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.

May 6, 1983

The Hockey News May 6, 1983

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Doug Shedden believes his maturity on and off the ice helped him to become the Penguins&rsquo; leading scorer and most valuable player this season, one year after he was exiled to the minor leagues.The 22-year-old Shedden was selected as Pittsburgh&rsquo;s MVP, following a season in which he scored 24 goals and 43 assists. He was only one of three Penguins who played all 80 games.The 6-foot, 184-pound Wallaceburg, Ont., native was the Penguins&rsquo; fifth-round pick in the 1980 National Hockey League entry draft from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.Pittsburgh allowed Shedden to finish his final year of junior hockey and he registered 51 goals and 72 assists in 66 games. He led all OHL playoff scorers with 38 points in 19 games.Shedden made the Penguins in training camp last season and shared an NHL Player of the Week award with Wayne Gretzky in January when he scored eight points in four games. He scored 10 goals and 15 assists in 38 games, but when he failed to score in 15 straight games, he was demoted to Erie of the American Hockey League.Shedden was the only Penguin sent to the minors last season who wasn&rsquo;t recalled. He scored four goals and six assists in 17 games for the last-place Blades.&ldquo;I was bitter,&rdquo; Shedden recalls about being sent to the minors. &ldquo;But actually, when I went down there I didn&rsquo;t deserve to be called up because I went down with a bad attitude. I worked hard for about the first five games. It looked like I wasn&rsquo;t going to get called up, so I was very unhappy about it. I just floated the rest of the season, which wasn&rsquo;t very mature on my part.&ldquo;It was my first taste of the minors and what it was like. Erie was bad enough because they were in last place at the time and they were busing everywhere. So I just fell into a bad attitude.&ldquo;I had six months to think about it in the summertime, where I wanted to play this year. I came to training camp in fairly good shape. I just wanted to make the team and work my way up from there.&rdquo;Penguin coach Eddie Johnston converted Shedden from center to right wing. Johnston also uses Shedden on the right point in power-play situations.&ldquo;Shedden has been our most consistent player all year,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;He did a very good job for us defensivelyand offensively and this is only his second year in the National Hockey League. That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re looking for on this hockey club. We&rsquo;re looking for improvement in players like that.&rdquo;In addition to his maturing, Shedden believes that his staying healthy all season was a key factor in his consistent play for the last-place Penguins.&ldquo;The main thing is I stayed away from injuries,&rdquo; Shedden said. &ldquo;A lot of guys were injured, so that gave me the chance to move into different postions and that helped a lot.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not glad for the way things went for the team, but I really can&rsquo;t complain about how things went for me in my first full year. I think I skated a lot better than I had been. I felt a couple of steps quicker. And if you&rsquo;re skating out there, you&rsquo;re going to get a lot of chances.&rdquo; &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Maturity Benefits Shedden’s Game

<div class="byline">BY MILT DUNNELL</div>There is a great deal of speculation as to what will happen if the National Hockey League Board of Governors refuses to grant the approval to transfer the St. Louis Blues to Saskatoon. The Toronto Star&rsquo;s Milt Dunnell, in this column which originally appeared in the Star. talks about one very real possibility.John Ziegler, wherever you are, get in touch with Pete Rozelle, commissioner in charge of defending lawsuits against the National Football League. Get Pete to tell you what happens, John, when a jury is asked to determine whether the owner of a sports franchise may pack up the jockstraps and move on-&mdash;like a medicine show&mdash;to a new carnival lot.In the most famous&mdash;also most costly&mdash;case of this kind, a jury decided that Al Davis, the maverick of fotball, a bitter enemy of Pete Rozelle, could move his team from Oakland to Los Angeles, despite orders from Rozelle and directors of the league to stand pat.Maybe it wasn&rsquo;t logical&mdash;nobody claimed it was&mdash;and maybe it wasn&rsquo;t fair. But that&rsquo;s how it turned out. Not only did Rozelle and the NFL owners fail in their efforts to block Davis, they also have been assessed with millions in damages to Davis and the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, which provides the park that the former Oakland Raiders now call home.The Davis defection from Oakland to L.A. was dictated by greed. Oakland football fans were buying all the tickets Davis had to sell. Los Angeles, one of the world&rsquo;s prime sports markets, could buy more. The territory&mdash;as the mob would say&mdash;became open when the Rams took it on the lam and went down the freeway to Anaheim.When Wild Bill Hunter and his associates seek NHL blessing for their proposed shift of the St. Louis Blues to Saskatoon, they can plead need. The Blues are big losers in St. Loo. Their owners. Ralston-Purina, may specialize in animal food but they&rsquo;ve tired of feeding financial turkeys. They want out.Now, John P. Baird, a senior executive of the company, has told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the only money that has surfaced to date comes from Wild Bill Hunter and hockey nuts from Saskatoon. There has been much windy talk about local groups which would keep the Blues where they are&mdash;but not a nickel to match the words. So, Baird says, Ralston-Purina will close a deal with the snowbirds.The elders of the NHL were all prepared to give Bill the brushoff, a few weeks ago, when he was scheduled to appear before them as the new voice of the Blues. For reasons of his own, you can bet, Wild Bill backed off. There were smug smiles and knowing winks around the league. They had called his bluff. Wild Bill apparently just checked his hand to see who was going to bump.If he comes up with the club, he definitely will be denied league permission to move. The elders will tell him it was his decision to buy the Blues but it&rsquo;s their decision where the Blues play.But is it their decision? Pete Rozelle, for one, will tell them he&rsquo;s not sure. It has cost the NFL millions to discover they didn&rsquo;t have the right answer. Wild Bill Hunter definitely will go the Al Davis route.It might take a couple of years in the courts to get the thing settled. Meanwhile Wild Bill and partners would be unwelcome owners in a town where they don&rsquo;t want to be and which doesn&rsquo;t want them. What a success story that would be. &#9632;

Dear John; Give Pete A Call

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Memorial Cup Dates

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;For Larry Pleau, it&rsquo;s been &ldquo;business as usual&rdquo; over the last month which, in itself, isn&rsquo;t a half-bad story.&ldquo;The entire staff has continued to work as if nothing ever happened,&rdquo; said Pleau, the Hartford Whalers! current and last director of hockey operations. &ldquo;To be honest, I&rsquo;ve really enjoyed it.&rdquo;Pleau has become heavily involved in the scouting end of the business. The Whalers possess the second choice overall in the National Hockey League entry draft in June and cannot afford to miss picking a winner.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a position where we can zero in on the top three or four kids,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to bring them into Hartford for medical exams and strength tests. It&rsquo;s so important to get to know the kids personally. I&rsquo;m planning on meeting with all the parents at their homes, in their own environments. You&rsquo;ve got to pick a good hockey player, no doubt, but the big thing is to pick a good hockey player who&rsquo;s got good character.&rdquo;Pleau and his staff have shown their character in the days following a March 15th press conference. It was announced then that Pleau&rsquo;s position would be eliminated, part of a far-sweeping restructuring act designed by chairman Howard Baldwin and Donald Conrad, vicepresident of the team&rsquo;s largest shareholder, Aetna&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s going to happen,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had my say with Howard. He knows how I feel. All we can do is go about our business as usual. Nobody on this staff has let down.&rdquo;At the press conference that might alter Whaler history, Baldwin and Conrad announced the creation of a new position, namely, president. He will be a person with &ldquo;czar-like powers,&rdquo; according to Baldwin. He will also have &ldquo;complete control&rdquo; over the hockey operation, a development that has left Pleau very much in limbo.&ldquo;If they wanted to fire me, I assume they would have.&rdquo; said Pleau, who signed a two-year extension on his contract last June. &ldquo;I mean, I run the hockey operation and now they&rsquo;re going to hire someone to run the hockey operation. It doesn&rsquo;t lood good for me, does it?&rdquo;That depends on whom the new president will be. The name of Emile Francis, the current president and GM of the St. Louis Blues, has been in the news around Hartford ever since March 15. But nothing has happened, so Pleau continues to do the job he was hired to do.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to go to the world tournament in Germany and be back in time to see the finals of the Memorial Cup in Portland,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;I really like getting to know the kids. I&rsquo;ll tell you another thing about being in the field: You get feedback on your own scouts. Billy Dineen (Director or scouting), for example, is a very well-respected hockey man. Wherever I go. somebody says, &lsquo;Say hello to Foxy.&rsquo; This whole thing has been very educational for me?&rsquo;Pleau, who has been the Whalers&rsquo; GM for two seasons, has learned as he&rsquo;s gone along.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a coach,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 know that. Bringing the right coach in is critical. But as an organization, I think that we&rsquo;re in better shape now than we&rsquo;ve ever been.&rdquo;Dineen agreed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been with the Whalers for five years and this is the first time that I feel that we&rsquo;re totally on the right track,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re headed in the right direction. I think Larry now realizes the importance of draft picks, plus this was the rock-bottom year. We&rsquo;ll be better next year and in two years, we&rsquo;ll be respectable.&rdquo;Just who might be calling the shots at that time is anybody&rsquo;s guess, but Pleau and his staff have handled themselves well under adverse conditions.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not kidding,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve enjoyed it.&rdquo;WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Ross Yates, who led the American Hockey League in scoring this season while playing for Binghamton, received a bottle of champagne, a telegram and a check for $5,000 from Pleau. &ldquo;I guess he (Yates) called Jack Mcllhargey (Binghamton&rsquo;s assistant coach) to see if the guys were playing a joke on him,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;But this is how tradition starts. Three or four years from now, nobody with the Whalers will consider a bonus like that a joke.&rdquo; Pleau also sweetened Ronnie Francis&rsquo; contract. &ldquo;Ronnie signed a contract that a lot of No. Is wouldn&rsquo;t have,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;We told him to do it first and then he would get his money. He&rsquo;s done a lot for us in the last two years, so he deserves some extra consideration.&rdquo; Contract negotiations involving Mark Johnson. Doug Sulliman and Chris Kotsopoulos continue with each facing possible free agency (with equalization) June 1. &#9632;

The Job Goes On For Whaler GM Pleau

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The Hockey News THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY $1.25 64522 MAY 6,1983 Vol. 36, No. 30

In our next issue, we&rsquo;ll continue our complete coverage of the road to the Stanley Cup finals. As well as having capsule reports of each game played and a behind-the scenes look at each series, we&rsquo;ll have all the game summaries and statistics.Also, as the Stanley Cup reaches its climax, it signals another great hockey event&mdash;the Memorial Cup, which is emblematic of junior hockey supremacy.This year, the Memorial Cup is being held in Portland, Ore., the first time it has been held outside of Canada. We will profile the host city and its classy junior organization, the Winter Hawks, which has sent innumerable players on to the NHL.We&rsquo;ll also take a look at the candidates for Candian Major Junior Hockey League Player of the Year&mdash;Cornwall Royal center Doug Gilmour, Verdun Junior center Pat Lafontaine and Kamloop Oiler forward Dean Eyason.On top of all that, we&rsquo;ll the all-star teams from all three major junior leagues in Canada.Don&rsquo;t miss all that, plus much, much more. &#9632;

Coming Next Issue

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011181/4800690-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="302" height="359"></div><h2>Stanley, I Presume</h2>AW STANLEY, YOU&rsquo;RE a D-Cup! Reflections, serious and otherwise, on a fine set of playoffs.&bull; A bit of the tripe vanished from the hype from previous years in New York when the Islanders and Rangers met in the Patrick Division final. But there was enough that anyone who had been away for 30 years would figure World War III was underway, not a hockey series.Expressions such as frenzy, the Puck Fairy and &ldquo;contrary to what the experts say,&rdquo; were used and not a single expert was identified. Funny, there are always packs of experts in New York but has anyone ever met one face-to-face?&bull; The Maple Leafs needed to beat only the Detroit Red Wings to make the playoffs&mdash;they also finished in front of the St. Louis Blues&mdash;but the fact that the team showed a slight improvement and did get to play a little hockey in April has Toronto jumping the way a real hockey city jumps.Toronto is a real hockey city in the way a few New York media folks like to think New York is, but really isn&rsquo;t.&bull; The Islanders&rsquo; Bob Bourne scored an absolutely majestic goal against the Rangers in the fifth game on Long Island. Bourne picked up the puck behind the Isles&rsquo; net and. in that deceptive stride, was in high gear in a couple of steps.There was nothing very subtle about the goal, which was executed like a &ldquo;fly pattern&rdquo; in football. Bourne&rsquo;s speed simply carried him the length of the ice, although he applied a nifty little move to beat Reijo Ruotsalainen and slid a shot behind goalie Ed Mio. The stunning part of the goal was the speed at which Bourne accomplished it.<h2>The Sutter Boys</h2>&bull; AFTER ORDINARY SEASONS, Duane and Brent Sutter excelled in the playoffs for the Islanders, working on a line with Bourne. Their persistence in dogging the puck made you think they had paid for the rubber.&bull; Comment from Bourne on his linemates: &ldquo;The Sutters never stop talking about hockey. Go to dinner with them on the road and that&rsquo;s what you hear. They want to have the puck all the time and that&rsquo;s an attitude that you want to see in your linemates.&rdquo;&bull; The performance of the Boston Bruins indicates that a) a huge budget isn&rsquo;t the answer to NHL success, b) careful drafting and good development of talent is the big thing and c) Rick Middleton and Barry Pederson are as a strong an offensive duo as the NHL owns and that includes Wayne Gretzky and whoever he is with or Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier.&bull; Orval Tessier certainly has played no favorites in his rookie season as coach of the Chicago Black Hawks. He&rsquo;s placed his two best forwards, Denis Savard and Al Secord, on the bench at various times, Savard during a pre-season game and Secord in a playoff match for taking an unnecessary penalty.&bull; The rumor mills have produced more candidates for the jobs of managing director and head coach of the Montreal Canadiens than for any other openings in recent memory. The leading prospects? Richard Burton as managing director and Herschel Walker as coach. Well, some of the people suggested aren&rsquo;t much sillier than those two.&bull; Gretzky had a very honest assessment after the Oilers won the Smythe Division by eliminating Vancouver and Calgary before facing Chicago in the conference finals.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice that we&rsquo;ve won two rounds, but we haven&rsquo;t beaten a team in the top 10,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we have to do now.&rdquo;<h2>Question, Questions</h2>HOW ABOUT A few questions raised by the late season and playoff developments?&bull; Does the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; quick ouster by the Rangers indicate large flaws in the Flyers&rsquo; good rebuilding job or can the team hang in for another year with some of its veterans?&bull; Did the Flyers build a team that possibly could have beaten the Islanders to win the Patrick Division but couldn&rsquo;t cope with the Rangers&rsquo; speed?&bull; Can Lou Nanne stand pat with the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; roster after the team that looked to be on the verge of big things when it was in the Stanley Cup final in &rsquo;81 failed to win its division again?&bull; Is there any way the NHL board of governers can turn down the Saskatoon group&rsquo;s possession of the St. Louis Blues and a shift of the franchise and avoid a large amount of long, expensive litigation.&bull; Was the Maple Leafs&rsquo; revitalization for real and does the club have sufficient talent to reach the .500 plateau on a consistent basis. &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011200/4800721-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Middleton, above, is effective playing either offen-sively or defensively. He credits his success to former Bruin coach Don Cherry and vows to buy Cherry a case of champagne if the Bruins win the Cup.</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;It was the first period of the fifth Boston-Buffalo playoff game and the Bruins were working with a comfortable 4-0 lead.The Sabres&rsquo; Tony McKegney broke across the Boston blueline. Rick Middleton, backchecking, bumped McKegney with his body, deftly lifted his stick, spun him around and dumped him on the ice. Barry Pederson pick up the loose puck, got it to Mike Knishelnyski for the fifth Bruin goal in a 9-0 rout.When the game was over, Middleton was tied with Wayne Gretzky for the scoring lead in the playoffs. He had eight goals and 15 assists. His 19 points against Buffalo were the most ever by an NHL player in a six-game series.But a lot of people preferred to come away from that game talking about that one defensive play on McKegney. Coach Gerry Cheevers was even touting him for the Selke Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s best defensive forward, an unlikely award because who ever heard of a 50-goal scorer who played defense?Well, Bruin GM Harry Sinden has.&ldquo;Rick Middleton is possibly the best all-around forward in the league,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;Some people might be surprised at that. Rick can spice up a dull game. He gives the people their money&rsquo;s worth. &rdquo;&ldquo;Defensively, he&rsquo;s going to pick your pockets,&rdquo; said Brad Park. &ldquo;Offensively, he&rsquo;s going to turn you inside out. He&rsquo;s just the total player, offensively and defensively. His moves offensively make him such a threat because of his goal production. Defensively, he positions himself so well, he&rsquo;s going to knock the puck away.&ldquo;Ricky and Wayne Gretzky can break a game wide open. Ricky&rsquo;s offensive stats don&rsquo;t put him on Gretzky&rsquo;s plateau, but offensively and defensively, look out!&rdquo;When Middleton came to the Bruins from the New York Rangers in trade for Ken Hodge in the spring of 1976, he wasn&rsquo;t an effective defensive player. The story has been told many times how the then-Bruin coach Don Cherry hammered, threatened and cajoled him into playing defense. Middleton still acknowledges his debt to Cherry.&ldquo;Don told me that if you&rsquo;re not going well offensively, work on your defense and the offense will take care of itself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never forgotten what Grapes said. If we win the Stanley Cup, I&rsquo;ll send him a case of champagne.&rdquo;Earlier in the first period of that same Buffalo game, with the Bruins playing shorthanded, Ray Bourque sprang Middleton loose one-on-one on Sabre rookie defenseman Phil Housley.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to be one of the most scary feelings in the world to be backing up and having Ricky coming down on you,&rdquo; Pederson is wont to say.&ldquo;Usually what I do in these situations is come around to the outside,&rdquo; said Middleton, &ldquo;but Housley seemed to be overplaying me that way. So I tried to put the puck through his feet to the inside.&rdquo;The puck bounced off Housley&rsquo;s skate and kept going. So did Middleton, leaving Housley turned the wrong way, looking up at the TV lights. After that, putting the puck in the net was a cinch.&ldquo;He dekes me out when I&rsquo;m sitting on the bench,&rdquo; said Steve Kasper. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so fluid. I have no idea where he is going. He never makes the same move twice coming down on a guy. He looks like he&rsquo;s coasting and before you know it he&rsquo;s by you and making more moves down the ice.&rdquo;The 9-0 victory, the Bruins&rsquo; most devastating performance of the season, gave them a 3-2 lead in their series, but Buffalo bounced right back on home ice to even the series with a 5-3 win. The Sabres held Middleton off the score sheet. The same with his linemate Pederson, who had 14 points against them in the series.In Game Seven, the Bruins required overtime to edge the hardworking Sabres 3-2. Buffalo jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Ric Seiling but Boston tied it with Pederson and Park beating Sabre netminder Bob Sauve.In overtime, Pederson beat Buffalo&rsquo;s Brent Peterson on the faceoff and pulled it back to Park, who blasted a slapshot at Sauve. Sauve fell to the ice to make the save as did his defensemen, but the puck squirted loose to Park in the deep slot and he fired a hard shot over the pile of bodies in front of the net.Park called it the biggest goal of his career and it launched the Bruins into the Stanley Cup semi-finals against the defending Cup champion New York Islanders.WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;The injury jinx that haunted the Bruins all season (Kasper, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, Mike Milbury, Randy Hillier) appeared to have caught up with them again when Kasper went down with a concussion in the sixth game of the Buffalo series. &ldquo;You certainly can&rsquo;t avoid injuries,&rdquo; said Milbury. &ldquo;Every team has them. But it&rsquo;s only the good teams like the Bruins and the Islanders that can fight back hard and keep on winning. I hate to use the word &lsquo;character&rsquo; because it&rsquo;s so overdone. But that&rsquo;s what it really comes down to. If you don&rsquo;t come up with a lot of bumps and bruises in a playoff game, maybe you ought to take a look at your game films and find out why you&rsquo;re not doing your job.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Middleton Pickpockets Sabre Hopes

It may well go down in National Hockey League history as The Battle of Saskatchewan.Who will win it remains to be seen, and your opinion on that depends on how many law degrees you have. At least, that would seem to be the case.In one comer, is Wild Bill Hunter, the Canadian sports entrepreneur who has led a group which has signed a conditional deal to buy the St. Louis Blues from Ralston Purina Co.If you listen to Hunter, the St. Louis Blues will be transferred to Saskatoon, a prairie city with 163,000 inhabitants and no rink large enough to house an NHL team, and begin playing there next fall.In the other comer, is the National Hockey League, Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard, Chicago Black Hawk owner Bill Wirtz and who knows who else among the league&rsquo;s governors.If you listen to them, hell will freeze over&mdash;some of them suggest it would in Saskatoon&mdash;before the NHL will permit a franchise to be located in the small prairie city.Meanwhile, the lawyers are rubbing their hands in glee and the hockey fans of St. Louis are shedding a tear or two.You can do all the speculating you wish, but until the NHL board of governors convene for a special meeting, which Ralston Purina has requested, no one really knows what is going to happen.Hunter has already admitted that the biggest roadblock would be approval from the NHL board. Exactly how many of the NHL&rsquo;s 21 governors are needed to support the move if it&rsquo;s going to happen is unclear because of a special clause in a prior agreement between the Blues and the league.If the board approves the transfer&mdash;Wirtz says the transfer motion won&rsquo;t get a single vote&mdash;then Saskatoon has its NHL team, even if it doesn&rsquo;t have an NHL-sized rink.If the board rejects the transfer&mdash;Hunter says he is confident of approval&mdash;then the ball is back in Hunter&rsquo;s court. Or more specifically, that is where he may have to go to get permission to transfer the team.Hunter and his group are said to have paid in excess of $13 million for the franchise. Rumors abound that the NHL will try to discourage the transfer by applying a stiff transfer fee.Again, it&rsquo;s all speculation. What is clear is that the St. Louis Blues are not a viable financial operation. While the city has always been supportive of the team, the lack of a television deal and no income from concessions has made the team a losing proposition.Five years ago, Ralston Purina kept the team alive when it looked as if it was going down the tubes. In the past few months, Ralston Purina shopped the team, but little interest was shown in St. Louis.One local group made a pitch, but it seems clear that they don&rsquo;t have the capital to be competitive with the Saskatoon offer. That&rsquo;s why Ralston Purina dealt with Hunter and his group.It&rsquo;s all rather confusing and that&rsquo;s why the consensus is the entire matter may have to be settled in court.At any rate, the folks in Saskatchewan have already begun celebrating.&ldquo;It looks like it&rsquo;s done,&rdquo; said Saskatoon mayor Clifford Wright. &ldquo;From Humboldt to Regina to Herschel, the lid is just going to come off this province now.&ldquo;The level of support has been tremendous from the major urban areas to the tiny hamlets. In fact, the town of Herschel has only 60 people and 30 of them have applied for season tickets.&rdquo;Hunter claims he has more than 18,000 requests for season tickets.Now, if only they had an arena.Stay tuned&hellip; &#9632;

The Battle Of Saskatchewan Looms

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;When the Minnesota North Stars were evicted from the Stanley Cup chase in five games by Chicago, every part of the North Stars&rsquo; anatomy was laid open on the operating table for post-mortems&mdash;and there are legitimate questions about every part.Was the club in good enough physical condition? Was scrimmaging without any conditioning drills in training camp useful or counter-productive? Was the mental turmoil of three coaches (Glen Sonmor, Murray Oliver and Lou Nanne) more than enough disruption? Did Nanne&rsquo;s tenure on the bench teach him that his players weren&rsquo;t as good as he thought early in the season, when he said the club&rsquo;s talent &ldquo;compares favorably&rdquo; to the Islanders, whom he considers the best? Has the new traditional Minnesota reliance on the power play finally been dispelled? Or has the club not yet learned that equal-strength play is what separates the contenders from the pretenders?The players suspect a major trade or two and they have publicly chorused they hope the new coach is a stem disciplinarian. Nanne admitted the new coach would be given firm support and full backing by him. Presumably, that means the new coach would not have to endure any more between-periods or before-game appearances by Nanne.As soon as the playoffs ended&mdash;which was very soon&mdash;Nanne took off to scout Verdun Junior Pat Lafontaine in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League championships (Minnesota has the No. 1 pick overall in the June entry draft). He then headed for Europe and the World Champioships, presumably to try to pursuade Dave King to coach the North Stars and not the Canadian Olympic team next year.Meanwhile, back at the playoffs, the Stars will need a new slogan next year. When Sonmor was coach, his favorite slogan when the Minnesota North Stars were behind in a playoff series was Yogi Berra&rsquo;s famous line: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s never over till it&rsquo;s over.&rdquo; Sonmor isn&rsquo;t coach anymore, but various members of the North Stars used that same slogan repeatedly as the North Stars fell behind the Chicago Black Hawks 2-0 in games, then won 5-1 in Game Three.However, it all turned out to be merely lip service for the North Stars, who proved that it&rsquo;s never over till it&rsquo;s over, except sometimes.It was over for the North Stars as of Game Four, with 15,000-plus fans screaming at Met Center, even though the Stars went ahead 3-0 on a goal by emerging leader Brian Bellows in the first period and tallies by Craig Hartsburg and Brad Maxwell in the second.A 3-0 lead and the near-certain prospects of going back to Chicago with games tied 2-2, seemed an unlikely place to signal the end of the chase for Minnesota. But the end was near. The Stars continued to play the George Ferguson-A1 MacAdam-Willi Plett checking line against the Denis Savard line. That line played very well, especially considering how little the three played during the regular season. But, in retrospect, the Stars never generated any offensive rhythm and they were unable to cope with Tom Lysiak.The autopsy on the offense showed defensemen Brad Maxwell (five goals, three assists, 11 points) and Hartsburg (three goals, eight assists) were the club&rsquo;s leading scorers in the playoffs. There was balance as Bobby Smith, Dino Ciccarelli, Bellows, Steve Payne and Neal Broten all ranged from 18 points to seven, but of the 22 goals the top seven scorers got, 12 were on power plays. That means the power play was good, but the regular-shift scoring was feeble. In crucial settings, the power play might die and the team that counts on it is left high and dry.The same Lysiak who undid the Stars a year ago in the preliminary round looked at the 3-0 deficit in Game Four and scored at 13:02 of the second period. After Doug Wilson scored at 18:29, Lysiak scored again, on a rebound, to tie the game 3-3 in the third. Chicago outshot Minnesota 13-6 in the third period.In overtime, Chicago outshot Minnesota 11-5, breaking the Stars backs, hearts and various other anatomical parts when Rich Preston deflected in a pass to the slot by (who else?) Lysiak at 18:34. Preston lunged to deflect the shot past Gilles Meloche and, as he shot, was knocked crashing into the goal post by Steve Payne, who was one step late on the backcheck.Heading back to Chicago, you could have gotten almost any member of the Stars&rsquo; entourage to say, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not over till it&rsquo;s over.&rdquo; But it was. In Game Five, Dino Ciccarelli, Neal Broten and other Stars had great early chances against Tony Esposito, but he stoned them.Then Savard and Doug Wilson came back with first-period goals. Wilson&rsquo;s goal was an example of how Chicago worked together. Killing a penalty, Peter Marsh moved in to check the puck loose on the left boards. Preston promptly followed up, zipping a pass in toward the slot. Wilson, his downswing already started, drove a rocket past Meloche.A shorthanded goal, after the Stars had given up 20 of them in 80 regular-season games, seemed crushing. Early in the second period, it got more crushing. Bobby Smith looped back almost into Maxwell, who was carrying the puck out of the zone on the power play. Maxwell cut to his left and dropped a lateral pass, but Smith overskated it.The puck sat there, but only for an instant. Rick Paterson pounced on it and drilled another shorthanded goal and it was 3-0. Maxwell got a goal to cut it to 3-1 midway through the second period, but any similarity to the North Stars&rsquo; comeback and Chicago&rsquo;s the game before were snuffed at that point. Darryl Sutter scored before the second period ended and when Neal Broten set up Tom McCarthy for a third-period goal, it was nullified 33 seconds later by Curt Fraser&rsquo;s goal.The 5-2 loss eliminated the Stars in five games, one over the minimum. It also conclusively ended the speculation that the disoriented North Stars were legitimate Stanley Cup threats and left them open to questions when they had hoped to provide answers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011243/4800776-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="569" height="872"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Brad Maxwell led the team in scoring, indicating a problem up front.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

Stars Need Examination To Evaluate Team Status

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Tony Esposito, Rich Preston, and Tom Lysiak, the Black Hawks&rsquo; three oldest players, pooled their resources for a magnificent performance under pressure in Games Four and Five of the Stanley Cup quarter-final series with Minnesota.The result was the North Stars&rsquo; expulsion from the playoffs in a best-of seven series that lasted only five games.The pivotal game was the fourth, played in Minnesota. Chicago surmounted a three-goal deficit that stooc late in the second period and rallied foi a 4-3 overtime victory.Two nights later in Chicago Stadium, the Hawks wrapped up the series with a 5-2 triumph.After yielding to Murray Bannermar for five straight games, Esposito was in goal both nights. The NHL&rsquo;s senior citizen, who turned 40 on April 23. looked like the goaltender of old, not the old goaltender.&ldquo;Tony is a Hall of Famer, one of the all-time greats,&rdquo; said Lou Nanne, Minnesota&rsquo;s general manager and playoff coach, following the overtime thriller.&ldquo;And Preston and Lysiak are pros who have been in all kinds of situations for a long, long time. When you have game like this, guys like Esposito, Preston, and Lysiak want to be the hero.&ldquo;They aren&rsquo;t out there thinking&rsquo; Please, don&rsquo;t let me make a mistake.&rsquo;&ldquo;They want to be the ones who make it happen.&rdquo;With 10:34 elapsed in the overtime, it happened. Skating on 30-year-ok legs, Preston raced down the right side, took a pass from Lysiak at the goal mouth and shot from point-blank range.A split-second later, he was rammed into the goal by Minnesota defensemar Brad Maxwell. But it was too late. The puck had gone past Minnesota goalie Gilles Meloche, and the Hawks had a 3-1 lead in the series.&ldquo;The defense kept rushing and checking me at the blueline,&rdquo; said Lysiak, who turned 30 on April 22. &ldquo;1 decided to wheel over to the left side and see if I could draw attention.&ldquo;It worked. I missed Darryl Sutter with the pass. But then I saw Rich coming in from the other side, and I knew we had it.&rdquo;&ldquo;Tommy made a great play,&rdquo; said Preston. &ldquo;The goalie was playing Darryl. I had lots of net to shoot at. I wenl into the post pretty hard, but I knew it was in.&rdquo;Eariler, Lysiak scored the Hawks&rsquo; first goal on a power-play shot from the left circle with 6:58 to play in the second period. Then&mdash;after Doug Wilson scored later in the period&mdash;Lysiak struck again, tying the score 3-3 on the rebound of Sutter&rsquo;s shot with 2:37 elapsed in the third period.Esposito had 30 saves. The first North Star goal was scored when they had a two-man advantage; the second when they had a four-on-three advantage; and the third came when each team had a man in the penalty box.Brilliant in the clutch in Game Four, Esposito outdid himself in recording a 5-2 victory in Game Five.The Hawks were outshot 15-14 in the opening period, and 15-11 in the second period.But&mdash;thanks mainly to Esposito&rsquo;s stick saves, kick saves, one-handers, stabs in the dark, and chest stops &mdash; Chicago was able to take a 2-0 lead in the first period and increased its advantage to 4-1 in the second.Offensively, the Hawks were opportunists. The first goal came on a powerplay shot by Denis Savard after an excellent pass from Doug Crossman. The second and third goals were shorthanded strikes by Wilson and Rick Paterson.In Wilson&rsquo;s opinion, &ldquo;Tony singlehandedly kept us in the game. Starting out, we played about the worst five minutes of the series against those guys, and he knocked down four quick shots right at the start.&rdquo;&ldquo;Tony was the key to this one,&rdquo; agreed Savard. &ldquo;We were kind of nervous at the start. He calmed us down and changed the momentum.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031011/4800807-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="558" height="740"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran Tom Lysiak played a big role in the Hawks eliminating the North Stars.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-03

