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

April 23, 1982

The Hockey News April 23, 1982

NIAGARA FALLS&mdash;When the teams in the National Hockey League put away their sticks and skates around the third week in May, it will be but a short respite for 14 of the league&rsquo;s teams.Almost one month later they&rsquo;ll take to the baseball field seeking to extend their ice rivalry in the annual Molson Slo-Pitch Classic at Niagara Falls, Ont., June 25, 26 and 27.The concept of the tournament is to bring together players from their respective NHL teams to play in a charity round-robin competition. The three-day event will mix some excellent softball and socializing among players from the 14 league clubs that have agreed to perform.Unlike the hockey grind, where the lowly Detroit Red Wings are constantly taking it on the chin, the SloPitch tournament will give the Detroiters a chance to defend their softball superiority. They are the defending tourney champions after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1981 final.For the record the competing teams will include Detroit and Toronto as well as Chicago, Winnipeg, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Washington, Edmonton, Philadelphia, Calgary, Hartford, Buffalo and the Islanders.In addition there will be a bevy of big name NHLers on hand for the three-day event. Among those players who have signified their intention of playing are Bill Derlago, Michel Larocque and Rick Vaive, Toronto; Paul Coffey and Mark Messier, Edmonton; Clark Gillies, Butch Goring and John Tonelli of the Islanders; Randy Carlyle, Gregg Sheppard, Paul Gardner and Rick Kehoe of Pittsburgh; Don Edwards and Gilbert Perreault, Buffalo; Dennis Maruk and Mike Gartner, Washington; Serge Savard, Dale Hawerchuk and team GM John Ferguson of Winnipeg; Blaine Stoughton of Hartford; Marcel Dionne of the LA Kings; Dave Hutchison of Chicago; Guy Chouinard of Calgary; Danny Gare and Jim Schoenfeld, Detroit; Bill Barber of Philadelphia and three members of the Montreal Canadiens, Bob Gainey, Mark Napier and Larry Robinson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01861/4617997-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="600" height="1579"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clark Gillies shows good form while playing softball as well as hockey.</figcaption></div>In addition, such well-known referees, former NHLers and Hockey Night In Canada personalities as Bruce Hood, Bryan Lewis, Fred Stanfield, Dennis Hull, Dave Hodge, Gary Dornhoefer and Don Cherry are expected to compete in the tournament.Officials are gearing for another big tournament if last year&rsquo;s crowds of between 36,000 and 50,000 are any indication. This year they have planned some major improvements in the tourney. The event will operate on a round-robin basis; there will be four divisions with four teams in each division; each team is guaranteed three games with a maximum of five to win the championship; all games will be of a duration of seven innings.The NHL referees and linesmen will form one team and the NHL Oldtimers another to complement the participating 14 NHL clubs.Tournament officials expect Edmonton super scorer Wayne Gretzky to put in an appearance on the final day. He may be part of the All Star vs Hockey Night In Canada game.The tournament is set in the majestic tourist backdrop of Niagara Falls, where millions of visitors yearly flock to see the world-renowned falls on both the Canadian and U.S. sides of the border.To salute the Molson Slo-Pitch tournament, THE HOCKEY NEWS will publish a special section on the event, its teams and competitors in the June issue.Meanwhile games will be conducted in three different parks, two in Niagara Falls&mdash;Kerr Park and Oakes Park&mdash;and one at nearby St. Catharines where fans can see the action at Thomas Street Park.Here is the three-day schedule:Friday, June 25 at Kerr Park: NHL Referees vs Washington, 6 pm; Calgary vs Philadelphia, 7:30 pm; Islanders vs Hartford, 9 pm. At Oakes Park, HNIC will play an exhibition with a team to be named later at 6 pm; Winnipeg vs Montreal 7:30 pm; NHL Oldtimers vs Buffalo, 9 pm. At Thomas Street Park, Chicago vs Pittsburgh 6 pm; Los Angeles vs Toronto 7:30 pm; and Detroit vs Edmonton, 9 pm.Sat. June 26 at Oakes Park: Winnipeg vs NHL Oldtimers, 10 am; Chicago vs Toronto, 11:30 am; Montreal vs Buffalo, 1 pm; Pittsburgh vs Los Angeles, 2:30 pm; Detroit vs Washington, 4 pm; Edmonton vs NHL Referees, 5:30 pm; and Calgary vs Islanders, 7 pm; and Calgary vs Hartford, 8:30 pm. At Thomas Street Park, Detroit vs NHL Referees, 10 am; Chicago vs Islanders, 11:30 am; Edmonton vs Washington, 1 pm; Philadelphia vs Hartford, 2:30 pm; Winnipeg vs Buffalo, 4 pm; Montreal vs NHL Oldtimers, 5:30 pm; Pittsburgh vs Toronto, 7 pm; and Los Angeles vs Chicago, 8:30 pm.Sun. June 27 with all games at Oakes Park. The first semifinal will be staged at 12:30 pm. The second at 2 pm followed by a game between HNIC and the NHL All Stars at 3:30 pm. The championship final will be held at 5 pm. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

14 NHL Teams Ready To Seek Slo-Pitch Title

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The Minnesota North Stars will have lots of time to spend at the movies now, as they were sent &ldquo;reeling&rdquo; into summer vacation with an uncompromising three-games-to-one loss to the Chicago Black Hawks in the best-of-five preliminary playoff round.It was a surprise ending to a season of illusions, where the Stars wandered through the season with indifference, waiting for their appointed time to take the Stanley Cup spotlight.If you recall, the Stars were taken by general manager Lou Nanne to see the movie Chariots of Fire for inspiration just before the start of the Chicago series. Four games later, numerous other potential film ideas come to mind for the Stars, who will have a lot of free time in April and May, even if they will also have less money in the face of rising box-office prices.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011199/4617228-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="598" height="778"><figcaption class="caption-body">When Steve Christoff was left out of the lineup, coach Glen Sonmor-was second-guessed.</figcaption></div>The Stars intended to be playing On Golden Pond at the Cup final. Certainly, several players would rise up to play their Personal Best, and Some Kind of Hero would emerge to prevent a Rollover, while all the injuries of the season would hurt Only When I Laugh.Instead, the Black Hawks atoned for a season of Silent Rage. They spent enough time in penalty boxes to go Stir Crazy, and their clutching, grabbing and pounding represented just about every Evil Under the Sun.The North Stars, for all their talent, suffered from an Absence of Malice, particularly after Jack Carlson&rsquo;s exit in the first game. Their forecheckers spent very little Ragtime, and their power play wound up Missing. Minnesota&rsquo;s anticipated sweet Sound of Music sounded more like Taps.On the way home from dingy Chicago Stadium, the Stars&rsquo; team bus could have stopped at a drive-in theater for Cheech and Chong&rsquo;s double feature: Nice Dreams, and Up in Smoke.The chalkboard in Minnesota&rsquo;s dressing room said: &ldquo;If we hit, we win; if we don&rsquo;t, we won&rsquo;t.&rdquo; But the series was clearly a matter of Chicago&rsquo;s thumping against Minnesota&rsquo;s finesse. That finesse had carried the Stars to the Norris Division title, with a 19-10-6 mark within that division.More illusions. The Stars cleaned up on tailend Toronto and Detroit, posting a 10-1-3 record against them, while standing only 9-9-3 against Chicago, St. Louis and Winnipeg. All three of those teams like to grind the North Stars, and the Stars clearly prefer to play teams that try to skate with them.Murray Bannerman killed the Stars in Game One, when the Stars had heaps of power plays to build a 47-23 edge in shots, but fell 3-2 when Greg Fox scored in overtime. Denis Savard, who did nothing all game, circled the Stars&rsquo; defense with one vital burst of speed and passed out for the gamewinner.Carlson pounded Dave Hutchison&rsquo;s eye shut in a first-period fight that was a comain-event with one between Brad Maxwell and Al Secord. Hutchison had flattened a kneeling Dino Cic-carelli with a cross-check to earn Carlson&rsquo;s version of justice. But while both sat out Game Two, Carlson&rsquo;s knuckles were messed up worse than Hutchison&rsquo;s face, and he never returned, leaving the Stars more hit-table.Chicago swept the two games at Met Center by winning 5-3 the next night. Tom Lysiak had four points, including a 180-foot fling into an open net at the end.Coach Glen Sonmor, who didn&rsquo;t dress potential streak-scorer Steve Christoff and hustling worker Anders Hakansson in favor of Brad Palmer and Ken Solheim in Game One, yanked ace goalie Gilles Meloche for Don Beaupre in Game Two, then juggled all his lines before Game Three, in an effort to get things generated. The offense had been hammered to a standstill in the first two games, never penetrating the slot and never sustaining any offense except from the perimeter.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021142/4617221-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="1244" height="1254"><figcaption class="caption-body">After Jack Carlson punched his way out of the lineup in Game One, the North Stars seemed to lose almost all of their fight and were simply outworked.</figcaption></div>Defensemen Gordie Roberts, Brad Maxwell and Craig Hartsburg rose up with stirring efforts both offensively and defensively, and Curt Giles and Fred Barrett were steady. But Bill Nyrop had a brutal time, setting up former North Star Glen Sharpley with a bad pass right out front in Game One, and struggling mightily in Game Two before taking himself out of the game, and the series, with a sore knee.Sonmor&rsquo;s juggling for Game Three worked, but mainly because the Stars worked, and got the power play going. And maybe Chicago thought the Stars wouldn&rsquo;t show up in Chicago Stadium. They did, for a 7-1 victory, as Dino Ciccarelli got a hat trick and Steve Payne snapped in two goals. Bobby Smith came through a fight by buckling Fox&rsquo;s knees with a potent right hand, as well.That should have given the Stars new life, but instead it merely awakened the Black Hawks, who ended the series and Minnesota&rsquo;s lofty ambitions with a 5-2 crusher in Game Four.The Stars reached the Cup semifinals two years ago, and the finals last spring. They vowed they would prove their true talent with a dominating regular season this time, claiming they realized they couldn&rsquo;t just keep turning on the juice at playoff time.They were right. Maybe it should have been a predictable outcome&hellip; And Justice For All. &#9632;

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North Stars’ Playoff Illusions Sent ‘Reeling’

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03189/4618690-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ACHL All Star Teams

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011116/4617911-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Gainey was one of the few Montreal forwards willing to pay the price in all games of the series against the Nordiques, leading the team in hits. (Photo By Ian MacAlpine)</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;It seems the Canadiens have two personalities.One is a hard working, devoted approach to on-ice responsibilities. No fooling around, just diligent effort.The other isn&rsquo;t quite as good. It&rsquo;s an individualistic, careless and sometimes effortless approach to things.Both personalities were evident in the first four games of the Adams Division semifinal with the Nordiques.Game One&mdash;Total team effort, everyone involved. Result&mdash;5-1 victory.Game Two&mdash;Same players work very hard, others slack off. Limited group willing to pay the price going after pucks in the comer. Result&mdash;a 3-2 loss.Game Three&mdash;Only a handful showing consistent drive and willingness to give a full effort. Result&mdash;a 2-1 loss, although the score was hardly indicative of the play.Game Four&mdash;Back to Game 1 effort. Result&mdash;Montreal 6 Quebec 2.Maybe it was because they were facing elimination for the third year in succession that the Canadiens rose up and smote the Nordiques on Easter Sunday night. For a night earlier, there were times that some players appeared more intent on planning summer activities rather than concentrate on the matters at hand.A lack of intensity, an unwillingness to stand in front of the net or to beat the Quebec players to loose pucks in the offensive end did the Canadiens in. Only team captain Bob Gainey seemed willing to hit among the forwards. There were a few snow drifts in the Quebec zone and they weren&rsquo;t caused by Nordiques players.&ldquo;They beat us to the puck and they controlled the play,&rdquo; said defenseman Rod Langway of the Game Three effort. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t that we weren&rsquo;t working. There were headlines suggesting that the Canadiens don&rsquo;t want to win and this and that. It&rsquo;s a bunch of bull.&ldquo;They out-finessed us. They got ahead of us with two goals, one of which was questionable and one of which was a good play.&rdquo;Both were scored by Dale Hunter in the first period in Game Three, but Hunter didn&rsquo;t do much in Game Four because he spent the majority of the evening sitting out penalties in a wild affair which saw a first-period altercation net 154 minutes in penalties.And the fighting might have been the thing to help the Canadiens from an intensity standpoint. Certainly, they seemed far more intent in going after the puck and disturbing Daniel Bouchard&rsquo;s concentration in front of the net, something they rarely had done in the two previous games.&ldquo;With the situation we were looking at [an early vacation], we had to go out every shift and play with a great deal of intensity,&rdquo; said Doug Risebrough. &ldquo;It was a disappointing feeling after the third game. Everybody expected us to come in here and play much better than we did. We didn&rsquo;t play as well as we should have.&ldquo;Sometimes you go out in those situations and you play your heart out and something happens negatively. You&rsquo;re upset, but you know that you have played your best and you put your best game out there. In the third game, we didn&rsquo;t put our best game out there.&rdquo;Both Langway and Risebrough are among the skating wounded that Bob Berry is calling upon heavily in this series.Langway&rsquo;s left knee was badly swollen after Game Three and Four and there was speculation that he would not be able to play in the fourth game because of the pain. Risebrough also is still not fully recovered from a twisted right knee, Guy Lafleur is skating on a painful right foot, Larry Robinson is moving a little slower than usual because of a sore groin.Gaston Gingras injured his right knee in Game Two, but unlike Langway was not able to go full out with the injury and sat out much of Game Four as Berry decided to go with four defensemen&mdash;Langway, Robinson, Brian Engblom and Robert Picard&mdash;during the final 40 minutes.IN PASSING&mdash; Canadiens&rsquo; managing director Irving Grundman and his family were targets of racist-oriented verbal abuse during Game Three&hellip; Doug Wickenheiser sat out the first four games of the series and was not overjoyed&hellip; Voyageurs&rsquo; defenseman Bill Kitchen was pressed into full service in Game Four when the first-period brawl resulted in misconducts to Langway and Engblom&hellip; Steve Shutt resumed skating Easter weekend with hopes of returning to the lineup for the Adams divisional final. &#9632;

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Jekyll-Hyde Personalities Plague Montreal’s Playoffs

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011138/4617135-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="324" height="368"></div><h2>Spring&rsquo;s Straight Lines</h2>Playing the game in circles is fun and it&rsquo;s exciting. But when spring comes and the playoffs start, the team that plays best in straight lines will get to carry that big Cup around the ice.&mdash;A National Hockey League coachFlow and motion was a favorite phrase around the NHL for a time. European style was heard on a few occasions too. The &ldquo;new&rdquo; hockey supposedly had arrived and the game was in for a large transformation in the 1980s.Credit the Europeans, especially the Soviets, with the change in some NHL peoples&rsquo; thinking on how hockey should be played, that the traditional up and down the wings, shoot-it-in and chase-it style was on its way out and the free-flow game was in.Many NHL teams tried the new approach. Some abandoned it because it&rsquo;s one thing for the Soviets with their enormous skating and passing ability to play that game but NHL teams were trying to have mules dance Swan Lake because of their low-level execution of fundamentals.Then along came the Soviets with a major surprise in the Canada Cup tournament. Sure, they passed the puck and skated beautifully but they also iced it when under pressure in their own zone and shot it into the attacking zone when they encountered a roadblock at the blueline. The Soviets took the best of their game and the best of the NHL&rsquo;s and combined the two magnificently.Herb Brooks had the New York Rangers play a circle game with plenty of crossovers and motion from the forwards. The Rangers played it well too but, in reality, the style was such a major departure and it worked only when based on the execution of the simple parts of the game that have been its basis since Cyclone Taylor was a pee wee.<h2>Moving It Out</h2>IN THE NHL in 1981-82 the teams that have had good seasons and came down the stretch in high gear towards the playoffs were the ones using the traditional approach.The New York Islanders were favored to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup because they execute the four or five basic parts of the game very well. The Montreal Canadiens were back in the Cup picture, after a two-year absence when they seemed to forget about the basics, because coach Bob Berry had inspired them to remember the simple things.The Boston Bruins had a fine season because they found some hungry kids who knew all about the unglamorous parts of the game such as what to do when the puck wasn&rsquo;t in their possession.When Emile Francis left the executive suite and took over the coaching chair with the St. Louis Blues the first thing he did was to push the Blues hard to acquire some condition and play with some consistency and devotion in their own zone. Bob Pulford followed the same route with the Chicago Black Hawks.&ldquo;We had a lousy season because we got away from doing the basic things well,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; goalie Mike Liut. &ldquo;Last year we executed them well but this time we didn&rsquo;t and we got into trouble.&rdquo;There are some who would call Francis an &ldquo;old school&rdquo; hockey guy but it&rsquo;s difficult to argue with his approach.&ldquo;The fancy stuff in the game is fine and I&rsquo;m not against my team playing that way using crossovers and motion,&rdquo; the Cat said. &ldquo;But before a team can play that way it must have a really solid foundation of the basics of the game, especially in getting the puck out of its own end of the rink.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t have that, all the fancy stuff is so much baloney. You can execute all the crossovers in the world but if you don&rsquo;t have discipline in the simple approach to getting the puck out of your end, forget it.&rdquo;<h2>Little Things Count</h2>WHEN THE CANADIENS throttled the Quebec Nordiques, a team that can play the fancy game well, in the opening game of their divisional semifinal series, the Montrealers were about as gaudy as a garbage pail. Their execution of the game&rsquo;s basics was impeccable.They didn&rsquo;t grant the Nordiques a single oddman rush, placed a finish on their checks that would make Howie Meeker sing &ldquo;Eureka!&rdquo;, hounded the puck incessantly and moved it from their own zone swiftly.&ldquo;Really it&rsquo;s a matter of doing all the little things thoroughly on a consistent basis,&rdquo; said Canadiens&rsquo; winger Bob Gainey. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s really the key&mdash;doing all the basics well because if you do, everything else just seems to fall into place.&rdquo;To have appeal as entertainment, of course, the game needs the spectacular, the elegant goals and swift offensive play, that&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s rather strange to make a prediction: The Stanley Cup will be won by the team that gets the puck out of its own end the best.Really the path to the dish is a straight line. &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

Although all the results of the preliminary round of the 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs were not resolved when this issue went to press, they certainly will be by the time next week&rsquo;s issue comes out, and we&rsquo;ll have all the latest information on those series.In addition, we&rsquo;ll have the latest news on the division finals. Once again, as this issue went to press the only one we were sure about was the Chicago-St. Louis matchup. All the others still had to be decided, with the Pittsburgh Penguins extending the Islanders to five games and the Quebec Nordiques doing the same to the Montreal Canadiens.While the NHL playoff picture is still up in the air, the winners of this year&rsquo;s College Player and Coach of the Year awards certainly are not. We know exactly who they are and will break the news to you in next week&rsquo;s issue.So don&rsquo;t miss it! &#9632;

Coming Next Week

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011154/4617190-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">An 18-year-old for all but the last regular season game, Dale Hawerchuk rewrote 17 Winnipeg club records while becoming the youngest player in NHL history to score over 100 points. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>One day Winnipeg coach Tom Watt fell asleep on an airplane. When he awoke, half his tie was gone.On another occasion, Dave Christian was still hungry after a typically light lunch on Northwest Orient.So he ate a napkin, one boarding pass and an entire safety features guide.When he was through dining, he found a needle and thread and stitched the sleeves together on Serge Savard&rsquo;s suit.John Ferguson was still chuckling to himself as he waited for his bags.Standing in his favorite pose&mdash;legs apart, arms behind his back, clenching a tightly folded newspaper&mdash;he started to feel a gush of warm air.Someone had lit his paper.Goofy? Of course. They are the boys of winter.For every member of the Winnipeg Jets this season, it has been fun, exciting and rewarding.They have surprised everyone but themselves, compiling a 33-33-14 record through 80 games, finishing a strong second in their division (the Norris) and 10th overall in the-final National Hockey League standings.And the champion of their cause has been the dimpled darling of the fans&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk.An 18-year-old for all but the last of the 80 games, he set a standard of excellence on a team that had none.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there has ever been a rookie in the NHL who could have done what he&rsquo;s done for us,&rdquo; said Ferguson, the general manager and main architect on the most improved team in the history of the league.Led by the dashing center, the Jets rose from the inequities of 21st place with a 48-point improvement over the previous year (9-57-14).&ldquo;I see something like that and I know what keeps us going,&rdquo; said Marshall Johnston, assistant coach of the Colorado Rockies, a team in despair.&ldquo;If they can improve that much in one season, I know we can. They give us some badly-needed encouragement.&rdquo;Finding another Hawerchuk won&rsquo;t be easy. He&rsquo;s a jewel plucked from the draft and the Rockies, as everyone knows, have peddled most of their prime choices.Hawerchuk was one of the eight rookies on a club that featured 13 new faces.&ldquo;This team wasn&rsquo;t put together by mistake,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;It was put together by design.&rdquo;But even he never expected such a dramatic rise to respectability.&ldquo;Maybe we&rsquo;ve arrived a little quicker than I thought we would,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I figured we would definitely make the playoffs. But second place? I&rsquo;ll take it.&rdquo;In doing so, Hawerchuk rewrote 17 club records and became the youngest player in the history of the NHL to reach the 100-point plateau.He set club records for goals (45), assists (58) and points (103).&ldquo;I&rsquo;m satisfied with my season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I know I can do better. I&rsquo;ve learned a lot.&rdquo;Built rather rakishly&mdash;he&rsquo;s almost six feet and weighs 175 pounds&mdash;Hawerchuk took his share of the knocks and vices of opponents bent on stopping him.Of all the plays he made, one stands out. The Jets were playing in St. Louis on Tuesday, March 16.It was early in the second period and the Blues were reeling as the Jets established a 3-0 lead.Twisting in his own inimitable style, Hawerchuk led a l-on-3 rush. Three Blues converged him. Suddenly, he leaping through the air, knifing through the crowd with the puck veritably on a leash. Off balance as he landed, he kept his feet and with one hand steered a pass across the front of the St. Louis net, timing its arrival perfectly with Paul Mac Lean&rsquo;s.His burly right winger scored easily.Of all the players who have been aided by Hawerchuk, the one who has benefited most is MacLean. He scored 36 goals, 12 of them on the power play.&ldquo;Playing with Ducky is simple,&rdquo; said MacLean. &ldquo;You give him the puck at center ice, then head for the right post. Sooner or later, it seems to get there.&rdquo;Hawerchuk is considered the favorite to win the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year. His support is far reaching from Philadelphia to Buffalo to Montreal to Chicago to Vancouver.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve got the best rookie in the NHL,&rdquo; said MacLean, a rookie himself. &ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, he&rsquo;s the Calder Trophy winner. It doesn&rsquo;t matter what they write about me; he&rsquo;s going to win it.&rdquo;MacLean and the line&rsquo;s left winger, Larry Hopkins, have been described as the &ldquo;Book Ends&rdquo;. They have also been called fringe players, enjoying the company of a young star.But the fact of the matter is, they have complemented Hawerchuk with their plodding styles. Because of their considerable size&mdash;MacLean weighs 195 pounds; Hopkins, 220&mdash;they can slug it out in the corners with the league&rsquo;s biggest defensemen, tying them up while Hawerchuk is able to do his thing.Hawerchuk&rsquo;s value to the team extends far beyond his capacity to form an effective line with Hopkins and MacLean.&ldquo;His abilities and qualities make every guy on the team a little bit better,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done more than we ever expected. And remember, he was only 18 for 79 games this season. What he&rsquo;s done in his first year is unbelievable.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to imagine how good he can be two or three years down the road.&rdquo;St. Louis coach Emile Francis had no illusions about Hawerchuk as the Blues entered the best-of-five Norris Division semifinal series in the opening round of Stanley Cup playoffs.&ldquo;The main thing is to stop him [Hawerchuk],&rdquo; said Francis. &ldquo;Give him credit. He&rsquo;s a great young player and he&rsquo;s Rookie of the Year as far as I&rsquo;m concerned.&rdquo;The Jets&rsquo; two most influential members of the team are Hawerchuk and 36-year-old Serge Savard. Hawerchuk was only one-year-old the year Savard played on his first Stanley Cup champion.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be as good as Gretzky is,&rdquo; said Savard, referring to the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; superstar. &ldquo;Remember, who said it first.&rdquo;Hawerchuk hates to be compared with Wayne Gretzky, a Gus Badali stablemate. Although their styles are similar, their ideals the same and their own importance to their teams comparible, Hawerchuk has no intention of becoming the next Gretzky.He just wants to be the first Dale Hawerchuk.Already, Hawerchuk is being considered as the subject of a book and a certain brand of peanut butter is going to be named after him.Off the ice, he is the idol of every youngster in the city and the heart-throb of the ladies, not all of whom are teenagers.Flowers, cakes and candies are always delivered to the door of the dressing room, much to the delight of his sweet-toothed team mates.Accustomed to living in a home, where people reside, he shares a basement suite with his friend and former Cornwall teammate, Scott Amiel, the Jets&rsquo; second-round choice in the 1981 Entry Draft.According to their landlady, the two boarders are perfect gentlemen with enormous appetites. As she put it, &ldquo;they eat tons of ice cream and drink gallons of apple juice.&rdquo;Although individual records were either set by him or within his grasp, Hawerchuk never lost sight of the fact the team&rsquo;s ambitions came first.&ldquo;The greatest ability he has is being able to always put the team ahead of himself,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;He has a have-to-win attitude before every game.&rdquo;Willy Lindstrom, a seven-year veteran of the Jets, has been impressed by Hawerchuk&rsquo;s influence on everyone in the dressing room.&ldquo;He never takes a night off,&rdquo; said Lindstrom. &ldquo;And when others are sloppy, I&rsquo;ve seen him get awfully angry. He&rsquo;ll slap his stick on the floor to show his disgust. I think that&rsquo;s great.&rdquo;Other teams have started to envy the Jets and admire the resourcefulness of Ferguson, who refused to panic when the team was abysmally bad, sinking as low as a 30-game winless streak last season.They marvel at how he pilfered a proven goaltender, Eddie Staniowski, defenseman Bryan Maxwell and MacLean out of St. Louis; lured Savard out of retirement; acquired rightwinger Lucien DeBlois from Colorado; pried goaltender Doug Soetaert from the Rangers; charmed Bengt Lundholm in Sweden; dipped into the waiver draft for another defenseman, Craig Levie; and brought along draft choices, such as defenseman Tim Watters and center Thomas Steen.From last year&rsquo;s team, he was able to form a nucleus from the likes of Dave Babych, Don Spring, Morris Lukowich, Tim Trimper, Doug Smail, Norm Dupont, Jimmy Mann, Lindstrom and Christian.But the biggest move of all was drafting Hawerchuk. Suddenly, everyone else would become a little better.One of the first to recognize what was happening was Mike Nykoluk, coach of Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;At the start, I didn&rsquo;t realize how, good he was,&rdquo; said Nykoluk. &ldquo;He relates to that team. He&rsquo;s like Bobby Clarke used to be in Philly. He&rsquo;s got that kind of magnetism.&ldquo;As 1 have said before, he could be as good as Gretzky.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Hawerchuk Helped Young Jets Grow Up Quickly

Founded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenzieDONALD R. WALLChairman and PublisherTOM MURRAYEditor in ChiefAdvertising and Editorial Offices214 King Street West&mdash;Suite 314Toronto. Ontario. Canada M5H 1K4(416)598-1753Executive Office850 Third Ave.New 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>Toronto:Randy Green214 King Streel West&mdash;Suite 314loronto. Ontario. Canada M5H 1K4(416)598-1753Quebec City:Gaston DubeGaston Dube & Associates.750 St. Ursule St.Quebec City, Que. G1R 4E7(418)692-5130New York:Bob BassinetteBob Bassinette Co.Jackson AveSyosset. NY 11791516) 921-0508Minneapolis-St. Paul:Chuck Grillo & Herb Brooks12890 Dory Ave.Apple Valley. MN 55124(612) 423-2447Esther SumkaAdvertising Service Manager (416) 598-1753THE HOCKEY MEWS (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. 10022.YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $18.95 in the U.S.A. $18.95 in Canada. $24.95 in Foreign Countries. Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS, P.O. Box 13035, Postal Station A, Toronto, Ont. M5W 1V7. U.S. subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240. Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing.SEND 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, CanadaIN 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 1K4.Member ol the Audit Bureau ot Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News THE INTERNAT IONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;A funny thing happened to Mike Moffat an hour before he was to take the ice to play goal for the Boston Bruins against the Buffalo Sabres in the opening game of the playoffs.&ldquo;I almost chickened out,&rdquo; said the 20-year-old youngster whose sum total of National Hockey League experience was 120 minutes in two victories over the Quebec Nordiques and the Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;I sat right here around 6:30 tonight and I thought to myself, &lsquo;Who are you kidding? So you played two steady hockey games: This is the playoffs!&rsquo;&ldquo;I just went in and talked to Gerry and I said, &lsquo;Hey, I&rsquo;m really nervous. I don&rsquo;t know if I can help the team or not. I&rsquo;m afraid I&rsquo;m going to cost them the game.&rsquo;&ldquo;He had some good things to say to me, but nothing I&rsquo;d really want to say now.&rdquo;Coach Gerry Cheevers didn&rsquo;t mind talking about it.&ldquo;He was very nervous,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and he says, &lsquo;I gotta talk to you. I&rsquo;m nervous. You gotta cool me down.&rsquo;&ldquo;What I said to him was basically, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;re going to win us or lose us the game. Our team will dictate that. Our team will win the game for us or our team will lose it.&ldquo;&lsquo;I&rsquo;m not concerned that you will lose the game or else you wouldn&rsquo;t be playing. That&rsquo;s all you have to worry about. Just play your best. Make a minimum of mistakes and let the team take care of winning or losing the game.&rsquo;&rdquo;Whereupon Moffat and the Bruins went out and beat the Sabres 3-1 in the playoff opener and, just to prove it was not a fluke, they beat them a second time, 7-2.(See page 6 for more details in the Boston-Buffalo series)Starting Moffat, with his limited experience, in the playoffs was a daring move, perhaps one made out of desperation, although Cheevers has never said so in so many words.The veteran Rogie Vachon had the flu, at least that was the word that was given out when Moffat was nominated to start against Quebec in a game the Bruins needed desperately to clinch second place in the Adams Division.Vachon hasn&rsquo;t dressed since.&ldquo;I wanted Marco to have a rest,&rdquo; said Cheevers, explaining why Marco Baron was not in the nets. &ldquo;He was getting involved in too many goals. I think it was good for him to sit down and watch a few games.&rdquo;Baron is still watching.Moffat was even more of a surprise when you consider that he was last seen in Boston in September packing his gear for the descent to another year in junior hockey at Kingston, Ont. He was thought to be too nervous for the NHL. He still is.&ldquo;He lives on the head of a pin,&rdquo; his father. Dr. John Moffat of Cambridge, Ont., told John Peirson, the Bruins&rsquo; TV color man. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a nervous system that&rsquo;s strung out something terrible. We&rsquo;ve grown used to that. He&rsquo;s always been that way and I expect he always will.&rdquo;Like the Moffat family, the Bruins may be getting used to it too.&ldquo;He seems to be more in control than he was in training camp,&rdquo; said Cheevers. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s still that type. Hey, there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with that. He&rsquo;s certainly refreshing.&rdquo;He certainly is.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s absolutely no way I won those hockey games for this hockey team,&rdquo; he said after beating Quebec and Hartford on consecutive nights.&ldquo;They played tremendous hockey. 1 was very nervous because I didn&rsquo;t want to cost this team anything. If I did the only way I could deal with it was to say, &lsquo;Hey, I did everything that I could and I&rsquo;m sorry.&rsquo; &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still having trouble adjusting to his new surroundings.&ldquo;I have Terry O&rsquo;Reilly sitting beside me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Who wouldn&rsquo;t be thrilled at that. I used to watch him on TV all the time.&ldquo;But if I start getting it into my mind that these guys are great and I&rsquo;m just thrilled to be here then I&rsquo;m not going to play hockey anymore. I ran into problems like that in training camp.&rdquo;And Moffat has another problem now.&ldquo;I have school tomorrow morning but I won&rsquo;t be there,&rdquo; he confided. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been in school for two weeks now. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll be back until hockey is over.&rdquo; &#9632;

