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.

February 14, 1986

The Hockey News February 14, 1986

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>MILWAUKEE&mdash;East is East but West was best in the International League for the week ending Jan. 27.West Division teams defeated East squads in all four inter-division matches and then hammered on each other to jam the standings.Fort Wayne Komets finished the week in their customary top spot, but the remaining four teams were separated by but four points in the West Division.The Milwaukee Admirals, led by Lindsay Middlebrook in goal, traveled to Salt Lake City and swept a three-game set to move within a point of the second-place Golden Eagles. Salt Lake had 53 points and Milwaukee 52.Peoria was another point back, winning two games (four of its last five), and Indianapolis knocked off a pair of first-place teams for a 2-0 mark. The Checkers trailed in the West with 49 points.Middlebrook, co-player of the week with the Checkers&rsquo; Tom Rothstein, averaged 2.59 goals-against in Milwaukee&rsquo;s three victories and had a save percentage of. 932 for the week.He was backed up by Daniel Lecours, Gord Stafford, Kevin Schamehorn and Fred Berry, each of whom scored two goals during the three wins at Salt Lake.The Admirals won the opener in the Salt Palace 3-2, captured the second 4-1 and handed the Golden Eagles their first shootout loss in a 6-5 decision.Salt Lake had won five previous shoot-outs and two overtime decisions without a loss.The Checkers&rsquo; Rothstein, meanwhile, earned his share of the player-of-the-week honors with a four-goal performance at Muskegon in an 8-5 Indianapolis victory. The triumph over the Lumberjacks, leaders in the East, came a night after a rugged 6-3 decision over West leader Fort Wayne in which Gerry Minor scored a hat trick.Rothstein, a 24-year-old rookie out of the University of Minnesota, was playing just his fifth game with the Checkers after returning from Europe.He had the game-winning goal for Indy and one of his goals was unassisted. The victory for the Checkers in Muskegon&rsquo;s Walker Sports Arena was their first win in two seasons there.Mike Zanier was in goal for Indianapolis against both the division leaders while Rob Holland was winning three games at Springfield of the AHL after being recalled by the New York Islanders. Holland rejoined the Checkers Jan. 27.In the last two weeks, Salt Lake had faltered by losing six of seven games, while Fort Wayne, Milwaukee and Peoria won four of five and Indy claimed five of six games.In addition to Minor and Rothstein. Toledo&rsquo;s Chris McSorley had a hat trick during the week and Pokey Reddick helped give Fort Wayne the lowest goals-against average in the IHL by earning a shutout over Kalamazoo.The Komets were allowing 3.18 goals a game. On the offensive side, Muskegon led the league with an average of 4.60 goals a game.NOTES&mdash;Goaltender Terry Kleisinger was placed on waivers by Flint. Allen Larochelle, goaltender at Milwaukee, was placed on the injured reserve list&hellip;Todd Strueby returned to duty for Muskegon&hellip;Gord Paddock, defenseman, returned to Muskegon from Springfield&hellip;Glen Sharpley was back from the injured list in Peoria&hellip;Chicago assigned winger Darin Sceviour to Saginaw&hellip;Winger Don Murdoch was back from an injury in Toledo&hellip;Scott McMichael was on loan to Flint from Fort Wayne&hellip;Denis Cyr was assigned to Peoria from St. Louis&hellip;Pete Mahovlich was still on the active player&rsquo;s list in Toledo. After 20 games, he had three goals, eight assists and 50 penalty minutes. &#9632;

The Minors

West The Winners In Inter-Division Games

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01933/5013738-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="133" height="139"></div>TORONTO&mdash;While still another period of indecision over Dan Maloney&rsquo;s future as coach came to an end, the Toronto Maple Leafs set off on a pair of one-game winning tears.First, Maloney&rsquo;s future.With the Leafs in the midst of a sevengame losing streak, the last loss a 9-2 shelling inflicted by the New York Islanders, it seemed a coaching change was imminent.Second, the one-game winning streak.A timely 5-2 victory over Washington. inspired by solid netminding from Don Edwards and a game winner from the stick of recently-recalled winger Walt Poddubny, spared Maloney more of the unending speculation.Third, the one-game losing streak.Despite playing reasonably well, the Leafs dropped a 7-4 decision to the red-hot Chicago Blackhawks (15-4-3 over their last 22 games)&mdash;largely, suggested Maloney, because of Edwards&rsquo; work or lack thereof.Fourth, the start of something good?Less than 24 hours after a Saturday night meeting, Toronto and Chicago played it again Sunday afternoon at the Stadium. And this time it was Edwards playing well and slump-ridden Steve Thomas scoring the winner.Whether or not they would win two straight for the first time since Nov. 30, Dec. 4 and Dec. 5&mdash;their only multiplegame winning streak of the season&mdash;would be determined in a Feb. 6 meeting with the North Stars in Minnesota.So much for the headlines. Now the background.Even Maloney emitted a sigh of relief after beating Washington on Jan. 29. Losing streaks are traditionally not the stuff of longtime coaches.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt about it,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;A win sure helps. We&rsquo;re hot. Let&rsquo;s see if we can put two in a row.&rdquo; Nope.The Blackhawks, ensured by Troy Murray&rsquo;s two goals within 10 seconds during the first minute of the third period, disposed of the Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens.After Murray made it 7-1, Maloney pulled Edwards in favor of Allan Bester, who was subbing for the injured Tim Bernhardt.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t play that bad,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t get the saves when we needed them.&rdquo;Edwards, who has not been the stopper Toronto hoped for when it acquired him from Calgary during the off-season, did not disagree with his coach.&ldquo;I guess I just wasn&rsquo;t as sharp as I should have been,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;I was just disappointed in my play. In games like that, the guys are depending on the goalie to make the big save and unfortunately I guess I didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;The game was not without its good news.Captain Rick Vaive, for instance, scored his first two goals since returning from a hand injury that kept him out of 16 games altogether.He had gone five games without scoring since coming back. He added an assist Saturday plus one goal and another assist in the victory Sunday.Poddubny also scored Saturday to give him two goals in two games since his recall from St. Catharines. Reunited with center Peter Ihnacak and right winger Mirko Frycer, he was fitting right in.Demoted in late November after collecting one goal and five assists in five games, Poddubny had 28 goals and 27 assists in only 37 games for the Saints.Desperate for firepower, after scoring just one or two goals in five of six games, the Leafs elevated Poddubny, who quickly justified the Leafs&rsquo; renewed faith in him with the winner against Washington.Thomas, who was making a spirited bid to join the rookie-of-the-year race before going on a nine-game goal-less streak, supplied what turned out to be the winner in Chicago.The win against the Blackhawks was Toronto&rsquo;s third in four meetings with the Windy City sextet and lifted the Leafs to a six-point advantage over the last-place Detroit Red Wings in the Norris Division.Were the playoffs to begin at the allstar break, Toronto would have been playing the Blackhawks.NOTES&mdash;Leaf Logic: Toronto has closed the dressing room to all media personnel to comply with a National Hockey League regulation which calls for equal and consistent access to players for all reporters&mdash;men or women. That decision came after the Leafs declared the dressing room off limits for the visit of the New York Rangers and beat reporter, Helene Elliott of Newsday. Player interviews, by order of owner Harold Ballard, were conducted in an anteroom. That practice will continue since the NHL decided Toronto had to be consistent one way or the other&hellip;Leafs dropped rookie center Dan Hodgson and third-year right winger Gary Leeman to St. Catharines and recalled right winger Gary McAdam. Leeman scored five goals in his first two games with the Saints. Goalie Ken Wregget was working himself back into shape with the Saints&hellip;Ballard was in satisfactory condition in hospital after successful prostate surgery. &#9632;</div>

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One Is The Lonliest Number For The Leafs

<div class="byline">BY CHARLIE HALPIN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03660/5013638-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg"></div>TORONTO&mdash;It pays to lose. Or at least it doesn&rsquo;t hurt.That&rsquo;s one of the conclusions to be drawn from THE HOCKEY NEWS survey of National Hockey League attendance at the midway point of the 1985-86 season.The New York Rangers, at No. 1, and the Detroit Red Wings, at No. 6, were among the top half-dozen teams in drawing power after 20 of 40 home games had been played.Neither the Rangers, hovering around the. 500 mark, nor the Red Wings, firmly esconsed in last place overall, were burning up the league but both still had impressive turnstile counts.The Rangers, long the NHL&rsquo;s boxoffice champions, are struggling to regain that status but serious challenges are being mounted in Edmonton, Philadelphia, Montreal, Chicago and Detroit.At the halfway mark in the 840-game regular schedule, just 4,100 fans separated the Rangers and Red Wings. It&rsquo;s been years since such a large group was clustered at the top.The Rangers led after the first 20 home games of the schedule with a total fan count of 345,621. Edmonton Oilers, the NHL&rsquo;,s best-drawing team the last three years, held second spot with 343,985, Philadelphia was third (343,122), Montreal fourth (342,623), Chicago fifth (342,108) and Detroit sixth (341,541).As strong as attendance is in some NHL centers, it is equally weak in others.In fact, the league was floundering at the box office after coming off a record year last season. Crowds fell behind by more than 65,000 after the first 10 games this year and that figure had risen to 130,380 after 20 games&mdash;in spite of drawing 73,470 more customers in home games 11 through 20.In the second of four unofficial quarterly reports tompiled by THE HOCKEY NEWS, NHL teams had attracted 5,949,212 fans at the midway mark in the schedule. At this time last year crowds totalled 6,079,592.The NHL, which boasted an all-time turnstile high of 12,307,913 last season, appeared to be fighting back after a bad first quarter. But the league still faces an uphill battle.Only eight of the 21 teams registered an increase over the first half of last season. Some clubs dropped drastically. The Los Angeles Kings, a profound disappointment this season, were 44,921 fans behind at the box office.Others were reeling, too.St. Louis was down by 31,081 from last season, Buffalo Sabres 27,397 and Vancouver 26,456. Even the Toronto Maple Leafs, who long insisted all of their games were sellouts, had dropped off by 15,057.On the plus side were improved figures in Winnipeg, surprisingly, and Pittsburgh, not surprisingly. Despite playing poorly most of the season, the Jets had drawn 20,000 more than after 20 home games last year. And the Penguins&rsquo; rising fortunes on the ice were reflected at the gate where nearly 12,000 more people had showed up.The New Jersey Devils (plus-23,726) and Pittsburgh (plus-22,393) made the largest gains from first to second quarter.In a separate attendance breakdown, compiled by Bruce Ideson for THE HOCKEY NEWS, the Boston Bruins were the league&rsquo;s top drawing team on the road.The Bruins attracted 306.150 fans in their first 20 road games. Chicago was the second-best draw and Edmonton third. Toronto and Detroit, the 20th-and 21 st-ranked NHL teams on the ice, occupied similar positions in road appeal. The league&rsquo;s overall road game attendance was 164,902 behind last season.<h2>NHL Team Attendance At Home&hellip;</h2><h2>&hellip;How Teams Draw On The Road</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04493/5013631-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="1752" height="708"></div> &#9632;

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Departments

Attendance Trailing Last Year’s Pace

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01172/5015316-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="C0004-01" width="285" height="292"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-02105/5015309-1-eng-US/c0004-022.jpg" title="C0004-02" width="410" height="362"></div><h2>MONTREAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-0359/5015302-1-eng-US/c0004-032.jpg" title="C0004-03" width="479" height="194"></div><h2>TORONTO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-0431/5015295-1-eng-US/c0004-042.jpg" title="C0004-04" width="479" height="195"></div><h2>WINNIPEG</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-0517/5015288-1-eng-US/c0004-052.jpg" title="C0004-05" width="477" height="189"></div><h2>CALGARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-0615/5015281-1-eng-US/c0004-062.jpg" title="C0004-06" width="478" height="188"></div><h2>EDMONTON</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-0710/5015274-1-eng-US/c0004-072.jpg" title="C0004-07" width="481" height="187"></div><h2>VANCOUVER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-087/5015267-1-eng-US/c0004-082.jpg" title="C0004-08" width="477" height="186"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

THREE-STAR STANDINGS

In next week&rsquo;s Feb. 21st issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we&rsquo;ll take a look at one of the latest trends in the National Hockey League&mdash;power-play specialists.A growing number of NHLers are making their living out of power-play proficiency. We&rsquo;ll take a look at them, including little J.F. Sauve of the Quebec Nordiques and rookie Pelle Eklund of the Philadelphia Flyers.As well, we&rsquo;ll take a look at the best power plays in the NHL and why they&rsquo;re successful.In addition to that, we&rsquo;ll also have a complete wrap-up on the NHL All-Star Game, including a full report on the game itself as well as all the boardroom happenings that inevitably occur when the pro hockey world converges on one locale.Don&rsquo;t miss all that plus much, much more in the Feb. 21st issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;It was rude, rude, rude.&rdquo; Windsor GM Jim Rutherford, commenting on the French-only entertainment at the joint OHL-QMJHL banquet. Story on Page 37.</blockquote> &#9632;

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div>Now playing at Chicago Stadium and at a National Hockey League rink near you: Troy Murray&rsquo;s Greatest Hits.The Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; burly 23-year-old center will bruise opponents on defense and bum them on offense, kill penalties and score power-play goals.He is living up to expectations the Hawks began building for him when they drafted him in the third round from the Tier 11 St. Albert Saints in 1980.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always said that Troy is our Bryan Trottier,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; general manager and coach Bob Pulford. &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t gotten that recognition yet, but he will.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s certainly that kind of player,&rdquo; said Roger Neilson, the Hawks&rsquo; co-coach. &ldquo;He can throw that strong check from time to time, and he can play both ends of the ice.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to be compared with a player like Trottier,&rdquo; said Murray who shares the number 19 with the Islanders&rsquo; superstar. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t styled myself after anybody, but if that&rsquo;s the comparison he makes, I&rsquo;m honored. He (Trottier) is one of the best two-way players in the game.&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t compare myself to him. He&rsquo;s played so well throughout a long career, and he won four Stanley Cups in a row.&rdquo;Murray hasn&rsquo;t won any Stanley Cups yet, but he is winning respect with his explosive season. With more than two months remaining in the 80-game schedule, Murray already had scored a career-high 29 goals. His 59 points were within seven of his career high and his plus-22 rating was the best on the club.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been four years now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about time I started producing and playing as well as I think I could.&rdquo;The indications were there before his NHL days. He was selected captain of the Team Canada squad that won the World Junior Championship over the 1981 Christmas holidays.&ldquo;Our defense was really great on that club,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;We had Randy Moller, James Patrick, Garth Butcher, Gary Nylund, Gord Kluzak and Paul Boutilier. Those six are all playing defense regularly in the NHL now.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011248/5012891-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="717" height="1423"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021021/5012884-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1469" height="1811"></div>But the coach, Dave King, has stayed away.&ldquo;I really admired him,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;He was a great coach. He&rsquo;s doing exactly what he wants to do with the Canadian national team. He&rsquo;s had a lot of offers to turn pro. But he has confidence in that program, and he wants to build it.&rdquo;Murray was on a break from the University of North Dakota for that tournament.When he returned, he and the Sioux won the NCAA tournament in March, 1982, at Providence, R.I., where one check delivered by Murray sent a Wisconsin player off the ice on a stretcher. At North Dakota, Murray was guided into the style that is now paying off for him.&ldquo;I was always a goal scorer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Gino Gasparini is the coach who really stressed playing in the defensive end. I give him more credit than anybody that I&rsquo;ve gotten even as far as I have gotten.&rdquo;He got to Chicago in April, 1982, leaving North Dakota after his sophomore year. But Chicago got to him, too. The big town was a big temptation for a 20-year-old from Calgary.There were long stretches on the sidelines that 1982-83 season with injuries and illnesses, including a bout with colitis. There was a long road trip taken without a topcoat, and of course, a case of bad flu.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t blame anybody but myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A lot of things I did that first year didn&rsquo;t go along with playing hockey to my potential. I didn&rsquo;t take care of myself. I thought it would be easy, and it wasn&rsquo;t. I did things to rebel, to beat the system, and of course it didn&rsquo;t work.&rdquo;After a summer of hard work and headstraightening, Murray found himself still on the outside looking in for 1983-84.&ldquo;The team had had a lot of success the year before (104 points under rookie coach Orval Tessier), and they tried to take off,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I talked to Mr. Pulford, told him I had worked hard and had a good camp and I wanted to play again.&ldquo;He told me to work hard in practice and keep my nose clean, and I would get my chance. About the middle of the season I began to play fairly regularly. I&rsquo;ve been building my confidence ever since.&rdquo;He scored 15 goals that season, then came on in 1984-85 with 26 goals and 66 points centering a line with rookie Ed Olczyk and hardhitting Curt Fraser on his wings.This year&mdash;the explosion. Why?&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s confidence,&rdquo; said Neilson. &ldquo;He got a lot of publicity in the playoffs for the job he did against Gretzky.&rdquo;Murray has built much of his defensive reputation on his confrontations with Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky. In Game Three of last year&rsquo;s Campbell Conference final in Chicago, Murray became the first player to shut out Gretzky during the 1985 playoffs. It was the first time in 38 games that No. 99 had failed to earn a point.Gretzky has had his big nights against Murray, such as a record-tying seven assists Dec. 11 at Chicago. But two years ago, Murray came within two seconds of ending Gretzky&rsquo;s-51-game point streak in Game 48. Gretzky eventually knocked Murray&rsquo;s pass out of the air for an empty-net goal.Murray admitted the six-game playoff and the duel with Gretzky helped he and his linemates.&ldquo;It gave myself a lot of confidence, and Curt and Eddie a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We had been together all year, plus in the playoffs we were quite successful.&ldquo;Curt and Eddy were ready to play this year. They both had a lot of confidence they could play with anybody in the league. It helped them, it helped me. The recognition was good, but at the same time I don&rsquo;t know if a lot of people thought we would do as well offensively.&rdquo;The key to the start, Murray said, was Fraser crashing into the season and never stopping until his shoulder injury Dec. 11, when he was the Hawks&rsquo; leading scorer with 14 goals and 36 points in 27 games.&ldquo;Curt was on fire and I knew my points were going to come, because he was playing so well,&rdquo; said Murray. &ldquo;And it rubbed off. Curt got hurt, but Eddy kept playing well, Bill Watson played well on our line, and I was able to keep it going. With a lot of hard work, I&rsquo;ll try to keep it going that way.&rdquo;That way is to hit hard and play tough defense.&ldquo;A lot of things can turn a game around,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;A hit, or killing a penalty can be a big boost. Even scoring a goal at an important time. You always want to score goals, the bottom line is that&rsquo;s where all the fame and glory is.&ldquo;But there are a lot of good defensive players around who don&rsquo;t get the recognition they should. They&rsquo;re just aS much a part of being important to a team as the goal scorers. I take pride in playing at both ends. If I stop a goal or kill a penalty, I take as much pride in that as in scoring a goal or doing something in the offensive end.&rdquo;Making the big play in any zone&mdash;a hit, a kill, or a goal&mdash;is adding up to a big year for Troy Murray.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03672/5012877-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="723" height="1446"></div>Troy Murray, above, has been a standout for the Blackhawks this season with the help of linemates Ed Olczyk, right, and Curt Fraser, left, who had the best start of his National Hockey League career derailed by a shoulder injury. Murray is now fulfilling the promise he showed at the World Junior Championships in Rochester, Minn. &#9632;

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HE’S NO. 19 WITH A BULLET

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011279/5012922-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="378" height="419"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Orr</figcaption></div>THE STORY IN a Montreal newspaper pulled no punches on the matter: Give the Selke Trophy as the National Hockey League&rsquo;s best defensive forward for the 1985-86 season to Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens. No other player merits consideration, this yarn said. Call in the dogs, wet on the camp fire, the Selke hunt is over and Carbonneau gets the award.Now, this is not intended as a putdown of that opinion or of Guy Carbonneau, a truly effective center, not just defensively but in most aspects of the game. Every team in hockey would like very much to have Carbonneau for a wide range of roles&mdash;facing the opposition&rsquo;s top shooter, taking important faceoffs and scoring a few goals when there were no defensive front steps to be swept. But while Carbonneau would be a good choice for the Selke award and undoubtedly will receive considerable support when the ballots are counted, he&rsquo;s not any shoo-in for the silverware.For openers, there&rsquo;s a chap in Chicago named Troy Murray, who is noticeably better than an, empty sweater when he&rsquo;s playing without the puck and zeroed in on preventing the chaps who do have it from doing anything constructive with it. Kevin McClelland, Doug Jarvis, Dave Tippett, Dave Poulin, Terry Ruskowski or Doug Gilmour also are rather efficient in the defensive skills.The Frank Selke Trophy is an unusual one, awarded to a player whose role isn&rsquo;t completely defined. Its rules state that it goes &ldquo;to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s not quite as muddled or ambiguous as the legislation for the Norris Trophy which goes &ldquo;to the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.&rdquo;In today&rsquo;s hockey, defining precisely what form a defensive forward should take is a tricky business. An assortment of viewpoints are possible and they all have merit.For instance, I&rsquo;ve always felt that the best way to prevent the other guys from doing anything with the puck is to have it and keep it yourself. That certainly discourages the scoring of goals against you. Use that as a means of measuring it and isn&rsquo;t Wayne Gretzky the best defensive player in the game? He seems to have the puck on his little stick on the offensive side of center a great deal and when that happens, the red light behind the Oiler net never seems to go on.But a large number of people don&rsquo;t see that as being &ldquo;defensive&rdquo;. The Canadiens won the old-time Vezina Trophy a large number of times with a puck-control game. Oh, they weren&rsquo;t shabby when the traditional standards of defense were applied, but, mostly, they had a low goals-against average because the other team didn&rsquo;t get the puck enough to do any offensive damage.What will work against Carbonneau and Murray as top Selke candidates is their sizeable point totals. Murray could finish with close to 100 points while Carbonneau will be in the 70 to 80 range. Too many observers simply can&rsquo;t supply testimony to a player&rsquo;s defensive work when he has statistics that heavy.In the case of those two dandies, the fact that they offer a serious offensive threat only increases their value as defensive players. When Carbonneau is killing a penalty, for instance, he makes opposing power plays edgy because he&rsquo;s a threat to score.Of the eight Selke winners, only Bobby Clarke, who won it in 1982-83 when when he had 85 points, was in possession of large statistics. But in the game today, large mathematics shouldn&rsquo;t work against a player being a Selke candidate.Perhaps the most interesting facet of the Selke award is that the winners in six of eight seasons were graduates of Peterborough Petes when Roger Neilson was the coach there. Bob Gainey won it the first four times it was awarded, Jarvis and Craig Ramsay once each.Because Roger isn&rsquo;t in the production of junior checkers now, the entire pattern for an award has changed. &#9632;

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Columnists

Offense Part Of The Defensive Role

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021196/5012953-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="557" height="113"></div>LANDOVER&mdash;After the Washington Capitals were badly beaten on successive nights by Detroit (7-0) and Toronto (52), the rest of the National Hockey League wondered what was happening.So did the Capitals. Coach Bryan Murray called only the third deep-think meeting of his four-and-a-half year tenure to try to find out what was wrong with the team.After 90 minutes behind a locked door, the players emerged smiling and apparently feeling good about each other. Although on-ice results remained to be seen, Murray proclaimed himself satisfied.&ldquo;Every player had something to say and this is an intelligent group of young men, so there were some differing and very good thoughts,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;There was enthusiasm and good criticism, real positive stuff. A lot of things were said that needed to be said before it got late in the year.&ldquo;We were just breezing along and I thought maybe not all of us were stopping to realize how close this team has to be if we want to win.&ldquo;There was concern that we as a group get back to the work ethic. We&rsquo;re regarded as a hard-working team and it&rsquo;s the only way we&rsquo;ll win on a consistent basis.&rdquo;The players marched grimly into a small room following a practice session at the Mount Vernon rink in Virginia. When they came out, they were in high spirits and Greg Adams said, &ldquo;I just wish we could play our next 30 games tomorrow night.&rdquo;Team captain Rod Langway has held numerous players-only meetings. He allowed this one was conducted on a higher plane, with less forthright pinpointing of individuals.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t my typical meeting, but it was a good one and a lot of things were brought out,&rdquo; Langway said. &ldquo;The coaches had a lot to say and we said a lot to them.&ldquo;It was a positive meeting. We&rsquo;re not pushing the panic button and we have a lot of games left. But it gets a lot of frustrations out and puts guys at ease.&ldquo;After 50 games-plus, you get annoyed at certain people and you tend to hold things in. When it comes out at a meeting like this, a guy says, &lsquo;Hey, I must have rubbed some guys the wrong way and I wasn&rsquo;t aware of it.&rdquo;&lsquo;A principal topic was the Capitals&rsquo; chances of winning the Stanley Cup. obviously downgraded following those two awful games.&ldquo;I think everybody thinks we can win the Stanley Cup, but now we have to get the job done and be as good as we possibly can,&rdquo; said Dave Christian, the club&rsquo;s top goal scorer with 28. &ldquo;Things have not been going well and this meeting might not help us tomorrow night or four games from now, but I think it will help 20 games from now.&rdquo;&ldquo;The bottom line is winning the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; said Craig Laughlin, another enjoying his best NHL season. &ldquo;Everything was brought out in the open, everybody said their own little piece on how to get the team going and everybody had some ideas on how we&rsquo;re going to go on from here to win the Cup.&rdquo;Alan Haworth, whose 25 goals constitute a career high, said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think this was a meeting to see how bad this guy was playing or how bad that guy was playing. It was about how guys are getting along on the team, whether guys are enjoying themselves.&ldquo;I think it was a great meeting. We tried to leave the games behind and see what&rsquo;s goingon off the ice. whether there are any dislikes on the team. You know, things where a guy might be alone in front of the net and I wouldn&rsquo;t pass him the puck because I don&rsquo;t like him.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a blowout where Bryan gave one person the business. He just tried to make us realize how lucky we are to be in Washington and let us know that if things don&rsquo;t change on the ice, if we keep playing as bad as we are, changes will have to be made.&ldquo;We know we have just so many years to win a Stanley Cup. We&rsquo;re not young chickens anymore. I&rsquo;m 25 and I&rsquo;d like to be on a Cup winner.&rdquo;&ldquo;It was the usual airing of our minds,&rdquo; said Mike Gartner, the team&rsquo;s leading scorer. &ldquo;The coaches got 20 views of what&rsquo;s happening on the team and they can compile a lot of information that should help. As long as it doesn&rsquo;t become destructive, it&rsquo;s got to help.&rdquo;With the two defeats, the Capitals had dropped six of their last 10 games and it was beginning to appear that there was more chance of being caught by the third-place Islanders than there was of catching first-place Philadelphia.&ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t show up in Detroit and Toronto,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Something had to be done. This was a great time for it. We&rsquo;ll play two more games, have the all-star break and come back fresh with a chance to recreate our work ethic and enthusiasm.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Left winger Mark Taylor and goaltender Bob Mason were recalled from Binghamton as replacements for Jorgen Pettersson, out with a bruised knee, and Pete Peeters, bothered by a pulled stomach muscle&hellip;Bengt Gustafsson enjoyed a five-point game in a 6-3 victory at Minnesota that preceded the collapse in Detroit. &#9632;

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Beefs Aired Behind Closed Doors

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011150/5012984-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="369" height="425"></div>Q: What&rsquo;s the difference between a match penalty and a game misconduct?Liz Craig, Red Deer, ABA: In both instances, the player is removed for the balance of the game. But beyond this there is much difference. A match penalty is always accompanied by a time penalty, either of five-or 10-minute duration, in, which the team must play shorthanded (unless offset by a similar penalty to the opposing team). A game misconduct is only for removal of the player for that game. A match penalty, on the other hand, requires a review by the league president with possible further suspension or fine. A game misconduct usually follows assessment of a time penalty.Q: Recently during a Calgary-Montreal game there was a question about Calgary&rsquo;s starting lineup. No penalty was called but I was wondering what penalty would be called and why it would be a penalty?Ron Murdock, Saskatoon, SKA: At the start of a game each team must list its lineup&mdash;18 skaters and two goalkeepers&mdash;and must also circle its starting six players. If a team uses a wrong player in the starting lineup, the opposing team can point this out to the referee at the first stoppage of play and the referee must assess a bench minor penalty to the offending team.Q: Recently at a game between Hartford and Quebec, referee Don Koharski assessed a penalty to Quebec. During the following power play the puck was covered in the crease by someone other than the Quebec goalie and Koharski awarded Hartford a penalty shot. With 51 seconds remaining in the original penalty, Hartford scored on the penalty shot. The penalty was wiped out and Quebec returned to full strength. Was this an error or does scoring on the penalty shot end a power play? And what would have happened had Hartford not scored?Becky Tyrell, Plainville. CTA: Yes, in the NHL a goal scored on a penalty shot does wipe out a minor penalty being served at the time. The time, by the way, taken for a penalty shot is not included in the official game time. You would actually have a penalty shot taken at the end of regulation time were a delayed penalty calling for a penalty shot being assessed as time ran out. Finally, if Hartford hadn&rsquo;t scored the player would have remained in the penalty box and the ensuing face-off would have taken place at either of the two end face-off spots in the Quebec end.It you want your questions answered, write to:ASK THE REFEREE16 Martin StreetMilton, Ont.L9T 2P9All questions will be considered, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