Hawk Veterans Doing The Job

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021173/4800845-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg"></div>Founded In 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenzieTHE HOCKEY NEWS. (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except monthly June through September by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 85 Scarsdale Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 4455702. In US. do W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave, New York, N.Y. 10022.YEMLY SIBSanrnOH RATES: $18 95 in the U SA $1895 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.SEMI ADDRESSCHANGES TO THE HOCKEYNEWS. 85 Scarsdale Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2. Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M38 2R2.IN THE IMHO STATES: Second class postage paid at New York. N.Y and at additional mailing offices. U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News. P.O Box 904, Buffalo. N.Y 14240<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04894/4800838-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="52" height="41"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div>Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

f0004-02

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011102/4800876-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="302" height="355"></div>Looking back, I think the way to go is to forget about finishing in first place and just rest your players for the playoffs.Bob McCammon, Flyers&rsquo; coach<h2>Memo To NHL Governors</h2>PLEASE READ, IF you like your league.This was truly an amazing episode, although the National Hockey League player in question may not have realized it at the time.It happened a couple of hours before the playoff game between the Islanders and Rangers. While some TV people were taking a rehearsal break, one of the Rangers ambled over and the talk covered a variety of hockey subjects.Finally, someone mentioned the unexpectedly hasty exit of the team with the second-best record over the 80-game schedule, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Flyers. The Ranger, who must go nameless because of the off-the-record nature of his remarks, flashed a sardonic grin.&ldquo;We learned a lesson from that,&rdquo; the Ranger said, alluding to the Flyers&rsquo; ignominy, which followed so closely on the heels of their glorious finish. &ldquo;The regular season doesn&rsquo;t mean a damn thing.&ldquo;Look at the Flyers. They busted their asses to finish on top and what do they get to show for it? Zip, that&rsquo;s what? So, what&rsquo;s the point in knocking yourself out for 80 games?&ldquo;I mean we had fourth place (in the Patrick Division) locked up so all there was to do was get ready for the playoffs. No point breaking our chops for second or third. No benefit.&rdquo;The secret words are &ldquo;no benefit.&rdquo; They are being echoed around the league, not by a solitary Ranger but by players galore and, worst of all, the media. When a significant block of public opinion-molders ridicule the 80-game schedule as it is now constructed, then serious attention should be paid to the problem.And believe me, there is a problem. A big one. I pick up the Montreal Gazette, for example, and the headline of Tim Burke&rsquo;s column is: NHL SEASON SET 1,680 GAMES LATE. Like so many other pained pundits, Burke noted on playoff eve &ldquo;&hellip;after 1,680 exhibition games, the NHL will finally get its season started.&rdquo;That terrible, terrible word &ldquo;exhibition&rdquo; emerges more and more. It hurts the NHL like a festering sore. It must be removed. But how?Harry Sinden, the Bruin general manager, has the superb remedy: Punish laggards like the Rangers and Nordiques, who are quite content to, as Sinden puts it, &ldquo;hang around&rdquo; and settle for fourth place.I&rsquo;m just wild about Harry because he has the answer: money that now goes to teams who finish fourth. Players who are on those clubs would get nothing. On the other hand, I&rsquo;d give much more to those on the first-and second-place teams.Excellent start, but hear Harry, he&rsquo;s got more smart things to say. He would further punish the fourth-place club in terms of home ice.&ldquo;In the opening round I would reward the first-and second-place teams by giving them the opening three games at home. If we keep the best-of-five format, the first- (and second-) place team would then play one game away and, if necessary, the final game at home.&ldquo;In the event we have a best-of-seven series in the opening round next season, the top two teams would still have the first three games at home; then two on the road and the final two, if necessary, at home.&rdquo;Sensational. Except for one thing: change requires the approval of the lodge members. Too many of them are blind to the need for reform. Others, as Sinden notes, are just plain greedy and selfish.&ldquo;If the Rangers or any of the seven Canadian teams played .500 hockey or below,&rdquo; says Sinden, &ldquo;they would not suffer at the gate. They can be so damn smug. They can afford not to make every effort during the regular season.&ldquo;But for teams like Chicago, Boston, Buffalo and L.A., it could mean disaster. Let&rsquo;s say we had a .500 record in Boston; why it could mean our jobs! If we (the Bruins) had the same record over the past decade as the Maple Leafs, there&rsquo;d have been five changes of ownership in Boston.&rdquo;Too true, Harry. What we&rsquo;ve got to do is persuade these &ldquo;smug&rdquo; sextets such as the Rangers et al to realize that what&rsquo;s best for the Bruins, Sabres et al is best for the league.If the Rangers and company have any doubts that Sinden is right, they should consult Frank Dolson, sports editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who says: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s something radically wrong when a first-place Flyers&rsquo; team that finished a whopping 26 points ahead of a fourth-place Rangers&rsquo; team has to go through one of these Russian-roulette preliminary series.&rdquo;<h2>Coaching In Minny</h2>WHEN NORTH STAR GM Lou Nanne went behind the bench to coach&mdash;and thereby upstaging interim coach Murray Oliver&mdash;it was an act of sheer desperation for a club then falling apart at the seams. More than anything, it indicates that Oliver will not be coach next fall and that Nanne is more actively in the market than ever.Some North Star-watchers believe the experience has been beneficial to Sweet Lou From The Soo, if only to persuade him that he is not, in fact, God. They note Nanne&rsquo;s next coach&mdash;if he is to survive, let alone succeed&mdash;must be granted independence from the GM most of all. The GM, unfortunately, cannot keep his fingers out of coaching; an affliction Emile Francis can tell him about as well.Nanne has been sensitive to some newsmen who have been irreverent in their writing about his behind-the-bench maneuvering. One such intrepid soul is Doug Grow, columnist for the Minneapolis Tribune.&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you go out and find a coach if you think it&rsquo;s so easy?&rdquo; Nanne snapped at Grow during one of their playoff confrontations.So, I am now asking Doug Grow how his search for a replacement for Nanne-Oliver is progressing.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy,&rdquo; says Grow.&ldquo;I know, but we newspapermen can&rsquo;t beat around the bush. Pick some coaches for Louie,&rdquo; I shoot back.&ldquo;Orval Tessier would be fascinating. Or Herb Brooks.&rdquo;&ldquo;Doug, make sense. You can&rsquo;t have them; those guys have jobs and they&rsquo;re not leaving.&rdquo;&ldquo;That leaves Dave King (University of Saskatchewan) and Gino Gasparini (University of North Dakota).&rdquo;I like Doug Grow, but I don&rsquo;t like his choices. Finally, I force feed him the best possible choice, Nanne&rsquo;s ego notwithstanding&mdash;Don Cherry.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s interesting,&rdquo; he says.No, Doug, not interesting. Obvious. Too obvious, unfortunately, for Sweet Lou From The Soo.<h2>Fischler Credit Checks</h2>IN THE SPIRIT of fairness, which always accompanies the Stanley Cup playoffs, it is time to give credit where credit is due. So&hellip;BRIAN BELLOWS: Whether the kid is chosen Rookie of the Year or not is irrelevant. Minnesota&rsquo;s top draft pick has emerged from his mountain of press clippings to become a first-rate hockey player. Just past the midway point in the season, word (right or wrong) was out that North Star GM Lou Nanne ordered Bobby Smith on Bellows&rsquo; line to fatten Bellows&rsquo; point total. Bellows has since demonstrated that he needs no such assistance. The lad rates three stars for fulfilling his notices and coming through when it counts.HAROLD BALLARD: No doubt jealous of Harold&rsquo;s mirth, girth and worth, a few tiresome titwillows of the Toronto press corps have tarred Pal Hal for his stewardship of the Leafs and his underlings. Nervertheless, H.B.&rsquo;s GM Gerry McNamara has, in a short time, made more good deals than anyone since David Poile and Hal has let Gerry do his thing. &ldquo;The reason we were able to stick to our game plan,&rdquo; McNamara told John Robertson of the Toronto Sun, &ldquo;was that Harold didn&rsquo;t set any time limits or give us any ultimatums.&rdquo; Three stars for you Harold.RICHARD BEDDOES: This is grossly dishonest of me because Dick is one of my all-time heroes (when we&rsquo;re not fighting) as a writer, broadcaster and haberdasher. Nevertheless, Richard rates a hip-hip for what he recently did to Glen Sather. The Oiler ruler was supposed to appear on the TV show Overtime&rsquo; with Beddoes. There was only one catch: Sather insisted on dictating the terms of the questioning. He wanted a positive interview. Nix to that, barked Beddoes. Richard refused to accomodate Sather and simply didn&rsquo;t show up. Dave Hodge and Gary (Positively Positive) Domhoefer replaced him. I toast you, Dick, and the power of negative thinking!<h2>Questionable Moves</h2>SOMETIMES YOU HAVE to wonder why brilliant people do less-than-brilliant things when they become hockey executives. The 1982-83 season is no exception. For example:&bull; Why did the Flyers take the captaincy away from Bill Barber when Philly was playing its best hockey with the &lsquo;C on Bill?It was a big mistake. Not only did the move hurt Barber&rsquo;s feelings, but it wounded the Flyers, too. Making Bobby Clarke the replacement captain was an act of unecessary redundancy. Clarke didn&rsquo;t need it, nor did Philly need him as captain since he did all good things without the &lsquo;C&rsquo;.&bull; Why did the Maple Leafs persist in keeping super-goon Paul Higgins on their roster throughout the season?Whatever kudos the Gerry McNamara-Mike Nykoluk regime obtained for turning the team around in the homestretch was negated by the employment of Higgins. His contribution to the club became the laughing stock of the Toronto media and it&rsquo;s a wonder that the truculent members of the Maple Leaf press corps didn&rsquo;t come down even harder on the home club for the egregious sin.&bull; Why didn&rsquo;t Jet coach Tom Watt make Doug Soetaert his first-string playoff goalie instead of Bryan Hayward?It&rsquo;s an easy second-guess. Watt&mdash;and Hayward&mdash;blew it, but Tom must have figured that he had the second coming of Ken Dryden. Remember, Dryden, a Cornell grad like Hayward, stopped the favored Bruins cold in the famed 1971 playoff upset. I don&rsquo;t blame Watt for what he did, but I blame him now that I know the results. At this point in time, Soetaert is the more experienced and better goaltender. &#9632;

f0005-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;Less than two years ago, Scott Stevens reported to the Kitchener Rangers&rsquo; training camp, a defenseman just out of midget hockey with a reputation as a youngster of few words but ready fists.Now Stevens is competing for Canada in the World Championships in West Germany, taking along a reputation as a youngster of few words, ready fists and unlimited potential.During his only year of junior hockey, Stevens helped Kitchener win the Memorial Cup. He played so well that the Washington Capitals selected him fifth overall in the 1982 National Hockey League entry draft.Roger Crozier, then the Capitals&rsquo; acting GM, was disappointed when the man he wanted, Ron Sutter, was a surprise choice of the Philadelphia Flyers, one spot before Washington was due to pick.At training camp, Stevens was first tabbed as a sixth defenseman, to be given as much experience as possible while learning his trade. However, after watching Stevens bang bodies around for two weeks, coach Bryan Murray moved him into a regular role, alongside veteran Brian Engblom.In 77 regular-season games, Stevens collected nine goals, 16 assists, 195 penalty minutes and a plus-15 rating, just three points behind club leader Glen Currie. Ron Sutter, in 10 games, scored one goal.Stevens&rsquo; best efforts came while Engblom was hurt, as he responded with outstanding play in consecutive road victories over Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the New York Islanders, with each opponent limited to one goal.When the playoffs arrived, Murray paid Stevens the ultimate tribute&mdash;he used a revolving three-man defense, with Stevens, Engblom and Rod Langway each playing two of every three shifts.Unable to lure Langway or Engblom into confrontations, the Islanders had better luck with Stevens, who wound up as the series penalty leader with 26 minutes.In Game One, Stevens was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for helping two teammates in a dispute with the Sutter brothers. Early in the second period of Game Two, he was ejected as the third man in a rather trivial altercation between teammate Gaetan Duchesne and the Islanders&rsquo; Bob Bourne. Then, in Game Four, he was assessed a double minor, compared to nothing for New York&rsquo;s Anders Kallur, when he refused to stop punching the retreating Swede.&ldquo;They were rookie mistakes,&rdquo; said Capital general manager David Poile. &ldquo;We want Scott to be aggressive, but he has to learn that other clubs are going to try to get him out or there, And he can&rsquo;t go around punching guys who aren&rsquo;t punching back.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to complain about it, though. The way Scott has played this season, we can take a few bad things with the good. He&rsquo;s going to be a superstar in this league.&rdquo;Stevens showed superstar qualities on an unassisted goal in Game Three. He split the Islander defense and, despite a hook by Denis Potvin that drew a delayed penalty signal, put the puck behind goalie Roland Melanson.&ldquo;It was a great feeling to score a Stanley Cup (playoff) goal, but it would have been a lot bigger if we&rsquo;d won,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;This was been a good experience and I&rsquo;ve enjoyed it, but I like to win.&ldquo;I felt kind of dumb getting kicked out of the second game, particularly because I was told after the first game to watch out for that kind of stuff. But I don&rsquo;t like a guy jumping on another guy and when the fight started, I went for Bourne. I didn&rsquo;t realize what was happening.&rdquo;Murray gave Stevens a tongue lashing, but Stevens&rsquo; teammates backed him up.&ldquo;I was upset at Scott for getting involved, but the guys stood up for him,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Then they stepped in and helped make up for his absence (Washington won 4-2). It was that way all season.&rdquo; &#9632;

Caps Beaming With A Future ‘Superstar’

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1037/4800994-1-eng-US/f0006-102.jpg" title="f0006-10" width="779" height="881"><figcaption class="caption-body">Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier scored eight of his 11 playoff goals in the five-game series against the Calgary Flames.</figcaption></div>As this issue went to press, the big surprise in the Campbell Conference was not that the Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Black Hawks were going head-to-head for the title. Rather, it was that the Oilers had no trouble beating the Hawks 8-4 in the series opener at Edmonton.Neither team had much trouble getting to the conference final. Edmonton polished off Calgary in five games and the Hawks used the same number to send the Minnesota North Stars packing for the season.It&rsquo;s expected that the Hawks will get back on track and at least make it close, although Edmonton has been playing outstanding hockey so far in the playoffs.Following are capsule reports of each Campbell Conference playoff game played.Game One: The Edmonton Oilers came out with all their guns blazing and shot down the Chicago Black Hawks 8-4 in the opening of the best-of-seven Campbell Conference championship series.Just as the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames did before them, the Black Hawks simply couldn&rsquo;t handle the overpowering Oilers, who ran up 22 scoring points in the game, five of which went to Wayne Gretzky.The awesome Oilers played on fairly even terms with Chicago through the first 20 minutes but after that it was all Edmonton as the Oilers&rsquo; offense went into high gear to grab a commanding 6-1 lead before the Hawks knew what hit them. The teams matched three-goal third-period performances as Edmonton skated off with first blood in the conference final.In a battle of the NHL&rsquo;s top offensive team against the league&rsquo;s No. 4 defense, it was the Edmonton snipers who went home smiling. Jan Kurri scored twice to lead the Oiler onslaught. Gretzky counted once and assisted on four more goals. But not one of his points were scored at even strength. On the power play, he set up Kurri twice to give Edmonton an NHL record 10 shorthanded goals in the playoffs. The Oilers have now scored 43 goals in their last six games.Ray Cote, Dave Hunter, Ken Linseman, Glen Anderson and Mark Messier each scored once for the Oilers. For Messier and Gretzky it was their 11th goals of the playoffs. Andy Moog was in goal for his eighth win for Edmonton.Al Secord shot two of the Chicago goals with singles going to Doug Crossman and Bill Gardner.<h2>Sun. Apr. 24</h2>CHICAGO 4, EDMONTON 8First PeriodChicago 1 &mdash; Secord 3 (Savard, Crossman) 13:38.Edmonton 2 &mdash; Cote 3 (Hughes, Hunter) 18:17.Penalties &mdash; Preston (Chi), Anderson (Edm) 0:04; Wilson (Chi) 7:21; Coffey (Edm) 11:59; Preston (Chi) 12:28.Second PeriodEdmonton 3 &mdash; Hunter 2 (Fogolin, Hughes) 1:13.4 &mdash; Linseman 6 (Lindstrom, Messier) 6:58.5 &mdash; Anderson 3 (Kurri, Gretzky) 7:47.6 &mdash; Gretzky 11 (Messier, Kurri) 12:59.Penalties &mdash; B. Murray (Chi) 1:34; Sutter (Chi) 10:53; Paterson (Chi) 12:20; Savard (Chi) 13:33; Linseman (Edm) 14:15; Fox (Chi) double minor 17:30; Chicago bench (served by Paterson) 20:00.Third PeriodEdmonton 7 &mdash; Messier 11 (Coffey, Gretzky) 0:25.Chicago 8 &mdash; Crossman 3 (Savard, Secord) 3:06.9 &mdash; Secord 4 (Savard, Larmer) 11:52. Edmonton 10 &mdash; Kurri 3 (Gretzky) 12:17.11 &mdash; Kurri 4 (Gretzky) 14:52.Chicago 12 &mdash; Gardner 1 (Marsh, Paterson) 18:43.Penalties &mdash; Huddy (Edm) 0:50; Brown (Chi) 5:22; Semenko (Edm) major 10:51; Hughes (Edm) 6:51.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011281/4800987-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="372" height="74"></div>Attendance: 17,498.(Edmonton leads best-of-seven series 1-0)<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02944/4800980-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="118" height="106"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MINNESOTA vs CHICAGO</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03619/4800973-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="110" height="103"></div>Game Four: The Chicago Black Hawks moved to within one game of winning the Norris Division title after turning back the Minnesota North Stars 4-3 in sudden-death overtime.Rich Preston&rsquo;s game-winning goal at 10:34 of the overtime period pushed the Hawks into a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.The real hero of the Chicago victory was center Tom Lysiak, who scored two goals, including the tying goal early in the third period that forced the overtime, and assisted Preston for the game winner.The Hawks, trailing 3-0 at one time, came back on Lysiak&rsquo;s two goals and one by Doug Wilson. Veteran Tony Esposito took over from Murray Bannerman in goal and posted the win.Brian Bellows, Craig Hartsburg and Brad Maxwell gave Minnesota a seemingly insurmountable three-goal lead but the Hawks finished strong, outshooting Minnesota 13-6 in the third period and 11-5 in the overtime before Preston won it.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>Mon. Apr. 18</h2>CHICAGO 4, MINNESOTA 3First PeriodMinnesota 1 &mdash; Bellows 5 (Smith, Sargent) 13:05.Penalties &mdash; Wilson (Chi) 0:22; Roberts (Min) 5:44; Smith (Min) 9:22; Crossman (Chi) 11:59; Paterson (Chi) 12:57; Fraser (Chi), Maxwell (Min) 19:46.Second PeriodMinnesota 2 &mdash; Hartsburg 3 (Broten, Smith) 1:13.3 &mdash; Maxwell 4 (Bellows, Roberts) 10:50. Chicago 4 &mdash; Lysiak 4 (Crossman, Wilson) 13:02.5 &mdash; Wilson 3 (Fraser, Ludzik) 18:29.Penalties &mdash; Secord Chi) 1:06; Plett (Min), Savard (Chi) 10:09; Broten (Min), Savard (Chi), Ciccarelli (Min) 12:20.Third PeriodChicago 6 &mdash; Lysiak 5 (Sutter, Fox) 2:37. Penalties &mdash; None.Overtime PeriodChicago 7 &mdash; Preston 2 (Lysiak, Fox) 10:34.Penalties &mdash; None.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04411/4800966-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="373" height="76"></div>Attendance: 15,445.(Chicago leads best-of-seven series 3-1).Game Five: The Chicago Black Hawks eliminated the Minnesota North Stars from the 1983 Stanley Cup playoffs and when you look back on the series, the Norris Division final was hardly a contest.The Hawks whipped the Stars 5-2 in the final game to take the best-of-seven series 4-1 and advance to the Campbell Conference finals against the Edmonton OilersThe Hawks took control from the start, scoring twice and added to their total as veteran goalie Tony Esposito stepped in for the second game and thwarted Minnesota.Denis Savard, Doug Wilson, Rich Paterson, Daryl Sutter and Curt Fraser scored the Chicago goals. Paterson&rsquo;s goal, his first of the playoffs, was the winner and came on a shorthanded effort. Wilson also scored with the Hawks playing shorthanded.The North Stars actually outshot Chicago 39-35 but Esposito was strong in goal and except for a second-period goal by Brad Maxwell and another by Tom McCarthy in the final period, the North Stars&rsquo; offense sagged. Minnesota coach Lou Nanne said the two shorthanded goals by Chicago were the big difference.<h2>Wed. Apr. 20</h2>MINNESOTA 2, CHICAGO 5First PeriodChicago 1 &mdash; Savard 4 (Crossman, Larmer) 7:24.2 &mdash; Wilson 4 (Preston, Marsh) 19:22.Penalties &mdash; Broten (Min) double minor, Ludzik (Chi) double minor, 3:06; Hartsburg (Min), Gardner (Chi) 4:06; Maxwell (Min) 6:48; Roberts (Min), Ludzik (Chi) 11:28; B. Murray (Chi) 17:49.Second PeriodChicago 3 &mdash; Paterson 1, 4:13.Minnesota 4 &mdash; Maxwell 2 (Ferguson, Roberts) 10:22.Chicago 5 &mdash; Sutter 3 (Lysiak, Preston) 15:07.Penalties &mdash; Payne (Min) 0:43; B. Murray (Chi) 3:21; Payne (Min), Wilson (Chi) 9:44; Higgins (Chi) 19:10.Third PeriodMinnesota 6 &mdash; McCarthy 2 (Broten, Sargent) 9:12.Chicago 7 &mdash; Fraser 3 (Wilson) 9:45.Penalties &mdash; Higgins (Chi), Minnesota bench (served by Douglas) 16:09.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-05335/4800959-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="356" height="79"></div>Attendance: 17,439.(Chicago wins best-of-seven series 4-1).<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-06239/4800952-1-eng-US/f0006-062.jpg" title="f0006-06" width="124" height="106"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>CALGARY vs EDMONTON</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-07131/4800945-1-eng-US/f0006-072.jpg" title="f0006-07" width="110" height="106"></div>Game Four: The Calgary Flames proved the Edmonton Oilers are not invincible, after all.The Flames, facing elimination from their best-of-seven Smythe Division final series, had to withstand a furious third-period comeback by the Oilers before pulling out a 6-5 victory that still left Edmonton with a 3-1 series lead.Sparked by defenseman Paul Reinhart&rsquo;s fifth and sixth goals of the playoffs, the desperate Flames fought back with all their resources to run up a 6-2 lead before the Oilers got untracked in the third period to score three times in a span of seven minutes. Lanny McDonald, Jim Jackson, Mel Bridgman and Greg Meredith scored the other Calgary goals. Goalie Don Edwards came up with a strong game in net for the Flames, handling 33 shots to keep Calgary in the playoffs.The Oilers were victims of some strong forechecking by the Flames, the likes of which they hadn&rsquo;t seen in the first three games of the series, which Edmonton won, outscoring Calgary 21-6. Jari Kurri, Wayne Gretzky, with his ninth goal of the playoffs, Ken Linseman, with two, and Tom Roulston, were the Edmonton scorers.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>Mon. Apr. 18</h2>EDMONTON 5, CALGARY 6First PeriodCalgary 1 &mdash; Reinhart 5 (McDonald, Chouinard) 6:05.Edmonton 2 &mdash; Kurri 2 (Gretzky) 8:20.Calgary 3 &mdash; McDonald 3 (Russell, Eloranta) 11:32.Edmonton 4 &mdash; Gretzky 9 (Anderson) 13:19.Penalties &mdash; Anderson (Edm) 4:14; Fogolin (Edm) 5:32; Russell (Cal) 8:08; Fogolin (Edm) double minor-major, T. Hunter (Cal) minormajor, Lavallee (Cal) 18:01.Second PeriodCalgary 5 &mdash; Reinhart 6 (Chouinard) 12:17.6 &mdash; J. Jackson 2 (Nilsson, Risebrough) 17:41.Penalties &mdash; Macoun (Cal) 2:13; Linseman (Edm), McDonald (Cal) 4:26; Russell (Cal) 5:14; Fogolin (Edm) 12:09; Bridgman (Cal) 13:55; Messier (Edm), Meredith (Cal) 19:09.Third PeriodCalgary 7 &mdash; Bridgman 3 (McDonald, Chouinard) 2:56.8 &mdash; Meredith 3 (Bridgman) 9:50.Edmonton 9 &mdash; Linseman 4 (Anderson, Huddy) 10:08.10 &mdash; Linseman 5 (Lowe) 12:45.11 &mdash;Roulston 1 (Lowe, Gregg) 17:32.Penalties &mdash;Lowe (Edm) 1:01; Moog (Edm) (served by Linseman) 2:46; D. Hunter (Edm) minor-double misconduct, Hughes (Edm) double minor, Fogolin (Edm) major-game misconduct, McDonald (Cal) minor-major, T. Hunter (Cal) minor-double misconduct, Eloranta (Cal) major-game misconduct 4:35; Konroyd (Cal) 18:12.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-0874/4800938-1-eng-US/f0006-082.jpg" title="f0006-08" width="369" height="77"></div>Attendance: 7,242.(Edmonton leads best-of-seven series 3-1)Game Five: Awesome was probably the best word to describe the Edmonton Oilers in their romp to the Smythe Division title.The Oilers simply had too much of everything for the Calgary Hames as they overwhelmed them 9-1 to take the best-of-seven series 4-1 and advance against Chicago for the Campbell Conference championship.Generating a powerful offense, fast skating and slick passing, the Oilers completely outclassed the Flames as they outscored Calgary 35-13 in the five games. Five unanswered second-period goals knocked the Flames out of contention as Wayne Gretzky scored once and helped set up two more to lead the rout of the Hames.Defenseman Paul Coffey scored twice, his sixth and seventh of the playoffs, to spark the Oilers to their seventh playoff win in eight games this season. Mark Messier, Randy Gregg, Pat Hughes, Jim Jackson and Glenn Anderson counted the rest of the Edmonton goals. For Gretzky and Messier, they were their 10th goals of the playoffs. Goalie Andy Moog thwarted the Hames&rsquo; best shots as he posted his seventh playoff win.Steve Konroyd spoiled Moog&rsquo;s bid for a second playoff shutout when he scored the lone Calgary goal midway in the final period with Edmonton leading 7-0.<h2>Wed. Apr. 20</h2>CALGARY 1, EDMONTON 9First PeriodEdmonton 1 &mdash; Coffey 6 (Gretzky, Kurri) 12:09.2 &mdash; Messier 10 (Lindstrom, Lowe) 17:40.Penalties &mdash; Calgary bench (served by Lavallee) 10:44; Cote (Edm) 13:12; Russell (Cal) 15:33; 19:38.Second PeriodEdmonton 3 &mdash; Coffey 7 (Huddy, Lindstrom) 1:39.4 &mdash; Gregg 2 (Hughes, Hunter) 3:42.5 &mdash; Hughes 2 (Hunter) 7:03.6 &mdash; Jackson 2 (Roulston, Semenko) 15:16.7 &mdash; Gretzky 10 (Huddy, Coffey) 16:27.Penalties &mdash; Cote (Edm) 2:18; Fogolin (Edm) 4:56; Huddy (Edm) 10:05; McDonald (Cal) 10:40.Third PeriodCalgary 8 &mdash; Konroyd 2 (Risebrough, Nilsson) 9:32.Edmonton 9 &mdash; Anderson 2 (Kurri, Gretzky) 13:49.10 &mdash; Cote 2 (Lowe, Fogolin) 18:53.Penalties &mdash; None.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-0952/4800931-1-eng-US/f0006-092.jpg" title="f0006-09" width="383" height="94"></div>Attendance: 17,489.(Edmonton wins best-of-seven series 4-1) &#9632;

f0006-10

Hawks, Oilers In Conference Showdown

CAMPBELL CONFERENCEFINALSCHICAGO vs EDMONTONSun. Apr. 24Chicago 4 at Edmonton 8Tue. Apr. 26Chicago at EdmontonSun. May 1Edmonton at ChicagoTue. May 3Edmonton at ChicagoThu. May 5Chicago at EdmontonSun. May 8Edmonton at ChicagoTue. May 10Chicago at Edmonton<h2>EDMONTON vs CHICAGO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1135/4801032-1-eng-US/f0006-112.jpg" title="f0006-11" width="374" height="58"></div>Game scores: Chi 4 at Edm 4; Chi 8 at cam o, Edm 10 at Chi 4.Goalgetters: Edm Coffey 4, Anderson, Kurri 3, Gretzky, Hughes, Huddy, Linseman, 2 each. Chi, Lysiak 5, Savard, Secord 3.Goaltending: Edm, Moog 1-0-1, Fuhr 0-1-0; Chi, Esposito 1-0-1, Bannerman 0-1-0.Shots on goal, Edm, 99, Chi, 83.<h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2>FINALSISLANDERS vs BOSTONTue. Apr. 26Islanders at BostonThu. Apr. 28Islanders at BostonSat. Apr. 30Boston at IslandersTue. May 3Boston at IslandersThu. May 5Islanders at BostonSat May 7Boston at IslandersTue. May 10Islanders at BostonBOSTON vs ISLANDERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-1228/4801025-1-eng-US/f0006-122.jpg" title="f0006-12" width="373" height="59"></div>Goalgetters: Bos, Fergus 2, K. Crowder, Palmer, Cashman, Middleton, Pederson, 1 each. NYI, Bossy 2, Boutilier 1.Goaltending: Bos, Peeters 2-0-1. NYI, Melanson 0-1-1, Smith 0-1-0.Shots on goal, Bos 76, NYI 65. &#9632;

