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

December 2, 1983

The Hockey News December 2, 1983

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01482/4824176-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div><h2>GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01457/4824169-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="527" height="2127"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS GOALS AGAINST AVERAGE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02360/4824162-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="543" height="200"></div><h2>MOST WINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03280/4824155-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="544" height="197"></div><h2>SAVE PERCENTAGE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04231/4824148-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="542" height="226"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>Louisville HockeyLAVAL&mdash;Canada&rsquo;s national junior hockey team may compete in the world championships in Sweden without the hottest player in the country, Laval Voisin center Mario Lemieux.Lemieux is assaulting the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League book at a more torrid pace than any player in league history. He became the first player to hit the 50-goal plateau in just 27 games, with a three-goal night against the Verdun Juniors. He now has 51 goals and 59 assists in that span to maintain his four-point-a-night production.The 6-foot-3, 191 pounder has his sights set on Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s 130-goal record achieved in 1970-71 with the Quebec Remparts and Pierre Larouche&rsquo;s marks for assists and points (157 and 251, respectively) in a season with the Sorel Eperviers in 1973-74.Lafleur had 49 goals after 26 games in 1970-71, was shut out in the 27th and exploded for six in the 28th.While all of this record-watching is going on, Lemieux says he is not anxious to skate for the Canadian junior team, which is coached by Brian Kilrea, coach of the Ontario Hockey League&rsquo;s Ottawa 67s.&ldquo;If Brian Kilrea comes to see me, I will have no choice; I will have to discuss it with him,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;But I won&rsquo;t make the first move.&rdquo;Lemieux is upset because he felt he didn&rsquo;t get enough ice time with last year&rsquo;s national team, who were led by current Canadian Olympic coach Dave King, and because he heard Kilrea planned to use him on the fourth line following a training camp in August.Not so, says Kilrea.&ldquo;No one put a number on anybody,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That was an evaluation of his line at camp and Mario had a groin pull. He missed a couple of practices and games because of it.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s a truly fine hockey player. We don&rsquo;t want to embarrass one of the future stars of the National Hockey League. I don&rsquo;t know what happened with Dave King and I don&rsquo;t want to know. This is a new team, a new organization.&ldquo;The way this team is made up won&rsquo;t be dictated by equality or geography. This team will be made up by talent and talent only.&rdquo;Kilrea completed a Western swing recently and has planned to take in three Laval games to see Lemieux in action.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll hear from me and I&rsquo;ll hear from him,&rdquo; said Kilrea.Invitations to a training camp in Ottawa will be issued in the next couple of weeks.&ldquo;I think the way things stand, it would be better if Mario was not invited,&rdquo; said Laval owner Claude Foumel. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d prefer not to go right now but in the back of his mind, I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s finally decided.&ldquo;He left here last year with a lot of desire to play well for his country and he paid a hell of a price for it,&rdquo; Foumel said. &ldquo;If he prefers to stay home and be honored in his own way, I don&rsquo;t know why he shouldn&rsquo;t be able to.&rdquo;King said he read some of Lemieux&rsquo;s comments and was &ldquo;a little bit confused&rdquo; by them.&ldquo;I think Mario is a very good player and he played well for us (last year). But it&rsquo;s a coach&rsquo;s perogative when to play somebody and that depends on who you are playing. We looked at all the junior players this year and our (Olympic team) is a very defensive type of team. We were looking at defensive forwards.&rdquo;Even if Lemieux decides to stay at home at Christmas instead of going to Sweden, he must miss four league games played during the world championships. The league&rsquo;s board of governors approved a motion that players turning down invitations to the national team would not be permitted to play for their own teams during the world tournament. The rule was upheld unanimously recently in a vote in which Laval abstained.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s obvious they (other QMJHL teams) are not worried about losing their best player,&rdquo; Foumel said.Lemieux also may be influenced by the example of current U.S. Olympian Pat LaFontaine, who declined to play for the U.S. junior team, racked up 234 points for Verdun and was the third player picked in the June NHL entry draft.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the coach of the team, but if Lemieux is not good enough to play, then what about the rest of the players in the league?&rdquo; asked QMJHL president Paul Dumont. &ldquo;All I was told by newsmen was that he was the fourth or fifth center. Scouts told my assistant, Claude Carriere (a former Washington Capitals&rsquo; scout), that right now, Mario is the No. 1 player in the country.&ldquo;Personally, I always thought we didn&rsquo;t have our proper share on the team and I didn&rsquo;t care much about the team, but this year the league is giving it full co-operation.&rdquo;Georges Lariviere, the QMJHL&rsquo;s technical advisor for coaching, is a member of the five-man selection committee.&ldquo;Mario didn&rsquo;t play against three teams last year after scoring in previous games and when he was not invited to the Olympic team, I think that hurt his feelings,&rdquo; said Lariviere. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure beating the records is a factor, but he has proven many things already.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01472/4823544-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="582" height="796"><figcaption class="caption-body">Laval&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux says he is not anxious to play for the Canadian junior team.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think the best thing for him to do is to come to the training camp in Ottawa with an open mind. Kilrea is a black and white type of guy: he tells you what he thinks and I can&rsquo;t see him being biased.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Lemieux May Snub Canadian Junior Team

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>TORONTO&mdash;Critical stage No. 2 has begun for the Leafs and so far they&rsquo;re batting 1.000.The Leafs beat Detroit 5-4 on Nov. 19 at Maple Leaf Gardens and now proceed to play four more games against Norris Division opponents. In hockey vernacular, these are &ldquo;four-point&rdquo; games&mdash;particularly in the sensitive Norris standings&mdash;because the difference between a victory and a loss is the difference between first and last place.The Leafs would not be in such a tenuous position had they not fallen on hard times in the eight games before Detroit. The Leafs won only two games in that stretch&mdash;against pitiful Pittsburgh and New Jersey&mdash;following a key five-game run in which they won three of five contests against teams which finished higher than them in the standings last season.In all fairness to the Leafs, they lost Peter Ihnacak, Walt Poddubny, Terry Martin, Frank Nigro, Mike Palmateer and Jim Korn with injuries, with only Palmateer returning to the the lineup. Compounded by the conspicuous absence of Gary Nylund, the Leafs&rsquo; promising rookie whose return to the lineup after two knee operations last season is not expected until mid-December, the Leafs are biting the bullet, knowing that there&rsquo;s little they can do until the wounds heal.Excluding the injuries, the Leafs developed some bad habits in their slump. They allowed themselves to get bullied by the opposition and, in fact, Kom suffered an injured shoulder after Phi-ladelphia&rsquo;s Brad Marsh jumped him when he was about to fight Rich Sutter. The Leafs did little to protect Kom&mdash;their sergeant of arms&mdash;and the sight of him skating hunched over by the proud Flyer bench, was a clear indicator of what was one of several problems.There was also the forwards&rsquo; reluctance to help the defense. In a 4-1 loss to Boston on Nov. 17, Leaf coach Mike Nykoluk bemoaned the fact that the forwards weren&rsquo;t doing their job and he planned to have a private tete-a-tete with them and find out why.Then there was Rick Vaive&rsquo;s slump. After scoring 15 goals in his first 15 games, the Leaf captain failed to score in his next five. Vaive, more than any other player on the Leafs, took a beating in each outing. It became apparent that the key to stopping the Leafs was stopping big No. 22.Against Detroit, the Leafs put it all together.Vaive broke out of his slump with two goals, the first of which he scored while falling down after Red Wing defenseman John Barrett hammered him.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re just sticking close and when guys are sticking close beside you all night, you just have to break for the holes and get into the open,&rdquo; Vaive said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to happen when you get that close checking, but they&rsquo;re going to get their share of penalties.&rdquo;Nykoluk sympathized with his captain, but admitted Vaive has to accept the close body work because &ldquo;he&rsquo;s our key for scoring goals.&rdquo;Nykoluk added the opposition&rsquo;s keying on Vaive would open up a little bit of room for linemates Dan Daoust and John Anderson.&ldquo;But they&rsquo;re going to have to work and they can&rsquo;t go looking for Ricky all the time,&rdquo; Nykoluk said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got the abilities, they can both shoot the puck and score.&rdquo;Anderson, who admits he prefers to hold onto the puck and pass to Vaive rather than shoot blindly, got a power-play goal when he tipped in a shot by Jim Bennimg from the point.And the forwards, particularly Stu Gavin and Pat Graham, administered some timely hits to the Wings, who are much improved over last season. Gavin also scored a goal, when he easily sped by Brad Park and beat Greg Stefan on the shortside.While the Leafs allowed Eddie Johnstone to up-end Palmateer, which subsequently resulted in a Red Wing goal, they did assert themselves in the latter part of the game. After ex-Leaf Bob Manno roughed up Anderson, Bill Stewart retaliated. Even Anderson, who seldom loses his temper, was ready for combat.It was, as they say, only a game. In this case, however, it was a whole lot more. The Leafs accomplished everything they didn&rsquo;t do in their slump and this proved that despite the injuries, the Leafs are still capable of winning&hellip;as long as they put it all together.LEAFLETS&mdash;Leaf general manager Gerry McNamara continued his reclamation project when he signed exLeaf Dave Hutchinson, who played for the Leafs when they were a bruising bunch five years ago but was dropped by the New Jersey Devils last season and had been inactive since January. In his first game, Hutchinson, who admits he&rsquo;s not offended being labelled an enforcer, got into a fight with Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Kevin McClelland, but had to be aided by goalie Mike Palmateer after he fell down in the Leaf crease. Palmateer was ejected for being third man in, but Rick St. Croix did a good job in relief and the Leafs won 3-2&hellip;Bruce Hood refereed the Leaf-Red Wing game, the 1.000th game of his 19-year career. The milestone, which is a first for NHL referees, was capped off before the start of the game with a ceremonial presentation by NHL referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison-&hellip;Trumpet player Claude Scott made his second visit to the Gardens, only this time his tickets were paid for by the Toronto Sun. Leaf president Harold Ballard said Scott is free to toot his own horn&hellip;so long as he buys a ticket&hellip;Ballard, whose Hamilton Tiger Cats played the Toronto Argonauts in the eastern final of the Canadian Football League the next day, blared the Ti-Cat fight song, before, during and after the Red Wing game, much to the displeasure of the pro-Argo crowd. But the Toronto faithful had the last laugh, as the Argos beat the Tabbies 41-36. &#9632;

Leafs Put It All Together For One Game

<div class="byline">BY DAVE KING</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-06197/4822698-1-eng-US/f0018-062.jpg" title="f0018-06" width="612" height="510"></div>On Nov. 14, we played the Tulsa Oilers for the first time in Tulsa and won 6-1, but the game was difficult to evaluate. Our conditioning proved the biggest factor in the third period, but the Tulsa team had been off the ice for three days, so we may have caught them in a lull. Dale Derkatch was added to our lineup for a three-game trial.<h2>November 15</h2>We lost, once again, to Salt Lake City, the farm club of the Minnesota North Stars, by a score of 5-3. They had also beaten us earlier in Calgary on Nov. 9, by a 3-1 score. Jim Craig, hero for Team USA at the 1980 Olympics, played very well in goal for Salt Lake. In fact, the whole team played well against us, at home.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01925/4822691-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="297" height="363"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave King&rsquo;s Coach&rsquo;s Diary</figcaption></div><h2>November 16</h2>We lost a tough one, 5-4 to the Colorado Flames in Denver. The game went into overtime and Bruce Eakin, who had played for Canada&rsquo;s gold medal junior team in 1982, scored the winner in the last minute of overtime. Colorado scored two goals late in the game to tie it and force overtime. It was a rough game, lots of penalties.<h2>November 20</h2>We got back on the winning track with a 3-1 win over Montana Magic at the Saddledome. It was one of our better efforts against the CHL clubs. But we&rsquo;re very impressed with the CHL style of play. It&rsquo;s good skating and each of the teams really seems to get up to play us. They&rsquo;re highly motivated. We also released Dale Derkatch once again.Our coaching staff feels that our young defense has good skills. It&rsquo;s just certain errors in judgment, mental mistakes, that catch us every now and then, that we&rsquo;ve got to overcome. We&rsquo;re getting caught up ice, when our defense becomes a little too offense-oriented.Of course, our entire team is really gearing up for the resumption of the Team Canada-Team USA series. We arrive in Toronto on Tuesday, Nov. 22 and will have several days practice prior to the big game at Maple Leaf Gardens on Nov. 24. The series is currently deadlocked at one win each, with three ties. We haven&rsquo;t played the USA since Oct. 25 in Calgary and they&rsquo;ve only lost one game since, to Tulsa.After the Toronto game, we play &bull;Team USA again the next night in Montreal at the Forum and the day after that we finish off the three-game eastern Canada road swing in Moncton. From Nov. 27-30, we&rsquo;ll be at the Lake Placid National Training Center and will practise twice a day, one-and-a-half hours per session, on the big ice surface. We then go to Battle Creek, MI, for another Team Canada-Team USA game. We&rsquo;re also excited about the Izvestia tournament in Moscow on Dec. 16-21, where we&rsquo;ll meet the national teams of the Soviet Union, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Finland.That will prove a tremendous evaluation of our current progress and conditioning, coming as it does roughly one-and-a-half months months prior to the Winter Olympics. We&rsquo;ll know after Izvestia how far we have to go to be highly competitive.<h2>TEAM CANADA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02710/4822684-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="579" height="581"></div><h2>GOALTENDING AVERAGES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03513/4822677-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="568" height="95"></div> &#9632;

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Team Canada Eaaer To Resume USA Series

&ldquo;People criticize the National Hockey League for playing a brutal game, but we saw none of that in our seven games with them. The stick work in many of our college games has been worse than anything we faced against the professionals.&rdquo;&mdash;U.S. Olympic hockey coach Lou Vairo, commenting on his team&rsquo;s games against U.S. college squads. See the Olympic Report on Page 18. &#9632;

Quote Of The Week

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011187/4821665-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="304" height="358"></div><h2>A Little Respect</h2>MOST NATIONAL HOCKEY League people wince, scowl or boil gently when the name McMurtry is mentioned.Roy McMurtry is the attorney-general of Ontario who stirred up the NHL back in the &lsquo;70s when he inspired the filing of criminal charges against hockey players who committed acts of advance violence.His brother, Bill McMurtry, conducted the investigation and inquiry into violence in amateur hockey for the Ontario government and wrote a fine report that never was used as the basis for change, the way it should have been.The McMurtry boys were from a remarkable familybrother John is a college professor and Robert is a surgeon specializing in trauma medicine&mdash;and the four of them played college football at University of Toronto plus a variety of other sports. They were tough dudes.Bill McMurtry claimed that he was well into his 30s and past his peak for team athletics before he really discovered &ldquo;the secret to enjoying sports and having the proper attitude about it.&rdquo; He claimed that playing rugger really taught him a great deal.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough, hard game but sportsmanship really matters in rugger,&rdquo; McMurtry said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t play it much until I was in my 30s and 1 brought all the attitudes that 1 had learned in a lifetime of traditional North American sports.&ldquo;The first thing I had to learn was that the referee, no matter how bad he was, was supreme and not to be questioned or laughed at. When I learned that, the joy I got from sports increased by a large amount.&rdquo;Where is Bill McMurtry when the NHL really needs him? There&rsquo;s a lesson to be taught this season, a matter of granting some respect to hockey&rsquo;s officials. There are times when the men in striped sweaters would be justified in tossing in the old whistles and going home.<h2>Some New Officials</h2>GRANTED, THE RETIREMENT of Wally Harris and back problems that have shelved Andy van Helle-mond for much of the season removed two of the NHL&rsquo;s very best referees, the experienced &ldquo;old pros&rdquo; who seldom encountered any problems.That has meant more work for young officials and while the NHL has some promising lads, those younger officials, of course, don&rsquo;t earn the respect granted to a Harris or van Hellemond and encounter some problems.But, all things considered, the officiating in the NHL is solid. Listen to the general managers and coaches, though, and you would believe otherwise. There have been enough harangues from them this season to give the impression that the referees are a batch of crooks&mdash;how they can make both teams feel they&rsquo;re being robbed in the same game remains a superb achievement&mdash;and the linesmen are trying to taunt the players into misconduct penalties.Sit in a press box on a night when an officiating supervisor and most GMs are there and you can be certain of plenty of motion. The GM will be clomping his way repeatedly to the supevisor to complain about the way his team is being jobbed, robbed and demoralized by the referee.The players in the NHL are perhaps the best athletes the league has ever owned but they are also the youngest group of players ever. That means a lack of skill and savvy, especially in the defensive part of the game, which, in turn, leads to large numbers of restraining fouls&mdash;hooking, holding, etc.The officials are faced with a strange choice. It&rsquo;s knowing what not to call, not what fouls to penalize, that is the key.<h2>Bad Legislation</h2>NOW, THE NHL faces another situation with its officials over the Tom Lysiak case and it boggles the imagination how the league, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and the officials ever allowed the rule to reduce abuse of officials to be written the way it was.A large number of lawyers were involved but the rule came out with two extremes&mdash;suspensions of four or 20 games for abusing the officials&mdash;and no right of appeal.Cripes, this is the 1980s, a time when civil and human rights are among the most important issues. That a rule was written that gave the referee the role of judge, jury and hangman and no appeal process included boggles the mind. One of the keen legal minds should have pointed out that a law with no appeal possible would create a mess the first time it was used.Now the NHL has back-tracked on its rule and allowed Lysiak to appeal his 20-game suspension, encouraged by the threat of long legal action. The so-called &ldquo;blue chip&rdquo; committee that wrote the rule should convene again. &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD FRIEDMAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03662/4821741-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="579" height="995"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Larouche is aiming to be the first Ranger 50-goal man.</figcaption></div>THE RANGERS HAVE A WINNER IN LAROUCHE, the headline in the New York Post read early this month.Actually, they had a winner in themselves, but their surprise acquisition from the Hartford Whalers who arrived in September has been a big part of it.At the quarter-season mark, the Rangers were on top of the Patrick Division and Larouche led the team with 19 goals. As a Canadien and a Penguin, he has done something no Ranger has done yet&mdash;score 50 goals in a season&mdash;and whether or not he does it this season, he has already added scoring punch to a Ranger offense that needed it.He has fit in with the team quickly&mdash;both on and off the ice&mdash;but there were aspects of Larouche&rsquo;s orientation here that were made easier by the maturity the 28-year-old center has cultivated in the past few years.First of all, he had not played in a game since last Jan. 22.&ldquo;It was like starting all over again,&rdquo; Larouche said at the end of September as he began to find his legs in training camp. &ldquo;I had trouble handling the puck. Everything was a lot quicker than I remembered.&rdquo;He was getting his timing back then and a winning attitude, too.&ldquo;In Hartford, they talked about making the playoffs,&rdquo; said Larouche. &ldquo;Here, they look forward to going all the way. But we have to go through the Islanders. It&rsquo;s a shame we have to meet them in the early rounds and not in the semi-finals or finals.&rdquo;Drawn like a magnet to open ice&mdash;&mdash;&ldquo;some places I played, they didn&rsquo;t like that&rdquo;&mdash;Larouche has sparked the team with key goals. In Quebec early in November, he ignited a comeback from a 3-1 deficit and the Rangers held on for a 4-4 tie.&ldquo;If we were down 3-1 there and nothing had happened, we&rsquo;d have been in trouble,&rdquo; said coach Herb Brooks that night.Larouche proved his worth on faceoffs and on penalty killing, but his job is to put the puck in the net.&ldquo;We all go out there that way,&rdquo; he explains, &ldquo;I think they expect me to score goals, but not to carry the team. But everybody here pushes you to do better than the previous night. I&rsquo;m very excited. It cranks you up very much.&rdquo;The Rangers got Larouche without having to compensate Hartford, after Whaler general manager Emile Francis offered Larouche a termination contract.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s his right. He&rsquo;s the boss,&rdquo; is all Larouche will say about that.He came in with a reputation as a bit of a high-liver from his younger days and it was ironic that he was given uniform No. 10, last wom by Ranger jet-setter Ron Duguay, now a Red Wine.Larouche has shown absolutely no signs of being anything but a dedicated team player and has grown weary of being asked about his youth.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter what I do here. If it takes three years, a lot of people are waiting for me to do something wrong,&rdquo; he said after a recent Ranger victory over the Capitals at the Garden, which took place on his 28th birthday.An instant hit with the fans, Larouche is as happy with the Rangers&rsquo; style as they are with his. The puck comes to his stick like its glued and every time he has the puck in the offensive zone he&rsquo;s a scoring threat&mdash;unlike Duguay.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no one better on a power play. He&rsquo;s got crafty moves,&rdquo; says the Capitals&rsquo; Rod Langway. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type of player who can make his linemates.&rdquo;&ldquo;My style is wide-open skatinj and Herb lets me do it,&rdquo; say Larouche. &ldquo;And the people I&rsquo;n playing with are working so hard.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0003-03

Rangers’ New No. 10 Loves The Big Apple

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011206/4821710-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div>By now, some 25 minutes from LaGuardia Airport, it was apparent the bus driver was lost. The skyscrapers of Manhattan rose into the sky behind the bus, not in front of it.&ldquo;Doogie,&rdquo; called Nick Polano, his patience wilting, &ldquo;can you come up here and help this guy?&rdquo;Ron Duguay made his way to the front of the bus and, after a few quick instructions&mdash;a right here, two lefts there&mdash;the bus was back on course.That&rsquo;s the kind of year it&rsquo;s been for Ron Duguay in Detroit. The Red Wings expected a lot of Duguay when they acquired him from the New York Rangers last June and he hasn&rsquo;t let them down.Be it on the power play, in the dressing room or guiding a lost bus through Manhattan streets, Duguay has done everything the Wings have asked.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been super,&rdquo; Polano said.&ldquo;You never know he&rsquo;s around and he gives 100 per cent every time he&rsquo;s on the ice, in games and in practice.&rdquo;Duguay is off to a fast start in Detroit. He had 21 points through 13 games&mdash;including a scoring streak of nine straight games&mdash;the same number of points he produced in the first 31 games last season with the Rangers.Polano, the Red Wing coach, promised him overtime duty last summer when the two met in Sudbury, Ont.,&mdash;Duguay&rsquo;s home and Duguay has had all the work he wants.And he&rsquo;s thriving on it.&ldquo;I love it,&rdquo; Duguay said. &ldquo;That will get the best out of a player. I&rsquo;d love to get thrown out there every second shift.&rdquo;Ron Duguay in Detroit?A little like hanging the Mona Lisa in a cellar or driving an Indy car to work down Detroit&rsquo;s Lodge Freeway at 25 mph.It will never work, some people suggested. You can take Ron Duguay out of New York but you can&rsquo;t take New York out of Ron Duyuay, playboy/celebrity/man-about-Manhattan. How is Ron Duguay going to cope with life in the slow lane, the same people wondered aloud.Duguay said the adjustment to his new lifestyle has been no problem.&ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As much as I like the fast life and excitement, part of me likes the suburbs, the quiet life.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I grew up with.&ldquo;Being only 20 and single when I first got there, New York suited me fine. But I knew I didn&rsquo;t want to do that all the time. I knew someday I wanted to get married and have children.&ldquo;So the change wasn&rsquo;t a shock.&rdquo;Two things have happened in recent months to change Duguay&rsquo;s outlook, one professional and the other personal.Professionally, it was the trade last June that sent him, Ed Mio and Ed Johnstone from the Rangers to the Red Wings for Willie Huber, Mark Osborne and Mike Blaisdell.Personally, it was a chance meeting with an aspiring young actress in California last February during a Ranger road trip. Her name: Robin Bobo.&ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t take long,&rdquo; said Duguay, smiling. &ldquo;Robin is very special.&rdquo;Today, Duguay and Robin are engaged to be married&mdash;&rdquo;In the near future,&rdquo; he said.It was during the courtship that Duguay was traded by the Rangers and while there was the initial uncertainty, the growing relationship with Robin was among the factors that made the thought of living in Detroit&mdash;and the suburbs&mdash;more appealing.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-02999/4821703-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1011" height="1344"><figcaption class="caption-body">Off the ice (above), Ron Duguay says he doesn&rsquo;t mind the quiet life and is looking forward to his marriage in the near future. On the ice (left), he&rsquo;s been one of the Wings&rsquo; best players.</figcaption></div>A Manhattan apartment is nowhere to raise a family, even a noted New Yorker can tell you that. Affluent and residential Oakland County north of Detroit is.&ldquo;Everything worked out well,&rdquo; Duguay said. &ldquo;Sometimes things happen and at the beginning you think it&rsquo;s tragic. But things happen for the better and for a reason. I&rsquo;ve always gone by that and tried to be positive.&rdquo;For their part, the Red Wings are positive about one thing&mdash;Ron Duguay.He&rsquo;s the right winger on Detroit&rsquo;s No. 1 line with John Ogrod-nick and rookie sensation, Steve Yzerman. The unit has carried the offensive burden during the early stages of the season with the players ranking 1-2-3 in scoring.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d heard about him but didn&rsquo;t know him until I came to training camp,&rdquo; Yzerman said of Duguay.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d heard the stuff about him being a playboy and that, but he&rsquo;s a quiet guy, down to earth. He handles himself well and I&rsquo;m really impressed with him.&ldquo;He takes the time after practice to work on things with me, help me where I need it. He&rsquo;s a really good player and a leader.&rdquo;Yzerman&rsquo;s initial view of Duguay was shared by many in Detroit, especially the fans. Duguay&rsquo;s off-ice adventures were more widely noted than his hockey skills. Certainly, he would bring to Detroit flare and flamboyance but what of playing hockey?&ldquo;That reputation he has, the stuff about the night life, is blown out of proportion,&rdquo; said longtime teammate Johnstone. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve known him for a long time and you&rsquo;ll never meet a nicer person.&rdquo;And the flamboyance? Even that suits the Red Wings.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s colorful,&rdquo; said general manager Jimmy Devellano. &ldquo;We need some of that.&rdquo;In a short time, Duguay&rsquo;s become more than just another Red Wing. He is, as Yzerman acknowledged, a leader of the club.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a rah-rah type,&rdquo; Duguay said. &ldquo;Basically, I&rsquo;m quiet in the (dressing) room. That&rsquo;s the way I am and it&rsquo;s best just to be yourself. As far as leadership, I try to do it by example on the ice.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in the league six years now and I have to be more responsible. I&rsquo;m a little older and I&rsquo;m aware of that. When I was younger, I know I looked up to guys like Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Carol Vadnais. I know it meant a lot to me when they took time to point things out.&rdquo;Duguay and the Wings returned to New York for a game against the Rangers on Nov. 13&mdash;the day he helped the lost bussie find his way through Manhattan. The Rangers won 6-3, with Duguay drawing a point on Yzer-man&rsquo;s goal.&ldquo;I wanted us to play well,&rdquo; Duguay said afterward. &ldquo;We tried, but the game got away from us.&rdquo;Initially, Duguay expressed his sentiments on leaving the Rangers and coach Herb Brooks.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Herb thought I was out of shape and for about a month there he had me playing on the fourth line. I wasn&rsquo;t playing much and mentally it was tough, especially after coming off a 40-goal season.&rsquo;</blockquote>For example: &ldquo;When I look back at last year, I&rsquo;m somewhat relieved because I did have a tough time in New York. I&rsquo;m relieved that I won&rsquo;t be there&hellip;that I&rsquo;m with a new organization. It was a combination of a lot of little things. Herb thought 1 was out of shape and for about a month there he had me playing on the fourth line. I wasn&rsquo;t playing much and mentally it was tough, especially after coming off a 40-goal season. That played on my mind.&rdquo;Once the season started, Duguay refused to look back.&ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s not worth yapping about,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;At the time, it&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s on your mind. Now that the season&rsquo;s started, my mind is on more important things.&ldquo;&hellip;I&rsquo;m playing for a coach who depends on me and expects me to do a lot. I enjoy the situation here. It&rsquo;s a young club on the way up, an organization that&rsquo;s growing and improving and I&rsquo;m glad to be a part of it.&rdquo;With Duguay in a key role, the Wings reeled off six straight victories at one point&mdash;he had a hat trick in the final game of that stretch, a 7-3 triumph over Chicago that left Black Hawk coach Orval Tessier with this impression: &ldquo;Duguay is an extra fine player.&rdquo;Then came five straight losses, the fifth against the Rangers, before the Wings broke out of their slump with a 3-1 win in Quebec.&ldquo;Losing those (five) games wasn&rsquo;t a problem because of the quality of players we have on this team,&rdquo; Duguay said.&ldquo;There were no excuses, no one blaming someone else. We were a team looking for a solution in a positive way. This team is always going to come out and do the best it can. Until now, it&rsquo;s been a learning experience&mdash;win a few, lose a few.&ldquo;No matter how long you&rsquo;ve been around, you&rsquo;re always learning. There&rsquo;s always something new to learn. By early January, we&rsquo;ll know where we stand and we&rsquo;ll be tough to beat.&rdquo;As far as the Red Wings and their fans are concerned, there&rsquo;s no doubt where Ron Duguay stands. He&rsquo;s already tough to beat.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02343/4821696-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="1197" height="1676"><figcaption class="caption-body">Teammates say Ron Duguay&rsquo;s reputation as a playboy and jet-setter has been blown out of proportion over the years and he&rsquo;s really quite quiet and laid back.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0003-01

