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 15, 1985

The Hockey News March 15, 1985

&ldquo;When he saw everyone coming, I think he decided he was hurt.&rdquo;&mdash;Winnipeg Jet Wade Campbell, commenting on what he felt was a long-term dive by Mario Lemieux during a brawl. Story on Page 17. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>SAULT STE. MARIE&mdash;Prior to the start of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, this reporter stuck his neck out and made some predictions.The end results showed three right, three almost right and three not even close.Michigan State was picked to run away with the regular-season title, which it did in January.Western Michigan was slated to finish runner-up to MSU, but placed two spots back in third.The other bullseyes had Ohio State in sixth and Miami University eighth.Ferris State, however, was not even close.Picked for third, the Bulldogs struggled early and never did right themselves. They sank in a sea of 12 consecutive losses to end the season and finished dead last, the only CCHA team out of the playoffs.It was a woeful season for Dick Bertrand and his players. Even captain Graham Craig was banished for the last two series. Folks in Big Rapids, MI, were calling for the coach&rsquo;s hide at last report.Illinois-Chicago and Bowling Green State also did better than expected.Chicago, which had finished out of the picture every year since entering the league, was picked for dead last, based purely on past performances. But the Flames shocked everyone with a hot first half and a good finish and placed in fifth, losing their home-ice advantage in the playoffs on the last weekend of the regular season to Bowling Green.The Falcons, meanwhile, lost 13 lettermen, either to graduation or turning pro early, yet they iced a feisty crew of veterans and enough savvy frosh to finish fourth, gaining home ice again in the playoffs. And not many teams in college hockey are tougher at home than BG.The other &ldquo;mild&rdquo; surprises were Michigan, which was predicted for fifth and placed in seventh, and Lake Superior State, the positive surprise of the season, which finished second with room to spare.The Wolverines really weren&rsquo;t as good as expected. New coach Red Berenson wasn&rsquo;t surprised. He&rsquo;s got changes planned for next season.The Lakers have proven all season that they can play with anyone in college hockey. They&rsquo;re just a well-coached, well-disciplined outfit that has a shot at the CCHA final four, with a break or two.CCHA CHATTER&mdash;Western Michigan, in the playoffs at home for the first time ever, is missing defenseman Wayne Gagne, one of the Broncos&rsquo; best two backliners. Gagne suffered a broken jaw against Michigan and is out for the season &hellip;Chicago winger Mike Rucinski was hurt against Bowling Green in the regular-season finale and may have a broken arm. If so, he&rsquo;s gone too for the playoffs, which should be shortlived anyway, seeing as how the Flames are in Bowling Green&hellip;Bob Essensa, Michigan State&rsquo;s outstanding sophomore netminder who has had a goals-against mark of about 1.77, is out for the season with severe lacerations to both hands and wrists. A broken window was the cuprit and Essensa will be sorely missed in the playoffs. The Spartans split 4-2 games at Lake Superior State the last weekend of the season and fell from the top ranks in the national polls for the first time in five weeks. Norm Foster will pick up the goaltending load.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05152/5056317-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="552" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ferris State captain Graham Craig was banned from the team&rsquo;s final two series.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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The Colleges

End Results Of CCHA Predictions

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03246/5056121-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="115" height="111"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The reaction of fans was mixed in St. Louis on Feb. 22, when the Blues traded goalie Mike Liut and future considerations to the Hartford Whalers for forward Mark Johnson and goalie Greg Millen.Some fans welcomed the trade on the theory that it would make the Blues a better team, others were sad to see an old favorite such as Liut go.But even the skeptics had to be impressed on Feb. 27, when Millen played brilliantly in his debut with the Blues. He stopped 33 shots and was named the game&rsquo;s No. 1 star after the Blues defeated Buffalo 3-1 at the Arena.&ldquo;It was the best performance I&rsquo;ve seen since Liut in last year&rsquo;s playoffs,&rdquo; said defenseman Tim Bothwell.For one game, at least, Millen stood up favorably to a comparison with Liut, who is known for playing his best hockey in the playoffs. Playing in front of a home crowd, with the game telecast nationally on USA Cable Network, Millen faced playoff-like pressure.&ldquo;He gets all the credit,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; center Bernie Federko. &ldquo;We had a lot of pressure and he was filling big shoes, and he came in and played unbelievably.&rdquo;The only goal against Millen wasn&rsquo;t his fault. Buffalo winger Craig Ramsay scored on a rebound at 5:15 of the first period after Millen had stopped a shot by Gilles Hamel.Millen was especially sensational in the second period, with four big saves in the last three minutes. By intermission, a crowd of 12,103 had given him several standing ovations.&ldquo;It was only one game, but I really appreciated that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was touching. But it was only one game, and I&rsquo;d like to thank my teammates for the way they played in front of me.&ldquo;I stopped the first one, and they cleared the rebounds. Maybe it wasn&rsquo;t quite what it looked like. Let&rsquo;s face it, I had a few breaks and got a little lucky.They&rsquo;re not all going to be like that.&rdquo;Millen was perhaps overly charitable toward his teammates, who weren&rsquo;t nearly as sharp defensively as they had been five days earlier in a 4-1 victory over the Sabres in Buffalo.Millen said he was as nervous as if the game were his first in the NHL, but he credited Federko with settling him down.&ldquo;Bernie was very good to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He came over to me and said, &lsquo;Greg, it&rsquo;s just another game.&rsquo; That really helped.&rdquo;The victory over Buffalo was the Blues&rsquo; third in a row since the trade, and it improved their record to 10-2-2 in their last 14 games.The day before &lsquo;Millen&rsquo;s first game with Blues, the club announced that it had signed captain Brian Sutter to a new four-year contract. Sutter, 28, was to have been entering the option year of his contract.&ldquo;I would have seriously thought about going back to the farm if I had to play out my option,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I probably would have. I felt it would have been a low blow. I felt I paid my dues.&ldquo;And that says something for the hockey team. They wanted me here. And it didn&rsquo;t take six months, it took about three weeks.&rdquo;The signing put Sutter in the Blues&rsquo; fold, but the team&rsquo;s No. 2 goal-scorer, right winger Joe Mullen, remained unsigned as he plays out his option year. His agent, Larry Rauch of New York, said the parties were far apart in negotiations, but Ron Caron, the Blues&rsquo; director of hockey operations, disputed Rauch&rsquo;s claim, saying, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see it as a big, big problem.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0025-03

Millen Makes Good In Debut With Blues

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02855/5055036-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="386" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">WHERE ARE THEY NOW? By Randy Schultz</figcaption></div>Utility player is a term usually connected with baseball. It refers to a player who can play in almost any position at any time during a game.Former National Hockey League center-left winger Don Marshall could have been considered a utility player during his playing days with the Montreal Canadiens.Marshall played in all or parts of 19 seasons (1951-52, 1954-72) with the Canadiens, New York Rangers, Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs.Although he was known as an offensive-minded player during his junior and minor-league days, Marshall had to change his thinking once he was with the Canadiens.&ldquo;Montreal had a lot of offensive-minded players on the team at the time I joined them,&rdquo; said Marshall. &ldquo;When I became a member of the team the coaches thought I would make a better contribution to the team as a checker.&ldquo;I did a lot of filling-in as well. I was originally a center. But because the Canadiens had so many centers on the team I got to play left wing quite often.&ldquo;I was on a set line for awhile. But was also used quite a bit to fill in on other lines that might have a player out with an injury.&ldquo;I learned to adapt to a lot of linemates. It was quite an experience.&rdquo;With the experience he got as a checker. Marshall became one of the NHL&rsquo;s premier penalty killers. But he was not happy with the role.&ldquo;If I was going to stay with Montreal, I knew that was the role I had to play,&rdquo; said Marshall, who played on five Stanley Cup champions with the Canadiens. &ldquo;It bothered me, but not enough to go to management and say, &lsquo;Play me or trade me.&rsquo;&rdquo;Eventually, though, Marshall was traded from Montreal. Following the 1962-63 season, Marshall, Jacques Plante and Phil Goyette were traded to the Rangers for Gump Worsley, Leon Rochefort, Len Ronson and Dave Baton.&ldquo;I was surprised at the trade, but in retrospect I wasn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Marshall. &ldquo;The Canadiens hadn&rsquo;t won the Stanley Cup in three years. It was time for a shakeup.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think that it (New York) was the best place for me to go at the time. But as it turned out, it really was.&ldquo;The Rangers were beginning a rebuilding process. They were making a lot of moves to build a winner. I was a part of that rebuilding.&ldquo;Plus, playing with the Rangers allowed me to play the offensive-minded style of hockey I had wanted to play in Montreal. With the experience I had killing penalties and playing defensive hockey with Montreal, I became a pretty good two-way player with the Rangers.&rdquo;Today, the native of Verdun, Que., is retired, living six months of the year in Stuart, FL., the other six near Plattsburgh, NY.While in Florida he spends most of his time golfing.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t play that much, but I play enough for it to get boring sometimes,&rdquo; said the 52-year-old.Following his retirement as a player Marshall spent several seasons as a color commentator for Hockey Night in Canada telecasts. At the same time he was involved with a Mechanical Power Transmission business.Now it is all retirement.&ldquo;I got out of the game because I had enough travel,&rdquo; said Marshall. &ldquo;I enjoyed my career and being a part of five Stanley Cup teams in a row with Montreal.&ldquo;Winning that many in a row made winning the Stanley Cup something we almost began to take for granted.&ldquo;It was disappointing, to say the least, when we lost.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03599/5055029-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1186" height="772"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Marshall became one of the premier penalty killers in the league with Montreal, but he was not happy with that role.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

Departments

Marshall Switched Style To Fit Canadiens’ Needs

In the March 22 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we&rsquo;ll attempt to solve the riddle of the hockey universe&mdash;What&rsquo;s Wrong With The Minnesota North Stars?It&rsquo;s a question that is being asked a lot this season as the Stars, a Stanley Cup finalist a few years ago, struggle to make the National Hockey League playoffs. You look at their lineup and expect that they would be much higher in the NHL standings than they are.What&rsquo;s wrong? Can it be corrected, or are the Stars a victim of circumstance? You&rsquo;ll see next week in THE HOCKEY NEWS.And, depending upon whether Canadian postal workers go on strike, we may publish a reader survey, giving you a chance to tell us what you like or dislike about THN. If there is still a threat of a strike, we&rsquo;ll postpone the Reader Survey until you can mail back your survey without any problems. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011258/5054833-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Carpenter recently became the highest-scoring American ever in the National Hockey League, but played down his accomplishment.</figcaption></div>General manager David Poile appeared at the Washington Capitals&rsquo; annual pre-season luncheon in a state of shock. That morning the Washington Post predicted the Capitals would finish first in the Patrick Division and reach the Stanley Cup final before losing to Edmonton.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s putting an awful lot of pressure on this team,&rdquo; Poile protested. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see how anyone can write off the New York Islanders until they&rsquo;re beaten. The Islanders have got to be the favorites.&rdquo;Poile, in time-honored tradition, had protested too much. If he could not grasp the potential of the formidable machine he had helped to design, others could, and the Capitals&rsquo; march to second place behind Edmonton in the overall National Hockey League standings is a measure of continued, unimpeded progress.From a 65-point season in 1981-82, the Capitals have surged steadily forward, to 94 points and a playoff berth, to 101 and a spot in the Patrick Division final. This year, Washington has amassed 85 points with 16 games remaining and only a complete collapse could prevent the attainment of new heights.Such a collapse was unlikely. Only twice all season have the Capitals lost two games in a row; never have they dropped three. On Feb. 28, they achieved a milestone team victory. Playing for the first time in three years without defenseman Rod Langway, who was idled by stomach flu, they defeated the Rangers 5-4 in New York.If Poile was the producer of the Capital improvement, and Bryan Murray the director, Langway certainly has been the star.&ldquo;Rod is not the best in ability,&rdquo; Poile says, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s a hard-working guy with great intensity. He wins. He finds a way somehow to win, to block a shot, to get the puck out of our end.&rdquo;Langway, the ultimate workaholic, also finds a way to get his teammates going. The Capital who takes things a bit easy, or emphasizes individual achievement over team goals, will find Langway tapping him on the shoulder.On Nov. 24, the Capitals were stumbling along with a 6-8-5 record. Some players were taking unwise chances offensively, with a resulting breakdown in the defensive system that had been the core of Washington&lsquo;s success. That day, at practice, Langway held several discussions with his teammates.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to stop the bitching and moaning and looking for someone else to blame,&rdquo; Langway said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had enough meetings. It&rsquo;s time to get back to our normal selves, make the simple plays and not worry about goals, assists and plus-minus.&ldquo;Everybody seems to be worrying about the stats. Guys are satisfied if they&rsquo;ve scored a point or come out of a game plus one, whether the team won or lost. Once you get a greedy attitude like that, you&rsquo;ve got problems.&rdquo;Langway&rsquo;s words, of course, took care of the problems. Since that speech, the Capitals have rolled along with the best record in the NHL (32-8-4) and, except for the inexplicable failure of what was once the league&rsquo;s best penalty-killing unit, the defensive play has been remarkable.Since Christmas, the Capitals have permitted as many as 30 shots on goal only three times, with a high of 34. They threw up such a wall in front of goalie Pat Riggin that he probably cost himself an All-Star berth with the honest comment: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to play goal for this team.&rdquo;Despite the emphasis on basics, the Capitals are proving to be tough offensively. Their weapons were Bob Carpenter, whose 45 goals made him the leading U.S. scorer in NHL history, and linemate Mike Gartner, with 41.Although Carpenter shattered Joe Mullen&rsquo;s old mark of 41 in Winnipeg, he tied it at home, and the prolonged standing ovation that followed made him think twice about something he had termed irrelevant, comparing it to the North American Trophy in the Canada Cup.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t mean much to me,&rdquo; Carpenter said, &ldquo;but what made me proud was the way people reacted. Here I am an American in a Canadian sport, and I&rsquo;m happy for them.&ldquo;I felt a little funny, though. The only time I had to stand up before was when I was in school and I got yelled at.&rdquo;Carpenter is doing far more than just scoring goals. He is playing good hockey at both ends of the ice and is throwing his 192 pounds around in the comers and the slot.&ldquo;Bob Carpenter has matured, and not only as a goal scorer,&rdquo; Murray says. &ldquo;His work is more creative and he does a lot as a player. He&rsquo;s dominating situations and he&rsquo;s playing big and strong.&rdquo;There was concern that Carpenter and Gartner, both of whom participated in the Canada Cup, would tire as the season wore on, but they seem to be getting stronger instead. Gartner&rsquo;s two goals in the victory over the Rangers gave him six in five games.One of the NHL&rsquo;s fastest skaters, Gartner appears to have added a step this season. More important, he was varying his moves, instead of just racing down the right wing and winding up to shoot.&ldquo;Defensmen were cheating on me, so I&rsquo;ve tried to change things a bit,&rdquo; Gartner says. &ldquo;Of course, Bobby going so well makes them pay more attention to him, and that helps open things for me.&rdquo;The other big offensive contributor of a year ago, Bengt Gustafsson, scored four goals in three games, wrapped around another hamstring convalescence, to top his production by one over the previous 34 games he played.&ldquo;I talked to Bryan and he thought maybe I was playing too defensive,&rdquo; Gustafsson says. &ldquo;So I try to change my attitude and take the shot when it&rsquo;s there instead of looking for somebody to pass to.&rdquo;Dave Christian, after a slow start, built his goal total to 24. Alan Haworth, despite a bruised ankle and a groin pull that reduced his effectiveness, reached 18. A big lift offensively was provided by defenseman Scott Stevens, who moved to left wing on the power play and accounted for most of his 16 goals by jamming the front of the opposition&rsquo;s net.&ldquo;Last year, when I got 13 goals, I figured that was probably the most I&rsquo;d get,&rdquo; Stevens says. &ldquo;But Bryan putting me up front on the power play has helped me a lot. I&rsquo;ve gotten a lot of rebounds and tip-ins.&rdquo;Another major factor in the Capital gains is defenseman Mike McEwen, who made some important offensive contributions while enhancing his reputation defensively.&ldquo;Mike was going to be our sixth or seventh guy,&rdquo; Murray says, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s been far more than that. He&rsquo;s been very responsible, he&rsquo;s been good positionally, and shoots the puck a ton. He&rsquo;s bumped the pecking order down a bit.&rdquo;Darren Veitch and Larry Murphy have shown improvement and Murray cites their enthusiasm as one of the factors in the Capitals&rsquo; continued improvement.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not as young as a year ago (when Washington was the NHL&rsquo;s youngest team), but we&rsquo;re still a young hockey club,&rdquo; Murray says. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have the mid-season blahs some others have. We use everybody on the roster and that generates a fair amount of enthusiasm.&ldquo;We take every game pretty seriously, not just the better teams. A big factor is the preparation Langway, (Doug) Jarvis and Gartner do. They come to play and they&rsquo;re ready for every game in every way shape or form.&rdquo;If the Capitals are embellishing their reputation as one of hockey&rsquo;s best teams, they are slipping in another area, the bid to be recognized as America&rsquo;s team. Two of the club&rsquo;s six American players suddenly found themselves in Binghamton of the American League, as goalie Bob Mason and winger Gary Sampson drew the short straws along with center Glen Currie following Al Jensen&rsquo;s return and the promotions of Lou Franceschetti and Dean Evason. Another American, Bryan Erickson, was on thin ice with only one goal in 24 games.&ldquo;We give everybody a chance in this organization,&rdquo; Poile says. &ldquo;We want to know by the playoffs who the best 20 players are in this organization.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0003-01

Can Caps Cop Cup?

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div>David Poile turned around a Washington Capital franchise that had never made the playoffs.He traded for Rod Lang way. He traded for Brian Engblom. He traded Brian Engblom. He traded for Dave Christian.In between, he was putting the pieces together of a team that might just win the Stanley Cup.Wheeler-dealer Poile has made all the right moves&mdash;except for one thing. There&rsquo;s one deal David Poile just can&rsquo;t make.He can&rsquo;t sell his home in Calgary.Jokingly, during the All-Star break, Poile offered former boss Cliff Fletcher a mid-round draft pick in exchange for the Poile&rsquo;s house. Fletcher said he was interested in the draft pick, not the house.For two seasons, Flame captain Doug Riseb-rough rented the house. This year, Risebrough bought his own home.&ldquo;To get even with him,&rdquo; Poile said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll trade for him.&rdquo;Actually, Poile now has the house rented again. But he can&rsquo;t sell.&ldquo;Not unless I want to take a beating,&rdquo; Poile said.Back in the days of the brief Alberta oil boom, Poile had the misfortune to purchase a home in Calgary. It wasn&rsquo;t a bad purchase back in 1980. At the time, real estate prices were out of this world. It was a sellers&rsquo; market. Everyone was making money.Now Albertans seem to be walking away from mortgages as often as they&rsquo;re selling their homes.&ldquo;I could have sold it, but it depends on how much you&rsquo;re willing to lose,&rdquo; said Poile, of his North West home.Poile would not say how much he paid for the house, but estimates are in the $230,000 range. The house, in the prestigious Edgemont Estates area, is now worth in the $180,000 range.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice house,&rdquo; said Marilyn Riseb-rough, Doug&rsquo;s wife. &ldquo;The only problem is it&rsquo;s on five levels. We wanted a two-level home.&rdquo;Poile&rsquo;s final comment: &ldquo;What is this game coming to when my house becomes a story?&rdquo; &#9632;

The Deal Poile Can’t Make

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021203/5054912-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="386" height="429"></div>THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS STOPPED off in Edmonton recently to play a game against the Oilers and the result was the caliber for which the real hockey devotee waits all season.Not that the 3-3 tie between the Caps and Oilers established any historical standards for excitement or tension or extraordinary plays. However, it was a splendid display of big-league hockey, a match played with ferocity, abrasiveness, speed and much skill.There was a tendency to attach more significance to the game than perhaps it merited by suggesting that the match was a preview of the Stanley Cup final. That may well be because the Oilers and Caps are the top two teams on the National Hockey League&rsquo;s overall ladder. They play in different conferences and could meet in the Cup series when the playoff marathon winds down in late May.That would be okay. An Oiler-Cap final played similar to their recent meeting would draw few complaints. That game shot down a few popular theories about the two clubs, which are seen as being from opposite poles, a view that&rsquo;s a trifle distorted.The outlook is that the Oilers have a massive amount of raw talent which carries them to great heights, while the Caps don&rsquo;t have much natural skill but succeed because of great discipline and enormous effort.That, of course, is baloney. The Oilers have talent, but they work hard and know how to play. The Caps toil diligently and know how to play. But to say that a team with Bob Carpenter, Mike Gartner, Scott Stevens, Rod Langway and Bengt Gustafsson on its roster has little pure talent isn&rsquo;t quite correct.That meeting was a good example of the high caliber of hockey the NHL has dished up this season. There&rsquo;s been some splendid entertainment out there, exciting, fast-moving hockey played at a high technical level in a league where the caliber of competition is higher than at any other time in recent seasons.The standings recently showed that 10 teams were crammed into a space of 12 points from fourth through 13th place, the sound core for a league that means the majority of games are up for grabs. Simply, there are more good teams in the NHL this season than at any time before the World Hockey Association was bom in the early &rsquo;70s.At this advanced stage of the schedule, several splendid battles are shaping up for the &ldquo;stretchrun&rdquo; segment of the season. There&rsquo;s the Cap-Philadelphia Flyer joust for the Patrick pennant, the dandy three-team (Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres and Quebec Nordique) war in the Adams, Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; bid to catch the St. Louis Blues in the Norris and the joust between Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings for second and third place, respectively, in the Smythe, which means avoiding the Oilers in the first round of the playoffs.That so much remains unsettled so late&mdash;some of those wars will extend to the concluding week of the season&mdash;augurs well for excellent playoff action in every division.Of course, the Oilers will be favored to repeat their 1984 Cup triumph but they are in for one hell of a stiff fight. Think not? Well, in nine games against the Caps, Flyers and Canadiens, the three teams behind them on the overall ladder, the Oilers have a rather ordinary 2-5-2 won-lost-tied record.In addition to the teams involved in the hectic races, two clubs that have slipped somewhat this season, the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins, sit in a small limbo, out of the races above them in their divisions. But both teams are capable of being a playoff influence.To the contenders in the east, the Wales Conference, the increased competition for the Oilers in the Campbell section of the NHL is welcomed.In 1984, the Islanders played a tough, five-game set with the New York Rangers, a grind-it-out five with the Caps and an extremely arduous six-games with the Canadiens to qualify for the final. The Oilers, their opponents in the finals, swept the Jets, squeezed by the Flames in seven games in their only tough prep series, then whipped the Minnesota North Stars in four romps to win the west.The path to the final will be much more equal this time. &#9632;

f0004-02

Columnists

Paving The Cup Path With Parity

<div class="byline">BY JEFF Z. KLEIN AND KARL-ERIC REIF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031028/5054943-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg"></div><h2>FOR ARGUMENT&rsquo;S SAKE</h2>All through the National Hockey League record book there are references to the &ldquo;Defunct Franchises,&rdquo; but nowhere in the book does the league say anything about these franchises.As though they were people who have disappeared, all traces of these teams&rsquo; existence have been erased from the official record. This is an enormous disservice to hockey fans.The records of all six of the NHL&rsquo;s defunct franchises are in the box below (teams such as the Kansas City Scouts don&rsquo;t count because they live on today as the New Jersey Devils).OTTAWA SENATORS&mdash;The Senators were a charter member of the NHL when the league was founded in 1917. Drawing most of their talent from the Ottawa area&mdash;which produced the most and best players during hockey&rsquo;s first 40 years&mdash;the Senators were annually the powerhouse of the league. With such immortals as Cy Denneny, Tiny Nighbor and Clint Benedict leading the way, the Nats won Stanley Cups in 1920, &rsquo;21, &rsquo;23 and &rsquo;27 to go along with the two they&rsquo;d won before the formation of the NHL. But the club experienced severe financial difficulties with the onset of the Depression and had to suspend operations for the &rsquo;31-32 season. In 1934, they pulled up stakes and headed west to become the St. Louis Eagles, but lasted only one dismal season and folded.MONTREAL MAROONS&mdash;The Maroons were the favorites of Montreal&rsquo;s anglophones. At the turn of the century, all the hockey teams in the city, and in the rest of the province for that matter, were almost entirely made up of English-Canadian players and management. When Les Canadiens entered the scene in 1910, French-Canadiens suddenly had heroes to champion them on the ice, and within just seven years all the English-Canadian teams in Montreal had folded.The Maroons were founded in 1924 to restore a team to Montreal&rsquo;s English-speakers, who at first took the club to heart (the great Canadien defenseman of the &rsquo;50s and &rsquo;60s, Doug Harvey, grew up in Montreal as a staunch Maroons fan). Sharing the Forum with the rival Canadiens, they went on to win Cups in &rsquo;26 and &rsquo;35 behind such superstars as Nels Stewart and Alex Connell. But the Maroons couldn&rsquo;t approach the Canadiens&rsquo; enormous drawing power, and they disbanded in the fall of 1938.QUEBEC BULLDOGS&mdash;The Bulldogs were a power in the National Hockey Association (NHA) the league that was reorganized to become the NHL in 1917. But the Bulldogs were never very popular with Quebec City&rsquo;s fans&mdash;perhaps because there wasn&rsquo;t a single French-Canadian on the team. They joined the NHL in 1919, and finished a distant last, even though they had the brilliant Joe Malone on their roster.The next year the team was sold for $5,000 and moved to Hamilton where they were known as the Tigers. In 1925, led by the colorful forward Red Green, the Tigers finished first. But the players went on strike when management refused to pay each player an extra $200 for the playoffs, and the team was stripped of its title.Before the start of the following season, the club was bought for $75,000 by a rum-running bootlegger named Bill Dwyer, transferred to New York, rechristened the Americans, and garbed in a silly, star-spangled uniform that were not unlike today&rsquo;s Washington Capitals. In 1926, the Amerks were joined in Madison Square Garden by an expansion team, the Rangers, who were better and far more popular.The perennially cellar-dwelling Amerks tried to win new fans in 1941 by cashing in on the Manhattan-Brooklyn rivalry and renamed themselves the Brooklyn Americans. This scheme failed (probably because the club was still based in Manhattan&rsquo;s Madison Square Garden), and the team died before the next season began.OAKLAND SEALS&mdash;The Seals entered the NHL as part of the Great Expansion of 1967. From &rsquo;67 through &rsquo;74, the Seals were owned by the bizarre Charlie O. Finley, who, for some unknown reason, kept changing the team&rsquo;s name back and forth from the Oakland Seals to the California Seals and finally to the California Golden Seals. The miserable Seals went bankrupt in 1974 and were taken over by the league and, in &rsquo;76, they became the Cleveland Barons. After two more bumbling years they were absorbed by&mdash;and sparked the renaissance of&mdash;the struggling Minnesota North Stars.As inept as the Seals-Barons were, they did have some good players: Gilles Meloche, Dennis Maruk, Ivan Boldirev and Al MacAdam among others.PITTSBURGH PIRATES&mdash;The Pirates entered the NHL as an expansion team in 1925, and led by Hib Milks, Odie Cleghorn and Roy Worters, they finished a surprising third in their first year. But they steadily deteriorated afterwards, and by 1929 they found themselves in last place with a winning percentage of 148&mdash;to this day the third-worst single-season performance of all time.Having bored everyone in Pittsburgh, the team moved to Philadelphia in 1930 and became the Quakers. They were even worse there, their winning percentage just .136, the second worst of all time. The Quakers lost $100,000 (that&rsquo;s $800,000 U.S. in today&rsquo;s money) for their owner, the prizefighter Benny Leonard, and the team threw in the towel forever after that one season in Philadelphia.MONTREAL WANDERERS&mdash;Between 1906 and 1910, the Montreal Wanderers won four Cups in five years. They were indisputably the best team in hockey&mdash;during those five years they had 11 future Hall of Famers in their lineup.In 1917, they entered the NHL. With Art Ross as playing coach and Bert Lindsay (Ted Lindsay&rsquo;s father) in the nets, the club seemed ready to challenge for another Cup. But their rink, the famous Westmount Arena, burned down after only six games of the &rsquo; 17-18 season. The illustrious Wanderers vanished from the face of the earth, never to return.<h2>Defunct Franchises</h2>* Ottawa Senators did notice a team during 1931-32 season** Ottawa Senators won additional Cup (&ldquo;09) prior to formation of NHA, and another additional Cup (&rsquo;11) while in NHA*** Quebec Bulldogs won two Cups (&rsquo;12, &rsquo;13) while in NHA**** Montreal Wanderers won three Cups (&rsquo;06, &rsquo;17, &rsquo;08) prior to formation of NHA, and another additional Cup (&rsquo;10) while in NHA &#9632;

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Everything From Senators To Seals

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011159/5054974-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="340" height="446"></div>Q: On Jan. 11, 1985, Michigan Tech was playing Boston. In the third period, a BU player crossed the red line and shot the puck toward the left comer, and the MT goaltender skated behind his net to play the anticipated puck. However, the Zamboni gate in the side board near the comer had not been totally closed, and the puck hit it and bounced at almost an exact right angle to the front of the empty net, where a BU forward tossed it in.Is the condition of the rink a &ldquo;given&rdquo; in every case so that the goal was necessarily allowed, should the goal have been disallowed or is the situation a judgment call for the referee?William E. Barstow, Jr.&nbsp;Hancock, MlA: The condition of a rink is &ldquo;given&rdquo; in every case and the scoring of a goal is allowed in this situation. Many times there are similar types of plays where the puck bounces off the glass or boards or even the officials in an erratic manner and this is part of the play. The only time it isn&rsquo;t is where the puck hits any object above the normal height of the glass and play will be stopped.Q: Is a game misconduct penalty automatic for the third major penalty to one player in a game? And is the referee allowed to break up fights?Steve Dull&nbsp;Highland, INA: Yes, if a player receives three major penalties in a game, he also receives a game misconduct. These majors may come from fisticuffs or for highsticking, slashing, etc.As to your second question, no, the referee is not empowered to break up a fight. It is his duty to observe all incidents and apply the appropriate penalty or penalties.As a matter of fact, in the NHL the referee is advised not to attempt to break up a fight because he may miss seeing a major foul that takes place there or elsewhere.Q: Why is a hand pass a play stoppage? As far as I can see, if a man can bat the puck to a teammate, that is a good play, not a violation.William N. Harrison&nbsp;Mountain Lakes, NJA: The whistle is not blown to stop play for a hand pass unless the referee deems it to be deliberate. This is a rule that carries over from the old days of hockey and has been eased up on somewhat (a few years ago any hand pass to a teammate called for an automatic stoppage in play). I believe in years to come they will alter this rule further because as you point out, in most cases, it is an unnecessary stoppage in play.If you want your questions answered, write to:ASK THE REFEREE6455 NORTHAM DRIVE, SUITE 100 Mississauga, Ont. L4V 1J2All questions will be considered, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

f0005-01

ASK THE REFEREE

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; New York farm system director Bert Olmstead said that the Rangers would not consider any Swedish prospects. &ldquo;There are no hockey players in Sweden of NHL calibre, or even potential prospects.&rdquo;&bull; The Detroit Red Wings balked at Lou Pieri, owner of the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League, who demanded $70,000 from the Detroit Red Wings for the services of goaltender Ed Giacomin, who had never played an NHL game.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Former Boston Bruin defense great, Eddie Shore, 67, was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for his service to hockey in the United States.&bull; New York Ranger team doctor, Kazuo Yanagisawa, died of a heart attack at the age of 55. Yanagisawa saved the career of Rod Gilbert in 1965 by performing spinal fusion surgery on the former Ranger star.<h2>Last Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. 1925-26.2. Wayne Maki. 3. Sam LoPresti 4. New Jersey, Washington, Edmonton, Hartford. 5. Pat Hughes and Mark Napier. 6. New Hampshire. 7. Rick Middleton. 8. Ted Hampson. 9. Claude Provost (1968) and Serge Savard (1979), both with Montreal. 10. New York Islanders 6, Vancouver 5, May 8, 1982. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04398/5055067-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div>that the NHL teams with the most 20-goal scorers in one season are: &#9632;

