff goal when a Ron Wilson shot deflected off him then defenseman Fred Barrett and into the Minnesota net. And Anderson scored the Leafs&rsquo; last goal at 14:47 of the third period of the third game against the North Stars when he sped around the Minnesota defense and cut in on Gilles Meloche, flipping the puck over him as the goalie came out to attempt to sweep it away. The goal sent the game into overtime, falsely reviving Leafs&rsquo; hopes which were dashed by the Mac Adam goal.&ldquo;It was a helluva move,&rdquo; said Meloche, a victor in the first playoff game of his career. &ldquo;Most guys would just try to drag the puck along the ice as they make their move and if he had done that, I&rsquo;d have got it with my stick. But he flipped it up as he moved it and put it right in.&ldquo;At the speed he was coming, I didn&rsquo;t think he could make such a move,&rdquo; Meloche added.Speed, of course, is the main attribute that the Kid Line possesses and the Leafs have added forwards this year such as Hickey, Wilf Paiement, Terry Martin, Rick Vaive, Bill Derlago and Mike Kaszycki, all of whom have the kind of speed that could transform the club into an offensive power-house. They only need time.&ldquo;The guys stuck together well,&rdquo; said Saganiuk, the speedy right winger who inherited Lanny McDonald&rsquo;s jersey (7) and his determination as well. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have enough time together to mould together as a team should, although we settled down in the last 20 games or so. The team was set, but now we hear they&rsquo;re talkin&rsquo; about trading this guy or that, I just hope we don&rsquo;t have to start all over again next year.&rdquo;&ldquo;I guess the year&rsquo;s had a little bit of everything,&rdquo; said Boschman, who left the Calgary training camp of the Canadian Olympic team to become a regular with the Leafs right from the first exhibition game.&ldquo;This one was tough to lose because we played the way we are supposed to play,&rdquo; Boschman said. &ldquo;I really enjoyed the playoffs, they&rsquo;re more intense and you feel the pressure, but I wish we could have been around longer.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our time will come,&rdquo; Saganiuk concluded as the players headed out into the midnight air, hoping that their darkest hour was behind them and that a more promising dawn was just around the corner. &#9632;

f0023-01

Leafs’ Year Ends Quickly With More Changes Likely

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02383/4723263-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="600" height="893"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Millen often turns to music to get away from the pressures of goaltending.</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;&ldquo;As long as they look after me, I&rsquo;ll try my hardest to look after them and help them in any way I can,&rdquo; says goaltender Greg Millen about the Pittsburgh Penguins organization.The way he&rsquo;s been &ldquo;looked after&rdquo; this season by the Penguin management, no one would blame Millen if his faith has been shaken.The 5-9, 160-pounder appeared in 28 games for the Penguins last season&mdash;his first in professional hockey. He posted a 3.37 goals against average and recorded the club&rsquo;s only two shutouts.He impressed the Penguin management so much that they traded No. 1 goaltender Denis Herron to the Montreal Canadiens during the off-season and Millen was virtually handed the top netminding position.Millen began this season by starting the Penguins&rsquo; first three games, but he pulled a hamstring muscle in the third game and rookie Bob Holland, obtained in the Herron deal, took over. Millen re-injured his hamstring in practice and Holland was forced to play in 18 straight games.However, following his return, Millen started 16 consecutive games.&ldquo;Millen has got a tremendous temperament&mdash;nothing bothers him,&rdquo; said his coach, Johnny Wilson, during Millen&rsquo;s consecutive game streak. &ldquo;The problem for goaltenders occurs as the season progresses and they play a lot of games. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s the physical strain, I think it&rsquo;s the mental strain.&rdquo;After going with Millen and Holland for almost the whole season, the Penguins brought up rookie Nick Ricci from the International Hockey League in early March. Penguin management denies the reason Ricci was brought up was because they were dissatisfied with the play of their other two goalies.But the fact remains that while Ricci played in four straight games, winning two and losing two, either Millen or Holland sat in the press box and viewed the games from that vantage point.Millen, who would be studying business administration at the University of Guelph if he hadn&rsquo;t gone into pro hockey, would only offer a &ldquo;no comment&rdquo; on the Penguins&rsquo; goaltending situation.To relieve some of the mental strain surrounding this season, Millen plays the piano and dabbles in the stock market while he is away from the rink.&ldquo;I find that piano, or any-music at all, is just tremendously relaxing for me,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;It sort of gives me an alternative besides playing hockey, which I think you need.&ldquo;I just want to get any experience I can and when I&rsquo;m finished with hockey, I&rsquo;ll have something to fall back on,&rdquo; Millen added. &ldquo;A stock brokerage firm in the city, M. Waddell & Towne, was interested in helping me. I just go in there whenever I want. There&rsquo;s no salary involved.After this season is over Millen plans to pursue another career.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting married June 21 to a girl from Peterborough&mdash;Ann Kelly,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;I met her in junior hockey when I played for Peterborough and we&rsquo;re having the wedding there.&rdquo;Millen is rumored to be one of the lowest paid players on the Penguin team even though he plays one of the most critical positions on the club.&ldquo;I have this year and another year on my contract,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t usually talk too much about contract. I think it&rsquo;s my personal business. I know that I have to work hard and I&rsquo;m trying the best I can.&rdquo;For details on the Penguins&rsquo; prelininary round series with Boston, see page 6. &#9632;

f0023-02

Steady Temperament Saves Millen

<div class="byline">BY BUDDY O&#x2019;CONNOR</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01563/4723294-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="546" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">Quebec GM Gilles Leger said Nordiques&rsquo; year was &ldquo;a adjustment for everyone. &ldquo;</figcaption></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Assistant general manager Gilles Leger admits that cracks are evident in major areas of the Nordiques&rsquo; club&mdash;the players, the hockey department and the front office.&ldquo;All of us in the whole organization,&rdquo; Leger said, &ldquo;from the players on up, must take a very serious look at our collective conscience. We must be ready to recognize our own errors of commission or omission.&ldquo;Everyone realizes,&rdquo; Leger went on, &ldquo;that for each one of us, it&rsquo;s our first time handling an NHL situation. Hopefully, we can correct our mistakes and go on to much better results next season.&rdquo;Commenting on remarks made by head coach Jacques Demers, who had earlier stated that Quebec sports reporters were sometimes &ldquo;violent&rdquo; in their writings and came up with day to day inaccuracies, Leger remarked, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first year for the Quebec press in the NHL also.&rdquo; Then, he laughingly concluded, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t want to go any farther into that hassle.&rdquo;&ldquo;Many of our guys had never before played in a city where the population is over 90 percent French-speaking and they didn&rsquo;t know a word of the language,&rdquo; Leger said.&ldquo;Just in this sense alone, these guys had to make a big adjustment this year. And don&rsquo;t forget that many of our players had never played together before.&rdquo;Leger&rsquo;s remark on Quebec being almost totally French was an obvious reference to defenseman Gerry Hart who was quoted as having said that he would not encourage any young players to come to Quebec if they were from outside the province.&ldquo;Right now, all of our hockey men are on the road scouting for next season,&rdquo; Leger stated. &ldquo;Demers and Andre Boudrias are covering all of the NHL playoffs they can, while Mr. Filion and I are also looking at the other pros and especially the juniors across the country.&rdquo;Chief scout for the Nordiques, George Armstrong, is working the Ontario leagues, while Al Karlander is with the pros, Les Calder has the Western League, Yvon Prud&rsquo;-homme the East and Red Fleming handles the United States college hockey scene.SKATE MARKS: Quebec&rsquo;s minor officials&rsquo; team of Raymond Puchol, Willie Chevalier, Robert Marier, James Cornell and Gaston Filion are working the eastern sector of the NHL playdowns this year beginning with Montreal, Hartford and then on into Buffalo and Boston&hellip;Nordiques&rsquo; goalie Goran Hogosta will spend the summer months in his native Sweden at his chalet in the resort town of Leksand, not too far away from Stockholm&hellip;Hogosta says it&rsquo;s a beautiful area of lakes and mountains where big and small game abound&hellip;His neighbors in Leksand will include NHL Swedish players Lars-Erik (Little Joe) Sjoberg of Winnipeg, Dan Labraaten of Detroit, Per-Olov Brasar of Vancouver, and the Abrahamsson brothers, Tommy and Christer&hellip;The likeable digger, Richie Leduc, who came up with 21 goals this season, has exchanged his hockey stick for a kitchen apron&hellip;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m putting the apron on and letting my wife Joanne take some holidays&hellip;The Leducs have a 15-month-old son, Alexis&hellip;Leduc&rsquo;s stellar play this season has guaranteed him a post on next season&rsquo;s club&hellip;Basking in the Florida sun as a group are Michel Goulet and Pierre Lacroix (two inseparables) as well as Buddy Cloutier, Jacques Richard and trainer Rene Lacasse&hellip;The unflappable Wally Weir has purchased an apartment block in Quebec City and will act as jack of all trades. &#9632;