f0006-11

Conference Matchups

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03579/4801126-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="365" height="79"></div>As this issue went to press, the Boston Bruins and the New York Islanders were preparing to meet each other in the Wales Conference final and the right to go the Stanley Cup final.The Bruins, who finished first overall in the regular season, were fortunate to get by the Buffalo Sabres with Brad Park scoring in sudden death of the seventh and deciding game at Boston Garden.The Sabres put up a good fight against the Bruins, as did the New York Rangers against the Islanders. But the Islanders were too powerful for the injury-riddled Rangers and eliminated the Blueshirts in Game Six at Madison Square Garden.Both teams&mdash;Boston and the Islanders&mdash;were coping with a number of injuries, although the Islanders seemed a little better off. Regardless, a close, competitive series was being predicted for these two defense-oriented teams.Following are capsule reports on each of the Wales Conference games.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011146/4801140-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="90" height="100"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BUFFALO vs BOSTON</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02831/4801133-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="107" height="93"></div>Game Four: When Rick Middleton&rsquo;s hot, there&rsquo;s not much the opposition can do about it and when his line is flying, you can pretty well figure the Boston Bruins are untouchable.Middleton and his two linemates, Barry Pederson and Mike Krushelnyski, were just too awesome for the Buffalo Sabres as they scored five of the six goals to lead Boston to an easy 6-2 victory over the Sabres and square their best-of-seven Adams Division final series at 2-2.Middleton&rsquo;s two goals, his fifth and sixth of the playoffs, included the eventual game winner. He also earned three assists for a five-point night. Pederson also had two, his sixth and seventh, while Krushelnyski had one. The line picked up 12 points. Middelton and Pederson also assisted on Boston&rsquo;s sixth goal by Mike Gillis.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>Mon. Apr. 18</h2>BOSTON 6, BUFFALO 2First PeriodBoston 1 &mdash; Middleton 5 (Pederson, K. Crowder) 5:00.2 &mdash; Pederson 6 (Bourque, Middleton) 12:49.Buffalo 3 &mdash; Cyr 1 (Perreault, Housley) 14:53.Penalties &mdash; Cyr (Buf) 1:28; K. Crowder (Bos) 2:47; O&rsquo;Connell (Bos), Ruff (Buf) double-minor, 8:44; Middleton (Bos) 9:06; Perreault (Buf) 10:32; Kluzak (Bos), Kasper (Bos), Seiling (Buf) 13:05; Peeters (Bos) (served by Krushelnyski) 14:02; O&rsquo;Connell (Bos), Andreychuk (Buf) 14:18.Second PeriodBuffalo 4 &mdash; McCourt 3 (Perreault) 6:09.Boston 5 &mdash; Middleton 6 (O&rsquo;Connell) 12:04.Penalties &mdash; Bourque (Bos) 4:05; Krushelnyski (Bos) 5:05; Peterson (Buf) 6:56; Pederson (Bos), Peterson (Buf) 15:57; Kluzak (Bos) major misconduct, Ruff (Buf) major misconduct, 17:43.Third PeriodBoston 6 &mdash; Krushelnyski 3 (Pederson, Middleton) 0:31.7 &mdash; Pederson 7 (Middleton) 12:48.8 &mdash; Gillis 1 (Pederson, Middleton) 1:29.Penalties &mdash; Bourque (Bos) 3:10; Van Boxmeer (Buf) 5:12; Kluzak (Bos) major, Ruff (Buf) major, 9:42; Kluzak (Bos) 17:38; Peeters (Bos) (served by Krushelnyski), Foligno (Buf) 1:01.Attendance: 16,433.(Best-of-seven series tied 2-2)Game Five: The Boston Bruins literally blew the Buffalo Sabres off the Boston Garden ice as they whipped the Sabres 9-0 to assume a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven Adams Division final series.For the second straight game, the Sabres were unable to handle Boston&rsquo;s line of Rick Middleton, Barry Pederson and Mike Krushelnyski. The trio combined for five of the nine Boston goals, raising their total in the last two games to 10 goals.The Bruins built up a 5-0 lead in the first period, chasing netminder Bob Sauve from the Buffalo net to be replaced by veteran Phil Myre.Bruin goalie Pete Peeters was superb in registering his 10th shutout of the season. The Sabres, despite 27 shots on goal, simply could not contain the Bruins&rsquo; offense, which outscored the Sabres 15-2 in the last two games.Just as they did in Game Four, Rick Middleton and Barry Pederson each scored twice to crush the Sabres. It gave Pederson nine playoff goals and Middleton eight. Both players also earned two assists.<h2>Wed. Apr. 20</h2>BUFFALO 0, BOSTON 9First PeriodBoston 1 &mdash; B. Crowder 2 (Bourque) 2:16.2 &mdash; Middleton 7 (Pederson, Bourque) 3:14.3 &mdash; Pederson 8 (Park, Middleton) 13:00.4 &mdash; Middleton 8 (Bourque, Park) 14:51.5 &mdash; Krushelnyski 4 (Pederson) 18:50.Penalties &mdash; Peterson (Buf) 2:44; Pederson (Bos) 6:54; Virta (Buf) 10:59; MacTavish (Bos) 13:20.Second PeriodBoston 6 &mdash; Pederson 9, 7:08.7&mdash;Kluzak 1 (Middleton) 16:00.Penalties &mdash; Andreychuk (Buf) 14:58; Pederson (Bos) 15:46.Third PeriodBoston 8 &mdash; Kasper 2 (O&rsquo;Connell) 7:04.9 &mdash; McNab 2 (MacTavish, Park) 17:15.Penalties &mdash; B. Crowder (Bos) 5:11; Perreault (Buf) 12:34.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-04410/4801119-1-eng-US/f0007-042.jpg" title="f0007-04" width="535" height="115"></div>Attendance 14,685.(Boston leads best-of-seven series 3-2)Game Six: The jeers turned to cheers for rookie defenseman Phil Housley as he scored two goals to spark the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-3 comeback win over the Boston Bruins and help stave off elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs.The victory for the Sabres pushed the best-of-seven Adams Division final series to a seventh and deciding game for the right to oppose the New York Islanders in the Wales Conference championship final.Housley, booed unmercifully after sub-par performances in Games Four and Five of the series, redeemed himself with his second and third playoff goals to lift the Sabres past the Bruins. Lindy Ruff scored the game winner for Buffalo when he when he counted midway through the third period to break a 3-3 tie. Hannu Virta and Mike Foligno collected the other Buffalo goals.<h2>Fri. Apr. 22</h2>BOSTON 3, BUFFALO 5First PeriodBoston 1 &mdash; Park 1 (Fergus) 9:45.2 &mdash; Fergus 2 (Gillis, Kluzak) 10:17.Buffalo 3 &mdash; Housley 2 (Perreault, Peterson) 19:34 (pp).Penalties &mdash; Park (Bos) Peterson (Buf) double minors 2:52, K. Crowder (Bos) 5:02, K. Crowder (Bos) double minor, major, Ruff (Buf) minor, major 7:15, Savard (Buf) minor, major 7:15, Savard (Buf) 12:22,16:43, Pederson (Bos) 17:57, Park (Bos) 19:21, Pederson (Bos) Housley (Buf) 19:54.Second PeriodBuffalo 4 &mdash; Virta 1 1:25.5 &mdash; Foligno 2 (McKegney, Cyr) 16:39.Penalties &mdash; Ruff (Buf) 2:O2,Kluzak (Bos) Foligno (Buf) misconducts 4:21, MacTavish (Bos) Peterson (Buf) majors 5:51, Howe (Bos) 10:36, Virta (Buf) 17:09.Third PeriodBoston 6 &mdash; Krushelnyski 5 (Bourque) 8:36.Buffalo 7 &mdash; Ruff 4 (Ramsey) 9:25.8 &mdash; Housley 3 (Ramsay, Ruff) 13:15.Penalties &mdash; McCourt (Buf) 17:56.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-05291/4801112-1-eng-US/f0007-052.jpg" title="f0007-05" width="536" height="115"></div>Attendance: 16,433.(Best-of-seven series tied 3&mdash;3).Game Seven: A dramatic overtime goal by defenseman Brad Park led the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in the seventh and deciding game of the best-of-seven Adams Division final series and advanced the Bruins into the Wales Conference finals.Park&rsquo;s game-winning goal, his second of the night, came so suddenly after a rugged 60 minutes of regulation play, that many among the capacity 14,685 missed the climactic goal. The veteran Bruin rearguard scored at 1:52 of the sudden-death when he rifled a shot over a mass of bodies strewn in front of the net, including goaltender Bob Sauve. The win gave the Bruins the series and moved them into the Wales Conference championship final round against the New York Islanders.Park was elated with his goal. &ldquo;Definitely it was my biggest goal in my career,&rdquo; Park said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never scored in overtime and I&rsquo;ve never won a seventh game before.&rdquo;The Bruins, who trailed the Sabres 2-0 at one point in the game, came back on second-period goals by Barry Pederson, his 10th of the playoffs, and Park. The Sabres had jumped ahead on a pair of goals by Ric Seiling, one in the first period and the other at the start of the second. Then Pederson and Park scored to tie the game and after a goalless third period, the teams went into overtime.<h2>Sun. Apr. 24</h2>BUFFALO 2, BOSTON 3First PeriodBuffalo 1 &mdash; Seiling 1 (Ramsey, Savard) 10:42.Penalties &mdash; Hajt (Buf) 0:53; Kluzak (Bos) 6:06; Hajt (Buf) 11:47, Park (Bos) 14:20; Van Boxmeer (Buf) 15:51.Second PeriodBuffalo 2 &mdash; Seiling 2 (Ramsey, Savard) 3:50.Boston 3 &mdash; Pederson 10 (Middleton) 6:32.4 &mdash; Park 2 (Middleton, O&rsquo;Connell) 9:21.Penalties &mdash; Savard (Buf), Gillis (Bos) 5:34;Perreault (Buf) 8:39; Ramsey (Buf) major, Fergus (Bos) major 11:11; Ruff (Buf) major, Pederson (Bos) major 12:41; Barr (Bos) 12:58.Third PeriodNo scoring.Penalties &mdash; Ramsey (Buf) Krushelnyski (Bos) 7:57.Overtime PeriodBoston 5 &mdash; Park 3 (Pederson) 1:52.Penalties &mdash; none.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-06220/4801105-1-eng-US/f0007-062.jpg" title="f0007-06" width="374" height="78"></div>Attendance: 14,685.(Boston wins best-of-seven series 4-3)<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-07168/4801098-1-eng-US/f0007-072.jpg" title="f0007-07" width="111" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>RANGERS vs ISLANDERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-08136/4801091-1-eng-US/f0007-082.jpg" title="f0007-08" width="113" height="115"></div>Game Four: The New York Rangers continued to master the Islanders on home ice as they defeated the defending Stanley Cup champions for the second straight game and squared their best-of-seven Patrick Division final series.Rookie George McPhee, Mark Pavelich and Reijo Ruotsalainen scored one goal each to lead the Rangers to a 3-1 win and even the series at 2-2. The Islanders had won the first games decisively on Long Island, outscoring the Rangers 9-1, but once the series moved back to Madison Square Garden, the Rangers were a completely different team, winning 7-6 and 3-1.Goalie Eddie Mio was outstanding for the Rangers, handling 36 shots compared to only 22 by the Islanders&rsquo; Roland Melanson. One of the oddities of the game was in the third period, when the Rangers only had three shots on goal but scored two goals to win the game. Mio lost his shutout bid in the final two minutes of the game, when rookie Greg Gilbert scored the lone Islander goal from a scramble.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>Mon. Apr. 18</h2>ISLANDERS 1, RANGERS 3First PeriodRangers 1 &mdash; McPhee 3 (Duguay, Beck) 2:51.Penalties &mdash; Nystrom (NYI) 0:46; Dave Maloney (NYR) 8:03; Kallur (NYI) 9:30; Tonelli (NYI), Johnstone (NYR) 18:35.Second PeriodNo scoring.Penalties &mdash; D. Sutter (NYI), Kleinendorst (NYR) 8:12; Bossy (NYI) 10:47: Chartraw (NYR) 14:36; D. Sutter (NYI), Beck (NYR) 19:14.Third PeriodRangers 2 &mdash; Pavelich 4 (Hedberg) 10:40.3 &mdash; Ruotsalainen, 12:44.Islanders 4 &mdash; Gilbert 1 (B. Sutter, D. Sutter) 18:22.Penalties &mdash; Potvin (NYI) 15:46; Tonelli (NYI), Johnstone (NYR) 17:16; Nystrom (NYI) 1:47.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-09104/4801084-1-eng-US/f0007-092.jpg" title="f0007-09" width="376" height="47"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-1083/4801077-1-eng-US/f0007-102.jpg" title="f0007-10" width="397" height="53"></div>Attendance: 17,392.(Best-of-seven series tied 2-2)Game Five: The Sutter clan was up to their old tricks again and that spelled bad news for the New York Rangers as the Islanders romped to a 7-2 victory to move within one win of the Patrick Division title.Duane and Brent Sutter scored once each and helped set up two more goals as the Islanders dominated the Rangers throughout, taking a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven division final.The return of injured center Bryan Trottier, who received spot duty, gave the Islander offense a spark and they rolled over the Rangers with four goals in the second period and two more in the third. Trottier, wearing a small brace around his knee, set the pattern of the game when defenseman Ken Morrow&rsquo;s shot glanced off his skate and into the Ranger net for the first goal of the game. After Reijo Ruotsalainen tied the score at 1-1, the Islanders went to work in the second period to turn the game into a rout. Mike Bossy, with his sixth of the playoffs, Gord Lane, Bob Bourne and Denis Potvin scored the other Islander goals. Goalie Billy Smith collected the win as he handled only 20 shots compared to 43 by Eddie Mio of the Rangers.Besides Ruotsalainen. Robbie Ftorek counted once for the Rangers, who struggled throughout the game.<h2>Wed. Apr. 20</h2>RANGERS 2, ISLANDERS 7First PeriodIslanders 1 &mdash; Morrow 1 (Kallur, Nystrom) 13:18.Rangers 2 &mdash; Ruotsalainen 4 (Kleinendorst) 18:45.Penalties &mdash; Tonelli (NYI) 2:39; Laidlaw (NYR) 9:26; Allison (NYR) 14:20.Second PeriodIslanders 3 &mdash; Bossy 6 (Potvin, Trottier) 4:01.4 &mdash; Lane 1 (B. Sutter, Bourne) 9:30.5 &mdash; D. Sutter 5 (Bourne, B. Sutter) 11:42.6 &mdash; Bourne 5 (Jonsson) 18:35.Rangers 7 &mdash; Ftorek 1 (Leinonen, Laidlaw) 19:40.Continued from page 7Penalties &mdash; Ruotsalainen (NYR) 2:07.Third PeriodIslanders 8 &mdash; B. Sutter 3 (Bourne, D. Sutter) 2:32.9 &mdash; Potvin 4 (Goring, B. Sutter) 10:20.Penalties &mdash; Johnstone (NYR), Lane (NYI) 4:41; Potvin (NYI) 5:57; Duguay (NYR) (minor major) 10:53; D. Sutter (NYI) 17:38.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01868/4801070-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="272" height="58"></div>Attendance: 15,317.(Islanders lead best-of-seven series 3-2)Game Six: Penalty-killing impressario Butch Goring emerged as the unlikely hero for the New York Islanders with two goals to lead a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers as the defending Stanley Cup champions won the Patrick Division title once again.The Islanders&rsquo; victory gave them the best-of-seven series 4-2 and assured them of a berth in the Wales Conference championship final series.Goring, held to four assists in his previous nine playoff games, came up witf his first two goals and they couldn&rsquo;t have been more timely for the Islanders. Hit second goal at 5:21 of the third period snapped a 2-2 tie and sent the Islander; on their way to a three-goal final perioc splurge that eliminated their crosstown rivals from the playoffs.John Tonelli, Brent Sutter and Ker Morrow notched the other Islander goals It was Tonelli&rsquo;s fifth of the playoffs and &lsquo;Sutter&rsquo;s fourth of the series. Goalie Bill) Smith went all the way in goal again tr pick up all four wins against the RangersRon Duguay and Mikko Leinoner were the scorers for the Rangers, why simply ran out of steam against the re lentless Islanders.<h2>Fri. Apr. 22</h2>ISLANDERS 5, RANGERS 2First PeriodRangers 1 &mdash; Duguay 2 (McPhee, Backman) 12:44.Penalties &mdash; Trottier (NYI) 6:36.Second PeriodIslanders 2 &mdash; Tonelli 5 (Goring, Morrow) 4:02.3 &mdash; Goring 1 (Tonelli) 5:03.Rangers 4 &mdash; Leinonen 1 (Hedberg, Beck) 9:31.Penalties &mdash; Trottier (NYI) 7:54; McPhee (NYR) 11:38.Third PeriodIslanders 5 &mdash; Goring 2 (Nystrom, Tonelli) k5:21.6 &mdash; B. Sutter 4 (Lane, D. Sutter) 8:09.7 &mdash; Morrow 2 14:09.Penalties &mdash; Potvin (NYI) 9:25, B. Sutter (NYI) 17:52.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02661/4801063-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="378" height="76"></div>Attendance: 17,390.(Islanders win best-of-seven series 4-2). &#9632;

f0007-03

Bruins Meet Islanders In The Wales Final

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-11" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-1167/4801171-1-eng-US/f0007-112.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0007-11

NHL Playoff Picture

<h2>Face The Facts</h2>IT&rsquo;S REALLY RATHER unfortunate that the arguments for and against Saskatoon becoming a lodge member of the National Hockey League have degenerated into emotional, chauvinistic ramblings on both sides of the border.In the United States and Maple Leaf Gardens, there are the now-familiar and worn-out cliches of, &ldquo;Where the hell is Saskatchewan?&rdquo; North of the 49th parallel and outside Maple Leaf Gardens, we have equally entertaining folks proclaiming, &ldquo;Put the game of hockey back where it rightfully belongs,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Keep hockey Canadian.&rdquo;As soon as the anti-Saskatchewan group fires a salvo, the fervent nationalists in Canada sound off a volley of their own. If it wasn&rsquo;t all so narrow-minded, it might be funny.But all this ranting and raving has served only to obscure the facts, at least as we see them. Everybody, from Harold Ballard to the media in both countries to the NHL governors, seem so willing to make snap emotional judgments on the Saskatoon question, without really examining the real situation, which is as follows:&bull; St. Louis is a great hockey city. How else could the Blues, whose on-ice performance has been rather poor in the past two seasons, average in the neighborhood of 12,000 fans per game.&bull; The Blues, under the current set of circumstances, are not a financially viable operation, which is the bottom line in any franchise&rsquo;s operation. Because the Blues do not possess concession or parking rights at the Checkerdome, not to mention a lucrative cable television package, the odds of ever turning a profit, even with sold-out houses, are minimal.&bull; The St. Louis group that did make an offer to buy the Blues (in an effort to keep the team in Missouri) obviously didn&rsquo;t have the financial clout to pull it off. If they did, Ralston Purina, whose five-year ownership of the Blues proves they&rsquo;ve been more than model corporate citizens, would have sold it to them.Conclusion, based upon these circumstances: Despite being a great hockey city, St. Louis doesn&rsquo;t have the wherewithal to sustain a healthy NHL franchise.Based on that conclusion, let&rsquo;s carry this examination a few steps further.&bull; With the exception of the Saskatoon group, headed by Bill Hunter, no one, not in Hamilton, Seattle or anywhere else for that matter, has shown an interest. (Interest is defined as having the capital to make a serious offer.)&bull; Despite being the only serious buyer, the Saskatoon bid has some large drawbacks. It&rsquo;s only five months until the 1982-83 NHL season begins and there isn&rsquo;t a rink in all of Saskatchewan that can house an NHL franchise. The population base of Saskatoon (163,000) is precariously low.&bull; The National Hockey League, which has made no official statement and probably won&rsquo;t until after a board meeting, is dead-set against having a team in Saskatoon. The party line is that it will be next to impossible to sell a ticket in the U.S. cities when Saskatoon is coming to town.Conclusion, based upon the above circumstances: Unless the NHL backs off and allows the Blues to transfer to Saskatoon, we&rsquo;re in for lengthy and expensive litigation.As we see it, that&rsquo;s a mistake. The last thing the NHL needs right now is a long and costly court case that a lot of people believe it would lose. Louis.Rather than gnash teeth over the loss of hockey in St. Louis, the Saskatoon group should have a chance to prove it belongs in the NHL. The NHL has made plenty of mistakes before&mdash;Kansas City, Colorado, Cleveland, Atlanta and Oakland, to name a few. What are they so afraid of now?Sure, Saskatoon will be a tough sell in the NHL&rsquo;s U.S. cities. But, given time and a half-decent product on the ice, it could be done. It won&rsquo;t happen overnight&mdash;not unless the Edmonton Oilers loan Wayne Gretzky to Saskatoon for a season&mdash;but a couple of years ago, the fans in Boston didn&rsquo;t know nor care about the Quebec Nordiques. After two consecutive playoff series against them, they know who the Nordiques are now.Then again, maybe it won&rsquo;t work. Maybe Saskatoon will fail as an NHL city. But we won&rsquo;t know unless its given a chance.But please, don&rsquo;t use the city&rsquo;s quaint name or the fact that it&rsquo;s located in the hockey hotbed of Canada as an argument against or for its NHL bid. That&rsquo;s just childish. &#9632;

The Hockey News The International Hockey Weekly The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947 Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd. 85 Scarsdale Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2

<div class="byline">BY JIM PROUDFOOT</div>During his tenure as the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, Sam Pollock was recognized as one of the keenest judges of talent in the business. Now, Pollock is back in hockey, but at a different level and Jim Proudfoot, who is in West Germany covering the world championships for the Toronto Star, discusses Pollock&rsquo;s new committment in this column, which originally appeared in the Star.When Sam Pollock begins chewing his handkerchief or gnawing on his necktie and perspiring profusely, you know his return to hockey has become official.Nervous habits like those were his trademarks when he was winning nine Stanley Cup titles in 14 years as GM of the Montreal Canadiens. But he left the game he dominated so completely in 1978 apparently forever. He eased into a new life as a millionaire businessman and seldom set foot in an arena or even looked at a match on TV.He was persuaded, however, to serve as chairman of Canada&rsquo;s 1984 Olympic team and in that capacity, came to Europe for this season&rsquo;s world championships. He is chief of the Team Canada 1983 expedition, even though only three Olympians are being used. The other 19 men on the roster are professionals, drawn from the National Hockey League.Back in harness. Sad Sam the Hockey-man is by no means your cool, detached observer here in West Germany. He is not content with the long-range view. Nor is he philosophical. In fact, at the end of each Canadian match, he is a dishevelled wreck.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to admit I&rsquo;m getting right into it again,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;How can a person resist?&rdquo;The depth of Pollock&rsquo;s involvement is a marvellously positive development, as far as the Canadian program for &rsquo;84 and beyond is concerned. Twenty-one NHL clubs would happily pay plenty for his managerial expertise. He was the sport&rsquo;s greatest executive through two eras. For proof of that, just check what has befallen the Montreal franchise since he departed.Now the Olympic entry will be the beneficiary of all that know-how, plus that unsurpassed reputation.Nobody can evaluate talent as shrewdly or put it to such effective use as Pollock. Five years out of hockey&rsquo;s mainstream haven&rsquo;t blunted those kills. If anybody can conjure success out of what&rsquo;s left of amateur hockey in Canada, Sad Sam is the one.&ldquo;James Patrick has been among our best defensemen in this tournament,&rdquo; Pollock notes, &ldquo;and I think it&rsquo;s significant that Gord Sherven and Pat Flatley have done some of their best work in the games against the Russians and Czechs.&ldquo;We brought them here for experience because they&rsquo;re to be the nucleus of our &rsquo;84 unit. Maybe we&rsquo;d have been stronger with three more NHL guys in those spots, but it was always understood this trip had to be part of our preparations for the Olympics.&rdquo;More candidates, already identified, will attend training camps next summer. Then coach Dave King will select his lineup before setting up fall and winter headquarters in Calgary.&ldquo;Our first priority here now is to win and if the Olympic kids can&rsquo;t help do that, they won&rsquo;t go on playing,&rdquo; King states. &ldquo;That, too, is part of their education.&rdquo;&ldquo;Beyond that basic objective, though, this effort is vital to the Olympic project and I&rsquo;ll explain why.&rdquo;King and his assistants, George Kingston and Jean Perron, have always been rivals in the college leagues back home. This is their debut as a three-man staff, but they&rsquo;ll operate collectively for at least the next year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re finding out how to work together,&rdquo; King says, &ldquo;and that is extremely important.&rdquo;King&rsquo;s concern, he now admits, is whether he and Pollock and the others can dig up 20 young men capable of competing at this level next February.&ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s even fair to ask college kids and juniors to match the Russians is a good question,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ve got to do, regardless. The fact is our system in Canada is geared to feed talent to the NHL and not develop it for this tournament, which is so very different.&rdquo;Pollock has developed reservations, however.&ldquo;If we took the best Canadian players and put them in a concentration camp and trained them for 11 months a year, we&rsquo;d be winning here,&rdquo; he claims.&ldquo; But I don&rsquo;t believe we want to copy the Soviet way of doing things. On the other hand, maybe we can do a better job in our own way. That, I guess, is the task I&rsquo;ve taken on.&ldquo;What sticks in my mind, though, is that the stuff we used to completely shut down the Czechs the other night was nothing more nor less than solid, old-fashioned NHL playoff hockey. Canadian-style. I guess. It all starts with defense and you won&rsquo;t convince me that&rsquo;s ever going to change.&rdquo; &#9632;

Pollock Keeps Keen Eye On Canadian Talent

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011217/4801274-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="581" height="725"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winger Bob Bourne scored the type of goal that hockey players dream about.</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;The play began when Bob Bourne picked up the puck deep in the Islanders&rsquo; end. He circled behind the net and headed up the right side. He drifted left as he crossed center ice, swerved past Reijo Ruotsalainen while easing the puck through the Ranger defenseman&rsquo;s skates, then pulled away from a lunging Barry Beck. In the clear again, Bourne cranked up and beat Eddie Mio with an 18-foot shot that banged off the left post and landed in the net.That was the goal that sparked the Islanders to a 7-2 win over the Rangers in the fifth game of the Patrick Division final. Two nights later, after the Islanders clinched the series with a 5-2 victory, New York fans were still talking about Bourne and his scintillating solo rush.Anders Hedberg watched from the Rangers&rsquo; bench and resisted an impulse to congratulate Bourne.&ldquo;You see something like that and you want to skate over to the guy and tap him on the pads,&rdquo; Hedberg said.In the Islanders&rsquo; broadcast booth, Jiggs McDonald said: &ldquo;Bob Bourne has just lived the dream of little boys everywhere.&rdquo;&ldquo;And the dreams of a lot of old men, too,&rdquo; fellow broadcaster Ed Westfall said.Bourne appreciated all the compliments. He has had the reputation of a swift left winger who would always break down on a breakaway. This time he went all the way.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never done anything like that before,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I was young, before I was in the league, I saw Gil Perreault do something like that. He did it in a playoff game in Montreal. I remember thinking what a feeling that must be. Now I know.&rdquo;Bourne confided that he had a TV tape of the game.&ldquo;When I got home, I watched it 10 or 12 times,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And every time I watched it, I got really excited. I looked at where the players were on the ice. I looked at the fans. I know one thing: I&rsquo;ll save that tape for the rest of my life.&rdquo;Bourne also had three assists in Game Five. He and the Sutter brothers, Duane and Brent, combined for three goals and six assists and were on the ice for four goals. The trio emerged as the Isles&rsquo; hottest line, compiling 11 goals and 20 assists in the series.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good time for us, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; Brent Sutter said.Especially for Bob Bourne. In the Rangers&rsquo; series, he broke team records for most points (12) and most assists (10). He was the Isles&rsquo; leading playoff scorer with 16 points in the team&rsquo;s first 10 games.The Islanders were getting strong efforts from all hands as they sought their fourth straight Stanley Cup. Butch Goring, John Tonelli, Bob Nystrom and Bill Smith&mdash;none of them strangers to playoff pressure&mdash;figured prominently in the Isles&rsquo; climatic victory over the Rangers.Goring and Tonelli accounted for the Islanders&rsquo; first two goals. Then, with the score tied 2-2, Nystrom wound up with the puck to the right of Mio.&ldquo;I thought about shooting,&rdquo; Nystrom said, &ldquo;but I spotted Butch moving behind the (Ranger) defense. He&rsquo;s such a little bugger that sometimes you can&rsquo;t see him. But Butch was there.&rdquo;Butch Goring, standing unmolested at Mio&rsquo;s left, whipped Nystrom&rsquo;s pass behind the Ranger goalie.&ldquo;Goring knew where to put it (high on the glove side),&rdquo; Mio said. &ldquo;Give him credit. It was a good shot.&rdquo;Goring gave Nystrom credit.&ldquo;Bobby gave me a perfect pass. He keeps after me all the time,&rdquo; the veteran center said. &ldquo;He hollers at me and makes me feel important.&rdquo;Goring is important, just ask Isles&rsquo; coach Al Arbour.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s Butchie&hellip;my little pest,&rdquo; Arbour said.Arbour admitted he eased the 33-year-old Goring through the regular season, preparing him for the playoffs.&ldquo;What I want Butchie for is the 20 games of the playoffs,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;I want him at his very best.&rdquo;Goring is at his best now&mdash;so is Bourne.ON THE ISLE: The Islanders have won 14 straight playoff series since the Rangers knocked them out of the 1979 semi-final round. No other team in pro sports can match that record&hellip;Clark Gillies, who suffered tom ligaments in his left knee late in the regular season, proclaimed himself ready for the semi-finals. Dave Langevin remained sidelined with ligament damage in his right knee. &#9632;

f0009-01

They’re Still Chatting About Bourne’s Goal

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02928/4801305-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="573" height="779"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Islanders managed to shut down swift-skating Ranger Rob McClanahan.</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;In the end, Ed Mio and his teammates resembled the little Dutch boy in the fairy tale with his thumb in the dike.No matter how hard they tried, there was no denying the deluge that was the Islanders.When it was over, the Rangers, their faces tracked with tears, were stricken with disbelief.&ldquo;Suddenly, there&rsquo;s nothing tomorrow,&rdquo; whispered Anders Hedberg in their funeral dressing room at Madison Square Garden, where Ranger-Islander series always seem to end and where last year&rsquo;s reached a similar conclusion almost a year to the day earlier.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s such an empty feeling. Your mind at this time of year is geared only to the next game. I have no idea what I&rsquo;m going to do tomorrow.&rdquo;Besides dreaming about what might have been, that is. This year&mdash;after a .500 season and a three-game openinground sweep of the Flyers&mdash;losing to the Stanley Cup champions was particularly disappointing for this close-knit club.What they lacked in talent they made up with in heart. By Game Six, though, they were decimated by injuries that hurt them more than the absence of Clark Gillies and Dave Langevin (or Bryan Trottier&rsquo;s missing the early games) hurt their rivals.Dave Maloney was sidelined by a groin pull sustained during the final week of the regular season that grew progressively worse. His steadiness was missed on defense in the final two losing efforts. His brother, Don, played Game Six with a virus so severe he could not keep solid food down. Ed Johnstone was sick, too. Robbie Ftorek was still recovering from a knee injury but was in the lineup. So much for that line.Leading scorer Mike Rogers was still out with back problems.Ron Greschner&rsquo;s aching back kept him out of Game Six, Mike Allison reinjured his knee in Game five and was gone.&ldquo;Don Maloney playing was pure stupidity, but it&rsquo;s also guts, pure guts,&rdquo; Hedberg said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s sick, but he&rsquo;s here. He&rsquo;s playing. He&rsquo;s doing everything possible to win. That means a lot to me and to anybody who plays with him.&rdquo;Hedberg was asked how he felt about the men with whom he shared that dressing room and that night&rsquo;s bitter defeat.&ldquo;The most dedicated group of guys I&rsquo;ve ever played with. Maybe not the most talented, but the most dedicated.&rdquo;Perhaps their greatest moment was Game Four at the Garden. To tie the series at two games apiece, they not only had to transcend the Islanders&rsquo; dominations of Games One and Two (at Nassau Coliseum), but their own collapse in the third period of Game Three at home the night before. The Islanders had fought back from a 7-2 deficit to lose by one goal, 7-6.If there was any question which team benefitted from that sobering lesson, it was quickly dispelled with the Rangers winning 3-1 and Mio coming within 1:38 of a shutout.&ldquo;You knew they wouldn&rsquo;t just lie down,&rdquo; said Islander coach Al Arbour. &ldquo;I expected them to come out fighting and they did.&rdquo;Relocating to Nassau two days later, the double-headed demon that haunted them all season&mdash;a lack of consistency and a dearth of firepower&mdash;once again hurt the Rangers.Mio kept the Rangers in the game in the first period of Game Five, as the Islanders took 21 shots at him. But while that period ended with the score tied 1-1, the two teams were not playing as evenly as the score indicated.It was the Islanders who took the game away in the second period, scoring four goals on their way to a 7-2 win.&ldquo;I know Al (Arbour) is scratching his head and I&rsquo;m scratching mine about the lack of consistency in this-series,&rdquo; said Rangers coach Herb Brooks. &ldquo;There has been a lot of inconsistency on our hockey club.&rdquo;At that moment, each team had won all its home games, something that would change two nights later at the Garden.The Rangers stopped the Islanders effectively enough just inside their own blueline, but were outshot 18-7 in the first period.Although it was clear Billy Smith could be beaten (the Rangers drove him from the nets in the 7-6 victory in Game Four), they could not rise to the occasion this time.As the first period progressed, the Rangers surrendered more and more territory in their zone and it would not have been surprising if the Islanders came out and scored three quick goals early in the second. Instead, they scored two, pulling out to a 2-1 lead&mdash;Ron Duguay scored the only goal in the first period. The second period ended with the score tied at two and 20 minutes later, it was all over.The Islanders&rsquo; 32 shots in the first two periods finally took their toll, as the Isles&rsquo; scored three in the third for a 5-2, seriesending win.&ldquo;The turning point was the first five minutes of the third period,&rdquo; said Brooks. &ldquo;We got in trouble prior to the third goal (Butch Goring&rsquo;s), got to running around in our defensive end, missed some assignments.&rdquo;The line that had skated through the Flyers&mdash;Pavelich Hedberg and Rob McClanahan&mdash;had been neutralized by the Islanders. While no Flyer defenseman could skate with McClanahan, Denis Potvin seemed to tie him up every time he skated down the right side.But Duguay, fighting for his job here after a miserable season, played effectively with two recent arrivals from the Central Hockey League&rsquo;s Tulsa Oilers, Mike Backman and George McPhee.Mio&rsquo;s future, too, is unclear; his contract just expired and he is negotiating with Ranger GM Craig Patrick.To be sure, there was more respect between these two teams than there was between the Rangers and Flyers, whose intimidation tactics in the opening round backfired on them.&ldquo;They play the game the way it&rsquo;s supposed to be played,&rdquo; said Hedberg of the Islanders, the antithesis of his comment of Philadelphia. &ldquo;We have all the reason in the world to respect them.&rdquo;But they also believed they could beat them.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think we were going to lose tonight, even when the score was 3-2 and 4-2,&rdquo; said McClanahan. &ldquo;At a certain point in time, a miracle can happen. I&rsquo;ve participated in some. They&rsquo;re few and far between.&rdquo;But there was no miracle on ice that night for the former U.S. Olympian or his Ranger teammates. For the 43rd straight year, the Stanley Cup has eluded the Rangers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be a thrill to see a Stanley Cup in Manhattan some year and I hope I&rsquo;m around to see it,&rdquo; said captain Barry Beck. &ldquo;Hopefully, we&rsquo;ll get another crack at it next year.&rdquo;For now, there was the sorrow of de feat, and the anger that was sure to follow.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see some other team playing,&rsquo; McClanahan concluded, &ldquo;and feel it could have been us.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-02

