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 16, 1984

The Hockey News March 16, 1984

<h2>AT HOME</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-203/4686434-1-eng-US/f0040-202.jpg" title="f0040-20" width="265" height="613"></div><h2>ON THE ROA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-213/4686427-1-eng-US/f0040-212.jpg" title="f0040-21" width="262" height="615"></div><h2>POINTS RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-223/4686420-1-eng-US/f0040-222.jpg" title="f0040-22" width="535" height="645"></div><h2>WHAT THEY DID IN THEIR LAST 10 GAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-232/4686413-1-eng-US/f0040-232.jpg" title="f0040-23" width="196" height="144"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-243/4686406-1-eng-US/f0040-242.jpg" title="f0040-24" width="194" height="145"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-252/4686399-1-eng-US/f0040-252.jpg" title="f0040-25" width="191" height="145"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-262/4686392-1-eng-US/f0040-262.jpg" title="f0040-26" width="191" height="146"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-272/4686385-1-eng-US/f0040-272.jpg" title="f0040-27" width="196" height="174"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

HOW NHL TEAMS RATE

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Maybe someone forgot to remind the Kings of the significance of their Feb. 24 meeting with the Vancouver Canucks.Nah. Roger Neilson had been telling them all week, as if they should have needed any outside assistance.Perhaps the Kings forgot National Hockey League games were still being decided over three periods, not one.Nah. Neilson had been telling them since taking over from Don Perry three weeks before, something Perry had been telling them for two years.So why&rsquo;d the Kings wait until the final 20 minutes to wake up, wait until they had fallen behind by four goals before getting their act together?That&rsquo;s what happened before a Pacific Coliseum crowd of 15,345 that had turned out to greet Neilson for his homecoming, then the Canucks took advantage of one defensive breakdown after another, stormed to a 5-1 second-period lead, then held on for a 5-3 victory.Instead of being tied for the final Smythe Division berth as they embarked on a four-game trip to Calgary, Boston, Pittsburgh and New Jersey, the Kings lost ground and were four points behind the fourth-place Canucks.The Kings still had 17 regularseason games to play&mdash;two more than Vancouver&mdash;but this was the perfect opportunity to begin some kind of move.And they blew it.Early in the opening period, for example, when the deficit was only 1-0, the Kings couldn&rsquo;t even manage one shot at goaltender Frank Caprice during a four-minute, 59-second power play.The Canucks had three&hellip;and even scored a goal, with Lars Molin tapping a rebound past Markus Mattsson to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead with Tiger Williams serving a major penalty for spearing Mark Hardy.Maybe the Kings should start calling them man disadvantages. They went goalless in three power-play opportunities against the Canucks, running their powerless play streak to 11 straight.By the time Dave Taylor scored his 14th goal of the season 5:59 into the third period and Bernie Nicholls his 36th six minutes later, this one was history.The Canucks scored three powerplay goals. Former King defenseman Doug Halward beat a screened Mattsson from the right point 3:24 into the game; Gary Lupul poked a rebound past Mattsson with 51 seconds, making it 3-1 at the end of the period. Cam Neely skated right down the slot un-touched 6:07 into the second to beat a defenseless Mattsson to make it 5-1.Oh, yes. Thomas Gradin had staked Caprice to a 4-1 lead just 57 seconds into the second period on a breakaway after Charlie Simmer overskated the puck.A solid defensive effort it was not.The Kings still captured the season series, 4-3-1, but that was little consolation on this night.KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;It took him five months, but defenseman Fred Barrett, who retired in October after he was acquired from Minnesota along with Steve Christoff in the Dave Lewis trade, decided to report and practiced with the Kings on Feb. 25. Barrett, 34, appeared in a North Star record 730 games after being drafted on the second round in 1970. A defensive type, the 5-foot-ll, 195-pounder has collected only 23 goals and 123 assists in his 12-year career. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll add a lot of experience and we&rsquo;re hoping he can help us in our drive for the playoffs,&rdquo; general manager Rogie Vachon said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s going to take him a little time to get in skating shape.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Marcel Dionne was still bothered by his sprained ankle and rookie Brian MacLellan missed the Vancouver game with a hyperextended elbow.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02337/4685182-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="548" height="805"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roger Neilson prepared the Kings, but they took too long to get untracked. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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…While Kings Blow Golden Opportunity

<div class="byline">BY JIM SCHNEIDER</div>BOWLING GREEN&mdash;League champion Bowling Green received a scare, but defeated Lake Superior 13-10 in the two-game, total-goals first-round series in Central Collegiate Hockey Association action.Ohio State and Michigan State each used two-game sweeps to advance along with Bowling Green to the CCHA finals in Detoit&rsquo;s Joe Louis Arena, while Western Michigan upset Northern Michigan in Marquette.Bowling Green beat Lake Superior 7-3 in the opener, but Lake Superior took the second game 7-6. At one point in the third period, Lake Superior cut BG&rsquo;s margin to 11-10, but BG defenseman Mike Pikul, who had three goals and three assists in the series, scored the 12th Falcon goal of the series and set up Dave O&rsquo;Brian for the 13th.Ohio State swept Ferris State 5-2 and 6-1 as senior players accounted for all 11 Buckeye goals in the 11-3 total-goals win.Michigan State beat arch-rival Michigan Tech 5-3 and 3-1 for an 8-4 margin of victory.The most dramatic series included Western Michigan&rsquo;s 7-6 win over Northern Michgan. It marked the second season in a row that a fifth-place team beat a fourth-place team.Western Michigan defenseman Wayne Gagne scored the winning goal in the opener on the power play with just 42 seconds left in the game. The assist allowed Dan Dorion to extend his consecutive point-a-game streak streak to 42. He easily ran the streak to 43 games with two goals and two assists in the second game.In the second NMU-WMU game, the host Wildcats jumped to a 3-0 lead on goals by Dave Randall, Al Chancellor and Bob Curtis. However, WMU scored three goals to tie the game and take a 6-5 series edge with Dorion scoring two goals and Troy Thrun one.The Wildcats tied the series with Kory Wright scoring at 18:09 of the third period, but Thrun netted his serieswinner 32 seconds later assisted by Do-rion and Gagne.Western Michigan junior goalie Glenn Healy and Lake Superior junior center Allan Butler shared CCHA, player-of-the-week honors. Healy made 78 saves, including 41 in the 4-4 tie. He faced 20 shots on net while allowing NMU three goals in the first period of the second game.Butler collected five goals and an assist to pace the Lakers in the series at BG. He scored three goals in the 7-6 Laker win, the second for Lake Superior at Bowling Green during the 1983-84 season, the only two home defeats for the Falcons all season.John Samanski had a goal and five assists for the Falcons, but his costly double minor for crosschecking at 10:30 of the first period of the second game started the Laker rally. Chris Guy and Butler scored power-play goals 23 seconds apart for a 2-2 tie and Butler added tying goals at three and four to gain his hat trick.Laker defenseman Mark Vichorek scored at 8:15 of the third period in the second game to push the LSSC lead to 7-4 in the game and cut BG&rsquo;s lead to 11-10. Kevin Collar hit the goalpost behind BG&rsquo;s Gary Kruzich before the BG rally to clinch the series.Paul Pooley scored three goals and added an assist to run his season point total to 95 and set a school record in the sweep of Ferris State. Pooley needs just one point to tie the CCHA overall record for points (96) shared by Rick Kennedy (St. Louis, 1972-73) and Bill Joyce (Northern Michigan, 1979-80).Ferris State took leads of I-0 and 2-1 in the opener on goals by Judd Green and Paul Lowden, but goals by Perry Pooley and Paul Pooley gave OSU a 3-2 lead. Dave Kobryn scored the series-winning goal at 4:02 of the third period of the opener.Seniors accounted for all the Buckeye goals with each Pooley scoring three, while Andy Browne and Kobryn each scored twice and defenseman Mike Farley scored one goal.John Dougan made 41 saves in the sweep, while FSC&rsquo;s Rob Hughston made 71. Michigan State coach Ron Mason collected his 400th and 401st career win in the sweep of Michigan Tech.The visiting Huskies held a 3-2 le| after two periods of the opener with Brian Hannon and Kurt Pearson scoring back-to-back goals.The Spartans scored three goals in the third period with Lyle Phair&rsquo;s second goal the winner. Gord Flegel&rsquo;s unassisted breakaway goal at 19:05 proved to be the series winner.Norm Foster made 16 saves in the opener for MSU with Bob Essensa making 20 in the second game. Dave Roach made 66 saves before suffering an injure in the second game.NOTES&mdash;First-round matchups Joe Louis Arena include OSU (29-9-1) vs. MSU (30-10) while BG (31-5-2) meets WMU (21-17-2). OSU and MSU split two games this season each scoring seven goals. BG took three of four from WMU, but the Broncos outscored BG 17-16. &#9632;

Bowling Green Gets All It Can Handle

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;By acquiring Blaine Stoughton from the Hartford Whalers in a long-rumored deal a week before the trading deadline, the Rangers took just one step towards solving offensive problems that run far deeper than the addition of one potentially high-scoring right winger.They remained a team that still had rebuilding to do, both physically and mentally. But on a short-term basis, Stoughton was expected to give a lift to a corps of forwards mired in scoring slumps and add potency to the team&rsquo;s second line. He should also take some of the pressure off first-line center Pierre Larouche, another former Whaler and the Rangers&rsquo; most consistent scorer this season.Despite being in the Whaler doghouse and regarded by management as a &ldquo;floater&rdquo; who was more concerned with his own statistics than the destiny of the team, Stoughton&rsquo;s credentials are impressive. A surviving member of the Whalers from their World Hockey Association days, he scored a total of 196 goals in that franchise&rsquo;s first four NHL seasons. Twice, he had 50-goal seasons.&ldquo;There aren&rsquo;t too many like that around,&rdquo; said Ranger coach Herb Brooks. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have wingers who can score like that. I thought it was a real good move by Craig (Ranger general manager Craig Patrick). It&rsquo;s up to us to develop a healthy two-way attitude in him.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01873/4684731-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="587" height="842"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ex-Whaler Blaine Stoughton is expected to provide some punch to the listless Rangers. (Photo by Diane Sobelewski)</figcaption></div>Stoughton was brought in to help get some production out of his former Whaler linemate, Mike Rogers. But Rogers is only one of a handful of forwards unable to find the net lately.&ldquo;From the top of the circle in, he&rsquo;s deadly,&rdquo; said Rogers of his old linemate, adding that Stoughton gets 75 per cent of his goals by going to the net for rebounds and loose pucks, the so-called &ldquo;garbage&rdquo; goals.No matter what the style of his scoring, Stoughton will convert offensive opportunities that have been eluding the Rangers all season. After saying he would not panic if the goals did not come right away, he scored his first goal&mdash;only two days after joining his new team&mdash;as the Rangers lost 3-1 to Toronto.The Rangers had been shaky for a week and a half, losing 7-4 in Montreal to a Canadien team hyped up for their first game under new coach Jacques Lemaire.The next night at Madison Square Garden, they played badly for two periods before salvaging a 4-3 overtime win against Pittsburgh.Two nights later at the Meadowlands, they were outshot 42-17 by the Devils in a 3-3 tie that left Brooks seething.&ldquo;It was tough for any goalie to play for us tonight,&rdquo; said Brooks.Rookie Ron Scott had been in the nets for a team showing a strange lack of emotion for a club fighting for first place and preparing to face hungry Patrick Division clubs in the playoffs. Call it lack of heart or the fat-cat syndrome or consider Brooks&rsquo; assessment that night:&ldquo;I thought our guys played tonight like the trading deadline had gone by today and not next week.&rdquo;Stoughton will be 31 on March 13 and earns a reported $250,000 dollars a year, another reason Emile Francis was so eager to move him out of Hartford. He is the fifth former Whaler to join the Rangers, the others being Rogers, Larouche, Rob McClanahan and Nick Fotiu, while the former Rangers in Hartford are Ed Hospodar, Chris Kotsopoulos and Doug Sulliman.With respect to the skills of defenseman Scot Kleinendorst, the 24-year-old whom the Rangers traded for Stoughton, the Rangers essentially gave up nothing in terms of their present lineup. Kleinendorst spent the past two seasons on the New York-to-Tulsa shuttle and was fighting for a job on a defensive alignment that is so crowded that Ron Gres-chner, reluctantly, recently moved up front as a winger.Kleinendorst was expected to be sidelined for another week or so by a groin injury, while Stoughton stepped right into the Ranger lineup. He is old in NHL terms and his expensive contract did not exactly make him marketable. So while the Rangers stand to gain in the scoring column, for Stoughton the move is nothing less than a new lease on NHL life.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy to be here,&rdquo; he said after unpacking.&ldquo;This is one of the four teams I wanted to go to. It&rsquo;s definitely a chance of a lifetime.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Rangers One Step Closer With Stoughton

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01760/4686774-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>NHL Draft Prospects: A Sneak Preview&mdash;Page 23Edmonton&rsquo;s Randy Gregg: The Good Doctor&mdash;Page 12NHL Attendance Improves In Third Quarter&mdash;Page 19WASHINGTON&rsquo;S DAVE CHRISTIAN &#9632;

Cover-01

U.S.HOCKEY’S FIRST FAMILY

<div class="byline">FRANK ORR&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011152/4683926-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="307" height="361"></div><h2>Nifty Little Number</h2>IN HOCKEY CIRCLES, five is a neat, nifty little number. Score that many goals in a game and you gain admittance to an exclusive club. Acquire that many points in a match and you are a top candidate to take a bow as one of the three stars.Win five Stanley Cup championships in a row and, well, you equal the National Hockey League&rsquo;s unique team record, established in the late &lsquo;50s by the Montreal Canadiens. That&rsquo;s a remarkable accomplishment, sustaining excellence and ambition for that length of time.The Canadiens came close to equalling the standard in the late &lsquo;70s when a fine team won four consecutive crowns. They were replaced as throne-room tenants by the New York Islanders in 1980 and that team has held the Cup ever since.This spring, the Islanders have a chance to equal the 1956-60 Canadien standard and, really, they&rsquo;re the first with a legitimate opportunity to equal that most awesome feat. When the Candiens won No. 4 in 1979, there were large cracks in the club because general manager Sam Pollock, coach Scotty Bowman, goalie Ken Dryden and center Jacques Lemaire had departed.The Islanders go for their fifth Cup at the peak of their prowess, their roster, attitude and ability in high gear. Their wounded will be sound, their elderly are players from 30 to 34 who are very hungry. When rosters must be fixed for the duration of the season, the Isles will have 27 bodies, all very capable of performing in the NHL, on hand.<h2>Too Many Sad Players</h2>COACH AL ARBOUR doesn&rsquo;t like that number. He claims that it&rsquo;s too many players to look sad when they don&rsquo;t dress for games. However, by the end of March when Arbour has had the chance to examine the newest Isles, Olympians Pat Flatley and Pat LaFontaine, under fire, the team will have a core roster of approximately 22 bodies to bid for No. 5.Arbour claims he&rsquo;s a little tired of hearing about the number five and will be happy when the actual chase starts in the first week of April.&ldquo;The talk about the five in a row gets worse all the time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I suppose it&rsquo;s not something that has happened very often, so people are interested in it.&rdquo;While the Isles are a little fed up with five, they become irked when they hear the theory many people apply to the team&rsquo;s approach. The popular conception seems to be that the Islanders use the 80-game schedule as a long training camp for the playoffs and crank themselves up in late March for another run at the hardware.&ldquo;We resent people who say that we don&rsquo;t put an effort into the regular season,&rdquo; said winger Mike Bossy. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re conscious of the remarks about us coasting, then turning on a switch. We try to do well in every game just to put down talk like that.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no conscious plan on this team that involves any special approach to the season, no switch to turn on. The guy who said that getting to the top was one thing, staying there was something else knew what he was talking about. We don&rsquo;t have many easy games. Because we&rsquo;re the champs, most teams want to knock us off.&rdquo;<h2>Bossy&rsquo;s Been Hurt</h2>BOSSY DOES TALK about wanting to have a good March but that&rsquo;s because he&rsquo;s fought injuries this season&mdash;a pulled hip muscle and a knee problem. His center, Bryan Trottier, has had some hurts, too.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really in the flow of my game yet and Bryan and I hope to have a good March to be ready for the playoffs,&rdquo; Bossy said.The Islanders feel that it&rsquo;s their good fortune to play in the Patrick Division, which has become an ultracompetitive sector. The Isles, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals have been in the NHL&rsquo;s best race this season.&ldquo;Being in our division means that we play a large number of emotional, important games, ones that get everyone cranked up,&rdquo; said Islander veteran Butch Goring.&ldquo;Having that sort of competition means that the regular schedule is important and, believe me, the atmosphere when we play the Flyers, Rangers and Caps really helps to get everyone ready for playoff pressure. Our young players find out what it&rsquo;s like when the heat is on.&rdquo; &#9632;

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HOCKEY VIEWPOINT

<div class="byline">BY ROD BEATON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011169/4683957-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div>There have been plenty of prominent people named Christian: Fletcher Christian of the H.M.S. Bounty; Christian Dior; Dr. Christian Barnard and Hans Christian Anderson.But if you move in hockey circles, especially American hockey circles, there is only one family Christian&mdash;the Christians of Warroad, MN, a three-generation clan of gold medal-winners, top amateur and professional skaters and major stick manufacturers.David Christian is the standard-bearer for the family now. The family name is visible in rinks throughout the world on sticks of their manufacture, but it is David, starring at center for the fast-rising Washington Capitals, who is most prominent.&ldquo;David is a first-class boy and a very classy skater,&rdquo; said Winnipeg general manager John Ferguson, who nonetheless traded him to Washington at last summer&rsquo;s entry draft. Ferguson made the deal only because he could not come anywhere near an agreement with Christian&rsquo;s agent on a new contract.Christian&rsquo;s class developed in a hockey-mad family in a hockey-mad town. Nurtured by the high-quality Minnesota high school hockey system, maturing at the University of North Dakota, Dave Christian emerged as a world-class player during the 1980 Olympics. He hasn&rsquo;t looked back.&ldquo;I always thought about the NHL,&rdquo; says Christian. &ldquo;Growing up 1 was hopeful, dreaming of getting a chance to play here.&rdquo;Warroad, a town of 1,100 hardy souls not far from the Canadian border, is the kind of place that caters to dreams of NHL glory. It is, after all, billed as, &ldquo;Hockey Town, USA.&rdquo; and its most striking landmark is a water tower adorned with crossed hockey sticks.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s 29 miles, east of Roseau (home of the NHL Brotens) on Lake of the Woods,&rdquo; says Christian. &ldquo;The winters get pretty cold.&rdquo;The winters get very cold&hellip;and the rink is no warmer. A youngster has to skate hard and keep skating to stay (almost) warm.&ldquo;You&rsquo;d wear gloves under your hockey gloves, a cap under your helmet,&rdquo; says Christian. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pretty typical small-town rink. Unheated. It had natural ice.&rdquo;In that rink, Christian developed as a player, sustaining a family tradition.His grandfather, Ed Christian, helped build it. His father, Bill, and uncles, Roger and Gordon, became Olympians. Bill and Roger starred for the U.S. team that won the gold medal in Squaw Valley in 1960. Twenty years later, Dave was bringing home the gold again.&ldquo;When I was growing up, I was proud that they&rsquo;d played,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Proud they&rsquo;d been successful. It never put any pressure on me. It was a positive thing. I read the scrapbooks and heard the stories.&rdquo;But he had to make it on his own and did. Three times Christian was All-State while playing for Warroad High. His one regret: his team never reached the state high school hockey tournament.The Minnesota State Hockey Tournament is an annual affair. In David&rsquo;s high school days it was held at the Met Centre in Bloomington. Since then it has moved to the St. Paul Civic Center, a larger arena.They need the extra space. Every one of the 18,000-plus seats is filled for the eliminations. For a Minnesota high school player, the dream of the NHL is a longshot. The state tournament is more accessible.&ldquo;In Minnesota, the state tournament is the thing to do,&rdquo; said Christian. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a large tournament. They draw 18,000 people each day (three in all) through the finals. When we never made it there, for a time it really bothered me.&rdquo;Then Christian was bothered because he was not offered a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota.&ldquo;Minnesota only offered a three-quarter scholarship,&rdquo; he recalled. &ldquo;I felt I&rsquo;d proven myself and done well in my three years of high school.&rdquo;North Dakota beckoned. Gino Gasparini, then an assistant to Rube Bjorkman, recruited Christian. It&rsquo;s a Class-A capital offense in Minnesota not to go to a state school, Minnesota or Minnesota-Duluth, but David Christian was undaunted. North Dakota wanted him and offered a full ride. He took it.&ldquo;He was a good collegian,&rdquo; said Ferguson, who drafted Christian in the second round in 1979.After a 22-goal, 24-assist season (in 40 games) in 1978-79, Christian tried for a berth on the 1980 Olympic team. He wasn&rsquo;t sure he was good enough to make it.&ldquo;It was never a lock that I would make it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I started off playing right wing, but as we got into the season schedule, Herbie (coach Brooks) asked if I had ever played defense. I was not sure what to think.&rdquo;There wasn&rsquo;t much to think about anyway. Brooks wanted Christian&rsquo;s speed and puck handling skills on the blueline. That&rsquo;s where they went. Brooks got what he wanted.&ldquo;I felt comfortable there after a period of adjustment,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;It just took a bit of time. Our style was puck control and skating and those are my strong points. If they&rsquo;d wanted me to be some big guy taking out people in front of the net, then they&rsquo;d be looking at the wrong guy.&rdquo;Christian, of course, went on to play a prominent role in the gold medal-win at Lake Placid. One week later, he was in the NHL.&ldquo;There was not really a lot of hoopla when I joined the Jets,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I felt pressure to do well. They were not building me up too much. I was able to stick to hockey.&rdquo;And he stuck out. He took a regular shift and won raves.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say enough good about him,&rdquo; said Montreal general manager Serge Savard, who became a teammate of Christian with the Jets. &ldquo;He is a very good all-around player, so versatile. He played center, right wing, left wing, defense, killed penalties, played on the power play, played the point. He did everything except play goal.&rdquo;Christian played with panache. The endless hours at the Warroad rink had fostered a smooth, fast skating style. He can stickhandle with the best.&ldquo;He is a very good team player,&rdquo; said Savard. &ldquo;They named him captain and he was a good leader for a very young team. He&rsquo;ll be a captain again some day.&rdquo;Not immediately. Rod Langway has impressed everyone as a captain with the Capitals. Christian followed the same path to the Caps as Lang way.Each was an American playing for a Canadian team. Each was unhappy about the double-jeopardy that Americans playing in Canada are prey to on taxes. Each wanted a salary that compensated for the tax bite. Neither got it. Both were picked up by Washington general manager David Poile at bargain-basement prices.Christian came for a No. 1 draft pick (10th overall) that Ferguson used to select defenseman Bob Dollas of Laval. Dollas is still in junior. Ferguson says he shows promise, but Christian is delivering. He is the leading scorer on the Capitals. At 24, there is the promise of a lot more to come.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a player we never wanted to lose,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;The only problem with David Christian was my problem (negotiating) with his agent (Mark Perrone).&ldquo;Washington offered the No. 1 pick, so I made the trade. I was disappointed to lose him. I&rsquo;m not surprised in the least he&rsquo;s leading the Capitals in scoring.&rdquo;Neither is Poile.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d made up my mind to move Dennis Maruk,&rdquo; said Poile. &ldquo;We actually acquired David before I dealt Maruk (to Minnesota for a second-round pick), but David was the heir-apparent to assume Dennis&rsquo; offensive production. He certainly has fit the bill.&rdquo;Mostly, David Christian has fit in with winger Mike Gartner and Bengt Gustafsson. All three have great speed. Gustafsson and Christian can both handle the puck skillfully and Gartner has one of the NHL&rsquo;s best shots.&ldquo;My role is to create scoring chances for Gus (Gustafsson) and Gart (Gartner) or whoever is on the wing,&rdquo; said Christian.But unlike Maruk, Christian knows how to play well without the puck. If he didn&rsquo;t, he wouldn&rsquo;t be a Capital. Coach Bryan Murray&rsquo;s Caps do not have the lowest goals-against in the league because they are a bunch of nice guys.&ldquo;That comes from the style this team plays,&rdquo; said Christian. &ldquo;Our most important consideration is defense first. Everything starts from how we play in our end.&rdquo;Christian excels in either end. And between the bluelines he&rsquo;s not bad, either.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be a good solid player for us a number of years,&rdquo; said Poile. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t consider him a superstar. He just knows and plays winning hockey.&rdquo;That description fits the Capitals, too. Part of the reason Christian has fit in so well as a player is his attention to detail and his diligence. Except for Norris Trophy-winner (and probably repeat-winner) Langway, there is no certified NHL All-Star in the lineup. Just a bunch of hard-skating guys who believe in giving their dollar&rsquo;s worth and who probably clear their end and forecheck at the other end as well as any team in the NHL.&ldquo;I feel really confident about this team,&rdquo; said Christian. &ldquo;With the style we&rsquo;ve played all year and the way we&rsquo;ve played it, I think we can do well in the playoffs. Really well.&rdquo; &#9632;

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The Name Is Synonymous With Hockey In The U.S.

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineCONTROLLERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIBUTING EDITORSStan Fischler. Frank OrrADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVE RTISING REPRESENTAT IVESCanadian Consumer Product Sales:CCMC, Cliff Kiveil. 287 MacPherson Ave.,Toronto, Ontario M4V 1A4(416) 928-2909SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPaula HeardNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTKathy Nikles Rosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom Moffat Mary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERElaine WatkinsonADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100 Toronto, Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702 EXECUTIVE OFFICE 850 Third Avenue New York. New York 10022NEWSSTAND 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 LSSUE 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 Hockev News. P.O. Box 904. Buffalo. N.Y. 14240.Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011214/4684019-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="589" height="715"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Flatley (above) is being compared to John Tonelli because of his robust play.</figcaption></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Pat Flatley and Pat LaFontaine were a&rsquo; &ldquo;smash&rdquo; in their first week with the Islanders. They walked onto the National Hockey League stage like blushing ingenues, took their bows, then performed like veterans.Two days after the Olympians were introduced to the New York media, they made their pro debuts in Winnipeg. It was quite a show. Flatley scored a goal on his first shot and added an assist as the Islanders pulled out a 4-3 victory over the Jets.LaFontaine failed to score in Winnipeg, but three nights later he went wild in Toronto, picking up three goals and two assists as the Islanders rolled over the Maple Leafs 11-6. Flatley also figured in the triumph with two assists. That gave the pair 10 points in their two games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all been like a dream,&rdquo; said LaFontaine, whose three goals and five points equalled club records for a rookie set by Bryan Trottier in his second game in the league in 1975.&ldquo;Maybe I was a little lucky,&rdquo; the 19-year-old center said. &ldquo;I seemed to be in the right place all the time.&rdquo;LaFontaine was playing on a line with John Tonelli and Bobby Nystrom when he scored his first NHL goal on the first of his four shots against the Maple Leafs. He stuffed the rebound of a Bob Bourne shot behind goalie Allen Bester.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021152/4684012-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="586" height="706"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine tied an Islander rookie record with a hat trick and two assists.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It bounced right to me,&rdquo; LaFontaine said.He collected his second and third goals in the final period. His best was the third. He got the puck from Nystrom in front of the net, moved slightly to his right and slid it under Bester&rsquo;s pads.Flatley was playing right wing on a line with Tonelli and Brent Sutter when he scored his first goal less than six minutes into the Winnipeg game. Flatley got possession of the puck in the left comer after checking the Jets&rsquo; Lucien DeBlois, curled toward the net and beat Doug Soetaert with a 10-foot wrist shot.&ldquo;What a way to start,&rdquo; Flatley said. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t forget that one.&rdquo;Neither will his teammates. Bourne got a chance to play alongside both newcomers on the Islanders&rsquo; road trip and was suitably impressed.&ldquo;Everything I had heard about them was true,&rdquo; Bourne said. &ldquo;Flatley is a Tonelli-type player and LaFontaine reminds me of Denis Savard of the Black Hawks.&ldquo;Flatley is not afraid of anything. He&rsquo;s going to be a leader. LaFontaine is quick and has great moves. And like Mike Bossy, the puck seems to come to him.&ldquo;What impressed me the most, though, was how well they play their position. They know where to go when they don&rsquo;t have the puck. If a hole has to be filled on defense, they fill it. That usually takes time to learn, but these two play like they&rsquo;ve been in the league for a couple of years.&rdquo;LaFontaine said he has encountered no problems being accepted by his new teammates.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve helped me so much,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everyone has.&rdquo;Flatley seconded the motion.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe how nice everyone has been,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The guys have been helpful, offering advice, and that gives you a good feeling.&rdquo;Coach Al Arbour did not have a good feeling after the game in Toronto. He was disappointed with the defense, but did a good job controlling his temper after the game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to keep my sanity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to say something I know I&rsquo;ll regret.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE&mdash;Clark Gillies was benched for the first time in his career at Winnipeg. The veteran left winger also watched the Toronto game form the stands&hellip;Gord Lane was still with the team when the Islanders left Winnipeg. He has a home in Brandon and has expressed a desire to play for the Jets., Anders Kallur, Wayne Merrick and Billy Carroll were placed on recallable waivers before the trade deadline. &#9632;

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Pat Pair Are Smash Hit For Isles

<h2>Next Week</h2>In next week&rsquo;s issue, the cover story will detail the development and maturing of Boston Bruins&rsquo; towering defenseman, Gord Kluzak, Klu-zak, dealing with the pressure of being the No. 1 pick in the 1982 entry draft, has seen a lot since arriving in Boston&mdash;the Normand Leveille and Craig MacTavish incidents&mdash;and he&rsquo;ll talk about life in the Bruin family.We&rsquo;ll also have a special section devoted to the NCAA hockey finals, set for March 22-24 in Lake Placid, NY. We won&rsquo;t know exactly who the final four collegiate teams will be, but we&rsquo;ll tell you what preparations Lake Placid is making and which NCAA players rate a good shot at winning the Hobey Baker Award, given to the top college player in the U.S.<h2>March 30</h2>There are two good reasons to not miss this issue. First, we&rsquo;ll be presenting a special in-depth section on player agents and their role in hockey. Second, we&rsquo;ll profile two St. Louis Blues&mdash;Rob Ramage and Doug Wickenheiser&mdash;who have had to live with the burden of being No. 1 draft picks after getting off to slow NHL starts. Now, they&rsquo;re both looking for happiness in St. Louis. &#9632;

COMING SOON IN THN

<h2>CARLYLE DEALT TO JETS</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;Just as this issue went to press, the Jets traded their No. 1 pick in the 1984 NHL entry draft and future considerations to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for former Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Randy CarlyleCarlyle, the 27-year-old Sudbury, Ont. native who is in his eighth NHL season, had three goals, 20 assists and 82 penalty minutes after 50 games this season.Carlyle had his best season in 1980-81, when he scored 16 goals and 67 assists to win the Norris and be selected to the NHL&rsquo;s first all-star team.<h2>RANGERS SIGN PLAYERS</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;Hoping to further strengthen their team, the Rangers have signed their first-round picks from the previous two entry drafts, James Patrick and Dave Gagner, THE HOCKEY NEWS was informed at press time.Both Patrick, who&rsquo;s no relation to Ranger general manager Craig Patrick, and Gagner played for Team Canada in the recent Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Patrick starred for North Dakota before joining the Olympic team, while Gagner, the winner of the Ontario Hockey League&rsquo;s Bobby Smith Trophy for scholastic achievement, is a key center for the Brantford Alexanders.Patrick was expected to join the Rangers immediately while Gagner was expected to remain in junior for the rest of the season.In addition to signing the two first-rounders, the Rangers traded Dave Barr and unspecified future considerations to St. Louis for Larry Patey and the rights to Bob Brooke, who played for the U.S. Olympic team.<h2>KYTE SUSPENDED FOUR GAMES</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;The National Hockey League has suspended Winnipeg rookie defenseman Jim Kyte for four games for crosschecking Edmonton forward Dave Lumley in a game Feb. 27.Kyte required 14 stiches under the chin when highsticked by Lumley and the retaliation by the 6-foot-5, 210-pound Kyte cost him a match penalty and a subsequent suspension.&ldquo;I get a match penalty and he gets away with it,&rdquo; Kyte said after the incident. &ldquo;I knew if I started throwing punches he would turtle because he&rsquo;s one of the yellowest guys in the league.&rdquo;<h2>GRETZKY, QUINN NET AWARDS</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky and Calgary&rsquo;s Danny Quinn are the winners of the NHL player and rookie of the month awards, respectively, for February.Gretzky, who missed six games early in the month with a shoulder injury, came back strongly with 15 goals and nine assists in the remaining nine games of the month.Quinn, who started off the season with Belleville of the Ontario Hockey League and has been one of several rookies who&rsquo;ve made a definite turnaround in the Flames&rsquo; fortunes, totalled eight goals and 11 assists in 15 games.<h2>LEMIEUX PASSES LAROUCHE</h2>LAVAL&mdash;Voisin scoring ace Mario Lemieux scored 16 points in three games to raise his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season totals to 252 points, eclipsing Pierre Larouche&rsquo;s 1973-74 record 251 points.Lemieux moved into fourth position on the QMJHL&rsquo;s all-time scoring list with 532 career points, passing Mike Bossy&rsquo;s mark of 531. It took Lemieux only three seasons compared to Bossy&rsquo;s four. &#9632;