f0005-04

Did You Know…

1. Name the last Stanley Cup champion to miss the playoffs the season after their victory?2. What coach led the Los Angeles Kings to the Stanley Cup semi-finals in 1969?3. What former NHL goalie was known as &ldquo;Smiley Bates?&rdquo;4. How many NHL goals did Gordie Howe&rsquo;s brother Vic score?5. What current NHL coach was voted the top NHL prospect of the Quebec Junior League in 1962-63?6. Name the first NHL coach to pull his goalie in a league game?7. What goaltender was named to the NHL Second All-Star team in 1980-81?8. What current NHL assistant coach scored the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; first NHL goal?9. Name the last player to score an overtime goal in Stanley Cup final game?10. Who has scored the most shorthanded goals in Stanley Cup play?Answers in next week&rsquo;s issue. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011341/5055122-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="378" height="446"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler&rsquo;s ON THE CONTRARY</figcaption></div>Explaining the inexplicable:THE GREAT BRENT ASHTON MYSTERY&mdash; How can a guy who flubbed out in Vancouver (197980), New Jersey (1982-83) and Minnesota (1983-84) suddenly find prosperity and happiness with the Quebec Nordiques?ANSWER: The secret is 1981-82. In between Ashton&rsquo;s off years, he had one half-decent season with Colorado, scoring 24 goals and 36 assists. When the Rockies moved to the Meadowlands, Ashton was depicted as the Devils&rsquo; Wayne Gretzky. He got nowhere fast in a hurry. When he arrived in Bloomington, they made a defensive forward out of him. Give Nordique coach Michel Bergeron credit for remembering that Ashton was a super-scorer in junior. He let him play offense for a change and the former phenom found his form.RIC SEILING SOLVES THE GRETZKY DILEMMA&mdash; In a startling revelation, Ric Seiling tells how Gretzky can be stopped. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s easy to watch,&rdquo; says Seiling. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re on him enough, if you bug him enough, he&rsquo;ll quit. He&rsquo;ll quit skating.&rdquo;COMMENT: I am impressed with Seiling&rsquo;s rhetoric, as I am with anyone who tells me that The Great One is stoppable. Seiling adds: &ldquo;If you follow him around, play four on four, he&rsquo;ll start doing cheap stuff. I really think he can be shut down.&rdquo; Then, I pick up the daily stat sheet and read how Gretzky scored a bundle against the Sabres or the Blues or the Anybodies and I come to the conclusion that the guy who invented the line &ldquo;talk is cheap&rdquo; must have had Ric Seiling in mind.PENGUINS, DEVILS BLOW CHANCE FOR A PLAYOFF BERTH&mdash;On a silver platter, the New York Rangers delivered fourth-place in the Patrick Division to Pittsburgh and New Jersey, and both refused it. The kind offer came in the form of Herb Brooks&rsquo; firing and then a stretch where the Rangers simply would not win, dropping six and tying one. And, still the Penguins and Devils turned down fourth. Are they ingrates or what?ANSWER: No, they are lousy teams and the Rangers are a good team that played lousy for a long while. The Penguins are too young, too inexperienced, too dependent on Mario Lemieux and stuck with mediocre goaltending. The Devils are&mdash;with some key exceptions&mdash;too old. Their goaltending (Chico Resch, 36, Ron Low, 34) is ancient and ailing. Fill-in Finn Hannu Kampurri is two years away from being a big-leaguer and the kids (Kirk Muller, John MacLean et al) are not strong enough to lift the club. The defensive anchors, Dave Lewis, Phil Russell and Bob Lorimer, also are aging. By ordinary standards, the Rangers should have run away from them in November. Instead, it will happen in March.DARRYL SITTLER DOES NOTHING IN DETROIT&mdash; You&rsquo;d have thought that Sittler would have helped the Red Wings this season before resuming his love affair with his bankbook. Instead, we hear nothing but mumbling and grumbling from Joe Louis Arena. Sittler can&rsquo;t get along with Nick Polano, blah-blah. Sittler&rsquo;s contribution is minus-zilch.COMMENT: I&rsquo;m beginning to think Harold Ballard was right about Sittler and Bobby Clarke was more than right in booting him off Broad Street at the earlist possible moment. The only difference between Darryl Sittler and Tiger Williams is that the latter wrote a book.RATING THE GOALIES&mdash;New York Ranger general manager Craig Patrick may not remember this but his grandfather, Hall of Famer Lester Patrick, once said that a goalie is the equivalent of the entire pitching staff on a baseball team. &ldquo;The goalie,&rdquo; Lester Patrick explained, &ldquo;is 70 per cent of a team&rsquo;s strength. A good one can make a week team awfully tough to beat. A mediocre one will ruin his team.&rdquo;With that in mind, I decided to check with an expert and find out who are the best netminders in captivity. I chose former NHLer John Davidson, currently a broadcaster based in Calgary. JD doesn&rsquo;t know everything about goaltending but he does know more than you, me and Hannu Kampurri put together, so let&rsquo;s hear what he has to say:&bull; BEST ONE-TWO COMBINATION&ldquo;Without a doubt, Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr in Edmonton. At this time, Moog is probably the best goalie in the entire league. He&rsquo;s more in control of his body than ever.&rdquo;&bull; BEST CLUTCH GOALIES&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go back to Moog and Fuhr. Remember how Fuhr shut out the Islanders in the first game of the finals last spring. Bill Smith must be up there when you consider what he did in other playoffs. Reggie Lemelin is good, too, but I&rsquo;m not ready to put him up there with the best&mdash;yet.&rdquo;&bull; BEST SWEDISH GOALIE&ldquo;Pelle Lindbergh of the Flyers is more at ease now than he was when he first came up to the NHL. He&rsquo;s had a great season because he&rsquo;s not worried about the past. The coach (Mike Keenan) is leaving him alone so he&rsquo;s not being over-coached.&rdquo;&bull; BEST YOUNG GOALIE&ldquo;;Kelly Hrudey (of the Islanders) looks to me like the one with the best future. I think he&rsquo;s going to be great. And I like his work habits. He&rsquo;s the kind who won&rsquo;t dwell on the bad.&rdquo;&bull; OTHERS WORTHY OF COMMENT&ldquo;Tom Barrasso is up there with the best of them and Richard Brodeur can be a hot pistol. He singlehandedly got a lot of points for the Vancouver Canucks. The Blues&rsquo; goalies have played well but, for some reason, nobody talks about them.&rdquo;&bull; BAD GOALIES0&ldquo;There are no bad goalies, there are just goalies who are in tougher situations. The majority of goaltenders are all at the same level&mdash;average.&rdquo;HART TO HART&mdash;It is too bad that more people around the NHL do not have the pleasure of listening to Flyer play-by-play ace Gene Hart, either on the air or, as has been my good fortune, in person.Not only is Hart a superb announcer but also a master storyteller, and I want to share one that he told me recently. It&rsquo;s about the time he visted the Cherry Hill Arena in New Jersey to see a game between the old Syracuse Blazers and the Jersey Devils (then an Eastern League team.) It was a nutsy game, filled with fights, injuries and meagre rosters. The Devils won 17-16 (yes, that&rsquo;s right), although Syracuse, which had only seven players left in the third period, nearly tied the game.When Hart returned to the Spectrum that night he encountered Flyer forward Pat Hannigan and excitedly told him about the game. &ldquo;You should have seen it, Pat,&rdquo; Hart exclaimed. &ldquo;Syracuse played with seven guys. Rookie Rick Anderson scored four goals, had seven assists for 11 points, but they lost 17-16.&rdquo;Hannigan digested the facts, empathized with the visiting Syracusans and then delivered a priceless squelch: &ldquo;Gee! You score 16 on the road&hellip;you oughta get a point!&rdquo;30-SECOND THIRD DEGREE&mdash;Rick Wamsley, of the St. Louis Blues, will you please take the stand:Q: How different is it playing in St. Louis compared with Montreal?WAMSLEY: There is a lot less pressure from management and the fans in St. Louis With the Canadiens, you&rsquo;re expected to win the Stanley Cup and win every game.Q: When you were traded to St. Louis, your former teammate, Mike Liut, said he was surprised that the Blues would keep two high-calibre goalies.WAMSLEY: Mike told me that there were rumors that he was going to be traded and the rumors heated up when I was picked up. But in this day and age, you&rsquo;ve got to have two guys who can play goal because one guy can&rsquo;t play 60 games a year and really help the team. Some teams sacrifice up to 20 games a year playing a guy they don&rsquo;t have confidence in, but those points will come back to haunt them late in the season.Q: How does the Liut-Greg Millen-Mark Johnson deal affect you?WAMSLEY: Mike and I proved that two guys can do the job. With Millen it should continue that way. I&rsquo;m close to the top of my game and I&rsquo;m happy with the way things have gone in St. Louis.Q: How difficult was it making the adjustment to new teammates?WAMSLEY: I compare it to a kid going to a new school. If you walk into a classroom and don&rsquo;t see anyone you know, it&rsquo;s a little uncomfortable but if you know some of the people there, it makes the transition a little easier. That&rsquo;s the way it was for me. I knew four or five players&mdash;Doug Wickenheiser, Gil Delorme, among others&mdash;who played with me on the Canadiens. Right off the bat I had some people I could really talk to and get insight from. It made it easier.Q: What type of goaltending style will work best in the late 1980s?WAMSLEY: The kind that keeps the puck out of the net.THE FERGIE FACTOR&mdash;Pardon me if I deliver a paid political announcement on behalf of John Ferguson. Ever since The Intense One took as general manager of the Winnipeg Jets in 1978, the word was out that if he lasted a year it would be a lot.So it&rsquo;s now seven years and Fergie has done damn well by himself.He built a championship World Hockey Association team, saw it ravaged by the NHL-WHA merger, hit bottom with the leftovers and then rebuilt. In the process he erred from time to time, drafting Jimmy Mann over Kevin Lowe and leaving Kent Nilsson unprotected at the merger time.Kids such as Dale Hawerchuk and Brian Hayward are proving that Fergie is no dummy in the draft department. His move for Randy Carlyle demonstrates that he&rsquo;s not chicken to make a daring deal. His gamble on chronic loser Robert Picard underlines the point that it&rsquo;s never too late to ressurect a seemingly ruined hockey player. Furthermore, he hasn&rsquo;t done badly at all with his coaching choice, Barry Long.&ldquo;Fergie&rsquo;s problem,&rdquo; writes Winnipeg Free Press columnist Hal Sigurdson, &ldquo;is he offers such an inviting target. He&rsquo;s forever annointing 18-year-old kids as, &lsquo;The Franchise.&rsquo;&rdquo;Fergie disagrees slightly. &ldquo;When I say a kid like David Ellett has a good chance to be rookie of the year,&rdquo; says Ferguson, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not putting pressure on him. He was ready to play.&rdquo;And how does John Ferguson rate himself? &ldquo;I can build a hockey club as good as anyone.&rdquo;I second the motion. &#9632;

f0006-01

Answers To Some Of The Hockey Mysteries

<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2>The International Olympic Committee has cleared the way for the National Hockey League to use players in the 1988 Olympics.The IOC made the decision on Feb. 28, stating that professional hockey, soccer and tennis players will be allowed to participate in the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, Korea and the Winter Games in Calgary, Alta.However, the age limit for the players is under 23 and the decision is only temporary, according to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.&ldquo;This decision is only for 1988,&rdquo;said Samaranch. &ldquo;After 1988 we will see. The Olympic movement must go with the times.&rdquo;The board&rsquo;s decision must be approved by the IOC&rsquo;s 91 members at their June session in East Berlin, but this is considered a formality.Yet even if the decision is given the go-ahead, it&rsquo;s unlikely NHL teams would allow their players to participate in the Olympics because it occurs during the hockey season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be surprised if any player on a regular roster would play in the 1988 Olympics,&rdquo; said NHL president John Ziegler. &ldquo;Players will be expected to honor their contracts.&rdquo;In a separate matter, International Ice Hockey Federation head Gunther Sabetzki told Olympic organizers that six of the major hockey nations, including the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, are threating to boycott the 1988 Winter Games unless the schedule is shortened.Sabetzki, speaking for the European federation, wants the tournament to last only 10 days instead of the Calgary organizers&rsquo; proposed 16-day schedule, because he feels it will take seven weeks out of their schedules and their clubs teams will not be compensated for participating without their top athletes.&ldquo;Some of the teams would be without income for seven weeks,&rdquo; Sabetzki said. &ldquo;That is a long time without revenue.&rdquo;Sabetzki said that Finland, Austria, Sweden and East Germany are upset about the extended schedule along with the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.Czechoslovakian officials are unhappy with the NHL&rsquo;s scouting practices overseas. The Czechoslovakians contend the NHL teams are putting pressure on their players and it&rsquo;s affecting their performances.NHL president John Ziegler is aware of the problem and has talked to his teams about it.&ldquo;Some things that our teams have done in trying to recruit Czechoslovakian players have been less than right,&rdquo; Ziegler was quoted in the Toronto Star. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had to remind them that there are proper channels to be taken. I don&rsquo;t think NHL teams would be too happy if people from Czechoslovakia tried to recruit their players during the season without asking permission from their clubs.&rdquo;Stories that the Hockey Hall of Fame will be moved from its present location on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto are untrue, said NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill.&ldquo;We are currently on the Exhibition ground and no one has made any overtures to move the Hall of Fame anywhere,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill told the Toronto Globe and Mail&rsquo;s&nbsp;Al Strachan. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not suggesting that it may not happen, because there are always discussions going on about the location, and we have concerns about the amount of traffic. We&rsquo;re always concerned about the status of the Hockey Hall of Fame. But we have made no decision to move it, and I have not heard from anybody about moving it to Montreal.&rdquo;However, Strachan claims a highly-placed source in the NHL says the Hall of Fame will be moved.Edmonton owner Peter Pocklington agreed to reduce the cost of tickets for the Stanley Cup finals following protestations by his team&rsquo;s fans.Pocklington, in a hastily-called news conference, announced ticket in creases for the final&mdash;should the Oilers make it that far&mdash;would escalate $6.50, the same as the increase for the first three rounds, and not $12 as originally announced. &#9632;

NHL Players Allowed To Play In Olympics

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011194/5055177-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="120" height="113"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;The skidding Edmonton Oilers found themselves being genuinely put through the grinder during the dog days of late February and early March.The defending Stanley Cup champions could do nothing right as they unsuccessfully strived to lock up the final formality of the 1984-85 campaign&mdash;first place in the Smythe Division.Here&rsquo;s why:&bull; Captain Wayne Gretzky aggravated a pulled groin during a 6-3 loss to Winnipeg on March 3 and was a questionable starter for the Oilers&rsquo; date in Calgary two nights later.&ldquo;I hurt it a week earlier in Washington,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t that bad, but now it&rsquo;s gotten worse.&rdquo;&bull; Then it goes to the goaltenders. Junior goalie Darryl Reaugh was forced to parachute in from Kamloops in time to absorb the loss to Winnipeg&mdash;marking the first time that Jets have won at the Northlands Coliseum since another junior goalie. Grant Fuhr, made his NHL debut back on Oct. 14, 1981.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">It&rsquo;s been like pulling teeth trying to get the Oilers to admit that they are really in a slump.</blockquote>Andy Moog jammed both his knees as March came roaring in like a lion after a collision with teammate Paul Coffey and Los Angeles&rsquo; John-Paul Kelly during the second period of the Kings&rsquo; 5-4 triumph. Fuhr, in the meantime, has been out since Feb. 19 with a slightly separated left shoulder, leaving the Oilers minus their two All-Star goaltenders.&bull; Dave Semenko hurt himself, too, in the Kings&rsquo; game. The big left winger suffered a pulled muscle in his back during some jostling in front of the net after he raced from the penalty box, where he had been stationed for a major penalty. Semenko&rsquo;s spot with Billy Carroll and Willy Lindstrom was assumed by Dave Lumley during the Winnipeg game, but with Gretzky questionable, Lumley moved to center between Jari Kurri and Mike Krushelnyski during practice.&bull; With the Oilers missing their two top goaltenders, there&rsquo;s been speculation of a trade. However, if general manager-coach Glen Sather was to make a deal, he would&rsquo;ve had to do so from Hawaii during a busman&rsquo;s holiday. Never mind the malarky of Sather &ldquo;scouting in Europe,&rdquo; as the media was informed by the Oilers&rsquo; P. R. office.The word on Moog was that he could be back for a March 9 date against the New York Rangers.&ldquo;That&rsquo;ll make it a full week,&rdquo; said Moog. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where the sights are set.&rdquo;The 25-year-old wasn&rsquo;t exactly enamoured with the way Kelly came barging into Coffey to create the pile-up.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he was doing it on purpose,&rdquo; said Moog of the incident that occurred seven minutes into the second period. &ldquo;Paul was trying to guide him to the side, but he put his head down and tried to come right through the net.&rdquo;Marco Baron, who just a month ago was pounding the pavement of Montreal seeking a job in sales or P.R., took over for the final 33 minutes of the L.A. game. But Baron was once again shunted to backup status when the 20-year-old Reaugh was brought in from junior.Oiler assistant coach John Muckier, the bench boss during Sather&rsquo;s absence, maintained it was his decision&mdash;and his alone&mdash;to start Reaugh.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s in our system and it was a good opportunity to see him play,&rdquo; said Muckier, refusing to admit he was attempting to rally the troops by placing a youngster in goal.&ldquo;I tried to keep relaxed,&rdquo; said Reaugh, &ldquo;but there&rsquo;s no question I had butterflies. I just wanted to go up there and not embarrass myself.&rdquo;He didn&rsquo;t. As for 18 teammates&hellip;It&rsquo;s been like pulling teeth to get the Oilers to admit they&rsquo;ve been in a slump. But the loss to the Jets left no other alternative.&ldquo;You always try to avoid that word,&rdquo; cringed Muckier. &ldquo;But, I have to admit this is a mild one.&rdquo;Well, at least that&rsquo;s a start.Here, for the uniformed, are some definitions of a slump:&bull; Losing at home to Winnipeg for the first time in three-and-half years. The victory for the Jets was their first here in 16 seasonal and playoff outings.&bull; Losing three in a row at home for the first time since late in their first NHL season (1979-80). They&rsquo;re also winless in four at the Coliseum (0-3-1), the first time that&rsquo;s happened since November 1982 (0-2-2). And, the way they&rsquo;ve been responding, they&rsquo;re apt to challenge the 1980-81 home-ice futility standard when Bugsy Watson coached the second-year Oilers to seven (0-3-4) without a win before he was fired by (and replaced by) Sather.&ldquo;No question, we&rsquo;re not playing our best hockey,&rdquo; understated Gretzky. &ldquo;Sometimes you go into a slump and one guy on a line or two isn&rsquo;t going; even two full lines aren&rsquo;t going. But never, never do you have four lines having that much trouble.&rdquo;Gretzky said the time has come to revert to &ldquo;square one, and get back to the fundamentals of dumping the puck in.&rdquo;But, isn&rsquo;t it a little late in the season to go back to the basics?&ldquo;When we played Calgary in game seven we had to go back to the basics,&rdquo; replied Gretzky, referring to a 7-4 triumph over the Flames in the Smythe Division finals last season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s never too late.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s just that it has been getting later than the Oilers care to think. &#9632;

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No Question About It, Oilers Are Slumping

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Give Players Their Due</h2>IS IT ANY wonder that the National Hockey League has had so little labor unrest compared to other major North American pro sports?Cynics&mdash;those more familiar with baseball and football dealings&mdash;might suggest that&rsquo;s one reason why pro hockey isn&rsquo;t in the same salary bracket as the other big-time sports.But for those of us inside the game, we know the real reason for cordial owner-player relations is because the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association has a sense of what it is and how it fits in the grand scheme of things.It doesn&rsquo;t take an Einstein to figure out that the financial health of the NHL hasn&rsquo;t been too great in the last decade. With an overflow of common sense and decency, not to mention a penchant for preserving jobs in the NHL, the Players&rsquo; Association, led by Alan Eagleson, has accommodated the owners whenever possible.All of which has helped many of the NHL&rsquo;s losing (financially) franchises get back on track, to the point where fewer than five or six teams will lose money this season.So, now that the picture is somewhat brighter, the NHLPA is ready for a few accommodations to come its way, courtesy of the owners, something Eagleson made clear at the All-Star break in Calgary.What is it it wants? Total free agency? A big cut of the new television deal?No, according to Eagleson, the prime objective in coming bargaining sessions will be along the lines of career counselling, continuing education and some sort of guaranteed financial arrangement for any player with a minimum number of years service in the league.Now, that doesn&rsquo;t seem too unreasonable, does it? No, of course not. In fact, it&rsquo;s encouraging to see the players thinking of their futures, especially when you consider the average NHL career is less than five years long.Granted, the estimated price tag for the program is stiff&mdash;$12-20 million intially, $3 million a year after that&mdash;but of all the demands the NHLPA could have made, this one makes the most sense.That&rsquo;s why the owners should think twice before they try to dismiss such a huge outlay for something that won&rsquo;t generate any revenue.They not only owe it to the players, they owe it to the game of hockey to help take care of their employees as best they can and keep owner-player relations on an even keel. &#9632;

The Hockey News

<h2>FAN FORUM</h2>Let your voice be heard! Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scaredale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., Canada M3B 2R2.I can&rsquo;t tell you how I felt after first seeing one of the Blues on the cover of THE HOCKEY NEWS (Feb. 8), then reading Harry Omest&rsquo;s letter to us opposite the Blues&rsquo; article. Mr. Ornest thanks us? He is a godsend to St. Louis. If it weren&rsquo;t for him, the only sports news we&rsquo;d have would be about whether Bill Bidwell will move the football Cardinals to Phoenix, New York, Saskatoon or Siberia.The Blues are the most exciting thing in town. Who needs Wayne Gretzky? Sitting in the first row and watching Brian Sutter or Mark Reeds dig for the puck in the comer, the agonized concentration their faces, is what hockey is all about. Thanks to Mr. Ornest, it is still a part of our lives.Laura Stewart&nbsp;St. Louis, MO<h2>RANGER BOSSES BLEW IT</h2>Once again, the management of the New York Rangers has demonstrated how not to run a hockey team. I refer, of course, to the totally unjustified firing of Herb Brooks.The stated cause for his dismissal was the team&rsquo;s poor performance. Well, considering the incredible blitz of injuries the team has suffered this year, how well could the team have performed? The problem, then, was that third-string and erstwhile minor-leaguers weren&rsquo;t living up to expectations. But weren&rsquo;t these Craig Patrick&rsquo;s and Jack Krumpe&rsquo;s picks? And, in turn, their expectations?Remember, these are men who insist that there is room on an 18-player roster for players of dubious merit&mdash;i.e. Nick Fotiu&mdash;even if their only role is that of a cheerleader.Similar to so many other Ranger coaches, Herb was told he&rsquo;d have five years. Well, I thought that as of last year&rsquo;s playoff versus the Islanders the team was coming along quite well. Then came 1984 and the injuries. So it was bye-bye Herb, and about those five years&hellip;sorry.Herb came into the league with a lot of strikes against him. It was clear much of the hockey establishment desired to see him fail, as much as Ranger fans wanted to see him succeed. But in the end neither group got satisfaction, because Jack Krumpe didn&rsquo;t give Herb a chance.Alex Carswell&nbsp;Brooklyn, NY<h2>TWISTED FAN SUPPORT</h2>It&rsquo;s time to stop criticizing the Maple Leafs. No team can be expected to win when even their own fans don&rsquo;t support them. Instead of kicking them when they&rsquo;re down, Leaf fans should be behind them, giving encouragement.How can the players get &ldquo;up&rdquo; for a game when they hear boos and jeers in their own building from their own &ldquo;fans&rdquo;.My apologies to the Leafs for the actions of the fans. Let&rsquo;s prove the critics wrong! I&rsquo;m still a believer.In the words of Twisted Sister, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to take it anymore.&rdquo;Carol Romphf&nbsp;Watford, Ont.<h2>GAME CHANGED FOR BETTER</h2>I am really sick and tired of sportswriters and other people who complain that there is too much scoring in today&rsquo;s hockey, and that it is ruining the game. I agree that the game has changed. New, lighter-weight equipment has made the game faster, and European influence has changed the style of the game. But for the worst? No way!Take a survey of hockey fans, and see if they prefer a low scoring game to a high scoring game. I&rsquo;d bet my last dollar that they&rsquo;d choose a high-scoring game. After all, what is the ultimate thrill in hockey? A goal of course.Face it, the game of hockey has changed, and it&rsquo;s more exciting than ever. And those of you who don&rsquo;t like it can stay home, watch reruns of I Love Lucy, and remember how life used to be.Jon Vetter&nbsp;Burbank, IL<h2>KEEP THE BOARDS CLEAN</h2>This fan&rsquo;s respect goes to the NHL arenas that manage to &ldquo;pay the bills&rdquo; without resorting to painting advertising along the boards of their rinks.It&rsquo;s hard to understand why the NHL heirarchy can&rsquo;t exert the pressure needed to keep playing surfaces free of this garrish commercialism. The sides of a rink are as much a part of the playing area as the ice. It needs to be solid white for a proper background for the puck. How long before some arena owners begin to freeze paid advertising into open areas of the ice, or entwine them into the goal netting? Let them cover their arenas, time clocks and Zambonis but keep it out of the playing area.Tom Kydd&nbsp;Grosse Pointe, MI. &#9632;

Blues Fan Thanks Ornest

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011279/5055256-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="398" height="454"></div>It isn&rsquo;t often that there is reason to applaud a situation where a hockey matter is dragged before the courts, but Peter Karmanos vs. the NCAA is the kind of knock &lsquo;em out, drag &lsquo;em out affair a lot of people have been awaiting for a long time.If you flip over to the top story on Page 10, you can get the lowdown on the lawsuit filed by the millionaire computer magnate from suburban Detroit who is also the president and owner of the Compuware Hockey Club and the Windsor Spitfires.But the bottom line is that someone is finally going to test the NCAA&rsquo;s contention that Canadian major junior hockey is professional and its players&mdash;even if they haven&rsquo;t signed a professional contract&mdash;are &ldquo;contaminated&rdquo; or &ldquo;tainted&rdquo; and ineligible to compete in U.S. college hockey.As you can read on Page 10, this NCAA interpretation has forced 15- and 16-year-olds in both Canada and the United States to make vital career decisions when they should still be having some fun playing the game.At this point, it&rsquo;s difficult to figure which way the decision will go, or whether it will be one of these legal wrangles that floats from court to court without being solved. As a rule, the NCAA has a good track record in the legal arena, though it has lost some major decisions. But more than a few U.S. lawyers, who are as close to neutral observers as possible, figure the NCAA doesn&rsquo;t have a chance.If that is indeed the case and the contentious &ldquo;contamination&rdquo; rule is buried forever, then we have two reasons to celebrate.First, because an odious situation will have faded from view.Second, because a chap such as Karmanos came along with the time, effort, money, clout and know-how to do what so many before him have thought about doing, but, for one reason or another, never accomplished.&ldquo;They (the NCAA) have invited me to a meeting in April to discuss what I don&rsquo;t like about the rules,&rdquo; says Karmanos, &ldquo;and I still plan to attend that meeting. But we finally said, &lsquo;You aren&rsquo;t putting us off any more. We&rsquo;ll come to your meeting in April, but in the meantime we&rsquo;re going to sue you.&rsquo;&rdquo;Karmanos adds that he&rsquo;s heard some rumbles that the NCAA is going to modify the eligibility rule anyway.&ldquo;And I guess we&rsquo;ll find out soon enough about that,&rdquo; headds. &ldquo;Within a week or two of this lawsuit hitting them (it was filed on Feb. 27), they&rsquo;ll do one of two things&mdash;either immediately fall back and change the rule or dig in for a fight.&rdquo;If the NCAA opts for the latter, then Karmanos is prepared. He&rsquo;s got a top constitutional lawyer, Erwin Ellmann of Detroit, in his comer and he certainly doesn&rsquo;t have to concern him self with legal fees, not with Compuware Corp, expected to close out the fiscal year with revenues of more than $48 million.And as if he needed any other incentive, his son, another Peter (he is, in fact, Peter III), is included in the suit. The younger Karmanos is a freshman at the University of Michigan who played 60 games with Laval of the Quebec League last season and has been deemed ineligible by the NCAA.&ldquo;Oh, we knew from the beginning that Pete going to Laval would make him ineligible in the eyes of the NCAA,&rdquo; the father says. &ldquo;Just like I knew that I&rsquo;d test this ridiculous rule one day. It just so happens it involves my son. But it affects my hockey program in Detroit and hey, I&rsquo;m the owner of a major junior team in Canada. I&rsquo;ve got plenty of reasons to want to see it changed.&rdquo;Not the least of which is for the good of hockey.So if Karmanos wins, it&rsquo;ll be one major problem down, one to go.Then maybe we can bring on the entry draft, along with the myriad of problems it&rsquo;s caused, and have a kick at fixing it, too. &#9632;

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Here’s A Court Case To Get Excited About

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011258/5055287-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="566" height="936"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Dineen plays with as much intensity in practice as he does in game situations.</figcaption></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02946/5055294-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="117" height="107"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Straightshooters, whether they score goals or not, are something the Hartford Whalers have needed for a very long time.Say hello to Kevin Dineen, a 21-year-old right winger who refuses to hide his emotions.&ldquo;Geezus, we should have won,&rdquo; he said after the Whalers had dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to lowly Toronto in Hartford on Feb. 17. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s just no excuse for blowing that one.&rdquo;Dineen has been the Whalers&rsquo; biggest surprise this season. Everyone knew that he played with enthusiasm, but no one suspected that there was no end to that enthusiasm. When Dineen misses the net, he becomes incensed.In practice.&ldquo;I yelled at him one time and I apologized later,&rdquo; said ex-Whaler goalie Greg Millen. &ldquo;He tries to score every time. I mean, every time. He gets so mad when he doesn&rsquo;t. He almost took my head off, but I really shouldn&rsquo;t have said anything. He&rsquo;s a great kid. It&rsquo;s almost like you have to say, &lsquo;Here&rsquo;s the ball, kid, run with it.&rsquo; He&rsquo;d help us even if he didn&rsquo;t score.&rdquo;But Dineen is scoring, and often. In his first 33 games in Hartford since being called up from Binghamton of the American Hockey League on Dec. 2, he had 15 goals, including seven in seven games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the line, not me,&rdquo; said Dineen, who was the 56th pick overall in the 1982 draft and is the son of former Whaler coach Bill Dineen. &ldquo;Torrie (Robertson) is doing the banging and Greg (Malone) is setting up all the shots. The big thing is I&rsquo;m getting five or six chances a game to score. If you get that many chances, you&rsquo;re bound to put one in.&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>In one 10-game stretch, the Malone line accounted for nearly 50 per cent of the Whaler offense.&ldquo;The whole key is Torrie,&rdquo; said Malone, who turns 29 on March 6 and may not yet be ready for retirement. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s getting in there and tying up one or two guys. That opens things up for Kevin and me.&rdquo;Dineen, who had five goals in four games in one span, arrived with the reputation as a mucker, an honest, two-way player who would go as hard as he could for as long as he could. If he turns out to be a 25- to 30-goal man, too, the Whalers just might have themselves a player.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s developed a very hard shot,&rdquo; said coach Jack Evans. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t show that in training camp. Every time he shoots, the goalies are having a hard time handling it. Thai&rsquo;s been a good sign. Kevin&rsquo;s our best player.&rdquo;Dineen is one of those rare youngsters who somehow slides comfortably into a big-league dressing room and is readily accepted by older teammates. Oh, he&rsquo;s been shaved and all that jazz, but with him, everything&rsquo;s up front. No injuries, no whispers, no problems.&ldquo;I got some goals in Binghamton and I had a lot of chances here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I wasn&rsquo;t putting the puck in the net. Everything I shot, it seemed was going right at the goaltender. I worked after pratice with Claude (assistant coach Claude Larose) and he&rsquo;s been really good, It&rsquo;s a bad cliche, but practice makes perfect.&rdquo;Dineen played against his brother Gord in a game against the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. It was the first NHL meeting between the brothers.&ldquo;I had it in my mind to run him, but I didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Dineen said smiling. &ldquo;Actually, we went out for dinner the night before the game.&rdquo;A well-travelled crack that &ldquo;the Dineens are the Sutters of the AHL&rdquo; may soon have to be revised.&ldquo;At first it was just nice to be here,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;It was almost a selfish feeling. Now I feel part of the team. At this point what we have to do most is start winning hockey games.&rdquo;Or leave everything you have on the ice trying.&ldquo;The young guys add enthusiasm because we&rsquo;re fighting for jobs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not to say everybody doesn&rsquo;t play that way, but you have to go out and work hard every night. Just doing that alone has got to add something.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Dineen Shoots Straight From Stick And Lip

