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.

December 5, 1980

The Hockey News December 5, 1980

<div class="byline">BY PAT CALABRIA</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01901/4727729-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="559" height="970"><figcaption class="caption-body">&ldquo;Now feel like belong again,&rdquo; said Chico Resch after back-to back wins. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;m in the thick of things.&rdquo;</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND-Glenn Resch is back. Back from an injury, back from exile, back in form. To that, Resch said: &ldquo;I feel like a kid all over again.&rdquo;Resch is no kid. At 32, his career with the Islanders has been imperiled this season by ligament damage in his right knee that, at first, was believed to be far more serious than it actually was. Resch&rsquo;s career also has been threatened with by his decision to play out his option.For the longest time, Resch was unhappy. He hardly played in the playoffs last season. The Islanders marched to the Stanley Cup without him. And this season, while he was hurt, the Islanders brought up rookie Roland Melanson, who turned in a 4-0-1 record in five games before being returned to Indianapolis. The message was clear.&ldquo;I was worried,&rdquo; Resch said, &ldquo;As long as I was here, I wanted to play. All of a sudden, I was left out.&rdquo;Resch doesn&rsquo;t feel left out anymore. He returned to the lineup in a 7-2 victory over St. Louis and two nights later played well again, turning in his first shutout of the season, 5-0, against Hartford. &ldquo;It was nice to have Chico back,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said.Resch, naturally, said it was nice to be back. &ldquo;The guys,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;they didn&rsquo;t forget me.&rdquo;That, or Resch wouldn&rsquo;t let them forget. He opened his return against the Blues by stopping a hard shot by Brian Sutter. The Islanders then provjded Resch with marvelous protection the rest of the game. Resch sensed their concern for him.&ldquo;I could tell the guys were trying extra hard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 went up to every player after the game and shook his hand.&rdquo;Said Bob Bourne: &ldquo;Chico has done a lot for this team down through the years. We wanted to pay him back.&rdquo;Resch also was nervous for his first game in front of a Nassau Coliseum crowd. He had not expected to be back so soon after tearing the ligament in his right knee while playing against the Flyers last month. The first indication was that Resch would be lost for at least three months.But the injury turned out not to be that serious. And Resch worked hard at his recovery. He worked on his technique at a; Long Island tennis center, where two tennis players hit balls to him in rapid-fire. Resch believes the exercise has improved his glovework.Resch also exercised the knee, played tennis and generally kept himself in top shape. So when he recorded the 23rd shutout of his career, he was shaking with emotion.&ldquo;I really wanted that one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve ever wanted a shutout more in my whole life.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big difference,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not fun being out of the lineup. It&rsquo;s not fun not playing when you are around. Now I feel like I belong again. I feel like I&rsquo;m in the thick of things.&rdquo;Resch still won&rsquo;t sign with the Islanders and his departure from the team after the season seems almost a certainty. But for now he remains an important half of the goaltending crew, along with Bill Smith.The back-to-back games that Resch won helped the Islanders vault into second-place behind the Philadelphia Flyers and helped restore the team&rsquo;s nagging confidence. They also extended the team&rsquo;s unbeaten streak to 8-0-1 and that didn&rsquo;t hurt Resch&rsquo;s confidence, either.And it didn&rsquo;t hurt Lome Henning&rsquo;s confidence. Henning has been getting more and more authority as an assistant coach. His first week on the job he even told coach Al Arbour that he would be cancelling practice one day. When Arbour sat in the pressbox for a different view of the game against Hartford, Henning was behind the bench.Resch helped give Henning his first NHL victory. But Henning was nervous, too. &ldquo;I appreciate the fact that Al has given me so much to do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 have a lot to learn, so I was nervous. All the players were kidding me. But it makes it easier that Al has put a lot of confidence in me.&rdquo;So Henning was in back of the bench and Resch was just back. And the Islanders look like they&rsquo;re back, too. &#9632;

f0018-01

IN THIS ISSUE

Islanders’ Resch Back In Fine Form

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02802/4726836-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="286" height="334"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN MCKENZIE&rsquo;S</figcaption></div>&bull; JERRY BUSS, flamboyant owner of the Los Angeles Kings, told Bob Fachet of the Washington Post, &ldquo;The Kings will be netting more money by 1984 than the Montreal Canadiens.&rdquo; Buss, the supreme optimist, firmly believes he can make hockey the winner it should be in Southern California. Jack Kent Cooke, original owner of the Kings, finally gave up on making hockey the popular sport he was convinced it would be when he entered a team in the NHL back in 1967. Cooke, a former Canadian, now lives-in Virginia and was recently remarried. He is still very busy as chairman of the board of Teleprompter and majority owner of the Washington Redskins.., The Minnesota North Stars were part of an NHL first recently in Hartford when Minneapolis Star writer Robin Finn and her father, Gerry Finn, sports editor of the Springfield, Mass. Union, became the first father-daughter team to cover a National League game&hellip; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the 15,000-pIus volunteers that make minor hockey in Alberta such a great success,&rdquo; said Orest Korbutt, president of the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association. Alberta boasts one of the finest minor hockey organizations in Canada. In fact, it is the only province in Canada that recognizes and develops the sport for girls. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got more than 700 girls and women playing the game, and anyone who thinks hockey is a male preserve ought to see these gals in action,&rdquo; enthused Korbutt. The Houston Apollos didn&rsquo;t play their first home game until 28 days after the CHL season started&hellip; Mike Emrick, the play-by-play announcer of the Philadelphia Flyers on the PRISM cable network, advises us why Philadelphia is currently called the City of Winners. From Oct. 19 through Nov. 14, Philadelphia professional sports teams won 28 of 30 contests while tying two. The Phillies beat Kansas City twice to win the World Series. The Eagles, NFL leaders, won four straight. The 76&rsquo;ers won 11 out of 11 to tie for the NBA lead. The Flyers won 10 and tied two to lead the NHL and Fever of the MISL indoor soccer league won their game.,. Hockey lost one of its pioneer builders with the recent death of Conn Smythe at 85. He was the driving force behind the building of Maple Leaf Gardens and the Toronto Maple Leafs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03553/4726829-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="374" height="472"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jerry Buss</figcaption></div>&bull; JOHN SCOTT, an ardent reader of THE HOCKEY NEWS and astute follower of the National Hockey League, says that when the NHL comes up with its new formula for realignment, it should make some of the following changes. Scott points out that not one fan in 100 knows or cares about the Campbell or Prince of Wales conferences. And very few know or really care about which clubs are located in the Norris, Adams, Patrick or Smythe divisions. It makes a lot more sense to have East and West conferences and name the divisions after the geographical area in which the teams are located, be it the Atlantic, Central, Pacific, Midwest or Mountain. Scott&rsquo;s suggestion is logical and one that a great many hockey fans have written us about during the past two years&hellip; Red Dutton, former NHL player, coach, manager, owner and president of the National Hockey League (how&rsquo;s that for running the gamut?) dropped the puck at the Stampede Corral in Calgary to officially start NHL hockey in that city. Dutton, a longtime resident of Calgary, had not attended an NHL game since he resigned as NHL president in September, 1946, until the evening of October 16, 1980, when the Calgary Flames played their first home game&hellip; Gary Dornhoefer, the excellent colorman and analyst on the Hockey Night In Canada telecasts, figures that he will travel 200,000 air miles this season carrying out his assignments&hellip; A pair of ex-Montreal Canadiens, Jacques Lemaire and J. C. Tremblay, are both having outstanding seasons in the Swiss league where they are performing this year&hellip; Duane Sutter, one of the three Sutter-playing brothers in the NHL, may be lost to the New York Islanders for the remainder of the season as a result of surgery on his right knee. The operation was necessary to correct torn ligaments and the leg will remain in a cast for at least eight weeks. Duane, 20, was in his second season with the Islanders. He is the youngest of the Sutter clan performing in the NHL. Brian, the oldest at 24, is playing his fifth year with St. Louis and Darryl, 22, is in his second season with Chicago&hellip; Edward J. Bartolo Sr., owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, is making an all-out effort to buy the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, where the Penguins play their games. The arena is publicly-owned and run by the Civic Arena Authority.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04371/4726822-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="390" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">Duane Sutter</figcaption></div>&bull; MORE GOALS are being scored in the NHL this season than in any year since 1945. The average number of goals per game is close to 8, which is what fans like to see&hellip; More goals per game generally creates more excitement and thrills&hellip; Darryl Sittier became the second Toronto player and 29th in the NHL to accumulate more than 800 scoring points. Dave Keon had 858 points in 15 seasons with the Leafs. Sittier amassed his 801 points in-just over 10 seasons&hellip; Recent reports said goalie John Davidson is all through in New York. Management is annoyed at his excess weight&hellip; Bill Derlago of Toronto is shown in the NHL Guide as weighing 914 pounds&hellip; Two players, Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders and Charlie Simmer of Los Angeles, both have a good chance of tying Maurice Richard&rsquo;s record of 50 goals in 50 games, which was set during the 50-game 1944-45 NHL schedule&hellip; The Philadelphia Flyers sent Kate Smith, their former good-luck figure, an enormous 8 by 12-foot get-well card&hellip; The CBC is making a film on the life story of the Warwick brothers. Grant, Billy and Dick, who were all professional hockey players, and who also led the Penticton Vees to the 1955 world championships in an upset victory over Russia which rated at the time as one of hockey&rsquo;s most exciting hours&hellip; Ron Weber, who has been the play-by-play announcer of the Washington Capitals since the team&rsquo;s inception in 1974, has not missed a single game played by the Caps, both at home and on the road. He&rsquo;s one of the best broadcasters in the business&hellip; We appreciate the comments made by one NHL owner to us recently: &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t the high price of stars that is expensive. It is the high price of mediocrity&rdquo;&hellip; Jack Perrin&rsquo;s Hotel Fort Garry in Winnipeg will be the locale of the 1981 NHL Boosters Club Convention this coming August&hellip; Yvan Prud&rsquo;Homme, a scout for the New York Rangers in Quebec for 15 years and chief scout for the Quebec Nordiques since the team was formed, has resigned that post and is now a player agent. Reports say he is one of the best and doesn&rsquo;t collect a cent from a player until he makes the NHL&hellip; Center Guy Charron has played in more than 700 NHL games. The Washington veteran has played his best hockey during the last two years.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-05248/4726815-1-eng-US/f0005-052.jpg" title="f0005-05" width="378" height="468"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guy Charron</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

PASSING THE PUCK

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;Guy Chouinard will be the first to admit that, on the surface, the scenario seems to add up.Ever since coach Al MacNeil benched Chouinard for two games on the Calgary Flames&rsquo; last road trip, the high-scoring center has been hot. Since returning to the line-up eight games ago, Chouinard has scored nine goals and added five assists, including a hat trick against the New York Rangers.That would indicate that whatever MacNeil had in mind when he benched Chouinard for games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers seems to have worked.Not so, says Chouinard.&ldquo;That may be how it looks, but that&rsquo;s not the way I feel,&rdquo; Chouinard said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t trying to show them [MacNeil and general manager Cliff Fletcher] what I could do or anything. I&rsquo;m playing the same as I did before.&rdquo;Chouinard admitted he &ldquo;didn&rsquo;t like it at all,&rdquo; but added: &ldquo;They&rsquo;re the bosses, they can do whatever they want.&rdquo;On his return, MacNeil switched Chouinard to a line with wingers Willi Plett and Don Lever, a combination that has been producing the bulk of the Flames&rsquo; goals recently.Plett, who scored nine goals already this season, after a disappointing (13 goals) 1979-80 campaign, was not at a loss to explain his fast start.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not hard to figure out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing with a guy who can get me the puck.&rdquo;Two years ago, Chouinard became the only 50-goal scorer in Flames&rsquo; history, centering Bob MacMillan and Eric Vail. As a line, they did not fare particularly well last year and neither did they click in the early season. MacNeil, who likes to juggle lines even when a team is hot, has split the trio up. Now, Kent Nilsson centers MacMillan and Vail.With 12 goals in 16 games already, Chouinard is back on track for another big year, a development he simply shrugs off.&ldquo;Sometimes you&rsquo;re just there at the right time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not something you can teach a player that ability to see the play coming ahead of time. Right now, the puck&rsquo;s rolling right for me and I&rsquo;ve got to take advantage of it.&rdquo;While Chouinard has played himself back into MacNeil&rsquo;s good books, the same cannot be said for goaltender Dan Bouchard. Sophomore netminder Pat Riggin has played eight consecutive games for the Flames and has looked good most of the time. That has left the veteran Bouchard, the only original Flame, waiting and watching and growing more and more discontented each day.Trade talks for Bouchard reportedly took place with several NHL teams, but no deal could be worked out. Asked what he thought of the rumors after a sparkling performance by Riggin against the St. Louis Blues, Bouchard started to walk away, reconsidered and said: &ldquo;If it happens&mdash;great.&rdquo; He then left the building.The same question, put to-Fletcher, drew a terse &ldquo;no comment&rdquo;&ldquo;As long as I&rsquo;m general manager of this team, you won&rsquo;t ever hear me talk about a trade or the possibility of a trade until something has been worked out,&rdquo; he said.Bouchard boasts a 2.96 goals-against average in eight previous NHL seasons. The only unsigned Flame, Bouchard is in the midst of playing out his option and becomes a free agent at the end of the year.However, should another team sign Bouchard, they would have to negotiate compensation with the Flames. If they failed to work out a settlement, the matter would then go to arbitration.Guy Chouinard says he hasn&rsquo;t changed his game since he was benched, but he&rsquo;s been scoring more.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01519/4727901-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="564" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guy Chouinard says he hasn&rsquo;t changed his game since he was benched, but he&rsquo;s been scoring more</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

Chouinard’s Goal Scoring Touch Rekindled

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01422/4728173-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div><h2>VICTORIAVILLE</h2><h2>Quality sticks from PeeWee to Pro. &#9632;</h2>

f0029-01

College Scoreboard

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01770/4728701-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>DECEMBER 5,1980 Vol. 34, No. 10 THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY 64522 $1.00<h2>THE KIDS ARE KINGS IN LOS ANGELES &#9632;</h2>

Cover-01

The Hockey News

The NHLBoston&hellip;&hellip; 7Buffalo&hellip;&hellip; 9Calgary&hellip;&hellip; 21Chicago&hellip;&hellip; 9Colorado&hellip;&hellip; 12Detroit&hellip;&hellip; 12Edmonton&hellip;&hellip; 4Hartford&hellip;&hellip; 13Los Angeles&hellip;&hellip; 39Minnesota&hellip;&hellip; 38Montreal&hellip;&hellip; 17Islanders&hellip;&hellip; 18Rangers&hellip;&hellip; 2Philadelphia&hellip;&hellip; 18Pittsburgh&hellip;&hellip; 39Quebec&hellip;&hellip; 13St. Louis&hellip;&hellip; 39Toronto&hellip;&hellip; 5Vancouver&hellip;&hellip; 19Washington&hellip;&hellip; 13Winnipeg&hellip;&hellip; 14The MinorsAHL&hellip;&hellip; 22CHL&hellip;&hellip; 23IHL&hellip;&hellip; 24EHL&hellip;&hellip; 26The CollegesECAC&hellip;&hellip; 27Canadian&hellip;&hellip; 28WCHA&hellip;&hellip; 30CCHA&hellip;&hellip; 30The AmateilrsOMJHL&hellip;&hellip; 31WHL&hellip;&hellip; 32QMJHL&hellip;&hellip; 33ColumnistsBob Verdi&hellip;&hellip; 4Ken McKenzie&hellip;&hellip; 5Bill Libby&hellip;&hellip; 12Stan Fischler&hellip;&hellip; 14FeaturesKid Kings&hellip;&hellip; 3Eagleson Interview&hellip;&hellip; 6Smythe Tribute&hellip;&hellip; 10NHL Scoring&hellip;&hellip; 16College Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip; 29Hockey Classified&hellip;&hellip; 33NHL Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip; 34NHL Rosters&hellip;&hellip; 35Minor Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip; 36Amateur Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip; 36<h2>Coming Next Week</h2>The Hartford Whalers are struggling so far this season, but they can take some consolation in the play of Mike Rogers, who has led the Whalers in scoring through much of this season&rsquo;s first quarter. Next week&rsquo;s issue will feature Rogers on the cover, as well as a page 3 story on the inside.Also next week, columnist Stan Fischler will reveal the results of a recent poll he took, seeking to find out who NHLers feel are the top hockey writers in the business. Don&rsquo;t miss it! &#9632;

Where To Find It…

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011162/4726622-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Patrick added coaching duties to his Rangers&rsquo; portfolio after Fred Shero resigned as general manager and coach of the Rangers because he couldn&rsquo;t &ldquo;motivate&rdquo; the players.</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;For the record, the Rangers called it his &ldquo;resignation.&rdquo; But what was in fact the firing of coach Fred Shero on Saturday, November 22 could be foreseen from the first day of this disastrous season and by no means solves all the team&rsquo;s problems.Director of Operations Craig Patrick, who took over as interim coach, inherited a team with the third-worst record in the league (4-14-2 upon Shero&rsquo;s departure), a club with an overabundance of rookies seeking leadership and a system.Herb Brooks, who coached the U.S. Olympic hockey team to a gold medal last winter at Lake Placid, emerged as Patrick&rsquo;s heir-apparent. However, Brooks was in the middle of the first year of a two-year coaching contract in Switzerland, and there were indications that other candidates were being considered, possibly including former Colorado Rockies&rsquo; coach Don Cherry.Shero&rsquo;s exit was marked by a terse, two-sentence statement containing a reference that could only be interpreted as a slap at former assistant coach Mike Nykoluk, who ran the team last season after being promised that he would succeed Shero behind the Rangers&rsquo; bench.And the reasons given for Shero&rsquo;s departure were reminiscent of his exit from the Philadelphia Flyers two and a half years ago after coaching the team to two Stanley Cups. It was said then that Shero could no longer motivate his players.&hellip;&hellip; &hellip;&hellip;&ldquo;In view of the problems of last season with other coaching personnel,&rdquo; read Shero&rsquo;s explanation to the Rangers&rsquo; public, &ldquo;he felt he was not able to achieve the greatest potential and motivate the playing personnel to the best of their ability.&rdquo;Shero may be a brilliant theoritician, respected for his knowledge of the game, but his shortcoming here was on the interpersonal level, in his failure to get that knowledge across. Most players said that they never knew him and spoke to him rarely, and what he lacked was a Bobby Clarke-type who could serve as his interpreter and explain the systems that existed in Shero&rsquo;s mind.Rangers&rsquo; captain Dave Maloney has been more concerned with his own poor play than with exercising any type of leadership, let alone serving as the Rangers&rsquo; answer to Clarke.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I said 10 sentences to him in three years,&rdquo; said Don Maloney in a comment that was all too typical of the team&rsquo;s sentiments towards its former coach, who acknowledged during training camp the existence of a drinking problem last season that was hockey&rsquo;s biggest open secret. &ldquo;Maybe his methods are outdated. He knows the game but can&rsquo;t get his message across.&rdquo;It was Don Maloney&rsquo;s return that sparked the Rangers to a tie with Pittsburgh and a win over Hartford the weekend before Shero left, providing little more than a stay of execution. A humiliating 5-1 loss to the Flyers the following Wednesday sealed Shero&rsquo;s fate.Two days later, Patrick sat down with Rangers&rsquo; presidenj William Jennings, Garden boss Sonny Werblin and Werblin&rsquo;s right-hand man, Jack Krumpe, and in his first year as a Rangers&rsquo; executive, aclded coaching to his responsibilities as the team&rsquo;s general manager.The Rangers were told of the changeover the next day at practice at Rye, N.Y. Patrick immediately began to teach them a new system, stressing puck control and playing in the corners, and that night the Rangers lost to the Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum, 6-4.Among the signs of hope that night was the absence of the tension and gloom that permeated other losing Rangers&rsquo; dressing-rooms this season.&ldquo;Before, when we lost, you could cut the air with a knife,&rdquo; said Dave Silk. &ldquo;Tonight, there&rsquo;s a sign of relief. Things are starting to change.&rdquo;The next night, at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers scored two power-play goals&mdash;a department in which they had been noticably deficient&mdash;to tie the Vancouver Canucks, 2-2.Patrick became the Rangers&rsquo; seventh coach in eight years amidst reports that Phil Esposito had been considered for the job. Both Esposito and Rangers&rsquo; brass denied that an offer was made. Apparently ruled out were Rod Gilbert, now coaching the Rangers&rsquo; farm team in New Haven, and Nykoluk, who now is a radio broadcaster in Toronto.Brooks, if he is indeed the Rangers&rsquo; choice, may not be available until March; he also was committed to coaching the U.S. National Team at the world championships in Sweden in April. It is likely, then, that Patrick will coach the Rangers for the rest of the season. He is the fourth member of his family to assume the role.&ldquo;Fred gave me a chance at 19 that not many people would,&rdquo; said rookie forward Mike Allison. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry he had to go. They tell me he didn&rsquo;t say much the first two years here, but we sat down and talked for five minutes at a time.&rdquo;Shero&rsquo;s demise ended weeks of speculation that had built to almost intolerable proportions as the team continued to slide.&ldquo;We knew it was going to happen,&rdquo; said goalie John Davidson. &ldquo;Now that it&rsquo;s done it clears the air. There&rsquo;s nothing worse than a cloud. I feel bad. I liked the guy. I helped us get to the finals two years ago but he&rsquo;s the man who got us there and I&rsquo;ll remember him for that.&rdquo;BLUE CHIPS: Mario Marois, who the Rangers recently traded to Vancouver, took a shot at Patrick, the man who traded him, when the Canucks visited the Rangers. Marois scored the first Canucks&rsquo; goal, and he retrieved the puck and tossed it at Patrick, bn the bench, saying, &ldquo;here, Craig, take this.&rdquo;Steve Vickers intercepted the puck and flung it back at Marois, and then Ed Hospodar came off the bench and went after Mario and was restrained by teammates. Hospodar faced a suspension for his actions.&ldquo;I threw it back at him and tried to complete the double play,&rdquo; explained Vickers with a straight face. &ldquo;But he muffed it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0002-01

Patrick Replaces Shero On Bench

<div class="byline">Photos by Bruce Bennett </div><div class="byline">BY BOB KEISSER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011179/4726667-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="968" height="1132"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Terrion, whom a teammate calls &ldquo;a big Butch Goring,&rdquo; became a regular when the injury bug hit the Kings.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02982/4726660-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="972" height="1148"><figcaption class="caption-body">The season is only one-quarter over, but NHLers are already saying that Larry Murphy will be the top rookie.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03654/4726653-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="968" height="1136"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jimmy Fox hasn&rsquo;t let his size stop him from going into the corners. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where I play my best,&rdquo; he says.</figcaption></div>Out west, where the sun shines, the waves roll and the smog hovers, exists a hockey team that used to shut the door whenever there was a draft.In a dozen NHL seasons, the Los Angeles Kings have traded away 11 of their first round draft picks. And they traded away the player they selected in that one odd year before he had the chance to pull a King uniform over his head. The Kings were nothing if they weren&rsquo;t consistent. More often, they were just nothing.But the nice thing about perspectives is that they can change. When Jerry Buss purchased the Kings et al from Jack Kent Cooke, he sent the old King rebate policy packing. A dozen years later, the Los Angeles Kings have finally learned how to build a successful hockey team.George Maguire, the Kings&rsquo; gruff general manager, left the NHL&rsquo;s 1980 entry draft in June with a devilish smile on his face. He had just selected three young men he felt could help his hockey team for the 1980-81 season. In retrospect, he must wonder why his expectations were so low.At this writing the Kings boast one of the NHL&rsquo;s best records 20 games into the season (14-5-1) behind only the 1980 Stanley Cup finalists, the Flyers and Islanders. And no small reason for the success is the presence of Larry Murphy, Greg Terrion and Jimmy Fox.Murphy, 19, is a 6-1, 210-pound defenseman who plays both ends of the ice with poise. Fox, 20, is a 5-8, 170-pound right winger with quick, elusive moves. Terrion, also 20, is a 5-11, 190-pound defensive-oriented center who could teach some veterans how to stress defense at no expense of offense.Hockey talents aside, the King Kids have also injected some much-needed life and enthusiasm into a stale lockerroom and represent a new beginning for a franchise that was aging fast and showing no growth at all.It&rsquo;s late in a practice session at the Kings&rsquo; practice rink in Culver City, and the King Kids are cutting up, as teenagers are wont. Sophomore defenseman Jay Wells, the Kings&rsquo; first round pick in the &rsquo;79 draft, has just dragged teammate Dean Hopkins, another soph, down along the boards. They wrestle, and suddenly you have your basic monkey pile. Terrion jumps on, and so does Fox. Wells pokes his head out long enough to yell. Murphy stands nearby with a crooked smile, as if the scene is. tempting but somehow beneath him.Glenn Goldup, in his fifth year with the Kings, leans against the boards and shakes his head. &ldquo;You know, I&rsquo;ve been here a long time now, and I&rsquo;ve never seen kids before. There would be an occassional rookie like Davey [Taylor], but never the kind of assortment of kids we have now.&ldquo;I love them, for what they can do as hockey players and what they are doing for the enthusiasm of this team. Fresh faces make you feel young and put some vitality into your bones. And I think everyone on the team would agree that we&rsquo;ve got a good bunch of kids.&rdquo;To draw out the cliche, the Kings are serving youth. There&rsquo;s the three kids, three second-year pros in Wells, Hopkins and Mark Hardy, and Don Bonar, who has finally won an NHL berth after three years in the minors. This septet represents more than a third of the Kings&rsquo; 20-man roster. In days gone by, the Kings and draft choices went together like Bourbon and Maalox, the kind of drink only George Maguire could enjoy.More tomfoolery. A local sportscaster, former Flyer announcer Stu Nahan, is out to interview the rascals. After a few serious questions, Nahan asks them about the three-bedroom home the trio are renting in Manhattan Beach. Like, who&rsquo;s the messiest?&ldquo;He is,&rdquo; they say, all pointing at each other. Laughs and smiles. Who does the cooking? &ldquo;I do,&rdquo; says Terrion. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t trust Murph&rsquo;s cooking.&rdquo; And so on, and so on.You could say that the three kids lack the kind of maturity you&rsquo;d expect from professional athletes, but looks can be deceiving. Yes, Murphy does wear a perpetual sheepish grin. Fox has a gaping, open-mouthed look, Terrion sometimes looks pained, as if mom just told him to make his bed.But whatever teenage symptoms they may show in playtime are put away like so many toys when it&rsquo;s time to go to work. The King Kids are very professional, much more pro than a lot of the alleged sage veterans the Kings used to spend draft picks on.The first week of training camp was fun. It was rookie week, and everyone on hand was between the age of 18 and 22. Then the vets arrived, and the smiles on the faces of the King Kids turned to varying stages of awe, apprehension and fear. By no accident, they were tossed into the same dressing room as Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor, Charlie Simmer, Mario Lessard and Mike Murphy, the nucleus of the Los Angeles team. Terrion&rsquo;s locker was near the door, between Simmer and Taylor. Murphy was by the bathroom. Fox was secluded behind a large post, but he couldn&rsquo;t hide, not with the portable radio hanging overhead on a bunch of skatestrings.They were studiously respectful and quiet around their peers. Murphy doubted he could make the team. Terrion was worried about a slow start. Fox found the size, speed and savvy of the vets disconcerting.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter who you are once the veterans arrive,&rdquo; said Murphy. &ldquo;The best players on the team, and they&rsquo;re not going to keep someone to fill a spot just because he was a first round draft pick. I don&rsquo;t have any trouble playing. It&rsquo;s just thinking. Everyone moves so fast.&rdquo;Cut to the last week before the start of the season. Locker space was scarce, so the King Kids were stationed on chairs along a wall. After the last pre-season contest, reporters crowded around the trio wanting to know every nuance of their lives.Marcel Dionne, sitting in a corner of the lockerroom by himself, heaved a wad of tape at the writers. &ldquo;Leave the kids alone. Come talk to the vets,&rdquo; he chortled. The writers pointed over to the makeshift lockers. &ldquo;Is that any way to treat the future?&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to have a future,&rdquo; smiled Dionne, an often critic of the Kings&rsquo; pre-Buss policies. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing, though, to have young kids around. What&rsquo;s good about these kids is that they can help us now.&rdquo;&ldquo;People have said a lot of nice things about us,&rdquo; says Terrion &ldquo;and the veterans have gone out of their way to be nice and helpful. Bob Berry has to get some credit for going with rookies who make as many mistakes as we do.&rdquo;What mistakes have been made are tolerable in light of the smiles they have put on the faces of teammates, management and fans.Murphy was the fourth player chosen in the &rsquo;80 draft, behind better-known names like Wickenheiser, Babych and Savard. The Kings took him with a draft pick obtained from Detroit in the now historic Rogie Vachon-Dale McCourt saga. Suffice to say the Kings wouldn&rsquo;t deal Murphy to Detroit straight up for McCourt.Neither would Berry take any of the three players drafted ahead of Murphy if given the chance. Murphy is already being mentioned in the same fashion Ray Bourque was hearlded last season, and Bourque won the Calder Cup as the NHL&rsquo;s top rookie.A capsule summation of Murphy goes thusly: He has tremendous poise with the puck, knowing what to do with it. He is more positional than physical in front of his own net, and very effective. He has a deft backhand pace and shot, and a good forehand slapper. Negative? He&rsquo;s occasionally a little tentative when he doesn&rsquo;t haye the puck.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anyone expected that much from me,&rdquo; he said slightly naively. &ldquo;I know I didn&rsquo;t systematically expect to make the team. I knew 1 would have to show the Kings I could play in the NHL. I don&rsquo;t feel any pressure.&ldquo;I will, though, if 1 continue to make mistakes. The main thing is to admit them. If you don&rsquo;t you&rsquo;re only fooling yourself, and that makes it tougher to overcome the mistakes you make.&rdquo;The kids all have this habit of dwelling on their shortcomings. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the best things about these kids. They are still willing to learn and work on their weak areas,&rdquo; said Kings&rsquo; assistant coach Parker MacDonald. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re all a lot further along as hockey players than other players I&rsquo;ve seen in the NHL, but the fact they are striving to get better only insures their careers. The kids are good, and they&rsquo;re going to get better.&rdquo;Concentration is Murphy&rsquo;s main concern. &ldquo;I still make too many foolish mistakes. Not from how I play, just from not bearing down when I play. The season is young and the coaches have tolerated our mistakes. By mid-season, though, we had better be beyond that stage.&rdquo;Born in Scarborough, Ont., Murphy played junior A hockey for two years in Peterborough. He scored 27 points his first season for the Petes, who won the Memorial Cup, then led the team to the finals last season with a 21-goal, 89-point performance.Larry&rsquo;s dad was pleased when the Kings selected his son, although he was harboring a private hope that Montreal would make him a surprise selection. &ldquo;Dad was born near Quebec and is a lifelong Canadiens&rsquo; fan,&rdquo; said Murphy. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had season tickets at the Maple Leaf Gardens for years, but he&rsquo;s always loved the Canadiens more. He was hedging on who he&rsquo;d root for when we played Montreal.&rdquo;The Kings had a dilemma when it came time for them to use their own first round selection, the 10th pick of the draft, Maguire favored Fox. Head scout Ted O&rsquo;Connor favored Terrion; since Maguire&rsquo;s list had Fox rated higher, he went for Fox.Imagine his surprise, then, 23 picks later when Terrion was still available. Using a second round pick obtained from St. Louis, the Kings quickly chose Terrion.The NHL&rsquo;s sudden infatuation with the underage draft situation moved a lot of the finer 20-year-olds down priority lists. Terrion may have been No. 33, but he was the fourth 20-year-old chosen. In fact, four of his teammates with Brantford of the OHA, all of them younger, were selected ahead of him.Born in Peterborough and raised in the nearby small town of Marmona, Terrion played one season of junior A hockey at Hamilton, then switched to Brantford for two seasons, scoring 27 goals and 55 points in 1978-79 and 44 goals and 122 points last year. Not bad for a player whose talents are defensive.&ldquo;Most of my points came from what I did on defense,&rdquo; said Terrion. &ldquo;And defense is something I&rsquo;ve always liked and done pretty well. It seems to come natural. My coaches always stressed that while goals may get you to the NHL quicker, defense will keep you in the league longer.&rdquo;The Kings didn&rsquo;t know what to expect from Terrion in camp, and doubted they had a spot on the roster for him this season, not with three established centers on hand named Dionne, Unger and St. Laurent. But Terrion won a lot of friends for his hard working ways as a forechecking center and his surprising ability offensively. When St. Laurent suffered a slipped disc, Terrion became a regular.Kings&rsquo; captain Mike Murphy paid Terrion a high compliment. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big Butch Goring. He forechecks very well and can go wide with the puck, along the boards, because of his strength.&ldquo;The praise is nice as long as you don&rsquo;t get cocky,&rdquo; says Terrion. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think any of us have reason to get a big head. We still make mistakes. 1 have to improve on faceoffs&mdash;I&rsquo;m getting kicked out too much&mdash;and on picking up my man in my zone. It&rsquo;s mental, I see an open man and I charge over, leaving my man open.&rdquo;Jimmy Fox nodded his head in agreement as Terrion spoke about his weaknesses. &ldquo;If anything, Greg is covering up my mistakes,&rdquo; said Fox.Fox has been, admittedly, the least successful of the trio. Circumstances have been working against him. He&rsquo;s the smallest of the three. His defensive training as a junior is lacking. Right wing is one of the Kings&rsquo; deeper positions. And he hasn&rsquo;t been very lucky.&ldquo;Very early, I psyched myself out that I couldn&rsquo;t play in the NHL because of my size. I thought I was too small, that I&rsquo;d get killed in the corners. But the coaches have all told me I play my best when I&rsquo;m willing to go into the corners. I&rsquo;m no mucker, but I can be effective if I play the entire length of the rink,&rdquo; said Fox.Berry was reluctant to use Fox for awhile when opponents tried to match their biggest left wings against him. There were nights when Fox would dress but only draw two or three shifts. Finally, when Taylor joined Mike Murphy on the sidelines with injuries, Berry started giving Fox regular playing time. He even began to spot him on power plays.The result hasn&rsquo;t been seen in goals or assists, but it has done wonders for Fox&rsquo; confidence and education. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just now learning all that&rsquo;s expected of me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The first 20 games have been a learning process. The NHL is a big difference from juniors. You don&rsquo;t have time to look and shoot. Everyone is faster and bigger.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m grumpy if I don&rsquo;t play. But guys like Marcel and Garry Unger have helped me a lot just by talking. It&rsquo;s so easy to get frustrated.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s obvious what attracted the Kings to Fox. He has a load of slippery moves and he is a prime offensive talent. He&rsquo;s spent so much time, though, working on the defensive end of his game that he has yet to show his natural talents with any frequency.&ldquo;What Jimmy needs more than anyone else,&rdquo; says MacDonald, &ldquo;is confidence.&rdquo;Born in the small Ontario town of Coniston, Fox had three great seasons with the Ottawa 67s in the OHA. He had 44 goals and 127 points in &rsquo;77-78, 37 and 103 in &rsquo;78-79, and topped his career with 65 goals and 166 points last season to win the OHA&rsquo;s MVP award.He used to be much heavier as a junior, the owner of a sweet tooth that craved ice cream. His junior team couldn&rsquo;t give him a financial bonus, so they included an ice cream bonus in his agreement. &ldquo;It was a joke,&rdquo; says Fox with some embarrassment.But does he still like ice cream? Fox shrugged, and nodded his head.It was after the Kings finished an unbeaten preseason. Berry took the team aside after a workout and reminded everyone that the exhibitions were over. The regular season was just ahead. These games counted, and they couldn&rsquo;t expect to win every game, anyway.That&rsquo;s when Terrion let pop, &ldquo;Why the hell not?&rdquo;It was an audacious statement that you would only expect from a rookie. But it was also a statement that let all of the veterans know that the policies and outlook on hockey life had definitely changed for the Los Angeles Kings.Audacious or not; the veterans, coaches and the fans loved every word of it.Bob Keisser, making his debut in THE HOCKEY NEWS with his story, covers the Kings for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. &#9632;