SLAPSHOTS

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Toronto&rsquo;s Frank Mahovlich joined teammate George Armstrong, New York&rsquo;s Camille Henry. Chicago&rsquo;s Bobby Hull and Boston&rsquo;s Dean Prentice in reaching the 200-carecr goal mark. Mahovlich, normally a left winger, achieved his milestone by centering Eddie Shack and Red Kelly.&bull; Stan Mikita set a Chicago team record of 85 points in a season and erased the previous record of 84 set by Bobby Hull.&bull; Rhode Island Reds of the American Hockey League added Ed Westfall from the Boston Bruins.&bull; Fran Huck, an 18-year-old center with Regina Pats of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, continued along in his record-setting season with 88 goals and 63 assists for 151 points. Huck, who had long since shattered the previous goal (66) and point (136) marks, had a positive effect on an increase in attendance in Pats&rsquo; games, as fans flocked to see him.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Toronto&rsquo;s Norm Ullman finished ahead of Ted Green as the league&rsquo;s most underrated player, follwing a vote by NHL coaches.&bull; Bobby Hull scored 50 goals for the fourth time in his career, but said it wouldn&rsquo;t mean anything if the last-place Hawks failed to make the playoffs. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011071/4684129-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>Dean Prentice is in a select group of National Hockey League players, having played 20 or more years.But despite playing 22 seasons (1952-74) with the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota North Stars, Prentice never played on a Stanley Cup championship team.In fact, he made it to the Stanley Cup finals only once.&ldquo;That was in 1966 with the Detroit Red Wings,&rdquo; recalled Prentice, who played left wing. &ldquo;I thought that might be the year because when we got to the finals against the (Montreal) Canadiens, we beat them in the first two games.&ldquo;Unfortunately, we lost the final four games and the series. I guess it was never meant for me to be on a Stanley Cup champion.&rdquo;One may wonder how Prentice lasted so long in the NHL? He gives two reasons.&ldquo;I think the first thing was discipline,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I kept my body in shape both on the ice and off it.&ldquo;I exercised it and never misused it.&ldquo;I think the second reason I lasted so long was because of the expansion (in 1967). When the NHL doubled its size, that gave a lot of guys, like me, a chance to extend their careers.&ldquo;The new teams needed players like me to get their franchises going.&ldquo;And the expansion gave a lot of other players who had been in the minors a chance to play. Without expansion, these guys might never have gotten their shot with the NHL.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02793/4684122-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="1209" height="715"><figcaption class="caption-body">Retired National Hockey League player Dean Prentice says expansion in 1967 added years to his career.</figcaption></div>Ironically, Prentice never spent a minute playing in the minors, jumping directly from the junior ranks to the NHL.The only time he spent in the minors was the season after he retired, when he coached the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League.&ldquo;I just didn&rsquo;t like coaching and got out of it after just one season,&rdquo; said Prentice, who was a second team AllStar in 1960.&ldquo;I still like the teaching end of hockey and have helped out at the University of Guelph.&rdquo;Today, the native of Schumacher, Ont., lives in Ayr, Ont., where he&rsquo;s been manager of the Parks and Recreation Department for the last seven years.He still follows the NHL and is still active in the game, playing for the NHL Oldtimers.&ldquo;There is no doubt that the players today are better than when I played,&rdquo; said the 51-year-old Prentice. &ldquo;But there seems to be a lot more hooking and holding penalties today.&ldquo;When I played, players were a little sneakier. Doug Harvey and Gordie Howe were the two players that 1 remember that could get away with a lot of things.&ldquo;But Gordie was the best at it. He did a lot of holding and grabbing, but just enough to break the opponents stride.&ldquo;The only difference between then and now is that we knew when to do it and when not to do it.&ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s another reason why we survived so long.&rdquo; &#9632;

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

1. What former NHL player scored 250 career goals, despite never getting more than 20 in a single season?2. Name the goaltender Chicago received in the famous 1967 trade that sent Phil Esposito to Boston?3. What player won a Stanley Cup in 1972 and an Avco Cup in 1973?4. Name the current NHL coach who was the first captain of the Philadelphia Flyers?5. What veteran NHL defenseman scored his 200th career goal on Feb. 26, 1984?6. What goaltender did Toronto trade to Chicago for four players in 1952?7. The forward line of Cal Gardner, Bud Poile and Gaye Stewart was known as The Flying Forts. Why?8. Who is the last player to win the Calder Trophy while playing for a Stanley Cup winner?9. What player played in six successive Stanley Cup finals from 1965-70?10. What player led the NHL in penalty minutes for eight consecutive seasons from 1933-40?1. Eric Nesterenko.2. Jack Norris.3. Ted Green.4. Lou Angotti.5. Brad Park.6. Harry Lumley.7. All three were bom in Fort William, Ont.8. Kent Douglas, Toronto, 1962-63.9. Jim Roberts.10. Toronto&rsquo;s Red Horner. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03544/4684184-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"></div>that the colleges/universities which have produced the most, as of Jan. 1, 1984, NHL players are: &#9632;

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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/f0006-011252/4684215-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="307" height="360"></div><h2>All About Aubut</h2>DO YOU HOCKEY fans believe that the fellows who run the National Hockey League really give a damn about you and what you think?After all, it took the NHL a grand total of 40 years to restore overtime, a hockey feature that fans covet even more than organ-playing or penalty shots.But, Joe and Josephine Fan, you are wrong if you believe that nobody among the lords of hockey cares about you or what you think about the game and what you want to see.I can personally guarantee that there is one chap who worries about you and would even sing a chorus (in French) of Come To Me My Melancholy Baby to you if he felt it would help the state of hockey art.The man&rsquo;s name is Marcel Aubut and if you don&rsquo;t think that Monsieur Aubut cares about you, you are sadly mistaken. He does, brothers and sisters, he does.Aubut, who happens to be boss of the Quebec Nordiques when he&rsquo;s not trying to make hockey better, affects your life as a fan more than you think, especially if you like overtime.Aubut deserves the Legion of Merit simply because he virtually single-handedly restored overtime over the objections of several dinosaurs posing as NHL bosses. Now Marcel is back at the drawing board concocting even greater hockey pleasures.&ldquo;I am not completely satisfied with overtime as we now have it,&rdquo; says Aubut. &ldquo;I believe it&rsquo;s crucial to find a winner in each game. With that in mind, I&rsquo;m suggesting that we next go to a 10-minute, sudden-death overtime and if there&rsquo;s still a tie after that, have a shootout to settle it once and for all.&rdquo;It required several years of quiet diplomacy for Aubut to push through the five-minute overtime. He already has supporters&mdash;the Knox Brothers of Buffalo, among others&mdash;for his 10-minute-overtime-plus-shootout plan.&ldquo;Some people consider the idea for a shootout too radical,&rdquo; Aubut concedes. &ldquo;What I have to do now is what I did with the five-minute overtime&mdash;build a case until enough people realize how good it will be.&rdquo;But overtime is only one of several blueprints. (You didn&rsquo;t think overtime was the only way to make hockey better, did you?) He has a whole bag full of tricks.&ldquo;One of my main concerns,&rdquo; Aubut explains, &ldquo;is to present as much talent&mdash;as much excitement&mdash;as possible from a hockey game. We lose some of that now because of the narrow corridor behind the nets.&ldquo;With that in mind there are two possibilities to consider: either a larger ice surface, which many owners object to on the grounds that it would require removing seats; or the other idea, moving the nets out a few feet from their present position and narrowing the center zone.&rdquo;I point out that these radical changes are not likely to inspire delight among the Harold Ballards of the hockey world. Aubut says I am mistaken.&ldquo;There are NHL people who are more progressive than they appear on the surface. Many things are cooking now behind the scenes that would surprise you. 1 was surprised myself.&rdquo;I ask Aubut which problem he considers most critical in terms of the NHL&rsquo;s immediate future.&ldquo;Without question giving more meaning to the 80-game schedule is a major target. The fans believe in the 80-game schedule but we have to raise the credibility&mdash;the importance of the 80-game season.&rdquo;And what might the solution be?&ldquo;Give the top team(s) more of a reward for finishing on top. Give them more money in bonuses from the league and more home-ice advantages than we now provide.&rdquo;Why, I ask Aubut, does it appear that the NHL&rsquo;s thinking appears rooted somewhere between the 13th and 17th centuries? He says that is not so; that there are more progressive thinkers in the braintrust than I realize but that there is room for improvement.&ldquo;We are not progressive enough in terms of our sensitivity to the fans,&rdquo; Aubut explains. &ldquo;We should monitor them more closely; check their changes in taste; see what they like and what they dislike. We should do what big-business does; come up with a &lsquo;five-year plan.&rsquo;&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m satisfied that the league is going in the right direction. We&rsquo;ll realize a lot more progressive ideas.&rdquo;Marcel Aubut is a treasure. He sees things clearly and sees them whole. He has given us overtime. He cemented the NHL-WHA merger. He lured the artistic Stastny Brothers to North America. He created a second national hockey network in Canada with participation of American NHL clubs. He simplifies the complicated. He views hockey&rsquo;s bottom line with 20-20 vision.&ldquo;In our business,&rdquo; says Aubut, who shoots as straight as he passes, &ldquo;we should never forget that the fan is king of our game.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s heartening to know that at least one lord of hockey thinks that way.<h2>Debunking Beddoes</h2>MY BUDDY DICK Beddoes&rsquo; column on March 2 in THN, The Dark Side of (Max) Bentley, bums me up. Beddoes is soaking wet when he suggests that Max couldn&rsquo;t have replaced either Syl Apps or Ted Kennedy on the Toronto Maple Leafs Cup-winning (1947-48) first line. I&rsquo;ve got news for you, Richard, Max easily could have been first center but Leaf boss Conn Smythe stuck Bentley on the third line for a reason. In the last interview Max ever gave to a reporter, he told me what Smythe had told him.&ldquo;When I joined the Maple Leafs, Mister Smythe said, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t care what you do on a line, you&rsquo;re going to play with the rookies or the checkers. But I want you for the power play. &lsquo;I was busy feeding my wingers who, by the way, didn&rsquo;t put the puck in the net.&rdquo;This was not a complaint but a fact of life. Bentley always was saddled with turkeys such as Ray Timgren and Cy Thomas. Can you imagine what kind of season Wayne Gretzky would have if he had to work with Yvon Vautour and John-Paul Kelly all the time?Dick, don&rsquo;t even compare Bentley with Kennedy. On a skill level, Max was a 10; Teeder a six.And while I&rsquo;m at it, I might as well mention that Max was one of the three protagonists in a hockey drama that can only be matched but never topped&mdash;the night in 1954 when he was reunited with brother, Doug, after the pair had been separated as teammates for seven years.Doug, who had starred for the Black Hawks throughout his career (1939-52), had left the NHL and was apparently writing the last chapter of his hockey life with the Saskatoon Quakers.Max had been released by the Maple Leafs and signed with the Rangers for 1953-54.&ldquo;I paid Max $15,000,&rdquo; said Ranger GM Frank Boucher, &ldquo;which was unusually high. But in order to get Max I had to agree to bring his wife and kids and his nephew Bev as a spare goaltender and Bev&rsquo;s wife and a family friend who was sort of companion and sitter. That didn&rsquo;t bother me; what bothered me was that Doug still remained in Saskatoon.&rdquo;But Boucher never relented and, finally, in January, 1954 he persuaded Doug, who had left the NHL two years earlier, to give it one more try.&ldquo;Boucher offered me the biggest money I ever got in my life,&rdquo; said Doug. &ldquo;The money did it. That and the fact that I knew I could help Max.&rdquo;The night on Jan. 21, 1954 thus became a memorable one in Ranger history. The Broadway Blueshirts played the Boston Bruins before 13,463 fans at Madison Square Garden and every last one of those onlookers shared doubts about the Bentleys as they took the ice. Max was 33, Doug, 37, and their linemate, 34-year-old Edgar Laprade&mdash;who had also come out of retirement a few weeks earlier&mdash;was an aged gem. Their opponents were a mean team, clawing with the Rangers for the fourth and last playoff berth. On paper, the Bentleys seemed out of place, out their league.On the ice it was something else. From the opening faceoff, Max, Doug and Edgar were tuned in to the same computer. As they moved up and down the rink, the puck stayed in their sphere of influence as if it were part of their very own marionette act.Again and again they scored, but it really wasn&rsquo;t the number of goals that mattered as much as the sheer artistry in rhythm.&ldquo;The Bentleys,&rdquo; wrote Joe Nichols of the New York Times, who captured the essence of the moment, &ldquo;frolicked like a couple of kids out skylarking.&rdquo;I was there and I can vouch for that. But there was one goal the remains vividly etched in my memory. Max had broken free on a two-on-one break with Doug. Max, who was on the right side, had the puck as they approached goalie Jim Henry.Max faked several passes as he got closer and everyone in the building&mdash;including Henry&mdash;awaited the pass. After the fourth fake Max had actually reached the goalline and without even shooting the rubber, eased it into the right comer while Henry stood there mesmerized by the Bentley magic.The crowd went bananas in a frenzy that was only matched by their outpouring of love at the final buzzer when the Rangers skated off with an 8-3 win. Max and Doug had combined for a total of eight points between them&mdash;Doug with one goal and three assists; Max with two goals and two assists.After the game I turned to my friend, Harvey, who was watching his first hockey match and told him never to come again because he&rsquo;d never see one like it. He has come many, many times since but he&rsquo;s the first to admit that the night of the Bentley reunion was the best.As for the Dark Side of Bentley, I can only presume that there was one since Dick Beddoes wrote about it. What I still wonder about whenever I consider Max&rsquo;s untimely passing is what his friends did to help him find the light before it became too late.Be that as it may, it is rather chilling to think that it was on Jan. 19, 1954 that Max learned that his beloved brother Doug was rejoining him as a player and exactly 30 years later, Jan. 19, 1984, Max passed from our midst. &#9632;

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ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div>QUEBEC&mdash;The Goose has arrived and the Quebec Nordiques couldn&rsquo;t be happier.After playing a major role in the success of the Canadian Olympic team in Sarajevo, Mario Gosselin, whose Olympic mates nicknamed his Goose, made an impressionable National Hockey League debut, shutting out St. Louis 5-0 and following it up with a 6-2 defeat of Detroit.Nordique coach Michel Bergeron is more than happy with what he has. seen thus far, even if he must deal with the problem of having three goalies on his team. Gosselin joins Clint Malarchuk and veteran Dan Bouchard.&ldquo;I talked with management recently and we think we will keep all three in Quebec until the end of the season,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;That gives Quebec the best goaltending in the NHL right now, as far as I am concerned. I have talked to all three and they know what I expect from them. We will take it one week at a time and I will stay with my same strategy of waiting until the day of the game to announce who will start for us.&rdquo;Gosselin, meanwhile, had some pretty harsh words for his Olympic coach, Dave King, and didn&rsquo;t hold back in an interview with Claude Bedard of the Journal de Quebec.&ldquo;I really can&rsquo;t say that I have all that high an opinion of him,&rdquo; Gosselin said of King. &ldquo;At one point, he didn&rsquo;t even talk to his two goaltenders for a period of six weeks. He treated us like little kids and I am convinced he has something against French Canadians.&ldquo;If he is there in the future and someone from Quebec is going to the team, I think I will telephone that player and advise him against it. That&rsquo;s how strong 1 feel about the whole thing.&rdquo;But the Olympics are over for Gosselin and he knows he has to move on.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t really compare my first NHL game with the Olympics because it&rsquo;s all different now,&rdquo; he said after his shutout debut, &ldquo;but the NHL is my future and that is what really counts.&ldquo;The Quebec defense was simply excellent in front of me in that first game and then again in my second start. This has been my dream, to play in the NHL. I just wanted to do well in my first start and getting a shutout is unbelievable.&rdquo;While Gosselin faced only 26 shots in his first game, he did come up with breakaway stops against Doug Wick-enheiser and Bernie Federko. He used his quick glove on a shot by Jorgen Pettersson from the slot and impressed the Detroit shooters with his reflexes two days later. If Gosselin has been feeling the pressure inside, he certainly doesn&rsquo;t show it on the outside. He seems very confident in goal for such a young player.Gosselin admits that his chance to play with the Canadian Olympic team worked in his favor, giving him more exposure and experience than any other netminder his age. He will be 21 in June and already his quickness has drawn some comparisons to a young Rogie Vachon.&ldquo;The crowd was really with me in my first game with Quebec and that helped,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The style in the NHL is certainly different from Europe, especially with the larger ice surface and all the holding and interference that goes on here. 1 don&rsquo;t think that my career was on the line or anything like that in these opening games and I certainly can&rsquo;t expect a shutout every game. I just wanted to do well and I give credit to my defense in those first two games.&rdquo; &#9632;

Goose Is A Cookin’ With The Nordiques

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Thomas Steen was, and still is, a Corporal in the Swedish Army whose duty was to go ahead of the front lines during war games.Over the hills he ran, leading his troop into mock battles.The role was a natural for Steen. He plays hockey the same way.Usually the first to become involved, he now fights his battles on the ice for the Jets.The pay is better but the risks are greater. Wooden sticks hurt more than rubber bullets.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the toughest Swede in hockey, bar none,&rdquo; said his coach, Barry Long. &ldquo;He is probably the toughest of all. I&rsquo;ve seen him involved in more scraps than most Canadians I know.&rdquo;Who is this man they call Woodstock, with the five tatoos.The second of three children bom to a paper factory worker, he was raised in the village of Grums, where hockey was the only game in town.He started skating at two, joined his first team at seven and, at 16, signed a contract with Leksand, a powerhouse in the Swedish Elite league.That year, his cousin, Dan Labraaten, a left winger, left Leksand to play for the Jets, then a member of the World Hockey Association.Scouted by Mike Doran, he was first recommended to the Jets by Lars-Erik Sjoberg, then the team&rsquo;s captain. The Jets selected him in the fifth round of the 1979 draft.Steen was kept under cover for two years. Leksand bought him a house, gave him a car and tended to his every wish.In 1980, Long was playing for Canada in the world championships when the teams lined up to shake hands.&ldquo;See you in training camp,&rdquo; said the big Canadian.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t think so, Long,&rdquo; replied Steen.It would be one more year before the soft-spoken, dry-witted Swede would turn pro, signing in Fort Lauderdale, FL, of all places.&ldquo;I was hurt in Finland,&rdquo; said Steen, explaining the delay. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t finish my army hitch. So I had to do it all over again.&rdquo;The following season he was named player of the year in Sweden. His prize&mdash;provided by the largest daily newspaper in the country&mdash;was an expenses-paid trip to any vacation spot in the world. Steen could take a friend. He invited Jan Ingman, a first-round draft choice of the Montreal Canadiens in 1981.Now 23, Steen has become an integral part of the Jets; a veteran of 207 National Hockey League games.Gifted in every respect, he plays the game with a quaint mix of grace and grit. His skill level is high but his intensity is higher.&ldquo;You need a player of Thomas&rsquo; ability to be successful in the NHL,&rdquo; said Rick Bowness, one of Long&rsquo;s assistants. &ldquo;He can batter you or be cute. He is our most adaptable player.&rdquo;In many respects, Steen has adopted the roles formerly played by Dave Christian, now a Washington Capital. He checks the stars, plays the point on power plays and kills penalties.To date, he has 15 goals and 37 assists in 60 games.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t accumulate the points like Christian did,&rdquo; said Long, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s a better checker and infinitely more aggressive. He reminds me more of Laurie Boschman. He just doesn&rsquo;t have any faults.&rdquo;Steen has adjusted easily to the professional game&mdash;the smaller ice surfaces, the grinding styles, the hectic schedules.&ldquo;The toughest part was adjusting to the 80-game schedule, especially the travel and the back-to-back games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I look back at my first year, that was my biggest problem&hellip;getting up for every game.&rdquo;He discovered that the compact arenas removed many of the disadvantages skaters had in Sweden. People are always near, probing, prying, pawing for you or the puck. Expedience is essential.&ldquo;You have to keep moving the puck,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t much time to make a play.&rdquo;Today he feels he&rsquo;s part of a team coming into its own, rising to heights yet unexplored.&ldquo;All of us are getting a little older,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is the best Winnipeg team I&rsquo;ve been on. I&rsquo;m more mature and so are many of my teammates. I don&rsquo;t think there is a team we can&rsquo;t beat. And we&rsquo;ll be even better in two or three years when most of the guys are 25, 26 and 27.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011117/4684270-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="582" height="616"><figcaption class="caption-body">Thomas Steen&rsquo;s combative behaviour stems from his time spent in the Swedish army.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Steen Leads The Jets Into Battle

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>The Development Question</h2>NEWS ITEM: The Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, calling itself &ldquo;a dying business,&rdquo; asks the Canadian Government to intercede on its behalf and eliminate the drafting of 18-year-olds by the National Hockey League.NEWS ITEM: The Tulsa Oilers, senior member of the Central Hockey League, fold and temporarily move to Denver to finish out the season. The CHL, really, is a four-team league and there is speculation that at least one NHL team which sponsors a farm club in the CHL will look east to the American League next season.FOR THOSE WHO monitor hockey at all levels, neither one of these two announcements come as a shock.Anyone who has followed junior hockey this season realizes that the game has suffered, losing too many big-name stars to the NHL. It&rsquo;s hurt the calibre of play on the ice and resulted in poor box-office figures. Those, of course, translate into a poor financial picture. Hence, concern for the future of junior hockey in Canada.As for the Central League problems, they didn&rsquo;t exactly come out of the blue either. The Tulsa Oilers showed signs of failing in the fall but got their act together&mdash;or so it seemed&mdash;heading into the new year. But one thing led to another and the under-financed team finally succumbed in February, saved only to finish out the season.Four teams, which is what the CHL will be when the New York Rangers move their 1984-85 development team to the AHL, do not make for a strong league. So it&rsquo;s fair to say there is concern for the future of the Central League, too.Now, put the two news items together and what do you get? A rather bleak picture of development hockey, the systems that are supposed to act as feeders of talent to the NHL.The question is, what can be done to alleviate the current problems? It&rsquo;s one that has been asked before. But unless we want to hear the same question repeated over and over until it finally becomes pointless&mdash;because the development leagues have withered away and died&mdash;it&rsquo;s time someone answered it. And that someone is the National Hockey League.The NHL is, without question, the straw that stirs the drink. Although minor-league and junior hockey provide a variety of functions&mdash;giving smaller cities and towns a team to call their own, for one&mdash;their raison d&rsquo;etre is the NHL.The current problems, for the most part anyway, are the result of the 18-year-old draft. But a realist would say that aspect of the game, despite the CMJHL&rsquo;s plea to the Government, is here to stay.So what the NHL is faced with is a duplication of services. On one hand, the NHL teams are paying dearly for the right of having a minor-league farm team in either the American or Central League. On the other hand, the majority of their best prospects are coming directly out of junior hockey.In essence, what with the multitude of the NHL&rsquo;s &ldquo;emergency call-ups&rdquo; from junior, the NHL is using junior hockey as a farm system. But because of age restrictions and a few other things, junior hockey cannot fill every role expected of an NHL farm team.The NHL and CMJHL are currently negotiating a new working arrangement, but it&rsquo;s been a long and arduous process with no acceptable solution on the horizon.But the fact of the matter is that a new deal with the CMJHL is not the answer for the NHL or hockey in general. Instead of working out separate deals with the various levels of hockey, the time is now for the NHL to come up with some sort of master plan.This master plan must encompass the roles that junior and minor league hockey would take in the development system. It must take the best features of each and incorporate them into some sort of logical system that emphasizes order and stability.Perhaps the concept of a development league in Canada, composed of 18 to 22-year-old drafted players, subsidized and cosponsored by the NHL, is the first step. Then perhaps one main minor league, likely the AHL, would pick up where the Canadian development loop leaves off.It&rsquo;s a complex situation, one which won&rsquo;t be changed easily. But it&rsquo;s up to the NHL to take the lead and come up with the framework for a development system that works better than the existing one, which would appear to be in danger of collapsing. &#9632;

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011213/4684325-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="332" height="380"></div>When members of the hockey fraternity get together to look for the root of all that is evil in the game today, they inevitably sum it up with one phrase: &ldquo;The 18-year-old draft.&rdquo;If there&rsquo;s something wrong with hockey, you can bet that it&rsquo;s tied in to the process that lets the 21 NHL teams draft 18-year-old players. But for all the anger that is vented on the 18-year-old draft and its consequences, it remains an unavoidable fact of life.Why? Because it&rsquo;s the law of the land. No 18-year-old is to be denied an opportunity to make a living in his chosen profession.The thing that has annoyed hockey people over the years is that it didn&rsquo;t seem to be happening anywhere else. You didn&rsquo;t see the National Football League being challenged on its policy of drafting only college grads.Well, if it makes hockey people feel any better, those days would appear to be over. And football&mdash;both college and pro&mdash;may never be quite the same.On Feb. 29, 1984, in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Laughlin Waters ruled that the United States Football League&rsquo;s college eligibility rule violates federal anti-trust law. In other words, any 18-year-old football player cannot be denied an opportunity to play professional football, whether he&rsquo;s a college grad or not.The judge was ruling on the case of Bob Boris, a former punter with the University of Arizona who lost his college eligibility in 1982 because he secured the services of an agent, an NCAA no-no. When Boris, in his efforts to turn pro, was ignored by the Canadian Football League, the National Football League and the fledgling USFL, all of which have rules prohibiting the signing of underclassmen, Boris sued.He won. The USFL rule he challenged is the same as the statute employed by the CFL and NFL. The judge said the USFL rule constituted a &ldquo;group boycott&rdquo; and that the USFL was conspiring to keep Boris from making a living in his chosen profession, especially since it had already signed underclassman Herschel Walker.For anyone who has a degree in hockey history, the sense of dejavu is overwhelming.In the summer of 1977, a Kingston Canadian junior named Ken Linseman signed a contract with the Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association. The WHA, which was in direct competition with the National Hockey League, had rules prohibiting the signing of underage juniors. But Johnny Bassett, the renegade owner of the Bulls, signed him anyway and Linseman&rsquo;s agents&mdash;Norm Caplan and Arthur Kaminsky&mdash;took the matter to court. Like Boris, Linseman won.Realizing there was nothing it could do to prevent &ldquo;underage&rdquo; signings, the WHA made a quick about face and began signing 18-year-olds. In the summer of 1978, for example, WHA teams signed the best young junior hockey talent in Canada, including Wayne Gretzky, Mike Gartner, Craig Hartsburg, Michel Goulet, Rob Ramage, Pat Riggin and Gaston Gingras.A year later, in the summer of 1979 when the NHL was preparing to accept the four WHA refugees, Oshawa General star Tom McCarthy insisted that if Wayne Gretzky&mdash;a WHA holdover&mdash;could play in the NHL as a 19-year-old, then so could he.His agents&mdash;Caplan and Kaminsky again&mdash;threatened to settle the issue in court. Realizing it had no choice, the NHL lifted all drafting and signing restrictions on &ldquo;underage juniors.&rdquo; And that takes us up to today, when the phrase, &ldquo;underage draft&rdquo; has been replaced with &ldquo;entry draft.&rdquo; Whatever label you hang on it, we&rsquo;re all aware of the consequences.If the men who operate college football in the U.S. are deeply concerned, they have reason to be.&ldquo;(The Boris court ruling) could completely destroy college football in the United States,&rdquo; says Caplan, the player agent who knows full well the repercussions involved. &ldquo;I know if I was an agent for a talented football player in high school, I&rsquo;d be trying to put a package together for his services. It would only take one USFL team to break down and sign him.&ldquo;Then all the USFL teams will follow. The NFL will suddenly realize it&rsquo;s going to have to do the same to remain competitive.&rdquo;Caplan&rsquo;s partner, Kaminsky, a New York city attorney, isn&rsquo;t as sure that college football will roll over and die.&ldquo;(College football) will survive,&rdquo; says Kaminsky. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll still have an enormous pull for all but the exceptional few. Let&rsquo;s face it, there&rsquo;s a big difference between playing junior hockey in Oshawa and Kingston or playing college football at Notre Dame.&ldquo;Junior hockey players don&rsquo;t get national television exposure like a college football player would at Notre Dame. That&rsquo;s why college football will continue to be viable, but there will be some changes, though not revolutionary.&rdquo;Watching all of this with great interest are the men who run junior hockey in Canada. They&rsquo;ll tell you that their game is dying because of the 18-year-old draft and they recently asked the federal Government for some sort of exemption or special status to help them out.They&rsquo;ll be interested to see if U.S. politicians, jumping on a motherhood issue, lobby to head off any legislation that would prove disastrous to U.S. college football.Kaminsky doesn&rsquo;t see it happening.&ldquo;Sure, college football is a motherhood issue,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but politicians don&rsquo;t like making exceptions for special interest groups. You have to remember that the sports fraternity is still a very narrow field. Politicians are more likely to ask, &lsquo;Why should we do this for them?&rdquo;&lsquo;And as for the state of hockey&rsquo;s development system, which started decaying with the Linseman and McCarthy cases, Kaminsky says: &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want to destroy the system. But hey, it&rsquo;s the law. It&rsquo;s very, very clearly the law.&rdquo; &#9632;

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

<h2>HOCKEY NOT FOR TEXAS</h2>I thoroughly enjoyed Bill Fleischman&rsquo;s article about hockey in Texas (Jan. 20). It brought back many bittersweet memories. I was one of the 7,500 hardcore hockey fans who rooted for the Houston Aeros. When the team folded, it was like a death in the family.I really believe the Aeros were one of the best hockey teams ever assembled. Can you imagine a lineup that included Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe; Andre Lacroix, John Tonelli, Rich Preston, Morris Lukowich and Terry Ruskowski? Many teams in the NHL today would pay plenty for that kind of depth.There were great games played at the Summit, which is a wonderful building&mdash;complete with instant replays on a video screen&mdash;but while I was screaming my lungs out, most of my neighbors were going to chile cookoffs, rodeos and high school football games.If Houston wouldn&rsquo;t support the Aeros, I really don&rsquo;t believe it would support a newcomer, but it was wonderful while it lasted.Arthur A. Lord Burbank. CA<h2>MOVIN&rsquo; TO MINNESOTA</h2>Thank you, Bill Fleischman for your column on Texas hockey! It&rsquo;s about time somebody thought of hockey in Texas again. Those of us who love ice hockey can&rsquo;t get enough of it here. As a matter of fact, we don&rsquo;t get any, except for a game once or twice a week on the USA Cable Network. Those of us who don&rsquo;t have cable are really in trouble. It&rsquo;s enough to make one want to move to Canada&mdash;or at least Minnesota.Gary Watts Seguri, Texas &#9632;