Rangers Feel The Agony Of Defeat

<div class="byline">BY PHIL ESPOSITO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011260/4801336-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="297" height="354"></div><h2>A Lost Cause</h2>AS I WRITE this column, eight of the 16 teams that started the Stanley Cup playoffs earlier this month have been eliminated. Only eight teams remain in contention and by the time you read this, that number may be reduced to four.Why, you ask, am I so concerned with mathematics during the most exciting time of the year? The answer is simple: I&rsquo;m one of those people who thinks that there are too many teams in the playoffs to begin with and that some serious thought ought to be given to reducing the number of eligible teams by one half. Here&rsquo;s why:First, and most important of all, are the fans. I know it&rsquo;s been said before, so I&rsquo;m not really telling you anything new when I say that as the regular season and playoff system are presently structured, we&rsquo;re basically talking about an 80-game exhibition season, which enables every team but five to qualify for the playoffs.There are a couple of flaws in this system, not the least of which is there&rsquo;s no real incentive for a team to finish at the top of the regular season heap. The way things are now, by the first of the year, most of the teams in the league pretty much know that they&rsquo;re going to be somewhere in the playoffs come April. As a result, there&rsquo;s no real incentive for them to push themselves in those dog days following Christmas and preceding mid-March, when playoff fever sets in.Why not increase the incentive to finish in first place? Make it really, really special. If they did, I think you&rsquo;d see a different quality of hockey being played during that traditionally flat time.Then, once the playoffs come, how about this idea: Why not split the league into two divisions, like they have in baseball? Give automatic playoff berths to the top four teams in each division and then create some kind of a wild card system, like they have in football, for, say, four other teams.<h2>The Playoff Payoff</h2>AT LEAST THEN, you&rsquo;d be cutting back on the teams from 16 to 12 and you&rsquo;d be eliminating situations like the one that occurred this year, when the Los Angeles Kings ended up with one more point than St. Louis but failed to make the playoffs just because they were in a division that&rsquo;s a lot stronger. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, that&rsquo;s wrong&mdash;no matter how you look at it.Unfortunately, no matter how much screaming and jumping up and down people like me do on this particular subject, it&rsquo;s not going to change things. The reason why can be summed up in two words: The Owners.The owners say that they can&rsquo;t get into the black on a year-to-year basis solely on gate receipts and I tend to believe them. What that means, of course, is that any money they make in the playoffs is gravy&mdash;unbudgeted dollars that go right to the bottom line if the team keeps on winning in the playoffs.<h2>The Vancouver Story</h2>TAKE THE VANCOUVER Canucks last year, for instance. Until they went to the finals, the Canucks went through a tough period where they were losing money. Thanks to their great performance in the playoffs last year, Vancouver probably made anywhere from an extra one to two million dollars. Think of what they did for fan interest heading into this season?The same can be said for a team such as the Hartford Whalers, whose prospects for making the playoffs are very slim because they remain in that tough Adams Division. All it would take to turn that franchise around&mdash;fiscally, emotionally, and at the turnstiles&mdash;would be a stint in the playoffs.So don&rsquo;t expect any big changes in the system that would make it even harder for a struggling club such as Hartford to qualify for the playoffs. It&rsquo;s here to stay.Hockey is a business and the owners are in business to make money. And more owners have more of a chance to make money if the present system continues. So if you dislike this system as much as I do, get used to it. This is one battle the owners already have in the bag. &#9632;

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TO THE POINT

<div class="byline">BY GARY MUELLER</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;In one sentence, Emile Francis talked like a man who planned on being back with the St. Lous Blues next season. But in the next sentence&hellip;After the Blues were knocked out of the playoffs in the opening round by the Chicago Black Hawks, Francis not only talked about the Blues&rsquo; hopes for next season, but he talked with great enthusiasm and optimism.&ldquo;Overall, the season certainly wasn&rsquo;t what we expected,&rdquo; said Francis, &ldquo;but nobody will ever convince me we aren&rsquo;t as good as Chicago or Minnesota. We didn&rsquo;t prove it in the standings, but if we had finished with the team we had hoped to have, I still believe we&rsquo;re as good as anyone in our division.&rdquo;Perhaps Francis&rsquo; attention was elsewhere as the Blues limped home in fourth place in the Norris Division, a distant 39 points behind the Chicago Black Hawks and 31 behind the Minnesota North Stars. How then can he say he still feels the Blues are in the same class as those two teams?&ldquo;All the talk about moving to Saskatoon had an unsettling effect on our performance this season,&rdquo; explained Francis, &ldquo;but in my mind the biggest thing that hurt us were all the injuries. We were without five, six or seven guys every game.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s very unsettling to a team, because you never have the same lineup two nights in a row. If you lose one or two guys for a long period of time, that&rsquo;s one thing; you adjust and go on from there. But when every game there&rsquo;s another injury to deal with, you&rsquo;re constantly shuffling your lineup and you never get things straightened out.&rdquo;Only one player&mdash;right winger Mike Crombeen&mdash;appeared in all 80 games.Every other player on the team was sidelined at one point during the season, ranging from Brian Sutter&rsquo;s one-game absence because of a pulled leg muscle to Joey Mullen&rsquo;s 27-game absence after undergoing knee surgery.&ldquo;Losing Joey Mullen really hurt us,&rdquo; said Francis. &ldquo;He was the one player we couldn&rsquo;t afford to lose, because he was the only right winger who was scoring.&ldquo;The thing I can&rsquo;t get through my head yet is that Wayne Babych could have a year like he just had. Two years ago, when he scored 54 goals, he was money in the bank. This year, he couldn&rsquo;t do anything right. But that&rsquo;s not to say he can&rsquo;t come back. He&rsquo;s only 24 years Old. I haven&rsquo;t given up on him.&rdquo;Despite being sidelined for most of the second half of the season, Mullen still wound up as the Blues&rsquo; highest scoring right winger&mdash;eight points ahead of Babych, who managed only 16 goals and 23 assists while appearing in 71 games.&ldquo;There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about next season,&rdquo; said Francis. &ldquo;You certainly can&rsquo;t expect us to have as many injuries as we did this year. There&rsquo;s no reason why we can&rsquo;t have the kind of year we had two years ago.&rdquo;Of course, there is the question of whether the Blues will be playing in St. Louis or Saskatoon and there is the additional question of whether Francis still will be running the team.A few weeks ago, when rumors were rampant that he was ticketed to take over the Hartford Whalers, Francis denied such talk, noting that no one had requested permission from the Blues&rsquo; owners to talk to him, as they would have to do to avoid tampering charges.But a few days after the Blues&rsquo; last playoff game, Francis said &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather not discuss that,&rdquo; when asked whether anyone requested permission to talk to him.When it was mentioned that his early replies that no one had sought permission were quite different from &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to discuss that,&rdquo; Francis replied, &ldquo;You sound like a detective.&rdquo;Asked again whether the change in answers meant that a team had indeed asked permission to talk with him, Francis again replied, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to discuss that at all.&rdquo;So while Francis insists that an injury-free Blues team could have a good season in 1983-84, it sounds as though Francis&rsquo; future could be with some other team. And sources all over the NHL are certain it will be in Hartord.BLUENOTES&mdash;An eight-point memo recently circulated among investors in the local group trying to keep the Blues in St. Louis. It included five points aimed at producing additional funding, confirming a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report that the group had no financing beyond the $8 million it had offered for the purchase of the team. The additional items in the memo were aimed at tactics to be used in putting pressure on Ralston-Purina to make a hurried decision whether to accept the St. Louis offer, including a suggestion that a story might be fabricated indicating that one of the local investors might pull out if R-P didn&rsquo;t make a quick decision. Sure enough, a few days later, such a story was published, casting further doubts on the credibility of a St. Louis reporter who has acted as a puppet for the local group, including the printing of a story in early February that the group had its financing all in place&mdash;nearly a month before James Kerley joined the group specifically to work on getting the financing together. &ldquo;I know of no one that wants to pull out because of any indecision by Ralston,&rdquo; said Kerley, the vicechairman and chief financial officer of Emerson Electric Co. and the man who is serving as spokesperson for the St. Louis group&hellip;At the close of the season, Jack Carlson and Mike Zuke were to undergo surgery to repair chronic shoulder problems&hellip; Jorgen Pettersson was selected to play for Sweden in the world championships in West Germany, but no member of the Blues was selected for Team Canada. &#9632;

If Francis Is Going, He Isn’t Saying So

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011169/4801391-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;While the Montreal Canadiens were busy cleaning house &mdash; firing managing director Irving Grundman, chief scout Ron Caron and demoting coach Bob Berry&mdash;a couple of hundred miles up the St. Lawrence River, the Quebec Nordiques were vowing to do exactly the opposite.The Nordiques were not about to dismiss coaches, scouts or a general manager as a result of the team&rsquo;s quick elimination at the hands of the Boston Bruins in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.Rather, it is the players who should be looking over their shoulders or, more precisely, worrying about their jobs with the Nordiques.Twenty-four hours before Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; president Ronald Corey announced the sweeping front-office changes, Nordiques&rsquo; president Marcel Aubut confirmed that both general manager Maurice Filion and coach Michel Bergeron would be back with the team next season. Both men were being given another chance to do something significant with the team, to move the Nordiques up from their fourth-place finish in the Adams Division and disappointing eleventh place overall in the NHL.&ldquo;I would say that it has been a disappointing year overall,&rdquo; Aubut said, less than 24 hours after the Nordiques were ousted by Boston in four games. &ldquo;We want to improve our Adams Division standing, in the overall standings and in our total number of points on the year.&ldquo;We know we have a better club than our .500 record this year. We want a more consistent effort from all our players next year throughout all 80 games. I still have the utmost confidence in our people who run the team.&ldquo;Our management has worked out well and we have people who work well together, which is always important. Maurice Filion will stay in his position, and we will sit down and examine all aspects of the current season. We will set our priorities and precise objectives for next year. He will be able to do all he wants to ice the kind of team he wants, even if that means buying out the contracts of some players.&ldquo;We feel we have the very best men available running and coaching the team. They will be free to do what is necessary to improve the club for 83-84.&rdquo;Here are some of the changes expected:&bull; Veteran defenseman Andre Dupont will retire, as will veteran Marc Tardif, even if he has a year remaining on his contract.&bull; Filion will buy out the contract of Jacques Richard, trade him, or assign him to the Fredericton Express of the AHL.&bull; Real Cloutier will not be with the Nordiques next season. He will sign with another team, either with or without compensation, depending on who interprets his World Hockey Association contract. One rumor has Cloutier playing in Europe next year.&bull; Others who will have to prove themselves in training camp next year include Pierre Aubry, Jean Hamel and, once again, defenseman Dave Pichette.In Quebec, the major changes will clearly be on the ice and not in the front office.Are big trades a possibility? The answer would seem to be yes. A deal involving Michel Goulet or Dale Hunter is a possibility, even if they are two of the team&rsquo;s most popular and key players. The Nordiques need a leader on defense, a big mobile skater who can blast at the opposition goaltender on the power play.They need someone to take over at the blueline. The only possible way they can trade for such a player, if indeed any other team is offering, is using Goulet, Hunter or perhaps even netminder Dan Bouchard as bait. Bouchard once again proved his value in the playoffs, so it seems he will be around Quebec for a few more years, despite his enormous salary.&ldquo;The last three years have been far too similar as far as I am conccrened,&rdquo; says Filion. &ldquo;We won only 11 times on the road and we will have to improve there.&ldquo;I want to do something. I know some changes have to be made to improve the team and if I make any mistakes, I will be the one who will be blamed. I don&rsquo;t blame my coaches. However, it did be come clear in the Boston series that some players on our team were just not giving it their all during the regular season.&rdquo;Goodbye, Real. Goodbye, Marc, Andre and Jacques, too.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011233/4801422-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="577" height="795"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nordique general manager Maurice Filion has been given a vote of confidence.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Nordiques Plan On Shuffling Bodies

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021042/4801453-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="300" height="353"></div><h2>Likes And Dislikes</h2>SOME PLAYOFF-TIME likes and dislikes and please hold the Smurf gifts for Bob McCammon&mdash;his garage is overflowing. Curiously, most of the mementos have New York postmarks&hellip;By now you know that I don&rsquo;t like the National Hockey League&rsquo;s playoff format. One reason is the division winners don&rsquo;t receive sufficient reward for their accomplishments. I have also decided that I don&rsquo;t like the intra-division format. Playing division rivals seven or eight times during the regular season is great, but then opening the playoffs by having many of these teams play each other five or seven times is straining the rivalry theme. For example, I think Boston and Quebec and the Islanders and Washington were tired of bumping into each other by playoff time.Any suggestions? Ideally, no more than 12 teams should be eligible for the playoffs. Even the National Basketball Association is smart enough to use the 12-team plan. However, if the NHL insists on 16 teams &mdash; which means you&rsquo;ll include several teams with losing records where they don&rsquo;t belong&mdash;some system should be devised for perhaps giving first-round byes to the conference champions. Midnight doodling on a few cocktail napkins hasn&rsquo;t produced a workable plan from this deep thinker, but c&rsquo;mon Harry Sinden, Bill Torrey, Keith Allen, Lou Nanne and Scott Bowman&hellip;there must be a way.Another suggestion is to return to the old overall points system. With No. 1 playing No. 16; No. 2 playing 15 and so on. The top teams are rewarded for 80 games of dedication by pairing them with teams they should beat. Another route is to open the playoffs within conferences, with No. 1 playing No. 8; No. 2 playing 7; etc. Under this system this season, Boston would still have opened with Quebec and the Flyers would have still drawn those beloved Broadway Smurfs. But at least there would be opportunities for crossover matches (Edmonton-St. Louis/Saskatoon, for example).Anyway, I&rsquo;ll keep working on this, if the NHL promises me it will, too.<h2>Speaking of Saskatoon</h2>AH, SASKATOON, A hot topic in NHL conference rooms. I liked what Bill Hunter said: &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll be buying geography books all over North America to find out where Saskatoon is located. Then Grant Devine, the Saskatchewan premier says: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll show them all we&rsquo;re not only open for business, we mean business.&rdquo;Great. Bringing the Blues to Saskatoon will be good for all kinds of local businesses, but will it be good for the NHL? After the first year or two, I don&rsquo;t think it will be. Saskatoon is a good hockey village, er city, but the NHL has enough problems being perceived as a major league without moving a franchise from a bonafide big-league city such as St. Louis to a small, remote outpost like Saskatoon.I liked Orval Tessier&rsquo;s comments in the Chicago Tribune magazine. Samples from the first-year Black Hawks&rsquo; coach:&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t ever want them (players) to know me too well. If they figure you out, you&rsquo;re not that effective.&rdquo; Hmmm&hellip;sounds familiar. Didn&rsquo;t Freddie (The Fog) Shero used to talk like that?&ldquo;When players say their coach is such a great guy, that&rsquo;s an easy guy to beat. He doesn&rsquo;t have any gumption.&rdquo; And: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m probably a lot softer than 99 per cent of them think, but I don&rsquo;t put it out there for everyone to see.&rdquo;<h2>Column On Crossman</h2>I ALSO LIKED Bob Verdi&rsquo;s column on Doug Crossman, the Black Hawk defenseman who returned from his mother&rsquo;s funeral to play against the North Stars the same night. &ldquo;When I&rsquo;m alone, I&rsquo;ll think about her,&rdquo; Crossman said. &ldquo;But when I&rsquo;m playing hockey, I&rsquo;ll shut it out. I&rsquo;m so happy for this team. There&rsquo;s so much feeling in here. Feeling for each other.&rdquo;I didn&rsquo;t like what Bob Nystrom did to Tom Laidlaw in the fourth Islander-Ranger playoff game. It wasn&rsquo;t characteristic of the aggressive but usually clean Islander veteran to give Laidlaw a forearm shot in the closing seconds, leaving the young Ranger defenseman with a slight concussion. The Rangers&rsquo; anger was somewhat soothed when Nystrom apologized to Herb Brooks.I liked Jerry Buss&rsquo; frankness about the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; record under his ownership. &ldquo;I feel I represent the fans,&rdquo; Buss told Sam McManis of the Los Angeles Times. &ldquo;If I can&rsquo;t produce a good team, why should I keep burdening them with my inept efforts? I think we have to give it another year or two and we&rsquo;ll see if, in fact, both the fans and myself have the patience.&rdquo;I liked Bruce Froemming&rsquo;s comment at an IslanderCapital playoff game. Froemming and John Kibler, two of the National League&rsquo;s top umpires, were relaxing after working a Phillie-Met game. Froemming, a Milwaukee resident and hockey fan, was admiring the work of NHL referees. After reciting the problems that make a hockey referee&rsquo;s job difficult, Froemming smiled and said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like working third base.&rdquo; &#9632;

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HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The Canucks contributed defensemen Doug Halward and Rick Lanz to the Team Canada cause in the World Championships in West Germany, but Richaid Brodeur politely declined.Brodeur, the 30-year-old goaltender who has played so well for the club the past three years, was invited by Alan Eagleson, but he said he wasn&rsquo;t feeling well enough to play.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had some bursitis in my shoulder which has been bothering me a little lately,&rdquo; said Brodeur. &ldquo;It would have been alright to play in the second round if we had won, but I can&rsquo;t be playing a little bit sore there. What happens if I get hurt over there? And the way the Russians and Czechs shoot the puck, who needs it?&rdquo;Lanz was probably the happiest to be going and not just for the international experience, something he had as a junior at the world championships in Helsinki. He had been planning a trip to Europe to see some of his relatives anyway and this way he gets his flight paid for.It turns out to be a bonus for the young third-year pro, who really came into his own as a rushing defenseman this year. He was extremely effective on the power play and towards the end of the season began rushing the puck in the manner expected of him when came out of junior.&ldquo;I was pretty happy with my play most of the year,&rdquo; said Lanz, who along with the rest of the defensive corps contributed halt the playoff goals scored by the Canucks. &ldquo;I thought we could have won the Calgary series as easily as we lost it, but this will be fun.&rdquo;Lanz will have something of an advantage playing against the Czech team because he speaks the language, a particularly handy aspect to his game when one considers the fact the Canucks have Jiri Bubla and Ivan Hlinka. While Hlinka&rsquo;s English is perfectly admirable, Bubla has trouble saying much more than &lsquo;Ya,&rsquo; particularly in any interview situation. In one case this year when Hlinka was injured in Vancouver, Bubla was hurt in Los Angeles and Lanz interpreted between the doctor and &lsquo;George,&rsquo; as Bubla is known to his teammates.Halward, who led the Vancouver defense with 19 goals and landed a new three-year contract in the process, was non-committal about going, though he just seemed to want to keep playing hockey the way he has been going most of the season.&ldquo;The only thing that really bothered me playing this season without a contract was if I had got hurt,&rdquo; he said, keeping in mind that he was the only regular defenseman on the team who didn&rsquo;t sustain an injury. &ldquo;Playing out my option actually helped my contract situation for the next couple of years, but it&rsquo;s risky.&rdquo;While those three were chosen by the selection committee of one, the Canuck management was scratching its head wondering why Stan Smyl was ignored.The handle on Smyl is that he&rsquo;s a hard worker, good in the comers but a poor skater. Nothing could be further from the truth. He can&rsquo;t skate like Mike Gartner, perhaps, but how is it he managed to get 88 points, spend some time killing penalties and have more hits in 10 games than Gartner will have in a career?As one Canuck management type said: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s only our best player night after night after night. I guess they&rsquo;re convinced he can&rsquo;t skate.&rdquo;On the Swedish side, three Canucks were asked to join the team&mdash;Thomas Gradin, Lars Lindgren and Patrik Sund-strom, the latter to be reunited with his twin brother Peter, whose National Hockey League rights are owned by the New York Rangers.All three refused in part because they were tired, but also because they felt the end of the Calgary series was too late a date to be making a commitment.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want to be coming in at the last minute and breaking up a team that had been working together for a long time,&rdquo; said Gradin. &ldquo;If we had missed the playoffs outright, we would have considered it. But not this way.&rdquo; &#9632;

Canucks Supply To Team Canada

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER AND THN STAFF</div>Despite exultation in Saskatoon, the NHL has by no means given up hope of keeping the Blues in St. Louis. Two significant investors may yet come forward with a new offer to keep the Blues at the Checkerdome. Ralston-Purina, which has infuriated NHL execs with its high-handed behavior, will be counteracted by the league. One NHL trump card remains a transfer fee which could be so exorbitant to persuade R-P to reconsider a St. Lou bid. A further source of embarrassment to R-P is the revelation that the company&rsquo;s book value of the Blues was only $2.5 million. The NHL is digging in by signing on top lawyers to battle the move and a lengthy legal battle&mdash;which could prove extraordinarily embarrassing tp R-P&mdash;is a possibility. Also in the wind is the chance that rather than approve a move to Saskatoon, the league would collapse the club and hold a dispersal draft. A rumor out of New Jersey has it that Devils&rsquo; owner John McMullen would buy the Blues from R-P, then the players would be sold to the weaker clubs via a dispersal draft. The one certainty is that the NHL wants no part of Saskatoon&hellip;Bob McCammon will not be fired by the Flyers, but he may not return to Philadelphia next season as head coach. Those who know simply say that McCammon &ldquo;is not sure&rdquo; he wants to come back. Intimates of the Philly coach insists that he&rsquo;s not motivated by money or a long-term contract but simply &ldquo;personal happiness&rdquo; and that three or four problems involving the club are sticking in his craw. They say that McCammon is still angry over an episode that took place during the Flyer-Soviet game. Philly boss Ed Snider wanted former coach Fred Shero to give his club a between-periods pep talk. &ldquo;At that moment,&rdquo; says one who is aware of the incident, &ldquo;McCammon nearly quit on the spot.&rdquo;Time has not healed the Harry Sinden-Scotty Bowman feud. Asked if he still was browned off at Bowman because the Sabre GM-coach refused the Bruins&rsquo; request to rearrange playoff dates in Boston, Sinden told BLUELINES: &ldquo;Yeah! It was (on Bowman&rsquo;s behalf) a totally unnecessary move&rdquo;&hellip;North Star insiders say the Minny high command can&rsquo;t wait til Brian Bellows has a couple of NHL years under his belt. The feeling is that Bellows, among all the North Stars, has the ability to provide leadership to what some perceive as a club lacking a leader. &ldquo;If Brian was 22 now,&rdquo; says a Minnesota journalist, &ldquo;he&rsquo;d be kicking asses on that club!&rdquo; The rap against Murray Oliver&rsquo;s bid to become North Star head coach, according to one insider, is that &ldquo;he&rsquo;s not dynamic and creative enough&rdquo;&hellip;The Devils&rsquo; new (and first) president, Bob Butera, will have total clout over the organization. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t talk off-the-record,&rdquo; he warned New Jersey newsmen. When one replied that that was too bad, Butera shot back: &ldquo;No, that&rsquo;s too good!&hellip;Injured Bruin Mike Milbury says he was rooting for the Bs to make money for him while he sat home getting fat. Told that it was no joking matter, Milbury shot back: &ldquo;I know, but what are you gonna do, laugh or cry? I&rsquo;ve already cried. It&rsquo;s time to try laughing.&rdquo;Whalers&rsquo; delay in announcing their press conference to hail th club&rsquo;s new &lsquo;hockey czar&rsquo; has some observers wondering whether a hitch has developed in signing Emile Francis to the post. Francis&rsquo; name is the only one mentioned with any consistency and BLUELINES hears that Francis definitely has the Whaler position&hellip;A rival GM&rsquo;s observation about Flyers&rsquo; erratic defenseman Behn Wilson: &ldquo;Everything has to fall into place for him or he goes haywire&rdquo;&hellip; Jacques Beauchamp, who once was back-up goalie for the Canadiens and now writes a column for the Montreal Sunday Express, marvels over the fact each member of the 1983 Stanley Cup-winners will collect more than $20,000 each. &ldquo;When the Canadiens won the Cup in 1944,&rdquo; Beauchamp recalls, &ldquo;guys like Butch Bouchard, Toe Blake, Bill Durnan and Maurice Richard each got $900&rdquo;&hellip;Cap GM David Poile says one of his prime objectives is the establishment of a team tradition, same as the Bruins now boast. &ldquo;It means something to be a Bruin,&rdquo; says Poile. &ldquo;We want to get to the point where a player can say he&rsquo;s a Cap and have it mean something&rdquo;&hellip;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to keep the level of your intensity high here,&rdquo; says Marcel Dionne of hockey-playing in Los Angeles&hellip;While birddogs have raved about junior aces Pat Lafontaine and Brian Lawton, others are beginning to talk up the virtues of Sylvain Turgeon of Hull Olympics. The Maple Leafs&rsquo; scout, Dick Duff, is especially impressed with Turgeon.Nick Fotiu claims credit for the Rangers&rsquo; opening round sweep of the Flyers. &ldquo;The most important guy on Philly is Mark Howe,&rdquo; Fotiu tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;I knew the way Mark plays from the days when we were teammates in Hartford. I told our guys exactly how to get on him&mdash;and they did&rdquo;&hellip;When a young female reporter from rock station WAPP in New York asked Herb Brooks if Ron Duguay would be in the Rangers&rsquo; lineup, Brooks smirked: &ldquo;Yes. Heck the only reason my wife goes to the games is to see Ron Duguay!&rdquo; After a brief hiatus, Duguay has reappeared in Manhattan&rsquo;s gossip column. His latest companion is starlet Robin Cornier&hellip;Minneapolis Tribune columnist Doug Grow describes the North Stars as &ldquo;ateam without heart, identity or character&rdquo;&hellip; Pat Quinn, the ex-Flyer coach often mentioned in rumors of behind-the-bench openings, completed his first year of law school in Delaware&hellip;Black Hawk rookie coach Orval Tessier has maintained his caustically ironic comments throughout the season and into the playoffs. One such example: &ldquo;Maybe my players know things that I don&rsquo;t know. After all I&rsquo;m just a rookie in this league!&rdquo;&hellip;Insiders inform the law suit launched years ago by Seattle attorney Vince Abbey against the NHL is reaching the showdown stage. Some regard this as a roadblock to any league bid to place a team in the Washington hub. But others retort that Abbey never backed up his franchise talk with dollars. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY MIKE DENNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011174/4801532-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Left winger John Anderson led the Leafs with 80 points, including scoring 30 goals for the second year in a row.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;School&rsquo;s out for the Maple Leafs and the boys have hung up their skates and packed away their gear to begin their spring and summer vacations.Although the class hasn&rsquo;t graduated to the Stanley Cup finals and undoubtedly won&rsquo;t for a few years yet, it did make considerable progress. It finished with a better record than two other schools in its neighborhood and gave it a good try when it was invited to a post-season competition. That will give it an excellent starting point for next year.While the team has branched out in various directions since the season concluded, their report cards have been placed in the mail. Let&rsquo;s take a look at the roll call:ANDERSON, JOHN: The redhead has first-rate knowledge of what he can and cannot do in the National Hockey League classroom and used that information to enjoy his best season ever. He led the club with 80 points, including 30 goals for the second year in a row. He was invited by Team Canada to attend a symposium in West Germany. Grade: A-BENNING, JAMES: Still one of the youngest members of the class, Jim improved greatly during the second semester, although his marks (stats) aren&rsquo;t as impressive as originally forecast. He intends to add a little more weight again this summer so the old bullies don&rsquo;t try to outmuscle him. Could be in for a strong third campaign as a 20-year-old. Grade: CDAOUST, DANIEL: An exchange student from Montreal, Dan had 51 points in 48 games for the Leafs after sitting in the press box in Montreal for the first quarter of a season. Cocky, peppery, feisty, call him what you will, but Dan&rsquo;s determination and talent were major factors in getting the Leafs going. B.DERLAGO, WILLIAM: Returned to form in the post-season action when he replaced the injured Daoust, but Billy D. had both a frustrating and injury-marred campaign, following a freak knee injury in practice. Bill is a clever student who&rsquo;s at his best when his shooting eye is sharp, something which wasn&rsquo;t the case through most of this past season. Grade: C-.FARRISH, DAVID: Spent the early part of the season in prep school while the Leafs accepted younger students, but the wise Farrish didn&rsquo;t complain and gave his all when his chance came. Added offensive artistry to his solid slate of defensive topics, especially bumping opponents. Grade: B.FRYCER, MIROSLAV: This foreign exchange student is beginning to fit in well with the North American curriculum. Mirko is the most artistic player on the team and could probably give a course on tying the opposition in knots. Sometimes a bit moody and doesn&rsquo;t always follow the teacher&rsquo;s orders in the classroom. Lots of potential. B.GAVIN, STEWART: One of the class&rsquo; swiftest players, Stew has been given a role as a disrupter because of his quickness in hounding members of the opposition. As a penalty killer and a fourth-line skater. Stew doesn&rsquo;t get much of a chance to shine, but he must be commended for his never-ending effort. The Leafs hope he will mature into a versatile and useful student. Grade: C.GINGRAS, GASTON: Another exchange student from Montreal who proved all he needed was a chance to carry out his assignments on a regular basis. Nicknamed &lsquo;Gus&rsquo; by his classmates, Gaston has the ability to make lasting impressions when he lets his stick do the talking and forays into other&rsquo;s schools playgrounds. Others suggest he pay more attention to the rival school chums who try to harass the Leaf goalies. Still, Gaston was certainly a big plus for the Leafs. B.HARRIS, WILLIAM: One of the more cerebral students, Bill knows how to let the equipment do the work instead of running around wearing himself out. The older kid who is called &lsquo;Harry&rsquo; by his younger classmates, Billy was at his best during the playoffs when he received more of a chance to show what he could than he received during the main portion of the school year. A valuable member of the class. C.HIGGINS, PAUL: There are a great many observers who say that &lsquo;Higsy&rsquo; doesn&rsquo;t belong in the Leafs&rsquo; school. Thus far he has only displayed a strong tendency to tangle with people from other schools, both bullies and non-violent types. There&rsquo;s no question about Paul&rsquo;s dedication but realistically, his marks aren&rsquo;t good enough to allow him to be marked. Grade: Incomplete.IHNACAK, PETER: Another foreign exchange student who blended extremely well with the Leafs. Peter was the one constant at the center spot for the club and came away with top scholastic marks for a new achievement record (66 points) by a freshman Maple Leaf. His tough schooling in Europe obviously prepared him well for the NHL. B.Those were the students who received their marks in the first posting of the mail. The second batch, from Korn to Vaive, will be available next week. &#9632;