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE</div>Decisions, decisions&hellip;While the average 15- or 16-year-old concerns himself with getting a driver&rsquo;s license, a date and a cure for acne, there are others who stand at the crossroads, expected to make vital career decisions that may forever influence their lives.Call it life in the fast lane of hockey.And what makes it even more difficult for the 15- or 16-year-old player of above-average ability is that some of the avenues open to him are strictly one way&mdash;once you go down them, you can&rsquo;t come back.Blame it on the National Hockey League. Blame it on the National Colleges Athletic Association. Or on the laws of the land or the times we live in.But wherever you lay blame, remember that the bottom line remains the same&mdash;too many, too-difficult decisions too soon.Today is both the best and worst of times for teenage hockey players with dreams of making a career in the NHL.They&rsquo;re receiving better instruction than ever before. Youth and high school programs across North America have never been more advanced and the routes to a pro career have never been more plentiful and sophisticated. Canadian major junior, U.S. college, Olympic teams&mdash;they are all considered viable paths to a pro hockey career.But&mdash;thanks to the NHL&rsquo;s 18-year-old draft or the NCAA&rsquo;s restrictive eligibility rules, depending upon your point of view&mdash;a talented young player must decide which route to travel at age 15 or 16.That is when a player is considered ready to enter major junior competition. But should he do so, he automatically declares himself ineligible to play in the NCAA, where Division One institutions offer many lucrative and attractive scholarships a year or so later. Therefore, if major junior doesn&rsquo;t work out, he may have sacrificed a free education. Conversely, if he goes to college, he may be missing out on a nearly immediate career in the NHL.The specific reason the player is placed firmly on the horns of a dilemma&mdash;major junior vs. U.S. college&mdash;is because the NCAA, U.S. college sports&rsquo; governing body, considers the three major junior leagues (Quebec, Ontario and Western) in Canada to be professional.This designation, the NCAA says, is because NHL teams are signing junior players and returning them to the junior leagues. Thus, even if player A is undrafted and unsigned by a NHL club, he is deemed to lose his eligibility because he&rsquo;s playing with or against player B, who has signed a professional contract.If that sounds like guilt by association, so be it. The NCAA has made no apologies for its stringent eligibility requirements and, instead, shifts the blame to the NHL and the major junior leagues&mdash;the former for signing and returning underage juniors and the latter for accepting them.So with the NCAA and the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League firmly entrenched on opposite sides of the fence, often waging a war of words to attract the best prospects, the undecided youngsters are caught in between, wondering which way to jump.It&rsquo;s totally absurd, the most ridiculous situation in all of hockey,&rdquo; says Peter Karmanos, Jr., co-founder and chairman of the board of Compuware Corporation (a $46-million computer software firm in suburban Detroit) and the brains behind the most successful youth hockey program in the U.S., and perhaps Canada.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so totally unfair to put kids into the situation of having to make that choice so early in life. In Detroit, for example, the talented 15- and 16-year-old kids and their parents are being beseiged by people.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got the Western, Ontario and Quebec Leagues chasing after them. They&rsquo;ve got college guys coming in and warning them about what will happen if they play major junior. They&rsquo;ve got tier two and junior B teams coming in and offering them deals. They&rsquo;ve got local junior clubs in Michigan telling them they should stay home and play.&ldquo;And because you don&rsquo;t know who&rsquo;s telling you the truth about what, the kids are looking for help and advice. That means they&rsquo;ve got agents knocking on their doors. That means they&rsquo;re not only trying to pick an option, but they&rsquo;re trying to pick someone they can trust to help them with their choice. No 15- or 16-year-old should have to go through all that. It&rsquo;s absurd and all because the NCAA practises guilt by association. Ridiculous.&rdquo;So Karmanos and Compuware&mdash;whose hockey program has developed NHLers such as New York Islander Pat LaFontaine, Toronto Maple Leaf Al Iafrate, Montreal Canadien Alfie Turcotte, with more on the way&mdash;are going to take on the NCAA.On Feb. 27, Karmanos, on behalf of his son, Peter (III) and the Compuware Hockey Club, filed suit against the NCAA in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.The suit will seek both monetary damages and a judicial ruling on the constitutionality of the NCAA eligibility requirement that prevents Karmanos&rsquo; son from playing for the University of Michigan, where he is currently a freshman.The younger Karmanos played 60 games last season with Laval of the Quebec League, aware that, under existing NCAA rules, he would be ineligible for NCAA competition.&ldquo;The suit is actually two claims in one,&rdquo; says Jeff Heldt, 36, one of Karmanos&rsquo; lawyers working on the case. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s personal insofar as Peter is filing the suit to rectify the situation with his son and all other players in a similar situation.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s business, too. Compuware plans on having a summer hockey league but according to the NCAA rules it would be deemed a professional league. Therefore, the suit contends there is a restriction of business. So it&rsquo;s a denial of liberty (for the players) and a denial of property (for Compuware). That&rsquo;s how we will approach it.&rdquo;This isn&rsquo;t the first time the NCAA has been challenged on this type of rule. In 1973, when the NCAA&rsquo;s rule simply read that no one with major junior experience could play college hockey, a court ruled it unconstitutional. So the rule was rewritten, but Heldt says nothing has really changed.&ldquo;It (the rule) no longer says you can&rsquo;t play major junior,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It just says you cannot associate with professionals, but since professional is defined as a major junior player, nothing has changed. In effect, it (the NCAA) is doing with the left hand what the court told them they couldn&rsquo;t do with the right hand.&rdquo;It is for that reason that Heldt and Karmanos are optimistic the suit will be setted in their favor. Whether the decision comes quickly or not, remains to be seen, depending on whether the NCAA will try to stonewall or seek immediate vindication. The NCAA declined to comment.&ldquo;I knew I&rsquo;d test this thing one day,&rdquo; says Karmanos, who also owns the OHL&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires. &ldquo;I just didn&rsquo;t realize it would be with my son. What&rsquo;s important here is the principle.&ldquo;The real reason the rule was instituted was because powerful people in Minnesota wanted to keep Canadian kids out of U.S. schools. So they used the NCAA rules committee to get their way.&ldquo;But the problem is that in Minnesota and Massachusetts, a kid in his 17th year is a high school senior. But in Michigan and New York, where there aren&rsquo;t real great high school programs in place, there is no decent alternative that will keep a 17-year-old eligible for college. So the better players go to Canada to play major junior. It&rsquo;s the only viable alternative they&rsquo;ve got.&ldquo;Consequently, a rule that was meant to keep out Canadian kids is also keeping out a number of American kids, too. I can&rsquo;t understand why they would want to do either, especially when you look at track and field and how many foreigners are here on scholarships. You wonder why hockey gets the short end of the stick. It&rsquo;s a damn shame.&rdquo;Since the NHL has shown neither the inclination nor legal backing to stop signing 18-year-olds and sending them back to CMJHL teams, the only hope for easing the pressure on 15- and 16-year-olds is Karmanos&rsquo; law suit.Which is why the hockey world awaits the court&rsquo;s decision. &#9632;

THE CHOICE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011317/5055349-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="560" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">OHL commissioner David Branch says major junior is for apprenticing pros.</figcaption></div>Meet Joe Prospect, a fictional 16-year-old hockey player who is faced with an enormous decision. Because Joe is both an exceptional player and outstanding student, every option available to him&mdash;Canadian major junior, U.S. college or the Canadian Olympic program&mdash;is a possibility.Which is the best route for him?Well, the major junior folks will tell him there&rsquo;s no question he should be in the Quebec, Ontario or Western Leagues. And U.S. college recruiters will maintain the only way to go is Hockey East, ECAC, CCHA or WCHA. And the man from Hockey Canada will suggest that the Canadian Olympic program provides the best of all worlds.It&rsquo;s a difficult choice, to be sure. Each option has its good and bad points and since Joe is pretty much a perfect guy, any one of the three routes can get him to the National Hockey League&mdash;no question about that.So if you were looking for one option to be touted over another, you&rsquo;re in the wrong place. Tunnel vision and partisan politics have no place in this exercise. As we investigate the routes available to Joe, the purpose will be two-fold: 1) to provide some general insights into what life is like in each of the three areas, and 2) to make note of the rules and regulations that govern each and that could have a dramatic effect on the young player&rsquo;s life.It&rsquo;s an extremely tough decision, made more difficult because existing rules governing the respective areas make it impossible, in some cases, for Joe to change his mind once he has made an initial commitment.If that sounds a little scary, it should, because selecting a hockey option can be exactly that. The key is knowing what ramifications each decision will have on Joe&rsquo;s future. Ignorance is no longer accepted as an excuse.Therefore, we suggest you carefully examine the following information, but remember that, due to space limitations, it is only general. If you or some body you know is in the same situation as Joe, then it&rsquo;s your responsibility to check out the specifics. If you don&rsquo;t, you&rsquo;ll be sorry.<h2>MAJOR JUNIOR</h2>Major junior hockey, whether it&rsquo;s in the Quebec, Ontario or Western Leagues, is generally regarded as a scaled-down version of the National Hockey League. The schedule ranges from 68 to 72 games plus playoffs and a club owns a player&rsquo;s rights, which means that he can be traded up until a deadline, ranging from mid-January to mid-February, depending on the league.The three major junior leagues are founded on the same basic premise, which is developing players for a career in professional hockey. As a result, the majority of today&rsquo;s professional players graduated from major junior hockey. While the purpose of the three junior leagues is the same, each one is different than the other. For example, theWestern League has the most travel because of the large distances involved&mdash;Brandon in the east and Portland and Victoria in the west. Quebec has the least amount of travel, with Ontario falling in between the other two.Should Joe decide to go this route, he would be bound to go to the team that owns his playing rights. If he didn&rsquo;t want to play for it, then he couldn&rsquo;t play for any other team in the league.He would be boarded with a family in that city.As far as education is concerned, every major junior team in Canada would pay Joe&rsquo;s expenses (tuition, books etc.) while he is a member of the team.Neither the OHL nor WHL have standard educational policies for players who have graduated from the league, though individual clubs may, in some instances, offer a scholarship in one form or another, assuming Joe never signs a professional contract.The Quebec League offers 14 scholarships ($1,000 a year for four years) each season to graduates who do not sign a pro contract.The major junior leagues, in the past, have been criticized for not paying enough attention to education, but they&rsquo;ve worked diligently to improve their image.&ldquo;The No. I reason a player plays major junior hockey is to apprentice to be a pro,&rdquo; says OHL commissioner David Branch, &ldquo;but that isn&rsquo;t to suggest we&rsquo;re out of the education business. Our studies show that 86 per cent of our players are in school, compared to a provincial average of 60 per cent for the same age group.&ldquo;The average number of school days missed by one of our players because of hockey is eight. Of course, Sault Ste. Marie is the highest but a couple of teams only miss three or four for the whole year.&rdquo;The Quebec League&rsquo;s average is lower than eight, while the Western League&rsquo;s is 12 to 14 days on average.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some good ones and we&rsquo;ve got some bad ones,&rdquo; said WHL president Ed Chynoweth. &ldquo;Each team has to make one long trip over the mountains, which accounts for the biggest number of school days missed. Brandon&rsquo;s our worst, at 34, because it&rsquo;s so far away from everyone else.&ldquo;But one of the things we&rsquo;re looking at is a non-interlocking schedule between East and West. That would really help that aspect. But we flatly deny that it&rsquo;s impossible to get a high school education while playing in the WHL. Seventy-six per cent of our players are attending school.&rdquo;Even Dave King, coach and coordinator of the Canadian Olympic program and a former junior coach, echoes those sentiments.&ldquo;Anyone who says a kid playing major junior hockey can&rsquo;t get an education just doesn&rsquo;t know what he&rsquo;s talking about,&rdquo; King says. &ldquo;Sometimesit&rsquo;s a little tougher and requires more discipline, but I&rsquo;ve seen too many do it to say it can&rsquo;t be done&mdash;even in the West.&rdquo;It is true, though, that the emphasis is on hockey.As far as eligiblity rules go, American players can choose between the three major junior leagues. Players from the Canadian Maritimes have a choice between the QMJHL and OHL, while Quebec, Ontario and Western province players are restricted to their respective leagues. Age is the only other real criteria (20 at the top end).<h2>U.S. COLLEGE</h2>This is an option which has become increasingly attractive over the past few years. The emphasis is on a shorter schedule, 30-odd games, depending on which conference you&rsquo;re talking about, with a ratio of about five practices for every two games.For the most part, games are on the weekend, which means that very few school days are lost to travelling.Unlike major junior, the player must attend school. In fact, the premise of the sport is that all players are &ldquo;student-athletes.&rdquo;In Joe&rsquo;s case, that&rsquo;s no problem because he&rsquo;s an excellent student. But it&rsquo;s important for other prospective collegians to remember that they not only have to qualify academically, but they must maintain good academic standing in addition to the usual athletic standards.The method of attracting players, from both Canada and the United States, is by offering scholarships. It should be noted that there is no such thing as a four-year scholarship. It is renewable at the end of each year and while the vast majority of NCAA institutions will honor a moral commitment for four years, there have been isolated occasions when smaller schools, struggling athletically, have terminated scholarships so they can bring in new talent. It doesn&rsquo;t happen often, but it&rsquo;s worth checking a prospective school&rsquo;s track record.Basically, the players lead a student life&mdash;dormitory, classes etc.&mdash;but there is a definite emphasis on hockey.But when discussing U.S. college hockey, it&rsquo;s more important to discuss what Joe can&rsquo;t do, rather than what he will be doing should he decide on this route.NCAA eligibility rules are stringent and if you make one small error, it may cost you the chance to play college hockey.For example, the two biggest faux pas that Joe could make would be to have played major junior hockey&mdash;or for that matter, attend a junior training camp&mdash;or acquire the services of an agent.The NCAA has designated major junior hockey as professional (see top story on Page 10) and if Joe was to have played with or against a major junior player who has signed a pro contract, he would be &ldquo;contaminated.&rdquo;The NCAA is also very rigid in terms of player agents. Joe may not have any-one soliciting his services as a hockey player. He may, according to the regulations, seek only advice from a lawyer.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to be sure to know exactly what you can and can&rsquo;t do before you actually do anything,&rdquo; says Hockey East commissioner Lou Lamoriello. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t use ignorance as an excuse. If you&rsquo;re not sure about something, you shouldn&rsquo;t go ahead until you know you&rsquo;re safe.&rdquo;If you&rsquo;re having difficulty getting the information you require, it&rsquo;s best to go directly to the source. The NCAA publishes a guide for the college-bound student-athlete and it can be obtained by writing to: P.O. Box 1906, Mission, Kansas, 66201.There are many other details that a prospective college player has to be aware of, with regard to recruiting, transferring and financial aid, but the most significant ones are major junior contamination and player agent contamination.<h2>CANADIAN OLYMPIC</h2>This is the new kid on the block, an on-going Olympic team backed by Hockey Canada and based in Calgary. The program is headed by Dave King, who coached the &rsquo;84 team.The team will first assemble in August and is expected to play an extensive international schedule, including two weeks in Finland and Sweden in August, Great Britain in early December, followed by appearances at the Izvestia and Spengler Cups in December and then returning him to play host to a Soviet tour of Canada in January.&ldquo;And then we&rsquo;ll be going to the Pravda Cup in Leningrad in April and possibly the world championships, depending upon the quality of our team,&rdquo; says King.Domestically, the Olympic team is in the process of setting up exhibition games against NHL teams and college teams, as well as a series with International League teams.As an inducement to get players. Hockey Canada is offering scholarships&mdash;ranging from one-year commitments to full rides depending upon the value of the player&mdash;at the University of Calgary or local colleges.Players chosen to the program will have the option of living on-campus at the University of Calgary or boarding in a family&rsquo;s home (a la major junior) or getting an apartment.&ldquo;A lot of it will depend on the age and situation of the individual,&rdquo; King says.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for the patient kid, the one who doesn&rsquo;t mind passing up pro opportunities until after 1988. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re offering both education and hockey together.&rdquo;About 20 players will be invited to the August training camp and King says he&rsquo;s optimistic at least half of them will form the core of the &rsquo;88 team. At any given time, more than 20 players may have been given a commitment by Hockey Canada, but that doesn&rsquo;t include a guaranteed berth on the final team.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s possible a player will be part of the program for the full time, but might not make the final roster of 20 players,&rdquo; King says.However, there are some other points that should be raised.If a player currently on an NCAA scholarship&mdash;or considering the U.S. college route&mdash;opted to go to the Canadian Olympic program and subsequently quit or had his commitment terminated, he would be ineligible to either return or play in the NCAA.That&rsquo;s because&mdash;if he attended the University of Calgary&mdash;he would be considered a transfer student and would have to sit out a year. If, however, the player didn&rsquo;t attend university while with the Olympic team, then he would have violated the NCAA&rsquo;s &ldquo;satisfactory progress towards a degree&rdquo; rule and be declared ineligible for at least one semester.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve asked the NCAA for an exemption, but haven&rsquo;t heard anything yet,&rdquo; King says.So what does it all mean for a prospective or current NCAA player who might be considering the Olympic option?&ldquo;It means that boy should make sure we&rsquo;re going to guarantee him his entire education no matter what,&rdquo; King says. &ldquo;Otherwise, I have to be honest and say it isn&rsquo;t worth his while. If we can&rsquo;t or won&rsquo;t match the offer he&rsquo;s getting from an NCAA school, then he would be wise to stay where he is.&rdquo;In other words, if our boy Joe had a good offer from an NCAA school, but King was only willing to commit to a one-year deal, he&rsquo;d be crazy to go to Calgary and risk his free ride.So there are Joe&rsquo;s options. Really, they&rsquo;re quite clear, each one a viable route for any youngster, depending upon his interests and individual circumstances.But as we&rsquo;ve pointed out, there are pitfalls to watch out for. You have to know what is going on, that when you make a decision to do one thing, you may be closing another door forever.The key is, of course, knowing what the NCAA rules are, since they are the most restrictive and prohibitive. They&rsquo;re also the most complicated, which is why making the choice can be a trying time.Be careful out there. &#9632;

f0010-01

Options Are Simple, But The Rules Aren’t

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE</div>The National Hockey League baby boomers&mdash;the plethora of underage juniors selected in the 1979 and 1980 entry drafts&mdash;have come of age.The age, that is, when it&rsquo;s time to start thinking about what one will do when the crowd stops cheering and a career in hockey is no more.And you thought it was coincidence that, five or six years after the first big wave of underage juniors rolled onto the scene, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association announced its interest in obtaining a complete career counselling and benefit package from the next collective bargaining agreement with the owners.Oh, by the way, you should be aware that the average career in the NHL is slightly under five years.&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s a fair assessment of the situation,&rdquo; says NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson of the association&rsquo;s interest in career counselling. &ldquo;When we went to the underage draft on a large scale, it lowered the average number of years a player plays. Now, those underagers from &rsquo;79 and &rsquo;80 are getting to the point in their careers where they realize they could be replaced by someone who is in the same position they were five or six years ago.&rdquo;Whatever the reason, it&rsquo;s long overdue.When a player retires today&mdash;after an average of 4.8 years in the NHL&mdash;he is entitled to his pension (not accessible until he&rsquo;s 45) and whatever money he may have saved.There&rsquo;s no gold watch and, in fact, most players find themselves in the situation of having to move, find new friends and a new way of life for which they are totally unprepared.All of which explains why Eagle-son and the NHLPA have come up with a loose-lines plan for a comprehensive career planning package that would include some sort of lump severance pay along with career counselling and continuing education programs.Eagleson has put a price tag of $ 12 to $20 million on getting the program started, with ensuing annual costs of about $3 million. He envisions the association, the owners and an insurance company coming up with the funds, but makes it clear that the bulk will have to come from the owners.And therein lies the rub, although that confrontation will be the subject of many stories to come. In the meantime, though, what about this career counselling craze?&ldquo;There is absolutely no question there is an acute need for it,&rdquo; says Toronto psychologist Dr. David Tucker, who broke ground in this area several years ago with the Phil Esposito Foundation. Today, Tucker, along with his partner, Dr. Scot McFadden are working for the NHLPA, making the circuit of NHL teams and lecturing on the importance of thinking beyond the end of a hockey career.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve already done 10 of the 21 teams and the response has been very good,&rdquo; Dr. Tucker says. &ldquo;The players definitely have an increased awareness of the situation. A lot of them, even some of the younger ones who in the past didn&rsquo;t even want to think about retirement, are realizing that a career in the NHL is really only a stepping stone to the rest of their life.&rdquo;The two psychologists spend about three or four hours with each group, including the players&rsquo; wives. The turnouts have ranged from half the team to an-almost full complement, as was the case with the New York Islanders.&ldquo;The Isles&rsquo; management turned it into a team function, with a dinner paid for by the club,&rdquo; says Tucker. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so encouraging to see someone like (Isles&rsquo; GM) Bill Torrey get behind the program because there is an antiquated school of thought on the part of some hockey people that if a player is thinking about his post-hockey days, he isn&rsquo;t thinking about his playing days. We&rsquo;ve found it&rsquo;s quite the opposite; that if you can ease his fears about the future, he&rsquo;s much more effective in the present.&rdquo;Tucker and McFadden concentrate on four of the five aspects of life after hockey.The first is career transition and they use an aptitude test to determine the strengths and weakensses of each individual and what careers he may or may not be suited to.The second is emotional and psychological enlightenment, familiarizing the players with the feelings&mdash;sense of loss and purpose; shock, denial, depression and eventual acceptance&mdash;that they will experience, though Tucker points out the degree of each varies from individual to individual.The third is family counselling, helping wives to cope with both the change in their husband&rsquo;s life and the impact on their lives, too.The fourth is social, simply pointing out that, more often than not, the retired player will be cast into a new community with a new group of friends and associates.The Tucker-McFadden seminars do not deal with the fifth important aspect&mdash;financial planning. Nor do they focus directly on items such as continuing education, though the seminars create a heightened awareness of a total career counselling plan.Anyway, until the NHLPA and the owners get their act together and settle the funding issue, there&rsquo;s not much more that can be done.&ldquo;Ideally, you&rsquo;d like to see a career counsellor set up in each NHL city, assigned to that specific team,&rdquo; Dr. Tucker says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m bias, of course, but I think it&rsquo;s just a terrific program and the feedback we&rsquo;re getting from the players is the same.&rdquo; &#9632;

THE END IS NEAR

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011204/5055380-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruin Mike O&rsquo;Connell is enjoying his return to school, even if the classroom is in the Boston Garden press room.</figcaption></div>BOSTON&mdash;Most colleges have an athletic program to augment their students&rsquo; classroom work.The Boston Bruins now have an academic program for their athletes when they&rsquo;re off the ice.Once a week after practice, 10 Bruin players adjourn to a make-shift classroom set up in the press room at Boston Garden to study with an instructor from Northeastern University.&ldquo;The whole idea,&rdquo; said Mike Milbury, &ldquo;is to get people thinking about returning to an academic world or to start preparing for a career change, which is inevitable in this game.&rdquo;The program, similar to one offered by Northeastern to members of the New England Patriot football team, is specially-tailored to meet the needs and schedule of professional athletes.It is divided into four sections&mdash;speech communication, literature, the use of computers and personal finance.Right now, the 10 Bruins are studying computers.The 10 athlete-students are Milbury, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Tom Fergus, Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. Brian Curran, Steve Kasper, Ray Bourque, Keith Crowder, Charlie Simmer and Morris Lukowich.&ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s really happy about it,&rdquo; said Milbury. &ldquo;A lot of guys are coordinating their transcripts with Northeastern. Hopefully, some of them will go to Northeastern over the summer.&ldquo;Perhaps we&rsquo;ll have another course of a different nature, maybe strictly a literature course next fall or perhaps a computer course. There&rsquo;s no doubt it&rsquo;s been good for everyone involved.&rdquo;The athlete-students get two-and-a-half college credits for passing the course.The program is conducted under the auspices of the new department called Study of Sports in Society at Northeast em and Milbury is the Bruins&rsquo; coordinator.&ldquo;I see that the guys show up for classes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s sort of like a truant, officer.&rdquo;Milbury has a degree in sociology from Colgate and he spends the summers as a weekend sports commentator on a Boston cable network. He&rsquo;ll be 33 in June, time to be thinking of something besides hockey.For Mike O&rsquo;Connell, the study program offers a first taste of college. He left high school in the States to play junior hockey in Canada, finished school in Kingston, Ont., and turned pro.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Connell, who turned 30 in November. &ldquo;It gets you back into school; it gets you thinking of other things. Any time you get a university like Northeastern to work with you, you might as well take advantage of it.&ldquo;First, we did speech and public speaking, then we did some English literature and creative writing. Now we&rsquo;re doing computers, and we&rsquo;ll wind up with financial planning.&ldquo;For pro athletes, those are must things.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-01

10 Bruins Give New Meaning To ‘Class’

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE</div>Selecting the proper agent to represent you could be one of the most important decisions of your life. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s a good idea to sit down before you make any commitment and come up with some sort of game plan.In an effort to help you with this endeavor, THE HOCKEY NEWS has come up with this general outline which offers some insights into the process of picking a representative who is right for you.Of course, there are no guarantees in this business. Perhaps the best motto is &ldquo;Buyer Beware&rdquo; because you&rsquo;re purchasing a service which is often difficult to evaluate. But the more homework you do in advance to making a commitment, the less likely you are to be surprised at what may happen in the future.o Find out who the agents are. Ask your parents for help. Talk to teammates and opposing players who have had contact with agents. Talk to coaches, general managers or anyone else who is involved in the game and get them to recommend several agents.&bull; Contact these agents. Let them know you are interested in obtaining representation. Set up interview appointments&mdash;preferably in your own home or someplace that you are comfortable&mdash;with any agents interested in representing you.&bull; Be sure that your parents and anyone else whose opinion and judgment you value are present when the interviews take place. The primary function of the first interview is to get to know the agent. If you don&rsquo;t feel comfortable with the agent, if there is something you don&rsquo;t like about him, then he&rsquo;s not the one for you.Ask lots of questions. Find out what services the agent provides. Find out how much he charges for these services. Find out about his background, what education he has and what professional experience he has. Ask for references. Ask specific, to-the-point questions. Have your parents take notes. Don&rsquo;t be shy. When the agent finishes supplying all this information verbally to you, ask him to put it all in writing, including specifics about fees and services and what he expects from you in terms of commitment.&bull; You should now have in your possession written proposals from the agents you have spoken to. Check out their references. You and your parents should also have impressions of them from the interviews. It&rsquo;s time to compare. Compare their fees and services. Compare their personalities. Make a short list of the two or three agents you and your parents are most interested in obtaining as a representative. Contact the finalists and ask for an appointment at their place of work.&bull; Use this appointment to see their place of work. Meet the staff there. If you have any other questions or concerns, voice them at this time. Tell the agent you have narrowed your selection down to two or three finalists. Use this interview to decide if you are completely comfortable with the man who will be looking out for your best interests.&bull; It&rsquo;s time to make a decision. This doesn&rsquo;t have to be made overnight. If you&rsquo;re not sure, take your time. The agents aren&rsquo;t going anywhere. Sit down with your parents. Respect their opinions. Parents should also respect their son&rsquo;s opinions. Pick one and hope everything will work out the way you expect it to.&bull; Inform the agent you&rsquo;ve selected that he&rsquo;s your man. Send a letter to all other agents you contacted. Thank them for their time and effort; tell them you opted for John Doe. If they follow that up with a phone call asking the specifics of why they lost out, simply say that after weighing everything, it was felt John Doe would best serve your interests. If an agent continues to bother you about it, you know you made a wise choice in not picking him.&bull; Do not sign a legally-binding contract with your agent until he has negotiated a pro hockey contract for you. In the months preceeding the negotiation or signing of that hockey contract, it is okay to sign a letter that states John Doe is your representative until you advise otherwise. This acts as insurance against unscrupulous agents who may claim to be working on your behalf; it can be used to let the hockey community know who represents you and it also lets your agent know you have made a commitment to him. He&rsquo;ll do the same for you.Aside from these steps, there are a few other things players and parents should remember at all times:&bull; Obtaining the services of an agent does not guarantee you success as a hockey player. Beware of agents who say they can influence how high you are drafted. They&rsquo;re not only lying, they&rsquo;re insulting the intelligence of NHL general managers.&bull; Agents cannot skate, stickhandle 01 score, even if they say they can. So before you blame the agent for a career that isn&rsquo;t panning out, take a look in the mirror or at the circumstances.&bull; Agents who devote most of their sales pitch to running down their competition obviously don&rsquo;t have much worthwhile to say about themselves and their own company Beware.&bull; The agent-player relationship is founded on trust. If another agent approaches you and says your agent isn&rsquo;t doing a good job for you, don&rsquo;t jump to any conclusions until you&rsquo;ve checked it out with your agent. Also, don&rsquo;t mislead an agent into thinking you&rsquo;re committed to him when you&rsquo;re not. Tell him you will give him written notification of when he may begin acting on your behalf.This article originally appeared in last year&rsquo;s player agent section and is reprinted at the request of a number of readers. &#9632;

The Guide To Selecting A Player Agent

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Super-agent Art Kaminsky and Bella Caplan, widow of RDS sports&rsquo; Norm Caplan, who died last October, have entered into an agreement with the Boston-based Sports Advisors Group. With their clientele numbering more than 200, Kaminsky and Caplan felt the move was essential to maintain continuity following Caplan&rsquo;s unexpected death. Overtures from the powerful Manhattan-based Mark McCormick IMG group were rejected in favor of the more amiable Sports Advisors Group approach. Roly Thompson of Guelph, Ont., who had been partners with Norm Caplan and Kaminsky, is apparently joining forces with Boston lawyer Bob Murray, who was part of the Kaminsky team, to form their own representation firm&hellip;A National Hockey League first is in the works. Sometime in May&mdash;after the third game of the Stanley Cup finals&mdash;the league will distribute the first official entry draft information book. The publication will be edited by New Jersey p.r. boss Larry Brooks and will have massive distribution&hellip;NHL honchos are furiously attempting to find the source of Al Strachan&rsquo;s peerless pipeline that has been a constant source of embarrassment to his Toronto competitors as well as to the league itself&hellip;Wayne Gretzky reveals his scoring &ldquo;secret&rdquo; in the April issue of Playboy. &ldquo;Let the puck do all the work. People think that to be a good hockey player you have to pick the puck up, deke around everybody and take a shot. But nobody can skate as fast as that little black thing-.&rdquo; Discontent is reverberating through the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association with at least one group of scribes in Toronto threatening to quit the PHWA. &ldquo;The Globe and Mail may pull out of the Association,&rdquo; said the paper&rsquo;s Bill Houston. &ldquo;Why should we belong? What did they do for us (when Globe writers Houston and Strachan were harassed by the Maple Leaf organization) last year?&rdquo; Results of the PHWA presidential election between Rod Beaton of USA Today and Frank Brown of the N. Y. Daily News will be complete by June. The two finished in a dead heat after seven ballots in elections at the All-Star game in Calgary&hellip;Jet general manager John Ferguson disregarded the league bylaw and locked writers out of the dressing room for an hour after a loss to Hartford on Feb. 19. Pressed by BLUELINES about the illegality of the move, Ferguson chuckles: &ldquo;The money was well spent.&rdquo;Although Mike Liut was splendid copy for the St. Louis media, he will not be totally missed in the Mound City, especially in the Blues&rsquo; dressing room. Insiders report that the gregarious Liut was a clubhouse lawyer. Following the Liut-to-Hartford deal, a cartoon ran in one of the St. Louis publications depicting a hand from Hartford grabbing Liut while a Blues&rsquo; arm cradled the Norris Division crown&hellip;A prominent Calgary broadcaster whispers that he hears Harry Neale may be headed for a Hartford post next season&hellip;Devil boss John McMullen was overheard beefing about the large numbers&mdash;other than governors&mdash;of NHL underlings permitted to attend league meetings. He reportedly had in mind everyone from the ref-in-chief, to p.r. directors to members of the office staff, all of whom sit around quietly but hear all that&rsquo;s going on. A baseball man, McMullen doesn&rsquo;t see that at diamond confabs. McMullen is still lobbying for a better break for weak teams, including a reduction in draft exemptions and a drop of the protected list from 16 to 13. Actually, GMs had hoped to up the protected list to 17&hellip;Reacting to trade rumors, Detroit&rsquo;s John Ogrodnick says if it happens, let it happen now and not when he&rsquo;s 29 or 30. &ldquo;But, really,&rdquo; he adds, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d prefer to stay with Detroit and have this club become a winner.&rdquo;&hellip;The Dallas Times-Herald&rsquo;s&nbsp;Tom Powers is snooping out a story that the Texas metropolis has an NHL future. So far, no dice&hellip;A close friend of Phil Esposito tells BLUELINES that Espo is &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; because he has not been asked to be more of a contributor to the Rangers&rsquo; braintrust&hellip;The &ldquo;Deep Scout&rdquo; who spilled a lot of inside info about the North Stars to Minneapolis Star and Tribune reporter Jay Weiner, is identified in NHL channels as a part-time bird dog for the Philly Flyers&hellip;John Ferguson tells BLUELINES there&rsquo;s no-way Guy Lafleur will surface with another NHL team. &ldquo;The Canadiens,&rdquo; says Fergie, &ldquo;have done everything right&mdash;starting Guy with business courses, etc.&mdash; in easing him into retirement.&rdquo;&hellip;The blossoming of Brent Ashton in Quebec prompts Bruin GM-coach Harry Sinden to recall he had hoped to swing a deal that would have moved Ashton to Boston&hellip;The real reason, according to insiders, why Roger Neilson was not upped to head coach of the Black Hawks when Orval Tessier got the hook is that Chicago boss Bill Wirtz nixed Neilson for the bench job. &ldquo;I know where the road with Roger Neilson goes,&rdquo; Wirtz reportedly told a pal&hellip;When Butch Goring moved from the New York Islanders to the Bruins, he took with him the same flimsy helmets he&rsquo;s been wearing all career&mdash;and continues to wear. &ldquo;I just had the trainer re-paint them the new colors,&rdquo; Goring informs&hellip;Among the dumbest reports circulating is one in the N.Y. Post suggesting that Bobby Orr might wind up with a Bruins&rsquo; position. On and Harry Sinden are as far apart as Orr and Al Eagleson, which is too far for words.Veteran King Marcel Dionne claims that he was years ahead of his time as pacesetter for the cuurent weaving style of offense. &ldquo;I fought for that style for years,&rdquo; says Dionne. &ldquo;Just me and Bobby Hull at first. Now there&rsquo;s more motion in hockey. We didn&rsquo;t believe that just because you were called a left wing, you had to stay on that side of the ice.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011269/5055511-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="618" height="530"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02999/5055504-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="494" height="528"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03701/5055497-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="610" height="528"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04497/5055490-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="124" height="108"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>CHICAGO&mdash;The Chicago Black Hawks gave the St. Louis Blues something by which to remember them.Though the Hawks have only a slim chance of catching St. Louis in the Norris Division race, you wouldn&rsquo;t have known it by the way they played and the Chicago Stadium crowd of 17,364 screamed when the teams met for the final time in the regular season on March 3.The bottom line was a 5-2 Chicago conquest.&ldquo;If nothing else, it shows we still have it,&rdquo; said Hawk captain Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;We had something to prove to ourselves, and we proved it. We played six periods of hockey against them and five of them were dam good.&rdquo;The night before in St. Louis, the Hawks lost the three-goal lead they held late in the second period and had to settle for a 4-4 tie.The three points gained by the Hawks left them four behind the Blues with 14 games remaining. That&rsquo;s misleading because St. Louis has played three fewer games and has a softer schedule down the stretch.There was an obvious change in the Hawks on this weekend from the last time they met the Blues, which was the first weekend in February. Then, St. Louis made a twin-killing, prompting general manager Bob Pulford to fire coach Orval Tessier and take over behind the bench.The victory in the final game with St. Louis gave the Hawks a record of 9-2-2 under Pulford.If they meet the Blues again it will be in the Stanley Cup quarter-finals. St. Louis won the regular-season series with a record of 4-3-1 but that, too, is misleading.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that Chicago is in a different team with Pulford coaching and Al Secord and Darryl Sutter back from their injuries,&rdquo; said St. Louis&rsquo; Jacques Demers, prime candidate for coach of the year.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re more talented than we are. They know it and We know it, but (assistant coach) Barclay Plager and I preach the no-quit attitude and you have to give our players credit for practising what we preach.&ldquo;What a difference with Sutter and Secord! But our biggest fear is, as always, Doug Wilson. He&rsquo;s to Chicago what Bobby Orr was to the Bruins.&rdquo;Pulford isn&rsquo;t getting carried away with trying to catch the Blues, who made February their best month since 1980-81 when they were second in the overall standings with 107 points. His goal is modest&mdash;a .500 record for the Hawks the rest of the way and continued progress in preparation for the playoffs.&ldquo;There are things we are starting to do a lot better,&rdquo; observed Pulford. &ldquo;Our defense is starting to play decently well, learning how to read situations and knowing how we want to play them.&ldquo;Jerome Dupont is really starting to come along. He and Behn Wilson may have been our best pair of defensemen in the last month. They&rsquo;re big and they&rsquo;re using their size.&ldquo;The one criticism I have of our defensemen is they&rsquo;re not hitting the net enough when they&rsquo;re shooting. If people like Doug Wilson, Bob Murray, Behn Wilson and Dupont start getting the puck on the net, we&rsquo;ll start to score a lot more goals on rebounds.&rdquo;In the 6-3 triumph over New Jersey that preceded the St. Louis series, Secord had his first two-goal game since March, 27, 1983, and both goals came on rebound shots.&ldquo;Al is back now, and there&rsquo;s no question he&rsquo;s here to play,&rdquo; said Pulford, contemplating the robust and fierce competitor who had 44- and 54-goal seasons before pulled muscles cramped his style for almost all of last year and much of this season.&ldquo;I also think Tom Lysiak is starting to play fairly well, and (Ken) Yaremchuk is looking much better recently on right wing.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-05350/5055483-1-eng-US/f0014-052.jpg" title="f0014-05" width="572" height="754"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hawk captain Darryl Sutter, coming off an ankle injury, got a hat trick.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Darryl Sutter is still getting over his broken ankle (Dec. 26), but he showed the kind of player he is (scoring a hat trick) in the game in St Louis.&rdquo;Another key man is goaltender Murray Bannerman, who returned after missing a week because of badly pulled stomach muscles. &#9632;

f0014-01

Black Hawks Give Blues Food For Playoff Thought

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011196/5055542-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="141" height="98"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;More than one hockey player has found out the hard way that the captaincy can be a heckuva lot heavier to bear than the letter C on his jersey.It isn&rsquo;t any easy job to begin with, being captain of a hockey club, and when the Philadelphia Flyers named Dave Poulin their captain at the beginning of this season, he had more than a couple of extenuating circumstances that made his job even more difficult.Firstly, he would be the first captain to follow Bobby Clarke, the team&rsquo;s inspirational leader for 13 seasons, who had moved up to general manager.Secondly, he was taking the job after another legend, Darryl Sittler, had been offered the captaincy, only to be traded to Detroit the day before the season opened.Thirdly, although his age is 26, he is only in his second season in the National Hockey League. And sophomore players have jinxes to bear without being haunted with team leadership.And, finally, he was being placed in a position to lead the youngest team in the history of the franchise, a team which barely averaged 23. With nine first- or second-year players, there would be a lot of guys looking for somebody to lean on, and Poulin would have to fill the role.There was some initial concern when Poulin suffered a groin injury and got off to a slow start, but he&rsquo;s emerged to take on a leadership role both on and off the ice.&ldquo;At the beginning, I was worried about too many things,&rdquo; Poulin said. &ldquo;Too many little things, and I think if affected my play some.&ldquo;But I talked with a few people, and I realized the most important thing for me to do is play well. I just had to concentrate on that.&rdquo;Poulin began to come on just after Christmas when he was moved to left wing for awhile. Since then, he&rsquo;s been returned to his usual spot between the club&rsquo;s two leading scorers, Tim Kerr and Brian Propp, and has moved up just behind them as the club&rsquo;s third-leading scorer.&ldquo;I never had any question about him,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;He was struggling a little bit at the beginning, but that&rsquo;s because he was trying too hard. He&rsquo;s too much of a quality person not to respond to the challenge.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s done a terrific job,&rdquo; said rookie Flyer coach Mike Keenan, &ldquo;just look at our position, that obviously reflects leadership.&rdquo;According to Poulin, the leadership has been scattered around the roster, lying heavily on the shoulders of the Flyers&rsquo; middle veterans such as Propp, Kerr and Brad Marsh, a former captain of the Calgary Flames who has helped Poulin assume the role with the Flyers.And, just as Clarke did, Poulin finds himself the unofficial voice of the dressing room, a job for which his experience at Notre Dame served him well.Within the past two weeks, Poulin has found himself answering questions about a team going through two completely opposite circumstances&mdash;a four-game winning streak at the Spectrum, and a three-game losing streak on the road.Even with their three losses, the Flyers still owned the third-best record in the league&mdash;far better than most predictions forecast&mdash;and were chasing the Washington Capitals for first place in the Patrick Division.Still, Poulin found reason for worry, and a need to warn the team of what lay ahead.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still a young, maturing team,&rdquo; said Poulin, &ldquo;but we can&rsquo;t let this little slump affect us for very long.We&rsquo;ve had trouble winning on the road consistently for the second half of the season, and we&rsquo;ve had trouble winning the second game of two games in a row (on consecutive nights).&ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve got to correct that. Those are the games you have to win if you want to be successful in the playoffs, and that&rsquo;s our aim.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;After a four-week stint in Hershey of the American League, the Flyers recalled Rich Sutter and reunited him on a line with his twin, Ron&hellip;After losing consecutive road games in Boston, Quebec and New Jersey, the Flyers&rsquo; road record dipped below .500 to 13-153, compared to a 24-4-4 record at the Spectrum&hellip;After missing 13 games because of a broken bone in his right hand, defenseman Brad McCrimmon returned for the game at Quebec&hellip;The Flyers did not use defenseman Miro Dvorak for seven consecutive games and the speculation is that coach Mike Keenan is making certain that Dvorak is rested for the playoffs. Keenan often said that Dvorak is the kind of player who can step right and give the club a good effort- &hellip;With a 4-1 win over the Flames, the Flyers became the first &ldquo;expansion&rdquo; team to reach the 700-win level. &#9632;