FAN FORUM

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Bob Janecyk went home again&hellip;but momma never told him home would be this sweet.With 7:02 remaining in the game against Buffalo, a chant rose to the rafters of Chicago Stadium: &ldquo;Bob-bee&hellip;Bobbee&hellip;Bob-bee.&rdquo;Janecyk, the young masked man from the Chicago suburb of Midlothian, won the hearts of 16,967 Black Hawk fanatics on the way to getting the first victory of his brief National Hockey League career.Janecyk stopped 48 shots in scoring a suspense-packed 4-3 victory over the Sabres, enabling the Hawks to regain second place in the Norris Division.Janecyk&rsquo;s happy homecoming sparked memories of sitting in the Stadium and watching Tony Esposito.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve sat there in the stands myself,&rdquo; the 26-year-old rookie remembered. &ldquo;I think I saw my first game in 1969 or &lsquo;70, right around when Tony Esposito broke in. But I never had the opportunity to stand there myself and see how it feels. It was that I thought and more. You always dream of this. But this was the real thing.&rdquo;Yes, it was the real thing. And so was Janecyk when he stopped Mike Ramsey&rsquo;s open shot on a give-and-go with Gilbert Perreault to inspire the &ldquo;Bobbee&rdquo; chant. He went into the final period protecting a 4-3 lead against the team with the second-best record in the NHL and the standup goalie never flinched in the face of 18 shots.The game was the second thriller in an NHL career that began five nights before when Janecyk was involved in a 3-3 overtime tie in Pittsburgh.&ldquo;He was brought up from the minors so we could take a look at him, so I thought we&rsquo;d give him a vote of confidence by playing him against one of the best teams in the league,&rdquo; said Hawk coach Orval Tessier.&ldquo;I coached him for a year in the American League. I knew what he could do there. He was the best goalie in the American League, but this is the NHL. I didn&rsquo;t know what he could do here. He went out and showed us. He was awfully busy and awfully good.&rdquo;It was a see-saw struggle. The score was tied three times and the Hawks had to surmount a 3-2 deficit created by Phil Housley&rsquo;s second goal of the game at 9:21 of the second period to win.Curt Fraser knocked in the rebound of Keith Brown&rsquo;s point shot to snarl the score at 12:44. Darryl Sutter delivered the game-winner at 14:13 after Bill Gardner faked, skated and stickhandled through the defense to set him up.The other two Chicago goals were scored by sophomore center Troy Mur-ray, who now is starting to assert himself on both ends of the pond.In Janecyk&rsquo;s NHL debut in Pittsburgh, Mike Bullard scored the tying goal for Pittsburgh with 17 seconds left in regulation time.It was a debut shrouded With irony. If it hadn&rsquo;t been for Pittsburgh coach Lou Angotti, Janecyk probably never would have made it to the NHL. Through Angotti&rsquo;s intercession when he was a Hawk broadcaster in the mid-&rsquo;70s, Janecyk got a tryout from general manager Bob Pulford and was signed as a free-agent.&ldquo;Bobby can be proud,&rdquo; Angotti said following the game. &ldquo;He made some big saves when we had a two-man advantage in the second period and he took a goal away from (Andy) Brickley in the third period. He handled the puck very well and he was tough standing up in the net.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t take credit for discovering him. The man who did is Frank Cristina, who runs the Southwest Ice Arena in (suburban) Crewstwood. Bobby had been an outstanding small college player at Chicago State but nobody had scouted him. Frank asked me to take a look. I saw he was a prospect, so I told Pully about him.&rdquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;Bob Janecyk&rsquo;s NHL honeymoon ended in his third game when he took a 6-3 beating from the North Stars in Minnesota. The following afternoon, with Murray Bannerman in goal, the Hawks made their first successful third-period rally of the season to down Toronto 5-4. They began the period down 4-1. Troy Murray scored the tying and winning goals on rebound shots. The winner came with 56 seconds to play. In their 29 earlier games this season in which they&rsquo;d gone into the final period trailing, the Hawks had a record of 0-28-1. This time they won without their two best players, Denis Savard and Doug Wilson. Savard received a match penalty for kicking during a first-period fight with Bill Derlago. However, Brian O&rsquo;Neill, the NHL&rsquo;s executive vicepresident and designated disciplinarian, decided it wasn&rsquo;t serious enough to warrant a suspension. Wilson also had to leave the game in the opening period. He received a deep cut above his eye and running down his nose when he was struck by Walt Poddubny&rsquo;s broken stick. It took 20 stitches to close the gash. Ironically, that was the first game since Feb. 3 in Winnipeg that he discarded a visor.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011190/4684380-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="588" height="856"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hawk rookie goaltender Bob Janecyk drew a tough opening assignment at home.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Hawk Fans Cheer Hometown Boy

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The Minnesota North Stars, through five months of the National Hockey League season, lead the league in two catergories: The number of times collapsed and the number of times they have &ldquo;put it all together.&rdquo;Last week&rsquo;s rejuvenation might be a little different, but the jury is still out.First, the umpteenth collapse.St. Louis Blues stung Minnesota 5-2.But that one was in St. Louis and the two teams had to come right back to the Met Center, where the Blues had not beaten the Stars in about six years.The North Stars, rejuvenated with the addition of Paul Holmgren, jumped ahead 3-0 in the first period. Dino Ciccarelli scored, Steve Payne converted a Holmgren forechecking assist, then Holmgren scored himself.But the Blues bounced back for four straight goals and an improbable 4-3 lead. No matter, the Stars responded in the third period when Gordie Roberts and Ciccarelli scored to reclaim a 5-4 lead with only 4:37 left.Apparently, the Stars figured St. Louis would die peacefully. The next moment, actually only 17 seconds later, St. Louis came down the ice on a four on two. Curt Giles played it as best he could, but Jorgen Petterson was in full windup and beat Don Beaupre with a rocket from far out.Then it was the North Stars who died. Bernie Federko completed a hat trick and Brian Sutter hit an empty net. St. Louis 7, Minnesota 5. &ldquo;The first period,&rdquo; said a shellshocked coach Bill Mahoney, &ldquo;was exactly the way we planned to play. Then, as if there was a switch that goes off, we stop. After that, we didn&rsquo;t play anywhere near major-league level.&ldquo;We made a terrible series of mistakes. We don&rsquo;t seem to have that ability to regroup. We get watching, get tentative. Then, each time we would come back, we would follow by making a major mistake.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get the players attention on specific breakdowns: bad passes, not defending our blueline, not coming out of our end with any flow.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t continue to play this way. We have a large part of our schedule left and we have to use it as preparation time for the playoffs.&rdquo; Then, amid media analyses and suggestions that Mahoney should be removed, which were answered by angry scoffs from general manager Lou Nanne, the Stars scooped up all the pieces.Giles, one of the natural leaders on the club, held court in a closed-door team meeting that may have helped unify some of the team. And then, just before the Stars took on Chicago, Holmgren delivered a brief dressing-room statement.Holmgren pointed out that he hadn&rsquo;t been with the team along enough to be a valid spokesman, but that a hockey team is a lot like a leaky rowboat&mdash;pull together and make progress or don&rsquo;t pull together and sink.And he said there were two things that he could not tolerate. One is criticizing the coach and the other is bitching at or about teammates.Trainer Doc Rose said later: &ldquo;I said to myself right then, there was no question we&rsquo;d win that game.&rdquo;And the Stars went out and, having won only twice in their previous 11 games, thrashed Chicago 5-3 with one of their best performances in months. Holmgren played on a line with Al Mac Adam and center George Ferguson. That trio, sent out to check Denis Savard&rsquo;s line, not only did that part with great effectiveness, but Holmgren and Ferguson both scored.The team unity was better than ever and while there had been similar but intermittent evidence of the same thing throughout the season, the Stars figure that this time, they were all aiming their oars in the same direction. Forward. &#9632;

Stars Are In Sink, Swim Position

<div class="byline">BILL FLEISCHMAN&#x2019;S</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-02965/4684466-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="304" height="355"></div><h2>Holmgren&rsquo;s Gloomy Goodbye</h2>WHEN PHILADELPHIA SHIPPED Paul Holmgren to the Minnesota North Stars, it was far from the biggest trade of the year&mdash;unless, of course, you are Paul Holmgren.In most newspapers, the trade was only worth a few lines of agate type. Just another case of a big, slow player being moved along to make room for the National Hockey League&rsquo;s new, faster breed. In Philadelphia, however, the trade that brought U.S. Olympian Paul Guay and a third-round draft choice to the Flyers was worth considerably more space. The 28-year-old Holmgren was traded, it should be noted, under very awkward circumstances. For the next three days, the newspapers followed the story as if a superstar had been deported. Reporters even stalked Holmgren to the airport the day after the trade because he had avoided them at the Flyers&rsquo; practice arena.It&rsquo;s not unusual for athletes to snub the media when they&rsquo;ve been traded. Most athletes don&rsquo;t like reporters anyway. After you&rsquo;ve been boxed, stamped and addressed for delivery to a new team, the last thing many athletes want is to be grilled by nosy reporters.Holmgren&rsquo;s reasons were different, however. This big, tough hockey player, who has been on the Most Despised List in most enemy arenas, was afraid he would break down. During a brief visit with his former Philadelphia teammates, Holmgren had trouble containing his emotions. The last thing he needed was to try saying goodbye to the Philadelphia fans through reporters.In this case, a few reporters might have turned misty-eyed, too. That&rsquo;s how much respect we&rsquo;ve had for the big guy who, for eight seasons, had recklessly thrown his battered 6-foot-3, 210-pound body around in pursuit of victories and a Stanley Cup. After one of his early games with the Flyers in which he checked the generally untouchable Phil Esposito to the ice, Fred Shero, then the Philadelphia coach, said. &ldquo;I think I just saw a reason we&rsquo;ll win another Stanley Cup.&rdquo;<h2>No One Tried Harder</h2>THE FLYERS HAVEN&rsquo;T fulfilled Shero&rsquo;s prophecy, but it wasn&rsquo;t Holmgren&rsquo;s fault. No one tried harder and no one cared more than this St. Paul, MN, product.Holmgren&rsquo;s caring about the Flyers led to several unfortunate incidents earlier in his NHL career. He was suspended for punching a referee and he once struck New York Ranger defenseman Carol Vadnais on the head with his stick. Holmgren regretted all those transgressions, admitting once that &lsquo;&lsquo;I&rsquo;m my own worst enemy. Sometimes I don&rsquo;t have enough confidence in myself.&rdquo;Bad guy, eh? Then why did almost every NHL team want Holmgren playing for them? Because as Lou Nanne, the general manager who finally landed Holmgren, would tell you, he&rsquo;s a force on the ice and a presence in the locker room. The tale is told around the Flyers how Holmgren once confronted a teammate, who had shown up for practice a bit tipsy, in the shower.&lsquo;&lsquo;If you ever do that again,&rdquo; Holmgren said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll break your bleeping neck.&rdquo;The teammate never did it again.Another memory: In the first game Dave Schultz played at the Spectrum after he had been traded to Los Angeles, Schultz was a volcano waiting to erupt. On Schultz&rsquo; first shift, he ricocheted around the rink, angrily crashing into Flyers. Suddenly, Schultz was confronted by Holmgren, then a rookie. They didn&rsquo;t fight, but the message was clear. End of Schultz threat.Someone who gave so much to the Flyers deserved to be treated better than Holmgren was when it was time to part. Bob McCammon, Philadelphia&rsquo;s general managercoach, and Nanne, who has longed to dress Holmgren in North Stars&rsquo; green, completed the deal just before the two teams were to play at the Spectrum. Holmgren, however, wasn&rsquo;t told because McCammon didn&rsquo;t want to distract the Flyers from their appointed task. After Holmgren was. abruptly scratched from Philadelphia&rsquo;s lineup, he sat through two periods of the game, then left the building. The first he heard about the deal was on the radio.<h2>Almost In Tears</h2>FURIOUS TO THE point of tears that night and the next day, Holmgren was more rational a few days later.&ldquo;Bob called and apologized,&rdquo; Holmgren said, &ldquo;but it was as much my fault for leaving the game.&rdquo;Adjusting to a new team after all those years in Philadelphia hasn&rsquo;t been easy.&ldquo;1 feel a lot better now than I did the first few days,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;The first few days here I was probably like a zombie. I didn&rsquo;t know how to react. Changing your allegiance to a new team takes time. I sure looked up at the out-of-town scoreboard every time 1 came back to the bench.&rdquo;Holmgren wasn&rsquo;t the only player struggling with the change. Bobby Clarke reacted as if he&rsquo;d just lost a best friend, which he had. Clarke said he would miss Holmgren &ldquo;more than anybody we&rsquo;ve ever traded away. But Paul and I weren&rsquo;t only friends and roommates, we thought a lot alike, agreed on what was best for the hockey team. I just hope this is a new lease on life for him. He deserves one.&rdquo;As badly as they butchered announcing the Holmgren trade, the Flyers don&rsquo;t deserve to be forever cast as villains in this episode. The day before McCammon and Nanne exchanged high-fives over the deal. Holmgren signed a new two-year contract in the $ 175,000-$185,000 range. The Flyers also made sure Holmgren was going to a good team and the city where his wife and children live.While the Flyers and many friends and fans will miss Holmgren, the Islanders, Rangers and Bruins are happy to see him exiled to the Norris Division. Many players on these three teams battled Holmgren, but they also respected him. Perhaps Bob Nystrom, of the Islanders, spoke for all the rivals when he said, &ldquo;I think they (Flyers) will miss Holmgren. He was important to them&mdash;big, strong and always willing to go out there and stir something up.&rdquo;After the trade, Holmgren said it would take a long time for him to erase his memories of Philadelphia. Later, he amended that thought, saying, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t ever expect to forget Philadelphia.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s good to hear, because all the people he met in Philadelphia won&rsquo;t forget him. &#9632;

f0010-02

HOCKEY WORLD

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011229/4684435-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Kerr&rsquo;s play continues to be one reason the Philadelphia Flyers are better than they were one year ago.</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;If you would have stuck a pin in the Flyers&rsquo; balloon as they floated into March a year ago, they wouldn&rsquo;t have felt a thing. They had just come off a dominating 2-0 Spectrum victory over the Islanders that ran their Patrick Division lead to 14 points and their record to 41-15-7.The Islanders were pushing up posies. The Rangers were pushing only. 500. Washington was simply pushing to make the playoffs for the first time. And the Flyers were looking down a highway that looked like it would carry them deep into the playoffs.Giddy with their own efficiency, they forgot to look at their gas gauge. We didn&rsquo;t know just how close to &ldquo;E&rdquo; the needle was pointed.The Flyers went 8-8-1 the rest of the way. They were last seen carrying a gas can after the fourth-place Rangers demolished them in three consecutive games.Wouldn&rsquo;t the ultimate irony be the opposite happening this time around? For five months the Flyers have grunted in a four-team Patrick Division pack, never rising above sixth in the overall standings while the league has been smiling knowlingly that Philadelphia blew its best shot a year ago.And now, one year later, the Flyers are turning into March and maybe, just maybe, they are coming on. Don&rsquo;t bet the house on them, because this is a pretty young squad and what we&rsquo;ve learned so far about the 1983-84 edition is that its next game is still potentially its worst.But that was no dream that they beat the Oilers 5-3 on Feb. 29. Neither was a 5-3 victory over the Islanders that preceeded it. The Flyers had defeated both of last year&rsquo;s Stanley Cup finalists in back-to-back games.Throw in that long-last victory over the Rangers two weeks ago and it&rsquo;s an intriguing thought that this year&rsquo;s Flyers might have their best hockey ahead of them.The Flyers might have played better games this season than they did against the Oilers, but they haven&rsquo;t managed a smarter one. They received another outstanding performance by Dave Poulin and another two-goal game from the sizzling Tim Kerr, but that would have been just a footnote to a standard 7-4 Oilers&rsquo; home victory, if not for the outstanding checking job the Flyers did.If it wasn&rsquo;t their biggest win of the year, it was certainly the most eye-opening. They held Wayne Gretzky to two assists. And for the second straight game against a class opponent, they checked away a third-period lead. The Flyers hadn&rsquo;t been doing that, but suddenly they are now.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had a real solid stretch yet,&rdquo; Mark Howe said. &ldquo;It would be kind of neat if it turned out this way, wouldn&rsquo;t it?&ldquo;We started to fade at this time a year ago, but this is a better team. At least it&rsquo;s a more talented one. And a younger one, too.&ldquo;Look at it. We have Ron Sutter, who&rsquo;s getting better all the time, who we didn&rsquo;t have a year ago. We didn&rsquo;t have Dave Poulin. We didn&rsquo;t have Thomas Eriksson. We didn&rsquo;t have Lenny Hach-bom.&rdquo;Howe forgot Kerr, who was out for the season with his second major leg injury. The Flyers didn&rsquo;t have him, either. They did have Howe enjoying an All-Star season, but he was fatigued from an undiagnosed hypoglycemia and heading south. Bill Barber, 10 pounds underweight from a mid-season broken jaw, was never to regain his form. Bobby Clarke and Darryl Sittler were running down.With most of their best players fading, the rest of the Flyers were a house of cards propped up for a gentle Ranger blow. This year the Flyers are 12 points behind their 1982-83 pace because they have not, night-in and night-out, been nearly as defensively efficient as they were a year ago. But they are younger, quicker and have proven much more capable of coming from behind.&ldquo;We played with a lot of confidence,&rdquo; said Clarke. The captain paused a second, weighed his words and then, unprompted, suggested an interesting reason why.&ldquo;I think Cagey (general managercoach Bob McCammon) is doing a better job,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;He was getting excited behind the bench and I think was contributing to the panic when we were blowing all those leads.&ldquo;That just helped get everybody excited. And this is a pretty young team. We had a team meeting before the Islander game (and after the 9-7 loss in Hartford) and that came up. I went to Bob about it.&ldquo;Look, it&rsquo;s a tough job. He&rsquo;s a general manager all day long and then he has to get behind the bench and coach on top of that. There&rsquo;s a lot of stress. But he understood. He&rsquo;s been a lot calmer the last two games and we played better with the lead.&rdquo;ICEBERGS&mdash;Paul Guay, acquired in the Paul Holmgren trade, signed a contract and joined the team for a look&hellip;Pelle Lindbergh lost his second start, 4-3 in St. Louis, since returning from Springfield. He appeared to have shaken off an early goal that wriggled between his pads and was playing strongly when a Rob Ramage blooper from the blueline fooled him and dipped under his glove to tie the game in the third period. The winning goal was a stuffer off a through-the-crease pass. &#9632;

f0010-01

Flyers Have Tanks Filled For The Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;The Bruins may be ready to take the elastic off the bankroll and put some of their prejudices behind them and invite a Swede to their training camp next fall.This is indeed news on a team whose management looks askance at the $60,000 transfer fee charged by Swedish teams and to whom the noun Swede is often modified by the adjective chicken.But Mats Thelin, the 5-foot-ll, 190-pound defenseman on the Swedish Olympic team, is a good bet to surmount both of those obstacles.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very close to our level of play, &ldquo;said Bruin general manager Harry Sinden. after returning from Sarajevo where he watched several Bruin prospects play.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s still under contract to his team in Sweden but he&rsquo;s got a chance to be with us next season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very defensive player, a good bodychecker. He doesn&rsquo;t carry the puck very far, he gets it right up to the forwards. He&rsquo;s got good size and a pretty good shot.&rdquo;Thelin was the Bruins&rsquo; seventh-round choice, 140th overall, in the 1981 amateur draft. They have until June 30 to sign him for the 1984-85 season.Two other Swedes on the Bruins&rsquo; negotiating list played at Sarajevo but they failed to excite Sinden.Jens Ohling, a right winger who was picked in the 10th round, 207th overall, in 1980, was deemed &ldquo;just average.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not bad,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s better than he was a year ago but I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s ready for our team yet.&rdquo;Michael Thelven, a defenseman who was chosen in the ninth round, 186th overall, in 1980, suffered damaged knee ligaments prior to Sinden&rsquo;s arrival at the Games and an update on his condition is awaited.Sinden explained why the Bruins have been reluctant to offer even tryouts to Swedish talent while &ldquo;yumpin&rsquo; yiminy&rdquo; is becoming the third language around the NHL.&ldquo;For one thing, they&rsquo;re too damn expensive, in contract fees and transfers and everything else,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;They won&rsquo;t give you a chance to look at them in training camp and evaluate them against NHL players on the smaller ice surface than they play over there.&ldquo;You can watch them play over there all you want. They&rsquo;re fancy and all the rest of it, but I&rsquo;ve seen too many Swedish disasters in the NHL. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s good management to spend that money on a pig in a poke.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011155/4684497-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="580" height="1082"><figcaption class="caption-body">Anders Brostrom was released by the Bruins after he refused a demotion to the minors.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think the players have in their contracts that they can&rsquo;t go and sign with somebody over here without paying the club they&rsquo;re leaving 500,000 Swedish crowns, which is over $60,000.&ldquo;Even though the player is the one that has to pay it, they look to the club they&rsquo;re signing with to pay it.&ldquo;I see throughout the league some good Swedish players but for every one I see, there are four or five who never work out and everybody is trying to get rid of them.&rdquo;In recent times, the Bruins have had only one Scandinavian (a Finn, not a Swede) on their active roster. Matti Hagman played 90 games for them before he was dealt off to Quebec of the World Hockey Association in the midst of the 1977-78 season.Unfortunately, Hagman played under coach Don Cherry, who liked his players to arrive in the comers first, not second. Hagman never seemed to acquire the knack of it.Two years ago, the Bruins signed a 6-foot-4, 220-pound Swedish defenseman named Anders Brostrom, but he balked at being sent down to the Erie farm in the AHL and he was permitted to wander back to Sweden.Actually, the Bruins were among the first NHL clubs to bring a Swedish hockey player to North America for a tryout.He was Sven (Tumba) Johanson, a four-time Swedish Olympian who caught the eye of the late Lynn Patrick, then GM of the Bruins, back in 1958. He tried out and left.About a dozen years ago his name legally changed to Sven Tumba and he came back to the States selling golf clubs or some such and explained what happened to him at the Boston camp.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they liked me because of a joke I played on them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Before practice all the players would remove their teeth and put them in glasses marked with numbers.&ldquo;One day I thought I&rsquo;d have some fun, so when they all were out on the ice I switched the teeth around. After the workout, they came in and none of the plates fit. I sat in the comer and laughed like crazy.&ldquo;I was just trying to be funny, but I didn&rsquo;t realize this was a serious thing with the players. They were mad as hell. A few days later I was on my way to Sweden.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-01

Bruins Will Consider Signing A Swede

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011202/4684528-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Illustration by Dick Gibson/The In Company)</figcaption></div>A funny thing happened to Randy Gregg, M.D., on the way to the hospital.A self-confessed &ldquo;idealistic&rdquo; follower of amateurism&mdash;as it&rsquo;s known by that silly Olympic code&mdash;Dr. Gregg temporarily turned in his stethoscope and took a detour to the Northlands Coliseum.He was off on what initially was to be a two-year sabbatical in the National Hockey League.&ldquo;At first,&rdquo; said the big Edmonton defenseman, &ldquo;I thought two years would be enough of an experience and challenge of playing in the NHL. Now&hellip;&rdquo;Now he&rsquo;s at the crossroads: Dr. Gregg or Mr. Defenseman?&ldquo;It is up in the air. When you have that winning atmosphere, you feel like you could play forever,&rdquo; said Gregg, the hockey player. &ldquo;You get used to the lifestyle, the travel, the 80 games. You have to go a long ways to find a lifestyle as enjoyable and lucrative.&ldquo;Plus, it would be hard to leave the guys. They seem to be growing closer and closer all the time. I haven&rsquo;t played on any other NHL team, but I can&rsquo;t imagine one that has more fun and camaraderie.&rdquo;He can&rsquo;t help but look at the medical side, though. There&rsquo;s more to be done for the good of mankind than hanging out with the guys and grown men pursuing pucks in a boys&rsquo; game.&ldquo;That comes to mind a lot,&rdquo; said Dr. Gregg, who has completed a rotating internship with the next step a continuous four-year commitment in orthopedic surgery. &ldquo;Medicine is changing so much, two years would be long enough to be away from it. I know I&rsquo;ve got to get back into it this summer.&ldquo;But the Oilers don&rsquo;t pay me to be a doctor.&rdquo;In addition to playing defense, the Oilers pay him to help promote the game. And being a professional&mdash;complete with a university degree in medicine&mdash;he is able to handle himself better than most at a podium. He also knows the right fork to use.Thus, the 28-year-old spent a good deal of time last summer touring the Northern Alberta banquet circuit.&ldquo;You have a responsibility to the fans,&rdquo; said Gregg, the hockey player. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s good experience for myself.&ldquo;This summer, though, it&rsquo;ll be Dr. Gregg, and it&rsquo;ll be quite a thing to try and discipline myself to get up at 6 a.m., put in 10 or 12 hours a day at the hospital (Royal Alex) and then go home and read at night.&rdquo;Gregg also plans on getting married this summer to Kathy Vogt, a former Canadian Olympic speedskater from Winnipeg, and that may influence his career.&ldquo;I guess it probably depends on the success of the team,&rdquo; he added, reverting to his role as the defense partner of Don Jackson&mdash;and now and then newcomer Rick Chartraw. &ldquo;If we win the Stanley Cup this year, I&rsquo;d look closer at leaving. Then again, it would be very difficult to leave a championship club.&ldquo;Hopefully injuries won&rsquo;t be a factor&hellip;I&rsquo;ll also have to make sure I play well enough and hard enough that Glen Sather won&rsquo;t have to make that decision for me.&rdquo;Money is no factor, either. Orthopedic surgeons aren&rsquo;t found in breadlines. Besides, Gregg said he made as much money playing two years of so-called &ldquo;amateur&rdquo; hockey in Japan following the Lake Placid Olympics as he does in the NHL.His tour of duty in Japan served a two-fold duty for Gregg. He was able to maintain his &ldquo;amateur&rdquo; status and he was also able to study medicine. The &ldquo;amateur&rdquo; bit was just in case he would have stayed free of the NHL until after the recent Olympics.As it turned out, Hockey Canada left a sour taste in his mouth.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my biased viewpoint, but in 1980 we-were told there would be an ongoing program. But two weeks after the Olymics we were told Hockey Canada wasn&rsquo;t about to live up to that verbal commitment,&rdquo; he said, pointing out a nucleus wouldn&rsquo;t have been a bad place to begin.Gregg stressed he didn&rsquo;t have talent the likes of Oilers&rsquo; teammate Glenn Anderson in mind when he spoke of a continued nucleus.&ldquo;It would be unrealistic to think players like Glenn would remain as amateurs and effectively lose $100,000 a year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Guys like Glenn, Jimmy Nill, myself, we did all right, but I&rsquo;m talking about a Warren Anderson, who was asked to come back (to the 1984 Olympic team) at the last minute and leave his school-teaching job.&rdquo;He also listed &lsquo;80 Olympians such as Stelio Zupancich, Shane Pearsall, Ron Davidson or Edmontonian John Devaney, who were cut in favor of younger, less-experienced players during Team Canada&rsquo;s 1983-84 training camp.&ldquo;A lack of experience hurt in Sarajevo, although with the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, I&rsquo;m sure the program will be an ongoing thing this time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I hope they are able to maintain a good nucleus.&rdquo;But back to his situation with the Oilers&hellip;When he signed with the Oilers, whom he faithfully watched as a fan during the World Hockey Association days, Gregg didn&rsquo;t even bother with an agent.&ldquo;I figured I&rsquo;d only negotiate one pro contract,&rdquo; he explained of a four-year deal signed in 1982. &ldquo;I knew Glen (general manager-coach Sather) wasn&rsquo;t a naive general manager and I was coming off two years in Japan. I might have been the biggest bust to come along.&rdquo;With that in mind, he shocked Sather by giving him an option to terminate the contract after one year.&ldquo;Glen almost fell out of his chair and said to me, &lsquo;Are you sure you want to do that? The idea is to have some security.&rsquo;&ldquo;Well, security for me is medicine. If I was good enough, the contract would be there if I wanted it. If I wasn&rsquo;t good enough, I didn&rsquo;t want to be there.&rdquo;As things have turned out, he&rsquo;s proven to be more than adequate on defense, performing well enough to have his name appear on some Camp-bell Conference All-Star ballots last month.But soon he must choose. The next step is a full-time commitment to the surgery program. Or&hellip;On the final leg of a recent road trip to St. Louis, Gregg dozed off&mdash;obviously deciding to sleep on it. When he awoke, his red hair had been sprinkled with confetti-type pieces of paper, the victim of another team prank.One wonders, do doctors do these sort of things? &#9632;

f0012-01

Randy Gregg Is Coming To The Crossroads—Hockey Or Medicine?

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Planning to go to a Montreal Canadien hockey game in the near future? Make sure you have a program. Then, make sure you listen attentively when the public address announces the changes.Bill Kitchen became the 39th player dressed by the Canadiens this season when he suited up for a game against the Calgary Flames on March 3. He was brought up from the Nova Scotia Voyageurs after defenseman Ric Nattress joined a seemingly endless list of injured Montreal players in a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.Nattress suffered a broken finger in the game against the Red Wings, leaving the game in the first period. He was slashed and was cut in the process and joined Mark Hunter, Pierre Mondou, Ryan Walter, Rick Green and Chris Chelios in sick bay.Hunter wanted to remain on the Canadiens&rsquo; bench, but was ordered to the dressing room.Hunter, who returned to action three months after having surgery to repair his damaged right knee, underwent arthos-copic surgery in London, Ont., while his teammates were handling the Red Wings. The third-year right winger, who has had three operations on the knee in 15 months, twisted the knee in a game in Quebec on Feb. 21. He was off skates for a week, skated and then went to London to have the surgery performed.&ldquo;I over-extended myself,&rdquo; said Hunter. &ldquo;I felt something go. I knew it wasn&rsquo;t right.&rdquo;Hunter wanted to remain on the Canadiens&rsquo; bench, to serve a bench minor or anything to help the team in Quebec. He was ordered to the dressing room and was a depressed young man as he returned home on the team bus.However, upon returning to Montreal from London, his spirits were lifted with the knowledge he would likely be able to play again this season.Mondou was not as lucky. He suffered a broken hand in the 7-4 victory over the New York Rangers on Feb. 25 when Jacques Lemaire made his debut behind the Montreal bench.The veteran center, who missed two weeks with a sprained back before returning against the Rangers, had a metal rod inserted into his fractured hand and will not be available for duty until midApril, well into the Stanley Cup playoffs.Walter suffered a sprained knee on Feb. 23 against the Winnipeg Jets. It was the second time this season Walter has been forced to the sidelines. The veteran left winger, acquired in the controversial deal with Washington Sept. 10, 1982, missed a week with a groin injury in December.Green, the other player involved in the Washington deal, is recovering from a broken rib suffered Feb. 13, his first game back after missing 58 with a broken wrist.Chelios, who will become the 40th player to wear a Montreal uniform this season if he dresses, had his ailing right foot put into a cast. He was hit on the foot Feb. 9 while playing for Team USA against Czechoslovakia at the Olympics.While X-rays showed no fracture, the decision was made to stabilize the foot by putting the cast on.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating,&rdquo; said Chelios. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time that I have been injured this season.&rdquo;Chelios skated twice in full practice with his new team, but even after standard treatments, the ankle would not respond properly so he missed out on the Canadiens&rsquo; early March trip to Detroit, Calgary and Edmonton.Playing solid defensive hockey, the Canadiens limited the punchless Red Wings to 12 shots in their third consecutive victory over Detroit this year.&ldquo;Looking at the game, I can&rsquo;t think of a mistake we made,&rdquo; said Lemaire. &ldquo;It would be difficult to ask for anything more.&rdquo;Center Guy Carbonneau scored his seventh shorthanded goal and left winger Mike McPhee, playing in his first NHL game, had seven shots of the 29 directed at Detroit goaltender Greg Stefan.McPhee, wearing No. 25, was the 38th player dressed by the Canadiens this season and the 20th forward. Montreal has dressed five goaltenders, including Greg Moffett and Steve Penney, who served as backups but did not play a game.Can&rsquo;t tell the players without that program!IN PASSING&mdash;Speculation continued as the trading deadline approached that Montreal would make a major deal. There was a thought the Red Wings might take Steve Shutt from the Canadiens but his $250,000 contract was a turnoff&hellip;Guy Lafleur. Craig Ludwig and Bobby Smith are the only Montreal players who have not missed a game this season. Ludwig has played in each of the Canadiens games since joining the club in the 1982-83 season&hellip;The Canadiens were forced to postpone a Feb. 29 home game against Hartford when the Whalers couldn&rsquo;t get into Montreal because of a snow storm that hit the Montreal area. The game was rescheduled to March 8, originally an idle day for both teams&hellip;Serge Savard says he is not about to renegotiate anyone&rsquo;s contracts. This is on the heels of a wish by veteran Larry Robinson to have a new deal by the time the playoffs get underway. Guy Carbonneau wants a new deal, too. &#9632;