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ASK THE REFEREE

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02846/5013015-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"></div>that the NHL teams with the most Americans on their current rosters are: &#9632;

f0005-02

Did You Know…

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03594/5013046-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rene Robert accumulated 702 points, including 284 goals, during nis 12-year National Hockey League career.</figcaption></div>It seems difficult to believe now, but when Rene Robert was traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Buffalo Sabres for Eddie (The Entertainer) Shack back on March 4, 1972 it was not one of the more popular trades ever made in Buffalo.Shack, with his entertaining style of play, was very popular in Buffalo. So when Robert, a right winger, came to Buffalo with only 54 National Hockey League games to his credit, the fans were somewhat skeptical.But when Robert teamed with Gil Perreault and Rick Martin to form the famed &ldquo;French Connection&rdquo; line those skeptics quickly disappeared.Robert, now 37, explained what made the &ldquo;French Connection&rdquo; so successful.&ldquo;You are only as good as the people you play with,&rdquo; said Robert, who played 12 seasons in the NHL (197082) for the Penguins, Sabres, Colorado Rockies and Toronto Maple Leafs. &ldquo;We were all young and were coming up together as far as our careers were concerned.&ldquo;We just happened to click. We fit into each other&rsquo;s patterns and began to know each other&rsquo;s moves. It was something that we had to work on and did.&ldquo;And it was something I had never experienced before or after I was in Buffalo. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.&rdquo;Robert, along with the rest of his Sabre teammates, were also a part of a young and upcoming team.They excelled so quickly that by the spring of 1975 they found themselves in the Stanley Cup finals against the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Philadelphia Flyers.&ldquo;Punch (Imlach, the general manager) was the man who put the team together,&rdquo; said Robert, a native of Trois-Rivieres, Que. &ldquo;You could see that from the players he was getting in the draft and through trades.&ldquo;I could see that each year after I arrived in Buffalo the team was getting better. Then everything seemed to come together in &lsquo;74-75.&ldquo;We got off to such a great start. We had a good training camp, which was important. Plus, if you look at the season, the team stayed pretty healthy.&ldquo;In fact, after we lost to the Flyers in the finals, I figured we were only one or two players away from winning the whole thing.&ldquo;But we never really got any closer,&rdquo; said Robert who scored 40 goals and 60 assists&mdash;career highs&mdash;in 1974-75.Within four years after playing in the Stanley Cup final, Robert was traded from the Sabres to the Rockies for defenseman John Van Boxmeer.For Robert, the trade spelled the beginning of the end of his hockey career.&ldquo;When I was traded from the Sabres, it was the saddest day of my life,&rdquo; said Robert, who is a sales representative for Molson Breweries in Toronto and resides in nearby Mississauga. &ldquo;And I know that I won&rsquo;t ever forget the guy (Sabres&rsquo; present coach and general manager Scott Bowman) that traded me from the Sabres.&ldquo;At first I was glad to be going to Colorado because Don Cherry was the coach. But he was fired after a year and I could see the team was going nowhere fast.&ldquo;Buffalo is still a part of me. I love the city and its people. They were good to me and accepted me, especially after being traded there for such a popular player like Shack.&ldquo;But after I left Buffalo I lost my desire to play the game. I still play a a few games with the oldtimers.&ldquo;But other than that I don&rsquo;t want any part of (the pro) game. And it&rsquo;s all because of one individual.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Robert Bitter About The Part Played By Bowman In Career

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; A crowd of 6,644 turned out at Boston Garden to watch the Oshawa Generals and Niagara Falls Flyers (both Boston farm teams) play. The match, won 5-2 by the Flyers, gave the fans a chance to see Boston&rsquo;s coming stars, including Bobby Orr and Wayne Cashman.&bull; Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; star Gordie Howe was given a police escort while in Boston. It was reported that Howe had received a threatening letter, and while Howe scoffed at his being in any danger, his hotel room was guarded during the night.&bull; Alex Delvecchio scored his 300th career goal, only the ninth NHLer to achieve that milestone.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; New Red Wing coach Doug Barkley denied sending his players over the boards in a bench-clearing brawl against the Vancouver Canucks, but added &ldquo;I think it did them sood.&rdquo; &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011330/5013101-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="326" height="449"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler&rsquo;s</figcaption></div>I hope you&rsquo;re ready for this because the National Hockey League isn&rsquo;t.This idea, which you will soon have unveiled before your very eyes will among other things: (a) reduce high-sticking (b) eliminate goons (c) accentuate artistry and (d) lengthen Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s career by a decade.What we need is an overhaul from six-to five-man hockey.Yes, you read it right, Dudley. The time has come to kill the six-man game and create advanced-design hockey.On behalf of Mario Lemieux, Rick Middleton and other artists, I propose that the NHL eschew one defenseman. This will give us the most sensible idea since the invention of the backhand shot&mdash;The Return of The Rover.Believe it or not, kiddies, hockey once was a seven-man game. Goalie, two defensemen, three forwards and a rover.The rover did what he damn pleased. When he felt like going on the attack, he joined the forwards and when it was time to defend, he dropped back.But when the boys in the board room realized that the rink was too crowded, the rover went the way of the brontosaurus and for several epochs we&rsquo;ve enjoyed six-man hockey.That was fine and dandy until several things happened to louse up the game. These include:&bull; THE SLAPSHOT: Every joker who makes it past the center red line figures he can score from there&mdash;so he shoots.&bull; VERY LARGE PLAYERS: Once upon a time a player was considered gigantic if he were 6 feet, 200 pounds. With those figures nowadays, he&rsquo;s a pygmy. Too many goliaths means too little room and that means congestion which disrupts the neat flow of the game.&bull; VERY HIGH STICKS: Because of the congestion, sticks are flying so high every player needs to carry a spare eye around to survive.&bull;TOO MANY GOONS: You know something is screwy when the Caps go out of their way to get Dwight Schofield because the Flyers have Dave Brown and the Bruins bring in Brian Curran (and Jay Miller) to neutralize Chris Nilan, ad nauseam.Some observers advocate longer, wider, European-style rinks to open up the game but we know that any idea that would remove money-getting seats would be rejected by the owners.But they should love Five-Man Hockey because it would not only produce a better game but reduce their overhead by at least two players per team.Think about it: one goalie, one defenseman, a center, left wing and our reincarnated friend, the rover.On the opening face-off the rover would take the right wing position and then play swing-man as the play dictated. With two fewer players on the ice, the game would open up considerably. The artists would do more stickh&rsquo;andling and less slapshooting. The large players, if they are skillful, will survive and the high sticks will go down.Goal-crease gang wars would be decreased and hockey would take a giant step back to the sanity level it once enjoyed.I&rsquo;m ready for this. Are you?<h2>FINAL WORDS ON HAMILTON</h2>Now that rabble-rousers like Rod (Seldom) Beaton and Larry Sicinski have traded their &ldquo;Nays&rdquo; and &ldquo;Yays&rdquo; on Hamilton&rsquo;s eligibility for an NHL franchise, it is time to answer all the important questions about Hamilton and NHL.Why should Hamilton get a franchise after the NHL did a detour around Saskatoon?There are 17,000 answers to this one. Those are the 17,000 seats in the new Hamilton arena. By contrast, Saskatoon had 17,000 promises from Wild Bill Hunter and friends. Those promises were as useful as a rink on Baffin Island. You can&rsquo;t put genuine people in make-believe seats. Sorry, Saskatoon, hut I&rsquo;m sure you understand.Does the NHL want a team in Hamilton?The NHL is a feudal confederation. A few of these duchies&mdash;Edmonton, for one&mdash;would like a team in Hamilton. The majority (meaning every single American franchise) wouldn&rsquo;t know Hamilton from Halifax. Another bloc, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, prefers American money like the kind the St. Louis Blues pay their skaters, to Canadian money, which the Hammies would pay.If a &ldquo;Yay&rdquo; and &ldquo;Nay&rdquo; vote were taken among the governors and players today, you wouldn&rsquo;t be able to hear the &ldquo;Yays&rdquo; for Hamilton over the &ldquo;Nays.&rdquo;Okay, but let&rsquo;s say Hamilton is granted a franchise. Would Steeltown be able to support a NHL team?About as welf as St. Louis did for the first five years. One of the prevailing myths that circulates above the 49th parallel is that a big Canadian city will automatically support an NHL team. However, those who attended a recent game at Vancouver&rsquo;s vast rink detected no less than 8,000 empty seats. And that has not been an aberration. The only difference between Hamilton and Vancouver is the weather and the fact that the Canucks have no competition for the fans&rsquo; dollars while the Hammies would be competing with the Sabres and Maple Leafs.What is the biggest mistake being made about the Hamilton hustle?Without a doubt it&rsquo;s the idea that just because a city has a large, new arena, that city can support a big-league team. Similai; mistakes were made in: (a) Houston (b) St. Paul (c) Cleveland and (d) Birmingham.Yeah, but look at the those terrific crowds Hamilton had for the World Junior Championships. Doesn&rsquo;t that tell you something?It tells me that people will fill a joint on a novelty basis, especially when the prices are low. If you don&rsquo;t believe me, ask John McMullen, boss of the New Jersey Devils.Critics once said that Quebec couldn&rsquo;t support a NHL team because it&rsquo;s a small city. But, it&rsquo;s doing just fine. And so is Harftord. Doesn&rsquo;t that make a good case for Hamilton?Definitely, if the NHL wants to add yet another Green Bay to its roster.Would a Hamilton entry be good or bad for the NHL?Good if you&rsquo;re a Canadian. Bad if you&rsquo;re an American.Why shouldn&rsquo;t Hamilton get the franchise?It should, if the Moscow Selects defect en masse.Isn&rsquo;t it most likely that the St. Louis Blues will become Hamilton&rsquo;s team next year?Every year there&rsquo;s a &ldquo;most likely&rdquo; team. Last March it was the Penguins. Last February it was the Devils. Next week it could be the Canucks. And if Gulf and Western decides to tear down Madison Square Garden and build a new skyscraper, instead, it could be the Rangers.<h2>30-SECOND THIRD DEGREE</h2>Don Edwards of the Maple Leafs, please take the stand.Q: The Flames appear to have erred in letting you go.EDWARDS: They had high hopes for a college kid, Rick Kosti, and he didn&rsquo;t pan out. I wasn&rsquo;t happy there because I thought there was a double standard in the coaching decisions. I definitely should have been given a chance to play in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. I played well at the end of the season but they went with Reggie (Lemelin) and he struggled through the playoffs. He (coach Bob Johnson) was predicting my future more than I wanted to predict for myself.Q: Pick the five best young goalies in the NHL.EDWARDS: Andy Moog is very underrated. Clint Malar-chuk. Steve Weeks is finding his areas in his game now. Tommy Barrasso is big, strong, quick and plays his angles well. For futures, Darren Puppa.Q: And the best five veteran goalies.EDWARDS: Richard Brodeur had one season when he struggled but he belongs up there. Chico Resch, although recently he&rsquo;s played with inconsistent clubs. Billy Smith gets the job done and his playoff record speaks for itself. I have a lot of respect for Pete Peeters. And Reggie Lemelin has hung in over the years, got his chance and worked hard. His coach (Johnson) put confidence in him and he did the job.Q: What&rsquo;s the biggest difference in goaltending since you were a rookie in 1976?EDWARDS: The speed of the shots. The new sticks with aluminum fibreglass and graphite have changed shooting. In the old days they used to torque the puck with their hands. With the new sticks it&rsquo;s more of a whipping action. They&rsquo;re able to hit a lot farther behind the puck. The roughness has also changed. There are more personal cheap shots.Q: Your employer, Harold Ballard, gets picked on by the wiseguys of the media. How do you feel about him?EDWARDS: He treats his players with nothing but class and respect and I speak first-hand. We really enjoy his company because he seems young and has such vitality. When he makes the road trips, he&rsquo;s always encouraging us and takes an interest in every guy. Sometimes he treats his players too good.Q: Who are the best shooters you&rsquo;ve ever faced?EDWARDS: When I first broke in, players like Mickey Redmond, Reg Leach, Lanny McDonald, Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Yvan Coumoyer and Jacques Lemaire. Today, everybody can shoot the puck hard, but some players can use the new sticks to better advantage. I&rsquo;m thinking, in particular, of Doug Wilson and Reed Larson:Q: Were you ever the victim of a prank played by a teammate?EDWARDS: Yeah, it was in Pittsburgh. We were at the hotel waiting for the team bus, which was late. I was standing along the way, minding my business, reading the paper. Unknown to me, one of the guys came over and put a match to the bottom of the page. I was busy reading when, the next thing I know, the players are yelling &ldquo;Hot news! Hot news!&rdquo; I was so busy reading, I didn&rsquo;t know what the heck they were yelling about. All of a sudden I smelled smoke and looked around, wondering where it was coming from. Then, I realized that three quarters of my paper was on fire.Another time, when we lived in Buffalo, my wife was very fond of raising flowers in front of our house. One day Jimmy Schoenfeld showed up and presented my wife with a lovely bouquet of tulips. We thought &lsquo;what a great guy!&rsquo;&mdash;until we realized he picked them from our garden. &#9632;

f0006-01

Brine Back The Rover In 5-Man Hockey

<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2>Calgary Flames are hoping Joey Mullen can provide a surge of power in what has been a mediocre National Hockey League season for them.Mullen, who scored 40 goals and 52 assists for the St. Louis Blues last year, was acquired in a six-player deal on Feb. 2.Accompanying Mullen, a right winger, from St. Louis were defensemen Terry Johnson, 27, and Rick Wilson, 23. Heading to the Blues were oversized left wingers Eddy Beers, 26, and Gino Cavallini, 23, in addition to defenseman Charlie Bourgeois, 26.The Flames arc hoping Mullen, a proven power-play scorer, can revive their extra-man unit, which had gone from third to 17th to 12th in league efficiency ratings.Discussions to acquire the New York native, a finalist in Lady Byng Trophy voting last year, began last August when Mullen&rsquo;s contract negotiations with Blues&rsquo; owner Harry Ornest were at a standstill.Mullen had 28 goals and 24 assists for the Blues in 48 games.&ldquo;We needed a quality scorer and in Mullen we have one,&rdquo; said coach Bob Johnson. &ldquo;He has been a pure scorer throughout his career. He&rsquo;s going to make us a better club.&rdquo;If Steve Yzerman didn&rsquo;t have bad luck, he&rsquo;d have no luck at all.The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; center, who has been suffering through an off-year, has broken his collarbone and will be out a minimum of six weeks.Defenseman Brian Curran is no better off&mdash;the Boston Bruin broke his leg and is expected to be out for two months.Peterborough Petes and Belleville Bulls are gearing up for runs at the Ontario League championship.Both teams acquired a pair of snipers in recent deals.The Petes, tops in the Leyden Division, picked up Graeme Bonar (33 goals in 38 games) from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and John Hanna (79 points in 39 games) from the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s.The Greyhounds received forward Brad Aitken and future considerations in return while the 67&rsquo;s got a fourthround draft choice and improvement on a previous draft choice obtained from the Petes.As for the Bulls, third in the Leyden Division, they acquired two high scorers of their own in Keith Gretzky (5 points in 42 games) from the Windsor Spitfires and Dan Gratton (44 points in 34 games) from Ottawa.Belleville surrendered forward Kent Hulst, a possible first-round choice in the 1986 NHL entry draft, for Gretzky, whose brother Wayne was once a partial owner of the Bulls. The Bulls gave up Frank DiMuzio. another forward, for Gratton.Harry Ornest is not amused.An agreement with St. Louis mayor Vincent Schoemehl that was to facilitate the phasing out of a five percent amusement tax has not come to pass so the Blues&rsquo; owner is back in court.&ldquo;Omest, arguing the tax is selective and unconstitutional, had previously taken the city to court but those proceedings and others initiated by the city were halted by an apparent out-ofcourt settlement.The city&rsquo;s Board of Aiderman, however, wouldn&rsquo;t pass the deal worked out by Schoemehl so the two sides are back to square one according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.Omest is attempting to have the tax repealed and the city is sueing him for back taxes. &#9632;

Joey Mullen Focal Point In Six-Player Deal

<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/f0007-011184/5013156-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="135" height="95"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The all-star break couldn&rsquo;t have come at a better time for the Flyers.Not only did it halt a four-game road trip, but it also put at least a temporary end to a three-game winless streak and scoring drought.And the Flyers were hoping that perhaps Tim Kerr and Brian Propp could find their scoring touch while playing at the All-Star Game in Hartford.They certainly weren&rsquo;t doing it for the Flyers.Kerr and Propp, the Flyers&rsquo; two leading scorers were held without a goal during the entire four-game trip which the team concluded with a 1-1-2 record.It went like this: A 2-1 win at St. Louis, followed by a 2-2 tie in Pittsburgh, an 8-4 loss at Long Island, and finally a 2-2 tie at Quebec.The ties were the first of the season for the Flyers, who had gone almost a full year without a tie, a 78-game regularseason stretch dating back to February of last season.But the biggest concern wasn&rsquo;t the ties in Pittsburgh and Quebec. The real matter of concern unfolded at Long Island, where the Flyers were again drubbed by the Islanders. The loss left them with a 1-4-0 record against the Isles this season&mdash;and the lone win required an overtime goal.Even more alarming, at least against the Flyers, the Islanders looked like the Islanders of not so long ago with 31 goals in five games against the Flyers&mdash;an average of more than six goals per game.And if you want some idea of how out of character that is for the Flyers, consider that their goals-against average against the other 18 clubs (they still hadn&rsquo;t played Buffalo) was a remarkable 2.72.But when you throw in the Isles, it swells to 3.05, still just a shade over the 2.99 team objective, but over it nonetheless. and the Islanders were to blame.In addition, the loss at Long Island followed on the heels of a tie in Pittsburgh, leaving the Flyers with a five-game winless streak (0-4-1) against the Patrick Division, including three losses to the Isles (4-3,7-3,8-4) in a span of less than two weeks.Overall, the Flyers scored only nine goals during the four-game road trip&mdash;none of them by Kerr who had scored just one goal in the past eight games.&ldquo;Obviously, our offense has been sputtering,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan after the tie in Quebec. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why, but Kerr and Propp have been getting their chances on the trip.&rdquo;In other words, Keenan feels that as long as the Flyers&rsquo; big guns get their chances, everything would get back to normal. However, the Flyers&rsquo; power play also sputtered on the trip.The Flyers didn&rsquo;t score a single powerplay goal over the four games, leading to some speculation that teams were now stacking up low against the Flyers, trying to defend against Kerr in the slot, and Pelle Eklund, who sets up in the face-off circles.Thus, the Flyers would likely adjust by trying to use their point men more effectively.NOTES&mdash;Dave Poulin scored his fourth shorthanded goal of the season in the loss at Long Island. It was also the second three-on-five goal of his career, the only Flyer to score more than one in that situation&hellip;Tim Kerr&rsquo;s recent slump had stalled his charge at the record of 28 power-play goals in a season. He was still three short, with 25 at the all-star break&hellip;Goalie Bob Froese got his first start in five games against Quebec&hellip;After going through the better part of three seasons without losing to the Islanders&rsquo; Billy Smith, the Flyers had already lost to him twice this season. &#9632;</div>

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Kerr And Propp Pair Of Floundering Flyers

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011269/5013187-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>The Marathon Mess</h2>ANY TIME during the next couple of months and certainly well before April 9, the day the 1985-86 Stanley Cup playoffs commence, the critics are going to come crawling out of hibernation and take dead aim at the National Hockey League&rsquo;s post-season format.Sixteen of 21 teams making the playoffs is a farce, they will cry out.The 840 games played during the regular season mean absolutely nothing, they will protest.And then we&rsquo;ll all settle in for our annual dose of spring hockey fever that will culminate with a victorious team parading around the ice with the famed Cup.The critics&rsquo; cries will, unfortunately, go unnoticed. Business sense dictates that 16 teams make the playoffs and the NHL obviously doesn&rsquo;t much care about making the regular season significant.And what&rsquo;s really ironic is that the critics are crying the blues for all the wrong reasons.Yes, the Stanley Cup tournament must be altered, but not to make the regular season significant. No, it has to be revamped because the playoff schedule is just too damn demanding.The playoffs begin on April 9 and the latest they could possibly end are May 28. But that doesn&rsquo;t tell the story.Assume that a team advanced through all four playoff series (preliminary round, division final, conference final and Cup final), playing the maximum number of games in each (5, 7, 7 and 7, respectively).That&rsquo;s 26 games. And in what time frame? Why, 50 days, of course.Now, does that make sense? Could any athlete, never mind one who engages in the physically-demanding sport of hockey, prepare himself physically, mentally or emotionally for a schedule that calls for combat every other day for 50 days?Never.The situation is worse this year than ever before because the respective conference playoff series go on separate nights, meaning the old layoff of Thursday to Sunday that popped up occa-sionally last year is gone.And please don&rsquo;t argue that playoff series rarely go the distance. That may be true, but it&rsquo;s no excuse for setting up a system that turns a hockey tournament into a marathon. &#9632;

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The Hockey News

Let your voice be heard! Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2. THN reserves the right to edit all submissions. &#9632;

FAN FORUM

I am writing in defense of a player I believe is greatly underrated and much maligned by hockey watchers around North America&mdash;Chris Nilan of the Montreal Canadiens.In a letter to Fan Forum, Mike Oravets of Riverside, Calif., referred to Nilan as a &ldquo;notorious goon&rdquo; and said he thought Nilan should have been banned for the season over the Middleton affair.I am amazed by this comment coming from a fan who would see Nilan play only once or twice a year. The truth is that Nilan is one of the hardest-working players in the NHL. He is a member of one of the best checking lines, alongside center Guy Carbonneau and left winger Bob Gainey.People have highly-selective memories when it comes to Nilan. They remember that he had a whopping 358 penalties last year but are quick to forget that he scored 20 goals. Name another &ldquo;notorious goon&rdquo; who can do that!The Middleton incident was an isolated event that was not in Nilan&rsquo;s character and Nilan admitted on Hockey Night in Canada that he was not proud of what he had done.I think it&rsquo;s time that fans appreciate Nilan for his role in helping to rebuild the Canadiens. It is his hard-hitting intimidation that has opened up the ice for Mats Naslund, Bobby Smith and the rest of the high-scoring offense. He is a powerful bodychecker, great hustler and a strong deterrent to those who make a habit of throwing cheap shots.James Baxter, Ottawa, ON(Other isolated incidents of note were Chris Nilan throwing a punch at Rick Vaive in a Montreal Forum hallway and a puck at Paul Baxter in the penalty box.)<h2>DESERVE PRAISE</h2>Over the years, any sports celebity who is involved in a poor choice of judgment has been publicly chastised by all branches of the media. Why isn&rsquo;t their kindness also reported with the same amount of media space?Recently Jim Sandlak, Shayne Corson and Sylvain Cote, three Team Canada winners of outstanding-player awards at the World Junior Championships, donated their awards in support of the Fire Fighters Bum Unit Fund of Hamilton. These items will be part of the Fire Fighters&rsquo; first annual sports memorabilia auction on Feb. 23 at Don Cherry&rsquo;s Grapevine.I feel credit should be given where credit is due and these three fine young Canadians deserve a pat on the back for their generosity. Instead, this was not reported and very few people have even heard about it.C. Dennis Airth, Hamilton. ON(Now they have. Thanks.)<h2>JOLTING JAY</h2>With all the super columnists who appear in THN&rsquo;s pages, must we be subjected to the ridiculously-biased work of Jay Greenberg each week?Every column is Flyer-this, Flyer-that, Tim Kerr-this or Mark Howe-that. I think Greenberg submits to THN the same column that he submits to his Philadelphia Daily News. I realize that all of the columnists follow one team or another and understandably lean towards that team, but none of the others come close to Greenberg&rsquo;s non-stop, my-team-is-great spouting. That stuff should be kept in Philadelphia where it might be appreciated.Believe it or not, Jay, Mike Keenan is not the greatest coach ever and Pelle Lindbergh only had one-and-a-half real good years. He had a long way to go to be as great as you portray him.Jay, I suggest you take a hint from other THN columnists&mdash;such as Frank Orr, Steve Simmons and Barry Meisel&mdash;and give us readers a more objective look at the various hockey stories floating around. Let your true writing ability stand out&mdash;not dressed up in orange and white.Doug Robinson, Binghamton, NY(Steve Simmons recently called Barry Meisel the best addition to THN since Jay Greenberg.)<h2>HE&rsquo;S NOT LAUGHING</h2>I wonder if the THN would care to reveal the identity of the author of the &ldquo;humorous&rdquo; little comments which follow every letter to the Fan Forum. Do you think it would be possible to allow this person a comer of a page somewhere else in the magazine and leave Fan Forum to the fans?Bill George, Ashern, MB(No.) &#9632;

‘Knuckles’ Nilan Gets A Hand From Supporter

BOSTON&mdash;Bill Derlago, C, traded to Winnipeg for Wade Campbell, D. Michael Thelven, D, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Brian Curran, D, broken leg, Gord Kluzak, D, shoulder injury, Louis Sleigher, RW, reinjured groin, Frank Simonetti, D, shoulder surgery. Kluzak out indefinitely, Sleigher day-to-day, Simonetti, three more weeks, Curran for two months.BUFFALO&mdash;Larry Playfair, D, and Sean McKenna, RW, traded to Los Angeles for Brian Engblom, D, and Doug Smith, C. Kings also received NHL rights to Ken Baumgartner, D, with Prince Albert of WHL. Richie Dunn, D, and Mai Davis, RW, recalled from Rochester of AHL. Hannu Virta, D, sidelined on day-to-day basis with-knee injury. Chris Langevin, RW, out indefinitely with knee problem.CALGARY&mdash;Ed Beers, LW, Ginco Cavallini, LW, and Charlie Bourgeois, D, traded to St. Louis for Joe Mullen, RW, Rik Wilson, D, and Terry Johnson, D. Mike Vernon, G, recalled from Moncton of AHL. Yves Courteau, LW, returned to Moncton. Steve Bozek, LW, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Marc D&rsquo;Amour, G, groin injury, Ed Beers, LW, groin injury, Paul Reinhart, D, recurring back in-fcury. D&rsquo;Amour out indefinitely, others on day-to-basis.CHICAGO&mdash;Curt Fraser, LW, and Darryl Sutter, LW, both returned from injuries.DETROIT&mdash;Corrado Micalef, G, recalled from Adirondack of AHL. Adam Oates, C, and Steve Richmond, D, returned to Adirondack. John Ogrodnick, LW, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Steve Yzerman, RW, broken collarbone, Eddie Mio, G, groin injury, Petr Klima, LW, hip injury, Harold Snepsts, D, knee injury, Danny Gare, RW, sprained ankle, Dwight Foster, C, knee injury, Gerard Gallant, LW, broken jaw, Bill Carroll, C, broken toe, Greg Stefan, G, back injury. Mio, Klima and Snepsts out on day-to-day basis, Gare, Foster and Gallant, one more week, Carroll two, Yzerman six and Stefan indefinitely.EDMONTON&mdash;Mike Rogers, C, assigned to Nova Scotia of AHL. Both Craig MacTavish, C, shoulder injury, and Jeff Brubaker, LW, sprained Bakle, out on day-to-day basis.&ldquo;HARTFORD&mdash;Kevin Dineen, RW, returned from injury list. Ron Francis, C, sidelined seven more weeks with broken ankle.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Len Hachborn, C, assigned to New Haven of AHL. INJURED&mdash;Jim Fox, RW, bruised hip, Dave Williams, LW, shoulder injury, Roland Melanson, G, groin injury, Garry Galley, D, knee injury. Fox and Williams out on day-to-day basis, Melanson two more weeks. Galley indefinitely.MINNESOTA&mdash;Marc Habscheid, C, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Emanuel Viveiros, D, brought up from Prince Albert of WHL. Craig Levie, D, returned to Springfield. Craig Hartsburg, D, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Curt Giles, D, sprained knee, Ed Hospodar, D, strained back, Tony McKegney, LW, shoulder injury, Willi Plett, RW, dislocated shoulder, Tom Hirsch, D, shoulder Surgery. Giles, Hospodar and McKegney out one shore week, Plett two and Hirsch indefinitely.MONTREAL&mdash;Kent Carlson, D, traded to St. Louis for Blues&rsquo; 5th-round draft pick in 1986 and NHL rights to Graham Herring, D, with Peoria of IHL. John Kordic, D, returned to Sherbrooke of AHL. INJURED&mdash;Chris Chelios, D, reinjured sprained knee, Mike McPhee, LW, ankle injury, Rick Green, D, broken thumb. Chelios and McPhee out on day-to-day basis, Green indefinitely.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Bob Lorimer, D, returned from injury list.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Pat LaFontaine, C, suffered shoulder injury, and Bob Nystrom, RW, underwent eye surgery. Both out indefinitely.NY RANGERS&mdash;Kelly Miller, LW, sprained knee, H^n Erixon, LW, fractured tibia, George McPhee, LW, hip-pointer, Barry Beck, D, muscle bruise and spasms, are all sidelined. Miller is out for two more weeks, Erixon four and Beck and McPhee indefinitely.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Don Nachbaur, C, returned to Hershey of AHL. Kevin McCarthy, D, recalled from Hershey on emergency basis. Dave Richter, D, out on day-to-day basis with sprained knee.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Troy Loney, LW, recalled from Baltimore of AHL. Jim McGeough, RW, and Randy Hillier, D, back from injury list, sent to Baltimore. Sidelined on day-to-day basis are Willy Lindstrom, LW, bruised shoulder, and Ted Nolan, LW, back injury.QUEBEC&mdash;Claude Julien, D, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. Jean-Marc Gaulin, RW, returned to Fredericton. Pat Price, D, and John Anderson, LW, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Julien, broken nose, Anton Stastny, LW, broken ribs, Robert Picard, D, concussion, Dave Shaw, D, Charley horse, and Gilbert Delorme, D, bruised knee. Shaw and Delorme sidelined on day-to-day basis, Julien, Picard one to two weeks, Stastny indefinitely.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Denis Cyr, LW. assigned to Peoria of IHL. Brian Sutter, LW, sidelined indefinitely with broken shoulder.TORONTO&mdash;Walt Poddubny, C, Gary McAdam. RW, and Allan Bester, G, recalled from St. Catharines of AHL. Ken Wregget. G. back from injury list, Todd Gill, D, Dan Hodgson, C, Gary Leeman, RW, all sent to St. Catharines. Brad Maxwell, D, returned from injury list. Tim Bernhardt, G, sidelined with back problem.VANCOUVER&mdash;John Garrett, G, returned to Fredericton of AHL. Glen Cochrane, D, back from injury list. Steve Tambellini, C, knee injury, and Jiri Bubla. D, sprained knee, both out. Tambellini for one week, Bubla indefinitely.WASHINGTON&mdash;Bob Mason, G, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Pete Peeters, G, suffered pulled stomach muscle, and Jorgen Pettersson, LW, bruised a knee. Both are out on day-to-day basis.WINNIPEG&mdash;Marc Behrend, G, Bobby Dollas, D, and Murray Eaves. C, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL. Anssi Melametsa, LW, Dave Silk, RW, and Ron Wilson. C. assigned to Sherbrooke. Mark Holden, G, recalled from Fort Wayne of IHL and reassigned to Sherbrooke. Andrew McBain, RW, side-lined indefinitely with knee injury. &#9632;

TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011250/5013266-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="170" height="106"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Marcel Dionne was on a roll. So were linemates Dave Taylor and Joe Paterson.The problem, one that has plagued the Los Angeles Kings for years, is that once again the big line was being counted on to provide nearly all of the club&rsquo;s offense.The new Triple Crown Line was as effective as ever, accounting for 22 of the Kings&rsquo; 54 goals during one stretch, but there was everybody else?The second unit of Tiger Williams, Bernie Nicholls and Jim Fox, for example, was in the midst of an offensive slump.Nicholls, who until Dionne&rsquo;s hot streak had led the team in scoring all season, had two goals in nine games. Williams, who missed five games with a badly bruised shoulder, was in a seven game goal-less drought; and Fox, who missed 27 games with a lower back injury, was picking up an occasional assist, but had one goal in 10 games since returning to the lineup.&ldquo;In the past, this team has had one line doing all the work,&rdquo; Nicholls said, though a year ago the Kings had received balanced scoring. &ldquo;Maybe everybody waits for them to get a couple of goals a game.&ldquo;If my line gets a goal, it&rsquo;s a bonus because we know Marcel&rsquo;s will score.&rdquo;Nicholls, second to Dionne in scoring with 22 goals and 57 points in 48 games, figured it was merely a matter of time before he and his sidekicks started filling the net again.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;ve had a lot of tough luck, but at least we&rsquo;re starting to get more opportunities again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re not getting the opportunities, that&rsquo;s when you worry. But when you get chances, you know that sooner or later they&rsquo;re going to go in.&rdquo;Dionne, meantime, was on fire after getting off to another of his slow starts.He was on a nine-game point-scoring streak in which he produced 10 goals and 23 points, giving him 27 and 61, respectively, for the year.Taylor scored a goal in seven straight games before being held without a shot on net in a 6-3 loss in Calgary while Paterson had contributed three goals and 13 points in 10 games.&ldquo;Our line has to be tough. We have to provide some leadership,&rdquo; Dionne said after closing within 16 assists of second-place Stan Mikita (926) on the all-time list and within 24 points of second-place Phil Esposito (1,590) in that category. &ldquo;On a team that&rsquo;s struggling, that picks up everybody.&rdquo;Dionne, who last year at 33 said he felt like Dick Clark, was this season at 34 feeling&mdash;and playing&mdash;like a 20-year-old.Despite a three-game losing streak at the end of January&mdash;the first slide in over a month&mdash;the Kings headed into the final 32 games tied with Vancouver for third place in the Smythe Division, one point ahead of last-place Winnipeg.A little more balanced scoring might help keep them there.KINGS&rsquo; NOTES&mdash;Rollie Melanson was expected to miss a minimum of two weeks with what team physician Dr. Steve Lombardo called a &ldquo;chronic groin rain.&rdquo; The 25-year-old goalie was Undergoing intensive treatments twice a day&hellip;Right winger Jim Fox, who had missed 27 games with a lower back injury, scored his first goal since coming back in a 4-3 loss to St. Louis on Jan. 23, giving him four on the season. He had a hat trick Oct. 12 against the Islander-s&hellip;The Kings went through a 10-game stretch in which they allowed at least one power-play goal, a six-game stretch where they allowed a total of I2&hellip;A 6-3 doss in Calgary Jan. 27 extended the ings&rsquo; losing streak with the Flames to eight games and their winless streak to nine (0-8-1) since winning on Dec. 18, 1984. &#9632;

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Triple Crown Line Is Key King-Maker Again

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011308/5013321-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="338" height="463"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>ANYTIME NOW, John Ziegler will be at my door with my plaque. I know he&rsquo;s coming and I&rsquo;m trying not to be offended by the oversight. I wait patiently because I deserve to be recognized.I covered my 1.000th NHL game this year. Or maybe it was sometime last year. I wish I could tell you exactly which one it was, and really done it up right with Detroit vs. Toronto, but alas. I lost count.However, I need no confirmation from Benny Ercolani, the National Hockey League stats man. This is my 11 th year inscribing the daily feats of the Philadelphia Flyers and my 12th covering the NHL. So figure 80 games for 12 years, plus roughly 25 playoff games a season.What a treasury of memories. There was the night I saw Jack Mcllhargey score on a breakaway. The night Bob Kelly went offside on a two-on-zero. How many others were there to witness Mark Suzor&rsquo;s NHL debut?I paid the price. My reward has been to witness most of the great moments the sport has produced since the 1974-75 season. Indulge me as I rank my 10 most memorable games.If you don&rsquo;t like them, go get your own decade.1) Canada 3, USSR 2: Semi-finals of the 1984 Canada Cup in Calgary. No. 1 because I don&rsquo;t think there have ever been two more talented teams expending themselves any harder against a great background plot to win one game.Canada, the maligned underdog, a loser earlier in the tournament to both Sweden and the supposedly unbeatable Soviets, came from behind to win on Mike Bossy&rsquo;s goal in overtime. Nationalism and sport are sometimes unsavory bedfellows, but this was an occasion when they were a poignant mix. I 11 never forget the absolute joy and exhaustion of that Canada dressing room. And I defy anyone to name a date when this game has ever been played on a higher level.2) Philadelphia 4, Soviet Red Army 1: Jan. 11, 1976. The closest thing to an Armegeddon until someone drops The Big One. Certainly there have been more competitive games with more compelling ebb and flow. The score that day was misleading. This was a total rout.But you have to remember just what was deemed to be at stake at the time. This was three years before the inevitable&mdash;the Soviet rout of the NHL all-stars at the Challenge Cup&mdash;and our best had never lost to their best. The Canadiens had managed no better than a tie against these guys 12 days before. If the Soviets had won at the Spectrum, next they were coming after our daughters.3) Montreal 3, Soviet Red Army 3: Dec. 31, 1975: I missed this one, but I&rsquo;ll take everybody&rsquo;s word for it. The only reason I would rank the Flyer-Red Army game over this one is that there was a winner and a loser. Drama is a consideration here.4) Montreal 5, Boston 4: Seventh game of the 1979 semifinals. The too-many-men-on-the-ice game. Even if it wasn&rsquo;t played in the finals, this one will forever be as much a part of Stanley Cup lore as the Mud Bruneteau, Bill Barilko and Lester Patrick epics.An excellent Bruin team, doomed to be a bridesmaid to one of the best Montreal clubs ever put together, had lost to the Canadiens the last two years in the finals. This time, when Don Marcotte scored with 3:59 left, the Bruins finally had &lsquo;em. They were 1:14 away and trying to kill the tragic penalty when Guy Lafleur, who had set up the two earlier third-period goals, went the length of the ice to drill in a 35-footer. It was a case of Lafleur, the best player in the game, refusing to allow his team to surrender a championship.5) New York Islanders 3, New York Rangers 2: Fifth and deciding game of 1984 first-round series. I he Rangers, eliming ated by the four-time champions twice in two previous years&rdquo; pushed this one to the limit. Don Maloney batted a rebound out of the air in the final minute to tie it. but the Islanders wouldn&rsquo;t accept the fact that they had run out of luck and won it on Ken Morrow&rsquo;s goal in overtime.6) New York Islanders 5, Philadelphia 4: Sixth game of the 1980 finals. It was not classically played, and was marred by an offside goal early in the game. But there hasn&rsquo;t been a sevengame final since 1973, and Bob Nystrom&rsquo;s overtime goal served as the most dramatic finish to a season in two decades. The Flyers, running out of bodies and gas, had nonetheless rallied foi| two third-period goals to force the OT.7) Czechoslovakia 1, Canada 0: Canada Cup, 1976. My personal dark horse. A great goaltending duel between veteran Vladimir Dzurilla and Rogie Vachon, won on a third-period goal by Milan Novy. Canada came back to beat the Czechs two straight in the finals, finishing them off with Darryl Sittier&rsquo;s overtime goal. but neither of the games was as flawlessly played as this one.8) New York Islanders 2, Edmonton 0: First game of the 1983 finals. &ldquo;The best game we ever lost,&rdquo; Wayne Gretzky called it. The Isles, who were to go on to a four-game sweep, nursed a 1-0 lead for 54 minutes before hitting the empty net.j Billy Smith was brilliant throughout and Denis Potvin robbed Gretzky in the final 30 seconds.9) Edmonton 1, New York Islanders 0: First game of the 1984 finals. Tit for tat, one year later. Nobody thought the Oilers could win a low-scoring game under pressure but Grant Fuhr was spectacular and Kevin McClelland&rsquo;s goal in the final period was enough. Edmonton went on to detrhone the Islanders in five games.10) Philadelphia 5, Boston 2: December 22, 1979. The 29th straight game without a loss that broke Montreal&rsquo;s NHL record. The Flyers had to do it on the road against a good Boston team. They shook off two flukey Bruin goals that cut the lead to 3-2 in the second period, and won it convincingly on the way to 35 straight. &#9632;

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1,000 Games Later, The 10 Best Of His Time

<div class="byline">BY MICHAEL A. BERGER</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021009/5013352-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="113" height="114"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Two of the New York Rangers&rsquo; best players have found themselves out of step on a team that desperately needs them leading the parade.Mark Pavelich, who has averaged nearly a point per game during his National Hockey League career, and Tomas Sandstrom, a member of the allrookie squad last year, were not happy as the Rangers headed into the all-star break.Pavelich, for instance, was beginning to feel like a square peg being jammed into a round hole.Clearly, he was not comfortable within the confines of coach Ted Sator&rsquo;s system&mdash;one which demands straight-ahead puck movement and almost methodical dump-and-chase play at the opposing blue line. There is, often, a distinct lack of creativity within the offensive zone.Pavelich, who had 18 goals and 18 assists after 47 games, spoke up after the sliding Rangers lost 5-3 to the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 31.&ldquo;It does no good for me to bang the puck around the boards,&rdquo; said Pavelich, a game competitor, but one who knows his weaknesses. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t remember the last time I made a decent pass cutting through the blue line. Sometimes I have to go back to what I do; it&rsquo;s the only way I&rsquo;ll be successful.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d quit now. I&rsquo;ll stick out the rest of the season. But I don&rsquo;t know what I&rsquo;ll do after the season. I could go home.&rdquo;Pavelich, in his fifth year with the Rangers, is 27 years old.As for Sandstrom, the young winger was reportedly in tears after receiving his latest 10-game evaluation from the coaching staff.Though he had produced roughly the same numbers as last year (16 goals and 18 assists in 47 games this season), Sandstrom finds himself more physically harassed by the opposition than last year and under more pressure, also, from the coaching staff.The irony is that Sandstrom gives the Rangers just what Sator wants&mdash;a physical presence up front, a forward with impressive talents who&rsquo;s unafraid to get his nose dirty.The difficulties of Pavelich and Sandstrom raise questions about the flexibility of Sator and his staff plus their ability to integrate into their system players with diverse talents.Sator pledged, at the beginning of his Ranger tenure this season, to evaluate the available talent and then create a system that best exploited that talent.That has not come to pass to the satisfaction of some.In fairness to Sator, it must be noted that Bob Brooke, Mark Osborne and Willie Huber have all benefited from the change in the Rangers&rsquo; coaching regime, with their consistent play as evidence.Mike Ridley, a rookie whose name isn&rsquo;t Lemieux or Gretzky, has also been a revelation and after 51 games had 15 goals and 40 points to lead the team in scoring.NOTES&mdash;The Rangers, 23-24-41 were two points behind Pittsburgh, 2324-6, in the race for the final Patrick Division playoff position but had played two less games&hellip;Goalie John Vanbies-brouck continued to lead the NHL in wins among goaltenders with 22. Tom Barrasso of Buffalo, Rejean Lemelin of Calgary and Andy Moog of Edmonton were all tied for second at 20. &#9632;</div>

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Pavelich Struggling Under Sator’s System

<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/f0011-011196/5013383-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="112" height="114"></div>BOSTON&mdash;&rdquo;All my life.&rdquo; said Randy Burridge, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s been against me. Everybody says. &lsquo;Oh, you ain&rsquo;t gonna make it because of your size.&rsquo;&ldquo;I like to use that to my advantage. It makes me work harder. I like to go out there and prove people wrong. I feel that I work harder than other players because of my size.&rdquo;Since the 19-year-old Burridge, who stands only 5-foot-9 sans skates, was brought up by the Bruins Nov. 15 for a five-game tryout, he has worked hard to prove that size doesn&rsquo;t really count, not even in the NHL.Now 20 years old, as of Jan. 6, Burridge had 12 goals in 33 games, playing on a solid Bruin third line with center Steve Kasper and right winger Nevin Markwart.He has even been compared as a player to Boston coach Butch Goring&mdash;some-mes by Goring himself.&ldquo;He plays with the same intensity I did,&rdquo; said Goring, whose intensity kept him in the league for 16 years. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s aggressive and works hard. I think he realizes if he doesn&rsquo;t he won&rsquo;t make it. We&rsquo;re similar in that respect.&rdquo;Burridge was drafted by the Bruins in the eighth round (157th overall) of the 1985 draft after he scored 49 goals and 57 assists in 66 games for the Peterborough Petes.&ldquo;I know what he&rsquo;s going through.&rdquo; said Goring, who was only 5-foot-9 him-self when he was the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; fourth choice in the 1969 draft.&ldquo;I was drafted late because they said I couldn&rsquo;t last, that I couldn&rsquo;t take the pounding in the NHL. I always had enough confidence and a big enough ego to overcome that,&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the cliche? The big guy has to prove he can&rsquo;t play. The little guy has to prove he can. But let&rsquo;s face it, that&rsquo;s the way it will always be.&rdquo;&ldquo;Teams shied away from him in the draft because of his size,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden. &ldquo;In fact, he wasn&rsquo;t even rated by the Central Scouting service.&rdquo;Burridge made a token appearance in the Bruins&rsquo; training camp and turned it into something a little more.&ldquo;I knew my size was against me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;but I knew if I worked hard I could impress somebody. I was hoping to score a few goals in the first rookie scrimmage and I did. That gave me the confidence I needed when the veterans came in.&rdquo;He lasted two weeks in training camp, longer than most 157th draft picks, before he was sent back to Peterborough. He returned to Boston in mid-November when injuries took their toll.He was spotted in 6-foot-3 Charlie Simmer&rsquo;s place on left wing with Keith Crowder and Ken Linseman and Crowder noticed the difference right away.&ldquo;The difference is I have to look behind guys to find him and all I had to do to find Charlie was look up,&rdquo; said Crowder.Burridge scored his first NHL goal against Philadelphia&mdash;the game-tying marker at 16:43 of the third period in an eventual 5-4 victory&mdash;in the fourth game of his five-game tryout. He was signed to a pro contract four days later.Already he has become a favorite of the Boston Garden fans for hjs enthusiasm. particularly for what has come to be called &ldquo;the stump pump&rdquo;.He&rsquo;s known to his teammates as &ldquo;the stump&rdquo; because of his size. When he scores a goal, he revolves his arm in a windmill motion, then pumps his fist up and down. Ergo, &ldquo;the stump pump.&rdquo;&ldquo;Everybody likes to make the NHL as their first goal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then after that you&rsquo;d like to make a mark in the NHL. That&rsquo;s what I hope to do one of these days.&rdquo;One player who didn&rsquo;t make much of a mark on the Bruins was fourth-line center Bill Derlago, 27, who was traded Jan. 30 to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for defenseman Wade Campbell.Derlago, acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs for center Tom Fergus at season&rsquo;s start, scored just five goals and 16 assists in 40 games of limited ice time for the Bruins.Campbell, 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, had been sent down to the Sherbrooke Canadiens of the American League at the time of the trade. The 25-year-old had one assist in 25 games this season.WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;Rick Middleton scored the 400th goal of his 12-year NHL career, then his 401 st and 402nd in a 6-3 rout of the Detroit Red Wings on the eve of football&rsquo;s Super Bowl. &ldquo;That made it a perfect night&mdash;a win. the hat trick and the 400th goal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It couldn&rsquo;t be any better. Now if the Patriots win tomorrow it will be a great weekend.&rdquo; It wasn&rsquo;t. One victim of Middleton&rsquo;s big game was his old teammate Brad Park, now coach of the Red Wings. Park was on the ice when Middleton scored his first NHL goal as a New York Ranger back in 1972. Park shrugged off goal No. 400. &ldquo;It was the 401st and 402nd that really bothered me,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;</div>

f0011-01

Burridge Small But Proving He Belongs

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02913/5013414-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="117" height="111"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Pee-Wee&rsquo;s Big Adventure is going to turn out all right.Ray Ferraro, &ldquo;Pee-Wee&rdquo; to his Hartford Whaler teammates, wasn&rsquo;t bom a star. The Trail. B.C. natives know the feeling. Not drafted until the fifth round. 88th overall, in 1982, Ferraro went on to become a junior scoring sensation only to find himself the next fall in Binghamton.&ldquo;Too small, too slow, not tough enough&rdquo; read the fine print on Ferraro&rsquo;s scouting report.Sure, not every prospect scores 108 goals and 192 points in 72 games for the Brandon Wheat Kings&mdash;included in Ferraro&rsquo;s Walter Mitty-like total were 15 hat tricks, 43 power-play goals and one seven-goal game&mdash;but the Western League has never been confused with the bigs. Doing it there is one thing. Doing it here is another.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had to prove myself,&rdquo; Ferraro says. &ldquo;That comes with the territory.&rdquo;Last year the Whalers didn&rsquo;t know what to do with Ferraro. He began in Binghamton and was recalled the first time Dec. 18. After four games, including a memorable 1-3-4 night at the Montreal Forum (his first NHL goal). Ferraro was sent back down. Up he came again one week later, this time for a nine-game stint, and down he went again in January.Yo-yos led more stable lives.Finally, in early February, Ferraro was recalled to stay. He was the only NHL rookie to record two hat tricks and finished with 11 goals and 28 points in 44 games. But the hat tricks and 20 of those points came in the final 19 games, after Ferraro was made to feel part of the team, so good things were expected of him this year.Good things, yes. But not this.Pressed into a more prominent role from the outset because of the trading of Mark Johnson and an even more critical role due to Ronnie Francis&rsquo; injury, Ferraro has responded like an authentic prime-time player.In the five games following Francis&rsquo; ankle injury that will keep the Whalers captain and leading scorer sidelined until at least March I Ferraro scored in each one, with five goals and six assists. That extended his personal streak to 15 goals and eight assists in 16 games. On the year. Ferraro showed 21 goals and 45 points through 45 games. Over the final 12 games of last season, he had eight goalsand 16 points, so that&rsquo;s 29-32-62 in 57 games, a substantial run of success.But there have been peaks and valleys.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll admit that I&rsquo;ve gotten down when things weren&rsquo;t going well,&rdquo; Ferraro said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard not to. You want it so bad.&rdquo;Ferraro, 21, is an emotional sort who openly cares about many aspects of the game, even its history. Stories from days gone by intrigue him. His heroes range from Jim Rice to Harry Neale, and he freely admits that his life-long dream is to say something that will appear in Sports Illustrated&rsquo;s &ldquo;They Said It.&rdquo; He knows all sorts of notes and quotes. What he didn&rsquo;t know is if he belonged.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t thinking about being the next Mark Johnson or anything like that,&rdquo; Ferraro says. &ldquo;I was thinking most about making the team.&rdquo;Ferraro was like a kid at camp. For awhile, things were blissful, but then the mattress grew lumpy, the food started tasting bad and friends stopped including him in all the fun. Basically, Ferraro was unsure if he could cut it.Listed at a generous 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, he was not the only doubter. Given time and room, he could be a dazzler, what with those lightning-quick hands of his and sound instincts. Ferraro still needs time&mdash;who this side of Bossy doesn&rsquo;t?&mdash;but he&rsquo;s found a way to create space.&ldquo;It has a lot to do with the players you play with,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With Sly (Turgeon), the defenses have to respect his speed and that opens things up a bit.&rdquo;Ferraro is proving to be a load himself. He is extremely clever with the puck and sees all of the ice. He has continued to work hard defensively, silencing detractors in that area, while starring on the power play. He credits Paul Gardner, a former Binghamton teammate, for helping him develop an uncanny knack for deflecting the puck on net.&ldquo;You hold the stick a little higher than you think,&rdquo; he said.Ferraro&rsquo;s sense of self-worth has grown stronger as he&rsquo;s tasted the appetizers of NHL success. More success will produce more strength for Ferraro, who will be married this summer, thereby putting his camp days behind him forever.For awhile, the adventure was winning. Now Pee-Wee&rsquo;s calling the shots.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Kevin Dineen returned from a seven-game absence, due to a broken knuckle injured in a fight with Chicago&rsquo;s Behn Wilson, in style. Dineen scored two goals, upping his total to 18 in 33 games, in an overtime loss to Boston. He returned a week earlier than expected. &#9632;</div>

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Fired-Up Ferraro Burns Opponents

<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/f0012-011281/5013445-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="112" height="98"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Defenseman Doug Bodger is beginning to display some of the offensive abilities that prompted Pittsburgh Penguins to choose him ninth overall in the 1984 National Hockey League entry draft.Bodger had seasons of 92 (26 goals) and 98 points (21 goals) while playing for Kamloops in the Western League. He was named to the second all-star team his first season and the first his second season, when the Oilers played in the Memorial Cup.But Bodger registered only five goals and 26 assists as an 18-year-old during his rookie season.&ldquo;Last year I was uptight and nervous,&rdquo; admitted Bodger. &ldquo;The season wasn&rsquo;t as great as it could have been, but I was happy with it. The team needed defense, and I knew if I wanted to, I could play here. For an 18-year-old to come into this league, I think is too young, even now. But they wanted me to play here on defense, so I had a lot of ice time.&ldquo;I learned a lot. I think I handled it in a good way, but I still think it&rsquo;s too young. It&rsquo;s so much responsibility.&rdquo;It took Bodger until the 25th game of this season to score a goal. But after 49 goals he had four goals and 22 assists and was plus-seven.&ldquo;I was trying too hard to pick the corners and trying too hard to pick my spots instead of just hitting the net,&rdquo; said Bodger. &ldquo;I know I had two great seasons in junior hockey, but it&rsquo;s a little tougher up here. Goalies are a little tougher. Everybody&rsquo;s a little tougher up here and you don&rsquo;t get as many chances.&rdquo;The 6-foot-2, 199-pound Bodger says it was quite an adjustment coming to his first professional training camp.&ldquo;I came to camp and they said, &lsquo;You guys find a place to live,&rdquo; he recalled. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in Pittsburgh, I came from a really small town in Canada. Where do I go? What do I do? I don&rsquo;t have a car.&rdquo;Penguin coach Bob Berry thinks Bodger adjusted well.&ldquo;I thought he played very well last year.&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to remember that for a young kid coming in he was put in a lot of pressure-type situations&mdash;penalty killing, the power play&mdash;and I think because of that he developed pretty well.&rdquo;The Chemanius, B.C., native credits Penguin defenseman Moe Mantha with helping him adjust to life in the NHL.&ldquo;When I came here Moe came up to me and said, &lsquo;If you want to live with me, I&rsquo;ve got an extra room.&rsquo; So I lived with him and his wife, and they were great to me. They helped me a lot. Everytime I was down or depressed, Moe would say, &lsquo;Come on, quit moping around. Pick it up.&rsquo; So I sort of followed his lead. He has five years in the league, and I look up to him now.&rdquo;Bodger said one of the major adjustments he had to make was concentrating on defense on a team that gave up the second highest number of goals in the league last season.&ldquo;I was worried about making the play and getting caught,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was very hesitant. I just thought about staying home, trying to do my job and get the puck out of our end. It was in our end a lot last year.&rdquo;Bodger&rsquo;s confidence has grown with his improved play.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been getting a lot of ice time and I feel really confident out there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1&rsquo;ve got my confdence back I&rsquo;m not as nervous as I was last year. Last year when I was struggling a lot, I was on for a lot of goals against, and the play was in the end a lot. I wasn&rsquo;t making good plays. I was making bad passes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m making the good plays. Last year I didn&rsquo;t really want to play the power play, but this year I feel more relaxed. In junior, my biggest asset was the power play, my shot from the point. And now that the team is doing a lot better, I&rsquo;ve had a little more chance to concentrate on offense. That&rsquo;s been my big game all through the years.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0012-01