Moffat Fights His Nerves; Bruins Pleased By Results

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The Penguins had the unenviable task of playing the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders in the first round of the playoffs, but coach Eddie Johnston was pleased it would be a best three-of-five series.&ldquo;Going into the playoffs, anytime you&rsquo;ve got a short series, all you&rsquo;ve got to do is steal the one game in their building,&rdquo; said Johnston. &ldquo;Last year we took the one game in St. Louis. In a short series, you&rsquo;ve got a chance to do that.&ldquo;The more you play against the Islanders, the more they&rsquo;ll wear you down. If you&rsquo;ve got to play them, you&rsquo;d rather play them in a two-out-of-three or three-out-of-five series rather than a four-out-of-seven.&rdquo;Last season the Penguins finished 15th in the overall National Hockey league standings and played the second-place Blues in the opening playoff round. Pittsburgh did &ldquo;steal&rdquo; one of the first two games in St. Louis, but lost in the second overtime of the fifth game in what generally is viewed as the most exciting game in the franchise&rsquo;s history.This year, with the divisions realigned and the playoff format res-tructured, the Penguins had the seemingly insurmountable job of playing the Islanders. However, Pittsburgh did break the Islanders&rsquo; NHL-record 15-game winning streak this season and has played New York tough over the years.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get 110 percent out of everybody, and the goalkeeper&rsquo;s got to be extraordinarily good,&rdquo; said Johnston in assessing his team&rsquo;s chances of pulling off a major upset. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to catch them a little flat, too.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to check better, that&rsquo;s definite. We can&rsquo;t stick-check the Islanders, or they&rsquo;ll stick it to you all night. We have to play the body on them, and we have to get into a physical series with them.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to play exceptionally well, and catch them not playing well. They don&rsquo;t have any weaknesses, that&rsquo;s the trouble.&rdquo;Johnston had great respect for the Islanders and called New York center Bryan Trottier the &ldquo;best two-way player in hockey.&rdquo; The Penguins&rsquo; second-year-coach also believed his special teams&mdash;penalty killers and power-play unit&mdash;would have to come through if the club was to have had any chance of taking the series.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to cut down on giveaways, especially in our own end, he said. &ldquo;Forechecking is going to win the hockey games against the Islanders. Get on them quick and take them. If you don&rsquo;t take them and they play in your end, they&rsquo;ve got too many guys who can put the puck in the net.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to keep them very, very tight and hope our power play and our penalty killing do the job on them. The No. I thing you can not do against the Islanders is take bad penalties. If you take bad penalties against that club, it&rsquo;s all over.&rdquo;(See page 6 for Penguin-Islander playoff results) &#9632;

Pens Felt Short Series Made Upset Possible

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011055/4617307-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="306" height="366"></div><h2>Making Barry Better</h2>Most hockey players are stereotyped. People figure them for rough, tough guys who fight a lot, swing sticks, drink beer, have no teeth, nor formal education and mess around with women.&mdash;Robert Ingraham, advisor to Barry Beck.I&rsquo;m two different people; one person on the ice and another off the ice.&mdash;Barry Beck.ON JULY 31, 1981 Robert Ingraham gulped.A photo of New York Rangers&rsquo; captain Barry Beck appeared in the Long Island newspaper Newsday. He was dressed with a pair of exceptionally ugly cowboy boots and skimpy, multi-colored underpants, while a barely clothed Penthouse pet caressed him.&ldquo;I got sick,&rdquo; says Ingraham, who loves Barry Beck like an uncle would.If the photo had been a movie it would have been X-rated.If referee Bruce Hood had been covering the event Ms. Pet would have received two minutes for &ldquo;kneeing&rdquo;. (Her left kneecap was firmly implanted against Beck&rsquo;s right thigh while her left palm was performing a lunar probe of Barry&rsquo;s abdomen.)Other than that Beck did not look particularly ridiculous.His escapades into the world of advertising&mdash;Barry was modelling underwear&mdash;titillated him.&ldquo;Why did I do it?&rdquo; said Barry. &ldquo;It was a fun thing to do. 1 was modelling with beautiful women and I felt it was the one &lsquo;New York thing&rsquo; I had to do.&rdquo;Barry, obviously, thought nothing of it but Rob Ingraham did. And, nowadays, Ingraham&rsquo;s thinking is as important to Barry as Beck&rsquo;s own thoughts. As friend and advisor to the defenseman, Ingraham has input into Beck&rsquo;s psyche. Some observers would label Rob an &ldquo;image-maker&rdquo; although he is grated by the thought.Whatever the monicker, Ingraham took a dim view of a virtually-nude Barry draped by a Penthouse Pet. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t endorse it then,&rdquo; says Ingraham, a vice-president at the Manhattan-based Capital Sports, Inc., &ldquo;and I don&rsquo;t endorse it now. It was embarrassing and in bad taste but, in the final analysis it&rsquo;s Barry who makes the ultimate decisions.&rdquo;It is Ingraham&rsquo;s goal to trumpet Beck&rsquo;s virtues whenever he takes kids to a ball game or comes up with a sound hockey idea. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not forcing an image upon him,&rdquo; Ingraham says, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m not trying to make him someone he&rsquo;s not. But to the extent that he does good things I want people to know about it.&rdquo;At first Beck was seen as a big galoot who would just as soon eat railroad spikes as com flakes. No, no, says Ingraham, not at all.&ldquo;Barry is a gentle, sensitive, lovable Teddy Bear,&rdquo; says his mentor. &ldquo;Few know that he&rsquo;s a great gourmet cook, and, until recently, no one knew of his interest in kids.&rdquo;The change in Beck&rsquo;s image, from beefcake to braintrust, was masterly molded by a series of newspaper articles engineered by his Park Avenue advisor. First, Ingraham contacted the New York Times and arranged for Barry to &ldquo;write&rdquo; a by-lined article denouncing hockey violence.&ldquo;Barry and I sat and talked for a few hours with a tape-recorder on,&rdquo; says Ingraham. &ldquo;We had the tapes transcribed and had the article written from that.&rdquo;Beck&rsquo;s clean-up hockey stance caused a double-take when he attempted to behead Paul Baxter of the Pittsburgh Penguins a few days before the article was scheduled to appear. Was Barry really a Neanderthal? Not so says his guru. &ldquo;The incident wasn&rsquo;t a contradiction in Beck&rsquo;s character,&rdquo; explains Ingraham, &ldquo;because Barry says he will do whatever he has to do to defend his teammates.&rdquo;&ldquo;When Barry was a youngster growing up in Vancouver,&rdquo; says Ingraham, &ldquo;he got himself into a lot of trouble. Hockey saved him; steered him away from the bad stuff, but Barry has never forgotten his past. He was lucky enough to turn the corner and now he wants to go back and try to be a beneficial influence on kids.&rdquo;<h2>He Spends the Time</h2>INGRAHAM HELPED Beck arrange a deal with New York&rsquo;s United Neighborhood Houses. Barry purchases blocks of tickets for Ranger and Knickerbocker (basketball) games and allocates them to youngsters.The thing that distinguishes him from other big-league athletes is that he doesn&rsquo;t just write checks; he spends time with the kids,&rdquo; says Ingraham.Significant here is the fact that the story of Mister Nice Guy did not remain a secret; Ingraham saw to that. A phone call was made to New York Times sports columnist George Vescey. Poof! A Beck column ran in the Times.How did it happen?&ldquo;First,&rdquo; Ingraham explains. &ldquo;I made sure that the interview took place in a comfortable environment; not under the hectic conditions of the dressing room. In this case, 1 arranged for Vescey to meet Barry in a private room in my office so that the two of them could relax. That enabled Barry to tell his whole story of working with kids.&rdquo;Vescey&rsquo;s column on Beck, was, as they say in the business, a very &ldquo;plus&rdquo; piece. Barry was portrayed like young Lochvinar coming out of the West. (The only thing purer would be Ivory soap.) As Ingraham so subjectively puts it, &ldquo;the whole measure of the man came forth.&rdquo;Ingraham&rsquo;s work had only begun. Other newsmen were contacted and soon Barry Beck-the-good-guy stories were flowering like tulips in spring. This helped erase the noxious after-smell of the underwear stunt.But why, one wonders, should a professional hockey player even bother with a Madison Avenue image-maker in the first place?He&rsquo;s changing me into the type of person I want to be,&rdquo; says Beck. &ldquo;I had always wanted to be involved with things like helping kids but I was too lazy to get off my butt. Rob pushes me to do it. It makes me a better person and I feel great after I do it.&ldquo;But remember, I&rsquo;m basically doing it because I like to do it, not because I want people to think I&rsquo;m Mister Nice Guy.&rdquo;Barry has been what they call on Seventh Avenue, a Mensch (someone of noble character). It is not only his image; it is the man. And he wants to keep it that way.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to stay away from underwear commercials,&rdquo; Beck chuckled. &ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll try tank tops next.&rdquo;Rob Ingraham gulped.<h2>Norris&rsquo; Decision</h2>NOTES&mdash;Bruce Norris and the Red Wings&rsquo; high command have to decide whether they will hire a new coach and GM for the club before it&rsquo;s sold&hellip; If the sale is delayed until late summer (or beyond) the prospective new owners will have little time to reorganize&hellip; But if Norris and Co. bring in a new coach and manager now they could be the very ones the newcomers won&rsquo;t want&hellip; When it comes to sports reps, few agents have such diverse client types as New York&rsquo;s Bob Thornton who handles Bryan Trottier and Ron Duguay. One of Trottier&rsquo;s latest products is &ldquo;Bryan&rsquo;s Peanut Butter,&rdquo; now available on Long Island&hellip; Duguay will be endorsing a molded skate and sports clothes&hellip; It will be interesting to see whether the NHL compels the Nordiques to provide better protection for visiting teams from the fans at Le Colisee&hellip; Gary Green replaced Rod Gilbert as color commentator working with Dan Kelly on the USA Cable network&hellip; Hockey returned, although briefly, to the U.S. network when crackerjack broadcaster Mary Albert aired a feature on Phil Esposito&rsquo;s &ldquo;Masters of Hockey&rdquo; for NBC&rsquo;s SportsWorld&hellip; Guy Lafleur says that when he reached age seven he would wear all his hockey equipment to bed so that he &ldquo;was ready to play in the morning.&rdquo;&hellip; So far this season two newspapermen have been physically abused by hockey people. The latest incident, in Philadelphia, inspired a hasty apology from the Flyers&hellip; If you were Irv Grundman would you trade Guy Lafleur? I would&mdash;but only if I could obtain Marcel Dionne in return&hellip; Bob McCammon is a solid citizen with a good hockey mind who rates at least one full season behind the Flyers&rsquo; bench&hellip; In these days of coach clobbering it is reassuring to realize that the Whalers, despite their under-.500 record, have retained low-key Larry Pleau&hellip; Denver businessman Fred Jager deserves an instant Lester Patrick Trophy (for service to hockey in the United States) on the basis of his undying efforts to keep the Rockies from expiring in Colorado&hellip; The best move John Ziegler has done for his image as NHL prexy, and for the league as well, has been his usurping of authority from Brian O&rsquo;Neill as the dispenser of penalties for major disturbances&hellip; Ziegler&rsquo;s handling of the Canucks-Quebec fans uprising won unanimous (except from Harry Neale) acclaim&hellip; Bob Gainey figures that the complexion of the Canadiens changed when Pierre Larouche was dealt to Hartford&hellip; The Habs inner turbulence subsided with the departure of tempestuous Pierre.HOW ABOUT THAT? The report in the Montreal Gazette was ominous. Columnist Tim Burke suggested that a blow-up between the Howe family and the Whalers was imminent and, after it happened, it would be difficult to put the Whale together again.Did this mean that Gordie, Mark, Marty and Colleen would fold their Connecticut tent and erect a skyscaper elsewhere? Is there really trouble at the Aetna emporium?Superficially, at least, keepers of the Whale say it&rsquo;s a mammal story. Colleen (Mrs. Gordie, who holds the Howe clan pulse,) reports that while all isn&rsquo;t ginger-peachy there&rsquo;s no cause for alarm.There are probably a lot of things that could be corrected here [in Hartford],&rdquo; says Colleen, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s up to Gordie and the boys to correct them. But these things don&rsquo;t happen overnight. On the other hand, I don&rsquo;t see anything blowing up to the point that all of a sudden we&rsquo;d be packing up and moving somewhere in the next six months.&rdquo;Since he retired Gordie has been acting in both an advisory and public relations role with the Whalers. There are some who believe that he is under-utilized and suggest that he would be better off&mdash;as would the NHL&mdash;if he became the league&rsquo;s roving good-will ambassador.Perhaps, but the league, having been burned by its experience with Bobby Orr, is not inclined to romance another superstar. Chances are, Gordie will stay put.The near fatal injury that temporarily crippled Mark last year obviously affected him this season. Trade rumors involving Mark have been bandied about for some time but it will be Howe who ultimately decides if he goes&mdash;and where.If GM Larry Pleau is smart, he will give Mark the summer to get his act&mdash;and health&mdash;together before submiting to any deals involving Mark. The kid still could become a Norris Trophy-winner.&ldquo;Mark has been having his challenges,&rdquo; allows Colleen, &ldquo;but I think a lot of that is between him and Larry Pleau. If Mark feels at any time that the club is not where it wants it to be, it will have to be up to Mark to have that resolved.&rdquo;After a lengthy stint in the minors, Marty was elevated to the big club late in the season. It is possible that, at long last, the eldest of Gordie&rsquo;s kids is ready to make a genuine bid for an NHL berth. Training camp 1982 will tell.The betting here is that Hartford will remain home to the Howes, at least for another season and likely more. The clan has too much going for it in Connecticut to make a retreat worthwhile&mdash;and too few options elsewhere.QUICK QUIZ&mdash;Who is the finest player in the game never to have skated on a playoff team?None other than Dennis Maruk of the Caps who has just completed his seventh consecutive year with an early vacation. He broke in with the Seals (1975-76), suffered for two years with the Barons and has since been waylayed in Washington where they do not know what a Stanley Cup round is all about.The man, who finished fourth in scoring with 60 goals and 76 assists, for 136 points, deserves better.BUMMER OF THE YEAR&mdash;The Comedown Trophy of 1982 goes to Jacques Richard. The Nordiques&rsquo; left wing finished with 52 goals, 51 assists and 103 points last season. His production this term is 15 goals, 26 assists for 41 points. He owes GM Maurice Filion a refund. &#9632;

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ON THE CONTRARY

As we went to press, the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins were the only two conclusive Wales Conference winners of the first round of the 19S2 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Rangers ousted the Philadelphia Flyers in four games and were awaiting the winner of the Islanders-Pittsburgh series to play the Patrick Division final.The Bruins eliminated Buffalo in four and they, too, were marking time while Montreal and Quebec still had to decide their series to set up the Adams Division final.Following are the capsule reports on all the preliminary playoff series.<h2>ISLANDERS VS PITTSBURGH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011238/4617397-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="590" height="196"></div>Game One: The Islanders completely dominated the opening game of their best-of-five playoff series, winning easily 8-1 over the Pittsburgh Penguins as Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies each scored twice.The defending cup champs roared into a 3-1 first-period lead and never looked back as they outshot the Penguins 37-23 to take the series lead. Two of the Islanders&rsquo; goals were scored on power plays by Mike Bossy and Stefan Persson.Wayne Merrick and Brent Sutter tallied once each as well for the Islanders. Pat Boutette got the lone Pittsburgh goal.Game Two: Seven different Islanders scored, four in the first period, as the defending Stanley Cup champions proved much too powerful for the Penguins in opening a 2-0 series lead with a 7-2 triumph.Bryan Trottier assisted on the first goal of the game by Mike Bossy to. extend his playoff streak to 27 consecutive games with at least a point. Wayne Merrick, Butch Goring and Brent Sutter, with his second goal in two nights, followed suit in the first period and Clark Gillies and John Tonelli scored in the middle frame for the Isles. Rookie Greg Gilbert added a third period tally while Rick MacLeish and Pat Boutette had the Pittsburgh scores.Game Three: The Penguins averted elimination by edging the Islanders 2-1 on home ice with Rick Kehoe firing home the game winner at 4:14 of the overtime period. It was Kehoe&rsquo;s first goal of the playoffs.The game was a goalie&rsquo;s battle between Michel Dion of the Penguins and Islanders&rsquo; Billy Smith with Dion turning back 38 shots to 31 for Smith. Mike McEwen scored in the first period for the Islanders and the lead held up for nearly 30 minutes before Paul Gardner sank the equalizer at 6:51 of the final period to send the game into overtime.Game Four: Andre St. Laurent started and completed a four-goal outburst by the Penguins which led them to a 5-2 win over the Islanders and squared their series at two games apiece, sending the matchup back to Long Island for a fifth game.St. Laurent, a former Islander, scored on a 40-foot slapshot at 12:44 of the opening period to offset Clark Gillies&rsquo; fourth goal of the playoffs. Then Paul Gardner poked in a rebound while the Penguins enjoyed a two-man advantage later in the period and the Pens were never behind.In the second period, Rick Kehoe, who had taken the first shot on Gardner&rsquo;s goal, scored off a Gardner pass at 1:52 and then St. Laurent made it 4-1 on another slapshot at 16:20.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02924/4617390-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="2495" height="1501"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fivers&rsquo; Bill Barber stickhandles past Rangers&rsquo; defenseman Dave Maloney. Rangers won series in four games. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>Wayne Merrick reduced the gap to two goals later in the period with his first playoff goal, but Rod Schutt of Pittsburgh had the lone third period tally.<h2>PHILADELPHIA vs RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03605/4617383-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="591" height="198"></div>Game One: Darryl Sittler provided all the offensive punch the Flyers needed in their playoff opener, scoring twice to help upset the Rangers 4-1 in a lackluster series opener at Madison Square Garden.Not only did Sittler spark the offense but he was the star of the Flyers&rsquo; penalty killing team that frustrated the Rangers by successfully killing off five New York penalties. Brian Propp and Ray Allison scored the other Flyers&rsquo; goals. Ed Johnstone was the lone marksman for the Rangers.Game Two: Mikko Leionen, the Finnish forward who spend part of his six points to lead the Rangers to a 7-3 victory over Philadelphia, evening their series at a game apiece.The Rangers struck for three consecutive power play goals to take command of a 1-1 game. Leionen, who became the first player to have six assists in a playoff game, drew assists on goals by Ron Duguay, Don Maloney and Robbie Ftorek and the Rangers were successful on four of five power play attempts as compared to 0-for-5 in the first game.After the Flyers narrowed the margin to 4-2, Dave Silk and Rob McClanahan took turns setting up each other to give the Rangers an insurmountable lead.Game Three: A third period goal with less than two minutes to play in the game by playoff fill-in Cam Connor enabled the Rangers to upset the Flyers at home 4-3 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.Connor&rsquo;s game winner came at 18:51 to culminate a four-goal Ranger comeback after the Flyers had jumped into a 3-0 first-period lead on goals by Bobby Clarke, Behn Wilson and Brian Propp. The Rangers scored three times in the second period&mdash;Mike Rogers, Reijo Ruotsalainen and Don Maloney connecting&mdash;to tie the score and set the stage for Connor&rsquo;s dramatic goal. Connor was called up for the playoffs after spending almost the entire year in the AHL with Springfield.Game Four: Robbie Ftorek scored two goals and the Rangers withstood a furious third period rally by the Flyers to win their second straight game in Philadelphia, this time 7-5, to take their divisional semifinal three games to one.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04400/4617376-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="1226" height="1343"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Peter McNab of the Bruins picked up 10 scoring points in Boston&rsquo;s four-game series win over the Buffalo Sabres.</figcaption></div>Ftorek sandwiched his goals in the first and second periods around a score by Andre Dore and then Ron Duguay, Mark Pavelich and Dave Maloney scored for the Rangers to offset tallies by Bobby Clarke and Paul Holmgren.The Flyers, who sent 43 shots at Ed Mio for the game, had goals from Clarke, Darryl Sittler and Bill Barber in the final period before Duguay scored into an empty net with just seven seconds remaining.<h2>MONTREAL vs QUEBEC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-05326/4617369-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="590" height="177"></div>Game One: The Canadiens simply had too much of everything for the Nor-diques in their series opener as they skated to a one-sided 5-1 victory.Mario Tremblay and Mark Napier each fired home two goals to lead the Canadiens&rsquo; overpowering attack as Montreal fired 41 shots at goalie Dan Bouchard compared to the 19 the Nor-diques directed at Rick Wamsley.Doug Jarvis notched the other Montreal goal. Anton Stastny spoiled Wamsley&rsquo;s shutout bid when he scored for Quebec midway in the final period after Montreal had taken a commanding 5-0 lead.Game Two: Goals by Pat Hickey, Alain Cote and Pierre Aubry, the outstanding goaltending of Dan Bouchard, who made 33 saves, and a far more aggressive approach to the game allowed the Nordiques to even their series with the Canadiens with a 3-2 victory in Montreal.Aubry&rsquo;s first playoff goal at 2:30 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie and was only the 10th shot against the Canadiens at that point. For the game, the Canadiens outshot the Nordiques, 35-17. Hickey gave Quebec a 1-0 lead in the first period on one of only two shots they managed against Rick Wamsley. Guy Lafleur and Chris Nilan scored to give Montreal a 2-1 lead in the second period before Cote tied it.Game Three: The Nordiques got a pair of first-period goals by Dale Hunter and went on from there to edge the Canadiens 2-1 in a tension-packed hockey game and grab a 2-1 lead in the series.Hunter&rsquo;s two goals came at 18:28 and 19:40 of the first period just when it appeared the teams would leave the ice scoreless. The Nordiques mounted a solid defense in front of goalie Dan Bouchard the rest of the game to skate off with the decision. Guy Lafleur connected for the lone Montreal goal in a game-closing blitz by the Canadiens that fell short.Game Four: A shorthanded goal by Pierre Mondou broke a 1-1 tie late in the first period and propelled the Canadiens to a 6-2 triumph over the Nordiques and sent the series to a fifth game.Mondou converted a pass from Mark Napier while Montreal&rsquo;s Doug Rise-brough was in the penalty box serving a five-minute major. The goal upset the Nordiques&rsquo; power play and took away the momentum they had gained when Michel Goulet scored a shorthanded goal to forge a tie after Risebrough had opened the scoring.Mario Tremblay and Mondou added second period goals to boost the lead to 4-1 and then Napier and Risebrough scored in the third before Jacques Richard closed out the scoring for Quebec.Montreal outshot Quebec 28-25 and won the territorial advantage in a hard-fought contest in which 249 penalty minutes were assessed.<h2>BUFFALO vs BOSTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02273/4617362-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="590" height="206"></div>Game One: The veterans stole the spotlight away from the Bruins&rsquo; brilliant young rookies as they scored all three goals to lead Boston to a seriesopening 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.Peter McNab, Brad Park and Mike O&rsquo;Connell each chipped in with a goal to support the strong goaltending by rookie Mike Moffat, who was playing in only his third NHL game and his first playoff. Moffat kicked out 24 shots as the Bruins outshot the Sabres 38-25. Yvon Lambert scored the only Buffalo goal after the Bruins went ahead 2-0.Game Two: Bruins&rsquo; rookie center Barry Pederson tied one playoff record with three goals in one period and fell one point short of another in leading Boston to a 2-0 series lead with a 7-3 thrashing of the Sabres.Pederson added two assists to his three goals for a total of five points, just one short of the playoff record, while Boston teammate Rick Middleton contributed two goals and two assists to the attack.The Bruins broke open a 1-1 tie with five goals in the second period with Middleton starting the barrage at the 48-second mark and Pederson following just 52 seconds later.Rookie goalie Mike Moffat chalked up his second win for the Bruins.Game Three: The Sabres took advantage of home ice to record their first win of the series as they walloped the Bruins 5-2 to keep their playoff hopes alive for at least another game.Three second period goals by Yvon Lambert, Craig Ramsay and Mike Foligno provided the rebounding, Sabres with the momentum as they handed Boston&rsquo;s rookie goalie Mike Moffat his first loss after two wins in Boston. Brent Peterson and Dale McCourt also scored for Buffalo. Steve Kasper counted both Boston goals.Game Four: The line of Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, Peter McNab and Mike Gillis combined for 12 points as the Bruins eliminated the Sabres with a 5-2 victory at Buffalo&rsquo;s Memorial Auditorium. Boston took the series three games to one.O&rsquo;Reilly, who had two goals and two assists, broke a 1-1 tie with back-to-back goals midway through the second period. Just 27 seconds after O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s second score, Gillis made it 5-1 with his first goal of the playoffs and McNab added his third playoff goal in the final minute of the period.The Sabres, who were outshot 30-7 over the first two periods, finally mounted an offensive in the third period, testing Boston rookie Mike Moffat with 16 shots while the Bruins produced just one, but the lone goal of the period came with only 1:35 to play when Ric Seiling scored for the Sabres. &#9632;

f0006-01

Rangers, Bruins Advance After First Round

<h2>PATRICK DIVISION WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-06217/4617522-1-eng-US/f0007-062.jpg" title="f0007-06" width="547" height="692"></div><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-07165/4617515-1-eng-US/f0007-072.jpg" title="f0007-07" width="543" height="329"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-08133/4617508-1-eng-US/f0007-082.jpg" title="f0007-08" width="544" height="351"></div><h2>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>SEMIFINALS SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-09101/4617501-1-eng-US/f0007-092.jpg" title="f0007-09" width="549" height="685"></div><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-1080/4617494-1-eng-US/f0007-102.jpg" title="f0007-10" width="559" height="696"></div><h3>TOP PLAYOFF SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-1166/4617487-1-eng-US/f0007-112.jpg" title="f0007-11" width="552" height="353"></div> &#9632;

f0007-06

NHL Playoff Picture

The form chart went out the window in the Campbell Conference playoffs as the Minnesota North Stars, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames all were eliminated in the first round of the 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs.As this issue went to press, the Chicago Black Hawks and the St. Louis Blues were ready to meet in the Norris Division final after the Hawks upset the North Stars and the Blues knocked off the Jets, both in four-game series.Vancouver was waiting for the Edmonton-Los Angeles series to be completed after the Canucks bounced Calgary in three straight games to gain a berth in the Smythe Division finals.Following are the capsule reports on all the preliminary playoff series.<h2>LOS ANGELES vs EDMOND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011102/4617456-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="596" height="188"></div>Game One: Wild was the only word to describe the opening game of the Edmonton-Los Angeles series with the underdog Kings winning a 10-8 shootout over the Oilers. The 18 goals were a new NHL playoff record, surpassing the old mark of 15 set by Montreal and Chicago in 1973 and equalled last year when Minnesota clobbered Boston 9-6.The Kings stunned the mighty Oilers and their fans right in the Edmonton Northlands Coliseum by grabbing the first game and they did it mostly because goalie Mario Lessard was that much better than rookie Grant Fuhr of the Oilers. It was Fuhr&rsquo;s worst game of the year.&ldquo;It was a nightmare,&rdquo; was the way Oiler defenseman Kevin Lowe reacted to the upset loss. The Oilers blew a 4-1 lead, later tied the game at 8-8 before Charlie Simmer fired the winner with the 17th goal of the game. Daryl Evans had two for the Kings and Risto Siltanen two for Edmonton. Wayne Gretzky counted once.Game Two: The Oilers were sent into overtime at the Edmonton Northlands Coliseum before Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s goal at 6:20 of the first overtime enabled them to win 3-2 to escape Edmonton tied in the series, one game each.Gretzky scored on a screened slapshot, the seventh shot of the overtime against Mario Lessard and the 45th Edmonton shot overall. Jari Kurri&rsquo;s goal at 16:05 of the third period pulled the Oilers into the tie and brought on overtime.Pat Hughes scored the other Edmonton goal in the first period and the Kings received goals from rookies Bernie Nicholls and Daryl Evans (his third) for a 2-1 lead in the middle period in a game played in sharp contrast to the free-wheeling 10-8 first game won by the Kings.Game Three: In one of the most elec-trifying comebacks ever seen in Stanley Cup playoff history, the Los Angeles Kings spotted the Edmonton Oilers five goals before they stormed back with five unanswered goals in the third period to send the 5-5 game into overtime where rookie Daryl Evans won it for L.A. with his fourth playoff goal.The Oilers, heavy favorites to win the series, jumped all over the Kings with two goals in the first period by Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky and three more in the second by Lee Fogolin, Risto Siltanen and Gretzky to take what appeared to be an insurmountable 5-0) lead.But the Kings were aroused in the final period and scored five times in a row, the last goal by Steve Bozek coming at 19:55 to force the extra period. Evans finished off the shocked Oilers at 2:35 in the brief sudden-death overtime with a screened shot that found its way past goalie Grant Fuhr and put the Oilers squarely on the ropes in the series.<h2>CALGARY vs VANCOUVER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02821/4617449-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="596" height="206"></div>Game One: The Canucks continued their hot closing-season momentum as they overpowered the Calgary Flames 5-3 in their series opener.The hottest team going into the 1982 playoffs, the Canucks picked up goals from five different scorers as they outclassed the Flames all the way. Stan Smyl, Ivan Boldirev, Lars Lindgren, Lars Molin and Gary Lupul were the Vancouver scorers. Mel Bridgman scored twice for Calgary.Game Two: Dave (Tiger) Williams scored after 14:20 of overtime to lift the Vancouver Canucks to a 2-1 victory and a commanding 2-0 lead in the opening round series with the Flames.Williams took a pass from Harold Snepsts, moved in front of the Calgary net and slipped a shot past Pat Riggin to end a superb exhibition of goaltending at both ends of the ice as Riggin and Vancouver&rsquo;s Richard Brodeur each faced 40 shots.After a scoreless first period, Ken Houston gave Calgary a shortlived lead with his first goal of the playoffs at 7:49. Vancouver rookie Marc Crawford evened the score at 18:00 and the teams followed with nearly 40 minutes of scoreless action until Williams&rsquo; goal.Game Three: The Vancouver Canucks sent the Calgary Flames packing for the summer as they completed a three-game sweep to eliminate the Calgarians.Dave (Tiger) Williams was the hero for the second straight game as he scored the game-winning goal in the third period to break a 1-1 tie. Thomas Gradin notched the other two Vancouver goals. Jim Peplinski scored the lone Calgary goal on a power play in the first period. The Flames outshot the Canucks 43-24 but couldn&rsquo;t penetrate the brilliant goaltending of Richard Brodeur, who was the game&rsquo;s first star.<h2>CHICAGO vs MINNESOTA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03574/4617442-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="590" height="194"></div>Game One: Defenseman Greg Fox blasted a 40-footer past goalie Gilles Meloche at 3:34 of the overtime period to give the Chicago Black Hawks a 3-2 upset win over the Minnesota North Stars in the start of their best-of-five series.After a chippy, scoreless first period that produced 23 penalties, including six majors and eight misconducts, the North Stars proceeded to take the play away from the Hawks, outshooting them 47-23. But goalie Murray Bannerman was hot and held Chicago in the game until Fox connected in the sudden-death overtime. Tim Young and Al MacAdam scored the Minnesota goals. Doug Wilson and Glen Sharpley replied for Chicago.Game Two: Third-period goals by Al Secord and Denis Savard broke a 3-3 tie and sparked the Black Hawks to a surprising 5-3 victory over Minnesota and a stunning 2-0 series lead.After a scoreless first period, Tom Lysiak and Dave Feamster gave Chicago a 2-0 lead with goals 44 seconds apart. The North Stars clicked for their first power play score after 11 tries when Steve Payne scored and Mark Johnson later tied the game at 2-2.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-04406/4617435-1-eng-US/f0007-042.jpg" title="f0007-04" width="1230" height="1465"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave (Tiger) Williams emerged as the scoring hero for the Canucks as he tallied two game-winning goals in Vancouver&rsquo;s three-game sweep of the Calgary Flames.</figcaption></div>Murray Bannerman made 33 saves for Chicago for his second series win.Game Three: The North Stars came back with a vengeance in the third game as they hammered the Black Hawks 7-1 much to the chagrin of 20,960 fans who came out for the kill with the Hawks leading the sries 2-0. It was the largest crowd ever to see a hockey game in Chicago Stadium.The Hawks were completely outplayed and outshot 39-28 as the North Stars came to life with three goals in each of the first two periods to win going away. Dino Ciccarelli led the onslaught with a hat trick while Steve Payne contributed a pair.Game Four: Al Secord broke a 2-2 second period tie and teammates Tim Higgins and Glen Sharpley connected in the third period to boost the Black Hawks to a 5-2 triumph over the North Stars which eliminated Minnesota from the playoffs in four games.Chicago, which won the first two games of the series on Minnesota ice, switched to veteran goalie Tony Esposito after Murray Bannerman had been blasted for seven goals by the North Stars in Game Three. Esposito, who faced 33 shots, allowed only second-period scores by Craig Hartsburg and Steve Payne which knotted the score at 2-2 after Rich Preston and Grant Mulvey had provided Chicago a 2-0 first period lead.Minnesota finished 22 points ahead of Chicago in the Norris Division standings but lost their home ice advantage in the first game on Greg Fox&rsquo;s overtime goal.<h2>ST. LOUIS vs WINNIPEG</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-05288/4617428-1-eng-US/f0007-052.jpg" title="f0007-05" width="598" height="174"></div>Game One: Late-season acquisition Guy Lapointe emerged as the scoring hero for the St. Louis in the opening of their playoff series with the Winnipeg Jets as he scored the game-winning goal with less than two minutes to play allowing the Blues to beat the Jets 4-3.Lapointe&rsquo;s booming shot from just inside the Winnipeg blueline fooled goalie Ed Staniowski as the puck sailed over his shoulder into the top corner of the net. The Jets twice squandered leads of 2-0 and 3-2. Perry Turnbull led the Blues with two goals while Willy Lindstrom added two for Winnipeg. The Jets outshot the Blues 36-17.Game Two: The Jets switched to goaltender Doug Soetaert for the second home meeting with the Blues and the move paid off as Soetaert held the Blues in check until the Jets could get their offense unleashed, evening the series with a 5-2 win.St. Louis outshot Winnipeg 18-7 in the first period but came out of the first period tied at 1-1 because of Soetaert&rsquo;s efforts. In the second period, Dale Hawerchuk set up three Winnipeg goals in the period while Soetaert did not allow any. Hawerchuk also had an assist on the first Jets&rsquo; goal.St. Louis&rsquo; Brian Sutter, who opened the scoring, also had the last goal of the game to make it 5-2.Game Three: Sparked by team captain Brian Sutter&rsquo;s two goals&mdash;his fourth and fifth of the series&mdash;the St. Louis Blues moved one game ahead of the Winnipeg Jets with a 6-3 win in St. Louis.The Jets outshot the Blues 30-27 but goalie Mike Liut was too much of a barrier as he took the game away from Winnipeg. The Jets went into a 1-0 lead but the Blues then scored six straight goals without a reply from Winnipeg. The Sutter-Joe Mullen-Bernie Federko line accounted for four of the six goals with Mullen also scoring twice.Game Four: Brian Sutter scored for the fourth consecutive game, bringing his playoff goal total to seven, and the Blues opened up period leads of 4-0 and 7-1 enroute to a 8-2 thrashing of the Jets which knocked Winnipeg out of the playoffs after four games.Sutter followed goals by Perry Turnbull and Larry Patey with a pair of goals, the third time he had accomplished the feat against the Jets. Joe Mullen, the leading scorer in the playoffs with 12 points to this point, added a goal and four assists and Sutter&rsquo;s other linemate Bernie Federko had a goal and three assists. The line also combined for four goals the game before as St. Louis regained their lead in the series. &#9632;