More Players Admitted To Habs’ Sick Bay

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011144/4684583-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="335" height="440"></div><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>AUDIO</h2>USA DEFEATS RUSSIA. Previously unreleased play-by-play of greatest Olympic thrill ever. Entire game. 60-minute audio cassettes. $16.99 + $1.00 handling each. Order now. Olympic Gold, 186 E. 75th St., New York, NY 10021.CANADA/RUSSIA1972 entire eighth game on VHS or Beta. B/W, generally good. $95 ppd. Squires Sports, #49-560 Johnson St., Victoria, B.C., V8W 3C6.<h2>FILMS/PICTURES</h2>FREE LIST: Classic Team photos, Rhode Island Reds, AHL, 1946-47 through 1967-68. Send return self-addressed, postage paid envelope. Ocean State Marketing, P.O. Box 167, Barrington, RI 02806.<h2>MERCHANDISE</h2>SPORTS JERSEYS UNLIMITEDComplete 18 pape pricelist of same worn Jerseys. Leagues include Baseball. CFL-NFL-WFL-NHL-WHANASLNBA end more. Over 1500 satisfied customers. For complete list send cheque or m/o for $5.00 payable to:EMPIRE SPORTS, 1947 Avenue Road, Suite 201, Toronto, Ont M5M 4A2. NCCA Dealer Free gift and $2.50 credit on first order.<h2>MISCELLANEOUS</h2>SPORTS SHOWEmpire Sports Inc., 3rd annual sports collectors show and sale at Ramada Inn 400/401, 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.NOVA SCOTIA VOYAGEURS 1983-84 official team calendars 24 x 36. Very colourful, great item $2.50 + $1.50 postage. A free schedule and a free list of other items. R E. Riggs, (Sport Collectibles), Canning, Kings County, N.S., Canada, BOP 1H0.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.DEFUNCT SPORTS PRICELISTS55 pages of media guides, yearbooks, photos, I programs, pennants, decals, cards, game Jerseys and more, includes wha (world Hockey I Association), wfl (World Football League), aba ((American Basketball), nl(National Lacrosse) and more send cheque or m/o for $4.99 to: I EMPIRE SPORTS, 1947 Avanua Road, Suita 201, Toronto, Ont. M5M 4A2. NCCA Dealer Free gift and $2.50 credit on first order.BE THE STAR on your own bubble gum cards. Write: Big League Cards, 2424 McDonald St. Regina, Sask. S4N 2Z3.FOR SALE: MONCTON Alpines 1983-84 police cards $4.50; Esso 1983 $4.50; AHL coloured 4x6 $1.00. SWAPS, P.O., Box 216, Oromocto, N.B., E2V 2G5.WHA-NHl-AHL-IHL-MIMOR HOCOY 65 page pricelist of photos, media guides, cards, yearbooks, programs, pennants, pucks, game used Jerseys, equipment and much more. I send cheque or m/o for $5.50 with this ad to:CANADA U.S. MORTS INTI RPR ISIS 199 Katherine Rd. Downtvlew, Ont Canada MSK US* Free gift valued at $5.00 with this ad &#9632;

f0013-01

The Classified

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>At least one National Hockey League governor is quietly fuming over Harold Ballard&rsquo;s war with the Toronto Globe and Mail because of the potentially steep legal fees expected to stagger the league if the court case drags on. &ldquo;What bothers me&rdquo; he tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;is that it&rsquo;s so silly (the anti-Globe stance of the Leafs) and the league should have settled it long ago.&rdquo; NHL prexy John Ziegler, in response to an earlier BLUELINES column, insists that the Ballard matter would have been settled had the Globe and Mail not, as Ziegler puts it, forced a dressing-room confrontation on Jan. 11. &ldquo;I said we&rsquo;ll settle it during the week of January 16th.&rdquo; Ziegler argues that the Globe&rsquo;s &ldquo;confrontation&rdquo; tactics upset what he believes were fruitful behind-the-scenes negotiations. Ziegler further points out that an unrelated but similar dispute was settled elsewhere last spring with his quiet diplomacy. &ldquo;We felt,&rdquo; Ziegler adds, &ldquo;that this (Globe dispute) could have been settled the same way.&rdquo; Asked whether he now sees himself settling the dispute, Ziegler says: &ldquo;Not as long as they (Globe and Mail) have their lawyers in it.&rdquo; Players&rsquo; union boss Al Eagleson disputes Ziegler on the Ballard strategy. &ldquo;That week (Ziegler wanted) wouldn&rsquo;t have made a difference,&rdquo; Eagle-son says, &ldquo;because Harold (Ballard) would have found a different way to find the padlock. No matter which route they would have taken, Harold would have put them in a crystal maze. All this has done is give Ziegler a chance to say they (the Globe) should have waited.&rdquo; Neutral observers agree that the Leafs are in for a ferocious fight if only because of Clayton Ruby, the pugnacious Toronto attorney, who is handling the case against the Leafs and the NHL. &ldquo;Ruby,&rdquo; warns Eagleson, &ldquo;goes for the throat!&rdquo;Although junior prodigy Mario Lemieux has been diplomatically riding the fence&mdash;telling New York writers he&rsquo;d love to play for the Devils and the Pittsburgh media that he wouldn&rsquo;t mind the Penguins&mdash;his Montreal confidante, Bob Pemo, wants Mario near Manhattan. Pemo, who works for Gus (I represent Wayne Gretzky) Badali, sees a Lemieux goldmine on Madison Avenue, especially since Mario is a personality kid. Even if the Devils get first draft pick there&rsquo;s no guarantee they&rsquo;ll opt for Lemieux. Meanwhile, the Devils&rsquo; front-office future is cloudier than ever. One NHL insider tells BLUELINES he wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if Devil boss John McMullen opens the vault and tries to lure either Harry Sinden or David Poile to the Meadowlands. McMullen made a strong impression at the last governors&rsquo; meeting, as did Ron Corey and Jay Snider&hellip;Ed Olczyk, rated one of the brightest American Olympians, has a negative side that concerns some of his admirers. Says one: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re afraid he&rsquo;ll eat himself out of hockey.&rdquo;&hellip;Bob Casey, ex-Whaler p.r. ace, is now a member of the New Haven Newspapers sports staff, writing columns and features&hellip;Janet Halligan is resigning her Ranger p.r. post after 19 years with the Blueshirts. At least two NHL p.r. vacancies are expected to develop before the June meetings&hellip;Hall of Famer Ken Dryden goes intellectual with a non-hockey address before the Americans Society in Manhattan on March 15.An agent who knows the score tells BLUELINES that the American Olympic hockey defeat &ldquo;cost the U.S. players nothing in losing money on future contracts despite the Sarajevo shellacking. Most of them had contracts before they went,&rdquo; the rep insists&hellip;Although Whaler boss Emile Francis appears to have egg-on-his-face over the loss of Pierre Larouche, it is now pointed out by Hartford insiders that Larouche-to-the Rangers was part of a well-thought-out plot. First Pierre (and his agent) made such exorbitant demands of Francis that Emile was compelled to reject them. Those demands were made, it is assured, because Larouche and Co. knew they already had a deal with the Rangers in their back pocket. As for the loss of Blaine Stoughton, Francis is willing to bite the bullet, knowing he has unloaded a quarter-million-dollar salary and a player not of coach Jack Evans&rsquo; pleasure&hellip;Edmonton sportscaster-columnist John Short says the Oilers need a major pretrade-deadline deal in order to win the Stanley Cup. Regarding the Oilers&rsquo; Stanley Cup chances, former NHLer Pierre Bouchard, now a broadcaster, tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll always be a bridesmaid!&rdquo; Bouchard likes the Sabres as a Cup darkhorse&hellip;Guy Carbonneau admits he had freshman problems with the Canadiens. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t accept being treated as a rookie,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had ideas and I wasn&rsquo;t shy about them. That may be why 1 had a reputation as a hard-head. This year everybody knows me and they let me play the way I want.&rdquo; Carbonneau wants a new contract and expects to get it&hellip;Ex-Flyer Terry Crisp has his eye on an NHL coaching spot. He&rsquo;s helped to turn the Sault Ste. Marie Junior Greyhounds into a winner.Jacques Demers on NHL coaches: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all a little weird.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Anton Stastny says the two aspects of Czechoslovakia he misses most are &ldquo;family and friends.&rdquo; Regarding the Czechs&rsquo; silver medal in Olympic hockey, Stastny opines: &ldquo;They played really safe hockey compared to 1980. They really wanted a medal after finishing fifth in 1980.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;The NHL&rsquo;s minimum wage is $40,000, but one league governor complains, &ldquo;We start &lsquo;em at $75,000.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Tiger Williams on his press relations: &ldquo;Stan (Smyl) has given me control of the dressing room. I run things in there. That&rsquo;s my office. If I don&rsquo;t want a (media) guy in there, he&rsquo;s out. I&rsquo;ll throw anybody out, if I don&rsquo;t like what they&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;While other 1984 Olympians made their National Hockey League debuts amidst considerable fanfare, defenseman Bruce Driver quietly joined and helped the Devils snap a five-game winless skid.Driver sent rookie center Pat Verbeek in for a scoring breakaway early in the third period of his first NHL game on Mar. 2 at the Meadowlands Arena, helping the Devils gain a 2-0 lead enroute to a 4-2 triumph over the Vancouver Canucks.&ldquo;It was a pleasure to watch him,&rdquo; Devil coach Tom McVie said. &ldquo;He made the game look easy.&rdquo;While Driver still has a lot of proving to do, the fact he has come this far is a plus for the Devils, who were embarrassingly unsuccessful in their bid to sign some of the free agents who played in the Olympics.In the ever-changing world of the Kansas City-Colorado-New Jersey franchise, Driver was drafted three general managers ago (sixth round, 1981) by Ray Miron&rsquo;s Colorado scouting staff, just after a pair of forgettable prospects named Gus Greco and Doug Speck.Being considered a longshot does not seem to phase Driver; it has been that way for most of his hockey career. Before his pro debut, he acknowledged the nervousness that every player feels but suggested his Olympic experience prepared him well.&ldquo;I realize there&rsquo;s going to be pressure,&rdquo; Driver said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll just have to cope with that. I think I can handle it. There was a lot of pressure this year on making the Canadian Olympic team.&rdquo;Even after helping to lead the University of Wisconsin to an NCAA championship in 1983, Driver was not considered a prime candidate to earn a spot on the roster of the Canadian Olympic team. But he proved the so-called experts wrong&hellip;and the Devils are hoping he&rsquo;ll do it again.&ldquo;At the beginning of the year,&rdquo; Driver said, &ldquo;I was pretty far down on their (Canadian Olympic officials) list. I got a chance to play and I proved to them I was capable.&rdquo;Max McNab, the Devils&rsquo; GM, became increasingly interested when he read a very positive scouting evaluation of Driver&rsquo;s pre-Olympic play, submitted by director of player personnel Marshall Johnston.Once the Olympics began, the reports* got even better. McVie, who has done a crafty job of keeping the Devils in the press throughout their disappointing season, grabbed another headline by suggesting Driver outperformed the New York Rangers&rsquo; first-round draft choice in 1981, James Patrick.&ldquo;I want to look at him, see what he can do, see if he can help us here or with our farm team in Maine,&rdquo; McVie said. Then, after watching Driver&rsquo;s first workouts, he sounded more confident.&ldquo;He (Driver) helped win an NCAA championship,&rdquo; McVie said, &ldquo;and he outplayed the other guy (Patrick) in the Olympics. He was really involved in practice and he worked well, so he&rsquo;s going to play.&rdquo;Driver may be in the right place at the right time because the Devils have lacked direction on the point of their power play for much of the season. Since Finland&rsquo;s Tapio Levo decided not to return for his second season in New Jersey, no acceptable replacement has been found.This weakness was evident on Feb. 28 when the Devils dominated but had to settle for a 3-3 tie with the Rangers before a sellout crowd of 19,023 because their power-play unit failed to score for more than 11 minutes in the third period alone.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011184/4684638-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="581" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Bruce Driver quietly joined the Devils from the Canadian Olympic team.</figcaption></div>McVie was pleased by the strong effort from his team but frustrated by the outcome. He believes that improved play from his special teams could move the Devils up a lot closer to the top four teams in the Patrick Division.&ldquo;We treated the capacity crowd to a great hockey game,&rdquo; McViesaid, &ldquo;and I thought we deserved more than the tie we got.&rdquo;As desperately as the Devils need help on the point, however, McVie knows the danger of throwing too much at Driver too soon. He remembers what happened to Greg Joly, when the two were with the Washington organization.&ldquo;People expected him to take off his shirt and there would be a big &lsquo;S&rsquo; on his chest and he&rsquo;d just fly around the ice,&rdquo; McVie said.In Winnipeg, defenseman Dave Babych was sainted prematurely by GM John Ferguson at the draft table.McVie remembers Ferguson announcing, &ldquo;&lsquo;We&rsquo;ve just drafted the franchise. If Gretzky&rsquo;s wearing No. 99. Babych is wearing No. 44.&rsquo; But, after 10 or 15 games, people were really on him. It began to build up.&rdquo;Driver had to cope with no such buildup in his debut and the focus of attention was spread around to include goalscorers Rick Meagher, who scored twice, Verbeek, defenseman Murray Brumwell and goalie Ron Low.Driver, a physical education major at the University of Wisconsin, knows that he will have to add some upper body strength to his 6-foot, 174-pound frame. The 21-year-old Toronto native says that he has tried to improve his efforts in his own zone so much that his reputation has changed.&ldquo;A lot of people, especially, this year have said I&rsquo;m basically a defensive defenseman,&rdquo; Driver said, &ldquo;but I consider myself more of an offensive defenseman although I only go up ice when I know I should.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;As the Devils left the ice at the Meadowlands following their tie with the Rangers, one New Jersey player quipped: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to get one point on the road.&rdquo; More than half the sellout crowd was cheering for the team across the Hudson&hellip;Insiders say Tom McVie has been asked to &ldquo;tone down&rdquo; his comments about the past failures of the franchise&hellip;The Devils are encouraged by reports from Oshawa, where John MacLean. the first-round pick in 1984, has registered 15 goals and 28 assists in only 22 games despite a hand injury. &#9632;

f0014-01

Devils In The Driver Seat With Olympic Rearguard

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>TORONTO&mdash;No one promised Russ Courtnail a rose garden&mdash;just an opportunity to play.In his first four games with the Maple Leafs, who called him up from the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League, Courtnall had four assists. He jockeyed between the wing and his familiar center position, showed some nifty moves and a willigness to dish out some checks. In all, he played well and showed why the Leafs drafted him seventh overall in last June&rsquo;s National Hockey League entry draft and why he&rsquo;ll probably be a household name around here for years to come.In the brief time he&rsquo;s been a Leaf, the 19-year-old Courtnall has seen a microcosm of the team&rsquo;s season. In his first game, Courtnall, a native of Duncan, B.C., joined the Leafs in Vancouver where they tied the Canucks 4-4.They returned home and put together a good effort in beating the New York Rangers 3-1.The next two games, however, explained why the Leafs are in their present predicament&mdash;last place in the limp Norris Division, seven points behind St. Louis and Detroit&mdash;and why it has become increasingly apparent Toronto will not make the playoffs.After beating the New York Islanders 3-1 on Feb. 13, the Leafs lost a decisive battle&mdash;literally and figuratively&mdash;in the rematch on March 3. The Islanders won 11-6, with a fight between the Isles&rsquo; Bob Nystrom and Toronto&rsquo;s Jim Korn the tale of the tape (notwithstanding the return of New York&rsquo;s Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy, plus Olympians Pat LaFontaine and Pat Flatley). After Nystorm and Korn returned to the ice following a minor penalty, they immediately squared off. In the early-going, Korn had the upper hand, but then Nystrom broke free and started flailing away with combinations&mdash;including uppercuts&mdash;that could easily have won him some extra loot in a Mr. Tough competition. Korn desperately held on, hoping the linesmen would intercede, but they stayed away and the manhandling seemed to intimidate the Leafs.The next day, Toronto travelled to Chicago for an afternoon affair with the Black Hawks. The pivotal game had the Leafs ahead 4-1 at the end of the first, with about two minutes remaining in a five-minute match penalty to Chicago&rsquo;s Denis Savard plus an additional two minutes to follow. The Hawks, however, stopped the Leafs&rsquo; power-play, which is now goalless in 40 attempts. And when it was over, the Hawks had scored four goals in the final 20 minutes and the Leafs went home on the losing end of a 5-4 score.That loss, coupled with a 7-6 loss to Minnesota back in November in which the Leafs also blew a three-goal lead, may prove to be the biggest defeats of the season.For Courtnall, the present experience will serve him well later on.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to get some experience and come next year at training camp, I&rsquo;ll know what to expect. I&rsquo;ll be ready,&rdquo; he said.The Leafs originally planned to leave Courtnall in Victoria this season, but two significant events necessitated a rethinking of his future. Courtnall participated for Canada in the world junior tournament in Sweden (one of five Leaf prospects to play for the Canadians) and finished as the team&rsquo;s top player. Two months later, he played for Canada in the Olympics and had an equally impressive showing.Those two tournaments &ldquo;accelerated&rdquo; his progress, according to Leaf general manager Gerry McNamara, and explained why he made his first appearance with the team a few months ahead of schedule.While the battle for the playoffs brings increasing pressure, Leaf coach Mike Nykoluk said Courtnall can handle it.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t think the Olympics is a pressure situation?&rdquo; Nykoluk said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be alright. Another week or so, I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;ll see a lot of more of Russ Courtnall.&rdquo;Added Courtnall: &ldquo;I think the only pressure is the pressure you put on yourself. If I avoid the race for a playoff spot and just go out and work hard, things will come easier. Right now, I&rsquo;m just trying to do my job and keep my mistakes to a minimum. I don&rsquo;t come to the game thinking I&rsquo;ve got to do this, I&rsquo;ve got to do that. I really just try to keep my concentration.&rdquo;LEAFLETS&mdash;Russ Courtnall on a newspaper report comparing him to Soviet star Boris Makarov: &ldquo;I just thinks it&rsquo;s pretty funny being compared to him. The guy&rsquo;s an unreal hockey player. If I could do the things he could do, I would be pretty happy.&rdquo; Gerry McNamara&rsquo;s viewpoint: &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s an unfair comparison. Russ Courtnall is Russ Courtnall. Period. Hockey people just don&rsquo;t do those sort of things. Maybe privately, but not publicly.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Leaf rookie Gary Leeman has known Courtnall since his highschool days in Saskatchewan. &ldquo;Russ was always the smallest guy on the ice, but the best skater.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Leaf captain Rick Vaive returned after a two-game absence with a bruised ankle and broke out of an eight-game goalless streak with two against the Islanders and one against Chicago&hellip;Jim Kom has four goals in four games since the Leafs moved him from defense to wing&hellip;Center Peter Ihnacak is through for the season after shoulder surgery.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-01987/4684669-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="581" height="867"><figcaption class="caption-body">Russ Courtnall has made a good impression since being called up from junior.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0016-01

Courtnail Can Handle Pressure

<div class="byline">BY DICK BEDDOES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02806/4684700-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="303" height="360"></div><h2>Montreal&rsquo;s Old Glory</h2>WE CAN DISCARD those battle calls of puck patriots in Montreal. Eliminate the term for Guy Lafleur when he was a commanding player, &ldquo;L&rsquo;homme-eclair.&rdquo;The top man in any language.Throw out the collective cry for the Flying Frenchmen, the Gallically gleeful &ldquo;Les Canadiens sont la!&rdquo;Eschew the phrase which put a Montreal demigod named Rocket Richard in gaudy perspective, &ldquo;Richard est synomyme de la vitesse.&rdquo; The quintessence, in sluggish English, of excitement.All of that flaming stuff can be stuffed in the ashcan of nostalgia, postscripts to a palmy past.Lafleur is no longer &ldquo;L&rsquo; homme-eclair,&rdquo; in any language. No modem Canadien is the quintessence of excitement. The only time now in Quebec when you hear gleeful Gallic exulting, it is &ldquo;Les Nordique sont la!&rdquo;The most sophisticated franchise in NHL history is no more urbane now than New Jersey or Winnipeg. The Canadiens also fire their coach.Bob Berry was dismissed, replaced by Jacques Lemaire, and how banal can a team&rsquo;s management get? Firing a coach generally is a gesture that replaces thinking.Was it Bob Berry&rsquo;s fault that the Canadiens&rsquo; brawn today plays in Washington, Los Angeles, Minnesota and Toronto?Can you blame Berry for the fact that the Canadiens&rsquo; brains repose inside Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s skull in Buffalo?<h2>Lemaire Was Underrated</h2>JACQUES LEMAIRE WAS a resolute, underrated center when he played, a hard-shooting mercenary in eight Stanley Cup conquests by the Canadiens.But the Montreal players he needs to make the Canadiens respectable again were dealt away by an earlier inept Montreal adminstration. Ah, there, Irving Grundman.If you are Lemaire, you have to wince at the realization that your best defensemen&mdash;Brian Engblom and Ron Langway&mdash;now toil for Los Angeles and Washington, respectively.You have to be chagrined that one of your industrious centers, Doug Jarvis, now plays for Washington. You have to be distressed that one of your combative pros, Dan Daoust, now muscles up for Toronto.You may even wonder how smart was Montreal&rsquo;s current general manager, Serge Savard, in shipping Mark Napier to Minnesota for Bob Smith.What will really perplex you, if you are a thinking Jacques Lemaire, is why the Montreal hierarchy allowed Bowman to escape to Buffalo?Bowman has been a winner wherever he has been in hockey&mdash;early in the Montreal organization, on to St. Louis, back to win five Stanley Cups in Montreal, then to Buffalo to make the Sabres the sharpest team ever honed on the Niagara frontier.Of course Bowman should have been chosen to run the Canadiens after Sam Pollock retired following the 197778 season.<h2>Molson Missed Out</h2>THE OWNERS OF the Montreal team, the Molson brewers, have never adequately explained why Bowman was not anointed as Pollock&rsquo;s successor.There is a grave shortage in the NHL of front-office operatives on the winning order of Bowman. There are not many in the league that you&rsquo;d hire if you were assembling an NHL team.Number them on the fingers of one hand, almost: Bowman in Buffalo; Harry Sinden in Boston; Bill Torrey and Al Arbour on Long Island; Keith Allen in Philadelphia; Maurice Filion in Quebec.Check the sprightly players in Buffalo uniforms&mdash;Phil Housley, Dave Andreychuk, Hannu Virta, Tom Barras-so, et al&mdash;and you must admit that Bowman knows how to recruit.One player Jacques Lemaire could desperately use in Montreal is Denis Savard, the smoothest NHL center this side of Wayne Gretzky.Savard is the player which Montreal&rsquo;s scouting staff, supervised by Ron Caron, ignored in a junior draft that featured the Canadiens picking Doug Wickenheiser.Savard was grabbed by Chicago, where he is a first string star. Caron? He was fired and landed on the first bounce in St. Louis. Wickenheiser? He, too, toils in obscurity in St. Louis.D&rsquo; you suppose Bowman would have chosen Wickenheiser over Savard, who played all his amateur hockey in Montreal&rsquo;s backyard? The best answer is Bowman would not have erred.And so it goes. Bob Berry got fired in Montreal because of managerial goofs made above his level. Jacques Lemaire is liable to likewise reap a loser&rsquo;s whirlwind. &#9632;

f0016-02

BEDCLOTHES

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01891/4684762-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="586" height="1117"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dan Quinn isn&rsquo;t bitter he missed a chance to become rookie of the year.</figcaption></div>CALGARY&mdash;Injuries opened the door, but how did eight players manage to slip through that narrow crack?Of the eight rookie players in the Flames&rsquo; lineup, only two made the team in training camp. The majority are here because of an odd combination of poise and play that belies their tender years.One rookie, Jamie Macoun, earned his spot on the roster in the final quarter of last season. Another, Hakan Loob, earned his place with a record-breaking season in Sweden.The other six? Left winger Richard Kromm came in to replace the injured Dave Hindmarch. Defenseman Allan MacInnis came in to replace the injured Paul Reinhart. Dan Quinn. Colin Patterson, Tony Stiles and Carey Wilson made it because the Flames had nobody better on their major-league roster.Technically, a ninth semi-regular, Tim Hunter, is also a rookie although he has been with the Flames on and off for two seasons.The emergence of the first-year players means Hindmarch will be hard pressed to win back his place on the checking line next September, principally because of the rapid strides made by the 19-year-old Kromm. MacInnis has been so effective, not only on the power play, but at even strength, that the Flames are considering using Reinhart at center when he returns.The rookies&rsquo; play also pushed Jamie Hislop and Steve Bozek to the sidelines. The acquisition of Wilson from Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team and the imminent returns of Lanny McDonald and Reinhart mean that Jim Jackson. Steve Tambellini and even Jim Peplinski are also skating on thin ice.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny,&rdquo; said Doug Risebrough. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t look at them as rookies because of the roles they filled. They filled them so well. When I saw the numbers we had, I said, &lsquo;No, c&rsquo;mon, do we have that many?&rsquo; I guess it&rsquo;s because they feel comfortable with their roles. They&rsquo;ve been asked to do something and they do it.&ldquo;MacInnis is a perfect example. He came up basically to shoot the puck on the power play. From that, he gained the confidence to be a threat all the time he&rsquo;s on the ice.&rdquo;None of the Flames&rsquo; rookies could be considered bonafide Calder candidates. Noone has had the impact or publicity of Tom Barrasso, Steve Yzerman or Sylvain Turgeon.Still, Loob (right wing) and Macoun (defense) have a lock on two spots on the all-rookie team. MacInnis has a legitimate shot at the other defense position.Quinn? Pro-rate his points over a full season and he&rsquo;s in Yzerman or Turgeon&rsquo;s category as far as scoring goes.Quinn, Calgary&rsquo;s first-round pick in the 1983 entry draft and the third youngest player in the league, said he is aware he missed his chance at the rookie award by playing so well so quickly.&ldquo;I keep track of the rookie scorers,&rdquo; he said &ldquo;Rookie of the year is something you can only win once. It&rsquo;s too bad, but how can I be bitter? I&rsquo;m just lucky the way things have been going. Maybe if 1 had started the year here I wouldn&rsquo;t have been given the same opportunity., In my first 31 games, I played with Lanny (McDonald) 30 of them.&ldquo;Nothing gives a guy more confidence than playing in a crucial situation,&rdquo; said coach Bob Johnson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to give them confidence.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it: Either a guy&rsquo;s a player or he isn&rsquo;t. You can&rsquo;t put all the young players on the ice at the same time. Lanny helps Quinn. Risebrough helps Patterson and Kromm. Steve (Konroyd) helps MacInnis. I like to put an overachiever with a rookie and hope the rookie catches on.&ldquo;I want Quinn to work like McDonald. I want Kromm to play like Risebrough. I want Loob to work like (Mike) Eaves.&rdquo;Currently, the Flames are playing their best hockey of the season, despite a quiet run of injuries. Sixty games into the season. they had lost 157 games to injuries. Only two regulars, Risebrough and Konroyd, had played every game.&ldquo;The way we played with injuries is encouraging,&rdquo; said Risebrough. &ldquo;Injuries can be an excuse a lot of times. It&rsquo;s a credit to the team that we haven&rsquo;t taken it as an excuse. Virtually, for a time there, it looked like we had three guys&mdash;Hindmarch, Reinhart and Hislop&mdash;out for the year.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

Flames Have The All-Rookie Team

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01847/4684793-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">When he played with the Vancouver Canucks, Kevin McCarthy saw his ice time dwindle until he was finally traded to Pittsburgh.</figcaption></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Kevin McCarthy wasn&rsquo;t playing very much in Vancouver, so when the Penguins obtained him from the Canucks, the 26-year-old defenseman tried to justify their faith in him by scoring three goals and 11 assists in his first 12 games.&ldquo;In the last few games before I got traded in Vancouver I wasn&rsquo;t playing that much.&rdquo; said McCarthy, whom the Penguins acquired in exchange for the third-round pick in the 1984 entry draft. &ldquo;When you don&rsquo;t play, you&rsquo;re not very happy. I&rsquo;m coming to a young team and I&rsquo;m getting a lot of ice time and getting a chance to play the way I know I&rsquo;m capable of. As long as I can do that, 1 know I can help the team. And that makes me feel good.&rdquo;McCarthy was languishing on the Canuck bench and scored only two goals and 14 assists in 47 games for Vancouver.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot tougher to play the game when you&rsquo;re only getting two or three shifts a period, which was my case at the end in Vancouver,&rdquo; McCarthy said. &ldquo;When you get a lot of ice time, you gain a lot of confidence and with confidence comes better play.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s played the power play on most of the club&rsquo;s he&rsquo;s played with,&rdquo; said Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got good speed. He handles the puck very well. There are times he gets a little over anxious, but he can be very physical.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking at a fellow who is only 26 years old. We&rsquo;re looking at a guy who can not only help out on the power play, but can play for us for years to come.&rdquo;Johnston previously tried to acquire McCarthy but couldn&rsquo;t complete the deal.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been after him for quite some time,&rdquo; acknowledged Johnston. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lot of other clubs (after him). In fact, there&rsquo;s been a couple of clubs in our division that had made pretty good offers.&ldquo;But. fortunately, Harry didn&rsquo;t want a player and another draft choice. He wanted a draft choice in that area. And we felt that with Philadelphia&rsquo;s pick, it would be like sort of a fourth pick, a late third or a fourth-rounder. And we just couldn&rsquo;t afford to pass him up on this deal. We feel very fortunate we were able to get him.&rdquo;McCarthy was Philadelphia&rsquo;s first-round draft pick in 1977 from Winnipeg of the Western Hockey League. He was obtained by Vancouver with Drew Callander in December, 1978 for Dennis Ververgaert.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been offensive-minded,&rdquo; McCarthy said. &ldquo;In my final junior year, I had 127 points (22 goals, 105 assists). So basically I&rsquo;m an offensive defenseman who&rsquo;s learned to play the defensive part while playing pro. I feel I can do both. As the game dictates, whether you&rsquo;re down a goal or up a couple, you have to change your game accordingly.&rdquo;The Winnipeg native served as Vancouver&rsquo;s captain until training camp in 1982. His best season was 1980-81 when he scored 16 goals and 37 assists.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always felt somewhat of a leader,&rdquo; McCarthy said. &ldquo;I like to help out with the young guys. I remember when I first broke in the league with Philadelphia I had a lot of veterans on that team who went out of their way to help me. I know how good that made me feel.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to try to return the favor here in Pittsburgh because we do have a lot of young hockey players. If I can do anything to help them, whether it&rsquo;s on or off the ice, I&rsquo;ll do my part.&rdquo;Kevin and his wife Rhoda are awaiting the birth of their second child.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re both very happy with the move,&rdquo; McCarthy said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve both been in Pennsylvania once before (Philadelphia) and we loved it there. Now we&rsquo;re looking forward to living here in Pittsburgh.&ldquo;The only drawback, I guess, is the fact that she&rsquo;s eight months pregnant. It doesn&rsquo;t look like I&rsquo;ll be able to make it home in time for the baby, but we&rsquo;ll have a whole summer for that.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to the end of the season. We&rsquo;ve got a young team here. We&rsquo;re a hard-working team. I&rsquo;m looking forward to next year.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;The Penguins were eliminated from any mathematical chance for the playoffs with 19 regular season games remaining. It is the second straight year and eighth time in the 1.7-year history of the franchise the club failed to qualify for the playoffs. &#9632;

f0019-01

McCarthy Makes Presence Felt In Pittsburgh

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div>With the 1983-84 season winding down, it&rsquo;s conceivable the National Hockey League will finally realize its ultimate box-office goal&mdash;a 12-million spectator season.There are strong indications the NHL will achieve the highest attendance figure in its 67-year history, but only with a little push from some of its have-not franchises.After the third-quarter mark, the NHL showed a whopping increase of 301,400, primarily due to the construction of the new Saddledome in Calgary and the rejuvenation of the Detroit Red Wings. Between the two cities, the NHL picked up 399,000 more fans than they had last year at this time.But don&rsquo;t expect Calgary and Detroit to do it alone. They&rsquo;ve got to have a helping hand and the finger is pointed squarely at such struggling NHL cities as Pittsburgh, Washington, Vancouver, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Winnipeg. All of these teams are significantly down in attendance figures compared to last season.Meanwhile, in the third of four unofficial quarterly attendance reports compiled by THE HOCKEY NEWS and covering the first 30 home games of each of the 21 teams, the NHL drew 8,895,537 spectators for the first 720 games of the season. This compares to a turnstile count of 8,594,137 at this time last year.The real revelation, though, is that the NHL would not be in such a favorable position today if the Flames hadn&rsquo;t moved from the antiquated Calgary Corral with its 7,242 seats to the plush surroundings of the Saddledome. where seating is 16,764. The Flames are running 285,660 ahead of last year&rsquo;s figures and the Red Wings, a playoff contender for the first time in a decade, show a boxoffice increase of 114,296 in games at Detroit&rsquo;s Joe Louis Arena.The NHL is making a valiant stab at the 12-million crowd mark because of new fan interest in a half dozen league cities in recent months. For example, there are more sellouts than this time last season. The Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres are proving that winners draw more people. Between them, the two topranked Adams Division teams have sold out 15 of their last 29 games, a healthy sign if the NHL is to attain its big goal.Crowds are up in Washington by 26,000 since the first 10 home games. The Kings are drawing better in L.A. with three recent sellouts and Winnipeg, St. Louis and Vancouver have attracted more fans in the past dozen games. The NHL&rsquo;s overall attendance has increased by 118,238 from the first to the third quarter of the schedule.The NHL&rsquo;s box-office giants continue to keep the league in a solid position. The Edmonton Oilers maintain their record as the best draw with 524,940 for the first 30 home starts and the New York Rangers second with a turnstile count of 521,802. Calgary ranks third with 502,920 and Chicago is fourth with 501,423.Boston, Buffalo, the Islanders, St. Louis and Hartford all reported an increase in home crowds but the picture wasn&rsquo;t quite as bright in other NHL cities. Washington, despite a recent attendance surge, is still 33,886 behind last season. New Jersey is down 44,040, Los Angeles 23,960 and the hapless Pittsburgh Penguins continue to be the worst draw with a negative figure of 44,582.The stage is set for the final 240-game push that could ultimately lead to a new league attendance high, but for that to happen, the NHL will need to find another 70,000 fans from its struggling franchises.It won&rsquo;t be easy. &#9632;