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Poulin Finds Captaincy Carries Weight

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011070/5055573-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="118" height="117"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;The New York Rangers took the Madison Square Garden ice on March 3 for the second game of a home-and-home series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, clinging ever so dearly to a two-point lead in the race for the fourth and final playoff position in the Patrick Division.Having lost 5-4 to the Penguins the day before at the Igloo in Pittsburgh, the Rangers desperately needed a win to cushion their lead, plus give them some badly-needed confidence in this crucial point in the season.And they accomplished both with a 7-3 victory, displaying a concerted effort at both ends of the ice, something which had been noticeably lacking since general manager Craig Patrick succeeded Herb Brooks as coach on Jan. 21&mdash;a period of 17 games.&ldquo;Some nights we&rsquo;ve played smart and not emotionally, some nights with emotion but not smart,&rdquo; explained defenseman Tom Laidlaw. &ldquo;Tonight, we played with both.&rdquo;It was about time, but one game does not redeem a season. The team was led by individual performances that yielded results rather than a tease&mdash;Robbie Ftorek forechecking his way to a scoring opportunity in the second period and finding himself in the slot to stuff home a rebound of a Reijo Ruotsalainen slap shot; Don Maloney planting himself in front of Pittsburgh goalie Dennis Herron, unencumbered by the Pittsburgh defense, and picking up a rebound of a James Patrick shot from the point; Mike Rogers scoring twice and refuting the age-old rap against him as a fader in the stretch.It was quite a relief from the night before, when they had dug themselves into a hole with a 4-0 deficit in the first period and were forced to play catch-up the rest of the way.&ldquo;We gave a full 60 minutes of hockey instead of the 40 we gave last night,&rdquo; said coach Craig Patrick.By this time the Rangers had not only run out of excuses, they had exhausted their explanations. The spirit of the club may have changed, but too often they were playing with their hearts this time and not with their heads.They would rise to the levels of the good teams, pouring in the goals against Edmonton and the Islanders, and then sink to the level of also-rans such as the Hartford Whalers, giving up a two-goal lead in the closing minutes and losing in overtime.Then they would blow out the Penguins 8-3 in Pittsburgh and come home to a 12-5 humiliation at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets that had season-ticket holders streaming to the exits.&ldquo;Even when they lost in the past, they were entertaining and they gave an effort,&rdquo; said one season-ticket holder. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have to pay this kind of money to watch a surrender.&rdquo;That, however, was not a universally accepted view. The Rangers did give up a lot of two-on-ones and three-on-ones against the Jets, over-committing themselves as they played catch-up, still thinking they could score at will.But the truth of it is that despite their 46 shots, the Rangers played a terrible game and had nothing going for them defensively.It was much the same three nights later in a 5-4 loss to a Washington Capitals, a team that played minus their defensive anchor Rod Langway, sidelined with the flu. While Washington still cleared their end of the ice, as they do so well, the Rangers turned in a helter-skelter effort, arriving late on the scene in their own zone.On three separate occasions, the failure of Rogers, James Patrick and Ftorek to come back led to Capital goals. The Rangers showed no cohesion, no overall thrust, and played inspirational, physical hockey for only a brief stretch in the third period, sparked by the recently-returned Mark Osborne.This is the lineup with which this team will live or die in the playoffs. Mark Pavelich, coming off a broken leg, still cannot dominate play the way he can when at peak form; Don Maloney, also coming off a broken leg, will not get any faster; and with Mike Allison sidelined after knee surgery, the team lacks a center who can be relied on for key faceoffs.Ftorek was thrown into that situation against the Capitals after Pierre Larouche had to leave following a sore knee and a sorer ego after being benched in front of friends and family in Pittsburgh, where he once played.Against Washington, the Rangers played like schoolboys. While the character of the team had changed, the overall result hadn&rsquo;t. And now, there are no more players returning from injuries to bear the burden of the team&rsquo;s playoff aspirations.There, they may well face Washington, the team that beat them 7-1 at the Capital Center in their final game under Brooks and now has beaten them five consecutive times. General manager and now coach Craig Patrick admitted that was a sobering thought.&ldquo;It appears we have to be more prepared if that&rsquo;s the case, if we face Washington,&rdquo; Patrick said. &#9632;

f0016-01

Rangers Clinging To Slight Lead Over Pens

WATCHING THE LATE show from Calgary snapped me to attention.First, the score was goalless after two periods. The National Hockey League doesn&rsquo;t make many hockey games like that any more. For a pleasant change, every shift by the Flames and the New York Islanders carried some suspense instead of an almost goal-a-shot pace.Secondly, Rejean Lemelin was the goaltender for Calgary. For years, Reggie has been one of my favorite people in hockey. When he was in the Philadelphia system, there were people in the Flyers&rsquo; organization who pronounced him a minor leaguer forever. But he persevered and took advantage of the opportunity when Dan Bouchard insisted on a trade out of Calgary.Now in his fourth full NHL season, Lemelin, 30, is established as one of the league&rsquo;s top goaltenders. He has Team Canada experience and this season has the third-highest number of victories in the league. You would think such credentials would swing some All-Star credentials Lemelin&rsquo;s way, but noooo&hellip;This season he was inexplicably omitted from the Campbell Conference lineup, following Edmonton&rsquo;s two goaltenders in the balloting. Nothing against Grant Fuhr or Andy Moog, but Lemelin deserved to be in the All-Star Game. As a former president of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association, I am familiar with some bizarre voting by a few lodge members. But leaving Lemelin out of this year&rsquo;s All-Star affair isn&rsquo;t one of the PHWA&rsquo;s prouder moments.Goaltenders, just as players at other positions, should be judged on their records. Lemelin is a quality goalie. But part of his problem is he isn&rsquo;t spectacular or controversial.&ldquo;I play my angles and don&rsquo;t try to make anything look tough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I always felt I got the job done, but I guess that style didn&rsquo;t impress anyone.&rdquo;Neither does he conduct wood-chopping practice like a certain other goalie I have criticized. Lemelin believes that playing goal is tough enough without inciting the other team, the crowd and maybe half the league.Lemelin laughs, shrugs and says he&rsquo;s from &ldquo;a different era&rdquo; when the immediate success of a Fuhr or Tom Barrasso is mentioned. When Lemelin signed on with the Flyers out of Sherbrooke in 1974, Philadelphia&rsquo;s net was masterfully guarded by Bernie Parent, with back-up help from Bobby Taylor and then Wayne Stephenson. Young goalies then expected to serve three of four years in places such as Hershey, Fort Wayne or Salt Lake City before receiving promotions to the NHL. But times change, and now an exceptional goalie like Barrasso can move into the NHL directly from high school. A few have jumped straight from junior hockey.In the era Lemelin began playing in, the dominant goaltenders were named Parent, Dryden and Esposito, all worthy successors to the Plantes, Halls and Worsleys. In the NHL today, Billy Smith is the only goalie with a bonafide All-Star career. One glance at the first- and second-team All-Star goalies the past four seasons reminds you that we&rsquo;re in a transitional period for goalies. Except for Smith, the other all-stars&mdash;Liut, Lessard, Fuhr, Peeters, Melanson, Barrasso and Riggin&mdash;don&rsquo;t yet have the stamp of greatness, although Barrasso will fool a lot of people if he doesn&rsquo;t make it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02858/5055604-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="396" height="449"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Fleischman</figcaption></div>With few Hall-of-Fame quality goaltenders on the scene, Lemelin has made his move to the top. He knows the people in Calgary appreciate him. Now, it&rsquo;s time for people around the league to jump on board, too. By the way, Lemelin and Calgary won that game 3-1.1 went to sleep happy.My friend Brian O&rsquo;Neill writes, objecting to a recent column about how he administers NHL justice. In the column I suggested tha O&rsquo;Neill must be worn out as he continually watches tapes and hears the same old excuses for stick-swinging, spearing, eye-gouging or whatever other type of mayhem a few NHL employees who pass as &ldquo;players&rdquo; are charged with committing. I also suggested that perhaps a panel, consisting of O&rsquo;Neill or some other league executive, a supervisor of officials and a former player (or, upon later thought, a coach) would do a better job.&ldquo;For the most part,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill wites while rubbing his weary eyes and taking a break from viewing tapes, &ldquo;I agree with your observations, although I do not believe that the panel suggestion is workable, or that former players have any particular insight that would allow them to handle the job more effectively. Having handled the job for the last eight years and observing Mr. Clarence Campbell do it for 11 years prior to my taking over, I am thoroughly convinced that the job of dealing with discipline belongs to one person&hellip;&ldquo;My principal purpose in writing was to take exception to the statement that it takes me &lsquo;weeks&rsquo; to call up a case involving supplementary disciplinary action. Over the last three seasons I have had approximately 40 hearings, six of which took place ten or more days following the game in which the incident took place. Of the remaining 34 hearings, the average length of time between calling of the hearing and the game in which the incident took place was four days.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Neill explains that the hearings that extended beyond 10 days were caused by referees not imposing match penalties, which he says generally is automatic cause fora hearing. When no match penalty is assessed, it is necessary for O&rsquo;Neill to review the tapes. Obtaining these tapes is not always the easiest task for the NHL&rsquo;s Montreal office to complete.Administering NHL justice isn&rsquo;t easy, either. O&rsquo;Neill is one of the league&rsquo;s MVE&mdash;Most Valuable Employees&mdash;and perhaps I should have called him to confirm the time required to settle each case. But, who wants to spend an hour on the phone, even with a gentleman such as O&rsquo;Neill as he checks off each case? &#9632;

f0016-02

Lemelin, O’Neill Are Two Of My Favorite People

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02762/5055635-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="111" height="109"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;Making friends, earning respect and creating enemies, the Winnipeg Jets continue to mount the wins as their best-ever season ever unfolds.Recording their 14th, 15th and 16th road wins during a four-game eastern swing, the Jets entered March and the best part of their schedule.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s too late to worry about big offensive nights,&rdquo; said Dale Hawerchuk, crashing the 100-point barrier for the third time as the Jets handed the New York Rangers their worst licking in Madison Square Garden in 41 years.However, a 12-5 decision was hardly any sign of restraint by Hawerchuk and his friends.Brian Hayward&rsquo;s goaltending and the systematic checking of Mike Bossy by Doug Smail and Ron Wilson accounted for a 3-2 win over the Islanders while the line of Laurie Boschman, Jim Nill and Perry Turnbull starred in a 6-4 triumph in Pittsburgh.While a loss did occur in Montreal&mdash;the Habs&rsquo; Chris Nilan scored on a penalty shot in that one&mdash;the Jets were able to conclude their trip demonstrating their versatility. Nill, the Bruin who could&rsquo;t score for Boston, gathered five points in two games.&ldquo;When Dale&rsquo;s line isn&rsquo;t going, it&rsquo;s up to us to pull the load,&rdquo; said Nill. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I&rsquo;m the world&rsquo;s greatest scorer, but I know I can help out and check, too. In Boston I had only one role.&rdquo;Boschman reeled off seven points in three games, delighting his coaches who were beginning to wonder if he would ever return to his old offensive form.Thomas Steen had an eight-game points streak snapped in Pittsburgh, but his line dominated the third period when the few Penguins who remained were considering a comeback.Earlier, the Jets had evoked the wrath of the Penguins and 7,622 fans when Mario Lemieux was taken from the game, apparently injured, after being struck in the face by Jim Kyte, wearing a glove.&ldquo;It was a powder-puff shot,&rdquo; claimed Jet coach Barry Long. &ldquo;Certainly we tried to get his mind off the game. I couldn&rsquo;t understand why he stayed down so long.&rdquo;Someone suggested that Lemieux had taken a 10-minute dive.Throughout a bench-clearing brawl, Lemieux lay face down on the ice as if he was mortally injured.&ldquo;When he saw everyone coming, I think he decided he was hurt,&rdquo; said Wade Campbell, who knelt over Lemieux.Kyte insists that he had only cuffed him.But, once again, the Jets were the curse of Pittsburgh. In 1982, the Penguins lost their top center, Paul Gardner, when Jimmy Mann broke his jaw in Winnipeg.Long denied that he had sent Kyte onto the ice to eliminate Lemieux.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the old school,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;I have never&mdash;and I won&rsquo;t start&mdash;sent people on the ice to eliminate others, lemieux was chirping and running one of our smaller players, Tim Watters. He is big and so are his wingers, so I had our bigger men with their bigger men.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;Groin pulls, although slight, caused Paul MacLean and Scott Amiel to miss a game. MacLean has struggled since the All-Star game. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been skating well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My concentration has not been good. Maybe I forgot what got me here.&rdquo;&hellip;The Jets set a club record for goals in a single game scoring 12 in New York&hellip; Brian Hayward has set a team record for wins by a goaltender with 22, two more than Eddie Staniowski had during the 1981-82 season&hellip;Assistant coach Rick Bowness recently received seven stitches to close a cut on his forehead when a shot by Robert Picard bounced off the crossbar, striking him-&hellip;Randy Carlyle, discussing the events of the past year to the Pittsburgh media, said: &ldquo;I have a lot of good memories of Pittsburgh. But what has happened has been better for our team, better for myself and better for the Penguins.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-02

Jets Show A Bit Of Everything On Road

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01941/5055666-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="134" height="112"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2>CALGARY&mdash;The Hakan Loob experiment began with one of the so-called &ldquo;pleasant problems&rdquo; coaches like to talk about.Around the 60-game mark of the season, the Calgary Flames found themselves almost healthy. The Flames, one of the league leaders in terms of man-games lost to injuries, discovered that everybody but Dave Hindmarch was back and ready to play.That meant five bonafide contributing right wingers had to fit into four places and one player had to switch. Loob drew the short straw.&ldquo;Who would you switch,&rdquo; asked coach Bob Johnson, &ldquo;Lanny MacDonald? He&rsquo;s put in 12 years on the right side. I can&rsquo;t put Lanny over there. Tim Hunter? He is slowly becoming a solid right wing for us. I can&rsquo;t break up the Dice Line. Kent Nilsson, in the last little while, has played the best hockey of his career. He is playing the position he should be playing.&ldquo;That leaves Loob. He is such a talented player that I think he can adapt. The way we play, the only real problem is in the defensive zone. The left wing has to be the first guy back. He&rsquo;s been caught between a few times.&rdquo;Loob, of course, realizes that the move is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it shows the confidence Johnson has in him; on the other hand, it would be far simpler to leant a new position in training camp.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to go back seven years since the last time I played the left side,&rdquo; said Loob. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been on the right side since then, but if you play in the NHL, it helps to be able to play both sides, It&rsquo;s a question of getting used to it. I&rsquo;m sure if I practise enough. I&rsquo;ll get used to having the board on the left side.&rdquo;Loob admitted to feeling a &ldquo;little uncomfortable over there&rdquo; when Johnson first tried to change, partly because of the system to which Johnson was alluding. Because most of the team&rsquo;s scorers are right wingers, the Flames gear their offense to the right side of the rink. The left wingers draw most of the responsibility for checking.&ldquo;When the puck comes around the boards, sometimes I don&rsquo;t know what to do,&rdquo; acknowledged Loob. &ldquo;The thing is I ended up on the left side a lot even when I was playing right wing, It&rsquo;s hard to get used to.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;ll keep giving it a try.&rdquo;Perhaps the most surprising part of the switch is that Loob, despite trying to learn a new position, has picked up his gane dramatically over the past month. Earlier in the year, he seemed to be playing on the periphery a lot. Now, he is in the middle of the action.Ironically, Loob&rsquo;s play in the 1984-85 season is almost an exact reversal of the way things went for him in his rookie year. Last year, Loob started fast but tailed off in the second half. This year, Loob, coming off a strong Canada Cup performance, started on a high and hit a lull much earlier. But with the Flames heading into the home stretch, Loob is refreshed and relaxed and playing well.&ldquo;I was really tired at this time a year ago,&rdquo; said Loob. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not tired at all now. I&rsquo;m skating as well at this point as at any other time in the season. I feel good. My legs aren&rsquo;t tired at all.&ldquo;You try to stay at the same level all the time. The last couple of games. I&rsquo;ve been picking it up a bit, I think. The thing is, the goals are going in now. If you&rsquo;re supposed to be a scorer, they have to go in for you. In 55 games, I&rsquo;m closing in on 200 shots. Some nights, you get four or five shots and one or two really good chances. If they go in, everything&rsquo;s all right. If not, then people wonder what&rsquo;s wrong.&rdquo;Johnson thought that Loob was playing better because he felt more comfortable in his second year in Canada.&ldquo;He is happier in the community,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;He has more friends. His wife has more friends. His dad is over here visiting. When you change jobs, it takes you two years to make the adjustment from one community to the other. It&rsquo;s the same for a hockey player.&ldquo;Killing penalties helped him turn things around. You listen to hockey players and they all say the same thing: &lsquo;Give me more ice time. More ice time helps me get into the rhythm of the game.&rsquo; Well, you&rsquo;ve got to warrant more ice time by playing well. Loob is killing penalties, he&rsquo;s playing the power play, he&rsquo;s getting his regular shift. All of a sudden, he&rsquo;s become one of our top players.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

Switch Is Pulled On Flames’ Loob

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01905/5055697-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="130" height="112"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Goaltender Gilles Meloche doesn&rsquo;t pop off, but this season&rsquo;s frustration with the Minnesota North Stars has blown his cork.He kept his mouth shut when he was not used through the first five weeks of the season, and when he played only twice in the month of February. The boiling point came after he played and the team won and then he didn&rsquo;t play and the team lost. At that point, the Stars called up Mike Sands from the minors instead of playing Meloche, and the team was shelled.&ldquo;This is just another joke in this year&rsquo;s comedy,&rdquo; said Meloche. &ldquo;This year is the worst I&rsquo;ve been through. I want to play another two years, and want to stay in Minnesota, but I don&rsquo;t want to go through this again.&rdquo;For 13 full National Hockey League seasons, Meloche has gained the respect of both teammates and opponents for his consistency and stable attitude, plus quick reactions.But this, his I4th NHL season, has been the worst for the 34-year-old goaltender. He has not been treated with the respect that might be due the active goaltender with the most NHL seasons to his credit.The North Stars are struggling through their worst season in history. Oh, they have had worse ones record-wise, but never have they done so little when they were expected to do so much.Meloche has been their best goalie of record this year, too, and yet he played only one game in five weeks. He only played two games in the month of February, tying one and winning the other. The way the North Stars have floundered, a 1-0-1 record in that stretch almost qualifies for sainthood.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why I didn&rsquo;t play more,&rdquo; Meloche said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t give me any reason. Donnie Beaupre played most of those games and he played well. I think it&rsquo;s always got to be a problem when you have three goalies who want to Play&rdquo;Coach Glen Sonmor said he didn&rsquo;t like a three-goalie system, and that he wouldn&rsquo;t use all three goalies. But, with the acquisition of Roland Melanson from the New York Islanders, he was forced into it. Melanson, meanwhile, has said he would like to be traded to a team where the coach appreciated him more, and Beaupre went out with a knee injury.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any problem with Glen (Sonmor),&rdquo; said Meloche. &ldquo;I think we respect each other, and he&rsquo;s caught in a bind. I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s harder on him than us.&rdquo;But that doesn&rsquo;t mean he enjoys sitting out.&ldquo;I played in a 5-5 tie in Detroit (Feb. 14),&rdquo; said Meloche. &ldquo;I can admit when I&rsquo;m playing well or not playing well, and I didn&rsquo;t play very well in that one. But it was the only game I played in five weeks.&ldquo;Then I played against Pittsburgh (Feb. 25). They got four goals, but none of them were bad goals and we won. We went to Toronto after that, and that was the first time I was really upset. They had been following a policy that if we won you&rsquo;d keep playing, but they told me right after we won in Pittsburgh that Rollie would play in Toronto.&rdquo;The Stars were drubbed 6-1. The team then headed for Detroit, the second consecutive critical game because the Stars had to stay ahead of Toronto and try to catch Detroit. The club tried to call up Jon Casey from Baltimore, and when they couldn&rsquo;t, Mike Sands was brought in from Springfield.Detroit ripped the Stars 6-2.The team returned home and Meloche called the Met Center at noon and was told Melanson was going to play. He didn&rsquo;t know whether he or Sands would dress as backup, so he went to the rink at 6 p.m. Melanson didn&rsquo;t know he was playing and didn&rsquo;t arrive until 6:25 p.m.&ldquo;At 6:10 they told me I was playing,&rdquo; Meloche said. &ldquo;As far as I know the only reason I played was because Rollie came a little late.&rdquo;Meloche yielded just two goals in 34 shots and was the second star of the game as Minnesota won 5-2 in a rematch with Detroit.The game started with a brawl after 11 seconds.&ldquo;We were sharp from the start,&rdquo; said Meloche. &ldquo;I hope it carries over.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-01

Meloche Has His Say And Then His Day

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01764/5055728-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="139" height="141"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2>TORONTO&mdash;The morgue at Maple Leaf Gardens has come to life and it&rsquo;s all because of Jeff Brubaker, who plays with a never-say-die attitude.Brubaker, who turned 27 on Feb. 24, was given a chance by the Leafs to prove he can play in the National Hockey League when they claimed him on waivers just before the start of the season from Edmonton. Previously, he had stops in Hartford, Montreal and Quebec.It seems whenever Brubaker&rsquo;s on the ice, which isn&rsquo;t often because he&rsquo;s a fourth-line left winger, he&rsquo;s trying to repay the Leafs by working his hardest.And the fans love it. They shout &ldquo;Brooooo,&rdquo; which sounds a lot like the boos which the same placid Gardens patrons have voiced from time to time, but there&rsquo;s no mistaking this display of endearment.The fans became particularly boister ous in the Leafs&rsquo; game against Minnesota on Feb. 27. This was a crucial game for the Leafs, because they needed a victory to keep close with the Stars in the race for the final playoff position in the Norris Division. The Leafs won the game 6-1, and it was Brubaker who scored the winning goal at 9:29 of the first period.Throughout the balance of the game, the fans couldn&rsquo;t control themselves. They needed more Bru, and were it not for some team penalties in the third period. Leaf coach Dan Maloney would have satisfied them. But Brubaker was picked as the third star of the game, which sent the fans home with visions of Brubaker dancing in their heads.Brubaker, who occasionally heads to the weight room after the game to work up a sweat, held court in the Leafs&rsquo; dressing room for the media while his teammates jokingly chided him.And yes, Brubaker appreciated the fans&rsquo; support.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not used to anything like this, it&rsquo;s definitely a motivator. These fans here are loyal hockey fans. I&rsquo;m glad they feel I&rsquo;m worthy of their support.&rdquo;But if the truth be known, this is not the first time fans have taking a shining to him. The first-ever Bru Crew started in Hartford when Brubaker was a member of the Whalers in parts of 1979-80 and 1980-81.&ldquo;But they didn&rsquo;t make quite as much noise,&rdquo; said Brubaker.Brubaker, with his never-ending supply of chattering on the bench and in the dressing room, is an important member of the team.&ldquo;He gets the team going,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a guy that works day in, day out. He does anything you ask of him. You&rsquo;ve got to have those guys on a hockey team.&rdquo;Brubaker, in the league&rsquo;s top 10 in penalty minutes, is particularly valuable to the lightweights on the team.&ldquo;He means a lot to this team,&rdquo; said Dan Daoust. &ldquo;If someone is giving you a hard time, he&rsquo;ll be in there to protect you, especially the smaller guys like myself.&rdquo;Brubaker is thankful to John Brophy, the Leafs&rsquo; assistant coach who had him for two years with the Canadiens&rsquo; minor league team in Nova Scotia. The two are a veritable Mutt and Jeff combination, and Brubaker lights up when you mention Brophy&rsquo;s name.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a funny kind of relationship,&rdquo; said Brubaker. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a stem kind of guy, but I thrive on it. I enjoy it actually. We&rsquo;re all starting to realize there are no short cuts, and he&rsquo;s one of the reasons, both him and Dan (Maloney).&rdquo;Brubaker is confident the Leafs are on the road to recovery.&ldquo;I feel this club is a club of the future,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If everyone stays together, we&rsquo;ll definitely be a contender.&rdquo;LEAFLETS&mdash;Goalie Ken Wregget was dispatched to St. Catharines and Allan Bester was promoted&hellip;Todd Gill was returned to junior with the return of Al Iafrate. who had been out with the flu and lost 12 pounds&hellip; John Anderson and his wife celebrated the birth of their first child, a boy&hellip;Miroslav Frycer, who recently became a Canadian citizen, was given a book about Canada by the Leaf brass. &#9632;

f0020-01

Brubaker Gives Life To Maple Leaf Morgue

<h2>Al Strachan</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02516/5055759-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="394" height="456"></div>WILL THERE BE 24 teams in the National Hockey League within two years? Will there be 26 teams? Or will there still be 21? The NHL has appointed a committee to look into these questions. In December, the committee will report back to the governors with its recommendations and, at that time, a decision will probably be made concerning the nature of the expansion.At the moment, it looks as if there will indeed be an expansion of some sort. And it will probably be the three-team variety because having 24 teams in the league makes a lot more sense than having 21.Naturally, this is not a sure thing. If it were, there wouldn&rsquo;t be any need for the committee.But conversations with governors gives one the opinion that the league is leaning towards 24 teams. The question becomes: If there are indeed three new teams, where will they be located?Many hockey fans have their own choices, as do many of the governors. But the fans don&rsquo;t vote. When the time comes, representatives of the interested cities will make their presentations, the pros and cons will be weighed and the board will choose the lucky (or considering the type of team they&rsquo;ll get, unlucky) three.If you&rsquo;re wondering about the chances of a specific city, rate it according to the following formula. The perfect franchise location will end up with a mark of 100.Geographical considerations: Top marks will go to a city which is within 200 miles of an existing franchise but is somewhere in the Western half of the continent. The NHL doesn&rsquo;t really want any more teams on the eastern seaboard of the United States, where it is already overrepresented. The governors are looking for franchises which will help reduce some of the travel load for the western teams. Medium-range marks would go to a team anywhere else in the U.S. No marks to a Canadian city because the majority of governors simply do not want any more Canadian teams in the league. Those teams don&rsquo;t draw well in the U.S., and since the NHL has no gate-sharing, governors don&rsquo;t want teams without drawing power coming into their buildings (maximum mark 20).Local population: Because these first two considerations are the most important, they earn more points for the prospective cities than other factors. This one is straight numerical formula. For every 100,000 people in the city, award one mark. When you hit 2,000,000 stop (maximum mark 20).Rink availability. If the rink already exists and seats at least 16,500 for hockey, you get eight points. Deduct two points off each 1,000 down to a seating capacity of 13,500. Anything less is unsuitable. Deduct five points if the arena is only in the planning stages. Add one or two points depending on how suited the building is to viewing hockey (maximum mark 10).Traditional support for hockey: Note that this is support for hockey and support for the NHL. Some cities have had NHL hockey and ignored it while other cities have drawn big crowds for minor-league or junior hockey (maximum mark 10).Financial backing: Despite the trouble with Ralston Purina in St. Louis, the league&rsquo;s governors would prefer to have a team owned by a corporation rather than by one or two wealthy men. Every franchise should score at least six in this category because the price tag for the team will be well established and people without the money won&rsquo;t be in the running. But there&rsquo;s rich and there&rsquo;s very rich. Give an edge to the latter (maximum mark 10).Cable-television availability: Because the NHL does not have national television exposure in the U.S. and is not likely to get it, the team must have a plan to get onto local pay television. This is important not only for the exposure but because without a TV package, the team is almost certain to be a money-loser. Rate the mark according to the availability of cable, the length of time the new team will need to get onto cable and the likelihood of local viewer acceptance (maximum mark 10).Staff commitment. A team which enters the bidding with a solid commitment from established hockey people has a better chance of getting a franchise than a team which doesn&rsquo;t. Add two bonus points for people such as Sam Pollock or Dave King. Deduct three points for the involvement of a former executive in the World Hockey Association (maximum mark 10).Old-boy network: The NHL&rsquo;s board of governors is similar to any other board. An ounce of friendship outweighs a pound of merit any day. If you want a franchise, try to guarantee the involvement of someone whose father owns an NHL team or who has married into an NHL family (not easily done because most people who qualify are already executives on NHL teams). Failing that, try to sign up someone who has close business dealings with NHL governors (maximum mark 10).There is no specific formula in use but when the governors consider their decision, they will weigh factors similar to the ones listed above. Even though a given city might be at a disadvantage because of its location or size, it still has a number of ways in which it can impress the governors at the expansion hearings.The race is still wide open. &#9632;

