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

March 9, 1984

The Hockey News March 9, 1984

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01519/4880609-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="272" height="203"></div>PEORIA&mdash;All the Prancer problems were on the ice. Fighting for a playoff forth. the Prancers have been informed they&rsquo;re also fighting for their lives.Reportedly $300.000 in debt. Peoria was informed by the Civic Center Authorities, the governing body for the ceoria Civic Center where the Prancers play, that it had shut its checkbook. If attendance doesn&rsquo;t show a dramatic increase in the near future, the Prancers could become a part of Peoria&rsquo;s past.Despite the action, Peoria general manager Ken Wilson is confident the rancers will survive the season. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;ll be around next year as well,&rdquo; he said.The Prancers contract with the Civic Center runs through the 1984-85 season.But if the Prancers are to survive, they&rsquo;ll have to pay their way from now on. It&rsquo;s strictly C.O.D., no credit. The Civic Center and the Prancers agreed to a rent deferral plan in December with a $50,000 limit. The limit has been reached and a spokesman for the Civic Center said, &ldquo;We find ourselves having reached the cap. We intend not to loan in kind or defer anymore rental.&rdquo;The Prancers have 11 more home games left and are currently fighting for a fifth-place finish, the final playoff position. Making the playoffs would give the Prancers some more home dates and a race for the playoffs, which would be a shot in the arm for attendance.On the ice, the Prancers stayed in the playoff picture with a 9-6 triumph over the Milwaukee Admirals. That was the good news; the bad news was that just 1.427 showed up to watch.Following the win over the Ads, the Prancers hit the road where they dropped a pair, including a 4-3 loss to last-place Muskegon, and 3-l to the K-Wings in Kalamazoo.FORT WAYNE&mdash;The Komets continue to be the hottest club and finally overcame league-leading Milwaukee on the strength of another winning streak. The Komets, who have been chasing the Ads almost since the start of the season, took the lead with a pair of road victories.A 7-6 win in Kalamazoo&mdash;the Komets almost blew a 6-1 lead&mdash;pushed the Komets one point up on the Admirals, but Milwaukee slipped back on top the next night when the Komets were idle. Fort Wayne was on top again following a 5-3 win in Muskegon which was the Komets&rsquo; fifth straight and their third straight on the road. The Komets, who have lost just three times in the last 22 games, have a 16-0-4 record on the road and are 19-5-4 at home.Doug Rigler and Dale Baldwin each had a pair of goals in the win over Muskegon. At home, Rob Motz paced a 4-2 triumph over third-place Toledo with a hat trick. Motz missed the two previous games because of a sore elbow, but said after his performance, &ldquo;You can only sit out for so long. The elbow still hurts but I wanted to play.&rdquo;MILWAUKEE&mdash;The Admirals rebounded from a 9-6 loss in Peoria to sweep a two-game home series with Flint by scores of 5-1 and 8-4. Milwaukee now has five games in a row on the road which could very well determine their final standing. Milwaukee currently trails Fort Wayne by one point and has played one more game.TOLEDO&mdash;After winning five straight, the Goaldiggers have suddenly lost their shooting touch. Kalamazoo and goalie Georges Gagnon stopped Toledo&rsquo;s winning streak at home with a 3-0 shutout. Toledo then went to Fort Wayne and lost 4-2. In both games, Toledo outshot the opposition.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have anybody standing in front for the rebounds,&rdquo; said Toledo coach Bill Inglis. &ldquo;Against Fort Wayne, we had 18 shots in the second period to Fort Wayne&rsquo;s nine, but they scored twice and we scored once. We got our 18 shots one at a time. We didn&rsquo;t pick up any rebounds.&rdquo;KALAMAZOO&mdash;The K-Wings managed to slip into fourth place by splitting a pair of games. With a patched-up lineup because of a long injury list, Kalamazoo spotted Fort Wayne a 6-1 lead and then staged a brilliant third-period rally which fell just a goal short as the Komets hung on for a 7-6 Victory.The Wings moved to fourth place with a 3-1 victory over Peoria. Steve Banois broke a 1-1 tie with 1:48 remaining and the Wings added the third goal into an empty net.FLINT&mdash;The Generals slipped into fifth place by losing a pair of games in Milwuakee. The Admirals won 5-1 and 8-4.The defeats left Flint one point behind fourth-place Kalamazoo and just three in front of sixth-place Peoria. The inability to win with any degree of consistency on the road has haunted the Generals for most of their International League life.While Flint is playing better away from home this season, the Generals aren&rsquo;t winning much anymore. Flint has five ties on the road, the most in the league. Four of the losses were by one goal. A few goals in the right places and Flint would be higher up in the standings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02335/4880602-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="586" height="857"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toledo coach Bill Inglis is lamenting his team&rsquo;s sudden inability to score.</figcaption></div>MUSKEGON&mdash;The Mohawks also had a split in the week but need a faster pace to move into a contending position for the playoffs. Muskgeon is still far off the pace, trailing fifth-place Flint by 21 points with time rapidly running out. The bright spot for the week was a 4-3 win over Peoria; the low spot was a 5-3 loss to Fort Wayne. Both games were at home. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Prancers Given The Pay-To-Play Ultimatum

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03218/4880668-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="298" height="378"></div><h2>AUDIO</h2>CANADA/RUSSIA 1972 entire eighth game on VHS or Beta. B-W, generally good. $95 ppd Squires Sports, #49-560 Johnson St., Victoria, B.C., V8W 3C6.DO YOU ENJOY HOCKEY 8RAWLS? I have thousands of fights on video cassettes Andy Boemer, 48 N. Miss R. Blvd., St. Paul, MN, 55104.<h2>TOURNAMENTS</h2>FLORIDA HOCKEY: Enjoy a sunshine holiday plus exhibition games arranged with Senior A or Oldtimers teams. For more information contact: Rosaire Paiement, Coral Plaza Hotel, 2701 North federal Hwy., Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33306. (305) 565-6658.<h2>MERCHANDISE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04151/4880661-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg" title="f0027-04" width="585" height="296"></div><h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2>BE THE STAR on your own bubble gum cards. Write: Big League Cards, 2424 McDonald St. Regina, Sask. S4N 2Z3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-05108/4880654-1-eng-US/f0027-052.jpg" title="f0027-05" width="597" height="300"></div>HOCKEY CARD SETS and singles. Let&rsquo;s Collect. Write Box 1926, Prince George, B.C., V2L 5E3 for list.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-0688/4880647-1-eng-US/f0027-062.jpg" title="f0027-06" width="592" height="316"></div><h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2>FOR SALE: MONCTON Alpines 1983-84 police cards $4.50; Esso 1983 $4.50; AHL coloured 4 &times; 6 $1.00. SWAPS, P.O., Box 216, Oromocto, N.B., E2V 2G5.VICTORIA COUGARS PLAYER cards, 1983-84. Set of 22, $6 each ppd. 3 sets, $16 ppd. Squires Sports, #49-560 Johnson St., Victoria, B.C., V8W 3C6.<h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2><h3>SPORTS SHOW</h3>Empire Sports Inc., 3rd annual sports collectors show and sale at Ramada Inn 400&rsquo;401, 1677 Wilson Ave. (Jane & Wilson) on Sunday, March 25 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Special guests. Call Empire (416) 782-8681 or (416) 782-2428.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-0773/4880640-1-eng-US/f0027-072.jpg" title="f0027-07" width="1824" height="1116"></div> &#9632;

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The Classified

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1490/4882013-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="539" height="361"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01448/4882020-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="195" height="186"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1589/4882006-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="542" height="361"></div> &#9632;

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Top Rookies In The NHL

1. What is Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s first name&rsquo;? 2. Who are the only two coaches to have led teams in the finals of the Stanley Cup and the Avco Cup?3. What current NHL coach shares the record of having been in charge of four different NHL teams?4. Who coached a Stanley Cup winner and umpired in a World Series?5. What current American League player, who was never drafted by an NHL team, led the Ontario League in scoring in 1980-81?6. Who coached the United States to the Olympic gold medal in 1960?7. What two former NHL players both had 20 goal seasons with five different NHL teams?8. What player died during the 1919 Stanley Cup finals?9. Name the last team to win the Stanley Cup after missing the playoffs the previous season?10. What player ranks highest on NHL career point-scoring list without ever winning a scoring title?<h2>Trivia Answers</h2>1. William.2. Rudy Pilous and Glen Sather.3. Roger Neilson.4. Bill Stewart.5. John Goodwin of New Haven.6. Jack Riley.7. Dean Prentice and Eddie Shack.8. Joe Hall.9. Montreal Canadiens, 1970-71.10. John Bucyk, fourth. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01792/4882326-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">TIGER A DYING BREED?VANCOUVER&rsquo;S DAVE WILLIAMS (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>The Life And Times Of Pierre Larouche&mdash;Page 3Montreal Gives Bob Berry The Boot&mdash;Page 11Will The Rangers Ever Win The Cup Again?&mdash;Page 3Wayne Gretzky And The Playboy Interview&mdash;Page 14 &#9632;

Cover-01

The Hockey News $1.50 64522 THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY MARCH 9, 1984 Vol. 37, No. 23

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011200/4879315-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="313" height="361"></div><h2>Bad Old NHL</h2>TO THOSE WHO had not spent a large amount of time close to the logic by which the Olympic Games are conducted, the entire scenario seemed a trifle silly. The matter of when a pro is a pro and what is an amateur has been haggled over for years but this time the International Olympic Committee made a ruling on the matter.The night before the hockey teams of Canada and the U.S. met in the opening game of the Olympic tournament in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, it was decreed by the IOC that Mark Morrison and Don Dietrich of the Canadian team were not eligible for the Games.Their transgression was playing at least one game in the National Hockey League. At least, that was the rule the IOC produced. Play a game in the NHL and you were not allowed on the Olympic ponds. A wise move! Who would want to share the ice with a guy, Morrison, who had nine games with the New York Rangers, before returning to the Olympic program, or Dietrich, who was summoned from the minor leagues as an injury emergency fill-in the by Chicago Black Hawks.One member of Hockey Canada, the body that oversees the Olympic team, couldn&rsquo;t figure it out.&ldquo;I read where some skiers earn over $500,000 a year and they&rsquo;re competing here,&rdquo; the man said. &ldquo;Mark Morrison playsa few games in the NHL, trying for a career in pro hockey, and he&rsquo;s ruled out of the Olympics. I wish someone would explain that one to me.&rdquo;The IOC rule was a dandy. Only the NHL was deemed to taint an amateur&rsquo;s standing in the sports community. World Hockey Association participation doesn&rsquo;t count. Rick Cunningham, who played more than 300 WHA games, was a member of the Austrian Olympic team, as pure as the new snow that blanketed Mount Jahorina.Thus, the IOC proved what the NHL insisted all along: That the WHA wasn&rsquo;t much more than an amateur circuit, except in one area. It pushed hockey salaries to astronomical heights but to the Olympic puritans, that didn&rsquo;t matter. Only participation in the NHL could make a man a pro.<h2>Bitterness Remains</h2>THE SARAJEVO HASSLE was the result of a Canadian move, led by Alan Eagleson, who is Canada&rsquo;s chief negotiator for international hockey, one of the assorted hats he wears. The Canucks decided to test the Olympic rule by using players who had not played more than 10 NHL games on the Olympic team.That brought a loud protest by the U.S. team, not so much because it gave Canada a big advantage but because the Yankees had their team picked before they discovered the Canadian plan.The U.S. threatened to protest the Canadian use of Morrison, Dietrich, Dan Wood and goalie Mario Gosselin, who had signed a contract with Quebec Nordiques. What really brought matters to a head was the revelation that the Canadian team had talks with New York Islanders about borrowing goalie Kelly Hrudey for the Olympics.Hrudey might have been No. 3 goalie on the Isles but his possible use by the Canadians was the last straw.<h2>Finns Took U.S. Ball</h2>HOWEVER, THE U.S. never had to issue a formal protest. Finland picked up that ball and ran with it. Finnish goalie Hannu Kampurri, who had played in one NHL game, applied to the IOC eligibility commission for clarification of his status and was told he couldn&rsquo;t compete in the Olympics.The Finns then raised the matter of 10 players on five different teams who were as tainted as Kampurri.At one point, the Canadians expected to have four players banned but only two were barred. That&rsquo;s when Eagleson decided to avoid any major mud-slinging or whistle-blowing by not revealing the contents of extensive files he had compiled on the status of an assortment of players.&ldquo;There was no point in doing it,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;We made a start at winning our point and having the Olympics opened up a little for hockey. In 1988, we&rsquo;ll be able to use more minor pro players and so will the U.S.&rdquo;Eagleson wasn&rsquo;t overly happy with the U.S. and Finnish hockey organizations.&ldquo;The Americans rolled the snowballs and the Finns threw them,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

&ldquo;There will always be a place for a Dave Williams in hockey.&rdquo;&mdash;Dave (Tiger) Williams, explaining that he and his style of play will always be required in the National Hockey League, no matter what changes in the game occur. &#9632;

Quote Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>Rich Heinnman, a 25-year-old dividend analyst, has been a Ranger fan for 15 years. From his home in Bayside, NY, it is easier to reach Nassau Coliseum&mdash;a pleasant. 20-minute freeway drive&mdash;than Madison Square Garden, where he has to brave traffic jams or New York&rsquo;s not-so-beloved subway.Which makes it all the more galling when he thinks about where the Stanley Cup has resided for the past four years and the fact that, as every Rangers fan knows, his team has withstood a 43-year-old Cupless drought.&ldquo;My biggest disappointment has been being a New Yorker and watching the Islanders take what should be rightfully ours,&rdquo; says Heinnman, in whose mind is etched all-too-vividly the image of Billy Smith stonewalling his team last spring.&ldquo;I think that I could live with the Rangers not winning as long as they weren&rsquo;t losing to the Islanders. But there&rsquo;s always hope.&rdquo;That &ldquo;hope&rdquo; is to break the longest Cupless streak of any of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s original six teams and one of the longest stretches without a championship in all of professional sports. It is long enough that none of the players on the present Ranger roster were even bom the last time the Rangers won the Cup, though they are not excluded from the memory of it.They can&rsquo;t ignore the chants of &ldquo;1940, 1940&rdquo; that rain on them in foreign arenas&mdash;especially at the Nassau Coliseum and sometimes at the Garden itself. And they are aware of what that 44-year quest means to the people who pay to watch them play.&ldquo;The Rangers have always been an extension of my personality and every time they lose, every time they die, something in me dies,&rdquo; says Mark Dreiband, a 28-year-old administrator from Queens. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anyone can fully understand what it&rsquo;s like to want to taste champagne and end up drinking Dr. Pepper.&rdquo;Let&rsquo;s try. Bill Morrissey has been a Garden ticket-holder since the Rangers&rsquo; last Cup and to him the drought means &ldquo;heartaches, lots of heartaches. The 1972 series (the finals the Rangers lost to the Bruins, four games to two) was the toughest to swallow. I had high hopes in 1979 (the year the Rangers beat the Islanders in the semi-finals and lost to the Canadiens in the finals), but Montreal showed how good they were.&ldquo;It was the only time I wished I was a Canadiens fan.&ldquo;I think this year&rsquo;s team could do it, but there&rsquo;s always the Islanders, Boston and Edmonton. And the goaltending scares me. If we had Sugar Jim Henry or Chuck Rayner or Ed Giacomin, I&rsquo;d tell you we&rsquo;ve got it, but the goaltending scares me.&rdquo;To Steve Khan, a ticketholder for five years, &ldquo;this year&rsquo;s team seems to have a better sense of purpose and discipline. Brooks and Patrick inherited a team and they have to shape it. I&rsquo;m sure we haven&rsquo;t seen the end of the shaping, so that probably means a few more years tacked onto the 43.&rdquo;Why the Cup has eluded the Rangers for so long has been debated in New York as much as any subject you&rsquo;d care to name. Changeovers and lack of direction in the front office; the distractions of the Great White Way; poor drafts; the fat-cat syndrome catalyzed by the World Hockey Association and escalating salaries; fear of success; lack of killer instinct. Choose some, all or none of the above.Still, when asked about the Rangers&rsquo; 43-year legacy of sorrow, captain Barry Beck offers an answer typical of those on the team who refuse to take responsibility for events that occurred before they were bom.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not bothered at all, I wasn&rsquo;t around in 1940,&rdquo; Beck says. &ldquo;If I were, I&rsquo;d be pretty upset at not winning. But it doesn&rsquo;t mean a thing to me because I&rsquo;m not related to it.&rdquo;Which is not to say that he does not yearn for the Cup; this team does and they believe they can win it. But for this year&mdash;not the last 43.&ldquo;I think just being in the NHL is pressure enough,&rdquo; says coach Herb Brooks. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t part of the last 43 years.&rdquo;Tom Laidlaw has no intention of waiting 40 years for a Cup.&ldquo;Either we&rsquo;ll win this year or in a couple of years,&rdquo; says the defenseman who admits that the 43-year drought &ldquo;gives us incentive. If we can put up with the pressure, it would say something about our team. Part of the price of playing in New York is the fans; they pay a lot of money and they&rsquo;re very vocal. We&rsquo;d be lying if we said it didn&rsquo;t affect us.&rdquo;Don Maloney admits that it&rsquo;s tough to hear the &ldquo;1940&rdquo; chants, but adds that &ldquo;I can only vouch for the years since I&rsquo;ve been around until we win everyone will be sticking it to us. This is as good a team as I&rsquo;ve been on since I&rsquo;ve been here&mdash;and we&rsquo;re close to beating the Islanders.&rdquo;More than a year before Pearl Harbor, the Rangers won the Cup for the last time and nobody on the team needs to be reminded of that fact.&ldquo;We have enough pressure just playing today. We&rsquo;re fully aware of the fact that the franchise has not won a Cup in a long time,&rdquo; says Dave Maloney, who has worn a Ranger uniform longer than anyone on the present squad except Ron Greschner.And every time the Rangers drive out to Nassau to face the Stanley Cup champions, the evidence is right in their faces, as Maloney pointed out during the Rangers&rsquo; most recent visit there.&ldquo;Skating here during practice and looking up at the banners is impressive,&rdquo; Maloney says, speaking of the Stanley Cup banners hanging from the Coliseum rafters. &ldquo;And I know it&rsquo;s attainable for us.&rdquo;Until then, the Rangers live with the stigma of &ldquo;1940.&rdquo; &#9632;

1940: Curse Of All Ranger Fans

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011219/4879415-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="668" height="1514"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021007/4879408-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1138" height="1520"></div>Perhaps one of the most remarkable individual stories of this National Hockey League season is that of New York Ranger center Pierre Larouche, who last summer seemed destined for the pro hockey scrap heap. But Larouche has bounced back and so have the Rangers, so THE HOCKEY NEWS asked Frank Brown of the New York Daily News to meet with Larouche and get his feelings on his remarkable season with the Rangers and the sometimes stormy years that preceded it. Here, then, are the words and thoughts and feelings of a man who has many of each, a man on the verge of becoming the first player to score 50 goals for three NHL teams&mdash;having long since become the first player to score 50 for two. He is a man who became an all-star in New York after being a washout in Hartford, a man who has smitten the Big Apple with his infectious spirit, skill and, naturally, his scoring.In his first years in Taschereau, Que., Larouche learned the phrase &ldquo;joie de vivre&rdquo; and has spent much of his time since trying to translate it for various coaches and general managers who have had a different definition for &ldquo;joy of life. &ldquo;THN: What would you change about your past?PL: I don&rsquo;t regret anything, but the only thing I would change, if I had something to change, would be my behavior at the start of my career. I was at the top of my profession, but I wasn&rsquo;t familiar with the (English) language too much. There were a few things that came out very wrong, not that I meant them that way. One time I said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m fed up with the Pittsburgh organization,&rsquo; and the next day it came out, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m fed up with Pittsburgh.&rsquo; Naturally, they booed the crap out of me&mdash;&rsquo;How can you talk about our town like that?&rsquo;&mdash;and that was it. I had to move. Things like that I would change.But otherwise, I&rsquo;ve been the luckiest man as far as playing the game, the people I&rsquo;ve played with and the people I&rsquo;ve met, scoring 50 goals and winning the Stanley Cup.THN: What about scoring 50 for three teams?PL: It&rsquo;s not a big deal. I don&rsquo;t find it a big deal. It would be nice. I&rsquo;m here to score goals and if I score 50, good. It was the same thing in Montreal when I broke (Jean) Beliveau&rsquo;s record. People said, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s great.&rsquo; And I said, &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t have a bloody clue nobody ever scored 50 goals as a center in Montreal. I just want to score goals. I want to win.THN: What did being an all-star mean this year? Was it a vindication? Was it a message you enjoyed sending to Hartford after they let you go?PL: No. I don&rsquo;t have any revenge in my heart. When I go out to play, I don&rsquo;t think 1 have to show anybody. Every time 1 score, I don&rsquo;t say, &lsquo;Hartford, here you are, you dummies. I don&rsquo;t think that.THN: Do you get the feeling people are watching and waiting for you to mess up, to take the big fall?PL: Everybody&rsquo;s waiting for the same thing again. It may take three years, but if 1 make a mistake, people will say, &lsquo;Ah. See? We told you.&rsquo;Fighting back again, that offends a lot of people, because a lot of people wrote me off. They thought I was done. They thought, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s it for him now. He&rsquo;s down.&rsquo; No bloody way, baby. A lot of people are waiting and hoping for the downfall of Pierre Larouche and I&rsquo;m going to disappoint them.I&rsquo;m sorry. I&rsquo;ve got too many people I want to please. I&rsquo;ve got too many who want me to do well&mdash;guys on the other teams, people that I know. I&rsquo;ve got no time to spend for the rest of them, who want me to go bad. I&rsquo;ve got guys on this team who are pushing so hard for me to score 50 goals, because they want me to do it just to say, &lsquo;Bleep you.&rsquo; Because some of them think I got dealt a bad hand, some of them think I deserve what I got&mdash;but they don&rsquo;t judge me on it; they judge me on what I do now.I was a little wacko when I started and I deserved some things and I&rsquo;ll be the first one to admit it. But some guys think it&rsquo;s been carried on a little too long.THN: At the same time, your reputation has turned you into a virtual vagabond&mdash;a few years in one city, a few years in another. Aren&rsquo;t you sad about that?PL: Well, yeah. I wish I had played all in one place all my career, but it didn&rsquo;t happen. In Pittsburgh, I asked to go. I really thought Montreal would be my last stop, but I was not getting played, so 1 was not going to stay there. And Hartford, as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, never existed.THN: Did you ever feel comfortable there?PL: No. When I got there, they said to me, &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got to bring this team into the playoffs.&rsquo;THN: Who said that?PL: Well, they didn&rsquo;t have to say it. I felt it. We had a bad team and we lost one game 12-1 and they (management) called me upstairs and started giving me aggravation. Larry Pleau and Bob Crocker, they pulled me and Blaine Stoughton right out in the middle of practice. We thought we got traded. Everybody said, &lsquo;Holy cow! Look at this. They got traded.&rsquo; I said to Stash (Stoughton), &lsquo;We&rsquo;re traded, man. I wonder where the heck we&rsquo;re going.&rsquo;Then we go upstairs and they start giving us aggravation because we lost 12-1 to Quebec. I said, &lsquo;Look. We&rsquo;re losing 12-1 and you&rsquo;re telling me it&rsquo;s my fault? Well, excuse me. If we get beat 12-1 you&rsquo;ve got to look at more than one person.&rsquo;Then we got back and all the guys, they said, &lsquo;Where you going? Where you going?&rsquo; We said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re not going anywhere.&rsquo;THN: Neither was Hartford.PL: It was difficult for everybody. I think we went through about 55 players that year. Before every game, the guy had to announce, &lsquo;Add this guy&rsquo; or &lsquo;Take this guy off.&rsquo; The trainer had the numbers that rip off the back of the shirt because he had to give the same sweater to two or three guys the same week. We didn&rsquo;t know who was coming and who was going.THN: Then you missed curfew in Los Angeles last year.PL: Ten minutes late. I didn&rsquo;t deserve the punishment (two-game suspension, sent home). I&rsquo;ve seen guys come in at 2 o&rsquo;clock in the morning, could hardly walk, the coach laughs, fines the guy, that&rsquo;s it.But suspend me? A perfect excuse to scare the kids because we had a young team. Since training camp he (coach Larry Kish) was looking at me, too. Looking at me. Looking at me. All the guys knew it. They said, &lsquo;He&rsquo;s waiting for you to make a mistake.&rsquo;THN: But was it a provocative thing on your part? Didn&rsquo;t you have a wristwatch? Were you at a place where there was a clock?PL: We had a team meeting at Melody&rsquo;s and five guys didn&rsquo;t show up. So I stayed until the end to make sure the bill was paid and 1 took a cab. I walked into the hotel and I took a look in the bar, and he (Kish) was sitting in the bar and he got all offended. He said, &lsquo;Who the heck do you think you are?&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;What do you mean, who do I think I am?&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not allowed in here.&rsquo; (Ed. note: Hotel bars are usually off-limits to players.) I said, &lsquo;What do you mean I&rsquo;m not allowed in here? I&rsquo;m just looking at what&rsquo;s going on in here. What&rsquo;s your problem, man? Relax. I don&rsquo;t have two 18-year-old kids with me. I&rsquo;m 27 years old and I&rsquo;ve played in the league for nine years. I know what the heck I&rsquo;m doing.&rsquo;Next day he calls me up and says, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re suspended.&rsquo; I almost drilled him.THN: What would you have done to you?PL: Fine me. Bench me. But don&rsquo;t suspend me. He knew by suspending me what was going to happen. Nobody was going to blame him. Everybody in the league would say, &lsquo;Uh-oh. There he goes again.&rsquo; The quote was, &lsquo;I suspended Pierre because he misbehaved.&rsquo; Herb (Ranger coach Herb Brooks) could do the same thing and everyone would say he was right. Hey. I did make some mistakes. But there&rsquo;s been a lot of times when I got shots taken at me because of things I did when I was ignorant.THN: So this reputation thing really started in Pittsburgh, then. Is that when the drug stories started, too?PL: I really don&rsquo;t know where they started, though I heard a little bit in Montreal the last year there. I was disappointed, but there was nothing I could do about it. It&rsquo;s all going to be talked about&mdash;that I have a bad attitude, that I&rsquo;m selfish, that I&rsquo;m not a team player, that I&rsquo;m hard to handle. It&rsquo;s just something you can&rsquo;t help.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011032/4879401-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="733" height="1337"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02832/4879394-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="735" height="1336"><figcaption class="caption-body">Last season in Hartford, Whaler coach Larry Kish, left, suspended Pierre Larouche, right, and Pierre said he almost &ldquo;drilled&rdquo; the coach over the incident.</figcaption></div>THN: So the drug stories were fiction.PL: Definitely. How can I survive playing in this league if those stories are true? If you&rsquo;re an alcoholic, you can&rsquo;t play in this league. Drug addict? No way you can play in this league. I&rsquo;ve just got to close my eyes to it.THN: Still, while there were things done to you, there must have been things you did as well.PL: I&rsquo;m not saying I&rsquo;m clean. Being late for practice in Pittsburgh and all that definitely happened. But I was 19 years old. I was a kid and they let me do it. They didn&rsquo;t way anything. Then, all of a sudden it was not okay anymore.THN: So why did you do it?PL: 1 was single, 19,1 was a young man in life. I didn&rsquo;t understand the responsibilities&mdash;that there are married guys on the team who are making their living, that their careers are ending and you have to play well and help those people, and that you&rsquo;ve got a lot of responsibilities that you can&rsquo;t understand you have. You think it&rsquo;s just a lot of fun.THN: Do you understand now?PL: Oh yeah. I understand everything now.THN: What taught you?PL: Age, getting older.THN: Is it also seeing that no matter who you are, you only get so many chances in this game?PL: I&rsquo;ll tell you I&rsquo;m the same person I was four years ago. Believe me, I am. I&rsquo;m still laughing at practice, I still enjoy it. Here in New York, they treat me good. The coaching staff, they&rsquo;re not on my butt every day, like &lsquo;Uh, uh, uh, look&mdash;he&rsquo;s not pushing today. Uh, uh, uh, he&rsquo;s laughing&mdash;look at him smiling. He thinks it&rsquo;s a big joke.&rsquo; I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a big joke. I take it very seriously, but I think there&rsquo;s a place for laughing and smiling and enjoying.THN: Do you think practice is over-emphasized?PL: There are definitely some things about practice that are very important, very, very important. I would say to eighty per cent of the players, practice is very important. The other 20 per cent, no.THN: And in which group are you?PL: I&rsquo;d say the 20 per cent. Sometimes I have the worst practice you&rsquo;ve ever seen. For me. my own mentality with practice is, I&rsquo;m playing with my own teammates, my own defense, my own goalie. I don&rsquo;t see myself coming into the slot and going top-shelf (shooting high), full-tilt and hitting my goalie in the shoulders for no reason. He gets hit enough.Plus, I don&rsquo;t want to shoot because my defenseman is there. If I shoot low and I break his ankle, that&rsquo;s real cute.THN: Whose ankle are you going to break with your shot?PL: That&rsquo;s one point for the reporter, zero for Pierre.THN: What did you expect of yourself, coming into this season?PL: I expected a lot. My first request of (Ranger general manager) Craig Patrick was to make sure that Herb Brooks wants me to play for him. Craig said, &lsquo;Well, he&rsquo;s been trying to get you since he&rsquo;s been here.&rsquo; So I said, &lsquo;Well, that solves the problem.&rsquo; So when I got here, Herb just told me, &lsquo;Welcome to our team. We&rsquo;ve got a family here, enjoy it. Just go out and play the game.&rsquo;Herb has played me a lot&mdash;and again, the people I&rsquo;m playing with and the team I&rsquo;m playing on makes a big difference.THN: So when you say you expected a lot, does that mean 40 goals? Fifty?PL: Anything below 40. I&rsquo;d have been disappointed. Because I still can play. Heck. I&rsquo;m only 28 years old.THN: But in the NHL today, nobody is &ldquo;only&rdquo; 28.PL: I&rsquo;m a young 28. I&rsquo;ve got five good years left, then I&rsquo;ll go play in Sweden. (Laughs).THN: How will you view your career when you look back on it?PL: I&rsquo;m just going through a period of my life that&rsquo;s going to last 13 or 14 years. When I finish, that&rsquo;s it&mdash;nobody&rsquo;s going to say Pierre Larouche behaved bad or Pierre Larouche this or that. They&rsquo;ll just remember winning Cups or scoring 50 goals, stuff like that. But there&rsquo;s nobody going to write articles any more and there&rsquo;s nobody going to give a damn about what I do. I always stood by my players and I always stood up for the people I played with because they&rsquo;re the ones who helped me. Once you put the sweater on, the coaching staff can&rsquo;t help me any more; they can help me in practice and teach me, but once the game starts, that&rsquo;s it. So a lot of times when I would see a guy treated bad, I&rsquo;d go up and say, &lsquo;What the heck you think you&rsquo;re doing? I&rsquo;m sorry if I did that, but I believed in it when I did it.There&rsquo;s more important things to look at. I had my disappointments, but I never had disasters. I&rsquo;m going through the best time of my bloody life&mdash;I don&rsquo;t care what they say about me or what they write; I&rsquo;m going through the best time. I&rsquo;ll never be able to match this. How can you match being idolized? How can you match being treated like a king? People pay for you to travel. They go get your ticket at the airport for you. They got your room waiting when you get to the hotel. Because you play for a team, people bow down and let you do things they wouldn&rsquo;t let other people do. You go to a restaurant and they push people aside to let you in. This is the best time of my life. &#9632;

f0003-01

‘A Lot Of People Wrote Me Off, Said I Was Done…No Bloody Way, Baby…’

