The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

March 26, 1982

The Hockey News March 26, 1982

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>GRAND FORKS&mdash;A surprising reversal of regular season play has left Wisconsin, the regular season runnerup in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, as the winner of the league playoffs.Wisconsin thrashed North Dakota, the WCHA regular season champ, 12-1 in a two-game, total goal series in Grand Forks to win the post-season tourney and earn the top seed from the west in the NCAA Division I hockey tournament.Following post-season playoffs in the WCHA, Central Collegiate Hockey Association and the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, the quarterfinals in the national tournament have Harvard, No. 4 from the east, at Wisconsin, No. 1 from the west; Clarkson, No. 3 from the east, at North Dakota, No. 2 from the west; Michigan State, No. 3 from the west, vs. New Hampshire, No. 2 from the east and Bowling Green, No. 4 from the west, at Northeastern, No. 1 from the east. All will be played under the two-game, total goal series.Wisconsin, which had lost three of four regular season meetings to North Dakota, reversed tables on the Sioux in shocking fashion. Brian Mullen, a sophomore wing, had three goals and two assists as Wisconsin buried North Dakota 9-0 in the opener to put a lock on the total goal series.The Badgers broke from a 2-0 lead after one period with six second period goals, three of them coming in a span of 31 seconds. Ron Vincent added two goals for Wisconsin while Pat Ethier, Pat Flatley, Pete Johnson and Lexi Doner all added one each. Terry Kleisinger posted his third shutout of the season with a 31-save performance.The Badgers wrapped it up the next night with a 3-1 victory. Mullen continued his scoring heroics with two power play goals and John Newberry hit the open net with 16 seconds left for the clincher. Troy Murray had North Dakota&rsquo;s only goal of the series, which tied the game until Mullen untied it early in the third period.&ldquo;We got our butts kicked. Everything Wisconsin did was golden. We just got stormed,&rdquo; North Dakota coach Gino Gasparini said.Marc Behrend gave Wisconsin excellent goaltending in the second game with 29 saves. Darren Jensen, making just his third appearance in goal for North Dakota since before Christmas, played well for the Sioux with 28 stops. Jon Casey and Pierre Lamoureux split the goaltending duties in the opening waltz by the Badgers.Wisconsin had advanced to the playoff finals by surviving a scare from Minnesota in the second round. Minnesota beat Wisconsin 4-3 in the opener in Madison as Butsy Erickson got two goals, including the game-winner.But Wisconsin came back for a 6-2 triumph in the rematch to take the series 9-6 as Ted Pearson scored two goals for the Badgers. Wisconsin led 4-2 going into the last period, then got clinching goals from Pat Flatley and Pearson. Minnesota closed its season with a 22-12-2 record.North Dakota shook the rustiness from a 10-day layoff to skip by Denver 9-5 in a total goal series in Grand Forks, winning 4-3 and 5-2.David Tippett and Cary Eades each had two goals for North Dakota in the first game with Dan Dachyshyn scoring twice in the second game for North Dakota and Steve Palmiscno, Phil Sykes and Eades adding one each.Denver closed its season at 21-19-3 in losing six of eight meetings with North Dakota overall.Following the NCAA quarterfinals, the four winners advance to Providence for the semifinals and finals, to be held March 25-27. North Dakota will be making its third appearance in the nationals in the last four years, the most of any of the eight teams still in the running.Meanwhile, the WCHA got the short end of the stick in the western AllAmerica selections as picked by the coaches. Only Wisconsin defenseman Bruce Driver and forward John Newberry made All-America from the WCHA as the Central Collegiate Hockey Association dominated with four selections, including three from CCHA champion Bowling Green.Joining Driver and Newberry on the All-America team were defenseman Brian MacLellan, center Brian Hills and wing George McPhee of Bowling Green and goaltender Ron Scott of Michigan State.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01459/4544529-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="612" height="1048"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Ethier was one of the Wisconsin marksmen who decided their playoff series.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Wisconsin’s Total Reversal Of Form Gives Them Higher Seed Than Sioux

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011137/4543411-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">A little more than a year after he was sent to the minors by Boston, Al Secord was chosen to play in the NHL All Star game in Washington.</figcaption></div>In the boxing vernacular, they&rsquo;d call Al Secord, the hockey player, &ldquo;a bad dude.&rdquo;This doesn&rsquo;t mean either &ldquo;bad&rdquo;, as in below standard, or &ldquo;bad&rdquo;, in the sense of being evil and malicious.It simply means: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t try to tread on this guy or you&rsquo;ll be in deep trouble.&rdquo;And now, just turned 24 and in his fourth season in the National Hockey League, Al Secord has become really &ldquo;bad&rdquo;. Unexpectedly, the rough-and-tumble left wing of the Chicago Black Hawks has turned into a remarkable goal-scorer.No player in the NHL who plays an ultra-physical game, plays it the way Secord does.Along with 43 goals he had 267 penalty-minutes as this went to press.Only one Black Hawk ever has scored more goals in a single season. Bobby Hull had 43 or more eight times during his 14 years in Chicago.Secord is no threat to Hull&rsquo;s Chicago career high of 58 goals. But, figuratively speaking, he is withing striking distance of Keith Magnuson&rsquo;s Hawk record of 291 penalty minutes in a season which also was a NHL record until Dave Schultz came along like the bull in the china shop.To put into perspective the kind of season Secord is having, let&rsquo;s contrast his goal-scoring feats with those of the three NHL players who have spent more time in the penalty-box this season.At presstime, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Paul Baxter had been incarcerated for 341 minutes and had only eight goals, Penguin teammate Pat Price had done time for 304 minutes and had just six goals, and Philadelphia&rsquo;s Glen Cochrane had 288 penalty minutes and five goals.Now, let&rsquo;s check out the list of 12 players with 40 or more goals and see how much their scoring has been inhibited by their extracurricular activities on ice.Again, Secord is in a class by himself. Of the other members of the 40-goal club, Toronto&rsquo;s Rick Vaive (43 goals) is a distant second in penalty minutes with 129.&ldquo;I want to be thought of as a hockey player, not a fighter,&rdquo; says Secord, whose prior highs were 32 goals and 343 penalty-minutes for the St. Catharines Fincups when they were in the Ontario Hockey League in 1976-77.&ldquo;Fighting takes a lot out of you. It I didn&rsquo;t fight, I probably would have more goals. It&rsquo;s not just the time you spend in the penalty-box; it&rsquo;s also the physical abuse your body takes. But my game has to be physical.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t forget what got me here. You&rsquo;ve got to be realistic; you can&rsquo;t live in fantasyland.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never score as many goals as Wayne Gretzky. He&rsquo;s totally opposite of what I am. I go up and down the wing and work in front of the net and step into the holes and yell for passes.&ldquo;Gretzky usually has the puck; he&rsquo;s the guy they&rsquo;ve got to make sure has the puck.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have his gifts. I&rsquo;m not the type of guy it comes easily to.&rdquo;But Secord has a hearty appetite for hard work and harbors no qualms about wading in when the work gets dirty.He was considered a poor skater as a Junior so he enrolled in a power-skating course and applied himself diligently prior to making his NHL debut with Boston in the fall of 1978. He decided if he was going to fight, he&rsquo;d do it right, so he took boxing lessons.&ldquo;Boxing teaches you how to control your head, not to get excited, and not to do something stupid,&rdquo; says the well-built 6-1, 210-pounder, who adheres religiously to his personal workout schedule in the weight-room. &ldquo;It gave me discipline.&rdquo;Secord also engages in self-analysis.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s bad to talk to guys you go up against,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to like them. Then, you couldn&rsquo;t do what you have to do.&ldquo;Because I&rsquo;m single I have to watch myself. Earlier in the season I found I was tiring fast. 1 stopped and thought about it and discovered what was wrong; I&rsquo;d stopped eating properly. I&rsquo;d gotten lazy in preparing my meals and so I&rsquo;d skip a salad and vegetables. Three or four days after going back to the right way of eating I felt great again.&ldquo;Before this season began I decided to go game by game and just concentrate on forgetting about everything else and giving it everything I had for that particular game.&ldquo;In looking at it, I saw that in other years I&rsquo;d play several good games in a row and then there would be a lull and before I knew it I&rsquo;d be in a slump.&ldquo;But at the start of this season I&rsquo;d have considered it a really good year if I&rsquo;d have gotten 30 goals. I didn&rsquo;t envision this.&ldquo;I think what has meant the most personally was being selected to play in the All Star Game and going to Washington to meet the President. I never thought I&rsquo;d be there.&rdquo;Secord&rsquo;s self-esteem had taken a beating early in the 1980-81 season when the Bruins, who&rsquo;d made him their No. I choice (16th overall) in the 1978 amateur draft, shipped him out to Springfield of the American League.Then came the Dec. 18 trade in which he went to Chicago for Mike O&rsquo;Connell, a talented but underrated defenseman.&ldquo;Being traded bothered me for a long time,&rdquo; admits Secord. &ldquo;But the way my career started going after I came to Chicago has helped me a lot in forgetting.&ldquo;It happens to everybody; you just have to readjust.&ldquo;The main thing that has benefited me in Chicago is the confidence the people here had in me by giving me a regular job right from the start.&ldquo;Somebody can tell you about what you should do in a given situation, but until it&rsquo;s something involving you in a game it doesn&rsquo;t really stick.&rdquo;The confidence that Keith Magnuson (the Hawks&rsquo; coach until his resignation last month) had in Secord manifested itself at training camp last fall. Secord found himself on the No. 1 line with center Denis Savard and right wing Timmy Higgins.After scoring 13 goals (all for Chicago) in 59 games last season, Secord went on an early season tear, getting 20 in 20 games.His productivity subsequently has declined but he has remained one of the most consistent players on a team that is the epitome of inconsistency.During the second half of the season, Secord also has played musical lines, skating first on the line centered by Tom Lysiak and now with center Terry Ruskowski and right wing Grant Mulvey.&ldquo;Whichever line I&rsquo;ve had him with he seems to have gotten it going,&rdquo; says Bob Pulford, the Hawks&rsquo; general manager and now coach through the end of the season.&ldquo;I think regardless of who he plays with, he&rsquo;s now capable of getting 35-40 goals every season. He can skate, he has a good shot, he handles the puck well enough, and on defense he plays his position.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s also the added ingredient that he&rsquo;s so tough. Some people are going to give him a little room and other times he&rsquo;s going to go in there and make room for himself.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always going to get penalties because that&rsquo;s the way he plays.&rdquo;However, Secord admits that his appetite for combat wanes considerably when he meets the Bruins and he says that he&rsquo;d prefer to let the hockey puck get his message across during these close encounters with his old pals.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard,&rdquo; he confides. &ldquo;I still have a lot of good friends there. But I&rsquo;m proud of the way 1 played against them this year. In the first game [an 8-5 Boston victory] I had two assists, the next time I had the first goal and we came from behind and won [4-3] in Boston Garden; and then I got two goals and we won again [5-1 on March 7].&rdquo;After the most recent game, Boston coach Gerry Cheevers pondered the difference a year has made in the young man from Espanola, Ont.&ldquo;Al has turned into an opportunist,&rdquo; said Cheevers. &ldquo;He works very hard. It&rsquo;s rewarding to see a guy who has 40 goals who works as hard as he does.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy we got Mike O&rsquo;Connell because he has helped our team. But I&rsquo;m also happy for Al that things are working out the way they are. He has made himself into a fine hockey player.&rdquo;Secord plays ultra-rough but he takes no cheap-shots and this season he is making as much of an impact on the scoreboard as he does when he makes contact with an opponent along the boards in pursuit of the puck. &#9632;

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Chicago’s Secord A Heavyweight As Goal-Scorer

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Doug Soetaert was out shopping for a suit when word came down that he had been named the National Hockey League Player of the Week.Arriving home about an hour later, the phone rang. This writer broke the news.&ldquo;No kidding,&rdquo; said the 26-year-old goaltender. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to be picked, but really it was a good week team-wise.&rdquo;Soetaert became only the second member of the Winnipeg Jets to win the weekly award presented to the NHL player who has distinguished himself most in the previous seven days. He was the runnerup to Mike Bossy in THE HOCKEY NEWS balloting.&ldquo;Everybody played a part,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If anything, I thought Willy Lindstrom&rsquo;s five goals in Philly would have. made him a more logical choice.&rdquo;However, the runners-up were New York Islander linemates Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and John Tonelli.Soetaert&rsquo;s impressive week consisted of four wins that improved his season&rsquo;s record to 13-10-8.He faced 54 shots in a 7-6 win in Philadelphia, stopped 34 more the following night in Chicago in a 4-2 victory over the Black Hawks, came home to blank the Detroit Red Wings 2-0, then capped the week by beating the Van-couver Canucks 5-2.Soetaert was actually unbeaten in seven straight starts as the Jets vaulted from fourth place in their division (Norris) to second.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been waiting for one of our goaltenders to take the ball and run with it,&rdquo; said his coach, Tom Watt.Still, Watt refused to classify him as the team&rsquo;s No. 1 goaltender.Eddie Staniowski continues to rank as one of the Jet&rsquo;s starting netminders.Through most of the season, Watt has flipped his goaltenders regularly. He&rsquo;s played hunches, rotated them and matched them against certain teams and certain goaltenders.&ldquo;The fact that no one really took off was probably my fault to some extent,&rdquo; said Watt. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not so sure we benefitted by having them alternate. We just didn&rsquo;t get the goaltending we needed to put us on a roll.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s anxious to play Staniowski again but is reluctant to make a switch just for the sake of change while Soetaert is playing so well.Both goaltenders had accounted for 13 wins as the jets entered their final 14 games of the season.Soetaert is one of 13 players who is spending his first season with the Jets.He is part of a massive and rapid rebuilding program master-minded by general manager John Ferguson.&ldquo;The thing we want now is to become the most improved team in NHL history,&rdquo; said Soetaert. &ldquo;We need 12 points in our final 14 games.&rdquo;The record is a 44-point improvement set by Boston Bruins.Soetaert Carrie to the Jets on Sept. 7, 1981, after six seasons in the New York Rangers&rsquo; organization. The Jets surrendered a draft choice, contingent upon Soetaert&rsquo;s performance in Winnipeg.Since his stock has risen, it now appears likely Soetaert&rsquo;s price will be a third-round choice.&ldquo;It was time to get out,&rdquo; said Soetaert, recalling his eroding situation in New York. The Rangers had shuttled him to the minors five times.The last demotion occurred on March 9, 1981, the day of the trading deadline in the NHL. Soetaert had a 16-16-6 record at the time.&ldquo;The thing was I always felt like a fill-in for John Davidson,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good friend of mine. But I honestly felt I didn&rsquo;t get he respect or credit 1 deserved.&rdquo;The last straw was the Rangers&rsquo; decision not to take him to Sweden for a series of exhibition games last fall.He refused to sign another contract with the Rangers and demanded to be traded.&ldquo;I was a little surprised when I found out I was going to the Jets,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My agent said Fergie had shown some interest earlier in the summer. But he hadn&rsquo;t heard anything for a while and two other clubs started talking to the Rangers.&rdquo;One of them was the Pittsburgh Penguins.When the deal was finally made, Soetaert jumped at the opportunity to play with the Jets and work beside an old friend&mdash;Staniowski.&ldquo;Eddie and I were roommates in our first year of pro at Providence,&rdquo; said Soetaert, &ldquo;I knew what a great guy he was. It would be like old times.&rdquo;Soetaert has since developed an affection for Winnipeg, its fans and the team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everything has turned out fine. I enjoy the city and the team is super.&rdquo; &#9632;

Soetaert Finally Starting To Receive Credit

<h2>MARCH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1261/4545358-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="588" height="1396"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1352/4545351-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="584" height="767"></div><h2>APRIL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1449/4545344-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="571" height="637"></div> &#9632;

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WHERE NHL TEAMS PLAY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01743/4545917-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Stove Babineau)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

Cover-01

AL SECORD: CHICAGO’S HEAVYWEIGHT SCORER

In next week&rsquo;s edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS we&rsquo;ll have a special section on the Edmonton Oilers, who have certainly been one of the big surprises in the National Hockey League this season. Obviously, a good part of the section will be devoted to the Oilers&rsquo; miracle man, Wayne Gretzky, but we&rsquo;ll also have features on team owner Peter Pockington, super scout Barry Fraser, general manager and coach Glen Sather and stories on the players that comprise the &ldquo;Kiddie Korps,&rdquo; the city itself and the fans that make Edmonton such a great sports town.In that issue we&rsquo;ll also have the teams that will vie for this year&rsquo;s NCAA hockey championships, which will be held in Providence, R.I., March 25-27.Don&rsquo;t miss us! &#9632;

Coming Next Week

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011124/4543380-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="320" height="368"></div><h2>Season Winding Down</h2>A FEW NOTES AND observations on a hockey season that&rsquo;s winding down.&bull; Isn&rsquo;t the $500 fine levied against Paul Gardner of the Pittsburgh Penguins for cross-checking Doug Smail of the Winnipeg Jets a rather strange occurrence? It was that check that led to Gardner suffering a broken jaw when socked by the Jets&rsquo; Jimmy Mann. The fine would seem to establish a precedent for some unusual complaints over hockey fouls.&bull; Bobby Carpenter likely will score 30 or so goals for the Washington Capitals this season, not any huge total these days. But for Carpenter, whose background was limited to New England high school hockey, it represents an outstanding accomplishment in his rookie term.&bull; Toronto hockey fans must be getting fed up with &ldquo;youth movements&rdquo; on the Maple Leaf roster that never are allowed to become &ldquo;adult&rdquo; movements. The Leafs&rsquo; trading away of veteran players and loading up their roster with kids late in this season is the sixth such program the club has tried in the past dozen years.&bull; Has there been anything more tasteless in recent memory than the comments of Leaf owner Harold Ballard concerning born-again Christians?&bull; Impossible assignment! There will be little envy for the 20 or so NHL players who will form Team Canada, a hastily assembled squad that will compete in the 1982 world championships in Finland next month. If the Team Canada of the NHL&rsquo;s best players, who spent seven weeks together, was destroyed, 8-1, by the USSR nationals in the Canada Cup, what chance is there for this collection?&bull; The Jack Adams Trophy for the NHL Coach of the Year has been awarded eight times and, with the firing of the &lsquo;80-&rsquo;81 winner, Red Berenson, by the St. Louis Blues, only two men who have won it, Pat Quinn of the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders&rsquo; Al Arbour are still on the job fulltime. Bob Pulford of the Chicago Black Hawks is coaching on an interim basis.&bull; Don&rsquo;t be surprised if Laurie Boschman, the young (21) center traded to the Edmonton Oilers by the Leafs, becomes a fine NHL player in Alberta.<h2>The Sad-Sack Wings</h2>THE NORRIS FAMILY was a mainstay of the NHL for a trillion years but there are a few NHL folks elated at the news that Bruce Norris plans to sell the sad-sack Detroit Red Wings, who have earned a playoff spot once in the past 11 years. Norris is well-liked by the people in the NHL but he lost interest in the hockey team a few years ago and allowed a team that once was an NHL jewel to become a joke.&bull; Although good coaches are scarce in North American hockey, the real shortage is in general managers. Think not? You own an NHL team and want to hire a new GM. If you don&rsquo;t lure away one of the established good ones, a fairly short list, who do you hire? Oh, you don&rsquo;t know either. The problem is that few NHL teams have had assistant GMs, bright, young guys learning the job, the way other pro team sports have.&bull; It will be interesting to see if there are any future tours of the NHL by Soviet Union teams. Many NHL teams don&rsquo;t want any part of such exhibition games because they feel it&rsquo;s a no-win situation, either on the ice or in the reputation department.<h2>Draft Picks Only</h2>THERE WAS LITTLE action close to the NHL trading deadline this year and an NHL general manager explained the reasons. &ldquo;The only thing teams were really interested in grabbing was draft choices and the only players they would offer were washed-up veterans with big contracts,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I talked to at least a dozen clubs seriously and the only players under 24 they offered were dogs, kids who are lazy, have personal problems or are high-livers.&rdquo;&bull; If NHL teams are going to load up their rosters with so many young players, aren&rsquo;t they going to need psychologists to help the youngsters cope with the pressures and frustrations thrust on them at such a tender age?&bull; The best trophy race in the NHL? The Adams for Coach of the Year. Glen Sather (Edmonton), Tom Watt (Winnipeg), Herb Brooks (Rangers) and Bob Berry (Montreal) rate heavy consideration. Don&rsquo;t forget the Islanders&rsquo; Arbour, who&rsquo;s done a masterful job of bringing his club to a late-season peak for another run at the Stanley Cup. &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Another of the great Canadiens&rsquo; players of the past is gone.Guy Lapointe, who celebrated his 34th birthday this month, was deemed expendable by coach Bob Berry and managing director Irving Grundman. So, just a few minutes before the trading deadline, Lapointe learned that he would be moving southwest, joining one-time teammate Bill Baker on the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defense.The trade came after Lapointe visited Grundman in his office five days earlier to have his situation clarified. Lapointe was not playing because coach Berry decided to use a five-man defensive unit with Larry Robinson paired with either Gaston Gingras or Gilbert Delorme and Brian Engblom playing with Robert Picard.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011183/4543442-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="600" height="733"><figcaption class="caption-body">When Guy Lapointe couldn&rsquo;t work his way into the Canadiens&rsquo; lineup he asked for a trade.</figcaption></div>There had been some whispers that perhaps Lapointe would have departed earlier had Rod Langway not suffered a knee injury in the All Star game in February.&ldquo;I still believe I have a couple of good years ahead of me,&rdquo; said Lapointe. He wasn&rsquo;t upset. He wasn&rsquo;t in shock. Perhaps the fact that he knew long-time friend Serge Savard was doing better than adequately in Winnipeg and that Yvon Lambert had found a workable deal in Buffalo made it easier for Lapointe to accept the trade.Why did Lapointe become expendable? Simple. Gingras, who had been in and out of the doghouse, returned to the lineup on a fulltime basis after Lapointe suffered a slight separation of his shoulder in New York in February.Gingras played well, injecting life into the previously bungling Canadiens&rsquo; power play and Gingras is 10 years younger than Lapointe.Lapointe was not playing at the same level he did at the beginning of the season, although he was still effective.But there was an aura of mystery around his recovery from the shoulder injury. At one stage, Lapointe was telling everyone within earshot that he was prepared to play while Berry said he wasn&rsquo;t.Lapointe left Montreal with his head held high. Unlike Savard, he did not find the Forum fans and Montreal media on his case. Unlike Savard, Lapointe still had the good wheels which he exhibited many times during the first half of the season.His departure coincided with the return of Langway, the man with the mystery knee injury. Langway resumed skating the day before the trading deadline and three days later scored a goal while playing spot duty against Chicago.Ironically, when Langway came back, Berry was in a situation where he had to use six defensemen. Doug Risebrough, who had five goals in three games, suffered a twisted knee in Montreal&rsquo;s 4-2 victory over Boston on March 9 and two nights later, Guy Lafleur joined him on the sidelines when Gingras&rsquo; blast from the slot hit Lafleur on the foot. No fracture was found, but Lafleur could not play weekend games against Hartford and the return engagement in Boston.&ldquo;I walked into the shot,&rdquo; Gingras explained. &ldquo;It was going for the net, but Flower stepped into it. It was an accident. Usually it&rsquo;s another guy on another team who does it.&rdquo;Lafleur&rsquo;s injury enabled Steve Shutt to return to action.Shutt had been out since Feb. 23 with a cut on the back of his left leg. He moved into the left wing spot and Mark Napier took Lafleur&rsquo;s spot on the right side with Keith Acton.The results? Shutt had a goal in each of his first two games for a highly-successful return.IN PASSING&mdash;Canadiens finished with a 7-0-1 mark against the Bruins, including a 4-0-0 mark at the Forum&hellip;Doug Wickenheiser moved onto the line with Mario Tremblay and Rejean Houle with both Risebrough and Pierre Mondou (sprained knee ligaments) on the limp and Wick played some of the best hockey of his brief career in Montreal against the Whalers and Bruins&hellip;Chris Nilan was chortling on the last trip to Boston. His alma mater, Northeastern, won the ECAC tournament, beating Rod Langway&rsquo;s old school, the University of New Hampshire, along the way&hellip;Mention was made in French-language media about the fact that the majority of players leaving Montreal during the past little while have been Francophones. Gilles Lupien, Danny Geoffrion, Normand Dupont, Michel Larocque, Serge Savard, Yvon Lambert, Pierre Larouche all preceded Lapointe&rsquo;s departure. Rick Chartraw was the only semi-regular English-speaking player to be dealt off, although it wasn&rsquo;t all that long ago that Rodney Schutt, Pat Hughes and Cam Connor were being sent away&hellip;Of those players the Canadiens have traded or lost in the waiver draft, only Hughes, Savard and Larouche seem to be enjoying success. Lambert has been riding the bench in Buffalo recently and there hasn&rsquo;t been much said or written about the rest. &#9632;

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Canadiens Say Good-Bye To Another Veteran

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenzieDONALD R. WALLChairman and PublisherTOM MURRAYEditor in ChiefAdvertising and Editorial Offices,214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314Toronto. Ontario. Canada M5H 1K4(416)598-1753Executive Office850 Third AveNew York. New York. 10022(212)593-2100EDITORIAL STAFFCharlie HalpinEditorial DirectorMike Dennis. Assistant EditorContributing EditorsStan Fischler. Frank OrrTOM WORSLEY&nbsp;Business Manager<h2>ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES</h2>Toranto:Randy Green214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314Toronto. Ontario. Canada M5H 1K4(4161598-1753Quebec City:Gaston DubeGaston Dube & Associates.750 St Ursule St.Quebec City, Que.. G1R 4E7(418)692-5130New York:Bob Bassinette Bob Bassinette Co.8 Jackson Ave.Syosset. NY 11791(516) 364-8144Minneapolis St. Paul:Chuck Grillo & Herb Brooks12890 Dory Ave.Apple Valley. MN 55124(612) 423-2447Esther Sumka.Advertising Service Manager (416) 598-1753THE HOCKEY HEWS. (ISSN 0018-3016). is published weekly except monthly June through September by W C.C. Publishing Ltd., 214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314. Toronto. Ontario M5H 1K4. (416) 598-1753 In U.S. c/o W C.C. Publishing Corp. 850 Third Ave, New York, N Y 10022YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $16 95 in the USA $16 95 in Canada $20 95 in Foreign Countries Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS. PO Box 13035, Postal Station A&rsquo;. Toronto. Ont M5W 1V7 U.S subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904. Buffalo. N Y 14240 Please allow 4-6 weeks for processingSEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE HOCKEY NEWS. 214 King St W. Suite 314. Toronto. Ont M5H 1K4 Second Class mail Registration No 1327 All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept. The Hockey News, 214 King St W. Suite 314 Toronto. Ont M5H 1K4. Canada IN THE UNITED STATES: Second class postage paid at New York. N.Y and at additional mailing offices U.S POSTMASTER send address changes to The Hockey News. 214 King St W. Suite 314. Toronto, Ont M5H 1K4Member ol the Audit Bureau ot Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;&ldquo;Tonight helped an awful lot,&rdquo; Rick Middleton was saying. &ldquo;It brought me a lot closer. The way things were going lately I thought maybe I wouldn&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;d like to get it over with, now that I&rsquo;m so close.&rdquo;Middleton had just come up with his fifth career hat trick, his second of the season, in a 7-4 Boston victory over Winnipeg, giving him 47 goals for the season, only three short of his unspoken personal goal of 50.&ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s not the end of the world if I don&rsquo;t. I could end up with 48 or something like that and it would still be an improvement on the 44 that I had last year.&ldquo;Or,&rdquo; he added after a pause, &ldquo;I could get injured&mdash;knock on wood that I don&rsquo;t&mdash;but it could happen.&rdquo;Middleton, laughing and joking in the dressing room, was the picture of health and confidence. The next morning he woke up with his right shoulder sore and swollen. By noon, his arm was in a sling and the word was that he was lost to the Bruins for one to three weeks, depending on the seriousness of the sprain.The injury came at the worst possible time, both for the Bruins and Middleton, who had just played possibly his best game of the season after suffering through a mild slump.Two of his three goals came on sensational rinkwide passes from Barry Pederson that sent Middleton in alone to confront Jets&rsquo; goalie Doug Soetaert. You know who wins those little duels.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the best in the league, one-on-one,&rdquo; said Winnipeg general manager John Ferguson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not up there with Guy Lafleur yet but he&rsquo;s got more moves than anyone.&rdquo;Soetaert, who was victimized twice by Middleton in one-on-one situations, also was lavish in his praise.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got patience,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He waits for a goalie to make the first move. He&rsquo;s one of the most dangerous in the NHL around the net. He&rsquo;s got moves I don&rsquo;t even think he knows he has because he hasn&rsquo;t used them yet.&rdquo;&ldquo;Anything he does doesn&rsquo;t surprise me anymore,&rdquo; said Pederson, who has centered a line with Middleton on right wing for the past month or so.&ldquo;That last goal tonight, he gave the goaltender a shoulder fake for a backhand move. He scored that way previously and the goaltender might have thought he was doing it again. So he just put it back to his forehand and put it in the empty side of the net.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why people don&rsquo;t pay a little more attention to him. The only team I&rsquo;ve seen put a checker on him is Montreal. They use Bob Gainey. But no one else seems to try to put any extreme pressure on him.&rdquo;Middleton would rather talk about Pederson, who assisted on all three of his goals to run his rookie point totals to 36-38-74. He compared the young centerman to Jean Ratelie.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing that I&rsquo;ve been so fortunate to have two players who have helped my game like that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t do much if you don&rsquo;t get the puck.&ldquo;I thought at first that there might be a little problem with Barry because he shoots so well himself and he&rsquo;s righthanded which means that his passes to me have to come from his backhand. I&rsquo;m surprised at some of the things he does to get me the puck.&ldquo;That play he made on the first goal, the puck was at his feet and he was going the other way. He wasn&rsquo;t even looking at me. He never looked up to make the pass but it was right on my stick.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a quarterback finding a guy 75 yards away with three 6-5 guys in front of him. It&rsquo;s instinct. It&rsquo;s something you&rsquo;re born with.&ldquo;I felt good tonight. It gives you confidence to know your game is starting to get back on line. I haven&rsquo;t been playing well lately. Hopefully, tonight will be the start of some good things.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021131/4543497-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="614" height="936"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston&rsquo;s Rick Middleton is one of the NHL&rsquo;s best players in one-on-one situations.</figcaption></div>Middleton is the fourth Bostn regular to be sidelined with injury at a critical time when the Bruins are fighting with Buffalo for second spot in the Adams Division. They probably will meet the Sabres in the opening round of the playoffs.Terry O&rsquo;Reilly is out indefinitely with stretched nerves in his right shoulder. Ditto Tom Fergus with strained ligaments in his left knee. And Mike Milbury has just started to skate again while recovering from strained right knee ligaments. &#9632;

f0004-02

Middleton’s 50-Goal Dream Now Threatened By Injury

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011037/4543535-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Part of Bob Bourne&rsquo;s struggles this year have been caused by trying too hard to live up to the contributions he felt he had to make after signing a new contract.</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;It was the start of the Islanders&rsquo; final western swing of the season, and Bob Bourne was in a funk. The lanky winger was working as hard as ever&mdash;maybe harder&mdash;taking regular shifts, killing penalties and burning rivals with his flashy skating. But it was all wasted motion.Bob Bourne was having trouble putting the puck in the net.During one shift against&rsquo; the Blues at St. Louis, Bourne broke in alone on goalie Mike Liut, but failed to get off a shot; he lost control of the puck at the goalmouth. On the Islanders&rsquo; next rush, Bourne swung into the left faceoff circle with the puck and pulled the trigger. He missed the net.It&rsquo;s been that kind of a season for Bourne&mdash;one of missed opportunities. He had 20 goals when the Islanders left on their four-game journey to St. Louis, Minnesota, Los Angeles and Colorado, so there was little chance that he would match the career-high 35 have to play a fluid type of game.&rdquo;Bourne, an honest man, blamed nobody but himself for his comparatively low goal production.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t come to play every game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nobody&rsquo;s fault but my own.&rdquo;Bourne got off to a slow start this season after missing the entire training camp period because of a contract dispute. He had played out his option last season and became the Islanders&rsquo; first holdout. General manager Bill Torrey finally signed Bourne to a five-year contract worth an estimated $220,000 a year just five days before the season opener.A pulled thigh muscle early in the season contributed to Bourne&rsquo;s problem. Then he suffered some mental depression. &ldquo;I wanted to prove I was worth the contract the Islanders gave me and I thought about it too much,&rdquo; he said.This led to a change in his style of play. &ldquo;I tried to be too fancy. I tried to make pretty plays, and I&rsquo;m not that type of player. In order to play well, I have to play a fluid type of game.&rdquo;Bourne, always popular with the fans, caught a little flack when he turned down an invitation to play for Team Canada in the Canada Cup tournament last September. He was a free agent at the time and feared suffering an injury that would have lowered his market value.&ldquo;I regret that decision now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Contract or not, I wish I had played. The worst thing that could have happened was I could have gotten hurt, but I would have gone home and started farming, which is what I want to do eventually. Now I may never get another chance like that, and it will be with me for the rest of my life.&rdquo;Bourne then reversed his conversational field&mdash;from the past to the future. He looked ahead to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Barring upsets, the Islanders will probably face the Penguins, the Rangers, the Canadiens and the Oilers in bidding for their third straight Cup. Here are the rival players who will bear watching, according to Bourne:Penguins: &ldquo;Michel Dion is a good goaltender. In a five-game series, he could get hot and give us trouble. He&rsquo;s only had one bad game against us this season.&rdquo;Rangers: &ldquo;I think the Rangers will beat the Flyers. When you think of the Rangers, you think of Barry Beck, but also Ron Duguay and even Nick Fotiu because he plays with such emotion.&rdquo;Canadiens: &ldquo;Our biggest fear. They always have been. We didn&rsquo;t face them in winning the last two Cups, so it&rsquo;s time we had a chance to prove we&rsquo;re better. Larry Robinson is a tough competitor. He does everything. You also have to watch Keith Acton, who is very physical.&rdquo;Oilers: &ldquo;Wayne Gretzky is great, of course, but he has a good supporting cast. Players like Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and Mark Messier have to be watched, too.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE&mdash;Bourne&rsquo;s miseries continued out West. He missed an open net while the Kings were snapping the Islanders&rsquo; latest unbeaten streak at nine games (7-0-2). Mario Lessard handled 22 shots flawlessly in the Kings&rsquo; 3-0 victory. It was the first time the Isles had been shut out in 166 games dating back to a scoreless tie against the Penguins, March 2, 1980. Another string was snapped in that game at LA&mdash;Bryan Trottier&rsquo;s 25-game point-scoring streak. It was the longest by an NHL player this season and only three shy of the league record set by Guv Lafleur in 1976-77.<h2>Team Penalties</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02787/4543528-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="544" height="781"></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