f0020-02

This Method Tells You Where NHL Will Expand

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03360/5055790-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="136" height="98"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2>DETROIT&mdash;Call it Danny Gate&rsquo;s redemption. After an off season for him in 1983-84, the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; captain is enjoying a good 1984-85 campaign.He closed in on the 20-goal mark with his 11 th career hat trick&mdash;and first in three-and-a-half seasons as a Red Wing&mdash;in an 11-5 victory over Vancouver. The three goals included his first on the power play, which makes his output even more impressive. Try scoring 25 goals without any on the power play.But Gare, twice a 50-goal scorer in his career, has rediscovered the scoring touch after an injury-filled, I3-goal season in 1983-84.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing with a lot of confidence,&rdquo; said coach Nick Polano. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been playing with a lot of confidence since that game in New Jersey (Feb. 3) when I put him on the power play.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing the best hockey since he&rsquo;s come to Detroit. He looks extremely strong. He&rsquo;s managed to stay healthy, something he wasn&rsquo;t able to do last season, and beyond that there&rsquo;s the psychological factor.&rdquo;Not only did Gare get power-play duty, but he also escaped the checking line. He found himself with more offensive responsibilities, playing alongside people such as John Ogrodnick, Kelly Kisio, Claude Loiselle and Gerard Gallant. It meant work on what amounted to Detroit&rsquo;s No. 2 line, and that&rsquo;s more of an offensive workload than he&rsquo;s had in quite a while.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t played on the power play in a few years,&rdquo; Gare said. &ldquo;And getting off the checking line seemed to open up my game. I&rsquo;m the captain of this team and I feel an obligation to contribute to get things going.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see &lsquo;em go in.&rdquo;Reed Larson also chipped in with three goals against the Canucks, while Gare&rsquo;s linemates&mdash;Ogrodnick and Kisio&mdash;combined for eight more points. Gare added an assist, Ogrodnick had two goals and two assists (and was deprived of what should have been another assist on Gare&rsquo;s third goal) and Kisio had four assists.Kisio returned from his five-game suspension for high-sticking to center Ogrodnick and Gare in his second game back.&ldquo;Kelly hangs on to the puck, makes good plays,&rdquo; Gare said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to give him credit. He came off the bench and did the job.&ldquo;Was that my first hat trick as a Red Wing? I said, &lsquo;Better give me that thing (the puck)&rsquo;&hellip;just in case it was.&rdquo;Larson scored Nos. 13, 14 and 15&mdash;&ldquo;and I should have had 16, too,&rdquo; he said&mdash;to move withing range of a sixth consecutive 20-goal season. He&rsquo;s one of only three defensemen&mdash;Bobby Orr and Denis Potvin are the others&mdash;to score 20 or more goals five seasons in succession. Orr did it seven times, Potvin five.Larson scored eight goals in 13 games after what, for him, was a snail&rsquo;s pace early in the season.&ldquo;You think a little about it, (20 goals) I guess,&rdquo; Larson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re shooting for third place, and that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s important. If the other comes, it comes.WING WIRE&mdash;Right winger Joe Kocur, called up from Adirondack when Tiger Williams was waived, was sent back down&hellip;Greg Stefan was 3-2-1 in returning to the lineup after a shoulder injury&hellip;The Wings&rsquo; 11-game February slate ended with a 4-3-4 record, as they won half their home games in that stretch. &#9632;

f0020-03

New Role Helps Gare On Offense

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01563/5055828-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="570" height="996"><figcaption class="caption-body">Playing-assistant coach. &ldquo;We shouldn&rsquo;t try and do so much.</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02316/5055835-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="115" height="109"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2>BUFFALO&mdash;Records, so they say, are made to be broken. But losing streaks are not the kind of record a team strives to break.When the Buffalo Sabres lost 3-2 to the New York Islanders on March 3 at Memorial Auditorium, it marked the fifth consecutive loss at home, breaking a team record dating back to Jan. 14, 1979.Since the All-Star break, the Sabres lost (in order) at home to Montreal (4-2 in overtime), Edmonton (6-4), St. Louis(4-1), Los Angeles (4-2) and the Islanders. During the same period, the Sabres have won three and lost only one on the road.So what gives with the Sabres? It is one thing to be losing; it is another to be losing consistently at home.Prior to the All-Star game, the Sabres were playing some of the best hockey they had played all season. Since that time they have gone back to some old habits that went on during the early part of the season.&ldquo;I think we might be putting a little too much effort into the game at the wrong times,&rdquo; said Craig Ramsay, the Sabres&rsquo; Playing-assistant coach Craig Ramsay says the players are trying to do too much.&ldquo;When a team gets going bad it seems like each individual tries to get the team turned around on their own.&ldquo;But we don&rsquo;t have any league-leading scorers on this team, so we have to play together as a team. Our record shows it. When we&rsquo;re going well we do it as a team.&ldquo;When we&rsquo;re down, we have three guys trying to go on their own. This team can&rsquo;t do that and expect to get winning again.&rdquo;Veteran defenseman Jerry Korab looked at the team&rsquo;s problem from a different angle.&ldquo;We have a smaller rink than most teams in the NHL,&rdquo; said Korab. &ldquo;That has always been a plus for us, a real advantage.&ldquo;But now, despite the type of rink we have, we&rsquo;ve got teams that are coming in here now and defensing us better.&rdquo;Jim Schoenfeld, another veteran defenseman, also mentioned Memorial Auditorium as well as the Sabres&rsquo; style of play at home as another possible factor.&ldquo;It seems like this team plays a good, solid game of hockey when we&rsquo;re on the road, nothing fancy,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;But when we&rsquo;re at home we get a little fancier and put a little more show into our game.&ldquo;Maybe we should stick to just playing our plain style of hockey that we do on the road.&rdquo;There is, however, a silver lining in this clouded losing streak.&ldquo;Those last two games (on the road against the Washington Capitals March 2 and at home against the Islanders) were the best we&rsquo;ve been playing of late,&rdquo; said left winger Lindy Ruff. &ldquo;We know we can play with them (the better teams in the NHL).&rdquo;&ldquo;It seems like we do things the hard way,&rdquo; said Sabre general manager-coach Scott Bowman. &ldquo;We win a tough game on the road against Washington, then we turn around and lose at home the next night to the Islanders. It would have been nice to win both.&ldquo;We are playing better defensively, but we&rsquo;re looking for that spark. We are getting good chances, but we&rsquo;re just not taking advantage of them.&rdquo;SABRE POINTS&mdash;Defenseman Jim Schoenfeld played in his 700th NHL game (on Feb. 22 against St. Louis). Of the total, 564 have been with Buffalo&hellip;Norm Lacombe and Adam Creighton have been reassigned by the Sabres. Lacombe, a right winger, was sent to the Rochester Americans, the Sabres&rsquo; affiliate in the American Hockey League. Creighton, a center, was optioned to Ottawa of the Ontario Hockey League. According to general manager-coach Scott Bowman, the moves were made to give both players more playing time&hellip;The team also announced that former Sabre center Bob Mongrain has been signed to a contract for the remainder of this season. He will either play for the Sabres or in Rochester. He played this past season in a league in Switzerland.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03180/5055821-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="562" height="301"></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

Sabres Can’t Break Losing Spell At Home

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01649/5055866-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="126" height="94"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Former Pittsburgh Penguin assistant coach Mike Corrigan has threatened to take legal action against the National Hockey League team unless it honors an oral contract he says extends through this season.&ldquo;I should have had one more year on my contract,&rdquo; said Corrigan, who was fired last summer.Corrigan, 39, sent a certified letter to the Penguins on Feb. 11, stating he would take legal action if the team failed to respond to his salary position. Corrigan would not reveal how much he felt he was owed by the Penguins.Corrigan became an assistant coach to Johnny Wilson during the 1979-80 season. He continued as the Penguins&rsquo; assistant coach when Eddie Johnston took over from Wilson the next season. In the fall of &rsquo;81, Corrigan said he agreed orally to a three-year contract with Pittsburgh.Corrigan said he later wanted more job security, and he received an oral contract extension from Penguin vice president Paul Martha that would continue for as long as the contract of any coach he would assist.Lou Angotti became the Penguins&rsquo; coach before the last season and received a two-year contract. Angotti was named to the newly-created position of director of pro scouting on June 4, 1984 when Bob Berry became the third Penguin coach in as many years. Berry, who had been fired in Montreal last season and replaced by one of his assistants, Jacques Lemaire, said he didn&rsquo;t want an assistant and Corrigan was let go.Berry, who was Corrigan&rsquo;s linemate with the Los Angeles Kings, later changed his mind and named Jim Roberts as his assistant.Corrigan maintains that since Angotti is still under contract to the Penguins, he should be, too.&ldquo;This is not sour grapes, Corrigan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m honest. I&rsquo;m just telling the truth. I don&rsquo;t have a signed contract and I never did.&ldquo;But we did have an agreement.&rdquo;&ldquo;I received a letter from Michael,&rdquo; said Martha, who is also the team&rsquo;s general counsel. &ldquo;I will respond to the letter wherein he felt that he had a two-year contract. We felt that it was a one-year contract.&ldquo;I feel confident that we&rsquo;re going to be able to resolve it with Mike.&rdquo;Martha said &ldquo;it&rsquo;s not out of the question&rdquo; the Penguins would offer Corrigan a postion in the organization, &ldquo;but, of course, that would depend a lot upon E.J. and Bob Berry.&rdquo; Martha said a scouting position is a &ldquo;possibility.&rdquo;Corrigan said when Berry was hired, both he and Johnston mentioned the one year remaining on his contract, as Martha did in fall of &rsquo;83.Corrigan&rsquo;s playing career ended in 1977-78 when he suffered a severely broken leg in a game against Buffalo. He has not taken another position and still maintains his home in suburban Pittsburgh.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to nail the Penguins,&rdquo; Corrigan said. &ldquo;I wish them the best and hope they do well. I&rsquo;m just concerned about my contract.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Center and captain Mike Bullard faces a March 6 hearing on a drunk driving charge in suburban Mount Lebanon. Bullard was arrested following an accident on Jan. 31 in which his car allegedly hit two people, who were treated at an area hospital. Bullard was given a blood alcohol test, but police said the results wouldn&rsquo;t be revealed until the hearing. The police report said the arresting officer &ldquo;smelled liquor on his breath.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Randy Hillier returned to the lineup after missing 20 games following surgery for the removal of bone chips in his shoulder. Hillier was obtained from the Boston Bruins at the start of the season and was one ot the team&rsquo;s steadier defensemen before his injury. &#9632;

f0022-01

Corrigan Threatens To Take Pens To Court

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01586/5055897-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&ldquo;SHE LED CHEERS IN HIGH SCHOOL&rdquo;</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02404/5055904-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="124" height="121"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2>LONG ISLAND&mdash;The agony and the burden were over for Ken Morrow: he was back playing defense for the New York Islanders.&ldquo;It feels pretty good,&rdquo; he said after testing his reconstructed right knee in a game for the first time against the Flames in Calgary on Feb. 27.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad to be back.&rdquo;And the Islanders are more than happy to have the bearded defenseman back. During the four-and-a-half months that Morrow had been recuperating from knee surgery, the team&rsquo;s defense looked woeful at times.Morrow reported he felt no twinges of pain in his belated season debut.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter now of getting strength back in the knee,&rdquo; he said.Asked to estimate the level of efficiency he attained in his return. Morrow said: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s hard to say. I&rsquo;m not anywhere near the top yet. It&rsquo;s going to be a slow process. But I&rsquo;ve got a month to get it back before the playoffs. Hopefully, that will be enough time.&rdquo;Time hung heavy for Morrow this winter. And though he never despaired, he has a visible reminder of what he went through&mdash;a thin, red scar curling around his right knee.Morrow had undergone minor arthroscopic surgery on the knee on three occasions in the past four years and he lost count of the number of times that fluid had been drained from the knee.&ldquo;There were times last season when it was drained after almost every game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;During the playoffs, it was every game.&rdquo;The draining provided Morrow with only temporary relief. What&rsquo;s more, the lanky defenseman was having trouble turning quickly on the ice.&ldquo;It was discouraging,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;After the playoffs (last spring) I thought to myself that I didn&rsquo;t want to keep on doing this for the rest of my career.&rdquo;He rested the knee in last summer, hoping to avoid surgery. However, a week into training camp, the knee started giving him trouble again. Morrow underwent surgery for extensive cartilage and ligament damage on Oct. 11, the day before the season started.During his long recuperation period. Morrow made an interesting discovery&mdash;his family (wife Barbara and daughters Krysten and Brittany). He has always been a good family man, but he had been unable to spend much time with them in past winters.&ldquo;This year I found out there were other things to do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Like, I was able to take my daughter to pre-school classes. I dropped her off and picked her up, and that was fun.&rdquo;Morrow also toiled at the limousine company he owns with teammate Clark Gillies and made many personal appearances, campaigning for Multiple Sclerosis, March of Dimes, Impact on Hunger and several schools for the handicapped.While Morrow was working his way back into the lineup, another Islander defenseman was moaning about a lack of ice time. Dave Langevin was benched for eight of nine recent games by coach Al Arbour.Langevin admitted he was &ldquo;disappointed and hurt&rdquo; by his benching.&ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t think I can play, let me go to Washington or Philly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve lost that much.&rdquo;Arbour seemed less sure of that. He said Langevin has had &ldquo;a lot of tough years and he always gives his all. But he&rsquo;s had problems with two knees and his shoulder, and that takes a lot out of a player.&rdquo;Arbour finally worked Langevin into the lineup against the Sabres at Buffalo on March 3. Ironically, the big defenseman set up the goal by Brent Sutter in a 3-2 victory.ON THE ISLE&mdash;Road losses at Calgary and Toronto produced fresh rumors that general manager Bill Torrey would complete a deal before the trading deadline March 12&hellip;Clark Gillies missed the entire three-game road trip with a sore ankle&hellip;The shortage of left wingers forced coach Al Arbour to use defenseman Paul Boutilier at that position for several shifts&hellip;Mike Bossy was having trouble collecting his 50th goal.<h2>The Snowbirds</h2><h2>JOFA Entries</h2>You can submit a player for consideration for the JOFA Minor Player Showcase. Just enclose a photograph, along with all the pertinent information and mail to: JOFA SHOWCASE, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. &#9632;

f0023-01

Morrow Happy To Be Back In Isles’ Lineup

Shawn Morse is an eight-year-old goaltender from Regina, Sask., who is in his second year of hockey, playing at the novice level.In the first half of this season, Shawn had a goals-against average of 2.10 and recorded three shutouts.The fact that Shawn is deaf has not hindered his performance. He compensates with intense concentration and excellent eye-hand coordination.In the summer, Shawn enjoys swimming and BMX racing, but the highlight of his off-season is attending a goaltenders&rsquo; school in a nearby town.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03294/5055935-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="526" height="760"><figcaption class="caption-body">Shawn Morse</figcaption></div>Shawn&rsquo;s favorite National Hockey League player is Edmonton Oiler netminder Andy Moog and would one day like to see his hero play in person. &#9632;

f0023-03

PLAYER OF WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04220/5055966-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="700" height="980"><figcaption class="caption-body">Islander winger John Tonelli played all of his minor and junior B hockey in Milton, Ont.</figcaption></div>When John Tonelli was growing up, he looked at Bobby Hull and Bobby Clarke as players he wanted to emulate&mdash;that is, until he played against them in the National Hockey League.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I stopped liking them,&rdquo; said the New York Islanders&rsquo; hard working left winger who played for the gold-medal winning Team Canada in the Canada Cup in September and won the tournament&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player award. &ldquo;But I respected them, because they were so effective against us.&rdquo;Tonelli was bom in Milton, Ont., and played all his minor hockey there.&ldquo;I was about seven or eight before I played organized hockey,&rdquo; he said.Tonelli&rsquo;s first team was the Beech Brothers in Milton.&ldquo;The team was a good start, and it was coached by Frank Kaszycki (father of former NHLer Mike Kaszycki).&rdquo;Tonelli ran the gamut in minor hockey, all the while making his plans to play professional hockey.&ldquo;I always wanted to play in the NHL,&rdquo; said Tonelli, &ldquo;ever since I picked up a stick.&rdquo;Tonelli, whose hard-warking style is the hallmark of the Islanders, felt his talents were rather ordinary as a youngster.&ldquo;I was always an average player until I played bantam,&rdquo; Tonelli said. &ldquo;Then I started to improve.&rdquo;More than anything else in his minor hockey years, Tonelli remembered the coaches.&ldquo;The coaches taught me a lot back then,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had some good coaches and all of them played a big part when I was a kid.&rdquo;Tonelli isn&rsquo;t overly critical of parental interference in minor hockey.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been in a position where I&rsquo;ve seen it (poor sportsmanship among parents),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard that some parents are really driving, but that never happened very much in Milton.&rdquo;Tonelli played all his minor hockey in Miltonand then graduated to the junior B level with the Milton Continental Hyers.Tonelli finally left Milton when he advanced to the major junior level, playing for the Toronto Marlies of the Ontario Hockey Association. One of his linemates was John Anderson, now a seven-year veteran of the Toronto Maple Leafs.Tonelli played two seasons with the Marlies and then joined the Houston Aeros of the now-defunct World Hockey Association as an 18-year-old. After three seasons with the Aeros, he joined the Islanders when the WHA-NHL merger took place in 1978-79, and has been an Islander since.Tonelli believes that competition in minor hockey is not as important as it&rsquo;s made out to be.&ldquo;First thing is, have fun,&rdquo; said Tonelli. &ldquo;And if you have a dream, it takes drive, determination and a lot of hard work and sacrifice. I gave up a lot of my social life as a teenager.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0023-04

Tonelli Was Average Until Bantam

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03301/5056028-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="118" height="112"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2>QUEBEC&mdash;Having completed their first and only trip to Los Angeles in late February, the Nordiques returned to Quebec to face the final month of play this season with an impressive 15-13-4 road record.Quebec was a much-improved team on the road in the 1983-84 season, with an overall performance of 18-17-5 away from home (outscoring the opposition 169-153) and the Nordiques hoped to improve on those stats in &rsquo;84-85.With a month remaining in regular season play, only three teams (Edmonton, Washington and Winnipeg) had better winning percentages playing away from home. Although the Nordiques played eight of their 12 games in February on the road, they posted a respectable 7-4-1 record, allowing them to stay in the race for first place in the Adams Division.Quebec coach Michel Bergeron gave his players some time off on a recent four-day layover in Los Angeles, showing once again how he has adapted his coaching style to today&rsquo;s players.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t thinking about what any other coach might do or not do in similar circumstances with some time to let the players relax out west,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &ldquo;But I also thought it was the perfect opportunity to prepare ourselves for the final push late in the season.&rdquo;Bergeron certainly didn&rsquo;t want to give the impression that it was all play and no work for his team in Los Angeles.&ldquo;We had workouts every day and the only tine we didn&rsquo;t have a curfew was on the first night we arrived,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &ldquo;A few days off are really appreciated at this time of the year.&rdquo;The Nordiques flew to Los Angeles from Vancouver, where they had won with two goals in the final minutes of the third period. Bergeron&rsquo;s philosophy about what to do with four days of rest proved beneficial as his team skated to a 5-2 triumph over the Kings before heading back to the snowbanks of Quebec City.Bergeron now ranks fourth in NHL coaching experience, following the firing of Gerry Cheevers in Boston. Only Glen Sather, Scotty Bowman and Al Arbour have coached more NHL games than Bergeron among active coaches.It would be fair to say that the Quebec coach has mellowed a little in his attitudes towards his players. Giving his players some time off out west does not mean he doesn&rsquo;t run a tight ship, but it does reflect his ability to look at the regular season more as a whole rather than one game at a time.&ldquo;We had a team meeting after our victory in Vancouver and we all decided together what restrictions we would impose,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &ldquo;We know there will be a lot of pressure in coming weeks as we head towards the playoffs, so the word was to take it easy, but to remember that we are professionals.&rdquo;Added team captain Mario Marois: &ldquo;A few days off are greatly appreciated by the players and it makes a good little break before continuing a long trip. It will do everyone some good.&rdquo;NORDIC NOTES&mdash;Dale Hunter has never missed an NHL game apart from a three-game suspension by the league. Suffering a knee injury in Edmonton recently, Hunter dressed the following night in Vancouver and coach Michel Bergeron used him only once in the game, allowing him to continue his streak. &#9632;

f0024-03

Nords Given Break By Bergeron

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02444/5056059-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="176" height="108"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2>LOS ANGELES&mdash;While reflecting on a stretch of four-and-a-half weeks behind the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; bench during which time his team had reached dizzying heights&mdash;closing fast on second place in the Smythe Division with only three defeats in the 14 games&mdash;coach Pat Quinn tried to keep things in perspective.His troops had been performing on an even keel over a relatively lengthy period of time (no three-game losing streaks and vice-versa) and they had been playing his kind of game&mdash;putting constant pressure on the puck from one end of the ice surface to the other and refusing to lay back and wait for things to happen.Quinn was just hoping the days of the Jekyll and Hyde routines have passed for good, especially now that playoff positions are on the line.&ldquo;Our guys have a way of surprising me sometimes,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;Sometimes I&rsquo;ll watch us play so well and I&rsquo;ll think, &lsquo;Oh boy, are we good. I didn&rsquo;t know we were that good.&rsquo; And then we&rsquo;ll go the other way and&hellip; teams have a way of tricking you.&rdquo;&ldquo;Right now I&rsquo;m seeing a lot of improvements and we&rsquo;re getting good results and&hellip;I hope they&rsquo;re saying to themselves, &lsquo;Hey maybe this isn&rsquo;t so bad after all.&rdquo;&lsquo;Quinn was talking sacrifices here. And for the Kings to play the way the coach wants them to play, this is the major point.Or is attitude the major point?&ldquo;When you go into the comer to make a pass and you know you&rsquo;re going to get hit, sometimes that&rsquo;s tough to do,&rdquo; said captain Terry Ruskowski. &ldquo;I mean, you know you&rsquo;re going to get crunched, and I&rsquo;ve never met anybody in my life who enjoys that.&ldquo;There are times when you&rsquo;re not really up to it. Your body maybe hurts and you don&rsquo;t want to do it. I had to force my body to do things I didn&rsquo;t want it to do.&ldquo;Nobody wants to go into a comer and get hit. Sometimes it&rsquo;s real hard, and when you don&rsquo;t feel as ready as you might some other night, it&rsquo;s very difficult. But you&rsquo;ve got to do it. Call it the will to win. You see somebody else on the team do it, and maybe his body&rsquo;s more fragile&hellip;you can&rsquo;t let your teammates down.&ldquo;And now that the race is so close, you have to push yourself to the outer limits. That&rsquo;s all there is to it.&rdquo;For the Kings, however, this has not always been the case. Too often individual players had been content&mdash;subconsciously or not&mdash;to go their own wayand hope, somehow, things would turn out right.Unfortunately, it doesn&rsquo;t work this way. Taking the easy route never does.&ldquo;In the past,&rdquo; said Bernie Nicholls, &ldquo;we wouldn&rsquo;t put the team ahead of (personal) stats. We weren&rsquo;t playing for anything and maybe that&rsquo;s part of the reason. We were concerned about going down and getting a goal. But now we&rsquo;ve got to think team. There are certain things we have to do.&rdquo;Like getting belted where it hurts to create or finish off a play.&ldquo;Now we want to make plays, give checks,&rdquo; Ruskowski said. &ldquo;That inconsistent thing, blowing leads in the third period, we got into bad habits. We were trying to hang on instead of being aggressive. We lost some pretty important games that way.&ldquo;But bad habits are tough to break. You&rsquo;ve done something your whole life one way and you know you should be doing it the other way, and&hellip;some games we lost&mdash;and we lost a pile of games last year&mdash;because we just wouldn&rsquo;t do it. Now we are and it may hurt some, but it&rsquo;s sure looking good.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re finding out that if we do the so-called little things, the unglamorous things, that we get better chances to score than if we do it the other way.&rdquo;Bingo. This is precisely what Quinn had been preaching since he took this job.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing with a lot of emotion,&rdquo; said Dave Taylor. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s easier because you get disheartened chasing teams all the time, especially when you&rsquo;re winning. Like anything else, emotion seems to climb when your confidence goes up, and these guys really hate to lose.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been getting some big efforts out of guys, diving to block the shots, closing off the slot and the area around the net. You keep doing that, you&rsquo;re going to win a lot of hockey games.&rdquo;KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;The Kings entered the stretch run with a 28-23-11 record, the first time they had been five games over .500 since the 1980-81 season ended. &#9632;

f0024-02

Kings Sacrificing Selves For Benefit Of The Team

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01628/5055997-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="137" height="92"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;While his left paw was mending from a losing bout with Dale Hunter&rsquo;s helmet, Craig Ludwig looked down from the Montreal Forum broadcast booth.&ldquo;I just wish I could hit somebody,&rdquo; Ludwig said with a gleam in his eye.Since coming back from the injury which kept him out of the first nine games of the 1984-85 season, the strapping native of the Wisconsin hamlet of Eagle River has belted every opponent in sight and is gaining the reputation as one of the toughest body checkers in the league.It should not come as a surprise that Ludwig, who could have been a football linebacker in college, hits like one. He spends his summers lifting weights and operating a water skiing school to strengthen himself for the hockey season. He is listed at 6-foot-3, 210 pounds but looks and hits bigger.&ldquo;I talked to Jacques (Lemaire) a couple of months ago and he said that it&rsquo;s my game to bump and be more physical,&rdquo; Ludwig disclosed of his conversation with the Canadiens&rsquo; coach. &ldquo;My first two years, I thought I was (physical) but not to the point where 1 am now.&ldquo;I never really realized how much more I could be aggressive and how it does change a game. It is a big part of my game. It seems that if you can get some respect from the players on the other team, you get a little extra time behind the net. With me, I need all the time I can get.&ldquo;Sometimes it (the hitting) picks up our team if we aren&rsquo;t going well. The guys on the bench see you make a big hit and it does something for you. I know it does for me when I see Bob (Gainey) or Chris (Nilan) run into somebody.&rdquo;Because he seldomly makes a glaring error, Ludwig should be considered among the top 10 defensive defensemen in the league. There is nothing flashy about his play; Ludwig&rsquo;s style is more along the lines of former Canadien Rod Langway, whose number (17) he inherited when Langway was traded to Washington in 1982.&ldquo;We have 14 or 15 guys on this team, who, in order to be playing well, have to be bumping and grinding,&rdquo; Ludwig said. &ldquo;We might have four or five guys who don&rsquo;t have to hit. If we don&rsquo;t bump grind and hit, we are not going to win a lot of hockey games.&rdquo;During his first two season with the Canadiens, Ludwig never missed a game and has been a regular since joining the club from the University of North Dakota. Recently, Ludwig has been paired with Larry Robinson and the two have been used almost exclusively against the opposition&rsquo;s top lines. Lemaire has gone to Ludwig, Robinson and rookie Chris Chelios as the defensemen on the penalty-killing unit, a job the three of them perform well.An American magazine described Ludwig this season as a laid-back, Surfer Joe type, which is accurate. Certainly Ludwig, who will turn 24 this month, is not a rah-rah individual and, unlike most hockey players, does not have his nose buried in the sports pages the morning after a game to see what has and hasn&rsquo;t been said about him. He practises hard and plays hard and has a good understanding of what his role is and how to perform it.&ldquo;I can relax,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can relax during a game. I&rsquo;d rather be that way than being uptight or hyper about it. It works differently for everybody.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;Chris Nilan scored the first Canadien penalty shot since March, 1973, when he beat Winnipeg&rsquo;s Brian Hayward on Feb. 23. The last Montreal player to score on a penalty shot was Nilan&rsquo;s current coach, Jacques Lemaire&hellip;Patrick Roy made his NHL goaltending debut as he replaced Doug Soetaert for the final period against Winnipeg. Roy was called up from the Granby juniors when Steve Penney was struck in the groin by a Guy Carbonneau shot. Penney was set to go with the Canadiens on a four-game swing out west but was hit in the same area by a Mike McPhee shot the day before the Canadienswere due to embark&hellip; Kent Carlson, out since Jan. 8 with a broken hand, was sent to Sherbrooke for a two-week conditioning period&hellip;Lucien DeBlois returned to active status against Winnipeg, while Mark Hunter sat out the weekend victories over the Jets and the Islanders because of a recurring knee problem. DeBlois had been out since Jan. 2 with pulled abdominal muscles. Ron Flockhart suffered a concussion when flattened by the Jets&rsquo; Robert Picard. Flockhart, who returned to action Feb. 19 in St. Louis after missing 17 games with a separated shoulder, rejoined the team in Calgary after missing games against the Islanders and Oilers. &#9632;

f0024-01

Ludwig Becomes Big Hit With Canadiens

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01549/5056090-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="115" height="112"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2>BOSTON&mdash;One of the first things general manager Harry Sinden did when he took over the coaching reins of the Boston Bruins was to give rookie defenseman Mats Thelin a two-game vacation. It was welcomed.&ldquo;I think it was a good idea,&rdquo; said the 23-year-old Swede. &ldquo;I feel better mentally. It feels like I&rsquo;m playing again. This season has been a big difference for me. I played 30 games last season and I&rsquo;ve already played 75 now, counting the Canada Cup and pre-season games.&rdquo;The length of the season is not the only difference that Thelin, the first Swede to play for the Bruins, has found between the National Hockey League and the Swedish Elite League where he played for the AIK team last season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s much higher speed here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s much faster. You don&rsquo;t have as much time with the puck as you had back in Sweden. The ice is much smaller here and you have to find someone to pass it to right away or you&rsquo;re in trouble.&ldquo;The comers here are so small. That makes it easy when I don&rsquo;t have the puck. The forward doesn&rsquo;t have much room to work with. But when I have the puck it is more difficult.&ldquo;If I made a mistake in my own end in Sweden, I had time to compensate for it. Here, you make sure your first pass is the right one. You don&rsquo;t have time to make mistakes. They get a scoring chance right away.&rdquo;Thelin has proved to be a pleasant surprise for the Bruins who, not too long ago. didn&rsquo;t take too kindly to Swedish players. The rap was that they were inclined to fade when the going got robust. The phrase &ldquo;Chicken Swede&rdquo; was heard often during the coaching days of Don Cherry.&ldquo;Back in 1975,&rdquo; recalled Mike Milbury, &ldquo;Anders Kallur had a tryout with the Bruins and he paid dearly. It was awful. There was a real bias toward European players. Some of the older guys were really tough on them. But Mats has not only been accepted, he&rsquo;s very well-liked.&rdquo;Actually, Thelin rather likes the rough going, although he&rsquo;ll probably never be much of a fighter, as indicated by his one fistic encounter with Mitch Wilson of the New Jersey Devils early in the season. Wilson won a unanimous decision.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always tried to play a more hitting game than most of the Swedish guys at home, so I think that helped me here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe that&rsquo;s why the Bruins picked me, too.&rdquo;Thelin, who will be 24 on March 30, was the Bruins&rsquo; sixth choice, 140th overall, in the 1981 entry draft. He remained with the AIK club for the next three seasons until Sinden deemed him ready for the NHL. He played for the Swedish Olympic team in Sarajevo and for the Swedish finalists in last summer&rsquo;s Canada Cup series.&ldquo;His age helps,&rdquo; said former assistant coach Gary Doak. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a rookie with the Bruins, but he&rsquo;s not 18 years old. He&rsquo;s got that experience. He plays his position well. He never gets beaten. What helps him is that he&rsquo;s an excellent passer. For a defenseman, that&rsquo;s a real asset.&rdquo;When the season started, Thelin was paired with Ray Bourque as part of the Bruins&rsquo; scheme to have a veteran defenseman work with a rookie. It wasn&rsquo;t long before Thelin was taking the role of the veteran paired with one of the rookies.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s plays with so much confidence that it&rsquo;s easy to forget this is his first season in this league,&rdquo; said Doak.Thelin speaks fluent English, having studied it since he was 12, but admits &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not much of a talker. In the beginning it was hard, it&rsquo;s easy to understand, but when you try to say something, sometimes nothing comes out.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t felt any great culture shock living in the United States. I like to go shopping. I like to go to the malls. I like to go to the movies, drink Coke and eat popcorn. I enjoy TV, especially the old movies, and I can&rsquo;t get over how good Ray Bourque is.&ldquo;One of the toughest things for me to get used to here is the longer shifts: Back home you stay out at most 40 seconds. Ray can stay out there five minutes without getting tired. I never saw Bobby Orr play, but I can&rsquo;t see how he could be any better than Ray Bourque.&rdquo;And the Bruins don&rsquo;t see how any rookie Swedish defenseman could be any better than Mats Thelin, so they&rsquo;re bringing over another one next season, Michael Thelven.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s more offensive-minded than I am,&rdquo; Thelin said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s more like Mike O&rsquo;Connell.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0025-01