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Toronto’s Class of ’82-83 Made A Good Impression

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011215/4801563-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo Sabre Ric Seiling, above, was supposed to shadow Rick Middleton but he never got a chance as Middleton cut loose early.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;What a difference a week makes.Things certainly turned around for the Buffalo Sabres in the course of a week.There they were, the young Sabres, one of the two surprises in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs (the New York Rangers were the other). The toast of the town in Buffalo. Conquerors of the Montreal Canadiens in three straight. Two shutouts by their softspoken goaltender, Bob Sauve.Then, even better, the Sabres went into Boston Garden in the first game of the second round and trounced the Bruins, the National Hockey League&rsquo;s first-place team. 7-4. Seven goals scored on the league&rsquo;s best goaltender. Pete Peeters.Buffalo fans couldn&rsquo;t believe their team, with seven rookies on the roster, could be that good. There was no limit to their expectations.Reality set in the next game, though. The Bruins won 6-3. Then, back to Buffalo, and a hard-fought battle the Sabres won 4-3 with a goal late in the third period by Mike Ramsey, his third goal in three games against the Bruins.But, the next night, after two closely-contested periods, the Bruins pulled away to a 6-2 win. And then, in Boston, they walloped the Sabres 9-0, the worst playoff defeat the Buffalo club ever absorbed in its 13 NHL years.Sauve, hero of the Montreal series, was yanked by coach Scotty Bowman after he gave up two goals on the first two shots he faced in the opening four minutes. Phil Myre, the 34-year-old veteran who played most of the season in the American Hockey League with Rochester Americans, replaced Sauve.It wasn&rsquo;t the fault of the goaltenders. The Sabres, as veteran defenseman Bill Hajt, said afterward, &ldquo;just played lousy.&rdquo;Hajt played in all Buffalo playoffs since 1975 and it was in that year that the club suffered its worst defeat before the Beantown debacle. In the semi-finals of &rsquo;75, a Montreal team (coached, ironically, by Bowman) blanked the Sabres 7-0.The Canadiens beat the Sabres 8-2 the next game, but the Sabres bounced back to score two one-goal victories and advance to the Stanley Cup finals.Buffalo fans who saw the Boston shutout on TV couldn&rsquo;t believe that their Sabres were so bad. They were dropping off the bandwagon all over the place.Rick Middleton and Barry Pederson, who dominated previous games in the series, scored two goals apiece and each had two assists.Bowman had a plan to stop this pair in this game but, as he mentioned after the game, he never had a chance to use it.Bowman was going to put Ric Seiling on Middleton, to shadow the Boston right winger wherever he went. Gil Perreault and Phil Housley, moved up from defense, were on the line with Seiling. Lindy Ruff, meanwhile, was moved back from left wing to defense, where he used to play.Before anyone could see how the plan worked, the Bruins had two goals, so the plan was junked. Housley went back to defense and Ruff moved up to left wing. Bowman used different lines against Middleton and Pederson.No matter what he did, the Bruins kept scoring. The count was 5-0 at the end of the first period, with Middleton scoring twice, once on a power play and once while the Bruins were shorthanded. Boston scored twice during the game while shorthanded.The Sabres were in a grim mood after the game. Not many had much to say. Ruff did, however.&ldquo;We were in the driver&rsquo;s seat in Buffalo, up 2-1 in this series,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t work hard the last two games. We were beaten to the puck tonight and we were shoved off the puck.&ldquo;We just tossed away all we had worked for.&rdquo;Said Bowman: &ldquo; Boston scored on five of their first seven chances. When a team does that, it&rsquo;s pretty much uphill for the other team.&rdquo;But the Sabres made the climb in Game Six at home, defeating the Bruins 5-3 to head back to Boston for the seventh and deciding game, only to lose 3-2 on Brad Park&rsquo;s sudden-death overtime goal. (See page 3 and 7 for full accounts of the game). &#9632;

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Sabres’ Fortunes Take A Big Turn For The Worse

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02979/4801594-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="299" height="355"></div><h2>The Bore War</h2>IT WAS DUBBED the Battle of Alberta, the Uncivil War. But it was neither a battle nor much of a war.The rivalry that was supposed to be the equivalent of all rivalries, was really no rivalry at all.The uncivil war between North and South&mdash;Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames&mdash;was for too civil. The Smythe Division final, according to Calgary Sun columnist Pat Doyle, was The Bore War.Two Canadian teams remained to fight for national and provincial bragging rights, but one team dominated. When five games were over and so was the series, it was Edmonton 35, Calgary 13. It sounded more like a Canadian Football League score between the Eskimos and Stampeders.It was a record-breaking series for the Oilers. They scored more goals in five games against the Flames than any team in Stanley Cup history scored in any series or any length. The Oilers needed just five games in which to do it, winning 10-2 in Calgary and finishing it off 9-1 at home. As one wag put it, the Flames got the convert in the last game but failed on the touchdown.All of Canada watched what was billed as an interesting series, but most came away disappointed. Those covering the series, looking for some of that Montreal-Quebec, Minnesota-Chicago flavor, left with a bad taste in their mouth.Said&hellip;Bernard Brissett, La Presse (Montreal): &ldquo;The rivalry between Montreal and Quebec is a great rivalry on and off the ice. This is like fighting with a bow and arrow against an atomic bomb.&rdquo;<h2>A Bad Impersonation</h2>JIM KERNAGHAN, LONDON Free Press: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like listening to Willie Nelson impersonate a singer or Ali McGraw an actress.&rdquo;Doyle, Calgary Sun: &ldquo;The only Calgary fans who got up off their seats in the series were the ones with hemorrhoids. At least, they were up to scratch.&rdquo;Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun: &ldquo;If they played this series in my back yard, I&rsquo;d draw the drapes.&rdquo;Eric Bishop, Calgary Sun: &ldquo;The only reason I come to these games is I couldn&rsquo;t stand watching the replays on TV.In the opening game, careless Flame mistakes gave Edmonton a 6-3 victory. The Oilers did not play well. In Game Two, the Flames did not answer their wake-up call. Again, it was an ordinary Oiler team: They won 5-1. In Game Three in Calgary, Wayne Gretzky decided he was tired of being criticized, so he went out and scored seven points; his team scored 10, five times more than the Flames. Calgary held on for a 6-5 win in the fourth, winning on a disputed illegal goal. The final game was a close 9-1, if there is such a thing.While there was a different Oiler star on almost every shift of the series, there were only a few prominent Flames. Defenseman Paul Reinhart scored six goals in the series. Centers Jim Peplinski and Mel Bridgman pushed aside poor regular seasons and came up with strong playoffs. A missing persons report has been filed on Kent Nilsson, who failed to score in the five-game set.Those not noted for scoring on the Oilers, such as Ray Cote, Randy Gregg and Don Jackson, each scored twice in the series.What may have saved this series&mdash;not from a hockey standpoint but from a humor standpoint&mdash;was the ranting of Edmonton boss Glen Sather, the best dressed whiner in hockey.Sather accused the Calgary media of being &ldquo;the worst in the world.&rdquo;<h2>Sather Felt Sorry</h2>SATHER SAID HE felt sorry for the Hames for having to put up with their local media.&ldquo;I expected them to come back after what was said about them in the press,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;I have a lot of empathy for a hockey club that has to put up with that kind of garbage night after night.&ldquo;Everybody has bad nights, but what&rsquo;s been said about Kent Nilsson and a few others is deplorable. The things they write in this town are ridiculous. How newspapers can publish that stuff is beyond me.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an awful situation for anybody to be a coach. They have been trying as hard as they can, but the people here just abuse them.&ldquo;The press in this town is vicious and malicious; the worst in the world.&rdquo;But the laugh in this series was on Johnson&rsquo;s Hames, despite the efforts of a coach whose enthusiasm is contagious.&ldquo;Talent won this series,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The effort was there for us, the execution wasn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;If they look faster than us, it&rsquo;s because they are.&rdquo;The Airbus Series was renamed the Airbust Series. This could not have been a war, because there were no resistance forces. Roberto Duran put up a better fight against Sugar Ray Leonard.In the series, Gretzky set a Stanley Cup single game scoring record. Mark Messier tied a record for most three-goal games in a series. The Oilers broke several records for scoring shorthanded goals.In this series, the Flames would have been better of declining the penalties.The only penalties they are taking now are on the seventh hole at Canyon Meadows, when they drive out of bounds.Golfing for the Oilers will have to wait&mdash;probably until late May.The wait will likely be worth it. &#9632;

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THE WESTERN WORD

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Time now for the annual Canadiens&rsquo; report card. Sorry folks, it&rsquo;s not going to be a pleasant sight, but then again, much of the Canadiens&rsquo; 1982-83 season was a honor show in comparison with other years.Another quick elimination from the playoffs, but at least in the past the Canadiens provided Montreal hockey fans with some effort. This time, there was little of that.So, don&rsquo;t look for any A&rsquo;s this time around and there won&rsquo;t be that many B&rsquo;s either.Goaltenders:RICK WAMSLEY: Had an in and out season, but part of the difficulty was playing behind a defense that was rather inefficient much of the year. Performed well in the playoffs, which made him an exception to the rule. Grade: C.RICHARD SEVIGNY: Seems the coach lost confidence in him in January and, as a result, didn&rsquo;t play much in the second half. Better than he showed this year, although he wasn&rsquo;t that bad. Similar to Wamsley, he suffered behind his defense. Grade: C.Defense:RIC NATTRESS: Has the potential to be good. Was a designated sitter through much of January and spent some time in Nova Scotia to get back into shape. Good open-ice body checker. Grade: C.RICK GREEN: There is a suspicion among the Montreal media that Green played when he felt like it. Sometimes was good, but is slow and hardly a replacement for the departed Rod Lang way and Brian Engblom. Former Canadiens&rsquo; managing director Irving Grundman thought Green was as good and we know what happened to Grundman. Grade: D.CRAIG LUDWIG: Excellent first year. Struggled in late December and early January, but part of the problem was he was paired with inadequate partners. A defensive defenseman in the Langway mold and was one of few who checked in for the playoffs. Grade: C.BILL ROOT: Another defensive specialist. Does his job efficiently with little fanfare. Didn&rsquo;t have a chance to play in post-season play as coaching staff preferred others. Grade: C-.LARRY ROBINSON: While he struggled during the first half of the season, he did everything that was asked of him and more in the second half and playoffs. Defense would have been a shambles without him. Grade: B.ROBERT PICARD: Not the most popular player among the coaching staff, but certainly wasn&rsquo;t the worst defenseman on the team. Everyone is still waiting for him to show the potential he had playing with the Montreal Juniors. Grade: C.GILBERT DELORME: Never has one with such limited effectiveness received so much publicity. Regressed in the second half of the year and was a hindrance. Grade: D.Forwards:.PIERRE MONDOU: Simply the best center on the team and maybe the best forward. Struggled in playoffs. Grade: BGUY LAFLEUR: Scored 27 goals, a few of them memorable. Has lost a step, maybe a step and a half, and can no longer be considered in the superstar class he was. Seldom dominated games this year. Disappointing playoff. Grade: CKEITH ACTON: Knee injury hampered performance. Was a defensive center, then an offensive center, with some degree of effectiveness at both. Grade: C.MARIO TREMBLAY: Best of the right wingers. Consistent. Ineffective during playoffs. Grade: B-.REJEAN HOULE: A forgotten man. Didn&rsquo;t play enough (16 games of 80) to allow evaluation. Grade: Incomplete.MARK HUNTER: Missed half the season with a knee injury, but during first half had ups and downs, scoring just eight goals. Hard worker as are all the Hunter boys. Grade: Incomplete.GUY CARBONNEAU: Showed excellent penalty-killing capabilities, but seemed to become too sure of his job following the trade of Dan Daoust to Toronto. Accused of selfishness by coach and some teammates. Grade: C.STEVE SHUTT: Despite some nights of limited ice time, still managed to be the team&rsquo;s No. 2 goal scorer. And one good game in playoffs. Grade: C.BOB GAINEY: Seemed to most affected by The Trade. At times, he wondered what his role would be on a club which had decided to become offensive minded. Still worked hard, but overall, it was a sub-par year. Grade: C.DOUG WICKENHEISER: A puzzle. Started off well with a 10-game point-scoring streak and then fizzled. Cast in a defensive role for last part of the year and did well at it, but that&rsquo;s not what he was drafted for, was it? Still, those who blame him as being the major reason for the downfall for the Montreal management are being a little less tnan oojective. Grade: C.RYAN WALTER: Showed little of the same spark he had while performing with the Capitals. Was the Canadiens&rsquo; lone all-star representative at Uniondale as a first-team left winger, something some writers and broadcasters are still trying to figure out. Has played out his option and the Canadiens may just not rush to sign him. Grade: C.MATS NASLUND: Diminutive left winger put some spark into the lineup and ignited the Forum crowds with his hustle. Not afraid to battle for puck in comers, but disappeared in playoffs. Grade: CCHRIS NILAN: Didn&rsquo;t help his cause by continuing a season-long feud with the coach. Difficult to evaluate his season, but it was slightly less than average. Grade: C-.MARK NAPIER: Miserable start as he tried to get contract problems resolved. Rebounded to score 40 goals for the second consecutive season but, again, was not at his best in the playoffs. Grade: C. &#9632;

Hardly Any Habs’ Players Earn Respectable Grade

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011155/4801625-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="573" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">There is speculation that Bob McCammon never signed a contract with the Flyers.</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;If Bob McCammon isn&rsquo;t going to coach the Flyers again next season, it will be a surprise to Keith Allen.&ldquo;When we&rsquo;ve talked (since the Flyers&rsquo; elimination), the subject hasn&rsquo;t even come up,&rdquo; the Flyer GM said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m assuming he&rsquo;s going to be back. Why shouldn&rsquo;t I?&rdquo;McCammon, before departing with Allen for the World Championships in West Germany, said he &ldquo;would sit down and talk&rdquo; when he gets back. &ldquo;Exactly what there was to talk about was not clear. McCammon has completed the first year of a three-year agreement, although there are questions as to whether he ever signed a contract.The reason this has even come up has nothing to do with the Flyers going down the tubes in the first round. Ed Snider, the Flyers&rsquo; board chairman, says McCammon is still the coach and, moreover, has given McCammon, who also is the team&rsquo;s assistant GM, license to treat next year&rsquo;s regular season as &ldquo;an exhibition.&rdquo;There was, however, a lukewarm rumor a month ago about McCammon having another offer. It was denied before, during and after Snider hit the roof.No question, critical Flyers didn&rsquo;t come up big this time. When it was written the Flyers were good enough to go all the way, we overlooked one key area: Experience.Of course, Darryl Sittier, Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber have been through a few playoffs, but after that, how many of the Flyers had been?Pelle Lindberg hadn&rsquo;t, but if you listed 10 reasons why the Flyers lost to the Rangers, Lindbergh would rank no higher than eighth or ninth. Eddie Mio played better, but Lindbergh hardly did poorly. A goalie as always is the most convenient fall guy, but if you take away the times the Rangers were allowed to blow in on him in the 9-3 final and look only at the key goals of the first two games, Lindbergh did the job. He is an extraordinary talent on whom the Flyers can hang their playoff hopes for the next 10 years. If any kid had the ability and temperament to buck the long odds on a rookie taking his team the distance, it was Lindbergh.The Flyers also needed a big series from Mark Howe and didn&rsquo;t get it. Howe will have to live with &ldquo;how much did he want it?&rdquo; doubts for a year now. But it&rsquo;s easy to forget that unless you count Stanley Cup experience as losing to Montreal in three straight games as a Whaler, this was his first time in the cauldron. If you look at how much the Flyer roster has turned over since the team last went to the finals in 1980, how many of the Flyers have had the opportunity?Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier were once playoff chokers. Does anybody remember Bobby Clarke being badly outplayed by Stan Mikita his first time around in 1971? Expect that the Flyers all learned something from the experience. But they can only hope that in the case of Clarke and Sittier and Barber, the one that ended so devastatingly wasn&rsquo;t their last.The Flyers were good enough, but at the wrong time of the season&mdash;during January and February. The bottom line on their defeat was that their best four players&mdash;Clarke, Sittier, Barber and Howe&mdash;had bad series.The one Ranger line of Anders Hedberg, Mark Pavelich and Rob McClanahan, faster than any troika the Flyers could put out, killed them. But when the Flyers were at their best, they handled the Rangers four straight times. The Smurfs didn&rsquo;t hurt them.It&rsquo;s too easy a conclusion to reach that the Flyers were too slow. It turns out, certainly, that they could have used more speed and management now realizes it may not have gone far enough in the off-season streamlining. But the Flyers didn&rsquo;t lose because they were too slow; the anchors around their speed, much as Clarke and Sittier, were too worn down by the end of the year for the Flyers to win it their way. Mark Pavelich is no faster than Denis Savard and a fresher Sittier shut the Chicago whirlwind down in Januray.It wasn&rsquo;t just one game in Chicago either. The Flyers beat the Rangers four times, bottled up Edmonton twice and swept Quebec. Those teams can skate. The Flyers with Ron Flockhart, Brian Propp, Ray Allison, Ilkka Sinisalo and Mark Taylor up front and Mark Howe and Brad McCrimmon on defense, could move too.Yet, while the Rangers less-blessed afoot&mdash;the Maloneys, Tom Laidlaw, Barry Beck&mdash;are important to the team, Herb Brooks threw as much quickness as he could at the Flyers. And when other Flyer parts broke down, a little more mercury around the flanks might have helped keep them in the series.ICEBERGS&mdash;Allen and McCammon had more than scouting on their itinerary in West Germany. They will try again to coax Thomas Eriksson back from Sweden. Though the 80-game season suggested the Flyers had three well-balanced defensive pairs, the loss to the Rangers pointed out the Flyers probably did not go far enough in last summer&rsquo;s streamlining. They could use some more speed on defense and Eriksson, who showed impressive skills before returning to Stockholm due to homesickness 18 months ago, would be an excellent place to start. Eriksson has been making noises about someday coming back, but he is also considering entering the police academy. &#9632;

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Allen Expects McCammon Back

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011018/4801680-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="580" height="794"><figcaption class="caption-body">Despite a good year, Jim Fox may be playing for a new team next season.</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Jim Fox doesn&rsquo;t particularly want to leave southern California, his home for the last three years.However Fox, who just turned 23, is well aware the Kings intend to do some wheeling and dealing before training camp opens next September and he would seem to be one of the club&rsquo;s more marketable commodities.Coach Don Perry made it quite plain the Kings are prepared to make some changes in personnel following their second straight losing season and second last-place finish in history. Aside from future draft choices, they really don&rsquo;t have that much to deal.Enter Fox, who is young, owns a bundle of potential and is coming off a second straight solid season. The third-year right winger collected 28 goals and 40 assists in 1982-83, after amassing 30 and 38 the year before.He s also about to enter into the option year of his contract, another factor which might affect his status on the Kings.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t let it bother me,&rdquo; Fox said. &ldquo;Whatever&rsquo;s good for the team&hellip;it&rsquo;s up to them. It&rsquo;s not like I want to be traded or anything like that, but 1 realize that trades are a part of the game. I&rsquo;ll just have to make the best of it if I have to go.&ldquo;But if it happens, I hope it would be because somebody would want me, not because the Kings don&rsquo;t. Again, that&rsquo;s out of my hands entirely. There&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it, so why worry about it?&rdquo;Fox is more concerned about a couple of other matters at the moment: signing a new contract and knocking a few strokes off his golf handicap.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m about a 14 right now,&rdquo; he said referring to his golf game, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;d like to get it down to an eight or nine this summer.&rdquo;Ah, but the contract. The figures should show a slight increase there, especially now that he&rsquo;s h8ked up with Los Angeles-based agent Ron Salcer, the fellow who helped make Dave Taylor a rich man last summer.Salcer met with King GM George Maguire as the season was winding down and negotiations were expected to intensify as the summer months approached.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s really not much to comment on there,&rdquo; Fox said, &ldquo;but I would like to get it out of the way before the season starts. I&rsquo;d rather not have to worry about it once we start playing hockey again."Fox has had ample time&mdash;too much, really&mdash;to sit back and analyze this past season, the one which turned into a disaster when the Kings failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 10 years.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve thought about it a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I still think we were good enough to make the playoffs, but obviously something went wrong. This team wasn&rsquo;t that much different from the one which finished fourth (overall) three years ago.&ldquo;We just fell apart at the end and we couldn&rsquo;t get out of our rut. The bottom line was we didn&rsquo;t win our divisional games at the end and everybody else did.&ldquo;So if they do make some changes somewhere, that&rsquo;ll be why. My guess is they probably will.&rdquo;If Fox has his way, though, he won&rsquo;t be a part of them.KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;Despite the dismal season, owner Jerry Buss, citing &ldquo;escalating expenses,&rdquo; decided to raise ticket prices for the second time in three years. This makes Kings&rsquo; tickets among the most costly in the NHL. The best seats in the Forum will cost $18, a $1.50 jump over 1982-83&hellip;Defenseman Mike Heidt, the Kings&rsquo; first pick (27th overall) in the 1982 draft, had 30 goals and 65 assists for Calgary Wranglers of the Western Hockey League and figures to get a longer look in training camp next time around. &#9632;

f0016-01

Fox Gives Kings Marketable Commodity

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>Detroit&rsquo;s towering defenseman Willie Huber may be involved in a deal with the Kings.DETROIT&mdash;Jimmy Devellano said the last month of the National Hockey League season was &ldquo;like a dream.&rdquo;&ldquo;It deteriorated badly for us after March,&rdquo; said the Red Wing GM, alluding to the fact that the &ldquo;dream&rdquo; was more like a nightmare.Now it&rsquo;s up to him to see it doesn&rsquo;t happen again.&ldquo;It was on the players all year, now it&rsquo;s on me,&rdquo; Jimmy D. said in an honest appraisal of the situation.He&rsquo;ll rely on the NHL entry draft in June and trades to restructure the Red Wings, who finished 18th overall in the NHL.First, the draft.&ldquo;I have an idea who we want,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get together with the general managers who will be drafting ahead of us to see who they&rsquo;re interested in. That&rsquo;ll enable us to narrow down our possibilities and know the players we can key on. Then we&rsquo;ll want to find out as much about those players as we can, their personalities, their lifestyles.&ldquo;Basically, we have it narrowed down to a couple of players. We&rsquo;re monitoring them now. We&rsquo;ve had scouts watching them the last three weeks.It&rsquo;s no secret that the Wings haven&rsquo;t drafted especially well in past years, but Devellano, despite the pressure to do well, is confident of his abilities and methods when it comes time to draft.Devellano acknowledges the element of doubt, however, especially when it comes to drafting underage players.&ldquo;Certainly, we&rsquo;d hope our first pick can play with us right away and out of the whole draft we expect to find four players who can make a contribution somewhere down the line,&rdquo; he said.Second, trades.&ldquo;Obviously, we&rsquo;ve got to make trades,&rdquo; Devellano said.It appears that at least one of them will be a blockbuster, that one or more of the Wings&rsquo; who formerly might have been considered untouchable will be made available.The first name to come to mind is that of Willie Huber, the all-star defenseman.Devellano already has discussed trades and Los Angeles is among the teams interested in Huber. Devellano flew out to the west coast to watch the Kings&rsquo; last game of the season. Don Perry, the Kings&rsquo; coach, was in Detroit several days earlier.The Kings appear to be willing to deal defenseman Larry Murphy, who didn&rsquo;t have the best of seasons. Murphy and other considerations, players and/or draft picks, might be packaged in a deal for Huber.Mike Blaisdell, another of the Wings&rsquo; No. 1 picks who has been a bust, is also a best bet to be traded.Blaisdell made such a request during the season when he was seeing limited ice time. He saw more service in the final weeks of the season, but probably failed to change his status as a disappointment.Huber and Blaisdell in a package?Could happen.In the Wings&rsquo; last big trade&mdash;the Buffalo deal of 1981&mdash;three of the club&rsquo;s former No. 1 drafts were dealt: Dale McCourt, Mike Foligno and Brent Peterson.Here&rsquo;s a look at the Wings on defense:The defensive unit begins with Reed Larson and Willie Huber, either of whom may be traded before the 198384 season starts. If they are, the Wings can expect to get a substantial return.There seems to be this thing about Larson. People just don&rsquo;t seem to want to believe how really good he is. But, eventually, all the doubters are won over. Certainly there were many who came over to Larson&rsquo;s side last season.Larson became only the third defenseman in history (Bobby Orr anti Denis Potvin are the others) to score 2C or more goals in four seasons. He finished with 22 goals and 52 assists fo 74 points, second only to John Ogrod-nick. But Larson&rsquo;s offensive skill: have never been questioned.His defensive abilities have beer criticized in the past, but Larson completed the season as a sound two-way performer.Huber&rsquo;s talents aren&rsquo;t questioned either. But his motivation, or lack of is. He can be an awesome player a times, but coach Nick Polano and De vellano might not be willing to wait anj longer. He was honored by a selectior to the NHL all-star game. His play slip ped at mid-season, about the time Lar son turned on the jets. An interesting set of circumstances.Greg Smith is a decent NHL de fenseman, the kind every team needs Jim Schoenfeld&rsquo;s ice time was drastically reduced at season&rsquo;s end and his future is a uncertain. Rookie Randy Ladouceur played more than veteran John Barrett near the end and both played more than veteran Colin Campbell, who came aboard via the free agent route last summer.None of the seven is guaranteed of returning to the Red Wings in 1983-84. However, none is certain not to be back, either. It will depend on what&rsquo;s available out there and how the trade winds blow.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02823/4801711-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="556" height="767"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit&rsquo;s towering defenseman Willie Huber may be involved in a deal with the Kings.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Trade Winds Blowing In Detroit

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01901/4801766-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Miles NadelDespite outstanding seasons by other National Hockey League stars, Wayne Gretzky remained in a class by himself. If he has a flaw at all, it&rsquo;s that he receives so much coverage and attention that we tend to take his superstar exploits for granted.</figcaption></div>The stories started about the middle of the National Hockey League season, inspired perhaps by another shutout by the Boston Bruins&rsquo; star goalie, Pete Peeters, or maybe a little boredom.The stories, and they were plentiful, make no mistake about that, said that 1982-83 season could be the year that Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers loses his stranglehold on the Hart Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player.One newspaper quoted various members of the National Hockey Leage Players&rsquo; Association, who vote for the Hart Trophy winner, giving their &ldquo;mid-season predictions&rdquo; on who would be selected as the most valuable player. Many of them said Peeters would likely get the nod over Gretzky.Another publication showed Gretzky and Peeters side by side on the cover with the caption, MVP? That picture seemed to perfectly sum of the feelings of many people.Well, the Hart Trophy winner won&rsquo;t be announced until the NHL&rsquo;s June meetings, so we&rsquo;ll have to wait and see what happens there and how accurate the mid-season prognostications were. But we can tell you now that Wayne Gretzky is THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; NHL Player of the Year for the 1982-83 season.And it wasn&rsquo;t even close. In balloting conducted among HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; correspondents, all but a few gave Gretzky a first-place vote. Peeters, the Bruins&rsquo; 25-year-old netminder who came to Boston after an off-season deal with the Philadelphia Flyers, also had an exceptional season and, as a result, finished a second in the balloting. Chicago Black Hawk center Denis Savard finished third, well behind Peeters who was well behind Gretzky.This season marks the fourth consecutive year that Gretzky has been HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Player of the Year, the same number of seasons that the 22-year-old Brantford native has been in the NHL. In 1980-81, Gretzky shared the honor with St. Louis Blue netminder Mike Liut.There was to be no sharing this season. Although Gretzky didn&rsquo;t equal his output of one year ago (92 goals and 120 sssists for 212 points), he still managed to get 71 goals and 125 assists for 196 points, 74 more than scoring race runner-up Peter Stastny of the Quebec Nordiques.Perhaps it was this &ldquo;off-season&rdquo; that caused so many people to question whether Gretzky had what it takes to be adjudged most valuable to his team?Included among his 71 goals were nine game-winners and six shorthanded efforts.He was, as usual, a model of consistency, so much so in fact that he set a National Hockey League record for scoring in consecutive games&mdash;30, surpassing the old mark of 29, previously held by Montreal Canadien Guy Lafleur.Records? You want to talk records? If we listed them all. here, we&rsquo;d be in for a newsprint shortage. Speak to the folks at the NHL&rsquo;s Montreal headquarters, where the statistics and records are collected and updated.&ldquo;He (Gretzky) keeps us busy, there&rsquo;s no question about that,&rdquo; said an NHL spokesman. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to say how many records he holds because by the time you get the release out, he&rsquo;s set some new ones.&rdquo;For the record, as of the end of the Oilers&rsquo; Smythe Division final against the Calgary Flames, Gretzky owned or shared 33 NHL records. Twenty-three are his, and his alone, while he shares another 10. Of the 33 records, seven are playoff milestones.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s getting to the point,&rdquo; added the NHL spokesman, &ldquo;that every time he scores a goal or gets an assist in these playoffs, he&rsquo;s setting a record and pushing someone else&rsquo;s name out of the record book.&ldquo;The best way to put it is that he is at 33 NHL records and still counting.&rdquo;Part of the reason that Gretzky&rsquo;s 1982-83 season doesn&rsquo;t seem quite so dynamic as the &rsquo;81-82 effort is that the Oilers made a conscious effort not to bum him out.A year ago, Gretzky played close to 40 minutes a game and made himself available for almost every interview and award ceremony that was requested of him. When the Oilers paid a late-season visit to Maple Leaf Gardens&mdash;their only trip there all season&mdash;the only thing missing was a dancing bear and high-wire artist.Wherever he went, it was a circus-like atmosphere. This year, however, the Oilers and Wayne himself have taken steps to control his environment better. He is still accessible, much more so than many NHL players of far less stature, but it&rsquo;s obvious that his efforts and responsibilities have been narrowed down.As a result, Gretzky didn&rsquo;t play as often. His teammates, who are immensley talented in their own right, started getting more recognition. But still, he finished on top in NHL scoring. He still demonstrated the vast offensive skills that make him the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 drawing card, which is borne out by attendance figures in cities where the Oilers are paying a visit.Across Canada, where the sale of NHL replica hockey jerseys is a booming business, Gretzky&rsquo;s No. 99 Oiler sweater is a best seller, far surpassing Montreal Canadien and Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys, the traditional favorites.With his numerous commerical endorsements, he has become a familiar figure to North Americans who aren&rsquo;t even sure what a puck is.Peeters, too, had an amazing season. In 61 games with the Bruins, he recorded a 2.36 goals-against average, best in the NHL. He also recorded eight shutouts, another league best, and led the Bruins to first-place overall.Under normal circumstances, which could very well translate as, &ldquo;if Gretzky wasn&rsquo;t playing,&rdquo; Peeters would have been a cinch to win Player of the Year.But the fact remains that Gretzky is in a class by himself. It would seem that as long as he is around and playing as well as he is now, he&rsquo;s going to have a lock on major awards.Only one other NHL player has won more Player of the Year awards than Gretzky. He is Gordie Howe, the retired star right winger who was chosen by THE HOCKEY NEWS on five occasions. But Howe can&rsquo;t match Gretzky&rsquo;s feat of winning on four consecutive occasions.Former Boston Bruin great Phil Esposito has also won the award on four occasions, but again, he didn&rsquo;t bat .1000 as Gretzky has in his four NHL seasons.We said it in this space last year and we&rsquo;ll say it again, because, really, there&rsquo;s not much left to say that Gretzky hasn&rsquo;t said with his perofmrance.The scariest thing about Wayne Gretzky is what is he going to do when he matures and peaks as a profeesional hockey player.And, as for the Hart Trophy and those mid-season predictions&hellip;We&rsquo;ll take Gretzky in a walk. &#9632;

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Gretzku’s Still In A Class All By Himself

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02738/4801797-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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HN AWARDS WINNERS