f0007-01

Upsets Order Of The Day With Stars, Jets Ousted

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd214 King St. West. Suite 314, Toronto. Ont. M5H 1K4<h2>Anything Is Probable</h2>AH, YES, IT&rsquo;S THE PLAYOFFS, that wonderful time of the year when time-honored cliches are dredged up and repeated ad nauseum&mdash;ie, &ldquo;anything can happen in a short series&rdquo; or &ldquo;they&rsquo;ve got their backs to the wall this game&rdquo; or &ldquo;there&rsquo;s no tomorrow&rdquo;; when the regular season&rsquo;s high scoring superstars do a disappearing act and obscure players suddenly emerge to score game-winning goals (Vancouver&rsquo;s Tiger Williams) or make breathtaking saves (Boston&rsquo;s Mike Moffat); when team owners act even weirder than they do during the regular season&mdash;which may not be saying that much.Not even newspaper editors are safe from the strange happenings that become routine once, here comes another cliche, the regular season ends and the second season begins.Take the predictions we made in this space last week. Take them, please! You will recall that we boldly predicted Edmonton, Montreal, the Islanders, Rangers, Winnipeg, Calgary, Minnesota and Boston would all prevail over their respective opponents and ultimately eliminate each other to set up a &ldquo;dream&rdquo; final between Edmonton and the Islanders.That final may still happen, of course, but as this was written both the Isles and the Oilers had&mdash;forgive us again&mdash;their backs to the wall. The Islanders, after outscoring the Pittsburgh Penguins 15-3 in their first two games, lost the next two in Pittsburgh and suddenly found themselves facing a deciding fifth game at home.The Oilers, meanwhile, had blown a 5-0 lead in the third game&mdash;after splitting the first two with Los Angeles&mdash;and had lost 6-5 in overtime after surrendering the tying goal with five seconds left in regulation. Down 2-1 in the series, they found themselves in the unenviable position of having to win two games to escape the clutches of an LA team that finished 48 points behind the Oilers this season.And what about our other picks? Well, the Rangers beat out the Flyers and Boston handled Buffalo&mdash;just as we said both teams would. And we did say that we &ldquo;smelled an upset&rdquo; in the Vancouver matchup. The Canucks obliged us by upending Calgary in three straight. But that&rsquo;s where our streak ended. Chicago turned the tables on Minnesota, Montreal and Quebec were about to play a fifth game as we were going to press and St. Louis dumped Winnipeg. That last one really hurt because if you take a look at the front of the paper this week you&rsquo;ll see that we were so confident Winnipeg would beat the Blues, we picked Dale Hawerchuk as our cover boy. We should have known better than to count on a favorite winning in the playoffs.But if we feel badly about our premature gaffe, think of how Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Jerry Buss must have felt when he heard that his team had rallied from a 5-0 deficit to win their third game against Edmonton. After the Oilers had scored their fifth goal and the Kings were showing very little signs of life, the disgusted Buss stood up, escorted his date, actress Cathy Lee Crosby, out of the arena, summoned his limousine and driver and left, steaming. Whether his exit and his team&rsquo;s subsequent return to life were at all related remained a mystery at presstime.Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; owner Edward DeBartolo was so appalled by his team&rsquo;s play after their first two games against the Islanders that he didn&rsquo;t wait to walk out on them in game three, as Buss had done to the Kings. Instead, he offered any of the team&rsquo;s fans who were interested a full refund on their tickets for the game. Result? Only about 200 people took him up on his offer, their tickets were snatched up almost immediately and the Penguins went on to win the game 2-1 in overtime. Then they won game four by the easy score of 5-2 and at presstime were on the verge of accomplishing the unthinkable&mdash;upsetting the Stanley Cup champions.How, you ask, can that be possible?At playoff time, we remind you&mdash;look out, here comes another cliche&mdash;anything is not only possible but probable. &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY LINDA PENTZ</div>Just before the end of the Central Hockey League&rsquo;s regular season, Linda Pentz, the editor of Tennis Week magazine, happened to be in Dallas on some business. While she was there she took in a game between the CHL&rsquo;s Dallas Black Hawks and Fort Worth Texans and sent us the following piece, an account of her impressions of life in hockey&rsquo;s minor leagues which transcends the usual limited coverage given to hockey at that level.Through the mist that is rising in ever thicker clouds from the ice we watch the opposition team skate into the arena, to an even balance of boos and cheers from the 2,000 or so fans, scattered thinly in the stands. The organist, majoring in &lsquo;60s nostalgia, breaks into a Bobby Vee number&mdash;I&rsquo;m So Lonesome Every Day. Around rinkside, big-shouldered &ldquo;dudes&rdquo; in cowboy hats are still hammering the glass in place and positioning the stools for the goal judges.This is Fair Park Memorial Coliseum, a drafty horse-barn that is also the home of the Dallas Black Hawks, a team now affiliated with the Vancouver Canucks. Their opponents tonight are struggling neighbors Fort Worth, minor league younger brother of the foundering Colorado Rockies.This is the heralded minor leagues of Slapshot fame, the bully-breeding farm teams of the National Hockey League, but the only farms of interest in these parts breed real Longhorns. The bulls are confined to the rodeo. And tonight we will see no fights, one crosscheck, and scarcely a single high stick or respectable body check into the boards. Somehow, in this damp and misty auditorium, where the plaid-shirted spectators hang over the boards to get a feel for the action, the spark has gone out of the Great Canadian-Game.Here are the sorry Fort Worth Texans, wearing old New York Islanders uniforms with no names. Here is Joe Micheletti, his pants torn, the white stripes on his shirt run to blue. And here is Steve Janaszak, once the journeyman Olympian goalie who never played, now a minor league journeyman goalie on a bankrupt team. The organist pounds out Life Is A Cabaret but the players aren&rsquo;t smiling.Perched in the press box, reached by way of a precarious spiral staircase, eight gentlemen (no ladies) scribble earnestly in dog-eared notebooks while the PA announcer chatters to the crowd about lucky programs and bingo cards and winning ticket stubs. A star prize tonight is 10 days use of a pickup truck. Another is a $10 gift certificate at Bobby McGee&rsquo;s. A third&mdash;dinner for one at a popular local bar; the Bobby Vee song begins to make sense.The pickup truck itself now arrives, midway through the first period. It drives through the open door at the far end of the arena and parks itself there, headlights blazing into the eyes of the on-rushing Texans who are half blinded each time they attack the Dallas goal. The PA announcer is obliged to request the lights be turned off.Meanwhile, a man stalks the stands, wearing a battered sandwich board. In scratchy chalk writing it exhorts people to sign up for season tickets and promises more &ldquo;lucky&rdquo; numbers and prizes.At 14:23 of the first period a Black Hawk pushes Micheletti against the glass, which immediately breaks. Out come the cowboy hats with the sledgehammers and play is halted for 10 minutes. The PA man calls for applause and the cowboys receive the biggest hand of the night.As play resumes, we glance at the time clock, but all is confusion as strategically placed lightbulbs are missing and the eights look like nines, the threes like twos. A group is welcomed from the &ldquo;Rhinehart Bible Church&rdquo; to scattered applause, as the period comes to an end.We wait for the Zamboni, which duly appears and weaves irregular patterns on the ice, the driver taking complicated and intricate routes which easily fill the full 15 minutes. But first arrives a young woman armed with a broom and she, as if performing her regular housewifely duties, laboriously sweeps along all four edges of the ice.The game resumes. While the far end of the ice is still swathed in a mist, ours now becomes enveloped in a fog of a different kind as below us the concession stand is scalding burgers and fries with gusto. The smoke billows upward and the smell of burning oil starts to nauseate. Unperturbed, however, we send one of our number for pizzas, which are chunky but wholesome. There is little popcorn in evidence, but everywhere are the nachos, with that same heady aroma of corn.An official tells us that it has become &ldquo;un-chic&rdquo; to support hockey in Dallas, and in Dallas one must always pursue what is fashionable. He describes the audience, with some disdain, as &ldquo;just a wrestling crowd.&rdquo;The money that we see thrown around on TV&rsquo;s Dallas each week has not found its way into Fair Park Coliseum, and the arena remains unpainted and uncleaned, crumbling as inexorably as the spirit of the dwindling crowd. But the Hawks and Texans (one is tempted to say &ldquo;Doves&rdquo;) are playing their hearts out. Somewhere beyond the endless lone star horizons lie the big leagues. The dream of promotion is a constant spur.In the third period a solitary cross check is thrown and a penalty called and the organist tinkles Mickey Mouse, much to the referee&rsquo;s chagrin. The teams struggle and strive and the second-place Hawks come away with a 5-2 victory over their cellar-dwelling opponents. For a moment, amidst the strains of Rhinestone Cowboy and the theme from Dallas, there is the joy of celebration, the unity in victory.But tomorrow night they must go through it all again. Same time, same place, same opponents. Outside on the signboard, only the date needs to be changed. &#9632;

Life In The Minors Far From A Cabaret

Less than half a year ago, University of Saskatchewan coach Dave King was a virtual unknown, except to the members of hockey&rsquo;s inner circle who have long noted his success in preparing and motivating young players. All that changed, however, when King led the Team Canada Juniors to their first-ever World Championship, going through the tournament undefeated and shutting out the Soviet Juniors, 7-0. Since that time, King, who was the first member of Team Canada&rsquo;s coaching staff selected for the World Championships now underway in Finland, has been quoted widely (including in this publication) and he&rsquo;s been surprised by all of the attention he has received.While in Sweden preparing for the start of the tournament, King was interviewed by Jim Proudfoot of the Toronto Star.It&rsquo;s fantastic some of the things which have happened. Media people who never heard of me before, keep phoning to seek my opinion of all kinds of matters. And every time there&rsquo;s a coaching vacancy in the National Hockey League, my name seems to come up.The strange thing is that I had a good record as a coach long before the junior title. But I was a nobody. Now I&rsquo;m some kind of genius.I suppose going to the National Hockey League might be a natural step for me now. But I have no way of knowing whether I&rsquo;m ready or whether I&rsquo;d even like it. I&rsquo;ll have a better idea three weeks from now.One secret [to beating Europeans] is to start with simple adjustments, then add to them as we go along so that later in the tournament we might have something pretty good going.But at first it has to be basic. Like forechecking. You can&rsquo;t overload with two guys going in on the same side of the rink as you do on the small ice at home. With all the extra space here, the guys going in have to split.You&rsquo;re going to start easily and hope to build some momentum, a little spirit. We&rsquo;re looking at seven games, after all. We only have to be fourth in that league to qualify to compete for the medals.Many of the famous superstars simply can&rsquo;t adjust quickly enough. Your best players might be lesser lights who are simply better suited, because of their mobility or agility or personality, for what&rsquo;s required here.It is absolutely essential to recruit the right sort of men. And that requires luck. Some guys can handle it. Some can&rsquo;t. This is hockey, all right, but it&rsquo;s a different kind of hockey. &#9632;

‘Genius’ King Looks To Make Simple Adjustments

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Before the first round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Black Hawks began, Minnesota general manager Lou Nanne took his team to see Chariots of Fire. The only movies the Hawks watched were game films. But they have a stereo blaring pop music in their dressingroom and maybe after hearing Olivia Newton-John sing &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s Get Physical&rdquo; over and over again the message finally sunk in.During a regular season best described by center Tom Lysiak as &ldquo;ridiculous&rdquo; the Hawks were never yellow yet all too often they played a mellow brand of hockey. On the road &ldquo;desire and effort&rdquo; were words frequently heard but seldom seen.Then, on the final weekend against St. Louis on the road and Minnesota in Chicago Stadium, the Hawks&rsquo; meanstreak manifested itself. They got physical and their body-talk became increasingly obnoxious when they barged into Minnesota&rsquo;s Met Center for the first two games of the best-of-five series.&bull; In Game 1, the Hawks were 3-2 winners on a goal by low-scoring defenseman Greg Fox at 3:34 of sudden-death overtime, even though they were outshot 47-23.&bull; In Game 2, they were outshot 36-28 yet came away with a 5-4 triumph.The North Stars didn&rsquo;t back off and let the Hawks win through in-timidation. But the vibrations produced by all those bodychecks and fists clenched in anger seem to produce an emotional lava that turned the Hawks into &ldquo;Chariots of Fire&rdquo; on ice.The individual most responsible for the Black Hawks&rsquo; unexpected conquests was goaltender Murray Bannerman.In each of the first six periods, the North Stars outshot the Hawks. But Bannerman, in the words of Minnesota coach Glen Sonmor, &ldquo;kept his finger in the dike.&rdquo;Even though the Hawks torpedoed the Minnesotans with body-checks and sundry other weapons, the enemy convoys kept getting through&hellip; only to find Bannerman blockading the goal.In the regular season, centers Bobby Smith and Neal Broten and right wing Dino Ciccarelli scored points by the ton (their aggregate total was 318). But during the first two playoff games, their output was limited to one goal by Smith.&ldquo;They have been playing good defensive hockey against us,&rdquo; said Smith after the second game. &ldquo;Their defense has been clearing most of the rebounds away from Bannerman and giving him a good look at the shots we have gotten.&rdquo;In the triumphs in Minnesota&mdash;in which centers Denis Savard and Tom Lysiak provided a great deal of the offensive input&mdash;the Chicago penalty killing was superb. Minnesota succeeded on only one of its 14 powerplay chances and was stung for Doug Wilson&rsquo;s breakaway shorthanded goal in Game 2.Hawk fans had great expectations when the team returned to Chicago Stadium for Game 3.A record crowd of 20,960 turned out, hoping to see the Hawks sweep the series. Instead, the North Stars exploded for a 7-1 victory, getting three goals from the hitherto dormant Cic-carelli and a pair from Steve Payne. Four of the goals came on the North Stars&rsquo; six power play chances.But the faithful were rewarded the following night when Al Secord broke a 2-2 tie and the Hawks went on to eliminate the North Stars with a 5-2 victory.HAWK TALK&mdash;Hawk trainer Lou Varga and assistant coach Cliff Koroll are proud pops. Varga&rsquo;s son, John Michael, scored 35 goals and assisted on seven in 20 games for the Addison Arks, who skate in a league in suburban Carol Stream. Koroll&rsquo;s son, C.J., plays for the same team and recently had a four-goal game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011177/4617625-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="600" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Murray Bannerman held the Hawks in the games in Minnesota when they were badly outshot.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Chicago Gets Message: Get Physical

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Rival coaches and players learned long ago that it is unwise to arouse Clark Gillies. &ldquo;Let the big guy sleep,&rdquo; John Ferguson used to say when he was coaching the Rangers.Somebody should have used those words as a warning for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They aroused the Islanders&rsquo; friendly giant on the eve of the opening of the Stanley Cup playoffs and paid the price.Gillies, who admitted he was &ldquo;irritated&rdquo; by remarks attributed to the Penguins after they whipped the Islanders, 7-2, on the final night of the regular season, addressed his teammates before their first playoff game against Pittsburgh.&ldquo;It was eating me up, especially the way they [the Penguins] tried to intimidate us,&rdquo; Gillies said. &ldquo;I just felt I should say something.&rdquo;The speech was out of character for Gillies, who surrendered the team captaincy in 1979 because among other things, he found it difficult to be a cheerleader. Bob Bourne characterized Gillies&rsquo; address as &ldquo;very unusual.&rdquo;And what was the message?&ldquo;Well, it was like he said, &lsquo;Okay, everyone get behind me,&rsquo; like he knew exactly where he was going and he wanted us to go with him,&rdquo; Bryan Trottier said.The Islanders got the message. With Gillies showing the way, they won the first two playoff games by scores of 8-1 and 7-2 at Nassau Coliseum. The defending Stanley Cup champions then moved on to Pittsburgh for the next two games.Gillies did not fall asleep in Pittsburgh, but some of his teammates did, allowing the Penguins to knot the series and send the teams back to Long Island for a decisive fifth game.In Game Three, Gillies set up a goal by Mike McEwen in the first period. Bill Smith protected that lead until 6:51 of the third period when Pat Boutette scored on a rebound and the game went into overtime. Rick Kehoe&rsquo;s shot from a sharp angle skidded between Smith&rsquo;s pads at 4:14 of the overtime to earn the Penguins a 2-1 victory.In Game Four, Gillies again got the Islanders off to a good start, scoring his fourth goal of the playoffs at 4:16 of the first period. However, the Penguins fought back and gained a 5-2 victory with the help of two goals by Andre St. Laurent, the former Islander center.<blockquote class="pullQuote">An irritated Gillies addressed his teammates before their first playoff game against Pittsburgh</blockquote>Gillies celebrated his 28th birthday with a four-point game in the playoff opener. He scored twice and set up goals by Stefan Persson and Brent Sutter.Bob Nystrom, sidelined with a pulled groin muscle, watched Gillies&rsquo; performance with a touch of awe.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s such a massive, dominant player,&rdquo; Nystrom said.The Islanders had other dominant players in that first victory over the Penguins. Mike Bossy, who played sparingly because of a wrenched left knee, scored a power play goal early in the first period. Gillies scored 52 seconds later, converting a pass from Brent Sutter, and Trottier beat Pittsburgh goalie Michel Dion with 1:04 left in the opening period.The Penguins were completely deflated when Gillies and Trottier added their second goals of the night in the second period. &ldquo;We just couldn&rsquo;t keep up with them,&rdquo; the Penguins&rsquo; Paul Baxter acknowledged at the end of the night.Gillies added a goal and an assist in the second game. He set up a goal by Brent Sutter in the opening period and beat Dion at the end of a two-on-one breakaway with Duane Sutter in the second period.Bossy again launched the Islanders&rsquo; scoring with a power play goal just 7:57 into the game, then sat out the last two periods to rest his aching knee. Rookie Greg Gilbert, filling in again for the injured Nystrom, had a goal and an assist.The Islanders began their march to their second straight cup championship last year by sweeping the Toronto Maple Leafs. They outscored Toronto, 20-4, and left the Leafs feeling like tornado victims.Pat Price, the Penguins&rsquo; defenseman, compared the Isles to a tidal wave. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a wave coming at you when they move out of their end,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re like the old Green Bay Packers.&rdquo;Dion offered a similar appraisal of the Islanders. &ldquo;They keep coming at you,&rdquo; the goalie said, &ldquo;They never stop&hellip; I think they&rsquo;re like lions.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE: Gilbert, a 20-year-old left winger, had 41 goals and 108 points for the Toronto Marlboros this season and was named the outstanding defensive forward in the Ontario Hockey League. Bill Torrey, the Islanders&rsquo; general manager, had planned on sending Gilbert to Indianapolis for the Central Hockey League playoffs, but promoted him to the varsity when Nystrom and Bossy got hurt&hellip; Denis Potvin rejoined the Islanders for the playoff opener after missing three games with back spasms&hellip; The Penguins&rsquo; victory in the regular-season finale snapped the Islanders&rsquo; 7-0-2 unbeaten streak and Smith&rsquo;s 16-0-3 unbeaten string.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011213/4617656-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="604" height="1543"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clark Gillies came into the playoffs aroused by Pittsburgh&rsquo;s late-season intimidation tactics.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Getting Gillies Riled Penguins’ First Mistake

<div class="byline">BILL LIBBY&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02955/4617694-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="316" height="359"></div><h2>Coaching Material</h2>BOB MURDOCH is a player who has been around for quite awhile without attracting a lot of attention. He is finishing his 10th season in the National Hockey League, having played for three teams in four cities. At 36, the 6-foot, 190-pound defenseman has not made any All Star teams, though he played in one All Star game. He has not been outstanding, but he has been a dependable player who has learned the game and used his knowledge to good advantage. He is, in short, the kind who becomes a good coach.Murdoch commenced his coaching career as an assistant in Calgary this season, but he has not done a lot of coaching. &ldquo;They offered me the job with the idea I might play maybe half the games, just filling in,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;I took it, but hesitated because I felt I could still play. As it turns out, I&rsquo;ve played all the games but for a few when I was injured. I&rsquo;ve contributed to the coaching, but not as much as expected.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03656/4617687-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="452" height="544"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Murdoch</figcaption></div>He admits, &ldquo;The toughest thing for an athlete is when he has to stop playing. I doubt that coaching can compare to playing. I say that even though I may be a better coach than I have been a player. All Star players seldom make great coaches in any sport. Their game just comes too easy to them.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what kind of coach I&rsquo;ll be, but I am interested in finding out. However, I&rsquo;m not sure if I want to coach on the professional or amateur level. The pay is much bigger in the NHL, of course, but so are the pressures. The lifestyle in, say, college coaching might be best for me.&rdquo;<h2>Calgary A Shock</h2>LIFESTYLE ALWAYS HAS been important to this native of Kirkland Lake, Ont., who took a degree in mathematics and physical education from the University of Waterloo. He never played in junior ranks, but played two seasons with the Canadian National Team before joining the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; American League Voyageurs in 1970. He played for Nova Scotia the next season, then moved up &lsquo;o the top team and was a member of the 1973 Stanley Cup champions.Traded to Los Angeles the following season, Murdoch spent five and a half years with the Kings, then was dealt to Atlanta, which moved to Calgary last season. He now has spent three and a half seasons with the Flames. He admits, &ldquo;After life in southern California, and Atlanta, which is a beautiful city, Calgary came as a shock to my family. My wife and I and our kids had to leave homes, friends, schools, year-round good weather. We have a house on the 16th fairway of a country club in Calgary, but in the winter they ski on it instead of playing golf.&rdquo;This is a fellow who works with his hands, who built a corral and patio at his home in suburban southern California, who has been building a 2,000-square-foot log cabin on the Olympic Peninsula near Seattle for several summers where he now spends his summer.<h2>Close-Knit Family</h2>THIS IS A FAMILY fellow. He married the former Doris Wendelken in May, 1972, and they have had four children&mdash;a son, Scott, 9, and daughters Stacey, 7; Bonnie, 5, and Courtney, 2. &ldquo;Scott&rsquo;s playing quite a bit. Plays just like an old defenseman,&rdquo; dad laughs.Tragically, they almost added two more children to their family last summer. Doris&rsquo;s sister and her husband were killed in a car crash, leaving behind youngsters 5 and 3. Bob and Doris wanted to take in the kids, but they went to the father&rsquo;s sister. However, Bob and Doris will have them this summer.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a tough situation, especially hard on my wife, but it&rsquo;s made us more aware of how fragile life is, how we have to make the most of it,&rdquo; Bob says. &ldquo;It has not only brought my wife and I closer to our kids, but closer to each other. We look forward to life together this summer in the open&mdash;swimming, skiing, fishing.&rdquo;He does not knock Calgary. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been good for me in many ways, Life is harder there; but the people are strong. Unlike those in L.A. or Atlanta, the people in Calgary grew up with hockey, know the game, and appreciate it. We&rsquo;ve disappointed them this season after reaching the semifinals of last season&rsquo;s playoffs, but they understand things go wrong sometimes and they still support us.&ldquo;It is very beneficial for a hockey man to be in a hockey atmosphere. And I am by now a hockey man. I may have a varied background and interests, but I really don&rsquo;t know anything the way I know hockey. I hope to stay in the game. As a player for awhile yet. Then as a coach.&rdquo;He has been a good player. He could become a very good coach. &#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/f0012-021011/4617756-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="316" height="359"></div><h2>Fearless Forecast</h2>WHAT&rsquo;S SPRING WITHOUT the annual Fleischman&rsquo;s Fearless Forecast? Oh, you say spring still hasn&rsquo;t arrived? Well, at least those brutal storms that have delayed spring in the midwest and East make it feel like hockey weather.Anyway, the 1982 playoff forecast is the easiest in years. The New York Islanders are a heavy favorite to sweep their third consecutive Stanley Cup. Too much talent, depth experience and character for the rest of the pack. Make the Islanders a 2-1 choice.Montreal is next on my list. Bob Berry has done a masterful job of pointing the Canadiens in the right direction. Don&rsquo;t you think the Kings still wish Berry were coaching in Los Angeles? The biggest question about Montreal is how Rick Wamsley will react to his first Stanley Cup exposure. The Canadiens should meet the Islanders for the Wales Conference championship. Montreal is a 4-1 choice for the Cup.Edmonton, the likely Campbell Conference winner, is a 5-1 Cup selection. The Oilers have plenty of talent and youthful enthusiasm, but, like Montreal, they also have a rookie goaltender. If Boston had a reliable goaltender, it would be my fourth pick. Unfortunately for the Bruins, they were scrambling for a goalie as the playoffs opened. They also were faced with eliminating Buffalo, Montreal and the Islanders just to reach the Stanley Cup finals. Lotsa luck.The reSt of the league? Save your money.<h2>All The All Teams</h2>AS A PLAYOFF treat, I&rsquo;m offering some special &ldquo;All&rdquo; teams. Where else can you find selections like these, produced after exhaustive research?ALL-WORLD:&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy.ALL-NORTH AMERICA: Rick Middleton, Guy Lafleur, Dino Ciccarelli, Bobby Smith, Dave Taylor, Bill Barber, Dennis Maruk, Marcel Dionne, Peter Stastny, Denis Savard, Ray Bourque, Doug Wilson, Randy Carlyle, Denis Potvin, Billy Smith.ALL-EUROPEAN: Stastny brothers, Thomas Gradin, Pekka Rautakallio, Stefan Persson, Jari Kurri, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Jorgen Pettersson (type this list 25 times&mdash;it&rsquo;s great finger exercise. You hit almost every key, including some that didn&rsquo;t exist before).ALL-SYSTEMS GO: Denis Savard, Willy Lindstrom, Ron Flockhart, Morris Lukowich, Keith Acton, Mike Gartner, Bob Bourne, Ulka Sinisalo.ALL-BUSINESS: Serge Savard, Bill Clement, Mel Bridgman.ALL-DRESSED UP: Ron Duguay, Guy Lafleur, Jerry Korab.ALL-TALK: Chico Resch, Mike Liut, Dave Maloney, Denis Potvin, Bob Nystrom, Bobby Clarke, Craig Ramsay, Bobby Smith, David &ldquo;Tiger&rdquo; Williams.ALL-DULL: Gilbert Perreault, Al Hill, Rick MacLeish.ALL-SMALL: Dennis Maruk, the New York Rangers.ALL-IN THE FAMILY: The Stastnys, Sutters, Dave and Don Maloney, Bryan and Terry Murray.ALL-GONE: Paul Mulvey, Don Murdoch.Bonus category: Coaches-You&rsquo;d-Like-To-Have-A-Beer-With&mdash;Glen Sonmor, Tom Watt, Harry Neale (when he returns from suspension), Gerry Cheevers, Al Arbour, Eddie Johnston, Glen Sather, Bob McCammon/Pat Quinn (whoever is in charge of the Flyers at the moment). Also, Coaches-You&rsquo;d-Like-To-Have-A-Beer-With, If-They-Were-Paying: Herb Brooks, Bob Pulford.<h2>Kaminsky Objects</h2>LETTERS DEPARTMENT: Arthur C. Kaminsky, attorney at law from New York City, strenuously objected to a recent column dealing with United States college hockey teams seeking compensation when their players sign with NHL teams. Kaminsky, who represents many ex-college players, referred to the &ldquo;irrational obsession with sports representatives&rdquo; mentioned in the column by Notre Dame coach Lefty Smith. Kaminsky wrote &ldquo;that the aspect of your column that disturbed me most was its uncharacteristically one-sided nature.&rdquo;Hmmm. I&rsquo;m surprised that a New York attorney doesn&rsquo;t know the difference between a news story, where objectivity is the No. 1 priority, and a column, which is opinion. In the aforesaid column (how&rsquo;s that for dipping into legalese?) I said, &ldquo;Not all agents are dark shadows.&rdquo; Lefty Smith never identified Kaminsky or any other agents he disliked so relax, Art.Shortly after Darryl Sittler was freed from the Harold Ballard Arcade in Toronto, Danny Broza, of Nakina, Ont., wrote, saying the media response in Philadelphia suggests that the Flyers had obtained &ldquo;the reincarnation of the immortal Howie Morenz.&rdquo; Broza noted that Sittler &ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t won a key face-off in three years&rdquo; and concluded with, &ldquo;Would the Flyers be interested in Borje Salming?&rdquo;In his first couple weeks with the Flyers Sittler was playing like the immortal Howie Menard. However, if you&rsquo;ve noticed lately, Danny, Sittier has been one of Philadelphia&rsquo;s best players. By the way, the Flyers would be interested in Salming. Do you have any influence with Harold Ballard, Danny?Here&rsquo;s all you need to know about the Flyers&rsquo; turbulent season: Frank Bathe, who played in just 28 games, was named winner of the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the Flyers&rsquo; best defenseman. The balloting was conducted by Philadelphia sports writers and broadcasters. Bathe was effective and he is Ashbee&rsquo;s kind of player, but to win after playing only a third of the games? Presumably, if Bathe had played a full season he&rsquo;d have been a Norris Trophy candidate. &#9632;

f0012-02

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011187/4617725-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Flyers are still waiting for some of their top talents, like Ken Linseman, to mature. The question is, how much longer can they wait? (Photo By Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Though luck surely could have been more kind to them, the 1981-82 Flyers sleep in their own beds today. It took a year to prepare their quarters, and no coaching change, heroic refusal to quit, or any other bedspread could hide the rumples underneath.They went out after four games with the New York Rangers, kicking, screaming about the officiating of the third game, but most of the regular season portended they would fall two goals and two games short. It&rsquo;s over, the shortest Flyer season since 1972 ended in a 7-5 loss and a 3-1 preliminary series defeat by the Rangers at the Spectrum.Though it could have gone either way, it went only the way the Flyers played most of the year. By firing spiritedly, but often aimlessly, at a target they never could focus. With two many penalties, and not enough defense and goaltending. With promise&mdash;yes, still with promise&mdash;but not enough confidence and maturity to show it.Maybe it wasn&rsquo;t so much the target that was blurred, but the reflections of themselves they saw in the mirror. &ldquo;We saw that Edmonton-Los Angeles score [10-8] the other night,&rdquo; said Brad Marsh. &ldquo;And a lot of guys said &lsquo;gosh, that&rsquo;s terrible to let happen in the playoffs.&rsquo; Then we end up giving up seven goals in two of three games.&ldquo;We have a lot of good players. What we lacked was the mental toughness.&rdquo;Perhaps a victory over the Rangers would have reestablished the organization&rsquo;s direction, restored some selfesteem, diverted the season-ticket selling problem the Flyers now probably face. With a little bit of luck, the team could have won in four, or at least have gotten ready for a fifth. But a subsequent series against the Islanders would not likely have erased the fact of the Flyers being two or three players short of Stanley Cup contention.While other teams play on, there are six weeks now for a rehash of where they are short. And a summer to fill more of their holes. The owner, Ed Snider, walked around the clubhouse that night, congratulating the players for coming within one goal of making up a four goal third period deficit and spoke of a brighter future.&ldquo;The Rangers capitalized on just about every mistake we made,&rdquo; said Snider. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re a helluva hockey team, but so are we. We&rsquo;re going to win it all next year.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t need wholesale changes. We showed we have a lot of heart. That may have been the greatest game of all the great ones Bobby Clarke has ever played. We have kids who are going to get better. I like our mix of youth and veterans.&rdquo;And surely, they do already have most of the right ingredients, but Snider, general manager Keith Allen and coach Bob McCammon are not blind to the team&rsquo;s further needs. The Flyers have enough heart but not enough brains. They need more quicknees on defense, and probably one more winger, but they also require more players capable of playing within themselves.And their off-season deliberations will have to focus on whether several young, key, players on this team can learn how to do this. Ken Linseman, Behn Wilson and Pete Peeters are at the crossroads between mediocrity and stardom. Of course, it takes time for some of these pieces to mature, but two years have gone by now without the Flyers&rsquo; young players learning how to win. And the question, because of Clarke&rsquo;s and Darryl Sittler&rsquo;s age, is how long the Flyers can afford to wait.They came within maybe one more shot and a handful of superb Eddi Mio saves of overcoming a 6-2 early-third-period deficit. It was an inspirational show that eased some of the pain, but really, wasn&rsquo;t it only the final chapter of the season&rsquo;s story line? The Flyers lost because they again did just enough wrong things at exactly the wrong time. And even one of Clarke&rsquo;s all-time performances couldn&rsquo;t over-come it.It was the best of tries from the worst of self-made holes. It was atleast more palatable than the previous loss, 4-3, which came in the final minute when Bruce Hood ignored a Cam Connor takedown of Paul Holmgren that turned the puck up for the winning goal. But it was the end.If the scoreboard didn&rsquo;t tell you, the vacant faces, many tear-splotched, in the Flyers locker room, did.&ldquo;The Rangers started getting themselves together in November,&rdquo; said Bill Barber. &ldquo;We did it in the last three weeks. I was confident coming in, because of what we were doing but if you have an up-and-down year, it&rsquo;s hard to expect everything to come together in the playoffs.&rdquo;&ldquo;We deserved a better fate,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;We outplayed them. A lot of players showed character. But in a way it exemplified the whole season. Good effort, but no result.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;Bob McCammon would not comment on whether he would stay on as coach, but owner Ed Snider said he wants McCammon back. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s up to him, but I think he did a phenomenal job,&rdquo; said Snider&hellip; Blank Guns Kept: McCammon used Ken Linseman sparingly, and usually on a line with Al Hill and T. J. Gorence&hellip; Gorence had to dress in place of Ray Allison, who found during the pregame skate he couldn&rsquo;t turn on the Charley horse he suffered the previous afternoon&hellip; Since Allison had become one of the Flyers&rsquo; best players and Hill, who took his place for game three, was caught up ice on the Rangers&rsquo; tying goal, it was a damaging loss. Hill also missed Robbie Ftorek coming out from the side of the net on Game Four&rsquo;s first goal&hellip; Paul Holmgren took another bad third period penalty when he knocked Eddie Mio woozy with an elbow. &ldquo;I was going to the net and couldn&rsquo;t stop,&rdquo; said Paul. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t trying to hurt him, I&rsquo;m just not that a good a skater.&rdquo; Mio took several minutes before getting to his feet and continuing. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t have gotten him out of there with a crowbar,&rdquo; said Herb Brooks, the Rangers&rsquo; coach&hellip; Behn Wilson on his third-period roughing penalty: &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe I took it. It came from something that happened earlier, but it wasn&rsquo;t a good idea. It&rsquo;s the kind of penalty even I don&rsquo;t usually take.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