DUGUAY IN DETROIT

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;The National Hockey League is proposing an amendment to Rule 67, which may result in a reduction of Chicago Black Hawk Tom Lysiak&rsquo;s 20-game suspension.However, according to Lysiak&rsquo;s lawyer. Bill Martin, the Black Hawk center will serve at least four games, starting with the Nov. 29 game in New Jersey.A conditional settlement agreement has been announced by the NHL, contingent on the approval of a proposed amendment to the by-laws that would enable Lysiak to have a hearing. In re turn, he would drop his suit against the league.The league&rsquo;s board of governors scheduled a conference call for Nov. 22 to vote on the proposed amendment.If, as expected, it is approved, they will conduct the hearing on Dec. 8 during their annual meeting in West Palm Beach, FL.Lysiak was automatically suspended for 20 games when referee Dave Newell found him in violation of category one of Rule 67 for tripping linesman Ron Foyt during an Oct. 30 game against Hartford in Chicago.In order to continue playing, Lysiak brought his suit against the league and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association joined the Nov. 3 action on his behalf.Cook County Circuit judge George Higgins responded by issuing a 10-day temporary restraining order. On the eve of its expiration, the order was extended through an agreement among Martin, attorneys for the Players&rsquo; Association, and attorneys for the league.If the amendment is approved, the court will be asked to vacate the temporary restraining order and allow the suspension to begin.&ldquo;Because of the Thanksgiving holiday (Nov. 24 in the U.S.) and the procedural activities that are involved, we would not expect to be back in court until Nov. 28,&rdquo; said Martin. &ldquo;The suspension would begin the following day. By Dec. 8, when Tom&rsquo;s appeal is heard, he would have missed four games.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice,&rdquo; said Lysiak. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re taking it one step at a time and this is the first step, but I don&rsquo;t know that I&rsquo;ve won anything.&ldquo;The board of governors realizes there&rsquo;s something to be done on the rule. I&rsquo;ll be optimisitc going into my hearing. I figured I&rsquo;d have to serve some of it. Am 1 anticipating the full 20? No, not at all.&ldquo;Am I thinking about it when I play? Nope. It just looks like it because of the way I&rsquo;ve been playing.&rdquo;Lysiak&rsquo;s suspension was the first under Rule 67 since it was enacted in the summer of 1982.&ldquo;This is a unique case,&rdquo; said Martin. &ldquo;For the first time, the board of governors will be reviewing a decision by a referee. Previously, the appeals were based on decisions by the league president or vice president.&ldquo;We would be dismissing our suit because the reason for it had been removed. The effect of the proposed by-law would eliminate the cause for this action, the failure of the rule to provide for a hearing. Now, the governors will have a choice of any number of games between four and 20.&ldquo;My personal opinion is we will do our best to convince the board that Rule 67 is too harsh a penalty in this case.&rdquo;Lysiak&rsquo;s lawsuit challenged the legality of two aspects of the rule:&bull; The suspension without pay is imposed without the benefit of a hearing.&bull; The plaintiff (Foyt) also acted as judge and juror by assisting the referee in defining the category that Lysiak violated.The proposed new amendment reads in part:&ldquo;A suspension issued pursuant to playing Rule 67 (a) shall be subject to the same right of appeal under this section&hellip;as applies to the suspensions ordered by the President.&ldquo;&hellip;The governors not directly affected by the order shall review the evidence by which the referee arrived at his decision, plus all available game tapes, to determine whether in their opinion the referee reasonably exercised the powers vested in him by playing Rule 67 (a) and shall mitigate the penalty imposed. &ldquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;Tony Esposito, the Black Hawks&rsquo; 40-year-old goalie who is the oldest player in the NHL, played two games in a row for the first time this season and was the No. 1 star in each instance. After stopping explosive Edmonton 5-3 to arrest the Hawks&rsquo; five-game losing streak, he came back to defeat St. Louis 4-3 with a 37-save performance. Denis Savard delivered the&rsquo; winning goal against the Blues on a shot from center-ice with 3:30 to play. &ldquo;I got the goal but Tony got us the two points,&rdquo; said Savard. &ldquo;The outcome was decided by Esposito,&rdquo; agreed St. Louis coach Jacques Demers. &ldquo;If some people say he&rsquo;s finished, they didn&rsquo;t see the way he played tonight.&rdquo; &#9632;

Rule Change May Reduce Lysiak Penalty

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY Founded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineCONTROLLERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIBUTING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVE RTISING REPRESENTATIVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC. Kim Locke, 43 Madison Ave.,Toronto. Ontario M5R 2S2(416) 961-5141SUBSCRIPFION SERVICES MANAGERPaula HeardNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTKathy NikiesRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom MoffatMary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER.Elaine WatkinsonADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite KM)Toronto. Ontario. CanadaM3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Third AvenueNew York, New York 10022DISTRIBUTORDistributed nationally by Disticor101 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite L4Don Mills, Ont., M3B 1Z3(416) 449-6430THE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except monthly June through September by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 85 Scarsdale Road # 100, Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. In U.S. c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York. N.Y. 10022.40 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $22.95 in the U.S.A. $22.95 in Canada. $39.95 in Foreign Countries. Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS, P.O. Box 13055, Postal Station &lsquo;A&rsquo;, Toronto. Ont. M5W 1V7. U.S. subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240. Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing.SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Road #100. 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. #100, Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2.IN THE UNITED STATES: Second class post age 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.Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;With one-quarter of the National Hockey League season gone, the Rangers found themselves in heady airspace&mdash;first place in the Patrick Division, with nine victories in their first 10 inter-divisional Contests.Game No. 20 on the year was a 4-1 victory over the Washington Capitals that was among their best defensive efforts of the season. Glen Hanlon turned in one of his most consistent performances in the net as a Ranger, posting his fourth victory in four home games this season and bringing his goals-against average down to 2.99. He was the recipient of strong positional play by the defensemen and effective backchecking by the forwards.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a long haul, but if we wanted to break it down to quarters, it is a gratifying start and a gratifying feeling,&rdquo; said coach Herb Brooks when asked about the first-place position of his team. &ldquo;Our main objective is to move from that eighth, ninth or 10th spot overall into the top six.&rdquo;That, as has been said time and time again, will take consistency. The last week of that first quarter was a microcosmic study of what can happen to this team if they don&rsquo;t play consistently. The victory over Washington was a return match after the Rangers&rsquo; 7-3 loss in Washington four days earlier, arguably the team&rsquo;s worst overall performance of the entire season.They had a reason, of sorts, for not showing up, mentally, for that game. There was another return engagement that had been on many peoples&rsquo; calendars for quite some time, that being the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; first visit to Madison Square Garden this season. In the limelight, of course, were the three exRangers on Detroit&mdash;Ron Duguay, Ed Mio and Eddie Johnstone&mdash;and the men for whom they were traded, now on the Rangers&mdash;Mike Blaisdell, Mark Osborne, and Willie Huber.After a tremendous amount of hype in the media, the game itself was a bit of an anti-climax. Mio&rsquo;s return to the Garden was nowhere near the equivalent of Ed Giacomin&rsquo;s return in a Red Wing uniform in the mid-&rsquo;70s, days after the Rangers sent him to Detroit. Although there were some chants of Ed-dee, Ed-dee from the crowd this month, it was not an event of equal emotion.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011249/4821820-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="580" height="812"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Osborne was anxious in the first period against his former teammates.</figcaption></div>Duguay, predictably, was booed by some in the Garden crowd as the Rangers beat the Red Wings 6-3, with Huber assisting on a goal by Rob McClanahan, who had just been recalled by the Rangers from Tulsa.Osborne, who scored off a cross-ice pass from Pierre Larouche, said the game was indeed special.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good winning against your old team,&rdquo; said Osborne. &ldquo;I was more anxious in the first period; it&rsquo;s sort of like playing your first NHL game. You don&rsquo;t know what to expect. And then we went up 3-1 and I was more relaxed. We started skating like we can.&rdquo;If there was cautious optimism being voiced by the Rangers as a result of their Patrick-Division lead, that can be buted to the sobering effects of the see-saw they rode during those first 20 games: the 9-1 start, the letdown that included three straight losses at home and the realization that the season will consist of some good weeks and some bad weeks.&ldquo;This is a good time of year for most teams,&rdquo; Hanlon pointed out. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gotten over the preparation of training camp. I prepared over the summer to keep things more on an even keel. We&rsquo;re only 20 games into the season. I don&rsquo;t want to be sitting here, boasting, and then have a nervous breakdown at Game 40.&rdquo;Neither do any of his mates. These men believe in each other but they also know that they must continue to do the things that got them there if they&rsquo;re going to hold onto that position. The forwards backchecked so effectively in the victory over Washington that the defensemen had the opportunity to concentrate on protecting Hanlon.&ldquo;We played well defensively all night,&rdquo; said Hanlon. &ldquo;When we do that it makes the big saves a lot easier; you feel fresher.&rdquo;&ldquo;We have the tools to play well but we have to work at it,&rdquo; said Larouche. &ldquo;Tonight was the first 60-minute game we&rsquo;ve played and I&rsquo;m sure everybody&rsquo;s proud and happy. If we were not in first place, we wouldn&rsquo;t be satisfied.&rdquo;Larouche described the Washington game as &ldquo;playoff hockey,&rdquo; explaining that &ldquo;the main thing in playoff hockey is to shut the other team down. No one wanted to give much to the other team tonight.&ldquo;Teams know we&rsquo;re for real. We&rsquo;re among the top three or four teams in the league and the more difficult it is for us now, the better we&rsquo;ll be for playoff time.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0004-01

Rangers Proving They’re For Real

EDMONTON&mdash;Edmonton Oiler superstar Wayne Gretzky, in the wake of a 13-4 thrashing of the New Jersey Devils on Nov. 19, ripped into the NHL&rsquo;s weakest team, labelling it a &ldquo;Mickey Mouse&rdquo; operation.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not funny, it&rsquo;s disappointing,&rdquo; Gretzky said of the 13-4 debacle. &lsquo;These guys (Devils&rsquo; management) better get their acts together. They had better start getting better personnel and start putting them on the ice. It&rsquo;s ruining hockey. They are putting a Mickey Mouse operation on the ice.&rdquo;Gretzky had three goals and five assists in the game. As this issue went to press, unconfirmed reports out of New York said Billy MacMillan would be relieved of his GM-coach portfolio with New Jersey and replaced by Max McNab and minor-league coach Tom McVie.TORONTO&mdash;A team consisting of some of the Soviet Union&rsquo;s retired star players is in Canada for a three-game tour which includes stops in Winnipeg on Dec. 2, Brandon, Man., on Dec. 4 and Whitby, Ont., on Dec. 7.The Soviet Old-Stars will meet Canadian NHL oldtimer teams. Nine members of the Soviet&rsquo;s 1972 Summit Series squad, including Alexander Yakushev, Alexander Gusev and Vladimir Shadrin, will play in the exhibition games.TORONTO&mdash;Bruce Hood became on Nov. 19 the first NHL referee to officiate 1,000 games. The veteran official from Milton, Ont., was honored a pre-game ceremony. Referee-in-Chief Scotty Morrison presented Hood with an Eskimo carving. Hood, 47, worked his first NHL game in February, 1965.&ldquo;There must be a 1,000 memories,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I remember every one of the games I worked. The people, the places, it&rsquo;s all been worthwhile.&rdquo;WINNIPEG&mdash;The Manitoba government and the City of Winnipeg, aiming to keep the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL from moving, have set up a joint task force to solve problems facing the financially-troubled club.Jets&rsquo; president Barry Shenkarow says the team is losing $1 million a year and must obtain numerous concessions from the city and province if it is to remain there.Manitoba premier Howard Pawley said, &ldquo;There may be some options that we haven&rsquo;t yet considered. But we would not like at this time to announce those various options or details until they are further developed by the working groups.&rdquo;&ldquo;The important aspect is that we have agreed to work cooperatively together on a joint basis with the principal objective to insure that the Jets remain in the City of Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba.&rdquo;CHICAGO&mdash;Black Hawk defenseman Behn Wilson was given a four-game suspension on Nov. 14 for a high-sticking incident in a Nov. 3 game against the Detroit Red Wings. NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill announced his decision after viewing tapes of the incident involving Wilson and Detroit rookie Steve Yzerman.&ldquo;It is my judgment that Wilson did not attempt to injure the Detroit player, but the manner in which he used his stick to administer the check was irresponsible and potentially very dangerous,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill said. &#9632;

SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04373/4821896-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Johnny (Pie) McKenzie, left, shares a laugh with Maurice (Rocket) Richard during a recent oldtimers&rsquo; game.</figcaption></div>When hockey fans recall the Boston Bruins of the late 1960s and early 1970s, names such as Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Bobby Orr come to mind.But the one player that best exemplified the Bruins during that period of time was Johnny (Pie) McKenzie.McKenzie was a rough, tough and scrappy player, which was the style of hockey the Bruins played.&ldquo;That was the greatest bunch of guys 1 was ever associated with,&rdquo; recalls McKenzie. &lsquo;&lsquo;Our team was a very close-knit group. There was always 14 or 15 of us that hung around together when we were on the road.&ldquo;That is still true of the Bruins today. They are one of the few teams left in the NHL that are close.&rdquo;McKenzie, 45, spent 21 years in professional hockey, including stints with the Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Rangers, and with the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Philadelphia and Vancouver Blazers, Minnesota Fighting Saints and Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;I had enough hockey after 21 years,&rdquo; said the High River, Alta., native who retired as a player in 1980. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like to practise. I loved playing, but not practising.&ldquo;I knew I was getting old with Boston. It was just a matter of time with them. I had won the Stanley Cup with them a couple of times. The biggest thrill for me was winning the first one. That one I&rsquo;ll never forget.&ldquo;But as I got older, money was the name of the game for me. That&rsquo;s why I went to the WHA.&ldquo;In the beginning, the new league had its problems. But towards the end the competition was good. It became better, especially after they brought in all the European players. They really helped improve play.&rdquo;Today, McKenzie resides in the Boston area and is in the condominium business with former teammate and the Bruins&rsquo; current head coach Gerry Cheevers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve noticed that the game has really changed since I was actively involved in it,&rdquo; said McKenzie.&ldquo;For instance, body checking has become a lost art. Players don&rsquo;t use the body much today.&ldquo;There are very few guys left that can do it. Two that come to mind and Larry Playfair in Buffalo and Larry Robinson in Montreal.&rdquo;Does McKenzie see a future for himself somewhere in hockey?&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t mind coaching,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I would prefer a head coaching job with a college or an assistant&rsquo;s jolly in the NHL.&ldquo;Then I wouldn&rsquo;t mind the practices.&rdquo;<h2>WHERE ARE THEY NOW?</h2><h2>BEAVER TALES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011107/4821889-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="592" height="530"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02808/4821882-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="536" height="531"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03557/4821875-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="631" height="531"></div> &#9632;

f0005-04

Pie Never Liked Practices

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Andy Hebenton of the Boston Bruins became the National Hockey League&rsquo;s Iron Man, when he played in his 581st consecutive game.&bull; Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; Johnny McKenzie was recovering in hospital after surgery to remove his ruptured spleen.&bull; The Hawks were atop the league with 35 points and had the No. 1 scorer (Bobby Hull, with 15 goals and 20 assists in 22 games), the No. 1 goalie (Glenn Hall, with a 1.91 goals-against average, after allowing only 35 goals in 18 and a third games and recording three shutouts), and the No. 1 bad boy (Howie Young, with 66 penalty minutes).&bull; The world championship Soviet team was preparing for a tour against Eastern Hockey League teams.&bull; Doug Harvey joined the Quebec Aces of the AHL after the New York Rangers ended his 14-year NHL career.&bull; Andy Bathgate&rsquo;s book. Hockey Secrets, was released and was given good reviews.&bull; Former Bruin defenseman Alex (Boots) Smith. 59, died of cancer in Ottawa, Ont.&bull; The Montreal Canadiens promoted a kid named Yvan Coumoyer from their junior Canadiens&rsquo; farm club in the Ontario Hockey Association and he scored a goal against Detroit in his first game, a 7-3 win for the &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-05250/4821975-1-eng-US/f0005-052.jpg"></div>that the NHL Teams with the most first-round draft choices on current rosters are: &#9632;

f0005-05

Did You Know…

1. What year did Toronto St. Pats become the Toronto Maple Leafs?2. How many seasons did the World Hockey Association operate?3. Who is the coach of the Indianapolis Checkers?4. Minor-league player Tim Coulis missed all of last season because of a suspension for hitting a referee? Name the referee?5. When did the Philadelphia Flyers draft Tim Kerr?6. What was the last NHL team that Ian Turnbull played for?7. How many players were selected in the 12-round, 1983 entry draft?8. The U.S. has won two Olympic gold medals. What were the years?9. In the Ontario Hockey League midget draft of 1977, Wayne Gretzky was the third player chosen. Name the players picked ahead of him.10. Name the top five players chosen in the 1983 entry draft.<h2>Trivia Answers</h2>1. 1927.2. Seven.3. Fred Creighton.4. Bob Hall of Guelph, Ont.5. Tim Kerr wasn&rsquo;t drafted. He was signed as a free agent.6. Turnbull played six games for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 198283 season.7. 242.8. 1960 and 1980.9. Tom McCarthy and Steve Peters were picked ahead of Gretzky.10. Brian Lawton, Sylvain Turgeon, Pat LaFontaine, Steve Yzerman and Tom Barrasso. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011286/4822006-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="307" height="354"></div><h2>Sick And Tired</h2>WHAT&rsquo;S THERE NOT to like about the 1983-84 season?Plenty. I&rsquo;ll tell you who I&rsquo;m sick and tired of right now:TOM LYSIAK&mdash;I wish he&rsquo;d serve the dam sentence and get it over with so that this stupid legal labyrinth is, once and for all, untangled. The ref (Dave Newell) called the penalty. The penalty is in the books. That&rsquo;s the judgment of the hockey court and that&rsquo;s where the decision belongs, not in state, federal or Supreme Court.DALE HAWERCHUK&mdash;For two years I&rsquo;ve been waiting for this &ldquo;Next Gretzky&rdquo; to do something worthy of the bucks John Ferguson is paying. So far all he&rsquo;s done is earn a lot for doing very little and give Tom Watt an unwanted sabbatical.MARIAN AND ANTON STASTNY&mdash;Why can&rsquo;t these liberated Czechs check and play like their brother? Nobody says they have to be as good as Peter, but if they worked as hard getting out of their own end as they did getting out of Bratislava, the Nordiques would be a much happier hockey club.BOB MCCAMMON&mdash;It&rsquo;s now seven months and my favorite Flyer general manager-coach hasn&rsquo;t said a word about Herb Brooks. How the devil are we going to fuel this feud if Bobby Mac leaves Herbie the Brooks alone?STEVE TAMBELLINI&mdash;I figured this talented kid&mdash;well, actually he isn&rsquo;t a kid anymore&mdash;would shape up to his potential under Bob Johnson in Calgary. Either Steve is not putting out or that element called potential just isn&rsquo;t there after all.AL EAGLESON&mdash;I was going to lay off the Eagle this fall but then he had to go stick his nose into the Lysiak case and make a mess of it. The Big E is boss of the players&rsquo; union, player agent, rep for Black Hawk GM Bob Pulford and the guy who knew exactly what was happening when the idea for a 20-game suspension for messing with officials was formulated. So if he didn&rsquo;t raise a stink then he shouldn&rsquo;t be gassing us with his gunsmoke now. Alan, for a moment, will you please shut up! But only for a moment.TOM BARRASSO&mdash;No goalie that young has a right to be that good.GRANT FUHR&mdash;For making me look bad by playing good.BEHN WILSON&mdash;For making me look bad by not playing good.THE ST. LOUIS BLUES&mdash;All of you for not trying as hard as your coach, GM and owner.<h2>Peetering Out</h2>PETE PEETERS WOULD not have been hospitalized after being crashed into his Boston Bruin net if the NHL had been using the Lindsay Miracle Goal Net, the one that bends on impact.What? You&rsquo;ve never heard of it?The Lindsay Miracle Goal Net is not around anymore but it once was very popular and it could have saved Peeters and the Bruins a lot of woe.The Lindsay Miracle Goal Net was invented in the mid-&rsquo;40s by Hall-of-Famer Bert Lindsay, a superb goaltender of yesteryear. At the time, lots of NHL goalies were being hamburgered by forwards who thought it was fun to grind them into the crossbars. It was felt that a net that conveniently folded back when a goalie crashed into it would eliminate black and blues.Bert Lindsay, who starred for the Renfrew Millionaires in the early 1900&rsquo;s and was father of Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay, came up with the solution. His net had two hydraulic pumps reaching from the goalposts to the bottom bar. When a player rammed into the crossbar, the net eased to the rear, cushioning the blow and then the hydraulic spring pushed back into place.The Lindsay Miracle Goal Net was such a great idea that the NHL decided it would test it out in the Eastern League. And so it was at Madison Square Garden that this revolutionary device made its debut.Whenever the New York Rovers&mdash;a Ranger farm team&mdash;played a Sunday afternoon game in the mid-&rsquo;40s, The Lindsay Miracle Goal Net was saving goalies&rsquo; lives. With unerring efficiency it folded back whenever it seemed that a mashed netminder would be served.Then, why, you may ask, didn&rsquo;t The Lindsay Miracle Goal Net make it to the NHL?A good question. And there&rsquo;s a good answer: it did its job too well.Alas, it was so co-operative that it would lean back for anyone, even for goalies when nobody was around. Soon the nimble-thinking netminders realized that they didn&rsquo;t have to come out of the net to cut down the angles on an enemy shooter. All they had to do was lean back on the crossbar and The Lindsay Miracle Goal Net would do the job for them.Pretty soon there was more lean on the net than on that tower in Pisa. The Lindsay Miracle Goal Net was a good idea, but those foxy goalies had a better idea. Sorry, Pete Peeters, but at least Bert Lindsay was on your side.<h2>McKegney Vs. Bowman</h2>THE SHELVES IN my Feud Department have been virtually bare&mdash;but not completely. A few ingredients for a good battle are still around. How about McKegney vs. Bowman? In Quebec City that refugee from Buffalo, muscular Tony McKegney, offers some thoughts about his old boss, Scotty Bowman, and what it&rsquo;s like to leave Sabretown. They are not calculated to make Scotty smile.&ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve been parolled coming to Quebec,&rdquo; says Tony. &ldquo;Hockey is fun again, not a grind. Scotty knows a lot about playing the game. It&rsquo;s just that the psychological tactics he employs to try to get the most out of his players create a constant atmosphere of tension around the team. He would be the last thing I&rsquo;d think about before going to bed. After some days I dreaded going to the rink for practice.&rdquo;Those of us&mdash;me included&mdash;who have been believers in McKegney are watching his development with the Nordiques with interest. I always sensed that Tony was a better hockey player than he showed in Buffalo. Now I&rsquo;m waiting for him to demonstrate that I was right and Bowman was wrong.So far the jury is out, but when I think of Tony I&rsquo;m always reminded of Scotty&rsquo;s thinking on the game which, until now, has been among the best:&ldquo;One of the most important things is knowing how much a player has left,&rdquo; says Bowman. &ldquo;Maybe you have to sacrifice a year, but you have to look to tomorrow.&rdquo;McKegney obviously was not on Bowman&rsquo;s tomorrow calendar. Let&rsquo;s see if Tony can prove that he should have been.<h2>Phooie On Louie</h2>IT&rsquo;S ALWAYS IMPORTANT to separate myth from reality, especially when the greatest player of all time, Gordie Howe, is involved. And lately a myth has been growing about a mammoth fight Howe won but, allegedly, lost as well.Gordie was with the Red Wings at the time (1958-59), playing against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The NHL&rsquo;s most infuriating intimidator of the time was Louie (The Leaper) Fontinato, a New York defenseman who liked to start&mdash;and often finish&mdash;fights.On this night Howe was squabbling with the Rangers&rsquo; Eddie Shack behind the New York net after a whistle. Fontinato was standing at the left point when the pushing began. Louie rushed from the blueline, brushed Shack aside and began raining punches on Howe.After digesting the first blows without flinching, Howe drove so many lefts and rights into Fontinato&rsquo;s nose that Louie&rsquo;s nostrils looked like they had taken a walk around the comer and ran into a fire engine.Howe not only destroyed Fontinato with 20 blows, he also blasted Louie&rsquo;s reputation from Chicago to Montreal. It is a fact of life that Fontinato was never the same defenseman after that.Lately, however, some revisionist historians have suggested that the real secret of the fight was that Howe suffered a series of broken ribs that were carefully concealed from the media. If so, this would prove that Fontinato did a lot better than many of us who had viewed the fight had thought.So, what is the true story, Gordie?&ldquo;If my ribs were broken,&rdquo; says Howe, &ldquo;nobody ever bothered to tell them. But I will admit that I hurt my knuckles.&rdquo;<h2>Sather Vs. Cherry</h2>DON CHERRY SAYS he likes Glen Sather but don&rsquo;t you believe a word of it.Grapes invaded Sather&rsquo;s Edmonton lair the other day and made some perfectly nasty comments about the clothing habits of the Oiler president-GM-coach-and-whatever.For the ultimate Sather putdown, Cherry snaps: &ldquo;If I ever came back to the NHL, I&rsquo;d immediately be the absolute best-dressed coach in the league.&rdquo;Sather is stung to the core, but still manages the counterattack.&ldquo;Don Cherry is getting up in years,&rdquo; snaps Sather. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s out of style. His lapels are too wide. His pants are too narrow.&rdquo;Then, Slats pauses for the ultimate putdown: &ldquo;And tell Grapes that his pants probably still have buttons on the fly!&rdquo;<h2>Tony And The Tiger</h2>WHAT&rsquo;S WITH THIS Tony Tanti?The only sensible way to get the answer is not from Tanti and not from coach Roger Neilson but from the smartest man in Vancouver, the philosopher king himself, Tiger Williams.&ldquo;Tony had a lot of pressure on him coming to Vancouver last year,&rdquo; says Williams. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t break into Roger Neilson&rsquo;s system overnight. You have to demonstrate to him that you&rsquo;re a complete player at both ends of the rink. Tony proved that last year. This year he&rsquo;s got a center, Patrik Sundstrom, who always passes to the left and Tony&rsquo;s been hot. And you&rsquo;ve got to give Tony credit for preparing himself over the summer.&rdquo;And, Tiger, now&rsquo;that Tony is at the top what should he worry about?&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to show them that a stick in the head is not going to slow him down,&rdquo; said the man who got suspended for stick impediment on Paul Baxter. &#9632;

f0006-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Team captain Brian Sutter In&rsquo;t the most talented player on the Hues&rsquo; roster, but he surely is the hardest lorker and the most respected.When the left winger was knocked out the lineup because of an injury sufired against the Boston Bruins on Nov. everyone in the Blues&rsquo; organization&mdash;the owner to the receptionist&mdash;was ger for his recovery.Nobody, however, was more eager an Bernie Federko.Sutter&rsquo;s injury was originally diagnosed as a hairline fracture of the pelvis and he was expected to be sidelined for two to three weeks. But a follow-up examination on Nov. 10 revealed that Sutter suffered an injury to the bone covering&mdash;not a fracture&mdash;and would be out only until Nov. 15.Federko, the Blues&rsquo; assistant captain and leading scorer, was asked by coach Jacques Demers to wear the C on his sweater during Sutter&rsquo;s absence.Federko was reluctant, because he didn&rsquo;t think anyone could measure up to Sutter as a leader. Compounding matters was the Blues&rsquo; five-game losing streak and the pressures it brought to bear.But Demers prevailed and Federko wore the C for the first time on Nov. 5 against the Philadelphia Flyers in St. Louis. Federko scored a goal and had two assists in leading the Blues to a 7-6 victory.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly an honor to wear the letter,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;especially for Brian, who I think is the best captain in the league.&ldquo;He can sure have it back, though.&rdquo;The C may not have been conspicuous to others, but to Federko it shone like a neon light.&ldquo;It makes the front of your sweater pretty heavy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m not used to. Right now, as assistant captain, 1 know my responsibilities to the rest of the guys, but nobody else knows&mdash;the other team doesn&rsquo;t know, the fans don&rsquo;t know&mdash;because the assistant captain wears a regular sweater like everybody else.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;ve got that letter on, it seems like everyboby is staring at you. They&rsquo;re not, but it&rsquo;s all in your mind. That&rsquo;s what makes it kind of tough.&rdquo;It was only this season that Federko was appointed assistant captain. He hadn&rsquo;t shouldered the responsibility of captian since he was in junior.&ldquo;It shouldn&rsquo;t be any added pressure,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I try to play the same way every game. But I had no time to think about what I was doing wrong or what I was doing right. It was a matter of knowing that I had to keep doing something.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s something Brian does better than anybody in the entire league. He just goes, goes, goes.&rdquo;The victory over Philadelphia was viewed by the Blues as a springboard for a three-game trip to Los Angeles and Minnesota. But disappointment visited the Blues&rsquo; again in back-to-back games in L.A.After a tie and loss against the Kings, the Blues proceeded to lose to Minnesota, Montreal and Chicago, prompting Ron Caron, the director of player personnel, to say that trades would be made by the time the league&rsquo;s general managers convened in Chicago on Nov. 21.Caron addressed the players before a 4-3 loss in Chicago and later he said, &ldquo;I told them that some guys here may have played their last game for this team and some may play their last game tonight. There are certain players I don&rsquo;t consider important fixtures for the St. Louis Blues.&rdquo;The Blues are 1-9-1 in their last 11 games and 0-8-1 on the road.BLUENOTES&mdash;The Blues promoted Alain Lemieux from Montana of the Central League and put him in the lineup against Montreal in place of veteran Guy Chouinard, who was benched. They also recalled forward Dan Wood and re-assigned him to the Canadian Olympic team. &#9632;

Federko Shines In Brief Blues Captaincy

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;The statistics offered a simple explanation of the Washington Capitals&rsquo; failure to challenge for the Patrick Division lead. After 19 games, they collected only 60 goals, a meager total that placed them 19th in the NHL in scoring, ahead of fellow Patrick plodders Pittsburgh and New Jersey.In a rather desperate bid to boost the Capitals&rsquo; attack, general manager David Poile pounced on the waiver list of New Jersey, of all teams, to claim winger Gary McAdam, a journeyman who was toiling for Maine of the American League.A few days earlier, Poile beat the junior deadline to call up center Dean Evason from Kamloops of the Western League. Evason ranked fifth in WHL scoring, but how serious the Capitals were in elevating him was open to question after he skated only two shifts in his debut, a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers.<blockquote class="pullQuote">A year ago, the Capitals had seven players with 20 or more goals. At the quarter mark this season, only Mike Gartner, Bengt Gustafsson and David Christian were on target for 20-goal campaigns.</blockquote>A year ago, the Capitals had seven men with 20 or more goals. As they reached the one-quarter mark of this campaign, however, only three players projected that figure&mdash;Mike Gartner, Bengt Gustafsson and Dave Christian.Besides Gartner and Gustafsson, the previous 20-goal men were Dennis Maruk and Ken Houston, both traded away, Bob Carpenter, Bob Gould and Alan Haworth.Gould and Haworth had only four apiece this time, while Carpenter had scored just twice. Coach Bryan Murray experimented with various line combinations to get the trio going, but none seemed to work.In Gould&rsquo;s case, a bout with flu and a jammed wrist, plus the shift of hardworking Gaetan Duchesne to the No. 1 line with Gartner and Doug Jarvis, provided some measure of explanation for the lack of production.Carpenter and Haworth seemed to get deeper in the soup as they tried harder and found themselves pressing with diminishing results.&ldquo;Bobby Capenter is a frustrated young man right now,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s fighting it and he&rsquo;s playing somewhat passive because he&rsquo;s down on himself. He gets down when he doesn&rsquo;t contribute and I&rsquo;ve tried to tell him just to forget his statistics and work hard.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t tell a guy to go out and have fun when he&rsquo;s obviously not having fun, but I want him just to hit a few guys and get in the game and stop worrying about scoring goals.&ldquo;Alan Haworth is pressing, too. You can see the pressure in his face. He&rsquo;s had so many chances, he thinks he should be scoring every night. It seems that every game, something goes wrong for him, a bad bounce or whatever, and things get worse.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not putting pressure on Alan Haworth and Bobby Carpenter, but they&rsquo;ve got to get some goals for us. There is no question that lack of scoring is a problem for us right now. Part of the reason is that guys just aren&rsquo;t going to the net. We&rsquo;ve seldom gotten the so-called garbage goals. Most of our goals have come on good rushes, the result of sharp passing, but you&rsquo;ve got to get the other type, too.&rdquo;A symptom of the problem could be detected from the team&rsquo;s shots on goal. Defensemen Darren Veitch and Rod Langway ranked second and fourth, respectively.&ldquo;Darren is shooting quite well from the point and Rod has been much more offensive&mdash;partly because he saw it wasn&rsquo;t being done&mdash;but there is no way they should be in the top five,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;We have six forwards who get a lot of ice time who ought to be up there. &ldquo;Another interesting statistic concerned the power play. The Capitals, given far more opportunities than any other team in the league, scored at least one extraman goal in 10 straight games. In only one of those 10, however, did they click twice, and their overall success ratio of 17.3 per cent placed them 17th in the NHL.&ldquo;A lot of times we&rsquo;ll score early on the power play and then we&rsquo;ll go to sleep,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;We actually show a lot more intensity at equal strength than with an extra man. When we need that little bit extra to take advantage of the situation, it&rsquo;s not there.&rdquo; &#9632;