Bourne Feels The Pressure Of Matching Past Successes

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;It must be getting near playoff time.More surely than by the calendar and the disappearance of snow from the Minnesota prairies, the coming of spring can be detected by the antics of the Minnesota North Stars.After a season of alternating great and sputtering play, the North Stars confronted March by embarking on the longest unbeaten streak in the history of the franchise.When they crushed St. Louis 8-1 (generating the departure of Red Berenson, last year&rsquo;s coach of the year in the NHL),then tied the New York Islanders 4-4 (or, more properly, were tied by the Islanders), and beat St. Louis 3-2 at St. Louis, the Stars extended their streak to 11 games.In that stretch, Minnesota had won eight games and tied three. Gilles Meloche, the unsigned goaltender, continued to improve his bargaining position by winning six and tying one during the stretch.&ldquo;It feels good again, just like at the start of the season,&rdquo; said Meloche. &ldquo;The puck looks as big as a football right now. That makes it easier to stop and helps my confidence.&rdquo;Team records continue to fall as well:Dino Ciccarelli broke Bill Goldsworthy&rsquo;s goal record of 48 by scoring his 49th and 50th in the 8-1 game, then he got No. 51 against the Islanders and No. 52 at St. Louis. In the process, Ciccarelli scored his 13th first-goal-of-a-game for the term.Neal Broten passed Tom Rowe&rsquo;s record for the most goals by a U.S. born player when he notched his 32nd against the Islanders, and he went by Mark Howe&rsquo;s 80-point standard for a U.S.-born skater with three assists in the 8-1 St. Louis game.Bobby Smith continued to add to his all-time Minnesota scoring record when he scored twice to win the game at St. Louis and reach 41 goals and 66 assists as the first North Star to ever top 100 points.Defenseman Craig Hartsburg, the top-scoring defenseman in North Stars annals, continued to pile up points with 11 goals and 22 assists in the last 21 games.Hartsburg and Kent-Erik Andersson were recipients of a pre-playoff plan by the Stars. Both were given a week off to relax and stay away from the rink. Others will also be given brief respites in an attempt to get everyone fresh and at full speed before the playoffs.Al MacAdam got a rest but because of a foot injury, meaning that every North Star except Smith had missed at least one game because of injury this season.In order to give some players a rest, general manager Lou Nanne brought over Udo Kiessling, a slick defenseman from Germany, and gave huge defenseman Dave Richter from the University of Michigan a trial. Both played in St. Louis, after which Kiessling had to return to Germany&mdash;unseen by fans in Met Center&mdash;to fulfill contractual obligations to play on the German national team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03542/4543566-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="603" height="1027"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gilles Meloche led the Stars down the stretch with a personal unbeaten string of seven.</figcaption></div>Newly acquired Mark Johnson also stepped into the lineup after recovering from a knee injury suffered while with Pittsburgh.Defenseman Fred Barrett, meanwhile, was the North Stars&rsquo; Masterton Trophy nominee. &#9632;

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Stars Adjust Tuning For Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011219/4543597-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="305" height="363"></div><h2>Make Fighting Taboo</h2>THE OTHER DAY, purely by chance, I happened to watch a hockey game between two teen-aged teams. It was a fine game; close, bristling with good goaltending and crisp passing.But it also was tough. The checking progressed from clean to borderline to dirty. By mid-game the fights had begun. By the third period both benches had emptied and 1 suddenly felt lousy.What produced the sickening feeling was the sight of two members of the home team pummeling into submission two of the visitors. To put it kindly, it was gruesome.The referee required almost a half-hour to sort out the penalties. He finally resumed the game but the bitterness lingered on. Even as the final buzzer sounded an incident erupted; a malicious crosscheck was thrown and the foes went at it again.The quality of bitterness was such that neither team bothered with the traditional handshake at game&rsquo;s end. Yuk!An hour after the game I was still wondering whether there was anything particularly wrong with what I had witnessed. After all, I have seen hockey fights for 43 years, so why get excited over this one?What bugged me was an unanswerable question: What would have happened on that ice if fighting was taboo in the NHL? Would the kids have acted differently? Would it have been a better game to play&mdash;and watch?I don&rsquo;t have the answer. And I don&rsquo;t know who does. But 1 know one thing and it is this: The number of critics demanding a ban on fighting in hockey has grown, and likely will continue to grow. You just have to read the papers.Many of the continent&rsquo;s best writers believe the NHL demeans itself by weaving patches of fighting into the otherwise beautiful fabric of the game. These critics represent a wide spectrum of public opinion and they are not to be taken lightly. They influence many and, oddly enough, they love hockey.I can think of four significant columnists who recently have crusaded against what they consider hockey ex-cesses. Bob Verdi of the Chicago Tribune, Dave Anderson of the New York Times, Joe Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald-American and Stan Isaacs of (Long Island) Newsday are all certifiable hockey nuts. When they fuss about fighting it indicates that the time has come for the NHL to get off its stick and at least indulge in some sincere self-examination; to shut them up, if nothing else.Perhaps the league should, once and for all, hammer out a clearly defined plank proclaiming a brave, new world of ivory-clean hockey. To this point I have asked some of the best minds in the business what the NHL should do about fighting. Based on their replies I can only conclude that nobody really knows what to do. (Not only that but some lads of the press consider the fighting issue a red herring.)A few Canadians, like Tim Burke of the Montreal Gazette, blame Americans for overreacting on the fighting issue. He says it&rsquo;s the fault of the &ldquo;liberal element&rdquo; of U.S. writers for overreacting on the issue of rough play. Yet, right in Burke&rsquo;s backyard Ghyslian Luneau of Le Journal de Montreal says fighting should be eliminated post-haste.Some Americans, such as Frank Dolson, sports editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, tell me that they stay away from the game because of the warfare. But Dolson&rsquo;s hockey writer, Al Morganti, counters that there&rsquo;s absolutely no need to eliminate fighting.Even among the NHL&rsquo;s own public relations men opinions vary by no less than 180 degrees on the fighting issue.Bill Tuele, who handles the Edmonton Oilers p.r., suggest that the league shake its paranoia over people who flog the NHL on the roughhouse issue. Tuele is a Canadian and he too blames American journalists for overkill on the issue.&ldquo;The media in the United States makes waves and they&rsquo;ll never be turned around,&rdquo; says Tuele. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t mind attacking hockey, it&rsquo;s Canadian. But they never attack football; that&rsquo;s treated like Mom and apple pie. But there is more hidden violence in football than there is in hockey.&rdquo;I asked Tuele what he figured the NHL should do. &ldquo;The league should recognize that a fight is not a problem. I wish the NHL would stop apologizing. Fighting has been and will be a part of the game.&rdquo;<h2>Violence Not Condoned</h2>I POINT OUT that the Jimmy Mann blind-side-jawbreaking of Paul Gardner had Canadiens as well as Americans complaining.&ldquo;The Mann incident,&rdquo; Tuele counters, &ldquo;was ugly, unethical and [on Mann&rsquo;s part] chicken-s-t. We don&rsquo;t condone it or any overt acts of violence. But if there&rsquo;s a fight, yes, we condone it.&ldquo;The Mann incident was the exception. I can think of 150 hockey players who have not had a single major penalty for fighting in their careers.&rdquo;Tuele tells me that an NHL ban on fighting &ldquo;would destroy the sport.&rdquo; It is not an unfamiliar view but it draws nothing but the old razoo from ban-the-goon people like Verdi, who notes: &ldquo;Hockey people always say that fighting is a &lsquo;safety valve,&rsquo; and I say, a &lsquo;safety valve&rsquo; against what? They should get rid of fighting. It has nothing to do with the game. If the NHL decided this summer to outlaw fighting it would be a terrific boost for its p.r. image.&rdquo;Verdi is regarded by some Canadians as one of those disjointed Americans who do not qualify to discuss hockey. (Hockey has only been played in the United States for 90 years, a fact that seems to have eluded many Canadians.)So, let us listen to a Canadian. Ghyslian Luneau, who covers the NHL, is every bit as Canadian as Tuele and Burke and somehow he believes the arguments for fighting are a crock.&ldquo;Players who fight,&rdquo; he Says, &ldquo;should automatically be thrown out of the game. This would eliminate guys like Jimmy Mann. People come to see Wayne Gretzky not Jimmy Mann. People will come to see good, clean hockey.&rdquo;Some longtime students of the game argue that the issue is oversimplified by the media. Leo Ornest, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; director of corporate sales and marketing, is one of them. A former referee who has been in the hockey business for more than 30 years, Ornest studied under Hall of Famer Lester Patrick and offers an interesting point.&ldquo;One of the problems is that much of the media erroneously equates fighting and violence. In my estimation violence is when two or more players gang up on one player or when a player or players use their sticks as a weapon with intent to damage or harm. I see no harm in fighting if there&rsquo;s a one-on-one and both players drop their sticks and gloves.&rdquo;Another problem, according to Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; communications guru Paul Wieland, is the general public&rsquo;s unawareness of hockey&rsquo;s nuances, the kind that build from high-speed elbow to high stick to fisticuffs. &ldquo;The frustration combined with the speed is different than in other sports,&rdquo; says Wieland. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no time to meditate in hockey. Everything happens so fast and the frustration builds up. It&rsquo;s like driving on a freeway during rush-hour.&rdquo;Nevertheless, Wieland agrees that a curb on fighting is in order.&ldquo;The owners,&rdquo; says Wieland, &ldquo;are the key to cleaning up the system. They should make it totally fruitless to fight. Of course fights would still happen in fits of real anger but they would be greatly reduced.&rdquo;If the owners won&rsquo;t wipe out fighting the players can do it. At least that Verdi&rsquo;s view. He says it should be one of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association collective bargaining demands when it convenes with owners this June.But Verdi misjudges the players&rsquo; thinking. Although many reject fighting, most seem to think that a total ban on fisticuffs is unnecessary. Mike Milbury of the Bruins, one of the players&rsquo; union leaders, tells me that he believes in the safety valve theory of fighting on the ice.&ldquo;If I get elbowed or whacked with a stick,&rdquo; says Milbury, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m gonna want to punch the guy in the nose. He may come back at me but chances are neither of us will get hurt. I think fighting is the players&rsquo; way of legislating in the game. It almost makes it saner. Fighting should be accepted as part of hockey.&rdquo;Perhaps, but I still feel a bit lousy down in the gut over those two kids who had the beehoozis beat out of them on the rink the other day.<h2>Regional Rivalries</h2>NOTES&mdash; Regional rivalries have worked out splendidly in the Patrick and Adams Divisions and to a lesser extent in the Smythe and Norris sectors. Most intense, by far, is the one between Les Nordiques and Canadiens. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a war,&rdquo; says Nordiques GM Maurice Filion. Nordiques have caught&mdash;and passed&mdash;Canadiens in the p.r. derby&hellip;There&rsquo;s a campaign afoot to have Montreal journalist Jacques Beauchamp named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders category. One of the smartest newsmen on the beat, Beauchamp rates entry on several counts but he was unique in one way: Jacques was the only writer on the beat who doubled as the Canadiens&rsquo; spare goalie in the late 1940&rsquo;s and early 1950&rsquo;s. He faced more shots from Rocket Richard than the opposition&hellip;Montreal Gazette sports editor Red Fisher says of Beauchamp: &ldquo;Nobody has contributed more to hockey.&rdquo; Let&rsquo;s hope the selection committee takes note&hellip;Paul Baxter may be a toughie on ice but he&rsquo;s a pussycat in an interview, and a lot more articulate than many could imagine&hellip;Ditto Peter Stastny of Nordiques&hellip;Jim Christie of the Toronto Globe and Mail on Leafs defenseman Jim Benning: &ldquo;His skating posture is that of a man who has been kicked in the groin&rdquo;&hellip;The Toronto Star&rsquo;s Wayne Parrish figures Darryl Sittier will make it into The Hall of Fame when he retires. Considering Sittler quit on his club (Leafs), I would keep Darryl out of the Hall for life&hellip;Influential columnists George (New York Times) Vecsey and James (New York Post) Wechsler have come out in favor of some sort of New York City support to keep the Rangers in the Garden&hellip;Nordiques made a smart move landing John Garrett, who has played well&hellip;Ditto the Penguins and Gary Edwards. &#9632;

f0006-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;Some folks expected Wednesday, March 10, to be Doomsday. They were probably disappointed, considering the state of the present-day mind, to be found in error.At Capital Centre, few were expecting the end of the Washington Capitals&rsquo; world, at least so soon, but it came that night in devastating fashion.The Pittsburgh Penguins, the team the Capitals had to overhaul to gain a first-ever playoff berth, came into the Centre and humiliated the Capitals, 7-2, to open a 10-point gap that not even the most optimistic could hope to bridge.&ldquo;We wanted to be here, we wanted a chance against Pittsburgh and then we wanted no part of the hockey game,&rdquo; said coach Bryan Murray. &ldquo;They were on top of us all night and had us shooting from the fringes. I would say it&rsquo;s pretty difficult now, down by 10 points and not being able to beat the team we have to catch.&rdquo;The end came with startling suddenness for a Washington team that had been playing its best hockey of the season 10 days earlier. The first cracks appeared on March 5, in a ragged 8-6 home-ice victory over Calgary, but it was the Capitals&rsquo; fifth triumph in six games and lifted them within five points of the Penguins, after trailing by 17 on Jan. 23.The next night, the Capitals bussed to Philadelphia and were shocked to learn that Pittsburgh had scored an upset 6-4 victory at Quebec. When Washington was blasted by Philadelphia the next night, 7-1, for its worst defeat of the season, there was reference to that game in Quebec.&ldquo;Pittsburgh winning the way they did last night has to do something to you,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I know I was disappointed and frustrated. That certainly was a game I had projected them to lose. I just hope that was it. We&rsquo;ve got to bounce back and play tougher than ever now.&rdquo;Heading home on the bus, the Capitals got a bit of good news when Calgary tied Pittsburgh in the last minute. The differential was eight points, not nine, and with three meetings scheduled against the Penguins, plus a game in hand, all hope was not lost.Doomsday took care of that. The Capitals went 10 minutes without a shot during the first period and were fortunate to reach the intermission even at 1-1. Four Pittsburgh goals in the second period then applied the crusher and jeering, angry fans were heading out the exits with 15 minutes remaining.&ldquo;Our guys certainly were nervous and uptight,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;They played like it in the first period. But I thought if we could hold it even for the first period, we&rsquo;d have a good chance. If anything, we got worse.&rdquo;Just as the Flyers had done, the Penguins knocked the Capitals down without retaliation. There were complaints to referee Bruce Hood, but no indications of a desire to do some knocking themselves. Perhaps the Capitals, forced to play so many pressure games after that awful 1-14 start, simply had no emotion left. &#9632;

Must-Win Contest Became Capitals’ Doomsday

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;The fates&mdash;and coach Al MacNeil&mdash;have different plans for the two Swedish players on the Flames.One, Kent Nilsson, is a keeper. Nilsson, on the final year of his contract, has reportedly agreed to a new, multi-year deal that will make him the highest paid player from his country in the National Hockey League.The other, Dan Labraaten, is on his way out. Labraaten is also on the final year of his contract, but the team has made no attempt to sign him&mdash;or for that matter, play him&mdash;over the final half of the regular season.For Labraaten, it is a frustrating time. He doesn&rsquo;t play with the Flames and without ice time, he cannot show other NHL teams that he does indeed still have the ability to play in the league.That the Flames have lost confidence in the personable 30-year-old is clear. Even when injuries sidelined Jim Peplinski and Lanny McDonald prior to a recent game with Philadelphia, the Flames did not summon Labraaten from the bench. Instead, they turned to Bruce Eakin, their lOth-round choice in last summer&rsquo;s entry draft.Al [MacNeil, Flames&rsquo; coach] said I should wait,&rdquo; said Labraaten. He said I shouldn&rsquo;t worry. But it&rsquo;s been a long time and I am worried. It&rsquo;s hard when you feel you can do the job and you don&rsquo;t get the chance.&ldquo;The best thing to do is wait and stay quiet. But the thing is, I&rsquo;ve got to play three of four games in a row to get my timing back. You can&rsquo;t just play a few shifts. It&rsquo;ll be hard. They expect you to play well and I&rsquo;m not sure I&rsquo;ll be able to do that right away.&rdquo;What went wrong with Labraaten&rsquo;s season is hard to pinpoint. In training camp, three players&mdash;Labraaten, Bobby Gould (now traded) and rookie Steve Konroyd&mdash;stood out.Gould is playing regularly in Washington; Konroyd is playing regularly for the Flames and Labraaten regularly plays the waiting game.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t get to play right from the beginning,&rdquo; said Labraaten. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where the problem started.&rdquo;As for Nilsson, his play has been erratic since returning from surgery to correct a shoulder separation, although his scoring statistics do not reflect that.Even at half speed, Nilsson is a threat to put the puck in the net.One report put Nilsson&rsquo;s salary at $300,000 a year for six years. With a $400,000 signing bonus, the entire package is reportedly worth $2.2 million.Nilsson would not confirm that he had signed, saying only: &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;Even with Nilsson healthy and the injured players, McDonald and Peplinski, back in the lineup, the Flames&rsquo; slide continued through a recent five-game road trip.It&rsquo;s no longer a problem of trying to stave off the challenge of the Vancouver Canucks for second place in the Smythe Division. Now, the Flames must catch Vancouver.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing so bad right now it doesn&rsquo;t matter what Vancouver does,&rdquo; says Bob Murdoch. &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t get going, it won&rsquo;t matter whether we finish second or third.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our first concern is looking at the way we&rsquo;re playing.&rdquo; &#9632;

Labraaten Playing The Waiting Game

The International Hockey WeeklyFounded in 1947Published by W C C Publishing Ltd214 King St. West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>A Year To Forget</h2>A COUPLE OF WEEKS FROM NOW, the National Hockey League&rsquo;s annual bash&mdash;the Stanley Cup playoffs&mdash;commences, and two of the league&rsquo;s oldest and proudest franchises won&rsquo;t be invited.For the Detroit Red Wings, not making the playoffs this season is neither a shock nor a big surprise. Since losing the Cup final in 1966 to the Montreal Canadiens&mdash;the Wings last won the Stanley Cup in 1955&mdash;the Wings have been out of the playoffs every year since, except in 1970 and 1978, when they lost both series in the quarterfinals.For the Toronto Maple Leafs, however, not qualifying for the post-season tournament is a slightly more remarkable occurrence: Since the Leafs last won the Cup in 1967, they have been out of the playoffs only twice up until this year, missing out in 1968 and 1973. True, the Leafs extended themselves past the quarterfinals only once in this span, in 1978, when they upset the New York Islanders and lost to the Canadiens in the semis.Not so very long ago, the Leafs and Wings not only made the playoffs on a regular basis, but also engaged in some of the most memorable playoff battles. The two teams have been playing each other since 1929, when the Leafs defeated the Wings in a two-game total-goal series, 7-2. Since then they have met each other in the semifinals 12 times (Detroit won eight of those match-ups) and in the finals seven times, with Toronto holding a convincing 6-1 edge.This season, all that tradition and all those wonderful memories have deteriorated to such a low point that the only thing these two teams are battling for now is to see who can finish the furthest from the bottom of the NHL standings at the end of the regular season. At presstime, both teams had played 71 games and Toronto was in 19th place with a 17-38-16 record and 50 points. Detroit was close behind at 18-41-12 and 48 points.Off the ice, in Detroit, Bruce Norris, the chairman and president whose family has owned the team since its inception, announced that it was up for sale. One of the reasons he gave for his decision to sell was because he claimed he was &ldquo;disillusioned&rdquo; with the players in today&rsquo;s game.And in Toronto, owner Harold Ballard, not the type to get disillusioned about anything&mdash; much less a losing hockey team&mdash;came as close as he is capable to apologizing to his long-suffering customers for the dreadful season his team has had.While in one way it&rsquo;s sad to see two great, tradition-rich teams like Detroit and Toronto fail as miserably as they have this season, their demise may be a blessing in disguise. For while 1981-82 has been horrendous for both clubs, this year was really just a culmination of a decaying process that has been ongoing in both franchises for several years. If nothing else, not making the playoffs should compel the management of both teams to take some decisive steps between now and the fall which will ensure that the teams that start the 1982-83 campaign will be much improved over the ones that are closing out this one. As Toronto Star columnist Jim Proudfoot pointed out in a recent article, making the playoffs this year would have been the worst possible situation for Toronto&mdash;and this logic can also be applied to Detroit&mdash;because if the team had squeaked in at the last moment, Ballard and his cronies may have been seduced into thinking that because the team was in the playoffs, not that many changes needed to be made. In both Toronto and Detroit, nothing could be further from the truth.Having to suffer the disgrace of being one of only five teams to be on the sidelines when the fun starts should be enough incentive for the Leafs to make some big changes between now and next year. After all, no one hates missing that playoff revenue more than Harold Ballard.And in Detroit, the hope here is that the new owners, whoever they may be, recognize the importance of the task ahead of them and endeavour to restore the franchise as quickly as they can on the road to its former glory.The sooner respectability can be reached in both of these important hockey cities, the better off the NHL is going to be&mdash;as both a business and a sport. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE</div>This article initially appeared in the March 13 edition of the Toronto Globe and Mail as part of a larger piece on the amateur hockey player.The men who operate major junior hockey in Canada believe the National Collegiate Athletic Association&mdash;the-goveming body of college sports in the United States&mdash;is run by hypocrites and pompous bureaucrats.But say what they will about the NCAA, its influence reaches across the Canada-U.S. border. The Markham Waxers of the Ontario Junior Hockey League can attest to that.The Waxers are a Tier II team that some Canadian teen-age players use as a stepping stone to U.S. college hockey scholarships. In fact, one of the main functions of Tier II leagues in Canada is to let the players showcase their talents for U.S. college recruiters.So, when the NCAA talks about scholarship eligibility requirements, it doesn&rsquo;t pay for the Waxers or any other Canadian Tier II team not to listen.In January, the NCAA learned that Waxer goalie Martin Maglay, a 20-year-old Czechoslovak who defected to Canada last summer, was under contract to the Toronto Maple Leafs and being paid to play with Markham.Because Maglay is being paid to play, he is a professional hockey player. And, according to NCAA rules, one professional player taints the amateur status of an entire team.When word of the Maglay situation was received at NCAA headquarters in Shawnee Mission, Kan., the reaction was short and to the point&mdash;either the Leafs stop paying Maglay or the Waxers must drop him. Failure to comply would result in the NCAA stripping all Waxer players of their amateur status and declaring them ineligible for U.S. college scholarships.When the Leafs vowed to continue paying Maglay and some Waxer players issued ultimatums of their own&mdash;either Maglay goes or we do&mdash;Markham coach and general manager Ken Gibb had little choice but to drop the Czechoslovak goalie. Maglay has now been assigned as a backup goalie for New Brunswick Hawks of the American Hockey League, the Leafs&rsquo; secondary farm team.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a real bother for everyone involved,&rdquo; Gibb said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve been assured that all our players are still eligible for NCAA scholarships and that is the main thing, I guess. They have their own set of rules down there. It&rsquo;s not for me to say whether they are right or wrong.&rdquo; &#9632;

Junior Hockey Operators Call NCAA “Hypocrites”

<div class="byline">BY LEIGH MONTVILLE</div>On March 12, the championship of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League for 1981-82 was decided when Mohawk Valley beat the Salem Raiders in the sixth game of their best-of-seven series in a playoff that had to be held a month early because the league would have folded otherwise. (See page 26 for details on the playoffs.)The last team to drop out of the league&mdash;which started with seven teams in September and was down to four by playoff time&mdash;was the Cape Cod Buccaneers, who threw in the towel in late January.At the time the Bucs dropped out of the league, Leigh Montville, a columnist for the Boston Globe, wrote the following column, which is reprinted here with the Globe&rsquo;s permission.He looks at the boxes of stuff now in the Cape Cod Coliseum closet. The baseball caps. The windbreakers. The golf shirts. The seat cushions. The cowbells. The bumper stickers, key chains and buttons. He shakes his head.The lament of a wiser man pours forth.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one thing to do,&rdquo; Vince McMahon Jr. says sadly. &ldquo;My son is going to be wearing size 42 Cape Cod Buccaneers T-shirts from now until he graduates college.&rdquo;The hockey team is no more. Vince McMahon&rsquo;s hockey team.The players have disappeared in a mad scramble for jobs in the other minor league circuits around the country. The building is dark. The league standings for the Cape Cod Bucs are frozen forever at 17 wins, 21 losses, 1 tie.There is a familiarity to the story because minor league hockey teams fold at approximately the same rate banks foreclose on delinquent home mortgages, but there also is a difference. Vince McMahon did not kill his team for lack of money or interest or any of the normal reasons. He killed it for aesthetic purposes. He simply couldn&rsquo;t stand the company it had to keep anymore.&ldquo;The whole thing was just a cartoon,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;A total cartoon. I got an education in the process, but it cost me six figures to get it.&rdquo;The end of the Bucs arrived in late January, the final freeze frame in a season of Roadrunner zips and feints, comic explosions and wocka-wocka surprises. The Atlantic Coast Hockey League, which had begun with seven teams and shrunk to five, now was in danger of losing another one. Everyone seemed to be losing money and everybody seemed to be scared. The proposal that seemed to have the most backers was an immediate end to the season followed by the immediate beginning of the playoffs.&ldquo;What?&rdquo; McMahon asked. &ldquo;Playoffs in February? The season doesn&rsquo;t mean anything?&rdquo;&ldquo;Well, yeh,&rdquo; he was told. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not it. The idea here was to build some credibility in our team, our league. We figured to lose some money but build for the future. You do this and there is no future. This is Mickey Mouse, and we don&rsquo;t want to be involved in it. So long, fellows.&rdquo;McMahon is a pro wrestling guy. He is best known for holding the microphone on Saturday mornings on UHF television, trying to conduct a Walter Cronkite-type of interview with a pair of pseudo-Nazis or crazed Samoans or men who chew bones and bark in the corner of the ring. His lifetime has been spent in wrestling promotion&mdash;his dad, Vince McMahon Sr., is the longtime East Coast wrestling impresario&mdash;and it would have seemed natural that he would be ready for the hockey wars.He learned early that he wasn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;Wrestling might be the last handshake business left,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Hockey is something else altogether. I got into hockey and found I didn&rsquo;t know a hockey puck from a wristwatch.&rdquo;McMahon owns the Cape Cod Coliseum and had been trying to secure an American Hockey League franchise for the building. When those plans couldn&rsquo;t be finalized for this season, he was confronted by a man named Frazier Gleason of Indianapolis, Ind. Frazier wanted to run a franchise in this new Atlantic Coast League. Frazier sounded great.&ldquo;We checked him out,&rdquo; McMahon says. &ldquo;Everything sounded fine. We put together the team. We introduced Frazier to all of the local media. We named the team. We were all set to go&hellip;and then it developed that Frazier didn&rsquo;t have any money.&ldquo;He was sort of quiet for a couple of days, and then we heard stories that he wasn&rsquo;t paying his bar bill, things like that, and then he was gone.&rdquo;McMahon decided to run the team himself from there. He didn&rsquo;t have many other options. His education began.&ldquo;Two of the teams&mdash;Fitchburg and Schenectady&mdash;were owned by the same guy,&rdquo; McMahon says. &ldquo;That didn&rsquo;t exactly sound right to me. I mean, we were projecting a loss, so was this guy projecting two losses? But what did I know?&rdquo;The Fitchburg Trappers and Schenectady Chiefs folded after the first month of the season. Two losses, it was. The schedule was redrawn, five teams in the league. The education continuted.&ldquo;Twice we had to pay a team&rsquo;s expenses just to get here,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The Schenectady players all were living in a YMCA. Unbelievable stuff. The commissioner of the league was a part-time guy who must have spent about two hours a week working on league matters.&rdquo;The end came when the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds said they were going to fold. The league held its emergency meeting. The Thunderbirds said they might survive if the playoffs could begin early. The Mohawk Valley Stars and the Baltimore Skipjacks and the Salem. Raiders said that would be fine. McMahon and the Bucs just spun out of the picture.&ldquo;You know what I found out?&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Baltimore and Salem wouldn&rsquo;t even have been able to hold playoffs at the regular time anyway. Their arenas already had been rented. And Mohawk Valley, which plays at Utica, would have had to switch to Clinton or someplace. What does that say? It tells me they always were planning to do something like this.&rdquo;He laughs at the small-time caginess of it all.He will try again, but he will try the American Hockey League this time if he can. He will watch out for strange men from Indianapolis. He will make sure the other people in the league are trying to do the same things he is doing.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got the education now,&rdquo; Vince McMahon Jr. says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got the T-shirts to prove it.&rdquo; &#9632;

