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

March 27, 1987

The Hockey News March 27, 1987

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01658/5897396-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01573/5897389-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3073" height="3784"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01658/5897382-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3076" height="3349"></div> &#9632;

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Departments

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02977/5896271-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="176" height="131"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;How would you feel if you came to the National Hockey League as a big star and ended up riding a bus from Moncton to Fredericton?It happened to the newest Vancouver Canuck, Raimo Summanen, last season when the Edmonton Oilers found they had as much use for him as they did for former Canuck Stu Kulak. But &lsquo;Summo&rsquo; is going to get the chance to show what he can do.&ldquo;I appreciate every guy who ever played in the minors,&rdquo; says Summanen of the life he was exposed to in the American League. &ldquo;It is really hard. A tough life for anyone down there. So many guys in this league don&rsquo;t know what it&rsquo;s like. It&rsquo;s actually harder to play down there. The rinks are smaller. The players you&rsquo;re with aren&rsquo;t as good. It&rsquo;s really tough.&rdquo;At this point in his career, the 25-year-old Finnish left winger, who came to Vancouver in exchange for left winger Moe Lemay, will settle for playing time&mdash;even if it means going from the penthouse to the outhouse of the NHL.&ldquo;With (Kent) Nilsson and (Jaroslav) Pouzar coming in they weren&rsquo;t going to have any place for me,&rdquo; said Summanen. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy to be here because I will get a chance to play. I realize I must still fight for ice time here. Nobody will give me anything.&ldquo;But no matter how much you win, it&rsquo;s not much fun watching from the press box. It&rsquo;s like a writer who isn&rsquo;t writing; anyone in their profession who can&rsquo;t do what they&rsquo;ve practiced for. It can be frustrating and make you unhappy.&rdquo;Summanen said he spoke to Glen Sather about a possible move and the Oiler coach-general manager accommodated him after a long time trying.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got 10 games left here and maybe more to show what I can do and then I will be back next year,&rdquo; said Summanen, who goes into the option year of his contract next season. &ldquo;It means I get a chance to start all over again, to start fresh and hopefully score some goals.&rdquo;Summanen was picked up at the airport by his old friend Petri Skriko. They were teammates when they were 18 years old.Skriko was delighted for Summanen.&ldquo;He was a big star when he left Finland but with all the talk in Edmonton about (Jari) Kurri, (Esa) Tikkanen and now (Reijo) Ruotsalainen, everyone had forgotten about him,&rdquo; said Skriko. &ldquo;Now there will be more talk of him, I&rsquo;m sure.&rdquo;The two aren&rsquo;t likely to be teamed together. Nor do they expect Risto Jalo to be summoned, to re-unite Finland&rsquo;s former top line.&ldquo;We were a good line in Europe with Petri on right wing, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean anything here,&rdquo; says Summanen. &ldquo;Here you need a different mix with muscle and guys who can do other things. In Europe, we didn&rsquo;t have to worry about any of that.&rdquo;VAN LINES&mdash;Both Finns have indicated they will play in the World Championships (April in Vienna), if the Canucks are eliminated from the playoffs, and in the Canada Cup next fall&hellip;Raimo Summanen, a third-year pro, had 10 goals and seven assists in 48 games this season. Moe Lemay, 25, had nine goals and 17 assists in 52 games&hellip;It&rsquo;s a good thing Tom Watt and Jacques Demers don&rsquo;t coach in the same division. After a goon show here during a 7-4 Vancouver victory recently, Demers accused Watt of &ldquo;cheap coaching&rdquo; and Watt replied that, as coach of the most-penalized team in the league, Demers was &ldquo;the pot calling the kettle black.&rdquo; &#9632;

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‘Summo’ Finnished Wrestling For Ice Time

<div class="image-hero"><img title="s0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0007-018/5898125-1-eng-US/s0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">New Jersey Devils expect Kirk Muller will be a franchise-type player, just as he was with the OHL&rsquo;s Guelph Platers.</figcaption></div>It was a banquet that, quite simply, told you everything you need to know about junior hockey in Guelph.There they were, the heroes of the 1952 Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters, Memorial Cup champions.Andy Bathgate, Harry Howell, Dean Prentice, Lou Fontinato, Aldo Guidolin and Bill McCreary, to name a few.Joining them were the the 1986 Guelph Platers, Memorial Cup champions.Thirty-four years had elapsed, but little had changed. Guelph was still celebrating the crowning achievement of junior hockey.In between 1952 and 1986, there have been plenty of memories and, yes, more championships.In Guelph, dubbed the &ldquo;Royal City,&rdquo; it&rsquo;s not unusual for its hockey teams to reign supreme.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question the city has a fantastic hockey tradition,&rdquo; says Plater GM-coach Rob Holody, son of team owner Joe Holody.And the Platers, by winning the &lsquo;86 Memorial Cup, contributed to that fine tradition.In fact, the Platers have become something of a tradition themselves.Although they&rsquo;ve only been in the Ontario Hockey League for five seasons, the Platers have been in existence for 15.Prior to joining the OHL, the Platers were a tier two powerhouse.During that time, the Platers copped two Centennial Cups, emblematic of national tier two supremacy. Three times they were Centennial Cup finalists. And there are seven provincial tier two championships to their credit.As is usually the case when you have powerhouse teams, there are outstanding players to go along with them.Some of the grads of Guelph&rsquo;s tier two system include Montreal Canadien goalie Brian Hayward, Minnesota North Brian MacLellan, New York Ranger George McPhee, Calgary Flame Doug Risebrough and retired NHLer John Van Boxmeer, now coach of the Rochester Americans.Toss in names such as Bathgate, Prentice, Howell, Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert of the bygone Biltmore era, and you can see the type of player development that&rsquo;s been going on.And is still happening today.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a very proud organization,&rdquo; says Rob Holody of the new OHL era that has spawned such outstanding players as New Jersey Devil Kirk Muller, Calgary Flame Gary Roberts and Detroit Red Wing Steve Chiasson, plus excellent NHL prospects in Paul Brydges (Buffalo), Kerry Huffman (Philadelphia) and Steve Guenette (Pittsburgh).And, of course, there&rsquo;s St. Louis Blue coach Jacques Martin. After leading Guelph to its 1986 Memorial Cup, he jumped directly to the NHL, where he has earned rave reviews for his approach to the game.But there&rsquo;s more to Plater hockey than a rich history and excellent player and coach development.&ldquo;Not every player can go on to a career in professional hockey,&rdquo; says Rob Holody. &ldquo;We also place a strong emphasis on academics.&ldquo;We encourage all players to attend school. For those who do, and it&rsquo;s most of them, we monitor class attendance and grades to make sure they&rsquo;re performing to the best of their ability.&rdquo;The Platers have an educational consultant to assist them in that area. He is Centennial High School vice-principal John Aiken.&ldquo;We have monthly progress reports for each player in school,&rdquo; Holody says. &ldquo;The report indicates absences, any missed assignments, grades and general comments. The report goes to the team, the player and his parents. The parents and coaches have found it&rsquo;s a positive experience.&rdquo;Post-secondary opportunities are available at the University of Guelph as well as University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga Collegein nearby (20-minute drive) Kitchener-Waterloo. &#9632;

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ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Guelph’s Cup Runneth Over With Titles

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01701/5896716-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="178" height="132"></div>NEW HAVEN, Conn.&mdash;A glance at the goals-against column in the American League standings indicates New Haven goaltenders Ron Scott and Glenn Healy have taken their lumps this season.But numbers&mdash;276 goals in 69 games&mdash;are misleading, especially in this case.The Nighthawks, backed by the league&rsquo;s most potent offense, have spent most of this season in first place in the Southern Division. They&rsquo;re making a strong bid for their first division title since 1980.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the stats are very important,&rdquo; said New Haven coach Rob Ftorek.&ldquo;I think if you&rsquo;re looking at an individual sport, then the statistics are important&mdash;but hockey is a team sport, and the final analysis is that our team has been doing fairly well. They (Scott and Healy) are two of the most important cogs on our team.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;&hellip;THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT WE&rsquo;RE WINNING GAMES.&rsquo;&mdash;HEALY</blockquote>Those two goalies have combined for all 38 New Haven wins, eight shy of tying a team record. Those numbers, not goals-against average, are important to the Nighthawks.&ldquo;You&rsquo;d always like to have your goals-against lower,&rdquo; Ftorek said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a reflection upon our goaltending. I think it&rsquo;s a reflection of everybody&rsquo;s play not being up to what we&rsquo;d like in the defensive zone.&rdquo;Scott, signed by the New York Rangers as a free agent in 1983, had better stats than Healy. He was 17-7-5 with a.886 save percentage and 3.62 goals-against average in 29 games, but was sidelined by a nagging groin pull that has been bothering him since last season.&ldquo;We have a lot of talented forwards and the emphasis has been on offense,&rdquo; said Scott, whose spot on the roster was filled when the Los Angeles Kings demoted Darren Eliot. &ldquo;We give up a lot of goals, but a lot of those goals come after we have big leads. Our goalies and defense have come through in games that have been tight.&rdquo;Two of those games were against Rochester in a showdown for first. place in mid-February. The Nighthawks won the first game 2-1, allowing the Amerks just 13 shots on goal. Two nights later, New Haven was beaten 4-3 in a shootout.Healy&mdash;signed by the Kings as a free agent in June, 1985&mdash;led the team with 21 wins and.897 save percentage, though his average was 3.74 after 39 games.&ldquo;Certainly a lot of people have said that we give up a lot of goals,&rdquo; Healy said. &ldquo;Sometimes we don&rsquo;t play as strong of a defensive style as we should. But the bottom line is that we&rsquo;re winning games with the way we play.&rdquo;Many cynics believe the Nighthawks&rsquo; carefree approach to defense will cost them in the playoffs. If the Nighthawks surrender 50 goals in their final 11 games and win the South title, they&rsquo;ll set a league record for goals allowed by a division-winner. The explosive 1982-83 Rochester Americans allowed 325, but won the Calder Cup.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really look at the numbers,&rdquo; Healy said, &ldquo;because I really couldn&rsquo;t care less about what my goals-against average was. The only thing that I really want is for the team to win.&rdquo;AROUND THE SOUTH&mdash;Referee Mick McGeough dished out 22 game misconducts in the March 4 Hershey-Baltimore game, 21 during a brawl with 4:20 left in the third period of the 7-0 Skipjack win. But McGeough went overboard by ejecting many players under Rule 54E. According to AHL vice president Gordie Anziano, the rule&mdash;which says players must clear the area when a fight breaks out&mdash;provides for fines, not game misconducts&hellip;Hershey coach John Paddock suffered, watching his team lose 7-0 at home. &ldquo;This was the most embarrassing game since I&rsquo;ve been here as coach,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wish we had dugouts like they have in baseball, so we&rsquo;d have some place we could get into.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Baltimore veteran Gary Rissling suffered a seasonending knee injury and underwent surgery after being checked by Binghamton&rsquo;s Paul Cavallini in the second period of a March 7 game&hellip;Baltimore rookie goalie Steve Guenette posted his fourth shutout by blanking New Haven 1-0 on March 10, to take a share of the league lead with Binghamton&rsquo;s Peter Sidorkiewicz&hellip;Springfield added veteran center Bruce Eakin, who played this season in Europe&hellip;Binghamton recalled defenseman Shawn Cronin from Salt Lake and sent down Mark Vichorek. &#9632;

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The Minors

Defense Secondary Concern Of Nighthawks

In next week&rsquo;s April 3 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, don&rsquo;t miss our annual look at memorabilia madness.This is the issue that gives you in the inside story on the collectibles craze and what&rsquo;s hot and what&rsquo;s not.You&rsquo;ll learn all about Philadelphia Flyer netminder Chico Resch&rsquo;s fascinating array of memorabilia, a hobby that has become a consuming passion for the NHL veteran.Plus, we&rsquo;ll provide a report on how you can take steps to authenticate your collectible purchases and avoid being duped by any unsavory sellers of merchandise.And we&rsquo;ll also take a look at the world of bubblegum cards, the bug that first bites potential memorabilia collectors.All that, plus our regular array of features, including the International Report, in next week&rsquo;s April 3 issue. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

NEXT WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011471/5895571-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="339" height="469"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Dryden</figcaption></div>Apart from an absence of malice, nothing was missing as much from the recent three-game revival of the 1972 Team Canada-Soviet Union series as Valery Kharlamov.The Soviet superstar died in a 1981 auto accident&hellip;but not before establishing himself as one of the greatest players the game has known.&ldquo;He was the best individual player I&rsquo;ve ever seen,&rdquo; said Bobby Clarke, while stripping off his equipment following Team Canada&rsquo;s ironic 6-5 victory over the Soviets on March 13 in Hamilton.&ldquo;He had everything and he could do everything.&rdquo;It was that unavoidable conclusion that prompted Clarke to chop down Kharlamov in Game Six of the memorable Summit Series.Assistant coach John Ferguson, who handled the 1987 oldtimers team, suggested Kharlamov had to be stopped. Clarke accepted the job, whacking Kharlamov on the ankle.Kharlamov, who stunned Canada with a pair of goals in Game One (including the winner) and assisted on the Soviets&rsquo; two other gamewinning goals, missed Game Seven and could play but a couple of shifts in the final game won by Team Canada 6-5.The seven-time Soviet all-star left winger had been stopped.Brad Park, a &lsquo;72 original who scored the decisive goal in Hamilton, was asked how he remembered Kharlamov.&ldquo;As a blur,&rdquo; Park chuckled. &ldquo;He was so impressive it was scary.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021196/5895564-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="714" height="1095"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glen Goodall is the highest-scoring 16-year-old in the history of the Western League.</figcaption></div>The Soviets continue to hold him in great reverence.&ldquo;Such a player never has been since and never will be,&rdquo; said Vladislav Tretiak, who added Kharlomov&rsquo;s famed No. 17 has been retired by the national team and Red Army, his old club team.&ldquo;The No. 17 has not only been retired,&rdquo; continued Tretiak, &ldquo;but it will never be in existence again in Soviet Union hockey.&rdquo;This month&rsquo;s three-game series brought back a flood of good memories, said the great goaltender. Not all of them were good, though.&ldquo;The only sad memory,&rdquo; continued Tretiak, &ldquo;is that he (Kharlamov) is not with us.&rdquo;Clarke, too, missed Kharlamov.&ldquo;It would have been nice to see him out there playing,&rdquo; said the Philadelphia Flyer general manager.Those who gathered in Hamilton, Montreal and Ottawa, to remember an unforgettable series, would have liked to see him too.<h2>The Great Goodall-Western Star</h2>The most spectacular-scoring 16-year-old in the history of the Western League could be headed for a junior career longer than most National Hockey Leaguers&rsquo; professional careers.Glen Goodall of the Seattle Thunderbirds, who turned 17 on Jan. 22, established a WHL record on March 15 when he collected three assists against New Westminster Bruins.That gave him 110 points in 65 games, three more than Ken Yaremchuk accumulated as a 16-year-old with the Portland Winter Hawks in 1980-81. Goodall, with 61 markers, long ago set the goal-scoring record, easily topping Medicine Hat Tiger Mark Pederson&rsquo;s standard of 42 goals.Both goal and point totals are the most ever earned by a player who began the regular season as a 16-year-old.Remarkably, Goodall is already in his third WHL season. He first joined Seattle as a 14-year-old during the 1984-85 season. Sound ridiculous? Well, some people think it was a mistake playing him against opponents as much as six years older than him.But one thing was clear. Goodall had to get out of Thompson, Man., where he had scored 320 points in 52 games as a bantam. So, he packed up his hockey gear and left the northern nickel mining community to move in with former Seattle coach Marc Boileau.Seattle placed him on their protected list when Goodall was 12.It&rsquo;s no wonder he says, &ldquo;I feel like an old guy and I&rsquo;m only 17.&rdquo;The 5-foot-8, 165-pound center could well be a seven-year junior before it&rsquo;s all over. Goodall has three seasons of junior eligibility remaining&mdash;in addition to an overage year.He&rsquo;ll be available to NHL teams for the first time in the 1988 entry draft.&ldquo;Glen has still got lots of records to break,&rdquo; says T-Bird general manager Sheldon Ferguson.&ldquo;Yeah, like games played,&rdquo; laughs Goodall, who&rsquo;s all but certain to erase the current mark, which Rick Herbert of Brandon could increase to 329 by season&rsquo;s end. With three, maybe four years to go, he&rsquo;d already played 189 games.But it&rsquo;s scoring records that Ferguson had in mind.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03787/5895557-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1480" height="1779"><figcaption class="caption-body">Philadelphia Flyers have had Don Nachbaur (42) on a yo-yo this season, promoting and demoting him six times. He&rsquo;s not complaining, though.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just an unbelievably tenacious little bugger. He works as hard as he can every shift,&rdquo; says Ferguson, who is still marvelling over a memorable performance put on by Goodall in December.&ldquo;We beat Victoria 6-5 in overtime,&rdquo; recalls the GM. &ldquo;We were trailing 5-2 with eight minutes to go. He had scored our second goal and he scored four more to win it for us. It was just an unbelievable performance. One of the best I&rsquo;ve ever seen by a junior. Usually if a kid scores five goals, it&rsquo;s in an 11-2 win or something like that.&rdquo;One achievement that seems beyond his reach this year is matching Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s major junior record of 70 goals by a 16-year-old.He has, however, already scored more than twice as many as Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s 30.<h2>Up And Down-Don Nachbaur</h2>King of the call-ups.That&rsquo;s what American Leaguer Don Nachbaur has been this year.From Jan. 11 to Feb. 28, the Hershey Bear captain was recalled five times by the Philadelphia Flyers. Add a solitary recall in late November and Nachbaur has made the 90-mile journey from Hershey to Philadelphia on six occasions.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve had so many injuries,&rdquo; says the center/tough guy, &ldquo;somebody has had to fill in.&rdquo;.It might as well be Nachbaur, who plays the fearsome Flyer style&mdash;collecting 33 points and 254 penalty minutes in 52 AHL games, plus two assists and 75 penalty minutes in 18 NHL games this season.The most vivid memories of his work for the Flyers, he says, are the punch-ups, not the points.Nauchbaur, who played two seasons for Hartford and briefly for Edmonton, was on what amounted to a 48-day road trip throughout January and February.On Jan. 11, he was called up. One day later, he was returned. He was summoned again on Jan. 15. This time he stayed until Jan. 26. Within two days he was back with the Flyers for six days, during which he celebrated his 28th birthday. On Feb 16 he was called up for two days. And then on Jan. 21, he was recalled for another week.If it&rsquo;s Tuesday, this must be the NHL.In between NHL games, he often played for the Bears. During one stretch, he played a blend of five NHL and AHL games in five nights. He says teammate Al Hill set the standard with a mixture of seven games in seven nights.Nachbaur&rsquo;s Hershey teammates have grown accustomed to the process.&ldquo;The guys will be watching a Flyers&rsquo; game and somebody will get hurt,&rdquo; relates Nachbaur. &ldquo;The next thing you know somebody will call me up and say you&rsquo;d better start packing.&rdquo;Often as not, they&rsquo;re right.&ldquo;I might be the first guy to play 160 games,&rdquo; laughs Nauchbaur, &ldquo;80 in each league.&rdquo;<h2>&lsquo;Not In Love&rsquo;-Mark Pavelich</h2>Quote of the week:&ldquo;One day I was at my brother&rsquo;s and we were playing guitars and something made me call my agent to see if he could try to work out something&hellip;I&rsquo;m not in love with this game.&rdquo;&mdash;Mark Pavelich, explaining his return to the NHL, page 19. &#9632;

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Dear Valery, We Miss You

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011471/5895602-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="334" height="465"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>I SUPPOSE I SHOULD have grown up the day the Penguins let Les Binkley go. Having spent my adolescence near Pittsburgh, I was a great fan&mdash;although now, as I think back on those teams, it&rsquo;s hard to put my finger as to why. But something inside me went cold the day Les took off for the WHA and the Penguins just waved goodbye.Since then, I&rsquo;ve gradually come to the understanding that hockey is a business. They let me in the press box now. I&rsquo;m a pro and a big boy. I&rsquo;ve seen them come and go&mdash;the good guys, the bad guys, the innocents, and the schemers&mdash;and have come to the full realization that what is done, 99 per cent of the time, applies only to the bottom line.There is sentiment, but even in the rare times that it appears to rule a decision, it actually comes second. A declining Guy Lafleur had become an albatross around coach Bob Berry&rsquo;s neck. It might have been better for all concerned, including Guy, if the Canadiens got him out of there. The problem was that this would have left the Canadiens without a place to play, because the people would have burned the Forum down.There are players who reach a certain stature who should be above it all. Their names mean so much to the franchise and its place in the community, that it&rsquo;s both good sentiment and business to permit them to spend their entire careers in one place.Gilbert Perreault, Stan Mikita, Bobby Clarke, Jean Beliveau and Lafleur all attained an honor that, really, is more exclusive than the Hall of Fame. They meant too much to their teams, both on and off the ice, to ever be traded.It happens the other way, too. Gordie Howe didn&rsquo;t stay a Red Wing and Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr didn&rsquo;t stay Bruins. So it shouldn&rsquo;t produce any outrage that Marcel Dionne, nearly 12 full seasons removed from his start in Detroit, didn&rsquo;t remain a Los Angeles King until the end of his career. Since he asked out, it probably would have been more cruel to keep him.Still, there&rsquo;s something sad about the alienation of affection that led up to Dionne&rsquo;s trade to the New York Rangers. The Kings didn&rsquo;t rush to tell Marcel that they wanted him to finish his career in Los Angeles. And that&rsquo;s all this proud, sensitive man didn&rsquo;t have to hear.&ldquo;They kept telling us (Dionne and his agent, Alan Eagleson) that they wouldn&rsquo;t talk until after the season,&rdquo; said Dionne, whose option season was coming up next year. &ldquo;Rogie (GM Vachon) wrote back to Alan that was the team policy.&ldquo;They have Jimmy Carson now, and Bernie Nicholls&mdash;and if my role was going to be reduced, I think I would have understood. I didn&rsquo;t want to ask Rogie about what was going to happen. That wasn&rsquo;t my place. And after 12 years I wasn&rsquo;t going to march in there and ask out right away, either.&ldquo;All (Vachon) had to say was &lsquo;Marcel, let&rsquo;s talk about it.&rsquo; But he didn&rsquo;t. So I asked for the trade. He said, &lsquo;Let me talk to Jerry Buss.&rsquo;&ldquo;They were good to me, and I didn&rsquo;t want to be in the way. And by moving me, they showed I was right. They had no plans for me.&rdquo;Phil Esposito thinks he got first crack because he had mentioned to Vachon, two summers ago during a vacation, that someday he&rsquo;d be GM of the Rangers. Phil said that if Rogie ever wanted to move Dionne, please check with him first.Vachon approached Esposito only the night before the trading deadline. The Kings&rsquo; GM paused to give Montreal and Minnesota chances to bid, and Espo waited only for assurances that Dionne would commit himself for three more years at a lesser salary than the $500,000-to-600,000 he was making.It was quick and, one supposes from Marcel&rsquo;s standpoint, merciful. It was also, from the Kings&rsquo; standpoint, callous&mdash;but that reflects more on hockey in L. A. than it does personally upon Vachon or Buss.The Kings aren&rsquo;t the Lakers. And Marcel Dionne, who alone, couldn&rsquo;t make the Kings a winner, isn&rsquo;t Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The only thing that is going to make the Kings a success is to build a good team. They think they have a start toward one, and understood that Dionne, 35, wasn&rsquo;t going to be around when they achieved that end. They had a chance to get what they hope is another good young player in Bobby Carpenter. They took it.The irony of it was that early in the season, Dionne had big plans for the Kings. He was boarding Luc Robitaille, feeding breakfast to Carson, and appeared convinced that the Kings finally had a management team that was turning things around.Then came the news that Pat Quinn was going to Vancouver. It devastated Dionne. The Kings, he concluded once and for all, were always going to be the Kings.&ldquo;I was hurt,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been so hurt in my life. I cried. I lost something when that happened. I believed management&rsquo;s side of it and I was a little angry at Pat for leaving&mdash;but now I know the other side of it, too.&ldquo;The last phone call I got, before I left the house the day I came to New York, was from Pat. Two months had gone by without hearing from him. I heard his side of it and I understand.&rdquo;He deserves every bit of happiness and three great years in New York. Arguably, the Kings should never have let this happen, but the jewel in their glass case, the NHL&rsquo;s second all-time leading scorer, wasn&rsquo;t feeding them. So they pawned it.There&rsquo;s something sad about this. But that&rsquo;s the way the world works. &#9632;

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Columnists

Trading Precious Jewel Just Doesn’t Seem Right

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021333/5895633-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="580" height="654"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran Mel Bridgman was happy to be traded from the Devils to the Red Wings.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031126/5895640-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="176" height="133"></div>DETROIT&mdash;The long-rumored Mel Bridgman deal finally materialized for the Detroit Red Wings, 24 hours before the National Hockey League trading deadline.The Red Wings acquired the 31-year-old center from the New Jersey Devils for right winger Chris Cichocki and a third-round pick in this year&rsquo;s entry draft.&ldquo;Bridgman is a character player,&rdquo; coach Jacques Demers said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got toughness and I believe he has a couple of years left.&rdquo;Demers expects Bridgman, the first pick overall in the 1975 draft, to provide the Wings with some experience and depth through the final 13 regularseason games and the playoffs.&ldquo;If he can do the same thing Harold Snepsts and Dave Lewis have done for us, we&rsquo;ll be satisfied,&rdquo; the coach said. &ldquo;The older players have come through and sometimes one player can be a big difference in the playoffs. If he does those things for us, we made a good deal for ourselves.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s healthy, fit and very happy to be here.&rdquo;In 51 games with New Jersey this season, Bridgman scored eight goals and 31 assists. He had 240 career goals in 892 NHL games. He drew an assist in his second game with Detroit, setting up a Steve Yzerman goal in a 6-3 loss to Edmonton.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good two-way player,&rdquo; said the Wings&rsquo; Tim Higgins, who played with Bridgman in New Jersey.&ldquo;He plays our style perfectly. He&rsquo;s not a flashy skater or anything. He grinds it out. He&rsquo;s a winner.&rdquo;Cichocki, 23, is in his second professional season, after signing with the Red Wings as a college free agent during the summer of 1985. The former Michigan Tech star scored 10 goals in 59 NHL games as a rookie last season, and had 31 goals in Adirondack this season.&ldquo;I have mixed emotions, obviously,&rdquo; said Cichocki, a Detroit native. &ldquo;I just want to play in the NHL. New Jersey is having its problems and I might get a chance there.&rdquo;The Wings are the fourth NHL team for Bridgman, a veteran of 12 seasons. He spent four seasons with New Jersey and the last two included more than the normal complement of trade rumors. He was on the verge of being traded last March before the deadline, but told the Devils he&rsquo;d rather stay.&ldquo;I was talking to him last week and he was excited about coming here,&rdquo; Higgins said. &ldquo;Last year at the deadline, Washington wanted him, but he wanted to stay in New Jersey. Things haven&rsquo;t worked out and he asked over a month ago to be traded.&rdquo;Bridgman confirmed the change in his feelings toward the Devils.&ldquo;When I heard the rumors this season, I wasn&rsquo;t as upset,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Things had changed in the past year in New Jersey. Boston and Washington wanted me last season but I didn&rsquo;t want to leave. I was with a lot of good, young players in New Jersey. It&rsquo;s neat to watch them mature and I wanted to be around them when it happened, to see the change in them when the team starts winning.&ldquo;I was hoping in the back of my mind this would be the year to turn it around and make a run for the playoffs.&rdquo;Bridgman hasn&rsquo;t been on a playoff team since leaving Calgary in 1983.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s exciting to come to a first-place team, and exciting to come to a team where you know some of the players,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;When you play professional hockey, whether it&rsquo;s your first or 10th year, you have personal goals and team goals. You go through a lot to achieve those goals and it always comes down to the playoffs. I really missed that the last three, four years.&rdquo;WINGS WIRE&mdash;The Wings gave up their own third-round pick in the Mel Bridgman deal. They still have another from the New York Rangers&hellip;The Wings played 13 games in 23 nights, but Jacques Demers said his netminding hadn&rsquo;t been weakened by fatigue. &ldquo;One good thing for us is the goaltending,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Greg Stefan is healthy and rested. He&rsquo;ll be very strong down the stretch.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Wings Add Experience In Bridgman Trade