Caps Mired In Patrick With Inept Offense

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>The Right Choice</h2>LIKE JUST ABOUT everything else in this world, there are two ways of looking at the continuing saga of Chicago Black Hawk center Tom Lysiak.One school of thought says that the National Hockey League, intimidated by a law suit from Lysiak, has skulked out of the picture, its tail between its legs, afraid to stand up and protect its officials with an unyielding stance on Rule 67-A, the one which was supposed to have put Lysiak on a 20-game suspension for intentionally dumping linesman Ron Foyt on Oct. 30.The other way of viewing the Lysiak brouhaha is to concede that the NHL realized it made a mistake in instituting a rule&mdash;any rule&mdash;that has no avenue of appeal and it is, by allowing Lysiak to appeal, only doing what is right and proper.So which is it? Has the NHL lost its backbone or is it simply subscribing to the theory of civil liberties and freedoms?Well, to this point anyway, it would be unfair to say the NHL has become chicken. When the board of governors got together to alter Rule 67-A, thereby opening up an avenue for appeal, it was really doing what should have been done in the first place.The real test of the NHL&rsquo;s mettle will come in early December, when the board of governors get together for their annual retreat at West Palm Beach, Fla. Quite simply, each of the NHL governors, save those directly involved, will get to decide for himself whether a 20-game suspension is just punishment for the crime committed.You see, by allowing Lysiak to appeal, the NHL has yet to say that 20 games is out of line. When the appeal is heard, the governors are liable to take a few moments of thought and realize that the only thing wrong with Rule 67-A was that it couldn&rsquo;t be appealed. Lysiak may still end up serving a 20-game suspension.Now, cynics will charge that the NHL governors will be afraid to dish up the 20 games, knowing full well that Lysiak and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association will use whatever steps necessary to overturn the decision.Our hope is that the NHL governors will take some time to reflect on this matter and not be intimidated by all that has happened so far.Hopefully, the governors will remember the intent of Rule 67-A&mdash;to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that referees and linesmen must be able to perform their duties free from the threat of physical intimidation or abuse.If the NHL really wants to halt abuse of its officials, then it must not waiver on this issue. It cannot let a player or the Players&rsquo; Association dictate the length of a suspension.It&rsquo;s becoming a tired argument, but all levels of hockey&mdash;including the Players&rsquo; Association&mdash;were members of the Blue Ribbon committee which came up with the basis for Rule 67-A. Even if, as Alan Eagleson suggests, the governors altered the wording of the actual rule when it became law, he&rsquo;s only talking about the lack of proper appeal procedures.The 20 games was never said to be out of line or too harsh, at least not until it was applied. Professional hockey, for whatever inexplicable reason, suffers from a strange malaise. That is, after much criticism, it reacts to a negative situation and then the first time the new legislation is enforced, everyone is up in arms, whining and crying.So one of three things is going to happen here. The governors will deny the appeal and Lysiak will get 20 games. The governors will uphold the appeal and give Lysiak substantially less, say 10 games. Or the governors will compromise and settle on 14 or 15 games. If it&rsquo;s 20, Lysiak and the Players&rsquo; Association will holler. If it&rsquo;s 10 or less, the officials and any straight-thinking individual will scream. And if it&rsquo;s a compromise, then everyone will be on the NHL&rsquo;s back.The NHL is back to its damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don&rsquo;t situation, which is why we advocate the governors have the courage of their convictions and stick with the 20-game sentence. Twenty games seemed fair enough when Rule 67-A was instituted before the 1982-83 season and it&rsquo;s fair enough now.And if Tom Lysiak&mdash;or any of his supporters such as the Black Hawks or the Players&rsquo; Association&mdash;don&rsquo;t like that, then he should have thought of that before he blew his cool and dumped a defenseless linesman. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011237/4822109-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="331" height="371"></div>It&rsquo;s still too early in the National Hockey League season to determine if the Hartford Whalers are, indeed, on the real road to recovery, but if they are, it couldn&rsquo;t happen to a nicer man than Emile (The Cat) Francis.In Randy Smith&rsquo;s story on the Whalers on Page 20 of this issue, some of the players are quoted as saying that The Cat has brought a new attitude to the organization&mdash;enthusiasm and honesty. All in all, he and his staff, led by coach Jack (Tex) Evans, seem to have submerged Hartford&rsquo;s image an easy two points.Of course, there are those who say Francis was responsible for the demise of the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; franchise, signing too many players to too-expensive contracts. Whether he did or didn&rsquo;t is immaterial to this story, which illustrates why Francis is such a decent guy.It was about a year ago and the St. Louis Blues were slated to play an away game against the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. Meanwhile, up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Mike Zuke, Sr., father of the Blues&rsquo; Mike Zuke, Jr., decided he and a few friends would hop on 1-75 and make the six-hour voyage to Detroit to see his son play against the Wings.They decided to make a weekend of it, so the senior Zuke called his son in St. Louis a few days before the game and asked if he could make reservations at the same hotel the team was staying at. Mike, Jr., said it would be no problem.So Zuke and his three travelling companions drove across the International Bridge to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and headed down the pike for Detroit. Later that day, the group arrived at the downtown Detroit hotel, approached the reservation desk and, to their surprise, learned there were no reservations for Mike Zuke, Sr.After checking and re-checking, the hotel clerk informed the group that there were no reservations made, the hotel was full because of a convention there and they&rsquo;d have to find another place to stay.At that point, Mr. Zuke got on a house phone, called his son and asked whether he had made the reservations. Yes, Mike, Jr., replied, he had.The four travellers from the Sault then went back to the clerk to check again that there wasn&rsquo;t some mistake. By this time, things were getting testy.By chance, Francis and some of the St. Louis players were walking through the lobby. Realizing that the father of one of his players was having difficulty, Francis intervened on his behalf. Once the story was related to him, he wasted no time settling the matter.&ldquo;You had better find the rooms that were reserved for these gentlemen from Sault Ste. Marie,&rdquo; the Cat barked at the clerk, dismissing the obvious size disadvantage. &ldquo;And if you don&rsquo;t, then maybe we had better take our (the St. Louis Blues&rsquo;) business elsewhere.&rdquo;Short and sweet. Suddenly, the rooms that weren&rsquo;t there materialized and Mike Zuke, Sr., and his friends checked in.The Cat&rsquo;s actions exemplified what a gentleman he is and that&rsquo;s just one reason why you&rsquo;d like to see him do well in Hartford this season.Things may be looking up in Hartford, but in New Jersey, the most oft-asked question is &ldquo;How low can the Devils go?&rdquo;Low, very low, and it was Edmonton Oiler superstar Wayne Gretzky who succinctly summed up his feelings about the Devils.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not funny, it&rsquo;s disappointing,&rdquo; he said of the Oilers&rsquo; 13-4 thrashing of the Devils. &ldquo;These guys (New Jersey management) better get their acts together. They had better start getting better personnel and start putting them on the ice. It&rsquo;s ruining hockey.&ldquo;They are putting a Mickey Mouse operation on the ice.&rdquo;The &ldquo;Mickey Mouse&rdquo; tag is bound to ruffle a few feathers, especially those of John McMullen, the hardnosed team owner.In fact, just as this issue went to press, unconfirmed reports from New York indicated that McMullen was about to relieve general manager-coach Billy MacMillan of his duties and install Max McNab as the GM and Maine Mariner coach Tom Me Vie as the man behind the bench.Confirmation could not be obtained by press time. In the New Jersey story on Page 13, MacMillan said that after a meeting with McMullen, he was convinced that his job was secure. But that was before the 13-4 debacle.At any rate, the Devils&rsquo; fortunes for this season are not bright and that&rsquo;s even if there is a management shuffle. For what it&rsquo;s worth, here is one man&rsquo;s opinion of what is wrong with the team:Everybody talks about the Devils going with so many young players and having to take their lumps because they&rsquo;re inexperienced. But to date, the Devils&rsquo; poorest efforts have been coming from some of their so-called key veterans such as Don Lever, Bob MacMillan and Mel Bridgman.Rookie center Pat Verbeek, one of several talented youngsters in the organization, has been their best player, aside from the netminders, and that has to tell you how sorry this team has been this year.And the sad thing is that it&rsquo;s probably going to get worse before it gets better. Just remember one thing, though. The Devils, deep down there somewhere, are on the right track and one day, a few years from now, their youngsters such as Verbeek, John MacLean, Ken Daneyko and Joe Cirella will be fine NHL players.But that&rsquo;s small consolation now for McMullen and his employees. &#9632;

f0008-01

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

<h2>SUPREME CYNIC BEDDOES</h2>&ldquo;Only a supreme cynic would knock the man who was loved by the crowd,&rdquo; trumpets Dick Beddoes in his excellent article about the 1983 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees.In a coincidence that seems to underscore Mr. Beddoes&rsquo; hypocrisy relative to contemporary players, the page on which these words appear also features yet another picture and major article about Wayne Gretzky.There are few who knock the man who is loved by today&rsquo;s crowd more stridently than Dick Beddoes.It is sad that Mr. Beddoes seems to accord the great ones the respect they deserve only after they retire.Bruce McCurdy Edmonton, Alta.<h2>SAY IT AIN&rsquo;T SO, JOE</h2>So columnist Joe Falls applauds players who go &ldquo;into the stands after their tormentors.&rdquo; What an ignorant remark for an alleged hockey expert to make!Falls asks: &ldquo;Why should it be a one-way street?&rdquo; Sure, Joe, let&rsquo;s make it a two-way street and allow players, on a rotating basis, to wander into the stands in search of a rumble. That would be a fair solution to the American problem of player assaults by fans, right Joe?Taking your &ldquo;logic&rdquo; a step further. I suppose players who are hit by projectiles or doused with beer should be afforded an opportunity to respond in kind, huh Joe?The NHL could even add a 10-minute overtime period during which players subjected to various such assaults could team up and put the boots to the offending patrons&mdash;sort of a tag-team death match on skates, eh Joe? Ticket sales will skyrocket in Boston, don&rsquo;t you think?It&rsquo;s people like you, Joe, who have made violent hockey the marketable commodity it has become in recent years.Mark Nusca Woodstock, Ont. &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;Grade school arithmetic&mdash;simple addition, no need for computers&mdash;sums up the situation quite nicely.Wayne Gretzky had 21 goals and sidekick Jari Kurri 14 in the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; first 17 National Hockey League games. Add &lsquo;em up, divide by three and each member of Gretzky&rsquo;s line would still account for more goals than the NHL&rsquo;s average. With this in mind, Ayatollah Khomeini, one of the world&rsquo;s prominent left wingers, could do a reasonable job on Gretzky&rsquo;s port side as long as he hinders the progress of an opponent now and then.Which is the main reason why Jaroslav Pouzar has been back patrolling Gretzky&rsquo;s left flank. Strictly defensive.&ldquo;His job has been defined well,&rdquo; said Gretzky of Pouzar, who had twice previously failed in cracks at the coveted position. &ldquo;He knows now he doesn&rsquo;t have to score 40 goals to stay on the line.&rdquo;All along your agent figured the glib Czechoslovakian was a benefactor of circumstance.Pouzar was sitting in the press box at stuffy Maple Leaf Gardens in late October when David Semenko was dispatched to the locker room for a wrestling bout with the Maple Leafs&rsquo; Jim Korn. The ejection, Semenko&rsquo;s third of the young campaign, was sufficient for an automatic one-game suspension. Hence, a spot which probably would have opened up anyway because the Oilers were thrashed 8-3&mdash;and were winless in three starts&mdash;automatically became available.Pouzar was forewarned to be prepared.&ldquo;Nah,&rdquo; replied the disbelieving 31-year-old, placing the onus on the Oilers&rsquo; rookie designated sitter, Ken Berry.Pouzar suited up for only four of 10 games to that point, but at least that was three more than he performed in during 16 playoff matches last spring.Yet the call went out to Pouzar as the Oilers closed out their eastern swing at the time with victories in Montreal and in New York against the Rangers. He&rsquo;s been there ever since, freeing Glenn Anderson to perform in his more comfortable positon on right wing&mdash;on a speed-demon line with Kenny Linseman and Mark Messier.&ldquo;I often like to do something that differs from the obvious,&rdquo; admitted the Oilers&rsquo; ever-unpredictable general managercoach Glen Sather, suggesting complacency had set in among the ranks. &ldquo;We were a litte too loosy-goosy. Sometimes taking a little stock value doesn&rsquo;t hurt a hockey club. Sometimes when guys see somebody coming out of the lineup&hellip;&rdquo;Exit Dave Lumley, who was twice previously nominated as a game star for his robust performance in the comers. One blind pass in Toronto that led to the opening Leaf goal and Lumley drew in as the scapegoat. Some dudes have all the luck.&ldquo;A combination of things led to getting Pouzar into the lineup,&rdquo; explained Sather. &ldquo;First of all, we had too many guys up the ice. I talked to him about doing a certain job and he was willing. I figured if we keep Wayne out of our end, it&rsquo;s harder to check him.&rdquo;Sather also confessed he wasn&rsquo;t all that fussy about the harrassment pesky Leaf center Greg Terrion was applying to his meal-ticket. Mark Messier later took the law into his own hands, chopping Terrion to the ice and withdrawing his nomination papers for Hogtown&rsquo;s mayoralty race in the process.Pouzar may not be a protector in the vein of Gretzky&rsquo;s king-sized bodyguard. Semenko, but his approach to the game is entirely different than most refugees from across the Atlantic. Comers are not alien territory to him.&ldquo;So far it&rsquo;s been easier for me,&rdquo; said Gretzky, who opened the month of November with a five-point night (two goals, three assists) as the Oilers thrashed Washington Capitals 11-3. &ldquo;Usually I&rsquo;m the first one in (forechecking). It&rsquo;s tough to go from behind our own net down to theirs. Jaroslav can take care of the area in back and in front of our net.&rdquo;Providing Gretzky with a licence to play offense would generate snickers around the NHL. Can you imagine what the Islanders&rsquo; goalie Billy Smith, who once suggested he would like to take Gretzky by the hand and introduce him to his goaltender, would have to say? Yet the line was only on the ice for two evenstrength goals during their first three games together.Pouzar, who doesn&rsquo;t possess the Midas scoring touch despite 39 goals in 44 games back in his homeland in 197980, had but one goal in his first 11 games. But, his plus-minus efficiency rating has gone from minus one to plus nine since his insertion on Gretzky&rsquo;s line. Gretzky has gone from plus six to plus 22 and Kurri from plus four to plus 17.&ldquo;Oh yeah, a little bit, but it&rsquo;ll come in due time,&rdquo; said Gretzky, responding to an inquiry of Pouzar&rsquo;s presence perhaps hindering the line&rsquo;s offense. &ldquo;Besides, the last thing this team needs is more goals.&rdquo;With 417 in 1981-82 and 424 last season, this is where the computer experts come in.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011222/4822164-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="592" height="761"><figcaption class="caption-body">Despite his European background, Jaroslav Pouzar is not afraid to get physical.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-01

Oilprs Discover Perfect Avatollah In Pouzar

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Moe Mantha was seriously thinking of dumping hockey only a month ago.His pride was wounded when the Winnipeg Jets sent him to the minors for the third time in three years.But the real hurt was that 20 National Hockey League teams had ignored him as he cleared waivers.&ldquo;That was the low point,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I thought I had the talent. But I was going down again. I said to myself, &lsquo;Geez, I must be really terrible.&rsquo; I wanted to quit hockey.&rdquo;Now the 22-year-old Mantha is a valued member of the Jets&rsquo; defense, one of John Ferguson&rsquo;s starting four.Since joining the Jets, the freewheeling Mantha helped the team win five of its 10 starts while collecting four goals and nine assists.&ldquo;I feel I have more confidence now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m starting to use my talents. Why, I&rsquo;ve even been used to kill penalties. That&rsquo;s a compliment for me.&rdquo;Hopes were high in June of 1980 when the Jets, selecting in the No. 2 spot in the entry draft, chose Mantha from the Toronto Marlboros in the second round.His father, Moe Mantha Sr., a former pro hockey player himself, stood beside his boy, waving a long cigar and telling those around him how good his son would look in Jets&rsquo; colors.To no one&rsquo;s surprise, Mantha played 58 games for the Jets as a rookie, the year the team won only nine times. The subsequent seasons were disappointing as his appearances fell off from 25 games to 21.At one point, he asked to be traded, claiming the coach, Tom Watt, refused to talk to him. He felt unappreciated and maligned.But his shortcomings were never his fault. The fact that he played timidly, barely brushing his opponents, never bothered him. But every hockey mind in the organization saw a tremendous waste.His problems were compounded by a shoulder injury. Stubbornly, Mantha refused to have corrective surgery during the off-season, despite the club&rsquo;s pleadings. When the shoulder was injured again, an operation became mandatory and he missed an entire year.&ldquo;His development was slowed by the injury two years ago,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;But we were starting to wonder what his priorities were. Hockey has got to be the most important thing. If you want to play golf, worry about golf in the summertime.&rdquo;Ferguson is satisfied the time Mantha has spent in the minors has made him a more accomplished player and, to use his words, &ldquo;a better man.&rdquo;Assistant coach Barry Long has welcomed his emergence, too.&ldquo;Moe is starting to play the kind of hockey we expected all along,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the best defensemen we&rsquo;ve got. His shot has contributed greatly to the power play. And he&rsquo;s rushing the puck more, which is fine with us as long as his partner, Dave Babych, is back.&rdquo;Long has noticed Mantha trying to play more aggressively. He has been involved in a couple of scuffles and is beginning to throw his weight (200 pounds) around.&ldquo;Passing through waivers can be a sobering experience,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;It shows that 20 other teams aren&rsquo;t interested in your services. That can be very disheartening. Moe is a better defenseman than that. He&rsquo;s still a youngster and, if he continues to play the way he has, he&rsquo;ll never have to worry about going through the waivers again.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;The Jets kept a promise to Eddie Staniowski by keeping him on their major-league roster until another NHL team could be found. To his surprise, general manager Emile Francis of the Hartford Whalers offered him a spot in exchange for another goaltender, Mike Veisor. whom the Jets promptly shipped to Sherbrooke&hellip;Laurie Boschman is a busy man. While piling up a league-leading total of penalty minutes (108), he was leading the Jets in scoring with 11 goals and 12 assists. Boschman has become the darling of Winnipeg fans&hellip;Paul MacLean came out of a slump with three goals and three assists in three games., Scott Arniel notched the winner in a 3-2, come-from-behind win, which delighted the season&rsquo;s largest crowd (14,294). &#9632;

Mantha’s Got Confidence After Sobering Experience

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02990/4822219-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Butch Goring took the Islanders out of their gloomy state when he scored two shorthanded goal in a rematch against Washington.</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;The Islanders were wearing their masks of tragedy. Heads were bowed, lips downturned, eyes downcast and most of their tongues were tied.&ldquo;A game like that makes you feel embarrassed,&rdquo; said Butch Goring.Everybody on the Islanders experienced various degrees of embarrassment after they bowed 7-1 to the Capitals at the Capital Center in the opener of a home-and-home weekend series.Twenty-four hours later, the Islanders discarded their masks of tragedy and put on their happy faces. Urged on by 15,615 fans at Nassau Coliseum, the Islanders hammered the Capitals 6-2.Goring, who scored two shorthanded goals in the rematch, spoke of redemption. So did Bryan Trottier and coach Al Arbour.&ldquo;The Capitals obviously tried to stuff it to us in their rink,&rdquo; Goring said, &ldquo;and it cheesed us off. You remember things like that.&rdquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; Trottier said. &ldquo;We were peeved at the way they tried to rub salt into our wounds. They mocked us and we didn&rsquo;t like that at all. We were angry, very angry.&rdquo;Arbour, who declined to talk to the press after the loss, was full of chatter after the win.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the good thing about these back-to-back games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You get a chance to redeem yourself and we certainlv did that.&rdquo;Trottier also had two goals in the Islanders&rsquo; victory and assisted on Mike Bossy&rsquo;s 15th goal of the season. The Gold Dust Twins figured in the scoring in 11 consecutive games, with Trottier scoring 10 goals and 12 assists and Bossy 10 and 10.It was Goring, though, who stole the show at the Coliseum. He got his first shorthanded goal of the night in the first period after Dave Langevin banked the puck off the right sideboards in the Caps&rsquo; zone. Goring picked it up on the fly, out through the lower slot and pushed the puck under Pat Riggin.Goring struck again in the second period. He and Billy Carroll were killing a slashing penalty to Bobby Nystrom when the Caps&rsquo; Bengt Gustafsson lost control of the puck in the neutral zone. Carroll picked it up and skated down the right side with Goring on his left.&ldquo;As soon as I saw Billy get the puck, I broke for the net,&rdquo; Goring said. He got there just in time to take Carroll&rsquo;s backhanded pass and flip it behind Riggin.It was not the first time Goring had two shorthanded goals in a game. He scored a pair against the Penguins in the Isles&rsquo; home opener last season and totalled five for the season. He now has 14 for the Islanders, four behind the team record set by Lome Henning.Goring, who turned 34 last month, has been getting only spot duty as a penaltykiller and occasional fourth-line center. He entered the rematch with only three goals and collected a mere three shots on goal in his previous 10 games.When Arbour benched Goring for two games prior to the Washington series, Butch didn&rsquo;t squawk.&ldquo;Billy Carroll was just coming off the injured list and I guess Al wanted to play him,&rdquo; Goring said. &ldquo;But I wanted to get back and do something.&rdquo;Goring did something&mdash;and the Islanders were smiling again.ON THE ISLE&mdash;Mike McEwen got his wish&hellip;well, part of his wish. The 27-year-old defenseman asked general manager Bill Torrey to trade him three weeks ago. Torrey obliged by shipping McEwen to the Los Angeles Kings for a fourth-round draft choice in 1984.&ldquo;McEwen wanted to move to an Eastern team, preferably Hartford,&rdquo; a friend confided. &ldquo;Now he&rsquo;s gone to the other coast, but I think he&rsquo;ll be happy.&rdquo;McEwen was not always happy with the Islanders, even though he got a chance to play on three Stanley Cup championship teams.&ldquo;I wanted to play more,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I got caught in a numbers game with the Islanders. I don&rsquo;t feel I played myself out of a job, though&hellip;At least I&rsquo;m going to a place where I can play.&rdquo;McEwen admitted he had problems fitting into Arbour&rsquo;s system. &ldquo;Al wanted me to play a safer game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t like some of the plays I made. He thought I got into jams by holding the puck too long. But he&rsquo;s a good coach. I&rsquo;m not leaving with any bitterness.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-02

Isles Put On Happy Face After Glum Look

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011265/4822250-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="307" height="353"></div><h2>Terrible Tom Lysiak?</h2>THIS TOM LYSIAK, who is up to his skate boots in trouble with the National Hockey League, is he the same Tom Lysiak I have known since he was a rookie with the Atlanta Flames in 1973?That Tom Lysiak was fun to watch and fun to be around. The second player chosen in the 1973 draft (Denis Potvin was first), Lysiak was the toast, the omelette and the pecan jam of Atlanta.Fresh from the notorious Medicine Hat Machine Gunners&mdash;or was it Tigers?&mdash;Lysiak had the crowd appeal and talent that a new team and new sport in town needed. At the peak of Philadelphia&rsquo;s Broad Street Bullies Act, I still remember Lysiak challenging Don Saleski to a fight as a period ended&mdash;much to the delight of the Omni audience.Ten years later, Lysiak has established himself as a solid NHL player. Not a star, as many expected him to, but a player who has been an integral part of the Chicago Black Hawks resurgence. Put it this way&mdash;I&rsquo;d want Tom Lysiak on my team. Suddenly, however, I am reading about Lysiak being suspended for 20 games, Or, one-quarter of the NHL season, for purposely tripping linesman Ron Foyt.The Lysiak I knew has always had a respect for the game and its authority. Did he commit such a mean deed, one that could have caused Foyt serious injury? I don&rsquo;t know. I wasn&rsquo;t there and the videotapes aren&rsquo;t conclusive evidence against him.Dave Newell was there and he clearly thinks Lysiak intentionally tripped Foyt. Over the years I have developed an admiration for Newell&rsquo;s work as a referee. Back in the Broad Street Bullies days, Newell was far from the NHL&rsquo;s best referee. But he worked hard to gain the players&rsquo; and the public&rsquo;s respect and now he&rsquo;s one of hockey&rsquo;s best on-ice decision makers. I&rsquo;m sure he called this one as he saw it.<h2>Unfit For The Job</h2>THAT NEWELL IS also president of the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association was an important factor in his call. &ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t call that penalty,&rdquo; Newell told a Toronto newspaper, &ldquo;then I can&rsquo;t live with myself. If I don&rsquo;t call it, then I&rsquo;m not fit to do this job. It&rsquo;s just fortunate that Foyt didn&rsquo;t land on his head.&rdquo;For those of you who have been stuck in a snowbank in the Yukon, you may be wondering how Lysiak can be penalized 20 games for tripping a linesman when certified tough guys Paul Holmgren and Terry O&rsquo;Reilly only received five and 10-game suspensions, respectively, for punching referee Andy van Hellemond. Holmgren, O&rsquo;Reilly and van Hellemond are some of my favorite people in hockey. It hurt me almost as much as it hurt Holmgren and O&rsquo;Reilly when their suspensions were announced because I know how hard they play and how much they care for the game. I also know how much they should appreciate a good referee like van Hellemond. Their reactions toward van Hellemond were triggered by frustration, which even in the NHL&rsquo;s flimsy halls of justice, is no excuse for punching a referee.The difference in the NHL&rsquo;s punishment comes in Rule 67-A. Welcome to 1983. The rule reads, &ldquo;Any player who deliberately strikes an official or who deliberately applies physical force in any manner against an official shall be suspended for 20 games.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s it. No debate. No appeal. No jury need report for duty. Rule 67-A is the one Newell was invoking against Lysiak. Newell is correct when he says he was simply enforcing the rule as he saw it. Had Newell ignored the incident, or simply assessed Lysiak a game misconduct, Newell might have worked the rest of his games this season without linesmen.<h2>Rights Of Appeal</h2>OTHER THAN DISPENSING proper justice in this case, the big question is how the NHL Players&rsquo; Association allowed Rule 67-A to be etched in the league&rsquo;s rulebook without a legal brawl. Physically abusing a linesman is a serious accusation, but it&rsquo;s not as serious as murder and even murderers have rights of appeal in our society. How did the NHLPA let this new rule slip past it?&ldquo;The NHL committee made the proposal to its board of governors with respect to the rule in question,&rdquo; said Alan Eagleson, the NHLPA&rsquo;s executive director in charge of power and spotting loopholes. &ldquo;The governors arbitrarily and unilaterally amended the rule without any notice to the NHLPA.&rdquo;Sounds like another power play by the owners. Who do these guys think they are, trying to run the NHL without regard for the rights of their players? Still, Eagleson and the players must have been blinded by a Bermuda sunset during one of the NHLPA meetings to miss this tricky maneuver by those scheming owners.As expected, neither Lysiak nor the NHLPA are taking all this without&mdash;pardon the expression&mdash;a fight. Already we&rsquo;re seeing the league proposing an amendment to Rule 67-A that would permit an appeal. Why no one thought of such an amendment last summer is another example of what makes the NHL so special.The prediction here is that Lysiak will be suspended&mdash;for about 10 games&mdash;while he promises with his right hand on Orval Tessier&rsquo;s dome, that he will never do it again. This mess is entirely out of character for Lysiak. His clean record should be considered before Brian O&rsquo;Neill, the NHL&rsquo;s executive vice president and disciplinarian, swings his gavel and pronounces sentence.Dave Newell deserves a salute for enforcing the rule, as one-sided as it is. And all NHL players should be reminded&mdash;for the 1,000th time&mdash;that it&rsquo;s hands-off referees and linesmen. &#9632;

f0010-01

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The Canucks, who used clutch-and-grab tactics to take them to the Stanley Cup finals two years ago, are changing their image.They&rsquo;re going from a low-scoring, defensive-oriented team to a high-scoring one that severely lacks attention to defense.In terms of offense, the likes of Patrik Sundstrom, Tony Tanti, Thomas Gradin, Darcy Rota and Stan Smyl are producing enough to generate excitement. But the defense is in a shambles.Experienced defenders are being made to look foolish. The goaltending of Richard Brodeur and John Garrett is being riddled, even at home where it was traditionally difficult to score on Canuck goalies.Coach Roger Neilson, appalled at the turn of events, has been letting the image go for the most part. He hasn&rsquo;t been hitting the roof, until lately. In a recent road trip to Detroit, he finally got the club to emphasize defense and they won 3-2. The next night he didn&rsquo;t say a word and they were swamped 7-2 at home by the Winnipeg Jets, the first game the Jets were coached by John Ferguson. Neilson went back to stressing defense and the Canucks limited the visiting Jets to two goals in a 4-2 victory.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011238/4822281-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="587" height="760"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roger Neilson emphasized defensive play against Detroit and the Canucks won 3-2.</figcaption></div>The best of the shredded Vancouver defense has been Jiri Bubla, the 34-year-old Czech whose termination contract expires at the end of this season. The rest have labored long and hard, their efforts largely in vain. The prevailing feeling, of course, is these players will come around and will return to form, solving the team&rsquo;s problems. But impatience is beginning to rear its head, particularly with the talented Andy Schliebener and Neil Belland capable of playing in the league but now languishing in the minors in Fredericton.Perhaps the most pleasing sign in the last few weeks was the outstanding game turned in by veteran Harold Snepsts in the victory over Winnipeg. He was a physical presence for the first time this season when he stepped in for Gary Lupul and took bn Paul MacLean in a fight and played a physical game all night. It broke a string of 13 consecutive games in which the 215-pound veteran Canuck had not had a penalty.&ldquo;We had to show them that we meant business after they had owned us,&rdquo; said Snepsts. &ldquo;We were back to our old style in the third period when we played it close to the vest. If we had lost again, it would have been back to the drawing board. I had the feeling that if we didn&rsquo;t come up with a good game, there would be something (trades or moves) happening.&rdquo;Snepsts, like Kevin McCarthy (who had been benched for the game), had not been contributing what was expected of him, but when he did play physically, the crowd roared its approval. When Snepsts plays like his old self, he owns the Vancouver fans.McCarthy, meanwhile, has been the victim of numerous trade rumors for the past year and a half. One day he and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Morris Lukowich will have to sit down and compare notes. He started the season playing on right wing until the trade of Lars Lindgren, but like just about every other defenseman, his confidence has been badly eroded by the club&rsquo;s lowly standing in goals against.Meanwhile, it has become a little difficult to understand why the recently-recalled Tony Currie plays in the minors so much. True, he is small and slow, but he comes up with points all the time. Many of the other Canuck wingers are also slow or small or flawed in some way and they get no points. Neilson has been taking to icing a line of Mark Kirton between Marc Crawford and Ron Delorme, who&rsquo;ve only produced a point in 17 games. &#9632;

f0012-01

Neilson Puts Defense Clamp On Canucks

<div class="byline">BY DICK BEDDOES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021045/4822312-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="304" height="353"></div><h2>Coversations With Tiger</h2>THIS THOUGHT ISN&rsquo;T new, but neither is the guy expressing it.You have to do what is right for yourself in this fleeting existence, for the sake of your own self-respect and cussedness.If a person has the temperament for it, he can strike more sparks off himself if he remains a rebel out-and-out, even at the cost of popularity among his playmates.Thus David James Williams, who plays a Tigerish game of hockey for the Vancouver Canucks. He is the irrespressible id in the subconscious of the Canucks, sometimes pure jungle.Not long ago, on television, Mr. Williams was interviewed by Donald Cherry, a retired but not notably retiring NHL coach.This was on Mr. Cherry&rsquo;s syndicated program, the Grapevine, which frequently comes off as the Gripevine.Cherry often plays a word-association game with his guests. That is, he&rsquo;ll say a word or thought and the guest is supposed to respond quickly with a reaction to Cherry&rsquo;s word. If he says &ldquo;Hungry,&rdquo; for example, the guest might say &ldquo;Eat.&rdquo;Some of their conversation this night went somewhat like this:<h2>Swedes Need Babysitting</h2>CHERRY: &ldquo;SWEDISH PLAYERS &ldquo;Williams: &ldquo;Baby sit.&rdquo;Meaning, I think, that Williams devoutly believes Swedish imports are pacifists who need a robust babysitter to protect them with a Tigerish intensity.Williams added, &ldquo;European players can&rsquo;t check a suit-case.&rdquo;Cherry: &ldquo;Al Eagleson.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;Shark.&rdquo;Mr. Eagleson, as everyone knows, is the Godfather of hockey, a great friend of Bobby Orr and a chap who warms the heart like dry ice.Cherry: &ldquo;Darryl Sittler.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;God.&rdquo;Meaning that when Willams and Sittler played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tiger revered Darryl.Cherry: &ldquo;Referees.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;No fortitude.&rdquo;Which seemed like a cheapshot at the gentlemen who get less respect than comic Rodney Dangerfield.Cherry: &ldquo;Dave Semenko.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;Weirdo.&rdquo;Meaning, one guesses, that Williams isn&rsquo;t on the Christmas-card list of Mr. Semenko, the boyish ogre of the Edmonton Oilers.Cherry: &ldquo;Hall of Fame.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;The Golden Jet.&rdquo;<h2>Papa Harold Ballard</h2>BESIDES SUTLER, THE Tiger also believes that Bobby Hull was a hockey demigod.Cherry: &ldquo;John Ziegler.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;Bleep.&rdquo;Cherry: &ldquo;Harold Ballard.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;Daddy.&rdquo;Meaning that Williams is not exactly a fan of the NHL president but a large booster of the Toronto owner who used to employ him and, in a large rough way, love him as one would a boisterous dead-end kid possessed of a certain charm.Cherry: &ldquo;Lysiak.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;Beer.&rdquo;They were talking about Thomas Lysiak, the Chicago redneck who abused an NHL linesman, then whined in court about getting a mandatory 20-game suspension. As we wandered to press, NHL officials appeared to be knuckling under to the court action and offering Lysiak a shorter suspension in return for him dropping the lawsuit. And the league&rsquo;s referees and linesmen, as usual, were left twisting in the wind.Cherry: &ldquo;Brian O&rsquo;Neill.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s absurd the way he suspends me.&rdquo;Mr. O&rsquo;Neill is the NHL&rsquo;s executive vice-president in charge of discipline and boss of what Williams calls &ldquo;a kangaroo court.&rdquo;Cherry: &ldquo;The Vancouver uniforms.&rdquo;Williams: &ldquo;The V on the neck stands for victory.&rdquo; Cherry had the last word.&ldquo;The Vancouver uniform is slightly bush. Bobby Schmautz, when he wore it, said when you dress like clowns, you play like clowns.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-02