NHL Aims For 12-Million Spectator Mark

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02651/4684848-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0019-02

How NHL Attendance Looks

<div class="byline">BY BILL PORTER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01685/4684893-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">When the Washington Capitals took Bobby Carpenter, top right, in the first round of the 1981 NHL entry draft, it opened the door for other U.S, high school stars such as Brian Lawton, left, who was the No. 1 overall pick in 1983 and now plays for the Minnesota North Stars. (Photo by Bruce Bisping)</figcaption></div>Until Sports Illustrated stuck a 17-year-old from Mas-sachusetts named Bobby Carpenter on its cover three years ago, not many people outside of New England considered high school hockey there worthy of such focus, much less a gold-mine for the National Hockey League.And until Carpenter convinced them with 32 goals and 35 assists in his rookie season with the Washington Capitals, who selected him third overall in the 1981 draft, not everyone believed that his four years at St. John&rsquo;s Prep had adequately prepared Carpenter for the pros. And even then, wasn&rsquo;t he an exception, a fluke?Exception yes, to an extent. Fluke no, not at all. There is a growing wealth of hockey talent in the high schools of New England, most of it in Massachusetts, much of it in the Catholic and private schools. The region&rsquo;s colleges have panned it for years but are digging for it more fervidly now than ever before, with the pros right beside them.Last June, the National Hockey League took three high schoolers, center Brian Lawton of Mount St. Charles (Woonsocket, RI), goalie Tom Barrasso of Acton-Boxboro (MA) and center David A. Jensen of Lawrence Academy (Groton, MA), in the first round of the &lsquo;83 draft. Lawton went first, to Minnesota; Barrasso fifth, to Buffalo; and Jensen 20th, to Hartford. Never had so many high school players been claimed so early and never had one been selected first overall. And Jensen, who returned recently after playing in the Olympics, won&rsquo;t even graduate until this spring. What&rsquo;s going on?According to Mount St. Charles assistant coach David Belisle, the rush to hilly New England started with Carpenter.&ldquo;He was the biggest breakthrough,&rdquo; Belisle said. &ldquo;It was tough to get over the threshold of competition from the Canadian junior leagues. But the pros spotted him somehow and it gave the boys more ambition. A lot of them who would have gone to Canada stayed, because they figured they had a chance. Bobby opened the eyes of the scouts.&rdquo;The eyes of the colleges are open wider now than ever.&ldquo;There are more good quality Division One and Two players than we&rsquo;ve ever seen,&rdquo; said Boston College coach Len Ceglarski, whose Division One Eagles were all recruited from Massachusetts. &ldquo;We try to get local kids for the simple fact that we think they&rsquo;re good. You have a lot of good ones one year, but then just as many the next.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02470/4684886-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="2020" height="1313"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>The talent in Eastern, MA, alone is so densely packed that John Binkoski, coach at Division Three Framingham State, will confine his recruiting next year to a radius of 10 miles.&ldquo;Hockey is improving at the upper levels,&rdquo; Binkoski said. &ldquo;The good kids are better than they were 10 years ago, but overall, I&rsquo;d like to see the kids use the stick better. I think we&rsquo;ll be up there with the Canadians in four or five years, because our coaching is improving at all ages. Hockey schools in the summer are now much more specialized than they used to be.&rdquo;University of New Hampshire coach Charlie Holt also sees players improving through specialization.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re stronger, faster and more specialized than they used to be,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Each year, they&rsquo;re spending more time just on hockey. When they&rsquo;re not skating, they&rsquo;re working on weights and other hockey related things. In some ways you would think that would detract from the all-around athlete, but you don&rsquo;t become a champion downhill skier just by being an all-around athlete and the same goes for hockey.&rdquo;&ldquo;A lot of guys are playing year-round,&rdquo; said Mount St. Charles captain Mike Morrison. &ldquo;Naturally, the more ice time you get, the better you get. If you take a month off, it really hurts you. You find yourself playing catchup.&rdquo;A team of Massachusetts all-stars found it had no catching up to do when it eclipsed a squad of stars from Minnesota last April, stunning the visitors with eight goals in the first period of game one and finishing the three-game sweep with 28 goals to Minnesota&rsquo;s five. Massachusetts dominated with speed, excellent goaltending by Barrasso and fierce pride instilled by coach Marty Pierce, who will lead the charge again when the rivalry resumes April 6th, this time in St. Paul.Pierce, a Boston District fire chief, has become a legend in his 20 years of coaching at Matignon, a Catholic school in Cambridge. His Warriors have never had a losing season, have travelled to the Eastern, MA, tourney finals in 10 of the last 12 seasons, including this one, and are seeking their fifth consecutive title.The Warriors are as colorful as they are good. They take turns giving each other Mohawk haircuts the day they enter the tourney quarter-finals at Boston Garden and when they win the final, they pile onto a fire engine for a spin through Cambridge. Pierce has one word for winning and its rewards: Tradition. He uses it often.Barring a major upset, the Eastern, MA, final will boil down as it did last year to Matignon and St. John&rsquo;s, the two fiercest rivals in the mighty Catholic Conference, considered by some the best high school hockey league in the nation.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re looking at two teams in Matignon and St. John&rsquo;s that could probably play with most college teams in Division Two and Three, they&rsquo;re that strong,&rdquo; said Binkoski.The strength of the Catholics has grown at great expense to the public schools, which feel the crunch when the teams meet in the state tourney each year. While the publics still have top players such as Barrasso and teammate Allan Bourbeau, who broke the state career scoring record with 102 points as a senior last year, the Catholics have more of them.&ldquo;The Catholics come at you with four lines,&rdquo; Waltham coach Peter Yetten said. &ldquo;And their fourth can go out and skate against your first. They&rsquo;re good teams, they&rsquo;re well-coached and they have quality kids, but remember, they can draw from all over the place. It&rsquo;s a matter of depth.&rdquo;The balance of power has become so lopsided over the past decade in Massachusetts and Rhode Island both, that there hasn&rsquo;t been a public school champ in Rhode Island since &lsquo;75, or one in Massachusetts since &lsquo;78. Moreover, the Rhode Island Catholics have dominated all of the last seven finals, while in Massachusetts, Barras-so&rsquo;s Acton-Boxboro club has been the only public to reach them in the last five years.Arlington (MA) coach Ed Burns, who won his last of eight state titles in &lsquo;73, thinks economics and intensely competitive tryouts for Catholic teams might turn things back around.&ldquo;The parents are paying for their kids to go to those schools and they&rsquo;re also paying taxes and some of them might be getting financially drained,&rdquo; he said. &lsquo;&lsquo;Also, if the kid doesn&rsquo;t make the team, he won&rsquo;t be playing at all.&rdquo;The publics can climb back into contention, suggested Lowell coach Bill Robinson, but only by adding more games to their schedules. Robinson added the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, for no apparent reason other than it says so in the rules, currently restricts all schools under its domain (public and Catholic, but not private) to 20 games games during the regular season.Robinson regards the rule with contempt and would like to see a season as lengthy as the two his son Mike (now a freshman defenseman at RPI) had playing for a tier two junior team in Toronto.&ldquo;Twenty games is ridiculous,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;You get to the point where your team is just beginning to turn things around and bang, the season&rsquo;s over. There should be 65 to 70 games every year. If Leroy wants to learn the piano, do you tell him he can only play 13 weeks and then he has to stop? How far do you think he&rsquo;s going to go?&rdquo;Up north, in New Hampshire, parity is the rule. Though the state tourney was dominated between &lsquo;46 and &lsquo;69 by two Berlin schools, Berlin High and Notre Dame, five schools have come away with the championship over the past six years.Exeter won it all last season, but this year was knocked out in the first round, losing to Nashua by one goal.&ldquo;It runs in cycles,&rdquo; said Exeter coach James Tufts. &ldquo;Nobody will have more than three big seasons in a row.&rdquo;But as in other New England states. New Hampshire hockey is improving.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question about it,&rdquo; said Tufts. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been coaching here seven years and there are good players and there&rsquo;s a lot more depth and a lot more quality in the second-and third-line players than ever before.&rdquo;Though some high school coaches would like to share the wealth, particularly in Massachusetts, all are glad its there.So are the pros. &ldquo;I think (high school hockey) is very good,&rdquo; says Boston Bruin coach Gerry Cheevers. &ldquo;First of all, the enthusiasm is terrific and I think the time the people put in and the dedication is good. It&rsquo;s no fluke that those kids are becoming good hockey players.&rdquo;Three Bruins, defensemen Mike Milbury and Mike O&rsquo;Connell and forward Dave Silk are Massachusetts high school products.&ldquo;The guys in Massachusetts are as good as the guys playing anywhere,&rdquo; says Scott Ellison, a graduate of Noble & Greenough School (Deadham, MA), now a senior forward with powerful University of New Hampshire.Looking ahead to next month&rsquo;s grudge match with Minnesota, Pierce concludes: &ldquo;We want everyone to know we have ponds and rivers and rinks with roofs on them and that they play hockey out here.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01511/4684879-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="1208" height="1299"><figcaption class="caption-body">Netminder Tom Barrasso jumped directly from Acton-Boxboro High School to the Buffalo Sabres and never missed a beat. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

New England On The Move

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Maybe it&rsquo;s a curse or maybe good things just aren&rsquo;t supposed to happen to the Red Wings.Whatever, the Wings suffered not one, not two. but three doses of painful news just when it looked like their fortunes were finally changing for the better.The Wings put together an impressive five-game winning streak, including a 5-2-1 stretch on the road, to move into second place in the Norris Division before things suddenly went sour.It all began with a broken left wrist suffered by all-star forward John Ogrodnick, the Wings&rsquo; leading scorer (42 goals, 36 assists), that knocked the big left winger out for the season. The injury occurred during a 4-2 victory in Chicago when Ogrodnick was checked by Troy Murray.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a lot of injuries this season, now we&rsquo;ve got another one to overcome,&rdquo; coach Nick Polano said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll really find out what we&rsquo;re made of now. If we win without him it&rsquo;ll show a lot of guts on the part of this team.&rdquo;Clearly, a player of Ogrodnick&rsquo;s stature is not easy to replace.&ldquo;He had 42 goals, looking at 50,&rdquo; said Ivan Boldirev. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great hockey player. We&rsquo;re just going to have to play that much harder. But you don&rsquo;t really replace a guy like that.&rdquo;No sooner had Boldirev, the hottest Red Wing scorer, spoken those words when he and Dwight Foster, arguably the Wings&rsquo; two best players through February, joined Ogrodnick on the injured list. Each suffered a shoulder separation in a 6-2 loss in Quebec, which ended the winning streak.Boldirev, the NHL&rsquo;s player of the week, had 19 points in nine games, including a 10-point week and a six-point game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.Foster had a five-goal spree, to say nothing of his tremendous defensive work during the Wings&rsquo; resurgence.Danny Gare said the injuries &ldquo;are something we&rsquo;ve had to put up with all year.&rdquo; Indeed. Gare himself missed 17 games with a chest injury.The injuries devastated the Wings at a time, Polano said, when the club was really beginning to feel good about itself.&ldquo;There have been so many positives,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re proud of ourselves right now because we stuck together through the trying times when we had a nine-game losing streak and another streak of 11 games when we didn&rsquo;t win. A lot of people counted us out but we stuck together. The attitude is positive and there are a lot of reasons for it.&ldquo;The Foster line has been incredible. Not only have they shut down the opposition&rsquo;s big line but they&rsquo;ve scored some big goals themselves. The two kids in goal (Greg Stefan and Corrado Micalef) have been outstanding. Our penaltykilling units haven&rsquo;t given up a goal in 26 chances. There are so many things, I could go on and on.&ldquo;But the biggest reason, like I&rsquo;ve said all along, is that they&rsquo;ve learned how to check. The players believe in our system and they can see that they&rsquo;ll still get scoring chances.&rdquo;Despite losing key players such as Ogrodnick, the Wings have been giving a second effort and the confidence level is quite high.But the impact of the critical injuries remains to be seen and the whole episode seems like a cruel thing to be happening to a team which has worked so hard to achieve respectability.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to make the playoffs,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;ve got to be back for them.&rdquo;The prognosis wasn&rsquo;t so positive, however, as team physicans said the injury would take six to eight weeks to heal.&ldquo;It upsets me but I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s hit me with the full impact yet. I think that&rsquo;s going to happen in a week or so,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said.Gare said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a tough break&hellip;I was looking forward to seeing him get 50.&rdquo;On the Wings&rsquo; recent performances, the captain added: &ldquo;We really made up our minds to go out and concentrate and work hard for 60 minutes. We&rsquo;re doing that and giving it the second effort and a lot of little things are adding up to become a big thing. The preparation has been good and the confidence factor is high.&ldquo;And we&rsquo;re taking the body and bumping. We&rsquo;re playing a more physical game, matching hit for hit, something maybe we weren&rsquo;t doing earlier.&rdquo;WING NOTES&mdash;The Wings acquired left winger Pierre Aubry from Quebec in a straight cash deal to bolster the lineup during the rash of injuries. Aubry, 24, scored 66 goals with Erie of the ACHL in his first professional season, a team coached by Nick Polano. &#9632;

Wings Clipped When They Least Expect It

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01572/4684948-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>For a stretch in February, it looked as though the St. Louis Blues were going to concede the final Norris Division playoff spot. They were playing that bad.But as February faded and March roared in, so did the Blues with three consecutive victories. Leading the way was the team&rsquo;s leading scorer, Bernie Federko, who earned THE HOCKEY NEWS player-of-the-week honors for the period ending March 5.Federko had four goals and five assists in the three games, including one game winner. After 67 games, he had 35 goals and 53 assists, which helps to explain why the Blues look bound for the playoffs in the Norris Division. &#9632;

f0022-01

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>Who is going to be the first player taken in the 1984 National Hockey League entry draft, scheduled for June 9 at the Montreal Forum?It&rsquo;s a question that is asked often, particularly by hockey afficionados who take as much pleasure in monitoring the draft prospects as they do in watching their favorite NHL teams perform.The only problem is that until draft day, when the proceedings actually get underway, no one really knows for sure who&rsquo;s going where. Perhaps that is the beauty of it all.But that doesn&rsquo;t stop the speculation, so to help you in that cause, here is the NHL Central Scouting Bureau&rsquo;s confidential ratings list for the top 21 prospects.But first, a few cautions:&bull; This rating list was concluded in early February, so it wouldn&rsquo;t be at all surprising if some of the rankings have been altered slightly.&bull; The NHL teams only use Central Scouting&rsquo;s ratings as a guideline. Each team has its own staff of scouts and they, along with the general manager, come up with their own ratings list. Therefore, what happens on June 9 could be significantly different than what you see here. Central Scouting&rsquo;s ratings do not take into account which NHL teams pick where and what their specific needs are.&bull; As far as the players are concerned, being on the Central Scouting list doesn&rsquo;t guarantee anything. For example, a player was once ranked as high as a third-round prospect by Central Scouting. He was never drafted at all.Still, having issued these warnings, this list will provide you with a good general picture of who is considered as the top talent available in 1984.1. MARIO LEMIEUX&nbsp;(Laval Voisins, QMJHL; Center; 6-foot-4, 200pounds); A veritable scoring machine, but not your stereotyped French-Canadian scoring ace. The Montreal native has size and strength but doesn&rsquo;t possess blazing speed, though he&rsquo;s not slow either. After 64 games, he had 115 goals and 135 assists and a plethora of QMJHL scoring records. Built more along the lines of a Jean-Beliveau type than, say, Denis Savard, Guy Lafleur or Henri Richard, this blue-chip prospect could be the foundation for a franchise.2. AL IAFRATE&nbsp;(U.S. Olympic team-Belleville Bulls, OHL; Defense; 6-foot-4, 200 pounds): The Detroit native looked good in the pre-Olympic games, but didn&rsquo;t play much in the actual Winter Games. He&rsquo;s a good skater and can play either offensively or defensively. He passes the puck extremely well and doesn&rsquo;t mind the rough going. There&rsquo;s not much doubt he&rsquo;ll be the first defenseman taken and if the team that picks No. 1 wants a defender, lafrate will go before Lemieux.3. KIRK MULLER&nbsp;(Canadian Olympic team-Guelph Platers, OHL; Center; 5-foot-ll, 190pounds); The Kingston, Ont., native&rsquo;s stock shot up after the Olympics, where he was one of Team Canada&rsquo;s best players. He&rsquo;s an excellent all-round player who uses his strength and determination to create scoring opportunities for him and his wingers. He&rsquo;s a good scorer and a good playmaker. In 40 games with Guelph, he had 24 goals and 48 assists. Last season, he had 52 goals for the expansion Platers. He&rsquo;s so good that he&rsquo;ll push Lemieux and lafrate for the honor of being No. 1.4. ED OLCZYK&nbsp;(U.S. Olympic team; Left wing; 6-foot-1, 195 pounds); A big, hard-skating enthusiastic kid from suburban Chicago who was one of Team USA&rsquo;s most consistent performers all season. A member of the Diaper Line (with Pat LaFontaine and David Jensen), he&rsquo;s a capable scorer who also doesn&rsquo;t mind the physical aspect of the game. His intensity and enthusiasm are other positive traits. Had two goals and seven assists in six Olympic games.5. CRAIG REDMOND&nbsp;(Canadian Olympic team; Defense; 5-foot-10, 190 pounds); Like Muller and Olczyk, Redmond played well in the Olympics. The Langley, B.C., native played one year at the University of Denver, where he was known as a good skater with excellent puckhandling abilities. Better offensively than he is defensively, but still an excellent prospect. Had nine goals and 10 assists in 50 games with the Olympic team.6. J. J. DAIGNEAULT&nbsp;(Canadian Olympic team-Longueuil Chevaliers, QMJHL; Defense; 5-foot-11, 180 pounds); The Montreal native possesses outstanding offensive skills, which may explain why he didn&rsquo;t see all that much action in the Olympics with defensive-minded Team Canada. He is a strong skater, but weak defensively. Still, as a junior in Longueuil, he had the ability to pull people out of their seats with his offensive thrusts.7. SYLVAIN COTE&nbsp;(Quebec Remparts, QMJHL; Defense; 6 feet, 170 pounds); The Quebec City native is good offensively, perhaps not as good as Daigneault, but hits more and pays a little more attention to defense. After 57 games with the Remparts, he had 11 goals and 40 assists.8. SHAWN BURR&nbsp;(Kitchener Rangers, OHL; Center; 6-foot-l, 180 pounds); The Samia, Ont., native is playing on a veteranladen junior team but he had 38 goals and 38 assists in 60 games. He&rsquo;s got a good touch around the net.9. DOUG BODGER&nbsp;(Kamloops Oilers, WHL; Defense; 6-feet, 185 pounds); The Chemainus, B.C. native is the top prospect in the WHL. He is best known for his offensive abilities, although he&rsquo;s working at becoming a more physical defenseman. After 59 games, he had 19 goals and 60 assists with 71 penalty minutes.10. SELMAR ODELEIN&nbsp;(Regina Pats, WHL; Defense; 6-foot-2, 195 pounds); The big defenseman. who calls Quill Lake, Alta., home, is regarded as very steady. After 62 games, he had nine goals and 33 assists with 34 penalty minutes.11. BRIAN BENNING&nbsp;(Portland Winter Hawks, WHL; Defense; 6-feet, 180 pounds); The Edmonton native, brother of Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Jim Benning, has been sidelined for the past month with a broken wrist and isn&rsquo;t expected back until late March. After 38 games, he had six goals and 41 assists. He&rsquo;s much more physical than his brother ever was, but he&rsquo;s not as good with the puck.12. TREVOR STIENBURG&nbsp;(Guelph Platers, OHL; Right wing; 6-foot-l, 180pounds); A native of Moscow, Ont., Stienburg had 28 goals and 14 assists after 57 games.13. TRENT YAWNEY&nbsp;(Saskatoon Blades. WHL; Defense; 6-foot-2, 180 pounds); It&rsquo;s the second WHL season for the Hudson Bay, Sask., native. After 61 games, the lanky offensive defenseman had 11 goals and 34 assists.14. DAVE PASIN&nbsp;(Prince Albert Raiders, WHL; Right wing; 6-foot-l, 185 pounds): The Edmonton native is known as a good goal scorer&mdash;64 goals and 49 assists and 113 penalty minutes after 61 games&mdash;who has to work on his skating. He&rsquo;s strong, though, and plays a physic-SHAYNE CORSON&nbsp;(Brantford Alexanders, OHL; Centerright wing; 6 feet, 180 pounds): The Barrie, Ont., native is a hardnosed, strong-skating forward who plays both ends of the rink. He had 21 goals and 32 assists in 55 games with 144 penalty minutes.16. DAVID QUINN&nbsp;(Kent School, Connec-ticut; Defense; 6-foot-l, 195 pounds): The Cranston, R.I., native is rated as the best U.S. high school prospect. He&rsquo;s got size but is agile and can carry the puck. After 24 games, he had 10 goals and 20 assists with. 26. penalty minutes,17. RAY PODLOSKI&nbsp;(Portland Winter Hawks, WHL: Center; 6-foot-2, 190 pounds): A big, strong playmaking center from Edmonton, Podloski had 37 goals and 39 assists after 56 games.18. BRIAN WILKES&nbsp;(Kitchener Rangers, OHL; Center; 5-foot-ll, 180 pounds): The Toronto native had 20 goals and 51 assists after 56 games, evidence that suggests playmaking is his strongest suit.19. ROGER BELANGER&nbsp;(Kingston Cana-dians, OHL; Center; 6 feet, 188 pounds): The Welland, Ont., native is in his second OHL season with the Canadians. After 59 games, he has 37 goals and 42 assists with 79 penalty minutes.20. TERRY CARKNER&nbsp;(Peterborough Petes, OHL; Defense; 6-foot-3, 197 pounds): The Winchester, Ont., native had three goals and 19 assists with 66 penalty minutes after 55 games.21. DUNCAN MACPHERSON (Saskatoon Blades, WHL; Defense; 6-foot-l, 190 pounds): The Saskatoon native is a hard hitter with no goals and 14 assists after 45 games. &#9632;

Lemieux Tops Central Scouting’s Early List

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01555/4685010-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sabre defenseman Phil Housley, of South St. Paul, experienced the thrill of playing in the state high school championships. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>Like lemmings running into the sea or swallows winging toward Capistrano, the attention of hockey fans throughout Minnesota will aim at the St. Paul Civic Center for the annual state high school hockey tournament.To those from anywhere else except, possibly. Massachusetts, the thought of high school hockey doesn&rsquo;t exactly conjure up big things. But in Minnesota, it is the biggest annual sports attraction in the state. In the U.S., it is the biggest high school sports event.The hockey is exceptional, pressure-cooker games with electricity filling the air every second. But the pageantry of the tournament goes beyond hockey.Full school bands blast out school songs and bolster the cheerleaders, who clog the aisles during the games and take to the ice themselves to skate between periods.Naturally, the tournament crowd will also include talent scouts from the National Hockey League and all major U.S. colleges, as well as the smaller colleges.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fabulous,&rdquo; said North Star general manager Lou Nanne. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not surprising if you watch the regularseason high school games. Those kids bust their rears every game.&rdquo;Players such as Phil Housley, Reed Larson, Paul Holmgren, Rob McCla-nahan, Steve Christoff, plus, Neal Broten, Aaron Broten and Bryan (But-sy) Erickson, who played on a line together at tiny Roseau High School, were first noticed by the pros in past state tournaments.Eight teams who survived single elimination playoffs in different sectional tournaments congregate at the Civic Center in a three-day playoff to determine this year&rsquo;s champion.No best-of-seven, not even a best-of-three. One slip and you&rsquo;re done.Some of the same powers threaten every year. Defending champion Hill-Murray, Edina, Roseau, Hibbing, Bloomington, Jefferson were looked at all season as title threats.St. Paul Johnson, arising in prominence like the old, traditional East Side St. Paul teams, hoped to make it for the first time since 1971. New power Burnsville, hoped to go back for a second straight try and go one step farther than last year&rsquo;s final-game loss to Hill-Murray.More than 100,000 fans are assured for the tournament. It is sold out every year, before the teams are even selected, with some tickets held back for competing schools. They are immediately swallowed up.The rest of the state that can&rsquo;t get in will watch every game on television.To some, it is hockey at its purest form. Minnesota youngsters play 50-75 games as peewees or bantams, but when they get to high school, they are restricted to only 20 games. It was once thought that it hindered the development, but the structure is aimed at learning and teams profit by practising two or three times for every game.Instead of learning to pace themselves through a long season, high school hockey players go flat out every shift because the games are built up to such intensity.&ldquo;One pro scout who had never seen Minnesota high school hockey came in here during regionals last week,&rdquo; said Nanne. &ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t believe it and I told him what he saw was nothing, compared to the state tournament.&rdquo;Nanne is watching high school hockey more closely than ever this season. His son, Marty, plays for Edina.&ldquo;I definitely think hockey is improving in Minnesota all the time,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;There are more kids, but they&rsquo;re better, too, because they work at it all the time. It&rsquo;s almost a ritual because they&rsquo;re so committed, even in the summer.&rdquo;The top players this year are well-known by Nanne and nearly everyone else in pro hockey, now that the 18-year-old draft has become common-place.Todd Norman of Hill-Murray, Dewey Wablin of St. Paul Johnson, Paul Ranheim of Edina, Paul Broten (yes, another brother) of Roseau, Todd Skime of Burnsville, Mike Orn of Stillwater, Brian Nelson of Willmar, Todd Manthey of Anoka, Tom Peterson of Columbia Heights&hellip;the list goes on.Not all of them will make it to the NHL&mdash;not all of them will be college stars&mdash;but the beauty of the state high school hockey tournament is that the future doesn&rsquo;t matter. Playing in the state tournament is the chance of a lifetime and this week in Minnesota, it is all that matters.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02413/4685003-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="575" height="827"><figcaption class="caption-body">North Star Neal Broten was first noticed in the state high school tournament.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Minnesota Experiences More March Mania

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>Michigan, as far as states of the union go, has plenty of ice and snow. It gets cold there and it borders on Canada. It has had a National Hockey League franchise for decades. A plethora of first-class colleges and universities with prosperous hockey programs abound.So answer the question: Why doesn&rsquo;t the state of Michigan have a high school hockey program which is comparable to New England&rsquo;s or Minnesota&rsquo;s?&ldquo;There are a few reasons,&rdquo; says Adam Mitchell, a Livonia, Mich., high school teacher who has coached high school and college hockey in Michigan for more than a decade.&ldquo;For one thing, the high schools don&rsquo;t play enough games. It&rsquo;s a 20-game schedule. That&rsquo;s not enough games for a kid who really likes to play hockey.&rdquo;But high schools in New England and Minnesota play limited schedules, too, don&rsquo;t they?&ldquo;Yes, but they have access to a lot more practice time. A lot of Minnesota schools practice every day. That&rsquo;s not possible in Michigan.&ldquo;But maybe the real reason high school hockey has never taken off in Michigan is because it&rsquo;s overshadowed by football and basketball. Those two sports are really big here.&ldquo;Hockey doesn&rsquo;t even get the support from the high school athletic directors. They&rsquo;d like to cut the season down to 18 games. They don&rsquo;t like to see it interfere with the football or basketball seasons.&rdquo;From there, Mitchell says, it gets to be a vicious circle. Qualified hockey men, who might consider investing time as a coach, back off because they know the sport is not held in high esteem. With a lack of qualified coaches, the players realize it&rsquo;s not in their best interest to play at the high school level.As a result, Michigan, specifically the metropolitan Detroit area, has a thriving youth hockey system, built along the same lines as the Canadian minor system.The players start playing competitively very young, with two or three games for every one practice. The season starts in the fall and ends in the spring and between those times, there are tournaments to be played, travelling to be done. It&rsquo;s total immersion.&ldquo;So a kid grows up, playing 40 or 60 or 80 games a season,&rdquo; Mitchell says. &ldquo;Then you suddenly say, &lsquo;Play high school hockey,&rsquo; and the kid looks at the 20-game schedule and says, &lsquo;You have got to be kidding.&rsquo;&rdquo;The lack of a high-calibre high school system doesn&rsquo;t mean that hockey isn&rsquo;t booming in Michigan. Quite the opposite, in fact.Just ask Jim Rutherford, the former Detroit Red Wing netminder who is now the director of hockey operations for Compuware.Compuware, headed by Peter Karmanos, is a million-dollar computer software firm which is deeply involved in Michigan&rsquo;s youth hockey system. It does more than just sponsor kids&rsquo; hockey teams. It runs an efficient $150,000 per year youth hockey program that is structured like a business corporation.The results have been phenomenal. NHL players such as Pat LaFontaine and Alfie Turcotte have graduated through the Compuware system. More are on the way.&ldquo;A big thing for kids today is exposure,&rdquo; Rutherford says. &ldquo;They all want to get scouted, whether it&rsquo;s to play junior hockey in Canada or to get a scholarship at a U.S. college.&ldquo;The majority of kids in Michigan are looking for a scholarship. But the college recruiters don&rsquo;t spend much time at high school games. They come to the midget and junior games because that&rsquo;s where the better players are.&rdquo;Which is not to suggest Michigan high school hockey is devoid of talent.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been impressed with some high school players around here,&rdquo; Rutherford says. &ldquo;I would bet there are three or four on a lot of teams who could go on and play college hockey.&rdquo;Eddie Giacomin, another ex-NHL netminder with the New York Rangers and Red Wings, agrees. He should know since he is the coach of the Brother Rice high school hockey team in Detroit.&ldquo;If the colleges would just spend some more time at our games,&rdquo; Giacomin says, &ldquo;they&rsquo;d find some good talent. I&rsquo;ll agree that the best talent isn&rsquo;t playing high school hockey. The kids want to play the big schedule and travel. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s best for them but that&rsquo;s what they want to do.&ldquo;And we don&rsquo;t get much support either. We played a game the other night and we were lucky if there were 20 fans at it. Hey, it was a great game but no one was there to see it. That never happens with football or basketball, that&rsquo;s for sure.&rdquo;Another reason youth hockey dwarfs high school hockey is the corporate involvement. Aside from Compuware, the other big sponsor in Michigan is Little Caesars, the million-dollar pizza business owned by Detroit Red Wing owner Mike Hitch.Hitch has been a long-time supporter of youth hockey in Detroit. He sponsors four Triple A teams and the Little Caesars League (A and Double A levels at each age category) is in it third year of operation.&ldquo;Mr. Hitch is incredible,&rdquo; says Mitchell, who administers a schollarship fund which allows Detroit area players to attend the University of Michigan Dearborn and play hockey there.&ldquo;He puts so much into the game and never asks what he&rsquo;s going to get in, return. If you&rsquo;re willing to put in the effort, he&rsquo;s willing to put in the money. It&rsquo;s that simple.&ldquo;And he&rsquo;s trying to give high school hockey a boost, too. He&rsquo;s sponsoring a high school all-star game on March 16. He wants to give the seniors a place to showcase their talents.&ldquo;If this doesn&rsquo;t work, I&rsquo;m not sure high school hockey will ever go in Michigan. It&rsquo;s kind of sad in some ways, although it&rsquo;s not as if there isn&rsquo;t any hockey being played in the state There&rsquo;s just not much at the high school level.&rdquo; &#9632;