Flyers Create Too Much Adversity To Overcome

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;1-2-3 and they&rsquo;re out. Not the Canucks, mind you. Give them the home ice advantage and suddenly they&rsquo;re playoff terrors. Watch out Edmonton, er, would you believe Los Angeles, maybe.Just think what the odds were against it happening. Eight playoff series: Pick the first team to sweep the best-of-five matchups. Islanders, right? Montreal, possibly? The Oilers? Sure. The Canucks? Are you kidding! But that&rsquo;s exactly what they did to win their first playoff series in six tries. Previously they had lost out to Buffalo (twice), the Canadiens, Islanders and Philadelphia.Gaining home ice with a late-season surge had to have helped. The Canucks edged out Calgary to finish in second place in the Smythe Division which meant they got to play the first two games of the series at home with Calgary as the visitors.And with Richard Brodeur and Tiger Williams leading the way, the Canucks won those first two games. Game One was a 5-3 victory with Brodeur holding the fort and five different Canucks taking part in the scoring. It also didn&rsquo;t hurt to have Stan Smyl start the game by scoring just eight seconds after the opening whistle. Ivan Boldirev scored next for the Canucks before Mel Bridgman, with the first of his two goals, put Calgary on the board. Lars Lindgren and Lars Molin upped the Vancouver advantage to 4-1 before Willie Plett and Bridgman gave the Flames their final gasp. Gary Lupul, though, restored the Canucks&rsquo; two-goal edge.Game Two was rugged and low-scoring. After a scoreless first period Calgary&rsquo;s Ken Houston and Canucks&rsquo; Marc Crawford swapped goals. The third period was also scoreless, bringing on overtime and Williams ended it after 14:20 when he tucked a short shot past Pat Riggin.Switching to Calgary for the third match, Brodeur continued to frustrate the Flames&rsquo; offense and Williams again emerged as the hero. He snapped a 1-1 tie with a shot between Riggin&rsquo;s legs and Thomas Gradin followed up with an insurance marker and the Canucks were on their way to the division finals with a 3-1 win and a 3-0 series sweep.Meanwhile, waiting in the wings in case Brodeur falters is backup goalie Rick Heinz, who was both surprised and excited to be a member of the team.If the Canucks were to be honest, Heinz probably wasn&rsquo;t one of the central figures in the deal that sent Glen Hanlon to St. Louis the day of the trading deadline.They had Brodeur, who was going to be No. 1, and a host of young goalies coming up who could be expected to take the backup spot next season.But in his two starts with the Canucks, Heinz, a diminutive 163-pounder, has shown he can play this game, no matter how hard things were back in the land of the Blues.In his first start, Heinz played very well against the Oilers&rsquo; barrage, and though Vancouver lost 5-3 his play was more than encouraging. In his second game, he landed a shutout as the Canucks beat the Winnipeg Jets.Heinz was outstanding throughout, as one must be in the NHL these days to finish with a shutout, though he didn&rsquo;t have much work in the first two periods. In the first 40 minutes he had only one tough stop against Morris Lukowich and only eight shots came his way. But in the third period, he made five or six outstanding stops to arrange the mob scene of congratulations in his crease.&ldquo;I was lucky at the end with the puck bouncing all around the goal-posts and me with my head down listening for the crowd to go Aah,&rdquo; laughed Heinz after it was all over. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really happy about it. It was funny, in the last 20 seconds [when the Canucks were playing four men short] Lars Lindgren came over to me and said &lsquo;if you want this shutout, you&rsquo;ll have to hold them yourself.&rsquo; Fortunately, that&rsquo;s the way it turned out.&rdquo;The starting of Heinz somewhat surprised some local observers, who felt the game was of such important in Vancouver&rsquo;s drive for second place in the Smythe Division, that they could not afford not to go without Brodeur. But Heinz rewarded the faith in both Harry Neale and Roger Neilson in going with him, in part because they don&rsquo;t want to overwork Brodeur, and in part because they think he can play, respect which he never seemed to get in St. Louis.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy here,&rdquo; says the 26-year-old native of Exxex Ont., &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a totally new atmosphere. There isn&rsquo;t the pressure in the room. The defenseman here are far more mobile and they make it so you can be an angle goal tender. You look at the way Richard plays. He just watches his angles. In St. Louis you couldn&rsquo;t do that as easily.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011133/4617787-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="600" height="1325"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richard Brodeur came through with the strong goaltending the Canucks needed to advance.</figcaption></div>The play of Heinz has made Milford look like something of a genius so far. And if it is too early to tell how the deal will work out for Vancouver, it is a certainty that Milford knows a goalkeeper when he sees one.Milford has stolen Brodeur out from the Islanders&rsquo; organization, been around under the drafting of Glen Hanlon, and has youngsters Ken Ella-cott, Frank Caprice, Wendell Young, and Darrell May in the organization for depth. Wingers the Canucks are worried about. Goalies, no. &#9632;

f0013-01

Canucks Sweep Calgary With Ease

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011169/4617825-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gilbert Perreault finally got the Sabres untracked in Game Three when he compiled four assists, but Buffalo fell in four games to the Bruins. (Photo By Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Another year of disappointment in the Stanley Cup playoffs for Buffalo hockey fans.For the third time in the nine trips to post-season play in their 12 years of existence, the Sabres were eliminated in the first round.They just missed being swept out by the Boston Bruins when they won the third game in Buffalo, 5-2. They played a terrific game, reminiscent of their midseason unbeaten streak of ten games.But then, the next night, they lost to the Bruins, 5-2, and it was early vacation again.The sudden ending left the fans wondering just what will happen in the Sabres&rsquo; organization next season. Will general manager Scotty Bowman continue to coach? Will he bring back Jim Roberts to the coaching job, after replacing him late in the season with himself? Will he make wholesale trades?Or will Bowman not even be with the club? He says he will and does not expect to coach.For the first time, the game&rsquo;s No. 1 certified coaching genius was being criticized this year by media and team followers in Buffalo.It looks like an interesting summer in Sabredom.Ever since the Sabres went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals in 1975, their fifth season in the National Hockey League, their fans have been expecting a Cup winner.The closest the Sabres have come recently was Bowman&rsquo;s first season, 1979-80, when they made it to the semifinals, where they lost to the eventual Cup winners, the New York Islanders.The year after Buffalo went to the finals, the Islanders knocked them out in the quarterfinals. Ditto, the next year. In 1978, it was Philadelphia which knocked Buffalo out in the quarters.In 1979, under interim coach Billy Inglis, Buffalo fans received a jolt when their team was put out by Pittsburgh in the preliminary round.That brought on the Bowman regime and a promising start. But last year, it was out in the quarters again, at the hands of the Minnesota North Stars.This year, for the first time since 1975, the Sabres weren&rsquo;t favored in the first round. Boston finished three points ahead in the Adams Division standing and got home-ice advantage&mdash;which in this case meant plenty, because the Sabres hadn&rsquo;t won in Boston Garden since Nov 27, 1979.Twice in the last two weeks of the season, Buffalo lost in Beantown, by a cumulative score of 11-5.It didn&rsquo;t look good when the best-of-five series opened in Boston and it wasn&rsquo;t.Boston scored once in each period while the Bruins&rsquo; kid goaltender, Mike Moffat, just up from junior hockey, held off the Sabres until Yvon Lambert scored midway through the third period. The Bruins forechecked the Sabres into the ice.The second game, in the Garden, the Sabres scored first. But the end result was even worse. After Dale McCourt scored a first-period goal, the Bruins were all over the Sabres&rsquo; forwards and ended up winning the game, 7-3.Bowman pulled his ironman goaltender, Don Edwards, after the score was 6-2, replacing him with Paul Harrison, obtained from Pittsburgh on waivers a month before.&ldquo;The players have lost confidence in Edwards,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Bowman, after the game. He said he wasn&rsquo;t sure who would tend goal in Game Three in Buffalo&rsquo;s Memorial Auditorium.When the team returned to Buffalo, Bowman pulled an old Montreal play. He took his team off to a hotel hideaway for the two weekend games.In Montreal, Bowman took his Canadiens to the Laurentian Mountains. In Buffalo, he spirited his Sabres to Grand Island, out in the Niagara River, at a Holiday Inn.It worked, for one game.The Sabres came out forechecking and skating and shooting and moving the puck out of their own end in a hurry. Gil Perreault, who had just one point in the first two games, set up &bull; four goals in the Sabres&rsquo; 5-2 win. After scoring only one power play goal in eight chances until then, the Sabres got three in six in this game. Edwards tended goal and did a fine job.In the final game, the Bruins outshot the Sabres, 17-3, in the first period but the score was tied 1-1. In the second period, however, the line of Peter McNab, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and Mike Gillis scored three times in two minutes 15 seconds and that was it. McNab and O&rsquo;Reilly each scored twice in the game and Gillis got the other goal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02947/4617818-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="606" height="720"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scotty Bowman will have to come to grips with a number of important off-season questions.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0014-01

Sabres Disappoint Again In First Round Loss

<div class="byline">BY DICK BEDDOES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03683/4617856-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="320" height="332"></div><h2>History Lesson</h2>THIS WAS written before the completion of a tense, noisy series for the championship of French Canada&mdash;Montreal Canadiens vs Quebec Nor-diques.Much was made by bush-league sociologists about the nationalistic overtones, how Quebec City has replaced Montreal as the French Canadian hockey town.I&rsquo;m suspicious of that because most of the bushleague sociologists who spread that guff play the same instrument I do, the typewriter, and learned sociology from assorted barkeeps, waitresses and goodtime Charlies around the NHL.Do they mean that Quebec City is more French than Montreal?If so, the answer, I think, is yes. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean that Montreal has suddenly become the Anglo capital of the province of Quebec.The fact, hockey fans, is that Quebec City is the ancient, walled fortress where Canada began, its roots plunged deep in a strife that affects Canada still.Old Quebec is a city of snow and sun and splendor, of wide St. Lawrence water and proud hills and violent history, of narrow twisting streets and the Plains of a farmer called Abraham Martin.It is a city of two races and two religions and two tongues, although casual visitors find one tongue increasingly spoken. That tongue is French.Quebec was James Wolfe&rsquo;s town for a flaming moment in time when the English quarrelled with the French for possession of the country. The year was 1759.Wolfe won, the Marquis de Montcalm lost, and the result has been feverish fuel for the Canadian Hot Stove League for 223 years.The Plains of Abraham are a battlefield no bigger than Yankee Stadium, suitable for bivouacking a herd of Holsteins. History has rarely been made on a smaller pasture.In 1759, the French held the pioneer community of Quebec, perched on a rockey shore above the broad, imposing St. Lawrence River. The English were frustrated in their attempts to capture the fort until King George the Third drafted young James Wolfe from his London farm team.It was one of the few inspired moves made by a bumbling monarch during a chaotic reign which cost England the American colonies.<h2>A Famous Walk</h2>WOLFE&rsquo;S FORCES were camped across the river from the French garrison walled inside Quebec, frustrated by the commanding heights. Wolfe knew it would be suicide to cross the St. Lawrence and attack Quebec&rsquo;s ramparts from the front. Montcalm expected such an assault.One afternoon Wolfe took a famous walk, a vigilant stroll beyond Quebec, but on his own side of the river. At one juncture he stopped, put telescope to eye and peered at the opposite cliff.&ldquo;Aha!&rdquo; General Wolfe muttered. He had spied a steep path leading down to the river on the French side.Two nights later, masked by darkness, Wolfe shipped 4,000 men up the river and landed them near the trail to the cliff.Wolfe and a company of highlanders scrambled up the rocky face, knocked out a small French outpost, and it was Hello Dolly. The invasion was on.By dawn the British troops were massed on the open fields south and west of Quebec, prepared to strike at the soft underbelly of the garrison. Montcalm heard the news with the sinking feeling those folks had that time on the Titanic, just before it hit the iceberg.He shoved his army into reverse and ordered it to the unprotected Plains of Abraham, a futile gesture, too late. The British fired before they could see the fright in the French eyes.The brief war made several soldiers great challenges for the emergency ward, not unlike hockey players on a bloody night.<h2>Died In Peace</h2>WOLFE, MORTALLY wounded, lay gasping out his life when he heard the shout, &ldquo;They run!&rdquo; &ldquo;Who runs?&rdquo; he asked, faintly.&ldquo;The enemy, sir,&rdquo; an aide replied. &ldquo;They gave way everywhere.&rdquo;&ldquo;God be thanked,&rdquo; James Wolfe murmured. &ldquo;I shall die in peace.&rdquo;So Quebec is James Wolfe&rsquo;s town, and Montcalm&rsquo;s too, but there is no peace when the Queen or the Canadiens come to town.Joe Malone played hockey in Quebec, and was an Anglo star in a French town, similar to John Garrett, Dale Hoganson, Wallace Weir, Basil McRae, Patrick Hickey and especially Dale Hunter.French-speaking players may rate louder raves, however. George Imlach struck a Napoleonic stance as a hockey coach, helped to championship success by the gifted Jean Beliveau.In 1952 the Quebec Aces subdued all opposition for the senior amateur title of Canada and Beliveau was ranked up there as a demigod beside Marquis de Montcalm and Rocket Richard.That spring, according to legend, a history exam in one local school contained the question: &ldquo;Who won Quebec, and in what year?&rdquo; Only a few pupils answered James Wolfe, in 1759.Most of them wrote, &ldquo;Jean Beliveau, in 1952.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-03

BEDCLOTHES

<div class="byline">BY JACQUES JUSTICE</div>The forces hoping to keep the Rangers at Madison Square Garden may be in for a shocker. While MSG boss Sonny Werblin has wrung big business concessions from the unions, New York City and New York State, Werblin&rsquo;s superior, it is whispered, has been less impressed. Gulf and Western boss Charles Bludhorn appears leaning toward a Rangers move to the Meadowlands. Only a mighty eleventh hour move by city officials can head off the move by &ldquo;Bottom Line&rdquo; Bludhorn&hellip; Hall of Fame selection committee has come up with a pick that will be very popular with a member of the Campbell Conference&hellip; When Don Cherry was asked about hints that he might be the next Flyers coach he snapped that he dislikes the long pants worn by Philly skaters&hellip; Flyers player personnel director Marcel Pelletier raised some eyebrows after an unusually opinionated review of Pat Quinn&rsquo;s firing. Marcel opened by blaming poor goaltending and dumb penalties. Then, he told Tim Burke of The Montreal Gazette: &ldquo;[There was] no discipline. Guys [were] retaliating from a shot in full view of the ref.&rdquo; Pelletier blasted Reg Leach: &ldquo;Yeah, he was drinking. But it was more than that. He had lost his pride.&rdquo; Marcel added that even Leach&rsquo;s onetime guru, Bobby Clarke, has given up on Reggie&hellip; If the Bruins decide that Mike Moffat isn&rsquo;t ready for the number one goalie slot they may pitch for Bob Sauve&hellip; Danny Gare was the subject of the not-very-nice comment made by a Toronto broadcaster which inspired Gare&rsquo;s agent to mull over some form of protest&hellip; Phil Esposito told a reporter from the Italian newspaper, Il Progresso, that he&rsquo;d like to own an NHL team. If a suitable date can be found, Esposito will have his Masters of Hockey play in Boston Garden next year. Phil also is sponsoring a golf and tennis tourney in New York this summer&hellip; Keith Allen and Harry Sinden are no longer the best of friends. Sinden is reportedly miffed over Allen&rsquo;s conduct of negotiations before the trade deadline. Prospective deal was Brad McCrimmon for Pelle Lindbergh.Toronto financiers are trying to determine whether Harold Ballard is serious about selling his sports package&mdash;the Maple Leafs, Maple Leafs Gardens, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and minor league teams. Harold has placed a $50,000,000 price tag on his melange. Some investment analysts suspect that a conglomerate in the Gulf and Western or brewery class might even make a pitch at that outrageous figure. Those close to Ballard doubt that he would part with his prime toy, the hockey team&hellip; One time bruiser Dave Forbes is studying for the ministry as a California seminary&hellip; Paul Gardner&rsquo;s threatened suit against Jimmy Mann has been shelved for the moment. Gardner wanted time to think about it and will likely drop the matter&hellip; Eddie Johnston is secure in Pittsburgh. Penguins vice president Paul Martha likes E. J. as does club bankroller Edward DeBartolo. Pens accent on youth next season could mean that Rick Kehoe will be traded, according to Pitt sources. Pens are still on the lookout for a big, checking forward&hellip; Ex-NHLer Leo Boivin will head the list of Inkerman Rockets (1945-53) Junior A alumni who will hold their reunion May 21-22 in Morrisburg, Ontario&hellip; Broadcaster Brian McFarlane and New York off-ice official Ed Bjorness are among the ex-Rockets who will honor coach Loyola Porte&hellip; A former NHLer, who will surprise a lot of people, is being eyed as a broadcaster for an American-based club next season&hellip; Any NHL club that misses a date is subject to a $50,000 fine&hellip; A prospective buyer for the Rockies who decided not to get involved says owner Peter Gilbert has been &ldquo;unreasonable&rdquo; in his demands. The entrepreneur says Denver is not an apetizing purchase because of weak TV revenue and weak anciallary rights&hellip; One who knows Peter Pocklington doubts there is anything to his interest in getting a group together to buy the Rockies. Says a Pocklington-watcher: &ldquo;He would be wiser to stick to his real estate empire.&rdquo;Canucks&rsquo; gendarmes finally nailed spectators who had been throwing eggs on Pacific Coliseum ice whenever the Vancouver skaters scored. When coach Harry Neale heard about the catch, he snapped: &ldquo;When they were here in the whole month of January, they only went through a dozen eggs!&rdquo;&hellip; Scotty Bowman and Warner Hessler of the Buffalo Courier-Express are at odds over a Hessler piece about Bowman touring Europe. Scotty denied he had visited Czechoslovakia; Hessler said he had. Hessler checked with his Czech sources who confirmed that Bowman&mdash;or a superb look-alike&mdash;was in the Land of Stastnys&hellip; Oilers lost out in the bidding for collegiate ace Phil Sykes, who was signed by the Kings. Sykes figured he&rsquo;d get more time with L.A. than Edmonton&hellip; Gordie and Colleen Howe&rsquo;s youngest, Murray, graduates the University of Michigan on May 1 Phi Beta Kappa, the 21-year-old Howe will enter the U. of Michigan medical school and also will run a boarding house in Ann Arbor. A self-taught guitarist and author, Murray has been working at the university hospital on the 3-5 a.m. shift&hellip; Caps high command has been mum on possible sale of the club. GM Roger Crozier has been told to proceed as a caretaker hockey boss until a buyer is found&hellip; A Buffalo scribe close to the Sabres says the prime reason why Scotty Bowman went behind the bench was the fact that he increased the budget so much the Sabres need wins and conversely more playoff games to justify his salary. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;If the Flames had such a good season individually, why did they struggle so much as a team?It&rsquo;s an interesting dilemma, one that may be at the bottom of the club&rsquo;s subpar, sub-500 season.In their 10th year in the league, the Flames rewrote the franchise&rsquo;s record book, setting a host of individual and team records, especially on offense.Guy Chouinard, the club&rsquo;s seventh-year center, led the way. In the next-to-last game of the regular season, Chouinard became the team&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Eric Vail&rsquo;s total of 452 points.Chouinard moved into the record book in Gretzky-like fashion, scoring five points in an 11-0 blowout of the Colorado Rockies. The four assists gave him 277 and moved him past Tom Lysiak into the team&rsquo;s career assists lead.Other records included most goals in one season, 334; most 30-goal scorers (Mel Bridgman, Lanny McDonald, Jim Peplinski and Kevin Lavallee); plus most assists and most points in one season by a defenseman. Pekka Rautakallio got 51 assists and 68 points, surpassing standards set by Paul Reinhart one year ago.The records aside, the Flames still managed to finish 15 points behind last season&rsquo;s pace, the bottom line in a disappointing year as far as the team is concerned.It is no surprise, therefore, that the players pointed towards the Stanley Cup as their salvation, a chance to regain some of the pride they lost in the turmoil of the regular season.&ldquo;When they say the playoffs is a second season, people have to realize that&rsquo;s exactly what it is,&rdquo; said Chouinard. &ldquo;When you hit the playoffs, people tend to forget about what happened in the regular season. The longer you stay in the running, the more they forget about the season.&ldquo;When you start in training camp, what you aim for is the Stanley Cup. If someone said to me &lsquo;you have a choice! we&rsquo;ll give you 95 points but not the Cup or you&rsquo;ll get 70 points and the Cup,&rsquo; I&rsquo;ll grab the Cup and go.&rdquo;Chouinard said he hoped the late-season surge was a &ldquo;beginning.&rdquo;Certainly, for him and other members of the club&rsquo;s nucleus&mdash;Kent Nilsson, Bridgman, McDonald, Peplinski, Lavallee&mdash;it looked that way.Coach Al MacNeil eventually did get the crux of his team back and playing their proper positions for the playoffs. The same could not be said for the supporting cast. Instead of sorting themselves out, the club&rsquo;s extras gave MacNeil something to consider.Two players, Dan Labraaten and Pat Ribble, who had little or no ice time with the team through its first 78 games had significant roles in the last games of the regular season.The pair replaced Ken Houston and Bob Murdoch, two players who more or less have been regulars all year. Also deleted were rookies Ed Beers and Denis Cyr, semi-regulars in the past few weeks.Murdoch, the team&rsquo;s assistant playing coach, said the changes were made because the coaching staff &ldquo;wanted to take a look at everyone and make some decisions&rdquo; prior to the playoffs.Had the two played poorly, they would probably have got into the lineup only if the club ran into injury problems. However, Ribble and especially Labraaten complicated matters by playing quite well.Now, it&rsquo;s up to MacNeil to decide whether they warrant another look&mdash;and another and another and another.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll still be a game by game thing,&rdquo; said Labraaten. &ldquo;I wish it was settled by now, but it doesn&rsquo;t look that way. But I&rsquo;ll take what I can get, what they give me. I try to be ready all the time.&rdquo;Labraaten made a spectacular play for the Flames&rsquo; fifth goal in their 7-5 win over L.A., putting the puck between Larry Murphy&rsquo;s legs, reclaiming it behind the Los Angeles defenseman and then beating goaltender Mario Lessard with a move and a shot into the top corner.Because the Kings&rsquo; defense is essentially immobile, Labraaten spent much of the night creating openings with his speed and his ability to drive towards the net.The Vancouver Canucks, Calgary&rsquo;s opponent in the first round of the playoffs, also feature the same kind of immobile defensemen.It was therefore suggested to Labraaten that he could be particularly effective against just the kind of opposition that the Canucks would provide.&ldquo;If you play all the time, it&rsquo;s easier than when you play just a few shifts,&rdquo; Labraaten said. &ldquo;What I did against Los Angeles is what I used to do. I used to always go wide or jump into the holes. And as you say, Vancouver does not have too good a defense.&rdquo;MacNeil reiterated that desire would be the key to the club&rsquo;s post-season prospects.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it, that&rsquo;s been the whole problem,&rdquo; said Murdoch. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s never been a question of ability, it&rsquo;s been a question of motivation. When it comes down to it, it isn&rsquo;t the team with the most talent that wins, it&rsquo;s the team that wants it the most.&rdquo;&ldquo;So many people are worried and maybe they should be,&rdquo; said Labraaten. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s an 80-game season and not too many teams can play well for 80 games. Some teams like the Islanders have bad games and still win. Not many others can.&rdquo; &#9632;