f0024-01

Nordiques Look Inwards To Correct Mistakes

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div>Not only did Pohan say he&rsquo;s considering firing Cherry, but he&rsquo;s also contemplating the release of general manager Ray Miron from the final two years of his three-year contract.And in the aftermath of Pohan&rsquo;s strong statements, Rockies&rsquo; team captain Rene Robert said that if Cherry were fired, he and other players, including leading scorer Lanny McDonald and Bobby Schmautz, would immediately ask to be traded.But probably the most central thought among fans in Denver regarding Pohan&rsquo;s statements concerns the Rockies&rsquo; future here. There has been lingering concern that Pohan and Imperatore would move the franchise to the Meadowlands in New Jersey and that the dumping of Cherry was the first step toward making that move.Pohan, however, sought to allay those fears. He said that he still considered Denver a potentially good hockey market&mdash;with or without the 46-year-old Cherry.&ldquo;Whatever we do, we do because we&rsquo;re concerned about the long-term viability of the franchise,&rdquo; Pohan said. In Denver? &ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; he said tersely.&ldquo;When you come in dead last, you&rsquo;ve got to look at your situation, that&rsquo;s all,&rdquo; Pohan said.When asked further if the possible firing of Cherry might be an indication that the Rockies were headed elsewhere, Pohan responded: &ldquo;No. Why would we move? Because Cherry says if he&rsquo;s not here, there&rsquo;s no franchise? I think that Denver&rsquo;s going to be a good hockey town&hellip;it concerns me that people would think that way.&ldquo;Our intent is the same as it&rsquo;s been for the last two years. We&rsquo;re not looking to move the team. We&rsquo;re looking to make it a success in Denver. I have yet to meet one person who has not said if you could play close to .500 hockey, you&rsquo;d have a sellout every night&hellip;And I think we&rsquo;d sell out no matter who was behind the bench. Pat Kelly was behind the bench and there were 16,000 people in here when we made the playoffs two years ago.&rdquo;The Rockies&rsquo; failure to show improvement (record-wise) the last half of the season was the main reason for Pohan&rsquo;s concern. The club won only seven of its games during that span.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying that he failed,&rdquo; Pohan said, &ldquo;but there are a lot of things that surprised me that we didn&rsquo;t do better. I was surprised we didn&rsquo;t get more out of our younger players. They seemed to taper off the second half of the season&hellip;Don&rsquo;s a pretty impatient guy when things aren&rsquo;t going right and maybe the way he dealt with that has not been most productive.&rdquo;Is the coaching change imment? &ldquo;No, not really. My mind is open. The real question is what do we have to do to get better. That&rsquo;s the determining factor. Obviously, there&rsquo;s room for improvement.&rdquo;The Rockies underwent numerous personnel changes this season (43 different players), but Pohan did not feel this was a factor since the team was pretty much the same the last half of the season. &ldquo;Maybe he just needs more time to work with what he&rsquo;s got,&rdquo; Pohan allowed.That&rsquo;s exactly the feeling of Cherry, some of the players and the fans.&ldquo;They probably expected when they hired him. that he&rsquo;d take the team from the bottom to the top in one year&rdquo; said Rene Robert. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like eating an apple. You take one bite at a time.&ldquo;If Grapes gets fired, for some reason, I&rsquo;m gonna ask to be traded right away,&rdquo; Robert continued. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s gonna be a real shame if it does happen. I said it when I came here in October (from Buffalo for John Ban Boxmeer), that Grapes was the only reason I would play.&rdquo;Cherry similarly was stunned when he heard Pohan&rsquo;s statements and wants to show what he can do next year with the Rockies.But Cherry&rsquo;s not worried about what he might have to do for employment next season. &ldquo;You ask me how long it would take me to get another job,&rdquo; Cherry said. &ldquo;About 10 minutes.&rdquo;Cherry figures the Rockies are one goalie and about three or four other players away from being able to compete with any team in the NHL.&ldquo;If you think all this talk bothers me,&rdquo; Cherry said, &ldquo;it doesn&rsquo;t. All it&rsquo;s done is drive the players and the fans into my comer.&rdquo;And regardless of what final decision Pohan will make, Cherry was right about that.For more details on the Cherry-Pohan dispute, see Some Other Views on page 8. &#9632;

Rockies’ President Pohan May Fire Don Cherry

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02343/4723380-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="624" height="632"><figcaption class="caption-body">Normand. Dube of Nova Scotia won the individual scoring title with 101 points in 77 games.</figcaption></div>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Normand Dube, a seven-year veteran left winger on loan to the Nova Scotia Voyageurs from the Quebec Nordiques, captured the American Hockey League scoring championship this season with 101 points.The 28-year-old Dube battled teammate Keith Acton and New Haven&rsquo;s Bill Lochead coming down the stretch before winning the title and the John B. Sollenberger Trophy.Acton was runner-up to Dube, with 99 points, and Gordie Clark of Maine and Bruce Boudreau of New Brunswick tied for third place with 90 points each. Clark had the distinction of leading the AHL in goals with 47 while Dube was the top playmaker with 61 assists. Lochead lost out on his chance at the scoring title when he was recalled by the New York Rangers in the final two weeks of the schedule.The Maine Mariners&rsquo; goaltending team of Rick St. Croix and Robbie Moore came away with the Harry &lsquo;Hap&rsquo; Holmes Memorial Trophy, awarded to the club with the lowest goals-against average. St. Croix had the best individual GA mark with 2.90 while Moore finished at 3.48. Al Jensen of Adirondack led the AHL in saves with 1,568 and Doug Soetaert of New Haven and Voyageurs&rsquo; Rick Sevigny were the shutout kings with three each.Other AHL leaders for the season just completed included Chris Nilan of Nova Scotia, who was the league &lsquo;bad man&rsquo; with 307 penalty minutes; Acton, who was the leading power play scorer with 15 goals, Roland Cloutier of Syracuse, who was No. 1 in shorthanded goals with seven and Lochead, who led in both hat tricks and game winning goals with seven.In team statistics, New Haven led the AHL in goals scored, 350 Rochester was the most penalized club with 2,137 minutes, New Brunswick scored the most power play goals, 86, and Syracuse led in shorthanded goals with 16. &#9632;

f0025-02

Dube AHL’s Scoring Champ; Maine Duo Top Goaltenders

SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Bruce Landon has been named as the recipient of the Ken McKenzie award, given each year to the outstanding publicist in the American Hockey League.The 30-year-old Landon, a former goaltender with the WHA New England Whalers from 1972 to 1977 is the third winner of the award. Mike Emrick of the Maine Mariners won it in 1977-78 and Roy Mlakar of New Haven was the 1978-79 winner. &#9632;

Landon Wins AHL Award

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSNEW HAVEN&mdash;The Nighthawks rode their scoring power to their first regular season title in the American Hockey League, winning two of their final three games to finish the season with 101 points.New Haven, which led the AHL in goals with 350 also opened the quarterfinals on a positive note by downing the Adirondack Red Wings, 4-1 and 4-2, proving that their sometimes porous defense can keep the opposition at bay.The Nighthawks clinched the AHL title with a 7-6 victory over Binghampton, lost 4-2 at Hershey and then rewarded a New Haven gathering of 6,382 fans with a 5-3 victory over Rochester. The some-times fickle Nighthawk supporters were on their feet with an ovation for the local squad when they successfully killed off a two-man Rochester power play advantage.Despite the competition of the Hartford Whalers and the telecasting of National Hockey League games, the crowd of 6,000-plus for a mid-week contest is a great sign for the Nighthawks. This year&rsquo;s attendance was the second best in club history and the team will show huge profit this season, at least by minor league standards.Rookie defenseman Tom Laidlaw, recently signed by the parent N.Y. Rangers from Northern Michigan University and right winger Dan Makuch were added to the roster just prior to the playoffs. Meanwhile defenseman Dan Clark sat out a three-game suspension following a stick-swinging incident in Syracuse.NEW BRUNSWICK: The Northern Division titlists temporarily lost some key players but roared into the playoffs with a full head of steam.The Toronto Maple Leafs recalled defenseman Greg Hotham and forward/defenseman Ron Wilson for the rail-end of their season, but then returned Hotham five days later. Center Jimmy Jones was also missing from the lineup with an injury, but was expected back shortly.Down the home stretch the &lsquo;Hawks managed a 5-5 tie with Springfield and skated to victories over Springfield, Adirondack and a 4-3 decision against the Maine Mariners. That victory ended the Mariners&rsquo; hopes for a third consecutive Northern crown.In the playoffs, New Brunswick continued their momentum, opening their quarterfinal series with fourth-place Adirondack with 3-1 and 4-1 triumphs led by the scoring exploits of center Bruce Boudreau, who scored a pair of goals in both games.MAINE: Though unsuccessful in the defense of their division title and relegated to third place by Nova Scotia, the Mariners regrouped to post a 3-2 victory over Nova Scotia on Halifax ice in the opener of their best-of-seven quarterfinal.This was a complete reversal from the team&rsquo;s form at the end of the regular season, when they struggled to a 3-3 tie at Rochester, lost that key home contest to New Brunswick and dropped a 6-3 decision to Hershey.NOVA SCOTIA: The Vovaeeurs&rsquo; hid to edge out New Brunswick for the Northern Division crown came up just a bit short, though they managed to catch Maine and capture second place by virtue of two more victories, though the teams had the same number of points. Nova Scotia could have played a postponed game against New Brunswick, but since they were three points behind the frontrunners the contest wasn&rsquo;t necessary.The Voyageurs held the home-ice advantage for their series with Maine, but lost it in the very first game, a 3-2 setback.ADIRONDACK: The Red Wings nearly missed out on the playoffs when they dropped three straight starts in the final week and a half, but they reversed their slide in time to drop Springfield 4-3 and Binghamton 5-1 to finish in fourth place in the Northern Division by one point.Now the bad news: The Red Wings drew New Brunswick as a quarterfinal opponent and lost the first two games.SPRINGFIELD: When Jean Savard scored two goals and Terry Richardson backstopped the Indians to a 4-3 win over Adirondack on the next to last weekend of the regular schedule, Springfield&rsquo;s playoff spot seemed secure. But the Indians dropped four consecutive one-goal games against New Brunswick, Nova Scotia (twice) and then the big one to Adirondack, to close out the season on a sour note, missing the playoffs by one point.HERSHEY: The Bears finished in second place behind New Haven in the week Southern Division. As the season wound down, Hershey edged New Haven 4-2 at home and defeated Maine 6-3, also at the Hersheypark Arena. In the win over New Haven, Dave Parro made 34 saves and was named Star of the Night by the local media. A crowd of 5,707 saw the Bears spot New Haven an early 1-0 lead and then roar back with three goals in less than four minutes. Mike Haworth tied it at 1-1, then 16 seconds later Harvey Pocza put the Bears ahead to stay. Doug Gibson&rsquo;s goal made it 3-1. Later in the game Tony Cassolato also lit the red light for Hershey.Player-coach Gibson score a in seven straight games toward the end of the campaign. Claude NoelEddy Godin and Lou Franceschetti also were hot, enabling Hershey to beat off a late drive by Syracuse for second place.The Bears then drew Syracuse as a first-round opponent and got the jump on the Firebirds with a 5-3 win at home and a victory by the same score in Syracuse.SYRACUSE: All road playoff games will be broadcast live to the fans in the Syracuse area and home games will be shown on local cable TV by three cable operators. Al Kalter will do the radio broadcasts and will also handle the play-by-play commentary on the cable-casts.The Firebirds won three in a row at the end of the season and flew by Rochester into third place. They defeated the hapless Binghamton Dusters 6-5 in Binghamton, edged those same Dusters 3-2 in Syracuse and blew out Rochester 6-1 at the Syracuse War Memorial. Unfortunately, two of their best players were injured in the process of winning those games. Defenseman John Baby suffered knee ligament damage and is through for the year. Center John Stewart collided with a teammate and broke a rib. He will hopefully play later in the Calder Cup series John Sm and Blair Stewart have also be bothered with injuries.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01491/4723349-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="530" height="724"><figcaption class="caption-body">New Brunswick, center Br Boudreau connected for five goals in his first two play games.</figcaption></div>BINGHAMTON: For 15 years Darryl Edestrand was a professional hockey player, including this season as a member of the Dusters. He has decided to call it quits, apparently realizing that the time is right. It must have been a long season for the veteran after skating in the NHL with St. Louis, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.The Dusters played out the remainder of the schedule and lost all three games during the week. They were beaten twice by Syracuse and then returned home before 3,110 to drop a wild high-scoring contest to New Haven. Neither side played any defense as New Haven skated to a 7-6 victory. &#9632;