Michigan Doesn’t Get A Passing Grade

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01504/4685065-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">During a season with a lot of negatives, the St. Louis Blues have been buoyed by the positive play of rookie Doug Gilmour. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;When the National Hockey League season opened last fall, the Blues&rsquo; management set what seemed then like a rather modest goal. As Ron Caron, the team&rsquo;s hockey vice president, has so often put it, &ldquo;If the season ends and I can look over my shoulder and see one team. I&rsquo;ll be happy.&rdquo;At the end of January, the question wasn&rsquo;t whether the Blues would make the playoffs, but where they would finish in the Norris Division. Second? Third? Fourth?That&rsquo;s how comfortable their lead was over Detroit and Toronto, the teams at the bottom of the division.Now, a month later, the Blues are fighting for their lives. As February came to a close, the Blues had picked up only 10 of a possible 28 points during the month. They had slipped to fourth place, with only Toronto behind them.As disappointed as he was in his team&rsquo;s misfortunes. Blues&rsquo; onwer Harry Omest was not surprised. Even in October. when the Blues were off to a 5-1 start, he was whispering that the club could be in for a long season.Ornest is preaching patience instead of applying pressure. He describes himself as &ldquo;a patient, impatient owner,&rdquo; meaning that he is an active, eager executive but not one prone to hasty dismissals. He promised that nothing rash would be undertaken if the Blues finished at the bottom of the Norris Division heap.He added the the heat was not on Caron nor coach Jacques Demers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy with Ron, and both Ron and I are happy with Jacques,&rdquo; Ornest said. &ldquo;Jacques and Ron have three-year contracts. I could have had them for two, but I wanted them for three.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that Demers will be the coach next season and Ron Caron will be our hockey boss. And, God willing, I&rsquo;ll be the owner.&rdquo;Omest did, however, guarantee that the Blues&rsquo; front office would be busy during the off-season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to look to make player changes, no matter where we finish,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s for sure.&rdquo;Omest believe&rsquo;s the Blues lack depth and scoring punch.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve made goalkeepers look like Glenn Hall,&rdquo; he said.He speaks glowingly of captain Brian Sutter&rsquo;s leadership, rookie center Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s spunk and Rob Ramage&rsquo;s tireless effort on defense. Like any Blue fan. he expects a lot from goaltender Mike Liut.But just as often, he talks about the league dealing the Blues a bad hand this season. The NHL refused to compensate the team for having missed the entry draft last summer while it was in the process of being sold. And he thinks the Blues&rsquo; schedule this season has been horrendous.However, the league counters that Ornest knew exactly what he was getting when he purchased the Blues&mdash;no draft picks&mdash;and everything possible was done to change the schedule at a very late date.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve struggled with adversity and I think our club has played damn well,&rdquo; he said. &lsquo;&lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t an overnight rebuilding. I like our trades and I think we&rsquo;ve come a long way without draft choices. Not having draft choices has destroyed our maneuverability on making deals.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s slow but sure, but we&rsquo;ve made progress. We&rsquo;ve made a commitment to St. Louis to be competitive and we&rsquo;ve done it.&ldquo;We have our work cut out, but everything with me is upbeat.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;Mike Liut missed two games after suffering a strained ligament in his left knee in the Blues&rsquo; 5-1 loss to the Islanders in New York on Feb. 23 Liut had started six straight games before the injury. Rick Heinz filled in for Liut. playing well in back-to-back games in Quebec&mdash;a 3-3 tie and a 5-0 loss that stretched the Blues&rsquo; winless streak to seven games. Heinz hadn&rsquo;t started a game since Jan. 5, the day the Blues bought goaltender Bunny Larocque from the Flyers&hellip;The Blues have been trying to make a deal for winger Wayne Babych. &#9632;

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Blues’ Owner Practises What He Preaches

<div class="byline">BY DICK JOHNSTON</div>BUFFALO&mdash;The Sabres&rsquo; Gil and Phil show is still functioning and it&rsquo;s a good thing. Except for Gil Perreault and Phil Housley, nobody was doing much scoring during a four-game losing steak, the longest for the Sabres this season.After Housley, the 19-year-old defenseman who sometimes plays center, scored an overtime goal to give the Sabres a 5-4 win in Philadelphia&mdash;a place the Sabres couldn&rsquo;t buy a victory for many years&mdash;they lost 3-2 to Hartford, 5-1 to Minnesota, 3-1 to Boston and 4-3 to Chicago.Seven goals in four games for the team that had once had a 10-point lead in the tough Adams Division and was second only to Edmonton in the National Hockey League overall standing.Housley scored three of those seven goals and had an assist. Perreault assisted on four of the seven, including the two Housley scored in the loss in Chicago.The Dave Andreychuk-Perreault-Mike Foligno line, so successful since Sabre general manager-coach Scotty Bowman put it together Feb. 9, couldn&rsquo;t seem to find the net.So, Bowman changed his lines around to try and get some scoring balance, keep the opposition from concentrating on stopping one and &ldquo;get something going.&rdquo;Bowman had Lindy Ruff playing with Andreychuk and Foligno and moved Perreault back to center.Then he had Ruff playing left wing, Perreault center and Foligno right wing. Andreychuk centered for Paul Cyr and Real Cloutier. Then he had Andreychuk with Gilles Hamel and Foligno and Perreault between Cyr and McKenna.In fact, Bowman juggled all his forward lines except the checking line of Brent Peterson between Craig Ramsay and Ric Seiling.That line broke a long scoring drought when Peterson set up Ramsay with a goalmouth pass for one of the three goals in the loss in Chicago. The Peterson line went eight games without picking up a point and the one point in 13 games was an assist by Peterson.It wasn&rsquo;t that the Peterson line&mdash;or any other line for that matter&mdash;wasn&rsquo;t getting scoring chances. The Sabres were getting plenty of shots. They just couldn&rsquo;t put them into the net.To be truthful, they ran into a couple of hot goaltenders in that four-game losing span.Don Beaupre, who was tough against Buffalo all season, blocked 40 shots in the Stars&rsquo; win in Minnesota.That was the third time this season that Beaupre gave the Sabres fits. They threw a total of 117 shots at the Minnesota netminder in the three games&mdash;an average of 39&mdash;and he beat them two of the three. The other one, Buffalo won in overtime.Then, in Chicago, the Sabres ran into a movie scenario-type situation.Bob Janecyk, the Chicago-born goalie who grew up in Chicago and played college hockey there, started for the Hawks.He was making his first start in Chicago Stadium, after gaining a tie on the road in his only NHL game. The Sabres blasted 51 shots at the rookie and he blocked 48 of them, which was enough for the home team to win. In the third period, the Sabres put 18 shots on the net and Janecyk stopped them all.Bowman refused to say anything about lack of scoring. In speaking of the four-game losing streak, he said, &ldquo;Too many scoring chances against us. That&rsquo;s the problem.&rdquo;The Sabres were giving up an early goal and playing catch-up. In each of the games on the losing streak, except against Boston, they were behind before the game was five minutes old. Cyr scored the first goal in the Boston game but that&rsquo;s the only goal Buffalo could muster.After scoring twice against Hartford, Andreychuk was shut out without a point in the Minnesota, Boston and Chicago games. He had scored 15 goals and assisted on 16 in 17 games.Each of the Buffalo goaltenders, Tom Barrasso and Bob Sauve, lost twice in the four-game streak. Sauve had lost only once in 13 starts before the losing streak. Barrasso, who still led the league in goals-against average through the streak, had lost only four times in 19 games before that.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01483/4685096-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="578" height="781"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gil Perreault has been moved back to center to fill the Sabres&rsquo; scoring void. (Photo by Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0027-01

Sabres Lost Without Gil And Phil

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;When the Whalers traded Blaine Stoughton to the New York Rangers, it wasn&rsquo;t as if he was going to a place where he didn&rsquo;t know a lot of people. Mike Rogers, Nick Fotiu, Rob McClanahan and Pierre Larouche are all ex-Whalers.&ldquo;Can you imagine me, Mike, Pierre and Nickie all playing for the Rangers?&rdquo; Stoughton said. &ldquo;What if we ever won it all? How would that be for a story?&rdquo;His former Whaler teammates, meanwhile, had some kind parting words&mdash;for the most part.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for him,&rdquo; Joel Quenneville said. &ldquo;He could go over really big in New York. It&rsquo;s a golden chance.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think Blaine could tum out to be the difference if the Rangers wind up playing the Islanders,&rdquo; Ray Neufeld said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying that the Rangers are going to win the Stanley Cup, but if Blaine gets hot, it could make a difference.&rdquo;&ldquo;If I had to bet on Pierre or Blaine, I&rsquo;d bet on Blaine,&rdquo; Mark Johnson said. &ldquo;And you&rsquo;ve seen what Pierre has done.&rdquo;&ldquo;Some athletes need a change,&rdquo; Greg Millen said. &ldquo;In Blaine&rsquo;s case, it was time for a change. Hey, I like the guy, but I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s all that important what he does in New York. The question is, what would he have done here?&rdquo;When the Whalers first joined the National Hockey League, Stoughton was a third-line right winger playing alongside Andre Lacroix and Bill Bennett.The trio played together for the first 15 games or so. Bennett turned out to be a dud. Lacroix retired to become the Whalers&rsquo; director of community relations before Christmas and all Stoughton did was score 56 goals.&ldquo;I sure fooled &lsquo;em that year, didn&rsquo;t I?&rdquo; Stoughton said.And he kept right on fooling &lsquo;em, putting 43 goals on the board the next season despite a contract dispute that cost him nine games, then 52 next season, and finally 45 the next, having missed eight games because of a suspension. In all, Stoughton scored 228 goals for the Whalers, the most in the team&rsquo;s history, including 23 this year in 54 games.The Whalers&rsquo; best players ever were dealt one after another, but Stoughton just kept on scoring. Coaches came and went, but Stoughton still got his goals. General managers also exited, but Stoughton kept on scoring.This year, he stopped and was traded.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m leaving Hartford with my head held high,&rdquo; said Stoughton, who was dealt to the Rangers for 24-year-old defenseman Scot Kleinendorst, who has appeared in 53 NHL games. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got nothing to be ashamed of. I had my best years here.&rdquo;Stoughton, who turns 31 this month and earns in the neighborhood of $250,000 yearly, had been reduced to a part-time player for the Whaler. He had sat out seven of the team&rsquo;s last 12 games before being dealt.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t say anything when I was going good and I&rsquo;m not going to say anything when I&rsquo;m going bad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have to learn to take the bad with the good. That&rsquo;s what this game is all about.&rdquo;Stoughton remains an integral part of Whaler history. He stands first in goals, fourth in points (389), sixth in games played (393) and eighth in assists (163).&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to demean the guy,&rdquo; said Emile Francis, the Whalers&rsquo; GM-president. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good person. But teams weren&rsquo;t exactly knocking down the door to get him. His age and salary work against him. There was mild interest in him in September, but I told people then that he wasn&rsquo;t available. We&rsquo;re trying to put something together here and I wanted to see where Blaine fit in. When he was scoring, he was fine. But then he stopped.&rdquo;Stoughton scored 18 goals in the first 27 games and then five in the next 27. Reduced playing time explains some of it, but not all.&ldquo;Blaine&rsquo;s not a kid,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been with a team that hasn&rsquo;t made the playoffs in four years. Once we fell behind Montreal, he stopped scoring. It was almost as if he was saying, &lsquo;Oh. oh, here we go again.&rsquo;&ldquo;On the other hand, we&rsquo;re not exactly loaded with young defensemen. Kleinendorst is a big, strong kid who can play both sides on defense. You build for the future with kids.&rdquo;Kleinendorst, a graduate of Providence College, is 6-foot-3, 205 pounds. He was the Rangers&rsquo; fifth-round pick in the 1980 draft and appeared in 23 games this season, with no goals, two assists and 35 penalty minutes. In 10 games with Tulsa of the Central Hockey League,Kleinendorst scored four goals and five assists.Kleinendorst has been sidelined with a groin pull and Francis said he&rsquo;d be out for about 10 days. &#9632;

Hartford Mates Bid Blaine Adieu

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01478/4685151-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="574" height="748"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Doug Halward has been almost an almost invisible man for the Canucks. (Photo by Robert Shaver)</figcaption></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;There is some hope for the Canucks yet. They staved off the final indignity recently when they foiled the return of Roger Neilson to the Pacific Coliseum, where the new coach of the Los Angeles Kings came looking to plop the Canucks into the cellar.The game was a strong performance from the Canucks, who were faced with the prospect of their fired coach coming back and putting them in an embarrassing position. But a man almost forgotten this year, Doug Halward, came up with his strongest game of the year to lead the Canucks to the saving victory.Halward has had an indifferent year. In fact, while the veteran defenseman may think he&rsquo;s had a good year defensively, he&rsquo;s been hardly noticed because points were his medium of expression last season. He set the club record&mdash;modest though many of them are&mdash;for most goals (19) by a defenseman last season and landed himself a contract calling for two years and an option. He seemed to go promptly to sleep which, combined with his injuries, has been almost invisible on the club this year.His most serious injury, a fractured bone in his foot, kept him out a full 20 games. Each time he seemed to find his game again, something else would happen. It&rsquo;s been a season everyone seems to want to kiss off for him, though he&rsquo;s trying to save the last quarter for himself and the squad, which could desperately use his good play.&ldquo;When Doug Halward plays like he really wants to compete, he&rsquo;s one of the best defensemen in the league,&rdquo; said Vancouver general manager-coach Harry Neale. &ldquo;We sure could use more performances out of him and Harry (Snepsts) like that as the season goes on. I used them every other shift in the last 10 minutes.&rdquo;Halward believes his performance has been a little stronger than some observers think, though the points he got last season haven&rsquo;t been forthcoming.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve been just as strong defensively, but every time I shoot it seems to hit somebody or something. And every time I pass, the guy ends up not scoring,&rdquo; Halward said. &ldquo;Last year everything I touched seemed to be going in the net. But I&rsquo;m starting to feel a little better. We&rsquo;ve got to put some wins together.&rdquo;Halward had a goal and two assists against his former King teammates, now coached by former Canuck coach, Roger Neilson.Neilson, for his part, had some errands to run in Vancouver, not the least of which was going to the bank to find out if the Canucks were still paying his salary.They weren&rsquo;t.&ldquo;We are taking the position that all the money on the remainder of this year and next year&rsquo;s contract should be coming to me,&rdquo; said Neilson, whose Toronto agent, Rob Campbell, helped draw up the contract. The Canucks, understandably miffed at having to pay a coach who is trying to beat them out of a playoff spot, have put the matter into the hands of their lawyers, with the two parties likely to reach a settlement.Meanwhile. Frank Caprice, banished earlier to Fredericton when he became the easiest of the three goaltenders to ship out, is back and in fashion. He has played extremely well in his two starts and Neale has indicated all three goaltenders will finish the season with the team.The worst news for the Canucks came in a recent game in Calgary, where newly-acquired center Peter McNab tore the ligaments in his thumb and needed surgery. He is expected to be out at least a month, while Darcy Rota is back on the shelf with recurring neck problems. &#9632;

f0028-01

Halward Gives Canucks Breathing Room…

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03252/4685213-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Washington Capitals are overloaded with goaltenders, with Pat Riggin (above) owning the No. 1 job after a brief stint in the minors. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>LANDOVER-AU season long, the one tactical decision over which Washington coach Bryan Murray has lost no sleep at all has been the identity of his starting goal tender.For the first half of the season, Al Jensen started virtually every game&mdash;17 straight at one point&mdash;because he was hot and backup Pat Riggin was ineffective in his few opportunities in the net.Then, for 17 games in a row, it was Riggin who got the nod, because an inflammation around a nerve in the back kept Jensen out of the lineup. Fortunately for Murray and the Capitals, Riggin demonstrated that the first half was not a true indication of his ability.When the Olympic Games ended, Bob Mason came back from Yugoslavia, signed a contract with the Capitals and was given an opportunity to play. With some sensational stops in a 9-1 victory over Pittsburgh, Mason demonstrated that he, too, is capable of manning an NHL net.With Jensen&rsquo;s back healing, the goaltending glut suddenly left Murray with a few decisions. He indicated he was in no hurry to sort out the situation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to worry about it right now; I&rsquo;m just going to enjoy it,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Of course, we want to work Al back in there, but first we want to be sure he is 100 per cent.&ldquo;Bob Mason made some excellent stops, he was very conscious of what he had to do and he showed a lot of confidence. We all know that one game does not make a goaltender, but what we saw did nothing to change our idea that he will be a good one.&ldquo;Right now Pat Riggin is our No. 1 man. I&rsquo;ll worry about the rest of it when the time comes. It&rsquo;s nice to have that problem for a change.&rdquo;Nobody was getting excited about a victory over Pittsburgh, but the Penguins&rsquo; scrambly play induced a measure of same in the Capitals, which meant that a high pecentage of Mason&rsquo;s 22 saves were difficult ones.Mason stood his ice capably to foil a breakaway by Ron Flockhart. He got his glove up to stop a point-blank drive by Flockhart. And, to complete Flockhart&rsquo;s frustration, Mason made a quick leftright move during a two-on-none Pittsburgh break, helping turn a sure goal into a carom off the post.It was Pittsburgh&rsquo;s last shot that ruined Mason&rsquo;s shutout, as sloppy defensive play by the Capitals permitted Norm Schmidt to finalize a short-side breakaway.&ldquo;It was too bad we had to turn it over in our end and lose the shutout for the kid,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;But maybe it was the right thing to happen. Otherwise, he&rsquo;d think this league is too easy.&rdquo;Mason was wearing new skates, after goaltender coach Warren Strelow noticed that he was rocking back, off balance, in practice.&ldquo;My balance was a little off and I guess it was a problem with the skate blades,&rdquo; Mason said. &ldquo;Warren noticed that I had my glove in too tight to nay body, too, so it was closed instead of open. The glove is so important for a goaltender.&ldquo;I was calmer than I expected and 1 got a shot right away, which helped. A shutout would have been nice, but my main goal was to get the win. I&rsquo;ve always thought about the NHL, but in reality, it&rsquo;s been since I played junior in Green Bay.&ldquo;The scouts started looking at me there. Then I went on to college (at Minnesota-Duluth) and things have been getting better and better for me.&rdquo;Mason earned both U.S. victories in the Olympics, beating Austria and Poland. But the Olympics are past, as far as he is concerned, and he was not at all upset that he missed a White House reception for the U.S. Olympians the day before his NHL debut.&ldquo;It would have been nice, but really the big thing on my mind was making my first NHL start,&rdquo; Mason said.Strelow was impressed both with Mason&rsquo;s ability and his acceptance of criticism.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very talented and his future is good,&rdquo; Strelow said. &ldquo;My son played in the same junior league with him, so I&rsquo;ve seen him for three or four seasons, Wherever he&rsquo;s been, he&rsquo;s steadily improved.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to challenge a little bit more and keep his catching glove up and open. He&rsquo;s coming along. He should be a good one.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0028-03

Capitals Suddenly Have Goaltending Glut

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARSPORTLAND&mdash;With the help of a tighter checking game, strong goaltending by Sam St. Laurent and a slide by the Moncton Alpines, the Maine Mariners have climbed back into the playoff picture in the Northern Division.In early February, the Mariners appeared hopelessly out of the running for a berth in the playoffs for the first time in their history. Injuries and recalls had combined to decimate the lineup and a difficult February schedule made the prospects of a late-season recovery bleak. But the Mariners found a hot goaltender in St. Laurent, the hero of their drive to the Calder Cup finals last year, and made the most of the opportunity presented by Moncton&rsquo;s extended slump.Maine reeled off six wins in seven games to move past the Alpines into fourth place in the division and take possession of the final playoff position. However, that success was interrupted&mdash;at least temporarily&mdash;on Feb. 29 when Moncton earned a 4-2 win at Portland that further tightened an already spirited race. That victory under associate coach Larry Kish, who had replaced head coach Doug Messier behind the Moncton bench, left the Alpines just a point behind Maine with a game in hand.While that loss was a costly one for the Mariners, the fact they are still contenders at all is remarkable. It took inspired play by St. Laurent and a change in the team&rsquo;s defensive approach to turn things around. St. Laurent started all seven games during the surge and fashioned a 2.71 goals-against average to earn the six wins.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing very well for us lately, just like he did in the playoffs last year,&rdquo; Maine coach John Paddock said. &ldquo;During the course of the season, I think he probably has played just as well as (Shawn) MacKenzie and (Steve) Baker (Maine&rsquo;s other two goalies), but he&rsquo;s hot right now.&ldquo;The biggest thing is that as a team we&rsquo;re not giving the other team so many chances to score. We played a game against St. Catharines and we gave (Norm) Aubin a breakaway and (Bruce) Boudreau two clear breakaways and some other good chances. You just can&rsquo;t do that. The goalie can&rsquo;t stop them all of the time. In that game, they scored on all of them against Sammy.&ldquo;You expect a goalie to maybe make a save on a breakaway a game or make four or five big saves. We were giving the other team 15 great chances to score goals whereas now we&rsquo;ve cut that in half and the goalie is making the four or five big saves and they&rsquo;re only getting two or three goals on us. We&rsquo;re just checking better, that&rsquo;s the biggest reason.&rdquo;After playing much of the season shorthanded, the Mariners have benefitted from the return of injured players such as defenseman Mike Hordy. Defenseman Frank Bathe was loaned to the club for a short stint by the Philadelphia Flyers, defenseman Rob Palmer was sent down by the parent New Jersey Devils and the Mariners expect to get veteran center Mike Antonovich from the Devils. Also, defensemen M.F. Schurman and Jeff Bandura are due to return from the injured list early in March.All of those factors combine to make the picture a bit brighter for Paddock and the Mariners, but he isn&rsquo;t taking anything for granted in the final month of this unpredictable season.&ldquo;We should have been able to make up some ground in January, we had a ton of home games and we didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he pointed out. &ldquo;We looked at Febraury when it was 10 away and six or seven at home and all of a sudden we&rsquo;re 6-3-1 on the road in February and have won the last couple at home. It&rsquo;s funny how it &ldquo;worked out that way. We&rsquo;ve taken advantage of what we thought was our toughest month and it has become our best. It&rsquo;s good that they&rsquo;ve risen to the occasion like that.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got 10 of our last 17 at home and we&rsquo;ve got to take advantage of that. If we win our home games I think we would be in. We&rsquo;re not going to win them all, but we want to win most of them.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long road yet for us.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Adirondack fashioned a 2-2-1 record during a road trip to the Maritimes and Sherbrooke to regain sole possession of second place in the division, four points ahead of Nova Scotia. That success continued the Wings&rsquo; fine play on the road, where they have a 6-2-2 record in the last 10 starts. That balances a complete reversal in fortunes at the Glens Falls Civic Center, where the Wings are just 3-6-1 since early in January. After completing the road trip, the Wings returned home and dropped a 4-3 decision to Rochester.The Amerks also managed to end Adirondack center Andre St. Laurent&rsquo;s point-scoring streak at 20 games. Injuries have forced defenseman Ted Huesing and right winger Brad Smith out of the Adironack lineup, but left winger Ken Solheim returned after missing 19 games with a hand injury and scored a goal against the Amerks&hellip;Fredericton was outshot 39-19 at Moncton, but managed a 3-2 win in overtime on Jim Dobson&rsquo;s goal 40 seconds into the extra session. Dobson was recalled by Quebec after the game to replace injured Anton Stastny. U.S. Olympic team player Mark Kum-pel joined the Express after signing with Quebec and scored a goal in his second game&hellip;Nova Scotia snapped a six-game winless streak (0-5-1) with a win at home over Fredericton to move to within two points of Adirondack. The Vees lost left winger Mike McPhee on recall to Montreal and defenseman Ted Fauss to a shoulder separation. Injuries also forced Stan Hennigar and Mike Lalor to miss some games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01413/4685244-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="581" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">The surging Mariners have beifitted from players such as Frank Bathe.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

St. Laurent Makes The Difference As Mariners Back In Contention

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>SALEM&mdash;Playing 22 games in 29 days may seem like a gruelling schedule, but as long as you win, everything comes easy.That&rsquo;s how Virginia Lancer playercoach Paul O&rsquo;Neil felt with his club, which was forced to perform plenty of make-up games during the month of February.The Lancers were formerly the Nashville South Stars, who were shifted during the course of the season to their new home after the Nashville franchise was terminated by league commissioner Ray Miron. The Lancers are making up for postponed games during the shift.&ldquo;Making up all these games was just something that had to be done,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Neil. &ldquo;Playing as well as we have been helps a lot and the players are in great shape, which makes things easier.&rdquo;Virginia named O&rsquo;Neil as playercoach when the franchise was shifted and coach Nelson LeClair was let go in the process.Many players were leery of leaving Nashville to go to Salem, but things have worked out and O&rsquo;Neil noted that many have asked about returning to play in Salem next season.&ldquo;Our strength is our offensive power,&rdquo; saidO&rsquo;Neil. &ldquo;Some of our defensemen have been trying to rush the puck a little too much. We&rsquo;re getting them to stay back and play defense and it&rsquo;s made a difference in the last few games.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01463/4685299-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="580" height="807"><figcaption class="caption-body">Forward Stan Gulutzan has been one of the Lancers top offensive players.</figcaption></div>The 30-year-old O&rsquo;Neil has been counting heavily on the scoring talents of Lee Blossom and Stan Gulutzan and when it comes to racking up points, even the coach is chipping in. Both O&rsquo;Neil, who is enjoying his finest pro season, and Blossom have totalled 80 points while Gulutzan is just behind with 78. Ron Carter has 73.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Erie traded its leading scorer, Rob Clavette, to Pine Bridge for defensive help. The Blades thought they had acquired defensman Darren Yankovsky for Clavette. but it was ruled that Yankovsky was actually the property of Carolina. The Blades were to receive future considerations for Clavette. Winger Alf Beasley announced his retirement from hockey. Sylvain Cote returned from a 20-game suspension and collected four goals in two games, including a hat trick in a 10-4 pounding of Virginia. Paul Mancini also had a hat trick in that game, his third of the year&hellip;Carolina&rsquo;s Kim Elliott shot past Rob Clavette and became the first player to eclipse the 100-point plateau. Elliott had five points in an 8-2 win over Virginia and added four more in a 9-4 decision of the Lancers. He was named player of the week as he ripped enemy goalies for seven goals and 10 assists in five games&hellip;Ben Laporte returned to the team impressively with eight goals in three games and had chalked up 42 goals in 32 games. Laporte had a hat trick in a 6-5 edging of Pine Bridge, with goalie Paul Skidmore making 53 saves&hellip;Peter Dunkley collected a hat trick in a 6-2 decision of the Bucks&hellip;Mohawk Valley&rsquo;s Ed Smith, one of the Stars top scorers from a year ago. returned to the club and collected two goals and two assists in his first two games. The Stars were forced to postpone two southern road games when they encountered bus problems. Mohawk Valley was just 1-52 in their last eight games and dropped to fourth place. Brian Gustafson took over the league lead in penalty minutes from teammate Jim Beaton with 228&hellip;Pine Bridge continued to improve under coach Frank Perkins and eyed the fourth and final playoff spot. &#9632;

f0030-01

Winning Eases Lancer Workload

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>ROCHESTER&mdash;Phil Myre&rsquo;s 1982-83 Les Cunningham Plaque, awarded to the American Hockey League&rsquo;s most valuable player, is resting comfortably in the home of Binghamton Whaler center Ross Yates.Myre would love history to repeat itself, but it won&rsquo;t. Buffalo rookie Tom Barrasso has seen to it that another AHL hotshot won&rsquo;t cop Myre&rsquo;s trophy by default this season.So it looks as though Myre might have to settle for the 1983-84 hardware.About this time last year, the AHL had already engraved Myre&rsquo;s name on the MVP plaque when the Buffalo Sabres recalled him for the playoffs and shipped Jacques Cloutier to Rochester. Myre, the 35-year-old goalie-assistant coach of the defending Calder Cup champion Amerks, had gone 28-8-5 in sparking Rochester to a comfortable Southern Division lead.But AHL rules stipulate that players must be active at the end of a season to remain eligible for post-season awards. When Myre was recalled prior to the AHL&rsquo;s Clear Day deadline and left off the Amerks&rsquo; playoff roster, he forfeited his MVP plaque.Yates, who set an all-time scoring record with 125 points, was a worthy recipient, but it was Myre&rsquo;s award all the way.The veteran of 439 NHL games started this season in the press box. Rookie Bob McNamara, the son of Toronto Maple Leaf general manager Gerry McNamara, was signed off the campus of the University of Notre Dame to team with Cloutier.It didn&rsquo;t work out. While a patient Myre remained in the background, McNamara was relegated to the bench by coach Joe Crozier.Myre has emerged as the Amerks&rsquo; No. 1 netminder. While Cloutier has struggled with a 19-20-1 record and 3.87 goals-against average, Myre is 16-6-1 with a 3.34 GAA. He earned his second shutout in five days and third of the season when he stopped 24 stops en route to a key 6-0 win over visiting Springfield, a victory which lifted the Amerks into sole possession of second place in the Southern Division.The Amerks fell briefly into third last month after losing five of six games. A spate of injuries&mdash;Geordie Robertson (knee), Chris Langevin (knee), Tom St. James (knee) and Randy Cunneyworth (thumb)&mdash;and Buffalo&rsquo;s recall of Mal Davis and Claude Verret hurt.It took a lengthy healing process and a recent six-game winning streak, including the win over Springfield before 6,415 in the Rochester War Memorial, to lift the Amerks six points ahead of the Tribe.Myre earned five of the six wins.Now about that plaque. Baltimore and Fredericton, the division leaders, are veteran clubs with balanced talent and no single star. St. Catharines&rsquo; de-fenseman Garry Lariviere deserves close inspection because the Saints were a one-way team before he arrived. Adirondack and Nova Scotia? Nobody stands out.Come April, one year later than expected, they might be engraving the plague with Myre&rsquo;s name.AROUND THE SOUTH&mdash;Claude Verret, the rookie-of-the-year favorite before his recall to the parent Sabres, was reassigned to Rochester. With Clear Day approaching, the Sabres might want to keep him eligible for both the AHL and NHL playoffs&mdash;not to mention the Red Garrett Trophy&mdash;before recalling him under emergency conditions. Verret leads rookies in scoring with 73 points and is 10th in the league.The Amerks&rsquo; revolving door continues to peddle players in and out of the hospital. Chris Langevin returned from his knee injury, but reinjured the knee three games later and is out two weeks. Defenseman Steve Dykstra broke his thumb and is out four to six weeks. Left winger Rich Goodfellow broke his hand and is out four to six weeks.The Amerks signed 22-year-old free agent Bob Bodak, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound left winger. Bodak scored a goal in his first pro game, a 4-3 win at Adirondack.Baltimore won three of four games last week at home, including a wild 7-2 bench-clearer with rival Hershey. Referee Ian Sandercock dished out 212 penalty minutes. Goalie Vince Tremblay was suspended three games for being the first player to leave the bench.Binghamton&rsquo;s Ross Yates, who had a clause in his contract that said the parent Hartford team had to let him know by March 1 if they intended to pick up the option year of his contract, elected not to pick up the extra year. Yates, who would have received a reported $10,000 bonus if the Whalers elected to re-sign him, becomes a free agent without compensation at the end of the season. &ldquo;We told him we want to talk to him after the season,&rdquo; said Hartford GM Emile Francis. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t negotiate during the season.&rdquo; According to Francis, the contract was negotiated before he took over the Whalers last summer, although it was signed by Yates after Francis came aboard.Los Angeles signed Canadian Olympic goaltender Darren Eliot and assigned him to New Haven. He was scheduled to make his first start as this issue went to press&hellip;Boston recalled rookie defenseman Brian Curran from Hershey&hellip;Right winger Dave Brown and defenseman Daryl Stanley are still on recall from Springfield to Philadelphia. &#9632;