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021001/5895671-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Philadelphia Flyer rookie netminder Ron Hextall was yanked twice in a span of just three games.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011377/5895678-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="178" height="137"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Don&rsquo;t be surprised if the Philadelphia Flyers hire a new staffer as &ldquo;assistant coach in charge of exorcisms.&rdquo;How else is coach Mike Keenan going to vanquish the spirits that seem to haunt the Flyers whenever they play the New York Rangers? The latest sighting of ghosts in Broadway Blue occurred March 12 at the Spectrum, where the Rangers beat the Flyers 6-1.Although the Flyers had lost only six games at home this season (26-6-2), three of those losses were dealt by the Rangers.And it gets even weirder when you consider that the Rangers&mdash;a club which had given up the third-highest number of goals in the National Hockey League&mdash;had won in the Spectrum by grind-it-out scores of 3-2, 3-1 and 6-1.That means the Flyers, who averaged 4.4 goals per game at the Spectrum, had managed a paltry 1.3 in each of those three games. The Flyers&rsquo; overall record against the Rangers this season dropped to 1-4-0, and their powerplay efficiency stayed at zero per cent (now 0-for-29).Of course, the most embarrassing factor in the last two games against the Rangers was the presence of goalie Bob Froese. The Flyers ran the risk of getting burned when they traded Froese to New York in December, and now he had turned into a razor-sharp boomerang, returning in full flight.In the last episode&mdash;which ended an up-and-down week that saw the Flyers lose 5-3 at Hartford and win twice over the lowly Devils (7-3, 6-4)&mdash;Froese stopped 39 shots. Once again, the plot was similar. The Flyers outplayed the Rangers, but the New Yorkers&mdash;who have kayoed the Flyers in the playoffs in three of the past five seasons&mdash;won on the scoreboard.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t make too much of the fact that it&rsquo;s the same team that beat us in the playoffs (last spring),&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;If you look at their roster, there are 13 new players on this Ranger team.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN ALL THE CHANCES?&rsquo;&mdash;RESCH</blockquote>Did he say 13? Now isn&rsquo;t that a comforting number.Among those 13 are Marcel Dionne, the newly-acquired superstar from Los Angeles, and reclamation project Ron Duguay, who looked like the Doogie of old, flying around the Spectrum.The point isn&rsquo;t that the team is different, but that the Flyers seem to have trouble against any Ranger team. Just put those blue shirts (or white at home) on any 20 guys and the Flyers break into a cold sweat.On this particular night, goalie Ron Hextall was sweating the coldest. The rookie-of-the-year candidate found himself on the bench before 10 minutes had been played, yanked for the second time in three starts.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think Ron Hextall was prepared to play,&rdquo; said Keenan. The coach said he believed Hextall would bounce back, however, from a miserable week which saw him give up 10 goals in 100 minutes during his three appearances, for a 6.00 goals-against average.In the meantime, veteran backup Chico Resch was left to bust the ghosts.&ldquo;How can you explain all the good chances&mdash;hitting the posts, missing the net?&rdquo; Resch asked. &ldquo;If you watched the game, and didn&rsquo;t see the score, you&rsquo;d swear we were winning big&mdash;&bull; but this (streak of bad luck against the Rangers) has to end.&ldquo;And when the dam breaks, it will be that much sweeter.&rdquo;Something positive could come out of the Ranger hex. After all, if the Rangers win enough games against Philly, those Blueshirts might finish third, and the Flyers could avoid them&mdash;at least in the first round.PHILLERS&mdash;Flyer forward Dave Brown was suspended for one game when he was assessed his third game misconduct of the season in a game against the Devils&hellip;Winger Lindsay Carson also was assessed an automatic one-game suspension when he received two high-sticking majors against the Whalers&hellip;New York Ranger forward Jay Caufield became the first Philly native to play an NHL game at the Spectrum. Caufield grew up in suburban Lansdale, Pa. &#9632;

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Flyers Need Ghostbusters To Stop Rangers

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011557/5895709-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Whalers are good, but Ray Ferraro says, &ldquo;We just can&rsquo;t throw our sticks on the ice and expect to win. We&rsquo;re not that good.&rdquo;</figcaption></div>Young babes must learn to crawl before they walk and walk before they run.The first two steps have been virtual snaps for the Hartford Whalers, who have turned things around in a big way in a matter of months&mdash;12, to be exact.Now that they&rsquo;ve finally got the puck in their comer, however, the question is, how far can they run with it?&ldquo;Why not go for all the trophies out there?&rdquo; asked general manager Emile Francis, who for 25 years has unsuccessfully pursued the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve concentrated within the division all year. To be honest, I didn&rsquo;t know who would finish first and who would finish last in our division at the start of the season. Any team that comes out of the division has a good shot at winning the Cup. That&rsquo;s how much I think of the Adams Division.&rdquo;A couple of summers ago, the Whalers thought so much of the division that they did everything in their power to get out of it. They proposed divisional realignment, mostly out of frustration, because the road to the playoffs appeared permanently blocked.What the Whalers really wanted was a division of their own&mdash;because aside from missing the playoffs each season, everything was sailing along perfectly in Hartford.Those were the days, my friend.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We certainly have every intention of beating everybody we play. I just don&rsquo;t want to say we&rsquo;re top five. That&rsquo;s inviting disaster.&rsquo;&mdash;Liut</blockquote>&ldquo;We kept seeing lights at the end of the tunnel, but they kept turning out to be freight trains,&rdquo; said Howard Baldwin, the club&rsquo;s founder. &ldquo;Like that minor-league superstar, Bob Sullivan. He was going to save the day for us. We were grasping for straws.&rdquo;Straws came and straws went. By the time that Francis arrived in Hartford in May, 1983, the Whalers had gone through two general managers, four coaches and five captains, all in just four NHL seasons.&ldquo;I said at the time we signed Emile that what we were lacking were discipline and attitude,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;He arrived with both.&rdquo;Francis took over a team that had missed the playoffs for three straight years, but didn&rsquo;t find the cupboard bare&mdash;not exactly.Ronnie Francis was here, and the fruits of the 1982 draft&mdash;Paul Lawless (14th pick overall), Kevin Dineen (56th), Ulf Samuelsson (67th) and Ray Ferraro (88th)&mdash;were one year away from full maturity.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still a Larry Pleau fan,&rdquo; said Baldwin, who hired and fired the former GM and coach. Pleau, who played for the Whalers in their World Hockey Association days, is GM-coach at Binghamton today.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s played a big part in this,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;And Billy Dineen, too. Just look at that (&lsquo;82) draft.&rdquo;Francis&rsquo; Whalers missed the playoffs the first two seasons, but raised their point total from 45 to 66 to 69. They had won the first battle. They had become respectable.Along with discipline and attitude, Francis brought stability to the Whalers, backing coach Jack Evans to the hilt under threatening skies.Then Francis had an Executive-of-the-Year season, bringing in Dave Babych, Stew Gavin, Doug Jarvis, John Anderson and Dean Evason, among others.The pieces were in place. Last year, the Whalers figure, was the appetizer. This year, they&rsquo;re hoping, will be the main course. And so far, it looks as if it may.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t won anything yet, and still, I&rsquo;ve enjoyed this season more than any other, even the first one,&rdquo; said Baldwin, referring to the Whalers&rsquo; WHA title season of 1972-73.With a 17-10-3 record against divisional rivals, the Whalers have looked the part of champions. Many believe their performance is a carryover from last spring&rsquo;s dramatic playoff run that ended in a seventh-game overtime session in the quarter-final round at Montreal.That stirring drive earned the Whalers a parade in Hartford. This time around, local folk will be looking for more. Things have changed so fast that some people are still shaking their heads.When you sit down and try to figure this whole thing out, start with the goaltender,&rdquo; Joel Quenneville said. &ldquo;There are a lot of reasons behind our success, but it all started with him.&rdquo;Mike Liut is Francis&rsquo; &ldquo;main man,&rdquo; and everyone understands why. Not only can he stop the puck, he provides an ultra-serious (some would call it professional) presence in the dressing room. Many players, in fact, would rather be in Evans&rsquo; doghouse than in Liut&rsquo;s. Some men are bom to follow. Liut, it can be said fairly, isn&rsquo;t one of them.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to sound snooty about this, but making the playoffs is no big deal,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t prove anything in the first 60 games. The time to prove something is now. Teams that win Stanley Cups do not have bad Marchs. If we think we can just waltz into the playoffs, we&rsquo;ll get our butts kicked.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if we&rsquo;re one of the top five clubs or not,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot to prove. I mean, what have we done? Somebody&rsquo;s going to say that the Whalers will win it&hellip;And why not? We certainly have every intention of beating everybody we play. I just don&rsquo;t want to say we&rsquo;re top five. It&rsquo;s inviting disaster.&rdquo;Only once in five Adams Division seasons has the regular-season champion advanced to the semi-finals. Gerry Cheevers&rsquo; Bruins did it in 1983.&ldquo;I pay no attention to those kinds of things,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s for the history books.&rdquo;Should a team risk burnout before the playoffs?&ldquo;So much is made of that in other cities,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;Quebec used it as an excuse after we beat them last year, that they had done so much to get to first place. If that&rsquo;s your excuse, then you didn&rsquo;t deserve first place. You should be good enough to go on.&rdquo;In retrospect, Francis said that his New York Rangers of the early &lsquo;70s were good enough to win the Cup &ldquo;three times,&rdquo; but didn&rsquo;t because of three nemeses&mdash;&rdquo;injuries, bad bounces and Bernie Parent.&rdquo;Some things never change.&ldquo;Year after year, the single most determining factor behind who wins the Cup is injuries,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;And they&rsquo;re something that nobody can control. Last year, the two teams that made it (Montreal and Calgary) had the most depth.&rdquo;Francis made a couple of moves at the trading deadline to bolster the Whalers&rsquo; depth.He persuaded winger Gord Sherven, whom he acquired from Edmonton in the waiver draft, to sign a one-year termination contract with the Whalers.Sherven left the Calgary-based Canadian national team program to join friend and former teammate Dave Tippett in Hartford. By signing the termination contract, Sherven remained eligible for the 1988 Olympics.In his first two games for the Whalers, Sherven showed an abundance of speed, a quality that has raised the Whalers to the brink of the Adams Division regular-season title.In addition, Francis acquired veteran right winger Pat Hughes from the St. Louis Blues on waivers.&ldquo;To win it all, you need 26, 27 or 28 players,&rdquo; Francis said.But these are uncharted waters for an emerging young team. In the big pond, will the Whale sink or swim?&ldquo;When we&rsquo;re skating, we can play with anybody in this league,&rdquo; Evans said. &ldquo;When we don&rsquo;t skate, it&rsquo;s a different story.&rdquo;There are a million ways to examine the Whalers, who were 36-26-7 with 11 games to play. Here are two:&bull; They have done very little wrong this season. They were 11-2-2 in divisional games in Hartford and showed victories in some tough buildings&mdash;Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal, Long Island. They jumped to an 18-9-5 start, which lifted their regular-season record dating back to last year to 30-12-7, a pretty impressive 49-game run.In addition, they&rsquo;d won many of the close ones, going 14-5 in one-goal decisions. Protecting a lead, meanwhile, had been no problem. The Whalers were 20-1-2 when leading after one period and 30-1-2 when leading after two.&bull; On the other hand, they were just 18-17-2 after their excellent start. They buzzed to a 5-0-1 homestand in early March only to drop back-to-back decisions to Quebec and Calgary thereafter. They remain a handicapper&rsquo;s nightmare.&ldquo;Everything you&rsquo;ve worked all year for can get away from you if you don&rsquo;t continue to work hard,&rdquo; Ray Ferraro said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t just throw our sticks out on the ice and expect to win. We&rsquo;re not that good.&rdquo;The good news for the Whalers is, neither is anybody else.&ldquo;How we finish the season will pretty much determine how we&rsquo;ll do in the playoffs,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;The opportunity is there.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Hartford Having Whale Of A Year

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02953/5895740-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Superstar Marcel Dionne is the second-leading scorer in NHL history. Now, he&rsquo;s taking his act to the bright lights of Broadway.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011403/5895747-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="180" height="133"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;The comer locker has been cleaned out. Sweater No. 16 has been put in storage. The pudgy little center, who occupied them both for 12 years, is gone.And the Forum, at least when the Los Angeles Kings are inside, can never be the same again.On March 10, the unthinkable happened.Marcel Dionne was traded, at his request.&ldquo;How many people do you know who have asked to leave heaven?&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;You know what? I feel sad. I feel empty.&rdquo;Dionne, the second-leading scorer in National Hockey League history with 689 goals, 984 assists and 1,673 points, was traded to the New York Rangers for center Bobby Carpenter and defenseman Tom Laidlaw.The Rangers also received minor-league center Jeff Crossman and a third-round pick in the 1989 draft.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not just talking about any player, you know,&rdquo; said general manager Rogie Vachon. &ldquo;The man is special. He&rsquo;s a legend. He&rsquo;s like Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar); you expect him to be around forever.&rdquo;So, too, did Dionne&mdash;though, apparently, a last-gasp chance to play for a Stanley Cup champion, or at least a contender, proved too much for him to pass up.Or was that it?Dionne, who turns 36 in August, asked Vachon on March 9 to deal him, for reasons that remain unclear.Next season would have been the option year for Dionne, who was given a one-year extension two years ago by majority owner Jerry Buss. Dionne said the Kings were &ldquo;hesitant&rdquo; about working out a new contract. His agent, Alan Eagleson, sent a letter to Vachon about two months ago, requesting that negotiations begin soon.&ldquo;There was some hesitation there,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;I mean, after 12 years&hellip;I knew something was written on the wall. They were hesitant to renegotiate. I wanted to know where 1 was going in this organization and they made it clear. They made it clear I didn&rsquo;t fit into their plans.&rdquo;That scenario, Vachon insisted, was not exactly correct.&ldquo;There was no &lsquo;hesitation,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I expected Marcel to finish his career here. I don&rsquo;t renegotiate contracts during the season and I told his agent that. I told him I&rsquo;d be more than happy to do it when the season was over.&ldquo;Marcel didn&rsquo;t bring that up to me at all, and we had a very good conversation. He said everything was positive here, that he liked the direction the team was going in. But he said he had been thinking about it for a while and that maybe he&rsquo;d have a better chance at winning a Stanley Cup if he went elsewhere.&ldquo;He wanted a chance to win a Cup before he retires and I thought we owed him that chance.&rdquo;Ah, the Stanley Cup. Dionne, for 16 seasons, has been the Ernie Banks of the NHL. The greatest hockey player never to have his name engraved on the big one.Does anyone have the heart to remind Dionne that he&rsquo;s going from a team that hasn&rsquo;t won a Cup in 19 years to one that hasn&rsquo;t won it in 46?&ldquo;A lot of things started to be difficult,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;Things had been bothering me since Christmas. I asked for the trade, but I wanted to wait until after the (March 8) Vancouver game. I wanted to make sure we beat them (the Kings did, 5-2) and got into the playoffs. There&rsquo;s a 10-point lead now, so that&rsquo;s safe.&rdquo;Dionne didn&rsquo;t give Vachon much time to make a deal, about 24 hours before the trading deadline, Mar. 10.Vachon began calling general managers late Monday night. Ranger general manager/coach Phil Esposito said he was interested, but that he needed to sleep on it.The trade was consummated the next morning. Dionne said he had agreed to a new two-year contract, with an option for a third. His annual salary, $600,000, will remain the same.Even in the twilight of his career, Dionne has played like a 20-year-old. He was leading the Kings in scoring this season with 24 goals and 50 assists in 67 games.He leaves having scored 550 goals, 757 assists and 1,307 points in 920 games as a King, all club records that probably will never be broken.In NHL history, only Gordie Howe has more points (1,850) and more assists (1,049); only Howe (801) and Esposito (717) have scored more goals.Dionne joined the Kings in 1975-76. Chosen second overall (behind the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Guy Lafleur) in the 1971 draft by the Detroit Red Wings, the 5-foot-8, 190-pounder was an immediate hit.He set a league points record for rookies in 1971-72, finishing with 28 goals and 77 points. He was never particularly happy in Detroit, however, and on June 23, 1975, he signed with the Kings, becoming the NHL&rsquo;s first big-name player to change teams through the free-agent system.Dionne was everything the Kings hoped he would be and more. His best season came in 1979-80, when he had 53 goals and career-highs of 84 assists and 137 points.He and Wayne Gretzky tied for the league scoring title that season, but Dionne was awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the scoring champion because he had more goals.Gretzky has won the trophy every year since.&ldquo;He makes us all look like bums,&rdquo; Dionne once said of Gretzky. &#9632;

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The King Of Kings Is Gone…

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03633/5895778-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="178" height="135"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;The heat was on.New York Rangers&rsquo; general manager Phil Esposito sent 23-year-old Bobby Carpenter and defenseman Tom Laidlaw to Los Angeles for 35-year-old superscorer Marcel Dionne, in a deal consummated scant hours before the trading deadline, March 10.In the 48 hours that followed, Esposito was bristling under heavy criticism.&ldquo;I disagree totally with anyone who thinks I&rsquo;ve sacrificed this team&rsquo;s future for the sake of winning right now,&rdquo; said Esposito, who also received minor-league winger Jeff Crossman and a third-round draft choice in 1989.&ldquo;Yes, we gave up one 24-year-old&mdash;but I honestly believe Marcel can play three or four more years as well as he has in the past.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got good, young centers like Ulf Dahlen and Steve Nemeth coming soon,&rdquo; Esposito noted, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ve loaded up on draft choices. Now the pressure is on our scouts and myself to draft people who can play&hellip;for a change.&rdquo;Although he refused to concede that he had made an error by trading Mike Ridley, Kelly Miller and Bob Crawford to Washington for Carpenter and a second-round draft choice in 1989, Esposito did acknowledge that the playoff race had forced him to alter his plans.&ldquo;Could I have afforded to wait the rest of this year (for Carpenter to start scoring)?&rdquo; Esposito asked. &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m taking a chance I couldn&rsquo;t, because we might not make the playoffs and I can&rsquo;t have a guy of Bobby Carpenter&rsquo;s talent not producing for us any more. Simple.&rdquo;Since being obtained from Washington on Jan. 1, along with a second-round draft choice in 1989, Carpenter had disappointed Esposito by collecting only two goals and seven assists in 28 games.Carpenter, who sat out five weeks after being &ldquo;sent home&rdquo; by Washington, showed few of the skills in New York which made him a 53-goal scorer in 1984-85.&ldquo;Marcel Dionne is superstar,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;An out-and-out superstar. This is a chance for Marcel to really be recognized for the great hockey player that he is. Sometimes, we in the east tend to forget some of the unbelievable things he has done&hellip;like beat me out of second place (in total points).&ldquo;And I hope that Marcel ends up as the alltime leading scorer before he retires.&ldquo;And then,&rdquo; the GM added with a chuckle, &ldquo;both of us will sit there and watch (Wayne) Gretzky blow by us.&rdquo;A sleepy-eyed Dionne produced five shots on goal in his first day as a Ranger, after flying all night from Los Angeles to skate in a 3-2 victory over Boston.The creative 5-foot-8, 190-pound center said he had hoped to finish his career in Los Angeles and had asked to be traded only after the Kings &ldquo;hesitated&rdquo; to make any commitments about his future role.&ldquo;Phil stuck his neck out for me,&rdquo; said Dionne, &ldquo;and I just hope that the press gives me a chance to show that I can really contribute to this team in a lot of ways.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to be easy, but I asked for this.&rdquo;Esposito, in turn, was asked what message he was sending with the big deal, which included the 28-year-old Laidlaw. He saw no reason to change his year-long theme.&ldquo;Enough waiting,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wait. That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m saying. I&rsquo;m going for it this or next year. We&rsquo;re doing the same thing as when the Rangers acquired me.&ldquo;I figure Marcel alone, on our power play, will get 30 or 40 points. Goaltending and the power play are playoff keys. We&rsquo;ve got the goaltending but we&rsquo;re not worth bleep without a power play.Dionne earned his first point as a Ranger, with a goal at 19:56 of the third period in a 6-1 rout of the Philadelphia Flyers, March 12. It was his second game with New York and it came on, what else, a power play.BIG APPLESAUCE&mdash;Former Philly goalie Bob Froese, stopping 39 of 40 shots, got the win against the Flyers&hellip;At the deadline, Phil Esposito also sent Raimo Helminen to Minnesota for future considerations, then obtained right winger Stu Kulak from Edmonton as part of the future considerations from the Reijo Ruotsalainen deal&hellip;Esposito said that a major factor in his willingness to trade Bobby Carpenter was progress in negotations with Ulf Dahlen, the Rangers&rsquo; first-round pick in 1985. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t think he could come over from Sweden until 1988-89, but now, it looks like he&rsquo;ll be here this fall&mdash;and he is playing very, very well.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Jeff Crossman, who had two goals, three assists and 114 penalty minutes in 56 games with New Haven, will remain with the American League team shared by New York and Los Angeles. &#9632;

f0007-03

…To New York Rangers

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011487/5895809-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>I READ BRYAN TROTTIER&rsquo;S comments on officiating in the NHL. He deserves a gold medal or blue ribbon for telling it &ldquo;like it is.&rdquo; What is the point in having rules if they only exist in certain situations?The examples supporting Trottier&rsquo;s thesis could fill this issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS. What gripes me is that the league has fined him for expressing his opinion. True hockey fans everywhere agree with him. At what point will the NHL listen?I hope the Players&rsquo; Association will pay his fine. As a gesture of my disgust with the NHL reaction to Guest Shot, I enclose a &ldquo;token&rdquo; dollar to contribute towards Bryan&rsquo;s fine. I invite your subscribers to send one dollar if they agree with him.I would like to see the money sent to THE HOCKEY NEWS so you can publish the fan&rsquo;s reaction. The money could then be forwarded to Bryan Trottier for the payment of his fine (or as a reward for having the courage to speak out against Ziegler&rsquo;s bureaucracy).Jack Hedman, Fort Frances, ONEditor&rsquo;s Note:&nbsp;If anybody is inclined to take Mr. Hedman up on his offer of contributing one dollar to Bryan Trottier, THN suggests you mail it directly to him, care of New York Islanders, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Uniondale, NY 11553.<h2>POINTS TO PONDER</h2>We believe part of the generally mediocre &ldquo;parity&rdquo; in the NHL is due to the shackling of the talents and skills of such stars as Bryan Trottier and many others of his excellent calibre.Bryan Trottier&rsquo;s contention that illegal, excessive and too-frequently-unpenalized infractions of the rules erode the level of play in any given NHL game is correct.To reprimand and fine Trottier for daring to speak out publicly with regard to the uneven and capricious nature of current NHL refereeing is an affront to what the NHL is capable of being&mdash;the best hockey league in the world.John Ziegler&rsquo;s belief that such a public criticism is deserving of public punishment misses these points:&bull; The by-laws supposedly violated are unfair and poorly conceived.&bull; A private discussion with Trottier would have resulted in corrections.By taking the position Ziegler has, he has said that he does not care for individuals who think and who also play in the National Hockey League.Ted Folprecht, Northport, NY<h2>CHANGES NEEDED</h2>I don&rsquo;t think the referees are the cause of the problem&mdash;they know how to call a game. I can only think it starts at the top. I read in my local paper today that Bryan Trottier received a $1,000 fine for speaking out. I think the league has a serious problem if it can&rsquo;t take criticism that is obviously intended to be constructive. A solution will probably only come if the owners get together and revise the league management.W.C. Grantham, San Diego, CA<h2>SINCERE SUPPORTER</h2>Bryan Trottier is the epitome of class; truthful, courageous and intelligent.True hockey fans are grateful for his article and can only hope that the NHL powers that be will wise up.Thank you, Bryan!Greg Gotwalt, Spring Grove, PA &#9632;