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Nighthawks’ Offense Still Sizzling; New Brunswick Gains Late Momentum

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSIt was Tim Bernhardt&rsquo;s first professional shutout which wrapped up the No. 4 spot for Birmingham, a 3-0 triumph over Tulsa, where he spent his rookie season last winter. Larry Sacharuk got the only goal the Bulls needed in the first period. Gord Wappel, another former Oiler, scored in the second period, and Barry Smith hit the empty net with five seconds to playThe Oilers got revenge, 4-2, the next night. Barry Smith got the opening goal for Birmingham, but Gordon Smith (no relation) scored twice for Tulsa, and Bud Stefanski also counted in a three-goal first-period outburst. Bobby Gould narrowed the deficit for Birmingham in the first 27 seconds of the last period, but Ben Gosselin added a late insurance goal for Tulsa.INDIANAPOLIS: Two home victories over Dallas, including a 5-0 shutout for Richard Brodeur, clinched second place for the Checkers. It didn&rsquo;t matter that they took a 3-1 loss in Dallas to close out the schedule.It took Ed Pizunski&rsquo;s slapshot from the right circle after 2:54 of overtime to win the Tuesday game, 5-4, after the Hawks rallied from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits.Garth MacGuigan scored twice to back up Brodeur&rsquo;s perfect goaltending in the Thursday rematch. His first-period tally was his eighth winning goal of the season, giving Garth the final league leadership in that category. Alex McKendry scored his 40th goal late in the game.Shutout No. 4 for Brodeur was his first start since a knee injury suffered in Houston, Mar. 19, had sidelined him for nearly three weeks.Kevin Devine&rsquo;s second-period goal was all the Checkers could muster against Ken Ellacott in Dallas. Checker goalie Jim Park blanked the Hawks for one period, lowering his goals-against average to 3.00 and clinching a bonus. Brodeur played the last two periods, and wound up with a league-leading 2.88 average, nipping Oklahoma City&rsquo;s Louis Levasseur by one-hundredth of a point for the CHL leadership. Brodeur and Park gave up a total of only 238 goals in 80 games to win the CHL&rsquo;s Terry Sawchuk Trophy. They yielded 18 fewer goals than Tulsa, runnerup for the trophy.The two home victories ran the Checkers&rsquo; string to eight straight in Market Square Arena.FORT WORTH: The Texans stayed alive in the second-place battle by whipping Oklahoma City, 6-4 and 8-3, at home. But they had to travel to Salt Lake to close the schedule, and suffered 9-1 and 11-5 setbacks.The Texans rallied with five goals in the last period for the first win over OC, but they lost no time in taking command in the rematch. They had a 5-0 lead in the first period, with Don Saleski getting two of the goals. Dave Watson also scored twice in the victory.Friday in Salt Lake the Texans were down, 8-0, before Watson spoiled Doug Grant&rsquo;s shutout bid at 9:35 of the last period. Dean Turner and Gary Dillon each scored twice the next night, but the Eagles were scoring in wholesale quantities.It was the sixth straight road loss for Ron Ullyot&rsquo;s Texans, who had won four straight on home ice.HOUSTON: The Apollos closed out the schedule with two victories&mdash;a 2-1 overtime game in Oklahoma City and a 7-4 home triumph over Dallas&mdash;as they clinched the last playoff berth. But their hopes of finishing fifth were squelched by a 7-5 home loss to Salt Lake.Down 5-0 in the first period, Houston closed the gap to 5-4 against Salt Lake, but couldn&rsquo;t get any closer. Goalie Bob Dupuis was replaced by Don Cutts after yielding the first four goals.It was John Hilworth&rsquo;s goal after 5:07 of overtime that won in Oklahoma City, after Tom Roulston had tied the game in the third period. Dean Magee&rsquo;s hat trick rallied the Apollos to victory against Dallas. He scored two of the Apollos&rsquo; tallies in a four-goal third-period comeback. Houston had trailed, 3-0, with the game less than three minutes old.TULSA: The Oilers, who had lost eight straight road games, won their last two to clinch the fifth playoff spot. They edged Oklahoma City, 2-1, at home to start the final week, with goalie Lindsay Middlebrook the key factor.Their playoff hopes were mmed when Tim Bernhardt shut it the Oilers in Birmingham, 3-0, it the Oilers bounced back for a 2 win in Birmingham, then than ed Oklahoma City, 6-5, in a game flat meant nothing. For the final time assistant coach Bob Guindon as behind the bench, and Yves eschene, a junior from Quebec city, was in goal. Junior right wing Tom Gibson from Niagara Falls joined the club.Dale Yakiwchuk and Mark Heaslip scored in the Tuesday victory over OC. After failing to score in 60 minutes in Birmingham Thursday, the Oilers got three goals in the first 19 minutes&mdash;two of them by defenseman Gordon Smith&mdash;to take charge Friday.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01513/4723435-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="588" height="942"><figcaption class="caption-body">Birmingham&rsquo;s Tim Bernhardt helped secure fourth place with his first professional shutout.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

Expansion vs. Establishment In CHL Playoffs

Returning home, they rallied with two goals in the final period&mdash;by Gerry Minor and Dave Ross&mdash;for the victory.Minor had two goals as the Hawks jumped in front, 3-0, at Houston, but they couldn&rsquo;t match the Apollos&rsquo; two-goal burst in the third, as Dean Magee clinched his hat trick.Brad Gasoff added seven penalty-minutes the final week to boost his league-leading total to 353, with no serious challengers.OKLAHOMA CITY: &ldquo;It was those last five games in five straight nights that did us in,&rdquo; said Stars&rsquo; president Lefty McFadden. &ldquo;The boys were just exhausted.&rdquo;In the next-to-last week of the regular season the Stars climbed briefly into sixth place, when Jim Corsi posted a 4-0 shutout in Birmingham. But they lost the next seven games, four of them on the road, and failed to make the playoffs.The skid started the night after Corsi&rsquo;s shutout, when the Stars bowed in Birmingham, 5-2. They lost at home to Indianapolis the next night by the same score. In the hectic final week they suffered a 2-1 Tuesday loss in Tulsa, lost in Fort Worth, 6-4, on Wednesday, and again, 8-3, on Thursday, dropped a 2-1 overtime game to Houston at home Friday, then fell again to Tulsa at home, 6-5, on Saturday.The Stars couldn&rsquo;t score on Oiler Lindsay Middlebrook for 53:26 on Tuesday. Joe Contini got the lone goal for OC. With Jon Fontas contributing two goals, the Stars moved in front of Fort Worth in the first game, 3-1, after two periods but couldn&rsquo;t hold the lead. In the rematch the Texans were on top, 5-0, after one period. A late OC rally featured two goals by rookie Dino Ciccarelli.Contini needed only 21 seconds to score against Houston, but the Apollos tied it up and won on John Hilworth&rsquo;s overtime goal. In the final game of the season, Rob Flockhart had two goals and the Stars took an early 3-1 lead, but faltered. Goalie Corsi, defenseman Don Jackson, and forwards Flockhart, Ciccarelli and Tony White were called up by the Minnesota North Stars for the NHL playoffs. &#9632;

Eagles Mullen Soars To 40-Goal Year

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSKALAMAZOO&mdash;The International Hockey League doesn&rsquo;t play overtime games during the regular season anymore. Only in playoffs. But the 80-game regular season was almost forced into overtime this year before a league champion could be crowned and the eight team playoff field completed.The Kalamazoo K-Wings finally wrapped up the Huber trophy, symbolic of the league&rsquo;s best over the 80-game grind. But it wasn&rsquo;t until Kalamazoo&rsquo;s 79th game that the trophy was theirs. The K-Wings, who won the Turner Cup last season by eliminating Huber trophy champion Grand Rapids in a seven-game championship series, had never won the regular season title before.And it&rsquo;s with mixed emotions that the K-Wings reflect on the regular season title. League history would indicate the K-Wings will not successfully defend their Turner Cup championship, the prize for surviving post-season competition.Only five times during the league&rsquo;s 34 year history has a team won back-to-back playoff championships. The most recent double was recorded by Ted Garvin when he steered the Port Huron Flags to Turner Cup championships in 1971 and 1972. Other teams to win back-to-back playoff championships were Dayton in 1969-70, St. Paul in 1960-61, and Toledo in 1951-52. The record for consecutive playoff championships is held by the old Cincinnati Mohawks who won five straight Turner Cups from 1953 through &rsquo;57.Another negative factor for Kalamazoo is the fact that winning double championships in the same season hasn&rsquo;t become a habit in the IHL. Over the last 10 seasons only four teams have won the league and playoff championships in the same season. Saginaw was the most recent double champ in 1977.The trophy-clinching victory for Kalamazoo came at home over Toledo by a 7-2 score. A standing room only crowd of 5,239 was in Wings Stadium for the historic event. The victory boosted the K-Wing point total to 98 and the Wings added one more with a season-ending tie on the road at Dayton.Saginaw finished second in the North Division as well as in the overall race with 96 points. The Gears lost their chance at a first place finish by losing two of their final three games.In the closest race in the league&rsquo;s history, all 10 teams were still in the playoff picture with two games remaining. Dayton slipped into oblivion in its 79th game and Muskegon squeezed into the final playoff berth on the final day of the season with a 3-2 victory at Grand Rapids. Had the Owls won they would have been the eighth team in the playoffs. Muskegon and Grand Rapids each finished with 66 points but Muskegon qualified by posting more victories, 29 to 27.Qualifying for the playoffs may just have saved the Muskegon franchise. At least that&rsquo;s what spokesmen close to the Muskegon scene were saying. A good showing in the playoffs most likely will guarantee the Mohawks&rsquo; return for the 1980-81 season.Fort Wayne, which had wrapped up the South Division championship long before the final weeks of the season, slipped into third place Overall by beating Flint in its final game, 5-3. The win gave the Komets 93 points, one more than Port Huron, which dropped its final game at Saginaw, 6-3.Flint, which appeared to have the most momentum as the playoffs opened, finished fifth in the overall race with 83 points. The Generals put together a six-game winning streak before losing their final game at Fort Wayne.Following Flint was Toledo with 74 points. Milwaukee, which won a very important road game at Dayton, 6-3, during its drive for a playoff berth, finished in seventh with 69 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01491/4723490-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="540" height="860"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Reeves packs a lot wallop for a little guy. Top 5&rsquo;7&rdquo; Muskegon center score 106 points for a team that finished last in its division.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0027-01