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>Pierre Larouche is not one of Emile Francis&rsquo; favorite subjects. Francis, the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; president and general manager, has more things to worry about than a deal made last September. But ask Francis about Larouche, and the Cat won&rsquo;t run and hide.&ldquo;Norm Caplan was Pierre&rsquo;s agent,&rdquo; Francis begins. &ldquo;We met for the first time in June at the draft in Montreal. Norm understood that we were in the process of negotiating. He told me that the termination contract we had offered was fine. The last thing he said was, &lsquo;As long as you understand we have a deal.&rsquo;&ldquo;The next time I saw Caplan was in Quebec City at the governors&rsquo; meetings. He asked me if I had talked to Larouche and I said no. I told him that Pierre hadn&rsquo;t been in town and that I&rsquo;d be sure to bring him in when he got back.&ldquo;Pierre finally came in and we talked. I explained the termination contract to him. He told me about his problems from the year before, but I said that I didn&rsquo;t care about that stuff. As far as I was concerned, I said, everybody was starting with a clean slate. We talked about reporting in condition and things like that. Pierre said that he was looking forward to getting started.&ldquo;I told him that we&rsquo;d have the termination contract drawn up. He said that he was leaving for Pittsburgh that day and asked if it would be okay if we sent the contract there. I said fine.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the last time I talked to him.&rdquo;Francis&rsquo; offer of a termination contract meant that Larouche, had he remained in Hartford, would have played for the same contract, complete I with the same bonuses, as the previous year.&ldquo;You earn (new) contracts by performance and Pierre&rsquo;s performance wasn&rsquo;t there last year,&rdquo; Francis said.Larouche played 38 games that year before injuring his back. He scored 18 goals and 40 points. The season before, Larouche&rsquo;s first in Hartford, he scored 25 goals and 50 points in 45 games. In 83 games with the Whalers, Larouche had 43 goals and 47 assists.&ldquo;The Whalers were looking for someone to blame for last year and they picked me,&rdquo; Larouche said at the time. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve made some of the funniest deals I&rsquo;ve ever seen, but this one&rsquo;s the topper. Only a crazy person would give me away for nothing. I feel sorry for Whaler fans.&rdquo;What happened between Francis&rsquo; final meeting with Larouche and Sept. 12, the day that Larouche officially signed with the New York Rangers, remains cloudy. Larouche dropped Caplan as his agent, in all likelihood, because he figured that he could do better than inking a termination contract in Hartford.Enter the Rangers, who were willing to risk a two-year contract (one year plus an option) on a 27-year-old center who had 272 National Hockey League goals in the book.&ldquo;Pierre did one year better with them than he would have done with us,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;Pierre was looking for security. We were looking for production. You can&rsquo;t reward a guy who played just 38 games with a new contract. This isn&rsquo;t the Salvation Army.&rdquo;Larouche was obtained by the Whalers from Montreal in December, 1981. for three draft picks. The Whalers flip-flopped first and third-rounders with the Canadiens and gave up a second.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t help what they paid to get him,&rdquo; said Francis, who joined the Whalers officially on May 2. &ldquo;My problem was to keep him. If he&rsquo;s found a better deal, all I can (say) is good luck to him.&rdquo;Larouche found that better deal in New York, nicknamed &ldquo;Baghdad-on-the-Subway&rdquo; by O. Henry, a city in which even the most outrageous of dreams can sometimes come true. Larouche&rsquo;s rise from the ashes attests to O. Henry&rsquo;s notion.&ldquo;The termination contract offer, if it hasn&rsquo;t been signed, comes off the table Sept. 10,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;Larouche signed the next day with the Rangers at about 11 o&rsquo;clock in the morning. They must have done some pretty serious talking between midnight and 11.&ldquo;If you get what I&rsquo;m saying.&rdquo;Larouche&rsquo;s arsenal, once so powerful that teams fought for ownership, had been reduced to one bullet&mdash;the option to sign with another team rather than signing a termination contract with Hartford. One bullet, one shot, one last chance.William Tell, under similar circumstances, didn&rsquo;t miss either.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash; Rookie Sylvain Turgeon missed four games with a concussion, the result of an elbow thrown by Kevin McClelland of the Edmonton Oilers and a heavy fall to the ice&hellip;The Whalers had 67 power-play goals through 60 games, just one short of their NHL record set in 1981-82&hellip;BobbyCrawford scored goals in six games, three shy of the club record, set by Larouche. Of Crawford&rsquo;s first 28 goals, 25 came at even strength, tops on the team&hellip;Defenseman Risto Sil-tanen injured his back in a game against Buffalo and sat out a week&hellip;Goaltender Greg Millen, at 15-217 with a goals-against average of 3.67 through 60 games, won only 14 games a year ago., Bob Hess, something of a mystery man, played his first two games with Hartford, one on defense and the other at right wing on a checking line&hellip;Defenseman Eddie Hospodar returned from a four-game absence due to a knee injury&hellip;The David A. Jensen alert has been placed on hold. Jensen, an American Olympian who was picked 20th overall in last June&rsquo;s draft, has chosen to return to his high school hockey team (Lawrence Academy, MA). &ldquo;I missed it and 1 missed the guys,&rdquo; he said. He may not join the Whalers until September. &#9632;

The Cat’s Side Of The Story

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;When post-season honors are determined. Rod Langway is likely to have company among the Washington Capitals this time.Langway is a good bet to retain the Norris Trophy, considering his major contribution to Washington&rsquo;s status as the best defensive team in the National Hockey League. He is a probable runner-up to Wayne Gretzky for the Hart Trophy. too.Scott Stevens would not tarnish the Norris either, although obviously he will not receive the recognition due him as long as Langway is raising eyebrows (Langway was one of the three stars in five of seven games as the Capitals&rsquo; 14-game unbeaten streak finally ended).Al Jensen and Pat Riggin may share the Jennings Trophy unless the Capitals experience total collapse. They had a 16-goal lead on runner-up Buffalo with 19 games remaining.Washington coach Bryan Murray came close in the Adams Award balloting a year ago. He should be right up there again and if Washington should finish first in the Patrick Division, it would make him a virtual cinch to win.Two other prizes could be headed toward Washington, as well. They are the Masterton Trophy, for perseverance, dedication and sportsmanship, and the Seike Trophy for best defensive forward. In each case, the Capitals&rsquo; candidate is the same: Doug Jarvis.It would seem the Masterton qualifications were written to describe Jarvis, who was nominated for the award by the Washington Chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.Jarvis recently played his 700th straight game; he never has missed one since joining the Montreal Canadiens out of junior hockey in 1975. He regularly plays against the opposition&rsquo;s best offensive line, takes key faceoffs and goes into the corners with the most muscular muckers.Jarvis is the oldest player on the youngest team in the NHL, with his 29th birthday approaching on March 24.&ldquo;Doug is in such great condition he&rsquo;s playing the same way he did at 20.&rdquo; said Capital general manager David Poile.Besides playing a regular shift and killing penalties, Jarvis is serving as an assistant coach. Presently he is breaking down game films of the Philadelphia Flyers, for use if the teams meet in the playoffs. All season, he has dissected films of opponents&rsquo; power plays, then furnished the tactics that have lifted the Capitals into No. 1 ranking among NHL penalty-killing units.Jarvis is the ultimate team player. A year ago, when Bob Gould was playing so well, Jarvis suggested to a reporter that he push Gould for the Selke Trophy. However, the thought that the modest Jarvis might push himself is simply beyond belief. Take the amazing ironman streak, for example.&ldquo;In a way, 700 is just another number, but in another way it&rsquo;s hard to believe it&rsquo;s added up that soon,&rdquo; Jarvis said. &ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t think about it, though unless someone asks me. I just play one game at a time and I don&rsquo;t dwell on it.&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t upset me for the streak to end, but it would upset me not being dressed for a game. I like to play.&rdquo;Jarvis played for four Stanley Cup champions in Montreal and. when he was dealt to the Capitals in 1982. a fifth ring seemed most unlikely. Suddenly, however, Washington looks like a contender.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re building a team and developing character within the organization,&rdquo; Jarvis said. &ldquo;If we continue to progress, we&rsquo;ll have the ability to go all the way to the Stanley Cup. I enjoy being a part of the buildup toward it.&ldquo;What is most encouraging is that we seem to play tight whether we&rsquo;re ahead by a goal or have a big lead. That&rsquo;s the team-oriented way to play. When you have a big lead in the third period, it&rsquo;s easy to forget defense and try to pad your personal record at the expense of the team. Nobody&rsquo;s doing that here.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011256/4879470-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="584" height="826"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Jarvis has not missed a game since breaking into the league in 1975.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing solid defense, not allowing anything, and that&rsquo;s how we&rsquo;ll have to play when we hit the playoffs.&rsquo; &lsquo; &#9632;

f0004-01

Caps Maximize Jarvis’ Experience

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY Founded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenzieEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIBUTING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrPUBLISHERDean HeineCONTROLLERTony DobranowskiADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC, Cliff Kivell, 287 MacPherson Ave.Toronto, Ontario M4V 1A4(416) 928-2909ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC, Kim Locke, 43 Madison Ave.,Toronto. Ontario M5R 2S2(416) 961-5I4ISUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPaula HeardNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTKathy NiklesRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom MoffatMary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERHughes MarketingHockey News Bookshelf(416) 499-8227ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Toronto. Ontario, CanadaM3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Third AvenueNew York, New York10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTORDistributed 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 postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices, U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News, P.O Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240.Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;It was the eve of the National Hockey League All-Star game in East Rutherford, NJ.The formal part of the press conference was over and the players on the Prince of Wales and Campbell Conference teams started fanning out among the visiting scribes for individual interviews.Mike O&rsquo;Connell, a rookie at the AllStar routine, grinned at a couple of writers he knew and reached into his pocket for his name tag. He affixed it to his lapel.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d better put this on,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;or people won&rsquo;t know who I am.&rdquo;After six years in the NHL, three of them with his hometown Boston Bruins. Mike O&rsquo;Connell is finally getting recognition, although he still finds it necessary to wear a name tag in some places.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to be recognized as one of the top defensemen in the league and get a chance to play in a game like this,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Connell with suitable modesty after Wales coach Al Arbour named him to the team to fill out the roster.Teammate Ray Bourque, who is an old hand at the All-Star bit with four appearances in five years, called O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s recognition &ldquo;long overdue and well deserved.&rdquo;&ldquo;I thought he should have been voted to the team in the first place because he&rsquo;s playing sensational hockey,&rdquo; said Bourque.Indeed, O&rsquo;Connell, who grew up on Boston&rsquo;s South Shore where his father, Tom O&rsquo;Connell, once an NFL quarterback, owned the rink, has been playing the best hockey of his career at the age of 28, even though it didn&rsquo;t look like it when the season started.Just before the final pre-season exhibition game in Quebec, he hurt his back in what can only be described as a freak occurrence, not even an accident.&ldquo;I had put my left skate on and I was ready to lace up my right skate,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I reached down to get it. All of a sudden I felt this pain in my back. It felt like there was a hole in it.&rdquo;While his Bruin teammates played the game, O&rsquo;Connell was taken from the Colisee dressing room on a stretcher, then by ambulance to the Bruins&rsquo; charter plane and on to Boston&rsquo;s Massachusetts General Hospital.The &ldquo;injury&rdquo; was diagnosed as a sprained back ligament and he missed the first three games of the season, which ended his modest record of playing in 309 consecutive NHL games, dating back to Dec. 9, 1979.He hasn&rsquo;t missed a game since his return and when he scored an open-net goal late in the third period of a 6-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 22, it was his 16th goal of the season, two more than he scored in all of last year, his most productive.Around mid-season, O&rsquo;Connell had the statisticians in a frenzy, leafing through the record book, when he scored a goal in seven straight games. Had an defenseman ever done that before? No one ever found out.The night that he scored in his fifth consecutive game, a 7-3 victory over Pittsburgh, Penguin coach Lou Angotti said what had been on a lot of minds.&ldquo;The thing is Bourque and O&rsquo;Connell are on the ice constantly,&rdquo; he said with some feeling. &ldquo;They do everything. O&rsquo;Connell is such an underrated hockey player that it&rsquo;s a joke. That goal he got, he&rsquo;s done that many times. He just picks his spots and let&rsquo;s go and it&rsquo;s in.&rdquo;&ldquo;You can see how much he enjoys the game,&rdquo; said Bruin coach Gerry Cheevers. &ldquo;When he takes the puck and goes with it, he&rsquo;s as good as anyone in the league.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;The Bruins finally broke out of their mid-season slump with two road victories on the West Coast, 5-2 at Vancouver and 6-3 in Los Angeles.But the game with the Kings cost them the services of Terry O&rsquo;Reilly for the third time this season with a dislocated right shoulder. There was no hit. It just happened.&ldquo;I was going around Brian Engblom and I don&rsquo;t even know if I made contact with him. I threw my shoulder back and, boom, it was gone,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly.&ldquo;I&rsquo; ve been wearing a special harness to protect the shoulder and this is the first time I&rsquo;ve hurt it with the harness on. I&rsquo;d hate to even think about surgery.&rdquo;He was expected to miss at least the final two games of the road trip. &#9632;

Bruin O’Connell No-Name Player

In next week&rsquo;s issue, the emphasis will be on the growth and development of high school hockey in the United States, specifically in New England and Minnesota. But we&rsquo;ll also tell you why high school hockey hasn&rsquo;t taken off as well in Michigan.Washington Capital center Dave Christian will talk about his days as a high school star in Minnesota, not to mention these days, when the Caps are the hottest team in the NHL and a definite Stanley Cup contender.On top of all that, we&rsquo;ll also profile Edmonton Oiler defenseman Randy Gregg, who also happens to be a medical doctor who has some great insights into the game and life in general.<h2>March 23</h2>In this issue, we&rsquo;ll preview the NCAA hockey championships at Lake Placid and what the organizers have planned for this year&rsquo;s exciting conclusion to the college hockey season.We&rsquo;ll also have a cover story on the Boston Bruins&rsquo; towering defenseman, Gord Kluzak, who is rapidly developing as a premier rearguard in the NHL. &#9632;

COMING SOON IN THN Next Week

<h2>NHL OUTDRAWS NBA</h2>TORONTO&mdash;The National Hockey League is outdrawing the National Basketball Association in five of the eight cities where the sports compete, according to a story in the Globe and Mail.The comparison between the two major winter sports shows that only two of the 21 NHL teams (Washington and Pittsburgh) failed to equal the NBA&rsquo;s average of 10,000.Only five NBA teams (Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers) equalled the NHL average of 13,955.<h2>SOVIETS WIN AGAIN</h2>PARIS&mdash;The Soviet Union, winners of the Winter Olympics in Yugoslavia, defeated West Germany 7-0 in the four-country tournament that immediately followed the Olympics.Canada, paced by two goals by Pat Flatley, beat the Czechoslovakia selects 4-3 to finish third in the tournament.Earlier in the tournament, the Canadians lost a penalty-shot decision to the Soviet B team. The teams tied 4-4 after regulation play, then finished a round of five penalty shots tied 6-6.The Soviets eventually won 10-7, but it was the Soviets&rsquo; delay tactics in the first round of penalty shots which had an upsetting effect on the Canadians.&ldquo;It was psychological warfare,&rdquo; said Canadian team official Alan Eagleson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen them try things like that many times. They tried to get our goalie (Mario Gosselin) upset and it worked.&rdquo;Gosselin, who joined Quebec after the tournament here and backstopped the Nordiques to a 5-0 shutout win over St. Louis in his NHL debut, said he hadn&rsquo;t seen penalty shots used to decide a tournament since &ldquo;I was about eight years old playing in the youngest level they have back home. &ldquo;<h2>LEMIEUX RATED BEST</h2>TORONTO&mdash;Mario Lemieux, the high-scoring center with the Laval Voisins of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, is rated as the No. 1 prospect for the coming National Hockey League entry draft in June, according to the Central Scouting&rsquo;s confidential list published, in part, by the Globe and Mail.Lemieux, who has a chance to become the highest-scoring player ever in the QMJHL, is followed by Al lafrete, the 6-foot-3 defenseman with the U.S. Olympic team and now the Belleville Bulls. Kirk Muller, the Guelph Platers&rsquo; center who played for Canada in the Olympics, is rated third. Rounding out the top 10 is Ed Olczyk (center-winger, U.S. Olympic team), Craig Redmond (defenseman, Canadian Olympic team), Jean-Jacques Daigneault (defenseman, Canadian Olympic team), Sylvain Cote (defenseman, Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL), Shawn Burr (center, Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League), Doug Bodger (defenseman, Kamloops of the Western Hockey League) and Selmar Odeline (defenseman, Regina of the WHL).<h2>ANOTHER HULL IN THE WORKS</h2>PENTICTON&mdash;Bret Hull, the son of scoring great Bobby Hull, is on a record course of his own with the Penticton Knights of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League.Hull has scored 86 goals to set the Tier Two record in that department. He also has 164 points, 20 shy of the provincial record. He has maintained a four-goals-per-game pace.Hull, who has six games left in the regular season, will attend the University of Minnesota-Duluth on a scholarship next season.Hull won the BCJHL scoring title last season, too, with 48 goals and 56 assists. &#9632;

SLAPSHOTS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>Bobby Hull and Bernie (Boom Boom) Geoffrion may have been credited with inventing the slapshot in hockey, but it was a shot by Andy Bathgate that led to one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most revolutionary changes.On the night of Nov. 1, 1959, a Bathgate slapshot struck Montreal Canadien goaltender Jacques Plante on the nose, causing play to stop.&ldquo;He was really bleeding and had to leave the ice,&rdquo; said Bathgate, who was playing for the New York Rangers at the time. &ldquo;A few minutes later he came back wearing a mask, something that, at the time, surprised everybody.&ldquo;Little did I realize at the time that I was playing a part in NHL history when Plante became the first goalie to regularly wear a mask.&rdquo;Known as one of the classiest players to ever play professional hockey, Bathgate spent 16 seasons in the NHL, playing for the Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins and one season (1974-75) in the World Hockey Association with the Vancouver Blazers.Although he spent almost 10 of those seasons with the Rangers, it was his two seasons with the Maple Leafs (1964, &lsquo;65) that gave him his greatest thrill.&ldquo;That was the ultimate for me in Toronto because we won the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; said Bathgate, who won the Hart Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player in 1959. &ldquo;Granted, I enjoyed playing in New York for the Rangers, but the team was going nowhere.&ldquo;We seemed to always have the talent in New York but never enough to carry us into or through the playoffs.&ldquo;The one thing that I always felt hurt us in New York was the fact that we never practised in the rink we played on (Madison Square Garden). The rink we practised on was smaller than the Garden.&ldquo;So, although I was surprised at the time of the trade, I knew that this might be my only shot at a Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Unfortunately for Bathgate, the 1964 Maple Leaf team would be the only one he would play on as a Stanley Cup champion. Two seasons later, Toronto general manager-coach Punch Imlach traded Bathgate to the Red Wings.&ldquo;Punch and I didn&rsquo;t see eye-to-eye when it came to practising,&rdquo; said Bathgate, a native of Winnipeg, Man., who was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978. &ldquo;His practices were never any fun.&ldquo;We never scrimmaged. Instead, we were always exercising. I just thought scrimmaging was more important sometimes.&rdquo;Today, the 51-year-old Bathgate owns a golf driving range in Mississauga, Ont., and he can also be seen in McDonald&rsquo;s hamburger commercials on television. Although still active as a player with the NHL Oldtimers, he has no thoughts of ever coming back into the NHL in any capacity.&ldquo;The challenge is just not there for me,&rdquo; said Bathgate, who scored 349 goals in his NHL career. &ldquo;I accomplished everything I ever wanted to do as a player.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03569/4879611-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="588" height="1054"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former NHL great Andy Bathgate does not favor today&rsquo;s wide-open brand of hockey.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I tried my hand at coaching in the WHA, but I just didn&rsquo;t like it.&ldquo;Plus, watching some of these games today, with scores like 10-9, would really drive me nuts.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s too wide open for me and you see it a lot today, but that&rsquo;s not the style I played under.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not good hockey for me.&rdquo;<h2>BEAVER TALES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011120/4879604-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="936" height="536"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02820/4879597-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="848" height="540"></div> &#9632;

f0005-03

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

<h2>Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:</h2>&bull; The Montreal Canadiens enjoyed sweet revenge when Bernie Geoffrion scored his 366th National Hockey League goal in a game against Detroit to surpass the Wings&rsquo; Ted Lindsay as the third-highest goal-scorer in league history. Earlier in the season, Detroit set records against Montreal when Gordie Howe shattered Maurice Richard&rsquo;s all-time scoring mark with goal No. 545 and Terry Sawchuk became the new shutout leader with No. 95.<h2>Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:</h2>&bull; Boston&rsquo;s Phil Esposito totalled eight points in the week to surpass the standing National Hockey League total points mark of 97 and become the first player in NHL history to top the 100-point mark.&bull; Toronto Maple Leafs traded 35-year-old center Bill Sutherland and youngsters Gerry Meehan and Mike Byers to Philadelphia for Brit Selby and Forbes Kennedy. Sutherland was an original Flyer but let go in the summer draft and claimed by Toronto. Selby, conversely, began his NHL career with Toronto in 1967 and was rookie of the year that season, but two years later was let go in the expansion draft.&bull; Guy Rousseau, the brother of Montreal Canadien Bobby Rousseau, was given a life suspension by the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association for attacking a referee. Rousseau, a member of the St. Hyacinthe Gaulois of the Quebec Senior Hockey League, attacked referee Jim Kierans after being given a minor and 10-minute misconduct. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04382/4879690-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0005-04

Did You Know…

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011299/4879721-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="305" height="356"></div><h2>Patrick-Adams Debate</h2>UP UNTIL A few seconds ago, I had this feeling that my two favorite puck people, Don Cherry and Mike Milbury, knew everything about hockey.Now, I know they don&rsquo;t.Here&rsquo;s how I found out. Don Cherry and Mike Milbury have been telling me all along that the Adams Division is the toughest in the National Hockey League. Since 1 was brought up to believe that Milbury and Cherry are never wrong, 1 never questioned pro-Adams propaganda&mdash;until I looked at the Patrick Division standings.One day the Flyers were in first place; next day. the Rangers. Or was it the Islanders? And those irrepressible Caps were breathing down everyone&rsquo;s necks. Or are they in first-place, too?&ldquo;With all due respect to the Adams Division,&rdquo; says Herb (Do You Want to Buy a Car from Me?) Brooks, &ldquo;our division is stronger from top to bottom. There&rsquo;s a fine line separating the teams.&rdquo;The Patrick Division race is tighter than Mike Nykoluk&rsquo;s face when a Globe and Mail reporter approaches him. You can make a case for either the Flyers, Caps. Rangers and Islanders being the top club any day of the week.By contrast, the Adams Division is a two-horse race between the Sabres and Bruins with Les Nordiques never quite finding high gear, Les Canadiens never finding Vladislav Tretiak and the Whalers never finding a playoff berth.So, it is obvious that the Patrick Division is the toughest in the league. So, let&rsquo;s not argue about that anymore. Okay?Brrrring! It&rsquo;s Don Cherry on the phone.&ldquo;What&rsquo;s that you say. Grapes? I&rsquo;m full of applesauce about the Patrick Division.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; barks Cherry louder than Blue, &ldquo;you are wrong. It&rsquo;s the Adams Division that&rsquo;s the strongest. You don&rsquo;t have to be Einstein to figure that out.&rdquo;&ldquo;Explain.&rdquo;&ldquo;Easy. I&rsquo;ve seen the Rangers play New Jersey. Not exactly sparkling hockey. I&rsquo;ve seen the Penguins play a few games. Need I say more? Okay, I will. You take the Whalers. Even though they&rsquo;re a last-place club, they&rsquo;re strong enough to beat Edmonton 11-0. Maybe they have a close race among four teams in the Patrick but in the Adams they play harder. Every game is like a tongue war. You should see a Boston-Buffalo game and then a Buffalo-Boston game a couple of nights later.&rdquo;&ldquo;You should see a Rangers-lslanders game.&rdquo;&ldquo;Never mind. Here&rsquo;s how I settle the argument. Hartford can&rsquo;t beat the teams in the Adams Division because that division is so strong, but the Whalers can beat anyone in the other divisions. Now stop bothering me and be serious.&rdquo;Am I glad Milbury didn&rsquo;t phone.<h2>The Larouche Secret</h2>NOBODY CAN FIGURE out why Pierre Larouche bummed out with the Whalers but is blasting so fast with the Rangers.Answer: They didn&rsquo;t parlezvous Fran&ccedil;ais with Monsieur Larouche in Hartford.On Broadway, whenever he needs an interpretation of what in blazes Herb Brooks is talking about, he merely huddles with his handy-dandy aide-de-camp Carol Vadnais and Brooksese becomes tres. tres. simple.&ldquo;You should never underestimate the value of Vadnais vis-avis Larouche.&rdquo; says one who knows the relationship well.How could anyone underestimate 40 goals?<h2>30-Second Third Degree</h2>LAURIE BOSCHMAN, WILL you please take the stand&rdquo; Q: What was it like when you played in Toronto for Harold Ballard?BOSCHMAN: &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t the most enjoyable time because there was controversy from the moment 1 got there; always something to distract the players from the game of hockey. Mr. Ballard makes it hard to play in Toronto. On the other hand, I learned a lot from some of the players. Darryl Sittier taught me how to play center; how to take the draws. He and Borje Salming had a big effect on me.Q: How did you feel about being traded from Edmonton to Winnipeg?BOSCHMAN: &ldquo;Playing for the Oilers was a good experience. It was nice playing with Wayne Gretzky but I&rsquo;m more comfortable in Winnipeg than I was in Edmonton&mdash;or Toronto&mdash;because I&rsquo;m so close to my hometown, Brandon. My folks and friends come to the games in Winnipeg. I&rsquo;m really happy here.&rdquo;Q: What is your opinion of plus-minus statistics?BOSCHMAN: &ldquo;They&rsquo;re a bit deceptive. A player might just jump off the ice on a line-change and I might jump on and just then a goal is scored. I&rsquo;d be a minus right away on that play and 1 really had no control over it. I guess plus-minus stats have to be kept but those are figures I won&rsquo;t live or die by.&rdquo;<h2>Peter And Max</h2>NOTHING COULD BE more appropriate than the return of Peter McNab to Vancouver, where he now works for the Canucks. And nobody can explain it better than his dad, Max, working 3,000 miles away as general manager for the New Jersey Devils.&ldquo;This was in the early 1960s.&rdquo; Max recalls. &ldquo;1 was GM of the Vancouver Canucks. We were in the old Western League at the time, playing out of an ancient rink called The Forum. Peter was about 10 at the time.&ldquo;On this particular night we were playing Portland and losing at the end of the second. In those days we&rsquo;d have puck-shooting contests.&ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m in my office when I hear this roar from the crowd. Next thing 1 know our p.r. man comes running in shouting, &lsquo;Peter just put the puck in; he won the thousand dollars&rdquo;&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. 1 said. &lsquo;How the bleep did he get there?&rsquo; 1 didn&rsquo;t want to explain to the reporters that and how we lost the game as well when the night was over. But the p.r. fellow says he picked the number fair and square. And when he went out to center ice, the emcee asked him his name; and he said &lsquo;Pete&rsquo;. (The guy didn&rsquo;t know he was my son.) So. I quickly phoned the sponsor and told him what had happened, figuring he didn&rsquo;t want anyone in my family winning the prize. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s fine,&rsquo; he says. &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll get great publicity outa this.&rsquo;&ldquo;So Pete kept the money and to make the night a complete success, we pulled our goalie with a minute left and Phil Maloney scored the tying goal!&ldquo;Peter saved that money to buy his first car.&rdquo;<h2>Chico And The Car</h2>SPECULATION HAS BEEN rampant for months that, sooner or later, the Devils will deal their (seemingly) most tradeable commodity, Chico Resch. This rumor persisted although Resch commands a hefty salary ($200,000-plus) and is working on his second toupee.Some Jersey fans wonder why others would hesitate grabbing Resch to their bosoms. The answer is rooted in The Car Theory as articulated by coach Tom McVie to Rich Chere of the Newark Star Ledger.&ldquo;My wife and 1 once had a &lsquo;55 Ford. To my wife and 1 it was worth $5,000 but we were moving to another city and we had to sell it. A guy said. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll give you $200 for it.&rsquo;&ldquo;I said, &ldquo;But this is my wife&rsquo;s first car. It means so much to us.&rsquo; The guy said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s worth $200. Take it or leave it.&rsquo; The value of something is in the eyes of the beholder and I&rsquo;m not sure how valuable Chico is to another franchise compared to this one.&rdquo;<h2>Best-Worse Announcer</h2>LEAVE IT TO Joe Falls to jolt my memory nerve. It was the Feb. 24th issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS and Joltin&rsquo; Joe, talking about the best broadcasters ever in hockey, mentioned the two we grew up with in New York&mdash;Bert Lee and Ward Wilson.What he didn&rsquo;t mention was that Lee originated hockey broadcasting expressions that I never heard before&mdash;or since. When Madison Square Garden was sold out, he&rsquo;d tell us: &ldquo;Fans, there&rsquo;s a capacity crowd; They&rsquo;re standing on every shelf.&rdquo; When the Rangers trailed&mdash;which was often in those dismal days of the early 1940s&mdash;Lee would assure us: &ldquo;Time enough for one goal; time enough for twenty!&rdquo; (He even said that the night the Rangers lost 15-0 to the Red Wings.)<h2>Cereal Of The Stars</h2>AS I WRITE this I am enjoying one of the thrills of my hockey life. Ever since I was a kid, I yearned to devour a breakfast cereal with a hockey player&rsquo;s picture on the box. But, alas, where I grew up, in Brooklyn, all we got was Wheaties with Joe Dimaggio, Bob Feller and Ted Williams. I can&rsquo;t tell you how much it bothered me.But now my wish has been fulfilled. A box of Pro Stars has been smuggled across the border to me from Rexdale, Ont. I couldn&rsquo;t be happier.Plastered on the front is Wayne Gretzky, himself. He is also on the side panel and he is smiling at me as I smile back at him.Of course I am not a fair critic so I have asked my family to take the Pro Stars taste test.Here is my 12-year-old son&rsquo;s (Ben) report:&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a combination between Cheerios and one or two of the other cereals. It has the crunch of Cheerios with a milder taste of sugar (Pro Star uses a sugar substitute). I like the taste. In fact, I did not use honey on it.&rdquo;Next, I give it to my six-year-old, Simon. His. criticism is more severe:&ldquo;I like it but I&rsquo;d rather see two other guys on the box&mdash;Chico Resch and Marty McSorley.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The feud between the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames has finally boiled over. With the team&rsquo;s meeting one another eight times a season and having taken turns eliminating each other from the playoffs the last two years, something had to happen.The blood bath finally came to pass in Vancouver, when the team&rsquo;s two respective antagonists, Dave Williams and Paul Baxter, began slashing at each other from the opening faceoff.Baxter, in fact, was cut in the first minute by Williams&rsquo; stick, though the Tiger claimed he knew nothing about it.Baxter was stitched up in time to return and avenged his injury earlier in the second period when he drew blood from Williams&rsquo; head with his stick. The only problem was referee Ron Wicks saw him, handed him a major penalty and the Canucks promptly scored three times&mdash;one of them by Williams&mdash;while Baxter was seated.Vancouver went on to win 5-2 but not before Williams and Baxter fought in the third period. Their spirit spread to the heavyweights for each respective club. Before the night was over, Harold Snepsts did well against Tim Hunter and Ron Delorme and Jamie Macoun engaged in a classic stand-up fight which seemed to go on forever. At the end, Macoun had a broken nose and a huge ice pack over his right eye. Delorme had sore knuckles and a roughed-up face and did not return.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen Ron Delorme fight for 15 years and I say that anyone who stands up and trades punches with him is crazy,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen him take a lot of guys that way. The only time I&rsquo;ve ever seen him come out on the short end was one day (two years ago) in Edmonton when somebody (Dave Semenko) hit him when he wasn&rsquo;t looking.&rdquo;With a rematch four days later in Calgary, suffice to say there was much discussion about what would happen. Many agreed it was time to see who had a better team, though Canuck general managercoach Harry Neale began to have fun with the media with his remarks.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll need two Zambonis to clean the ice,&rdquo; said Neale. &ldquo;One to clean up the ice and one to take care of the blood. We&rsquo;ll be in blood up to our knees before the night is over.&rdquo;Neale&rsquo;s fun with the reporters didn&rsquo;t detract his desire to have his players play physically.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying 1 want to see fights or stick-swinging, but our team seems to play best in an emotional game with lots of hitting,&rdquo; said Neale. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way we should play every game.&rdquo;Much to Neale&rsquo;s chagrin, the rematch was a waltz and his team ended up doing what its done so often this season&mdash;blowing a lead in the third period. Up 2-0 on goals by Thomas Gradin and Peter McNab, his first as a Canuck, Vancouver gave up two in third period, before losing their second overtime game in the Saddledome this season. Doug Risebrough popped home the winner.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t lose the game in overtime, so much as we lost it in the first 15 minutes of the third period, when we stood around and did nothing,&rdquo; Neale said. &ldquo;We watch people put the puck in the net and we skated past people all night. It&rsquo;s certainly nothing new for us. It&rsquo;s been a major problem all year.&rdquo;The loss at least lessened the chances the team will play once again in the first round of the playoffs. The Canucks dropped four points behind the Winnipeg Jets, who have four games in hand. Moreover, Vancouver is only two points ahead of Los Angeles, which has two games in hand.&ldquo;In the last three years we have always saved ourselves by playing very well in late February and March,&rdquo; Neale said. &ldquo;This year, it seems we either can&rsquo;t do it or don&rsquo;t want to. There are some guys on this team who have to start looking in the mirrors for answers to our problems.&rdquo;Goalie Frank Caprice was called up from Fredericton after Richard Brodeur was concked on the head with another shot. It was the fourth time in the last two years and he&rsquo;s bound to be getting a little gun-shy. Caprice was outstanding in the loss to Calgary keeping the Canucks in the game, particulary in the first period when he stopped 19 shots. &#9632;