BEDCLOTHES

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;Talk about a sudden turnaround.The Nordiques, who had a 7-2-1 record in their first 10 starts and seemed to be On pace with general manager Maurice Filion&rsquo;s prediction of a seasonending 95 points, have taken a turn for the worst. In their last 10 games, the Nords are 2-7-1. The Nordiques also lost three in a row at home, adding to their woes and creating more pressure on the team.&ldquo;A few games on the road will surely be appreciated,&rdquo; said coach Michel Bergeron, preparing to play three of his next four games away from the Colisee in Quebec. &ldquo;The effort has been there but it is also clear that some injuries have hurt us.&rdquo;Defenseman Normand Rochefort had a sore shoulder and was in and out of the lineup for two weeks, Michel Goulet missed six games with a heel injury and John Van Boxmeer picked up a concussion in a practice.&ldquo;It is clear that we have more depth than last year,&rdquo; added Bergeron, &ldquo;especially with the players we have added. But it is also clear that we cannot play as well without a (Michel) Goulet or Roche-fort in the lineup. A 57-goal scorer can make a big difference, especially in a close game, and that is where we have been missing Goulet the most.&rdquo;The Nordiques got behind the Oilers in the third period and finished on the short end of the 7-4 score. The Bruins followed Wayne Gretzky and friends into Quebec and won 6-4. The final blow was a 3-1 loss to Detroit, as the Wings were led by Greg Stefan in goal.&ldquo;We were never really out of it until Edmonton scored twice in the final minutes,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;Against Boston, our power play failed completely, while the Bruins scored four times on the power play. It seems we are always finding ourselves behind in the third period and it is not easy to come back, especially against good-checking teams.&rdquo;It is difficult to pinpoint why Quebec has sagged after their sizzling start. It is certainly not due to lack of effort and the players know it.&ldquo;We are still working hard and all we can do is hope that when we come out of our problems, we will stay away from them for a long time,&rdquo; said Andre Savard, the team&rsquo;s most consistent forward this season.Alain Cote knows the team&rsquo;s downward skein won&rsquo;t last forever.&ldquo;We are nervous; we are making even more mistakes than we should be making,&rdquo; said Cote. &ldquo;All we need is a win and then we can turn it around.&rdquo;The spirit is not nearly as good in the dressing room as a few weeks ago, but that is to be expected, said Bergeron.&ldquo;When you are struggling you get even more nervous with each loss and team spirit is bound to suffer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We need all our players to be 100 per cent ready, both physically and mentally, if we expect to beat teams like Boston and Edmonton. &ldquo;No one is pushing the panic button, not yet at least. Dave Pichette, Gord Donnelly and netminder Brian Ford were called up from Fredericton, but that was mainly due to injuries. Marian Stastny is still having troubles getting untracked, but is finding the touch playing with his two brothers. Dan Bouchard was out for a week with the flu, but will see plenty of action now.Bergeron hopes the third series of 10 games will see Quebec play once again like the opening 10 of the season. One slump a year is acceptable and Bergeron hopes the one the Nords are experiencing will fill their seasonal quota. &#9632;

Slumping Nords Aren’t Panicking

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;Mike Moffat can hardly wait for hockey to be fun again.Oh, the 21-year-old goaltender enjoyed himself when he beat Washington Capitals 4-2 in his first NHL game since Jan. 2, 1983.And he enjoyed himself the night before when the Boston Bruins proved that the long Montreal Forum jinx was indeed dead by drubbing Les Canadiens 10-4.But he hasn&rsquo;t really had fun since he was called up from the minors in Hershey on Nov. 4 after the Bruins&rsquo; No. 1 goalie, Pete Peeters, suffered a concussion that benched him for a couple of weeks.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little tough when you haven&rsquo;t really established yourself yet,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But the game gets to be a lot of fun when you realize you do belong and you can do the job if you want to.&ldquo;A lot of guys on this team know that feeling. I can sense it just playing with them and travelling with them a bit.&ldquo;When you get on the bus after the game and fly home after a big win like last night, I thought, &lsquo;Gee, I wish I was part of that win.&rsquo; And that&rsquo;s fun. That&rsquo;s a lot of fun.&rdquo;Moffat knew his days in a Boston uniform were numbered for the time being before taking the ice against Washington. Peeters was recovering nicely and Doug Keans was playing too well as the backup goalie.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m going down soon, but I&rsquo;m glad I had a chance to play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to return to Hershey and get in as many games as I can and try to establish some sort of system.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played some games in the American League this year (nine games with a 3.88 goals-against average) and I&rsquo;ve done well so I know I&rsquo;ve covered that stepping stone.&ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s a case of getting it up to the next level.&rdquo;Moffat, who was drafted by the Bruins in the eighth round in 1980, has been the hottest young prospect in the Boston organization since the 1982 playoffs when he stepped in from junior hockey and played sensationally against Buffalo and Quebec.It was a heady experience and it almost made Moffat feel like he belonged.Last season, however, the bubble burst. His average in 13 NHL games behind Peeters ballooned to 4.37. He was sent down to the AHL after a 6-4 debacle in Winnipeg. He spent most of the time in Baltimore on the bench, compiling a 4.99 GAA in 17 games.Now he&rsquo;s back with a slightly different outlook on the game.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t play well last year,&rdquo; he conceded. &ldquo;I was just young and inexperienced. I needed a chance to feel out the situation. I&rsquo;ve got a better idea of what it&rsquo;s like now and I feel a little more comfortable.&rdquo;One of his problems in the past has been a bad case of nerves. His father, Dr. John Moffat of Cambridge, Ont., once described his son as a young man who &ldquo;lives on the head of a pin.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with being a little excited or a little bit of butterflies because they get you going,&rdquo; said Moffat, &ldquo;but you&rsquo;ve got to take out the stuff that&rsquo;s unnecessary and get down to the nuts and bolts of the game.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what the other NHL goalies are doing. I&rsquo;m sure they have a bit of butterflies but basically they just grind out their game and let it happen.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong either with going easy and relaxing when you can. I&rsquo;ve calmed down a little bit and I think a little better. It&rsquo;s a game of concentration. That&rsquo;s an important part of it so I try to bear down mentally.&rdquo;Moffat said he felt the pressure playing against Washington, particularly since the Bruins had not lost a home game all season. They had a six-game streak to protect.&ldquo;Without a doubt it was a very big game for me as an individual,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The fact that the hockey club hadn&rsquo;t lost a game at home was on my mind. I didn&rsquo;t want to be the one to lose that first one.&ldquo;But the more I thought about it I realized that it was beyond my control so I was just going to go out and play and grind it out and don&rsquo;t worry about the past, present and whatever. Go play goal and concentrate on the game at hand.&rdquo;Bruin coach Gerry Cheevers sees a difference in Moffat, too.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s more sure of himself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s confident and he&rsquo;s got a different approach. We&rsquo;ve always thought he had the credentials to be a good one. We&rsquo;ve got three pretty good goalies going for us right now.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;The Bruins have a few other injuries beside goalie Pete Peeters Guy Lapointe has a groin pull and Jim Schoenfeld has a damaged shoulder. &#9632;

Moffat Enjoys Fun Feeling For A Game

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;What can you say about the inept, inferior New Jersey Devils?Sometimes, it&rsquo;s better to say nothing at all. And then again, there are times when something has to be said.After a 6-0 pounding at Minnesota on Nov. 15, New Jersey general managercoach Billy MacMillan was so disgusted and so disappointed that he decided to censor his own feelings by quickly leaving the Met Center without talking to the media.&ldquo;Billy wasn&rsquo;t sure what he was going to say,&rdquo; explained assistant coach Marshall Johnston, &ldquo;and, sometimes, you&rsquo;re better off not saying anything.&ldquo;He went back to the hotel to think. Heck, there&rsquo;s no point in saying it&rsquo;s not frustrating because it&rsquo;s bloody frustrating to stand behind the bench and see this, night after night.&rdquo;The Devil players took a different approach. They held a 50-minute, closed-door team meeting to discuss their troubles. With a 2-16 record, it was amazing that they could cover the subject so quickly.Just before the team left on its five-game road trip, MacMillan huddled with majority owner John McMullen and the GM-coach assured reporters that his job was not in jeopardy.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t even talk about my job,&rdquo; MacMillan revealed. &ldquo;I phoned him (McMullen) on Sunday. I wanted to go over a few things. He said he would be at practice and he was.&ldquo;It was just an update. When things are going like this, it&rsquo;s important to keep the owner informed. I just reinforced the philosophy of the direction we&rsquo;re taking.&rdquo;After their poor performance in Minnesota, however, some of the Devils did not feel very secure about MacMillan, who is well-liked and has been a gentleman throughout three very difficult years.&ldquo;I think the players feel concern for Billy (MacMillan),&rdquo; Glenn Resch admitted after failing to come up with a Superman effort in goal at Minnesota. &ldquo;It really comes down to the fact that you can only blame somebody else&mdash;a coach or a teammate&mdash;for so long. Then it comes back to yourself.&rdquo;Good dialogue and good intentions are not likely to be enough to change the Devils&rsquo; fortunes. MacMillan warned everyone in training camp that it was going to be a long season and that the Devils were going to have to &ldquo;take their lumps&rdquo; but very few people realized that it would be quite as bad as it has been.Even when the Devils come up with an outstanding effort, it&rsquo;s usually not enough to produce points. New Jersey played spirited, energetic hockey at the Meadowlands on Nov. 12, taking 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads before losing the first regular-season overtime game in franchise history, 4-3, to Calgary.The Devils, playing at home, don&rsquo;t need any &ldquo;help&rdquo; to lose close games and they were bitter about a high-sticking call on Jan Ludvig by referee Ron Wicks just 1:05 into the sudden-death session.Kent Nilsson scored the winner on the power play and a crowd of 8,087 left the Meadowlands Arena grumbling instead of cheering the home team&rsquo;s strong, though futile, effort.&ldquo;It seems like Wicks made some questionable calls throughout the third period,&rdquo; noted veteran Ron Low, who was outstanding in defeat. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something he usually doesn&rsquo;t do and I&rsquo;m not going to second guess him.&rdquo;Low was referring to the last two penalties in regulation play (to Mel Bridgman and to Ludvig) and the only penalty in overtime (to Ludvig) all went against a team playing at home which had lost 13 of its 14 previous games.HOT STUFF&mdash;The Devils demoted defenseman Murray Brumwell, again and called up veteran Bob Hoffmeyer, who played a strong game against Calgary&hellip;First-round draft choice John MacLean had only one point (a goal) after his first 15 NHL games and was not in the lineup for the next two&hellip;Gary McAdam was demoted to the minors, but because the Devils acquired him via the free agent route, he had to clear waivers. Washington Capitals, searching for some speed and goal scoring, snapped him up. &#9632;

What More Can You Say About The Devils?

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The Devil distaster has become so acute that owner John McMullen may be forced to reverse his position and order changes on either the coaching or general manager level or both. Unless there&rsquo;s a dramatic change in the club&rsquo;s fortunes, this could happen soon&hellip;In an unprecedented move, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association is going to bat for Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Bill Houston, supporting the newsman in his fight to gain entry to the Maple Leafs&rsquo; dressing room. Players&rsquo; union boss Al Eagleson tells BLUELINES he will marshall the association&rsquo;s backing for Houston, who has been locked out of the locker room since last spring. Leaf GM Gerry McNamara, who imposed the ban because he was vexed over Houston&rsquo;s writing, is being pressured by the NHL p.r. office as well. &ldquo;The Leafs,&rdquo; Eagleson told BLUELINES, &ldquo;are making it tough for the guy to do his job.&rdquo; Eagleson adds that he&rsquo;s awaiting a formal letter from Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association prez Fran Rosa about the Houston issue before taking action&hellip;Some players believe refs and linesmen have become jumpier since the Tom Lysiak incident. In a recent game, Penguin goalie Denis Herron was slapped with a 10-minute misconduct after tossing a puck, not at an official, but in the direction of one of his players after a goal. &ldquo;Since the Lysiak thing,&rdquo; Herron tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;the refs don&rsquo;t take nothing!&rdquo;&hellip;Flyer captain Bobby Clarke says the officials have &ldquo;too much control.&rdquo; Clarke argues, as do other players, that in the Lysiak case the referee (Dave Newell) &ldquo;is acting as judge, jury and executioner-. &rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;When the NHL ruled that Denis Potvin&rsquo;s assist streak had to be nullified because he missed a game due to an allergic reaction, it inspired a sizzling behind-the-scenes phone conversation between folks in the league&rsquo;s stat bureau and Jerry Walsh of the Isles&rsquo; p.r. office. Two NHL types compared the situation to baseball. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a batter shying from a game because he can&rsquo;t face a certain pitcher.&rdquo; Walsh shot back: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not at all the same in hockey. Potvin was not eluding anyone to maintain the record. You can&rsquo;t use a hypothetical situation to defend a stupid ruling!&rdquo;Americans drawing from the NHL Pension Plan beef that they&rsquo;re paid in Canadian funds and take a fiscal beating. &ldquo;I got a $400 pension check,&rdquo; a former NHL type tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;and $88 was taken out in the exchange. Yet my team&mdash;an American club&mdash;paid all the money into the pension plan for me in American funds.&rdquo; The pension check comes from the Toronto branch of the Bank of Montreal. The NHLer says it should be paid in U.S. funds&hellip;The perplexing Flame puzzle is how to get Kent Nilsson to play to his potential. One NHL exec replies: &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t handle him tough and you can&rsquo;t handle him soft. The only thing to do is tell him, &lsquo;Kent, you&rsquo;ve got all the material. Do it!&rdquo;&lsquo;&hellip;Flyer GM-coach Bob McCammon on referees: &ldquo;Even if we don&rsquo;t like officials, we have to protect them.&rdquo;&hellip;Now that Whaler boss Emile Francis has imposed martial law on the the Hartford hockey scene, there has been unanimous praise for the new discipline. &ldquo;When a player would walk into the office last year and Larry Pleau was GM,&rdquo; says a Whaler insider, &ldquo;it was &lsquo;Hi, Pleauzi, how are ya.&rsquo; Now when they go in it&rsquo;s &lsquo;Good morning, Mister Francis.&rsquo;&rdquo; Francis&rsquo; influence has helped Chris Kotsopoulos and Greg Millen among other Whalers. Hartford sophomore Ron Francis was interviewed on CFCF-TV in Montreal. The CFCF reporter&rsquo;s name was Ron Francis&hellip;Penguin mentor Lou Angotti on the non-joys of coaching: &ldquo;You never enjoy coaching. Win or lose, you start worrying about the next game five minutes after you&rsquo;ve finished one&mdash;even if you&rsquo;ve won.&rdquo; The Pens are especially enthused about Mark Taylor. &ldquo;He does everything well,&rdquo; says Angotti.Jet GM John Ferguson tells BLUELINES that the Penguins won the deal with Philly despite the fact that the Flyers wound up with Rich Sutter to complement his brother, Ron. The feeling in some quarters is that Ron Flockhart and Mark Taylor both have ace qualities in news., Jet goalie Brian Hayward wants a larger goalie crease. He says refs don&rsquo;t enforce rules on goalie interference. &ldquo;The refs are always saying that our defensemen push the forwards into me&mdash;and they say it even when it&rsquo;s not happening.&rdquo; Other goalies back Hayward on the point&hellip;St. Louis Blues have given indications that Joe Mullen, Jorgen Petterson and Andre Dore can be had&hellip;Asked whether he could score 50 goals in today&rsquo;s hockey, Gordie Howe tells BLUELINES: &ldquo;No way&mdash;I&rsquo;m 56 years old!&rdquo; Howe is touring the NHL on behalf of the Emery (plus-minus) Edge Award. Although plus-minus stats were kept secret in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when Gordie was in his prime, he says the players were well aware of them. &ldquo;Management told us about them,&rdquo; Howe explains. &lsquo;They had the plus-minus stats and they used them when they wanted to snake a point to us.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Flame coach Bob Johnson counterattacks that he mas no business being placed on any worst-dressed coaches&rsquo; list. &ldquo;The algary management gave me a blazer last year,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;1 wore it and we did pretty well. But. this year, as you can see. I&rsquo;m changing my acket.&rdquo; Johnson says America&rsquo;s 1984 Olympians are better than the 1980 dition. Badger Bob adds that Pat LaFontaine is talented enough to jump Hrom the Olympians to the Islanders next March. A secret of Buffalo Bookie Tom Barrasso&rsquo;s success has been advice Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s received from Andy Rila. former goalie coach at Boston University. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s helped Tom a lot,&rdquo; Bowman tells BLUELINES. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011219/4822439-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gil Perreault is flying again for the Sabres and he recently notched his 1,105th point to move up to 13th on the all-time scoring list.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Gil Perreault, who is off to as good a start as he has had in some years, passed a couple of milestones as the Sabres built a three-game winning streak before heading west, where they made it four wins in a row with an overtime win against Winnipeg.Perreault, the only remaining original Sabre, is in his 14th National Hockey League season and he&rsquo;s among the league&rsquo;s leading scorers.The Sabres&rsquo; captain picked up five goals and two assists in Buffalo&rsquo;s successive wins over Boston (3-1), Toronto (31) and Calgary (11-2).Those points put him 13th on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time scoring list with 434 goals and 671 assists for 1,105 points in 966 games. In the Boston game, Perreault became the 14th player in league history to accumulate 1,100 points. when he set up Phil Housley&rsquo;s game-winning goal.Perreault also assisted on a Housley goal in the Sabres&rsquo; 6-5 overtime win in Winnipeg. It was the Sabres&rsquo; firstovertime win of the season.A player of the same ilk of Perreault&mdash;Frank Mahovlich&mdash;was the one he passed to take over the 13th spot in the alltime scoring. Mahovlich, the Big M, had 1.103 points on 533 goals and 570 assists in 1,181 games during 18 seasons with Toronto. Detroit and Montreal.Billy Reay, who coached Mahovlich in Toronto, used to say, &ldquo;People say Mahovlich takes it easy, never goes all-out. But maybe he is going all-out. He makes playing hockey look so easy, it seems like he isn&rsquo;t trying.&rdquo;Same with Perreault. Other players have said they would pay to see Gilbert play, he does it with so much grace and skill.Fans complain that he should be doing better, but Perreault&rsquo;s teammates and Buffalo opponents always speak of him with respect.Nine times in his previous 13 seasons with Buffalo, Perreault led the team in scoring. Three of the other four years he was plagued by serious injuries. The other time, Rene Robert, his right winger, became the first Buffalo player to top the 100-point mark.Since the French Connection line, which had Perreault centering Robert and left winger Rick Martin, Perreault has played on many different line combinations without complaining. Often he has had two rookies for his wingers.When he first came to the Sabres. Perreault was told to play his game, score and set up goals and forget about defense. When defensive-minded coaches replaced the offensive types, Perreault became a good checker. Now he often kills penalties and sometimes is sent on the ice in defensive situations.This year he finally got a gunner as a linemate. Real Cloutier, acquired from Quebec, did a lot of scoring for the Nordiques, both in the World Hockey Association and the NHL.With Cloutier, as accomplished with the puck as Perreault, on right wing and rugged young Gilles Hamel on the left side, Perreault is flying again.He had one of his finest nights in some time in win over Toronto. Perreault scored one goal and set up another and only a superlative effort by Toronto goalie Rick St. Croix, who made 32 saves, kept him from scoring more. Three times St. Croix stopped Perreault at the goalmouth.In the four-game win streak, Perreault&rsquo;s line picked up 19 points, including eight goals.The Winnipeg game marked the emergence from a long scoring drought for two members of the Sabres&rsquo; checking line of Craig Ramsay, Sean McKenna and Brent Peterson. Ramsay and McKenna each scored their first goal of the season and Peterson got his second. Mike Ramsey&rsquo;s second goal of the season won the game after 17 seconds of overtime. &#9632;

f0014-01

Perreault Glides By Big On All-Time Scoring List

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Two days after bidding Mario Lessard adieu&mdash;possibly for the final time&mdash;the Kings welcomed back Dave Taylor with open arms.Lessard, who failed miserably in his quest to regain his No. 1 goaltending status on the club, was sent to New Haven of the American Hockey League on Nov. 8, the second time in nine months the six-year veteran had been banished to the minors.Two days later, Lessard&rsquo;s replacement, Gary Laskoski, looked sharp in a 6-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues, highlighted by Taylor&rsquo;s return to the lineup for the first time this season.All the three-time all-star did was score two goals after being reunited with Triple Crown linemates Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer, while lifting the spirits of virtually everyone in the organization.&ldquo;It feels real good to be back, it always does,&rdquo; said Taylor, who hadn&rsquo;t played since refracturing his right wrist during the world hockey championships in the spring.&ldquo;And when you score a goal and win the game,&rdquo; Taylor added, &ldquo;that gives you even more of a lift. I was huffing and puffing a little out there, but getting that goal made my legs seem a little lighter.&rdquo;It figured that Taylor would score his first goal on a power play, something the Kings managed to do but once in their previous 21 chances.It was a typical Simmer-to-Dionne-to-Taylorgoal, too. Simmer, standing in the faceoff circle to the right of St. Louis goaltender Mike Liut, passed the puck to Dionne near the left post and he slid it through the crease to Taylor, who shot from five feet into the open net.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a little out of shape right now, especially with his wind,&rdquo; said Dionne, &ldquo;but it was very important that he come back and play hard. The first couple of shifts told me a lot. And it&rsquo;s pretty obvious our power play is much better with him in there. We were having trouble there and we got a couple tonight.&rdquo;Taylor said playing with his old sidekicks again was a big help because each knows what the other is going to do instinctively.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been playing for five years now and we don&rsquo;t give up the puck needlessly,&rdquo; said Taylor, who was playing in his 400th NHL game. &ldquo;That saves a lot of extra skating and, believe me, that made a big difference for me at this stage.&rdquo;Lessard has worked in 239 NHL games, but chances are good he won&rsquo;t play another as a member of the Kings. He left Los Angeles with an 0-4-1 record and 5.86 goals-against average and sealed his fate the previous week in Quebec, when he was shelled for six goals in only one period before being yanked in favor of rookie Mike Blake.&ldquo;At this stage, when we&rsquo;re not winning, we just couldn&rsquo;t afford to be patient with him,&rdquo; goaltending coach Rogie Vachon said. &ldquo;He tried very hard and he made me very proud. Unfortunately, I don&rsquo;t know if the guys in front of him played as well as they can and he just isn&rsquo;t 100 per cent right now.&rdquo;The Kings&mdash;general manager George Maguire, coach Don Perry and Vachon&mdash;made the decision to send Lessard down during their recent six-game trip to the east coast (they lost the last two to finish 1-3-2) and Maguire delivered the bad news after arriving back in town.Vachon also spoke with the troubled gaoltender before he departed and Rogie admitted it was one of the most difficult conversations he has ever experienced.&ldquo;It was by far the toughest thing I&rsquo;ve had to do as a coach,&rdquo; said Vachon, who is idolized by Lessard. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a dirty job, not one I like, but I had to do it. He was very good about it, although he was obviously very disappointed.&ldquo;If Mario had been able to win a game early, maybe that would have been what he needed to get untracked. He needed to win a game for his confidence. I think his mechanics were fine, it&rsquo;s the mental part that caused problems.&rdquo;Lessard hasn&rsquo;t won a game in the NHL since relieving Doug Keans last Jan. 20, a 4-3 decision over Hartford at the Forum. That&rsquo;s a long time. Who knows if he&rsquo;ll ever win another?KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;Captain Terry Ruskowski expressed frustration playing right wing on the club&rsquo;s fourth line for one game, then being benched for the next, but said a meeting with coach Don Perry left him &ldquo;feeling a whole lot better. He said I fit into the Kings&rsquo; plans and that&rsquo;s what I had hoped to hear. I want to stay here.&rdquo; &#9632;

Taylor Back In Scoring Form

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011157/4822470-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="598" height="639"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hab coach Bob Berry admits he doesn&rsquo;t like his team&rsquo;s inconsis-tent label.</figcaption></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Inconsistent, it&rsquo;s the only way to summarize the performance of the Montreal Canadiens in the first quarter of the 1983-84 National Hockey League schedule.&ldquo;I know we got off to a very bad start in the first segment with a 4-6 record,&rdquo; said the Canadiens&rsquo; coach Bob Berry. &lsquo;&lsquo;We had a meeting before the next segment when we decided amongst ourselves that we&rsquo;d set a goal for the next 10 games so that we&rsquo;d finish the next 10 games with a 6-4 record and be. 500 after 20.&rdquo;It didn&rsquo;t quite happen that way, although as the Canadiens headed into the second quarter of the year they were one point below their goal and, to some, very lucky to be that close.The Canadiens have played some of their better hockey away from what used to be the friendly confines of the Forum. The Canadiens are 5-5 on the road and 4-5-1 at the Forum, which is a puzzle to Berry, his players and a frustration to the Montreal fans.No one predicted great things for this year&rsquo;s edition of the one-time dynasty. In fact, there are not too many people shocked by the way the season has gone to this point, but Berry insists the Canadiens should be able to do better.&ldquo;In our games 21 through 30, we have seven games in our division,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;I think if we are ready to play and we can get some consistency out of our club in those 10 games, each of which is a four-pointer in effect, we could set the tone for the rest of the year.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think any coach likes to have an inconsistency tag labelled on his team. It&rsquo;s something we are trying very hard to improve.&rdquo;The Canadiens finished their longest road trip of the season (four games in eight days) with a 5-2 victory over St. Louis after losing in Los Angeles and Vancouver. The trip started with a brilliant 3-0 triumph in Chicago followed by a 6-4 loss in Los Angeles in a game in which the Canadiens were outclassed.Montreal struggled to a 4-2 victory over Detroit on their return to the Forum and two nights later, the Canadiens rallied from a 5-1 deficit to tie the Chicago Black Hawks 5-5.&ldquo;The first two years I was in Montreal&mdash;and certainly all the Montreal teams have had tremendous records at home&mdash;we ran into some injuries going into the season and we had a very tough schedule against teams coming in who were very solid,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t make an excuse for not having a good home record. It&rsquo;s something we are going to have get better on and I think you like to go into a game at home being 75 to 80 per cent sure of a win and we have not done that.&ldquo;You like to have a. 500 record on the road. That&rsquo;s respectable. If we want to move up in the standings, we have to start winning at home and continue to play well on the road.&rdquo;The Canadiens&rsquo; schedule through the latter part of November and early December features a home-and-home set against the Boston Bruins, Hartford Whalers and Buffalo Sabres, home games against Quebec, Washington and Calgary, plus a return visit to Washington to close out the third segment of the schedule.In former years, the games against the Whalers and Capitals would be considered a piece of cake for the Canadiens, but not any more.&ldquo;Hartford has made a lot of changes,&rdquo; Berry noted. &ldquo;They have an excellent coach in Tex Evans. They are going to be a club which plays solidly throughout the season and it&rsquo;s going to make it difficult in our division.&rdquo;The Canadiens also have to avoid some of the injuries they have been running into recently to key personnel. Pierre Mondou suffered cartilage damage in his rib cage in the victory at St. Louis and that was expected to keep him out of action for 10 days to two weeks. Mon-dou&rsquo;s replacement on the line with Mario Tremblay and Mats Naslund was John Chabot, who had not played since the 7-4 loss to Philadelphia on Oct. 8. Chabot responded with an assist against Detroit and three against Chicago.Chris Nilan, with four goals in his last six games, received a close call in a practice before the game against Chicago. Nilan, who has been playing on the power play of late, was struck above the left eye with a shot by Guy Lafleur. It took 14 stitches to close the wound and a few inches lower and Nilan&rsquo;s career could have been over. Nilan was not wearing a helmet during the workout, but it is unlikely the helmet would have prevented the injury anyway.IN PASSING&mdash;Bobby Smith has scored 10 goals in his first 11 games with the Canadiens&hellip;Guy Lafleur snapped a six-game goalless streak with the gametying marker against Chicago&hellip;Craig Ludwig played his 100th NHL game against Chicago&hellip;Doug Wickenheiser rode the bench for good chunks of the games against Detroit and Chicago, lending speculation to more trade rumors., Mark Hunter is skating again but his left knee, injured in a collision in Toronto on Oct. 22, isn&rsquo;t getting any better. &#9632;

f0015-01

Canadiens Trv To Shed Inconsistency Tag

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>The goals gave Acton three to go with four assists for seven points in the six games since the trade. He missed four others after banging his head on the ice and getting a mild concussion as well as a shoulder injury.His alert, quick, dashing style has fit in well with what the Stars are trying to do and he and Neal Broten give the Stars two of the best quick, two-way centers in the league. Add Dennis Maruk, who has great offensive quickness, and rookie Brian Lawton and the Stars are very quick up the middle.They needed that quickness after Chicago stormed back and got a 3-3 tie. With the final minutes ticking toward overtime and the big Chicago Stadium crowd screaming, Neil Broten silenced them with one of those sleight-of-body goals for the highlight films.Only 2:23 remained when Broten took Willi Plett&rsquo;s pass at center ice and broke up the right side. Doug Wilson was between Broten and Chicago goalie Murray Bannerman and Wilson had him covered.Broten tried to cut in, then went back to the outside to probe for a chance. Broten then made a remarkable deke by cutting in with both skates and then quickly darting outside. As he curled around Wilson, Broten stepped high with his left leg to avoid Wilson&rsquo;s stick, then, never losing his balance or possession of the puck, he reached back just in time to hit an imperceptible hole in Bannerman&rsquo;s armor.Acton and Broten centered another strong-checking shift apiece and it ended 4-3 in Minnesota&rsquo;s favor and the Stars atop the Norris Division.The line of Broten, Ciccarelli and McCarthy accounted for 52 points in nine games, with Ciccarelli leading the club with 28 points in 20 games after not seeing much ice-time in the first nine games.It is clear that the character of this team is changing. As reported earlier, it would take patience from the players, fans and management to let the Stars adjust to Mahoney. It took him a period of adjustment, too, and it was suggested it might take until Thanksgiving for the Stars to get rolling.They reached first place four days before Thanksgiving. &#9632;