Kalamazoo Wins First Huber Trophy; Dayton, Grand Rapids Come Up Short

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSNisker paced the Rifles with 46 goals and 42 assists despite playing only 55 games and teammate Twiss gave Richmond one of the best defenses with his excellent play on the back line.Weaver shook off a late season injury and sparked Baltimore to their second place finish. Clipper center Young shared goal-scoring honors with MacQueen, both players netting 53, and the 24-year-old Taylor contributed 48 goals and 34 assists.Clarke, an IHL All Star last year, had 44 goals and 34 assists to make the second team along with teammate Feter in his first year of professional hockey after spending 15 years with the Polish National Team.The 22-year-old Tebbutt solidified the Erie defense and also added scoring punch, as his 20 goals and 53 assists attest.Both Mickey and Ubriaco were awarded Coach of the Year honors, Mickey guiding Utica to a playoff spot the last two seasons, Ubriaco piloting the Clippers to second place in their inaugural year. Down by as many as 18 points, Polano masterminded Erie&rsquo;s second straight title.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a real good honor,&rdquo; said Mickey. &ldquo;There are a few things that are important, number one, I&rsquo;ve got to thank (Utica owner) Bob Payne for giving me the opportunity to coach; secondly I have to thank my players and third I have to thank my peers. I think it&rsquo;s a great honor when it&rsquo;s voted on by the other coaches in the league.&rdquo;Erie owner Doctor John Caruso issued a harsh statement over the Coach of the Year balloting. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s embarrassing,&rdquo; said Caruso. &ldquo;No offense to either Mickey or Ubriaco because they both did a fine job behind the bench, but Mickey&rsquo;s team did have a losing record and Ubriaco had the help of the Minnesota North Stars in formulating his team. My guy (Polano) did it alone, without the benefit of solid working agreements. It&rsquo;s unfortunate that the voters turned this into a popularity contest and over-looked the great job that Nick had done here.&rdquo; &#9632;

Blades, Rifles Dominate Top EHL Performers

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03255/4723545-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0028-03

EHL All Stars

The defending league titleholders walloped the Baltimore Clippers 9-4 in the start of their best-of-seven championship series and if Nick Polano&rsquo;s Blades go all the way, it will mark two years running they have won the spoils.The Blades are fresh from their four-game sweep of the Utica Mohawks in EHL semi-finals as they outscored their rivals 35-11 in a show of power that makes them the big favorites to annex the playoff title after romping through the regular league schedule in first place.The Blades blitzed Utica 14-1 in the series opener and it was an apparent sign of things to come. Erie went on to win three more in succession, 6-1, 7-4 and 8-5 concluding the series by finishing off the Mohawks on Utica ice.The Blades&rsquo; foes in the finals, the Baltimore Clippers, also had it easy in their best-of-seven semi-final series disposing of Richmond Rifles 4-1 in games.The Clippers won the first three games of the series, all by scores of 4-3, and seemed on their way to a sweep when the Rifles rallied to pull out a 4-2 win on Richmond ice. But then it was back to Baltimore where the Clippers finished off the series winning 5-3 for the right to advance against Erie in the championship finals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02343/4723583-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="582" height="872"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01487/4723576-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="582" height="844"><figcaption class="caption-body">Left winger Stan Gulutzan top, was one of three Erie first team All Stars, while defenseman Ron Twiss was chosen from Richmond.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-02

Erie Draws First Blood In Title Bid

JOHNSTOWN&mdash;The EHL got some bad news when the NHL&rsquo;s Detroit Red Wings announced they were ending their affiliation with minor league hockey because of a major reorganization shuffle. The move will severe the Wings&rsquo; ties with Flint and Johnstown, where Detroit owned 51 percent of the team.The announcement caught commissioner Bill Beagan by surprise, but he indicated that it was not a setback to the league. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it will be difficult at all to get another NHL team to go to Johnstown,&rdquo; said the EHL boss. &ldquo;They have good local ownership in Johnstown and I have all the confidence in the world that hockey will remain in Johnstown. They did very well at the gate despite a bad season.&rdquo;The Red Wings ended their season at 24-45-1 with a pair of road losses in Erie. The Blades ripped Johnstown 15-0 and followed that up with a 6-3 triumph over the Flood City crew. Johnstown&rsquo;s Wes George had a pair of goals. Dave MacQueen led the circuit in scoring, with Pierre Tremblay and Colin Ahern also finishing in the top 20, netting 75 and 74 points, respectively. &#9632;

Wings Fly Johnstown

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01421/4723638-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

Buffalo’s Two Goalies Capture Vezina Trophy

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BROPHY</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSPETERBOROUGH&mdash;If the Leyden Division were to be made into a movie, as the credits rolled by, the three big stars would likely be Jim Fox, Yvon Joly and Sean Simpson. The trio from the Ottawa 67s were the top-scoring line in the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League and deserve star billing.But if you looked very closely in the credits as the extras flashed onto the screen, you might notice three lesser-knowns: Dave Beckon, Jim Wiemer and Brad Ryder. It is this threesome from the Peterbo-rough Petes that has been stealing the spotlight so far. They have made Peterborough&rsquo;s quest for a third straight shot at the Memorial Cup playoffs look easy. The Petes&rsquo; lost in the Memorial Cup to the New Westminster Bruins two years ago but beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 2-1 in overtime last year.The Petes have built an early lead in their best-of-seven Leyden Division final with the 67s and it has been mainly because of the outstanding checking job that Beckon, Wiemer and Ryder have done on the 67s&rsquo; big line. In two games, the Petes have held the high scoring 67s to only two goals, beating them 4-1 in game one and 2-1 in overtime in game two.Nobody has been as surprised about the 67s lack of punch as Wiemer, the Petes&rsquo; burly left winger assigned to keep Joly bottled up.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got wheels&hellip;jeez they&rsquo;ve got wheels,&rdquo; said Wiemer of the OMJHL&rsquo;s top scoring unit. &ldquo;And there&rsquo;s no doubt that they can put the puck in the net. But they aren&rsquo;t very good in their own end and that&rsquo;s where we have to get on them. We can&rsquo;t let them bring the puck up and get set up in our zone.&rdquo;While throwing a blanket over Ottawa in the 67s&rsquo; zone, Wiemer also managed to score two goals in the opening game. John Beuke-boom and Larry Floyd had the others. Fox scored for the 67s on the power play.&ldquo;The only way we&rsquo;re going to beat this team is to stay on them all the time,&rdquo; said Beckon, who was selected the top defensive forward and best penalty killer in the league in a coaches&rsquo; poll. &ldquo;We have to slow the pace down and not freewheel it. We just don&rsquo;t have the offensive power to match them. This means more responsibility for our line but I feel we can do it.&rdquo;It sure looks that way. In the first game, the 67s were held to only 23 shots on the Peterborough goal. Petes&rsquo; goaltender Rick LaFerriere won the OMJHL goaltender&rsquo;s race this year and has proven that it takes more than 23 shots to beat him.In the second game, played in Ottawa, the 67s managed only 28 shots at LaFerriere. Again it was a strong checking job done by the Petes that kept the score low.Sean Simpson had given Ottawa a 1-0 lead with a power play goal in the first period but the Petes countered, with Mark Reeds scoring early in the third and Gardner at 1:29 of the first overtime period.Meanwhile. Windsor also jumped into a quick lead in their Emms Division final with the Brantford Alexanders, winning the opener 4-3 in overtime and trouncing Brantford 7-3 in game two.Steve Peters, who has had trouble pleasing coach Wayne Maxner since being traded to Windsor from Oshawa, scored twice, including the overtime marker in the first game while Brent Jarrett and Blair Barnes had singles. Kevin LaVallee scored two for the Alexanders with Mark Botell adding a single.In the second game, Barnes had three goals while Ernie Godden had two and Claude Julien and Vic Morin had one each. Mike Bullard, Rick Nattress and Dave Miles scored for Brantford.Earlier in the season 67s&rsquo; coach Brian Kilrea called his club the team to beat. Now he is baffled as to why they are the team that is getting beat.&ldquo;It looks like we&rsquo;re going to have to get some guys who want to win more than the guys do now,&rdquo; said a disappointed Kilrea following Game Two. &ldquo;It almost looks like the guys have lost whatever they had. We aren&rsquo;t doing the things we used to do.&ldquo;At one time, our club looked like we were a championship team. Now we aren&rsquo;t anywhere near that level. It&rsquo;s not in my hands. The coach can only change lines. If the team doesn&rsquo;t want to play hockey, there&rsquo;s nothing I can do.&rdquo;Both the Petes and 67s were given a run for their money in their opening rounds with, respectively, the Sudbury Wolves and Oshawa Generals. At one point the Petes trailed Sudbury 2-1 in games in their best-of-seven semifinal series while the 67s, who were expected to win in four straight, were pushed to seven games.The Generals forced a seventh game in the series when they outscored Ottawa 8-6 in Oshawa. Rugged forward Dan Lane, who coach Paul Therialt previously said would not play for Oshawa again after being suspended for spearing, came back and led the team with two goals. Overage player Barry McQuaid, Kurt Pearson, John Campbell and captain Bobby Crawford had singles.Doug Crossman, Doug Smith, Joly, Kevin Konings and John Linesman replied for the 67s.In the final game, Ottawa built a 4-3 second period lead and went on to win 5-4 before over 9,000 fans at the Ottawa Civic Center. Fox, Joly, Simpson, Bill Kitchen and Chris Veno scored for the 67s while McQuaid, Peter Horachek, Mitch Lameroux and Rick Lanz scored for Oshawa.One of the biggest disappointments this season has been the poor showing of the Niagara Falls Flyers. The Flyers were expected to be one of the toughest teams in the league this year after pushing the Petes to seven games (they led 3-1 at one point) in the league finals last year.With the exception of Steve Larmer, however, the veterans have not come through for the Flyers and it was no surprise to see them bopped out of the playoffs by the hungrier Windsor Spitfires.The Flyers hung up their skates for the season after losing 5-4 and dropping their Emms Division semifinal series 4-1 to Windsor. Brent Jarrett paced the Spits with a pair of goals while Barnes, Jim Burton and Ernie Godden scored singles. Mark Osborne, Jim Jackson, Darryl Evans and Kevin McClelland had the Flyers&rsquo; goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01471/4723669-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="546" height="908"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Wiemer helped to shut down the 67s&rsquo; big line and scored twice for Peterborough.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Peterborough’s Checking Halts Ottawa Attack