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>As rolling stones go, he&rsquo;s a precious gem.Orval Tessier, the nomad who made Chicago into his kind of team, has been selected National Hockey League Coach of the Year in balloting conducted by THE HOCKEY NEWS.In what was considered a very strong field of Coach-of-the-Year candidates, Tessier edged out runners-up Bryan Murray of the Washington Capitals and Gerry Cheevers of the Boston Bruins, two coaches who had outstanding seasons with their respective teams.&ldquo;He has been a winner no matter where he worked,&rdquo; Black Hawk general manager Bob Pul ford said last summer when he announced the promotion of Tessier, who&rsquo;d led New Brunswick to the American League regular season and playoff championships in his first season as a pro coach.In the previous decade, the 49-year-old Tessier had been a very sucessful junior coach in his native Cornwall, Chicoutimi and Kitchener.But there were those who wondered if a disciplinarian, who was capable of turning into a raging bully when his teams didn&rsquo;t live up to his high expectations, could adapt to a National Hockey League lifestyle.No, he couldn&rsquo;t.It was the Black Hawks who had to adapt. A roster replete with free spirits learned, to pay the price for success. Taking inflation into consideration, Tessier asked his players to put out 120 per cent. He visualized, stabalized, energized, and executed.Players who once avoided the comers started working the crevices. Self-control produced puck control.Astir on the ice, the Hawks swiftly became upwardly mobile in the standings. They appropriated the lead in the Norris Division, and when Minnesota made a late season run at them, they caught their second wind and pulled away to win with eight points to spare.Coinciding with the Hawks&rsquo; rise to the 104-point plateau was the response of Chicago sports fans. For the first time since the prime of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, a hockey ticket was the hottest ticket in town.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;d get there so quickly,&rdquo; admitted Tessier. &ldquo;But once we got there, I decided: why not stay?&ldquo;For me, the key as a coach was getting off to a good start. If we&rsquo;d gotten off to a losing start, it would have been much more difficult. But when you&rsquo;re winning, you can implement your thinking much more readily.&ldquo;The players did a very bad thing early in the season&mdash;they showed me how good they could play. Once I saw that, I never was willing to settle for less.&ldquo;I know there were times when they felt like crucifying me. But we never lost more than two games in a row.&ldquo;I think the most important points in the season were our first two long trips. Last year, this team lost a lot on the road. But this year on our first trip we went to Edmonton, Vancouver, and Los Angeles in four nights and we tied every game. The next one was the seven-game trip in November and December. When we left. I realized we could be buried by the time we came back.&ldquo;But we came back with a record of 5-1-1. We came back a lot better off than when we left.&rdquo;While Tessier is a subscriber in good standing to the work ethic, he isn&rsquo;t a workaholic.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve made it a point as long as I&rsquo;ve coached never to discuss hockey at home,&rdquo; said Tessier. &ldquo;That has helped me survive.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t bum out because when I leave the rink after practice today I won&rsquo;t sit down and think about the team until I get back there&rsquo;s-tomorrow. You do it 24 hours a day and you&rsquo;ll go crazy.&ldquo;If you were to ask me where our players live, I wouldn&rsquo;t know. I believe they&rsquo;re entitled to their private lives away from the rink the same as 1 am.&ldquo;On the road, we only checked curfew seven or eight times. After we won in Philadelphia (March 8), we caught four guys and they were disciplined.&rdquo;Discipline has not been relaxed during the playoffs. In Game Four of the quarter-final series with Minnesota, the Hawks trailed by three goals starting the second period. Sixty-six seconds into the period, Chicago&rsquo;s 54-goal scorerand resident tough guy, Al Secord, elbowed the North Stars&rsquo; Gordie Roberts.When Secord came out of the penalty box, Tessier kept him riveted to the bench for the remainder of the period. Tessier did it even though up until then Secord had been one of the Hawks&rsquo; heartiest bodycheckers, and the night before the coach had deplored the lack of same.&ldquo;There are times and places to do things,&rdquo; said Tessier. &ldquo;This was an unwarranted penalty that came at a very bad time. Benching Al not only told him that he had done wrong, it also gave the rest of the team a message.&rdquo;Between periods, Tessier and Secord engaged in a shouting match in the dressing room. But the third period began with Secord back on the ice. the Hawks continued on the comeback they&rsquo;d embarked on late in the second period by tying the score 3-3, and they went on to win in overtime.While Tessier is very much his own man, he has a righthand man, assistant coach Cliff Koroll.&ldquo;One of the best moves I made when I came here was deciding to keep Cliff as the assistant coach,&rdquo; said Tessier. &ldquo;His knowledge of the players on this team and in the league and his grasp of what I was&rsquo; trying to do made my transition so much easier.&ldquo;Someday Cliff is going to be an outstanding head coach.&rdquo;Since the purge of managing director Irving Grundman and coach Bob Berry in Montreal, there have been rumors that the bilingual Tessier&rsquo;s first season in Chicago will be his last.After he completed his playing career&mdash;and before he entered coaching&mdash;he went to work for Molson&rsquo;s Brewery, and a deep loyalty lingers.Is Tessier contemplating a triumphant return to Montreal, where he began his brief and undistinguished NHL playing career in 1954-55?&ldquo;It would be very tough for me to leave Chicago,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;Everyone has treated me so wonderfully. Inside the organization and out&mdash;from top to bottom&mdash;I couldn&rsquo;t ask for anything more.&ldquo;The team I&rsquo;m coaching is one of the best in the NHL. and with the organization we have I only know it&rsquo;s going to get better.&ldquo;It would be very tough for me to leave Chicago. All I want to do at this point is to defeat Edmonton and take the Chicago Black Hawks to the Stanley Cup finals. I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s down the road.&rdquo; &#9632;

Tessier Tops In A Strong Coaching Field

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01919/4801835-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="573" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body">Caps&rsquo; GM David Poile was responsible for the biggest trade of the season.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02705/4801828-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="572" height="843"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston&rsquo;s Harry Sinden used the draft and wise trades to rebuild the Bruins.</figcaption></div>Harry Sinden, who rebuilt the Boston Bruins into a Stanley Cup contender twice in 10 years, and Dave Poile, who made the hapless Washington Capitals a playoff team for the first time with a stroke of the trading pen, are THE HOCKEY NEWS Executives of the Year for 1982-83.Sinden, 50, who has been GM of the Bruins since 1972, and Poile, 33, who was named boss of the Caps only last Aug. 30, finished tied for the honor, the first time two winners have been named since 1968-69, when the Sid Salamons, Jr. and III, of the St. Louis Blues took the prize as an entry.The dead-heat finish in the balloting represents the turmoil many voters faced. Would they vote for Poile, whose major achievement was one big trade or would they vote for Sinden, who used the draft and trading to rebuild the Bruins.For Sinden, the award climaxes a front-office career that began when Lynn Patrick, then the Bruins&rsquo; GM, talked him into leaving a job with General Motors in Oshawa, Ont., and becoming player-coach of the Boston farm team in Kingston, Ont., in the Eastern Professional Hockey League. That was in 1960.He was only 33 and never played a game in the NHL when he was named coach of the Bruins in 1966.&ldquo;I would like to have a team that skates like the Montreal Canadiens. checks like the Detroit Red Wings and is mean like the Toronto Maple Leafs,&rdquo; Sinden said of his philosophy of hockey management.&rdquo;Of course, some team styles and talents were a bit different back in 1966.So far, Sinden has accomplished his objective three times with the Bruins.He coached them to a Stanley Cup with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito in 1970, quit after a pay dispute to return to private business, then came back as GM in the fall of 1972 to build a Stanley Cup finalist under the coaching of Don Cherry in 1977 and 1978.When Cherry left in 1979 and the team began to show its age, it appeared that there were at least a half dozen years of dark nights ahead for the Boston franchise. The Bruins hit bottom in the spring of 1981, when they lost to the Minnesota North Stars in three straight games in the preliminary round of the playoffs.Now, a scant two years later, the Bruins are back at the top of the heap with the best record (110 points) in the NHL during the regular season and entered the playoffs as one of the favorites to win the Cup&mdash;all this with only five players left from the Don Cherry years.Sinden has accomplished this with three shrewed deals and perhaps the best recent drafting by an NHL front office, particularly in the 1980 amateur lottery.The No. 1 draft choice of the Los Angeles Kings was obtained in 1980 in exchange for Ron Grahame, the team&rsquo;s third goalie, and Doug Halward, an unwanted defensemen. The choice turned out to be all-star defenseman Ray Bourque.Al Secord went to Chicago in exchange for Mike O&rsquo;Connell, a badly-needed defenseman. In the deal of all deals, goalie Pete Peeters was obtained from Philadelphia for Brad McCrimmon, whose days on the Boston defense were numbered.Bourque, O&rsquo;Connell and Peeters are key players for the 1982-83 Bruins.Few NHL teams have ever had the draft that Sinden and his scouting staff had in 1980, right down to the sixth round.The first choice was Barry Pederson who, working with Rick Middleton, finished this season with 46 goals and 107 points. The second was dealt away to Calgary, but the third turned out to be Tom Fergus, a 28-goal scorer. The fourth was Steve Kasper, last season&rsquo;s Selke Trophy winner. The fifth was defenseman Randy Hillier and goalie Mike Moffat was the sixth.The 1979 draft wasn&rsquo;t bad either, with Bourque in the first round. Keith Crowder in the third, Larry Melnyk in the fourth, Marco Baron in the fifth and Mike Krushelnyski in the sixth. All are currently with the current Bruins.Similar to Sinden, Dave Poile never played a game in the NHL. In fact, he never played a professional game of hockey, but the similarity ends there.Son of Norman (Bud) Poile, an NHLer for five years, he grew up in a hockey atmosphere. But during his formative high school years, his father was GM of the San Francisco Seals. There being no high school hockey in the Bay area, he lettered in tennis instead.At Northeastern University in Boston, he was an 145-pound center who could score goals but attracted virtually no attention from NHL scouts. He went to the Vancouver Canucks training camp, didn&rsquo;t make it and became administrative assistant to GM Cliff Fletcher of the Atlanta Flames in 1972. Four years later, he was assistant GM.While Poile was learning the trade, the Washington Caps were learning the rocks and shoals of big league hockey.An expansion team in 1974-75, they won only 163 out of 640 games. They lost an estimated $21.6 million in eight years. Disillusioned owner Abe Pollin was talking of moving to Tacoma, WA, or merging with New Jersey. Only a &ldquo;Save the Caps&rdquo; campaign kept them in Washington for the 1982-83 season.This was the state of affairs on Aug. 30, 1982, when Poile was named to succeed acting GM Roger Crozier.True, Crozier started the rehabilitation process. He obtained goalie Pat Riggin from Calgary and Scott Stevens in the draft. He also added Alan Howarth, Ken Houston, Dave Hutchison, Ted Bulley and Czech star Milan Novy.&ldquo;The mandate I was given with the job is to get the team into the playoffs,&rdquo; said Poile. &ldquo;Defense is the key to any team.&rdquo;And with that, on Sept. 10, only 11 days after he took over the job, Poile dealt the Caps&rsquo; captain Ryan Walter and Rick Green to the Montreal Canadiens for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis and Craig Laughlin.It turned out to be, for the first year at leat, the most lopsided multi-player deal since the Bruins stole Phil Esposito. Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from the Chicago Black Hawks.&ldquo;It was generally conceded,&rdquo; wrote Bob Fachet in THE HOCKEY NEWS Oct. 8, &ldquo;that the failure of the Caps to gain a playoff berth would spell the end of the franchise with the team either moving to Tacoma or merging with New Jersey.&rdquo;Make the playoffs they did, for the first time in their history. The Caps won 39 games, 12 more than ever before. They finished third in the Patrick Division, 14 points ahead of the New York Rangers. Best of all for the franchise, they played to a team record 503,868 people.&ldquo;We were just thinking fourth place and the playoffs this year,&rdquo; said Poile. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be right at the top of the Patrick Division the whole of next season.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Sinden, Poile Share THN Executive Award

If you are Wayne Gretzky and you&rsquo;ve just finished a hectic eight-month hockey season that started in September, what do you do for summer vacation?Given Gretzky&rsquo;s financial resources, just about anything he wants to. As long, of course, that his holiday plans don&rsquo;t conflict with a number of business committments that the 22-year-old National Hockey League superstar must fulfill in the off-season.All things considered. Gretzky will have much more leisure time this summer than he did a year ago. But then that can be misleading, too.&ldquo;Wayne&rsquo;s summer schedule is pretty well set,&rdquo; says his agent Gus Badali of Toronto. &ldquo;There are still a few things to be firmed up, but we&rsquo;ve got a good idea of exactly what Wayne will have to do this summer.&ldquo;At Wayne&rsquo;s request, we&rsquo;ve left more time open for his leisure. Over the course of the summer. Wayne will have 12 working days. That may not seem like very many, but he had 20 last summer and it was a very busy offseason.&rdquo;The misleading part of it is that if Gretzky has to pick up an award, say in New Orleans, then the travel time and actual day spent there are not counted as working days. Working days are days Gretzky spends on behalf of the many commerical and business interests he has contracts with.Considering that Gretzky leads just about any league in receiving awards, he still faces a busy summer.And there a number of events that are obligatory.&ldquo;Wayne (who is part owner of the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League) will attend the OHL midget draft in May in Toronto,&rdquo; Badali says. &ldquo;And, of course, he&rsquo;ll be at the NHL draft meetings in early June.&ldquo;Naturally, he&rsquo;ll be at his charity tennis tournament in Brantford (June 11th).&rdquo;The major trip of the summer will be to the Los Angeles area. It&rsquo;s being described as a combined pleasurebusiness trip.&ldquo;Wayne will be in L. A. for between three and four weeks,&rdquo; says Badali. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be making a number of special guest appearances on a variety of television shows. He&rsquo;ll be playing for a team of Hollywood stars in an exhibition baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He&rsquo;ll also have free time to do whatever he wants to.&ldquo;After that, there a lot of celebrity golf tournaments and things like that. &rdquo;Badali is in the process of finalizing a business deal that could see Gretzky spend a couple of weeks in England to attend the Wimbledon tennis classic on behalf of a corporate client.&ldquo;The main thing we&rsquo;ve tried to do,&rdquo; Badali says, &ldquo;is make sure Wayne has a lot of time to himself. What he does with it is up to him. He may decide just to stay home and play a lot of golf or he may decide to travel all over the place.&rdquo;A year ago, Gretzky made five cross-continent trips in the summer alone. This, Badali says, wasn&rsquo;t a result of poor planning. Rather, it was because Wayne decided to travel in his leisure time.&ldquo;This summer, as far as business committments are concerned, Wayne will start in the east and work his way west. But again, Wayne may decide to travel and that always takes up a lot of time. And the awards are very time consuming, too.&ldquo;So even though this summer isn&rsquo;t as busy as last year, it&rsquo;s still a fairly busy schedule. At the moment, there are no plans for Wayne to go into the studio to do commericals, which he did a lot of last summer.&lsquo;Many of the companies are still using the same commercials so Wayne will be making live appearances for some of his endorsements.&ldquo;Generally, though, we&rsquo;re attempting to gradually cut down on the number of working days for Wayne. Next summer should be even less busy.&rdquo; &#9632;

Gretzku Aims For More Leisure Time

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01711/4801914-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glenn Anderson&rsquo;s goal in the third period of the fourth game established a playoff record for team scoring.</figcaption></div>EDMONTON&mdash;In the end, there wasn&rsquo;t a single spark, let alone the threat of a five-alarm blaze.Napoleon&rsquo;s infamous mid-winter trek into Russia was more hotly-contested than this so-called Battle of Alberta.The Calgary Flames, breathing fire from a 6-5 conquest 48 hours earlier, ventured north the night of April 20 only to find themselves snuffed out quicker than the light in a hooker&rsquo;s boudoir on a payday Saturday night in the mines.The Edmonton Oilers bolted to the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Campbell Conference final against the Chicago Black Hawks by dispatching the Flames 4-1 in games, winning in a ridiculously-easy, record-establishing fashion that befitted their high-powered offense.At the conclusion, it was a most unlikely witness for the defense who came forth.&ldquo;As a team they&rsquo;ve matured defensively,&rdquo; said Calgary defenseman Paul Reinhart, quietly complimenting the Oilers for their Smythe Division series-winning 9-1 romp. &ldquo;They still make their mistakes, but they all work so hard, you don&rsquo;t have the two-on-ones you used to get against them.&ldquo;Their forwards are working to get back. I&rsquo;ve never seen that sort of team defense with them before. They seem determined in giving up less goals.&rdquo;If Reinhart readily detected the manner in which the gung-ho offensive Oilers have matured defensively, can you imagine how delighted the likes of Edmonton defenders have become?&ldquo;Where it all starts is with the Peach over there,&rdquo; said rearguard Randy Gregg, pointing to goalie Andy Moog, who hails from British Columbia&rsquo;s fruit-growing Okanagan region (Penticton). &ldquo;He gives an aura of confidence. He&rsquo;s always telling you where the net is or what he wants you to do.&rdquo;Then there&rsquo;s been aid, as foreign as it may seem, from the forwards.&ldquo;To play that way for 80 games is tough&mdash;even more mentally than physically,&rdquo; added Gregg, whose record-tying shorthanded goal boosted the Oilers into a 4-0 lead in Game Five. &ldquo;But now the forwards feel it&rsquo;s their reponsibility. If we score five goals and lose, they know they&rsquo;re partially to blame. We&rsquo;ve run into trouble in the past when other teams pressure us. Now the forwards are helping take that away. It all gets down to discipline in our own end. &rdquo;At the other end is where the Oilers have been having a ball.As they&rsquo;ve been prone now and then, the Oilers, who scored a record 424 regular-season goals, disposed of the Flames in record fashion.When Glenn Anderson finished off a picture three-way passing play with Jan Kurri and Wayne Gretzky in the third period, the goal was Oilers&rsquo; 34th of the five-game series. No other team has scored more, even in Stanley Cup playoff debates that have been extended to the maximum. No other team, that is, but the Oilers.Their newest acquisition, rookie Ray Cote, added No. 35 before the Oilers were through their four days of schizophrenia. How else do you explain a 10-2 triumph, followed by a 6-5 setback and then a 9-1 waxing?The former standard for a five-game series was 28 goals by the New York Rangers vs. Philadelphia Flyers in 1979, while the Montreal Canadiens accounted for 33 in a six-game final against Chicago 10 years ago. The Flyers struck for 33 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1976, the most in a seven-game playoff.There were also a number of other individual or team records, too:&bull; Wayne Gretzky set the mark in Game Three for most points (7) in a playoff game, with, four goals and three assists. Dickie Moore (Montreal Canadiens 1954), Phil Esposito (Boston Bruins, 1969), Darryl Sittier (Toronto Maple Leafs, 1976), Guy Lafleur (Montreal, &lsquo;1977) and Mikko Leinonen (Rangers, 1982) shared the old mark of six.&bull; Gretzky&rsquo;s second four-goal game of the playoffs tied the record for most hat tricks (two) in one playoff year, originally set by Montreal&rsquo;s Rocket Richard in 1944 and equalled seven times since, including once by Gretzky prior to this season. Mark Messier&rsquo;s three-goal performance in the 10-2 game, coupled with four in the 6-3 series opening win, also lifted the 22-year-old into the books alongside Gretzky.&bull; Messier&rsquo;s second series hat trick equalled the mark of two such performances in a single series. Doug Bentley (Chicago, 1944) and Norm Ullman (Detroit Red Wings, 1964) also own a piece of the standard.&bull; Gretzky&rsquo;s shorthanded goal in Game Three, his third of the playoffs, tied the record for one playoff year held by Derek Sanderson (Boston, 1969), Bill Barber (Philadelphia, 1980) and Lome Henning (New York Islanders, 1980).&bull; When Messier struck for Edmonton&rsquo;s third shorthanded goal during the final period of Game Three, a single game team mark was tied. Boston scored three times while killing penalties two years ago in Minnesota. However, unlike the Oilers, the Bruins were beaten 6-3.&bull; When Gregg&rsquo;s shot snaked across the goal line after skipping through goalie Don Edwards&rsquo; pads in Game Five, the Oilers had their fifth shorthanded goal of the series&mdash;tying the &rsquo;79 Rangers&mdash;and eighth of the playoffs. The standard for the playdoffs is nine (Islanders, 1981).&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t give a bleep about records,&rdquo; was Oiler GM-coach Glen Sather&rsquo;s candid appraisal. &ldquo;The other night (Game Three) in Calgary, Wayne had a chance to tie Rocket Richard (five goals in one game), but he passed to Mark (Messier) instead of shooting. That&rsquo;s the sign of guys playing for a team.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Oilers Easily Extinguish Calgary’s Flame

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02485/4801945-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Photo by Bruce Bennett</figcaption></div>If there was ever any reason to take Boston bruin right winger kick Middleton for granted or question whether he is indeed a superstar, the Adams Division final between the Bruins and Buffalo Sabres dispelled those notions.In one of the most outstanding playoff performances ever, Middleton, working both ends of the ice as diligently as ever, scored five goals and 14 assists in the seven-game series against the Sabres. In one contest alone, he had six points.His 19-point effort and strong defensive work were the basis for his selection as THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; NHL Player of the Week.If the Bruins are to handle the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup semi-finals, Middleton will have to be at his best again. &#9632;

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Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;In the black and orange world of Mel Bridgman, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things.Or, to put it another way, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; way and the wrong way.When the Calgary Flames acquired Bridgman in the 1981 trade for Brad Marsh, they thought they got more than another hockey player.In Bridgman, they received a bit of the Flyer tradition, a tradition steeped in the work ethic and an all-for-all, camaraderie that brought the organization two Stanley Cup championships in the mid-seventies.Then, inexplicably, something went wrong.Between seasons, Bridgman&rsquo;s attitude changed. He became disinterested. He did not play tough and hard and physical like he did in his first year with the Flames.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t very motivated,&rdquo; Bridgman said, commenting on his early-season problems. &ldquo;It was probably the first time in my career that I wasn&rsquo;t motivated. Right from the start of training camp, I almost felt like I wasn&rsquo;t going to fit in (to coach Bob Johnson&rsquo;s system). I knew from the first day that I was going to have trouble.&ldquo;To me, my future is important. I didn&rsquo;t know if my future was here. I found it very frustrating.&rdquo;Bridgman&rsquo;s play showed his frustration. He had an ineffective first half, alternating between center, left wing and right wing.Not until the halfway mark, when Johnson assigned him to regular duty as the center on his checking line did Bridgman turn his season around.He, Dave Hindmarch and Jamie Hislop became the shadows, watching Marcel Dionne one night, Denis Savard the next, Wayne Gretzky the third.In one season, Bridgman&rsquo;s career had come full circle. He was a role player in Philadelphia, a star for the Flames last season. Now, he is a role player again.&ldquo;When you talk about checking, the biggest thing is forechecking,&rdquo; said Bridgman. &ldquo;When you backcheck, everybody plays the same. When you forecheck, you have to force. If I go in hard, I&rsquo;m forcing the defenseman to pass the puck fast. If he&rsquo;s faced with making a quick pass and my wingers are in position, it may cause him to turn the puck over.&ldquo;So to check well, you have to check as a unit. You need to get in quick and you need to be in position. You can&rsquo;t give them time. If you give a player like Kent Nilsson five seconds to move the puck, he&rsquo;s going to do something that will bum you. Anyone will make a mistake if he&rsquo;s forced hard enough.&rdquo;More recently, because of an injury to Hindmarch, Jim Jackson and Greg Meredith became the wingers on the checking line. The single constant remained Bridgman. He was perhaps Calgary&rsquo;s key player in the first-round win over Vancouver Canucks. He was considered the key factor in the next round against the Edmonton Oilers, but the Oilers were far too strong for the Flames&rsquo; entire squad, never mind Bridgman and his checking linemates.The Flames managed just one win in five outings in the Smythe Division final before bowing out, rather unceremoniously (playoff details are on page 6 and 7).IN BRIEF&mdash;General Manager Cliff Fletcher says the team has reached an agreement-in-principle with Swedish star Haken Loob. The club has an agreement with Loob&rsquo;s agent, Bill Watters of Toronto, but they have yet to receive a signed contract in the mail. Fletcher cautioned: &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re dealing with a North American agent and a European player, you can never be too sure. These things can blow up on you.&rdquo; Loob, the leading scorer in the Swedish first division, has been likened to Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; rookie Mats Naslund. Both are small, but quick, and have a knack for scoring goals. Once Loob signs, Fletcher must negotiate his release from Farjestads, Loob&rsquo;s Swedish club team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01533/4801976-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="574" height="858"><figcaption class="caption-body">Flame Mel Bridgman started the season poorly but rebounded in the second half.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Bridgman Back Where He Began

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01602/4802007-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NOW: YOU CAN WIN 2 WAYS DURING PLAYOFF TIME

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01552/4802038-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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USA CABLE NETWORK BRINGS YOU THE NHL

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>At the beginning of the 1982 83 American Hockey League season, the question was not what Ross Yates was going to do for the Binghamton Whalers. The more likely query was, &ldquo;Who is Ross Yates?&rdquo;Well, by the time the AHL regular season ended, everybody involved in professional hockey knew who-Yates was and what he did for the Whalers.All the 23-year-old native of Montreal accomplished, in only his second full season as a pro, was to score 41 goals, add 84 assists for 125 points and enter his name in the AHL record book as the most productive single-season scoring champion. His 125 points surpassed the mark of 119, set by Hershey&rsquo;s Red Sullivan in the 1953-54 season.It was primarily for that reason that THE HOCKEY NEWS selected Yates as Minor League Player of the Year, capping a spectacular rags-to-riches season for the 6-foot-1, 190-pound center who seemed to come out of nowhere last fall.Actually, where Yates came from was Mt. Allison University in Sackville, N.B. After setting innumerable school records, some of which still stand, the Binghamton Whalers signed him as a free agent late in the 1980-81 season.He played just 14 games with Binghamton that season and followed it up with a 45-point season in 1981-82, certainly nothing to get excited about.Heading into the 1982-83 campaign, no one was expecting much from the fair-haired, shy center. In fact, as the season got underway, Yates was excluded from the section in the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; media guide that lists prospects in the system.That omission must have caused some embarrassment for the Whalers, but the fact remains that they now have a prospect that they never really expected to have.In Binghamton, Yates averaged more than 30 minutes per game, taking key faceoffs, playing the power play, killing penalties and taking a regular shift.He is entering the option year of his contract, but all business dealings are on hold in Hartford right now as a new &ldquo;czar&rdquo; of hockey operations is to be announced in the near future.One thing is certain. The Whaler management, which excluded Yates as a prospect at the beginning of the season, are fully aware of and grateful for his accomplishments. He&rsquo;ll be given every opportunity to make it in Hartford next season.Late in the regular season, when Binghamton was staying in Hartford for a couple of days on a southern road swing, Yates entered his hotel room and found a bottle of champagne and a telegram from Hartford general manager Larry Pleau indicating a $5,000 bonus was awaiting him.Yates had to be convinced that it wasn&rsquo;t some kind of practical joke.It wasn&rsquo;t. Neither was his outstanding season nor his selection as THE HOCKEY NEWS Minor League Player of the Year.Give Jacques Demers another one of those big victory cigars he fires up after each win for he has been selected the Minor League Coach of the Year by THE HOCKEY NEWS.Demers, 38, guided the Fredericton Express to the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Northern Division title this season with the right combination of talent, patience and experience. The championship marked a complete turnaround from 1981-82, the Express&rsquo; first season in the AHL, when Demers&rsquo; club struggled to a 20-55-5 mark, the worst in the league, and a last-place finish in the division.This season, the Vancouver Canucks joined the Quebec Nordiques in stocking the Express roster and the additional manpower had a dramatic effect on the team&rsquo;s performance.But to Demers&rsquo; credit, the team played consistently in spite of a rash of call-ups by the Canucks and Nordiques and a long injury list.The Express moved to the front of the pack in November and, despite a few shaky moments, never really faltered. Fredericton finished with a 4527-8 record for 98 points, 11 more than the runner-up Nova Scotia Voyageurs. The Express allowed the fewest goals in the league (284) and were the fourth-best in goals for (348).Demers orchestrated the whole show with the cool style he has developed in 11 seasons as a pro coach. He called this title, the fourth of his career, a bit more satisfying.&ldquo;I think this year&mdash;and everytime you win one it is exciting&mdash;was special because of the circumstances. When we won at Indy (in the WHA in 1977) I had complete control because I was the coach and the player personnel director. In the AHL, or any minor league, you never have complete control because of injuries and call-ups by the NHL teams,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;So I think it is more rewaiding. Everytime we lost players through injuries or call-ups, somebody else came through. Under the circumstances, this was more gratifying because I never had control of my team&rsquo;s destiny. Because of all that, the credit has to go to the players.&rdquo;During that first frustrating season in Fredericton, Demers used 57 different players looking for the right combination. At times, he was forced to use players from the local intermediate leagues and admits that he rarely had the same lineup from game to game. This time around, Fredericton used 41 players and some of them, like forward Marc Crawford, were recalled a number of times by the parent clubs. Crawford led the traveling corps with six separate trips across the continent to join the Canucks.Although their were many high points like an unbeaten month of November, Demers points to a road trip in late February and early March as the stretch that made the Express a championship team.&ldquo;We had to play seven games in nine nights and we only had 13 players, but we won six of seven,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;We kept saying not to worry about the numbers, that character and pride were more important.&ldquo;We could have come out of that road trip with one win and six losses but we never looked at the numbers. That would have been an excuse. We didn&rsquo;t look for excuses to lose, we looked for ways to win.&rdquo;Demers is an extremely popular figure in Fredericton. He has developed a good rapport with area officials, the media and the fans. He devotes his free time to various activities in the area, including the youth hockey program.Much of that support was nurtured when the Express were losers on the ice and winners at the gate.&ldquo;In that first year, when we had 57 players, I never panicked, I never knocked my players,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The talent just wasn&rsquo;t there, but the most important thing was that we made the people in Fredericton believe that we were trying to win every game. We paid the price and played hard in all 80 games. In the 80th game, we were still trying to win. I don&rsquo;t think we ever let anybody down. And in the first year of a franchise, it is so important to stay positive.&rdquo;Demers, who has spent five years in the Nordiques&rsquo; organization, recently signed a new three-year contract with the club. Like every other coach in the minors, he admits that a post in the NHL is his objective but not at any cost.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d think about going back to the NHL if the right opportunity was given. I just wouldn&rsquo;t jump at anything. I have a wife and family to be concerned with. But if the right opportunity came along, I&rsquo;d have to listen. I like the fact that I&rsquo;ve been with the Nordiques for five years and that i will be eight when this contract is over. Security is a big thing for me.&rdquo;Demers can&rsquo;t be concerned with looking too far into the future right now. He can light up another of those big cigars he learned to like this season, concentrate on preparing the Express for their playoff series with Maine and, well, just for a moment, enjoy his latest award.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a heck of an honor,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think that puts the icing on the cake for me.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01583/4802076-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="557" height="871"><figcaption class="caption-body">Binghamton&rsquo;s Ross Yates established a single-season AHL scoring record.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02422/4802069-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="553" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">Express coach JacquesDemers had to cope with a lot of call-ups and injuries.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Yates And Demers Win Minor-League Awards