He Couldn’t Wrestle With Hockey Anymore

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011159/4543772-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Not too many forwards have successfully switched back to play defense, but Bill Barber accepted just such an assignment from Philadelphia coach Pat Quinn. (Photo By Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, THE HOCKEY NEWS has learned. Winger A is breaking, defenseman B hits him with a pass. Simple.But noooooooooo. Flyer defenseman C through Z looks, holds, retreats behind his own net, lights up a cigar, picks up the paper to see if he&rsquo;s getting ripped, fights off a forechecker and then gets the puck out. About half the time.Which is why Bill Barber, All Star left wing, is now playing defense. Another month&rsquo;s perspective may tell us that moving Barber was a stroke of Pat Quinn genius. You certainly can&rsquo;t knock versatility. One remembers Scotty Bowman using Bob Gainey on defense to get the Canadiens over a rough spot in the final season of their four-year run of Cups.Ilkka Sinisalo, getting more ice time, is pumping goals and Barber&rsquo;s offense may not be missed. But since the Flyers are now into the final ten games of their season and all defensive hands, save Bob Dailey, are healthy, what does moving an All Star left wing out of position tell you?This is not an emergency. This is the Flyers, heading into the playoffs desperate for someone who can move the puck. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to experiment with it,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;Even after we get Frank Bathe back.&ldquo;Perhaps Billy will help us get out of our zone. He gives us a threat at the point and helps us get up into the play a little more.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had it in my head for a long time to try. I thought tonight, against a less aggressive team [Colorado], would be a good time to start. We&rsquo;ll try it some more and if it works, it will become permanent.&ldquo;We have good forwards and good defenseman and this may give us a little more balance. Idealistically, I&rsquo;d like to start the playoffs with six defensemen, but you can get down to five, or even four, depending upon the circumstances.&rdquo;Pat&rsquo;s right. The Flyers do have some good defensemen. At the very least, Bob Hoffmeyer, the mended Jimmy Watson, and Brad Marsh are an upgrading from the crew of predominantly minor-leaguers the Flyers were forced to go with in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. Consistency has been a problem, but every member of the sevenman unit has had some solid stretches this season. But the evolution of today&rsquo;s game demands a couple more guys who can wheel it.Bless the memory of their oversized Flyer hearts, but the defensive crew that won two Stanley Cups, while certainly more reliable than the current group, still would not be versatile enough to take this team deep into the playoffs.The Canadiens still have a Larry Robinson, the Islanders a Denis Potvin, the Oilers a Paul Coffey, the Bruins a Ray Bourque, the North Stars a Craig Hartsburg. The Flyers have only a Bob Dailey with a busted ankle. Behn Wilson can whip the puck up the ice with the best of them, but, perhaps a victim of being a man among boys in his junior days, too often slows things down to his own pace.But even if Dailey can&rsquo;t make it back next year, the Flyer defensive picture is not totally bleak. Wilson is still only 23 years old and has cut down on his glaring giveaways. Rookie Fred Arthur looks pooped after a long season, but with another year or two, an off-season weight program and a little more confidence, he has the ability to become more assertive. So does Mark Botell, who showed it for a month before losing his confidence and returning to Maine.That No. 1 draft pick coming up from Hartford could have turned into one of two blue-chip defensemen available this year&mdash;Gary Nylund or Gord Kluzak&mdash;but the Whalers keep picking up points while Detroit and Toronto appear to have packed it in. The Flyers will now probably pick fourth or fifth. They&rsquo;ll get a significant talent, but probably won&rsquo;t be able to fill their most immediate need unless they trade.So into the breach steps Barber, the consummate talent and team man, willing to do whatever Quinn wishes. It&rsquo;s a long shot. Memories of players who switched from forward to defense, rather than vice versa, are short, but Billy wants to give it a try.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done enough things as an individual,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even have any bonuses in my contract for points. Never believed in them. My only personal goal now is to win a Stanley Cup.&ldquo;I was a little surprised when Pat did it [with 10 minutes left in a 5-5 tie&rdquo; at Madison Square Garden], It wasn&rsquo;t much of a test. The Rangers were trying to protect a lead and weren&rsquo;t coming at us. Anybody can do the job back there if you have that much time.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;The Flyers, struggling out from their second major slump of the season, ran into a string of hot goaltending and couldn&rsquo;t do any better than 3-3-3 in their last nine games&hellip;They were, however, taking over more of the play and beginning to enjoy their best health of the season. Paul Holmgren, out seven games with a back that lost a collision with a Winnipeg goalpost, returned to the lineup as did defenseman Frank Bathe&hellip;Reggie Leach, four goals away from 30, which would renew his contract for another year past next year&rsquo;s option, cleared waivers and was given the choice of staying in Philadelphia as a fourth-line player or trying to make a deal elsewhere&hellip;Darryl Sittier is two goals away from becoming the 17th player in NHL history to score 400&hellip;A likely Rick St. Croix-for-Brad McCrimmon deal fell through when St. Croix put together several strong games, but when he cooled off in a maddening 6-3 loss in Washington (Dave Parro stopped 35 Flyer shots), Pelle Lindbergh was due to get a few starts&hellip;Because of his November trade from Calgary, Brad Marsh has a chance to set an NHL record by playing in 83 regular-season games this year. &#9632;

f0009-01

Flyers Call Upon Barber To Sharpen Defense

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div>TORONTO&mdash;Want to play general manager? O.K. start off with Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Mike Palmateer, Ian Turnbull and Joe! Quen-neville. Send them all across the continent and see what you get in return.Part of the dividends the Maple Leafs reaped from the trading of such players were revealed amidst the flurry of last-minute trade deadline wheelings and dealings. At long last, the Leafs have discovered an area where they lead the National Hockey League, although the St. Louis Blues may contest that.For those who have been paying attention, it&rsquo;s no secret that the five ex-Leafs mentioned in the opening paragraph have been missing from the roster for quite some time, Sittler, who left for Philly in January being the latest departee. But the trade of Wilf Paiement, who came to the Leafs as part of the McDonald trade, put everything into a new perspective.So what did the Leafs wind up with? Here&rsquo;s how it currently looks. Three major leaguers: Goalie Michel Laroc-que, forwards Billy Harris and rookie Miroslav (Mirko) Frycer (pronounced Free-cher). Two minor leaguers: Defenseman John Gibson and forward Tim Coulis. Onecollegian: Providence College&rsquo;s Rich Costello. Two 1982 draft picks: Hartford&rsquo;s second rounder (from Philadelphia) plus Quebec&rsquo;s seventh rounder. Two sets of future considerations. One from the Flyers; the other from the New York Rangers who accepted Pat Hickey who joined the Leafs from Colorado in the Paiement deal. Got that?As mentioned, the Leafs were extremely busy prior to the trade cut-off. First they sent a pair of draft choices, fourth and fifth round, to Detroit in exchange for defenseman Jim Korn. Next they dealt Laurie Boschman to Edmonton in return for Wichita Wind forward Walt Poddubny and junior player Phil Drouillard. Following the Paiement-Frycer deal, the Leafs bought out the contract of center Don Luce, 33, and gave Rene Robert, their 33-year-old right winger, the option of going to the minors or accepting a buy-out of his two-year contract.With a team now averaging 23.6 years of age as compared to 25.0 at the start of the season and 26.3 as of 15 months ago, the Leafs had three players debut against the Chicago Black Hawks in a last-ditch effort to catch the Hawks in the standings. They were:&bull; No. 12&mdash;Poddubny, a 6-1, 22-year-old 203-pounder who can play center or left wing. A fourth-round choice of Edmonton in the 1980 draft, he was Wichita&rsquo;s leading scorer (eighth in the league) with 36 goals and 45 assists.&ldquo;I knew there were a couple of teams interested in me around Christmas time,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but when nothing happened, I just thought I&rsquo;d play the best I could in Wichita. The Oilers said there was a spot for me on the [Edmonton] team. But after playing the opener I just sat on the bench until they sent me down. Now I&rsquo;m going to try and adapt to playing in the National Hockey League. It&rsquo;s a great break for my career.&rdquo;Poddubny drew an assist when he set up Rocky Saganiuk for the Leafs&rsquo; sixth goal against Chicago. Unfortunately, the Leafs surrendered seven scores to lose and almost assuredly kissed the playoffs good-bye.&bull; No. 14&mdash;Frycer, 6-0, 198 pounds, 22, an artful skater from Czechoslovakia with plenty of offensive skills. Frycer had 20 goals in 49 games for the Nordiques plus a batch more in 11 minor league outings. He scored three goals against Toronto in his second NHL game and has had three more hat tricks, including a four-goal game, since then. In his debut with the Leafs, Frycer show great stickhandling capabilities and passed off for three assists, upping his production to 40 points in 50 games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to play here,&rdquo; Frycer said after his first game as a Leaf, but he was talking about the NHL. &ldquo;Small rinks, big guys. In Europe you just skate around and never get hit.&rdquo; Frycer said that he benefitted from his stint in Fredericton of the American League because he learned something about defensive hockey there. He also praised new linemate Terry Martin who had his third hat trick of the season, as being a &ldquo;European-type&rdquo; player.&bull; No. 20&mdash;Korn, 6-3, 210 pounds, 24, was thought to be one of Detroit&rsquo;s toprated defensemen and led the team in plus-minus during the 1980-81 season. But right from the start of this year&rsquo;s training camp, Korn said, it seemed like he wasn&rsquo;t in the club&rsquo;s plans.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I should have been playing instead of other guys, but there were places where they could have used me. I never wanted to leave Detroit except that I wasn&rsquo;t playing. When they sent me to the minors, I was confident some team would pick me up.&rdquo;LOOSE LEAFS&mdash;The loss to Chicago dropped the Leafs&rsquo; &ldquo;magic number&rdquo; for playoff elimination to four. Any combination of Leaf losses and Chicago victories which totals four or more the rest of the season will mathematically eliminate Toronto&hellip;Fred Perlini, a rugged 6-1, 195-pounder who usually plays for the Toronto Marlies junior club, scored his third NHL goal against the Black Hawks in just four appearances. The Leafs are counting on him for next year&hellip;The sole bright spot for the Leafs, besides some of the skill displayed by Frycer was Rick Vaive&rsquo;s goal in a 10-2 thrashing against Winnipeg, his 44th of the season, to bring him within four of Frank Mahovlich&rsquo;s club record with nine games left to play &#9632;

Leafs May Not Be Better, But They’re Younger

<div class="byline">BILL LIBBY&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011194/4543827-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="318" height="366"></div><h2>New Breed Coach</h2>MOST COACHES IN the National Hockey League went behind the bench after their playing careers ended. But Tom Watt of the Winnipeg Jets is one of the new breed of professional coaches who came out of the college ranks. He wasn&rsquo;t good enough to play in the big leagues, but he certainly appears to be good enough to coach at the top.Born and reared in Toronto, the son of a printer, Tom says, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t plan a coaching career. I didn&rsquo;t dream of being in the NHL. I played different sports in high school and I played hockey and football at the University of Toronto. I majored in Physical Education, and took my Master&rsquo;s in Education, but I expected to be a teacher.&ldquo;I did teach at the high school level for six years. I also coached, not only hockey, but football and even gymnastics. My teams had a lot of success in football and gymnastics. I enjoyed the high school life a lot, I like teaching and working with teenagers and developing them. I would have been happy to stay there.&rdquo;However, his alma mater called on him to coach its hockey team and in 14 seasons at the University of Toronto Tom Watt won 11 conference championships and nine Canadian national collegiate titles. He laughs and says, &ldquo;I used good sense in recruiting. 1 went after the kids who had been good enough to be drafted by the NHL, but not so good and not drafted so high the NHL wanted &lsquo;em right away. We had different eligibility requirements back then and as long as they stayed in school I had some kids stay on my team six or seven seasons.&rdquo;Although Watt developed a number of NHL players, he is proudest of having developed many fine men. &ldquo;My &lsquo;68-69 team graduated six players&mdash;three went into law, two into dentistry, and the other into organic chemistry. Most of my players really were student-athletes. Most of the time I was coaching in college the top players didn&rsquo;t go to college. But, three of my players are coaching pro minor league hockey now&mdash;Gary Inness at Hershey, Mike Keenan at Rochester, and Dave McDowell at Tulsa.&rdquo;<h2>Minnesota Called</h2>IN RECENT SEASONS, as more and more top players have moved to the NHL from college, more and more coaches have been doing the same. And although it is not widely known, Watt was offered the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; job in 1978. &ldquo;I was the second choice, after Herb Brooks,&rdquo; Watt says. &ldquo;We both turned it down because we wanted to coach in the Olympics. When you&rsquo;ve coached amateur sports for many years, the Olympics is a great goal.&rdquo;Brooks, of course, won the 1980 gold medal with the USA team, but Watt finished out of the money with Team Canada in the same tournament. Watt admits, &ldquo;I was disappointed that we didn&rsquo;t do better, but I wasn&rsquo;t disappointed with the experience. It was great for all of us.&rdquo; Earlier, Tom had managed and coached Canadian Student National Teams on overseas visits and taken Toronto&rsquo;s Varsity Blues on tours of Germany, Poland, and China.Having won three-fourths of more than 500 collegiate contests as a coach, Watt says, &ldquo;We won and I saw the world. Again, I would not have been unhappy to remain in the amateur ranks. I was happy with the college campus life. But the pros remained interested in me and I felt it was time, after the Olympics, to move along. So I accepted a job as an assistant at Vancouver last season and took the top post in Winnipeg this season.&rdquo;The Winnipeg franchise has had ten coaches in its eight seasons. Thanks to Bobby Hull, it enjoyed considerable success in its five seasons in the World Hockey Association, but, after Bobby, it had no success at all in its first two seasons in the National Hockey League. Four coaches fell fast before Watt finally came in to make the team respectable this season.&ldquo;We slowed down for awhile after a fast start,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but we still have a shot at making the playoffs. The Jets haven&rsquo;t made the playoffs in the NHL so if we make it, it will be a good season, but I won&rsquo;t consider myself successful here until we have a winning team, and we&rsquo;ve still lost more games than we&rsquo;ve won. I&rsquo;m not used to losing. I&rsquo;ve had to make an adjustment, but I don&rsquo;t really want to adjust to losing. If I do, I&rsquo;ll be fired. I didn&rsquo;t take this job with my eyes shut.&rdquo;Compared to previous Jet coaches, Watt is a wonder-man. This is a franchise which lost as many as 10 games in a row and 59 games in a season and once went 30 games without winning one. General manager John Ferguson says, &ldquo;Tom Watt knows how to coach.&rdquo; Star Morris Lukowich says, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s loosened us up and taught us a lot.&rdquo;<h2>Have To Adjust</h2>AT THE AGE of 45 Watt says, &ldquo;After 22 years, I hope I know how to coach. As I&rsquo;ve said, coaching is coaching on any level. Circumstances are different on different levels and you have to adjust to those. I haven&rsquo;t found the high-paid player a problem, perhaps because we&rsquo;re a young team and don&rsquo;t have many of those. But, I think whatever they&rsquo;re paid, players want to play well and win.&ldquo;Because younger and younger players are reaching the NHL, teaching is becoming more and more important, but I don&rsquo;t have the time to teach here that I had there. My college team practiced weekdays and played weekends. We had two practices for every game. The pros play throughout the week, 80 games, and the ratio is closer to one to one. In college, you win games on practice. In pro, coaching games is more important than conducting practice. You do what you can do.&rdquo;He has been married to his &lsquo;Mabs&rdquo; as long as he&rsquo;s been coaching and they have three children&mdash;Kelly, 20, a Psychology major at the University of Toronto; Ruth, 18, a senior in high school, and Rob, 14, a high schooler who plays bantam hockey. Tom&rsquo;s life has become hockey. He came in for criticism earlier this season for defending one of his players, Jim Mann, who sucker-punched and injured an opponent Paul Gardner. &ldquo;I feel badly about it, but it&rsquo;s one of those things that happens in hockey,&rdquo; Watt sighs.Refusing to ride the roller-coaster of up-and-down emotions, Watt knows all the numbers of fired and degraded coaches in the NHL and reels them off at the asking, but he is content to be reaching for the heights. He admits coaches are never really happy, but says, &ldquo;The very reason they can&rsquo;t even enjoy winning a game is the very reason I enjoy coaching&mdash;there&rsquo;s always another game coming up. In college, if you lost your big game you were down in the dumps for a year. Here, you always have another big one coming up.&rdquo; &#9632;

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HOCKEY AD LIB

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-02998/4543889-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="317" height="363"></div><h2>Super Star Promoter</h2>MEET PHIL ESPOSITO, promoter.No wisecracks, please. While &ldquo;Espo&rdquo; has been known to promote himself on an occasion or two, he differs from most in the hustle-for-bucks fraternity because he cares about people. He cared about his teammates on Boston&rsquo;s two Stanley Cup champions and he cared about his fellow National Hockey League players, who elected him president of their association.Esposito wears his emotions on his expensive shirt sleeves. If we didn&rsquo;t know that before, we discovered it the night in Vancouver during the tumultuous Canada-Soviet series of 1972 when Esposito angrily lectured Canada for booing its team. Giving an entire country hell on television takes nerve and self-confidence.Esposito&rsquo;s latest project took a rink-full of selfconfidence. Espo and his friends staged the inaugural Masters of Hockey show the other night at Madison Square Garden. More than 13,000 hockey lovers showed up to see some legends of the game&mdash;Esposito, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Yvan Cournoyer, Jean Ratelle&mdash;play and enjoy themselves again.You don&rsquo;t work for months with people like former NHLer Bryan Watson to bring many of the game&rsquo;s greatest players to New York just to party. The purpose of Masters of Hockey is to provide medical funds, insurance and counselling for NHL players, present and past. According to Esposito, the game will raise between $75,000 and $100,000 for the trust fund, known as the Phil Esposito Foundation.While Esposito is pleased with the crowd size and the reaction of the players who returned to the ice for one more hurrah, he is &ldquo;angry and hurt&rdquo; at the cold shoulder he received from many NHL teams.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m totally disappointed in some people,&rdquo; a weary Esposito, looking as if he were running on empty, said in the Madison Square Garden TV booth. &ldquo;When we were looking for help before the game, I called or wrote to all the teams and the league. I never even got a call from a lot of the teams. I thought [Chicago&rsquo;s] Bill Wirtz was a friend of mine. I called him three times and he never returned my calls.&ldquo;Quite a few teams did send us money&mdash;Philadelphia, Boston, the Islanders, Los Angeles, Hartford, Buffalo, Toronto and the Rangers. Quebec wrote and said they were sorry, they couldn&rsquo;t do anything, but at least they wrote.<h2>Game Was Enjoyed</h2>&ldquo;I DON&rsquo;T UNDERSTAND why teams and the league wouldn&rsquo;t do something to help [past] players. Probably, they&rsquo;re saying, &lsquo;We paid these guys.&rsquo; All I know is, a lot of people said we couldn&rsquo;t do it without a Rangers&rsquo; game after our game. I said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll show you we can do it.&rsquo; We had a lot of people work on this for free. American and Eastern Airlines picked up some plane tickets and the Parker-Meridian Hotel picked up the rooms. I think people enjoyed what we did.&rdquo;The players and fans did enjoy it. One &ldquo;fan&rdquo; who had the time of his lengthy life watching the Orrs, Howes and Hulls was Herbert 1. Mandelbaum, better known as &ldquo;Mandy&rdquo; to those who appreciate his help in the Garden&rsquo;s main press box.Smiling, with his eyes twinkling, the 76-year-old former Western Union man said, &ldquo;People were telling me, &lsquo;You know, Mandy, with one exception, you&rsquo;re old enough to be the father of all these players.&rsquo; &ldquo;The players who accepted Esposito&rsquo;s invitation don&rsquo;t need assistance. Most of them could afford to spend three days in New York without devastating their bank accounts. It&rsquo;s the guys who are struggling, the guys working as watchmen and lunchcart vendors, who worry Esposito.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I have all the answers,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;But at least I&rsquo;m raising some questions. I&rsquo;m making some people think and that&rsquo;s important.&rdquo;Even a determined Esposito won&rsquo;t succeed in obtaining $50,000-a-year jobs for the many ex-NHL players who never prepared themselves for other careers. Many of these people are confronted with the spirit-draining task of playing career-catch-up to younger, better-trained people. But maybe Esposito can keep these people involved with hockey, at least on a part-time basis.<h2>Group Health Plan</h2>&ldquo;THE SUMMER HOCKEY schools can help,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t they bring in one or two oldtimers to help out? They don&rsquo;t have to pay them a fortune. Maybe the foundation would kick in $100. The guys would make a few bucks, plus they&rsquo;d feel like they were still part of the game.&rdquo;Esposito has asked Ed Van Impe, the former Philadelphia defenseman who&rsquo;s now a prosperous insurance man, to advise him on a group health plan. And the Esposito Foundation also hopes to provide college scholarships for the children of former players.To raise more money for his foundation, Esposito hopes to take the Masters of Hockey show on the road next season. &ldquo;Boston would be dynamite, Philadelphia might be interested,&rdquo; he said. Pausing, Esposito thought for a moment, then those dark Italian eyes suddenly glowed and he said, &ldquo;I know the odds are against it, but I&rsquo;d like to form a Masters Hockey League for guys over 30. Maybe go play at the Meadowlands.&rdquo;Easy, Phil&hellip;calm down. If the Meadowlands gets an expansion team, it wants one in the under-30 bracket, as almost all the active NHL teams are. Anyway, aren&rsquo;t you too busy with broadcasting, commercials and the foundation to even think about a commissioner&rsquo;s job?&ldquo;I want to get back into hockey,&rdquo; said the man who graciously tracked Wayne Gretzky until he broke Esposito&rsquo;s own single-season goal-scoring record. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping I&rsquo;ll get a shot as a coach or general manager in this league.&rdquo;Like Winnipeg GM John Ferguson, Esposito is probably too emotional to be a successful NHL coach. A GM&rsquo;s job, where he can utilize his skills as a talent judge, businessman and promoter, is more suited to him. Perhaps in Los Angeles?The NHL has already let such legends as Bobby Orr and Bobby Hull slip away from the game. Don&rsquo;t let the same thing happen with Phil Esposito. Hockey needs his enthusiasm. &#9632;

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HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;Just at the point of the season when the Rangers would much rather be fine-tuning for the playoffs, they elevated brinksmanship to a high art-form.The result was two strange, 5-5 ties against the Flyers and the Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden, sandwiching a less-than satisfying 4-1 victory in Detroit in which Mike Rogers and Ron Duguay were benched for the last half of the game.Despite the fact that the same two players sparked a four-goal third-period rally against the Capitals, the Rangers were left in a head-shaking daze at the end of a giant build-up to a huge let-down. The Rangers, taking a season-high 43 shots, swept from a 4-1 deficit to a short-lived 5-4 lead, only to give up the tying goal with 1:12 left in the game.&ldquo;They come in here and jump on our mistakes and we&rsquo;re behind the eightball again,&rdquo; said defenseman Dave Maloney, filling in as captain for the injured Barry Beck, who was expected to return to the lineup against the Flyers at the Garden on March 17. &ldquo;It was unfortunate to come back that far and then have them tie it up.&rdquo;It was a lot more than unfortunate. The Rangers were lost for the first two periods, and the second period was among the worst 20 minutes the team has played all season. It took a 20-shot barrage against Capitals&rsquo; goalie Dave Parro to put the Rangers ahead, but Eddie Johnstone&rsquo;s go-ahead goal, which went in off the outstretched stick of a lunging Washington defenseman, Doug Hicks, was good for a lead that lasted all of 54 seconds. It resulted from a play that was as bizarre as the latest game in a strange rivalry that has left the home team winless in the seven times the Rangers and Capitals have met this season.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a precision play,&rdquo; understated Steve Vickers. Rogers passed the puck behind Vickers in the slot, and Vickers returned it to Rogers&rsquo; skates before Rogers sent the puck cross-ice to Johnstone in the crease. &ldquo;Eddie and I usually break with one of us staying back and one going to the net,&rdquo; Vickers continued. &ldquo;This time all three of us went to the net.&rdquo; All this with Johnstone apparently not even touching the puck as it glanced off his skates and Hicks&rsquo; stick into the net.This, however, was far from the most bizarre ending the Rangers produced that week. Four days earlier, they took a 5-2 lead over the Flyers with two goals early in the third period. But Philadelphia pulled within one with goals from Reggie Leach and 11:34 and Ilkka Sinisalo at 16:03, and then they unveiled their not-so-secret weapon.For the second time in a week, the Flyers asked for a measurement of a Ranger stick. They had caught Mike Rogers with an illegally curved stick in Philadelphia the previous Thursday, and this time, they successfully challenged the curvature of an opponent&rsquo;s stick for the tenth time in 11 tries this season.Bill Barber had noticed defenseman Andre Dore&rsquo;s stick in the second period, but the Flyers waited until the 18:02 mark of the third to call it to the attention of referee Bob Myers. And on the resulting power play, Ron Flockhart tied the score.Coach Herb Brooks was asked whether he was more disturbd by surrendering the 5-2 lead, or being caught again with an illegal stick. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tough one to chose between,&rdquo; said Brooks. &ldquo;Can I say both?&rdquo;Dore found himself in the spotlight when there was plenty of blame to pass around. Earlier in the week, the Rangers had dominated the Detroit Red Wings at the Garden with a 6-3 victory in which former Olympian Rob McClanahan scored his first goal since becoming a Ranger nine games earlier, and set up two goals by Mikko Leinonen.Leinonen scored twice in 33 seconds early in the period, the first on a superb fake of a slapshot that fooled Detroit defenseman Willie Huber. Leinonen switched to his backhand for a ten-footer that eluded Detroit goalie Bob Sauve. Leinonen, who saw limited action early in the season, began to develop into an offensive threat during the Rangers&rsquo; recent road-trip, and has been impressive on the power play when paired with fellow Finn Reijo Ruotsalainen on the point.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011169/4543858-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="610" height="1462"><figcaption class="caption-body">Given an opportunity to play as promised, Mikko Leinonen stood out on the power play. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It is a long season, with ups and downs. Everyone knows that,&rdquo; said Leinonen. &ldquo;But they promised me that after Christmas they would give me a chance to play.&rdquo;The victory over the Red Wings was a fitting comeback after the 6-4 loss at Nassau Coliseum to the Islanders two days earlier. But then came the tie with Philadelphia, and the next night the Rangers had their rematch with the Red Wings and a tainted 4-1 vicrtory at the Joe Louis Arena.The Rangers took exactly one shot at Sauve in the second period, and entered the third period with a none-too-safe 2-1 lead before Nick Fotiu and Don Maloney scored at 12:00 and 113:22. By then, Rogers and Duguay, both of whom had been struggling recently, were on the bench. Brooks later met with both of them for some old-fashioned positive reinforcement.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been using them so darn much,&rdquo; said Brooks, terming their benching a &ldquo;blessing in disguise. Doogs especially was mentally tired. We talked about their value to our hockey club.&rdquo;Rogers and Duguay had the first two goals of the Rangers&rsquo; third-period rally against Washington, and Rogers later reflected on his being benched, and the subsequent meeting with Brooks: &ldquo;I expect a lot of myself, and Doogs expects a lot of himself. We&rsquo;re not going to sulk about it.&rdquo;The previous days had provided too many disquieting examples of the alternatives. The season&rsquo;s homestretch is not a time to fade away, particularly with the Flyers and the Islanders looming on the playoffs horizon. &#9632;

f0012-01

Last Minute Ties Ruining Rangers’ Momentum

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEO&mdash;tHE Noraiques completed a last minute trade before the March 9 deadline, sending Miroslav Frycer and a late draft choice to Toronto for Wilf Paiement. The rugged rightwinger from Toronto was the third highest scorer with the Leafs at the time of the trade with 18 goals and 40 assists, good for 58 points. More significantly, as far as the Nordiques are concerned, were his 200 minutes-plus in penalties so far this season.&ldquo;It was a trade involving two different type of players&rdquo; commented Quebec general manager Maurice Filion. &ldquo;We are well stocked with good skaters and we need a strong hardhitting forward who can do the job along the boards and in the corners. Wilf should be of immediate help to us on the road and when the playoffs start in April.&ldquo;It is always difficult to tell a player who is well settled that he has been traded but we know we have had problems playing on the road all season and we had to do something,&rdquo; Filion continued. &ldquo;There were many teams trying to get Paiement from Toronto and I knew we would have to give up something significant in return. It was not an easy deal to negotiate by any means.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;We needed a strong hard-hitting forward who can do the job along the boards and in the corners,&rdquo; Filion said, regarding the trade for Paiement.</blockquote>&ldquo;We have lacked aggressiveness on the road and also at home at times. We hope that this will solve part of the problem. We are giving up a young player with a lot of potential but we had to do something now.&rdquo;Some of the fans calling in on openline radio shows in Quebec City to comment on the trade were worried that the Nordiques were giving up a 22-year-old, potential 50-goal scorer for a 26-year-old veteran. The trade looks good now but what about the future.&ldquo;Paiement is only 26 and he has at least five good years left,&rdquo; said Filion. &ldquo;Toronto wanted much more in return and that is what took so long for the deal to materialize. Wilf can kill penalties, and we have been saying for quite a while that we needed more aggressive forwards with our team.&rdquo;Paiement scored 40 times last year with the Leafs, so he can obviously do more than merely dig the puck out of the corners. Less than seven hours after he was told of the trade he was on the ice with the Nordiques in Quebec City against the Calgary Flames. He picked up a goal and an assist, handed out a few solid bodychecks, and was named the third star of the game. Unfortunately, Quebec was swamped 9-4 and Paiement had little reason to celebrate.&ldquo;When the game was over I looked at the scoreboard and for a minute I thought I was back in Toronto,&rdquo; he joked. &ldquo;But seriously, the Nordiques are a much better team than the Leafs and I think I can help them with the playoffs coming up. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m coming to Quebec with a good attitude. I was not expecting a trade because they waited so long to do it.&rdquo;Paiement played with Peter and Marian Stastny in that first game, a sign from coach Michel Bergeron he had perhaps found someone to cut down on the abuse of his Czechoslovakian players.&ldquo;I want to play hockey, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean that I&rsquo;m not ready to step in if I see that someone is taking advantage of my linemates,&rdquo; said Paiement. &ldquo;On the other hand, I think that the Stastnys are quite capable of taking care of themselves when they have to.&rdquo;Paiement felt he was ready to play with whomever his coach decided. &ldquo;I can adapt to any players. The Stastnys pass the puck really well and if I stay with them we will get along alright. I had some good years with Darryl Sit-tler in Toronto and I&rsquo;m confident of my capabilities.&rdquo;In another trade completing the deal which sent Robbie Ftorek to the New York Rangers for Dean Talafous (who announced his retirement) the Nordiques got Pat Hickey from the Rangers.However, Hickey refused to report to Quebec because he claimed that League president John Zeigler had no right to award him to the Nordiques to replace Talafous. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that I don&rsquo;t want to play in Quebec,&rdquo; said Hickey, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t think that I should have to leave NY, where I like it, just because Dean decided to retire.&rdquo;The Nordiques satisfied Ftorek by dealing him to an American team, which is what he wanted, but they never thought it would be so complicated getting someone in return.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011115/4543920-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="614" height="798"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Nordiques traded for Wilf Paiement to bolster the team&rsquo;s chances for road success.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0013-01