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSMEDICINE HAT&mdash;Over the course of the Western Hockey League&rsquo;s 72-game regular season, the Portland Winter Hawks and Regina Pats established themselves as the best clubs in the Western and Eastern divisions, respectively.Both clubs learned in a hurry that what you did yesterday is not important. It&rsquo;s what you accomplish today that counts.And, suddenly, the Winter Hawks are on the outside looking in, while the Pats are hanging on for dear life.The demise of the Winter Hawks came about in the three-team Western division double home-and-home 12-game round robin semifinal series. If you understand what that means, read on.After 11 games, the Victoria Cougars had a record of five wins and two losses, the Seattle Breakers were 3-4 and Portland was 3-5. And the final game had Victoria visiting Seattle.A Seattle victory would put the Breakers, a distant third in the regular season, and the second-place Cougars into the West&rsquo;s best of seven division final.And that&rsquo;s exactly what happened, as the Breakers scored a 65 victory. The Cougars outshot their hosts 49-35, but trailed 2-1 and 4-3 at the period break.The Cougars were without the services of center Barry Pederson, their leading scorer and, with 140 points, No. 3 in the WHL. Pederson was suspended for one game by the team in the wake of a statement made on a Portland television station.General manager-coach Jack Shupe of the Cougars said the decision to suspend Pederson was in &ldquo;the best interests of the Victoria hockey club.&rdquo;Pederson was reported to have agreed with a statement on television that the Cougars might throw that last game to Seattle, allowing the Breakers to advance to the division finals. A Seattle loss would have meant a sudden-death playoff game between the Breakers and Winter Hawks, with the winner advancing.Basically the same situation was shaping up in the three-team Eastern division six-game round robin. With two games to play, the Medicine Hat Tigers were 2-0 while the Pats and Brandon Wheat Kings were both 1-2.The last two games were both slated for Medicine Hat, and it appeared that the Tigers would end up having a say about what team they would meet in the East final.If the Tigers were to win the last two games, Regina and Brandon would have to play a sudden death game. But, if the Tigers beat the Pats and then the Wheat Kings got past the Tigers, it would be a Brandon-Medicine Hat final, with the Tigers enjoying the luxury of having the extra home game.Tigers&rsquo; coach and general manager Pat Ginnell says: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had as much success playing Regina, more so than we have had against Brandon. We want to beat them both and then let them fight it out themselves.&rdquo;Brandon, which won its quarterfinal round with a 10-3 seventh-game victory over the Wranglers in Calgary, dropped its first two round robin games&mdash;6-3 to the Pats in Regina, and 3-2 to the Tigers in Brandon. Then, needing a victory to stay alive, the Wheat Kings doubled the Pats, 6-3 in Brandon.The Tigers, meanwhile, surprised the Pats 7-6 in Regina, on Brant Kiessig&rsquo;s goal just 49 seconds in overtime.The Tigers advanced to the round robin semifinals with a 3-2 triumph over the Billings Bighorns in the seventh game of that series.The Victoria Cougars continued their WHL mastery in the postseason All Star selections placing four players on the two teams.Goaltender Grand Fuhr, left wing Greg Adams, defenseman Mark Robinson and center Barry Pederson were the four Victoria players selected on the combined first and second teams.WHL scoring champion Doug Wickenheiser of Regina was the only unanimous selection on the first team.Here&rsquo;s how the WHL All Star teams looked:On the first team, it was Fuhr in goal, David Babych of Portland and Darren Veitch of Regina on defense; Wickenheiser was at center with Jim Dobson of Portland at right wing and Florent Robidoux, also of Portland, and Victoria&rsquo;s Adams tied for the right wing spot.On the second team Andy Moog of Billings was named goaltender, Jim McTaggart of Billings and Robinson of Victoria on defense, Pederson at center, Don Gillen of Brandon at right wing and two players tied for left wing, Mike Blaisdell of Regina and Ken Solheim of Medicine Hat.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01435/4723738-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="586" height="912"><figcaption class="caption-body">Regina&rsquo;s Doug Wickenheiser was the only unanimous pick for the WHL&rsquo;s first All Star team.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Hawks Get Early Start On Spring; Victoria Dominates WHL All Stars

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02306/4723769-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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WHL All Star Teams

<div class="byline">BY DANNY YOUNG</div>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSLOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKSSHERBROOKE&mdash;Though on the verge of advancing to the finals, all is not well with the Sherbrooke Beavers. Disciplinary action taken by the league for a brawl that broke out during the warm-ups before the third game of their semifinal series against Montreal left the Beavers without coach Ghislain Delage and defenseman Richard Larocque.During the series, Sherbrooke had been attempting to restrain Montreal star Denis Savard through tight checking and intimidation. Larocque extended this policy to the warm-up by greeting Savard with some verbal intimidation. Then when Larocque pushed Savard, both teams joined in an unfriendly meeting at center ice.League rules call for compulsory team fines and suspensions for the coaches in matters such as this one. Each team must pay $5,000, and Delage and Montreal coach Jacques St. Jean were suspended for five games. In addition, Larocque was banned for the remainder of the playoffs for his role as the aggressor. Needless to say, the Beavers were not pleased with the ruling.&ldquo;I find it very severe,&rdquo; said Delage. &ldquo;They had a rule in the book that the coach has to be suspended so I can&rsquo;t say anything about that. But we&rsquo;re going to make an appeal on Larocque. It was only a little thing. I think a three-game suspension would have been more appropriate.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to kick a guy out like that,&rdquo; said team governor George Guilbault, implying that Larocque, who was also suspended during last year&rsquo;s playoffs, was an easy target.&ldquo;Larocque had a great season,&rdquo; continued Guilbault. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s calmed down under Delage&rsquo;s coaching. He had no misconducts. Now, he pushes someone in warm-ups and gets set down for the playoffs. That&rsquo;s too much.&rdquo;With Guilbault behind the bench for Game Four of the series, the Beavers were flat during the first two periods but came to life in the third. Trailing 4-3, the Beavers outscored Montreal 7-1 in the final period to win, 10-5. That victory gave them a 3-1 lead in games and all but eliminated Montreal from the playoffs.Perhaps with the suspension in mind, the Beavers relied less on a physical game to defeat Montreal.&ldquo;In the first and second period, they didn&rsquo;t use the body,&rdquo; said Guilbault. &ldquo;In the third, they didn&rsquo;t have to because they always had the puck.&rdquo;Serge Boisvert was the star of the game with two goals and three assists. On the night of the Larocque affair, Boisvert led the Beavers with a hat trick in an 11-1 destruction of Montreal. Boisvert&rsquo;s improved play is most encouraging for the Beavers.&ldquo;The big guy for us has been Boisvert,&rdquo; said Guilbault. &ldquo;Five goals in two games and he&rsquo;s skating. He&rsquo;s really on top of his game.&rdquo;The Beavers won the first game of the series, 8-3, but lost the second, 4-3. That was only the team&rsquo;s fourth loss in the last 27 games. Playing extremely well, the Beavers&rsquo; biggest problem now is dealing with the absence of their coach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really frustrated,&rdquo; says Delage, &ldquo;you work with the team for eight months, and now I&rsquo;ll miss the first three games of the finals.&rdquo;As a suspended coach, Delage is communicating with Guilbault and the players as much as is legally permissable, and is confident the team will respond positively.MONTREAL: The Juniors&rsquo; best performance of their series with Sherbrooke was the 4-3 win at the Forum. Jeff Barratt was outstanding in the nets, while Denis Cyr, who has been great throughout the playoffs, scored two goals to lead that win. Montreal has suffered greatly from the absence of injured centerman Mike Krushelynski.CORNWALL: After the Cornwall Royals and Chicoutimi Sagueneens had each played 10 playoff games, both teams are undefeated at home and winless on the road. In the semifinal series between the two clubs, the Royals won the first two games in Cornwall, and the Sags took the third game played in Chicoutimi.Game One was a real thriller. Chicoutimi&rsquo;s Alain Lemieux scored midway through the third period, sending the game into overtime. But Newell Brown scored for Cornwall in overtime to give the Royals a 5-4 win.Game Two was much different.The Royals outshot the Sags, 49-25, and glided to an 8-2 victory. Rookie Dale Hawerchuk scored twice to lead the Cornwall attack.In Game Three, the Sags found themselves in a bit of a hole. Trailing two games to none, they fell behind early, 2-0. But then, Chicoutimi&rsquo;s scoring machine went to work, producing seven unanswered goals. The Sags triumphed 9-5. Gilles Hamel and Remi Gagne scored two apiece for Chicoutimi.One of the reasons for Chicoutimi&rsquo;s dominance at home has been the tremendous support of their fans. The team has been drawing standing room only crowds in excess of 5,000 for the playoffs, and the atmosphere is electric.In Cornwall, attendance has also been good. Their last game drew a capacity crowd of 3,900.TROIS-RIVIERES: With the Draveurs out of the playoffs, QMJHL scoring leader Jean-Francois Sauve has joined the Rochester Sabres. Sauve scored a goal in this first game, and reports said that he played very well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01450/4723800-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="592" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Serge Boisvert was a hot hand for Sherbrooke, leading them to the QMJHL finals.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