f0003-01

King Kids Give Los Angeles A Bright Future

<div class="byline">BY BOB VERDI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011223/4726698-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="280" height="322"></div><h2>A Responsible Citizen</h2>YOU NEVER KNOW who you&rsquo;ll meet walking through O&rsquo;Hare Airport in Chicago. But you&rsquo;re always delighted when it&rsquo;s a guy like Bobby Sheehan.The Colorado Rockies probably won&rsquo;t win the Stanley Cup this year. But with Sheehan around, and hopefully he&rsquo;ll stay around, they&rsquo;ll enjoy the tedium that professional sports sometimes can be.Sheehan had to catch a plane this night, so, even if he wanted to, he couldn&rsquo;t patrol one of his favorite haunts, Rush Street, the neon light capital of Chicago.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my kind of town, Chicago is,&rdquo; Sheehan chirps everytime he has a chance. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got a broad as mayor now, but she never would have made it if I was still around. The fans loved me. Trouble is, the Black Hawks didn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;I guess they thought 1 caroused too much. But it wasn&rsquo;t that I drank so much. It was just that 1 put it all into such a small body. That&rsquo;s all changed now. I&rsquo;m married and I&rsquo;ve settled down. I&rsquo;ve become a responsible citizen.&rdquo;Sheehan reached for all the gusto in life as a member of the 1975-76 Black Hawks. He accumulated 11 goals, 20 assists, and a few fines, too. They never built an alarm clock loud enough for him. He didn&rsquo;t break curfews, he shattered them.History, though. That&rsquo;s all history.&ldquo;I have been ordained an altar boy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t touch the stuff anymore. Oh, I have two or three beers after a game. The doctors say it&rsquo;s good for the heart. But nothing like I used to. Then it wasn&rsquo;t two or three, but maybe 23.&ldquo;How&rsquo;s Billy? How&rsquo;s Billy Reay? Great guy. Never had any complaints about him, I&rsquo;ll tell you. And ever since they gave him the nine of hearts a few years ago, that team&rsquo;s really gone places hasn&rsquo;t it? Then they get Eddie [Johnston] and the same thing happens.&ldquo;But I really liked Billy. One night, I get into a little trouble in Chicago, and the cops must have called him at three in the morning, I guess.&ldquo;Next day, he says the police told him that I went to jail. I said to him, &lsquo;Billy, no, you heard it all wrong. You must have still been half asleep. I told the cops I went to Yale.&rsquo; He just laughed. Great guy.<h2>Ivan Different Story</h2>&ldquo;TOMMY IVAN, the general manager, he was a different story. He didn&rsquo;t like me too much, I don&rsquo;t think. I was with Team USA in the Canada Cup my first summer with Chicago. He was general manager of that team, too, and we were holding training camp in Providence, R.I.&ldquo;Well, it&rsquo;s pretty tough to break curfew in Providence. They don&rsquo;t roll up the sidewalks in that town, because they don&rsquo;t have any sidewalks, if you know what I mean.&ldquo;But I come in an hour late, anyway, and pretty soon he drops me from that team, and also releases me from the Black Hawks. I went in to see him, and I told him that he couldn&rsquo;t do that. 1 had a three-year contract with Chicago, and I had two years still to go. Then he pulls out the contract, and he shows me the fine print.&ldquo;Turns out I had a three-year contract, all right, but they put in a &lsquo;sayanora&rsquo; clause. If they didn&rsquo;t like the way I was acting, they could get rid of me in the middle of the night.&ldquo;Which is exactly when they got rid of me. In the middle of the night. I think Tommy was just mad because I didn&rsquo;t invite him to my wedding. I invited everybody else. I had also put a hundred bucks down on a place in Chicago. But I&rsquo;m gone.<h2>There To Answer Phone</h2>&ldquo;AFTER THAT, I TRY Detroit, Minnesota, Indianapolis, New Haven. Then two years ago, I&rsquo;m playing for them in the American Hockey League. We&rsquo;re having a few days off during the playoffs. The phone rings at two in the morning and, believe it or not, I&rsquo;m there to answer it. Early night for me. Just home from confession.&ldquo;Anyway, it&rsquo;s the New York Rangers calling. They had just lost the first game of their [quarterfinal] playoffs against Philadelphia and they wanted to bring me up. I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. I hang up and ask my wife June to give me a pill to help me sleep. I tell her I&rsquo;m going to the big show.&ldquo;She says I&rsquo;ve either been hallucinating or it&rsquo;s one of my buddies calling wanting me to go out for a toot. Takes me an hour to convince her that it&rsquo;s true. I get up the next morning and drive all the way to Philadelphia. Takes me a while because I&rsquo;m so busy pinching myself.&rdquo;For the record, the Rangers won that playoff and advanced to the Stanley Cup finals against Montreal. They lost, Sheehan didn&rsquo;t get invited to training camp the next year, and he caught on with the Colorado Rockies.To repeat, the Colorado Rockies won&rsquo;t win the Stanley Cup this season. But with Bobby Sheehan around&mdash;&ldquo;you can call me Bishop Sheehan&rdquo;&mdash;they won&rsquo;t be dull. &#9632;

f0004-01

HOCKEY TALK

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY &bull; FOUNDED 1947DONALD R. WALLChairman and PublisherTOM MURRAYEditor in ChiefAdvertising and Editorial Offices Executive Office214 King Street West-Suite 314 850 Third Ave,Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 1K4 New York, New York, 10022(416) 598-1753 (212) 593-2100KENNETH W. McKENZIEPresident and Founder1434 St. Catherine Street West, Montreal, Canada H3G 1R7.EDITORIAL STAFFCharlie HalpinEditorial DirectorMike Dennis, Assistant Editor Contributing EditorsBob Hanley, Editorial Consultant Stan Fischler, Frank Orr, Bob Verdi &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY JIM MATHESON</div>EDMONTON&mdash;Pat Price has cleaned up his life off the ice. He no longer travels in the fast lane, maybe because he&rsquo;s older (25) and in Edmonton not New York.But he continues to have problems on the ice. While he came on in the second half of last season to be one of the Oilers&rsquo; best players in the run for a playoff berth, Price has struggled in the first month or so of the &rsquo;80-81 season. On a team that&rsquo;s not exactly endowed with expertise or experience, it&rsquo;s been a blow to Oilers&rsquo; hopes in their second NHL campaign.Price doesn&rsquo;t try to stickhandle around the obvious. Ask him how he&rsquo;s played in the first part of the year and he looks a writer-type square in the eye. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played horse-&mdash;,&rdquo; said Price, &ldquo;definitely not up to my capability.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s tough sometimes to gauge how a defenseman is playing. Points aren&rsquo;t supposed to be the criteria. In place of goals and assists, coaches fall back on the time-honored plus-minus stats. While they don&rsquo;t always ring true, in Price&rsquo;s case they have been a fairly accurate indicator. As the Oilers stumbled out of the gate, Price was minus 12. No other defenseman was close.Why the problems? &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing more reserved,&rdquo; said Price. Translated: he hasn&rsquo;t been banging people or leading any hair-raising rushes up the ice as he did last year after Christmas. In his first season with Oilers, Price was trying to prove a point. While he hadn&rsquo;t played spectacularly well with Islanders, he had a lot of ability. After a slow start, hampered by injury, he was outstanding in the second half. He played snarly, racking up 134 PIMs. In all his years in the NHL before Edmonton, he had mustered only 123 total. He got into fights, he stirred things up. He became a leader of sorts.&ldquo;Last year I was creating things,&rdquo; said Price. &ldquo;This year I&rsquo;ve been trying to prevent them from happening. I&rsquo;ve been afraid to go out and make a mistake.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s been especially ineffective at home before the glare of 17,400 fans who jam the Coliseum. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been letting the fans get on me,&rdquo; admitted Price, who was minus 9 in Edmonton in his first seven games there. &ldquo;It seems fans either like you or hate you, I guess I&rsquo;m on the other side of the coin.&rdquo; As such, he&rsquo;s heard an anvil chorus of boos and there&rsquo;s been nowhere to hide.He&rsquo;s sought refuge in games away from home. On The Road Again has become his favorite tune and not just because good &rsquo;ol Western boy Willie Nelson sings the lyrics. &ldquo;I definitely play better on the road,&rdquo; admitted Price, who was only minus 3 in foreign rinks. It has something to do with anonymity, and maybe a touch more relaxation. His best game was in Winnipeg, where he was plus three and thoroughly dominant. &ldquo;I was assertive, it was a semblance of the way I can play.&rdquo;In a sense, he&rsquo;s been a victim of circumstance. While he played often with Kevin Lowe last year and they got to know each other (&ldquo;I could rush the puck and have Kevin back me up&rdquo;),<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021158/4726753-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="568" height="826"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Price hasn&rsquo;t been playing well because he&rsquo;s not been creative, afraid to make a mistake.</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s been tougher this season. He&rsquo;s been paired with top draft Paul Coffey. The Kitchener defenseman has a big shot and long strides which seem to eat up the ice, but he&rsquo;s been slow to adapt to the NHL game. At 19, and in a pressure position, he&rsquo;s felt his way around.But Price should still be playing better. Ten minutes in penalties in his first 12 games isn&rsquo;t his style. Certainly not the one he forged last year. If he gets more aggressive and starts playing with more drive, he can be of immeasurable help to the Oilers&rsquo; blueline. If not, the Oilers are in trouble&hellip; and so is Price. &#9632;

f0004-02

Price’s Missing Intensity A Minus For Oilers’ Defense

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011081/4726784-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Toronto Maple Leafs are very optimistic about the potential of Paul Marshall, whom they obtained along with Kim Davis, from Pittsburgh.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;It didn&rsquo;t take long for Punch Imlach to signal his return.The 62-year-old general manager of the Maple Leafs had quietly returned to his office work for a few hours a day just a few weeks ago, gradually extending his length of stay at Maple Leaf Gardens to his accustomed pace.While Imlach was recovering from his second heart attack, suffered in August, the Leafs hadn&rsquo;t ventured into the trading market, but with Imlach back, the rumor mills started churning away.Although the Leafs were supposedly interested in obtaining a goalie&mdash;Calgary&rsquo;s Dan Bouchard was a likely candidate&mdash;Imlach&rsquo;s first trade of the 1980-81 season followed his established formula of last season: The continued infusion of youth and speed.The Leafs dispatched defenseman Dave Burrows, whom they had obtained from Pittsburgh, back to the Penguins, along with American League center Paul Gardner in exchange for 20-vear-old left winger Paul Marshall and 23-year-old center Kim Davis. At the same time, the Leafs called up defenseman Greg Hotham from their New Brunswick farm club after blueliner Dave Far-rish pulled a groin muscle. With Robert Picard just getting back on his skates after a knee injury, Borje Salming plagued with a cold and Dave Shand only recently returned to the lineup, the Leafs had to be concerned about their defense depth.In the forward ranks, however, there was a surplus. The Leafs already had been carrying 13 forwards when Marshall and Davis reported. Neither played on the day following the trade announcement against the Montreal Canadiens, but saw action over the past weekend.Marshall dressed for duty for both the 5-2 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings and a 5-5 tie in Boston, while Davis suited up for the latter. Hotham. who was dispatched to the minors last year tn a mid-season housecleaning move by Imlach, was one of the more effective players in the loss to the Kings, scoring a nifty goal when the teams were playing a man short to give the Leafs a 2-1 lead in the second period.&ldquo;They were caught in a line change,&rdquo; said Hotham, who intercepted a pass near the Leafs&rsquo; blueline and wheeled away towards the Kings&rsquo; end. Hotham streaked down the left side and let Kings&rsquo; goaltender Mario Lessard make the first mistake. &ldquo;I was surprised he moved first,&rdquo; Hotham said of Lessard, &ldquo;so I just kept going and shot.&rdquo;It was his fourth National Hockey League goal and Hotham expressed some doubt that he would ever get more than three goals in a Maple Leafs&rsquo; uniform.&ldquo;I knew the numbers were against me in training camp,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were carrying seven defenseman and I was number eight. So I just had to go to Moncton and play as well as I could and wait for something to happen.&rdquo;One trade and a couple of injured defenseman later, the Leafs put in a call for the 24-year-old Hotham to join the big club. &ldquo;I got a couple of good practices in before playing against L A. and of course, I played for Joe Crozier in Moncton, so it only took a couple of days to get used to what he wanted.&ldquo;In Moncton I was killing penalties, playing on the power play and taking my regular shift, plus we only had five defensemen and most of the time only four played, so I&rsquo;m in good shape,&rdquo; Hotham added.Better shape, it seems, than the Leafs, who continued to struggle at home, also losing 5-4 to the understaffed Canadiens during the week, which combined with the loss to the Kings dropped the Leafs under.500 at home-4-5.In Boston, the Leafs played their customary&mdash;at least this year&mdash;more relaxed and aggressive road style and managed to come away with a point with a 5-5 tie. Five times during the game the Bruins opened up a one-goal lead only to see the Leafs come back to tie it. Dan Maloney, Laurie Boschman, Rick Vaive, Wilf Paiement and Vaive, again, on a two-on-one break with a pass from Bill Derlago, were the Leafs&rsquo; goal scorers. Marshall had his first point as a Leaf, assisting on Vaive&rsquo;s first goal.Following the Boston game, the Leafs had to brace themselves for a return to Toronto for a four-game homestand, with St. Louis, Washington, Pittsburgh and Quebec, providing the opposition. &#9632;

f0005-01

Imlach Continues Toronto’s Youth Movement

f0006-01

The Hockey News INTERVIEW

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011127/4726898-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Lalonde, above, and Bobby Miller have been a couple of Boston centermen awaiting the opportunity for ice time as the Bruins have gone mostly with three lines.</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;Some people save stamps. Others collect fine paintings. General manager Harry Sinden stockpiles centermen and his hobby has been causing his Boston Bruins some problems of late. Nice problems, though.With no less than eight centermen signed to professional contracts, the big problem is who to play and who to send where while not upsetting the critical balance of a team that has only recently rediscovered how to win hockey games.Sinden made one move on the problem recently when he sent Barry Pederson back to the junior Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League after nine games with the big club in which he scored one goal and had four assists.That left the Bruins with Jean Ratelle, Peter McNab and rookie Steve Kasper taking regular turns at center ice with Bobby Miller and Bobby Lalonde, both fine penalty killers who can take the odd shift at wing, sitting on the end of the bench.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure Barry is disappointed,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;But he was going to be in and out of the lineup. He would have been spending more time in the executive box with the general manager than on the ice.&ldquo;But when you&rsquo;re 19 years old, you can&rsquo;t afford to sit and watch as many games as you&rsquo;re going to play. The development at that stage of your career is just too crucial.&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m to blame if he&rsquo;s bitter about it. A couple of weeks ago, he wanted to know if it was okay for him to take an apartment with Larry Mel-nyk. I told him to go ahead. I didn&rsquo;t give him any guarantees but I told him to go ahead.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not counting on being called up again,&rdquo; said Pederson, who was indeed bitter as he tucked his skates under his arm for the 3,000-mile flight home. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got guys playing in the minors and guys sitting on the bench here. I&rsquo;m not optimistic about coming back.&rdquo;Sinden&rsquo;s next problem centerman is likely to be Craig MacTavish, last season&rsquo;s rookie surprise who had a super training camp this fall, then fell flat and wound up on the Springfield farm.He went scoreless in his first five games with the Indians, then turned it around and had six goals and three assists in his next four games.&ldquo;The way MacTavish is playing, his recall is imminent,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;We counted heavily on him in camp and now we feel sure he can help us. We&rsquo;ve got to find out if he can play tike the MacTavish of last year. We can&rsquo;t waste a whole year not knowing about him.&rdquo;The problem with Miller is finding a spot for the 24-year-old defensive whiz to play.After starting the season with a pair of goals against the New York Rangers, Miller went a dozen games without finding the net. Instead, he found himself on the end of the bench communing with Lalonde. In four games, he didn&rsquo;t even dress.&ldquo;At first I said to myself, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been here for four years and I don&rsquo;t think I deserve it,&rdquo;&rsquo; said Miller, &ldquo;but when I sat down and looked at it I wasn&rsquo;t really playing that well at all.&ldquo;Stevie was playing extremely well. There was no way I was going to play ahead of Ratty the way he&rsquo;s playing. I knew Cheesy wanted to go primarily with three lines so I was going to be the fourth center.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve sat and talked to Cheesy a bit and he told me not to get down. If I can help the team in any way, center or left wing or killing penalties, I&rsquo;ll do that. I don&rsquo;t want to leave Boston. 1 love it here.&rdquo;Miller appeared to have taken the first step on the long road back with a shorthanded goal that tied the score and sent the Bruins on to a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies, running their undefeated string to six games.Meanwhile, Cheesy (that&rsquo;s coach Gerry Cheevers) was trying to figure a way to get more ice time for Miller and Lalonde without disturbing the three set lines that appear to have lifted Boston out of its early season slump.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to use a fourth line more often,&rdquo; said the coach. &ldquo;1&rsquo;11 probably double shift one of the right wingers&mdash;Terry O&rsquo;Reilly thrives on work&mdash;and use either Bobby or Newsy [Lalonde] on the left side and at center.&rdquo;In addition to the previously mentioned centermen, the Bruins have Mike Krushelnyski at Springfield and two promising draftees in juniors, Tom Fergus at Peterborough and Tony McMurchy at New Westminster. &#9632;

f0007-01

Center Ice Drawing Crowd Of Newly Awakened Bruins

EDMONTON&mdash;The Edmonton Oilers, who had won only one of their first 10 home games, fired coach Bryan Watson and announced that his duties would be assumed by general manager Glen Sather and assistant coach Billy Harris.The Oilers, who were 4-9-5 at the time of Watson&rsquo;s firing, made the decision after Sather, Watson and team owner Peter Pocklington met for three hours and reviewed the Oilers&rsquo; dismal progress thus far.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to move ahead,&rdquo; Sather said, &ldquo;and our hockey club is better than they have performed. Unfortunately you can&rsquo;t change 19 hockey players. I guess changing the coach is the easiest thing.&rdquo;Watson, who signed a two-year contract on May 30, said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to undermine Glen or Peter. That would show absolutely no class at all, but I didn&rsquo;t think it would work from the day I was hired.&rdquo;(For more information on Watson&rsquo;s firing, see next week&rsquo;s edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS). &#9632;

Oilers Fire Watson; Sather To Coach

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W C C Publishing Ltd214 King St. West, Suite 314, Toronto. Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>Let&rsquo;s Not Forget</h2>TWO AND A HALF years ago, when New York Ranger boss Sonny Werblin lured Fred Shero from the Philadelphia Flyers to transform his floundering team into contenders, Shero was at the pinnacle of his career&mdash;a man whose reputation and knowledge of hockey was so universally respected that he could command a five-year, $100,000-per-year salary from the Rangers; a man who was so valuable to the Flyers that they were able to get $100,000 and a first round draft choice from the Rangers in exchange for their departing coach.Back then, Shero said that the main reason he was leaving the Flyers was that he could no longer &ldquo;motivate&rdquo; the team after leading them to consecutive Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975.If motivation&mdash;or lack of the same&mdash;was a problem in Shero&rsquo;s last few years with the Flyers, it certainly wasn&rsquo;t an issue in his first season in New York: The Rangers improved themselves by 18 points in the regular season standings and then surged all the way to the Stanley Cup finals, defeating Los Angeles, Philadelphia and the Islanders before losing to Montreal.It was an auspicious debut for Shero, the old Ranger defenseman, and he was immediately heralded as the savior, the man who would ultimately lead the long suffering Rangers from 40 years of frustration and losing to euphoria and the Stanley Cup.Of course, it never happened. That incredible spring of 1979 proved to be the highpoint of the Rangers&rsquo; Shero era. The team got off to a slow start the following fall, faltered despite acquiring, at tremendous cost, Barry Beck, the big, intimidating defenseman they had always coveted, and stumbled their way into the playoffs, where they lost to Philadelphia, the same team they had overwhelmed just a year before.Shero&rsquo;s aloofness and enigmatic aura, initially a source of amusement to many of his players, soon became a target for their frustration. Management, embarrassed by the situation but unwilling to fire their embattled coach, emasculated him instead, importing 34-year-old Craig Patrick to run the team while Fred was to run the bench. Shero&rsquo;s admission that perhaps he drank too much last season soon followed, and right on the heels of that courageous statement came the Rangers&rsquo; worst start in the last 25 years. The pressure on the man must have been incredible.Finally, mercifully, it all came to an end when he recently resigned. The reason, he said with haunting familiarity, was that he could not &ldquo;motivate&rdquo; the Rangers.If that&rsquo;s the true reason, then Fred Shero&rsquo;s career as a coach is undoubtedly over. And that is a shame, a tragic shame. Because the man was a great coach, an innovator and pioneer who was among the first to recognize the merits of the Soviet style and technique and employ them in North America. Because of his understanding of the game he observed on endless reels of film (he called them &ldquo;filums&rdquo;) the Flyers got a jump start on everyone else in the NHL&mdash;and won two Stanley Cups as a result.Now, everybody in the league is embracing the European style and singing praises to its merits. And the man who started it all, who saw something before anyone else did, is out of a job because he can&rsquo;t &ldquo;motivate&rdquo; his players.Let&rsquo;s hope that whatever problems Fred Shero has can be solved and that his hockey career can resume in some capacity with some NHL team. And while we&rsquo;re at it, let&rsquo;s not forget what the man did for the game. His contributions were immense and every team in the league is benefitting from them today. &#9632;