As the weeks wind down towards the 1983 Molson-NHL annual Slo-Pitch Classic on June 17, 18 and 19, the field is slowly being completed for the big event at Niagara Falls, Ont., with at least 19 National Hockey League teams certain to compete.Officials were hoping for a full NHL complement but it appears neither of the New York teams, the Islanders and the Rangers, will be entered in this year&rsquo;s event. The Rangers, who were originally reported as being among the starters, have run into scheduling difficulties and will not be able to attend.Besides the 19 NHL teams, the tournament will also include squads from among the league&rsquo;s referees and linesmen as well as a team of NHL Oldtimers.Bob Lavelle, who is one of the tourney co-ordinators, said that player confirmations were pouring in at a rapid rate and he said he would have a complete 21-team roster in time for the special section on the Molson-NHL Slo-Pitch classic that will appear in the June issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS.Among the players who have announced their intention of competing this year are Craig Hartsburg, Dino Ciccarelli and Brian Bellows of Minnesota; Rick Vaive, Dan Daoust, Bill Derlago and Mike Palmateer of Toronto; Bob Froese, Bobby Clarke and Paul Holmgren of Philadelphia; Scott Stevens, Mike Gartner, Dennis Maruk, Rod Langway and coach Bryan Murray of Washington; Paul Gardner and Rick Kehoe of Pittsburgh; Barry Pederson of Boston; Lanny McDonald of Calgary; Paul Coffey and Charlie Huddy of Edmonton; Larry Robinson of Montreal; Wilf Paiement, Dale Hunter and Michel Goulet of Quebec; Harold Snepsts of Vancouver; Don Lever of New Jersey; Dale Hawerchuk of Winnipeg; Danny Gare, Willie Huber and Jim Schoenfeld of Detroit, Blaine Stoughton and Ron Francis of Hartford and at least four members of last year&rsquo;s championship-winning Los Angeles Kings, including perennial Slo-Pitch stars Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor, Jerry Korab and Bernie Nicholls, who was chosen the tournament MVP last year. Two years ago, in its inaugural season, the tournament attracted 10 teams. Last year, the event attracted 14 and this year the 19 will be attending. Among the clubs making their debut in this year&rsquo;s tournament are the Boston Bruins, Minnesota North Stars, Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues.Lavelle, the man who started the ball rolling three years, originally had an idea for a small six-team weekend event. It has now grown into the top off-season attraction in league history. Last year was the largest gathering of NHL players in one place at any one time in history.Last year&rsquo;s tourney attracted more than 35,000 fans for the three days and co-ordinators of the tournament. Bob Lavelle and David Rigby, expect even greater crowds this year.The three-day competition will take place at three sites with more than 200 National Hockey League players expected to put away their sticks and skates and take up the bat and ball to continue their intense ice rivalry on the baseball field.Headquarters for the tournament will be Maple Leaf Village in Niagara Falls, with games being played at Lancaster Park in St. Catharines, Plymouth Park in Welland and, of course, Oakes Park in Niagara Falls, where the exciting semi-final and final games will be staged to decide the tournament champion.The concept behind the Molson-NHL Slo-Pitch Classic is simply to bring together as many NHLers as possible to play in the round-robin tournament for charity&hellip; The three-day event will mix some excellent softball and socializing among the players with all proceeds to be divided among the competing teams for contribution to a charity of their choice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01508/4802107-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="575" height="2064"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jerry Korab of the Kings will be back to help defend the team&rsquo;s title.</figcaption></div>With the increase in the number of teams, it became necessary to branch out into St. Catharines and Welland. Games on Friday night and Saturday afternoon will be held in all three cities with teams rotated from city to city as much as the schedule will allow. This will give fans in all three parks a chance to see the stars perform.The finale on Sunday June 19 in Niagara Falls is set for Oakes Park, which is one of the top facilities in Ontario for both beauty and durability. Last year&rsquo;s championship playoffs attracted an overflow crowd of 6,000.Weekend events get underway on June 16. Players will arrive to register and will be greeted at a cocktail party at Maple Leaf Village, which will be open to the public. A luncheon will follow at Friday noon for the players and the media at the Niagara Falls Memorial Arena. This, too, will be accessible to the public. The first games will be held in all three cities starting at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Each team will play once on Friday with a minimum of four games in each park the first day. On Saturday, all 200 or more participating NHL players will be in action beginning at 10 a.m.The climax to the tournament will be Sunday at noon when the semi-finals open, followed by the championship game at Oakes Park starting at approximately 5:30 p.m. There will also be a special All-Star game on Sunday afternoon as representatives from the midseason NHL All-Star game on Long Island square off in a Wales-Campbell Conference matchup.Tournament officials have many events plannned as well as the games. A mammoth Saturday night auction of hockey memorabilia will be staged, followed by a dance. Both events will be held at the Maple Leaf Village and will be open to the paying public. &#9632;

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Player Interest Heats Up For Slo-Pitch

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;It is somewhat ironic that a year ago at this time, a major portion of Bob Butera&rsquo;s job as president of the Philadelphia Flyers was to extract as lucrative a settlement as possible from John McMullen.&ldquo;And he did a good job of it, too,&rdquo; McMullen joked somewhat painfully, recalling the difficult negotiations which took place before he was permitted to close a costly, complicated deal to buy the Colorado Rockies&rsquo; franchise and move it to New Jersey.Butera was introduced to the media as the Devils&rsquo; first president on April 19 and displayed the cool, articulate speaking style of a man who has been both a lawyer and a politician.One of his first tough questions concerned his recent resignation in Philadelphia, where owner Ed Snider&rsquo;s 25-year-old son, Jay, took over.Was Butera pushed out?&ldquo;No,&rdquo; the 48-year-old executive answered firmly. &ldquo;As a matter of fact, I had a year to go on my contract when I resigned. In October or November, Eddie suggested&mdash;advised&mdash;me that he&rsquo;d like to get his son more involved in the Flyers&rsquo; organization and I said, &lsquo;Great, I&rsquo;ll help teach him the business.&rsquo;&ldquo;We spent this year together, very harmoniously, and I enjoyed it. I have a son and I would like nothing more than to work with my son, so I understood Ed Snider&rsquo;s desire to work with his son more closely. But, the fact of the matter is that I had a year to go on my contract and was offered five more years.&rdquo;Butera said it is too early to discuss possible shifts of responsibility in the Devils&rsquo; hockey operation, but did outline his role.&ldquo;I will not attempt, nor have I been given the authority, to run the hockey team,&rdquo; Butera said. &ldquo;I am not, in quotes, a hockey man. But I will oversee the operation of the hockey team in a sense that I will make certain to keep Max (McNab, vice president of hockey operations) and Billy (MacMillan, GM-coach) to a budget.&ldquo;However, I will not select the talent. That&rsquo;s their area of expertise. I am not an expert at selecting hockey talent.&rdquo;Butera has apparently been given more authority with the Devils than he had at Philadelphia, where owner Snider was reported to exercise firm control in many areas.&ldquo;I think it (his area of responsibility) is a bit broader here than it was at Philadelphia,&rdquo; Butera said. &ldquo;When I started my four years as president there, it was kind of on-the-job training. As my position matured with the Flyers, I began to oversee the hockey operation. I don&rsquo;t think I had quite the authority or the responsibility that I will have here&hellip;which I demand.&rdquo;The tone of those last three words &mdash; &ldquo;which I demand&rdquo;&mdash;provided an interesting contrast to his generally selfeffacing, diplomatic remarks.The impact Butera will have on the Devils&rsquo; organization remains to be seen, but he appeared to be aware of the need for patience and the extensive building job which remains.He said his first priorities will be &ldquo;reaching the fans&rdquo;and more specifically, the areas of radio, TV and marketing.Butera also expressed concern over the Devils&rsquo; unsatisfactory minor-league affiliations, noting that the minor leagues are a very costly but necessary investment for a team near the bottom of the standings.MacMillan was on a scouting trip, along with director of player personnel Bert Marshall recently, but the hockey operation was represented by McNab and assistant coach Marshall Johnston.Butera said one of the things that points to a successful future for the franchise was the response of local hockey fans to a team which was more or less rejected in two previous locations.&ldquo;I doubt whether there has ever been a professional franchise in any sport that gained such instant affection from the fans,&rdquo; Butera said. &ldquo;It is very impressive.&rdquo;The physical surroundings also made a big impression on Butera.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a sports fan,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I guess maybe it&rsquo;s better to say I&rsquo;m a sports freak. And to be able to walk into the most magnificent indoor (sports) structure in the world every day to go to work excites me.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing to compare to this. I&rsquo;ve been in virtually every indoor arena in this country and in Canada; there is nothing like the (Meadowlands) Arena.&ldquo;I feel that I&rsquo;ve really been given the opportunity of a lifetime for a person who enjoys dealing with the public, likes business and likes sports.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Butera spent 15 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and General Assembly, where he served as Republican Floor Leader and Whip. He resigned his post for an unsuccessful campaign to become Governor of Pennsylvania in 1978. Butera reflected, in retrospect, that the Flyers&rsquo; fears concerning a New Jersey franchise were &ldquo;exaggerated.&rdquo; He also said &ldquo;the golden egg&rdquo; of cable TV has yet to appear in the area and won&rsquo;t until the Devils become a winner&hellip;McMullen on the playoffs: &ldquo;Obviously, all of us are jealous to see the great battle going on between the Islanders and the Rangers.&rdquo; On success: &ldquo;It takes a plan, it takes time, it takes dedication and it takes a very strong stomach.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01533/4802138-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="572" height="821"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Butera said he was thrilled about working in the confines of the Meadowlands Arena.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Butera Will Scrutinize The Devils’ Budget

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyFREDERICTON&mdash;The Fredericton Express and Maine Mariners emerged from grueling opening-round series and will meet in the Northern Division finals of the Calder Cup playoffs.Tim Tookey&rsquo;s goal at 2:16 of the third overtime period lifted the Express to a 6-5 victory in Game Six that clinched their series with the Adirondack Red Wings, 4-2. Maine roared back from a 3-2 deficit in the series with Nova Scotia to defeat the Vees in seven games.Tookey&rsquo;s goal brought to an end a titanic struggle between the Express and Red Wings that involved 27:16 of sudden death overtime. The game, played before a sellout crowd at the Aitken Centre, took four hours and 18 minutes to complete.Veteran right winger Blair MacDonald, playing his first game since returning from playoff duty with Vancouver, made the pass in the neutral zone that allowed Tookey to walk in alone from the right side on Adirondack goalie Larry Lozinski.&ldquo;B.J. put it on my stick and I went right in,&rdquo; Tookey said. &ldquo;I was tired, but I sure got my legs there. I decided I was going to tuck it in and I really didn&rsquo;t get a good shot, but it went in and I was sure happy to see it go in.&ldquo;I missed where I wanted to shoot, I wanted to go right upstairs, but I caught enough of it to hit him. It went up in the air and right into the net.&rdquo;Lozinski, who had made 52 saves in the game, was able to see the floating puck sail behind him, but was unable to grab it.&ldquo;It hit my pads, went straight up into the air and fell down behind me,&rdquo; the Hudson Bay, Sask., native said. &ldquo;I knew what he was doing. I guess I went down as he was going across.&rdquo;Adirondack, which had avoided elimination in Game Five with a 5-4 double overtime win at Glens Falls, gave the Express all it could handle in the series. The fourth-place Wings turned to a hardworking, close-checking grinding style against the strong-skating Express and that strategy paid dividends.&ldquo;I genuinely thought we could beat that team,&rdquo; Adirondack coach Bill Mahoney said after his team was eliminated. &ldquo;To a man, we were convinced that our strengths that we had as a team were hard work and a good sense of commitment to a high level of intensity and I think that was there. When you get that, you can surprise strong teams. I think their talent pool is excellent. Outside of Rochester, maybe it is the second-best talent pool in the league. We had to rely on taking advantage of chances we got and outworking them. Except for the former, I think we did.&rdquo;Adirondack jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period on goals by Claude Loiselle, Rejean Cloutier and Joe Paterson. Dennis Sobchuk scored a powerplay goal for the Express. The Wings were forced to kill six straight penalties from late in the first period into the second. They succeeded on five, but the effects of the additional work doled out by referee Bob Hall showed later in the game. During the contest, the Wings faced nine shorthanded situations to three against Fredericton.The Express came alive in the second period and moved to within a goal by sandwiching scores by Grant Martin and Tony Currie around a power-play goal by Adirondack&rsquo;s Derek Smith. Richard David tied the score at 4-4, just 1:5O into the third period, but Bobby Crawford gave the Wings their final lead at 6:52. David&rsquo;s goal 15 seconds later tied the score again and forced the overtime.Game Five: Jody Gage&rsquo;s goal 37 seconds into the second overtime kept the Wings alive and sent the two teams back to Fredericton for a sixth game.Fredericton took a 3-1 lead in the first period on goals by Sobchuk, David and Tookey. Adirondack answered in the second period when Bill Hogaboam, Ted Huesing and Greg Joly scored in a five-minute span to take a 4-3 lead. Marc Crawford&rsquo;s goal at 8:18 of the third period tied the score and forced the overtime.MAINE VS. NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Rookie left winger Andy Brickley scored two goals and assisted on another to lead Maine to a series clinching 4-1 win at Halifax.Maine, which won three of four games played at the Metro Centre in Halifax, extended the series to the full seven games with a 5-4 victory in Game Six.Goaltender Sam St. Laurent was the difference in the final game as he turned away 30 of the 31 shots he faced. The Mariners put 23 shots on goalie Greg Moffett.Brickley scored his first goal at 17:16 of the first period and fellow rookie Len Hachbom added a power-play goal at 3:17 of the second to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead.Steve Marengere scored on a power play at 14:22 of the third to bring the Vees to within a goal, but Brickley produced the back-breaker at 17:13. Doug Morrison scored into an open net at 19:59.Game Six: John Paddock scored the go-ahead goal and assisted on Ross Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s game-winner in the third period. Paddock was alone in the slot at 6:32 when he fired a low shot past Moffett, who was making his first appearance in the Vees&rsquo; nets in the playoffs. Moffett replaced an injured Mark Holden at the end of the first period with the Vees leading 3-1.Jeff Mars, Mark Hentges and Wayne Thompson scored first-period goals for the Vees, while Brickley connected on a Maine power play. Tom Gorence and Wayne Schaab beat Moffett in the second period to tie the score, and Paddock and Fitzpatrick combined for goals three minutes apart in the third. John Newberry scored the Vees&rsquo; final goal at 16:49.Game Five: The Vees put themselves in the driver&rsquo;s seat with a 5-2 win at Portland that gave them a 3-2 advantage.Thompson, Jeff Brubaker and Yvan Joly scored goals midway through the second period to send the Vees on their way to the win.Game Four. Hentges&rsquo; goal at 9:06 of the third period sent the Vees to a 3-2 win at Portland and tied the series at 2-2.Brickley and Newberry traded first-period goals. Gorence pushed the Mariners back in front at 1:23 of the second period, but Thompson tied the game at 19:10 of the period with the Vees skating with a two-man advantage.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01504/4802193-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="575" height="741"><figcaption class="caption-body">Blair MacDonald returned to the Express lineup and assisted on a key goal.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Express, Mariners Meet In Northern Final

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>ROCHESTER&mdash;The stubborn Binghamton Whalers gave the Rochester Americans everything they cared to handle in five tension-filled Calder Cup quarterfinal playoff games. But the dynamic attack that helped the Amerks romp to the Southern Division title awoke in the third period of each game.Game Five, Rochester&rsquo;s 5-2 series-clinching victory before a crowd of 6,965 at the War Memorial, was like the four before it in the best-of-seven series.The Whalers and Amerks traded offensive thrusts. The goaltenders exchanged big saves. The score was tied after two periods. But as they did in each of their four victories, the Amerks scored the winning goal in the final minutes.Binghamton&rsquo;s George Lyle and Rochester&rsquo;s Bob Mongrain traded early goals before Whaler Bob Sullivan and Amerk Geordie Robertson swapped tallies early in the third.Then, with 1:40 left in regulation, Amerk goaltender Jacques Cloutier stopped Paul Crowley&rsquo;s point-blank backhander. Yvon Lambert settled the rebound behind the net and banked the puck off the left wing boards to right winger Sean McKenna, who decided Game Four in Bighamton with an overtime goal.Suddenly, the puck was between McKenna and Binghamton&rsquo;s Dave McDonald, a left winger who was moved behind the blueline in the second period when rookie defenseman Glen Gester severely sprained his ankle.McKenna eluded McDonald&rsquo;s check, poked the puck ahead, and skated in alone on goalie Paul Fricker. McKenna deked to his backhand, Fricker got a piece of the puck, but it rolled off his glove and into the net for the series winner.Robertson added a disputed tally nine seconds later&mdash;a stuff shot Fricker claimed never settled over the goal line &mdash; and Gary McAdam added an empty-net goal.For the Whalers, the series defeat was hard to swallow. Right winger Don Gillen was lost in Game One with a broken leg. Right winger Randy Pierce missed three games with a pulled groin. Defensemen Darren McKay missed the series with a knee injury.Wait, there&rsquo;s more. Defensemen Larry Goodenough, Sean Coady, Steve MacDougall, and forwards Dan Fridgen and Lyle all missed at least one game with assorted injuries. And Ross Yates, the American Hockey League&rsquo;s leading scorer during the regular season, played the series with tom rib muscles.&ldquo;We know, and I&rsquo;m sure Rochester knows, it wasn&rsquo;t an easy series,&rdquo; said Yates, &ldquo;Two or three that they won could have gone either way.&rdquo;Rochester agreed.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care if anyone looks on paper and says we won four games to one,&rdquo; said Robertson, the series leader with six goals. &ldquo;It was a tough series, a physical series, a demanding series. They took a lot out of us.&rdquo;NEW HAVEN-HERSHEY&mdash;The Nighthawks obeyed instructions. After fluttering their coach&rsquo;s heart with three one-goal victories, Nick Beverley asked for an easy game so he could relax.The Nighthawks obliged with a series-clinching 7-1 victory over the Bears before 4,158 at the New Haven Coliseum in Game Five.Unlike the four before it, this one ended early. Defenseman Dean Turner scored 11:26 into the game, defenseman Jim Brown scored 13 minutes later and left winger Pierre Giroux made it 3-0 at 13:57 of the second period.Lou Franceschetti scored early in the third for Hershey, but the Hawks salted the series away with goals by Dean Jenkins, Phil Sykes, Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer and Rick Blight. Veteran center Rick Shinske notched three assists, and led the team with five points in the five games.Goalies Mike Blake and Paul Pageau, in front of a stingy defense that is peaking at playoff time, allowed the Bears only 13 goals in the five games, seven in the four victories. The defense consists of Bob Gladney, Howie Scruton. Brown, Turner, Al Sims and Mark Morris.Hershey, which finished a point ahead of New Haven in second during the regular season, was unable to win one of three games in New Haven after splitting the first two at Hersheypark Arena.THE DIVISION FINALS&mdash;It&rsquo;s Amerk offense vs. Nighthawk defense.Rochester boasts a slew of forwards who can score anytime, and from anywhere. But can they solve New Haven, which learned late in the regular season how to keep its opposition in check, and continued doing so in the first round?Blake, a second-year pro out of Ohio State who has seen action with the Los Angeles Kings, is the leading playoff goaltender with a 3-0 record and 1.79 goals-against average in three games. But Rochester owns the Playoff Top Ten, with five players in the top nine.Rochester center Jean-Francois Sauve scored nine points in the five games against Binghamton, and his line isn&rsquo;t even coach Mike Keenan&rsquo;s top trio. Center Geordie Robertson scored six goals and two assists and right winger Kai Suikkanen added four and four playing with left wingers Randy Cunneyworth or Chris Langevin, who will serve the final game of his three-game suspension in Game One of the semi-finals. That&rsquo;s the No. 1 line.And check this checking line out: Center Bob Mongrain (81 points), between left winger Yvon Lambert (26 goals) and right winger Gary McAdam (40 goals).If the Hawks can pester the Amerks&rsquo; youthful defense, they might be able to tuck a couple past goalie Jacques Cloutier. They&rsquo;ll have to get into a close-checking game and slow the tempo, because nobody survives a shootout in Rochester.The series opens in Rochester for Games One and Two, moves to New Haven for games Three and Four, and then alternates sites, if necessary. The Nighthawks won the season series, 3-21, and won two of three in the War Memorial.Don&rsquo;t be surprised if this one goes the distance.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01505/4802224-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="551" height="632"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nighthawk goaltender Mike Blake will have a tough time against the Amerks&rsquo; shooters.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Amerk Offense Vs. Nighthawk Defense

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Selecting eighth in this year&rsquo;s draft, the Winnipeg Jets believe they can choose a player who can help them right away.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say there are 10 players available who can make the jump,&rdquo; said Jet GM John Ferguson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen them all. The best, in my opinion, is Pat Lafontaine of Verdun. I think he&rsquo;s a franchise or, at least, the start of one.&rdquo;However, Lafontaine, a shifty center who excites crowds, is not expected to be around when the Jets draft.Of the others who could be available, the one who interests Ferguson the most is Andrew McBain, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound right winger with the North Bay Centennials of the Ontario Hockey League.According to the Jets&rsquo; scouting reports, McBain may be a better center than a right winger. The Jet scouts like the speed he generates and the puck handling ability he demonstrates, especially for a young man of his size.Although the 1983-84 season is still months away, the Jets feel their lineup will include at least three rookies next year.If the draft produces one, another should be defenseman Jim Kyte of the OHL&rsquo;s Cornwall Royals. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound product of Ottawa was their first-round choice in 1982 and the 12th pick overall.Rather than keep him as their seventh defenseman, the Jets opted to give him one more year&rsquo;s experience in junior hockey. They are satisfied he improved adequately.Another possibility is Kirk McCaskill, a sturdy center from the University of Vermont, who is currently playing professional baseball in the California Angels&rsquo; organization.If McCaskill elects to stay in baseball, another prospect is defenseman Dave Ellett. However, he is being sought after by both the Canadian and U.S. Olympic teams. Ellett was born in Cleveland, where his father, Bob, played hockey for the Barons. He was raised in Canada.The Jets are not against having their prospects play in an Olympic program, regardless of which country. They have a goaltender, Marc Behrend, a star of Wisconsin&rsquo;s National Collegiate Athletic Association championship club, who may be ready for the NHL now. But he is being wooed by the U.S. Olympic team and, rather than create a showdown with regulars Doug Soetaert and Brian Hayward, Behrend is not being rushed into pro ranks.&ldquo;Officially, we&rsquo;ll have the youngest team in the league,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have veterans at 21 who have been through two Stanley Cup playoffs. The outlook is very bright.&rdquo;Rumors out of Montreal caused quite a stir last week. One suggested coach Tom Watt was about to be fired, while another had Serge Savard as a leading candidate for the vacant Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; GM job.Regarding the purported tiring, rerguson said the story was &ldquo;entirely unfounded.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard the rumor and, for the life of me, I don&rsquo;t know where it started,&rdquo; Ferguson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s completely false. We are not contemplating a change in coaches. This is as far as it goes.&rdquo;The rumble regarding Savard began the day the Canadiens fired GM Irving Grundman. Savard is a favorite son in Montreal.The Jets would not stand in Savard&rsquo;s way, but they would demand compensation from the Canadiens.&ldquo;He has a contract for one more year and we expect him to play,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;First, they would have to ask me for permission to talk to him. Well, they haven&rsquo;t asked.&rdquo;There is a distinct possibility the Jets will be playing out or a new arena in three year&rsquo;s time.A 15,000-seat arena is included in a $400-million project, yet to be announced, in central Winnipeg. The complex apparently includes a hotel, office tower, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the National Research Council, a department store and 1,000 apartment units.&ldquo;A downtown arena would be great for the city,&rdquo; said Barry Shenkarow, the Jets&rsquo; president and govenor. &ldquo;It would help to rejuvenate the whole area.&rdquo;The current facility, Winnipeg Arena, is an excellent arena for hockey. But it hasn&rsquo;t generated any action downtown. Furthermore, the Jets would probably operate a new arena, leasing it from the city. The team would then control the concessions. A restaurant plus a private club for season-ticket holders is included in the arena plans.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01435/4802255-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="547" height="830"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Jets expect Cornwall Royal defenseman Jim Kyte to make it next season.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Jets Look To The Draft For Help

<div class="byline">BY TOM LOBAUGH</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyBIRMINGHAM&mdash;The South Stars are bound for the Adams Cup finals, but if their play in the semi-finals against Colorado Flames is any indication, they may want to play all their games on the road.After losing the first two playoff games at home, the South Stars won four consecutive games in Denver to eliminate the Flames and advance to the Cup finals.Dan McCarthy&rsquo;s hat trick in the second period wrapped up the four-game sweep in McNichols Arena with a 4-3 verdict. The Stars played four straight on the road, because a circus was occupying Birmingham-Jefferson County Coliseum. The Stars tied the series with a 6-4 come-from-behind victory and they also came from behind for a 5-3 win.Goalkeeper Mario Lessard worked all four road victories and his three-goal average made him the stingiest of playoff goalies. Wes Jarvis, who led the league scoring in the regular season, had six goals and 11 points in the playoffs, three points less than Red Laurence of Indianapolis. Birmingham&rsquo;s Warren Young accumulated 33 penalty minutes to edge Colorado&rsquo;s Charles Bourgeois by three points in that department.Craig Homola and Jarvis had two goals each in the 6-4 victory. Colorado had the first goal in each of the six playoff games, this time getting the opening tally from Howard Walker, the only goal of the first period.Homola scored twice in 37 seconds in the second period, but Mario Simioni gave the Flames a 2-2 tie. Mike Dwyer and Carl Mokosak each put Colorado ahead in the last period, but Bob Boileau answered Dwyer&rsquo;s goal and Jarvis scored twice in 43 seconds, putting the Stars on top with 3:38 left. Frank Beaton scored an empty-net goal with 24 seconds on the clock, after Flame coach Pierre Page lifted goalie Tim Bernhardt.Bruce Eakin got Colorado&rsquo;s opening goal in the Flames&rsquo; 5-3 loss. Steve Carlson answered for Birmingham in the second period, followed by newcomer Karl Fenton for Colorado. Young made it 2-2 after two.Beaton and Boileau put Birmingham on top in the final period, before Tim Harrer got the last Colorado tally. McCarthy added an empty-net goal in the closing minute. Marc D&rsquo;Amour, just returned from Calgary, was in goal for Colorado.Bernhardt was back in the Flames&rsquo; nets for the finale. Harrer put Colorado ahead at the start, but Jarvis tied it up in the opening period. Fenton gave the Flames the lead for the last time this season, but McCarthy&rsquo;s three goals in the second period proved decisive. The Flames outshot the Stars 12-1 in the last 20 minutes, but got only one goal, from Gord Hampson.INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Red Laurence&rsquo;s second consecutive hat trick at home was part of the Checkers&rsquo; 11-4 romp over Salt Lake Golden Eagles and sent Indianapolis into the Adams Cup finals for the second straight year.After winning the first two games of the series at home, the Checkers dropped two in Salt Lake (3-2 in overtime and 6-5 in regulation). The key to the series turned out to be Game Five in the Salt Palace, as the Checkers prevailed 4-2.Laurence&rsquo;s two hat tricks gave him eight goals and 14 points in the six series games to lead all playoff scorers. Scott Howson tied for runner-up honors with 11 points and defenseman Bruce Affleck had nine, all assists.Blair Chapman and Ralph Klassen gave the Golden Eagles a 2-0 lead in the first period of the overtime affair, but Lome Stamler scored for Indy in the second period and Monty Trottier in the third to force the extra period. John Markell won it for Salt Lake after five and a half minutes of sudden-death play. Rollie Boutin was in goal for Salt Lake; Kelly Hurdey took the loss for the Checkers.With Rob Holland in the nets (opposing Boutin again), the Checkers spent all of the 6-5 game attempting to catch up. Jim Pavese, just returned from the parent St. Louis Blues, gave the Eagles the only goal of the opening period. Markell, Chapman and Claude Julien counted for Salt lake in the second, while Indy got goals from Steve Stoyanovich, Laurence and Tim Lockridge to trail 4-3. Pat Hickey and Rob Tudor scored for the Eagles in the third, while Stoyanovich and Laurence each counted again for the Checkers.In the next game. Indy wasn&rsquo;t going to leave the issue in doubt long. Glen Duncan and Dave Simpson forged a 2-0 lead in the first period, then Stoyanovich scored twice in the second, before Gord Donnelly put Salt Lake on the scoreboard. Charlie Skjodt got the final Eagle tally in the third. Hrudey was the winning goalie; Boutin took the loss.While Laurence was posting his second playoff hat trick in the series finale, Garth MacGuigan and Howson each had two goals. Hrudey worked the victory, lowering his playoff average yield to 3.10. Boutin gave up seven goals in the first two periods and was replaced by Paul Skidmore in the third.MacGuigan and Laurence gave Indianapolis a two-goal lead, before Chapman scored for Salt Lake in the first period. Howson, Laurence and Stoyanovich struck in the second, before Bill Stewart tallied for Salt Lake. MacGuigan and Mike Greeder then added quickies for the Checkers. Eagle Dan Wood scored eight seconds after Greeder, cutting the margin to 7-3 after two periods.Chapman&rsquo;s second goal ended the Salt Lake scoring, but the Checkers kept rolling with goals by Howson, Ron Handy, Duncan, and Laurence, who clinched his hat trick with 1:46 to play.The Checkers lost Dave Hansen for two weeks with a knee injury. Darcy Regier missed two games with a knee problem, but was ready to go for the finals against Birmingham.Left winger Perry Gancher from the Saskatoon juniors joined the Eagles, along with Pavese, for the playoffs.NOTES&mdash;League president Bud Poile said Phoenix was making a strong bid for a CHL franchise. &ldquo;I hope we can accomodate them,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;either as an expansion franchise or possibly through the moving of the Wichita club.&rdquo; Wichita owner Larry Gordon is seeking a new site&hellip;After months of negotiation, Tulsa Oilers obtained permission to move to the Expo Square Pavillion (in the county fairgrounds) for the 1983-84 season. General manager Jeff Nix was confident a move away from the downtown area (and free parking for next season) would increase attendance.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01490/4802286-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="549" height="730"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lessard had averaged three goals against in four South Star road games.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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South Stars Tell Flames To Hit The Road

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>H&B Louisville HockeyFORT WAYNE&mdash;It required all 82 games, but the playoff field for the International Hockey League was finally decided. The final berth was filled when Muskegon won its final game of the season while the best Saginaw could do was skate to a 5-5 tie.Ironically, Muskegon scored its play-off berth on the road against the team the Mohawks will face in the first round &mdash; Kalamazoo. And it wasn&rsquo;t close. Alex Belcourt led the Hawks to an 8-4 romp with three goals. Saginaw was tied by Toledo at home.The final results left Muskegon and Saginaw equal in points at 71, but Muskegon got the nod based on goal differential. It was quite a comeback for the Hawks, who spent most of the season in the IHL basement.Muskegon and Kalamazoo will play a five-game series with the winner going against Western Division champion Milwaukee in a best-of-seven semi-final series. Fort Wayne and Flint are also involved in a best-of-five quarter-final set with the winner facing Toledo in the Eastern Division finals. The two division winners will then meet for the Turner Cup.The Muskegon-Kalamazoo game was an afternoon affair so the Hawks really didn&rsquo;t know if they&rsquo;d receive a playoff invitation until the Saginaw-Toledo result was in. Had Saginaw won. the Gears would have been the sixth team in.The strong finish has filled the Hawks with confidence as they look forward to the playoff challenge. &ldquo;This was a must win,&rdquo; said Belcourt. &ldquo;You get one or two guys going and everybody does.&rdquo;In addition to Belcourt&rsquo;s hat trick, Kevin Reeves pumped in a pair of goals, as did John Kirk. Muskegon never trailed as Belcourt scored the same&rsquo;s first seal on a power play. Kalamazoo tied the score on a goal by Kevin Schamehom, but Reeves&rsquo; first goal put the Mohawks in front again and they never looked back.It was a tough way to end the season at Saginaw. The Gears fought to the finish and then some. Toledo had a 5-4 lead and appeared headed for the victory that would have given the Goaldiggers a new IHL record for points at 114. But Bryan Shutt deflected in a shot with just 25 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. But the Gears couldn&rsquo;t break the tie and fell one point short of extending their season.While the Gears were disappointed, none of them complained about the tiebreaking procedure.&ldquo;They set the rules,&rdquo; said Schutt. &ldquo;There are no excuses. We knew what we had to do.&rdquo;Asked if a one-game playoff would have been a better way to break the tie, Saginaw manager-coach Marcel Comeau, who also became a player during the playoff drive, said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think so. You know from the beginning of the season and everybody is aware of playoff procedures.&ldquo;If we&rsquo;d have come up with a win we&rsquo;d have been in instead of them. Unfortunately we didn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;But the guys didn&rsquo;t quit. We gave it all we had. We just didn&rsquo;t have enough,&rdquo; added Comeau, who continued his season by signing on with the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Maine Mariners, a team that had run into an injury problem in the playoffs.It was a tough season for the Gears, who are out of the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Comeau&rsquo;s team was plagued with injuries most of the season. And the schedule didn&rsquo;t help at the end, sending Saginaw against the league champions. Saginaw appeared ready to clinch a playoff spot by sweeping a home-and-home series with Fort Wayne before ending the season against the Goaldiggers.The finjsh was&rsquo;t easy for Muskegon either as they faced a heavy workload on the road. But the Hawks finished with a pair of victories to pull even with Saginaw in points and got the nod by scoring more goals.Muskegon is confident it has enough momentum now to extend its season even longer.Momentum would appear to be on Flint&rsquo;s side in the other quarter-final series. Flint finished its season on a winning note while Fort Wayne dropped its final three, including two straight at home. Fort Wayne had an 8-3-1 edge on Flint during the regular season and has won seven straight from the Generals in Fort Wayne, where the series opens. But playoffs are a new season.The last time Fort Wayne and Flint met in the playoffs was 10 years ago. Flint and Fort Wayne were division champions and the Komets wiped out the Generals in five games and swept Port Huron in four to win the Turner Cup. Ted Garvin, who is now coaching Hint, was coaching at Port Huron then.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01452/4802317-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="562" height="831"><figcaption class="caption-body">Saginaw GM-coach-player Marcel Comeau did not contest the playoff structure.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Playoff Berth Caps Mohawk Comeback