Disciplinary Action Angers Beavers; Cornwall, Chicoutimi Swap Home Wins

TORONTO&mdash;Hockey&rsquo;s big shooters like to have their names etched into the record books next to the league&rsquo;s &lsquo;important goal scorers.&rsquo; It means they counted most when they were needed.Two such categories are power play goals and game winners. Charlie Simmer of the Los Angeles Kings and Buffalo team captain Danny Gare rank at the top of these two vital scoring departments after the 1979-80 season.Simmer, who shared the NHL goal-scoring lead with Blaine Stoughton of Hartford and Gare, with 56 goals each, also led the league in power play goals with 21. Gare, on the other hand, was No. 1 in game winners with 11.Both Simmer and Gare topped some pretty elite scorers in the two scoring departments this past season. The Kings&rsquo; ace finished four ahead of teammate Marcel Dionne, Gare, Steve Shutt of Montreal and Toronto&rsquo;s Darryl Sittier, all of whom had 17 power play goals. Others in the upper bracket included Soughton, Mike Bossy of the Islanders, and Minnesota&rsquo;s Steve Payne. Each had 16.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01408/4723869-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="602" height="592"><figcaption class="caption-body">Danny Gare</figcaption></div>The Canadiens&rsquo; Guy Lafleur and Bryan Trottier of the Islanders followed with 15 each while Kent Nilsson of Atlanta, Lanny Mcdonald of Colorado, Chicago&rsquo;s Grant Mulvey and Jean Ratelle of Boston had 14 apiece.Simmer&rsquo;s league-leading 21 goals were well below the mark of 27 set last season by Bossy. The Islanders&rsquo; sniper didn&rsquo;t have the same touch this year and ended with 16.Gare&rsquo;s 11 game-winning goals enabled him to finish as the leader in this highly important scoring category ahead of Stoughton and Boston&rsquo;s Peter McNab, who had nine each. Others in the top bracket were Simmer and Bossy with eight, Lafleur, Pierre Larouche and Yvon Lambert of the Canadiens, Dave Taylor of the Kings, Washington&rsquo;s Rolf Edberg, Grant Mulvey and Tom Lysiak of Chicago, and Philadelphia&rsquo;s Reg Leach and Bill Barber, each with seven game winners.In two other important goal categories, Anders Kallur of the Islanders, a rookie, and Leach shared the honor of scoring the most shorthanded goals this season. Both had four goals. Lanny McDonald and Quebec&rsquo;s Real Cloutier each scored five game-tying goals to share the lead in this department.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02289/4723862-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="1246" height="1506"><figcaption class="caption-body">Charlie Simmer of the L.A. Kings had a big year in 1979-80. He shared the NHL lead for goals with 56 and led in power play goals with. 21.</figcaption></div><h2>Important Goal Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03207/4723855-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="1210" height="662"></div> &#9632;

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Simmer, Gare Score Most Key Goals In NHL

<h2>Preliminary Round</h2>SERIES&lsquo;A&rsquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1760/4724169-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="564" height="130"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Edmonton 3 at Philadelphia 4Wed. April 9Edmonton 1 at Philadelphia 5Fri. April 11Philadelphia 3 at Edmonton 2<h2>SERIES &lsquo;B&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1856/4724162-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="560" height="103"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Vancouver 1 at Buffalo 2Wed. April 9Vancouver 0 at Buffalo 6Fri. April 11Buffalo 4 at Vancouver 5Sat. April 12Buffalo 3 at Vancouver 1<h2>SERIES &lsquo;C&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1954/4724155-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="559" height="106"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Hartford. 1 at Montreal 6Wed. April 9Hartford 4 at Montreal 8Fri. April 11Montreal 4 at Hartford 3<h2>SERIES &lsquo;D&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2047/4724148-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="564" height="103"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Pittsburgh 4 at Boston 2Thu. April 10Pittsburgh 1 at Boston 4Sat. April 12Boston 1 at Pittsburgh 4Sun. April 13Boston 8 at Pittsburgh 3GAMES TO COMEMon. April 14Pittsburgh at Boston<h2>SERIES &lsquo;E&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2139/4724141-1-eng-US/f0034-212.jpg" title="f0034-21" width="554" height="108"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Los Angeles 1 at Islanders 8Wed. April 9Los Angeles 6 at Islanders 3Fri. APRIL 11Islanders 4 at Los Angeles 3Sat. April 12Islanders 6 at Los Angeles 0<h2>SERIES &lsquo;F&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2235/4724134-1-eng-US/f0034-222.jpg" title="f0034-22" width="574" height="104"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Toronto 3 at Minnesota 6Wed. April 9Toronto 2 at Minnesota 7Fri. April 11Minnesota 4 at Toronto 3<h2>SERIES &lsquo;G&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2333/4724127-1-eng-US/f0034-232.jpg" title="f0034-23" width="557" height="106"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8St. Louis 2 at Chicago 3Wed. April 9St. Louis 1 at Chicago 5Fri. April 11Chicago 4 at St. Louis 1<h2>SERIES &lsquo;H&rsquo;</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2430/4724120-1-eng-US/f0034-242.jpg" title="f0034-24" width="560" height="105"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Atlanta 1 at Rangers 2Wed. April 9Atlanta 1 at Rangers 5Fri. April 11Rangers 2 at Atlanta 4Sat. April 12Rangers 5 at Atlanta 2 &#9632;

f0034-17

STANLEY CUP SCOREBOARD

ATLANTA&mdash;Lever 1, Houston 1, Plett 1, vail 1, 2, 3, Murdoch 1, Chouinard 1.BOSTON&mdash;O&rsquo;Reilly 1, MacTavlsh 1, Cashman 1, Middleton 1, 2, Marcotte 1, Park 1.BUFFALO&mdash;Smith 1, 2, Perreault 1, 2, Luce 1, Ramsey 1, Martin 1, 2, 3, 4, Seiling 1, 2, Gare 1, Dunn 1, McKegney1.CHICAGO&mdash;Mulvey 1, Bulley 1, 2, Wilson 1, 2, Lecuyer 1, 2, 3, Lysiak 1, Sutter 1, Sedlbauer 1, Murray 1.EDMONTON&mdash;Lumley 1, Gretzky 1, 2, Murdoch 1, 2, Messier 1.HARTFORD&mdash;Mark Howe 1, Newfeld 1, Marty Howe 1, G. Howe, 1, Roberts 1, Boutette 1, Rowe 1, 2.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Palmer 1, Carlson 1, Murphy 1, Taylor 1, 2, Goldup 1, St. Laurent 1, Hardy 1, Simmer 1, 2.MINNESOTA&mdash;Payne 1, 2, Sargent 1, 2, Giles 1, Eaves 1, MacAdam 1, 2, 3, Christoff 1, 2, 3, Hartsburg 1, Young 1, McCarthy 1, 2, Polich 1.MONTREAL&mdash;Lambert 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Engl bom I, Lafleur 1, 2, 3, Chartraw 1, Jarvis 1, Shutt 1, 2, Houle 1, 2, Gingras 1, 2, Gainey 1.ISLANDERS&mdash;Trottier 1, 2, 3, Bossy 1, Bourne 1, 2, 3, Merrick 1, Tonelli 1, 2, Nystrom 1, Lane 1, Morrow 1, Goring 1, 2, Persson 1, Howatt 1, 2, Gillies 1, McKendry 1, 2.RANGERS&mdash;Vickers 1, 2, Esposito 1, 2, Hedberg 1, 2, 3, Beck 1, Dave Maloney 1, 2, Vadnais 1, Talafous 1, Miller 1,Hospodar 1.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Holmgren 1, 2, Linseman 1, Leach 1, 2, Clarke 1, 2, MacLeish 1, Wilson 1, 2, Gorence 1, Propp. 1PITTSBURGH&mdash;Johnson 1, 2, Sheppard 1, McAdam 1, Schutt 1, 2, Lonsberrv 1, 2, Carlyle 1, Kehoe 1, 2, Stackhouse 1.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Patey 1, Babych 1, Turnbull 1, Federko 1.TORONTO&mdash;Boschman 1, Wilson 1, Anderson 1, Vaive 1, Martin 1, 2, Sittier 1, Salming 1.VANCOUVER&mdash;Ashton 1, Manno 1, Lupul 1, Rota 1, 2, McCarthy 1.OVERTIME WINNERS: Lecuyer (Chicago), MacAdam (Minnesota), Lambert (Montreal), Morrow (Islanders), Vickers (Rangers) Clarke (Philadelphia), Linseman (Philadelphia). &#9632;

PLAYOFF SCORERS THIS WEEK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-16" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1666/4724224-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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Stanley Cup Picture

<h2>SERIES &lsquo;A&rsquo;</h2><h3>TUES., APRIL 8 EDMONTON 3, PHILADELPHIA 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01461/4724089-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="572" height="734"></div><h3>Wed. April 9 EDMONTON 1, PHILADELPHIA 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02375/4724082-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="574" height="748"></div><h3>Fri. April 11 PHILADELPHIA 3, EDMONTON 2</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03281/4724075-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="582" height="808"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;B&rsquo;</h2><h3>TUES., APRIL 8 VANCOUVER1, BUFFALO2</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04194/4724068-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="584" height="496"></div><h3>Wed. April 9 VANCOUVER 0, BUFFALO 6</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05149/4724061-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="566" height="748"></div><h3>Fri. April 11 BUFFALO 4, VANCOUVER 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06123/4724054-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="568" height="807"></div><h3>Sat. April 12 BUFFALO 3, VANCOUVER 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07113/4724047-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="563" height="581"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;C&rsquo;</h2><h3>TUES., APRILS HARTFORD 1, MONTREAL 6</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08105/4724040-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="580" height="591"></div><h3>Wed. April 9 HARTFORD 4, MONTREAL 8</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0995/4724033-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="573" height="670"></div><h3>Fri. April 11 MONTREAL 4, HARTFORD 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1092/4724026-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="580" height="704"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;D&rsquo;</h2><h3>TUES., APRIL 8 PITTSBURGH 4, BOSTON 2</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1185/4724019-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="566" height="728"></div><h3>Thu. April 10 PITTSBURGH 1, BOSTON 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1282/4724012-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="560" height="584"></div><h3>Sat. April 12 BOSTON 1, PITTSBURGH 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1373/4724005-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="564" height="658"></div><h3>Sun. April 13 BOSTON 8, PITTSBURGH 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1469/4723998-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="590" height="748"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;E&rsquo;</h2><h3>TUES., APRIL 8 LOS ANGELES 1, ISLANDERS 8</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1566/4723991-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="575" height="726"></div><h3>Wed. April 9 LOS ANGELES t, ISLANDERS 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01437/4723984-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="560" height="690"></div><h3>Fri. April 11 ISLANDERS 4, LOS ANGELES 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02346/4723977-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="572" height="682"></div><h3>Sat. April 12 ISLANDERS 4, LOS ANGELES 0</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03270/4723970-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="562" height="610"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;F&rsquo;</h2><h3>TUES., APRILS TORONTO 4, MINNESOTA 6</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04222/4723963-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="574" height="901"></div><h3>Wed. April 9 TORONTO 2, MINNESOTA 7</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05177/4723956-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="575" height="761"></div><h3>Fri. April 11 MINNESOTA 4, TORONTO 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06158/4723949-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="567" height="874"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;G&rsquo;</h2><h3>ST. LOUIS 2, CHICAGO 3</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07149/4723942-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="566" height="637"></div><h3>Wed, April 9 ST. LOUIS 1, CHICAGO 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08130/4723935-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="577" height="534"></div><h3>Fri. April 11 CHICAGO 4, ST. LOUIS 1</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09124/4723928-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="585" height="572"></div><h2>SERIES &lsquo;H&rsquo;</h2><h3>TUES., APRIL 8 ATLANTA 1, RANGERS 2</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10109/4723921-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="559" height="583"></div><h3>Wed. April 9 ATLANTA 1, RANGERS 5</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11101/4723914-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="623" height="657"></div><h3>Fri. April 11 RANGERS 2, ATLANTA 4</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1289/4723907-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="572" height="748"></div><h3>Sat. April 12 RANGERS 5, ATLANTA 2</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1378/4723900-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="569" height="731"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1464/4724269-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="576" height="1040"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1554/4724262-1-eng-US/f0035-152.jpg" title="f0035-15" width="580" height="1030"></div><h2>Final NHL Penalty Statistics</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1648/4724255-1-eng-US/f0035-162.jpg" title="f0035-16" width="1159" height="658"></div> &#9632;