Congressman Ron Mottl, a Democrat from Ohio, recently introduced the Sports Violence Act of 1980, commonly known as H R. 7903, which would penalize an athlete in any sport who engaged in &ldquo;unreasonably violent&rdquo; activity with a $5,000 fine, one year in jail, or both.In late November, spokesmen for all four of North America&rsquo;s major sports&mdash;football, baseball, basketball and hockey&mdash;addressed the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Committee of the Judiciary, giving their opinions of Mottl&rsquo;s proposal. The following is the stdte-ment National Hockey League president John Ziegler made before the Subcommittee.H.R. 7903 purports to deal with certain ills perceived by its author to be (1) presently in existence, (2) increasing in frequency and intensity, and (3) inadequately met by prevailing criminal and civil restraints.We understand that the threshold mission of your Subcommittee is fact-finding. Recognizing that untruths oft-repeated can create an illusion of authenticity, the NHL urges this Subcommittee to cautiously examine the facts, rather than accept a false characterization of the sport of hockey which has been purveyed from time to time by certain writers and which may have influenced at least one Member of Congress, the author of H.R. 7903.NHL hockey is played in 21 different locales in North America, 14 of which are located in the United States (Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Hartford, Long Island, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Washington, D.C.). Each of those areas has newspapers, radio and television stations served by a cadre of knowledgeable sports reporters who cover NHL hockey games, day in and day out. Although opinions will vary among them as to the definition and incidence rate of &ldquo;violence&rdquo; in hockey, I am confident the consensus would not support&mdash;and indeed would flat reject&mdash;the sweeping characterization of NHL hockey preferred to your committee by one witness on September 30, 1980, to wit: &ldquo;What do we see in. nearly every National Hockey League game? A barroom brawl on skates.&rdquo;I am equally confident your Subcommittee will not merely accept as fact a series of unsupported &ldquo;in ter-rorem&rdquo; allegations by people who have manifested a somewhat less than impartial and objective point of view toward the sport of professional hockey.Mr. Horrow, who acknowledged that he helped draft the bill before you, expressed to you his opinion that 1979 was a &ldquo;violent&rdquo; year in professional sports, and then he concluded from such opinion that violent incidents of the past year were symptomatic of what, in his further opinion, he called an &ldquo;alarm ing^trend toward excessive violence in professional sports.&rdquo;As an example to support such premise, Mr. Horrow told you that &ldquo;in one recent National Hockey League season, penalties totalled a record 22,329 minutes, a 25 percent increase over the preceding year.&rdquo; He failed to mention that the season he was citing was 1974-75, and that the principal reason for increase in penalty minutes was the playing of 96 more games due to the addition of two new teams plus an increase in the regular season schedule from 78 to 80 games. Moreover, an increase in penalties more often is, and has been, the result of a stricter enforcement of existing rules and/or the adoption of new rules.I do not speak for the other sports. As for hockey, I must observe that&mdash;as the end-product of his presumed exhaustive research&mdash;Mr. Horrow&rsquo;s citing of a misleading 1974-75 season&rsquo;s statistic as an alleged &ldquo;example&rdquo; to support his claim that there presently exists an &ldquo;alarming trend toward excessive violence in professional sports&rdquo; represents a classic case of proof failing to support the pleadings.Focusing upon a statistic such as penalty minutes to illuminate the issue of &ldquo;excessive violence&rdquo; is not valid. This is true whether we are discussing hockey or any other contact sport. What arguable relationship is there between &ldquo;excessive violence&rdquo; in football and number of yards penalized for offsides, holding, illegal motion, etc? Or in hockey with penalty minutes awarded for interference, holding, tripping, too many men on the ice, misconduct, abuse of officials, etc.?Much has been made before your Subcommittee of a few isolated and atypical incidents which have occurred during the past decade. The Boucha case occurred in January, 1975. There have been more than 4,000 NHL games played since then with no repetition of that kind of event. The Polonich incident occurred in November, 1978. There have been more than 1,500 NHL games played since then with no repetition of that kind of event.The Subcommittee should recognize these regrettable situations for what they truly represent&mdash;isolated instances of aberrational behavior.The real world we live in teaches that legislation does not deter aberrational behavior. Capital punishment statutes have not eliminated homicide, and never will. Before proceeding to create additional criminal legislation, Congress should concern itself with the incidence rate of the targeted criminal conduct.Proponents of H.R. 7903 have suggested the dearth of state prosecutions indicates the need for federal criminal statutes. That presupposes there exists a high incidence rate of Boucha-like situations which are being ignored by local prosecutors. The truth is quite simple and obvious: There have been so few prosecutions because there have been so few instances in hockey which would warrant an assault or aggravated assault prosecutions. The facts just do not support the fictitious allegation that hockey is engulfed in some sort of epidemic of criminal violence.It has been suggested to your Subcommittee that one of the reasons H.R. 7903 should be passed is that professional athletes are role models for children, and children seek to emulate the behavior of their sports idols. But that issue cuts both ways, and Congress should be alert to the danger that a child&rsquo;s perception that his athlete-heroes are being harrassed by prosecutors or branded as criminals by legislators could act to erode his respect for lawful authority. Clearly, consideration of a bill as sweeping as H.R. 7903 requires a full measure of legislative restraint.H.R. 7903 would criminalize physical force that is &ldquo;unreasonably violent.&rdquo; That indicates its author finds acceptable &ldquo;reasonably violent&rdquo; physical force. The word &ldquo;violent&rdquo; is itself imprecise. When a further distinction is to be drawn between &ldquo;reasonable&rdquo; and &ldquo;unreasonable,&rdquo; where does the athlete turn for enlightenment?Webster&rsquo;s New Collegiate Dictionary lists eleven different definitions of the word &ldquo;violence.&rdquo; I concur that there is violence in the NHL, when violence is defined as &ldquo;intense, turbulent or furious action,&rdquo; or &ldquo;fervor,&rdquo; or &ldquo;a clashing or jarring quality.&rdquo;On the other hand, the NHL does not condone or tolerate violence, when violence is defined as &ldquo;exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse.&rdquo; Yet, the mere use of the word &ldquo;violence&rdquo; can according to Webster, mean all of these things and more. So, what meaning of violence, or &ldquo;reasonable&rdquo; violence or &ldquo;unreasonable violence,&rdquo; would an athlete extract from H.R. 7903?In making a prosecutorial decision, under H.R. 7903, what standards would be applied by the U.S. Attorney in Chicago? Would they be the same as those applied in New York? When it comes to a matter of prosecutorial discretion, what is the basis for presuming the decisions of the U.S. Attorney in Chicago and the U.S. Attorney in New York would be any more consistent than the decisions of the respective state prosecutors in those two cities under existing state criminal statutes?.In 1977, the House Select Committee on Professional Sports of the 94th Congress conducted an inquiry into professional sports. Part of the inquiry focused upon the issue of violence in sports. In reporting on its findings, the Committee acknowledged the testimony of various hockey authorities, and stated inter alia:&ldquo;It was admitted that roughness is a basic part of the game and that occasional fights occur as an outlet for pent-up emotions. The World Hockey Player&rsquo;s Association Executive Director described fighting as a good release, and indicated that it should be kept under control but not eliminated. He believed that if it was totally suppressed, other outlets such as kicking or &lsquo;spearing&rsquo; would appear, and these acts could cause more serious physical harm to players.&rdquo;I personally subscribe to that viewpoint and believe it is shared by the majority of people in North America who have played or studied the sport of hockey, notwithstanding the continuing dialogue and debate within the hockey community with regard thereto.I am aware that nothing puts critics of hockey more in a fighting mood than the NHL&rsquo;s insistence on providing an outlet for the frustration created when playing the world&rsquo;s most physically intense and demanding team sport.The NHL Board of Governors is not insensitive to that criticism. The easy way out would be to eliminate fighting and thus appease the critics. The subject has been debated at length. Opinions are divided within the NHL. There are those who feel it is a necessary outlet and a far more acceptable alternative to the harmful use of sticks as a means to vent frustrations. But in all the years I have heard this issue debated, never have 1 heard a single member of the Board of Governors suggest that fighting should be retained because it helps sell tickets&mdash;a motivation so readily ascribed to the National Hockey League by its critics&hellip;I thank the Committee for the opportunity which has been afforded the NHL today. We are confident a full and impartial inquiry into the facts of NHL hockey&mdash;as contrasted with the fictions presented to you by its critics&mdash;will persuade the Subcommittee to share our view, and the view of the Department of Justice, that H.R. 7903 is unwarranted and should not be enacted. &#9632;

H.R. 7903: “Unwarranted… Should Not Be Enacted”

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011199/4727008-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Ramsay came out of a season-long slump with a four-goal week for the Sabres.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;It&rsquo;s great to have a forward line scoring as Derek Smith, Tony McKegney and Danny Gare are.But it&rsquo;s not so good when that line is the only one that is putting the puck into the net for the club. The Buffalo Sabres are finding that out as they struggle through a mini-slump.The Sabres haven&rsquo;t been losing a lot of games, but they haven&rsquo;t been winning much, either. Going into this week, they had lost only two of their last 14 games. However, they had won only two of their last seven.And those two came against two of the lowest-ranking teams in the National Hockey League, the Quebec Nordiques and the Winnipeg Jets.William Scott Bowman, the Sabres&rsquo; director of hockey operations, wasn&rsquo;t saying much, publicly, but he apparently wasn&rsquo;t pleased with the way things were going.Bowman has not been making trips with the Sabres since turning over the coaching duties to Roger Neilson but he turned up at the game in Winnipeg.&ldquo;Scouting junior teams,&rdquo; said Bowman, when asked about his trip.He travelled directly to Winnipeg from Buffalo, however, after passing up a Sabres-Black Hawks game in Chicago, even though he had been in Chicago the day before for a general managers&rsquo; meeting. Buffalo lost that game, 5-2, scoring only after the Hawks had taken a 4-0 lead.What&rsquo;s worse, the Hawks hadn&rsquo;t won in eight straight games before Buffalo&rsquo;s representatives visited the Windy City.<h2>Going into the week, the Sabres had lost only two of their last 14 games&mdash;but they had won only two of their last seven.</h2>The Sabres took command early in Winnipeg and won the game, 4-2.The Smith-McKegney-Gare line scored three of the four goals. Defenseman John Van Boxmeer got the other. Gare scored his 14th goal of the season to put Buffalo ahead for good after Danny Geoffrion had tied the score following Van Boxmeer&rsquo;s goal.Gare, who has scored 11 goals against the Jets in the six games the teams have played, set up Smith in a two-on-one situation for the Sabres&rsquo; third goal, then took a shot on which McKegney drove home the rebound for the fourth score.The three goals against Winnipeg meant that the Smith line scored 14 of Buffalo&rsquo;s 24 goals in the seven-game stretch.Craig Ramsay, who had trouble finding the range earlier in the season, scored four and Van Boxmeer three. That meant the rest of the team scored only three goals in those seven games.One reason the Smith line has been carrying the scoring load, perhaps, is that it is the only forward combination playing together consistently. Other lines have changed from game to game and period to period.A knee injury to Rick Martin has upset Neilson&rsquo;s plans and has necessitated some switching. While Martin hasn&rsquo;t been scoring at his usual rate, he set up quite a few goals&mdash;11 assists in 13 games&mdash;and his very presence on the ice meant the other club had to think about stopping him.With Martin on the ice, the opposition couldn&rsquo;t concentrate its checking on Gil Perreault.Perreault was not doing much offensively through that seven-game stretch. The league&rsquo;s fourth-ranking scorer of last season had one goal and three assists in seven games.The smooth-skating center played with a numer of different wingers, sometimes going between two rookies, Gillen Hamel and Steve Patrick. Also, Gil sometimes would team with Ramsay and Ric Seiling against the opposition&rsquo;s best scoring line.ICE CHIPS- The loss of Bill Hajt for a month or so because of a broken bone in his right foot has been hurting the Sabres defensively. Hajt is a defenseman&rsquo;s defenseman. With Hajt out. Lindv Ruff has played more at defense than at forward, where Neilson and Bowman had figured on putting him for size and aggressiveness.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02925/4727001-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="553" height="907"><figcaption class="caption-body">The duo of Gil Perreault, left and Richard Martin, haven&rsquo;t been doing their customary scoring for the Sabres, who have had to rely on Gare, Smith and McKegney.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-01

One Line Not Enough To Carry Slumping Sabres

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Now that everybody from Landover, Md. to Vancouver, B.C. knows who shot J.R., another question is begging for an answer.What are the Black Hawks really like?&bull; Are they the exemplary team they seemed to be when they scored decisive back-to-back victories over the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, and Minnesota North Stars, 6-2?&bull; Or, when they hit the road for an extended expedition, will they revert to the bad habits that had them staggering through an eight-game winless string (0-5-3) at the start of November?The resiliency on offense, discipline on defense, and penalty-killing prowess the Hawks demonstrated against Minnesota seem to suggest that they&rsquo;ve gotten their act back together.Playing before a hostile crowd of 15,784 in the Met Center, they twice bounced back from early deficits, squelched all six of Minnesota&rsquo;s powerplay chances, and tallied a shorthanded goal (by Tom Lysiak).Scoring balance up front was very much in evidence. In addition to Lysiak, Ron Sedlbauer, Tim Higgins, Ted Bulley, Denis Savard, and Grant Mulvey hit the bullseye against goalie Gilles Meloche.Coach Keith Magnuson also was pleased with the way his forwards played defense.&ldquo;Our wingers stayed with their men longer when they backchecked and that helped our defensemen,&rdquo; said Magnuson. &ldquo;Our defensemen weren&rsquo;t running around the way they had been.&ldquo;Tony Esposito [in goal] was outstanding and Tommy [Lysiak] kept Bobby Smith under control. It seemed like we always had one winger back. The three-on-twos and two-on-ones weren&rsquo;t there. In penalty-killing situations, we had been letting the other teams set up. This time we made them force the play.&rdquo;Three nights before in Chicago Stadium, the Hawks snapped their eight-game winless string at the expense of the Sabres.They went into the game needing something to light their fire but who would have thought it would turn out to be a cigarette lighter?&ldquo;Some idiot threw a lighter onto the ice,&rdquo; said Buffalo goalie Don Edwards. &ldquo;Somebody kicked it into the crease. I slipped on it and fell and that left the net wide open. That&rsquo;s how they got their first goal.&rdquo;In view of the Hawks&rsquo; three-goal margin of victory it seemed like blaming the Johnstown Flood on that leaky toilet in Altoona.But the goal by Denis Savard&mdash;assisted by a flick of the Bic, Higgins, and Mike O&rsquo;Connell&mdash;late in the first period did mark the beginning of a welcome end to a victory drought dating back to Oct. 29.&ldquo;Everybody in the dressing room knew our backs were to the wall,&rdquo; said Magnuson, who considers losing a high crime and therefore underwent agonizing punishment during the downslide.&ldquo;It has been a tough time and I have to take a bit of the blame. Being my first year, maybe I wasn&rsquo;t tough enough. Maybe I was too slack in practice.&rdquo;Esposito went into the final period in pursuit of his shutout of the season and 74th of his career and enjoyed a three-goal lead. But in the early going he had to make various and sundry spectacular saves. Buffalo powerplay goals (by Derek Smith and Craig Ramsay) deprived him of the shutout in the final period.Reg Kerr bagged two of Chicago&rsquo;s goals off Edwards. In addition to Kerr and Savard, Bulley and Bob Murray scored for the Hawks. &#9632;

Enigmatic Hawks: Good, Bad Or Both?

<div class="byline">BY FRANK ORR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011239/4727077-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Major was captured in this memorable photograph, taken at a dinner in Toronto last year, with two other National Hockey League Hall of Famers&mdash;Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard (left) and Bobby Orr. (Photo by Jerry Hobbs)</figcaption></div>The Major had the last laugh.Conn Smythe, called The Major but, in reality, a Lieutenant-Colonel, the man who built Maple Leaf Gardens, the Toronto Maple Leafs and a major reason why the National Hockey League became a success, died on November 18 at 85 in the middle of Grey Cup Week in Canada.The Grey Cup is the Super Bowl of Canadian football and, in the days when he operated the Leafs, Smythe annually staged a caper of some sort&mdash;a trade, the demotion of a good player to the minor leagues, an outrageous feud&mdash;to guarantee that hockey received its share of headlines in the midst of the onslaught of publicity for football.Smythe&rsquo;s death pushed the Grey Cup game off the front pages in a year when, ironically, one of the teams in the Canadian championship game, the Hamilton Tiger Cats, is owned by Harold Ballard, the man who now owns the Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens.&ldquo;Wherever he is, that old devil Smythe is having a few chuckles about stealing all the publicity from football, you can bet on it!&rdquo; Ballard said.When Smythe died from a heart ailment at his beautiful farm 30 miles from Toronto, a giant was removed from the Canadian scene. Conn Smythe packed more into his 85 years than just about any man who ever lived. It&rsquo;s almost impossible to compile a complete list of his accomplishments.Here are the most notable ones:&bull; After he assembled the New York Rangers for their entry into the NHL, he was fired by the Rangers. He returned to Toronto, bought the city&rsquo;s NHL entry, the St. Patrick&rsquo;s, a name changed to the Maple Leafs.&bull; In 1931, in the height of the Great Depression, he opened Maple Leaf Gardens, one of the world&rsquo;s most famous buildings, on a shoestring by convincing the workers to accept shares in the building instead of cash for their labor.&bull; He built the Maple Leafs into an NHL powerhouse with shrewd trades and astute scouting and made the team a household word across Canada through coast-to-coast radio broadcasts by Foster Hewitt.&bull; He was a much-decorated soldier who fought in both world wars and suffered wounds that caused him to walk with a limp for the rest of his life.&bull; He owned a very successful thoroughbred horse breeding and racing operation and his horses won the Queen&rsquo;s Plate, Canada&rsquo;s Kentucky Derby, three times.&bull; He was a great philanthropist, who turned over large sums of money to charities and was an untiring fund-raiser for good causes. His work on behalf of the Ontario Society for Crippled Children raised huge sums for research, educational and recreational facilities for that organization. At the age of 80, he became interested in the problems of the deaf and led a fund-raising campaign to build a multi-purpose center for those with hearing disabilities in Toronto.The words used to describe Conn Smythe contain many contradictions. He was a visionary in sports and business but often presented a narrow, WASPish view of the world. He fought in two wars to guarantee the retention of democratic rights and freedom, then fought just as hard against the organization of unions by the workers in his assorted businesses, including the squelching of the first attempt to form an NHL Players Association in 1959.He devoted time and money to helping the underprivileged while at the same time conducting bitter feuds and vendettas against his hockey opponents. He often talked of how he loved a &ldquo;thoroughbred,&rdquo; both in horses and hockey players, but he also traded several great players when age deteriorated their skills even slightly.In short: Conn Smythe was a complex, controversial, brilliant man of many parts.It was hockey that earned Smythe his notoriety and his 35-year involvement in the NHL is perhaps the dominant chapter in the league&rsquo;s history.Born in downtown Toronto a few blocks from the site of Maple Leaf Gardens, Smythe was a fine athlete as a boy but because of his size (5-8, 150 pounds), he moved into the administrational side of the game while acquiring an engineering degree from the University of Toronto.He coached the University of Toronto hockey team to two Canadian championships and a world title in the 1920s. His work with the college team attracted the attention of Col. John Hammond, the president of the New York Rangers, who hired Smythe to build the team and coach it when the Rangers entered the NHL in 1926.Smythe did a superb recruiting job for the Rangers, rounding up Bill and Bun Cook, Frank Boucher, Ching Johnson and Taffy Abel. But before the team played a game, Hammond fired Smythe and hired Lester Patrick, who had more hockey experience, to run the team.Hammond paid Smythe $2,500 of the $10,000 salary he&rsquo;d promised and when he collected the money, Smythe told Hammond that he planned to buy a team of his own that would beat the Rangers.Smythe bet his $2,500 on a college football game and parlayed the wager on the Toronto St. Pats in a game against the Ottawa Senators. Thus, with a small bankroll, the career of Conn Smythe was launched.Smythe talked two Toronto brokers into backing him in the purchase of the St. Pat&rsquo;s team in the fledgling NHL for $170,000. He immediately renamed the club the Maple Leafs.As hockey interest grew quickly in Toronto, the ancient Arena Gardens, where the Leafs played, became too small to accommodate all the spectators who wanted to see the team. Often, several thousand fans had to be turned away.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02975/4727070-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="2032" height="884"><figcaption class="caption-body">The 1931-32 edition of the Toronto Maple Leafs, managed by Smythe, won the Stanley Cup, the first ever for the Leafs. Back row, left to right: Tim Daly (trainer), King Clancy, Andy Blair, Red Horner, Lome Chabot, Alex Levinsky, Joe Primeau, Harvey (Busher) Jackson, Fred Robertson, Harold (Baldy) Cotton. Front row, left to right: Charlie Conacher, Frank Finnigan, Hap Day, Conn Smythe, Dick Irvin, Frank Selke, Ace Bailey and Bob Gracie.</figcaption></div>The time was 1929. The stock market had crashed and North America was at the start of the depression years. Many businesses were going broke and Smythe was viewed as slightly crazy for even thinking about the construction of a huge arena.But he forged ahead, first securing the land at Church and Carlton streets in downtown Toronto and $1 million to start construction. When he discovered that he was $300,000 short of the total needed to finish the building, Smythe convinced the workers, unions and contractors to accept stock in the Gardens as payment.The building was completed in seven months, an amazing construction feat that Smythe attributed to the workers&rsquo; financial involvement in the project.The building opened on schedule on Nov. 12, 1931, and by that time Smythe also had constructed a splendid hockey team, led by the mighty Kid Line of Joe Primeau, Harvey (Busher) Jackson and Charlie Conacher.To complete his team, Smythe needed a top defenseman and his acquisition of King Clancy from the Ottawa Senators became a large part of hockey folklore. Smythe didn&rsquo;t have the ready cash to pay Ottawa&rsquo;s demanded price&mdash;$35,000&mdash;for Clancy.One of Smythe&rsquo;s horses, an undistinguished plug named Rare Jewel, was running at big odds and Smythe bet a bundle on him and collected $15,000 when the nag came through with a win. He used that loot plus a note to buy Clancy.The Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1932, beating the Rangers in the final to fulfill Smythe&rsquo;s promise to Hammond and launch the team&rsquo;s tradition as one of the NHL&rsquo;s elite clubs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03660/4727063-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="970" height="1000"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Selke (left) and Smythe built the Maple Leafs into an NHL power in the early days of the league.</figcaption></div>Smythe ran the Leaf operation as owner-general manager with Dick Irvin and then Hap Day, as his coaches. He feuded with opponents, rival owners, refereesand fans.His long-running feud with Art Ross of the Boston Bruins was no publicity-seeking act. It was bitter, often nasty, and in one 12-year period, Smythe and Ross didn&rsquo;t exchange a single word of conversation.Just after Smythe bought the team, he also purchased a player named Jimmy Herbert, who was recommended highly by Ross. When Herbert turned out to be ordinary, Smythe blamed Ross. He also accused the Boston honcho of placing fans close to the Leaf bench to try to goad Smythe into fights.Before one Leaf visit to Boston, Smythe took out a full-page ad in a Boston newspaper that read: &ldquo;The Toronto Maple Leafs are in town. It&rsquo;s your chance to see a good hockey club.&rdquo;Smythe did get in a fight in Boston that landed him in jail. It was part of the Ace Bailey-Eddie Shore incident in which Shore crashed Bailey to the ice and the Leaf center suffered grievous head injuries, hovering close to death for several days.When Bailey was being carried to the dressing room, a fan hollered that he was faking and Smythe punched him. According to Smythe&rsquo;s version of incident, Art Ross had instructed the fan to press charges, then asked him to withdraw them when the seriousness of Bailey&rsquo;s injuries was discovered.Smythe, who had been a prisoner of war for more than a year in World War I, was an artillery major in WW II. He organized the Sportsmen&rsquo;s Battery, which included many hockey players and other athletes. But shrapnel grazed his spine just after D-Day, inflicting serious injuries, including the pronounced limp he had for the rest of his life.Smythe restored the Leafs to prominence in the post-war period, winning the Stanley Cup four times in five years. Late in the 1946-47 season, the Leafs needed a center to go with Syi Apps and Teeder Kennedy. Smythe completed the first big trade to get one of the best&mdash;Max Bentley from the Chicago Black Hawks&mdash;in exchange for an entire lineup&mdash;defensemen Bob Goldham and Ernie Dickens and forwards Bud Poile, Gus Bodnar and Gaye Stewart. Bentley helped to make the Leafs Cup-winners.While Smythe liked to create the impression that he was a gambler who acted on whims and impulses, he did very little without a great deal of research and preparation.Much fuss has been made about the recent use of video and statistics by coaches as aids in running their teams. But Smythe was using them in the late 1930s.All games at the Gardens were filmed, then Smythe and Day studied them meticulously. He had an elaborate system of clocks installed at the Gardens on which the ice-time of every player was measured. He kept extensive charts on his players and was the first to use plus-minus figures.In the post-war period, Smythe became interested in the problems of crippled children and raised large amounts of money to improve their plight.&ldquo;When I was a younger man,&rdquo; Smythe said, &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t stand to be around anyone with a deformity, anyone who was crippled, because they gave me the jitters.&ldquo;Then, when I was wounded and became that way myself, I realized how wrong I had been and decided to try to do something about it.&rdquo;Smythe had three children&mdash;a daughter, Miriam, and two sons, Dr. Hugh, who&rsquo;s respected worldwide as a specialist in arthritic diseases, and Stafford, who died in 1971. Stafford spent his life in hockey, too, joining Harold Ballard in the operation of the Marlboro juniors and, later, the Maple Leafs.In 1961, Smythe sold 60 percent of his shares in the Gardens and Leafs to his son Stafford, Ballard and John Bassett. Ballard purchased total control of the operation after Stafford Smythe&rsquo;s death.In 1966, Conn Smythe resigned from the Gardens&rsquo; board of directors when his son and Ballard staged a heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and Ernie Terrell. The fight had been turned down by many U.S. cities because of Ali&rsquo;s refusal to answer his draft call.&ldquo;They [Stafford, Ballard] put cash ahead of class,&rdquo; Smythe said of the decision to stage the fight. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve traded a lot of people myself. Now, I&rsquo;ve been traded for a Black Muslim minister and the $35,000 rent for the building.&rdquo;Although, officially, Smythe was out of the hockey picture, it didn&rsquo;t prevent his making pungent comments on the hockey scene.When the new regime squeezed an additional 4,000 seats into the Gardens, Smythe looked at them and said: &ldquo;You need to be a skinny, little, underfed kid to fit into them and a fat old banker to afford them.&rdquo;Smythe was a loud opponent of the NHL&rsquo;s rapid expansion and frequently tossed a few darts at the team owners in the 1970s.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m for perfection in everything and we had the best players in the world split among six teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our hockey was worth the money. When there were six teams, there were just as many players who could handle Gordie Howe as he could handle. In his last few years in the NHL, they couldn&rsquo;t get near him.&ldquo;But what&rsquo;s happened to the NHL is no different than what&rsquo;s happened to most other things in the world. Everybody is after the fast buck and no one thinks about quality.&rdquo;When the Leafs celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1978, Smythe said he saw some hope for the league but not because of the owners.&ldquo;I think the game might survive in spite of the men who own the teams and run the league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If it does, it will be because of the players. 1 watched the NHL All Star game on television and I was heartened to see that there are still plenty of thoroughbreds playing the game.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s always been the game&rsquo;s strengths&mdash;the men who play it. You just couldn&rsquo;t find better men, men with more heart, courage and devotion than the great hockey players.&rdquo;A chap named Conn Smythe had those qualities, too. &#9632;

f0010-01

A Fond Farewell To The Major—Conn Smythe

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Perry Miller won a job along the Detroit Red Wing blueline in training camp&mdash;and lost it without playing.If that sounds strange, it is.An explanation, please.Miller. 28, enjoyed an excellent first season with the Red Wings in 1977-78, the year Detroit last qualified for the National Hockey League playoffs. It was his first year in the NHL after three in the World Hockey Association and those close to the Wings figured there were only better things ahead for Miller.It hasn&rsquo;t quite worked out that way.Miller spent most of the 1979-80 season with Detroit&rsquo;s top farm club, the Adirondack (Glens Falls, N.Y.) Wings of the American Hockey League.He was the best defenseman in the AHL the last two months of the season and he figured prominently in coach Ted Lindsay&rsquo;s plans for the current season.Miller&rsquo;s training camp performance was adequate and he earned a job with the Red Wings for the start of the season. But he played in only one game&mdash;not what you would call an honest chance&mdash;before being sent to Glens Falls once again. He played some outstanding hockey in the AHL and gave the young Detroit hopefuls there a boost with his leadership, experience and performance. Soon he was back in Detroit&mdash;along with Jean Hamel&mdash;and the pair helped to bolster the Wings&rsquo; sagging defense.<h2>Miller gave the young hopefuls in Adirondack a boost with his leadership&hellip; soon he was back in Detroit.</h2>&ldquo;The pressure is off,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;When I came up, Marcel [Pronovost, the assistant coach] said to do what I can do best and not worry about other things.&ldquo;My game is to take the body and hit. It&rsquo;s easier for me to play that way.&ldquo;In training camp, they had me change to a shorter stick&hellip; when I went down to Glens Falls. I went back to my old stick and went back to playing mv game.&rdquo;He also got his confidence back. Miller is a firm believer that the key ingredient in his sport is confidence, that a lack of it is often disastrous.Hamel got his confidence back, too.&ldquo;I was playing 45 minutes a game down there,&rdquo; Hamel said. &ldquo;When I got called up. it was easy to step in and play.&rdquo;NOTES & QUOTES:Mike Foligno, last year&rsquo;s rookie sensation, on the sophomore jinx: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a bunch of bunk&hellip; You only put pressure on yourself thinking about it. Of course, if you pressure yourself, then you may have an off year.&rdquo;John Ogrodnick (a native of Ottawa): &ldquo;1 guess if there is a team I wanted to play for when I was growing up it was Toronto. But&hellip; I knew I would get a shot at the NHL much quicker with Detroit.&rdquo;Ted Lindsay, on whether the Detroit media was unfair in its criticism so early in the season: &ldquo;They have their job to do. Our record is not that impressive. As a player or as a coach, if you want accolades you have to earn them and in our society you have to be on the winning side of the ledger. They have been critical in many cases but it&rsquo;s our responsibility to work harder and prove them wrong.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011212/4727108-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="568" height="634"><figcaption class="caption-body">Now that his confidence has returned, Perry Miller figures he can help the Red Wings.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-01

Wings’ Miller Ready To Fly Again

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021031/4727146-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="292" height="337"><figcaption class="caption-body">BILL LIBBY&rsquo;S</figcaption></div><h2>Teacher&rsquo;s Pet</h2>DON CHERRY is long gone from Boston, but he left his mark on many of the players he left behind, including Rick Middleton.Middleton came to the Bruins from the Rangers in the summer of 1976. When the 5-11 forward waddled onto the ice at the start of training camp, Cherry was not impressed.&ldquo;You look a little pudgy to me,&rdquo; the Bruins&rsquo; coach growled.&ldquo;Yeh, I had a good summer,&rdquo; Rick replied happily.Cherry was stunned. He expected an apology. Instead he got a grin from a happy-go-lucky guy whose lifestyle was not suited to his new coach&rsquo;s.The coach, who doesn&rsquo;t always treat his players as well as he does his beloved dog Blue, got on Rick until teammates nicknamed him &ldquo;01&rsquo; Black &rsquo;n Blue.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03714/4727139-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="380" height="412"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Middleton</figcaption></div>But Rick slimmed down and began to work at defense as well as offense and eventually made his way out of the coach&rsquo;s dog-house.Before he left, Cherry grudgingly said, &ldquo;Rick&rsquo;s not as good as Guy Lafleur, but he&rsquo;s as exciting.&rdquo;Rick smiles and says, &ldquo;I doubt that I&rsquo;m even as exciting as Lafleur, but I am exciting. That&rsquo;s always been my game.&ldquo;I do play a more complete game now, which I owe to Don. I really respect the man and I&rsquo;m glad he made me work on my game.&rdquo;The Bruins have had a couple of coaches since and have fallen on hard times, but Middleton looks better every time I see him.<h2>High Scorer</h2>HE&rsquo;S ALWAYS BEEN a spectacular skater and shooter. He led the Ontario Hockey Association in goals with 67 with Oshawa his last season as an amateur.The Rangers made him their first choice in the draft the summer of 1973 and he poured in 36 goals for Providence his first pro season and was rated &ldquo;Rookie of the Year&rdquo; in the American League.He had 18 goals by Christmas of his rookie season in the National League, but defensive deficiencies deprived him of ice time and he wound up with only 22.The next season he settled for 24 and the Rangers sent him to Boston for Ken Hodge in one of the most one-sided deals ever made in this league.Hodge was a good player, but he&rsquo;s long gone from the big leagues. Middleton, who turned 27 in December, is just approaching his peak.Rick has improved every season in Boston. He got even less ice time under Don Cherry than he had in New York and got only 20 goals his first season in Boston, but went to 25 the next season, 38 the next, and 40 last season.Becoming more of a playmaker, he picked up 56 points in the second half of last season. He has led the team with 86 and 92 points the last two years.A clean player, he picked up 24 minutes in penalties last season, but had only 74 in his first six seasons in the NHL.Some day he may win the Lady Byng Award for clean, effective play. He has won awards in Boston for his spirited, spectacular play.<h2>Family Man</h2>ONCE A FREE-SPIRIT, he has started a family. He and his wife Nicole and an infant daughter live quietly in the Boston suburb of Topsfield.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t make a lot of noise off the ice any more,&rdquo; he smiles. &ldquo;I save it for the ice. I concentrate on my hockey.&ldquo;I used to lose my concentration a lot and that became a big problem for me. Now I&rsquo;m in the game more and 1 bear down harder.&ldquo;The last couple of years I&rsquo;ve played on power plays and killed penalties a lot and that has helped me stay in shape.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a big guy, but I can go. Now I try to go all-out all the time. Win or lost. I don&rsquo;t like losing. Who does? But you&rsquo;ve just got to keep giving your best.&rdquo;In his hometown, Toronto, his father, Dick, owns a printing shop, Mom, Terry, takes care of the house. The kids are grown. One daughter, Carol, is out in the world, working. Rick&rsquo;s wife, Nicole, is from Montreal.Rick is satisfying all his ambitions, which he not so long ago listed in order: Get to the majors, get a wife, get a dog, get a kid, get a house.&ldquo;I never had a dog as a kid and I always wanted one,&rdquo; he said with a grin, &ldquo;so I got two miniature schnauzers.&rdquo;&ldquo;I never had a wife, either, so I got me one of them. I got a kid, too. The wife helped. Had to have some place to put &rsquo;em so I got a two-acre place in the suburbs.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I want to raise wives, but I&rsquo;d like to raise dogs, and, I guess, kids.&ldquo;When you get all the things you want out of life,&rdquo; he said, smiling, &ldquo;you can&rsquo;t complain.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-02