Canucks Feel Insecure In Smythe Division

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;When the National Hockey League released an update of roster information on Feb. 16, the New Jersey Devils were listed as the oldest team with an average age of 27.8 and coach Tom McVie was not pleased with the way some people in the media interpreted the statistic.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not much interested in age or if we&rsquo;re the oldest team,&rdquo; McVie snapped when asked about the lack of youth on his last-place team.&ldquo;The last team to win the Stanley Cup with rookies was 65 years ago&mdash;the very first year in the NHL. Everybody was a rookie then. It (winning with rookies) can&rsquo;t be done.&rdquo;It (winning the Cup) can&rsquo;t be done by the Devils, either, since they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs on Feb. 19 when they dropped a 5-4 overtime loss to the league&rsquo;s second oldest team, the New York Islanders.Since McVie&rsquo;s job, realistically, is to create a building program and not to win the Cup, McVie is understandably sensitive to those who criticize his use of veterans.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t an expansion team, remember,&rdquo; the Devil coach said. &ldquo;This is a 10-year-old organization. There have been 10 years of tragedy here.&ldquo;Max McNab (Devil general manager) and myself cannot clean up 10 years of tragedy in two months,&rdquo; McVie told Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger. &ldquo;The people here created an illusion. Did they really think people would&rsquo;ve gone for a team that went 2-78?&rdquo;McVie usually begins such discussions by insisting that his purpose is not to criticize past GMs&hellip;and then he does exactly that.&ldquo;If you tie one and win one every now and then,&rdquo; McVie said, &ldquo;the fans will be patient but you can&rsquo;t create the illusion of progress when there is no progress being made. That&rsquo;s what they did.&rdquo;From a credibility standpoint, McVie&rsquo;s remarks about creating the &ldquo;illusion of progress&rdquo; must have made more than a few people in the Devil organization cringe but majority owner John McMullen apparently wasn&rsquo;t one of them.&ldquo;I think maybe Tom gets a little frustrated answering the same questions,&rdquo; McMullen said. &ldquo;Sometimes, you lose your patience. The average age thing is a little deceiving. We have two veteran goalies, Glenn Resch (35) and Ron Low (33), who boost up those numbers.&ldquo;You look at our franchise,&rdquo; McMullen added, &ldquo;and you know there&rsquo;s only one way we can go-&mdash;with youth. We&rsquo;re going to keep our draft choices and build. You&rsquo;ve got to remember, we still haven&rsquo;t picked our own first-round draft choice since we bought this team.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take a great deal of patience on everybody&rsquo;s part. &ldquo;In fact, it&rsquo;s going to take much more patience than I anticipated.&rdquo;McMullen repeated his intention to evaluate his front-office and coaching staffs after the season ends and added that he has been pleased not only with the effort but the results McVie has produced thus far.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very confident,&rdquo; McMullen said, &ldquo;that if we just don&rsquo;t panic, we&rsquo;ll be okay.McVie, meanwhile, understands that his opinions may bruise some feelings but he isn&rsquo;t going to stop telling it the way he sses it.&ldquo;Everything I say looks like a rap against the guys here before and it doesn&rsquo;t sound too good for my players,&rdquo; McVie observed. &ldquo;If I say, &lsquo;I wish we had Pat LaFontaine (the No. I pick which the Devils traded to the Islanders), it sounds like a knock on Dave Cameron and Bob Lorimer.&rdquo;The unquestionably long list of errors of the past merely underscores the enormity of the job which confronts McVie, McNab. McMullen and director of player personnel Marshall Johnston.The questions of timing and emphasis will probably continue to be debated over the next few years. How big a group of rookies can be brought in at once?With John MacLean. Rocky Trottier, Ken Daneyko and the Devils&rsquo; first-rounder in 1984 all expected to make a serious bid to stay with New Jersey next season, it will be interesting to see if the timetable is altered.Although the Devils were criticized in some circles for demoting MacLean and Daneyko. both players will probably benefit in the long run. just as Joe Cirella did last season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping to inject more youth into the team next year,&rdquo; McNab said, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;re not going to open the doors in training camp next season to give young guys jobs before they earn them, like was done before.&ldquo;That.&rdquo; McNab said, &ldquo;hurt our whole operation. Seeing jobs given to young guys was not good for the morale of our veterans.&rdquo;McVie seems even more cautious about so-called youth movements, even though he obviously doesn&rsquo;t have a strong, winning atmosphere in which to introduce deserving rookies as they come along.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m interested in blending in young players a little bit at a time.&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;Whoever thought they could win with a bunch of young players made a grave, grave mistake. You&rsquo;ve got to have veteran players, even if they&rsquo;re 40. and win hockey games. You can&rsquo;t just bring in a bunch of young players and say, &lsquo;Okay, we&rsquo;re going with youth.&rsquo;&ldquo;Nobody has been through this more than myself.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Defenseman Bruce Driver, who still has a year of eligibility remaining at the University of Wisconsin, has expressed a desire to turn pro immediately. The Devils were impressed with his play for the Canadian Olympic team and Max McNab is talking seriously about signing the sixth-round draft choice from 1981.&ldquo;We played a stupid, foolish game,&rdquo; Tom McVie said after the Devils suffered their third straight loss, 8-5, to Winnipeg on Feb. 22. New Jersey had played much stronger, more disciplined style in a 4-3 loss to Philadelphia and a 5-4 overtime loss to the Islanders. &#9632;

Devils Age Fast In A Short Time

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;The nights of Feb. 15 and 17 represented the first days of the rest of their lives for the Oilers.And&mdash;in the beginning displaying a nervous case of the s-s-s&mdash;h-h-h-a-a-a-k-e-s&mdash;they passed each test.The fact the initial opposition was supplied by the pushover Winnipeg Jets hardly made for an honors grade. A more realistic evaluation came two nights later when the Boston Bruins paid their second National Hockey League seasonal visit to The Great White North.Only after the 5-2 triumph over the Bruins could the 17,498, who regularly congregate at the Northlands Coliseum, begin to feel relief from the nausea created by a road swing in which the Oilers failed to produce a win in five games and scored only nine goals compared to 33 against.But everyone must start on the road to recovery somewhere&mdash;and a 7-4 triumph over Winnipeg looked a helluva lot better than an 11-0 butt-kicking by the Hartford Whalers.Having Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri&mdash;even big Dave Semenko&mdash;back in the lineup also made for a much more comforting sight than having them thousands of miles away forlornly listening to game broadcasts.Gretzky and Kurri, it was evident, haven&rsquo;t lost a step. They contributed four points apiece against Winnipeg and, in the event anyone has forgotten, served a reminder on Kurri&rsquo;s 40th goal that they are the NHL&rsquo;s deadliest two-on-one combination. Kurri may have missed 16 games, but over a nine-game stretch in which he has performed, he accounted for 12 goals.Gretzky? What can you say? With two goals against Winnipeg he had 10 in his seven starts, which were interrupted by six games on the shelf.The 23-year-old center set up Mark Messier&rsquo;s team-record-breaking 26th shorthanded goal and then broke an individual record he shared with Marcel Dionne (Detroit Red Wings: 1974-75), popping his 11th while killing a penalty. The old team standard the Oilers broke with Nos. 26 and 27 was 25 set by Boston Bruins of Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and Derek Sanderson fame in 1970-71.&ldquo;It was just another Gretzky and Kurri show,&rdquo; sighed Jet coach Barry Long. &ldquo;They come back and Edmonton&rsquo;s a much better team.&rdquo;&ldquo;We were able to get the team working in units again. At first our guys were a little nervous and uptight,&rdquo; said Oiler general manager-coach Glen Sather, alluding to a 1-1 first period. &ldquo;But they were determined to win this game.&rdquo;Two of the Oilers most maligned for lacklustre play during the disastrous Eastern swing contributed handsomely to the cause against Boston in which the Oilers overcame a 2-0 first-period deficit. Glenn Anderson accounted for the tying and winning goals less than three minutes apart during the second period, while Kenny Linseman set up the winner and fired the insurance goal past Bruin goalie Doug Keans during the final session.&ldquo;You mean like I&rsquo;m gonna get traded or something?&rdquo; the 23-year-old Anderson said in response to media criticism. &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m not worried about that, but there&rsquo;s sure a lot of talk about it going around.&rdquo;Then he became uncharacteristically serious:&ldquo;If you worry about that, it&rsquo;ll affect your game and the next thing you know, all sorts of little things will begin bothering you.&ldquo;On the road I wasn&rsquo;t getting pumped mentally before games&hellip;and preparing yourself properly is a big strategical part.&ldquo;That was big mistake on my part,&rdquo; Anderson added, confessing he and linemates Messier and Linseman were counted upon to fill the void created by the absence of Gretzky and Kurri. They responded with a puny two goals in five games.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re not ready and you don&rsquo;t produce, one mistake leads to another in a snowball&rsquo; reaction. Instead of things going from bad to a little better, they go from bad to worse.&rdquo;Sather wasn&rsquo;t about to divulge the tactics he employed to properly motivate the likes of Linseman and Anderson. But, with the trade deadline fast approaching, one wouldn&rsquo;t be at all surprised if the be-good-or-be-gone approach didn&rsquo;t work its way into the conversation once or twice.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re working harder and are a little more conscientious of their importance to the hockey team and of the mistakes they&rsquo;ve made,&rdquo; said Sather, who moved Linseman onto the fourth line with Dave Semenko and Willy Lindrom. &ldquo;I know one thing: You can&rsquo;t win Without them. They&rsquo;re very talented players&mdash;both relying on speed and determination. And Andy&rsquo;s a goal-scorer. &ldquo;Sather also revealed he liked the idea of playing Messier at center.&ldquo;Keeping Wayne, Kenny and Mark on three different lines doesn&rsquo;t make for bad balance,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Plus, when Linseman&rsquo;s with Messier and Anderson, he tends to rely on them. Now he has to be more responsible with the puck. He has to go after it more.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s usually that way when you&rsquo;re barking upon the first few days of the rest of your life.Until you get it straight, you take it one day at a time. &#9632;

Oilers Return To Life With Gretzky, Kurri

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Nyet, Nyet Tretiak</h2>WHETHER VLADISLAV TRETIAK, the great Soviet Union netminder, ever plays a game for the Montreal Canadiens is really a moot point. What&rsquo;s intriguing about the entire Tretiak-to-the-Habs scenario is the seeming incongruity of it all.For 12 months of the year, North American hockey fans bemoan the widening gap between their best hockey players and those of the Soviet Union. At length, we discuss what we can to do to remain competitive with the Big Red Machine. Then, one of the higest-profile franchises in all of professional sport&mdash;the Montreal Canadiens&mdash;turns around and offers $500,000 to the Soviets in order to secure Tretiak&rsquo;s services.One could argue that the Canadiens, like any other professional franchise, have only one mandate&mdash;to ice the best team possible. If the Habs&rsquo; managing director, Serge Savard, figures his team will be better with Tretiak in net, then the unwritten rules of pro sports dictate that he get the Russian goalie&rsquo;s name on a contract.But if you&rsquo;re looking at the larger picture, the one which seems to have North American hockey falling behind the example being set by the Soviets and other European nations, then the prospect of Tretiak&rsquo;s signing is reason for concern. The Canadiens would be pumping $500,000 into the Soviet system. One has to wonder how many top-notch hockey players the Russians can develop with that money?The thing is that the Canadiens are not alone in their desire to obtain foreign aid. Almost every NHL team has a European or two in the lineup and it&rsquo;s likely that many more are on the way.Now, we are not suggesting that Europeans should be banned from the NHL. We couldn&rsquo;t imagine missing out on the grace, elegance and talents of such players as Peter Stastny, Borje Salming, the Sundstrom twins and so on. The list goes on and on&hellip;BUT THERE IS no reason why there shouldn&rsquo;t be some sort of quota system, aimed at promoting and developing players on the North American continent.This quota system&mdash;perhaps a limit of three imports per NHL team&mdash;is not exactly a revolutionary concept. It&rsquo;s precisely the same way the Europeans, specifically the Swedes and Finns, have developed their hockey programs. The intended effect is obvious&mdash;to stimulate hockey development within their own borders. It works.But this quota system in the NHL would only be the first step. NHL teams, which seem so willing to toss around megabucks to obtain foreign talent, would have to a have deiire to put that money into the development of North American hockey. Here&rsquo;s how it could work.Promote an elite youth system. Scour the country, identify the top 12-year-old hockey players. Set up elite teams, perhaps one for each province in Canada and one for each hockey-playing region in the U.S. Set up a program that ensures these elite prospects are given the very best in hockey and scholastic instruction for nine or 10 months of the year.The program could be based on a U.S.-college type set-up, with five practices for every two games and games only on the weekend. With money from NHL teams and other corporate sponsors, these elite squads could travel to play each other and the best competition in Europe. They could be kept together year after year.It would not be all that different than sending a promising young tennis player, such as Carling Bassett or Jimmy Arias, to Bollitieri&rsquo;s tennis academy in Florida. The instruction would have to be intensive and top-shelf, the commitment on the part of the players and their families would have to be great.More than anything else, though, it would require cooperation from the NHL and the North American public, which is still afraid of the word &ldquo;elite.&rdquo;At this point, one could only guess that the NHL&rsquo;s investment would reap substantial dividends since they&rsquo;d be receiving better prepared and more skilled players. And if this elite program was designed properly and monitored, then those players who weren&rsquo;t able to or decided against a career in pro hockey would be fully prepared for the &ldquo;real&rdquo; world.An attempt at something such as this sure beats giving the Russians a half-million dollars for a goalie who might have a few good seasons left. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BOB VERDI&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011245/4879848-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="304" height="357"></div>After recent events at the XIV Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, North American hockey fans can be excused for turning to more pleasant thoughts. Such as shovelling snow, paying income tax or inviting the in-laws over for a few months.Clearly, the events of mid-February were grim. The U.S. Olympic team was a disappointment. The Canadian club started well but the medal round proved pointless. Most galling, the Soviet Union waltzed to gold and did so while laughing at the ill-advised sparring conducted by two &ldquo;friendly&rdquo; nations.One would like to dismiss the American-Canadian tiff as just another indication of how the Olympics are a sham. That they are, and probably always will be. The International Olympic Committee took decades to recognize China and eons to admit to a divided Germany. For us to expect these addled IOC brains to render a sane decision on what is a pro and what is an amateur&hellip;well, dream on.Leave it instead to a clear thinker like Islanders&rsquo; general manager Bill Torrey. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a joke,&rdquo; said Torrey. &ldquo;Vladislav Tretiak, a Russian goalie, has played more games against NHL competition than the Canadian kids who were thrown off the team.&rdquo;U.S. coach Lou Vairo was also in full throat when placing the issue in perspective. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a kid on our team, Ed Olczyk, who was five years old when Tretiak was in his first Olympics. This is Tretiak&rsquo;s fourth. That&rsquo;s fair?&rdquo;Vairo didn&rsquo;t have to wait for an answer. Meanwhile, the Olympic ideal, such as it is, went on smothered in hypocrisy. And the Russians went on to win again, laughing while Canada and the U.S. fought the dumb fight.When this tiff was at full throttle along came another ship of fools to make matters worse. The National Collegiate Athletic Association delivered a letter to Murray Costello, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and a Team Canada advisor. The letter had to be read twice to be believed. To say it was insulting is an understatement, but remember that the NCAA is one outfit that will never relinquish its amateur standing.The gist of the letter was that if these horribly corrupt Canadian professionals participated in the holy Olympics, their hockey-playing countrymen in the U.S. just might lose their college scholarships. Imagine the NCAA pointing fingers at alleged blights of justice. The NCAA is the most simple-minded organization known to sport. Its backyard is forever in flames, but there it was in Yugoslavia, attempting to lay down the law. Mercy.While this transpired, the Russians were teasing us with the prospect that Tretiak might leave home to join the Montreal Canadiens. Nobody doubts the Canadiens&rsquo; efforts as anything but sincere, nor does anybody doubt that the Russians will try to fleece their subjects at the bargaining table.The Russians want all sorts of perks in exchange for Tretiak. More than anything, they&rsquo;d like to train in Edmonton before the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Don&rsquo;t be surprised if the Russians get everything they want, after which Tretiak will announce his retirement from hockey. That would give the Russians another laugh.The Americans didn&rsquo;t do much laughing of their own. Perhaps the expectations, as Vairo pointed out, were too great for this youngest U.S. team ever. But it wasn&rsquo;t that they lost, it was how. The most modest expectation was that after eight months and 65 games, the Americans would be able to get the puck out of their end. No such luck.The pressure on the Americans was immense, thanks to the 1980 miracle. So immense that this team felt compelled to call a press conference to say it had no apologies. Fair enough. The Americans also announced that they did not destroy their shower facilities after tying mighty Norway 3-3. Believe that, too. If you saw the game against Norway, there was no reason for the Americans to take showers.Canada started the tournament in good fettle with coach Dave King making the most of his talent and goalie Mario Gosselin looking like this year&rsquo;s Jim Craig, but the scoring wasn&rsquo;t there even if the defense and dedication were. A bronze would have been nice, but the Canadians were shut out of that when they were shut out by Sweden.King&rsquo;s status shot up in Yugoslavia and Vairo&rsquo;s plum-metted. Too bad on the latter count. Vairo is a Walter Mitty who worked long and hard, but he&rsquo;ll have to pay the price for that opening game when the Americans showed absolutely no emotion against Canada.A truly open Olympics is the only sane answer for the future. Show a passport and play for your country. But it won&rsquo;t happen. The Russians will stay together year after year and laugh all the way to more gold. &ldquo;The gap is widening,&rdquo; says Ken Dryden.Come September we&rsquo;ll have check books open and T-bone steaks ready for another visit by the Big Red Machine. It&rsquo;s the Canada Cup and it will be our best pros against their best &ldquo;amateurs.&rdquo; Can&rsquo;t wait. &#9632;

f0008-01

GUEST SHOT

<h2>NFL ON ICE?</h2>I have the solution to all of the problems in the NHL. Well, at least two of them anyway. First, add the Saskatchewan Spirit to the Campbell Conference. Second, drop the division names (Adams, Norris, Smythe and Patrick). Nobody remembers those guys anyway, except Joe Falls and Dick Beddoes.Okay, now we have two 11-team conferences with each one allowing eight playoff teams. Have money incentives for each playoff spot and then have a 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 playoff format to insure hunger and interest throughout the season. Have an unbalanced schedule of 50 games within your conference and 33 games in the other conference. This means you play a five-game series against each team in your division and a three-game series with each team outside the conference.Now, some might argue that this would create an imbalance between the two conferences since most would agree the Wales is stronger. But here&rsquo;s the clincher: outlaw the trading of No. 1 and 2 draft choices. Within three or four years, the conferences would be equal. With only six teams not making it to the playoffs, they are guaranteed big crowds the next year with one of the top six draft picks. And besides, nobody can fleece these bottom six clubs (like Lou &ldquo;How-would-you-like-to-buy-some-swampland&rdquo; Nanne).Now that I have solved all of the problems in the NHL, it seems I&rsquo;ve put the NFL on ice.Patrick Melich Minneapolis, MN<h2>SHAME ON ABC</h2>I was very disappointed in the handling of the U.S. hockey coverage by ABC Sports in the 1984 Olympics. The comparisons to the 1980 gold medal winning team were relentless and unncessary.The 1984 team was a young, talented group of players who were chosen for the team on their own merits. They were not the same team that pulled off a veritable miracle in 1980 nor did they pretend to be. So much pressure was placed on these young men before and during the Games by the media that it is a wonder they played as well as they did.The gold medal in 1980 was totally unexpected and there was no reason for anyone to place those first-place expectations on the 1984 team either. We should be proud that talents such as LaFontaine, Behrend and Olczyk represented this country instead of complaining because they did not win.Wendy Flora Kalamazoo, MI &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011229/4879903-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran St. Louis winger Wayne Babych has been affected by the booing of the home crowd and admits it&rsquo;s not good.</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;It wasn&rsquo;t Wayne Babych&rsquo;s week&hellip;or Bernie Federko&rsquo;s, either.Babych&rsquo;s problems began mounting the last couple of months and it reached the point where some fans in St. Louis were booing him. Over his last 25 games, the Blues&rsquo; right winger scored only two goals.As mid-February rolled around and Babych was sitting on 13 goals and 27 assists, coach Jacques Demers began to run out of patience. When Demers didn&rsquo;t like what he saw from Babych in a 1-1 tie with Chicago on Feb. 11, Babych remained behind when the Blues travelled to Detroit for a game Feb. 15.The benching was-for one game only and Babych was back in the lineup Feb. 18 against Washington. But, again, Demers didn&rsquo;t like what he saw. Babych again remained at home when the Blues went to Chicago the next day.Federko&rsquo;s problem wasn&rsquo;t quite as pronounced as Babych&rsquo;s, but the Blues&rsquo; leading scorer was in a slump. He struggled all month and then went four games without a goal or assist. In the Blues&rsquo; 5-2 loss to the Flyers on Feb. 16 in Philadelphia, he seemed to be playing in a fog. His line was on the ice for three goals against.The next day, Demers decided to bench Federko for the game against Washington.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of the toughest decisions I&rsquo;ve had to make as a professional coach,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;For the benefit of the team and Bernie Federko in the future, it had to be done.&rdquo;At the time of the benching, Federko was 11th overall in league scoring with 75 points (29 goals, 46 assists).&ldquo;He gets down on himself,&rdquo; said Demers, &ldquo;but a professional who isn&rsquo;t producing has to live under pressure and shake it off.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;It&rsquo;s one of the toughest decisions I&rsquo;ve had to make as a professional coach. But for benefit of the team and Bernie Federko, it had to be done.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;I have unlimited confidence in him and he&rsquo;ll be a key to our drive for a playoff spot. He&rsquo;s human; he can go through a bad stretch. And I was patient with Bernie&mdash;he even said it&mdash;but when it goes for 10 or 11 games&hellip;I just thought it was a good time for him to sit down and think about how valuable he is to the hockey team.&rdquo;After the loss to Philadelphia, Federko said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m struggling and it&rsquo;s tough on me mentally. I&rsquo;m expected to score. When I don&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;m letting the team down and I get mad at myself.&rdquo;Demers said he expected Federko to react positively to the benching.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t forget what he&rsquo;s done for this team year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great player when he&rsquo;s at his best.&rdquo;Federko, in fact, did play well in his first game back, picking up two assists in a disappointing 6-5 loss to Chicago. The Blues rallied from a 5-0 deficit and tied the game in the third period, but the Hawks won on Steve Larmer&rsquo;s goal at 19:00.This much was certain as the Blues headed into the stretch drive: They must have a productive Federko.Babych, however, may not fit into their plans. Rookie Greg Paslawski made a bid for Babych&rsquo;s spot at right wing when he scored two goals in the loss to Chicago.&ldquo;Right now, we don&rsquo;t feel Wayne Babych is helping us accomplish what we need to make the playoffs,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say that I&rsquo;ve lost confidence in him, but I&rsquo;ve lost sight of what he can do to help the team. Every game now is a must for the Blues.&rdquo;Demers revealed that Babych asked to be traded when the Blues were going through a losing streak earlier in the season, but then changed his mind.&ldquo;At the time, that&rsquo;s how I felt,&rdquo; Babych said. &ldquo;I felt for the guys and I thought maybe the team needed new blood.&rdquo;He said the boos from fans in St. Louis served only to compound his problems.&ldquo;Definitely, it bothers me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of funny that after six years you let fans bother you&mdash;that&rsquo;s not good. It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve got to get out of my head.&rdquo;Babych hasn&rsquo;t been the same player since the 1980-81 season, when he scored 54 goals. A series of injuries contributed to his slip in confidence and a loss of effectiveness.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s still time to rebound,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I guarantee you one thing: Before I leave this league, I&rsquo;m going to score 50 goals again. I know I can do it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more determined than ever. Whoever doesn&rsquo;t think 1 can. I&rsquo;ll make them eat their words. 1 know I have the shot, I just have to put everything else together.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Babych, Federko Singing Slumping Blues’ Tunes

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011278/4879934-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran Hawk goalie Tony Esposito may have played his final game of the season, with the promotion of Bob Janecyk (inset) from the minors.</figcaption></div>CHICAGO&mdash;The native has returned. Can he stand the pressure of being a parttime goaltender with the Black Hawks in the make-or-break segment of their season?&ldquo;Bob Janecyk is a Chicago boy and I&rsquo;m told they&rsquo;re tough customers,&rdquo; said Hawk coach Orval Tessier. &ldquo;Well, I can tell you from experience that Bobby&rsquo;s a fighter who&rsquo;s physically and mentally tough.&rdquo;The Chicago boy (actually a young man from suburban Midlothian) and his coach go back two years to their American League championship season with New Brunswick. Tessier was breaking into pro coaching following a commendable career at the junior level, while Janecyk was in his second year in Moncton.The goalie&rsquo;s 4.10 goals-against average in 34 games the previous year was hardly a glowing recommendation. But Tessier got a glint of the true grit that went beyond the statistics.He decided to alternate Janecyk and Warren Skorodenski. It was a good move. During the first half of the season they developed into the top goaltending combo in the NHL.Then. Skorodenski suffered a serious groin injury. No help was forthcoming either from the Hawks or Toronto, then co-sponsors of the Moncton farm club.New Brunswick&rsquo;s fate was in Janecyk&rsquo;s hands. He proved to be a good hands person.&ldquo;Bobby had to do it all and he did it,&rdquo; recalled Tessier. &ldquo;He played in something like 38 straight games. He brought us through the rest of the regular season and then he did it in the playoffs.&rdquo;In emerging as a star in a situation so shrouded with stress, Janecyk rid himself of the jitters that had accompanied him to his first three training camps with the Hawks. Since he&rsquo;d been a boy he&rsquo;d known what he wanted to do. Now, he had the confidence that he could do it.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Bobby had to do it all and he did it. He played in something like 38 straight games/</blockquote>Following an impressive training camp last season, Janecyk was sent back to the American League but the Hawks shifted their farm team from Moncton to Springfield, MA.As it turned out, Janecyk went from a championship team to a tail-end team. Yet it didn&rsquo;t detract from his play. For the second time he was an American League All-Star.During most of training camp last fall the Hawks had a Gang of Four goalies with Janecyk and Skorodenski joining incumbents Murray Bannerman and Tony Esposito.Janecyk played in five exhibitions. His most noteworthy effort was in Edmonton. The Oilers tore the defense asunder and got through to Esposito for five goals. Midway through the game, Janecyk spelled relief, the defense tightened and Wayne Gretzky and Co. were limited to one goal for the duration.Very aware of what Janecyk had accomplished in the minors and impressed by his pre-season work, Hawk general manager Bob Pulford kept him on the roster starting the season. But Janecyk, who will turn 27 in May, didn&rsquo;t play. After a month of monitoring games from the press box he was sent back to Springfield.&ldquo;I know Bobby was awfully hurt when he was sent down again,&rdquo; said Tessier. &ldquo;I had a talk with him and I told him: &lsquo;You&rsquo;re working for yourself now, Bobby, so keep giving it your best. Next fall we won&rsquo;t be able to protect all of our goalies in the waiver draft. You&rsquo;ll either be rewarded here or somewhere else in the NHL.&rsquo;&rdquo;Janecyk took Tessier&rsquo;s advice to heart.&ldquo;Bob Pulford didn&rsquo;t make any promises or anything,&rdquo; Janecyk remembered. &ldquo;But from the point he signed me as a free agent (in 1980) he always kept his word. He told me: &lsquo;Work hard and the next time you&rsquo;re here, you&rsquo;ll play.&rsquo; I believed him and in Springfield I played consistently well.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m past the stage of being nervous. Now, I&rsquo;m more worried. This is my chance and I have to make the most of if. But I&rsquo;m also very confident that I can do the job.&rdquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;The rise of Bob Janecyk may mean no more appearances this season for Tony Esposito, at 41 the oldest player in the NHL and author of 76 career shutouts. Murray Bannerman is expected to be used as a marathon man during the last month of the season with Janecyk working as his understudy. &ldquo;I told Tony that I hoped he&rsquo;d understand.&rdquo; said Orval Tessier. &ldquo;I mean this sincerely. Since he and I had our talk in Boston (Dec. 16) he has co-operated 1,000 per cent. I came to appreciate that Tony was giving it all he had.&rdquo; According to Janecyk: &ldquo;Tony has made me feel welcome. He talks to me and helps me out; I appreciate that.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