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02320/4802348-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="831" height="498"></div> &#9632;

f0031-02

THN Awards Winners

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BROPHY</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville HockeyOSHAWA&mdash;Everyone, with the possible exception of the hockey fans in this Motor City, laughed under their breath when the Oshawa Generals lost stars Tony Tanti and Dave Andreychuk as underage pros to the National Hockey League.At mid-season, the Generals were cruising along as the class of the OHL. But with Tanti and Andreychuk gone, the Generals appeared to go from a sure bet as league champions and possible Memorial Cup winners to a long shot to make it to the division finals at best.Well, they say he who laughs last laughs best and the Generals are in hysterics right now.Even without Tanti and Andreychuk, Oshawa captured the Leyden Division title and will meet the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&mdash;another team that wasn&rsquo;t supposed to go this far this season&mdash;in the Ontario Hockey League finals.When the Generals lost Tanti&mdash;who was the best player in the OHL at the time&mdash;and Andreychuk, it appeared they were in deep trouble. While they dropped a bit in the standings, eventually finishing third in their division&mdash;a point behind the second-place Peterborough Petes and just two points behind the Ottawa 67s&mdash;the Generals molded together into a much tighter unit than they were with Tanti and Andreychuk in the lineup.Come playoff time, the results of coach Paul Theriault&rsquo;s hard work have been obvious.The Generals disposed of the Belleville Bulls easily in the opening round of playoffs and then shocked the Petes, beating them in four straight.If their bubble was ever going to burst, people expected it to against Ottawa in the division final. It didn&rsquo;t. In fact, the Generals had very little trouble winning their eight-point series 8-2.Now, with the Greyhounds next in line, Theriault hopes his team can continue to work as hard as they have up to this point.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re prepared to play anywhere against anyone at this point,&rdquo; said Theriault, who scouted the final two games of the Emms division final between the Soo and Kitchener Rangers. &ldquo;The attitude on this team is tremendous.&ldquo;Really, we haven&rsquo;t changed our style since the playoffs started, but in terms of intensity and the desire to win, it just keeps growing and growing. It shows in our play.&rdquo;Theriault admired the Greyhounds, who, under coach Terry Crisp, also have a strong work ethic, but said his team wouldn&rsquo;t make any changes in their style going into the finals.&ldquo;Sault Ste. Marie has a nice hockey team,&rdquo; said Theriault. &ldquo;Their defense is adequate and they have more experience up front than any other team in the league.&ldquo;We play our own style. We&rsquo;re not very flashy but we check, check, check to get the job done. That&rsquo;s what we plan to do against the Greyhounds.&rdquo;If regular season records mean anything, the final should be a dandy. In four meetings, each team won one and lost one at home.Oshawa won 6-1 and lost 5-2 at home while the Hounds dropped a 6-2 decision but rebounded to win 7-6 in their home building.There&rsquo;s also a good rivalry between the two teams, which is highlighted by the fact that Theriault is a native of Sauli Ste. Marie and he coached the Greyhounds at the end of the 1977-78 season and all of the following season only to be fired.Theriault&rsquo;s successor in the Soo was Crisp.OSHAWA VS. OTTAWA&mdash;The Generals advanced to the OHL finals with a pair of 4-3 wins over the 67s taking the eight-point series 8-2.David Gans, Dan Gratton, Don Biggs and Mike Stem scored for Oshawa in the first win with Brian McKinnon, Marl Paterson and Larry Power replying foi Ottawa.In the final game, defenseman John Hutchings scored a pair of goals for the winners with John MacLean and Joe Cirella adding singles. Phil Pattersor struck twice for Ottawa with McKinnor netting the other.SAULT STE MARIE VS. KITCHENER&mdash;The Rangers appeared to survive the loss of underage pros Brian Bellows and Scott Stevens but when defenseman Al Maclnnis went down with an injured knee, that seemed to be the final straw.Much to coach Joe Crozier&rsquo;s credit, the Rangers remained competitive but simply didn&rsquo;t have the manpower to stay with the Greyhounds.Terry Tait, Tony Celia, Richard Beaulne and Pat Lahey scored one goal each to give the Soo a 4-2 win and the series 9-5. Mike Eagles and David Bruce replied for the Rangers.Earlier in the series, Kitchener won 4-2, the teams played to a 4-4 tie and the Soo beat the Rangers 4-2.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01467/4802379-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="563" height="732"><figcaption class="caption-body">Captain Joe Cirella scored a goal in the Generals&rsquo; convincing win over the Rangers.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

Gens Rebound From Loss Of Stars

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02338/4802410-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="539" height="1294"><figcaption class="caption-body">Verdun&rsquo;s Pat Lafontaine scored the winning goal in overtime against Shawinigan.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Although it was big news that the Quebec Major Hockey League finally had its first all-Montreal final&mdash;Verdun Juniors vs. Longueuil Chevaliers&mdash;that aspect was overshadowed by the Chevaliers&rsquo; reluctance to move their home games into the Forum.Immediately after dispatching the Shawinigan Cataractes in six games in their semi-final, Verdun&rsquo;s GM Eric Taylor and Aldo Giampaolo, manager of the Verdun Auditorium, announced they worked out an agreement with Forum president Ronald Corey to hold Verdun&rsquo;s home games there. The reasoning behind the move was to satisfy the demands of local fans who were expected to turn out in droves to see the so-called Subway Series.The Juniors, who have home-ice advantage in the final, attracted 17,860 fans to the 16,074-seat Forum for Game One and recorded a 5-4 overtime victory over the Chevaliers.The Chevaliers, who stunned the league-champion Laval Voisins in five games, were also expected to move into the Forum, but changed their mind at the last minute.One day after Verdun&rsquo;s announcement, Andre Mangifesto, the Chevaliers&rsquo; GM, said the odds were &ldquo;50-50&rdquo; that the Chevaliers would follow the Juniors&rsquo; lead.Longueuil plays out of the tiny Jean Beliveau Colisee, which has a seating capacity of 2,505 and a standing room capacity of 400.But Mangifesto eventually changed his mind, supposedly in deference to his fans. Of course, the fact that Chevaliers&rsquo; president Georges Touten owns a portion of the concessions at the arena, just might have swayed Mangifesto.&ldquo;On the short term we&rsquo;d definitely make more money at the Forum,&rdquo; said Mangifesto. &ldquo;But we don&rsquo;t want to let the people of Longueuil down. In the long run we&rsquo;ll gain more by playing the series at home. We have customers who have been following our junior B team for close to 10 years. They live close to the Colisee and don&rsquo;t want to &ldquo; go the the Forum.&rdquo;The Colisee would have generated slightly more than $17,000 from ticket sales for each sold out Colisee game, of which there could be as many as three. But because the Chevaliers also own the arena&rsquo;s concession rights&mdash;including restaurant and bar&mdash;Mangifesto said the team only stands to lose $5,000 per game by remaining in Longueuil.The other aspect of this scenario is Chevalier players and coach Jacques Lemaire didn&rsquo;t particularly want to move to a foreign arena.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy we&rsquo;re staying,&rdquo; said Lemaire, the former Montreal Canadien, &ldquo;because the players are used to the ice and the fans will all be from Longueuil and give us help.&rdquo;Conversely, the Juniors, not surprisingly, agreed to a man that the shift to the hallowed Forum wouldn&rsquo;t be detrimental. The team shifted there a week early and coach Pierre Creamer emphatically stated it would not be used as an excuse should the Juniors lose.&ldquo;As soon as we get on the ice it will be strictly hockey,&rdquo; said Verdun center Randy Muttart. &ldquo;The Forum will be lost in the excitement of the game.&rdquo;Added captain Jean-Maurice Cool before the team&rsquo;s initial Forum workout: &ldquo;Tonight we&rsquo;re in awe. But we have five days to get used to things. In the room (the Juniors are using the Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room) there will not be a hockey atmosphere for tonight. It&rsquo;s still an experience for all of us.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our practices will help us get used to things here,&rdquo; said Pat Lafontaine. &ldquo;This week will give us an opportunity to get a feeling of what the Forum is all about.&rdquo;The Chevaliers clinched their semifinal series with Laval with their second consecutive 5-4 overtime victory in Game Five. Franco Iammatteo scored the winner after only 2:02.The Chevaliers forced the game into overtime on Bobby Mormina&rsquo;s goal at 8:52 of the third. That goal came slightly more than a minute after play was resumed.The action was halted for close to 40 minutes at the 7:21 mark when referee Michel Lemieux went down with a shoulder injury, after being accidentally hit by a player. Lemieux was carried off the ice on a stretcher and was replaced by standby official Richard Trottier.In truth, the Chevaliers didn&rsquo;t deserve to force overtime. Over the opening two periods, Longueuil was accorded 11 power plays&mdash;including four separate occasions in which it had two-man advantages for anywhere from eight seconds to a full two minutes&mdash;yet scored only two goals.The Juniors, after losing Game Five of their series 5-4&mdash;a game in which they outshot Shawinigan 44-21&mdash;rebounded with a 4-3 overtime victory to clinch the set.Lafontaine, held to only three goals in the six games because of some impressive checking by Marcel Giguere, scored the winner after just 55 seconds. Rejean Vignola forced the sudden-death frame by scoring at 17:22 of the third.The Juniors were expected to be without standout defenseman Bill Campbell for the opening game against Longueuil. Campbell suffered a severe charley horse in the deciding game against Shawinigan. He was expected to return for Game Two. &#9632;

f0032-02

Chevaliers Refuse To Move To The Forum

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>H&B Louisville HockeyH&B Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01425/4802472-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="561" height="723"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gord Walker scored two goals as Portland beat Victoria for the Division title.</figcaption></div>VICTORIA&mdash;The Cougars did a lot of offensive damage in their Western Hockey League Western Division final series. The only problem is that the Portland Winter Hawks did more.In a matchup that will long be remembered as the shootout on the west coast. Cougars found themselves facing the most feared band of snipers in the league. And when the smoke cleared, the Cougars quickly found themselves out of goals and contention in the best-of-seven series.The Winter Hawks successfully defended their division title the hard way. In taking the series 4-1, Portland took three contests by one goal. They outscored Victoria 41-35 in the five games, even though they were outshot in some meetings.Portland ended the series with an 8-7 win in Game Five after taking Game Four 6-5 in overtime. The Cougars captured Game Three 8-7 after dropping Game Two 11-8 and the opener 9-7.&ldquo;The biggest factor was losing three defensemen through injury,&rdquo; summed up Victoria coach Dave Andrews. &ldquo;We thought if we were to play Portland that we&rsquo;d match them with firepower but have the better defense. We had to go with only four defensemen and they were tired because we were playing a lot of games in a short time, going back to the seven games we had with Kamloops in the semi-final.&rdquo;Andy Dickie, Ron Viglasi and Rob Kivell were hobbled in the final series. But despite the injuries, the Cougars dug down deep and gave the Hawks all they could handle.&ldquo;I thought the first game in Portland was anybody&rsquo;s game,&rdquo; said Andrews. &ldquo;And the fourth game at home when we lost in overtime was the turning point. We had them up but we couldn&rsquo;t finish and allowed them to come back.&ldquo;Even if we could have had everybody healthy, you couldn&rsquo;t predict we would have won because the series was that close,&rdquo; added Andrews. &ldquo;I thought the worst game we played was the one we won. We weren&rsquo;t prepared for the high-tempo game they gave us. I was surprised at their (Hawks&rsquo;) enthusiasm even though they have the bye into the Memorial Cup.&rdquo;The Cougars bowed out in familiar fashion. After falling behind 3-2 after one period in Game Five before tying the contest 4-4 entering the third, Victoria fell victim to a Portland rally and trailed 8-4 in the final frame. The Cougars rallied and cut the deficit to 8-7 but couldn&rsquo;t overtake the Winter Hawks before 8,107 fans in Portland.Rich Chernomaz paced Victoria with a hat-trick performance. Geoff Courtnall added two goals while singles went to Mark Morrison and Russ Courtnall. Darren Moren finished with 41 saves.In Game Four, the Cougars were up 5-4 late in the third period but fell victim to Randy Heath, who got the equalizer at 19:07 and then potted the winner at 1:07 of sudden-death overtime.Stu Kulak scored twice for Cougars, who got singles from Dave Mackey, Morrison and Chernomaz. Moren finished with 30 saves as the Cougars outshot Portland 52-36 before 5,039 fans in Victoria.Russ Courtnall scored three times in Victoria&rsquo;s 8-7 win in game three. Paul Bifano, Steve Bayliss, Fabian Joseph, Geoff Courtnall and Chernomaz added singles for the Cougars, who led 4-2 after 20 minutes before entering the third period tied 5-5. Moren finished with 37 saves.LETHBRIDGE&mdash;It was home sweet home for the Broncos in Game Four of their Eastern Division final series with the Calgary Wranglers.Lethbridge evened the best-of-seven series 2-2 with a resounding 10-1 decision over the defense-oriented Wranglers. The win marked the Broncos&rsquo; 22nd consecutive win on home ice.Lethbridge then went to Calgary, where the Broncos won, and returned home to wrap up the series and earn not only a berth in the WHL final, but a berth in the Memorial Cup, too.The Broncos received a three-goal outing from J.C. McEwan while Shawn Green added two goals. Ron Sutter chipped in with a goal and four assists while Doug Kyle, Troy Loney, Rick Gal and Jim Odlend added singles. The Broncos outshot Calgary 42-23.It was a different story in game Three. Darren Scevioiur and Loney supplied the offense in a 3-2 setback before 6,116 fans in Calgary. Lethbridge outshot Calgary 31-25.Ken Wregget finished with just 12 saves to earn an easy 3-0 shutout in Game Two. Rich Sutter, Ivan Krook and Loney scored for the Broncos, who held period leads of 2-0 and 3-0 before 5,014 home fans.Game One belinged to Calgary. Bob Rouse fired the lone Bronco goal as Lethbridge was outshot 36-32 before 7,305 fans in Calgary.PORTLAND&mdash;The Winter Hawks put the accent on offense to capture the Western Division pennant.Ray Ferraro scored three goals and added three assists as they wrapped up their best-of-seven division final series with Victoria in an 8-7 decision in Game Five.Gord Walker added two goals while Alfie Turcotte, Curt Brandolini and Richard Kromm added singles. Bruno Campese finished with 42 saves.Randy Heath got the equalizer at 19:07 of the third period and scored the winner at 1:07 of sudden-death overtime to give Portland a 6-5 win in Game Four. Turcotte added two goals while Ken Yaremchuk and Cam Neely fired singles. Campese finished with 47 saves as the Hawks were outshot 52-35.In an 8-7 loss in Game Three, Grant Sasser and Yaremchuk scored twice each. Heath, Ferraro and Turcotte added singles for Portland. Campese made 28 saves.Two Hawks figured in the coaches&rsquo; voting for WHL awards. Neely was third in rookie-of-the-year balloting while Turcotte was third in most-gentlemanly-player voting.CALGARY&mdash;The Wranglers season is over but goaltender Mike Vernon was a double winner in league awards. He was named MVP and top goalie in balloting by coaches. Mike Heidt was second in defenseman balloting while Doug Sauter was fourth in coach-of-the-year voting.KAMLOOPS&mdash;The Oilers played second fiddle in two year-end awards and were third in two other categories.Sixteen-year-old rookie defenseman Doug Bodger was second in rookie-of-the-year voting and third in the defenseman category. Coach Bill LaForge was three votes shy of winning coach-of-the-year honors. Dean Evason, earlier recognized as Molson&rsquo;s WHL player of the year, was tied for third in MVP voting.SASKATOON&mdash;Daryl Lubiniecki was named coach of the year by his peers. Lubiniecki finished with 25 votes, edging out LaForge who had 23. Lubiniecki guided his Blades to a first-place Eastern Division finish but fell victim to Lethbridge in Eastern Division semifinal playoffs.REGINA&mdash;Gary Leeman was easily voted the league&rsquo;s top defenseman. Leeman had a 20-point bulge over Calgary&rsquo;s Mike Heidt, who placed second. Center Dale Derkatch was second in MVP balloting with 23 points, 28 back of Mike Vernon of Calgary.WINNIPEG&mdash;Darren Boyko of the Warriors was named the league&rsquo;s most gentlemanly player. Coach Bruce Southern was third in coach-of-the-year balloting.MEDICINE HAT&mdash;Mark Lamb placed second in most gentlemanly player voting by coaches while coach Ray McKay was fourth in coach-of-the-year balloting.BRANDON&mdash;Center Kelly Glowa finished tied for third in MVP voting.PRINCE ALBERT&mdash;Dan Hodgson was recognized as the WHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year in voting by coaches of the 14 clubs. &#9632;

f0033-01

Winter Hawks Defend Title The Hard Way

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02300/4802503-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg"></div>Most valuable player &mdash; MIKE VERNON, Calgary.Best defensemen &mdash; GARY LEEMAN, Regina.Rookie of year &mdash; DAN HODGSON, Prince Albert.Most gentlemanly player &mdash; DARREN BOYKO, Winnipeg.Coach of year &mdash; DARRYL LUBINIECKI, Saskatoon. &#9632;

f0033-02

WHL All-Stars

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01477/4802541-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02388/4802534-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="755" height="2572"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NHL PLAYOFF SCORING

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03291/4802572-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="757" height="1226"></div> &#9632;

f0034-03

GOALTENDING LEADERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01452/4802603-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

STANLEY CUP SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02356/4802634-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-02

MINOR SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01432/4802672-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="594" height="3650"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02323/4802665-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="2482" height="2246"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE FINAL SCORING

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03251/4802710-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04162/4802703-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="569" height="818"></div> &#9632;

f0036-03

CENTRAL LEAGUE FINAL SCORING

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01381/4802755-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="602" height="1788"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02268/4802748-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="596" height="2738"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03200/4802741-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="1848" height="1150"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

AMATEUR SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">BY JIM PROUDFOOT</div>As this issue went to press. Canada&rsquo;s entry in the world championships looked like a good bet to get into the final four with the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Sweden. The following is a roundup of the week&rsquo;s events at Dortmund. West Germany, where Jim Proudfoot of the Toronto Star is covering the event for the Star. A compilation of his reports are re printed here.Paul Reinhart is one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League. There might be some better, but not many.He is a skillful attacker, though, so the Calgary Flames occasionally use him at center, too.But he has been attempting something new and quite different since joining Team Canada partway through the 1983 World Hockey Championships. Coach Dave King had him on right wing and guess what? Reinhart is awfully good at that, as well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01445/4802793-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="574" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary Flame star Paul Reinhart is Team Canada&rsquo;s most versatile player.</figcaption></div>He set up the important initial goal in a pivotal 5-l victory over Finland in Dortmund.In Munich, he filled in for injured John Anderson at starboard alongside Darryl Sittier and Brian Propp, and contributed significantly to a 5-2 conquest of East Germany.Reinhart fed Propp neatly for the opening goal and later in the first period, zipping loose with a well-timed pass from Propp, outmaneuvered the opposition netminder for a lead the Canadians would never give up.&ldquo;It was a play I saw Kent Nilsson make one time,&rdquo; Reinhart said later. &ldquo;A deke to the left and a backhand upstairs over the guy.&rdquo;Reinhart had actually taken the odd whirl on the wing in one of Calgary&rsquo;s power play deployments, but he was a regular at center in eight matches this past NHL season.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a pretty natural move, going to the forward line,&rdquo; Reinhart said. &ldquo;As a defenseman, you know where you&rsquo;d like your people up front to play, and how. So when you become one of them, why, you go ahead and do it.&ldquo;But don&rsquo;t be misled. My future is on the defense. That line looked great today because Sittier didn&rsquo;t lose a single faceoff in the whole game. When you&rsquo;re getting possession after every whistle, you know you&rsquo;re in pretty good shape. &rdquo;Propp counted a second goal to launch the middle 20 minutes. Mike Gartner and Dennis Maruk got the others, both on nifty relays from Michel Goulet.Rearguards Dieter Frenzel and Frank Braun were the East Germans who beat Canadian goalie Rick Wamsley. Once again, Wamsley was superlative in the early going, before any trend had been established. He yielded only four goals in Team Canada&rsquo;s four wins in the preliminary round.&ldquo;We ultimately will have to rely on Reinhart as a defenseman and he&rsquo;ll probably stay there from here in,&rdquo; King said.&ldquo;But his versatility is a real key for us.&ldquo;He was needed on the wing because Anderson&rsquo;s neck was very sore, where he was cut for 20 stitches in the game against the Finns. He could have gone, mind you, if it had been really vital.&ldquo;With Reinhart and now Craig Hartsburg, we&rsquo;re pretty solid on defense as we look ahead to a series of very tough situations,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;Jim Patrick has been going along with a very sore hip, so perhaps we&rsquo;ll be able to give him some rest now.&rdquo;That process was started late in the match with East Germany. Reinhart moved back home and forwards such as Bob Gainey and Sittier worked double shifts.King said the Canadians&rsquo; easy adaptability, all through the roster, has been a decided asset.&ldquo;Not one man has placed his ego ahead of the team and that&rsquo;s a pleasant surprise,&rdquo; he stated.&ldquo;I mean, some of these people are big stars in their NHL clubs. They appear in featured roles. They are catered to. Here, they are asked to sacrifice al) that and without exception, without complaint, they&rsquo;re doing so. I am very impressed.&rdquo;Reinhart, as a defender, Hartsburg and Brian Engblom kept the Canadian zone clear of enemy skaters.Hartsburg and Reinhart had flown over when Calgary and Minnesota were eliminated from the NHL playoffs as late reinforcements. Reinhart played the same day. Hartsburg was added the next day.&ldquo; Both are extremely skilled athletes,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;They excel in this competition, as they did at last year&rsquo;s world tournament. Their offensive talent is an extra dimension we really need.&rdquo;Hartsburg orchestrated the scoring play that gave Canada a 2-1 edge against East Germany&mdash;the decisive goal, as it turned out.He delayed patiently until Goulet was in the right position and then sent him a lovely pass. Gartner, meanwhile, was rushing to the goalmouth and arrived there in time to deflect Goulet&rsquo;s lateral.The Canadians abhor the Swedish referee, Dag Olsson. However, he was content to be a spectator most of the tme.Yuri Kurandin of the Soviet Union had his third Team Canada assignment for the team&rsquo;s final game of the preliminary round against the West Germans.There was a complicated mathematical scenario whereby Canada could lose this one and still compete for the gold, silver and bronze medals in the playoffs.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s much better to just win the damned thing and be sure,&rdquo; Sittier said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to rely on some tiebreaking formula nobody quite understands. We want to hit those finals at our very highest.&rdquo;As the teams headed into the final stages of the preliminary round, this is the way the standings looked with each country having one game left.The Soviet Union was No. 1 with 6-00 record followed by Sweden at 4-1-1, Canada 4-2-0, Czechoslovakia and West Germany both at 3-2-1, Finland 1-4-1, East Germany 1-5-0 and Italy in the cellar with six straight losses.Barring any upsets, the final point race should look like this: Soviets 14, Canada 10, Sweden and the Czechs, 9, West Germany 7, Finland 5, East Germany 2, and Italy, 0. That would put the Russians, Canadians, Czechs and Swedes into the medal round, which is a whole new ball game under the changed format. In past years, points accumulated in the preliminary round counted for the overall title. Not any more. The four medal round survivors start new and play a four-team round-robin tournament in which each plays one another once. The bottom four finishers of the preliminary round will also play off to determine which nation among the four also-rans will be relegated to B Pool for the 1984 World Championships. The United States will be back in the A Pool next year after winning the B Pool championship recently at Tokyo.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02353/4802786-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1198" height="2158"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal Canadien netminder Rick Wamsley has played outstanding after joining Team Canada in West Germany.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

Reinhart Gives Team Canada A Big Lift

<h2>PRELIMINARY ROUND</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03277/4802831-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="533" height="303"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDSat. Apr. 16Canada 6, Italy 0Soviet Union 3. East Germany 0Sweden 5, West Germany 1Czechoslovakia 4, Finland 2Sun. Apr. 17Sweden 3, Canada 2Czechoslovakia 6. East Germany 1Soviet Union 3, Finland 0West Germany 4, Italy 0Tue. Apr. 19Soviet Union 8, Canada 2East Germany 3, Italy 1Czechoslovakia 4. Sweden 1West Germany 4, Finland 3Wed. Apr. 20Soviet Union 6, West Germany 0Sweden 5, East Germany 4Thu. Apr. 21Canada 3, Czechoslovakia 1An land 6, Italy 2Fri. Apr 22Canada 5, Finland 1West Germany 4, East Germany 3Sat. Apr. 23Soviet Union 5, Czechoslovakia 1Sweden 5, Italy 1Sun. Apr. 24Canada 5, East Germany 2Soviet Union 11, Italy 1Finland 4, Sweden 4Czechoslovakia 3, West Germany 3GAMES TO COMEMon. Apr 25West Germany vs CanadaEast Germany vs FinlandTue. Apr. 26Czechoslovakia vs ItalySweden vs Soviet Union(End of preliminary round)<h2>MEDAL ROUNDS</h2>All games will be played in Munich.Top four finishers play a round robin to determine world champion.Bottom four finishers play a round robin to determine which country is eliminated from &ldquo;A&rdquo; pool for next world championship.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04209/4802824-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="844" height="348"></div> &#9632;

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World Championships

<h2>CHANGE NCAA FORMAT</h2>As a great fan of college hockey&mdash;I first became interested in this great sport while attending the University of Wisconsin&mdash;I couldn&rsquo;t agree more with your assessment of the selection process and the shaft job that Bowling Green and UND got this year.Since the National Collegiate Athletic Association admits everyone and their brother in the basketball tournament, why not do the same in hockey? This would eliminate the situation that happened this year.The procedure would be to eliminate the conference playoffs, because they mean nothing except to select teams for the NCAA tournament. A selection committee would pick 16 teams based on regular-season records. A guarantee could necessitate a minimum number from each conference. They would be seeded from one to 16. The first team would play the 16th in a two-game, total-goal format and so on. The format would continue until the finals, then a best-of-three series would be used. The games would be held at the home arena of the higher seeded team except for the finals, where the higher seeded team would get the first and third game.An additional benefit of this system is that the home fans would get to attend the finals without having to travel to far-off Grand Forks or struggle to buy tickets from scalpers at some small arena, which happened at Duluth two years ago.William J. SchulzCloquet. MN<h2>IN BORJE&rsquo;S DEFENSE</h2>As a subscriber to your great newspaper over the past 10 years, I have been tempted to write a letter many times. Usually I am tempted to respond to the stupid opinions of Stan Fischler and finally his ridiculous attack on Botje Salming in your April 8 issue has prompted me.Really, I need not defend Salming. His brilliant statistics since 1973 speak for themselves. As for him being blamed for the Leafs lack of Stanley Cups, how absurd can Fischler be? How can an organization that generously spreads any talent it has around the league (McDonald, Sittler, Stoughton, etc.) be expected to win any Cups?Fischler, as usual, has twisted facts to support his view. He says the Leafs beat the Islanders in 1978 and upon Salming&rsquo;s return promptly lost. For his information, Salming never returned to the lineup that year and it was because their defense was so full of holes they were blasted by Montreal in four straight.Fischler&rsquo;s prejudice against foreign NHLers is blatant. Salming is one of the most beautiful hockey players of the past decade. Wayne Gretzky agrees and his view is certainly better than Fischler&rsquo;s, who sees the Leafs play about twice a year. As for Stan Fischler, I wish Behn Wilson would stick his stick up his nose.Steve BurdenCharlottetown. P.E.I.<h2>ESPO WAS WRONG</h2>I was absolutely infuriated after reading Phil Esposito&rsquo;s column regarding the series between the touring Soviet All-Stars and National Hockey League teams. (March 18/83).Basically Espo had two complaints:POINT 1. The better prepared Soviets come here, win, declare victory on and off the ice and then take a pile of money home with them.POINT 2. NHL pros are now required to stay in shape all year round because Soviet training methods implemented by North American teams require it. This, according to Esposito, has had the affect of burning out and shortening NHL careers.On the first point, I think Esposito needs reminding that it is the fans who ultimately decide who they&rsquo;re going to spend their entertainment dollar on. Moreover, it is my understanding that a large portion of the proceeds of this series went to the NHL Players Association.Regarding Espo&rsquo;s second point, I believe any professional athlete who can&rsquo;t maintain his conditioning in the offseason doesn&rsquo;t deserve to be in the game. For a second opinion, all he has to do is ask one of the millions of unemployed who would gladly work 12 months a year, take no vacation and be paid one-tenth of the NHL average salary.There was only one legitimate complaint made by NHL players involved in the series that actually made sense to me. By playing so-called exhibition games in a season that is already too long and risking injury is unfair to the teams involved, while other teams can concentrate solely on the regular schedule. But this particular problem could be easily rectified, by simply inviting the two best Soviet club teams and having one play all the teams in Campbell Conference and the other playing all teams in the Wales Conference. All these games would be count as part of the regular-season games.This would be a natural first step toward the concept of having a true world champ to be eventually decided between North American and European teams.As one of the many long time suffering fans of post-&rsquo;67 watered-down expansion hockey, I look forward to any and all international games. In recent years, the NHLs regular-season games have meant almost nothing and the recent Soviet NHL series in December was a most welcome relief.Esposito says in his column, &ldquo;Who the hell needs them anymore?&rdquo; Based on such an attitude, it is fortunate for us that Esposito organizes Masters of Hockey programs rather than speaks as an ambassador for Canada.I always look forward to watching a player with the class and quality of a Tretiak perform and I take great pride in the fact that so many countries are playing the game we invented. Hockey can be an exciting and important part of improving relations between troubled nations.John FergusonPierrefonds, Que. &#9632;

FAN FORUM

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World Championships’ Game Summaries

NEW YORK&mdash;If the New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup again this year, and if any one of three players, Mike Bossy, Wayne Merrick or Bob Nystrom, score the goal that decides the final series, then that player would indeed be in select company.NHL playoff history shows that only five players have managed to score two Cup-winning goals in 56 years of postseason competition. Toe Blake, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard and Jacques Lemaire, all members of the Montreal Canadiens, scored Cup winners. The only non-Montreal player to turn the trick was defenseman Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins, who scored the winning goals in 1970 and again in 1972. Blake did it in 1944 and 1946, Beliveau in 1960 and 1965, Richard in 1966 and 1971, and Lemaire in 1977 and 1979.The Islanders have won the Cup the last three years with Bossy counting the Cup clincher last season, Merrick the previous year and Nystrom in 1980. &#9632;

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May 6, 1983

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