Individualistic Flames Needed More Cohesion

<div class="byline">BY GORDON EDES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01972/4617966-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="602" height="1118"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Bozek hustled into position to tie the third game at 5-5 with five seconds left.</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Don Perry missed the winning goal. The coach of the Kings was looking down at the sheet of paper on which he had scrawled some line combinations when the puck went into the net.Jerry Buss missed the winning goal, too. The owner of the Kings was on his way to Palm Springs and had left the Forum early to get a jump on traffic.Grant Fuhr missed the winning goal, too. He is the Edmonton goalie, and it was over his right shoulder that the 25-foot slap shot by rookie Daryl Evans went into the net at 2:35 of sudden-death overtime, climaxing what may have been the greatest comeback in Stanley Cup history.It was Kings 6, Edmonton 5, in the third game of their first-round playoff series. With only a period to play, it had been Edmonton 5, Kings 0.&ldquo;I never saw anything like it,&rdquo; said Dave Lewis, who was in the dressing room taking seven stitches for a cut near his left eye when rookie Steve Bozek slid a backhand under Fuhr to tie the score at 5 with five seconds left.&ldquo;And no matter what happens, they can never take this away from us.&rdquo;Mike Murphy had been a King for what until now had been considered the most dramatic moment in Kings history-in 1976, when Butch Goring scored an overtime goal to beat Boston after the Kings had trailed, 3-1, late in the game.&ldquo;But this was 5-0,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;This was a touchdown.&rdquo;Evans, a ninth-round draft choice who on this night was greater than Gretzky, was buried under a pile of teammates after the goal, then emerged to take a victory lap to the cheers of what remained of a sellout crowd of 16,005.Fuhr retreated to the Edmonton dressing room, removed his mask, and with tears streaming down his 19-year-old face, threw up in a sink.Outside, an impromptu motorcade snaked down Manchester Boulevard to the freeway, horns at full blast, voices only less so. One car dragged a tattered Oilers jersey behind it.&ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve been hit by a Mack truck,&rdquo; Perry said afterward.Someone asked if Perry didn&rsquo;t realize had had no business coming back from 5-0?&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; piped in Brad Selwood, Perry&rsquo;s assistant. &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t you take a joke?&rdquo;There was no laughter in the Kings&rsquo; dressing room after two periods. They had come from behind once before in this series, when they trailed 4-1 in Game One only to win 10-8. But this time they were down five goals and down to 20 minutes.Perry&rsquo;s instruction to his players between periods? &ldquo;He said, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s go out there and win a period,&rsquo;&rdquo; Mike Murphy said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t want us to ease up.&rdquo;When Jay Wells scored at 2:46 of the third period, the goal seemed important only to Wells, who had scored just once all season.But then rookie Doug Smith scored on a rebound, Charlie Simmer caromed a shot off a stick for a goal from behind the net, and Mark Hardy made it 5-4 with 4:01 to play.And with three minutes to go, the Kings went on the power play, as ex-King Garry Unger drew a major high-sticking penalty for cutting Lewis.Bozek, who earlier this season had scored a goal with a second left to tie Pittsburgh, placed himself where he thought a rebound might come.&ldquo;I tried to position myself away from the defense, 10, 12 feet away from the net,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where Fuhr had been kicking them out.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s where Fuhr kicked out a shot by Hardy, and Bozek returned the puck with a backhand that went through Fuhr&rsquo;s legs.Evans, who had been in New Haven for most of the season, was in the dressing room when Bozek scored. He had been given a 10-minute misconduct earlier in the period, and was listening to the game on the radio when he found out he&rsquo;d be returning to the ice, and the chance for what he called &ldquo;the greatest moment of my hockey life.&rdquo;How about his life, period?&ldquo;That, too,&rdquo; said Evans, who shot from the right circle after Smith won a faceoff from Mark Messier.Marcel Dionne, acknowledged as a great player but rarely as a winner, said after the game:&ldquo;I played the best game of my life. I was doing everything and yet they weren&rsquo;t depending on me to win the game. Look at the kids, they did it.&rdquo;And to Perry.&ldquo;All we hear is that we&rsquo;re beach bums, and that we don&rsquo;t care,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;But Perry lets us know he cares, and we do, too.&rdquo;Which is why the Kings, who finished 17th overall in the regular season standings, were in a position to knock off the Oilers. &#9632;

f0016-01

Even Kings Found Comeback Unreal

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01877/4618035-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Messier scored his 50th goal of the season against the Kings and was instrumental in leading Edmonton down the home stretch.</figcaption></div>H&B Louisville HockeyEDMONTON&mdash;If the seasonal series was indeed a true guideline, then Los Angeles Kings were due for an early vacation.Once again, that is.Then again, you never know. (For playoff series, see page 7).The Edmonton Oilers dominated the Kings over the 1981-82 National Hockey League campaign. The Oilers, in fact, feasted upon their Smythe Division opponents, posting identical 5-2-1 won-loss-tied records over the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and the Colorado Rockies.They were even slightly better against the Kings, winning on five occasions, tying twice, while losing only a 3-2 decision on March 10 in Los Angeles. However, during their next trip to the Fabulous Forum, the Oilers struck for a record two goals during the opening 24 seconds to stun the Kings and a sellout audience en route to a 6-2 triumph March 28.Three nights later in Edmonton, during the final meeting prior to the best-of-five preliminary-round playoff series, the Oilers erupted for five unanswered third-period goals, thumping the Kings 7-3. In all, they almost doubled the score on the Kings over the seasonal haul, outgunning them 51-27 with Wayne Gretzky leading the way with 13 goals.Now, it depends upon personal viewpoints as to the significance of the final two encounters between the playoff opponents.&ldquo;Those two games we needed badly,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; right-winger Dave Lumley, &ldquo;and we came up large. We did exactly what we had to do. Plus, we won a big game in Calgary [7-2 on March 25] that could prove beneficial up the [playoff] road.&rdquo;Then there&rsquo;s the other viewpoint&hellip;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the games themselves were that important,&rdquo; said Kings&rsquo; rookie coach Don Perry. &ldquo;They certainly weren&rsquo;t as important as the press made them out to be. We learned something against them&mdash;primarily the importance of sticking to their wingers.&rdquo;Given an opening, there&rsquo;s no question the Oilers can strike in rapid fashion.Doing precisely what they do best&mdash;establishing NHL scoring records&mdash;the Oilers jumped off to a once-in-a-lifetime start in Los Angeles. The lightning-quick goals, courtesy of Mark Messier and Lumley, provided the Oilers with yet another NHL record, erasing the Pittsburgh Penguins from the record book for the fastest two goals to start a game. George Ferguson and Greg Malone connected for the Penguins in the opening 29 seconds Dec. 6, 1980 against Chicago Black Hawks at Pittsburgh.Messier struck against Kings&rsquo; goalie Doug Keans for his team high 10th first goal of the game with 14 seconds gone on a breakaway feed from team captain Lee Fogolin. Lumley, playing in his 200th NHL game, hit on a backhand 10 seconds later after he was sprung by Kevin Lowe.&ldquo;Mark was really motoring. He blew right past their defensemen [Mark Hardy and Rick Chartraw],&rdquo; said Lumley, who two nights earlier in Denver enabled the Oilers to become the first NHL team to score 400 goals in a single season. &ldquo;I just snuck in behind their defense, Kevin anticipated and away 1 went.&ldquo;Hell,&rdquo; he added with a grin, &ldquo;maybe I&rsquo;ll get into the Hall of Fame yet.&rdquo;&ldquo;Do you call that a character builder?&rdquo; was Kings&rsquo; coach Perry&rsquo;s opening statement to the media. &lsquo;I certainly hope it taught our players a good lesson. We lost the game and our composure in the first half minute. Plus, our power play fizzled [on eight opportunities, including a two-man advantage for a full two minutes]. Those two aspects killed us.&rdquo;Three nights later in a highly-physical contest in Edmonton, the Oilers employed an entirely different approach against ace L A. goalie Mario Lessard.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02683/4618028-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="1242" height="1214"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Lumley, who helped set an NHL record late in the regular season, felt the Oilers&rsquo; domination of the Kings was significant.</figcaption></div>During two roughhouse periods, they fell behind 3-2 before Messier and Lumley struck again. Messier, the 21-year-old who later closed out the scoring with his 50th goal, broke in alone on Lessard at the 2:42 mark, then three minutes later passed on a fine opportunity himself to set up Lumley for the game winner.Matti Hagman&rsquo;s first goal in 19 games then provided the Oilers with some insurance before Dave Hunter and Messier completed the scoring.&ldquo;No question, Edmonton tried to intimidate us,&rdquo; accused Perry. &ldquo;In the playoffs we don&rsquo;t care if we have to spend six hours a night [brawling] here. Plus, once we get a few days off and some rest, I think we&rsquo;ll be able to skate with them. Either way, we&rsquo;ll do what we have to do.&rdquo;J.P. Kelly, the Kings&rsquo; Edmonton-born winger who became a target for Oiler hitmen after he levelled Fogolin with a vicious blind-side cross-check, doesn&rsquo;t figure the playoffs will present a turn-the-other-cheek production.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll definitely be a physical series, they always are,&rdquo; forecasted Kelly. &ldquo;They [Oilers] were pretty chipy in L.A. and they certainly were chippy here.&ldquo;One thing we&rsquo;ve got going is these last two games might get them overconfident. They might feel they don&rsquo;t have to play hard against us&hellip; but we&rsquo;ll be there. All you can do is give it 110 per cent.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

Stats Indicated Oilers Too Strong For Kings

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01837/4618066-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">A playoff rule allowing 20 players to dress instead of 19 permitted the Rangers to use Cam Connor and he came through by scoring the game-winner in Philadelphia. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;&ldquo;A good team,&rdquo; Mikko Leinonen was saying, &ldquo;can lose one game.&rdquo;Call the Rangers a good team. Call them, as Flyers&rsquo; coach Bob McCammon put it, &ldquo;a team with character.&rdquo; In a four-game series that was their season in microcosm, the Rangers staked the Flyers to a one-game lead and then rebounded, dramatically, to sweep the following three games for an opening-round victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.They did it with valiant performances from players they had counted on all year, like Barry Beck and Ron Duguay. And with players who last fall had yet to wear a Rangers uniform&mdash;Robbie Ftorek, who was as dreadful as his mates in the 4-1 loss in Game One, and who scored two goals in the 7-5 victory in Game Four, and goalie Eddie Mio, who coach Herb Brooks called &ldquo;the key to this series&rdquo; and who faced a 16-shot onslaught in the third period of that last game and whose acrobatics in the crease assured the Rangers of a bus-ride back to New York graced with the glow of victory.On defense, steady veteran Carol Vadnais played the series of his life after being put on waivers early in the season and after riding the bench as late as the last week of the campaign, and Tom Laidlaw, who had fought the puck last fall before finally settling down, was a rock&mdash;as was rookie Andre Dore, who came up from Springfield when injuries decimated the club and never left, and Dave Maloney, who scored the winning goal in Game Four.And then there were two players who were in the Rangers&rsquo; system all year but who seemingly did not fit into their plans at the outset.One was Cam Connor, a muscular journeyman forward who spent the season in Springfield and who was brought up to give the Rangers some beef for this physical series against the Flyers. It was Connor who scored the winning goal with 1:09 remaining in Game Three, a 4-3 come-from-behind victory in which the Rangers trailed, 3-0 after one period.&ldquo;The turning point in the series,&rdquo; McCammon said in the funereal postseries debriefing at the Spectrum, &ldquo;was blowing that 3-0 lead.&rdquo;And the other was Leinonen, whose record-breaking six assists in Game Two at the Garden sent the Rangers on to a 7-3 victory that tied the series at one victory apiece as the teams headed down the Jersey Turnpike to the Spectrum.Leinonen arrived in New York last September with a one-year contract and the mandate to be the valet and interpreter for Reijo Ruotsalainen, his fellow Finn whose speed and shot quickly won him a place in the Rangers&rsquo; lineup. Meanwhile, Leinonen saw little playing time during the first half of the season, and was even shuttled to Springfield to aid his acclimatizing to North American hockey. But on the Rangers&rsquo; long road-trip early this year, the road-trip that turned the season around for the team, Leinonen broke into the lineup, and has since been playing regularly and has become a fixture on the point on the powerplay.It was from the point that Leinonen orchestrated the Rangers in the second-game victory as they scored on four of five powerplays. &ldquo;He has a tremendous feel for the puck,&rdquo; said Brooks. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen him on 100 by 200-foot rinks in Finland. An NHL record for a rookie from Finland is quite an accomplishment.&rdquo;Game One had been a night when literally nothing went right for the Rangers. &ldquo;We had some good scoring opportunities but were not that hungry or sharp around the net,&rdquo; said Brooks. In the second period, the turning-point came when Leinonen made a pretty play and set up Duguay at the goalmouth. Duguay banged the puck off the pipe; had he scored, the game would have been tied, 2-2.It was a time for first-night jitters for six Rangers who had never been in the playoffs, and the entire team was out-of-synch. &ldquo;In the playoffs,&rdquo; said Beck, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ve got to have a lot of emotion and hitting; every shift should be filled with intensity. You don&rsquo;t stickcheck in playoff games.&rdquo;The Rangers power play was zero-for-five in Game One as they took low-percentage long shots which the Flyers&rsquo; defense blocked. In Game Two, they worked the puck in close with Leinonen starting many of the scoring plays. Seven different Rangers scored.&ldquo;They know what we&rsquo;re gonna do, and we know what they&rsquo;re gonna do,&rdquo; said Brooks. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of execution.&rdquo;Leinonen broke the Rangers&rsquo; record for points and assists, and tied the playoff record with six points in a game, shared by Dickie Moore, Guy Lafleur, Phil Esposito, and former Leaf Darryl Sittler, now of the Flyers.&ldquo;They don&rsquo;t talk much about records in Finland,&rdquo; said Leinonen. &ldquo;I am excited that we won the game. That seems more important than records. I think we have better skaters than they have.&rdquo;They did that night. &ldquo;We let them skate and we let them set up and it just got away from us,&rdquo; said the Flyers&rsquo; Bill Barber.The line of Leinonen, Rob McClanahan and Dave Silk had a total of 12 points that night. In Game One, Brooks had put out an all-Olympic line, consisting of Silk, McClanahan, and Mark Pavelich. By Game Two, Pavelich was back with Duguay.But the Rangers had to play Game Three without Duguay, who was ejected at 1:44 of the first period after fighting with Bob Hoffmeyer of the Flyers. The Rangers were intimidated by the Flyers in the first period, getting hit after every pass as the Flyers once again dominated them with forechecking as they had in Game One. But the Rangers started to skate in the second. &ldquo;The difference in play between the first and second periods was that we were caught on two-on-one breaks,&rdquo; said McCammon. The Rangers&rsquo; scorers were Mike Rogers, Ruotsalainen, and Don Maloney, the last goal coming with just 54 seconds left in the second period, the next goal, the game-winner, was Connor&rsquo;s.If the Rangers let opportunities slip through their fingers in the first game, they were opportunistic in the fourth, scoring four goals on nine shots in the second period for a 5-2 lead, which became 6-2 with Dave Maloney&rsquo;s goal at 1:25 of the third. Then, they hung on for dear life as the Flyers swarmed around Mio for the rest of the game, scoring three times and narrowing the deficit to 6-5. Bobby Clarke, who had an outstanding series, scored his fourth goal at 4:08, Sittler scored his third at 12:33 and then Barber&rsquo;s goal at 16:09 made the score 6-5 Rangers. Paul Holmgren floored Mio with an elbow late in the period, the Rangers had to kill off two benchminors for too many men on the ice and a two-man deficit, and were unable to rest until Duguay scored his second goal of the game into an open net with seven seconds left.&ldquo;In the third period, we were constantly looking at the clock,&rdquo; said Don Maloney. &ldquo;I thought I saw every minute of the 20 tick off, and I let out a sigh of relief when the final goal went in.&rdquo;The Rangers returned to New York for a much-needed three days&rsquo; rest, awaiting the outcome of the Islanders-Penguins series, which would determine not only their opponent for the quarterfinals but also home-ice advantage, which they would possess against Pittsburgh but not against the Islanders.NOTES; Leinonen was nursing a bruised sternum, suffered in the first period of Game Three. He sat out the last game of the series and was replaced by Mike Backman. Connor, who broke into the lineup when the NHL increased the number of dressing players from 19 to 20, played much of the time with Nick Fotiu and Mike Allison. &#9632;

f0019-01

Rangers Display Character While Eliminating Flyers

<div class="byline">BY GARY MUELLER</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Within the last four weeks of the regular season, the Blues underwent an extensive facelift. The team&rsquo;s president and general manager, Emile Francis, took over as coach; defensemen Guy Lapointe and Kari Eloranta were acquired from Montreal and Calgary, respectively; wingers Mark Reeds and Perry Anderson were summoned from Salt Lake City, and winger Perry Turnbull was shifted to center.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01670/4618097-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="606" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gerry Hart&rsquo;s presence helped the Blues cut down on their goals-against.</figcaption></div>All of these developments were duly noticed and heavily publicized, especially when the Blues started showing signs of pulling out of their season-long slump and headed into the playoffs on an upswing of momentum and optimism.But overlooked in the midst of all the activity was another reason for the Blues&rsquo; improved play as the regular season came to a close: The return to the lineup of veteran defenseman Gerry Hart.Hart, who has been in and out of the lineup ever since suffering a knee injury when hit from the blind side by Detroit&rsquo;s Paul Woods in the second game of the season, finally underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and, after missing a total of 45 games, returned to the lineup when the Blues embarked on a six-game trip in early March.It was more than a coincidence that the Blues, who had lost 10 successive road games prior to the trip while surrendering 77 goals, returned from the trip with a respectable 2-2-2 record and had held five of the six foes to four goals or less.To make his return to the lineup even a little more dramatic, Hart responded by picking up his first point of the season when the Blues marked their return to St. Louis with a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.The assist came on what proved to be the game-winning goal scored by Jorgen Pettersson. But as Pettersson went into an arm-waving, knee-pumping celebration, linemate Blake Dunlop ignored Pettersson and instead skated over to congratulate Hart.&ldquo;I offered to get him the puck as a souvenir,&rdquo; said Dunlop, laughing.Hart, whose career high in 11 National Hockey League seasons is 26 points with the Quebec Nordiques in the 1979-80 season, feigned anger at all the attention directed his way.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a victim of circumstances,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have no excuse for my teammates&rsquo; failure to put the puck into the net on my prolific passing plays.&rdquo;Then, a bit more seriously, Hart insisted that finally getting a point this season was no big deal.&ldquo;I never gave any thought at all to going a whole season without a point,&rdquo; said Hart. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the least bit embarrassing to me. Why should it be? Look at the kind of season I&rsquo;ve had. It&rsquo;s been three or four games in the lineup; out for 10. It&rsquo;s only been the last half-dozen games that I&rsquo;ve played with any consistency.&rdquo;As mentioned, those half-dozen games included some of the Blues&rsquo; best showings of the season, with the presence of the experienced Hart bolstering the defense considerably.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re to the point where everyone is willing to play the kind of game Emile Francis has put in front of us,&rdquo; said Hart. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s finally starting to make an impact that we have to have accountability for everyone. Certain individuals are out there for certain jobs and if each individual does what it is he&rsquo;s supposed to do, we&rsquo;re going to win.&rdquo;Hart&rsquo;s role, obviously, was that of a defensive defenseman, even if it did take his first point of the season to earn a spot in the limelight.BLUENOTES&mdash; While Hart&rsquo;s play was a key reason for the Blues&rsquo; strong end-of-the-season showing, the team also headed into the playoffs feeling good about its offensive production with a line of Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko and Joey Mullen red hot, while the line of Anderson, Turnbull and Reeds also was providing plenty of spark. &ldquo;Their first game together, it looked like a bowling alley out there,&rdquo; Francis said of the line. &ldquo;They had bodies flying everywhere.&rdquo;&hellip; &ldquo;I love playing center,&rdquo; said Turnbull, who last played the position in Junior. &ldquo;Playing the wing can get boring. If you don&rsquo;t have a center who&rsquo;ll get you the puck, or they don&rsquo;t dump the puck into your corner, you never get to do anything.&rdquo;&hellip; Reeds and Anderson scored their first NHL goals 30 seconds apart in an 8-3 romp over Chicago. (For Blues&rsquo; playoff report, see page 7). &#9632;

f0020-01

Blues Finding A Little Hart Can Really Help

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02462/4618128-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>Brian Sutter led the St. Louis Blues this season in goal scoring and it seemed only natural that when the team caught fire in the first round of the 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs, it would be Sutter who would provide the momentum.The 25-year-old left winger and team captain, who is one of the four Sutter brothers now performing in the NHL, scored a total of seven goals in the Blues&rsquo; four-game playoff ouster of the Winnipeg Jets. Sutter also contributed two assists and scored a game-winning goal to win recognition from THE HOCKEY NEWS as the Player of the Week.Sutter, who scored 39 goals in 74 games during the season, has suddenly come up hot and along with his two linemates, Joe Mullen and Bernie Federko, the three ravaged the Winnipeg defense for a total of 31 scoring points in the four games that led to the Jets&rsquo; quick elimination from the playoffs. &#9632;

f0020-02

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;The Nordiques took a surprising 2-1 lead over the Montreal Canadiens in the best-of-five opening round of the playoffs with two straight victories after losing the first game 5-1 at the Forum.Quebec came right back after the opening loss and won 3-2 in a hard-fought, tight-checking game which surprised Montreal right at home. Two days later the Nordiques, inspired by one of the most vocal home crowds in the National Hockey League, came out hitting once again and walked away with a 2-1 victory in Le Colisee and a 2-1 lead in the series.In the third game, the Nordiques threw more bodychecks than in any home game all season; the new style worked and Montreal was knocked off their game right from the opening whistle.Last week, it was reported in this publication that the Nordiques were hurt by injuries and that the keys to the series would be the play of Dan Bouchard and success on power play opportunities. By the third game of the series, Wilf Paiement, Mario Marois and Jacques Richard had all returned to the Quebec lineup and Bouchard was simply fantastic in the 3-2 victory which evened the series.The Nordiques even won without team leader Peter Stastny, who suffered a kidney injury in the first game and missed the next three games in the series.Quebec coach Michel Bergeron finally got the aggressiveness from his team that he has been asking for all season.&ldquo;It was one of our hardest hitting games of the year,&rdquo; said Bergeron of the first victory ever by the Nordiques in Montreal. &ldquo;We played intensely and worked hard in the game. I wanted us to be aggressive and we finally were. I don&rsquo;t think I saw our defense play a better game all year. I&rsquo;m very satisfied with the way we played.&rdquo;Montreal coach Bob Berry talked about the lack of scoring by his Montreal team after they had fallen behind in the series.&ldquo;We won&rsquo;t win many games if we continue to score so few times. We finished 25 or 30 points ahead of Quebec and now they are beating us from every point of view. There&rsquo;s surely something which is evident and that is that Quebec is working a lot harder than we are.&rdquo;The workers referred to by Berry were mainly Dale Hunter, Pierre Aubry and Alain Cote. Aubry and Cote, along with Pat Hickey scored in the second game in Montreal and Hunter had both goals for Quebec in their 2-1 triumph in the third game. Guy Lafleur spoiled Bouchard&rsquo;s shutout with less than a minute to play with the Nordiques a man short and the Montreal goal empty.&ldquo;We know we beat Montreal during the year and that there would be a lot of pressure on both teams,&rdquo; said Hunter. &ldquo;Earlier in the series the pressure was on us and now it is on Montreal. We want to go as far as we can in the playoffs because that is what it&rsquo;s all about. Everyone has been doing their job and that takes a little pressure off everyone on our team.&rdquo;After Quebec won the second game in Montreal, the series was reduced to a two-out-of-three effort, except Quebec now had the home ice advantage. The Nordiques used that to advantage in the third game, hitting everything that moved on the ice and getting one of their best defensive performances of the season.&ldquo;We are playing five men together,&rdquo; said Quebec captain Andre Dupont. &ldquo;We are playing as a team; our forwards are helping the defensemen and picking up the loose pucks after we take out the man. The whole team has been working really hard.&rdquo;After three games the pressure was clearly on Montreal. The Nordiques could eliminate the highly-favored Canadiens with a victory in one of the two remaining games of the series. The Nordiques were a new team in the second and third games. They were hitting and playing with confidence, and Bouchard was taking control in his end of the ice.The Nordiques finished 29 points behind Montreal in the regular season, but an upset seemed to be in the making.(For details on the Quebec-Montreal series, see page 6.)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01500/4618159-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="606" height="856"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Hunter led the Quebec bodychecking assault and had both their goals in Game Three.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

Nordique Bodychecks Bedeviled Habs

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div>TORONTO&mdash;National Hockey League attendance hit a record high of 11,375,554 for the 1981-82 season&mdash;the third straight year the league has surpassed the 11 million mark at the box office.With the Quebec Nordiques providing the whopping 117,987 in-crease in crowds over last season and four other teams&mdash;Minnesota, Chicago, Boston and Pittsburgh&mdash;reaching new turnstile highs, the NHL closed with a fourth quarter attendance rush to surpass last year&rsquo;s mark of 11,328,001, a boost of 47,553.In the fourth and final quarterly attendance report published and compiled by THE HOCKEY NEWS and covering the complete 40 home games of all 21 teams, the NHL was able to realize another record year at the gate. When the league hit 11,203,713 in 1979-80 it was primarily due to the crowd input generated by the incoming WHA franchises. Last year it was much the same story with Quebec, Edmonton and Hartford making big contributions at the box office.This past season it was again Quebec and Edmonton showing the way but there was some unexpected turnstile support from four of the NHL&rsquo;s old line teams that helped put the league over the 11 million plateau once more.The Nordiques, who added 5,000 more seats to the Quebec Colisee since last season and sold them out for all 40 games, continued to rise among the league&rsquo;s top drawing teams. Last season the Nordiques stood 13th in attendance. This year they made it all the way to seventh place by drawing 607,696 fans, nearly 178,000 more than they attracted their first year in the NHL in 1979-80.There was some concern that the NHL would ultimately fall short of last year&rsquo;s record attendance because of a somewhat lethargic third quarter during which the league crowds dropped slightly from last season. But a solid fourth quarter in the windup to the schedule drew 2,910,259 fans, creating an 86,454 increase over the third quarter (10 home games). Only two of the 21 teams failed to attract the same number or more fans to their final 10 home games than they did in the previous 10.The Edmonton Oilers climaxed their fantastic year on the ice by claiming the box office championship of the NHL for the second successive year. The Oilers were the No. 1 draw, pulling in 699,600 fans to again edge the New York Rangers, who had long been the NHL&rsquo;s perennial turnstile leaders.The Rangers finished just slightly in back of Edmonton with an attendance of 695,952. Others behind the Oilers and Rangers included Philadelphia in third spot with 682,828, Montreal fourth with 663,472, Toronto fifth with 652,860, Buffalo sixth with 610,560, Quebec seventh, Minnesota eighth with 606,206, the Islanders ninth with 601,940 and St. Louis in 10th spot with 577,301.Last season six NHL teams went over the 600,000 mark for a record but the mark was shortlived as nine teams exceeded the figure this season, a major factor in the NHL&rsquo;s third straight record season.While the Nordiques pushed their season increase in attendance to a plus of 117,987, four other teams also drew more fans than in 1980-81. The North Stars ended 39,187 ahead of last year, the Penguins were 38,523 ahead, the Bruins 35,087 and the Black Hawks pulled in 24,311 more fans than a year ago.The Buffalo Sabres, who after the third quarter were 45,363 behind their figure for the same time the year before, rallied in the final 10-game home stand and attracted 23,633 more fans to move from 9th place overall back to sixth spot. The Sabres still finished 45,747 be-hind their &lsquo;80-81 figure but there was a distinct possibility the figure could have reached as high as 75,000 had the Sabres not been able to play to capacity in all of their last 10 home games.Despite the glowing crowd picture for the NHL, the league wasn&rsquo;t without its disappointments. The Vancouver Canucks were the major losers at the box office this season with only 530,517 paying their way into the Pacific Coliseum. It represented a drop of 63,332 over last year. Other troubled spots were in Detroit where the listless Red Wings didn&rsquo;t put out on the ice and it showed at the box office. The Wings finished 33,173 behind last season&rsquo;s crowd figure. Washington, Los Angeles and Colorado also showed sizeable deficits at the gate. The Rockies, who were the NHL&rsquo;s worst club, were down 28,346 at the box office, a good indication why owner Peter Gilbert has vowed the team has played its last game in Denver.Overall it was a rewarding crowd year for the NHL. With nine of its 21 teams surpassing the 600,000 mark and only six clubs showing a significant deficit, the future continues to look bright. &#9632;

NHL Passes 11 Million For Record Third Time

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01560/4618214-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Final Attendance For NHL

<h2>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03334/4618308-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="550" height="612"></div><h2>LEADING ROOKIE SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04248/4618301-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="560" height="606"></div><h2>MOST GOALS SCORED</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-05206/4618294-1-eng-US/f0022-052.jpg" title="f0022-05" width="556" height="604"></div><h2>MOST ASSISTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-06168/4618287-1-eng-US/f0022-062.jpg" title="f0022-06" width="550" height="422"></div><h2>MOST PENALTY MINUTES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-07147/4618280-1-eng-US/f0022-072.jpg" title="f0022-07" width="552" height="170"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-08132/4618273-1-eng-US/f0022-082.jpg" title="f0022-08" width="548" height="222"></div><h2>MOST POWER PLAY GOALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-09123/4618266-1-eng-US/f0022-092.jpg" title="f0022-09" width="546" height="338"></div><h2>MOST GAME WINNERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-10112/4618259-1-eng-US/f0022-102.jpg" title="f0022-10" width="550" height="408"></div><h2>MOST SHORTHANDED GOALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-11107/4618252-1-eng-US/f0022-112.jpg" title="f0022-11" width="548" height="254"></div><h2>Team Penalties</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02424/4618245-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="550" height="794"></div> &#9632;

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Top NHL Performers

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01519/4618346-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Howard Baldwin, the spiritual and financial leader of the Whalers for the past decade, calls this season his &ldquo;most enjoyable ever.&rsquo;&rsquo;</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Howard Baldwin took a moment to reflect on the last 10 years, all of which he&rsquo;s spent as spiritual leader and boss of the Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;The thing that really got me was the implication that I was a &lsquo;dark cloud&rsquo; over this organization,&rdquo; said Baldwin, whose official title is managing general partner. &ldquo;That hurt because it simply wasn&rsquo;t true. Heck, at times, I can think to myself, if it weren&rsquo;t for me, there would be no Whalers.&rdquo;That is true enough. Baldwin, 39, was the founding father of the team, which began in 1971 with the formation of the World Hockey Association.&ldquo;Some people thought we were nuts,&rdquo; Baldwin remembers. &ldquo;And maybe we were.&rdquo;It can be argued that the WHA would never have survived for seven seasons had it not been for Baldwin, the league&rsquo;s president at the age of 35. He was the league&rsquo;s most visible executive, spurred on by strong financial backing from the Hartford business community. While other teams floundered, the Whalers flourished.&ldquo;Hartford was the ideal place for us,&rdquo; said Baldwin, who first opened shop in Boston. &ldquo;No franchise has had to endure what this one has, what with the roof collapse and all the time and money spent in hopes of one day merging with the NHL. We persevered, though. We knew what this would mean to the city someday.&rdquo;Collapsing roofs and weekly shouting matches now in the past, Baldwin&rsquo;s current job has been reduced to building the hockey organization, both on and off the ice.This year, he says, has been &ldquo;the most enjoyable ever.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve gotten as much enjoyment from this year as I have from any, including the first year when we won it all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This has been one of our hardest years. I think that we&rsquo;ve shown the patience that everybody said we didn&rsquo;t have. We&rsquo;ve grown, all of us.&rdquo;Baldwin said that the success of the first year might have turned too many heads away from the task at hand.&ldquo;It all came too easy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We never had to walk through the coals. That convinced us that we could get to where we wanted to go quickly. We made some mistakes, but this year shows that we&rsquo;ve done some good things.&rdquo;While the Whalers didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs, they showed an increased interest, with enthusiasm and competitiveness. They fought the good fight to the end, undone, in large part, by location in the Adams Division.&ldquo;I think we achieved what we wanted to achieve,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve become younger and we came close to giving 100 percent 100 percent of the time. The Binghamton situation has improved drastically. Last year at this time, we had two or three maybes there. This year, we&rsquo;ve got four or five who might help. Our scouting staff has been beefed up and we&rsquo;ve gone to computers. Attendance has held up. All these things indicate that we&rsquo;re headed up the street.&rdquo;The real turning point came last March, according to Baldwin.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it, we took a big chance,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We hired Larry Pleau to do two jobs he hadn&rsquo;t done before. We needed a total change. I&rsquo;ve never been more convinced that we were right than I am now.&rdquo;The multiple coaching changes which infest the NHL yearly bother Baldwin.&ldquo;This is and has been a general manager&rsquo;s league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How many GMs ever get fired? Changing coaches is one thing, but for a total change, which I think we needed, you have to change GMs. Look what Craig Patrick has done in New York. New blood, new ideas, progressive thinking, that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ve got here in Larry Pleau.&rdquo;What might the Whalers do during the off-season, Baldwin was asked.&ldquo;I think you can expect less moves,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We have to make a couple of right ones, that&rsquo;s the key. The draft is important, but I think it&rsquo;s just as important that some of our present players develop. We&rsquo;ve got a foundation in Greg Millen, Ron Francis, Doug Sulliman and a couple of the other younger players. We need help, don&rsquo;t get me wrong, but we&rsquo;re making progress.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02376/4618339-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="1225" height="1334"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Whalers have begun assembling a fine collection of young talent including Ron Francis, above, Doug Sulliman and Greg Millen. (Photo By Steve Babineau)</figcaption></div>The clouds, dark or otherwise, seem to be parting. &#9632;

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Baldwin: Whalers Beginning To See The Light

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01542/4618377-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">With the Leafs&rsquo; dreadful season finally over, coach Mike Nykoluk, above, along with general manager Gerry McNamara can begin to build upon the team&rsquo;s nucleus. (Photo By Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;Ah, spring! Time for playoff hockey. And what do you do if you&rsquo;re a player and your team isn&rsquo;t in the playoffs, like the Maple Leafs. You go for a holiday or you get out the golf clubs.But life isn&rsquo;t as simple for the management of the Leafs, headed by acting general manager Gerry McNamara and coach Mike Nykoluk. McNamara had the Entry Draft to prepare for and with third pick, thanks to their 19th place finish, McNamara was off to look at several junior prospects who might be counted upon to jump right into the National Hockey League and play for the Leafs immediately.McNamara, Nykoluk and most of the players got together for one last time at a Molson Cup function where Bunny Larocque and Rick Vaive were honored as the top players for the year. After that the players were disbanding and Nykoluk was headed to the Leafs&rsquo; Cincinnati farm club to watch the team, including a few junior recruits, do battle in the Central League playoffs.Before he left, Nykoluk assessed the Leafs&rsquo; sorry season.&ldquo;I guess I was most disappointed with not reaching the playoffs,&rdquo; Nykoluk explained. &ldquo;A lot of things we didn&rsquo;t expect happened and the loss of lan Turnbull, Darryl Sittler, Laurie Boschman and Wilf Paiement took away a lot of our experience from our team.&ldquo;I was very happy, though, with the way our kids on defense [Fred Boimistruck, Jim Benning, Bob McGill] played. They showed that they can play in the NHL. They just need to be stronger physically and they now have that year in the league behind them. I think Fred and Jim made good progress and while Bobby showed that he can hold his own when it comes to physical play, he&rsquo;s going to have to show improvement.&rdquo;Nykoluk also viewed the return to form of Borje Salming as another big plus for the Leafs. A year ago, Salming finished with five goals (none after November) and although he had 66 points, his defensive play left much to be desired. This season, Salming was a leader at both ends of the ice, counting 12 goals and 44 assists but bailing out his inexperienced defense partners time after time with some of his most exciting performances ever.&ldquo;Borje had just a sensational year,&rdquo; Nykoluk said, &ldquo;but with all those guys asking to be traded it just put too much pressure on the whole team. We passed Chicago there for a little while, but everything was happening so quickly that the season just seemed to catch up to us.&rdquo;When looking ahead to next year, Nykoluk mentioned the plans that had already been put into operation. &ldquo;This year we drafted for the future and I feel that the trades that Gerry made are good deals that will also help us in the future.&ldquo;Our scouts have gotten us some good kids,&rdquo; Nykoluk added. &ldquo;We have bright kids, kids of good character and that&rsquo;s going to help our team in the long run.&rdquo;Obviously, a 19th-place team needs help in a lot of areas, but goaltending is one spot where Nykoluk felt the team was in much better shape than the statistics indicated (Leafs allowed 380 goals, the most in the league).&ldquo;We only discovered late in the year that Vince Tremblay was having problems with his sinuses. We didn&rsquo;t know what it was,&rdquo; Nykoluk said. &ldquo;I figure we should get 40 good games from him next year and I feel the same goes for Bunny Larocque.Defense and center, then, were to be the major positions the Leafs would be attempting to strengthen and their first priority would be to obtain a quality player in the draft.&ldquo;Good teams have had their success by building through the draft,&rdquo; Nykoluk mentioned. &ldquo;And we intend to proceed in the same way.&rdquo;LOOSE LEAFS&mdash;Bob Manno did not stick around for the final breakup of the Leafs this season. Saying he wasn&rsquo;t sick of hockey, but only of all of the flack surrounding the team, Manno departed for Italy to play for the Italian national team in the World Championships in Finland. Manno was one of the few players singled out for criticism by Nykoluk this season, particularly one game when he coughed up the puck in his own zone to lose a game. Nykoluk indicated that with Manno&rsquo;s experience, he should have known better than to carry the puck out when he was the last man back. Manno gave the team a boost offensively, but didn&rsquo;t help out the team&rsquo;s porous defense&hellip; Two other players headed for Finland as members of Team Canada. They were captain Rick Vaive, who was one of seven players chosen for the team and Jim Benning, who took the place of Detroit&rsquo;s Willie Huber, who suffered a broken jaw in the final weekend of the schedule. &#9632;