Black Hawks’ Native Son Rises Up From Springfield

<div class="byline">BY JOE FALLS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02995/4879965-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="304" height="354"></div><h2>Hockey Night In Yugoslavia</h2>HOCKEY NIGHT IN Yugoslavia was not exactly like Hockey Night in Canada.For one thing, everyone had to go through a metal detector in order to get into the Zetra and Skendarija ice rinks, scene of the Olympic hockey tournament. You couldn&rsquo;t smuggle in any octopi to toss on the ice. A white fish, maybe, or perhaps a carp, but nothing with tentacles. It showed up on the screen.It was was a crazy three weeks in Sarajevo. Canada beat the U.S. and got into the playoffs but in the end. Canada lost more games (three) than the U.S. did (two). The guys from the Moscow Square Garden went home with the Stanleykov Cup.So what is it like to watch a hockey game half a world away?It&rsquo;s different.They use two Zambonis instead of one and you wonder why Harold Ballard never thought of such a thing. The ice gets cleaned quickly and the new surface has a chance to set so that it is very smooth by the time the teams return to the ice.That was one improvement.Another was the washerwomen, who cleaned off the plexiglass before every game by using pails of hot water and some old-fashioned elbow grease. The teams would come out for their pre-game warmups and the ladies would stay there working away to make the glass as clear as possible so the fans could enjoy the game as much as possible. They even cleaned up the puck marks along the boards so the rink would be gleeming for each game.<h2>Room To Roam</h2>THE GOAL JUDGES wore striped shirts just like the referee and linsemen and it wasn&rsquo;t a bad touch because it made them seem like part of the game, instead of part of the crowd. The red lines were not exactly red. They were more rust colored. The bluelines were blue.The biggest change on these international ponds was all the extra room behind the net. It was only a few feet, but it looked like a football field back there and you could not help but wonder what kind of field day Wayne Gretzky would have with all that extra room to work in. He might get 500 assists a season.The Zetra rink held 8,500 spectators and it seemed as if everyone was puffing on cigarettes since a layer of smoke hung over the ice. Actually, that was smog seeping in under the doors from the smog-covered streets outside. They might think of having a smog-off between Sarajevo and Los Angeles, sight of the Summer Olympics.They ran the time clock forwards starting from zero and working up to 20 minutes. In other words, if a guy scored at 14:13, it said 14:13 on the clock. No figuring it out backwards the way we have to do in our rinks.They did not play any national anthems and that was too bad. We were all set to give out with our best rendition of, &ldquo;O, Canada! Terre de nos paieux. Ton front est ceint, de fleur est gloriex!&rdquo; With a New York accent, of course.<h2>Where Are The Dogs?</h2>THE CRAZIEST PART of all was between the periods. They had no hot dog stands and you couldn&rsquo;t get any pop, pizza, popcorn or peanuts.They didn&rsquo;t have any concession stands, just bars set up under the stands. They sold you brandy and candy.They had comfortable lounges set up in the four comers of the stadium but nobody bothered to sit down in the cushioned chairs. They preferred to do their drinking standing up.They also had a coat-checking counter set up at the back of each side of the rink. It ran almost the full length of the building. The only trouble was nobody bothered to check their coats. A half-dozen women sat back there and they checked only a half-dozen coats.But then, that was more checks than the Americans threw at the Canadians.Mother Russia finally prevailed, beating Czechoslovakia 2-0 in the championship game. When it was over, Viktor Tikhonov, the Soviet coach, pulled on his chin several times and said his country was capable of playing even better hockey.&ldquo;In fact, he said, &ldquo;we guarantee it.&rdquo;It was the most ominous moment of the Olympics. &#9632;

f0010-02

HOCKEY CORNER

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Jacques Lemaire will try to succeed where Bernard Geoffrion, Claude Ruel and Bob Berry failed.Lemaire was named coach of the Montreal Canadiens after managing director Serge Savard dismissed Berry 63 games into the National Hockey League season.&ldquo;There was a lack of productivity from the players and you always look for a change to try and shake up your players,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;We feel our team is better than the record. We don&rsquo;t pretend that we have the best club in the league but I think we are much, much better and I think Bob found himself in a tough situation.&ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t work very well on his own. He had 99 per cent of the press against him and he had all of the people against him. It reflected a little bit on his moves and the way he coached.&rdquo;Berry&rsquo;s record with the Canadiens was 116 victories, 73 losses and 36 ties. He was 46-17-17 in 1981-82 when he took over from Ruel and 42-24-14 last season.The Canadiens were struggling at 28-30-5 when Savard finally decided to make the move on the day after a 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.Berry was in a no-win position. He felt he had to win every game and as a result was not playing several of the youngsters which Savard and other management people feel are an integral part of Montreal&rsquo;s hockey future.&ldquo;I still feel I can coach in this league.&rdquo; said Berry, who is currently on a two-week vacation. &ldquo;You can use all the old cliches you want&mdash;&rsquo;It&rsquo;s easier to fire the coach than it is 20 players&rsquo;&mdash;but the fact of the matter is our record wasn&rsquo;t very good.&rdquo;The announcment of Berry&rsquo;s firing came early in the evening because Savard was unable to find him after the Canadiens&rsquo; morning workout Feb. 24. Berry finally received a message to call Savard when he dropped by to visit his father and then went to the Forum to get the news.&ldquo;Going to the Forum, I knew what was going to happen,&rdquo; said Berry.In recent weeks, Berry&rsquo;s coaching had been widely criticized, particularly because he wasn&rsquo;t using people such as rookie defenseman Kent Carlson and Alfie Turcotte, the Canadiens&rsquo; No. I pick in last summer&rsquo;s entry draft, to any great degree. The Canadiens were getting into the habit of falling behind early against their oppositon and some players complained about the repetition in practices and the lack of optional workouts.Many players were incensed when Berry ordered an early-morning workout on a Saturday just before the Canadiens boarded a bus in San Diego for a game in Los Angeles that evening. The Canadiens lost the game 5-3, never recovering from a 2-0 first-period deficit.&ldquo;I could see that the effort has been there from our players,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;Nothing was happening though. It looked like the club was mentally tired and when you are mentally tired nothing goes. You have to be ready mentally and the rest will follow. Maybe a change will turn things around.&rdquo;Savard feels that Lemaire, retired from the Canadiens following the 1978-79 season, is in a different situation than Berry and will not be under the same media pressure that the former coach was.&ldquo;My feeling is that I&rsquo;m not going to tell Jacques Lemaire what to do and I feel he is going to go with everyone in the lineup,&rdquo; he said.Lemaire, who coached the Longueuil Chevaliers to the finals in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season, said that he would play his youngsters.&ldquo;We have a lot of young players on the team and it&rsquo;s still difficult to evaluate them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I want to better evaulate them I&rsquo;ve got to play them even though they might make mistakes.&ldquo;I believe that you have to have communication with your players. I don&rsquo;t like to see players on the rink who are not happy and who do not enjoy their job.&rdquo;Lemaire met with veteran left winger Steve Shutt on the Canadiens&rsquo; return flight from the west coast as Shutt sought an answer to his lack of playing time.Shutt missed the Monday practice after the loss in Los Angeles and did not play the following night in a 3-2 loss to the Nordiques in Quebec. He returned to the lineup for the Winnipeg game because Mark Hunter suffered a twisted knee.Carlson, who sat out the Quebec game, was back in uniform because Rick Green aggravated a rib injury and was forced to the sidelines for another two weeks. Green missed the first 58 games this season with a broken wrist.Lemaire&rsquo;s job was further complicated by a broken hand suffered by Pierre Mondou in a 7-4 victory over the New York Rangers in the new coach&rsquo;s debut Feb. 25.&ldquo;Right now we have just enough players to fill the lineup,&rdquo; said Savard, who recalled left winger Mike McPhee from Nova Scotia to replace Mondou. &ldquo;I am sure Jacques is going to go with everybody and work from there.&ldquo;I think that me going behind the bench was the last solution and of those I worked with, Jacques Lamaire was the first solution.&rdquo; &#9632;

Lemaire Plans To Use Habs’Young Players

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011251/4880020-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Sauve approves of the Sabres&rsquo; rotating goaltending system, though admits it wouldn&rsquo;t be too favorable if the team weren&rsquo;t winning.</figcaption></div>BUFFALO&mdash;It has been found that most National Hockey League teams carry two or three goaltenders with one usually designated as the No. 1 goalie, playing in a majority of the team&rsquo;s games.It&rsquo;s a different story with the Sabres. Scotty Bowman, the Sabres&rsquo; general manager-coach, decided this year to split the goaltending duties, rotating the goalies on a game-by-bame basis.For the two netminders, veteran Bob Sauve and rookie Tom Barrasso, it has been a successful system.Barrasso&rsquo;s record is 21-8-3, winning 17 of his last 22 games, while Savue is 19-9-3, losing just one of his last 13 decisions (11-1-1).&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still happy with the system and the way Scotty set things up,&rdquo; Sauve said. &ldquo;But if we weren&rsquo;t winning, I don&rsquo;t think things would be okay and a change would have had to have been made.&ldquo;With the rotation system it helps you concentrate better when you know when you&rsquo;re playing ahead of time.&ldquo;In fact it&rsquo;s been two or three months since Scotty has said anything about who&rsquo;s playing. It&rsquo;s taken for granted that until we hear differently from him, this is the way it will be.&rdquo;Barrasso, a leading candidate for rookie-of-the-year honors, also agrees with the system set-up.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been great so far,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;The only time I have found it difficult is when I play once a week or once in six days. That can be tough.&ldquo;But you have to remember that a goalie can&rsquo;t go out and win by himself. Bob and I are fortunate to have a well-balanced team in front of us.&ldquo;The defense takes away a lot of the tougher scoring opportunities for us.&rdquo;Sauve has seen an improvement in the Sabres since the beginning of the season.&ldquo;As a team, I don&rsquo;t think we played that great at the beginning of the year.&rdquo; said Sauve. &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re playing better defensively as a team.&ldquo;We have to play that tight checking kind of hockey; the kind that helps you win in the playoffs.&rdquo;How does the duo of Sauve and Barrasso get along together on the team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been very impressed with Tom,&rdquo; said the 28-year-old Sauve of the 18-year-old Barrasso. &ldquo;As far as helping him, the way he&rsquo;s playing, I don&rsquo;t think I can touch his game right now. When somebody&rsquo;s hot, you don&rsquo;t tamper with him.&rdquo;Barrasso gives Sauve credit for some of his success this season.&ldquo;Bob has worked with me as far as telling me about the different teams around the league,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;He certainly knows the league better than I do.&ldquo;And he lets me know who the better shooters are and also gives me little tips about the position itself.&rdquo;SABRE STUFF&mdash;The loss on the road to the Hartford Whalers (Feb. 23) ended the Sabres seven-game winning streak&hellip;Center Dave Andreychuk continues to be one of the hottest scoring Sabres. Over a recent eight-game stretch he scored 10 goals and nine assists. &#9632;

f0012-01

Barrasso, Sauve Approve Rotating Goalies

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021053/4880051-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="309" height="355"></div><h2>At The Stretch</h2>QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, OBSERVATIONS and opinions as we head into the home stretch&hellip;&bull; Will Wayne Gretzky score 100 goals? It&rsquo;s possible, even though the Great One has missed six games. With 73 goals in 56 games and with 17 left to play, can he score 27 goals? Doubtful. But he&rsquo;s done doubtful before.&bull; Stan Smyl is no longer my favorite player. I know that breaks your heart. Smyl seems to have lost some of the zest and feistiness he has so often displayed in recent seasons. It&rsquo;s too bad. If he loses that zeal, he transforms from a very good player to just another average NHLer. Perhaps center Thomas Gradin&rsquo;s leap from grace has diminished Stanley&rsquo;s steam.&bull; Roger Neilson, a pleasant fellow, was absolutely the wrong person to be named coach of the Los Angeles Kings. He may tum the team around in the short term but he&rsquo;ll tum off the fans with his dull style of hockey. The next thing you know, he&rsquo;ll have Bernie Nicholls checking. Not even Nicholls believes that.&bull; Marc Behrend will have to show he&rsquo;s a much better goalie than he did in the Olympics if he&rsquo;s going to help the Winnipeg Jets at all. Forget all the garbage about Dave Tippett shadowing Pat LaFontaine and Dave King outcoaching Lou Vairo in the Canada-U.S. game; the difference was goaltending. Behrend allowed three weak goals. Canada&rsquo;s Mario Gosselin was superb.<h2>Quinn Misses Out</h2>&bull; HAD DAN QUINN played an entire season for the Calgary Flames, he would probably be challenging Steve Yzerman and Tom Barrasso for rookie-of-the-year honors. He&rsquo;s scoring at better than a point-per-game pace and has done wonders for the now-injured Lanny McDonald. Ironically, Quinn will not make the NHL all-rookie team because Yzerman plays the same position, center. Two other Flames should make the team. Jamie Macoun on defense and Hakan Loob on right wing. The other four should be Yzerman, Sylvain Turgeon on left wing. Thomas Eriksson on defense and Barrasso in goal.&bull; Lou Nanne continues to make great trades that strangely do not improve his hockey club. The North Stars have two previous 50-goal scorers and seven others who have scored more than 35 in one season in their careers. This team is stacked, even on defense with the underrated Curt Giles and overrated Brad Maxwell. This club should be running away with the Snorris Division but isn&rsquo;t, even though the other four clubs are something close to terrible.&bull; I don&rsquo;t buy Murray Bannerman. I know, I know, he&rsquo;s got the good numbers. He&rsquo;s among the league leaders in goals-against average and saves percentage, but I&rsquo;m not sure he&rsquo;s a great goalie. Perhaps his play in the All-Star game mirrors this best. Look what happened to Pelle Lindbergh. He went from all-star to minor leaguer in the span of less than a season. Bannerman may be the third-best goaltender in the Black Hawks&rsquo; organization, behind Warren Skorodenski and Bob Janecyk.<h2>Sad Fate Of Tony O</h2>&bull; WHILE WE&rsquo;RE ON the subject, isn&rsquo;t it sad what has become of Tony Esposito? He should have quit a year ago, when he could have gone out proudly. Now, he&rsquo;ll always be remembered as a guy who didn&rsquo;t know when to pack it in.&bull; Dave King will not be leaving Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team for an NHL job. He will remain with the Olympic program through the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.&bull; What Detroit Red Wings have done to Murray Craven is a perfect example of why the current agreement between the juniors and the NHL doesn&rsquo;t work. Craven, a former first-round pick of the Wings, was first called up by Detroit last season, when it was obvious to those who watched him play junior he wasn&rsquo;t ready. He wasn&rsquo;t even the best player on Medicine Hat Tigers. This year, he began the season with Detroit, was shipped down, started playing well and was picked to play for Team Canada in the world junior championships. The day before he was to leave for Europe, the Red Wings recalled him and then sat him on the bench before returning him to junior. If Craven is disenchanted with the Red Wings, he has reason to be. He&rsquo;s been turned every which way but loose by a team that will need him one day.&bull; When will an NHL team realize that one of hockey&rsquo;s brightest men. Western Hockey League president Ed Chynoweth, would love to leave his post as junior czar and run a big club? Is anyone more qualified, with the possible exception of Rogie Vachon?&bull; The trade that sent Andre Dore to Quebec for Dave Pichette was surprising. The Blues seem to be stocking themselves with players who have been labelled with potential for years, but have never shown it. Doug Wickenheiser is one, Pichette is another. Dore, on the other hand, is a consistent defenseman and will give the Nordiques improved blueline play alongside Randy Moller, Mario Marois and underrated Norm Rochefort. &#9632;

f0012-02

THE WESTERN WORD

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;&rdquo;Starting at right wing,&rdquo; said the Met Center public address announcer, &ldquo;No. 15, Paul Holmgren.&rdquo;Applause. Lots of applause. Expanding to an ovation.Holmgren, the big right winger from St. Paul Harding High School, the St. Paul Junior Vulcans, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Fighting Saints and, most recently, the Philadelphia Flyers, had come home at last.He shuffled his feet nervously and looked down at the ice as the ovation continued for nearly a minute and seemed like 10 minutes.The game was against hot-streaking Buffalo. Holmgren missed on a scoring chance or two, threw a couple of loud bodychecks, took a penalty and didn&rsquo;t contribute much else to the statistics.If not the stuff of ovations, his impact went beyond the stat sheet, as usual. The North Stars won 5-1.When the North Stars went to the Stanley Cup finals three years ago, having Paul Holmgren might have been the difference, the missing ingredient that could have unified the club and possibly gotten them over that final hurdle.Since then, the club has deteriorated significantly, slipping from contention. There have been changes, most of them positive, this season, in heading the club toward a unified concept of success.But leadership has still been a question. It is unfair to expect Brian Bellows to be the leader at 19. There are a lot of team players, excellent team players, but that mystical quality of a player who can bring everything together has been missing.Until now. The players were unanimous in their acclaim for the acquisition, which came in exchange for U.S. Olympian Paul Guay and a third-round draft pick in 1983.Holmgren was not thrilled at being traded. He was loyal to the Flyers, too loyal perhaps for this era. The Flyers won two Stanley Cups when their players were something more than commodities. Holmgren was a Bobby Clarke man, a Pat Quinn man. He would go through a brick wall for the Flyers, for Clarke, for Quinn.He would still do it for the club, although maybe not specifically for Flyer general manager-coach Bob McCammon. The trade came when the North Stars were in Philadelphia. It was done before the game and Holmgren wasn&rsquo;t told about it. He was told to sit out after the warmups and he was bitter because it was to be his 500th NHL game. His kids, back home in St. Paul with his wife following their separation, would have watched him on television.&ldquo;It was ironic,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;Every time the North Stars played Philly there were rumors about them trading for me. Except this time. Nothing was said.&rdquo;And he joined the North Stars, the injury-riddled North Stars, who had gone 1-6-2 in the previous nine games and 0-5-1 at home. If a fan who hadn&rsquo;t seen the club since last spring attended the Buffalo game that Saturday night, he might have wondered what team it was.In the lineup were defensemen Lars Lindgren, Craig Levie and David Jensen and forwards Brent Ashton, Mark Napier, Keith Acton, Dennis Maruk, Scott Bjugstad and Holmgren. That&rsquo;s nine players out of 18 skaters who weren&rsquo;t here when last season ended.Jensen and Bjugstad, former University of Minnesota players, were on five-game tryouts after the U.S. Olympic team.The Holmgren difference?&ldquo;In three games, I&rsquo;ve seen it,&rdquo; said Bjugstad, after the North Stars beat Buffalo. &ldquo;The first couple of games, a lot of guys were popping off to me, talking all the time. It kind of surprised me. But tonight, nobody said a word. With Holmgren out there, who would?&rdquo;Indeed. The difference was startling before the game. The players report to the dressing room at 6 p.m. for a 7:30 game. Curt Giles arrives at 5:15, usually the first man there. This day, when Giles arrived, Holmgren had already been there for 45 minutes.The entire team was sitting in the dressing room in an almost eerie readiness a full 20 minutes early.&ldquo;In the dressing room and on the bench, the difference was amazing,&rdquo; said one player. &ldquo;Everything was positive, everybody was up.&rdquo; &#9632;

Stars Starting To Feel Right At Holmgren

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Flyers took another step backwards in the hopes of eventually taking two or three forwards when they finally traded Paul Holmgren to the Minnesota North Stars.After eight months of managing to look underwhelmed at every mention of Paul Guay, the prospect North Star general manager Lou Nanne was offering for the 28-year-old Holmgren, Flyer general manager-coach Bob McCammon finally accepted the U.S. Olympic right winger minutes before the Flyers&rsquo; 3-3 Spectrum tie with the North Stars.Other names, including some on the North Stars&rsquo; current roster, had come up during the last eight months of talks, but Nanne basically stuck to one offer. He budged only on the quality of the 1985 draft choice the Flyers also will receive in the deal. When McCammon worked it down from a No. 5 to a No. 3, he and Nanne shook hands.Considering the often aimless state of his talented, crippled 1983-84 North Stars, the move Nanne made was one he believed was critical. It was also, considering his healthy stockpile of prospects, relatively inexpensive.Guay, 20, a righthanded shot who has played both wings, is a B prospect, not an A. Nanne never gives up A&rsquo;s. But the Flyers have a lot of winners and not enough goal-scorers and speed for the hockey of the &lsquo;80s. Reassured that Richie Sutter is beginning to fill Holmgren&rsquo;s role, they decided to take a chance on Guay.&ldquo;He is not going to be an instant star, but he&rsquo;s a good prospect,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s supposed to be another good draft next year and a No. 3 is a good pick.&rdquo;If there was any lingering question that the Flyers have designated this a recycling season, the trade answered it. Since the deal for Rich Sutter. Holmgren&rsquo;s ice time had shrunk to the point where it was hard to tell just how much he had left. Certainly his legs never did match his heart and lingering bouts with knee, shoulder and back problems have diminished him. Obviously, the Flyers didn&rsquo;t believe Holmgren had a good playoff left, because the same offer of Guay and the draft choice probably would have still been on the table this summer.One still wonders, should they draw the Islanders in the playoffs, whether they&rsquo;ll have enough thump to withstand the Islanders&rsquo; crashing wings. However, they are serious about Glen Cochrane as a left winger and believe they can replace Cochrane&rsquo;s presence on the blueline with Daryl Stanley.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011182/4880106-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="595" height="759"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Holmgren wasn&rsquo;t happy about the way he found out he was traded to Minnesota.</figcaption></div>Guay (pronounced Gay) is a burner who scored 34 goals and 31 assists in 43 games for Providence College last year. Reviews of his performance with the U.S. Olympic team were as mixed as the Flyers&rsquo; interest in him was sometimes lukewarm.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll play,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good player and a helluva nice kid. We have a lot of kids coming, had some depth of young right wingers and we just can&rsquo;t keep everybody.&ldquo;They asked about (fellow Olympians) Scott Bjugstad and (Tom) Hirsch, but I&rsquo;m not in as good shape at defense and center. Yeah, we talked about players (Willi Plett and Mark Napier) off my current team, but hey, I like my team. We just tended to drift and Holmgren is what I think we need at the present time.&rdquo;&ldquo;We took the best offer we had for him,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;If we thought Paul was going to make the difference for us in this year&rsquo;s playoffs, we wouldn&rsquo;t have done this.&rdquo;Could the Flyers have gotten more by shopping him elsewhere? Only McCammon can answer that. And although the manner in which Holmgren got the news of the deal was thoroughly botched, sending him to the North Stars after recently signing him to a three-year contract at $175-185,000 a season was an entirely humane thing to do.Publicly Holmgren has insisted he wanted to stick it out here, but he had confided that going back to his native Twin Cities, where his two children live with their mother, was probably the best thing for him.The deal was completed less than halfan-hour before the Flyers game with the North Stars, which led to an awkward situation that the Flyers did not handle very well. Holmgren, who participated in the warmup, was told he was not dressing for the game, but not why.&ldquo;I was going to tell him after the game,&rdquo; McCammon said. &ldquo;We had a game to play and those things upset a team.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sitting in there for two periods and nobody says a word to me,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;I thought if I&rsquo;d really been traded they would have told me and now I&rsquo;m upset. I know my kids were excited about watching me play on television. I was mad 1 wasn&rsquo;t playing anyway. That&rsquo;s why I left after the second period. How much worse could it have been if they told me before the game?&ldquo;Why couldn&rsquo;t they tell me? I can understand the team had a game to play and they didn&rsquo;t need the distraction, but I wouldn&rsquo;t have wanted to hang around. I would have left quietly. Nobody would have had to know but me until after the game.&rdquo;Holmgren got the news on his car radio. And though he had suspected through months of rumors that the day would be a relief, he was wrong.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still in shock,&rdquo; he said the next day before boarding a plane for Minneapolis. &ldquo;Well, not in shock, but I&rsquo;m upset. You don&rsquo;t just wipe out eight years in one day.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;The Flyers immediately launched negotiations with Paul Guay and Lou Lamoriello, the Providence coach who is representing him, and expected to have him signed in time to accompany the team on this week&rsquo;s western swing&hellip;With Dave Poulin out with a kidney bruise and Brian Propp home attending the funeral of his grandmother, the Flyers did pretty well to score seven goals with makeshift lines in Hartford. They were atrocious enough defensively, however, to give up nine. &#9632;

f0013-01

Flyers Are Built For Speed With Addition Of Guay

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Wayne Gretzky has done what he once had considered unthinkable&mdash;submit to a lengthy interview by Playboy magazine. Author Scott Cohen, who previously has done hockey profiles for Andy Warhol&rsquo;s magazine, jetted to Edmonton for the verbal confrontation. The result will appear in Playboy&rsquo;s June issue, which hits the stands in May during the Stanley Cup finals. Gretzky&rsquo;s change-of-heart about Playboy is rooted in several factors, not the least of which is his awareness of quality writing in the magazine as well as the fact that Wayne no longer is a teenager, but rather a 23-year-old man. Hence the lifting of a three-year ban on talking to Playboy&hellip;The who&rsquo;s-going-to-pick-Mario-Lemieux merry-go-round continues. Laval Voisin executives Claude and Susan Foumel are telling the media they&rsquo;d like their junior whiz to wind up with the Devils. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re sorry to see the Devils play well,&rdquo; Susan said, &ldquo;because they might not get the top pick.&rdquo; Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston has made it clear that if his club finishes above the Devils and New Jersey passes on Mario, Pittsburgh would grab him&hellip;Despite their problems reaching a playoff berth, Whaler officials are pleased with the Emile Francis-Jack Evans regime. &ldquo;We look worse than we are,&rdquo; says the Whalers founder, Howard Baldwin, &ldquo;because of the tough division we&rsquo;re in.&rdquo;The deal between Carling O&rsquo;Keefe Breweries and 14 U.S.-based NHL teams for Canadian network television to compete with the Molson&rsquo;s Hockey Night in Canada telecasts should guarantee each club $500,000. The American clubs are pleased but, as one league boss notes: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s peanuts compared to the Rangers, who get $9 million for their radiotelevision rights.&rdquo; One NHL source says the Sabres originally rejected the Carling package in the hopes of landing a better deal due to the club&rsquo;s proximity to Canada. Bidding between the USA Network and ESPN over right to handle the NHL&rsquo;s Game of the Week in future seasons is reaching the serious stages. ESPN, which lost the NHL contract to USA two years ago, is anxious to regain it, according to industry sources. The NHL&rsquo;s long-awaited return to one of America&rsquo;s Big Three networks could happen in the 1985 playoffs. Insiders say CBS would like to show some Stanley Cup games and would have this year but the USA Network has tied up the 1984 rights. The Carling O&rsquo;Keefe-TV deal further boosts the rising stock of the Nordiques Marcel Aubut within the NHL high command. &ldquo;I like him,&rdquo; says one fellow governor of Aubut. &ldquo;With Marcel, there are no secrets&hellip;Penguin defenseman Kevin McCarthy is analyzed by one of his ex-mates on the Canucks: &ldquo;He wanted to be involved in everything (power play, etc.) and sometimes it doesn&rsquo;t work out that way. Kevin wouldn&rsquo;t settle for being a good doctor; he wanted to be a brain surgeon.&rdquo;&hellip;Glen Hanlon on the trick of going from the bottom to top: &ldquo;The secret is to keep asking to be traded until you end up with a first-place team.&rdquo;Embarrassment caused the NHL by its failure to force the Toronto Maple Leafs to abide by league bylaws and permit equal coverage rights to the Globe and Mail newspaper has spilled over beyond the hockey frontier. Editor & Publisher, the magazine of the newspaper trade, devotes a full page to the ongoing battle between Canada&rsquo;s foremost newspaper and the hockey club. Globe and Mail sports editor Paul Palango describes both the NHL and the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association as &ldquo;useless&rdquo; in terms of help rendered during the dispute&hellip;After trying to hammer out a deal with the Devils, Canuck GM-coach Harry Neale opines: &ldquo;They&rsquo;re paranoid about trading drafts.&rdquo;&hellip;When Phil Esposito asks Neale who&rsquo;ll take over the Canuck coaching vacancy for 1984-85, Harry snaps: &ldquo;What are you doing next year?&rdquo;&hellip;Doug Jarvis is the Capitals&rsquo; secret assistant coach, working with the special teams. &ldquo;I throw in a few suggestions,&rdquo; Jarvis allows. &ldquo;It gives me a little more insight into the game.&rdquo;&hellip;In other years, Bruins asst. GM Tom Johnson was viewed skeptically by players as a management&rsquo;s tool. The feeling these days by the Bruins, according to insiders, is much more positive about the Hall of Famer.Roger Neilson&rsquo;s split with Scotty Bowman has long been rumored to have culminated in a playoff explosion at Minnesota. Neilson now confirms. &ldquo;We were in a courtyard at the back of a hotel,&rdquo; Neilson reveals. &ldquo;He started yelling at me, said that I would be gone when the season was over.&rdquo; Neilson expects to collect on the three-year pact he had with the Canucks. &ldquo;They broke it and it&rsquo;s right that they pay,&rdquo; he says&hellip;The Blues deny a Boston report suggesting they&rsquo;ll ask the league for extra draft picks in June to compensate for loss of picks&mdash;due to uncertain state of the team&mdash;last year&hellip;A telecaster asks Herb Brooks whether playing the Islanders is different than other clubs and the Ranger coach, ever the diplomat, replies that &ldquo;games against teams X, Y and Z are just as important.&rdquo; A reporter hearing that in the Ranger press room turns to another: &ldquo;Have they just admitted Teams X, Y and Z into the league now?&rdquo; Brooks was seen and heard in television and radio commercials which coincided with the Olympic games. A friend asks him, &ldquo;How does it feel to be a celebrity every four years?&rdquo;&hellip;One who has close connections with the Devils predicts an administrative upheaval orchestrated by prez Bob Butera&hellip;Tiger Williams on his golf game: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m an ordinary hacker with a million-dollar set of clubs and a 10-cent drive.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011231/4880161-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Walt Poddubny says this has been his most frustrating season as a pro and there&rsquo;s been little to laugh at.</figcaption></div>TORONTO&mdash;The fan favorite says &ldquo;Shoot&rdquo; when the interview begins. He is happy and eager to answer whatever asked. A moment later, when asked to assess his season, his ebullience drops like a sudden change in the weather.&ldquo;In a word, frustration,&rdquo; said popular Leaf left winger Walt Poddubny. &ldquo;I got off to a great start. Things were looking good for our team, more specifically for my line (center Peter Ihnacak and right winger Miroslav Frycer), then bang, out for 40 games.&rdquo;The &ldquo;bang&rdquo; Poddubny referred to was a broken ankle he suffered in a freak collision in practice, which sidelined him for 40 games. Two days before, Ihnacak injured his knee in a game in New Jersey, while Frycer injured his knee in pre-season.It&rsquo;s been that kind of year for the line; then again, it&rsquo;s been that kind of year for the Leafs.For a guy who admits to having a good sense of humor, Poddubny says he&rsquo;s found little to laugh at this season.&ldquo;I wish I could, but I have a really hard time relaxing, which is bad,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If I could laugh, it would ease the tension and make it a lot better. But I&rsquo;m a terminal worrier.&rdquo;Following the Leafs&rsquo; three-game, western road swing, on which they netted two points out a possible six, Poddubny has even more to worry about.He&rsquo;s now a fourth-line player instead of the left winger on the Leafs&rsquo; No. 2 line and Garry Leeman, the rookie who&rsquo;s been flip-flopped a la Phil Housley from defense to forward, has taken his place.For Leeman, the move did not come undeservedly. While playing only occasionally since returning from the world junior tournament in December (he missed a few games after breaking his finger and then had to ride the pine), he worked hard whenever given ice time.But he steadfastly maintained a positive attitude, both after returning from the junior tournament and when given only a few shifts a game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m young, I know my turn will come,&rdquo; he said.In an 8-3 loss to Edmonton, Leeman was one of the few players who gave the Oilers trouble. And if it wasn&rsquo;t apparent that the kid could play, Howie Meeker&rsquo;s ranting and raving about him spoke volumes.Poddubny, conversely, skated only a few shifts with Ihnacak and Frycer, the latter of whom missed the Leafs&rsquo; game the next night&mdash;a 4-4 tie in Vancouver&mdash;with a shoulder injury.Before leaving on the road trip, Poddubny admitted his ankle flared up slightly after the Leafs concluded a five-games-in-eight-days homestand. He wasn&rsquo;t playing with the same intensity he had last season, that was obvious, but more importantly, he failed to utilize his 6-foot-l, 205-pound body with any kind of authority. While he&rsquo;s a good skater, he needs to hit to be equally effective.By moving him to the fourth line, perhaps Leaf coach Mike Nykoluk is trying to motivate him into working harder.When Poddubny was a minor-leaguer with Wichita of the Central League three seasons back, he had all the motivation he needed. He said he gave himself three years to work his way up to the NHL, but arrived a year ahead of schedule.Once up here, he wanted to work on his consistency.&ldquo;I knew I could play in the NHL, but I was lacking in consistency,&rdquo; he said.Poddubny is a likeable guy, who loves the fans as much as they love him. After warmup, before every Leaf home game, he offers pucks to them, akin to what Nick Fotiu does with the New York Ranger fans.&ldquo;I enjoy the fans, they&rsquo;re the people paying my salary,&rdquo; he said, Leaf owner Harold Ballard notwithstanding. &ldquo;I try to remain on an even keel. They&rsquo;re my support. I&rsquo;ve got plenty of time for them.&rdquo;As much as the fans are his staff in good times as well as bad, Poddubny has to realize that to stick with the Leafs, he&rsquo;ll have to start playing with more authority to become a regular player instead of an occasional one.Poddubny has stated that he&rsquo;s &ldquo;happy to be in Toronto and thankful for everything,&rdquo; and added that the Leafs are a &ldquo;great organization and have been good to me. I want to finish out my career here.&rdquo;When asked how he felt about Toronto, he said, &ldquo;I feel comfortable,&rdquo; yet added, &ldquo;not to the point of being complacent.&rdquo;At the age of 24, Walt Poddubny has been given his first real indication of the harsh realities of not only the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the National Hockey League.Plain and simple, there is no room for complacency.LEAFLETS&mdash;After much discussion against it, the Leafs signed Russ Courtnail to a professional contract and played him in the Vancouver game. Courtnall is the Leafs&rsquo; first pick last year from Victoria of the Western League and played for Canada in the world junior tournament and later in the Olympic Games&hellip;Leaf captain Rick Vaive, who was in the midst of another goal slump, took a shot on the ankle in the Calgary game and missed the next game in Vancouver, returning home for X-rays&hellip;Jim Korn, the lanky defenseman who occasionally loves to lug the puck up ice, was moved to forward in the Vancouver game and scored two goals&hellip;The possibility exists that the Leafs could make a blockbuster move sometime around the NHL trading deadline March 6. In a between-periods interview on Hockey Night In Canada, Leaf owner Harold Ballard hinted that the Leafs were about to do something &ldquo;big.&rdquo; Ballard refused to elaborate, but with the team in last place in the Norris, he may make a trade. Much ado about nothing has centered on the coaching department, but it&rsquo;s possible he may leave the tandem of Mike Nykoluk and Dan Maloney intact for the balance of the season before making a change in that area. Nykoluk has steadfastly maintained that he&rsquo;s not worried about losing his job and Ballard has continually backed him up. Ballard earlier ordered the promotion of junior goalie Allan Bester and the move has made a lot of sense. &#9632;