HOCKEY AD LIB

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div>DENVER&mdash;It hasn&rsquo;t been unusual for Rene Robert to grow uncomfortable in different situations during his National Hockey League career.But the dilemma which confronted the 31-year-old Robert at the start of the current season was one to which he was totally unaccustomed. Robert was on the sidelines recovering from surgery to repair a calcium deposit which formed as a result of a groin-stomach muscle pull last season.Robert was hopeful of being back in the lineup by December. That was speculation on his part. No one knew for sure when the fiery Frenchman would return. But one thing was certain, he was growing restless.When last seen with the Rockies, Robert was making noises demanding to be traded if the team went ahead and fired coach Don (Grapes) Cherry last spring. Robert was one of the most vocal supporters of Cherry and still is, although he has maintained his professionalism enough to want to play again with the Rockies, with or without Cherry.A summer of relaxation and racing his harness horses healed some of the psychological wounds of the Cherry firing and Robert reported to training camp in good shape, physically and mentally, he thought.But when medication failed to cure the ailment, surgery was required and some sources close to the Rockies figured it might be Christmas before Robert is back.&ldquo;I figure I&rsquo;ll be playing by the end of November,&rdquo; Robert said early in the month. &ldquo;If everything goes the way it&rsquo;s going, it&rsquo;ll be by the end of the month, maybe earlier, but definitely for the last trip to Buffalo [where Robert was a member of the famed &ldquo;French Connection&rdquo; line for so many years].&rdquo;&ldquo;I have been hurt before, but never this early in the year,&rdquo; Robert said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s going to be tough to get my timing back and catch up with the other guys. I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s gonna take a lot of work.&rdquo;As an athlete, the ecstasy is playing the game, the agony is watching from the sidelines, or the stands. Robert has come to know the feeling well. The best start in the Rockies&rsquo; history (6-6-4) helped ease the pain.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re off to a pretty good start,&rdquo; Robert agreed. &ldquo;If we were off toa bad start, it would bother me more and I&rsquo;d be under pressure to get back. I&rsquo;d probably rush myself more and get hurt again.&rdquo;In no way did Robert expect his injury to develop the way it did. &ldquo;No, I was running every day in the summer and it never bothered me. But you use different muscles when you skate. I didn&rsquo;t think it was serious. It never bothered me when I ran, but as soon as I started skating in training camp, it bothered me.&ldquo;They took x-rays and found the calcium deposits and tried to dissolve &rsquo;em with shots, but it didn&rsquo;t work. When they cut on me, that&rsquo;s when they found out I had a ruptured muscle.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to get operated on right away, but the doctors said I&rsquo;m better off getting it done now. They said, &lsquo;You might play one game and get hurt again and be out for a month,&rdquo;&rsquo; Robert said.&ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;Llike to sit out. I never did,&rdquo; he went on. &ldquo;1 like to participate. It&rsquo;s awful to sit back and watch a game. It&rsquo;s easier on the bench because you don&rsquo;t see all the mistakes.&rdquo;As for the Cherry firing, it is an old story; controversial but old at this point. Robert was one of Cherry&rsquo;s most outspoken defenders and he was understandably upset when Cherry was fired.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d always dreamed throughout my career to play for a guy like Grapes, Robert said. &ldquo;He made life so easy for a lot of us last year. He treated us totally different from the other coaches I&rsquo;d played for. It was tough to see him go. he was a friend of mine and always will be. But I&rsquo;ve got to make a living.&rdquo;&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say anything bad about the organization. They&rsquo;ve been good to me. I just hope Grapes can get another job because I honestly think he&rsquo;s been good to hockey. He&rsquo;s always going to be a friend.&rdquo;But, again, that&rsquo;s hisjory. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a professional and I have a job to do,&rdquo; Robert said. &ldquo;They pay me to play hockey and they&rsquo;re my bosses. They&rsquo;ve never bothered me about anything. Everytime I&rsquo;ve asked them about something, they&rsquo;ve never turned me down and I have to ask a lot for the players at times.&ldquo;See, I reacted without really thinking or knowing about all the things that were going on,&rdquo; said Robert, who is also Colorado&rsquo;s captain. &ldquo;I reacted like a lot of other players on the team reacted. But some of us said more than other guys did; that&rsquo;s what caused a little friction.&rdquo;ROCKY RAMBLINGS- A rash of injuries, the most serious of which was expected to sideline defenseman Trevor Johansen for six to eight weeks because of knee ligament damage, hit the Rockies the first week of November and they were forced to call up four players from Fort Worth within four days&hellip; The Rockies have only two solid lines on which they can rely: The Walter McKechnie-Lanny McDonald-Paul Gagne unit and the Merlin Malinowski-Randy Pierce-Ron Delorme line. &#9632;

Robert Restless As Mending Rocky

<div class="byline">BY STEVE WINTER</div>LANDOVER&mdash;The Capitals were playing Buffalo at home, trailing 3-0, heading into the final period. Few among the 12,482 in attendance that night will remember these two specific plays, but they turned out to be instrumental in the club&rsquo;s recovery which produced three goals in a 5:20 span, and eventually, a 3-3 tie.The first play involved Danny Gare, the Sabres&rsquo; gutsy captain, and their swift-skating center, Derek Smith. Gare held the puck in the Caps&rsquo; right wing corner and fed a pass toward a streaking Smith, flashing through the slot, ready to tip the puck past goalie Mike Palmateer. At the very last moment, Smith felt his stick hooked up into the air, and his body played off the puck, as the disk slipped harmlessly into the left wing corner.Some two minutes later, it was Richard Martin and Andre Savard streaking down ice, two-on-one, playing give-and-go across the Capitals&rsquo; blueline, when suddenly a big, blond defenseman threw himself down, prone on the ice, to sweep the puck away from a startled Martin and into the corner of the rink.The &ldquo;culprit&rdquo; on both plays was Pat Ribble, the 26-year-old, six-year NHL veteran, whom the Capitals had acquired last season from Toronto for forward Mike Kaszycki. Although Ribble&rsquo;s efforts in that tie with Buffalo may not go down in Caps&rsquo; history among the list of most memorable accomplishments, they certainly played tremendous roles during a game is which another goal would have meant a goose egg instead of a point in the standings.The following night, the same two teams met in Buffalo&rsquo;s Memorial Auditorium, with strikingly similar results. The final count was again 3-3, and again, the Capitals came from behind to tie, with Jean Pronovost scoring two third-period goals. And again, it was Pat Ribble, sliding all over the ice, fearlessly blocking every Buffalo pass or shot he could get any part of his body in front of.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all just part of my game,&rdquo; said the native of Leamington, Ont., who spent parts of four seasons with the Atlanta Flames before leaving for Chicago as part of an eight-man deal which included Tom Lysiak and Ivan Boldirev as the principle parts. &ldquo;I know if I can get my leg or my body or my stick in front of a shot, then I will, anytime I can.&ldquo;I think in general, I&rsquo;m just trying my best to be a very steady defenseman.&rdquo;Ribble has proven his steady effectiveness since early training camp, when coach Gary Green labelled him as one of the most improved players on the club.&ldquo;Pat started the season with an excellent attitude this year,&rdquo; said captain Ryan Walter. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s in good shape, and he&rsquo;s proven himself every game by standing up at the blueline, taking the man out, and playing really aggressive, hard-checking hockey.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing just great since training camp,&rdquo; offered Ribble&rsquo;s part-time defense partner, Pierre Bouchard. &ldquo;He played terrific in Sweden [where he scored the winning goal in the final game against Djur-garden], and for a big man, he&rsquo;s surprised me the way he started the regular season. Usually with a big man (Ribble&rsquo;s 6-3, 225) it takes a little longer, like a week or two more than a smaller man, but he&rsquo;s been playing steady and great since the start of the season.&rdquo;Ribble contends the reason for his improved play is mostly because of a new sense of confidence instilled in him by Gary Green and general manager Max McNab. &ldquo;They showed me a lot of confidence right from the beginning,&rdquo; Ribble said. &ldquo;They gave me a good contract, and they showed confidence in me by playing me and giving me a chance. That seemed to carry me through the exhibition season, and it&rsquo;s helping me during the year, too.&ldquo;I just hope I remain this strong all year.&rdquo;Another shot-in-the-arm for Ribble was his recent promotion to the power play, where his main priority is to create havoc in front of the opposition&rsquo;s goal&mdash;a position somewhat foreign to the longtime defenseman. But the fact that Gary Green feels Ribble can help out the club&rsquo;s dismal power play (17.9 percent, 18th in the league after 15 games), is another confidence-booster for Ribble.&ldquo;Overall, I&rsquo;d.have to say that I&rsquo;m satisfied with the way I&rsquo;ve been playing so far, and as for the team, we haven&rsquo;t been playing so badly either; we&rsquo;ve just had trouble getting those wins. (During a recent nine-game winless streak, the Caps lost three games and tied six.) Once we start winning on the road, we&rsquo;re going to take off.&rdquo;CAPSHOTS: To plug the gap of Paul MacKinnon&rsquo;s loss for the season, the Capitals acquired the services of defenseman Rick Smith, Bobby Orr&rsquo;s defense partner from the early &rsquo;70&rsquo;s. Smith was pried loose from the Detroit Red Wings for a meager $2,500 waiver fee&hellip;. Left wing Bob Kelly went 15 games&mdash;eight exhibitions and seven regular season&mdash;before lighting the red light. But then, he counted for goals in three consecutive contests, scoring against St. Louis, Los Angeles and Colorado.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011154/4727201-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="553" height="856"><figcaption class="caption-body">One of the most improved Capitals, Pat Ribble, is lending his size to the power play.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0013-01

Unheralded Ribble Steady Capitals’ Defender

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE WARRINER</div>HARTFORD&mdash;A dismal performance by the Whalers against their top National Hockey league nemesis, the Minnesota North Stars, was apparently the last straw. The 5-1 loss extended a winless string to six games and management decided to shake up the troops&mdash;at least a little bit.Coach Don Blackburn and director of hockey operations Jack Kelley elected to bring up junior underagers Fred Arthur (Cornwall) and Michel Galarneau (Hull), from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The two 19-year olds had been sent back to their junior clubs after seeing service in most of the Whalers&rsquo; pre-season exhibition contests.Bringing up first round draft pick Arthur gave Blackburn a little flexibility within his crippled defense corps. Besides, it was hoped that the 6-5 210-pounder would beef up the rearguard a little. Big Fred was drafted for his size and the fact that he played a defensive style. The Whalers had given up 17 more goals in the first 15 games this year than they had last season, so the need seemed apparent.There were two immediate changes in the Whalers&rsquo; lineup that must logically be linked with the Arthur recall.First, it was decided that captain Rick Ley could be given an immediate sabbatical for at least two games. He would still practice with the club, but would not dress for games. Recovering from summer knee surgery, Ley never really got into shape before the regular season began. And apparently that contributed to a few minor, but hobbling, injuries during the opening weeks of the season. The fact that management regards Ley&rsquo;s on-ice leadership so highly is what kept him in the lineup.According to Rick there was no danger of his knee being injured any further by continuing to play, but the other nagging injuries kept him from practicing enough to get back to 100 percent condition.As a result it was decided to keep the captain out of two games, and perhaps as many as four or five. In the meantime, Rick was working hard on the dressing room bike after pracsice. During practice he was working at left wing, obviously feeling that the up and down skating would be good for conditioning without putting the kind of stress on the knee that defense duty often does.There was even a thought of using Rick at wing during one or two games. &ldquo;He won&rsquo;t hurt us up there, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; said, coach Blackburn after watching him work smoothly with Bernie Johnston and Dave Debol during practice.Another move partially precipitated by the Arthur callup was the return of Mark Howe to left wing. Actually, the main reason for moving young Howe up from the blueline was to inject a little scoring punch into another forward line. The balanced scoring that the Whalers think they have had not yet surfaced, so the shift of Howe to left wing was just one of many changes in the forward lines. Only the Mike Rogers-Blaine Stoughton-Pat Boutette combination remained intact.Nineteen-year old centerman Galar-neau drew the pleasant task of centering for Mark and right wing Tom Rowe. Rowe had not broken into scoring stride yet but, as coach Blackburn said, &ldquo;Tommy&rsquo;s worked hard; he hasn&rsquo;t scored, but he&rsquo;s contributed in other ways.&rdquo;The fact that Howe was playing a regular shift on a forward line would ordinarily cut back his playing time, but Blackie planned to use Mark to fill the odd shift on defense as well. One of the advantages of Mark&rsquo;s working the blueline was that he was on the ice every other shift.So the success of Blackie&rsquo;s scheme may be the determining factor as to whether Mark stays up or moves back to the position he admittedly prefers&mdash;defense.The urgency of getting their act together became more apparent as the Whalers got deeper into the month of November. A strong finish at home against the likes of Washington, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Buffalo was imperative because December loomed on the horizon with just four games scheduled in the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum. A five-game trip to Los Angeles and through western Canada followed by a three-game sojourn to Boston, Quebec, and Toronto looked rather imposing.With the kind of road record that the Whalers had built since entering the National Hockey League, there was no question the time for them to get points is at home. The Whalers had the worst road record in the NHL last year, with only five wins. The only saving grace was the 13 ties they managed to garner in visiting rinks.WHALER WAVES: Goalie Mike Veisor took a direct hit on the mask (above the eye) on a shot from Minnesota&rsquo;s Mike Fidler. The swelling and resulting bruise kept him out of action for a couple of games.In the meantime, the Whalers brought up Ken Holland from Binghamton. Another young netminder, Jay Palladino (Salem State) was temporarily assigned to Binghamton after the Syracuse franchise (EH1) folded.Galarneau, who was unable to speak English when he first reported to training camp, continued to work on the language after being sent back to his junior club (Hull) in the QMJHL. Upon being called back up, he seemed able to converse quite freely with teammates and media. &#9632;

Arrival Of Juniors Tips Whaler Boat

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011194/4727256-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="271" height="334"></div><h2>Tolerable Interference</h2>IT HAS BECOME fashionable ever since Harold Ballard became Quartermaster General of the Toronto Maple Leafs to laugh at Harold Ballard.Much of the laughter is giggled by sportswriters who would like to be wearing Ballard&rsquo;s trench boots. This is a laudable wish since Harold is very rich and very famous (sometimes confused with infamous.) But since there can be only one H.B. the writers make fun of him.They say he is this, that and the other thing and that he should keep his grubby hands off the Maple Leafs. Harold, they say, should allow his coach, the sportswriters or at the very least the trainer to run the team.But Harold is stubborn that way. The Maple Leafs are both his toy and his annuity. Therefore, H.B. is eminently correct in dumping Mike Palmateer for insubordination and giving Darryl Sittier what-for when the captain amputates the &ldquo;C&rdquo; off his uniform.Harold-haters have stubbornly pointed out that Ballard should spend 24 hours of the day just counting his money while leaving the operation of his team to &ldquo;hockey people.&rdquo; Ordinarily, such a thesis would make sense; except that H.B. knows more about hockey than his &ldquo;hockey-people.&rdquo;Which provokes a league-wide question&mdash;how much is a tolerable amount of interference on the part of owners in terms of their teams? Should Washington Caps&rsquo; boss Abe Pollin tell his GM Max McNab when to play Palmateer? Does Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; director Frank Griffiths have a right to look over GM Jake Milford&rsquo;s shoulder?The bottom line is how much faith you have in your lieutenants. Howard Baldwin, boss of the Whalers, has such faith in his GM Jack Kelley.&ldquo;I figure that if I could run the hockey club better than my general manager,&rdquo; says Baldwin, &ldquo;then I wouldn&rsquo;t need a general manager. As it happens, I have great dialogue with Jack but I also believe strongly that I should in no way usurp his powers.&rdquo;The other extreme is a Ballard, a George Steinbrenner or a Charles Finley. Both Paul Shmyr, the North Stars&rsquo; defenseman, and Bill Torrey, the Islanders GM, worked for Finley when Charley 0 owned the California Golden Seals.&ldquo;It was because of Finley that I jumped to the WHA,&rdquo; says Shmyr. &ldquo;He was fair&mdash;until it was time to sign my contract.&rdquo;Torrey believes that an owner who pours big bucks into the foundation of his team has a right to design its construction&mdash;but that doesn&rsquo;t mean his aide-de-camp has to put up with it.&ldquo;Anyone who owns his store has a right to do anything he wants to the store,&rdquo; says Torrey. &ldquo;My contract stipulated that I would operate the team as I saw fit. Finley said he would not interfere. But he did&mdash;with players and their salaries. 1 left him when I realized that he was on a self-destruct course. History has proven I was right.&rdquo;Unlike Finley, Islanders&rsquo; Chairman of the Board John 0. Pickett, Jr. keeps a hands-off policy vis a vis Torrey. &ldquo;Since I have a man of talent running the team it would be foolish for me to second-guess him or cut away his bow,&rdquo; says Pickett.If Torrey got bugged by Finley, Jake Milford obtained migraines during his exile under Jack Kent Cooke in Los Angeles. Many a telephone line was burned between Cooke&rsquo;s pulpit and Jake&rsquo;s pew.&ldquo;Lots of times,&rdquo; says Milford, now the Canucks&rsquo; GM, &ldquo;Cooke tould try to phone between periods of a game. When the trainer beckoned to me, I&rsquo;d tell him to bugger-off and tell Cooke I wasn&rsquo;t around.&ldquo;Once, when Bob Pulford was my^oach in L.A., Cooke called me over during a game. He wanted me to tell Pully to change his strategy. 1 walked over to the bench and said: &lsquo;Pully, Jack wants you to do such-and-such, but as far as I&rsquo;m concerned you do what you want. JUST MAKE GODDAMN SURE YOU WIN!&rdquo;Harold Ballard couldn&rsquo;t have said it better.NOTES: North Stars&rsquo; GM Lou Nanne tells me it would be a good idea if each home team had the option of moving each of its nets five feet closer to center ice&hellip; The older Bobby Clarke gets&mdash;and, therefore, slower&mdash;the meaner he&rsquo;ll be with his already nasty stick. That&rsquo;s the off-the-record comment of several NHL aces.,. On the record, Black Hawks&rsquo; utility ace Reg Kerr notes: &ldquo;Clarke is mean with his stick; he uses it as an equalizer. Bobby is a downright competitive man.&rdquo;&hellip; NHL governors are not unanimous in support of a Meadowlands (New Jersey) franchise. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d vote no,&rdquo; says Howard Baldwin. &ldquo;Instead of putting three teams in the New York area we should stick with two and solidify behind the teams we&rsquo;ve already got.&rdquo;&hellip; Bostonians agree that Gerry Cheevers is a great guy; but can he coach? The answer in many areas is negative. &ldquo;He just stands passively behind the bench,&rdquo; says one longtime Bruins-watcher, &ldquo;and doesn&rsquo;t say boo. His players are lethargic.&rdquo;&hellip; Next question: How many goalies have made good coaches? One: Emile Francis. Last question: how many goalie-coaches have won a Stanley Cup? None&hellip; What happens when a young defenseman leaves Mom&rsquo;s home-cooking? The Black Hawks&rsquo; Keith Brown got lucky and wound up rooming with gourmet cook, Rich Preston. &ldquo;This year I bought my own cookbook,&rdquo; Brown says. &ldquo;But all I&rsquo;m making now is omelettes.&rdquo;&hellip; Build-Up-To-A-Letdown-Award goes to Washington&rsquo;s Mike Palmateer who actually has been out-goaled by teammate Wayne Stephenson&hellip; Caps&rsquo; GM Max McNab likens Palmateer&rsquo;s situation to Rogie Vachon&rsquo;s when Vachon moved from Los Angeles to Detroit. &ldquo;In L.A. Rogie could have a couple of bad games and nothing was said. But in Detroit they expected Vachon to win all the time. It was make-or-break-the-franchise pressure. Mike is undergoing that same kind of pressure.&rdquo;&hellip; Except that the Caps will not break whether he lives up to his notices or not&hellip; Bill Barber figures the NHL playoff rules are unfair to the top team. &ldquo;The first-place finisher should get a playoff bye,&rdquo; says Bill&hellip; Don (Murder) Murdoch&rsquo;s name keeps creeping into trade talk conversation. But several NHL clubs have maintained the 10-foot pole stance toward Murder, including (apparently) the Rangers. Murder says the difference between the Oilers and Rangers is family. Oilers are together while many of the Rangers do their own Manhattan thing.TRIVIA CORNER: Q. Goalie Gordie Bell, who died recently, was a minor leaguer who had one superb moment in the NHL sun. What was it? A. In the April 1956 Stanley Cup playoffs Bell replaced injured Gump Worsley in the Rangers nets for Game Two at The Forum after the Canadiens had won the opening game, 7-1. The 31-year-old Bell thwarted the mighty Montrealers and helped the Rangers to a 4-2 upset win. Worsley lost the next pair whereupon Bell returned and that was the end of his miracle. Montreal won, 7-0, took the series, and Gordie Bell never was seen again in the bigs.<h2>Jingle Bells Kurtenbach</h2>SLOW STARTERS: The subject was slumps and slow starters. Whalers&rsquo; GM Jack Kelley had this recollection of the lean Bruins&rsquo; years during the early 1960s when the Bs vainly searched for a superstar.&ldquo;It was somewhere around 1965,&rdquo; Kelley recalls, &ldquo;and the Bruins were having their troubles. They brought up big center Orland Kurtenbach and hoped he&rsquo;d lift the team. Kurt didn&rsquo;t do much in October and he wasn&rsquo;t that hot in November but the word was that Kurtenbach traditionally was a slow starter.&ldquo;In December he still had problems so now they&rsquo;re saying that Kurt doesn&rsquo;t get going until Christmas. Well now it&rsquo;s about December 27th, the Bruins are at home and Kurt&rsquo;s still not popping them in.&ldquo;All of a sudden there&rsquo;s a face-off. Kurt comes out on the ice and there&rsquo;s quiet in Boston Garden. Just then a guy in the upper balcony yells out: &lsquo;Hey, Kurtenbach! Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way!&rsquo;&rdquo;MEDIA NOTES: Novelist Mordecai Richler (&ldquo;Joshua Then And Now&rdquo;) turned out a brilliant profile of Gordie Howe in the Nov. 30 Inside Sports. It concludes with Mister Hockey, the businessman, telling Richler how he can make money working out of his home for a firm called Amway. &ldquo;Say it ain&rsquo;t so, Gordie,&rdquo; Richler concludes&hellip; At last report NHL prexy John Ziegler was still interviewing prospects for the league&rsquo;s VP of Marketing and PR&hellip; New York Times sports department spread an inner-office false alarm about the Rangers replacing Fred Shero at a &ldquo;press conference.&rdquo; Turned out all the Blueshirts had to announce at the time was the Jere Gillis-Mario Marois deal&hellip; Recommended reading for parents: Safety On Ice, by Torontonian Lois Kalchman. It&rsquo;s published in Canada by Collins ($9.95)&hellip; Boston Herald-American sports editor Joe Fitzgerald penned an open letter to Bruins&rsquo; GM Harry Sinden. &ldquo;For the good of the team,&rdquo; wirtes Fitzy to Harry, &ldquo;rise above all the pettiness and get Don Cherry back here. Put the whip back in his hands and put Gerry Cheevers at his side.&rdquo;VALUES: It is easy for NHL executives to dismiss complaints about the relevance of the 80-game schedule with a wave of the hand. But the fact remains that ways must be developed by the league to enhance the importance of regular games both to fans and players alike. Many members of the media have devalued regular season games. Fans now echo these sentiments. In Buffalo, I&rsquo;m told, some season ticket-holders lease their seats for regular games to others, holding on to the &ldquo;important&rdquo; playoff games. It is not an insoluble problem for the NHL but it is a problem that must be squarely faced by the owners.MORE NOTES: How do you figure the lowly Nordiques? There are no sharper hockey brains around than those in Quebec, yet the men at Le Colisee seem to lack the savoir faire to produce a winner&hellip; Here&rsquo;s one for NHL recordkeepers to check: Was there ever a night like the one on Nov. 11 when home teams (Nordiques and Islanders) blew leads of five goals and four goals, respectively, and the games concluded as 6-6 ties?&hellip; How many potential NHL coaches can you think of as 1980-81 replacements apart from Don Cherry? How about Johnny Wilson, Fred Creighton, Herb Brooks, Mike Nykoluk and Parker MacDonald for starters&hellip; Has anyone noticed that the greatest&mdash;and original&mdash;hockey broadcaster of them all, Foster Hewitt, has officially retired? I&rsquo;d like to have a dollar for every hockey announcer who copied Foster&rsquo;s style. &#9632;

f0014-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY HARVEY ROSEN</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Imitation is supposedly a form of flattery. And if a National Hockey League franchise at or near the bottom of the heap is going to emulate a more successful one, the New York Islanders, who needed eight winters of sweat and toil to attain the summit, are an appropriate model to imitate.In the summer of 1979 the Isles dipped into the Swedish talent pool and came up with Anders Kallur, who had played the previous five seasons with Swedish first division teams.Both a center and right winger, the versatile Kallur is, like so many other European skaters, a superior passer, stickhandler and opportunist whose talent enabled him to become the top scorer in his final season in Sweden.The following year, while Kallur was skating on NHL rinks and scoring a respectable 22 goals and 30 assists in 76 games, another Anders was in Sweden, skating for Farjestad and, like his namesake Kallur, winning the scoring championship of the Elite Division in Sweden.Steen was his name and scoring was his game as he rung up 30 goals and added 17 assists in just 36 games. And according to the man himself, &ldquo;In my country they give only one assist on each goal.&rdquo;Jets general manager and vice president John Ferguson and director of player personnel Mike Doran wasted little time this past summer in travelling to northern Sweden and signing Steen before any other bird dogs got to him.&ldquo;If we get as much mileage out of Steen as the Islanders got out of Kallur, we&rsquo;ll be in good shape,&rdquo; said Fergy.At the outset of the season, however, Winnipeg was getting zero miles per gallon out of their import model&mdash;thanks to an untimely injury.During an inter-squad game in training camp, Anders caught his blade in the ice and he sustained an injury which was diagnosed later as strained knee ligaments. That was the bad news. The good news was there was no tear, and the free agent from the north of Sweden missed only the first three weeks of the current season. And it didn&rsquo;t take him long to make his presence felt and earn the immediate admiration of the Winnipeg fans. Skating on a line in his pro debut against Pittsburgh, with Willy Lindstrom on the right side and Randy Manery on the left, Steen scored a gem of a goal at 15:28 of the first period.All but taken out of the play by a Pittsburgh defenseman, Anders spun around and beat goalie Greg Millen on the wide side before the netminder could make a move.By mid-November the Swedish scoring star had been voted the Jets&rsquo; Player of the Week. He figured in the scoring in each of his first five games, registering three goals and.three assists, and as this issue went to press he was the Jets&rsquo; seventh leading scorer, even though everyone ahead of him had played twice as many games. While Steen concedes that he had some major adjustment to make when he first skated on the smaller NHL rinks during training camp&mdash;&ldquo;For the first three days,&rdquo; he said with a grin, &ldquo;the boards came too fast.&rdquo;&mdash;he seems very comfortable with the North American style.&ldquo;There is more hitting and bigger, tougher guys in the NHL,&rdquo; Steen said recently, &ldquo;but I can handle it. I&rsquo;ll know what I have to do when the time comes.&rdquo;JETS JABBER: The team&rsquo;s veteran center, Jude Drouin, has been named an assistant playing coach. When he is not playing, Drouin will be behind the bench in communication with assistant coach Bill Sutherland in the press box&hellip; Pierre Hamel, Tulsa&rsquo;s net-minder, has been recalled to help shore up the goaltending, despite a goals-against average of 4.00. &#9632;