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Leaf Brass Continues Work Getting Jump On Next Year

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;The Washington Capitals achieved a notable first by winning the season series from the Philadelphia Flyers, four games to three with one tied. As happens so often with the Capitals, however, the circumstances left little reason for celebration.The concluding game of the series was a 4-4 deadlock at Capital Centre, in which Washington held a 4-1 lead with nine minutes left. The Flyers caught up on a goal by Al Hill and two by Bobby Clarke.It was the fifth time in a stretch of seven games that the Capitals had carried a lead into the third period and failed to win. Two nights earlier, at the Spectrum, Washington also enjoyed a 4-1 advantage and barely escaped with a 4-3 triumph.During three weeks of March, when they supposedly were mounting a playoff drive, the Capitals were able to win only two games, both against the Flyers.The 4-4 tie lured only 11,150 fans to Capital Centre, adding to the disaster that has marked the Capitals&rsquo; participation in the realigned Patrick Division.Not only were the Capitals squirming in last place, when they probably ranked ahead of most of the teams in the Norris and Smythe divisions, but they also were not doing well at the gate.Philadelphia, usually a sellout visitor in previous years, lured only 12,300 per game this season in 18,130-seat Capital Centre. The only sellouts were against Montreal and Edmonton, two nondivisional foes.The collapse against Philadelphia left coach Bryan Murray both frustrated and disgusted.&ldquo;To have a three-goal lead with that time left and not win, that&rsquo;s hard to take,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;We had them put to sleep with eight minutes left and [goalie] Dave Parro gave them one to get started and they really came back. I think they were just skating around waiting for the game to end until that one.&ldquo;It becomes a real mental block, to have this happen to you several times. The guys get to be afraid of making a mistake and they don&rsquo;t make their usual plays and everything starts to break down. It has cost us dearly.&rdquo;The game featured 240 minutes in penalties, 222 during a wild second period in which five players were ejected. Randy Holt was assessed a double game misconduct after throwing linesman Paul Flaherty to the ice. Torrie Robertson also was ejected and in each case the resulting total of three game misconducts left Holt and Robertson in the stands the next night.Holt faced further disciplinary action for his assault on Flaherty and was ordered to sit out the remainder of the season with a suspension.With 44 minutes in penalties in the game, Holt surpassed Paul Mulvey&rsquo;s club record of 240 penalty minutes by 10. &#9632;

Even Capitals’ ‘Victories’ Had Hollow Ring

<div class="byline">BY FRED PIETILA</div>DENVER&mdash;Kevin Maxwell is an opportunist.If he&rsquo;s in the dressing room, he&rsquo;ll watch and listen intently&mdash;with eyes and ears open&mdash;to reporters interviewing other players.If he&rsquo;s on the ice, he doesn&rsquo;t mind goading an opponent with a verbal taunt or a physical shot just to let them know he&rsquo;s around.Maxwell&rsquo;s actions are not without motive. The 21-year-old forward of the Colorado Rockies is fighting hard to prove he can play in the National Hockey League.And he is also preparing for a future beyond hockey&mdash;in communications. The combination is somewhat intriguing&mdash;since Maxwell is intelligent and softspoken off the ice as opposed to downright antagonistic on the ice.&ldquo;When I was 16 and playing junior hockey in Canada,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;I had a back operation and was out a halfyear. The guy who broadcast our games asked me if I&rsquo;d like to come on and help him with color commentary. I did it for about 30 games and really liked it. He said I did a good job, too.&ldquo;And then when I was approached about going to North Dakota, I got into communications there and they had what was supposed to be one of the best programs in any U.S. college. Now I&rsquo;m taking 12 hours in communications at DU,&rdquo; Maxwell says.The 5-8 Maxwell is the stereotype of a small man&mdash;aggressive and chippy, traits which don&rsquo;t always set well with Rockies&rsquo; coach Marshall Johnston. He&rsquo;s the type of guy who starts something and lets his teammates finish it, quickly disappearing into the background of a group of players milling around.&ldquo;I guess it was when I was 13 or 14, I remember one fellow who said 1 was too small to play the game and I still bug him about it every time I see him. I just wanted to make it. If it&rsquo;s through that stereotype of the little guy, that&rsquo;s all right. But I guess I&rsquo;m from the old school. I don&rsquo;t like people running us around in our own rink. It gets my dander up,&rdquo; Maxwell says.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always played aggressively. Even in college and junior, I averaged about 100 minutes a year in penalties. Not that I&rsquo;m proud of that. But I&rsquo;ve got quite a temper. It causes sometimes derogatory things to happen to me. But I know that&rsquo;s what got me my job in Minnesota and I think that&rsquo;s what got me here [in the acquisition from Minnesota along with Jim Dobson], although I don&rsquo;t think Marsh likes it [chippy play] at times.&rdquo;Coming from Minnesota to the Rockies has not been a cup of tea for Maxwell&mdash;especially with all the reports of the team&rsquo;s imminent departure from Denver.&ldquo;Every day it&rsquo;s in the papers and on the news. It tends to get me down a bit. But if it affects me, it&rsquo;s got to affect the guys who are married and have kids and homes in the area,&rdquo; Maxwell reasons.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just looking forward to next year. I think I have to score 20 goals next year to prove I can play in the league,&rdquo; Maxwell says. &ldquo;In Minnesota last year, I wasn&rsquo;t really a checker. I had a regular shift and did a lot more penalty killing than I have here. Here I&rsquo;ve been used more as a defensive forward.&rdquo;Meanwhile, as the Rockies&rsquo; sixth season ended, the team&rsquo;s numbers stood at three owners, two general managers, seven coaches and 125 players in their history.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01472/4618432-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="614" height="770"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Maxwell tends to play aggressive hockey despite his 5-8, 170-pound frame.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Maxwell Communicating His Desire

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01491/4618463-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Osborne, who led the Red Wings in scoring as a rookie, was one of two Detroit players selected for Team Canada&rsquo;s World Championship squad. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>DETROIT&mdash;In a classic example of too-little, too-late, the Red Wings put together a three-game winning streak, their longest of the season.But, unlike past seasons when it could have been said that the winning process might have benefits for next season, that really wasn&rsquo;t the case. After all, with the club up for sale and a new owner probable by the time the 1982-83 National Hockey League season begins, who knows what to expect?There are certain to be front office changes (wholesale) and player changes (also likely in wholesale proportions). The only certainty is uncertainty. So, nobody was attaching any real significance to the victories&mdash;the third a 4-2 win over Winnipeg with the Red Wings posting a lopsided 43-18 shooting edge.The Jets offered an interesting contrast in the final week of the season. Here they were with a 33-31-14 record, a huge improvement from a season ago while the Wings were 21-46-12 for 54 points. With one game left, the Wings needed a fourth straight victory to equal their point total, 56, of a season ago, but they lost 3-2 to St. Louis. So while the worst team in the NHL a year ago, Winnipeg, showed remarkable progress, the Wings were stagnant.Coach Billy Dea called the victory over Winnipeg &ldquo;the best all-around effort since I&rsquo;ve taken over.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">There are certain to be front office changes and player changes&hellip; the only certainty is uncertainty.</blockquote>Vaclav Nedomansky, Mike Blaisdell, Mark Osborne and Walt McKechnie scored the goals.Gilles Gilbert, who was victimized in the latter portions of the season by the mysterious rash that has been making the rounds in the NHL, made a rare appearance and was the winning goaltender.&ldquo;The guys played well,&rdquo; Gilbert said. &ldquo;They helped me a lot. I think everybody realized what we were doing wrong and, instead of playing 40 minutes, we all played 60 minutes. I hate to say that at the end of the season. It&rsquo;s too bad we didn&rsquo;t play the same way all year. But it was a big team effort. Everyone put out.&rdquo;McKechnie, a veteran of 15 NHL seasons, scored his 200th career goal into an empty net at 19:29 of the third period.&ldquo;It went over a few sticks, I think,&rdquo; said McKechnie, who assists Dea with the Wings&rsquo; coaching chores. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got the puck. I&rsquo;ve got a nice room up in my cabin for those things. The memories of a great career. In a few years, I&rsquo;ll sit back, have a cold one and do a little reminiscing.&rdquo;But he&rsquo;s not ready to hang them up just yet. He&rsquo;s looking forward to playing another year, then perhaps to move on to coaching.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always wanted to get into coaching,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got my feet wet this year. Every day, Billy and I sit down and go over practice. We&rsquo;ve been concentrating on game condition drills. It&rsquo;s paid off. We&rsquo;ve only been blown out of one game.&ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s hindsight but if we had this opportunity a month or two ago I feel we would have made the playoffs.&rdquo;McKechnie said the hardest thing for the team to overcome during the club record 14-game losing streak was the mental depression.&ldquo;And, also, scoring some goals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We need a Dale Hawerchuk or someone like that, a take charge guy. There aren&rsquo;t too many of them around.&rdquo;WING WIRE&mdash; Danny Gare isn&rsquo;t accustomed to missing the playoffs so he&rsquo;ll have plenty of time on his hands this spring. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ll go look for a house and try to get settled in Detroit,&rdquo; the former Buffalo star said&hellip; Rookie left wing Mark Osborne and defenseman Willie Huber were among the first players selected by general manager Max McNab to join Team Canada for the 1982 World Hockey Championships in Helsinki, Finland, which begins April 15. Huber unfortunately had to be scratched when he suffered a broken jaw in Detroit&rsquo;s windup game. &#9632;

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Despite Late-Season Spurt Red Wings Remain Stagnant

MONCTON&mdash;Iron-man Mike Kas-zycki, who performed in all 80 Hawks games, waged a season long struggle to equal the all-time scoring record of George &ldquo;Red&rdquo; Sullivan, but fell just short. Sullivan collected 119 points as a member of the Hershey Bears in 1953-54 and almost 30 years later Kas-zycki seemed on the verge of bettering the long standing mark.Kaszycki inched closer and closer to the mark until with three regular season games left, the veteran had accumulated 35 goals and 80 assists for 115 points. Goal No. 36 and two more assists followed but Kaszycki came up one shy of duplicating the record.Another major record within sight of the Hawks but missed was the team record of all-time goals-against for an 80-game season. New Brunswick was within reach of Nova Scotia&rsquo;s mark of 225 goals-against which was set in the 1976-77 campaign, but yielded nine goals in their season finale to miss the record by two.On the positive side, the Hawks recorded the most wins in their history, fewest losses, most points, most goals and fewest goals against. All occurred in coach Orval Tessier&rsquo;s first year behind the bench.Bob Janecyk recorded his second shutout of the season in blanking Adirondack 2-0 at home before 6,039. Janecyk faced just 15 shots with the Hawks defense holding their foes to only five shots per period.Lou Begin rifled home three goals in a 6-4 triumph over New Haven with Bill Riley adding two goals.The Hawks finished their home schedule averaging 4,050 per game which was an average of 551 more fans per game over a year ago.MAINE&mdash; The Mariners won their first game under new interim coach Jerry Melnyk by beating Springfield 6-5. The new mentor took over the club just four games before the end of the regular season.Melnyk was a scout for the Flyers for 14 years and succeeded Bob McCammon who moved up to take over in Philadelphia. The new Mariner leader also played pro hockey for 14 years including four years in the NHL.A heart attack in training camp in 1968 ended his career in Philadelphia and he then turned to the scouting profession. He started off his scouting career very well; the first player he signed to a Flyer contract was Bobby Clarke.The takeover by Melnyk ended John Paddock&rsquo;s stint as interim coach and the Mariner veteran finished at 4-2-1 while recuperating on the bench after his recovery from a broken arm.Also returning from the injuried list was captain Dennis Patterson, who made a remarkable recovery from a broken jaw suffered March 14.The Mariners inked goalie Bill Provencher after Sam St. Laurent suffered a separated shoulder. Provencher led Mohawk Valley to the ACHL championship.Gordie Clark had the only goal in a 1-1 overtime tie with Hershey and Maine also ripped Fredericton 6-3. &#9632;

Hawk Record Pursuit Clipped

<div class="byline">BY PATRICK LYON</div>H&B Louisville HockeyHERSHEY&mdash;While New Brunswick and Binghamton, winners of the F.G. (Teddy) Oke and John Chick Trophies, respectively, as division champs, played out the final week of the schedule secure in their divisional titles, the AHL&rsquo;s stiffest battle was a fight for fourth place in the Southern Division between Hershey and Adirondack.Hershey tied New Brunswick, 3-3 on the next to last night, giving Adirondack, which had defeated Rochester, 3-0, a last glimmer of hope. But the two combatants each won oh the final night as well, Adirondack 6-5 over Binghamton and Hershey, 9-2 against New Brunswick and the Bears were able to hang onto fourth-place by a single point, 78-77.Under this year&rsquo;s set-up, the top three teams in each division qualified for the playoffs with the next two highest teams, regardless of division, taking wild card spots. That left first year franchises Erie and Fredericton, along with Springfield Indians, on the outside of post-season action. Hershey&rsquo;s finish meant that the Bears stayed in the South to open the playoffs against Binghamton, while Adirondack faced the difficult assignment of tangling with the overall champion, New Brunswick.The other Northern division playoff opener pitted second place Maine against third place Nova Scotia. The Mariners were hoping to continue their regular season success against the Vees as they posted a 4-1-1 mark.Binghamton was probably rooting against the chances of drawing Hershey as their first opponent after managing only a 5-4-1 record against the Bears. They were 5-3 against the Red Wings.The second Southern match-up showcased Rochester and New Haven with the Americans winning five of eight during the regular season.Here&rsquo;s a rundown on the closing games of the regular season.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash; As the regular season came to a close, the Voyageurs were hoping to carry on their last season mementum. They took three victories in the final week to finish at 35-35-10, thus averting a losing season, something which has happened only once in 13 years.Guy Carbonneau, the league&rsquo;s fourth-leading scorer with 94 points, had back-to-back three-point performances as the Vees turned aside Adirondack 5-4 before 5,833 in Halifax and scored a 4-2 decision over New Haven.SPRINGFIELD&mdash; The Indians were set to close out their fourth consecutive losing season while showing their lowest point total since the 57 points they finished with in 1976-77.For the past seven years the Indians have either failed to clear the first round of the playoffs or missed postseason action entirely. The last time a Springfield club made it past the first playoff round was in 1974-75 when they marched to their last Calder Cup championship.Springfield&rsquo;s problem this year was that they couldn&rsquo;t win the important games and it came to haunt them again when they lost to Hershey and were shutout by Fredericton. 4,145 fans showed up at the Springfield Civic Center to watch the Indians fall to Hershey 5-3 with their playoff hopes dealt a crushing blow. John Davidson made 32 saves for the Indians, but they failed to score in a 2-0 loss to the Ex-press.Brian Ziegler gained the Indians a 9-8 overtime win over Hershey with his shot at 2:28 which was Springfield&rsquo;s only shot of the extra period. Gary Burns had four points including two goals while Dan McCarthy and Claude Larose also chipped in two goals.Goalie Rick Strack was given the Miller 7th Award by the fans while leading scorer Claude Larose was the recipient of the Player&rsquo;s Player Award.FREDERICTON&mdash; Despite setting new league records for least wins in one season and most losses, the Fredericton fans continued to support their club right up until the end of the season while fueling hopes for next year.The Express fell to New Haven at home 5-4 before another sellout of 3,458 and also attracted another sellout in a 5-3 loss to Adirondack.Goalie Pierre Hamel recorded the first shutout in Express history when he blanked Springfield 2-0 on the road. Hamel stopped all 34 shots with Tim Tookey and Gary Dillon scoring the goals.BINGHAMTON&mdash; 4,746 fans celebrated along with the Whalers and coach Larry Kish with Binghamton claiming their first ever division championship by topping Rochester 8-2 at home. A hat trick by Mike McDougal spurred the Whalers on to the victory with Bob Sullivan chipping in two goals.It&rsquo;s been a banner season for the Whalers and Sullivan in particular with the first year player setting new marks for scoring in consecutive games and a new rookie goal scoring record. Sullivan broke the old mark of 44 with his 45th goal and eventually topped the all-time Whaler standard of 87 points set by Joe Hardy in 1977-78. Sullivan finished with 90.A 6-4 home win over the Blades stretched Binghamton&rsquo;s home ice unbeaten streak to 19 games at 17-0-2. Sullivan tied a Binghamton record with his 46th goal of the season. Paul Crowley contributed two goals to the attack.With Ken Holland still nursing an injury, rookie Dean Mills made his first pro start and kicked out 26 of 28 Rochester shots, while newly acquired Jim Stewart made 29 saves after being delivered from the Boston Bruins.ERIE&mdash; With the Blades finishing out their first season in the AHL. players were trying to look good in hopes of getting a shot with NHL clubs next season.The Blades gave out four awards in the final home game of the season with Bobby Simpson being named as the Most Popular Player with Dave Hannan getting the award as the club&rsquo;s leading scorer. Dick Redmond was voted as the Best Defenseman and Dave Barr was the winner of the Coaches Choice Award.The Blades became only the third team in AHL history to give up 400 goals as they totaled 425 to set the all-time AHL record beating out Philadelphia&rsquo;s total of 407 in 1948-49.John Bednarski and Andy Spruce had the only goals in a 7-2 home loss to Rochester while Dave Barr had a goal and two assists in a 6-4 road loss in Binghamton.HERSHEY&mdash; Wes Jarvis had a chance to break the all-time Hershey record for scoring points in consecutive games if he could score in the last three contests. And he did it to edge out the 19-game record set by Tony McKegney in 1978-79 and equaled by Tim Tookey a year ago.Jarvis collected 19 goals and 23 asists in his final 20 games to join the Hershey record book.The Bears combined with Springfield to score the five fastest goals and destroy yet another AHL standard. Jarvis started the spree at 6:55, Vic Morin hit at 7:08, Springfield&rsquo;s Claude Larose got a goal at 7:41, Errol Rausse answered that at 8:04 and Springfield&rsquo;s Gary Burns ended the streak at 8:38 to give them five lamplighters in 1:43. It broke the old mark of 1:45.ADIRONDACK&mdash; The Red Wings closed out their Maritime road swing on a winning note after dropping games in Moncton and Halifax.Five individual scorers lit up the red light in a 5-3 decision of Fredericton after the Wings suffered a 2-0 loss to New Brunswick and a 5-4 loss to the Voyageurs.Adirondack was set to close out yet another banner season at the gate as they ranked second in attendance according to league statistics. Though they were down slightly from a year ago, the Glen Falls crew attracted an average of 4,950 fans per contest.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01473/4618494-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="613" height="930"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nova Scotia&rsquo;s Guy Carbonneau had back-to-back three-point efforts in the stretch.</figcaption></div>ROCHESTER&mdash; A rash of injuries hit the Americans as the season was in its final week and second place still up for grabs between Rochester and New Haven.Goalie Tim Bernhardt was sidelined with an ankle injury, Dean Turner nursing a sore jaw and Chris Langevin a pulled muscle, Rochester also lost Kari Suoraniemi for two weeks with a knee injury.Goalie Rick Knickle went unbeaten in five straight games at 3-0-2 and leading scorer Chris Halyk had scored in 11 of 12 games.Halyk had 11 shots on net and earned three points in a 7-2 decision of Erie and the Americans also lost in Binghamton 8-2 and earned a 3-3 tie with New Brunswick.Rochester enjoyed their fourth best attendance in their history with the final count near 200,000.NEW HAVEN&mdash; Bobby Sheehan moved into fifth place on the all-time Nighthawks list for goals as his two lamplighters in a 6-4 loss to New Brunswick gave him 75 for his career in New Haven.Bud Stefanski also got into the act in assisting on Brock Tredway&rsquo;s game winning overtime goal to beat Binghamton 4-3. It was his 100th assist as a member of the Nighthawks.Steve Jensen and Warren Holmes both posted two goals and one assist in a 5-4 win in Fredericton. New Haven swept all six games from the Express this season with Gary Bromley making 37 saves. &#9632;

f0027-01

Bears Outlast Red Wings For Fourth; New Brunswick, Binghamton Cop Flags

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>H&B Louisville HockeySALT LAKE&mdash;Paul Skidmore&rsquo;s fourth shutout of the season, a 2-0 home triumph oyer Indianapolis, clinched the division title and over all first place for Jack Evans&rsquo; Golden Eagles. It didn&rsquo;t matter that the Birds traveled to Indy the next night and lost, 7-2. Earlier they had suffered their seventh straight road loss, 5-1, in Wichita, but won in Dallas, 6-5, before coming home and edging Indianapolis, 4-3 in overtime to regain first place.The final standings in the North showed Salt Lake nipping Cincinnati by one point, 97-96, while Indianapolis had 89 and Nashville 86. All four teams advanced to the playoffs, with the Eagles facing Oklahoma City, Cincinnati meeting Dallas, Indianapolis squaring off with Tulsa, and Nashville opposing Wichita in the best-of-five quarterfinals.Skidmore&rsquo;s shutout tied him with Nashville&rsquo;s Lindsay Middlebrook in that department. John Markell and Richie Hansen got the goals in the middle period. Hansen had a goal and five assists in the first week, but lost his bid for the CHL scoring championship. He tied Cincinnati&rsquo;s Reggie Thomas with 110 points, behind Bobby Francis&rsquo; 114 for Oklahoma City.Bobby Crawford registered his 53rd and 54th goals in the first home victory over Indy. He is the second 50-goal scorer in Eagle history. Joey Mullen had 59 last season. Crawford wound up seventh on the league chart with 98 points. Left wing Perry Anderson was recalled by the parent St. Louis Blues. Right wing Carey Eades from the University of North Dakota&rsquo;s NCAA champs came in for a pro trial.In Wichita Alain Lemieux spoiled Andy Moog&rsquo;s shutout late in the final period. Four goals in the third&mdash;two by Crawford and others by Scott Carlston and Lemieux&mdash;rallied the Eagles to victory in Dallas. Doug Palazzari and Lemieux had tallied earlier.Lemieux scored after two minutes of overtime for the first win over Indy at home. The Eagles trailed, 1-0 after two periods, but Crawford&rsquo;s two goals, around one by Carlston, brought a 3-1 lead which the Checkers erased. The victory was Salt Lake&rsquo;s 29th in the Salt Palace, breaking the club record set a year ago. Don Luce, veteran center released by Toronto in early March, joined the club. He and newcomer Eades had the Eagles&rsquo; only goals in the second period of the finale in Indianapolis, after the Checkers had jumped to a 5-0 lead.CINCINNATI&mdash; The Tigers won two road games in Nashville, 6-3 and 4-3, but a 7-6 loss in Indianapolis, despite Ron Zanussi&rsquo;s hat trick, cost them first place.Bruce Boudreau and Paul Marshall each scored twice in the win at Nashville, as the Tigers rallied from an early 2-0 deficit. Marshall had a shorthanded goal and one into an empty net with 21 seconds left. Ron Sedlbauer and Reggie Thomas had the others.Bill McCreary and Ernie Godden scored in the first period at Indy, but the Checkers grabbed the lead Zanussi scored a goal in the second, two more in the third, and Benoit Laporte narrowed the gap to 7-6 with 32 seconds left, after goalie Curt Ridley was lifted. In the rematch with Nashville, Thomas had two goals, including the winner, after Frank Nigro and Boudreau had scored earlier.Defenseman Brian McCafferty returned from a hip pointer layoff, but winger John Smrke was out with a bad back, and Slava Duris was expected to miss the playoffs with a lame knee. The Tigers brought in left wing Phil Drouillard from the Junior Niagara Falls Flyers.INDIANAPOLIS&mdash; A 2-2 even break in the final week enabled the Tigers to clinch third place on the last day of the regular schedule. They beat Cincinnati at home, 7-6, lost two games in Salt Lake (4-3 in overtime and 2-0), but rebounded at home to trim the Eagles, 7-2.Kelly Hrudey, who played the overtime loss and the final victory, wound up as the CHL&rsquo;s stingiest goalkeeper with a 2.95 average, beating out Wichita&rsquo;s Andy Moog (2.98). Steve Stoyanovich wound up with 42 goals and Charlie Skjodt with 40 to give the club three 40-goal scorers, a league record. Red Laurence was already over that figure, and finished with 49.Against Cincinnati, Garth Mac-Guigan, Frank Beaton and Stoy-anovich put the Checkers in charge in the first period. Mike Hornby, Bruce Affleck and Skjodt scored in the second, and Neil Hawryliw&rsquo;s goal early in the third proved the winner. After Kevin Devine scored in the second period at Salt Lake, Hawryliw and Skjodt rallied Indy to a tie, only to see the Eagles win in overtime.They couldn&rsquo;t score at all against Salt Lake&rsquo;s Paul Skidmore, but got four in the first period of the rematch at home (Stoyanovich, Darcy Regier, MacGuigan shorthanded, and Mats Hallin). Hordy, Stoyanovich and Davie completed the scoring.NASHVILLE&mdash;The South Stars won twice in Fort Worth (6-4 and 5-3),. but bowed twice at home to Cincinnati (6-5 and 4-3). Center Ron Friest and defender Murray Brumwell were recalled by the parent Minnesota North Stars, who returned blue-liner Daniel Poulin. Forward Steve Carlson was doubtful for the playoffs, with a severely bruised ankle.Archie Henderson, with 320 penalty-minutes, had no challengers as the league&rsquo;s &ldquo;bad boy&rdquo;. Cincy&rsquo;s Frank Beaton was runnerup with 270.Mike Antonovich led the Nashville scoring with 106 points, fourth in the league. Mike and Rob Flockhart staked the South Stars to a quick 2-0 lead in the first joust with Cincinnati, but the Tigers scored the next five goals. Roger Molin wound up the Nashville scoring. Goalie Robbie Moore was hit in the mouth by a slap shot during warmups, and rookie Mike Sands took his place.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01465/4618549-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="610" height="798"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Markell scored the only goal netminder Paul Skidmore would need in Salt Lake&rsquo;s 2-0 win.</figcaption></div>Lindsay Middlebrook came back from a long injury layoff to work in the nets both nights in Fort Worth. Steve Carlson, Molin and Antonovich scored in the third period to break open a 3-3 game. Bob Bergloff, Robbie Laird and Bob Suter had scored earlier. A four-goal second period won the rematch, as Flockhart scored twice, along with Carlson and Friest. Molin had two goals, Poulin one in the finals with Cincinnati. &#9632;

f0028-01

Salt Lake Nips Cincinnati For Division Title

WICHITA&mdash;Mike Toal, 23-year-old center from Red Deer, Alta., hadn&rsquo;t even suited up for a game for a month, as the Wind had a surplus of players. Mike got his chance to play in the last game of the regular season, and scored all the Wichita goals in a 4-4 home tie with Dallas. The Wind was unbeaten in its last seven games of the schedule, and went 11-1-1 to nail down first place in the South.Andy Moog and Gord Garbutt collaborated in beating Salt Lake, 5-1 (Garbutt played the last eight minutes, after Moog twisted an ankle). Garby worked the 6-5 rallying victory in Oklahoma City that clinched first place. Moog came back for a romp over Dallas and the final 4-4 tie against the same foe.Lance Nethery had two second-period goal against Salt Lake and Doug Berry made it 3-0. Ken Berry and Peter Sullivan scored in the third. In Oklahoma City, the Wind trailed, 5-2, in the middle period before tying it on Berry&rsquo;s second goal and others by Peter Driscoll and Peter Sullivan. Nethery and Jackson scored in the third.In the meaningless game with Dallas, Roy Sommer broke a bone in his hand and Nethery and Driscoll came up with knee injuries. Nethery had two goals in that game, as did Rick Blight and Sullivan while Ray Cote, Blair Barnes and Brad Knelson also scored. Toal scored in the first period of the rematch, then put the Wind ahead 3-2 with two goals in the third, but had to score again with four minutes left in regulation to tie it up.TULSA&mdash;Losses in Forth Worth (5-4) and Dallas (7-5) eliminated the Oilers from the first-place battle, after they had routed Fort Worth at home, 7-1. But they finished the schedule with a 9-4 runaway in Oklahoma City, scoring five goals in a little more than four minutes.Winger Ben Gosselin was lost with a knee injury and defenseman Don Maclver was plagued with a back problem&mdash;two premature comebacks had aggravated the injury. Kris Manery scored his 54th goal to break a club record that had stood since 1963-64 (by Tom McCarthy).In the home victory Markus Mattsson blanked the Texans until nine minutes into the last period. Dave Chartier, Greg Kostenko, Doug Lecuyer and John Bethel (shorthanded) had put the Oilers in charge. Danny Geoffrion and Maclver scored in the second, Sandy Beadle in the third, before Peter Gustavsson spoiled the shutout. In Fort Worth the next night, Rick Bowness, LeCuyer and Bethel had provided a 3-1 lead early in the middle period, but the Texans came back to win. Manery scored in the last period, but the Oilers couldn&rsquo;t catch up.A 3-2 lead midway of the second period didn&rsquo;t hold up in Dallas. The Oilers got power play tallies in the second period&mdash;Manery&rsquo;s early and Greg Kostenko late.After Mark Plantery&rsquo;s opening goal had been answered in OC, Geoffrion, Chartier, Tom Gibson, Murray Eaves and Glenn Hicks scored in a span of 4:01 to settle the issue. Geoffrion scored again, along with Lecuyer and Bethel in the third.DALLAS&mdash;Kelly Kisio scored seven goals in the busy five-game week that closed out the Black Hawks&rsquo; schedule. His 62 goals clinched his league title in that respect, and his 102 points broke the club record of 98 by Rick Blight a year ago.The Hawks bowed in Oklahoma City (8-6) and at home to Salt Lake (6-5), at home (7-5), lost in Wichita (same score) and finally played a 4-4 tie in Kansas.Kisio scored twice in OC, as did Rob Tudor, with newcomer Andy Schliebener and Art Rutland getting the others. Rutland had two goals against Salt Lake, with Kisio, Drew Callander and Tudor getting one each. It was Kisio&rsquo;s two goals at the start of the third period that turned the game around against Tulsa. Jim MacRae and Bill Hogaboam also had two goals each, and Tudor had a single.Kisio had two more goals (one shorthanded) in the first game at Wichita, where Rutland also scored.OKLAHOMA CITY&mdash; What could be the Stars&rsquo; last season in the CHL (unless a reorganization can solve the financial woes) ended with a disheartening 6-5 overtime loss at home to Fort Worth. In earlier home games the Stars had beaten Dallas (8-6), but lost to Wichita 7-6 and Tulsa 9-4.Bobby Francis had four goals and five assists for the week to win the league scoring title with 114 points, four more than Reggie Thomas for Cincy and Richie Hansen for Salt Lake. With 48 goals he broke the league&rsquo;s rookie record set by Ray Cullen in 1963-64, and his 114 topped Cullen&rsquo;s rookie record of 98.Five goals in the middle period, two by Dave Hindmarch, rallied the Stars to victory over Dallas. Dave DeBol, Tim Harrer and Francis also scored in that barrage.FORT WORTH&mdash; As the only CHL club to miss the playoffs, the Texans closed up shop, perhaps for good. Their last week of action saw a 7-1 loss in Tulsa, a 5-4 win in a home rematch, 6-4 and 5-3 home losses to Nashville and a final 6-5 overtime win in Oklahoma City, featured by Bobby Crawford&rsquo;s hat trick. &#9632;

Wind’s Toal Saved Best Effort For Last Game

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>H&B Louisville HockeyMUSKEGON&mdash;It was definitely the biggest game of the season for the Mohawks. Their last home game of the 1981-82 season. It may also have been the last game ever in Muskegon.Troubled financially, Muskegon&rsquo;s battle for the final IHL playoff position could have been looked upon as a battle of survival as well. A strong playoff showing may have provided the fuel for a financial transfusion. New money, like new blood, might have kept the Muskegon franchise alive.But, significantly, the Muskegon home final reflected the financial ledger. The spirit was willing; the flesh too weak. Milwaukee spoiled the finale, 7-5, and just may also have signed the franchise&rsquo;s death certificate as well.&ldquo;What the heck can you do?&rdquo; asked Muskegon manager/coach Gerry Moore. &ldquo;You play your hearts out and the puck doesn&rsquo;t go in.&rdquo;That pretty much sums up the game. Muskegon outshot Milwaukee two-to-one but came up short on the scoreboard. A two-goal Milwaukee second period was the difference. Muskegon broke even in the other two periods, skating to a 3-3 tie after one and matching Milwaukee&rsquo;s two goals in the final period.Muskegon&rsquo;s chances of making the six-team playoff field were slim at best prior to the faceoff. But the loss sounded the death knell. The Mohawks closed out the season with four road games and following a winless week, they trailed sixth-place Flint by 10 points.Toledo had opened the coffin when the Diggers whipped the Mohawks 5-2, also at home. After the heart-breaking loss to Milwaukee, Muskegon dropped two straight on the road, a 12-1 blitz in Toledo and an 11-4 romp in Saginaw, then finished off the year with a 5-5 tie in Flint preceding two more losses.While Muskegon may have been fading into history, Toledo was preparing to add to its history-making season. The Diggers, a last-place finisher a year ago, were tuning up for the playoffs in impressive fashion. Toledo skated at a 3-2-0 pace during the week to boost their league-leading point total to 107. Toledo will fall short of the record 114 points but the Diggers certainly will go down in IHL history for making the biggest turnaround.The week&rsquo;s result could have sounded an ominous note, however. It closed with an 11-6 loss at Flint. The Generals and Ted Garvin will be Toledo&rsquo;s first-round playoff opponent. And for Garvin, that&rsquo;s when the season starts.Prior to the loss at Flint, Toledo won at Muskegon, 5-2; lost at Saginaw, 8-5; and swept to a pair of easy home wins, 12-1 over Muskegon and 9-1 over Saginaw.MILWAUKEE&mdash; The Admirals, fighting to stay in second place, enhanced that position by splitting a pair of road games. The Admirals won at Muskegon, 7-5, to help balance a 5-2 loss in Kalamazoo, the team chasing them for the runner-up position. A 6-3 loss at home to Saginaw hurt but the Admirals made it up by beating Kalamazoo at home, 5-3, thereby gaining a split in the critical home-and-home series.KALAMAZOO&mdash; The K-Wings broke even by winning a pair of home games before hitting the road where they lost twice. The home wins came over Flint, 8-5, and Milwaukee, 5-2. The losses were at Fort Wayne, 4-2, and in Mil-waukee, 5-3.FORT WAYNE&mdash; The Komets continue to be one of the hottest clubs in the league as the playoffs approach. Fort Wayne had won eight of its last 13 games, including four on the road. They skated an even.500 for the week, losing at Flint, 5-3, and beating Kalamazoo at home, 4-2. The win over Kalamazoo left the Komets just two points out of fourth place. Saginaw, currently in fourth, had just one game left to play while the Komets had three. Two of them, at home.SAGINAW&mdash; The Gears managed to keep abreast of Fort Wayne with a 3-2-0 week. One of the victories was a key road win, in Milwaukee by a 6-3 score. The Gears also beat Toledo at home, 8-5, and Muskegon at home, 11-4. The two losses were on the road, at Flint, 9-4, and at Toledo, 9-1.FLINT&mdash; The Generals assured themselves of a seat in the playoffs by winning three of four during the week. The lone loss was an 8-5 verdict in Kalamazoo. The significant win was the 11-6 bombing of Toledo. It should build playoff confidence.Also, the Generals defeated Fort Wayne, 5-3 and Saginaw, 9-4.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01402/4618604-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="596" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gerry Moore&rsquo;s Muskegon skaters just didn&rsquo;t have enough to make the last playoff spot.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

Muskegon Supporters Left To Wonder: Have Mohawks Played Their Last One?