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Leafs’ Poddubny Realizes It’s Time To Get Rolling

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011166/4880192-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winnipeg Jet forward Brian Mullen hasto lose some weight before he becomes a regular in the team&rsquo;s lineup.</figcaption></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Brian Mullen is fighting the battle of the bulge.The 22-year-old left winger has been carrying too much weight, his coaches insist. Reduce or sit, they say.Once as high as 188 pounds, he is now down to 185, but the Jets want him to lose some more.The Jets do not consider their demands to be excessive.In accordance with their wishes, defenseman Wade Campbell shed 10 pounds recently while goaltender Doug Soetaert trimmed eight off his frame.Campbell is taking a regular shift again while Soetaert has been brilliantly rolling off one win after another. In a span of five days, he defeated Washington Capitals (4-3), New Jersey Devils (7-5) and Montreal Canadiens (5-3).During the stretch, Mullen played sparingly as a fourth-line forward. Most of his shifts were spent killing penalties.&ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t going fast enough,&rdquo; said Jet coach Barry Long. &ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t getting to the play early enough to become involved. You don&rsquo;t have to kill anybody. I simply want him to become more involved.&rdquo;Mullen&rsquo;s spot has essentially been taken over by veteran Morris Lukowich, who has become his feisty self again. Lukowich is now the left winger playing with Dale Hawerchuk and Paul MacLean.He is actually playing behind two other port-siders, Scott Amiel and Doug Smail.The bench is a foreign and uncomfortable place for Mullen, the New York city native snatched from under the noses of the New York Rangers. Mullen&rsquo;s father works in Madison Square Garden.Desperately, he wants a regular shift again.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m coming down to one big meal a day with no snacks,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to play so bad, it isn&rsquo;t bothering me.&rdquo;At one point, Mullen felt he had regained the step he lost.&ldquo;During a four-game stretch recently, I felt I had been skating as good as ever,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was jumping around again. I had my confidence back. All of sudden, it was gone.&rdquo;When Mullen is right, he is on top of his opponents, forcing turnovers and causing havoc.Often he is impeded by hooks and holds. To his credit, he has become an expert in the art of taking dives.&ldquo;I do dive,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;Everybody dives. I find that if someone is hooking you. if you fall the referee will call it; if you don&rsquo;t, he won&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Some referees have begun to notice the number of times Mullen seems to be on the receiving end. He has been cautioned about his dramatics.&ldquo;There are times when a referee is more likely to call a penalty,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Late in the game or overtime, they&rsquo;ll never fall for a dive. I started overdoing it. I found myself doing it so much I was putting myself out of the play.&rdquo;With 138 NHL games under his belt, Mullen is beginning to feel like a veteran. He has more seniority than five of his teammates, including Marc Behrend, another former member of the Wisconsin Badgers.Behrend joined the Jets after playing in the Olympics for Team USA.&ldquo;I was a freshman at Wisconsin when Marc joined the team midway through the season,&rdquo; said Mullen. &ldquo;Another goaltender, Jamie Graymore, had quit. Marc came up from junior varsity and he led us to the NCAA championship.&ldquo;He was unbelievable. As the pressure grew he got better. I thought he used his legs particularly well. When he dropped to his knees he was still as tall as most goaltenders.&rdquo;Mullen has heard trade rumors concerning himself, but he isn&rsquo;t listening. He is too busy trying to lose those last few pounds so he can play again.BENCH BITS&mdash;In keeping with tradition, Paul MacLean scored his 30th goal into an empty net in New Jersey. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the third time I&rsquo;ve scored my 30th goal into an empty net,&rdquo; he said., Lucien DeBlois has joined the 30-goal ranks for the first time in his sevenyear career&hellip;Of the Jets&rsquo; 5-3 win in Montreal, coach Barry Long said it was &ldquo;the most complete game we&rsquo;ve played all season. Everyone did exactly what he was supposed to do.&rdquo;&hellip;Marc Behrend looked gaunt when he joined the Jets after the Olympics. &ldquo;I know I lost some weight,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The cafeteria food in Sarajevo required a lot of experimenting. I was just dying for a good salad. &ldquo;&hellip;Thomas Steen had his sweater (No. 25) stolen in Montreal. He wore No. 35 instead. &ldquo;I like that number better, anyway,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

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Jets Order Mullen To Trim Off The Fat

<div class="byline">BY JAMES LAWTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01912/4880223-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&lsquo;There will always be a place for a Dave Williams in hockey.&rsquo;</figcaption></div>The years do nothing for the skating of Dave (Tiger) Williams and there are some who say that the mood of hockey does still less; that amid the flying, beardless youths Williams looks more than ever the dinosaur.They say that Williams, like a gunfighter ambushed by the years, will soon have no option but to disappear over the horizon. After practice at Vancouver&rsquo;s Pacific Coliseum he confronts the most pessmistic evaluations of his career and says coolly, &ldquo;I believe I have four years left and I think they&rsquo;re going to be pretty good years.&rdquo;Recently, Williams escorted a Vancouver writer from the Canuck dressing room in a brusque reaction to a piece in which it had been suggested that the Tiger, who started his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, was no longer worth his wages in the NHL.&ldquo;Maybe I shouldn&rsquo;t have done it,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but critics don&rsquo;t step into the ring and they don&rsquo;t know the weight of the punches.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Goals are great for the writers and the fans in their office pools but everyone in the game knows that you win with defense.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident that I have some good years left because I know that I&rsquo;ve never let a coach down and that is known around the league. Roger Neilson wanted me as a checker, full stop. Well. I did that job for Roger and because of the set-up of our team I understood that the job had to be done&hellip;In another team I might not have had to devote myself so much purely to checking. But when you do that job a lot of people disregard the importance of it, start talking about your points production. It&rsquo;s a situation where you have to sacrifice a little bit.&ldquo;Of course everybody likes to score goals. Goals are great for the writers and the fans in their office pools but everyone in the game knows that you win with defense.&rdquo;At 30, Williams is in the fifth year of a six-year contract and there have been no discussions with the Canucks about extensions. But Williams is confident.&ldquo;For quite some time I&rsquo;ve been sure that I could do a job in the NHL into my mid-30s,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all a question of knowing yourself and your own body.&ldquo;Ever since I&rsquo;ve joined the league I&rsquo;ve looked after myself&hellip;and I&rsquo;ve given value. There have been some difficulties in recent years with some writers but you know I&rsquo;ve never had a problem with a coach. A coach knows what he will get from me. He knows I&rsquo;ll do a job.&rdquo;Williams was talking after a major contribution to a 5-2 win over bitter Smythe Division rivals Calgary. Flame defenseman Paul Baxter took a major for stick work on Williams, who promptly led a three-goal burst while his adversary was off the ice. Earlier in the season Williams, of course, missed eight games following allegations that he tried to choke Baxter with his stick.&ldquo;They imagined I did that,&rdquo; says Williams, straight-faced, but he is candid enough about the essentials of his job.&ldquo;Look around the league and tell me how many of the young players know how to check. Not many, you can be sure. You know there is quite a bit of hypocrisy in the game. Certain jobs have to be done and everyone knows it but what you get are double standards.&ldquo;I know I have a future because a coach needs to depend on something. The fans and the writers could be on Roger Neilson&rsquo;s back, could be on my case, but he didn&rsquo;t give a damn. Everything stopped at the dressing room door.&rdquo;There is considerable irony that the departure of Neilson almost certainly means an easing of pressure on Williams.&ldquo;Harry is more inclined to take a little bit of a chance,&rdquo; says Williams, &ldquo;and this could be good for me.&rdquo;It may be more than coincidence that in the month since Neilson&rsquo;s leaving, Williams has doubled his goal production to 12. These are modest figures but they are in the context of a strictly limited role and after the lean years of 1981-82 and &lsquo;82-83, Williams&rsquo; optimism is not that difficult to understand.&ldquo;Look at my record and you&rsquo;ll see that whenever I&rsquo;ve had opportunities I&rsquo;ve generally scored,&rdquo; says Williams.There is no doubt about the low point in Williams&rsquo; career. It came in the late winter of &lsquo;82. He had trouble scoring and pressure mounted as never before.&ldquo;There were times when I felt lower than a whale&rsquo;s belly,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;But I knew I would come through and I got some help from my friend Saul Miller.&rdquo;Miller, a psychologist, talked to Williams about the value of breathing exercises, about consciously turning back the sense that he was trapped. Then, Williams said, &ldquo;Maybe Saul Miller will help me but it&rsquo;s hard for me to believe that something which doesn&rsquo;t make me sweat or my lungs bum will do any good. If he told me to run up Grouse Mountain it would be no problem. But controlled breathing is something else. Sometimes 1 look at the ceiling and say, &lsquo;What the hell am I doing here?&rsquo;&rdquo;What Williams is doing is surviving.Says Neilson: &ldquo;The value of Tiger is that you know he won&rsquo;t let you down. You can give him a job and he&rsquo;ll do it. There are some parts of the game in which he doesn&rsquo;t look so good and there&rsquo;s no doubt the game is faster now. But Tiger is smart enough to adapt.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I know that people who do my kind of job are not often honored with long contracts at the age of 30. I&rsquo;m not ready to give up.&rsquo;</blockquote>He is also defiant enough to raise his fist at the world and say that he is not ready to drift off into oblivion, another fighting, hustling hockey pro who has had the tap on the shoulder and the hard word that there are bigger, faster kids arriving on the block.Back in the crisis of 1982, the defiance was voiced with some emotion.Says Williams: &ldquo;There will always be a place for a Dave Williams in hockey. These guys who are scoring 4,000 goals and criticising fighting are, well, hyprocrites. They all have protection. The kids are bigger, faster, they skate better, they eat their granola and they all look like mooses. But that isn&rsquo;t the whole story. There are some things they can&rsquo;t do and will never be able to do because maybe society has changed a lot.&rdquo;Yes, there is a lot of defiance in the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most penalized player.&ldquo;I know that people who do my kind of job are not often honored with long contracts at the age of 30,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Mostly they reach a point when they can&rsquo;t take all the criticism and they just give up. Well, I&rsquo;m not ready to give up. There&rsquo;s some way to go in the story of Tiger Williams.&rdquo;His expression tells you that this is a statement rather than a topic for debate. &#9632;

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THE TALE OF THE TIGER

<h2>GOALS SCORED</h2>Dave Hannan (Pit) vs Pat Riggin (Was) 4-0 winOct. 14 at Wash.Greg Terrion (Tor) vs Tony Esposito (Chi) 10-8 win Oct. 15 at Tor.Gilbert Perreault (But) vs Murray Bannerman (Chi) 5-2 win Nov. 25 at Buf.Dale Hunter (Que) vs Rejean Lemelin (Cal) 8-1 win Dec. 6 at Que.Alain Lemieux (StL) vs Greg Stefan (Det) 8-3 win Dec. 10 at St. L.Doug Risebrough (Cal) vs Doug Soetaert (Wpg) 7-6 win Dec. 19 at Calg.Greg Terrion (Tor) vs Murray Bannerman (Chi) 2-2 tie Jan. 14 at Tor.Michel Goulet (Que) vs Kelly Hrudey (NYI) 5-1 win Jan. 26 at NY.Bob Crawford (Har) vs Ken Holland (Det) 6-6 tie Feb. 1 at Det.<h2>STOPPED BY GOALIE</h2>Rick Patterson (Chi) vs Mike Palmateer (Tor) 10-8 loss Oct. 15 at Tor.Denis Savard (Chi) vs Don Edwards (Cal) 7-4 win Oct. 23 at Chi.Ken Linseman (Edm) vs Rick St. Croix (Tor) 8-3 loss Oct. 26 at Tor.Steve Shutt (Mtl) vs Mike Liut (StL) 6-3 winDec. 17 at Mtl.Ron Duguay (Det) vs Grant Fuhr (Edm) 7-3 loss Jan. 9 at Det.Brent Peterson (Buf) vs Grant Fuhr (Edm) 3-1 win Jan. 13 at Buf. &#9632;

Penalty Shots

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01934/4880285-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="273" height="202"></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;It could have been a blue Monday&mdash;the morning after the Islanders lost to the Flyers in Philadelphia&mdash;but general manager Bill Torrey was all smiles. So was coach Al Arbour. And no wonder. This was the day they wound up with &ldquo;a Pat hand.&rdquo;This was the day they announced the signing of Pat Flatley, their No. 1 pick in the 1982 draft, and Pat LaFontaine, their No. 1 pick in the 1983 draft.The two Olympic players were introduced to the New York media at Nassau Coliseum, then they worked out with their new teammates for the first time at the Islanders&rsquo; practice rink in Hicksville. Both packed their bags the next day for a two-game Isles&rsquo; road trip to Winnipeg and Toronto.Though no terms were disclosed, it was learned both newcomers accepted three-year contracts which will earn them at least $100,000 a season.LaFontaine, the U.S. Olympic team&rsquo;s leading scorer who once scored 175 goals in one season for a Detroit midget team, appeared more nervous than Flatley at the press conference.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve waited for this moment a long time,&rdquo; said the 19-year-old center. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m privileged and proud to be a member of a world championship team&hellip;Now 1 hope the fanswill cheer us on to a (fifth consecutive) Stanley Cup championship.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02711/4880278-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="1210" height="781"><figcaption class="caption-body">Because Pat LaFontaine is known as a scorer, there will be more pressure on the ex-U.S. Olympic team star.</figcaption></div>Flatley, a 20-year-old right winger from Toronto who played for the University of Wisconsin the past two seasons, smiled his way through the entire proceedings. He was awarded uniform No. 8, Garry Howatt&rsquo;s old number. LaFontaine will wear No. 16, once worn by departed defenseman Mike McEwen.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care about the number., I&rsquo;m just happy to wear this sweater,&rdquo; said Flatley, who was a member of Team Canada. &ldquo;1 hope I can help the Islanders and that Pat and I will be accepted by the other players.&rdquo;Arbour, who was unhappy over the Islanders&rsquo; 5-3 loss to the Flyers, greeted his newest players with a wide grin: &ldquo;They should be a great addition to our team and we&rsquo;ll need them for the stretch drive,&rdquo; said Arbour, who planned to play the two Pats on the same line with Bob Bourne at left wing.Torrey watched LaFontaine and Flatley play in the Olympics and he was convinced that he drafted potential NHL stars.&ldquo;Flatley was a great competitor,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He played a strong physical game. He worked hard in the comers and he was a leader.&ldquo;LaFontaine was disappointed by his play and what happened. He had a touch of the flu and he was the most marked man in the tournament. But he handled himself well on and off the ice and that was important.&ldquo;Sometimes you can learn more about people by the way they act when things go against them than when things are going well.&rdquo;Torrey realizes there will be more pressure on LaFontaine than on Flatley to perform well.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll try to keep things in perspective for Pat,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;We know he has great natural ability and has been able to rise to the level of play wherever he has gone.&rdquo;The arrival of the two Olympians produced more curiosity than resentment among the Islanders.LaFontaine&rsquo;s presence gave the Islanders six centers&mdash;two more than necessary. How did Wayne Merrick and Butch Goring feel about that?&ldquo;There&rsquo;s bound to be a little resentment,&rdquo; Merrick said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s natural. It won&rsquo;t be any big deal.&rdquo;Goring, in discussing LaFontaine, said: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anyone will automatically hand him respect. He&rsquo;ll have to earn it. But we&rsquo;ve all heard he can help us, so I think there will be very little resentment.&rdquo;Flatley&rsquo;s arrival produced a scramble for spots among the right wingers on the Islanders&mdash;Mike Bossy, Bobby Nystrom, Duane Sutter, Anders Kallur and Mats Hallin. Bossy certainly is secure; the other are not.The competition created by the presence of LaFontaine and Flatley could benefit the Islanders. It happened last year when Torrey brought in Hallin, Paul Boutilier and Greg Gilbert.&ldquo;Just three new guys had an effect,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;It meant that some players had to sit out when the new guys were in there. That got everybody moving.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE&mdash;In order to help Bill Smith and Roland Melanson forget the distraction of a three-goalie system, rookie Kelly Hrudey was farmed out to Indianapolis for two weeks of conditioning. Smith appeared to be getting ready for the stretch drive. He put together two straight victories in his last six starts when the Isles walloped the Devils 7-1 with the help of Greg Gilbert&rsquo;s first NHL hat trick. &#9632;

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Islanders Have The Olympians Down Pat

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01879/4880316-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lanny McDonald, who&rsquo;s sidelined with a broken ankle, says it&rsquo;s surprising how far you can go with the right player chemistry.</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;The headline writers have had a field day.One day, they describe them as the &ldquo;red-hot Flames.&rdquo; The next, the Flames &ldquo;bum-up&rdquo; another opponent. Another time, they &ldquo;douse&rdquo; the opposition.Calgary hasn&rsquo;t seen anything like this since the spring of 1981. when the Flames advanced to the Stanley Cup semi-finals.Through last week, the Flames had lost just three times in a 17-game span, allowing them to open up some breathing space in the race for second place in the Smythe Division.Many words have been written to describe or explain the Flames&rsquo; unexpected surge. Perhaps the best way to sum it up is is they&rsquo;ve been winning generically. Every night, a Quinn or a Kromm or a Patterson or a Maclnnis would emerge from coach Bob Johnson&rsquo;s no-name lineup and provide the margin of victory.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;The idea of a generic lineup, that&rsquo;s an external thing.&rsquo;</blockquote>Another is that they&rsquo;ve had stability. Except when injuries dictated a change, Johnson had used the same four lines since Dec. 28. Coincidentally, that&rsquo;s when the Flames turned their season around.&ldquo;The idea of a generic lineup, that&rsquo;s an external thing,&rdquo; said Risebrough. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the players look at it that way. People outside the team might ask: &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s Quinn, who&rsquo;s Patterson, where did they get Kromm?&rsquo; Maybe the people around the league wonder that, too. But they&rsquo;ve been here long enough to make a contribution, to become a part of the team.&rdquo;Risebrough said he would like to see the first-year players continue to ride the high they are currently experiencing.&ldquo;A rookie coming into the NHL has to have enthusiasm,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing to see a rookie without enthusiasm because you wonder where will he go, what will be his attitude next year. Our rookies have found their roles on this team and they&rsquo;re not being asked to go beyond those roles.&rdquo;To Lanny MacDonald, the chance to play with rookie Dan Quinn and sophomore Jim Jackson for an extended period is one of the main reasons for the trio&rsquo;s collective success, at least before McDonald suffered a broken ankle.&ldquo;Especially for our line, playing together has meant we&rsquo;re able to cut corners,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;It means I know where they&rsquo;ll be on certain plays. I know when Jim will break to the net. I know that if there&rsquo;s no play, Danny will go behind the net with the puck.&ldquo;Our passing has been excellent. That&rsquo;s what set lines do for you. I know how fast my linemates are. I know which way&mdash;left or right&mdash;they&rsquo;re going to break. Everything comes so much easier when you&rsquo;re playing on a set line.&rdquo;&ldquo;I prefer it this way,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;I played with the same right winger in junior for two years. It&rsquo;s a question of habit. You&rsquo;re confident because you know where your linemates are going to be. You&rsquo;re confident because you know they&rsquo;ll back you up when you gamble and go in.&rdquo;Patterson said in the six weeks that he, Risebrough and Richard Kromm&mdash;the team&rsquo;s remarkably efficient checking line&mdash;have played together, they&rsquo;ve been able to establish their defensive responsibilities.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m the first guy back. I&rsquo;ll take the man in front of the net and Doug will take the man at the point,&rdquo; said Patterson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll also give me a nod at faceoffs and I&rsquo;ll know by that what he&rsquo;s going to do with the draw.&rdquo;Johnson is sensitive to the subject of line combinations. One unit, Mike Eaves-Hakan Loob-Eddy Beers, has been together since Oct. 26. He maintained injuries were to blame for the instability of the others. Furthermore, he said in a number of cases, two players did play together for long periods of time. It was the third player, the final piece of the puzzle, that he said he was experimenting with.&ldquo;I agree that (the line combinations) is partofit,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s no one reason. It&rsquo;s a combination of things. In every phase of the game, we&rsquo;re better. &ldquo;&ldquo;Sometimes, you put together a dream line and it doesn&rsquo;t work,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;Then you throw the odd couple together, they hit it off right away and you build from there. Sometimes, you&rsquo;d be surprised how far you can go when you get the right chemistry together.&rdquo;IN BRIEF&mdash;Bob Johnson finally acted on a suggestion that he had been hearing for months and shifted center Jim Peplinski to right wing and the unhappy right winger, Kent Nilsson, to center. Peplinski said the switch made no difference to him. &ldquo;Playing with Kent, the only time you&rsquo;re going to be on right wing is on the chalkboard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Kent is one of those rare players with the ability to jump into the hole and when not to. As far as faceoffs go, we were switching back and forth anyway, depending on the circumstances&rdquo;&hellip;Goaltender Reggie Lemelin, who missed four games with a bad wrist, ran his personal undefeated streak to 16 games in the tie against the Bruins. &#9632;

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Flame Cast Of Unknowns Lighting Up The League

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The Penguins have used 45 players during this disaster of a season and coach Lou Angotti says those who play the rest of the year will be placing their futures in the organization on the line.&ldquo;We want to get a look at all our players,&rdquo; said the first-year coach. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the best chance to do it, to find out that when we go into training camp next year, we&rsquo;re not going in blind with some players. We at least want to have a better idea.&ldquo;This 49, 50 players, nobody likes this. It&rsquo;s very difficult for us. We want to get away from that. We want to have a real good view of our players. And we&rsquo;ve tried, as much as some of our players might not agree with us.&ldquo;We look at some other teams, and our players are aware of it, they see players that get brought up and they play one, two shifts a game and that&rsquo;s it. We&rsquo;ve played our players.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not only trying to get a good view of them ourselves, we&rsquo;re trying to give them a chance to impress us. So that when a decision is made, we&rsquo;re going to include them in it.&rdquo;Angotti says even though the Penguins won&rsquo;t make the playoffs for the second season in a row and have an excellent chance of finishing last again in the overall National Hockey League standings, he won&rsquo;t go into any game with the first draft choice in mind.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of games left,&rdquo; Angotti said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to go into any game and try to lose it. I can tell you that.&rdquo;Angotti would like to see some of his players develop checking skills before the seasons ends.&ldquo;Down the stretch is going to tell us what players we&rsquo;re going to have that are going to start doing some of the things (we want),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some players that are going to show us that they&rsquo;re a little better checkers than they&rsquo;ve shown us earlier.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve made it perfectly clear to them that it&rsquo;s fine with us because come next year, we&rsquo;re not going to &laquo;it around and wait for them to start to check. That&rsquo;s one thing I&rsquo;m a firm believer of&mdash;you can&rsquo;t make a goal-scorer but you can get guys to check.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had players come up here and we&rsquo;ve never said. &lsquo;Look, if you don&rsquo;t start showing some offense, you&rsquo;re not going to make this hockey team.&rsquo; I&rsquo;ve never done that to anybody. But I like to see them check because they&rsquo;ll create opportunities not only for themselves, but for someone else.&rdquo;Angotti likes to place his checkers on lines with his goal-scorers.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some guys that check every now and then, other times they don&rsquo;t check,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get some players that we can surround our goal-scorers with.&rdquo;Angotti singled out left winger Tim Hrynewich as an example. Hrynewich became the 45th man to play for the Penguins this season when Angotti put him on a line with goal-scorers Mike Bullard and Rick Kehoe.&ldquo;The reason why I played Hrynewich is because I want him to check so he can create some openings for Bullard and Kehoe,&rdquo; Angotti said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care if Timmy doesn&rsquo;t score a goal the rest of the time he&rsquo;s here if he can create four or five opportunities for both Bullard and Kehoe.&ldquo;He might pick up a few goals here and there, but by checking he&rsquo;s going to create some opportunities. And if we get the other guy that&rsquo;s playing with him to do that, he&rsquo;s going to create some opportunities for him.&ldquo;Hey, look. What&rsquo;s wrong with that? Play 10 years in the National Hockey League doing that. I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anything wrong with that.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;The Penguins enjoyed their largest turnout of the season (15,838) for the Feb. 22 game against Edmonton. The key attraction, of course, was Wayne Gretzky, who scored four goals and an assist in the Oilers&rsquo; 9-2 win&hellip;Tim Hrynewich scored a goal in his first game after being recalled from Baltimore of the American Hockey League where he had 13 goals and 17 assists in 52 games. Defenseman Greg Tebbutt and left winger Andy Brickley were also recalled from Baltimore. Tebbutt had eight goals and 31 assists in 33 games for the first-place Skipjacks. Brickley registered five assists in four games with Baltimore after being sent down for missing a curfew. Left wingers Dean DeFazio and Troy Loney were returned to Baltimore in the revolving door of player moves.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01730/4880354-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="594" height="694"><figcaption class="caption-body">Penguin coach Lou Angotti is assessing all his players for next season.</figcaption></div><h2>Player Of The Week</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02496/4880347-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="1126" height="1514"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>The Edmonton Oilers, after a short slump, are back in high gear and so is team captain Wayne Gretzky. It would appear that the two go hand in hand. With Gretzky out of the lineup, the Oilers lost six consecutive games. With him back, the Oilers came up with an undefeated string for the week ending Feb. 26.And Gretzky, who scored 10 goals and had two assists in the victories over St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Toronto, showed no ill effects from the shoulder injury that sidelined him for six games. Therefore, Gretzky is THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; player of the week.After 59 games, Gretzky had 75 goals and 98 assists, on a pace that will eclipse his own record of 212 points in a single season. &#9632;

f0020-01

Future Is Now For Several Penguin Players

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;As if they weren&rsquo;t already in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the second year in a row, the last-place Kings were forced with the prospect of making up ground in the Smythe Division standings without Marcel Dionne.The 32-year-old center, still experiencing a great deal of pain in his sprained left ankle, was sidelined for a couple of weeks.Dionne did not play on Feb. 16, when the Kings dropped a 4-2 decision to Washington, and he didn&rsquo;t see any action until Feb. 26, scoring two goals in a 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames.He suffered the injury on Jan. 11 after colliding with Washington&rsquo;s Larry Murphy and sliding skates first into the boards. He missed nine straight games.Then, on Jan. 5 against the New York Rangers, in his second game back, Dionne caught his left skate in a rut at center ice in the final seconds and stretched a ligament.In three games since, the fifth-leading scorer in National Hockey League history had managed just one goal and one assist; he drew blanks earlier in the week in Montreal and New Jersey.Naturally, the Kings lost both of those games; they were 1-6-3 in the 10 games he had missed.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;The ankle&rsquo;s not worse, but it isn&rsquo;t getting any better.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not worse, but it isn&rsquo;t getting any better,&rdquo; said Dionne, who took a cortisone shot to speed up the healing process.&rdquo; I had no idea how long this was going to take. I could walk normally, but once I got on the ice&hellip;it&rsquo;s completely different. When resistance meets resistance, I have no strength.&rdquo;Dionne spoke with coach Roger Neilson following the Kings&rsquo; loss to New Jersey, requesting some time off.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very frustrating,&rdquo; said Dionne, who will miss the 50-goals and 100-point marks for the first time in six years with 28 goals and 44 assists at the time of his injury.&ldquo;There was no point in my going out there the way I&rsquo;ve been playing. I felt like I was just in the way. We&rsquo;re fighting for a playoff spot and I hadn&rsquo;t been helping.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the pain so much; I can play with that. But there&rsquo;s one spot on the ankle&hellip;it stops you from skating completely. and skating is so important to the way I play. When I get hit on that spot it numbs up for five or six seconds. That goes away, but I start favoring it to one side.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01539/4880385-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="589" height="877"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marcel Dionne re-injured his ankle only two games after missing nine straight.</figcaption></div>The fact that the Kings&rsquo; other high-scoring center, Bernie Nicholls, was to have his fractured jaw wired shut for four more weeks didn&rsquo;t help.Nicholls scored his 34th goal against Washington, but he was still having trouble breathing and communicating with his linemates on the ice. He also had lost 13 pounds due to his liquid diet, dropping his weight to 170.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;ve got to score,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got our best goal-scorer out now and everybody&rsquo;s going to have share. I just hope I don&rsquo;t lose any more weight. Right now I don&rsquo;t have much energy.&rdquo;Neilson was a bit concerned about the Kings&rsquo; lack of firepower. They scored only eight goals in the three straight games they lost.&ldquo;I think Nicholls&rsquo; line is showing signs of getting back to the way it was,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Certainly it hurt having Marcel out, but that line should be strong. Bernie seems to be getting used to playing with his jaw the way it is.&rdquo;Jim Fox was confident the Kings would turn things around, saying it was taking some time to get used to Neilson&rsquo;s defensive schemes and such.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a transition period right now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The important thing is, for the most part, we&rsquo;ve been cutting down on the goals&mdash;against. We&rsquo;ve lost three straight, but we&rsquo;ve been in every game.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ll start winning these 3-2 and 4-3 games soon, instead of losing them. The atmosphere is good, not like last year.&rdquo;KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;The Kings purchased the contract of right winger Billy Harris from Toronto. The 32-year-old, dealt to the Maple Leafs along with John Gibson in 1981 for Ian Turnbull, had seven goals and 10 assists in 50 games before being sent to the minors three days before the trade. &ldquo;He has experience, he can skate, and he kills penalties,&rdquo; Roger Neilson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;saplayer who we feel can help us down the stretch. Plus, he&rsquo;ll be playing for a contract. He knows if he shows us something he&rsquo;ll have a chance to sign a contract for another year.&rdquo;&hellip;Goaltender Marco Baron, after winning his debut against Calgary on Jan. 7, was mired in a nine-game (0-6-3) slump. &#9632;