Nordiaues Deal For Paiement’s Punch

<div class="byline">BY DICK BEDDOES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011150/4543975-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="318" height="325"></div><h2>Reverse Strategy</h2>MR. HAROLD BALLARD, the Toronto genius, is reversing an Old Maple Leaf strategy. He is substituting sappy youth for eldering pros in a futile attempt to win hockey games.In the last minute of the last game of the last Stanley Cup final the Leafs won, in 1967, the six Toronto players on the ice were beau ideals of the old-folks set.Terry Sawchuk, 37, was in goal. Tim Horton, 37, and Allan Stanley, 41, were on defense. Red Kelly, 40, was on left wing. George Armstrong, 36, was on right wing. Bob Pulford, a stripling of 31, played center.Contrast that sterling senility with Mr. Ballard&rsquo;s current mediocre Kiddie Korps.The Toronto roster is now garlanded with noname products such as Jim Benning, 18, Bob McGill, 19, Walter Poddubny, 22, Norm Aubin, 21, Fred Boimistruck, 20, Miroslav Frycer, 22, and Jimmy (Cracked) Korn, 24.Still to come from the Maple Leaf sandbox, as the 79-year-old Mr. Ballard rocks the cradle, are Rich Costello, 18, Phil Drouillard, 18, Fred Perlini, 19, and Craig Muni, 19, with several church leagues yet to be heard from.Ballard seems to be rebuilding from the basement down on the whisker basis. One recent night, before losing 10-2 to Winnipeg, Leaf coach Michael Nykoluk announced in the dressing room, &ldquo;If there is any guy among you who shaves, let him step forward.&rdquo;Exactly ten chaps advanced bashfully from the Maple Leaf crib and coach Nykoluk had enough help to ice a team.If he had said &ldquo;shaves every day,&rdquo; the chances are he would have come up with no more than Dan Maloney, 31, Michel Larocque, 29, and B.J. Salming, 30.The fact is that all-day suckers have replaced razors in the Maple Leaf boudoir. Shaving cream is out, baby talcum is in.Ballard has threatened to lead extensive raids on day-care centers and Cub scout rallies to such an extent that mothers in remote Ontario burgs such as Slippery Rock Falls, where RCMP protection isn&rsquo;t always available, are locking their sons in the nearest Children&rsquo;s Aid cellar until the Toronto threat passes.<h2>Increased Raids</h2>AND THERE WILL be no Leaf let-up. A secret Toronto document, leaked to THE HOCKEY NEWS, reveals that general manager Gerald Mac-Namara has been authorized to scout every Sunday School picnic in North America.Richard Duff, a Leaf from the championship days, has been ordered to check out every caddy convention between Baffin Island and Yucatan.There is one thing to be said for NHL youth movements. They keep payrolls reasonably low.Consider the Edmonton Oilers, a team built around Wayne Gretzky, who resembles an emaciated fifth-grader. After Gretzky, the highest paid Oiler is Garry Lariviere.Boys such as Paul Coffey, Mark Messier and Grant Fuhr, vital to Edmonton&rsquo;s run at the championship of the Campbell Conference, were signed for relative peanuts. The next big rumble in northern Alberta will occur when they become sophisticated enough to demand what they are worth.Age, after all, does inspire even journeymen players to seek more money for their sweat. When the Leafs bought out the contract of 33-year-old Rene Robert last week, it cost Mr. Ballard about $175,000.<h2>Collecting Bonuses</h2>THERE IS ANOTHER financial angle to Ballard&rsquo;s thrust toward baby beef. As custodian of the callow, he will be in line for many baby bonuses from the Canadian government.Whether he will be in line for any Stanley Cups is highly unlikely, at least until the year 2001, when the Perlinis, Costellos and Bennings have enough mileage on them to know what the hell they&rsquo;re doing on an NHL highway.There will come a year, one supposes, when the Leafs will start a team composed exclusively of players whose voices have changed.Some year soon Toronto may have six or eight players who have cut their second teeth. There may not be much wisdom in the teeth, as it were, but at least they&rsquo;ll possess what passes for maturity on the modem Maple Leafs.In the meantime, it is going to be painful for Toronto fans watching the Walt Poddubnys and Jim Korns skate like Newfoundland pups trying to discover what legs are for. In kiddyland they are called the Toronto Make Believes. &#9632;

f0014-01

BEDCLOTHES

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;The Red Wings, a Norris family heirloom for 50 years, are for sale.Owner Bruce A. Norris, who has been chief operating officer of the Detroit Hockey Club since 1955, made the official announcement through his trusted confidante, Lincoln Cavalieri, a vice-president of the Red Wings.It came as no major surprise&mdash;rumors had circulated on and off in recent years that Norris might consider parting with the team&mdash;but still had a tremendous impact, as might be expected of any major sports franchise.&ldquo;It was a difficult decision to make,&rdquo; said Norris, in a prepared statement, &ldquo;giving up a tradition that has been a part of your family for 50 years. For various personal reasons I have made this decision.&rdquo;Cavalieri covered many of those reasons during the formal announcement.The Red Wings have hired the brokerage firm of Thomson-McKinnon Securities Inc., of Chicago to oversee the transfer.Several names immediately surfaced as prospective buyers&mdash;Cavalieri said the Wings have talked to &ldquo;two or three&rdquo;&mdash;among them Detroit&rsquo;s pizza king, Mike Hitch, who last August offered to buy the Wings for $11 million. Norris rejected the deal.Soon after Norris&rsquo; announcement, Hitch said he would have to decide whether he would bid again.&ldquo;It took considerable thought to make that offer,&rdquo; Hitch said. &ldquo;Now things have changed. The price would have to be substantially reduced. The personnel have changed. The draft situation has changed. I&rsquo;d have to think about it.&rdquo;Cavalieri said he didn&rsquo;t expect any of those people who have discussed purchasing the club to have any difficulty getting the approval of the National Hockey League. &ldquo;All are reputable businessmen,&rdquo; he said.At least one of the groups is not from Detroit, but Cavalieri erased any doubts that the club would be moved.&ldquo;The Red Wings will remain in Detroit. There&rsquo;s no question about that,&rdquo; he said, adding that he would prefer to sell the team to local ownership.Norris will continue ownership and operation of Olympia Stadium Corp., the management firm which operates Joe Louis Arena. The corporation has a 30-year lease to operate the arena and a condition of the sale will be that the Wings will stay in Detroit:Cavalieri said that Norris has become frustrated by the Wings&rsquo; failures in recent seasons.Bruce Norris assumed control of the franchise from his sister, Marguerite, after the 1955 season, the last time the Wings won the Stanley Cup. In the 27 years since, the franchised slipped from a period of glory to the current period of gloom. Only once in 11 seasons have the Wings made the playoffs.The Norris era began in 1932 when the late James &ldquo;Pop&rdquo; Norris&rsquo; purchased the Detroit Falcons of the NHL and renamed them Red Wings, importing the name and logo from his old club, the Winged Wheelers of the Montreal Athletic Association.In their glory years, the Red Wings were the most successful sports franchise in the history of Detroit. They won seven Stanley Cup championships and 13 divisional titles and many of hockey&rsquo;s greatest names wore the Red Wing jersey.In February of this year, the Wings celebrated the 50th anniversary of Norris Family ownership at which time Clarence Campbell, former NHL president, said, &ldquo;If it weren&rsquo;t for the Norris family there wouldn&rsquo;t be a National Hockey League.&rdquo;But for all the glory, the reputation for great hockey long ago began to fade in Detroit where confusion, controvery and defeat ruled in recent years.It was all of that, the continual coaching changes, the constant turmoil, which disillusioned Norris.&ldquo;He is disillusioned with the athlete of today,&rdquo; Cavalieri said. &ldquo;He thought we had a pretty good team this season but we didn&rsquo;t win. He&rsquo;s frustrated. Bruce used to be friendly with the players&hellip;He knew Gordie [Howe] and Alex [Delvecchio]. Now he doesn&rsquo;t know the players that well.&rdquo;At the time of Norris&rsquo; announcement, the Wings were mired in 20th place overall in the NHL standings after finishing 18th overall a season ago.The Red Wings reportedly lost almost $2 million last season and season-ticket sales dipped even further for this season. They need to draw an average of 13,000 full-paid admissions per game to break even, Cavalieri said.&ldquo;The hockey team is losing money,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t say how much but the losses are substantial.&rdquo;The reaction to the news that the club was for sale was largely positive. There has been considerable debate in recent years over the Wings&rsquo; sad state of affairs with Norris getting his share of the heat. After all, critics argued, check the club&rsquo;s accomplishments since Bruce moved into the president&rsquo;s chair. Not very impressive. And, despite all the coaching changes, all the front office shuffling and the revolving door which herded players in and out, nothing seemed to help. What has been the one constant factor in the last 27 years? Bruce Norris.One thing is certain: Detroit remains an outstanding hockey town, as good as any. That&rsquo;s a plus for the new owners, about the only one they&rsquo;ll have going in. &#9632;

Norris, Red Wings Parting After Half Century

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;&ldquo;We fooled you,&rdquo; said Lincoln Cavalieri, a Red Wings&rsquo; vicepresident. &ldquo;We knew you&rsquo;d all be thinking it would be an announcement about the coach.&rdquo;.The rumors of a coaching change had been floating around for weeks and when the call came that the Wings had scheduled a press conference&hellip;well, is Fred Shero in town?But the press conference was called for another reason, to announce that the Red Wings were for sale.There was no press conference the next day&mdash;but there was an announcement about the coach, the inevitable announcement that Wayne Maxner had been fired and replaced for the final 11 games of the season by his assistant, Billy Dea.It&rsquo;s the Wings&rsquo; 15th coaching change including interim coaches) in 14 seasons.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hurt more than shocked,&rdquo; said Maxner after being informed of his dismissal by Jimmy Skinner, the club&rsquo;s director of hockey operations.&ldquo;Twice in the last two weeks they said they were not making a coaching change. I get a vote of confidence one day and I&rsquo;m gone the next.&rdquo;Skinner said he made up his mind to fire Maxner a few hours after the Wings announced the club had been put up for sale.&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t going any place,&rdquo; Skinner said. &ldquo;We still have a chance to make the playoffs and, hopefully, a change behind the bench will turn the team around.&rdquo;The Wings, in last place in the Norris Division, were 12 points behind fourth place Chicago when the coaching change took place.Two weeks earlier the Wings had approached Fred Shero, the former Philadelphia and New York Ranger coach, about coaching the team. Skinner denied at the time that a change was imminent and said Maxner would finish the season as coach. He did, however, reserve the right to change his mind.And with the sale of the team expected during the summer, it&rsquo;s not likely the Wings would saddle the-new owner or owners by hiring Shero or any other coach.,&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to say anything,&rdquo; said Maxner. &ldquo;Jimmy is still there and has got to do his job. I wish them all the luck in the world. Some of the guys [players] may say I&rsquo;m a good coach, some will say I was terrible. Those are things you live and die with.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s ironic, but I got a call Tuesday night and was offered a job. When the rumors started earlier this season, I was offered a job then. That&rsquo;s when they were talking about Don Cherry replacing me.&ldquo;But the kids are in school and I don&rsquo;t want to rush into things. I&rsquo;ll weigh things. My contract runs through June 2. It&rsquo;s not time to panic. I&rsquo;ve got to see what&rsquo;s in the best interest&rdquo; of my family. They are the ones who have suffered through this season more than me. They&rsquo;ve put in a tough winter.&rdquo;&ldquo;We were all frustrated,&rdquo; Maxner said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t accomplish what we wanted to when we started out.&rdquo;Dea, 47, said he planned no immediate changes in the lineup used by Maxner.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t even had a chance to discuss anything with Jimmy or Donnie Graham,&rdquo; said Dea, who filled in as interim coach on two other occasions when Alex Delvecchio was managercoach.Maxner, 39, had a 34-68-27 won-lost-tied record in less than two full seasons with the Red Wings. He replaced Ted Lindsay, who was fired, on Nov. 24, 1980, and completed the season with a 16-29-15 record. The Wings were 18-39-12 for the 1981-82 season when Maxner was fired.Maxner joined the Red Wing organization at the start of the 1980-81 season as coach of the American Hockey League team in Glens Falls, N.Y. and 22 games into the season replaced Lindsay as coach, he played briefly with the Boston Bruins in 1965-66 and was a successful junior coach with the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League for nearly six years before being hired by the Wings to coach Adirondack.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised it happened now instead of at the end of the year,&rdquo; said captain Reed Larson. &ldquo;We all thought when they called the press conference Tuesday that Max was gone. It was a shock to hear they were selling the club.&rdquo; &#9632;

Wings Fire Maxner After False Alarm

<div class="byline">BY JACQUES JUSTICE</div>Bruce Norris&rsquo; decision to sell the Red Wings had nothing to do with finance. A loss of enthusiasm is at the core of Norris&rsquo; move. Norris is turned off by the 1982-model player. The Ted Lindsay (as GM) overspending regime depressed Norris. Millions of his dollars were spent to rebuild the team since then with little&mdash;on ice&mdash;to show for it&hellip;Jack (Tex) Evans figures to be top candidate as next coach of the Blues&hellip;Behn Wilson and Ken Linseman, who were on the block up until the trade deadline, should be available after the playoffs. A Philly tipster says the Flyers have film evidence to squelch any more Rangers cinematic propaganda about Broad Street bullying&hellip;Bernie Parent has provided the Flyers with part-time goaltending consultation but Jacques Plante will be recalled from Europe for netminding advice during the playoffs. Flyers had hoped to land Guy Lapointe before the Blues beat &lsquo;em to him&hellip;Flyers may want to negotiate for Denis Herron, who wants to leave Montreal, if the Philly goaltending fails in the playoffs&hellip;Despite his blood disorder, Larry Pleau will return as Whalers&rsquo; GM-coach next year. He has boss Howard Baldwin&rsquo;s blessing&hellip;Mark Howe&nbsp;will be trade bait in June but he must approve the deal. Guessing in Hartford is that Philadelphia will be Howe&rsquo;s next destination. Whalers will be seeking offensive help&hellip;Chris Kotsopolous, who was described as fat and out of shape by Herb Brooks when Chris was a Ranger, is regarded as a vital force in Whalers&rsquo; plans&hellip;A Rangers insider says: &ldquo;Herb Brooks was wrong in putting down Eddie Johnstone early in the season. And Johnstone was wrong in making a hasty judgement about Brooks&hellip;In a Newsday full-lengther on Ron Duguay, Tim Moriarty notes that &ldquo;there is a secretary in the Rangers&rsquo; front office who detests Duguay, so do at least two of his teammates, one of whom declared, &lsquo;Doog&rsquo;s is lucky they don&rsquo;t pay him by the hour&rsquo;.&rdquo;&hellip;Sabres inaction in the trade market has Buffalo scribes wondering about team&rsquo;s charisma and ability to draw. &ldquo;The Sabres are not exciting,&rdquo; says a respected Buffalo writer. Sabres are disenchanted with Tony McKegney&rsquo;s timid play and are displeased with the lack of leadership via Mike Foligno and Dale McCourt&hellip;Richie Dunn is another cipher&hellip;A Wales Conference p.r. man complained to the NHL&rsquo;s Mike Griffin about selections for the &ldquo;Player of the Week.&rdquo; The man says the league is favoring scorers over the defensive players&hellip;The trade that almost was but ultimately wasn&rsquo;t made had Brad McCrimmon going from the Bruins to the Blues&hellip;An unlikely yet prevailing rumor has it that Don Murdoch is working on a book&hellip;Francophiles don&rsquo;t buy the alibi that English players can&rsquo;t make it in Quebec. They note that Paul Baxter and Curt Brackenbury were a pair who made a perfect adjustment to French-Canadian life when they played for Les Nordiques.Denis Savard likes Chicago so much he&rsquo;s planning to set up home in the Windy City. He says he doesn&rsquo;t want to go back to Montreal, except to visit&hellip;In the public relations battle between the Canadians and Nordiques for the province of Quebec, the Habs still have a stronghold in the eastern part of the province but Les Nordiques are gaining fast elsewhere&hellip;Expos conditioning consultant Ed Enos predicts Guy Lafleur will suffer a continuous physical deterioration unless he soon becomes intensely involved in a training program. Those who know Lafleur say he disdained special training last year and they don&rsquo;t buy Guy&rsquo;s alibi that his low goal production is a result of his turning into a &ldquo;defensive player.&rdquo; Enos says Lafleur will be even worse next year, unless he shapes up. Swimming, Nautilus, aerobics and cycling are recommended for Guy&hellip;Masters of Hockey, orchestrated by Phil Esposito, likely will play the Meadowlands Arena next season&hellip;Esposito was reportedly miffed that Herb Brooks didn&rsquo;t show up for the celebrity game in his Master of Hockey&hellip;One insider whispers that Phil angered many, including Bruce MacGregor, the exRanger now an Oilers&rsquo; exec, who wanted to keep Vic Hadfield out of the event. Rod Gilbert reportedly intervened on behalf of Hadfield&hellip;An Eastern seaboard tipster insists that Dr. Jerry Buss and Esposito have talked about the Kings&rsquo; managership. Phil likes California but his wife, friends say, digs New York&hellip;At least one GM is concerned about a third team in the New York Metropolitan Area. He doesn&rsquo;t think the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut community can support three clubs&hellip;A rival insists that they can but adds that the real problem would be over Cable TV.Marian Stastny was the Nordique the Maple Leafs originally sought in negotiations with Quebec. A package that never was realized had Wilf Paiement and Laurie Boschman to Quebec for Marian Stastny and Miroslav Frycer&hellip;Billy Smith says he&rsquo;ll play five more years, then pack it in. Smith was infuriated with a New York Times photographer who posed him for a picture. Smitty had his goalie equipment in front of him for the photo. Without asking, the photographer moved a goalie pad an inch to the left. Smitty stared him down and growled: &ldquo;NOBODY touches that!&rdquo;&hellip;NHL owners view Peter Gilbert as the second coming of Charlie Finley. League will cover all Rockies financial obligations through the end of the season. So far the club has been paying its bills&hellip;League&rsquo;s p.r. office doesn&rsquo;t buy the Toronto report that the NHL should have chartered a private jet to fly Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles for an appearance on the Johnny Carson Show. Gretzky was grounded enroute to L.A. from Quebec. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011099/4544054-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alan Haworth had the only Buffalo goal in a game against Calgary which could have put them back in second place. Most of the Sabres&rsquo; offense has been cominq from the kids.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;The Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; second trip of the season to western Canada was a lot better than their first trip but it ended up on a sour note.The Sabres went into the final game, in Calgary, knowing they needed a victory to regain second place in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Adams Division, since Boston had beaten Detroit in the afternoon to go one point ahead.By the time the Sabres awoke in their game that night, however, they were behind the Flames, 3-0. They worked hard and outshot the home team, 18-6, in the final period but could only manage one goal. The Flames got one into an empty net and won the game, 4-1.That left the Sabres third in the Adams Division.They are masters of their fate the rest of the way. Only one game is against an opponent from a division other than the Adams.Only a complete breakdown by Montreal, and a super finish by Buffalo, could move the Sabres into first place. It looks as though they will be battling the Bruins for second but it is more than possible they could end up fourth, if Quebec finishes with a flourish.For a while, on last week&rsquo;s trip, it looked as though the youngsters the Sabres have been waiting for to produce, would finally come through.General manager Scotty Bowman called up left winger Gilles Hamel and Bobby Mongrain from the Sabres&rsquo; Rochester farm club and teamed them on a forward line with Sean McKenna, a 1980 underage draftee who scored 53 goals for Sherbrooke of the Quebec Major A Junior Hockey League this season.That line produced four goals in a 7-4 win over Vancouver in the first stop on the trip. Hamel had two goals and Mongrain had two, with McKenna chipping in with one assist.J. F. Sauve, recalled from Rochester a few games before, also scored a goal, as did Tony McKegney, back in the lineup after sitting out three straight games.&ldquo;Our young line was the difference tonight,&rdquo; said coach Jim Roberts, after the game. &ldquo;They gave us some jump up front. We needed a lift like that because we&rsquo;ve been kind of down the last few weeks.&rdquo;Indeed, that was Buffalo&rsquo;s first win in seven games, four of them ties.The next night, in Edmonton, Mongrain got another goal and the Sabres scored a 3-2 victory, which was notable in that it was only the Oilers&rsquo; fifth loss at home all season.It also was notable in that referee Kerry Fraser admitted he blew a call on what would have been Edmonton&rsquo;s third goal.With 6:10 left in the game, Buffalo goalie Don Edwards, far out of his net, grabbed a shot by Wayne Gretzky, who was in on a breakaway. Fraser lost sight of the puck, which dropped out of Edwards&rsquo; glove and rolled behind the goaltender. Fraser whistled play dead before Pat Hughes skated behind Edwards, as Edwards was being knocked down, and pushed the puck into the net.&ldquo;I blew it,&rdquo; Fraser said, afterward. &ldquo;I was out of position, I lost sight of the puck and blew the play dead.&rdquo;The win put Buffalo temporarily into second place in the Adams Division but the Bruins regained second place the next afternoon and the Sabres didn&rsquo;t seen to be very intense about going ahead again in the evening.Alan Haworth got the only Buffalo goal, after Calgary took a 3-0 lead. TheFlames outshot the Sabres, 23-18, over the first two periods.Haworth also had a goal in Edmonton, as did McKegney.On the three-game trip, however, Buffalo&rsquo;s supposed big scorers&mdash;Gil Perreault, Mike Foligno, Dale McCourt and Yvon Lambert&mdash;produced exactly one goal, by Foligno.Foligno also had two assists. McCourt had one assist in the three games, as did Perreault. Lambert was blanked. Apparently in bad standing with Roberts, Lambert satout much of the first two games but did play a regular shift in the third.Andre Savard, a regular center most of the season, did not dress for any of the three games, although he was in good shape. &#9632;

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Sabres Can Blame Selves If They Lose Second Place

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01953/4544106-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01843/4544099-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="603" height="852"></div><h2>GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02704/4544092-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="576" height="2636"></div><h2>NHL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03542/4544085-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="545" height="299"></div> &#9632;

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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;If a line of automobiles had a road record like that of the Black Hawks, it would be recalled by the manufacturer.Even though the Hawks have shown some improvement since general manager Bob Pulford has taken over as interim coach, their record is still a wreck.Their 4-0 loss in Montreal on the second stop of a six-city journey left them with a composite of 8-23-3 and kept them in fourth place in the Norris Division.The night before in Toronto the team defense frequently did its disappearing act but the offense always was very visible and the Hawks came away with a 7-6 conquest that was probably a fatal blow to the Maple Leafs&rsquo; playoff hopes.After excellent defensive performances in the back-to-back home victories over Philadelphia (4-1) and Boston (5-1), Pulford hoped the leaks and rattles had finally been repaired.But the subsequent showings in Toronto and Montreal suggested otherwise.Until the visit to Montreal, the Hawks&rsquo; penalty-killing had been exemplary. After stamping out 19 straight penalties, they were stung by Canadien power play goals by Mark Napier and Guy Lafleur in the first and second periods and never recovered.&ldquo;You can wipe out their two [evenstrength] goals in the third period,&rdquo; said Pulford. &ldquo;The power play goals were the difference in the game and that second goal was the turning point.&rdquo;The goal came after Tony Esposito went behind the net to try to retrieve the puck that Gaston Gingras had shot in around the boards. Mark Napier took it away from the Hawk goaltender and fed Lafleur for the open shot from the slot.&ldquo;I should have gotten a stick on it or I should have taken the guy out of the play,&rdquo; said Esposito, who was pelted with 37 shots while his teammates launched only 25 at Rick Wamsley.Defenseman Bob Murray, out since Dec. 20 with a knee injury that required surgery, returned to the lineup in the Boston game and was given increasingly more ice-time in the contests in Toronto and Montreal.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel Murray is anywhere near 100 percent,&rdquo; said Pulford. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a half step behind what he normally is and he has a long way to go. But we need him for the playoffs and we have to get him ready.&rdquo;Later on the trip, Pulford also planned to get left wing Darryl Sutter, who scored 40 goals last year as a rookie, back on the ice. An elbow injury (dating back to Nov. 27) that ultimately required an operation has caused Sutter to miss 39 games.HAWK TALK&mdash;Pulford was on the phone frequently just prior to the March 9 trading deadline but decided against making a deal. &ldquo;I took the attitude I would not make a trade for a player whom I didn&rsquo;t think would make our team next year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Next year [defenseman] Keith Brown, Sutter, and Murray all will be back and there are some players we have in Junior hockey and the colleges whom I am very high on.&rdquo;&hellip;In addition to playing wretched hockey on the road, the Hawks have fared poorly against other teams in the Norris Division. In the division their record reads 9-15-5; outside the division it is 17-19-5. &#9632;

Hawk Product Still Not Road-Worthy

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The Penguins have made a rare transaction for the future, but in the process have traded away perhaps the most popular hockey player in Pittsburgh.The Penguins sent center Mark Johnson, the leading scorer on the 1980 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team, to the Minnesota North Stars for a second-round pick in this year&rsquo;s Entry Draft. For a club that has been noted for trading away its own top draft choices over the years, it is a rare deal indeed.&ldquo;Mark has been a great kid with our organization,&rdquo; said coach Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;But we felt that with Mike Bullard, Paul Gardner and Greg Malone as our top three center icemen, any time you have the opportunity to move a fourth-line center iceman for a second-round draft choice and don&rsquo;t do it, then you&rsquo;re discrediting your organization.&ldquo;We feel also that it&rsquo;s a good trade for Mark, but it&rsquo;s a great trade for our organization. Since 1976 we&rsquo;ve never had a first and second. We&rsquo;re so used to giving away our draft choices, it&rsquo;s nice to get one back for a change.&rdquo;The 24-year-old Johnson scored five goals and six assists in seven games for the U.S. Olympic team that captured the gold medal and the hearts of America in 1980. Included in those goals were two in the 4-3 upset of the Soviet Union, and winning tallies against Czechoslovakia and Norway.Pittsburgh made the Madison, Wis., native their fourth-round amateur draft choice in 1977 from the University of Wisconsin, where he played under his father, Beb. Mark led the Badgers to the NCAA title his freshman year, scoring two goals in the championship game. He was named the 1978-79 Collegiate Player of the Year by THE HOCKEY NEWS.The 5-9, 160-pounder signed with the Penguins after the Olympics, and was popular immediately in Pittsburgh. He scored three goals and five assists in the 17 games he played his first professional season.Last year Johnson scored 10 goals and 23 assists, and this season had 10 goals and 11 assists in 46 games when he was sidelined Jan. 31 with partially torn knee ligaments.&ldquo;I have mixed emotions,&rdquo; said Johnson about the trade. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m disappointed leaving Pittsburgh. It was my first home and my first NHL team, and I&rsquo;m just a little disappointed.&ldquo;I really enjoyed myself in Pittsburgh. I was treated well by the fans from day one since I came in from the Olympics, and I don&rsquo;t think I played up to my potential for them. The media treated me exceptionally well&mdash;no added pressure whatsoever throughout my stay in Pittsburgh, and I&rsquo;m very thankful for that.&rdquo;Johnson started fast this season after again representing the United States in international hockey competition while playing for Team USA in the Canada Cup Tournament. However, he took a slapshot off an ankle during an early November game, didn&rsquo;t play well when he returned to the lineup and was criticized by his coach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited to go to Minnesota,&rdquo; said Johnson, who will join former Olympians Neal Broten and Steve Christoff and former Wisconsin teammate Mike Eaves with the North Stars. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re a Stanley Cup contender, and hopefully I can get my confidence back and my stay there will be a successful one.&rdquo; &#9632;

Pens Deal Johnson To Stars

<div class="byline">BY GARY MUELLER</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyST. LOUIS&mdash;No one could accuse Emile Francis of taking the easy way out. With his St. Louis Blues struggling through a stretch that had seen them lose a team-record 10 successive games on the road, Francis fired coach Red Berenson and went behind the bench himself on March 9.Not only did Francis put himself on the spot as the Blues&rsquo; new coach, but he also took over when the National Hockey League&rsquo;s best team&mdash;the New York Islanders&mdash;was next up on the Blues&rsquo; schedule.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never run from a challenge and I&rsquo;m not going to start now,&rdquo; said Francis after the Islanders ruined his coaching return with a 6-4 victory over the Blues. &ldquo;I want to find out how a team that was so good a year ago can be so bad this year and a good way to find out is to be down there behind the bench.&ldquo;This is something that I don&rsquo;t particularly relish, but something that had to be done. It was a decision that was made strictly because of the won-lost record and our large number of goals-against, particularly on the road. We&rsquo;re playing a very undisciplined game and we&rsquo;re all over the ice like scrambled eggs. At home, we&rsquo;ve been playing half-decent, but on the road, we couldn&rsquo;t beat anybody.&rdquo;Berenson&rsquo;s firing came the day after an 8-1 loss at Minnesota, a loss that not only extended the Blues&rsquo; road losing streak to 10 games, but also marked the seventh time in those 10 losses that the Blues had allowed eight or more goals.Yet, Francis was hesitant to pin the blame solely on the Blues&rsquo; oft-maligned defense.&ldquo;It was a team effort that got us where we were last year and it&rsquo;s been a team effort that got us where we are this year,&rdquo; said Francis. &ldquo;The defense has taken more abuse than it should have. The defense hasn&rsquo;t had the help it should have had.&rdquo;Nonetheless, Francis&rsquo; whirlwind of activity, in addition to the firing of Berenson, focused on the Blues&rsquo; defense. He acquired defenseman Kari Eloranta from Calgary for future considerations and veteran defenseman Guy Lapointe from Montreal, also for future considerations. In addition, he obtained goaltender Glen Hanlon from Vancouver in exchange for right wingers Tony Currie and Jim Nill, goalie Rick Heinz and a fourthround draft choice.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;It was a team effort that got us where we were last year,&rdquo; said Francis, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s been a team effort that got us where we are this year&rdquo;</blockquote>Also, 19-year-old Jim Pavese was returned to his Sault Ste. Marie Junior team, right winger Mark Reeds was called up from Salt Lake City and goaltender Paul Skidmore was called up from Salt Lake and then sent right back down without ever playing.The latter move was necessary because Hanlon had not yet arrived in St. Louis and Skidmore served as backup to Mike Liut in the game against the Islanders.&ldquo;The one thing I wasn&rsquo;t going to do was put on the pads,&rdquo; said Francis, a former goaltender. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a little too much.&rdquo;But there wasn&rsquo;t much else that Francis had not done within the preceding 48 hours.While the dismissal of Berenson caught almost everyone by surprise, the trade to obtain Hanlon seemed to be the biggest puzzle. With a premier goalie such as Liut on the roster, the addition of Hanlon seemed to need an explanation.&ldquo;You cannot pass up a chance to get an excellent young goaltender like Glen Hanlon,&rdquo; said Francis. &ldquo;Hanlon had not been available before. This is the kind of deal we&rsquo;d have made under any circumstances, not just because of the problems we&rsquo;ve been having.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had a problem finding enough playing time for two goalies. We&rsquo;re in a position where we can go with whichever goalie is hot. I can&rsquo;t say how much Liut will play or how much Hanlon will play. It will depend on how they&rsquo;re playing.&rdquo;Francis indicated he would coach the remainder of this season, but didn&rsquo;t expect to continue as coach next season. When asked whether it was possible that Berenson would return in some other capacity, Francis replied, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s an impossibility.&rdquo;Berenson, who was not offered a position in the Blues&rsquo; organization, took his dismissal philosophically.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a disappointment, but I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m surprised,&rdquo; said Berenson. &ldquo;It was my hope to win a Stanley Cup with the Blues. I guess that&rsquo;s gone by the wayside now. Maybe we weren&rsquo;t as good as we showed last season. But we&rsquo;re better than we&rsquo;ve played this year. I wouldn&rsquo;t accept all the blame for the team&rsquo;s performance, but I have to accept part of it. I accepted part of the credit when we won last year. I felt at times that we had the same faces on the club but different people behind them this year.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01860/4544185-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="605" height="681"><figcaption class="caption-body">Last season Red Berenson was Coach of the Year. This year the Blues fired him.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0018-01

Blues’ Tornado Sweeps Berenson And Roster

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;Popeye&rsquo;s creed, &ldquo;I ams what I ams,&rdquo; isn&rsquo;t much different than that of Chris Kotsopoulos, with one, notable exception: Nobody roots for Bluto.Kotsopoulos, a 6-3, 220-pound defenseman for the Hartford Whalers, approaches life much as he approaches his work. His style is unhurried and laid-back, the result of being the biggest kid on the block for so many years that challenges somehow seem less important these days. He has the support of his teammates, but it has taken a while to surface.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m no goon,&rdquo; Kotsopoulos says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a hockey player.&rdquo;At 23, Kotsopoulos can develop into just about any type of player. He could become fair, good or excellent. On some nights, he uses his rather intimidating size to full advantage. On others, he does not.&ldquo;Just look at the room he gets,&rdquo; GM-coach Larry Pleau says. &ldquo;Kot-sy&rsquo;s got respect, at a very young age. Some players play 10 years in this league and never get it.&rdquo;Kotsopoulos could be a leader on the Whalers. When inspired, his on-ice presence is obvious. His teammates look to him, more so than to others. They remain reluctant, however, to turn to him, night after night, because sometimes, he&rsquo;s just not there.&ldquo;Kotsy&rsquo;s lazy,&rdquo; a teammate said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big, young kid with enough skills to develop into an outstanding player. He&rsquo;s got to want it, though. He has to learn to motivate himself. He knows that he&rsquo;s lazy, but it doesn&rsquo;t seem to bother him all that much. By the time he&rsquo;s 25, he could be really something.&rdquo;Kotsopoulos has been something of a late bloomer all along. He was signed as a free agent by the New York Rangers in Oct., 1979, and played full seasons at Toledo of the International League and New Haven of the American League before landing in Madison Square Garden. Prior to this season, he was dealt, along with Doug Sul-liman and Gerry McDonald, to Hartford for Mike Rogers.&ldquo;The trade was the best thing that ever happened to me,&rdquo; Kotsopoulos says. &ldquo;I love New York City, but 1 had a chance to further my career in Hartford. That was the important thing. Besides, it only took me a week or so to get to know the guys.&rdquo;Kotsopoulos started slowly, possibly because of excess weight, but has come on strongly. Recently, he had consecutive two-goal nights to raise his total to 12, not bad for a defensive defenseman.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way that Chris Kotsopoulos will ever be known as a goal scorer,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Twelve goals might not seem like a lot, but it&rsquo;s a bundle for me.&rdquo;Blessed with a heavy shot, a tributary of his strength, Kotsopoulos can be effective from the point. His shooting is accurate, also, an indication that he may be more of a student than he lets on.&ldquo;It takes me a while to crank it up, but there&rsquo;s a lot of power behind my shot,&rdquo; Kotsopoulos said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked on it the last two years, but I really can&rsquo;t explain the goals. I&rsquo;ve been getting good shots and good chances. Maybe it&rsquo;s luck.&rdquo;Then again, maybe not.The big kid&rsquo;s toughness remains his No. 1 attribute.&ldquo;In my first year with the Rangers, I was fighting all the time,&rdquo; Kotsopoulos says. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m fighting less. Maybe the word has gotten around that I&rsquo;m not going to back away and that I&rsquo;m going to hit the other guy hard. Maybe I&rsquo;m getting a little more room because of that. Maybe that&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m scoring.&rdquo;Kotsopoulos is one of the keys to the future of the Whalers. He is one of those players who could develop beautifully. He has the tools and the size. In a very real sense, he could be any level of player he wants to be.Kotsopoulos is very much his own man. His teammates, a bit unsure how to take him in the beginning, have warmed to Kotsy, a &ldquo;Gentle Ben&rdquo; of sorts. He can be gruff and isn&rsquo;t afraid to play the bully, but underneath, he&rsquo;s got a good heart.If he can develop good work habits, that heart&mdash;with accompanying size and talent&mdash;can take Chris Kotsopoulos just about any place he wants to go.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01821/4544216-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="612" height="1078"><figcaption class="caption-body">Though known as a defensive defenseman, Chris Kotsopoulos has scored 12 goals so far.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