Phil Won’t Be Mired In Similar Situation

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARSDENVER&mdash;The Colorado Flames, who were putting lots of room between themselves and the rest of the league as the 1983-84 season entered the final stages in mid-February, find themselves looking over their shoulders because of the revised format for the Central League standings.On Feb. 27, the Flames were a comfortable 14 points in front of the league&rsquo;s orphaned Oilers, 27 ahead of Indianapolis and 28 in front of Salt Lake City&rsquo;s Golden Eagles.That, one might think, is plenty of cushion with 16 games remaining in the regular season.But the final standings to determine the regular-season champion and the Adams Cup playoff positions will be determined on a percentage basis. As the month of February drew to a close, the Oilers had an overall percentage of. 600 with 31 victories, 20 losses and four ties. With their 39-19-2 mark, the Flames were winning at a. 667 clip.And just incidentally&mdash;because neither squad has a prayer of challenging either the Flames or the Oilers for first place&mdash;the Checkers trailed Salt Lake percentage-wise., 473 to. 449, despite carrying a one-point edge in the standings.Colorado and Montana (count the latter out of the playoffs but not out of a spoiler&rsquo;s role) are the only teams scheduled to play the originally programmed 76 games. Salt Lake and Indianapolis will complete 72 and the Oilers will end up with but 68.Of course, if both the Flames and Oilers continue their present paces, the Flames still will claim the league&rsquo;s top spot on March 31, the last day of the current campaign.Colorado, however, was slated to play nine of its last 16 contests on the road where they have a respectable 17-9-1 record. The Oilers, who will be the visiting team for the rest of the season, are playing at about the same clip (they were 19-12-1 in the road standings Feb. 27 and picked up another victory that night at Salt Lake).Thus, the Flames can&rsquo;t afford to falter. Oiler coach Tom Webster remarked earlier in the season that it was &ldquo;nice to be on the road and away from all the problems in Tulsa.&rdquo;He didn&rsquo;t realize at the time, perhaps, that getting in the winning habit away from home might put him in good position and the proper frame of mind when the bottom fell out of the local operation in Tulsa.And although the Oilers are based in Denver for the remainder of the season, they&rsquo;ll still be visitors in their three remaining games against the Flames. They&rsquo;ll also be in a good position to turn the schedule in their favor by beating Colorado and may find the final CHL game of the season will determine who finishes first.Colorado and the Oilers will tangle in that schedule-ending contest in McNichols Arena.Should the Oilers hang tough enough to claim first place, the Flames may have to look only within their own organization to place the responsibility. At last month&rsquo;s CHL emergency meeting in Denver to discuss the Tulsa situation, it was their own executive vice president&mdash;Ron Pietrafeso&mdash;who advanced the suggestion which the board of governors accepts and which kept the Oilers alive.It was Pietrafeso who offered the plan to station the Oilers in Denver and make them a road team for the remainder of the season. The parent New York Rangers, already paying the players&rsquo; salaries, would be responsible for equipment costs and for maintaining the team in Denver. On the road for seven games rescheduled for home at Tulsa, the gate proceeds of the host team, after expenses, will go to the league to defray the travel and per diem costs while the Oilers are away from Denver.The CHL will end the season with five teams, as it began the season. That has to be somewhat satisfying to league president Bud Poile. It does not, however, present a bright picture for 1984-85.Poile still believes Tulsa would be a good place for a franchise under the proper management. The Rangers, however, are not likely to think about returning. And although Poile isn&rsquo;t saying, there also is speculation around the league&mdash;and otside of it&mdash;that Billings will be history after this season as far as the CHL is concerned.There has been some discussion with people in Cincinnati about staging playoff games involving the Oilers in the old Cincinnati Gardens, an overture which could lead to a franchise there next season. Poile also is hopeful there may be positive developments in Louisville and perhaps Omaha or Phoenix.The problem then would be to interest some NHL teams into taking the plunge into such locations next season. The Rangers appear to be looking to the East and practically speaking the New York Islanders might consider putting the Checkers in the AHL, either out of Indianapolis or somewhere closer to home.First things first, though. Poile will be happy to end this season with five teams before tackling the subject of 1984-85.CHL CHAT&mdash;Danny Bolduc was named player of the week for a four-goal performance, including a hat trick, in a three-game span, then followed that showing with a hat trick in a 6-5 Colorado triumph over Montana to get the next week started&hellip;Dirk Graham scored three goals in the third period and Salt Lake came up with a total of seven in that 20 minutes to overcome Indianapolis 7-6. The seven goals in one period were one short of a Salt Lake team record but were a record for the Checkers for goals against in a single period., Bruce Eakin of the Flames is No. 1 in scoring with 28 goals, 52 assists, but teammate Bobby Francis has been replaced in the second position by Salt Lake&rsquo;s Scott MacLeod. MacLeod has 29 goals and 76 points; Francis has 73 points, including 27 goals.John Markell&rsquo;s 37 goals leads the CHL; Scott Howson trails the Montana forward with 31 goals and his Indianapolis teammate, Red Laurence, has 30. Also cracking the 30-goal mark are Pierre Rioux of Colorado and Tim Harrer of Salt Lake.Blair MacDonald and Reg Thomas, who returned from Europe and joined Montana on a trial basis in February, both have given up the idea, at least temporarily. MacDonald&rsquo;s wife gave birth recently to the couple&rsquo;s second child and he may return to the Magic before the season is over. Thomas returned to Indianapolis, where his wife is expecting their first child. &#9632;

Flames Could Be A Victim Of Percentages

<div class="byline">BY BUD GALLMEIER</div>FORT WAYNE&mdash;Komet fans are turning back the pages of time a few years. Nine to be exact. Why? Because that&rsquo;s the last time the Komets won the Turner Cup and the current team is looking a lot like the 1973 model.With just 21 games left, Fort Wayne has broken away from the pack with another extended winning streak. The Komets are now on a run of eight, one short of their previous high of the season. The spurt has given the Komets a five-point lead over second-place Milwaukee.That&rsquo;s not a large margin but it&rsquo;s the largest of the season for the Komets, who&rsquo;ve spent most of the time chasing the Admirals.Balanced scoring and the league&rsquo;s best defense has been the key ingredient in the Komet surge, which has seen Fort Wayne lose just five times in the last 27 games. Fifteen of those games were on the road, where the Komets skated at a sizzling 12-3-0 pace.The Komet success is a combination of putting together some winning streaks and avoiding long dry spells. They have not lost more than two in a row all season and that has happened just four times.The latest Komet winning streak reached eight with a six-point weekend. Fort Wayne nipped Flint in overtime 3-2 and followed with consecutive home victories over Peoria (9-1) and Muskegon (7-5). Ron Lees got the winning goal in overtime in Flint and Doug Rigler was the offensive star of the weekend, scoring four goals and picking up five assists for nine points.While the Komet offense has produced 275 goals, second only to Milwaukee&rsquo;s league-leading 307, the defense has yielded but 206, lowest in the league. Rookie goalie Darren Jensen has been a major portion of that defense.Defense and strong goaltending were the key characteristics of the 1973 team also. That&rsquo;s why Komet fans are thinking Turner Cup again as the season hits the home stretch.MILWAUKEE&mdash;The Admirals are thankful Peoria is still in the league. After dropping seven straight games on the road, Milwaukee finally put an end to the nosedive with a 6-3 triumph in Peoria.During the losing streak, Milwaukee dropped to second place behind the red-hot Fort Wayne Komets. Milwaukee now trails Fort Wayne by five points and has played one more game.The losing streak hit seven with a pair of 5-2 losses in Toledo and Kalamazoo. At each stop, Milwaukee ran into a hot goalie. In Toledo, it was Lome Molleken; in Kalamazoo, it was Georges Gagnon.Milwaukee has two more games on the road before returning home to face Kalamazoo on March 6. Eleven of Milwaukee&rsquo;s 18 games are at home.TOLEDO&mdash;Goalie Lome Molleken is back from Indianapolis and the Goaldiggers are on another roll. Molleken, who had a 3-3-0 record for six games in Indianapolis, sparkled in the net as Toldeo turned back second-place Milwaukee 5-2 and last-place Muskegon 4-3.FLINT&mdash;The Generals ended a four-game losing streak by sweeping a home-and-home series with Kalamzaoo that pushed the Generals back into fourth place.The Generals exploded for four goals early in the second period and went on to post a 7-2 victory over Kalamazoo in Wing Stadium. The Generals completed the sweep with an 8-7 squeaker over the K-Wings the next night at Flint.Before the two-game series with Kalamazoo. Flint dropped a 3-2 overtime thriller to Fort Wayne.KALAMAZOO&mdash;The Wings made J.P., LeBlanc the winningest coach in Kalamazoo history with a 5-2 victory over Milwaukee. It was LeBlanc&rsquo;s 100th victory as a Wing coach.Two games later, LeBlanc was still sitting on 100 wins. Flint whipped the Wings two straight, dropping Kalamazoo back into fifth place. The first loss was a killer, a 7-2 thrashing at home.The Wings were better in Flint but still finished on the short end of an 8-7 score.PEORIA&mdash;If the Prancers haven&rsquo;t had enough trouble with creditors knocking on their door, now the injury jinx threatens to put them out of business. Peoria skated with just 11 players in losing a pair of road games to Muskegon and Fort Wayne by identical 9-1 scores. The Prancers regrouped a little when they returned home but still lost 6-3 to Mil-waukeeMUSKEGON&mdash;The Mohawks enjoyed one of their best games of the season as they whipped shorthanded Peoria 9-1. The goal-scoring spree matched the Mohawks&rsquo; previous high when they beat Toledo 9-2 on Jan. 5.Paul Fulcher led the Mohawk attack against Peoria with a hat trick Muskegon followed with two more strong games but not strong enough for victory. They dropped a 4-3 decision in Toledo and lost 7-5 at Fort Wayne. &#9632;

Komets Shooting For Cup After Breaking From Pack

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>DULUTH&mdash;There was nothing magical about Wisconsin this time in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.The defending national champions, who were an awesome 17-1-1 in post-season play over the past two seasons, were brought to earth with a resounding thud in the WCHA semi-finals, eliminating the Badgers from further competition.The hottest team in college hockey&mdash;Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs&mdash;not only knocked the Badgers out of the running but embarrassed them in the process, winning 6-3 and 9-0 and taking the two-game, total-goals series 15-3.Wisconsin started the weekend well as Marty Wiitala scored 1:49 into the game to give the Badgers hope. But two Duluth goals 25 seconds apart after Wiitala scored set the stage for the weekend. Bill Watson and Bob Lakso replied to Wiitala&rsquo;s opening shot and the Bulldogs were never headed after that.Lakso, Watson and Matt Christensen each supplied two goals to the Duluth cause with Tim Sager and Tony Granato picking up the other goals for Wisconsin. Terry Kleisinger made 39 saves for Wisconsin to just 21 for Duluth rookie Rick Kosti.Duluth dominated Wisconsin in the rematch, zipping to a 4-0 lead after one period on its way to the 9-0 victory. Christensen, who had the hat trick to pace Duluth, finished a tremendous weekend with five goals and five assists in the two games. Watson and Lakso also had two goals apiece, giving both of them four goals each for the weekend series.What was even more humiliating for Wisconsin was that it marked the seventh and eighth straight times Duluth had beaten it this season. Never in Wisconsin&rsquo;s splendid tradition had the Badgers ever lost more than five times to a team in a year.Wisconsin was bidding to become the first team in NCAA history to make it to the NCAA title game for the fourth consecutive year after winning national championships in 1981 and 1983 and finishing second to North Dakota in 1982.The sweep by Duluth gave the Bulldogs 15 wins in their last 16 games. The hot streak down the stretch not only lifted Duluth to its first WCHA championship ever but practically guarantees the Bulldogs of being in the quarter-finals of the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.Duluth now advances to the finals of the WCHA playoffs, where its opponent will be North Dakota, a series that ironically will be played in Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus, since Duluth&rsquo;s arena was booked that weekend for a boat show. It&rsquo;ll mean hockey heaven in Minneapolis, since the series between the Bulldogs and Sioux, to be played Saturday and Sunday afternoons, bumps head-on with the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament.North Dakota got to the finals by disposing of defending league champion Minnesota 9-7 in the total-goals series, winning twice by single goals, 4-3 and 5-4, in Grand Forks.The sweep by the Sioux reversed the results of two weeks earlier, when the Gophers beat the Sioux twice in Grand Forks to eliminate UND from any possibility of winning the WCHA championship.The series figured to be as close as the final scores showed, despite Minnesota winning five of the six games between the two teams during the regular season. But with the exception of one of those games, all went to the wire before being decided.The Sioux and the Gophers battled each other to the end in this series also two evenly-balanced teams who matched up in talent well.Dean Bareness scored for the Sioux to break some of the tension in the first game, but Minnesota stormed right back with goals by Kurt Larson and Mike Guentzel for a 2-1 lead after one period.But the Sioux rattled off the next three goals, by Dan Brennan, Rick Zombo and Steve Palmiscno, to take a 4-2 edge in the third period before Pat Micheletti set up linemate Tom Rothstein late in the third period to pull the Gophers back within striking distance. Jon Casey kicked out 30 shots for North Dakota, Frank Pietrangelo stopped 23 for the Gophers.A crowd of 6,100, which ties the school record, filled every seat the next night. Sioux officials even sold tickets in the auxiliary press box to fans who wanted to watch two old rivals go at it one more time.They went at it with great gusto before a roaring crowd, the loser knowing its season was over, the winner pretty certain it would at least make it to the NCAA quarter-finals.Steve MacSwain deadlocked the totalgoals series at four when he scored four minutes into the game for Minnesota, but Dan Brennan and Brian Williams replied for the Sioux to restore the two-goal cushion.From then on, it was back and forth and North Dakota was never out of danger until time ran out on the Gophers.Roger Bowe, Gary Shopek and Todd Okerlund scored power-play goals for Minnesota while Perry Berezan, Chris Jensen and Brennan again matched that for the Sioux. Casey finished with 35 stops for the Sioux to 29 for Minnesota&rsquo;s Mike Vacanti.The Gophers played the final game without their second leading scorer, Pat Micheletti, who reinjured a shoulder in the first game and couldn&rsquo;t play in the deciding game. Ironically, it was the first Micheletti had missed all year for the Gophers, who finished with a 27-11-2 record.The North Dakota-Duluth series promises to be a great time, too, especially being on neutral ice. During the year, North Dakota posted a 2-1-1 record against the Bulldogs, the only team in the WCHA to have a winning record against Duluth.The winner of the Sioux-Bulldog series will automatically be granted home ice for the NCAA quarter-finals with the loser heading to the East Coast to face an opponent yet to be determined. &#9632;

Badger Reign Ends In Embarrassing Way

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;The ECAC Division One playoffs were a matchmaker&rsquo;s dream.All the favorites won, but none of them id it without a bitter struggle. It&rsquo;s truly Too bad that this year will be the last for the 17-team league, with the divorce Hockey East and Ivy-plus leagues becoming a reality next season.RPI, Boston College, Boston University and Clarkson all advanced to the Boston Garden semi-final round, scheduled for March 9. Clarkson was the only visiting team to win its quarter-final series, but the Knights were favored over Harvard anyway.The semis will pit 30-4 RPI against 19-10-2 Clarkson and ancient rivals BC (25-9) and BU (26-9-1), with the final and consolation scheduled for March 10. Unless the NCAA tournament selection committee takes leave of its senses, these four teams will be the Eastern representaitives in the quarter-final round March 16-17.Clarkson and RPI split their two meetings this year while BC defeated BU two of three times. Both rivalries are long standing, but never have those teams met their 1984 semi-final foes in Boston Garden playoffs.Both the Eagles and Terriers had to go to the ECAC&rsquo;s unique 10-minute minigame to win their respective quarter-final matches. BC edged Providence 1-0 as a goal by Bill McDonough just 53 seconds into the extra session stood up for the remaining 9:07. BU and New Hampshire battled through a scoreless 10 minutes and went to sudden death. Sophomore Brad McGregor poke-checked the puck away from a defender and beat Bruce Gillies with a 25-footer at 1:35.New Hampshire embarrassed BU on March 2, running up six straight goals after both teams scored twice in the first period. Dan Muse had a pair for the Wildcats and Gillies stopped 43 shots. BU coach Jack Parker pulled senior goalie Cleon Daskalakis after the seventh UNH score.BU tightened up in the next game and UNH didn&rsquo;t budge much either. It was 2-2 when Terrier freshman John Cullen netted the winning goal on a power play at 11:40 and Denis LaGarde added two insurance tallies.At BC, the first minute of play made it look like the Friars&rsquo; hex over the Eagles would continue. PC scored on its first two shots, one of which was tipped past Scott Gordon by a BC defenseman. But the Eagles kept attacking and forced the Friars into more of a run-and-gun game than they wanted. They tied the score on goals by Robin Monleon and Scott Marlow, then lost the lead late in the first period when Steve Taylor scored on a power play.That was it for the Friars, however. BC pulled out all the offensive stops and Gordon stopped four breakaways over the next two periods. Bob Sweeney scored twice and Doug Brown and David Livingston added single goals in the 6-3 triumph.The return match was entirely different. It was slower and more deliberate when the teams weren&rsquo;t occupied with high-sticking and slashing each other. Mario Proulx once again had to make more saves than Gordon, 39 to 29, and senior Gates Orlando scored the clincher at 10:22 of the third frame. In the minigame, McDonough wheeled past the PC defense, cut to the front of the cage and slid the puck past a lunging Proulx as he fell to the ice. Gordon made nine saves to Proulx&rsquo; four, and BC was in the Garden for the first time since 1978.RPI&rsquo;s defensemen carried the scoring load in the first game, tallying four times with sophomore Mike Dark getting a pair and junior Tim Triday bagging the winner at 1:49 of the third frame. Colgate was a rugged opponent with a fine goaltending show from Jeff Cooper, who made 36 saves to Darren Puppa&rsquo;s 24.Following Tim Friday&rsquo;s goal, Paul Silvio netted his second of the game to narrow the margin to a goal again, but Mike Sadeghpour and Neil Hemberg padded the spread in the final minutes.In the rematch, Cooper made 55 saves and the Raiders took a 2-0 lead that lasted until late in the second period when a pair of scores by Adam Oates and one by Sadeghpour put RPI in front for good.Clarkson and Harvard decided to play most of their first game in center ice and along the boards. It was a defensive tilt and the underdog Crimson nearly pulled off the upset. Clarkson goalie Jamie Falle only made 12 saves the first night to Grant Blair&rsquo;s 24. It was 1-1 heading into the third period after Harvard&rsquo;s Tim McMahon and Clarkson&rsquo;s Dave Fretz swapped first-period scores.Knight Derek Ray stopped a clearing pass at the blueline early in the third session, advanced, and fired the winning goal through a screen set by Gord Sharpe. Pat Haramis&rsquo; empty-net score with 30 seconds to play sealed it.The second evening saw a 2-2 tie and no overtime was played. There was more offense in this one, with Blair called on for 37 saves and Falle for 24. Sharpe and Ray were the heroes again, combining on the tying goal at 8:37 of the third frame. After taking a feed from Ray. Sharpe threw a blind backhander at the cage as he skated around the net. It went in and spared Clarkson the possibility of going to a mini-game. &#9632;

Favorites Come Through In ECAC Playoffs

One of the most formidable teams in all of U.S. college hockey this season is the University of Minnesota-Duluth. One of the reasons for their success is the strong play from Matt Christensen, who scored 10 points in the Bulldogs&rsquo; two-game sweep over defending NCAA champion University of Wisconsin.Christensen had a hat trick in the 9-0 game to earn college-player-of-the-week honors for the period ending March 5.The six-foot, 180-pound sophomore center was the third leading scorer in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and one reason why the Bulldogs have to be considered leading contenders to win the NCAA finals in Lake Placid, N.Y., March 22-24.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01400/4685450-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="550" height="704"><figcaption class="caption-body">MATT CHRISTENSEN Minnesota-Duluth</figcaption></div>At the end of the season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Bauer College Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0033-01

Bauef Player of the week

<h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01454/4685600-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="525" height="205"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02368/4685593-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="525" height="178"></div><h3>IVY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03274/4685586-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="522" height="206"></div><h3>INDEPENDENTS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04187/4685579-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="522" height="92"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Vermont 6, Maine 5Bost Univ 4, Boston College 1Colgate 6, Cornell 0Harvard 4,Brown 1Northeastern 8, N. Hampshire 5Clarkson 4, St. Lawrence 3Army 5, Lowell 3(End of regular schedule)PLAYOFF GAMESQuarter-finalsRPI 8, Colgate 5RP15, Colgate 3(RPI wins best-of-three series 2-0)Boston College 6, Providence 3Providence 5, Boston College 3Boston College 1, Providence 0(Boston College winsbest-of-three series 2-1)N. Hampshire 8, Boston Univ. 3Boston Univ. 5, N. Hampshire 2Boston Univ. 1, N. Hampshire 0(Boston Univ, winsbest-of-three series 2-1)Clarkson 3, Harvard 1Clarkson 2, Harvard 2(Clarkson wins best-of-threeseries 1-0one game tied)Semi-finalsFri. March 9Bost Univ, vs Boston CollegeClarkson vs RPI(Sudden-death games)Sat. March 10Consolation & championship games.Both sudden death.All games at Boston Garden.<h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05143/4685572-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="521" height="353"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06117/4685565-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="529" height="439"></div><h3>PLAYOFF GAMES</h3>Quarter-finalsBowling Green 7, L. Superior 3L. Superior 7, Bowling Green 6(Bowling Green wins two-game total-goalsseries 13-10)Ohio State 5, Ferris State 2Ohio State 6, Ferrie State 1(Ohio State wins two-game total-goalsseries 11-3)Mich State 5, Mich Tech 3Mich State 3, Mich Tech 1(Mich State wins two-game total-goalsseries 8-4)W. Michigan 3, N. Michigan 2W. Michigan 4, N. Michigan 4(W. Michigan wins two-game total-goalsseries 7-6)<h3>Semi Finals</h3>Fri. March 9Ohio State vs Mich StateBowling Green vs W. Michigan(Sudden-death series)Sat. March 10Consolation & championship finals. Bothsudden-death.<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07107/4685558-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="523" height="212"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0899/4685551-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="519" height="379"></div><h3>PLAYOFF GAMES</h3>Semi-FinalsMinn-Duluth 6, Wisconsin 3Minn-Duluth 9, Wisconsin 0(Minn-Duluth wins two-game total-goalsseries 15-3)North Dakota 4, Minnesota 3North Dakota 5, Minnesota 4(North Dakota wins two-game total goalsseries 9-7)FinalsSat.-Sun. March 10-11Minn-Duluth vs North Dakota(Two-game total-goals series)<h2>WEST PENN CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 20)<h3>GREATER ATT DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-0989/4685544-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="522" height="179"></div><h3>WEST PENN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1086/4685537-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="523" height="180"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Bethany 14, Wheeling 2Indiana 4, Allegheny 2Gannon 5, Bethany 4Slippery Rock 2, West Virginia 1Duquesne 7, Indiana 1McKeesport 3, West Virginia 2Slippery Rock 11, Wheeling 5Bethany 5, Allegheny 2Carnegie 2, Indiana 1Slippery Rock 7, Bethany 5<h2>NCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1179/4685530-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="522" height="264"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1276/4685523-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="524" height="352"></div><h3>INDEPENDENT</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1367/4685516-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="516" height="63"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>No. Arizona 7, Lowell 1No. Arizona 7, Lowell 3No. Arizona 13, Brandon 3No. Arizona 9, Brandon 4No. Arizona 12, Wis-River Falls 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1463/4685509-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="488" height="327"></div><h2>GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1560/4685502-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="518" height="183"></div><h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1660/4685495-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="523" height="153"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3><h2>GREATPLAINS CONFERENCE</h2>UBC 5, Saskatchewan 3UBC 4, Saskatchewan 2Alberta 7, Calgary 2Alberta 5, Calgary 3(End of regular schedule)<h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2>Regina 10, Lakehead 0Regina 6, Lakehead 5Brandon 8, Winnipeg 4Brandon 13, Winnipeg 4(End of regular schedule)<h2>CANADIAN COLLEGES</h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCESemi-finalsToronto 7, Guelph 2Toronto 13, Guelph 4Toronto wins best-of-three series 2-0)Laurier 8, Western 5Western 6, Laurier 3Western 3, Laurier 2Western wins best-of-three series 2-1)FinalsToronto 2, Western 1Toronto 5, Western 3Toronto wins best-of-three series 2-0)QUEBEC CONFERENCEFinalsConcordia 5, Ottawa 2Concordia 6, Ottawa 3Concordia leads best-of-five series 2-0)ATLANTIC CONFERENCESemi-finalsAcadia 5, New Brunswick 4New Brunswick 5, Acadia 1New Brunswick 8, Acadia 2(New Brunswick winsbest-of-three series 2-1)FinalsNew Brunswick 4, Moncton 3New Brunwick 5, Moncton 3New Brunswick wins(best-of-three series 2-0)GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCEFinalsBrandon 8, Manitoba 4Manitoba 9, Brandon 5Manitoba 8, Brandon 5Manitoba wins best-of-three series 2-1)CANADA WEST CONFERENCEFinalsAlberta 4, Saskatchewan 2Alberta 9, Saskatchewan 2Alberta wins best-of-three series 2-0)INTER-UNIVERSITY PLAYOFFSManitoba at AlbertaToronto at New Brunswick(Best-of-three series)ONTARIO COLLEGESSemi-finalsCanadore 5, Humber 3Humber 3, Canadore 2Canadore 9, Humber 2Canadore wins best-of-three series 2-1)FinalsSeneca vs Canadore(Best-of-three series)<h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1754/4685488-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="527" height="355"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1850/4685481-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="522" height="266"></div> &#9632;

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HOW THEY STAND

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-19" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1948/4685631-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg"></div><h2>NCAA DIVISION I LEADING SCORERS LEAGUE &#9632;</h2>

f0034-19

COLLEGE LEADERS

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARSBRANTFORD&mdash;Dave Gagner&rsquo;s back with the Alexanders and the timing couldn&rsquo;t be better.Gagner, one of the stars of Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, rejoins the club many experts around the Ontario Hockey League predicted at the start of the season would go all the way to the Memorial Cup. Of course, when the predictions were being tossed about, few expected the Alexanders would be performing an entire season without their best player.That&rsquo;s all behind them now.Gagner made his return Feb. 25 and scored a goal and two assists as the Alexanders hammered Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 12-2. The win moved the Alexanders within striking distance of the Greyhounds, who have held second spot in the Emms Division back of the Kitchener Rangers most of the season.&ldquo;To me it&rsquo;s like getting two players for a stretch drive and the playoffs,&rdquo; Brantford coach Dave Draper said. &ldquo;With his speed, skills, experience and most importantly his leadership, it&rsquo;s hard to predict the impact he will have on the team. Certainly it will be great. He had an influence (against the Soo) and he had been here only a few hours.&rdquo;Draper also says he has assurance from the New York Rangers they don&rsquo;t intend to recall Gagner.&ldquo;You never know, but as far as they tell us he&rsquo;s here to stay,&rdquo; Draper said.Gagner and his Olympic linemate, Kirk Muller, along with U.S. Olympian Al lafrate, joined OHL clubs after the end of the Olympics and a short tournament in Paris. Muller had five assists in his debut with Guelph Platers, giving that fledgling second-year franchise newfound hopes it could catch the sixth and final playoff spot. lafrate, the No.-l rated player in 1983 by OHL Central Scouting, has bolstered the defense of the Belleville Bulls, who made him their first-round draft pick last May and waited patiently for eight months.Gagner, last year&rsquo;s winner of the Bobby Smith Trophy as the OHL&rsquo;s scholastic player of the year and second team allstar center with a 55-goal. 121-point season, could swing a playoff series in favor of Brantford. He is a quality penalty killer and also plays on the power play. He gives a club which is already strong in almost every way, a few more ingredients. Now they have the smartest player in the league and the best penalty killer. Most importantly, they have a top scorer and a leader.Draper noticed an overnight change in the Alexanders with Gagner back.&ldquo;It was just his presence,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t say much. He didn&rsquo;t have to. You could almost feel it.&rdquo;Gagner&rsquo;s return does create a minor problem for Draper because he has to experiment with rookie center Shayne Corson on left wing to make room for Gagner. Draper may be forced to reevaluate that decision because Corson is such a great faceoff man and hard-nosed type of player who is ideal to shut down some of the less-aggressive and smaller centers in the Emms. Gagner can also play both wings. With the Olympic team, he played on the right side.Gagner, a native of Chatham, Ont., has a lifetime of memories from his experience with Canada&rsquo;s national team.&ldquo;Playing the whole season improved my mental approach to the game and strengthened me physically,&rdquo; said Gagner, who&rsquo;s cousin, Ken, also plays with the team. &ldquo;I learned a lot about the game in general and improved my skills a lot, learned how to play with teammates and I learned a lot about my weaknesses.&ldquo;It was probably the most valuable experience of my life concerning hock-ey. It was a good experience just playing against quality players, plus it was the Olympics. Wearing the Canada sweater-&hellip;at first you don&rsquo;t realize the importance of it that you&rsquo;re representing all of Canada. It&rsquo;s a good feeling inside and knowing 20 other guys feel the same way.&rdquo;Gagner, Muller and Russ Courtnall, all juniors, were consistently Canada&rsquo;s top line for coach Dave King during the Olympics. Muller played a much higher level with the Olympic team than he ever did in Guelph and may have assured himself of being the No. 1 pick in the NHL entry draft in June. Gagner, with his speed and smarts, didn&rsquo;t hurt his image with the Rangers, who drafted him No. 1 in 1983. Courtnall joined Toronto a few games later.&ldquo;Last year I carried the puck too much, I thought it was one of my stronger points,&rdquo; Gagner said. &ldquo;This year, Brantford has a lot of good players and there&rsquo;s no need for me to go back and play the same way. But you can&rsquo;t go back to Brantford and play the same was as you did on the Olympic team either. You don&rsquo;t have the room and the style is not the same. I&rsquo;m going to try and combine the two. I&rsquo;m not going to waste a lot of energy trying to beat guys one-on-one.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll always remember how well a team can play together and how emotion can carry a team to a top performance and how a team, if they really put their minds to it, can accomplish a lot more than they think they can. We opened some eyes.&rdquo;On the move&mdash;North Bay Centennial coach Bert Templeton has sent home captain Curtis Collin. Mark LaVarre and Jim Hunter for what he termed &ldquo;rule violation.&rdquo; Asked if that meant breaking curfews, Templeton said &ldquo;it could be.&ldquo;These violations are not minor or major but repeated ones by these individuals, he said.&rdquo; &ldquo;Our hockey club has got very few 19-year-olds and we&rsquo;re looking for 19-year-olds for some form of leadership. We&rsquo;d be a lot better off in the standings with ledership from Collin, LaVarre and Hunter. You don&rsquo;t build a winning system on exceptions. These are all good players and it&rsquo;s unfortunate for them. They&rsquo;re hurting their chances for a pro career and our team&rsquo;s chances.&rdquo;&ldquo;They&rsquo;re all finished for the year.&rdquo;Suggestion box&mdash;When coaches begin to vote for various awards one would hope Peterborough coach Dick Todd is not overlooked as coach of the year. With respect to Tom Barrett in Kitchener, Tom Martin in Toronto and Brian Kilrea in Ottawa, Todd has worked a minor miracle in Peterborough, keeping the Petes a championship contender after losing Steve Yzerman and Bob Errey underage to NHL clubs.Dirty Harry&mdash;London rookie defenseman Greg Smyth from Wexford midgets has earned the nickname and the OHL penalty lead for his work ethics, which include a willingness, though not always wise decision, to battle with the league&rsquo;s tough guys. &#9632;

Gagner’s Return Poses Pleasant Problem

<h2>JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01429/4685700-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="556" height="524"><figcaption class="caption-body">SHAWN EVANS Peterborough</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Shawn Evans of the Peterborough Petes still has another year of junior hockey eligibility left but the way he&rsquo;s scoring, he could find himself bidding for a berth with the New Jersey Devils next season.The 18-year-old Evans, who is the top scoring defenseman in the Ontario Hockey League, came up with a 10-point performance to win the nod as OHL player of the week.Evans, drafted in the second round by the Devils in 1983, had a goal and nine assists as the Petes swept four games. The splurge gave him 92 points in 56 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02339/4685693-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="555" height="524"><figcaption class="caption-body">RAY FERRARO Brandon</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Hartford Whalers could be looking in Ray Ferraro&rsquo;s direction next season if he keeps scoring goals like he&rsquo;s doing this season for the Brandon Wheat Kings.Ferraro, a 19-year-old center drafted by Hartford in 1982, produced a 15-point week in the Western Hockey League to win player-of-the-week honors and put him closer to Bill Derlago&rsquo;s all-time WHL goal scoring mark of 96.With several weeks left in the schedule, Ferraro has 88 goals and should break Derlago&rsquo;s record. He counted nine times last week in four games for Brandon.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03263/4685686-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="552" height="522"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARIO LEMIEUX Laval</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Marvelous Mario Lemieux of the Laval Voisins had his sights set on three long-standing Quebec Major Junior Hockey League scoring records when the season began. Now he has achieved one of them.The 18-year-old center collected 16 scoring points in three games as he was chosen QHL player of the week for the seventh time this season. It also increased his production to 116 goals, 136 assists and 252 points in 65 games to surpass Pierre Larouche&rsquo;s mark of 251 set in 1973-74.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0035-01