f0021-01

Dionne’s Injury Hurt Kings’ Playoff Drive

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;It was the stuff of dreams. Every time Ivan Boldirev touched the puck, something happened.A goal and an assist one night&hellip;two assists a couple of nights later&hellip;and then the game to top it all off.Boldirev scored the first three goals and set up the next three&mdash;a six-point game&mdash;as the Detroit Red Wings knocked off the Maple Leafs 6-2 in Toronto. It couldn&rsquo;t have come at a better time for the Wings, who haven&rsquo;t fared well in the so-called big games this season, especially against the Maple Leafs. But Boldirev changed all that.&ldquo;It was just one of those nights,&rdquo; Boldirev said. &ldquo;I came into the dressing room after the second period and I wasn&rsquo;t even tired. It was like, &lsquo;Holy cow, let&rsquo;s go some more.&rsquo;&ldquo;I was getting the puck a lot more. I played center my whole career until this year and as a center you can go get the puck. You can&rsquo;t do that at left wing. Sometimes you can play a whole game and it won&rsquo;t come your way. But tonight it seemed to be coming to me all the time.&rdquo;And when it did, Boldirev knew what to do with it. The 34-year-old forward scored twice in a 33-second span before the game was three minutes old and the Wings were off and running, never to be caught.&ldquo;He was awesome,&rdquo; said linemate Kelly Kisio, who added three assists. &ldquo;Everything he touched turned to gold. &ldquo;The 10-point week&mdash;four goals, six assists&mdash;earned Boldirev the league&rsquo;s player-of-the-week honors and fattened his season totals to 25 goals, 37 assists for 52 points, third among the Wings in both categories.Boldirev has filled a huge hole at left wing for the Wings this season. When training camp began last September, the Wings had one player at the position&mdash;John Ogrodnick&mdash;and a prayer.Enter Boldirev, a veteran of 14 seasons with six NHL clubs, all as a center. In the Red Wings&rsquo; fourth game of the season, at Edmonton on Oct. 12, Boldirev lined up at left wing and he&rsquo;s been there ever since.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where we&rsquo;d be without him,&rdquo; said coach Nick Polano.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s played well all year. He accepted the transition like a pro, although he&rsquo;d been a center all his life. We&rsquo;d be in trouble without him.&rdquo;Boldirev&rsquo;s sentiments about the Red Wings follow the same lines. After all. they rescued him from an untenable situation in Vancouver, trading Mark Kirton to the Canucks on Jan. 15. 1983, for the veteran and giving him what he sought all along&mdash;plenty of ice time.&ldquo;I felt I could still play in Vancouver but they obviously felt I couldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo; said Boldirev, a craftsman who enjoyed his best NHL season in 1977-78, scoring a career-high 35 goals and 80 points for the Chicago Black Hawks.&ldquo;I had a pretty good season the year before with Vancouver (33 goals, 40 assists) but by Christmas last season 1 only had five goals. 1 was just sitting around, not playing. Roger (Neilson, the Vancouver coach) told me I&rsquo;d be a spot player, occasionally playing on a fourth line. If that was the case, why not trade me during the summer when I had some value? I was coming off a decent season. They just waited and waited and waited. The key was that I felt I could still play.&rdquo;Boldirev had 33 points&mdash;13 goals, 17 assists&mdash;in 33 games with Detroit last season.&ldquo;I left my family in Vancouver, hadn&rsquo;t played much there in the first place and I didn&rsquo;t really get untracked once I got here,&rdquo; he said.This season he enjoyed the luxury of a fresh start with the Wings.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve enjoyed being here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s been good to me and, let&rsquo;s face it, most guys my age are looking for a job. I&rsquo;m glad to be here and happy to be contributing.&rdquo;The victory in Toronto followed a 5-0 triumph over the Chicago Black Hawks at Joe Louis Arena the day before.Greg Stefan posted the shutout, his second of the season, and Ron Duguay and Reed Larson handled the offense. Duguay scored twice, his 23rd and 24th, and Larson chalked up three assists to become the highest-scoring Americanborn player in NHL history with 432 points, surpassing the record held by Tommy Williams by two.&ldquo;Geez, I never had to stop a rebound,&rdquo; Stefan said. &ldquo;The team played so well in front of me.&rdquo;Said Polano: &ldquo;There was a lot of involvement and contribution from players away from the puck and a lot of very sound checking.&rdquo;&ldquo;Naturally our confidence is high,&rdquo; Boldirev said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been playing good hockey and getting good goaltending. This team has stuck together. When things weren&rsquo;t going good, management didn&rsquo;t jump all over us, didn&rsquo;t start trading players away. Now everything&rsquo;s falling into place. We&rsquo;re scoring some goals and the checking line&mdash;Dwight Foster, Danny Gare and Bob Manno&mdash;is doing a terrific job on the other team&rsquo;s big line every game. It takes all those things to be successful.&rdquo;WING NOTES&mdash;Left winger Joe Paterson, assessed a fourth games misconduct penalty this season, was automatically suspended for two games&hellip;The Wings retained the services of veteran forward Rick MacLeish for the rest of the season. They had the option after 59 games of releasing him or keeping him aboard.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01617/4880416-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="586" height="836"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ivan Boldirev had his best game ever when he totalled six points against Toronto.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Boldirev Answers Wings’ Prayers

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;Nordique coach Michel Bergeron demands an aggressive, hardworking effort every game from his players and Tony McKegney and Paul Gillis are filling the bill.McKegney came to Quebec last year in the Real Cloutier trade, while Gillis has been filling in for Andre Savard, who&rsquo;s out for more than a month with a neck injury.&ldquo;I am happy with the play of Gillis because he is aggressive and because he really wants to win,&rdquo; says Bergeron. &ldquo;He is part of the depth that we said we now have on the Nordiques earlier this season. He has had the chance to play and he has showed that he belongs with us.&rdquo;Gillis is quick to give credit to his linemates, Wilf Paiement and Alain Cote, in helping him adapt to the NHL. The Toronto native had 34 and 37 goals in his last two years in the Ontario Hockey League with North Bay and Niagara Falls. He was drafted in the second round (34th overall) in 1982.&ldquo;The ice time I have been getting has naturally helped to build up my confidence,&rdquo; says Gillis, &ldquo;and playing with Wilf and Alain has not hurt at all. I know I can&rsquo;t expect to have a regular place right away with Quebec, especially not with Andre (Savard) coming back, a player and a veteran I have tried to imitate in my style. I am just happy to have the chance to play right now.&rdquo;McKegney has not been having a great year, not when you look at scoring stats at least, but you won&rsquo;t hear Bergeron complaining. McKegney remains one of the best skaters and checkers on the team. He gets many good scoring chances because of his hard work but has not been capitalizing.&ldquo;It has been that way all year,&rdquo; McKegney says. &ldquo;Sometimes I meet a hot goaltender and often I just don&rsquo;t make the right move myself. But I am still getting my share of chances every game and that is what is really important. When you start getting the good chances, that is when you really start to worry.&rdquo;The play of McKegney and Gillis, or the whole team for that matter, has the Nordique team confident and eager for their expected return engagement against Boston in the playoffs. In fact, they&rsquo;re so confident, they are not ready to concede home-ice advantage to the Bruins. With 18 games remaining for both teams in regular-season play, the Bruins had a six-point lead over the Nordiques, with a March 27 date the final between the two teams.With a little more than a month left in regular-season play, the Bruins trailed first-place Buffalo by 10 points while Quebec opened up an 11-point advantage over fourth-place Montreal in the Adams Division.&ldquo;I am not going to say that we have definitely clinched third place ahead of Montreal just yet,&rdquo; said Quebec coach Michel Bergeron, &ldquo;and that is because I still have too much respect for that team. |&gt;n the other hand, if we stay close to Boston and keep playing aggressively I think we can catch them and second place.&rdquo;The Nordiques opened up that 11-point lead over Montreal recently with a 3-2 triumph at home against their arch-Tivals in the Adams Division. The victory, not a classic one by any means as two of the goals came from outside the blueline, also gave Quebec a 4-3 lead in he season series against the Canadiens.The win against Montreal was also the third straight for Quebec, following triumphs on the road against Winnipeg and Minnesota. Those two road wins once again lifted the Nordiques to the. 500 mark away from home. &#9632;

Gillis, McKegney Fit Bill That Bergeron Demands

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01558/4880478-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="277" height="201"></div>H&B 100 YEARSROCHESTER&mdash;At this stage of the season, you steal points any way you can. Just ask the Amerks. Now that the St. Catharines Saints have emerged from a pack of playoff pretenders into genuine second-place contenders, the Southern Division playoff pool has come into clearer focus. But separating teams two through four is another story.Where do we begin? First-place Baltimore continued gearing up for the playoffs. while Springfield. Rochester and St. Catharines each held a share of second place. New Haven and Hershey watched their situations turn desperate and Binghamton started gazing toward next year.We&rsquo;ll get to Rochester coach Joe Crozier&rsquo;s larceny in Hershey soon. But first: Who gonna beat &lsquo;dem Saints.?Coach Doug Carpenter&rsquo;s crew won our in a row, seven of eight, and was 13-3-2 in 18 games. They capped a successful two weeks by winning three games on a four-game road trip, knocking off Nova Scotia 5-2 at home and winning 7-4 at Sherbrooke.Rookie right winger Ken Strong sparked the win at Sherbrooke by scoring a natural hat trick. His goals turned a 2-1 game into a rout and gave goalie Tim Bernhardt his 19th win of the season, a team record.While the Saints improved to 30-25-6, their best mark of the season. Rochester maintained a piece of second. In snapping a five of six losing skein, the Amerks nipped Hershey 5-4 on the road and blanked Nova Scotia 4-0 at home.The Amerks were trailing the Bears 4-2, when rookie Tom St. James scored with 3:07 left in the third period to make it 4-3 with less than a minute left in the game and goalie Phil Myre off for a sixth attacker. Crozier asked for a measurement of Hershey goalie Mike Moffat&rsquo;s stick.Sure enough, the width of Moffat&rsquo;s blade exceeded the legal three and a half inches. Moffat was slapped with a twominute penalty for playing with an illegal stick and the Amerks tied the game when Bob Mongrain scored with nine seconds left.Mal Davis won it 30 seconds into overtime.The home-ice win over the Voyageurs lacked the chicanery of the previous victory. Myre stopped 23 shots for his second shutout of the season and defenseman Ron Fischer scored twice.St. Catharines surprised Rochester with its quick burst, but the Amerks have been battling Springfield for several weeks. The Indians grabbed their share of second by winning four of five.Goalie Pelle Lindbergh won his first three starts, including an impressive 6-2 win at Binghamton. The Philadelphia Flyer-owned goalie, down to get some work and regain his confidence, stopped 27 of 29 shots and the Indians notched six goals on just 20 shots.&ldquo;That was one of those games we had to have,&rdquo; said rookie coach Doug Sauter, who is new to what has become a perennial seven-team scramble. &ldquo;We still have 21 games to go and we know it&rsquo;s going to be a tough fight.&rdquo;AROUND THE SOUTH&mdash;St. Catharines is 23-10-5 since a 7-15-1 start, the best record in the division over the last 38 games. Baltimore, which is running away with the South, is 21-12-5 by comparison. Credit veteran defenseman Garry Lariviere, who has transformed what used to be an &ldquo;offense now, defense tomorrow&rdquo; bunch into a solid two-way team. The Saints added rookie right winger Rich Costello from Toronto. Costello was a late cut from the United States Olympic hockey team. Rookie Bruce Dowie has won a job as back-up to Bernhardt. Goalie Nick Ricci and forwards Leigh Verstraete and Marc Magnan were assigned to Muskegon of the International League.Rookie defenseman Tom Thornbury, who leads Baltimore in scoring with 15 goals and 40 assists, is a favorite to win rookie-of-the-year honors as long as Rochester&rsquo;s Claude Verret remains with Buffalo. Thornbury had a three-game point scoring streak stopped in the Skip-jacks&rsquo; 7-6 loss at Hershey. Pittsburgh recalled left winger Ted Bulley. Defenseman Greg Tebbutt remains with the Penguins under emergency conditions. Forward Tim Tookey returned to the lineup in Hershey after missing 13 games with a back injury and picked up two assists.The sixth-place Bears fell 10 points out of fourth after losing three of four. They salvaged the game with the &lsquo;Jacks when rookie center Jim McGeough broke a 6-6 tie with 2:23 left. Goalie Dave Parro is expected to return from Washington and rejoin Hershey as soon as the parent Capitals add U.S. Olympic goalie Bob Mason, who has signed as a free agent. Lou Franceshetti, a five-year veteran, notched his 300th AHL point.Springfield announced that defenseman Len Dawes, a promising Chicago Black Hawk prospect, will not play again this season. Dawes, 21, suffers from a chronic hereditary knee injury he was bom with. A fifth-round draft pick in 1980, Dawes had been on and off the injury list repeatedly over the last two seasons. He tried to come back in Springfield&rsquo;s 6-2 win at Binghamton, but the knee did not respond. Lindbergh is expected to rejoin the Philadelphia Flyers, who assigned him to get some playing time.Fifth-place New Haven, which has played more games than anyone in the division, saw its playoff chances diminish after losing five of seven games. The Nighthawks added left winger Daryl Evans, who was returned by Los Angeles.Last-place Binghamton went winless in three games to plummet from the Southern race. Barring a total collapse by the rest of the South, the Whalers will miss the playoffs for the first time in their four-year history.Rochester welcomed feisty left winger Chris Langevin back to the lineup. Langevin missed 24 games with tom knee ligaments.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02391/4880471-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="589" height="775"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran defenseman Garry Lariviere helped turn the Saints into a solid two-way team.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

Saints March Up Southern Ladder, While The Crow Sticks It To Bears

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;Don Murdoch&rsquo;s comeback bid with the Adirondack Red Wings came to an end on Feb. 17 when he was reassigned by the parent Detroit Red Wings to the Montana Magic of the Central Hockey League.Murdoch, 27, was part of a deal involving two players under contract to Detroit. He was assigned to the Magic and defenseman John Beukeboom, who was loaned to the Magic during training camp, was returned to Adirondack, the team he spent his first two pro seasons with.The move was a bit surprising because Murdoch was the leading goal-scorer and the third leading scorer on the Adirondck team with 26 goals and 46 points in 59 games. But he&rsquo;d been benched in the three games before the trade, apparently over coach Bill Dineen&rsquo;s dissatisfaction with his defensive contributions.The player change also came at a time when Adirondack had an excess of forwards and a lack of defensemen, a situation Dineen said was the principal motive for the move.&ldquo;We had to make a change,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t going to get any help anywhere. He scored well and everything else and his conduct doesn&rsquo;t have any bearing on it whatsoever. His conduct has been outstanding all year, really. It&rsquo;s just a matter of too many forwards and not enough defense. The defense has shown in the past couple of nights. We&rsquo;re going with four guys, they&rsquo;re tiring and it&rsquo;s wearing on them.&rdquo;Murdoch&rsquo;s departure marked the second time in 13 months that he had been dismissed from the Adirondack team. In January, 1983, Detroit general manager Jim Devellano purchased the remaining months of Murdoch&rsquo;s guaranteed contract and gave him his release. Murdoch persuaded Devellano to give him a tryout during training camp last fall and succeeded in earning a 25-game tryout contract with Adirondack just before the start of the season. After scoring 13 goals and 18 points in the 25 games, Murdoch signed a minor-league contract with the Wings that would take him through the end of the season. Through 40 games, Murdoch scored 19 goals and 32 points and had 24 goals and 42 points in 50. But as more versatile, defensive-oriented players such as Dennis Polonich and Derek Smith returned from the injured list, Murdoch&rsquo;s playing time began to decrease and he became expendable.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m never happy to move on. I&rsquo;ve got a lot of good friends here,&rdquo; Murdoch said. &ldquo;But it didn&rsquo;t look like they were going to play me here, so at least when I go there I&rsquo;ll be able to play and that&rsquo;s the main thing I wanted to do when I came back this year.&rdquo;Murdoch said he wasn&rsquo;t shocked when he was told he was being sent to Montana and that he would try to make the best of the situation.&ldquo;You are a little surprised because you didn&rsquo;t think anything would happen this late in the season, but I&rsquo;ve got to think positively that at least I&rsquo;ll get to play in Montana,&rdquo; Murdoch said. &ldquo;He (Dineen) told me here he didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d play much, that he just didn&rsquo;t have room for me.&rdquo;After the details of the move were released, Murdoch admitted that he felt he was misled by the Red Wings when he signed the contract with them in December.&ldquo;Yes, I do. I don&rsquo;t want to get into it, but I think they did,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I was pretty fair to them. I came to camp without a contract and could have gotten injured. I came and played the exhibition games and could have gotten hurt. I played 25 games and could have gotten hurt again and they could have gassed me. Then I signed with them. I think I&rsquo;ve been pretty fair with my end of the deal. That&rsquo;s what I have to say in my defense. I&rsquo;ve done nothing to give them any reason to stop playing me.&ldquo;They told me to score goals and I&rsquo;m the leading goal-scorer on the team. So it&rsquo;s kind of hard to say. What more could I have done? I don&rsquo;t know what more they could have wanted from me.&rdquo;Defense was the commodity that Dineen sought even though he didn&rsquo;t come right out and say it. He preferred to talk about the needs of the team and that the deal was based on those concerns.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a case of 14 forwards and four defensemen. If we had gotten another injury we would have been down to three,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;We just had to create some balance. That was the main reason for it.&rdquo;But Dineen didn&rsquo;t hesitate when questioned about the effect of losing Murdoch.&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t hurt us defensively,&rdquo; he said without hesitation. &ldquo;It may hurt a little offensively, but overall I think it will balance out.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Adirondack center Andre St. Laurent extended his point-scoring streak to 18 games with a game-winning goal at Moncton. The victory enabled the Wings to regain full possession of second place in the division ahead of the Nova Scotia Voyageurs. The goal was St. Laurent&rsquo;s 20th in 33 games with Adirondack. He scored at least a point in 29 of the first 33 games he played with the Wings&hellip;Maine took advantage of Moncton&rsquo;s 1-8-1 slide in February by stringing four straight wins together in a 72-hour period to pull to within a point of fourth place. Veteran goalie Sam St. Laurent stepped in and won all four games for the Mariners and was named the AHL player of the week. St. Laurent allowed just 10 goals in the four games as the Mariners beat Springfield, Moncton, New Haven and Hershey. Al Hill had to move back to defense during the weekend when Mike Stothers suffered an eye injury. Grant Mulvey, who scored four goals and five points in nine games of conditioning with Maine, cleared waivers and was assigned to the Mariners by the parent New Jersey Devils. Hector Marini will be out of the main lineup for at least two weeks with a broken arm&hellip;Former Hartford Whaler coach Larry Kish, who joined the Edmonton organization last summer as a special scout, was named an associate coach at Moncton&hellip;Fredericton continued to set the pace in the division despite losing key players to recalls. Goaltender Frank Caprice and winger Jere Gillis were recalled by Vancouver and center John-Francois Sauve was called up by Quebec. The Canucks sent rookie Jean Marc Lanthier back to the Express and the Nordiques moved Pierre Aubry back to Fredericton when they called Sauve up&hellip;Fredericton coach Earl Jessi-man signed a one-year contract with the Nordiques. However, the escape clause he requested was not part of the pact and more negotiations will take place at the end of the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01594/4880509-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="583" height="860"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Murdoch was loaned to Montana because of defensive deficiencies.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Murdoch To Look For Magic In Montana

Due to holiday mail problems at Christmas, THE HOCKEY NEWS failed to receive CCM&rsquo;s product descriptions for the annual Equipment Sneak Preview. Because of CCM&rsquo;s significance in the hockey marketplace, we felt it was necessary to provide CCM an opportunity to present that information now.The acquisition of the hockey-related assets of CCM Inc. by Sport Maska a year ago has resulted in the integration of sales, credit and marketing functions for the two lines.In other words, you&rsquo;re going to be seeing a lot more of the CCM brand in all equipment areas now that Maska&rsquo;s transition of ownership is complete.The redesigned CCM logo will appear on all equipment.The most sweeping changes will be in the skate range, with the introduction of seven new models.Topping the revamped product program for 1984-85 is the famous Tack line of skates. Tacks now feature l-Bar ankle padding, which keeps the ankle from lifting while at the same time relieving pressure on this joint. As well, the top-end Tacks now have &ldquo;Tack-pac&rdquo;, a viscous plastic material in the lining which helps the skate conform to the shape of the foot.But the big CCM skate changes are at the entry level to mid-price point. The Imperial is a sewn skate with a three-piece tongue, nylon quarters and a leather lining, while the Voyageur has a three-piece nylon tongue, Cambrelle lining and nylon quarters.Other new skates include the Galaxie, which has textured package nylon quarters, a two-piece tongue and a vinyl lining. CCM has entered the molded-skate field with the Cyclone and Classique models, the latter of which is a combination molded-sewn skate.CCM is also marketing an aluminum stick&mdash;the CCM Ultra AL&mdash;for which it manufactures a laminated blade with a graphite heel insert and fibreglass wrap. &#9632;

A Year Of Change At CCM

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01545/4880571-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="272" height="201"></div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;The Central Hockey League dodged another bullet in mid-February following the failure of Sports Promotions of Tulsa to continue control and operation of the Oiler hockey team.League president Bud Poile suspended the franchise Feb. 16 and got together the next day at Denver with representatives of the league&rsquo;s remaining teams, as well as with New York Ranger general manager Craig Patrick, to see what could be salvaged from the situation.The meeting climaxed a fortnight of indecision in which it appeared the Tulsa franchise had been bailed out by a local business couple and would be able to continue the season in the Fairgrounds Pavilion.But the prospective purchasers pulled back, citing financial and legal circumst-ances they alleged had not been revealed to them.Thus ended, for this season at least. Tulsa&rsquo;s affiliation with the CHL. Tulsa had been the longest continuous member of the league, having joined 20 years ago in the CHL&rsquo;s second season.Concerning the future. Poile noted: &ldquo;I still feel that Tulsa&mdash;under the right man-agement&mdash;is a good CHL city. It was one of our best franchises just a few years back, then something like this happens.&rdquo;Poile also pointed out the Rangers are not likely to go back there.&ldquo;The Rangers and the league did all they could for Tulsa,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the city that&rsquo;s to blame.&rdquo;Poile couldn&rsquo;t afford to dwell too long on the Tulsa problems, he had a league to keep together. At the Denver meeting, the league board of governors, with many of the principal (National Hockey League) members at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo, the situation was tentatively resolved.The Rangers would continue operation of the Oilers without any home ice&mdash;in essence, make an orphan of the franchise. It was proposed the Oilers become a &ldquo;road team&rdquo; only, having Denver as its base.That amounted to rescheduling the Oilers on the road for what originally had been home games. Accordingly, three of the other four CHL teams picked up additional home dates. Montana did not, since the Magic had completed their scheduled visits to Tulsa.The Oilers would play three more games in Denver against the league-leading Colorado Flames and two more each in Salt Lake City and Indianapolis. The revision to the CHL schedule&mdash;the second caused by Tulsa this season&mdash;will result in an unbalanced schedule with only Colorado and Montana completing 76 games as scheduled initially.Indianapolis and Salt Lake would complete 72 games and the Oilers only 68. As a result. Poile announced final standings to determine playoff berths in the Adams Cup championship rounds will be determined on a percentage basis rather than points totals.The biggest problem facing Poile was setting up a pair of games between the Oilers and Indianapolis. Even Cincinnati got into the act.&ldquo;We had some overtures from the people at the Cincinnati Gardens,&rdquo; Poile admitted, &ldquo;who wanted to take at least one of the Oilers&rsquo; rescheduled contests.&rdquo;Time was too short to set that up. but Poile did not rule out the possibility of scheduling some of the Oilers&rsquo; playoff games there.The resurgence of interest by individuals in Cincinnati is an encouraging sign as far as Poile is concerned. Looking ahead to next season, the league had been pursuing expansion plans, chiefly in Louisville and Phoenix. An Indianapolis-Cincinnati-Louisville triangle would be a natural for the East portion of the CHL. But that&rsquo;s a story for another season.CHL CHAT&mdash;Colorado Flames won three straight games at home during the week, including two victories over Indianapolis, and upped their advantage to 12 points over second-place Oilers. Jeff Brubaker&rsquo;s overtime goal gave goalie Mike Vernon his third win of the week, a 6-5 decision over the Checkers&hellip;Kelly Hrudey. a Terry Sawchuk Award winner the last two seasons with Rob Holland in Indianapolis and last year&rsquo;s MVP. joined the Checkers on a two-week conditioning program. The Checkers got defenseman Bill Dowd from Flint of the International League and returned goalie Lorne Molleken to Toledo and defenseman Glen Fester to Spokane of the WIHL., Detroit placed Don Murdoch on loan to Montana from Adirondack and recalled defenseman John Beukeboom from the Magic to help Adirondack on defense&hellip;Minnesota recalled defenseman Craig Levie from Salt Lake City&hellip;John Markell, with 35 goals, is atop the league in that department. Scott Howson of Indianapolis has 30 and Colorado&rsquo;s Pierre Rioux 29. Dan Bolduc of Colorado netted a hat trick in the Flames&rsquo; 6-5 overtime victory over Indianapolis, raising his goals total for the season to 24&hellip;Steve Weeks is unbeaten in three outings with the Oilers and has a 2.33 goals-against average. Teammate John Vanbies-brouck leads the regular goaltenders with a 3.25 average in 28 games. Mike Vernon of Colorado is the league-leader in victories with 26. He has lost nine and tied one&hellip;Colorado has the top two scorers in the league: Bruce Eakin (27 goals, 75 points) and Bobby Francis (27-4673).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02385/4880564-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="578" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">League president Bud Poile had to change the schedule after the Tulsa fiasco.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Poile Opts For Percentage Hockey Because Of Imbalance In Schedule

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>ANN ARBOR&mdash;Northern Michigan and Lake Superior were the big winners in the final weekend of action in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association&rsquo;s regular season, gaining playoff advantages with series sweeps.Northern Michigan swept Michigan 42 and 7-6 to finish the season in fourth place and gain the final home-ice playoff site in the first round of the league play-offs.Meanwhile, Lake Superior used its 21, 6-3 sweep of Michigan Tech to vault by Michigan into eighth place.In other CCHA play, Michigan State swept Ferris State 8-4 and 7-4 to move into a second place tie with Ohio State as the Buckeyes split two games in Columbus with Western Michigan. The visiting WMU Broncos took the opener 6-4, while Ohio State won the second game 5-3.Regular-season champion Bowling Green closed out the schedule with Miami, splitting two games. The Falcons rolled to an 11-4 win over the Redskins in the opener as Jamie Wansbrough scored four goals and John Samanski scored three goals. Miami gained the split winning the second game 6-2.First-round CCHA playoff matchups include No. 8 Lake Superior(17-19-2) at No. 1 Bowling Green (30-4-2); No. 7 Ferris State (18-18-3) at No. 2 Ohio State (27-9-1); No. 6 Michigan Tech (19-19-1) at No. 3 Michigan State (28-10) and No. 5 Western Michigan (20-17-1) at No. 4 Northern Michigan (17-21).The first-round action will be a two-game, total-goals format with the four surviving teams advancing to the CCHA finals in Detroit&rsquo;s Joe Louis Arena on March 9-10.Ohio State and Michigan Tech earned playoff seeding advantages due to tieb-reakers with Michigan State and Ferris State. OSU and MSU tied for second place, but the Buckeyes gained the second seed in the playoffs due to success against Northern Michigan as the first three tiebreakers were deadlocked. Michigan Tech&rsquo;s advantage in the tie for sixth place with FSC was in the head-to-head series, outscoring the Bulldogs 20-18 in the series that was tied at two wins each.Michigan State senior defenseman Jeff Eisley earned CCHA player-of-the-week honors as he scored three goals and added three assists in the sweep against Ferris State. Eisley has been hot of late collecting 14 points in the last six games to finish the CCHA portion of the schedule with 37 points, second among CCHA defensemen behind Bowling Green&rsquo;s Garry Galley (47 points).The Spartan defense corps was offensive during the FSC series with junior Dan McFall breaking his own school record for goals by a defenseman in a season (13) and adding to his MSU career record (28). Senior Andre Lamarche scored his first career goat from his defense position in his final regular season home game.Tim Wendt opened the scoring each night for Ferris State, but the Spartans used a four-goal period in each game to secure the sweep.Northern Michigan freshman Gary Emmons scored three goals and sophomore center Kevin Trach had a goal and four assists to lead Northern Michigan&rsquo;s sweep at Michigan.Michigan had rallies in each game, but fell short and fell out of the playoffs with the two losses. NMU led the opener 2-0 before goals by Ray Dries and Mike Neff tied the game. However, NMU defenseman Bill Schafhauser scored just 33 seconds after Neff&rsquo;s goal for the gamewinner.In the second game, Dries opened the scoring after just 26 seconds, but NMU scored five in a row for a 5-1 lead in the second period. Michigan rallied again on two goals by Tom Stiles and single goals by Brad Jones and Dan Goff. Trach and Emmons scored early in the third period to offset Bruce Macnab&rsquo;s third-period goal for the Wolverines.Freshman center Troy Buder scored his first career goal to give Lake Superior a 1-0 lead and Jim Roque&rsquo;s third-period goal provided the win for the Lakers in the opener against Michigan Tech as Randy Exelby made 35 saves.Scott Johnson had two goals for Lake Superior in the second game, including a shorthanded goal, to mark the first Laker sweep ever against Michigan Tech.Ohio State senior center Paul Pooley scored a goal and added three assists in the series against Western Michigan to win the CCHA scoring title as he collected 71 points in 30 games. OSU goalie John Dougan finished the conference schedule with the best goals-against average (2.84).Stuart Burnie paced the Western Michigan offense in the Bronco win at Ohio State with three goals. Sophomore Dan Dorion had a goal in the opener and an assist in the second game to move his scoring streak to 41 games.Ohio State&rsquo;s Perry Pooley scored three goals in the rematch and Andy Browne had a goal and three assists to lead the Buckeyes to the victory.Western Michigan junior Glenn Healy made 86 saves in the series including 49 in the 5-3 loss.Bowling Green sophomore Eddie Powers made his fourth and fifth straight starts in goal in the split at Miami with regular netminders Gary Kruzich and Wayne Collins on the shelf with injuries. Powers is 4-1 with a 3.55 average. Kruzich is expected back for the playoffs.BG&rsquo;s Wansbrough has scored 10 goals in the last four games heading into the playoffs, while Miami&rsquo;s John Ciotff finished the season with seven goals in the last four games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01521/4880699-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="589" height="827"><figcaption class="caption-body">Northern Michigan University freshman Gary Emmons scored three goals.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NMU, LSSC Sweep Up Plavoff Positions