Whalers, Kotsopoulos Discovering His Talents

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;Quickie quiz time: Question: Who plays for the Edmonton Oilers?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01653/4544247-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="614" height="1194"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Hughes might possibly be the Oilers&rsquo; seventh 30-goal man this year&mdash;an NHL record.</figcaption></div>Answer: Wayne Gretzky and 21 other guys.And, as the entire free world and half of those in bondage are aware, Gretzky is the proud possessor of more National Hockey League records that were previously considered untouchable than Zsa Zsa Gabor&rsquo;s gone through husbands.&ldquo;I like the pressure, I think it&rsquo;s healthy,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; manager-coach Glen Sather about the fact his superstar center has become the first player to score more than 80 goals in a single season. &ldquo;Now, I&rsquo;ll have to find something else. The pressure is like a beautiful woman&mdash;you want her.&rdquo;Tsk, tsk, Slats, but don&rsquo;t worry. There are ample pursuits for Gretzky and his supporting case.First things first&hellip;&bull; For Gretzky, there&rsquo;s 100 goals and 200 points, figures once considered nothing more than a figment of someone&rsquo;s wild imagination. There&rsquo;s also Mike Bossy&rsquo;s standard for most goals in one season, including playoffs (85).From an overall viewpoint, Sather&rsquo;s personal obsession to keep his lads motivated&mdash;despite clinching first place in the Smythe Division on Feb. 27 with a 4-1 win in Pittsburgh&mdash;is to finish in first place overall. They laid claim to that position in November and held it until March 4 when the New York Islanders took advantage of only Edmonton&rsquo;s second loss in 21 games to overtake the Oilers.First place won&rsquo;t do them any good where the playoffs are concerned&mdash;due to the NHL&rsquo;s dim-wit policy of deciding home-ice advantage by a coin toss in which the Smythe Division came up empty in both the Campbell Conference final and the Stanley Cup final.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s personal satisfaction at stake, knowing that you&rsquo;re No. 1 after 80 games,&rdquo; reasoned Sather.Besides the fact the Oilers require 36 goals over the final 11 games to become the first team to hit 400, there are a number of individual standards that could be equalled&mdash;even broken should certain chaps happen to get on a hot roll.To go along with Gretzky&rsquo;s incredible 82 goals, Mark Messier had 42 at this writing and was followed by Glen Anderson with 34. Three others&mdash;defenseman Paul Coffey (29) plus wingers Dave Lumley (28) and Jari Kurri (28)&mdash;were closing in on 30, while Pat Hughes had 23 and Matti Hagman 20.That&rsquo;s eight players with 20 or more, although the record in this regard is out of the question. The 1977-78 edition of the Boston Bruins produced 11 20-goal men:A number of others are within reach, however.&bull; The record for most 50-goal scorers is two and was set on eight occasions, including twice each by the Montreal Canadiens (Steve Shutt, 60, Guy Lafleur 56 in 1976-77; Pierre Larouche and Lafleur, 50 each in 1978-79). Boston (Phil Esposito, 76, Johnny Bucyk 51 in 1970-71; Esposito 68, Ken Hodge 50 in 1973-74) and Los Angeles Kings (Charlie Simmer 56, Marcel Dionne 53 in 1979-80; Dionne 58, Simmer 56 in 1980-81). The Philadelphia Flyers (Reggie Leach 61, Bill Barber 50 in 1975-76) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (Larouche 53, Jean Pronovost 52, also in 1975-76) each produced two 50-goal men.If Messier, who scored nine goals in 10 games before skidding somewhat with only one in five, can get back on the track, the Oilers will etch their way into that column.&bull; The mark for most 40-goal scorers is three and held by six teams, including two editions of the Buffalo Sabres. With 14 goals over an 18-game span, the ever-consistent Anderson should become the third Oiler to scale the 40-goal plateau.&bull; The 1974-75 Sabres and the 1977-78 Islanders each had six 30-goal men&mdash;a standard the Oilers are within touching distance with Kurri, Coffey and Lumley on the threshold. If Hughes, with 15 of his 23 goals on the road, can continue his magic away from home, plus now and again find his touch in Edmonton, the Oilers could well become the first team with seven 30-goal scorers.There is ample motivation around alright. &#9632;

f0020-01

Oilers Use Records Pursuit For Motivation

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02455/4544278-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>The Los Angeles Kings may rank 19th in NHL goalkeeping this season but that didn&rsquo;t stop little Mario Lessard from stealing the spotlight with a pair of shutouts as he became the first goalie to record two in one week during the 1981-82 campaign.The 27-year-old Kings&rsquo; netminder turned a hot hand as he came up with three straight victories, including a 3-0 blanking of the Islanders and a 3-2 win over Edmonton during which he stopped super scorer Wayne Gretzky cold.Lessard began the week with a 2-0 shutout of Colorado and followed that up with his wins over the Islanders and Edmonton, earning recognition as THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Player of the Week.Lessard&rsquo;s two shutouts were the first two registered by the Kings in a season where the shooters have overpowered the goalies. They were only the 23rd and 24th shutouts of the year, compared to 37 last season. &#9632;

f0020-02

Player Of The Week

<h2>Mooney Goes Public</h2>BOSTON&mdash;While it is no secret that there are some National Hockey League executives who are not enthralled with the work of league president John Ziegler and would like to see him replaced, very few will state that for the record.But Paul Mooney, the president of the Boston Bruins, recently became the first to go public with his feelings about Ziegler in particular and the league at large in an interview with Fran Rosa in the March 14 edition of the Boston Globe.After discussing the financial problems that many of the league&rsquo;s teams are experiencing&mdash;he specifically mentioned Colorado, Detroit. Pittsburgh, LA, Washington and Quebec&mdash;and suggesting that consolidation may be the only solution to the dilemma, Mooney told Rosa:&ldquo;The overall problem is that we have too many teams and not enough players to staff them. We need a new [league] president, a new vice president, and we have to get rid of some teams like Colorado, Winnipeg, Washington, Pittsburgh, Hartford&mdash;the teams whose market areas can&rsquo;t support them.&rdquo;<h2>NHL Playoff Dates</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;The National Hockey League&rsquo;s 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs will begin this season on April 7 and could go on until May 27.Dates for the divisional, conference and championship series were released by the NHL with three weeks remaining in the 1981-82 schedule.The divisional semifinals will be a best-of-five series and will be played Wed. April 7, Thu. April 8, Sat. April 10, Sun. April 11 and Tue. April 13.The divisional finals will be a best-of-seven series and will be held Thu. April 15, Fri. April 16, Sun. April 18, Mon. April 19, Wed. April 21, Fri. April 23 and Sun. April 25.The conference championship series, matching the winnr of the Norris division against the Smythe in the Campbell Conference, and the Adams and Patrick winners in the Wales Conference, will be a best-of-seven series and will be held Tue. April 27, Thu. April 29, Sat. May 1 or Sun. May 2, Tue. May 4, Thu. May 6, Sat. May 8 or Sun. May 9, Tue. May 11.The Stanley Cup final series matching the survivors of the Campbell and Wales Conferences, will begin Thu. May 13 and will continue through Sat. May 15 or Sun. May 16, Tue. May 18, Thu. May 20, Sat. May 22 or Sun. May 23, Tue. May 25 and Thu. May 27.The opening playoff divisional playoffs will put the No. 1 finisher against the No. 4 team and the No. 2 finisher against the No. 3 team in each of the four divisions. The first four teams in each division make it to the playoffs.<h2>Row Over Whiz Kid</h2>BRANTFORD, Ont.&mdash;There&rsquo;s a major hockey war brewing over the eligibility of a six-year-old hockey player in Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s hometown, and the youngster involved, Mikey Gamble, is no ordinary six-year-old.Mikey created a sensation recently when he scored 18 goals in one playoff game in a performance reminiscent of The Great Gretzky when he was a mite, star in his younger days as a Brantford minor.Young Gamble is a hotshot scorer who has a total of 198 goals in 24 games this season but his big problem is that he is playing hockey for two teams in two different towns and according to the Ontario Minor Hockey Association that&rsquo;s not allowed.Mikey started playing for a tyke team (5-6-year-olds) in Hamilton earlier this year because it was more fun and because some of the parents of teammates on his Brantford All Star team were booing him for being too good.The city of Brantford&rsquo;s minor hockey body suspended Gamble when they learned of his &lsquo;second career&rsquo; in the Hamilton house league. &ldquo;We have a policy that players can play in one league and one league only,&rdquo; said Bob Easto, president of the Brantford minor hockey group. &ldquo;I had to give the father, Mike Gamble, a choice of Hamilton or Brantford. He chose Hamilton.&rdquo; Easto said he didn&rsquo;t know the reason why Gamble picked Hamilton over Brantford but &ldquo;it added up to the fact that he had television interviews (Canada AM) lined up and if he wasn&rsquo;t playing for Hamilton any more&mdash;then it wouldn&rsquo;t be right.&rdquo;Gamble said he didn&rsquo;t realize his son couldn&rsquo;t play in two leagues at the same time. But a minor official reported that the father did the same thing last year until it was detected by Brantford officials.<h2>Keon Advances</h2>HARTFORD&mdash;Veteran Dave Keon of the Hartford Whalers, nearing the end of a 22-year pro career, moved info 12th place on the all-time list of long-playing performers.Keon dressed for his 1,283rd NHL game to pass Phil Esposito, who retired after 1,282 games. Gordie Howe leads all NHLers with 1,767 games played. Keon is the only one still active among the top 25 players who have played the longest in league history.<h2>Wilson&rsquo;s Feat Rare</h2>CHICAGO&mdash;Doug Wilson of the Chicago Black Hawks recently scored his 30th goal of the season and for a defenseman that is a rare feat.In fact, Wilson, a 24-year-old playing his fifth year in the NHL, is only the third defenseman in league history to achieve the feat. Bobby Orr and Denis Potvin were the others. Orr did it five times and Potvin three. The three will be joined later this season by a fourth 30-goal scorer. Paul Coffey of the Edmonton Oilers had 29 goals after his first 66 games.<h2>Gardner Fined</h2>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Center Paul Gardner of the Pittsburgh Penguins not only had his jaw broken after he was sucker punched by Winnipeg&rsquo;s Jimmy Mann but he was also fined by the NHL for his actions on the night of the incident.The NHL slapped Gardner with a $500 fine for a crosscheck he applied to Doug Smail of the Jets in the Jan. 13 game that precipitated the retaliation by Mann. The latter was given a 10-game suspension for striking Gardner.<h2>Hawerchuk No. 1</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;With three weeks remaining in the 1981-82 NHL schedule, the race for rookie honors is starting to heat up.Dale Hawerchuk of the Winnipeg Jets has pushed his way to the front of the freshman race with 90 points but he&rsquo;s getting plenty of competition from Minnesota&rsquo;s Neal Broten and Barry Pederson of Boston.Hawerchuk took a big step towards being the favorite for the Calder Trophy by racking up eight scoring points last week&mdash;five of them in one game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. But neither Pederson nor Broten were exactly sitting idly by. The Boston rookie came up with seven points, four of them goals, while Broten had a five-point week.After the March 14 weekend, Hawerchuk was No. 1 with 90 points, Broten was second with 83 and Pederson stood third with 77. Marian Stastny of the Quebec Nordiques, who many thought had the rookie award locked up in the first half of the schedule, has been losing ground and has fallen 18 points behind Hawerchuk. &#9632;

SLAPSHOTS

<h2>NHL DEADLINE TRADES</h2>CALGARY&mdash;Kari Eloranta, D, recalled from Oklahoma City of CHL and traded to St. Louis for future considerations.COLORADO&mdash;Ed Cooper, LW, recalled from Fort Worth of CHL and traded to Edmonton for Stan Weir, C.DETROIT&mdash;Jim Korn, D, recalled from Adirondack of AHL and traded to Toronto for Leafs&rsquo; 4th round pick in 1982 Entry Draft and 5th round pick in either 1982 or 1983 Entry Draft.EDMONTON&mdash;Doug Hicks, D, traded to Washington for Todd Bidner, LW.MONTREAL&mdash;Guy Lapointe, D, traded to St. Louis for 3rd round pick in 1983 Waiver Draft and a second round pick in 1982 or 1983 Waiver Draft.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Rick Heinz, G, Tony Currie, RW, and Jim Nil], LW, traded to Vancouver for Glen Hanlon, G, and a 4th round pick in 1982 Entry Draft.TORONTO&mdash;Wilf Paiement, RW, traded to Quebec for Miroslav Frycer, RW, and a 7th round pick in 1982 Entry Draft. Laurie Bosch-man, C, traded to Edmonton for Walt Poddubny, C, and Phil Drouillard, LW, currently playing with Niagara Falls of OHL. Edmonton drafted Drouillard 4th in 1981.<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Mike Krushelnyski, C, recalled from Erie of AHL. Tom Fergus, C, sidelined with strained knee ligaments. Wayne Cashman, LW, and Mike Gillis, LW, both returned to lineup from injury list. Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, RW, on injury list.BUFFALO&mdash;Robert Mongrain, C, returned to Rochester of AHL. Bob Hess, D, recalled from Rochester and later returned. Mike Moller, RW, returned to Lethbridge of WHL. John Van Boxmeer, D, returned from injury list. Mongrain and Gilles Hamel, LW, recalled from Rochester. Sean McKenna, RW, drafted 4th in 1980, recalled from Sherbrooke of QMJHL.CALGARY&mdash;Jim Peplinski, RW, sidelined with strained knee ligaments, Pat Riggin, G, back from injury list. Hardy Astrom, G, recalled from Oklahoma City of CHL as standby and later returned. Bruce Eakin, C, 9th draft pick in 1981, recalled from Saskatoon of WHL and later returned.CHICAGO&mdash;Miles Zaharko, D, assigned to New Brunswick of AHL. Steve Larmer, RW, and John Marks, LW, recalled from New Brunswick, Jerome Dupont, D, returned to Toronto of OHL. Bob Murray, D, back from injury list.COLORADO&mdash;Bob Miller, C, Joe Micheletti, D, and Jukka Porvari, RW, all assigned to Fort Worth of CHL. Porvari later recalled. Joe Cirella, D, returned to Oshawa of OHL. Phil Myre, G, recalled from Fort Worth. Rick Laferriere, G, sent back to Fort Worth.DETROIT&mdash;Greg Smith, D, and Danny Gare, RW, returned to lineup from injury list. Greg Joly, D, recalled from Adirondack of AHL. Jim Korn, D, sent to Adiron-dack as replacement.EDMONTON&mdash;Ed Cooper, C, assigned to Wichita of CHL.HARTFORD&mdash;Jordy Douglas, LW, and Stuart Smith, D, both recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Smith later returned.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Scott Gruhl, LW, returned to New Haven of AHL. Daryl Evans, LW, recalled from New Haven as replacement.MINNESOTA&mdash;Mark Johnson, C, acquired from Pittsburgh in exchange for a 1982 second round draft pick. Lindsay Middlebrook, G, returned to Nashville of CHL.MONTREAL&mdash;Pierre Mondou, C, sidelined with stretched knee ligaments. Dave Orleski, LW, recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL and later returned. Ron Langway, D, and Steve Shutt, LW, back from injury list. Doug Risebrough, C, placed on injury list.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Hector Marini, RW, sidelined indefinitely with broken hand.NY RANGERS&mdash;Mike Allison, C, returned from injury list and assigned to Springfield of AHL for two weeks of conditioning. Ed Johnstone, RW, returned to lineup from injury list. Pete Backman, RW, recalled from Springfield. Pete Wallin, LW, sent to Springfield. Ulf Nilsson, C, placed on injury list again after being hurt in Springfield. Mark Morrison, C, returned to Victoria of WHL. Backman returned to Springfield with John Davidson, G, who came off injury list. Allison and Tim Bothwell, D, later recalled from Springfield. Robbie Ftorek, C, on injury list.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Frank Bathe, D, Tim Kerr, C, Bobby Clarke, C, and Paul Holmgren, RW, all returned from injury list. Pelle Lindbergh, G, recalled from Maine of AHL. Gordie Williams, C, returned to Maine.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Nick Ricci, G, Doug Shedden, RW, Steve Gatzos, RW, Bob Simpson, LW, and Gary Rissling, LW, all assigned to Erie of AH. Jim Hamilton, RW, recalled from Erie. Paul Gardner, C, and Pat Graham, LW, returned to lineup from injury list. Pat Hickey, LW, refused to report after NHL awarded him to Nordiques to complete earlier trade with Rangers in which Dean Talafous was swapped for Robbie Ftorek. Talafous also balked and retired.QUEBEC&mdash;Dave Pichette, D, and Wally Weir, LW, returned to lineup from injury list. Pat Hickey, LW, awarded to Quebec by NHL to complete earlier trade between Rangers and Nordiques.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Tony Currie, RW, off injury list. Gerry Hart, D, returned to lineup from injury list. Blair Chapman, RW returned from injury list and assigned to Salt Lake of CHL for conditioning period. Chapman was reinjured at Salt Lake and returned to St. Louis from CHL team. Mark Reeds, RW, recalled from Salt Lake. Jim Pavese, D, returned to S.S. Marie of OHL.TORONTO&mdash;Fred Boimistruck, D, sidelined for 10 days with ankle injury. John Gibson, D, recalled from New Brunswick as replacement. Billy Harris, LW, Bob Manno, D, and Rene Robert, RW, all returned to lineup from injury list. Bob Parent, C, recalled from Cincinnati of CHL. Bruce Boudreau, C, returned to Cincinnati. Dave DeBol, C, sold outright to Calgary. DeBol moved from Cincinnati to Oklahoma City roster. Rene Robert, RW, and Don Luce, C, released after Leafs bought out their contracts.VANCOUVER&mdash;Moe Lemany, LW, returned to Ottawa of OHL.WASHINGTON&mdash;Paul MacKinnon, D, sent to Hershey of AHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;Murray Eaves, C, and Markus Mattson, G, returned to Tulsa. Ed Staniowski, G, returned from injury list.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>BINGHAMTON&mdash;Jeff Pyle, C, returned to Mohawk Valley of ACHL.ERIE&mdash;Jim Craig, G, sidelined with back spasms.FREDERICTON&mdash;Rod Clark, D, Tony Grant, RW, Tim Seymour, C, and Marcus Hodgson, RW, all signed to pro tryouts.MAINE&mdash;Marc-Andre Marchand, D, returned to Mohawk Valley of ACHL. Justin Hanley, C, sent to Toledo of IHL.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Bud Stefanski, C, signed as free agent after playing in Austria. Lawrie Nisker, RW, returned to Saginaw of IHL.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Greg Lynott, D, recalled from Flint of IHL. Al Luciw, D, sent to Flint as replacement.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>FORT WORTH&mdash;Les Auge, D, reported after being assigned by Colorado earlier in season. Neil Nicholson, D, signed as free agent after returning from Europe. Dick Lamby, D, assigned to Muskegon of IHL.INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Bruce Affleck, D, assigned as free agent after returning from Europe. Bruce Andres, LW, assigned to Muskegon of IHL. Rob Holland, G, recalled from Toledo of IHL. Lorne Molleken, G, sent to Toledo as replacement.WICHITA&mdash;Cal Roadhouse, RW, recalled from Muskegon of IHL.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>MUSKEGON&mdash;Tony Horvath, D, traded to Fort Wayne of IHL. Brian Cross, D, assigned by Erie of AHL. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01509/4544357-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Feeling closed in by a no-win situation, Rob Ramage, disappointed with his play and that of his team, resigned his post as captain.</figcaption></div>DENVER&mdash;He had survived one bad season, one fair one and now was mired in the worst situation imaginable. He chose to resign as captain of the Colorado Rockies and requested a trade to another team.The frustration of loss after loss and wounded personal pride from erratic individual play forced the personable and popular 23-year-old Rob Ramage to step down as captain of the 21st-place National Hockey League team. And he promptly indicated he wanted out of a virtual no-win dilemma in the Mile High City.It has been tumult upon tumult for Ramage since he was the No. 1 Entry Draft choice of the Rockies in 1979. He was a disappointment as an NHL rookie, progressed significantly last season and then when hopes were a mile high at the start of the 1981-82 campaign, the air quickly seeped out of Ramage and the Rockies&rsquo; sails. The 1981-82 season has easily been the most discouraging in the six years of the Colorado franchise.Ramage was supposed to be the guy to take charge this season, along with right winger Lanny McDonald. But McDonald was traded in November to Calgary for Don Lever and Bobby MacMillan. Ramage took over as captain and inherited more pressure than he could handle.With offensive-minded defenseman Tapio Levo out with a broken left arm for more than half the season, Ramage tried to do too much at the blueline.In revealing his resignation, he cited his ineffectiveness in fulfilling his role as a primary reason. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t like the player that demands to be traded,&rdquo; said Rockies&rsquo; general manager Billy MacMillan. &ldquo;He just explained the situation he was in by saying he was embarrassed the way he was playing and the sitution was getting to him. And he said it&rsquo;s not like it&rsquo;s the first year, it&rsquo;s been three years.&rdquo;Ramage said that &ldquo;the reason [he resigned) was I don&rsquo;t think I was a leader on the ice the way a captain should be. Regardless of what I say in the dressing room or what emotion I show, I just wasn&rsquo;t doing it on the ice.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">Ramage on resigning: &ldquo;Regardless of what I say&hellip;or what emotion I show, I wasn&rsquo;t doing it on the ice&rdquo;</blockquote>The instability of the franchise and persistent rumors of impending doom&mdash;in the form of a move to another city&mdash;also figured in Ramage&rsquo;s request. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very frustrating to continually read in the papers, day in and day out, about the instability of this team. It&rsquo;s disheartening to be in 21st place and it&rsquo;s kind of frustration overall.&ldquo;Certainly our team here might be looking for something and so are a lot of other teams. Whether it works out to be me or other players remains to be seen. But I didn&rsquo;t put an ultimatum on the thing. You can&rsquo;t really do that. I don&rsquo;t have a no-trade contract. I don&rsquo;t think anyone does, except Darryl Sit-tler,&rdquo; Ramage said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been through it before here and you always try to get your optimism up every training camp. You go into camp and you try to find the positive and ask yourself how are things going to improve this year.&rdquo;From year to year, things haven&rsquo;t improved for the Rockies.Ramage&rsquo;s plus-minus rating was among the worst in the league at around 45 at the time of his decision to resign as captain. &ldquo;It might be tough for me to lead if every time the guys look over, I&rsquo;m fishing the puck out of the net,&rdquo; Ramage said.Nevertheless, the Rockies did not move him before the March 9 trade deadline, instead acquiring center Stan Weir from Edmonton in exchange for minor leaguer Ed Cooper. &#9632;

f0023-01

Leadership Load Too Much For Disenchanted Rockie

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>FREDERICTON &mdash; Richard David was still seeking to become the first player on an expansion team to score 50 goals. At press time he needed 11 more goals and had 18 games to accomplish the feat. David paced the AHL with 16 power play goals while chasing the all-time mark of 21.Lou Sleigher was another member of the Express enjoying a fine season. The rugged performer had nine goals in seven games and had scored in six of those seven contests.Fredericton has been forced to play shorthanded for much of the year, but they were pleased that Quebec had returned Pierre Hamel, Michel Bolduc, Peter Marrin and Wayne Dillon.Though they have the worst record in the AHL, the people of Fredericton continue their fine support and the Express brass are already looking forward to next year. There is talk of another NHL club working with Fredericton in addition to the Nor-diques.Gary Dillon had the only goal in a 2-1 road loss to New Brunswick and Sleigher and Dillon each had a pair in another 9-5 setback to the Moncton crew.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash; The Vees wrapped up a four-game road stretch with two games in two nights in Hershey. Following a 6-4 victory over the Red Wings in Glens Falls, the Voyageurs managed a 5-5 tie against the Bears before dropping a 6-3 decision to Hershey the following day of the weekend series.Jeff Mars and Wayne Thompson accounted for four goals in the win over Adirondack with Mars getting the hat trick in a four-point night while Thompsons was adding a goal and four assists. Goalie Mark Holden kicked out 40 shots to gain the win.Mars earned a goal in the 5-5 overtime tie and three individual scorers accounted for the goals in the 6-3 loss.Guy Carbonneau remained fifth in league scoring with 75 points.NEW BRUNSWICK&mdash;Mike Kaszycki appeared to have the point scoring championship wrapped up after a dazzling five-point performance against the Mariners.Kaszycki, who eclipsed the old New Brunswick scoring mark of 90 set by Bruce Boudreau two years ago, pushed his total to 98 with a goal and four assists in a 10-3 thrashing of the Mariners. The five point outburst gave the veteran a 15-point lead over Erie&rsquo;s Mike Krushelnyski, who was on recall to the NHL&rsquo;s Boston Bruins.The Hawks extended their win streak to four games by topping the Express twice and gaining an important triumph over the Mariners on the road.Dave Farrish and Kaszycki scored in a 2-1 home win over the Express and Russ Adam and Rod Willard chipped in two goals apiece in a 9-5 road success over Fredericton.Flo Robidoux contributed a hat trick to help in the 10-3 win over Maine.Bob Janecyk stood as the AHL&rsquo;s best goalie with his 25-10-4 record and goals-against average of 2.79.MAINE&mdash;Goalie Sam St. Laurent lost his first game before the home fans after a streak of 7-0-1. St. Laurent was making the most of coach Bob McCammon&rsquo;s play-until-you-lose system as he went 3-0-1 in four games before being knocked out by New Brunswick.In four games, the Mariner shot blocker yielded just nine goals and posted three 30-save performances while turning away 126 of 135 shots. His 2.95 goals-against average was second best in the league.St. Laurent&rsquo;s unbeaten streak was ended when he yielded nine goals in a 10-3 loss to New Brunswick. Goalie Pelle Lindbergh, last year&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player in the AHL, was recalled by the Flyers.The &ldquo;Geritol Line&rdquo; was up to its old tricks since being reunited, with Wayne Schaab, Gordie Clark and Paul Evans teaming up for 18 points in four games. Evans tied the all-time Mariner record with seven game-winning goals. All three players remained in the top ten in scoring.Greg Adams had three points in a 5-1 win over Springfield and the Mariners also topped New Haven 5-1 and tied Adirondack 4-4. Clark had the fastest hat trick in Mariners history by scoring three goals in a 4:12 span of the second period against the Wings. &#9632;

David On Board The 50-Goal Express

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01530/4544388-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="599" height="855"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Bernhardt didn&rsquo;t see much action in his four pro years until he came to Rochester.</figcaption></div>ROCHESTER&mdash;Playing on a winning professional hockey team is a new experience for goalie Tim Bernhardt.In his four pro seasons, Bernhardt has never played for a winner, but that has all changed now for the 5-9, 160-pound Sarnia, Ont. native.Thanks to the fine showing of Bernhardt in the nets, the Americans were able to end a slump and begin pressuring the Binghamton Whalers for first place bragging rights in the Southern Division.The Americans and the Calgary-assigned netminder posted eight straight wins and went unbeaten in nine games before they were finally stopped in Erie by the Blades. Bernhardt was aboard for the entire unbeaten streak and displayed a glittering 2.31 goals-against average during the stretch.The win streak was just one shy of the record set by the 1964-65 Joe Crozier coached Americans and the 1973-74 edition led by Don Cherry.&ldquo;Tim&rsquo;s played very, very well and I&rsquo;m happy with his goaltending,&rdquo; said Rochester coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s come in with a lot of confidence and he was a big factor in us going on the winning streak. He didn&rsquo;t play in the CHL very much and he gained his confidence as he was given playing time and he got progressively better.&rdquo;Though Keenan and his players were sorry to see the streak ended they were proud of the fact that Rochester had their most wins in four seasons and had already eclipsed their point total of last year with a month left in the regular season. It was also their best February since 1977-78 as they went 8-3-3.Bernhardt wasn&rsquo;t the only player going well since Bob Mongrain, Gilles Hamel and Kai Suikkanen were also instrumental in Rochester&rsquo;s turnaround. Mongrain was riding a 14-game point scoring streak, Hamel chipping in ten points over a four-game span. Swedish import Suikkanen was hot with 15 points in eight games.Hamel and Mongrain both totaled three points in a 6-3 road win in Erie with Bernhardt making 39 saves and Hamel came back the following night with two goals in a 6-3 loss to the Blades. Then the Sabres recalled the pair.Rochester also skated to a 6-5 victory in Hershey.NEW HAVEN&mdash;The Nighthawks were gearing up for the playoffs with the addition of Bud Stefanski to the lineup. Stefanski will be making his fourth appearance in New Haven after signing a contract with Los Angeles.The 26-year-old center had 27 points in 20 games last year for New Haven where he also played during 1977-78 and 78-79. Stefanski had been playing in Austria.The Nighthawks completed a very successful month of February that saw them get 17 of 24 points with an 8-3-1 record.New Haven was 1-1-1 in their three games with a win over Hershey 5-3, a 5-1 loss to Maine and a 3-3 road tie in Binghamton.Alan Hangsleben had a very satisfying debut in scoring two goals to help beat his former Hershey teammates. Bobby Sheehan also added a pair.Maine stopped New Haven&rsquo; unbeaten road streak at 5-0-1 and the Nighthawks were able to tie Binghamton despite being short three skaters.The latest players to join New Haven were Ian Turnbull, Steve Jensen and Lawrie Nisker.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;After a dismal month of February, the Indians were hoping to turn things around in their quest for a playoff spot. Springfield was just 4-9 during February, but started to turn the tide by winning three of four games.Following a 5-1 home loss to Maine, Springfield posted an impressive 5-2 home triumph against the Red Wings and followed that up by blasting the Blades 8-1 in Erie.Springfield outshot the Mariners 37-21, but still ended up losing with Cam Connor netting the only Indian goal. Five individual scorers lit up the red light in the win over Adirondack and defenseman Ron Plumb passed off for four assists.Bart Wilson and Claude Larose led the way over Erie with Wilson scoring a goal and three assists and Spring-field&rsquo;s leading scorer Larose adding two more goals.Goalie Steve Baker had performed well since being sent down by the Rangers as the veteran played five games in eight days while winning two, losing three and checking in a goals against-average of 3.01.The Rangers continued their player moves by sending both Mike Allison and Peter Wallin to Springfield while recalling Mike Backman, who was returned shortly. Allison&rsquo;s stay was also brief and he went back up to the Rangers along with defenseman Tim Bothwell.ERIE&mdash;Jim Hamilton continued to be the most consistent performer in a Blades&rsquo; uniform by ringing up 15 goals over a 16-game stretch. The Penguin-owned prospect had managed to keep up his goal scoring touch despite moving from one line to another. He was later called up to Pittsburgh.Erie stopped their four-game losing streak by dealing Rochester a 6-3 loss at home with Hamilton and Rob Garner both chipping in two goals apiece. Gamer totaled four goals over a three-game stretch.Goalie Jim Craig made 41 saves in a 4-2 road loss in Binghamton and then was admitted to a hospital with back spasms. Erie also fell to Rochester 6-3 and were bombed at home by Springfield 8-1 as Dick Redmond tallied the only Erie score. The Blades had lost nine of 11 games.Because of injuries and recalls not one player had appeared in every Blades&rsquo; game. Wingers Bobby Simpson and Steve Gatzos were reassigned to the Blades by the Penguins while leading scorer Mike Krushelnyski was called up by the Boston Bruins.HERSHEY&mdash;Jean Pronovost continued to perform admirably for the Bears since his demotion by the Washington Caps early in the season.Pronovost collected two goals along with Tom Rowe to spark the Bears to a 6-3 home win over Nova Scotia. The rightwinger notched his 12th power play goal for the season and also led the club with seven first goals.The NHL veteran had scored nearly a point per game as he showed 41 points in 46 contests.Wes Jarvis helped the Bears end a three-game losing streak by scoring five points on a goal and four assists in Hershey&rsquo;s 5-5 overtime tie with Nova Scotia before 5,335. Jarvis also took over the team scoring leadership with 55 points, four better than Harvie Pocza.BINGHAMTON&mdash;Bob Sullivan extended his scoring streak by getting at least one point in 27 consecutive games. Sullivan broke the 24-game record set by Tom Burlington 36 years ago with a third period goal against Erie.Sullivan was also looking to pass the AHL rookie goal scoring record of 44 as he collected his 40th goal as this issue went to press.Though they were held to a 3-3 tie at home with New Haven, the Whalers were still unbeaten over 11 home games at 10-0-1 and showed a 17-4-3 record in their last 24 games.Binghamton had also established new team records for most home wins (23) and most points at home with 48.ADIRONDACK&mdash;The Red Wings continued to struggle, but they did manage to end their team record seven-game losing streak by gaining a 4-4 tie in Portland. In that game, backup goalie Yvan Charbonneau was forced to take over for injured Larry Lozinski and the Red Wings rallied around the young shot blocker who was making his first AHL appearance.Coach Doug McKay&rsquo;s crew was still looking for a win on home ice as they went nine straight outings without winning before the SRO crowds at the Civic Center. The Red Wings&rsquo; last home victory came on January 23 when they edged Fredericton 3-1. Over a 15-game stretch the Red Wings showed a record of 1-12.2. &#9632;