f0008-01

Fan Starts Trottier Fund: Dollar For Your Thoughts

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

FAN FORUM

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021180/5895864-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="382" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McKenzie</figcaption></div>HE STANDS 5-foot-11, weighs 182 pounds and if that is not big by hockey standards, then so be it.But Rob Brown has outgrown the Western League.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any point in me playing in the WHL next season,&rdquo; says the fourth-round Pittsburgh Penguin pick (67th overall in 1986) who, at age 18, has done all there is to do.With three games remaining in the WHL regular season, the colorful Kamloop Blazer center had set the single-season record for points and assists (204 and 131, respectively) and the career mark for points (514 in 239 games). Cliff Ronning and Brian Propp could be heard falling out of the record books.Only Ray Ferraro&rsquo;s 108-goal season remains sacred.Now, the burning question is whether he&rsquo;s good enough to play in the National Hockey League.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s my goal for next season,&rdquo; he says, taking confidence from a strong performance at Penguin camp last fall and the knowledge that his life&rsquo;s too easy in junior.Maybe he will, maybe he won&rsquo;t. But you can be certain it&rsquo;s going to be fun to watch.Rob Brown may just be the most interesting and intriguing hockey personality at any level of the game.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been described as &lsquo;off the wall,&rsquo;&rdquo; says his father, Bob Brown, who also happens to be the Blazers&rsquo; general manager. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say that&rsquo;s accurate, but, yeah, he&rsquo;s different alright.&rdquo;He is a character. Which is not to say there&rsquo;s anything cartoonish about him, except maybe those oversized Popeye forearms.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never met any player who is as competitive as Rob Brown,&rdquo; says his agent, Rick Curran of Toronto.Or as refreshing, Curran might add for the benefit of those who don&rsquo;t know Brown.Ask him if he&rsquo;s bored playing in the WHL and he responds, &ldquo;Yeah, it is at times. The games against Portland are good, really intense.&rdquo;And how does he combat the boredom?&ldquo;Look at the pretty girls in the stands,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Sing songs on the bench.&rdquo;So as not to get caught without a tune in his head, Brown has taken to writing song titles on pieces of tape he puts on the shaft of his stick.We can only imagine the surprise on an opposition goalie&rsquo;s face when he picked up Brown&rsquo;s stick after a scramble and returned it to the player only to read &ldquo;Walk Like An Egyptian&rdquo; on it.More than songs make it on Brown&rsquo;s stick. He&rsquo;s taken to putting motivational slogans on them, or greetings to opposing players.In the Memorial Cup last year, Brown was playing head-to-head against Portland center Dave Archibald. Archibald and Brown are good friends, have the utmost respect for each other and thrive on the competition.At a faceoff, Brown told Archibald to take a look at the shaft of his stick. On apiece of tape, Brown had written, &ldquo;Hi, Arch, how you doin&rsquo;?&rdquo;&ldquo;That broke Arch up,&rdquo; says Brown, who, incidentally won the faceoff.Brown has made a habit of incensing goaltenders with an array of taunts or well-timed jabs. Yes, he is cocky and admits his emotions sometimes get the better of him, but, no, he&rsquo;s nobody&rsquo;s fool.&ldquo;There are a lot of emotional goalies in our league,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If I can get them off their game, we&rsquo;re going to win.&rdquo;Blazer coach Ken Hitchcock supports that view.&ldquo;Much of what he does is contrived,&rdquo; the coach says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very calculating. He looks for the edge, what it takes to win. He&rsquo;s the best con man I&rsquo;ve ever seen. He&rsquo;s better than me.&rdquo;Not a great skater, Brown has his detractors. Despite his incredible stats, he wasn&rsquo;t even invited to Canada&rsquo;s world junior team training camp.&ldquo;That really stung him,&rdquo; says Hitchcock. &ldquo;He was really depressed but he bounced back. Do I think he&rsquo;ll play in the NHL? Two years ago I would have said no. Now, I&rsquo;d say yes. I think he&rsquo;s learned that it&rsquo;s not good enough to be a big fish in a little pond, you&rsquo;ve got to be the big fish in the big pond.&rdquo;Look out. Mario, here comes Rob Brown.You can hear THN Editor-in-Chief Bob McKenzie on mid-week Toronto Maple Leaf broadcasts on the Telemedia Maple Leaf radio network. &#9632;

f0008-02

Look Out, Mario, Here Comes Rob Brown

<div class="byline">COMPILED BY RICHARD BEALES Copy Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011438/5895895-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mervyn (Red) Dutton, at right with New York Americans&rsquo; star Lorne Carr, was the NHL&rsquo;s second president.</figcaption></div>Mervyn (Red) Dutton, the National Hockey League&rsquo;s second president, died March 15 in Calgary at the age of 89.Dutton, who played 10 years in the NHL as a defenseman with the Montreal Maroons and New York Americans, twice led the league in penalty minutes. In 1936, he retired to become coach and manager of the Americans.He remained with the club in those capacities until the team ceased operations in 1942. When league president Frank Calder died in 1943, Dutton took over as president for the 1943-44 and 1944-45 seasons. He left the job to return to business in Calgary. Dutton, succeeded as president by the late Clarence Campbell, was elected to the Hall of Fame as a player in 1958.Dutton was bom July 23, 1898 in Russell, Man., but made Calgary his home. His hockey career was almost over before it began when, during World War I, he was wounded at the battle of Vimy Ridge. He refused to let army doctors amputate his leg and. after a period of recuperation, practised seven hours a day to strengthen the leg for hockey.Dutton became somewhat of an iconoclast in hockey circles after resigning from the NHL presidency, refusing to enter an NHL rink for 35 years and declining to answer any questions on the calibre of play in the league.He leaves his wife, Mory, his daughter and son-in-law, Baryl and Lionel Quinn of Calgary, six grandchildren and a sister, Edith Street of Calgary.<h2>REYCROFT RESIGNS</h2>Almost a year to the day after winning the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference hockey title, Cornell University coach Lou Reycroft has resigned his position.Reycroft, 36, announced his decision on March 13, after leading Cornell to a 74-58-9 record in his five years behind the bench.Cornell put together a 21-7-4 record and won the ECAC title last season, but slipped to 11-16 this year and missed the playoffs. The graduation of forwards Duanne Moeser and Peter Natyshak, and the departure of goalie Doug Dadswell to the Calgary Flames&rsquo; organization proved losses too large to overcome.&ldquo;Lou has done a fine job as coach,&rdquo; said Laing Kennedy, director of athletics at the university. &ldquo;His record speaks for itself. I accept his resignation with regret.&rdquo;Reycroft gave no reasons for his resignation.<h2>GRETZKY TIES MIKITA</h2>For the second time in six weeks, Wayne Gretzky has caught up to Stan Mikita on the all-time scoring list.Gretzky scored the 541 st goal of his career in the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; 4-1 victory over the Hartford Whalers, Mar. 15. The goal tied Gretzky with Mikita for eighth place on the all-time NHL goal-scoring list.Earlier this season, Gretzky topped Mikita&rsquo;s mark of 1,467 points, pushing himself into fourth place in that category.With 11 Oiler games remaining, Gretzky took aim at Maurice Richard (544) on the all-time goal-scoring list.<h2>DEVILS SET RECORDS</h2>The New Jersey Devils will likely miss the playoffs this season, but it has nonetheless been one of the most successful years in franchise history.The Devils set three club records March 13, in a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders at Meadowlands Arena.The victory was the club&rsquo;s 18th of the season on home ice, one more than the team managed in 1977-78 as the Colorado Rockies.Pat Verbeek&rsquo;s winning goal was his 15th power-play marker of the season, another franchise record. Aaron Broten&rsquo;s assist on that goal was also noteworthy; it was his 43rd play making point of the year, another singleseason franchise record.<h2>NEW NHL STAFFER</h2>The NHL has hired a new director of communications, effective April 6.John M. (Jack) Falla, who covered hockey for Sports Illustrated from 1982 to 1986, will act as a liaison with the news media and public, as well as team communications and league publishing ventures.<h2>CANADIANS WIN</h2>The Canadian national team edged Sweden 4-3 in the championship game of the World Invitational Tournament in Anchorage, Alaska.Ray Cote scored the winner for Canada in the second period, five minutes after Vaughan Karpan revived the nats with a shorthanded goal.The Canadians were trailing 3-1 when Karpan scored during a Swedish power play. Larry Trader and Fabian Joseph also scored for the winners.Sweden was represented by a mixture of young and veteran players from the Swedish Elite League.The Norwegian national team and Alaska Gold Kings also took part. &#9632;

f0009-01

Red Dutton Was NHL Player And President

<h2>MAR. THU. 19</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011511/5895926-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="481" height="2293"></div> &#9632;

f0010-01

NHL Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03724/5895957-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="580" height="1044"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fredrik Olausson, above, has been even better than expected, says coach Dan Maloney.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021141/5895964-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="176" height="136"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;The Winnipeg Jets and Fredrik Olausson have arrived at the same time.Now that the Jets have solidified their reputation as one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s stronger teams, the 20-year-old defenseman from Farjestad, Sweden, has provided a badly-needed burst of speed and energy behind the blue line.&ldquo;The more I watch him, the more impressed I am,&rdquo; said Jet coach Dan Maloney, who has struck it rich using rookies this year.His starting goaltenders&mdash;Daniel Berthiaume and Pokey Reddick&mdash;are freshmen, as is another defenseman, Brad Berry. And while most first-year players from Europe have required an adjustment period, Olausson has played a regular shift since the day he arrived.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a better player now than I was when I left Sweden,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m working on other skills I didn&rsquo;t use in Sweden&hellip;like bodychecking.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind it when the hitting starts. Rough and fast hockey, that&rsquo;s the most fun.&rdquo;Olausson has crushed several opponents into the boards in a fair but final fashion. Some of his victims have got up grumbling, vowing redemption, taking note that they should be a bit more aware of No. 4.Asked if he had set any goals for himself before the start of his first professional season, Olausson replied, &ldquo;The only thing I had in my mind was I wanted to stay up with the club, to have a job on the team. Hopefully, I&rsquo;ve brought some good things to this excellent team.&rdquo;Olausson is unlikely to attract any attention as the NHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year, the domain of Ron Hextall of Philadelphia Flyers and Luc Robitaille of Los Angeles Kings.But he does warrant serious consideration to a spot on defense on the all-rookie team. If there is a better first-year defenseman in the league, he hasn&rsquo;t been apparent.After 69 games, Olausson had five goals and 26 assists. His offensive skills are so polished that Maloney moved him up to right wing for three games in Andrew McBain&rsquo;s spot.&ldquo;I was trying to inject some speed on that line,&rdquo; explained the coach.However, Olausson is happiest when he&rsquo;s playing defense.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s where I feel most comfortable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I enjoyed being up there, too. As long as I&rsquo;m asked to play hockey, I&rsquo;ll be content. When my career is over, though, I think I&rsquo;ll be regarded as a defenseman.&rdquo;On the ice, Olausson projects a impression that he is shorter and lighter than his 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame. He sits low in his stance, unlike most Europeans.The Jets&rsquo; fourth-round draft choice in 1985, he raised the attention of many people when he cracked Farjestad&rsquo;s lineup in the Swedish Elite League as a 17-year-old.&ldquo;I think the Winnipeg people are awfully lucky,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;They are going to have him to enjoy for years and years to come.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;The Jets received a blow when right winger Paul MacLean stretched knee ligaments in a collision with Mario Lemieux of Pittsburgh. MacLean might be ready for the playoffs. In his place, the Jets moved Ray Neufeld on to Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s line and he responded with goals in his first two games there-&hellip;Dan Maloney was excited after the Jets edged Montreal 2-1. &ldquo;I enjoy every win,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but our execution and play was outstanding against the most physical and defensively-strong team in the NHL. &ldquo;&hellip;General manager John Ferguson said he inquired about bringing Darryl Sittler out of retirement, but nothing was arranged&hellip;Brad Jones, an eighth-round choice in 1984, is with the team on a five-game trial. He is a center from the University of Michigan. &#9632;

f0010-03

Rookie Jet Defenseman Takes Off

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011364/5895995-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="336" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler</figcaption></div>Who is the sexiest player in the NHL?A good question? Obviously. A vital question? Absolutely!Figure it out; sex appeal is one of the most compelling qualities promoters seek in selling products. The NHL, in case you haven&rsquo;t heard, is selling a product. Many of the buyers are of the female persuasion.I had that in mind a year ago when I launched Fischler&rsquo;s first-ever list of the &ldquo;Sexiest Players In The NHL&rsquo;&rsquo; list. The 1986 winner was captain Dave Poulin of the Philadelphia Flyers but, as we will see, Poulin had problems defending his title.For one thing the 1987 standards are more stringent. I have enlisted more experts in addition to my wife, Shirley. As you will see from their comments, they have taken the assignment seriously and list their favorites from one to 10.The winner will surprise you although it may not shock followers of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So, without further ado, the second annual list of &ldquo;The Sexiest Players in the NHL.&rdquo;KISHA CIABATTARI, Basking Ridge, N.J.: 1. Mark Messier&mdash;&ldquo;He is the sexiest man alive. Period. It helps that he has no teeth.&rdquo; 2. Reijo Ruotsalainen&mdash;&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t help notice his great quadraceps.&rdquo; 3. Glen Hanlon&mdash;&ldquo;I like his red hair but what makes him really sexy is the look that suggests he needs to be mothered.&rdquo; 4. Paul Coffey&mdash;&ldquo;His body features are beautiful. Paul is both angelic and serious looking.&rdquo; 5. Gil Delorme&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a bad player but sure is cute!&rdquo; 6. Glenn Anderson&mdash;&ldquo;He plays like a Kamikaze and that alone is enough to make him sexy.&rdquo; 7. Wayne Gretzky&mdash;&ldquo;Forget about his scoring; he has beautiful narrow hips and a very appealing fragile look.&rdquo; 8. Tomas Sandstrom&mdash;&ldquo;He looks like a Swedish woodsman; nice body, full red mouth.&rdquo; 9. Grant Fuhr. &ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t nicknamed &lsquo;Hot Legs&rsquo; for nothing.&rdquo; 10. Scott Stevens: &ldquo;He fights sexy and looks great without a shirt.&rdquo;JONI D&rsquo;ATTILO, Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.: 1. Dave Poulin&mdash;&ldquo;He gets five points for each dimple.&rdquo; 2. Denis Potvin&mdash;&ldquo;It&rsquo;sscary to think anyone could be so close to perfection. He could have been a philosopher or politician.&rdquo; 3. Bobby Carpenter&mdash;&ldquo;His big, brown eyes are his major assets, followed by his nose and smile, when he does smile.&rdquo; 4. Miroslav Frycer&mdash;&ldquo;This is one hockey player who doesn&rsquo;t need a nose job.&rdquo; 5. Ron Duguay&mdash;&ldquo;Some people look great from afar but not up close. He&rsquo;s not one of them.&rdquo; 6. Brian Sutter&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the only guy on this list with a ripped pair of sneakers.&rdquo; 6. Alan Haworth&mdash;&ldquo;This fellow is a double for Errol Flynn.&rdquo; 7. Don Maloney&mdash;&ldquo;Donnie has that gosh, golly, geewhiz, cutesy look.&rdquo; 9. Tomas Jonsson&mdash;&ldquo;How Swede he is (sorry!).&rdquo; 10. Wayne Gretzky&mdash;&ldquo;Because of what he is.&rdquo;NANCY CATALDI, Queens, N.Y.: 1. Dave Ellett&mdash;&ldquo;He has a rugged, boyish look, combined with a wonderful smile.&rdquo; 2. Craig Simpson&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s like the sexy-eyed blond boy-next-door.&rdquo; 3. Dave Poulin&mdash;&ldquo;His leadership on the ice makes him sexy.&rdquo; 4. Kraig Nienhuis&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got high cheekbones and a great haircut to go with them; not to mention blond hair and blue eyes.&rdquo; 5. J.J. Daigneault&mdash;&ldquo;In a word&mdash;debonair. In another word&mdash;European.&rdquo; 6. Craig Muni&mdash;&ldquo;Like a pirate&mdash;dark and swarthy.&rdquo; 7. Rick Vaive&mdash;&ldquo;His eyes match his blue uniform. And that looks great.&rdquo; 9. Joel Quenneville&mdash;&ldquo;I like his build. Strong.&rdquo; 10. Ken Leiter&mdash;&ldquo;He has a certain look about him. It&rsquo;s hard to define but easy to like.&rdquo;GINNY ST. JOHN, Binghamton, N.Y.: 1. Craig Simpson&mdash;&ldquo;What every mother wants for her daughter, or herself for that matter.&rdquo; 2. Joey Kocur&mdash;&ldquo;So cute. He looks like a little boy lost in a big world.&rdquo; 3. Steve Yzerman&mdash;&ldquo;One of the most finely-proportioned bodies in the NHL; and the face ain&rsquo;t bad either.&rdquo; 4. James Patrick&mdash;&ldquo;He has the fabulous smile of a movie star.&rdquo; 5. Scott Stevens&mdash;&ldquo;The ultimate in San Diego surfer-boy good looks.&rdquo; 6. Rick Tocchet&mdash;&ldquo;Devilish eyes and a dirty mouth.&rdquo; 7. Adam Oates&mdash;&ldquo;Incredible cheekbones. Always impeccably dressed.&rdquo; 8. Peter Zezel&mdash;&ldquo;If you can look past that mountain of a chest, you&rsquo;ll find a cute, confused face.&rdquo; 9. Rich Kromm&mdash;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s always a twinkle in his eyes.&rdquo; 10. Glen Hanlon&mdash;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m partial to flaming redheads.&rdquo;SUSAN BLOOM, Montreal: 1. Sylvain Turgeon&mdash;&ldquo;His nice dark features are compelling.&rdquo; 2. Tom Kurvers&mdash;&ldquo;A lot like Turgeon. He&rsquo;s absolutely gorgeous.&rdquo; 3. Craig Simpson&mdash;&ldquo;Craig has a stunning face and such nice blond hair.&rdquo; 4. Ulf Samuelsson&mdash;&ldquo;His body and face complement each other. That Swedish look&mdash;blond hair, blue eyes&mdash;is hard to resist.&rdquo; 5. Shayne Corson&mdash;&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t beat that boyish appeal.&rdquo; 6. Luc Robitaille&mdash;&ldquo;If there&rsquo;s such a thing as &lsquo;The Canadian Look&rsquo;&mdash;tall, dark and handsome&mdash;he&rsquo;s got it.&rdquo; 7. Tom McCarthy&mdash;&ldquo;Same as Robitaille.&rdquo; 8. Gil Delorme&mdash;&ldquo;He is what you call &lsquo;fetching.&rsquo; &ldquo;9. Doug Crossman&mdash;&ldquo;Anyone who falls for piercing blue eyes is a sucker for Doug.&rdquo; 10. Bruce Bell&mdash;&ldquo;Another one with beautiful eyes.&rdquo;TRACI SCHIFFER, Long Island: 1. Rick Tocchet&mdash;&ldquo;No one in the league comes close to his brand of sexiness.&rdquo; 2. Steve Yzerman&mdash;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one way to describe his magnetism. Wow!&rdquo; 3. Paul Cyr&mdash;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m attracted by his big, brown, bashful eyes, silky hair and a sexy, perpetual pout.&rdquo; 4. Jocelyn Lemieux&mdash;&ldquo;Unlike his brother, Claude, Jocelyn has a personality as well as the most beautifully sculptured thighs and calves in the league.&rdquo; 5. Chris Jensen&mdash;&ldquo;Eyes, very dreamy; lips, very sweet.&rdquo; 6. Adam Oates&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s so hot, I&rsquo;m surprised the ice doesn&rsquo;t melt beneath him.&rdquo; 7. Neil Sheehy&mdash;&rsquo; &lsquo;What could be better than a big Harvard redhead with ice blue eyes and a broken nose?&rdquo; 8. &ldquo;Patrick Flatley&mdash;&ldquo;Exactly what the creators of The Little Rascals had in mind.&rdquo; 9. Scott Stevens&mdash;&ldquo;The shorter his hair, the sexier he gets.&rdquo; 10. Joey Kocur&mdash;&ldquo;That innocent gap-toothed country boy smile sends chills up my spine.&rdquo;CATHERINE GRACE, Montreal: 1. Ron Duguay&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s still god.&rdquo; 2. Gord Kluzak&mdash;&ldquo;Too bad he&rsquo;s hurt. He&rsquo;s big and golden, and wow!&rdquo; 3. Scott Stevens&mdash;&ldquo;Here we have a token blond but a beauty.&rdquo; 4. Craig Coxe&mdash;&ldquo;I wish they all could be California guys.&rdquo; 5. Jim Sandlak&mdash;&ldquo;I rate him as the best newcomer.&rdquo; 6. Tom Kurvers&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the All-America type&mdash;with a little intelligence thrown in.&rdquo; 7. John Tucker&mdash;&ldquo;Two wonderful, bedroom eyes.&rdquo; 8. Bob Halkidis&mdash;&ldquo;A great smile and personality to go with it.&rdquo; 9. Rick Wamsley&mdash;&ldquo;Best looking goalie in the NHL.&rdquo; 10. Gil Delorme&mdash;&ldquo;He knows he&rsquo;s good looking.&rdquo;HOLLY MCINNIS, East Rutherford, N.J.: I. Randy Velischek&mdash;&ldquo;Magnetic blue eyes, fantastic personality. He has chivalry and brains to boot.&rdquo; 2. Paul Coffey&mdash;&ldquo;I like his shoulders. He&rsquo;s nice and brawny.&rdquo; 3. Craig Simpson&mdash;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a gorgeous face and the rest of his fuselage isn&rsquo;t bad either. Simpson is very nice to look at.&rdquo; 4. Peter Zezel&mdash;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a scruffy, lumberjack look about him that comes out sexy.&rdquo; 5. Mario Lemieux&mdash;&ldquo;Combine his great moves on the ice with his sexy soft voice and you have winner.&rdquo; 6. Doug Sulliman&mdash;&ldquo;On personality alone, he gets a nine but he&rsquo;s also genuinely sweet, has fantastic legs and great biceps. 7. Ed Olczyk&mdash;&ldquo;This is what you call cuddly, little-boy good looks.&rdquo; 8. Ron Francis&mdash;&ldquo;Distinguished.&rdquo; 9. Bobby Carpenter&mdash;&ldquo;Apple-pie good looks and a nice body.&rdquo; 10. Wayne Gretzky&mdash;&ldquo;Looks good in a suit.&rdquo;SHIRLEY FISCHLER, New York: I James Patrick&mdash;&ldquo;Classic dark.&rdquo; 2. Craig Simpson&mdash;&ldquo;Classic blond.&rdquo; 3. Ron Duguay&mdash;&ldquo;His qualities, taken individually, are all wrong. But together, his features make him &lsquo;sexy.&rsquo; &ldquo;4. Sylvain Turgeon&mdash;&ldquo;Those eyes.&rdquo; 5. Craig Billington&mdash;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s something about the mouth.&rdquo; 6. Kevin Lowe&mdash;&ldquo;Sandy sexiness.&rdquo; 7. Rob Ramage&mdash;&ldquo;Rivetting eyes.&rdquo; 8. Don Maloney&mdash;&ldquo;His always-dark, blond 5 o&rsquo;clock shadow.&rdquo; 9. John Vanbies-brouck&mdash;&ldquo;He has an impish quality; sort of unexpected.&rdquo; 10. Kelly Hrudey&mdash;&ldquo;The eyes, the mouth.&rdquo;At last, The Second Annual Fischler Sexiest All-Star Team.GOAL: Glen Hanlon, Kelly Hrudey. Rick Wamsley and John Vanbiesbrouck. DEFENSE: Paul Coffey, James Patrick, Scott Stevens, Gil Delorme, Denis Potvin, Dave Ellett, Gord Kluzak, Randy Velischek and Tom Kurvers. FORWARDS: Craig Simpson, Ron Duguay, Dave Poulin, Bobby Carpenter, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Sylvain Turgeon, Patrick Flatley, Clark Gillies, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky.THE WINNER: Craig Simpson. &#9632;

f0011-01

And The Sexiest Man In The NHL Is…

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02999/5896026-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="175" height="135"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The Quebec Nordiques are pining for their glory days&mdash;say, around the time of Dec. 13, 1986.On that night at Le Colisee, the Nords&rsquo; high-powered offense turned on the jets against Buffalo and trounced the hapless Sabres 7-0.The win gave Quebec 32 points in 31 games, and moved the team to within two points of the Adams Division co-leaders Boston and Montreal. It was a tight race in those days; Hartford, too, was only two points off the pace.That is, it was a tight race for every Adams team but the poor Sabres&mdash;who, with a record of 5-20-4, were quickly becoming the odds-on favorite in the entry draft sweepstakes.Those days are long gone.The Nordiques, who have gone 1122-6 since that time, are fighting for their playoff lives. The Whalers, Bruins and Canadiens are out of sight now, but the Sabres have become a dangerous threat.Under new coach Ted Sator, Buffalo has turned its game completely around. Since that 7-0 thrashing in Quebec (Sator replaced Craig Ramsay a little more than a week later), the Sabres have gone 21-15-3.When the Nords opened their morning papers on unlucky Friday, March 13, they saw that Buffalo had tied them with 59 points, and held a game in hand.So what happened?For one thing, the vaunted offense has been consistently shooting blanks. Even with the addition of former 55-goal man John Ogrodnick from Detroit, the Nords&rsquo; attack had tumbled to 21st&mdash;last in the league.While coach Michel Bergeron wasn&rsquo;t about to make excuses for his team&rsquo;s dreadful performance, he did point to the Nords&rsquo; extensive injury log as a major factor in the decline.&ldquo;Our strategy was geared to evolve around our centermen,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So you have to admit that when we lost our two best players at that position for a good part of the season, things were bound to backfire for us.&ldquo;Any team who would lose guys like Peter Stastny and Dale Hunter for an extended period of time would be in as bad shape as we are right now. And on top of losing Peter and Dale, I had to overuse my third centerman, Paul Gillis. No wonder we&rsquo;re in such a mess.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;&hellip;he made us understand that we had better make the playoffs, or else.&rsquo;&mdash;Filion</blockquote>But all of the key figures are now back in the lineup and things haven&rsquo;t gotten any better. The team has not displayed any intensity, especially in must-win games.Quebec started strongly in the first game of a home-and-home series against Buffalo, March 7 in Le Colisee. Goals by Michel Goulet, Peter Stastny and Mike Eagles staked the Nords to a 3-0 first-period lead but then the roof caved in. The Sabres charged back to tie the game 5-5 on a third-period goal by rookie Christian Ruuttu.The next night, Quebec wasn&rsquo;t even in the game. Buffalo dominated from the opening faceoff and cruised to a 5-1 home-ice win.That tied the clubs for fourth spot, a position they were still in after Quebec surprised Hartford 6-4 and lost 6-3 to Pittsburgh.Bergeron was impressed by his team&rsquo;s performance in the Hartford tilt.&ldquo;What a game!&rdquo; he enthused. &ldquo;The guys were great out there. Everyone played a great game. For once, we played like a team. Even though the Whalers scored first, we didn&rsquo;t fall back to our bad habits.&ldquo;When the whole team stands up as one and skates the way they did tonight, we&rsquo;re very hard to beat. Our win tonight against the divisional leaders gives us a tremendous lift.&rdquo;Some lift. The next night, Mario Lemieux scored five points as the Penguins downed the Nords. It was close (4-3) until the last two minutes, but a pair of empty-net goals by Lemieux broke it open for good.Pessimists are not asking whether the Nordiques will make the playoffs, but whether Bergeron and general manager Maurice Filion will still have jobs at year&rsquo;s end.Filion said the two questions are probably linked. Team president Marcel Aubut hadn&rsquo;t given his hockey men an ultimatum, the GM said, &ldquo;but he clearly made us understand that we had better make the playoffs, or else.&rdquo;NORDIQUE NOTES&mdash;Jean-Francois Sauve finally arrived from Switzerland and was immediately put into action. He played a regular shift and on the power play in the two games against the Sabres and was the best Nordique on the ice. He scored one goal and assisted on another&hellip;Lane Lambert, acquired from the New York Rangers for veteran Pat Price, played well alongside Michel Goulet and Dale Hunter. Goulet missed a penalty shot against Pittsburgh that could have tied the game. &#9632;