Cornell has fallen by the wayside in EC AC play, failing to make it to post-season action. But the Big Red went out on a positive note, scoring a 7-6 win over Yale, a 4-3 decision against Harvard and an 8-2 drubbing of Dartmouth.Leading the way for Cornell was Duanne Moeser, a 20-year-old sophomore from Waterloo, Ont.The 5-foot-9, 170-pound winger, who earned player-of-the-week honors for the period ending Feb. 26, picked up 11 points in the three games, including three goals in the win over Yale, one assist in the victory against Harvard and three goals and three assists in the drubbing of Dartmouth.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02365/4880754-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="564" height="594"><figcaption class="caption-body">DUANNE MOESER Cornell</figcaption></div>At the end of the season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Bauer College Player of the Year. &#9632;

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Player of the week

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MADISON&mdash;You can&rsquo;t take the crown off the king of college hockey yet.Defending NCAA champion Wisconsin got some inspired play from a Swedish import to survive the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs and remain in the running to defend its national championship won a year ago.Wisconsin eliminated Denver University from the WCHA playoffs with a 13-8 victory in the first round of the two-game, total goals playoffs. Meanwhile, Minnesota skipped by Colorado College 7-2 in the total-goals playoffs to join Wisconsin in advancing to the playoff semi-finals, where they&rsquo;ll bump up against two teams who had first-round byes, Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota.The semi-finals of the league playoffs match Wisconsin at Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota at North Dakota. It&rsquo;s an exact matchup of the final weekend of the regular season, which saw league champion Duluth bump off Wisconsin twice and third-place Minnesota defeat second-place North Dakota twice.Jan-Ake Danielson, a junior defenseman from Sweden, played a major role in Wisconsin&rsquo;s advancing to the playoff semi-finals as the Badgers struggled to get past Denver, trailing in both games before coming on to win.Danielson scored the go-ahead goal 21 seconds into the third period and set up two other goals as Wisconsin beat Denver 5-3 in the first of the two games. Danielson&rsquo;s goal snapped a 2-2 tie and led the Badgers to victory.Some outstanding goaltending by Denver&rsquo;s Pat Tierney frustrated Wisconsin in the early going as Denver jumped to 2-0 lead on goals by Grant Dion. Dion&rsquo;s goals, plus some sensational play by Tierney, who made 23 saves in the second period, had Denver looking for an upset.But Wisconsin finally got to Tierney in the second period. Marty Wiitala was the first to solve the goaltending of Tierney, then John Johannson drew the Badgers even going into the third period. Danielson then took over the third period, scoring his go-ahead goal and setting up tallies by Johannson and Steve Tschipper. John McMillan got the other goal for Denver.Wisconsin killed off a late two-man disadvantage to preserve the two-goal lead going into the second game of the series. Tierney finished with 45 saves to just 22 for Wisconsin goalie Terry Kleisinger.Danielson played a major role in the second game, too. Once again Denver started fast, scoring three goals in the first five minutes to take a 6-5 led in the total-goal series. Dave Berry scored twice and Ian Ramsay once as Denver raced to the early lead. Paul Houck evened the series at 6-6 after one period for the Badgers, then Danielson, Tony Granato and Johannson scored second-period goals for Wisconsin as the Badgers took charge of the series. Johannson and Lexi Doner added shorthanded goals for Wisconsin with Ernie Vargas and Paul Graveline also scoring for the Badgers. who eliminated Denver from the playoffs.Minnesota struggled to eiminate Colorado College, which won just five games out of 26 during the regular season WCHA schedule.Pat Micheletti, Tony Kellin and Jeff Larson scored goals in the first period as the Gophers took an early 3-0 lead on Colorado College. But the Gophers couldn&rsquo;t get the puck past Colorado College goalie Marty Wakelyn after that and Doug Clarke picked up a goal for the Tigers early in the third period to pull CC within two goals.It was a night dominated by the goal-tenders as Wakelyn finished with 32 saves and Minnesota&rsquo;s Frank Pietrangelo with 37.Colorado College threw a scare into Minnesota by scoring the first goal in the second game to pull the total-goals series to 3-2 when Ken Filbey, on a power play, got the only goal of the first period.It was all Minnesota after that, thanks to the play of Pat Micheletti. While he had just one assist in the game (won 4-1 by Minnesota), his feisty play and hassling of CC seemed to take the Tigers off their game, enabling Minnesota to get back on its game.Freshman Tim Berglund drew the Gophers even in the second period, then Micheletti&rsquo;s line took over to collect the next three goals to send the Gopher&rsquo;s on to the semi-finals. Tom Rothstein had two goals and Todd Okerlund one as the Gophers prevailed in a game plagued by 29 penalties. Mike Vacanti finished with 18 saves for Minnesota to 36 for Wakelyn.If past results hold true, Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota should advance from the second round of the league playoffs. Minnesota won five of six games during the regular season from North Dakota, the exact total compiled by Duluth in six meetings with Wisconsin.Denver&rsquo;s season ended with the Pioneers showing a 13-25 overall record while Colorado College stowed away its gear with a 9-25-1 mark going into the school&rsquo;s record books.Wisconsin takes a 21-15-1 record into the semi-finals against Duluth&rsquo;s 24-9-2 mark while Minnesota brings its 27-9-2 record to North Dakota, where the Sioux await them with a 25-10-2 record and a team at full health since December, when injuries decimated the Sioux defensive corps. &#9632;

Wisconsin Staves Off Elimination

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;As predicted, the ECAC Division One playoff race won&rsquo;t be settled until five games are played on the final day of the season, Feb. 28. Only then, will the quarter-final opponents be known.The quarter-final playoffs will consist of a two-game series and will begin three nights later. The two-game series are not total goals, but feature a 10-minute mini-game tie breaker if each participant wins one game.Only a few things are certain about the playoff lineup. RP1 is No. 1 and looms as the East&rsquo;s best bet to cop the NCAA title in many years. This is the finest season ever for the Engineers, who finished the season at 28-4 overall and 17-3 in league play. All the losses came on the road (Clarkson, New Hampshire and Boston University, all contenders).RPI is outscoring opponents at better than a 6-3 average and has two of the nation&rsquo;s best offensive players in Adam Oates and John Carter. The only way for RPI to waiver is for these two, plus the likes of George Servinis, Marty Dall-man, Mike Sadeghpour and Bob DiPro-nio, to have an off night on the attack. The defensemen and goalies have been good all year but really haven&rsquo;t been pinned back in their own zone because the forwards were outgunned.Look for RPI to have an easy time with the No. 8 team at Houston Field House, where the Engineers have won 24 straight games dating back to 1982. They split their final two games of the regular season on the North Country road swing, losing 3-2 at Clarkson and nipping St. Lawrence 5-4.The Knights were led by a goal and an assist from Andy Otto in their come-from-behind victory at Potsdam. The Larries had rebounded from a 4-2 deficit late in the third period on goals by Ray Shero and Mark Bonneau, but Oates scored the winner with just eight seconds remaining in regulation when he tucked a rebound off the backboards past J.K. Trimble.St. Lawrence, Colgate or Northeastern will get the eighth playoff spot depending on the final evening&rsquo;s action. The other seven spots are already spoken for. The Larries beat Colgate 7-1 at Canton behind a Bonneau hat trick earlier in the week and Colgate rebounded to edge Northeastern 7-5 in Hamilton behind Lou Wagar&rsquo;s pair of scores. Northeastern lost a bruising 3-2 home tilt to Boston University, with the key play a disallowed goal by Mark Lori that would have tied the score at 3-3.St. Lawrence (10-9) plays host to Clarkson (13-6) while Colgate (9-9-1) entertains Cornell and Northeastern (910-1) visits New Hampshire (13-7) on Feb. 28. UNH already has either fifth or sixth seed sewn up while Cornell has been eliminated.The other key games are Brown at Harvard (9-9-2) and BC (14-6) at BU (15-5). If Harvard beats (or ties) the Bears, they&rsquo;re in. If they lose, Yale (1010-1) gets fourth seed by virtue of winning the Ivy Division. Only one Ivy team will make the playoffs, but it will do so as host to a team with a better league record amassed against a more difficult schedule.BC could get second place overall by beating BU and could drop to fourth (on a percentage basis) by losing and go on the road for the quarter-finals. Clarkson would have to beat St. Lawrence for the latter to happen, however, in which case BU would get second spot and Clarkson third. Providence (13-8) will be either sixth or seventh seed.That just about covers all possible permutations. RPI is the heavy favorite and any of the next six teams is capable of knocking them off in the Boston Garden semi-final. Remember that this is the last year for this fine ECAC Division One format as we know it, because next year the divorce between Hockey East and Ivy-Plus league takes effect. Too bad.If there&rsquo;s a darkhorse this year, it&rsquo;s Clarkson. The Knights have been playing very well of late, winning their last four games. In addition to RPI last week, Providence also fell to Clarkson 8-3 in its home rink. It was 7-0 before the Friars got onto the board. Dave Fretz, Bob Lenney and Mike Harvey each scored twice. Providence rebounded impressively, shutting out BU 3-0 in Boston as Mario Proulx made 36 saves.Maine upset BC 6-4 in Orono, clinching the game on an empty-net score by Todd Bjorkstrand and forcing the Eagles to earn home ice in their final game. Cornell beat Yale 7-6, Harvard 4-3 and Dartmouth 8-2 on the week but was eliminated anyway, finishing 10-11. The seven-game losing skein at mid-season killed the Red.Yale then stayed alive by beating UNH 4-1 as Paul Tortorella made 38 saves, then edging Brown 2-1 on goals by Darren Acheson and Kevin Conley. Under interim coach Mike Gilligan, Yale lost its first six league contests but has rallied. Harvard lost 6-2 at New Hampshire and dropped the home contest to Cornell, but stayed in contention by blanking Princeton 6-0.Dartmouth&rsquo;s loss to Cornell followed an a 4-3 win over Princeton and was the swan song for coach George Crowe. The Green finished up at 3-23 overall and 3-18 in the league, their worst season ever. Crowe resigned before the final week of the season. He leaves with a nine year record of 109-127-8, including appearances in the NCAA Final Four in 1979 and 1980. Dartmouth, Vermont and Maine are all in the market for new head coaches. &#9632;

ECAC Playoffs To Go Down To The Wire

<h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 27)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01505/4880921-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="547" height="201"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02378/4880914-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="544" height="170"></div><h3>IVY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03260/4880907-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="546" height="199"></div><h3>INDEPENDENTS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04176/4880900-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="544" height="85"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>St. Lawrence 5, Brown 1Colgate 4, Dartmouth 2Maine 5, Princeton 4RPI 5, Northeastern 1Harvard 1, Yale 1New Hampshire 5, Vermont 4Clarkson 8. Providence 3Brown 5, Dartmouth 4Lowell 9, Vermont 4Maine 6, Boston College 4New Hampshire 6, Harvard 2Boston Univ. 3, Northeastern 2St. Lawrence 7, Colgate 1Cornell 7, Yale 6Boston College 9, Army 1Providence 3, Boston Univ. 0Clarkson 3, RPI 2Dartmouth 4, Princeton 3Cornell 4, Harvard 3Yale 4, New Hampshire 1Boston Univ. 5, Vermont 3Yale 2, Brown 1Colgate 7, Northeastern 5Cornell 8, Dartmouth 2Harvard 6, Princeton 0Lowell 6, Babson 5Maine 5, Colby 2RPI 5, St. Lawrence 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05114/4880893-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="538" height="727"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>EASTERN DIVISION II</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0688/4880886-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="545" height="463"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION II</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0770/4880879-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="541" height="436"></div><h3>DIVISION III</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0861/4880872-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="540" height="842"></div><h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0953/4880865-1-eng-US/f0030-092.jpg" title="f0030-09" width="542" height="346"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Bowling Green 11, Miami 4Miami 6, Bowling Green 2Mich State 8, Ferris State 4Mich State 7, Ferris State 4N. Michigan 4, Michigan 2N. Michigan 7, Michigan 6Lake Superior 2, Mich Tech 1Lake Superior 6, Mich Tech 3W. Michigan 6, Ohio State 4Ohio State 5, W. Michigan 3<h3>PLAYOFF GAMES</h3>Fri-Sat Mar. 23Lake Superior at Bowling GreenFerris State at Ohio StateMich Tech at Mich StateW. Michigan at N. Michigan(All series two-game total goals)<h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1045/4880858-1-eng-US/f0030-102.jpg" title="f0030-10" width="550" height="436"></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1139/4880851-1-eng-US/f0030-112.jpg" title="f0030-11" width="546" height="204"></div>Min-Duluth 4. Wisconsin 2Min-Duluth 6, Wisconsin 1Minnesota 5. North Dakota 4Minnesota 6, North Dakota 3Denver 4. Colorado College 1Denver 7, Colorado College 5<h2>WCHA</h2><h3>FIRST ROUND PLAYOFFS</h3>Minnesota 3. Colorado College 1Minnesota 4, Colorado College 1(Minnesota wins two-game total-goals series 7-2)Wisconsin 5, Denver 3Wisconsin I, Denver 5(Wisconsin wins two-game total goals series 13-8)<h3>SEMI-FINALS</h3>Fri-Sat Mar 2-3Minnesota at North DakotaWisconsin at Min-Duluth(Two-game total-goals series)<h2>WEST PENN CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 15)<h3>GREATER PITT DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1236/4880844-1-eng-US/f0030-122.jpg" title="f0030-12" width="539" height="174"></div><h3>WEST PENN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1333/4880837-1-eng-US/f0030-132.jpg" title="f0030-13" width="539" height="172"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Slippery Rock 1, Bethany 0Carnegie 6, West Virginia 2Duquesne 6, Indiana 5Gannon 6, West Virginia 3West Virginia 6, Allegheny 2Slippery Rock 7, West Virginia 6Carnegie 12, Wheeling 0Indiana 6, Slippery Rock 3Gannon 2, Carnegie 1Bethany 11, McKeesport 4Slippery Rock 9, McKeesport 5Carnegie 1, Wheeling 0<h2>NCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 14)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1430/4880830-1-eng-US/f0030-142.jpg" title="f0030-14" width="546" height="264"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>St. Scholastics 7, Bethel 6Concordia 8, St. Cloud State 7St. Olaf 5, Wis-Eau Claire 4St. John&rsquo;s 5, Wis-Superior 2Wis-Superior 5, Hamline 0Wis-River Falls 7, Wis-Eau Claire 4Wis-River Falls 5, Wis-Eau Claire 2Bemidji State 4, St. Scholastics 3Bemidji State 9, St. Scholsstics 1Mankato State 3, St. Cloud State 2St. Cloud State 4, Mankato State 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1530/4880823-1-eng-US/f0030-152.jpg" title="f0030-15" width="538" height="178"></div><h2>CANADIAN LEAGUES</h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE<h3>FIRST ROUND PLAYOFFS</h3>Guelph 10, Laurentian 1Western 9, Queen&rsquo;s 4(Sudden-death games)<h3>QUARTER-FINALS</h3>Toronto 7, Guelph 2(Toronto leads best-of-three series 1-0)Laurier 8, Western 5Western 6, Laurier 3(Best-of-three series tied 1-1)<h3>QUEBEC CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS</h3>Concordia 8, Chicoutimi 3Concordia 5, Chicoutimi 3Concordia 11, Chicoutimi 3(Concordia wins best-of-five series 3-0)Ottawa 6, McGill 5Ottawa 10, McGill 5McGill 9, Ottawa 5Ottawa 3, McGill 2(Ottawa wins best-of-five series 3-1)<h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>SEMI-FINALS</h3>Moncton 3 UPEI 2Moncton 3 UPEI 2(Moncton wins best-of-three series 2-0)Acadia 5, New Brunswick 4New Brunswick 5 Acadia 1(Best-of-three series tied 1-1)<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1624/4880816-1-eng-US/f0030-162.jpg" title="f0030-16" width="537" height="174"></div><h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1724/4880809-1-eng-US/f0030-172.jpg" title="f0030-17" width="539" height="288"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>QUEBEC CONFERENCEConcordia 6, McGill 2Concordia 4, McGill 2(End of regular schedule)ATLANTIC CONFERENCENew Brunswick 5, Acadia 3Mount Allison 4, UPEI 3UPEI 4, New Brunswick 3St. Mary&rsquo;s 8, Dalhousie 6Moncton 5, Acadia 3St. F. Xavier 7, St. Thomas 4Mount Allison 7, St. Thomas 5Moncton 10, St. F. Xavier 2(End of regular schedule)<h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES</h2><h3>SEMI-FINALS</h3>Seneca 7, St. Clair 3Seneca 5, St. Clair 2(Seneca wins best-of-three series 2-0)Canadore 5, Humber 3Canadore leads best-of-three series 1-0) &#9632;

f0030-01

HOW THEY STAND

<h2>ECAC</h2><h3>FEBRUARY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1822/4880980-1-eng-US/f0030-182.jpg" title="f0030-18" width="568" height="194"></div><h3>MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1917/4880973-1-eng-US/f0030-192.jpg" title="f0030-19" width="568" height="46"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><h3>CCHA Playoffs MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-2015/4880966-1-eng-US/f0030-202.jpg" title="f0030-20" width="558" height="74"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-2110/4880959-1-eng-US/f0030-212.jpg" title="f0030-21" width="556" height="208"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><h3>WCHA PLAYOFFS MARCH</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-228/4880952-1-eng-US/f0030-222.jpg" title="f0030-22" width="552" height="274"></div> &#9632;

f0030-18

GAMES TO COME

<div class="byline">BY JIM CRESSMAN</div>Louisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01469/4881018-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="280" height="206"></div>TORONTO&mdash;Jim Lever was never more proud to be a Canadian than for the two weeks he spent in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. * The veteran Ontario Hockey League referee worked the recent Olympic Games and he said the conduct of the Canadian team was exemplary.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve seen some bad acts in the past, but these guys were very classy,&rdquo; Lever said upon his return. &ldquo;People were talking about that everywhere I went, whe biggest thing was the referees were talking about it. They couldn&rsquo;t believe our players.&rdquo;Team Canada included two OHL players, Kirk Muller of the Guelph Platers and Dave Gagner of the Brantford Alexanders.&ldquo;They should be proud of themselves,&rdquo; Lever said. &ldquo;They represented their country well.&rdquo;Lever can be proud of his accomplishment, too. He&rsquo;s just the third Ontario official to work the Olympics. The others were Bob Nadin of Toronto, now re-reree-in-chief of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, and Hugh McLean of London, a past president of the Ontario Hockey Association and former CAHA chief referee.McLean worked the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, CA; Nadin worked the 1972 Games in Sapporo, Japan, although Canada didn&rsquo;t compete.Lever worked in the medal round and IIHF referee-in-chief Anatoli Star-avoitov selected him to work the gold-medal game between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.The Czechs exercised their veto and opted for the Swedish official.Politics play a big role in international hockey and since Staravoitov is from the Soviet Union, the Czechs thought he was up to something when he favored Lever.It was petty, but Lever survived.&ldquo;Oh, well,&rdquo; Lever said with a smile. &ldquo;The psychological aspect on and off the ice makes it all the more interesting and more of a challenge for the referees.&rdquo;The 40-year-old bus driver from Toronto has refereed 21 seasons. He began as a linesman in the OHA. He officiated the world B group championships in Tokyo last year and impressed the IIHF. It was then that they asked him to work the Olympics.He&rsquo;s also worked the world junior championships and the Izvestia tournament in Moscow.His first game in Sarajevo was between Finland and Sweden and he couldn&rsquo;t believe the way the two sides went at each other.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t really prepared for it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I thought these guys play pretty clean hockey or at least that&rsquo;s what everybody says. They were beauties. After five minutes I felt like I was back home on a Friday night.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through that scene before and I could handle it. Any referee coming out of the OHL could handle it. It just took me by surprise. What they say about the Europeans and how nicie-nicie they play is a crock.&rdquo;Lever said this is his last year on the blades. He would have retired after last season if it wasn&rsquo;t for his Olympic selection.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It gets to you after awhile. I don&rsquo;t care who you are or what you&rsquo;re made of, a guy can only take so much.&rdquo;Meanwhile, back in the league, a confidential report sent to clubs revealed that as of Feb. 3, paid attendance was down 60,409 over the same period last season.Only four of 15 teams&mdash;Brantford Alexanders, Kitchener Rangers, Windsor Spitfires and Belleville Bulls&mdash;have shown an increase in attendance.The winners: Brantford up 10,868; Kitchener, 10,250; Windsor, 1,881; Belleville, 632.The losers: Oshawa down 18,114; North Bay, 13,076; Cornwall. 8,412; Ottawa 8,131; Guelph, 6,156; Sault Ste. Marie, 5,014; Toronto, 4,878; Peterborough, 4,537; Sudbury, 3,719; Kingston, 2.709.Since that report, things haven&rsquo;t gotten better. As of last week, Oshawa was running 21,000 behind last year; Ottawa was down 12,181 and Cornwall 11,276.It&rsquo;s said a team must average 2,000 paying customers each home game to make ends meet. Only Kitchener, Belleville and Ottawa were getting that as of Feb. 3.The league and club operators just can&rsquo;t afford those kinds of losses at the game. The OHL attendance pool was $20,745 poorer as of Feb. 3. Then there&rsquo;s the revenue the individual teams lose on program and concession sales.It&rsquo;s a significant drop and it&rsquo;s especially felt in places such as Sudbury and Guelph, where attendance has been poor for more than just one season.Most club officials blame the National Hockey League&rsquo;s raiding of underage juniors, while others said the OHL isn&rsquo;t as colorful as it once was.During the off-season, Brantford Alexanders threatened to move if the fans didn&rsquo;t support them. They&rsquo;ve responded.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re also in a higher position in the standings, which attracts interest,&rdquo; said general manager-coach Dave Draper. &ldquo;The underage thing has to be a factor as well. If they take a player and keep him that&rsquo;s fine, but when they move him back and forth, that puzzles people.&ldquo;Allan Bester (underage goaltender with Toronto Maple Leafs from the Alexanders) is a big fan favorite here. They want to know if he&rsquo;s going to come back.&rdquo;Oshawa Generals have on only two occasions this season attracted more than 2,000 fans.&ldquo;I think a lot of it is a backlash to having lost Tony Tanti and Dave Andreychuk to the NHL last year,&rdquo; said GM Sherry Bassin.&ldquo;But I think you just have to realize whether you&rsquo;re in a good hockey town or not. Oshawa isn&rsquo;t. They haven&rsquo;t had a bad product here for years, but they don&rsquo;t support it.&rdquo;Toronto Marlboros&rsquo; situation is ironic. They&rsquo;re well down in attendance, yet taking in more revenue than past seasons.With the team and Maple Leaf Gardens owned by Leafs&rsquo; boss Harold Ballard, the Marlies can afford to hold promotions and give their tickets away or sell them at a lower cost. They earn their money on the big concession trade, money which the OHL doesn&rsquo;t receive.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02329/4881011-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="586" height="1004"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Ontario League received an exemplary showing from Brantford&rsquo;s Dave Gagner.</figcaption></div>For a promotion game against Oshawa, the Marlies drew a turnstile count of more than 12,000. The concession revenue that afternoon was greater than the NHL game that night because many youngsters attended the junior game and they spent more.The entertainment value is what most fans look for. In Windsor, the Spitfires were drawing poorly before they rehired Wayne Maxner, a man who knows how to get people into the building.By the end of the regular season. Spits&rsquo; managing director Terry McDonnell expects the total attendance to increase about 8.000.&ldquo;You have to establish credibility in the organization, which we did when we got Maxner,&rdquo; McDonnell said. &ldquo;But despite the increase in attendance, we haven&rsquo;t made that much more money. We have almost $8,000 out-of-pocket expenses for giveaways and promotions.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0031-01

Lever Back Home From Olympics Proud As Ever To Be A Canadian

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03242/4881063-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="560" height="516"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROB NORMAN Cornwall</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Rob Norman could be headed for a trial with the Buffalo Sabres next season but right now he&rsquo;s concentrating on helping the Cornwall Royals in their bid to move up in the tough Leyden Division race.Norman put together a nine-point performance, six of them goals, to spark Cornwall to three wins in their last four games and win the nod as the OHL player of the week.Drafted 184th by the Sabres in 1982, Norman is nearing the end of his junior career at age 20. He has scored 37 times in 52 games and is considered a reasonably good pro prospect.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04178/4881056-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="564" height="516"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALAN KERR Seattle</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Seattle Breakers&rsquo; struggle for a playoff berth rests on the shoulders of players such as Alan Kerr, the team&rsquo;s top sniper.Kerr, a 5-foot-ll, 181-pound left winger, ranks among the Western Hockey League&rsquo;s leading 15 scorers with 99 points. He filled his hat with 16 points, eight of them in one game, during the last four Seattle starts to become the WHL&rsquo;s player of the week.Drafted by the New York Islanders in 1982, Kerr is aiming for the pros. He has 42 goals in 53 games and hopes to surpass 50.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05146/4881049-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="568" height="518"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARIO LEMIEUX Laval</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Mario Lemieux is one of the most sought after junior prospects in the country and it isn&rsquo;t hard see why.The brilliant center of the Laval Voisins is not only the most productive player in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, but in all of Canada. Lemieux collected 18 scoring points in three games and was selected as the QHL player of the week.After 61 games during which he earned at least a point in 56 straight games for a record, Lemieux has 108 goals, 128 assists and 236 points. In a recent 14-3 Laval romp, he figured in 10 goals.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0031-03

MICRON

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01484/4881094-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="273" height="201"></div>CALGARY&mdash;The Western Hockey League has weathered its share of stormy protests over playoff formats. Yet as much as the winds of discontent have howled in the past, this time the forecast is supposed to be for calm as the league prepares for another playoff run.But how can there be calm over a lengthy best-of-nine series in the Western Division? How can governors agree on a three-team round robin in the Eastern Division which eliminates nobody? And just who thought abolishing byes to first and second-place finishers in that division was a good idea?The answer is simple.Governors gave the new format unanimous approval before the season started. It now remains to be seen if the forecast for smooth post-season sailing will materialize.&ldquo;First of all, we had no luck with byes in the Eastern Division the last three years.&rdquo; said WHL executive assistant Richard Doerksen. &ldquo;Regina and Saskatoon had first-round byes last year and were eliminated in the next round. Coming off the regular season, the teams found that kind of layoff was not conducive to good performance. It&rsquo;s tough when you finish first or second and then don&rsquo;t play for 10 days. Those teams on a playoff roll seem to go right on through.&rdquo;As much as majority of governors gave a thumbs down to previous proposals, the 1983-84 playoffs are expected to meet with mass approval when reviewed at summer meetings. At least that&rsquo;s what WHL executives are hoping for. If not, you can bet there&rsquo;ll be another format next season.This season&rsquo;s format looks like this.In the Eastern Division, six of eight teams make the playoffs. That&rsquo;s nothing new. what&rsquo;s different is the elimination of first-round byes for first and second-place finishers. Instead, first plays sixth, second takes on fifth and third plays fourth in best-of-seven preliminary series.The three winners then meet in a hOme-and-home round-robin format which gives each club four games. The winner advances to the best-of-seven division final. If all three teams have 2-2 records, the club with highest regularseason point total moves on. The other two teams then play a best-of-three series to see who gets another kick at the club which advanced from the initial round robin.Sound confusing, doesn&rsquo;t it?&ldquo;This way the (Eastern Division) teams all get going and nobody sits idle,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;The team which advances to the final from the three-team round robin will have five days off. That&rsquo;s plenty of time to heal injuries.&ldquo;The Eastern Division playoffs are run on a pretty tight schedule. In the Western Division there&rsquo;s an awful lot of time to complete their series.&rdquo;In the six-team Western Division, first meets fourth and second takes on third in best-of-nine semi-final series. The winner then meets in a best-of-nine division final to determine who goes up against the Eastern Division in the best-of-seven league final.&ldquo;Certainly the revenue of added playoff games is a bonus but it&rsquo;s nice for the fans too,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;If you look back at the Kamloops-Victoria series last year (won 4-3 by Victoria) I think from the fans&rsquo; standpoint they would have loved another game in each building.&rdquo;What the league wanted to avoid was going back to the days when a roundrobin series would eliminate one team. They still talk of the 1977-78 round robin in which Regina Pats, Flin Flon Bombers and Brandon Wheat Kings all finished with 4-4 records in a lengthy round robin.What it boiled down to was Regina needing a decisive victory over Flin Flom in its final game to eliminate Brandon on a goal-differential basis. Speculation was that the Bombers simply went through the motions in getting shelled by the Pats with the intent of eliminating Brandon. Flin Flon went on to eliminate Regina 4-1 in the division final before bowing out in the league semi-finals.&ldquo;There were some accusations that Flin Flon went into the tank to eliminate Brandon,&rdquo; said Doerkson. &ldquo;A major concern this year was we didn&rsquo;t want one team eliminated on (the) basis of another team&rsquo;s performance in a game. We don&rsquo;t want any hanky-panky.WHL WEEK&mdash;Dan Hodgson of Prince Albert continued to lead the scoring race with 158 points, including a league-high 103 assists. With 14 games to go, the Raider center was 22 shy of the WHL record of 125 established during the 1981-82 season by Bruce Eakin of Saskatoon.Ray Ferraro of Brandon was second in scoring with 143 points, including a league-leading 79 goals. Ferraro, with 15 games remaining, started the week 17&rsquo; goals back of the league mark held by! Bill Derlago of Brandon, who potted 96 during the 1976-77 campaign. Taylor Hall of Regina was third with 120 points while Dave Pasin of Prince Albert was fourth with 112. Rookie Cliff Ronning of New Westminster had 111 points while Dale Derkatch of Regina had 108, Dean Evason of Kamloops 107, Mark Lamb of Medicine Hat 105, Cam Plante of Brandon 102 and Ken Quinney of Calgary 100.Ken Wregget continued to lead all netminders with a 3.28 goals-against average. Blair McGregor of Medicine! Hat was at 3.75 while Jamie Reeve of Regina was at 3.79. &#9632;

f0032-01

I’s Good-Bye For Western League Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League&rsquo;s hottest race is not at the top of the standings, where Laval Voisins clinched the pennant with 10 games left by crushing Chicoutimi Sagueneens 14-2&mdash;powered by a 24-point night from the Mario Lemieux line.It&rsquo;s the nine-point scramble for the eighth and final playoff spot in the overall standings that has Chicoutimi, Granby Bisons, St. Jean Beavers and Hull Olympiques scrapping for the dubious honor of taking on Laval in the quarter-finals.At one time around Christmas, nine points separated ninth place from second in the competitive circuit. The predominant feeling is that no playoff preparations can be made until Granby meets St. Jean and Chicoutimi plays Quebec Remparts to conclude the schedule March 16.&ldquo;I feel confident, but not absolutely sure,&rdquo; said Chicoutimi coach Michel Parizeau, a former center for the World Hockey Association Quebec Nordiques.His club is in seventh spot with 55 points (27-33-1), two points ahead of Granby (26-34-1) and four in front of St. Jean (24-33-3). Hull is next with 46 points (23-38-0), followed by Trois-Rivieres Draveurs at 42 (20-39-2).&ldquo;I think both Granby and St. Jean are dangerous,&rdquo; Parizeau said. &ldquo;Granby has good goal-scorers and St. Jean beat Laval recently. Hull is not playing that well. We beat them 5-4 in Hull and I didn&rsquo;t feel they were ready for the game.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t played that well either, losing 14-2 to Laval, but we have the team to be there. We have a few injuries, but not big ones, and we seem to play better with a few people missing.&rdquo;Granby has been hit hard with injuries, losing centers Guy Charbonneau and No. 1 draft pick Stephane Richer, a 70-point man.Second-round defenseman Denis Gaudreau is out with a shoulder problem and Francois Chartrand has been called up from junior B Ville LaSalle.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to miss Charbonneau the most, he&rsquo;s our hardest worker,&rdquo; said Bison coach Claude St. Sauveur, an ex-Atlanta Flame.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really hard to figure out what is going to happen. I think we&rsquo;ll be fighting with St. Jean until the last day of the schedule, but with our injuries, we&rsquo;re really going to have to work.&rdquo;This is the closest the third-year Bisons have come to making the playoffs and they are hungry. But St. Jean has built up the most momentum of late, downing Laval 5-4 at home and pulling out a 3-2 win in Granby.&ldquo;Things are going well, the victory over Laval gave us a big psychological lift we needed for the stretch,&rdquo; said Beaver coach Yvan Gingras, on sabbatical from the Quebec Ice Hockey Federation.St. Jean&rsquo;s offense was second in the league for much of the season, led by Marc Chamard, who was injured at Christmas and still is recovering.&ldquo;Goaltending was our problem,&rdquo; Gingras said. &ldquo;We lost 12 games by one goal and six more by two with an empty net.&rdquo;But veteran Michel Campeau, instrumental in Verdun Juniors&rsquo; drive to the playoff title last season, has been coming on strong since Christmas.&ldquo;We were beaten by Campeau,&rdquo; said Laval owner and general manager Claude Foumel. &ldquo;He made at least 10 glorious saves.&rdquo;&ldquo;The teams are so well-balanced, there is no way one team is going to relax,&rdquo; Gingras said. &ldquo;And there will be no easy games because the top teams are fighting as well.&rdquo;Hope is fading fast for Hull after a 7-3 loss to Trois-Rivieres on home ice.&ldquo;We have to win two or three games more than the other teams,&rdquo; said Olympique coach Michel Morin. &ldquo;The desire to make it is there, but it is hard to know what the players really believe.&ldquo;I think Granby has the most talent. Chicoutimi has better talent than St. Jean or we do, they&rsquo;ve both played under their potential. The figures say Trois-Rivieres can still make it, but logically, they shouldn&rsquo;t be there.&rdquo;&ldquo;We still have a long shot, but we&rsquo;re 11 points behind the team we have to catch and we don&rsquo;t play them again,&rdquo; said Draveur coach and former Philadelphia Flyer Andre (Moose) Dupont. &ldquo;We started at the bottom completely this year and all-stars Donald Dufresne and Benoit Gosselin have been hurt. But we have at least 10 players coming back who are more than good enough to play in this league and we&rsquo;ll be adding more from the draft.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Laval owner Claude Foumel called Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s team-record three-goal, seven-assist performance against Chicoutimi, &ldquo;The greatest exhibition of hockey he&rsquo;s shown men. He hit a few posts and was like a whirlwind out there, mesmerizing.&rdquo;Linemates Jacques Goyette (61-82-143) and Alain Bisson (30-78-108), second and eighth in league scoring, added eight and seven points, respectively.Lemieux ran his consecutive-point streak to 61 games and has amassed 108 goals and 128 assists. He has moved into third place on his single-season points list with 236 points, two ahead of former Verdun Junior Pat LaFontaine, and is one points behind former Sorel marksman Michel Deziel. &#9632;