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02291/4618635-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="600" height="744"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Jarrett of the K-Wings finished with 124 points to capture the scoring title.</figcaption></div>KALAMAZOO&mdash;Brent Jarrett of the Kalamazoo K-Wings, who has a chance to capture the International Hockey League&rsquo;s rookie award this season, has won the league&rsquo;s individual scoring title for the 1981-82 season.Jarrett wound up the regular schedule with 124 scoring points, four more than Scott Howson of Toledo, another player who is bidding for IHL freshman honors.Goal scoring honors went to Barry Scully of Fort Wayne, who shot 60 goals in 79 games. J. P. Dubois of Saginaw was No. 2 sniper with 57 and Howson ended up third with 55. Scully scored 15 powerplay goals to top the league.Jarrett also led the IHL in playmaking as he collected 83 assists in addition to his 41 goals in 79 games. Francois Lecomte of Saginaw was second to Jarrett in assists with 74. To climax his brilliant season, young Jarrett also led the IHL in shorthanded goals with nine, and tied for the lead in game winners and unassisted goals.A total of 12 players went over the 100-point mark in the IHL this season, the most ever in the league&rsquo;s history. Others who made it as well as Jarrett and Howson were Gord Brooks of Saginaw, 113, Fred Berry of Milwaukee, 112, Bill Joyce of Toledo, 112, Dubois, 110, Lecomte, 108, Dirk Graham of Toledo, 105, Kevin Reeves of Muskegon, 103, Marcel Comeau of Saginaw and Toledo&rsquo;s Gord MacFarlane, each with 102, and Scully with 100.Derek Davis, a defenseman with Muskegon, led the IHL in penalty minutes with 425. &#9632;

f0029-02

Rookie Jarrett Wins IHL Scoring Crown

<div class="byline">BY BILL HIGDON</div>H&B Louisville HockeyUTICA&mdash;Three players from the champion Mohawk Valley Stars, two from the Baltimore Skipjacks and one from the Salem Raiders, who won the regular season crown, comprise the first annual Atlantic Coast Hockey League All Star team.The Stars are represented on the first All Star unit by their popular stand-up goalie, Bill Provencher, and by the defensive pair of Marc Maro-hand and team captain Dick Popiel.Baltimore, which finished third in the league race and bowed to Mohawk, Valley in the playoff semifinals which lasted the seven-game limit, advanced center Gary Conn and winger Peter Almasy to the All Star lineup.Dave MacQueen, the other first-team wing, led the league in goals scored (43) and points (73) although he played only 36 games under the ACHL banner. MacQueen had a brief midseason tryout in Dallas in the Central League.Three members of the first team, Provencher, Conn and Almasy, are rookies.Provencher is highly recommended by the Philadelphia Flyers. He came to the Flyers out of Bowdoin College&rsquo;s fine hockey program. His series of brilliant stints against Salem in season and in playoffs caught the attention of the four league coaches who selected the All Star team.Almasy improved by leaps and bounds, and ended up with 55 points, third best in the ACHL.Conn began the season wearing a Fitchburg Trappers uniform and was the Trappers scoring leader. Baltimore coach Moose Lallo wisely claimed Conn in the dispersal draft when Fitchburg bowed out with financial difficulties.Conn scored seven goals against the Stars in Baltimore&rsquo;s stout playoff effort. He is a graduate of the University of Maine hockey battles, attaining All-American status while there.Marchand spent about a month of the season playing for the Maine Mariners, where he also suffered an injury, yet he led all ACHL defen-seman in the goals scored (22) and he was a standout during both playoff series.Popiel was one of coach Bill Horton&rsquo;s first players to be protected at the league&rsquo;s pre-season draft of former Eastern Hockey League talent. &ldquo;Dick deserved the best,&rdquo; praised Horton, who was also coach Popiel during Syracuse&rsquo;s brief, aborted fling in the EHL in the fall of 1980. &ldquo;Dick was a big asset, especially to our young players. He knew what to say to them, and he also was a leader by example on the ice.&rdquo;Gilles Moffet, who posted the lowest goals-against average (2.99) during the season and in playoffs (2.76), heads the second All Star unit, which includes defensemen Den Pederson of Winston-Salem and Greg McPhee, Salem. The center is Salem&rsquo;s Tom Mullen, a 55-point scorer (tied with Almasy), and the wings were Ron Clavette, Winston-Salem, and Rick Suwek, Mohawk Valley.The participating coaches, Horton, Pat Kelly of Salem, Rick Dudley of Winston-Salem and Lallo, were instructed not to select players from their clubs. The result: 29 players received votes.Jack Timmins, ACHL executive director, said the coaches and mem-bers of media who regularly cover league games, will be invited to select the league&rsquo;s Coach of the Year.Owners and general managers will meet in June in Montreal to finalize plans for the 1982-83 season. At their recent spring meeting in Philadelphia, expansion plans were discussed. Cities wishing to join the league next season will be expected to make their financial commitments to coincide with the Montreal session, Timmins said, &ldquo;so we can get about the business of locking up arena dates and drafting a schedule. &#9632;

Champs Send Three To ACHL’s All Star Squad

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BROPHY</div>H&B Louisville HockeyOTTAWA&mdash;Bumper sticker soon to be made available to the Toronto Marl-boros&rsquo; fans: Who is Don McLaren and where did he come from?The Marlies might also be asking themselves why the heck they didn&rsquo;t grab McLaren, one of the best kept secrets this season, when they had the chance.McLaren, obtained by the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s at the trade deadline on waivers from the Kitchener Rangers has blossomed into one of the 67&rsquo;s top scorers. In leading the 67&rsquo;s to an 8-2 win in their eight-point series over Toronto, McLaren scored seven goals and added five assists.As if the Marlies didn&rsquo;t already have enough to worry about trying to stop Ottawa&rsquo;s two top gunners, Jeff Vaive and Moe Lemay, their linemate McLaren came out of nowhere to steal the show.McLaren scored two goals and an assist in game four leading his team to a 6-3 win. After the five game series concluded, McLaren found himself the top goal scorer on the Ottawa squad with seven and was tied with Lemay for second in team scoring with 12 points. Only Vaive, with five goals and eight assists, had more.McLaren&rsquo;s scoring exploits don&rsquo;t come as much of a surprise to those who watched him steadily improve after joining the 67&rsquo;s. But to most others who only had eyes for Vaive and Lemay, they were saying Don Who?McLaren, who isn&rsquo;t even listed in the OHL guide for 1982, had six goals and nine assists when he joined the 67&rsquo;s. He finished with 22 goals and 25 assists.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t join the big line right off the bat,&rdquo; said Ottawa coach Brian Kilrea. &ldquo;It took a couple of weeks but when he did join it, he never moved off it. He added a new dimension with his scoring ability. He can shoot and score goals and he can also move the puck out of zone well. When he hits Moe or Jeff with a pass in our zone, he is quick enough to get back into the play.&rdquo;Moving McLaren to the big line with Vaive and Lemay freed veteran Fraser Wood to join Larry Power and John Ollson on the second line.&ldquo;When Fraser joined that line, they really took off,&rdquo; said Kilrea. &ldquo;He played his best hockey of the year on that line.&rdquo;Most regular season observers expected Toronto to give the 67&rsquo;s more of a battle in their divisional semifinal. Somehow (maybe it&rsquo;s because they&rsquo;re so close to the Maple Leafs) they ran out of gas.Kilrea then had to ready his troops for a tough eight-point series with the Oshawa Generals, who disposed of the Peterborough Petes in five games.The Generals, who depend as much on hype as they do on talent, lost the series opener to Peterborough but came back with four straight wins.Oshawa played a physical, often intimidating style against the Petes, many times making Peterborough goalies the target of their body checks. In the final game of the series, Oshawa scoring whiz Tony Tanti demonstrated he is not yet ready to turn his full attention to scoring goals and leave the chippy play to his teammates when he dumped Petes&rsquo; goalie Mark Evans and skated away quickly with the referee not looking.Oshawa coach Paul Theriault said he doesn&rsquo;t instruct his team to hit opposing goalies and added that &ldquo;there would be war&rdquo; if an opposing player hit the Generals&rsquo; netminder.Kilrea expected a rough series with the Generals but hope it doesn&rsquo;t get out of hand.&ldquo;I would hope they don&rsquo;t hit our goalie but if they do, the referee should be calling it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If they do run our goalie and the referee doesn&rsquo;t call it, certainly we&rsquo;d have to protect him.&rdquo;Kilrea noted that goalie Jim Ralph had played in all five Ottawa games and &ldquo;he got better every time out.&rdquo;In Ottawa&rsquo;s final 6-2 win over Toronto, Larry Power was the top 67&rsquo;s shooter with two goals and an assist. Steve Thomas scored both Dukes&rsquo; goals.Many hats were tipped in the direction of Brantford Alexanders who took the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds to seven games before finally bowing out 8-6 in their eight-point series. Hugh Larkin&rsquo;s second period goal gave the Soo a 3-2 win in game seven. Len Hachborn, who finished the playoffs with 15 goals and nine assists in 11 games, scored both Brantford goals.In the opening game of the Emms division finals between the powerful Kitchener Rangers and Soo Greyhounds, Jeff Larmer and Brian Bellows scored two goals each to lift the Rangers to a 6-2 victory. And perhaps the Greyhounds were still feeling the effects of their rugged semifinal when they dropped a 6-1 decision in the second match.The Rangers, defending OHL champions, had not lost in six playoff games, sweeping Windsor in four games, outscoring them 22-8. Larmer&rsquo;s two goals gave him nine in five games.Steve Graves and Terry Tait scored for the Soo.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01452/4618728-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="608" height="912"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Ralph is expected to carry Ottawa&rsquo;s goaltending load in the Leyden finals.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02344/4618721-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="605" height="974"><figcaption class="caption-body">Captain Moe Lemay collected 12 points in the opening series for the 67s.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

Man From Nowhere Scuttled Marlies; Kitchener Builds Playoff Momentum

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03239/4618759-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0030-03

OHL All Star Teams

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div>H&B Louisville HockeyVICTORIA&mdash;Jim Hartshorne and Fraser McColl, majority owners of the Cougars, stunned the Western Hockey League when they announced the firing of coach and general manager Jack Schupe two games into the playoffs.David Andrews, who served as Shupe&rsquo;s assistant last winter, took over on an interim basis.It didn&rsquo;t help, though, as the Cougars&mdash;the WHL&rsquo;s defending champions&mdash;bowed out of the playoffs in four games.Shupe, who has a 25 percent interest in the club, finished the 1981-82 regular season with career WHL coaching totals of 397 wins, 303 losses and 72 ties, for a winning percentage of 561.The firing came after the Cougars&mdash;playing on home ice lost the first two games of a Western Division semifinal to the upstart Seattle Breakers. The boom was promptly lowered on Shupe.It all began when Seattle coach Jack Sangster, whose Breakers finished third during the regular season, said before the series started that he wouldn&rsquo;t be at all surprised if his club swept the second-place Cougars.Seattle promptly did just that.The Breakers went into Victoria and won the opener 3-2 on Kenzo Berra&rsquo;s goal at 12:23 of the third period. Seattle had a 2-0 lead on goals by Alan Kerr and Mitch Wilson, but the Cougars tied it as Rich Chernomaz and Paul Cyr found the range.The very next night, the Breakers went up 2-0 with a 7-3 victory. Victoria led 3-2 only to have Seattle score the game&rsquo;s last five goals, including three in a span of 78 seconds. Wayne Prestage led the Breakers with two goals and three helpers, while Pat Smith also scored twice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01420/4618797-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="596" height="773"><figcaption class="caption-body">Victoria sacked Jack Shupe and his.561 winning percentage after two home losses.</figcaption></div>The Cougars were without defenseman Jerry Heikkila, who suffered a badly-cut tendon in one hand during a mishap at home, and forward Daryl Coldwell, who suffered a neck injury in the series opener.The coaching change didn&rsquo;t help a whole lot, as the Cougars fell three games behind by losing 6-4 in Seattle.The Breakers led 2-0 after one period, 3-0 after two and 4-0 early in the third, before the Cougars caught fire and cut the deficit to 4-3 midway in the third. But, Seattle responded to the challenge and hung on for the win.Seattle wrapped it up with a 3-1 win at home, as 3,021 fans chanted &ldquo;We want Portland.&rdquo;&ldquo;Nobody believed it but us,&rdquo; said Sangster. &ldquo;All the experts picked Victoria in six, but we had better goaltending and we wanted it more than they did.&rdquo;After a scoreless first period, Victoria took a 1-0 lead as Stu Kulak scored. The Breakers tied it on a goal by Ken Picocelli, then won it as Marc Leclair scored on a power play and Terry Sargent struck for a shorthanded marker.Portland Winter Hawks vs Kamloops Oilers: The other Western Division semifinal opened in Kamloops, with Perry Pelensky when the ice was available in Portland scoring twice and Brian Shaw getting the winner as the pennant-winning Winter Hawks rolled to a 4-1 win over the fourth-place Oilers. One night later the score was exactly the same and Portland headed home with a 2-0 edge in games. Shaw then scored three times and set up another as the Winter Hawks won 8-3 at home. &ldquo;We really took it to them with our checking right from the start,&rdquo; said Shaw. &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t begin to show until the second period, when our body work opened things up quite a bit.&rdquo; The Winter Hawks then made it a clean sweep, downing Kamloops 5-3 in game four.<h2>EASTERN DIVISION</h2>Lethbridge Broncos vs Billings Bighorns: Opening the series at home, the Eastern Division&rsquo;s pennantwinning Broncos fired 60 shots at Bighorns&rsquo; goaltender Brian Ford but needed a third-period goal from Marc Magnan for a 4-3 victory over sixth-place Billings. Ford came up with another superb effort in the second game, also in Lethbridge, kicking out 43 shots as the Bighorns emerged with a 3-2 win. Neil McNeil got the winner, with just 32 seconds left in the third period. Mark Lamb accounted for Billings&rsquo; other two goals. The Broncos took a 2-1 lead in games by scoring three unanswered third-period goals and winning 6-3 in Billings. Rich Sutter scored twice for Lethbridge, which led 3-1 after one period before the Bighorns tied it at 3-3 in the second. Lethbridge then went up 3-1 by scoring five unanswered goals and posting an 8-4 win in Billings. The Bighorns led 2-0 early, thanks to two goals by Lamb, but just couldn&rsquo;t put it away. According to Lethbridge coach John Chapman, his club&rsquo;s physical play was making the difference. &ldquo;We played a lot more physical and it&rsquo;s starting to tell.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02299/4618790-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="598" height="781"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Ford was spectacular in the Billings&rsquo; nets but eventually succumbed to Lethbridge.</figcaption></div>Regina Pats vs Brandon Wheat Kings: Rookie center Dale Derkatch set a WHL playoff record in the opening game, as he assisted on seven goals in a 13-6 Pats&rsquo; win in Regina. The Pats tied a record for most goals in one game by one team. Jeff Crawford added four goals and two assists, while Brent Pascal added two goals and five helpers. WHL scoring champ Jock Callander chipped in with two goals and three assists, while Marc Centrone also scored twice. Tom McMurchy had three goals for Brandon. The series switched to Brandon and the Pats went up 3-0 with 9-5 and 10-3 victories. Pascal had two goals in the 9-5 win, while Dave Michayluk scored three in the 10-3 win. Regina lost two defensemen&mdash;Gary Leeman and Bruce Holloway&mdash;in Game No. 2. Leeman, a fine 17-year-old rookie suffered a broken jaw, while Holloway, a 19-year-old who has signed with the National League&rsquo;s Vancouver Canucks, suffered a broken left ankle. The series returned to Regina and the Pats wrapped it up with a 12-3 win, as Callander and Centrone scored two goals each. Derkatch ended up as the series&rsquo; top point-getter, with 16, including 13 assists, while McMurchy was tops in goals, with seven.Saskatoon Blades vs Calgary Wranglers: The Blades struck for three power play goals on four chances to win the first game, 5-2 in Saskatoon. Center Bruce Eakin had a goal and two assists for Saskatoon. The Wranglers evened the series the next night, scoring the first five goals and then hanging on for a 7-5 win. Dan Bourbonnais led the winners with two goals. The series moved to Calgary and Wranglers won 4-3 as Ken Grant scored the winning goal at 14:18 of the third period. Rob Semchuk had two goals for Calgary, while Eakin scored twice for the Blades. The Wranglers really took command, winning the fourth game 6-3 as Grant added two more goals. Calgary goaltender Mike Vernon was superb, kicking out 35 shots. Calgary, which finished fourth during the regular season, eliminated the third-place Blades, winning 7-1 in Saskatoon. &ldquo;We played almost perfect in this series,&rdquo; said Calgary coach Doug Sauter, whose club scored five power play goals in the last game. &ldquo;No part of our game broke down and we just kept on getting better as the series progressed. Blades&rsquo; coach Daryl Lubiniecki thought the difference was Calgary goaltender Mike Vernon. &ldquo;The Wranglers got solid goaltending from Mike Vernon and we didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0031-01

Cougars Banish Shupe Before Playoff Ouster

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>H&B Louisville HockeyLAVAL&mdash;With a berth in the semifinals guaranteed, the Voisins completed the final week of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League&rsquo;s double round-robin quarterfinal not with a bang&hellip; not even with a whimper&hellip; but with a resounding THUD.After defeating the Montreal Juniors 5-3 for its 10th win in 11 games, Laval dropped three consecutive games, being outscored 35-7 in the process.The Voisins lost 6-4 to the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs&mdash;Laval&rsquo;s only loss in seven home games&mdash;then went on the road, only to be thrashed 11-2 by the Sherbrooke Beavers and an incredible 18-1 by the Shawinigan Cataracts.Although Laval finished atop the round-robin standings with a 10-4 record for 20 points, it nonetheless lost four of its final seven games and completed play with 71 goals against&mdash;second-worst.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01430/4618835-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="600" height="740"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean Bourgeois scored for Chicoutimi in a losing effort, but they advanced to the final four.</figcaption></div>Heading into its best-of-seven semifinal against the Beavers, which began April 11 at Sherbrooke, Laval has taken the form of the stubblebum misfits in the days when it was coached by owner Claude Fournel. Fournel finally brought in Roger Picard, who had the team playing near the.500 level.But momentum is the one intangible that cannot be turned on and off like a faucet. While the Voisins did defeat Sherbrooke 6-5 in its second game of the round-robin, Laval must be regarded as a heavy underdog heading into the next round.In the other semifinal, which also commenced April 11, the Chicoutimi Sagueneens traveled to Trois-Rivieres. The two teams split in the round-robin with both winning at home: Chicoutimi 9-5 and Trois-Rivieres 5-3. This should be a close series, with the Draveurs gaining a slim edge due to home ice advantage.Against the Juniors, Laval was led by Bruno Troini&rsquo;s two goals. Sylvain Beauchamp, Dominic Dube and Claude Vilgrain added singles. Montreal was paced by Tony Fiore&rsquo;s two goals. Francois Tremblay added a single.Four unanswered first period scores immediately put the Voisins behind the eight ball against Trois-Rivieres. Although Laval tied the game by the midway point in the third period, the Draveurs scored twice in the game&rsquo;s final four minutes to clinch the win.Trois-Rivieres&rsquo; scoring was divided among Patrick Emond, Claude Verret, Pierre Sevigny, Remi Gagne, Mario Paradis and Christian Tanguay. Daniel Crassoski had two for Laval, with singles from Vilgrain and JeanMarc Lanthier.Then came trouble.While Laval and Sherbrooke were tied 1-1 in the first, the Voisins wound up trailing 6-1 before scoring again.Daniel Campeau scored three goals and Luc Bachand two. Mike Fafard, Sean McKenna, Rene Brulotte, Mario Dore, Alain Gilbert and Gord Donnelly added singles. Denis Groulx and Martin Guay faced 47 shots. Daniel Roy and Lanthier scored for Laval.And Guay was the sacrificial lamb against Shawinigan with 69 shots. Laval, in turn, had only 11 shots.The Voisins scored their lone goal in the first period while trailing 3-0, then watched helplessly as the Cats scored 15 consecutive times.Those with weak stomachs should not read the upcoming list of names:Pierre Rioux led with five goals. Sylvain Charland had three, while Alain Richard, Alain Lavigne and Marcel Giguere had two each. Tom Karalis, Guy Fournier, Yves Lapointe and Richard Turmel each scored singles. Jean-Jacques Daig-neault scored for Laval.Sherbrooke and Chicoutimi tied for second place, both with 9-5 records, behind Laval in the round-robin standings. They were followed by Trois-Rivieres, 8-6; Hull and Shawinigan, both 7-7; Montreal, 5-9; and Granby, 1-13.Both Hull and Montreal&mdash;second and third respectively during the regular season&mdash;were expected to advance. The Olympics at least played.500 hockey and scored 79 goals&mdash;tied for the lead with Sherbrooke&mdash;while.leading the teams with only 52 goals against.But Montreal proved to be the major disappointment, playing like most thought they would during the season. While performing respectably on defense, allowing 61 goals, Montreal&rsquo;s anemic offense never got untracked, scoring only 46 goals in 14 games.The Juniors also ran into difficulties at the Verdun Auditorium&mdash;their new home&mdash;winning only three of seven games.Here&rsquo;s a brief recap of other games.Sherbrooke 6 Shawinigan 3&mdash;The Beavers overcame a 3-2 disadvantage, scoring three unanswered goals in the third period. Gerard Gallant led the winners with three goals, while McKenna added a pair. Campeau completed the scoring. Lavigne, Turmel and Frank Pajonkowski scored for Shawinigan.Chicoutimi 3 Hull 0&mdash;After a scoreless first period, Richard Ver-nette and Denis Dore scored in the second, with Eric Bernier adding a score in the third. Daniel Turgeon blocked 40 shots for the shutout.Trois-Rivieres 10 Granby 2&mdash;The Draveurs got rolling with four unanswered first period goals. Tanguay, Normand Lefrancois and Claude Drouin each scored two goals. Singles came from Verret, Claude Gosselin, Jean-Guy Charbonneau and Michel Tremblay. Claude and Rene Labbe replied for Granby. Mario Belanger and Claude Kirouac, as has become their custom, were bombed with 57 shots.Sherbrooke 7 Chicoutimi 4&mdash;The Beavers had a 5-2 lead early in the third, watched the Sags score two straight only to see Campeau, with his second and third goals of the game, seal the victory. Gilbert, Donnelly, Michel Lanouette and Alain Menard completed the scoring. Luc Dufour scored a pair for the Sags. Paul Gagne and Luc Girard added singles.Shawinigan 4 Hull 2&mdash;Rioux led the winners with a hat trick. Lapointe added a single. Maurice Roy and Benoit Doucet replied for the Olympics.Granby 6 Montreal 4&mdash;Santino Pellegrino, with four goals, led the Bisons to their first win of the tournament against the pathetic Juniors. The Labbe boys added singles, Gaetan Malo, Marc Chamard and Kari Kanervo with two scored for Montreal, which finally scored more than three goals&mdash;not that it mattered.Shawinigan 5 Montreal 4&mdash;The Cataracts scored five unanswered second period goals for the win. Fournier, Richard Bourque, Giguere, Lapointe and Rioux had the goals, while Stephane Lessard had two for Montreal with singles from Taras Zytynsky and Michel Doyon.Trois-Rivieres 5 Chicoutimi 3&mdash;Four goals in the second period led the Draveurs to this win. Drouin, Patrice Masse, Sevigny, Tanguay and Mario Carpentier shared the scoring. Jean Bourgeois, Roberto Lavoie and Gagne scored for Chicoutimi.Hull 15 Granby 3&mdash;Although not advancing to the next round, the Olympics nonetheless decided to get in some target practice while time permitted. Don&rsquo;t try reading this in one breath, but Robert Millette scored four goals, Doucet added three, Jacques Berthiaume and Jean Gauthier each added a pair, with Paul Adey, Tim Cranston, Guy Charbonneau and Sylvain Turgeon adding singles. Jocelyn Gauvreau had two for Granby, with Pellegrino completing the scoring. Those two infamous sidekicks&mdash;Belanger and Kirouac&mdash;faced 66 shots.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02314/4618828-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="606" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">Thanks to the performances of players like Claude Verret, Trois-Rivieres has a berth in the semis.</figcaption></div>On the final night of round-robin play, Montreal edged Sherbrooke 5-4; Hull dumped Trois-Rivieres 10-2; and Chicoutimi outscored Granby 12-6. These matches proved inconsequential as the semifinalists had already been determined. &#9632;

f0032-01

Voisins Come Up Flat For Semifinal Round; Beavers, Sags, Draveurs Other Survivors

<h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>PATRICK DIVISION SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1729/4619149-1-eng-US/f0033-172.jpg" title="f0033-17" width="554" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Pittsburgh 1 at Islanders 8Thu. April 8Pittsburgh 2 at Islanders 7Sat. April 10Islanders 1 at Pittsburgh 2Sun. April 11Islanders 2 at Pittsburgh 5Tue. April 13Pittsburgh at Islanders<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1825/4619142-1-eng-US/f0033-182.jpg" title="f0033-18" width="554" height="118"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Philadelphia 4 at Rangers 1Thu. April 8Philadelphia 3 at Rangers 7Sat. April 10Rangers 4 at Philadelphia 3Sun. April 11Rangers 7 at Philadelphia 5<h3>ADAMS DIVISION SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1923/4619135-1-eng-US/f0033-192.jpg" title="f0033-19" width="560" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Quebec 1 at Montreal 5Thu. April 8Quebec 3 at Montreal 2Sat. April 10Montreal 1 at Quebec 2Sun. April 11Montreal 6 at Quebec 2Tue. April 13Quebec at Montreal<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2020/4619128-1-eng-US/f0033-202.jpg" title="f0033-20" width="552" height="114"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Buffalo 1 at Boston 3Thu. April 8Buffalo 3 at Boston 7Sat. April 10Boston 2 at Buffalo 5Sun. April 11Boston 5 at Buffalo 2<h2>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2118/4619121-1-eng-US/f0033-212.jpg" title="f0033-21" width="554" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Los Angeles 10 at Edmonton 8Thu. April 8Los Angeles 2 at Edmonton 3Sat. April 10Edmonton 5 at Los Angeles 6<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon. April 12Edmonton at Los AngelesTue. April 13Los Angeles at Edmonton<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2214/4619114-1-eng-US/f0033-222.jpg" title="f0033-22" width="552" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Calgary 3 at Vancouver 5Thu. April 8Calgary 1 at Vancouver 2Sat. April 10Vancouver 3 at Calgary 1<h3>NORRIS DIVISION SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-239/4619107-1-eng-US/f0033-232.jpg" title="f0033-23" width="556" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Chicago 3 at Minnesota 2Thu. April 8Chicago 5 at Minnesota 3Sat. April 10Minnesota 7 at Chicago 1Sun. April 11Minnesota 2 at Chicago 4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-249/4619100-1-eng-US/f0033-242.jpg" title="f0033-24" width="554" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7St. Louis 4 at Winnipeg 3Thu. April 8St. Louis 2 at Winnipeg 5Sat. April 10Winnipeg 3 at St. Louis 6Sun. April 11Winnipeg 2 at St. Louis 8 &#9632;

f0033-17

STANLEY CUP SCOREBOARD

<h2>Wed. April 7 PITTSBURGH 1, ISLANDERS 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01390/4619069-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="574" height="872"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 4, RANGERS 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02279/4619062-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="582" height="662"></div><h2>QUEBEC 1, MONTREAL 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03200/4619055-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="572" height="852"></div><h2>BUFFALO 1, BOSTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04152/4619048-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="566" height="656"></div><h2>L. ANGELES 10. EDMONTON 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05122/4619041-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="580" height="1158"></div><h2>CALGARY 3, VANCOUVER 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06100/4619034-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="584" height="822"></div><h2>CHICAGO 3, MINNESOTA 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0789/4619027-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="574" height="962"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 4, WINNIPEG 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0873/4619020-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="590" height="768"></div><h2>Thu. April 8 PITTSBURGH 2, ISLANDERS 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0964/4619013-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="584" height="824"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 3, RANGERS 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1059/4619006-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="586" height="1025"></div><h2>QUEBEC 3, MONTREAL 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1157/4618999-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="586" height="766"></div><h2>BUFFALO 3, BOSTON 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1256/4618992-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="588" height="844"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 2, EDMONTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1343/4618985-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="575" height="751"></div><h2>CALGARY 1, VANCOUVER 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1440/4618978-1-eng-US/f0033-142.jpg" title="f0033-14" width="574" height="924"></div><h2>CHICAGO 5, MINNESOTA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1534/4618971-1-eng-US/f0033-152.jpg" title="f0033-15" width="566" height="932"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 2, WINNIPEG 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1629/4618964-1-eng-US/f0033-162.jpg" title="f0033-16" width="581" height="794"></div><h2>Sat. April 10 ISLANDERS 1, PITTSBURGH 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01440/4618957-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="579" height="746"></div><h2>RANGERS 4, PHILADELPHIA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02359/4618950-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="578" height="809"></div><h2>MONTREAL 1, QUEBEC 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03267/4618943-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="603" height="746"></div><h2>BOSTON 2, BUFFALO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04180/4618936-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="599" height="989"></div><h2>EDMONTON 5, LOS ANGELES 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05136/4618929-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="603" height="1390"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 3. CALGARY 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06110/4618922-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="605" height="890"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 7, CHICAGO 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07101/4618915-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="600" height="964"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 3, ST. LOUIS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0894/4618908-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="578" height="845"></div><h2>Sun. April 11 ISLANDERS 2, PITTSBURGH 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0984/4618901-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="586" height="824"></div><h2>RANGERS 7, PHILADELPHIA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1081/4618894-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="579" height="1076"></div><h2>MONTREAL 6, QUEBEC 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01349/4618887-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="580" height="1229"></div><h2>BOSTON 5, BUFFALO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02243/4618880-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="586" height="720"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 2, CHICAGO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03179/4618873-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="572" height="727"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 2, ST. LOUIS 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04145/4618866-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="557" height="1144"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF SUMMARIES