f0011-02

Once-Proud Nords Are Fighting To Survive

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011464/5896057-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">In past Ron Caron has been able to use his No. 1 draft pick to get players such as Mark Hunter, above. This year, there was little interest.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021204/5896064-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="177" height="135"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;At Rendez vous &lsquo;87, St. Louis Blues&rsquo; general manager Ron Caron virtually promised to make a major trade.His team was floundering and his array of left wingers&mdash;12 forwards had played the position&mdash;were unproductive.&ldquo;We were in danger of crumbling,&rdquo; Caron recalled. &ldquo;I told our players I wasn&rsquo;t sure we could cross that stretch with the same troops. I said, &lsquo;I have to improve the team, and some of you may have to move.&rsquo; &ldquo;But Caron, who acquired 14 of the current Blues in trades the previous three years, said his feelers stirred very little interest.&ldquo;I found out I didn&rsquo;t have the control over player movement that I used to,&rdquo; Caron said in February. &ldquo;I have to be patient. This cooking isn&rsquo;t right. Now we have to turn up the heat on the ingredients.&rdquo;Then the Blues got hot and the trading deadline passed uneventfully for the Blues. Their only deal sent spare forward Pat Hughes to the Hartford Whalers for a l0th-round draft pick, a move that the league blocked for four days because Hughes, acquired in the waiver draft, had to clear waivers again.Why couldn&rsquo;t Caron get anything substantial done? &ldquo;Trading for the sake of trading does not interest me,&rdquo; he said.In the 10 games prior to the trading deadline, the Blues went 6-1-3 and virtually assured themselves a playoff spot. Caron took rejuvenated players such as defensemen Charlie Bourgeois and Bruce Bell off the trading block and concentrated on acquiring a left winger with a draft pick and/or prospects.&ldquo;I am willing to mortgage part of our rich future for a more stable present,&rdquo; Caron said.But attempts to acquire left wingers Perry Turnbull, an ex-Blue with the Winnipeg Jets, and Mike McPhee of the Montreal Canadiens, failed. Turnbull was put on the block by Jet general manager John Ferguson, then taken off when right winger Paul MacLean was injured.Montreal general manager Serge Savard reportedly was offered a No. 1 pick for McPhee, but declined. Caron talked with nine other teams but got nowhere.Caron used his 1984 No. 1 pick to acquire Rick Wamsley and his 1985 No. 1 to get 44-goal scorer Mark Hunter and rookie defenseman Michael Dark. But it seemed nobody wanted the Blues No. 1 pick in the upcoming entry draft.&ldquo;It created very little interest,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;They said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll get back to you.&rsquo; They got back to me and said they are not trading. That&rsquo;s a result of the 18-year-old draft. They are too doubtful. It&rsquo;s too hard to read what you are going to get down the line. You cannot get people to dance for a No. 1 pick anymore.&rdquo;Some teams tried the reverse approach on Caron, offering younger players and/or picks for a veterans such as Bernie Federko. Caron rebuffed a firm Federko feeler from Philadelphia Flyer general manager Bobby Clarke.Then the Blues, revived without a talent transfusion, went into their stretch run as one of the hottest teams in the league. Their 4-3 victory over the Blackhawks in Chicago, March 11, ran their unbeaten streak to seven games, including four on the road.&ldquo;If they continue working hard and checking, and sacrificing, they&rsquo;re capable of doing what they did last year,&rdquo; Caron said, referring to the Blues two victorious playoff rounds last season. &ldquo;But tell them to remain ambitious. They haven&rsquo;t done anything yet. They&rsquo;ve just positioned themselves to succeed.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;With coach Jacques Martin using his bump-and-grind lineup, offensive-minded Bruce Bell and Ron Flockhart found playing time scarce. Bell had consecutive two-assist games before getting pulled&hellip;Winger Todd Ewen continued his role as a security guard, engaging Red Wing enforcer Bob Probert nine seconds into his first shift in a 5-3 victory March 7&hellip;Gino Cavallini, the steadiest left winger on the squad, was promoted to the Doug Gilmour-Greg Paslawski scoring line. Paslawski&rsquo;s 23rd goal of the season was his sixth game-winner&hellip;In his first 11 games back from his broken jaw, Bernie Federko generated 16 points. &#9632;

f0012-01

Circumstances Force St. Louis To Stand Pat

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Kevin Lowe is one of the few NHLers to take a poke at Hall of Famer Bobby Orr after the latter said &ldquo;20 NHL players&rdquo; were shafted by the league by not appearing in Rendez-vous &lsquo;87, because there was only one NHL team instead of the normal two. Writing in the Edmonton Sun, Lowe addresses Orr on the subject, asserting, &ldquo;Bobby, I think you&rsquo;re offside.&rdquo; Lowe says he wasn&rsquo;t the least bit offended being absent from Rendez-vous, adding, &ldquo;I think we should do it again next year. If showcasing the league means showcasing the Soviets at the same time, so be it. I just can&rsquo;t agree with Orr. &ldquo;&hellip;The Flames&rsquo; brass reportedly is still fuming over the North Stars&rsquo; peddling of erstwhile Calgary hero, Kent Nilsson, to the Oilers. Problem is, the Flames are still picking up Magic&rsquo;s salary.Although many NHL goalies finger Al MacInnis with having the hardest shot among defensemen, Patrick Roy puts Doug Wilson ahead of MacInnis, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey and Reed Larson. As for the NHLer who creates the most in-front-of-the-net obstruction, Roy wastes no time singling out Kevin Dineen, followed by Tim Hunter, Tiger Williams, Stan Smyl and Ron Sutter&hellip;TV rights for next season&rsquo;s Minnesota high school hockey tourney will climb from $500,000 (1986) to $655,000. Station WCCO still expects to make money on the deal, having increased ad rates by five per cent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011461/5896102-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="360" height="515"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Roy</figcaption></div>Wayne Gretzky tells the story of how, eight years ago, he and former teammate Dave Dryden played an exhibition basketball game aginst disabled athletes including the late Terry Fox and Rick Hansen. &ldquo;We lost,&rdquo; chuckles The Great One, &ldquo;48-4.&rdquo;&hellip;News media in the U.S. owes a debt of thanks to Pat Lund, the audio-visual student at St. Cloud (Minnesota) State. It was Lund who taped the now-classic brawl involving Herb Brooks&rsquo; St. Cloud sextet against Wisconsin-River Falls. The video never would have been shown across the continent had Lund not given the tape to KXLI, Channel 41 in St. Cloud. In no time, Channel 41 spun off copies for other TV stations, and soon the brawl was being seen everywhere. P.S.&mdash;the next time St. Cloud played Wisconsin-River Falls, Lund was dispatched to a basketball game. Natch, Brooks was furious over the video circulating.Charlie Bourgeois was startled when a TV interviewer asked him if he had found a wife yet. Bachelor Bourgeois grinned and quipped, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s been another part of my up-and-down career. Now that I have more scars, it&rsquo;s getting harder and harder (to find a wife).&rdquo;&hellip;Whaler captain Ron Francis singles out the club&rsquo;s ability to compensate for injuries as one of its strengths this year. &ldquo;A team,&rdquo; Ron explains, &ldquo;is like a bridge. You start knocking out certain parts of the bridge, you expect it to collapse. We&rsquo;ve had guys who&rsquo;ve done some pretty good patch work. &ldquo;&hellip;Tiger Williams is retreating on his early boast that he would have had to take over as Kings&rsquo; coach had Mike Murphy not accepted the job. &ldquo;When you start to talk about coaching, people get nervous,&rdquo; Tiger tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;and I want the Kings&rsquo; organization to know that I can play for another three or four years. People are premature in thinking I&rsquo;m ready to stop playing.&rdquo;Lou Nanne on ref Ron Fournier: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s already cost us $ 1,000 in videotape to send to the league from the games he&rsquo;s worked.&rdquo;&hellip;Mike Gartner on the difference between a sharpshooter like himself being in and out of a slump: &ldquo;When I was awful, early in the season, it looked like I was shooting at a lacrosse net. Now, it&rsquo;s like a soccer goal!&rdquo;&hellip;Balmy Los Angeles has not affected Luc Robitaille&rsquo;s game. &ldquo;If you really put your mind to the game.&rdquo; he tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;you can use the weather to your advantage. And another good thing is: I always know that my car will start on time!&rdquo; Robitaille says he doesn&rsquo;t play golf or tennis during the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021127/5896095-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="360" height="564"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lou Nanne</figcaption></div>The seemingly endless Harry Sinden-Phil Esposito feud will have a happy ending. After years of rebuffing the idea, the Bruins will honor Espo by lifting a No. 7 (Espo&rsquo;s number in Boston) banner to the Boston Garden roof. Plans are to have the banner night early next season. At first, Phil refused to believe that Sinden, with whom he&rsquo;d been at odds since Harry traded him to New York in 1975, had mellowed to such an extent. Assured that the ice finally had been broken, Espo chuckled, &ldquo;I better call Harry right away.&rdquo;&hellip;Talk to John Ogrodnick and he&rsquo;ll tell you the Adams Division is faster than the Norris, from whence he came. &ldquo;I was huffing and puffing in my first few games after I was traded (to Quebec),&rdquo; says Ogrodnick. &ldquo;The whole Adams Division is faster.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Blueliner Lowers The Boom On Orr

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03777/5896133-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="179" height="134"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Lee Fogolin is back where he started, while Mark Napier is starting over again.The two former Edmonton Oilers had mixed feelings about leaving the Stanley Cup favorites for Buffalo, but the fact that they weren&rsquo;t wanted in Edmonton has been tempered by the knowledge that they are needed here.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really exciting to be a part of what&rsquo;s going on here,&rdquo; Napier said, after the Sabres picked up five of a possible six points in the first three games since his arrival. Three of those points were taken from the Quebec Nordiques, in what is now a sprint to the finish for the fourth and final Adams Division playoff berth.&ldquo;If we came here and they were maybe 10 points down,&rdquo; Napier said, &ldquo;it might have been harder. But these guys are right in the race and it&rsquo;s fun to be a part of something like that again.&rdquo;Neither Napier, a right winger, nor Fogolin, a defenseman, had much of a part in the Edmonton story this season. Both had been relegated to the spare parts bin, before the trade that sent them to Buffalo for right winger Norm Lacombe, the rights to minor-league winger Wayne Van Dorp and future considerations.Lacombe, a first-round pick of the Sabres in 1983, and Van Dorp, a free agent noted more for his 6-foot-7, 205&mdash;pound frame than his hockey ability, are already toiling in the minors. Meanwhile, Napier and Fogolin are once again making an impact in the National Hockey League.Napier scored a goal off a setup from Fogolin in their first games in Sabre blue, helping Buffalo reverse a 3-0 deficit and gain a 5-5 tie with Quebec. The next night, back in Buffalo, both played well in a 5-1 Sabre victory over the Nordiques, a win that completed the Sabres&rsquo; chase from 18 points back.Three nights later in Los Angeles, Fogolin again had a strong game. Napier had an assist on what proved to be the winning goal in a 3-2 triumph.Fogolin&rsquo;s return to Buffalo brought his career full circle.In the summer of 1979, before Scotty Bowman took over the general manager&rsquo;s role from interim man John Anderson, former first-round draft pick Fogolin was deemed expendable.Left unprotected for the waiver draft, he was quickly picked up by the new team from out west, the Edmonton Oilers.Bowman, friends would say later, was livid.Fogolin was elated.In the seven-plus years in which he was with the Oilers, Fogolin took part in three Stanley Cup finals. He has championship rings for two of them. He was Edmonton&rsquo;s first team captain, a position he later surrendered to Wayne Gretzky. He also evolved into one of the strongest and most feared defenseman in the NHL.It was that kind of experience the Sabres wanted on their blue line.The Sabres&rsquo; run at success in the second half of this season has been spectacular but, as the trade deadline neared, they had been nearly decimated by injuries.The loss of forwards John Tucker (back), Lindy Ruff (shoulder) and Wilf Paiement (knee), and defenseman Shawn Anderson (shoulder) proved to be too much for the Sabres to handle.Sabre GM Gerry Meehan said he made the deal with the injuries in mind, but also because the two players had been in tough spots before and their experience should prove valuable to his young team.Though he is now 32 and clearly did not figure in Edmonton&rsquo;s future, Fogolin is by no means physically spent. He played in the first 35 games of the season for the Oilers, before giving way to a cast of younger players that included second-year man Steve Smith and rookie Craig Muni.A fitness fanatic and one of the strongest and most durable players in the league, Fogolin had five 80- and one 79-game seasons for the Oilers. Since cracking the NHL on a full-time basis, he has never played in fewer than 71 games in a single season.SABREPOINTS&mdash;Wilf Paiement underwent arthroscopic surgery for an ailing right knee, joining John Tucker on the injured list for the remainder of the season. &#9632;

f0014-03

Ex-Oilers Fogolin, Napier Feeling Needed By Sabres

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011348/5896171-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="579" height="747"><figcaption class="caption-body">Arthroscopic surgery deprived the Flames of Joe Otto, their big centerman.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02947/5896178-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="178" height="138"></div>CALGARY&mdash;Just when Calgary Flames thought they were cured of the injury bug. Just when they thought it was safe to farm out some of the extra bodies&hellip;three players went down with injuries in 48 hours and coach Bob Johnson went back to the drawing board.&ldquo;You were asking the other day what we&rsquo;re going to do with everybody,&rdquo; said Johnson, pointing to a reporter. &ldquo;The minute you said that, they started dropping like flies.&rdquo;The first to drop was hard-luck right winger Hakan Loob, who broke the baby finger on his left hand, courtesy of a Pat Price slash in a game against the New York Rangers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good thing it happens when you&rsquo;re having an awful season,&rdquo; remarked Loob afterwards. Then he thought about it some more. &ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t say that. It&rsquo;s too bad when it happens at the end of the season.&rdquo;The injury was expected to keep Loob out of action for three weeks&mdash;or until the last week of the regular season. That pretty much summed up the way the 1986-87 season has gone for the 26-year-old from Sweden.On Dec. 16, Loob led the Flames in goals with 14, one ahead of Joey Mullen. On the day Loob broke his finger he had 18. Mullen had 41. Loob scored at least 30 goals in each of his first three North American seasons.Perhaps the most surprising part of Loob&rsquo;s non-production was just how much ice time he&rsquo;d been getting, especially on special teams. In the last month, coach Bob Johnson used Loob on the team&rsquo;s first power-play unit and as one of only four regular penaltykillers.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s done a great job killing penalties,&rdquo; said Johnson, &ldquo;and he was good with the man advantage. He was on that line with (Steve) Bozek. I used them four-on-four, I used them a man down and I used him on the power play. He could play three positions on the power play.&rdquo;Loob&rsquo;s return will depend on how quickly his finger can heal. He is not expected to lose his conditioning because he can continue to skate, if not actually practice, with the team.Two nights later, the Flames lost both center Joel Otto and defenseman Neil Sheehy in a game against Washington Capitals. Otto injured his right knee and needed arthroscopic surgery to remove a piece of cartilage. He, too, was expected to miss the last three weeks of the regular season.Sheehy suffered a deep thigh bruise when he was kneed by Lou Frances-chetti. The seriousness of the injury wasn&rsquo;t immediately known.The loss of three regulars put the Flames&rsquo; much-heralded depth to the test. On the day Loob broke his finger, the Flames had six extra players in the press box, all biding their time&mdash;youngsters Brian Bradley, Gary Roberts and Kevan Guy; veterans Doug Risebrough and Paul Baxter, plus rookie center Joe Nieuwendyk, six days removed from the campus of Cornell University.Nieuwendyk received the first opportunity to replace Loob and scored a goal in his National Hockey League debut against Washington.Nieuwendyk said his college team played a &ldquo;run-and-gun style&rdquo; to start the season, but switched to a more defensive approach in the second half&mdash;similar to the system Johnson employs&mdash;with one forward always in position to help the defensemen.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still learning the system here,&rdquo; said Nieuwendyk. &ldquo;They went over a few things with me already and they talked to me some more today. I&rsquo;ve got a lot to learn.&rdquo;IN BRIEF&mdash;Doug Risebrough returned to the lineup for a Mar. 11 game against Hartford Whalers, his first action since injuring his knee Nov. 9 against Montreal Canadiens&hellip;Defenseman Kari Eloranta played his first game for the Flames in almost two years. He celebrated his return, playing against the Rangers, by scoring the game&rsquo;s opening goal. &ldquo;That helped my confidence,&rdquo; said Eloranta. &ldquo;He was excellent, just excellent,&rdquo; said Bob Johnson. Eloranta signed with the Flames just for the rest of the season, but did not rule out returning to North America next year if things work out. Eloranta spent four years in the Flames&rsquo; organization, 198185&hellip;Brian Bradley was sent to Moncton just before the trading deadline, but he was expected back before the end of the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03691/5896164-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="580" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Forward Hakan Loob&rsquo;s luck has been all bad this year with the Calgary Flames.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0015-01

Fickle Finger Of Fate Sidelines Loob

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Who scored his 500th NHL goal on Feb. 11, 1971?2. Phil Esposito became the first NHL player to have a 60-goal season in 1970-71. What team surrendered his 60th goal that year?3. What season did the NHL rule that curves in stick blades could not exceed one-half inch?4. What NHL team was sold for $15 million in January, 1972?5. What NHL team played the 1971-72 season wearing white skates?6. What season did the NHL introduce the third-man-in game misconduct rule for fighting?7. What team recently clinched its fourth successive WHL West Division title?8. What team won three successive Stanley Cups from 1947 to 1949?9. Who played on Buffalo&rsquo;s French Connection line?10. What was the nickname of the WHA franchise in Philadelphia?<h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2>1. Frank Mahovlich. 2. Los Angeles Kings. 3.1970-71.4. Montreal Canadians. 5. California Golden Seals. 6.1971-72. 7. Kamloops Blazers. 8. Toronto Maple Leafs. 9. Rick Martin, Gilbert Perreault, Rene Robert. 10. The Blazers. BONUS ANSWER: Mickey Redmond.<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04506/5896209-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="562" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: This former NHLer-turned-broadcaster scored more than 50 goals twice for the Detroit Red Wings.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0015-04

THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011238/5896240-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="373" height="431"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Orr</figcaption></div>THE TRADING DEADLINE in the National Hockey League was another quiet time, an &ldquo;all-gab, no-jab&rdquo; situation in which the general managers talk, talk, talk, but produce little action.&ldquo;I really think there was more active trying this time than in some years,&rdquo; said Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; GM Lou Nanne, who added two journeymen (Raimo Helminen, Paul Boutilier) to his cast.&ldquo;I think I talked seriously with more GMs this time than in any other year. They seemed to be trying to make deals at two levels. Because the playuoffs are going to be such a grind this spring (potential for 28 games in 55 days), some clubs were trying to improve their depth. They wanted to add some back-up talent, players who could be good fill-ins when the injuries pile up.&ldquo;But this year, too, I was pitched a lot for good players. I had other teams ask seriously about Brian Bellows, Bob Brooke and Brian Lawton. I know there would have been some pitching for Craig Hartsburg and Neal Broten if they hadn&rsquo;t been injured.&rdquo;But all of the talk went for nothing.&ldquo;I tried to make deals for some front-line players myself,&rdquo; Nanne added, &ldquo;but the fact we had signed Mark Pavelich reduced the need a little. He will take up some of the slack for Broten.&ldquo;Why are there not more trades? Well, the fact that the league is so tight has a lot to do with it. Teams are so close and they don&rsquo;t want to deal with clubs in their own divisions and run the risk of improving them. So many teams are still in the playoff hunt that they need all their journeymen to make a run at it.&ldquo;For instance, we needed defensemen because of injuries and, in the past, when that happened, wou could make a deal for another team&rsquo;s seventh or eighth man at that position. But because of the injury factor, teams now must carry eight defensemen and very few were available.&rdquo;Nanne feels that the depth of the young talent available in the entry draft exerts a strong influence on the trade market.&ldquo;In this year&rsquo;s draft, there are enough good prospects for a couple of rounds, but when you get past that, there isn&rsquo;t much available,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That meant there was no demand for third- and fourth-round choices. There were few offers of a veteran who could incrase your depth in a trade for, say, a fourth-rounder.&rdquo;For everyone, that is, except Phil Esposito, the Monty Hall of the NHL. While other GMs sit by the phone and take few chances on the trade market, Esposito simply forges ahead and deals. He&rsquo;s moved 18 players since taking office in July, which is probably an NHL record.There&rsquo;s no doubt he&rsquo;s upgraded the New York Rangers and, in the big town where the Rangers compete with everything under the sun for attention, he&rsquo;s kept the team and the game in the spotlight.&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m not afraid to take a chance on a trade and that&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;ve been able to make a few deals,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;I have the outlook that if a guy doesn&rsquo;t want to play for the Rangers or isn&rsquo;t playing well for the Rangers, then the only thing to do is to move him out and get someone who does want to play here.&ldquo;When those players (Reijo Ruotsalainen, Pavelich) didn&rsquo;t want to be here, what was the use of keeping them on our list? So I got the best deal I could for them and made it.&rdquo;Esposito took a chance when he landed Bobby Carpenter from the Washington Capitals, a club that could eventually face the Rangers in a playoff series, hoping that Carpenter&rsquo;s 50-goal season was a true indicator of his value. If the center had been able to play at that level he would have been a natural for Manhattan&mdash;a U.S. product who excelled in the Big Apple.When Carpenter showed no signs of being even a third-line center, Espo didn&rsquo;t wait until his value shrunk to zilch. He packed him off to the Los Angeles Kings for Marcel Dionne, the biggest star to chance teams since, well&hellip;Phil Esposito when he came from Boston to the Rangers.Espo helped take a Ranger team to the Stanley Cup finals and his hope is that Dionne can do the same. &#9632;

f0016-01

NHL Trade Market A Phil-harmonic Society

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011085/5896302-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="181" height="139"></div>LANDOVER&mdash;A major concern throughout the Washington Capitals&rsquo; season of mediocrity has been the performances of the special teams.At one point, both the power-play and penalty-killing units ranked 20th in the National Hockey League. A change in philosophy and the addition of Kelly Miller helped turn the penaltykillers around, but the power play actually slipped into 21st place, where it stayed for months until a memorable Friday the 13th explosion against Toronto.The Capitals set a team record&mdash;it might be an NHL mark, but the league maintains no such statistics&mdash;by scoring seven power-play goals in a 10-2 victory over Toronto.Six of the extra-man scores came in the third period, the last five within an incredible 3:03 stretch.Unprovoked attacks by Wendel Clark and Bob McGill on Lou Frances-chetti and Greg Adams, respectively, left the Maple Leafs two men short for the last four goals, as referee Kerry Fraser gave Clark and McGill major penalties.Coach Bryan Murray took his regulars out and let Kevin Hatcher, David Jensen and Ed Kastelic handle the frontline power-play duty during the five-on-three situation.Kastelic, who was on the ice for all four goals, netted his first NHL score during the barrage. Garry Galley produced his first goal as a Capital and Jensen collected two.Although the major penalties obviously created extenuating circumstances, Murray was pleased that the power play had come to life, because he had devoted extra time to that unit during the preceding week.Before things got out of hand, the Capitals unloaded seven shots on one power play, with Larry Murphy scoring on No. 7 for the goal that sent Washington ahead to stay at 3-2.Craig Laughlin made it 5-2 on a superb play by Greg Adams, who was returning after a 26-day layoff with a collapsed lung. Mike Gartner produced his second of the game and 37th of the season on a perfect pass by Mike Ridley.&ldquo;We have worked hard at it and we have a few more people involved in it,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Our objective is just to create movement and set up a couple of quality chances. Before, there were too many guys striving for the big single play.&rdquo;The 7-for-14 night enabled the Capitals to climb to 19th in power-play execution, at 17.8 per cent.In the same game, the penaltykillers permitted a goal for the first time in nine home contests. Over 14 games, they had permitted only five in 53 shorthanded situations.Gartner, whose six shorthanded goals ranked second only to Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s seven, felt the switch to an aggressive style had been instrumental in the success that lifted the penalty killing to seventh place, at 80.7 per cent.&ldquo;When we get possession, one of us will break for the other end and the defensemen are bouncing passes off the boards that we&rsquo;re picking up,&rdquo; Gartner said. &ldquo;If a team gets burned by it, they&rsquo;re going to be a lot more cautious on the power play and that has to help us.&rdquo;Earlier, the penalty-killers had been backing up, yielding the blue line and allowing the opposition to get some good scoring chances.&ldquo;We are putting a lot of pressure on the puck carrier and we have pretty quick people up front in (Gaetan) Duchesne with Gartner and Miller with (Bob) Gould,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re also much more co-ordinated and the guys are reading off each other and playing together. Another factor is having big, strong defensemen who can eliminate a man and not take themselves out of the play.&rdquo;CAPSULES&mdash;Besides the seven power-play goals, the Capitals set team records against Toronto of seven goals in a period, fastest four goals (1:56) and fastest five goals (3:03). Scott Stevens tied another mark with four assists, all in the third period&hellip;Alan Haworth&rsquo;s right knee buckled as he took a shot against the Leafs and he was unable to continue. It was only his second game after returning from a bump on the knee. &#9632;