f0035-14

PLAYOFF SCORING

1&mdash;Montreal2&mdash;Chicago3&mdash;Boston4&mdash;Rangers5&mdash;Detroit6&mdash;Toronto7&mdash;Philadelphia8&mdash;Los Angeles9&mdash;St. Louis10&mdash;Minnesota11&mdash;Pittsburgh13&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>DAYTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2255/4724614-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="554" height="515"></div><h2>FLINT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2352/4724607-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="556" height="516"></div><h2>FORT WAYNE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2450/4724600-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="544" height="467"></div><h2>GRAND RAPIDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2546/4724593-1-eng-US/f0036-252.jpg" title="f0036-25" width="541" height="467"></div><h2>KALAMAZOO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2643/4724586-1-eng-US/f0036-262.jpg" title="f0036-26" width="550" height="512"></div><h2>MILWAUKEE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2739/4724579-1-eng-US/f0036-272.jpg" title="f0036-27" width="542" height="463"></div><h2>MUSKEGON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2837/4724572-1-eng-US/f0036-282.jpg" title="f0036-28" width="541" height="464"></div><h2>PORT HURON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2934/4724565-1-eng-US/f0036-292.jpg" title="f0036-29" width="556" height="466"></div><h2>SAGINAW</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3033/4724558-1-eng-US/f0036-302.jpg" title="f0036-30" width="545" height="469"></div><h2>TOLEDO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3132/4724551-1-eng-US/f0036-312.jpg" title="f0036-31" width="542" height="484"></div> &#9632;

f0036-22

FINAL INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE TEAM SCORING

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01417/4724496-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="573" height="150"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02312/4724489-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="566" height="356"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03240/4724482-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="557" height="628"></div><h3>GOALTENDING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04167/4724475-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="549" height="865"></div><h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05130/4724468-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="567" height="127"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Adirondack 1 at New Brunswick 3Wed. April 9Adirondack 1 at New Brunswick 4Fri. April 11New Brunswick 4 at Adirondack 2Sun. April 13New Brunswick 2 at Adirondack 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 15Adirondack at New BrunswickThurs. April 17New Brunswick at AdirondackTue. April 22Adirondack at New Brunswick<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06110/4724461-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="566" height="106"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thurs. April 10Maine 3 at Nova Scotia 2Sat. April 12Maine 2 at Nova Scotia 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Nova Scotia at MaineTue. April 15Nova Scotia at MaineThurs. April 17Nova Scotia at MaineSat. April 19Maine at Nova ScotiaMon. April 21Nova Scotia at MaineWed. April 23Maine at Nova Scotia<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07104/4724454-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="562" height="130"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Syracuse 3 at Hershey 5Wed. April 9Hershey 5 at Syracuse 3Sat. April 12Syracuse 0 at Hershey 8<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 15Hershey at SyracuseWed. April 16Syracuse at HersheyFri. April 18Hershey at SyracuseSat. April 19Syracuse at Hershey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0899/4724447-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="571" height="129"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Rochester 1 at New Haven 4Thurs. April 10New Haven 4 at Rochester 2Sat. April 12Rochester 4 at New Haven 8<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>New Haven at RochesterThurs. April 17Rochester at New HavenSun. April 20New Haven at RochesterTue. April 22Rochester at New Haven<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0993/4724440-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="558" height="361"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1090/4724433-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="558" height="306"></div><h3>GOALTENDING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1187/4724426-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="538" height="579"></div><h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1283/4724419-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="571" height="124"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. April 7Tulsa 0 at Indianapolis 4Wed. April 9Tulsa 1 at Indianapolis 6Thu. April 10Indianapolis 4 at Tulsa 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1380/4724412-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="567" height="105"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Birmingham 6 at Fort Worth 4Wed. April 9Fort Worth 8 at Birmingham 2Thu. April 10Fort Worth 7 at Birmingham 4Sat. April 12Birmingham 2 at Fort Worth 4Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1474/4724405-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="567" height="101"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 8Salt Lake 7 at Houston 4Thu. April 10Salt Lake 2 at Houston 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 15Houston at Salt LakeWed. April 16Houston at Salt LakeFri. April 18Houston at Salt LakeSat. April 19Houston at Salt LakeMon. April 21Houston at Salt Lake<h2>INDIANAPOLIS vs FORT WORTH</h2>(Best-of-seven series)Tue. April 15Fort Worth at IndianapolisThu. Feb. 17Fort Worth at Indianapolis(other dates undecided)<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FINAL STANDINGS</h2><h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1574/4724398-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="567" height="130"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1672/4724391-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="568" height="295"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1766/4724384-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="574" height="402"></div><h3>GOALTENDERS&rsquo; RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1862/4724377-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="541" height="312"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1961/4724370-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="554" height="376"></div><h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2059/4724363-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="561" height="124"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 11Musgegon 2 at Kalamazoo 7Sat. April 12Kalamazoo 4 at Musgegon 5Sun. April 13Muskegon 2 at Kalamazoo 6GAMES TO COMEThurs. April 17Kalamazoo at MuskegonFri. April 18Muskegon at KalamazooSun. April 20Kalamazoo at MuskegonTue. April 22Muskegon at Kalamazoo<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2156/4724356-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="566" height="130"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 9Toledo 2 at Fort Wayne 5Sat. April 12Toledo 1 at Fort Wayne 10<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 16Fort Wayne at ToledoThurs. April 17Fort Wayne at ToledoSat. April 19Toledo at Fort WayneSun. April 20Fort Wayne at ToledoWed. April 23Toledo at Fort Wayne<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-405/4724349-1-eng-US/f0037-402.jpg" title="f0037-40" width="561" height="102"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. April 12Flint 3 at Port Huron 6Sun. April 13Port Huron 3 at Flint 8GAMES TO OMEWed. April 16Flint at Port HuronFri. April 18Port Huron at FlintSat. April 19Flint at Port HuronSun. April 20Port Huron at FlintTue. April 22Flint at Port Huron<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-414/4724342-1-eng-US/f0037-412.jpg" title="f0037-41" width="561" height="125"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. April 12Milwaukee 4 at Saginaw 6Sun. April 13Milwaukee 1 at Saginaw 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 16Saginaw at MilwaukeeSat. April 19Saginaw at MilwaukeeSun. April 20Milwaukee at SaginawTue. April 22Saginaw at MilwaukeeWed. April 23Milwaukee at Saginaw<h2>EASTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-424/4724335-1-eng-US/f0037-422.jpg" title="f0037-42" width="572" height="241"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-433/4724328-1-eng-US/f0037-432.jpg" title="f0037-43" width="561" height="282"></div><h3>GOALTENDING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-442/4724321-1-eng-US/f0037-442.jpg" title="f0037-44" width="547" height="334"></div><h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-45/4724314-1-eng-US/f0037-452.jpg" title="f0037-45" width="571" height="134"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun., April 13Baltimore 5 at Erle 9<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon., April 14Baltimore at ErieWed., April 16Erle at BaltimoreThurs., April 17Erle at BaltimoreSat., April 19Baltimore at ErieSun., April 20Erie at BaltimoreWed., April 23Baltimore at ErieSemi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-46/4724307-1-eng-US/f0037-462.jpg" title="f0037-46" width="566" height="131"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed., April 2Utica 1 at Erie 14Fri., April 4Erie 6 at Utica 1Sat., April 5Utica 4 at ErieTues., April 8Erie 8 at Utica 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-47/4724300-1-eng-US/f0037-472.jpg" title="f0037-47" width="570" height="157"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri., April 4Richmond 3 at Baltimore 4Sat., April 5Baltimore 4 at Richmond 3Tues., April 8Richmond 3 at Baltimore 4Thurs., April 10Baltimore 2 at Richmond 4Fri., April 11Richmond 3 at Baltimore 5 &#9632;