Bodger Relaxed, Refreshed With Pittsburgh

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021075/5013476-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="402" height="446"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Strachan</figcaption></div>LAST SUMMER, with the appropriate pomp and fanfare, the National Hockey League decided that it would allocate half a million bucks to study officiating.The league wasn&rsquo;t saying that the officiating needed improvement, stressed NHL president John Ziegler, just that the integrity of the league was so important that a review of officiating procedures couldn&rsquo;t do any harm.This led some observers to study the officiating more closely than usual and that examination of the season so far shows only what impartial observers knew all along. The officiating isn&rsquo;t perfect but neither is the playing, the coaching or the managing. And with all due apologies to Ziegler&rsquo;s executive-suite buddies, the governing hasn&rsquo;t been so hot either.The officiating is, however, at least as good as the playing, coaching and managing and probably considerably better than the governing.So far, the only positive development to show for the half-million bucks has been a study of instant-replay systems. The premise is that for one reason or another, an official often can&rsquo;t see whether a puck has crossed the goal line and therefore an instant replay system can at least keep the score right.It&rsquo;s a good idea. Hockey people like it. Journalists like it. Fans think they&rsquo;ll like it. And in the midst of all this happiness, the fact that it won&rsquo;t work shouldn&rsquo;t deter anybody from spending the $500,000. Professionals in the electronics field say that you&rsquo;ll need a super-fast film and that if a player or his equipment gets in the way, the instant-replay system won&rsquo;t help.The instant-replay system the NHL is considering will run at 24 frames a second, just like TV replays. To have a chance to plot the puck at all times, you need about 3,000 frames a second.You may have seen that controversial goal in Madison Square Garden early in the season when the New York Rangers&rsquo; Bob Brooke scored against the Toronto Maple Leafs on a shot that appeared to go off the crossbar. The more times you see the standard replay of that shot, the more convinced you&rsquo;ll be that the puck hit the crossbar. But on the super slow-motion replay, the puck disappears for a few frames. Where was it?As Sherlock Holmes used to say, &ldquo;If you rule out the impossible, then the remaining alternative, no matter how improbable, must be the case.&rdquo; The puck wasn&rsquo;t striking the crossbar. It hadn&rsquo;t dematerialized. So it must have been in the net.But there are more important considerations than a goal or two. If someone was spending half a million bucks to examine the way you do your job, don&rsquo;t you think you just might get demoralized? The NHL&rsquo;s officials are too professional to come out and say so for public consumption, but I would doubt that they are thrilled by this study.There are critics&mdash;some of whom write for this journal&mdash;who would say, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s tough. Maybe it will make them shape up.&rdquo; But the other side of the coin is that maybe it will drive them out of the game. And it&rsquo;s my contention that if you force out the officials who are in the NHL at the moment, the game is going to be in serious trouble.These men do a good job. I don&rsquo;t just sit in New York and watch my favorite team play home games and judge officials by that. First of all, I don&rsquo;t have a favorite team. Secondly, I travel all over two countries watching every team in the league. And although any given official can have a bad night, the level of officiating is still consistently higher than it is in basketball&mdash;the only other major sport that approaches hockey for requiring decisions of discretion.Hockey is also better officiated than football, a game which is much slower than hockey, and on a par with baseball, a much easier game to officiate because most decisions are black and white&mdash;the runner was safe or out; the pitch was in the strike zone or out of it.The only thing a major change in the structure of NHL officiating will produce is a reduction in the referee&rsquo;s discretion. Some people think that would be good. For instance, they say that a penalty called in the first period should also be called in overtime. Apparently they don&rsquo;t see a difference between a penalty called early to establish the tenor of the game and a penalty that could mean the difference between a win and a loss.But if the referees are forced to limit their discretional decisions, the game will almost certainly get worse from a fan&rsquo;s point of view. Look at what has happened this season.After a rash of stick injuries, an outcry arose for referees to call five-minutes majors if blood is drawn. Some officials had been saying that if the cut was accidental, there should be no penalty. This seemed reasonable. Most of the serious injuries were the result of low sticks and spinning bodies.But because of the outcry, the referee can now be expected to call a major penalty if a player is cut with a stick, even if the offence was accidental.Is this really what the NHL wants from its referees? An accidental cut administered by a player who kept his stick below the legal limit gets him a five-minute penalty? Should he get the penalty if he strikes a player in the face accidentally but didn&rsquo;t cut him only because the player in question was wearing a facemask?What next? Does every player who shoots the puck into the seats get a delay-of-game penalty because the referee isn&rsquo;t allowed to decide whether he did it on purpose or accidentally? The whole thing is getting silly. If the league can find an instant-replay system that truly works, fine. If not, forget the whole thing and spend the money on something worthwhile. Like public relations, for instance. &#9632;

f0012-02

Refs Doing Far Better Jobs Than They’re Credited With

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011206/5013507-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Lowe as Dean Youngblood, right, stands up to the villainous Racki, who is played by former Ontario League player George Finn.</figcaption></div>Films with hockey as a central theme come along ever so rarely.And after viewing Youngblood, the first temptation is to say, &lsquo;Thank the hockey heavens&rsquo; for that circumstance&hellip;because director Peter Markle&rsquo;s effort is more a triumph of style over substance than a reflection of junior hockey in Canada.An accomplished player himself, Markle plays a Little fast and loose with details, perhaps in a manner Similar to his own skating-emphasized style with the United States national team more than a decade ago.The background to the plotline is, admittedly, rooted in fact but most of those facts&mdash;right down to the goalie masks&mdash;are rooted in the past and combine to present an image altogether outdated.Junior hockey is no longer the &ldquo;rock-em, sock-em&rdquo; world Markle portrays in his story of New Yorker Dean Youngblood (Rob Lowe) coming to the crossroads of his hockey career with the Hamilton Mustangs.There hasn&rsquo;t been that much mayhem on ice since Slapshot, a movie, ironically enough, which MarkPie says he deliberately tried not to emulate.The exaggerated brawling, a form of poetic license, lessens the credibility of Markle&rsquo;s principle theme&mdash;Youngblood&rsquo;s &ldquo;coming of age&rdquo;.It becomes a commercial cop-out (and. of course, a knock-out) to lean on fighting as the means of settling a personal crisis for Youngblood, who must decide whether or not to continue playing for the Mustangs after his best friend&rsquo;s (Patrick Swayze) promising career is ended by the villainous Racki (former junior hockey player George Finn).Youngblood, a virtuous sort with marvelous puck and skating skills, is at first out of step with the rugged goings-on in the imaginary Ontario Hockey League.Eventually, however, he adapts after a Rocky-type training sequence that includes his father&mdash;former NHLer Eric Nesterenko&mdash;saying, &ldquo;You can learn to punch in the barn but you got to learn to survive on the ice.&rdquo;He might have been better off quoting Mike Bossy&mdash;closer to to the Youngblood character than Nesterenko ever was&mdash;who once said: &ldquo;They can knock me down but they can&rsquo;t stop me from getting up&rdquo;&hellip;and, by the way, not fighting.The film juxtaposes the beauty (Youngblood) and the beast (Racki) within hockey. Guess who wins? And it is an impressive victory. Youngblood wins over not only himself and the bad guy, but the coach&rsquo;s daughter, who just happens to double as the Zamboni driver (no kidding).Markle makes no apologies for his choice of hockey&rsquo;s white-black dichotomy as a focal point and insists the film does not reflect badly on hockey.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t make the film for the NHL or the OHL,&rdquo; says the 39-year-old director, who attended tryout camps with both the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders in the past. &ldquo;I made it for MGM.&rdquo;He says that it is not intended to be a sports film. Hockey, he implies, is merely the backdrop for personal drama. Still, there are too many pungent and oft-times salient points made about the game for it not to be considered a film about hockey.There is something to be learned about junior hockey from the film but not as much as we&rsquo;d like. There are too many cliches obscuring the film&rsquo;s intent.The on-ice sequences, however, are the best yet, a product of Markle&rsquo;s decision to concentrate on an ice-level focus, which offers a wonderfully intimate view of hockey in action. The solitary practice scenes capture the feelings every hockey player has experienced.Hockey fans will feel right at home with the images and dialogue.Former professional goalies Gerry Cheevers and Gilles Gratton are brought to mind with the use of two masks&mdash;one featuring Cheevers&rsquo; trademark stitches and the other, Gratton&rsquo;s expressive face of a lion.Even Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; owner Harold Ballard, the mouth that roared, is brought to the silver screen when the coach (Ed Lauter) suggests his players could be carrying around a carton of eggs without fear of breaking them.Where have you gone, Inge Hammarstrom?Indeed, where have you been Peter Markle?The game has undergone a significant transformation in the past 10 years or so and while fighting regrettably remains a part of hockey, it is no longer nearly as prevalent as he suggests&mdash;even if only as a means of telling a story.Markle has taken things that do happen occasionally in hockey and presented them as the norm, when in fact they are now the exception.It becomes tiresome for those who felt tinges of guilt and shame during Slapshot to watch another hockey film full of violence and beer-swilling spectators who look a little too much like the McKenzie Brothers.Sometimes, don&rsquo;t you kinda&rsquo; get the feeling from this film that Canada really is the Great White North? Eh? &#9632;

f0013-01

Youngblood Shoots, But It Does Not Score

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The meaningless&mdash;and invariably boring&mdash;All-Star Game format is ready for a radical change, according to NHL Players&rsquo; Association chief Alan Eagleson. &ldquo;The time has come,&rdquo; the Eagle argues, &ldquo;to revive a Challenge Cup Series between the NHL All-Stars and the Soviet aces. The players are for it,&rdquo; Eagleson tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;This kind of series would grab world attention, and even if we&rsquo;d lose, the series would be justifed. You don&rsquo;t play only to win, you play for the concept.&rdquo; Eagleson claims NHL owners still bear scars from the 1979 Challenge Cup in which the NHL won the opener and then was beaten in the next pair. &ldquo;The owners feel they&rsquo;d be risking too much,&rdquo; adds the Eagle, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t understand their thinking.&rdquo;&hellip;The Eagle sees three possibilities for Blues&rsquo; owner Harry Ornest: &ldquo;He can still parlay the Blues into a successful franchise in St. Louis. Or he can run a successful franchise somewhere else. Or he can sell it and make a large pile of dough.&rdquo; Eagleson says he is pleasantly surprised at the amount of money Ornest has poured into the improvement of St. Louis Arena. &ldquo;It looks quite a bit better than the last time I was here.&rdquo;&hellip;Demands by the New York media for an end to Pierre Larouche&rsquo;s AHL deportation worked as soon as Ranger bosses saw more and more empty Garden seats. One insider says that Pierre&rsquo;s problems transcend his weak defensive play and playboy image. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s dead meat as far as other teams are concerned,&rdquo; an NHL insider tells BLUELINES. Larouche doesn&rsquo;t help his image by doing the swinging-athlete routine, posing in a full-page color layout for Sport magazine. He sits on a farm fence wearing a tuxedo.The Devils, despite another disappointing season, seem safe in New Jersey. One report has it that the Jersey Sports Authority will buy into the team&hellip;Threats by sortie NHL owners to up the minimum draft age from 18 to 20 are drawing warnings from heavyweight agents like New York&rsquo;s Art Kaminsky. &ldquo;Any owner who thinks the league can go back to the 20-year-old draft age is not familiar with American anti-trust laws,&rdquo; Kaminsky tells BLUELINES. The attorney estimates that the NHL could lose a $50 million lawsuit. &ldquo;The NHL would be liable to treble damages as well as a class action.&rdquo; Kaminsky concedes that he would be agreeable to changes in the oft-criticized junior draft. Agent Brian Burke, who brokered the fabulous Ray Staszak contract, tells BLUELINES he favors a hike in the draft age to 19, and says he argued that point with the NHL&rsquo;s chief counsel Gil Stein. &ldquo;Stein told me, &lsquo;No, no, we can&rsquo;t go to 19&rsquo;,&rdquo; Burke adds.Rangers&rsquo; acting captain Ron Greschner not only is gaining limelight for improved play, but has become a Broadway celebrity along with his supermodel wife Carol Alt. Ron reveals that his worst romantic blunder with Carol occurred on their first date. &ldquo;It was New Year&rsquo;s Eve and I rented a stretch limo to show her the town. We soon got a flat. The driver couldn&rsquo;t change a flat, and forget road service on Dec. 31.1 tried to impress Carol by turning mechanic. If I impressed her with anything, it was how fast I got covered with grease. I felt like a real dope.&rdquo;&hellip;North Stars&rsquo; center Neal Broten offers this cure Tor the blahs: &ldquo;I play with kids. It&rsquo;s impossible to be down when you&rsquo;re around youngsters.&rdquo;&hellip;Flyer captain Dave Poulin has this interpretation of the Jim Schoenfeld firing. &ldquo;I think a message was being sent. They had higher expectations then they&rsquo;ve achieved this far,&rdquo; Poulin explained to BLUELINES. &ldquo;They had six or seven draft picks and they&rsquo;re trying to build a nucleus. Two or three years later they expect something. They&rsquo;re sending a message to the players.&rdquo;Gordie Howe was one of the needlers at the recent Bobby Hull roast in Chicago. Quipped Howe, &ldquo;Bobby Hull? I remember him when he had his original hair!&rdquo; Gordie&rsquo;s favorite hobby is talking about his grandson, Travis Gordon Howe. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s seven, and is the only right-handed shooting Howe,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;No, I won&rsquo;t try a comeback to be Travis&rsquo; teammate.&rdquo;&hellip;Although everyone on the Garden scene says otherwise, Herb Brooks continues to insist that he never had a feud with his ex-boss Craig Patrick. Two agents talking independently to BLUELINES about the Rangers&rsquo; GM. Agent One: &ldquo;Craig Patrick is such a good guy I&rsquo;m going to go out of my way to get him my free agents this year just to save his job.&rdquo; Agent Two: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no reason for him to survive this long. The man must have nine lives.&rdquo;&hellip;The Blackhawks have the word that Tom Lysiak is through at the end of the season&hellip;Deals that have been on the grapevine: Rick Middleton and Mike O&rsquo;Connell for John Ogrodnick and Ron Duguay. Or Duguay, Ogrodnick, Reed Larson, Kelly Kisio and Greg Smith for Jim Peplinski. Ed Beers, Al Maclnnis, Dan Quinn, Colin Patterson and Richard Kromm. The latter reportedly was nixed by the Flames.Blackhawk ace Denis Savard is so serious about giving up smoking he even refused to touch a chocolate cigarette someone offered him as a gag. Denis tells BLUELINES that forsaking the weed has been easier than he thought &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m happier than ever.&rdquo;&hellip;Doug Wickenheiser, who out-raced the medics&rsquo; timetable with his return, credits Blues&rsquo; trainer Norm Mackie for his recuperation. &ldquo;Irealized,&rdquo; says Wick, &ldquo;that if it turned out that I couldn&rsquo;t play, it didn&rsquo;t mean that life was over, just that it was time for something else.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011260/5013562-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="114" height="113"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Fads like hemlines and hairstyles have come and gone.Zoot suits, hula hoops and the cramming of telephone booths have caught the fancy of the North American youth in their respective, although fleeting, eras.Like, cool cat, when&rsquo;s the last time you caught a dude swallowing a goldfish?Now add streaking to the list of, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s no big deal any more.&rsquo;Streaking in the mid-70s meant Nadia Stooshnoff dancing gingerly among the honor guard at the 1975 Grey Cup in Calgary. Yes, the poor child was naked as a jaybird.Now another form of streaking has come and gone, and in the process aroused about as much excitement as plain Nadia&rsquo;s notorious promenade on that icy November Sabbath.In fact, it was a double streak that would have created headlines anywhere else but Edmonton. The reasons were twofold for the lackadasical approach to the magnificant accomplishments of Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey that came to a sudden conclusion Jan. 27 in Chicago.Gretzky, of course, established the rather haughty precedent two years ago&mdash;51 straight National Hockey League games with a point. Considering the previous mark was 28 games, Gretzky stayed with his tradition of not only breaking records, but obliterating them.(Guy Lafleur set the standard for those who pull their pants on one leg at a time.)Gretzky and Coffey were both held pointless the day after the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl on Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s 25th birthday. Gretzky&rsquo;s string was snapped at 39 games&mdash;second longest in NHL history&mdash;and Coffey&rsquo;s concluded at 28. Only No. 99 has gone longer.The Oilers, however, weren&rsquo;t complaining. While Gretzky and Coffey were held without a point, Mark Messier and flankers Glenn Anderson and Mark Napier accounted for all of Edmonton&rsquo;s goals in 4-3 victory.&ldquo;Only one other guy has gotten 28 games, but it never did really sink in,&rdquo; said Coffey matter-of-factly. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s because you looked at Gretz&rsquo;s 51 games and think it&rsquo;s amazing.&rdquo;Gretzky pointed out he was more disappointed for Coffey than himself.&ldquo;Even if I would have been stopped and he would have got his point, I think he would have had a shot at breaking my record (51 games),&rdquo; said Gretzky, who was held to two shots on goal.He also had a shot at the open net in the final minute, but missed, resulting in an icing call.&ldquo;I was disappointed at myself for trying that. It would have been my fault if they would have come back and scored the tying goal,&rdquo; said No. 99. &ldquo;But the bottom line is we won the game.&rdquo;Coffey shrugged off the streak.&ldquo;I knew it would have to come to an end, but the thing is, it was just starting to get to be fun,&rdquo; said Coffey, who also had two shots on goal. &ldquo;I had one chance, but I tried to get the puck to Mess(ier). I should have shot it.&rdquo;Manager-coach Glen Sather wasn&rsquo;t overly concerned with the streaks: &ldquo;Sure I&rsquo;m disappointed for them, but they&rsquo;re both the type of players who would put the two points we got ahead of any streaks.&rdquo;The streaks came and went quietly. And, perhaps equally as significant as Gretzky&rsquo;s 51-game record itself was the fact there hadn&rsquo;t been a bona fide scare tossed into either case until the end came.Does anyone remember two years ago in Chicago when Gretzky patiently waited until well past the 11 th hour to keep his streak alive at 44 games? Can you recall the superb athletic play he made to knock down Troy Murray&rsquo;s high clearing pass, then to place himself between the Hawks&rsquo; center and the puck before slipping it into the open net?A ghastly two seconds remained!&ldquo;After seeing him make that play,&rdquo; Murray said, &ldquo;would you tell him I hope he scores in all 80 games?&rdquo;For the most part, Birthday Boy Gretzky had gotten down to the business at hand early this time around. On 27 occasions during his streak, he had accounted for his initial point in the first period. Eight others came in period two with four in the third&mdash;the latest of which was a goal at 7:31 of the third period Nov. 19 in Quebec (Game 9).Coffey&rsquo;s breakdown was 12 first-period points, 14 in the second and two in the third. The latest was an assist on a Kevin McClelland goal Dec. 10&mdash;Game 8&mdash;with 4:12 remaining in St. Louis.&ldquo;In my speech,&rdquo; joked Coffey with McClelland within earshot, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll thank Mac the most.&rdquo;The previous standard of 17 for defenseman was set last year by Boston&rsquo;s Ray Bourque.So, the streaks came and went, and along the way it seemed Gretzky and Coffey stood out about as much as a pair of streakers at a nudist colony. &#9632;</div>

f0014-01

Streaking Gretzky, Coffey Attracted Little Attention

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02868/5013593-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="588" height="1028"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter McNab had hoped for better team success with the New Jersey Devils.</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011189/5013600-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="87" height="81"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;Peter McNab had hoped to score the 350th goal of his career in a game that was important to the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; Patrick Division playoff chances.After a distinguished career with the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, the 33-year-old center wanted to make the milestone goal a meaningful one.Those hopes have all but faded. With McNab on the verge of becoming the 41st player in NHL history to score 350 goals, the Devils had nose-dived to the bottom of their division, virtually out of the playoff picture.McNab&rsquo;s first season in New Jersey has lost much of its luster, but his accomplishments over a 13-season career are worth remembering. As the Devils played their 50th game of the season, McNab was one goal short of the 350-goal plateau and he needed 22 more points to become the 42nd player in league history to accumulate 800 career points. Former Bruins Wayne Cashman (800) and Ken Hodge (804) rank just ahead of McNab.&ldquo;When I first broke in (with the Sabres back in 1973) I had never played against anyone in the NHL at any level so it was all still just an imaginary league to me,&rdquo; recalled McNab. &ldquo;Everyone seemed to be so outstanding. It took me a while to get over being in awe.&rdquo;His hero had been Gordie Howe from Howe&rsquo;s days in the World Hockey Association, but when McNab reached the NHL he soon found a teammate he looked up to&mdash;veteran Tim Horton.&ldquo;Timmy Horton was the first person I came to respect beyond the way you do most of your teammates or opponents,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;He was just a phenomenal person and athlete. He was in his 40s at that time and he was still the strongest man on the team. He was just an unbelievable hockey player.&rdquo;McNab has become a role model to many young players today, with his skillful stickhandling and heady work behind the net. Interestingly enough, the 6-foot-3, 205-pounder can chart his own career in four distinct eras.&ldquo;The guy right off the bat who made an impression on me was Bobby Clarke,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;He led his team to two Stanley Cups my first two years in the league. We went to the finals against the Flyers my first full year in Buffalo and you could just see what Clarke meant to that team.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t realize what a leader could be until I saw him on the ice. You could literally see him lead his team to victories by the way he played and the way he carried himself. Every great team has to have one of those players. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s possible to win without one or a couple of those players.&ldquo;Then came the (Guy) Lafleur era,&rdquo; McNab continued. &ldquo;His dominance and leadership was with the fact that he always got the big goal. He always either set it up or got it. He was a different sort of leader. He didn&rsquo;t have as big an impact as Clarke on his team by saying one thing or getting his teammates excited. His play did it.&ldquo;The next era was the (Bryan) Trottier era. He was a quiet leader but he&rsquo;d have these unbelievable streaks where he&rsquo;d go 30 consecutive games with a point in the playoffs. You just don&rsquo;t realize how tough that is to do because there would be a lot of nights where he was asked to check the toughest guy on the opposing team. That&rsquo;s why they (Islanders) won. And obviously now Edmonton has (Wayne) Gretzky. Each great team in my career had that one big guy.&rdquo;Of course McNab has not yet reached the end of his career. Not by a long shot. He still ranks among the Devils&rsquo; most dangerous scorers, which was evident when he missed nine games between Jan. 4 and Jan. 24 with a strained left knee.&ldquo;Peter has been a big cog in our wheel,&rdquo; offered coach Doug Carpenter. &ldquo;We need that line of McNab, (Rich) Preston and (Mel) Bridgman.&rdquo;However, it is beginning to appear that McNab will have to wait until at least next season to get his first taste of playoff hockey with the Devils.HOT STUFF&mdash;The Devils had lost seven straight at the Meadowlands Arena since a Dec. 17 triumph over the Flyers, their longest losing streak at home since moving to New Jersey. They also dropped eight straight Patrick Division matches&hellip;Dave Pichette was feeling no after-effects from his concussion, although he felt the layoff had set back his conditioning.</div><div style="clear: both;"> &#9632;</div>

f0015-02

Four Players Have Dominated McNab Era

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02850/5013669-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="583" height="792"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kelly Hrudey and his wife, Donna, both take courses in a new isles&rsquo; program.</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011059/5013676-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="122" height="122"></div>LONG ISLAND-Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier, virtually inseparable on the ice, were seated alongside each other in a conference room on the second floor of a Long Island office building. Both were listening attentively to a lecture on atomic structure by Patti Groom, a high school science teacher.Seated at the same rectangular table on a recent afternoon were Islander teammates Greg Gilbert. Pat LaFontaine and Kelly Hrudey. They, too, were giving their undivided attention to Ms. Groom. Later in the afternoon, the five players would study English composition under the direction of an adjunct professor from Hunter College.The Islanders and some of their wives have been attending such college level lectures on the sciences, mathematics and humanities once a week. They then return to their homes to review their work and study forexaminations they will take at the conclusion of the courses in late February or early March.This does not mean that Trottier and Bossy and their teammates will abandon the Islanders in order to attend college next fall.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just trying to gain a little extra knowledge,&rdquo; Bossy said. &ldquo;It depends on the scores we get in our examinations what college courses we might want to take in the future.&ldquo;I spend about a half hour each day reviewing and studying. It&rsquo;s been difficult, but I&rsquo;m committed to it and I feel obliged to go through with it.&rdquo;The study program was the brainchild of Trottier, who like many of his teammates terminated his formal education in high school in order to concetrate on hockey. Trottier approached Howard Kalmaer, a prominent Long Island accountant who helped arrange the program with Ron Katz, a senior administrator for external affairs at Queens College.Arrangements were made with representatives of a Long Island financial consultant firm for the use of their conference room for the classes. And the Islanders&rsquo; management is subsidizing the program, including the cost of textbooks, fees for tutors, etc.&ldquo;As long as the players continue to make use of the program we feel it&rsquo;s a positive thing,&rdquo; general manager Bill Torrey said. &ldquo;Obviously post-career planning is on the players&rsquo; minds and they&rsquo;re concerned about how they will handle the transition.&rdquo;Katz, a former adjunct professor at the University of California, said some of the players who enrolled in the courses could acquire up to one year of college credits.&ldquo;It depends on the scores they get in their examinations,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then they would have to decide when and where they will continue the courses, whether they want to take correspondence courses, what their majors will be.&ldquo;They learn quickly and are very resourceful. I&rsquo;m very excited about the professors who might teach these people in the future. They may not perform well in the beginning, but by their third or fourth years they could wind up in the top 10 per cent of their class. I would attribute that to their motivation.&rdquo;The tutors have been equally impressed with their athlete-students.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re extremely inquisitive,&rdquo; Ms. Groom said. &ldquo;Some have been out of the academic world for an extended period of time, yet they retained a lot from what they learned in high school.&rdquo;Among the wives who have been attending the classes are Donna Hrudey. Tammy Gilbert and Connie Sutter, wife of Brent Sutter. They have helped provide a sense of competition to the program.&ldquo;We set aside a couple of hours a week when we turn off the TV and sit in the kitchen and do some school work,&rdquo; Hrudey said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure what I want to do with my life after I retire, but I&rsquo;ve always wanted to further my education and this is a step in the right direction.&rdquo;Donna Hrudey is excited about sharing study periods with her husband. &ldquo;We study at home and discuss the program.&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don&rsquo;t agree. But it&rsquo;s a great learning experience.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s right shoulder was separated Jan. 25 when he was checked into the boards by Wayne Presley of the Chicago Blackhawks. Although out indefinitely he was able to lift weights&hellip;The Islanders were on a seven-game undefeated streak, the last four all victories, at the all-star break&hellip;Mike Bossy kept the winning streak intact with an overtime goal in the Isles&rsquo; 3-2 win over New Jersey on Feb. 2. The goal was Bossy&rsquo;s second of the game.</div><div style="clear: both;"> &#9632;</div>

f0016-02

It’s Back To The Books For The Islanders

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03663/5013707-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="438" height="432"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Beaton</figcaption></div>THIS WILL BE my final column for THE HOCKEY NEWS, delighting friends and fans in Hamilton, that seat of sophistication and wit.Management at my newspaper, the USA Today, has decided it and I would be better served if I gave up the column. So since this is my last shot. I figure it&rsquo;s a free one. So here are some random thoughts:I&rsquo;m really looking forward to another Michel Bergeron Film Festival like the one in last year&rsquo;s playoffs when he showed the scribe tribe tapes of alleged transgressions by the Flyers.I&rsquo;m thrilled to see St. Louis coach Jacques Demers received an extension through 1988-89. Not only is he an outstanding person and coach, but he&rsquo;s also the NHL&rsquo;s most quotable. Since we&rsquo;ve already lost Don Cherry, Gerry Cheevers and Harry Neale. We need all the help we can get.The real smarts in the NHL are in the stands at junior, college and high school games. They&rsquo;re the scouts. Everybody thinks it&rsquo;s a great job to get paid for watching hockey. It is. But there&rsquo;s a lot of work and some critical judgments involved. Any NHL GM is only as good as his scouts.I fervently hope the Toronto Maple Leafs decide to enter the 20th century sometime in the next 14 years. Their despicable treatment of female reporters, harassing them and denying them equal access to players (up until Newsday&rsquo;s Helene Elliott&rsquo;s last visit to Maple Leaf Gardens), is a disgrace to a great city and gives the NHL a bush-league image.The Calgary Flames will have to make a three-for-one deal or two before they can challenge Edmonton. The Flames have the extraordinary depth of young talent up front with which they can deal for that one great one.General managerial material: Ed Chynoweth of the WHL, Bob McCammon (again), Lou Lamoriello of Hockey East at Providence College and Gerry Ehman of the Islanders. Not general mangerial material: Gerry McNamara.It&rsquo;s funny how you&rsquo;ll never see all three players from a great junior hockey line succeed in the NHL. Examples: Les Trois Denis (Savard&mdash;yes, then Cyr and Tremblay&mdash;no). Steve Shutt&mdash;yes, Dave Gardner&mdash;no, Billy Harris&mdash;not really. The winger with Lanny MacDonald and Tom Lysiak at Medicine Hat never made it. Lew Morrison played with Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach in Flin Flon and was a first-round pick but never was more than marginal in the NHL. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.There will be almost as many Americans drafted in the first round as Canadians in June.The Montreal Canadiens will soon be a final-round fixture again. They have too much superb young talent not to be.I think the Hall of Fame will have to find a place for Tiger Williams when he retires. It would be selfdeception to deny that enforcers haven&rsquo;t always been a critical part of the game. Williams has endured longer than any before him. He has been a winner&mdash;tough, with a sense of fair play. John Ferguson should make it as a player too, for the same reason.The best places to see an NHL game are three of the oldest buildings, including two of the dingiest. Every fan should try at some point to make a pilgrimage to the Montreal Forum and rundown-but-thrilling Boston Garden and Chicago Stadium. The worst places to see an NHL game are Madison Square Garden, because you have to put up with Rangers&rsquo; fans and with New York City, and Hamilton if it gets a club. And if it does, I want to handle the ceremonial faceoff for Canada&rsquo;s answer to Cleveland.Look for the calibre of U.S hockey to keep getting better because American goal scorers are being developed to go with the already great defensemen and goaltenders that have been turned out.All things are supposed to come to those who wait, but how long must Detroit fans go without a winner? No city has better hockey fans. No hockey fans deserve a winner more.Critics of the unbalanced schedule were all wrong. It&rsquo;s great. Think of how the rivalries&mdash;Montreal-Quebec, Calgary-Edmonton, Rangers-lslanders, Minnesota-Chicago, and all the others&mdash;have been enhanced by the schedule and the playoff format. It&rsquo;s enough to make the regular season almost meaningful.Finally, I&rsquo;d like to thank THE HOCKEY NEWS for having faith in me and providing this fabulous forum for my opinions. If I&rsquo;ve offended anyone&mdash;good! &#9632;

f0016-03

City’s Public Enemy No. 1 Bids Farewell To Admirers

<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/f0017-02756/5013769-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="134" height="91"></div>DETROIT&mdash;The mood was festive, not unlike Mardi Gras in a dressing room. The emotions bordered on giddiness.Brad Park said it was the best game the Red Wings have played in 10 years&hellip;and he&rsquo;s been around for only the past three.The players called it a perfect performance. It isn&rsquo;t every day the worst team in hockey beats one of the best, the Washington Capitals, by such a spread. Red Wings 7, Capitals 0.Nothing could spoil this moment, right?Nothing except the Toronto Maple Leafs, and what else would you expect from the Norris Division&rsquo;s Lose Brothers?The next night, you see, the Leafs did a similar tap dance on the Capitals (5-2) and suddenly the Wings&rsquo; astonishing feat of the previous evening wasn&rsquo;t so astonishing. Maybe it was the Capitals who were so almighty awful, and not the Red Wings who were so almighty awesome.As Bryan Murray said after the Detroit game, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the worst this team has played since I became coach.&rdquo;Enough of that.What it amounted to for the Wings was a going-away party for Park in his last game before a six-game suspension (and $5,000 team fine) took effect for the Jan. 13 bench-clearing brawl in Toronto.Park will be allowed to guide the team in all facets of its preparations but not permitted behind the bench during the games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been losing players and now we lose a coach. So what?&rdquo; Park said. &ldquo;Just another body. They&rsquo;re playing the kind of hockey I want them to play. That&rsquo;s going to carry over.&ldquo;In Toronto somebody asked me if that was the intelligent hockey I was talking about. This was intelligent hockey. A total team effort. Don&rsquo;t anybody tell me the Red Wings can&rsquo;t play hockey.&ldquo;A superb effort on everybody&rsquo;s part. It was one of those nights we did everything right and worked our fannies off. We&rsquo;ve been playing good hockey but not reaping the benefits. We did tonight.&rdquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tough act to follow,&rdquo; said Danny Belisle, the senior assistant coach who will replace Park behind the bench.Rookie Mark Laforest turned aside 26 shots to post his first shutout in only his 14th NHL start. It was the first shutout in 150 games for Detroit.&ldquo;It feels pretty good. I guess,&rdquo; said Laforest, who ended a personal eightgame losing streak. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to get too high on it yet. Maybe at practice tomorrow I&rsquo;ll get a little cocky.&rdquo;Most of the players said Park&rsquo;s impending absence wasn&rsquo;t brought up.&ldquo;I said something but I don&rsquo;t think anybody heard me,&rdquo; Laforest said.The offensive stars of the victory over the Caps were Steve Yzerman and rookie Chris Cicchocki.Yzerman, whom Park said has arrived as an all-around NHL star, scored a goal and set up Cichocki&rsquo;s pair.Cichocki found himself on the right side of Yzerman&rsquo;s line when Joe Kocur, the incumbent, went down with a strained knee on his first shift.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m gettifig in a good groove,&rdquo; said Cichocki who had scored eight of his 19 points (including four goals) in seven games since returning from an injury he suffered in Washington on Jan. 7. He had multiple cuts on the tongue and near the tonsils when high-sticked by Bengt Gus-tafsson.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the worst injury I&rsquo;ve ever had,&rdquo; Cichocki said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little ironic that I stuck it to them tonight.&rdquo;WING WIRES&mdash;&rdquo;The league has a job to do,&rdquo; Brad Park said of the suspension. &ldquo;I understand that. I just know I&rsquo;d like to be behind the bench. The restrictions are that I can have no influence on the team for 90 minutes before a game to 60 minutes after.&rdquo;&hellip;Park on all the turmoil, injuries, suspensions, etc., and optimism for next season: &ldquo;If we can get through this year, we can get through anything. Maybe our record isn&rsquo;t better but the player-to-player relationships and team effort, those are better and that&rsquo;s a starting point.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0017-02