Laval Awaits Opponent For Opening Of Playoffs

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1266/4881705-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="862" height="356"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1167/4881712-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="221" height="282"></div><h2>OVERALL LEADERS</h2><h2>TOP DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1353/4881698-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="866" height="380"></div><h2>TOP ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1450/4881691-1-eng-US/f0033-142.jpg" title="f0033-14" width="866" height="378"></div><h2>BOSTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1544/4881684-1-eng-US/f0033-152.jpg" title="f0033-15" width="876" height="152"></div><h2>BUFFALO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1638/4881677-1-eng-US/f0033-162.jpg" title="f0033-16" width="874" height="178"></div><h2>CALGARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1738/4881670-1-eng-US/f0033-172.jpg" title="f0033-17" width="866" height="144"></div><h2>CHICAGO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1833/4881663-1-eng-US/f0033-182.jpg" title="f0033-18" width="864" height="144"></div><h2>DETROIT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1930/4881656-1-eng-US/f0033-192.jpg" title="f0033-19" width="861" height="145"></div><h2>EDMONTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2026/4881649-1-eng-US/f0033-202.jpg" title="f0033-20" width="860" height="202"></div><h2>HARTFORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2124/4881642-1-eng-US/f0033-212.jpg" title="f0033-21" width="863" height="146"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2220/4881635-1-eng-US/f0033-222.jpg" title="f0033-22" width="866" height="151"></div><h2>MINNESOTA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2313/4881628-1-eng-US/f0033-232.jpg" title="f0033-23" width="864" height="147"></div><h2>MONTREAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2413/4881621-1-eng-US/f0033-242.jpg" title="f0033-24" width="866" height="142"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2511/4881614-1-eng-US/f0033-252.jpg" title="f0033-25" width="860" height="146"></div><h2>NY ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2610/4881607-1-eng-US/f0033-262.jpg" title="f0033-26" width="867" height="173"></div><h2>NY RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2710/4881600-1-eng-US/f0033-272.jpg" title="f0033-27" width="865" height="172"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-289/4881593-1-eng-US/f0033-282.jpg" title="f0033-28" width="865" height="144"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-298/4881586-1-eng-US/f0033-292.jpg" title="f0033-29" width="859" height="145"></div><h2>QUEBEC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-308/4881579-1-eng-US/f0033-302.jpg" title="f0033-30" width="860" height="145"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-318/4881572-1-eng-US/f0033-312.jpg" title="f0033-31" width="862" height="145"></div><h2>TORONTO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-328/4881565-1-eng-US/f0033-322.jpg" title="f0033-32" width="858" height="145"></div><h2>VANCOUVER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-338/4881558-1-eng-US/f0033-332.jpg" title="f0033-33" width="864" height="144"></div><h2>WASHINGTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-348/4881551-1-eng-US/f0033-342.jpg" title="f0033-34" width="857" height="173"></div><h2>WINNIPEG</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-358/4881544-1-eng-US/f0033-352.jpg" title="f0033-35" width="859" height="145"></div> &#9632;

f0033-12

EMERY TROPHY PLUS-MINUS

<h2>Mon. Feb. 20 LOS ANGELES 3, MINNESOTA 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01439/4881513-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="546" height="592"></div><h2>Tue. Feb. 21 TORONTO 2, CALGARY 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02312/4881506-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="542" height="738"></div><h2>BUFFALO 5, PHILADELPHIA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03221/4881499-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="546" height="532"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04167/4881492-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="578" height="360"></div><h2>MONTREAL 2, QUEBEC 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05136/4881485-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="574" height="676"></div><h2>EDMONTON 6, ST. LOUIS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06111/4881478-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="590" height="948"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07100/4881471-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="588" height="162"></div><h2>BOSTON 5, VANCOUVER 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0883/4881464-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="596" height="296"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0974/4881457-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="586" height="510"></div><h2>Wed. Feb. 71 WASHINGTON 2, CHICAGO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1069/4881450-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="556" height="400"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02338/4881443-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="568" height="360"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 2, DETROIT 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03266/4881436-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="564" height="703"></div><h2>BOSTON 6, LOS ANGELES 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04191/4881429-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="565" height="652"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05150/4881422-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="593" height="180"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 8, NEW JERSEY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06128/4881415-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="589" height="1084"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07120/4881408-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="600" height="176"></div><h2>EDMONTON 9, PITTSBURGH 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08115/4881401-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="598" height="1019"></div><h2>Thu. Feb. 23 VANCOUVER 2, CALGARY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09109/4881394-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="594" height="697"></div><h2>BUFFALO 2, HARTFORD 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10106/4881387-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="591" height="670"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 5, MONTREAL 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11103/4881380-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="574" height="908"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 1, ISLANDERS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1299/4881373-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="584" height="786"></div><h2>QUEBEC 2, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1396/4881366-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="584" height="388"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01396/4881359-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="544" height="354"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 3, PHILADELPHIA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02282/4881352-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="542" height="590"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03212/4881345-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="598" height="102"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04174/4881338-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="594" height="102"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05149/4881331-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="606" height="96"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06126/4881324-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="558" height="66"></div><h2>Fri. Feb. 24 CALGARY 3, EDMONTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1545/4881317-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg" title="f0038-15" width="560" height="670"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 3, VANCOUVER 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1641/4881310-1-eng-US/f0038-162.jpg" title="f0038-16" width="556" height="842"></div><h2>Sat. Feb. 25 WASHINGTON 1, DETROIT 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1738/4881303-1-eng-US/f0038-172.jpg" title="f0038-17" width="562" height="68"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1835/4881296-1-eng-US/f0038-182.jpg" title="f0038-18" width="586" height="668"></div><h2>TORONTO 3, EDMONTON 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1933/4881289-1-eng-US/f0038-192.jpg" title="f0038-19" width="580" height="956"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 7, HARTFORD 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2030/4881282-1-eng-US/f0038-202.jpg" title="f0038-20" width="590" height="94"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2128/4881275-1-eng-US/f0038-212.jpg" title="f0038-21" width="582" height="1190"></div><h2>BUFFALO 1. MINNESOTA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2226/4881268-1-eng-US/f0038-222.jpg" title="f0038-22" width="584" height="550"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2323/4881261-1-eng-US/f0038-232.jpg" title="f0038-23" width="591" height="152"></div><h2>RANGERS 4, MONTREAL 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2419/4881254-1-eng-US/f0038-242.jpg" title="f0038-24" width="586" height="1102"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 1, ISLANDERS 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2518/4881247-1-eng-US/f0038-252.jpg" title="f0038-25" width="582" height="440"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2615/4881240-1-eng-US/f0038-262.jpg" title="f0038-26" width="551" height="292"></div><h2>CHICAGO 3, PITTSBURGH 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2714/4881233-1-eng-US/f0038-272.jpg" title="f0038-27" width="552" height="850"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 3, QUEBEC 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2810/4881226-1-eng-US/f0038-282.jpg" title="f0038-28" width="546" height="526"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1542/4881219-1-eng-US/f0039-152.jpg" title="f0039-15" width="560" height="264"></div><h2>BOSTON 2, WINNIPEG 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1637/4881212-1-eng-US/f0039-162.jpg" title="f0039-16" width="564" height="906"></div><h2>Sun. Feb. 26 DETROIT 4, CHICAGO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1732/4881205-1-eng-US/f0039-172.jpg" title="f0039-17" width="566" height="760"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 4, HARTFORD 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1825/4881198-1-eng-US/f0039-182.jpg" title="f0039-18" width="560" height="324"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1921/4881191-1-eng-US/f0039-192.jpg" title="f0039-19" width="588" height="500"></div><h2>CALGARY 5, LOS ANGELES 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2020/4881184-1-eng-US/f0039-202.jpg" title="f0039-20" width="586" height="792"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 3, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2119/4881177-1-eng-US/f0039-212.jpg" title="f0039-21" width="582" height="966"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 3, PHILADELPHIA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2217/4881170-1-eng-US/f0039-222.jpg" title="f0039-22" width="586" height="148"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2316/4881163-1-eng-US/f0039-232.jpg" title="f0039-23" width="582" height="736"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 0, QUEBEC 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2413/4881156-1-eng-US/f0039-242.jpg" title="f0039-24" width="582" height="848"></div><h2>TORONTO 4, VANCOUVER 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2511/4881149-1-eng-US/f0039-252.jpg" title="f0039-25" width="584" height="852"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01495/4881771-1-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/f0035-01469/4881764-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="583" height="2640"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS GOALS AGAINST AVERAGE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02372/4881757-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="543" height="240"></div><h2>MOST WINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03290/4881750-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="548" height="238"></div><h2>SAVE PERCENTAGE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04241/4881743-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="535" height="235"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05196/4881802-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-05

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>FEBRUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06177/4881854-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="517" height="413"></div><h2>MARCH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07166/4881847-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="523" height="416"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08146/4881840-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="512" height="498"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09139/4881833-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="528" height="498"></div> &#9632;

f0035-06

NHL GAMES TO COME

<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1686/4881906-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="538" height="172"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1780/4881899-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="542" height="177"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1876/4881892-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="550" height="172"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1974/4881885-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="543" height="208"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 20Los Angeles 3 at Minnesota 2Tue. Feb. 21Toronto 2 at Calgary 2Buffalo 5 at Philadelphia 4Montreal 2 at Quebec 3Edmonton 6 at St. Louis 5Boston 5 at Vancouver 2Wed. Feb. 22Washington 2 at Chicago 4Minnesota 2 at Detroit 5Boston 6 at Los Angeles 3Winnipeg 8 at New Jersey 5Edmonton 9 at Pittsburgh 2Thu. Feb. 23Vancouver 2 at Calgary 3 (OT)Buffalo 2 at Hartford 3Winnipeg 5 at Montreal 3St. Louis 1 at NY Islanders 5Quebec 2 at NY Rangers 4Minnesota 3 at Philadelphia 3 (OT)Fri. Feb. 24Calgary 3 at Edmonton 5Los Angeles 3 at Vancouver 5Sat. Feb. 23Washington 1 at Detroit 4Toronto 3 at Edmonton 8Philadelphia 7 at Hartford 9Buffalo 1 at Minnesota 5NY Rangers 4 at Montreal 7New Jersey 1 at NY Islanders 7Chicago 3 at Pittsburgh 3 (OT)St. Louis 3 at Quebec 3 (OT)Boston 2 at Winnipeg 5Sun. Feb. 26Detroit 4 at Chicago 2Washington 4 at Hartford 3Calgary 5 at Los Angeles 2Pittsburgh 3 at NY Rangers 4 (OT)NY Islanders 3 at Philadelphia 5St. Louis 0 at Quebec 5Toronto 4 at Vancouver 4 (OT) &#9632;

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THE NHL SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2070/4881951-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="540" height="672"></div><h2>POINTS RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2166/4881944-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="540" height="646"></div><h2>WHAT THEY DID IN THEIR LAST 10 GAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2265/4881937-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="1056" height="178"></div> &#9632;

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HOW NHL TEAMS RATE

BOSTON&mdash;Markwart 13, Middleton 37, Silk 12, 13, Fergus 21, Pederson 26, Bourque 21, 22, 23, 24, Nili 11, Milbury 2, O&rsquo;Connell 16. Winning goals-Bourque, Milbury.BUFFALO&mdash;Cyr 14, Foligno 23, 24, Andreychuk 30, 31, 32, Housley 23, 24. Winning goals-Housley.CALGARY&mdash;Macoun 6, Beers 32, 33, Tam-bellini 9, 10, Risebrough 18, 19, Quinn 13, Patterson 11, Nilsson 23, 24, 25, Eaves 10. Winning goals-Risebrough, Nilsson.CHICAGO&mdash;Savard 32, Fraser 3, 4, J. L&auml;rmer 11, Gardner 20, 21, T. Murray 8, O&rsquo;Callahan 5, B. Wilson 9. Winning goals-J. Larmer.DETROIT&mdash;Kisio 17,18, Loiselle 3, Foster 7, 8, Lambert 14, Ogrodnick 42, Boldirev 26, 27, Duguay 25, Yzerman 32, Manno 8, Park 5. Winning goals-Foster, Boldirev, Manno.EDMONTON&mdash;Pouzar 12, Gretzky 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71,72, 73, 74, 75, Anderson 36, 37, 38, Lumley 6, Kurri 41, 42, McClelland 7, Hughes 23, 24, Coffey 32, Fogolin 5, Hunter 19, Messier 24, 25, 26, Lindstrom 19, Linse-man 17. Winning goals-Gretzky 2, Anderson, Kurri 1.HARTFORD&mdash;Johnson 31, Francis 21, 22, Turgeon 30, 31, 32, Siltanen 10, 11, Crawford 29, Currie 8, 9, Malone 15, Kotsopoulos 4, Pierce. Winning goals-Francis, Turgeon.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Taylor 12, 13, 14, MacLel-lan 22, Harris 8, Hakansson 11, Nicholls 35, 36, Anderson 4, Dionne 29, 30. Winning goals-Taylor.MINNESOTA&mdash;Ashton 7, Bellows 35, Plett 10,11, Napier 9, 10,11, Graham 1, Broten 22, 23, Acton 18, Payne 19. Winning goals-Acton.MONTREAL&mdash;Lafleur 28, 29, Carbonneau 21, 22, Nilan 14, 15, Smith 25, Shutt 12, Naslund 24, 25, Hamel 1, Turcotte 7. Winning goals-Lafleur.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Higgins 12, Lever 9, Ludvig 17, Hoffmeyer 3, Brumwell 4, Gagne 11. Winning goals-none.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Jonsson 11, Bossy 40,41, Gilbert 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, Kallur 8, 9, Trottier 30, 31, Merrick 6, D. Sutter 14, 15. Winning goals-Bossy, Trottier.NY RANGERS&mdash;McClanahan 6, Beck 8, Osborne 15,16,17,18, Larouche 41,42, Ruot-salainen 18, Pavelich 19, Greschner 11, Huber 8. Winning goals-Osborne 2.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Poulin 20, Kerr 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, Barber 20, Sittler 22, 23, Propp 28, 29, Howe 13,14,15, Brown 1, Cochrane 5, Allison 5, Ericksson 9, Hachborn 5. Winning goalsHowe.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Shedden 15, Bullard 42,43, 44, Brickley 12, Flockhart 20, 21 Hrynewich 2. Winning goals-none.QUEBEC&mdash;Dore 4, A. Stastny 18,19, Price 3, P. Stastny 32,33, Paiement 33, 34, Goulet 47, McKegney 20, Berglund 15, Sauve 5. Winning goals-Price, McKegney.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Sutter 26, 27, Pettersson 20, 21, Gilmour 17, Reeds 10, Federko 30, 31, Paslawski 6. Winning goals-none.TORONTO&mdash;Anderson 32, Derlago 28, 29, Daoust 16, Leeman 4, Martin 8, Ihnacak 10, Korn 2, 3. Winning goals-none.VANCOUVER&mdash;Neely 9,10,11, Sundstrom 32, Gradin 14, 15, McNab 15, Halward 5, Molin 5, Lupul 15, 16, 17, Gillis 5. Winning goals-Gradin.WASHINGTON&mdash;Laughlin 17, 18, Carpenter 18, Haworth 19, 20, Langway 7,8. Winning goals&mdash;Haworth.WINNIPEG&mdash;MacLean 29, 30, 31, Lukowich 17, 18, 19, Amiel 20, 21, Smail 15, McBain 8, Mantha 12, Picard 4, 5, Steen 15, DeBlois 30, Campbell 5, Watters 3, Wilson 3. Winning goals-Smail, Steen, Picard.Four-goal games&mdash;Gretzky (Edm) 2.Hat tricks&mdash;Messier (Edm), Gilbert (NYI).Overtime winners&mdash;Housley (Buf), Riseb-rugh (Cal), Osborne (NYR). &#9632;

NHL SCORERS THIS WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07107/4882051-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="538" height="1246"></div>When the National Hockey League season began, Marty McSorley wasn&rsquo;t exactly touted as one of the better rookie prospects. In fact, the Belleville Bull graduate wasn&rsquo;t even drafted by an NHL team and he had to attend the Pittsburgh Penguin training camp as a free agent.But here it is, heading into the stretch drive, and McSorley is a fixture on the Penguin blueline. He isn&rsquo;t blessed with an abundance of natural talent, but he more than makes up for it with aggresiveness and a willingness to learn.In 60 games, he has one goal and seven assists and 183 penalty minutes. &#9632;

f0037-07

Chrysler Rookie Award

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 28)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01461/4882271-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="536" height="202"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02366/4882264-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="542" height="232"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 20Hershey 2 at Maine 6Tue. Feb. 21Nova Scotia 2 at St. Catharines 5Wed. Feb. 22Baltimore 6 at Hershey 7Adirondack 4 at Moncton 2Nova Scotia 0 at Rochester 4St. Catharines 7 at Sherbrooke 4Fri. Feb. 24Hershey 2 at Baltimore 7Nova Scotia 2 at Binghamton 4Fredericton 6 at New Haven 0Maine 2 at Rochester 4St. Catharines 1 at Springfield 2Sat Feb. 25Rochester 5 at Binghamton 3Adirondack 4 at Fredericton 2Nova Scotia 2 at Hershey 3Sherbrooke 4 at Springfield 3Sun. Feb. 26Nova Scotia 2 at Baltimore 3Fredericton 3 at Moncton 2Springfield 0 at Rochester 6Maine 4 at St. Catharines 3Adirondack 3 at Sherbrooke 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03290/4882257-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="534" height="60"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04222/4882250-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="538" height="265"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 29)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05155/4882243-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="535" height="259"></div><h3>GAMES. COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Feb. 22Fort Wayne 5 at Muskegon 3Toledo 7 at Peoria 3Thu. Feb. 23Milwaukee 2 at Toledo 5Fri. Feb. 24Peoria 1 at Muskegon 9Fort Wayne 3 at Flint 2Milwaukee 2 at Kalamazoo 5Sat. Feb. 25Peoria 1 at Fort Wayne 9Flint 7 at Kalamazoo 2Muskegon 3 at Toledo 4Sun. Feb. 26Muskegon 5 at Fort Wayne 7Kalamazoo 7 at Flint 8Milwaukee 6 at Peoria 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06117/4882236-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="537" height="294"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 27)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07103/4882229-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="542" height="234"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Fab. 21Colorado 6 at Montana 5Wed. Feb. 22Indianapolis 6 at Salt Lake 2Thu Feb 23Ollers 4 at Colorado 3Fri. Fab. 24Oilers 4 at Colorado 5Indianapolis 6 at Salt Lake 7Sun. Feb. 26Indianapolis 4 at Montana 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0886/4882222-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="542" height="352"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Feb. 26)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0976/4882215-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="544" height="200"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun Feb. 19Pine Bridge 5 at Mohawk Valley 12Erie 7 at Virginia 4Carolina S at Pine Bridge 7Erie 7 at Virginia 4Wed Feb 22Virginia 2 at Mohawk Valley 5Fri Feb 24Carolina 2 at Pine Bridge 8Virginia 2 at Mohawk Valley 6Sat. Feb. 25Pine Bridge 4 at Carolina 11Virginia 6 at Erie 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1072/4882208-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="547" height="318"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 28)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1166/4882201-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="548" height="238"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1261/4882194-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="546" height="266"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 21Peterborough 6 at Kingston 3Wed. Feb. 22North Bay 3 at S.S. Marie 5Oshawa 4 at Bellevil 3Thu. Feb. 23Belleville 4 at Peterborough 12North Bay 3 at Windsor 6Oshawa 4 at Brantford 5Sudbury 4 at Kingston 6Toronto 6 at Cornwall 11Fri. Feb. 24Sudbury 3 at Kitchener 11Toronto 3 at Ottawa 9S.S. Marie 4 at London 6North Bay 1 at Guelph 7Sat. Feb. 25Ottawa 3 at Belleville 2London 2 at Oshawa 5Cornwall 3 at Peterborough 6S.S. Marie 2 at Brantford 12Sun. Feb. 26Ottawa 4 at Oshawa 3Sudbury 4 at North Bay 3Peterborough 9 at Cornwall 4S.S. Marie 2 at Kitchener 10Brantford 3 at Windsor 2Guelph 1 at Kingston 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1352/4882187-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="550" height="322"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Feb. 26)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1447/4882180-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="538" height="290"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Flamboro 4, Cambridge 3Petrolia 4, Chatham 0Georgetown 7, Collingwood 2Cambridge 11, Barrie 1<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01433/4882173-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="552" height="408"></div><h2>ALBERTA JUNIOR LAGUE</h2>(Standings on Thu. Feb. 18)<h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02300/4882166-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="546" height="150"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03212/4882159-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="549" height="146"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04178/4882152-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="556" height="327"></div><h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 15)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05143/4882145-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="545" height="265"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06121/4882138-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="550" height="321"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 27)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07105/4882131-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="539" height="269"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0895/4882124-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="549" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 21New Westminster 4 at Seattle 5Portland 2 at Kamloops 8Regina 7 at Saskatoon 5Prince Albert 1 at Lethbridge 4Wed. Feb. 22Prince Albert 7 at Calgary 6Portland 7 at Kelowna 8Brandon 7 at Regina 6Seattle 2 at Victoria 3Lethbridge 1 at Medicine Hat 7Thu. Feb. 23Victoria 3 at New Westminster 5Fri. Feb. 24Portland 4 at Lethbridge 3Saskatoon 11 at Winnipeg 1Prince Albert 2 at Regina 3Kelowna 4 at Seattle 6Medicine Hat 4 at Calgary 6Sat. Feb. 25Portland 2 at Medicine Hat 5Regina 5 at Calgary 2Kamloops 11 at Victoria 7Kelowna 3 at New Westminster 4Sun. Feb. 26Regina 3 at Lethbridge 4Portland 3 at Calgary 13Prince Albert 3 at Saskatoon 4Seattle 8 at Kelowna 7Brandon 14 at Winnipeg 1<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0983/4882117-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="547" height="530"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2>(Standings On Fri. Feb. 17)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1074/4882110-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="540" height="202"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1166/4882103-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="541" height="324"></div><h3>PARIS TOURNAMENT</h3>USSR B Team 10, Canada 7Cologne B, Czechoslovakia 4Canada 4, Czechoslovakia 3USSR 8 Team 7, Cologne 0(USSR wins tournament)<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 27)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1258/4882096-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="552" height="202"></div><h3>DIDO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1351/4882089-1-eng-US/f0039-132.jpg" title="f0039-13" width="554" height="174"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 20Chicoutimi 2 at Laval 14Wed. Feb. 22St. Jean 3 at Granby 2Drummondville 2 at Laval 10Verdun 8 at Quebec 6Hull 3 at T-Rivieres 7Thu. Feb. 23T-Rivieres 6 at Longueuil 5Fri. Feb. 24St. Jean 5 at Chicoutimi 5Verdun 7 at Drummondville 2Longueuil 2 at Quebec 3Granby 3 at Shawinigan 8Sun. Feb. 26Shawinigan 3 at Drummondville 4Chicoutimi 7 at Granby 3Quebec 5 at Hull 0T-Rivieres 2 at St. Jean 7Laval 3 at Verdun 1<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1447/4882082-1-eng-US/f0039-142.jpg" title="f0039-14" width="560" height="330"></div> &#9632;

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MINOR SCOREBOARD

BOSTON&mdash;Steve Kasper, C, back from injury list. Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, RW, sidelined indefinitely with dislocated shoulder.CALGARY&mdash;Rejean Lemelin, G, back from injury list. Mike Vernon, G, and Charlie Bourgeois, D, recalled from Colorado of CHL. Vernon later returned to Colorado. Carey Wilson, RW, signed from Canadian Olympic team.DETROIT&mdash;Don Murdoch, RW, recalled from Adirondack of AHL and sent to Montana of CHL on loan. David Korol, D, signed to pro contract from Winnipeg of WHL. Korol will report to Adirondack when WHL schedule ends.EDMONTON&mdash;Reg Kerr, C, returned to Moncton of AHL.HARTFORD&mdash;Ed Hospodar, D, Risto Siltanen, D, and Sylvain Turgeon, LW, back from injury list. Mark Paterson, D, returned to Ottawa of OHL. Randy Pierce, RW, recalled from Binghamton of AHL.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Bob LaForest, RW, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Daryl Evans, LW, returned to New Haven of AHL. Marcel Dionne, C, and Wes Jarvis, C, back from injury list.MINNESOTA&mdash;David H. Jensen, D, and Scot Bjugstad, C, signed to 8-game pro tryouts from U.S. Olympic team. Craig Levie, D, recalled from Salt Lake of CHL. Randy Velis-chek, D, sent back to Salt Lake. Neal Broten, C, returned from injury list. Tom McCarthy, RW, out with bruised wrist. George Ferguson, C, and Dave Richter, D, both sidelined with ankle injuries.MONTREAL&mdash;Chris Chelios, D, signed from U.S. Olympic team. Rick Green, D, sidelined with broken rib. Mark Hunter, RW, back on injury list with knee problem. Ryan Walter, LW, out with sprained knee. Pierre Mondou, C, back from injury list only to suffer broken hand. Mike McPhee, LW, recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, D, assigned to Indianapolis of CHL. Pat Flatley, RW, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Pat LaFontaine, C, signed from U.S. Olympic team. Wayne Merrick, C, back from injury list.NY RANGERS&mdash;Mark Morrison, RW, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Chris Kontos, RW, assigned to Oilers of CHL. Scot Kleinendorst, D, sidelined with groin injury. Willie Huber, D, back from injury list.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Paul Holmgren, RW, traded to Minnesota for rights to Paul Guay, RW, from U.S. Olympic team and North Stars&rsquo; third round draft choice in 1985. Len Hachborn, C, and Ray Allison, RW, back from injury list. Pelle Lindbergh, G, and Dave Brown, D, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Gil Hudon, G, returned to Springfield.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Rick Kehoe, RW, sidelined with shoulder injury. Randy Carlyle, D, out with knee injury. Ted Bulley, RW, recalled from Baltimore of AHL. Grant Sasser, C, returned to Portland of WHL.QUEBEC&mdash;Mario Gosselin, G, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Mark Kumpel, RW, signed from U.S. Olympic team. Dave Shaw, D, recalled from Kitchener of OHL. Blake Wesley, D, sidelined with knee injury. Andre Savard, C, out indefinitely with neck injury. Randy Moller, D, sidelined with broken thumb. J.F. Sauve, C, recalled from Fredericton of AHL.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Mike Liut, G, sidelined with strained knee ligaments.TORONTO&mdash;Russ Courtnail, C, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Rick Vaive, RW, sidelined with ankle injury. Miroslav Frycer, RW, out with injury. Rich Costello, RW, assigned to St. Catharines of AHL.VANCOUVER&mdash;Jere Gillis, LW, and Frank Caprice, G, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. Jean-Marc Lanthier, RW, sent back to Fredericton. Tayloc Hsll, RW, recalled from Regina of WHL.WASHINGTON&mdash;Bob Mason, G, and Gary Sampson, RW, both signed from U.S. Olympic team. Dave Parro, G, returned to Hershey of AHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;David Babych, D, and Brian Mullen, LW, back from injury list.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ADIRONDACK&mdash;John Beukeboom, D, recalled from Montana of CHL.HERSHEY&mdash;Tony Fiore, C, recalled from Flint of IHL. Dan Sanscartier, G, returned to Fort Wayne of IHL. Brian Curran, D, back from injury list.MONCTON&mdash;Bill Goldthorpe, D, signed as free agent from New Brunswick Intermediate League.ROCHESTER&mdash;Clint Fehr, C, Don Keller, LW, and Bob McNamara, G, assigned to Peoria of IHL.ST. CATHARINES&mdash;Nick Ricci, G, Leigh Verstraete, RW, and Marc Magnan, RW, sent to Muskegon of IHL.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Len Dawes, D, out for season with knee injury.<h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Neal Coulter, RW, recalled from Toledo of IHL. Bill Dowd, D, recalled from Flint of IHL. Ron Kennedy, RW, signed to pro tryout. Glen Fester, D, returned to Spokane of WIHL.MONTANA&mdash;Blair MacDonald, RW, and Reg Thomas, C, signed as free agents from European hockey but later dropped from team. &#9632;

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March 9, 1984

Prancers Given The Pay-To-Play Ultimatum

The Classified

Top Rookies In The NHL

TRIVIA