f0017-01

Caps Turn On Power On Friday The 13th

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02832/5896333-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="178" height="136"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Bob Berry&rsquo;s caustic, coarse criticisms could have been the epitaph of the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; season.Instead, it became their inspiration for what promised to be a spirited run at their first playoff berth in five years.Two nights after Berry questioned their professionalism in the wake of a 7-2 loss in Toronto&mdash;suggesting the Penguins could, en masse, move through a character detector without fear of setting off the alarm&mdash;the Penguins opened their most productive weekend of the season with a 7-3 victory in Minnesota.Less than 24 hours later, they ventured into Winnipeg Arena and came away with a 5-3 victory over the Jets, whom they had not beaten in two previous tries.It can reasonably be assumed both victories were the by-product of Berry&rsquo;s emotional outburst after the Trauma in Toronto.&ldquo;This showed a lot of character on our team, after our coach criticized us, saying we were clowns and didn&rsquo;t care about hockey,&rdquo; defenseman Moe Mantha said following the Winnipeg game.&ldquo;I think the guys wanted to show him we do care about what we do.&rdquo;&ldquo;I can only speak for myself, but what Bob said hurt,&rdquo; left winger Randy Cunneyworth said. &ldquo;But I understand how he feels. There was no excuse for the way we played in Toronto.&rdquo;&ldquo;I took it personally,&rdquo; said center Dan Quinn, whose consistently superb play has supplemented the sporadic magnificence of Mario Lemieux. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not happy about what he said. That&rsquo;s the worst I&rsquo;ve ever had it.&rdquo;Not, mind you, that anyone believed Berry&rsquo;s vulgar monologue was devoid of merit&mdash;especially since it was largely bom of frustration spawned by the Penguins&rsquo; inability to win more than two consecutive games since October.&ldquo;We deserved it,&rdquo; left winger Troy Loney said simply.The Penguins&rsquo; exasperating inability to win three straight games continued, however, as they returned from Winnipeg and lost a 6-3 decision to the New York Islanders.A victory would have moved the Penguins past the New York Rangers and into fourth place in the Patrick Division.It&rsquo;s not as if the loss could not have been predicted, since the Islanders won the season series from Pittsburgh 5-0-2.Still, no one dared suggest the Penguins&rsquo; defeat could be traced to insufficient exertion.In fact, they even declined to blame the loss on a tired excuse like fatigue, even though the Islander game was their third in as many cities in four nights.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve given ourselves a legitimate shot,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;The effort we&rsquo;ve had the last couple of nights is the type of effort we&rsquo;re going to have to have if we&rsquo;re going to make the playoffs.&ldquo;I think the players have to believe now that, when they put their minds to doing their jobs the way they have the last couple of nights, we&rsquo;re certainly in the hunt.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Defenseman Ville Siren was expected to miss the rest of the season after spraining ligaments in his left knee during the Islander garne&hellip;Forward Craig Simpson, the team&rsquo;s No. 3 scorer, was sidelined indefinitely by a pulled muscle in his right hip&hellip;The Penguins broke their alltime attendance record of 503,020, set last season, in their 34th home game&hellip;Bob Berry had the Penguins stay in a Pittsburgh hotel the night before the Islander game to shield them from the distractions of returning home after their four-game road trip. &#9632;

f0017-02

Penguins Respond To Berry’s Blast

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011133/5896364-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="581" height="948"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Steve Kasper says the Bruins have benefited from their team psychologist.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02848/5896371-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="176" height="137"></div>BOSTON&mdash;What&rsquo;s a hockey player to do when a team suffers its worst thrashing in 11 years? At the hands of a hated rival at that.Why, he heads for the nearest coach and calls for his shrink, of course.That&rsquo;s what the Boston Bruins did on March 6, the day after they lost to the Hartford Whalers 10-2, their worst beating since March 9, 1976, when they lost to the Atlanta Flames 9-0.They spent a couple of hours with Dr. Fred Neff, the psychologist who has been conducting voluntary group sessions on Fridays since the start of the season. This time, attendance was mandatory.The next day, the Bruins turned the tables on the Washington Capitals, taking a two-goal lead, watching the Caps tie it up in the third period and and then winning 3-2 on Steve Kasper&rsquo;s overtime goal.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to give Fred credit for it,&rdquo; said Rick Middleton.&ldquo;He was sort of a sounding board more than anything else. The guys said a few things that were on their minds and aired a lot of laundry, as they say. It helped. It always helps when you speak out.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to have somebody who&rsquo;s not directly involved. We could state facts about how we played, not excuses. You can&rsquo;t make excuses for a game like that. You just take your lumps, don&rsquo;t go out in public and wait for the next game.&rdquo;Dr. Neff, a clinical psychologist with a private practice in suburban Arlington, was retained by the Bruins last season to help the players through relaxation and concentration. This is the first year of group sessions.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really nothing new,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s relatively new to the four major professional team sports. Eastern European-bloc countries have been using sports psychologists for decades.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m available to the players, primarily to help them prepare mentally for games. I try to show them ways in which they can enhance their performances by using their heads more.&ldquo;Players talk to me in the locker room every now and then. Some players make use of the techniques between periods. If they have a bad first period, they can get themselves back. It teaches them not to get down on themselves.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;He just gives you a way to make things a little easier.&rsquo;&mdash;Kasper</blockquote>Dr. Neff said the sessions include two basic areas, on the ice and off the ice.&ldquo;On ice regards performance anxiety, ways to get better prepared for a game,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;Off ice concerns the things we all have to deal with in our lives with respect to family, various other relationships, business and financial deals, anything they feel they might like to have someone to talk something over with.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t like to say that the number of games won determines the success of my program. But I feel it&rsquo;s working in the sense that I get a good turnout of players at the weekly meetings I conduct.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s actually got a great track record,&rdquo; said Kasper. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve won most of the games he&rsquo;s been at. I think it&rsquo;s good for everyone. You can get things off your chest instead of thinking negative thoughts.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not really a gripe session&hellip;If he thinks we get off the track and let the past dictate the future, he&rsquo;ll try to get us in line and say that just because it happened before, it shouldn&rsquo;t happen again.&ldquo;Sometimes there are a lot of things bothering you. Maybe it&rsquo;s part with the game and part with your personal life. If you get all wound up and you can&rsquo;t talk about it, sometimes it affects your performance on the ice.&ldquo;He just gives you a way to make things a little easier.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUINS&mdash;On the trade deadline, defenseman Paul Boutilier was sent to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick in 1987&hellip;Swedish center Tommy Lehman has been working out with the Bruins. But the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation had yet to give him permission to play in North America. &#9632;

f0018-01

Boston’s Good Doctor Helping Out Bruins

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03590/5896402-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="390" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Strachan</figcaption></div>CONTRARY TO POPULAR opinion, the Toronto Maple Leafs provide a valuable service to the world of hockey.It would be nicer for their fans if they provided some hockey, but that&rsquo;s asking a bit too much. Every sport has to have its laughing-stocks, and for years now, the Toronto management has been good enough to fulfil that role.But that&rsquo;s only one of the valuable services provided by the Leafs. If you&rsquo;re one of those twisted people who hopes to someday run a National Hockey League team, you&rsquo;ll have no doubt noticed another. In the whole known world, the best training school for general managers is down at Maple Leaf Gardens.Granted, the Leafs have given themselves an unfair advantage in this regard. For years now, they have doubled their pleasure and doubled their fun by having two, count &lsquo;em, two general managers.They&rsquo;re that irrepressible laugh-a-minute tandem, Harold Ballard and Gerry McNamara, a fun-loving couple that has been together so long now that the two men are almost interchangeable.It&rsquo;s hard to provide a description of one that doesn&rsquo;t fit the other. If you said, for instance, that Gerry is the one who scowls a lot, that wouldn&rsquo;t do it. If you said that Harold is the one who says stupid things on television, that wouldn&rsquo;t do it either.In theory, it is Gerry who is the GM. Harold is the owner. But in reality, this dynamic duo shares the job and, in the process, they provide the best classroom a budding general manager could ever hope for.Why should a young man spend a lifetime piddling around with trial and error? Thanks to Gerry and Harold, he doesn&rsquo;t have to. He just watches the Leafs for a year or two and he knows every mistake worth avoiding.Take player relations, for example. An up-and-coming GM might wonder how to treat a player who has taken the team to arbitration. Harold and Gerry have no such uncertainty. They immediately try to ruin the player&rsquo;s career, as they did with Mike Palmateer. It cost them the services of a decent goalie, but no matter. They made their point.If the player should produce despite the adversity that they place on him, then Harold and Gerry trade him, as they did with Walter Poddubny.They certainly taught Poddubny a lesson. And the difference between Poddubny and the man they traded him for, Mike Allison, will only be 30 goals or so. This season.Now the Leafs are trying to convince people that they knew all along that Poddubny was a good scorer. They traded him because they weren&rsquo;t sure he&rsquo;d stay healthy, they say.This does not explain why they banished a perfectly healthy Poddubny to the minors for most of last season. Nor does it explain why they traded him for a guy who had only managed to play in an average of 45 games a year over a six-season career.But logic is not one of the Leafs&rsquo; strong points. For that matter, neither is anything else.Media relations? The Toronto tandem has solved that problem. Its approach is open hostility. That cuts down on the burden of interviews.Public relations? McNamara and Ballard don&rsquo;t bother with that either, unless you count the team policy of insulting the public as often as possible.In fact, the Toronto tandem is hostile to almost everyone. Can anyone remember a player or coach who has left on good terms?The most recent coach to leave was Dan Maloney, shortly after Ballard announced that he hadn&rsquo;t done well enough in the playoffs last year. A few weeks earlier, Ballard had not only promised publicly that Maloney would be back but that he would get a raise.Maloney&rsquo;s failing was in not winning the Stanley Cup with a 19th-place team. Hockey genius Ballard expected more. On April 17, he announced, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had the police here make arrangements for a Stanley Cup parade.&rdquo;Without doubt, there&rsquo;s a lot to be learned from the Leafs. Perhaps a future GM can&rsquo;t figure out whether it&rsquo;s good strategy to make a last-minute deal just before the March trading deadline. All he has to do is check out the Maple Leafs. They haven&rsquo;t made such a move since 1982. And they&rsquo;ve won exactly one playoff round in that span.But let&rsquo;s face it, the Leafs don&rsquo;t make many trades, no matter what time of year it is. When people ask about this, the owner/GM is supportive of his partner&rsquo;s inaction. &ldquo;The other teams just want to trade their bad players for our good players,&rdquo; he says.He is genuinely surprised at this. This is not the way the Leafs operate. The Leafs have long considered it good management to give away good players for bad players.There is no better finishing school for GMs than the one Gerry and Harold provide. Just do the opposite of everything they do and success is guaranteed. &#9632;

f0018-03

Leafs Generally Mismanaged By Both McNamara, Ballard

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011054/5896433-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former New York Ranger Mark Pavelich has joined the Minnesota North Stars after a year away from the game.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02768/5896440-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="179" height="135"></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;After years of saying, &ldquo;Not to worry, there are always Detroit and Toronto behind and the playoffs ahead,&rdquo; the Minnesota North Stars are in trouble. Two kinds of trouble.The first kind concerned a four-game losing streak that included blowouts by Detroit and Pittsburgh and dropped the Stars within four points of last-place Toronto. The second concerned an injury list that seemed to include a new member every game.The Stars lost center Neal Broten (tom shoulder ligaments), possibly for the season, and defenseman Craig Hartsburg (strained knee ligaments), for at least a week, in the first period of a 7-3 loss to Pittsburgh on March 7. In the next game against Montreal, defenseman Ron Wilson collided with teammate Paul Houck and came up with a separated shoulder. He also could be out for the season.And the game after that, defenseman Jari Gronstrand was hospitalized because of bleeding in the eye, after he was hit in the face by a stick. He was expected to miss less than a week.&ldquo;It sure doesn&rsquo;t get any better, does it?&rdquo; asked grim-faced coach Lome Henning.It sure doesn&rsquo;t. A victory over Toronto at Met Center, March 11, could have put eight points between the Stars and the only spot that doesn&rsquo;t earn a trip to the playoffs. Instead, Minnesota lost its fourth straight, 4-2. For the first time, reality hit the Stars smack in the face.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a position now where we&rsquo;re definitely fighting for a playoff spot,&rdquo; right winger Brian Bellows said. &ldquo;Every single game from now on, we have to approach as a playoff game.&rdquo;While the Stars skidded, general manager Lou Nanne went on a shopping spree. In the two days before the trading deadline, he finally persuaded center Mark Pavelich to come out of retirement&mdash;at least for the rest of this season&mdash;then traded for Boston defenseman Paul Boutilier and New York Ranger center Raimo Helminen.Two days after Broten was hurt, Pavelich decided to end his year-long retirement. He said he wanted to return to the New York Rangers because he liked Phil Esposito, but said yes to the Stars after learning Nanne would not give in and trade him back to the Rangers.But why now? Pavelich, 29, didn&rsquo;t really know.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t really explain it,&rdquo; said Pavelich, who had indicated he would like to play in Europe next season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s strange. I had no intention. One day I was at my brother&rsquo;s and we were playing guitars and something made me call my agent to see if he could try to work out something. I&rsquo;m not in love with this game.&rdquo;Pavelich first practised with the Stars on a Tuesday, and was expected to play that Saturday (March 14) against the Detroit Red Wings.&ldquo;I expected it would take awhile for him to get his conditioning and timing back,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;But he surprised me. He looked pretty good.&rdquo;Nanne acquired Boutilier (for a 1987 fourth-round choice) and Helminen (for future considerations) because the Stars had lost four powerplay point men in fewer than 10 days. First, Kent Nilsson was traded to Edmonton. Then Broten, Hartsburg and Wilson went down. Without those four, the Stars squandered four-minute and five-minute power plays in the final two periods against Montreal&mdash;and came up a goal short, 5-4 at Met Center.&ldquo;We needed help there and we needed it now,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;Boutilier is a good passer and he has a good shot, and Helminen is very creative. Both should give us What we&rsquo;re looking for.&rdquo;STARDUST&mdash;Lou Nanne sent Neal Broten and Ron Wilson to a doctor in Portland, Ore., looking for a quick fix to their injuries. Both were expected to miss at least a month, but Nanne is hoping they could back within a couple weeks&hellip;Right winger Willi Plett was suspended for the Montreal and Toronto games after getting two game misconducts, his fourth and fifth of the season, during a brawl against Pittsburgh. Left winger Larry DePalma was suspended for one game for getting his third game misconduct in that same fight&hellip;Raimo Helminen&rsquo;s contract expires at the end of this season. If he does not return next season, Nanne probably will give a late-round draft choice to the Rangers. If he does return, the Stars are expected to give up a pre-determined player. &#9632;

f0019-01

Battered North Stars Not Playoff Certainty

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01929/5896471-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">It will be up to Dave Manson, above right, and fellow defenseman Marc Bergevin to shoulder the load in Doug Wilson&rsquo;s absence.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02623/5896478-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="177" height="136"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;The Chicago Blackhawks were one healthy knee away from a nine-game unbeaten streak.The knee was Doug Wilson&rsquo;s, and the unbeaten streak came to a sudden halt March 8, when the New York Islanders&rsquo; Randy Boyd took the premier Hawk defenseman for a ride into the Chicago Stadium boards.Wilson suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee, and was expected to be out for two to three weeks. &ldquo;I hope to get back sooner than that,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s pretty sore, sorer than I thought it would be.&rdquo;The Hawks&rsquo; unbeaten streak, which tied Philadelphia&rsquo;s as the longest of the season, came to an end sooner than they thought it would.After Wilson went down in the second period, the Islanders scored five goals in the third for a comeback 6-5 win. That loss was followed by another, as the St. Louis Blues won 3-2 at Chicago Stadium. The Hawks&rsquo; power play, struggling all year, went 0-for-5 without Wilson at the point.&ldquo;We miss Wilson, but we should be able to win without him,&rdquo; Hawk coach-general manager Bob Pulford said.With Wilson out, added responsibility and playing time were placed on the shoulders of Marc Bergevin, 21, and rookie Dave Manson, 19.&ldquo;Manson and Bergevin are going to come in and they&rsquo;re going to have to carry the load,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;They should be able to do that.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Manson and Bergevin are going to come in and they&rsquo;re going to have to carry the load.&rsquo;&mdash;Pulford</blockquote>&ldquo;Bergevin has developed and Manson is coming along, too. Putting them in that position means a lot to them, too. They&rsquo;re good players, and they can play.&rdquo;It also meant an expanded role for veteran Jack O&rsquo;Callahan, who has been in and out of the lineup all season.&ldquo;Of course you miss a guy of Doug&rsquo;s calibre,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Callahan, who usually pairs with Wilson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably apparent he&rsquo;s not out there. You expect him to do a lot of things.&rdquo;With the two-game losing streak, the Hawks suddenly viewed a critical stretch of games without Wilson. They faced eight of their last 12 games against Norris Division opponents, and found themselves closer to last place than to first.&ldquo;We all think it&rsquo;s going to go right down to the wire,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Callahan said. &ldquo;We played that well for that long and we didn&rsquo;t really make up any ground.&rdquo;The Hawks know they need Wilson back to make up any ground down the stretch, and Wilson was hoping for the best.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had any knee problems before, and that&rsquo;s definitely a point in my favor,&rdquo;; he said. &ldquo;If it was going to happen, at least it was a good time for it to happen now. To make something positive of it, it&rsquo;s better now than if it happened in the last game of the season.&rdquo;Not if after the last game, Chicago is in last place.HAWK TALK&mdash;The Hawks also were missing goaltender Bob Sauve, who suffered a pulled back muscle March 1 in the pre-game warmup. Nearly two weeks later, he was not back on skates. &ldquo;They tell me if it gets aggravated, it could be another three or four weeks,&rdquo; Sauve said&hellip;Defense-man Behn Wilson skated solo after practice March 10 for the first time in almost a year. Wilson, who suffered a back injury in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs, has made two visits to orthopedist Dr. Robert Kerlan in Los Angeles&hellip;Center Steve Ludzik also began skating. He has been out since Jan. 26 with a broken collarbone, and could be back for the playoffs&hellip;Hawk captain Darryl Sutter played his 400th NHL game, March 11 against St. Louis. &#9632;

f0020-01

Chicago’s Slide Started When Wilson Hurt Knee

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03418/5896509-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="427" height="434"><figcaption class="caption-body">GUEST SHOT Rod Beaton</figcaption></div>AFTER FOUR YEARS of covering hockey for USA Today, I&rsquo;ve been moved over to the baseball beat. Regretably, my involvement with hockey has diminished and I have to start by spending February and March in the sun.The folks at THE HOCKEY NEWS have been kind enough to let me take some parting shots from the beach here in Ft. Lauderdale. Tough work but someone&rsquo;s got to do it.Let&rsquo;s start with a look at some of those young turks who are flexing their muscles at every level of the game&mdash;and the game is better for it.In the next few years:&bull; Watch for Rick Curran of Toronto and Brian Burke of Boston to lead the new wave of player agents who don&rsquo;t have the megalomania of their predecessors.&bull; Watch for executives like Jay Snider, the young and progressive president of the Philadelphia Flyers, to exert their influence to try to pull league management in tune with the times.&bull; Watch for bright and thoughtful players, such as Rod Langway, Mike Bossy and, of course, Wayne Gretzky, to continue to put their stamps on the game and point it in a positive direction.I&rsquo;m going to miss:&bull; Hot dogs at Le Colisee; Hamburgers at the Montreal Forum; Wings in Buffalo; Rudolph&rsquo;s ribs in Minny; Coney Islands in Detroit; Salmon in Vancouver.&bull; Kevin Dineen&rsquo;s tenacity; Bob Gainey&rsquo;s checking; Denis Savard dipping and darting; Little George McPhee humiliating much-bigger (but-not-tougher) enforcers; &lsquo;The Boss&rsquo; and his quick release; Mark Messier playing power forward like Lawrence Taylor on skates; Brad Marsh&rsquo;s end-to-end rushes; Dino near the goalmouth; Grant Fuhr, quick enough to catch a bullet in the teeth.&bull; College games, there&rsquo;s more hitting in one than there is in a week of NHL action; International hockey&mdash;the best there is unless you get somebody like battling Bert Templeton permitting thuggery.&bull; And most of all, No. 99. You can have Michael Jordan, Dwight Gooden or any NFL gladiator. There is no better sports entertainment value than watching Gretzky. No one is a better ambassador for his game, or more important to it. I know you&rsquo;ve heard it all before, but quit complaining. Just imagine hockey without him.I&rsquo;m not going to miss:&bull; Calgary-Montreal-style finals. Clutch and grab, anyone?; Whining about officiating. It&rsquo;s not that bad; The Queen&rsquo;s portrait in Winnipeg; Press-box food except in Edmonton and Minnesota and concession food, except in Montreal and Quebec; Gerry McNamara&mdash;how does a dinosaur get to run a team? Simple, work for one; Ugly buildings in Buffalo and St. Louis; Trying to get away from Chicago Stadium after a game with your money and your life.&bull; The New York Islanders&rsquo; organizational smugness. What have they done for us lately?; Bob Pulford interviews; Locker-room lockouts. (Come on guys, it&rsquo;s a simple game, you don&rsquo;t need five-hour meetings); John Ziegler-style yellow ties and Steve Ryan pocket puffs; Cheering in the Chicago and Washington press boxes; Pseudofights. If you&rsquo;re going to drop the gloves, guys, go ahead and throw &lsquo;em. Don&rsquo;t just hold on; The minor-league yahoos who still think Hamilton is major league.&bull; Most of all, I won&rsquo;t miss the old guard. Hockey is the greatest game there is when it isn&rsquo;t sullied by wrestling matches, voluminous ledgers of unnecessary rules and the poor, unenlightened &ldquo;leadership&rdquo; of old-school management.I&rsquo;m back to being, for the most part, a fan more than a reporter. It will be a lot easier to appreciate the sport because it&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s on ice that counts and despite the sabotage from the top, that product gets better all the time. &#9632;

f0020-03

He’ll Miss The Great Bossy, But Not Islanders’ Smugness

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03202/5896540-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="546" height="796"><figcaption class="caption-body">SCOTT STEVENS</figcaption></div>Dodge-Plymouth is the official sponsor of NHL All-Star Fan Balloting<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01699/5896554-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="188" height="178"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02379/5896547-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="151" height="154"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Washington Capital defenseman Scott Stevens registered nine points, including two goals and a League-high seven assists, in three games to earn the Chrysler-Dodge Player of the Week Award for the period ending March 15. Stevens, the first defenseman to win the weekly award this season, outdistanced center Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers, left winger Petri Skriko of the Vancouver Canucks and goaltender Bob Froese and right winger Tomas Sandstrom of the New York Rangers for the honor.On Steven&rsquo;s behalf, ChryslerDodge will donate $500 to the Fairfax (Va.) Hockey Club, the youth hockey organization of the player&rsquo;s choice. ChryslerDodge also sponsors the Player of the Month and the Player of the Year, for which the latter receives the Chrysler Corporation vehicle of his choice.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite an honor to win this award,&rdquo; said Stevens, &ldquo;but I could not have done it without the help of my teammates.&rdquo;Opening the week, Stevens notched his first two-goal, three-point effort of the season in Washington&rsquo;s 6-3 loss to the Calgary Flames on March 10. Three days later, he tied a club record for assists in one game with four against Toronto as the Capitals defeated the Maple Leafs 10-2, March 13. In his final outing of the week, Stevens recorded an additional two assists in a 3-3 tie with the St. Louis Blues, March 14.The 22-year-old Kitchener, Ont., native has now moved into fourth place in team scoring and 10th among League defensemen this season with a 1042-52 mark in 67 games. &#9632;

f0021-03

SCOTT STEVENS SELECTED THIS WEEK’S CHRYSLER-DODGE NHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01817/5896585-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="176" height="134"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;Craig Wolanin looked for a ray of hope, but there was none to be found.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just so frustrating,&rdquo; said the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; young defenseman. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying hard, but a lot of good it&rsquo;s doing.&rdquo;With just under a month remaining on their schedule, the Devils could hide their disappointment no longer. Barring a miracle, New Jersey&rsquo;s season is over.&ldquo;We certainly can&rsquo;t quit,&rdquo; said Kirk Muller as the team&rsquo;s losing streak reached five games with a 6-4 setback to the Philadelphia Flyers. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to play for the fans and for ourselves and, who knows, maybe something will happen.&rdquo;Something did happen for captain Mel Bridgman. With one phone call from general manager Max McNab on March 9, his season turned around. After anticipating a trade for more than a year, the 31-year-old Bridgman was dealt to the playoff-bound Detroit Red Wings for minor-league right winger Chris Cichocki and a No. 3 draft choice this year.Bridgman, who replaced Don Lever as captain three years ago, came to New Jersey along with Phil Russell in a June, 1983 trade with Calgary for Steve Tambellini and Joel Quenneville. He had been an important part of Doug Carpenter&rsquo;s squad, offensively (23-40-63 last season), defensively and as an experienced penalty-killer.However, Bridgman lost his goalscoring touch this season (he had only eight goals) and there was talk that he was losing touch with the younger players on the club. At least one teammate said that Bridgman began to think more of his own future than the team&rsquo;s current situation.&ldquo;Mel can be a good captain, and was, but the person we saw this year wasn&rsquo;t the same Mel Bridgman,&rdquo; said one Devil. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know whether his own drop-off in production took its toll or he just lost interest in the team but I don&rsquo;t think Doug (Carpenter) was real happy with him lately.&rdquo;By trading Bridgman the Devils opened the doors for Carpenter&rsquo;s to pick his own captain (which he will during the off-season), as well as rid themselves of Bridgman&rsquo;s salary of just under $200,000, tops on the team. McNab said he had been trying to trade the veteran forward but couldn&rsquo;t get much in return.&ldquo;His injury (a broken left foot suffered Jan. 12) discouraged some people and he didn&rsquo;t play well in the last few games when a lot of people were looking at him,&rdquo; explained McNab.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;His injury discouraged some people and he didn&rsquo;t play well in the last few games when a lot of people were looking at him.&rsquo;&mdash;McNab</blockquote>&ldquo;The puck just wasn&rsquo;t going in for Mel. (Salary) was not a factor at all in the trade. We think that Cichocki is a good prospect and the third-round pick is important because of the new rule that you can only draft 18-year-olds through the first three rounds.&rdquo;Cichocki, who was playing for Detroit&rsquo;s AHL farm team in Adirondack, was assigned to Maine so that he would be eligible for the Mariners&rsquo; playoffs.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a young prospect. He&rsquo;s got 31 goals in the AHL this year and we feel he&rsquo;s got good instincts,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;He was up with Detroit last year and we thought he played reasonably well. Sometimes it takes a couple of years for a player to develop. We had a reasonable rating on him before he signed with Detroit.&rdquo;Cichocki, 23, had 31 goals and 34 assists in 55 games for Adirondack this season. The former Michigan Tech star played in 59 games for the Red Wings last seson after signing as a free agent. His 61-game National Hockey League totals are 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points.&ldquo;We feel a young player like that benefits from playing in the playoffs,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;By putting him on Maine&rsquo;s roster he can play for us in the Stanley Cup playoffs if we make it or with the Mariners in the Calder Cup if we don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Cichocki isn&rsquo;t likely to see the Stanley Cups playoffs this year.HOT STUFF&mdash;Greg Adams scored two goals against the Flyers on March 11, his first goal since Jan. 12. He had gone 16 games without a goal&hellip;Pat Verbeek missed two games with strained muscles in his side&hellip;Mel Bridgman sat out two games while Max McNab finalized the deal with Detroit. &ldquo;Now that the trade is over you&rsquo;ll probably hear 10 clubs say they were after him,&rdquo; said the frustrated GM. &#9632;

f0022-01

Captain Goes, New Jersey All But Gone, Too

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02568/5896616-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="364" height="446"></div>Q: In a recent peewee hockey game, I witnessed two incidents that aroused my curiosity. The first was when the puck was in Team A&rsquo;s zone. The puck flew up and landed on the dasher where it sat for several seconds. Finally, a player from Team B knocked it to the ice with his glove and then took a shot on goal. Do you think the play should have been blown down&mdash;because the puck left the playing surface and was brought back into play by a glove.The second incident involved a player from Team A carrying the puck up ice. In the neutral zone, a player from Team B attempted to body check the puck carrier, but instead fell over the stick of the puck carrier who did not lose the puck at any time. The ref whistled the play dead, and assessed the puck carrier a tripping penalty. The Team B player did indeed trip over the puck carrier&rsquo;s stick, but the puck carrier did nothing except carry the puck. Was the player from Team A the victim of a &ldquo;home-team referee?&rdquo;Dave Heggie, High Prairie, ABA: Even though the puck has landed on top of the boards along the ice, it is still in play and unless nobody knocks it off within a reasonable time to continue play, no whistle should be blown. The player can knock it off the sill with his hand and play it himself or it can go to a member of the opposing team, but he can&rsquo;t give a pass to a teammate with his hand.I can&rsquo;t recall a puck carrier getting a penalty for tripping&mdash;it doesn&rsquo;t seem to make sense. However, it would be possible for a puck carrier to leave the puck for a second and sweep the feet from under an opposing player. I suppose the referee would see it as tripping.Q: Section six rule 73(c) of the National Hockey League rulebook reads, &ldquo;A minor penalty shall be imposed on any player including the goalkeeper who holds, freezes or plays the puck with his stick, skates or body in such a manner as to deliberately cause a stoppage in play.&rdquo;When a player loses his stick in the defensive zone and hand-passes the puck to a teammate to get a whistle, how come he doesn&rsquo;t get a delay of game penalty?Kenneth Grogan, Staten Island, NYA: This rule does not actually cover the &ldquo;hand pass&rdquo; as made in this situation. It is covered under Rule 57&mdash;Handling Puck With Hands&mdash;and there is not a penalty for deliberately directing the puck to a teammate with the hand. However, it does result in a faceoff.Your point is an excellent one though, and it seems like too easy a way out for a player, who has lost his stick, to get a faceoff. They should allow play to continue&mdash;it&rsquo;s more exciting by far.Q: What would happen if a starting goaltender was ejected from the game, and his backup was injured during the game? Who would go into the game?Nancy Kelly, Ottawa, ONA: A player from the roster of that team would be allowed to put on the goaltender equipment and play the position. The normal rules pertaining to a regular goaltender would apply.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;

f0022-02

ASK THE REFEREE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01732/5896647-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0023-01