Thelin Proves Swedes Can Plau For Bruins

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02367/5056152-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="100" height="98"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2>VANCOUVER&mdash;Strange things are going on in Vancouver these days, with the Canucks playing out the string as the season concludes.General manager Harry Neale seems to be in limbo despite his comments abbut &ldquo;being gone&rdquo; at the All-Star game.But Neale, who fired coach Bill LaForge in November and took over behind the bench of the sagging squad, has been told by the owners he must coach the rest of the season.There has been considerable media pressure in town to let Ron Smith have a shot at the head-coaching job at least for the remainder of the season, but any such suggestions have been stonewalled at the Ownership level. Neale is now spending most of his time coaching a team that has no chance of making it into the playoffs. He occasionally slips away to look at some of the top draft possibilities, but essentially he&rsquo;s been concentrating on coaching.&ldquo;The Griffiths have made it clear they want me to coach the rest of the season,&rdquo; Neale said of his discussions with the team&rsquo;s owners, although he feels it would be more advantageous to concentrate on managing the team and improving its future.Smith, meanwhile, sits as the assistant or associate coach, a would-be head coach who has been passed over three times. He could have been given an opportunity when Roger Neilson was fired 15 months ago, or before LaForge was hired, or after LaForge was fired. He&rsquo;s 0-for-3 with his contract expiring at the end of the season, and it looks as though he is history as far as the organization is concerned.&ldquo;I still have a contract, and I have to go about my job as I normally would,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I want to be a head coach in the NHL, and I&rsquo;ll be applying for jobs that come up in the future. I still think the talent here is good, and there is a bright future for anyone who comes in.&rdquo;Jack Mcllhargey&rsquo;s future is also uncertain. He was originally hired by Neale at the start of the season to be in charge of the Canucks&rsquo; alumni, which entailed the beginning of a sadly-lacking tradition with the team.When LaForge was axed, Mcllhargey, who also undertook special scouting assignments, became an assistant coach. It was natural that he gravitate toward helping the young Canuck defensemen, and it seems unanimous the Burnaby native has done an excellent job. Since he began working with the defense, crucial errors have come down, and the goals against have improved.Neale still has two years left on his contract, but Arthur Griffiths, the assistant to the chairman of the Canucks, will only say that decisions will be made at the end of the season.&ldquo;There is a lot of hockey left to be played, and when it&rsquo;s over, we will sit down and decide what we want to do,&rdquo; Griffiths said. &ldquo;Harry still has the two years left, and there is no rush to be making these decisions.&rdquo;Neale, meanwhile, is hoping to make a deal before the trading deadline March 12 to help the Canucks for the future.&ldquo;There may be a team or two that feels they are just a player away from the Cup season and they may be willing to gamble a little on the future for that player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to be stealing anyone, but we may have a couple of players who could help a team in the playoffs and we wouldn&rsquo;t get our player off their roster until after the season ends.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;The Canucks have signed 35-year-old Czechoslovak defenseman Jiri Bubla to another one-year termination contract. &#9632;

f0025-02

Canucks Want Neale Coaching

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02407/5056214-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg"></div>The Winnipeg Jets rolled to three consecutive victories for the week ending March 4 and one of the reasons was netminder Brian Hayward, who was in goal for all three games and earned THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Player-of-the-Week award.Hayward backstopped the Jets to a 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers, a 12-5 win over the New York Rangers and a 6-4 triumph against the Pittsburgh Penguins.After 47 games, the Cornell grad had a 23-16-5 record with a 4.12 goals-against average. &#9632;

f0026-02

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01582/5056183-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="95" height="84"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;This was going to be the season that Jan Ludvig arrived as a fearsome goal-scoring threat. In this, his third season in the National Hockey League, the 23-year-old Czechoslovak was going to unleash his explosive slap shot on the league&rsquo;s goalies and help carry the New Jersey Devils out of the depths of the Patrick Division.The Devils were hoping for 25 or 30 goals from the still-developing right winger, who scored 22 despite the unsettling circumstances of last season. But Ludvig had set his expectations even higher.&ldquo;I thought I could score 40 goals,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;I wanted to work so hard to be ready. All I did was burn myself out.&rdquo;An off-season weightlifting and conditioning program sapped Ludvig of his strength and his self-imposed pressure kept him from snapping out of a season-long nightmare. Not until mid-February did Ludvig even look like the player he was last season.Then, in three consecutive games between Feb. 17 and Feb. 21, Ludvig erupted for five goals. It doubled his season&rsquo;s total to 10, while raising his point total to 26. Over a five-game stretch, he collected five goals and two assists.&ldquo;I scored only five goals in my first 51 games, I just couldn&rsquo;t believe it, then I score five in three games,&rdquo; said Ludvig.Sadly, Ludvig&rsquo;s offensive outburst coincided with New Jersey&rsquo;s worst stretch of the entire season. A 6-3 loss in Chicago on Feb. 27 was the Devils&rsquo; fifth in a row (longest losing streak of the season) and extended their winless streak to six (0-5-1).&ldquo;I finally feel I can do my job and the team is losing, it&rsquo;s disappointing,&rdquo; said Ludvig, who scored two goals in a 7-5 loss at Vancouver and then added two more in a 5-3 setback to Los Angeles. &ldquo;This is the toughest part about the NHL. Every game you&rsquo;ve got to get all the guys to put it together.&rdquo;Getting the Liberec, Czechoslovakia native to put it together was a tough task for coach Doug Carpenter. Injuries set Ludvig back numerous times and Carpenter thought he might wake up playing with rookie linemates Greg Adams and Rocky Trottier. Adams and Trottier played well, but Ludvig continued to play like a zombie.Finally, Carpenter switched him to the wing with veterans Mel Bridgman and Tim Higgins and Ludvig responded.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to play three young guys together like Rocky, Greg and me,&rdquo; said Ludvig. &ldquo;This is a tough league. Playing with Mel and Higgy, if I make a mistake they cover up for me. It&rsquo;s not so noticeable.&ldquo;I guess I feel different. I&rsquo;m just hoping it isn&rsquo;t too late. I know that I can play the game. I might not be great defensively in our zone, but if I use my brains I can hold up both ends of my game.&rdquo;Carpenter acknowledged that Ludvig came to training camp burned out from his own extensive off-season conditioning program. The rookie coach still sees great potential for the 5-foot-10, 190-pound forward with the deadly shot.General manager Max McNab and the club&rsquo;s two coaches&mdash;Carpenter and Lou Vairo&mdash;see Ludvig&rsquo;s tendency to get down on himself when not scoring as one of his biggest problems. Ludvig is tougher on himself and issues as many self-scoldings as any coach could dish out.&ldquo;Look at it this way,&rdquo; explained a Devil teammate. &ldquo;Ludie&rsquo;s hockey career is not only resting on his success, but right now his whole life is resting on it. There&rsquo;s enough pressure on a guy who can go back to college or settle down at home if he doesn&rsquo;t make it. With Ludie, this is an important stage in his life.&rdquo;His story is, by now, well-known. Using a 10-day tourist visa in May of 1981, Jan and wife Dana left Czechoslovakia and smuggled themselves into Austria. They spent six months in a refugee camp before emigrating to Edmonton. His defection still poses problems for the remainder of his family back in Czechoslovakia.Jan and Dana live in a comfortable house in a New Jersey suburb with 17-month old son, Jacob. Ludvig is careful not to say anything about his homeland that will create trouble for his parents or sister.Ludvig is hoping to finish strong this season, patching together his disappointing campaign with offensive support that will help the Devils make a final run toward a playoff berth. It&rsquo;s the only way, he figures, to salvage a lost season.HOT STUFF&mdash;Bob Lorimer under-went arthroscopic surgery Feb. 28 on his right knee. Dr. Barry Fisher partially removed tom cartilage in a successful operation. John MacLean returned to action quickly after a similar operation, giving Lorimer hope he&rsquo;ll play again this season&hellip;Paul Gagne scored his 19th goal of the season (tying Doug Sulliman for the team lead) on Feb. 27. It was Gagne&rsquo;s 300th NHL game of his career&hellip; Hannu Kampurri&rsquo;s 43-save performance against the Winnipeg Jets Feb. 17 (a 2-2 tie) ranked among the franchise&rsquo;s best goaltending shows&hellip; Devil GM Max McNab refuted a report that the Boston Bruins want to hire Tom McVie as coach but that the Devils are holding McVie to his GM-coaching contract at Maine. &ldquo;No one has approached us about Tommie,&rdquo; said McNab, &ldquo;I was even with (Bruin GM) Harry Sinden in Calgary for the All-Star game and nothing was mentioned.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0026-01

Ludvig Snapping Season-Long Struggle

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>NEW HAVEN&mdash;Through four years of college hockey, fiery Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer always managed to pick his team up when they were down.He had his share of chances, too. O&rsquo;Dwyer, the team captain at Boston College in his senior year, suffered through four consecutive years of championship-game losses at the Beanpot Tournament.Now, O&rsquo;Dwyer, the captain of the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League, faces an even tougher task, helping his teammates out of the depression that followed a costly heartbreaking loss at home to Southern Division-rival Baltimore Skipjacks on Feb. 27.The Nighthawks needed that game badly. In fifth place at the time, they trailed fourth-place (the last playoff spot) Baltimore by only four points. However, Baltimore already had four games in hand. A victory would have narrowed the gap to two points. A loss meant the margin was six. It was a must game.The Nighthawks, once down 2-0, appeared to have the crucial contest under control with less than five minutes remaining. But then, with only 3:10 left, Baltimore winger Andy Brickley passively flipped a shot from the left side boards that eluded Nighthawk goalie Ron Scott. Scott later said he never saw the shot, he simply lost it in the background.&ldquo;Like Marv Thomeberry,&rdquo; moaned one Nighthawk fan after the goal was scored (referring to the fumbling former New York Met first baseman.)Less than a minute after that goal, Baltimore&rsquo;s Bennett Wolf was caught for elbowing. Not only did the Nighthawks fail to score, but 25 seconds after the penalty ended and with only 28 seconds remaining in regulation time, Brickley, who had four goals on the night, went around the Nighthawk defense to score what proved to be the winning goal. Tom O&rsquo;Regan added an empty-net marker and the Nighthawks lost 7-5.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pretty tough one to take,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Dwyer. &ldquo;The fluke goal just took the wind out of our sails. We can&rsquo;t dwell on it. It&rsquo;s over and done.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Dwyer had been the Nighthawks&rsquo; captain before being recalled to the Los Angeles Kings for a 13-game period. He scored only one goal there, but that was in his old stomping grounds. Boston Garden, against the Bruins. Unfortunately, the Kings lost 5-4 in overtime.O&rsquo;Dwyer&rsquo;s goal had given them a 3-2 lead in the third period.In his absence, coach Nick Beverley tried to light a fire under onetime great Blaine Stoughton by naming him captain, a role Stoughton had never previously performed. When O&rsquo;Dwyer returned Beverley gave the post back to him. The night of the Baltimore game Stoughton sat in the stands, out of the lineup for the third consecutive game. He had earlier been sidelined with the flu, but his absence against Baltimore had nothing to do with illness. The Nighthawks had lost only one of the last six and were unbeaten in three. Beverley wanted to keep the same combination.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have any mixed feelings about taking the captaincy again,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Dwyer. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to come back and just sit in the comer. I left as the captain and I wanted to come back as the captain.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Dwyer almost didn&rsquo;t come back at all. He impressed the Kings with his defensive play, but ignored his offensive game.&ldquo;It was my own fault,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Dwyer. &ldquo;I worried a little too much about defense. I figured there was plenty of scoring there up the middle. Hopefully, I&rsquo;ll get another chance to show what I can do on offense.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Dwyer had 19 goals and 21 assists in his first 41 games with New Haven.Meanwile, the Nighthawks were planning to add more offense for the stretch drive. In response to Edmonton&rsquo;s unpopular move of adding Bart Yachimec to the roster of their American League team in Nova Scotia, the Nighthawks were awaiting the arrival of high-scoring defenseman Al Sims and sniper Mark Lofthouse.The Oilers got around the league rules prohibiting late-season additions from Europe by signing Yachimec and then waiving him before assigning him to Halifax. The Nighthawks employed the same strategy to get Sims, but wouldn&rsquo;t have gone after the popular defenseman if not for the action taken by Edmonton.Sims, 31, had been playing in West Germany. Lofthouse, who finished seventh in the AHL scoring parade last year, entered this season in the option year of his contract with L. A. The Kings granted him permission to chase down a lucrative offer to play in Switzerland. The Kings complied by assigning his rights to the European club while maintaining his NHL rights, a move which allows him to legally return to the AHL.DOWN SOUTH&mdash;The Nighthawks were looking to chase Springfield for the last playoff spot. However, Baltimore with 12 of its last 14 games on the road, was not home free yet&hellip;Right winger Steve Thomas of St. Catharines score three goals and four assists to earn player of the week honors. After being returned from Toronto, he scored the game-winning goal in a 7-5 decision over Hershey&hellip; Paul Gardner, who earlier had an 18-game scoring streak, ran another string to 15 for Binghamton, before he was stopped by his former teammates at Baltimore&hellip;Springfield newcomer Neal Coulter made his first AHL goal a big one. Called up from Indianapolis of the IHL, his tally enabled the Indians to earn a come-from-behind 2-2 tie against the Rochester Amerks. &#9632;

The Minors

O’Dwyer To Cure Nighthawks’ Depression

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;The short, controversial, expensive and generally boring life of the American Hockey League&rsquo;s European Rule came to an end in Halifax on Feb. 24.May it rest on peace&mdash;forever.By neatly sidestepping the legislation they had backed from the start and raising are ire of many officials in the league, the Edmonton-Nova Scotia Oilers effectively prevented what the majority of the members felt was a shortcoming&mdash;allowing teams to load their rosters with players returning from service in European leagues.Fredericton general manager-coach Earl Jessiman filed a formal protest with the league after Nova Scotia used forward Bart Yachimec in the game against the Express in Halifax on Feb. 24. Yachimec, ruled to be an ineligible player by AHL president Jack Butterfield earer in the month, scored a goal on his first shift in the Oilers&rsquo; 5-4 victory.However, the protest was turned down and the Oilers were not subjected to a $5 ,000 per game fine for using an illegal player because Yachimec had been waltzed into the league through a loophole as big as the province of Alberta. In order to circumvent the AHL bylaw adopted on Jan. 4 that prohibits AHL teams from signing players after the deadline 66 days from the end of the season, Edmonton signed Yachimec to an NHL contract&mdash;thus placing him on their reserve list&mdash;and simply assigned him to Nova Scotia.The maneuver opened the door for teams to do whatever they choose, just as they had been able to prior to December, 1983 when the first piece of legislation was enacted. New Haven quickly followed suit and added former AHL scoring champ Mark Lofthouse, a member of the L.A. Kings&rsquo; organization who had been in Europe, and defenseman Al Sims. Other teams are expected to add players, too.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s legal if he has an NHL contract and is on loan,&rdquo; AHL vice president Gordie Anziano said concerning Yachimec&rsquo;s status. &ldquo;This has never happened before. Our bylaws are to legislate to our clubs, we can&rsquo;t tell the NHL what to do.&rdquo;The amended bylaw which, according to one official, &ldquo;cost the league thousands of dollars in attorney&rsquo;s fees,&rdquo; does not prevent the flow of players between the NHL and AHL if they are on the NHL team&rsquo;s reserve list.&ldquo;The rule is no good, it&rsquo;s a fiasco,&rdquo; Jessiman said when he learned his protest would hold no water. &ldquo;If they are allowing that, the rule is a joke and the AHL better take a long, hard look at the rule.&ldquo;All I&rsquo;m doing (with the protest) is supporting my vote. I&rsquo;m expressing my concern over the fact that the rule, as I read it, has been broken. Whether he&rsquo;s on the reserve list or not shouldn&rsquo;t matter. The rule is designed to eliminate guys coming back from Europe. The league has a serious problem here.&rdquo;Springfield owner Peter Cooney, the only independent operator in the league, voted against the rule changes because he felt the AHL was spending too much money trying to enforce an idea he believed in.&ldquo;The precedent has been set that this loophole is viable,&rdquo; Cooney said. &ldquo;Everybody now, I believe, will be able to use the same loophole for as many players as they want. Therefore, it&rsquo;s like before we ever had this rule.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t hold back (New York Islander general manager) Bill Torrey or (Minnesota North Star GM) Lou Nanne from doing that to help us whatsoever. I would have in the past objected to that, but now I have no objections. Hey, what&rsquo;s good for the goose is good for the gander.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Mike Clayton helped the Moncton Golden Flames open their pivotal seven-game road trip with an overtime goal at Glens Falls. The win helped the Golden Flames climb in to a three-way tie with Sherbrooke and Nova Scotia for fourth place in the division. The loss ended Adirondack&rsquo;s six-game winning streak at home&hellip; Maine solidified its hold on first place in the division with a 4-2 victory over Springfield to move seven points ahead of Adirondack, a team it faces four times in the final 15 games of the season&hellip; Maine goalie Sam St. Laurent preserved the Mariners&rsquo; 3-2 lead over the Indians with the help of a second chance.Springfield&rsquo;s Scott Howson had St. Laurent out of position and was ready to score the game-tying goal with 1:04 to play in the third period when St. Laurent threw his stick at the puck. Howson was awarded a penalty shot, which St. Laurent stopped&hellip;The Mariners have lost center Steve Tsujiura. He suffered strained knee ligaments&hellip;The Mariners own a 7-0-2 streak at home&hellip;The Golden Flames suffered some severe manpower losses prior to the start of the trip whenPierre Rioux and Robin Bartel were sidelined with injuries and rookie forwards Gino Cavallini and Joel Otto were recalled by Calgary&hellip; Edmonton recalled goalie Marco Baron and Nova Scotia forward Todd Strueby was reas-singed to Muskegon of the IHL&hellip;Fredericton extended its winless streak on the road to 13 games with a loss at Hershey. The Express are 0-11-2 on the road since an overtime win at Baltimore on Jan. 6&hellip;Ken Holland, Adirondack&rsquo;s veteran goaltender, has fashioned a five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1) in which he&rsquo;s allowed an average of 2.5 goals a game. &#9632;

Oilers Find Way To End European Rule

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>SALT LAKE CITY&mdash;Tom Webster is a travelling man.It&rsquo;s not as frustrating this season, perhaps, as it was during the 1983-84 campaign when his Central Hockey League Oilers lost their &ldquo;home&rdquo; at Tulsa and spent most of the final half of the season playing on the road.Webster and his Oilers, of course, overcame that inconvenience and went on to win the Adams Cup, sweeping the Indianapolis Checkers in four games&mdash;all on the road.This year, Webster is coaching the Salt Lake City Golden Eagles and they play all their home games in the Salt Palace, but there still is a lot of travelling to do. When they leave home, it&rsquo;s usually for 10 to 12 days at a time.Webster has learned how to adjust to the schedule, but it took his team a little time to get their &ldquo;road legs.&rdquo;&ldquo;The first couple of road trips were disastrous,&rdquo; Webster recalls. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we won two games on our first trip.&rdquo;Actually, Salt Lake won two games on their first tour of the east. They lost six, however, in the 12 days they were away from home.On their second lengthy swing around the league which began Feb. 20 at Fort Wayne, the Golden Eagles got off to a much better start.They helped knock the Flint Generals out of first place in the East Division with a 7-1 triumph in their latest appearance in the Salt Palace, then opened their eight games in 12 days journey by playing to a 5-5 draw at Fort Wayne.The Eagles then knocked off Flint for the second time in four days, 6-5 in overtime, and returned to Fort Wayne on Feb. 23 for a 7-5 decision over the Komets.Toledo slowed the Golden Eagles a night later in another overtime contest, edging Salt Lake 3-2. Stops at Kalamazoo. Muskegon, Peoria and Toledo again were on the slate before Salt Lake was to return home.Their road performance boosted the Eagles five points ahead of the Checkers in the battle for third place in the West.Salt Lake hasn&rsquo;t been standing still as far as player personnel are concerned, either. General Manager Chuck Schell and Webster have completed a couple of multi-player trades in the last month.In the first, Salt Lake sent Kurt Kleinendorst and Steve Martinson, a pair of forwards, to Toledo in exchange for Grant Rezansoff, Kevin Conway, Steve Harrison and Blake Stephen. In their first eight games with the Golden Eagles, Rezansoff, Conway and Harrison combined for 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists). Stephen was pointless in four games.In their most recent transaction, the Eagles gave up veteran defenseman Pat Ribble to Indianapolis for winger Bobby Simpson and defenseman Jim Beaton.Simpson was the third-leading scorer of the Checkers at the time of the trade with 38 points, including 16 goals.And the road jitters apparantly are behind Salt Lake. Since their 2-6-0 first trip, the Golden Eagles are 8-11-1 on subsequent road games.&ldquo;A team needs some time on the road,&rdquo; Webster says. &ldquo;On the road the guys stick together, they keep their minds on the game. You really become a team when you go on the road. I told them (the players) that to advance we have to become a team and the road helps.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Kalamazoo&rsquo;s Dave Michayluk leads the league with 49 goals, and is tied for sixth overall in scoring with 72 points&hellip; Scott Gruhl of Muskegon had 39 goals and Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Ron Leef 36&hellip;Michayluk and Gruhl were tied in game-winning goals with eight each&hellip;Cliff Koroll has moved up to Chicago to assist general manager-coach Bob Pulford. Scout Jim Pappin succeeds Koroll as Milwaukee&rsquo;s coach and will be assisted by defenseman Dave Feamster, whom the Hawks have assigned to the Admirals. Lee Blossom has joined Toledo and netted three goals in his first two games. Blossom scored more than 120 goals in the last two seasons with Virginia of the Atlantic Coast League. &#9632;

Golden Eagles Take Their Show On Road

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>DULUTH&mdash;With the exhausting 34-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association schedule over for all eight league teams, a breath of fresh air has arrived in the form of the league playoffs, where hope springs eternal.The WCHA goes even further than the National Hockey League because not a single team is eliminated in the regular season. No matter how bad or how good your season played, there&rsquo;s always the league playoffs to bring new hopes for success.The only thing the regular season does, besides crown a champion, which was Minnesota-Duluth for the second consecutive season, is determine the seedings for the playoffs.The pairings weren&rsquo;t decided until the final game of the season when Wisconsin beat Michigan Tech and Minnesota stopped North Dakota, allowing Wisconsin to slip into third place ahead of North Dakota.The pairings have No. 8 Michigan Tech at No. 1 Minnesota Duluth, No. 7 Northern Michigan at No. 2 Minnesota, No. 6 Colorado College at No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 5 Denver at No. 4 North Dakota.And based on what happened when they met during the regular season, Denver has the best prospects for springing an upset in the two-games, total-goals series.The Pioneers not only beat North Dakota twice and tied them once in four meetings, but Denver got the two wins in North Dakota&rsquo;s rink.&ldquo;For that reason, we&rsquo;re pleased to be playing Denver,&rdquo; said North Dakota coach Gino Gasparini. &ldquo;It should be a motivating factor for us.&rdquo;Surprisingly, Denver coach Ralph Backstrom appears to be entering the series with less than full confidence, despite the success of his team against the Sioux.&ldquo;I can think of a lot of other places in the country I&rsquo;d rather be going,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;Going into anybody&rsquo;s rink is an uphill battle, I don&rsquo;t care where you&rsquo;re going. And looking at it realistically, we could have lost both games the last time we played in North Dakota.We&rsquo;re just hoping to keep it close and bring it all down to the last period. I wouldn&rsquo;t mind if it went into overtime again.&rdquo;The Pioneers are battle-tested veterans of overtime play, since they&rsquo;ve been involved in a school record nine of them, winning three, losing three and tying three.While Michigan Tech has the toughest assignment of having to play in Duluth, where the Bulldogs are 18-1-1 this season, Tech has enjoyed some success against Duluth. The Huskies beat Duluth twice in Michigan Tech&rsquo;s rink and played well against the Bulldogs in Duluth, too, losing 7-5 and 4-3.And since it could be the final games for coach Jim Nahrgang, who has resigned effective at the end of the season, there should be plenty of incentive for Michigan Tech and perhaps not quite as much for Duluth, which is a good bet to be selected for the nationals regardless of how it does in the WCHA playoffs. Michigan Tech has lost six games in a row, though, and nine of its last 10, so it is not coming in as a hot team.The other playoff games figure to go according to form, meaning Wisconsin should handle Colorado College. Colorado College, however, plays well against Wisconsin, partly because the latter is coached by Jeff Sauer, who moved there after coaching Colorado College.Northern Michigan rides a six-game losing streak into Minnesota, where the Gophers pounded Northern Michigan 7-1 and 3-0 three weeks ago to start Northern Michigan on its downhill slide.A year ago, Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota emerged from the league playoffs to go on to the nationals, where Duluth finished second and North Dakota third. &#9632;

Denver Has Upset Possibilities

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01494/5056393-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="400" height="494"><figcaption class="caption-body">SCOTT FUSCO Harvard</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Scott Fusco, a junior center with Harvard, came on strong in the last weekend of the ECAC race to capture the individual league scoring title, picking up six points in two games to win the nod as ECAC Performer-of-the-Week.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02344/5056386-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="399" height="494"><figcaption class="caption-body">JEAN LACOSTE Maine</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Maine&rsquo;s sophomore goaltender Jean Lacoste was chosen the Hockey East Performer-of-the-Week after making 37 saves in a 5-1 win and 41 saves in a 4-3 squeaker as the seventh-ranked Bears upset the Providence Friars twice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03254/5056379-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="362" height="491"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROB URBAN Bowling Green</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Bowling Green Falcons had an easy time disposing of Illinois-Chicago in the first round of the CCHA playoffs as sophomore winger Rob Urban was picked as the league&rsquo;s Performer-of-the-Week after scoring four goals in the 7-2 series-clinching win.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04189/5056372-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="387" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">TODD NORMAN North Dakota</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>North Dakota freshman winger Todd Norman scored three goals as the Fighting Sioux rolled over the Denver Pioners in the first round of the playoffs. Norman earned WCHA Performer-of-the-Week honors as he sparked the Sioux to 7-1 and 8-4 wins.THE BAUER PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK &#9632;

f0031-01

Bauef® FIT FOR PERFORMANCE

<h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>PLAYOFFSQuarter-FinalsFri. Mar. 1Miami 3 at Michigan State 4Sat. Mar. 2Miami 1 at Michigan State 7(Michigan State wins two-game series 11-4)Fri. Mar. 1Michigan 1 at Lake Superior 3Sat. Mar. 2Michigan 6 at Lake Superior 7(Lake Superior wins two-game series 10-7)Fri. Mar. 1Ohio State 4 at W. Michigan 2 Sat. Mar. 2Ohio State 4 at W. Michigan 5(Ohio State wins two-game series 8-7)Fri. Mar. 1Ill-Chicago 5 at Bowling Green 7Sat. Mar. 2Ill-Chicago 2 at Bowling Green 7(Bowling Green wins two-game series 14-7)<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Semi-FinalsFri. Mar. 8Lake Superior vs Bowling GreenMichigan State vs Ohio State(Sudden-death games)Sat. Mar. 9Consolation finalSun. Mar. 9Championship final(All games at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit)<h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01516/5056543-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="534" height="291"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02379/5056536-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="530" height="323"></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>PLAYOFFSQuarter-FinalsFri. Mar. 1Mich Tech 2 at Min-Duluth 3Sat. Mar. 2Mich Tech 2 at Min-Duluth 5(Min-Duluth wins two-game series 8-4)Fri. Mar. 1Denver 1 at North Dakota 7Sat. Mar. 2Denver 4 at North Dakota 8(North Dakota wins two-game series 15-5)Sat. Mar. 2N. Michigan 4 at Minnesota 3Sun. Mar. 3N. Michigan 4 at Minnesota 6(Minnesota wins two-game series 9-8)Sat. Mar. 2Colorado College 1 at Wisconsin 2Sun. Mar. 3Colorado College 3 at Wisconsin 7(Wisconsin wins two-game series 9-4)<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>Semi-FinalsFri. Mar. 8North Dakota at Min-DuluthSat. Mar. 9North Dakota at Min-Duluth(Two-game total-goals series)Sat. Mar. 9Wisconsin at MinnesotaSun. Mar. 10Wisconsin at Minnesota(Two-game total-goals series)<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03253/5056529-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="526" height="263"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04150/5056522-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="527" height="322"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0596/5056515-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="529" height="236"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 19Boston Univ. 2 at Providence 3Wed. Feb. 20Lowell 3 at New Hampshire 3Sat. Feb. 23Boston College 3 at Maine 2Providence 2 at Lowell 3Sun. Feb. 24Boston Univ. 3 at Northeastern 2Boston College 4 at Maine 5Wed. Feb. 27Providence 6 at Boston College 4Lowell 3 at Boston University 5Northeastern 4 at New Hampshire 5Sat. March 2New Hampshire 5 at Lowell 6Maine 5 at Providence 1Sun. March 3Boston Univ. 2 at Boston College 2Maine 4 at Providence 3(End of schedule)<h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0672/5056508-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="536" height="326"></div>PLAYOFFSQuarter-FinalsFri.-Sat. Mar. 8-9Lowell at New HampshireSat.-Sun. Mar. 9-10Maine at Boston Univ.Sun.-Mon. Mar. 10-11Northeastern at Providence(Two-game series)<h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0759/5056501-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="534" height="384"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Sat. Feb. 23Colgate 1 at Brown 3Cornell 8 at Yale 9Harvard 1 at RPI 4Dartmouth 1 at Vermont 4Army 3 at Babson 5Sun. Feb. 24Cornell 3 at Brown 4Colgate 7 at Yale 4Princeton 3 at St. Lawrence 1Tue. Feb. 26Holy Cross 3 at Army 8Fri. March 1Brown 2 at Princeton 4Clarkson 4 at Dartmouth 2St. Lawrence 4 at Harvard 3RPI 8 at Colgate 2Vermont 2 at Cornell 3Sat. March 2St. Lawrence 4 at Dartmouth 1Clarkson 1 at Harvard 6Vermont 3 at Colgate 4RPI 5 at Cornell 4Sun. March 3Yale 4 at Princeton 1(End of Schedule)<h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0853/5056494-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="532" height="200"></div>PLAYOFFSQuarter-FinalsFri.-Sat. Mar. 8-9Princeton at RPIColgate at HarvardSt. Lawrence at ClarksonYale at Cornell(Two-game series)<h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE</h2>PLAYOFFSSemi-FinalsYork 5, Toronto 3York 4, Toronto 3(York wins best-of-three series 2-0)Western 9, Laurier 2Western 6, Laurier 5(Western wins best-of-three series 2-0)Quarter-FinalsWestern 8, Guelph 5York 4, Laurentian 1(Sudden-death games)(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0943/5056487-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="540" height="414"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1038/5056480-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="534" height="260"></div><h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1131/5056473-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="540" height="300"></div><h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1230/5056466-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="532" height="180"></div><h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2>PLAYOFFSFinals Alberta 2, Saskatchewan 1Alberta 7, Saskatchewan 4(Alberta wins best-of-three series 2-0)<h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1327/5056459-1-eng-US/f0032-132.jpg" title="f0032-13" width="536" height="180"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1424/5056452-1-eng-US/f0032-142.jpg" title="f0032-14" width="538" height="350"></div><h2>GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE</h2>PLAYOFFSFinals Manitoba 3, Regina 2Manitoba 8, Regina 2(Manitoba wins best-of-three series 2-0)<h2>GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1521/5056445-1-eng-US/f0032-152.jpg" title="f0032-15" width="530" height="150"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Manitoba 6, Brandon 6Manitoba 8, Brandon 7<h3>FNAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1621/5056438-1-eng-US/f0032-162.jpg" title="f0032-16" width="538" height="326"></div><h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES</h2>PLAYOFFSPreliminary RoundCanadore 5, Centennial 1Quarter-FinalsGeorgian 6, Sheridan 4Canadore 4, St. Clair 3(Sudden-death games)<h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1719/5056431-1-eng-US/f0032-172.jpg" title="f0032-17" width="534" height="268"></div><h3>FINAL SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1816/5056424-1-eng-US/f0032-182.jpg" title="f0032-18" width="534" height="324"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

HOW THEY STAND

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>TROY&mdash;The head-to-head confrontations of outstanding scorers always draw a lot of attention. In basketball, it&rsquo;s Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson. In football, it&rsquo;s Joe Montana vs. Dan Marino. This season in the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference, it&rsquo;s Adam Oates vs. Scott Fusco.Oates, a junior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Fusco, the multi-talented junior at Harvard, are carrying their battle for the ECAC scoring championship right down to the wire. As a result, both are prime candidates to bring the Hobey Baker Award back to the ECAC this year.In a year of outstanding goaltenders, Oates and Fusco have emerged as the two dominant offensive threats, using different styles. Oates is a magician with his stick and may be the best passer in the nation. Going into the final weekend of regular-season play, he accumulated 73 points on 26 goals and 47 assists and will easily break his single-season scoring record of 83 points, set last season.Fusco is a blur on skates and posesses a deadly shot. After playing with the U.S. Olympic team last year, he&rsquo;s become a well-rounded hockey player. Trying to find a weak point in his game would be like trying to find a flaw in the Mona Lisa. It just isn&rsquo;t there.Fusco is also having a big year offensively. In 24 games, he had 26 goals and 37 assists for 63 points. Those figures put him second in the nation in scoring, behind Alaska-Fairbanks&rsquo; Steve Moria, with a 2.63 points-per-game average. Oates was third at 2.61.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what to expect from this year,&rdquo; said Fusco as he looked back on the season. &ldquo;I knew the teams would cover me, try to hold me down. I think I&rsquo;m scoring at a pretty good pace for the amount of attention I&rsquo;m getting.&rdquo;He admits that the year with the Olymipic team made a big difference in his approach to the game.&ldquo;As far as the experience goes, you can&rsquo;t beat it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel I&rsquo;m a much more experienced player and I have a lot more confidence in my ability. I think I&rsquo;ve improved a lot as a total hockey player.&rdquo;He and linemates Lane MacDonald and Tim Smith have created havoc everywhere they&rsquo;ve gone this season. Of Harvard&rsquo;s first 107 goals, that line had 63 of them.Fusco would like to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Mark, now a defenseman with the Hartford Whalers, and put another Hobey Baker Award in the trophy case of the Fusco home in Burlington, MA.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to win it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That was one of the goals I set for myself. But I feel it&rsquo;s out of my hands. I just go out and play the best I can. I feel I&rsquo;ve played pretty well this year and deserve to be considered.&rdquo;Fusco&rsquo;s next decision will be whether to complete his eligibility at Harvard or jump to the NHL. He was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in June of &rsquo;82. but his rights were later traded to the Whalers, who would love to have him in Hartford as soon as possible.&ldquo;I really haven&rsquo;t decided yet,&rdquo; he said of his future. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to talk to my brother about it and decide what I want to do, if it&rsquo;s time to leave. A lot will probably depend on how much money I get and my chances of being in Hartford or in the minors.&ldquo;I came to school for an education. I could still finish up in two summers, but a lot can be said for staying in school. I&rsquo;m comfortable here and I don&rsquo;t know if one more year in pro hockey will make that much of a difference. I have to decide if I&rsquo;m in any rush to leave. As far as the competition is concerned, it&rsquo;s time to move. I&rsquo;ve done everything there is to do on this level.&rdquo;ECAC NOTES&mdash;The emergence of three candidates for the Hobey Baker Award in the ECAC (Adam Oates, Scott Fusco and Clarkson defenseman Dave Fretz) could split the Eastern vote and allow Michigan State&rsquo;s Craig Simpson to run away with the voting. &#9632;