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Amerks’ Goalie Gets Big Kick Out Of Winning

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyTULSA&mdash;Yves Dechene, 23-year-old goaltender from Quebec City, had been languishing on the bench for most of five months, but when he finally got a chance to play regularly for the Oilers, he was suddenly the hottest netminder in the CHL. Yves ran his personal winning streak to seven games (one in relief), and posted his second shutout in two years of pro hockey.The red-hot Oilers ran their streak to nine straight by cooling off the Wichita Wind, 4-0 at home behind Dechene&rsquo;s shutout and 4-2 in Kansas Coliseum, then capping the week with a come-from-behind 6-5 overtime home decision over Oklahoma City.Kris Manery had two goals in Wichita, one each in the other games, to run his new streak to four games. (His league record 11-game goal streak had been snapped a week earlier.) With 49 goals, Kris was only four short of the club record and led his closest CHL challenger, Kelly Kisio of Dallas, by three. Manery had the winning goal in Wichita, his ninth of the season, breaking a club record.The streak had pulled the Oilers into a seven-point bulge over Dallas, eight over Wichita, in the South Division race. Battling for the final playoff berth, Oklahoma City was four points ahead of Fort Worth.Sandy Beadle got the only goal the Oilers needed Friday night, but for two periods that was all the scoring, as the Wind&rsquo;s league-leading goalie Andy Moog staged a. brilliant duel with Dechene. Doug Lecuyer, Ben Gosselin and Manery put the game away with third-period Tulsa tallies.Power play goals by Manery and Dave Chartier put the Oilers on top the next night when the series shifted to Wichita. The Wind tied it early in the second on goals by Curt Brackenbury (power play) and Cal Roadhouse. But only 33 seconds after Roadhouse had tied the game, Manery got a breakaway goal. Tom Gibson collected the Oilers&rsquo; third power goal before that period ended.The zip was missing when the Oilers fell two goals down to archrival Oklahoma City in the opening period Sunday afternoon. Moe Mantha, Rick Bowness and Lecuyer scored for the rallying Oilers in the second period, Gibson in the third, but the Tulsans couldn&rsquo;t catch up until Manery&rsquo;s goal at 11:52 of the last period. At 2:37 of the overtime, Ron Wilson had his first attempt blocked by a defender, but he rushed in to get the puck, and scored on his next try.Center Murray Eaves came back after two weeks with the parent Winnipeg Jets, and ran his point-scoring streak to 12 games. The Oilers signed Jeff Nix to a contract as general manager (he had been sharing that title with general partner Mark Eben-hack) and gave trainer Dick Young a three-year contract.WICHITA&mdash;A 5-3 home triumph over Fort Worth ran the Wind&rsquo;s winning skein to eight games, but that was broken in two games with Tulsa, a 4-0 shutout in Tulsa and a 4-2 loss at home. The Wind acquired veteran right wing Rick Blight, who had started the season in Cincinnati, but left the Tigers to play in Europe. Robert Polman-Tuin was brought in from Milwaukee in the International League as backup goalie to replace the ailing Gord Garbutt. Defenseman Jay MacFarlane was sent to Milwaukee.Ken Berry and Mike Forbes had power play goals 39 seconds apart against Fort Worth, after the Texans&rsquo; Jack Hughes drew a third-period match penalty. Lance Nethery, Roy Sommer and Blair Barnes had scored earlier for the Wind.FORT WORTH&mdash;Battling to avoid elimination from the playoffs, the cellar-dwelling Texans blasted archrival Dallas, 7-1, before a standing-room-only crowd of 6,547, the first sellout at Will Rogers Coliseum in four years. Earlier the Texans had won in Oklahoma City (4-3) and lost in Wichita (5-2), but they followed the victory with a 5-4 home loss to Salt Lake.Margaret Harris, wife of owner Kraig Harris, was announced as the club&rsquo;s new administrative manager, heading up the front office with promotions and group sales responsibilities. Tara Hagen will be her administrative assistant, in charge of the box office and co-ordinating the volunteer help at the games. Doug Christoff moved over from the sales department to become public relations director. The club will work without a general manager for the rest of the season. The moves were made after the firing of GM Allan Rajanen and p.r. director Mike Stern and the resignations of administrative assistant Nancy Janda and sales employee Sue Smith.The Miller brothers, Bobby and Paul, scored around a goal by Bob Attwell for a 3-1 Texans lead in the first period against Dallas. Bobby Crawford scored in the second, then Jim Dobson, Peter Gustavsson and Ed Cooper iced the victory in the third. Paul Miller, Hughes, Dan Lempe and Attwell scored in the rallying victory over Oke City.Veteran goalie Phil Myre worked all four games, then was recalled by the Colorado Rockies, and Rick LaFer-riere rejoined the Texans.OKLAHOMA CITY&mdash;The struggling Stars lost their ninth straight game, and saw what was once a 12-point lead over Fort Worth dwindle to four in their battle for the last playoff position. They began a six-game roadswing by bowing in Fort Worth (4-3), twice in Cincinnati (4-2 and 7-4), and in Tulsa (6-5 in overtime). Goalie Hardy Astrom returned from a brief callup to Calgary, but defender Gord Wappel was out with an injury.Dave Debol had four goals, including two at Tulsa, where the Stars jumped in front on scores by Dave Hindmarch and Brad Kempthorne. In the first game at Cincy, Grant Rezan-soff spoiled Bob Parent&rsquo;s shutout bid with 3:54 left in the game. Kempthor-ne&rsquo;s shot went into the net after the game-ending green light came on, but before the buzzer sounded. Since Parent had thrown his stick at the puck, the goal was awarded in lieu of a penalty shot.DALLAS&mdash;The road was proving unkind for the Black Hawks. They were beaten in Salt Lake twice (6-5 and 5-3) and then in Fort Worth (7-1), for their seventh straight loss, ninth game without a victory, away from home.Jim MacRae got the only goal off Fort Worth netminder Phil Myre at 5:29 of the first period. In the first tilt at Salt Lake, a three-goal burst in the last five minutes fell short. Bill Hoga-boam and Kelly Kisio tallied 23 seconds apart, and Joe McDonnell scored with 38 seconds left. Steve Hazlett and MacRae had counted in the first period. Kisio had two goals, Art Rutland the other, in the rematch.SALT LAKE&mdash;After two home decisions over Dallas (6-5 and 5-3), the Golden Eagles embarked on a six-game road trip by winning in Fort Worth (5-4). League-leading scorer Richie Hansen (93 points) picked up five assists for a total of 67, only one short of the CHL record set by Jim Lorentz for Oklahoma City in 1968-69 and tied by J.P. LeBlanc for Dallas in 1971-72.Denis Houle&rsquo;s hat trick featured the first win over Dallas, with John Taft, Mark Reeds and Doug Palazzari also scoring. Palazzari scored twice, including an empty-net goal, in the rematch, as Perry Anderson, Taft and Bobby Crawford also tallied. Anderson returned to duty after missing two games with a hip-pointer. That meant, for the first time since 1976-77 and only the second time in franchise history, no Golden Eagle player would appear in every game this season.NASHVILLE&mdash;Dropping a pair to Indianapolis (6-2 at home, 8-3 on the road) made it three straight losses for the South Stars at the hands of the Checkers. Nashville fell into the division cellar, two points behind Indy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01463/4544443-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="610" height="754"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tulsa didn&rsquo;t choose to use Yves Dechene earlier in the season, but he&rsquo;s led them into first place.</figcaption></div>Archie Henderson received two game misconducts in the loss at Indy, running his league-leading penalty total to 287 minutes. Robbie Moore, who had been handling all the South Stars&rsquo; goaltending, was relieved by Jim Stewart early in the middle period. Goals by Bob Boileau and Daniel Poulin gained a 2-2 tie in the second period of the home game, but the Checkers came back strong.INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Bruce Affleck, the CHL&rsquo;s most valuable defenseman the past two seasons, rejoined the Checkers after completing the European season and scored three goals and five assists in two victories over Nashville. He had six points (two goals, four assists) to tie a club record in an 8-3 home victory, after getting one of each in the 6-2 win at Nashville the previous night.Frank Beaton received a one-game suspension from CHL president Bud Poile for being first off the bench in a team brawl in the home game. Goalie Rob Holland returned from Toledo in the International League, and Lome Molleken went down to replace him. Mats Hallin returned from a knee injury layoff.Steve Stoyanovich had two early goals in the triumph at Nashville. After the South Stars rallied to tie, Red Laurence, Affleck, Randy Johnston and Garth McGuigan cemented the victory. Four goals in the middle period&mdash;two by Affleck&mdash;won the home rematch.The Checkers announced their Mar. 23 game with Tulsa will be a benefit for injured race driver Jan Opperman, who is slowly recovering from head injuries suffered in a race crash last June. Besides receiving the profits from game tickets sold in the drive, Opperman will also benefit from an auction to be held after the game.CINCINNATI&mdash;Center Bruce Boudreau, once the CHL&rsquo;s top scorer, rejoined the Tigers after a month in Toronto. Before his return the Tigers were down to 13 skaters, but still beat Oke City twice at home, 4-2 and 7-4.Frank Nigro had five goals in the two games, including a hat trick in the first. The 22-year-old forward from Richmond Hill, Ont., was sidelined all last season (at. New Brunswick in the American League) by a knee injury.Goalie Bob Parent, who had toiled in 56 of the Tigers&rsquo; 65 games, was summoned by Toronto after the Friday victory, leaving Curt Ridley as the lone Cincy netminder.Nigro got all his goals in the third period of the Friday game, after Gary Yaremchuk of the Tigers had the only tally of the first two periods. Parent&rsquo;s shutout bid was spoiled by OC&rsquo;s Grant Rezansoff after 56:06.The Tigers announced a $100,000 prize giveaway for their Mar. 28 game with Indianapolis. Among more than 150 prizes to be given away will be a new Toyota, a six-day Bahama cruise for two, trips to Hawaii and San Diego, rent for an apartment for two years, and use of an outdoor billboard for three months. &#9632;

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Oilers Put Goalie Dechene To Work To Spurt Ahead In South Standings

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01479/4544474-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Chicken, a.k.a Ted Giannoulas, paid a visit to the IHL and Toledo, where he dropped in on Goaldiggers&rsquo; president Bill Beagan.</figcaption></div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeySAGINAW&mdash;It hasn&rsquo;t been a very good year for the defending International Hockey League Turner Cup champions. Or for player-coach Marcel Comeau. Especially on the road.After winning their first road game of the season at Flint, the Gears struggled through a month before winning another on foreign ice. The Gears weren&rsquo;t doing much better at home, either.Saginaw spent a portion of the season in the cellar. When the Gears weren&rsquo;t last, they weren&rsquo;t far from it. And while all but one IHL team will compete in the post-season playoffs, the Gears&rsquo; chances of being one of the six appeared to be in considerable jeopardy.Not any more. Saginaw has turned things around and heads down the stretch with a solid grip on fourth place. Saginaw is 10 points removed from last. Barring a complete reversal, the Gears will be in the playoffs. And the way Saginaw has been playing, defending the playoff championship doesn&rsquo;t appear beyond the realm of possibility.&ldquo;The turnaround is due to more confidence,&rdquo; the soft-spoken Comeau said about the Gears&rsquo; recent success which brought victory eight times in 12 games. The record over that span is an impressive 8-2-2.The remarkable thing about the Gears&rsquo; recent success is they&rsquo;ve been playing shorthanded. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had a full team for about 10 days,&rdquo; Comeau pointed out following a recent road win at Fort Wayne, their second straight. That&rsquo;s twice as many as the Gears managed during the first month of the season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing as a team now,&rdquo; said Steve Salvucci, who has scored 38 goals for the Gears since rejoining the team after being cut adrift by Fort Wayne. Comeau adds, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been getting good goaltending, too.&rdquo; Mike Blake and Paul Pageau have shared the Saginaw goaling.The Gears enjoyed a near-perfect week as they increased their lead over fifth-place Fort Wayne to four points. Saginaw swept a two-game road series, winning at Muskegon and Fort Wayne by identical, 6-4 scores. In the game at Muskegon, the Gears bounced back from a 3-0 deficit. J.P. Dubois led the attack at Fort Wayne with four goals. &ldquo;The most goals I&rsquo;ve ever had in a game before was two,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had a lot of those. But never more.&rdquo;The week ended with a 3-3 tie against front-skating Toledo at home. The five-point pickup left Saginaw with a 29-30-6 record and 64 points.Elsewhere in the IHL:TOLEDO&mdash;The Diggers had another winning week as they attempted to open some daylight on red-hot Kalamazoo. Toledo skated 2-1-1 with the loss being a 7-5 decision to Kalamazoo at home before the largest crowd of the season, 5,001. An appearance by the Dan Diego Chicken, plus the first-second place confrontation, contributed to the near sellout crowd.The loss to Kalamazoo was only the sixth at home this season for Toledo. The Diggers played well enough to win, outshooting the K-Wings, 48-21. But Wing goalie Corrado Micalef was the difference.On the plus side, the Diggers defeated Flint, 5-1, and Milwaukee, 7-4, in home games and skated to a 3-3 tie at Saginaw. The week results left Toledo with a 40-21-4 record and 85 points.KALAMAZOO&mdash;The K-Wings&rsquo; streak towards the top has proven a box-office bonanza as well. A sellout crowd of 5,129 was on hand as the Wings whipped the Flint Generals, 5-2, to make up for an 8-4 humiliation the night before in Flint. The impressive victory, featuring Steve Banonis&rsquo; eighth winning goal of the season, was one of three the Wings posted during the week as they continued to close in on front-skating Toledo. The highlight was the 7-5 win in Toledo.Kalamazoo had lost just three times in a span of 18 games, posting 14 wins and a tie.MILWAUKEE&mdash; The Admirals found the needed spark in Flint to salvage what had been a disastrous road trip. After dropping three straight (at Kalamazoo, 6-2; Toledo, 7-4, and Fort Wayne, 7-4) Milwaukee rebounded with an 8-2 win at Flint. They closed out the week with a 3-2 win over the Generals at home.Manager-coach Phil Witliff contributed the turnaround to a &ldquo;soulsearching meeting.&rdquo; He &ldquo;added, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a better team than what we&rsquo;ve been playing. Every season is a series of peaks and valleys and we&rsquo;ve been in a valley.&rdquo;Dan Lecours led the explosion at Flint with four goals. Milwaukee ended the week with a 33-25-7 record.FORT WAYNE&mdash;The Komet troubles on the road continued with a 9-2 whipping Muskegon, marking the 16th straight game without a win for the K&rsquo;s away from the Memorial Coliseum. The Komets split at home, beating Milwaukee, 7-4, before losing to Saginaw, 6-4. Coach Ron Ullyot has brought in veteran Tony Horvath in an effort to beef up the Komet defense. Horvath, who last played for Muskegon in the IHL, has been playing senior hockey in Canada.The Komet record dropped to 25-35-5. Fort Wayne was four points behind fourth-place Saginaw and four up on sixth-place Flint.FLINT&mdash;The Generals managed but one victory in five starts as they slipped farther behind Fort Wayne in an effort to move up in the standings. The lone victory was impressive: An 8-4 rout of Kalamazoo led by veteran Len Fontaine&rsquo;s hat trick. But that was the only game manager-coach Ted Garvin enjoyed. The Generals dropped three on the road&mdash;at Toledo, 5-1, Kalamazoo, 5-2, and Milwaukee, 3-2. They also were whipped at home by Milwaukee, 8-2. The week found Flint with a 24-37-4-56 record and just two points out of last place.MUSKEGON&mdash;The Mohawks split a pair of home games to stay within reach of Flint and the final playoff berth. The last-place Mohawks played like Turner Cup champions in routing Fort Wayne, 9-2. Jimmy Jackson and Marc Roy had a pair of goals while Ron Hansis, who started the season with the Komets, had a goal and five assists.It was back to looking like a lastplace club the next time out as Saginaw bounced back from a 3-0 deficit to drop the Hawks, 6-4. &#9632;

f0026-01

Defending Champs Enmeshed As Playoff Threat

<div class="byline">BY BILL HIGDON</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyCLINTON&mdash;Mohawk Valley fans, over 3,000 of them in various states of delirium, whooped it up far into the wee hours after their beloved Stars clinched the first Atlantic Coast Hockey League championship with a 4-3 victory over never-say-die Salem on March 12.The Stars wrote a four-game-to-two series finish in old Clinton Arena, beating coach Pat Kelly&rsquo;s Raiders three in a row after Salem had moved up two games to one. It was ironic that the Raiders&rsquo; demise came in the Arena where Kelly directed the old Clinton Comets to the last of their three successive Eastern Hockey League Walker Cup championships in 1970.&ldquo;If we couldn&rsquo;t win, I&rsquo;m glad it was the Stars,&rdquo; said Kelly. &ldquo;There are a lot of great die-hard fans around Clinton, and they deserve another championship.&rdquo;Mohawk Valley never trailed in game six after Ed Walker and Dave Tracey beat Salem&rsquo;s standout goalie, Gillies Moffet, to give the Stars a 2-0 advantage in the first period.Salem closed within a goal on a score by team captain Bruce Greig with 43 seconds to go in the second period.Marc Marchand made it 3-1 for MV at 14:06 of the tense third period, but Ian Tennant struck back at 17:49 for Salem and it was 3-2&mdash;just what you might expect from two evenly matched rivals.Tracey scored his sixth goal in the championship series and 10th in the playoffs, providing the title-winner 26 seconds later, and Salem tallied its last-gasp goal with Tom Mullen scoring 20 seconds ahead of the final buzzer while Moffet was on the bench to allow the Kellymen an extra man on attack.Stars goalie Bill Provencher rejected 28 shots while Moffet had a sensational 46 saves against the club which finished second behind Salem in the abbreviated regular season, cut to 47 games after three of the original seven teams failed to last out the campaign.Through the first four Atlantic Coast Hockey League championship series playoff games, the host teams sent their fans home singing victory tunes.Then the determined Mohawk Valley Stars cracked the ice beneath coach Pat Kelly&rsquo;s regular season pennant winners, skating off with a 5-3 win which wheeled the invaders from upstate New York to a three-games-to-two series advantage in the best-of-seven elimination.At that critical point, Kelly revealed his team was without home ice in the event of a seventh game, and he agreed to play both games six and seven in unfriendly Clinton Arena, the home away from home haven of the Stars.Clinton is the site of many of Kelly&rsquo;s fondest memories and proudest moments, however. It was there he piloted the old Clinton Comets to five division titles and three straight Eastern Hockey League championships (1968-69-70).In such an atmosphere, the Raiders dropped game four to the Stars, 9-2. The first-place club never was in the game, and Kelly&rsquo;s hopes hinged on regrouping his slipping trooops and combatting the fierce forechecking he knew they would face in the remaining games.After Mohawk Valley won the series opener in Utica Memorial Auditorium, 4-3, on Dave Tracy&rsquo;s ovetime goal, Salem turned the tables with a pair of home wins, 7-2 and 4-3, with Paul Stasiuk notching both the winning goals, before the Stars embarrassed the Kellymen at Clinton with eight of coach Bill Horton&rsquo;s stalwarts scoring a goal apiece and Ron Scales tallying a pair to pace the victors.Back to Salem for game five, Horton said the Stars must win. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to go back to Salem,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and if we can beat them tonight, like we did here twice during the regular season, I&rsquo;ll bet we clinch the championship in our next game at home.&rdquo;He bet right. &#9632;

Third Straight Win Gives Stars ACHL Crown

<div class="byline">BY B. L. ELFRING</div>NORTH ANDOVER, MA.&mdash;A month ago, they were in the middle of one of the worst February slumps they had ever experiences. But at presstime, the Merrimack College Warriors were just two games away from bringing the NCAA Division Two National title back to North Andover.Head coach Bruce Parker&rsquo;s squad defeated Mankato State University twice to capture its quarterfinal round, two-games, total-goals series by an 11-7 margin. The Warriors beat the visiting Mavericks, the only team to be in all five Division Two national tournaments, 5-3 and 6-4, to set up a semifinal date with archrival Lowell.After defeating Lowell, 5-3, on the road Jan. 30, the Warriors went into a February slump that saw them lose six of their last eight games and earn only a third seed in the ECAC Division Two East playoffs.But the Warriors seem to have regained the winning touch that kept them at the heels of Lowell prior to the losing stretch. Bowdoin fell to the Warriors, 7-4, in the ECAC quarterfinals, and second seeded Babson lost at home in the semifinals, 3-2, as Merrimack earned the right to play Lowell in the finals for the third straight year. The good tidings failed to carry over, though, Lowell prevailing by a 5-1 score.Senior Jeff Bullock became a one-man wrecking squad against the visitors from Minnesota, scoring a hat trick in the first night&rsquo;s action, followed by two more goals the second night. Merrimack captain Mickey Rego added three goals in the series to go over the 200-career point plateau.Ten miles south on Interstate 495, Lowell used a hat trick from junior winger Mark Kumpel, two coming 19 seconds apart while the Chiefs were shorthanded, to defeat visiting Oswego State 9-5, the first night of that series.Head coach Bill Hiley&rsquo;s Chiefs were locked in a 3-3 struggle with the ECAC Division Two West regular season champs before Kumpel exploded. Through 31 games this season, Lowell has scored 23 shorthanded goals while allowing only 22 power play scores.The second night was no fun for Riley&rsquo;s troops as freshman Jerry Morrissey&rsquo;s two third period goals gave the Great Lakers a 4-3 win. Don Unger&rsquo;s troops may have won the battle, but they lost the war. falling to the Chiefs, 12-9, on total goals.In the third quarterfinal series involving ECAC teams, this year&rsquo;s ECAC West champs, Plattsburgh State, had all it could handle with ECAC East foe Babson College. The first night, Herb Hammond&rsquo;s Cardinals edged the visiting Beavers, 4-3.Knowing that they had to win by one to force the series into overtime, Steve Stirling&rsquo;s Beavers went all out, but could only manage a 1-1 tie over 60 minutes (no overtime), giving the Cardinals a 5-4 total goals victory and a return trip to the NCAA semifinals.Plattsburgh&rsquo;s Gaetan D&rsquo;Anjou and Babson&rsquo;s Paul Donato scored seven minutes apart in the second period and that was it as goaltenders Steve Knish of Plattsburgh and Rick Cohen of Babson combined to stop 75 shots. &#9632;

Merrimack Revived For Title Shot

<h2>NCAA PLAYOFF PAIRINGS</h2><h3>DIVISION I</h3>PRELIMINARY ROUNDFrl-Sat. Mar. 19-20Harvard at WisconsinClarkson at North DakotaMich. State at New HampshireBowling Green at No. Dakota(All series two-game total-goals)<h3>QUARTERFINALS</h3>All games at Providence, RIThu. March 25Four preliminary winners(Sudden-death games)<h3>SEMIFINALS</h3>Fri. March 26Two quarterfinal winners(Sudden-death game)<h3>FINALS</h3>Sat. March 27Two semifinal winners(Sudden-death game)<h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2><h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>SEMIFINALSNotre Dame 8, Bowling Green 5Mich. State 3, Mich. Tech 2(Sudden-death games)CONSOLATIONBowling Green 2, Mich. Tech 1CHAMPIONSHIPMich. State 4, Notre Dame 1<h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>DIVISION I PLAYOFFS</h3>QUARTERFINALSClarkson 7, Colgate 4Northeastern 5, St. Lawrence 3N. Hampshire 4, Providence 2Harvard 2, Boston College 0SEMIFINALSNortheastern 4, N. Hampshire 2Harvard 7, Clarkson 1CONSOLATIONN. Hampshire 6, Clarkson 5CHAMPIONSHIPNortheastern 5, Harvard 2<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2><h3>PLAYOFFS</h3>SEMIFINALSMinnesota 4, Wisconsin 3Wisconsin 6, Minnesota 2(Wisconsin wins two-game series 9-6)North Dakota 4, Denver 3North Dakota 5, Denver 2(North Dakota wins two-game series 9-5)<h3>FINALS</h3>Wisconsin 9, North Dakota 0Wisconsin 3, North Dakota 1(Wisconsin wins two-game series 12-1)<h2>NCAA PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>DIVISION II</h3>QUARTERFINALSLowell 9, Oswego St. 5Oswego St. 4, Lowell 3(Lowell wins two-game series 12-9)Merrimack 5, Mankato St 3Merrimack 6, Mankato St 4(Merrimack wins two-game series 11-7)Plattsburgh St. 4, Babson 3Plattsburgh St 1, Babson 1(Plattsburgh St. wins two-game series 5-4)Gustavus Adolphus 7, St. Scholastics 4Gustavus Adolphus 9, St. Scholastica 1(Gustavus Adolphus wins two-game series 16-5)<h3>SEMIFINALS</h3>Thu. March 18Lowell vs MerrimackFri. March 19Plattsburgh vs G. AdolphusSat. March 20Consolation & championship finals(All games sudden-death at Lowell, MA)<h2>ECAC DIVISION (Final Standings)</h2><h3>DIVISION I EAST REGION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01451/4544752-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="545" height="190"></div><h3>WEST REGION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02322/4544745-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="550" height="161"></div><h3>IVY REGION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03242/4544738-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="545" height="193"></div><h3>INDEPENDENT</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04181/4544731-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="540" height="57"></div><h2>Final Standings</h2><h3>DIVISION II EAST REGION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05157/4544724-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="549" height="443"></div><h3>WEST REGION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06138/4544717-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="547" height="263"></div><h3>NYCHA REGION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07128/4544710-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="552" height="262"></div><h2>CCHA CONFERENCE (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-08118/4544703-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg" title="f0028-08" width="555" height="364"></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-09112/4544696-1-eng-US/f0028-092.jpg" title="f0028-09" width="549" height="194"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-10109/4544689-1-eng-US/f0028-102.jpg" title="f0028-10" width="549" height="572"></div><h2>PENN CONFERENCE (Standings on Wed. March 3)</h2><h3>WEST PENN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-11101/4544682-1-eng-US/f0028-112.jpg" title="f0028-11" width="548" height="168"></div><h3>GREATER PITT DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1297/4544675-1-eng-US/f0028-122.jpg" title="f0028-12" width="552" height="194"></div><h2>SCHA CONFERENCE (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1389/4544668-1-eng-US/f0028-132.jpg" title="f0028-13" width="549" height="246"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Alabama 8, Tennessee 1Alabama 8, Tennessee 2Alabama 27, Auburn 0CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENTDuke vs TennesseeAlabama vs Auburn(Sudden-death games)<h2>MIDWEST CONFERENCE (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1479/4544661-1-eng-US/f0028-142.jpg" title="f0028-14" width="550" height="217"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Ohio Univ. 5, Denison 2Ohio Univ. 7, Denison 2Dayton 9, Indiana 6Indiana 8, Dayton 7Toledo 8, Purdue 3Toledo 8, Purdue 3<h3>FINAL LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1575/4544654-1-eng-US/f0028-152.jpg" title="f0028-15" width="547" height="88"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1659/4544647-1-eng-US/f0028-162.jpg" title="f0028-16" width="549" height="366"></div><h2>CANADIAN COLLEGES</h2><h3>ROUND-ROBIN PLAYOFFS</h3>POOL A<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1745/4544640-1-eng-US/f0028-172.jpg" title="f0028-17" width="561" height="143"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Moncton 3, Brandon 1Toronto 4, Brandon 2Moncton 8, Toronto 3POOL A<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1842/4544633-1-eng-US/f0028-182.jpg" title="f0028-18" width="558" height="139"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Saskatchewan 4, Concordia 3Concordia 6, Regina 5Saskatchewan 8, Regina 2CHAMPIONSHIP FINALMoncton 3, Saskatchewan 2(Moncton wins sudden-death final)<h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1939/4544626-1-eng-US/f0028-192.jpg" title="f0028-19" width="562" height="111"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Guelph 6, Toronto 5Toronto 4, Guelph 3Toronto 5, Guelph 4<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-2032/4544619-1-eng-US/f0028-202.jpg" title="f0028-20" width="551" height="111"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>T-Rlvieres 5, Concordia 3Concordia 5, T-Rlvleres 3Concordia 7, T-Rlvleres 2<h3>SEMI-FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-2132/4544612-1-eng-US/f0028-212.jpg" title="f0028-21" width="561" height="241"></div><h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-2229/4544605-1-eng-US/f0028-222.jpg" title="f0028-22" width="556" height="111"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Moncton 7, UPEI 4Moncton 6, UPEI 3<h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-2328/4544598-1-eng-US/f0028-232.jpg" title="f0028-23" width="546" height="112"></div><h2>GPAC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-2423/4544591-1-eng-US/f0028-242.jpg" title="f0028-24" width="547" height="118"></div><h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-2522/4544584-1-eng-US/f0028-252.jpg" title="f0028-25" width="551" height="111"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Seneca 4, Humber 3Seneca 4, Humber 3 &#9632;

f0028-01

How They Stand In College Races

<h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE</h2><h3>First Team AllStars</h3>GoalTERRY THOMPSON, aurierDefenseRAY IRWIN, GuelphRICK MASTROLUISI. McMasterForwardsPAUL STOTHART, Queen&rsquo;sSTELIO ZURPANCICH, TorontoRON DAVIDSON, Queen s<h3>Second Team All Stars</h3>GoalDAVE JAMIESON, TorontoDefenseMIKE KASDIAK, WaterlooJOHN CAMPBELL. YorkForwardsANDRE HIDI, TorontoLANCE MILLER, McMasterDARREN LOWE, TorontoCoach of YearBILL PURCELL, Toronto<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2>GoalDAN BURROWS, ConcordiaSTEPHANE HEON, ConcordiaDefenseMIKE WALKER, ConcordiaSERGE TOURCOTTE, LavalForwardsPAUL BEDARD, Bishop&rsquo;sANDRE CARLOS, T-RivieresFRANCOIS ST. MARIE, ChicoutimiCoach of YearPAUL ARSENAULT, Concordia(*-Tied in voting)<h2>GPAC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>First Team All Stars</h3>GoalPARRELL BAUMGARTNER, ReginaDefenseTIM WICIJOWSKI. ReginaJOHN TRESOOR, BrandonForwardsLARRYELL, ReginaTIM MORRISON, BrandonGREG ING, Regina<h3>Second Team All Stars</h3>GoalOSCOR BORTUZZO, LakeheadDefenseTOM MARSH, BrandonGRAHAM LANGELY. LakeheadForwardsBOB LAFRENIERE, ManitobaGERRY GALLOWAY, ReginaHENRY RUBERT, LakeheadCoach of YearREG HIGGS. Regina &#9632;