BOOK LOCKER

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01796/5896678-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="582" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Robinson injured his ankle while defending against Minnesota&rsquo;s Dennis Maruk.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02542/5896685-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="178" height="136"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;The collective gulp could be heard throughout the rink.On the ice at the Met Sports Center in Bloomington, Minn., laid the leader of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defense. It was midway through the third period and Larry Robinson was in obvious difficulty.&ldquo;There was about 14 minutes left in the third period and (Dennis) Maruk was coming down one-on-one and made an inside, outside move,&rdquo; Robinson recalled. &ldquo;I was moving with him but the problem was that when I was pivoting on my right leg, my skate got caught in a rut and went under me. I went over on my ankle.&rdquo;At first there were fears Robinson had broken the ankle. The Canadiens were witnesses to an incident in Quebec earlier this season which saw Nordique centre Dale Hunter go down with a fracture and miss close to three months of play.&ldquo;What scared me the most was that my leg went numb on me,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;I had no feeling in my toes and my foot. I thought maybe I had broken it but I think what helped me a lot was the fact I don&rsquo;t use a lot of tape on my ankle. My skate, because it was so wet, there was a lot of give in it. Rather than my knee or something else going, my ankle took the brunt of it.&rdquo;The Canadiens were leading the struggling North Stars 5-2 at the time and hung on for a 5-4 victory. Two nights later, Montreal wrapped up its five-game swing into the west with a 2-1 loss at Winnipeg, ending their longest trip of the season with two victories and three losses.There was concern the injury to Robinson would have damaging effects on Montreal&rsquo;s attempt to finish first or second in the Adams Division. The Canadiens came off the western trip six points behind front-running Hartford Whalers. Hartford held a game in hand. A prolonged absence by the leader of the defense unit would be a disaster.In December, Robinson missed three games with a heel problem and Montreal dropped two of the three.&ldquo;The first night the ankle felt not too bad,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think it was going to be that bad and I kind of hoped that I would go with the team to Winnipeg.&ldquo;They had put a temporary splint on it and I was supposed to stay off it for 48 hours. It felt much worse than it really was. Once I got the splint off, at least I was able to hobble around, although I wasn&rsquo;t supposed to. Two days later, I wasn&rsquo;t even using the crutches and it was feeling much better.&ldquo;It still feels kind of awkward. It feels like you want to go over on your ankle all the time because there is not a lot of strength there.&rdquo;Robinson hoped to get back into action in time for a mid-March visit to the Forum by the Islanders or failing that, a late-season trip to Buffalo. Certainly, the Canadiens&rsquo; players and management were breathing a little easier when it appeared the two-time Norris Trophy winner would be all right.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think it was that bad but they wanted to make sure,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to be in the position that I am going to be bothered with this thing throughout the playoffs. The best news I got was when they X-rayed and didn&rsquo;t find a fracture.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;Brian Skrudland and Mike McPhee were placed on a line with Mats Naslund and all three enjoyed a good road trip. McPhee had four goals and an assist while Naslund picked up six assists. Skrudland also was a six-point man during the five games&hellip;David Maley was sent to Sherbrooke on March 10th for the remainder of the season, barring an emergency recall. Maley had six goals and 12 assists in 47 games and was miffed at his demotion&hellip;Montreal finished the season 8-7-0 against Smythe Division teams, including three losses to Edmonton and two to Vancouver. &#9632;

f0024-01

Robinson Relieved Ankle Injury Not Serious

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02451/5896747-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="177" height="135"></div>MONCTON, N.B.&mdash;If you made a graph of the past five years in Doug Dadswell&rsquo;s career, it would look like a flight of stairs.There wouldn&rsquo;t be any huge peaks and deep valleys, or rock-steady diagonals. No, the diagram would have even stretches followed by rapid ascents, followed by even stretches, followed by&hellip;You get the picture.Three years ago, Dadswell was a 20-year-old Jr. B goal tender in search of a future in the sport. Now, he is completing a productive first season in the Calgary Flames&rsquo; organization, as a member of the Moncton Golden Flames.In between, the Scarborough, Ont., native was recruited to Cornell University, where he emerged as the team&rsquo;s top goalie and was named to the All-America team. National Hockey League teams began to take notice. Calgary and Detroit both talked to him about leaving school after last season, his sophomore year.Dadswell had no plans to leave Ithaca, until the NHL decided last summer to initiate a supplemental draft, for college players who were not taken when they were eligible for the annual entry draft. With time running down on his free agent status and his bargaining power, Dadswell signed with the Flames.Following a good performance in training camp, the netminder was assigned to Moncton, where coach Terry Crisp plugged him into the starting rotation. In 37 appearances, he had a 22-10-1 record and 3.39 goals-against average.&ldquo;Basically, I&rsquo;m really happy with the way I&rsquo;ve played,&rdquo; Dadswell said, &ldquo;and I don&rsquo;t regret leaving school at all.&rdquo;The opportunity to play Division I hockey at Cornell was the turning point in Dadswell&rsquo;s career, the place were he made one of those great moves upward.As a freshman, Dadswell played in 28 games and compiled a 3.45 goals-against average. Last year, he shaved the average to 3.01 in 30 games. The reward came in the form of an AllAmerica scroll.Like most of the other rookies on the Moncton team, Dadswell has taken some time to adjust to the AHL. Earlier in the season, he benefitted from playing on a strong team&mdash;but by the midpoint of the season, he had become one of the reasons for the Flames&rsquo; continued success. Another step up.He missed three weeks after hurting his ankle in a game in late February.&ldquo;Before he got hurt&mdash;and it&rsquo;s a shame he got hurt because he was just coming into the top of his game&mdash;he was playing the puck, the puck wasn&rsquo;t playing him,&rdquo; said Crisp.Dadswell has worked with ex-NHL netminding great Glenn Hall, now the Flames&rsquo; goaltending coach, and has concentrated on improving his puck-handling skills.The Golden Flames have struggled in Dadswell&rsquo;s absence, but he is scheduled to return in time for the final three weeks of the season and the playoffs.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve given them reason to be happy with the way I&rsquo;ve played,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Hopefully, as soon as I get better I&rsquo;ll play just as good, maybe even better.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISON&mdash; Adirondack forward Glenn Merkosky scored his 50th goal of the season, March 7 at Maine. It was Merkosky&rsquo;s seventh shorthanded goal this year&hellip;Most Northern Division teams made some moves prior to the roster freezing deadline March 10. Sherbrooke, which had vaulted into first place with 12 victories in 13 games, added rookie winger David Maley from Montreal. Nova Scotia acquired defenseman Dom Campedelli from Hershey in a trade for Jeff Brubaker, and forwards Norm Lacombe and Wayne Van Dorp were assigned by &Eacute;dmonton&hellip;Adirondack signed tough guy Steve Martinson, who set the AHL&rsquo;s single-season penalty-minute record (432) with Hershey last season. Center Mark Lamb was re-assigned from Detroit. Maine picked up right winger Chris Cichocki, a 31-goal scorer with Adirondack, who was obtained in a trade from Detroit to New Jersey. Forwards Rich Chernomaz and Jan Ludvig were re-asssigned to the Mariners by the Devils&hellip;Fredericton added Jason Lafreniere from Quebec&hellip;Calgary returned center Brian Bradley to Moncton, and the Boston Bruins reassigned Dave Reid and Wade Campbell to the Golden Flames. &#9632;

f0025-02

Dadswell Climbs Stairway To Success

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01758/5896778-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="154" height="134"></div>MUSKEGON, Mich.&mdash;The sleeping giant has arisen.The Muskegon Lumberjacks, who looked little like last year&rsquo;s Turner Cup champs until mid-February, have a shot at becoming the hottest team in International League history. As of March 15, the Lumberjacks had won 13 straight games&mdash;one shy of the league record.On March 14, the Lumberjacks downed Peoria 6-2 to top the franchise record with their 12th successive victory. They got No. 13 a night later, when they trounced Kalamazoo 8-3.That put them in first place in the East Division with a 40-24-2 record, two points ahead of the Saginaw Generals, who had led the division most of the season.Between Feb. 18 and Mar. 15, Muskegon outscored its opponents 78-40 in the 13-game win streak. More significantly, the Lumberjacks pounded teams that were once ahead of them in their own division.They defeated Kalamazoo four times (dropping the Wings into fourth place), downed the Flint Generals three times by a composite 24-7 count, and beat Saginaw twice.The other victims of the hot stretch were Indianapolis (twice), Milwaukee and Peoria, three teams struggling in the West Division.&ldquo;The improvement is due to a combination of things,&rdquo; said Ley. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re staying healthy and it finally came down to everyone deciding to worry about his own job and getting it done.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re playing to win now, which wasn&rsquo;t necessarily the case earlier.&rdquo;Ley recalled that even when his Lumberjacks were in last place, they weren&rsquo;t too far off the pace. Nothing, at least, that a modest winning streak couldn&rsquo;t cure.They got it. The 13-game streak&mdash;part of a 17-1 record in their last 18 games&mdash;is the longest in the IHL this season.&ldquo;If we finish first, fine,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;ll be a bit disappointed. We play Saginaw three more times and that could be important, because our division is really close.&rdquo;Ley acknowledged the Lumberjacks &ldquo;always have had good defense. Our goaltending has been good and now we&rsquo;re scoring again.&rdquo; Chris McSorley and Dave Michayluk had hat-tricks during the week ending March 9.Much of the latter is due to the work of center Jock Callander. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s played really well,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s getting rewarded for his hard work.&rdquo;Callander, who scored four goals and nine assists in three games, was selected IHL player of the week.By the time the winning streak was at 13, Callander had 47 goals and 117 points, second only to Indianapolis Checker center Ron Handy&rsquo;s IHL-leading 123 points.Callander, now in his third IHL season, doesn&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s doing anything much different from last year, when he tied Scott Gruhl for the team scoring lead with 110 points.&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s just that I have more experience,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve scored more goals than last year (he had 39 a year ago) and I&rsquo;m feeling more confident.&rdquo;I-LITES&mdash;A spokesman for the Flint Spirits said a pathologist for Gennesee County still was trying to determine whether a possible diabetic condition contributed to the death of player-coach Frank Perkins. &ldquo;They think he might have had a low blood-sugar content,&rdquo; said PR director Steve Violetta, &ldquo;but they&rsquo;re not sure at this time. &ldquo;&hellip;Indianapolis goaltender Dave Parro is lost to the Checkers for the remainder of the season. He was hospitalized for treatment of an ulcer-ated colon and will return home to Hershey, Pa., later this month. The 10-year veteran was the team&rsquo;s leading goalie, with a record of 16-14 and a 4.18 goals-against average. &#9632;

f0026-01

Lumberjacks Chop Down Foes One By One

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01703/5896809-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="178" height="129"></div>BOSTON&mdash;From the time it lost to Michigan State in last year&rsquo;s National Collegiate Athletic Association championship game, Harvard has been playing with a singular goal in mind&mdash;another crack at the national title.That goal has been achieved.Harvard&rsquo;s 6-3 victory over St. Lawrence at Boston Garden gave it the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference title and an automatic berth in the eight-team NCAA tournament&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s been one of the reasons for our success this year,&rdquo; said Harvard coach Bill Cleary. &ldquo;Almost from the time we walked off the ice last year (after the 6-5 loss to Michigan State), after the disappointment had settled and their heads had cleared, these guys have been playing to get back to the NCAAs.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s been a record-setting year for both the Crimson and St. Lawrence, which received an at-large invitation to the tournament.Harvard goes into the tournament with a school-record 26 wins, and just four losses. St. Lawrence, meanwhile, won a school-record 24 games for second-year coach Joe Marsh.Harvard is a team with no apparent flaws. The offense is one of the best in the country, the defense is superb and the goaltending can&rsquo;t be faulted.Allen Bourbeau has been playing his best hockey of the season. Bourbeau, who had a hat trick in last year&rsquo;s NCAA championship game when Hobey Baker Award-winner Scott Fusco was out with a sprained ankle, single-handedly brought Harvard back from a 2-1 deficit against St. Lawrence in this year&rsquo;s ECAC championship game.After Bourbeau scored back-to-back goals, giving Harvard the lead in the second period, he then set up freshman C.J. Young with the 4-2 goal.Harvard&rsquo;s top line of Bourbeau (2031-51), Young (13-13-26) and junior Lane MacDonald (35-28-63) is as good as any in the country. MacDonald was named the most valuable player of the ECAC tournament, after setting a scoring record with 15 points in four games.Seniors Randy Taylor and Mark Benning form Harvard&rsquo;s top defensive tandem, but the performances of junior Don Sweeney and senior Jerry Pawlos-ki (back from an early-season knee injury), are sometimes overshadowed by the accomplishments of their teammates.The goaltending tandem of senior Dickie McEvoy (16-4-0, 2.25 goals-against average) and junior John Devin (9-0, 1.87 GAA) may be the real secret to Harvard&rsquo;s success.St. Lawrence is also an explosive team. The &ldquo;Illinois Connection&rdquo;&mdash;brothers Pete and Tim Lappin of St. Charles and freshman Joe Day of Chicago&mdash;has been the top line down the stretch. Pete Lappin had 58 points (3325) and needed just two more goals to break the single-season club record of 34, held by current Colgate coach Terry Slater.The key for the Saints is junior goalie Scott Yearwood, who could do for St. Lawrence what Chris Terreri did for Providence in 1985. Yearwood gave up just two goals in the first three games of the ECAC tournament, before his defense fell apart against Harvard&rsquo;s tenacious power play.St. Lawrence is also a scrappy team with a real killer instinct. This team doesn&rsquo;t believe in sitting on a lead. After opening up a 3-0 advantage on Yale in the ECAC semi-finals, the Saints scored four more on 17 third-period shots to hammer the Elis 7-0.Senior Dave Saunders (17-34-51) is the team&rsquo;s designated game-winner. St. Lawrence was 4-0 in overtime games this year and Saunders had three of the extra-period goals. &#9632;

f0027-01

The Colleges

Crimson’s Red Hot, Saints Alive In NCAAs

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02445/5896840-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="177" height="134"></div>BOSTON&mdash;Hockey East will likely be represented at the eight-team National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament by two explosive offensive teams that can also play defense.Boston College upped its overall record to 29-7 with an easy 9-3 Hockey East semi-final playoff win over Northeastern, March 15 at Boston Garden. The Eagles sprinted to a 6-0 lead in the first period, and coasted to a berth in the conference final.The other conference finalist is Maine, a close third-place finisher in the regular-season standings, behind BC and Lowell. The Black Bears came from behind with a stirring rush to knock off the second-place Chiefs 5-4 in the other semi-final match. Maine, in the third year of its rebuilding program under Shawn Walsh, upped its overall record to 24-13-2.Though it had yet to be confirmed, it was a virtual certainty that Lowell (2212-2) would be left standing at the altar. The gritty, hard-checking outfit would have given a good account of itself, but it wasn&rsquo;t likely the NCAA selection committee would bypass Maine for a team it defeated.Boston College&rsquo;s NCAA berth is certain. In the semi-final game against Northeastern, the Eagles returned to their early-season form, whipping the puck around and through the NU defense with unobstructed ease.&ldquo;Basically, we&rsquo;re an offensive team,&rdquo; BC coach Len Ceglarski said.That&rsquo;s an understatement. BC scored a record 203 goals in Hockey East play this year, for an average of 6.34 per game. Six players&mdash;Craig Janney, Dan Shea, Kevin Stevens, Ken Hodge, Tim Sweeney and Brian Leetch&mdash;were among the league&rsquo;s top 10 scorers. Janney had a league-record 51 assists and 74 points in conference play; his 80 points overall were tops in BC history.The defensemen are no slouches, particularly freshmen Leetch and Greg Brown. Leetch, a Hobey Baker Award finalist, has outstanding instincts for the game, and has the physical ability to carry out any play he envisions.Maine is also an offensive power, though not in BC&rsquo;s class. The Black Bears were second to BC in powerplay efficiency (33 per cent to 30) and had nine double-figure goal-scorers, tops in the league.However, four Eagles had more goals than top Maine sniper Mike McHugh&rsquo;s 21.McHugh, whom Walsh calls the league&rsquo;s best defensive forward, was the hero of Maine&rsquo;s semi-final victory.Lowell had Maine on the lopes, leading 4-2 with fewer than five minutes to play. The Chiefs had bottled up Maine effectively in the neutral zone, not sending any forecheckers in deep. The strategy seemed to be working well, as the Chiefs were able to chip away at, and overtake, Maine&rsquo;s early 2-0 lead.But McHugh brought the young Bears back to life, scoring on a bouncing slapshot with 4:03 remaining. Then, Bob Corkum completed his first college hat trick at 17:05, batting home the puck from mid-air after a faceoff in the Lowell end.McHugh and Mike Golden then broke in on a two-on-one, and McHugh finished the play with a deke of goalie Ken Stein at 18:29.&ldquo;The most important win in the history of Maine hockey?&rdquo; said Walsh, repeating a reporter&rsquo;s question. &ldquo;I guess you could say it is, if it gets us into the NCAAs for the first time.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0027-02

Eagles Fly And Bears Scratch To Final

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03281/5896892-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="407" height="515"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB CORKUM Maine</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Junior winger Bob Corkum scored a hat trick to spearhead Maine to a 5-4 victory over Lowell in the conference semi-finals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04190/5896885-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg" title="f0027-04" width="408" height="517"><figcaption class="caption-body">LANE MacDONALD Harvard</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Lane MacDonald sparked Harvard to the ECAC playoff title by registering a record 15 points while being named tournament MVP.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-05133/5896878-1-eng-US/f0027-052.jpg" title="f0027-05" width="410" height="523"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICK BREBANT Ohio State</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Ohio State didn&rsquo;t win the CCHA title but the Buckeyes took the consolation game and boasted the top scorer in Rick Brebant, who had eight goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-06102/5896871-1-eng-US/f0027-062.jpg" title="f0027-06" width="406" height="518"><figcaption class="caption-body">TONY HRKAC North Dakota</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Sophomore center Tony Hrkac had a hand in five of 10 goals as North Dakota won the WCHA titel, beating Minnesota 10-6 in a two-game, total-goals series games.Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;

f0027-03

BaUEr’S COLLEGE perFormer OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01735/5896923-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="178" height="134"></div>GRAND FORKS&mdash;North Dakota and Minnesota had a mission as the national collegiate quarter-finals got under way&mdash;to restore Western Collegiate Hockey Association pride.It&rsquo;s been three years since a WCHA team won the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship.In the interim, Michigan State (1986) and Bowling Green (1984) of the Central Collegiate Athletic Association and RPI (1985) of the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference have been the winners.Prior to that, WCHA teams had won 29 of 36 NCAA titles, and 10 in 11 years.There are high hopes for a return to what the WCHA thinks is normalcy.North Dakota (36-8) and Minnesota (32-12-1) not only have the records to challenge anyone, but by finishing one-two, respectively, both in the league race and the WCHA playoffs, they are clearly the elite of the league.The best bet to bring the crown back to the WCHA is Gino Gaspar-ini&rsquo;s Fighting Sioux of North Dakota, NCAA champs four times, including 1980 and 1982.North Dakota, the No. 1 seed from the west, will play host to the No. 4 seed from the east in the quarters of the NCAA tournament.All series are two-game, total-goal affairs set for the weekend of March 19.If UND were to win the title, it would break the NCAA record for most victories in a season (38) set by Michigan State in 1984-85, the year the Spartans never made it past the quarter-finals in the nationals.The Sioux are balanced, setting a WCHA record for goals scored (200) while giving up just 94. They&rsquo;re so balanced that four of their stars were named to the all-WCHA first team, marking the first time since 1961 that one team has had four or more all-star selections. Denver accomplished that feat 26 years ago.The ringleader of the Sioux is sophomore center Tony Hrkac, who set WCHA records for most points (86) and assists (50) in a season.Hrkac, whose NHL rights belong to the St. Louis Blues, may become the all-time leading scorer for a single season in college hockey history. His 104 points ranked him fourth on the list, but he was only five points away from Bill Watson&rsquo;s all-time record of 109, set in 1984-85 when he played for Minnesota-Duluth.North Dakota&rsquo;s Hrkac Circus has other show-stoppers. Freshman goalie Ed Belfour, sophomore defenseman Ian Kidd and junior wing Bob Joyce were other all-league picks, and Hrkac was just two votes shy of being a unanimous selection as league MVP. Joyce, the big winger on Hrkac&rsquo;s line, led the nation in goals scored with 48.Nine players have 10 or more goals, so when teams concentrate on stopping Hrkac, as some have tried, there&rsquo;s plenty of other gunners around to provide the attack.Minnesota is cut out of the same mold as the Sioux, though without the glittering stars. The only Gophers to make the all-star team were center Corey Millen and defenseman Todd Richards, both second-team picks.Millen, however, has not shown he can carry the Gophers the way Hrkac sparks the Sioux. In the six games between the two teams, with Hrkac and Millen generally skating head-to-head, Hrkac scored 11 points, Millen none. North Dakota won five times.Minnesota, the west&rsquo;s No. 4 seed, will travel to meet the east&rsquo;s No. 1.The Gophers got a late-season boost from the rugged Dave Snuggerud, who missed 10 games with a shoulder injury. Even so, he&rsquo;s Minnesota&rsquo;s third-leading scorer, so he&rsquo;s a big addition.John Blue and Robb Stauber have played well in goal, but neither has been as steady as UND&rsquo;s Belfour.Minnesota does have tourney experience, having placed third a year ago. And the Gophers are no strangers to national titles. They won them in 1974, 1976 and 1979, all under Herb Brooks.WCHA NOTES&mdash;Other first team all-star picks were Northern Michigan forward Gary Emmons and Colorado College defenseman Rob Doyle&hellip;UND&rsquo;s Gino Gasparini was named coach of the year for the third time in his nine seasons behind the bench&hellip;Denver forward David Shields was named top freshman. &#9632;

f0028-01

WCHA Out To Regain Top Billing in Country

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02501/5896954-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="179" height="134"></div>DETROIT&mdash;The Michigan State Spartans are peaking at the right time, in their bid to win a second straight National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey championship.They can smell the victory already, since the Final Four tournament this year is set for March 26 to 28 at Joe Louis Arena, site of the Spartans&rsquo; Central Collegiate Hockey Association championship win over Bowling Green State.MSU will play host to an eastern seed. The Spartans figure it doesn&rsquo;t matter who the opponent is, because the game will be played on home ice at Munn Arena in East Lansing.Meanwhile, Bowling Green will travel east with its pride at stake. The Falcons, who received an &ldquo;at-large&rdquo; invitation to the NCAA quarter-finals, have a burning desire to avenge MSU&rsquo;s 4-3 overtime victory at Joe Louis, so there&rsquo;ll be more than a handful for the team that plays host to them.Michigan State (30-9-2) has been playing its best hockey of the season, after struggling through the final stages of the regular campaign.The Spartans won the NCAA championship at Providence last spring, and would dearly love a repeat performance this year at Joe Louis, dubbed &ldquo;Munn East&rdquo; by Spartan fans who pack the building whenever their team is involved. Detroit&rsquo;s proximity to East Lansing would make MSU the &ldquo;home team&rdquo; for the national finals.&ldquo;We won&rsquo;t look forward to anything or past anybody,&rdquo; said veteran MSU coach Ron Mason. &ldquo;We gear ourselves to peak at this time of year and we played very well against Western Michigan and Bowling Green to win the league title.&rdquo;The Spartans are a strong team, with a good blend of upper and lower classmen, a pair of reliable senior goalies and strength at all positions.Bob Essensa carried a 2.66 goals-against-average into tournament play, while netminding partner Norm Foster was 4.04 in that department. Both are experienced and very much a part of last year&rsquo;s national championship team.Don McSween anchors the Spartan defense, playing more than half of most games. During the CCHA playoffs, he tied the MSU record for most career points (127) by a defenseman.Up front, the Spartans look to seniors Bill Shibicky (42-52-94) and Mitch Messier (40-46-86). Kevin Miller (23-51-74), scored the gamewinner against BG in the CCHA championship game.A key for the Spartans is Detroit native Bobby Reynolds, who was named MVP of the CCHA tournament after scoring four goals in the two wins.The Spartans finished the CCHA season as the league&rsquo;s best penaltykilling team, allowing just 44 goals in 249 attempts. They were second in power-play effectiveness, scoring 66 times on 224 chances for a conversion rate of 29.4 per cent.The Bowling Green Falcons (33-82) have to be considered contenders to win their second NCAA crown in four years. Coach Jerry York&rsquo;s team is big, with every winger measuring 6-foot-plus. They are experienced on defense and boast All-America goalie Gary Kruzich, a diminutive acrobat on skates.Look for big things from 6-foot-2 left winger Iain Duncan, a 27-goal scorer who can&mdash;and will&mdash;go into the comers with anybody in college hockey. He is tough and likes to play that way.Paul Ysebaert (37-48-85, fourth in CCHA scoring) is the Falcons&rsquo; top playmaker. Ysebaert is a slick center for a big guy (6-foot-2, 190) and, with CCHA rookie of the year Nelson Emerson, gives BG two outstanding pivots. Emerson (26-34-60) is fast, smart and a talented playmaker.The Falcons&rsquo; defense is led by senior Scott Paluch and junior Brian McKee, both fine two-way players. Paluch finished the season with 51 points, while McKee had 49.Kruzich is the defensive key, with a GAA of 3.22 (third in the league) and save percentage of.885. He is catquick and experienced. While frustrated with four losses and a tie in five games against MSU this season, Kruzich is a &ldquo;gamer,&rdquo; who is capable of carrying the team by himself.BG finished tops in the CCHA in power-play efficiency, with a whopping 83 goals in 265 attempts, or 31.3 per cent. The Falcons were third in penalty-killing, allowing 60 goals in 285 attempts. &#9632;