Wings Whoop It Up After Big Win

<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/f0018-01961/5013800-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="129" height="90"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Chris Chelios is a frustrated and worried young man.He has played one hockey game since hurting his left knee in Quebec on Dec. 19 and does not know when he will be able to play again.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been out a month and a half and don&rsquo;t know what to think,&rdquo; said Chelios. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t missed this much hockey ever.&rdquo;Chelios. who suffered an injury to his right knee in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs, banged up his left knee in the game at Quebec in late December. There was some speculation that he was hurt when Dale Hunter cracked him from behind, although Chelios himself is not sure.&ldquo;I came up the ice skating and it gave out a bit,&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know whether I twisted it getting up the wrong way or not.&rdquo;Chelios had undergone arthroscopic surgery and it has been determined that the knee is sound but there is an inflammation in the tendons and the joints.It has made for a most unhappy time for Chelios. who turned 24 on Jan. 25, a day before one of his favorite football teams, the Chicago Bears, danced their way to Super Bowl XX.&ldquo;It took my mind off hockey for a day.&rdquo; he admitted.Just prior to the all-star break, Chelios asked for and received permission to return to Madison, Wise., where he played for the University of Wisconsin.Team officials denied that the sophomore defenseman was making the trip to get his knee examined by doctors there and coach Jean Perron said that Chelios needed &ldquo;a psychological break.&rdquo;&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t use the word &lsquo;depression&rsquo; in his case.&rdquo; said Canadiens&rsquo; managing director Serge Savard. &ldquo;An active guy like Chris gets down easily. The reason I gave him my permission to go to Wisconsin was to help change his state of mind.&rdquo;The whole situation concerning Chelios&rsquo; wounded knee has been a mystery from the start. When the original injury was suffered in Quebec, the preliminary medical bulletin said he was suffering from a bruised thigh. That was changed a few days later to a sprained knee.Perron told a cluster of reporters that the problem has to do with the &lsquo;envelope inside his knee&rdquo;, the membranes which contain certain fluids.Some of Chelios&rsquo; teammates were upset that the defenseman even played the game on Jan. 20 in Quebec, where he hurt himself on the first shift although he managed to carry on until midway through the second period.Chelios felt that he could play that night and wanted to do so. The monthlong inactivity was bugging him.&ldquo;The knee felt good although it didn&rsquo;t really feel strong.&rdquo; he noted. &ldquo;But I thought I could go out there and give it a shot mostly because I was so restless and I wanted to get back into the game.&rdquo;Fortunately, Chelios did not do any more serious damage to his limb but the fact is that going into the all-star break, he had no idea when he would be able to play again.&ldquo;I hope to be able to get back in a week or two, but we want to make sure the knee is 100 percent and that I&rsquo;ll be able to help the club.&rdquo; Chelios added.The absence of Chelios has given Gaston Gingras another shot at the National Hockey League and the former Baby Bull from Birmingham is making the most of it.Gingras, who was the Canadiens&rsquo; 27th choice in the 1979 draft, had a goal and an assist as the Canadiens defeated the Quebec Nordiques 5-3 at the Forum to open a four-point lead atop the Adams Division.Montreal extended that lead to five points and their winning streak to five games by edging Boston 2-1 on Feb. 1.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot easier to take when the team is winning,&rdquo; said Chelios. &ldquo;But when the team is losing, you feel needed and you want to get out there and help.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;The Canadiens made another deal with St. Louis, sending Kent Carlson to the Blues for defenseman Graham Herring and a fifth-round draft choice in 1986. Carlson was not going to crack the Montreal defense and the Blues had been after him for some time&hellip;Larry Robinson was miffed with some remarks made by Dale Hunter after Robinson drew a five-minute major for accidentally high sticking the Nordiques&rsquo; center Jan. 29. Robinson alleged that Hunter threatened that he would try to end the career of the Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman, although Hunter would not talk about it after the game&hellip;Guy Carbonneau&rsquo;s 200th career NHL point was the game-winning goal vs. Quebec and was part of a four-goal, third-period rally by the Canadiens&hellip;Mike McPhee returned to the lineup Feb. I after missing 10 games with a sprained ankle. &#9632;</div>

f0018-01

Chelios Despondent Over Forced Hiatus

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02725/5013831-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="291" height="415"><figcaption class="caption-body">Terry Jones</figcaption></div><h2>BOO WHO?</h2>Yes, they did.They booed him. Number 99. The Great One. Wayne Gretzky. In Edmonton. At the Northlands Coliseum. Booed him when he was named third star of a game in which he earned a goal and assist.Talk about a city spoiled silly?Yes. Yes, indeed.But Wayne Gretzky, who was booed more as a representative of an erratic team that night than as a result of personal performance, isn&rsquo;t Exhibit A in this matter.That would be Paul Coffey.Coffey is arguably the second most spectacular talent in the NHL and at best he&rsquo;s second banana on his own squad, simply a part of the supporting cast in Edmonton, and anywhere else the Oilers play. It&rsquo;s &ldquo;Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers&rdquo; when the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions are in my town or come to your town.If Paul Coffey was with any other club&hellip;Take the streaks. Paul Coffey went 28 straight games with at least a point in every game. But his record run was no fun.It received next to no notice, and even Paul Coffey couldn&rsquo;t get excited about it. At the same time as Coffey&rsquo;s 28-game streak, Gretzky was on a 39-game streak of his own.&ldquo;It was nothing,&rdquo; said Coffey. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s 28 games? I&rsquo;ve seen Gretz go 51 straight for the record. I barely got halfway.&rdquo;Only two players in the history of the game ever put together streaks equal to or better than that of Coffey. Guy Lafleur once went 28 straight games and Gretzky has had streaks of 51, 39, 30 and 28.Coffey easily passed the next closest, Bryan Trottier and Bernie Nicholls, who each went 24 straight games. And Coffey has long passed any streak ever put together by a defenseman.Earlier this year. Coffey went 17 straight games with an assist in each game to also set a record for a defenseman.But he was unimpressed.&ldquo;That category isn&rsquo;t even in the record book,&rdquo; he said.The story with Coffey hasn&rsquo;t just been the streaks.In late January his record run also moved him up to second place, behind Gretzky in the NHL scoring race.And in the all-star balloting by the fans, he polled 309,503 votes, 116,304 ahead of the next closest defenseman and 43,333 votes ahead of Gretzky.&ldquo;I was surprised to get that many votes and even more surprised to beat a guy like Gretz in the voting,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to recognized by the fans like that.&rdquo;But Coffey is a realist and concedes he probably finished ahead of No. 99 because fans got to vote for two defenseman and only one center.Coffey should be a cinch for a second straight Norris Trophy. And with that, he should be guaranteed to go down in history as one of the all-time great defensemen. In the entire history of the award only six men won it more than once. Bobby Orr won it eight times, Doug Harvey seven, Pierre Pilote, Denis Potvin, three each, and Larry Robinson and Rod Langway twice.But that will be no big deal in Edmonton because Gretzky is the point of reference. What&rsquo;s a couple of Norris Trophies compared to Gretzky&rsquo;s current collection of six Hart Trophies, five Art Ross Trophies, a Lady Byng and a Conn Smythe for his six years in the league. Gretzky, ifhe retires at the right time, might playadozen years in the league and have a Hart Trophy to show for every single season.Coffey says the Norris is interesting, if only to him.&ldquo;Obviously, I want to win it more than once. When you win it once, I think it makes it easier to win it a second time. Once you get your foot in the door, people start to recognize you. As long as you don&rsquo;t get complacent and can be consistent in accomplishing the same things you did the year you won it, I think you&rsquo;ve got a lot better chance to win it the second time than you had to win it the first time.&rdquo;Coffey says if he were an individual-oriented player, he might have personal problems being second banana on his own team, when he&rsquo;d be top dog on any other team in the league. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been brought up to believe that if you are a team-oriented player, the individual things will fall into place,&rdquo; he said.Which brings us back to Gretzky and the Boobirds.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s over and done with,&rdquo; said The Great One. &ldquo;I was disappointed. The same fans who cheered that night are the ones who will cheer when we win the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Three &ldquo;jeers&rdquo; for Edmonton, now. Three cheers for Edmonton this spring?Spoiled rotten? Indeed. &#9632;

f0018-02

Coffey Mate Overshadows Greatness Of Defenseman

<div class="byline">BY DAVID BOOTH</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01895/5013862-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="115" height="115"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The most pleasant surprise of the second half of the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; 1984-85 season was the play of winger Brent Ashton.The most pleasant surprise of the second half of the current season could well be Brent Ashton.After struggling through the first 40 games of the schedule, the former Saskatoon junior seemed to have regained the I magic that endeared him to Quebec fans in the latter stages of last season.The date was Dec. 14, 1984 when Nordique general manager Maurice Filion made the announcement that Quebec fans had long been awaiting. The Nordiques swapped the popular Tony McKeg-ney and Bo Berglund to Minnesota for defensive quarterback Brad Maxwell and a 24-year-old left winger named Ashton.The player initially considered by many fans, if not by management, to be a throw-in still wears No. 9 for the Nordi-I ques. As for Maxwell, he didn&rsquo;t turn out to be the dominant blueliner that was hoped for. Maxwell still sports a blue jersey but one of a different shade, having been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for John Anderson.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I&rsquo;ve long since forgotten about my contract negotiations. No use pulling skeletons out of the closet.&rsquo;</blockquote><blockquote class="pullQuote">&mdash;Ashton</blockquote>Ashton scored 27 goals in 49 games as a Nordique during the 1984-85 regular season and then added six more in the playoffs.Similar production was expected this year.But if Ashton ended last season on a high note, this season began on a low note. Unable to come to terms with Quebec management on a new contract, he resorted to the arbitration process&mdash;and lost.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve long since forgotten about my contract negotiations,&rdquo; said Ashton. &ldquo;No use pulling skeletons out of the closet, that case is closed. The only thing on my mind is to finish off this season as best I can. I&rsquo;ll worry about negotiating a new contract only when this season is history.&rdquo;The Ashton trademark through last season had been his penchant for registering important goals. He had begun to do the same this season.After scoring a spectacular overtime goal against Montreal, Ashton added an equally-spectacular third-period goal, his 16th of the campaign, to beat Jacques Cloutier and the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 on Jan. 25.&ldquo;The goals have not been coming as easily this season and I&rsquo;m especially gratified to be able to add my contribution to an overall team effort,&rdquo; said Ashton.Two games, two goals and five nights later, Ashton was more enthusiastic and eloquent.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m much more relaxed on the ice. It&rsquo;s true that I&rsquo;m not playing like I did in the first 40 games. That&rsquo;s what confidence can do for you. (Coach) Michel Bergeron has been using me more regularly and things have begun to click.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing 15 minutes or more a game rather than just five minutes and my performance has improved proportionately. My overtime goal against Montreal was the key to regaining the confidence I had in the second half of last season. After a few rough months, I finally felt I was contributing to the success of this club.&rdquo;With his confidence now intact, Ashton has gained the support of the fans and coach.Bergeron, who was using Ashton to kill off penalties and at times on the power play, said: &ldquo;Brent has gained my confidence with his hard work. He&rsquo;s well on his way to repeating his exploits of last season.&rdquo;Ashton&rsquo;s resurgence came at a time when other top scorers on the team were having their difficulties. Michel Goulet broke out of a five-game slump by notching two goals and two assists in Quebec&rsquo;s 4-0 victory over the New York Rangers. Peter Stastny had also slowed down.NORDIC NOTES&mdash;Richard Sevigny was beaten 6-3 in his first outing with the Fredericton Express&hellip;Mark Kumpel picked up five points in his first four games back from Fredericton&hellip;Pat Price returned to the lineup on Jan. 27 against the Rangers&hellip;Michel Goulet&rsquo;s two goals against New York on Jan. 27 brought his total to 299 in 501 regularseason games&hellip;Wilf Paiement was really struggling. His last goal was on Dec. 10&hellip;Marian Stastny&rsquo;s comments in the THN about being treated poorly by the Nordiques last year greatly bothered assistant coach Simon Nolet, who questioned their validity. Stastny was signed by the Maple Leafs as a free agent. &#9632;

f0019-01

Ashton Off To Another Second-Half Surge

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div>CALGARY&mdash;Dave King will request a meeting with National Hockey League general managers to seek their cooperation for his Canadian Olympic hockey program.&ldquo;Certainly we&rsquo;re concerned about things,&rdquo; said King, who recently lost two players to NHL teams.Goaltender John Kemp signed with the Philadelphia Flyers and shortly thereafter right winger Peter Douris joined the Winnipeg Jets.King, and perhaps other Hockey Canada executives such as Sam Pollock, would like to meet with the NHL GMs during the June congress.The loss of some players, King said, is inevitable, but he is hoping to hedge his losses in the future.&ldquo;We expected to lose a player or two, but that still doesn&rsquo;t mean we&rsquo;re not disappointed when it happens. We have a problem here and we have to address that problem. Right now, we&rsquo;re searching for the best ways to handle it.&rdquo;The problem is, everyone has a problem.The Olympic team gets mad when it loses a player to the NHL. The NHL gets mad when it is accused of not cooperating by signing a player, when all it is trying to do is improve its product. The colleges and junior teams get mad, when players who had previously committed, leave to join the Olympic team.Right now, this is hockey&rsquo;s version of the vicious circle&mdash;and there are no winners.&ldquo;Everyone is searching for the best players,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s really the crux of this issue. The problem is, we don&rsquo;t want to be a development team for the NHL, but we&rsquo;re perceived that way. &ldquo;And part of the reason for that is King&rsquo;s sales pitch to his players. Among the recruiting techniques he utilizes. King always mentions how well former Olympians do when they eventually play in the NHL.King and his players also find themselves embroiled in another problem&mdash;the commitment problem.He is willing to commit to players, but only on the short term. Officially, he is promising no one a spot on the 1988 team.The attitude of &lsquo;commit to us&rsquo; and we&rsquo;ll decide later if we can &lsquo;commit to you has turned off some players and moreso, turned off some NHL teams.Goaltender Craig Billington of New Jersey, for example, was all set to join the Olympic team but the Devils and King could not reach an agreement. And Billington&rsquo;s case is not isolated.King understood the signing of Kemp, by Philadelphia, because of the goaltender&rsquo;s age (22) and because of Pelle Lindbergh&rsquo;s death.He did have a hard time, however, figuring out the Jets&rsquo; signing of Douris, who looked only ordinary playing at the World Junior Championships.&ldquo;Peter is going to be a good player, but I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s ready now,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;He has a lot of ability, and a lot of potential, but some of that is down the road.&ldquo;The thing is, when a kid gets the money waved in front of him, and gets that opportunity, who can tell him not to go?&rdquo;Team Canada players were both pleased and disappointed to lose two teammates. The loss of Douris meant a smaller roster and more ice time for the team&rsquo;s other forwards.And the loss of Kemp meant that Mark Frank, a former Western League goaltender, would move from his role as chief King has a list of seven goaltenders he would like to approach regarding the Olympic team. He did say that nearly half of the 18 players he now has have played themselves off the team.What King intends to do is &ldquo;talk seriously&rdquo; with his recruits, because he doesn&rsquo;t want the same scenario to pop up a year from now.The real test may come this summer when three national team members&mdash;Shawn Anderson, Jeff Greenlaw and Zarley Zalapski&mdash;are available for the NHL draft. The NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau rates all three of them first-round choices.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice situation to know you have that many highly-respected players,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;But I also know that four of the top six picks last year are playing in the NHL. The three of them are going to gel a chance to turn pro. but I&rsquo;m pretty well convinced they&rsquo;ll stay with us.&rdquo; &#9632;

Olympic Program Part Of ‘Vicious Circle

<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/f0021-01554/5013917-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="131" height="118"></div>CALGARY-The scary part for Marc D&rsquo;Amour is simply not knowing.D&rsquo;Amour, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; rookie goaltender, has spent the last four years of his life working his way up to the National Hockey League but is now in danger of losing his place&mdash;for reasons that are beyond his control.It isn&rsquo;t because of his play. In coach Bob Johnson&rsquo;s words, &ldquo;He has done everything we have asked of him.&rdquo;It is because of his health. Or his metabolism. Or his nerves. Or more accurately, all of the above.D&rsquo;Amour couldn&rsquo;t finish his last two starts because of violent cramping in the latter stages of a game brought on by a loss of body fluids.The problem came to a head during a 6-6 tie with the New Jersey Devils when D&rsquo;Amour dehydrated so badly that he lost II pounds during the game. Normally, Johnson would have switched to Reggie Lemelin&mdash;like he did the first time it happened&mdash;but Lemelin was himself incapacitated by the flu that night.D&rsquo;Amour was in hospital until 3:30 a.m. the next morning undergong tests to see what exactly was wrong with him. In the meantime, doctors had him on intravenous so they could pump back into him some of the fluids he had lost.&ldquo;It is a worry,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t correct it. it could jeopardize my career.&rdquo;D&rsquo;Amour admitted the problem is not new. However, it did seem to be getting progressively worse.&ldquo;Yeah, it&rsquo;s happened before,&rdquo; said D&rsquo;Amour, &ldquo;but not in two games in a row like that. It happened in junior, it happened in the CHL and it happened in the AHL. Now, you come into these buildings, it&rsquo;s hotter, there&rsquo;s more people, I don&rsquo;t know, something&rsquo;s got to be done.&rdquo;Tests on the 24-year-old goaltender proved inconclusive. They showed that perhaps D&rsquo;Amour actually drank too much water in the game. They showed, that perhaps his diet was all wrong. They showed that perhaps his bad case of nerves affected the way he perspired and the way he played.For the moment, the Flames planned to let D&rsquo;Amour try to work out the problem himself&mdash;with a little help from their doctors. First, they decided to increase the quantity of water D&rsquo;Amour drank before the game and reduce the quantity he drank afterwards. Second, they suggested he alter his diet. Third was to recommend yoga so he could learn to relax.Naturally, D&rsquo;Amour was prepared to try anything that would keep him in the NHL and prevent the Flames from dipping into the minor league for Mike Vernon, another rookie goaltender who&rsquo;d spent time with the team this season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough on me and it&rsquo;s tough on the guys,&rdquo; said D&rsquo;Amour. &ldquo;They see it happening and they start to second guess me. That&rsquo;s the most important thing right now, getting their confidence in me back. Hopefully, I&rsquo;ll get the matter straightened out in the next few days. Basically, what they want to do is piece together what&rsquo;s wrong and then do what they can for me.&rdquo;Before the test results came in, the Flames were prepared to ask the NHL to review their rule on attaching water bottles to the backs of nets.Commenting on the four-goal lead the Flames blew against New Jersey, Johnson said: &ldquo;The poor guy lost 11 pounds. We forgot about the game, we were so worried about Marc in the third period. It&rsquo;s ridiculous. Instead of thinking about the game, we were all thinking about water on our bench. That was one of the worst third periods I&rsquo;ve ever gone through in my life.&rdquo;Johnson wondered why skaters could drink as much water as they wanted, but goaltenders could only go to the bench during stoppages in play to get a drink.&ldquo;In college, they allow them,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the only medically sensible thing to do. We&rsquo;re not playing in cold buildings anymore; We&rsquo;re playing in hot buildings with TV lights. We let our players have as much water as they want, but we deny it to our goaltenders. It&rsquo;s stupid.&ldquo;I was afraid he was going to go down. Then what can you do? I was going to have auditions for a third goalie. I mean, Moncton is only eight time zones away.&rdquo;As for D&rsquo;Amour, he said the unlimited use of a water bottle wouldn&rsquo;t &ldquo;solve the problem&rdquo; but &ldquo;it would help. I could get water into me every whistle if I wanted to. The problem is I use a lot of it. I could go through two bottles in a period. I don&rsquo;t know how they could get it to me.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0021-01

D’Amour Takes Pounding Over Dehydration

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01640/5013948-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="544" height="746"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02456/5013955-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="121" height="109"></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The Minnesota North Stars had a full five days without a game during the all-star break, but coach Lome Henning figures a lot of his troops misread the calendar.It appeared the North Stars had started their break a couple of weeks earlier.Admittedly, Minnesota had a tough schedule, but the North Stars came out of it with games against New Jersey, Los Angeles and Vancouver.The Stars beat only Jersey at home before losing at Los Angeles and getting blown out 10-5 in Vancouver. That was the most goals the Stars had given up all season, and Vancouver is not a Pacific coast Edmonton.So the North Stars sprawled into the all-star break by losing six of seven games. That slump came after a 9-3 record through mid-January, which had propelled them to the. 500 mark and into a three-way race with Chicago and St. Louis for the Norris Division lead.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We seem to get up, then we stop bearing down,&rsquo; said North Star coach Lome Henning, who couldn&rsquo;t figure out his team.</blockquote>The Stars had given up 37 goals in their last seven contests, falling to 19-248.So the Stars were 11 points off Chicago&rsquo;s pace, five back of St. Louis, and 13 points ahead of fourth-place Toronto. It appeared the players might be settling for the mediocrity of running in the middle of the pack, with a playoff spot all but secured.Henning gave the club three days off from practice before resuming on all-star day, a break he hoped would rejuvenate the club.Even in the lone victory of January&rsquo;s last two weeks, Henning was not thrilled. The Stars scored some picture goals in beating New Jersey 6-2, but other than the scoring plays, the game was comprised of sloppy passing, missed assignments and shaky team defense.&ldquo;We seem to get up, then we stop bearing down,&rdquo; said Henning. &ldquo;Against Jersey, we got ahead, then we started taking off and taking chances. In the third period, Jersey took it to us.&rdquo;In fact, the Stars led 4-0 after two periods and were outshot 17-6 in the third but escaped with the 6-2 win.Bright spots for the Stars included the play of Marc Habscheid, who came up from Springfield and scored the two first-period goals against Jersey in his first opportunity with the big club.Habscheid was acquired in the trade sending Gord Sherven to Edmonton. After refusing to report to the Oilers, Habscheid had worked out with a college team in Edmonton, awaiting a trade that finally happened Dec. 21.Habscheid played at Springfield to get sharp, and Henning asked general manager Lou Nanne to bring up the young centerman to bolster a sagging offense.Emanuel Viveiros, a 20-year-old defenseman obtained in the same trade, played well in a five-game trial after being called up from his Prince Albert junior club. In the same Jersey game, Vivieros assisted on a goal by Keith Acton.So things looked bright as the Stars headed west. But Curt Giles, the club&rsquo;s leading defenseman all season, stayed home with a sprained knee as the Stars wisely chose to rest him fully.Then they collapsed both offensively and defensively. They put up a meek effort to lose 4-3 in L.A., getting outshoth 44-20. At one point late in the second&rsquo; period, the Kings had outshot the Stars 27-6.At Vancouver, rookie goalie Jon Casey&rsquo;s bubble burst. The Canucks jumped ahead 4-1, and Henning relieved Casey with Don Beaupre. Mats Hallin scored twice to help the Stars close to 6-4, but then the roof fell in. The game ended with a brawl.At least, Henning said, that was a sign of life.<h2>Player Of The Week</h2>Edmonton Oiler winger Glenn Anderson scored seven goals, including two gamewinners, and added an assist in four games to be chosen THN-NHL Player of the Week for the period ending Feb. 1. &#9632;

f0022-01

Minnesota’s Falling Stars Mired In Slump

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01578/5013986-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="590" height="1120"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREG JOHNSTON</figcaption></div>He hasn&rsquo;t made a big splash in the National Hockey League yet, but Boston rookie Greg Johnston might still have a chance to show his ability again on the pond in Boston this season.The 21-year-old native of Barrie, Ont., played 10 games in the NHL earlier this year, earning one assist, but has spent most of the season in a more traditional developmental proving ground&mdash;the American League.There, he skates with the Moncton Golden Flames under the tutelage of new coach Terry Crisp.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very much in Boston&rsquo;s future plans,&rdquo; says Crisp. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big, physical winger, and fits right in with the Bruins&rsquo; style of Play-&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very coachable kid, he listens, and he&rsquo;s good to have on the team.&rdquo;His sojourn in the NHL this year brings his total to 31 games in the major leagues. He played a point-free six games for the Bruins last season&mdash;a year that also saw him put in three games with the Hershey Bears (one goal) of the AHL and 42 with the Toronto Marlboros (22 goals, 28 assists) of the Ontario League.Two seasons ago, the 6-foot-1 right winger played 15 games for the Bruins, scoring two goals and adding one assist.In 37 AHL games this season, Johnston had 15 goals and 17 assists for the Golden Flames. Johnston was drafted by Boston in the second round (42nd overall) of the 1983 entry draft. &#9632;

f0023-01

QUAKER STATE ROOKIE PROFILES

<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/f0024-01619/5014017-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="93" height="96"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;When you look simply at one half of the numbers, Patrik Sundstrom is having a pretty good season.His assists are up there and he centers the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; top line with Tony Tanti and Petri Skriko.Tanti has an outside shot at 50 goals and Skriko has come on to enjoy an exceptional sophomore year with 24 goals in 48 games.But what distresses most everyone watching the talented 24-year-old Swede is his goal total&mdash;just 10 after 48 games. It isn&rsquo;t enough and just about everyone, including the shy twin of Rangers&rsquo; winger Peter Sundstrom, is painfully aware of it.To watch Sundstrom in practice or at any warm-up in a Canuck game, you have to wonder why he isn&rsquo;t filling the net. He has, as they say, all the implements.He is fast, big at about 200 pounds, and possesses a wrist shot that can goalies away. Everyone from Jake Milford to Peter McNab predicted he would be a 100-point man in the NHL. But if there is one genuine disappointment in Sundstrom&rsquo;s first half it&rsquo;s that be doesn&rsquo;t seem likely now to ever develop into that kind of talent.What encouraged everyone in Vancouver was the season he had two years ago when he scored 38 goals and set the team season record with 91 points. Everyone knows the talent is there. But this season, the goals have not come and one of the reasons is that he is not shooting enough.&ldquo;I should be scoring more,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If I was, I would be taking some of the pressure off Tony and Petri. Our line would be harder to check if I was getting goals too. But when they&rsquo;re not going in for you. you&rsquo;re looking to pass the puck even more. You can&rsquo;t think that way, but you do.&rdquo;Watt tends to shield both Sundstrom and Thomas Gradin from criticism about not scoring by saying, quite rightly, that they have company.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re not alone. Cam (Neely) is also having a tough time,&rdquo; says Watt. &ldquo;But what bothers me just a little about Patrik is that in every game he&rsquo;s played, I think he&rsquo;s been out on part of every power play we&rsquo;ve had, and our power play has been good.&rdquo;Dumg his year of 38 goals, 31 of them came with the teams at even strength or the Canucks shorthanded. Further, he had 216 shots on goal. But on a per-game basis, both stats are down this year.&ldquo;Maybe I keep looking to pass off too much because Tony and Petri have been so good at scoring,&rdquo; says Sundstrom. whose 33 assists led the team. &ldquo;Sure, I would like to score more. I have tried to play my best every game. But I can&rsquo;t worry about my stats.&rdquo;If Sundstrom could duck the droughts which saw him go scoreless in his first eight games and limited to just one goal in his last 14 games, the Canucks&rsquo; chances of making third place in the Smythe Division would go up. If he doesn&rsquo;t snap out of it, playoff aspirations may go out the window.NOTES&mdash;The Canucks had picked up considerably in their last 1I games. They had been in one-goal losses, ties or victories in all of those games&hellip;Canucks&rsquo; defender Neil Belland&mdash;playing in Fredericton&mdash;asked general manager Jack Gordon to move him to another organization so that he might have an opportunity to play in the NHL. Belland, who was a key in Vancouver&rsquo;s run to the Stanley Cup final in 1982, has not been able to nail down a position with the club on a permanent basis with all the No. 1 draft picks on the roster&hellip;Stu Kulak, a fifth-round pick of the Canucks in 1981, has recovered from nearly two years absence with abdominal problems and will launch his comeback in Kalamazoo of the International League. &#9632;</div>