All Star Teams

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;Northeastern University lost something big at the twenty-first ECAC Division One Championship Tournament. The sympathy vote.Yes, the Huskies lost a freight train load of sympathy that they&rsquo;d taken two decades to accumulate. Nobody is going to feel sorry for poor little Northeastern for a long, long time.The championship final game before 10,979 in Boston Garden saw the Huntington Hounds, perennially over-looked and picked to finish 15th in the 17-team league this year, convincingly beat a scrappy Harvard team 5-2. A few weeks earlier, NU had made the mistake of trying to skate with the whippet-fast Johns and lost 6-3. This time, it was a muscle game that worked to the Huskies&rsquo; advantage as the Crimson, able to take and dish out a fair amount of bashing, were nonetheless unable to freewheel as they did in their quarter and semifinal victories.For coach Fernie Flaman and his seven seniors, the second place finish in the regular season and the three solid playoff wins were the sweetest of vindication. Flaman has been around Huntington Avenue for 12 years now, and even though NU made the playoffs for the first time since 1967 last season, the skeptics had remained unconvinced. Too much the gentleman to single out the doubters among the media types in the post-game locker room, Flaman was content to remind people once again that, yes. Northeastern is for real.The Huskies didn&rsquo;t have a breather on the way to the final, either. Seventh-seeded St. Lawrence gave them all they could handle before bowing 5-3 in the quarterfinal at Northeastern Arena. New Hampshire, second best in the East by a mere whisker, didn&rsquo;t yield until the final minute of play in the Friday semifinal at Boston Garden.Sophomore wing Bob Averill scored the winning goal in all three games but Mark Davidner, the junior goalie who&rsquo;s blown hot and cold for much of the season, played all three contests too and was named Tournament MVP.Davidner stopped 35 shots against St. Lawrence, 41 against UNH, and 38 against Harvard. In every case, the young man from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan had more saves than his opposing number. No stop was more important than the one he made with 6:17 to play against New Hampshire and the score tied. UNH wing George White sneaked through the Hound defense and fired from straight on. Davidner went down and made the stop but kicked the rebound back at the onrushing White.White picked up the disc and flipped it. The puck clicked against the crossbar and fell onto the prone Davidner&rsquo;s belly. Mark smothered the puck somehow and Northeastern grabbed momentum again. The game-winner came at 19:25 when Averill, stationed at the inner lip of the left wing faceoff circle, extended his stick to redirect a drive from the wing boards by Jim Madigan. The puck slipped in behind Todd Pearson, waist high to the glove side. Gerry Cowie added an empty net tally at 19:49.The Harvard-NU game wasn&rsquo;t nearly as good a contest, but it was still in doubt early in the third period when defenseman Mark Fusco beat Davidner from the slot after the NU defense failed to clear. The goal made the score 4-2, and Harvard followed up with a wild and crazy, albeit futile, power play that began at 6:06 of the period. Somehow, despite all sorts of pressure, they didn&rsquo;t connect and a neat Davidner glove save on a low Fusco blast rang down the curtain on Harvard&rsquo;s sustained pressure.Senior Craig Frank settled the issue at 13:21 when Gerry Cowie drew three backcheckers along and fed him alone in the slot. Frank held the puck for a seeming eternity, then flicked a shot high to Wade Lau&rsquo;s glove side. Pandemonium.Harvard was something of a Cinderella story too. They hosted Boston College in the quarterfinal and blanked the Eagles 2-0, then took gleeful advantage of Clarkson&rsquo;s Boston Garden jitters to rout the heavily favored Golden Knights 7-1 in the other semifinal match.Clarkson came into the semifinal game with a record of 26-4-1 to Harvard&rsquo;s 12-12-2. But the Knights also carried the bitter memory of losing the last four ECAC semifinal games they&rsquo;d played, including the 1981 and 1977 rounds when they&rsquo;d run away and hid from the rest of the field during the regular season.Well, it happened again. The pennant winning Knights couldn&rsquo;t shake the albatross of their Garden tradition and were prime victims for a devilmay-care underdog like Harvard. Clarkson scored the first goal of the game and only trailed 2-1 after two periods. But the Crimson smelled blood, and drew plenty of it in a span of 7:22 of the third period.First Bob Starbuck stuffed home a rebound at 2:12. Then Neil Sheehy scored his second of three goals from the right point. Mark Fusco followed suit, then Sheehy again, and finally Jim Turner poked home a crease pass at 9:34. The pass came from Greg Olson, who whacked the puck out from underneath goalie Don Sylvestri&rsquo;s glove.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re running on emotion, no doubt about that,&rdquo; grinned coach Bill Cleary in the locker room. Harvard was back in the playoffs itself for the first time since 1976, and they had to win the last four games of the regular season to qualify.In the consolation game, New Hampshire defeated Clarkson 6-5, moving out to a 5-2 lead after two periods and hanging on. The win earned a home ice berth in the NCAA quarterfinals for UNH and sent Clarkson packing for a road-team seeding.Clarkson had little trouble with slumping Colgate in its quarterfinal match, winning 7-4 behind two goals apiece from Gord Sharpe and Steve Cruickshank. The eighth seeded Red Raiders managed just 23 shots to 49 for the hosts.In the Northeastern-St. Lawrence quarterfinal, the two teams slugged it out all the way, trading goals and not budging until Randy Bucyk fed Bob Averill from behind the net on a power play. Averill banged the puck past goalie Gray Weicker&rsquo;s skates at 14:36. and NU added an empty net score with five seconds to go for the 5-3 margin.New Hampshire&rsquo;s quarterfinal win of 4-2 over Providence was a rematch of the last game of the regular season which ended in fisticuffs. UNH had blown a 4-0 lead in that game and lost in overtime, but learned their lesson. After a scoreless first period, the Wildcats again grabbed a 4-0 lead with Steve Lyons notching two of the goals. Todd Pearson shut off the Friars effectively, finishing up with 27 saves to Scott Fiske&rsquo;s 32.Harvard had 41 shots on BC goalie Bob O&rsquo;Connor, but the one that did the most damage was a 70-footer, banked off the boards near the BC blueline by Jim Turner late in the second period. Turner headed for his bench after dumping the puck and didn&rsquo;t see the disc somehow slide past O&rsquo;Connor for the only goal Harvard would need at 18:18. Mike Watson added an insurance goal at 9:16 of the third frame. &#9632;

No. 1 Seeding Proves Northeastern For Real

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>ST. PAUL&mdash;The powerful Edina Hornets dodged a bullet in the semifinals and came back with all guns blazing to crush White Bear Lake Mariner 6-0 in the championship game of the 38th annual Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament.The title game sent the two biggest teams of the tournament at each other. Edina, which beat Rochester Mayo 7-4 and ousted defending champion Bloomington Jefferson 3-2 in a sudden-death overtime classic in the semifinals, had 10 players six feet tall or bigger.Mariner, meanwhile, had 12 such giants and had made a strong bid at a Cinderella rush in its first-ever trip to the state tournament. Mariner overran Cloquet 7-2, then upset Iron Range champ Hibbing 4-1 in the semifinals. But while Mariner was big and strong, Edina was big, strong and amazingly fast.Six different scorers tallied for Edina, which outshot Mariner&rsquo;s Dolphins 35-19 in the title game, played before a crowd of 17,553 at the St. Paul Civic Center, where attendance in the six-session, singleelimination tournament of the state&rsquo;s eight sectional champions hit 101,006&mdash;second only to the 102,197 at the 1980 tournament. That figure is more amazing when it is realized the tournament is carried on statewide television, with no Twin Cities blackout.Edina coach Willard Ikola, wearing the familiar green and tan checked hat he has worn at all games since 1968, won his sixth championship to tie International Falls coach Larry Ross for the most ever by a coach.While Edina lived up to the expectations of its rooters, from the affluent western Minnespolis suburb, by winning in the first year of merging Edina-East and Edina-West, the Hornets had left some questions unanswered through the first two days.Edina trailed Mayo 3-1 and the teams were 4-4 after two periods in the opener before Mike McCarthy, Tom Rzeszut and Jeff Vacanti scored consecutive goals in the third period for the 7-4 triumph.The semifinal match with Jefferson was a classic, pitting Edina&rsquo;s speed and talent against Jefferson&rsquo;s tenacity and the clever coaching of Tom Saterdalen.The near-perfectly played game, crackling with drama throughout, was ended when Wally Chapman carried around on the right of the defense and slammed a perfect wrist shot that glanced in off the right post at 7:03 of overtime. It took a perfect shot to win it, and Chapman provided it.Paul Roff, a smart junior wing, upstaged his senior teammates by scoring the first two Edina goals in the game, and he wound up leading the incredibly balanced Hornet attack with three goals and three assists in the three tournament games. Kranz, meanwhile, wound up with four goals for Jefferson, topped only by Jim Johannson&rsquo;s five goals for Mayo in tournament scoring. Johannson had seven points, but had to share over-all point scoring honors with Steve Bianchi, the fiery Jefferson center who had a goal and six assists.Hibbing which beat Sibley 3-0 to present retiring coach George Perpick with his 400th victory in 29 years (Minnesota prep teams play a maximum of 20 games in regular season), bounced back from its semifinal loss to Mariner to beat Jefferson 6-5 in a wild third-place game, while Cloquet surprised Mayo 9-4 in the consolation-round final. &#9632;

Edina Again Wins Minnesota Tourney

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>DETROIT&mdash;Michigan State sophomore goalie Ron Scott displayed his all-league credentials with outstanding play as he led the Spartans to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoff championships and an automatic berth in the NCAA quarterfinals.Scott was named Most Valuable Player in the CCHA finals played in Detroit&rsquo;s Joe Louis Arena as Michigan State topped Michigan Tech 3-2 in the semifinals and beat Notre Dame 4-1 in the finals.In other CCHA tournament action, Notre Dame knocked off regular season champion Bowling Green 8-5 in the semifinals and Bowling Green beat Michigan Tech 2-1 in the consolation game and rode their third place finish to an at-large position in the NCAAs.Michigan Tech came out flying in the opener against Michigan State, but Scott was ready. The Huskies, playing an emotional series for retiring coach John Maclnnes, outshot MSU 13-5 in the first period, but Scott came up with excellent chances to stop Bill Terry and Kurt Pearson on the doorstep and Newell Brown gave the Spartans the lead at 1:40 with the only MSU shot on net in the first 10 minutes.Mark Hamway scored his 31st goal of the season at 18:06 of the first period to give Michigan State a 2-0 lead.Tech&rsquo;s Mike Nep cut the margin to 2-1 in the second period, but Brown&rsquo;s second goal of the game at 4:12 of the third period assisted by Gary Haight and Scott provided the winning margin. MSU dominated the third period, firing 17 shots at Tech&rsquo;s fine freshman netminder Tom Allen.In the championship game, the Spartans exploded for all four goals in the first period as Todd Gardiner, who missed most of the season with a shoulder injury, scored his second goal of the season on a rebound assisted by Tom Anastos and Ken Leiter.Moments later Anastos tipped a Leiter blast behind ND&rsquo;S Dave Laurion and the Spartans had a power play tally.The Spartans added icing with goals just 34 seconds apart to close the period as Hamway notched his 32nd of the season, Leiter collected his third assist of the period at 17:03 and Nigel Thomas deflected Frank Finn&rsquo;s drive at 17:37.Scott had a chance to &ldquo;rest&rdquo; during the first period as MSU outshot Notre Dame 22-4. Scott earned his MVP award and all-tournament position with 13 saves in the second period and 10 in the third, allowing just one ND goal to Bill Rothstein assisted by Dave Poulin and Jeff Logan in the second period.Bowling Green&rsquo;s all-tournament selections, defenseman Brian MacLellan and forward George McPhee, provided the Falcons with their offense in the consolation win over Michigan Tech after Jeff Wylie had given the Huskies a 1-0 lead.McPhee snapped a 1-1 tie with his 28th of the season from Brian Hills and Garry Galley. Hills, the CCHA scoring champ, had drilled shots off the post behind Allen twice in the game before McPhee batted in his rebound for the winner.The tournament opener between BG and Notre Dame was almost a doubleheader with the Falcons dominating early leading 3-1 after one period and owning a 15-8 shooting edge as goals by Tim Hack, McPhee and Hills had given the Falcons the lead after Kirk Bjork scored the first goal of the game for the Irish.The teams exchanged power play goals early in the second period with Jeff Logan scoring for ND while Peter Wilson scored his 30th for the Falcons.The rest of the game belonged to Notre Dame as Lefty Smith&rsquo;s squad scored a total of five goals in the second period for the win and Poulin&rsquo;s goal at 19:51 of the second period was the crusher as it deflected into the net off of MacLellan.The all-tournament team featured Scott in goal, with Leiter and MacLellan on defense and the forwards were McPhee, Hamway and Poulin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01439/4544855-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="594" height="897"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey&rsquo;s winningest coach, John Maclnnes, came to the end of the line when State edged Tech, 3-2.</figcaption></div>CCHA NOTES&mdash;Attendance in Joe Louis Arena was 9,821 the first night and 10,315 for the championship game&hellip;Michigan Tech&rsquo;s John Maclnnes closed out his coaching career with 555 wins, most in collegiate hockey (555-295-39)&hellip;Referees in the finals were Denis Parrish, Charlie Henstock, Mark Johnson and Brian Hart&hellip;All four CCHA players in the finals for the Hobey Baker Award played in series with Ron Scott of Michigan State, Dave Poulin of Notre Dame and George McPhee and Brian Hills of Bowling Green&hellip;McPhee with 52 assists and MSU&rsquo;s Newell Brown with 51 are still in battle for CCHA overall single season record of 56 set by Bob Dobek at Bowling Green in 1974-75&hellip;Scott and McPhee shared Player of the Year honors with Scott winning on the media team in the South Bend Tribune, while McPhee was Player of the Year in the coaches vote&hellip;BG&rsquo;s Jerry York earned Coach of the Year honors on both teams and Michigan&rsquo;s Jon Elliott was Rookie of the Year on both teams. &#9632;

f0030-01

Scott Leads State To CCHA Honors

<div class="byline">BY MIKE MURRAY</div>MONCTON&mdash;History repeated itself in the 1982 Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union hockey final as the Moncton Blue Eagles defeated the Saskatchewan Huskies by borrowing last year&rsquo;s championship final script.In 1981, the Eagles defeated the Huskies 4-2 with nine seconds left to play in the game on a winning goal by Francois Bessette. This year, they did it again, with defenseman Louis Duroucher firing the deciding goal with 33 seconds remaining on the clock, enabling the Blue Eagles to edge Saskatchewan 3-2 and win the University Cup for the second time.Playing before a capacity crowd of 7,146 at the Moncton Coliseum, the Atlantic Conference titleholders fell behind the Huskies 2-0 after two periods, as goalie Steve Amiss of Saskatchewan turned back 24 shots. Goals by Tim Hodgson and Kevin McNaught put the Huskies ahead by the middle mark in the second period but the Blue Eagles came through with one of their patterned third-period assaults to score three goals and steal the title out of the Huskies&rsquo; clutches. Including their 8-3 victory over the University of Toronto the previous night in the semifinals, Moncton scored a total of eight third-period goals in two nights.Pierre Gerard and Alain Grenier notched the other Moncton goals but it was the sensational goaltending of little Benoit Fortier that kept the Eagles from falling out of the championship game. Grenier was chosen the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.The Eagles won the A Pool series, beaing Brandon 3-1 and Toronto 8-3 for the right to meet Saskatchewan. The Huskies defeated Concordia 4-3 and walloped Regina 8-2 in the B Pool semifinal to advance against Moncton. In two other games, Toronto downed Brandon 4-2 and Concordia edged Regina 6-5. Top-ranked Regina went winless in the tournament.On the road to Moncton, there were no upsets, but a couple of close calls. Here&rsquo;s how the qualifiers got there:AUAA&mdash;The defending national champion, Moncton Aigles Bleus dumped UPEI 7-4 and 6-3 to win the Atlantic Conference finals in straight games.Playing before sellout crowds at the J. Louis Levesque-Arena in Moncton, the Aigles Bleus used a shorthanded goal by Roch Bois 15 minutes into the third period to snap a 4-4 tie in the first game, and then built up a 3-0 first period lead en route to their second victory.Bois, who had three goals in the series, was set up by &lsquo;Chico&rsquo; Beliveau for his first game winner. Moncton goaltender Benoit Fortier highlighted the second game by stopping a second period penalty shot.-QUAA&mdash;The Concordia Stingers came from behind to defeat the UQTR Patriotes two games to one and win their seventh straight Quebec Conference Championship. The Stingers were handed their first loss in 20 games when they were upset 5-3 in the series opener in Trois-Rivieres. But back on home ice, the Stingers evened the series with a hard fought 5-3 victory in game two, and then put it all together in game three, blasting the Patriotes 7-2 after building an early 5-0 lead.Rick Pardo fired two goals in 15 seconds in the second period of game two to erase a 2-1 Trois-Rivieres lead; both on set-ups from Kevin Murphy, the game&rsquo;s first star.In the final game, Mike Walker, Brian Taylor and John Sliskovic scored in the first period and the Stingers never looked back.OUAA&mdash;The University of Toronto Blues, undefeated in league play this season, were taken to the limit by the Guelph Gryphons in the Ontario final, before over 4,000 fans. The Blues needed a goal by Tom Callaghan after 6:22 of overtime to win the deciding game in the best of three series. In fact, Guelph took a 4-2 lead into the final 10 minutes of game three, before the Blues rallied on goals by George Chan and D. J. Meloff to force the extra frame.The Gryphons opened the series with a 6-5 win in Toronto and held a 2-0 second period lead in game two before the Blues struck back. In fact Guelph missed on a three-on-one break just before Andre Hidi cut the lead to 2-1. Then just 24 seconds later Darren Lowe tied the score and the Blues went on to win 4-3, to send the series back to Varsity Arena.GPAC&mdash;From the mid-west, the University of Regina Cougars and the Brandon University Bobcats both won berths in Moncton. The Cougars earned their trip by taking a hard fought final from Brandon in Regina, losing the first game 2-1 and then rebounding to win 4-3 and 3-2. The Bobcats were selected as the wild-card entry.In the first game, Tim Morrison fired the winner for Brandon at the 17:21 mark of the middle period. Brandon&rsquo;s goaltender Garry Clark turned back 31 Cougar shots to earn the win. But Don Henry&rsquo;s goal at 3.07 of the third period gave Regina the victory in game two and forced a deciding game. Rene Lemire broke a 2-2 tie with less than six minutes to play in regulation time to give Regina the third game and the series.Regina had received a bye into the final by virtue of their first place finish, while Brandon won a suddendeath nail-biter from Manitoba to earn their spot. The Bobcats needed twc goals by Tim Morrison, including the winner at 14:46 of the final frame to down the Bisons.CWIAA&mdash;The University of Saskatchewan Huskies finished first in the tough Western Conference and then defeated second place Calgary in straight games in the league final, played at Saskatoon, to earn a place in the Canadian finals. The Huskies took the opener 6-2 and then wrapped up their second league championship with a 4-2 victory in game two.For Saskatchewan coach Dave King, the win was his second success this season. King earlier guided Canada&rsquo;s National Junior Team to the Gold Medal, in the World Junior Championship held in Minnesota.Calgary coach George Kingston felt that there wasn&rsquo;t much to choose between the two teams in the final analysis, only that the Huskies took advantage of their scoring opportunities and his team did not. &#9632;

Moncton Cops CIAU Flag By Using Last Year’s Script

The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds had to go hunting for a new leader when the Hartford Whalers elevated Ron Francis to the NHL and the burden of keeping the Hounds in the hunt rested squarely on the shoulders of the team&rsquo;s two goaltenders.Marc D&rsquo;Amour, a 20-year-old netminder, took up the challenge when Francis left and he has been the major reason the Sault stayed in contention in the tough Emms Division race.D&rsquo;Amour, who shares the Greyhound nets with John Van-biesbrouck, has emerged as the Ontario Hockey League&rsquo;s hottest goalie and a prime candidate to win the Dave Pinkney Trophy as the leading goalkeeper this season. The Sault puck stopper was chosen as the OHL&rsquo;s Player of the Week after he turned back the London Knights 5-4 for his 28th win of the year in 45 games. With a 3.26 goals-against average, he is a key performer in the Greyhounds&rsquo; title hopes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02294/4544941-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="570" height="770"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC D&rsquo;AMOUR Sault Greyhounds</figcaption></div>The Calgary Flames invited D&rsquo;Amour to training camp after he went untouched in the NHL Entry Draft the past two years. The youngster impressed, but the Flames sent him back to the OHL. He&rsquo;s hoping for another shot at the NHL this year. &#9632;

f0031-02

OHL Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BROPHY</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyLONDON&mdash;A year ago the Knights were struggling near the end of the regular season so rookie coach Paul McIntosh, a former Peterborough junior, decided to &ldquo;have a little fun.&rdquo;McIntosh, who some feel has tremendous potential to one day coach in the professional ranks, did some experimenting. He moved speedy defenseman Chris McCauley up and put burly winger Steve Smith back on defense. With a record of 20 wins and 48 losses, McIntosh felt he had nothing to lose. Dead last in the Emms Division with a.294 winning percentage, playoffs were out of the question.This season the Knights are no longer also-rans. They are to be taken seriously. Led by league leading scorer Dave Simpson and the same Mr. McCauley, the Knights have amassed a 35-29-2 record and will finish third in their division.London will meet Brantford in a six-point quarterfinal series and having defeated the Alexanders on four of six meetings this season, are a good bet to advance to the division semifinals.Simpson&rsquo;s performance alone has been one of the major differences in the Knights&rsquo; resurgence but last season&rsquo;s year-end experiment with McCauley and Smith is also a big factor.McCauley, who is listed at 5-10 and 170 pounds, is second in team scoring with 47 goals and 67 assists for 114 points. Playing on a line with Simpson and Jeff Smith, he has developed into one of the league&rsquo;s soundest forwards and is also used occasionally on defense.&ldquo;He was a little too small to play defense,&rdquo; said McIntosh, who was the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; fourth draft choice in 1974 but spent most of his professional career in the minors. &ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t quite strong enough. It was pretty hard for him to be trying to move guys 6-3 and 200 pounds from in front of our net. I moved him up with Dave and Jeff and he seemed to click. He&rsquo;s got a great shot coming in on the right side.&rdquo;Although McCauley attended the training camp of the Quebec Nordiques, he is still a free agent.Simpson, a crafty center who is signed by the New York Islanders, raised a few eyebrows when as a midget, he sent a letter to each team in the Ontario Hockey League informing them that he would only report if drafted by his home-town Knights. He wasn&rsquo;t the first player to ever do that but word spread quickly that he was spoiled. Nothing could be farther from the truth.An excellent student, Simpson is a quiet, unassuming individual who prefers to go about his business making as few waves as possible.After finishing last season with 34 goals and 56 assists for 90 points he has taken off and proved himself one of the league&rsquo;s top all-around players. McIntosh is convinced Simpson will eventually make the Islanders.&ldquo;They talk about players with great concentration, well that&rsquo;s Dave,&rdquo; said McIntosh. &ldquo;Every shift he&rsquo;s fully aware of what&rsquo;s going on. He&rsquo;s able to concentrate and almost always makes the right moves. He goes all-out every shift of every game.&rdquo;Offensively, the Knights are tops in the OHL. However, when it comes to defense, they are middle-of-the-road. They have scored 351 goals but have allowed 317.Goalie Frank Caprice, who shared netminding duties with Kingston&rsquo;s Mike Moffat with Team Canada in January, is steady but often goes without much help. That isn&rsquo;t to say the defense doesn&rsquo;t have potential.Larry Trader is a big defenseman drafted by the Detroit Red Wings who has improved his offensive output from five goals and 23 assists a year ago to 19 goals and 36 assists this season but must work on play in his own zone.Smith has reacted positively to his switch from wing to defense with 10 goals and 33 assists for 43 points with 203 minutes in penalties.The secret to success in the OHL is a good midget draft. The Knights got two gems last season when they picked Brian Bradley first and then little right winger Scott Morrison. Bradley, a center, has 34 goals and 44 assists for 78 points while Morrison is hot on his trail with 25 goals and 52 assists for 77 points. Both have 34 minutes in penal-ties.Morrison is small but not to be taken lightly.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the strongest player on the team,&rdquo; said McIntosh of the 5-7, 170-pound Hamilton native. &ldquo;He can bench press between 280 and 300 pounds.&rdquo;For the first round of playoffs, McIntosh hopes his team can employ the same system they have all season.&ldquo;Our game is to forecheck,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In a short series, you can&rsquo;t take anyone lightly. We&rsquo;re going to go right at them and keep the pressure on.&rdquo;KITCHENER&mdash;The Rangers clinched their second consecutive Emms Division title with a 4-3 win over Brantford. Kevin Casey and Louis Crawford scored two each for the Rangers. John Tucker had two and Casey one in the Rangers&rsquo; 6-3 loss to London.SAULT STE MARIE&mdash;The St. Louis Blues obtained veteran defenseman Guy Lapointe from the Montreal Canadiens and the same day sent Jim Pavese back to the Greyhounds. Pavese will be a welcome addition to Terry. Crisp&rsquo;s Hounds after an impressive showing in the big leagues. Richard Beaulne scored the overtime winning goal as the Hounds topped London 5-4.NIAGARA FALLS&mdash;Bill Laforest scored a pair of goals to lead the Flyers to a 7-4 win over Oshawa. Andrew McBain shot a pair of goals as the Flyers thumped Windsor 10-4, outshooting them 20-4 in the first period and 58-28 overall.BRANTFORD&mdash;Len Hachborn notched two goals as the Alexanders edged the Soo Greyhounds 3-2. Mike Hoffman had the lone Brantford marker in a 4-1 loss to Toronto.WINDSOR&mdash;George Finn, one of the league&rsquo;s biggest and toughest players, scored two goals as the Spitfires edged the Soo 5-4. Greg Gravel managed two goals in the Spits&rsquo; embarrassing 10-4 loss to Niagara Falls.OTTAWA&mdash;The 67&rsquo;s completed a successful weekend with two wins and a tie. They whipped Sudbury 11-4 and defeated the Oshawa Generals 7-3 at home before 6,642 fans with Jeff Vaive scoring twice. They also tied the Belleville Bulls 3-3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01409/4544910-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="606" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">A defenseman turned winger, Chris McCauley has been a London offensive mainstay.</figcaption></div>OSHAWA&mdash;The Generals had given up hope of ever seeing defenseman Joe Cirella again but just when they least expected it, the Colorado Rockies sent him down. Cirella was the Rockies&rsquo; top pick in the draft last season and had seven goals and 12 assists in 65 games with them this season.PETERBOROUGH&mdash;The Petes had a good weekend beating Belleville 6-2; Toronto 5-4 and Cornwall 8-5 to wrap up third place in the Leyden Division. Rookie goalie Shawn Kilroy seems assured of winning the F. W. &lsquo;Dinty&rsquo; Moore Trophy as the league&rsquo;s rookie goalie with the lowest goals-against average. A standup type who never panics, Kilroy&rsquo;s average is an impressive 2.97.CORNWALL&mdash;The Royals lost three straight home games for the first time in four years. It was a bad weekend for the Royals as they dropped four games; 7-5 and 3-2 in Oshawa, 8-5 to Peterborough and 5-3 to Kingston.TORONTO&mdash;The Marlies made an honest bid at getting third place and for a while it seemed like they might do it. They had two games left and needed wins in both, coupled with a loss by Peterborough to finish third. In their second to last game, the Marlies led 6-2 over London going into the final 20 minutes but allowed four straight goals, the final at 19:59, and then lost inovertime. That gave the Petes third.KINGSTON&mdash;The Canadians came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat Cornwall 5-3. Phil Bourque paced Kingston with a pair of goals while Steve Seguin, Ron Handy and Kevin Knight added singles. Knight, Handy and overage Glen Cutting scored one each in the Canadians&rsquo; 7-3 loss in Toronto.BELLEVILLE&mdash;The Bulls played twice last week, losing 6-2 in Peterborough and tying first place Ottawa 3-3. &#9632;

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Knights Reaping Dividends From Experiment

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyVICTORIA&mdash;The Western Hockey League&rsquo;s defending champions are alive and well and living in Victoria.Yes, indeed, it appears that coach Jack Shupe&rsquo;s Victoria Cougars are geared up for post-season play.As playoff time neared, the Cougars had little chance of finishing on top of the Western Division, as they trailed the Portland Winter Hawks by 12 points. But, heading into the last 10 games of the regular season, the Cougars appeared to have second spot all but under lock and key, with a six-point edge over the Seattle Breakers.The Cougars, who finished eight points ahead of the Winter Hawks a season ago, have had trouble getting it going this time around.They were without defenseman Len Dawes and Jerry Heikkila for most of the season, as they recovered from knee surgery and an eye injury, respectively.Rich Chernomaz, a 132-pointman last season, has gone through an injury-plagued season, bothered mostly by a shoulder separation. Rookie Bob Bales missed some time when he came down with infectious hepatitis and they performed without Mark Morrison for a while as he was called up by the National League&rsquo;s New York Rangers.As playoff time neared&mdash;meaning a best-of-seven opening-round series with Seattle&mdash;the Cougars appeared to be hale and hearty. The injured were all back in uniform, while Morrison returned from New York.In a key game early in March, the Breakers visited Victoria and a Seattle victory would have cut the Cougars&rsquo; margin to two points. But, sparked by overage Daryl Coldwell, the Cougars roared to a 7-3 win. Coldwell had a goal and four assists, while Morrison helped out with a goal and three assists.That lifted Morrison&rsquo;s totals to 34 goals and 92 points, tops on the club, while Coldwell had 33 goals and 84 points.Perhaps surprisingly, the Cougars&rsquo; second-leading pointman was Bryant Seaton, a native of Atherton, Calif. The rookie center had 28 goals and 58 assists with 10 games left to play.Still, the Cougars will not have an easy time getting past the Breakers. Because, while the Cougars have won seven of the nine games the two clubs have played in Victoria, Seattle is 6-0 on home-ice.BILLINGS&mdash;Jim McGeough, the league&rsquo;s leading goalscorer, got his 76th and 77th, and added an assist, as the Bighorns won 4-3 in Medicine Hat. Darren Bobyck reached the 100-point plateau with his 41st goal as the Bighorns moved two points ahead of the Tigers in the battle for the Eastern Division&rsquo;s sixth and final playoff spot. Mark Lamb got his 40th goal in a 9-3 loss in Calgary.BRANDON&mdash;Kelly Glowa scored his 50th and 51st goals and Kim Bosch set up four goals as the Wheat Kings edged visiting Regina 5-4. Fran Matechuk also had two goals in that win.CALGARY&mdash;Dan Bourbonnais, in his first game since returning from Hartford Whalers of the NHL, got his 20th goal as the Wranglers edged visiting Regina 5-4. Goaltender Mike Vernon was the story, though, as he faced 60 shots. Scott Makin picked up his 19th and 20th goals, while Rob Hamill had a goal and three helpers, and the Wranglers dumped visiting Billings 9-3. Calgary made it seven in a row, winning 6-3 in Kamloops as Scott Machej scored twice.LETHBRIDGE&mdash;Goaltender Ken Wreggett blocked 31 shots as the Broncos blanked visiting Billings 7-0. Mike Moller had two assists, giving him 100 points, while Ron Sutter scored four times to run his goal total to 31 and Doug Rigler got his 20th.MEDICINE HAT&mdash;Murray Craven got his 30th goal in a 4-3 home-ice loss to Billings.REGINA&mdash;Jock Callander and Wally Schreiber had their WHL record 47-game point-scoring streaks snapped in a 5-4 loss in Calgary. Third-period goals by Taylor Hall and Brent Pascal gave the Pats a 4-2 win in Lethbridge.SASKATOON&mdash;Ron Dreger scored three times as the Blades got past visiting Brandon 7-4. Saskatoon&rsquo;s first-place aspirations received a couple of blows as defenseman Donn Clark was lost for the season with a broken leg and center Bruce Eakin, the WHL&rsquo;s third leading pointman, was called up briefly by the NHL&rsquo;s Calgary Flames. Marc Habscheid had three goals, while Brian Skrudland got his 20th in an 8-5 home-ice win over Winnipeg.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01416/4544972-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="616" height="1008"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daryl Coldwell keyed a critical triumph over Seattle with a goal and four assists.</figcaption></div>KAMLOOPS&mdash;The Oilers won their fifth game in a row, surprising the Winter Hawks 7-5 in Portland. Jan Ludvig and Dean Evason had a goal and three assists each, while Doug Kostynski got his 30th goal. The streak ended with a 6-3 home-ice loss to Calgary.SEATTLE&mdash;Wayne Prestage and Gregg Wilson both had two goals and two assists as the Breakers blasted visiting Portland 9-3. Defenseman Craig Channell had two helpers, giving him 70 on the season, while Wilson ran his goal total to 30. Prestage got his 10th shorthanded goal&mdash;tops in the WHL&mdash;in a 7-3 loss in Victoria. &bull; &#9632;

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Cougars Prepared For Playoff Roar After Returning To Full Strength

It isn&rsquo;t very often a defenseman gets to score five goals in a hockey game.But it happened to Randy Moller of the Lethbridge Broncos and he merely put the finishing touches to a hot week in which he collected nine scoring points in three games to capture WHL Player of the Week honors.The 18-year-old Moller, who was drafted No. 1 by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft, came up with his rare scoring performance as the Broncos beat Winnipeg 7-6. He has helped spark Lethbridge to three straight victories in the final drive to grab the Eastern Division pennant.Moller has enjoyed a highly successful hockey season. In addition to his five-goal outburst against Winnipeg, he was one of the stars of Team Canada&rsquo;s World Junior Cup championship victory this year. With three game-winning goals, 11 on the power play and 14 power play assists, the Broncos will be expecting big things from Moller with the playoffs approaching.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02308/4545003-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="556" height="854"><figcaption class="caption-body">RANDY MOLLER Lethbridge Broncos</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-02