Jets’ Steen Adjusts Rapidly To NHL Style

<div class="byline">BY BUDDY O&#x2019;CONNOR</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011135/4727311-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">While Michel Dion has been having his problems, Nordiques&rsquo; other Michel (Plasse) has been in goal for each of the club&rsquo;s first four victories. (Photo by Ian MacAlpme)</figcaption></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Nordiques&rsquo; net-minder Michel Dion, who&rsquo;s having a horrible.time striving for consistency this season, claims that his play so far has forced him into a position where his style has changed.&ldquo;Once you find yourself battling to get your style back,&rdquo; says Dion, &ldquo;then your miseries seem to pile up one on top of the other.&rdquo;Dion had brought the Nordiques through a great first half last season and though his netminding did fall off somewhat in the second half, a lengthy list of injuries was the main cause of Nordiques not gaining a playoff spot.Although Dion recently signed a three-yeat pact with the club, the contract has a rider included stating that the administration can break the contract after one season if they feel that Dion has not been up to par during the year. This could be a worry to Dion, although the 25-year-old hasn&rsquo;t admitted it, thus far.Quebec&rsquo;s second goalie, Michel Plasse, has picked up all four of the wins the Nordiques copped in their first 19 games, and recently was named one of the stars as the Nordiques handily beat the Washington Capitals 6-2. Plasse gave the club its first topnotch goaltending of the season. Dion, in eight games, has picked up just two ties.&ldquo;If you start thinking at all out there on the ice, then you&rsquo;re lost,&rdquo; said Dion. &ldquo;To have a really good game, you have to have the &ldquo;feel&rdquo; of the flow of the play. These past few games, my reflexes have just been awful. I&rsquo;m thinking too much of what&rsquo;s going to happen, and the first thing I know, I&rsquo;ve been scored upon.&rdquo;Injured in a recent warmup when he was struck in the neck by a shot, Dion is OK now and feels well enough to play. &ldquo;I am sure that the &ldquo;feeling&rdquo; in my play has come back and I&rsquo;ll be all right again,&rdquo; he says.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ready to start any time coach Bergeron wants me out there. But don&rsquo;t forget that Michel [Plasse] has turned in some great work and he has earned the right to keep on starting.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the Nordiques were quietly optimistic about the return of their key offensive performer. Buddy Cloutier, out with an injury since the season started, has begun a program of light skating under the watchful eyes of team physician, Dr. Gilles Campeau.Following his ankle fracture this past summer, Cloutier was told that he could only start skating around Nov. 15 and his program is on schedule.&ldquo;I was quite nervous when I first put my foot on the ice but everything seems to be all right,&rdquo; Cloutier said.The Nordiques&rsquo; ace scorer, Cloutier could be back with the club in early January and says that he will have a half season to do his best to contribute in his usual fashion.SKATE MARKS: Substitute goalie Normand Lapointe is a real good luck charm for Nordiques&rsquo; coach, Michel Bergeron. Brought in to back up Michel Plasse here recently when Michel Dion was hurt in a warmup of the Quebec-Winnipeg game, Lapointe was on the bench as Bergeron&rsquo;s club gave him his first ever win in the NHL game. Lapointe was also on the bench when Bergeron obtained his first vic-tory as a coach in junior ranks&hellip; Bergeron recently named Charles Thiffault, professor of physical education at Laval University, as his assistant coach. Thiffault has a 15-year background of analytical study of the hockey&hellip; Bergeron steadfastly believes that Cloutier&rsquo;s absence has meant a goal less per game for the Nordiques and a certain two or three extra wins&hellip; Nordiques&rsquo; Czech star Peter Stastny surpassed Marc Tardif&rsquo;s team record of eight successive games with at least one point&hellip; After 19 games, Peter had a 10-game streak going for him. &#9632;

f0015-01

Nordiques’ Dion Searches For Winning Style

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02809/4727608-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="715" height="640"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01997/4727615-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="163" height="150"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOSTON BRUINS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03643/4727601-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="154" height="144"><figcaption class="caption-body">BUFFALO SABRES</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04504/4727594-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="698" height="588"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05395/4727587-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="173" height="157"><figcaption class="caption-body">CALGARY FLAMES</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-06331/4727580-1-eng-US/f0016-062.jpg" title="f0016-06" width="712" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-07305/4727573-1-eng-US/f0016-072.jpg" title="f0016-07" width="181" height="160"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-08284/4727566-1-eng-US/f0016-082.jpg" title="f0016-08" width="716" height="612"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-09260/4727559-1-eng-US/f0016-092.jpg" title="f0016-09" width="173" height="155"><figcaption class="caption-body">COLORADO ROCKIES</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-10238/4727552-1-eng-US/f0016-102.jpg" title="f0016-10" width="703" height="649"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-11224/4727545-1-eng-US/f0016-112.jpg" title="f0016-11" width="193" height="135"><figcaption class="caption-body">DETROIT RED WINGS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-12206/4727538-1-eng-US/f0016-122.jpg" title="f0016-12" width="696" height="580"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-13191/4727531-1-eng-US/f0016-132.jpg" title="f0016-13" width="169" height="145"><figcaption class="caption-body">EDMONTON OILERS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-14183/4727524-1-eng-US/f0016-142.jpg" title="f0016-14" width="707" height="702"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-15173/4727517-1-eng-US/f0016-152.jpg" title="f0016-15" width="171" height="153"><figcaption class="caption-body">HARTFORD WHALERS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-16169/4727510-1-eng-US/f0016-162.jpg" title="f0016-16" width="708" height="640"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-17161/4727503-1-eng-US/f0016-172.jpg" title="f0016-17" width="238" height="157"><figcaption class="caption-body">LOS ANGELES KINGS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-18154/4727496-1-eng-US/f0016-182.jpg" title="f0016-18" width="696" height="600"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-19145/4727489-1-eng-US/f0016-192.jpg" title="f0016-19" width="163" height="145"><figcaption class="caption-body">MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-20125/4727482-1-eng-US/f0016-202.jpg" title="f0016-20" width="698" height="620"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-21118/4727475-1-eng-US/f0016-212.jpg" title="f0016-21" width="163" height="114"><figcaption class="caption-body">MONTREAL CANADIENS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-22116/4727468-1-eng-US/f0016-222.jpg" title="f0016-22" width="708" height="584"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-23113/4727461-1-eng-US/f0016-232.jpg" title="f0016-23" width="185" height="161"><figcaption class="caption-body">NEW YORK ISLANDERS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-24111/4727454-1-eng-US/f0016-242.jpg" title="f0016-24" width="696" height="598"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-25106/4727447-1-eng-US/f0016-252.jpg" title="f0016-25" width="162" height="156"><figcaption class="caption-body">NEW YORK RANGERS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-26103/4727440-1-eng-US/f0016-262.jpg" title="f0016-26" width="687" height="693"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-2794/4727433-1-eng-US/f0016-272.jpg" title="f0016-27" width="178" height="133"><figcaption class="caption-body">PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-2892/4727426-1-eng-US/f0016-282.jpg" title="f0016-28" width="695" height="605"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-2984/4727419-1-eng-US/f0016-292.jpg" title="f0016-29" width="175" height="157"><figcaption class="caption-body">PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3084/4727412-1-eng-US/f0016-302.jpg" title="f0016-30" width="700" height="690"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3184/4727405-1-eng-US/f0016-312.jpg" title="f0016-31" width="172" height="154"><figcaption class="caption-body">QUEBEC NORDIQUES</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3278/4727398-1-eng-US/f0016-322.jpg" title="f0016-32" width="706" height="655"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3378/4727391-1-eng-US/f0016-332.jpg" title="f0016-33" width="159" height="150"><figcaption class="caption-body">ST. LOUIS BLUES</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3474/4727384-1-eng-US/f0016-342.jpg" title="f0016-34" width="712" height="649"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3560/4727377-1-eng-US/f0016-352.jpg" title="f0016-35" width="181" height="176"><figcaption class="caption-body">TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3652/4727370-1-eng-US/f0016-362.jpg" title="f0016-36" width="700" height="638"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3752/4727363-1-eng-US/f0016-372.jpg" title="f0016-37" width="142" height="124"><figcaption class="caption-body">VANCOUVER CANUCKS</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3829/4727356-1-eng-US/f0016-382.jpg" title="f0016-38" width="706" height="576"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-3928/4727349-1-eng-US/f0016-392.jpg" title="f0016-39" width="213" height="129"><figcaption class="caption-body">WASHINGTON CAPITALS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-4028/4727342-1-eng-US/f0016-402.jpg" title="f0016-40" width="702" height="581"></div> &#9632;

f0016-02

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02724/4727660-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="592" height="664"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01882/4727667-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="177" height="160"></div><h2>GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03562/4727653-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="568" height="2541"></div><h2>NHL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04429/4727646-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="547" height="382"></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

WINNIPEG JETS

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;There used to be a time when teams felt they could run the Montreal Canadiens out of the rink.Back in the mid-1970s, when the Canadiens were on the smallish side and had rather timid forwards, teams such as the Philadelphia Flyers would, on most nights, scare the Canadiens into submission.The Flyers are still attempting their bullying tactics despite the fact they allegedly wish to shed the image as the Broad Street Bullies. They tried it on their first visit to Montreal this season and found it didn&rsquo;t work.Simply, the Canadiens outskated the Flyers en route to a 7-3 victory which extended an unbeaten streak to eight games. And when the gloves were dropped, the Canadiens were more than equal to occasion with defenseman Rod Langway scoring clear-cut decisions over Mike Busniuk and Mel Bridgman, who made the mistake of getting the former football linebacker riled at them.While Langway won his two third-period altercations, Bill Baker wasn&rsquo;t so lucky. He suffered a broken nose, took 17 stitches over and under his left eye and decorated the Forum ice with a few drops of all All-American blood as a result of two altercations with rookie Tim Kerr and another with Busniuk.It become obvious after the Canadiens took a 4-1 lead on two-goal efforts by Rejean Houle and Chris Nilan, who is Montreal&rsquo;s toughest forward, that the Flyers were ready to attempt to change the tempo with a plethora of cheap shots.Actually, Baker&rsquo;s go with Busniuk came just before Houle shot Montreal into a 3-1 edge with eight minutes gone in the second period.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take the body out and I can take a check,&rdquo; said Baker, whose golden blond locks were caked with dried blood after the game. &ldquo;It seemed as soon as you would take one of them out, they couldn&rsquo;t handle it.&ldquo;The reason that fight with Busniuk started is that [Steve] Shutt got shoved around by [Rick] MacLeish. I was looking at MacLeish and Busniuk sort of came on the side. He said something to me and I was kind of turning away. He dropped his gloves and suckered me.&rdquo;Baker&rsquo;s second clash with Kerr (the first was a minor skirmish in the opening period) resulted in the young defenseman&rsquo;s nose breaking, although he was able to continue to play with a face mask.The Kerr-Baker confrontation was a sidelight to the Langway-Bridgman clash which started at the right side of the net. Langway basically waltzed Bridgman right behind th.e net and the two combatants tumbled to the ice with Langway on top.&ldquo;On this club, if you start fighting, it takes away from your game/&rsquo; Langway said. &ldquo;Th a situation like that I&rsquo;m not going to back down. They seem to try.a lot more when Larry [Robinson] is not around. Larry controls them very well.&ldquo;I thought Chris controlled the game a lot too. When Chris was on the ice, they didn&rsquo;t do much at all.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have to fight to win hockey games, but there was a case where Reggie Houle got slashed across the hand. You have to stick up as a team. You get sick and tired of some of the stuff. Bobby Gainey has marks all over his body from where they were spearing him, Keith Acton got speared all night and that&rsquo;s what started my fight with Busniuk.&ldquo;They went into the corner and he got Keith in the stomach. Keith doubled over a bit and I saw it. We started yapping and he came at me. He suckered Baker and I expected him to sucker me, so I dropped him.&rdquo;Langway was doing such a fine job on Busniuk that Reggie Leach, whose talent is scoring goals in bunches, felt compelled to become the third man in. So, with the Flyers down 5-2 with only five and a half minutes gone in the final period, they found themselves without one of their top gunners.The feuding, fussing and fighting, which resulted in 168 penalty minutes being assessed by referee Ron Wicks, overshadowed a solid Montreal effort.While the Canadiens were a little shaky at the start and fell behind when Behn Wilson scored on a two-on-one break with just under five minutes gone in the first period, the Forum fans saw their club come back with a total team effort.It should not be forgotten that on this night. Guy Lafleur, Robinson, Yvon Lambert, Doug Risebrough and Pierre Larouche were hors de combat with assorted ailments. Lafleur had an inflamed throat, Robinson was still recuperating from a shoulder separation suffered in Vancouver eight nights earlier, Lambert missed his seventh consecutive game with a groin pull, Risebrough is still having problems with his arthritic shoulder and Larouche had a cast on his cracked left hand, a souvenir of a slash by Rangers&rsquo; defenseman Tom Laidlaw.So it was left up to people such as Houle, who recorded his third consecutive two-goal game, and Nilan, who scored his first two NHL goals, to lend some spark to the attack.For Nilan, the former criminal law student from Boston, the goals were the culmination of some hard work which overcame some of the frustrations of being a designated sitter a few times this season.Nilan, who hurt his back in a first-period collision, had an open net to score his first and shoot the Canadiens into the lead for good at 3:55 of the second period after Gainey and a Philadelphia defenseman had wiped out goaltender Pete Peeters. On the second, he whipped a wrist shot home by the surprised Philly netminder.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-05331/4727698-1-eng-US/f0017-052.jpg" title="f0017-05" width="562" height="1078"></div>&ldquo;In Colorado, I got a little down on myself,&rdquo; said Nilan. &ldquo;Claude [Ruel] gave me a chance that night to score a goal on the power-play and on a faceoff I shot the puck over to Gaston [Gingras] and they gave me two minutes.&ldquo;I hadn&rsquo;t played much that night and I let the penalty get to me and got myself a misconduct. I shouldn&rsquo;t have done it and I realized my mistake afterwards.&ldquo;I want to play, but I realize everyone else that has played on this team has had to sit there from time to time. At the beginning of the year, I said I&rsquo;d be happy to sit, but when you get here&hellip; you want to help and do something.&ldquo;I understand why Claude didn&rsquo;t get me in at the beginning of the season when things were going bad. He wanted to go with more experience. But when the team gets going well, you want to contribute, you want to get into it.&rdquo;On this night, Nilan, who has been known to scrap before, got into it in a scoring way while his fellow Americans looked after the fisticuffs.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going looking for fights,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If one of my teammates is taking some cheap shots, I&rsquo;m not going to sit by and let it happen.&rdquo;Langway and Baker weren&rsquo;t about to watch it happen either and Langway&rsquo;s message was quite clear.IN PASSING&mdash;Brian Engblom led the Canadiens&rsquo; first quarter plusminus with a plus 18 while Langway was next at plus 10&hellip; The Canadiens didn&rsquo;t have a major fighting penalty last season until their 24th game of the season when Langway and Brian Sutter of Blues got into a scrap&hellip; Nothing new on the Rick Chartraw situation, although he dressed and played a little in games at Toronto and in the last two minutes against Philadelphia. When all the injured players get back, it&rsquo;s unlikely he&rsquo;ll dress&hellip; The Canadiens recalled Dave Orleski, a 6-4 winger from the Voyageurs, and dressed him against the Leafs. &#9632;

f0017-05

Habs Handle Flyers’ Intimidation

Rejean Houle of the Montreal Canadiens figures if he can just manage to stay healthy for a complete NHL. season, he&rsquo;ll rate as a dangerous goal scorer. The 31-year-old Houle missed 34 games during the past two seasons and that really cut down on his goal scoring.Houle hopes that is all behind him this season. He has managed to play in all of the Canadiens games so far this year and if his performance this past week in the NHL is any indication, he appears to be well on his way. The Canadiens&rsquo; winger was chosen NHL Player of the Week by THE HOCKEY NEWS after a productive eight-point week during which he turned in three two-goal games to spark Montreal to a 5-4 win over Toronto.Houle registered the game winning goal to down the Leafs as he continued to pop in the key goals. In his 21 starts, he has three power play, one shorthanded and one game winner among his nine goals this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02693/4727784-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="541" height="573"><figcaption class="caption-body">REJEAN HOULE</figcaption></div>Montreal Canadiens &#9632;

f0018-02

NHL Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Flyer logo, surgically implanted in Jack Mcll-hargey&rsquo;s heart, was removed for the second time in his career last week by general manager Keith Allen.This time Keith sent Mcllhargey to the Hartford Whalers for the obligatory future considerations. Neck nerve problems, which had kept the 28-year-old defenseman out of all but three games this season, killed Jack&rsquo;s chances to compete for the spare defenseman job he had shared with Frank Bathe a year ago.When injuries to Jimmy Watson and Bob Dailey forced the recall of Terry Murray and Blake Wesley earlier this season, Mcllhargey had become the Flyers&rsquo; ninth defenseman. One week before the trade, he agreed to go to Maine to play himself back into shape and NHL procedure would have necessitated his being waived at the end of two weeks.&ldquo;There were just too many bodies,&rdquo; said Allen. &ldquo;At the beginning of the season it came down to Jack and Frank for the seventh-man job. Frank has played well for his talents and he won out.&rdquo;&ldquo;Keith worked out something that should be good in the long run for Jack,&rdquo; said coach&rsquo; Pat Quinn. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a place he should be able to play for a number of years.&rdquo;The trade still leaves the Flyers with eight defensemen when Watson and Dailey return. If Wesley does not play well enough to stay in the six-man rotation, the second-year pro will probably be returned to Maine where he can get regular work. Murray has won a spot with his steady work in his pairing with Behn Wilson. Whether the Flyers continue to carry one or two extra defensemen will depend largely upon Watson&rsquo;s day-to-day availability.<h2>&ldquo;There were just too many bodies,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; GM Keith Allen. &ldquo;It came down to Jack and Frank Bathe&hellip; and Frank won out.&rdquo;</h2>Both Dailey and Watson returned to the lineup recently in a 3-1 Spectrum victory over the Winnipeg Jets. Watson had undergone a CATscan, a diagnostic technique which reassured him there was no nerve damage four days earlier, but said his resumption to duty was mostly a matter of getting back into the playing shape.&ldquo;I guess we&rsquo;ll have to wait and see as the week goes along,&rdquo; said Jimmy. &ldquo;But so far it feels pretty good. I&rsquo;m not approaching this like I&rsquo;m going to be in and out of the lineup all season long. They&rsquo;ve changed my exercises a little bit and I had a few meetings with a doctor who teaches relaxation techniques. The idea is to reduce the number of spasms. We&rsquo;ll see how it works.&rdquo;Dailey celebrated his reappearance after six games with two goals against the Jets. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m encouraged,&rdquo; he said about the shoulder which needed offseason surgery. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t hurt nearly as much as it did last year. We&rsquo;re trying to strengthen it with exercises. I can&rsquo;t use it like the other shoulder, but I still hope the worst is behind me.&rdquo;The Flyers, in beating the Rangers, tying Minnesota and being emba-rassed, 7-3, in Montreal, added one more player to their lengthy injury list&mdash;left wing Al Hill. Hill, who suffered a slight hand fracture in the Minnesota game, is wearing a plastic cast and will be out a minimum of two weeks.Although Pete Peeters was rocked for seven goals by the Canadiens, most of the Flyers&rsquo; highlights for the week had been in goal. Phil Myre turned in brilliant back-to-back efforts in a 1-0 loss in Boston and the tie in Minnesota and Rick St. Croix stopped 30 shots in the victory at Madison Square Garden. With Peeters obviously the Flyers&rsquo; No. 1 man, both Myre, St. Croix and coach Pat Quinn are trying to make the best out of a difficult situation.&ldquo;We all take a run for the two nets at the end of practice to try and get a little extra work in,&rdquo; smiled Myre. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of a game we play.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t let yourself be drawn into a negative pattern. You just do the best you can. You want to keep an edge, but it&rsquo;s hard to do if you can&rsquo;t get back in there soon.&ldquo;But I understand their position. You don&rsquo;t just hand out a gift to somebody on a silver platter. They are sitting and waiting for someone to give them what they want. In the meantine, you have to make the best of the situation.&rdquo;Whether it&rsquo;s Myre, 31, or St. Croix who eventually goes will probably not be determined by the six years difference in their ages. Pete Peeters should be the Flyers&rsquo; No. 1 goalie for the next 15 years anyway, and a terrific 21-year-old prospect named Pelle Lindbergh is coming along ahead of schedule in Maine. So the first satisfactory offer for either St. Croix or Myre will produce the inevitable trade.ICEBERGS: Terry Murray was plus 19 in the 17 games since his recall from Maine&mdash;leading the Flyers. Reggie Leach had the best rating among the forwards, with a plus-11 rating&hellip; Flyers kept their record against the four ex-WHA teams unbeaten over two years with a victory over Winnipeg. &#9632;

Mcllhargey Odd-Man Out For Flyers

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01857/4727815-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lars Lindgren was knocked from the lineup at a time when the Canucks appeared to be settled on defense.</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Just as the Canucks finally thought they had their defense the way they wanted it, Lars Lindgren got slashed across the hand in a game against Montreal and was sidelined for a month.This happens to every team, but it surely has to be frustrating to the coaches and the rest of the players who were anxious to gauge the team&rsquo;s improvement following the trade which brought defenseman Mario Marois from the Rangers for winger Jere Gillis.The loss of Gillis didn&rsquo;t really present too much of a replacement problem in that Gillis wasn&rsquo;t playing that much, being used as an Uth or 12th forward on some nights, rarely making the three regular lines. He was used quite a bit killing penalties and has always been effective at that job, but he hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal, as much an indication of his ice-time as his calibre of play.<h2>At the time of departure, Lindgren was the team&rsquo;s top plus-minus player and had been showing tremendous authority in the Vancouver end</h2>Gillis said he was happy to go to New York because his brother lives there and he would have a place to stay right away, but that he would miss the guys he had played with for three and one-half seasons.Marois on the other hand was not so sure about coming to Vancouver, even though he knew he would be seeing much more ice-time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to see when I get there, I&rsquo;m not sure how I like the trade,&rdquo; he said the day after the announcement had been made.&rdquo; I know I&rsquo;m too young to be sitting down and I want to play.&rdquo;The Canucks were hoping that their new found balance of three right and three lefthanded shooters would help, and indeed they still have that situation now with the veteran Dennis Kearns taking over for Lindgren. But to lose their top defender at exactly the same time as they lost him last year was a considerable blow.At the time of departure, he was the team&rsquo;s top plus-minus player and had been showing tremendous authority in the Vancouver end rarely panicking. But the hand was so badly injured he needed fairly extensive surgery to repair the damage.&ldquo;At least this time he has hurt his hand and will be able to keep in condition,&rdquo; said assistant coach Dave Dunn. &ldquo;Last year it was his shoulder and he was off for quite a while.&rdquo;Lindgren in fact was in exactly the same position last year when he was injured, in Boston when he was nailed to the end board by Stan Jonathan&mdash;in that he was the top plus-minus player then and the club really suffered from his absence. So did Lindgren, who never really regained the form that made him a member of the All Star team for Vancouver.Meanwhile the Canucks got down to six defensemen when they got left side defenseman Dave Logan waived through the league so they could send him to Dallas.&ldquo;It was no good to have a guy like Logie sitting around and not playing enough to be in shape to make a contribution,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; coach Harry Neale. &ldquo;Down there he&rsquo;ll be getting the ice time and when we need him he&rsquo;ll be ready.&rdquo;The Canucks meanwhile ran into some problems after their seven-game winning streak at home to open the season. They were blitzed 8-2 by the St. Louis blues and then lost a 3-1 lead to Montreal and settled for a point in a 3-3 tie though the game was perhaps the most entertaining in the building since Montreal last visited the Coliseum. The Canucks then lost 3-2 to Los Angeles as the goals which came so easily earlier began to slow up a bit.Marois is now paired with Colin Campbell while Kearns is with Kevin McCarthy and Rick Lanz continues to play with Harold Snepsts. Lindgren and McCarthy had been the team&rsquo;s most effective duo through the first 16 games. &#9632;

f0019-01

Canucks’ Lindgren Out Again

<div class="byline">BY WILLIE SCHATZ</div>WASHINGTON, D.C.&mdash;To fight or not to fight, that is the question.National Hockey League president John Ziegler recently spent nearly two hours trying to give a satisfactory answer to members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime during its second hearing on H R. 7903, &ldquo;The Sports Violence Act of 1980.&rdquo;Following Ziegler to the witness table were Pete Rozelle, commissioner of the National Football League; Simon Gour-dine, deputy commissioner of the National Basketball Association; Hank Peters, general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, representing baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and Steve Brenner, general counsel of the North American Soccer League.All expressed varying distaste for and opposition to the proposed legislation, which would subject a player found guilty of using excessive violence and who &ldquo;actually steps outside the role of athlete and sportsman&rdquo; to a fine of $5,000 and/or one year in jail.Ziegler, accompanied by NHL vice president Gil Stein, was consistently on the defensive as he discussed the actions and philosophies of what subcommittee chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, termed &ldquo;probably undoubtedly the most violent of all professional sports.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01695/4727846-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="398" height="476"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Ziegler</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Given the nature of our sport, it&rsquo;s natural that we would be the first target,&rdquo; Ziegler admitted afterwards. &ldquo;1 wasn&rsquo;t surprised by my reception. 1 thought it actually was quite cordial, and 1 was pleased to see there was so little sympathy for the bill in the committee.&rdquo;There was even less compassion for the league&rsquo;s position on fighting In his prepared statement (See Some Other Views, page 8) Ziegler referred to a 1977 report by the House Select Committee on Professional Sports. That document quoted the opinion of Ron Roberts, former executive director of the World Hockey Association Players Association, that fighting is a good release and as such should be kept under control but not eliminated. The report further quoted Roberts that if fighting were totally suppressed, other acts such as kicking, spearing and high sticking would result in more serious harm to the players.&ldquo;I personally subscribe to that viewpoint and believe it is shared by the majority of people in North America who have played or studied the sport of hockey,&rdquo; Ziegler said in his prepared statement, &ldquo;notwithstanding the continuing dialogue and debate within the hockey community. The easy way out would be to eliminate fighting and thus appease the critics.&rdquo;Ziegler then went for the jugular, arguing that if fighting were banned, as it is in Europe, more cross-checking, elbowing, tripping, kicking and other dastardly deeds that cause every fan. to leave his seat would occur. That, in turn, would harm the ebb and flow of the game and make it more violent.&ldquo;Do you consider tripping violent or non-violent?&rdquo; Conyers asked.&ldquo;Non-violept,&rdquo; Ziegler replied.&ldquo;But it could be a potentially devastating act of violence,&rdquo; Conyers shot back. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a violation of the rules, bad sportsmanship, and illegal conduct.&rdquo;Ziegler replied. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s bound to produce violent confrontations. At what point does violence become unacceptable? At what point does it become excessive?&rdquo;According to the bill, it becomes excessive when a player &ldquo;knowingly uses excessive physical force and thereby causes a risk of significant bodily injury to another person involved in that event.&rdquo; Under that standard, the Philadelphia Flyers would be out of business before the first faceoff. According to Ziegler, it&rsquo;s not excessive when, for instance, the Islanders&rsquo; Clark Gillies and the Bruins&rsquo; Stan Jonathan duke it out, but it is if they take the fight to the fans.&ldquo;If a release where two players willingly drop their gloves and sticks, which is an acceptable act of violence, is taken away,&rdquo; Ziegler said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m fearful of what other acts of unacceptable acts of violence might occur.&rdquo;It sounded logical, but no one was buying.&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the difference between fighting as an outlet and fighting for the sake of fighting?&rdquo; queried sponsor Ron Mottl (D-Ohio).&ldquo;Fighting is not part of the game,&rdquo; Ziegler answered. &ldquo;It breaks out because of the nature of the game. We are determined to decrease it, and our new rule [54e, requiring players to go to a neutral area] has been working well: If somebody comes to a game to see fighting, we&rsquo;d just as soon not have them.&ldquo;But if you eliminate fists, sticks will come into play.&rdquo;&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t resist asking you to carry that logic further,&rdquo; an astonished Conyers said. &ldquo;If you eliminate the lesser offense, you also should eliminate the greater. But you&rsquo;re telling us that if you ban fighting, sticks would then be used.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yes sir, I am. I don&rsquo;t find two men willingly dropping their gloves morally reprehensible. There has to be some outlet for their frustrations. We don&rsquo;t want it to tie sticks.&rdquo;Willie Schatz is a freelance reporter based in Washington, D.C. &#9632;

f0020-01

Ziegler Testifies At Hearing On Sport Violence

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Barry Pederson, C, underage draft, returned to Victoria of WHL. Tom Songin, RW, and Al Secord, LW, assigned to Springfield of AHL.BUFFALO-Sieve Patrick, RW, underage draft, recalled from Brandon of WHL. Bill Hajt, D, placed on injury list indefinitely after breaking bone in his foot. Robert Mongrain, C, and Rob McClanahan, C, returned to Rochester of AHL. Gilles Hamel, C, recalled from Rochester.COLORADO&mdash;Rene Robert, RW, and Jack Hughes, D, returned to lineup from injury list, Gary Dillon, C, and Bobby Crawford, C, assigned to Fort Worth of CHL.DETROIT-Al Jensen, G, Mai Davis, LW, and Glenn Hicks, LW, all recalled from Adirondack of AHL. Pete Mahovlich, C, remains on injury list with broken wrist.HARTFORD-Fred Arthur, D, underage draft, recalled from Cornwall of QMJHL. Michel Galarneau, C, underage draft, recalled from Hull of QMJHL. Ken Holland, G, recalled from Binghamton of AHL as backup goaler for Mike Veisor, G, who was injured by a shot on the mask. Holland later returned to Binghamton. Jay Palladino, G, recalled from defunct Syracuse team of EHL and reassigned to Binghamton of AHL. Tommy Abrahamsson, D, placed on injury list.LOS ANGELES-Mike Murphy, RW, and Dave Taylor, RW. returned to lineup from injury list. Julian Baretta, G, recalled from Houston of CHL and reassigned to Saginaw of IHL.MINNESOTA-Steve Christoff, LW, recalled from Oklahoma City of CHL.MONTREAL&mdash;Rick Sevigny, G, and Dave Orleski, LW, recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL. Denis Herron, G, Larry Robinson, D, Mark Napier, RW, and Yvon Lambert, LW, all placed on injury list. Robinson out with shoulder separation. Napier sustained wrist injury. Lambert out with groin pull.RANGERS&mdash;Andre Dore, D, and Dan McCarthy, C, returned to New Haven of AHL. Mike McDougal, RW, recalled from New Haven for weekend and later returned. Don Maloney, LW, returned to lineup from injury list. Ron Duguay, RW, put on injury list for from two to three more weeks with lacerated leg tendons. Wayne Thomas, G, removed from active roster to become goaltending coach.PHILADELPHIA-Glen Cochrane, D, recalled from Maine of AHL. Jack Mcllhargey, D, sent to Maine as replacement. Jimmy Watson, D, returned to lineup from injury list.PITTSBURGH-Kim Davis, C, and Paul Marshall, LW, traded to Toronto in exchange for Dave Burrows, D, and Paul Gardner, C, who was with Springfield of the AHL. Bob Stewart, D, returned from injury list and was assigned to Binghamton of AHL for conditioning.St. LOUIS&mdash;Wayne Babych, LW, placed on injury list for 10 days with strained knee.TORONTO-Greg Hotham, D, recalled from New Brunswick of AHL. Dave Farrish, D, on sidelines with groin injury.VANCOUVER&mdash;Kevin Prim-eau, LW, recalled from Dallas of CHL. Dave Logan, D, assigned to Dallas. Lars Lindgren, D, placed on injury list for a month with slashed hand. Dirk Graham, RW, recalled from Fort Wayne of IHL and reassigned to Toledo of IHL.WASHINGTON-Bengt Gus-tafsson, RW, returned to lineup from injury list. Greg Polis, LW, dropped from roster, Rick Smith, D, claimed on waivers from Detroit. Gary Rissling, LW, recalled from Hershey of AHL and reassigned to Birmingham of CHL.WINNIPEG-Pat Daley, LW, recalled from Tulsa of CHL.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>BINGHAMTON-Stuart Smith, D, out of lineup indefinitely with broken jaw.HERSHEY-Claude Noel, C, out with shoulder injury.NEW BRUNSWICK-Brian McCafferty, C, off injury list. Frank Nigro, C, returned from injury list and assigned to Milwaukee of IHL.NEW HAVEN-Pete Mav-roudis, RW, signed to pro tryout. After recall from defunct Syracuse team of EHL. Bob Bedier, RW, and Gord Gejdos, RW, assigned to Richmond of EHL.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Glen Sorenson, RW, and Greg Lynott, D. both off injury list.ROCHESTER-Mike Breen, D, off injury list.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>BIRMINGHAM-Ralph Andreesen, D. out with injured shoulder.DALLAS&mdash;Stu Ostlund, C, released outright from contract by Vancouver. Carey Walker, G, returned to Erie of EHL.FORT WORTH-Steve Janas-zak, G, returned from Colorado after brief recall as standby.HOUSTON-Doug Harvey, RW, recalled from Saginaw of IHLINDIANAPOLIS-Glen Duncan, LW, assigned by Islanders on loan.OKLAHOMA CITY-Wes Coulson, D, recalled from Baltimore of EHL. Kim Spencer, D, returned to Baltimore.TULSA-Glenn Tomalty, RW, recalled from Fort Wayne of IHL. Carey Gilbert, LW, signed to tryout. Gary Smith, G, reinstated by Winnipeg to playing status and assigned to Oilers to replace Pierre Hamel.WICHITA-George Pesut, D, assigned on loan by Edmonton. Gord Stafford, C, assigned to Milwaukee of IHL.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>FLINT-Gord Garbutt, G, assigned to Milwaukee of IHL on loan for remainder of season.MILWAUKEE-Gilles Bilodeau, D, signed as free agent after release by Quebec. Rich Kramp, C, assigned to Hampton of EHL. &#9632;