f0024-01

Sundstrom Slump Source Of Canuck Concern

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02437/5014048-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="110" height="110"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;After winning their first three games with Scott Bowman back behind the bench, the Buffalo Sabres came crashing back to reality with four straight losses.But the harshest of realities were still to come.In a move Bowman was reluctant to make but felt necessary, the coachgeneral manager dealt seven-year Sabre defenseman Larry Playfair, right winger Scan McKenna and the rights to 1985 unsigned draftee Ken Baumgartner to the Los Angeles Kings for veteran defenseman Brian Engblom and center Doug Smith.The move, any move, was inevitable and paid immediate dividends as Buffalo won two straight.&ldquo;With the Sabres in last place.&rdquo; said Playfair,&rdquo; it was a situation of sitting on a stick of dynamite. You knew something was going to happen.&rdquo;McKenna was in agreement with Playfair.&ldquo;It was time for some change.&rdquo; said McKenna, a fourth-year team member. &ldquo;I needed one and so did the Sabres.&rdquo;The Sabres hope the acquisition of Engblom will help to solidify a recently-shaky defense.&ldquo;We have added a steady, experienced defenseman in Brian Engblom,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;He makes very few mistakes and will be able to step right into our lineup. Doug Smith will give us additional speed up the middle.&ldquo;Playing behind Marcel Dionne and Bernie Nicholls, Smith was used primarily as a defensive center, but we hope he will help us both ways.&ldquo;Doug&rsquo;s checking game is strong. He certainly didn&rsquo;t waste that talent while he was in Los Angeles. I know how good a coach Pat Quinn is and from what I&rsquo;ve seen so far of Smith, Pat has taught him well.&rdquo;Bowman has had his eye on Smith, a first-round choice, second overall in 1981, for some time.&ldquo;If we had had the chance back then (1981) we would have drafted him (Smith) for the Sabres,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had my eye on Smith for a long time.&ldquo;I believe that he has a lot of untapped talent that we could use on this team. I think that given the chance, he could help us down the stretch drive to the end of the season.&rdquo;Engblom, 31, is in his ninth NHL season. Prior to playing for the Kings, Engblom played for the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens. He was a member of three Montreal Stanley Cup winners while Bowman was coaching the Canadiens.&ldquo;He (Bowman) knows what he&rsquo;s getting,&rdquo; said Engblom. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a defensive defenseman who can score an occasional goal. But my main job is to keep the puck out of the net.&ldquo;And so far, in what little I&rsquo;ve talked to him, Scotty just told me to play the game the way I always have.&rdquo;Was Engblom surprised with the trade?&ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; answered Engblom. &ldquo;I knew that Doug had requested a trade. But since the trade was made I have found out that they (the Kings) had been looking for a big defenseman that would act as an enforcer. I guess they got that in Larry.&rdquo;Known as a defensive player. Smith can also put the puck into the net. something the Sabres and their fans found out just 13 seconds into Smith&rsquo;s first game with Buffalo.&ldquo;I never dreamed that it (scoring a goal in bis first shift as a Sabre) would happen,&rdquo; said Smith, who also added an assist and drew a penalty that led to another Sabres goal as Buffalo defeated the New York Rangers 5-3 on Jan. 31. &ldquo;Paul (Cyr) and I had joked about it in the locker room just before the game began. But we never thought it would happen.&rdquo;Although he requested a trade, Smith had nothing but good things to say about the Kings.&ldquo;I have no bridges to bum with Los Angeles. Pat Quinn and Rogie Vachon were very good to me. They are class people and the organization is class as well.&ldquo;But I had gone as far as I could with the Kings. I was getting stale there. I&rsquo;m just glad someone was interested in me. I&rsquo;m glad to be here with the Sabres.&rdquo;Smith explained what he expects to contribute in Buffalo.&ldquo;I have never been, nor ever will be a great goal scorer,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;But I can put the puck into the net when I have to.&ldquo;I can also play the defensive game as well. So now I would like to contribute both ways, which I know I can.&rdquo;SABRE POINTS&mdash;Defenseman Hannu Virta suffered a right knee injury in the game against the Canadiens in Montreal (Jan. 27) and is out indefinitely&hellip;Mal Davis, who was recalled from Rochester on Jan. 27, suffered a left arm injury in the Jets game and is on a day-to-day basis&hellip;Defenseman Steve Dykstra returned to the lineup against the Jets after sitting out four games&hellip;Mike Ramsey&rsquo;s all-star appearance in Hartford was his fourth in five years&hellip;Forward Don Lever played in his 1000th NHL regular season game against the Canadiens (Jan. 27). &#9632;</div>

f0024-02

Five-Player Trade Shakes Up Sabres

<div class="byline">BY TOM WHEATLEY</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01543/5014079-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="111" height="113"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Jacques Demers figured he was being called on the carpet when he was summoned to the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; second-floor executive offices at The Arena.&ldquo;I thought, &lsquo;Uh-oh. I&rsquo;m going to get this one,&rsquo;&rdquo; said the third-year Blues&rsquo; coach.Demers expected some heat for benching five players in a 4-3 victory at Los Angeles. He suited up only 17 of the allowable 20 players.Instead of a confrontation, Demers got a contract extension at a raise in pay from owner Harry Ornest. Demers, who signed a new contract last season, is bound to the Blues through 1988-89.&ldquo;There are two ways to give a coach a vote of confidence,&rdquo; said the 41-year-old Demers. &ldquo;When a coach has lost 10 games in a row, they say, &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll give you a vote of confidence.&rsquo; And the next week, he&rsquo;s fired.&rsquo;&ldquo;This (extension) is what you call great support. It&rsquo;s something I never asked for. It&rsquo;s a great vote of confidence.Demers said that &ldquo;there&rsquo;s absolutely no question that I owe a lot&rdquo; to Omest, executive vice-president Jack Quinn and director of hockey operations Ron Caron.&ldquo;I have never been second guessed,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;I have never been reprimanded. Ron Caron and Harry Omest have never questioned any move I&rsquo;ve made. They&rsquo;ve respected the job I&rsquo;ve done here. The loyalty of Mr. Omest to his employees that is impressive to me. You don&rsquo;t see that very often.&rdquo;Demers is widely respected around the league for squeezing the most from his players.Accepting the extension &ldquo;also proves the loyalty I have for the organization,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;I know right now that the value of Jacques Demers is at the maximum. But I want to stay and build what I started.&ldquo;I believe I have the character players to win (the Stanley Cup). If I didn&rsquo;t believe it, I wouldn&rsquo;t stay around as long as I do. I still maintain that we&rsquo;re four play-I ers away&mdash;two up front and two on defense.&rdquo;He repeatedly thanked assistant coach Barclay Plager and his Blues players for &ldquo;giving me so much great feeling and respect. No matter what action I&rsquo;ve had to take in the last two-and-a-half years, I&rsquo;ve had the support of my character players.&rdquo;That support was never stronger than in the shorthanded victory in Los Angeles. With captain Brian Sutter (broken shoulder) out until March, Demers benched forwards Dave Barr, Denis Cyr and Kevin LaVallee, and defensemen Lee Norwood and Jim Pavese.Cyr, a former No. I pick of the Calgary Flames, was then demoted to Peoria of the International League.The benchings came one day after Demers said he wanted to get rid of &ldquo;four or five guys&rdquo; who lacked winning attitudes.Of the 15 skaters in uniform for that emotional victory at L.A., Demers used basically just 13.Demers limited gutsy forward Doug Wickenheiser and his born-again knee to about five shifts. It was his second game back after a 10-month layoff for careerthreatening knee surgery.And defenseman Ric Nattress, a candidate for the mass benching, was apparently dressed just as a safety valve. He played sparingly.Demers relied on nine forwards Bernie Federko, Joe Mullen, Doug Gilmour, Mark Hunter, Ron Flockhart. Rick Meagher, Mark Reeds, Greg Paslawski and Normand Baron, the muscleman who had his first fight in 14 games with the Blues when he pummeled Tiger Williams.Demers used basically four defensemen Rob Ramage. Terry Johnson. Bruce Bell and Rik Wilson, who ended a long exile in the press box by playing probably his best game of the season.&ldquo;Obviously the players cared a lot about their coaching staff,&rdquo; said Demers of the emotional victory. &ldquo;Nobody came out and pouted.&rdquo;The Blues&rsquo; three lines and two defense pairings tore into the extra workload, which got even heavier when the Kings. came up with eight power plays.The Blues killed seven of them, and also got the game winner on Rick Meagher&rsquo;s shorthanded goal.They had to play shorthanded for three minutes at the end of the game. Referee Dan Marouelli gave Hunter a five-minute major for an accidental high sticking because the Kings&rsquo; Grant Ledyard was cut on the play.Demers explained his motive for the mass benching.&ldquo;For the one game, maybe I can make certain people understand that they can be very important to this hockey club if they can understand the message that we want to deliver.&rdquo;Caron was not informed beforehand because he was at the NHL general managers meeting in Florida. Later, he said that he endorsed the drastic measure.Demers, who benched Federko two seasons ago to fire up his club, called it &ldquo;the toughest decision I ever had to make. I think this is our best win on the road this season&mdash;maybe the best one ever since the new ownership (of Ornest in 1983).&rdquo;Barr, LaVallee, Norwood and Pavese were back on the ice in the Blues&rsquo; next game, a 1-0 home loss to Philadelphia.Rookie Flyer goalie Darren Jensen stopped 48 shots to win a brilliant catchers&rsquo; duel with Blues&rsquo; veteran Greg Millen.It was the best-played game at The Arena all season. And Demers liked what he saw.BLUENOTES&mdash;Harry Ornest announced that director of public relations Susie Mathieu, the linchpin of the Blues&rsquo; non-hockey operations, will be made a vice-president of the club. Mathieu, in her 11th season with the Bines, is generally considered by writers around the league as the best in the business&hellip;Jacques Demers&rsquo; regularseason record in St. Louis was 89-91-25 after 205 games. &#9632;</div>

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Demers’ Mass Benching Makes An Impact

<div class="byline">BY JEFF HUBBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01572/5014110-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&lsquo;WELL, I&rsquo;VE NEVER HEARD OF THAT DUMB RULE.&rsquo;</figcaption></div>DETROIT&mdash;The Michigan Amateur Hockey Association (MAHA) can&rsquo;t stand success.At least, that&rsquo;s the opinion of Peter Karmanos, president of the Detroit Compuware minor hockey organization.Compuware, a system that has produced National Hockey Leaguers Pat LaFontaine, Al lafrate, Craig Wolanin and Mark Hatcher, has decided to withdraw from the minor hockey scene over conflicts with MAHA.&ldquo;It (MAHA) was forcing us to play there (in Michigan),&rdquo; said Karmanos. &ldquo;We would like to play southern Ontario hockey teams of the OMHA but we weren&rsquo;t being allowed.&ldquo;People in Ontario are hockey people and people here just aren&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Jim Rutherford, general manager of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Windsor Compuware Spitfires added, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been very successful. We&rsquo;ve had state and national championships. Everywhere we&rsquo;d go, except Michigan, we were well received.&ldquo;Compuware is looked upon as a good organization, and it is. Other teams always wanted to play us.&ldquo;But as far as Michigan is concerned, it just seems that the more successful you are, the less they want you.&rdquo;Karmanos echoed the sentiment.&ldquo;I think (MAHA) will be happy to see us go. We were innovative and were building a good organization. When you&rsquo;re good, everybody wants to play for you.&rdquo;In the six years that the Compuware system was in existence, it became one of the most respected organizations in minor hockey. Appropriately for Detroit, Compuware was a veritable hockey production line, mass-producing quality players.But critics abound.Chris Coury, president of the rival Little Caesar&rsquo;s hockey organization, is one of them.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of conflicting philosophies,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Compuware wanted the 20 best players in every division. It was run more as a business enterprise than an amateur association. They&rsquo;d run hockey schools, and tried to recruit players any way they could, the parents would have to pay for everything.&ldquo;He (Karmanos) says he wants to get out because of the politics that go on, and that everybody&rsquo;s out to get him.&rdquo;Coury goes so far as to suggest the reason Karmanos wants out has to do with his company&rsquo;s finances.But Karmanos, who operated nine teams at a total cost of $200,000 a year, disagreed.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s an absolutely ludicrous thing to say. I don&rsquo;t want to get into a namecalling contest,&rdquo; said the computer firm president, who has an annual budget of $600,000 for his major junior team. &ldquo;I ran too good of an organization for that, but this is ridiculous. He should come down and check an audited statement. We&rsquo;ve had a record year this year, things have never been better for us.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s because of things like this that we&rsquo;re pulling out.&rdquo;<h2>The Snowbirds &#9632;</h2>

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Compuware Drops Minor Hockey Program

Eric Lamy is a six-year-old who plays both goal and left wing for Farquhar&rsquo;s Dairy in the Novice Tier I division of the Elliot Lake (Ont.) Minor Hockey Association.Since he shares the netminding duties on an every-other-game basis with another player, Eric simply strips off the pads and heads up to the forward line to help out his team, which is coached by Gerry Guillet.After 14 games this season, Eric had a 2.07 goals-against average and three shutouts as a goalie and seven assists as a forward.The 4-foot, 51-pound student at Georges Vanier Separate School has been dubbed the &ldquo;Cabbage Patch Goalie&rdquo; by his teammates.His favorite National Hockey League teams are, surprisingly, the arch-rival Montreal Canadiens and Quebec Nordiques.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02402/5014141-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="560" height="838"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERIC LAMY</figcaption></div>His favorite players are Montreal&rsquo;s Mats Naslund and Chris Chelios and Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky.Eric says his dream is to play for the Montreal Canadiens and wear No. 26. &#9632;

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PLAYER OF WEEK JOFA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03335/5014172-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="720" height="1042"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Hunter has collected more than 200 penalty minutes in all five of his National Hockey League seasons.</figcaption></div>He&rsquo;s a pest.Anyone who&rsquo;s ever played against Dale Hunter will verify that.Try to stickhandle by him, and he&rsquo;ll check you into the boards. Try to discourage his Quebec Nordiques, and he&rsquo;ll rally the troops. Shut down the big guns and he&rsquo;ll poke one into the net instead. Push him, and he&rsquo;ll push you harder.It&rsquo;s the Hunter style&mdash;a style perfected in Petrolia, Ont.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t very big,&rdquo; says Hunter, 25, a smallish 5-foot-9, 190-pound center with the Nordiques, &ldquo;so I just tried to work hard, and forecheck. I guess that&rsquo;s how I got to be labeled a pest.&rdquo;A small, agricultural town in southwestern Ontario with a small petroleum industry, Petro-lia might not be the most likely place to learn hockey.But Hunter, along with brothers Mark, Dave and Ron developed a family love affair with hockey that attracted three of them&mdash;Dale, Mark and Dave&mdash;to the NHL.&ldquo;Actually, it was the oldest one, Ron who got us interested in the game,&rdquo; says Hunter. &ldquo;He was a pretty good Junior A player and we all watched him. I started playing when I was about five or six years old.The Hunters lived on a farm just outside Petrolia proper. Life on the farm had its advantages when lack of skating facilities posed a potential problem.<blockquote class="pullQuote">The three Hunter brothers only came to look upon each other as rivals once they were all in the National Hockey League. Dale is with Quebec, Mark, St. Louis, and Dave, Edmonton.</blockquote>&ldquo;Petrolia only has one arena in town. So when we weren&rsquo;t there we&rsquo;d go out and play on the wheatfield when it froze over.&rdquo;Despite the fact that the brothers all played hockey, there never was much competiton between them. In fact, according to Hunter, the competitive spirit never really entered the picture until all three were in the NHL.&ldquo;It was never a personal thing,&rdquo; says Hunter. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t compete for number of goals scored. We played junior A against each other. It wasn&rsquo;t until Mark was in Montreal that there was any real competition. And even then, it worried our parents more than us. We got used to it. We joked a lot about it.&ldquo;I had a few good coaches, and it (Petrolia) has a pretty good minor hockey system even though it&rsquo;s a really small town. We didn&rsquo;t come from a big town, but we had a good junior B team.&rdquo;After his days in minor hockey, Hunter left the farm in Petrolia and was drafted by the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario League. Before long Hunter was traded to the Sudbury Wolves.During two seasons in the nickel city, Hunter had 76 goals and 195 points in 110 games. He was Quebec&rsquo;s second choice, 41st overall in the 1979 NHL entry draft. &#9632;

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Petrolia Produced The Hunters

<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/f0029-01468/5014203-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="111" height="111"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;It&rsquo;s taken them IO years, but the Winnipeg Jets have finally acquired Bill Derlago, one of the most revered names in nearby Brandon&rsquo;s hockey history.Derlago set Western League records with 96 goals as the center on the vaunted Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; line of Brian Propp, Ray Allison and himself.The Jets, then members of the World jockey Association, made a determined bid to sign the entire line before their draft years.But the deal was aborted. The Jets could not afford them.A gifted center, graced with a scoring touch, Derlago, a 27-year-old product of Birtle, Man., was acquired from the Boston Bruins in exchange for defenseman Wade Campbell, a four-year veteran of the Jets.Campbell, 25. one of the NHL&rsquo;s biggest players at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, was preparing to play his first game in Sherbrooke when he was informed of the trade by general manager John Ferguson.Nicknamed &ldquo;Tree&rdquo; by his Winnipeg teammates. Campbell had one assist in 24 games when the Jets sent him to Sherbrooke last week in the company of Ron Wilson. Dave Silk and Anssi Melametsa.Derlago had played sparingly with the Bruins this season. In 40 games, he had only five goals and 16 assists.&ldquo;Really I don&rsquo;t know why they got me in the first place,&rdquo; said Derlago, referring to the off-season trade that sent Tom Fergus to Toronto Maple Leafs for him. The Bruins use only three centers and they are all quality players.&rdquo;Most of the ice time was divided among Barry Pederson, Ken Linseman and Steve Kasper.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been dressing.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In the last month. I&rsquo;ve had only Jive or six shifts.&rdquo;Derlago cracked a shoulder in three places last season. Joining the Bruins on Oct. 11. he aggravated the injury in the team&rsquo;s first game.&ldquo;My fingers tingled for two weeks,&rdquo; said.Delighted to hear the news of his acquisition was Laurie Boschman, a former teammate with the Leafs and, earlier, as a member of the junior Wheat Kings.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;ll be an asset,&rdquo; said Boschman. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a goal scorer whose had three 30-goal seasons and one 40-goal season in Toronto. The guy can help us.&rdquo;Although he had not spoken to either team two hours after the story broke, Derlago seemed to welcome the news.&ldquo;I know I can play,&rdquo; he said, mokients after returning home from his flaughter&rsquo;s kindergarten play.Derlago&rsquo;s brother-in-law is Jets&rsquo; equipment manager, Jack (Smokey) Stouffer. He and Derlago married sisters. Cindy and Kim Salyn. The Derlagos are expecting their second child in six weeks.At the urging of scout Charlie Hodge, the Jets signed Campbell as a free agent off the campus of the University of Alberta in 1982.Tall, strong, but not particularly fast, he played 185 games with the Jets, scoring nine goals and adding 23 assists.&ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be nothing fancy in that building,&rdquo; said Campbell, noting the compact playing conditions in the fabled Boston Garden. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a small rink which should work to my advantage.&rdquo;Although he goes willingly to Boston, he expressed dismay in being traded from the Jets, the team that had to coax him to turn pro.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very shocked,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When Fergie called me to tell me he had traded me, he said he thought it would work out good for me.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s hard for me to leave the Jets. I&rsquo;m looking forward to making my home in Winnipeg when I have finished.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;The Jets had attracted an average audience of 13,478 fans to 24 home games. Compared to a year ago, the size of the average crowd had increased by 1,200&hellip;After a number of listless games, Thomas Steen was switched to left wing and responded with two goals in a 5-3 win over Buffalo Sabres. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the Thomas Steen of last year,&rdquo; said Barry Long, the Jets&rsquo; coach&hellip;A refreshed Marc Behrend was called up from Sherbrooke after five unbeaten starts in the American League. Using his &ldquo;unbeaten&rdquo; goal pads, he posted a &ldquo;relatively easy&rdquo; win over Buffalo&hellip;Scott Bowman, coach and general manager of the Sabres, said the Jets appeared to play like &ldquo;mice on the road and tigers at home&rdquo;. He was most upset with Jets&rsquo; veteran Mario Marois who enticed Mike Foligno into a misconduct with three minutes to go and the Sabres trailing by one goal. Marois drew the wrath of Foligno by challenging the normally-placid John Tucker to a fight. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think he could think that straight&rdquo; said Bowman. Apparently, it was an old trick the Nordiques used in Quebec. &#9632;</div>

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NHL Trade Winds Brine Billy D. Back Home

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;The Maine Pain has ground the Man of Steel to a standstill.Ray Staszak shakes his head in disgust when he talks about the nagging groin injury that has kept him out of the Adirondack Red Wings&rsquo; lineup for nearly two months.&ldquo;I hurt it Dec. 12 (in a practice) in Maine after a game up there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I tried to come back the next day and it was just no good. So we gave it some rest and some treatment, the whirlpool and some ultrasound. About 10 days later, I tried it again. I tried to go out there and skate. The first day I was a little tentative. The second day I tried it a little harder and it just went.&ldquo;I guess I tried too much and I made it worse and it&rsquo;s taken an awful long time to heal.&rdquo;Staszak, depicted as the Man Of Steel by the University of Illinois-Chicago in pushing his candidacy for the Hobey Baker Award last year, was playing his best hockey of the season when he encountered the groin problem.The night before that practice, he had scored his first pro hat trick to lift the Wings to a 6-6 tie with the Mariners. With nine goals in seven games, he was finally beginning to show the promise that enabled him to receive the biggest contract ever given a National Hockey League rookie.As January turned to February, Staszak was a fulltime patient with no idea when he could return to the lineup.He spent about 10 days during January in Detroit meeting with the Red Wings&rsquo; team physicians. They injected him with cortisone without success. A similar procedure was scheduled by Adirondack&rsquo;s doctors.&ldquo;I guess unless you hit it in the exact area (with the injection) it doesn&rsquo;t help. I guess they missed,&rdquo; Staszak said. &ldquo;They put me on a program where they&rsquo;re trying to build up the muscles around it. Right now, it&rsquo;s still fairly tender. although it does seem like it&rsquo;s improving a little bit. But once I get on the ice, I&rsquo;m very limited. I&rsquo;m very restricted in the motion.&rdquo;Dr. John Bulova, one of the Adirondack team physicians who has been treating Staszak, said that the tom groin muscle generally heals faster.&ldquo;This is a long time for it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen one take this long to get better. It&rsquo;s unusual. The problem is that Ray hurt it and then played with it for about two weeks, thinking it was going to get better. It just got progressively worse. I think he was hurting and then he really just tore it up. &ldquo;Adirondack coach Bill Dineen isn&rsquo;t pressuring Staszak to return too soon, even though the Wings have been shorthanded for much of the season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather have him take another month if he has to and have him ready in March for the stretch drive. I&rsquo;d rather have him really ready,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been trying to skate and he&rsquo;s really having a problem.&rdquo;Time, Staszak has been told, will correct the problem. Patience is something he&rsquo;s starting to run short of.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of taking the time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I made the mistake once before. Bill Dineen has been good about it. He says to make sure you get the thing back to 100 per cent before you give it a try because if you hurt it again then it could be pretty serious.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a frustrating year most of all.&rdquo; Staszak said. &ldquo;Things started really going well. I finally got my act back together where I was playing well and doing the things I was supposed to do. Then something freakish like this happens, especially during practice. It wasn&rsquo;t a motion that was any different from what I usually do every day. I was just breaking hard to the net and the thing went.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something that you really can&rsquo;t explain. I&rsquo;m just trying to take it in stride and keep my spirits up.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Veteran Mike Rogers joined the Nova Scotia Oilers from Edmonton at the start of a three-game road trip and helped them roll to an 8-2 win over Adirondack at Glens Falls. The loss delayed for at least one game Bill Dineen&rsquo;s 100th victory with Adirondack. Dean Hopkins continued to play well for the Oilers. He had two goals against the Wings to extend a point streak to four games (seven point-si&hellip;Goaltender Frank Caprice, who injured his knee Dec. 30, was scheduled to return to Fredericton&hellip;Defensemen Gaston Gingras and John Kordic were recalled to Montreal from Sherbrooke&hellip;Red-hot Moncton, which moved to within a point of second-place Maine with a win over Binghamton, received goaltender Mike Vernon from Calgary&hellip;Alan Stewart was returned to Maine by New Jersey. &#9632;

Man Of Steel Is No Speeding Bullet On Ice

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>HERSHEY&mdash;For awhile it appeared the Southern Division had three tiers.Hershey and Rochester were way ahead at the top. Springfield, Binghamton and St. Catharines packed the middle and Baltimore and New Haven occupied the bottom ranks.And for awhile, it looked like it would stay that way.But as the season headed into its final 20 games, the top clubs were weakening and the middle and bottom clubs were getting stronger. The two-team divsion title race had spread to four, maybe five. Everyone could still be considererd in the playoff chase.&ldquo;I really can&rsquo;t see it staying the way it is,&rdquo; said Hershey president and general manager Frank Mathers. &ldquo;The bottom teams are really gaining. Binghamton and Springfield are coming on strong. Baltimore&rsquo;s not out of it. They&rsquo;ve got (Denis) Herron and (Randy) Hillier now. They had been losing a lot of one-goal games.&rdquo;Mathers didn&rsquo;t have to be told Hershey was fading. Of great concern was the departure of Pierre Larouche, who had been called up to the New York Rangers. Larouche, on loan to Hershey as compensation for the Rangers&rsquo; hiring of exPhiladelphia Flyer assistant Ted Sator as coach, played well in his first couple of games with New York, but Mathers was&rsquo; not ready to force New York into sending a replacement.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very hesitant about bringing anyone in now,&rdquo; said Mathers. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to see what Larouche is going to do first. If you get another player right away, then they (the Rangers) have fulfilled their obligation.&rdquo;Hershey was also missing injured defenseman Kevin McCarthy (out for three more weeks) and steady blueliner Daryl Stanley, who was up with the Flyers. They did have Andre Dore, who was playing very well, and Steve Seguin, an unsung hero up front.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a four-team race,&rdquo; acknowledged Mathers. &ldquo;We had a great team at the start of the year, but now we&rsquo;re just a good team. We&rsquo;re just playing. 500 now. The nice part is that once you get in front, it takes a lot to knock you out.&rdquo;And the Rochester Amerks, with problems of their own, were unable to do that.Mai Davis was called up for the first time this year. Richie Dunn came back but was recalled again. Jacques Cloutier was in Buffalo and playing so well that it apeared he wouldn&rsquo;t be coming back.&ldquo;If they had been winning, they could have passed us,&rdquo; said Mathers of the Amerks. &ldquo;Then again, if we had got it going, we could have been long gone.&rdquo;But it was Binghamton and Springfield who were getting it going. St. Catharines went four games without a loss before dropping a pair. Baltimore looked much better in downing Rochester 4-1. New Haven got some good goaltending from Glenn Healy and added Len Hachbom, who was with Hershey earlier in the year.DOWN SOUTH&mdash;The St. Catharines Saints were nearing a league record for most shorthanded goals in one season. The Saints, headed by Walt Poddubny and Gary McAdam with four apiece, had 19 shorthanded tallies, only three shy of the league mark of 22 set by the 1978-79 Hershey Bears. McAdam holds the AHL record for most shorthanded goals (II. Rochester, 1982-83). Unfortunately for the Saints, Poddubny was recalled by the parent Toronto Maple Leafs and not expected back soon after scoring the winning goal in his first game up with Toronto. To complicate matters, McAdam was also called up. The Saints were an even. 500 under coach John Brophy (17-17-3), who replaced Claire Alexander fa-8)&hellip;New Haven had used 56 players this season&hellip;Springfield goalie Mike Sands, in his first game back from a three-game suspension, put together a stellar effort in a 3-2 win over Hershey. The victory was Springfield&rsquo;s fourth in a row. The roller-coaster Indians had just come off a six-game losing streak. Goaltender John Kemp of Hershey played his first pro game in Springfield the previous Friday and lost 3-2 on a goal by Craig Levie with 17 seconds remaining. Kemp, lured away from Canada&rsquo;s Olympic program, signed a pro contract with the Philadelphia Flyers after the game&hellip;Springfield broadcaster Mike Barack was handcuffed and jailed one hour before the broadcast of a Tribe home game against Maine after making a righthand turn on a red light. Actually, the officers hauled Barack in when they found he hadn&rsquo;t paid the fine for an invalid inspection sticker. Barack made the broadcast with 10 minutes to spare following a 20-minute sentence, thanks to the recognition of a great number of hockey fans who work down at the station&hellip;St. Catharines goalie Allan Bester&rsquo;s streak of 25 straight starts was stopped when Bruce Dowie made an appearance Jan. 29 in a 4-2 loss to New Haven. &#9632;