MICRON

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville HockeyH&B 100 YEARSKAMLOOPS&mdash;A bad break for Ken Daneyko could turn out to be just the break the Kamloops Oilers were looking for.Although running away with the race for supremacy in the Western Division of the Western Hockey League, the Oilers were bolstered for their playoff run on Feb. 10 when New Jersey Devils announced Daneyko was being assigned to Kamloops for the remainder of the WHL season.The 19-year-old defenseman, a 1982 first-round choice of the Devils, split a bone in his right ankle on Nov. 2 against the Hartford Whalers. Three months later, the Edmonton native finished rehabilitation and was termed fit to resume guarding someone&rsquo;s blueline.It didn&rsquo;t take long for Daneyko, obtained by the Oilers in a pre-season trade with the Seattle Breakers, to fit in with Kamloops.Once he worked himself back into form. Daneyko showed the kind of sound defensive skills which made him a first-rounder. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman has also helped out at the other end of the ice, carrying the puck with authority and becoming a prominent fixture on the power play.Although primarily a defensive defenseman in the NHL, Daneyko&rsquo;s promising offensive talents were well illustrated on Feb. 26. He collected a goal and six assists as the Oilers outgunned the Victoria Cougars 11-7. The win reduced the 41-21 Oilers&rsquo; magic number for clinching top spot to one.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing to come back (to junior) but it doesn&rsquo;t hurt as much be-cause I came back down from being hurt,&rdquo; said Daneyko. &ldquo;After three months, it&rsquo;s pretty tough to come back to pro. It&rsquo;s easier coming back to junior with a first-place club.&ldquo;Confidence is the biggest thing in the NHL. In junior, mental preparation is important too. Coming back down from the big city to bus rides and smaller rinks and getting back to that kind of atmosphere can be tough. But the coach (Bill LaForge) told me to just relax and do my best.&rdquo;And what about that injury?&ldquo;I feel 100 percent,&rdquo; said Daneyko. &ldquo;I feel as fluent as I&rsquo;ve ever been. The strength when players have the puck is the big difference in the NHL. Here, I&rsquo;m a little stronger and maybe I can one-arm my way around some guys.&rdquo;LaForge wants the unexpected from the WHL veteran.&ldquo;I want him to come through with some leadership,&rdquo; said LaForge, who put similar demands on Garth Butcher when he was obtained for the stretch drive last season, &ldquo;I want him to take pressure off guys like (defenseman) Doug Bodger. I want Bodger to be a 17-year-old again&mdash;not have to play like a 19-year-old.&ldquo;He (Daneyko) is a lot better player than I thought he was. He&rsquo;s made a physical impression on the team. Offensively, he&rsquo;s getting stronger every night&mdash;he&rsquo;s got 20 points in eight games.&rdquo;Although removed from the big city lights, LaForge said there&rsquo;s been no problem getting Daneyko to accept playing junior again.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a burning desire to win,&rdquo; said LaForge. &ldquo;Something I always liked about him is he always liked to win and he didn&rsquo;t play on very good teams. He&rsquo;s here for one thing: he&rsquo;s here to improve his hockey; he wants to be a player more than I thought.&rdquo;What about the playoff run? Surely, a player with Daneyko&rsquo;s experience will be counted on to lead the way.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s part of the puzzle,&rdquo; said LaForge. &ldquo;In the matchups of who plays who, he gives us a wild card. He&rsquo;s been playing 25 minutes and I think he can play 40 before it&rsquo;s all over.&rdquo;WHL WEEK&mdash;Nominations for player-of-the-year honors have been submitted. Western Division nominees are: Grant Sasser (Portland); Allan Kerr (Seattle); Fabian Joseph (Victoria); Pokey Reddick (New Westminster); Dean Evason (Kamloops) and Terry Zaporzan (Kelowna). Eastern Division nominees are: Ken Wregget (Lethbridge); Mike Lay (Medicine Hat); Ken Quinney (Calgary); Dan Hodgson (Prince Albert); Allan Larochelle (Saskatoon); Dale Derkatch (Regina); Ray Ferraro (Brandon) and David Koroll (Winnipeg). Division winners were scheduled to be announced March 14 with the WHL player-of-the-year on March 31.Dan Hodgson continued to lead the scoring parade with 159 points, including a league-leading 104 assists. Ferraro was second at 152 points, including a league-high 85 goals&mdash;just 11 off the league record established by Bill Der-lago in 1976-77. Dale Derkatch was third with 125 points, while teammate Taylor Hall had 123 points and rookie Cliff Ronning of New Westminster 117 points.Dean Evason had 116; Dave Pasin of Prince Albert, 113; Mark Lamb of Medicine Hat, 112; Cam Plante of Brandon, 110.Kamloops was the top-rated WHL club in weekly Canadian Major Junior Hockey League rankings. Kamloops, in fourth spot, had a winning percentage of., 672. Regina was fifth at. 659; Medicine Hat was eighth (.625); Brandon ninta (.610) and Lethbridge 10th (.597).Brandon has won 14 of its last 16 starts.Ken Wregget continued to lead all netminders with a 3.27 goals-against, average. Blair McGregor of Medicine Hat and Jamie Reeve of Regina were at 3.82 while Randy Hansch of Victoria had a 3.94 average.Russ Courtnail of Victoria and Taylor Hall were recalled by Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks, respectively, while Portland lost de-fenseman Marty Ruff for the season with tom knee ligaments. &#9632;

League-Leading Oilers Receive Good Break

<div class="byline">BY RICK MA YOH</div>VERDUN&mdash;The longest consecutive point-scoring streak in major junior or pro hockey ended at 61 games when Laval Voisin center Mario Lemieux failed to earn a point for the first time all season in a 3-1 victory over the Juniors.&ldquo;I intercepted a pass at the (Verdun) blueline in the first period and broke right in to the net, but I hit the post,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder, who surpassed Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s pro record by 10 games.Linemate Jacques Goyette, second in league scoring (65-84-149), missed on at least three good feeds from Lemieux. The juniors pulled goaltender Vincent Riendeau with 38 seconds left and Lemieux was on the ice, but Verdun contained play in the Laval zone.Lemieux&rsquo;s run extended the previous major junior mark of 55 games set last year by Cornwall Royals&rsquo; Doug Gilmour and topped last season&rsquo;s QMJHL record of 43 games established by Verdun&rsquo;s Pat LaFontaine.Laval coach Jean Begin wasn&rsquo;t behind the bench to see the streak halted because of a four-game suspension imposed by the league&rsquo;s disciplinary committee, resulting from a game against Chicoutimi Sagueneens Feb. 20.&ldquo;We played a good game, so I&rsquo;m not too disappointed,&rdquo; said Lemieux, who stormed right back with 14 points in his next two games&mdash;five goals and two assists in a 13-6 romp over Granby Bisons and two goals and five assists in a 10-3 win against Shawinigan Cataractes.&ldquo;It was a tight game with few chances to score, but it was the type of game that will prepare us for the playoffs.&rdquo;&ldquo;Mario had at least five or six opportunities to pick up points,&rdquo; said Voisin owner and general manager Claude Fournel. &ldquo;Goyette missed everything, but it&rsquo;s still a great streak and the game was one of our best total efforts.&rdquo;&ldquo;We had Randy Muttart&rsquo;s line on him most of the night,&rdquo; said Verdun coach Pierre Creamer. &ldquo;We tried not to take too many chances offensively because he can hang back and go for the breakaway.&rdquo;In 64 games, Lemieux scored 115 goals and 135 assists for 250 points&mdash;one less than the QMJHL record set by Pierre Larouche with Sorel Eperviers in 197374.&ldquo;At the beginning of the year, that was the record I was thinking about,&rdquo; said Lemieux, who also broke LaFontaine&rsquo;s 104-goal mark for centers.He trails Mike Bossy by one point on the QMJHL&rsquo;s career list. Bossy is fourth with 531 points in four seasons with Laval Nationals while Lemieux has 530 in less than three for the Voisins.With six games left, Lemieux must score 16 goals and 23 assists to beat the goal and assists records of Guy Lafleur and Pierre Larouche.With six games left, Lemieux must score 1.6 goals and 23 assists to beat the goal and assist standards of Guy Lafleur and Larouche.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be tough to catch them now,&rdquo; he said.Begin&rsquo;s suspension and a $100 fine followed Chictoutimi&rsquo;s 14-2 setback in Laval in which Lemieux collected teamrecord 10 points.With the Voisins&rsquo; leading 8-1 at the end of the second period, Laval&rsquo;s Tom Paradis, Steve Latour and Michel Bourque jumped Sagueneens&rsquo; Mike Marcink-iewicz, Marc Fortier and Jean-Guy Chanier as the referee dropped the puck.The Voisins were ejected with game misconducts as the aggressors. Latour and Bourque received automatic one-game suspensions while Paradis got three games because of previous infractions.&ldquo;The committee said the conduct of the players was planned and that the coach is responsible for the conduct of his players,&rdquo; said league president Paul Dumont. &ldquo;The fine was for a remark he made after the game, saying if anybody looks for war with Laval, Laval will answer the call.&rdquo;&ldquo;I promised the committee I wouldn&rsquo;t comment,&rdquo; Begin said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t agree with the decision but I respect it.&rdquo;&ldquo;I was very upset,&rdquo; said Foumel. &ldquo;Similar incidents have occurred this season, maybe worse, and nothing has happened.&rdquo;&ldquo;Compared to the 25-game suspension to (Trois-Rivieres Draveurs) Mario Bazinet last season for not controlling his players, it&rsquo;s a very small suspension,&rdquo; said Chicoutimi coach Michel Parizeau, a former World Hockey Association veteran.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t see why it happened, nothing happened during the course of the game. It was not a physical game for the simple reason that we thought we were going to get beaten before we got on the ice. I would have loved to have something happen from my players.&ldquo;But that&rsquo;s a bad tactic and I doubt very much if the players did it on their own. Laval is more of a one-man team than anybody. What would happen if somebody jumped on Lemieux and took him out?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying that as a threat. We&rsquo;ll be fighting for the playoffs and we don&rsquo;t want to blow it with stupid penalties. Bu if you do that, it&rsquo;s going to come back to you. It could be in a week, a month or a year, but somehow, you&rsquo;re going to pay for it.&rdquo; &#9632;

Lemieux’s Streak Comes To Stop

<h2>Mon. Feb. 27 BOSTON 3, BUFFALO 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01359/4686122-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="537" height="790"></div><h2>EDMONTON 6, WINNIPEG 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02251/4686115-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="544" height="1110"></div><h2>Tue. Feb. 28 LOS ANGELES 1, CALGARY 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03186/4686108-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="540" height="850"></div><h2>RANGERS 3, NEW JERSEY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04150/4686101-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="531" height="551"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05127/4686094-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="533" height="300"></div><h2>DETROIT 2, QUEBEC 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06104/4686087-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="540" height="788"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 2, ST. LOUIS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0786/4686080-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="538" height="818"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 3, WASH. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0877/4686073-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="526" height="236"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0965/4686066-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="536" height="466"></div><h2>Wed. Feb. 29 BUFFALO 3, CHICAGO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1059/4686059-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="537" height="760"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 5, EDMONTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1147/4686052-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="532" height="726"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 7, MINNESOTA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1240/4686045-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="523" height="150"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1335/4686038-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="537" height="880"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 9, PITTSBURGH 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1433/4686031-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="539" height="790"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1531/4686024-1-eng-US/f0037-152.jpg" title="f0037-15" width="534" height="325"></div><h2>RANGERS 1, TORONTO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1626/4686017-1-eng-US/f0037-162.jpg" title="f0037-16" width="538" height="644"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 4, WINNIPEG 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1722/4686010-1-eng-US/f0037-172.jpg" title="f0037-17" width="540" height="643"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01184/4686003-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="529" height="91"></div><h2>Thu. March 1 LOS ANGELES 3, BOSTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02112/4685996-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="542" height="964"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 1, CALGARY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0371/4685989-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="534" height="617"></div><h2>MONTREAL 3, DETROIT 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0449/4685982-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="537" height="702"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 1, WASH. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0534/4685975-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="535" height="557"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0627/4685968-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="533" height="381"></div><h2>Fri. March 3 VANCOUVER 2, N. JERSEY 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0723/4685961-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="539" height="790"></div><h2>Sat. March 3 HARTFORD 3, BOSTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0819/4685954-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="541" height="910"></div><h2>MONTREAL 3, CALGARY 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0916/4685947-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="532" height="441"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1016/4685940-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="539" height="237"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 1, DETROIT 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1115/4685933-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="544" height="733"></div><h2>CHICAGO 3, MINNESOTA 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1213/4685926-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="545" height="964"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 3, PITTSBURGH 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1311/4685919-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="528" height="122"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01151/4685912-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="540" height="650"></div><h2>BUFFALO 2, QUEBEC 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0287/4685905-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="530" height="268"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0362/4685898-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="535" height="95"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0448/4685891-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="528" height="94"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0538/4685884-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="531" height="93"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0632/4685877-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="380" height="62"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01150/4685870-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="538" height="151"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 3, ST. LOUIS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02108/4685863-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="540" height="740"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 11, TORONTO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0386/4685856-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="545" height="1235"></div><h2>RANGERS 1, WASHINGTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0466/4685849-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="543" height="704"></div><h2>Sun. March 4 QUEBEC 1, BUFFALO 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0556/4685842-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="531" height="557"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0645/4685835-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="534" height="155"></div><h2>TORONTO 4, CHICAGO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0743/4685828-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="542" height="798"></div><h2>MONTREAL 1, EDMONTON 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0835/4685821-1-eng-US/f0043-082.jpg" title="f0043-08" width="541" height="738"></div><h2>BOSTON 4, HARTFORD 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0933/4685814-1-eng-US/f0043-092.jpg" title="f0043-09" width="533" height="272"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1028/4685807-1-eng-US/f0043-102.jpg" title="f0043-10" width="545" height="735"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 3, N. JERSEY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1123/4685800-1-eng-US/f0043-112.jpg" title="f0043-11" width="537" height="852"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 5, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1220/4685793-1-eng-US/f0043-122.jpg" title="f0043-12" width="535" height="386"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1317/4685786-1-eng-US/f0043-132.jpg" title="f0043-13" width="539" height="245"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1417/4685779-1-eng-US/f0043-142.jpg" title="f0043-14" width="533" height="238"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01419/4686181-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><h2>GOALTENDING, STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01394/4686174-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="548" height="2699"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3>GOALS AGAINST AVERAGE<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02276/4686167-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="535" height="267"></div><h3>MOST WINS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03192/4686160-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="534" height="324"></div><h3>SAVE PERCENTAGE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04161/4686153-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="528" height="178"></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05127/4686212-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0039-05

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06108/4686264-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="499" height="442"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0792/4686257-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="507" height="497"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0882/4686250-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="500" height="494"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0971/4686243-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="510" height="500"></div> &#9632;

f0039-06

NHL GAMES TO COME

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-147/4686302-1-eng-US/f0040-142.jpg" title="f0040-14" width="536" height="355"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-157/4686295-1-eng-US/f0040-152.jpg" title="f0040-15" width="530" height="357"></div> &#9632;

f0040-14

Top Rookies In The NHL

<h2>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>NORRISDIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-166/4686354-1-eng-US/f0040-162.jpg" title="f0040-16" width="535" height="177"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-175/4686347-1-eng-US/f0040-172.jpg" title="f0040-17" width="530" height="180"></div><h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-184/4686340-1-eng-US/f0040-182.jpg" title="f0040-18" width="530" height="176"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-193/4686333-1-eng-US/f0040-192.jpg" title="f0040-19" width="537" height="209"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 27Boston 3 at Buffalo 1Edmonton 6 at Winnipeg 5 (OT)Tue. Feb. 28Los Angeles 1 at Calgary 9Hartford at Montreal (ppd. snow)NY Rangers 3 at New Jersey 3 (OT)Detroit 2 at Quebec 6Minnesota 2 at St. Louis 5Vancouver 3 at Washington 2Wed. Feb. 29Buffalo 3 at Chicago 4Philadelphia 5 at Edmonton 3St. Louis 7 at Minnesota 5Vancouver 9 at Pittsburgh 5NY Rangers 1 at Toronto 3NY Islanders 4 at Winnipeg 3Thu. March 1Los Angeles 3 at Boston 4 (OT)Philadelphia 1 at Calgary 5Montreal 3 at Detroit 1Pittsburgh 1 at Washington 9Fri. March 2Vancouver 2 at New Jersey 4Sat. March 3Hartford 3 at Boston 3 (OT)Montreal 3 at Calgary 1Winnipeg 1 at Detroit 6Chicago 3 at Minnesota 6Los Angeles 3 at Pittsburgh 4Buffalo 2 at Quebec 4Philadelphia 3 at St. Louis 4NY Islanders 11 at Toronto 6NY Rangers 1 at Washington 5Sun. March 4Quebec 1 at Buffalo 1 (OT)Toronto 4 at Chicago 5Montreal 1 at Edmonton 6Boston 4 at Hartford 6Los Angeles 3 at New Jersey 5Vancouver 5 at NY Rangers 4 &#9632;

f0040-16

THE NHL SCOREBOARD

BOSTON&mdash;Fergus 22, 23, Pederson 27, 28, 29, Middleton 38, 39, 40,41, Krushelnyski 22, K. Crowder 16, 17, Bourque 24, Donnelly 1. Winning goals-Pederson, Middleton.BUFFALO&mdash;Cyr 15, 16, Housley 25, 26, Ramsay 7, 8, Andreychuk 33. Winning goalsnone.CALGARY&mdash;Maclnnis 7, 8, Eaves 11, Quinn 14, Nilsson 26, 27, Macoun 7, Loob 24, 25, Tambellini 11, Kromm 9, Wilson 1, Beers 34, Risebrough 20, Bourgeois 1. Winning goals-Eaves, Beers.CHICAGO&mdash;T. Murray 9,10,11,12, Fraser 5, Sutter 14,15, B. Murray 10, Feamster5, Gardner 22, 23, J. Larmer 12. Winning goals-Sutter, T. Murray.DETROIT&mdash;Lambert 15, 16, Larson 16, 17, Campbell 3, Johnstone 11, Duguay 26, Gare 10, Loiselle 4. Winning goals-Larson.EDMONTON&mdash;Anderson 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, Gregg 13, Coffey 33, Gretzky76, 77, 78, Hunter 20, Huddy 7, Hughes 25, Messier 27, Pouzar 13. Winning goals-Hunter, Anderson.HARTFORD&mdash;Johnson 32, Turgeon 33, 34, 35, Dunn 5, Currie 10, Robertson 5, 6, 7. Winning goals-Robertson.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Dionne 31, Hakansson 12, 13, Fox 25, Kelly 7, Hardy 6, Smith 16, Nicholls 37, Taylor 15, 16. Winning goals-none.MINNESOTA&mdash;Napier 12, Payne 20, 21,22, Ciccarelli 34, 35, Holmgren 10, 11, Roberts 5, Maxwell 15, 16, Ferguson 5, Broten 24. Winning goals-Broten.MONTREAL&mdash;Carbonneau 23, Chabot 13, Lafleur 30, Shutt 13, Turnbull 18, Naslund 26, Smith 26. Winning goals-Chabot, Turnbull.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Bridgman 15, 16, 17, Ludvig 18, 19, Brumwell 5, Verbeek 16, 17, Meagher 13, 14, Higgins 13, Gagne 12. Winning goals-Meagher, Gagne.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Flatley 1, Tonelli 22, 23, 24, D. Sutter 16, Trottier 32, 33, LaFontaine 1, 2, 3, Goring 20, B. Sutter 27, 28, Gilbert 26, Langevin 3. Winning goals-Trottier, Langevin.NY RANGERS&mdash;Osborne 19, Larouche 43, Allison 7, Stoughton 24,25, Fotiu 5,6, Rogers 21, Richmond 2. Winning goals-none.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Poulin 21, Hachborn 6, Kerr 43, 44, 45, Barber 21, 22, Propp 30, 31. Winning goals-Kerr.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Brickley 13, Shedden 16, Hotham 4, McSorley 2, Bullard 45, 46, 47, Schmidt 1, Flockhart 22, Hrynewich 3. Winning goals-Hrynewich.QUEBEC&mdash;Paiement 35, 36, P. Stastny 34, 35, 36, Gillis 5, Marois 10, Goulet 48, Cote 11, Berglund 16, Sleigher 13. Winning goals-Gillis, Berglund.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Federko 32, 33, 34, 35, Mullen 29,30,31,32, Wilson 4,Sutter 28,29, Gilmour 18, 19, Pettersson 22, Paslawski 7, Ramage 11. Winning goals-Federko, Wilson, Mullen.TORONTO&mdash;Korn 4, 5, Derlago 30, 31, Martin 9, 10, Terrion 12, Vaive 43, 44, 45, Anderson 33, 34, Daoust 17. Winning goals-Derlago.VANCOUVER&mdash;Neely 12, 13, 14, Gillis 6, Sundstrom 33, 34, 35, Williams 13, Hall 1, Tanti 38, 39, Lanz 16, 17, Lemay 7, 8, Gradin 16, 17, Smyl 22, Halward 6. Winning goals-Sundstrom, Tanti, Lanz.WASHINGTON&mdash;Carpenter 19, 20, 21, 22, Gould 15, Gartner 32, 33, Erickson 5, 6, 7, Andersson 1, 2, Stevens 12, Christian 27, Haworth 21, Gustafsson 31. Winning goals-Erickson, Carpenter.WINNIPEG&mdash;Picard 6, Lukowich 20, Mantha 13, Steen 16. Winning goals-none. Hat tricks&mdash;Federko (StL), LaFontaine (NYI) and Robertson (Har), 1 each. Overtime winners&mdash;D. Hunter (Edm) and Middleton (Bos) 1 each. &#9632;

NHL SCORERS THIS WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0729/4686489-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="531" height="1232"></div>John Ferguson is trying to build a big, strong, hard-skating team in Winnipeg and one of the cornerstones of that movement is 19-year-old Andrew McBain.The 6-foot-1, 190-pound right winger from Scarborough, Ont., got off to a slow start this season with the Jets while getting accustomed to life in the NHL. The North Bay Centennial grad has come on in recent weeks and had eight goals and 15 assists after 62 games.Drafted by the Jets eighth overall last season, they&rsquo;re looking for big things from the hard-nosed winger. &#9632;

f0041-07

Chrysler Rookie Award

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. March 7)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01151/4686688-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="520" height="207"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0297/4686681-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="518" height="236"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 28Springfield at St. Cath. (ppd. snow)Wed. Feb. 29Rochester 4 at Adirondack 3Sherbrooke 1 at Baltimore 5St. Catharines 6 at Hershey 4Moncton 4 at Maine 2Binghamton 3 at New Haven 7Fredericton 1 at Nova Scotia 4Fri. March 2St. Catharines 3 at Baltimore 9Moncton 6 at Binghamton 4Hershey 4 at New Haven 6Rochester 3 at Sherbrooke 5Adirondack 3 at Springfield 4Sat. March 3Nova Scotia 2 at Fredericton 4Moncton 5 at Hershey 6Adirondack 3 at Maine 3Binghamton 3 at St. Catharines 5Rochester 3 at Springfield 1Sun. March 4Hershey 1 at Adirondack 5Moncton 3 at Baltimore 4Sherbrooke 2 at Maine 3Springfield 4 at New Haven 5Fredericton 4 at Nova Scotia 4Binghamton 6 at Rochester 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0368/4686674-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="525" height="323"></div><h2>CENTRAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0450/4686667-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="520" height="178"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 27Oilers 5 at Salt Lake 3Tue. Feb. 28Indianapolis 4 at Montana 3Wed. Feb. 29Salt Lake 6 at Colorado 8Fri. March 2Salt Lake 3 at Colorado 5Oilers 2 at Indianapolis 4Sat March 3Oilers 3 at Indianapolis 3Colorado 6 at Salt Lake 7Sun. March 4Oilers 2 at Indianapolis 3Colorado 4 at Montana 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0541/4686660-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="523" height="325"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0635/4686653-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="524" height="266"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Feb. 29Toledo 5 at Kalamazoo 1Flint 5 at Peoria 3Fri. March 2Fort Wayne 6 at Muskegon 0Milwaukee 2 at Flint 8Kalamazoo 5 at Toledo 3Sat. March 3Kalamazoo 5 at Muskegon 2Milwaukee 2 at Toledo 3Fort Wayne 4 at Peoria 2Sun. March 4Toledo 2 at Fort Wayne 6Kalamazoo 2 at Flint 3Muskegon 5 at Peoria 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0731/4686646-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="525" height="324"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. March 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0824/4686639-1-eng-US/f0042-082.jpg" title="f0042-08" width="522" height="207"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sun. Feb. 26Mohawk Valley 2 at Carolina 3Virginia 6 at Erie 7Mon. Feb. 27Mohawk Valley 2 at Pine Bridge 5Tue. Feb. 28Carolina at Erie (ppd. snow)Mohawk Valley 9 at Virginia 10Wed. Feb. 29Mohawk Valley 4 at Virginia 7Thu. March 1Virginia 3 at Carolina 1Pine Bridge 0 at Mohawk Valley 4Fri. March 2Pine Bridge 3 at Mohawk Valley 4Sat. March 3Erie 1 at Carolina 1Virginia 6 at Pine Bridge 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0921/4686632-1-eng-US/f0042-092.jpg" title="f0042-09" width="522" height="294"></div><h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 22)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1018/4686625-1-eng-US/f0042-102.jpg" title="f0042-10" width="521" height="265"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1117/4686618-1-eng-US/f0042-112.jpg" title="f0042-11" width="522" height="177"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 6)<h3>LEVDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1213/4686611-1-eng-US/f0042-122.jpg" title="f0042-12" width="521" height="236"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1310/4686604-1-eng-US/f0042-132.jpg" title="f0042-13" width="526" height="267"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 28Belleville 4 at Toronto 5Cornwall 3 at Ottawa 8Guelph 4 at Windsor 5London 7 at Brantford 5Wed. Feb. 29S.S. Marie 12 at Sudbury 2Thu. March 1Windsor 3 at North Bay 4London 4 at Peterborough 8Belleville 2 at Brantford 1Oshawa 4 at Cornwall 2Fri. March 2Windsor 6 at S.S. Marie 6Toronto 3 at Kitchener 7Oshawa 3 at Ottawa 5Brantford 4 at London 2Peterborough 6 at Kingston 8North Bay 5 at Guelph 4Sat. March 3Kingston 4 at Belleville 7Brantford 7 at Toronto 8Peterborough 5 at Cornwall 2Guelph 3 at Kitchener 5Sun. March 4Windsor 3 at Sudbury 4London 0 at S.S. Marie 9Kingston 2 at Oshawa 7Kitchener 5 at North Bay 3Brantford 4 at Guelph 5Cornwall 3 at Ottawa 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-148/4686597-1-eng-US/f0042-142.jpg" title="f0042-14" width="522" height="352"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. March 5)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-158/4686590-1-eng-US/f0042-152.jpg" title="f0042-15" width="526" height="207"></div><h3>DIDO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-168/4686583-1-eng-US/f0042-162.jpg" title="f0042-16" width="523" height="176"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 27Granby 6 at Laval 11Tue. Feb. 28Hull 3 at Chicoutimi 6Verdun 1 at Longueuil 6Wed. Feb. 29Shawinigan 3 at Laval 10Hull 3 at Quebec 8Thu. March 1St. Jean 9 at T-Rivieres 4Fri. March 2Verdun 5 at Chicoutimi 2Granby 9 at Quebec 5Longueuil 6 at Shawinigan 7Drummondville 3 at St. Jean 6Sun. March 4Chicoutimi 8 at Drummondville 12Hull 4 at Granby 7St. Jean 9 at Longueuil 2Laval 4 at T-Rivieres 6Shawinigan 4 at Verdun 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-177/4686576-1-eng-US/f0042-172.jpg" title="f0042-17" width="526" height="325"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 6)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-186/4686569-1-eng-US/f0042-182.jpg" title="f0042-18" width="526" height="270"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-195/4686562-1-eng-US/f0042-192.jpg" title="f0042-19" width="524" height="208"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 27Brandon 4 at Prince Albert 7Tue. Feb. 28Medicine Hat 8 at Winnipeg 4Victoria 3 at Saskatoon 6Kelowna 5 at Kamloops 9Wed. Feb. 29Seattle 6 at Calgary 7Medicine Hat 5 at Brandon 9New Westminster 5 at Portland 9Victoria 3 at Prince Albert 7Kamloops 6 at Kelowna 2Thu. March 1Regina 3 at Brandon 6Fri. March 2Calgary 6 at Winnipeg 3Seattle 1 at Lethbridge 4Kamloops 6 at Portland 4Saskatoon 2 at Prince Albert 5Victoria 4 at Regina 5Kelowna 3 at New Westminster 7Sat March 3Seattle 4 at Medicine Hat 8Calgary 2 at Saskatoon 5Victoria 8 at Winnipeg 2Sun. March 4Medicine Hat 5 at Lethbridge 1Kelowna 2 at Portland 8Victoria 2 at Brandon 7Kamloops 4 at New Westminster 3Calgary 3 at Prince Albert 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-205/4686555-1-eng-US/f0042-202.jpg" title="f0042-20" width="524" height="327"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>PLAYOFFS<h3>Quarter-finals</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-213/4686548-1-eng-US/f0042-212.jpg" title="f0042-21" width="518" height="120"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Cambridge 11, Barrie 2Cambridge 9, Barrie 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-222/4686541-1-eng-US/f0042-222.jpg" title="f0042-22" width="517" height="118"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Dundas 7, Flamboro 6<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-232/4686534-1-eng-US/f0042-232.jpg" title="f0042-23" width="522" height="93"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDPetrolia 5, Chatham 2Petrolia 7, Chatham 5<h2>CENTRAL SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 22)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-242/4686527-1-eng-US/f0042-242.jpg" title="f0042-24" width="523" height="237"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-252/4686520-1-eng-US/f0042-252.jpg" title="f0042-25" width="522" height="326"></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

MINOR SCOREBOARD

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Dave Donnelly, LW, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Brian Curran, D, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, RW, back from injury list. Dave Silk, RW, sidelined for 3 weeks with sprained knee.Dave Kasper, C, back on injury list with shoulder problem. Jim Schoenfeld, D, also out again with shoulder injury.BUFFALO&mdash;Steve Patrick, RW, recalled from Rochester of AHL. Claude Verret, C, returned to Rochester. Jerry Korab, D, back from injury list.CALGARY&mdash;Tony Stiles, D, sidelined with ankle injury.CHICAGO&mdash;Don Dietrich, D, returned from Canadian Olympic team and assigned to Springfield of AHL. Tom Lysiak, C, placed on injury list. Tom McMurchy, RW, returned to Springfield.,DETROIT&mdash;John Ogrodnick, LW, out for rest of season with broken hand. Ivan Boldirev, LW, and Dwight Foster, C, sidelined indefinitely with shoulder separations. Pierre Aubry, LW, purchased from Quebec for cash. Eddie Mio, G, assigned to Adirondack of AHL for conditioning period after coming off injury list.EDMONTON&mdash;Don Jackson, D, sidelined with groin injury.HARTFORD&mdash;Blaine Stoughton, RW, traded to the Rangers for Scot Kleinendorst, D, and Dave Barr, RW. Kleinendorst currently on injury list. Dave Tippett, C, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Mark Fusco, D, signed from U.S. Olympic team. Mike Crombeen, RW, out indefinitely with broken wrist.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Ken Houston, RW, released outright. Fred Barrett, D, signed as free agent. Darren Eliot, G, signed from Canadian Olympic team and assigned to New Haven of AHL. Dean Kennedy, D, recalled from New Haven.MINNESOTA&mdash;Tom McCarthy, RW, George Ferguson, C, and Brian Lawton, LW, back from injury list. Tom Hirsch, D, signed from U.S. Olympic team. Dirk Graham, C, David H. Jensen, D, and Scott Bugstad, C, all assigned to Salt Lake of CHL.MONTREAL&mdash;Bill Kitchen, D, recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL as replacement for Ric Nattress, D, who is out indefinitely with broken finger. Chris Chelios, D, sidelined with foot injury.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Bruce Driver, D, signed from CanadianOlympic team. Rob Palmer, D, assigned AHL.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Paul Boutilier, D, and Gord Dineen, D, returned to Indianapolis of CHL. Gord Lane, D, back from injury list.NY RANGERS&mdash;Mark Morrison, RW, assigned to Tulsa Oilers of CHL.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Frank Bathe, D, back from injury list and assigned to Maine of AHL for conditioning period. Dave Poulin, C, back from injury list.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Darren Lowe, RW, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Rick Kehoe, RW, sidelined for rest of season with neck injury and blood circulatory problem. Roberto Romano, G, and Ted Bulley, LW, returned to Baltimore of AHL. Randy Carlyle, D, sidelined with knee injury.QUEBEC&mdash;Anton Stastny, LW, placed on injury list. Jim Dobson, LW, recalled from Fredericton of AHL but later returned. Dave Shaw, D, returned to Kitchener of OHL. Mark Kumpel, LW, sent to Fredericton. Blake Wesley, D, sidelined with knee injury. Paul Gillis, C, out with thigh injury.,ST. LOUIS&mdash;Terry Johnson, D, back from injury list. Jack Brownschidle, D, Larry Patey, C, and Pat Hickey, LW, all placed on NHL waivers without recall. Brownschidle claimed by Hartford.TORONTO&mdash;Peter Ihnacak, C, out indefinitely after undergoing shoulder surgery.VANCOUVER&mdash;Doug Lidster, D, signed from Canadian Olympic team. Peter McNab, C, sidelined for month with torn ligaments in his thumb. Darcy Rota, LW, out indefinitely with neck injury. Richard Brodeur, G, sidelined with head injury. Michel Petit, D, out with shoulder separation.WASHINGTON&mdash;Darren Veitch, D, back from injury list and assigned to Hershey of AHLWINNIPEG&mdash;Jim Kyte, D, out of lineup for four games after being suspended by the NHL.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>FREDERICTON&mdash;Michel Dufour, G, recalled from Milwaukee of IHL.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Ted Fauss, D, sidelined indefinitely with shoulder separation.ROCHESTER&mdash;Bob Bodak, LW, signed as free agent. Rich Goodfellow, LW, out 4-6 weeks with broken hand. Steve Dykstra, D, sidelined 4-6 weeks with broken thumb. Dave Langevin, D, out indefinitely with knee injury. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01154/4686743-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>NHL Attendance Improves In Third Quarte&ndash;Page 19Quebec&rsquo;s Goose Is On The Loose&ndash;Page 6Dave Christian Keeps It All In The Family&ndash;Page 3 &#9632;

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March 16, 1984

HOW NHL TEAMS RATE

…While Kings Blow Golden Opportunity

Bowling Green Gets All It Can Handle

Rangers One Step Closer With Stoughton