f0028-02

Spartans Gunning For Second Straight Title

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03354/5896999-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="352" height="478"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREG ROLSTON York</figcaption></div><h2>OUAA</h2>The York Yeomen won the OUAA championship by defeating Western 2-1 in the best-of-three final as Greg Rolston showed the way with six points. Rolston was chosen MVP of the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04251/5896992-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="358" height="479"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN PUGH Saskatchewan</figcaption></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>Saskatchewan earned a berth in the CIAU championship tourney by winning the CWUAA title. Winger Brian Pugh led the Huskies&rsquo; offense with a playoff-leading 11 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05198/5896985-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="349" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE PURCELL St. F. Xavier</figcaption></div><h2>AUAA</h2>St. Francis Xavier didn&rsquo;t quite make it all the way this season in the AUAA but it didn&rsquo;t keep Dave Purcell of the X-Men from a 50-point year and being the top scorer in the playoffs.Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;

f0028-03

Bauer’s university Performer OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY CLAUDE SCILLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01637/5897037-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="580" height="970"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Applewaite and Scott Mosey combine to give York Yeomen strong goaltending.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02425/5897044-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="179" height="136"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;It&rsquo;s been a tough post-season for the Calgary Dinosaurs.First, they were upset about the Alberta Golden Bears bypassing the Canada West playoffs to compete at the World University Games in Czechoslovakia.Then, the No. 1-ranked hockey team in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union was surprised by the unranked Saskatchewan Huskies in the Canada West championship series.And finally, the Dinos learned that not only had they dropped to No. 4 in the season-end rankings but that they weren&rsquo;t awarded a wild-card berth in the 25th anniversary CIAU championship tournament.When host-team Alberta was awarded an automatic berth in the six-team tournament (March 19 to 22), the Golden Bears passed on their conference playoffs to represent Canada at the World Games. They placed third.That touched off Canada West discontent.Just as the stir was dying down, the previously No. 1-ranked Calgary Dinosaurs were snubbed by tournament organizers.Instead, Ontario runner-up Western&mdash;ranked No. 2 before it was nipped 2-1 in overtime of the third and final game of the conference finals, by York&mdash;was handed the wild-card spot.The results of the final poll, determined by one selector from each of the four conferences, showed Calgary in the No. 4 spot, behind Western, which tied for No. 2 with Atlantic conference-champion Prince Edward Island.York, by virtue of its No. 1 ranking in the final poll, will be the tournament&rsquo;s top seed. The other entrants are Alberta, Western, PEI, Saskatchewan and Quebec-champion Trois-Rivieres.Calgary officials are bitterly disappointed. Their team ousted York from the No. 1 spot on Jan. 20 and had stayed there ever since.Western Mustang observers figure their team deserves the wild-card spot, despite Calgary&rsquo;s claim. The Mustangs, first in the country in defense and third in offense, were 10-7-2 against ranked clubs and had won 16 of their last 19 games. Twenty times, Western allowed opponents fewer than three goals in a game. The team entered the national top 10 in January at No. 9, climbed steadily and spent the last three weeks at No. 2.The Mustangs boast a balanced attack&mdash;featuring sophomore Mike Tomlak (16-30-46) and Joey Rampton (20-24-44)&mdash;a poised defense, and the stingy goaltending of Tim McCullough and Chris Jackson (combined 2.42 goals-against average).Calgary, 11-7 against ranked teams, played only two games against ranked non-conference opponents all year. They won both, including a decision over York in October.The Dinos, who had the best offense and the 12th-best defense in Canada, struggled near the end of the season as then-unranked Alberta trounced them twice. Calgary rebounded to win five straight regular-season and playoff victories over conference foes, before being bounced by Saskatchewan.York enters the tournament as the favorite. The Yeomen have lost only two games since January, and placed 10 players on the OUAA all-star team for an exhibition series against the Canadian national team.They struggled early because of injuries&mdash;including one to ex-pro defenseman Dirk Rueter&mdash;but recovered to post the second-best defensive record in the country. Goaltenders Scott Mosey and Mark Applewaite posted a combined 2.88 goals-against mark, thanks largely, to a defense that features five all-stars&mdash;Rueter, Bob Nicholson, Lou Kiriakou, Bill Maguire and Mike James.UPEI breezed through its playoffs with four straight wins. The Panthers played in the shadow of traditionally-strong Moncton this year, even though both teams posted 20-4 regular season marks. UPEI, 6-0 in overtime contests, has yet to lose two in a row.Dave Shellington led the team in scoring with 18 goals, and his 47 points were fifth in the league. Ron Carragher had 46 points on 14 goals and 32 assists. The defense is led by Kevin Skilliter, a first-team conference all-star.Trois-Rivieres cruised to first place in the four-team Quebec conference, posting a 14-2-2 record (28-6-2 overall) and sweeping the plucky McGill Redmen in four straight games in the finals.The Patriotes&rsquo; two regular-season losses came against Ottawa, but Trois-Rivieres prevailed over the Gee-Gees in the season series. The Patriotes headed to Edmonton on an 11-game unbeaten streak&mdash;though, against ranked non-conference foes, they went 0-3.Trois-Rivieres&rsquo; second-ranked offense (6.5 goals per game) is spearheaded by Marcel Gervais, who scored 18 goals and 33 assists in 18 conference games.Saskatchewan had a difficult time early in January, winning only one game in a six-game stretch, but rebounded by losing only two of its last 11. The hot streak included the three-game upset of Calgary in the Canada West finals.The Huskies played all six of their playoff games on the road, but their strong, physical defensive style has been effective in foreign rinks. The Huskies rank seventh nationally in defense and 11th in offense.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03272/5897030-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="1828" height="1854"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toronto&rsquo;s Don McLaughlin, left foreground, won&rsquo;t be at the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union as a player but is a candidate for the Sullivan Trophy as Canada&rsquo;s outstanding university player. York and Western Ontario represented the Ontario conference at the national championships.</figcaption></div>The team has balance&mdash;in a 9-7 victory over Calgary, eight different players scored goals. Rookie Ken Morrsion led the way with 26 goals and 51 points, sixth-best in the conference. Bob Pugh, second in team scoring, was hot in the playoffs with 11 points in six games. Curtis Stewart, who scored only six goals during the regular season, matched that total in the playoffs.Alberta will enter the tournament not having played in 17 days. The Golden Bears last saw action at the World University Games in Czechoslovakia, where they won the bronze medal for Canada with a 6-2 win over Finland.Shaky in its own end in the first half of the season, Alberta welcomed back goalie Darren Turner in January. His presence settled a dubious defense, helping the Bears to the best record in the conference (one loss in 13 games) over the last half of the schedule. In that time, the Bears surrendered more than three goals in a game only twice in conference play.Turner, who backstopped the Bears to the national title last year, was on academic probation during the first term.The country&rsquo;s fourth-best offense is led by Craig Dill (21-36-57), Stacey Wakabayashi (24-26-50) and the conference&rsquo;s top-scoring defenseman, Parie Proft (15-27-42). &#9632;

f0029-01

Dinos Snubbed, Excluded From The Finals

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01728/5897075-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

Bauer COLLEGE scoreBoacD

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01673/5897106-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="179" height="133"></div>KITCHENER&mdash;Late-season resignations continued to rock the Ontario League.The latest shocker came when Tom Barrett resigned as coach and general manager of the Kitchener Rangers, with just five games to play in the regular season.A week before, Tony MacDonald stepped down as coach of the Windsor Spitfires. In between, Mark Haarmann&mdash;a four-year OHL veteran and the Washington Capitals&rsquo; ninth draft choice in 1985&mdash;told the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds he was through with major junior hockey.Barrett, the OHL&rsquo;s coach of the year in 1983-84, was in his fourth season with the Rangers. His decision to resign came within a day of the Rangers&rsquo; fourth straight loss on home ice, a 9-7 setback at the hands of the Guelph Platers.Joe McDonnell, 25, was named Barrett&rsquo;s replacement. The Kitchener native and ex-Ranger defenseman had been Barrett&rsquo;s assistant since retiring from pro hockey earlier this season.But still, the timing of Barrett&rsquo;s announcement caught the OHL by surprise. The Rangers, with a 29-29-3 record, were within three points of the fourth-place Greyhounds.&ldquo;I just couldn&rsquo;t take it any more,&rdquo; Barrett said, citing differences with the Rangers&rsquo; 40-manexecutive. &ldquo;In fact, I told the team president (Bob Stacey) during the all-star break that I wouldn&rsquo;t be back next year.&ldquo;I would have liked to stick it out through the end, but believe you me, I couldn&rsquo;t go on any further. I feel badly about leaving the players at this stage, but I wasn&rsquo;t left with much choice. Just call it a very big difference of philosophy and opinion between the executive and me.&rdquo;Barrett declined to elaborate further.Stacey confirmed that, at this year&rsquo;s all-star game in Ottawa, Barrett told him he wouldn&rsquo;t be back with the club in 1987-88.&ldquo;But I really thought a lot of the differences Tom had, had been ironed out. I would have preferred that, if this had to happen, it could have waited until the end of the season. But that&rsquo;s all I&rsquo;d really like to say on the subject.&rdquo;McDonnell, who began this season as a player with the American League&rsquo;s Baltimore Skipjacks, was forced to retire because of a nagging back injury. He joined the Rangers as Barrett&rsquo;s assistant in November.Though McDonnell&rsquo;s contract only covers the rest of the season, he told the Kitchener-Waterloo Record it was &ldquo;a big break for me.&ldquo;If the team does well, I should have a good chance at the job next season. I was surprised that Tom packed it in and the players are a little shocked, but we&rsquo;ll just have to regroup and carry on.&rdquo;McDonnell, whose last season with the Rangers was 1980-81, played for four coaches&mdash;Mac MacLean, Bob Ertel, Rod Seiling and Orval Tessier&mdash;during his four-and-a-half year stay with the club.He played in the pros with the Vancouver Canuck and Pittsburgh Penguin organizations.Barrett, meanwhile, said he expects to return to coaching next season. When asked if that meant he&rsquo;d resurface in the OHL, he replied, &ldquo;I certainly won&rsquo;t be in any lower calibre of league.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I just couldn&rsquo;t take it any more&hellip;I would have liked to stick it out through the end, but believe you me, I couldn&rsquo;t go on any further.&rsquo;&mdash;Barrett</blockquote>Speculation is that Barrett may be in line for the coaching job in Windsor next season. General manager Jim Rutherford has taken over the bench duties since MacDonald&rsquo;s resignation, but has emphatically stated he has no plans to caoch next season.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s something I haven&rsquo;t thought of&mdash;a coach for next season,&rdquo; Rutherford said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m thinking about now and taking this team as far as we can go.&rdquo;Rutherford, who said he was surprised at Barrett&rsquo;s decision to quit the Rangers, called his Kitchener colleague &ldquo;a good coach.&ldquo;But he hasn&rsquo;t applied for the job with us yet, I can assure you that.&rdquo;Since taking over the Spitfires, Rutherford had a 2-0 record, securing third place for Windsor with wins over Emms Division foes Sault Ste. Marie and London.In the Soo, coach and general manager Don Boyd was adjusting to the sudden departure of Harrmann, his most experienced defenseman, when he was told that Barrett had quit.&ldquo;Something must have been going down for him to pack it in at this stage,&rdquo; Boyd said. &ldquo;But Tommy&rsquo;s a good coach. I think you&rsquo;ll see him back in the league next season.&ldquo;Windsor? That&rsquo;s a good guess. I know that Rutherford and Barrett respect one another. But speculation on that is for you guys (media).&rdquo;Boyd admitted that Harrmann&rsquo;s decison to quit caught him &ldquo;off guard. But it&rsquo;s a decision he&rsquo;ll have to live with. I thought the timing of it to be a little strange.&rdquo;Harrmann, the Greyhounds&rsquo; plusminus leader, said that &ldquo;hockey just wasn&rsquo;t fun anymore. I wasn&rsquo;t helping anybody out, so I thought it was time to come home.&rdquo;Harrmann said his decision was final, and that he hoped to attend the University of Toronto and play hockey there in the fall.NOTEBOOK&mdash;Team nominees for OHL player of the year are: Todd Hawkins (Belleville); Matt Schneider (Cornwall); Kerry Huffman (Guelph); Keith Gretzky (Hamilton); Bryan Fogarty (Kingston); Dave Latta (Kitchener); Jean-Marc MacKen-zie (London); Dave McLlwain (North Bay); Scott McCrory (Oshawa); Andrew Cassels (Ottawa); Mark Freer (Peterborough); Mike Oliverio (Sault Ste. Marie); Mike Hudson (Sudbury); Mike Richard (Toronto); and Adam Graves (Windsor)&hellip;Ottawa&rsquo;s Frank DiMuzio has joined Richard (53) of Toronto, Mario Chitaroni (50) of Sudbury and Derek King (50) of Oshawa in this season&rsquo;s 50-goal club&hellip;Ron Tugnutt, the less-heralded of the Peterborough Petes&rsquo; 19-year-old goaltending tandem, has taken over as the OHL&rsquo;s top goalie. Tugnutt had a record of 18-7-2 with a 2.98 goals-against average through the first week of March. Highly-touted teammate Kay Whitmore, meanwhile, was struggling with a 12-16-4 mark and 3.36 GAA. &#9632;

f0031-01

The Juniors

Tom Couldn’t Barrett As Kitchener’s Coach

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02456/5897151-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="357" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE McLLWAIN North Bay</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>High scorer Dave McLlwain is one of the big reasons the North Bay Centennials are the best in the Emms Division this season.The 6-foot, 185-pound center, a 1986 Pittsburgh draft pick, was selected OHL Player of the Week after counting 12 points in three games, including a five-goal night.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03326/5897144-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="360" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE McLAY Portland</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>Ask any coach what they want in a player, and they&rsquo;re sure to say&mdash;consistency.Dave McLay, Portland&rsquo;s 20-year-old left winger, turned in three two-goal games and picked up 10 points in four starts to get the nod as WHL Player of the Week. The Philadelphia Flyers drafted him back in 1984.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04245/5897137-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="361" height="447"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEPHAN LEBEAU Shawinigan</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Stephan Lebeau of Shawinigan sure does make a lot of noise for such a small player.The 5-foot-8, 175-pound center got the nod as QMJHL Player of the Week for the third time after scoring nine points in two games. Lebeau had 75 goalsand 159 points in 60 games with the Cataractes.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year.WE PUT THE PROTECTION INTO PERFORMANCE &#9632;

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MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01718/5897182-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="585" height="935"><figcaption class="caption-body">Banned from international competition, Steve Nemeth has joined the Kamloops Blazers.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02508/5897189-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="179" height="133"></div>CALGARY&mdash;Steve Nemeth is the latest to learn every dark cloud has a silver lining.In his case, it&rsquo;s the opportunity to finish his Western League career in style, with the front-running Kamloops Blazers.Nemeth, a promising 20-year-old right winger with the Canadian national team, was dealt a severe blow when the International Ice Hockey Federation recently barred members of Canadian and Soviet junior teams from international play.Nemeth was on loan to the national junior team and, even though he didn&rsquo;t throw a punch in the Jan. 4 brawl with the Soviets, the Calgary native was knocked flat by the ruling.With the Olympic team still scheduled for plenty of international play, including a series with the Moscow Selects, the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Nemeth was forced to the sidelines.But not for long.The Blazers obtained Nemeth&rsquo;s overage rights from Prince Albert before the Feb. 10 trading deadline and, following the IIHF ruling, Olympic team head coach Dave King assigned Nemeth to Kamloops.&ldquo;Steve had been progressing very well in our program and we&rsquo;re very disappointed to lose him for the balance of our schedule,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;We hope the appeal in Vienna (in April) will allow Steve to be eligible for our 1988 program.&rdquo;So while visions of Olympic glory still dance in Nemeth&rsquo;s mind, so does a Memorial Cup championship.&ldquo;If things work out that I could be in the Memorial Cup,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that would be the way to go out. Junior is such a big part of a player&rsquo;s life.&rdquo;Nemeth started the season with Swift Current, was dealt to Prince Albert, then went to the national team program, Oct. 6.&ldquo;We (Olympic team) were flying back from Europe,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I read I&rsquo;d been traded&mdash;but it didn&rsquo;t bother me, because I was still with the Olympic team.&rdquo;Nemeth&mdash;who had 13 goals in 36 games with the national team, and 111 points last year with Lethbridge&mdash;will bolster an already-awesome Kamloops attack.&ldquo;My first two games I was playing a lot more than I did on the Olympic team,&rdquo; said Nemeth, whose linemates were Glen Mulvenna and former Lethbridge teammate Darcy Norton. &ldquo;I got so tired. There was so much bumping going on out there.&rdquo;Bumping or no bumping, Nemeth is expected to excel with the Blazers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough adjustment for Steve coming from the flow game of the Olympic team to the stop-and-go of the WHL,&rdquo; said Kamloops coach Ken Hitchcock. &ldquo;There will be a period of adjustment because he came here through necessity, rather than wanting to come here.&ldquo;Steve is a player with speed that we have to get the puck to. And we have to look at playing him at center rather than on the wing, because of the smaller rinks in the WHL.&ldquo;His best attribute is that he&rsquo;s an all-round player, and I don&rsquo;t think it was any secret that, in trying to keep up to everybody in the division (in trades), we took a chance to try and get him.&ldquo;It worked out, and he&rsquo;s the insurance we need with so many injuries.&rdquo;With five regulars out of the lineup, the defending league championBlazers will look upon Nemeth as more than an insurance policy. He&rsquo;s money in the bank.WHL WEEK&mdash;Kamloops center Rob Brown collected five assists in a 10-2 drubbing of New Westminster to break the single-season assist record of 125, established in 1981-82 by Bruce Eakin of Saskatoon&hellip;Seattle center Glen Goodall had two assists in an 8-7 loss to Portland, tying the singleseason mark for most points by a 16-year-old. Ken Yaremchuk of Portland set the record of 107 points in 1980-81&hellip;Right winger Ron Shudra of Kamloops and center Peter Soberlak of Swift Current were named West and East Division players of the month, respectively, for February. Shudra had 37 points on 14 goals and 23 assists, while Soberlak had 11 goals and 17 assists for 28 points&hellip;Player-of-the-year nominees were named. They are Glen Wesley (Portland), Glen Goodall (Seattle), Brent Gilchrist (Spokane), Drago Adam (New Westminster), Ken Priestlay (Victoria), Rob Brown (Kamloops), Mark Pederson (Medicine Hat), Mark Tinordi (Calgary), Joe Sakic (Swift Current), Theoren Fleury (Moose Jaw), Len Nielsen (Regina), Mark Reimer (Saskatoon), Pat Elynuik (Prince Albert) and Terry Yake (Brandon). &#9632;

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Nemeth Addition Aids Kamloops’ Cup Bid

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03348/5897220-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="179" height="133"></div>CHARLESBOURG, Que.&mdash;Trois-Rivieres Draveur coach Alain Vigneault and Shawinigan Cataracte counterpart, Jacques Gregoire, were suspended for five games apiece after engaging in a center-ice confrontation during a Quebec League game.The QMJHL&rsquo;s discipline committee also fined both clubs $2,000 following the game, played March 8 before 1,522 spectators at Shawinigan&rsquo;s Municipal Auditorium.With six seconds left in the second period and the Cats leading 7-2, Vigneault and Gregoire met at center ice but were quickly separated by players and linesmen. Referee Rob Hearn, a National Hockey League trainee, ejected both coaches from the game, eventually won 12-3 by Shawinigan.&ldquo;Vigneault invited me to fight and went to the center of the ice,&rdquo; Gregoire said. &ldquo;I followed him and, for a few seconds, just forgot about everything. We just grabbed each other.&rdquo;QMJHL president Gilles Courteau travelled to Shawinigan and Trois-Rivieres to meet with the coaches.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re no longer in the era of gladiators who confront each other in the middle of the arena,&rdquo; Courteau said. &ldquo;This incident is not only deplorable, but completely unacceptable.&rdquo;A sheepish Vigneault agreed.&ldquo;There is no place for that in hockey,&rdquo; said the former St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defenseman. &ldquo;I have to take the blame for that and nobody else.&rdquo;Vigneault said the Cataractes (3722-6) were playing aggressively and he objected to them using his club to prepare for the playoffs. The Draveurs (27-37-2) won&rsquo;t qualify.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a big rivalry between the teams and things got out of control,&rdquo; Vigneault said. &ldquo;We were very frustrated.&rdquo;Gregoire said he sent 6-foot-2, 210-pound defenseman Stephane Dugal to take a faceoff just before the incident because the Draveurs were playing aggressively.Hearn called four 10-minute misconducts&mdash;three to Shawinigan&mdash;and three fighting majors against each team.Both coaches were repentant. &ldquo;Alain&rsquo;s my friend, too,&rdquo; Gregoire said.Both teams said the fines were too high.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of money at the end of the season,&rdquo; said Michel Boucher, the Draveurs&rsquo; new general manager. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re down $100,000 and we won&rsquo;t make the playoffs. That&rsquo;s when you make your money.&rdquo;Boucher will have Vigneault back behind the bench for Trois-Rivieres&rsquo; final game of the season against the Longueuil Chevaliers March 22 in Longueuil. Gregoire, who said a $500 fine would have been severe enough, will be out until Shawinigan&rsquo;s first playoff game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pretty serious offense,&rdquo; Courteau said. &ldquo;This has no place in our league, particularly since we&rsquo;re making continual efforts to improve our image.&rdquo;Courteau received reports from Hearn and Andre (Moose) Dupont, the ex-NHL defenseman and former Draveurs&rsquo; coach who acted as the QMJHL&rsquo;s official observer at the match. The league&rsquo;s three-man discipline committee reached a unanimous decision on the penalties.QUEBEC CACHE&mdash;While Alain Vigneault and Jacques Gregoire were confronting each other in Shawinigan, the Verdun Jr. Canadiens also were showing signs of frustration on home ice against the Longueil Chevaliers. Verdun&rsquo;s Dany Duclos, Craig Kitteringham and Norman Desjardins all picked up automatic one-game suspensions for being aggressors in fights with the Chevaliers. Verdun also will not qualify for the playoffs. &#9632;

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Irate Coaches Pair Off At Center Ice

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD BEALES Copy Editor</div>There is sure to be a gathering of hockey scouts April 3 to 5 at the Northbrook (Ill.) Sports Complex, where the U.S. national bantam championships are being held.Meanwhile, at four sites across Canada, regional Purolator Challenge Cups will showcase another wealth of talented 14- and 15-year-old players.Players such as Brendan Shanahan, a member of the 1984 Mississauga (Ont.) Reps, have helped their teams challenge for provincial titles.Today, the London Knight star is touted as one of the top prospects for the 1987 National Hockey League entry draft.Last year, the U.S. championships unveiled another young superstar. Jeremy Roenick, who is playing for Thayer Academy (Braintree, Mass.) this year, led the New Jersey Rockets to the 1986 national bantam championship.Roenick is eligible for the 1988 draft.In the U.S., finalists from seven regions&mdash;Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, New England, MidAmerican, Central and Western&mdash;will line up against the host squad.The eight teams will be split into two groups, and will play round-robin schedules. The two division winners will face off in the final.The state of Minnesota, whose minor hockey body has split with the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States, will not compete.In Canada, there is no national champion. But the bantam skaters take their regional championships just as seriously.First up is the Ontario series, which runs from April 1 to 5 in Sault Ste. Marie. The host team will take on champion teams from each of five minor hockey associations&mdash;Ottawa and District, Thunder Bay, Northern Ontario, Ontario and Metropolitan Toronto.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02444/5897258-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="582" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">London&rsquo;s Brendan Shanahan was showcased at the Purolator bantam championships.</figcaption></div>The Atlantic Canada finals go April 2 to 5 in Saint John, N.B. Provincial champs from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland will lock homs with the host Lancaster Dairy Queen bantams.In Quebec, 10 regions are represented at the final series in Sherbrooke and environs, from April 9 to 12. Bantam champs from Maurice, Richelieu, Estrie, Laurentides-Lanaudiere, Lac St. Louis, Quebec, Bourassa, Out-aouais, Montreal and Laval will meet in a spirited competition against host Sherbrooke.The Western bantam finals also run from April 9 to 12, in Calgary. Amateur hockey associations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba will be represented.<h2>The Snowbirds</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01639/5897251-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="1216" height="1420"></div> &#9632;

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Bantam Championships Are Drawing Closer