North Stars Are Streaking Atop The Norris Division

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01905/4822622-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="343" height="318"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02741/4822615-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="505" height="438"></div><h2>MONTREAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03577/4822608-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="485" height="185"></div><h2>TORONTO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04441/4822601-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="485" height="188"></div><h2>WINNIPEG</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-05341/4822594-1-eng-US/f0017-052.jpg" title="f0017-05" width="483" height="186"></div><h2>CALGARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-06268/4822587-1-eng-US/f0017-062.jpg" title="f0017-06" width="485" height="181"></div><h2>EDMONTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-07227/4822580-1-eng-US/f0017-072.jpg" title="f0017-07" width="488" height="186"></div><h2>VANCOUVER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-08193/4822573-1-eng-US/f0017-082.jpg" title="f0017-08" width="486" height="189"></div> &#9632;

f0017-01

THREE-STAR STANDINGS

VANCOUVER&mdash;Tony Tanti&rsquo;s emergence as one of the top scoring performers in the National Hockey League this season is reflected in the Molson Cup three-star selections.The prolific Canuck right winger, who astounded NHL fans by scoring 19 goals in his first 18 games, has jumped into the overall point lead in the Molson Cup voting.Tanti took over the lead in the Vancouver segment of the three-star balloting when the 1983-84 season began and is now the overall leader in the league in total points. Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton and Winnipeg&rsquo;s new fan favorite, Laurie Boschman, trailed Tanti with 40 each.Actually there were no changes at the top in the Cup voting among the six Canadian-based teams as the first segment rolled towards its conclusion. All six players who led their teams at the outset were still No. 1, with the possible exception of Guy Carbonneau, who moved up into a tie for first place with Guy Lafleur in Montreal.Here&rsquo;s a city-by-city breakdown on the first segment voting:MONTREAL&mdash;Carbonneau, who has been scoring some key goals for the Habs, stepped up to challenge Lafleur for the Molson Cup lead in the team by tying the veteran in points (25). Goalies Rick Wamsley and Richard Sevigny gained 15 each to trail the two leaders.TORONTO&mdash;Despite a horrendous five-game scoring slump after a brilliant start, Leaf super shooter Rick Vaive still maintained his hold on the Toronto segment voting with 25 points. Rick St. Croix, Dan Daoust and Jim Benning followed Vaive with 15.WINNIPEG&mdash;Boschman&rsquo;s scoring heroics have endeared him to Jet fans and he has been the most popular player in the three-star voting. Boschman leads with 40 points, a sizeable edge over David Babych, who has 25 and Lucien DeBlois and goalie Brian Hayward, who each have 20.CALGARY&mdash;Goaltender Rejean Lemelin, who has accounted for most of Calgary&rsquo;s ice success this season, clung to the lead among the Flames with 35 points. Ed Beers and Don Edwards followed with 20 each. Mike Eaves and Hakan Loob had 15 apiece.EDMONTON&mdash;Gretzky is receiving some unexpected opposition from linemate Jari Kurri in the Molson Cup voting. Kurri, Gretzky&rsquo;s talented right winger, has been popping goals with great regularity and winning three-star votes at the same time. Gretzky still leads with 40, but Kurri is a close second with 35. Goalie Grant Fuhr has 25.VANCOUVER&mdash;Tanti, who led the voting among the Canucks from the first day, increased his first-place margin with 45 points. Patrik Sundstrom was a few steps behind Tanti with 30, followed by Richard Brodeur and Thomas Gradin. &#9632;

Tanti Gets Top Billing In Voting

<div class="byline">BY LOU VAIRO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04349/4822736-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="295" height="355"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lou Vairo&rsquo;s Coach&rsquo;s Corner</figcaption></div>worse than anything we faced against the professionals.We did get a chance to work our power play against Cornell, especially four men against three, and, despite the score, goalie Marc Behrend got some good work.The next day we were in suburban Amherst, NY, for a game against Clarkson College. The morning of the game we held a coaching clinic with the top midget-age players in the Buffalo area. We were impressed with the quality of the players we worked with.Our game with Clarkson was an excellent one (we won 6-2). It was a difficult game for us, one of the toughest of the year. Clarkson played tough, hard, clean hockey. They used the right strategy against us, followed instruction and executed it very well.They never took chances against us and always had three men back. This, of course, helps them defensively but hurts them offensively. They don&rsquo;t give up three-on-ones and three-on-twos, but they don&rsquo;t get many, either.From Buffalo we went to Boston. On the bus ride to the airport, 1 told the team that Boston is one of the great cities in the world. It has everything. My statements got mixed reviews&mdash;the Boston kids cheered and everybody else booed loudly.We faced Harvard University in the Boston Garden. It was a thrill to play in the same building as such all-time greats as Bobby Orr and Eddie Shore. Behind Harvard&rsquo;s bench was Bill Cleary, a 1956 U.S. Olympic silver medalist and 1960 gold medalist. Cleary has been very supportive of the Olympic program, helping us select and evaluate our current team.It was Harvard&rsquo;s first game of the year, but they were one of the quickest teams we&rsquo;ve faced. As the game went on, we asserted ourselves and wore them down in the third period (an 11-2 USA victory on 64 shots on goal). Scott Fusco, Harvard&rsquo;s leading scorer last season, scored a goal against his old school. Paul Guay had a hat trick in the game.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-05246/4822729-1-eng-US/f0018-052.jpg" title="f0018-05" width="1187" height="1047"><figcaption class="caption-body">Team USA players do not wear facemasks, but their college opposition does and it causes highsticking problems.</figcaption></div>Harvard impressed us as they threw everything they had at us in the first two periods. They went all out to win before tiring out. I respect that attitude and courage.Guay and Kurt Kleinendorst have been playing their best hockey of the season for us recently. &#9632;

f0018-04

Facemasked Collegians ‘Stick’ It To Olympians

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;In the future, they may make a series of television commercials&mdash;the kind they run at the two-minute warning, the kind that deal with &ldquo;great finishes&rdquo;&mdash;that deal exclusively with the 1983-84 Flame team.Right now, all the raw material you would need is already there.The Flames looked for a miracle finish eight times in their first 18 games and seven different times their prayers were answered.Somebody up there must really like this hockey club.When the Flames rallied to tie the New Jersey Devils with under four minutes remaining and then went on to win the game in overtime, they took a comparative eternity to steal the two points.Earlier, they had:&bull; Defeated Vancouver Cancuks by getting the winning goal from Kent Nilsson with 45 seconds remaining.&bull; Tied Winnipeg Jets on a goal by Mike Eaves with 12 seconds remaining and goaltender Reggie Lemelin on the bench.&bull; Tied Vancouver on a power-play goal by Eddy Beers with 45 seconds remaining and Lemelin on the bench.&bull; Won the game against Vancouver by getting an overtime goal from Beers with 52 seconds remaining.&bull; Tied Pittsburgh Penguins on a goal by Lanny McDonald with 26 seconds remaining and goaltender Don Edwards on the bench.&bull; Rallied from a three-goal deficit against New York Rangers on goals by McDonald and Doug Risebrough in the final two minutes, only to come up one short in the end.The Cardiac Kids are alive and well and living on the edge in the Stampede City!&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never played on a team that practises pulling its goalie as much as this one,&rdquo; said center Jim Peplinski, one of the key men that sets &ldquo;picks&rdquo; on Calgary&rsquo;s answer to the two-minute drill. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got plays for every different situation&mdash;almost like you see in basketball when the coach pulls the players over and lets them know where they&rsquo;re going and what they&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I used to think if you scored once in a year with the goaltender on the bench, you&rsquo;re lucky. That&rsquo;s the third time it&rsquo;s worked for us already.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;I used to think if you scored once in a year with the goaltender on the bench, you&rsquo;re lucky,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;In the game against Pittsburgh, that&rsquo;s the third time it&rsquo;s worked for us already.&rdquo;Of course, a pessimist would say that the uncanny ability to score last-minute goals could be interpreted as plain, old-fashioned luck. The Flames stayed above water through the first-quarter of the season, not because of their changes or their additions, but because someone was looking after them from on high.&ldquo;I prefer to think of it as a positive statistic,&rdquo; said general manager Cliff Fletcher. &ldquo;Granted, you can&rsquo;t rely on it happening all the time. But we played 12 of our first 18 on the road. The next games are all at home. If we can get on a roll and get hot, then the last-minute wins are a very positive development.&rdquo;One of the reasons the Flames struggled in the early going was the disappointing way Kent Nilsson&rsquo;s season has gone. First, Nilsson missed the whole pre-season recovering from a knee injury. Then he missed seven games with a back injury.Through 18 games, the man with a career average of 45 goals a season, counted just four times. Moreover, coach Bob Johnson ws shuffling him from line to line, position to position, trying to get him going.&ldquo;He was injured, you have to respect that,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;But right now, he&rsquo;s not playing the way we want him to. We can&rsquo;t have him floating out there. He&rsquo;s not in good shape. He&rsquo;s tired out there. We can&rsquo;t use him when we go to three lines until he&rsquo;s in shape. We&rsquo;ve got to get him home, get him on the exercise bicycle twice a day and get him down to 190.&rdquo;Johnson also thought there were problems with the way the team&rsquo;s defense was playing. He intended to watch films from last season to see if Paul Reinhart, Steve Konroyd and Kari Eloranta, the corp of &lsquo;the team&rsquo;s rearguards, weren&rsquo;t more aggressive at this stage a year ago.&ldquo;I think they were,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Definitely, the defense has to play more physically than it has. We have to win some battles.&rdquo;Up front, the tinkering also continued. Johnson switched to three lines exclusively and hinted Hakan Loob could be moved to the left side to allow Lanny McDonald, Nilsson and rookie Colin Patterson to play right wing. The team also brought in Richard Kromm from Portland Winter Hawks to give him a look.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01871/4822767-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="592" height="851"><figcaption class="caption-body">General manager Cliff Fletcher analyzes the last-minute goals as a postitive statistic.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;If we go with three lines, we&rsquo;re going with our best players,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see how that works.&rdquo; &bull;<div class="sidebar"><h2>Correction</h2>In the Nov. 11th issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, two Calgary Flame players were identified as Ulf Nilsson and Dave Hanson. In fact, the players are Kent Nilsson and Keith Hanson. We regret any inconvenience the error caused, especially for the writer, Eric Duhatschek of Calgary, who was not responsible for the mistake. &#9632;</div>

f0019-01

Cardiac Kids Are Alive In Calgary

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t we do it in the road? No one will be watching us.Why don&rsquo;t we do it in the road?&rsquo;&rsquo;&mdash;The BeatlesPITTSBURGH&mdash;The Penguins would rather do it on the road than in the road. Play, that is.The Penguins were still looking for their first home-ice victory of the season after 10 games. The Penguins lost the first seven at the Civic Arena to set a club record for consecutive losses at home. In the eighth game, they were 26 seconds away from their first home win of the year when Calgary&rsquo;s Lanny McDonald scored and Pittsburgh had to settle for a 4-4 tie. Then they lost their next two outings, 6-5 to New York Islanders and 3-2 to Toronto.No one was watching the Penguins, either. Well, hardly anyone.The seating capacity of the Civic Arena for hockey is 16,033, but in 10 games, the Pens drew only a total of 70,114 fans, an average of just more than 7,000 a game.Goaltender Michel Dion thinks Penguin fans have been tough on the club.&ldquo;We are more relaxed on the road and perhaps try too hard at home,&rdquo; Dion said. &ldquo;Pittsburgh has been hard for us because we have not won (there).&rdquo;Randy Carlyle, the Pens&rsquo; captain, said he wished he knew why the Penguins were having so many problems at home.&ldquo;We seem to be uptight at home and loose on the road,&rdquo; Carlyle said.In contrast, the Penguins&mdash;who won only four games on the road all of last season&mdash;had a 4-3-1 record on the road. While setting a club record for futility at home, the Pens established one on the road with four consecutive victories.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re feeling the pressure here,&rdquo; said coach Lou Angotti after the tie with the Flames, in which the Penguins outshot their opponent for only the second time in 16 games. &ldquo;They just don&rsquo;t want to make a mistake.&ldquo;I just encourage them to keep doing the same thing. We&rsquo;ve done the same thing over and over again. We&rsquo;ve just got to keep working at it.&rdquo;Angotti believes the players&rsquo; nervousness could be attributed to the losing streak at home and the fans&rsquo; indifference.&ldquo;I have to think they&rsquo;re nervous,&rdquo; said the first-year Penguin coach. &ldquo;The nervousness could be a combination of not winning at home and not drawing crowds.&ldquo;We go out there and not very many people come to watch us play. We know that if we don&rsquo;t start winning, who&rsquo;s going to come to watch us play?&ldquo;This is not a rap against our fans or anything. I can understand the way they feel. But we play on the road with 16,000 people, it seems to pick our players up just as much as it picks their players up. &ldquo;Even when the Penguins have gotten off to good starts in previous seasons, attendance normally doesn&rsquo;t pick up until the National Football League season is over. With the Steelers having one of the NFL&rsquo;s better records and a shot at the Super Bowl this year, that trend is likely to continue.&ldquo;I think this team&rsquo;s turned the corner,&rdquo; said Angotti. &ldquo;Defensively we&rsquo;ve played really well. Now we&rsquo;re getting scoring opportunities and we&rsquo;re scoring some goals. They&rsquo;re doing a lot of things well. We&rsquo;re pretty well disciplined. I&rsquo;m happy with that.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to keep doing the same thing. I can&rsquo;t do any more than that.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Right winger Steve Gatzos was returned to Baltimore of the American Hockey League to make room for his close friend, Doug Shedden. who had been out with a broken wrist. Gatzos picked up one assist in six games with Pittsburgh&hellip;Greg Hotham, who had 32 points in 58 games for the Pens last season, is getting booed by the fans at home. &#9632;

Penguins Pining For Win At Home

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01717/4822822-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;There really was no tipoff to the Whalers&rsquo; fast start.The team huffed and puffed through a 2-4-2 exhibition slate and didn&rsquo;t even win once in its last five games. In their last pre-season performance, the Whalers lost 3-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins, not the sort of stuff that breeds optimism.But then in two working days, the team underwent a wholesale change.On Friday, Sept. 30, Emile Francis, the club&rsquo;s president-general manager, dealt for Greg Malone. Three days later, Francis claimed Mike Zuke, Mike Crombeen and Bob Crawford in the waiver draft and traded Greg Adams to Washington for Torrie Robertson.Two days later, the Whalers began the regular season with 11 new faces, five of which had arrived in the last mail.Francis is a 57-year-old workaholic who was signed by the Chicago Black Hawks in 1946 and hasn&rsquo;t left the rink since. By wheeling and dealing at the wire, Francis not only changed the chemistry of a team that appeared bound for nowhere, he sent a message to the veterans who remained: Tenure is for teachers.Assuring players of jobs, it became clear, is not high on Francis&rsquo; list of priorities.One of the only real constants from the opening of training camp to today has been management&rsquo;s upbeat attitude.Asked what the Francis regime&mdash;which includes coach Jack Evans and assistant Claude Larose, among others&mdash;has brought to Hartford, defenseman Eddie Hospodar, without hesitating, replied, &ldquo;Enthusiasm and honesty.&rdquo;Sulkers and phonies aren&rsquo;t big on Francis&rsquo; list either.Goaltending, however, is. If there&rsquo;s been a beacon in the Whalers&rsquo; unexpected start, it has been Greg Millen, a 26-year-old gamer who took his lumps a year ago.&ldquo;Greg is playing so well that he&rsquo;sonly leaving them the goalpost to hit,&rdquo; Evans said.Last year Millen appeared in 60 games and won but 14. His 4.83 goals-against average was the highest in his six-year career and nobody had a harder time dealing with all the losing.This year Millen started 14 of the Whalers&rsquo; first 18 and won seven. His GAA hovered around 3.50.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot different this year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think one of the best parts is that no one player or one line or anything like that has carried us. It&rsquo;s really been a team effort, a case of 20 guys contributing. I think it&rsquo;s a lot more rewarding that way.&rdquo;The knock on Millen is that he would stop playing with the necessary intensity when the score reached five or six to one, which it did often a year ago. Who, after all, would want to play in that spot?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard, very hard,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never thought of myself as a loser.&rdquo;The flipside to Millen is that with the score closer, he would be there.&ldquo;Greg has kept us in almost every game he&rsquo;s played this year,&rdquo; Evans said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s upheld his end of the bargain, for sure.&rdquo;The game that memory won&rsquo;t let go is a 4-2 win at Long Island in the middle of February. In 55 games to that point, the Whalers had won but 13 and the outlook, going up against the Stanley Cup champs at home, was less than brilliant. Through two periods the Whalers built a 4-2 lead, but there was little question as to which team would eventually win.The Islanders came out flying in the third period, with every intention of making up that two-goal deficit. Millen, however, wouldn&rsquo;t allow it. Amidst incredibly dark skies, he stood tall. That was the tipoff that a major-league heart beat inside his 5-foot-9, 175-pound frame.The dark skies finally have parted and to the surprise of no one, Millen has been there.&ldquo;This is the way it should be,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is fun.&rdquo;WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Greg Malone (eye),Doug Sulliman (groin) and Mike Crombeen (back) all returned from the injured list in the Whalers&rsquo; 4-2 home loss to Quebec&hellip;Ross Yates, recalled from Binghamton, picked up an assist, his first NHL point, in his first game at Long Island. Yates and Paul MacDermid. who was promoted during the Whalers&rsquo; injury spell, were returned to Binghamton.<h2>Player Of The Week</h2>Surprise, surprise! Wayne Gretzky isn&rsquo;t THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Player of the Week for the period ending Nov. 20. Oh, Gretzky had three goals and nine assists to lead the league point scorers, but we opted for his linemate Jani Kurri, who checked in with nine points in two games.But eight of those points were goals, including a five-goal outburst against the New Jersey Devils. After 21 games this season, Kurri had 22 goals, which puts him well ahead of the pace that netted the smooth right winger 45 goals in 80 games last season. After 21 games, Gretzky led the league in goals with 27 and Kurri was next with 22. &#9632;

f0020-01

Management Makes Whalers Upbeat Group

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Rick MacLeish, this is your hockey life.He&rsquo;s had his cranky knee drained several times in the last six weeks. Now Bob McCammon, the Flyer general manager-coach wants to drain MacLeish&rsquo;s head. Treatment began last week in street clothes, in the press box.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t given up on Ricky MacLeish,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s struggled for a few games so I&rsquo;m going to sit him for a few.&ldquo;He worked very hard the first 10 games, played very well. The last nine he&rsquo;s slacked off. We made the trade (with Pittsburgh) to get the (roster) numbers down. He&rsquo;s tailed off since that time and it&rsquo;s hurt us.&ldquo;The last couple of games he&rsquo;s had chances and hasn&rsquo;t done anything with them. And we haven&rsquo;t been winning. Sometimes you stay with guys hoping they&rsquo;ll come out of it, but we&rsquo;ve got to get going.&rdquo;The Flyers, at the time of MacLeish&rsquo;s benching, lost five of their last seven. Only two of the losses, Los Angeles and St. Louis, could be classified as absolute stinkers. With a break or three, the Flyers could be 5-2. With opportune powerplay goals, they could be 7-0.They took a chance on the 33-year-old free agent because they figured he could satisfy that purpose. In the last eight he&rsquo;s had only two assists.Other guys haven&rsquo;t done much better, but most of them can do other things to help. And they are not 33 years old, neither are they on a contract that isn&rsquo;t guaranteed for its full year.MacLeish confirmed this last week although he declined to reveal the exact terms. It is likely that the Flyers can terminate the deal at increments of 20 games, which means the halfway point of the season will be critical to MacLeish retaining major-league life.His deal is laden heavily with incentive bonuses for games, goals and points. Though no doubt MacLeish was thinking he&rsquo;ll need a long stick to score from where he&rsquo;ll spend the next few games, he blamed only himself for his predicament.&ldquo;Somebody has to sit out and it&rsquo;s going to be me,&rdquo; MacLeish said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got an overload of forwards and I&rsquo;m not playing well. I can accept that.&ldquo;I just have to bear down and start working. I&rsquo;ve been to lackadaisical out there.&rdquo;Then, in the next sentence, MacLeish said he&rsquo;s been pressing and losing confidence. The contradiction notwithstanding, the bottom line is: Score or succumb.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on me,&rdquo; MacLeish said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m thinking about the contract and playing bad. I do know that I have to start scoring or I won&rsquo;t be around here much longer.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve used me on the power play and I haven&rsquo;t put the puck in the net. They; ll put somebody in there who can. &ldquo;His name is Ray Allison. He comes fresh from the lockup where McCammon turns the key on MacLeish. Before Allison was benched for five games, he had two goals and four assists in 14 games.It was a longer-than-expected sitting but presumably Allison has paid his debt to Flyer society. McCammon has given him a parole, a new suit of clothes and remanded him to the custody of Bobby Clarke&rsquo;s halfway house. Allison&rsquo;s task is to produce or eventually perish in a trade. Playing with Clarke, he should get his chances.&ldquo;Bobby would have more points if I&rsquo;d used him differently,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve put him on lines with guys we&rsquo;re trying to get going. But Allison can make plays out of the comer and that&rsquo;s going to help Bobby, too.&rdquo;Allison is miscast as an A type of scoring threat, but in parts of his two seasons with the club, the Flyers have seen enough to grade him a B plus. The Penguins wanted Allison, not Mark Taylor, in the trade that brought Rich Sutter, but McCammon reasoned that Allison has a gun the Flyers need more.Allison, one of the many disappointments in last year&rsquo;s playoffs, followed up a good exhibition season with three points in his first three games. But then he began, in McCammon&rsquo;s words, to play &ldquo;easy.&rdquo; And with the Flyers carrying an extra forward and an example to be made, the coach benched Allison.Allison is probably more confused than contrite. He is, however, embarrassed, and welcomes the chance to get going again.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve had a bad attitude,&rdquo; said Allison. &ldquo;Maybe I wasn&rsquo;t bearing down enough. I thought I was working&hellip;but maybe, like the coach said, I thought I was, but wasn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;I have to score more goals than I have been. But then goals aren&rsquo;t the whole game either.&rdquo;McCammon has left the Brian Propp-Dave Poulin-Tim Kerr and Sutters-Darryl Sittler units intact. Ilkka Sinisalo and Paul Holmgren will play on a fourth line with centers who will continue to be double-shifted from the other three units.&ldquo;I just want to get three good lines and the specialties going,&rsquo;&rsquo; said McCammon.McCammon walked the entire squad through some alterations in the powerplay setup and says he&rsquo;ll play its personnel by ear.&ldquo;We have three different units in mind and we&rsquo;llsee how they go,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve kept going through the same routine with two different units and the puck hasn&rsquo;t gone in the net.&ldquo;At times we&rsquo;ve had good movement and been unlucky and some frustration has set in. The bottom line is that we haven&rsquo;t scored and we&rsquo;re going to make changes until we start.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;When the North Stars and Lou Nanne visited, the Flyers were forced to endure another round of Paul Holmgren-to-Minnesota rumors. Nanne continues to want Holmgren and due to personal considerations (Holmgren&rsquo;s estranged wife has taken the children back to the Twin Cities area), the Flyers would consider moving him. But the Flyers say Nanne has offered practically nothing. &ldquo;His offers are pathetic,&rdquo; said Bob McCammon. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s offered second-rate players.&rdquo; &#9632;

MacLeish. Allison Reversing Their Roles

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Louisville HockeyPORTLAND&mdash;Tom McVie is bringing the adage &ldquo;the more things change, the more they remain the same&rdquo; to life with his Maine Mariners this season.Although McVie is working with almost an entirely new group of players this year because of the sale of the club by the Philadelphia Flyers to the New Jersey Devils, he has stuck to principles of hockey he believes in and has been achieving results. Through the first 15 games of season, the Mariners held an 8-5-2 record that put them five points behind co-leaders Nova Scotia and Adir-ondack, both of which had played three more games.Maine has played nine of its 15 games on the road and its 4-4-1 mark fits quite nicely along side a 4-1-1 record at home. Throughout the first six weeks of the season, McVie had preached his sermons about checking and defensive play and, judging from the results, his words are being taken seriously. The Mariners have given up 48 goals in the 15 games&mdash;a 3.2 average per game&mdash;which is second only to Fredericton&rsquo;s 39 goals against over the same number of games.&ldquo;Things couldn&rsquo;t be better,&rdquo; McVie said with a chuckle as he warmed up for an interview mixed with analysis and more than a sprinkle of humor. &ldquo;Things are going good. we should be about 13-2. We&rsquo;ve outshot the other club and we&rsquo;ve outplayed the other club, but we haven&rsquo;t put the puck in the net. Butterfield (league president Jack Butterfield) charts the games of the teams that get the most goals. It&rsquo;s brand new this year. That&rsquo;s why our record is 8-5-2.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hanging in there pretty good, though. We&rsquo;ve got 18 points and three games in hand on both Adirondack and Nova Scotia. But games in hand aren&rsquo;t worth a damn unless you win.&rdquo;After spending last season teaching a group of Philadelphia&rsquo;s young players his checking philosophy and defensive approach, McVie has been charged with building the slightly-older contingent that the Devils sent to Portland into a team that could make a run at the Northern Division title and the Calder Cup. Age is not the only difference he has encountered this season. The 1983-84 Mariners have more experienced defensemen, a balanced goaltending tandem of Shawn McKenzie and Sam St. Laurent and considerably less scoring punch.The offense received an additional jolt on Oct. 31 when veterans Mike Antonovich, Rick Meagher and Gary McAdam were recalled by the Devils. Rookie Rich Chernomaz and second-year pro Larry Floyd were sent down to the Mariners and have helped out by contributing at a point-a-game pace.&ldquo;This particular group, for some reason, has the best work habits of any team I&rsquo;ve ever been associated with,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;A lot of them were in Wichita (Central Hockey League) last year and I guess it was sort of a bad situation because they were in last place and they didn&rsquo;t have any people going to the games. The first thing I had to do was to convince the players that the people in this town do not accept you losing. They don&rsquo;t accept losing in Maine because they&rsquo;ve always won.&rdquo;MacKenzie has played an important role on the Mariners&rsquo; success thus far. He has appeared in 10 games and recorded a 6-2-2 record and a 2.67 goals-against average&mdash;the third best average in the league. Defenseman Mike Hordy leads the balanced scoring attack with four goals and 10 points.McVie prefers to stay away from giving the credit to a couple of players and stresses the overall team play.&ldquo;MacKenzie is playing outstanding, but I don&rsquo;t think that St. Laurent or MacKenzie alone could be doing this,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This starts from the forwards on back, the goals against.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t so many years ago that Don Cherry&rsquo;s overachievers made the Boston Bruins a Stanley Cup contender. McVie is a in a similar situation.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a lot of gifted goal, scorers, but we do have a lot of guys who are willing to work,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And believe me, you can win hockey games that way.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01607/4822877-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="580" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">Maine coach Tom McVie is sticking to the principles that achieve results.</figcaption></div>AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Rookie goaltender Mike Zainier has proven to be a valuable find for the Moncton Alpines. Zainier, who played last season in senior hockey with Trail, B.C., Smoke Eaters, has a4-2 record and a 2.50 goals-against average in seven appearances. The Alpines strung together three straight wins with the help of back-to-back overtime wins to improve to 10-8-0 and move into third place in the division. Tom Rowe and Ross Lambert have been idled by injuries&hellip;Adirondack has been slowed but not stopped by injuries and recalls that have cut the roster to as few as 14 skaters for a game. Adirondack completed a five-games-in-seven-nights swing with a 2-2-1 record and moved back into a tie with Nova Scotia for first place in the division. In the first two weeks of the month, the Wings lost Wayne Crawford, Charlie Skjodt and Brian Johnson to injuries and Randy Ladouceur and Jody Gage on recall by Detroit. Crawford suffered a broken jaw, but returned after missing four games. Skjodt went down with a knee injury and may be out of action until January. Johnson pulled a groin muscle shortly after being sent down from Detroit. Dennis Polonich has been the Wings&rsquo; key man, scoring a goal that beat Fredericton on overtime and another with 13 seconds left secured a 6-6 tie with Baltimore&hellip;Maine also lost veteran defenseman Bob Hoffmeyer to New Jersey. Murray Brumwell, who started the season in Portland, was returned. Mike Moher and Gary Howatt have missed games with injuries. Carmine Cirella&rsquo;s first goal as a Mariner, scored with four seconds left at Halifax, enabled Maine to secure a 3-3 tie. &#9632;

f0022-01

The More The Mariners Change The More They Stay The Same

<h2>Next Week</h2>The Montreal Canadiens sure aren&rsquo;t what they used to be and next week&rsquo;s cover story will examine the plight of the Habs in the 1983-84 season. We&rsquo;ll take a look at their big trade with Minnesota and see how Bobby Smith, who will appear on the cover, is adjusting to life at the Montreal Forum. And we&rsquo;ll also take a lighthearted look at 1983&mdash;the year that was. We&rsquo;ll present our first-ever HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Off The Wall awards, highlighting the best and worst of hockey in the past 12 months.<h2>Dec. 16</h2>This issue will feature a special section on the Vancouver Canucks as they try to recapture the glory of two seasons ago, when they rode White Towel Fever to the Stanley Cup finals. As well as in-depth profiles of the Canucks&rsquo; general manager Harry Neale and coach Roger Neilson&mdash;two of the most interesting hockey personalities today&mdash;we&rsquo;ll trace the history of the franchise and profile its key players, including Richard Brodeur, Stan Smyl and Tony Tanti. &#9632;