Latest Player Movements In Hockey

<div class="byline">BY JIM LEAHY</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2>HERSHEY&mdash;Tony Cassolato&rsquo;s power play goal with just one second left to play in regulation time, gave the Bears a dramatic 4-4 tie in New Haven. Hershey blew apart a 4-1 third period New Haven advantage to score two goals in the last minute to avoid the loss. All four Hershey goals came on power plays. Mark Lofthouse scored his first of the game midway through the second period to knot the contest at 1-1. He scored again early in the final stanza. Glen Currie made it 4-3 with 56 seconds to play, setting the stage for the wild celebration when Cassolato beat the final buzzer by one second. Hershey pulled goaltender Dave Parro with 37 seconds left and a face-off deep in New Haven&rsquo;s defensive zone and the swarming Bears were able to pull off a tremendous comeback.Earlier in the week, Rochester visited the Hersheypark Arena and dropped a 6-4 contest to the Bears before 4,119 fans. Left winger Errol Rausse returned from knee surgery and scored the winning goal in that game. The club moved on to Binghamton and Rausse had the gamewinner there also, as Hershey defeated the Whalers 4-3 behind goaltender Rollie Boutin.; who lowered his goals-against average to a fine 2.29, one of the best in the AHL.Gary Rissling has probably played his last game in Hershey. Unhappy with his assignment to the AHL by the parent Washington Capitals, he failed to play the type of game that Hershey brass had in mind for him and has been reassigned to the CHL following an unfortunate locker room incident.SPRINGFIELD: Having a winning record is like a dream come true for hockey fans in this area. A weekend home-and-home sweep over the New Haven Nighthawks made coach Johnny Wilson a happy man. &ldquo;Our guys are putting it all together now. It&rsquo;s all there, defense, offense and goaltending. The rookies and the veterans are blending together nicely as a unit.&rdquo; Springfield demolished New Haven 8-4 before a season-high crowd of 3,914 at the Civic Center. The next night, the same two teams met 60 miles to the south and Springfield blew out New Haven 5-1. It was the first road win of the year for the Tribe, who continued to be unbeaten at home with the 8-4 victory over the Nighthawks.Gord MacTavish scored three times during the weekend series and the Indians connected on three power play goals in each game. &ldquo;Up to now our power play was almost nil,&rdquo; said Wilson. &ldquo;But we worked on it and finally got it clicking. Any club that can take advantageof the opposition&rsquo;s mistakes the way we did, has to be a winner.&rdquo;NEW HAVEN: Just when it looked like Rod Gilbert would have a badly needed win on home ice, the roof caved in. His Nighthawks were leading Hershey 4-2 with less than a minute to play when referee Don Koharski hit veteran Jim Dorey with a 10-minute misconduct after Dorey flipped the puck in the air. Under the new rules, this also calls for a two-minute bench minor and Hershey scored on a two-man advantage since Gary Burns was already in the penalty box serving a tripping penalty. Leading 4-3, with only one second to play, the Bears tied it up, sending the 3,508 fans home in an ugly mood.The Hawks lost both weekend games to Springfield and also lost Mike McDougal on a callup to the Rangers and Jim Mayer via the trade route. Defenseman Jeff Bandura was obtained in a Ranger trade with Vancouver and right winger Pete Mav-roudis from the defunct Syracuse team in the EHL.ADIRONDACK: Steve Short is now with his third AHL team and the rangy defenseman has the rather dubious distinction of being the leader among active players in career penalty minutes. Short has more than 899 minutes during an AHL career which has seen him play for Richmond, Springfield and now Adirondack.On the ice, the Red Wings won two of three during the week to remain near the top of the Southern Division. Another SRO crowd of 5,521 jammed the Civic Center to see their beloved Wings blast the Binghamton Whalers 8-3. In Rochester, they dropped a 6-5 decision in overtime, but the Wings bounced back in Nova Scotia to take a 4-3 decision over the Voyageurs.Rich Shinske continues to lead the Adirondack offense. Through his first 16 games, Shinske had seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points. Larry Lozinski and Al Jensen have split the goaltending duties, each boasting a GAA of 3.44 through 11 appearances.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01582/4727932-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="562" height="1030"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Cassolato knocked in a Hershey goal with one second left to salvage a tie with New Haven.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Bears’ Power Play Rally Brings Miracle Tie

ROCHESTER-A crowd of 4,349 at the War Memorial went into orbit when Gilles Hamel scored on a sudden-death power play to give the Amerks a thrill-packed 6-5 win over Adirondack. In a wild contest, some 192 penalty minutes were called by referee Bob Henry and Rochester almost blew a 5-1 third period lead. The previous night, the Amerks lost 6-4 in Hershey after leading 2-1 early in the game.Left winger Bernard Gallant is back after being out with injuries however, defenseman Mike Breen is now out. The Amerks did get center Bob Fitch-ner from Quebec while Bob Mongrain was on the Rochester-Buffalo shuttle once again.BINGHAMTON: A trio of players were recalled by Pittsburgh during the week and the Penguins sent two skaters to the Whalers. Kim Davis, Bennett Wolf and Jim Hamilton went up and Paul Marshall along with defenseman Bob Stewart were sent to Binghamton. Marshall was then involved in a trade and became a member of the Toronto organization.The Whalers lost two games on tap for them during the week. They were pounded 8-3 in Adirondack and edged 4-3 on home ice by Hershey. Defenseman Stuart Smith suffered a fractured jaw in the loss to Hershey, seen by 3,538 at the Arena. Left winger Steve Alley, assigned here by Hartford was named Player of the Week after scoring three goals and adding five assists in five games.NOVA SCOTIA: The Vees got right wing Glen Sorensen and defenseman Greg Lynott back from injuries but lost defenseman Gerry Hart when Quebec traded him to St. Louis. Hart spent some time in Halifax prior to being traded to the Blues. Bernie Saunders was also gone from the Nova Scotia roster when Quebec decided to bring him up, while Dave Orleski was summoned by Montreal. On the ice, the Vees blasted Maine 9-2 in Halifax on Dave Gorman&rsquo;s hat trick. They entertained Adirondack a few days later and lost 4-3 to the Wings.NEW BRUNSWICK: Back-to-back losses to the Maine Mariners dropped New Brunswick to the bottom of the Northern Division pile. Even though defenseman Brian McCafferty is back from the injury list. New Brunswick can&rsquo;t seem to come up with the winning combination. They visited Maine early in the week, drew a nearcapacity crowd of 5,828, but lost 6-4. A few days later, the same two clubs met again in New Brunswick and the result was another loss. Maine skated to a narrow 4-3 win.MAINE: A 6-4 win on home ice over Rochester before a season-high crowd of 5,828 at the Civic Center moved the Mariners closer to first place in the Northern Division. A visit to Nova Scotia the next night resulted in a 9-2 pounding at the hands of the Voyageurs, but Maine rebounded in New Brunswick to take a 4-3 win over the slumping Hawks. Fred Williams, Ron Flockhart and Don Gillen were pacing the Mariners scoring attack early in the season and rookie goaltender Pelle Lindbergh had a respectable 2.62 GAA in his first five games. &#9632;

Hamel An Amerk Hero In Overtime

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2>TULSA&mdash;Al Rollins, former general manager of the Houston Apollos, became the GM of the Oilers as one of three new majority shareholders of the club.Rollins, a longtime National League goaltender and Tulsa attorneys Bill Peterson and Gene Howard purchased a controlling interest in the club from Bobby Gilbert, who had been sole owner (and general manager) for six years.In stepping down, Gilbert said the financial burden of being the only sole owner in the CHL had just become &ldquo;too much of a headache. All the other clubs in the league have from three to 23 partners involved.&rdquo;Bobby, who said he will continue to be active in the promotion of the hockey club, will devote his attention primarily to managing concessions, both at the Assembly Center (home of the Oilers) and Tulsa&rsquo;s Performing Arts Center.He was awarded the concessions franchise in July, 1979, and said, &ldquo;if it hadn&rsquo;t been for the concessions income, I would have had to bow out of hockey a year ago.&rdquo;Howard, longtime member of the Oklahoma legislature, has been president pro tern of the state senate for the past three terms. Peterson, an associate in Howard&rsquo;s Tulsa law firm, has business interests in both Tulsa and Houston, and has been living in both cities in recent years. He was a stockholder in the Houston Apollos, when that club entered the CHL a year ago, but divested himself of that interest when negotiations began for the purchase of the Tulsa club.Rollins, a 10-year NHL veteran (1949-59) won the Vezina Trophy in 1950-51 with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Hart Trophy (Most Valuable Player) in 1953-54 with the Chicago Black Hawks. He coached seven years at the University of Calgary, three at Spokane in the Western International League, and two at Salt Lake in the Western League.He was player personnel director for the Phoenix Roadrunners of the World Hockey Association, later becoming general manager-coach of that club. Last season he began as general manager-coach for Houston in the CHL, but gave up the coaching reins in mid-season. He resigned as general manager just before the current season opened in October.The ownership change was announced after the Oilers played their worst games of the season, losing four in one week. They were massacred in Wichita, 8-2, then succumbed at home to Oklahoma City, 9-3, even though two goals in 30 seconds (one a penalty shot by Bob Guindon) had brought a 2-2 tie midway in the second period.One night later, in Oklahoma City, the Oilers actually moved into a 3-1 lead, but managed to lose, 7-4. To cap the week they came home and suffered a 3-0 shutout at the hands of Jim Stewart, making his first start for the Indianapolis Checkers.Coach Mike Smith vowed, &ldquo;We have to make some drastic changes.&rdquo; But as the new week began, he lost veteran goalie Pierre Hamel, who was called up by the parent Winnipeg Jets. A replacement was expected from the parent club.Center John Bethel, the Oilers&rsquo; leading scorer, was out with a wrist problem, and was expected to miss two weeks.OKLAHOMA CITY&mdash;Three straight victories, two of them against archrival Tulsa, pulled the Stars to within three points of North Division leader Indianapolis, and OC had four games in hand. Salt Lake was five points behind the Stars, Tulsa six. and Wichita 11.Dino Ciccarelli and Warren Young each scored two goals in a 5-4 cliffhanger at home against Birmingham. The Stars had a 4-1 lead early in the third period, but the Bulls kept coming back.Three unanswered goals in the second period, and four more in the third, added up to a 9-3 romp in Tulsa, after the Oilers had briefly tied the score at two. Joe Contini had two tallies in that barrage. The next night the Stars had to rally from two down, but Kevin Maxwell&rsquo;s hat trick sparked them to a 7-4 triumph. The week&rsquo;s 21-goal production included four by Maxwell, three each by Young, Contini and Ciccarelli.Former U.S. Olympian Steve Christoff came down for the three games, after being on Minnesota&rsquo;s injured list, then returned to the parent North Stars. With defensemen Neil Koma-doski (strained knee ligaments) and Daniel Poulin (hip pointer and bone chips in pelvis) sidelined, Peter Hayek and Kim Spencer were brought back from Baltimore in the Eastern League.The Saturday game against Tulsa drew 7,522 fans&mdash;largest crowd of the season&mdash;and ran the Stars&rsquo; total attendance to 32,860 for six games, an average of 5,477.INDIANAPOLIS-The Checkers, unbeaten at home, found a few problems on the r.oad. They suffered 5-4 and 7-1 setbacks in Salt Lake, and had to settle for a 4-4 tie in fTouston. But Jim Stewart&rsquo;s debut in the Indy nets was a 3-0 shutout victory in Tulsa.Jim Nill&rsquo;s hat trick (the last two goals in 14 seconds) sealed the Checkers&rsquo; fate in the first Salt Lake game. The issue wasn&rsquo;t left in doubt long in the rematch, when Billy Carroll&rsquo;s first-period tally was all Indy could get off Rick Heinz.Neil Hawryliw collected five points during the week to retain the CHL scoring leadership, with 21 points two ahead of Salt Lake&rsquo;s Doug Palazzari. Each had 12 goals, tops in the league.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01535/4727987-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="568" height="865"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Palazzari had two goals in a 7-1 Salt Lake victory to remain second in the scoring race.</figcaption></div>Lome Stamler missed the five-game road trip with hepatitis. Mike Hordy injured a knee at Houston, similar to injury he had a year ago, and was hoping a brief rest would solve the problem as it did previously.SALT LAKE-The Golden Eagles repelled division-leading Indianapolis, 5-4 and 7-1, in their only action during the week. Jim Nill had the hat trick in the first game, Floyd Thomson and Doug Palazzari each scored twice in the rematch.Left wing Denis Houle was back in the lineup after a layoff with cracked ribs, and center Ken Federko returned to duty after a severe Charley horse. Dick Lamby, CHL assists leader with 16, was recalled by St. Louis. The Birds had a four-game unbeaten string at home, but hadn&rsquo;t won in their last five on the road.WICHITA&mdash; After overpowering Tulsa in the long-awaited home opener, 8-2, the Wind bowed twice to Dallas in continuing the homestand, 5-3 and 8-4.The fans&rsquo; turnout was disappointing for the return of professional hockey to Wichita. Total attendance for the three games at Kansas Coliseum was only 4,320, including just 908 for the Friday night tilt with Dallas. Don Ashby and Tom Roulston each scored twice against Tulsa, and Barry Dean added a shorthanded goal.The Wind&rsquo;s Roy Sommer shared the CHL penalty leadership with Dave Cameron of Indianapolis, with 54 minutes each. They were only two ahead of the Tulsa duo of Rick Bow-ness and Dave Hoyda.Center Ashby, who had picked up 14 points in 10 games, was recalled by the parent Edmonton Oilers. &#9632;

f0023-01

Tulsa Trio Takes Charge Of Texans

HOUSTON&mdash;The Apollos. understandably a bit rusty after their 19-day layoff, nevertheless rewarded 4,992 fans with a 3-1 victory over Fort Worth in their long-delayed home opener. Alex Tidey, whose power play goal wound up the scoring in that one, got two goals in a six-minute span in the second period, as the Apollos tied Indianapolis, 4-4, two nights later.Coach Nick Beverley had only eight forwards for the first game, and only seven for the second, as Blair Stewart injured a shoulder in a fight in the home opener and Kevin Schamehorn was recalled by Los Angeles. Warren Holmes was already out with a sprained ankle. As a result, Beverley had to use most of his defensemen up front at one time or another.J. P. Kelly opened the scoring against Fort Worth, but that was matched by the Texans&rsquo; Bob Atwell. However, the visitors had no answers for Steve Carlson&rsquo;s goal with a two-man advantage in the middle period, or Tidey&rsquo;s with a one-man advantage in the third. Goalie Paul Pageau, recalled from Saginaw in the International League, recorded his first pro victory, breaking the Apollos&rsquo; five-game winless streak.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02384/4728018-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="570" height="594"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alex Tidey iced a victory and helped provide a tie with three goals for the Apollos.</figcaption></div>Against Indy, first-period goals by Larry Goodenough and Carlson were answered by Checkers Bruce Affleck and Neil Hawryliw. Hawryliw&rsquo;s second goal put the Checkers ahead in the second period, but Tidey&rsquo;s heroics provided a Houston lead. Shane Turner tied it up in the third period for Indianapolis, and they played 10 minutes of scoreless overtime.Earlier the Apollos had sent forwards Doug Crawford and Scott Gruhl to Saginaw, and goalie Julian Baretta was freed for reassignment.FORT WORTH- After a 3-1 loss in Houston, the Texans continued their eight-game road trip by splitting a pair in Birmingham, winning, 4-3, and losing, 5-1.Bob Atwell got the lone goal (first period) in Houston, and Dan Lucas had the only Fort Worth score (also first period) in the second game at Birmingham. Dave Watson, Peter Sturgeon, John McCahill and Dan Lempe scored in the victory.The Colorado Rockies recalled center Barry Smith, right wing Bobby Crawford and defensemen Mike Christie and Les Auge, but returned Christie as the new week began, and also sent in center Jack Valiquette. The Texans summoned defenseman McCahill and left wing Brant Kiessig from Muskegon in the International League.DALLAS&mdash; Two victories in Wichita, 5-3 and 8-4, ran the winning streak for Danny Belisle&rsquo;s Black Hawks to three games, and padded their first-place margin in the South Division to eight points over Fort Worth and Birmingham, who shared second place. Houston was another four points back.Drew Callander had four goals and two assists in the two-game invasion of Kansas, including a hat trick in the second game. Rob Tudor scored twice in that game.The Hawks&rsquo; penalty-killing, led by veterans Rick Blight and Chris Oddleifson, continued to sparkle. In II games Hawks&rsquo; opponents had 46 power play chances, and scored only three goals.Goalie Ken Ellacott returned from the Vancouver Canucks, and the Hawks sent left wing Rory Cava to Fort Wayne in the International League.BIRMINGHAM&mdash; Home cooking wasn&rsquo;t an immpdiatp tnnir for the Bulls. They ended a five-game road trip with a 5-4 loss in Oklahoma City, then started an eight-game homestand by losing to Fort Worth, 4-3. But they turned it around in a rematch, smothering the Texans, 5-1.The Bulls acquired big, tough left wing Gary Rissling, renowned for his pugilistic prowess, from Hershey in the American League, but he hurt a shoulder in his first start. Goalie Tim Bernhardt, who was injured in the third game of the season, was scheduled to start in the second Fort. Worth game, and reinjured his back in the warmups. Reggie Lemelin, who had been relieved by Bernhardt after giving up four goals in 30 minutes against the Texans the night before, yielded only a power play goal to Dan Lucas in the rematch. &#9632;

f0023-02

Apollos Victorious In Home Opener

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2>FORT WAYNE-Moose Lallo, the veteran coach of the Fort Wayne Komets, has been around long enough-17 seasons in Muskegon and now in his third year as coach of the Komets-to realize that when two rival teams play each other, the outcome is not always going to be pretty.But after a recent showdown between two of the IHL&rsquo;s oldest rivals&mdash;the Komets and the Toledo Goaldiggers&mdash;Lallo was incensed at Toledo coach Jim Sanko, charging that some of Sanko&rsquo;s tactics during the game were, in Lallo&rsquo;s words, &ldquo;not hockey.&rdquo;&ldquo;He had his tough guys out there,&rdquo; said Lallo of Sanko, a former Toledo player, &ldquo;and I knew what he was trying to do. He wanted to get Al Dumba and Terry McDougall out of the game.&rdquo;When Lallo&rsquo;s charges were relayed to him, Sanko had a surprisingly candid response.&ldquo;I said the first guy who gets a chance to start a fight should do it,&rdquo; Sanko said. &ldquo;I never expected what happened, though. The referee blew it by giving everyone out there a penalty.&ldquo;I wanted to get Joe Nathe going,&rdquo; Sanko continued. &ldquo;I felt I had to do something. We weren&rsquo;t being aggressive. If we&rsquo;re gonna win we&rsquo;ve gotta be aggressive. Joe has to get respect again.&rdquo;Referee Jim Neagies doled out a total of 147 minutes in penalties. The Komets&rsquo; Dave Norris, the left wing on a line with Dumba and McDougall, received 17 minutes for his part in one of the bouts and was then thrown out of the game after he went over to the Goaldiggers&rsquo; bench and berated Sanko.&ldquo;Each one of their guys took one of my players,&rdquo; Lallo said. &ldquo;But our guys went into the box, too. Why? We didn&rsquo;t start the thing.&rdquo;While Sanko as much as admitted that he was trying to win through intimidation, his plan backfired. The Komets blasted the Diggers 12-4 and Dumba had three goals before the first period was over.&ldquo;They really scared Dumba, didn&rsquo;t they?&rdquo; Norris said. &ldquo;All he did was score three goals.&rdquo;The win for the Komets marked the second time this season that they had embarrassed the Diggers in Toledo. Earlier in the season the Komets bombed the Diggers 11-4.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t play hockey like that in this league anymore,&rdquo; Lallo said. &ldquo;Sanko&rsquo;s been gone for awhile. He better change his tactics. He wanted Al and Dougy (McDougall) out of the game. But he forgot my other players. I&rsquo;ve got three lines that can score.&rdquo;The one-sided romp in Toledo was the Komets&rsquo; sixth straight road game without a loss. It capped a 3-1-0 week that left Fort Wayne comfortably ahead of the pack. The Komets have a five-point lead over Muskegon in the West and are eight above East leader Saginaw.The lone loss was a 7-6 decision at home to Muskegon. With nine minutes to go in the final period the Komets were trailing, 7-1, but they scored five straight goals to almost pull it out. The next night in Muskegon the Komets took a 5-0 lead&mdash;making it 10 straight unanswered goals against the Hawks&mdash;and eventually won, 6-2. Against Kalamazoo the Komets trailed, 2-0, with nine minutes left in the final period and were still down, 2-1, with 1:20 to play. They pulled it out, 3-2, with Dumba getting the winner with 20 seconds left after Barry Scully got the equalizer.The loss to the Komets was the third of the week for the Diggers, who dropped into a tie for first place in the East with Saginaw. Two of the losses came at home&mdash;to Fort Wayne and Port Huron, 6-5. the lone win was a 5-3 triumph at home over Saginaw. The Diggers, who had given up 87 goals in 16 games, also lost at Muskegon, 8-2.KALAMAZOO&mdash;An extended road trip is reaping few rewards for the defending champion K-Wings. A five-game road jaunt started with a loss in Port Huron and the Wings dropped two more during the week. They lost at Milwaukee, 5-3, and the 3-2 heartbreaker in Fort Wayne. The K-Wings finished the week with a 7-7 log for 14 points and dropped into third place behind Muskegon.MUSKEGON&mdash;The Mohawks continue to have more success on the road than at home. The 7-6 win at Fort Wayne was Muskegon&rsquo;s fifth road win of the young season. But they skated just.500 at home, they lost the rematch to the Komets but beat Toledo, 8-2.The loss to Fort Wayne could be explained&mdash;partially. Tom Marquis was injured in the game at Fort Wayne and may miss as much as eight weeks of the season. In addition, defenseman John McCahill, who had been a stabilizing influence on the blueline corps, and winger Brant Kiessig missed the Fort Wayne game as they were recalled to Fort Worth. Kiessig had a hat trick in the win in Fort Wayne.For the week, Muskegon was 2-2, good enough to slip past Kalamazoo into second place in the West.MILWAUKEE-The Admirals split even during the week, winning, losing and tying. Michel Bergeron was the hero in the win, scoring the hat trick as the Admirals turned back Kalamazoo, 5-3. Defenseman Dick Layo, who had been struggling to stay in the lineup, got the tying goal in the 3-3 deadlock with Flint. The loss was at home to Saginaw, 5-4.SAGINAW&mdash;Don Perry isn&rsquo;t looking forward to the day Marcel Comeau hangs up his skates. &ldquo;When he quits, I better quit, too,&rdquo; said the Gears&rsquo; Coach-GM after the veteran had played a key role in two of the three Gear wins for the week which vaulted them into a first-place tie in the East.Comeau got the game-winner in a 5-4 win at Milwaukee. And his second shorthanded goal of the season was the difference in a 4-3 win over Port Huron. The Gears also whipped Kalamazoo while the lone loss was a 5-3 affair in Toledo. The Gears are now 6-7-1 to share the East lead with Toledo.PORT HURON-The Flags haven&rsquo;t strayed from the IHL &ldquo;no place like the road&rdquo; pattern so far this season as their lone win in a 1-2-0 week came on the road&mdash;at Toledo by a 6-5 score. It was, however, the Flags&rsquo; first road win of the season. Defenseman Don Boyd&rsquo;s two final period goals was the difference.The two losses came at home to Flint, 8-5, and at Saginaw, 4-3. The Flags are now 4-6-2 and share last place in the East with Flint.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01564/4728049-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="564" height="872"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Dumba, who scored three times to lead a Fort Wayne rout, apparently wasn&rsquo;t bothered by the rough play.</figcaption></div>FLINT&mdash;The Generals improved their record to 4-7-2 with a?.vin and a tie, The Generals had a modest three-game unbeaten string and while they were still sharing the basement, first place was only three points away.The week&rsquo;s highlight was the 8-5 triumph in Fort Wayne in which eight different players scored goals. An even dozen picked up points. The win in Port Huron was followed by a 3-3 tie in Milwaukee. &#9632;

f0024-01

Lallo Upset By Toledo’s Intimidation Tactics

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2>RICHMOND&mdash;A hurried meeting of the Eastern Hockey League Board of Governors and general managers in this Virginia city produced a brand new schedule to accommodate the five teams of the EHL after the Syracuse franchise ceased to function 10 games into the 1980-81 season.&ldquo;We are trying to fill in an evenly balanced schedule the best we can,&rdquo; explained commissioner Bill Beagan. &ldquo;Actually, I think that we will have even better rivalries now with five healthy teams and that this [the folding] will just enhance our attendance with the remaining clubs.&rdquo;An Eastern League lawyer began the process which led to the legal demise of the Syracuse Hornets&rsquo; club when he delivered a letter to Hornets&rsquo; president Gaetan Gagne informing him that failure to present a team for two road games violated a rule in the league constitution, which in turn called for a termination of the franchise.Gagne had 72 hours to respond to the charges but was unavailable for comment prior to the expiration of the time limit.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s business; it&rsquo;s economics,&rdquo; Beagan said, referring to the collapse of the franchise. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little disappointed, there&rsquo;s no doubt about that. I&rsquo;ve lost only two franchises in 12 years (Lansing, Mich, and Syracuse), but I think it is really a blessing in disguise. The patient was terminal; death was imminent.&rdquo;At the same time, Beagan expressed some optimism because of the excellent shape of the five other clubs, and the fact that Johnstown, Pa., and Winson-Salem, Va. were ready to join as new franchises for the 1981-82 campaign.BALTIMORE: The Clippers&rsquo; unbeaten streak reached three games with the club earning a 5-5 tie with the Blades and an 11-2 win over Syracuse.Glenn Kulyk fired home a pair of goals against Erie and came back with a pair in the Syracuse contest. Norm Stefan and Bruce Hamilton were also two-goal scorers vs. the Hornets with Bob Iwabuchi earning his third win in the nets.Peter Hayek, Kim Spencer and Wes Coulson all spent short stints in Oklahoma City of the CHL before being returned to Baltimore. Dave Herbst was nursing an infected elbow and expected back in the lineup shortly.Though he had yet to score a goal, Gerry Ciarcia was the club&rsquo;s leading scorer with 11 assists.The Clippers were looking for a crowd in excess of 7,000 for their first ever Jacket Night promotion.ERIE: The Blades&rsquo; three-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt in Richmond with the Rifles earning a 7-3 decision in the first meeting between the two clubs.Erie struggled early in the year on the road, but they solved al) their troubles in besting Salem, Syracuse and Hampton all on enemy ice. Nick Polano&rsquo;s charges earned their third triumph over Syracuse by a 10-7 count and then trumped the Aces 6-1.Stan Gulutzan collected his 100th career goal for the Blades against Syracuse while Greg Tebbutt keyed the win over Hampton with two goals and two assists. Pierre Aubry (four assists) and Paul Sheard (three assists) backed Tebbutt&rsquo;s effort. Aubry is in a three-way tie for the league scoring lead with 21 points in 10 games.The Blades also played host to the Clippers and the two teams ended in a 5-5 standoff in their first Erie meeting since last year&rsquo;s Mitchell Cup finals. Over 3,000 people sat in on the contest which was the second overtime game for Erie.HAMPTON: Coach Larry Mickey&rsquo;s crew was in the midst of a three-game losing streak while managing only two goals in the three contests.The Aces came up on the short end in a pair of home games to Erie 6-1 and Salem 1-0. Though they did fall to the Blades, Rob Clavette gave Hampton some satisfaction when he broke goalie Rick Knickle&rsquo;s shutout attempt with a goal in the last minute of play.Jerry Price rejected 25 shots in the Salem game, but was victimized by one goal which proved to be the difference.The Aces were forced to use the field at Hampton High School for running and soccer drills to keep in shape because of the lack of ice at the Coliseum.Rich Kramp is the newest player to join the Aces, the center-wing coming from Milwaukee of the IHL. The club is also anxiously awaiting the return of Rick Myers, who has been out of action since early in the year.SALEM: It was a big week for the Raiders as they put an end to their three-game losing streak with victories over Richmond and Hampton.The Raiders were shut out in Richmond 3-0, but came back the following night to trounce the Rifles and deal them their first loss of the season by a 10-2 count. Almost 3,200 Virginians delighted in seeing their team put an end to Richmond&rsquo;s lengthy win streak with Ed Smith, Lee Keller and Jim Toomey leading the charge with two goals apiece.Coach Pat Kelly also got a lot of satisfaction in a 1-0 win over Hampton since it was his club&rsquo;s first triumph on the road. It marked the return to form of goalie Tom O&rsquo;Toole, who registered the shutout by kicking out 29 shots. Brian Drumm had the only goal and it proved a game winner.Paul Conway, one of the Raider&rsquo;s top scorers and best defensemen, was lost to the team for a week while nursing a badly bruised shoulder.RICHMOND: Following eight consecutive wins, the Rifles finally tasted defeat at the hands of Salem 10-2. Bill Purcell&rsquo;s club also zeroed the Raiders 3-0 and stopped their losing skein at one by besting the Blades 7-3 in Richmond.Tom Semenchuk leads the EHL goaltenders in-wins with seven and he registered his first shutout in the 3-0 blanking of Salem. The Richmond shot stopper has a 7-1 record with a goals against average of 3.72.Richmond has four scorers in the top ten with Tom Mullen and Lawrie Nisker tied for first place with 21 points each. Kent Reardon and Dale Yakiwchuk both have hit for 15 points apiece.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01514/4728080-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="568" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richmond&rsquo;s Tom Semenchuk tops the EHL in victories with seven against only one loss.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