<h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1174/4619453-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="553" height="214"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1272/4619446-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="547" height="221"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1363/4619439-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="555" height="296"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3>SEMIFINALS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1460/4619432-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="555" height="108"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. March 21Brantford 5 at S.S. Marie 5Tue. March 23S.S. Marie 4 at Brantford 2Fri. March 26Brantford 1 at S.S. Marie 7Sun. March 28S.S. Marie 1 at Brantford 2Mon. March 29Brantford 3 at S.S. Marie 3Wed. March 31S.S. Marie 5 at Brantford 9Fri. April 2Brantford 2 at S.S. Marie 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1558/4619425-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="553" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 23Windsor 1 at Kitchener 4Thu. March 25Kitchener 2 at Windsor 0Frl. March 26Windsor 3 at Kitchener 7Sun. March 28Kitchener 9 at Windsor 4<h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1658/4619418-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="553" height="113"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. April 4S.S. Marie 2 at Kitchener 6Tue. April 6S.S. Marie 1 at Kitchener 6Fri. April 9Kitchener 4 at S.S. Marie 4Sun. April 11Kitchener 3 at S.S. Marie 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 13S.S. Marie at KitchenerFri. April 16Kitchener at S.S. MarieSun. April18 S.S. Marie at KitchenerWed. April 21Kitchener at S.S. Marie<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3>SEMIFINALS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1752/4619411-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="559" height="108"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. March 23Toronto 4 at Ottawa 6Fri. March 26Toronto 3 at Ottawa 4Sat. March 27Ottawa 3 at Toronto 4Tue. March 30Ottawa 6 at Toronto 3Fri. April 2Toronto 2 at Ottawa 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1848/4619404-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="555" height="108"></div>Tue. March 23Peterborough 7 at Oshawa 6Thu. March 25Oshawa 8 at Peterborough 2Sun. March 28Peterborough 4 at Oshawa 5Tue. March 30Oshawa 5 at Peterborough 4Thu. April 1Peterborough 2 at Oshawa 5<h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1946/4619397-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="551" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 9Oshawa 5 at Ottawa 6Sun. April 11Ottawa 3 at Oshawa 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 12Oshawa at OttawaThu. April 14Ottawa at OshawaFri. April 16Oshawa at OttawaSun. April 18Ottawa at OshawaTue. April 20Oshawa at OttawaWed. April 21Ottawa at Oshawa<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2040/4619390-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="554" height="244"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2133/4619383-1-eng-US/f0034-212.jpg" title="f0034-21" width="551" height="192"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2229/4619376-1-eng-US/f0034-222.jpg" title="f0034-22" width="552" height="188"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2327/4619369-1-eng-US/f0034-232.jpg" title="f0034-23" width="555" height="114"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>QUARTERFINALS</h3><h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2425/4619362-1-eng-US/f0034-242.jpg" title="f0034-24" width="558" height="110"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Calgary 2 at Saskatoon 5Sat. March 27Calgary 7 at Saskatoon 5Sun. March 28Saskatoon 3 at Calgary 4Mon. March 29Saskatoon 3 at Calgary 6Wed. March 31Calgary 7 at Saskatoon 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2519/4619355-1-eng-US/f0034-252.jpg" title="f0034-25" width="554" height="110"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Brandon 6 at Regina 13Sat. March 27Regina 9 at Brandon 5Sun. March 28Regina 10 at Brandon 3Tue. March 30Brandon 2 at Regina 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2617/4619348-1-eng-US/f0034-262.jpg" title="f0034-26" width="549" height="111"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Billings 3 at Lethbridge 4Sun. March 28Billings 3 at Lethbridge 2Mon. March 29Lethbridge 6 at Billings 3Wed. March 31Lethbridge 8 at Billings 4Fri. April 2Billings 5 at Lethbridge 11<h3>SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2345/4619341-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="556" height="110"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. April 3Calgary 2 at Regina 3Sun. April 4Calgary 3 at Regina 2Tue. April 6Regina 6 at Calgary 1Fri. April 9Regina 4 at Calgary 3 FINALS<h2>REGINA vs LETHBRIDGE</h2>Mon. April 12Regina at LethbridgeWed. April 14Regina at LethbridgeFri. April 16Lethbridge at ReginaSat. April 17Lethbridge at ReginaSun. April 18Regina at LethbridgeTue. April 20Lethbridge at ReginaWed. April 21Regina at Lethbridge(Best-of-seven series)<h2>QUARTERFINALS</h2>WESTERN DIVISION<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2444/4619334-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="552" height="108"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. March 27Portland 4 at Kamloops 1Sun. March 28Portland 4 at Kamloops 2Wed. March 31Kamloops 3 at Portland 8Fri. April 2Kamloops 3 at Portland 5<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2540/4619327-1-eng-US/f0036-252.jpg" title="f0036-25" width="554" height="110"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. March 26Seattle 3 at Victoria 2Sat. March 27Seattle 7 at Victoria 3Tue. March 30Victoria 4 at Seattle 6Thu. April 1Victoria 1 at Seattle 3<h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2637/4619320-1-eng-US/f0036-262.jpg" title="f0036-26" width="554" height="107"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thu. April 8Seattle 7 at Portland 5Sat. April 10Seattle 5 at Portland 7<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon. April 12Portland at SeattleTue. April 13Portland at SeattleThu. April 15Seattle at PortlandSun. April 18Portland at SeattleTue. April 20Seattle at Portland<h3>LEADING PLAYOFF SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2735/4619313-1-eng-US/f0036-272.jpg" title="f0036-27" width="559" height="273"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2834/4619306-1-eng-US/f0036-282.jpg" title="f0036-28" width="558" height="272"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2932/4619299-1-eng-US/f0036-292.jpg" title="f0036-29" width="551" height="302"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>QUARTERFINALS</h3>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3031/4619292-1-eng-US/f0036-302.jpg" title="f0036-30" width="570" height="254"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. March 29Shawinigan 4 at Laval 6Tue. March 30Montreal 4 at Sherbrooke 3Hull 0 at T-Rlvleres 3Chicoutimi 7 at Granby 6Wed. March 31Sherbrooke 1 at Hull 5Montreal 3 at T-Rivieres 6Chicoutimi 2 at Shawinigan 7Granby 4 at Laval 8Fri. April 2Shawinigan 3 at Sherbrooke 6Hull 0 at Chicoutimi 3Montreal 3 at Laval 5T-Rivieres 10 at Granby 2Sun. April 4Sherbrooke 7 at Chicoutimi 4Hull 2 at Shawinigan 4Montreal 4 at Granby 6Mon. April 5T-Rivieres 6 at Laval 4Tue. April 6Shawinigan 5 at Montreal 4Chicoutimi 3 at T-Rlvieres 5Laval 2 at Sherbrooke 11Granby 3 at Hull 15Fri. April 9Sherbrooke 4 at Montreal 5T-Rivieres 2 at Hull 10Granby 6 at Chicoutimi 12Laval 1 at Shawinigan 19(End of quarterfinals)<h2>MEMORIAL CUP</h2><h3>KNOCKOUT COMPETITION</h3>Sat. May 8Ontario vs QuebecSun. May 9WHL vs OntarioMon. May 10Quebec vs WHLTue. May 11Quebec vs OntarioWed. May 12Ontario vs WHLThu. May 13WHL vs QuebecSat. May 15Championship final at 1:30 PM(All games in Hull, Que.)<h2>ALLAN CUP</h2><h3>EASTERN CANADA FINAL</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3130/4619285-1-eng-US/f0036-312.jpg" title="f0036-31" width="559" height="110"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Petrolia 6, Grand Falls 1Petrolia 6, Grand Falls 3<h3>WESTERN CANADA FINAL</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3227/4619278-1-eng-US/f0036-322.jpg" title="f0036-32" width="564" height="111"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Cranbrook 13, St. Boniface 5<h3>WESTERN CANADA SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3325/4619271-1-eng-US/f0036-332.jpg" title="f0036-33" width="564" height="115"></div><h3>EASTERN CANADA SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3422/4619264-1-eng-US/f0036-342.jpg" title="f0036-34" width="561" height="113"></div><h2>HARDY CUP</h2><h3>EASTERN CANADA FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3517/4619257-1-eng-US/f0036-352.jpg" title="f0036-35" width="558" height="114"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Cap Pele 3. Georgetown 2Georgetown 7, Cap Pele 1Georgetown 9, Cap Pele 2<h3>EASTERN SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3616/4619250-1-eng-US/f0036-362.jpg" title="f0036-36" width="558" height="239"></div><h2>ONTARIO INTERMEDIATE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3713/4619243-1-eng-US/f0036-372.jpg" title="f0036-37" width="556" height="108"></div><h2>CENTENNIAL CUP</h2><h3>EASTERN CANADA FINAL</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3811/4619236-1-eng-US/f0036-382.jpg" title="f0036-38" width="553" height="114"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Guelph 3, Pembroke 2Guelph 10, Pembroke 3Guelph 6, Pembroke 2<h3>EASTERN CANADA SEMIFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-399/4619229-1-eng-US/f0036-392.jpg" title="f0036-39" width="559" height="114"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-409/4619222-1-eng-US/f0036-402.jpg" title="f0036-40" width="556" height="114"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-414/4619215-1-eng-US/f0036-412.jpg" title="f0036-41" width="554" height="115"></div><h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-423/4619208-1-eng-US/f0036-422.jpg" title="f0036-42" width="556" height="224"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-433/4619201-1-eng-US/f0036-432.jpg" title="f0036-43" width="550" height="551"></div><h3>ROUND-ROBIN PLAYOFFS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-443/4619194-1-eng-US/f0036-442.jpg" title="f0036-44" width="553" height="250"></div><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-452/4619187-1-eng-US/f0036-452.jpg" title="f0036-45" width="556" height="112"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sioux City 8, Des Moines 2Sioux City 7, Des Moines 4Des Moines 7, Sioux City 6<h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2><h3>FINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-462/4619180-1-eng-US/f0036-462.jpg" title="f0036-46" width="553" height="137"></div> &#9632;

f0034-11

AMATEUR SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01416/4619484-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

NHL PLAYOFF SCORING

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01397/4619662-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="552" height="169"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02298/4619655-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="555" height="195"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03227/4619648-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="552" height="440"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>QUARTERFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04155/4619641-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="551" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Adirondack 3 at N. Brunswick 1Fri. April 9Adirondack 3 at N. Brunswick 4Sat. April 10N. Brunswick 3 at Adirondack 6<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 13N. Brunswick at AdirondackThu. April 15Adirondack at N. Brunswick<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05118/4619634-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="552" height="113"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Nova Scotia at Maine (ppd. snow)Thu. April 8Nova Scotia 7 at Maine 6Fri. April 9Nova Scotia 3 at Maine 4<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Mon. April 12Maine at Nova ScotiaWed. April 14Maine at Nova ScotiaFri. April 16Nova Scotia at Maine<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0699/4619627-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="560" height="123"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 17Hershey 4 at Binghamton 6Fri. April 9Hershey 5 at Binghamton 1Sat. April 10Binghamton 6 at Hershey 5<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 13Binghamton at HersheyThu. April 15Hershey at Binghamton<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0794/4619620-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="562" height="120"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7New Haven 3 at Rochester 4Thu. April 8New Haven 7 at Rochester 8Sat. April 10Rochester 2 at New Haven 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 14Rochester at New HavenFri. April 16New Haven at Rochester<h3>LEADING PLAYOFF SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0889/4619613-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="564" height="311"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-0983/4619606-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="564" height="146"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1080/4619599-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="568" height="169"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1177/4619592-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="556" height="314"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>QUARTERFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1273/4619585-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="561" height="113"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Oklahoma City 2 at Salt Lake 6Fri. April 9Oklahoma City 5 at Salt Lake 4Sun. April 11Salt Lake 5 at Oklahoma City 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 13Salt Lake at Oklahoma CityThu. April 15Salt Lake at Oklahoma City<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1370/4619578-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="563" height="117"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Thu. April 8Dallas 5 at Cincinnati 1Sat. April 10Dallas 3 at Cincinnati 8Sun. April 11Cincinnati 2 at Dallas 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 13Cincinnati at DallasThu. April 15Dallas at Cincinnati<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1464/4619571-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="567" height="113"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Nashville 2 at Wichita 3Fri. April 9Nashville 2 at Wichita 4Sat. April 10Wichita 4 at Nashville 1<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1564/4619564-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="555" height="116"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. April 6Tulsa 0 at Indianapolis 7Wed. April 7Tulsa 2 at Indianapolis 3Fri. April 9Indianapolis 6 at Tulsa 1<h3>LEADING PLAYOFF SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1662/4619557-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="557" height="140"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1757/4619550-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="557" height="254"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1853/4619543-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="549" height="499"></div><h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>QUARTERFINALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1952/4619536-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="562" height="117"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. April 7Flint 1 at Toledo 7Fri. April 9Toledo 7 at Flint 6Sat. April 10Flint 3 at Toledo 4<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Wed. April 14Toledo at FlintFri. April 16Flint at ToledoSat. April 17Toledo at Flint<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2051/4619529-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="558" height="114"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 9Saginaw 6 at Milwaukee 3Sat. April 10Saginaw 6 at Milwaukee 3Sun. April 11Milwaukee 7 at Saginaw 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Tue. April 13Milwaukeeat SaginawThu. April 15Saginaw at MilwaukeeSat. April 17Milwaukee at Saginaw<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2148/4619522-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="556" height="120"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. April 9Fort Wayne 4 at Kalamazoo 1Sat. April 10Kalamazoo 3 at Fort Wayne 6<h3>GAMESTO COME</h3>Tue. April 13Fort Wayne at KalamazooWed. April 14Kalamazoo at Fort WayneSat. April 17Fort Wayne at KalamazooSun. April 18Kalamazoo at Fort Wayne<h3>LEADING PLAYOFF SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2247/4619515-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="553" height="358"></div> &#9632;

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MINOR SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05124/4619693-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg"></div>RINK EQUIPMENTPERSONALSFAN CLUBSOPPORTUNITIESPOSITIONS WANTEDPLAYER EQUIPMENT<h2>OPPORTUNITIES</h2>PLAYERS WANTED: University of Alabama in Huntsville is looking for qualified players. Daily practices, average crowd at home games over 4,000. Out of state tuition waivers and special housing available. Hockey related expenses paid by school. Send hockey resume to UHA Hockey, P.O. Drawer 527, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL 35804.NORTHERN EMPLOYMENT: Employers need skilled and unskilled workers. High pay, good hunting, fishing, beautiful scenery. New directory lists who&rsquo;s hiring, addresses, all details. Complete money back guarantee. Invest less than an hour&rsquo;s pay. Send $8.00 to: Northern Employment Guide, 105-504 Main St., Winnipeg, Man., R3B 1B8.HOCKEY GAME: Realistic, fun hockey action game using playing cards (cards included). Send $2.25 to, Gary West, 2460 24th SE, Auburn, WA 98002.LICENSE PLATE FRAMES: &ldquo;Hockey is my game&rdquo; license plate frames. Let everyone know your sport. Send $3.50 each, $1.50 shipping. KLB Hockey, 714 Contra Costa, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523.FAN CLUB: Organizing the Bobby &ldquo;Garfield&rdquo; Francis fan club. For more information contact: Leslie, Laura or Chita at 530-10th Ave. South, Birmingham, AL 35205.COLLECTORS: Original Slapshot movie, color lobby cards (9x12), 4 different, $3.00 each postpaid. Color stills (8x10), 4 different, $2.50 postpaid. KLB Hockey, Box 23696, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523.HOCKEY T-SHIRTS: 75 exciting designs. Send .50&cent; for our illustrated brochure. KLB Hockey, 714 Contra Costa, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523.BUMPER STICKERS:&rdquo;Hockey is my game&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Puck Stops Here&rdquo; and &ldquo;Hockey Players go for 60 minutes&rdquo;. Send $1.25 each. 25&cent; shipping to: KLB Hockey, 714 Contra Costa, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523.POWER SKATING: Ice arenas and youth hockey organizations: have a spring or summer hockey power skating program. Eight lesson course. Experienced male coach, 25 skaters per hour. Reasonable rates. All ages and skill levels. Seminars for coaches. Make power skating a part of your program. Write for details: Carl Walker, Box 806, Brunswick, ME 04011.PLAYER AGENT: Agentbusiness manager-career advisor-financial consultant. Seeks to represent NHL veterans, rookies or prospects. Call or write: Jeffrey J. Grenell, P.O. Box 31, Vernon, NJ 07462.(201)764-4053.COLOR PHOTOS: NHL stars past and present. 8x10, $3.50. Most current players available. Send for free list. Dwayne La Bakas, 33133 Crestwell, Sterling Heights, Ml 48077.WANTED: Cleveland Crusaders (WHA) and Cleveland Barons (AHL) hockey jerseys and souvenirs. Send list and price to: The Hockey News, Box 38, 214 King Street West, Suite 314, Toronto, Ont., M5H 1K4.COLLECTORS: Original Chicago Black Hawks jerseys for sale. Contact Niagara Falls Black Hawks, 5554 Lewis Ave, Niagara Falls, Ont., L2G 3R7. (416) 358-7494 or (416) 356-6634.AUTHENTIC GAME WORN NHL AND WHA JERSEYS: For sale or trade. I have many teams available. Lots of Philadelphia Flyers jerseys available. Will trade these for almost any other team jerseys. Send a stamped envelope for large list. Murf Denny, Box 127, Brule, Wl 54820.NHL/WHA/USA OFFICIAL JERSEYS: A list of 75 official game worn jerseys. For a complete listing send cheque or m/o for $3.25 to Empire Sports, North York Sheridan Mall, 1700 Wilson Ave., Suite B1, Downsview, Ont., M3L 1B2. All orders receive a FREE NHL gift&mdash;vallue $2.50.NEW LEAGUE FORMING: Can/USA Senior contact. Eligible Canadian Niagara Peninsula and American Niagara Frontier teams needed. Age 18 and over. Enquire: Can/USA Hockey, A-5958 Buchanan Ave., Niagara Falls, Ont., or 8213 Laughlin Drive, Niagara Falls, NY 14304.HERSHEY BEARS FANS AND COLLECTORS: Personalized, authentic Hershey Bears jerseys. Sold EXCLUSIVELY by KENNY SMITH SPORTS. Ken is a former Boston Bruin-Hershey Bear player. Write, 20 East Main Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552. Phone (717) 653-5051. Also all other NHL jerseys and complete line of ice hockey equipment. Write for our discount price list. We ship UPS daily.PRO TEAM PRICE LISTS:&mdash; The latest! 25-pages of NFL list of 3,000 items&mdash;$6.95. 13-page NASL list of 1,000 items&mdash;$5.00.5-page AHL list of 125 items&mdash;$3.25. 5-page CFL list of 200 items&mdash;$3.25. All lists consist of pennants, yearbooks, media guides, photos jerseys, practice jerseys, decals, buttons, hats, caps and game used equipment. Send cheque or money order to Empire Sports, North York Sheridan Mall, 1700 Wilson Ave, Suite B1, Downsview, Ont., M3L 1B2.DEFUNCT SPORTS PRICE LIST: 25-page WHA list of 500 items&mdash;$6.50. 10-page World Team Tennis 200 items&mdash;$3.00. 5-page World Football League list&mdash;$3.00 5-page National Lacrosse list&mdash;$3.00. 3-page ABA list&mdash;$2.25. $2.00 credit on 1st order. Send cheque or money order to Empire Sports, North York Sheridan Mall, 1700 Wilson Ave., Suite B1, Downsview, Ont., M3L 1B2.SAVE YOUR VOICE!: Cowbells for games! Four sizes $6, $12, $15. (Plus COD costs). Sincoe Bells, Box 51, New Lowell, Ont., L0M 1N0.WANTED: Senior B or Intermediate. Rockland Colonials looking for eastern Canadian teams to play in home n&rsquo;home series 82-83. Don Wood, 672 Prospect St., Maplewood NJ 07040.YEARBOOKS AND MEDIA GUIDES: A 20-page list on 1,000 books from 1965 to 1982. Leagues include NHL, WHA, AHL, IHL, OHA, CHL, QMJHL, WHL, NFL, CFL, AFL, WFL, NBA, ABA, NASL, WTT, Baseball, College and minor sports. Send cheque or money order for $6.99 to Empire Sports, North York Sheridan Mall, 1700 Wilson Ave., Suite B1, Downsview, Ont., M3L 1B2.<h2>EQUIPMENT</h2>FREE WIDE VELCRO SHIN GUARD STRAPS: (Value $12.00). Enclose this ad with any order over $50.00. All name brand equipment at discounts. Send for our 1982-83 catalogue. Reliable Hockey Service Co., 73 Bloomfield Street, Springfield, MA 01108. Telephone (413) 736-6188. &#9632;

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Hockey News CLASSIFIED

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01408/4619745-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><h2>Swinging With The Stars</h2>One of hockey&rsquo;s most unique ownerships involves Richard Sterban, shown above dropping the ceremonial first puck during the Central Hockey League&rsquo;s All Star game this season. Sterban, the bass singer for the Oak Ridge Boys, holds a part ownership in the Nashville South Stars of the CHL.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03251/4619738-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="1813" height="1791"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Diane Sobolewski)</figcaption></div><h2>Rolling Back The Clock</h2>Three of hockey&rsquo;s greatest performers came back for a nostalgic appearance during the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; oldtimer game against the Montreal Canadiens. Referee for the game, Maurice Richard, dropped the puck between the great Gordie Howe, at left, and the Rocket&rsquo;s younger brother, Henri. Between them, the three former NHL stars scored a total of 1,703 goals in regular NHL league play during their careers.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02325/4619731-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1527" height="1284"></div><h2>Giving A Helping Hand</h2>The Boston Bruins and Quebec Nordiques have agreed to a Sept. 24 exhibition game in the Georges Vezina Center in Chicoutimi, Que., to help promote the 1983 Canada Winter Games. The occasion brought together officials from both sides. That&rsquo;s Nordiques president Marcel Aubut, at left, clasping hands with Bruins&rsquo; executive Tom Johnson, right. Looking on in center at left is Rollie Hebert of OKeefe&rsquo;s and Bernard Bergeron, executive vice-president of the Games. Hebert was Jean Beliveau&rsquo;s first coach in junior hockey.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04186/4619724-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="1206" height="1685"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Garry Mikel)</figcaption></div><h2>Spanning The Globe</h2>Trainers and equipment managers in hockey have been known to travel a long distance to join teams but Mike Bate of Clarkson College is indeed unique. Bate, from Harrogate, England, came the 3,000 miles to Clarkson in Potsdam, NY last year to handle the equipment for the Golden Knights. A junior on a student exchange program from City University of London who is majoring in management, Bate&rsquo;s knowledge of hockey is limited but not his enthusiasm for the sport and Clarkson. &#9632;

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HOCKEY PEOPLE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01383/4619776-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Taylor of the Los Angeles Kings joined the elite players in the NHL when he inked a 7-year contract for more than $3 million.</figcaption></div><h2>Buss Walks Out</h2>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Kings&rsquo; owner Jerry Buss didn&rsquo;t think his team could come back from a 5-0 deficit against the Edmonton Oilers in game three of their division semifinals, so he stalked out of the Forum with TV actress Cathy Lee Crosby on his arm.The colorful and controversial chief of the Kings obviously gave up quicker than his players, who came back&mdash;much to the astonishment of a capacity 16,500 fans&mdash;as they scored five goals to tie the score before going on to win the game 6-5 in overtime on rookie Daryl Evans&rsquo; fourth playoff goal.Buss wasn&rsquo;t the only team owner who didn&rsquo;t think much of his team&rsquo;s chances in the current Stanley Cup playoffs. Pittsburgh owner Ed DeBartolo told the fans in his city that he would be glad to reimburse any fan for games three and four after the Penguins went out and dropped the first two games of their best-of-five division semifinals against the Islanders. The Penguins responded to DeBartolo&rsquo;s offer by winning the next two games on home ice to stay alive in the playoffs.<h2>Levo Joins Finns</h2>HELSINKI&mdash;Defenseman Tapio Levo returned to his native Finland to join the National Hockey Team after a season with the Colorado Rockies.Levo is one of several European players who are eligible to play for their country in the forthcoming World Hockey Championships. Levo made his presence felt when he scored a goal in Finland&rsquo;s 6-6 exhibition tie with Sweden.Meanwhile, defenseman Bob Manno of the Toronto Maple Leafs joined the Italian National Team for the world tournament and he will play in front of goalie Jim Corsi, the former Minnesota and Edmonton netminder, who has been the mainstay of the Italian team in recent international competition.Defenseman Borje Salming of the Leafs has already gone on record as saying he&rsquo;ll pass up the Helsinki tournament and will not play for Sweden.<h2>Taylor A Millionaire</h2>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Right winger Dave Taylor has agreed to a new seven-year contract that will put him in the top three or four money earners in the National Hockey League.The All Star winger was reported by the Los Angeles Times to have signed a contract that would pay Taylor &ldquo;substantially more than $3-million.&rdquo; That would put Taylor on a level with teammate Marcel Dionne, who earns $600,000 a year. Mike Bossy of the Islanders also is paid $600,000. Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers signed a contract this season for $1million a year. Taylor&rsquo;s agent, Ron Salcer, is believed to have agreed to a figure of $3.2-million for his player&rsquo;s new contract.<h2>Team Canada Picks</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Team Canada added defenseman Jim Benning to its roster as a last-minute replacement for injured Willie Huber of Detroit.Huber suffered a broken jaw in the Wings&rsquo; final league game and is unable to travel to Finland for the World Championship tournament in Helsinki.Benning joined teammate Rick Vaive, who was named as an original member along with Huber, goalie Greg Millen of Hartford, defenseman Rick Green of Washington, and forwards Mark Osborne of Detroit, Ryan Walter and Mike Gartner of Washington.The remainder of the 23-man roster will be finalized after the completion of the preliminary round of the 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs.Team GM Max McNab announced that 10 top junior players had agreed to join Team Canada to bolster the squad for a series of exhibition games in Europe prior to the April 14 starting game when their places will be taken by NHLers eliminated from the first-round of the playoffs.Among the juniors accompanying Team Canada overseas where Jerome Dupont of the Toronto Marlboros, Marc Habscheid and Todd Strueby of the Saskatoon Blades, Rich Chernomaz and Mark Morrison of the Victoria Cougars, Randy Belischek of Providence College, Darren Cossar of the Niagara Falls Flyers, Larry Trader of the London Knights, Len Hachborn of the Brantford Alexanders and Claude Loiselle of the Windsor Spitfires.<h2>New College Coach</h2>KALAMAZOO&mdash;Bill Wilkinson, an assistant coach with two NCAA tournament hockey teams over the last four years, has been named the new head coach at Western Michigan University.Wilkinson, who is 34, served the last three years at Bowling Green and was the team&rsquo;s defensive coach. A native of Goderich, Ont., Wilkinson is the team&rsquo;s third coach in history. He replaces Glen Weller, who recently resigned after four years at the helm of WMU.<h2>AHAUS Sets Camp</h2>COLORADO SPRINGS&mdash;Walter Bush, vice-president of the International Council for the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States, has announced that the 1982 National Junior team will hold a tryout camp June 22 through June 30 in Colorado Springs.Thirty four of the top junior age players in the country, born in 1963 or later, will be invited to the camp by AHAUS officials. The group will be among the candidates for a spot on the U.S. National Junior team that will compete in the World championships in Europe during the Christmas holiday season. Among the group who will select the players are John Mariucci, Herb Boxer, Vel Belmonte, Brad Buetow, Jim Cross, Jack Ferrara, Ted Hampson, Gus Hendrickson, Shawn Walsh and committee president Walt Kyle Sr.<h2>Orr In Hall</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Former NHL superstar Bobby Orr will be among a group of top Canadians who will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame during the month of August.Orr will join other outstanding figures such as Sam Pollock, the former general manager of the NHL&rsquo;s Montreal Canadiens, lacrosse great Jack Bionda, who also played pro hockey with Boston, skiing legend Hermann (Jackrabbit) Smith-Johannsen, who is now 106 years old and still skiing, and Claude (Sandy) Saunders, for 30 years regetta chairman of the Royal Canadian Henley.<h2>WHL Cracks Down</h2>CALGARY&mdash;WHL commissioner Ed Chynoweth has cracked down on the brawling that has crept into the league&rsquo;s recent playoff action.Chynoweth said he took the action because the situation &ldquo;degenerated into a total disgrace.&rdquo; He handed out two-game suspensions and fines totalling $2,000. Coaches Bill LaForge of Regina and Doug Sauter of Calgary each were fined $1,000 and ordered to post $4,000 bonds that will be forfeited in part or full if either club is involved in further incidents during the playoffs.Mark Centrone of the Pats was suspended for two games for leaving the Regina bench during a second-period brawl that involved everyone on the ice. &#9632;

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SLAPSHOTS

TORONTO&mdash;At one time in hockey history, scoring 50 goals in a season was considered the dream of all National Hockey Leaguers. Today 50 is no longer considered utopia with the arrival of first Mike Bossy then Wayne Gretzky on the big league hockey scene.Despite the fact both Bossy and Gretzky have established new scoring standards for NHLers, there is still a certain amount of gratification among those who collect 50 goals in a season. This particular NHL year there have been 10 to establish a new record for the league eclipsing the mark of nine set in 1979-80.Gretzky of course was the first of this year&rsquo;s crop of 50-goal snipers and following along behind him were Bossy, Dennis Maruk of Washington, Minnesota&rsquo;s Dino Ciccarelli, Rick Vaive of Toronto, Blaine Stoughton of Hartford, Rick Middleton of Boston, Marcel Dionne of Los Angeles, and the last two to make it, Bryan Trottier of the Islanders and Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier.The 50-goal achievement was first recorded by the great Maurice (Rocket) Richard in 1945. The feat stood up for 16 years before Bernard Geoffrion did it in 1961, which was the forerunner of the 50-goal era. After the Boomer, the NHL produced 58 more. &#9632;

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April 23, 1982

14 NHL Teams Ready To Seek Slo-Pitch Title

North Stars’ Playoff Illusions Sent ‘Reeling’

ACHL All Star Teams

Jekyll-Hyde Personalities Plague Montreal’s Playoffs