COMING SOON IN THN

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;When you&rsquo;re a second-year pro toiling in the minor leagues and you play center and your parent club trades two other centers for a right winger, that tells you something.When you score points in the season&rsquo;s first 16 games and move atop all American Hockey League scorers, that tells you even more.It&rsquo;s saying that Len Hachbom, 22, the Philadelphia-owned center who has been a major part of the Southern Division Springfield Indians&rsquo; 9-6-1 start, is coming into his own.Hachborn, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound playmaker, was the Flyers&rsquo; ninth-round draft pick in 1981 out of Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League. He scored 28 goals and 55 assists as a rookie in Maine last season. Nagging injuries slowed him this year at Philly&rsquo;s training camp, but Hachbom says he was encouraged because &ldquo;they (the Flyer brass) told me some good things.&rdquo;But you know what talk costs. It was the Flyers&rsquo; transaction&mdash;they gave up centers Mark Taylor and Ron Flockhart in a deal for Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Rich Sutter&mdash;that left every indication Hachbom is considered a prospect.&ldquo;I knew very little about him when he came here,&rdquo; said Indians&rsquo; coach Doug Sauter, whose salary is being paid by the Chicago Black Hawks, a co-affiliate with the Flyers in Springfield. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been the key on our power play.&rdquo;That power play has resulted in 21 goals in 62 chances&mdash;a 34 per cent ratio&mdash;and it&rsquo;s one of the reasons Hachbom, a Brantford native, is streaking.Two others are linemates Ross Fitzpatrick and Dan Frawley. Fitzpatrick, a Philly-owned left winger, is a goal scorer who is at his best near the net. Frawley, a Chicago-owned right winger, is the trio&rsquo;s mucker, the grinder who lives in the corners.&ldquo;They complement each other really well,&rdquo; Sauter says. &ldquo;At first, I was hesitant of moving guys around (because of the Flyers-Hawks dual citizenship). Now, I don&rsquo;t worry about it. 1 treat them all the same. They&rsquo;re all Indians.&rdquo;The point-scoring streak has become to hockey what hitting streaks have always been to baseball. They ignite the fans, add pressure to the player, make it tougher on a coach.So far, with Hachborn 12 games away from the AHL record Binghamton&rsquo;s Bob Sullivan set two seasons ago, there have been no problems.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what the record was until you just told me,&rdquo; Hachborn said before No. 16. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long way away, but I&rsquo;ll probably be thinking about it. Sure, the streak is on my mind, but it hasn&rsquo;t affected my play. I&rsquo;ve been on the power play, so that&rsquo;s made it easier to get points. I know it&rsquo;s going to end eventually, but I&rsquo;m not waiting for it to end.&rdquo;In Hachborn&rsquo;s last two games, he&rsquo;s tallied first-period assists. There&rsquo;s nothing like a first-period point, like a batter&rsquo;s first-inning single up the middle, to delay the pressure one more game.&ldquo;He can&rsquo;t be pushing and pushing,&rdquo; Sauter said. &ldquo;Hopefully, he&rsquo;s not overtrying. But so far, everything&rsquo;s been good.&rdquo;AROUND THE SOUTH&mdash;Everything was perfect for Hershey rookie Dan Sanscartier&hellip;until the Boston Bruins returned Mike Moffat to the Bears. Sanscartier, 21, was sent back to Fort Wayne of the IHL last week after the rookie surprised everybody, including coach Gary Inness. by winning three of four games with a 2.76 goals-against average. Sanscartier won his first three AHL games, two on the road, before losing at Baltimore. Included in the wins was a 4-1 triumph over Rochester, the team which cut him in training camp.Doug Morrison was the AHL&rsquo;s Player of the Week. The Boston-owned right winger scored seven goals and four assists, including a four-goal, two-assist game in a 7-4 win over New Haven.Binghamton went 1-3 on a four-game Maritimes&rsquo; road trip and remained imbedded in the division&rsquo;s cellar, although St. Catharines has played and lost more games. Hartford promoted Ross Yates and Paul MacDermid for several days under emergency conditions, but both players have been returned to Binghamton. Whaler coach John Cunniff, feeling intense heat applied by the Broome County Arena fans, was the target of an anonymous telephone threat to the Whaler office, handled by director of operations George DuCharme. The team confirmed the threat, but refused comment other than to acknowledge it added extra security and local police to the Arena for the Whalers&rsquo; last home game before the road trip.Nighthawk coach, Nick Beverley, a former NHL defenseman, has remained adamant about keeping play tight behind his blueline. So after 94 goals-against after 21 games, the doors began revolving. When the parent Los Angeles Kings acquired Mike McEwen from the New York Islanders, they sent defenseman Dean Kennedy to the Nighthawks. New Haven signed veteran free agent Alan Hangsleben, a former Nighthawk who was in retirement, and released Jim Walsh, who was on a 25-game tryout contract.Baltimore had its seven-game unbeaten streak snapped by a 4-3 victory by the Nighthawks, a reversal of the previous week&rsquo;s 4-3 Skipjack win before a season-high 4,929 at the Civic Center. Despite the loss, the Skipjacks remained in first place in the South with a 9-3-5 record. Goalie Roberto Romano leads the league with eight wins. Coach Gene Ubriaco lost center Steve Carlson for four to six weeks with a chipped bone in his right ankle and rookie right winger Dean DeFazio for an indefinite period with a slight fracture of the left wrist. Pittsburgh assigned right winger Rocky Saganiuk to Baltimore.After losing 4-1 to Hershey before an AHL season-high 6,860 at the War Memorial, Rochester won two straight to pull within one point of Baltimore. Defensive-minded defenseman Ron Fischer scored a goal and four assists in a 7-2 win over visiting Adirondack. The parent Sabres returned defenseman Mark Renaud, who was in Buffalo on emergency recall.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01555/4822932-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="582" height="846"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hershey&rsquo;s Doug Morrison was the Player of the Week with seven goals and four assists.</figcaption></div>St. Catharines was outscored 24-11 in five straight losses. The defenseless Saints, 110 goals against in 21 games, have allowed five or more goals in 12 of those games. Toronto returned rookie right winger Greg Britz.Chicago has recalled goalie Bob Janecyk from Springfield. &#9632;

f0023-01

A Few Well-Placed Words By Philly Does Wonders For Scoring Touch

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02390/4822991-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="282" height="367"></div><h2>MERCHANDISE</h2>COLOR NHL PHOTOS, 8x10 past and present $3.50. For free list write: Dwayne Labakas, 33133 Crestwell, Sterling Heights, Ml. 48077.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04215/4822984-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="576" height="289"></div><h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2>YOUR OWN PAPER hockey league. Manages team, draft favorite players, compete with friends, use NHL stats, offense, defense, PM&rsquo;S. Full instructions $10. PHL Box 1196. Buffalo. NY. 14221.<h2>COLLECTIONS</h2>PUCK COLLECTORS UNUSED game pucks. EHL Team logo. Gold insignia. Never before offered. Supply limited. $4.50 postpaid. U.S. funds only. Holiday retail, Box 882, Venice, FL 33595.<h2>NOVELTIES</h2>MAD BANNERS BUTTONS&mdash;Hockey, sports personalized buttons, free catalogue. 753B, N. Morgan, Orange, CA, 92667.<h2>NOVELTIES</h2>ENAMEL TRADING PINS&mdash;Baseball caps, banners, buttons, and many other products customized for teams-tournaments, momentos, etc. Catalogue available. Promotional Marketing Services, Box 1124, Fort Erie, Ontario, L2A 5N9. In USA, 81 Mill St., Buffalo, NY 14221.<h2>AUDIO</h2>USA DEFEATS RUSSIA. Previously unreleased play-by-play of greatest Olympic thrill ever. Entire game. 60-minute audio cassettes. $16.99 + $1.00 handling each. Order now. Olympic Gold, 186 E. 75th St., New York. NY 10021.<h2>PUBLICATIONS</h2>COLLEGE HOCKEY REPORT: Comprehensive NCAA coverage. One year $22.95 (U.S.) Send check, name, address, to: P.O. Box 115-Z, LeRoy, NY, 14482.<h2>EQUIPMENT</h2>FOR SALE CUSTOM RADIUS skate sharpening machine like new with large dust collector and 2 clamps and accessories. $2,000. Call (715) 394-4830, Superior, WI.<h2>BOOKS</h2>YEARBOOKS FOR SALE. Send $1.00 for list of yearbooks. R.E. Riggs, (Sports Collectables), Canning, Kings County, N.S. Canada, BOP 1H0.<h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-05183/4822977-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="594" height="310"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-06159/4822970-1-eng-US/f0023-062.jpg" title="f0023-06" width="591" height="283"></div>ON ICE HOCKEY COACH for minor and senior teams with possible string position as full time rec. director. Related degrees and/or diplomas in recreation and level of coaching certification is required. Salary negotiable. Closing date December 9/83. Henri (306) 625-3982 or Claude (306) 6253688.HOCKEY CLUB TOULOUSE, France. Cher che FRANCO CANADIAN disponible immediatement pour cette saison, voyage paye, travail, logement, experience mini mum Jr. B. Telephone (33) (61) 819714.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03285/4822963-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="1803" height="1097"></div> &#9632;

f0023-02

The Classified

<div class="byline">BY DICK DENNY</div>Louisville HockeyDENVER&mdash;Flaming youth has Colorado coach Pierre Page excited about the 1983-84 Central Hockey League season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the youngest team in the league, but I think we&rsquo;re going to get better and it&rsquo;s going to be an interesting race,&rdquo; said the Flame mentor after his club won four consecutive games at McNichols Arena to pull into first-place tie with Tulsa. Both clubs have 16 points.Page knows that youth can be like a roller-coaster ride&mdash;up and down, but still thrilling.&ldquo;We got off to a quick start (4-2), then we lost five in a row,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You get upset during those times, but you know things are going to get better.&ldquo;This is a very coachable team, with a lot of enthusiasm and drive.&rdquo;Page says the parent Calgary club is going with youth.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re (the Calgary Flames) going that route and I think it&rsquo;s the proper one,&rdquo; he stated.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the future of the minor leagues, to be a development league, not a pension plan. Look at the Dodgers and Charlie Finley when he was with the Oakland A&rsquo;s. They worked with young players in the minors and moved them up in two years or they weren&rsquo;t prospects.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not downgrading the older guys. Look at the Raiders and the success they&rsquo;ve had with older guys. You ought to keep two or three players who still are prospects but good leaders.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the chemistry people are going to look for. You&rsquo;ve got to produce some prospects and win. I&rsquo;m not saying it&rsquo;s going to be easy. One night you&rsquo;re on top of the world and the next night you&rsquo;re shovelling sand.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s nice to have enthusiasm. Rochester proved it last year with a very young team. They won the (AHL) championship. A lot of guys got called up (to Buffalo) and they believed they could make it.&rdquo;Page says he has been getting &ldquo;great leadership&rdquo; from three of his older players&mdash;Danny Bolduc, Pat Ribble (he&rsquo;s been out with a bad knee) and Bobby Francis.&ldquo;Ribble and Bolduc are the only players over 25,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;Early in the season I matched the older plyers with the young ones. It helped. Then I went away from it trying to create some competition.&rdquo;Page hasn&rsquo;t hesitated to pair 20-year-olds Allan Maclnnis and Dale DeGray on defense and a forward line comprised of 20-year-olds Jeff Vaive, a third cousin of Toronto&rsquo;s Rick Vaive, Todd Hooey and Mario Simioni.&ldquo;Veterans Jim Jackson, Bobby Francis and George White have been together and they&rsquo;re able to communicate with the younger players,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;When you struggle, as we did for a while, you need competition and intensity.&rdquo;After 15 games (the Flames were 8-7), that line produced 48 points, high on the club. Jackson was the Flames&rsquo; leading scorer with four goals and 17 assists. Francis had eight and nine and White had three and seven. Rookie Mike Vernon, 20, and Marc D&rsquo;Amour, 22, shared the goaltending. Vemon was 6-4 with a 3.47 goals-against average.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01586/4823022-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="575" height="777"><figcaption class="caption-body">Colorado coach Pierre Page believes the youth trend is the proper wave of the future.</figcaption></div>CHL CHAT&mdash;A change in powerplay strategy enabled the Flames to score four goals in six tries with a man advantage in their 7-2 triumph over the Indianapolis Checkers. That gave Colorado a 4-0 mark at home against the defending champions. &ldquo;Both Calgary and us were using the same power play,&rdquo; said Flame coach Pierre Page. &ldquo;They had the second worst in the NHL, we had the worst in the CHL. We went to line units instead of matching players, who might be at the end of a shift and be tired and we changed the breakout. We had been trying to sneak people behind the defensemen, but that put two or three people in a standstill position. If you have the personnel for that, fine, but we didn&rsquo;t. There wasn&rsquo;t enough life in our power play. &ldquo;&hellip;Tulsa still hadn&rsquo;t played a home game as of Nov. 14, more than a month after the season began Oct. 7. The Checkers were in Tulsa for three days hoping to help the Oilers get their home season underway at the Expo Square pavilion underway. A seal broke on a compressor in the ice-making equipment and the teams went through three postponements. Tulsa finally went back on the road and lost to the Canadian Olympic team 6-1 at Medicine Hat&hellip;Colorado was helped by the return of Bruce Eakin from Calgary. He got a goal and three assists in the Flames&rsquo; 9-3 victory over Montana, putting them in a deadlock with Tulsa for first. But Montana lost Alain Lemieux, the league&rsquo;s top scorer with 23 points (8-15), to St. Louis and Rob McClanahan, tied for 10th in scoring (4-10-14), was promoted from Tulsa by the parent New York Rangers. &#9632;

f0024-01

Flames Following Calgary’s Pattern By Going With Youth Movement

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>UTICA&mdash;A love-hate relationship exists between Brian Gustafson of the Mohawk Valley Stars and the rest of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League.The love-hate relationship works this way: you love him if he is playing on your team and you hate him if you play for any other team but Mohawk Valley.Gustafson has picked up quite a reputation as a tough, hard-nosed player in the three years he has performed for Mohawk Valley.Though he&rsquo;s led the ACHL in penalty minutes for two straight seasons (331 in 1981-82,361 in 1982-83), Gustafson has demonstrated he is more than just a physical type. The 5-foot-8 winger is coming off his best season, after he scored 26 goals and 43 assists and was one of two Star players to perform in all 65 regular games.The love-hate relationship also involves the fans throughout the league, who despise some of his tactics, but still respect his hockey skills.&ldquo;The fans can get on a player pretty good, but it doesn&rsquo;t bother me, I just block them out,&rdquo; said Gustafson.Gustafson has had offers from the International League, but has preferred to remain with Mohawk Valley, where he plans to play one more season before possibly returning to school. The Stars&rsquo; leader doesn&rsquo;t pattern himself after anybody special, but just plays his own game.&ldquo;I guess you could say I have my own style,&rdquo; he noted.Coach Rick Ley made no hesitation when he called Gustafson his team leader.&ldquo;He (Gustafson) is just a gutsy little kid who comes to play every night,&rdquo; stressed Ley. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just 5-foot-8, but he makes the most of the talent he has and when the team needs to be sparked, Brian is the one to do it.&rdquo;Things haven&rsquo;t started out exactly the way Ley would have hoped, with the Stars winning just three of their first eight games. Injuries have played a major role in the Stars&rsquo; slow start and the injuries aren&rsquo;t the kind that are keeping players out of the lineup for a game or two.Defenseman Marc Marchand will be gone for one to two months with knee ligament damage, Ron Scales is lost for four to six weeks with a broken foot and Gilles Bilodeau is out of the lineup for six to 10 weeks with a wrist injury. Added to that is a back injury to Dave Miles, who is on the shelf from six to 20 weeks.While Ley has attempted to get help for his defense, he did help out the offense with the acquisition of high-scoring Dave MacQueen from Pine Bridge. The MacQueen deal finalized a transaction which sent Dan Barber to the Bucks. Also joining the Stars were a pair of 20-year-olds, Larry Power and Bill Maguire.The Stars used two Jay Miller goals to trip the Blades 4-1, with Gray Weicker making 25 saves. The Stars then dropped an 11-4 contest to Carolina and a 4-3 overtime decision to Erie. Scott Higgins posted two goals for the Stars in the loss to the Blades, with MacQueen adding the other goal.ERIE&mdash;The Golden Blades are playing better on the road than they are at their new Erie Convention Center home. Erie was 4-3 on the road while winning just one of three games at home.Erie finally broke into the win column at the Convention center with a 6-4 triumph over Carolina. Rob Clavette sparked the win with two goals and Jim Cowell totalled three points. It was the first win of the season for veteran Erie netminder Carey Walker.Despite their slow start at home, the Blades are drawing extremely well in their new building, with an average of 3,764 fans for the first three home dates.Cowell continued to wield a hot stick as his goal at 2:53 into overtime gave the Blades a 4-3 decision in Utica and the following night Cowell pumped home two more goals in a 5-4 victory in Pine Bridge.The club released a pair of players from last year&rsquo;s team, Steve Stockman and Tom Anderson, while forwarddefenseman Cam Botting announced his retirement. The Blades added defenseman Dwayne Venema and forward Andre Chartrain.CAROLINA&mdash;The Thunderbirds were in a familiar position in sitting atop the league.Coach Rick Dudley&rsquo;s crew rang up the most goals in one game this season with an 11-goal outburst against Mohawk Valley. Bruce Grieg picked up the hat trick for the T-Birds, Brian Carroll notched five assists and Jerry Ingram totalled four assists. Dave Watson chipped in two goals and two assists and John Higgins scored two goals and three assists. Ben LaPorte tallied two goals and two assists.Ingram garnered 10 assists over a three-game stretch. The T-Bird defenseman helped in all four goals in a 4-2 win over Erie, picked up four against the Stars and added two more in a 6-4 loss to the Blades. LaPorte had two goals in a losing cause.Pierre Hamel was the first ACHL netminder to post five victories as he showed a 5-1 mark with a 3.16 goals-against mark.PINE BRIDGE&mdash;The Bucks won their first two home games and have the making of a strong expansion team.Pine Bridge topped the Blades 7-2 in their home debut and then stopped Nashville 5-3 before 3,558 fans at the Pine Bridge Coliseum.Jeff Wylie picked up two assists, while goalie Steve Heittola made 34 saves in the win over Nashville. The Bucks lost their first home game, a 5-4 decision to visiting Erie as four players scored for the Bucks.Latest to join the team were Todd Scott and Ken Latta.NASHVILLE&mdash;Goalie Dennis Auclair has emerged as one of the top netminders in the league with a 2.94 GAA. Auclair rang up the second shutout of the season when he posted 36 saves in a 4-0 blanking of Carolina.The South Stars had plenty of problems last year with the T-Birds, but have already beaten last year&rsquo;s champions twice this season. Winners of just 11 games a year ago, Nashville owned five triumphs in the first three weeks of the season.In addition to their two wins over Carolina, the South Stars also lost 5-4 to the T-Birds and 5-3 to Pine Bridge. &#9632;

Gustafson Both Loved And Hated

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>Louisville HockeyPEORIA&mdash;The Prancers, out of first place for just a brief period in early November, appear to be the team to take charge&mdash;if any team does&mdash;in the seven team International Hockey League.Fort Wayne Komets made a run at the Prancers. but then fell three points off the pace, when they lost a 5-4 thriller in Peoria.Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Admirals, Toledo Goaldiggers and Flint Generals were all just two points back of the Komets.Three points back of that pack were Kalamazoo K-Wings and Muskegon Mohawks.The way things are going, it looks as though this will be a photo finish for the final playoff spot.Peoria, Fort Wayne and Muskegon all won two of three, while Milwaukee split a pair in Toledo, and Flint and Kalamazoo each dropped two of three.Muskegon started out strong but then slipped all the way down to a share of the basement before coming alive with a 5-0 victory over Flint. The Mohawks&rsquo; talented rookie goalie, Bruce Dowie, got the shutout, kicking away 31 shots. He was later recalled by the Toronto Maple Leafs to fill in for injured goalie Mike Palmateer.Flint coach Dennis Desrosiers said, &ldquo;The net seems to shrink when we shoot at it.&rdquo;In the Peoria-Fort Wayne game, the Prancers were in front 5-3 when the Komets&rsquo; Wally Schreiber scored on a rebound effort with seven-and-a-half minutes to play. With time running out, the Komets pulled their goalie, Don Ross, for the extra forward and came within a whisker of sending the match into overtime. With two seconds to play, a Komet shot squirmed through a wild scramble in the front of the net but hit the post. As the player deadlines in the IHL approached, several players should change uniforms. In one of the earlier trades, Kalamazoo sent 6-foot-5, 200-pound Mike Brown to Flint for 6-foot-3, 218-pound Ray Markham. Brown is a defenseman; Markham is a forward. Many more trades were expected as each team pares down to the 16-player limit.Peoria not only beat Fort Wayne, but also was a 4-1 winner against Milwaukee. Their lone loss was a 9-2 setback in Fort Wayne. In addition to splitting with Peoria, Fort Wayne remained in contention by beating Kalamazoo 7-1. Muskegon, besides blanking Flint, beat Toledo 2-0 and lost to Kalamazoo 3-1. Milwaukee broke even by beating Toledo 5-1 and losing to Peoria.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01512/4823077-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="572" height="859"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce Dowie shut out Flint and then was recalled on an emergency basis by Toronto.</figcaption></div>Toledo beat Flint and lost to Milwaukee and Muskegon. Flint defeated Kalamazoo but lost to Muskegon and Toledo.Of the first 44 games played in the IHL this season, six wound up in ties and Flint was involved in four of them. All but Milwaukee and Muskegon have gone into overtime at least once. At the same time, Fort Wayne, with 61 goals, was the highest scoring team in the league. &#9632;

f0025-01

Peoria Takes Charge Over Its Competitors

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;The Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference Division One season is finally underway after a month or so of sporadic action that didn&rsquo;t count in league play. As of November 19, only nine divisional contests had been played, but there are already clear signs that 1983-84 will be an especially competitive and interesting year.Boston University and RPI had perhaps the best records in the tuneup games. The Terriers went 5-1, while the Engineers rolled up a 6-1 slate against some pretty good competition. Then the two teams met in BU&rsquo;s Walter Brown Arena and battled to a virtual standstill, throwing 41 shots at each other. BU won the decision 3-2, scoring twice in the third period to overcome a 2-1 deficit.Terrier senior T.J. Connolly&rsquo;s shorthanded goal at 5:48 proved to be the game winner. Cleon Daskalakis finished up with 39 saves to 38 by the RPI combination of Darren Puppa and Brian Jopling.The key ingredient for BU this season appears to be the emergence of a few freshmen scorers, such as John Cullen and Ed Lowney, who play on the same line and each scored three times in the first six games. Terry Taillefer, another freshman, earned the No. 2 goalie slot with a shutout of Dalhousie.RPI is expected to have a great year if goaltending holds up, and Puppa, the freshman, has looked as if he fills the bill. His 5-2 record and goals against of just over two per game in the early going are signs of a good rookie campaign. Senior Marty Dallman has taken the lead in the scoring department. He had a pair of goals in RPI&rsquo;s 7-1 defeat of Providence College in Troy. A six-goal burst by the Engineers in the third period broke open that close-checking affair.Providence, the ECAC pennant winner, journeyed to Maine and nearly lost their league game before nipping the vastly improved Black Bears 7-6 in overtime. Senior Gates Orlando had a pair of third-period goals, including the tying one with 1:35 to play. Steve Taylor netted the winner at 2:15 of the extra period. Ray Jacques scored twice for Maine.Maine, in fact, has nearly equalled its overall win total of a year ago when it was 5-24. Through five games the Black Bears are 3-2. Jackie Sender is optimistic even though captain Ron Hellen is through for the year with a knee injury.Earlier, Maine knocked off Northeastern, another outfit that is gaining respect after entering the season in low regard. Maine won 9-6 and it featured a hat trick by Jay Mazur. Hellen, by the way, was Maine&rsquo;s leading scorer through three games with a total of seven points. Against Concordia, in a pair of nonleague wins, Maine&rsquo;s power play, a phantom a year ago, clicked seven times.Northeastern, before losing at Maine, beat Providence 7-4 and rebounded to dump favored Clarkson 6-5 at Matthews Arena. After a goalless first frame, NU jumped to a 3-0 lead on goals by veteran Greg Neary, Randy Bucyk and Ken Manchurek. Then Huntington Hounds erased the possibility of a Knight rally when rookie Greg Pratt scored at 0:11 and 0:23 of the third period to run the count to 5-0.Against the Friars, the Hounds had four unanswered third-period goals and actually scored the last five goals of the contest after dropping behind 4-2. Jim Madigan and Rod Isbister each had a pair.Vermont is another team that&rsquo;s close to bettering its overall record of a year ago. The Catamounts are 3-0, after a final record of 6-21-1 in 1982-83. The biggest win, of course, was the league triumph against previously-unbeaten St. Lawrence. The Larries came to Gutterson Field house with a 6-0 overall mark and got dumped 5-4 in overtime.For returning coach Jimmy Cross, it&rsquo;s about time that the luck in the early one-goal games went in his favor. Freshman Jeff Capello gave the Cats the win a goal at 6:47 of overtime. St. Lawrence, despite three shorthanded goals including the tying one with 26 seconds remaining in regulation, went home with its first loss. The 6-0 mark against non-league foes is SLU&rsquo;s best start ever.Clarkson has only three seniors, but the Golden Knights look as powerful as ever. They defeated Colgate 6-2 in the league opener for both teams, throwing 53 shots at Red Raider goalie Jeff Cooper. The result wasn&rsquo;t sealed until late third-period scores by Gord Sharpe and Ted Cline. Junior defenseman Dave Fretz also tallied for the Knights. Sophomore Gerard Waslen, off to a great start for Colgate with six goals in the first three games, was held to one assist at Potsdam.Lowell, moving to Division One play this season but ineligible for the playoffs, is taking rebuilding lumps with a 1-4 slate thus far. The Chiefs tested Boston College goalie Scott Gordon several times in BC&rsquo;s only action thus far. but lost 3-2. Lowell&rsquo;s only win was a 5-3 decision at Maine.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01538/4823108-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="575" height="785"><figcaption class="caption-body">Freshman goalie Darren Puppa looks as though he&rsquo;ll help the Engineers.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

Sians Indicate ECAC Will Be Competitive

<div class="byline">BY ROBERT MacLEOD</div>TORONTO&mdash;Two old university hockey rivals find themselves tied in first place after two weekends of play in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association.Defending national champion Saskatchewan Huskies and Alberta Golden Bears, who lost to the Huskies in last year&rsquo;s CWUAA final, share top spot in the standings with identical 4-0 records.First place was on the line when the teams played a doubleheader in Edmonton on Nov. 18 and 19, the first regularseason meetings between the teams this year.&ldquo;Alberta and Saskatchewan have developed a real rivalry,&rdquo; said Saskatchewan coach Brent McEwan, whose team earned a share of top spot after sweeping two from the Calgary Dinosaurs, 5-3 and 6-2. &ldquo;The Golden Bears used to whip our butts all over the place when we played them a few years back. But over the past four years we&rsquo;ve come back to the stage where we at least split most of our games with them &ldquo;The teams have met twice this season in tournament games. Alberta won the first confrontation, 3-2 in overtime, in the final of a tournament held by Saskatchewan in early October. The Huskies got even when they beat Alberta 4-2 on Oct. 29 to win the Golden Bears&rsquo; tournament.&ldquo;The Golden Bears have cut five guys from last year&rsquo;s team which went to the league final, so you know they must have a strong team,&rdquo; McEwan said.The Golden Bears kept pace with the Huskies in the standings by winning two from the British Columbia Thunderbirds, by indentical scores of 4-1.Both the Thunderbirds and Dinosaurs are winless in four outings.Saskatchewan left winger Randy Wiebe led the Huskies against the Dinosaurs, scoring three goals and two assists, and was named the CWUAA Player of the Week. Wiebe is the league&rsquo;s scoring leader with nine points (five goals, four assists).<h2>GPAC</h2>Brandon Bobcats have moved into first place in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, by winning two from Manitoba Bisons&mdash;5-1 and 6-3&mdash;to raise their record to 5-1. Manitoba&rsquo;s record dropped to 4-3-1, good for second place.The most lopsided game was recorded by the basement-dwelling Winnipeg Wesmen, who trounced the Regina Cougars 13-3, the Wesmen&rsquo;s first victory in six outings this season. Regina turned it around in the second game, winning 6-3. Winnipeg winger Kerry Goulet netted two goals and five assists in the games.<h2>OUAA</h2>Toronto Blues continue to cruise along in the Ontario Universities Athletic Association, by winning a pair to move into a first-place tie with defending champion Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks. The 5-0 Blues, who have two games in hand on the Golden Hawks (41-2), topped Waterloo Warriors 11-1 and Royal Military College Redmen 11-4.The Golden Hawks, who have been struggling in the early going, played Laurentian Voyageurs to a 6-6 tie in Sudbury before losing the second game 6-4.A surprising Brock Badger team is alone in third place with a 4-2-1 mark after playing McMaster Marlins to a 4-4 tie and defeating RMC 8-7.<h2>QUAA</h2>Only two games were played in the Quebec Universities Athletic Association and both involved Chicoutimi Inuk, who beat McGill Redmen 9-3 and Trois-Rivieres Patriotes 11-8.The victories raises Chicoutimi&rsquo;s record to 3-4-2, good for a share of first place with idle Concordia Stingers (4-10).Chicoutimi has the most powerful attack of any team in the conference. Inuk players hold down the first three places in the scoring race, led by Daniel Larouche. who has recorded 11 goals and 19 assists in nine games. Chicoutimi&rsquo;s problem is its defense, which has allowed a league-leading 57 goals-against, three more than the team has scored.<h2>AUAA</h2>Moncton Blue Eagles find themselves in a familiar position in the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association&mdash;atop the standings.With a 6-4 win over St. Mary&rsquo;s Huskies and a 9-4 verdict over Acadia Axemen, the defending champion Huskies are undefeated (4-0) and moved into a first-place tie with New Brunswick Red Raiders, who also won twice&mdash;5-3 over Mount Allison Mounties and 3-2 over St. Francis Xavier X-Men.The Mounties thrashed winless St. Thomas Tommies 17-3. Andy Nesbitt and Larry Gaudet both scored hat tricks for the Mounties in the rout. &#9632;