Richard Dodds is a multitalented young man.Not only does he play the sax-aphone in two bands at Jack Miner Senior Public School, he also plays baseball, football and a mean game of hockey.Hockey is his No. 1 love. The 13-year-old goaltender with the AA Toronto Aeros of the Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League shines in tournament play.Richard, 5 feet and 90 pounds, is coached by Tony Whitley.The Grade 8 student played two years in the West Hill (Ont.) House League, followed by three more seasons with the Scarborough (Ont.) Sabres of the Scarborough Hockey Association.Richard&rsquo;s favorite National Hockey League team is the Boston Bruins and his favorite player is ex-Bruin goaltender Pete Peeters, now with the Washington Capitals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03324/5897289-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="554" height="1130"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICHARD DODDS</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PLAYER OF WEEK TITAN JOFA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04259/5897320-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="714" height="1050"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Cunneyworth is in the NHL to stay, after four years in minor pro hockey.</figcaption></div>Randy Cunneyworth&rsquo;s loyalty to his adopted hometown paid dividends he never expected.The Etobicoke (Ont.) native, who played his minor hockey with the nearby Mississauga Reps, turned down an offer from the major junior Ottawa 67&rsquo;s to play with Mississauga&rsquo;s Jr. B Dixie Beehives.Most 17-year-olds would have preferred to watch from the bench at the higher level of hockey, but Cunneyworth felt regular ice time with the Beehives would be more satisfying.&ldquo;I went to the 67&rsquo;s camp and made the team,&rdquo; recalls-the left winger, now an important part of the Pittsburgh Pen-guins&rsquo; lineup. &ldquo;But I asked (coach) Brian Kilrea if I could play for my hometown team, the Dixie Beehives.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad I did, because we (the Beehives) went to the finals that year, and the 67&rsquo;s didn&rsquo;t do too well. I probably would have been sitting on the bench anyway. The next year, I attended (Ottawa&rsquo;s) camp and made it.&ldquo;I enjoyed playing for my hometown for a year, at the junior level.&rdquo;As a rookie with the 67&rsquo;s, Cunneyworth played enough to score 41 points in 63 games. The Buffalo Sabres drafted him in the ninth round, then sent him back to junior for more seasoning. In his second year with the 67&rsquo;s, he scored 128 points.Cunneyworth never caught on with Buffalo, playing four seasons for the Sabres&rsquo; Rochester farm team before being dealt to Pittsburgh. Now in his second year with the Penguins, the 25-year-old has developed into a solid twoway winger.Though he enjoyed his days as a youngster in the Mississauga Reps&rsquo; system, he doesn&rsquo;t recall being taught too much about the finer points of the game.&ldquo;During my youngest days,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t receive too much instruction. What sticks out in my mind is the amount of fun we had.&rdquo;He also had talent; as a youngster, he always played with boys in older age groups, including present-day Boston Bruin Tom McCarthy.&ldquo;My coaches were like father figures to me,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They were there to lend a hand and make sure we were having fun. My father also got involved, as a coach and a trainer.&rdquo;When Cunneyworth got a little older, he started to become serious about improving his game. As a bantam, he began to work on his game; as a midget, he knew that he could someday play pro if he kept it up.Still, he believes that no amount of instruction can be expected to sink in if young players aren&rsquo;t enjoying themselves.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve run some hockey schools the last few years,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;and I know if the kid is not having fun, he&rsquo;s not going to learn.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Dixie Days A Beehive Of Activity

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01726/5897351-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="177" height="134"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Moe Lemay has long been the unknown commodity.For five seasons the 5-foot-l1, 190-pounder has labored in obscurity with the lowly Vancouver Canucks, leaving one to wonder how he would perform on a bona fide National Hockey League contender.We&rsquo;ll find out soon enough.Lemay became the latest in a long line of Oiler newcomers, joining Edmonton at the National Hockey League&rsquo;s trading deadline with Raimo Summanen shuffling to Vancouver in an exchange of 25-year-old left wingers.The Oilers also parted with right winger Stu Kulak, who was sent to the New York Rangers as the &ldquo;future considerations&rdquo; in the October deal that brought Reijo Ruotsalainen to Edmonton.All within a couple of weeks of the trade deadline, the Oilers added Jaroslav Pouzar, who&rsquo;s rejoining his old NHL team following two years in West Germany; Kent Nilsson, from the Minnesota North Stars; Ruotsalainen, from Bem of the Swiss League; big forwards Wayne Van Dorp and Normand Lacombe, from the Buffalo Sabres for veterans Mark Napier and Lee Fogolin; and now Lemay.Lemay becomes the final link in the outfit coach-general manager Glen Sather hopes will regain the Stanley Cup this spring.&ldquo;Yes, I think we&rsquo;ve got the team,&rdquo; said Sather, whose Oilers won four straight after losing four in a row for the first time in three years. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re ready to roll, jell and mould things together.&rdquo;Like those who have recently preceded him to the Oilers, Lemay couldn&rsquo;t be more content.&ldquo;I was shocked&mdash;thrilled but shocked. Surprised? Yes, very much,&rdquo; was Lemay&rsquo;s initial reaction to the trade. &ldquo;My agent (Larry Kelly of Ottawa) and I were looking around for possibilities, but we never thought Edmonton was interested.&rdquo;In 279 NHL games with Vancouver, Lemay scored 70 goals and 92 assists, but the Oilers liked the fact he accumu-lated 367 minutes in penalties&mdash;128 this season.&ldquo;If I have to scrap, I&rsquo;ll scrap,&rdquo; said Lemay. &ldquo;They told me to keep up my agressiveness, but that I&rsquo;ll also be expected to score some goals.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;HE&rsquo;S A DARTER, HE&rsquo;S IN AND OUT OF THINGS&hellip;&rsquo;&mdash;MUCKIER</blockquote>Co-coach John Muckier described Lemay as a needier in the Esa Tikkanen mould.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a darter, he&rsquo;s in and out of things like Tik,&rdquo; said Muckier. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s pretty good in the comers and along the boards. Every time we played against him he was hitting people, and we liked that.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always had the potential or shown the potential to score goals. As a junior, he played very well offensively,&rdquo; added Muckier.Lemay scored 68 goals for the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s in his final year of junior (1981-82). The Oilers will be content with Lemay being an aggressive 20-goal man.The unknown commodity himself has long wondered if his stock would soar in a more suitable environment.&ldquo;Sure, I&rsquo;ve thought about that,&rdquo; said Lemay. &ldquo;And, in going to the Oilers, I couldn&rsquo;t be going to a better team to prove myself.&rdquo;The Canucks, meanwhile, plan on giving Summanen additional ice time in hopes the Finnish winger will realize what they feel is untapped scoring potential.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;ll be good for me,&rdquo; Summanen said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in Edmonton three years and I haven&rsquo;t played that much. I want to know if I can play or not.&rdquo;Kulak was sent to the Rangers on his 24th birthday.&ldquo;I guess I can&rsquo;t go any further east unless they trade me to the Soviets,&rdquo; chuckled Kulak, a native of nearby Stony Plain, Alta., who was picked up from Vancouver on waivers in December. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a lot of friends and relatives here. I guess it was too good to be true to be playing near your hometown.&rdquo;IN THE CREASE&mdash;The Oilers&rsquo; Marty McSorley was suspended for eight games by NHL executive vicepresident Brian O&rsquo;Neill for an incident during an American League game. McSorley cross-checked Sherbrooke Canadiens&rsquo; Joel Baillargeon on the head in an attempt to even the score after the big Sherbrooke forward had knocked Nova Scotia players Jim Playfair (bruised liver) and Kent Paynter (bruised chest) out of the lineup. McSorley drew a match penalty and 10-game AHL suspension, but was recalled by the Oilers. &ldquo;The position of our league is that since McSorley plays under a standard players&rsquo; contract, he&rsquo;s responsible for his conduct wherever he plays,&rdquo; explained O&rsquo;Neil&hellip;Normand Lacombe and Wayne Van Dorp were sent to the minors for conditioning purposes, but were expected back&hellip;Goalie Grant Fuhr was to be out at least a week after suffering a bruised ankle when struck by a Glenn Anderson shot in practice. Anderson flicked the puck from the sideboards towards the net when Fuhr wasn&rsquo;t looking. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re always shooting at the net,&rdquo; sighed Anderson. &ldquo;But, there&rsquo;s definitely a lesson to be learned there.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Oilers Hoping All The Pieces Are In Place

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01623/5897427-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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SCOREBOARD

<h2>TRADES</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Paul Boutilier, D, to Minnesota for a fourth-round draft pick in 1987.DETROIT&mdash;Chris Cichocki, RW, and third-round draft pick in 1987 to New Jersey for Mel Bridgman, LW.EDMONTON&mdash;Lee Fogolin, D, and Mark Napier, RW, to Buffalo for Normand Lacombe, RW, Wayne Van Dorp, RW, and unspecified future considerations. Stu Kulak, RW, sent to NY Rangers as compensation to complete earlier deal for Reijo Ruotsalainen, D, who recently joined Oilers from Europe. Raimo Summanen, LW, to Vancouver for Moe Lemay, LW.HARTFORD&mdash;Pat Hughes, RW, secured from St. Louis on waivers.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Marcel Dionne, C, minor leaguer Jeff Crossman, LW, and third-round draft pick in 1989 to NY Rangersfor Bob Carpenter, C, and Tom Laidlaw, D.MINNESOTA&mdash;Kent Nilsson, RW, to Edmonton for undetermined draft choice in 1988.NY RANGERS&mdash;Raimo Helminen, C, to Minnesota for future considerations. Mark Osborne, LW, to Toronto for Jeff Jackson, LW, and a third-round draft pick in 1989. Lane Lambert, RW, to Quebec for Pat Price, D.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Dom Campedelli, D, with Hershey of AHL, to Edmonton for Jeff Brubaker, LW, with Nova Scotia of AHL.<h2>NHL TRANSACTIONS</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Tom McCarthy, C, recalled from Moncton of AHL. Wade Campbell, D, and Dave Reid, LW, returned to Moncton.BUFFALO&mdash;Mike Hartman, RW, returned to North Bay of OHL.CALGARY&mdash;Brian Bradley, C, assigned to Moncton of AHL.DETROIT&mdash;Mark Lamb, C, returned to Adirondack of AHL.EDMONTON&mdash;Marty McSorley, D, suspended for eight games by NHL for deliberate intent to injure a player while performing in the AHL. Dom Campadelli, D, Normand Lacombe, RW, and Wayne Van Dorp, RW, assigned to Nova Scotia of AHL.HARTFORD&mdash;Gord Sherven, RW, signed to pro contract from Canadian Olympic Team.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Peter Dineen, D, Ken Hammond, D, and Lyle Phair, LW, returned to New Haven of AHL.MINNESOTA&mdash;Emanuel Viveiros, D, Jim Archibald, RW, and Paul Houck, RW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Archibald later returned. Mark Pavelich, C, signed as free agent off retirement list.MONTREAL&mdash;Scott Sandelin, D, and Stephane Richer, C, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL. Richer&rsquo;s suspension for leaving Sherbrooke team was lifted by Montreal. Dave Maley, LW, assigned to Sherbrooke of AHL.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Doug Brown, RW, recalled from Maine of AHL. Murray Brumwell, D, Chris Cichocki, RW, Jan Ludvig, RW, and Rich Chernomaz, RW, assigned to Maine. Chernomaz later recalled.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Neal Coulter, RW, and Randy Wood, RW, recalled from Springfield of AHL.NY RANGERS&mdash;Paul Fenton, LW, and Terry Carkner, D, recalled from New Haven of AHL. Fenton later returned.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Jeff Brubaker, LW, assigned to Hershey OF AHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Norm Schmidt, D, recalled from Baltimore of AHL. Jim McGeough, C, assigned to Muskegon of IHL.QUEBEC&mdash;Jason Lafreniere, C, assigned to Fredericton of AHL.WASHINGTON&mdash;Jim Thomson, RW, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Steve Leach, RW, returned to Binghamton.<h2>INJURY LIST</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Michael Thelven, D, back in lineup. Reed Larson, D, strained leg, Gord Kluzak, D, knee surgery, and Louis Sleigher, RW, groin surgery. Larson sidelined one more week, Sleigher and Kluzak out for rest of season.BUFFALO&mdash;Tom Kurvers, D, back in lineup. Mikael Andersson, RW, sprained ankle, Shawn Anderson, D, separated shoulder, and Wilf Paiement, RW, sprained knee. Andersson out day to day, Anderson one more week, the rest sidelined indefinitely.CALGARY&mdash;Doug Risebrough, C, back in lineup. Neil Sheehy, D, bruised leg, Hakan Loob, RW, broken finger, Joel Otto, C, knee injury, Perry Berezan, LW, pulled groin, and Brian Engblom, D, back surgery. Sheehy and Berezan out day to day, Loob 2-3 weeks, Otto indefinitely, Engblom for rest of season.CHICAGO&mdash;Doug Wilson, D, sprained knee, Bob Sauve, G, back injury, and Steve Ludzik, C, broken collarbone. Sauve sidelined day to day, Ludzik one more week, and Wilson 10-14 days. Behn Wilson, D, out for season while recovering from back surgery.DETROIT&mdash;Dave Lewis, D, and Harold Snepsts, D, separated shoulders, and Doug Hal-ward, D, dislocated kneecap. Halward out day to day, Lewis 2-3 weeks, Snepsts 3-4 weeks.EDMONTON&mdash;Grant Fuhr, G, sidelined 10 days with bruised ankle.HARTFORD&mdash;Dana Murzyn, D, back in lineup. Ron Francis, C, and Paul MacDermid, RW, bruised shoulders, Joel Quenneville, D, shoulder separation, and Torrie Robertson, LW, broken leg. Robertson sidelined indefinitely, the rest one more week.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Craig Redmond, D, Phil Sykes, LW, and Dean Kennedy, D, back in lineup. Dave Langevin, D, sprained knee, and Larry Playfair, D, knee surgery. Langevin sidelined day to day, Playfair out for rest of season.MINNESOTA&mdash;Craig Hartsburg, D, and Scott Bjugstad, LW, back in lineup. Jari Gronstrand, D, returned to lineup but injured an eye, and is out again indefinitely. Ron Wilson, D, separated shoulder, Neal Broten, C, shoulder injury, and Tom Hirsch, D, shoulder surgery. Wilson out 4 weeks, Hirsch indefinitely, and Broten sidelined for rest of season.MONTREAL&mdash;Larry Robinson, D, twisted ankle, Bob Gainey, LW, pulled groin, Petr Svoboda, D, cut finger, Sergio Momesso, C, eye injury, and Shayne Corson, C, broken jaw. Robinson, Momesso and Svoboda sidelined day to day, Gainey and Corson out indefinitely.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Andy Brickley, LW, broken thumb, and Timo Blomqvist, D, broken nose and left eye orbit. Both sidelined for rest of season.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Patrick Flatley, RW, back in lineup. Dale Henry, LW, and Denis Potvin, D, sprained knees, and Tomas Jonsson, D, broken jaw. All sidelined indefinitely.NY RANGERS&mdash;Ron Greschner, D, Pierre Larouche, C, and George McPhee, LW, back in lineup. Jeff Jackson, LW, groin injury, and Lucien DeBlois, RW, bruised ankle. Both sidelined day to day.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Lindsay Carson, LW, back in lineup. Ron Sutter, C, back injury, and Darryl Stanley, D, ankle injury. Stanley sidelined day to day, Sutter indefinitely.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Ville Siren, D, sprained knee, Craig Simpson, RW, hip injury, and Kevin LaVallee, LW, shoulder surgery. Simpson out day to day, Siren and LaVallee indefinitely.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Rick Nattress, D, back in lineup.TORONTO&mdash;Bill Root, D, back in lineup.WASHINGTON&mdash;Kelly Miller, RW, and Greg Adams, LW, back in lineup. Michal Pivonka, C, ankle injury, and John Barrett, D, broken kneecap. Pivonka out day to day, Barrett indefinitely. &#9632;

TRANSACTIONS

<h2>Mon. Mar. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01336/5897601-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="552" height="1376"></div><h2>Tue. Mar. 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02221/5897594-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="558" height="2214"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03157/5897587-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="560" height="1058"></div><h2>Wed. Mar. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04123/5897580-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="584" height="2564"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05104/5897573-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="568" height="2277"></div><h2>Thu. Mar. 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0690/5897566-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="551" height="1339"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0781/5897559-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="561" height="1084"></div><h2>Fri. Mar. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0872/5897552-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="559" height="2537"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0964/5897545-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="544" height="388"></div><h2>Sat. Mar. 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1064/5897538-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="549" height="3245"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03133/5897531-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="546" height="2694"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04109/5897524-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="552" height="356"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0596/5897517-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="542" height="154"></div><h2>Sun. Mar. 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0688/5897510-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="532" height="145"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0778/5897503-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="546" height="365"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0862/5897496-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="555" height="2057"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01277/5897489-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="859" height="1592"><figcaption class="caption-body">Adam Oates scored Detroit&rsquo;s only goal in a 1-1 tie with Winnipeg on Mar. 15.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02179/5897482-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="854" height="1592"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Poulin earned his 23rd and 24th goals of the season against the Rangers.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01291/5897639-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="384" height="406"></div>If a team wants to establish its aggressiveness and, perhaps, intimidate the opposition, any conscious effort to that effect should take place in the first period.The new aggressor rule in the NHL had a definite impact on that element of the game&mdash;for a while, at least. During the first quarter of the season, majors were far less frequently issued in the first period; but as NHL tough guys grappled with the consequences of the new rule, it became clear that their lifeblood was not being cut off.In the second quarter, first-period majors increased by 73 per cent. Team win-loss-tie records in games that have had fighting majors in the first period are listed, indicating that some teams fare much better when they use a more aggressive style early in the game, or that they won&rsquo;t be intimidated if the other team uses that style.<h2>TEAM RECORDS IN GAMES</h2>WITH FIRST-PERIOD FIGHTING MAJORS(Games through March 9)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02208/5897632-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="564" height="652"></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

Fighting Winners

<div class="byline">BY JEFF Z. KLEIN AND KARL-ERIC REIF</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03159/5897677-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="562" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Demers</figcaption></div>If the Detroit Red Wings finish this season at the.500 mark&mdash;80 points in 80 games&mdash;they will have registered the fifth-greatest one-season turnaround in pro hockey history.The Wings, who finished last season with a.250 record, are touting Jacques Demers as NHL coach of the year. Demers deserves his reputation as a franchise-saver; he also coached the 1975-76 Indianapolis Racers (WHA), who registered the 10th-greatest one-season turnaround in pro history.Though six of the nine teams listed slipped back after their big comeback seasons, Demers&rsquo; Racers actually improved the next year. It&rsquo;s time for optimism, Red Wing fans.Only teams playing a minimum 44-game schedule were considered.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-05105/5897670-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="1780" height="340"></div> &#9632;

f0042-03

Wings On Super Pace

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04122/5897715-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gordie Howe</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0694/5897708-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="1108" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Geoffrion</figcaption></div>&bull; Money allotted NHL players per day for meals, in 1938-39: $5.Current daily allotment for meals: $41.According to the current contract, money to be allotted for meals per day in 1990: $50.&bull; Since the inception of NHL all-star teams in 1930-31, number of times the scoring leader has failed to make the first team: 5 (David Schriner, 1936-37; Herb Cain, 1943-44; Max Bentley, 1946-47; Bernie Geoffrion, 1954-55; Stan Mikita, 1964-65).Number of those players who made the second team: 5.&bull; Number of 500-goal scorers In NHL history: 13.Number of those who scored their 500th goal in a loss: 3. (Gordie Howe&mdash;Detroit 2, Rangers 3; Stan Mikita&mdash;Chicago 3, Vancouver 4; Marcel Dionne&mdash;Los Angeles 2, Washington 7).&bull; Number of 21 current NHL coaches who have coached at least one other NHL team: 7. &#9632;

f0042-04

Players Can Afford To Eat Better Today

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0785/5897746-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="177" height="137"></div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.&mdash;It was not Babe Ruth pointing to Wrigley Field&rsquo;s Centerfield bleachers during the 1932 World Series and hitting a home run to virtually the exact spot.But Mike Bossy called his own shot and helped the Islanders snap out of their lethargy.The old soothsayer stood in the visitors&rsquo; dressing room at Maple Leaf Gardens after the Islanders had been hammered 7-2 by the Leafs, March 7, explaining how his team could play so poorly, with such indifference, with so much at stake.Bossy mentioned youth, a lack of confidence and inconsistency. Suddenly, he stopped analyzing.&ldquo;You know what I&rsquo;d like to say? That I&rsquo;m going to get a hat trick tomorrow night and our team is going to win.&rdquo;The next night in Chicago, Mike Bossy scored a hat trick and his team won. Bryan Trottier broke a 5-5 tie with 23 seconds left as the Islanders, who trailed 3-0 at 6:46 of the first period, stunned the Blackhawks 6-5.Now how about speculating a little about the stock market, Boss?&ldquo;I thought of that just as I came in here (after the Chicago game),&rdquo; Bossy said. &ldquo;I said to Trots (Bryan Trottier), &lsquo;Remember what I said yesterday?&rsquo; &ldquo;The Islanders trailed 3-1 after two periods. Bossy made it 3-2 at 0:53 of the third, but Steve Larmer got that one back. Bossy and Randy Boyd scored power-play goals to tie it, but Bob Murray gave Chicago a 5-4 lead in this dizzying match with yet another power-play goal.Bossy tied it again, off a Trottier feed, with just over two minutes left. Trottier won it when he beat rookie Dave Manson to a loose puck behind the Blackhawks&rsquo; net, and stuffed a wraparound behind Murray Bannerman.The Siamese linemates got a big kick out of Bossy&rsquo;s prediction. But the other Islanders got a bigger kick out of the production from their two on-ice leaders.Trottier keyed the Islanders&rsquo; 6-3 victory at Pittsburgh two nights later with four assists, giving him a goal and seven assists in the two games. Bossy added a goal and an assist. With 37 goals and 12 games remaining, a 10th straight 50-goal season remained possible.&ldquo;Everyone&rsquo;s watching,&rdquo; Duane Sutter said, amid the post-game hysteria in Chicago, &ldquo;A lot of people have given up on him because of his sore back. They&rsquo;ve said &lsquo;Mike Bossy&rsquo;s finished. He&rsquo;s going to retire.&rsquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you, he&rsquo;s the best. He comes to play every night, even with his sore back. It almost felt like I had scored three goals, I felt so good for him.&rdquo;The hat trick in Chicago was the 39th of Bossy&rsquo;s career, but only his second this season. The goal in Pittsburgh gave him four in two games. He had scored four in his previous 17.His back appeared to be troubling him less, which is why he he had been scoring more.&ldquo;I told him just the other day, &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t give up the quest,&rsquo; &ldquo;GM Bill Torrey said.&rdquo; &lsquo;You, of all people,&rsquo; I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d even admit it, but in the darkest parts of your mind you have to have doubts.&rdquo;Bossy had lost confidence. After six quality chances in Toronto yielded only frustration, he had legitimate reason to wonder if another 50 just wasn&rsquo;t meant to be.ON THE ISLE&mdash;GM Bill Torrey wanted to trade, and said he was &ldquo;reasonably close&rdquo; to acquiring a scoring forward, but could not close a deal before the trading deadline. &ldquo;Some of our guys should take this as a second opportunity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;d better make the most &lsquo;of it. &ldquo;&hellip;Assistant coach Bob Nystrom&rsquo;s misdemeanor assault trial in East Rutherford, N.J., Municipal Court, over an altercation with a fan during a game with the New Jersey Devils, was postponed a third time. The new date is April 6. &#9632;

f0042-07

Bossy Called Own Shots In Islanders Rally

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01301/5897784-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. Barclay, Bill and Bob of Blues&rsquo; fame (7).4. He and Terry Sawchuk shared the Vezina Trophy in 1964-65 (5).7. Throw (4).8. Former Ranger netminder now in broadcasting (8).10. Rearguard who appeared in all 80 games for the Flames in 1982-83, he began his NHL career with Buffalo (6,4).12. He netted 60 goals for the Caps in 1981-82 (5).13. Spoils (5).14. Scrappy North Star previously with Flames (5,5)18. He appeared in all but 10 games for Caps in 1982-83, Greg (8).19. This Flyer is a terror on the power play (4).20. Nominate (5).21. Hall of Famer nicknamed &ldquo;Newsy&rdquo; (7).<h2>DOWN:</h2>1. The Flyers&rsquo; Zezel (5).2. Blackhawk among seven 50-goal scorers in 1982-83 (2,6).3. Blueliner with the 1980-81 Leafs, Dave (5).4. He led the Flyers with 97 points last season (5,5).5. Philadelphia topped this NHL division in 1967-68 (4).6. Hall of Famer Lorne Worsley&rsquo;s first NHL club (7).9. One of three Red Wing captains in 1978-79, he joined the team in 1967 (4,6).11. Larry Robinson&rsquo;s number (8).12. Blueliner who was with both the Bruins and Blackhawks, Gilles (7).15. Within the rules (5).16. Number of times Guy Lafleur won the Art Ross Trophy (5).17. First name of former French Connection member (4).<h2>CROSSWORD SOLUTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03420/5897777-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="592" height="581"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

CROSSWORD

<h2>30 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; The regular season came to an end with Gordie Howe topping the NHL in scoring. The Detroit right winger held off a late charge from teammate Ted Lindsay and Montreal&rsquo;s Jean Beliveau to win his fifth scoring crown. Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens won his second consecutive Vezina Trophy with a 2.02 goals-against average. Plante would go on to record an unprecedented six Vezina Trophies in a row.&bull; The Providence Reds won their second consecutive American League championship with 76 points in 64 games. The Reds were helped to the title by Johnny Bower, the league&rsquo;s top goaltender. The league&rsquo;s leading scorer was Cleveland&rsquo;s Fred Glover, who collected 99 points in 64 games.&bull; Seattle goalie Emile Francis had a rough final week of the Western League season. &lsquo;The Cat&rsquo; allowed two players, Ray Manson and Doc Couture, to score hat-tricks against him. Today, Francis is turning a few tricks of his own as general manager of the Hartford Whalers.<h2>25 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks scored his 50th goal of the season. He joined two other players, Maurice Richard and Bernie Geoffrion, who had previously reached that benchmark. Although he played four fewer games, Hull also tied for the league scoring title with New York&rsquo;s Andy Bathgate. Hull won the Art Ross Trophy on the basis of more goals.&bull;At the age of 34, Gordie Howe stated he would play the game for four more years. Howe had his heart set on surpassing Maurice Richard&rsquo;s record of 544 career goals. The Detroit winger was 43 goals short at the time.&bull; A huge upset occurred in Canadian junior hockey as the Niagara Falls Flyers defeated Montreal Jr. Canadiens in their OHA semi-final series. In sharp contrast to the league-leading Canadiens, the Flyers only made it into the playoffs by one point. At the end of the 50-game schedule, there was a 30-point differential between the two teams. &#9632;

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March 27, 1987

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

‘Summo’ Finnished Wrestling For Ice Time

Guelph’s Cup Runneth Over With Titles

Defense Secondary Concern Of Nighthawks