WHL Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyMONTREAL&mdash;Quebec Major Junior Hockey League president Jean Rougeau has defended the round-robin preliminary playoff round, which has been criticized in many circles. The round commenced March 16.Although the new format, first used in the Western junior league, makes overall standings meaningless and although two of the lower echelon teams seem to benefit from the scheduling, the bottom line is money.With each of the competing eight teams guaranteed seven home games against one another, Rougeau said the series could be a blessing to financially-strapped teams.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a worthwhile trial because it guarantees teams a lot of games and money,&rdquo; said Rogeau. &ldquo;It will help them meet some of their expenses and might save or help a team.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s worked out well in the West and I think the people will appreciate something new. This will keep the curiousity in the tournament and will draw people.&ldquo;Is it fair&hellip;I don&rsquo;t know. But if you look at an eighth-place team against a first-place team (as had been used previously) that series would usually last four or five games. You know damn well an eighth-place team is no rival for a first-place team.&ldquo;I like the system.&rdquo;But is it fair when you consider a team like the seventh-place Laval Voisins, in the playoffs for the first time since 1977, plays four of its final six games at home, or when the eighth-place Granby Bisons, with all of 13 wins in 63 games, plays three of its last four at home?&ldquo;There&rsquo;s advantages and disadvantages in everything; it depends how you look at it,&rdquo; said Rougeau. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard now to analyze results. Anything can happen&hellip;but financially it could work out.&rdquo;The format was the brainchild of the QMJHL governors, who approved the system last December. It could be scrapped next year.The teams with the four best records in the round-robin will advance to the semifinals, where the old format will return (the team with the best season record against the fourth-best and second vs. three).It should also be noted that due to the change, the round-robin alone will take more than three weeks to play.Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Sherbrooke had clinched the league championship with 86 points. They were followed by Hull, 82; Montreal, 80; Trois-Riviers, 73; Shawinigan, 72; Chicoutimi, 62; Laval, 61, and Granby, 27.The schedule for the round-robin is as follows: March 16&mdash;8 at 1; 7 at 2; 6 at 3; 5 at 4; March 17&mdash;3 at 5; 4 at 6; 1 at 7; 2 at 8; March 19&mdash;6 at 1; 5 at 2; 8 at 3; 7 at 4; March 21&mdash;1 at 5; 2 at 6; 3 at 7; 8 at 4; March 23&mdash;2 at 1; 4 at 3; 5 at 6; 7 at 8; March 24&mdash;3 at 2; 1 at 4; 8 at 5; 6 at 7; March 26&mdash;1 at 3; 4 at 2; 6 at 8; 7 at 5; March 28&mdash;2 at 3; 4 at 1; 5 at 8; 7 at 6; March 30&mdash;3 at 1; 2 at 4; 8 at 6; 5 at 7; March 31&mdash;1 at 2; 3 at 4; 6 at 5; 8 at 7; April 2&mdash;5 at 1; 6 at 2; 7 at 3; 4 at 8; April 4&mdash;1 at 6; 2 at 5; 3 at 8; 4 at 7; April 6&mdash;5 at 3; 6 at 4; 7 at 1; 8 at 2; Aril 9&mdash;1 at 8; 2 at 7; 3 at 6; and 4 at 5.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;It&rsquo;s official. The Montreal Juniors shifted their base from the Paul Sauve Sports Centre to the Verdun Auditorium with their March 16 playoff game. Paul Sauve is located in the north end of Montreal, while the Auditorium is in the southwest suburb&mdash;10 minutes from downtown Montreal.In the March 12 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS it was stated the Juniors would likely shift to Verdun rather than pay a whopping 300 percent rental increase at Paul Sauve next season.Although Aldo Giampaolo, manager of the Auditorium, could not be reached for comment, we mentioned in the same issue that the Juniors would be given a lease too sweet to turn down.&ldquo;It might work out if the people of Verdun appreciate the fact that they have a major junior team again,&rdquo; said Rougeau. &ldquo;The Juniors have always enjoyed a good rapport, whereas I don&rsquo;t think Lemoyne [Rod, who operated the Verdun Black Hawks before shifting the team to Sorel] acted like he should and made too many enemies.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01380/4545034-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="612" height="1105"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sherbrooke&rsquo;s Paul Boutilier, an Islanders&rsquo; draftee, was the defensive Player of the Month.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;With [expansion] Longueuil [joining the league next season], Verdun and Laval, hopefully Montreal fans will feed the three teams.&rdquo;Claude Fournel, owner, former coach and general manager of the Laval Voisins, has until April 15 to notify Laval Sport Centre authorities whether he&rsquo;ll exercise the option next year of the team&rsquo;s arena contract next season or move.Granby&rsquo;s Jacques Sylvestre is the offensive player for the month of February. Sherbrooke&rsquo;s Paul Boutilier is the defensive player. &#9632;

f0033-01

Round-Robin Plavoff Format Comes Under Fire

The Montreal Juniors finished their 1981-82 schedule with a flourish, winning four and tieing one in their last eight games and their ace scorer, Tony Fiore, hit the 50-goal mark and the 100-point plateau at the same time.Fiore, the 19-year-old center, came up with a four-goal performance in the closing week of league play to push his way into the top 12 league scorers and walk off with the final QHL Player of the Week selection for this season.The 5-11, 173-pound Montrealer managed 50 goals in 64 games to lead the team in individual scoring. He was instrumental in the Juniors&rsquo; jumping from near lastplace early in the year to a third-pice finish at the schedule windup.Undrafted by the NHL last season, Fiore stands a good chance to land with the pros this summer when they get around to the 1982 Entry Draft.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02273/4545065-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="576" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">TONY FIORE Montreal Juniors</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

QHL Player Of The Week

(Standings on Mon. March 15)<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1548/4545424-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="543" height="192"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1648/4545417-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="538" height="162"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1742/4545410-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="542" height="166"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1839/4545403-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="546" height="222"></div><h2>POINTS RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1938/4545396-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="536" height="609"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2034/4545389-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="545" height="632"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. March 18Detroit 3 at Rangers 6St. Louis 1 at Minnesota 8Tue. March 9Boston 2 at Montreal 4Calgary 9 at Quebec 4Islanders 8 at SL Louis 4Los Angeles 2 at Colorado 0Wed. March 10Winnipeg 2 at Hartlord 6Buffalo 7 at Vancouver 4Islanders 4 at Minnesota 4Philadelphia 5 at Rangers 5Pittsburgh 7 at Washington 2Chicago 7 at Toronto 6Edmonton 2 at Los Angeles 3Thu. March 11Winnipeg 4 at Boston 7Chicago 0 at Montreal 4Rangers 4 at Detroit 1Colorado 1 at Philadelphia 5Vancouver 3 at Calgary 6Fri. March 12Buffalo 3 at Edmonton 2Sat. March 13Detroit 3 at Boston 5Hartford 0 at Montreal 5Buffalo 1 at Calgary 4Chicago 3 at Quebec 9Islanders 0 at Los Angeles 3Philadelphia 3 at Washington 6Colorado 2 at Pittsburgh 6Winnipeg 10 at Toronto 2Minnesota 3 at St. Louis 2Vancouver 3 at Edmonton 5Sun. March 14Montreal 5 at Boston 2Colorado 4 at Hartford 3Washington 5 at Rangers 5 &#9632;

f0034-15

NHL SCOREBOARD

BOSTON&mdash; Middleton 44. 45. 46. 47, Bourque 14,15, McNab 27, 28. 29. K. Crowder 18. 19. Pederson 37. 38. Kasper 15, 16. Winning goals&mdash;Middleton. McNab.BUFFALO&mdash; Sauve 16. Mongrain 2, 3, 4. McKegney 18, 19. Hamel 1. 2. Foligno 29, Haworth 19. 20. Winning goals&mdash;Hamel. Mongrain.CALGARY&mdash; McAdam 9,10.11, Konroyd 3, Chouinard 20. Houston 22, Hislop 13,14. 15, Nilsson 21. Cyr 12. Murdoch 3. Peplinski 29, Rautakallio 14, McDonald 31, 32. 33. Lavallee 29, Reinhart 12, Winning goals&mdash;McAdam, Rautakallio. McDonaldCHICAGO&mdash; Higgins 19, Wilson 32. 33. 34, Lysiak 23. 24, Preston 12. Crossman 10. Gardner 6. Secord 43. Winning goals&mdash;Crossman.COLORADO&mdash; Ramage 13. Broten 10. 11, Lever 27. 28. MacMillan 19. Weir 4 Winning goals&mdash;Weir.DETROIT&mdash; Gage 6, D Smith 8. 9. Osborne 20,21.22, Gare 19. Winning goals&mdash;noneEDMONTON&mdash; Semenko 9. Siltanen 10.11. 12. Huddy 3, Boschman 10, Messier 43. Lowe 9. kurri 29. Winning goals&mdash;Lowe.HARTFORD&mdash; Neufeld 2. Keen 7. Larouche 32. 33. Francis 18.19. Howatt 14, Nachbaur 4, Douglas 8. Winning goals&mdash;Larouche.LOS ANGELES&mdash; Nicholls 1, 2. Dionne 42. 43. Taylor 38, Terrion 15, Smith 15. Simmer 11 Winning goals&mdash;Nicholls, Terrion. Smith.MINNESOTA&mdash; Roberts4. Hartsburg 14,15. Ciccareili 49. 50. 51. 52. Carlson 5. Payne 26, 27. Christoff 24. Broten 32. Smith 40, 41. Winning goals&mdash;Hartsburg. SmithMONTREAL&mdash; Gainey 20, Napier 34. 35. Lafleur 25, 26. Risebrough 15. Langway 5, Houle 10, Wickenheiser 10 Winning goals&mdash;Napier, Lafleur, Gingras, TremblayNY ISLANDERS&mdash; Potvin 20, Goring 13. McEwen 9, B Sutter 20. Trottier 49. Bossy 54. Gillies 34. 35. Winning goals&mdash;Trottier.NY RANGERS&mdash; Johnstone 19. 20. McClanahan 1.2,3. Laidlaw 3. Leinonen 8,9, Rogers 30, 31, 32. 33, Pavelich 28, 29, Don Maloney 16, 17, Fotiu 7. Silk 14. Duguay 36, Vickers 9. Winning goals&mdash;Leinonen. Pavelich.PHILADELPHIA&mdash; Propp 42. 43. Leach 26. Sinisalo 12. 13. Flockhart 30. 31, Allison 15. Kerr 16. Barber 39. Linseman 20. Watson 3. Sittier 27. Winning goals&mdash;AllisonPITTSBURGH&mdash; Ferguson 20. St Laurent 6. 7. Bullard 31.32. Schutt 4. Gardner 28. Lee 16. Malone 14. Hamilton 1. Boutette 20, Kehoe 30. 31. Winning goals&mdash;Bullard. Hamilton.QUEBEC&mdash; Paiement 19,20,21.22. Hunter 18. Rochefort 4. Tardif 36. Marois 9. Goulet 38. Pichette 5. Aubry 9. Cloutier 34. A Stastny 22. Winning goals&mdash;PaiementST. LOUIS&mdash; Zuke 13, Mullen 19, Baker 2,3, Sutter 31. Turnbul 31. Pettersson 31. Winning goals&mdash;none.TORONTO&mdash; Harris 4, Martin 23. 24, 25. Pertini 2, Saganiuk 4, Anderson 30. Vaive 44. Winning goals&mdash;none.VANCOUVER&mdash; Belland 2. Gradin 31. 32. Williams 12, Lindgren 4. 5. Currie 19. 20, McCarthy 5, Lupul 8. Winning goals&mdash;none.WASHINGTON&mdash; Carpenter 26. 27. 28. 29. Gustafsson 20. 21,22, 23, Gould 14, Currie 5. Veitch 7. Maruk 55. Norwood 3. Winning goals&mdash;GustafssonWINNIPEG&mdash; Hawerchuk 35. 36. 37. 38. MacLean 26, 27. 28. Lukowich 34. 35, 36. Christian 21. Dupont 11. Steen 11,12. Lindstrom 30,31 Winning goals&mdash;Steen.Hat tricks&mdash;Middleton. Boston. McAdam. Calgary. Martin. Toronto and Hawerchuk, Winnipeg. &#9632;

NHL’S SCORERS THIS WEEK

<h2>Mon. March 8 DETROIT 3, RANGERS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01423/4545313-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="588" height="735"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 1, MINNESOTA 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02345/4545306-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="588" height="760"></div><h2>Tue. March 9 BOSTON 2, MONTREAL 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03254/4545299-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="581" height="651"></div><h2>CALGARY 9, QUEBEC 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04168/4545292-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="587" height="943"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 6, ST. LOUIS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05125/4545285-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="606" height="1003"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 2, COLORADO 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0699/4545278-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="596" height="597"></div><h2>Wed. March 10 WINNIPEG 2, HARTFORD 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0790/4545271-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="599" height="773"></div><h2>BUFFALO 7, VANCOUVER 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0883/4545264-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="600" height="792"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 4, MINNESOTA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0973/4545257-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="603" height="794"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 5, RANGERS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1070/4545250-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="596" height="870"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 7, WASHINGTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1163/4545243-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="563" height="846"></div><h2>CHICAGO 7. TORONTO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02318/4545236-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="566" height="863"></div><h2>EDMONTON 2, LOS ANGELES 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03247/4545229-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="572" height="704"></div><h2>Thu. March 11 WINNIPEG 4. BOSTON 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04201/4545222-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="599" height="867"></div><h2>CHICAGO 0, MONTREAL 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05158/4545215-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="589" height="573"></div><h2>RANGERS 4, DETROIT 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06139/4545208-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="594" height="586"></div><h2>COLORADO 1, PHILADELPHIA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07130/4545201-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="590" height="653"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 3, CALGARY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08111/4545194-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="582" height="1106"></div><h2>Fri. March 12 BUFFALO 3, EDMONTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09106/4545187-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="591" height="732"></div><h2>Sat. March 13 DETROIT 3, BOSTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1095/4545180-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="595" height="677"></div><h2>HARTFORD 0, MONTREAL 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1189/4545173-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="563" height="612"></div><h2>BUFFALO 1, CALGARY 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1277/4545166-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="576" height="614"></div><h2>CHICAGO 3, QUEBEC 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3511/4545159-1-eng-US/f0036-352.jpg" title="f0036-35" width="577" height="862"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 0, LOS ANGELES 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3610/4545152-1-eng-US/f0036-362.jpg" title="f0036-36" width="610" height="538"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 3, WASH. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-377/4545145-1-eng-US/f0036-372.jpg" title="f0036-37" width="598" height="981"></div><h2>COLORADO 2, PITTSBURGH 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01334/4545138-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="590" height="741"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 10, TORONTO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02231/4545131-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="591" height="897"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 3, ST. LOUIS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03168/4545124-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="613" height="731"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 3, EDMONTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04135/4545117-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="600" height="1028"></div><h2>Sun. March 14 MONTREAL 5, BOSTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05114/4545110-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="597" height="713"></div><h2>COLORADO 4, HARTFORD 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0692/4545103-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="582" height="591"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 5, RANGERS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0774/4545096-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="587" height="832"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01399/4545486-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><h2>Top Rookie Scorers</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1367/4545479-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="551" height="417"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 16)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01381/4545748-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="550" height="163"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02285/4545741-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="556" height="188"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 10New Haven 2 at Adirondack 3Fredericton 8 at Erie 6Springfield 1 at Hershey 3Binghamton 3 at Maine 1Nova Scotia 1 at New Brunswick 4Fri. March 12Fredericton 3 at Erie 5Hershey 5 at Rochester 7Adirondack 6 at Springfield 1Sat. March 13Rochester 3 at Binghamton 4New Haven 2 at Erie 1Fredericton 3 at Hershey 4Nova Scotia 1 at New Brunswick 3Maine 8 at Adirondack 6Sun. March 14Erie 6 at Adirondack 15Fredericton 11 at Hershey 3Springfield 2 at Maine 3New Brunswick 6 at Nova Scotia 7New Haven 6 at Rochester 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03214/4545734-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="552" height="328"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 16)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04142/4545727-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="553" height="140"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05105/4545720-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="556" height="164"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 9Salt Lake 2 at Dallas 7Cincinnati 3 at Indianapolis 2Fort Worth 2 at Nashville 4Wed. March 10Sait Lake 1 at Nashville 5Fri. March 12Tulsa 3 at Cincinnati 2Fort Worth 2 at Dallas 5Salt Lake 0 at Indianapolis 5Wichita 3 at Nashville 2Sat. March 13Tulsa 6 at Cincinnati 7Fort Worth 4 at Dallas 11Salt Lake 5 at Indianapolis 9Wichita 4 at Nashville 5Sun. March 14Oklahoma City 6 at Wichita 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0686/4545713-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="564" height="170"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0782/4545706-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="540" height="138"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 16)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0877/4545699-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="547" height="247"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. March 8Muskegon 2 at Milwaukee 5Wed. March 10Flint 3 at Fort Wayne 2Milwaukee 4 at Toledo 5Thu. March 11Fort Wayne 6 at Milwaukee 4Fri. March 12Fort Wayne 5 at Saginaw 3Flint 2 at Kalamazoo 1Muskegon 3 at Toledo 6Sat. March 13Saginaw 5 at Muskegon 5Flint 1 at Toledo 5Kalamazoo 5 at Milwaukee 3Sun. March 14Toledo 0 at Fort Wayne 8Muskegon 4 at Flint 6Kalamazoo 6 at Saginaw 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0971/4545692-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="545" height="357"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1068/4545685-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="552" height="251"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1165/4545678-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="554" height="143"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. March 3Salem 3 at Mohawk Valley 4Fri. March 5Mohawk Valley 2 at Salem 7Sat. March 6Mohawk Valley 3 at Salem 4Tue. March 9Salem 2 at Mohawk Valley 9Wed. March 10Mohawk Valley 5 at Salem 3Fri. March 12Salem 3 at Mohawk Valley 4<h3>SEMI-FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1261/4545671-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="558" height="276"></div><h3>FINAL PLAYOFF LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1358/4545664-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="557" height="307"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE (Final Standings)</h2><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1453/4545657-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="545" height="218"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1553/4545650-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="555" height="221"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 9Niagara Falls 7 at Oshawa 4Brantford 3 at Windsor 4Toronto 6 at London 7Wed. March 10Kingston 3 at Belleville 4Sudbury 4 at S.S. Marie 5Thu. March 11London 4 at Windsor 4Oshawa 4 at Peterborough 1Ottawa 9 at Cornwall 4Kitchener 5 at Brantford 4Fri. March 12Niagara Falls 2 at Kitchener 4Cornwall 0 at Ottawa 5Windsor 7 at London 4Belleville 4 at Kingston 6Oshawa 2 at Toronto 4S.S. Marie 6 at Sudbury 5(End of schedule)<h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1651/4545643-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="554" height="297"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS QUARTERFINALS</h2><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1746/4545636-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="554" height="117"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. March 14Kingston 2 at Peterborough 5GAMES TO COMETue. March 16Peterborough at KingstonThu. March 18Kingston at PeterboroughFri. March 19Peterborough at KingstonSun. March 21Kingston at PeterboroughMon. March 22Peterborough at Kingston<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1842/4545629-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="550" height="115"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. March 14Cornwall 5 at Toronto 9GAMESTO COMETue. March 16Toronto at CornwallThu. March 18Cornwall at TorontoSat. March 20Toronto at CornwallSun. March 21Cornwall at TorontoMon. March 22Toronto at Cornwall<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1941/4545622-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="557" height="119"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. March 14Brantford 4 at London 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. March 16London at BrantfordThu. March 18Brantford at LondonFri. March 19London at BrantfordSun. March 31Brantford at LondonMon. March 22London at Brantford<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2040/4545615-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="557" height="119"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. March 14Windsor 4 at Niagara Falls 9<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon. March 15Niagara Falls at WindsorWed. March 7Windsor at Niagara FallsThu. March 18Niagara Falls at WindsorFrl. March 19Windsor at Niagara FallsSun. March 21Niagara Falls at Windsor<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 16)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2138/4545608-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="554" height="248"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2237/4545601-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="557" height="198"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 9Winnipeg 4 at Medicine Hat 7Brandon 2 at Billings 9Lethbridge 6 at Saskatoon 5Kamloops 6 at Victoria 7Wed. March 10Winnipeg 1 at Calgary 2Saskatoon 3 at Regina 6Thu. March 11Victoria 8 at Kamloops 7Fri. March 12Brandon at Regina (ppd)Lethbridge 5 at Calgary 3Winnipeg 1 at Saskatoon 10Portland 3 at Seattle 3Sat. March 13Brandon 3 at Regina 10Billings 4 at Medicine Hat 8Portland 6 at Victoria 7Kamloops 4 at Seattle 6Sun. March 14Medicine Hat 4 at Lethbridge 7Winnipeg 3 at Regina 7Billings 6 at Calgary 9Victoria 4 at Portland 8Brandon 3 at Saskatoon 9Seattle 5 at Kamloops 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2336/4545594-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="554" height="468"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE (Final Standinas)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2436/4545587-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="555" height="271"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. March 8Sherbrooke 5 at Laval 2Tue. March 9Montreal 4 at Chicoutimi 2Hull 4 at T-Rlvleres 2Wed. March 10Laval 5 at Hull 2Shawlnigan 5 at Montreal 7Granby 2 at Quebec 10Fri. March 12Chicoutimi 2 at Quebec 4T-Rlvleres 7 at Shawlnigan 3Sun. March 14Shawlnigan 2 at Chicoutimi 11Quebec 4 at Granby 11T-Rivieres 1 at Hull 6Sherbrooke 3 at Montreal 6(End ofSchedule)<h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2532/4545580-1-eng-US/f0036-252.jpg" title="f0036-25" width="553" height="305"></div><h3>ROUND-ROBIN PLAYOFFS</h3>Tue. March 16Granby at SherbrookeLaval at HullChicoutimi at MontrealShawlnigan at T-RivieresWed. March 17Montreal at ShawlniganT-Rivieres at ChicoutimiSherbrooke at LavalHull at GranbyFri. March 19Chicoutimi at SherbrookeShawlnigan at HullGranby at MontrealLaval at T-RivieresSun. March 21Sherbrooke at ShawlniganChicoutimi at HullLaval at MontrealGranby at T-Rivleres<h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE (Final Standings)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2630/4545573-1-eng-US/f0036-262.jpg" title="f0036-26" width="554" height="216"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2728/4545566-1-eng-US/f0036-272.jpg" title="f0036-27" width="554" height="547"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>QUARTER-FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2827/4545559-1-eng-US/f0036-282.jpg" title="f0036-28" width="558" height="350"></div><h2>OHA INTERMEDIATE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2925/4545552-1-eng-US/f0036-292.jpg" title="f0036-29" width="549" height="115"></div><h3>SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3024/4545545-1-eng-US/f0036-302.jpg" title="f0036-30" width="564" height="117"></div><h2>ONTARIO JUNIOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3123/4545538-1-eng-US/f0036-312.jpg" title="f0036-31" width="543" height="114"></div><h2>CENTRAL JUNIOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3221/4545531-1-eng-US/f0036-322.jpg" title="f0036-32" width="552" height="232"></div><h2>NORTHERN MANITOBA JUNIOR</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3319/4545524-1-eng-US/f0036-332.jpg" title="f0036-33" width="552" height="118"></div><h2>SASKATCHEWAN JUNIOR</h2><h3>QUARTERFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3416/4545517-1-eng-US/f0036-342.jpg" title="f0036-34" width="553" height="117"></div> &#9632;

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MINOR SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01391/4545807-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div><h2>It Could Be Permanent</h2>Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers holds THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; award as the 1980-81 NHL Player of the Year, which was recently presented to him by publisher Don Wall on national TV. No doubt Gretzky has the inside track to repeat his performance this season. He won the award in 1979-80 and shared it last season with Mike Liut of St. Louis.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02309/4545800-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1718" height="1890"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Affiliated Photographic Services & Butler Studios)</figcaption></div><h2>Getting An Assist</h2>Winger Don Maloney of the New York Rangers provided little Nathan Cohen with his biggest thrill when the two met to promote the 1982 New York Easter Seals campaign. Maloney is honorary chairman of the Easter Seals Sports Committee of Manhattan and assisted young Cohen, who was picked as the 1982 Easter Seals poster child. Maloney headed up a giant skate program that helped raise funds for disabled children and adults in the New York area.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03236/4545793-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="848" height="1162"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04172/4545786-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="912" height="1158"></div><h2>Invading Man&rsquo;s World</h2>Laura Hammerschmidt liked hockey so much she tried out for the Allegheny College intercollegiate hockey team and got to play with the boys. The 5-6,125-pound female freshman from Sellersville, PA., says at first some of the guys were reluctant to hit her. But she said she didn&rsquo;t want any special treatment and now takes her share of bodychecks in games. Her coach, Dr. John Taylor, said it was tough at first, but now Laura has been accepted and she is treated like the other players on the team. She plays right wing on the Allegheny College team, which participates in the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Conference.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05123/4545779-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="1230" height="1156"></div><h2>A Deserving Tribute</h2>Veteran center Dave Keon of the Hartford Whalers, left, is presented with a special plaque by Billy Harris, a former teammate of Keon&rsquo;s in Toronto who is now an assistant coach of the Edmonton Oilers. The award was given to Keon in recognition of his 18 years as an NHLer. The notation on the plaque reads in part, &ldquo;the words class and Dave Keon will always be synonymous.&rdquo; Keon has played in nearly 1,600 aames and scored over 500 coals in the NHL and WHA. &#9632;

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HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="byline">BY GORDON EDES</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Bernie Nicholls showed how respectful he was of the New York Islanders when he collected autographed sticks belonging to 10 players from the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.But once the Kings took the ice against the Islanders, Nicholls and fellow rookies Doug Smith and Steve Bozek put respect aside, shutting down the Islanders&rsquo; big line of Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy and John Tonelli.Goaltender Mario Lessard took care of the rest of the Islanders, making 23 saves in a 3-0 win that was his second shutout of the season, his second in five nights and the first time anyone had blanked the Islanders in 166 games dating back to March 2, 1980.And the Kings, who only a week ago had appeared in some danger of missing the playoffs, had drawn to within six points of third-place Vancouver after winning their third straight game, their longest streak of the season.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t think we played terribly,&rdquo; said Trottier, whose 25-game point scoring streak came to an end. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to wreck our whole season.&rdquo;Nor is it going to make the Kings&rsquo;, although consecutive wins over Colorado (2-0), Edmonton (3-2) and the Islanders have definitely made it more interesting.&ldquo;The guys are really realizing what can be done,&rdquo; said coach Don Perry, whose record since returning from his six-game suspension was 6-3-1. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re starting to believe they can be contenders in the playoffs.&rdquo;Endorsing that notion was Al Arbour, coach of the Islanders.&ldquo;They deserved to win,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They outworked us, they outplayed us. They were strong along the boards, they got the puck out quickly, they hit people.&ldquo;If they play like they did [against us], in the playoffs, well, in a short series, anything can happen.&rdquo;A most improbable thing happened against the Oilers, who came into the Forum sporting an advantage of 44 points in the standings and three days in rest.The Kings, playing for the fourth time in five nights, held Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers scoreless for the first two periods, then withstood Edmonton&rsquo;s furious but ultimately fruitless comeback in the third period.Gretzky, who had scored 10 goals in the Oilers&rsquo; first four games, had only one shot on net in the first two periods, despite being on the ice for 13 shifts and nearly 22 minutes.Star-gazers might have attributed that rarity to the Jupiter effect, but a reason closer to earth was the play of Dan Bonar, whose sole assignment was to pursue Gretzky more closely than the media types who have dogged The Great One&rsquo;s every move.The only place Bonar didn&rsquo;t follow Gretzky was into the Edmonton dressing room, though he probably would have if he could have gotten by the Oilers&rsquo; trainer.The assignment to stop Trottier and Co. fell to the Kings&rsquo; rookie line almost by default. Perry said he sent the kids out at the beginning of the game just to &ldquo;mix things up.&rdquo;But 63 seconds later, Smith had scored a goal, deking Denis Potvin in the process, and Perry saw no reason to make a change.Trottier did not get a shot on net. Mike Bossy had one, Tonelli two. And the Kings protected their one-goal lead until Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer (an empty-netter) put the game away with third-period goals.Bozek said he didn&rsquo;t realize what his line&rsquo;s assignment had been.&ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t on that line [Trottier] all night, were we?&rdquo; he said.Informed that they were, Bozek said: &ldquo;I think in my next contract I&rsquo;m going to ask for a defensive bonus. &ldquo;A guy who could probably get about anything he asked for is Perry, who owner Jerry Buss said deserved &ldquo;90 percent of the credit&rdquo; for the Kings&rsquo; turnaround.&ldquo;I think we have a good coach, maybe a great coach,&rdquo; Buss said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01370/4545838-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="600" height="942"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Kings sent out three rookies, including Doug Smith, to control the Bossy-Trottier-Tonelli line.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Kings Hope Turnaround Carries Into Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;For perhaps one of the few times in their 12-year-history, the Canucks have been landing on their feet instead of flat on their backs.A case in point was their continuing battle for second place in the Smythe Division, the either slightly richer or slightly noorer cousin of the Norris Division, depending upon where you&rsquo;re looking at the standings. It featured a home and home series with the Calgary Flames, the first game in Vancouver ending in a 2-2 tie. The second game in Calgary was probably Vancouver&rsquo;s most leisurely night of the year as they lost 11-4 to an unimpressive Calgary club, putting them two points behind their rivals with a game in hand. Normally, such a loss would have sent the Canucks into another &lsquo;O for February&rsquo; string of games, but this time, rather than have an adverse affect, it seemed to be like smelling salts, snapping them out of the doldrums. By the time the week was over, they had beaten Colorado and tied Philadelphia giving them second place again. Maybe they should lose by double figures more often.The game was a total aberration for the Canucks. Richard Brodeur, who has played well enough to be made mayor of this coastal community, had his worst game of the year, getting himself pulled in favor of Glen Hanlon at the end of two periods.Neale launched a blistering verbal attack&mdash;well deserved&mdash;at the way his players went about their jobs in the big game in Calgary, saying they got exactly what they deserved.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t play a first period the way we did and expect to have any hope of winning a hockey game in this league against any team,&rdquo; said Neale. &ldquo;We stood around and watched them score. I&rsquo;ll be very surprised if we don&rsquo;t get a good reaction out of a game like this. I think we&rsquo;ll be a very tough club to beat in Denver tomorrow night.&rdquo;Brodeur was given a rest in Denver, Hanlon having earned the opportunity to get a start by waiting around so patiently.He was very sharp in a 4-3 victory over the homestanding Rockies, making the big saves early and allowing the Canucks to get out to a 3-1 lead they held onto in the third period.&ldquo;The defense played a very strong game in front of me,&rdquo; said Hanlon, who was making his first start since the Canucks began their winning ways of late. It turned out to be his last for Vancouver when he was traded to St. Louis (see page 18). &ldquo;I had only to worry about the first shot and that is a big part of playing this game.&rdquo;The next game was Brodeur&rsquo;s turn to shine.&ldquo;I wanted to really have a good game tonight and win,&rdquo; said Brodeur after getting the tie against Philly and a headache to boot when Harold Snepsts knocked Bill Barber into him during the second period. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to get pulled out of any game. 1 like to finish no matter how bad I play and 1 really wanted to come back and have a good night.&rdquo;He did. Stopping 35 of 38 shots, Brodeur demonstrated why he is one of the top goalkeepers in the league, consistently keeping Vancouver in games in which they have no business being involved.The Canucks entered the homestretch with eight of their next nine games on the road and nine of their last 15 away from the Coliseum. This was a particularly difficult problem in light of the road record, which has been improving but still ranks fairly low down in the league percentages. The trip did not begin well with losses in Colorado, Minnesota and Winnipeg, but Calgary only managed one point in four games over the same time.What is most amusing about Vancouver and Calgary&rsquo;s deathless duel to finish second behind the Oilers is that they all play virtually the same opponents, as all visitors on Western swings are generally hitting the same cities. &#9632;

Canucks’ Form Starting To Change For Better

LOS ANGELES&mdash;Marcel Dionne of the Los Angeles Kings may not score as many goals this year as he has in his last three National Hockey League seasons, but he&rsquo;s still able to maintain his grip on the top-scoring spot among active players in the NHL.Dionne advanced to 11th place on the league list, ahead of the retired Alex Delvecchio, as he scored his 479th career goal in his first 66 games of the 1981-82 campaign. Delvecchio slipped back into a temporary tie for 12th spot with Guy Lafleur, each with 456 goals, but the Canadiens&rsquo; right winger scored his 457th to pull ahead with nine games left.Dionne, who had 41 goals after 66 games this year, moved from 12th to 11th on the all-time list, 11 goals in back of Norm Ullman, who scored 490 before hanging up his skates, and 12 behind Jean Ratelie. who scored 491 before retiring during the off-season to become a coach with the Bruins. &#9632;

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March 26, 1982

Wisconsin’s Total Reversal Of Form Gives Them Higher Seed Than Sioux

Chicago’s Secord A Heavyweight As Goal-Scorer

Soetaert Finally Starting To Receive Credit

WHERE NHL TEAMS PLAY