Huskies, Golden Bears To Clash

Northern Michigan Wildcat freshman Ron Chyzowski, a six-foot, 171-pound center, scored five goals to lead his team to a two game sweep of the Lake Superior State Lakers, earning Player of the Week honors for the period ending Nov. 20.Chyzowski, an 18-year-old native of Edmonton, Alta., scored four goals in the first win and one in the second. He played last season with the St. Albert Saints of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and was a fourth-round draft pick of the Hartford Whalers in the 1983 National Hockey League entry draft.He is a math major with a minor in physical education.At the end of the season, Bauer will make a College Player of the Year award to the player selected by THE HOCKEY NEWS as the top individual for the 1983-84 season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02382/4823163-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="553" height="931"><figcaption class="caption-body">RON CHYZOWSKI Northern Michigan</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-02

Bauer Plover of the week

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>COLUMBUS&mdash;Senior Perry Pooley scored four goals and added four assists to lead Ohio State to an 8-2,9-2 sweep of Illinois-Chicago in Central Collegiate Hockey Association play.The sweep runs Ohio State&rsquo;s winning streak on the season to 13 games. The Buckeyes are 10-0 in conference play.Three of the four remaining CCHA conference series ended up in sweeps with Michigan Tech moving into third place by beating Ferris State 7-5 and 7-1.Western Michigan and Northern Michigan collected sweeps on the road with the WMU Broncos beating Miami 8-3 and 6-2 and NMU topping Lake Superior 5-1 and 4-3.Arch-rivals Michigan and Michigan State split a pair of conference games with the visitor winning each night in the home-and-home series.In non-league action, Bowling Green made it five-out-of-six for the CCHA against New Hampshire as the Falcons swept the Wildcats 6-5 in overtime and 4-3. George Roll scored the goal for the Falcons at 8:45 of the extra period in the opener and Jamie Wansbrough had the winner in the second game.Ohio State scored in each period to outclass the UIC Flames, with the Buckeyes scoring five goals in the second period of the opener to snap a 1-1 tie and then used a pair of four-goal periods to win the second game.OSU freshman defenseman Shane Erickson scored a pair of goals including the winning goal in the opener, while Perry Pooley had three goals and three assists in the second game. Gord Rivington had two goals and three assists. Paul Pooley had five points in the series.Michigan Tech used a pair of four-goal third periods to sweep Ferris State with senior Al Radke scoring the winning goal in each game. Radke scored three goals in the series including a pair of shorthanded goals in the opener.Graham Craig scored two goals for Ferris State in the opener and his powerplay goal at 18:37 of the third period cut the lead to 6-5, but Paul Stone scored an empty-netter for the win.FSC&rsquo;s Randy Merrifield opened the scoring in the second game, but the Huskies scored the last seven goals of the game with seniors Bill Terry and Steve Murphy each scoring twice.Northern Michigan freshman left winger Ron Chyzowski scored five goals in the sweep at Lake Superior to earn CCHA Player of the Week honors. Chyzowski scored four of the five Wildcats goals in the opener with linemate Ralph Vos assisting on each goal.Freshman Dennis Jiannaras played in goal for both games of the sweep for the Wildcats.NMU grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second game a LSSC, but the Lakers bounced back to tie the game on power-play goals by Nick Palumbo. Allan Butler and Keith Martin. Dave Randall&rsquo;s unassisted goal at 11:57 of the third period snapped the 3-3 tie for the NMU win.Troy Thrun scored three goals and Dan Dorion scored a goal and added three assists for Western Michigan in the opener at Miami. Miami was able to gain ties at 1-1 and 2-2 on goals by Jim Buettgen and Andy Cozzi, but WMU scored five straight goals.The Broncos jumped ahead in the second game with three unanswered goals in the first period with Rob Bryden opening the scoring at 00:39. Gary Orhn and Pat Ryan added the other first-period goals for the Broncos.Tom Anastos scored a pair of goals, including a shorthanded one, to lead Michigan State to a 6-3 win over Michigan in the series opener in UM&rsquo;s Yost Ice Arena before 7,833 fans. MSU jumped to a 3-0 lead with Newell Brown, Anastos and Bill Shibicky scoring in a span of 1:23 in the first period. The Wolverines cut the margin to 3-2 on goals by Chris Seychel and Tom Stiles, but Anastos scored the winner on a fancy passing play with Dale Krentz and Dan McFall getting the assists.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01510/4823194-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="579" height="908"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bowling Green&rsquo;s Jamie Wansbrough scored the winning goal against New Hampshire.</figcaption></div>Michigan never trailed in the rematch on the road in front of 6,613 fans in Munn Ice Arena as Kelly McCrimmon put Michigan on the board after just 19 seconds.Stiles snapped a 3-3 tie at 15:00 of the third period and Jim McCauley added an insurance goal at 19:07. Mark Chiamp made 39 saves in the game for the Wolverines, with 15 in the third period. Gord Flegel paced the MSU attack in the second game with a pair of goals.Michigan heads to Northern Michigan to highlight CCHA play this weekend, while Ferris State hosts Michigan State and Miami travels to Bowling Green in conference action. In non-league play Western Michigan hosts Denver, Michigan Tech plays at Minnesota-Duluth and Illinois-Chicago plays at Wisconsin. &#9632;

f0027-01

Buckeyes Stretch Their Win Streak To 13

<h2>CCHA CONFERENCE (Standings on Fri. Nov. 25)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01510/4823309-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="518" height="345"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETES</h3>Ohio State 8, Ill-Chicago 2Ohio State 9, Ill-Chicago 2Wisconsin 10, Ill-Chicago 4Mich Tech 7, Ferris State 5Mich Tech 7, Ferris State 1N. Michigan 5, L Superior 1N. Michigan 4, L Superior 3W. Michigan 8, Miami 3W. Michigan 6, Miami 2Mich State 6, Michigan 3Michigan 5, Mich State 3Bowling Green 6, N. Hampshire 5Bowling Green 4, N. Hampshire 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02355/4823302-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="519" height="429"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE (Standings on Tue. Nov. 22)</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03260/4823295-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="514" height="205"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04190/4823288-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="516" height="177"></div><h3>IVY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05164/4823281-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="512" height="203"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Boston College 3, Lowell 2Boston Univ 12, Dalhousie 1Boston Univ 4, Dalhousie 0Boston Univ 8, Lowell 0Boston Univ 8, Merrimack 0Boston Univ 3, Minn-Duluth 2Minn-Duluth 5, Boston Univ 4Clarkson 8, U.S. Inti 2Clarkson 8, U.S. Inti 3Team USA 6, Clarkson 2Clarkson 3, RIT 0Concordia 4, Clarkson 4Bowling Green 5, Clarkson 2Bowling Green 5, Clarkson 3Colgate 5, Plattsburgh 2Laurier 5, Colgate 4Colgate 6, RIT 2Team USA 9, Cornell 2Cornell 5, Laurier 0St. Lawrence 7, RIT 4Team USA 11, Harvard 2Maine 6, Concordia 3Maine 4, Concordia 2Lowell 5, Maine 3Team USA 3, New Hampshire 1Providence 6, Merrimack 3Providence 8, Lowell3Providence 3, Dalhousie 3Providence 4, Dalhousie 3RPI 7, Dalhousie 2RPI 5, Dalhousie 2RPI 6, Mt. Allison 1RPI 2, Mt. Allison 1RPI 8, Plattsburgh 3St. Lawrence 7, U.S. Inti 3St. Lawrence 6, U.S. Inti 3St. Lawrence 5, Oswego 3St Lawrence 7, Army 6St. Lawrence 7, Plattsburgh 2<h2>CONFERENCE GAMES</h2>RPI 7, Providence 1Northeastern 7, Providence 6Maine 9, Northeastern 6Clarkson 6, Colgate 2Vermont 5, St. Lawrence 4Northeastern 6, Clarkson 3Princeton 6, Brown 3Providence 7, Maine 6Boston University 3, RPI 2<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE (Standings on Fri. Nov. 25)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06144/4823274-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="516" height="203"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wisconsin 2, Colorado Coll. 1Wisconsin 3, Colorado Coll. 2Minn-Duluth 7, Denver 5Minn-Duluth 4, Denver 3Minnesota 4, North Dakota 3Minnesota 1, North Dakota 0Wisconsin 10, Illinois-Chicago 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07134/4823267-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="515" height="430"></div><h3>GOALTENDING RECORDS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-08124/4823260-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg" title="f0028-08" width="516" height="231"></div><h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE (Standings on Mon. Nov. 21)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-09117/4823253-1-eng-US/f0028-092.jpg" title="f0028-09" width="526" height="406"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-10114/4823246-1-eng-US/f0028-102.jpg" title="f0028-10" width="524" height="374"></div><h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-11106/4823239-1-eng-US/f0028-112.jpg" title="f0028-11" width="520" height="288"></div><h2>GPAC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-12102/4823232-1-eng-US/f0028-122.jpg" title="f0028-12" width="521" height="181"></div><h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1394/4823225-1-eng-US/f0028-132.jpg" title="f0028-13" width="518" height="149"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>ONTARIO CONFERENCEQueen&rsquo;s 6, Western 5Laurier 6, Laurentian 6Brock 8, RMC 7York 5, McMaster 4Toronto 11, Waterloo 1Brock 4, McMaster 4Waterloo 4, Guelph 3Queen&rsquo;s 1, Western 1York 7, Brock 1Toronto 10, Windsor 6York 6, Western 1McMaster 4, Queen&rsquo;s 1Waterloo 9, Laurentian 2Ryerson 7, Windsor 4Queen&rsquo;s 6, Guelph 4Toronto 10, Ryerson 2Guelph 4, RMC 3Waterloo 3, Laurentian 1<h3>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h3>Chicoutimi 9, McGill 3Chicoutimi 11, T-Rivieres 8<h3>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h3>Moncton 6, St Mary&rsquo;s 4Moncton 9, Acadia 4N. Brunswick 5, Mt. Allison 3N. Brunswick 3, St F. Xavier 2Mt. Adison 17, St. Thomas 3<h3>G-PAC CONFERENCE</h3>Brandon 5, Manitoba 1Brandon 6, Manitoba 3Winnipeg 13, Regina 3Regina 6, Winnipeg 3<h3>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h3>Saskatchewan 5, Calgary 3Saskatchewan 6, Calgary 2Alberta 4, UBC 1Alberta 4, UBC 1 &#9632;

f0028-01

HOW THEY STAND

<h2>ECAC</h2><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1483/4823375-1-eng-US/f0028-142.jpg" title="f0028-14" width="529" height="509"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1579/4823368-1-eng-US/f0028-152.jpg" title="f0028-15" width="545" height="625"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1663/4823361-1-eng-US/f0028-162.jpg" title="f0028-16" width="540" height="376"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1749/4823354-1-eng-US/f0028-172.jpg" title="f0028-17" width="545" height="770"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><h3>NOVEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1846/4823347-1-eng-US/f0028-182.jpg" title="f0028-18" width="539" height="290"></div><h3>DECEMBER</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1943/4823340-1-eng-US/f0028-192.jpg" title="f0028-19" width="533" height="858"></div> &#9632;

f0028-14

GAMES TO COME

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MINNEAPOLIS&mdash;Dig out the track shoes, fans, there&rsquo;s a race going on in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.Any hopes North Dakota had of making a shambles out of the WCHA race in the early going disappeared in the face of a determined effort by second-place Minnesota.North Dakota, which won its first eight WCHA games, went into Minneapolis with a five-point lead on the Gophers and an opportunity to widen the lead to four-and-a-half games.After Minnesota scored 4-3 and 1-0 victories, the Sioux went back to Grand Forks nursing a one-point lead over the Gophers with defending national champion Wisconsin, riding a six-game win streak, only four points off the lead.It took a goal by freshman center Steve Orth with 1:57 remaining in the opener to pull out the victory for the Gophers, who pumped 29 shots at Sioux goalie Jon Casey compared to just 16 the Sioux mustered against Gopher goalie Frank Pietrangelo.Minnesota coach Brad Buetow called it a &ldquo;crucial series&rdquo; for the Gophers.&ldquo;Not in terms of points, but in terms of regaining our confidence and hard work,&rdquo; Buetow said, in reference to Minnesota&rsquo;s 3-1 and 9-0 losses at Wisconsin the previous weekend.There was plenty of hard work by both teams in this series.In the opener, Minnesota scooted to a 2-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the game on goals by Tony Kellin and Tom Rothstein. But the Sioux rallied with first-period goals by Eddie Christian and Brian Williams and took the lead in the second period on Randy Maxwell&rsquo;s goal.Minnesota&rsquo;s second period powerplay goal of the game, by Pat Micheletti midway through the second period, set the stage for the winner by Orth on a rebound. Seconds later, though, Orth was levelled by a hard check and will undergo knee surgery that could sideline him for the season.The 1-0 game was a classic, a tight-checking playoff-type game between two bitter rivals.Rothstein&rsquo;s power-play goal 6:15 into the game with the Sioux skating two men short proved to be the winner. Defenseman Gary Shopek set up Rothstein with a perfect goal-mouth feed from the left point and Rothstein tipped the pass into the net.North Dakota was snake-bit throughout. Defenseman Brad Berry caught the crossbar with one blast and winger Perry Nakonechny rang the pipe late in the game that could have tied it.North Dakota attempted to pull Casey for a sixth attacker in the final minute to go for the tie, but was called for having too many men on the ice, despite the fact the sixth skater never went over the boards.That call had UND coach Gino Gas-parini fuming.&ldquo;There was no way he (the sixth skater, Chris Jensen) was on the ice,&rdquo; said Gasparini. &ldquo;I had him by the jersey on the bench, waiting for the goalie to come off. Am I being penalized for having my goalie on the ice?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of officials skating around with my pay check in their mouths. I can&rsquo;t say they cost us the game, but they certainly cost us the chance to tie it.&rdquo;He was especially upset because a new rule in the WCHA this season calls for an automatic whistle and faceoff, not a penalty, if a sixth skater hits the ice before the goalie is off.Senior goalie Mike Vacanti posted his first career shutout (he shared one earlier) by making 26 stops for Minnesota compared to 20 for Casey of the Sioux.Meanwhile, Wisconsin continued on a roll by taking a pair of close games from Colorado College at the Broadmoor World Ice Arena in Colorado Springs.Sophomore goalie Gary Baxter continued his impressive play by making 29 saves as the Badgers won the opener 2-1. In the rematch, Ted Pearson&rsquo;s goal 3:40 into the final period proved to be the winner as the Badgers completed the sweep with a 3-2 win.Jim Johannson put the Badgers on top in the first period, but Scott Campbell tied it for Colorado College with a second-period goal.Paul Houston and Pearson gave the Badgers a 3-1 edge in the third period. Colorado College closed to within 3-2 on Tim Turner&rsquo;s power-play goal midway through the final period, but could draw no closer.The sweep kept the Badgers in hot pursuit of league-leading North Dakota and runner-up Minnesota and was a good indication that the Badgers have it together again after a rocky start, which included four consecutive losses to North Dakota and Minnesota. Since then, the six consecutive league triumphs indicate the defending nationals champions are once again a team to be reckoned with.At Denver, Minnesota-Duluth won a pair of tight games to stay in the thick of the race.In the opener, won 7-5 by the Bulldogs, Bob Lakso scored a pair of goals and Bill Watson and Tom Kurvers each had one goal and three assists.Duluth build a 4-1 lead, only to see Denver rally for a 4-4 tie. But goals by Matt Christiansen and Tom Herzig 20 seconds apart late in the second period snapped the tie and carried Duluth to victory.It wasn&rsquo;t quite so easy in the rematch, won 5-4 by Duluth in overtime.Freshman Dave Cowan&rsquo;s first goal of the season with 10 seconds left in regulation play tied the game after Duluth had pulled goaltender Rich Kosti for a sixth attacker.Tom Herzig scored at 6:58 of the 10minute overtime session to win it for Duluth. Kurvers had a pair of goals for Duluth while Denver got singles form Kermit Eckelbarger, Tom Weiss, Dave Anderson and Dwight Mathiasen. Kosti finished with 23 saves for Duluth to 40 for Denver goalie Chris Olson.WCHA NOTES&mdash;Injuries have hit the Minnesota Gophers hard. Rick Erdall may be lost for the season following knee surgery. Wally Chapman, another good forward, could be sidelined for a month with a knee injury. Steve Orth, the rookie who got the winning goal to beat North Dakota 4-3, may be through for the year with a knee injury. Gopher defenseman Tony Kellin. who was reported to be out two to three weeks with a knee injury, didn&rsquo;t miss any action after being hurt in the series at Wisconsin&hellip;Add Duluth coach Mike Sertich to the list of those who were glad to see Minnesota&rsquo;s sweep over North Dakota. &ldquo;Nobody would have caught them (North Dakota) if they had won twice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It would have been all over.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01440/4823406-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="600" height="914"><figcaption class="caption-body">Minnesota&rsquo;s Steve Orth scored the winner against North Dakota but was hurt.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

North Dakota Has Lead Shortened As Minnesota, Wisconsin Close In

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02370/4823482-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="354" height="477"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE STERN Oshawa</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03253/4823475-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="355" height="479"><figcaption class="caption-body">SCOTT MACHEJ Calgary</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04170/4823468-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="352" height="472"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARIO LEMIEUX Laval</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The Oshawa Generals had so many NHL draft picks going for them last year they probably didn&rsquo;t need Mike Stem&rsquo;s production as much as they do this season.The 19-year-old right winger is playing a big role in the Generals&rsquo; four-way battle for the lead in the Leyden Division. Last week. Stem scored five goals and set up three more to win the Ontario Hockey League Player of the Week honors. Stem turned in a four-goal performance against Peterborough to raise his season totals to 14 goals in 19 games.The property of the Detroit Red Wings, the 6-foot-4,225-pound Stem is well ahead of last year&rsquo;s pace, in which it took him 62 games to get 16 goals.<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>Scott Machej has his eye on a future shot with the St. Louis Blues and judging by his increased production this season, he could be right on target.Machej, who had 37 goals and 69 points in 71 games last season, already has counted 18 goals in his first 20 games. Right now he&rsquo;s a hot commodity for the Calgary Wranglers of the Western Hockey League and was chosen as the league&rsquo;s Player of the Week after a 10-point splurge in three games.Drafted in the fifth round by the Blues in 1981, Machej is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound left winger who has suddenly found his scoring touch. He scored eight goals in Calgary&rsquo;s last three games.<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>They are running out of superlatives describing the sensational play of center Mario Lemieux of the Laval Voisins.The brilliant 18-year-old scored his 50th goal of the season in his 27th game, breaking the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League record of 28 games by Guy Lafleur. Lemieux was selected as the QMJHL&rsquo;s Player of the Week for the third time after he collected 11 points in three games.Becoming the fastest 50-goal scorer in league history was inevitable the way he has been putting the puck in the net. Lemieux has a phenomenal 51 goals, 59 assists and 110 points in 27 games. &#9632;

f0030-02

Players of the Week

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville HockeyTORONTO&mdash;First place in the Ontario Hockey League this season will be worth a whole lot more than home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.The prize is a berth in the Men orial Cup.The OHL&rsquo;s regular-season champion will not only earn an automatic ticket into the Memorial Cup. but will also play host to the historic national championship on May 12-19.Also representing the OHL will be the playoff champion.If the regular-season champion and playoff champion are the same team&mdash;which has happened four times in the past 12 years&mdash;then only one OHL club will compete against the winners of the Western and Quebec Hockey Leagues. Last year&rsquo;s Cup winner, the Portland Winter Hawks, were the host of the tournament, but were guaranteed a berth regardless of their regular season or playoff performances.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve experienced in years gone by when you predetermine the Memorial Cup site, the odds greatly suggest the home team will not be involved,&rdquo; said OHL commissioner Dave Branch.&ldquo;When that occurs, you just don&rsquo;t have the same interest and enthusiasm that the host team would have if it was entered. Last year we tried the new format in Portland and certainly everything exceeded our expectations. The average crowd was 6,700 for eight games. The final was sold out.&ldquo;All the excitement of the fans and the enthusiasm of the community really made it an event and memorable experience for all the players. That&rsquo;s something they deserve in what is probably a once in a lifetime chance to compete in a Memorial Cup.&ldquo;For us. it gives the Memorial Cup the prestige it deserves.&rdquo;Kitchener Rangers played host to the Memorial Cup in 1975, a year in which they didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs. As a result, there was little interest in the Cup and crowds bordered around the 2,000 mark.However, the Rangers are now one of the OHL&rsquo;s top franchises and last season drew an average of 4,100 fans a game and that figure increased to 6,500-plus in the playoffs. Obviously, the Rangers would have no trouble selling out the Memorial Audtiorium&mdash;so long as they&rsquo;re in the Memorial Cup.As the regular-season approached the one-third mark, Ottawa 67s, Toronto Marlboros and Kitchener were beginning to pull away from the pack. Since those clubs play in the largest buildings&mdash;Ottawa Civic Center can hold about 10,000 while Maple Leaf Gardens holds more than 16,400&mdash;it wouldn&rsquo;t disappoint governors if one of those three teams finished on top.Although it will cost more than $250,000 to stage the tourney, Branch said it doesn&rsquo;t matter which of the 15-league centers has the event.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve calculated we can cover costs in the smallest building in the league,&rdquo; Branch said. &ldquo;Maybe it would not be a financial success, but it will be a success in every other way.&rdquo;A jump in attendance could be a byproduct of the race for entry into the Memorial Cup berth and the right to be host to it. Branch noted that a little friendly competition not only would be a shot in the arm at the turnstiles, but also might not hurt ratings on the league&rsquo;s featured game of the week on Global TV.The final game in the 10-game package on March 17 features Ottawa in Toronto.In other OHL business, governors deferred a decision on expansion applications from Detroit Compuware Corporation&rsquo;s hockey division and Niagara Falls for two weeks and voted to award Guelph Platers the all-star game to be staged Feb. 7.On the expansion issue, governors heard a report from the league&rsquo;s expansion committee, then, after a two-hour meeting, decided more time and information was required to study the applications. Governors are concerned about the capacity of the Niagara Falls Arena (2,900)&mdash;there&rsquo;s no guarantee it would be expanded&mdash;and that none of the proposed owners are from the city. In the past, OHL governors have told expansion applicants that arenas with capability of expanding to 3,500 were necessary.The lack of a building in Detroit is also a concern, although the Compuware group has promised to build a 6,800-seat facility.Governors have pegged the franchise price at $350,000.Guelph Platers, who came into the league two seasons ago, paid $300,000.The delay met with mixed reaction.Sam McMaster, general manager of the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds and the leader of a group of silent investors from the Soo trying to bring a team to Niagara Falls for the third time, wasn&rsquo;t happy.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve had all my information for two months,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to meet with my group and make a decision as to what were going to do, whether we&rsquo;ll proceed or pull out.&rdquo;McMaster wanted a decision by Nov. 14 because he believes he is in a conflict of interest position representing the interests of the Greyhounds and the Niagara Falls group. McMaster has an agreement with the Hounds&rdquo; governor Jim McAuley to resign immediately if Niagara is granted a club.Peter Karmanos, president of Compuware, said the delay doesn&rsquo;t bother him.&ldquo;They should have lots of questions and I don&rsquo;t blame them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In Sam&rsquo;s case (McMaster), they&rsquo;re talking about going to a city which has had it twice (two previous teams in Niagara were moved). If you were on the expansion committee, wouldn&rsquo;t you want to find out more?&ldquo;If they need time, it&rsquo;s the best way to go. I&rsquo;d rather them do it right than make a rash decision.&rdquo;Major moves&mdash;Kitchener Rangers and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, the strongest clubs in the Emms Division, strengthened their roster considerably with recent acquisitions. Kitchener bought the rights to overage goalie Joe Mantione, who played in Cornwall last season, to beef up its only possible problem zone. Then they muscled up with Carmine Vani, a player with many talents including glove-dropping skills. To get Vani, the Rangers dealt Rob Nicholls to North Bay. Vani had 14 goals before the deal. Sault countered by acquiring center Graeme Bonar from Windsor for defenseman Mike Neill. Bonar, the Spits&rsquo; first pick in the draft a year ago, should be a great help to the Hounds, who could afford to let Neill go.What&rsquo;s my line?&mdash;Mike Stern, a winger from Oshawa Generals who shoots bullets, was chosen the OHL&rsquo;s Player of the Week after a seven-point performance in the Generals&rsquo; 8-5 win over Peterborough on Nov. 13. Stem scored five goals for the defending league champions. The line of Stem, Dave Gans and Dan Biggs produced 18 points in the game.Streaking&mdash;Kitchener&rsquo;s 14-game winning streak ended in Peterborough on Nov. 10. At home, where the Rangers averaged 4,100 fans through 10 home dates, the club has won 27 in a row dating back to last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01496/4823437-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="567" height="864"><figcaption class="caption-body">League commissioner Dave Branch is confident the Memorial Cup will be a success.</figcaption></div>Good timing or bad timing?&mdash;London center Brian Bradley signed a contract with the Calgary Flames recently, then went out and injured his shoulder the next night. He&rsquo;s out four weeks.Back from pros&mdash;Buffalo Sabres returned Adam Creighton to Ottawa 67s after a quick look. Hartford Whalers, who recalled defensman Mark Paterson on an emergency basis, returned him to the 67s. John Tucker, the top scorer for Kitchener, did not dress in his first three games with Buffalo but accompanied them on a three-game road swing.Coach of the year candidate&mdash;Tom Barrett, for his hands-off approach with the Kitchener Rangers. He&rsquo;s just letting them play their game. Obviously, Barrett will step in and do it his way when the time comes, if it comes. His credentials include six junior B league titles with Streetsville Derbys, one OHA jr. B title with Streetsville, a 28-game winning streak a couple of seasons ago with Brampton of the Ontario Junior Hockey League and a national title last year with North York Rangers in the Centennial Cup.Name game&mdash;Adam Creighton&rsquo;s father, Dave, played several years in pro, including a stint with the New York Rangers. John Tucker&rsquo;s uncle, Whit, was a star receiver with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League and is now a successful manger with a stock-brocking firm. Bruce Shaw, the father of Kitchener defenseman Dave Shaw, is the mayor of Exeter and principal of the Seaforth District High School. Ottawa&rsquo;s John Hanna is the son of John Hanna, who played defense with the Rangers. Ian Armstrong of Peterborough, who roomed with Prince Andrew at Lakefield College, is the son of former Boston defenseman Bob Armstrong. Larry Ziedel&rsquo;s son, Jay, plays in Windsor, while Syd Howe&rsquo;s grandson, Pat Lahey, is with Sault St. Marie. Danny Quinn&rsquo;s father, Peter, was a defensive back and backup quarterback to Russ Jackson in Ottawa.Dick Todd&rsquo;s all-star team&mdash;The Peterborough Petes&rsquo; coach picks Toronto goalie Dave Meszaros, defensemen Bruce Cassidy of Ottawa and Shawn Evans of Peterborough. Up front, he chooses Kirk Muller of Guelph at center, Steve Graves of Sault Ste. Marie on left wing and Wayne Presley of Kitchener on right wing.Whistlestops&mdash;Former London Knight Ken Latta, dropped by two International League teams, has caught on with Pine Bridge Bucks of the Atlantic Coast League&hellip;Oshawa coach Paul Theriault drew a two-game suspension for being ejected in a game at London. Knight defenseman Bob Halkidis also was suspended for three games for spearing Dave Gans&hellip;One of the most improved players in the league has to be Brantford goalie Chris Pusey. who is sharing the work with all-star Alan Bester. Brantford coach Dave Draper predicted before the season began that Pusey would turn some heads this season and become a premier goaltender&hellip;The best road team is Toronto with a 10-2 slate. &#9632;

f0030-01

Champions In The Regular Season Will Be Host To The Memorial Cun

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville HockeySASKATOON&mdash;What&rsquo;s wrong with the Blades?That&rsquo;s been the burning Western Hockey League question this season. The answer, according to coach-of-the-year Darryl Lubiniecki, is simply a matter of subtraction. The solution could be some addition.The Blades, accustomed to lofty heights in the Eastern Division, are struggling. They&rsquo;ve won just seven of their first 17 starts, a farcry from last season&rsquo;s pace. The Blades finished first at 52-19-1 and were a dominant force before exiting early again in the playoffs.Saskatoon didn&rsquo;t have any problems putting pucks in the net in 1982-83. The club tied for second overall in goal production with 461. But that production has moved up to the professional ranks.Gone are Roger Kortko (181 points), Lane Lambert (119), Perry Ganchar (116), Todd Strueby (110), Ross Lambert (106) and Brian Skrudland (94).It doesn&rsquo;t take a genius to conclude that that&rsquo;s a lot of firepower to be missing from any club. However, it might take a genius to solve the problem. If Lubiniecki can do that, he&rsquo;ll win his second straight coaching award.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question we miss the offense but we&rsquo;ll be there,&rdquo; said Lubiniecki. &ldquo;Really, the biggest thing is an injury problem. We&rsquo;ve had guys injured all year. We&rsquo;re better than our record shows.&rdquo;The Blades&rsquo; sudden youth and inexperience has resulted in tight games. Saskatoon, in those first 17 games, only trailed twice. The inability to play with a lead has hurt.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not jumping off the bridge or anything like that,&rdquo; added Lubiniecki. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just struggling right now. I don&rsquo;t think the owners are contemplating any changes.&rdquo;The Blades didn&rsquo;t contemplate any changes last season. Instead of dealing some of their better players to make certain there would be fewer holes to fill this time around, the Blades stood pat.&ldquo;We knew we would be shy at center this year and we went with the good ones last year,&rdquo; said Lubiniecki. &ldquo;We took the gamble and we thought some of the young guys coming up this year could do the job. If you get good centers they can make the wingers.&ldquo;I think in junior hockey you can always trade and sit back and make the fourth or fifth playoff spot. We thought we had the horses to go all the way. If we have a team that is that close I&rsquo;ll do it again&mdash;to hell with next year.&rdquo;Knowing he had to patch up center ice, Lubiniecki brought well-travelled Syd Cranston to training camp, only to see him take a job offer and leave the province. Subsequent deals saw centers Doug Kyle and Dwaine Hutton, also well-travelled, end up in Saskatoon this season.Kyle and Hutton both played in Kelowna last season, with Kyle eventually being dealt to Lethbridge. This season, Kelowna traded Hutton to Regina, before the center was shipped to Saskatoon for center Alan Acton.Goal production hasn&rsquo;t been the only problem.Dave Chartier and Trent Yawney, who anchor the defense, have had nagging injuries. In their absence, turnovers have been numerous and leadership has been minimal. Rookie Wendel Clark. 17. will be a good defenseman one day but isn&rsquo;t quite there yet. He and newcomer Grant Jennings have been getting ample ice time and will only improve with time.&ldquo;It seems we just don&rsquo;t know how to hold a lead right now but I think after Christmas we&rsquo;ll have a good club,&rdquo; predicted Lubiniecki.Lubiniecki will have to eventually get the Blades rolling to keep the boo-birds quiet. They&rsquo;re accustomed to having something to cheer about in the antiquated Saskatoon Arena. Everyone loves a winner and right now the the Blades aren&rsquo;t.Add the fact some are still reeling from another early playoff exit to eventual league champion Lethbridge last season and the tension mounts. In that respect, does Lubiniecki feel more heat this time around?&ldquo;In a way maybe it&rsquo;s good we&rsquo;re not getting off to as quick a start as last season,&rdquo; said Lubiniecki. &ldquo;The thing about last year is that we had such a great regular season and in the playoff we met Leth-bridge first. That was the hottest club in the league.&ldquo;Kortko was injured in the first game and he was such a big part of our hockey club. Lethbridge players told us that was the toughest series they had in the playoffs. I was proud of the way my team played.&rdquo;If Lubiniecki can talk that way about his Blades next spring, he could well be in line for another award.WHL WEEK-It was a familiar scoring story as the WHL entered week eight of the regular season. Dan Hodgson of Prince Albert, who had six points in a game against Brandon, continued to set the pace with 59 points. Ray Ferraro of Brandon was second with 44, including a league-high 28 goals. Russ Courtnall of Victoria was third with 39 points, while Taylor Hall of Regina was in fourth with 38&hellip;WHL clubs held down five of the top 10 Canadian Major Junior Hockey League ratings spots entering week eight. Regina was ranked fifth, Lethbridge sixth and Portland eighth, while Kamloops and Victoria shared ninth place. Ken Wregget of Lethbridge was top netminder with a 2.31&hellip;Dean Evason, a fifth-round draft pick of the Washington Capitals in 1982 and Molson&rsquo;s WHL Player of the Year last season, has been recalled by the National Hockey League club&hellip;Dale Derkatch of Regina has been recalled by the Canadian Olympic team. Derkatch, who tried out for the team but was later returned, was in the top-10 in scoring with 33 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01457/4823513-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="574" height="891"><figcaption class="caption-body">Saskatoon coach Daryl Lubiniecki is suffering with the Blades&rsquo; youth and inexperience.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Losing Top Guns Has Dulled Blade Offense