Oates, Fusco Competition Could Go Down To Wire

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;For some of the Hockey East teams, the end of the long season came just a bit too soon. For others, it arrived a wee bit tardy. And, fortunately, for star-crossed New Hampshire, the campaign ended at exactly the right moment.UNH is the circuit&rsquo;s mystery team this season, apparently loaded with talent to challenge Boston College and Boston University for the top spot. Along the way, however, came losing skeins of 14 and four games, including forfeiture of three wins. When the team&rsquo;s forwards scored, the defense or goalies let down. When the defensive game tightened up, UNH couldn&rsquo;t buy a goal.But in the second last game of the year, Charlie Holt&rsquo;s crew dug down deep and stormed from behind for a four-goal, third period and a 5-4 defeat over Northeastern. Senior Danny Muse, blanked in the past four games, tied the score with 3:56 to go and then beat NU goalie Bruce Racine with a rising slap shot from the slot with 1:41 to play.It was a comeback symbolic of the entire season for the beleagured Wildcats. They trailed by scores of 2-0, 3-1, and 4-2. A high-sticking penalty to NU defenseman Gerry Kiley at 11:12 of the final period led to Peter Douris&rsquo; powerplay goal that made the score 4-3. North-eastern coach Fernie Flaman left the ice disgusted with the officiating, noting that some uncalled infractions late in the contest had taken the game away from his team.UNH goalie Bruce Gillies, who missed eight straight games in mid-season with a knee injury, was playing in his eighth consecutive game.So, for UNH, the contest on the season&rsquo;s final Sunday was rendered meaningless. In their most recent six games, their record was 3-2-1, boosting the overall slate to 15-24-1. For a team that started off 0-14, it&rsquo;s a status that nobody ever expected.The UNH win answered the penultimate question about Hockey East&rsquo;s inaugural year. The final one concerns the Wildcats&rsquo; first-round opponent. If Lowell beats them in the last game, the Chiefs (11-21-2 with one game left) will come back to Durham. If not, Northeastern (11-22-1) returns. Providence will play host to the team from this pair that does not face UNH. Maine plays at BU, and BC gets a bye.Northeastern is the team for whom the end came just a little too late, both in each of the final two contests and in the season. They failed to hold the lead against BU at home, losing a 3-2 overtime game, then faded against UNH.Once again, a late, ill-timed penalty was NU&rsquo;s undoing. With Roman Kinal off for holding. Dale Dunbar got BU rolling with a slap shot at 5:19 of the third period that made the score 2-1, NU. Less than three minutes later, rookie Brian Foreman beat Racine on a 25-foot screen shot to tie the score, setting up the over time that ended when converted BU defenseman Chris Matchett poked home a second rebound off a scramble in front.Flaman was keenly disappointed at the loss, particularity at giving up the power-play chance that set the Terriers aflame. He did not dispute the call on Kinal, saying that it was deserved. This time, it was the winning coach complaining about the referees. While Jack Parker said that the officiating was not tilted one way or the other, he said that too much heavy hitting and rough stuff simply went uncalled.So Northeastern upheld the tradition of the Beanpot bug. They won the Boston shootout, then had a gritty 2-2 tie at Providence, and proceeded to lose their last three games to drop out of home ice. BU, on the other hand, won four of its most recent five, and appears to be in excellent shape for the playoffs with No. 1 goalie Terry Taillefer back in action. He missed two months with a mysterious painful stiffening of his hips, then separated a shoulder in his first game back and had to sit out a couple more.BC, having clinched the league pennant, lost two Eastern games in a row for the first time, dropping a 5-4 overtime decision at Maine, then blowing a 4-1 lead over Providence enroute to a 6-4 setback on home ice.The Eagles, the undisputed best team in Hockey East, found themselves faced with the task of re-establishing momentum for the playoff semi-finals. PC had a pair of games remaining against Maine but is flying into the playoffs, having gone 7-1-3 in its last 11 games.Lowell dropped from home ice with a 5-3 loss at BU played before an official crowd of 29 people. That&rsquo;s right, 29. A measles epidemic at BU forced a ban on large gatherings on campus. With no hooting spectators the game was a pleasure to officiate, according to referee Frank Cole. No crowds, no need for high sticks and other shenanigans. &#9632;

Beleaqured Wildcats Continue Comeback

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>WINDSOR&mdash;Keith Gretzky is doing &ldquo;10 times better&rdquo; in his third Ontario Hockey League season and getting passing grades at high school in Windsor.Keith, the younger brother of superstar Wayne Gretzky, has emerged as one of the best young players in the OHL. His opponents are increasingly faced with finding ways of stopping him and linemates Pete Bakovic (21 goals, 44 assists and 244 penalty minutes) and Brian Martin (25 goals, 23 assists).Gretzky is headed toward a a 100-point season with 28 goals and 56 assists for 84 points, leading the Spitfires in scoring after 60 games. He also played for the Emms Division in the OHL All-Star game in February.Combine his totals and his All-Star appearance and he&rsquo;s having a good season, especially when you consider he was under a microscope of attention as the younger brother of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s premier player&mdash;a pressure no other young player had to contend with when he broke into the league&mdash;plus the limited playing time he had in his rookie year with the Brantford Alexanders, before becoming the first pick of the Spits in the 1983 midget draft.Gretzky thinks he&rsquo;s finally earned his own respect as an OHL player and his performance underscores that, but he will never escape comparisons to his brother.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they compare me to anybody in the league, just my brother,&rdquo; Gretzky says.Dave Draper, who coached the younger Gretzky in Brantford a couple of seasons ago, says it best of the two brothers: &ldquo;Wayne is Wayne. Keith is Keith.&rdquo;Keith agrees.&ldquo;There are still people saying it&rsquo;s because of my name that I&rsquo;m here (in the OHL), but look at my stats and I&rsquo;m on top of my team,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It proves I&rsquo;m handling the pressure and doing what I&rsquo;m capable of doing.&ldquo;This year, I have more confidence carrying the puck. They&rsquo;ve given me a chance to play and I&rsquo;ve proven I can play. My skating has improved tremendously since I came into the league and I&rsquo;m starting to think a lot quicker, which goes back to my confidence. I&rsquo;m not hesitating out there and my passing has improved tremendously.&rdquo;As is the case with all teenage hockey stars in the OHL, he has his weaknesses. He addresses some, such as his shot and strength. His shot is deadly accurate, which for now can offset the weakness. If he can add some weight to his 5-foot-9, 150-pound frame, the shot and his strength will become much stronger.&ldquo;It would be nice to grow a little taller and put on some beef,&rdquo; Gretzky says.If he does&hellip;look out. Skill-wise, he will rate a long look when the NHL teams sit down to draft in June. Edmonton chief scout Barry Fraser things the younger sibling has NHL potential, but says he doubts the Oilers would pick him.&ldquo;It just wouldn&rsquo;t be fair to him,&rdquo; Fraser says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d be much better with another team where the pressure wouldn&rsquo;t be as great.&rdquo;Gretzky handles questions from proscouts with aplomb.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not much I can do except go out and play my own game and let the scouts make their decision,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And even then, what happens depends so much on your teammates because nobody can do it alone. Wayne and I don&rsquo;t play a power game, we play a finesse game. And you don&rsquo;t have to be a giant to play that way.&rdquo;Gretzky played for Team Canada&rsquo;s pickup team during the Christmas holidays in a game against Moscow Dynamo and felt he held his own against the bigger and stronger Soviets. And a quick glance at the NHL guide will tell anyone he&rsquo;s as tall as Marcel Dionne, Danny Gare, Keith Acton, Dennis Maruk, Tony Tanti or Dino Ciccarelli, to list only a handful of some the smaller players starring in the NHL.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a natural point-getter and those kinds of players are hard to find,&rdquo; says Detroit Red Wing scout Billy Dea. &ldquo;Maybe you can knock his size, but you&rsquo;d have to do an awful lot of soul-searching because he looks like the kind of player who would come back and haunt you.&rdquo;Spit general manager Jim Rutherford, a former NHL goalie, says Gretzky won&rsquo;t have to worry about handling the heavy hitting.&ldquo;He shouldn&rsquo;t have to if he&rsquo;s given wingers who&rsquo;ll complement his style and abilities,&rdquo; Rutherford says. &ldquo;Plus, he&rsquo;s like Wayne in that he doesn&rsquo;t put himself in situations where he has to handle heavy traffic. I&rsquo;m not saying he shies away, but why should he get into situations not suited to his talents and abilities?&rdquo;&ldquo;He has the head to play in the major leagues, he has the talent and he has the desire,&rdquo; says Spit coach Mark Craig.Gretzky is also faced with the normal problemn of being a junior player. Last year he lived with the parents of goalie Eddie Mio, a friend of Wayne Gretzky, but this season he and goalie Alan Perry are staying with team bus driver Jim Stanard.&ldquo;I have nothing against the Mios, they&rsquo;re great people,&rdquo; Gretzky says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d come home from long road trips and she (Mrs. Mio) was waiting up. It was putting pressure on her and she&rsquo;s an older person.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s also settled into living away from home, but insists that was never much of a problem.&ldquo;No, 1 don&rsquo;t miss being away from home,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When I was a little guy, I was always travelling. This year I&rsquo;m part of a family here and I have some friends. I still hang around with a couple of guys down the street back in Brantford, but I&rsquo;m happy here with Mr. Stanard. Like my father, he cares what I do on and off the ice.&rdquo;The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, who broke the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League record of 26 consecutive wins, are dedicating their mark to the city.&ldquo;What it boils down to is this is the players&rsquo; gift to our fine city,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp.In a surprise move, the Buffalo Sabres returned center Adam Creighton to the Ottawa 67s. The star of the Memorial Cup champions last season, Creighton dressed in only 22 games with the Sabres and was not being used when he was returned to junior.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04221/5056622-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="562" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith Gretzky is leading his team in scoring and played in the league&rsquo;s All-Star game.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We had talked to Scotty (Bowman, Sabres&rsquo; general manager-coach) maybe for 30-40 minutes on the phone a week before they sent him back,&rdquo; said 67s coach Bob Ellett. &ldquo;He talked to Adam and said it&rsquo;d be better playing, keeping in shape with us. If we get knocked out (of the playoffs), he goes back up ready to roll.&rdquo;&ldquo;He (Creighton) accepted it because he knew he&rsquo;d get lots of ice time. He&rsquo;s going to prepare himself to go back up. When he gets back in their lineup, he&rsquo;s not going to get knocked out.&rdquo;Meanwhile, 67s defenseman Bruce Cassidy&rsquo;s season may be over. He injured his knee for the second time this season, but in a different location than the first time. Cassidy did not play until Christmas and then suffered the second injury at the end of January. &#9632;

f0034-04

The Juniors

Gretzky Earning Passing Grade All Around

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01532/5056667-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="467" height="552"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY ROBERTSOttawa</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The Ottawa 67s are coming on strong in the final weeks of the Ontario Hockey League race and one of their hottest hands belongs to Gary Roberts.The67s&rsquo; 18-year-old left winger collected 10 points in two games to win the nod as the OHL Player of the Week.Roberts, a 1984 first-round draft pick of the Calgary Flames, scored a hat trick in a 4-2 win over Toronto and had seven points as the 67s walloped Kitchener 11-5.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02414/5056660-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="521" height="555"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN QUINNEYCalgary</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Calgary Wranglers are striving for a third-place finish in the East Division of the Western Hockey League and much of the credit belongs to the team&rsquo;s strong offense, led by the likes of Ken Quinney.The 19-year-old right winger exploded for 15 scoring points in four games to become the WHL Player of the Week and push himself into 18th place in the individual point race.The 5-foot-10, 195-pound Quinney, a 1984 draft pick of the Quebec Nordiques, has 86 points in 45 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03316/5056653-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="524" height="548"><figcaption class="caption-body">VINCENT DAMPHOUSSELaval</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Vincent Damphousse obviously has his sights set on the NHL entry draft this summer and a strong season-closing finish could enhance his chances.The 18-year-old Damphousse, who will be eligible for the 1985 draft, collected 14 scoring points for the Laval Juniors, 13 of them assists, to win the selection as the QHL Player of the Week.Damphousse, who had only 29 goals and 65 points last season, is already well ahead of his production this year with 98 points.At the end of the current season. THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0034-01

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>NEW WESTMINSTER&mdash;&rdquo;Knock knock.&rdquo;&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s there?&rdquo;&ldquo;Cliff.&rdquo;&ldquo;Cliff who?&rdquo;&ldquo;Cliff Ronning!&rdquo;In British Columbia, Ronning has been well known for scoring exploits since he first laced on a pair of skates. This Western Hockey League season the New Westminster Bruins&rsquo; sophomore center is making a name for himself throughout Canadian major junior hockey.Ronning is running away with the WHL scoring race with 158 points, including 74 goals, after 60 games. But aside from collecting points faster than he whips a wrist shot, the burning question remains: Will the 5-foot-8, 168-pound Burnaby, B.C., native become a household name at the professional level despite his size? Some say a lack of inches and pounds will fade Ronning into hockey obscurity.Other diminutive WHL stars such as Dale Derkatch and Kelly Glowa chose European leagues to further their respective careers.&ldquo;It (the negative talk) bothers me a bit sometimes, but a lot of people are behind me all the way,&rdquo; said Ronning. &ldquo;I have some options next year. I&rsquo;ll either play for the Bruins, go to Europe or obviously try to make the NHL.&ldquo;I think I can play in the NHL. In scrimmages at pro camp I found it a faster pace with a more wide-open style. That style benefits me, but I know I have to play more intelligently up there&mdash;especially in the defensive zone.&rdquo;Ronning, 19, was selected in the seventh round of the 1984 National Hockey League entry draft by the St. Louis Blues. They obviously feel there&rsquo;s ample room in the NHL for Ronning, the WHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year last season and a good bet to be named most valuable player this season.&ldquo;You have to accept Cliff as he is,&rdquo; said St. Louis director of player personnel Ron Caron. &ldquo;You and I cannot make him any bigger. We don&rsquo;t want to change his chemistry.&ldquo;Henri Richard was 5-foot-6, 155 pounds and many people forget that. I was involved in getting Mats Naslund to the NHL in 1979 and he&rsquo;s doing pretty well, too. Therefore, size does not bother me. He (Ronning) is very skillful and it&rsquo;s a matter of how he&rsquo;ll fit in. We won&rsquo;t use him in the same manner as a Clark Gillies.&ldquo;He (Ronning) is a very talented player who, when he graduates, should be able to play with players from the WHL in the NHL in three or four years.&rdquo;St. Louis scout Ted Hampson said even though Ronning wasn&rsquo;t drafted until a later round, size wasn&rsquo;t a deterrent.&ldquo;We drafted him because we felt he had NHL potential,&rdquo; said Hampson.&ldquo;We knew he was very accomplished at every hockey level he played at and he&rsquo;s having an excellent year. We expected that.&ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s always room in the NHL for small players who excel at what they do. Basically maturity, experience and strength to know what to do against certain people are what he&rsquo;ll have to work on.&ldquo;We will always try to improve our hockey club. If Cliff Ronning can improve our club then we&rsquo;ll put him in the best position possible, probably center, and be flexible with other people.&rdquo;New Westminster coach Al Patterson has tutored Ronning for seven years. He is confident the center will one day make it to the NHL.&ldquo;I think the more I see him play there&rsquo;s no question he can eventually make it to the NHL,&rdquo; said Patterson. &ldquo;Whether he&rsquo;ll be a star or not I don&rsquo;t know. But when he physically grows and matures I think he&rsquo;ll be okay.&ldquo;I think the expectations are too great on him to make the jump next year. His success in all leagues has been not struggling in the first part of the season and gradually becoming more familiar with everybody.&rdquo; &#9632;

Diminutive Ronning Wants To Make It Big

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>CHICOUTIMI&mdash;The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pennant was the last thing on the minds of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in October.The Sags trailed all but the ill-fated Plattsburgh Pioneers at that time, but they have mounted a steady ascent from 11 th to second place in the overall standings.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve come a very long way,&rdquo; said Chicoutimi coach Mario Bazinet. &ldquo;We never thought about finishing first. Our original goal was to just make the playoffs and then we wanted to be among the top four to get the home advantage in the first round of the playoffs.&ldquo;Not so long ago, around the beginning of January, we were 21 points behind Shawinigan. But you have to be realistic: Shawinigan has a hell of a team and I think it will be pretty hard to catch them now.&rdquo;The Sags trailed the Cataractes by nine points with eight games remaining in the regular schedule and the team&rsquo;s play each other one more time. Shawinigan had the fifth-best record in major junior hockey after 59 games (42-16-1) and Chicoutimi was ninth (34-21-4).&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve never put any pressure on to finish first,&rdquo; said Bazinet, in his first year behind the Sags&rsquo; bench after taking the Longueuil Chevaliers and Trois-Rivieres Draveurs to the league&rsquo;s final three of the past four years.&ldquo;For a team that didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs last year I think we&rsquo;ve had a great season. They were used to losing and spirit was so-so. Now, the mentality of the players has changed.&rdquo;Bazinet made a series of trades that strengthened the team considerably.&ldquo;Things started to turn around Oct. 15 when we got Daniel Berthiaume from Drummondville in a trade for (No. 1 draft pick) Simon Masse,&rdquo; Bazinet said. &ldquo;Daniel is a top prospect. I think he is classified as first in the league and fourth in North America.&rdquo;The 5-foot-9, 146-pound goalkeeper from Longueuil is 18 and has a 3.63 goals-against average in a league which emphasizes offense. The Sags&rsquo; goaltending average was the worst in the league at one point and now Chicoutimi&rsquo;s defensive record is second only to Shawinigan&rsquo;s.Another key trade was made Jan. 10 when the Sags acquired center Stephane Richer and left winger Greg Choules, both 18, for right winger Marc Bureau, 18, center Stephane Roy, 17, and three players on the Sags&rsquo; list&mdash;defensemen Rene Lecuyer and Sylvain Demers and goaltender Lee Duheme.Richer, a Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; second-round draft pick, 26th overall, in 1984, has averaged three points per night since joining the Sags.Chicoutimi also traded tough 19-year-old left winger Sylvain Nantel to the Quebec Remparts for right winger Roger Dube, then sent Dube to Trois Rivieres for 18-year-old Luc Duval.&ldquo;I think Duval was one of Trois Rivieres&rsquo; best players,&rdquo; Bazinet said.Left winger Mike Marcinkiewicz went to the Granby Bisons for left winger Daniel Jomphe. Bazinet traded the rights to 20-year-old left winger Joel Baillargeon to Granby for a fifth-round pick, allowing him to sign defenseman Steve Gauthier from Trois Rivieres as the team&rsquo;s overage player.&ldquo;They are probably the best team in the league in the second half,&rdquo; said Shawinigan coach Ron Lapointe. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re playing a good defensive style and I think they have the best goals-against since Berthiaume came. They were brutal before that.&ldquo;They don&rsquo;t have a lot of depth, but then no team in the league does. They were pretty close to us, but then we beat them 8-2 in Shawinigan and that took some of the pressure off. You can still feel their presence.&rdquo;The line of Pat Emond (51-67-118), Richer (48-51-99) and Duval (22-37-59) has been a powerful one and Yves Heroux (30-48-78) is having a good year as well.Emond is seventh in league scoring, right winger Heroux, 19, was the first pick if the second round by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1983 entry draft.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got offensive punch, a decent defense and outstanding goaltending,&rdquo; Bazinet said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not a tough team. We&rsquo;re one of the least penalized in the league. Spirit is very high.&rdquo; &#9632;

Sags Have Pennant Fever After A Disastrous Start

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11119/5057337-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="846" height="378"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3519/5057344-1-eng-US/f0036-352.jpg" title="f0036-35" width="192" height="258"></div><h2>OVERALL LEADERS</h2><h2>TOP DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12115/5057330-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="847" height="290"></div><h2>TOP ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13112/5057323-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="850" height="284"></div><h2>BOSTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-14106/5057316-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="853" height="147"></div><h2>BUFFALO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-15105/5057309-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="850" height="151"></div><h2>CALGARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-16102/5057302-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="843" height="147"></div><h2>CHICAGO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1796/5057295-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="846" height="147"></div><h2>DETROIT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1891/5057288-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="849" height="155"></div><h2>EDMONTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1989/5057281-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="853" height="145"></div><h2>HARTFORD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2085/5057274-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="843" height="149"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2178/5057267-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="843" height="146"></div><h2>MINNESOTA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2275/5057260-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="855" height="150"></div><h2>MONTREAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2369/5057253-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="850" height="150"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2462/5057246-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="847" height="151"></div><h2>NY ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2558/5057239-1-eng-US/f0036-252.jpg" title="f0036-25" width="845" height="150"></div><h2>NY RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2655/5057232-1-eng-US/f0036-262.jpg" title="f0036-26" width="853" height="145"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2748/5057225-1-eng-US/f0036-272.jpg" title="f0036-27" width="844" height="146"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2843/5057218-1-eng-US/f0036-282.jpg" title="f0036-28" width="851" height="151"></div><h2>QUEBEC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2940/5057211-1-eng-US/f0036-292.jpg" title="f0036-29" width="854" height="151"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3038/5057204-1-eng-US/f0036-302.jpg" title="f0036-30" width="849" height="146"></div><h2>TORONTO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3136/5057197-1-eng-US/f0036-312.jpg" title="f0036-31" width="850" height="147"></div><h2>VANCOUVER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3232/5057190-1-eng-US/f0036-322.jpg" title="f0036-32" width="851" height="148"></div><h2>WASHINGTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3329/5057183-1-eng-US/f0036-332.jpg" title="f0036-33" width="848" height="154"></div><h2>WINNIPEG</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-3425/5057176-1-eng-US/f0036-342.jpg" title="f0036-34" width="847" height="149"></div> &#9632;

f0036-11

EMERY TROPHY PLUS-MINUS

Mon. Feb. 25<h2>WINNIPEG 12, RANGERS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01479/5057145-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="533" height="1134"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 5, PITTSBURGH 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02363/5057138-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="529" height="673"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03289/5057131-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="535" height="205"></div><h2>TORONTO 3, CHICAGO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04211/5057124-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="538" height="842"></div>Tue. Feb. 26<h2>PHILAD. 3, HARTFORD 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05167/5057117-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="533" height="669"></div><h2>BUFFALO 4, NEW JERSEY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06145/5057110-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="528" height="80"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07137/5057103-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="528" height="434"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08132/5057096-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="536" height="292"></div><h2>VANC. 2, WASHINGTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09126/5057089-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="518" height="91"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10123/5057082-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="532" height="386"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01418/5057075-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="528" height="146"></div>Wed. Feb. 27<h2>BUFFALO 1, ST. LOUIS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02300/5057068-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="534" height="583"></div><h2>MONTREAL 4, EDMONTON 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03228/5057061-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="538" height="640"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 1, CALGARY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04190/5057054-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="528" height="822"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 3, CHICAGO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05164/5057047-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="537" height="828"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 6, PITTSBURGH 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06140/5057040-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="547" height="882"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 1, TORONTO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07119/5057033-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="530" height="556"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0897/5057026-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="535" height="230"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 5, DETROIT 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0984/5057019-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="542" height="1118"></div><h2>QUEBEC 5, LOS ANGELES 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1077/5057012-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="530" height="854"></div>Thu. Feb. 28<h2>PHILADELPHIA 1, BOSTON 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1162/5057005-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="541" height="556"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1254/5056998-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="537" height="327"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 5, RANGERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1348/5056991-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="531" height="207"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01459/5056984-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="532" height="664"></div>Fri. Mar. 1<h2>HARTFORD 4, NEW JERSEY 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02318/5056977-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="535" height="814"></div><h2>MONTREAL 4, CALGARY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03228/5056970-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="534" height="928"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 2, DETROIT 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04191/5056963-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="532" height="1008"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01206/5056956-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="532" height="174"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 5, EDMONTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02131/5056949-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="534" height="1015"></div>Sat. Mar. 2<h2>VANCOUVER 0, BOSTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0388/5056942-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="530" height="207"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0464/5056935-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="540" height="458"></div><h2>BUFFALO 4, WASHINGTON 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0548/5056928-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="541" height="529"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0641/5056921-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="537" height="87"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA 2, QUEBEC 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0736/5056914-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="543" height="701"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 2, TORONTO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0831/5056907-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="542" height="699"></div><h2>RANGERS 4, PITTSBURGH 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0927/5056900-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="496" height="118"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1027/5056893-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="535" height="666"></div><h2>DETROIT 2, MINNESOTA 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1126/5056886-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="535" height="1049"></div><h2>CHICAGO 4, ST. LOUIS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1224/5056879-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="531" height="357"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01169/5056872-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="535" height="334"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02102/5056865-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="539" height="89"></div>Sun. Mar. 3<h2>VANCOUVER 7, HARTFORD 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0374/5056858-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="536" height="201"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0460/5056851-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="543" height="379"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0550/5056844-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="537" height="373"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0644/5056837-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="530" height="84"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 3, BUFFALO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0741/5056830-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="529" height="227"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01173/5056823-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="539" height="472"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 3, RANGERS 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02124/5056816-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="536" height="384"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03102/5056809-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="533" height="489"></div><h2>PHILAD. 2, NEW JERSEY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0482/5056802-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="525" height="346"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0572/5056795-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="535" height="553"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 2, CHICAGO 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0659/5056788-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="531" height="719"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 6, EDMONTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0757/5056781-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="532" height="489"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0848/5056774-1-eng-US/f0043-082.jpg" title="f0043-08" width="548" height="413"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 0, CALGARY 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0945/5056767-1-eng-US/f0043-092.jpg" title="f0043-09" width="497" height="113"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1039/5056760-1-eng-US/f0043-102.jpg" title="f0043-10" width="540" height="587"></div><h2>National League Rookie Leaders</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1518/5056753-1-eng-US/f0040-152.jpg" title="f0040-15" width="570" height="350"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1617/5056746-1-eng-US/f0040-162.jpg" title="f0040-16" width="562" height="356"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02387/5057690-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="580" height="653"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01490/5057697-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="114" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03310/5057683-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="111" height="111"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04238/5057676-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="575" height="628"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05169/5057669-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="130" height="118"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06131/5057662-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="580" height="731"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07117/5057655-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="117" height="107"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08100/5057648-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="578" height="699"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0989/5057641-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="134" height="96"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1085/5057634-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="579" height="221"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1179/5057627-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="583" height="434"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1274/5057620-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="114" height="112"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1365/5057613-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="586" height="678"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1458/5057606-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="120" height="107"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1556/5057599-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg" title="f0038-15" width="584" height="677"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1652/5057592-1-eng-US/f0038-162.jpg" title="f0038-16" width="172" height="104"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1748/5057585-1-eng-US/f0038-172.jpg" title="f0038-17" width="577" height="605"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1844/5057578-1-eng-US/f0038-182.jpg" title="f0038-18" width="127" height="107"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1942/5057571-1-eng-US/f0038-192.jpg" title="f0038-19" width="578" height="652"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2039/5057564-1-eng-US/f0038-202.jpg" title="f0038-20" width="578" height="207"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2136/5057557-1-eng-US/f0038-212.jpg" title="f0038-21" width="125" height="91"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2331/5057550-1-eng-US/f0038-232.jpg" title="f0038-23" width="581" height="653"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2426/5057543-1-eng-US/f0038-242.jpg" title="f0038-24" width="100" height="88"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2524/5057536-1-eng-US/f0038-252.jpg" title="f0038-25" width="587" height="681"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2621/5057529-1-eng-US/f0038-262.jpg" title="f0038-26" width="122" height="123"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2719/5057522-1-eng-US/f0038-272.jpg" title="f0038-27" width="582" height="701"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2813/5057515-1-eng-US/f0038-282.jpg" title="f0038-28" width="107" height="114"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-299/5057508-1-eng-US/f0038-292.jpg" title="f0038-29" width="572" height="94"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-305/5057501-1-eng-US/f0038-302.jpg" title="f0038-30" width="576" height="607"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-315/5057494-1-eng-US/f0038-312.jpg" title="f0038-31" width="139" height="98"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-325/5057487-1-eng-US/f0038-322.jpg" title="f0038-32" width="582" height="775"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-335/5057480-1-eng-US/f0038-332.jpg" title="f0038-33" width="128" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-344/5057473-1-eng-US/f0038-342.jpg" title="f0038-34" width="577" height="725"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-354/5057466-1-eng-US/f0038-352.jpg" title="f0038-35" width="113" height="110"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-364/5057459-1-eng-US/f0038-362.jpg" title="f0038-36" width="578" height="672"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-373/5057452-1-eng-US/f0038-372.jpg" title="f0038-37" width="113" height="113"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-383/5057445-1-eng-US/f0038-382.jpg" title="f0038-38" width="577" height="250"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-392/5057438-1-eng-US/f0038-392.jpg" title="f0038-39" width="574" height="384"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-402/5057431-1-eng-US/f0038-402.jpg" title="f0038-40" width="130" height="140"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-41/5057424-1-eng-US/f0038-412.jpg" title="f0038-41" width="572" height="629"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-42/5057417-1-eng-US/f0038-422.jpg" title="f0038-42" width="94" height="99"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-43/5057410-1-eng-US/f0038-432.jpg" title="f0038-43" width="575" height="650"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-44/5057403-1-eng-US/f0038-442.jpg" title="f0038-44" width="149" height="90"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-45/5057396-1-eng-US/f0038-452.jpg" title="f0038-45" width="578" height="706"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-46/5057389-1-eng-US/f0038-462.jpg" title="f0038-46" width="114" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-47/5057382-1-eng-US/f0038-472.jpg" title="f0038-47" width="581" height="654"></div><h2>Top Scorers</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2234/5057375-1-eng-US/f0038-222.jpg" title="f0038-22" width="566" height="533"></div> &#9632;