Race For Pennant Down To 4 Clubs

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>UTICA&mdash;Former baseball great Satchel Paige once said you shouldn&rsquo;t look behind you because something might be gaining on you.When the Mohawk Valley Comets took over first place in the Atlantic Coast League early in December, they made one big mistake. They looked behind themselves.When the Comets took a peek, the Thunderbirds, Golden Blades, Lancers and Slapshots all went right by&mdash;placing them firmly in last place.There were several reasons for the Comets&rsquo; slide. Among them were the loss of No. 1 goalie Shawn Kilroy, a fourth-round draft choice of the Vancouver Canucks, and two long losing streaks, including one which reached seven games.Things got so bad for the Comets at one point that they lost their bus and had to use motor homes to travel to a game in Erie.Comet coach Bill Horton said the worst is over for his club and he is looking for better days ahead.&ldquo;We did go from first to last place in a month, but we&rsquo;re hoping to use that to our advantage,&rdquo; said Horton. &ldquo;We can see what can happen in this league in such a little amount of time so we feel it&rsquo;s not impossible to move up in the standings once again.&rdquo;When Horton looks at his club, he doesn&rsquo;t picture them remaining in last place for long. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t believe we&rsquo;re cellar dwellers, we&rsquo;ve got a lot of talent on this team,&rdquo; he said.The Comet bench boss was pleased to have Kilroy back for duty after he tore a muscle in his shoulder. The recent additions of Jeff Eatough and veteran Ron Carter, along with holdover Dan Lane, gives Horton what he feels are a trio of proven 30-goal scorers.Lane is always a thom in the side of Erie and he proved it again on Jan. 24, when his two goals helped the Comets top the Blades 4-2. The win also ended Mohawk Valley&rsquo;s seven-game losing streak.The Comets went out the following night and gave the first-place Carolina Thunderbirds a real struggle before finally succumbing in overtime 3-2.If those two games were any indication of just how good the Comets can play, then it&rsquo;s the rest of the teams in the league that had better not look behind.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Bill Horton was also pleased with the play of the versatile veteran Dick Popiel. Comet Gasper Paul announced that he will retire and the Comets also lost Mike Thompkins for the season with a hand injury&hellip;New York&rsquo;s Bobby Williams was player of the week for scoring eight goals in four games, but the Slapshots then lost the rookie for four to six weeks with a broken wrist. Williams helped the Slapshots to four straight wins with back-to-back hat tricks and the red-hot forward totaled four hat tricks in seven games giving him 17 goals in 11 contests. Kevin Foster was credited with the game-winning goal in an 8-7 Slapshot shootout win over Erie. Kurt Dade collected a hat trick and Dan Potter, four assists, in the same game on Jan. 16&hellip;Carolina&rsquo;s addition of Bruce Horvath from Mohawk Valley didn&rsquo;t last long. Coach Rick Dudley of the Thunderbirds shipped Horvath to New York to complete a deal for Don Shaw. Carolina goaltender Ray LeBlanc broke an ACHL record with his third shutout&hellip;Andy Cozzi of Carolina tallied four times in a 10-3 blasting of Mohawk Valley on Jan. 19 and Kim Elliott scored a hat trick as the Thunderbirds beat Erie for the eighth straight time on Jan. 17. Cozzi had 21 goals in just 14 games. The T-Birds added Kermit Salfi to the roster along with Bob Dore, who returned after a short retirement. Carolina also dealt defenseman Mark Straub to Erie&hellip;Erie&rsquo;s Todd Bjorkstrand went on a tear with two consecutive hat tricks. Bjorkstrand ripped Mohawk Valley for four goals in a 6-5 win on Jan. 15 and came back the following night with three goals in an 8-7 setback to New York. That gave Bjorkstrand 21 goals in 20 games. Right winger Sylvain Cote returned to the Erie lineup after a 10-game suspension&hellip;The Virginia Lancers acquired Kurt Steinburg from Carolina, but he elected to return. The Lancers did add left winger Billy Kean to their roster. Don McCoy tied a league record by scoring six goals in an 8-4 win over New York. Rob Clavette added six assists. Player-coach Frank Perkins was hoping his club could get over a multitude of injuries which had caused them to play shorthanded much of the past few weeks. &#9632;

Comets Motor Home To Basement

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BILLERICA, Mass.&mdash;If Dana Demole is just a wee bit cautious these days, you can hardly blame him.Demole is a senior goaltender who has been toiling for the University of Lowell for the past three seasons.He began his college career with a splash, but barring a miraculous playoff turnaround by Lowell, he&rsquo;ll exit quietly. Though such a swan-song is possible, Demole doesn&rsquo;t go arond predicting it.&ldquo;Maybe we&rsquo;ll be this year&rsquo;s Providence,&rdquo; said the Burlington, Mass., native, recalling PC&rsquo;s stirring march to the NCAA title game last year on the shoulders of another pint-sized goalie, Chris Terreri. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not ready to say that we will, yet.&rdquo;The Providence team of 12 months ago, however, didn&rsquo;t have to suffer through the longest losing streak in team history, as Lowell just did by dropping nine in a row. Providence could kill penalties and score on the power play. Lowell has done neither with consistency.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is. We&rsquo;ve been in almost every game, same as last year. But last year we were more consistent. This year we just don&rsquo;t seem to have that winning touch yet.&rdquo;Demole, himself, has been battling inconsistency.It wasn&rsquo;t always that way. After being redshirted for a year, he was ECAC Division II rookie of the year, posting a 27-1 record and 2.34 goals-against average. But nobody came calling. No pro scouts. No agents looking to represent him.He&rsquo;s still undrafted, and since Lowell moved up to compete with the big boys in his sophomore year, he no longer has the statistics. Three years of backstopping weaker teams in a stronger league have ballooned his average to 4.0. His record is still a respectable 55-46-6.&ldquo;Dana&rsquo;s a really low-key guy, but he&rsquo;s a very competitive fellow,&rdquo; said coach Bill Riley, who won his 299th career game when Lowell edged Maine 3-2 recently. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll go with him down the stretch. He&rsquo;s really well-schooled. (Assistant coach) Mike Geragosian has been working with him for a long time. He now has got complete control of his body, and with his God-given quickness, he&rsquo;s got good reason to hope for a bright future in hockey.&rdquo;Demole would like to play professional hockey, and after investing 15 years of his life in the game, he&rsquo;s a little puzzled that nobody has approached him.Perhaps people think Demole&rsquo;s freshman achievements were largely attributed to weak opposition.Demole says he&rsquo;s become more of a standup goaltender under Geragosian&rsquo;s tutelage. &ldquo;Because I&rsquo;m 5-foot-7, I&rsquo;ve got to position myself so that I look bigger. That means coming out of the net about six inches farther than a goalie who&rsquo;s 5-foot-10 has to.&rdquo;Lowell has been a major disappointment in the Hockey East. Demole&rsquo;s statistics show improvement on his part despite a drop-off in team play. Last year they had a 4.74 goals-against average while the team compiled a 15-25-2 record. This year Demole was at 4.27, but Lowell had slipped to 8-21.-1.In a 10-6 loss at Colorado College, Demole absorbed a cross-check beneath the face mask and needed 22 stitches to close a cut to his mouth.Two nights later in practice, an errant puck caromed off his mask, re-opening the wound and benching him for a 9-6 loss at Boston College. But he returned three nights later and played both ends of the Maine series.&ldquo;We won those games 4-2 and 3-2, so we really don&rsquo;t have the scoring touch back,&rdquo; said Demole. &ldquo;And we have two more games with Boston University, a team we&rsquo;ve never beaten.&rdquo; &#9632;

The Colleges

It’s Been A Struggle For The Chiefs

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01509/5014399-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="388" height="557"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE GOLDEN Maine</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Right winger Mike Golden helped Maine earn a split of its games with Lowell and New Hampshire as he scored the gamewinning goal against Lowell after counting a goal and assist in a loss to UNH.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02375/5014392-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="389" height="563"><figcaption class="caption-body">SCOTT YEARWOOD St. Lawrence</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Sophomore goaltender Scott Yearwood sparked St. Lawrence University to two ECAC Conference wins including a 3-0 shutout against RPI. Yearwood made a total of 66 saves as he also turned back Vermont 3-1.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03250/5014385-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="394" height="567"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE RUCINSKI Ill-Chicago</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Junior left winger Mike Rucinski led the Illinois-Chicago Flames into sixth place in the CCHA Conference as he notched a hat trick in a sweep of Michigan. Rucinski&rsquo;s three-goal effort helped beat the Wolverines 7-4.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04148/5014378-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="400" height="562"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE MALEY Wisconsin</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Wisconsin center Dave Maley came up with nine scoring points in the Badgers&rsquo; two-game sweep of the Minnesota Gophers as Wisconsin reclaimed third place from Minnesota in the WCHA Conference race. &#9632;

f0032-01

Bauer’S COLLEGE performer of the week

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>POTSDAM, N.Y.&mdash;Okay, college hockey coaches. How many of you guys would like to have Jamie Faile in goal?How many would have wanted Faile in goal four years ago?Are those hands we see coming down? Don&rsquo;t worry about it. You aren&rsquo;t alone. A lot of people gave up on Faile rather than giving him a chance.Clarkson almost gave up on Falle too, but former coach Bill O&rsquo;Flaherty and his successor, Cap Raeder, are both glad they took a chance on the goaltender from Gloucester. Ont.During his four-year career, Faile has been one of the most consistent goaltenders in the Eastern College Athletic Conference. He entered his senior year with a career save percentage of. 887 and a goals-against average of 3.04.During that span, the Golden Knights made two trips to the ECAC championships at the Boston Garden and were in the NCAA Tournament twice.Not bad for a goaltender no one wanted.&ldquo;A lot of teams had talked to me, but no one offered me a scholarship,&rdquo; said Faile. &ldquo;I played Tier 11 hockey in Ottawa (for the Goucester Rangers), but we were horrible and I played poorly and no one really came after me.&rdquo;&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think he was going to be very good,&rdquo; admitted O&rsquo;Flaherty, who-wound up giving Faile a scholarship at the last minute. &ldquo;Both games I went to, he was pulled.&rdquo;But Faile had played well enough the year before, in the Canadian midget championships in Halifax, to offset his junior season.O&rsquo;Flaherty didn&rsquo;t really need another goalie because he had Don Sylvestri in net, but wanted a freshman backup to learn the ropes. Still, he had all but given up on Faile.&ldquo;We had Jamie ranked high on our list, but after seeing him play (for the Rangers), I kind of put him on the back burner,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Flaherty. &ldquo;Then, in our recruiting procedure, we had a boy committed to us who changed his mind and a friend of mine recommended Jamie extremely highly. It was late in the year and we had not found the answer to the puzzle, so we gambled and decided to go with Jamie. It was certainly a positive decision for both parties.&rdquo;What a coup for the Knights. Faile, whose National Hockey League rights are held by the Hartford Whalers, has been a workhorse at Clarkson.He recently played his. 100th career game and although his consistency isn&rsquo;t what it has been for the last three years, he&rsquo;s still one of the top netminders in the ECAC.He had his best year last season, playing in all 21 of Clarkson&rsquo;s ECAC games and finishing second in the league to RPI&rsquo;s Daren Puppa with a 2.72 goals-against average. Even though he led the league in minutes played (1,234), his save percentage was better than that of Puppa or Harvard&rsquo;s Grant Blair.Faile wants to finish his college career with a flourish, and that means eliminating Clarkson&rsquo;s reputation as a team that chokes in the big games.&ldquo;It really seems that we do choke,&rdquo; Faile admitted. &ldquo;Two years ago in the Garden (in the ECAC semi-finals), RPI beat us 6-5 (after Clarkson had built up a 3-1 lead) and last year, Harvard got the winner with 50-odd seconds left. We were just as good as Harvard last year, but only two teams from the ECAC went to the NCAAs, so we stayed home.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played in two tournaments this year, but we still haven&rsquo;t won anything,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;We still have some things to prove.&rdquo;One thing Faile wants to prove is that he can regain the consistency that made him so tough to beat last season. This year has been like a roller coaster ride. He lost two of his first four games and then was in net for three straight ties to come out of the gate with a 2-2-3 record.Typical of Faile&rsquo;s problems was an outstanding 38-save performance in a 3-3 tie with Cornell, followed by a 5-1 loss to Lowell which took only 25 shots. He&rsquo;s been on one game and off the next.Faile has already proved he can play, but he doesn&rsquo;t intend on sitting back on his laurels yet. There&rsquo;s still the little matter of eliminating that choker tag.ECAC NOTES&mdash;Defending ECAC-champion RPI moved into second place, behind Harvard, with a sweep of Vermont. Senior John Carter scored all three of RPTs goals as the Engineers opened the series with a 3-0 win and junior Brian Jopling came off the bench to preserve a 7-6 win the second night&hellip;St. Lawrence came up with its best weekend of the season, sweeping two games from second-ranked Bowling Green at Appleton Arena&hellip;Colgate continued its schizophrenic play. After losing to 2-10 Dartmouth, the Red Raiders rebounded to upset Cornell 5-2. Rejean Boivin and Harold Duvall each had two goals against the Big Red. &#9632;

Knights Don’t Want To Take A Faile Again

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>OXFORD, Ohio&mdash;Bill Davidge doesn&rsquo;t want sympathy.But Miami University&rsquo;s rookie coach would appreciate a goal scorer or two.Davidge&rsquo;s Redskins don&rsquo;t lack for size or speed, but they do lack that allimportant finishing touch.And goaltending? Don&rsquo;t bring up the subject around anybody on the Miami staff.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re so inconsistent there,&rdquo; lamented assistant Mitch Korn, who happens to be the goalie coach. &ldquo;We let in far too many easy goals and it just kills our offense to continually have that happening.&rdquo;Between the two shortcomings&mdash;a lack of basic offense and a lack of reliable defense, mainly in the nets&mdash;Miami is on the outside looking in so far as the Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs go.After dropping two at Lake Superior State in late January, the Redskins were 2-21-1 and 15 points out of the playoffs, with only 12 possible points to be gained. In other words, it&rsquo;s back to the drawing board at Oxford.Only one of the CCHA&rsquo;s nine teams misses the playoffs and Miami is it this season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating,&rdquo; said Davidge. &ldquo;We are not a bad team. We just can&rsquo;t buy a break. We&rsquo;ve lost something like 14 games where we outshot, outplayed and outhit the opponent, but still blew a lead somewhere and got beat. We have trouble scoring and we give up some questionable goals. We play 40 minutes way too often. It all adds up.&rdquo;Miami got both its wins against Illinois-Chicago and the tie against Lake Superior earlier in the season.But the &lsquo;Skins, with six regular-season games left, had the fewest goals scored (83) and the most allowed (136) in the league.There are a lot of reasons why Miami has suffered so this season.The Redskins try to compete with three less scholarships than their counterparts (17, as compared to 20); hockey plays third-or fourth fiddle to the high-profile football and basketball programs at Miami, while hockey is a solid favorite or even the only major sport at some other CCHA schools and; Davidge, Kom and assistant Mike Norton spend a lot of time in the classroom, at least compared to their CCHA counterparts.Oxford, less than an hour north of Cincinnati, is far off the beaten path when it comes to recruiting, visitations and &ldquo;hockey environment&rdquo;.So, Davidge and his staff rely on selling recruits on themselves, Miami as an outstanding academic institution (which it is) and the chance that a recruit might play a lot more at Miami than at a more successful hockey school.&ldquo;Hey, we&rsquo;ve got some good players and we aren&rsquo;t far from being a very good team,&rdquo; continued Davidge. &ldquo;If we could just put together a couple of wins right now, we&rsquo;d increase our confidence and build on it. But losing&rsquo;s like winning; it can snowball on you. We&rsquo;ve lost a lot of close games this year.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s tough, but Davidge is philosophical about his job.&ldquo;I learned last year about this time, when I lost my wife (Leann, the Miami U. women&rsquo;s tennis coach, who died in a car crash) that the game is just that, a game. There are much more important things in life. But the game is no fun when you can&rsquo;t win at it. We&rsquo;re working hard to improve our status, but it isn&rsquo;t easy. It&rsquo;ll take time.&rdquo;CCHATTER&mdash;Dan Dorion, Western Michigan&rsquo;s scoring ace, had five goals and two assists against Ohio State in an 11-7 victory, becoming the fourth CCHA player this season to score five times in a game. His three assists in a 6-4 loss the second night gave him 10 points on the weekend, player-of-the-week status and lifted him past Paul Pooley&rsquo;s league assists record of 156 by three&hellip;Michigan&rsquo;s Brad Jones surpassed the 60-point mark in a 5-3 Game 2 win over Michigan State. Jones is the first Michigan player to hit that point plateau in a season since Murray Eaves did it in 1979-80. It&rsquo;s also the first time M has beaten MSU twice in one season since 1980-81&hellip;Jeff Parker scored three goals for MSU in the Michigan series, two while shorthanded. &#9632;

Scorers At Top Of Davidge’s Shopping List

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>GRAND FORKS&mdash;If the race belongs to the swiftest, the University of North Dakota was long ago out of the picture in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.But if the old tale of the tortoise overhauling the hare in the long run has any merit, then there&rsquo;s hope for the UND Fighting Sioux.Few teams struggled more in the first half of the season than the Sioux, which had difficulty cracking. 500 in the rugged WCHA race, losing a handful of games in which they outshot and outplayed opponents, but came out on the losing end.Not lately. Though still in sixth place in the eight-team WCHA, the Sioux started playing like a team which could move higher and one that definitely could make noise come the playoffs.Ail UND did the past three weekends was knock off three nationally-ranked teams in a row, first splitting with Minnesota-Duluth, then sweeping a pair of games each from Wisconsin and Boston University, two of the country&rsquo;s better collegiate outfits.North Dakota&rsquo;s whole season turned around in the series with Duluth. Down 6-1 at one point and still trailing 7-3 with under three minutes to go, the Sioux rattled off four goals in two minutes, 41 seconds to tie the game at 7-7, then won it 50 seconds into sudden-death overtime on freshman defenseman Ian Kidd&rsquo;s goal.Sweeps of Wisconsin and BU won new-found respect for the Sioux. When Duluth Coach Mike Sertich was asked if the Sioux looked like a pretty good sixthplace team, he said &ldquo;They look like a pretty good first-place team, when they play like that.&rdquo;And BU Coach Jackie Parker called North Dakota the best team he&rsquo;s seen all season. &ldquo;They dominated us in every phase of the game,&rdquo; he said.The Sioux, carried by the line of Brian Williams, Bob Joyce and Chris Jensen all season, had found balance in their offense as well as better goaltending from Greg Strome and Scott Brower.As a result, the Sioux were on a five-game winning streak and within a point of fifth-place Northern Michigan. The Sioux was so hot and confident that it was looking towards Wisconsin and Minnesota, who share third place.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t make hay early in the season when we had the chance to,&rdquo; Sioux coach Gino Gasparini said. &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re trying to make it up.&rdquo;They were doing a good job of it, outscoring opponents 37-20 in that stretch of five games, averaging 7.4 goals per game.North Dakota&rsquo;s hot streak had caught the attention of the national pollsters as well. The most recent national poll had UND ranked eighth with Minnesota-Duluth, Denver, Minnesota and Wisconsin occupying the top four spots in a poll dominated by the WCHA.Whether UND can crack the first division and earn home-ice advantage in the first round of the league playoffs remained to be seen.Perhaps Brian Williams, one of UND&rsquo;s captains and leading scorers, put it all in perspective. &ldquo;It really doesn&rsquo;t matter where we finish,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The way we&rsquo;re playing now, we can beat any team in the country.&rdquo;WCHA NOTES&mdash;Denver put the clamps on Northern Michigan&rsquo;s Gary Emmons recently to snap his consecutive-game scoring streak at 18 while DU&rsquo;s Dallas Gaume ran his streak to 13&hellip;Duluth&rsquo;s Matt Christensen had moved into the No. 2 spot on the all-time scoring list for the school with 215 career points, second only to Dan Lempe&rsquo;s (1976-80) record 222&hellip;Minnesota&rsquo;s Pat Micheletti is the school&rsquo;s second leading all-time scorer now with 242 points. He&rsquo;s still far behind John Mayasich. who had 298 while playing for the Gophers from 1951-55. &#9632;

Fighting Sioux On The Warpath

<h2>CCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. FEB. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01523/5014604-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="534" height="300"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 24ILL-CHICAGO 5 AT FERRIS STATE 3MIAMI 2 AT LAKE SUPERIOR 6MICHIGAN 5 AT MICH STATE 7OHIO STATE 5 AT W. MICHIGAN 7BOWLING GREEN 2 AT ST. LAWRENCE 5SAT. JAN. 25ILL-CHICAGO 8 AT FERRIS STATE 3MIAMI 5 AT LAKE SUPERIOR 6MICH STATE 3 AT MICHIGAN 5OHIO STATE 6 AT W. MICHIGAN 4BOWLING GREEN 5 AT ST. LAWRENCE 8FRI. JAN. 31BOWLING GREEN 5 AT W. MICHIGAN 7LAKE SUPERIOR 4 AT FERRIS STATE 1MICHIGAN 2 AT ILL-CHICAGO 4OHIO STATE 5 AT MIAMI 5NO. ARIZONA 2 AT MICH. STATE 12SAT. FEB. 1BOWLING GREEN 2 AT W. MICHIGAN 5LAKE SUPERIOR 3 AT FERRIS STATE 7MIAMI 3 AT OHIO STATE 4MICHIGAN 4 AT ILL-CHICAGO 7NO. ARIZONA 3 AT MICH. STATE 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02407/5014597-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="534" height="328"></div><h2>WCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. FEB. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03309/5014590-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="528" height="267"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SAT. JAN. 18LOWELL 6 AT COLORADO COLL 10NEW HAMPSHIRE 3 AT DENVER 8N. MICHIGAN 7 AT BOSTON UNIV. 8NORTHEASTERN 5 AT MICH TECH 4MINNESOTA 4 AT BOSTON COLL 8WISCONSIN 4 AT NO. DAKOTA 6MIN-DULUTH 6 AT PROVIDENCE 0TUE. JAN. 21AIR FORCE 2 AT DENVER 5FRI. JAN. 24DENVER 4 AT N. MICHIGAN 5MICH. TECH 3 AT BOSTON COLL 6PROVIDENCE 1 AT MINNESOTA 4NO. DAKOTA 7 AT BOSTON UNIV. 4WISCONSIN 7 AT COLO. COLL 5NORTHEASTERN 3 AT MIN-DULUTH 4SAT. JAN. 25DENVER 4 AT N. MICHIGAN 2MICH. TECH 3 AT BOSTON COLL. 5PROVIDENCE 3 AT MINNESOTA 5NO. DAKOTA 8 AT BOSTON UNIV. 3WISCONSIN 2 AT COLO. COLL 1NORTHEASTERN 2 AT MIN-DULUTH 5FRI. JAN. 31COLO. COLL 3 AT MICH. TECH 5N. MICHIGAN 8 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 4MINNESOTA 4 AT WISCONSIN 7PROVIDENCE 1 AT NORTH DAKOTA 4MIN-DULUTH 2 AT DENVER 4 SAT. FEB. 1COLO. COLL 3 AT MICH. TECH 2N. MICHIGAN 6 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 3MINNESOTA 4 AT WISCONSIN 6PROVIDENCE 2 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5MIN-DULUTH 4 AT DENVER 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04214/5014583-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="537" height="329"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. FEB. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05168/5014576-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="536" height="239"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 21MAINE 6 AT BOWDOIN 4N. HAMPSHIRE 1 AT BOSTON UNIV 9BOSTON COLLEGE 9 AT LOWELL 6FRI. JAN. 24MICH. TECH 3 AT BOSTON COLL 6NO. DAKOTA 7 AT BOSTON UNIV 4MAINE 2 AT LOWELL 4NORTHEASTERN 3 AT MIN-DULUTH 4PROVIDENCE 1 AT MINNESOTA 4SAT. JAN. 25PROVIDENCE 3 AT MINNESOTA 5NO. DAKOTA 8 AT BOSTON UNIV 3MAINE 2 AT LOWELL 3NORTHEASTERN 2 AT MIN-DULUTH 5SUN. JAN. 26MICH TECH 3 AT BOSTON COLL 5MON. JAN. 27MAINE 3 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 6WED. JAN. 29BOSTON UNIV 8 AT LOWELL 5THU. JAN. 30BOSTON COLL 5 AT NORTHEASTERN 8FRI. JAN. 31N. MICHIGAN 8 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 4PROVIDENCE 1 AT NORTH DAKOTA 4SAT. FEB. 1N. MICHIGAN 6 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 3PROVIDENCE 2 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5LOWELL 2 AT MAINE 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06142/5014569-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="531" height="385"></div><h2>ECAC</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. FEB. 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07131/5014562-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="533" height="388"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SUN. JAN. 26DARTMOUTH 7 AT COLGATE 3TEAM CANADA 6 AT CORNELL 2MERRIMACK 1 AT PRINCETON 6TUE. JAN. 28WILLIAMS 3 AT ARMY 9WED. JAN. 29COLGATE 5 AT CORNELL 2FRI. JAN. 31BROWN 4 AT DARTMOUTH 5YALE 2 AT HARVARD 3CLARKSON 4 AT RPI 6ST. LAWRENCE 3 AT VERMONT 1PRINCETON 4 AT COLGATE 5IONA 0 AT ARMY 10SAT. FEB. 1YALE 4 AT DARTMOUTH 3BROWN 2 AT HARVARD 10ST. LAWRENCE 3 AT RPI 0CLARKSON 5 AT VERMONT 1SUN. FEB. 2PRINCETON 1 AT CORNELL 1<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08123/5014555-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="531" height="301"></div><h2>USHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. FEB. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09111/5014548-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="529" height="327"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 28NORTH IOWA 2 AT ST. PAUL 4FRI. JAN. 31THUNDER BAY 5 AT NORTH IOWA 8MADISON 5 AT ST. PAUL 6SIOUX CITY 9 AT WATERLOO 3SAT. FEB. 1SIOUX CITY 8 AT DUBUQUE 5ROCHESTER 6 AT DES MOINES 4MADISON 5 AT NORTH IOWA 2THUNDER BAY 5 AT WATERLOO 10SUN. FEB. 2SIOUX CITY 4 AT MADISON 3THUNDER BAY 1 AT ST. PAUL 6DES MOINES 2 AT DUBUQUE 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10108/5014541-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="532" height="299"></div><h2>OUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. FEB. 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-11101/5014534-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="536" height="418"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDWED. JAN. 29WESTERN 0 AT LAURIER 4RYERSON 4 AT TORONTO 7RMC 1 AT QUEEN&rsquo;S 4THU. JAN. 30MCMASTER 1 AT GUELPH 5FRI. JAN. 31WATERLOO 2 AT TORONTO 6SAT. FEB. 1LAURIER 7 AT QUEEN&rsquo;S 5BROCK 5 AT RMC 4LAURENTIAN 3 AT YORK 12RYERSON 3 AT WESTERN 6TORONTO 2 AT McMASTER 3SUN. FEB. 2LAURIER 7 AT RMC 3LAURENTIAN 3 AT YORK 5BROCK 6 AT QUEEN&rsquo;S 8RYERSON 4 AT WINDSOR 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1297/5014527-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="535" height="327"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. FEB. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1388/5014520-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="531" height="270"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 31MANITOBA 6 AT BRANDON 8REGINA 0 AT SASKATCHEWAN 5CALGARY 8 AT ALBERTA 4SAT. FEB. 1UBC 3 AT LETHBRIDGE 2MANITOBA 5 AT BRANDON 2SASKATCHEWAN 2 AT REGINA 6CALGARY 6 AT ALBERTA 5SUN. FEB. 2UBC 2 AT LETHBRIDGE 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1484/5014513-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="532" height="386"></div><h2>AUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. FEB. 5)<h3>MACADAM DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1580/5014506-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="532" height="179"></div><h3>KELLY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1679/5014499-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="534" height="152"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. JAN. 29MT. ALLISON 0 AT UPEI 11ST. F. XAVIER 5 AT ST. MARY&rsquo;S 3DALHOUSIE 11 AT ACADIA 3SAT. FEB. 1MT. ALLISON 2 AT DALHOUSIE 7UPEI 8 AT ST. THOMAS 5SUN. FEB. 2DALHOUSIE 6 AT ST. F. XAVIER 3UPEI 3 AT UNB 1MT. ALLISON 5 AT ACADIA 6ST. THOMAS 1 AT MONCTON 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1772/5014492-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="532" height="269"></div><h2>QUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. FEB. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1868/5014485-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="532" height="180"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 28McGILL 6 AT CONCORDIA 6FRI. JAN. 31T-RIVIERES 4 AT OTTAWA 3McGILL 3 AT CHICOUTIMI 5SUN. FEB. 2McGILL 4 AT CHICOUTIMI 5OTTAWA 5 AT T-RIVIERES 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1965/5014478-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="533" height="382"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