Beagan Optimistic About Franchise Strength

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;Anticipation.The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Association&rsquo;s Division One is always the latest starting of college hockey&rsquo;s major leagues. While the Central and Western loops were already finishing up their fourth weeks of action, ECAC teams had played but a game or two at most and one in conference action.Though hockey has been around the East for a long time, this 1980-81 campaign is only the 20th formal season under ECAC auspices. It may be the last with a completely balanced, tri-divisional schedule as there is much talk of further realignment to cut down travel costs. But it should, as usual, be one of the most competitive years we&rsquo;ve ever seen.Army is back as a Division One team after an absence of eight years. The Cadets, however, won&rsquo;t be eligible for the Division One playoffs because they&rsquo;re a Division One independent like the Air Force Academy out West. Only one in-season tournament game will have a bearing on the Eastern standings&mdash;Maine vs. RPI at the RPI Invitational will count.Not too many changes occurred in the coaching ranks. Only Mike McShane is new among the head coaches. He moved up from being George Crowe&rsquo;s assistant at Dartmouth and brought Rob Riley from Boston College to assist him in rebuilding St. Lawrence&rsquo;s fortunes.The assistants showed a little more turnover, as Paul Barrett moved in at BC to replace Riley while Phil Grady took McShane&rsquo;s spot at Dartmouth. Charlie Molloy joined St. Lawrence also. Ed Arrington became goalie coach at Northeastern while another ex-goalie, Brian Durocher, hooked on at his own alma mater, Boston University. Cap Raeder came onto the New Hampshire staff. Brian Mason left RPI for Rochester Tech and was replaced by Paul Allen and Ronn Tomassoni. Bruce Garber joined Bob Bellemore on the Providence staff under Lou Lamoriello.The three man officiating system will be used for 36 games in both ECAC Divisions One and Two this season. Thirty-four men are scheduled to work as Division One officials.A little over half of the Division One teams had seen some non-league action when we went to press. The league&rsquo;s favorites, Providence and Boston College, held true to predicted form by winning their first two games. The Friars whipped Merimack 9-4 and edged U.S. International University 3-1 on Schneider Arena ice. Senior Steve O&rsquo;Neill had the hat trick and his freshman linemate, Gates Orlando, added a pair of goals against the Warriors. They each tallied once in the victory over the Gulls while Greg Nolin turned aside 25 shots.BC hit the road for a two-game set at Bowling Green and came away with Wins of 4-3 and 4-0 against the Falcons. Eight different players had a goal for the Eagles. Sophomore goals Bob O&rsquo;Connor played well in making a total of 80 saves on the weekend. Paul Hammer, Mark Switaj, and Tom Wright all collected three points each.Clarkson, as predicted, scored goals in bunches during its wins. A 5-2 defeat of Notre Dame saw Steve Cruickshank collect two goals and two assists. In an 11-1 rout of Norwich, Jim Armstrong had the hat trick. The Knights&rsquo; guns were effectively muzzled, however, by Plattsburgh State&rsquo;s goalie Rick Strack in a 3-2 upset by the Cardinals on Walker Arena ice.The Knights could draw a little consolation from the Cardinals&rsquo; other wins over Division One teams, 11-6 at Colgate at 7-5 over Vermont. Senior goalie Rick Mills played in three of Clarkson&rsquo;s first four games, and highly touted freshman Don Sylvestri saw action, too.Colgate&rsquo;s Terry Slater wasn&rsquo;t too pleased with his defensemen&rsquo;s performance in the 11-6 loss to Plattsburgh. He contemplated some changes, saw them have some effect in a 9-1 rout of Buffalo, another Division Two outfit, but then had to settle for a consolation prize in the Elmira Tournament as St. Lawrence upset his favored Red Raiders 6-3.A four-goal burst in the second period triggered the surprise win, which did not count in Division One standings. In all, four of the six goals by St. Lawrence players were scored by freshmen. Mark Bonneau, Ray Shero, Steve Rich, and Steve Rhodes, were the rookie marksmen. St. Lawrence then tipped host Elmira College 5-3 to take the tourney crown while Colgate was bouncing back 12-4 against outgunned Westfield State.St. Lawrence opened its season with a win in Canada, again using a second period outburst to knock off Queen&rsquo;s 7-3. Five goals in the second frame did the job for the Larries.Maine won its first three games, sweeping New Brunswick and edging NCAA defending runnerup Northern Michigan 8-7 in Marquette before dropping a 7-3 decision the next night.New Hampshire fulfilled predictions of improvement with a 3-1 start, splitting with Toronto in Durham as Andy Brickley had two goals in each game, a 5-3 loss and a 6-3 win in which George White, a freshman, had a hat truck. UNH then followed BC to Bowling Green and swept the Falcons, 5-3 and 7-5. Rookie Steve Lyons had the first two goals of the first game and senior Frank Barth had the last three scores in the second victory at BG. Sophomore Todd Pearson had two wins in the goal while senior net-minder Greg Moffett had a loss and a win.Vermont&rsquo;s Craig Homola didn&rsquo;t score in UVM&rsquo;s 2-6, 8-6 split at US1U in San Diego, but he potted five tallies in a 9-7 triumph over the Gulls when they came to Gutterson Field House. RPI showed its hasn&rsquo;t lost its offensive touch, pounding Ohio State 8-5 and Laval 11-3 in Troy. The Engineers reported 58 shots at Buckeye goalie Mike Blake while Mike McPhee had a hat trick and Eric Magnuson scored a pair. RPI also announced that it will play a pair of games against nearby Union in 1981-82. The Engineers wouldn&rsquo;t bite for a &ldquo;no win&rdquo; game with the Dutchmen when Ned Harkness was looking for one a couple of years ago, however.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01492/4728111-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="568" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">Senior Paul O&rsquo;Neill paced the Providence attack with four goals in two games.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0027-01

Non-Conference Games ECAC Fare As Providence, BC Display Strength

<div class="byline">BY MIKE MURRAY</div>&rsquo;REGINA&mdash;The jinx is finally over for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Last season they lost six of seven overtime games and also dropped their season opener in overtime. But coach Dave King feels that the weekend doubleheader against the Calgary Dinosaurs may have reversed the trend.Both games against the Dinosaurs went into overtime. And in the face of adversity the Huskies were able to pull two victories out of the fire by identical 4-3 scores. &ldquo;This could be the turning point of our season,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;It was taking a 100-pound weight off each of the guys backs.&rdquo;The Huskies&rsquo; Mike Wierachowsky tied the firlst game at three late in the third period. The heroics were then left to Rey Hudson as he scored the winning goal at the 34 second mark of the second overtime period.The teams also ended Saturday&rsquo;s match tied up at three. Shane Pearsall had given Calgary what looked like the winning goal with less than seven minutes left but the Huskies&rsquo; Del Chapman scored to send the game into overtime. Saskatchewan goaltender Steve Amiss stoned the Calgary forwards time and time again. Then with 9:48 gone in the 10-minute OT period, Del Chapman completed his hat trick as he deflected a shot past Calgary netminder Mike Craig.In Vancouver, the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds forced a four-way tie for first place as they twice knocked off the defending National Champion Alberta Golden Bears. Jim McLaughlin, last year&rsquo;s leading scorer in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, had a pair of goals in the Thunderbirds&rsquo; 6-2 victory.In Saturday&rsquo;s game, the teams exchanged opening period goals by Alberta&rsquo;s Garnet Brimacombe and McLaughlin. The Thunderbirds then scored two unanswered third period goals to secure their second victory over the Golden Bears. The goaltending duo of ex-Olympic team member Ron Patterson and Mike Craig seems to have solidified the previously pourous Thunderbird netminding problems.AUAABoth the St. Mary&rsquo;s Huskies and the UNB Red Devils fell from the ranks of the undefeated, leaving Moncton as the only team with an unblemished record in the Maritimes.The Huskies split their weekend games; first, the Mount Allison Mounties outscored them 10-3. All Canadian Ross Yates had a hand in seven of his team&rsquo;s 10 goals, as he collected two goals and five assists. St. Mary&rsquo;s then pulled out a 3-2 squeaker over the UPEI Panthers.The Red Devils downed the Dal-housie Tigers 5-3 as Gary Agnew notched the hat trick. Agnew has vaulted into the scoring lead of the Maritimes. UNB then proceeded to drop a 4-2 decision in their own backyard to Acadia. John Kinch had a pair of markers in a losing cause.After five straight losses St. Francis Xavier finally broke into the win column with a 6-4 victory over Mount Allison. Greig MacDonald paced the X-Men attack with two goals and an assist Ross Yates of Mount Allison made it a nine-point week as he picked up a pair of assists. He had his sights once again set on the AUAA scoring championship and trailed Gary Agnew by only a single point.Everyone feasted on the lowly St. Thomas Tommies. First, Moncton clobbered them 10-4; Francois Robert and Francois Bessette each had a five point game. Kevin Zimmel and Paul Jeffrey each had two goals as Dal-housie downed St. Thomas 7-5. Rounding out the disastrous week, Acadia, led by a two-goal performance by George Rowe, downed the Tommies 6-2.OUAAOntario once again appears to be duplicating the excitement of the past two years in the race to the playoffs. After three weeks of action, only four points separated the top nine teams. The Universities of Toronto and Western both remained undefeated after four games, while the surprising York Yeomen had only a single loss.The Toronto Blues racked up eight goals in each of their games as they ran their goals per game average to 7.2. George Chan and Jeff Andrews both netted a pair of goals as Toronto downed Laurier 8-2. The Laurentian defense couldn&rsquo;t stop the high flying Blues as they too gave up eight goals. Jim Snetsinger had a four-point game for the Blues in their 8-6 victory over the Vees.If you thought the Toronto Blues were blowingout their opposition, how about those Western Mustangs? They scored 27 goals in three midNovember games while only allowing their opponents five goals. Billy Smith had four goals in the Mustangs&rsquo; 14-3 whipping of Brock. Smith was right back at work again as his two goals paced a 4-1 win over Laurier. Their final game of the week was a 9-1 shellacking of Waterloo. Brian Schnurr had three goals and an assist as his total for the week was four goals and six assists.The York Yeomen stayed right on the heels of both Toronto and Western with victories over Queen&rsquo;s and Laurier. Al Sinclair, an OUAA All Star last season, had the hat trick in York&rsquo;s 8-5 win over Queen&rsquo;s. Claude Lessio then scored three goals in a 4-3 victory over Laurier.McMaster put big scores on the board as they evened their record at 3-3 with victories over Brock and Windsor. Greg Bullen had a goal in each period for the Marlins as they won easily, 9-2, over Brock. Bullen, along with All-Canadian Rick Mastro-luisi, had four points in McMaster&rsquo;s. 8-5 downing of Windsor.QUAAThe news out of Quebec revolves around the resignation of Andre Boisvert as the Bishop&rsquo;s University head hockey coach. Last summer Bishop&rsquo;s felt that they had landed a prize catch when they signed Boisvert to replace the departed Ron Perowne. Little did they know that the Sherbrooke Beavers of the Quebec Major Junior League were going to fire Ghislain Delage and offer the job to Boisvert, who felt that if he really wanted to make a career in coaching that he would be better off with a Major Junior club than with the Gaitors.Bruce Coulter, Athletic Director of Bishop&rsquo;s, feels that assistant football coach Dave Beham will be more than an adequate replacement. &ldquo;He graduated with honors in Phys-Ed from the University of Ottawa, plus he played in the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s organization,&rdquo; said Coulter. Beham was a standout football player with the Ottawa Gee Gees and also had a tryout with the Rough Riders.But the question still lingers: How can your head hockey coach double as an assistant football coach if you really want to challenge the likes of Concordia? This sentiment, felt by many in Quebec, indicates that Bishop&rsquo;s is not serious about developing their hockey program.GPACThere is a noticeable division between the calibre of the teams in this division: Brandon, Manitoba and Regina are all capable of playing on a National level while Winnipeg and Lakehead continue to flounder for respectability.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01488/4728142-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="559" height="862"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim McLaughlin led the UBC Thunderbirds to a dual upset of Alberta, with four goals.</figcaption></div>Brandon ran its record to 7-1 as they twice flogged Lakehead by lopsided scores of 10-1 and 11-1. The Bobcats outshot Lakehead by an incredible 66-16 margin. Four different shooters registered a pair of goals: Gary Kleintak, Ron Carpenter, Rod Winkler and Kelvin Melnyk.The next day&rsquo;s results were just as devastating; the Bobcats bombarded the Lakehead goaltenders with 58 more shots. Ten more goals were registered as both Rod Winkler and Bill Rose notched two goals.In Regina, the defending GPAC champion Cougars downed the University of Winnipeg 6-2 behind the four-goal performance of Mark Pillar. Regina has shown a vast improvement over its first few contests and after their win over Brandon the previous week, they must now be considered contenders for the GPAC title. &#9632;

f0028-01

Huskies Bid To Pull Away From Overtime Jinx

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>GRAND FORKS-The Western Collegiate Hockey Association has long been regarded as the best college hockey league in the United States.That teams from the WCHA have won 26 of the 33 NCAA ice hockey championships since 1948 is evidence indeed that the WCHA is the premier league in the land.But until recent years, pro scouts gave only lip service to the talent in the college game. Few college players made it out of the WCHA or any other college league into the pros.That&rsquo;s no longer true. The pros have discovered the college game and there&rsquo;s no better example of that than by what has transpired in the WCHA in recent years.It used to be that once a college recruited a player, he was on campus for four years. Coaches could count on players returning and build the tearp around those returning players.But a funny thing happened when the pros discovered how good some of the college players were&mdash;they started signing them to pro contracts while they still had college eligibility remaining. And all of a sudden, coaches are no longer sure if a freshman phenom will be around the next three years.The pros have drained a lot of young talent out of the WCHA in recent years and Cary Eades, a University of North Dakota junior wing, thinks the raid has just begun.Eades, a 6-1, 203-pounder from Burnaby, B.C., has been at UND long enough to see some of the best talent ever in the league. As a seasoned veteran who has played in the national championship title game the last two years, he&rsquo;s in a unique position to evaluate that player drain from the standpoint of a competitor.&ldquo;I think it will be a long time before you see the caliber of the WCHA back to the level it was two years ago,&rdquo; Eades said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the WCHA was recognized as that strong a league then by the pro scouts. Now the scouts know how good this league is and they&rsquo;re stripping guys away before they finish their eligibility.&rdquo;Eades thinks that trend will continue. &ldquo;1 think you&rsquo;ll see more and more guys using the WCHA as a stepping stone to the pros,&rdquo; he predicts.He can only goint at his own University of North Dakota team as a prime example. The Sioux, who were NCAA runners-up in 1979 and NCAA champions in 1980, have been the hardest hit by the newfound interest in college talent by the pros.In the last two years, six of Eades&rsquo; teammates gave up college hockey to turn pro. They all had college eligi-blity and four of them are playing in the NHL now, including 18-year-old Mickey Volcan, one of the youngest players in the NHL who is pulling a regular shift on defense with Hartford.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01472/4728211-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="562" height="769"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Ostby turned aside 39 shots for Minnesota in a 4-1 victory over Denver.</figcaption></div>Besides Volcan, UND sent Doug Smail and David Christian to the Winnipeg Jets and Howard Walker to the Washington Caps. Kevin Maxwell and Bob Iwabuchi, two others who left college to go pro, are in the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; farm system.Had those six returned to North Dakota this year, the Sioux would have been heavy favorites to win their third straight WCHA championship, something no school in the league has ever accomplished. Even without them, the Sioux are still tied for the league lead after five weeks of play, thanks in part to the sensational play of rookie center Troy Murray, who could be the next Sioux star to leave college and head for the pros. He was a third-round draft pick by Chicago in last year&rsquo;s amateur draft. He has 15 goals and 15 assists in 12 games.North Dakota isn&rsquo;t the only school being drained by the NHL. Wisconsin&rsquo;s. Mark Johnson gave up his last year of eligibility to turn pro with Pittsburgh and Murray Eaves left Michigan two years early to sign with Winnipeg. There are others that could be named, too.The coaches seldom complain about the talent drain. They&rsquo;d rather have a superstar for one, two or three years than not have him at all.There is still lots of talent in the WCHA, as the tight league race shows.North Dakota completed a sweep of its four-game season series with Michigan State by beating the Spartans 6-4 and 5-2 in Grand Forks to remain tied for first with Minneosta, both with 7-3 records.Troy Murray had two goals and one assist in the opener while goalie Darren Jensen sparkled with 25 saves the second night.Minnesota kept the pressure on by knocking Denver out of the lead in Minneapolis. Goalie Paul Ostby, making his first college league start, stymied Denver in the opener with 39 saves as Minnesota won 4-1. Then Jim Jetland recorded a 41-save shutout as Minnesota won 7-0 to complete the sweep. Aaron Broten and Kevin Hartzell each had two goals for Minnesota.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02356/4728204-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="559" height="745"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cary Eades of North Dakota feels the WCHA isn&rsquo;t as good as it used to be because the scouts have been signing talented players for the pros.</figcaption></div>Michigan Tech (4-2) stayed in the race by sweeping on the road, beating Notre Dame 3-2 in overtime, then 5-4, in South Bend, Ind.Wisconsin split at Michigan, winning 5-3, then losing 3-1 Duluth swept Providence and Colorado College swept the Air Force in non-conference Play. &#9632;

f0030-01

WCHA Breeding Prospects For NHL

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>BOWLING GREEN-Junior co-captain George McPhee earned Player of the Week honors as he scored three goals and added three assists to lead Bowling Green to a 6-5, 5-2 sweep of Western Michigan in Central Collegiate Hockey Association play.In other CCHA action, defending champ Northern Michigan opened its conference schedule with a 5-4, 5-3 sweep of Miami University and in a non-league contest Ohio State blanked Guelph, 7-0. Ferris State and Lake Superior had the weekend off.Bowling Green (5-6) kept its CCHA record perfect at 3-0 by snapping a five-game losing streak with a late rally in the opener.Western Michigan (4-6) dropped to 2-2 in CCHA play.Ross Fitzpatrick gave the visiting Broncos a 1-0 lead on a power play goal at 1:51 of the first period, but McPhee tied the game, assisted by Tim Hack, with a shorthanded goal at 18:54 of the first period.After WMU regained the lead on Jim Olson&rsquo;s goal at 7:12 of the middle period of the first game, BC&gt; tallied a pair of power play goals by McPhee and Ron Megan to take a 3-2 lead after two periods.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03246/4728249-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="550" height="688"><figcaption class="caption-body">A shorthanded goal by Eric Pon-ath sparked NMU to a pair of victories.</figcaption></div>Brian Hills scored, assisted by McPhee, at 4:39 of the third period, but a patented WMU blitz accounted for three goals in just over four minutes with Bob Scurfield (10:38), Fitzpatrick (14:25) and Scurfield (14:51) giving the Broncos a 5-4 lead.Perry Braun tied the game for BG at 16:17 and Nick Bandescue scored the winner at 19:36.batting a Pete Sikorski rebound behind WMU&rsquo;s Jim Doyle.The second game was 1-1 after one period with Mike Pikul and WMU&rsquo;s Rob Reid exchanging goals.The Falcons broke the game open in-the second period on goals by McPhee, Hack and Megan. Scurfield had the lone WMU tally.Braun finished off the scoring in the contest with a power play goal at 13:23.Senior Wally Charko collected both wins in goal for BG and was the first star in the second game as he came up with 33.saves. McPhee, who has been named CCHA Player of the Week twice in five weeks, was first star in the opener and second star in the second game.Rick Comley&rsquo;s Northern Michigan Wildcats took on the pesky Miami Redskins, coached by Steve Cady, and came away with a sweep, but it wasn&rsquo;t easy. Miami will challenge for the league title for the first time next season, but the Redskins play games on the road that count for CCHA opponents. Miami is 0-6-1 in the games that count so far, but five of the seven have been decided by two goals or less.NMU grabbed a 1-0 lead after one period of the opener in Lakeview Arena and pushed the margin to 4-1 after two periods before holding on for a 5-4 win.Bruce Martin collected two goals in the early going with Jeff Pyle and Walt Kyle helping to build the lead with David Robinson scoring the Miami goal in the second period.Vern Sketchley started the Redskin rally at 0:48 of the third period and Steve Morris cut the NMU lead to 4-3 at 2:59 of the final frame.NMU soph Eric Ponath scored the winning goal with a short-handed tally at 11:11.Miami netminder Dan Kodatsky had another exceptional game, making 54 saves, while Randy Eliason made 17 saves for NMU.In the second game Pyle scored the lone first period goal to give NMU a 1-0 lead.The second period featured three power play goals as NMU moved the lead to 3-0 on goals bv Steven Bozek and Kyle and Miami freshman Scott Bye scored his first career goal at the 19:10 period to put the Redskins on the scoreboard.NMU&rsquo;s Jeff Tascoff added a fourth power play goal at 4:28 of the third period, but Robinson scored goals at 4:44 and 19:22 to set the stage for Dave Ikkala&rsquo;s clinching empty net goal at 19:50 assisted by Pyle.Alain Chevier made 36 saves in goal for Miami, while Jeff Pocschl had 20 saves for the Wildcats.Ohio State freshman Andy Browne made his collegiate debut with a splash scoring four goals to pace the Buckeyes over Guelph.Following a scoreless first period Browne netted his first goal at 4:38 of the second period and just 15 seconds later Mark Freeman made it 2-0.Browne scored his second goal 19 seconds later on another power play at 5:12. Larry Marson assisted on all three goals, scored in just a 34-second span, and Freeman assisted on both of Browne&rsquo;s goals.Less than five minutes after his first goal, Browne completed his first hat trick at 9:25 of the second period and the score was 4-0.Browne opened the third period with a bang with his fourth goal of the game after just 10 seconds of play.Marson scored at 2:56 and Paul Pooley closed out the scoring at 16:04.<h2>College Hockey Tournaments</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04165/4728242-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="1736" height="1124"></div> &#9632;

f0030-03

Bowling Green, NMU Sweep Conference Rivals

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BROPHY</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2>KINGSTON&mdash;The son scores the winning goal and celebrates with his teammates. The father immediately pounds his fist into his other hand and stalks off in anger.An unlikely scene in a happy family?Not really, when the son is Dave Morrison, captain of the Peterborough iPetes, and the father is former National Hockey League star Jim Morrison, coach of the Kingston Canadians.For Dave Morrison, Friday, November 14 will be a night that stands out in his mind forever. The Peterborough Petes, who had been struggling and only the night before, had snapped a seven-game winless streak with a 7-6 overtime win against the Kitchener Rangers, were playing the defensive specialist Canadians in Kingston.For young Morrison, it was a home-coming of sorts. For some reason, his previous ventures home to Kingston with the Petes had never amounted to much. He never played poorly in Kingston, but he was never outstanding either. This night was to be different.The Petes took a 2-1 lead in the first period with Morrison connecting once. At the end of the second period, the score was knotted at 4-4. Morrison counted his second of the night in the middle period.I The Petes took a 6-5 lead in the final period but Kingston, just like Kitchener the night before, scored in the final minute to force overtime.After nine minutes of nervous play in overtime, Morrison intercepted a Canadians&rsquo; pass fed center Tom Fergus and then, taking the return pass, slid the puck past Canadians&rsquo; goalie Mike Moffat for the winner, his third goal of the night.&ldquo;What can I say, it was a helluva play,&rdquo; said the older Morrison in his Canadians&rsquo; office following his son&rsquo;s spectacular effort.Watching his son score the winning goal, which meant Kingston&rsquo;s first loss at home for the season, made the older Morrison realize just what an unlikely situation is produced whenever Kingston and Peterborough meet. As a father, he wants to see his son do well. As a coach, he&rsquo;d rather Dave did well against someone else.&ldquo;I certainly don&rsquo;t key on Dave during the game because there are other things I have to watch,&rdquo; said Jim. &ldquo;When he has the puck, naturally I watch him.&ldquo;I think Dave has really improved offensively this year. He&rsquo;s always had a knack with the puck but the past three years, he&rsquo;s never been able to get the handle on scoring goals. It looks like he has it this year.&rdquo;Approval from his father, who has been such a great influence in his life, is very important to Dave. The overtime goal that was the back-breaker for Kingston was one of the proudest moments in his life.&ldquo;It was very exciting and very satisfying,&rdquo; said Dave. &ldquo;The fact is, going into a game with Kingston I&rsquo;m always thinking that my dad is going to be there and 1 know he&rsquo;s watching me. When I get on the ice, 1 don&rsquo;t really think about it. I&rsquo;m playing for the Peterborough Petes and all I want is for us to win.&ldquo;To me, my dad is the greatest guy in the world; he&rsquo;s been my idol since I was young. We communicate well and when I was old enough to be drafted, we talked a lot about where it would be nice to go to. We decided there would be too much pressure, not on me but on him, if I were to play in Kingston. I was glad to go to Peterborough.&rdquo;While it makes him proud to produce well in front of his hometown fans and father, Dave is even happier at having both of. their names engraved on the Robertson Cup. Jim was a member of the 1951 Barrie Flyers, who won the Ontario junior crown while Dave played with the 1979 Petes when they won it.Who does Mrs. Morrison root for when Peterborough plays Kingston?&ldquo;Quite frankly, she roots for Kingston,&rdquo; said Dave. &ldquo;She always hopes that I score three goals but the Canadians score four.&rdquo;Thus far, when she does her cheering in Kingston, she&rsquo;s had good success because the Canadians are the toughest team to beat at home, with a 6-1-1 record. Defenseman Neil Belland has been the Canadians&rsquo; outstanding player this season and has a good shot at winning best defenseman in the league if he continues his spirited play.OTTAWA: The 67&rsquo;s have been sputtering a bit of late but did manage a 5-1 win over London. Fraser Wood was on the injured list and may have to underdo surgery.on his shoulder. In his first game back from a knee injury, center Doug Smith scored twice.NIAGARA FALLS: The Flyers blew a 4-3 lead and lost 6-3 to the Toronto Marlboros. Kevin McClelland has been producing well for the Flyers along with the usuals Steve Larmer and Steve Ludzik.WINDSOR: Rookie Claude Loiselle had a big night with two goals and three assists in a 6-5 loss in Peterborough. First year coach Ron Harris has the Spitfires playing a more disciplined brand of hockey than they did under firey Wayne Maxner.TORONTO: Recent HOCKEY NEWS Player of the Week Fred Per-lini scored two goals to help the Mar-lies beat Niagara Falls. Sophomore Greg Gilbert also scored twice that game.LONDON: Somewhat of a mystery team this season, the Knights seem to play well in spurts. Veteran Bob Goodish has been playing well after a slow start and captain Dave Simpson is inching his way up among the scoring leaders.BRANTFORD: The Alexanders&rsquo; losing record doesn&rsquo;t, have the fans flocking to the Arena but now Brantford viewers will have a chance to win $60,000 worth of gold at the games. All they have to do is shoot a puck from the far blueline into a small (very small) hole in a board at the other end.KITCHENER: Coach Orval Tessier was so mad following a 7-6 overtime loss in Peterborough that he refused to talk to the press following the game. The newcomer to Kitchener is obviously feeling pressure in a city that has a habit of firing losing coaches in a hurry.SAULT STE. MARIE: At this writ ing, the Greyhounds were enjoying a 12-game undefeated streak. John Goodwin and Tim Zwijack had two goals each in a 10-6 win over the Oshawa Generals.OSHAWA:Dan Revell, Paul Edwards, Dave Andreychuk, Mitch Lamoureux, Barry Tabobondung and Norm Schmidt scored singles in a 10-6 loss to the Greyhounds.PETERBOROUGH: The Petes put together their longest win streak of the season with victories over Kitchener, Kingston and Windsor. Rookie Ken Strong scored twice against the Spitfires.SUDBURY: The Wolves finally won a game when they edged Brantford 4-3. The struggle continues.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01436/4728287-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="559" height="547"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Morrison showed he&rsquo;s improved his scoring touch with three goals, which sank his father s team.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02307/4728280-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="574" height="619"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kingston&rsquo;s Ned Belland is considered one of the top contenders as the OMJHL&rsquo;s best defenseman this season.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Morrison’s Enjoying Family Rivalry In OMJHL