f0038-02

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>31 &mdash; KEANS, Doug1 &mdash; PEETERS, Pete<h3>Defensemen</h3>33 &mdash; BLUM, John7 &mdash; BOURQUE, Ray34 &mdash; CURRAN, Brian26 &mdash; MILBURY, Mike20 &mdash; O&rsquo;CONNELL, Mike21 &mdash; SIMONETTI, Frank27 &mdash; THELIN, Mats<h3>Centers</h3>28 &mdash; FERGUS, Tom22 &mdash; GORING, Butch11 &mdash; KASPER, Steve13 &mdash; UNSEMAN, Ken<h3>R. Wings</h3>18 &mdash; CROWDER, Keith16 &mdash; MIDDLETON, Rick24 &mdash; O&rsquo;REILLY, Terry - Cpt.25 &mdash; SLEIGHER, Louis<h3>L. Wings</h3>32 &mdash; COURTNALL, Geoff29 &mdash; DONNELLY, Dave12 &mdash; LUKOWICH, Morris36 &mdash; REID, Dave23 &mdash; SIMMER, Charlie<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>30 &mdash; BARRASSO, Tom28 &mdash; SAUVE, Bob<h3>Defensemen</h3>31 &mdash; FENYVES, Dave24 &mdash; HAJT, Bill4 &mdash; KORAB, Jerry26 &mdash; MALONEY, Dave27 &mdash; PLAYFAIR, Larry5 &mdash; RAMSEY, Mike13 &mdash; SCHOENFELD, Jim3 &mdash; VIRTA, Hannu<h3>Centers</h3>6 &mdash; HOUSLEY, Phil11 &mdash; PERREAULT, Gil-Cpt.20 &mdash; PETERSON, Brent7 &mdash; TUCKER, John<h3>R. Wings</h3>25 &mdash; ANDREYCHUK, Dave29 &mdash; DAVIS, Mai17 &mdash; FOLIGNO, Mike12 &mdash; McKENNA, Sean16 &mdash; SEILING, Ric<h3>L. Wings</h3>18 &mdash; CYR, Paul9 &mdash; HAMEL, Gilles10 &mdash; RAMSAY, Craig<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>1 &mdash; EDWARDS, Don31 &mdash; LEMELIN, Rejean<h3>Defensemen</h3>4 &mdash; BAXTER, Paul28 &mdash; BOURGEOIS, Chas.20 &mdash; ELORANTA, Kari3 &mdash; KONROYD, Steve2 &mdash; MacINNIS, Allan34 &mdash; MACOUN, Jamie23 &mdash; REINHART, Paul5 &mdash; SHEEHY, Neil<h3>Centers</h3>7 &mdash; EAVES, Mike29 &mdash; OTTO, Joel8 &mdash; RISEBROUGH, D.-Cpt.10 &mdash; QUINN, Dan15 &mdash; TAMBELLINI, Steve33 &mdash; WILSON, Carey<h3>R. Wings</h3>19 &mdash; HUNTER, Tim9 &mdash; McDONALD, L.-Cpt.14 &mdash; NILSSON, Kent11 &mdash; PATTERSON, Colin<h3>L. Wings</h3>27 &mdash; BEERS, Ed26 &mdash; BOZEK, Steve6 &mdash; CAVALLINI, Gino22 &mdash; KROMM, Richard12 &mdash; LOOB, Hakan24 &mdash; PEPLINSKI, Jim<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>30 &mdash; BANNERMAN, M.34 &mdash; PANG, Darren1 &mdash; SKORODENSKI, W.<h3>Defensemen</h3>2 &mdash; BERGEVIN, Marc4 &mdash; BROWN, Keith25 &mdash; DUPONT, Jerome6 &mdash; MURRAY, Bob5 &mdash; O&rsquo;CALLAHAN, Jack23 &mdash; WILSON, Behn24 &mdash; WILSON, Doug<h3>Centers</h3>14 &mdash; GARDNER, Bill12 &mdash; LYSIAK, Tom19 &mdash; MURRAY, Troy26 &mdash; PATERSON, Rick18 &mdash; SAVARD, Denis<h3>R. Wings</h3>28 &mdash; LARMER, Steve11 &mdash; MacMILLAN, Bob16 &mdash; OLCZYK, Ed15 &mdash; YAREMCHUK, Ken<h3>L. Wings</h3>8 &mdash; FRASER, Curt31 &mdash; FRAWLEY, Dan29 &mdash; LUDZIK, Steve7 &mdash; McMURCHY, Tom<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>1 &mdash; MICALEF, Corrado30 &mdash; STEFAN, Greg<h3>Defensemen</h3>3 &mdash; BARRETT, John4 &mdash; CAMPBELL, Colin29 &mdash; LADOUCEUR, Randy28 &mdash; LARSON, Reed22 &mdash; PARK, Brad5 &mdash; SMITH, Greg2 &mdash; TRADER, Larry<h3>Centers</h3>20 &mdash; FOSTER, Dwight16 &mdash; KISIO, Kelly15 &mdash; LOISELLE, Claude27 &mdash; SITTLER, Darryl19 &mdash; YZERMAN, Steve<h3>R. Wings</h3>21 &mdash; CERNIK, Frank10 &mdash; DUGUAY, Ron18 &mdash; GARE, Danny-Cpt.26 &mdash; KOCUR, Joe14 &mdash; LAMBERT, Lane<h3>L. Wings</h3>12 &mdash; BOLDIREV, Ivan17 &mdash; GALLANT, Gerrard23 &mdash; MANNO, Bob25 &mdash; OGRODNICK, John<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>31 &mdash; FUHR, Grant35 &mdash; MOOG, Andy33 &mdash; BARON, Marco32 &mdash; REAUGH, Daryl<h3>Defensemen</h3>7 &mdash; COFFEY, Paul2 &mdash; FOGOLIN, Lee21 &mdash; GREGG, Randy22 &mdash; HUDDY, Charlie29 &mdash; JACKSON, Don4 &mdash; LOWE, Kevin<h3>Centers</h3>20 &mdash; CARROLL, Bill99 &mdash; GRETZKY, W. - Cpt.26 &mdash; KRUSHELNYSKI, M.24 &mdash; McCLELLAND, Kevin11 &mdash; MESSIER, Mark<h3>R. Wings</h3>9 &mdash; ANDERSON, Glenn16 &mdash; HUGHES, Pat17 &mdash; KURRI, Jari8 &mdash; LUMLEY, Dave18 &mdash; NAPIER, Mark<h3>L. Wings</h3>12 &mdash; HUNTER, Dave19 &mdash; LINDSTROM, Willy10 &mdash; POUZAR, Jaroslav27 &mdash; SEMENKO, Dave<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>1 &mdash; LIUT, Mike31 &mdash; WEEKS, Steve<h3>Defensemen</h3>21 &mdash; COTE, Sylvain33 &mdash; FUSCO, Mark27 &mdash; HOWE, Marty35 &mdash; KLEINENDORST, S.24 &mdash; KOTSOPOULOS, C.35 &mdash; KLEINENDORST, S.3 &mdash; QUENNEVILLE, Joel5 &mdash; SAMUELSSON, Ulf8 &mdash; SILTANEN, Risto<h3>Centers</h3>26 &mdash; FERRARO, Ray10 &mdash; FRANCIS, Ron - Cpt.29 &mdash; MacDERMID, Paul14 &mdash; MALONE, Greg20 &mdash; ZUKE, Mike<h3>R. Wings</h3>26 &mdash; CRAWFORD, Bob18 &mdash; CROMBEEN, Mike29 &mdash; DINEEN, Kevin17 &mdash; NEUFELD, Ray<h3>L. Wings</h3>11 &mdash; FENTON, Paul32 &mdash; ROBERTSON, T.15 &mdash; TIPPETT, Dave16 &mdash; TURGEON, Sylvain<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>35 &mdash; ELIOT, Darren1 &mdash; JANECYK, Bob<h3>Defensemen</h3>4 &mdash; ANDERSON, Russ5 &mdash; ENGBLOM, Brian3 &mdash; GALLEY, Garry20 &mdash; HARDY, Mark28 &mdash; LAPOINTE, Rick2 &mdash; REDMOND, Craig24 &mdash; WELLS, Jay<h3>Centers</h3>16 &mdash; DIONNE, Marcel14 &mdash; MILLER, Bob9 &mdash; NICHOLLS, Bernie8 &mdash; RUSKOWSKI, T.-Cpt.23 &mdash; SMITH, Doug<h3>R. Wings</h3>19 &mdash; FOX, Jim22 &mdash; HAKANSSON, Anders17 &mdash; KELLY, John-Paul18 &mdash; TAYLOR, Dave<h3>L. Wings</h3>27 &mdash; MacLELLAN, Brian12 &mdash; MOKOSAK, Carl11 &mdash; SHUTT Steve7 &mdash; SYKES, Phil<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>33 &mdash; BEAUPRE, Don1 &mdash; MELANSON, Roland27 &mdash; MELOCHE, Gilles1 &mdash; SANDS, Mike<h3>Defencemen</h3>2 &mdash; GILES, Curt - Cpt.22 &mdash; HIRSCH, Tom36 &mdash; PRYOR, Chris10 &mdash; ROBERTS, Gord3 &mdash; ROUSE, Bob28 &mdash; SNEPSTS, Harold6 &mdash; VELISCHEK, Randy<h3>Centers</h3>12 &mdash; ACTON, Keith14 &mdash; BJUGSTAD, Scott7 &mdash; BROTEN, Neal9 &mdash; MARUK, Dennis<h3>R. Wings</h3>23 &mdash; BELLOWS, Brian17 &mdash; BERGLUND, Bo20 &mdash; CICCARELLI, Dino21 &mdash; GRAHAM, Dirk24 &mdash; PLETT, Willi26 &mdash; SHERVEN, Gord<h3>L. Wings</h3>29 &mdash; COULIS, Tim11 &mdash; McCARTHY, Tom44 &mdash; PAYNE, Steve31 &mdash; SOLHEIM, Ken13 &mdash; TRIMPER, Tim<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>37 &mdash; PENNEY, Steve33 &mdash; ROY, Patrick1 &mdash; SOETAERT, Doug<h3>Defensemen</h3>24 &mdash; CHELIOS, Chris5 &mdash; GREEN, Rick18 &mdash; KURVERS, Tom17 &mdash; LUDWIG, Craig19 &mdash; ROBINSON, Larry25 &mdash; SVOBODA, Peter<h3>Centers</h3>21 &mdash; CARBONNEAU, Guy29 &mdash; FLOCKHART, Ron6 &mdash; MONDOU, Pierre15 &mdash; SMITH, Bobby8 &mdash; TURCOTTE, Alfie<h3>R. Wings</h3>12 &mdash; BOISVERT, Serge27 &mdash; DeBLOIS, Lucien20 &mdash; HUNTER, Mark30 &mdash; NILAN, Chris14 &mdash; TREMBLAY, Mario<h3>L. Wings</h3>23 &mdash; GAINEY, Bob - Cpt.35 &mdash; McPHEE, Mike26 &mdash; NASLUND, Mats11 &mdash; WALTER, Ryan<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>33 &mdash; KAMPPURI, Hannu30 &mdash; LOW, Ron1 &mdash; RESCH, ChicoDefense2 &mdash; CIRELLA, Joe23 &mdash; DRIVER, Bruce21 &mdash; HOFFMEYER, Bob28 &mdash; HIEMER, Uli25 &mdash; LEWIS, Dave4 &mdash; LORIMER, Bob8 &mdash; PICHETTE, Dave5 &mdash; RUSSELL, Phil<h3>Centers</h3>24 &mdash; ADAMS, Greg10 &mdash; BROTEN, Aaron16 &mdash; MEAGHER, Rick27 &mdash; MULLER, Kirk12 &mdash; VERBEEK, Pat<h3>R. Wings</h3>20 &mdash; HIGGINS, Tim29 &mdash; LUDVIG, Jan15 &mdash; MacLEAN, John19 &mdash; PRESTON, Rich26 &mdash; TROTTIER, Rocky27 L. Wings18 &mdash; BRIDGMAN, Mel-Cpt.17 &mdash; GAGNE, Paul9 &mdash; LEVER, Don22 &mdash; SULLIMAN, Doug<h2>NY ISLANDERS</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>30 &mdash; HRUDEY, Kelly31 &mdash; SMITH, Billy<h3>Defensemen</h3>4 &mdash; BOUTILIER, Paul29 &mdash; DIDUCK, Gerald2 &mdash; DINEEN, Gord3 &mdash; JONSSON, Tomas24 &mdash; LUNE Gord26 &mdash; LANGEVIN, Dave6 &mdash; MORROW, Ken7 &mdash; PERSSON, Stefan5 &mdash; POTVIN, D. - Cpt.<h3>Certers</h3>32 &mdash; KORTKO, Roger16 &mdash; LAFONTAINE, Pat21 &mdash; SUTTER, Brent19 &mdash; TROTTIER, Bryan<h3>R. Wings</h3>22 &mdash; BOSSY, Mike8 &mdash; FLATLEY, Patrick9 &mdash; GILLIES, Clark32 &mdash; HENRY, Dale23 &mdash; NYSTROM, Bob12 &mdash; SUTTER, Duane<h3>L. Wings</h3>14 &mdash; BOURNE, Bob17 &mdash; GILBERT, Greg20 &mdash; HALLIN, Mats28 &mdash; KALLUR, Anders27 &mdash; TONELLI, John<h2>NY RANGERS</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>1 &mdash; HANLON, Glen34 &mdash; VANBIESBROUCK, J<h3>Defensemen</h3>5 &mdash; BECK, Barry - Cpt.13 &mdash; BROOKE, Bob4 &mdash; GRESCHNER, Ron27 &mdash; HUBER, Willie2 &mdash; LAIDLAW, Tom30 &mdash; LEDYARD, Grant3 &mdash; PATRICK, James41 &mdash; RICHMOND, Steve29 &mdash; RUOTSALAINEN, R.<h3>Centers</h3>8 &mdash; FTOREK, Robbie10 &mdash; LAROUCHE, Pierre16 &mdash; PAVELICH, Mark17 &mdash; ROGERS, Mike<h3>R. Wings</h3>15 &mdash; HEDBERG, Anders37 &mdash; McPHEE, George11 &mdash; PATRICK, Steve28 &mdash; SANDSTROM, T.25 &mdash; SUNDSTROM, Peter<h3>L. Wings</h3>20 &mdash; ERIXON, Jan22 &mdash; FOTIU, Nick12 &mdash; MALONEY, Don19 &mdash; OSBORNE, Mark<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>35 &mdash; FROESE, Bob31 &mdash; LINDBERGH, Pelle<h3>Defensemen</h3>29 &mdash; COCHRANE, Glen3 &mdash; CROSSMAN, Doug9 &mdash; DVORAK, Miro27 &mdash; ERIKSSON, Tom17 &mdash; HOSPODAR, Ed2 &mdash; HOWE, Mark10 &mdash; McCRIMMON, Brad8 &mdash; MARSH, Brad<h3>Centers</h3>20 &mdash; POULIN, Dave14 &mdash; SUTTER, Ron25 &mdash; ZEZEL, Peter<h3>R. Wings</h3>12 &mdash; KERR, Tim15 &mdash; SUTTER, Rich22 &mdash; TOCCHET, Rick<h3>L. Wings</h3>21 &mdash; BROWN, Dave18 &mdash; CARSON, Lindsay32 &mdash; CRAVEN, Murray6 &mdash; PATERSON, Joe26 &mdash; PROPP, Brian23 &mdash; SINISALO, Ilka24 &mdash; SMITH, Derrick<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>31 &mdash; FORD, Brian1 &mdash; HERRON, Denis30 &mdash; ROMANO, Roberto<h3>Defensemen</h3>33 &mdash; BODGER, Doug7 &mdash; BUSKAS, Rod27 &mdash; CHARLES&rsquo;WTH, T.20 &mdash; MANTHA, Moe4 &mdash; MAXWELL, Bryan25 &mdash; McCARTHY, Kevin2 &mdash; McDONNELL, Joe<h3>Centers</h3>22 &mdash; BULLARD, M. - Cpt.9 &mdash; CHABOT, John32 &mdash; HANNAN, Dave13 &mdash; LAMOUREUX, Mitch14 66 &mdash; LEMIEUX, Mario16 &mdash; TAYLOR, Mark<h3>R. Wings</h3>26 &mdash; BABYCH, Wayne24 &mdash; BELANGER, Roger26 &mdash; GATZOS, Steve14 &mdash; SHEDDEN, Doug15 &mdash; RISSLING, Gary<h3>L. Wings</h3>10 &mdash; ERREY, Bob11 &mdash; LONEY, Troy&mdash; WEIR, Wally35 &mdash; YOUNG, Warren<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>35 &mdash; BOUCHARD, Dan33 &mdash; GOSSELIN, Mario1 &mdash; SEVIGNY, Rich<h3>Defensemen</h3>6 &mdash; BELL, Bruce22 &mdash; MAROIS, M. - Cpt.4 &mdash; MAXWELL, Brad21 &mdash; MOLLER, Randy7 &mdash; PRICE, Pat5 &mdash; ROCHEFORT, N.25 &mdash; WESLEY, Blake<h3>Centers</h3>23 &mdash; GILLIS, Paul32 &mdash; HUNTER, Dale14 &mdash; LEMIEUX, Alain11 &mdash; SAVARD, Andre26 &mdash; STASTNY, Peter15 &mdash; SAUVE, J.F.<h3>R. Wings</h3>17 &mdash; KUMPEL, Mark27 &mdash; PAIEMENT, Wilf18 &mdash; STASTNY, Marian<h3>L. Wings</h3>17 &mdash; ASHTON, Brent19 &mdash; COTE, Alain16 &mdash; GOULET, Michel20 &mdash; STASTNY, Anton<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>29 &mdash; MILLEN, Greg30 &mdash; WAMSLEY, Rick<h3>Defensemen</h3>25 &mdash; BOTHWELL, Tim27 &mdash; DELORME, Gilbert26 &mdash; JOHNSON, Terry2 &mdash; LEVIE, Craig35 &mdash; PAVESE, Jim5 &mdash; RAMAGE, Rob4 &mdash; WILSON, Rik<h3>Centers</h3>17 &mdash; CHOUINARD, Guy24 &mdash; FEDERKO, Bernie9 &mdash; GILMOUR, Doug14 &mdash; WICKENHEISER, D.<h3>R. Wings</h3>6 &mdash; BARR, Dave61 &mdash; HICKEY, Pat7 &mdash; MULLEN, Joe28 &mdash; PASLAWSKI, Greg15 &mdash; REEDS, Mark<h3>L. Wings</h3>12 &mdash; ANDERSON, Perry23 &mdash; DUFOUR, Luc&mdash; JOHNSON, Mark22 &mdash; PETTERSSON, J.21 &mdash; SCHOFIELD, Dwight11 &mdash; SUTTER, Brian - Cpt.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>1 &mdash; BERNHARDT, Tim31 &mdash; BESTER, Allan32 30 &mdash; ST. CROIX, Rick<h3>Defensemen</h3>3 &mdash; BENNING, Jim33 &mdash; IAFRATE, Al26 &mdash; KITCHEN, Bill4 &mdash; LEEMAN, Gary15 &mdash; McGILL, Bob2 &mdash; NYLUND, Gary21 &mdash; SALMING, Borje17 &mdash; STEWART, Bill<h3>Centers</h3>16 &mdash; COURTNALL, Russ17 24 &mdash; DAOUST, Dan19 &mdash; DERLAGO, Bill18 &mdash; IHNACAK, Peter<h3>R. Wings</h3>14 &mdash; FRYCER, Miroslav9 &mdash; GAVIN, Stewart33 &mdash; STRONG, Ken22 &mdash; VAIVE, Rick - Cpt.<h3>L. Wings</h3>10 &mdash; ANDERSON, John23 &mdash; BRUBAKER, Jeff20 &mdash; KORN, Jim7 &mdash; TERRION, Greg<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>35 &mdash; BRODEUR, Richard30 &mdash; CAPRICE, Frank31 &mdash; GARRETT, John<h3>Defensemen</h3>29 &mdash; BUBLA, Jiri5 &mdash; BUTCHER, Garth15 &mdash; DAIGNEAULT, J.J.2 &mdash; HALWARD, Doug4 &mdash; LANZ, Rick3 &mdash; LIDSTER, Doug24 &mdash; PETIT, Michel<h3>Centers</h3>24 &mdash; GRADIN, Thomas16 &mdash; KIRTON, Mark7 &mdash; LUPUL, Gary8 &mdash; McNAB, Peter17 &mdash; SUNDSTROM, Pat.<h3>R. Wings</h3>28 &mdash; LANTHIER, J.M.21 &mdash; NEELY, Cam12 &mdash; SMYL, Stan-Cpt.9 &mdash; TANTI, Tony<h3>L. Wings</h3>10 &mdash; GILLIS, Jere14 &mdash; LEMAY, Moe26 &mdash; MacADAM, Al27 &mdash; SKRIKO, Petri<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>35 &mdash; JENSEN, Al1 &mdash; RIGGIN, Pat<h3>Defensemen</h3>17 &mdash; BLOMQVIST, Timo5 &mdash; LANGWAY, R.-Cpt.2 &mdash; McEWEN, Mike8 &mdash; MURPHY, Larry26 &mdash; SHAND, Dave3 &mdash; STEVENS, Scott6 &mdash; VEITCH, Darren<h3>Centers</h3>10 &mdash; CARPENTER, Bobby27 &mdash; CHRISTIAN, Dave29 &mdash; EVASON, Dean25 &mdash; JARVIS, Doug<h3>R. Wings</h3>11 &mdash; GARTNER, Mike23 &mdash; GOULD, Bobby15 &mdash; HAWORTH, Alan18 &mdash; LAUGHLIN, Craig<h3>L. Wings</h3>22 &mdash; ADAMS, Greg14 &mdash; DUCHESNE, Gaetan24 &mdash; ERICKSON, Bryan32 &mdash; FRANCESCHETTI, L.16 &mdash; GUSTAFSSON, B.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>Goaltenders</h3>29 &mdash; BEHREND, Marc1 &mdash; HAYWARD, Brian30 &mdash; HOLDEN, Mark<h3>Defensemen</h3>44 &mdash; BABYCH, Dave4 &mdash; CAMPBELL, Wade8 &mdash; CARLYLE, Randy5 &mdash; DOLLAS, Bobby2 &mdash; ELLETT, Dave6 &mdash; KYTE, Jim3 &mdash; PICARD, Robert7 &mdash; WATTERS, Tim<h3>Centers</h3>16 &mdash; BOSCHMAN, Laurie26 &mdash; EAVES, Murray10 &mdash; HAWERCHUK, D.-Cpt.35 &mdash; STEEN, Thomas<h3>R. Wings</h3>22 &mdash; LUNDHOLM, Bengt15 &mdash; MacLEAN, Paul20 &mdash; McBAIN, Andrew17 &mdash; NILL, Jim<h3>L. Wings</h3>11 &mdash; ARNIEL, Scott12 &mdash; LUKOWICH, Morris19 &mdash; MULLEN, Brian9 &mdash; SMAIL, Doug27 &mdash; TURNBULL, Perry24 &mdash; WILSON, RonINJURED PLAYERS &mdash; Mike Gillis, Gord Kluzak, Morris Lukowich, Barry Pederson, Frank Simonetti (Bos), Bill Hajt (Buf), Dave Hindmarch, Richard Kromm, Allan Maclnnis, Colin Patterson (Cal), Bob MacMillan, Warren Skorodenski (Chi), Grant Fuhr (Edm), Bobby Crawford (Har), Don Beaupre, Craig Hartsburg, Tom Hirsch, Paul Holmgren, Tom McCarthy, Tony McKegney, Terry Martin, Willi Plett (Min), Ron Flockhart, Steve Penney (Mtl), Bob Lorimer, Ron Low, Doug Sulliman (NJ), Bob Bourne, Greg Gilbert, Clark Gillies Mats Hallin, Roger Kortko (NYI), Mike Allison, Jan Erixon, Simo Saarinen (NYR), Bill Barber, Brad McCrimmon (Pha), Roger Belanger, Rick Kehoe (Pit), Mark Kumpel, Andre Savard (Que), Mark Johnson, Kevin LaVallee, Jorgen Pettersson (StL), Bill Kitchen, Jim Korn, Walt Poddubny, Rick St. Croix, Ken Strong (Tor), Jiri Bubla, Ron Delorme, Taylor Hall, Gary Lupul (Van). &#9632;

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<h2>MARCH</h2>Mon. 4 Montreal at MinnesotaTue. 5 Boston at QuebecHartford at BuffaloPhiladelphia at NY IslandersNew Jersey at WashingtonPittsburgh at Los AngelesToronto at St. LouisEdmonton at CalgaryWed. 6 Montreal at WinnipegNY Rangers at VancouverDetroit at TorontoChicago at MinnesotaThu. 7 Hartford at BostonNY Islanders at New JerseyNY Rangers at CalgaryWashington at PhiladelphiaPittsburgh at St. LouisFri. 8 Chicago at BuffaloQuebec at WinnipegPhiladelphia at WashingtonLos Angeles at VancouverSat. 9 Pittsburgh at Boston*Hartford at MontrealQuebec at CalgaryToronto at NY IslandersNY Rangers at EdmontonNew Jersey at Detroit*St. Louis at Minnesota*Sun. 10 Boston at Washington*Montreal at HartfordBuffalo at Los AngelesNew Jersey at Winnipeg*Pittsburgh at PhiladelphiaDetroit at St. LouisMinnesota at Chicago*Edmonton at VancouverMon. 11 Chicago at NY RangersTue. 12 NY Islanders at St. LouisWinnipeg at New JerseyWed. 13 Boston at PittsburghHartford at Los AngelesBuffalo at VancouverMinnesota at QuebecNY Islanders at ChicagoPhiladelphia at NY RangersCalgary at TorontoDetroit at EdmontonThu. 14 Boston at New JerseyWinnipeg at MontrealToronto at WashingtonFri. 15 Buffalo at EdmontonWinnipeg at QuebecDetroit at Vancouver &#9632;

NHL GAMES TO COME

(Standings on Mon. March 4)<h2>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1322/5057783-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="533" height="410"></div><h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1418/5057776-1-eng-US/f0040-142.jpg" title="f0040-14" width="539" height="411"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 25Winnipeg 12 at NY Rangers 5Minnesota 5 at Pittsburgh 4Chicago 4 at Toronto 3 (OT)Tue. Feb. 26Philadelphia 3 at Hartford 2Buffalo 4 at New Jersey 3Vancouver 2 at Washington 3Wed. Feb. 27Buffalo 1 at St. Louis 3Montreal 4 at Edmonton 1Quebec 5 at Los Angeles 2NY Islanders 1 at Calgary 3New Jersey 3 at Chicago 6Winnipeg 6 at Pittsburgh 4Minnesota 1 at Toronto 6Vancouver 5 at Detroit 11Thu. Feb. 28Philadelphia 1 at Boston 6Washington 5 at NY Rangers 4Fri. March 1Hartford 4 at New Jersey 1Montreal 4 at Calgary 6Minnesota 2 at Detroit 6Los Angeles 5 at Edmonton 4Sat. March 2Vancouver 0 at Boston 5Buffalo 4 at Washington 0Philadelphia 2 at Quebec 4NY Islanders 2 at Toronto 4NY Rangers 4 at Pittsburgh 5Detroit 2 at Minnesota 5Chicago 4 at St. Louis 4 (OT)Sun. March 3Vancouver 7 at Hartford 6 (OT)NY Islanders 3 at Buffalo 2Pittsburgh 3 at NY Rangers 7Philadelphia 2 at New Jersey 5St. Louis 2 at Chicago 5Winnipeg 6 at Edmonton 3Los Angeles 0 at Calgary 7 &#9632;

f0040-13

THE NHL SCOREBOARD

BOSTON&mdash;Morris Lukowich, LW, sidelined with sprained ankle. Frank Simonetti, D, out with back injury.CALGARY&mdash;Gino Cavallini, LW, and Joel Otto, C, recalled from Moncton of AHL. Kari Eloranta, D, and Doug Risebrough, C, back from injury list. Sidelined are Al Maclnnis, D, with twisted knee, Richard Kromm, LW, pinched nerve, and Colin Patterson, RW, with knee injury.CHICAGO&mdash;Keith Brown, D, Darryl Sutter, LW, and Bill Gardner, C, back from injury list. Dave Feamster, D, also returned from injury list and later assigned to Milwaukee of IHL as player-assistant coach. Cliff Koroll elevated to Chicago from Milwaukee head coaching role to assistant with Hawks. Jim Pappin named to succeed Koroll at Milwaukee.EDMONTON&mdash;Daryl Reaugh, G, recalled from Kamloops of WHL. Larry Melnyk, D, assigned to Nova Scotia of AHL.HARTFORD&mdash;Scott Kleinendorst, D, Chris Kotsopoulos, D, and Torrie Robertson, LW, back from injury list. Ron Francis, C, named Whalers&rsquo; new captain.MINNESOTA&mdash;David Jensen, D, Scott Bjugstad, C, Ken Solheim, LW, and Mike Sands, G, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Jensen later returned to Springfield along with Dave Richter, D, and Brian Lawton, LW. Chris Pryor, D, sent back to Springfield and later recalled. Don Beaupre, D, sidelined with knee injury and Tom Hirsch, D, out with shoulder separation.MONTREAL&mdash;Steve Penney, G, sidelined with groin injury and Ron Flockhart, C, out with concussion. Patrick Roy, G, recalled from Granby of QMJHL as replacement. Kent Carlson, D, and John Newberry, C, assigned to Sherbrooke of AHL.NEW JERSEY&mdash;John MacLean, LW, and Bob Hoffmeyer, D, back from injury list.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Dale Henry, RW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Ken Morrow, D, back in lineup for first time this season from injury list. Sidelined are Clark Gillies, RW, with sprained ankle. Mats Hallin, LW, shoulder injury, and Greg Gilbert, LW, with knee injury. Ken Leiter, D, and Scott Howson, C, returned to Springfield.NY RANGERS&mdash;Willie Huber, D, back from injury list. Jan Erixon, LW, sidelined with bruised foot.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Rich Sutter, RW, recalled from Hershey of AHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Wally Weir, LW, claimed from Hartford on waivers. Moe Mantha, D, Rod Buskas, D, and Wayne Babych, RW, back from injury list. Gary Rissling, RW, out of lineup for three games after being suspended by the NHL.QUEBEC&mdash;Gord Donnelly, D, and Jean-Marc Gaulin, RW, returned to Fredericton of AHL. Mark Kumpel, RW, out with thigh injury.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Perry Ganchar, RW, returned to Peoria of IHL. Brian Sutter, RW, had four more years added to his current NHL contract. Jorgen Pettersson, LW, out with groin injury.TORONTO&mdash;Allan Bester, G, recalled from St. Catharines of AHL. Ken Wregget, G, returned to St. Catharines. Todd Gill, D, recalled from Windsor of OHL and later returned. Al lafrate, D, back from injury list. Rick St. Croix, G, back on injury list with hamstring pull.VANCOUVER&mdash;Jean-Marc Lanthier, RW, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. Frank Caprice, G, back from injury list. Gary Lupul, C, sidelined with damaged knee.WASHINGTON&mdash;Dean Evason, C, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Al Jensen, G, Beng Gustafsson, LW, and Gary Sampson, LW, back from injury list. Sampson, Bob Mason, G, and Glen Currie, C, assigned to Binghamton.WINNIPEG&mdash;Murray Eaves, C, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ADIRONDACK&mdash;Craig Norwich, D, retired from hockey. Louie Haman, C, signed to pro contract from Quebec-New Brunswick Senior League. Carmine Vani, LW, returned to Kalamazoo of IHL.BALTIMORE&mdash;Bennett Wolf, D, back from injury list.BINGHAMTON&mdash;Brad Shaw, D, recalled from Salt Lake of IHL.FREDERICTON&mdash;Jim Malone, C, secured from New Haven on loan by the NY Rangers Richard Zemlak, RW, recalled from Muskegon of IHL.MAINE&mdash;Steve Tsujiura, C, sidelined with strained knee ligaments. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0832/5057838-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="528" height="1304"></div>Four years ago, when Rick Tocchet was playing junior B for St. Michael&rsquo;s in Toronto, not too many people would have given him a shot at making the National Hockey League.And even after his first season in the Ontario Hockey League with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds three years ago, he&rsquo;d still have been considered a longshot, what with seven goals and 15 assists in 59 games.But the 6-foot-195 pound right winger from Scarborough, Ont., showed continuous development in his last two seasons with the Greyhounds, scoring 32 and 44 goals, respectively, and was drafted 121st overall in the 1983 draft by the Philadelphia Flyers.Today, Tocchet is a rookie with the Flyers, having scored 12 goals and 17 assists in 60 games, surprising many by jumping directly to the NHL. But besides chipping in with a few goals, he&rsquo;s providing the Flyers with plenty of muscle, too. &#9632;

f0041-08

Chrysler Rookie Spotlight

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01173/5057960-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="542" height="499"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Feb. 27Moncton 2 at Adirondack 1Fredericton 1 at Hershey 4Springfield 2 at Maine 4Baltimore 7 at New Haven 5Nova Scotia 6 at Sherbrooke 1Thu. Feb. 28Fredericton 3 at Binghamton 5Rochester 7 at St. Catharines 4Fri. March 1Nova Scotia 7 at Sherbrooke 5Moncton 1 at Springfield 2Sat. March 2Fredericton 2 at Baltimore 6Nova Scotia 4 at Hershey 2Adirondack 2 at Maine 4Binghamton 5 at St. Catharines 3Moncton 0 at Springfield 2Sun. March 3Fredericton 0 at Adirondack 3Nova Scotia 1 at Baltimore 5Moncton 4 at Maine 3Binghamton 3 at Rochester 3New Haven 5 at Sherbrooke 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02114/5057953-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="539" height="268"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. March 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0384/5057946-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="537" height="203"></div>(Teams get point for overtime loss)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 26Virginia 2 at Mohawk Valley 7Wed. Feb. 27Mohawk Valley 7 at Erie 11Thu. Feb. 28Erie 9 at Mohawk Valley 1Pine Bridge 6 at Virginia 3Fri. March 1Carolina 2 at Pine Bridge 3Sat. March 2Mohawk Valley 7 at Virginia 10Carolina 2 at Erie 8Sun. March 3Carolina 3 at Erie 2Mohawk Valley 4 at Pine Bridge 8<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. March 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0465/5057939-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="533" height="410"></div>(Teams get point for overtime loss)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 26Flint 5 at Peoria 7Wed. Feb. 27Salt Lake 6 at Kalamazoo 2Fort Wayne 3 at Toledo 5Muskegon 4 at Peoria 6Fri. March 1Salt Lake 4 at Muskegon 3Indianapolis 6 at Flint 1Kalamazoo 5 at Toledo 2Sat. March 2Indianapolis 2 at Muskegon 3Salt Lake 3 at Peoria 4Sun. March 3Kalamazoo 1 at Fort Wayne 4Milwaukee 4 at Hint 7Salt Lake 4 at Toledo 3Muskegon 5 at Peoria 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0555/5057932-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="532" height="322"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. March 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0648/5057925-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="539" height="552"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Feb. 26Kitchener 5 at Kingston 0Hamilton 2 at Guelph 3Oshawa 2 at Toronto 3Wed. Feb. 27Kitchener 4 at Belleville 6North Bay 3 at S.S. Marie 4Thu. Feb. 28Kingston 3 at Peterborough 7London 4 at Windsor 3Cornwall 5 at Hamilton 2Toronto 5 at Guelph 6Fri. March 1Cornwall 4 at Kitchener 5Bellevlle 9 at Ottawa 7Guelph 2 at London 8Peterborough 6 at Kingston 3S.S. Marie 4 at Sudbury 1Sat. March 2Ottawa 3 at Belleville 12Cornwall 3 at Toronto 6Sun. March 3Peterborough 3 at Toronto 3Ottawa 3 at Oshawa 6Hamilton 6 at North Bay 7Belleville 1 at Cornwall 2Windsor 1 at London 4Guelph 5 at Kitchener 3Sudbury 3 at S.S. Marie 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0743/5057918-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="538" height="323"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. March 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0836/5057911-1-eng-US/f0042-082.jpg" title="f0042-08" width="532" height="515"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 25New Westminster 4 at Calgary 5Tue. Feb. 26Kelowna 2 at Saskatoon 5Seattle 5 at Victoria 6Wed. Feb. 27Lethbridge 3 at Regina 7Brandon 3 at Medicine Hat 11Saskatoon 3 at Moose Jaw 4Kelowna 5 at Prince Albert 7Thu. Feb 28Brandon 5 at Calgary 10Victoria 1 at Kamloops 7Fri. March 1Prince Albert 4 at Regina 6Calgary 6 at Lethbridge 5Seattle 6 at New Westminster 9Victoria 3 at Kelowna 4Sat. March 2Lethbridge 2 at Medicine Hat 8Prince Albert 5 at Brandon 3Seattle 4 at Portland 13Kelowna 4 at Victoria 4Sun. March 3Medicine Hat 6 at Lethbridge 4Saskatoon 2 at Regina 9Brandon 4 at Moose Jaw 6Portland 2 at New Westminster 11Kamloops 7 at Kelowna 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0933/5057904-1-eng-US/f0042-092.jpg" title="f0042-09" width="539" height="297"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. March 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1028/5057897-1-eng-US/f0042-102.jpg" title="f0042-10" width="541" height="441"></div>(Teams get point for overtime loss)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Feb. 25St. Jean 6 at Laval 10Tue. Feb. 26Chicoutimi 6 at Longueuil 2Wed. Feb. 27Drummondville 5 at Hull 4Shawinigan 4 at Quebec 7Laval 9 at T-Rivieres 7Granby 7 at Verdun 13Fri. March 1Granby 5 at Quebec 6Laval 2 at Shawinigan 6Longueuil 5 at St. Jean 3Chicoutimi 7 at Verdun 5Sun. March 3Granby 2 at Drummondville 5Shawinigan 1 at St. Jean 2T-Rivieres 5 at Verdun 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1126/5057890-1-eng-US/f0042-112.jpg" title="f0042-11" width="539" height="350"></div><h2>S.E. MANITOBA LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 18)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1222/5057883-1-eng-US/f0042-122.jpg" title="f0042-12" width="537" height="205"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2>(Standings on Sat. Feb. 23)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1318/5057876-1-eng-US/f0042-132.jpg" title="f0042-13" width="540" height="237"></div>(Games against Buffalo Junior Sabres count in regular NEJHL standings).<h2>ONTARIO CENTRAL JUNIOR</h2>(Final Standings)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1416/5057869-1-eng-US/f0042-142.jpg" title="f0042-14" width="539" height="234"></div>(Teams get point for overtime loss) &#9632;

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March 15, 1985

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

End Results Of CCHA Predictions

Millen Makes Good In Debut With Blues

Marshall Switched Style To Fit Canadiens’ Needs