f0036-01

MINOR SCOREBOARD

<h2>ONTARIO MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>Leyden Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01367/4724911-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="569" height="178"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02256/4724904-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="565" height="163"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03191/4724897-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="559" height="382"></div><h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04154/4724890-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="554" height="103"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 21Oshawa 2 at Ottawa 7Sun. March 23Ottawa 5 at Oshawa 2Fri. March 28Oshawa 2 at Ottawa 1Sun. March 30Ottawa 3 at Oshawa 6Tue. April 1Oshawa 3 at Ottawa 5Thu. April 13Ottawa 6 at Oshawa 8Fri. April 4Oshawa 4 at Ottawa 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05131/4724883-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="555" height="126"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 18Brantford 5 at Toronto 3Fri. March 21Toronto 1 at Brantford 6Sun. March 23Brantford 5 at Toronto 4Tue. March 25Toronto 2 at Brantford 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06108/4724876-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="565" height="133"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thu. March 27Sudbury 4 at Peterborough 3Fri. March 29Peterborough 6 at Sudbury 2Sun. March 30Sudbury 6 at Peterborough 5Tue. April 1Peterborough 5 at Sudbury 4Thu. April 13Sudbury 4 at Peterborough 9Fri. April 4Peterborough 5 at Sudbury 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0790/4724869-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="568" height="106"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 25Niagara Falls 3 at Windsor 5Fri. March 28Windsor 3 at Niagara Falls 5Sun. March 30Niagara Falls 6 at Windsor 9Tue. April 1Windsor 6 at Niagara Falls 1Thu. April 3Niagara Falls 4 at Windsor 5<h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0881/4724862-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="572" height="110"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. April 6Brantford 3 at Windsor 4Tue. April 8Windsor 7 at Brantford 3Thurs. April 10Brantford 5 at Windsor 4Sun. April 13Windsor 4 at Brantford 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 15Brantford at WindsorThurs. April 17Windsor at BrantfordFri. April 18Brantford at Windsor<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0969/4724855-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="563" height="135"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. April 6Ottawa 1 at Peterborough 4Tue. April 8Peterborough 2 at Ottawa 1Thurs. April 10Ottawa 4 at Peterborough 5Fri. April 11Peterborough 6 at Ottawa 4<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings<h3>Western Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1063/4724848-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="558" height="129"></div><h3>Eastern Division</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1151/4724841-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="573" height="228"></div><h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1244/4724834-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="573" height="224"></div><h2>WEST DIVISION</h2>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1339/4724827-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="572" height="103"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 26Billings 4 at Medicine Hat 1Thu. March 27Billings 3 at Medicine Hat 4Sat. March 29Medicine Hat 3 at Billings 2Sun. March 30Medicine Hat 3 at Billings 4Mon. March 31Billings 1 at Medicine Hat 4Wed. April 2Medicine Hat 3 at Billings 4Thu. April 3Billings 2 at Medicine Hat 3<h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1437/4724820-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="565" height="152"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 4Brandon 3 at Regina 6Sat. April 5Medicine Hat 7 at Regina 6Fri. April 11Regina 3 at Medicine Hat 1Sat. April 12Brandon 5 at Medicine Hat 7Finals<h2>MEDICINE HAT vs REGINA</h2>(Best-of-seven series)Mon. April 14Medicine Hat at ReginaTue. April 15Medicine Hat at ReginaThu. April 17Regina at Medicine HatFri. April 18Regina at Medicine HatSun. April 20Medicine Hat at ReginaMon. April 21Regina at Medicine HatTue. April 22Medicine Hat at Regina<h2>WEST DIVISION</h2>Semi-FinalsDOUBLE ROUND-ROBIN<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1535/4724813-1-eng-US/f0037-152.jpg" title="f0037-15" width="574" height="153"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 26Seattle 4 at Portland 2Fri. March 28Portland 7 at Seattle 3Sat. March 29Portland 1 at Victoria 3Mon. March 31Seattle 1 at Victoria 2Tue. April 1Portland 4 at Seattle 5Wed. April 2Victoria 4 at Portland 2Fri. April 4Seattle 2 at Victoria 5Sat. April 5Victoria 2 at Portland 3Sun. April 6Victoria 3 at Seattle 5Mon. April 7Seattle 2 at Portland 3Tue. April 8Portland 2 at Victoria 8Thu. April 10Victoria 6 at Seattle 5Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1630/4724806-1-eng-US/f0037-162.jpg" title="f0037-16" width="570" height="102"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. April 12Seattle 2 at Victoria 5Sun. April 13Seattle 0 at Victoria 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 15Victoria at SeattleWed. April 16Victoria at SeattleFri. April 18Seattle at VictoriaSat. April 19Victoria at SeattleMon. April 21Seattle at Victoria<h2>QUEBEC MAJOR LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1726/4724799-1-eng-US/f0037-172.jpg" title="f0037-17" width="568" height="154"></div><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1825/4724792-1-eng-US/f0037-182.jpg" title="f0037-18" width="570" height="158"></div><h3>FINAL LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1921/4724785-1-eng-US/f0037-192.jpg" title="f0037-19" width="562" height="299"></div><h2>PLAYOFF GAMES</h2>Quarter-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2021/4724778-1-eng-US/f0037-202.jpg" title="f0037-20" width="560" height="131"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 21Hull 6 at Sherbrooke 11Sun. March 23Sherbrooke 7 at Hull 3Tue. March 25Hull 4 at Sherbrooke 6Thurs. March 27Sherbrooke 7 at Hull 2<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2121/4724771-1-eng-US/f0037-212.jpg" title="f0037-21" width="559" height="108"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thurs. March 20Shawinigan 3 at Cornwall 6Sun. March 23Cornwall at Shawinigan 5Wed. March 26Shawinigan 9 at Cornwall 3Fri. March 28Cornwall 2 at Shawinigan 2Sun. March 30Shawinigan 5 at Cornwall 6Tue. April 1Cornwall 2 at Shawinigan 4Thu. April 3Shawinigan 0 at Cornwall 7<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2220/4724764-1-eng-US/f0037-222.jpg" title="f0037-22" width="566" height="132"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 21Trois-Rivieres 2 at Chicoutimi 7Sun. March 23Chicoutimi 2 at Trois-Rivieres 4Tue. March 25Trois-Rivieres 2 at Chicoutimi 3Fri. March 28Chicoutimi 6 at Trois-Rivieres 11Sun. March 30Trois-Rivieres 4 at Chicoutimi 5Tue. April 1Chicoutimi 2 at Trois-Rivieres 7Wed. April 2Trois-Rivieres 4 at Chicoutimi 8<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2319/4724757-1-eng-US/f0037-232.jpg" title="f0037-23" width="582" height="130"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 21Quebec 4 at Montreal 6Sun. March 23Quebec 3 at Montreal 8Tue. March 25Montreal 5 at Quebec 4Fri. March 28Montreal 4 at Quebec 7Sun. March 30Quebec 2 at Montreal 7Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2418/4724750-1-eng-US/f0037-242.jpg" title="f0037-24" width="567" height="128"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 4Montreal 3 at Sherbrooke 8Sun. April 6Sherbrooke 3 at Montreal 4Tue. April 8Montreal 1 at Sherbrooke 11Thurs. April 10Sherbrooke 10 at Montreal 5Fri. April 11Montreal 4 at Sherbrooke 10<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2517/4724743-1-eng-US/f0037-252.jpg" title="f0037-25" width="569" height="107"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. April 5Chicoutimi 4 at Cornwall 5Mon. April 7Chicoutimi 2 at Cornwall 8Wed. April 9Cornwall 5 at Chicoutimi 9Fri. April 11Cornwall 5 at Chicoutimi 4Sun. April 13Chicoutimi 3 at Cornwall 7<h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2>Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2615/4724736-1-eng-US/f0037-262.jpg" title="f0037-26" width="562" height="125"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>South Shore 12, Tyngsboro 4South Shore 16, Tyngsboro 4South Shore 7. Tyngsboro 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2712/4724729-1-eng-US/f0037-272.jpg" title="f0037-27" width="574" height="101"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fitchburg 8, New York 2Fitchburg 5, New York 1Fitchburg 5, New York 4<h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2810/4724722-1-eng-US/f0037-282.jpg" title="f0037-28" width="569" height="106"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Hennepin 9, Waterloo 7Hennepin 3, Waterloo 3Hennepin 5, Waterloo 5Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-299/4724715-1-eng-US/f0037-292.jpg" title="f0037-29" width="571" height="101"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Hennepin 5, Green Bay 2Hennepin 6, Green Bay 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-309/4724708-1-eng-US/f0037-302.jpg" title="f0037-30" width="561" height="104"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Bloomington 7, Waterloo 4Waterloo 7, Bloomington 3Bloomington 6, Waterloo 3Waterloo 5, Bloomington 3Waterloo 3, Bloomington 2<h2>Quarter-Finals</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-317/4724701-1-eng-US/f0037-312.jpg" title="f0037-31" width="567" height="102"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Waterloo 4, Sioux City 3Sioux City 8, Waterloo 2Waterloo 7, Sioux City 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-326/4724694-1-eng-US/f0037-322.jpg" title="f0037-32" width="569" height="125"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Green Bay 4, Austin 2Green Bay 8. Austin 0<h2>ALLAN CUP</h2><h3>Eastern Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-336/4724687-1-eng-US/f0037-332.jpg" title="f0037-33" width="561" height="126"></div><h3>Western Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-346/4724680-1-eng-US/f0037-342.jpg" title="f0037-34" width="556" height="126"></div><h2>HARDY CUP</h2>Eastern Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-356/4724673-1-eng-US/f0037-352.jpg" title="f0037-35" width="562" height="125"></div>Western Semi-Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-365/4724666-1-eng-US/f0037-362.jpg" title="f0037-36" width="568" height="203"></div><h2>CENTENNIAL CUP</h2><h3>Eastern Semi-Finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-375/4724659-1-eng-US/f0037-372.jpg" title="f0037-37" width="578" height="102"></div><h2>CONTINENTAL SENIOR</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-385/4724652-1-eng-US/f0037-382.jpg" title="f0037-38" width="581" height="125"></div><h2>CENTRAL SENIOR</h2>Finals<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-395/4724645-1-eng-US/f0037-392.jpg" title="f0037-39" width="574" height="136"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

AMATEUR SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01427/4724963-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stanley Cup Fever</figcaption></div>Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, &ldquo;Tip&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill of Massachusetts, serves as arbiter for a friendly wager between Congressmen John W. Wydler, right, of Nassau, Long Island, and Bill Green, left, of New York City, on the outcome of the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs. Wydler wagered a bushel of clams against Green&rsquo;s bushel of apples that the Islanders would go further in the playoffs than the Rangers. Speaker O&rsquo;Neill said he favored the Boston Bruins for the Cup.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02338/4724956-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1228" height="1806"><figcaption class="caption-body">New Leaf Look (Photo by Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div>While it is true that the Toronto Maple Leafs didn&rsquo;t make much of an improvement on the ice this season past, they sure outdid themselves off it by outfitting their usherettes&mdash;one of whom is lovely Ann Hamilton, above&mdash;with new uniforms. Now, if only the Leafs played hockey as well as Ann looks&hellip;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03263/4724949-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="1524" height="1450"><figcaption class="caption-body">Meeting Of The Medalists (Photo By Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>You might not expect five-time gold medal winner Eric Heiden, right, and New York Islander defenseman Ken Morrow to have much in common, but they do. Morrow was a member of the winning U.S. Olympic team that brought back the hockey gold while Heiden cleaned the boards in the speed-skating events. Heiden, who is planing to play hockey himself in Europe next season, visited Morrow after the Olympic hockey star signed an NHL contract with the Islanders.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04197/4724942-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="1554" height="1464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Bruin Has Heart</figcaption></div>John Bucyk, former captain and scoring star of the Boston Bruins, accepts citation from Mayor George Colella of Revere, Mass., left, and Gallery Gods&rsquo; president Roger Naples, for his outstanding work in chairing the recent Heart Fund. Naples Gallery Gods&rsquo; group personally raised $1,000 for the fund and Bucyk and most of the Bruins attended the annual fund-raising dinner. &#9632;

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April 25, 1980

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