<h2>OVERALL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1540/4824117-1-eng-US/f0033-152.jpg" title="f0033-15" width="857" height="413"></div><h2>TOP DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1634/4824110-1-eng-US/f0033-162.jpg" title="f0033-16" width="857" height="352"></div><h2>TOP ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1734/4824103-1-eng-US/f0033-172.jpg" title="f0033-17" width="853" height="352"></div><h2>BOSTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1829/4824096-1-eng-US/f0033-182.jpg" title="f0033-18" width="850" height="148"></div><h2>BUFFALO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1927/4824089-1-eng-US/f0033-192.jpg" title="f0033-19" width="853" height="149"></div><h2>CALGARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2023/4824082-1-eng-US/f0033-202.jpg" title="f0033-20" width="856" height="148"></div><h2>CHICAGO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2121/4824075-1-eng-US/f0033-212.jpg" title="f0033-21" width="856" height="150"></div><h2>DETROIT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2217/4824068-1-eng-US/f0033-222.jpg" title="f0033-22" width="855" height="146"></div><h2>EDMONTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2311/4824061-1-eng-US/f0033-232.jpg" title="f0033-23" width="853" height="149"></div><h2>HARTFORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2411/4824054-1-eng-US/f0033-242.jpg" title="f0033-24" width="853" height="148"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-259/4824047-1-eng-US/f0033-252.jpg" title="f0033-25" width="854" height="148"></div><h2>MINNESOTA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-268/4824040-1-eng-US/f0033-262.jpg" title="f0033-26" width="852" height="149"></div><h2>MONTREAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-278/4824033-1-eng-US/f0033-272.jpg" title="f0033-27" width="851" height="149"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-287/4824026-1-eng-US/f0033-282.jpg" title="f0033-28" width="853" height="150"></div><h2>NY ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-296/4824019-1-eng-US/f0033-292.jpg" title="f0033-29" width="851" height="149"></div><h2>NY RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-306/4824012-1-eng-US/f0033-302.jpg" title="f0033-30" width="852" height="151"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-316/4824005-1-eng-US/f0033-312.jpg" title="f0033-31" width="850" height="149"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-326/4823998-1-eng-US/f0033-322.jpg" title="f0033-32" width="849" height="149"></div><h2>QUEBEC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-336/4823991-1-eng-US/f0033-332.jpg" title="f0033-33" width="846" height="147"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-346/4823984-1-eng-US/f0033-342.jpg" title="f0033-34" width="852" height="150"></div><h2>TORONTO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-356/4823977-1-eng-US/f0033-352.jpg" title="f0033-35" width="847" height="150"></div><h2>VANCOUVER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-364/4823970-1-eng-US/f0033-362.jpg" title="f0033-36" width="848" height="146"></div><h2>WASHINGTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-374/4823963-1-eng-US/f0033-372.jpg" title="f0033-37" width="850" height="151"></div><h2>WINNIPEG</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-384/4823956-1-eng-US/f0033-382.jpg" title="f0033-38" width="850" height="151"></div> &#9632;

f0033-15

EMERY TROPHY PLUS-MINUS

<h2>Tue. Nov. 15 NEW JERSEY 0, MINNESOTA 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01430/4823925-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="535" height="694"></div><h2>HARTFORD 4, ISLANDERS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02304/4823918-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="543" height="781"></div><h2>DETROIT 3, QUEBEC 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03214/4823911-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="535" height="580"></div><h2>MONTREAL 5, ST. LOUIS 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04161/4823904-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="538" height="748"></div><h2>Wed. Nov. 16 ST. LOUIS 3, CHICAGO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05130/4823897-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="526" height="229"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06106/4823890-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="535" height="638"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 2, LOS ANGELES 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0795/4823883-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="539" height="723"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 1, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0879/4823876-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="540" height="780"></div><h2>TORONTO 3, PITTSBURGH 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0970/4823869-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="545" height="839"></div><h2>BUFFALO 6, WINNIPEG 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1065/4823862-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="523" height="148"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1163/4823855-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="538" height="509"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1262/4823848-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="534" height="349"></div><h2>Thu. Nov. 17 TORONTO 1, BOSTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1349/4823841-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="528" height="88"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1446/4823834-1-eng-US/f0033-142.jpg" title="f0033-14" width="535" height="460"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01436/4823827-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="521" height="147"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 4, CALGARY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02326/4823820-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="527" height="853"></div><h2>QUEBEC 4, HARTFORD 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03254/4823813-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="524" height="708"></div><h2>DETROIT 2, MONTREAL 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04179/4823806-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="532" height="715"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 5, PHILADELPHIA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05140/4823799-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="521" height="371"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06119/4823792-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="524" height="711"></div><h2>Fri. Nov. 18 BUFFALO 0, EDMONTON 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07111/4823785-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="524" height="769"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 5. VANCOUVER 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08106/4823778-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="523" height="763"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 1, WASHINGTON 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09100/4823771-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="512" height="116"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1097/4823764-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="531" height="802"></div><h2>Sat. Nov. 19 RANGERS 6, BOSTON 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1194/4823757-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="537" height="1141"></div><h2>BUFFALO 5, CALGARY 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1290/4823750-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="454" height="65"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01385/4823743-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="574" height="708"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 4, EDMONTON 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02272/4823736-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="570" height="248"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03203/4823729-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="562" height="99"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04165/4823722-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="564" height="101"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05141/4823715-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="564" height="100"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06118/4823708-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="388" height="66"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1157/4823701-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="527" height="489"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 7, MINNESOTA 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1252/4823694-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="534" height="1143"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1343/4823687-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="530" height="206"></div><h2>CHICAGO 5, MONTREAL 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1438/4823680-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="538" height="858"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 2, ISLANDERS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1536/4823673-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg" title="f0038-15" width="527" height="572"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1632/4823666-1-eng-US/f0038-162.jpg" title="f0038-16" width="525" height="290"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 4, PITTSBURGH 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1729/4823659-1-eng-US/f0038-172.jpg" title="f0038-17" width="538" height="948"></div><h2>HARTFORD 4, QUEBEC 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1826/4823652-1-eng-US/f0038-182.jpg" title="f0038-18" width="523" height="370"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1925/4823645-1-eng-US/f0038-192.jpg" title="f0038-19" width="533" height="519"></div><h2>DETROIT 4, TORONTO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2022/4823638-1-eng-US/f0038-202.jpg" title="f0038-20" width="534" height="890"></div><h2>Sun. Nov. 20 MINNESOTA 4, CHICAGO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2120/4823631-1-eng-US/f0038-212.jpg" title="f0038-21" width="525" height="175"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2218/4823624-1-eng-US/f0038-222.jpg" title="f0038-22" width="536" height="665"></div><h2>QUEBEC 5, RANGERS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2315/4823617-1-eng-US/f0038-232.jpg" title="f0038-23" width="534" height="943"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-266/4823610-1-eng-US/f0039-262.jpg" title="f0039-26" width="533" height="266"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 4. PHILADELPHIA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-275/4823603-1-eng-US/f0039-272.jpg" title="f0039-27" width="538" height="800"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-283/4823596-1-eng-US/f0039-282.jpg" title="f0039-28" width="537" height="266"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 3, VANCOUVER 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-293/4823589-1-eng-US/f0039-292.jpg" title="f0039-29" width="542" height="871"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-303/4823582-1-eng-US/f0039-302.jpg" title="f0039-30" width="528" height="94"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-313/4823575-1-eng-US/f0039-312.jpg" title="f0039-31" width="532" height="90"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05186/4824207-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>POWER PLAY RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06167/4824280-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="502" height="449"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07156/4824273-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="522" height="295"></div><h2>PENALTY KILUNG RECORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08136/4824266-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="493" height="114"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09129/4824259-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="513" height="484"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10114/4824252-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="522" height="178"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11106/4824245-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="496" height="230"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-1293/4824238-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="507" height="397"></div>(PM&mdash;Penalty minutes. (BMI) Total bench minor minutes. &#9632;

f0035-06

NHL TEAM LEADERS

<h2>Top Scorers In The NHL</h2><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1387/4824318-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="491" height="491"></div><h3>LEADING ROOKIES</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1481/4824311-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="488" height="460"></div> &#9632;

f0036-13

<h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 21) CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1581/4824370-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="521" height="176"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1678/4824363-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="522" height="182"></div><h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1772/4824356-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="524" height="174"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1868/4824349-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="521" height="208"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Nov. 15New Jersey 0 at Minnesota 6Hartford 4 at NY Islanders 6Detroit 3 at Quebec 1Montreal 5 at St. Louis 2Wed. Nov. 18St. Louis 3 at Chicago 4Vancouver 2 at Los Angeles 5Washington 1 at NY Rangers 4Toronto 3 at Pittsburgh 2Buffalo 6 at Winnipeg 5 (OT)Thu. Nov. 17Toronto 1 at Boston 4New Jersey 4 at Calgary 5Quebec 4 at Hartford 2Detroit 2 at Montreal 4Minnesota 5 at Philadelphia 5 (OT)Fri. Nov. 18Buffalo 0 at Edmonton 7Los Angeles 5 at Vancouver 2NY Islanders 1 at Washington 7Sat. Nov 19NY Rangers 6 at Boston 6 (OT)Buffalo 5 at Calgary 2New Jersey 4 at Edmonton 13Winnipeg 7 at Minnesota 8 (OT)Chicago 5 at Montreal 5 (OT)Wasington 2 at NY Islanders 6St. Louis 4 at Pittsburgh 4 (OT)Hartford 4 at Quebec 4 (OT)Detroit 4 at Toronto 5Sun. Nov. 20Minnesota 4 at Chicago 3Quebec 5 at NY Rangers 6 (OT)Pittsburgh 4 at Philadelphia 5 (OT)Los Angeles 3 at Vancouver 8 &#9632;

f0036-15

THE NHL SCOREBOARD

<h2>AT HOME</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1966/4824450-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="262" height="623"></div><h2>ON THE ROAD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2062/4824443-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="259" height="624"></div><h2>POINTS RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2159/4824436-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="519" height="628"></div><h2>How they did in their last 10 games</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2258/4824429-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="217" height="144"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2354/4824422-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="207" height="143"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2451/4824415-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="211" height="141"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2547/4824408-1-eng-US/f0036-252.jpg" title="f0036-25" width="200" height="144"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2644/4824401-1-eng-US/f0036-262.jpg" title="f0036-26" width="197" height="170"></div> &#9632;

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HOW NHL TEAMS RATE

BOSTON&mdash;B. Crowder 4, Bourque 10, Fergus 8, 9, Krushelnyski 10,11, Middleton 11, K. Crowder 5, 6, O&rsquo;Connell 6. Winning goals-Bourque.BUFFALO&mdash;Housley 9, Ramsay 1, 2, Cloutier 10, Peterson 2, McKenna 1,2, Moller 2, Perreault 14, Ruff 3, Foligno 9. Winning goals-Ramsay, Perreault.CALGARY&mdash;Nilsson 5, 6, Eaves 5, 6, Beers 11, Hislop 1, Risebrough 5. Winning goals-Hislop.CHICAGO&mdash;D. Wilson 5, Yaremchuk 3, B. Wilson 4, Savard 14, 15, 16, 17, Marsh 2, Gardner 7, Brown 5, Larmer 12, 13. Winning goals-Savard.DETROIT&mdash;Gare 4, Boldirev 5, 6, 7, Ogrodnick 9,10,11, Yzerman 12,13. Winning goals-Boldirev.EDMONTON&mdash;Gregg 5, 6, Kurri 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, Anderson 13, Lumley 3, Pouzar 2, Gretzky 25, 26, 27, Lindstrom 5,6, 7, Coffey 9, Playfair 1. Winning goals-Gregg, Gretzky.HARTFORD&mdash;Siltanen 3, 4, Kotsopoulos 1, Dunn 2, Neufeld 10, Turgeon 8, Francis 6, Crawford 7, Malone 6, Stoughton 10. Winning goals-none.LOS ANGELES&mdash;MacLel Ian 9,10, Dionne 6, Hakansson 4, Jarvis 4, Taylor 4, McEwen 1, Fox 11,12, Nicholls 16, Chorney 1, Simmer 9, 10. Winning goals-Hakansson, Fox.MINNESOTA&mdash;Douglas 3, Maxwell, 2, 3, 4, 5, McCarthy 7, 8, 9, Payne 6, 7, Broten 6, 7, Bellows 8, 9, 10, Hartsburg 3, 4, MacAdam 4, Ciccarelll 16, Acton 4, 5, 6, Maruk 5. Winning goals-Douglas, Bellows, Broten.MONTREAL&mdash;Robinson 2, Gainey 4, Smith 11,12,13, Walter 5, Wickenheiser 4, Paslawski 1, Nilan 4, Tremblay 4, 5, Naslund 8, 9, Lafleur 10. Winning goals-Smith 2.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Broten 5, Cirella 4, Mulvey 1, Russell 4, Cameron 4, Ludvig 7, Larmer 4, Gagne 3. Winning goals-none.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Trottier 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Potvin 5, Bossy 12, 13, 14, 15, Goring 4, 5, D. Sutter 3. Winning goals-Bossy, Goring.NY RANGERS&mdash;Ruotsalainen 3, 4, Don Maloney 9,10, 11,Hedberg 8,9,10, Osborne 8, Rogers 8, 9, 10, Pavelich 7, 8, Greschner 3, Andersson 1. Winning goals-Don Maloney, Andersson.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Kerr 13, Rich Sutter 7, Sinisalo 7, Marsh 1, Poulin 6, Propp 8, 9, Barber 8, Eriksson 2, Clarke 6. Winning goals-Clarke.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Buskas 2, Kehoe 9, Taylor 7, 8, Bullard 10, 11, 12, McClelland 2, Flockhart 5, Boutette 5. Winning goals-none.QUEBEC&mdash;A. Stastny 12, Cote 3, Pichette 1, P. Stastny 9, Paiement 12,13,14,15, M. Stastny 8,9, Sleigher 6,7,8, Weir 2. Winning goals-P. Stastny.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Gilmour 3, 4, Federko 8, 9, Lemieux 1, Sutter 7, Chouinard 2, Turnbull 9. Winning goals-none.TORONTO&mdash;McCourt 6, 7, Derlago 8, Terrion 8, Gavin 5, Vaive 16, 17, Salming 3, Anderson 9. Winning goals-Terrion, Anderson.VANCOUVER&mdash;Currie 1, Rota 15, Smyl 6,7, Gillis 4, Sundstrom 10, Lanz 5, Gradin 4, Halward 3, Tanti 20, Lupul 7, Kirton 1. Winning goals-Smyl.WASHINGTON&mdash;Valentine 3, Murphy 5, Christian 7, Gustafsson 9, Gartner 11, 12, Haworth 5, 6, Duchesne 4, 5. Winning goals-Christian.WINNIPEG&mdash;Hawerchuk 4, 5, Mullen 5, 6, Boschman 12, Smail 6, Lukowich 4, 5, Young 2, Mantha 5, DeBlois 8, Steen 7. Winning goals-none.Five-goal games&mdash;Kurri (Edm).Hat tricks&mdash;Trottier (NYI), Gretzky (Edm), Lindstrom (l: dm), 1 each.Overtime winners&mdash;Ramsay (Buf), Bellows (Min), Andersson (NYR), Clarke (Pha) 1 each. &#9632;

NHL SCORERS THIS WEEK

A regular feature of the Chrysler Scoreboard each week will be the Rookie Spotlight. This week&rsquo;s profile is of New York Ranger Peter Sundstrom.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07100/4824505-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="594" height="1075"></div>The New York Rangers are a team to be reckoned with this season and one of the reasons is Peter Sundstrom, a rookie forward from Sweden.Sundstrom, whose twin brother, Patrik, is currently starring for the Vancouver Canucks, has scored nine goals and three assists in 22 games with the Rangers this season. He and compatriot Jan Erixon have teamed up to give the Rangers an exciting rookie tandem that knows how to play Herb Brooks&rsquo; swirling European style. &#9632;

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Chrysler Rookie Award

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-06" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06108/4824798-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL MINOR LEAGUE AFFILIATIONS

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE (Standings on Tue. Nov. 22)</h2><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01449/4824767-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="529" height="207"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02357/4824760-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="526" height="234"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Nov. 15Sherbrooke 2 at Fredericton 7Adirondack 6 at St. Catharines 4Wed. Nov. 16Binghamton 4 at Moncton 2Sherbrooke 3 at Nova Scotia 4Baltimore 3 at New Haven 4Thu. Nov. 17Binghamton 2 at Fredericton 6Hershey 1 at Springfield 7Fri. Nov. 18St Catharines 6 at New Haven 4Fredericton 2 at Rochester 3Maine 4 at Sherbrooke 7Sat Nov. 19Sherbrooke 5 at Adirondack 8Rochester 5 at Binghamton 4Baltimore 7 at Hershey 6St. Catharines 3 at Maine 7Nova Scotia 4 at Moncton 3New Haven 3 at Springfield 5Sun. Nov. 20Binghamton 3 at Baltimore 4Moncton 4 at Nova Scotia 3Hershey 4 at Rochester 4Fredericton 2 at St. Catharines 5New Haven 7 at Sherbrooke 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03281/4824753-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="533" height="378"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE (Standings on Wed. Nov. 23)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04213/4824746-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="529" height="178"></div><h2>OLYMPIC TEAMS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05146/4824739-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="526" height="120"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Nov. 14Tulsa 1 at Team Canada 6Montana 3 at Colorado 9Tue. Nov. 15Indianapolis 4 at Montana 2Team Canada 3 at Salt Lake 5Wed. Nov. 16Team Canada 4 at Colorado 5Thu. Nov. 17Indianapolis 1 at Montana 3Salt Lake 5 at Colorado 2Fri. Nov. 18Salt Lake 5 at Indianapolis 6Colorado 3 at Tulsa 4Sat. Nov. 19Salt Lake 4 at Indianapolis 5Colorado 5 at Tulsa 2Sun. Nov. 20Montana 1 at Team Canada 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0794/4824732-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="533" height="321"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Nov. 22)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0877/4824725-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="529" height="262"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Nov. 14Fort Wayne 2 at Milwaukee 5Wed. Nov. 16Peoria 0 at Hint 3Fort Wayne 5 at Kalamazoo 7Toledo 4 at Muskegon 3Fri. Nov. 18Peoria 2 at Fort Wayne 6Muskegon 4 at Hint 10Milwaukee 2 at Toledo 2Sat. Nov. 19Toledo 5 at Fort Wayne 1Hint 6 at Muskegon 5Milwaukee 5 at Kalamazoo 2Sun. Nov. 20Milwaukee 9 at Flint 6Fort Wayne 4 at Toledo 3Muskegon 2 at Peoria 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0967/4824718-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="532" height="318"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Nov. 20)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1063/4824711-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="530" height="208"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Nov. 14Erie 1 at Nashville 5Tue. Nov. 15Carolina 4 at Pine Bridge 1Thu. Nov. 17Nashville 8 at Carolina 11Fri. Nov. 18Carolina 6 at Pine Bridge 5Nashville 6 at Erie 8Sat. Nov. 19Nashville 3 at Mohawk Valley 6Pine Bridge 5 at Carolina 10<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01421/4824704-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="535" height="265"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE (Standings on Tue. Nov. 22)</h2><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02289/4824697-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="531" height="236"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03201/4824690-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="535" height="264"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Nov. 15Guelph 1 at Oshawa 9Kitchener 1 at London 5Sudbury 4 at S.S. Marie 8Thu. Nov. 17S.S. Marie 3 at Peterborough 6Sudbury 7 at Windsor 3North Bay 5 at Brantford 3Cornwall 0 at Kingston 8Kitchener 6 at Guelph 3Fri. Nov. 18Brantford 4 at Kitchener 3S.S. Marie 4 at Ottawa 2Sudbury 3 at London 2North Bay 2 at Guelph 4Kingston 3 at Toronto 6Sat. Nov. 19S.S. Marie 6 at Belleville 10North Bay 0 at Toronto 12Sun. Nov. 20London 2 at Oshawa 5Belleville 1 at North Bay 5Brantford 3 at Cornwall 5Ottawa 6 at Kitchener 3Toronto 2 at Windsor 6Peterborough 5 at Kingston 6Sudbury 5 at Guelph 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04167/4824683-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="532" height="146"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05132/4824676-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="535" height="206"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE (Standings on Tue. Nov. 22)</h2><h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06110/4824669-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="530" height="263"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0794/4824662-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="533" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Nov. 15New Westminster 4 at Seattle 2Medicine Hat 2 at Saskatoon 3Lethbridge 4 at Winnipeg 2Calgary 6 at Victoria 4Kelowna 7 at Kamloops 8Wed. Nov. 16Lethbridge 1 at Brandon 6Calgary 5 at Portland 4Saskatoon 4 at Prince Albert 7Kamloops 6 at Kelowna 3Fri. Nov. 18Winnipeg 7 at Lethbridge 9Prince Albert 5 at Regina 5New Westminster 3 at Kamloops 2Calgary 4 at Seattle 7Sat. Nov. 19Regina 3 at Medicine Hat 7Kamloops 4 at Victoria 3New Westminster 6 at Kelowna 5Sun. Nov. 20MedicineHat 2 at Prince Albert 5Brandon 3 at Saskatoon 7Winnipeg 3 at Calgary 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0884/4824655-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="532" height="378"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0973/4824648-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="534" height="238"></div><h3>LEADING GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1066/4824641-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="555" height="178"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE (Standings on Mon. Nov. 21)</h2><h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1158/4824634-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="534" height="208"></div><h3>DIUO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1250/4824627-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="528" height="174"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Nov. 14Granby 2 at Laval 10Tue. Nov. 15Shawinigan 4 at Longueuil 5Wed. Nov. 18St Jean 2 at Drummondville 5Quebec 6 at Hull 7Verdun 4 at Laval 8Chicoutimi 3 at T-Rivieres 6Fri. Nov. 18T-Rivieres 4 at Chicoutimi 6Drummondville 4 at Quebec 6Hull 3 at Shawinigan 5Longueuil 3 at St Jean 7Granby 0 at Verdun 5Sun. Nov. 20Quebec 7 at Drummondville 5Longueuil 9 at Granby 1T-Rivieres 5 at Hull 7Laval 3 at Shawinigan 6St Jean 6 at Verdun 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1344/4824620-1-eng-US/f0039-132.jpg" title="f0039-13" width="532" height="319"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE (Standings on Mon. Nov. 21)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1440/4824613-1-eng-US/f0039-142.jpg" title="f0039-14" width="533" height="320"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Dundas 12, Stratford 3Georgetown 13, Barrie 1Petrolia 9, Chatham 2Petrolia 7, Flamboro 6Dundas 5, Cambridge 3Collingwood 6, Barrie 5Dundas 4, Petrolia 3Woodstock 5, Stratford 4Cambridge 9, Georgetown 3<h2>ALBERTA JUNIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 14)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1535/4824606-1-eng-US/f0039-152.jpg" title="f0039-15" width="536" height="151"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1631/4824599-1-eng-US/f0039-162.jpg" title="f0039-16" width="533" height="150"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1726/4824592-1-eng-US/f0039-172.jpg" title="f0039-17" width="537" height="352"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR (Standings on Fri. Nov. 11)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1819/4824585-1-eng-US/f0039-182.jpg" title="f0039-18" width="532" height="204"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1915/4824578-1-eng-US/f0039-192.jpg" title="f0039-19" width="535" height="146"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2014/4824571-1-eng-US/f0039-202.jpg" title="f0039-20" width="534" height="178"></div><h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE (Standings on Wed. Nov. 9)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2113/4824564-1-eng-US/f0039-212.jpg" title="f0039-21" width="535" height="294"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2211/4824557-1-eng-US/f0039-222.jpg" title="f0039-22" width="529" height="322"></div><h2>U.S. METRO JUNIOR (Standings on Tue. Nov. 8)</h2><h3>ATLANTIC DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2311/4824550-1-eng-US/f0039-232.jpg" title="f0039-23" width="532" height="208"></div><h3>NEW YORK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-249/4824543-1-eng-US/f0039-242.jpg" title="f0039-24" width="531" height="234"></div><h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES (Standings on Mon. Nov. 21)</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-259/4824536-1-eng-US/f0039-252.jpg" title="f0039-25" width="534" height="237"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Humber 9, Conestoga 2Seneca 11, Sheridan 2Seneca 4, Sheridan 3Canadore 6, St. Clair 5Conestoga 5, Centennial 3St. Ciair 7, Canadore 6Humbar 7, Centennial 1Seneca 8, Canadore 4St Claire 3, Sheridan 3St. Clair 8, Centennial 3 &#9632;

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MINOR SCOREBOARD

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Pete Peeters, G, returned from injury list. Mike Moffat G, sent back to Hershey of AHL. Guy Lapointe, D, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, RW, and Steve Kasper, C, all placed on injury list. Lapointe suffered groin pull, O&rsquo;Reilly injured his knee and Kasper was sidelined with a concussion.BUFFALO&mdash;Mark Renaud, D, returned to Rochester of AHL. Adam Creighton, C, returned to junior team without appearing in an NHL game.CALGARY&mdash;Paul Reinhart, D, back from injury list.CHICAGO&mdash;Bob Janecyk, G, recalled from Springfield of AHL.DETROIT&mdash;Danny Gare, RW, returned from injury list. Greg Smith, D, out of action with back problem. Ted Nolan, LW, out indefinitely with torn knee ligaments.EDMONTON&mdash;Reg Kerr, C, recalled from Moncton of AHL.HARTFORD&mdash;Ross Yates, C, recalled from Binghamton of AHL but later returned along with Paul MacDermid, RW. Marty Howe, D, Grg Malone, C, Doug Sulliman, RW, and Mike Crombeen, RW, all back from injury list.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Mike McEwen, D, obtained in trade with NY Islanders for future considerations. Dean Kennedy, D, assigned to New Haven.MINNESOTA&mdash;Lars Lindgren, D, returned from injury list.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Grant Mulvey, LW, back from injury list. Gary McAdam, RW, failed to clear waivers on assignment to Maine of AHL and was claimed by Washington.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;&bull;Billy Carroll, C, and Bob Bourne, LW, both back from injury list.NY RANGERS&mdash;Scot Kleinendorst, D, recalled from Tulsa of CHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Rocky Saganiuk, LW, and Steve Gatzos, RW, assigned to Baltimore of AHL. Rod Schutt, LW, out with back injury.QUEBEC&mdash;Brian Ford, G, Gord Donnelly, D, and Dave Pichette, D, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. Clint Malarchuk, G, sent to Fredericton. John Van Boxmeer, D, sidelined with concussion. Normand Rochefort, D, out with shoulder injury.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Brian Sutter, LW, who was sidelined with a hairline fracture of the pelvis, returned to action. Alain Lemieux, C, recalled from Montana of CHL. Blake Dunlop, RW, placed on waivers. Mark Reeds, RW, out indefinitely with eye injury.TORONTO&mdash;Mike Palmateer, G, back from injury list. Bruce Dowie, G, returned to Muskegon of IHL. Dave Hutchison, D, signed as free agent. Greg Britz, RW, sent back to St. Catharines of AHL.VANCOUVER&mdash;Kevin McCarthy, D, sidelined with groin injury. Neil Belland, D, recalled from Fredericton of AHL as replacement.WASHINGTON&mdash;Dean Evason, C, 1982 first-round draft pick, recalled from Kamloops of WHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;John Gibson, D, back from injury list and later assigned to Sherbrooke of AHL.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ADIRONDACK&mdash;Charlie Skjodt, C, out for six to eight weeks with injured knee.BALTIMORE&mdash;Steve Carlson, C, out for four to six weeks with chipped bone in ankle. Dean DeFazio, LW, sidelined indefinitely with broken wrist.HERSHEY&mdash;Dan Sanscartier, G, returned to Fort Wayne of IHL. Jim Burton, D, dropped from active roster.MONCTON&mdash;Paul Miller, C, reinstated to active roster.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Alan Hangsleben, D, signed as free agent. Jim Walsh, D, released outright.ROCHESTER&mdash;Phil Myre, G, and asst, coach, activated as player.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>KALAMAZOO&mdash;Traded rights to Gilles Heroux, G, to Peoria for Floyd Lahache, D. John Baby, D, signed as free agent.MILWAUKEE&mdash;Rich Sirois, G, Jean-Paul Lariviere, RW, and Daryl Henry, RW, all released outright. Alan Graves, LW, Doug Der-kson, RW, and Jim Bannatyne, D, placed on waivers. Bannatyne retained as asst, coach.<h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>ERIE&mdash;Steve Stockman, RW, Tom Anderson, RW, and Cam Botting, D, all released. Dwayne Venems, D, and Andre Chartrain, RW, added to roster.MOHAWK VALLEY&mdash;Marc Marchand, D, sidelined for four to eight weeks with damaged knee ligaments. Ron Scales, RW, out for four to eight weeks with broken foot. Joe Bilodeau, D, sidelined for six to 10 weeks with wrist injury. Dave McQueen, RW, obtained from Pine Bridge of ACHL for future considerations. &#9632;

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December 2, 1983

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

Lemieux May Snub Canadian Junior Team

Leafs Put It All Together For One Game

Team Canada Eaaer To Resume USA Series