Bauer COLLEGE ScoreBoarD

<div class="byline">BY CLAUDE SCILLEY</div>TORONTO&mdash;A few people did some snickering last autumn.As the usual complement of teams struggled through the first part of their Ontario Universities Athletic Association hockey schedules, there were folks who were quite happy to see Toronto Blues among them.The Blues long have been the standard by which university teams in Ontario have measured themselves. Four consecutive first-place finishes&mdash;79-4-7 in regular-season play and two league titles in that time&mdash;and a national championship in 1984 are the most recent reasons why.As Blues struggled to a 4-3 start, losing every time they met a contending opponent, it was a relief to learn that University of Toronto could ice a team that was mortal.Maybe.The Blues have spent the last month regaining the respect they lost in the early going. Eight consecutive wins in league play and two successful tournament efforts thrust the Blues back into the thick of the OUAA pennant race and into their accustomed spot in the national rankings.Paul Titanic, in his first winter as head coach of the varsity squad, recalled a non-conference game before Christmas in Ithaca, N.Y., where the Blues tied Cornell 2-2, as the point when his team began to show some life.&ldquo;It was really the first game where I thought we had a great team effort,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Though we tied, I thought we played very well.&rdquo;At about the same time, Titanic dissolved his top forward line. Veterans Phil Drouillard, Don McLaughlin and exOlympian Darren Lowe had been playing together, but there was no balance to the attack.The results have been impressive.Shortly after the game with Cornell, the Blues beat Wilfrid Laurier in their last pre-Christmas conference game. In two tournaments during the holidays, the Blues beat Clarkson, and then Bowling Green (then ranked No. 2 in the U.S.) in triple overtime to win a tournament at Lake Placid. Next were two victories in three games at an international tournament in British Columbia.Titanic said that part of the team&rsquo;s early-season difficulty could be traced to the problems a new coach and a veteran team have in getting used to each other.&ldquo;That was a big part of it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They had a new, young head coach&hellip;and it takes awhile to realize that there&rsquo;s only one person in charge. A lot of guys in the beginning thought we were going to have a big year and they had to realize that they&rsquo;d have to work hard to win.&ldquo;Some veteran players thought they&rsquo;d just have to go out on th ice and win. Now it&rsquo;s a lot better.&rdquo;Of course, Titanic is quick to note, there&rsquo;s no better tonic for a team&rsquo;s ailing attitude than winning. In Toronto&rsquo;s case, injuries have given seldom-used players a chance to play, amplifying the effect.While the Blues had scored eight goals or more in five of their last seven games. Titanic said the key to his team&rsquo;s success is improved team defense, from goaltender Kevin Hamlin out, and improved special teams.In league play, Toronto had given up just 2.26 goals per game. In the last seven games before Jan. 27, the Blues allowed only 10 goals, four of them in a 5-4 win over Western.The power of Toronto&rsquo;s power play was obvious in a Jan. 22 game against Brock, when the Blues scored on seven of eight man-advantage situations en route to a 9-1 win. Toronto had been scoring on 36 per cent of its power plays and killing 89 per cent of its penalties.Besides Drouillard, McLaughlin and Lowe, key players for Toronto included defensemen Ken Duggan who, according to Titanic, is &ldquo;one of the best defensemen in Canadian university hockey.&rdquo;Others were sophomore Mike Millotte (41 points in 31 games), 5-foot-6 forward Dave Bullock, an outstanding powerplay performer who had 29 points in 14 conference games and rookie Mike Kala-paca. formerly of the Streetsville Derbys and Sheridan College, who had 14 goals in 15 league games.NOTES&mdash;Brock Badger forward Dave Kuchark was terrorizing opposition defenses. In the six games since Christmas, Kucharek had 22 points, and had seven-point games in back-to-back weekends in mid-January&hellip;Brock&rsquo;s Paul Ritchie scored five goals and Gord Davy of Laurentian scored four goals as the Voyageurs defeated Brock 11-9 in Sudbury on Jan. 26. It was the second weekend in a row Brock was involved in a shootout. Eight days earlier, Badgers prevailed at home over Queen&rsquo;s 129&hellip;Goals by Tom Van Natter and Greg Rolston 30 seconds apart with less than seven minutes to play gave No. 3-ranked York a 3-2 win over Western Mustangs on Jan. 23. The Mustangs, whose victims this year have included York, twice, Toronto and No. 1-ranked Alberta, lost three of four after cracking the top 10 for the first time the week of Jan. 13&hellip;Bob Dean had five points as Laurier whipped McMaster 10-3, Jan. 15&hellip;Rich-get-richer Dept.: Wilfrid Laurier, not ranked lower than sixth since November, already had an all-star goaltender in John Sheppard. After Christmas the Golden Hawks added Mike Moffat, who was a member of Canada&rsquo;s gold medalwinning national junior team in 1982 and joined the Boston Bruins for the playoffs in 1983. Moffat had been in school since January, 1985, and became eligible one year after retirement from professional hockey. In Moffat&rsquo;s debut, the Hawks were beaten 7-5 by Brock. One week later Moffat beat Guelph 8-3&hellip;Freshman Steve Linseman of Waterloo continued to lead the league with 46 points. With seven games to play, he was on a pace that would enable him to tie the league single-season scoring record of 63 points, set by Paul Stothart of Queen&rsquo;s in 1981&hellip;Queen&rsquo;s Golden Gaels, winners of only one of their first 14 games, were showing life. They were 2-2-1 in conference play since the end of November. Robb Wade was hot for Queen&rsquo;s, with 11 points in three games through Jan. 27&hellip;Steve Molaski had a five-point game but Royal Military College dropped a 9-7 decision to Army in their annual meeting Jan. 25. The RMC Red-men hold a 26-25-4 advantage in the 62-year-old series, which the schools bill as the oldest continuing international intercollegiate series in North America. &#9632;

Toronto Emerges From Case Of The Blues

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01495/5014673-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="388" height="553"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN SHEPPARD Laurier</figcaption></div><h2>OUAA</h2>Junior netminder John Sheppard came up big for the Laurier Golden Hawks as he led them to three straight wins enabling Laurier to grab a share of first place with York. Sheppard blanked Western 4-0 among the victories.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02393/5014666-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="384" height="555"><figcaption class="caption-body">TERRY JONES Calgary</figcaption></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>The Calgary Dinosaurs moved closer to league-leading Alberta by sweeping a two-game series from the Golden Bears 8-4 and 6-5 with sophomore center Terry Jones leading the way. Jones counted seven points in the two wins.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03311/5014659-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="391" height="554"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARC GERVAIS Trois-Rivieres</figcaption></div><h2>QUAA</h2>Right winger Marc Gervais of Trois-Rivieres took matters into his own hands in the home-and-home showdown series with Ottawa Gee-Gees as he scored the gamewinning goal in both contests. He had eight points in all. &#9632;

f0035-01

Bauer’s university performer OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>PETERBOROUGH&mdash;Coach Dick Todd was somewhat downcast when he packed for Peterborough after the Ontario League lost both games in the all-star series against the Quebec League.At least there was great news, good news and some not-so-good news awaiting him in the Petes&rsquo; office to perk his spirits.The great news is that the Petes led the OHL and Leyden Division with a 30-152 record. And in a move designed to bolster the Petes&rsquo; title hopes, they acquired Graeme Bonar from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in exchange for Brad Aitken and future considerations. Bonar, a Montreal Canadien draft pick, scored 66 goals last season and was leading the Greyhounds this season, with 33 goals and 58 points in 38 games.The good news was left winger Glen Seabrooke was about ready to rejoin the Petes following surgery in November to have a benign tumor removed from his pelvis.The not-so-good?The Petes will get another of their stars&mdash;captain Randy Burridge&mdash;back from Boston Bruins. But it won&rsquo;t happen until the Bruins are knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs and that might mean the Petes have to wait until Memorial Cup time in Portland&mdash;if they get that far themselves.The agreement reached at a meeting involving the Petes&rsquo; management, Bruins&rsquo; general manager Harry Sinden and OHL commissioner Dave Branch has arranged that Burridge will be eligible to return to junior at any time.He is not bound by the same rules and regulations governing those juniors signed by National Hockey League teams before playing in the NHL. Burridge first appeared on an amateur tryout basis after being drafted 157th overall this past summer.Seabrooke, 18, is feeling much better these days.The Petes&rsquo; first-round pick in the 1984 midget draft and the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; first pick in the 1985 NHL entry draft, Seabrooke has been out of the lineup almost a full year because of the medical problem.Last January, Seabrooke began to experience pain in his pelvis and the problem was diagnosed as a pulled groin. As his condition deteriorated, Seabrooke underwent a CATscan and was told he might be suffering from a stress fracture. Three months later, a second CATscan revealed the truth.He had a tumor.&ldquo;Before, when I had the first CATscan, it (the tumor) wasn&rsquo;t large enough to see,&rdquo; Seabrooke recalled. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why it looked like a stress fracture.&ldquo;It was pretty shocking when I was told but then again I had known there was something wrong fora long time. By that time, I was ready to accept anything. Knowing it was not cancerous, that was quite a relief.&rdquo;Philadelphia specialist Dr. John R. Gregg performed the surgery.The 6-foot-2 Seabrooke, who had 21 goals and 13 assists as a rookie with the Petes, has dropped from 190 pounds to 168 while under rehabilitation. He was skating daily with the Petes to build stamina and conditioning with a target date of Feb. 6 against Toronto Marlies for his return.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been frustrating to sit out as much as I have,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The only thing I could do was look to the future and try to remain positive. You know, people often have to deal with things like this later in life. I think it&rsquo;s very important I&rsquo;ve learned to handle this type of situation at such a young age.&ldquo;My timing is getting better each day along with my feel for the puck. There&rsquo;s no sense going back too early, it would only lead to trouble.&rdquo;At the all-star break, the Petes continued to roll along despite injuries to several key players and the loss of Burridge and Seabrooke. At home, they had been almost unbeatable with the OHL&rsquo;s best record of 18-2-2. One of the reasons was excellent goaltending from Kay Whitmore (2.54) and Ron Tugnutt (2.72), who were 1-2 in the league.Goaltending, defense, defensive-minded forwards, scoring balance&hellip;the Petes seem to have it all. Darren Treloar and Mark Teevens were leading the team in scoring with 58 and 50 points, respectively, and 10 forwards were into double figures in goals.In addition, winger Rob Murray was getting rave reviews as one of the best defensive players in the OHL in several years.It wasn&rsquo;t long after Ontario lost 11-4 and 6-5 to Quebec that the post-mortems could be heard in most OHL cities.The Ontario team, coached by Todd and Guelph&rsquo;s Jacques Martin, seemed convinced it realized much too late the importance of the series. It hit home for many as the dejected Ontario players watched the stars of junior hockey in Quebec parade the Quebec flag around the ice.&ldquo;It hurt to see (the flag),&rdquo; said forward Shayne Corson, who summed up what many OHLers felt. &ldquo;Maybe we didn&rsquo;t realize the importance of this until too late. They wanted it more and maybe we played like all-stars play. We could have played better.&rdquo;Some felt the Quebec stars gave Ontario a skating clinic in the two games.Still others felt Ontario was short on speed and experience on defense. Todd noted some of the OHL&rsquo;s best defensemen are in the NHL&mdash;among them Bob Halkidis, Craig Wolanin and Kevin Hatcher.The most frequently-asked question was: Did the best team win?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel that,&rdquo; Branch said. &ldquo;I felt we&rsquo;d win both games. I don&rsquo;t say that with feelings of sour grapes but our team got off to a slow start in Ottawa and maybe we underestimated the opponent. Coming into Hull and into this atmosphere, it was a tough test for us.&ldquo;What we saw was good hockey and nobody&rsquo;s more disappointed than the players. Given the experience we had in the two games, it&rsquo;s only going to allow us to approach the series next year in a different frame of mind.&ldquo;Maybe we&rsquo;ll be the one with something to prove.&rdquo; &#9632;

The Juniors

Petes’ News Great. Good. Not-So-Good

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01472/5014742-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="538" height="583"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY ROBERTS Guelph</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The Guelph Platers are riding high this season and newcomer Gary Roberts is making a big contribution.Roberts, a draft pick of the Calgary Flames, was traded by the Ottawa 67s to Guelph this season and the move has paid off for Guelph. Roberts was named OHL Player of the Week after collecting six points.The Guelph left winger, who will get a serious look from the Flames next season, had 61 points to lead the team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02358/5014735-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="565" height="577"><figcaption class="caption-body">LARRY DYCK Seattle</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>Playing with a struggling hockey club is tough, but overage goaltender Larry Dyck is making the best of the situation.Dyck, a 20-year-old, has been striving to keep the Seattle Thunderbirds in contention. In a three-game span he allowed but five goals, posted a 1.67 GAA and shut out Spokane 2-0 to earn the nod as WHL Player of the Week.It has been a tough year for Dyck just the same. His GAA had ballooned to 5.06 and won-lost record was 13-19.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03284/5014728-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="562" height="578"><figcaption class="caption-body">LUC ROBITAILLE Hull</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>In years to come, Luc Robitaille will look back upon the week of Jan. 27 with fond memories.The 19-year-old Los Angeles draft choice was not only selected as the QMJHL Player of the Week but he scored a game-winning goal as the Quebec League allstars swept their Ontario League counterparts.Robitaille, who collected nine points, including five goals for Hull in league play, also picked up nine points as the QMJHL beat the OHL 11-4 and 6-5.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

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MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>HULL&mdash;The Quebec League shouldn&rsquo;t expect a frenzy of scouting as a result of two-game victory over the Ontario League in the inaugural Challenge Cup all-star series.But it can expect a closer look after beating the heavily-favored OHL allstars 11-4 before 3,809 spectators in Ottawa and 6-5 in front of 3.611 fans the following night in Hull.&ldquo;Anybody who says they&rsquo;re not surprised by an 11-4 score is lying,&rdquo; said former NHL goaltending great Lome (Gump) Worsley, now scouting for Minnesota. &ldquo;Quebec just outskated them.&rdquo;QMJHL officials sometimes act as if Kouts show up in their buildings with the frequency of Halley&rsquo;s Comet. Only 15 QMJHL players were drafted in 1985, less than U.S colleges and high schools and tier II junior hockey.But the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau and the individual teams comb the circuit for talent.&ldquo;Jim Gregory (Bureau Director) told me the NHL scouting system will be looking harder, we&rsquo;re on the hockey map now,&rdquo; said QMJHL president Dr. Guy Morissette of Hull.But the primary impact of the win will be felt within the league itself.&ldquo;The inferiorty complex the league has had has been overcome,&rdquo; Morissette said. &ldquo;Not just in the players but in the owners. Our game officials proved themselves, too. It was good for junior hockey in Canada. Relations with the OHL are improving and I&rsquo;ve been talking privately with (OHL commissioner) Dave Branch about a mixed schedule.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve learned something,&rdquo; said Branch. &ldquo;Our friends in Quebec are to be reckoned with. The players we had were our best in the judgment of the Roaches. Next time, we might have to approach this thing with more intensity.&rdquo;The series also helped tear down some sterotypes about the QMJHL&mdash;namely its reputation for no defense, no size and no discipline. Superior speed and puckhandling combined with an experienced defense that moved the puck out of its own end well made the difference.That and the fact the OHL took the QMJHL too lightly despite having two practices before the first game. The QMJHL scheduled two league games the previous night involving 11 all-stars. Four Laval Titan players arrived at 2:45 a.m. and the team&rsquo;s on-ice preparation consisted of a quick shooting drill.But the QMJHL got strong goaltending from Drummondville Voltigeurs&rsquo; Vincent Riendeau in the first game and an 18-point night from the unit of Laval&rsquo;s Jocelyn Lemieux and Hull Olympique linemates Luc Robitaille and Guy Rouleau. Lemieux had three goals and three assists, Robitaille two goals and five assists and Rouleau two goals and three assists.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s time people stopped lifting their noses at Quebec players,&rdquo; said QMJHL coach Pat Burns of Hull.Game two bore little resemblance to opening night.The OHL team came out hitting and rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the third period on two goals by Hamilton&rsquo;s Brad Dalgamo. Robitaille scored the winner with a minute remaining and the crowd did a rousing version of &ldquo;the Wave&rdquo;. Lemieux and Drummondville&rsquo;s Daniel Vincelette carried a Quebec flag around the rink following the win.The series was arranged as a one-shot affair but it&rsquo;s success with all 21 teams in attendance demands its survival.Some feathers, however, were ruffled at the joint banquet for the leagues before the second game in Hull when impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon (who has made an appearance on the Johnny Carson Show) did his entire act in French.Jim Rutherford, general manager of the Windsor Spitfires, was among those upset by the unilingual performance, saying, &ldquo;It was rude. rude, rude.&rdquo;&ldquo;I thought at least some of the show would be in English.&rdquo; said Charlie Henry, Hull Olympiques&rsquo; director of operations and banquet organizer.The rest of the banquet was conducted in both French and English. &#9632;

Quebec Surprise Victors In All-Star Series

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>PRINCE ALBERT&mdash;Are the Prince Albert Raiders feeling the heat of defending their first Western League championship?The answer won&rsquo;t be revealed until playoff time but some clues may be surfacing as the Memorial Cup champions hit the home stretch of the 1985-86 regular-season schedule.Some say there are chinks in the Raiders&rsquo; armor.For instance. Prince Albert is not invincible at the Communiplex&mdash;the club had suffered six of its 11 losses as of Jan. 27 on home ice&mdash;and scoring punch, at times, had been waning. The injury bug had bitten, too.Prince Albert fell from the top of the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League heap on Jan. 20. The Raiders played second fiddle, however briefly, to division-rival Medicine Hat Tigers, who were mere percentage points ahead in the battle for national bragging rights. Prince Albert did bounce back the next week to regain top spot in the rankings.The Raiders had nearly dropped as many games as they did in the entire 1984-85 season, when their 58-11-3 mark was third best in league history.Add the fact Regina and Saskatoon Blades had demonstrated the ability to knock off the Raiders and it would seem Prince Albert is destined to relinquish its league crown.Don&rsquo;t bet on it.Despite slipping from grace in some critic&rsquo;s eyes, the consensus is that the Raiders will be there again in the end. The reasoning is simple&mdash;they have a good nucleus of talent which plays like parts of a well-oiled machine under the direction of Terry Simpson, perhaps the best junior coach in Canada.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve still got a good club,&rdquo; said Kamloops coach Ken Hitchcock, whose Blazers fell 6-4 to Prince Albert in a Jan. 24 rematch of last year&rsquo;s league finalists. &ldquo;Whoever beats them will have to put up a hell of a fight. I&rsquo;d like to see what&rsquo;s left of a team that beats them.&rdquo;Simpson said the nature of the beast this season in the eight-team Eastern Division is a reason for concern.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s so much feeling the heat as it is the situation is a little different in our division,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The teams out here are closer than they were last year and it&rsquo;ll be a very close race right down to the wire.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s right. The Tigers were just three points behind the Raiders with a 32-12 mark as of Jan. 27. Prince Albert was at 33-10-1 while Regina and Saskatoon were in a battle for third place with 29-17 and 27-17-2 records, respectively. The torrid pace of the race would seem to apply extra pressure.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s pressure&mdash;we&rsquo;re just not playing very well,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;We felt at the start of the season we were in a rebuilding year. When we won those 15 in a row at the start people started to read too many things into our team.&rdquo;Yet. just when it seems the Raiders might be ripe for the picking they get &bull; excellent efforts from one line or another. In the long-awaited Jan. 24 showdown with Kamloops, the trio of Ryan Stewart, Dale McFee and Steve Gotass showed the way.by the Blazers in the blockbuster Nov. 8 trade which landed Kamloops forward Ken Morrison and defenseman Don Schmidt, fired three goals and collected two assists. McFee had two goals and three assists while Gotaas had a goal and four helpers.Stewart, a 1984 first-round draft choice of the Winnipeg Jets, has adapted nicely to his new surroundings. Although he can&rsquo;t match Morrison&rsquo;s scoring output&mdash;53 goals as of Jan. 27&mdash;he has turned into more of an all-round performer.<h2>JUNIOR SUMMARIES</h2><h3>Tue. Jan. 28</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01413/5014804-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="542" height="870"></div><h3>Wed. Jan. 29</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02296/5014797-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="547" height="872"></div> &#9632;

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Raiders Not Unbeatable But Tough

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01483/5014842-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01452/5014835-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="3066" height="3792"></div> &#9632;

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THN STATISTICS NHL SCORING

<h2>FEBRUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0735/5015051-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="574" height="1827"></div> &#9632;

f0040-07

NHL GAMES TO COME

<h2>Mon. Jan. 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01204/5015020-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="550" height="3616"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02130/5015013-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="537" height="710"></div><h2>Tue. Jan. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0387/5015006-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="537" height="1289"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0463/5014999-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="537" height="933"></div><h2>Wed. Jan. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0547/5014992-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="540" height="1069"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0640/5014985-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="547" height="1996"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01167/5014978-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="552" height="3614"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02101/5014971-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="543" height="385"></div><h2>Thu. Jan. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0373/5014964-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="547" height="870"></div><h2>Fri. Jan. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0459/5014957-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="551" height="617"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0549/5014950-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="554" height="1936"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0643/5014943-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="549" height="706"></div><h2>Sat. Feb. 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0740/5014936-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="543" height="1197"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0831/5014929-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="554" height="1901"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01171/5014922-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="188" height="178"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02112/5014915-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="545" height="3310"></div><h2>Sun. Feb. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0382/5014908-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="529" height="122"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0463/5014901-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="529" height="180"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0553/5014894-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="534" height="181"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0646/5014887-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="525" height="148"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-244/5014880-1-eng-US/f0043-242.jpg" title="f0043-24" width="548" height="1089"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-253/5014873-1-eng-US/f0043-252.jpg" title="f0043-25" width="545" height="1825"></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

THN STATISTICS NHL SUMMARIES

<h2>NHL</h2>TEAM STANDINGS(PCT) PERCENTAGE OF ACTUAL POINTSVERSUS POSSIBLE POINTS<h2>CLARENCE CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01170/5015236-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="538" height="161"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02122/5015229-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="535" height="162"></div><h3>PRINCE OF WALES CONFERENCE ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03100/5015222-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="537" height="161"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0480/5015215-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="537" height="187"></div><h2>POINTS RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0570/5015208-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="516" height="579"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0657/5015201-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="548" height="891"></div><h2>ACHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. FEB. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0755/5015194-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="533" height="207"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 28MOHAWK VALLEY 6 AT NEW YORK 2WED. JAN. 29ERIE 6 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 5THU. JAN. 30VIRGINIA 4 AT CAROLINA 1ERIE 5 AT NEW YORK 9FRI. JAN. 31NEW YORK 2 AT CAROLINA 5MOHAWK VALLEY 5 AT VIRGINIA 6SAT. FEB. 1CAROLINA 5 AT ERIE 6NEW YORK 4 AT VIRGINIA 9SUN. FEB. 2CAROLINA 6 AT ERIE 5VIRGINIA 4 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0846/5015187-1-eng-US/f0043-082.jpg" title="f0043-08" width="533" height="89"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0943/5015180-1-eng-US/f0043-092.jpg" title="f0043-09" width="539" height="238"></div><h2>AHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. FEB. 5)<h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1037/5015173-1-eng-US/f0043-102.jpg" title="f0043-10" width="538" height="239"></div><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1132/5015166-1-eng-US/f0043-112.jpg" title="f0043-11" width="537" height="209"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 28HERSHEY 4 AT ST. CATHARINES 1WED. JAN. 29NOVA SCOTIA 8 AT ADIRONDACK 2ROCHESTER 1 AT BALTIMORE 4SPRINGFIELD 3 AT HERSHEY 2BINGHAMTON 4 AT MONCTON 5ST. CATHARINES 2 AT NEW HAVEN 4THU. JAN. 30BINGHAMTON 2 AT FREDERICTON 4FRI. JAN. 31HERSHEY 3 AT BALTIMORE 4MAINE 5 AT NEW HAVEN 4NOVA SCOTIA 4 AT SHERBEOOKE 1ST. CATHARINES 1 AT SPRINGFIELD 4SAT. FEB. 1MAINE 5 AT ADIRONDACK 2SHERBROOKE 4 AT FREDERICTON 5BALTIMORE 3 AT HERSHEY 5NOVA SCOTIA 4 AT MONCTON 3ROCHESTER 7 AT ST. CATHARINES 8NEW HAVEN 7 AT SPRINGFIELD 5SUN. FEB. 2SPRINGFIELD 3 AT BALTIMORE 5ADIRONDACK 3 AT MAINE 6SHERBROOKE 5 AT MONCTON 8HERSHEY 3 AT NEW HAVEN 10BINGHAMTON 4 AT NOVA SCOTIA 6ST. CATHARINES 7 AT ROCHESTER 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1229/5015159-1-eng-US/f0043-122.jpg" title="f0043-12" width="537" height="353"></div><h2>IHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. FEB. 3)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1326/5015152-1-eng-US/f0043-132.jpg" title="f0043-13" width="536" height="178"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1426/5015145-1-eng-US/f0043-142.jpg" title="f0043-14" width="536" height="264"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 28PEORIA 3 AT MUSKEGON 5WED. JAN. 29MILWAUKEE 2 AT SAGINAW 3PEORIA 2 AT KALAMAZOO 3INDIANAPOLIS 4 AT FLINT 5TOLEDO 2 AT FORT WAYNE 4THU. JAN. 30KALAMAZOO 1 AT INDIANAPOLIS 7MUSKEGON 6 AT SALT LAKE 3FRI. JAN. 31KALAMAZOO 6 AT PEORIA 7SAT. FEB. 1MILWAUKEE 5 AT SAGINAW 6TOLEDO 2 AT INDIANAPOLIS 6MUSKEGON 5 AT SALT LAKE 8SUN. FEB. 2FORT WAYNE 4 AT SAGINAW 8FLINT 4 AT PEORIA 11<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1523/5015138-1-eng-US/f0043-152.jpg" title="f0043-15" width="532" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1621/5015131-1-eng-US/f0043-162.jpg" title="f0043-16" width="534" height="266"></div><h2>OHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. FEB. 3)<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1717/5015124-1-eng-US/f0043-172.jpg" title="f0043-17" width="538" height="265"></div><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1813/5015117-1-eng-US/f0043-182.jpg" title="f0043-18" width="537" height="236"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>THU. JAN. 30TORONTO 5 AT CORNWALL 5KITCHENER 5 AT HAMILTON 8BELLEVILLE 3 A PETERBOROUGH 5KINGSTON 7 AT WINDSOR %FRI. JAN. 31HAMILTON 4 AT KITCHENER 6KINGSTON 1 AT LONDON 6BELLEVILLE 2 AT OSHAWA 3TORONTO 6 AT OTTAWA 10NORTH BAY 5 AT SUDBURY 5GUELPH 4 AT S.S. MARIE 3SAT. FEB. 1OSHAWA 3 AT BELLEVILLE 4SUN. FEB. 2PETERBOROUGH 0 AT CORNWALL 3WINDSOR 6 AT HAMILTON 3OTTAWA 3 AT LONDON 6KITCHENER 4 AT OSHAWA 5GUELPH 5 AT SUDUBURY 4NORTH BAY 8 AT S.S. MARIE 0KINGSTON 6 AT TORONTO 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1912/5015110-1-eng-US/f0043-192.jpg" title="f0043-19" width="538" height="208"></div><h2>WHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. FEB. 3)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-209/5015103-1-eng-US/f0043-202.jpg" title="f0043-20" width="537" height="267"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-216/5015096-1-eng-US/f0043-212.jpg" title="f0043-21" width="536" height="210"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 28LETHBRIDGE 4 AT BRANDON 7PRINCE ALBERT 3 AT N. WESTMINSTER 5MEDICINE HAT 4 AT SASKATOON 3MOOSE JAW 8 AT VICTORIA 7WED. JAN. 29PRINCE ALBERT 4 AT PORTLAND 9LETHBRIDGE 4 AT REGINA 3NEW WESTMINSTER 4 AT SEATTLE 2THU. JAN. 30SASKATOON 6 AT BRANDON 4REGINA 5 AT CALGARY 7MOOSE JAW 4 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 5SEATTLE 8 AT SPOKANE 7FRI. JAN. 31MOOSE JAW 3 AT KAMLOOPS 6REGINA 11 AT LETHBRIDGE 2SPOKANE 5 AT PORTLAND 4PRINCE ALBERT 3 AT SEATTLE 4SAT. FEB. 1CALGARY 2 AT MEDICINE HAT 7KAMLOOPS 6 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 2PRINCE ALBERT 8 AT SPOKANE 5PORTLAND 4 AT VICTORIA 9SUN. FEB. 2CALGARY 7 AT LETHBRIDGE 6SASKATOON 6 AT MEDICINE HAT 3VICTORIA 3 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 1KAMLOOPS 3 AT PORTLAND 6BRANDON 1 AT REGINA 7SPOKANE 2 AT SEATTLE 9<h2>QMJHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. FEB. 3)<h3>ROBERT LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-225/5015089-1-eng-US/f0043-222.jpg" title="f0043-22" width="537" height="181"></div><h3>FRANK DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-234/5015082-1-eng-US/f0043-232.jpg" title="f0043-23" width="538" height="209"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

SCOREBOARD

TORONTO&mdash;The Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; sizzling little Swede is on a roll.Leftwinger Mats Naslund isturning his highly-productive on-ice performance this season into Molson Cup votes. At the all-star break, the Habs&rsquo; top scorer had racked up 160 points and won the Montreal segment of the three-star voting for the third straight time.Naslund, like all segment winners, pocketed $1,000 for his efforts. The Swedish star was joined by Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton as the only players to win all three Molson Cup segments this season.Other third-segment winners were Steve Thomas in Toronto, Jamie Macoun in Calgary, Winnipeg&rsquo;s Thomas Steen, and Petri Skriko in Vancouver.Here&rsquo;s a city-by-city breakdown of the six participating Canadian cities in the cup voting:MONTREAL&mdash;Naslund slipped by Guy Carbonneau by a 40-35 count. Naslund also held a healthy &ldquo;overall lead over Carbonneau in points, 160-70. Rookie Kjell Dahlin and Patrick Roy followed with 65 each.TORONTO&mdash;Thomas and center Tom Fergus both had 15 points but Thomas got the nod on the basis of more first-place votes.WINNIPEG&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s hold on the Cup leadership was challenged by Steen, who managed to edge the Jets&rsquo; captain 1510 to win the third segment and $1,000. Hawerchuk, who won the first two, still led overall with 55 votes.CALGARY&mdash;Jim Peplinski was the new fan favorite among the Flames&rsquo; three-star selectors. Pe-plinski didn&rsquo;t win the third segment but he became the Flames&rsquo; overall leader. Defenseman Macoun won the segment and the $1,000 with 20 points. Peplinski was second with 15.EDMONTON&mdash;Gretzky con tinued his mastery in the Molson Cup voting, winning the Oilers&rsquo; segment again. Gretzky, the NHL scoring leader, continued to lead the Oilers&rsquo;overall vote with 130 followed by a distant Mark Messier with 55.VANCOUVER&mdash;European star Skriko was busy in the third seg-ment winning votes for his performances with the Canucks. Skri-ko captured the third segment of the Molson Cup balloting and moved into a first-place tie with oalie Richard Brodeur in the over-all rarp Fach had 60 Points. &#9632;

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February 14, 1986

West The Winners In Inter-Division Games

One Is The Lonliest Number For The Leafs

Attendance Trailing Last Year’s Pace

THREE-STAR STANDINGS