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04172/4728318-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="506" height="1002"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM WIEMER Peterborough Petes</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03231/4728325-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="127" height="118"></div>The Peterborough Petes have been slow getting off the mark this season in the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League race but they have been encouraged by the performance of underage NHL draft Jim Wiemer since his return from the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; training camp.The Petes have managed to put together their hottest streak of the 1980-81 season going four straight games without a loss and the key to their upsurge has been the play of the 6&rsquo;4&rdquo;, 194-pound Wiemer, who patrols left wing for the Petes.Wiemer collected three goals and eight assists during the four-game Peterborough streak and has begun to show the form that made him the 83rd pick by the Sabres in the 1980 entry draft. In the Petes&rsquo; 4-3 win over Toronto, he had three scoring points to raise his season&rsquo;s total to 12 goals and 19 assists for 31 points in just 22 league games.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>The 19-year-old Wiemer is an enterprising young man. Not only does he have his sights set on the NHL with the Sabres, but he is also attending his first year of college. &#9632;

f0031-04

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2>REGINA&mdash;Not too many people were all that surprised when the defending champion Regina Pats started the 1980-81 Western Hockey League season by losing four of their first seven games.After all, this club had lost&mdash;through graduation and the National Hockey League draft&mdash;the likes of Doug Wickenheiser, Mike Blaisdell, Ron Flockhart and Darren Veitch. Last season, those four accounted for the incredible total of 243 goals.The highest-scoring veteran returning to the Pats was left winger Brian Varga, who has since been moved to center, and he had totalled 118 points, including 39 goals. After Varga, though, there was quite a drop off, to Bill Ansell, with 62 points.As well, the Pats headed into this. season with a new coach. Jack Sang-ster, who was moving up from the Alberta Junior League.Regina&rsquo;s slow start, then, was not all that unpredictable. But what happened after the Pats dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Wranglers in Calgary on Oct. 12 was amazing.The Pats promptly went on a 10-game winning streak, highlighted by a two-game sweep of a home-and-home series with the Medicine Hat Tigers that ended with the clubs tied for the Eastern Division lead.It was, quite simply, the biggest series thus far in this WHL season. The biggest winners, though, may have been the fans, who saw some exciting and well-played hockey.There were 4,199 fans in the Regina Agridome on Friday, Nov. 7 and they went home happy as the Pats came up with a 7-4 victory over Medicine Hat extending their winning streak to nine games.The next night, with 3,963 fans on hand in the Medicine Hat Arena Convention Center, the Pats extended their streak to 10 games, edging the Tigers 6-5. The setback was the Tigers&rsquo; first on home ice in eight outings this season.Jock Callander, who scored just nine goals last season, was the hero in the series&rsquo; opener. He banged in three goals, giving him 16 this campaign, and also earned an assist.In the finale, the Regina line of Varga between Ansell and Dave Michayluk, proved too much for the Tigers. Ansell netted three goals and added an assist, while Michayluk had a goal and two helpers and Varga, for the second game in a row, set up three scores.Varga&rsquo;s six assists increased his points total to 45, including a leagueleading 25 helpers. That gave him a two-point lead over Medicine Hat center Steve Tsujiura.The Pats&rsquo; winning streak was subsequently halted at 10 when they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Broncos in Lethbridge and two nights later&mdash;after two Medicine Hat victories&mdash;the Pats were again four points out of the lead.BILLINGS: Goal tender Randy Jaycock kicked out 28 shots as the Bighorns dumped the Blades 3-0 in Saskatoon. Former Blade Marc Chartier led the way offensively with two goals and an assist. Two nights later, again in Saskatoon, Jeff Zilkie scored three times and added two assists and James McGeough banged in three goals as the Bighorns waltzed to an 8-1 win over the Blades.CALGARY: Don Keller&rsquo;s three-goal performance lifted the visiting Wranglers to a 5-2 victory over the Spokane Flyers. Bruno Baseotto&rsquo;s unassisted goal at 1:10 of overtime gave the Wranglers a 7-6 home ice win over Lethbridge Broncos.LETHBRIDGE: The Broncos scored four goals in one minute and 43 seconds in the first period as they posted a 4-2 win over the visiting Pats. Kim Bosch sparked the home club with a goal and three helpers and rookie Rick Gal picked up his first two WHL goals.MEDICINE HAT: The Tigers moved back into sole possession of first spot in the Eastern Division, two points up on Regina, with a 7-5 victory over the Blades in Saskatoon. Mike Winther led the way with two goals and an assist. The Blades returned the visit and were blasted 15-3 in Medicine Hat. Ken Sol-heim had three goals, giving him a league-leading 28, while Winther added three more. Rod Buskas was the offensive star, though, with a pair of goals and five assists. And Steve Tsujiura moved back into sole possession of the scoring lead. He had a goal and four assists, giving him 50 points, including 29 assists.SASKATOON: When the Blades lost 3-0 to Billings in Saskatoon it marked the third consecutive Friday night that Saskatoon had been blanked on home ice. Mike Spencer, a 17-year-old left winger acquired from Portland Winter Hawks, made his debut with the Blades and banged in two goals in a 7-5 loss to Medicine Hat.WINNIPEG: The Warriors won their first-ever road game, in their fourth try, edging the Broncos 3-2 in Lethbridge. Doug Hall, Perry Soper and Geoff Wilson scored Winnipeg&rsquo;s goals. Then, Winnipeg vacated the Eastern Division cellar, moving past Saskatoon with a 7-4 win over the Bruins in New Westminster. The Warriors, who got two goals from Soper, scored four unanswered third-period goals to win that one.NEW WESTMINSTER: The Bruins ended a five-game losing streak by dumping the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings 8-5. John Neeld led the way with four goals and a pair of assists and Randy Wickware set up five goals.PORTLAND: The Winter Hawks picked up 19-year-old center Lome Bokshowan from Saskatoon in return for Mike Spencer, a 17-year-old left winger. Bokshowan, Saskatoon&rsquo;s captain pricr the club&rsquo;s major shakeup when six players were dropped, joined Portland with three goals and 13 assists. Then, in his first game with the Hawks, he scored once and set up two others as Portland erased a 3-0 first-period deficit and went on to beat the Spokane Flyers 7-5 before 4,207 fans in Portland. Norm Flynn&rsquo;s second and third goals of the season helped the Winter Hawks to a 5-4 win over Brandon. That win lifted the Hawks into first place in the Western Division, two points ahead of the Victoria Cougars.SEATTLE: Joe Ward&rsquo;s second three-goal effort of the season, in only his second game, provided the Breakers with a 5-1 win over the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings. Ward scored three times and added four assists in his only previous game, but suffered a broken hand late in that contest and will be sidelined for a month. Then, Randy Taylor counted twice as the Breakers won their third game in a row, 6-4 over the visiting Spokane Flyers.SPOKANE: The Flyers continue to struggle, with just two wins in 18 outings. But they do have a contender for Rookie of the Year honors in Mark Sochatsky. With eight goals and 18 assists, Sochatsky has been in the league&rsquo;s top 15 scorers all season.VICTORIA: Bud McCarthy, who scored 15 goals in 1979-80, upped his season&rsquo;s total to 13 in 14 games by scoring four times as the Cougars routed the visiting Brandon Wheat&rsquo; Kings 14-5. It marked the sixth time in 14 outings that the Cougars reached double figures. Brad Palmer, a first-round draft pick of the National League&rsquo;s Minnesota North Stars, scored his first goal in a 7-2 win over the visiting Winnipeg Warriors. Up to that point, Palmer had picked up 20 assists.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01451/4728363-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="547" height="802"><figcaption class="caption-body">Returning Pats&rsquo; vet Bill Ansell notched three goals to end Medicine Hat&rsquo;s home unbeaten streak.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02326/4728356-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="547" height="792"><figcaption class="caption-body">A four-goal game by Victoria&rsquo;s Bud McCarthy boosted his average to nearly a goal-a-game pace.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

Regina Showing Unexpected Strength As Pats Fight Tigers For Top Spot

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2><h2>LOUISVILLE HOCKEY STICKS</h2>SHERBROOKE&mdash;On Thursday, Nov. 13, Ghislain Delage, coach and cogeneral manager of the Sherbrooke Beavers, made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the team.Later that same day, he was fired.Talk about gratitude.It was one of the most bizarre and macabre scenarios ever to unfold in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.It started three days earlier when reports began circulating that the Beavers were in deep financial trouble. One rumor had the team shifting to Rimouski, about 90 miles northeast of Quebec City. Another had the franchise disbanding altogether.Georges Guilbault,&rsquo;Beavers&rsquo; secretary-treasurer, co-general manager and one of the team&rsquo;s six shareholders, ended speculation the following day when he stated:&ldquo;The situation is not rosy. But as a director of the team I can state that we [the shareholders] have it in our mihds to continue in Sherbrooke this season. We will either find some new money or new people.&rdquo;Guilbault said the Beavers had lost nearly $25,000 to that point and could be as much as $72,000 in the red by season&rsquo;s end. With an operating budget of approximately $300,000 for the 1980-81 season, Guilbault said an average of 2,500 spectators would have to attend each of the 36 regular season home games to make the franchise viable. After 12 games, the average was hovering at the 1,500 mark.It was there that Delage entered the picture.It was learned that the 37-year-old coach was making an llth-hour bid to form a group between 10 and 15 persons to raise the asking price of $150,000 to purchase the team. Guilbault gave Delage the Nov. 13 deadline to raise the necessary money.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been talking to my accountant trying to find a solution to keep the Beavers in Sherbrooke,&rdquo; Delage said Tuesday of that week. &ldquo;But doing it by Thursday will be tough. I&rsquo;m working on something, but that&rsquo;s rushing things.&rdquo;On Wednesday Guilbault and his five fellow shareholders&mdash;president Leon Beaudry, vice-president Leo Drolet; and directors Joe Guertin, Gilles Bureau and Bill Mauer&mdash;called an emergency meeting to draw up alternative plans of keeping the financially-strapped team afloat.However the shareholders adjourned their meeting upon the request of Delage who said he required more time to raise the money.&ldquo;Mr. Delage said that he needed until 5 p.m. Thursday at which time he would be ready to present his proposal,&rdquo; Guilbault explained Wednesday night at 11 p.m.Delage could not be reached for comment Wednesday.The following evening at about 8:30 came the shocking announcement that not only had Delage&rsquo;s bid to acquire the team been unanimously rejected by the shareholders, but that he was also being relieved of his duties to cut expenses.Delage, coach of the Beavers for eight years, was making $35,000 annually. There was no word how much his replacement, former Bishop&rsquo;s University coach Andre Boisvert, 31, would receive, but, undoubtedly, it will be considerably less.Once again Delage could not be reached for comment, either at the Sherbrooke Sports Palace or at home where his family was screening all incoming calls.&ldquo;The major factor,&rdquo; Guilbault explained Thursday, &ldquo;was that after looking at the items enclosed in our yearly budget, we knew we had to make cuts everywhere in our yearly budget, we knew we had to make cuts everywhere to make ends meet. With the crowds we&rsquo;re getting here, even with Ghislain as coach, there was no way we could pay his salary.&rdquo;Some of the players queried that Delage was released not only to cut expenses, but because of the team&rsquo;s plight. After losing to the Cornwall Royals in last year&rsquo;s league finals and having a high turnover of graduating players, the Beavers are struggling at 8-13-2.&ldquo;He was an excellent coach, but things were not working out so a change was made,&rdquo; said Sean McKenna, an underage selection by the Buffalo Sabres. &ldquo;I know he was making a lot of money, but I&rsquo;m sure if the team was playing well he wouldn&rsquo;t have been let go.&ldquo;We were all surprised by the move. He was there at (Thursday&rsquo;s) practice and we had a normal session. Then at 10 that night we got the news that he had been fired and Boisvert was taking over.&rdquo;Boisvert is not totaly unfamiliar to the Beavers. He&rsquo;s assisted Delage in running the team&rsquo;s training camp the last three years and owns a disco in Sherbrooke many of the players frequent on occasion.&ldquo;I think Delage was let go for both [expenses and the team&rsquo;s record],&rdquo; said Dennis Martin. &ldquo;I was very surprised by the outcome. It was the last thing I thought would happen.&ldquo;I suppose its for the better, but I don&rsquo;t know how it will be on the ice.&rdquo;Guilbault denied making the change because of the Beavers&rsquo; record, only because of the team&rsquo;s financial plight. He said expenses would be cut throughout management level and some official personnel would be released. Guilbault said the small salary he receives as GM would cease being paid.Guilbault would only say Delage&rsquo;s offer to buy the Beavers was short of the asking price, but would not elaborate.&ldquo;Ghislain is a bright fellow and he took the news [of his release] the way any individual would,&rdquo; Guilbault said. &ldquo;Of course he was not pleased, but he understands the situation.&rdquo;To further shave expenses, Guilbault said the team has stopped staying in hotels on road trips to Chicoutimi and Quebec City and has halted the procedure of team meals on the road. Now the players dine at home before climbing on the team bus.Guilbault said the City of Sherbrooke is doing its share, too.In previous years, Guilbault explained, the city has taken a high rental percentage of the gate, as much as $200,000 over a season. But Guilbault said the Beavers are paying only $500 rent for each game for a total of $18,000 this season. &#9632;

Beavers Chop Delage In Move To Stay Afloat

BOSTON&mdash;Miller 3, Cashman, 6, Foster 5, 6, 7, Middleton 7, Kasper 8, 9, Park 6, McNab 6, Jonathan 3.BUFFALO-Ramsay 5, Smith 3, 4, Van Boxmeer 6, Gare 14, McKegney 11, 12, Perreault 6, Luce 4.CALGARY-Plett 10, Vail 8, Chouinard 13, Marsh 1, Nilsson 10.CHICAGO-Savard 9,10,11, Bulley 4, 5, 6, Kerr 6, 7, 8, Murray 3, Sedlbauer 4, 5, 6, 7, Higgins 4, Mulvey 11,12, Lysiak 5, Sutter 8, 9, Wilson 2, Brown 3.COLORADO-B. Smith 1, Delorme 5, Gagne 10, Quenneville 3.DETROIT-Thompson 9, Hicks 1, Lyle 8, Davis 1, Woods 2, Ogrodnlck 11.EDMONTON-Huddy 2, Murdoch 2, Lumley 3, MacDonald 5, 6, Weir 3, Price 3, Silt-anen 2, Anderson 7, Kurrl 5.HARTFORD&mdash;Stoughton 6, 7, Boutette 6, Mark Howe 6, Rogers 7, 8, Nachbaur 2.LOS ANGELES-M. Murphy 2, Wells 1, Dionne 16, 17, Jensen 3, Simmer 19, 20, 21, Harris 6, Korab 4, Taylor 9,10.MINNESOTA-Barrett 3, Sharpley 8, 9, MacAdam 6, Christoff 1, G. Smith 1, McCarthy 9.MONTREAL-Gingras 2, Wickenheiser 3, 4, Acton 5, 6, Houle 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Gainey 6,7, 8, Tremblay 8, Shutt 13,14, Nilan 1,2.ISLANDERS-Morrow&rsquo;1, Tonelll 2, 3, 4, Bossy 20, 21, 22, 23, Bourne 6, 7, Nystrom 5, Gillies 8, 9, Trottier 7, Kallur 8, 9,10, Tambel-lini 5, Goring 9, Persson 1.RANGERS-Greschner 7, 8, Silk 4, Esposito 3, 4, Gillis 3, Dave Maloney 2, Nethery 3.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Propp 7, Gorence 5, 6, Wilson 5, 6, 7, Barber 18, MacLeish 13, Leach 9, Dailey 2, 3, Clarke 4.PITTSBURGH-Kehoe 12, 13, Carlyle 1, Hughes 3, Lonsberry 6, 7.QUEBEC-Tardif 5, 6, Hislop 11, Richard 15, 16, 17, A. Stastny 9, Goulet 5, 6, Leduc 2, P. Stastny 7.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Sutter 8, LaPointe 3, Monahan2, Zuke 5, Chapman 5, Currie 5, 6, 7.TORONTO-Turnbull 2, Derlago 8, Vaive 7, 8, 9, Boschman 9, 10, Hickey 7, Hotham 1, Maloney 6, Paiement 11.VANCOUVER-Boldlrev 9, 10. Rota 4, 5, Williams 9,10,11, Smyl 9, Fraser 10, Marois 2,3, Schmautz 9, 10, Braser 6, McCarthy 8.WASHINGTON-Walter 7, 8, Vletch 1, Gartner 11,12, Gustafsson 6, Kelly 4, Jarvis 2.WINNIPEG-Long 1, 2, Manery 4, Geof-frion 7, 8, Lukowich 3.Hat tricks: Sedlbauer, Chicago, Bossy, Islanders, and Currie, St. Louis. &#9632;

NHL’S SCORERS THIS WEEK

f0034-01

HOCKEY NEWS STATISTICS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01438/4728494-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><h2>ESPII</h2><h2>NHL, COLLEGES ON U.S. TV</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02347/4728487-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="583" height="760"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

Starting Rosters For NHL Teams

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01418/4728546-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02313/4728539-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="600" height="728"></div><h2>Who They&rsquo;re Affiliated With&hellip;</h2>1&mdash;Montreal2&mdash;Chicago3&mdash;Boston4&mdash;Rangers5&mdash;Detroit6&mdash;Toronto7&mdash;Philadelphia8&mdash;Los Angeles9&mdash;St Louis10&mdash;Minnesota11&mdash;Pittsburgh12&mdash;Islanders13&mdash;Vancouver14&mdash;Buffalo15&mdash;Calgary16&mdash;Washington17&mdash;Colorado18&mdash;Edmonton19&mdash;Hartford20&mdash;Quebec21&mdash;WinnipegOTHER AFFILIATIONS22&mdash;Chicago&mdash;Toronto23&mdash;Pittsburgh&mdash;Hartford24&mdash;Boston & independent25&mdash;Minnesota&mdash;Rangers&mdash;Philadelphia26&mdash;Chicago&mdash;Montreal27&mdash;Winnipeg&mdash;Vancouver&mdash;Islanders28&mdash;Edmonton&mdash;Toronto&mdash;Quebec29&mdash;Colorado&mdash;Calgary30&mdash;Buffalo&mdash;Washington&mdash;St. Louis31&mdash;Los Angeles&mdash;Boston&mdash;Hartford32&mdash;Quebec&mdash;Buffalo33&mdash;Winnipeg&mdash;Rangers34&mdash;Boston&mdash;Detroit35&mdash;Hartford&mdash;Detroit37&mdash;Toronto&mdash;St. Louis<h2>AMATEUR SCOREBOARD</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03241/4728532-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="1820" height="1996"></div><h2>PRO GAMES TO COME</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04168/4728525-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="589" height="3600"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

MINOR SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">BY PAT THOMPSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01428/4728577-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fred Barrett was selected Minnesota&rsquo;s outstanding defenseman for the fourth time because of. his attitude and durability.</figcaption></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Freddie Barrett, even at the ripe age of 30, is getting to be known as &ldquo;Old Folks&rdquo; on the Minnesota North Stars.When the 1980-81 season concludes, Barrett will become a 10-year man in the National Hockey League&mdash;all with the North Stars.As ranking veteran, Barrett has made a 360-degree cycle with the Stars, from their early rise to playoff respectability in the early 1970s through some very lean years when the team scored as few as 42 points to the current crop of youthful performers who are considered a Stanley Cup contender.Barrett has overcome numerous injuries to help give the Stars a stability that has seen them storm through the first quarter of their schedule with one of the best records in the league.He&rsquo;s overcome a fractured femur, fractured ankle, broken ankle and heavy calcium deposits in a leg from a deep bruise during his career to come back for more. And he&rsquo;s shqwn up at training camp every season, having to prove himself over again.After the Stars and Cleveland franchises were merged, Barrett wasn&rsquo;t even listed on the Minnesota roster. But when the season started, there he was on defense again.Last spring, he suffered a broken bone in a hand in the semifinals of the Stanley Cup against Philadelphia and was thought lost for the remainder of the series. Yet, he came back to play.Most appreciative of his talents, however, has been Minnesota coach Glen Sonmor, who says: &ldquo;Freddie plays defense the way it should be played. He takes someone out every shift and when he takes them out, they feel it.&rdquo;It is not surprising that Barrett was voted the team&rsquo;s outstanding defenseman last season for the fourth time because of that attitude and durability with the club.Barrett, a second-round Minnesota pick from the Toronto Marlboros in the 1970 draft, probably appreciates the current success of the Minnesota team more than anyone.&ldquo;You learn something from all experiences,&rdquo; Barrett says. &ldquo;It makes you appreciate getting back to the success we&rsquo;re having now. Those lean years were times you really had tc believe in yourself.&ldquo;In the years we were so bad, I had to go home and convince myself I&rsquo;d tried as hard as I could. In some ways, that may sound selfish, but that enabled me to keep my sanity.&rdquo;The merger, top drafts, signing of free agents Gary Sargent and Mike Polich and a couple of trades have turned things around in Minnesota. Barrett is one of the few survivors from the non-playoff years.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easier now to play defense than it has been with the North Stars for some time,&rdquo; Barrett says. &ldquo;We have seven good defensemen. When I first broke in, we played only four. A lot of the games now, we play six. I&rsquo;m almost as fresh near the end of the game as before. The forwards, too, have helped make things easier on our defensemen. They realize they are as big a part of the defense as we are and vice versa on offense.&rdquo;Since their stunning upset of the Canadiens last spring in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals, the Stars have carried something over to this season. It appears they have finally learned to win on the road. They almost never won on the road during most of Barrett&rsquo;s career in Minnesota.But now, the Stars have been well above.500 in that department, including a 6-6 tie against the defending Cup champion New York Islanders after the Isles had built up a 5-1 lead.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not enough to barnstorm at home,&rdquo; Barrett says. &ldquo;You have to have a club capable of showing teams that we&rsquo;re capable of being a real threat regardless of where or whom we play.&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to lose a game now, it&rsquo;s only going to be by a goal or two. As you get older, your pride takes over and you really hate getting blown out. I think pride helped us when we were down 5-1 against the Islanders. We came back and grabbed the lead by playing sound hockey. We had to settle for a tie, but at least we got in position to win the game.&rdquo;The Stars apparently used that attitude in breaking a 19-game winless streak on Chicago ice with a 7-1 victory over the Black Hawks with rookie Don Beaupre in goal. It was their first victory there since 1972.Barrett especially appreciated that one. Old Folks was the only Minnesota player who could remember the last victory there. &#9632;

f0038-01

“Old Folks” Still Show Stars Plenty Of Zip

<div class="byline">BY ARNOLD IRISH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01403/4728608-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">St. Louis&rsquo; ability to move the puck out of their own end has been hampered by the loss of defenseman Joe Micheletti, above, one of the team&rsquo;s most effective rushers.</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;If, at season&rsquo;s end, the fast-starting St. Louis Blues are among the eight NHL teams with the home advantage in the Stanley Cup playoffs, they&rsquo;ll be able to look back and say the key to their success was backing and filling in the absence of two injured defensemen. Bryan Maxwell and Joe Micheletti.Now. nobody suggests the Blues&rsquo; version of M & M is comparable to the original M & M&mdash;New York Yankee home run sluggers Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, who took baseball by storm in 1961&mdash;but the two backliners fere important figures in St. Louis&rsquo; Scheme nevertheless.Maxwell, a 6-3, 210-pound force (112 penalty minutes last season) who had vastly improved his speed and maneuverability by attending a power-skating school in the off-season, was lost for two months Nov. 2 when he suffered a broken leg in Chicago.A week earlier, the Blues had finally given up on offensive defenseman Bob Hess and sent him shuffling off to Buffalo in exchange for a backliner they promptly assigned to Salt Lake City (Central Hockey League) for seasoning.That player. Bill Stewart, got two games&rsquo; worth of seasoning before the Blues frantically recalled him as a replacement for the fallen Maxwell.Stewart, who at 23 fits the Blues&rsquo; youth movement, made an auspicious debut in a 6-1 victory over Hartford, gaining loud cheers from the Checkerdome crowd with a pair of teeth-jarring checks on Dave Debol in the corner.The newcomer also gave the Blues an anxious moment when, trying unsuccessfully to prevent Pat Boutette from scoring the Whalers&rsquo; lone goal, Stewart tumbled into the cage and decked Blues&rsquo; goalie Mike Liut.&ldquo;It was scary,&rdquo; Stewart remembered. &ldquo;The trainer was working over him and I&rsquo;m standing there thinking, &lsquo;Oh, no. My first game and I flatten the league&rsquo;s winningest goalie.&rdquo;Curiously, in that same game Micheletti went on the shelf for two weeks with a pulled hamstring.Although not known as a defenseman who can move bodies out of the slot, Micheletti possesses rare traits for a backliner. He&rsquo;s a good skater and passer, which qualified him to move the puck out of his own zone at least and occasionally to engineer a rush up ice that leads to a Blues goal.St. Louis probably took Micheletti-for granted until a knee injury knocked him out of the team&rsquo;s last 19 games last season. The Blues&rsquo; inability to get the puck&rsquo;out of their own end, which Micheletti had been doing so well, was a key factor in their homestretch nosedive.To take Micheletti&rsquo;s spot on the roster, the Blues recalled defenseman Dick Lamby, who had 16 assists in 11 games with Salt Lake. The Boston University graduate was St. Louis&rsquo; seventh pick in the 1975 amateur draft. Then the Blues engineered a deal with Quebec acquiring veteran 32-year-old rearguard Gerry Hart, who had been marooned in Halifax in the American League. &#9632;

f0039-01

Blues’ Defense Depth Facing Stiff Challenge

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02280/4728639-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="562" height="1182"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Gardner is, at 24, proven scorer with over 100 NHL goals, who can help the Penguins&rsquo; offense</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;It hasn&rsquo;t been easy so far for Eddie Johnston this season, his first as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.Injuries have placed some of his best players in the press box rather than on the ice. In addition, the Penguins lack of player depth in their organization makes it difficult to fill the void created by the injuries.&ldquo;There are some guys here who are just going through the motions,&rdquo; Johnston admits. &ldquo;I know it, but I can&rsquo;t do anything about it because we don&rsquo;t have enough players. What can I threaten them with? They know they&rsquo;re going to play because we don&rsquo;t have anybody else.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have anybody I can sit out. There are three or four guys that I&rsquo;d like to sit down and then weed them out.&rdquo;The Penguins made a couple of moves when they sent left wing Paul Marshall and defenseman Bob Stewart to Binghamton of the American Hockey League. At the same time they recalled left wing Jim Hamilton and defenseman Bennett Wolf.Marshall, the Penguins top draft choice in the second round of the 1979 Amateur Draft, had scored three goals this season and was sent down for more ice time and to acquire a more aggressive attitude.Stewart was injured in training camp and had not played all season. Hamilton and Wolf also were injured in training camp and had spent two weeks in Binghamton getting into shape.Then the Penguins went a step further and sent Marshall, along with center Kim Davis, who was playing despite a broken jaw, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenseman and former Penguin, Dave Burrows and center Paul Gardner, who had been playing in the American League with the Springfield Indians.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad that I&rsquo;m going some place that I liked,&rdquo; said Burrows who spent seven years in Pittsburgh before going to Toronto in a trade for George Ferguson and Randy Carlyle, who are still with the Penguins. &ldquo;Right now, Pittsburgh needs defensive help. They have some gaps that Gardner and I can fill.&rdquo;Gardner. 24, scored 30 goals in three successive years with Colorado and the Leafs before he was dispatched to the minors last December when the Leafs began a major overhaul of their team. Although Gardner&rsquo;s not the swiftest skater, he&rsquo;s got a nose for the net and should help to alleviate some of the Pens&rsquo; pivot problems since Orest Kindrachuk, Gregg Sheppard and Greg Malone have been injured.&ldquo;We have to get an aggressive forward, someone who will stick his nose in front of the net,&rdquo; Johnston said prior to the trade. &ldquo;This is the same lineup they had here last year. They didn&rsquo;t hit then and they&rsquo;re not going to hit now.&rdquo;The possibility of further trades is apparent, but Johnston says that most teams have been trying to take advantage of the Penguins&rsquo; manpower deficiency by asking for either an untouchable player or a high draft choice.PENGUIN TRACKS: Penguin vice president and general counsel Paul Martha said negotiations for the take-over of the Civic Arena by club owner Edward J. DeBartolo from the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have improved. &ldquo;After negotiations bogged down for a long time, we have been encouraged by the support of the mayor [Richard Caliguri) and the county commissioners,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A transition and control of the arena may be possible by the first of the year.&rdquo;The Penguins ended nine-game winless streaks for the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals in consecutive games. Washington&rsquo;s victory was their first on the road this, season and the Bruins picked up their first road win at the Civic Arena three days later. Mark Johnson suffered a wrist injury that made him the fifth Penguin center to be hurt this season. He had scored five goals in five games before he was injured.After Greg Millen started nine consecutive games in goal, Rob Holland played in three straight. First round draft choice Mike Bullard scored his first NHL goal in his 12th game. In his first league game Wolf assisted on a goal and got into a fight with Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. Hamilton scored on his first shot of the season, a 60-foot slapshot that beat Wayne Stephenson &#9632;

f0039-02

Johnston Begins Penguins’ Shake-Up

<div class="byline">BY BILL LIBBY</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Good Time Charlie Simmer did not make the National Hockey League to stay until he was almost 25, but it is clear by now he is going to make a big mark before he leaves.After a fast start, the Kings stumbled, but Simmer continued to fire in goals and if he can stay healthy may have a shot at Phil Esposito&rsquo;s major league mark of 76 goals in 80 games.Simmer had 56 in 64 games last season and 17 in the first 16 games this season, giving him 73 in his last 80 games. He won&rsquo;t be 27 until season&rsquo;s end and he is just approaching his peak.The lethal left-winger had only 11 goals in his first 93 games in the majors, spanning three seasons with the Oakland-Cleveland franchise and its minor league affiliates and one &rsquo;with L.A. and its minor team.Brought up midway in the 1978-79 season, he scored 21 goals in 38 games and has been finding the net with incredible regularity ever since. Last season he set a modern NHL record by scoring at least one goal in 13 straight games.Simmer&rsquo;s forte is his size and strength. At 6-3, 200 pounds he is the largest of the super-scorers and when he takes a position near the net he is difficult to dislodge. His teammate. Marcel Dionne says, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the best I&rsquo;ve seen from 20 feet in.&rdquo;Simmer still skates like he has weights attached to his feet, but the low-key bachelor is the least moody, most determined and hardest working of the super-scorers. He just goes and goes.He would undoubtedly score with any linemates but he benefits from being part of the league&rsquo;s leading unit with incomparable playmaker Marcel Dionne at center and rugged digger Dave Taylor on the right side.These three scored 102 goals the first half of last season and would easily have surpassed the league record of 151 set by the Islanders&rsquo; Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Bossy in 1978-79 had not Simmer missed 16 games and Taylor 19 with injuries.As it was they fell only five short and led the league with 146 and they have been on a similar pace this season although Taylor already has been sidelined awhile with a sprained shoulder.The loss to injuries of Taylor and Mike Murphy, who were the workhorses of their lines, the guys who forechecked most fiercely and dug in the corners, has hurt terribly.Off flying at 10-1-1, the Kings lost three of their next four by such decisive scores to Montreal twice and Philadelphia once that people began to wonder if the club was really good enough to beat the top teams.The Kings set an all-time team-low with only 14 shots in Montreal, where they were shut out as Simmer&rsquo;s pointscoring streak ended at 13 games this season and 21 over two seasons. He did not even get off a shot.But Simmer scored in two of the three games and helped Dionne score three, his second hat trick of the season, in the last one.After going 187 NHL games, Simmer got his first three-goal game in the third game this season, then had a four-goal game in his 10th outing. All told the line had 38 goals after 16 games and it was safe to conclude that no matter what happens to the team, one thing&rsquo;s for sure: Good Time Charlie will keep on getting goals.KINGS THINGS&mdash;Former owner Jack Kent Cooke, now a Virginian, was married for the second time&mdash;in a ceremony performed by Judge John Sirica&mdash;to sculptress Jeanne Williams Wilson in Washington&hellip; Garry Unger got his 400th goal in the 14th game of this season, the 985th game of his 14-season NHL career&hellip; Whether the Kings had their fastest start ever depends on what you consider the start of a season. In an 80-game schedule, the first 10 are a good barometer, and the Kings were 8-1-1, topping the 6-1-3 of the 1974-75 team, but their 11-4-1 was bettered by the 10-1-5 and then 10-1-6 of that 1974-75 bunch.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03194/4728670-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="577" height="889"><figcaption class="caption-body">During the past three seasons, Charlie Simmer has been scoring at nearly a goal a game pace.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

December 5, 1980

Islanders’ Resch Back In Fine Form

PASSING THE PUCK

Chouinard’s Goal Scoring Touch Rekindled

College Scoreboard